49ers and Seahawks Load Up with Big Trades, NFL Guilty Pleasures and Panthers-Packers TNF Preview

Welcome to NFL Daily, where it is so good to be home. Home here in the Chris Wesseling podcast studio. I'm Greg Rosenthal with my friend Colleen Wolfe. It was less than 24 hours ago.

Sure was.

That we decamped from the plane. What do you say? Departed from the plane. Deplane. That's the word. Get lag still here. You having about four different bags and a really fancy jacket. It was a lot.

Oh, it was. There was a lot. There was a lot of things that I was holding.

I almost did not have enough luggage to bring everything home because I kept I kept getting things and then people kept giving me things, which is a great problem to have.

But I just, you know, I had to carry a lot.

Of you had swag that they don't even have in stores. I don't even know what I just say.

Sure.

I didn't know that you were on my flight home, Greg.

And speaking of swag, I'm walking and then I look and I notice these Beautiful metallic silver shoes.

Sure.

And I'm like, oh, those are cool. And then I look up and it's Greg.

Yeah, we were. I was looking around for you, but I did not see you on the plane. I didn't want to bug you. But yeah, the Onitsuka Tigers, they travel well. So do we. And yeah, Colleen reminded me like, oh, yeah, I could just have more another bring another bag next time. Yeah. Instead of just bring the biggest bag ever and barely get to pack it. These are not the problems you want to hear about. We're going to hit so many things about the National Football League on this show. We have some major news to start the show. Big time trade.

We're going to talk about who are the sellers at this trade deadline. We're going to hear some sound and then we're going to talk a little later. about guilty pleasures in the NFL before previewing Thursday night football pack show. It really is. Uh, let's get to the news. It is time for our news of the day and didn't know what we were going to use today. And then the Seahawks and John Schneider, as they do delivered a big time, late October trade, picking up Quinton Nelson, the eight time pro bowler. That's a hall of fame resume already from the Colts for a 2027 third round pick for in a 2028 fifth round pick. We thought the Colts fire sale might be coming. It is coming a little earlier than expected, and it's coming for a guy

who is 30 years old. Feels like he's been around forever, but that's because he's always making the Pro Bowl. He's still relatively young. For a guard, you have good years in front of you, and it's just a massive, why wait a week or two to improve your offensive line when you can do it Right now, a massive move for the Seahawks pushing for another Super Bowl.

Well, I like what they did because they handed the Chiefs their first loss of the season. So they had a great game. And what did they do?

Treated themselves.

They went shopping and they bring in Quentin Nelson to fill an immediate need. And it's also a trend for John Snyder. This is the fourth straight year that they've gone out before the deadline and and made a really big move. You had Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones, Rashid Shaheed, and now Nelson. So this is kind of their MO.

And Sam Darnold's been sacked a ton of times, even just in the last few games. Now, not against Kansas City, but that's an issue. So this will help. Also, their run game. I mean, this is something that I think is really going to help them. They're acting like the reigning Super Bowl champs.

I totally agree with all that. And I've never taken them off my short list of Super Bowl contenders this season. They're right there, maybe at the top.

Greg never wavered.

I'm just saying they're 3-3, but it was a fluky 3-3. Now they're 4-3 with one of the best wins of the season against the Chiefs. But they had some pretty clear weaknesses. And this trade reminds me so much of... Two of those trades you just mentioned the Ernest Jones one in the sense that you're just quickly upgrading the worst position on your roster. They were really struggling at linebacker that season and Ernest Jones came over and he just clicked in and like, they went from a big negative position to a huge positive. I think that's what Nelson did or will do the trade to Leonard. Well, you know, for Leonard Williams is even more, I think symbolic because that at the time was an eight year veteran.

Nelson is a nine year veteran. He was about 29 years old. Nelson is 30. So like guys who need a new contract and that's part of it. I saw the draft pick total and I'm like, that's all it costs.

It seems light.

It still seems a little light, but the reason, and I think John Schneider is finding a little market inefficiency here that it's light is because Quentin Nelson only has a few months left on his contract. But just like with Leonard Williams, I have a feeling Quentin Nelson, who's done a lot of losing for a pretty, bad organization, despite the support that it's gotten from Colleen Wolfe over the years, is going to get to Seattle like Leonard Williams from the Jets and the Giants and be like, man, this is awesome. And they'll have this exclusive negotiating window.

And I would frankly be shocked if this not only doesn't work out really well on the field this year, but that they don't come to a long-term agreement sometime before free agency starts and that it ends up being a three-, four-year commitment to a really good player.

Yeah, and it's interesting from the Colts' standpoint, too, because they fire Ballard.

Yes.

