The Fumblerooski Podcast
Unsung Heroes -Ep 254 The Fumblerooski Podcast
Aaron Donald retires after 10 seasons, the Vikings make a draft day trade, and Keenan Allen is traded for a bag of chips. 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 to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power Adiate and Seeker Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ Madieros and Chris Costich. We have a great show planned for you guys today. A little bit of everything. Some draft day stuff, a trade that just went down, and Aaron Donald's, a future Hall of Famer, retiring after 10 seasons. So we'll start off with this one. So this guy, just to name a couple of small accolades, emphasis on small, he was a pro baller in all 10 of his seasons. He was an eight-time all-pro, so eight of those 10 seasons. He was the best of his position, 2014 defensive rookie of the year, and three-time defensive player of the year. This guy, in his brief time, in his decade in the league, has absolutely dominated. And he went out with a ring as well, which is fantastic on his part. So many elite defensive players go through their entire career without ever winning a ring. And it's great to see that Aaron Donald is not one of those players. And I'm going to say this right now for my takeaway. I think Aaron, I think defensive tackle, the interior defensive line is one of the most, if not the most underrated position in all of football. It's a position where if this, you know, it's very hard to get into the backfield as an interior defensive lineman, but when they do, when they do consistently, they are much bigger game, they are much bigger game records than the edge-rushers are. With edge-rushers, you hear about them more because it's easier to be a, I'm not saying it's easy to be a good edge-rusher, but it's easier to win against a tackle than it is against a guard. Guard is an easier, guard and center is an easier position to be good out. With tackles, you don't see as much of them out there. So you see the edge-rushers racking up a lot more tackles. With interior defensive linemen, it's rarely run into a one that's good enough to get into the backfield, but once they do, when they take over games, it's almost automatic that the team wins the game, right? So the last couple of years, Chris Jones has taken over during the post-season, the Chiefs have won two championships. In 2021, Aaron Donald led them to a Super Bowl himself. You can even look at 2020, Vida Veia and Nedamik and Sue. They took over the Super Bowl. This is a position that is extremely underrated, and we are starting to see the value of it go up. And I think Aaron Donald is the embodiment of that. And I think he kind of revolutionized the defensive tackle position, but I don't know what you guys thought. Yeah, no, I agree with all that that you just said right there. I mean, most running plays end up between the tackles, between the guards, too. I mean, yeah, you have a good amount of your outside runs and whatnot, your outside zone runs and whatnot, but the interior is where most of your running game is going to end up taking place. And a guy like Aaron Donald was consistently blowing that up. So yeah, in that sense, the edge rusher would be not as important as a interior guy, but I mean, Aaron Donald was basically at his position, he was basically the equivalent to the equivalent of Calvin Johnson in terms of, you know, you see all these pictures of Aaron Donald being doubled up or tripled up quadrupled up, and it kind of makes you think of that one picture of Calvin Johnson getting doubled up on the line of scrimmage. So that kind of just tells you how dominant of a force Aaron Donald is. And I'll just say it right now, Aaron Donald's the, the goat when it comes to nose tackles or interior guys in general. Yeah, I'd say, I'd say I agree with that. And as far as interior defensive line goes, yeah, and, you know, you, you just mentioned a couple of good names there to the, the, the Dominic and Sue, Vida, via Chris Jones is obviously one of the best in the game right now, if not the best in the game. So there's a lot of really good names that are in the game right now, but there's, there's probably going to be none that are going to be as legendary or just as good in general as Aaron Donald. Well, yeah, um, CJ, what are your thoughts? Aaron Donald, obviously we all know, uh, first ballot Hall of Famer and I like this from a different perspective. Do you think that he has a case to be considered the best defensive tackle of all time? I certainly do. I mean, I think the only two defensive tackles that are even like in on the same planet as he is, are probably guys like me, Joe green and John Randall. Yeah. And maybe the only one you could argue is better is like me and Joe, but I don't know, Aaron Donald being an elite run stuffer and elite pass rusher, um, I'm orders, uh, stats like over 500 tackles, 100 oven sacks, 20 some odd force fumbles across 10 years. I mean, granted, you know, like pro bowls, I mean, anything, but he made the pro bowl every year and which is kind of impressive when you remember that it's basically a popularity contest. And he was able to stay popular that long three defensive player of the years, meaning that you were voted the best defensive player in the NFL for three years, probably could have been more. Yeah. There's somewhere that maybe him losing was a little iffy, but crazy make a valid point. And of course the ring now, some people would argue that the ring might just be gravy. I disagree because that, that's kind of like what can separate you. You know, I mean, yeah, but when it comes to an Adam mentioned where he brought up about Ed Drushers versus a defensive tackles, I just want to say one thing. You're not wrong. And I think y'all made some good points. However, I would just say it's easier to find a good Ed Drusher than like a truly elite defensive tackle and I will also mention that the ceiling, as far as being a game record goes, is