The Fumblerooski Podcast
Playing It Safe -Ep 257 The Fumblerooski Podcast
Lots and lots of rule changes around the league, including the on-side kick. Kickoff formations, the trade deadline is now a week later, and the biggest one of all, the hip drop tackle, has been banned. Banned, you're listening to the Fumborgsky 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. You're listening to the Fumborgsky podcast by a priority Dean Radio in SQL Weapon Consulting. I'm Chris Costich, alongside me, the founder, Adam Wright. Good evening, everyone, and welcome. A lot has really changed since Friday from our last episode, mainly just rule changes. That's really all it is, and some big ones. The on-side kick is a little different now. The kickoff formations is a little different. Trade deadline got pushed back a week, and hip drop tackle being banned, being the biggest one of all. And a lot of people are not happy about that. But we'll see that for later. First, we'll go to the on-side kick rule. Really, the biggest thing about the on-side kick rule is that now you have to let the referees and the other team know that you're actually going to do the on-side kick. And you can only do it once. And you have to do it when you're down. That's basically it. That's basically it, and it sucks. I'll just say it right now. It's a stupid, stupid thing that this happened because now you've taken the excitement of the on-side kick out of the game. And the rarity of the on-side kick has already been there. It's already been a very rare sight to see an on-side kick recovery. And now you've just made it so that it just never happens. I think that's a pretty well-rounded explanation for everyone's frustration. I don't know about you, Adam. Yeah, well, it's going to end up becoming irrelevant because the on-side kick has been dead for a few years now. It was once during the mid-2010s, the on-side kick had a 30% conversion rate. Now it's 3%. And teams just don't do it anymore. Well, they do it because that's all they have left to do. But ever since the kicking team's been banned from getting a running start, the conversion rate plummeted. And that was a bad idea because now when there's an on-side kick, you know that it's never going to work. A 3% conversion rate's a joke. So the fact of that, you're just making it even harder to convert it and you're making the game a lot more predictable. You see an on-side kick try, you know, OK. The team receiving is going to win. There's just no excitement there. And I can't tell you how many times as of sitting here as a Patriots fan, seeing a lot of those comebacks, especially the 2013 Patriots team, a lot of the on-side kicks that they had to make were some of the most iconic I've ever seen. And also the 2014 season, the NFC Championship. You remember that one? Oh, yeah, I remember that one. That was, I mean, we're not going to see much of that anymore. And these on-side kicks, they're still going to happen because the teams have to do them in order to have a chance at winning the game. But it'll be already sealed at that point. It'll be like a Hail Mary. The Hail Mary is supposed to be a shot. Like, there's a reason why when people talk about Hail Mary's outside of football, it's a football term because they're saying how unlikely it is that they'll convert it. The on-side kick was not that unlikely. A 33% chance is actually a pretty solid chance. It's very good chance. Now, 3%? The game's over. Yeah. So it's ridiculous. The NFL is trying to phase out the on-side kick. And it sucks that they're doing this because it was a great part of the game earlier when we were kids. And it's the only way to really come back into a game. In basketball, you have fouling to get the ball back. In hockey, you have pulling the goalie when you're down a goal to get the extra man. In baseball, you just fricking hit around. In football, you had the on-side kick. And that was your way of trying to get the ball back with a little amount of time and no time outs. And that was your only option. And now you've basically made it so that no teams will ever have a real chance at making a late game comeback if they're down with no time outs. It's just stupid. And it really all stems from the Colts team with Pat McAfee, where they were just hitting everybody with an on-side kick, left and right. And the difference there was that it was a lot of surprise on-side kicks. And they were able to do it very efficiently with a bunch of different formations. Now, with that being said, I will say that we will probably see a lot more creativity in the way that the ball is probably going to be kicked on the on-side kicks, more of the try to get the ball bounced up in the air long enough or you try to get it to curve. Stuff that we've already seen before that hasn't worked out too, too well. I mean, there has been success in certain ways that certain types of on-side kicks have been displayed that have been successful. But now more teams are going to be able to predict this creativity and be