And then Ed Dodds trades away. Quentin Nelson's pretty much, like, the guy with the Colts. I mean, obviously, Jonathan Taylor... But could be next. When you look at the face of the franchise, just in terms of guys that are really connected to the city. I mean, he's always talking about how much he loves it there, how he met his wife there, how he has all of his friendships there and that he he wants to like just always be there.

And then this happens.

It's just it's interesting because the Colts, they don't even own their first rounder. So it's like because of the sauce gardener trade.

Well, they got to get as much back as you can. And on some level, it makes sense that you have to fire Chris Ballard to get someone with a different idea, which might also come from ownership, but I would assume Ed Dodds is on board of like, okay, it's time to start getting some picks back and think long-term. But Chris Ballard might not have really been into that because he needed to win games right now to save his job.

So you get him out of the way and you get Dodds in there and he'll potentially be doing Jonathan Taylor.

Mm-hmm.

Although Saquon Barkley maybe is available and like they could be competing for like each other, like in the market or Tony Pollard, there could be some running backs available. But I, I look at the deal from the Seahawks perspective and he is replacing Anthony Bradford in the starting lineup leading up to the Superbowl. I remember in our preview, cause I was trying to come up with reasons why the Patriots could win that game. Anthony Bradford is, was getting like a zero. Like if they had negative in PF grading, like he would have gotten that. He just couldn't pass protect. He was a total mess. He would have these like flashy run blocking snaps, but also was inconsistent there. And you're taking a guy who is maybe,

if you just lined up their 11 starters on offense, the worst of those 11, and you're replacing him with now a guy in Quentin Nelson who should immediately be one of the best, maybe the second best. I'm not going to put them over Jackson Smith and Jigba or anyone over Jackson Smith and Jigba. That includes you. Thanks, Greg.

And God.

Wow.

Okay. Should we go there? Is it that time of the show?

It's like seven minutes into the.

Show, yes. Yeah, I think, obviously, this is a great deal for the Seahawks, so they continue to get better.

It's exciting, too, because I think this should be a spicy... trade deadline in general yeah because uh there's potentially a lot of sellers that could include the raiders but they're at an awkward spot in their season where the bloom is off the rose you know they lost four straight games after winning the first three and so the natural question is This week was will Fernando Mendoza be their starting quarterback? Clint Kubiak after not totally committing to cousins on Sunday, talked about it on Monday.

I just want to start with, uh, you know, I want to let you guys know that at Kirk is our starting quarterback. There is no controversy there. He's playing at a very high level and, uh, he's got to continue to do that for us to win. And we got to keep helping, uh, helping, you know, all the areas around him. So, um, Excited for him to go play here against the Jets, and I'll take any of your questions.

Okay, so a total reversal, essentially.

I don't think it was. Some people came at me on social media. I don't know if you know about the Rosenthal rule. Why do you explain? There's a lot. Okay. If a coach is noncommittal about a quarterback on Monday, the quarterback is getting benched on Tuesday or Wednesday, whenever they announce it. And so some people said, well, didn't this prove your thing wrong? And I said, no, it doesn't count in the post game. Cause sometimes post game, there's emotions and you don't, you're not really sure.

You're not thinking clearly.

And maybe I think at that point, the coach, in this case, Clint Kubiak, may not have fully thought it through and maybe didn't know. And all he said at the time, you know, he just basically didn't want to answer it on Sunday. I think that's OK. It's the one when they have to, as required by the league to speak on Monday. They've already had a night to sleep on it. They've watched the film. If they're not going to answer it at that point, then the change is coming. I think he watched that tape. And I think Kirk cousins in the second half of that game probably saved his job because I watched that game back on the plane. I'm a dedicated.

You sure are.

Daily employee on the, you know, the, the game pass international going on. Love that. Um, And he played really well in the second half. And in the first half of that game, I was like, oh.

So after the damage was really done, that's when he played well?

It's quick. He didn't have the ball that much. It was just like a couple drives. But then I started to think about the week previous and be like, oh, it's been a little bit rickety here for Cousins now going on like six quarters, five quarters. And then he came out and he played great. And like he's completing more passes now. over 10 yards than any quarterback in the NFL this season. Like, obviously, the counting stats are all good, but I actually think he has been playing really well. And so I thought, like, oh, they're three and four. They're playing the Jets. Maybe let's just give them one more week, the old guy. Let's let them try to stay in contention.

I mean, what's, like, the ultimate goal here, though? Is that, like, do you want to protect.

Mendoza and wait for him to really be ready or wait for at least like the infrastructure to be better around him? Or do you want to get them, get him out there and see what he can do? Are you actually like competing right now for.

Something?