a lot higher for a defensive tackle, right? But the floor is also much, much lower, whereas if you take all the Ed Drushers, right, and all the defensive tackles, and you were just to randomly pick one, there's a good chance the Ed Drusher you pick is just better than the other defensive tackle, just because, you know, you have a better odds of getting a better address, I said, because the floor is that much higher. However, but when it comes to like the absolute best, the game records, a lot of these defensive tackles like the Aaron Donalds, the Chris Jones, like I said, go back in the day to, you know, like I said, John Randall, me, Joe Green, refrigerator, Perry, those guys, they ruled the game. Well, let me tell you the nature of that position and why if they do get in the backfield, then it's, then it becomes, it becomes crippling to the other offense, right? So when, so Tuck made this, made this argument to me a few years ago and I thought it just blew my mind. So when the tackle position gives out on offense, the quarterback, it's obviously still devastating either way, but the quarterback can at least step up and step into his throws in order to make an accurate read. Also the quarterback most of the time can barely see him. So they're not seeing ghosts. When the defensive tackle gets into your face, not only is your vision partially impaired and you're kind of seeing ghosts because he's right in your face, but he has you throwing off your back foot. So it not only, it not only scares the quarterback, but it quite literally affects the mechanics of the quarterback throwing the ball. This happened three times in this past Super Bowl when Chris Jones was in Brock Purdy's face on three potential game-winning touchdown passes. He he hooked it deep three times and overthrew him because guess who was in his face? Game one, I'll do you one better, Adam, the play where Jock in the AFC divisional round or the AFC divisional between the bills and the chiefs, the get Josh Allen missed the throw to Shakur because Chris Jones was hitting him. He was on the verge of hitting him or at least was shoving the lineman into Josh Allen, which kind of helped Josh Allen not make the throw and that could have that could have been the game right there and end up being the game for well, I mean, like that could have been the game for the bills to win, but instead I ended up being the play that helped make Buffalo have to kick the field goal at which they ended up missing. Yeah, you can name a million examples of it. Yeah, I'll even go to the 2021 NFC divisional round. Buccaneers, Buccaneers, Rams Buccaneers and Ryan Jensen, the Buccaneers center was on one leg or did he even play? I don't even remember if he even made it in the game. I'm pretty sure he made it back and played, but he was like on one leg. Aaron Donald was obviously winning every single matchup and you could clearly see there was a difference in Tom Brady's accuracy on his throws. Now they were able to figure it out and eventually come back in very nearly win or at least they did tie it. They could have forced over time, but we'll talk about that one play where they left Antoine Winfield alone with Cooper Cup another time that that's a big example. Tom Brady's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and Aaron Donald made him look made him look human. Same thing with the 2020 Super Bowl, Super Bowl 55, Patrick Mahomes, his center hadn't been able to practice all week because of because he was on the COVID list and you could clearly see Vida Vaya and Nada and Dominic and Sue were getting into the backfield getting in his face. He was forced to throw in all different kinds of angles. And obviously they lost 32 to nine. So all of these different examples. I think it's the most underrated position, not only in football, but also sports because if you get in the backfield as a defensive tackle, the game's over. If you can consistently do it, you win the, you, you have won yourself the game, which is something that not everybody completely understands is the reason why the Ravens brought back Justin Matabique. He's doing a similar thing over there in Baltimore. All right. If we don't have anything else on that, I'd like to move on. So the Vikings made the first splash on the draft boards as far as the trade, the trading area goes getting a second first round pick from the Texans. We'll talk about exactly what that might mean and how this could potentially shape this draft. That's next. This is the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie, truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast by power 88 and Seq weapon consulting. I'm Adam Wright with CJ materials and Chris Costich. So the Vikings have made the first splash on the draft boards and so to give you the exact trade, so the Vikings did acquire the Texans first round pick. They did not give their first round pick back. So the exact trade was the Texans would get two second round picks. One of them is pick 42 in this year's draft and the next year is a 2025 second round pick. So the Texans have two seconds in this year and next year's draft and there was a seventh round pick thrown in there. The Vikings get pick number 23 and a seventh. So the biggest takeaway here is that the Vikings did not have to give away any first round picks for this. So they still have number 11 that they already have and they have number 23. This is a head scratcher because they don't have any needs at the wide receiver position. And on top of that, they are in the market for a quarterback and they are one of the teams that has been rumored to be interested to trade up to go and get one of the quarterbacks at the top of the board. CJ brought this to our attention first, so I'll let you finish that off. CJ, if you'd like. I was going to say, I'd like to let CJ take over anyway, so yeah. All right, cool. So when you look at this year's draft, right, quarterbacks, no matter which order are projected to go one, two, three, there's