The Fumblerooski Podcast
New Me -Ep 324 The Fumblerooski Podcast
[pause] Bengals, stay alive in the playoff race, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold write yet another chapter in their redemption story, and New Year's resolutions for bad teams. This is the Fumble Riskey podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumble Riskey podcast by Power88 and Seeker Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Madieros. We have a lot to talk about, so first off, let's start off with the Bengals. So they have now won their fourth straight game in a thriller of a back and forth. The Denver Broncos have been one of the more surprising teams this season. They've lost a couple of games in a row, but Bo Nix has been much better than I ever thought he would be. I thought he would be a solid quarterback, just looking at reports from pre-season, from training camp rather and seeing him in pre-season action. I thought he was going to be fine. I didn't think he would be showing out this year, but I think he's gotten as close to his ceiling as he possibly could have. And he threw another three touchdown passes this season, rather this past game that is tied for the most among rookie quarterbacks this year, which may not seem much because of just performing rookies every year. Usually there's only one that plays pretty well. This year you've had a few who have been doing really well, Jaden Daniels of course, Drake May has been fine, Caleb Williams has shown some promise, but Bo Nix has been probably the best one. And listen, the Bengals had a really, really tough start to this season. And over the list, their defense has been awful, their coaching is suspect at best. Their offensive line is also suspect at best. So why is this team still in contention for the playoffs? Well, I'll give you a name, Joe Burrow. And he has very good targets to throw to for now. And it may seem when you have a quarterback who's already now thrown for 42 touchdown passes on the season, it may seem like everything's going to be fine. They'll just regroup for next year. Look at all the contract issues that this team has. You have Jamar Chase, who's going to be up soon. T Higgins has seemed to have one foot out the door ever since last season started. Trey Hendrickson seems like a guy who's going to be inevitably gone. So it almost feels imperative that this team needs to make the playoffs in order for them to have any sort of hope for success going forward. But this game kind of, it felt like the old Bengals, not the old Bengals is in their entire existence, but like the Bengals that made back-to-back AFC Championship games. The one that made the Super Bowl despite a 10 and 7 record and Joe Burrow with just his first rookie season starting. It's full season starting rather. This felt like that gritty Bengals team that was up and coming that we thought we were going to see for years to come. This felt a little bit like that. And I got to say, from the joy that you could see, from the expression that T Higgins gave, from that game-winning touchdown in overtime, boy, you, there's no way he wasn't thinking just for a split second that life might be better here in Cincinnati than in New England. There's no way he wasn't thinking about that, at least a little bit. They won in overtime 30 to 24, and T Higgins was leading the charge in this game. And I hear a lot of people saying that T Higgins is, that he's not a true number one. If he was really a number one, he would have already shown that. He already has plenty of times. And today was, on Saturday night, this was one of those games, 11 receptions, 131 yards, three touchdowns. He was the lead receiver for the Bengals in this game. I mean, it's not even to say that Jamar Chase isn't their number one. He obviously is. Nine catches 102 yards for Chase. He's their number one. But that doesn't mean their number two isn't also a one. I gotta say, Joe Burrow single-handedly right now with 412 yards, three touchdowns on seven, being sacked seven times, by the way. I have to say, Joe Burrow, I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a stretch to say that he is saving football in Cincinnati single-handedly. I mean, if this season, if they ended up rolling over, going into week 18 and just being out of the playoffs, then you can basically kiss T Higgins goodbye. Trey Hendrickson would definitely be gone. The Jamar Chase situation would continue to sour. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't rule out in a few years that maybe Joe Burrow requests a trade. You never know. But this team should be done by now. They've, they, they were four and eight literally a month ago. Now they have reached 500 and they're one win away from being above 500. Did we see that this year? Did we see that happening? It wasn't supposed to happen because when your quarterback flirts with 50 touchdown passes on a season, you're thinking, okay, you probably have a top three seed. But no, I mean, you're, you're a 500 team right now. But I mean, just the fact that with the deep, with the surrounding situation you have outside of two, two elite targets, this hasn't been much for Joe Burrow to work with. And if, if they somewhat somehow find a way to get into the playoffs here, even if you, even if you're one and done, this is a great selling point for the Bengals to attract players into this organization that even on down years, our, even when everything is going working against you, your quarterback, Joe Burrow, he's going to find a way to keep us in it every single year. And if things are just a little bit better on the defensive side, if the offensive line is just a little bit better, it's getting, it's improving in tiny, tiny steps year by year, but it's about middling, I'll say. That is a selling point to free agents who might want to come here to players who they want to retain their star talent, namely T Higgins, if they are to, if they are to get in a room with T Higgins, their front office members, meet with them and say, listen, this wasn't the ideal year, but we still somehow made the playoffs. And if we just improve our defense, just a little bit, if you can stay here and we improve our defense a little bit, we'll be right there with the Chiefs and Bills next year. I think that's a selling point, not only a good selling point, but it's a better one than any other team in free agency that's going to be going after T Higgins here. Can the Patriots really say that? The Patriots have to promise T Higgins that they're going to improve their offensive line and they're going to work on the defensive side of the ball. And they also have to promise that the coaching isn't going to be a complete shit show like it has been this season. There's a lot of promises that may need to be made in New England. I want them here as a Patriots fan. I want them here. I think if they throw enough money at them, they have a good chance. But you can't tell me that the Bengals aren't a better destination right now. And I will even go as far as to point out the Washington commanders. I've loved what we've seen from Jaden Daniels. Their offensive line has improved. It's a complete 180 from last year. Their coaching has been very good this year, but we don't technically know how good Jaden Daniels is going to be. And their defense is almost as bad as the Bengals. And I'm sorry. Yes, even if it turns out that Jaden Daniels is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, I still don't believe he's nearly as good a passer as Joe Burrow is. Burrow, when he is healthy, health has been the only obstacle for Joe Burrow in his entire NFL career. If Joe Burrow is healthy, he's one of the best quarterbacks in football and it's not close. So I'm looking at this situation. I got to say, they have kind of a selling point. One that no other team that's going to be after T Higgins in free agency is going to be able to give. You have a point and I'll give you that. And yeah, T Higgins obviously going to want to stay, he's going to want to play with Joe Burrow. But there's something you missed, put yourself in T Higgins shoes. Are you going to stay if Zack Taylor is your coach? If you say yes, you're an idiot, no two ways around it. Not not you, Adam, just royal you in general. There's no way. I feel like one of the promises and Cincinnati is going to have to make that they're going to fire Zack Taylor. I don't care about this resurgence they've had if they're going to keep Zack Taylor because promising to stick with Zack Taylor is nothing more than a marriage to mediocrity. Let's just get this out of the way now. And there's no reason you should keep him. You see Zack Taylor and the Bengals, you know who they remind me of? I believe I sent this off camera. They remind me of the 2017 Eagles, a great roster with the head coach that's just kind of along for the ride or to put it in basketball terms. They're this season's or the past few seasons, Golden State Warriors, really good team, lot of stars, head coach just kind of there. Zack Taylor, I wouldn't even go, I wouldn't even be as nice as to say that he's just there. This season has shown he's a net negative and you've seen Zack Taylor and Joe Burrow getting out on the sidelines or it was a week or two ago, Joe Burrow said