able to prepare for anything that a kicker might think is a reasonable way to try to get the ball back in any way possible, too. I don't know. That's-- regardless of that, though, regardless of creativity, it's bad for the game. It's just bad for the game. Yeah. So let me just fact check myself there. It's not 30%. But the last time it was a really good-- the last time it was a really good percentage was 2018. It was 21%. Then in 2019, it dropped to 6%. So that was in post-2018 when the rule was implemented. It turned into-- it has been a 3% chance ever since then. And that was probably a result of McPhee and the Colts doing all the surprise on-side kicks, because the league didn't really like that a whole lot, because their reasoning was injuries and whatnot. And she kind of saw the surprise on-side kick kind of fizzled out after that. Yeah. So it was a really exciting part of the game. And if players want to do that, then why can't they do it? Like, where is-- I'll have to look up the injury rates for special teams, but special teams plays rarely even-- I mean, they're part of the game, but it's a very small percentage of it. Especially on-side kicks. Right. Because the only time that you'll really get an injury is if someone gets absolutely cracked when they're trying to receive a ball. And they're not smart enough to call for an on-side or a fair catch. And you're attacking the most unpredictable part of the game, of special teams, in fact, that was really exciting to fans. Now you're taking that away. So you have to wonder, like, why-- I mean, we know that the NFL is going to be-- it's the most popular sport in the US. It's going to be watched, but the ratings are going to be down. And I don't know if the NFL actually cares, because they're just going to keep on-- I mean, they're going to laugh all their way to the bank every year, because no matter what they do, they know that they're going to make the money that they need. And we're still sadly going to watch. Yeah. We'll be crying as it happened in complaining about it, but we're still going to have our TVs on two football in September, October, November, December, January. And they're going to be like, yeah, suckers. Yeah, exactly. There was one more thing I was going to-- oh, well, one more thing, too, is that-- never mind the on-site kick. You mentioned this before, they take it all the excitement and the fun away from the game. And it's the NFL, the no-fun league. They take away the touchdown celebrations, and then they bring them back. And you think, oh, it looks like tide is changing. And then they continue their run and being the no-fun league and doing just stupid stuff. It's just-- it's fun, but it's getting to a point where it's just getting ridiculous. Yeah. You got anything else to add? No, this is-- I mean, we pretty much covered it. The on-site kick is dead and the NFL is just trying to ruin it. Yeah. Well, since we're still on the topic of kick-offs, we'll just get right into the kickoff formations. So the new rule now is that the kicker will go back to the 30-yard line. And both teams will set up, what is it? Five yards, 10 yards apart from the 30-yard line? Yeah. And then you will have your landing zone from the 20 to the end zone. And then if the ball goes into the end zone and completely misses the landing area, then the ball will get moved out to the 35-yard line. If the ball lands in the landing zone and rolls into the end zone, the ball will be placed at the 25. And that's basically it, really. That's really all it is besides the fact that the biggest change, really, is that of where the players are going to be lined up from now on. And this is a nod to the XFL. The XFL brought this rule in their first year and their inaugural year. And it was kind of a hit. Kind of a hit. There was a lot of people that kind of liked it. The NFL decided that they're going to test it out. And honestly, besides the fact that the actual formations and where the players are going to be originally lined up, I'm still a little iffy about that. But the fact that they're actually bringing kick-offs back into the game now is what I like the most about this. They're encouraging returns again. Yeah. So what I like about this is that they are trying to make the league more active in special teams outside of the on-side kick. For some reason, they're just giving the finger to that play. But they are trying to make the kick returns more exciting again, which I think they needed to do. In the 2003 season, 88% of kick-offs were returned. In 2023, 20 years apart, 21%. So kick-offs, touchbacks have been a-- they happen-- most of the time, it's a dead play. Who wants to watch that? At that point, just place the ball at the 25-yard line and just take special teams out of it entirely. And that was a result of the league moving the original kick-off spot from the 30 to the 35-yard line however many years ago that was. Yeah. And that was because they're trying to reduce injury. And this is still an attempt to reduce injury, but