USC's Caleb Williams, North Carolina's Drake May and LSU's Jayden Daniels, those like the top three, put them any which order you want, but we all know they're going one, two, three. The Vikings have their own first round pick at pick 11 and maybe there's like a J.J. McCarthy floating around there, but which, and he's fine, he's a bit of a project, but come on, everybody wants, you know, the top three and, but I know what you're thinking. And Adam mentioned, you already have two really good receivers, you're in the market for a quarterback, but the quarterbacks are up front, so why would you recruit us extra first? Well, for me, the answer is simple. I do not believe that the Minnesota Vikings are going to use both of those first round picks and you heard it here first, kids. I think that they're going to use those two first rounders as bargaining chips and make a run at one of those top three. Now the thing is Chicago, as we know, demands a and I quote historic haul to move down from number one. And despite that, I don't see them dealing with Minnesota just because you don't deal with the division rival, that's just common sense. Then there's the commanders. Now the commanders are number two, however, what we have heard in the pre draft process is even though Caleb Williams is going to go number one, they're absolutely smitten with Williams and they, I think the commanders are more likely to trade up than trade back. And that leaves New England. Now in the first round, for better or worse, they have traded back in the past, in the first round of the past two years. Now I know what you're thinking, oh God, it was a bell check thing, bill bell check's gone. And if the way New England is approaching this trade and see is any different, it might go a little deeper. So as a Pat's fan, I hate to say it, but them trading back for the third straight year is definitely in play. So I, frankly, would not be shocked if this is what it comes down to. I would not be shocked if the Vikings are trying to accrue more draft capital to trade back probably with the Patriots to move up to the third pick and take whichever quarterback lasts the longest, be it Jaden Daniels or Drake May. You did it again. Yeah. And to piggyback off of that, there are plenty of rumors out there that if Drake May is left on the board, the Patriots may not even want to, may not even want to remain there. They might actually be open trading back. Now I always thought they would trade still within the top 10 so that they could get one of the other elite wide receivers out there in Romo Donsay or Malik neighbors. But if they get 11 and 23, that's, that's something that someone else is going to have to argue for me because I guess they would go offensive tackle with one of those picks or if JJ McCarthy is still there, maybe they, they take him at 11. But I just, I never, I never liked the idea of them taking Marvin Harrison, Jr. number three overall, just because I think a generational talent like that, I'm not denying that he's going to be a great player. I'm just saying that when you have a player that great, it becomes more of a luxury than a need. So if you can take O'Donsay and get an extra first round pick out of it, that's what I, that's what is, I have seen the most sense in, but New England has been the rumor the most to trade back. So that's what kind of concerns me here as a Patriots fan. Yeah, I feel like, I don't know, I feel like that the only way that the Vikings would end up taking that third pick is if they end up giving up jettas, but I mean, I could be wrong, could be wrong because, you know, the Pats do working very mysterious ways. I mean, they, they thought that Q and Allen would going for a fourth rounder or higher than that was too big of an or just a fourth rounder in general was too big of an asking price. So I, I could see that if the Pats were to trade back with the Vikings, then jettas would probably not even be part of the deal at all, which kind of sucks to say because I'd, I'd like to have jettas on the Pats. I think any Patriots fan would love to have them on Patriots and whatnot. But truth of the matter is if Keenan Allen, you're not willing to give the charges a fourth rounder for Keenan Allen, then what are you willing to give jettas or give the Vikings for jettas at that point? The fact of the matter is to trade up from the middle of the first round into the top three, that takes a lot of, that's very pricey. It shouldn't be like that would take, I don't really have much interest in pick number 23. Of course, it's a first round pick is a first round pick. They're still valuable, but I might see more value in getting number 11 of first rounder next year and Justin Jefferson, because if they have to overpay for them, then they have to overpay for them. That's fine. I'm okay with that. They have plenty of caps face to do it. And on top of that, they have an extra first round pick for in next year's draft in order to take one of their guys, or if they feel just JJ McCarthy is the right guy, not saying I do. I'm saying if the Patriots feel that way, the Patriots get their guy at number 11, they get the wide receiver they always wanted, and they get an extra first round pick out of it for next year's draft to fill whatever needs they have left. I feel like that's a good, that's a good road to go down. Well, that's absolutely JJ McCarthy is even available at that point because the recent rumor mill right now is that the Giants are looking to get JJ McCarthy. And they might try to move on from Daniel Jones this year and try to have JJ McCarthy as that guy to go to at that point. Yeah. Well, JJ McCarthy might be going six and he's not even going to make it to 11. Yeah. Well, if that happens, then throw away everything that I'm saying right now, but at number 11, maybe there's somebody left, oh, don't say he could make it back, but then, okay, then he won't. One of them is going to be drafted by the Chargers, but yeah. And even still, if