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Most of you aren't just listening right now, you're multitasking, but what if you could also be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers you save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. So multitask right now. Get your quote now at progressive.com. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates' national average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed, who saved with progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. Thank you, Simon. Thank you. [Music] Dr. Queen, jumping from the Ravens to the Steelers, first round pick, they didn't pick up his fifth year option, which was the first sign that they didn't view him to be the guy that they thought he was going to be when he was a first round draft pick, and then they trade for Roquan Smith and pay Roquan Smith, yeah, it's great to have both of them together. They made the financial decision that the resources weren't there for both guys, so Queen goes to Pittsburgh, and now he gets his shot miles this weekend against the Baltimore Ravens. And Queen, you know, Chris Sims was making the point in the viewing room on Sunday. He thinks Queen is better than Roquan Smith. They should have kept Queen instead of Smith, but they trade for him, they sign him, they kind of locked in with Smith, Queen maybe better right now than Roquan Smith. Well, I do find it interesting that, you know, the Ravens who are a place that, you know, they draft, they develop, they retain most of the time, right, then they go out and they do trade for a guy like Roquan Smith who does obviously fit the mold of the Ravens, but in the same way that somebody might fit the mold of the Ravens, they kind of probably fit the mold of the Steelers too. And so it is, it was interesting, you know, hearing Patrick Queen talk about that, and you know, I wrote about it yesterday at PFT, and you know, what he said, I kind of resonated with where it's like, you know, anybody would probably feel some type of way when you put all of your effort into making a team as great as it can be, right? You pour all kinds of hours into it, and then they just let you go. And it's kind of like, wait a minute, like I, you drafted me here, you know, I feel like I'm a Raven. And then basically he said it took until late August, early September for him to really get over the fact that the Ravens did not want him anymore. And so it's great that he went to the Steelers because, well, what do you do every year? You play the Ravens at least twice a year, if not three times in the postseason, and certainly that could be the case this year with Baltimore and Pittsburgh. So I think that even though he says, yeah, I'm going to feel a little bit of emotions, you know, I'm not necessarily sure how it's going to all go. I think that this is going to be very interesting, you know, just that sort of chess match between a Lamar Jackson, right, and how he wants to run and how he wants to operate versus a Patrick Queen, somebody who saw him in practice every day, you know, and now somebody who's got to go against him on a rival team in the division, should be fun. Still, let's get their first divisional game of the year in week 11. They've not played the Ravens, the Bengals or the Browns yet. They'll play six of them over the remaining eight weeks of the regular season. So what's more likely as the Ravens seven and three take on the Steelers seven and two, Lamar Jackson has more total touchdowns than turnovers or more tone overs than total touchdowns. I'm going to go with more turnovers than touchdowns, and I'm doing it because I believe in the Steelers this year, and I believe in what Mike Tomlin's doing over there. It's really interesting because Lamar Jackson versus the Ravens, it's sort of like the Kryptonite, the Bugaboo, whatever you want to call it, right? He does not perform as well against them, and it's the opposite effect probably of what we see from Lamar Jackson versus NFC teams where they don't see him. So it's like, whoa, what is this? I don't understand what it is that I'm seeing. How can this guy do all of these things at quarterback, whereas even though Mike Tomlin was giving him the designation of Mr. Jackson, they see this guy twice a year. So it lessens the factors of the unknown, right? They understand what it looks like to face Lamar Jackson. We saw Lamar Jackson struggle a little bit against the Cleveland Browns a few weeks ago. I think it's that same effect. So that's why I would go with turnovers over touchdowns. It is amazing. He's only faced him four times. He's been the starter full time since this really happened during 2018, but week one 2019, he's the guy, but there's been injuries, there's been other things that have kept him from facing the Steelers. And I actually think it hurts him that it's a one o'clock Eastern game because Lamar Jackson for whatever reason, you get him under the lights, he finds a higher level. Not one o'clock Eastern game window. That's when the Ravens seem to have their lapses. That's when they seem to be not as sharp as they are for whatever reason. I don't know what the reason is, but I know what I've seen. And it just fits that this is a Steelers moment afternoon game. Ravens coming to town. Yeah, the Ravens had a couple of extra days to get ready, but look at what that did for the Jets last week. Look at what it did for the Texans last week having extra days to get ready. I agree with you. I think there's going to be more Lamar Jackson turnovers and touchdowns because that's been the history. And that's why I think it's to the point we were talking about earlier. You want to see great teams, like not have lapses. The Ravens have too many lapses and this won't necessarily be a lapse because they're, this is toe to toe with another great team, a team with a better record than them. I think it's going to, the Ravens can still win, but I don't think it's going to be Superman, Neo, the matrix Lamar Jackson that we've seen from time to time this year. All right. Chiefs bills. Wow. What a game. Chiefs nine and O bills eight and two. What's more likely the Chiefs who are underdogs win by two scores or the bills win by one score. What's more likely? Oh, bills win by one score. I mean, this is the thing with this rivalry, right? The bills win in the regular season and then the Chiefs win in the post season. So I fully expect by hook or by crook, the bills are going to win this game, right? It just makes sense. And yeah, I know like the chiefs are undefeated. They've been making plays when they need to make plays. That's part of why they are a great team because they figure out a way to win in those critical situations. But I mean, if, if not for Lamar Jackson doing what he's been doing, like Josh Allen, like low key, having an MVP caliber season, he