they've now found a way where they can appease both sides. Yeah. And they're going to get more kick-off returns. And that could end up meaning more long returns, more touchdowns. So Cordarrell Patterson is sitting here watching and saying, this is going to be fun. Just got signed by the Steelers, by the way. Just-- yeah, that's why you came up. Those are a couple hours ago. Just got signed by the Steelers. Chase Winovich, I like him, as well. Actually, Jesus, not Chase Winovich. The other blonde guy I used to play for the Patriots. Gunner, I'm asking you. Even though he has not been good ever since he left the Patriots. Yeah, he's been a jackass, to be honest. Yeah. And I don't know how special teamers become divas, but holy crap. Yeah. Oh, geez. And yeah, all in all, this new rule is probably my favorite one so far. Besides the next rule that we're going to go over the trade deadline, do you have anything else to add for this rule change, though? I think they needed to do this, especially after last season, after last season's rule change, where they changed. They made it so-- this is still a rule, but they're making up for it here. On punts, a fair catch, no matter where you are behind the 25-yard line-- Let's kick offs. You're thinking of kick offs? Yeah. Yeah. A fair catch, wherever it is, even if it's short of the end zone. That is going to be placed at the 25-yard line, which kind of ruins it. Because that takes all the strategy out of kicking short of the end zone, where you get to start the opposing team off with bad field position. I remember this is a play that the Patriots used to utilize during the 2010s. And it's part of what the Eagles did to sink the Patriots in 2017 in the Super Bowl. On one of their last drives, they kicked short of the end zone. And there wasn't much time left. They were down eight. The Patriots couldn't get into position to get a touchdown on a play that wasn't a Hail Mary. So that really helped them out. Now, if that play happened today, the Patriots would get the ball of the 25-yard line. And we may see back-to-back world champs, but well, that's for another day. Well, they still would have to get the two-point conversion, too, but the season-- But regardless of getting lost, left and right. Regardless of the point, though, yeah, it's a huge turnaround from that rule last year. And it was kind of silly, too, because they took a rule from college football and high school football. And that's the thing, is that that's the big underlying difference that a lot of people have when it comes to the NFL and college, and when these two different-- It's football at the end of the day, but college football and the NFL are both very different in their own right. So yeah, college football has their rules, the NFL has their rules. And that's what people like. That's what separated each other from their respective leagues and whatnot. And no one really want like, even overtime. People want the NFL to bring in the college overtime rules, whereas a lot of other people say, no, that's for college. The pros is the pros, and we need to keep it that way. So when they brought in the fair catch rule on the kick-offs, it was quite the headscratcher because it's like, why are we integrating a college rule into the pro level? This is just stupid. Like if you want to protect the college kids, by all means, protect the college kids. But this is the pros. They're getting paid to bash their heads in. Let them be. Exactly. Yeah, that's all I got for that one. You got anything else to add for it? Nope, that's pretty much it. We basically covered it. It's definitely a good rule. It definitely helps, but they definitely have some more to do to fix that on-side kick, which it seems like they're going in the opposite direction. They want to eliminate it. Big mistake. I mean, at least they're trying to make up for it in other areas. Yep. At least they're doing something about it. Yeah. We'll move on. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll go over the trade deadline shifts. Trade deadline has moved from week eight to week nine. You're listening to Paul Muruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns, someone's got to get that six or seven spots. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. You're listening to the Paul Muruski podcast by Power8 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting Chris Kostich. Adam Wright, move on to our next NFL rule change, the trade deadline. So originally, the trade deadline was week eight, and now it's been moved to week nine. That's basically it. That's really it. I'll just say right now, it makes total sense, because originally you had the 17-week season, and you had it at week eight. That's basically you split it down the middle, right? Now you had the 18-week season. It makes sense to only push the trade deadline a week later at this point. And Adam, you were saying this right before the show, do you mind as well even push the trade deadline a little farther back, too? And honestly, I