Let Me Tell You Something: The Ferrari They Made Haul Firewood

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Let me tell you something, Pac Nation.

Washed.

Washed.

I am scrolling this morning.

I got the coffee.

I got the peace and quiet.

I am a happy man.

And I see it.

I see Pac Nation.

My people.

My family.

Saying we signed a washed up donkey.

That Javon Hargrave.

Say it with me.

Javon Hargrave is done.

Cooked.

A corpse in cleats.

And I put the coffee down.

Because let me tell you something.

You are being lied to.

Not by the front office.

By your own eyeballs.

And I am here right now to set the record straight.

You understand me? Here is the number.

Everybody is waving around like a little flag.

Three and a half sacks last year in Minnesota.

Three and a half.

And the knuckleheads go, see? See, Sal? He's finished.

No, no meatball, sit down.

Because a sack total is a receipt.

It tells you what got bought.

It does not tell you what the man was selling.

And what they had this monster doing in Minnesota, It makes me sick.

They played him at nose tackle.

You hearing me? A nose tackle.

That is the fella who lines up over the center, eats two blockers, and disappears so somebody else gets the glory.

That is a plow.

That is a snow plow, Pac Nation.

And that brings me to something.

You ever see one of those big commercial plows, the kind that clears a whole parking lot? Beautiful piece of equipment, 12-foot blade, pushes a mountain of snow like it's nothing.

Now, you take that same plow, that same beautiful machine, and you tell it, no, no, tonight you're going to go dig one little fence post hole by hand in frozen ground.

And then when it don't dig the hole good, you stand there and go, wow, terrible plow, junk, get rid of it.

It's a plow.

It's not a post hole digger.

You had the wrong tool doing the wrong job.

That is Javon Hargrave at nose tackle.

You took the best interior pass rusher of his generation and asked him to eat blocks and vanish.

And then you got mad the sack number was small.

Am I crazy? Stay with me here because now I hit you with the tape.

Pro Football Focus, PFF.

Last year playing out of position, his pass rush grade was 68.9. That is 32nd best out of 126 interior linemen in a down year, doing a job that is not his.

And his run defense grade, 56.9. Way down the list.

You see it? You see the split? The thing he's great at, rushing, still great at good.

The thing they forced him into, the grunt work, that's where it fell apart.

That is not a wash play, a pack nation.

That is a Ferrari.

Somebody used the whole firewood.

And look, I got to be honest with you, because I am not going to sit here and be one of those turkeys who pretends everything is perfect.

The man had some stinkers last year.

30.4 against Atlanta.

That's a bad grade.

That's a real bad grade.

I saw that tape.

I made a noise my wife had to ask about.

So no, I'm not telling you he was flawless.

He wasn't.

He had games where he looked every bit of 33 years old.

But here is the difference between me and the goofballs online.

I watched Y.

And the Y was a scheme that buried a hunting rifle in a snowbank and then complained it wouldn't fire.

Because let me remind you of who this man is when you use him right.

From 2021 to 2023, 25 and a half sacks.

That is tied, tied with Aaron Donald for second most among all interior linemen in football.

Second, only Chris Jones had more.

I'm going to let that sit.

Aaron Donald, the best interior lineman most of us will ever watch.

And our guy was ninth there in with him.

And people are calling him washed.

Nah, nah, Pac Nation.

We are just getting warmed up.

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Because it gets better.

And this is the part that doubters don't want to look at.

Two Pro Bowls.

Two.

One with Philly.

One with San Francisco.

Pass rush grade above 87.

87.

Three years running in his prime.

Second in the whole league one year.

Third the next.

Fourth the next.

You know how hard it is to be top five at your position three years in a row? Most guys get one year like that, and they name a sandwich after him.

It's like, you ever watch a great closer in baseball, a fireman, the guy who comes in the ninth, bases loaded, and shuts the door? Now imagine some genius manager goes, you know what? I'm going to use my best closer to mop up the seventh inning of a blowout every game.

Low leverage.

Nothing on the line.

And then at the end of the year, he goes, gee, his save total's down.

Yeah, because you stopped putting him in save situations, you nitwit.

You had a Hall of Fame arm, and you used him to throw batting practice.

That's what Minnesota did.

And now we get to close the back in the right role.

And here, here is the part that makes me want to stand on my roof and yell, because it's not just that we're going to use him right.

It's who is going to use him.

Jonathan Gannon, our new, well, The man who ran this fella in Philadelphia during the peak, during the 87 grade, chased the quarterback, second in the league years.

It's a reunion, Pac Nation.

The coach who knows how to unlock them is the coach who just signed them.

You think that's an accident? You think Goody Coots threw a dart? No.

This was a plan.

This was a man saying, I know exactly what this player is because I have seen it, and I am going to go get it back.

Stay with me here.

So now picture the front.

You got Devontae Wyatt, young, explosive, descending, and now you put a proven pressure machine right next to him.

Two, three technique rushes.

Not one plow and one guy.

Two hunters.

You know, up here, we get that fake spring, that January thaw.

Sun comes out, hits 40 degrees, and every goofball and pestigo is out there in shorts going, she's turning the corner, boys.

And then the next week, it's minus 20, and their truck won't start.

The three-and-a-half sacks crowd, they saw the thaw.

One warm week of bad tape, and they rode off the whole season.

But the people who understand football, we know what's coming.

We know the real weather.

And the real weather is a man who's about to get pointed at the quarterback and let loose for the first time in two years.

Are you hearing this? And listen, I know, I know.

Big Sal getting worked up about a defensive tackle.

I got neighbors who think I need a hobby.

My blood pressure guy is not thrilled with this podcast.

I'll tell you that.

There's a real chance I pull something just doing this monologue.

But I can't help it.

because I have watched this league break my heart with washed-up freeloaders who cashed a check and did nothing.

I know what that looks like.

And this, this is the opposite of that.

This is a two-time pro bowler, nearly 50 career sacks, 130 starts, a man who has been to two Super Bowls and started in both.

Durable.

One bad injury year in a decade.

Otherwise, this fella does not miss.

And he is walking into the exact system that made him a star next to a young stud on a defense that was starving for a grown man in the middle.

Washed.

They said washed.

So here's what I need from you, Pac Nation.

Next time you're at the tavern,

Next time you're in the group chat, next time some goofball leans over and says, why did we sign that washed up guy? You look him dead in the eye and you say, that's not a washed up guy.

That's a snowplow.

They finally stopped asking to dig fence post.

And now he's got the right job, the right coach, and a chip on his shoulder the size of Lambeau.

Do your homework, Pac Nation.

Watch the 2022 tape.

Then come find me and tell me I'm wrong.

You won't.

You can't.

Now get out of here and go, Pac, go! Go!

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills.

Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.

Price and coverage match limited by state law.

Not available in all states.

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