really is. And you know, there were some throws last week. I don't think he had a touchdown pass. There was one where he was rolling to his right and he dumps it off to Mac Hollins all the way down the field. Just it's one of those plays that very, very few human beings on planet Earth can make. And when you see Josh Allen doing those kinds of things, you see him running the ball the way he runs it. I think that will give the Chiefs problems. And yeah, I think that Buffalo being at home, it's November. They're going to be up for this, obviously. I don't necessarily even want to know what those signs are going to look like when they're, you know, they're going up to Allen Park and Buffalo because some of those, those, those Buffalo fans, man, they're aggressive. But I do. I think the bull is going to win this one. At least Tom Brady won't be in the building for any devices to be thrown on the field. Any inappropriate remarks will be confined to what's written on a sign, not, not what's written on said devices. Look, given the choices and Pete does a nice job of creating a spot where we want to go middle, but we got to go one or the other, one extreme or the other because I think the Chiefs are going to win, I really do. And I don't, I don't want to tip my hand for the upcoming picks podcast and give the Sasquatch a chance to get a look into what my thinking is for what games I'm going to pick. But between the two choices we're given, I think it is more likely the bills win by one score than the Chiefs win by two. I don't think anybody's winning this game by two scores. Nobody's blowing anybody out in this game. This is going to be back and forth down to the wire. We see it all the time and you're right. Look, and this isn't anything that's going to turn the page on the narrative for the bills. They got to do it in the postseason. We've seen them do it in the regular season. It doesn't mean anything. What matters is January. So by the way, by the way, Patrick Mahomes is 11 and three straight up when he's an underdog and the Chiefs are 2.00 underdogs in Buffalo. And this is only the fifth time since the merger in 1970 that two teams with eight or more wins are meeting in week 11 or earlier. So high stakes game, great records, number one seat on the line. What? Oh, that's the last time it happened. The last time happens. Chiefs win. Yes. Yeah. I got a game off right before 51. It was awesome. The last game of week 11, the game that many said was setting back football, defensive football for 50 years. And I don't know. We have a game like that. That's all defensive touchdowns in that game. That's why it was. So high scoring. Yeah. I know. All right. Next up, Bengals at the Chargers Sunday night football flexed in for Colts jets, four and six Bengals, six and three Chargers. What is more likely? The Bengals score 20 now, the Chargers haven't given up 20 points all year long or the Chargers score 30 or more. They haven't scored 30 in a game all year. So which trend breaks? You can't say neither. Which ones more likely? Bengals score 20, Chargers score 30. I'm going to go with Bengals score 20 because I think when you have, you know, receivers like Jamar Chase, T Higgins got back at practice yesterday and that would be huge if they could have him obviously for this game. And the Bengals are a desperate team at this point too. So I give a lot of credit to Jim Harbaugh for what he's done and just totally reviving and idolizing that team. I mean, you, and this is the thing that Harbaugh does. We've seen it time and time again, basically everywhere he's gone. He starts winning and it happens pretty quickly because he just understands ball. He's just a football dude and it's great and I love what he's doing over there. But I just feel like this week, the Bengals are a desperate team. They're going to break that streak that the, that the, that the, the Chargers have started the season with. I agree with you. And there are certain moments where the desperation level coupled with a team that isn't feeling desperate. The Chargers, I think at this point, can autopilot their way to the six seed. The way it's playing out and maybe they can end up the fifth seed. They're not going to win the division. They're going to make the playoffs. They've got some cushion between themselves and that cluster of teams. It's competing for the seventh seed, even though a loss here counts as a game toward that Bengals rising, Chargers falling. The Chargers are still there at six. They'd have to lose six seed and seven seed. I don't think they're going to miss the playoffs even if they lose this game. The Bengals, if they lose this game, might be done. It feels like a playoff game and what happens to Joe Burrow in the postseason? He takes on a higher level of performance and he seems like the kind of guy who is going to take what happened on Thursday night against the Ravens and use it to access an even greater well of determination and ability and performance. So I agree. It's more likely that the Bengals score 20 or more. And I think I'm also tipping my hand to the Sasquatch on what I'm going to be doing by way of picking the Sunday night game. Seahawks 49ers rematch of a game. They played on a Thursday night early this year. Seahawks coming off of the buy at four and five, 49ers one off the buy in Tampa Bay. They're five and four. What's more more likely? Geno Smith throws for more passing yards than Brock Purdy or Purdy throws for more passing yards than Geno Smith. Oh, this is I would say Geno Smith throws for more. More yards in large part because that's kind of how they move the ball this year. And Christian McCaffrey in his second week back. I would think that McCaffrey will get a little bit going, you know, a little bit better. I think he only had with nine thirty nine forty yards rushing ish last week against Tampa Bay. Feel like, you know, that second week back, he'll probably feel a little more like himself. They'll be able to do a couple more things in the passing game, which, excuse me, the run game, which then takes the pressure off the passing game. And if you're the Seahawks, that's basically been your MO. So I'll go. I'll go with Geno Smith on that one. And Geno Smith currently leads the league with two hundred and eighty four point four passing yards per game. Purdy is second with two seventy two point seven. I'll go with Smith as well because that Purdy average is inflated by the fact that he's had to get it done without Christian McCaffrey. So having the Caffrey back in the run game will create less of an urgency. Maybe the 49ers will get out to a lead, the Seahawks start having to throw to try to come back. I could see Smith having significantly more passing yardage at the end of the day than Purdy, even though I think as I tip my hand yet again to the Sasquatch, the 49ers will win. Falcons