Full Show | September 11, 2026

0:0015-year strike and the Niners extend. Debo is still pretty good, you know, when he's healthy and he's in an offense with other healthy players. Wow, last night. Now, Max and I were both on the 49ers. I did not give it out officially as a Smeltes pick last night, but I told you if you needed to play the game to play the underdog plus the three and a half, I was on them. I did not expect that though. And there is a lot of theory running around as to why it happened. We will talk about last night's 27-7, 49ers win over the Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia here in a moment.

1:01It is the first full Friday football show here on the team at 9.80. We love this time of year and we know you guys love this time of year and every Friday features a couple of things. Number one, the Smeltest. That'll come up next hour. Number two is, how do they beat Philadelphia on Sunday? I have no idea, but I came up with four things, a couple of which are pretty NFL cliche, but I will get to them on the show. Ben's standing is a staple of our Friday football show every day, every Friday and Monday, by the way, at noon. Today on the show, Eric Edholm from the NFL Network will join us at 11.25. And here in the first hour, you're going to hear my conversation with the guy that I think does it as well as any other former player when it comes to analyzing our team. Logan Paulson joined me the other day on my podcast and I'm going to place some of that

2:02back for you this hour. Logan actually gives a season prediction on the team this year, which is what Max and I will do in hour three of this show. We will give our Washington final record prediction and then we'll invite you guys to do the same. Anyway, there you go. Did I miss anything? I'll tell you what, more than anything else to start off this football weekend, I'm looking forward to watching Ben Shelton and Francis Teato tonight at the US Open. No, I'm not going to do 10 minutes of tennis talk like I did the other day, but that is one hell of a way to kick off NFL weekend number one with truly one of the most anticipated US Open matches in a long time. Two Americans, one guaranteed to make it to the final and it is in prime time tonight on Friday night. Will you hit the, what do you got, sounder real quickly, Max?

3:04Thank you. So last night there was a college football game, which included seventh ranked Miami at home against Florida, a and M. The canes were like 57 and a half point favorites. It was on television and Miami won the game, 77 to seven. They had 77 points at the end of the third quarter. In fact, they had 77 points with still three and a half minutes to go in the third quarter. They could have easily scored a hundred. It's possible that they could have gotten 110 in this game. They already had after the first quarter, second stringers and then the third and fourth stringers were in the game in the second half. This got so bad that the two coaches got together at the end of the third quarter and they

4:05did something that you occasionally, but rarely, no, you rarely see. It's not occasionally. It's very rare, but I've seen it before where the coaches agree and I guess they can do this with the approval of the leagues and anything else. They cut the fourth quarter from 15 minutes to 10 minutes. They shaved five minutes off the fourth quarter clock in a 77 to nothing game. I guess that is a mercy rule of some regard. I don't know. The clock was not a running clock. I've seen that happen certainly in basketball games at the youth level. You get up by a lot and then you just run the clock in the second half. If you're a coach, you stop pressing and you make sure that you pass it six or seven times before you take a shot offensively is to not embarrass the other team.

5:05Yes, I've run into teams that actually enjoy embarrassing the other teams, but it's not necessarily the right thing to do, even at the college level, where they clearly put the mercy rule in last night, or they decided during the game to show some mercy and to shorten the bloodletting. Miami did not score in the fourth quarter. I'm assuming that they essentially handed the ball off on every play. Florida A&M scored in the fourth quarter on a 72 yard fumble return for touchdown. Miami was on the verge of scoring again when they coughed it up and it was returned for a touchdown. In the game, Miami had a school record, 856 yards, and had a school record, 42 first downs. This is one of those box scores when you look at it, you're like, oh my god. This couldn't have been varsity against varsity.

6:07Miami, in addition to outscoring Florida A&M 77 to 7, 856 yards to 107, 42 first downs to just four for Florida A&M. By the way, my pick after week one last weekend to win the Heisman trophy this year, Darian Ments of the quarterback, who started at Tulane transferred to Duke last year, had a big season, and then transferred to Miami. In just over a quarter, he was 14 of 15 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. The back up quarterback came in and was 8 for 8 for 144 yards and three touchdowns. They threw as a team 27 of 29 for 426 and six touchdowns and they rushed for 430 yards. And Malachi Tony, if you don't know who Malachi Tony is, then you didn't probably pay attention to last college football season when the true freshman was just incredible and really incredible

7:09during their playoff run to the final against Indiana. He had 109 receptions as a true freshman last year, 10 touchdown catches for 1211 yards, already in two games, 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns in two games in which he has only played a half, not even a half in both of those games. Actually he did play into the third quarter against Stanford, my fault. That is going to be a race between Mentsa and Tony to see who ends up becoming the Heisman front runner from that team. There will obviously be others, but Miami is loaded once again. The canes are back. This is a nice night's game. Look, I've said this for every single year for 15 plus years. Week one can be a major, major head fake and is rarely a massive predictor of anything

8:11to come. These teams can't figure out what they are or who they are until they've played multiple games, not a game. And I've used this example from last year over and over again. I've beaten this dead horse, but just if you haven't heard it, the Raiders who went three in 14 beat the Patriots who went 14 and three in the season opener last year in Foxboro. And it was hardly an indicator of what was to come. I am not off of Drake May. After one game, I'm still a fan of Drake May, not as big of a fan as I am of Jaden Daniels. I was never off of Jaden Daniels. I'd still go back and redraft Jaden Daniels ahead of any of them. And I'd probably go Caleb too. And then Drake May at this point, three, even though I had Penn, Xt Jr. 3 back in 2024. But I've still seen enough of Drake May to not say, okay, yeah, it's been a bad stretch

9:11of games going back to the post season. And it was a terrible second half and fourth quarter of the other night. He's in year three and it was week one. I have a feeling he's going to have some really good games this year and that the Patriots will be a decent team if they remain healthy. Always a key. I'm still thinking that the Rams are going to be an excellent football team. But I will say this about last night's game. It was a reminder that when the 49ers are completely healthy, no matter how old they are. This is a legitimate contender in the NFL, a legitimate contender in the loaded NFC West in the NFC and in the league. When they have everybody, by the way, I throw the quarterback in there. God, he's good at running a shenanhan style scheme. He is quick, it's quick release. He's super decisive. He reads the field. Well, you see some decisions occasionally.

10:14But you see it with every quarterback where occasionally there is a bad throw, but Purdy's a good fit. When you've got McCaffrey, when you've got, you know, Debow back and healthy along with Mike Evans, who look awesome in his first game, you've got Kittleback, you've got Fred Warner and Nick Bosa. When you've got everybody healthy in that on that team, Trent Williams, God, he looks big and still looks great. The 49ers don't sleep on them. They still have six or seven legit A level players and future Hall of Famers for that matter. Probably the worst game I've seen Matt Stafford play in a while. You had Miles Garrett in his first game go without a tackle without a sack and just one quarterback pressure. Man, did you see the way Kyle Scheme did up against Miles Garrett?

11:16There must have been three or four different screens in that game. What slows a pass rush down, great pass rush, which by the way, let me just add, you didn't see in the two snaps against the Lions in the preseason game and you probably didn't see in the joint practice against the Ravens because they don't game plan for that. This slow down pass rush is quick game, quick hitches, getting the ball out, slows down a pass rush. You can scheme around maybe a disadvantage, although Trent Williams is not a disadvantage, but Miles Garrett was rendered literally useless and worthless by Kyle Shanahan and maybe by the travel plan. I'll get to that in a moment. The screens, the chips, the doubles, the crackbacks, it was amazing what they did to Miles Garrett. Miles Garrett's the greatest defensive player of this generation. You could argue along with his teammate Aaron Donald who wasn't there last night.

12:19In his first game, now he is not 100% healthy and that's coming out now after the game as well. He wasn't 100% healthy during camp, but he was as much of a non factor in a football game as I have ever seen. Maybe it was him, maybe it was the travel, maybe it was the injury or the not 100% but a lot of that was the mastermind of Kyle Shanahan who can scheme it up with the best of them and can protect his own disadvantages and expose those that you have as good as any coach we've seen in a long time. Miles Garrett, a non factor in the football game. Garrett Stafford, did he just grow old overnight? Because that was as bad as I've ever seen him look. He had a 30.7 QBR on 15 of 25 for 155 yards and one pick, but he was lucky he wasn't picked three times in the game.

13:20How about just the Rams defense in general? In general, couldn't get off the field. I mean, the 49ers rushed for 174 yards in the game against that defense. No air in Donald, not yet. So we'll see what it looks like. Seven of 12 on third down for the 49ers. That was week one who knows what it'll look like by week 10, but in week one, the 49ers still have great players who when they're healthy can play great. And the Rams were rendered literally useless by a great offensive mastermind and perhaps by their inexact inaccurate, maybe a science in approaching this game. They went rogue. They didn't do it like most teams have done it when there have been long trips. Now there's never been a trip like Melbourne, Australia.

14:20But they went in, played the game and came back. The 49ers were there for over a week and acclimated. The Rams said their science said this is the way to do it. The 49ers said our science says this is the way to do it. There's no way you could have watched that game and not seen a difference in energy level. The 49ers were energy at 100% the Rams were sluggish. So I think the 49ers had a little bit of that man, is anybody talking about us? Because everywhere we read, the Rams are the best roster in decades and are going to win the NFC West and the Super Bowl pretty easily. Long season, big game though, ultimately because it was a division matchup and it could end up being a significant game later in the season. But yeah, we'll see by the way, if the science coming back makes more sense for the Rams,

15:23where they don't have to necessarily get back into a sleep rhythm, circadian rhythm, whatever you want to describe it. Maybe part of their thing was we'll give up this game, but we're not going to give up the next two or three because we are jet lagged or we're just not back into a normal rhythm. Now the good news is neither team has to play until next weekend and in the Rams case, it's next Monday night against the Giants. That was a blowout and really a boring game. That stadium was packed though, but it was a cricket stadium. Did you see how far away the fans were from the actual field? I don't know how anybody could see the game if you had been there. It didn't seem like the most enthusiastic of crowds and the Australians can get pretty enthusiastic for their sports. They like a beer or ten and a good outing at a sporting event, but it didn't seem that

16:23way, but the two teams in the game itself didn't give them a reason. Look, if the Rams were going to have an opportunity, they needed to score on that drive where they had it down to the half yard line and Stafford tried to sneak it in and got stopped and then 11 plays 99 yards later. It was 24 to seven instead of it being 17 to 14, but the 49ers flat out the much better team last night. All right, when we come back, Logan Paulson joined me the other day on my podcast. I love Logan's analysis. He'll actually give you his season prediction for Washington and he'll give you a quick how do you beat Philadelphia on Sunday? This next. Logan Paulson joins me right now. Of course, Logan played tight end in the NFL, including here in Washington. I think for the last few years, he's been as good as any former player has ever been analyzing our football team. He does it as a part of the team's radio broadcast with Bram and London Fletcher.

