(00:00) Pursuit of happiness
(19:16) TNF preview: Patriots at Jets
PFT Live with Mike Florio
Patriots at Jets TNF preview
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So multitask right now. Get your quote now at Progressive.com. Progressive cash-worthy insurance company and affiliates' national average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Digital savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Do Josh throw up on the ball or did you just feel it when you took a snap? Well, I seen him. I didn't know whether. And when we were on a hard count, I didn't know whether we would get snapped or not. It was kind of scary. Were you surprised at how quick he adjusted from puking his snap in the ball? It was pretty impressive. Yeah, that's awesome. He jumped straight in the block and he did a great job. I mean, more than anything, I was surprised that he got the ball off and then he started blocking. So Matt said he didn't throw it because he just told me it was a party and it's like, "I want to get this out of my hand because TQ got it." No, I couldn't throw it because I just couldn't. It was what? We have more information now and we can rest easily about vomit ball. Although if you subruder film that footage we saw at the top, it really looks like the ball doesn't take the brunt of the breakfast. It's off to the left. He tried to miss the ball and I still don't get why you don't try to throw it. The ball's wet. Haven't you thrown a wet ball before? I don't know if you need to practice with vomit ball, but I thought the whole thing was kind of strange and gross and fascinating because it's different. We see so much of the same cookie cutter stuff when we cover the NFL every once in a while. You get a curve ball and you never know where it's going to come from and sometimes it comes from the esophagus of an offensive lineman. Good morning to you too, Mike Florio. And yeah, let's welcome everybody into PFT Live on a Thursday, September 19th. We're talking about vomit here as you eat your breakfast on the East Coast or maybe you're just waking up. I'm telling you, it doesn't look like the vomit hits the ball. Okay. There might've been a second puker first of all, if a ball is that wet, you don't want to throw it because if you can't get any grip on it, don't you usually see that they pat the ball down if it's raining or whatnot, you know, so that it becomes dry before they snap it. So that's one issue. I mean, do you think that anybody wants to try and catch a vomit ball? It's kind of nasty. Even if you are wearing gloves, if he couldn't grip the ball and he couldn't grip the ball, I believe him when he says that the ball was wet, you know, because of the vomit and he didn't want to do that. So yeah. Mm. That's lovely. Enjoy your breakfast. Try not to vomit. Try not to vomit on a football. Try not to vomit on a person. Try to vomit in the places where vomit usually goes. Okay, we're good. But I've got an impressive streak and I don't want to jinx myself, but that particular thing hasn't happened to me since the day after Super Bowl 39 Eagles, okay, Patriots, that particular thing. I got a bug from my son who almost made it to the place where vomit ordinarily goes, but didn't quite get there right after halftime, the Paul McCartney halftime of Super Bowl 39. So it's been a long time. I'm trying to extend it as long as I possibly can. That is the one thing that is like when you're doing it, it's like hell and you just want it to be over before, during, and even after, but once it's over and done, you can like go lay down and it like it like sucks the life out of your body. So anyway, I can't imagine doing that and like getting back like working like I'm working and, and it's just like you just turn your head and do what you have to do and you just keep going. It's like, I need to completely recharge my entire existence when that happens. Your son's doctor tell you that he was going to be over the bug and then nevertheless, he still kept throwing up. Like, was that what happened there? I don't know. Am I missing a reference to something that you are definitely getting missing a reference says somebody's doctor medical records. There's a wide receiver on the field. You wrote about this the other day. Oh, yes. Superbell 39. Well done. You're well done somehow. Yeah. I thought you'd pick up what I was putting down there. Oh, well, I'm, well, I'm surprised that didn't become a thing. You know, we, we communicated about this on the, the PFT text chain. I know, but it's Bill Belichick and Bill Belichick's kind of relevant right now. And when he drops that turd in the punch bowl, just kind of an offhand thing, team doctor saw the x-rays and he tried to kind of clumsily roll through that minefield. But the words saw the x-rays of Terrell Owens came out of his mouth and Josh Alper's the one who caught it. Like, I was just like, Hey, this is kind of interesting. And Josh Alper's like, how the hell did he get his x-rays? It's like, yeah, how the hell did he get his x-rays? Like that's weird. And I, I poked around a little bit. Nobody wants to talk about something from 20 years ago. But Belichick did. And I really am surprised because a lot of times that thing that we post is the equivalent of the instructions on a, on a firework, light fuse and run. I lit the fuse and I ran, but the bomb hasn't gone off. And we'll see if it ever does. By the way, speaking of bombs, Woj-bomb, I, yeah, I didn't write about this at PFT because it's not our