(00:00) Mike Tomlin on naming Justin Fields starter
(16:05) Tell Me why…
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Mike Tomlin on naming Justin Fields starter + PFT Week 4 Power Rankings
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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. Social savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. You know, I can't give you all the ingredients to the hot dog. You might not like it. It'd be easy lifting. I don't think a lot about the things that I say to be honest with you. And it'd be a good book. Big good book. It's right before the Halloween. Available on time for the Christmas season, the Christmas season now begins. I want to say November 1, but it's probably even before that. I mean, it's hard to interfere with Halloween. I'd say November 1 is fair. That's when the Mike Tomlin is in book will drop November 1. Is that fair? Yeah, like maybe a little bit, maybe a week after that. Maybe November 8, you know, after the election, because you know, you don't want it to- Don't we need the distraction for the election? Focus done. Yeah, you know, maybe right after that, because it's too close to Halloween. When did they start playing? When is Christmas music played all over the place? It's probably sometime in November. It's November. Right? It's usually earlier and earlier. I've seen it when I rarely emerge from my cave and go out and about. It's like right after Halloween, the Christmas decorations start to go up and Gary says Costco put out their Christmas stuff on September 1. So yes, it'll be right after Halloween. So that's when the Mike Tomlin book will be available and he'll probably add some more chapters. We'll have to hold printing as long as possible because you never know when Mike Tomlin is going to give you something else you can add to the back end of the book. There's Tomlin from yesterday on weather and when Justin Fields will be named what he seems to be based on three games, QB1 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike, now that you're three games in, what more do you need to see from Justin? Why not name him the starting quarterback going forward? Because there's no need. You know, I explain to you the variables of the week. It has not changed. He's going to walk in this building with that mindset tomorrow. And so I really, there's no need to. Sometimes in this business, man, there's a myriad of complex decisions that need to be made. I've learned to make them when it's appropriate and it's not necessary as we sit here right now when Russ gets to an appropriate point of health and we have a decision to make. I'll make it and I'll announce it and I'll be really transparent about it. Until then, I don't care how many ways you guys ask me, you know, I got no intentions of making the decision that's unnecessary at this juncture. That is another way of saying, look, I've stumbled into a great situation here. I've got a starter who's injured. I've got to back up who's playing well enough and I'm not going to remove the label from the guy who's injured and put it on the guy who's playing because then if the guy who's playing stumbles, I'll be benching my starting quarterback. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to let this play out one week at a time. And if and when the guy who's playing ever stumbles, the guy who's injured is going to be healthy and QB one will simply be taking his job back. So you never bench the guy that they want to groom to be the long-term starter. That's the reality. They're playing a word game, but it's an important word game to play because when they bench Justin Fields, if they have to bench him, they don't want it to be a benching of Justin Fields. Right. Oh, it's a perfect situation, right? Oh, I never told you guys that he was a starter. That's a good situation, Justin came in and he did a good job, but I told you at the beginning of training camp that I like Russell Wilson's leadership. He's one of our captains and the job. You don't lose your job to injury. You have every possible scenario covered, but I am noticing this, Mike. I'm noticing that he doesn't have to say it. He doesn't have to say that Justin Fields is their starting quarterback, but he could say Russ is our starter and he's not. Like a lot of coaches will say that, "Hey, Justin's done a great job, but I've said all along. Nothing has changed. Russ is our starter and we look forward to him coming back unless you don't feel that way." I told you last week I'm even more emphatic this week. The job belongs to Justin Fields. It's Justin Fields' job now because it's not like Fields is doing something. He is not just getting by and playing a style that the Steelers don't like. He's playing the way I think they would want Russell Wilson to play, except he's got more explosive ability than Russell Wilson. He's got the ability to just break off. I know he scores there on the short run, but he's, we know this, he's got the ability to break off a 40 or 50 yard run at any time, taking care of the football, making smart decisions. That's what Russell Wilson is supposed to do. The fact that Justin Fields is playing like this and they're 3-0, I think it's his job. I can't, in other words, my gimme an argument for Russell Wilson, let's say he's healthy this week when we know he's not going to be, but let's say he's healthy, he comes into the facility today and says, "Coach, I'm ready to go. Here we go. Give me an argument for putting Russell Wilson in there right now." There isn't one. There isn't one. Until the Steelers lose, there's no argument to be made because you keep rolling the dice. The dice are hot. Don't disrupt anything. It's like the baseball player, and you see this in other sports, but baseball seems to be the one because they have so much time sitting around being bored that they come up with them. They have all these dumb superstitions, like this is working. It doesn't matter that he's not Dan Marino. It doesn't matter that he's not Patrick Mahomes. It doesn't matter that he's not Josh Allen. We're 3-0. And last year, we made it to the playoffs with quarterback play that was so bad, we fired all of them when the season ended. We completely unloaded the entire quarterback depth chart last year for a team that made the playoffs. So yeah, we're winning, and Justin Fields is getting reps in this offense. And Arthur Smith, the new offensive coordinator, that system feels fits it better. He just needs to do a little bit more in the passing game. And Chris made a great point the other day. We were showing, I think it was Chris. I think this is the one thing, the variety pack. I never remember what cereal box I'm referring to, but, but it was cocoa puffs. It was cocoa puffs, but Chris said something along the lines of Fields was running out of the pocket. And with the bears, he just would have taken off with the Steelers. He held the ball, he was patient, he completed a pass. So it's coaching him up to be a better passer while taking full advantage of his agility, acceleration, and overall mobility. That's where he becomes the better option and you can't, you just can't, you can't make an argument at this point to go back to Russell Wilson, because we never got a glimpse of Russell Wilson as a starter in a regular season game. The last thing we saw from him, which was very impressive against Detroit pre-season Ford Field as loud as it is in the regular season on a key third down, third and long early in the game. Russell Wilson delivered a strike to George Pickens. Boom, that's it. He's the starter off we go and, and there's just, there's nothing you can sink your teeth into other than that to say, yeah, let's sit down the guy who's playing well and we're winning games with and put QB one back on the field as much as Russell Wilson would surely love it. And it's got to be a test of his restraint to not activate his PR machine to start leaking something that makes him look better, that tries to agitate for a trade or whatever, which the Steelers should not do because Justin Fields could get hurt and then you've got a perfect plan B, who if he plays well, we're in the same situation, we're not, we're not making Russell, we're not saying anything, we're just going to let it play out. I was going to ask you how adaptable Russell Wilson is, I was thinking on the field, but since you brought up the PR part off the field too, because the audiences in Seattle and Denver, okay, they, they dealt with the PR machine of Russell Wilson. As you know, Western Pennsylvania is a little different, PR, they don't like that kind of stuff there. You're going to have to, can you come up with a different PR approach, got to be, it's got to be subtle, but it's got to be blue color, it probably, no matter what you do, it's probably going to fail. It's not going to work in Western Pennsylvania, but I wonder also on the field, seriously, young Russell Wilson would be great for Arthur Smith's offense, a young Russell Wilson. The, the, the, let Russ cook Russell Wilson, hey, I need to, I need the opportunity to express myself going to Denver because, and I'm one of these great quarterbacks, one of these great passing quarterbacks, I really don't see the, the fit with, with, with Smith and Tomlin for Russell Wilson and Pittsburgh, like I do for Justin Fields. I mean, Justin, it makes so much sense that this young quarterback is getting the coaching, the best coaching that he's had of his career from the head coach and from the office of coordinator, who understands not just for him, but for years of Steelers football. This is compliment. This is what we do. It's complimentary football, Steelers football at its best. We don't necessarily need a quarterback to be everything for us. We need you to do things that just don't, don't put us in just really negative adverse situations on office. I can just see it. It makes sense for Fields. Russell Wilson there as a starting quarterback, look, looks a little more hippie to me. I'm, I'm not sure it's the best fit. He's going to have to sit back and wait for Justin Fields to get injured or completely and totally collapse. They're going to have to lose like three games in a row and it's going to have to be Justin Fields fault primarily before a change is going to be made and he just has to be patient and we're tired. But look, the PR machine is real because when he got benched last year in Denver, I started hearing from his PR people. That wasn't an accident. That was, that was release the hounds. I need, you know, I, I, I look bad, make me look good. That's the last thing you want to try with Mike Tomlin. This is a guy who is going to be a free agent after this season. Who's going to give him a starting job if he hasn't played this year? Who's going to say Russell, who, how do you sell that? To a fan base we've seen since he left Seattle two bad years in Denver and one year in Pittsburgh where he got injured on the first day of training camp and we don't see him all season long assuming he doesn't play this year and it's Fields wired a wire. But, but if he wants out, there's one way to handle it, Michael, face to face with Mike Tomlin. Ask for a meeting with Tomlin, go into his office and I'm reminded of that goofy subway commercial he did about the, ooh, ooh, right? You know that he's a, ooh, pretty dangerous, but you don't want to bring that guy in. You don't want to bring, and you don't want to bring Mr. Unlimited in. You just want to be very straight, Mr. Unlimited, but you want, what you want to, I'm unlimited. You want to go in and you want to say to Mike Tomlin, hey, you want volunteers, not hostages. I don't want to be here. I want to play. I'd like to be traded to a place where I think I can play. And that's six weeks out. By then, between now and then, there could be the clouds part and there's a starting job available because a starter is out for the year. That's the moment to go see Mike Tomlin and say, you always say you want volunteers, not hostages. I feel like a hostage here. I came here as the starter. You bring Justin Fields in two weeks later. You didn't tell me you were going to get Justin Fields. I came in as the starter. I want to start. You want volunteers, not hostages. And now it's time for you to do right by me. I don't know the Tomlin will give it to him, but the best thing you can do with the Mike Tom and Christmas book is turning around and show it to him, which is exactly what he'd be doing. That's right. Isn't this your quote here on page 33? Didn't you say this, coach? Come on. But Mike, Mike Tomlin can contradict himself. Like I'm about to contradict myself right now. You tell me all about on this if I'm contradicting myself. All right. I said, I don't really see the great fit Russell Wilson and Arthur Smith at this stage of Wilson's career. However, if I'm Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson comes to me and says, I want to go somewhere else, I'm saying no, because it's the most important position in football. And although you're not the best fit, I think you can play the position. And I've already seen, hey, the Vikings got a break. Sam Darno looked like he was going to be out. He's not Brock Purdy is questionable for this weekend. We know what's happened with Tua already. The Panthers already replaced Bryce Young. I mean, this position, just things happen, performance, injuries. And you'd be crazy to just move on from a quarterback who you named as your starter. And then to your good fortune, his backup came in and led you to a 3 and 0 start. So maybe he's not your starter, but he still has value. I wouldn't. I'd say, hey, Russ, it's better for you to just hang on here. Just be on board. Be a leader. Be a captain. This will be better for you. Even though you won't have the numbers that you expect to have after this one year in Pittsburgh, it will say more about you as a leader, as a teammate. If you stay here and support Justin Fields, I would not, I would not get rid of him. And he doesn't even have a bloated quarterback starting salary that would be offloaded by trading. And because he took that $1.21 million minimum deal to stick the balance of the 38 million he'd do to make this year to the Broncos. So why would the Steelers trade a guy who's been to two Super Bowls and one one who they have on the roster for the cheapest they could possibly have a 12 year veteran on the roster. And Bill Belichick even called it earlier this week, the best quarterback situation in the entire league, having Fields and Wilson on the depth chart at one and two and speaking of Belichick, he said nice things about the Steelers. He yet again took a shot at the Jets. Why does he still have a problem with the Jets? Michael Holly has some insights he will share with all of us. I'm very interested in this because I don't know what the insights are. We'll find out next here on PFT Live. The $5 meal deal at McDonald's means you get to pick between them a double or a chicken. Then get a small fry, a small drink and a four piece McNuggets. That's a lot of McDonald's for not a lot of money. Get the $5 meal deal today. Prices and participation may vary for a limited time only. Hey Applebee's, congrats on becoming the official grilling bar sponsor of the NFL. How does it feel? I'm glad we'll be able to bring some extra heat. Any plans to celebrate? Yeah, we're gonna serve up America's favorite bowling swings for just 50 cents each to get off the season. It's a no brainer streaming games and saving on them too. It's not just college football. Slaying has live sports news entertainment channels you love and less of the ones you don't. So you save hundreds of dollars on live TV. Slaying also lets you choose and customize your channel line up so you can choose the channels you actually like to watch. Slaying's cloud DVR lets you record your shows to watch on your schedule. There's no complex technology, no long term contracts and no hidden rigamarole. Get rewarded for watching college football. Slaying lets you do that. Slaying.com/play to learn more and get started that's slang.com/play slang.com/play. First goal five, Jones back looks, fires it into the end zone, touchdown neighbors, other skinny coaches. Malik neighbors' neighborhood is a wonderful place to be. They keep it on the ground, but Saquon Barkley they do, he frets free, he's at the 50th of 2020. He's going to go, touchdown, Saquon Barkley. They're in working out of the gun, topsets goes, got on the ball, lifts it on the hook and ladder. Coming inside the fire, give the end zone, give it a touchdown Detroit live. Oh baby, how beautiful is that? Darnold shotgun, fires to the center of the end zone and it is caught, touchdown, Johnny Munch. Paul, that was an absolute laser beam to get the Derek Everett running right up the middle. He's got a hole. And the team headed to the 10th, the five, touchdown right in, the train is rolling and the king scores again. Stafford back to pass, throws middle, Kyra and the catch, had to find a center zone to the end zone. Touchdown, Kyra and Williams, touchdown, L.A. Back to the pass, throws over the middle field, it's Calvin Austin, he has a step, Austin and the middle field, inside the top, to the five, touchdown, and I've been lost. Oh, let's swing him, that is Nelly Blueberry, bye baby. Rogers, the gun, no, it's better to let L'Hara give us a cover, hit the key, that got us a B, C, C, and your, a, now, where by your, a, now, L'Hara, Lord, it's here in the middle of the end zone. I took three years of Spanish a long time ago, all I understood from that was C, C, C, C, and your, the rest of it, I don't know, hump day homers, let's take tradition. I got, I got Nueva York, I don't think it's several years of Spanish, touchdown Nueva York. I heard that. I took several years of Spanish, but Mike, I choked, I choked, I went to Puerto Rico a few years ago, went to a bakery, and, and my wife almost like hit me on the head, because we had to go and get some eggs, eggs, okay, whatever. The most basic word in español, and I go in there, and they ask me what I want, and I just blanked out, and I started, I started making sides. Chicken sounds. She said, "Could you stop doing that? You don't know what that means, you're such an idiot." That's good. It's so funny when I remember being in Spanish class, and it's all very deliberate and slow, and then you would hear tapes of people actually interacting in Spanish, and it moves so fast, it's like, I have no, it's like, I've never even tried. Although, although with a few drinks, I can convince myself, I know a lot more Spanish than I do. I have flashbacks, no, it's still huevos, but I would remember huevos. It would take a lot of, a lot of, of services for me to forget huevos. All right, another thing that we're trying out here with Michael hauling on Wednesdays, tell me why, with a variety of questions, however many we can get to in the time that we have. Let's start with this. Tell me why the O and three bangles or the O and three Jaguars take your pick, can turn things around and make it to the playoffs. Oh, give me the bangles. I am moving away from the Jaguars. I don't think they can. I think they've got real problems. But at least the bangles, Mike, they've got a franchise quarterback who did look pretty good on Monday night against the commanders. The problem was on defense. They couldn't stop anybody, but, but Joe Burrow had his Joe Burrow moments. He's got T Higgins coming back. He played on Monday, had some good plays. It was Burrow to chase the beginning of the game. That looked very familiar. And they, they haven't been here before at O and three, but they have had rough starts before to recover. So I can see the bangles getting back in the conversation. I don't think they'll be able to overcome it and win the division. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them when, you know, seven of the next ten. We've seen that from them before. The Jaguars, I'll let you have them. I think that is, that is far above my pay grade. I just don't think they have it in them. Yeah, look, we've seen Joe Burrow embrace postseason football. The moment he recognizes our margin for error is so small that the rest of the season is basically the postseason. That's when he'll slip into overdrive. I think the bangles far more suited to turn this round. The Jaguars are one in eight in their last nine games. They were eight and three to start the season last year. Something has happened to them and it's not coming back. And I mentioned my unofficial Bill Belichick watch list. Before this weekend, it consisted of three teams in the NFC East, the Cowboys, the Eagles and the Giants. After Monday night, I added two teams to it. I added the Jaguars and I added the bangles. Now, the bangles will never hire him because Mike Brown will never pay him. And even if Jerry Jones and Bill Belichick could work something out where Bill takes a discount, I don't think that would ever happen in Cincinnati, even though that might be the best team he could go coach. The Jaguars would make sense. No state income tax in Florida. We know Bill doesn't like to pay income tax. And you go there and try to turn the Jaguars around. A team that's never been to a Super Bowl, a team that's got a franchise quarterback who maybe needs a little bit of a Bill Belichick and kicking the ass to get his career, you know, on par with Brady or on track with Brady. We talked yesterday about some of the things that Trevor Lawrence has said in the past that, you know, maybe he doesn't have that overpowering desire to prove people wrong and go out there and win. Maybe Belichick could instill that in him. But I don't see any hope for the Jaguars this year. I think it's just a matter of time before Doug Peterson is out. And Sean Conne, the owner of the team, is making plans through his next coach is going to be. So give me the bangles and give me Bill Belichick to the Jaguars on the unofficial PFT Belichick watch list. Well, that guy right there, Bill Belichick does go to the Jaguars. You see Matt Jones being sacked and losing the football. If he does go to the Jaguars, they'll say, "Hey, forget about the contract. You got to get him away from me." Okay, I left New England. Part of the reason I'm not New England anymore is because of Matt Jones. I don't want Matt Jones as my backup quarterback, as my scout team quarterback, as an advisor. He's got to be off the roster. But I wonder if Jacksonville, if that team and that division has enough juice for Belichick, AFC South, that's not really his thing. Now, we talked earlier about Dallas, Philadelphia, the Giants, the NFC East, I can see him going to either of those teams, any of those teams and saying, "Okay, I can turn this around. This is where I want to be. This is where the attention is. I like it. I like the fan base. I like the profile of these legacy organizations. I just don't think the Jaguars would do it for him." I don't disagree with that. I mean, I feel like the Giants are the one team that he would love to find his way to coach. The name has come up in the past, but all that stuff was going on with Jimmy Garoppolo, Tom Brady, Robert Kraft, the long article from Seth Wickerson, the kind of stirred stuff up. And the aftermath of that Gary Myers floated the idea of Belichick wanting to go to the Giants. I just put the Jaguars on there because I could see the Jaguars being interested in the question is, "How much money? How much power do you not want to pay state income tax in Florida?" That would check that box. So I'm just keeping an eye on it. Don't keep an eye on the Jets, though. I had a friend a few weeks ago say, "Wouldn't it be wild if Belichick coached the Jets?" Yeah, I don't think that's ever going to happen. Here's Belichick from earlier in the week talking about the resurgence of Sam Darnell. Pay close attention for the stray cut by the NYJ. But I'll say this. Everybody has liked Darnell. They set the Jets. The people in Carolina that I talked to, they really liked him. He was at the Rams and not for very long. They liked him. I think they want to re-sign him. He was looking for more of an opportunity than the play behind Stafford. And then I know that Kevin and some of the coaches in Minnesota, they really like this guy too. So it seemed like the only people that didn't like Darnell were at the Jets. Wow, Bill the Spengali got Darnell and Baker Mayfield confused there for a second. Mayfield is the one who went to the Rams, Bill, but it's okay. We'll give you a pass. You were busy coaching the Patriots at the time that Baker Mayfield, not Sam Darnell went to the Rams. But the point is, firing a little shot there at the Jets can't let it go. Can't quit hating on the Jets, Michael. Why is that? Can't let it go. Mike, you need to get yourself a rival the way Belichick has won in the Jets. This is Ohio State, Michigan. This is old school Raiders Chiefs where they just have each other on the brain, not just before the games, but in the offseason year round. And I've just seen Belichick over the years. He has a deep-seated. I mean, it is so unhealthy. It is so angry, but compelling too. The way he thinks about the Jets at all times is crazy. I remember, I used to keep a little chart of how many times after, and it's just like a little thing. I'd say, okay, when is he going to say it? Every time they beat the Jets, I'd say, "Watch." In the first minute of his press conference, he's going to come out and say, "Hey, it's always great to beat the Jets." I'll bet you I've got about 10 or 12 of those clips. We can find it. It's always great to beat the Jets. He hates them. He used to, I remember one year, remember this defensive tackle from Kentucky. He wound up being a bust. Remember, Dwayne Robertson? Yes. So he got a top five pick, wound up being a top five pick of the Jets. So there was a rumor, and Belichick, he really kept this going. Don't ever let him say he doesn't pay attention to what's said in the media. So that year, the Patriots had two first round picks, and there were rumors that the Patriots were going to move up in the draft to draft Dwayne Robertson because he needed a defensive tackle. And he told people in the building, he was like, "Keep that going. Keep that rumor going because I think the Jets might do something with this guy, and I want to see it happen." Sure enough, the Jets move up into the top five. I think they move up to number four. They take Dwayne Robertson, and the Patriots sit back and laugh that they kind of trapped, or they kind of lured the Jets into taking a player that they didn't want in the first place. I mean, he hates them. It goes back to Steve Gutman, the former president who said Bill Belichick was having some psychological problems when he resigned as head coach of the NYJ, that famous press conference. Man Genie and Spygate, he had problems with Rex Wright. I mean, he hates the Jets. Parcels, of course. Any opportunity he gets, he's going to take shots at the Jets. That's just what he does. That's what made it so odd that he joined among his various media jobs. He's working with Mike Tannenbaum's group because Tannenbaum was the guy that ultimately, as legend has it, blew the whistle on Spygate once he heard what Man Genie had to say about what went on during the games. So, I don't know. Maybe some fences can be mended, but no fences mended with the New York Jets organization. And as Gary points out, it wasn't a stray. It was a scud missile that was launched by Bill Belichick back at the New York Jets. So I hope that we're ever going to be coaches. I hope wherever he coaches. If he coaches again, he gets to play the Jets on a semi regular basis. All right, we need to take a break. When we return, we take a look at this week's PFT Power Rankings, and I had a very late change. As I was getting ready to publish them yesterday, I had a moment of inspiration, and I made a significant change. You'll see what it is next year on PFT Power Rankings presented by our friends at Toyota Week 4. And Michael, I work on the Monday night during the first half of the game. Now, when there's this weird simultaneous overlapping double header, I don't know when to really start, but I try to get them done by halftime, and I had them done. They were ready to go, and then they got to tweak them for the Monday night results, but Chiefs were number one. Chiefs were number one right up until like two minutes before I posted them yesterday because it occurred to me. The Chiefs have not looked great this year. The Chiefs are 3 and 0. They could be 0 and 3. They arguably should be 2 and 1 at a minimum. The bills have looked really good. Now, they, they screwed around with the Cardinals a little bit, but they dismantled the Dolphins. I was thinking about that because the two at Tonga Byloa Concussion kind of took over the aftermath of that game, and then they just flat out obliterated the Jaguars. I had Chiefs then bills. I decided at the tail end. I got even though the Chiefs didn't lose, and I'm a firm believer. You got to lose to lose the top spot. This is probably the first time I've done this in a long time, so long that I can't remember, which probably means I did it last November, but the bills have overtaken the Chiefs for number one without the Chiefs losing. Do you disagree or disagree? Okay, that's, I agree with that. The bills look great. They look great on Monday night, and it looked pretty good the week before that too. They look pretty, we were talking about two of it, but they look good against the Dolphins. And the two of Storyline really overrode what we saw, the diversity, the offensive diversity that we saw from the bills in that game. That was a running game. That was a running game. Diversity against the Dolphins. Passing game on Monday night. Josh Allen, you know, showing all of his powers, spreading the ball around. So I don't disagree with that, but I do have a problem with these power rankings. Okay. I'm surprised, Mike, that you've got the Packers with a loss over the Vikings who are undefeated. And I'm surprised you have the Steelers who are undefeated over the Vikings by three spots. And I'd say the Vikings have had a, especially their last game, like really, what's the toughest game the Steelers have played? If we're going to start dissecting the three and O's, the Vikings played a really good opponent on Sunday, the Texans, great opponent, great quarterback, great weapons. I mean, the Steelers have knocked off teams that you look at and say, yeah, the Steelers, Steelers probably should beat those teams. I'll peel back to Curtin a little bit yesterday as I was contemplating putting the bills ahead of the Chiefs. I sent a text to the PFT writers thread, just seeking their input. And Miles Simmons responded by saying, "Your rankings do whatever you want," which is a very polite way of saying, "Don't bother me with this. It's stupid." We're probably right. So I pushed back a little bit and he said the Vikings should be number one. By any metric, they're the best team in the NFL right now. I'm just, and this is where my 50 years of being a Vikings fan will skew me because I have too many memories of convincing myself, "Hey, they're pretty good this year," and that's when they fall flat. They got a tough game coming up at Lambo Field. It's either going to be Malik Willis, who's been pretty damn good, or Jordan Love at Quarterback. It's going to be a tough one for the Vikings. Let's see what they do against the Green Bay Packers at Lambo Field. But look, they completely obliterated the Giants 28-6. They should have blown out the 49ers, but for a fumble at the goal line by Aaron Jones, where the ball was punched out by 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, it would have been 27-7. And who knows where it would have gone from there? And then it was 34-7 against the Texans. They've had three pretty damn good games, and they're as balanced on both sides of the ball as any team, and coached as well as any team on both sides of the ball. So, but I still need to see more. There's two more games before the Buy Week at Lambo, and then a trip to London to face Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. We'll see where they are after the next two games. Yeah, so beating the Niners, that doesn't do it for you, beating the Texans convincingly. They wall up the Texans. And as you said, so they've done that, and not only are they well coached, you can make an argument that they have a top five offensive coordinator. I know he's also the head coach, and a top five defensive coordinator. So you put all those things together. The only question, the only surprise I would say with the Vikings is how well Sam Darnold has played at quarterback. So, so well that what were you doing as a Vikings fan when you're awaiting the results of the MRI? I hope that thing's clean. I hope Sam Darnold could be there for us in this game against the Packers at Lambo Field. That's been the biggest surprise Sam Darnold. And look, I have a weird existence now because I really don't care like I used to, and I also have accepted the fact that disaster is coming. Dr. Doom is making an appearance today. I've lived it for this guy. I've lived it. Let me get myself positioned right so they can put the mask over my head. I've lived it for 50 years. And so, like, yeah, I talked to Darnold after the game, and he was being very circumspect, and I almost feel like they had him go ahead and do media after the game. Like, everything's fine. Let's act like everything's normal. There isn't a problem. I just accepted the fact that there was going to be a report on Monday that the MRI showed something, and he's out three to six weeks, and it's Nick Mullen's time. And Nick Mullen's time is not good for anyone except for Dr. Doom. Thank you very much. We should take a break. I don't know how Dr. Doom talks. I would do the Dr. Doom voice, but I just assume it's like a deep, like, raspy, you know, chain smoking. As we said last week, the unfiltered marbles. Who was it that sounded like they had or they needed to? Tom Brady needs to. Somebody last week had shown up in a deeper, deeper voice than expected, and then we had the conversation about cigarettes. So, Dr. Doom chain smokes, unfiltered marbles. So, all right, let's take a break. We'll look at some of the best catches from the weekend that was, or not some of the best. The very best is carefully cultivated by our staff. The best of the best catches from week three. There, I fixed it next on PFT Live. All right, we're closing in on the end of this Wednesday edition of PFT Live. What we're going to do, a draft of the week three Mulligans. Who would take advantage of a do-over for week three if they could? I've got my three. Usually I come to the table with five or six in case there's overlap. I've got three. So, Michael, if you take one of mine, I'm screwed because I only got three. Go. So, which one would I want to do over? I don't know why, Mike. I ignored the Steelers. I should have taken the Steelers. I shouldn't have believed. I know you love the Bucks. I should have given you the Bucks. You know, I wish I could do that one over. That was a big miss. And I'm not giving up on a draft of the Texans. I still believe in the Texans. They ran into a juggernaut in Minnesota, a great team. Maybe I'll trade you. You give me the Vikings. I'll give you the Bucks. You want to make us walk? No, no, absolutely not. Not after what we saw last week. And I'm looking at the Mulligans from the standpoint of decisions teams could have made. And I want to start. And this is a bigger picture conversation that the Dolphins should have had in the off season. You've got to have a better backup quarterback plan behind Toa Tongavailoa. Skylar Thompson isn't it. Tyler Huntley all due respect. They only made it to the Pro Bowl somehow isn't it. They know they've got a concussion history with Toa Tongavailoa, the career it's ugly had at any minute. Why do you not have an established veteran presence behind Toa Tongavailoa who can come in and win football games while he is out? You're so kind to me, Mike. I thought the segment was something else. See, you were so nice. You're so nice. You're like, no, no, no, that's not the segment. The segment is the people who would make different decisions. I get it now. So I would say, how about the Giants? We talked about it earlier. The Giants having a kicker. They really like personnel wise, you're limited offensively anyway. You probably cost yourself a victory. You could be going into this game against the Cowboys. You could be two in one with an opportunity to knock them out of division. Go three in one. If you had just taken care of special teams and a kicker. Let's take a quick break. We'll have a couple more. Now that we are both on the same page as to what we're looking for in this draft, we'll have one more each right after this. All right, week three Mulligans. I think we both would like a Mulligan on the Mulligan draft. Before we go, though, this is my pick. The officials who were working the Falcons Chiefs game and failed to call obvious defensive pass interference on the Chiefs. It was obvious. I know someone said, Oh, I'm glad I think Chris said the other day. And again, I can't remember. I think it was Chris who said I'm glad they didn't throw that flag. Why? We want. I want the rules to be applied the same all game long, just because the games on the line doesn't mean you can mug a receiver. That should have been a flag. It should have been first and goal on the one for the Falcons. No question. Call pass interference. I am going to give you two quick ones. Nick Siriani. Take field goals when they're available to you, even when it's the three zip game. And hey, Antonio Pierce, you can't have Gardner Minchu and Abe no Connor was your quarterback to give what you deserve. Absolutely right. Great show, Michael. See everybody tomorrow. 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