something was effing stupid, I try not to curse on the show, sorry, but so there's that. That's something to keep in mind. But then there's another wrinkle to this. You can promise, say, do you go to T Higgins and say hello, come here, stay here buddy. It's good. You can do that. You can. However, like you said, you got a promise to fix the defense and you got a promise, maybe get the offensive line into better shape, right? Can you do all of that? Can you really do all of that? I would argue no because the Bengals have the 13th most cap space in the NFL. That sounds good, but they have 59 million. That sounds like a lot. However, I've said this on the show numerous times, one of the golden rules of the off season of fragrances is that you never have as much cap space as you think you do. Because think about it, 10 million or so you have to set aside for rookies, right? That's always how it is. So already like that, you're down to 49 million. And on top of that, not just Higgins, but Trey Hendrickson needs a new deal. How are you going to look at T Higgins and say we can improve the defense while turning around and letting Trey Hendrickson go? And let's just say somehow you get both of them to resign. Well, next year, Jamar Chase is going to need a new deal. And if you think Joe Burrow's going to be happy and he would choose T Higgins over Jamar Chase, you're wrong. So I feel like that the Bengals, now, if you asked me a month ago, I would have said, oh, yeah, no. T Higgins is gone. Good is gone. I didn't say that. But Joe Burrow himself is single-handedly keeping all these things relevant. But if you're going to make all these promises to Higgins while giving him a new deal, I don't think he's going to take a discount. I just don't think it's possible. As far as the game itself, oh my God, T Higgins had a great one. And you know, like you said, Joe Burrow absolutely went off three touchdowns, well, technically four ones on the ground, all three of his touchdowns went to Higgins, you know, he's four speeding Higgins. He wants them there. Jamar Chase with over a buck through the air as well. That's good. And hey, he got sacked seven times and they still won. But real quick, I want to take a look at Denver where last time you played, that was very simple, right? Last Saturday. When and you're in. Oh, yeah, you didn't win, did you? So now the Bengals and Dolphins are nipping at your heels. Obviously, you still control your own destiny and you're going to be going against the Chiefs back up squad, you know, for week 18. And I still think this seed is Denver's to lose, but we talk about the Bengals making the playoffs, right? And Bengals need to win and they need Miami and Denver to lose. So like I said, Denver, they're playing the Chiefs, right? However, it has been said, and I'm sure you know this, they're playing their backup squad. Right? I mean, that's not shocking, right? I mean, you don't want to risk my homes getting hurt over something stupid like pride. So then that leaves Miami. They're going to East Rutherford to play the Jets. The Jets are a mixed bag, right? You don't know what you're going to get out of them. I mean, obviously Miami should win the key word there is should, but you just don't know what you're going to get out of them. One, you know, last week they rolled over and died or two weeks straight, they rolled over and died. And then, you know, then they're going out there beating the Jaguars, they are narrowly losing to the Colts. Like, I mean, you just don't know which team you're getting. I mean, sure, they're losing more than they're winning, but are they winning or like losing by one or are they just rolling over and dying? And if I know the Jets in that division rivalry, they're looking to play spoiler and to make matters more interesting for Cincy, you know, as far as the playoff race goes, the Dolphins might be without Toa. So there's that they can make it, but I feel like Denver is probably going to have to be the Chiefs backup squad. And let me just say that is a brilliant maneuver by the Chiefs, though, to say, you know, no, none of our stars are playing. They're going to try to hand Denver the W. That's chestnut checkers, you know, because let's face it, kids, the city scared of Cincy. They say they're not, but they are. If I'm a Chiefs fan, I owe a team that that has relegated my homes to game manager on a strong defense. The best offense in the league, I said it, is not something that I'm trying to see. So if you're the Chiefs, like I said, you do everything you can to go out and hand Denver that game because you don't want to see Cincy. I don't know if that's going to be the reason the Chiefs end up wanting to hand this game, wanting to lose this game. I don't even think they want to lose. I think they more so just want to rest their players because they locked up the first seed. If they hadn't locked it up, then they wouldn't be losing this game because, I mean, they care more about themselves than who, which opponent they end up facing. But listen, I completely get that there's lots of obstacles, especially financially in order to keep this team together and to improve it on top of it. But listen, the salary cap is definitely an obstacle. I just say that it is easily manipulated. If you look at the Saints year in and year out, I know they're kicking the can down the road every single year, but they still do it every year and they manage to keep their team together. Yes, they have a lot of other issues, but it's not a financial issue. It's more so just they can't find the next quarterback. It's not like they don't have the talent and they don't have a guy to win them some games, but I'm getting a little side tracked here. I think the obstacles are going to be there, but I think you need the willingness of the players to buy into what they have going here in order to retain what they have because they were supposed to be a championship contender two years ago, coming off back to back AFC championship appearances. It wasn't a financial issue, it wasn't their offensive line that sank them. It was health from their starting quarterback. If Joe Burrow was healthy during that entire season, they'd have been right back where they were. They're not far off and I think as the season has gone on and they have, especially towards the end here where they've won four straight, I think they're starting to realize that. That if they just buy in and they compromise a little bit, then next year they could be right back in the mix. That's all I'm saying. There's going to be challenges, but if they just show a willingness and I'm not just talking about front office, I'm definitely talking about the players as well, Joe Burrow needs to take some pay cuts, at least elongate his contract over a longer period of time. Or at least move some of your money from now up until later on in the deal, something like that, or talk to Jamar Chase, talk to T Higgins, try to get everybody to buy in, make a good amount of money, but still be able to have the DOB team friendly. I don't know if that's possible because wasn't Joe Burrow's supposed to, and weren't they trying to get him to take a pay cut last year or to restructure and he didn't. And Jamar Chase, let's face it, like most receivers, he's a diva. He's not taking a discount. Higgins isn't taking a discount, I just, I mean, even as a paths fan, I want since he to figure this out because they're an exciting trio, I just, I don't know if it adds up. And sure, you could go down the Saints route, but then your defense is just going to atrophy further and even still look at how the Saints are now. Yeah, but again, like I don't think that's much financial. I don't think those are financial issues for the Saints that are causing them to have the problems they have. They're not committing to, they're not committing to any sort of quarterback. They haven't for a long time. Ever since they lost Drew Brees, they haven't really, they haven't really brought in anybody. They haven't been looking, they, and it's, I'm not talking about through free agency. I'm talking about through the draft. They didn't have to give, they didn't have to give Derek Carr that money. They could have just found a way to draft a quarterback in these past couple of draft. I mean, there's been some good quarterbacks that come out past few years. This past one was a really good one. We've been, we haven't been able to stop talking about this 2024 class. 