17:28He does it on all of the team's YouTube and website shows. He does it on a podcast called Take Command. He's also a current coach. He's the offensive coordinator at Stonebridge in Northern Virginia where former Schinds defensive lineman, Kendrick Gullston is the head coach. You can follow Logan on Instagram at Logan underscore Paulson 82 and on X at Logan Paulson NFL. I love having you on the season is finally here. The outlook on our team hasn't been super optimistic, certainly not nationally. I think there's been some doom and gloom here locally as well over the last month. Where are you on this team as it prepares for its season opener in Philadelphia in four days? I don't know. Probably somewhere in the middle. I try not to swing too far, like the deposit is swing too far with the negative because

18:29I just don't think it's either one of those extremes. I certainly characterize the team currently. I think when you look at the additions in the off season, I'm excited about it. KLA, KLA, I'm Chase, I'm the addition, all sunny styles, mid-cross. That defense is different, Kim Settle. That defense has a different kind of timber to it when it walks into a room. Offensively, I think Jane Daniels looks great. I think obviously losing Miami-Tunnels is a big deal. I think it's going to feel the ripple effects of that depth. In my career, I've played with worse offensive lines that have been very, very productive over the course of the season, as long as the scheme and as long as the coaches understand what they're good at. They find an identity to two-step groups. I think right now people have a lot of things that they have big feelings about, which is totally cool. Feel the way you want to feel. We don't know what they're going to do. We don't know what this defense is going to look like. We don't know what this offense is going to look like. We can speculate. I've been to every practice, so I have a decent idea of what they're going to go. Wow. So look back to 2012. We had a certain playbook that we ran during training camp when I was playing for the

19:33team here, and we ran something completely different for a week. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited for a week one. I think it's going to help kind of quell a lot of the anxiety some of the fan base has and show that the house isn't on fire. Everything's okay. Is this the best roster in football? No. They're going to be the worst even in the NFL. That is also infatically no. Oh my God. You're just way too reasonable. That's way too common-sensical for many. Look, I'm with you. I actually think all of the conversations, or most of them, over the summer, about summer football, are just silly. They are rarely, rarely predictors of things to come. Why? Because nobody shows anything and nobody plays. The games and the joint practices, they don't mean anything. We're not going to know for 25 to 28 teams in this league until they start to play games

20:35plural. Even the first few tend to not be necessarily huge predictors of what's to come down the road, although they are much bigger and better predictors than talking about a couple of snaps, two snaps in particular in the second preseason game when you're starting center and you're starting guard weren't even on the field and there was no game planning. That is, I'm with you on all this. It sounds, I can hear it in your voice too. Thank God we finally arrived at the moment where we can have real conversations about real football. You did mention though, because I do think that there are some things you can take that are real like the Laramie Tuncel injury. That's real. That isn't speculative. The Stefan Digs acquisition is real, but let's start with the Tuncel thing. How impactful will it be? The loss of arguably the second best player on the team.

21:39I mean, we need to be the best player. Obviously, maybe not in terms of impact like Jane Daniels is that guy, but you're just looking at rankings, right? Sure. As a position, these best player at his position, maybe in the league, arguably, probably top three for sure. Anyway, so it's huge. One of the things I look at, I went back and watched a bunch of games and getting ready for the Eagles game and you look at how certain teams, Detroit, Chicago, kind of weaponized that elite in Chicago's game and both those states that's the right tackle. It does a lot of things for the past prediction standpoint, from a run blocking standpoint, from a scheme standpoint, from a matchup standpoint, it's a big deal. I also think it does have a trickle that effect to the left guard position, right? I think Chris Paul did a fine job last year, but I actually thought Coleman was going to beat him out for that left guard spot. I was playing really, really well. Now, Coleman bumps out the left tackle and I think Coleman is going to surprise people with how efficient he is as a pass protector and what he can do from an athletic standpoint

22:41in the run game, but I was hoping to see that at guard. All of a sudden, you kind of weaken two spots on the offensive line. Ali Brady hasn't been around to practice that much because of the injury. I think this last couple of weeks, he's been practicing, which is great. It does affect multiple positions in that group. It's all of a sudden, you go from being like, okay, we got Chris Paul's, like a depth of speed. We have some flexibility at center. If we get in a pinch, we're coming to bump in and play center and Chris Paul can start a left guard. We have a lot of flexibility to now. Like, oh dang, we're in a little bit of a pinch because these players that we've identified or at least identified early in the off season in these swing rolls no longer exist because they have to play a lot. I think that's why this feels the way it does and is it impactful? 100% I'm not going to say it's not. But I do think again, I think Coleman's in a better spot than people think. Chris Paul started the whole year last year and I believe it, Ali Brady, at least in the two games that he played at center for this team last year. It's not great, but I do think you can overcome that for sure. You also already mentioned it.

23:44You can scheme around your weaknesses and protecting your weaknesses if indeed that becomes an area of weakness, which I don't know that we know for sure until they start playing real games, but explain to people how a good coordinator and hopefully David Blow turns out to be a good coordinator can really mask flaws up front if they end up having them. Yeah, so I looked at Chicago, I think it's a good example of this. They played Philadelphia and they rushed for like 200 years. Yeah, the day after Thanksgiving, yeah, the Black Friday game, right? Yeah, they killed it. So like basically what they did in Kyle Shan and used to do this is they're like, well, what do we want to dictate to them? The Nick Fangeo for all of his genius still will give you some personnel responses. So what I mean by that is if you're in 12 personnel, they'll match you in the kind of their traditional 3, 4 personnel. And if you want to go nickel, so 11 personnel, they'll go 4 down.

24:45And so they kind of said, Ben Johnson kind of said, we're going to run the ball and nickel because we like the matchups a little bit better. We like the fronts we get. And the thing that I love is they kind of like to your point is they called runs that allowed guys to stay on double teams a little bit longer. They didn't put them in bad matchups. There were a lot of good angles. Now you got to win those matchups when your number's called. But I thought on the whole like, you know, they ran the ball like 45 times, something like that. They gave them kind of easier responsibility. They leaned into players' strengths at a high level. And again, like when you run the ball that way, again, Nick Fangeo wants to play a light box. They got it with all those, you know, mad dogs up front they got there. And they said, we're okay with that. We'll exploit that. And I think that's kind of a good example. At least one that I've studied recently where it's like, hey, man, we're going to use formation to create good angles in the run game. We're going to use personnel to make sure we get matchups we want. And we're going to manipulate how they align to certain formations to help us get our angles.

25:45That's just in the run game. Past pro, we can work slides. We can leave people in. We can work chip help. And so I do think there's a lot of things on the table here to help them out. And I'm kind of curious to see what David Blah brings in that area because like one of the things I think is underrated it from a play calling standpoint is how you orchestrate and call a run game. And so like, can you do that? And I think he's getting these are really bright dude. Man, like me talking to me is just so impressive. But that's kind of what I'm keeping an eye on. It's like, how do you inflate and elevate that group, especially in week one, first of the Philadelphia Eagles? Yeah, I mean, and you went back to the Chicago game obviously because that's a Ben Johnson called game. And there's probably some belief that Blah will be similar. Like, you know, I know we've talked about this before and the times that we talked before training camp. But ultimately describe what you think Blah will be in terms of his influences. Will it be mostly Ben Johnson? Will it be more, you know, McVeigh O'Connell?

26:47Will it be some cliff? What do you think it's going to look like? Yeah, so I think from a run game perspective, you're probably going to get a little bit of Ben Johnson because I think like that's coming from Detroit. Like, I kind of think like, what if I was him, what would I take from you spot? So I would take the play action, the run game, probably from Detroit. The next thing I would take is if I'm going from Kevin O'Connell, it is ability to get the number one guy open, the number one lead open. And how he uses formation, how he uses motion, and how they just put an emphasis on like, this is our best receiver. How do we put him in the position where he's getting the look and he's getting the touch? And I counted that a little bit. He was growing into that role more like in time in Atlanta and kind of hit that stride when I was with him in San Francisco and my second son with him in 17. But like Kevin O'Connell and Sean McVeigh have taken it to like the 12th level, right? Pukin'aku would get, you know, 15 targets again. And obviously before Jay-June McCarthy was there, we've gotten like 10 to 12 targets

27:47again. And they're smart targets. It's not just like spamming kind of gross targets. So that's what I would say. The next thing I'd say in terms of Cliff, it's like, I think tempo is a real thing. You know, tempo is a valuable tool. And I'm not saying you use it all the time, but are there moments where you can regulate a defense like with tempo? Like when I, again, when I was with Kyle Shanahan in 2011, 2012, obviously it was open in 2010, but this is where we started doing this. We had like a thing called like a patchy package, like the helicopter where it's like a pseudo-hurry up, but you can get a lot of your base offense. And what it was great for was just regulating defense. So I think if I was going to pick something from each of the stops that he had, those would be those things. And again, like the Kevin O'Connell one is maybe the most impactful for a guy like Terry or stuff on Diggs because you're going to get a lot of looks. And I think that's something that, again, like I don't know that for sure, but that's kind of how I would approach it if I was in the shoes. It's interesting about just the receiver and the target part of that response is Kevin

28:48O'Connell had Justin Jefferson and Ben Johnson had a mon-Russain Brown. And I love Terry. I just don't put Terry into those levels in terms of a receiver. And I've never felt like Terry is a force-feed guy that deserves 12, 13, 14, 15 targets a game. And by the way, to a certain extent, none of his offensive coordinators have felt that way about him because he's never been used that way. Now to be fair, he didn't have good quarterbacks until Jaden. But could you see that Terry becoming a, I'm not saying the type of receiver, but a target number that's equivalent to a Jefferson or a mon-Russain? Yeah, I do. I do. Obviously before they signed Stefan Bigg, I thought that was the direction the offense was going. I had aaide just when I was small, like it happens we're breaking the ball, I mean, banks on the hold, that we are going on the top that needs to slip down.

29:55That's a key point. Like, Paul Limpke would or Lucид KTE, the B wide call violence and going to play him a lot with somebody being successful because if he scores on the top what that means changes the paradigm with how you approach Terry McClaurin in this office I think the guy that fits that a little bit better is Stefan Diggs because of the route running nuance to 77 the ability and the consistency that he's shown playing in the slot at least in recent years and I get I think that bumps Terry back into that kind of ex receiver role like some people use the term sacrificial action obviously Terry's not a sacrificial expert he's kind of that we're gonna isolate you one-on-one you're gonna run a lot of vertical routes you're gonna kind of have to win one-on-ones and any kind of down and dirty type way which Terry's shown he's able to do but I do think that ultimately affects the number of touches he's gonna get I think that the those touches that seem so you know 10 to 12 touches are now being canal I can't be wise by big for a certain extent got it Let's just stick with the offense since this is where we started and you also sort of began the

31:01Conversation I think of sort of what the game plan Sunday might look like but Offensively after jaden who are you really excited about? So I'm excited this is gonna sound like you know when you said who's your favorite kid you said I love all my kids equally right like Jaden Daniels is obviously the guy, but like I'm really excited for everything about this offense I know that sounds insane, but I want to like I think is the newness of what David Bowers bringing like we haven't had an offense like this Here since I've been covering the team for sure probably since Shawn McBale left right where we're gonna see a Marriage of formations. We're gonna see you know like Some condensed stuff. We're gonna see bunches. We're gonna see a lot of motions But a lot of shifts like most of this one thing shifts with another like going back and watching some Ben John's stuff like they shift All the time and so just that dynamic element before the snap the control the quarterback has well on the screw Which I want to see all of that and then I'm curious to see how it affects the playmakers, right? Like obviously we talked about Terry we talked about the fun

32:02I think she could conglose a really interesting piece here because and in terms of how they were using in practice like he kind of went from like this Third down option runner and then digs comes in and then he becomes almost a Vertical element to the offense. So like what is his role kind of settle in as and I think we're gonna get a data point here I can tell a delky about what he can do like he's gonna drop pretty good matchup It's gonna be you know Cooper Gine or one of the safes one of the young safes McCube But potentially that hasn't played a lot of ball like can you win that matchup consistently and if you can like you're in for a big Year man because now people can't focus on you like they could Zach Urts last year focus on Terry There's three guys Antonio Williams for maybe right who can throw some different stuff at this defense So I think again like I said a lot of stuff there because I'm excited about it I want to see what this thing looks like and see if these pieces that have been brought in So when the matchups that they purportedly you know, I've been awarded to do so like that's kind of where I'm at with it How do you think the running back sort of snap a percentage will break down or snap count will break down?