beat, but it is a fascinating discussion among those of us who cover sports. Now he covers it in a different way than we do. And there's that, I think, nonstop torment of always being on, of always having to try to stay a step ahead of your competition in champs, terrania. And when it's two guys like that, it's who's going to be first, who's going to be first with the thing that's going to be announced in five minutes anyway, which I think sucks even more of the joy out of, you know, the journalism of it. Cause as I've said time, and again, I learned this from Jay Glaser a long time ago, the only journalism in sports is the stuff they don't want us to know. But still guys at the height of his profession, 55 years old, taps out, walks away to become, I didn't know they had GMs. I guess now that they're getting paid, maybe they need GMs instead of ADs, but the GM at the St. Bonaventure basketball program, Adrian Wojnarowski, gone. I thought it got hacked. I didn't understand what it was at first. My brain didn't want to process it, but you know, ultimately people make decisions in support of that, that third thing we're guaranteed is Americans life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We're not guaranteed happiness. That's true. We're just guaranteed the ability to pursue it. Yes. And we have to make our decisions about where we think those choices will lead. Will it lead to happiness? Sometimes you don't find out till you get there. Sometimes you think it's going to lead you to happiness and you get there. And I've had, I've made those decisions where once the decision is implemented, and like, what the hell have I done, but, but, but we're allowed to pursue that. We get to f around and find out, and, you know, I, I fully support anyone's pursuit of happiness, and we should all, there's room for infinite happiness. It's not a zero sum game. We should all be happy. We shouldn't resent someone else who is happy or trying to become happy, but it was unusual to say the least because he's got a job that most people would look at and say, should be happy, but maybe not. Well, you know, as Don Draper once said, what is happiness, but a moment before you need more happiness, right? So I mean, I think that it certainly is an interesting decision. It's not something that any of us, I think, expected, you know, anybody that follows the NBA, that understands just how essential, which is coverage has been to following the National Basketball Association, especially over the last like 10 years, I made this point yesterday on the app, but like Twitter is what Twitter is in part because of Wozh. If you knew, if it's going to, if you wanted to know something about the NBA, then you knew that's who you needed to follow. And if you really wanted to know, then you put the notifications on because as you started off with talking about this, a Wozh bomb could come at any time. So especially in the summer months with free agency and all these different types of things. So yeah, I think that if not for Wozh in the way that he developed an audience, Twitter would not be the same. Now, obviously, there are different things on there now, you know, and there's plenty of things that are on there. I wish it wasn't the same. I wish it wasn't the same now. But like, you know, when it comes to sports coverage and following sports and in some ways, the way we do our jobs, like that's one of the guys that should be on like Mount Rushmore when it comes to kind of changing the game and the instantaneous nature of putting news out there, he really did change the game. I don't follow the NBA closely enough to know the answer to this. But I got the vibe that the Wozh bombs weren't as closely tied to the official announcement as the NFL equivalents are because we see that time and again, we see the race to Twitter by the handful of folks who have that same constant torment, got to be first, got to be first, got to be first, and then literally within minutes, literally the news is announced by the team. And as you've said before, based upon your experience employed by a team, the teams factor that into their overall planning, Hey, here's how it's going to go. We're going to leak at the chef and then we're going to announce it five minutes later. So I've always felt like the Wozh bombs aren't immediately or as immediately confirmed and corroborated by the people who are making the news. Is that correct? Yes, I would definitely say so. And I don't know, you know, what the necessarily the NBA's process of, you know, getting transactions approved in all this, I mean, because obviously I don't work in it. But yeah, I think that you would be correct in that in that, you know, sometimes the news comes from Wozh or Shams is the case may be in certain cases. And then that news isn't confirmed by the team until a couple of days later, because of the way their process is. So it is a little bit different than what we experienced in the NFL. But I think, you know, those two obviously Shams and Wozh are like the two guys, you know, that you got to go to if you want to follow NBA news and now, you know, one of them is out. It's interesting. Yeah, and hey, again, we all have the right to pursue happiness and we make our choices. And it has sparked some of us who are in this business, I think, to ponder whether we've gotten it wrong. Because for me, getting into this job was the escape from the job that was driving me crazy. Practicing law was a constant fight, constant stress. You