The Fumblerooski Podcast
A Cut Above -Ep 284 The Fumblerooski Podcast
5 quarterbacks going into the 2024 NFL season and a preview of how the NFC West will stack up. 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 6 or 7 spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumble Ruski Podcast by Power88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright. And joining us again for the first time this summer, we've got Chris Costich, one of our co-hosts on the show. Yeah, I'm back. It's been, what, like three months or something? I don't even know. It's been a while, man. It's been way too long. You've been broadcast in some baseball for the rocks, calling some games, working some knockouts, some collegiate and some semi-pro level stuff. But we get our calls and we're also going to do some football here. Finally, finally, football for like the first time all summer. It feels like I've been out of the realm of the football world for like basically since the draft it feels like. Which is basically how the summers end up going. And I mean, like if you guys in the audience, you understand, football becomes an afterthought here in the summer time. And rightfully so. There's not much going on. And also, you guys are on the beach with your drinks. You're enjoying the nice weather. So it's a time where you can go without football. But we can do with some football too. And might I point out, we're about two weeks away from pre-season starting. And training camp has already started for many teams. And with that, we are getting into our final week of our player rankings, which is top five quarterbacks going into the 2024 season. Chris, do you want to kick us off? Yeah, sure. Why not? I kind of had a tough time with this one. I mean, there's a thing. You want to try to mix in the NFC quarterbacks with this. I mean, you can mix them in with the top 10. But the top five is where it mainly feels like it gets into more the AFC range or it's more AFC ruled in that standpoint. So no NFC quarterbacks for me. Unfortunately, I mean, if we want to do top 10, I mean, Jared Goff is up there, but he's not my top five, but enough open around on that. We'll go number five. I'm going to go CJ Stroud on this. CJ Stroud number five. I mean, he was definitely a top 10 quarterback last year, even as a rookie. There's not much else to say about him. He out, he overachieved what many people thought he was going to be, especially as a number two pick. And it even was to the point where people brought up like, Oh, like, how would you, how would he even been doing on the Panthers if he was drafted number one overall or if he swapped spots with Bryce Young. And we've had this discussion many times. CJ Stroud would have done a lot better than Bryce Young, but not by much. But Bryce Young or CJ Stroud is in such an amazing situation. You look at the talent around him, he's got digs, take Dell, he's got Joe mixing, Noah Brown. I'm definitely missing another one in there, but you get the Dalton Schultz, you get the idea. He's going to have the talent around him to succeed. And Gee, I mean, him alone, they would have a chance to or they're going to have a chance to make it to the AFC title game. CJ Stroud number five, for sure. Number four, I'm going to go Joe Burrow. And it's interesting because Joe Burrow up to the point where he was knocked out for the entire for the rest of the season to not perform at a top five level, maybe even not a top 10 level. But the thing that I'm thinking about is his rookie year when he got knocked out with the ACL injury. Next year after that, they make a Super Bowl run. Do they make a Super Bowl run? Maybe not. But I could see Joe Burrow having a really good comeback year this next year, because he's Joe Cool. He's got the he's got the talent to do it. He still got T Higgins. He's still got for now. Yeah. Wow. What? Oh, for now? Yeah. So for now you have them. Yeah, for now you have them. But for right now, we're still going to say that he has them. Wow. I'm blanking on names right now so badly. Um, we're getting them. We're forgetting the names because they're actually are none. T Higgins is gone. Joe Mixon is gone. Yeah. So it's literally just the Jamar Chase and T Higgins. Yeah, Jamar Chase. Yeah. For some reason, Jamar Chase was leaving my mind. But yeah, he's not going to have as he's going to have a better year than last year. And I think that it's another one of those cases where him alone, they have a chance to potentially make a run at the division. But there's another guy on the list that's going to be the one to stop him from making a run at the top. But he's a little later. Number three, Josh Allen. So Josh Allen, turnover problems or not, he is a guy that's going to keep the bills in the game regardless. And the way that they're talking about Keyon Coleman right now, um, Shakur as well. Shakur has been has been a pretty good receiver for them, especially last year as a number two, like number three guy. And he's going to be a good receiver for them out of the slot. I mean, you lose Stefan Diggs, but he's still got right in there as well. Another one that I can't freaking name off the top of my head right now. This is how bad it is for me right now. This is how bad this is how far away from football I've been. But um, regardless there, um, you lose Stefan Diggs, but the way that the bills are talking about Keyon Coleman right now, they're they could potentially make another run at the AFC East. The Miami Dolphins are obviously going to be the ones that's going to stay on the way, plus, uh, if you want to throw in the Jets where they're in Rogers, being back in town as well. Those guys are going to make them are going to be a tough test for the bills, but bills, in my opinion, could potentially make another run. You see the way that they played at the beginning of the year last year, they absolutely sucked balls. Second half of the year, they make a run when seven or the last seven, whatever it was, they win the division, they get, they get themselves a home playoff game. And that, for all we know, that could potentially happen again. And Josh Allen is a guy that you can trust to granted, he makes a lot of dumb shots down the field, but as a gunslinger, that's what you got to expect from a guy. That's a gunslinger. He's going to take a shots, whether it be bad or whether it be good. He's the one that's going to be willing to take those shots. And that's why his turnovers, his turnover rate is such a high level. But number two, the MVP from last season, Lamar Jackson. And this obviously, basically the best dual, the best dual threat quarterback since Mike Vic, there's no question about it. John Harborough thinks that he could put himself into the go conversation as well. That's a story for another time. Let's see him win a ring first, but that's the thing. We can talk all day about how bad Lamar Jackson is in the playoffs. But at the end of the day, when we're ranking top five quarterbacks, we rank how they do throughout the 18 week season, how they do in the 17 games that they're going to play prior to the playoffs. And Lamar Jackson plays at a top three top two level. And at times is top two, but not number two. And that's just a matter of, that's just