33:04Yeah, that's a really good question and one that like I don't like a night of producer on one of my shows Asked me that I was like it's kind of unknowable But if I was a betting man I would say like Bill's gonna get the crack at the person second down stuff and the only reason I say that is because in practice He's looked like a dude, you know, I mean he's looked really good like he has that kind of extra element to him that like Let's him make those like short area cuts and make people miss the hole And he's got a little bit of breakaway speed to him and that's not to say that White House has done a good job in practice I just think he brings a little bit more to the offense So I think white was gonna be is gonna be potentially in this role where he's you know kind of a third down past get your Spelling bill on first second down in certain situations And then I also think case trying to Alan like I don't know if he's up on game day But if he is I like what he brings is a consistent down to down runner with his vision and contact balance So I think it's Bill White and then obviously K. Tron will see kind of what he ends up getting you know four five touches of game But I think that's kind of what I feel about that back room one last question about the offense Ben Johnson has

34:09Incorporated into his Playbook and play calling a lot of unique place trick place Over the last few years going back to it obviously his time in Detroit as the offensive coordinator Will we see a lot of sort of offensive shenanigans and and a trick play or two? Will he be that creative? Will he be given blow? I'm talking about given that much leeway to be as creative as he wants to be and is he sort of predisposed to being that way like Ben Johnson is Yeah, you know, I don't know how much leeway he's going to get that's a Dan Quinn kind of question But in terms of like creativity as we saw splashes and flashes of that during OTA's and mini camp and I think You know one of the things I obviously I Designed plays and call plays at the high school level. I always have admired that about Ben Johnson Your ability to kind of do something that's a little bit fringe That's a little bit, you know speculated in terms of success But you're really like you're you're like a prospector man like you're trying to strike goals with this one opportunity

35:13And I think it's a really awesome approach and it's really cool how they're able to coach the details of those plays and not get a lot of reps up I'm so like to me like when you look at offensive success It's like who can get more explosive plays and such is what a boy is bound to and so if on one of these trick plays like you can get an Exful to play off a fleeflick or a reverse or a screen or a double path like that's huge That's one less play after worry about in terms of finding and manufacturing explosive play So I would expect that David Blassey's the value of that and I think we'll see that again. I don't know how much I don't think it'll be turned up the same way Ben Johnson is but I think it'll be a feature of this offense for sure I lied one more about the offense because I've just sensed this in your voice and I'm remembering now our last conversation Before camp started when you said you're excited about the offense you actually legitimately believe this could be a High-level offensive football team, don't you? I do I so I just think the I think the craft of the offense is going to be much better than what we've seen

36:16And I think when I want to talk about the craft like just the tools like there's let's say there's 25 tools a coordinator can use to help receivers and offensive linemen I think we've just seen we've seen fractions with that we've seen five to ten depending on the coordinator's bench and Sean McVay And so like I'm excited to see Terry move around the formation. I'm excited to see chick move around the formation I'm excited to see different run schemes That are will be helped by Formation and pre-stat movement so like that's kind of again. I don't know if it's going to be them It's not going to be that I'm going off into the league But I do think with James Daniels at the helm and again just more flexibility I think it could be pretty good now like every offense like there's always bumps and bruises along the way You talked about how it takes multiple games to kind of see a total vision because you kind of like oh, I thought we were going to This what we're actually better at this like it just takes some time But I'm I'm cautiously optimistic because I believe in the system Like this is what I grew up playing. I this is what I played in college for 10 years in the league

37:20I played in the version this is what I believe in 100% and so like that's probably why I feel so optimistic about this 11 new defensive editions Basically all of whom will be expected to contribute if not start with a new defensive coordinator It's easy to say Logan it can't be as bad as it was last year. It has to be better That's obviously a low bar to clear, but What is your you know level of optimism on a major improvement from last year? I'm I'm pretty confident and it's not necessarily because of the additions It's because of the amount of Minnesota for my watch to the last five months, right like that defense is fun to watch It does something that no other defense in the league does in my opinion I get everyone wants to talk about big fan geo and you know this this quarters match that he's playing and how you know

38:21You know miclinked outled up into the addles doing something similar and how it's sweeping the NFL Like those defensive are great and they're fun to watch But I have not seen a defense like Brian for is is it dictates terms to the offense this way, right? Probably since Greg Williams to be quite honest. What about spell rights? Spags so even spags like no one brings the amount of zero and first and second down pressure that for us does like you when you look at those graphs Like his pressure rate is off the charts and you feel it when you watch the game And like when I talk to people up there. It's like yeah, we have to change our whole install structure to accommodate this It's almost like the triple option of defense, right? So like you know, it's like a college well It's like in college football when you you know, they used to play a Georgia Tech or play Navy like Ohio State And it would be like a knockout dragout fight because they just haven't seen it There is a uniqueness to this thing that if dronk jump and get a coach and get it installed is going to give us You know five point to game Which is so unique to have that in the back now you've got to get a coach

39:24You got to get executed you got to understand win and how to call certain things But I think that's the thing like you know, we talked about the scheme with David Wow I'm probably more excited for the dronk jump thing to be quite honest with you and he isn't shown a lot There's been almost no pressure in the preseason games the practices he's shown more But again, it's not to the same level as Ryan for us for example. I just The way that that scheme can Maximize personnel is something that I think is crazy unique now you got to be on the details You have been the timing like there is a lot that has to go into that But if they can hit that ball like you get that thing in play like it's gonna be a lot of fun to watch Who's the most versatile defensive player on this team? Um, that's a great question actually. I'm gonna say that cross actually like the more I watch the minindi I'm doing a breakdown for them so I watch like three or four games Earlier this week and like is ability to play coverage playing the box be an on-ball player Like it reminds me a little bit like Harris and Smith in his role in utilization there

40:25Like and I think like you can be in nickel and he can be like an outside linebacker You can also be in kind of a nickel structure and he could be in in box player You can also play the post in this quarter is kind of all the stuff that they do You'll play the post to be a run for a player. So I think it's probably him Uh, I think it's probably him. There's other guys that come to mind that are in contention for sure But he's the one that I think is gonna take the kick this year I don't know what you said that made me think of this But I was just reminded of something that you actually said to me The last time you were on before training camp began in July You were excited about Sanrestil in this defense You thought that there was gonna be a real opportunity for him to have a big bounce back season In this particular Durante Jones defense after the last month and a half do you still feel that way Do yeah, and I think like obviously there's a learning curve for every player. So Frank Excuse me. I like he had his up to down

41:26But I think when it's all said done and they settle in the what he's good at like he's gonna get his hands in a lot of footballs Because that's the whole nature of this thing like it fits what he does at the highest of levels like Even instinctive person with ball skills and when you go back and watch like Durante Jones the stuff like They play their palms. They play. There's zero. They play everything kind of with one eye on the receiver But they're looking for the ball and I think when you think of like think about Mike. He's anrestil like that's what he's good at Right, that's what I mean Robertson's good at like to right like they're good at those things So that's why even though on paper like people like oh, we need more defensive backs We need more whatever like we need more established personalities there I look at that and say to myself like I think they kind of fit what Durante Jones and what again Extrap lighting from we saw in Minnesota. They fit this system very very well Will sunny styles hit the ground running Performing at the level of his draft position or will it take him some time?

42:29I actually you know that's a great question and what I'd say about him is that like I think people Got like way out over their skis there. Well, that's not the right way to put it I think they they kind of had like a panic attack based on preseason And all I can say is like what they did in the preseason was so drastically different than what we saw in practice I think sunny styles will look way way better than he's in preseason I think they would say oh he's arrived the other things but that's kind of how he's in practicing Throughout training campus entire time. So um, I think it'll take him some time He's a young player like NFL officers are hard and they're complicated And have a lot of offensive linemen are very good High-ends. It's all good But I think he has role and his utilization in this defense Will be better and I think people will say oh my gosh like I didn't realize he could do that because he didn't have an opportunity to really show it in preseason All right two more have you made a record prediction for the season yet? And if so what is it? I have not made a record prediction for the season

43:30So I'd have to tell you what it is if I've made one well If you want to save it for your own shows that's fine. I totally understand They're all good. I just I think I'm cautiously optimistic that this season because of the scheme because of some of the free agent additions Is going to be better than a lot of people think so I'm kind of floating around that 10 win mark, you know Maybe they get into a playoff game here, but like they have some tough games. They have some tough divisional Matchups obviously filled off. I think Dallas is going to be really good this year And then they have some tough road games too. So I'm going to say 10 because I think they kind of find a little bit of lightning in the bottle I think jade Daniels I think we didn't talk about that but like he's Probably got the most impressive camp that nobody's talking about and if he can play as well as he's from practicing I think this office is going to be in an excellent position. So I'm gonna say 10 that 10 is my is my win number there Uh, very good. All right last one. How do they beat Philadelphia Sunday? Yeah, they're going to need to play complimentary football first and foremost

44:31And I know people say that all the time but like it's becoming more and more important than you play this way It used to be like I think even like five years ago. It was like an offensive driven league It was like oh my gosh like let's score a lot of points and no one to keep up with us But now like with the Development of these defensive systems like you're not going to score 30 points. You can take franchise team week one right And so like how do we make sure that it's on a both race like the rante Jones like you need to make sure that we're throwing a monkey wrench into the cogs and the gears of The Philadelphia offense and so like if we can keep it a nice kind of one position game We can don't be afraid to putthoffensively and then when the moment strikes we like we make some plays on third down Make some plays in the red zone I think that's the kind of game you want to be in and I and I that's the kind of game that they needed to be in a lot last year But they couldn't do and I think this year I feel much more confident about that based on what I've seen from the rante Jones in his defense Throughout training game Thanks for doing this is always enjoyed on sunday. I'll talk to you soon

45:33Thanks man. Appreciate it always a pleasure Kevin Love Logan Paulson. Don't forget. He's got a podcast with grant called take command. It's excellent all of our NFL opening week conversations here on the team 980 presented by hands-free sketchers slip-ins just step in and Go I also want you guys to know that window nation is offering through the end of the month four free windows with every four purchased add to that an opportunity To finance the purchase where you don't have to pay anything until the year 2028 two years of interest free no monthly payments and New windows that are providing you with lower utility bills lower air conditioning bills in the summer Summertime and the early fall and lower heating bills when you get to the wintertime window nations installation crews are outstanding They leave your home looking better than when they arrived and 96% of their installations go off without a hitch

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47:47Window nation is a proud partner of wounded warrior project All right, I wasn't on radio last Friday, but I did it on my podcast and I tweeted out the picks as well week one three zero and one the three winners were iowa pen state and Tarleton state they play in Texas and they were getting a short number against bowling green and they won the game outright Some of you said that may have been my most obscure, but also my my most memorable Smeltest pick. I don't know. We've had some bad teams in some no-name teams in the smell test before but good job Tarleton state for a three zero and one weekend the push was florida state on monday night in the labor day game getting three I get stsm use some of you won that play And had fs you would plus three and a half look last year was an exceptional year

48:50It's hard to go 62.4% when you're doing season long picks The philosophy for those of you unfamiliar is just Kind of if everybody's lined up on one side and they're convinced that the line is wrong and somehow vagus is misstepped Just go the other way and make sure that you understand that vagus doesn't misstep odds makers don't screw up That's why all of those big Beautiful hotels and casinos are all over the place That's why everybody wants to be the house if you've got a brain Versus being the gambler And so it's mostly that but Over the years and many of you know this I do and am familiar with many of the people that have been odds makers and Bettakers off shore and I kind of get some information as to where the sharp money is and so it's kind of a combination of

49:51Anti-public but making sure that on the other side there is Super sharp money on that side as well last year 62.4% documented It was my third best season out of the 20 that I've done the smell test It started in 2006 when I was doing the show with Rigo on triple X ESPN radio Yes, that was our station Back then and over 20 years I've had 15 winning seasons just five losing seasons Last year the third best in the history of doing the smell test We'll try to do it again, but it's pretty hard to go 62.4% for those of you who don't understand Yes When you hear that people are touting some sort of 70 or 75 or 80% hit rate just know they are lying

50:54Maybe for a weekend or two but not for a season All right, let's get to week two and There are some games on here that just are absolutely made for The smell test and it starts with tomorrow at high noon When michigan hosts Oklahoma Michigan coming off that very controversial win on the Hail Mary number two with the mysterious second being put back on the clock After an absolute abysmal performance in that game especially by its quarterback Bryce undrude who was legit terrible in the game And yet here they come home for week two against an Oklahoma team Led by their head coach Brett Venables once again looking like a defensive juggernaut They shut out youtep in their opener last weekend 51 to nothing

51:56And I was actually hoping to see a number that was even smaller than this But actually they couldn't make a number big enough to get people off of Oklahoma This is the single biggest public Side of the college football weekend the public loves Oklahoma laying less than a touchdown At five and a half I have no idea how michigan can cover this game But they are the absolute play at plus five and a half there is short money on michigan You know the college football season is very similar to the NFL season in which week one Can really be misleading especially in college where they don't do anything in the preseason against anybody else So look for michigan in the big house early tomorrow to bounce back and all we need is another hideous looking 13 to 12 game to get the win regardless of who wins the game michigan plus the five and a half is the first play