at the Broncos, six and four Atlanta five and five Denver, both had bad divisional losses last week for different reasons. The Falcons got outclassed by the Saints who had just fired their coach and had lost seven in a row. Broncos lose on the field goal block for the ages. Who's more likely to have the hangover from week 10 Falcons or Broncos? I'll go with Broncos, but I'm not confident in it. And I say it mostly because I'm thinking of quarterbacks, right? Okay, you've got better than quarterback and Kirk Cousins who understands how to bring the team back after a loss like that versus rookie quarterback in Bonix. And I think Bonix has done a nice job of getting better throughout the season. Like that, that, that, that throw he had to Courtland Sutton that basically should have won the game on third down last week, if not for the block field goal. Like that's one thing where you can say, okay, look, he is making strides. He is progressing, but no, it's still a rookie quarterback. So based on that alone, I will say the Falcons are less likely to have a hangover than Broncos are more likely. I would agree with that in concept, you know, this is one of those organic authentic moments that just kind of falls into their laps. The way the Broncos have rallied around Alex Forsyth, who was the guy who got blown up serve on the field goal block, the guy who was light on his toes as Leo Chanel told me after the game, he noticed it during the game. He didn't notice it from film. Well, there's a clip out there going around of a mashup of all the times that Forsyth has been knocked on his ass on field goal and extra point attempts. So the film was out there. You didn't need to figure it out during the game. And Bonix had a very, I think, convincing and heartfelt defense of Forsyth yesterday. They were teammates for one year at Oregon. I just think that that the Broncos kind of taking this personally, that the coaching staff has taken ownership of the moment, maybe Forsyth shouldn't have even been out there in that setting. I just feel like they're not, oh, what was us? They're trying to prop each other up and find a way to build. I think that the Falcons are more likely to have the hangover because the Falcons have proven to us now that even though we've seen flashes from them, there's just something missing. And last week's loss tells me it's not going away anytime soon. All right, Miles is going away now, not because I want him to because the document says it's time to say farewell because we have Jason Garrett coming up. The other half of the Miles Garrett combination, not featuring Miles Garrett, Miles, enjoy the game tonight and we'll be checking out your post at PFT. You've talked about applying to play beyond this year before. Has the way this season gone for you or his team changed that thought at all. Not really. Not for the negative. I think you don't want to play in 2025. I think so, yeah. I think so. Yeah. Aaron Rodgers wanted to play in 2025. First, the Jets have to want him as we return to this Thursday edition of PFT Live presented by Accenture. I don't know if the Jets are going to want it back next year. They're going to have a new coach. New coach might not want Aaron Rodgers around is the juice worth the squeeze. The delicate genius has basically taken over. I don't think a new coach is going to want that because he's not playing well enough to justify it. They got to want him $35 million compensation package, non-guaranteed. They got some decisions to make about Aaron Rodgers, but they might not want him. And if they don't want him, then the question becomes who does? Who does? I saw this too. Charles Robinson from Yahoo pointed out that when Devonta Adams was traded to the Jets, he wanted an assurance that Rodgers would be there in 2025. Hey, Devonta, you got to look at your contract. You're due to make 35.6 million next year. You're not going to be there in 2025 unless you do a new deal. So I don't think either guy is going to be there next year based on how things have gone. And given the reality, there will be a new head coach and there might be a new general manager and Christopher Johnson, not Woody Johnson, might be in charge of the team at some point in the offseason because Woody Johnson might be part of the new administration. Now, I want to play for you because we challenged the New York media, the rough and tumble New York media to ask Aaron Rodgers about what he said on Pat McAfee show. We played yesterday the comments about sticking to the plan and not throwing guys out prematurely, not being impatient and how ownership is so critical that ownership shouldn't listen to social media. Ownership shouldn't listen to people in the media. Ownership should stay the course and it was set up beautifully for a question to be posed to Aaron Rodgers about this simple dichotomy. Did ownership in New York not stick to the plan or did ownership think correctly there was some major issue that necessitated the premature firing of Robert Salah. Here's what Aaron Rodgers had to say yesterday. I just wanted to follow up on something from back. I need to ask you about Chicago and you were talking about ownership kind of some owners have those patients and sort of say this is the plan we're speaking to it. Yeah. Can you play for a team where they fired the coach after five games? I mean you think that this place did not have the patience and should it stuck to the plan? I was really referring to the fact that young quarterbacks in general are kind of plug and play right away. And there's less guys like myself and Jordan Love and Pat's it for a season. Various guys have set one, two, three seasons and he just kind of trusted that process to work. It's a different game now and everything is so snap judgment. I think there is something to in the beginning of whatever decisions you make saying this is what we're doing for this long and we're going to trust this process because we have the right guys in place. I think there's some to that but I'm also the old guy you know still talking about the way things used to be. So you really want to talk about coaching changes as much as quarterback. Let's talk about quarterbacks and how they're kind of plug and play right away and there's snap decisions you know Bryce Young got benched Anthony got benched different guys got benched early and it's tough on the conferences guys. Okay we all have a purpose in this broader NFL media ecosystem mine over the past 23 years has evolved into this. I call bullshit when I see it and in that case I see it. I smell it and somebody stepped in it because he wasn't talking about young quarterbacks when he said what he said. It started as a dissertation about how you should handle young quarterbacks but it definitely and unmistakably became commentary on the lack of patience from owners about everyone. Not