wouldn't mind that, because you look at all these other leagues. A lot of these other leagues have their trade deadline about just before three-quarters of the way through the season. The NHL, their trade deadline, is just before March. Same thing with the NBA, the MLB, their trade deadlines around August, mid-August, late-August, one of the two, I don't quote me on that. So in a sense, they're kind of doing the same thing that some of these other leagues are, but the NFL has always been where the trade deadline is at that 50% mark in the season. Yeah. And the thing with the NFL trade deadline is it's one of the least active trade deadlines among the four major sports in the U.S. And you can kind of understand why, because early in the season, teams are still trying to find their identity. And halfway through, I mean, yeah, teams eventually get banged up, but it doesn't really happen until you're about 60% of the way through the season, where players start to get banged up. The injury report starts to get larger, but teams are still are just finding their identities. Players are in their mid-season form quite literally because it's halfway through the season. Why do you have it exactly halfway through the season? I think you should move it up to the point where teams actually need the help. If you're only, if you're only figuring it out when the team is finding their identity, then like that's, you're not going to get much interest in the trade market. But if you move it up a couple of weeks, let's say after week 11, I think that's where you're going to find more interest in trades, because that's when teams are making their final playoff push, that's when teams are thinking, okay, are we in contention or are we not? What pieces do we need? Which players do we need to replace who just got injured? That's something that teams will be considering. And you may get much more active trade deadlines perhaps as active as free agency is in March for them. Yeah, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one. It pretty well stated at that point. It's because never mind injuries and needing to reload and get fresh legs, I don't know about fresh legs, everyone's still playing the same amount. But to your point though, you do find more of your identity, more towards Thanksgiving or more in December. And that's going to be the point of you figure out, okay, what do we need? Do we need a cornerback? Let's go trade for a cornerback. So we need to unload this guy so we can at least get some picks because we're going to be a top 10 pick and we're going to rebuild for next year. Let's do that. It makes it easier, it'll make it easier for teams to figure out what they want to do long term instead of short term. At least for the teams that aren't going to do as well, it'll help them long term whereas the teams that are going to do better off, it's going to help more than likely help them short term. Yeah, and that's kind of what the trade deadline is for. It's for those short term changes that you think are worth making and you're more likely going to find that interest later on in the season rather than halfway through. It's like early on in the season, it's almost like an extended training camp or pre-season where you're going to see some sloppy football teams don't know what they are yet, some still think they're in playoff contention when they ultimately won't be. And then it's not until halfway through the season when you really start to find your form. And once you get there, you're not going to be thinking, yeah, let's make trades for other players. Well, you're going to be thinking, hell yeah, let's keep moving. Or you might be thinking, we're still trying to figure out who you are. So you're never going or you might be a team that already thinks they're out of it. So I think you're going to find more interest if you push it later when teams need for players is more dire. Because one thing that the NFL has going for them, I say going for them, maybe that's for lack of a better term, is that the league gets banged up almost every year later in the season. That's something that the MLB doesn't have. It's something that the NHL doesn't have as much. You don't have it in the NBA, but in the NFL players get hurt all the time. In fact, you can plan for players to get hurt, to be out for the season. That's the league of don't count your chickens before they hatch. Because you don't know, the team that is built may be very different from the team that finishes the season. So that's something that you can work with and push the trade deadline further back. And it'll cause for more action because teams will be more desperate to make moves. Yeah, that's pretty well said at that point. There's not really much else to really say on this matter, to be honest. At the end of the day, it's a very, the move makes sense, but it could be more at the end of the day. I think that's a good way to round that one out. Damn, we're really flying by this episode, huh? I know. Well, we'll take a quick