53:01Of the weekend Also in that 12 o'clock noon eastern window tomorrow is usf at army usf struggled to Score struggled to do anything well. They won their opener 19 to nine against florida international last week while army Absolutely blew out Bryant college 59 to three Armies just one of those teams that's very difficult to prepare for and that's why the public typically likes to bet army Especially when they're giving a short number to a team that doesn't look anywhere near as good as it was at times last year I'll take usf plus the three and a half At army tomorrow and then a team that I almost gave out last week And it would have won Is Duke Duke last week opened up with a 17 to three win against two lane They were laying a pretty big number and the public was on two lane

54:02But there was short money that was split so I didn't give Duke out this week however Duke is Catching five and a half at Illinois a team that gave up yards and points to u a b in a win last week The public likes the aliyan i at home. I'll take Duke Plus the five and a half so those are the three College plays this weekend I'll tell you i'd lean rutkers big time tonight plus the three and a half at bc after rut got beat by u-mass Last week is a 29 and a half point favorite But that number's gone up a little bit. There's some sharp money on bc So I stayed off it, but that's also just to keep an eye on it's also the red bandana game too It's the red bandana game as well. You can't go against bc in the red bandana game. I guess I'm off that one. I might be on it personally, but it's not an official Smeltest pick just three college plays michigan plus five and a half USF plus three and a half in duke plus five and a half. Let's go to sunday the first NFL

55:08Sunday of the year and The one o'clock window features a game that is by far and away the most one sided Of the games this weekend with respect to public action and that is the public they love themselves Some Chicago Bears and they are not fond of the carolina panthers even though the panthers won the division last year But they were eight and nine the panthers are getting three and a half there some threes there some three and a halfs out there I'm gonna take each week the best number that's out there Now if it's one shop that has a good number and everybody else's uniform across the board at a worse number i'll take the worst number But there are plenty of three and a halfs out there there are plenty of threes i'll take the panthers Plus the three and a half as the biggest anti public play of week one against the bears And then i'm gonna give you out a total in the one o'clock window and it's the opposite of the way i usually think

56:10I love unders in the NFL because most fans prefer to play overs In the NFL, but this is an under that the public really likes. It's the biggest total Play so far jets Titans the public loves under 38 and a half i'll go over 38 and a half and say somehow they end up putting on an offensive display Between two teams that last year looked like they could not score Those are the two plays in the one o'clock window just one play in the late afternoon window Washington plus five and a half at Philadelphia the bears are the biggest public play on the board the second biggest public Public play on the board are the Eagles Take Washington plus the five and a half. I have no idea how they'll do it I mean i'm gonna share with you how they'll do it coming up, but uh

57:10I Just This it doesn't matter that it's the home team and those of you that know this over the years I am 63 and a half percent on games involving in Washington whether i'm going against them or with them I've had a good feel for my hometown team As a smell test play or a smell test go against i'm playing them this week plus the five and a half on general Contrarian principle take Washington plus the five and a half and then Sunday night the giants are a huge public Anti-public side. I'll take the giants against you know everybody's darling this time of year. Oh the cowboys are gonna be great This is the year The giants are getting three. It's two and a half in some spots, but i see some threes out there I'll take the giants plus the three at home on Sunday night against the cowboys Wait a minute hold on for one second. There's one play

58:10That i did not give you for the one o'clock window my fault sands plan seven at Detroit Let me just tell you that i took him off Max knew i was gonna give out the saints because i've loved him for about three weeks now But the line Somebody told me the line was gonna jump here and it may look i'm playing these games on friday sometimes the lines change significantly Away from me And sometimes it's for me But we'll see what happens with this line because there are some injuries with new orlands But i'm gonna take them plus the seven at Detroit Detroit's another public Darling this weekend. So there it is Week two of the smell test Michigan plus five and a half tomorrow at home against Oklahoma USF plus three and a half at army duke plus five and a half at illinois and then sunday Early the panthers plus three against the bears the saints plus seven against the lions the over in the jets

59:14Tennessee game 38 and a half and then Washington plus five and a half in the late window and then sunday night the giants plus three We will send those out on the team nine eighties website and i'll tweet them out shortly before The kicks on both saturday and sunday all right when we come back What washington must do to beat the eagles tomorrow i'll give you my first washington wins if Of the season we'll do that Next i do want to mention that Foley mechanical is the place to go to for any hvac system issues We had some issues about nine months ago now we called foley mechanical. We actually called dan himself dan owns foley Mechanical it's not owned by a hedge firm. It's not owned by a private equity firm. It's not a franchise

1:00:14Dan handles everything and he comes out to see you himself And i would ask that when you reach out to foley mechanical you reach out to dan and say That i sent you dan's as hands on as any small business owner i've run into in a long time he controls everything The quality of what he does the quality of customer service his team that he hires their professional They're skilled and they are sharp foley mechanical. They are a full service heating air conditioning hot water and boilers come There's especially knowledgeable when it comes to older homes with boiler heat They serve DC marlin and virginia and proudly install a mana hvac equipment So if your system needs help or you just want it done right call foley mechanical or go to foley mechanical Com and tell dan that i sent you All right the first washington wins if washington beats the philadelphia eagles if

1:01:20Uh, i'll give you my reasons in a moment, but i wanted to mention this for starters, you know week one is like i keep beating this dead horse, but who the hell knows you know especially When one team is rolling out two new coordinators two new schemes and a lot of new players on defense in particular and the other team You know they're rolling out a completely new offensive scheme with a new coordinator and one of their best players in recent years is no longer there a j brown i'm going to say this before i might need to say it, but This one game is just one game and it's the first game and the first game of the year is usually not a great indicator Of what the other 16 will be just remember that okay When we get to monday if it doesn't go well or if it goes well Like this is a jim zorn Stay medium situation on monday you really have to feel that way about the first few weeks of the anaphyl season

1:02:28Now i'll be disappointed if the team doesn't come out with a ton of energy a ton of aggressiveness You know the old coaching you know adage make mistakes at full speed You know nothing else we don't care if you make mistakes, but it better be at full speed You want to see that obviously in the opener um i'm actually not sure what i'm interested in Seeing more excited about seeing more the new defense or the new offense But is it relates to the offense the one thing that i feel confident about going into the season is it relates to How both sides of the ball will play is that offensively David blouse going to have our quarterback under center more than he's been in the first two seasons Not exclusively under center just so everybody knows that even the League leaders in under center snaps the last few years It wasn't like 75 or 80% of the snaps it was like 54% of the snaps were under center

1:03:32But washington was near the bottom you know along with teams like philadelphia and canes city You know both ways have worked And i know that there's been a recent trend of pushing everybody towards under center football But the super bowl champs two years ago philadelphia didn't take much Under center in the year before that the chiefs didn't take much under center But we're going to see more under center Snaps in the david blouse system and under center more Will include an attempt to run the football in a more zone run centric Scheme will see less quarterback dual threat than we've seen in the first two years Definitely less quarterback designed runs You know they've basically already told us jaden pretty much told us that the quarterback counters the quarterback You know off tackles the quarterback traps the quarterback sweeps they're not even in the playbook So we're not going to see that anymore

1:04:32And i think we'll see less true quarterback option quarterback dual threat stuff We'll see a major increase in play action pass attempts. That's a given You know this offense Will be much more of a play action Pass offense whether that's play action and dropback or play action and bootleg And by the way, you know, kooly used to remind us of this and i always felt it was interesting He's like you know you don't have to be a Consistently great run team for play action to work If you scheme it up well and your quarterback is really good as a ball handler You know as a guy that can really sell the run fakes And i think jaden will be good at that and i think blow is gonna have to be good at showing a lot of those pre snap

1:05:34You know motions and pre snap formations that end up maybe indicating run More when they're going to go play action Logan talked about that a little bit In the segment that i played last hour for you, but yeah It's gonna be really interesting to see what it looks like I mean they made major changes in the offseason and on the defensive side of the ball It's not just a major scheme change with a new play collar It is 10 to 11 guys all of whom are expected to contribute somehow if not start There's going to be a moment either on sunday or next sunday or the sunday after that where the 11 players on the field Are going to be all new players or 10 of the 11 will be new players To the franchise into the roster. I mean Lot of Lot of mystery around this team heading into the season and again like we talked about yesterday for me

1:06:38The quarterback is number one the quarterback's health is number one if he plays 17 games You got a shot to win more than you lose a good shot And then number two for me is defensively you've got to see a jump From where it's been the last three seasons especially from where it was and if you can improve defensively to just somewhere in the middle of the pack Um, then You got a chance to be a pretty good team. All right sunday washington beats philadelphia if number one They stopped the run you know a lot of this is going to be cliche stuff Especially in week one especially when we don't know a lot about the teams But you know you can talk all about say quans big games against our team the last few years But none of that really applies because it's a totally new defense And he's in a totally new offense So this is really the first matchup between this Washington defense and this philly offense with say quan barkley

1:07:39But you got to be disciplined in the zone run scheme which you'll see a lot with shan manion is the offensive coordinator You got to be disciplined and cutting off those cut back lanes stretching it out to the sideline Using that sideline is the extra 12th defender in your run defense and you got to tackle well This team was such a poor tackling team last year and you're up against a very talented offensive line You got to get off blocks you got to maintain gaps You got to cut off those cutbacks in the zone run scheme Um, and you got to stop their best offensive player say quan barkley Imagine how much easier the first game for shan manion will would be as a play caller if You know say quans averaging four plus yards per carry It's got to be less than that Sunday number one stop the run number two very cliche But critical early season games you've got to win the turnover margin when you have lesser talent which Washington

1:08:41Does uh, and I would say that you know a plus one to plus two means You're in the game at the very least You know, you're not getting handed it to you you get to plus two which would be nice that would require to take away's minimum Which they didn't do really much at all last year But if you want to feel good about the chances of winning the game I think you got to come out of this one right around plus two In the turnover margin number three you cannot make this game a dropback game for jaden daniel's You know when I say dropback, I'm talking about true We're dropping them back into the pocket because it's third and ten they know we're passing and we have to pass And we got to let guys get down the field and he's going to be in the pocket no Dropback right now against this defense whether it's a good offensive line or a bad offensive line It's a bad idea. So you have to stay in good Down in distance, you know, whether they do it by running the ball or with quick game as their primary pass offense

1:09:46You've got to stay in solid down distance situations because dropping back jaden too much against that defense is not Something that would be recommended and I'm not just saying it because of the offensive line I'm saying it because that defense Talent wise is nasty and asking any quarterback to drop back over and over again Against that defense is asking for trouble move the football without having to call pure dropback in obvious passing situations And you'll be in good shape And then lastly we know these week one games are slop fests often be less sloppy than the opponent Sloppiness, you know Happens because there's no real preseason. There's no real playing football until week one penalties wasted timeouts bad tackling dropped passes You know, you've got to be on the less side of all of that than your opponent the cleaner team

1:10:50Always early in the season has a much better chance of winning the game So there you go those are the four keys to beating the Eagles our prediction on the team's record this season and on the game's Sunday Next hour up next Eric Ed home from the NFL network will jump on to talk about last night and help preview week one All of our NFL conversation on the team nine eighties presented by ex-finity score the most reliable Wi-Fi one price five years guaranteed ex-finity Imagine that Eric Edholm is with us. I said NFL Because he was at NFL network now he's a Yahoo sports At Eric underscore Edholm I had forgotten about your big move not that long ago uh Eric just wrote about both of the new offensive coordinators in Sundays game in Philadelphia David Blow and Sean Manion will get to that will get to his thoughts on

1:11:55Washington this year, but I saw that you tweeted out during the game Fred is first ballot as in Fred Warner is first ballot It's so interesting because I was having a conversation with a friend of mine last night and he said How many Hall of Famers are on this San Francisco team and how many of them are first ballots? So I'll ask you Wow, yeah tread Williams for sure right after last night my goodness. I mean he was yeah It is getting severed just completely owning mild care whether he's full health or not who knows but Yeah, I mean, you know look that was one of those tweets in the moment where you think back, you know look It's hard to get people in on the first ballot. We've got some darn good players some exceptional Hall of Famers Who've had to wait a year or more so a little bit of a reactionary post But man, he's just one of those players who's always there and and always making his impact felt the best linebacker in the game He's also a turnover machine