you don't get, oh, don't say or don't say whatever the heck his name is, then you could say, Oh, what about neighbors? Because you have to remember, like, is neighbors even going to last that long? No. And second, it's just like you, you say you would much rather have Justin. Justin Jefferson. And with all due respect, I did hear you say the term, the Patriots had the cap space to resign him. My responses. Yeah. My responses. Okay. And just because they have it as a mean, they're going to use it. I mean, this team has spat out bold face lie after bold face lie regarding what they're going to do with the cap space, you know, burn cash, get in some new guys, weaponize the offense. Yeah. No, no, no, they're not. That's my words. If we trade for Justin Jefferson, craft is going to close the purse strings and he will be a one year rental. So no, it's not worth it. And second of all, you're going to say, Oh, you know, Marvin Eris and juniors too good. He becomes a luxury. He's so talented. He becomes a luxury. That is literally the definition of an oxymoron. And here's the thing, Adam. Can you see New England going out and swinging a trade for T Higgins or Brandon Ayuk? I know you want it, but can you see it? No, no, you can't. And you know, and can you see them getting on a fridge and see no, you New England has not had a wider really, like at least serviceable wide receivers since 2019. Do you think Romo Dunsey is not going to be a wide receiver one? Do you think Malik neighbors won't be either? On Harrison. Well, you know, I have much rather hit Harrison. What do you mean? I'm not saying one's better than the other. I'm not arguing that at all. Marvin Harrison, juniors, obviously the better one. But if you can still get a wide receiver one, why not get the extra first out of it by trading back and getting to getting O'Dunsey? Okay. Who would you be trading with? You would be trading with the Falcons. You would be trading with Tennessee. You would be trading with the Giants. You would be trading with. All right. You really think Tennessee is going to trade up because after they just drafted Levis that's extremely unlikely, Falcons just signed Kirk Cousins. So who would they be trading up for? Who would be trading up for? Maybe Marvin Harrison, junior. Maybe they want him. Drake, Marvin. Marvin Harrison, junior. Falcons would have to give up Kirk Cousins to get up to. They literally won't. Yes. But they'd have to trade up so much and they just built up so much now to make a run. Well, here's the trial in the foundation. Titans are the way to do this. Marvin Harrison, junior, if he is not drafted at number three is going to Arizona. Yes. Neighbors or O'Dunsey is going to the Chargers. That's a slam dunk. Outside of all of that, the other players, the other teams in this top 10 are not slam dunks to take a wide receiver. The Giants might take JJ McCarthy. That's probably the most likely team to go and get a wide receiver. But if they get McCarthy, then he's off the board. Atlanta, they have all of these, they have all of these targets already. I don't know if they're going wide receiver. Well, you literally just, they might trade up for Harrison, so like, but that doesn't matter. Yeah. If you go to 11, do you really, can you as a GM really in good faith? If you be able to just say, all right, fine, we're going to roll the dice and just hope either O'Dunsey or neighbors falls to us because if that's the case and that's what you're going to do, then you should probably just stay at three and hope Jane Daniels falls to you. If you're really going to sit there and roll the dice, why not stay at three? Why not stay at three? I just think a core, a wide receiver of that caliber. Well, you had that mindset of, oh, I really hope then just the why bother? Well, it's not hoping if you do your homework. I mean, New England should have an idea of where these players are being drafted. And do you really think they do? If they don't, then if they don't, then why are we having this conversation at all? I'm sorry, but Marvin Harrison Jr. at three is not a good idea. I don't believe in that. How is it not a good idea? I explain. Yes. That's not a good idea. We haven't had a guy at that caliber unironically since Randy Moss, let alone 2019, I do not trust New England. Do you see here's the thing? He's already NFL ready. I do not trust New England to continue to develop neighbors, to continue to develop O'Dunsey. And I do not trust them to swing a trade. I do not trust them to sign a blue chip free agent. It's time to stop pussy footing around. It's time to stop dancing around the issue. We need to take the bull by the horns. And if you don't like that, then you're probably not a real fan. It's so much of an issue that you can't get out of the three spot. Why would you get out of the three spot and handcuff yourself with and take a risk on two guys that aren't as NFL ready as Marvin Harrison. And also you're banking on the fact that they could potentially even be there to begin with. Like Marvin Harrison is going to be at that three spot, most likely. If they trade with the Giants or Chargers, then they will be there. One of those two will still be there. Sure. If you trade with the six, but we're talking about the 11th pick here, it's the 11th pick that we've been talking about with the whole Vikings and whatnot. And you just can't bank on that fact that they're going to make it out of the top 10. It's just, I don't see the Chargers trading up like at all. You know, they're in a, they're a very fragile team right now. And I don't think they want to waste Jim Harbaugh or Justin Herbert's time with the rebuild. I mean, maybe the Giants, but I don't even know what's going on there. That work, that whole team is just, might need to be completely sold, but after that Brian Burns trade, I don't see it. Well, if they take JJ McCarthy, then you can pretty much bank on, you can pretty much bank on one of those two wide receivers still being there. If they