I mean, I'm, I'm, I think the answer is yes to that last question. I think they think they are competing for a playoff spot until proven otherwise. And four straight losses is, Would normally prove otherwise, but three and four is not out of it, and it's a very winnable game against the Jets. And I think they think, at least right now, that Kirk Cousins probably gives them a better chance to win. Okay. Or else they wouldn't have been doing all this. He is playing pretty well in that the veterans in this locker room, that they kind of owe it to do one more game. And if they lose to the Jets, and they're three and five, and then they're at San Francisco and Seattle the next week, I mean, the schedule gets brutal after that. It's rough.

So they also might want Kirk to, like... take a couple of those tough games so that they're not Mendoza's first games, you know, but at least, you know, let's play this out and let's fall out of contention.

Where on the schedule then would you, would you put Mendoza in if things aren't going? Okay.

If, if he loses to the jets and doesn't look bad, I'm not about saving, you know, till the perfect spot. I would just go Mendoza at that point. Uh, despite having at San Francisco, Seattle at Denver at Cleveland, We talked about this when it happened with Drake May. They were, like, opening against the Texans. People, how can you do that?

If he's the guy, like, they're not going to... Yeah. They're not going to, like, turn into, like, a bad quarterback because their first few games are hard. But let's say they get to, like, four and six. They beat the Jets, then they lose two straight. Then, yeah, starting at Denver would be tough. If not, you wait till the bye week, which is week 13, and you just let them start, like, the last five games.

Okay.

All right.

I'm with you on that.

It's fine.

It's fine. I'm not like, when the season started, I wanted them to just play Mendoza, but Cousins has played pretty well.

So in terms of sellers, because you mentioned they might be sellers, are we trying to re-rack the Max Crosby thing again?

Well, that's an interesting question. Are we going to go back to the well? Adam Schefter talked about this last week, and he thought Max Crosby probably would not be available again. Or get traded just because the price has gone down in the sense that they would not be able to get nearly as much for him as the Ravens gave up in the offseason, which Max Crosby has been playing pretty well this year. Nothing crazy, but maybe the price wouldn't be as high. Plus, it seems pretty dirty to trade the dude twice in six months. I'm glad you asked. Sellers. Okay, so I think the Raiders could be sellers, but I made a list. of who I think are the sellers right now.

Okay.

Six teams, which I believe are definitely sellers in alphabetical order. The Cardinals, the Chargers. I mean, yeah, they say they won't be, but the trade deadline is exactly two weeks from this taping. So we are taping this before week eight.

Right.

Um, and yeah, it'll be two weeks the week before week 10. And so we still have two more games for most of these teams unless they have a buy. The Chargers might wait to lose another game. Why bother? The Colts, they've already started selling. They're there. The Dolphins are sellers, but they don't really have many logical guys because they're such a young team. Austin Jackson is a tackle that could be available. Zach Seeler, but I think you might want to keep him. The Eagles are on this list. I was either going to take them off and put them on the next list. But if they had one month on Monday night, but they did not win on Monday night. The Titans are also definitely on this list. That was a tough night experience. I got

to say.

What about the bucks?

I do not have the bucks on this list. They just, I don't know. I lambasted. They did the Panthers. They would be on my next list, which would be C in about two weeks. I should have put them on this list and that's the Raiders and Because if the Raiders lose two straight, then I think they go to seller mode. The Jets, I feel like the Raiders-Jets game this week is kind of a whoever loses becomes a seller for sure bowl. And then the Saints. And the Saints are interesting because they lose to the Browns in their next game. They need to do a Colts maneuver where they fire the GM so that they can start selling pieces because I don't think Mickey Loomis is going to want to.

Yeah. I mean, they've had a really tough stretch publicly too. We know that Dale Benson was not happy before Paris, so she can't be happy after Paris.

And to lose while Colleen Wolfe is there on the Jumbotron.

That's what they all say.

You know, misnaming their mascot.

Okay, listen, it was a long day and maybe I called Gumbo Dumbo by accident.

He does have big floppy ears. I did not know that their mascot is named Gumbo. Oh, a dog.

Dumbo the dog.

And then he turned around and obviously it's Gumbo. This makes all of the sense in the world. Why would it be Dumbo?

Don't they have like a like a one sheet like the PR tells you who it's going to be or you just were guessing?

No.

Jet lag.

Gumbo's cousins were also there. That was Lily and Louie. Oh, the cousins from Paris. I was trying to keep track of.

A lot of things. There was a moment during the game and Colleen is on the Jumbotron for 60,000 people to view and. And we're calling the game, but we're kind of keeping.

An eye on what's happening. 78,480 people was the official.

And they're saying don't play the game. It was packed. It was great. And I looked up at one point and it was just Colleen and two gigantic mascot dogs. And I thought like three. And I was like, this is the peak of her career.

That's yeah. My parents are so proud of me. And I'm so glad I went to Drexel. Did a five year program, too. I mean, I'm kidding.

It takes a certain skill set.

I had a blast. Are you kidding me?