constantly have someone's interest riding on your skills and abilities or lack thereof. And I think most people who are lawyers and who litigate and who fight like that all the time, there are some rare personalities who are just wired for that. And they love it and they can never turn it off. And they are people you'd never want to spend time with. And I know some of them because they can never turn it off. And it's fight, fight, fight, fight all the time, everything's a fight. Everything's a fight. It's like, dude, just chill the F out. Like at some point, you got to take the armor off. But for me, 15 years ago, that was the ultimate escape. That was my ticket out. And I was thrilled to be able to set it behind me. I did my time. I served. I served mankind for 18 years in that capacity to extent they actually helped anybody and it's debatable as to whether I did, but that, so for me, it's inconceivable to give up what I do now because I already got the brass ring. I have other stuff that I like to do, but I still, and when you own the platform too, it makes it harder. It makes it harder to give it up. It's one thing to walk away from a job. It's another thing to walk away from a business you started 23 years ago. But at the same time, hey, I understand it. If you decide you want to walk away, whenever, however, the goal is to find your happiness, to pursue your happiness, regardless of whether or not you actually catch your happiness. Well, I think that in some ways, like Woj is kind of doing what you did, right? In terms of getting out of the thing that is the rat race, you know? I can't imagine, and frankly, I am very glad I am in a job that I don't have to do this, where I've got to be on all the time, you know? And there are things that happen, like when Josh McDaniel's got fired last year, right? I was the only one who was awake on the PFT text chain. So it's like, okay, that's breaking news, you do it. And that's one of the things that is very rare, but, you know, and I feel like we're very fortunate for this, but we can, we have hours and there's a staff of us, and it's not like, you know, if something happens, oh my gosh, I've got to drop everything in my life and now get myself to a computer and, you know, boom, there it is. Like, that's not usually the way things work with us, and I'm very, very grateful for that. So that's one of the things that, to me, if my life had been like that for 10, 15, however, many years, especially since the advent of Twitter, I understand why somebody would want to give that up. I would find it very, very difficult, I think, to be on like that all the time. And so then to be able to take what it is that you've learned, you know, as a reporter, and then pour it into your alma mater and a particular program at your alma mater that you really care about, I think that's pretty special. So I hope that we see St. Bonaventure, you know, make some deep runs in the NCAA tournament, in part because of what Warriors can do there. Like, I think that would be really, really cool and a nice conclusion to that story. And look, I don't want to, I don't want to be any more of an ass than I already am. I was talking to my son about this yesterday. Let's be realistic about this, okay? How does what he's done all his career translate to what he's going to do next, other than its basketball? Like, how does that, how do you hear me out? How does it translate? You may know more than I do. I look at it and I say, I mean, shit, I'm not going to go be the AD at West Virginia. I got no qualification to do that just because I've covered football for 25 years, right? I'm not going to go, now, I mean, I've had coaches like, oh, you'd be a great strategic advisor. I don't want to get fired when you get fired and you're more likely to get fired if you would actually recommend to your owner to hire me. But it's not, in my mind, it's not translatable. There was a story that came out after Mort died that he almost went to work for the Jaguars and decided to stay at ESPN. It's like, how does the fact that you know all these people allow you and harvest information and write and talk about it, how does that inject you into the bloodstream of making decisions and implementing theory and running it? I just, I don't, I don't see the connection between the two other than it involves a basketball. Am I wrong? I don't know, man. And, you know, as I've said, I'm not necessarily steeped in that world, but my assumption would be it's the relationships that you've been able to make, you know, not just with coaches and players and all that, but with agents, you know, and you're able to probably help in recruiting because people who know basketball have taught you and told you about the kinds of things that you want to look for for a successful player, right, and implementing a successful program. So it could be sort of, I don't really know what, like a GM of a basketball program at college does either. I mean, like I'm just, like, I'm not steeped in that world, so I don't know. But I would think it's kind of assisting the athletic director in a lot, like the athletic director, basically, of a basketball program, right? So what are you doing? I don't know. You're probably soliciting donations and, you know, making sure that the program is run in a way that is going to help it, which I feel like I've said like three different times. So yeah, I don't know either, but that I guess is what I would think at a time when the people who have spent their careers