break when we come back. We're going to save our energy and get into the hip drop tackle being banned the biggest of the rule changes that happened yesterday. You're listening to the Fumblerski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stats 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 rugby truly a loose, loose scenario for both sides. This is the Fumblerski podcast sponsored by Power 18 radio in secret weapon consulting. Chris Kostich, Adam Wright, move on to our final rule change and the biggest one that has us two up in arms, has everyone up in arms, has the NFL PA up in arms, the hip drop tackle being banned. And now I'm going to just say it blatantly. I just mentioned the NFL PA. The NFL PA already said that this is a load of horseshit part of my language, but it's a load of horseshit. And they said that blatantly last week or whenever he said that they were going to be deliberating on this rule change, the fact that they just completely went against the Players Association is just that I mean, it's not surprising, but it's just still baffling to me that they even went that far with it. It's just insane. Yeah, and in a league where the play has been going down, like it's this, I think this past season was arguably the sloppiest football that we've seen, offensive numbers were not doing so well, defense was getting better. But this basically, if you're a defender, whether that be a DB or a linebacker, you're going to be actually thinking about how you tackle a player. You obviously always thought about that, but now you're thinking about how to do it in a way that you don't get a penalty, even if you're doing it safely. It's like, well, well, this one was not safe. This one causes injuries. Well, I have news for you, the NFL just has injuries. Like I said in the previous segment, the league, you can pretty much plan for there to be injuries, no matter how you tackle the player. So this idea that we're trying to make football completely safe, that's just not going to happen. I understand you may want to have the best of both worlds, but you're not going to get it. The league isn't going to be safe and then be entertaining at the same time. It goes completely against the nature of the sport. It's a rough sport. Players get hurt and it's their choice whether they want to put their bodies on the line and go and play. It's also their choice if they want to leave the game early. Who left a few years ago? There was, I'm completely forgetting the name of the linebacker for the 49ers who decided you know what. Navarro Bowman. Yeah. Bowman. He was one of the better linebackers in the league. He made his money. He decided you know what, I want to go do something else. That's his choice. But if you're going to stay in the league and say, I want to hit some people, I want to play, I want to have some fun, why are you ruining that for everybody else? If you think the league isn't safe, if you don't like that, don't go and change it. Just don't watch the sport. So it's really just not, like players are going to get injured. That literally just happens. It's part of the league. It's the NFL. It's not flag football. It's tackle football. That's one thing that people just don't understand. So you're not going to make the league safe. That's just not going to happen. So Corinne and Rich McKay, do we have a problem? The answer was yes. This will be a hard one to call on the field. You have to see every element of it. We want to make it a rule so we can deal on to this plan during the week. Now here's another tweet. So that was originally from Ian Rapport. Here's from Mike Garifolo. Rich McKay making it clear multiple times there's a difference between a hip drop tackle and a swivel hip drop tackle. Now here's the other thing. It's the swivel hip drop tackle that they have banned. Obviously it's still a hip drop, but it's the swivel that, the word swivel is what's the big thing here. And so the thing with the swivel hip drop tackle, the defensive player lifting himself off the ground and using his way to fall on the offensive player is what they're working to eliminate. And either way, you've now made it so that the referees now have to make another judgment call amongst many other judgment calls that they already have to make throughout an entire game. And it might come down to the last play of the game and say a quarterback's going back to throw a Hail Mary, line and comes in, swivel hip drop, oh, we're extending it another play. It's going to change to kick a field goal and that's ball game. There's so many elements to this that it's, I just, there's so many elements to it that next year is going to suck and it's going to be solely on the fact that all these defensive players are going to complain and bitch and moan about how stupid this rule is, how hard it already is for them to tackle because they can't hit a pie. They can barely hit down low without being called a cheap shot or tearing someone's ACL. And now their only real option is to hit in the, in the