Yeah.

I mean, it, it, I mean, it sounded like it was day two compensation.

They were like, "Nah, we're good.

We'll just figure it out elsewhere." So, um, it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's...

They've, they've had a high opinion of him.

They, they turned it over to him last year when they decided, you know, "Hey, we've got a guy internally that we like," and it's a little bit of a lower cost.

You don't have to go out and sign a guy.

Mm.

Yeah.

I don't know how they've won as many games as they've won over the last year and a half.

I do.

Defense, right? I do.

That's the answer.

But you still come away with it, and you're like, how are they – nothing looks right on offense.

Is it Davis Webb's fault? Is it Sean Payton's fault? Is it Bo Nix's fault? I think Bo Nix is going to start catching some heat there, which he did from Fitzpatrick last night.

Can you shine some light on this Jalen Hurts situation right now?

He looks real conservative out there.

He also, I mean, there were some games last year.

I mean, I remember the Tampa Bay game where it was a shootout and they were leaning on him to be that guy.

And then for the most part, through the playoffs, and he was hurt during the playoffs too as well.

I mean, he had that oblique injury that I think affected him as well.

We're getting hit into, by the way.

Yeah, two.

What took it so long to announce the Marvin Harrison deal?

So I would love to know, A, your opinion on what happened at the end and who you blame for it personally, and B, from what you can gather, what people are saying in the league about what happened yesterday, and how it relates potentially to the future of Dan Quinn in Washington.

Yeah.

I just got off the phone, uh, with another team.

That was like, we were watching...

They had a later game.

We were watching the, the end of, uh, that game.

How does that happen? How does the Philly game happen? Uh, all these, all these collapses, which is the, the stuff that, you know, coaches in, in May as they're, as they're going through OTAs, and they're lining up everything, and they're making their grand plan.

... kinda see it that way?

And just like the feeling watching them and around that team right now, it just feels terribly unsettled.

A little bit, and given the injury situation, too.

I mean, I'm not expecting Devontae Smith and Saquon Barkley to play.

I don't even know if they traveled.

I think they traveled last night.

I guess I didn't see.

They didn't rule them out, so it means they traveled.

Mike, is, in your opinion, Cleveland, you know, sitting at three and one, are they a mirage? I mean, they're clearly good enough to win the games they play, but what do you make of where they're sitting right now and what they've done there under Todd Bunken?

Well, how hard did she kick you?

I mean, it's very rarely a tap.

I don't know.

That's the one that they seem to go full out.

And they're not intentional.

But no, because I'm the parent, right? And that's what the official is.

He's the parent on the field.

We'll see you in 27.

But coming out of the Rams' comeback win over the Eagles, your biggest takeaway is what and why?

Yeah, I, I, I probably would've done things a little bit differently.

The, the, to me, the Sirianni, the, the n- the decision by the goal line to go for it instead of kicking a field goal was not the worst one.

The worst one for me was the one before that where they were at their own 40 or something and went for it there and got stuffed, and then the Rams did nothing with it.

Um, which is why I have a hard time blaming the defense and Fangio, because it was like, how many chances are you gonna give this team? And eventually when you, when you give a team that many chances, the dam is gonna crack, and it did.

My problem is, like, uh, offensively, they, they have gotta find a way to put that game away, to get enough first downs, or that last one, get that touchdown there to put the game away, because your defense kept you in it the whole time.

I mean, stop after stop and, uh, at, at one point you're looking at the ref...

[laughs]

But, you know, he's just not good.

Yeah, it's...

I, I, I [laughs] I can understand why that's not your guy.

Um, I don't know, the trade...

In the first place, the trade was weird because, you know, last year when the, when the two job was open and it was like, "Oh, who are they gonna bring in?" Internally they were locked on Tanner, like, "You're our guy.

We're that confident in you." Now, he hasn't played great when he's come in, but it's been like late in the season, and he's not playing, uh, with the starters and whatnot.

Uh, but they feel really good about him, so to stash him as your three is a b- I, I, I don't, I don't know.

Um, Joey Porter, what are you making of that trade? I thought it was pretty good for the Cowboys.

They made the most of it, but they do not look anything like they did last year right now.

They don't.

He doesn't.

There's a shoulder deal that apparently I keep asking about.

It's not a major issue.

and not a reason for any struggles.

I mean, maybe we'll find out after the season that, like, oh, he needs some kind of surgery or something like that.

Can they find a way in Seattle? I highly doubt it, but are they just a bad football team, or is there a good football team hiding in there somewhere?

He now has done that, but now he's dealing with a back injury that doesn't look like it's going to prevent him from playing.

Meanwhile, the guy that's going to be snapping the ball now to these guys, Venga Ione, who had never snapped to Lamar Jackson before he jumped in the other day.

Now, stay with me.

The Ravens had Tyler Linderbaum, one of the best centers in the game.

He leaves to go to the Raiders via free agency.

Danny Pinter steps in, season-ending knee injury to his patella.