facts. That is truly just a fact. There are days where he's better than Josh Hound. There are days when he's not better than Josh Hound. There's days when he's better than Patrick Mahomes, who I'm going to segue into my number one ranking for top quarterbacks in the league, Patrick Mahomes. It's, look at what he had to work with last year. He had to work with last year, and he still won a ring. And now this year, he's got Xavier where he's got Hollywood Brown, who we were just saying for the show started, is looking less and less like he's going to face a suspension. Rishi Rice has developed into a pretty solid receiver as well. Isaiah Pacheco in the backfield, Kansas City's got a pretty solid O line as well. It's Patrick Mahomes is the inevitable. He will always be the inevitable. The day that he's not the inevitable is the day that he's not the inevitable. Like, like Thanos, he is the day that he is not a top two quarterback anymore. It's the day that Lightning McQueen gets laughed by everybody in that one game or just in cars three. I'm not calling cars cars three a meme. That's, that's just disrespectful. But you can't call cars a meme. I mean, cars can be a, there are memes that come from cars. There's memes that come from cars, but you don't call Lightning McQueen a meme. You call Lightning McQueen the guy from cars, not from, oh, is it from that meme? Yeah. It's like from Fortnite, where like every character now is from Fortnite for 12 year old kids. Yeah. That's terrible. I hate, I hate our, the new generation. But that, but regardless, the point stands, Patrick Mahomes is going to be the number one quarterback for probably the next 10 years at this rate. Patrick Mahomes is taken the league by storm. Exactly. There's no denying it. If you want to debate that he's not number one, like, I'm, like, they're like, Mahomes is the same way as the rest of the top five, right? Like, there are days where Lamar is going to be better than my homes. There are days where Josh Allen's going to be better than my homes. But if we're talking like a general week one through week 18 season, forget about the playoffs. Like Mahomes is going to be the top quarterback. And last year, Lamar was the top quarterback. But if we're talking generality, Mahomes is always going to be the most feared quarterback in the league. Yeah. I mean, it's Patrick Mahomes and then everybody else as far as this generation goes. That's, that's like the biggest discourse that a lot of fans get into, especially when you got guys like Con Coward and whoever else you want to throw out there, um, Dan Orlovski, when they put quarterbacks in these tiers, they always, most of them have Patrick Mahomes at his own tier level. Or if it's not Mahomes in his own level, it's Lamar and Josh Allen or one of the other. And that's when you get all, everyone in the comments saying, Mahomes is in a tier of his own. And to that, I agree with there. As, I mean, if we do include playoffs into it at this rate, then Mahomes is 100% times a million in his own tier. That's just a fact. Like, and we've had this discussion in the past too. You look at, you look at the past Super Bowl winners that are still active quarterbacks. Like majority of the Super Bowls one that is amongst active quarterbacks right now is basically Mahomes. Like obviously got Russell Wilson, who's still active that has one. That's basically it. Yeah, we, I mean, we did a segment for that a few months back right after he won the Super Bowl. How many quarterbacks are left active in the league who have won a Super Bowl? Literally. Because of all of those years where Tom Brady was winning every, every other one, he, uh, Peyton Manning won one right before he retired, right? Nick Foles isn't even, isn't, is hardly even in the league anymore. Russell Wilson is barely a starting quarterback. So who else? There's Matthew Stafford. Stafford, um, I mean, last two years, it was Mahomes. The year before was Stafford. And then 2020 was Brady. 2019 was Mahomes. 2018 was, was Brady. 2017 was Foles. 2016 was Brady. 2015 was man. Yeah. Like our point is being made at this point. Like, the home Stafford and that's basically it. Right. Um, and, and a positive twist could be put towards Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady that they were so dominant that they couldn't let anybody else eat at the table. Yep. At the same time, you can look at the rest of the league, all of the talented quarterbacks. Jalen Hertz, uh, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, these are all quarterbacks who are capable of winning a Super Bowl and we think they can do it. The problem is they cannot best Tom, they cannot best Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game. They can't elevate their game in the way that those other guys can play. So it can be looked at in two different ways, but exactly for as for my rankings. At number five, I have Josh Allen and Josh Allen, despite being without Stefan Diggs, his number one target, I still think he's going to be a top quarterback. Before he had Stefan Diggs, he was just okay. He threw 20 touchdowns to 13 picks. It could be very different. I'm just naming off the top of my head. Um, but still no, not elite quarterback stats. That was back when he was 23 years old. He is now in his late twenties and he is a quarterback who has all grown up. He's been in the league for a few years. He's had to overcome some adversity and he's overcome some pretty significant division deficits. I mean, in 2021, he came from behind against the Patriots who are ahead of them way ahead of them for a while. The Miami just last year and on the last day of the regular season, we're able to lap them as well. So this is a team. Yeah. Um, so this is a quarterback who's all grown up and I think that he will have, he will demonstrate a much better ability than most people know that he can do more with less. Right now his targets are Curtis Samuel, uh, Khalil Shakir and Keon Coleman as his wide receivers, Dalton, uh, Dalton Kincaid and I was liking on and Dawson Knox as his tight ends. And then James Cook is his running back. Those are all B level quarter B level players we know can perform at some sort of level. We need to see one of those guys emerge as a wide receiver one form. One guy who could be that elite target, whether it's King Cade turning into Travis Kelsey or if it's Keon Coleman turning into the production that Stefan Diggs gave. I know he had, he demonstrated a little bit of an ability to, or inability to show up in big moments, but they need somebody who can carry that sort of production because you need some sort of high end, uh, talent at, at, uh, pass catching. Looking at number four, I have Lamar Jackson, the reigning NFL MVP and he has to, he has to go in this top five category and he top five, not five. He's the reason I have him top five is because he is arguably the greatest dual threat quarterback of all time. He has revolutionized the, the position in a way where you can, you don't need to have a pass first quarterback, a pocket passer. You can have a guy whose main point in his game is to run, run all over the place and still manage to win games. Will he win a Super Bowl? We haven't seen it yet, but if he does, then he will