young quarterbacks so don't don't and I can't fault the media for not getting into at a press conference setting an argument with Aaron Rodgers over what he actually said. He did not say what he said in the context of young quarterbacks he was talking broadly and generally and he shed light unwittingly on the core question about what happened five weeks and two days ago in New York. Was this an instance when Robert Sala was fired of Woody Johnson acting rashly and impatiently or was there some deeper problem that needed to be rectified and could only be rectified by firing the coach. Rodgers set it up on Tuesday he set up that question they tried they tried got to give him credit for trying but Rogers as I texted someone yesterday he is as slippery as butter jello when he's putting a setting like that and he knows how to talk his way out of any mess. All right I've talked my way out of time coach Jason Garrett joins us when PFD live presented by Accenture continues right after this. The holidays are here at the Home Depot so let's get to decorating find your perfect tree in our huge assortment of shapes sizes and styles like the easy to assemble Jackson noble fur with pre-lit branches perfect for styling with all your favorite ornaments or the flock starry light Fraser fur with over 1900 pre-lit memory wire branches that keep their shapes so it's ready right out of the box. Find the perfect tree now at the Home Depot. Fall season is in full swing hockey and basketball just getting started this is the best time of the year for sports and sling is the best place to watch slings got you covered with access to hundreds of games and the biggest networks take your love of sports to the next level with sling it's an old brainer streaming games and saving on them too. Oh it's not just sports sling has the news and entertainment channels you love and less of the ones you don't so you save hundreds of dollars on live TV sling lets you choose and customize your channel lineup so you can select the channels that you actually want to watch and slings cloud DVR lets you record your shows to watch on your schedule there's no complex technology no long term contracts and no hidden rigmarole get rewarded for watching sports sling lets you do that visit sling.com/play to learn more and get started that sling.com/play sling.com/play Thursday edition of PFT Live presented by Accenture he's become a fixture now on these solo days for me when we bring in a guest we wake him up early if you're in Dallas you're like Serene Williams where you got to get up an hour earlier than my clock says it says 821 here it's 721 in Dallas if that's where you are he's coach Jason Garrett part of football night in America and every other week or so part of PFT Live good morning coach how are you I'm doing great Michael you're fired up today man. Hey look on the days when it's just me and I got to get that first half hour with no one else it's extra coffee before I do it because I need that kick in the ass to get through the show so the coffee is still it's still flowing through my veins I think it's extra coffee in certain topics right when you come across a certain topic you get ready to go now it's fun yeah well we've exhausted that topic we'll move on to another one and I know this is one that you have some views about because we talked about this during the football night in America podcast on Sunday night how to fix various teams how to fix the bears you had some advice for the bears specific to how to implement the offense well they've implemented a change fairly dramatic in the offense by firing offense coordinator Shane Waldron and elevating Thomas Brown on the fly changing the tire on a moving car nine games into the season helped me understand because my first reaction was how's this going to make the offense better how does it change like this in season potentially make an offense better well it's a tricky topic it really is particularly when you're talking about a coordinator because for all the reasons you just said you're changing midstream there's a certain rhythm the team has been in up to this point and and you know now you're changing and people forget that you're changing and then you have a Wednesday practice you have a Thursday practice the games on you before you can imagine so I think that becomes that becomes a challenge for you to do that but obviously they didn't feel good about the direction they were going in there's there's a there's an element of pressure when you draft the quarterback of the first pick he's supposed to come in and be Superman right away so there's all these outside external forces impact in the organization the questions about their head coach Matt Iberflu's you know where is he what's his status all these things are are infiltrating this decision making process they're going through but you know I think the biggest thing for me is you have to recognize that the hardest thing for any quarterback is they come into the NFL is the dropback passing game I don't care where you played what level how many Heisman's you've won it's a transition to come to the NFL to ask a guy to immediately get into a dropback passing game time and time again you're not going to have a lot of success so for me with them just watching them from afar it's hey let's run the ball let's move the quarterback I would move the quarterback constantly I mean he's a rare athlete he's one of the most rare athletes to come out in the draft in a long long time let's get him out of the pocket let's get him out in space we call him progression reads you come out on a naked you said I'm going to throw the ball of Florio is Florio open yes give it to him if not I'm going to throw it to Pete okay Pete's open give it to him if not go to the next guy or run and these are kind of the reads that you've had since you were in high school and so as you're transitioning and learning more about pro football you can keep it simple for a quarterback by doing that particular quarterback with his ability and I know they know that in Chicago but I would go overboard with it I would keep him out of the dropback passing game as much as they can until he's able to handle it better and they're able to handle it better as an offense so it's a challenge to make the change midstream I think that's the best thing they can do for him and for their team and look there's a lot of stuff that surely happened behind the scenes that we won't be privy to and it may come delight at some point down the road but unless this was a situation where Shane Waldron was just completely unequipped and unfit to be an offensive coordinator and they hired the wrong guy I can't help but wonder whether this is just a reaction to the fact that the Bears are failing to live up to the expectations that were created for them going into the season and my question