23 had a couple guys and we've already talked about Stroud to death, but have we, are we going to have the conversation yet about Bryce Young improving? Maybe in another segment, you know what I mean. They didn't have to bring in Derek Carr and spend the money they had. So they, I mean, they, they signed them to that contract. They've had, they have, they've had financial issues for years, but they managed to give Derek Carr that one deal. That tells me it's not a financial issue. It's prioritizing a good young quarterback with them. So I know it's possible to manipulate the salary cap in order to, to get all your star talent together and add on top of it. Yeah, yeah, sure. You know, we said the same thing a few years ago and then Kansas City had to trade Tyree kill because he wouldn't restructure yet here we are. And also even still, look at what happens to the Saints. It starts out great and then it, they just atrophy and what, you know, I'm just saying like, and when you see people like Joe Barrow who get hurt, then you're stuck and I'm not saying you obviously divest from Joe Barrow. I'm not saying that, but you're in a really precarious spot. And if you do what the Saints do where you go all in year after year and you keep picking the can down the road, you're artificially shortening your window. And once again, I just, I don't know if the Saints are the best example. Because Mickey, because Mickey Loomis wastes so much money, he should be in Congress. Like I'm just saying, I'll give you another one. How about the Packers in the early 2020s? Like I know we're technically in the early 20s, I mean, 2020, 2021, and 2019 as well. They did not, they did not have a very good cap situation. In fact, they were in cap hell. We thought they were going to have to get rid of Devonty Adams. They thought they literally had to get rid of Zidarius Smith, but they managed to put a good enough team together on the, put a good enough team on the field so that they were able to salvage the situation and be in the NFC Championship practically every year. Okay. Cool. They also had Matt Lafleur's their head coach who's and a much better defense. I mean, Jayir Alexander by himself is literally better than every person on the Bengals defense. Right. They drafted very well. They're going to have to draft. They have picks in the draft, they could draft players. They could also, a lot of the players that they got on that defense were, they were all free agents, like you can, they can, they were able to sign those players Zidarius Smith, they had to let go after a couple of years, but they signed Zidarius Smith to begin with. Just saying like, and just listen to the Packers, all they've ever done is wide, but they've never had weapons. And I mean, who do they really have outside of the Vante Adams? It was him and nothing. And also, look, I get your point, but let's not pretend they also didn't have Aaron Rodgers. I know, and I know you can say, oh, the Bengals have Joe burrow, but I'm not willing to put him in the same prime Rogers category yet. But either way, yes, not yet, but it's not like he's shown anything to prove that he has, he isn't right there as far as talent goes. It's more so he's just early, he's early on in his career, which you can't really control. But I'm not, I'm not even saying that's, I'm just telling you that there's, there's a path to the Bengals salvaging this. I'm, I'm not telling you that they're going to figure things out. I'm not even telling you that everything, anything is likely. I'm just saying there's a path and it's not the end of the world just yet for the Bengals, especially if they make the playoffs, then you have some of their star talent buying in and saying, you know what, even on a down year, when everything hit the fan, we managed to figure it out. Imagine them on a good year. So that's all I'm saying. All right, we're going way over on time. We're going to move on. So a couple of players, we've touched on them briefly. Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold continue to, to have some unbelievable success with new teams. I know this is Baker Mayfield's second year on the team, but I think it's worth noting that he's thrown now 39 touchdown passes. Sam Darnold 35 now. Oh my God, I never saw any of this coming, but that is all next. This is the Fumbleruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spots. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumbleruski podcast, Adam Wright, CJ Madieros, all right. So we'll go over each game, Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. So the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the one o'clock game on Sunday, 48 to 14, they absolutely crushed their division rival Carolina Panthers. I like Bryce Young. Two touchdowns, 203 yards, 15 for 28. He continues to show improvement and it, this is a, this is all a side point, but it just shows how so many people love to jump the gun after year one for a quarterback. They're doing it right now for Caleb Williams and they did it for Josh Allen to his rookie year. They did it back that back when Peyton Manning struggled his rookie year to happens all the time. Every quarterback develops at a different rate. CJ Stroud just, he processed the game quicker. He, he was able to hit the ground running. Every quarterback develops at different, different paces. But the real story in this game was the, obviously the other sideline that dropped 48 points, but there's their quarterback who was, who was experiencing a career renaissance that I have never seen before, in the, in our league's history, 27 for 32, 359. And five touchdown passes. And this guy is single handedly about to get Mike Evans, his yet another thousand yard season. He's on pace. I mean, like Evans is kind of on pace to do it if they do it next week. Five touchdown passes for Baker Mayfield. And that puts him at 4,200 yards on the season, 39 touchdown passes to 15 picks. Now let's go to the next game, because I'm, we're covering this all in one segment. Next game Sunday, uh, it's the afternoon, four PM game. The Vikings were hosting the Packers. This ended up being a closer game, but I mean, the Packers had a stranglehold on this one at the end of, it wasn't until halfway, let more that less than halfway through the fourth quarter that it was 27 to 10, a 17 point lead, Sam Donald, 377 yards, three touchdowns, one pick on the season, he has 4,100 yards, 35 touchdown passes to 12 picks. Sam Donald, Baker Mayfield, two quarterbacks, who were drafted into pretty bad situations, who, I mean, let's not let them off the hook either. They didn't look great either on those teams. They go on, they, they move on to new situations. And now here they are balling out. And if, man, I wish comeback player of the year wasn't now just about coming back from an injury and playing well. I completely understand why AP news changed it, but boy, would Sam Donald be a great, he's not going to get an award because he's not going to win league MVP. He now can't win comeback player of the year and he's probably not getting off into play of the year. That's going to be sake. Juan Barkley. And it's the same with Baker Mayfield. Both of these players getting parked by the kind of the change of the rules here. And listen, we just got, I figured we got to give these guys their flowers. They're now right in the heat of the playoff race. The Buccaneers are facing a win-and-in scenario next week. The Minnesota Vikings are playing their division rivals in a contest for the number one seed. Sam Donald's leading the Minnesota Vikings. This is absolutely unbelievable. And this is a tough, this is a tough, it's tough to figure out how they completely, how Sam Donald won 80 here. If this guy just had a real, a really good season, right? Maybe 20 to 25 touchdown passes, maybe 3,000 yards, it's like, okay, better situation, better situation. He was a decent quarterback. The Jets and Panthers were not good for the Sam Darnolds. Same for Baker Mayfield with the Panthers and the Browns. Fun fact, these two were on the same team, by the way, on a 3 and 13 Panthers team. Isn't that insane? It's funny to think about. And now here they are in the thick of a playoff race. But what I, the problem with, I have with Sam Darnolds here and I don't want to criticize him too much. He deserves all the credit he's gotten so far. When you look at the situation that the Jets had and the Panthers had, no coaching, no talent, no offensive line, that's a pass, but now you go to the complete different extreme here. Name the negative on this Vikings, on this, just on this Vikings franchise in general. Name the negative because they have a really good offensive line. They have unbelievable targets, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and TJ Hockinson and Aaron Jones. Don't sleep on Jalen Naylor at three, that can play. Right. But they also had TJ Osborne. I don't know what it is about them with their wide receiver threes, but. And then also coaching situation, Kevin O'Connell is a quarterback friendly coach. He helps you to really let the ball, he likes pushing the ball down the field. He's an offensive minded guy. So I also look at, I looked at this one stat from next gen stats. Sam Donald holds the ball over three seconds on average this season. That's the most he's held the ball in his career. So it's not like he's had a, he's not, he hasn't had a problem with holding it on to it too long. My question is going to these two extremes, going from the worst situation ever to the best. My question is maybe, is it, is it really that Sam Donald is this good? Or is it more so just the fact that he needs a little bit more time to get the ball out? He needs more time to figure out where he's going to go. And once he does, it's not the fact that he makes bad decisions. He's not an inaccurate passer, but maybe it's just the fact that he needs more time behind his offensive line and he needs the targets he needs to get open. I'm not saying that Sam Donald is a product of the Viking system. Maybe he still is a really good