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Reception Perception: The Show

[FULL EPISODE] Week 17 Takeaways!

On today's show, Matt and James wrap up what we saw in Week 17 across the league with their thoughts on the Green Bay receiver room, Marvin Mims impressing, Adam Thielen continuing to get it done and more! Whether it's the biggest stars in the league or new rookies bursting on the scene, you won't get better wideout information anywhere else. Along the way, they'll break down the biggest stories in the NFL and offer up a few big-picture fantasy football thoughts. Follow the guys on Twitter @JamesDKoh and @MattHarmon_BYB. Follow Reception Perception @RecepPerception. Download and Subscribe to the Reception Perception Show anywhere you get your podcasts. Watch segments of the show on YouTube at Matt Harmon!! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Duration:
1h 9m
Broadcast on:
31 Dec 2024
Audio Format:
other

On today's show, Matt and James wrap up what we saw in Week 17 across the league with their thoughts on the Green Bay receiver room, Marvin Mims impressing, Adam Thielen continuing to get it done and more!

Whether it's the biggest stars in the league or new rookies bursting on the scene, you won't get better wideout information anywhere else. Along the way, they'll break down the biggest stories in the NFL and offer up a few big-picture fantasy football thoughts.

Follow the guys on Twitter @JamesDKoh and @MattHarmon_BYB. Follow Reception Perception @RecepPerception. Download and Subscribe to the Reception Perception Show anywhere you get your podcasts.

Watch segments of the show on YouTube at Matt Harmon!!

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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All right, Matt, we are just about wrapping here on week 17 and to be quite frank, it feels every time week 17 wraps up, or I guess I should say the week before the actual final week, it already feels like kind of sort of the season is over. I know there's a lot to play for here in week 18, but Godly, man, so many of these guys packing up for Cancun, so many of these dudes are just getting ready for vacation. And shoot, man, even our jobs as analysts, it kind of sort of, I want to say, primarily wraps up the week before the actual end of the season, man. But how are you feeling? Yeah, I mean, definitely, obviously, fantasy content slows down. There's no quite obviously no question about that week 17. But yeah, man, this week 17 was long, you know, I mean, the fact that it's still not over yet as we are recording this Monday night football is yet to kick off the fact that the Christmas games feel like a totally different lifetime ago. Yeah, and they were not ideal, but the numbers were good, James. So get ready for more Christmas football in the future. Perfect. Get ready for, get ready for a Wednesday football. Okay. It's football every day, every day of the week, every day of the week, every day of the week. Okay. So we had, we had a game, we had a absolute dog crap game on Monday. It was Green Bay versus New Orleans, right? That goes. But that was still week 16. Right. That's the week 16. That's the way that goes on the week 16 tablet. Okay. But, but that's an island game. Then we got island games on Wednesday for Christmas. And I'm pretty sure every single Wednesday game was, was gross. And then we go to Thursday, Thursday's game, I believe was pretty disgusting too. Then we go to six three, six three, oh, that's right, six to three banger from the Seahawks and bears. Oh my God. That's right. Yeah. I would just, just, just before we, before we, like people complain about like all the product in the NFL, the product in the NFL, buddy, like there's a lot of ugly games out there. This happens, it happens every Sunday. Oh, for sure. People are just, people are just so deep into red zone and, and like the, basically the crack that that is. It's just like hit, hit, hit, hit, hit, hit. You don't even notice when you sit down and watch a game, like a lot of these, when you get games against two of the best teams in the league, Baltimore and Kansas City against two pretenders in Pittsburgh and Houston. Yeah. So in, in nine of the 10 scenarios, they're going to beat the brakes off of them. I mean, that being said, bro, Houston scoring zero points on offense. That is come. Oh, man, Seattle and Chicago not scoring touchdowns, man, like, oh boy, that was disgusting and ugly. Anyways, so yeah, no, it was a rough slate of, of island games there for the NFL, although business did pick up in that Cincinnati Denver game. But yeah, man, it was, it was, it was, it's certainly been interesting and a lot certainly has been going on. And also too, Matt, I know people have complained about this too, but the fragmentation of the games, you know, you got Netflix, you got prom, you got ESPN, you got CBS, NBC, all right. You know, I think there is something to that too, but I don't know. I mean, also maybe we're just, I'm just speaking as like a coastal elite, but it's just kind of like so many people already have a lot of these platforms. I get it. I had to get like NBC, whatever it was, peacock or whatever to go get that game. And that was very annoying too, but you know, the fragmentation of the games, it gets a little old too. And I get that. Yeah. Some people feel that way. I, I do remember the freak out about the NBC peacock game last year. I believe there was the people up in arms about the bills chargers. By the way, if you wanted to skip out on watching last year's chargers, to do it, I mean, you're fine. You, if you didn't want to pay peacock the money to watch that game, I think you totally could have made that decision. But anyways, yeah, people, people were up in arms with that. I was like, man, there's human beings out there that just don't watch every episode of the office and parks and rec like three times a year. I'm unfamiliar with those people. Like, so I already had, I already had be got from now. I'm sorry. I had Netflix. I have Netflix. I got who load the whole deal. Yeah. Yeah. I am also, I am also a, even if I'm now, you know, living in, living in the sticks over here. I'm still a coastal lead pal. Still a coastal lead. The coast is right there. So I guess I still qualify. Okay. There you go. Perfect. Anyways, let's get into today's show here. Kind of good show in front of us here today. I'm going to talk about Marvin Mims. He had a huge day, 30 point fantasy day. I know this isn't a fantasy show, but that's okay. Adam Thelin, another strong performance here. Talk about his, what his season has kind of sort of looked like and what we're expecting here moving forward. And then I want to break down some players here. Are these guys are actually good? Or are these guys just putting up good stats on a bad team? And this fits, I think, perfectly with what reception perception does, because this is exactly what the tool is used for to tell you whether or not these players are legitimately good or they're putting up empty calorie stats. But Matt, we can't just, we talked about Green Bay paying, playing the Saints on Monday night in week 16. They look fantastic there because they were playing in the hapless Saints when they have to play the elite of the elite of the NFC, well, it has not gone quite as well. And I think this game against Minnesota was certainly a prime example of that. I don't care what the score says, bro. I mean, this team looked completely lost and in the woods, offense was completely ineffective for three and a half quarters. Minnesota eased up and they scored two cheap buckets down the stretch, but I thought overall Green Bay did not look good. Yeah, did not look good. And this is the second time in about a month that this has happened against a, I'll say good defensive coach and really a good defense because at times the Lions, the other team I'm referring to that did this to them back on Thursday night football several weeks ago, they, they, they blanked the Packers in the first half of that game, especially in the passing game, particularly. And Aaron Glens, a great defensive coach, Brian Fours is a great defensive coach. The Vikings are still very good defense. The Lions is a little tougher to like put your finger on it just because they've had so many injuries, but overall, like this is, this is not the first time we've seen this happen to, to, to the Packers offense and specifically in the way that it happened. And by the way, before we kind of break