in college athletics have become exasperated by the fact that the players get paid now, so that's less money for the rest of us. I guess there's value in bringing in somebody who's been dealing with a professional mindset their whole career because it is now quasi, if not completely professional. So the tentacles may apply more than ever 20 years ago. This may have made no sense. Now there's some sense because money is changing hands. Agents are involved and, you know, we'll see. And, and hey, I'm, I just, I'm looking at it from my own perspective. It would be very intimidating to make that kind of turn. It's no, I'm just saying to make that kind of turn like what, yeah, that I have done in 25 years of covering the NFL equips me to be involved in running a college or pro football program. Anyway, I think it's also different because football and basketball are so different, right? Like, you know, if you're talking about a football program in the, in college, that's, you know, roughly 90 to 100 people that you're, you know, trying to herd as players. And then you have recruiting and all this and all these different elements of it. It's why, you know, I don't think it's on the run up, but like the John Gruden, oh, I want to go to college and coach, like, I mean, if somebody will have you, that's like a very, very different world, sir, than what you've been used to. That would be interesting at least. But yeah, basketball, you know, you've got, but 10 to 15 people there. I think it's, that's part of why it's not quite the same. I will say this though. I am qualified to own a team. I just need the, you know, extra 10 billion that I don't have as much as some of these guys. That's for sure. You probably make some better decisions. I'm, yeah, I can name names, names we've named recently and we'll be naming later in the program where, you know, and it is sad. I was telling somebody this yesterday to drive a car in any state. You have to pass two tests to own an NFL team. You have to pass none. All you got to do is show up with a big bag of cash. You're showing up with more cash than anybody else. There's no requirement that you know anything about football. There's no requirement that you be somebody who, I don't know, wouldn't throw a drink on a stranger. There's no requirement whatsoever to own an NFL team other than having enough money. No requirement that you wouldn't remove somebody's hat delivery mispronounced somebody's name as a weird power play right after you've fired him. None of those requirements just chop with the cash and you can own a team. Okay. Everybody's talking about shrinkflation. Companies are now giving you less for the same prices before at Domino's. We're giving you more mix and match any two medium to topping pizzas and we'll upgrade one to a large for free. That's more flation and that's Domino's for dinner prices higher for some locations select online only offer through September 29th. Prices, participation, delivery area and charges may vary. Two at a minimum. PAM pizza extra. Exclude specialty pizzas. Only one medium to topping pizza will be upgraded to a large. First of all, congratulations on becoming the official grill and bar sponsor of the National Football League. How does it feel to serve up the NFL? Man, it's a real dream come true. 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Some extra wear and tear, extra fatigue, traveling across the country, then to Nashville, now home for the home opener against a Patriots team that is going to show up and give them their best shot. This game, it might not be high scoring, then again, what game this year has been, but it's going to be fun and, you know, we got spoiled the other night by a close game all the way down to the end unexpectedly, down at the end. Maybe we'll have an exciting game tonight. Yeah, you know, Mike, I'm a little surprised that the Jets are favored by six in this game. And, you know, maybe that's just me in looking at the Patriots and what they've done the first couple of weeks and thinking, maybe they are better than what we thought. But also given that it's a Thursday night game, you know, I don't think the Jets offense has set the world on fire over these first two weeks. I mean, part of that, yeah, I guess is playing against San Francisco and then Tennessee's, I expect Tennessee's defense to be pretty good because I think do not, Wilson's a good defensive coordinator, or at least defensive mind, you know, and we're now seeing him be a coordinator. So that's another thing about it. But I just, when I look at this game, it's just kind of like, man, I don't, I think that the Patriots are going to be able to keep up in at least some sort of form or fashion with the Jets so that it's not going to be like that. Like, I think this is going to be a close, lower scoring game where we're probably going to see a lot of field goals because that seems to play into what the strengths of each team happens to be. What do you think? Well, I mean, I'd say it's safe to say there's going to be a lot of field goals because there's already been a shit ton of field goals this year. Week three set the all time record for field goals in a weekend and week or week two, excuse me, set the all time record. Week one is in third place all time for field goals in a week and it has a lot of factors that go into that, but I mean, the kickers seem to be better than ever and they keep getting better to the point where I don't know how popular the take this is, but at