quarterback, but maybe he's playing this well because this may be quite literally the best situation I have seen a quarterback step into for his first year especially. Because again, like name the negative and the Vikings have a history of doing this with quarterbacks who are journeymen or veterans who their best days, it seems their best days are behind him. Case Keenum back in 2017, they made the NFC Championship game. Not nearly as good statistics as Sam Donald did, but still pretty good. Brett Favre. He did it. NFC Championship game. 33 touchdown passes when he was 40 years old. Kurt Cousins, he played definitely a lot better than he did when he was a Redskins, we're calling him the Redskins because that's what they were called back then. He played a lot better once he changed teams. Teddy Bridgewater had a pretty good year, right? I can go down the list, Christian Ponder, got taken in the first round by the Vikings, bonafide draft bust, but they still made the playoffs with him, right? I mean, I could go down the list, there's a lot, they, they're one of the winningest franchises in NFL history as far as wins go, but you can't name a franchise quarterback that they've had. Like, if they're, if you can name them, it's, they're not high up on the list of greatest quarterbacks of all time. They are, they're very good at giving quarterbacks surrounding situations for quarterbacks to do very well and getting those kind of, I wouldn't say flash in the pan, not even flooky years, but just career years out of these guys. Like Sam, Sam Darnell, it's Sam Darnell is just the latest benefactor of that. Again, he's having a good year and he's probably, he's probably a decent, a pretty good player. I'm just saying, is he really a 40 touchdown a year quarterback? Not really. And looking at the Buccaneers, Buccaneers are a little different. They've been a losing franchise for most of their existence. I think there's been a culture change there from the last quarterback who was there. He steps in, they had a lot of talent, but they always slacked off. That organization didn't give two shits about winning. Now suddenly Tom Brady retires new guy steps in Baker Mayfield's again, bad situation, but now better situation that Tom Brady made good. Better offensive line, good targets, Todd Bowles clearly works out well enough. Their offensive coordinator over there seems to open the playbook for Baker Mayfield. I'm just saying, there's, I think there's reasons for quarterbacks like this, who are journeymen to have unbelievable seasons every now and then. And this is going to be interesting for the Vikings because they have a decision to make. They have JJ McCarthy waiting on the sidelines and Sam Darnold is going to be a free agent. What do you do? Let's see, I'll let you talk. You know, you could say, oh, maybe Baker and Darnold are just the products of their environment. And you would have a valid argument. But for me, just seeing them put out these numbers, I feel like they're at their ceiling. They can get better, but we're seeing at least what they're capable of, right, regardless of their weapons, regardless of the coaching, we can see, you know, we can actually see what they can do, right? And you can say, oh, maybe they can't do it by themselves, to which I say, yeah, well, my own eyes are watching them do it. So I don't know what you want from me. I would say this is a bigger indictment on the Jets and the Browns and anything. Think about it, the Browns. We've all seen the Jersey. There's that one Browns fan that has that Jersey of like every guy that they've had started them. Oh, my God. And then there's just the Jets, a team that's always been rough, good defense and just still could never find the answer. Even when you thought you had Mark Sanchez, you know, say, there's, oh, we found the Sanchez. Nope. It was a mirage. You got about fumble instead. Same. And now you thought you had Aaron Rodgers, oh, you had Aaron Rodgers, all right. I'll leave it at that. And also the Panthers, remember there, like you mentioned, they're on the Panthers at the same time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The Panthers, they'll kill your soul. I mean, I think Bryce Young, like we've mentioned before, I think he's doing a lot to try to, you know, change up the vibes for lack of a better term. And I think it's good, but still, like I said, I just think that's really an indictment on the Browns and the Jets, more than anything, the Browns who literally chose a predator over Baker Mayfield, Gabe said predator, who by the way, all people forget about this, literally he was pouting and sat out an entire season because he didn't want to be in Houston anymore. So there's that. All the allegations against him. So what do you do? You trade everything for him and he give a massive contract. Well, telling Baker Mayfield, who won a playoff game for you, put the franchise on his back and literally, and I don't want to hear about it down here because he literally played through a bum shoulder for you. And you just said, nah, get out. And then, look, I was harsh on Sam Darnold for the Jets because, oh my God, I could sum his Jets tenure up in three words, I'm seeing ghosts. We all remember that. We all saw it. And we all laughed at it. Most of you are a Jets fan, then you probably didn't, but, but, but point in the last laugh though. Mm hmm. Amen. Darnold will impact at the last laugh. And that's the thing. Turns out, you know, when quarterbacks go to good teams, surprise, surprise, they turn out relatively well. However, on a side note, I do think the Bucks should move on from Todd Bowles. I mean, that's just me. I've never considered that great of a coach. They won't, but you know, they will, but maybe, but look, Darnold, like you said, has a chance to literally win the NFC North and pry it right from the pause of the Detroit Lions. And Baker. And two, huh? Kind of rooting for it to happen too. That'd be kind of cool. Yeah. Wouldn't that be a hell of a story? But then, you know, you got Baker Mayfield down south in Tampa, where, Oh my goodness. It's when you're in, when do you quench the division, which is an automatic trip to the playoffs? Seriously. Wait, what's going on? This is like some weird Twilight zone nonsense. Hey, I feel like saying, Oh, it's just their teams is the easy way out. I mean, well, yeah, obviously would be my response to people say, Oh, it's always only good because they got a good team. Like, yes, that's how a lot of quarterbacking situations work. Like no new ground is being broken. No new intellectual argument has been on earth. It's happened forever. And I have said this before, because as you know, there was a title regarding the draft that has been given to me that Adam will rip my head off if I say it before the draft. So I won't say it, but, but as this guy of the draft, I do notice I've sat before and the draft is a total craps you because you got the cream of the crop of college football going to the worst of the worst in the NFL. And we're just like, Hey, kids, you want to go to this terrible team with metalsome ownership, no coaching and no talents? What the, what do you mean you didn't become the next Tom Brady? You're a bust. Sometimes, look, and sometimes you're just bad looking at you, Johnny and Zalinger Marcus Russell. But overall, you know, I feel like every kid that turns out to be a boss, right, for better terms, especially quarterbacks, they definitely deserve another chance somewhere else. And this just shows the importance of second chances because just because you fail with a garbage organization, doesn't like the Jets or the Browns doesn't mean that you might not find something with a good or at least a better organization than Jets and the Browns, you know, like the Bucks and the Vikings, I'll give you that. I wanted to show you a couple of statistical seasons from some other quarterbacks, Randall Cunningham, at age 35, it was 1998, pretty much passed his prime. And he threw for 33 touchdown passes and he managed, yeah, for the Vikings, for the Vikings, yes, took the team to a 15 and one record, passes prime, another, another, another quarterback that the team took, plugged him into their system, managed to turn into a Pro Bowl quarterback yet again. They did it with Dante Culpepper a couple of years as well. She was drafted by them. And this his second year in the league, he led them to 11 and five record, 33 touchdown passes. And later on in his second to last year with the Vikings, he managed to lead the team to an eight and eight record, which may not seem like much, but it was enough for them to make the playoffs, 4,700 yards that led the league and 39 touchdown passes. This is a guy who's, it may not seem like much, but the fact that this guy in a couple random seasons, managed to go, I mean, managed to lead his team to the playoffs and have a very, very good statistical seasons. I mean, this, the Vikings have had a lot of skill, every one can name a million skill position players that the Vikings have had, right? Adrian Peterson, Dalvin, just to name the running backs. Eddie Moss, Chris Carle, Rudolph, TJ Hockinson, Stefan Diggs, Adam Feeland, the list goes on. Justin Jefferson, TJ Hockinson, that's just recent vintage to Jordan