all this down, I do know that there are a pit, the people that listen to this show say we talk about the Packers receivers too much. And you know what we do, we do, I'm, I'm not, I'm not shying away from that, especially because James, it, what makes it really funny that we talked about this room so much is that it was kind of done in the vein of, well, okay, who's going to be the guy that comes out of this receiver room? You know, who's going to be the one that emerges, right? Like, what are the roles going to be all the type of stuff? The funny part about having that discussion is that really it dovetails perfectly into what's happened to this Packers offense over the last, I would say, month against these good teams, like the, like the Lions and then the Vikings who surprisingly played a bunch of man coverage against this team, the Packers do not have, despite all that time we tried to figure out like who's going to be this guy, who's going to be that guy, they don't have a guy. They don't have a number one wide receiver right now. And I think it's funny because, you know, Matt LaFloor, we kind of talked about the comment that he made in the office where he says, I want to vomit when, you know, I hear the term number one wide receiver because that's something you guys talk about. But we feel we have a bunch of guys that can play the position. And I'm not disagreeing with LaFloor. I still think they have a lot of a collection of really good players. And I think some guys who still have some untapped potential. The problem is that, yeah, this is what it looks like when you have a collection of good players and not like a true number one, is that these teams can play man coverage across the board. They don't have to like allocate extra resources to defend a particular player because you don't allocate extra resources to elevate one of these players. And I think that's become a problem for this offense. You know, I think some of it is player owned too. I think some of these guys have failed to take the next step. Jane Reed, good player hasn't necessarily taken the next step. Don Tambian Wicks definitely did not take the next step this year from useful role player in year one to drop the lot of his opportunities. Hey, Jane Reed has had a drop issue too this year. No question about it. I mean, you run critical situations. So like Wicks isn't the only one that's had this problem. Watson has obviously had issues both staying healthy and being a consistent player. The one, the one analysis I've rolled my eyes at in the, in the, in kind of the aftermath of this, like, well, yeah, they're missing Christian, Christian Watson. So they can't, you know, beat man coverage. Okay. I don't give a shit. What is a yards per route run against man coverage says like, we know that guy is not a consistent like route in route out man coverage beating receiver. He's definitely a big play guy. I can take the top off, but even he's not somebody that teams are dedicating extra resources to take away Christian Watson. Dobbs, I think has taken a step to being an act. I think actively bad player is a rookie to like a good solid player right now. Probably their most probably, I would say their most consistent perimeter receiver is Romeo Dobbs right now. But again, none of these guys are true number ones, you know, somebody that you're dedicating resources to figure out. And I do think there's also, you know, maybe a little bit on the coaching staff like, well, we haven't elevated anybody to this role. So do we even know, like do we even know if any of these guys could do that? That's where I think the issue is. So I think Green Bay all the time we spent talking about them of like, who's going to emerge? The answer is really nobody has emerged here. I know that that is the answer. I will go back to a couple of things here and two themes that I've talked about ad nauseam, and we don't have to dive dive deep into this. But I do want to get your take on this and see if your opinions on this have changed because mine certainly have not won. You talk about they have not elevated a wide receiver. You talk about, you know, Jane Reed has not been able to kind of sort of separate himself from the pack. And I totally agree with that. That's the final, that is the byproduct, though, of the coaching staff not giving him the chance to do that. I look at his game log here, Matt, there is not a single game, not a one where he has played 80% of the offensive snaps. That is embarrassing. That is a complete misuse of resources. Even in this game against Minnesota, you're talking about they can't beat man coverage. Minnesota ran a crazy high percentage of man coverage plays, right? And Jane Reed is clearly their best man beater. He played 71% of the snaps, 71% of the snaps. And if you're not, you know, totally, you know, in on snap percentages, that's fine. But 71% that's like, I don't want to say that's a role player, but that's role player adjacent. You know what I'm saying? That's not, that is not dominant starter level of, of snap share. You know, the, if you were talking, you know, you need to be a number one wide shooter. If you need to be a number two wide receiver, you're playing well over 80% weekend and week out. Jane Reed has never played 80% of the offensive snaps all year long. As a matter of fact, god, Lee, if you look at what he's done over the last two months, it's hard to find games where he's played over 60% of the offensive snaps. And that is very much in the role player category. So that to me is not a Jane and Reed issue. That's, he can't put himself out there, right? Like the coaching staff needs to put him out there and they need to put him in, in spots to succeed. The fact that they keep cramming him into the slot receiver role to me, it just, like I said, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, I, I point to Detroit. I'm on Ross St. Brown, go argue with your mother, but he's the best slot receiver in the game. Okay. The funny thing about that, Matt, is that he still plays 51% of his snaps lined up out outside. I'm using air quotes here. Why? Because the coach's staff realizes like, you know what, in two receiver sets, we need to keep him on the football field. And it's not going to be in the slot. So now he can go play flanker or he can go play X or he's going to go play. He's going to go play outside somewhere, but he's going to be in the game for these two receiver sets. And Green Bay just hasn't done that. No, I mean, even if you look at first half, second half of last week's game at week 17 against the Vikings in the first half, Jayden Reed ran around on 77% of the dropbacks, which, you know, it's, it's, it's second on the team. It's only behind Romeo Dobbs who's at a hundred percent. And we've talked about this ad nauseam with Romeo Dobbs. The reason he's always on the team is because he's the guy who plays that X receiver role. He's the guy who runs the ISO routes and things like that. And he's just, he's the most consistent player doing that. In the second half, Jayden Reed only runs around 61.9% of the dropbacks, like the sub 62%. And that's when we start rotating in like Malik Heath and Bo Melton in these guys. Like, you know, I know Malik Keith caught the touchdown. Bo Melton had a couple of big plays, things like that. And Jayden Reed dropped the pass in the beginning in the first half, like maybe that was a part of it, right? And I think maybe they're, they're gotten, they're getting a little frustrated with his drops and things like that. But yeah, I do think there, I think there's something to that. There's definitely, there's definitely something to that that a player can't develop when they're not on the field and when they're not like getting the football. And I also, you know, the thing that I struggle with James is that I would say that the Packers offense, if you look at the last two seasons combined, it's not a consistent, it's a great unit. And like we're totally picking this here with the Packers. They're a great team. They're going to go the playoffs. They could win a couple of playoff games. I think the range of outcomes for them is pretty wide. I've told you, I wouldn't be shocked if they lose in the first round. I also, I wouldn't be totally shocked if they made the Super Bowl. I think they have a type of potential. But that actually kind of speaks to exactly what I'm saying here is the volatility of this unit. But I think when you look at the unit overall over the last two years, in my opinion, when