really revolutionize the game because we have, we, again, we haven't seen that from a quarterback like this yet. Michael Vick couldn't do it. And so far Lamar Jackson hasn't been able to, but he still cracks the top five because he is a running quarterback who has thrown, shown the ability to be able to throw the ball as well. Um, you have Mark Andrews, um, and you have the kid you just drafted last year, as well as Rashad Bateman. So you have your talent that you can throw to and you can run the ball. And don't forget your latest off season acquisition, a running back to do option plays with Derek Henry and an offensive line that can still perform. Going to number three, I have Joe burrow. When Joe burrow has been healthy, he has been a top three talent at quarterback in this league. From keyword, healthy, big keyword and big keyword because he now has a better offensive line. You just drafted a Marius men's in the first round to replace Jonah Williams, who has been, let's face it, highly, highly underwhelming, we'll say. And the rest of the offensive line is okay, as far as personnel is. So you did lose tig, uh, Tyler Boyd, but he's your number three option. You lost your running back, but how much do you need out of the running back position at this day and age? You don't need much. What you have is your wide receiver one and your wide receiver two. And an offensive line that theoretically can keep your quarterback on his feet. If you have those two attributes, those three, those three attributes, quarterback, offensive line, targets, then you should be able to win and be the quarterback that we all know that he can be, which is a top three talent. Um, they've lost some pieces. But I think as long as Joe Burrow is healthy, they will return to relevance and be one of the better teams in the AFC, which is a huge part of why I have Joe Burrow as a top three quarterback this league, it, uh, rather this year. At my number two, I have Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is a player who back to back years going into this player rankings. Back to back years, I have had him at number three because he did not have the targets that he needed to have in elite season. I am not disputing that he is the best quarterback of this generation. That is not what I'm saying. This is about who is going to have a better year in 2024. And Patrick Mahomes has always outdone the pundits and has become that player who can win league MVP and gay and Super Bowl MVP and win a Super Bowl all while working with Juju Smith Schuster, Rishi Rice as your number one targets while Travis Kelsey is about to turn 35. Now you have Xavier Worthy. You still have Rishi Rice, hasn't faced his suspension, most likely won't this year. And you have Hollywood Brown, Marquis Brown and an offensive line that while heavily penalized can keep the quarterback on his feet. This is a team that can give Patrick Mahomes a chance to win another Super Bowl. And it's a team that can support a good season from Patrick Mahomes. I have Mahomes at number two while working with not the best roster. It's good enough where Mahomes can do more with less, which we have seen time and time again. That being said, at number one, I have CJ Stroud. CJ Stroud in his rookie year, mind you, quarterbacks are the rookie years they almost never perform. But in just 15 games, he didn't play the full 17 in just 15 games, 23 touchdowns to five interceptions, 4,100 yards, meaning over 17 game season, he's flirting with 30 touchdown passes. On top of that, you add Stefan Diggs. I don't want to hear it from Bill's fans about how this kid suddenly cannot play anymore. Yes, Stefan Diggs is 32 and 1100 yards by his standards is not that good. Fine, I'll take that season any day, especially when you have Tank Dell and Nico Collins as your other wide receivers. On top of that, you have one of the better offensive lines in the league. You also have Joe Mixon, who you stole from the Cincinnati Bengals, 1400 yard season last year, average four yards a carry. And you have Dalton Schultz. And you have Demico Ryan's an offensive minded head coach who can also do defense as well. This is a team that is built for a young quarterback who is ahead of his schedule to have an MVP caliber season and a team that can easily barnstorm its way all the way through the AFC into the Super Bowl. And CJ Stroud will be the benefactor of that. I see CJ Stroud having an incredible year. And I have him being the best quarterback in 2024. So there is my ranking. CJ Stroud is going to be the best quarterback this year. That doesn't mean he's overall better than Patrick Mahomes. I get it. I know it's Patrick Mahomes and everybody else. But it was the same thing with Tom Brady. There were other quarterbacks who had better seasons than Tom Brady. There were other quarterbacks who had better seasons than Joe Montana. That doesn't mean someone can't have an individually better season. Who is better in 20 and 2023 last year? Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson? Well Lamar, he's the one that ended up winning MVP. Right. Jared Goff or Patrick Mahomes? Well, Goff, probably. Jared Goff. Yeah. Brock Purdy or Patrick Mahomes? Purdy. Brock Purdy. Had a better year. That doesn't mean we believe they are better players. They just had the better season. You're not always going to have to bring your best every single season. There's other factors. There is a whole roster around you that could indicate how you are going to play. But Patrick Mahomes can do more with less. And he can also elevate his play when it matters most. Brock Purdy can't do that. Lamar Jackson can't do that. Josh Allen has not shown it yet. Joe Burrow kind of showed it, but he lost. So still CJ Stroud. For me, it's tough to put Stroud at one. Just because we're going into year two and there's a lot of there's a lot of the sophomore slump that happens. But I mean, you look at the way that the team is built around Stroud. It's insane. I mean, this is probably like what you mentioned some of the targets already, but this is probably like the probably one of the deepest wide receiver rooms we've ever seen from a team because obviously got Diggs, Collins, Dell, Noel Brown, but you also got Robert Woods, John Metche, Dalton Schultz at tight end, Brevin Jordan's pretty solid as well. You look at the old line too, you got one, your frickin line side is Laramie Tunsell. And you also got Shaq Mason, who us Pat's fans know did wonders for our old line in his time in New England until they traded him. But it just goes to show like there's a lot of opportunity for CJ Stroud to get himself to number one. In my opinion, he's five. He could definitely be, I mean, in my humble opinion, any five of these quarterbacks that we've laid out because we basically had the same top five just in different order. Any five of them you could kind of measel around it one night, like you could throw a little more at one, you could throw CJ Stroud at one, shit, you could throw Josh Allen at one, you could throw Joe Burrow at one. If Josh Allen is number one next year, then that would actually be insane. That would be insane. The only reason, the only way you'd have to get to number one is if he gets less than 15 interceptions