Addison. Yes, you can name a million skill position players they have had on the offensive side of the ball. You can't name many quarterbacks. And the ones that you can name is like, Oh, that one season from Dante Culpepper. Okay, now one season from case, from case Keenum. That's a franchise guy. Brett Favre, who's known better as a, as the Packers quarterback than a Vikings guy, right? And who could forget everybody's favorite there, Sam Bradford, when you remember that split second, he looks really good. I remember me kind of yeah, but we all get the picture, the Vikings have historically had a lot of good talent to surround their quarterbacks to make them play very well. It doesn't mean that they're not good quarterbacks, but the fact that they're getting these unbelievable seasons out of them, that tells me that the Vikings are a very good franchise for quarterbacks to play for, especially journey men like what Sam Darnell has become. And maybe they reinvest in him and he becomes, he's only the kids only 27. They could reinvest in him and turns out he's their guy. And then, I don't know, they do something with JJ McCarthy. That's going to be a tough situation for them to tackle. And it seems like, seems like the Buccaneers are already married to Baker Mayfield as they should be. Yeah, I will tell you one thing, sorry, I suppose I will tell you one thing. I am legitimately hoping the Vikings win the Super Bowl because, oh my God, the decision would be something to cover, wouldn't it? Oh, if they win the Super Bowl, that'll be something else. And I don't know what you do there, because you don't want to get, you can't get rid of the guy you just drafted in the first round, you just can't do it. Probably not, no. But you also can't let go of the guy who threw for almost 30 touchdowns and also just took you, you know, just took you to a Super Bowl victory. Like he was good statistically and he obviously won when it mattered most. Alright, we're going to move on to our third and final segment, excluding the top three bottom three for this week. New Year's resolutions for all of the worst teams in football, how do they fix their franchise this year or at least make steps towards doing it in this upcoming year? That's next. This is the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast, Adam Wright with C. J. Madeeros. So for Happy New Year, well, it's coming up, but this is our last episode right before the new year. And for that, we are going to talk about the 10 worst teams record wise. We're going to rapid fire, just run through them, give their biggest resolutions for this upcoming season, basically a to-do list of what they need to do in order to fix their franchise. And a lot of them, they probably won't be able to do all in one season, but we could at least name the list of things you need to do just because you can't fit everything in one year, doesn't mean it's something you don't need to improve on. Maybe you can pick and choose, you can prioritize, but let's get started. All right, so we're going to start at number 10, they're currently the 10th overall pick, the 5 and 11 New Orleans Saints. Right off the bat, this team needs a quarterback. Defense has been suspect. They have some promise, but they have a lot of work there. And I think they're aging as well, true, but they have skilled players, they have Alvin Camara, he's getting older, but they also have Chris Olave, Rahid Shahid, they need that quarterback. They haven't had it since Drew Brees. It seems like they've been trying to cheap out, and not even cheap out because they threw the bag at Derek Carr. It seems like they're showing too much impatience. And we were talking about the Saints earlier on this in this show, but I think definitely top is the quarterback. CJ. Yeah, it's got to be a quarterback. I kind of think about what the Colts did after they lost Andrew Luck where the Saints are just riding the QB carousel. Oh yeah, by the way, come to you one better, fix your cap situation, Mickey Loomis, actually no fire Mickey Loomis. They could fix a lot of this. This is one of those teams. They could fix a lot of this in one off season, but I don't, I don't know what they're going to do. Chicago Bears at number nine, they're currently the ninth overall pick, they're four and 12. And they got a quarterback, they believe is the guy. I think he is. And you have, they have a plethora of targets for him to throw to, but their offensive line is not only, it not only under achieved, but it's hurt. And their coaching situation is maybe the worst I've ever seen, definitely coaching. That's like the number one, if, if they figure out their coach, let's say they get Ben Johnson this off season. They may completely 180 next year, if Caleb Williams is a guy, possibly, for me, once a, like you said, coaching, sure, you can blame the offensive line, but Caleb Williams, you know, holds onto the ball for too long. We know this. And obviously, you know, and the offensive line, a lot of it too is just it's got to get healthy. So overall, maybe, maybe it's a cop out, but coaching for the love of God, get any kind of upgrade from that. It wouldn't be the toughest thing you've ever had to do. I mean, heck, they're talking to Pete Carroll, Ben Johnson showing interest, but yeah, I would definitely say get a new coach. Yeah. Okay. Um, what I will, all right, number eight, the four and 12 Las Vegas Raiders. Um, this team is miles and miles away from contention. That's the nice way of putting it. They, they have some good skill position players. They did have Devonta Adams, but they traded him away, not just because he didn't want to be there anymore, but I also think it's best for them because he's getting older and his contract is getting more and more expensive. Um, Brock Bowers, I really like Max Crosby is awesome. He's young too. They need a quarterback. They need a quarterback really, really bad. And one was the last time they've taken a quarterback in the first round, like I'm genuinely trying to think because their last guy, sorry, I was blanking, trying to think because their last guy, their last guy was Derek Carr, yeah, drafted back in two thousand, fourteen. I'm trying to think the last time I think they took QB round one might have been Jamaican Russell. And look, he's arguably the biggest draft bus of all time. So I can understand, you know, why you got gun shy after that. So you say it's quarterback, I would say, you have to trade up. Also get rid of Antonio Pierce, call it a business decision. The fact that I was about to ask about, I was about to ask you about that, but the fact that guy said that, well, literally what you said, so firing the head coach. But like think week one, man, you're the full time, you just earned the full time gig. Everybody loved you at the end of last season. And right out of the gates, during a press conference saying some players made business decision, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? That is literally the worst thing you could have possibly said on your first day on the job, calling out your own players, making businesses, maybe they are. But to the media, do that in a closed door meeting, dude, don't, don't call out, don't talk to the media about your problems on the team. Because then they're going to take it and blow it out of proportion. Now it's public that your players don't care about you. All right, there's my Antonio Pierce rant for the season because I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've talked about him this year. Number seven, the New York Jets. So the seventh worst team in the league, record wise, again, we are going top 10 worst teams. They're four and 12 on the year. And I got to tell you, this is one that is, it's not, you can't even point any, at any point that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because they're not even in the tunnel. And it's not, this isn't just some tunnel that's like a short one. No, no, maybe it's dark for a little bit. This is a long miles long network of tunnels. This is a catacombs under Paris. This is what we're, this is what we're working with where they're, is there even a light at the end of that? Is there how many? I don't know enough about Europe, at least all I know is most of those catacombs haven't been explored entirely. And you don't know what's down there, which honestly, I think is perfect to get that male right on the head. That is a perfect, listen, the catacombs in Paris is the perfect metaphor for the New York Jets franchise. You don't know what's down there. It's unexplored and there's no light at the end of the tunnel, at least not that we know of. Wow. I mean, they, they're probably going to have to draft a new quarterback because it literally, I don't know what's going to happen with Aaron Rodgers. I'm getting mixed messages. Most of their wide receiving corps is aging now. You have Garrett Wilson. Yes. He's the young kid and he's a stud, but Devontae Adams is old. Mike, uh, Mike Williams is old. What are you going to do there? Adam Lazard is getting old. Alan Lazard. Jesus Christ. Alan Lazard is getting old. Your defenses, they have a lot of studs there, but I don't know what's going on. They're going on there. I don't know where to start. I guess you start by