it has been at its best, and I think statistically this probably would hold up, is in the second half of 2023, and what was happening in the second half of 2023, Jaden Reed was the feature player consistently. He was the feature player, and some of that was because of injuries and things like that. But man, the time when they were getting him the most involved in the unit, I think was when this offense was operating at its smoothest and most clean potential. So that that I do think is a little bit of, I think they've left some stuff on the bone here with Jaden Reed, but it's difficult, man, because Jaden Reed is not a number one receiver. He's not as good as a guy like I'm on Ross St. Brown is. And some of these other guys aren't bad enough to just take them off the field. Maybe we don't need to be rotating in like our fourth and fifth wide receiver, or like our fifth and sixth wide receiver, you know? Maybe we can pick knits about that, but you know, Dobbs, even Wix, like Wix isn't a guy they should totally give up on. They shouldn't. There's a scenario where he can develop, even Christian Watson, who I've had my issues with. He's not a useless player. He can just take him out of the rotation. I think that's the issue with Green Bay is that they're in a little bit of like a, almost like a, not, I don't want to call them embarrassment of riches, but like an embarrassment of options where like all of these guys, yeah, all of these guys need to be developed and you'd like them all to be on the field to be developed. The problem is that there's only one football to go around. Yeah, there's only that. That part, I agree with, but I think that also kind of sort of, it goes into my second point, Matt. And I know this is, this sounds a little hot takey because it is, but again, I just, when I look at play design here for Green Bay, especially in their passing game, I, I don't see stuff that I'm like, okay, this is, this is great. You know, I just see stuff that is like, for example, like, I would love to see more, you know, levels concepts here with Green Bay. I just, I feel like I'm seeing a lot of ISO ball, you know, and again, they don't have ISO ball players, period. Yeah, you don't. Yeah. So for me, I just feel like, all right, let's get some levels concepts out here, you know, or some concepts where we're going to, there's a high low read, you know, where we're going to flood the zone, you know, things from a, and again, I'm not an offensive coordinator, man. I don't pose myself to be, but I know football and I, and I, when I see this football here and I look at the personnel, Matt, I don't see things that match up. Look, this is an 11 win team. This is, it's a, it's straight up a very good team. So you're right. We are picking it here. That being said, Matt, they're oh and five against the NFC's elite. They're oh and five. They have no wins against Philadelphia, Detroit or Minnesota. None. Yep. Right. There are a couple of their quality wins came against one against the Rams. That game had no Cooper cup and no Pukanukua. They had a win against the Houston Texans with no Nico Collins. Okay. It starts getting a little dicey here. When we start talking about, all right, well, who have they really beat, right? Maybe you could point to Seattle. That's a good win. San Francisco's a good win. I don't know what you feel about Arizona. They're not a playoff team. I mean, again, it starts getting a little bit dicey here. So yeah, are they a good team for sure? Yeah, 100%. You don't go about winning 11 games and not being a good team, but we're talking about, okay, well, how do this, how does this team get to the next level? And for me, they're just so far away from being elite. They're very far away. I think maybe not very far away, but I definitely think there's a teardrop in my opinion from those top teams to them. Yeah, that's more accurate. Yeah, that's more accurate. The record has played it out. Like you said, you can't really hide from the fact that they've not been able to close out, not even just close out. They've not been able to like, yeah, the final score looks competitive. I think there were some kind of fakey touchdowns at the end by this offense, you know, and not exactly the same thing, it was definitely much more competitive against Detroit. But man, they were so bad in the first half against Detroit on that Thursday night game, man. I mean, that's just tough to get away from. So I agree with you. I think there's a teardrop. I do think the lack of like a difference maker, like a true number one in the passing game, I think has become a problem for this team. And I think they have guys that are capable of, you know, if you squint, you could see them developing into that type. But like, I think they've hit on Jaden Reed is a really, really good number two receiver. I think, like, that's great. He's, to me, still clearly they're best receiver and I agree with you. When I watch him, I think he's the best man coverage beater on this team. I like, oh, we need to beat man coverage. Why are we not having Jaden Reed 100% on the field? Like in the slot, like running in breaking routes because I guarantee you watch, watch the film last year, he's beaten man coverage a ton on those, you know, so I think maybe they've lost trust. I don't know what it is. I'm not sure. 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LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. I want to talk about two players here in Marvin Mims and Adam Thelin that you watched last year and you said Marvin Mims especially was a little bit of a disaster. Adam Thelin not so much, but maybe there was comments that he was putting up empty calorie stats or whatever it is. Let's start with Marvin Mims. Huge day in week number 17. Eight targets, eight grabs, 103 and two touchdowns. Have you seen improvement especially recently? Because I feel like recently he's putting up some pretty solid numbers here, man. But recently, have you seen an improvement in Marvin Mims's game? Yeah, I would say so. I think it's some of it comes down to deployment too for Marvin Mims because yeah, I mean, man, his route running in year one was just a disaster. I mean, it was really bad. I think he just did not look comfortable running traditional wide receiver routes. So, you know, a lot of people kind of criticized the Broncos for not putting him on the field more but it's like, man, watch him play and you could tell why he can't be on the field more because he can't run like just regular concepts in their offense. Well, now they're not really having to necessarily run a ton of regular routes. They're asking him to rip it deep and they're kind of doing some gadgety stuff with him underneath. They're moving him around the formation, multiple positions, things like that, which has been impressive, but he also has made several plays recently in tight coverage. His touchdown catch against the Bengals and we look, we know the Bengals defense is probably among the worst in the league. So there is that but still that touchdown reception, the not the big long one from Bonix, which is a great throw and like that's the type of stuff I'm excited to see Marvin Mims continue to like take the top off. But that second one there where he grabbed the ball and tight coverage, that was an impressive play. You've seen some other stuff from that with Marvin Mims and you know, he's a guy that had a good prospect profile, not, I mean, not a clean, not a perfectly clean one, but he had a lot of good indicators in terms of beating man coverage, right, contested passes and getting open downfield. And I think we're starting to see some of that stuff come alive in addition to some of the gadgety ways they've designed him touches underneath. Over the last six games, Matt, there has certainly been a, a difference here, right? In his, in his first 10 weeks of the season, zero touchdowns barely could get on the field. Something has, something has changed, you know, over his last six games, he's averaging 4.7 targets, 3.8 receptions, 63 yards per game. And he's caught four touchdowns over his last six games. Obviously this last game in, in, in week 17 was his best. You know, there's no question again, but I just, I, I point to the fact that he has again over this last six games and 82% catch rate. He's catching everything come in his way and he's making a ton, a ton of big plays. And they're still utilizing him in, in the special teams area as well, which is great. So I guess when I'm, when