or just turnovers in general, I mean, but the points still stands. CJ Stroud has an amazing opportunity right now to do some amazing things. And that's why like, like I said, I think that Texans should be a shoe in for the AFC title game. For all we know, it ends up being against your top two QBs, Mahomes versus Stroud for the AFC title game. Yeah. Yeah. And I think so, I mean, my argument for CJ Stroud is you never, you rarely, usually when you get a great rookie year like this, you rarely get a sophomore slump. And like you just usually quarterbacks get better earlier in their careers. They don't get worse. And if they get worse, there's a reason for it. There's some sort of injuries that happen. I think Dak Prescott is a prime example. Des Bryant fell off in play. The offensive line got hurt. Ezekiel Elliott got injured. No, he didn't get injured. He got suspended for some weird stuff that he was doing. You know, I honestly think Mac Jones just can't play. Also, they gave him a defensive coordinator to call offensive plays. Yeah, I mean, Mac Jones was set up to fail. I'll stand by this. If Joshua Padano doesn't go to the Raiders, Mac Jones is still on the Patriots. Yeah. So like, I think, I think the only times you can name a quarterback getting worse this early in their careers is something happens that's not in their control that is a neck that negatively affects them. But it's everything that has happened for siege for CJ Stroud has helped him. You give him stiff on digs, Joe mix in. You you beefed up that off that rather that defense, the offensive line looks like one of the best young defense, young offensive lines in the league. And you have to me go Ryan's is your head coach who has been quarterback friendly and defense friendly. That's all a recipe for success. I don't see any signs that this team will that this team will be any worse than it was last year. Could they underperform my expectations? Certainly because I said I'm sky high. But that doesn't mean like, I see him being better than 10 and seven. I see him going, if at the worst 12 and five, I think 12 and five could be in, I think 12 and five could be underwhelming by my expectations. But it's still good because I expect him to go like 14 and three 13 and four. So 12 and five is like, they're still in contention. They may not have the number one seed. Maybe maybe one of these other teams takes it over them. I mean, maybe the Bengals overtake them and beat them with experience because we know the Bengals have already been there done that. Don't even talk about let's not even talk about the Chiefs with experience. The bills. I mean, what do you get? I mean, you girls say that Texans still got a good amount of experience. I mean, yeah, they only have the one year of playoffs from last year, but they were able to get a jump, get a huge win against a pretty hot Browns team. I mean, granted, we're talking about old man Joe Flacco that they're playing, but Joe Flacco has amazing playoff experience. We all know this, but and they also gave the Ravens a game. I mean, the Texans didn't do great in that playoff game against the Ravens, but they were playing the best defense in the league with playoff experience. And now the Texans do have playoff experience, granted, like obviously, like you said, probably not to the level that some of the others do, but we've also seen where the less experienced team overtakes the more experienced guys sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, it happens. It happens. But we'll see how it goes. I think this is going to be an interesting season, and I think quarterbacks is going to be the embodiment of it. We have, I mean, we literally have a quarterback who could, who has a chance at doing something that none have ever done with potentially winning a three-peat. I mean, if he gets the three-peat, I think it's, there's no debate. Patrick Mahomes is the second best quarterback of all time. Not himself. And I already have him three. So he's barely, Mahomes rather, Montana is barely hanging on to a lead over, for me over Mahomes. And CJ is ready to rip my, to rip my hair out over me, putting him over, Peyton Manning already, but he can go and cry about it. Yeah. All right. I'm ready. Yeah. We're going to move on. We're going to preview the NFC West. So 49ers are the reigning division champions and also the reigning conference champions. We are going to debate how this division is going to stack up this year. A lot of competitive teams, a lot of teams that could come out of the woodwork and could do some big things and challenge the 49ers. Will they be able to fend them off? That's all 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 by Power Radiate and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Costich, the NFC West. So this is a division that last season you had in first place, the 12 and five San Francisco 49ers. This team finished as the number one seed in the conference, then also made it all the way to the Super Bowl where they danced with the Chiefs. And then you had in second place, the LA Rams, 10 and seven, they did not want to play off game, but it was a close game and they had a good season. They got some good play out of some young kids in Kyron Williams and Pukka Nakua and much, much better offensive line play. That was, that was the saving grace. Those were the unsung heroes was that offensive line. Then you have the Seattle Seahawks, they had another nine and eight season, but let's say in a bad way, because we kind of thought they would be a little better than they were last year. And while Gino Smith was still fine and the rest of their team was fine, we feel that they underachieved, because this is a team that was good young. They nailed some draft picks. They got two, two starting level tackles in the same draft. That never happens. You also found another rookie as in running back Kenneth, Kenneth Walker. I mean, they nailed some draft picks and they nailed a few more after that in the next draft. And they still finished just nine and eight. On top of that, you have the Arizona Cardinals. This is a team that is improved. Their offensive line looks a lot, a lot better. And when I say they needed it, they needed it bad. Paris Johnson Jr. is a saving grace for this team. You know, who else is a saving grace is Marvin Harrison Jr. They yet again have it an elite wide receiver, just like Larry Fitzgerald, just like DeAndre Hopkins, who they had for a couple of years of the end of Hopkins prime, all for Trey McBride, as well, all for Kyler Murray to resume his starting quarterback duties. And a defense that over the past couple of years has been low key, kind of good, not a bad defense. And people really don't notice that. But with that being said, how do we see this division? But we'll, I'll start, we'll, we'll start with this. Do you see any of these teams on seeding the 49ers in a semi quick question and a semi quick answer? Can you tell me any of these teams? Do you see any of them challenging the 49ers in on seeding them for the division? I can see the Rams, if anything, but it's going to take a lot. The 49ers are the 49er. They didn't really change a whole lot. I mean, they lost a couple pieces here and there like Chase Young, and