1:12:55But Christian McCaffrey I think will be a Hall of Famer, you know, it's possibly a first ballot one um, you know who might forget Mike Evans, you know, obviously probably will go into the bottle first ballot Right he's first ballot has to be because Yes, the excellence that sustained Excellent for so long. I think it has to be loose side of these things right when they've been doing it so well for so long But yeah, I think he's got to be and I'm I'm sure I'm forgetting it at least one other guy Kittle and Bosa would be kind of the other two that could be in the midst of putting together Those kinds of careers. I think we would say that they certainly have the potential Boses Obviously his availability has been an issue Uh, but they've got a long way to go But I'm not sure other than the team they played last night Eric that anybody has as many a plus Talents on their roster that the Niners do And when I did my story if we could go or sell where I sort of lumped teams by tears like four different groups right everything from like the true contenders

1:14:00Down to the tankers the teams that most of us that feel have no shot of winning a football versus the team You know the group that has the most I included the Niners in that top group for that reason I said look I understand that they have been cloaked in injury Madness the last few years right? I mean, it's been unbelievable to see how many of their top players have Have missed significant time and in some cases the entire season just a couple years ago We thought McCaffrey was playing in the opener and then he was out till week 10 You know that's the kind of stuff that they've been struck with so I mean that's you know if they have Some semblance of injury luck and maybe it's something they're doing you know in their preparation that that's hurting them I don't know I'm not smart enough to say But if they get something close to the the the median in terms of injury luck this year I think they're going to be in it for a long way and you know They want to play off game on the road with a with a shell crew missing half their you know past rush talent and You know being thin in the secondary and everything else. So you know

1:15:01It's it's the kind of team that it's easy to overlook and I think there's some Brock Perty You know hatred and they're not hatred I shouldn't say that but You know deniability there where people just say yeah, he sees a second or third tier guy. He's good But he's a system guy that all kind of you know you when you forget how good they could be at their best and that run game was home in last night In the second half their their contenders to me Yeah, for sure What how do you you know view last night's game? Um after the fact Uh is that a bad game or a bad sign for the Rams? You know I try not to put every year. I remind myself it's week one. There are some fluke things that happen in week one Some teams almost treat it like the fourth preseason game Now I don't want to suggest they're throwing the games. I'm just saying that they don't You know what we see in week one is often very different for I think the Seahawks and Patriots both lost in week one a year ago Lost to the Raiders Eric. I put that out

1:16:04You know when I taught how week one being a head fake they lost to the Raiders at home last year And look terrible. They look awful and New England didn't really look right and probably until that first Buffalo game You know the Seahawks didn't really hit their stride until about mid season You know so again you never want to put too much into one game, but You know for people who thought Or for for some folks There was some talk about like a 17 or no season for this Rams team. I never bought into that Did I pick them to go to the zoo? Well, yes, and can they still get there? Sure absolutely But it was a little concerning how little juice they seem to have on either side of the ball Whether that was travel related or not Again, I'll leave that up to to the travel experts from the people who log as many hours and Some do on planes, but man It just didn't look right and that's you know that's that's a week one into week two concern right now Yeah, I mean like I heard somebody on a post game show last night suggesting you know the Rams aren't wrong yet

1:17:10You know part of the plan may have been What they look like coming back for the next few weeks versus what the 49ers might look like coming back after spending eight days In Australia, so there there may have been a method to the decision Even if it's you know been described as madness right now And it may have had much more to do with what they are in condition to play After last night. We'll see like you I'm not the science expert and I've heard you know 50 different opinions on this what was very obvious last night though was San Francisco was a team with energy and the Rams were incredibly sluggish Yeah, yeah, I think you can't deny that fact and um, you know again some of it was like Building on the momentum place, you know having an interception and then taking it back and You know getting the goal line stand. I mean there were some some big momentum plays in that game that I think Kind of shifted the favor, but it's still the remainder of the game

1:18:13It's not like you felt like the Rams were clearly the better team by no means that I feel that at any point other than maybe a couple of moments early in the first half So Yeah, I mean, I think that the energy level was was certainly noticeable Especially when the 49ers started really leaning into that run game and kind of muscling their way forward and how good a K-Lon black look and how many carry really got compared to McCaffrey really impressive, you know, so I'm excited to see hopefully the dribbling injury isn't too bad, you know, he only makes his minimal time and This could be a nineers team that I think has some some real juice this year All right Let's just talk about the NFL in general and then we'll get to Washington and and the matchup on Sunday with Philadelphia between You know, Washington's two new coordinators in Philadelphia is offensive coordinator who is new so um Your Tears give me the teams that were in tier one the teams that you have You know as separated from whatever that next level is

1:19:13Yeah, I mean, I think the the Rams and 49ers were definitely in there as well. I gotta sit there and think about Of my list as we go here, but yeah, it was it was Rams sea hawks bills Eagles Ravens I think the Broncos were in that top group and I think I think my last team I had the Niners and then also the Patriots as well and you know, we'll see obviously things have changed since Monday where since Wednesday, I mean with the the AJ Brown injury and the way may look and especially the fourth quarter but the Throughout the second half, I thought You know, they've got some issues to To tackle all of them and no clear and obvious solutions in terms of who's gonna step up at receiver Offensive line to me seem to wear down as the game went on not batterally, but More concerning though the later we got in the game Defensively, I know they kept the score low back up quarterback Still leaky against the run in some respects and

1:20:14um, you know, with krisch and zalas out there it makes a difference But I just worry if they have that full picture defensively. So I'm you know, I'm starting to hedge a little bit on them Even though I'm breaking my week week one rule So but those are the teams that I felt like had the best I guess the fewest questions are the best paths to success or the clearest ones Not to say that you know had I done this list a year ago just to use the new England Seattle example Yeah, of course they probably would have been in my third tier right Washington would have been in my third or fourth tier Two years ago before they got to that up for championship game It doesn't mean that they can't get there. It just means there's more to To accomplish or more to overcome Yeah, I mean I I point out all the time like just trying to predict this leagues impossible last year Seven of the eight division winners were not picked to win the division and beyond that Like five of those seven weren't even in the conversation, you know teams right in New England Carolina Chicago Seattle

1:21:17Pittsburgh Philly was the only team that was predicted to win their division That one level their division Um, so we see this obviously every single year Uh, you know, New England was in the low to mid-20s and everybody's preseason power rankings and Seattle was right around 20 Um, so with that understood I am always interested with people like you who I really respect in terms of your understanding of the NFL Do you have a hunch or two on teams that don't have expectations? But we know six or seven of them are going to be there Give me the one or two sleepers that you've got in your mind right now Yeah, I mean I think had the question are the answer to this question when it's been asked in various forums last month or so Has traditionally been the saints I've I'm wondering if maybe some of those injuries aren't going to be a little worrisome You know Jordan Tyson and Brian Brassie and a few other guys and whether they have the true

1:22:20defensive firepower they were also pretty bad on special teams a year ago That was sort of an underrated quality of how bad they were but down the stretch with Tyler shock I felt like man they were they were starting to become you can see where this team was going offensively and how they were gonna Trust him to make throws um, you know, he's a young guy. I guess in terms of experience But he's played a lot of football and I think Kevin Moore believes in the guy and I'll be feeding on to division that feels like it's up for grabs So you know, they were they were definitely a team that that checked some boxes that I think could could could Lead to an improvement. I picked them to win the South. So we'll see if that holds up I mean Minnesota is a really interesting one too in the sense that You know like the saints they played pretty well down the stretch It was really the opposite side of the ball the defense the caratum and Just on the aggregate. I mean, I don't know how many teams you would have put below them last year in terms of quarterback play I just didn't don't think they got much out of the position last year and

1:23:21Still ended up nine and eight still ended up a very competitive team that harassed the Packers down the stretch and had really some some statement victories even if they were You know, not really out of the race. So There's another one that boy if Kyler Murray is just Above average, you know, good if they can improve that that baseline quarterback play with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison a good offensive line a Good play caller who you know Kevin O'Connell. I know he's taken some heat in last year or so, but I still think he's really good at what he does and defensively. I believe there's there's a lot to be hopeful about again Maybe they're the team that does the Chicago bear thing and comes out and nowhere and wins the wins the North Yeah, I mean, it's such an interesting division like if Kyler Murray if if Kevin O'Connell gets consistent performance From Kyler Murray no one should ever question Kevin O'Connell again, right? I'm by the way speaking of that

1:24:23I mean, we should never bury anybody because we've got the geno smith Baker may field Sam Darnold examples to point to just in recent years But man, it doesn't look good for JJ McCarthy does it Not in Minnesota. I mean, I you know, I think there's some potential You know second homes for him where he can kind of reinvent himself and maybe take a step back like Geno did right where he was a backup for a couple years before He got that that starting opportunity and you're right. This is a league that is You can find so many examples of that. I think Baker was always sort of considered a starting quarterback Even if he had to go through that that little ram stay for a while Where he was thrust into the lineup out of necessity But yeah, this is There's a reason why he was taken high People believe that there was something there to this point. It hasn't looked good and the injury questions have obviously been really concerning But you know, whether it's one of the harvots the giant section did a lot of work on him before harvot ever got there

1:25:25And they were looking pretty hard at JJ McCarthy You know if Jackson darts concussion issues continue to pile up as he's somebody that they bring in just as a A look a look see thing right possibly you know if if You know the the chargers want to have their their tree lands replacement essentially, you know Maybe that's the kind of reclamation project that Jim would want to take on but you know I'm sure there are other teams too that would would take a flyer on him, but As far as career arc goes he's he's got some work to do to to pull out this what looks like a A nose dive right now in terms of play In terms of being on the same pages as coaching staff and and commitment level I guess I don't know how you describe it like that, but It's a little worrisome right now and it's it's not what we were sold on him being coming out of Michigan Talking to Eric Edholm from Yahoo Sports So when I asked you about you know kind of hunches on sleeper teams by the way

1:26:25I feel the same way about the saints that you do and I'm concerned about the injuries, but I really love the way they finished up last year But yeah, did you consider Washington? I did you know the thing that's helped me back and and You know again, it's like you're going off preseason reports You know you don't get to see a full picture and the our sorry in train camp reports. You don't get to see a full picture in the preseason but It teams that have offense of lying questions like they do it just really makes me slam the brakes a little bit You know is it a division where a team can emerge? I think so right? I mean, I don't think the giants have yet arrived I don't know that the Eagles are this unassailable for us. I don't know that Dallas is You know such a darling team now that everybody has to thrust them forward There's still questions until proven otherwise and it's not as if Washington doesn't have a lot of exciting things going for Jane Dale still being the biggest one in my opinion even after last year Still a lot of good things to fall back on and I think they're smart enough to know and I wrote about that in that piece you mentioned earlier just in terms of David blow wanting to

1:27:35Make sure that you don't take away James biggest weapon, which is his running ability or you know one of his biggest weapons But also knowing that he has to be preserved Can that happen? Can an under center play action? offense work with a team that is Questioning what they have on the offensive line. I don't know. That's the biggest thing that's probably holding me back right now Because I think that you know defensively you'll see some improvement But I'm just wondering about that group right now All right, so you wrote For today in Yahoo sports commanders David blow eagles shon manion face off in week one battle of journeyman cubies Turned play calling Saviors that's the headline. I know you don't write the headline, but Which of the two quarterbacks do you think fits best with his new coordinator jalen hurts with manion or jane daniel

1:28:36David blow Yeah, the thing about blow is he's been in the building the last two years You know, it's a little bit different with manion coming from green bay and he'd been the you know the assistant cubie coach and then elevated a quarterbacks coach and then Imported as the eagles offensive coordinator remember that was a long search too. They went through some big names You know he was It was not the the highest counted guy on that list and again who knows what what that's worth but With blow they saw in the building What he could bring and I think obviously you kind of Tap into that that backup quarterbacks mine. They're always watching the game. They always have to be prepared at moments notice You know preparing like their starters every single week even though they know they're probably not gonna get a staff I think that helps create Some kind of football mind right there. That's that's pretty good and so Knowing what jaden already does well having worked with him the past couple years. I think may give him a subtle advantage I don't know that You know, it's really hard to compare the two guys are it