I'm looking at him, Matt, what, where's an area where you say, okay, he was a, you know, I'm using your words here. He was a disaster running these type of routes. But over the last three, four, five weeks, I think I've seen an improvement in area X. Where is that? I, I really do think it comes down to how they're deploying him and where they're using him. Less so than like things. Well, I do think the confidence at the catch points, a big deal for him that, that I think is an area where he has grown less so the routes, but I think he's, I think he's definitely more decisive. I think he's, again, more confident. What he's doing. He's not far off from Portland Sutton in terms of leading the team in overall receiving yards in this stretch that you're talking about since week 12, he has 334 receiving yards. Portland Sutton is, is the first player there with 336, like he's made a big impact. And by the way, he is still third, excuse me, fourth among the wide receivers and routes. I think I've seen enough of Troy Franklin. I, I want to see, I want to see less Troy Franklin. The next, the next downfield pass they throw to Troy Franklin, it will be the first one that, that looks good. Okay. The next, that'll be the first one is all I'm saying here. So what, but Marvin Mims, I think is, is definitely a guy that, like we're saying, fourth in receiving yards or CB, fourth in routes and first in receiving or second in receiving yard. That's got, that, that ratios got a flip a little bit here. But in this same stretch, he's lined up out wide on 43% of his snaps. He's lined up in the slot on 38% of his snaps, and he's lined up in the backfield on 20%. Like the, that backfield stuff's really interesting, we're basically, they're using him in similar ways to like a, like a Jaden Reed last year, you know, where they're getting him. And because he has more speed, and I thought did show some route running nuance in particular ways as a prospect, less so working back to the ball. And I think that's where they've sort of said good, they've kind of sold their, their stock on that and him being one of these like a true outside receiver, they can work back to the ball. We need it to be like a speed slot and run these big post routes and things like that. That's what we did really well in college. There's a lot of those routes present in Sean Payton's offense. So why not have him do that stuff? And then also let's get him some quick layup touches for yards after catch opportunities or just running a little flare route from the backfield. It's been a big part of his game that's changed, I think this year. Yeah, so much of his production this year has been living around the line of scrimmage, whether it's, you know, good screen passes thrown his way or asking him to work out of the backfield and do a little catch and run type of stuff. I think that has certainly been a much bigger part of his game this year, which has led to some, some very surprising results. But still though, I just can't get away from the fact that, man, when this guy runs these little seam routes, you know what I mean? Like deep down field? Oh, yeah. There is some, there's a little bit of magic right there. And I really like when he lines up in the slot and then is asked to do some of these Sean Payton speed slot stuff, man, like that's to me. That's magic, man. Like I just, I enjoy seeing that. That's good. And to me, that's a perfect pairing. When we're talking about head coach system and player. Yeah. And also, let's be super clear about this, whatever his quarterback, you know, was last year. Let's think about his quarterback this year in Bonix when we're talking about these big in-breaking routes, post routes from the slot, things like that. Bonix, God love him. He has stones in terms of strong big routes over the middle field. Again, I'm looking back at Marvin Mims' prospect profile. The routes he was really successful on was post routes, nine routes, corner routes. And then slant routes and flat routes, doesn't that sound like the game that we're talking about right now? Totally. You know, forget about them. Forget about them. The intermediate area curls and comebacks. He was not good at those in college dig routes, not that good at those in college also barely ran those. He's a guy that looks like a, he looked like a receiver that was playing in a wide open Oklahoma offense. You know, a real two way goes just smoke the safety from the slot speed slot guy. But there's some real ability on those small handful of routes and even on just those small handful of routes, he's made a big difference this year. It's funny because again, Sean Payton all last year as people are like, why is Marvin Mims playing even? Is there a zero? Why is Marvin Mims playing? We got to find, Sean Payton's like, we got to find ways to get him on the field. We got to find ways to get him on the field. We got to find ways to get in the ball. And a lot of that stuff got memed, but it really, it's true. Like, they didn't have to find the right role for him, like, and I think they have found it now. It's interesting. This goes back to our conversations about various different players, you know, where it's plays over, plays over players of players over plays. And right now, Mims to me is finding himself in a good spot because he's actually fitting into the system. Whereas before, I think to Sean Payton's point to your point that when they're, quote unquote, trying to find plays, that means they're trying to draw up a play. And when you draw up a play, that's not necessarily a schematic thing, right? Like, that's not like, hey, go line up. And we're looking at this coverage. So you're going to be either the first, second read here, right? It's like, no, no, no, no, we're drawing up a play for you to get open. It's not necessarily a, you know, a traditional football player, whatever it might be. But it doesn't go into the system, Matt, but hey, listen, we're going to try to get you the football here. And I think that's been the biggest difference, right? Like between this year and this year and last year is that, okay, they can line this guy up now and say, all right. There's still going to be some design touches, create a touch type of stuff for you. But you could still line up and go out there and play a little bit. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. And I think that's been, um, that's been big for him and, and just again, getting some clarity on that, because you go back and look at like the routes he was running, um, as a rook, as a rookie in the rookie report, right? This disaster sample, I took it from him. We're talking about 42.3% success rate versus man and 36.4% success rate versus press. It was a lot of a straight up go routes and like almost that's it, 42% of the routes samples were go routes, which is just, you know, he didn't have the, and we're talking about him running mostly as an outside receiver in this sample 68% outside, you know, uh, not, not as much. Like really none of this back. I mean, some, but not a ton of the backfield work, the type of backfield work that we're seeing right now and only like a sprinkling 23% slot rate, you know, so we're talking about he's blowing up outside and running go routes against press man coverage. Like, no, Marvin Mims was not going to do that. That's sort of kind of what they've tried to have Troy Franklin do to, like I said, not very good results this year, um, but like, yeah, they're, they're, they're, they're getting more, uh, you know, they're getting more Marvin Mims routes that make sense for him based on that prospect profile, which is good to see he's somebody that, you know, look, unless and we got to learn, we learned, we got to learn over and over again. It's just like sometimes with the, with the rookies, it does take time. And I'm not saying that Marvin Mims is going to, you know, he's going to become a superstar player or anything, but you know, you can have a disastrous rookie or you can become it. You could still become a useful player. Um, you know, like Jalen Tolbert in Dallas, he's not a superstar, but he's like a useful Oh, totally. Yeah. I'm a player for the Dallas Cowboys, um, you know, I look at like, there, I mean, obviously JSN's a great example of a guy who, you know, quote, had like a bad statistical rookie year and he's one of the most impressive wide receivers in the NFL this season. For sure. Um, even Quentin Johnston, like again, not a superstar player, right point, obviously has serious