they're probably going to be on the verge of losing IU, depending on how the front office wants to play around with that. But let's assume right now that IU is their week one or the entirety of the season, regardless of that, the 49ers are going to still be the top dog. They're most likely still going to be the number one seed. It's there. There's your simple, there's your simple answer to a simple question, I guess. Yeah. I still see the 49ers definitely deserve to be favored. Not enough has changed to really move the needle. I will say though that I think it's going to be more competitive. Yeah. If any team is going to challenge them, it's going to be the Rams. Well, never mind the Rams. I could see the Seahawks also improving. Obviously the Cardinals improved. They got the guys that you mentioned, especially Marvin Harrison, Jr. And you still got guys on defense like Mack Wilson, Sean Murphy, Bonting, Buddha Baker. Their defense is going to improve. And it's just a matter of they can just saddle up really. And if Kyle Murray can go back to what he was in the 2020-2021 season, seasons. I think that the Cardinals can definitely make a run at the two spot. But in my mind, I can see the standings being the same as it was last year, the Niners, the Rams, the Seahawks, and the Cardinals in that order. I think that's pretty cut straight and dry at that point. I mean, the Rams, their biggest loss, obviously coming with Aaron Donald on defense. And other than that, the Rams don't really have a lot of great things going on defense. I mean, you still, I mean, you still, you just got your Davius white. But other than that, there's not really a lot of like headturners on the defense. Whereas just like last year, it's going to be the Rams offense that's going to drive this thing right now. Matt Stafford, he's about to get his contract restructured right now. He's still a pretty good quarterback. Kyron Williams is still great or is great. Cooper Cup. No question about that. Puke Nakua. Amazing rookie year. He's going to be in for another amazing year as a second-year player. Same thing with Tutu Atwell, who's going to be there for, who's going to be their wide receiver for Demarcus Robinson's pretty good as well. It, they got a good, they got a good offense. It's just a matter of their defense can hold up. Seahawks is kind of the same way, right? Seahawks. Well, the thing with the Seahawks for me is you got Gino Smith as your starting quarterback. And Gino Smith on the Seahawks is a really good quarterback or a better quarterback than he was on the Jets. Let's, let's get that straightened out. But still a pretty decent quarterback to have. And never mind that you have Kenneth Walker, Zach Charmanos was pretty good last year. DK Metcalf for all, for how, how insensitive he is. He's still a really good wide receiver one. Tyler Lockett still a great wide receiver one that you can have on your team. These are wide, I mean, if you look at the ESPN depth chart, he's wide receiver number two. But he would be a great wide receiver one anywhere else. Jackson Smith and Jugba is another one. No, a fan. I think that no, a fan can be a really good tight end in the, in the league. Um, Farrell Brown, he can be pretty solid as well. But on defense, there's not a lot of great names on defense. That's the other thing. Jerome Baker's a good name to have on defense buyer Murphy. Um, on that, the Seahawks are kind of going to be in the same kind of realm as the Rams where it's going to be a matter of their defense holds up. And then on the offensive side, if you know, Smith can perform the way, the way that the Seahawks are going to want them to perform. I've never had any issues with the Seahawks defense. It's been on offense and most of the offense is, most of the offense is fine as far as personnel goes. The reason it underperforms is because of a couple of factors. Number one, their coaching was mediocre. I think the game is that's another thing that we're going to have to watch out for as well. We got a new coach in Seattle as well. Yeah. And it was, it was needed. Pete Carroll was a solid, he was a solid coach and he was a big reason why they had a good season last year in 2022, 2023. This past season, it was, it seemed like something was just off. The coaching, it's the game past Pete Carroll by the same way it passed Bill Belichick by, but it's also Gino Smith. And I'm not saying that he was bad. He's a, he was a good quarterback and he's been a career backup quarterback who managed 30 touchdown passes in 2022 and had another, another very good statistical year this past season. But that's all he'll be is just a good quarterback and usually good quarterbacks don't win Super Bowls. The good quarterbacks who do do it are quarterbacks who are elite in playoff games. Gino Smith isn't doing that. He's not going to have a Joe Flacco type of Super Bowl performance and he's not going to have an Eli Manning type of sideline catch tomorrow Manning Ham type of game. He won't do it, but he's still a good quarterback. So the question for the Seahawks is how okay are you guys with being just okay? Okay to good. Do you want to be great? Because this team with the roster you have, if you have an elite quarterback, if you find that next guy, you will be a great team. One of the better offensive line, young offensive lines out there, you have a very good wide receiving core, a very good running back core and a very good defense. You need that quarterback. Gino Smith will help you go 9 and 8, 10 and 7, maybe even 11 and 6, but he's not taking you to a Super Bowl. And if he does, he's not going to have that type of performance. There's my case. But I guess, so we've pretty much touched on most of this division, just because this one team, the Arizona Cardinals, they don't get much of attention and no one really takes them seriously. Let's just take them seriously just for a couple of seconds. You have Kyler Murray, who has been a very good quarterback in this league at times. Highly inconsistent. He gets some injury troubles, but he's been a very good quarterback at times. You have Marvin Harrison Jr., who from reports to training camp has looked amazing. An offensive line that's getting better, a good defense, not a great defense, a good defense. James Conner in that running back core. Trey McBride in the tight ends. Do we see this team potentially being competitive and maybe in a couple of years, a contending team? So I actually just decide on my own accord. I mean, let's look at the schedule. Why not, right? Let's look at the schedule. So we won against Buffalo. Let's say that's a loss. Let's just say it's a loss just for the shit of it. LA, they got the Rams, week two, we could say let's say that's a win for now. So one-on-one Detroit, we'll say that's a loss. Washington, two and two. San Francisco, we'll say that's a loss for now. So they're two and three. Green Bay could see that being a pretty tight game. Let's say that the Cardinals beat Green Bay. Let's just say that for now. Green Bay is still a pretty solid team. Well, let's say that the Cardinals get a lot of momentum after maybe they get a really close loss against San Fran and they go out week six and they beat Green Bay. They're three and three. They