1:29:37slightly different phase of their careers jalen hurts his brain. He's already got a subo MVP and there's belt You know, he's been a subo and or sorry MVP runner up You know, so he's had some some seasons and some moments where he's been truly elite and some others where the limitations have been Have been shown we don't have this big a body of work on jaden But the highs have been pretty darn high and if you can keep this guy healthy and upright You know that that kind of quiet assassin thing that he's got going on Can be really lethal. I look back to that chargers game last year and think man if we could have seen 12 games of that you know or just up the the majority of the season of that It would have been a far different season. So just from a familiarity standpoint I think that's that's the most you know encouraging element of that relationship Are the Eagles better off without a j brown? I think it kind of forced them in To me it felt obvious at us after a certain point last year. This wasn't gonna work

1:30:39So they had plenty of time to sort of craft the idea of like all right How do we replace them? It's not going to be a one for one replacement We're going to have to do it with different body types different types of players I think done taving wicks can end up being a kind of an underrated guy for in this year Was a little bit lost in the shuffle and in green bay Obviously, I'm sure manion had a little something to do with that in terms of knowing what he saw behind the scenes um, and then obviously macaque lemon Has been a little slow to acclimate. We'll see how how involved he is early, but You know, they have options there Devante has obviously been a really good Co-number one or you know, whatever you want to call him I think he can step up a little bit more and be fill that helpful that role too and bringing back Dallas gotter, you know and adding a little more Sort of juice to the tight end room with Eli's dours You know just collectively it may not be able to do it one for one, but as a group I think they can help elevate the entire offense

1:31:41By not having a guy who as good as he was still kind of demanded high volume Targets and everything else he had to be a big part of the offense so that'd be successful But it wasn't always Successful when they threw the ball his way so You know at some point you just have to realize that this isn't working he may be a great player for somebody else, but it wasn't gonna happen here Last one um, and it's more of sort of a league question Have we entered a new era Eric where defense is back and you can win and you can win it all With a great defense because I do think we went through I don't know 15 20 year period where Great offense was trumping great defense and yet the last two years the Eagles dominated with defense obviously Through their playoff run in that super bowl game especially against the chiefs and then last year really I mean Seattle knew it New England got there with its defense in the postseason Seattle got there led by its defense

1:32:42We saw you know Houston was really close to You know making it you know if they just punted it 10 times instead of letting see they sprout drop back They probably would have been there Is it a new kind of are we have we entered a new era here where defense is ahead of offense I'm glad you brought up Houston too because they're the team that I think could help prove this theory right or help push it forward in terms of Hey, maybe you know everything is cyclical in the NFL right offense is go big defenses go small You know, whatever everything is an adjustment to what the other side of the ball is doing and there's always these trends that happen Whether they're two-year trends five-year trends decade long whatever, but they exist and they do happen right and You know, we've seen the run game kind of cycle back into the NFL and passing was all the rage that was the bottom NFL Under center more. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that we're getting back to like Kind of old school philosophies in some respect So I don't know that we'll ever have you know a full reversion to back to that

1:33:43But Seattle proved they can win with that formula. I think the Texans if CJ strad like you said Can just make that that one incremental jump To being more reliable and more of the player we saw as a rookie with that defense and and what they have I don't see how they couldn't be a super bowl contender. So yeah, that would be the That would prove that theory is is very legit. I'm willing to accept that it's possible now and I think defenses certainly play a big role but Certainly it's bigger than it was a decade ago. I mean, I remember going to that suble where the Indian in theapolis where the giants and patriots I think both had bottom five defenses And and you know to get to a super bowl that idea was Crazy in years past well indian New Orleans. It was the same thing right same thing Yeah, that's the call yep, they were all I think they they relied on takeaways. That's that's kind of the You know, that was the thing back then was like third down red zone takeaways. That's all we need we don't care about yards

1:34:46You know, so but now we see these dominant units and think that Maybe some of them are capable of just destroying a really good offense Always enjoy this with you. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah, enjoy week one. We'll talk soon. Thanks Eric. All right YouTube. I have to see you Yep, Eric at home everybody from Yahoo sports all of our all of our NFL opening week conversation on the team 980 is presented by hands free Sketchers slip-ins just step in and go Ben standing next Ben standings going to join us here momentarily The team released offensive tackle DJ Humphreys today Remember they signed them a few weeks ago veteran tackle made the 53 But let me just mention and Ben tweeted this out as well, and it's the first thing that came to my mind vested veteran players, you know Get their contracts guaranteed for the season if they're on the week one

1:35:52roster. That's why you see sometimes You know guys that are veterans that are sort of at the bottom of the roster They'll get let go but then resigned before week two if they're on the week one roster their contracts are guaranteed for the entire year So the team's got to pay them for the entire season and if their plan is This particular player is going to be a backup player and until our younger players are ready or maybe he'll end up start who knows what the role will be you don't want to commit to paying that player for entire season so it could be that Now we'll see who they activate from the practice squad for Sunday To be on the roster in DJ Humphreys place. Do we have Ben yet Okay, we're efforting to get Ben by the way the injury report yesterday included Doron pain Uh Being limited in practice with Some sort of knee issue will ask Ben about that Adafi Owe jacory krasky merit and kalevon chase on were also

1:37:00Limited everybody else was a full go So those are the four players now. I guess in question For Sunday and we'll find out more when the actual injury report comes out Later today the last one before the game on Sunday, but I have thought kind of since Last week that Owe was the one that was at great risk That would Stank if pain is all the sudden banged up a little bit before the opener and has to sit given you know right now in that Front three In a base four three you've got Ken lost settle in pain And then you've got guys like like total barber and a menohu who would come in In place some if Doron can't go Ben is with us at Ben standing on x Of course, he covers the team with his own sub stack. I would highly recommend subscribing to it I am a subscriber will get Ben's season prediction

1:38:04Before he leaves us in about 15 minutes But I do want to just start with The injury report from yesterday and Doron pain appearing on it. What's the issue with him? Yeah, so I mean it listed as a knee, you know he obviously had missed time toward the end of camp We did with an underscores injury because they didn't have to tell us so my best guess is that they're best breed is this just sort of An extension of that. I'm not viewing this as Maybe anything more than just We're gonna be the following the hey, he technically didn't do a ton today So we need to list him as limited as opposed to oh he had a setback and now we've limited That's my best read on it just like State like you know my sense is chase on is going to play even though he looks as limited Same with bill. There's always the one where I'm a little less clear So I'm punnid to lumping him in with that that it's just hey technically he didn't do a ton of braggus because Whatever the reason, you know, they don't feel like they had to push him or or what have you more than like

1:39:07Oh, he's got some injury But you know the the final injury report so we comes down to a few hours Obviously, we have a better field end But at the moment he was like in the locker room yesterday Not that that means anything per se but he didn't yeah, he didn't have any chance to like oh boy He's Drag and or anything like that So I don't think it's a big deal at the moment But you know, well, obviously I have more clarification on all this this afternoon So trustway mentioned yesterday or the day before that this is going to be his final season Yeah, yesterday he he laid that out there and uh you know, I mean, uh, you know all this player on the team Longest tenured player on the team he's been here since 2014 nobody else has been around since 2018 you know since uh 2018 is the next guy has been around the longest dron pain So yeah, I mean, you know, uh why he decided to to get this out of the way now Not sure but hey you wanted to do it and you know, obviously it's been An incredibly interesting run. There's can't be too many punters

1:40:09In the league now let alone maybe even the history of the league who have been as popular as a figure At as trash as and I think obviously a lot of that has to do with there's been somewhat the bleak times During during his his run that it was you know, not only with a good job But he was just a sunny disposition kind of a guy And um think like that and you know, I think hit the last two years of trustway really sort of symbolize What this frank guy's going through the ups and downs because you know, of course 2024 What was it from the end of the first week all the way through in the week four he didn't punt because the offense was just so efficient And then last year he's the only guy to go to the pro ball I think in a year where they were terrible So you got to order you got a pun a lot to to go to the proble Yeah, he only put it 50 times in 2024 over seven teams. So yeah, so let me look obviously You know for what it is I mean, you know Well, we all have appreciated what he does. How he's been able to change the field off and uh, you know

1:41:11Obviously, you know as a holder out of can't think of too many times It's really almost any where we've been like oh boy what what happened on that on that play So he's a completely rock solid guy who again, it's been a fun person to be around and yeah, it'll be You know something we can discuss. It's not it's not the same as a quarterback search But what punter search it looks like at the end of the year Well, he's you know, he's only 36 this could be a subject to change But someone like him he's got a bright future in media if he wants to be A part of that because he has been not only you know a very likable guy and a successful punter But he can definitely communicate All right, let's get to it. How do they beat the Eagles on Sunday? Yeah, I'm putting aside the obvious don't turn the ball over things along those lines I think you know offensively How the offensive line gonna handle the jail and Carter Jordan Davis along with the interior tandem as well as

1:42:12Just the rest of that front seven of the Eagle tab that's uh Easily a strength for for Philly and it's a question here, but you know again, I think If the starting five is what we believe it to be then for Washington then It's not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be it's not to say it's the hogs It's not to say that it's one of the top half of the lines in the league It could even be in the top in the bottom 10 But it's not you know, you know, these guys can walk and shoot them at the same time the well like the way people have been acting About at the issue of the lack of depth, but the in terms of the starters You know, I think it can be solid enough. Hopefully I'll agree to you know, we've been back now Two weeks or it will be two weeks by the end of this week From his cap injuries. Hopefully that's given him enough time to To get going get you know Get better game shape to you know work more in jade and daniel's I think that's me is gonna become the whole game if the Eagles of Defender front is allowed to Beat Washington up and cause you know call play breakdowns and anything David blouse Trying to accomplish this may not be there For him, but we know they have better weapons around jaden than they've ever had before and then um defensively

1:43:17Look, this is a different eat looking eagle team no a j brown The their receivers are you know, they've got davante smith you know the guy guys were capable the drafted McIleman in the first round But they don't have any like big hulking guys the way a j brown was and tormented Washington felt like every time They uh they played if the pass rush is there and that's been you know the whole point of the sausage and to bring in all these different Pass rushers to bring in a defensive coordinator who is gonna be ultra aggressive You know if they can get jaden hurts Having to so beyond But to not be sure where the blitz is coming from then that's gonna be a huge deal They obviously you know that fill you know the brine floor is the deal but they haven't seen This version yet. So I just think you know it's pretty basic fundamental blockup front on offense We get after the quarterback on defense if they can do those things that not turn the ball over Then I think jaden can do what he does and I think they could potentially win the game based on that yeah You know there's been a lot of conversation and you know the bubble that we're in when I when I say the bubble

1:44:22We're in not just you know fans of the team media covering the team media talking about the team But even that smaller bubble which is the summer bubble the people that are actually into the day to day Training camp joint practices preseason games etc Um, and you've said it and I've said it there definitely we went from the digs signing and a lot of optimism to the tonsil injury and Two snaps and Detroit and a joint practice against the Ravens and it's doom and gloom in that small bubble But I'm wondering you know because I think we heard it from Adam Peters when he and Quinn Met with the media the a week or so ago Um in his comment about the fans and what they don't see etc I am wondering though. What do you have like a sense of If there is something that they are truly concerned about even if we can't see it. Do you know what it is?