some point you got to either raise the crossbar, close the uprights together because it's too damn automatic. I mean, one of the fun aspects of watching a football game that would go down to the wire, when it was time to try the game winning field goal, there was a chance that was going to go Scott Norwoody and go wide left or wide right, depending upon where you're standing and which way you're looking. Now it's just automatic. There's no, you know, when, when a young white cou got pushed back after the Drake London, it was a T-shirt cannon. Come on, Reheem. I'll give him points of creativity on that one after that T-shirt cannon. Yeah, there's only one way to celebrate after you score a touchdown in the National Football League. Simulate a T-shirt cannon, but it's a 48 yard extra point and it's like, didn't even cross your mind. No. Yes. No. Yes it did. Not for me. Not for me. Maybe it's automatic. Anyway. Anyway, so yeah, I expect a lot of field goals tonight because if the drive sputters at or about the other team's 40, trot them out there, 57 yards, they used to be inconceivable in the 70s. Now I have 57 yards. Okay, there are a little wind, all right, I'll deal with it. So yeah, this is, you know, two teams that know each other well. And, and, you know, we're, we're accepting the fact, I remember watching the game last Monday night. My buddy was here and he just said at one point, Aaron Rodgers looks old. It's like, well, he's 40 and, you know, rusty, whether you want to call it rusty or old. I mean, there's a certain point where 40 year old man in a football uniform, we're used to seeing guys in the early 20s where it does kind of stand out and, and, you know, he's starting to play that way. I mean, just because you can keep going doesn't mean you're going to keep going at an MVP level. You're going to keep going at some lesser level and we've yet to see full blown Aaron Rodgers experience with the Jets and, you know, this isn't the defense tonight. Although Gino Smith did do a number on the Patriots defense on Sunday. You know, this would be, this is just one of those where if the Jets are going to have the kind of season that isn't going to get everybody fired, this is the kind of game where they need to, they need to show up, especially when you consider that, that all the fans that were there September 11 of last year and who lived through that disappointment, not that the Jets did it on purpose. This is kind of a chance to reset and, and finally, like get that, that home opener from last year behind them. Here's a home opener where we come and we have kind of the celebratory night. We thought we were going to have that. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, you're able to wipe the slate clean a little bit, right? Like that so that everybody gets four offensive snaps out of their mind with Aaron Rodgers. And look, it's, it's interesting to meet you because what did we talk about with Tom Brady a couple of years ago, right? When he was up there playing at 43, 44, and it's like, man, you know, the arm probably still going to be there in a lot of ways, but it's the legs and how do you protect yourself in the pocket? How do you move out of the pocket? How do you, you know, if you've got to move yourself so that you can get a first down, those five yards, you know, how do you do that? And that's one of the things that I guess will separate kind of the younger pups, right? From these older dudes that are still playing, whether it's a Kirk cousins who also is coming off the Achilles or Matthew Stafford, right? Or Aaron Rodgers at this point now. So I think that's kind of the difference. It's the mobility aspect. And that's something that doesn't surprise me given a his age and be like with Kirk cousins, he's coming off in a Achilles tear. This is a very, very serious injury that years ago used to end dudes' careers. And it's amazing the strides that we have taken in modern medicine so that it doesn't and so that there's, you know, whether you believe it or not, a chance that a player can come back within the same season from that injury. I mean, Cam Akers, of course, he's a lot younger, did do that. And this wasn't necessarily as effective in the playoffs for the Rams. He's stolen Super Bowl. So I think when you're looking at it from that perspective, yes, Aaron Rodgers can still throw it, you know, when he's got the protection and things are going right, he can still spin it. But it's going to be interesting to see if that Patriots pass rush can get him off his spot and what then does that do to Aaron Rodgers in the passing game? Because if you can mess up the timing in that way, you can mess up what Aaron Rodgers footwork might be in that way, then that might be the place where you get the opportunity for either an errant ball or, you know, at least an incomplete pass. Slight right turn. You mentioned the Achilles tears. It makes what JK Dobbins is doing this year even more impressive because yes, he had the Achilles tear week one last year, rehabbed with Aaron Rodgers. Now he's only twenty five and that may be the answer. Twenty five versus forty, right. Because the body as it ages is going to rebel against those forces being applied to the soft tissues and the tendons and the ligaments and that's why I think Aaron Rodgers needs to be careful about not using the mobility he still has because calf strain, Achilles strain, quad strain, hamstring strain, those things are all all closer to the center of the bingo card than they would have been ten years ago. Pass rush is going to be key tonight and you've got Keon White of the New England Patriots who already has four sacks tied for a second in the NFL. You've got your main Johnson out for the year, suffered the torn Achilles of his own on Sunday. Will McDonald, the guy that, you know, he had three sacks last week at Tennessee, Hasan Redick still not around for the Jets. It may come down to something as simple as hooked and muster pressure on the opposing quarterback to hurry a throw, get a strip sack, get a key sack on a third down that may be knocked the team out of 57 yard field goal range. But you know, it grinded out kind of a game where the passing isn't going to carry the day disrupting the ability to pass by putting the quarterback on his rear end. That may be the thing that makes the difference. Well, right. And then the Patriots do have injuries on their offensive line. I mean, they've got guys that are out when it comes low and so and then, you know, you've got a couple other guys who are questionable there in terms of on when you and Andrew's. So that's, you know, one of those things where you look at it and you say, okay, where is the edge? Where's the separation, especially on a Thursday night game, you're going on the road. That could be one of the places where the difference is, you know, especially, look, I mean, tackles being out is one thing, but I think your center not being there and you're starting center potentially being out, like that can really affect everything on an offense when it comes to protections, especially. So if that is the case where you don't have a lot of those guys, I mean, that could definitely be one of those things that helps determine the game. And you're right. And the question is, is David Andrews, Belichick questionable, which means not really questionable at all? We just get everybody questionable so you don't really know who's going to be up or down. There's a real questionable, yes, we'll find out, we'll find out. So Aaron Rodgers has been targeting running backs a lot. Breece Hall led the Jets last week in targets with eight, seven receptions. The big observation that Belichick made the week one Monday night manning cast was throw it to Garrett Wilson all the time, it's like deep bill. I didn't need an eight time Super Bowl winner to tell me that like thanks, thanks hashtag analysis, throw it to Garrett Wilson, but that would seem to be the way for the Jets offense to be everything that it can be. Yes, certainly, I mean, that that's the guy on that offense that I think is the biggest difference maker. I'm going to be talking about Garrett Wilson because he's got the ability to run the routes well, but also go up and make the catch as well, go up and make the contested catch. We saw a little bit of that in week one against San Francisco. And so that's something we know that they can do. And I think even going back to hard knocks last year, right? You remember some of the chemistry that they were getting, some of the timing that they were getting. And obviously those guys have a lot of respect for Aaron Rodgers and what he's done, the National Football League and all that, but you still have to keep building that chemistry on Sundays or Mondays or Thursdays, whatever the case may be so that you get comfortable when there's a big third down and everybody knows that it's supposed to go to a certain place. I think you're still able to do it anyway as Aaron Rodgers was able to do for years and years and years with the Vontay Adams in Green Bay. So that's where, you know, you don't necessarily want your running back to lead the team in targets and receptions because A, that means that the opposing defense is solving you a little bit, right? So that because if that's the case, then you're throwing the ball to the back that much. It probably means you're checking the ball down a lot, right? You're not getting those down field shots. You're not really even getting more or less intermediate shots. So that's one thing where I look at it and I'm saying to myself, yeah, let's make sure Garrett Wilson is more involved so that we're not a team that ends up with a running back that is leading us in targets and receptions. And look, if you're trying to defend an offense that has shown a propensity to throw the ball to running backs the first two weeks, I'm reminded of something Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers coach said earlier this week when talking about how the Brian Flores defense in Minnesota bedeviled the San Francisco offense, one of the realities of being highly unpredictable about who's blitzing, when they're blitzing, are they blitzing, it makes it harder for your running back to leak out as a checkdown option because he's got to hang around and make sure he doesn't have to pick up a blitzer. So that there, if you, if you want to take the checkdowns out of the game, that's one way to do it. Now Aaron Rodgers may burn you and make you pay because he may be more adept than other quarterbacks at finding the guy who's going to be wide ass open. If you send pressure from a spot that leaves a guy open, but that's a strategy for taking checkdowns out of the game, if that's what the Patriots choose to do. And that's what makes this one of the things that makes this game interesting to me. The Patriots have 15 years of institutional knowledge about Aaron Rodgers, not that they saw him all the time, but Bill Belichick probably had the food dossier on what to do with Aaron Rodgers. And there's a certain amount of that information that is still there and Gerard Mayo was there. You know, I mean, you pick up some of that stuff, even if Belichick absconded with everything that he ever generated and left none of it behind, there's a certain level of institutional knowledge on how to deal with Aaron Rodgers. Come on, it's not, it's not quite Columbia level, but, but if he did, if he, you know, if Mayo picked some stuff up from Belichick about dealing with Rogers, even if it's just Belichick sitting around, just fascinated by Rogers film and saying, look at this, you know, look at this freaking guy. I mean, I'm picking up a lot of stuff from Deborah McCordie about how Bill Belichick would like talk and, and deal with things. But it, it makes me wonder how much of the fumes of Bill Belichick will be present tonight in whatever the Patriots do to try to counter what we've seen from Aaron Rodgers his entire career. Yeah. And I think that that makes a lot of sense. I mean, you don't be, you can't be around somebody who's leading an organization for as long as Mayo was, but this is the, as a player and then as a coach and not pick certain things up, you know, and maybe there are certain things where you look at it and you're like, huh, that's not something I would do myself or then other things there are where it's like, okay, that's something that I can adapt and mimic and emulate in my own way. So yeah, I think that is one of those things that's interesting about this. And you know, when you're, when you're going into last year, for instance, right, and you know that Rogers is going to be a part of your division, it's one of the things that you might do a little bit of work on in the off season is just like, study them a little bit more. Think about what are some of the ways that we can try to attack him as a divisional opponent that we're going to see twice a year. So that's another one of those elements that, you know, you talk about fumes of Bill Belichick. I think that that is something that they might have talked about last in last year's off season, just given the fact that he was going to be a part of their division. And now he is, and he's actually playing as opposed to last year when he only lasted four snaps. And you knew you were going to see him early the third Thursday, technically second Thursday night game of the season, the Patriots offense. This is an interesting dynamic that's developed with Jacoby Percette at quarterback Hunter Henry has emerged as by far, by far the favorite topic, target, excuse me, 15 targets, 10 catches is 127 yards, the next guy on the list is another tight end Austin Hooper with 36 yards. From 127 all the way to 36, there's KJ Osborne signed in free agency from the Vikings, he's got only four catches for 28. And down the list, we go to Mario Douglas expressing some frustration, Jacoby Percette said yesterday, I'd be disappointed if he wasn't frustrated, two catches for 12 yards in two games. Not a lot out of the passing game, except for Hunter Henry. Do you think that changes tonight or, you know, do you just keep doing what works? Well, I think if you're the Jets, part of it is you want to take that away, right? I mean, if you have one player who is clearly above the rest when it comes to both targets and receptions, then that kind of is a trigger of, okay, well, that's the guy we know we need to stop. Let's make all the rest of these guys beat us. So if Douglas is upset and he's only gotten, you know, a couple of catches, he might have more opportunities tonight just based on the way the Jets play their defense, right? So they are, if you're the Jets, are we going to try to force Jacoby Percette to make decisions and put the ball elsewhere and to, you know, guys, hands it, he may not have as much trust with, right? If you're throwing the ball at much to Hunter Henry, it probably is a little bit defensive directed, right, because that's where the defense is allowing the open man to be. But also it has something to do with trust. And you understand that this guy is another veteran guy. He's going to be where he is supposed to be when I let go of the ball with anticipation. So that's one of those things where if I'm the Jets, I'm looking at it and say, okay, well, we know that Hunter Henry just can't beat us tonight. And if he does shame on us, because it's going to be our fault. I don't have access to the full Hunter Henry next gen stats route tree from the first two weeks, but there's a chance some of those targets and catches have been checked down ish because, you know, depending upon the route that's assigned to the tight end, if the outside receivers are covered, there's my, there's my security blanket, there's my check down option, there's my guy that I can rely on and there clearly is a level of trust between per set and Henry and, you know, it may be a situation where even if he's covered, you can still get it to him and he can go and make the catch running games tonight will be important because it's kind of the year of the running back so far. The item I posted before the show started JK Dobbins mentioned him earlier and Jordan Mason of the 49ers, there's only six guys that have ever done what they have a chance to do. Three games to start the season, a hundred yards rushing in each game, a rushing touchdown in each game, only six have done it, headlined by Jim Brown who did it for the first six games of the 1958 season, a season that I do not remember because I was contrary to popular belief. I was not alive then and definitely was not a ball fan then, but they can both get to three and you've got two good running backs in tonight's game. Ramondre Stevenson, who is fifth in the NFL and rushing with 201 yards, Breece Hall, who has only 116, tied for 25th, I mean we kind of expect to break out from Breece Hall this year. Breece Hall's got the higher over under from draft Kings tonight at 65 and a half. No, he's 63 and a half. Stevenson is 65 and a half, but there's just been this sense that Hall's the better guy. I just feel like Stevenson is more central to the Patriots offense than Hall is to the Jets offense. I would agree with that assessment. I think that when we think of the Jets offense, we think Aaron Rodgers first and the way that he can get a passing game going and then Breece Hall on the running game second, but I mean this is now, Breece Hall is more than a year removed from the injury, right, that he had with the knee in his rookie season and that took him out and then athletes always talk about this. If you have a major injury, it's going to take you more than a year to really come back and really start feeling like yourself and so this is one of those opportunities where Breece Hall can come in and really start to feel like himself and show that he is that guy that we all felt like he could be when he was a rookie and he was tearing things up. Because he was really, really good. I mean, this is not something that we're making up out of thin air, right? It's something that we've seen before, but I think you're right when it comes to Stevenson and being more central to that offense. I mean, if he's not going to get going and you've got to rely on Jacobi Brissette to throw you out of situations, Jacobi Brissette is prone to making a mistake. He's prone to throwing the interception that might be ugly. So that's where I think you're absolutely right that Stevenson really is central to that offense. And if they don't get him going or they don't get the run game going at all, then you're probably looking at a Jets win. And ultimately, all we can really hope for in these standalone primetime games, especially for my own selfish purposes, I got two games a week that I can really focus on. Because Sunday, it's this, you know, it's this blender of activity, early games, late games, getting ready for football night in America, Sunday night, there's only so much of the game that I can really watch in real time, Monday night and Thursday night are the opportunities to watch the live game and hope for an exciting finish. There is something that is still magical to me after all these years of watching football of understanding that this is a game that is coming down to a play here, a play there. What can the offense do? What can the defense do? We got that unexpectedly Monday night after Scott van Pelt essentially declared the Eagles to be the winners. We got a switcher route and the Falcons pulled it off. And, you know, to get back to what we were talking about earlier, the things that, you know, because a lot of stuff of what we do, it's the same old, same old, but the thing that really gets me going, even though it is exhausting, especially on a Monday during football season, when you've already had a long day as it is, when you have one of those great finishes and you know that you got to stay up because there's going to be some interesting stuff from the press conferences and the locker room after what happened and the way it happened. So there's something about that when you're in that moment, you can sense the palpable, just the anticipation of what guys are going to say, how people are going to react to it. So I always want that on a Monday night or Thursday night. I want a great finish that's going to have me race to my office as soon as the game's over waiting for the press conferences to hear what folks have to say about whatever it is we just saw. So my wish for everyone as we all pursue our own happiness, hopefully the Patriots and Jets will pursue a memorable outcome tonight. Yeah, maybe we'll get somebody shooting a t-shirt gun into the crowd after they score a late touchdown to you never know. Maybe literally shooting a t-shirt cannon, although that would probably that would probably get you fine. That would probably be the use of an unauthorized prop. By the way, by the way, we do have before we take a break, we have an important vomit ball update. We have folks who are trying to interpret and help us understand the vomit ball situation. Viewer says, even if the center puked to the left of the ball, the amount that he released would have pulled on the ground around the ball before it was snapped. He could have dragged the underside of the ball through it when snapping as well. So even if it went back into the left, there's still enough there, supposedly, to have infiltrated the ball. We have no reason to doubt Malik Willis' representation that the ball was wet because we've seen the evidence. There was plenty of liquid in the vicinity of the ball. Alright, on that note, go enjoy your breakfast and we will not talk about vomit ball for the rest of the show, although maybe we will. When we return, will the Packers quarterback not name Malik Willis be back under center to, you know, receive the snap of a vomit ball or some other exotic coating to the football? Please go to where he actually continues right after this. 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