got the charges after that. That's four and three. And then they got a couple tough three-week stretch here. They got Miami, Chicago and New York. Maybe they get one. Maybe they get two. I don't think they get all three. Maybe they get, let's say they get two. Yeah, the Bears are a wild card. And the Chargers, the Chargers are weird. They could be better in some ways, but they could be worse in some ways. They'll be a better executed team. They'll be able to keep Herbert on his feet, but they just don't have targets for Herbert. But I still think, I expect a victory for the Cardinals. Let's so week 11 by a week. So let's say that they're five and five at the by week. It's a lot better than last year. Yeah, they're the great spots make playoff run at that point. And the rest of the way, Seattle, Minnesota, Seattle, New England, Carolina, LA, San Fran. And I could say right now, they're going to beat New England and Carolina. They beat LA back. We said that win against LA and week two, let's say they lose to LA and week 17. And for shits and giggles, let's say that they split the split the two games with San Fran as well. So you got three ones right there. Set shit. Let's just say that you split everything with your division opponents, your three and three in the division. So that would mean that the rest of the way you get a win against Seattle, I'm going to say a win against Minnesota, a loss against Seattle, win against New England, win against Carolina, but you got a loss to LA and you beat San Fran week 18. So do the math right there. You go about four and three in the last stretch. So that puts you about nine and eight. Shit could go 10 and seven. I think this is the schedule that they have, they can definitely make it. I think they could make it to 10 wins with the schedule. Okay. It's going to be more in the nine to seven range. I mean, I'm being, I'm kind of looking at it as a more of a any given Sunday, anything can kind of happen. And these are the things that could happen, especially against teams that seem a little bit more vulnerable or just different teams than they were last year. Like, if you were to tell, if Kirk Cousins was on the Vikings this year and they keep the same guys that they had from last year, I think that the Vikings beat the Cardinals, but that's not what we're looking at right now. We're looking at it. Yeah, keep continuing. That's, that's the point that I'm making is that like this Cardinals team is much different from last year and they're going to improve, but it's a matter of, are they going to improve from being that four to five win team that they were last year to being a potential nine to 10 win team or seven to nine or however you want to look at it. So if we're talking about any given Sunday basis, do you think in this division in the NFC West, they're really going three and three in this division? I think that they could potentially do it. I mean, I'm kind of just throwing it out there. Maybe they split every single game with their division rivals. In reality, maybe that the 49ers get both games. Maybe the Rams get both games and realistically, I can see them splitting with Seattle at the very least and maybe LA, but I don't know if they're going to split with San Fran. Yeah, so I think nine and eight, eight and nine is a fair expectation to have for a team that is young and on the up and up. They're definitely not at a point where they can, they can really have any expectations to dance with the teams that are ahead of them in their division. No, they may, they could very well finish last or at least second to last. And this is a, this is a team that if they were in the NFC South, I would feel a lot differently. I think they could in the, in the South, they could easily rack off 10 wins. The problem is they're in the West, which is a pretty, pretty tough division. Yeah. I mean, the 49ers and Rams, just those two teams alone, that's four games where you have to win. And honestly, they're lucky if they win one of them. Because it's there, those are, those are two teams that we could easily see them having really, really good seasons and be one of the best teams in the NFC. But are we, but here's the other thing too. And when we look at teams like the Cardinals versus the Rams, are we expecting it to be the Rams not having an amazing defense and it just be an offensive shootout, both games and who just has better offense that day. Or same thing with the Seahawks, maybe. The 49ers, they just all around a much better team. But are we, but could we look at it in a way where they get into these offensive shootouts with not great defenses? Because obviously the Rams have a phenomenal offense. The Seahawks have a pretty solid offense themselves. Could it, could we see it where the Cardinals get into these shootouts and then end up outlasting these really good offenses? They can take, they can definitely take a couple of these games. I just think it's going to be tough for them to have a winning record in this division or even finish 500. I think the most realistic I see is two and four in the division. I could see two and four, I could see three and three. Well, they're definitely not going to go 0 and six like they did last year in the division. No, no, they're definitely not going 0 and six. But it's just going, it is, it's definitely hard for me to see to see them finishing any better than anywhere around any better than 500. Just because this is a really tough division, they can win a few of these games. But I think if they're two and four and they're better outside of their division, I think that's a better, I think that's a much better expectation to have. I think this was a bad team all around to me. They didn't even have Kyler Murray for most of the year. Yeah. I think that a realistic expectation for like maybe, let's say like a realistic ceiling for them could be 10 wins. But in all reality, the line is probably going to be at like seven to nine, but the ceiling for all we know could be 10. Yeah, sure. I think, yeah, I think that like I'm not saying like, obviously, I'm not going to say that they're going to go 10 and seven. That's just ridiculous. But that could be their ceiling. Yeah, I would say their absolute ceiling is 10 and seven. I would, I think that's a realistic one to set. I think mine would be nine and eight. But I think we're around the same level where like at best, they're kind of drifting around. Maybe they at some point in the year, they'll be in playoff contention. But even if they even if they knock at the door for the playoffs, I think that's a that's an absolute win for them this year because they're still in rebuild mode. They're not quite there yet. And if they developed, but they still need, they're working on that offensive line. Marvin Harrison Jr. is a rookie. So it might take a little time. And if they do make the playoffs, they're just going to be a first round exit unless they go on some sort of magical run. But like, if they do make the playoffs, they're just going to be a first round exit and call today, which is going to be a win in their book at that point. I mean, teams want to get to Super Bowls. But if we're talking morale wise, I mean, going from a top three top four or top three pick