flaws. I would, I would not want to be counting on him as more than a wide receiver three person. Right. Right. But like now I think there's a scenario where he can be your wide receiver three as opposed to out of the NFL is like, yeah, he's got to be out of the NFL, right. That bad rookie season or whatever, it is not all that defines you. I think Marvin Mims has yet another example of this, a guy that, yeah, like he might have a, he's, I don't, I don't know what his future is. I don't know what his upside is, anything like that. But I'm telling you there is no question that the Denver Broncos offense has been better and has been more dangerous since they started integrating this guy in this role. I love it. And I'm hoping to see his role grow, uh, when we go into next year as well. I know the season's not all wrapped up yet, but, um, mostly because Matt, this, um, the prospect profile so interesting, by the way, go to the website reception perception.com to go check it out, uh, but 72% success rate versus man at the collegiate level. That is, again, I know he's seeing, you know, let maybe lesser, um, how do I put this? It's the big 12. Yeah, wide open due fences, quarterbacks are not always the best. Um, but yes, uh, so, but no, 72% success rate versus man, there's something there, man. There is something there, you know, uh, and I think that's really intriguing. And when you, when you kind of translate that into the NFL, I know it didn't translate his rookie season, but I think he can actually do more, um, and confidence, I think would go a long way. And then again, just trying to get used to the physicality of the NFL game adding to his game a little bit because he is a good athlete. Um, I think it's going to be really, really intriguing. The Denver Broncos could have a little something something here with Marvin Mims, man. So let's see if, if he can develop a little bit more this off season and let's see what version we get in a pivotal, pivotal year three for Marvin Mims. It might be a guy that I might be taking a close eye at in terms of a year three breakout, uh, is Marvin Mims. Okay. Let me just talk about it. Year three. All the time. Remember all the time. That was the old standard. Now in today's, in today's NFL, especially in the six games, uh, the dynasty, yeah, the dynasty space. You got six games. You got six games. Uh, not making impact your rookie year, it's over, it's over tough, tough, tough to tough, but your career is over if you, uh, do not meet certain thresholds in your rookie season. Uh, yeah, the, the old rules are definitely out and I'm not, by the way, again, sometimes that that is true. Like you can make excuses for players and then they turn out to be sky more, you know, like sometimes you have a, you have a substandard rookie year, you're not getting on the field. It is jover for some of those players for Marvin Mims. It appears that it is not and that is going to be something to remember. Um, for all that guys, all those guys in this class, you know, again, we, we talked about Don Tavian wicks, you know, uh, he definitely definitely hasn't made the most of his opportunities, but that doesn't mean it's completely over. Uh, in going into year three, um, you know, we'll see what we get out of a guy like Michael Wilson. If Demario Douglas, some of these guys have shown some promise, um, you know, probably not Jonathan Mingo now on a second team, but, um, it's, it's, it's at least worth keeping an eye on some of these guys a little further down in that 2023 class. All right. Uh, last year, Adam Thelin is a player that you said, put up, I don't know, semi. Empty calorie stats here, uh, on a bad Carolina team. Um, I, I just feel like Matt, I don't know if you've, have you, let me just ask you straight away. Have you changed your opinion on Adam Thelin on this year's version of the Carolina Panthers? Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Okay. Good. And there's a, there's a couple of different reasons, but yeah, we can get into it mostly just because I watch him play and I'm like, yo, this guy, first of all, he's playing his ass off dude, he's playing super hard, um, and, and you know, and the results have certainly been there. Um, Bryce Young obviously trusts him a lot, um, and no matter how many different guys they throw his way in terms of a, hey, old man, you got to get out of here. It's like, ah, we had a draft Xavier Laguette Laguette would be great in the slot. Well, you know what? Adam Thelin's in the slots. And now we've got a kick. Xavier. Get outside. Oh, you know what? We got this really promising rookie in Jalen Koker. Hey, Adam Thelin. You're hurt. It's all good. We're going to go to Koker. So when you come back, good luck, pal, but it's not going to work. You know what? It is going to work because Adam Thelin is out there, uh, and he's given a big old stiff arm to these young players, man. I don't know. I just did. Dante Johnson. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Exactly. Nope. He's Adam. Adam Thelin is still there. Um, but no, I have, I have been very impressed, uh, with his play on the field this year and, um, and I didn't know if I was just taking crazy pills, if I'm wrong, if I'm just being blinded by the stats or whatever it is, but dang man, I watch him go out there and I like what I see. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just so funny. I'm glad you ran through just like exactly what has happened with this Panthers wide receiver room because it is very funny. Just the way we talked about this room in the off season and again very much like, okay, what's going to happen here? Yeah. What's, what's the gets role going to be like, you know, oh, and then we, we became coke heads in the early point of the season when he started popping up and yeah, Deontay Johnson was on a per game basis, like one of the most productive receivers in the league. Right. During the Andy Dalton era. Yep. Yeah. And like, oh, even, even like, Hey, maybe Jonathan Mingo does something in his second year. Well, guess who's leading the team in receiving yards by over a hundred yards, going into week 18 after missing a whole chunk of the season because he was on IR. It's the old man, Adam Thielen, 34 years old, 34, nobody, nobody wanted to draft him in fantasy. Nobody cared at all. And he has been great in the second, especially in the second half of the season. And the reason that I think there's a difference between this year and last year is number one, the offense doesn't suck. You know, for me, James, it does not move me when a wide receiver is ultra productive on like a stat spaces or a fantasy basis, whatever. And he's the only one doing anything and the offense still stinks out loud. And there was no offense that stunk out loud harder than the Carolina Panthers last season when, when Adam Thielen was to use your words, balling out, I was like, Adam Thielen is not balling out. Adam Thielen is being very, he's very productive because I think that he was used in sort of these ways that pretty classic with the Frank Reich offense, it's a lot of this, like the quick game things. Let's get the ball out of the hands of the player at the quarterback position. Let's get it to the first read and let's get him tackled without any yards after the catch. And that was that was definitely true of Adam Thielen, who last year averaged 7.7 air yards per target and 3.3 yards after the catch per reception. So whoop, do you know, this year he is still averaging an exact 3.3 yards after catch per reception, but he is at 11.4 air yards per target, which is highest since the 2000, uh, 20 season with the Minnesota Vikings. Wow. And he's back up to kind of playing like almost a pure slot receiver role where last year because he was the number one, he couldn't just play in a slot all the time. Yeah. Like the fact they've got some contributions from guys like Koker, from guys like Leguero, though, I'm a little nervous about what I've seen out of Xavier Leguero lately. I will, I will admit, he, he at times, you know, was, was, yeah, at times I thought he was playing pretty well this year, but then they kind of moved him to the X receiver position. And I think that's gone pretty poorly, which is by the way, exactly what I would have expected. If you told me he was going to play X rookie, I would say that was, that's going to go pretty poorly. It is definitely gone poorly. But yeah, I mean, Koker's given them something as an outside guy. He's been sort of splitting time with