could all, I, I ironically could see them also going wide receiver. I mean, I don't know, but every match that I've seen for a bit has like, had them going either of Dunsay or, and, or neighbors. Right. Honestly, the Chargers are probably going to, if they stay there, probably get a receiver as well, because once again, there's, yeah, they're taking all the areas, my inspiration Johnson. Absolutely not. I'm not arguing against that. They are taking a wide receiver and so are the Cardinals. So one of, so one of the at least two of those three wide receivers is going to be gone. But if they trade within the top 10, then you're going to end up with at least one of those three guys. And you still get an extra first in, in next year's draft, well, I'm not debating it. I'm just wondering who is really going to trade up because I really just don't see the Giants doing it. I mean, I'm not ruling it out, but it's not likely. Well, Tennessee, Chicago, Tennessee and Chicago, I'm, I'm not Tennessee and Chicago are set at wide receiver. I think we can pretty much close the door on that. Arizona is going to take what in this hypothetical scenario, draft, Marvin Harrison, Jr, Malik neighbors or Romo Dunsey is going to the LA Chargers. So between the Giants and the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Jets, which one of them are taking the wide receiver. Probably the Jets because they're actively shopping Lazard, Cobb is gone. I mean, if Garrett Wilson, but that's pretty much it. Maybe they might go line, but I know they're going to offensive side of the ball. Honestly, if that Rogers runs for vice president and might go quarterback, you never know. They might as well go quarterback, regardless if Rogers goes, this isn't even a new topic. I was just making a joke. Right. So if the Chargers, so one of those teams and the Jets, by the way, they're at number 10, so the most likely team to take a wide receiver is way down on that list. So if they're still within the top 10, if they, however, whichever way they find out, figure out how to do it. If they still figure, if they figure out to do how to do that, there is a very high likelihood that they will end up with Malik neighbors and Romo Dunsey. But the NFL draft is a crapshoot, so anything could happen here, and we could all be wrong. One of us could be right. We could all somehow be right. We'll see how it ends up going. We'll definitely get more into it around draft season, but we did have our first draft trade to get the Vikings. Another first round pick, so we'll see what happens, what ends up happening with that. The Vikings could be looking to trade up. Maybe they just want to first round picks because there's another player they like in the first round. We'll see. But I'd like to move on. Keenan Allen has been traded to the Bears for a fourth round pick. We'll get into all the ins and outs of this and some other rumors that we're swirling around it involving, again, the New England Patriots. What's next? This is the Fumble Ruski Podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns, someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver at the 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 CJ Madiros and Chris Costich. Keenan Allen has been traded to the Bears for a fourth round pick. The Chargers have been in some cap trouble. They were thought to have figured it out when they released Mike Williams. Turns out it wasn't figured out entirely. They had to get pay cuts out of Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, and they did go up to Keenan Allen asking for a pay cut. He declined and the Chargers put him on the trade block. Who answered the Chicago Bears, who now get another wide receiver to pair up with DJ Moore, and they also already have Cole Comatt. They have DeAndre Swift to hand the ball off. This is, we've got to say, this is quite the team that they are putting together for Khalil Williams, and if Justin Fields is still there, then that's great for him. He finally has a nice number two target as a wide receiver, but I would say that this, my biggest takeaway from this, and I'll get to the Patriots rumor in a second, my biggest takeaway is that this means you're most likely going to go quarterback at number one, because if you were to trade back with the pick, if you were trading back, that would mostly mean you're just going to draft a weapon for Justin Fields, and you're kind of already set at the tackle position, but since they traded for Keenan Allen, now their only need would be hypothetically at quarterback if they don't believe Justin Fields is the guy, but I'll let you guys discuss what we're thinking. Let's you go first, CJ. Keenan Allen to Chicago, like Adam mentioned, oh my God, that is great for Khalil Williams, let's face it, don't buy into the Justin Fields hype, this is who they're drafting. And when you look at the fact that, I think Adam's mentioned before, how their offensive line has been improved over the years, and I think that is true, can use a little bit of patching up, but overall it's solid, but oh my God, those weapons, a Keenan Allen DJ Moore receiver duo with Cole Comette and another good tie-eyed and Gerald Everett and Yondre Swift, just, I don't know what, like, what the ceiling is for Khalil Williams coming into the league, but I think it might have just gotten a little higher. I'm not going to say this puts them in play for the division, but they could probably be around 500. And who knows, maybe they could finally get their first 4000-yard passer ever with Williams, I mean, maybe, but this is the Bears we're talking about. And when you think about the Bears, and their quarterback woes, be it drafting or whatever, what was the last time when they were drafting, we said, all right, this guy could be a generational guy, like an actual, like, generational talent. I don't know if that's ever happened, at least not in our lifetime. So overall, this is a great, just a massive move for the Bears, and you