Ethan Posick, the veteran whom they also signed, he wasn't ready.

Mike, is there anything more to this than a talented quarterback that's going through some struggles here to start this season?

We're in

playoff positioning, and we need to play better at the quarterback position.

Then I see them taking the path of whether it's Jimmy or whether it's making a trade.

There are other routes to be taken.

Josh Johnson has history with Harbaugh.

He's on the practice squad for the Bengals, so he could be signed.

He's 40 years old at this point.

What have you got going on this weekend? Are you going out to a game? Where can people

Yeah.

I mean, uh, when that happened, had a lot of people go, "Oh, there's the, the soft retirement," as it's called.

Um, because in addition to injuries for him, uh, it's not a great system match for him, right? What they-, what they're, what they're looking to do, especially if he can't move.

You need him to move in this offense.

So, um, the hope is...

And you never know, right? Like, you may have one of these guys get hurt- And you go, "All right, well we got [laughs] Landon, Landon Dickerson to fall back upon." But I could see a scenario where maybe he's healthy late in the year and things are going well, and they don't wanna upset the apple cart.

So there's a number of different ways that this could wind up going for him.

... came back on the tape and everything else.

As a Bills fan, I'm just wondering how it all ends and how it unravels midseason.

You got to stay tuned for that one.

It's it's it's continuity.

big factor i say factor not the reason but a big factor in promoting joe brady uh to being the head coach and it wasn't just about you know brother-in-lawing the quarterback's favorite guy and and promoting him and um i give josh allen through uh credit through the process he treated joe brady like he was an outsider like he didn't know him during the interview process and um which was good he tried to be as objective as possible now you're seeing the fruits of that labor now look it's it's First-time head coach early in the season, things are rolling.

You're going to hit some adversity.

How is he going to respond? You're not going to win every game scoring 30-plus points.

You'll probably score that a lot, but not every single game.

Would you not want or require both teams to kind of be shaking hands and kissing babies and not just kind of coming in and out? I don't understand how that is kind of allowed to happen.

So what What are you hearing about the starting quarterback for week two? Where is Kevin Stefanski going to go?

I would not be surprised if it's Cooper Rush one more time.

And not for anything other than Tua dealing with an oblique injury, which is extremely painful.

I mean, you see it in Major League Baseball all the time.

And Sam Darnold had one during the playoffs last year that if it wasn't the postseason, maybe he sits a week as well, if not two.

So Tua dealing with that right now.

on top of everything else that they're dealing with down there in Atlanta.

uh the vikings are taking on the bears so big division game this week where are what's the status currently are you hearing anything different about how kyler murray is progressing through that protocol and where does this leave jj mccarthy in the mix

I think it's gonna be f- I think it's gonna be really interesting to see how the, the first couple weeks specifically, you know, the offense rolls out in this first game.

Yeah, I think, I think that the litmus test for a lot of folks is gonna be seeing Jalen make a couple of throws, and that'll be like the, oh, right, this is, this is good for him.

This is not something that, um, was gonna be detrimental to him.

I mean, it, it's, I think when this first happened, not that they were setting him up to fail, but it was like, oh boy, I don't know.

You know.

And then as, as it's gone through the summer, I've seen a little bit.

I mean, I remember a pass in training camp off a play action where he, you know, made the layered throw, as it's called, right? You've got this guy here, you got this guy, and there's the window, and you, boom.

Give us something to look for, like if you go through it on Sunday, and things that you're curious about as we unveil the big opening.

What do you think of this Saints team? Detroit's a touchdown favorite, but is Detroit in for a little bit harder of a game Sunday than fans maybe can anticipate?

Yeah, I think so.

And everybody's got their survivor picks to start the season, whether it's the Chargers or the Jaguars.

like i'd still pick the lions to win this game but i wouldn't feel as good about it as some of these other ones that that are out there um i i the saints team is really well coached i think kellen moore is excellent i really do um and tyler shuck is this might be one where we go how did this guy slide that far to a team that needed it and everybody knew that they needed a quarterback at the time i think tyler shuck uh is really good at using all of his skill set.

He throws a very catchable ball.

I hear that out of New Orleans, that he really makes it, he's receiver friendly.

And he makes smart decisions and he made some great decisions down the stretch.

But what's one thing you really like about this team heading into week one? What is one thing that concerns you?

Yes

...

Darnold's gonna miss what sounds like a couple of weeks.

But, uh, the initial thought was that he had fractured his hip, which is, is not only a season thing.

That's a career thing.

For a guy who's looking to come up on another payday.

Now, I mean, he'll be fine.

What's year three look like for, for Jayden Daniels in Washington?

When the coaches go, [laughs] "Oh, man," like, "We're- we got a chance of really, really good," like they're- they're- when they're like kind of giddy about it, that means it's- it's legit.

Yeah.

It's, uh, yeah.

And, and plus the, you know, the flexibility they have i- on the back end too to sort of give you different looks week to week, series to series too.