1:45:24I mean again, I think They can say what they want about the offensive line, but it obviously become much more unsettled I mean, other than same cause me right now I think it would be hard press to say that Guys on the group would be starting for everybody else and I'll leave you know, I mean like I don't know it like Josh Connery's got some potential, but it's been a bit of an up and down Summer for him off of you know, was a better last finish last year You know Brandon Coleman has a ton of athletic potential. He played the position. I don't think he's gonna fall You know fall in his face or anything like that at the same time There's a reason why they moved on and got tonsil and Josh Connery rather than leaving him at tackle and um, you know He had tough day against Trey Hendricks and not a lot of people do But against Trey Hendricks and a joint practice. So that's a little on unclear that the Nick Allegrette part They've talked about how his smart should really help the group and his ability to kind of see what's that going on articulate That's all good But if you were lined up every center in the league We can see well he's towards the bottom of the options and Chris Paul one of the bigger surprises last year

1:46:28For sure, but that came with playing with tonsil. Has that going to be the same playing inside of Coleman and Allegrette I think it would be foolish to say that's a definite lock that he's all that and again He also was back here because he didn't find the offers and for agency That were anticipated. So I think the offensive line has got to be The bigger question and then of course all that ties into the health of the quarterback, you know Jaden obviously had the injuries I think there's something to be said for the fact he's got this like Gumby-like body that that that's able to take hit that not necessarily Be have these significant injuries, but obviously he's also missed a bunch of games last year with multiple injuries But I think that all ties in Together, you know to me the cornerback situation is another one where I'm a little concerned But they may not be because we all know that Based on what Minnesota did with their personnel They went wider at corner because their belief is that with the blitz They can get after the quarterback that they can have a little bit less there and you know the quarterbacks are gonna have to throw the ball

1:47:29I'll offer them or I you know what have you and then if they have defensive back that can make plays on the ball They should be okay, so To me the line would be the issue and again, I think You know anybody's just having the conversations their line is terrible don't listen to them because the issue isn't that the issue They have no depth the issue is that they have one injury They are up against it. So that's the problem more than it is who's the starting center Which is what most of the conversation nationally is now morphed into But yeah, I think I don't know how they can't be somewhat concerned About that but obviously they're going stiff upper lip and I'm gonna tell us that Yeah, I think that's a really good point you made this point last year at this time about the wide receiver group, but We haven't seen Nick Nick-Nick-Alegrete play center in the NFL other than a gamer to They seem confident. So I don't know why we you know would be negative or pessimistic I'm not saying they're gonna be right But we haven't seen it necessarily to me the one thing that we know for sure

1:48:32About that offensive line is that they're gonna miss not having Larry meat Larry me tonsil on it period It's impossible to to say that Brandon Coleman is going to be Larry me tonsil now He may be adequate enough. He may be good enough He may end up being a really good left tackle But he's not Larry me tonsil as far as we know Missing that piece is going to be impactful and to your point it affects Obviously the depth because Brandon Coleman's got a start and Chris Paul is now a definite starter, etc You gave us you know the other day in terms of your kind of a bold prediction You said you think cross-gameradal rush for a thousand plus who's gonna lead this team in sacks Yeah, good question. I'm you know Again No, I just you know trying to figure out how I'm like in a head just for you

1:49:33No, look if you tell me that always playing you know almost all the season. I all the lean to him I mean they obviously signed him to the big money contract accordingly now You know that because they're gonna have so many guys coming from so many different angles It's possible, you know, it's just like balances out and nobody gets like a significant amount But you know look they brought it no way for a reason. He was tearing it up earlier in camp You know from the pure speed size athleticism aspect, you know, it's wild it was widely impressive watching him out in camp this summer before he Started to sit with his cap injury So, you know obviously, you know chase on is there they'll get the orange wrong strong back next week and we can go on but like I don't know why I would go against Away I took a said I don't know that he's getting 14 sacks. He might lead the team with eight because they have a bunch of guys who are gonna get 4 or 5 etc but I would I would lean towards away Assuming that he's in good health and hopefully that's the case Give me the guy that you'll be surprised you won't be surprised but most will if he's on the inactive list on Sunday

1:50:37Forget the injured players somebody else. Oh boy Um, who could be inactive. I mean I I guess I'll just off time I had I'll throw in Traylon Berks now They technically list him as like the third receiver, but that doesn't only mean that's just the unofficial depth start that they have acknowledged doesn't mean squat Typically, no reason I'm saying him is He can play special teams but relative to Luke McCaffrey the kick returner Jalen the pun returner Deami Brown It was just a better special teams player. I don't know that he is that guy now again with when you have McCorn and digs It makes life a little bit easier. Okay, we have two stud receivers. How do we fill in the rest? Berks has obviously the size and I'm not again if he plays sure I mean we'll go for it, but you know They're not gonna keep seven receivers up I wouldn't think and if you're gonna sit somebody You know, it was just based on receiver you can say Luke McCaffrey called a day, but if he's the kick returner Then that's not the case. So you know Traylon Berks might be somebody I would think would not surprise me if that but might surprise the rest of the world if he sits because that special teams have been

1:51:43All right prediction time Who wins Sunday and then what's your season record prediction? Well, I want to sort of tie this both of these things into your Famous Smeltest because you know you're when you're doing your smell test you're looking at the data What is the public doing one way so hard that it's going counter to the sharp money or just what's almost logical Washington's I've already done my smell test Washington's in it. Yes plus the five and a half Philadelphia is a major public play for sure Yeah, okay, so I didn't realize it was even up a little bit there, but okay So like to me like that you know the only people who are being sober about any of this are gonna be a maker than um, you know, I think you know based on how the public is filly should be a 12 point favorite But that's not how they're looking at it and then same thing with this season I mean if we do a factory reset on how we're looking at this occurred when we go back to the Miami Joint practice right now tonsils already hurt but digs is here and always playing in chase on's playing and I know my amy's terrible But Washington just absolutely throttled them on both sides of the ball

1:52:47It was soon after that when the injury started to pile up and you know That went when the concerns started to go and then they go to Detroit then they go to Baltimore And that's when things went nuts, but if we go back to that Miami part of it Boy the defense really was looking Like the way we all envision it when Doran take don't explain His vision and you see Stefan digs Again easily the best Number two receiver that jadans had let alone the best partner that that mccorrent had they've got better weapons or speed more athleticism and Back during the the the anti-commanders play that's out there You know, I'm gonna slightly be conservative and not go crazy, but you know, I think it's like a nine and eight ten and seven I'll say nine and eight just to be a little a little conservative because you never know They are of course a Daniel didn't get away from problems, which would be the case for most team So I'll go nine and eight. I don't know that that's good enough For the playoffs, but I guess my general vibe is this idea that they're gonna be one of the worst team in the league We'll see I just it does not make any sense based on the reality. I mean I think people act like

1:53:52The biggest problem in the entire league is Washington's offensive lines. I promise that's not the case Yeah, I mean every team has an issue. I don't care who it is now could be if everybody starts to go down on Sunday But based on the depth they have but oh 100% I mean again Yeah, like you said, this was the issue last year at receiver Yeah, you could get by with mccorrent and know what brown if they're playing you lose them and now the sudden it's a mess So that could absolutely be the case But yeah, I mean, I think like I said, I mean, no, I'll give you the nine and eight just to pick something But I love that has to do with the fact that just think the public conversation just makes no sense to me anymore And all the reason I'm not going higher is You know path the league is in that eight win nine win range and you know, it's just a break here break there So I'll go nine wins, but it's like nine pointing up in part because of everything's going on I love in jaden daniel's you know this idea like I said the other day like If you're telling me that Drake may is better than jaden daniel's Which is what everybody is saying it's not even close when I really have any discussion about this

1:54:53But based on the the national conversation. I don't know how jaden walks and shoes gum Because Drake may is five straight games now where he is does not look good. I think jaden's going to be not just fine I think jaden's going to be really good. I think just again the best weapon where he's had it's just a matter of How you know can you stay on the field and does that line do enough to give him time? But if it does, I think he's going to have a pretty special year Nine and eight from Ben. I'll talk to you Monday enjoy the game. Thanks Yeah, man. See you Ben standing everybody I want to tell you about BMW of silver spring. I've been a BMW guy from more than three decades I know the brand. I know what I like and I know what I'm looking for So when it was time for my new x5 I went to see my guy general manager Steve Sireki at BMW of silver spring Steve took care of me. I drove away in a beautiful new x5 and even nicer version nicer model than the one

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1:56:58All right up next We are going to give out our predictions my season record prediction We didn't do that on yesterday show even though I picked Washington to win the NFC East Max is going to give his and we want yours at 301230 0980 give us your final record prediction with at least one footnote you can give out two Just don't turn it into you know warn piece One or two footnotes to whatever record prediction you're throwing out there 301230 0980 and we'll have hours for you for you guys next All right Ben and I Ben and I Max and I Did our aFC predictions on Wednesday we did our NFC predictions yesterday which meant We had to give out whether or not we had Washington as a division winner or a wild card participant but

1:58:03While I did give Washington out as a division winner and I'm being serious. I mean the bottom line is if you don't predict Kind of Unexpected outcomes in the NFL each year you're probably not going to get a lot right Most of the teams last year that won divisions like seven of the eight were not predicted to win the divisions I had Washington winning the division Max had Washington as a wild card neither one of us had Washington in the NFC championship game we both landed on the Rams as Super Bowl champions Max had the Rams beating Denver and I had the Rams beating the chiefs now we get to our Season record prediction for our own team and we've got phone lines open at 301230 0980 so what I want from you is What you think their final record will be with a footnote or two

1:59:08You know, we've done some bold predictions this week I had Mikey Sanderson still leading the league in interceptions But I've got a couple of others as well but The record prediction is what I'm looking for along with a footnote So if I have Washington winning the NFC east They're obviously going to have more likely than not a winning record I've got them winning 10 games 10 and 7 I think there'll be the three seed in the NFC playoffs I think the Rams in Green Bay even after last night I'm not bailing on the Rams because of a week one result even though it was a little bit disconcerting but I I like Washington to go 10 and 7 And the footnote is I do think that jaden daniels is going to have an exceptional year that will result in him being A very strong candidate for comeback player of the year

2:00:11But the other part of it and this is really not going to make some of you happy But I've got Dan Quinn finishing in the top three for NFL coach of the year And the logic here is That if you go from a team that essentially is expected to win seven games To a team that wins 10 and a division that they were picked pretty much across the board to finish either third or fourth in Those are the coaches that usually win coach of the year or are very close To winning coach of the year So like if Kellan Moore Leads the Saints to an NFC South title with a 10 win season he's going to be in the mix So if I've got Washington going 10 and 7 and winning the division By natural extension the head coach is going to be in the running For coach of the year because no one expected

2:01:12Washington to do what they did so there is a footnote jaden come back player of the year danquin top three Coach of the year after a 10 and 7 season and again, I'll say what I've said for a while now going back to post 2025 the number one The number one most important thing for this team is that jaden daniel's in my view a truly elite level talent At the most important position On the field in this sport and maybe in all of sports If he is healthy and upright for 17 games I find it very difficult to think that this team would be a bad team or a non competitive team or even a losing record team Now joe burrow two years ago had a borderline MVP season and the Bengals went you know 9 and 8 and missed the playoffs by a game And they were flirting with a losing record because the defense was terrible

2:02:17So you can have a great quarterback who plays all 17 games and plays at a high level And the team around them just is so bad that you're fighting for that nine and ten wins to get you into the postseason but to me that's a number one and If he stays upright and healthy, I just don't see how this team could be a bad football team. I don't I think the defense is a big big mystery as is much of the team But I also think Less mysteriously about it being as bad as it was last year. I just don't see how that's possible Uh, and a marginal improvement would give this team a big lift from where it was last year And with all the new players and the new coordinator who knows maybe it's a big jump in improvement And if it is and jaden's healthy you've got a pretty good football team. I think this year Maybe not anywhere near the elite level teams. That's why I didn't go 11 wins or 12 wins

2:03:23But I do think if he's healthy and the defense improves a little bit they they can win nine or ten games And I'll go with them were optimistic I think they are one of those teams seven and ten to ten and seven ten and seven with a great quarterback who stays healthy And the team stays relatively healthy I'm going ten and seven max go ahead. All right. I'm going nine and eight That's where I've got him finishing. I think we're going to get out to a little bit of a rough start here You've got a wild card nine and eight team just pointing that out. Yeah. I think they think yeah, I think they sneak in Um, but I do think we're gonna get off to a rough start here I think Sam d'arnold uh, there are reports that he could be back for the home opener uh in just a few weeks So Seattle's gonna be uh an interesting test kind of a barometer for me after these first two weeks Because going into Philly and Dallas are gonna be real tough Um, and I'm not I don't I mean I want to expect that they're gonna play well But I also don't want to get my hopes up and have them dashed, but that's the NFL Um, but beyond that I mean there's a tough stretch in the middle and then it really lightens up towards the back half