for you coach when you're in that situation and you were in kind of a unique spot in pro football or in pro sports with an owner who wants a lot of attention a lot of hype a lot of buzz how can a coach who senses maybe they're expecting too much from us and from this kid as a rookie how do you how do you get control of that and get that level that bar of what the team supposed to be to come down so 4 and 5 looks like not a failure you know I think the biggest part of your job as a head coach and this goes back a hundred years but particularly in this day and age is controlling the message and and some coaches go overboard with this they want to make sure everybody in the organization is quiet and they don't say anything wrong I think that's a mistake but you know you have the opportunity every day to talk to your team you have the opportunity five times a week to talk to the media you certainly have an opportunity anytime you want hopefully to talk to ownership and the general manager and everyone else in the organization but that's your number one job is to create a message what's the vision for the football team communicate that vision and what's the message every single day and and for me the word expectation is a tricky word there's a lot of outside expectations in this world but when you're in an organization you have to make sure that the expectations are internal okay the expectations you have for yourself in the building about how we're going to go about things and and I think that's the most important focus that you have to have with your team and people talk a lot about culture and they don't want to hear much about culture culture to me is about getting the right people together and doing things the right way each and every day those are your standards those are your expectations and you have to get everybody to put the blinders on every day and not listen to what the outside noise is now that's easy to say in 1920 okay but but in 2024 you know you'll walk around with that thing in your pocket and it's beeping all the time right and it's given you updates about this is happening and that's happening and and guys immediately to go to Twitter and all the different social media outlets that they use so it's a constant battle it's like playing whackable but if you get the right people together and lay out the vision in the right way I think it becomes easier to convey that message are you going to be able to achieve it completely absolutely not because the players and coaches go home and now their wife is asking them their kids are asking them the guy at the supermarket asking them so all that stuff is part of your life but I think at the outset you want to be ahead of it this is the vision for the team these the kind of people who want to have these are the expectations that we have for ourselves in our building each and every day and try to eliminate the outside noise as best you can and go to work and I think part of that sometimes can be saying hey you know remember where this team has been for a lot of years and we're in the process of rebuilding and we're getting our people in there and you're making that message to the team you're making it publicly and then you hope each and every day everybody can stand by it and you just simply go to work I love that explanation and I think it's 100% accurate based upon everything I've learned over the past 23 years of covering the NFL and really nothing else but I think the problem can be with some of these organizations you get people beyond the coaching staff who are trying to maximize revenue who are trying to sell out the stadium who want Caleb Williams jersey to be the hottest selling jersey in the national football league who want maximum prime time games they will fan the flames and build the expectations and embrace the high expectations and then when even though the internal expectations are under control when the fans don't get what they thought they were getting that creates a critical mass and that forces the team to give the fans a pound of flesh I mean I feel like that's part of what happened this week the fans wanted a pound of flesh so they got Shane Waldron and if they want another pound of flesh later they're going to get Matt Eberflus. Well it's it's an absolutely true dynamic and it exists everywhere 32 teams in asshole football league and it's the reason why some of these organizations are worth five six seven ten billion dollars right that's a big part of where we are in the world creating these brands that everybody can get behind but again like with everything else in life there has to be a balance to that you have to be able to say hey we're excited to have Caleb Williams as our quarterback it's going to be a growing process for him and for everybody else and I do think you know you've heard a lot of commentary recently about what you do with young quarterbacks okay do you play them right away well in Washington what if Jayden Daniels was sitting on the bench wouldn't be real good right okay this guy's this guy's a transformer transformational player in that organization and he's been incredible right from the start we had Dak Prescott in 2016 Houston had CJ Stroud Ben Rothelsberger when he first came in to me these guys are the exceptions and so you really have to pull back and say where is this player well where is this team right now what's the best decision for us and there are countless examples that we all know Patrick Mahomes sat for a year and you read said Alex Smith is our quarterback Patrick as incredible as you are every day you wow us in practice with these amazing throws you're going to sit and watch for a year he started the last game of the season and I think he would reflect back and say I had so much more armor to get ready to go play and play at a high level because of that year Aaron Rodgers didn't play until year four Tony Romo didn't play to year four you know great players like Elway and Aikman and Bradshaw and all these hall of paint manning these hall of fame players top 10 quarterbacks of all time they struggled early so I think having a healthy respect for what the transition is is critical and you have to be strong in your beliefs about that but where your player where your team is the commander said hey Jaden Daniels is ready he started over 50 games in college we feel like we can put an environment together where he can have success that's a great decision for them that's not everybody's decision and again as a hate coach as a GM as an owner you have to be strong enough to make those decisions what's best now and what's best for the future of the team and for this player and I think if more people did that and resisted kind of the promotional aspect of their team they'd be better off now in the long run is it fair to say though that even with Jaden Daniels there's still