Adam Thielen, the slot, but only 41.6% slot rate since week 15, Thielen's at a 74% rate. So the fact that he's done these like vertical routes in the slot and Bryce Young has had that confidence to let it rip to him, I think he's playing much, much better right now than he definitely was last year. It's not on the run down, but I do want to talk about it. Look at actually here a little bit, I don't know to me, it doesn't seem like he's confident right now. Yeah. I agree. It's just not, he's not like, I don't know what it is, like he's just not planting that foot and going. You know what I mean? Like where, where is that? Is it, is it injury? Is it, is it the role? I, I really can't put my finger on it. He just doesn't, he just doesn't look as sharp as he did earlier in the season. Yeah. I don't know if it's injuries or what? Really bad work at the catch point too, where that, that was something I liked about like get as a prospect. Because I thought he had a high point mentality at the catch point. We talked about that a lot. Like, strongness. That if he was, if he was going to be an extracever, he was going to have to be like an alshan Jeffrey type because he's just not going to be that kind of separator. And I didn't really, again, I don't really like that, right? I don't like relying on the young player to be like a 80, 20 contested catch guy, which is what you're going to have to be if you're going to play that role with this skill set. I really liked what they do with him in the early part of the year where they're like moving him around the formation. They're playing him in the backfield. They're playing him, you know, in the slot a little bit. They're playing him as a flanker. Really it has been a lot more just traditional ex-receiver stuff downfield work for Leket. He has the highest air yards per target on the team over the last three games. And again, he has been dealing with injuries, but issues at the catch point. And yeah, I think a lack of confidence are haunting him right now. I need this team to get like a solution at X. I just do because I'm fascinated by all these guys. You know, Koker, Leket, in the right roles, I can see it working for them. I don't know. Maybe they have to bring feeling back at this point because he just has been so good for Bryce Young. But they need like a real deal lid lifting ex-receiver even if Leket works out. That's not the role that he's going to play. No, I mean, and again, I think probably ideal if you're talking about, you know, downfield for Leket. I thought this was true too in college. Like get him in the slot and then have him, you know, work some of these. I mean, shoot, can you imagine Leket running the Marvin Mims route tree right now in Carolina? He'd be crushing, dude. You know what I'm saying? Like get him out in these little bubble screens, like let him work after the catch. All good. He's a chore to bring down. It's all good. Downfield seam routes. I mean, you know, facing it off against, you know, maybe a nickel corner or something. Like he's going to body that, dude. You know what I mean? So I'd love to see a little bit more of that and shoot. It's like I said before, the one that we know about Carolina, they got their guy in terms of their head coach. Like Dave Canals gets it, you know, like he gets it. He's finding ways, he's putting these guys in positions to succeed and he truly is getting the most out of his team. So I would say they've got the right guy and I'm sure if they could figure out the X receiver spot, they're going to find out, find some really interesting ways, I would hope, to get Xavier Leket involved on that squad. Okay. This is a way for me to kind of dovetail into. I'm going to throw out four players here. And far too often, Matt, and this show is a great way to dispel some of these notions. But sometimes you get lost in the stats, right? Sometimes you get lost. Some guys put up big stats on bad teams and we start to say, all right, well, maybe this guy is better than advertised. So I'm going to throw out four players here. You tell me whether this is a legitimate, great, a good player or this is a player that is being, putting up good stats on a bad team. And I'm going to start in Jacksonville. Everyone loves BTJ. You won't find a bigger BTJ fan than myself. I love BTJ talking about an X receiver that go down a wind down field. Of course, James Co. He's going to like that guy. Come on now. But BTJ is putting up some huge numbers right now. Is he just a straight up baller or is it being masked somewhat by the fact that he's on a bad team? Accepting insurance without the support of a group practice can be tough, but most people looking for mental health care want to use their benefits to pay for sessions. If you're interested in seeing clients through insurance, ALMA can help. They make it easy to get credentialed with major insurance plans at enhanced reimbursement rates. They also handle all of the paperwork from eligibility checks to claim submissions and guarantee payment within two weeks. 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Number one, there is no question, and I'm saying this and this takes away nothing from Brian Thomas Jr. But there is no question that from a volume perspective he is benefiting from the fact that Christian Kirk is on IR, Gabe Davis is on IR, and Kevin Ingram is on IR. There is a 0% chance Brian Thomas Jr. as a 34% target share the last since the team's bi-week, which he does, which by the way, puts him third in the NFL behind Pookanakua and AJ Brown. Amazing. Which is incredible, there is a 0% chance he has that target load if those veterans are out on the field. And like, that's why at times I've sort of flirted with the, like, you know, the targets are earned. I do think when you're getting targets, targets are earned, but I think the problem is when it's in the inverse, like, oh, this guy isn't earning target. That's where I think it's a little bit of BS. And maybe people think that's stupid of me, like, I'm trying to have it both ways here. But typically when you're getting the football, there's a reason you're getting the football and it's because you're good at the game. The inverse, though, is not true when you're not getting the ball. That does not mean that you're not good at the game. There's just other factors. Got you. There's other factors at play here. And the fact that the fact of the matter is Brian Thomas Jr., before going to the team's bi, he was a sub 20% target share player. That wasn't because like, oh, Brian Thomas Jr., there's a problem with him. No, it's just other guys on the team that, I mean, I think those players are mid, but they did commit. They did commit resources to get those guys, you know, like, it's not a spreadsheet, right? It's a real team trying to do real stuff, sort of Jacksonville, whatever. But anyways, I'm saying that to say that, yes, that's, that's a big part of why he has volume numbers similar to an AJ Brown or something like that. You know, his 52.3% air yard share is also third in the NFL. He's just got these like obnoxious volume stats right now, which is way overdue, but he's a baller, man. He's saying. And I think, I think he is. Okay. He has done exactly what he did in college in his prospect profile, which is consistently get better. You know, in his prospect profile pointed this out where in the September routes, we're not as good as the December routes, you know, in his, in his interest in college. I thought he got consistently a better over the course of his final collegiate season, which for me was enough to sort of wave away any of the like one year wonder concerns, but based on like the box score scouting and stuff like that, I thought there was enough to say, like say goodbye to that, that, that stuff. But I think you see the same thing in the NFL where at the beginning of the year, you go back and look, I mean, this isn't even just the beginning of years is more than just the beginning of the year, but his, his, we did a video on YouTube about this. This is documented on the in season rookie report that's on the site. He was a guy that struggled a little bit in zone coverage, but was awesome against press man. I think you've seen now some, some due to just route catering, but also just him getting better from a timing perspective, being where he's supposed to be, knowing when to throttle down, working back to the quarterback. He's gotten a lot, I think his year end zone coverage numbers will be a lot better than what it was in