to going to the wildcard rounds in your first, the first year after that is should be a pretty good stepping stone at the very least. But yeah, I mean, it would be a great stepping stone because they finished, they finished four and 13 last year. So if they yeah, I mean, they'll be better than the Patriots. Yeah. Well, that that's the thing that I'm looking at on this schedule is like they're definitely going to be New England in Carolina. And the rest, honestly, the rest you could even put it to a coin toss at that point. I know we're past the NFC South, but before we end the show, can I give you a hot take on Carolina? Sure. I think they're going to be much better than a lot of people think next year. I think that they could, I don't know. I think Carolina just have that have themselves in such a deep hole right now. I mean, they don't, it's not to say that they're not going to be terrible. Like you, you still got trouble. However, Deonta Johnson, Adam Thelen, Xavier Laguette, like Xavier Laguette, I think is going to be a really good rookie receiver. The thing with me is going to probably be the defense, but looking at the defense, you got Jaycey Horn, Xavier Woods, Jordan Fuller, Jadevian Clowney, not saying that Jadevian Clowney is anything that he was, but Jack Thompson, Josie Jewell. Defense definitely stacked up a little bit more, but I think it just, I don't know, it, I think that Panthers are going to be better than what they were last year. But like the question is, how much better? All I'm saying is if Bryce Young can play in any sort of capacity, then this, this Panthers team will be all right. Their offensive line leaves a little bit to be desired, but if Bryce Young, like he has Adam Thelen now, he has Deonta Johnson and Xavier Laguette. That's a pretty good wide receiver trio. And if Bryce Young can play, then he can somewhat overcome this, this lackluster offensive line. And at that point, it'll be, it'll be a lot more interesting for this Panthers team. I think they can be a lot better this year. I'm not expecting a playoff year. I don't even expect being above 500. If I think at the absolute best, best, they're winning eight games, they're eight and nine, and they're on the right track. Their offensive line is going to hold them back. But how much of the right track are we talking about here? Because it's just like the way that the Panthers are set up right now, it just feels like that they're going to be that they've dug themselves a hole for the next three to four years. And by that time, Adam Thelen's going to be pretty old. I mean, Xavier Laguette, for all we know, could develop into a pretty good star. But at that point, you got to start really looking at who you have out there. I mean, David and Clowney is not going to be what he was three to four years ago. Same thing with Jordan Fuller, Xavier Woods, Jayce Horns in his second year. So they're going to have to really move some pieces around and make some, some goddamn moves if they want to get themselves out of this potential hole, out of this hole that they're in. Right. So if they go from two, two and 15 to eight and nine, I think that's, that's a massive step in the right direction. Oh, yeah. I think regardless of the, the pieces that you have around you, if you have the guy that is infinitely more important than having an aging, an aging, geez, jadevian clowny, that's much more important than having an aging Adam Thelen, because those guys, you can kind of replace. But to have the next guy, the next elite quarterback, that's extremely rare. So the, I mean, the key to everything really is the quarterback, how Bryce Young is going to play this year. And I think they have the offensive talent to at least show that maybe this guy is, is the right guy for you. If they didn't have all this talent, I'd be saying, we're not going to find out anything about him. I think the thing with me and Adam Thelen is like, last year, he's getting 10 to 15 targets a game. And for all we know, it's probably going to be the same thing because Deontay Johnson did not have that credit of a year last year and was looked at as a locker room cancer. Xavier LeGette is a rookie this year. And for all we know, he could be a complete bust. But I mean, Panthers ended up getting a really good deal on them. They were able to pick them up early on, but more earlier than they thought they were going to get them. So for all we know, Xavier LeGette could be good. Deontay Johnson, it depends on if you can bounce back from terrible year you had last year, Adam Thelen. If they decide to target him 10 to 15 times a game again, which honestly, I could see that happening again. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And that could just not work out. But that's why you make the moves to figure out if these things will go right or not, right? If, right, they could have, they could have not taken Bryce Young and went with CJ Stroud, which they probably should have done still. But some, but some quarterback need a year or two to actually develop. It's very unheard of that you see what CJ Stroud did. But you make those moves, you make those risks before the reward. You don't make those risks because like thinking about what's what could go wrong. I'm talking about what could go right, which is what the Panthers have in mind. They bring in Adam Thelen not to win a championship now or even a year or two down the road. They're looking to further the development of Bryce Young and kind of gauge how he's going to be going forward and figure out if he's the guy. Same thing with Deontae Johnson, even though he's much younger, he'll be the guy who will be there if you win a championship in a couple of years. And so we'll have Xavier Laguette for obvious reasons. He's a rookie. And you drafted Xavier Laguette. That's something that could go wrong too. He's a rookie. We don't even know if he can play. I think he can, but he could, he might not. So like you make these risks for the reward. You go for it. And a lot of teams that make, that do this, it ends up working out very well for them. But if it doesn't, then it's like, okay, you got, you found the wrong guy and you just, you move on and you find someone else. But you're never going to know unless you try. So that's kind of what I'm looking at. And they're making all the right moves. They're surrounding Bryce Young with weapons. That's something the Bears didn't do until year three for Justin Fields. The offensive line, they've made an effort, but it's still not looking great. Their defense looks okay. But I think there's some good things to look at with this Panthers team. And in a couple of years, if Bryce Young can play, then we could see the Panthers playing some meaningful games in January. Yeah, I can see it. I mean, could they compete for the NFC South? I mean, the way the NFC South is, they probably could. Yeah, well, yeah, it's a tough, it's, I wouldn't say it's a tough division. But it's, it's a division that, you know, you have the, you have the Buccaneers. You have the way that the NFC South works as well. Everyone's going to split with each other. Yeah. I think the Falcons deserve to be favorite. We, again, this is a division that was already previewed last year, last