It was an incredible trip. We'll get into it more over the weekend. You know, coming weeks. A lot of interesting players on those teams. And we'll be covering all the speculation and like Khalil Mack and Derwin James and Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley. That Eagles game, though. It had a vibe.

Sure did.

I don't even know what to describe the vibe as.

Here was the vibe. Week 16 and the season has been over.

Yeah.

For two months. I, I thought the sound mixing was weird on the Monday night football game. I'm like, why is it sound so dead? And then at one point, and at this point, I think the Eagles are ahead. Tanner McKee just had that long scoring drive in the second half.

It was, that was so that, that drive was so long that I thought I maybe missed a drive that had happened, even though I was watching the whole time, but I had turned the game on when I got home from the airport. So it was like right at the, somewhere in the first half. And so when they came back and kicked, How long was that drive?

It was... It was.

Almost the entire third.

Most of our flight. Most of our flight back from Paris. That drive happened. And so, Dak Prescott's driving on the next drive, and it's like a third down. And Troy, during one of the third downs, like, well, he can just call out the signals here because not much crowd noise bothering him. And I was like, okay, it's not just me. Like, he doesn't need to go to a silent count. That was bad Troy Aikman. And I thought, yeah, that's what it felt like. Like, they were a little ambivalent.

And I'm thinking... I know this game isn't as big as it used to look because of all the players that are out. They're 2-4. The Cowboys are 2-4 too.

But it still means a lot.

But there's 10 more games the Eagles still have to go play. This is going to be a long march of depression. I mean, because 2-5 in Philly with the expectations that they had and the injuries that they've had does not feel the same as elsewhere. I'm like, they have to go suit up. They're in big spots. They're on Sunday Night Football this week. They're on Thanksgiving. And I just thought like, oh, this is going to be...

It's going to be a slog.

It's going to be tough.

I thought about the crowd too last night when I was watching because Monday Night Football, you're tailgating all day. That should, in theory, be a really rowdy crowd playing the Cowboys in Philly. And that just goes to show you how bad things are right now.

It's not good. Yeah, I have a friend, you know, Paul, like one of my, one of Walker's, you know, friend's dad's good, good buddy. He flew all the way. He goes every year with his friends to one Eagles game. You know, flew from here. And for that, that's rough.

Look, we.

Are spending a lot of time honking. And I like that for us. I think we're just feeling loose coming off the play. What we're going to do here is we're going to run through these news items. And we're going to hear from some of the biggest names in the league. And then we're going to comment on those quotes.

We're going to start with Jesse Minter. talking about Lamar Jackson who did not play as you know of course on Sunday came as a little bit of a surprise to fans and it sounds like came as a surprise to some in the Ravens organization.

Lamar's working his working his butt off uh to be back and be out there uh I think he was you know was able to get in a little bit of work obviously towards the end of last week and and um So I think he'll be in a decent spot, but we'll know a lot more on Wednesday.

It was described as you guys being shocked that he was unable to play. Is that a mischaracterization, would you say?

I would say a little bit, but again, we kind of had Saturday, you know, that we, you know, got a little bit of working on Friday, come in Saturday and feel it out and see where it's at and see, you know, how it's going, how it's feeling, how it responded. And then what happened happened.

So he said it and then he tried to kind of come back from it.

Okay. That was your interpretation. I agree. That does make sense. Because when he said a little bit, it looks worse in print than it does when you listen to it. But it doesn't sound great. No. And you start thinking like, where do these reports come from? Why are you talking to whoever you're talking to? The insiders. Some people like Glazer.

Some people like Schefter. Some people like our guy Ian. Like whoever. We love our insiders. It's not helping the situation. We love them all. he's the most important player in your organization. You're trying to assign them long term. And then, yeah, I think that's a rookie mistake there by winter when by mentor, when he's asked about it and he's just like, you know, is it a mischaracter? Maybe like a little bit, not totally. We were pretty shocked that Lamar Jackson didn't play in this game. And then I'm going to back it up and say all the right things about him, but it just continues a trend that happened with John Harbaugh as the head coach. But it does get to make you think about, Who's talking to the media? And like,

maybe those people should be quiet. And the coach is not there anymore. So I'm thinking more about the front office. And I'm like, why don't.

I just I don't know what happened in on Saturday.

Like if there was some type of setback for him or if everything kind of just.

Was surprising the way it happened. I don't know.

But the fact that Lamar Jackson, you're not going to have an 80% Lamar Jackson is not what you want out there either. Like, I just think that this is sort of a pattern of, of behavior from this organization with Lamar and his injury history. I don't know why it feels dysfunctional, but it does.

The contract hanging over everything makes it different. And Lamar Jackson said he thought he returned from his injury yesterday. a little early last season, and you could see that, and he didn't want to do that again. Couple that comment with this one, and just get a weird picture of where the Ravens are right now.