an element of experimentation that goes into this we only are going to know if he's ready to thrive at this level we think he will be we've got all the pieces we can put together a 25 page presentation on how and why this is going to work but you don't know what the guy can do until you put him out there whether he sits a year whether he plays right away at some point he's got to go play and I still feel like it's a roll of the dice with most of these guys and sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't well there's no doubt it is and you have to be able to just as you go so so oftentimes people will say oh we're benching Anthony Richardson he's done for his life okay wait let's slow down just slow down uh everybody in the Indianapolis cults organization they love this guy coming out elite ability I mean the ability to throw the ball a country mile and run and he's 250 pounds and he makes these spectacular plays let's go back to his experience he started 13 games at Florida okay he's a young young player so they make the decision to draft them everybody's on board they make the decision to play them everybody's on board with that decision as well but if you reflect back you might say huh as much as he wows us every day and practice is he really going to be ready to do this now I think they probably had extra confidence because Shane Steichen was their head coach and coordinator he just come off having a lot of success with Jalen Hertz in Philadelphia they ran the ball a lot with the quarterback Anthony Richardson certainly capable of doing those kinds of things so maybe we can create an environment for him like we did with Jalen I understand the whole process I get it but the guys that are having success as young players right now Jaden Daniels again 50 plus starts in college Bonix 50 plus starts in college these guys are more experienced they're more capable of making the transition when your young player hasn't taken that many snaps the transition is going to be that much harder so I have no problem with them making those decisions up to that point and then saying huh he really doesn't look very good he was two for 18 in the game he looks like he's a little bit out of sorts he taps out of the game I get all that thing maybe this is the right decision for us now to sit him down we have flacko he's played well well the flacko thing didn't work out well now we go back it's okay to adjust it's okay to change it's okay to make the best decisions for your team right now and I think that's what they've done and you're going to they're going to be growing pains with these pliers you're not always going to be right the only thing that's wrong about it is if you're stubborn and you don't look at the evidence and stick your head in the sand and you just keep throwing bad money after bad money make the right decision for your team now everybody understands it's not perfect and you go forward yeah as one coach told me years ago and it keeps being proven out time and time again good and bad if you make a mistake the worst thing you can do is refuse to admit it and rectify it if you double down it's only going to get worse you need to acknowledge it move on and that leads to the idea because it had been perceived let me interrupt let me interrupt for one second Mike sure let's attack that a little bit sometimes you have to have convictions in your beliefs right there's not evidence right now that this guy's going to be a good player but we're going to stick with them because we know even though Troy Aikman's 0 and 11 this guy is elite this guy is incredible even though paint mounting through 28 interceptions this guy is elite he's incredible we understand we're going through this transition in this process I get that so you have to have conviction but one of the most impressive decisions I've seen recently is San Francisco they trade the whole city of San Francisco for for Trey Lance to go up in the draft and get the guy and they spend time with him and they realize you know something Brock Perry is better he's way better and he's our quarterback and so they undo that decision quickly do they do they take a beating absolutely they trade them for a fourth round pick but they went through that process and they said this guy's better we have conviction about that decision we're going to undo this feather decision cut our losses and move on so you have plenty of examples on both sides where hey we should have stuck with Aikman we should have stuck with paint manning hey it's time to move on from this decision so again it's inexact at best but it's not 100% either way but again you have to make your best decisions trust your instincts trust your gut and move forward and what we're seeing carved out is kind of a middle ground where you're not making a full and final decision about a guy you're just saying our mistake was to play him when he wasn't ready we've seen it with Bryce Young we've seen it with Anthony Richardson and look Bryce Young has come back and won two straight games which for Carolina that might be worthy of hanging a banner given how they've been in recent years and for Richardson now he comes back after a reset and hopefully some maturation hopefully understanding you don't tap out of a game learning the commitment the amount of time I talked about this earlier the time that you have to put in to be the best quarterback you can be but my point is this it used to be regarded as no way know how once you go with that young quarterback you ride him until he either becomes great or it's over and you can't bench him because you'll ruin him I think he can bench him if benching him is the next step in the broader development we didn't sit him at the outset of his career we let him play you know what maybe he wasn't ready let's have him not play and then he comes back and plays he's not done forever as you said we're not benching Anthony Richard for the rest of his life this is just what we think is the right decision we're admitting we were making a mistake by playing him we're putting him on the bench in the hopes he's going to be better later that may be a new trend in the NFL now because for years it's been oh no no no no no no once you play him you got to ride it out to the end you can't you can't sit him down yeah you know the great Jeff Bezos who's had such a huge impact in all of our lives he has 14 leadership principles and he talks a lot about the importance of being right as a leader he talks about the the importance of being able to make the distinction between one-way decisions and two-way decisions okay not every decision you make in your life is is the be on end all decision like we have to stick with that forever there are things called two-way decisions let's make a decision and if it doesn't work out well undo the decision now you want to be careful about