tearing everything down. I mean, start a rebuild again. That's, that's probably the top trade everybody away. That's basically what you need to do at this point and I don't even know if you can draft a quarterback this year because if you draft a quarterback into that kind of situation, you're setting them up for failure yet again, you're getting another Sam Darnold who's probably going to throw another 40 touchdown passes with a new team. All right. Yeah. So literally jets is everything like literally right now, I guess your New Year's resolution is tear down the team you have, um, trade the owner, find a way to just get rid of all of you. Believe you, me, if they could do it, it would have happened already. That's the truth. All right. Number six, the four and 12 Carolina Panthers, this looks like a much worse situation earlier this season because again, they, so in 2023, they traded up from number nine. They traded away two first round picks. So they're, they traded their ninth overall pick. They traded the next in 2024, their first round pick was turned into the number one pick up and DJ Moore for Bryce Young, who in his rookie year looked terrible. And for the early part of this season, he didn't look good either. He got benched and it's, it looked like, Oh, no, then he came back and he's looking better and better as the season goes on. And I'm thinking to myself, maybe the situation isn't so bad. They have another top 10 pick in this draft at number six overall. They obviously don't need a quarterback in this draft. Bryce Young has earned himself another year. Their offensive line is definitely not better. It's gotten a lot better. I would say definitely wide receiver, get yourself a nice receiver for Bryce Young. I think that's their top priority right now. Look, I know we keep saying to these teams, I know I say it all the time about how you should never ever double dip, you know, like take the same position and back to back years. But if you even care, at least want to progress or convince us that you care about Bryce Young, and oh yeah, absolutely grab him a new receiver like a legitimate receiver, be it through the draft, be it through free agency. I don't care, but it needs to be done. Short sweet to the point. Yeah. Okay. The next one is, this is another interesting one and it's a little different than the Jets because it just doesn't feel quite as bad. And number five, the Jackson bill Jaguars at four and 12. This is a team that in the past two seasons has had sky high expectations to be in contention to at least be a playoff team. They've whiffed on the playoffs in the last two seasons and what's worse is they committed to Trevor Lawrence for the foreseeable future, a massive deal. And I'm not quite sure if he's the answer. I really liked Trevor Lawrence during his second year in the league. I thought in year three, he was going to make a massive leap forward. Turns out he did not. He kind of regressed a little bit, then he got worse the year after and now he's done for the year and Mack Jones is taking over right now, not taking over as in being good. I mean, taking over as in they need somebody to fill the position for the rest of the season. He's the new tank commander as it were. And they can't even tank for a quarterback. That's the problem here because you just committed to another guy. I think if you're the Jaguars for this upcoming year, you have to work on that defense. That defense is terrible. Their secondary is as bad as it gets. I think you should draft a cornerback in this year's in with this year's selection at number five. I'm going to trade back for it because taking a cornerback, this early just feels weird. I know it happens. I know Sauce Gardner was taken. I know Denzel Ward was taken around there. Devin Witherspoon is awesome. So you find some good players, but I guess you kind of need to do it, don't you? Also Doug Peterson needs to be fired. That's actually number one. And press Taylor. You know how that guy is living rent free in that Jaguars organization, but get him the hell out of there. Adam, Adam, I'll do you one better. Not only do you get rid of Peterson and especially Taylor, Trent bulky, the GM has been allowed to stay out long past his expiration date. Jaguars fans, young and old will tell you that it's time for him to go as well. So it's not even just them, I would say get rid of your GM too, before you even touch the draft, make sure you get a competent GM. One that will look at Peterson and Taylor, especially press Taylor and say, why are you still here? You are no longer welcome here. Oh, yeah, and they have 16 million in cap space, the Jaguars. So a lot of needs, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, that's at least what they can focus on one area this season, rather than this off season. The problem is on offense, there's not much you can do to fix your flaws, because it's at quarterback, yeah, I'm done, like you can keep going. All right, number four, this is another mess. The New York Giants at three and 13, I'll tell you what, going into this new year, they are not off to a good start, or at least not off to a good finish to 2024, because literally their last game that they play before the end of the year, they managed to win in a thriller, I might add, withdrew lock over the Indianapolis Colts. You surrendered the number one overall pick. You dropped from number one to number four overall, when you had Shador Sanders, the probably the best quarterback in this draft. You had him, you were on the clock, you could have just taken him. Now here you are, you won the game, and it was, again, it was a thriller, and I completely understand what people say when they say, "We have to establish a winning culture. We cannot lose game." Let me tell you something, you cannot establish a winning culture if you don't have the horses to win with. The quarterback you committed to two years ago was the wrong guy. Daniel Jones is awful. You cannot just win with these artificial victories that, like, oh, look, winning culture, winning culture at three and 13, really, really, and your best player from two years ago is now on your division rival in contention for a Super Bowl at 12, right now they're 13 and 3. So they have no choice. Right now they have to trade up and go and get a quarterback. They have to trade up with New England to go and get Shador Sanders and pray they don't ask for too much, which if New England has half a brain, they will, but who knows what's going to happen with their front office. I don't know if they know what they're doing, the Patriots, which we'll get to. Yeah, we'll figure it to them. So the Giants definitely, they need to get a quarterback. That's their need. It's right that they have Malik neighbors, they have a good target for him to throw to. If they hang on to Brian Dayball, I kind of like them still. Yeah, I wouldn't hate that if they did. Honestly, if I'm being real, yeah, however, I will say, Joe Shane, for the crime of you know, letting Sequan walk, but committing to Daniel Jones, get him out. Like, there's no reason for him to still be there. Get him out. He should not be the coach anymore. I mean, the GM. Yeah. Okay. At number three, we have the three and 13 Cleveland Browns and the Browns. This is a franchise that just had to give away their number one wide receiver, Amari Cooper, because physically just doesn't have it in the same way anymore. And they obviously weren't in contention this year. Jerry Judy is having a career year. That's awesome. I'm just, I don't like Jerry Judy. I don't like him as a number one receiver, not just talent wise, but I think he's a bit of an idiot. But the problem is to Sean Watson in that horrible deal, and they just restructured his deal to make it a little bit more team friendly for him to come back. So I don't even know if they're going to take a quarterback this year, but this is another quarterback needy team that definitely needs one. There have been reports saying that they are going to evaluate the quarterback position this offseason. And maybe just maybe they still will regardless of this contract, I mean, to restructure this deal. I mean, it was a terrible deal to begin with. And it's all guarantee, it's mostly guaranteed money, I believe. Isn't it all guaranteed? At the time it was, yes. Yeah. So you're at a point where you really, you really do have to go and get a quarterback, I think, I just don't know if they will. And if they don't, what's the other, that's the, that's the top need here. What else are you going to do? You need a wide receiver, but who's going to throw to them? This is another team that should be in on the sweepstakes to get that number one overall pick. Key number two as well, because the next team that we're going to bring up, which, am I, am I, are we ready to bring it up or do you have any? I was going to say one quick thing, unfortunately, I don't think you can get rid of Watson so easily. They say they're going to evaluate, but that's just lip service. I would say, you got to treat the cause before you can treat the, before you can treat the symptoms. Andrew Berry for that deal has to go. And the worst part is I think they're going to keep Berry and fires to fansky, which they should not do. The thanks to