2:04:26And I think that's really when they're gonna start coming into Uh, their own so to speak going into the postseason and then I mean I did predict that the Rams are gonna be coming out of the NFC But listen with how they look last night. I don't know anymore So NFC's gonna be interesting. I yeah, nine and eight. I think they could make a run But we shall see We shall see all right everybody ready 301230980 I want you to give me the record prediction with a couple of footnotes max And then we'll move on to try to get to as many of you as we can uh first up And yes, I'm gonna go to him since he's first up is Ion Ion go ahead Yeah, I'm gonna go six in the 11 Dan Quinn gone by week 10 First coaching NFL fired for this season And I think it'll just be a reset for next year. I think it'll be a new head coaching staff I'm not sure Peter survives this because I think the roster is poor. It's so many different areas and he's had plenty of time to

2:05:32View better So I think it'll just be Quinn with a new O3 DC coming in for neck season six and eleven All right six and eleven from Ion the roster's terrible Quinn gets fired maybe Peters gets fired to We'll see John in menassist John go ahead I agree with Ion it's gonna be five and twelve we got a swiss cheese secondary hard schedule no depth on the whole line Heads will be rolling at the end of the year like a good episode of Game of Thrones All right Great start to this segment, but this is what I want. I want what you guys really think Jalen enrichment go ahead What's up Kevin? No time no talk. What's up? I'm doing fantastic man. I'm excited for this season and looking forward to seeing what we do My season prediction. I'm very optimistic about The team this year. I definitely feel like that we can win 12 games I feel like with the roster that we have

2:06:35I'm a lot more bullish than most people are considering the fact that I just look at the defense I look at the makeover the influx of players that we've been able to acquire from top-down The guys are experienced. They played in big games and I think the front seven is really gonna Wake some people up when it's always chase on temp settle divine pain Javine Kenlaw and then our linebackers Shanaugh styles I think we got a really good front seven and that's gonna Take some pressure off of the backhand But yeah my foot notes Jayden Daniel has an MVP season and our defense finishes top half for the league So that's what's going for players to 12 games Winning those 12 games, so thank you for taking my call Max Kevin. Grille appreciated. Let's get this Yeah, Jalen. Thank you appreciate that. Let's go to Bobby in North Carolina Bobby go ahead season prediction with a footnoter to go ahead Hey, Kevin before I give you my record. I love the job that hey He's done on this roster as many players as he flipped over from last year to this year. I love the roster

2:07:42I've got his 10 and 7 also and my footnote is this and I really believe this and I'm not being a home or not to Our defense has got a chance to be top 10 this year Kevin with the players that we've added and the new scheme Which is gonna be aggression. He's going to send people they put the quarterback on his backside I love this team. I think we got a chance All you got to do is make the playoffs and get in turn it and I think I have a good chance at it at 10 and 7 brother And it all starts at 425 Sunday afternoon you go up there and you hit him into fricking mouth and let him go be there for 60 minutes Kevin That's how you win the game have a good week, yeah, brother I'll say the defense can't be worse, but I I don't know what that means. I mean a top 10 defense Look you get that on occasion in the NFL. It's very very year-to-year More so with defense and offense because there tends to be more consistency at the quarterback position Which is so impactful, but could you jump to a top 10 defense?

2:08:42I'll tell you what it starts with they better be a solid run stopping team You got to be a solid run stopping team because they have really been horrible Against the run for three straight years and it is hard to win double digit games and then to be a threat In the postseason if you get there if you can't stop the run stopping the run and winning that turnover battle are two of the biggest indicators To success mark and Largo mark go ahead All of y'all All of us are one sorry to pull all of us are what all y'all I said all y'all whips I got the wimps like wimps Yes, whips and by the way, I'm gonna get to my point in a second. I got them going 13 to four I got them wouldn't have the best record in the conference. I got them wouldn't have to revolve beating Beating San Francisco here in an Ft. Title game

2:09:45Gordon so far and winning the Super Bowl This is the best team the jayton Daniels has ever had ever Ever around him Period Why are you why are you being why are you treading so lightly on the record then Like it just seems like you should be less wimpy and a little bit more aggressive if they're gonna go win the Super Bowl With 13 wins. I mean Super Bowl teams usually have 14 plus you know why they're gonna have 13 wins because Kevin They're gonna come and throw field of bad. It's probably right right after they oh, so they're gonna lose to at the end of the year when they're not playing in Anybody got to lose to lose the last two games Jacksonville and that because they're gonna rest them See is mark mark and Largo always thinking ahead. Yeah, no, they see you We had of us. Yeah, look look look let me get this out here Chris has this opinion that you two guys hate my guys Who does I love you mark? What are you talking about wait? Who's got this opinion Chris Russell is wrong. No, no, no, no, no, well No, that first of all you know that's not true You have become one of my favorite conversations in many many years doing this

2:10:51So I don't know why Chris would say that I have feeling you're making it up that Chris said that no, no, no, no, Chris has said that to me repeatedly I'll ask him myself Yeah, well, it's not true. You just heard it from the horses map not true I like you a lot and by the way, I hear about you from people as much as I hear about anybody So that's a positive thing so go ahead Right away, I do think Jay to win home with MVP. Can you can you win come back player and MVP to fame? No one's ever done it Adrian Peterson and paid manning in 2012 uh Peterson was the MVP manning was second manning one come back and Adrian Peterson was second which is kind of weird But no one's ever done it Okay Okay, good call thanks mark. Yes, I get a lot of people that talk about mark and largo Now what do they say about mark and largo? We'll save that for another day one of one

2:11:54He is he's up there. He's up there. He's enjoyable little bit you know Off occasionally but enjoyable and entertaining as is one of my all-time favorites Paulie from the 757 Hail to the w what's your season prediction? Big guy held to the w Yeah, I got a better love in it six I got jaded in the MVP And I got uh I got cross the merit 13 or the yards eight touchdowns rushing 35 recepsive two touchdowns 1300 plus yards rushing god that would be great I got him a 13 1250 I'm gonna do I'm gonna do my back What's staying down a little bit you don't have to back down I wasn't trying to make you back down. I was I was excited about it 1300 would be a hell of a season. He bold So so we're 1250

2:12:55Yeah, it would be it would be but it wouldn't be as good as 1300 plus And I'm with you because I've been saying it. I've been saying it all all season. I said it all last all season so I boy Mikey on the outside as we go on as we go and drop And I'm with you with uh you go lead the lead and the steps I'm ready, but like like John said we just got to be aggressive against Can't be passed You know the way the way to beat a bully is a person bully to face Let's go out there and bully him there Well to the dub Paulie with 11 and six Darrell what do you got Hey, I'm with Paulie at 11 and six And and here's why it kind of goes along with my bowl prediction that I didn't get a chance to call in I was on the fence around nine or ten, but here's my bowl prediction I think Drew Stevens is going to have four or more field goals of 60 plus yards Wow, that's a good that's a good footnote. What is i'm going to guess that that would be an NFL record if there are four

2:14:05Made 60 plus field goals. We've seen in recent years Multiple 60 what a brand in Aubrey's had maybe Brandon Aubrey's had four I don't know you've had a bunch Yeah, but that's that's why I think we get an extra couple of wins out of it and uh by the way I just want to I'm not quite as optimistic as Mark and Largo, but I did already book a hotel room. You're so fine Yes in case well good Yeah, cuz they'll be hard to find I got a quick question for you though, Kevin you said a number of times That you think we're good as long as jane five is on the field and I'm just wondering What would you set the over under as for complete games for jane five this year? God Tommy did this uh on the podcast and I think he he Said I think we we both kind of came to the conclusion that 13 and a half would be the number Something like that that's all Yeah, I mean, you know that that would probably be a decent number to throw out there 13 and a half as the overundering games played

2:15:09You can't bet that no one's putting that out there, but uh right right yeah, um He over You think it will if you take look if if he plays in 14 plus this team's got a good chance to be healthy But I'd be concerned about the three that he missed if they were injury related and then how many games he didn't play at a hundred percent Um, yeah, all right good call appreciate that the Drew Stevens four plus 60 yard field goals 60 plus uh four 60 plus Field goals. I don't know what the record for 60 plus yard field goals in a season is Brandon Aubrey has made six in his career I do have that Uh, but I don't know how many if he made four of them in one season Uh, let's go to cam cam go ahead What's up Kevin how you doing? Um, I'm well cam So I'm thinking eight and nine the starters look good, but we just have some entries and we can't get over uh depth issues

2:16:12And we just missed the playoffs uh because of some starter to go down you said I'm sorry you said eight and nine In nine the starters look good, but we get hit by the injury bug We just can't get over it so we just missed the playoffs at eight and nine All right, well, let's hope that the injuries don't mount like they did last year or look at that point We are talking about you know Doomsday scenario again, especially if one of them is the quarterback. Thanks cam. Let's go to Joe in Westminster Joe go ahead Good morning, Kevin. I got good afternoon. I got to say 11 5 and 1 I like trying the Eagles Tie in the Eagles at the home game which everybody leaves a stadium pissed off about But then is the season plays out that tie makes it so we win the east and keeps the Eagles Out of the playoffs with Dallas is the wild card coming out of the east Uh, that's a that's a good one I actually considered the tie because I threw out a tie a few years ago eight eight and one in 2022

2:17:14And that may have been my greatest season prediction of all time because they went eight eight and one 11 5 and one for Joe Robert and Annapolis finish it up for us go ahead All right, well, I hate to tell you I think you're actually going to have Season over there. I don't have one say that again. Go say that again. You were breaking. I think it's going to be I think it's going to be a disappointing season over there I just see too many question marks new coordinators. I think Daniels might have another Situation where I'll miss some games. I got you at seven and ten. I bet the over with the book I mean the other on the book on that so okay. I think it yeah, I think you're going to go seven and ten I don't think the Ravens are going to do as well as the as everyone say and they're going to do either so I usually be a little pessimistic But we'll see what'll happen. There's just so many question marks with the team over there Especially with the new coordinators. I just think that's a big question mark

2:18:15Get some talent like they've improved the town a little bit, but but like you say There's so different you could say this about all teams. They're just so dependent on that one guy If he's just not right just everything else might pull apart on you Well, they're going to be dependent on him. There's no way to get around that I just hope more than anything that defensively It's not one of those painful slow and sometimes quick deaths that the team had last year Because I don't think there's anything more frustrating when you're rooting for a football team Then when the defense can't get off the field That is so painful and it's been painful to watch that for a few years now They got to get off the field and then they got to get takeaways this year They got to be on the right side of the turnover margin this year They were at minus 13 second worst in the league last year And that's why they brought in Gerontay Jones and a Brian Forrest types Scheme and added all of these

2:19:16Playmakers and pass rushers all right take a quick break when we come back I'll give you my Eagles Washington final score prediction to finish up the show and there's an injury update from Ashburn Our Dan Quinn said moments ago that everybody that was limited And that would include Geront Payne Kalevon Chason Bill Kroski Merritt and Adafee Owe They've all been medically clear to play Sunday in Philadelphia It doesn't make it a lock But they've all been medically cleared to play so it's very possible Washington will go in as a healthy football team with Everything available with the exception of Doran Saramstrong who is suspended And of course the players that found their way to injured reserve Laramie Tonsel Trey Amos Johnny Newton etc All right Sunday 425 it begins the first of 17 over an 18 week period

2:20:19And to me it's going to be really really intriguing to watch this because I don't know what to expect But I do believe that the quarterback will play well this year and early in the season is really hard And you got to stay medium as I said earlier like Jim Zorn used to say Because it really is Very much a process to get to the point where you really know what you have but Based on the fact that the world is on the Philadelphia Eagles to not only win but cover I'll go with the week one upset Washington wins 27 to 24 in overtime And the key play is a sack on Jalen Hertz and a forced fumble By somebody I don't want to say oh way yet By somebody that sets up a game winning over time feel goal by Drew Stevens the rookie 27 24 in overtime a thriller in the opener. What do you have? I had 23-20 final score

2:21:21Commanders come away with the win Back on Monday enjoy all the football this weekend everybody So