doing that too much you want to be thoughtful in your decision making we get all that particularly with young quarterbacks but it doesn't mean it's a one-way decision okay we're gonna we're gonna take him off the field we're gonna jettison out of the organization that's not how this thing works okay you know this idea of okay kids growing up with participation trophies everybody gets a ribbon okay that's that's not how the NFL is i mean you're gonna take some lumps we're gonna sit you down you got to fight through it and if you have the right guy particularly at that position they're going to respond the right way and they're going to say huh i got to get better i got to watch a veteran quarterback play i got to see is his meeting habits his practice habits what he's doing after he goes home at night how he approaches the huddle the line of scrimmage all the different things that happen the press conferences and i have to learn and grow so if you have the right guy and you sit him down you commit that two-way decision and bring him back and hopefully he's better for it you mentioned one-way decisions and i can't let you go without talking about the topic of the week in dallas because 16 17 years ago jerry jones decided there was one way he was going to build a stadium with the big glass wall facing the setting sun in the west unlike any other football stadium that's ever been built where the sun goes over the grandstands not over the end zones let's hear a little bit from Travis Kelsey yesterday chief's tight end who's played some games at atnt stadium and has dealt with the sun that we saw cd lamb deal with on sunday here's Kelsey biggest takeaway from the game jerry jones is still at war with the sun i'm not going to lie playing in that stadium i've f*cking had that problem before that that f*cking glare coming through that end zone in the afternoon is f*cking ridiculous absolutely ridiculous it's like the it's like the glass makes it f*cking like spread more right it's like the sun is bigger and brighter than it's ever f*cking hidden yeah and i i mean i get it but obviously you try not to let those kind of things be an excuse but holy sh*t and that's that that i mean i get it i understand where he's coming from here a lot of bleeping going on in that clip but you know jerry's position is uh we've known where the side he just the whatever word salad that he gave on sunday but the bottom line is you got to coach around the reality that there's going to be a portion of the game where the sun is more of a problem that would be later in the game just help me understand how you when you coach the cowboys factored that into your decision do we defer do we take the ball which end do we take when are we going to be dealing with the sun when are they going to be dealing with the sun how much does that complicate your overall management of a game well let's start with this that is a one-way decision because they're not going to turn that and rotate the field that ain't happening um you know there was this great guy named bruce mace who was an operations guy for us who would show you pictures every week about where the sun is and so i he'd come into my office and say hey at 325 when we go out here's where the sun's going to be and that three forty five at four o'clock and and it wasn't only for like what happened last week it was last year and this is where the sun is and understanding we're playing on november 11th so this is where the sun's going to be another you know on and on and on so we had a lot of information that way you know the basic idea is you wanted to defer you want to give them the ball so you can have the decision to to go the direction you want to go but the trickiest part of this thing is everyone says oh you want to make sure your receivers aren't looking into the sun okay so you understand where the sun's going to be you understand that the receivers are the most important people to not look into the sun but then your quarterback is looking into the sun just so you know that so the quarterback has this sunshine in his face that he's dealing with but we get that but oftentimes what happens is when it flips around and one of your defensive players is looking into the sun and he has an opportunity to intercept the pass and then that that becomes a factor too and we have had all of that you know at different times our receivers had a hard time catching a ball because it was right into the sun and other times our defensive player Sean Lee dropped an interception once because he couldn't see so this idea that because you understand it and you're going to figure it out perfectly as a coach still you can't control all of the factors if you give your receivers the break which you should the quarterback is going to look in it and your defensive players are going to look in it and then it changes throughout the game so at a certain point you're already controlling it anymore you're going in a direction that you don't want to go into and maybe that impacts the game but as best you can then you you find a way to overcome it and you just go forward I got a good story for you my first year coaching was in my abbey and I was coaching for Nick Saban I was coaching the quarterbacks and the old dolphin stadium there was obviously a ton of sunshine but oftentimes depending on when you play it would be shade and shade and shade and the sun would would gradually eliminate over the course of the game and so well it was doing that and we got to the portion of the game where about 98 percent of the field was shaded and the and the far corner of the end zone about a five by five box was sunshine and we got down in there close and we had a guy named Chris Chambers who was amazing going up for fade routes down around the end zone and we throw a fade to Chris in that corner of the end zone and he goes up and clearly he looks and can't really find the ball and it goes incomplete and I was sitting next to Nick Saban as we were as we're reviewing the tape and he kind of looks at me and says you know like 95 percent of the field is it's shaded and we choose the one area where we throw the fade into the sun like could we do it to the other side? like yeah you're probably right so anyway there's been a sun field for a long time you in West Virginia playing little league you know you had to deal with the sun field so that's just one of the things the Cowboys have to deal with right now well but they embraced it Jerry wanted and he wanted to have that look and it does look great it it looks spectacular as long as you don't have to factor that into trying to do your job as a football player on the football field like CD lamb had to do on and you can just see that sunspot moves throughout the game that's the thing and where it becomes an advantage if it even is one because Jerry insists it's a home field