waist area where they're taught all their life that the low man wins and if you wrap their legs, that's ball game and they can barely even wrap a player's legs anymore without getting flagged. And it's the same thing with linebackers and liming going after the quarterback. You can't hit high, you can't hit low and you have to hit in the middle and the quarterback makes a move and you end up grabbing his waist and pull him down, that's going to be a flag. It's going to be a flag and it's stupid, it's stupid, like as a former quarterback myself, this is just so stupid. And now you're going to get the sloppiest football play that you're ever going to see since probably the 80s and it's going to suck to watch. Yeah, we're still going to watch it. We're going to watch Derek Henry and his prime years probably extended now that he can't be tackled. I mean, that's literally the only way that you could bring down Derek Henry. And this move, I mean, we say all the time how running backs, age like milk, this may extend their life, the fact that they are now allowed to run like this. And a penalty, a penalty on the hip drop adds 15 yards. Line backers and defensive backs are going to be very hesitant on where they tackle Derek Henry and Josh Jacobs and Christian McCaffrey. And therefore their prime is going to be a lot longer. So I've said many times, the prime, the running back is the only position in professional sports where you could be in your 20s and be considered pasture prime that may change now because they are going to be able to make moves and they're not going to be able to be tackled in the way they're usually tackled. So that is going to extend their life in the league, which may bring their positional value way up like they have always wanted. Yeah, and that's going to be huge. That's going to be huge. Damn, there's one more thing I was going to say to I just left my head. You got anything else off the top? I think I think we covered this perfectly. Mine was one more thing I was going to say to. What other news was around the league? Well, I'm trying to think of what I was about to say. Well, I was thinking of bringing up how the Titans have brought in luxurious need. And today, actually, they just finalized a deal for four years, $76 million, four year year, $76 million deal, that's the max value, and they have been very busy this off season. They have easier than most would have expected. And yeah, so they brought in DeAndre Hopkins last off season. And this off season, they bring in Calvin Ridley to pair up with him. They lose Derek Henry, but they bring in Tony Pollard, who is younger and may have a different run style, but it's still an effective one. And you've been working on that offensive line a little bit more. They added to their interior. They have Peter Skoronski on one book end. And you can pretty much book it that Joe Alt is going to be a Tennessee Titan. He's going to be on another side. Their offensive line looks better. Their defense looks much better, bringing in luxurious need and should obey a woozy. So all around this defense, the defense is really good. The offensive line is looking better by the day. And their pass catching core is loaded with players who may be past their prime, but will help further the development of Will Levis. And if this kid can play at this point, we're going to find out quick. If he can't, we're going to find out as well. But at least we'd know. And yes, DeAndre Hawkins and Calvin Ridley are getting older. But I feel like they at least have one to two years left. I think last year, Will Levis definitely show that he can ball. It's just a matter of if he can follow up his rookie season with a better sophomore season. And one of the big things, especially from this TikTok that I saw, which makes a lot of sense. I forget who the creator was, but he came up with the point that guys like, so JJ McCarthy, he doesn't have a big touch pass. He has a great gun-sling arm, but he doesn't really have a touch pass. And that's kind of the same thing with what we see from Josh Allen and from Brett Farve. They were both gun slingers that just lasered that sucker in there, right? They just put a lot of mustard on it, and that's kind of what Will Levis has a problem with as well. Always lasered that sucker in, whereas you don't always need to do that. And that's a big reason why Brett Farve threw so many interceptions. That's another reason why Josh Allen also has a turnover problem, because you don't need to laser it in every single time. So one of the big developments for next year is if Will Levis can develop different types of passes instead of just laseering it in every single time. And he might be able to get away with it this season if he figures that out, because he does. He has DeAndre Hopkins, he has Calvin Ridley, he has Trelan Burks as well, and he can dump it off to Tony Pollard if he wants. Tony Pollard is a nice pass-catching back, and he could lean on him to hand it off to as well. So they have a lot of things that they