There's moments in the game where it's like, you know, who's the guy that's going to grab everybody together and get them together on the sideline? And so I think we're, you know, as a team, we're working through, like, who that is. Who is that person, or who are those players?

The leaders?

Yeah.

We're working through who the leaders are?

Right. That doesn't sound good.

That's not good at all.

It's not great. And I get it. It's his defense. And look, hey, he needs to be one of those leaders, obviously. But he's got Kyle Hamilton and Roquan Smith.

They have big, strong personalities there.

Yeah, Matabuike there and Marlon Humphrey. And we're working through that because it's more about the defense. The second half of that game was a joke. I mean, they lost 35 to nothing defensively. The first half, they could have been up 20, 21, nothing. They played incredible. Tyler Huntley wasn't awesome in the second half, but you can't say he was high on the list of reasons why they lost.

He had over 200 yards in the first half. Like they were on fire. They could have taken it. And it was an old school collapse. And then you got the bills on the schedule this week.

That's brutal.

Curious where that goes in our game watching.

But they're looking for leaders.

One game. Oh, that's tricky.

Yeah. Yeah.

Looking for leaders. That's not good.

Yeah.

That's it. That's like not a problem we have at NFL Daily.

We got a lot of leaders here.

We know who the leader is. He's on the mic right now.

We're doing great, Greg, I'd say.

You know who's leading the Giants right now? It's John Harbaugh. And they both, talking about him and his running back, Cam Scadaboo, were not happy with the officiating situation. I'm sure he's enjoying seeing, oh, you're having those issues over there, Baltimore. We're doing great in Gotham. The NFL loves to post me when I do stuff like that, but then also wants to take stuff from me. So I'm going to run the ball like I want to run the ball.

And if I'm going to continue to get flagged for it or fined for it, man, I guess I'm going to play for free.

I didn't have a problem with the technique personally at all, but we haven't heard from the league. Maybe they'll be able to enlighten us a little bit on it in terms of what they want us to teach, and that would be great.

Spicy. First sound clip courtesy of a friend of the show, friend of Jordan Rodrigue, Charlotte Carroll, who covers the team for the Athletic. I didn't even really have anything much to say about this other than I just kind of like this Scataboo Harbaugh mini drama kind of this season. It's been fun.

It seems like at least now they have something that they can kind of align on, which is great.

Which is like anti-league sentiment. A lot of anti-officiating lately. Uh, people have really mad about the Packers game. They were mad about these runs. I did notice this particular penalty, lowering the helmet on offense and defense was suddenly called a bunch last week. Really watching all those games. And maybe it's just like last two weeks. Yes. Cause they weren't calling that at all. And I think they're maybe re-emphasizing that, but, uh, yeah, that's how Cam Scadavu likes to run. I'm sure they'll take a penalty every once in a while. Jerry Jones, uh, said that Troy Aikman could be returning to the team. Quote, unquote, very possible Troy Aikman works for the team in the future, which makes me think, after Troy Aikman already brought up working

for the Cowboys once in a conversation, that not only is it likely to happen, my conspiracy theory is it's probably already happening. Yeah. Like Troy Aikman, Cowboys GM. Who says no? That would be fun.

Oh, that's interesting.

Well, the thing that was odd to me was when he was working.

With the Dolphins.

That's true. No longer happening.

That felt like a little, I don't know, that just felt like an interesting fit because I was trying to figure out why there, why not Dallas?

Well, also weird because he's the analyst on ESPN's Monday Night Football.

Right.

Well, the more you can do, I guess. No one sees the conflict. I don't know. Just do whatever you want. I don't know.

Nobody cares about conflicts anymore, unfortunately.

I care about our national broadcast, and I do want the vibes there. to be better between Joe and Troy.

I know.

It's sad.

I was watching last night and I was just like, I just want you guys to, I want everything to go back to the way it was.

Do you remember?

Probably not.

Internet meme for a long time that Troy Aikman, and he was asked about this one, looked like a certain entertainer. Maybe he could be a body double for Jay-Z during Super Bowl halftime. Maybe not body double, but you know, they could bring Troy out to have a cameo.

I don't know.

That would be a pretty deep cut. Are you excited about the Jay-Z halftime show here in Los Angeles?

I'm so excited. I cannot wait.

I was really bummed that I couldn't go to the concert. He was just in L.A. performing when we were in Paris. So I was bummed that I couldn't make that show. I can't wait for the halftime show. I've loved him for years. He's got so many bangers, Greg.

I'm famously a wife guy. So when the halftime show gets announced, I just think of my wife, Emika, who's going to be going to the game generally. She's using that ticket with my son. And I mostly want her to just be excited. I was like, is she going to be that excited for Jay-Z? I wasn't sure. She's okay with it. But I'm very excited because I thought...

As great as Dr. Dre and Snoop were.