fans. He's a good coach, but Andrew Berry, just as a yes man for Jimmy Haslam where, oh my God, wouldn't the Browns fans be on cloud nine, I think it's by their owner, but even beyond that, I would say like just write out Watson's deal, but maybe get somebody who wouldn't have done that in the first place. I do think Andrew Berry needs to go. Yeah. Okay. The number two team, worst, the second worst one, the Tennessee Titans at three and 13 currently with the number two overall pick. I remember right before this season started and we were talking about the Titans, about how they surrounded Will Levis with lots of, lots of talent in that on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, things looked good. They brought in Brian Callahan to be their head coach. He was the offensive coordinator for the Bengals who have been a high flying air show for years. But here they are at the top of the draft in an even worse position than they were in last year. I think they're going to move on. If you, if you read reports from earlier tonight, from earlier today, you'd see they're going to play both Mason Rudolph and Will Levis to figure out one last time what they have in their quarterback room. That sounds like they're done with both of these guys, either they're done with both of them or one of the two is going to be a, going to be a backup, but you have the number two overall pick, you're in a prime position to at least get either Shador Sanders or Cam Ward, I think they're going to move on. They probably should never have gone after Will Levis in the, in the first place. You should have gone after somebody else. I know we're approaching an hour time. I'm going to say this. There are reports that say that the Titans think that Will Levis has earned a second stint. No, he has not. And he wasn't a first round pick. So you don't really have that pressure to commit with him anything quarterback wise, anything after the first round is just collateral, you're, you're a backup essentially. So yeah, no, get a quarterback, you're at pick two. So a bearish of minimums, you're going to get Sanders or Ward. You know, I'm not having a ward, but more on that in a few months. Yeah, okay. Here's the final team. This is the number one overall pick currently as it stands right now. This is the New England Patriots, three and 13. They have, if they lose next week, they are now officially one loss, one game worse than the season prior. And that was when you had Mac Jones and Bailey Zappi, who are kind of going back and forth starting games. This year you have Drake May, you've had him ever since week six, and he's been showing really good promise. This is a really weird situation here in New England because if Drake met, you can see, just give it the eye test from how this, don't look at the stats, look at how he is playing, the throws that he makes. If he was on a much better, a better team, better roster, like let's say he was on the commanders, let's say he was on the Broncos. If you were on either of those teams, they would still be a playoff team. And Drake May's stats would be much better than they are now. This is a rare scenario where you have a really good quarterback, but you still somehow end up being one of the worst teams in the league. You're going to end up with probably the number one overall pick if they end up losing next week against Buffalo's backups. But listen, we've talked a lot about New England, especially me and you CJ off camera, but they have a lot of needs. The good news is they have the money and resources this offseason to cover most of it, just in one off season. I said most, not all of it. I know they have so many that they're probably not going to get to them all this this offseason. But if they make all of the right moves, I believe this team can be, they can be nine and eight next year. But you have the number one overall pick. I think you need to trade it. We've already gone through the top 10 worst teams in the league. Those are also the top 10 picks, by the way, we just went through the top 10 picks. A lot of those teams are quarterback needy. You can get a haul back. You can get multiple first round picks, a couple of day two picks maybe, and maybe even an impact player who can help you at a position of need. We've talked a little bit about new Orleans. We traded back with them. Maybe you get Chris Olabi in that trade back with the Raiders at number eight couple first. Maybe you get Max Crosby, but they're not the New Year's resolution for them. Number one is trade the number one overall pick and keep it their New Year's resolution. So against Buffalo, Buffalo is sitting all of their starters since they already have the number two overall pick held on to. I know you don't want to openly tank, I get it. You cannot do that, but you can at least let's say rest some of your key players, bring in Joe Milton to start, see what you have there since he's also a rookie, but you cannot win this game. You can't. You are sacrificing. If you want New England to win this game, you are sacrificing a long term gain for your franchise to a short term win, which is just, yeah, no, you're right. If you as a Pats fan, like myself and Adam are wanting to go to win this, you are literally sacrificing a better future for a short term dopamine rush. So for New England, first and foremost, your resolution is lose. Lose against Buffalo. Don't try to be a hero. Don't do anything. Then you trade that pick because the way I see it in this draft, there are two slam dunk first rounders. I might be not so high on one of them, but I will still tell you that they're both going to go on the first round. Something after Sanders and Ward, especially Milro Ewer's Dart, not a guarantee. And there's three QB needy teams, like the Titans and the Giants and the Raiders, that all have QB as their biggest need, maybe the Jets, but I don't see any division trade happening. That's just me. So there's two good QB prospects, placing musical chairs with me here, two prospects, three teams, there's no reason you can't incite a bidding war. This is elementary. You can't screw this up, right? But overall, yeah, you trade the number on overall pick because you already have Drake Met. And Drake, maybe it looks like he can be the guy. So that's really what it is. Keep the first overall pick and then trade it because considering the fact that New England has the most cap space in the league, by like a solid 20 million, and not that many good players that they absolutely have to resign, you could go on a spending spree, you can trade back and accrue on a godly amount of picks. The stars are lining for you to be relevant again, but you got to not do anything stupid. Please don't do it. Let's prioritize their needs. I think offensive tackle is number one, and you probably need more. Obviously. Number two, wide receiver, and you probably also need multiple. Let's just get the wide receiver one first. After that, edge rusher, you probably most likely will not get an elite one in this year's off season. I don't think you're going to get it because I think you need to prioritize offensive tackle and wide receiver first, then you need a second corner. You need someone besides Christian Gonzalez because that secondary besides him has been really bad. After that, I mean, it's a lot of stuff that you can cover, like let's say center or another guard. You can find that on day two of the draft, linebacker, those grow on trees, and you do have Joanne Bentley, who's going to be back, so they have a lot of needs, and again, they can cover it this off season. What do you need for a seat? How much do you really need to spend for a CB2? Not like I would think. Let's say you go after, let's say you go after Carlton Davis. Do you think that's going to spend, do you think that's going to cost much? Probably not. No. Let's say they do go after an edge rusher. Let's say, let's look at Khalil Mack, one of those elite has been edge rushers, who's still really good, but you sign them to a one-year veteran's deal. Those have a track record for working. Every time I see Judavian Clowney sign to a one-year deal, I'm seeing he's racking up eight to nine sacks. And Justin Houston, every time he's on a one-year deal, I see him putting up decent numbers. I'm just saying, you may not be able to get that franchise edge rusher, but maybe you could get a veteran for a one-year deal, something like that. If you're looking for a short-term answer, which you're not, which is why I'm not recommending they do that, I'm recommending they go and throw the bag at T Higgins or Chris Godwin and go and get two starting level tackles. So that's just one of you. Yeah. All right, let's move right into the top three, bottom three. Let's get right into all of the picks here from Chris Kostich. So best and worst performances, top three from week 17. We've done this every week. So I'm just pulling up Chris's top three, bottom three. So at bottom three, we have number one is the Houston Texans. The Texans have been, they've been a, not a dumpster fire. They've survived this season to the point where they're going to be in the playoffs. But boy, are they in for a beating when they get there. I like CJ Stroud still. Maybe he's just having a sophomore slump. Let's