the rookie report, which is good to see because I think if him, for him to be a true number one receiver, you know, he's got to be a little bit higher than where he was from the in season rookie report, which is like a 70% success rate versus zone player. You're great versus press man, but you're not good against zone. Then you're like Jerry Judy, you know, or something like that. And I think Brian Thomas Jr. is significantly better than a guy like Jerry Judy at any point in his career, no disrespect to what he's doing right now. So I think he is a, I think he is already like a superstar player. I've seen enough to put him in that tier based on his rookie season. Love it. Absolutely love it. All right. Well, you mentioned Jerry Judy, good player or is, is some of his skill or whatever being inflated by the fact that he's putting up good stats on a bad team. I mean, an unbelievable, what did he see, 18 targets, I believe in this, in this most recent game, just an unbelievable target share and obviously putting up some, some numbers there too. But, but what are we looking at here with Jerry Judy? Yeah, a little bit of both. So I think Jerry Judy was definitely a guy that, you know, I think was overrated at times in Denver. And I think I was right to say that, that he was overrated at the time. But I also think this is what happens with players is that the backlash goes too far. There's a, there's a difference between saying a guy is overrated and saying a guy sucks, you know, you can't play. Yeah. Yeah. Jerry Judy definitely was overrated, but he never was a bad player. I mean, again, this is a player that was a 70% success rate versus man press player. That's not bad. He definitely had his issues against zone coverage. I'm curious to see what his final numbers come out like this year. I mean, really bad issues against zone coverage, but that's what I'm talking about. He's not a consistent player. I still think he's a little bit hot and cold, but this is another guy that has gotten the, they've gotten the deployment right in Cleveland where they're having him run more of these like runway routes and things like that, not like take a thousand steps on a slant against zone coverage. And oh, well, by the time you're open, the quarterback has been sacked or he's on the next read, things like that. So I think he has played it more decisively this year and been, but still I think a little bit is it's a bad team that, you know, like with Winston under center, all those stats are obviously inflated and you don't need to go too far that just look at the games without James Winston. He's, I still don't think he's like a true number one. I would be, I'd be looking for somebody to be like a leader of that team from a receiving room sample. It's interesting too, right? Because we started off this conversation by saying, all right, you could see a million targets, but if your offense is asked, then who really cares? I mean, shoot Cleveland score three points, three points Matt and Jerry Judy saw 18 targets, which by the way, what was that? What was that ratio you like? If you get more targets than the team scores points, that's not good. That's not good. Yeah. And the Browns are way out in front. Like by, by the way, that that's because they're playing, that is because they're playing a quarterback who is just, ah, okay. Historians, I haven't even thrown a touchdown this year, right? I mean, I don't think so. I don't know. It's, it's, I don't, why do they have them as a backup quarterback? It's, it's sort of pick a game, but I don't think he's throwing a touchdown yet. Don't tell us right. Unbelievable. Anyways, 18 targets versus three actual points being scored by Cleveland's offense. That's not good. It resulted in 12 catches for 94 yards, 90. You have less than a hundred yards on 18 targets, Matt. God, I am not a big yards per, you know, target or yards per route run type of dude. But damn, man, like, yo, can we get, can we crack a century mark on 18 targets? My guy. That's nuts. Yeah. That's, that was a little bit of like old Jerry Judy popping back up, the issues catching the football there. So definitely an issue there that he's, I think, always going to kind of have to work through, which, which can, which can be, you know, obviously drops can be overstated. People know how I feel about that, but yeah, 61.5% of the first three targets from Dorian Thomas and Robinson, according to fantasy points data who, yes, DTR still over six in terms of touchdown standards. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. So by the way, the other star of week 17, I guess from a statistical standpoint, how about Malik neighbors? Golly. I mean, eight targets in seven receptions resulting in 171 yards and two touchdowns, 171 on eight targets is the absolute inverse of what we were talking about there with Jerry Judy. That's unbelievable efficiency. By the way, they go on to win that football game 45, 33, much to the chagrin of giants fans across the nation, but Malik neighbors, I, I know it's general consensus that he's a great player, but again, Matt, using your eye to tell me is Malik neighbors as good as advertised or is some of his, this, this perceived value of Malik neighbors? Is that being propped up by being on a really bad team? Look, again, I don't think this, I, I don't think me saying this takes anything away from Malik neighbors. But yeah, again, quick, like a couple of other guys on this team, and I don't think he has a 32.4% target share. I just, I just don't think that's going to, you know, I don't don't think that, which is what he does. He has the highest target share of any player in the league at 32.4%. Wow. He started on 31% of his routes this year. Like let's get an above average starter, and I don't necessarily think that that's going to be true because, I mean, the other guys in this category are like AJ Brown, Pookanaku, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase. I mean, even Jamar Chase, like 26%, you know, like Demar Chase is Demar Chase, and because Jamar Chase has T Higgins, you know, so the guys really in his category, like AJ Brown, and like that's it in terms of 30% target share players. I don't necessarily think Malik neighbors right now is a brown. I think he could, I think he could develop into being an elite player. He's definitely somebody that could make that leap right now. I don't think he's there. But yeah, he's a fantastic wide out. Like I said, I don't think me saying that takes anything away from him, especially he was so awesome in this week 17 game, particularly in the ways that I've talked about him being awesome, which is against press man coverage. That's always been the strength of his game. It was as a prospect. It has been as a rookie so far. He averaged, wait for James, 10.83 yards per route run against man coverage against the Colts. Gus Bradley, did he, does he know who all neighbors is? Did he watch any, any giant film whatsoever? There's one guy that you got to worry about if you're the Colts defense. He wears number one. He's the one guy. It's so freakin Jersey number. It's number one. And they couldn't. What are, what are they doing? They lined him up on several key receptions. They had two catches for 65 yards against man coverage with a touchdown in there. And it was just ISO ball to Malik neighbors on go routes. Bro, what are we talking about from the Colts defensive and it makes it even worse, James, that not okay. Well, you didn't get into shit to like solo shutdown Malik neighbors. Well, one Dale Robinson is still catching like out breaking routes on you down the field. One Dale Robinson, one Dale Robinson sketch, like down, good, out breaking routes on you. Terry Slaton's just walks in into the end zone on a 32 yarder. The other guys who aren't even really needle moving players. They're this guys. They're they're dropping bombs on you and Malik neighbors is dropping bombs on you like what an embarrassing defensive performance that was spread in the Colts. That was bad. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I mean, I feel like the Gus Bradley criticism has been around for so long now. So I am surprised that he's still out there and running the ship defensively for for the Colts or for any NFL franchise at this point. Not saying that, you know, he couldn't be in a great, you know, some assistant or position coach or something like that, but it just feels like from a defensive standpoint, maybe the game is passed him by. I feel like that's probably fair at this point, given his various 10 years and various stops. I don't know, do you buy this whole idea that the Indianapolis just needs to clean house and just bring it a whole new coaching staff. I just, it's crazy, man. Like last year Shane Steichen is like, you know, it's like, oh, they've really hit a home run with Shane Steichen and all of a sudden it's like, they go and draft a quarterback that is not going to really work in a Shane Steichen system. And then now it's a Shane Steichen problem when in reality feels very much met like a front office problem in terms of what they got going on there. Yeah. And that, that almost might be the reason why it's like, let's just clean house and start all over. Um, you know, obviously Pat McPhee who Pat, Pat's Pat, right? But he like had a whole rant about this on Twitter yesterday, because you know, he's gotten in the crosshairs of like Colts players this year based on some of his comments from the team, but it's basically just like criticizing the Colts culture. But it almost is because of like the fact that Gus Bradley is just this team's defensive coordinator. And he's been there for a minute now over multiple staffs. They've kind of hung on to Gus Bradley. That almost kind of like makes the point of, you know, what are we doing? Like, what are we doing here? Are we just okay with mediocre? That's what this, that's what this Colts team feels like right now is like, they're, they're pretty content just being mediocre because they are mediocre every year. They're right around this area and it's like, yeah, well, they can just take that next step. Well, they never take that next step. I think Richardson was supposed to be that thing that took him the next step. It didn't really work out, you know, I didn't really work out with Richardson this year. I think it's still good next year. It's just kind of tough to justify man. Like, you dropped that game to the Colts or to the Giants. Excuse me. You get yourself eliminated from the playoffs by Drew Lock and like averaging over one EPA per dropback like Drew Lock drops back to pass. Put a point on the board. That's basically what that performance was. It was embarrassing. I mean, I think, I think it was the most, I think it was the most embarrassing loss of the entire 2024 NFL season when you put in context, like the fact that what's on the line, what's on the line, the opponent, the fact that yeah, you have your backup quarterback in there, but you pretty much get like what I would say is a 90th percentile outcome from Joe Flacco. Where totally throws for 300. He's gonna throw a couple to the defense. You know, he's gonna throw a couple to the defense. He's, he's fricking Joe Flacco. He's been in the league forever. That's what he does, but he can push the ball to some of the playmakers. He didn't push, you scored 33 points. Period. You scored 33 points. You can't give up 45 to Drew Lock. I don't care. Like Malik neighbors, great player. Look at the other guys in the roster. They're like the preseason bros and like you gave up 45 points. That's embarrassing. That's where that's where I think it becomes tough to justify like, yeah, let's just do this all again next year because it feels like the entire franchise needs a little bit of a kick in the ass right now. Oh, goodness gracious. And I like Steichen. By the way, I like I kind of interested to see where he goes next, but I just, I don't think they ever quite figured out the marriage of what Steichen did last year with Gardner Menchoo and marrying that to Anthony Richardson. You know, and in fairness though, that took a minute to figure out in Steichen's last stop with Jalen Hurts, you know, and like figuring that out. I just feel like now they might not get the time to do that because of Richardson's injuries. But now what also kind of feels like, yeah, it might not. These guys might not all be back next year. I just feel like at this point, we've seen enough of Richardson, you know, it's like either sit the guy down and just let him develop as a quarterback because he just doesn't have enough seasoning. Um, inaccurate as hell. He's a good athlete as we've seen, but I mean, even Jalen Hurts, like you just, like, you know why you root for that guy, man? Because he's working his ass off and you know he is. Could we say that, can you really say the same thing about Anthony Richardson? I think there's certainly been enough smoke there where you're saying, yeah, that's probably not the case. That's probably not how Anthony Richardson is operating. I don't know. Uh, maybe I'm wrong. I mean, again, I'm not in the building shoot. I don't know. But, but again, uh, there's been where there's smoke. There's fire, man. And nobody has ever questioned Jalen Hurts's work ethic ever, ever. And there's a lot of questions about Anthony Richardson's work ethic. So I don't know. Um, okay. Final player here, Jerry, excuse me, Calvin Ridley, he's putting up decent stats here. Uh, the Tennessee Titans obviously have an absolute massive quarterback, but it's a bad team. It's a very bad team. Calvin Ridley, good player, or is he just putting up stats on a bad team? Fine player, but, uh, there's a, this is a, both things can be true, you know, because yeah, definitely Calvin Ridley, once Deondra Hopkins left the team, he was super productive at 84 yards in this last game. He's 20th among wide receivers in receiving yards with 941 and he's not having a bad season, you know, 8.1 or 1.8 yards per route run. Um, like he's having a totally fine season. Uh, I think he is a totally fine player, but definitely some of the numbers that have come from this season have been a little bit, you know, faking inflated, fakey. I like the term fakey. It's good. Uh, alright, so there you go, man. Um, great show. Um, week 18 is going to be honest. And again, it's a little bit of a holiday schedule. Wednesdays, obviously a normal, uh, recording time. It's new years. I'm going to be hungover and or sick. I'm not going to do it. We're, it's fine. Okay. It's fine. We'll, we'll get back together next week as we preview the playoffs and, uh, and we'll do all those kinds of things, but we'll be back, but, uh, we do appreciate people. I just, I really do want to say, man, I feel like this show this year, Matt has really taken off. Um, you know, we obviously, you and I have a lot of shows under the belt. We obviously have a lot of chemistry, uh, but the show itself, I, I felt like found a little bit of identity and, you know, was really on a really nice trajectory. Uh, this year, a shoot. I mean, this podcast is a third year breakout. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah. Third year breakout. You gotta, you gotta show some signs, you know, a little bit. Even if you gotta squint at it, I don't think we had to squint at our signs, but we, it was just, you gotta show some signs as a rookie. Second year, you know, you make some plays. You start to make a waste third year. Really have that breakout. I definitely think this show did that this year. Yeah. Um, the data would show it. I think, uh, the, the response from the listeners would show it. Yeah. Appreciate everybody. Um, and yeah, man, I mean, it's been a great season and let's have a great, let's have a great post season. I love it. All right. So there you go. That's the show. Uh, we gotta go from Matt Harmon. I'm James Co. Uh, we're out of here, but remember it's never too late to chase your dreams. What's better than watching your team win, winning money while you do it. I'm Jim Costa and I cash the ticket. Mike Valenti and I give you the edge to make every game playable at college football NFL. We're breaking it all down game by game. 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On today's show, Matt and James wrap up what we saw in Week 17 across the league with their thoughts on the Green Bay receiver room, Marvin Mims impressing, Adam Thielen continuing to get it done and more! Whether it's the biggest stars in the league or new rookies bursting on the scene, you won't get better wideout information anywhere else. Along the way, they'll break down the biggest stories in the NFL and offer up a few big-picture fantasy football thoughts. Follow the guys on Twitter @JamesDKoh and @MattHarmon_BYB. Follow Reception Perception @RecepPerception. Download and Subscribe to the Reception Perception Show anywhere you get your podcasts. Watch segments of the show on YouTube at Matt Harmon!! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices