HR1: 49ers prove the Rams are mortal by beating them 27-7 | Logan Paulsen’s Commanders vs Eagles preview & season outlook prediction

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 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 Teafo 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&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.

5:06Yes, 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. And just over a quarter, he was 14 of 15 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. The back up quarterback came in and was eight for eight 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. All right, last night's game. 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 and 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. Not 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. three 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. But 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, but you see it with every quarterback where

10:16occasionally there is a bad throw, but Pertie'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. Did you see the way Kyle Scheme did up against Miles Garrett? There must have been three or four different screens in that game.

11:21What 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. Lions slow down pass rushes, 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. And in his first game, now he is not 100% healthy and that's coming out now after the game

12:23as 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. Matt 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. How about just the Rams defense in general? In general, couldn't get off the field.

13:26I 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. The Rams were rendered literally useless by a great offensive mastermind and perhaps by their inexact inaccurate maybe 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, but they went in, played the game and came back. The 49ers were there for over a week and acclimated.

14:27The 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. Also 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, where they don't have to necessarily get back into a sleep rhythm, circadian rhythm, whatever

15:29you 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 way 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

16:32had it down to the half yard line and Stafford tried to sneak it in and got stopped and then eleven plays ninety nine yards later it was twenty four to seven instead of it being seventeen to fourteen but the forty-nineers flat out the much better team last night. Alright 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. That's next. Logan Paulson joins me right now of course Logan played tight end in the NFL including here in Washington and 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. He does it on all of the team's YouTube and website shows.

17:33He 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 skins defensive lineman Kendrick Gullston is the head coach. You can follow Logan on Instagram at Logan underscore Paulson eighty two and on ex 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 and 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? You know, I mean, I don't know like probably somewhere in the middle like I try not to swing too far like the positives swing too far with the negative because I just don't think it's either one of those extremes. I think the characterized the team currently like I think you know like when you look at

18:36the additions in the off season like I'm excited about it that way. I'll say some additional sunny styles mid cross like that defense is different. Tim Settle right like that defense as a different kind of you know Timber to it when it walks into a room. You know, I mean, offensively like I think Jane Daniels looks great. I think obviously losing Miami tonsils a big deal and I think it's going to you're going to feel the ripple effects of that depth. But like in my career, I 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 like the coaches understand like what they're good at and they find an identity that suits that group. So 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. But like we don't know 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 office is going to look like. We can speculate and like I've been to every practice. I have a decent idea of what they're going to go. But I also looked back to like 2012 where like we had a certain playbook that we ran during training camp when I was playing for the team here and we ran something completely different for week one.

19:36Like it's just we that's one of the reasons I'm so excited for week one is I think it's going to help kind of swell a lot of the anxiety some of the fan base has and show that like this is it the house isn't on fire right. Everything's okay. Like is this the best roster in football? No. I got to be the worst even the NFL that is also you know infatically. No. Oh my God. I mean you're just way too reasonable. That's just 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 and they are rarely rarely predictors of things to come. Why because nobody shows anything and nobody plays and the games and the joint practices they don't mean anything like we're not going to know for 25 to 28 teams in this league until they start to play games plural like even the first few tend to not be necessarily

20:41huge predictors of what's to come down the road although they are much bigger and better predictors than you know talking about you know 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. So that is I'm with you on all this and look it sounds I can hear it in your voice too. Like 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 you know that isn't speculative. The Stefan Diggs acquisition is real you know but let's start with the Tuncel thing how impactful will it be the loss of arguably the second best player on the team. I mean we need to be the best player you know obviously maybe not like in terms of impact

21:43like James Daniels is that guy but it's just looking at rankings right right. Sure. The position like he's the best player at his position maybe you know in the league arguably right probably top three for sure. Anyway so it's huge I mean like one of the things I look at like you know what back and watch a bunch of games getting ready for the Eagles game and you look at how certain teams Detroit Chicago kind of weaponize that elite you know in Chicago's game and both those states it's the right tackle like it does a lot of these 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 trick like a kind of a trickle that effect to the left guard position right like 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 that he was playing really really well and so yeah like 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 step way in the red game but I was hoping to see that at guard so all

22:44of a sudden you kind of a weak and two spots on the offensive line you know Ali Brady has been around to practice that much because of the injury I think this last couple weeks he's in practicing which is great but it does affect multiple positions in that group it's all the sudden you go from being like okay we got Chris Paul is like a depth piece we got you know we have some flexibility at center you know if we get in a pinch for Coleman to bump in and play center and Chris Paul can start a left guard like 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 kind of identified or at least identified early in the off season is like these in these swing rolls no longer exist because they have to play a lot so I think that's like 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 is in a better spot than people think and you know Chris Paul started the whole year last year and I believe in Ali Brady at least in the two games that he played center for this team last year so yeah it's not great but I do think you can overcome that for sure and you also already mentioned it and that is you know you

23:44can 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 Blau turns out to be a good coordinator can you know really mask flaws up front if they end up having them yeah so I looked at you know like Chicago I think it's a good example that 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 and so like basically what they did in Kyle Shannon used to do this is they're like well what what is the what do we want to dictate to them the big fan geo for all of his genius still will give you some personnel 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 three four personnel and if you want to go nickel-so-eleven personnel they'll go four down and so they kind of said you know Ben

24:46Johnson kind of said we're gonna 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 when your numbers called but I thought on the whole like you know they ran the ball like 45 times something like that they they gave them kind of easier responsibility and they leaned into players strengths at a high level and again like when when you run the ball that way again big fan geo wants to play a light box they want to stop 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 we're gonna use formation to create good angles in the run game we're gonna use personnel to make sure we get matchups we want and we're gonna manipulate how they they align to certain formations to help us get our angles that's just in the run game past pro we can work slides we can leave people in

25:48we can work chip help and so I do think there's a lot of things on the table here to help them out I'm kind of curious to see what David Blah brings in that area because like one of the things like 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 can he's a 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 is like how do you inflate and elevate that group especially in week one first of 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 McVay O'Connell will be some cliff what do you think it's going to look like yeah so I think

26:53from a run game perspective you're probably going to get a little bit of Ben Johnson because I think like that coming from Detroit like I kind of think like what if I 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 out 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 a 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 my second thing with him in 17 but like Kevin O'Connell and Sean McVay have taken it to like the 12th level right Bukinakua gets you know 15 targets again Justin Jefferson obviously before Jay-Himacarthy was there with getting like 10 to 12 targets again and it's and their 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

27:55is 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 a moment 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 up 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 digs because like 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 that's kind of how I would approach it if I was in issues what's interesting about just the receiver and the target part of that response is Kevin O'Connell had Justin Jefferson and Ben Johnson had a mon rust saint brown and I love Terry I just don't put Terry into those levels in terms of a receiver

29:01and I've never felt like Terry is a force feed a guy that that that 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 rock yeah I do I could obviously before they signed stuff on digs I thought that was the direction the offense was going like he'd go out to practice and you kind of see you know like not that they're throwing the ball only to Terry but there was just a different priority right like we're going to try to use him on some quick game we're going to use him on emotion we're going to use him on like we're in a shift and then we're going to motion we're going to get him in a stack and he's going to run this route and I thought oh man they are really going to lean into this like you know he Terry said it in multiple press conferences like oh yeah I'm going to begin like 10 targets again and I think that was reflective

30:02of what was happening in practice obviously with the addition of stuff on digs I've said this before other places like I do think that changes the paradigm with how you approach Terry McClure in this offense I think the guy that fits that a little bit better is stuff on digs 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 action but he's kind of that we're going to isolate you one-on-one you're going to run a lot of vertical routes you're going to kind of 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 going to get I think that the those touches that seem so you know 10 to 12 touches are now being cannibalized by digs to a certain extent got it um let's just stick with the offense since this is where we started and you also sort of began the conversation I think of sort of what the

31:03game plan Sunday might look like but offensively after jaden who are you really excited about so I'm excited this is going to 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 Bowie was bringing like we haven't had an offense like this here since I've been covering the team for sure probably since shahmack day left right where we're going to see a marriage of formations we're going to see um you know like some condensed stuff we're going to see bunches we're going to see a lot of motions but a lot of shifts like motions is one thing shifts with another like going back and watching some benjans with stuff like they shift all the time and so just that dynamic element before the snap the control the quarterback has well in the script 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 I think she could congro is a

32:03really interesting piece here because and in terms of how they were using them 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 going to get a data point here against Philadelphia about what he can do like he's going to drop pretty good matchup it's going to 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 or focus on Terry there's three guys Antonio Williams four 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 them how do you think the running back sort of snap percentage will break down or snap count will break down yeah that's a really good