see what he's like in year three. And they've also, let's be fair, the injury bug has destroyed them. But the fact that you only manage two points against the Ravens is embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing. Next is the Seattle Seahawks versus the Chicago Bears. I guess this is a bottom three game. Yeah, that's what Chris said. So for those who don't know, Chris, you know, chooses the games. And yeah, the entire Thursday night game between the Bears and the Seahawks is bottom three. Yeah. And the fact that the Seahawks won this game, the Seahawks won it six to three. I just. Everybody lost. No, no rooting interest here. And it doesn't even matter because the Seahawks just got eliminated. So yeah, they're nine and seven, a chance to go 10 and seven. But is anything going to come of it? Nope. All right. Now the Patriots 40 to seven, you lost to the charges. We've already gone on about what they should do. But this is just more reason for them to do it. And here we're looking at, I mean, this is again, this is a roster that you have a good young quarterback who has a, he seems to have a bright future. But they've been really bad. And I'm starting to worry if everyone says when they bring up Drake May, like, oh, when they get him targets, he's going to be when they get him a good team around him. What do you mean, when do you think it's going to happen? I hope it does. But I'll tell you the biggest takeaway from this game here. So rewind all the way back to late April, 2024. It's day two of the draft. You had just taken Drake May, but you still needed a wide receiver one. There were a lot of solid tier wide receivers who were supposed to be taken and you traded back a couple of times. One of those times you traded back was with the LA Chargers. The Chargers ended up taking Lad McConkie, who lit you up this past Sunday, Saturday rather, you took with the second and fourth round pick you got out of that trade. You took Jalen Polk, Javon Baker. On that Saturday game and combined those two, Javon Baker and Jalen Polk have not eclipsed the yardage total for Lad McConkie just that he got on Saturday. It's embarrassing. Lad McConkie, 94 yards on eight catches. He did better and he got two touchdowns. Better on Saturday against the Patriots in New England than both of your wide receivers you took combined this season. This is as bad as it gets and I'm very worried about the Patriots day two drafting, just going forward in general. They've been getting better at drafting on day one. They took Christian Gonzalez a couple off seasons ago. They went and got Drake May, who's turned out to be a stud so far. I know Cole Strand was overdrafted but he's looked pretty solid in the games that he's played. He's gotten benched quite a few times but yeah, but by the way, they've knocked it. The facts that we're only thinking about their day one drafting, what they're going to do on day one is a massive red flag. All the quickest rebuilds in recent history in the NFL have come by teams that are really good at drafting on days one and two. Days two and three as well. Lad McConkie for the Chargers helped them turn their season right around. They're now a playoff team at 10 and six. Look at the Texans. Nico Collins and Tank Dell were both drafted on days two and three and they're their top two wide receivers in the past couple of years. Yeah and I do want to say one thing though. Do you know how bad New England's day two drafting is which is rounds two and three? The Patriots haven't given a day two draft pick somewhat or not even day two. First, second or third round draft pick selected by the Patriots has not gotten a second deal by the team since 2013 which I believe was like Duran Harmon or someone like that. Yeah and you can blame all you want but oh no no no no no no this goes back like I said since 2013. Someone taking the first, second or third round has not gotten a second contract. That is awful. Yeah. I'm nervous for the future of this franchise. I know we talked a lot about what they can do this offseason. They can do a lot. I'm not sure if they will if they'll even do a fraction of it. Also we forgot to mention coaching is a major resolution and again another one that I don't know if they're going to do. You hired Gerard Mayo five years before his first year head coaching. You groomed him for this long and this is the showing he's given and I hear a lot of well he's a rookie head coach it's his first year. He's had five years to get ready for it. He's had five years also please. How many times have we seen a rookie head coach be bad and then be good eventually? How often do we really see that? Bill Belichick did yes. Before people answer Bill Belichick yes. Yeah and guess what that was well over two decades ago and it fell as well if you don't for me lately and that I said that that happened before I was even alive come on and the only one that immediately comes to mind is like Dan Campbell. Yeah that's it and even he he has a lot of talent he's working with. And he he has his flaws. Holy crap does he have his flaws. I know that I know that Chris keeps on I know that Chris keeps on praising his aggressiveness but they were I mean we're recording this as it's Monday night football right now. They were in the red zone they went forward on fourth down when they were down eight points and failed against the 49ers they're down eight in the third right now and for those of you watching right now that you already know what happens but we are recording this episode do time constraints. So interesting stuff going there okay. Next on the top three bottom three is we're going to give it to the Cincinnati Bengals not going to give it to the game because we already covered them uh Bengals they have a shot at the playoffs and with every win especially with the Colts losing all they need they need a couple of things to happen they need to the they need the Dolphins to lose they need the Broncos to lose which is looking more and more unlikely and they obviously need to win but even if they win out they just miss you go nine and eight in a terrible season like this and what a thriller of a game oh my god it's too bad I miss this game had another commitment but the next game next team is the Washington commanders in a duel Jaden Daniels versus Michael Pennics this was a fun one I really like Pennics and he didn't show much his first week starting this week I kind of liked it I liked what I saw and uh Jaden Daniels is offensive rookie of the year he is a savior for this commander's franchise he is easily their best draft pick that they have made in a very long time maybe ever who's a better draft pick he's everything RG3 was supposed to be and I know we won offensive rookie of the year too he got hurt but this team has a much better offensive line they worked on it this offseason unlike you over in New England when they drafted their quarterback right before that they rebuilt their offensive line and wouldn't you believe it it's one of the most arguably the most improved offensive line in football this year um the Minnesota Vikings another team that we've covered already today but not much to add to it I mean if the Lions lose tonight as they are down eight currently they do have the number one seed and if they it is you have a showdown coming up if you win that one you're the number one so there the Vikings have their paths and they did beat a division rival in the Green Bay Packers who um they have ten wins themselves so um things are getting competitive in the NFC North your quarterback Sam Darnolds this journeyman man we've talked we talked him to death earlier on in the show but wow what a season he's having alright that's all of our top three bottom three anything else before we on the show tonight something just broke T Higgins has said that he'd be willing to take less money to stay long-term and Cincinnati wow isn't that something that aged well yeah however just remember one thing chases in order for the gang to stay together burrow will need to restructure his contracts so we'll see so there you get a smart decision it's making a smart decision but we'll see isn't that interesting so just days after a thrilling victory where t Higgins was right in the middle of it you can see burrow and Higgins embracing each other after the victory if Higgins is willing to take less it sounds like maybe burrow and Higgins have talked maybe maybe burrow will actually take no take less money now if this season for him doesn't convince him to take less money I don't know what will the only way I can see him not taking less money or leaving entirely is if they keeps that tower yeah so we'll see alright another long one and we're gonna end it right here that'll do it for us tonight thank you for listening to us we have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 7 30 p.m. Eastern standard time and Fridays at five be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel we also have all our episodes available on Spotify spreaker Apple podcast iHeartRadio Google podcast and so much more also be sure to follow our Instagram at Fumble Ruski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcast and Liz's coverage on the NFL otherwise we'll see you next week over and out [BLANK_AUDIO]