know, it's funny, obviously I say this in Jess, so can we not bite my heads off fans? He's got a better receiver core already than Patrick Mahomes does. Yeah. That's crazy. And that's actually crazy. How, like, and because the Bears aren't really a terrible team, and we have to remember they only have the first overall pick because it was dealt to them from Carolina. And so you have a team that's already not terrible, going to get what could be potentially a generational talent. I don't know. And if he gets some time, you know, really, like, get some wins under his belt in like a year or two, they could actually be a problem. If of course, he pins out, but that's, you know, there's no use trying to predict that. I think he could potentially, the Bears could potentially be a problem this year because they, let's face it, like that deep, they still, they got a good defense. That defense really stepped up that second half of the year and they got some good guys on the line. I mean, they got frickin' mobbed as sweat and they beefed up the offense like a motherfucker too. So let's be real. If Caleb Williams is that guy, then this team's going to be more than just a 500 team. This team's going to win an NFC North or I'll put some breaks on that. I forgot about the Lions, but this team will compete for the NFC North and potentially win a playoff game next year. I think the ceiling is a lot higher than what you may be saying could potentially be here, CJ, but I mean, if they do end up being 500, then yeah, I'll give it to you on that. But I feel like that or are you saying the ceiling for them is 500 or are you saying the ceiling is more than that? No, I'm saying the ceiling is more than that. I'm just saying how a lot of people who don't see the bears is great. I mean, I definitely think probably not, I wouldn't say quite the floor, but probably the expectation is the ceiling, although it's a high ceiling, is going to be like a playoff berth. Okay. That's kind of what I was going to go towards because I, I guess I didn't understand the 500 thing for a second there. But regardless, the ceiling definitely is at least a playoff berth and maybe even a playoff win, but getting a playoff win with a rookie quarterback is very tough. It doesn't happen too, too often. So there's that. And we also don't really know if Caleb Williams, like obviously is the undeniable first overall pick regardless, but we also don't know if that's going to end up panning out, especially with all this off the field talk that's been going on rumors and whatnot, him going out and dresses and whatnot, as he even felt quarterback, there's a lot of off the field stuff that kind of is hindering Caleb Williams, which it really shouldn't. But this potentially could. So yeah, if Caleb Williams can, this is all going to be on Caleb Williams, really. And this is, this is basically the same thing as us talking about jail and hurts and how the, how Philly's going to perform is if jail and hurt their season is going to depend on jail and hurts and his performance. And that's how the bears are going to be. It's going to depend on how well Caleb Williams can play, especially with all of these targets that are being gift wrapped to him. Yeah, I mean, the way I see this, I mean, we're going to figure out real quick whether or not Caleb Williams is the guy. And this could either be a rude awakening where it's holy crap. Maybe we should have drafted different quarterback or should have stuck with Justin Fields or it'll be the bears are going to be looking like genius is at this point. I would personally believe that Caleb Williams, I think he will pan out. But I don't think he'll be, I don't think he'll be the type of quarterback who's like Patrick Mahomes where he's legitimately winning Super Bowls, he's, he's always in the mix. I think he's going to be a top 10 quarterback, but not the type of quarterback who is who you're mentioning in the same breath as Mahomes, which is, I guess it's fine. I mean, it's hard to find a quarterback like that already, but they're definitely at least doing everything that they can to protect that quarterback. They worked on that offensive line. Maybe it could use some help, especially on the interior with the release of Cody White here. Their tackles, I think are fine. They're okay. I don't think their offensive line is great, but it's fine. But they have some good weapons for him now. DJ Moore is a good wide receiver, one Keenan Allen. He's around that level as well. He may be a little bit on the old side, but even if you get an 800 yard season out of him, you may not get 1200, but 800. I think you still get 1,500 out of him, dude, he had a, come on. Keenan Allen had 1,200 yards and 108 receptions and he only played in 13 games, 13 games. If he was younger, I would, I'm not saying he won't. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, when you look at the, when you look at his age, you're not taking it as, it's a year by year thing, especially with the fact that he gets injured a lot. So maybe, maybe he'll still do that, but he has to stay healthy and age needs to not catch up with him. Also Caleb Williams needs to pan out. So that's, those are all things to consider. I'm not, I'm naming his floor when I say on 800 yards. Can we at least agree on that? I'd say the floor is higher than that. The floor's got to be higher than that, sorry about the door going there for a second there, but the, I think the floor is got to be 1,000 yards for him at this rate. Like I know that he's a little bit on the older side, but geez, this, he might be on the older side, but he's still putting up these numbers. How can you say, how can you say that? Now, if you want to say that it's going to be the floor because we don't know how Caleb Williams is going to pan out, sure, I can live with that. But I think that if Caleb Williams can live up to the hype, the floor is 1,000. All right, I hear you. If he wasn't on the team, I would say his floor is definitely 1,000 