can do with this, and I think the Titans are, watch out for the Titans. They're a team that is built kind of to win now. Yeah, or at least win in the next couple of years. They're built for a good next couple of years. That's for sure. For a couple of years. Yeah. It depends on how DeAndre Hopkins and Calvin Ridley last, because they built this, they built that pass-catching core to win right now. Yeah. Especially with how the rest of the AFC South is looking to, I mean, the Texans are the balls right now. So they're, the AFC South isn't like it's going to be a cakewalk, and the Colts are also on the rise. The Jaguars are kind of teetering. We don't really know what the hell is going to happen with them for next year, but in the Titans case, the AFC South isn't going to be a cakewalk for them. And the AFC South is looking like a really good division right now. And Anthony Richardson now has Michael Pitman Jr. nailed down for a few more years. That offensive line's getting a little better. I mean, this is going to be a very competitive division, and I'm excited to see what happens. They all have good young quarterbacks, have good young futures. The Jaguars, I mean, they had a down year, but we know what they're capable of. They did lose Calvin Ridley to the Titans, but they brought in Gabe Davis. So you know, Gabe Davis, Zay Jones, and that- I'm blanking as well. Christian Kirk, Jesus Christ, their number one option we blanked on. Evan Ingram, Travis ETN. They have like all of these teams looking pretty good, so very excited to see how that goes. But the Titans are doing all of the things that they need to do. Yep, but with that being said, it's also going to come down to coaching at this point and who they guess coach. Because if Mike Rebel was still the coach, this would be a good team. But now we don't know where the coach- We do. We do. It's the former Bengals offensive coordinator. Right. It's a very hit or miss move. Exactly. The offensive coordinators could either be geniuses as head coaches, or they could look like absolute incels. Yeah. So it's really going to come down to how he coaches this team. Because like I said, if it was Mike Rebel at the helm, this would be a team that would be competing for the division. But with the new head coaching hire, it's going to be up in the air. Yeah, with Brian Callahan as their new head coach, it's going to be interesting to see how things go. But I would say, I don't care too much for the seasons that he had with Joe Burrow. Because I feel like most head coaches would do well with him unless you're Anthony Lynn or Brandon Staley, where you absolutely suck with Justin Herbert. If you have Joe Burrow, especially when you have Jamar Chase, T Higgins, I know the offensive line wasn't great, but you don't need that much time to throw. So there's not much that you need to do. But when you lose your head coach, when you lose your starting quarterback, and then Jake Browning has to come in, and you still finish with a winning record, and your in playoff in playoff contention, I think that was a better year for Callahan. I think that's one where you look at and you say, "Okay, maybe this guy does have something." It's not in the years where the team is loaded where you're going to be looking at coaching because you had talent that can make up for a lot of things on coaching. But when you have Jake Browning as the backup who's still slinging it all over the field, it's like, "Okay, now you have my attention." He's still a big question mark, but I'm cautiously optimistic on how Brian Callahan's going to do. Yeah, I'm still 50/50 about it, but depending on how Will Levis can progress, if they can get Will Levis to progress, they should be in a good spot. But at the end of the day, it's going to come down to coaching. Oh, yeah. I've got to come down to coaching. That's all I got for that one. I did just remember the last thing I wanted to say about the hip drop tackle as well. Sorry to circle back on that, but last thing before we conclude the show, the funny thing about a lot of these plays and moments that end up being debated for banning or rule changes this and that, it wasn't really a problem until they put a name on it. And the same thing can be said about, you guessed it, the touch push. I hate to make the comparison, but the touch push was just fine and dandy until they slapped a name on it. And now it's everybody's problem and same thing with hip drop tackle. And I'm glad that they aren't touching it because they say it's a rugby play, but it's like-- It's a little bit more. Rugby play anyways. I know that rugby has more physicality than-- I know that rugby does have more physicality than football, but when it comes to scrums, like plays that are set up where there's a giant pig pile, it's the same thing as the NFL, and in the NFL, we have pads. They don't. They're dressed like soccer players, hitting each other like trucks. At least we have helmets, pads. The play starts and stops. The quarterback doesn't even do anything. He's