advantage it's an advantage because if you do it enough you develop the systems for like you said there's a guy who is in charge of figuring out where the sun's going to be and you factor it into your planning and your opponents only in there you know once every few years your division rivals once a year maybe they don't have the same body of of strategy available to them to deal with it but it would be better for everyone if it just was like we saw there was a I saw image of a son of a stadium recently where it was normal the sun goes up over one side of the sideline and it goes down over the other and that just makes life easier for everyone if that's the case but you know I've had coaches I've had coaches through the years reach out to me and say hey you know we're coming to Dallas we're gonna play we don't go there much tell me about this sun thing what's the strategy what do you do edit it so it's certainly on people's minds people want the right answers and you know I told them get an ops guy and go take pictures and make sure you get it all squared away because it can be a factor in the game but it's not foolproof like I said a lot of people can get impacted on both sides of the ball by that but you figure it out and you go it adds to the entertainment of the ultimate reality show the sun factor in Dallas all right coach appreciate some of your time look forward to seeing you on Sunday and have a great Thursday we'll be back in my video always enjoy it thank you we'll be back with more PFT Live presented by Accenture right after this I haven't been able to play against Baltimore the way I wanted to because last year I played a 14 that was soft as f*** I mean oh my god I can't put down there that was pretty soft the guys on team it's like but there were some guys who were tough but like the majority majority of the team there was not mentally tough individuals yeah I am supremely only concerned with the 2024 Dolphins for sure and and I think that you know every every team's ability to be mentally tough and the NFL season is definitely tried our team played a tough thought game the last three weeks and and ended up finding a way to win this this past week and I think that's not the easiest thing to do that was to Sean Elliott former dolphin now stealer criticizing the dolphins is not mentally tough Mike McDaniel chiming in yesterday look the narrative has been earned by the dolphins they start off great they fall apart down the stretch they don't make games go their way when the season is on the line when they've got the division one and the bills come up out of nowhere to steal it from them last year when the dolphins keep losing in the opening round of the postseason this year they may not have the opportunity to lose in the first round of the postseason because they didn't start as hot as they have in recent years I think it was significant that Elliott said it better for him to give us something substantive than that that thing from a few weeks ago where he was comparing Mike Tom into Osama bin Laden and nobody understood that and he just said he thought the picture was funny but this is I think a a useful glimpse into how people view an organization and look Elliott may be upset because he didn't offer him what he wanted to come back or whatever I don't know but it fits with what we already had seen in plain sight as relates to the Miami Dolphins something has been off in recent years and this year it hasn't been a talking point yet because they've struggled so mightily to just get going in large part because to a Tonga Valoa had his latest concussion and missed a month and the team couldn't do much of anything without him and now he's back and they're trying to win and maybe this is the way for them to maybe be successful in the postseason finish strong because you have no choice if you want to get to the playoffs you have to finish strong and maybe that'll prepare you to win in the postseason I don't think anybody is feeling great about the Dolphins ability to do that and if they weren't they're not going to feel any better after hearing what the Sean Elliott had to say all right let's take a break we'll wrap up this Thursday edition of BFD live presented by Accenture right after this scouting combine has been in Indianapolis forever and it's going to stay at least through 2026 the NFL has been doing these little band-aid extensions keeping it in indy keeping it in indy at a time when there are forces in the national football league some of the same forces that would put a stadium in a spot where the sun sets and makes everything look great even if it keeps people from doing their jobs those same forces would like to put the scouting combine in a place where it will be great but it will make it harder for the people doing their jobs Indianapolis is the perfect spot for the scouting combine Indianapolis absorbs the NFL the entire NFL community for that week everything is simple everything is convenient the hospitals are nearby there's an efficiency as it relates to getting from place to place point A to point B there aren't fans all over the place there isn't a bunch of traffic that they'd have to deal with if they do it in LA that's one of the pipe dreams let's do it in LA Jerry wants to do it at the star the practice facility that he built six seven years ago that has all the state-of-the-art this and that they'd like to turn it into a traveling road show like the draft where this city gets it that city gets it people will be excited they'll be economic impact this is work it's supposed to be work and i know they've been trying to turn it into a tv show and when you look at the ratings that the scouting combine on field underwear olympics draw it's really not NFL numbers yeah it's something significant when you don't have games to be played but let's focus on what the combine's all about it's allowing team to make the best decisions possible with that precious commodity of draft picks they have available to them that's all for today bft live presented by extension we'll be back tomorrow enjoy tonight's game between bad calls and intense rivalries there's enough to stress about on game day keep your mind on the field and off your body order with dove men plus care whole body deodorant available at walmart dove men whole body deal provides all day order protection from your pits privates to feed from pregame analysis to half time insights to unexpected over times dove men whole body deal gives you confidence 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Hour 2: Mike Florio (@ProFootballTalk) and Myles Simmons (@MylesASimmons) discuss latest news in NFL including previews of Josh Allen vs Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers speaks on returning to play in 2025 and Jason Garrett (@JasonGarrett) joins the show to recap the news of the week.