33:06question 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 going to get the crack at the first and second down stuff and the only reason I say that is because in practice he 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 going to be is going to be potentially in this role where he's you know kind of a third down pass get your spelling Bill on first second down in certain situations and then I also think K-Tron Allen like I don't know if he's up on Gameday 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

34:08incorporated into his playbook and play calling a lot of unique plays trick plays 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 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 speculative in terms of success but you're really like you're you're like a prospector

35:11man like you're trying to strike goals with this one opportunity and 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 at them so like to me like when you look at offense and success it's like who can get more explosive plays and such is what it boils down to and so if on one of these trick plays like you can get an explosive 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 his 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

36:13offense is going to need but be much better than what we've seen and I think when I when I'm talking 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 Shawn 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 priest that 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 but 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

37:17up play I this is what I played in college for 10 years in the league I 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 addition 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 like everyone wants to talk about big fan geo and you know this this quarter's match that he's playing and

38:19how you know you know Mike McDonald up in Seattle's doing something similar and how it's sweeping the NFL like those defense are great and they're fun to watch but I have not seen a defense like Brian for is it dictates terms to the offense this way right probably sends Greg Williams to be quite honest what about spell rights spags so even spags like no one brings the amount of zero and first in second down pressure that for us does like you when you look at those graphs like his pressure 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 football 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 Dr. John can get a coach and get it installed is going to give us you know

39:19five points a game which is so unique to have that in the back now you've got to get a coach you 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 Dorontae Jones thing to be quite honest with you and he hasn'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 the same level as Brian Forrest for example I just the the way that that scheme can maximize personnel is something that I think is crazy you now you got to be on the details you have to be on the timing like there is a lot that has to go into that but if they can hit that ball I can 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 that's a great question actually I'm gonna say that cross actually like the more I watched him in India I was doing a breakdown for him so I watched like three or four games earlier this week and like his ability to play coverage playing the box be an on-ball player

40:21like it reminds me a little bit like Harrison Smith in his role in utilization there like 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 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 going to be a real opportunity for him to have a big bounce back season in this particular Dorontay 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

41:24like he had his up and down but 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 on a lot of footballs because that's the whole nature of this thing like it fits what he does at the highest of level like he's an instinctive person with ball skills and when you go back and watch like the Dorontay Jones stuff like they play their palms they play their 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 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 acts 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 Dorontay Jones and what again extrapolating from what 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 I actually you know that's a

42:31great question and what I'd say about him is that like I think people got like way out over their skis there that's not the right way to put it I think they they kind of had like a panic attack based on the preseason and all I can say is like what they did in the preseason was so drastic to be different than what we saw in practice I think sunny styles will look way way better than his in preseason I think they would say oh he's arrived did all these things but that's kind of how he's impracticing throughout training campus entire time so I think it'll take him some time he's a young player like NFL offenses are hard and they're complicated NFL offensive linemen are very good high-ends it's all good but I think he has role and his utilization in his 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 so I'd like to tell you what it is if I've ever made one well if you if you want to save it for your

43:34own shows that's fine I totally understand no no no no no 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 they have some tough games they have some tough divisional matchups obviously fill it 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 Jayden 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 been practicing I think this offense is going to be in an excellent position so I'm going to say 10 that 10 is my it's my win number there 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 and I know people say that all the time but like it's becoming more and more important that you play this way it used

44:35to 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 can 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 Dorante 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 pump offensively 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 Dorante Jones and his defense throughout training game thanks for doing this is always enjoyed on sunday I'll talk to you soon thanks man appreciate it always a pleasure Kevin love Logan Paulson don't forget he's got a

45:38podcast 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 for 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 summer time and the early fall and lower heating bills when you get to the winter time window nations installation crews are outstanding they leave your home looking better than when they arrived in 96% of their installations go off without a hitch they require no follow-up service window nation has over

46:421500 styles to choose from which you'll do during your in-home free estimate that's how this process starts you can call window nation at 86690 nation to schedule it to schedule it today it'll be convenient for you it'll take place in an hour or less they'll leave you with a quote and then they'll leave you alone and you'll know which windows in your home actually need to be replaced versus those that don't and then you make the call they're not going to pressure you into anything there's no obligation it's a free in-home estimate which you can also schedule by going to window nation dot com window nation was recently ranked highest on Forbes's list of best window installation companies in America so you can trust window nation for high quality affordable windows this sale and soon so hurry don't wait to put an end to your window problems schedule a fast free consultation in home estimate now at window nation dot com or at 86690 nation window nation is a proud partner

47:49of wounded warrior project