week, but it was CJ and Ian and neither of us were on. So it's low key, our turn. I still have the Falcons taking this division, but I think the Panthers, there's a lot to like about this team. They're not going to be playing our NFC South takes right now. Should we just give them right now? Who's winning the division? Real quick. All right. Well, the Falcons here in the division, I got the bucks in seconds. Saints are going three and the Panthers are close for it. There you go. Everything, everything that you said, Falcons first, Buccaneers second, except flip the Saints. Sorry, Wigold, flip the Saints and the Panthers. I mean, the Saints are trending down. Panthers going up a little bit. They're not going to play meaningful games, but they're going to be, I think, eight and nine is a hell of a lot better than two and 15. Yeah. Even if you were six or seven games, I think that's still better than what the Saints are going to do. I'm going to throw another thing out there as well. I think that the bucks could potentially win the division as well, but they had a league worst run game last year. They're going to pick that shit up because Baker Mayfield was basically the entire offense last year. And he's found himself a good home in Tampa. So I think that if Tampa can get themselves a frickin running game, finally, and that's nothing against what they have right now, but they can get themselves a running game. They should be able to compete for the division title. It's a possibility. I think the Buccaneers should be in contention for at least the playoffs and potentially with the way the Falcons are going and there's a lot of question marks there. You know, Kirk Cousins coming off that, coming off that Achilles tear. A bunch of players, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Bijon Robinson, we believe that they can that we believe most likely that those players are big time players, but we haven't really seen it. So we can't really technically say that they're going to be as good as we believe. We haven't seen it. We haven't seen it because they're coach. Let's let's get that right. I agree. I agree. But there's no, there's, I'm all I'm saying is that it's not, there's no other guarantee that it's that it's not that they don't deserve some of the blame. No. Once the coaching is fixed up, we're going to find out for sure. I believe it's the coaching, but all I'm saying is there's always some crazy thing that goes on where it was so overshadowed by the coaching or some other factor that the fans only focus on that and they don't blame what's going on, what else is going on. It's like the Bears. Everyone was blaming the front office and the offensive line in 2022. They surrounded Justin Fields with some weapons. Turns out Justin Fields still couldn't play. So then the blame went back to Justin Fields because it's, it turned into one of those things where you were blaming something else, but it, but it was two things were true at once. That's all I'm saying. I agree. I agree. All I'm saying is we don't know for sure that it's not that the rest of the players don't deserve at least a little bit of a blame. Yeah. And the Falcons defense is going to be pretty good as well, just like last year. Grayjared still on the D line. You got Lorenzo Carter, AJ Terrell, Jesse Bates. I mean, it's, it's still going to be a pretty solid defense just like last year. It's just a matter if they can hold their own in week 18 and not lose to the Saints again. Yeah. Funny enough, let me, let me see what they're playing week 18. Another playing against Carolina week 18. But not the eight and 19. That's the potential eight and eight Carolina Panthers. Eight and nine. Yeah. That's, I'm, well, eight and eight going into week 18. Yes. Yes. Yes. Eight and eight going into week 18. Yeah. I think the Panthers will be a lot better this year. And I think they're going to show some tremendous growth. It's quarterbacks don't always develop the way CJ Stroud did where he just comes right out of the gates and balls out. That doesn't always happen. And also Brice Young had a terrible, terrible roster around him. It's things have gotten a little bit better. I'm not saying it's going to be good yet, but I think you'll see some growth from Brice Young. If you don't see that growth, then the kid can't play throw out everything I say. You can call me an idiot. You can discredit the Fumill Ruski podcast. No, just discredit. Just discredit it out. Kick this asshole off the show. Yeah. Screw you. Yeah. CJ Stroud's going to be the best in the league next year. Look, all I'm saying is I'm just giving Brice Young a chance. Yeah. And I think this, I think, I think what they have done this off scene had moved, has moved the needle a little bit. I think they have a better situation, better, not good, better, which will show a little bit of growth for Brice Young. All right. I can go. That's all the, that's all the scheduled content we have for today, plus some unscheduled at the end that took, gave us an extra 10 minutes to bring us over the hour mark. We have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight? Not really. I mean, big news from, I mean, big news from NFL news in L.A. I mean, they're restructuring Stafford's contract to make them happy. Stafford's deal was just restructured. The Vikings during our show have just extended Christian Darisaw for years, $113 million. That was an interesting, what Detroit did was interesting. They overpaid both their wide, their star wide receiver and their star tackle, as the Vikings had a pending free agents at both positions too. And it did skyrocket the money in their, on their, in their financial situation. So that was interesting. Other than that, I believe the Jaguars just paid somebody. One of, it was, it was their interior defensive line, one of their, I'm forgetting his, forgetting his name. I can't see it anyways. But another one too, is that, to Coebersett, probably gonna be the starter at week one instead of Drake May, which, excuse me, I'm pretty hip with. As he showed me. I kind of said that, I've been saying that Drake May should just like, can see him starting week eight. I don't know about week one, but I'm happy with it. As he should be a lot better. Yeah, he's clearly not big league ready yet. He has potential. He has a lot of abilities. He's very raw. And he also does not have the team around him. Those two factors are the reason why Jacobi Bursett should start. And he'll, he needs some time. I mean, a lot of quarterbacks did not start year one, Jordan Love. We're counting Lamar Jackson. Because we're not, they dumped down the play, the playbook form and that during that second half of the year, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rogers, Tom Brady, some quarterbacks who kind of panned out. One who didn't was, what's his name? Geez. 49ers. All right. Well, 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. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We also have all our episodes out on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio, Google podcast, and so much more. Also, be sure to follow our Instagram at Fumbleruski_podcast to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you next week over and out.