Um, and the fact that you got guys getting home up front is gonna be a big part of it.

So I mean, they, they seem like they were creating, they have been creating chaos down there for the offense in training camp, which, you know, I- I, at one point I, you know, is this, is this stunting the growth of, of the offense? And it's like no, it's, it's, it's not as bad as it looks.

Like, the offense is gonna kind of skew it toward, you know, uh, the...

Yes.

Yes

... and my own ears is never gonna close that door.

Now, if you ask me who's gonna start, I would say based on, uh, the...

I, I only have it one way via information, so I would have to say it's still Kirk Cousins.

But I do know for a fact that Fernando Mendoza, closing the gap, I mean, ho- making them think about it, however, however you wanna phrase it, he's doing a fantastic job.

He really is.

He had a throw, uh, in the game the other night where he got to the top of his drop, uh, set his feet, ripped it between three defenders, um, off of a play action, turning his back to the defense, the things that, oh, he wasn't asked to do in college, that he's gonna ask to be, uh, done as a part of the Klint Kubiak system.

Mike, what do you got?

Yeah.

Um, it's, it's...

I mean, that's the, that's the storyline with a lot of college quarterbacks these days.

But, uh, just spitting out the play call, starting that in the huddle, he hasn't had to do a whole lot of that, uh, into footwork and all these kinds of things.

He's got great tutors out there.

His quarterbacks coach is Mike Sullivan, who was a longtime quarterbacks coach with, like, four teams, uh, and with the Giants back in 2011 when they won the Super Bowl, which I still think was one of Eli's best years.

Um, not from a statistical standpoint.

That thing got 15 million views.

So if there's any concern, I mean, you look at the r- at the wide outs and the targets.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, I, that's what I asked Jalen the other day, like, you know, "Who's emerging as your number two?" And it's...

Yeah, I, I know how he thinks.

Like, it may not even be, like, a number two.

It's just this, this group of receivers, and one week somebody might pop, another week another guy might pop and, and maybe it's Wicks who, who you could see him practicing with the confidence of knowing the system and knowing what- what's required of him.

It was, uh, it was a bummer that DeVonta wasn't practicing.

That defense is good.

... a lot of work to it, but what are you hearing about the offense?

Well, I think we're at a fun time, uh, with the NFL because, um, the, the cupboard had sort of been bare.

I mean, uh, you keep hiring these guys as head coaches, and who's the next generation to come up? And, and I feel like we've got a bunch right now that are potential candidates and emerging.

You got Manion, you got David Blough, uh, down there with the Commanders.

You got, uh, Brad Idzik taking over play calling for the, uh, for the Panthers as well.

You got some guys that are rebooting, uh, as, as well.

Nick Caley in his second year with the Texans, now gonna have to get a little bit more out of C.J. Stroud.

With his mind, 'cause he's a great offensive mind, uh, I'm anxious to see what they c- what they look like.

What did you see?

Yeah.

I mean, in planning our, our, our content for NFL Network and ESPN today, it was both sides were, "Yeah, we wanna get your impressions on Jayden from practice." Uh, so well, it's gonna be a very short conversation then, um, because, you know, Dan Quinn wanted to make sure he got the twos and the threes some work and, and ease off a little bit on the ones.

Now, that does tell me, though, that it's confidence in, in Jayden and, uh, you know, a, a, a capper to what's been a, a good spring for him, that he, you know, you, you take a day like this and you say, "We don't need full-speed reps." Um, but listen, it's, it's, as we like to say, helmets and shorts weather, which means this time of year, let's install, let's get on the board or in the meeting, let's talk it through, let's get on the field, let's call it, which is big for him.

Let's see it.

Let's go through it, even if it's at walk through pace.

Training camp, the pads come on, it'll speed up a little bit.

Could've happened so much earlier

Yeah.

I mean, a- and it's the same...

Not the same.

I mean, it, it happens for different reasons, but a guy goes somewhere, you know, Stefon Diggs is one, and he's happy, and then he goes and then he's unhappy, and then he goes somewhere else and he's happy.

And like, "Oh, you..." And then it just takes a while.

Now, this is a little different because this wasn't about the team, this was about one player in, in, uh, in particular, and it just so happened to be the player at the most important position.

Um, there's still, as I said the other day on air, still a lot of love for AJ inside that building.

Yeah

Yeah.

Uh, and he said it's a good problem to have, right? So I looked at the Rams as the next team to sort of have to deal with that, 'cause they had drafted so well, and there were so many guys that they had to pay, and Jared Verse was one of them at some point.

And it's like, okay, it'll be extension, extension, extension, extension.

Now, the Puka thing got a little hairy with everything that's happened with him personally off the field.

Uh, but I don't think that they were gonna be doing that even before that came to light.

I felt like it was, from what I heard, they were gonna take their time on that one.

When JSN got done, it was like, [clears throat] Puka could take a walk, and now it doesn't look like they're gonna do it at all this year.

The most fascinating person to you in the NFL this off-season is who?