It was awesome.

It's going to be tough to top that. And Kendrick. And I'm just kind of comparing to the recent rap genre halftime shows. Just in terms of just like pure hits that everyone knows in the crowd, Jay-Z actually tops both of them.

Rihanna had a lot.

Sure. That was a good one.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not saying like, I'm just saying like, in terms of like, you can stack 10.

Like sing along.

If he has, if he just wants to play like his 10 most famous songs or whatever, as quickly as possible, probably won't be quite like he's right there with any, anyone. Certainly.

We could totally draft a potential set list.

We might, but we might, but we, uh, we do need to take not today. Um, before we do, uh, some injury nugs, uh, Charles crossed, uh, Left tackle of the Seahawks is a high ankle spring. Venga Ioane, the first round pick of the Ravens, might miss some time. Will is expected to miss some time for the Ravens.

But let's take a break and let's come back and we'll do some guilty pleasures on the other side.

All right.

This show is a guilty pleasure. Sure is. Pretty rare on this Tuesday show. Oh, that we have some breaking news in the middle of the show. Literally. I believe we have a sound effect, too, for breaking news. It's been a while since we used it.

Oh, there it is.

Thank you, Eric. Good to be back in the. Tender hands of Eric Roberts. You know who's going to a familiar place, too? DeForest Buckner heading back to the San Francisco 49ers for a 2027 fourth round pick. Colleen, sometimes the fake trades, the connections that everyone makes before they happen actually happen. The second they fired... Chris Ballard in Indianapolis, people were like, huh, wonder if DeForest Buckner would ever go back to San Francisco because he kind of sounded like he wanted to get out and they could sure use him. And now they have him.

I love a reunion so much. I feel like he belongs with the Niners for some reason. I even when he went to the Colts in all of these years, he's been with the Colts longer than he was ever with the Niners.

Really?

The Niners for.

Four years, I believe.

Yeah.

Yeah, four years with the Niners, seven years with Indy.

But I've always pictured him, for whatever reason, still as a Niner. And I liked him in that defense. And now, look at the NFC West with Quentin Nelson going to the Seahawks and Defoe now going back with the Niners.

That's fun. That's fun because they literally will match up, not just... The teams match.

Right.

But they will.

Those two.

They will be opposite each other. You probably think of him on some level because, you know, he was so key to that team that made the Super Bowl. The first one with Jimmy G. Yeah. In San Francisco. He actually had his only first team all pro the following season with the Colts. And my... big takeaway with where he's at now, if you don't have a chance to watch the Colts every week is he's still playing great.

And last year he had that neck injury that thought, you know, got him thinking about retirement and maybe, you know, was playing through it, not at the highest, as high a level as he had shown before. He looks really good this season. And I just wondered like, The Colts wouldn't do better than these picks if they waited a week or two. I don't know. What do I know?

These aren't like a fourth round pick.

You have notes for Dodds.

I'm just saying, like, if you got closer to the deadline, generally, don't you do better?

So now what happens with Jonathan Taylor? You think he.

I think he will be going elsewhere. Yes.

Like, within the next few days?

Maybe minutes.

Hours?

While we're doing this show. That is a good question. And I was trying to think about where he could go while we're here. This is just a free-flowing conversation that occasionally touches on mortality. Oh, no.

What?

I could see the Packers being interested. Now, they have Josh Jacobs. But... Josh Jacobs has a potential looming domestic violence suspension. Also, do you want to be in the Josh Jacobs business long term? I'd rather be in the Jonathan Taylor business long term if I was choosing both. You could have both. I did Nate Tice's podcast.

Yeah.

And he suggested the Viking.

I was going to say, how about stay in that same division and go there?

He also suggested Tony Pollard, actually, for the Vikings. But them just picking up a running back, it's a similar idea of they could use some juice and they're trying to win that first Super Bowl. Ooh, I like it.

Broncos?

Broncos? That's a good one.

Broncos could be one.

Yeah.

I like that. They have Jonah Coleman coming back, but does that prevent you from going to get Jonathan Taylor? I don't think so. My bigger thing is this arms race in the NFC West. The 49ers have a satisfying narrative arc right now. Win or lose. We've talked about it a little bit on the show now as like one of the favorites because to get Kyle Shanahan finally over the hump to get to his third Super Bowl, you know, they really feel like they are right in the mix. I wasn't totally sure if they were going to get back so quickly. Like it felt like last season was almost a soft refresh. And yet they were really good last season. And here they are. Right at the top of the league, like trading for a great

player that familiarly brought Debo back. He brought Buckner back.

And from like just a petty standpoint, it would be something for the Niners to go to a Super Bowl in the Rams building after the Niners just suffered through having the Seahawks win.

In their building. Also, it would be ironic while the Rams tried to become the super team. They come in third out of that group, but I'm not counting them out. George Kittle sent out. A fun social of the trio back in the day at the Pro Bowl. DeForest Buckner, Kyle Juszczyk, and George Kittle. Now all teammates again. Very cool.

And great job by the Colts giving us some good content on this show while taping.

That's their goal at this point.

You know what wasn't a guilty pleasure for me?

What?

This morning. First thing I did.

What?

Because of the jet lag. I was up at like 530. You know. like noon or something. That's what time I got up. Yeah.

Yeah.

First thing I did was put on the old around the NFL. Nope. It's called NFL Daily now. NFL Daily. And you know who was hosting? Nick Shook in the host chair. He was so good.

Greg, I hate that we did the same exact things.

I listened to the recap show, and then I went back and I listened to you and Jordan.

When the hell did you guys record that?

We taped that around like 11 p.m. in Paris in our conference room. We went home. Her mouth is a game right now.

Oh, my God.

We went home, watched a couple of the games, and then met with Jason.

Well.

You guys deserve raises.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Anyways, Nick Shook and Keegan Abdu were awesome on that recap show.

Yeah.

Thank you for filling in. And I think you did too well, Nick. It was very good. Let's have Nick host them a little more often. Slow down a little bit, Nick. Maybe take a day off. Okay. Guilty pleasure time. We're going to go a little faster than expected, but I think that's good for the listener. We're going to be rapid fire. Let's start with Colleen. Oh, God.

OK, here we go. Let me scroll down.

All right.

Starting out. I love a failed hurdle. I love it so much.

I don't know why this is, but I find them hilarious because it is truly like a.

Work of art when you see it.

Completed when, when the guys stick the landing, it's just like, it's really cool.

They're so athletic.

They can jump high, whatever. But when things go wrong, that's when I key in. So it's kind of like, unfortunately finding it funny when.

People fall as someone who falls a lot.

Like I think that that's, that's okay. Cause I laugh at myself when I fall, but a failed hurdle, there's just something about it.

And you know what, this is the only thing that I could take.

Joy from out of last night's game between the Eagles and And the Cowboys, George Pickens, end of the half.

He could have just ran out of bounds right there.

Like, no problem. But no, he wanted style points. And instead he had a crash landing. And I loved it.

I love that he loves it. That it's just an important part of the George Pickens experience to accomplish this. Yeah, it's every week.

Nah, it's just more of my quest to see how many people I can get with it.

I don't blame him.

I would probably want to do the same thing if I was a wide receiver or really anyone in the game.

I'd love to pull off a hurdle successfully. But when they don't happen, it's great.

It's great. I like the ones... how do I put this where it fails, but it just, you get, you know, crotch on helmet action. Well, saying that's how, cause you're just thinking like, you're like, that's embarrassing. That's the funniest thing. But this one with Pickens, he kind of went to the side. I'm with you. Nothing funnier than seeing someone fall.

I hate to, I hate to admit it, but one of my favorite things about living in New York for a decade was, You're on the subway. There's a lot of classic falls. Oh my God. Because of the volume of people and it's crowded and the stairs, the winter, it's slippery. Like people are falling on the streets.

Just, I was one time walking with my sister having a conversation and we're, we were walking and literally she was there one second and then gone.

She fell straight down the subway. I, oh.

It can, it can look painful and you do want to help the people up. New York gets a bad rap. Everyone's helping the people up in New York. I don't know if that would happen in LA. I think New York people are sneaky friendlier.

Yeah.

That would be my hot take.

They're helpful.

Very similar guilty pleasure. I just like the hook and... I don't know if this is that guilty, I guess, but just like hook and ladder. We're back in... Oh, yeah. Like 1950s. When was the hook and ladder even popular? It's like it predates us. We're young. We are very young. It's literally every week to the point where because of...

Partly that Debo Samuel play to start the season where he hit one, and there was a couple other big ones. If you go through and you're watching on Game Pass, the condensed games, there's two or three a week, and we've already hit, because we're into week seven, a cycle where it doesn't seem like it's working anymore. And everyone's doing it on third down in the middle of the first quarter, and you're getting like like it's kind of working where you're getting like nine yard gains on third and 14 but it's not surprising people as much but it's everywhere there's minimum two to three hook and ladders every week it's everyone's fun.

I it is fun but it is copycat and I get that that's that's what this league is but maybe be more original maybe there's something no that is the history I love a trick play.

Yeah, I do too. So does Josh McDaniels.

Yes.

The coach of the team I root for. It's very rare he gets out of a game without having some sort of throwback pass from the receiver or a flea flicker. It is very like 1980s coded. I like it. back like that. All right, let's go for another one for you.

Okay. Uh, how about Tampa winning by 30 points with 64 passing yards? That's beautiful. I, I understand Baker Mayfield coming back from the thumb injury, a lot of handoffs.