because you're trading him for him to be your wide receiver one. If Keenan Allen doesn't work out in the way they want him to, but you still have DJ Moore, 800 yards is still, is still acceptable because D because Keenan Allen is, is getting older. He's on the wrong side of 30, he's going to be 32 this year. So and he also has a long history of getting hurt. So my floor for him because DJ Moore is on the team is 800 yards. If he can get 800 yards, I think that's still a solid season. I think that's still a good pass catching course, especially when you still have also Cole Comette, who's a top 10 tight end who can get you 700 yards himself. I think that you could have both Keenan Allen and DJ Moore at 1,000 yards this year. You definitely can. I think that you can't DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, their floor should be at 1K. I'm not saying they can't do that. I'm saying Keenan Allen's getting old and he's very injury prone. So I don't have his high expectations simply because of that, when you get to the wrong side of 30, then you're taking it year by year. But when even with the like the injury riddle year that he had, he missed four games and still put up those numbers. When you have Keenan Allen on the field, he's going to give you numbers. He's going to make the offense work for you and whatnot. He's going to get shit done. It's like, yeah, he's going to be 32. But with the few, like you're going to miss him for maybe four to five games, but when you have them for those 12 to 13 and then the playoffs, oh boy, it's going to be reckless out there with Keenan Allen. It's going to be awesome. I'm not telling you what I would want out of Keenan Allen. What I would want is definitely at least a thousand yards. You're getting a $20 million a year wide receiver and a guy who's been perennially one of the better wide receivers in the game. I'm telling you what the floor is for what we can expect for him to happen. What we think will happen versus what we want to happen. I think he very well could get 1,000 to 1,200 yards, very, very much achievable. I'm saying at the very least he'll get 800. Yeah. Definitely. Again. Sorry. I'm just saying like, no, that's reasonable. And also, I just think that I think that's a reasonable floor result. And it's not just that he's old and perhaps injury prone, you know, you mentioned this, but it all depends on if Kale Williams pans out and even if he does, you know, you're sharing a space with DJ Moore and Cole, and remember, DeAndre Swift is a receiving back in and of himself. And on top of that new scheme, he's going to a completely different scheme. This is not just to chuck the ball down the field, the Keenan Allen chargers. This is the weird gadget bears offense. Okay. I'll give you that one. I mean, like I said, like that's a great point with the scheme part in your friends. The scheme? Yeah. That'll, that'll definitely be somewhat of an endurance and what I think we can all agree that it really all comes down to the performance of Kale Williams at this rate. Yeah. That's, I think we can, regardless of if I'm going to bitch and moan about Keenan Allen should be getting 1500s and his floor should be 12, one, whatever. It's really all going to end up depending on how well Kale Williams can perform. Yeah. I just agree with that. If you can't, I mean, if this kid can't throw the ball, then they're going to, they're, every single receiver on that team is going to have a, have trouble racking up yards because for sure, we've seen how, how it has been with Justin Fields. He's been, his best success has been with running the ball. And when it comes to throwing it, he can get DJ Moore, his top receiver to blow up the yardage. But when it comes to Darnell Mooney, he can't make him better. And if Kale Williams is the same way, they may all suffer. I think at least one of them will, I think, I'm willing to bet regardless, at least one of them breaks 1000 yards out of those three pass catchers. Can we agree on that? Absolutely. I, I'll make a prediction and say, both DJ Moore, in key and Allen, break a thousand. We could. I, but it also probably depends on how they end up playing around with it. I mean, like, you know, like in the charges offense, the Chuckett deep type of offense, like, yeah, he's going to, you can definitely rely on him as the deep threat. And you can throw it to him 20 times a game and whatnot, but it also depends on how the bears are going to end up calling their plays around, uh, all these towns. Yeah, but I think that they, if they go about it the way I feel like that they probably could then, yeah, let me, and before we end the show here, I want to shed a little bit more light on that, that bears offensive line. Everyone says it was bad again this year because Justin Fields was sacked, uh, top five yet again, top five, most sacked quarterback in all the football, um, Justin Fields held the ball longer than any quarterback in all of football out of all 38 qualifying starting quarterbacks because there were some backups who stepped in, um, according to next gen stats, 3.23 seconds, that amount of time to throw the ball was the worst out of all starting quarterbacks across the 20, 23 season. If he's taking that long to throw the ball and you have, you, you've got these sacked top five most in the league. That tells me Justin Fields more than, uh, more than the offensive line, which is. And that goes back to, goes, that goes back to that, uh, that advanced statistic as well where, uh, sacks are more detrimental to the game than interceptions are. Yep, which is very weird to think about because you throw an interception from your own 20, honestly, depending on where you throw the pick, but throw a 10 yard pass, it gets intercepted and you set up the other team for a score. But if you get sacked, then that's a huge loss in field position itself too. But the stats read that, you know, sacks are way more important in terms of how you're, um, tournament, so of how