sitting behind an offensive line every other play. So why can't they just do that one QB sneak play where the offensive line is pushing him? Not him. He's not pushing himself. Nice. Yeah. But I mean, let me tell you one other rule that I want to happen before you end the show. Okay. I like that. I like that. Let's end it on a nice positive note. Well we need-- and this isn't more of a rule change. This is more closer to the trade deadline and scheduling. I think they should extend the season one more week of football. Take actual football, add a bye week, and extend the season in both ways. So the end point will start a week early. The out point will go a week later. So you have two bye weeks. Hey, wouldn't you be up for that? You have TNFLP. Hang on. Hang on. Two bye weeks. Two bye weeks. You start the season earlier, meaning you get football in the summer, regular football and regular season football in the summer, and then you have the Super Bowl the day before President's Day. Oh, so you get the day off from work and school? Yes. So that you would get better ratings, better ratings for the Super Bowl because more people are watching. They don't have anything to do. You have longer viewership. People can view it longer because they don't think, okay, I need to drive home. You know, I need to get to bed because I have work tomorrow morning, nope. You can just watch as long as you want. And the reason that I think the NFLPA should look into this is because the ratio for bye weeks to regular season games would be better than ever. Two bye weeks. We have never had two bye weeks. So you extend the season one week, just one week longer of play to add two bye weeks. That ratio goes from 14 to one long, like long ago before they extended to 16 games, to 16 to one, to 17 to one, to 18 to two, that means you're getting more rest for the players. Okay. That's a better ratio than before. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like even if you slap the extra bye week on, I don't know if the players would necessarily, because the players association already wasn't a big fan of the 17th game being thrown in. I mean, the other good thing was that they got rid of one week of pre-season play. So now you're adding another week of football, I mean, granted with the bye week, yeah, that's good and all that, but I feel like the NFLPA would have a problem just based on the fact that, you know, they're already playing so many damn games, season's already, I mean, not that the season already runs long, but they're already playing a lot of games. Their bodies are already going, just going through it to begin with it. I feel like that could be a, another 50-50 rule that could be a toss up. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it'll be something that they'll want to think about, but- Because the NFL would love it because obviously it's going to make them more money, but on the players side, it just means more risk for injury probably. More risk for injury, but also more padded stats. Players are on fresher legs and you also get an extra, extra week to drive up your value. Yeah. You know, it's not all just like, we don't get a break where this, our season is really long. I mean, and also during bye weeks for players, they're not just sitting there doing nothing. I mean, that's like a vacation week for them. Yeah. So like, they go out with their family, they go out with friends, like, that's a time when they sit back and relax. So it's not like- Yeah. Oh, it's the long, grueling season. No, you're getting an extra week of vacation. Yeah. I think it's, I think it's a good way to round it out. Yeah. Anything else that want to throw out there? I got a, I'm just going to throw a couple more rules out there that were amended before we end the show. By Detroit men's rule, 15 section one, article one, to protect a club's ability to, or a team's ability to challenge a third ruling following one successful challenge, which I better like that, you got two challenges already, might as well be rewarded for a third, if, if you get a successful challenge. By the competition committee, men's rule of 14 section five, article two, to allow for an enforcement of a major foul by the offense prior to a change of possession in a situation where there are fouls by both teams. I'm a mouthful, that could probably be explained for another day, but yeah. But other than that, that is all the scheduled content that we have for tonight. Thank you for listening. We have new episodes out. Tuesdays is 7.30 p.m. and Friday, 5 p.m. These are standard, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We also have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple podcast, iHeartRadio, Google podcast, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, Fumbleruski_podcast and our TikTok Fumbleruski pod to keep up with our podcast and latest coverage on NFL. Otherwise, from my self-criscostage and Adam Wright, we say so long and good night. We'll see you on Friday over and out. [BLANK_AUDIO]