your offense is going to perform than an interception. Because I think another thing too about it is like, say you got like Josh Allen, like Josh Allen definitely has a turnover problem, but he takes a lot of shots down field. So a lot of these shots down field, that turns interceptions end up being, uh, it's like a 50 yard pun at that point. Yeah, yep. And that just goes down to quarterback play, uh, being knowing when to buy time to find, to find an open receiver, when to stand in the pocket, when to leave the pocket, when not to leave the pocket too early, uh, knowing to how, when to throw the ball out. That's all game managing. It's all stuff that's important, taking care of the football, not turning it over, not taking sacks. That's all important to a quarterback in it all comes down to decision making, uh, something that a lot of quarterbacks who may not be as physically gifted, uh, are able to do masterfully in order to stay in the league and be, and have some level of success. They pointed it out in the dynasty documentary to, uh, one of the first two episodes when they're explaining, uh, the reasons why they ended up going to Brady over blood. So it was because, um, when blood so was faced with pressure, it was like her knee to quote Ernie Adams, not pervade him, but it was like a wildebeast was going to was just standing still, waiting for the lion to prey upon him. Now granted, there's other factors why they ended up being like that for blood. So because he didn't have the greatest line in the world for in the nineties and he took a lot of shots. And so he kind of, that's why he ended up freezing up a lot, but regardless, once you get to that point, there's not really any going back. Yep. Yeah. All right. Um, that is all the scheduled content we have for today, but do you guys have any other thoughts before we end the show tonight? Uh, no, not really unless you want to talk about the Patriots and the Keynn Allen thing, which I did say I was going to go over that. Um, yeah, well, I mean, it's pretty simple, uh, the Patriots were going to, they did call on Keynn Allen. And when they heard that the fourth round pick was the price they stuck their nose up and they said that's too pricey. I think the, the term that was used in the tweet was too rich. Yeah. Um, very interesting stuff considering. He, yes, he's some, he's pretty expensive, 20 million a year. Um, yes, he's old, but you're only giving up a fourth round pick. And also you have the cap space to do it. Yep. So there's kind of the issue. Um, if you guys had any last, last minute thoughts on that part, but I mean, we already kind of bash the Patriots for not paying their players, paying their wide receivers last segment, but I mean, the, the, the issue is, is there in, they, they were already in on Calvin Ridley and it looked like he was about to sign there actually until the Titans swooped in with a offer. They offered more money than the Patriots and the Patriots did not up their offer to leapfrog the Titans. Well, I mean, I know that I do however, 92 million for Calvin Ridley is kind of obscene. I agree. I mean, I want it in, but I feel that's kind of a blessing in disguise, you know, but, but then again, you know, you don't go after Boyd or Hollywood Brown or try to swing a trade because we know they're not going to, you might want them to, but they're not. So I mean, at this point it's just, you know, it is what it is. I'd have rather, I've seen, I mean, I've already suggested who I've wanted for quite a while now. I think if T Higgins is available for trade, then you go and get him. He's young, he's a tagging trade. So in all likelihood, he's going to end up going for a lead for a day two pick of the most. And if you pay him, he's 25. It's not like he's not going to pan out during that. We got some breaking news, breaking news. The Rams have agreed to terms with Jimmy Garoppolo on a one year deal. Understandable. He's not going to do anything but understandable. Nice backup. Nice, as we said, game manager. He can, he's doesn't have the best physical abilities, but he still wins games. So I think at his very best, he's a nice little game manager. I don't hate him. I never, I never hated Jimmy Garoppolo. You're not great physical abilities. Are you referring to the fact that he's not the most physically imposing, faster, strongest arm or the fact that he is quite literally medically incapable of staying healthy? Both. Yeah. Both. He's, he's not, I mean, there's a lot of reason the Patriots traded him. I kind of, at this point, I'm kind of glad they did. He could have gotten, gotten traded a little earlier so that he could have gone for a first round pick, but at the same time, I mean, the guy's just not a franchise quarterback. He's a, he helps you win games. He's a, he's a, he's a high end backup, I think, to low end starter. I think that's probably the best way to sum it up. Yeah. Like he'll help you win games. He might even eff around and take you to a conference championship every now and then, but I don't see him winning. He'll take you to one Super Bowl. He'll take you to a Super Bowl if it's loaded with talent. Um, but yeah, I, I do, I like Jimmy Garoppolo. I think he's a little over-hated. Um, all right. Well, that it everything. Yeah. I guess you want to talk about Kenny Pickett trade to the Eagles. That's it. I don't. It's a non-factor. We don't need to talk. He sucks. I'm surprised he found a new team. Yeah. I mean, the only other thing really to talk about is that the Steelers basically solidified Russ's the number one at that point. So well, that was expected. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 730 PM Eastern Standard Time and Fridays at 5 PM Eastern Time. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio, Google Podcast and so much more. Also, be sure to follow our Instagram @FumbleRuski_podcast to keep up with our podcast and latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you next week over and out. [BLANK_AUDIO]