It was perfect.

Like Baker Mayfield is He throws 11 passes and you have then on the other side, the Panthers muffing a punt, allowing a fumble return touchdown, and they had an extra point blocked all before halftime.

Like this game was insane.

I love to point out that blowouts are often really entertaining.

So entertaining.

Like, granted, it's over, like, at halftime, maybe it's less entertaining. But for the first half, that was, like, a great 90 minutes of entertainment. I totally agree. And it all felt fluky and, like, this would never be repeated. But what wasn't fluky was the Bucs were just running it down the Panthers' throat to the point where it was, like, embarrassing how their edges would just get washed out. It was Bucky Irving and Gainwell and... And it continued into the fourth quarter. And so we're going to get to the Panthers, but a little embarrassing there. And it's keeping one of my little guilty pleasures, which is that the Buccaneers, I'm not giving up on them. The NFC South is always a guilty pleasure for me. I just like mess.

And I think the Buccaneers are not. going anywhere. I think they're right in this. They got to win this game against the Falcons this week. And then they're right back in the mix. The best two and five team in the NFC.

So you like the NFC South, then you must like the NFC East with the Giants beating the division.

By way of a tie.

Well, no, because first of all, they have a winning record. Like they're trying to be, there's something that's less fun to me about the NFC. Like the heaviness, they're always on prime time. The NFC South makes more sense in the shadows. I'm going to go with another team in the shadows, Michael Wilson and Trey McBride. They are receivers and tight ends, wide route and wide. tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. And if you watch the Cardinals every week, which, you know, at this point, even Cardinals fans don't want to do it. You see some of the craziest catches.

If you're watching on YouTube, the first catch that we show, this is how hard it is right now for the Cardinals to get a third and 10 conversion. You have free rushers just screaming down. It's Nick Bonito, like screaming down Jacoby Bursette's throat. And he's just throwing up a prayer message. that Jaquan McMillan from the Buccaneers, I mean the Broncos, literally catches. And then Michael Wilson just takes it away from him in the middle of the play.

You have Trey McBride mossing people and tapping it to himself. And like week after week, these two guys, they just live in a world where it's just contested catches. Trey McBride leads the NFL right now in targets and receptions by a ton. And he's only... getting eight yards per catch right now. And he's a good player, but it's because everything is just Michael Wilson and Trey McBride who are great at it. Just like, it's like, it's entertaining.

American gladiator style, them just bouncing off defenders.

But it's also like a little acrobatic too, which I always love that.

And it shouldn't, you shouldn't have to play football like that. It's not a winning brand of football to have eight yards per catch and throw it like 20 times a game to Trey McBride. No, but it's all they have. But you know what?

Can be entertaining, as we just saw.

Do you have another one? I do.

Being impressed by Aaron Rodgers is a guilty pleasure. Because I don't know why. There just came a time when I felt like I was sort of out on Aaron Rodgers. And then when I watched him in Paris... There were two separate plays. Obviously, like the... When he scrambled. I mean, I was like, oh my God, look, he's escaping. He's getting out of the pocket.

Like, look at him go. He can still do that.

Nice.

Still got it, sorta.

But the perfectly placed dime for DK Metcalf.

I just.

It's just so.

Impressive to me that NFL quarterbacks in general can not only throw at the distances that they can with the strength that they can have the timing that they can and the, just the placement, all of it just happening in concert together and then having DK catch that ball. It's just, it's a thing of beauty and I love it.

I couldn't agree more. This was actually the inspiration for this segment.

That?

So I did Nate Tice's show yesterday. And he asked me for like an unexpected surprise that you've had this season. Pick one. And my answer was enjoying watching the Steelers. And Rodgers was part of that. And then I thought, oh, that's a good idea for a segment of our show. Let's just call it Guilty Pleasures. I mean, I'm like in the plane. Now I'm regretting it because in the end, I think he called it a guilty pleasure. It's just like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Like, let's just call it and like, let's have fun. And so I wasn't going to do The Steelers because I did it on his show. Oh my God. I agree. There's a lot of other fun aspects to the Steelers that I've talked enough about the Steelers lately, but I totally agree because

two or three times a game, he shows off his arm talent. He, some guys' arms fall off as they get older. He still has all the arm strength.

It's, it's unbelievable.

We used to talk with Chris. I used to talk with Chris all the time, like 2011, 2014, he would argue. And I can't disagree. Like the highest level of Aaron Rodgers is maybe the highest level we've seen at quarterback just because it's, He's just so talented. Mahomes is the other one that stands out to me. Like those two.

Like he's not, he'll drive you crazy. The personality to me is off-putting. I won't speak for you. Like overall, I've been annoyed.

I think that probably played into it.

Even the play style sometimes. But lately in this team, they're fun.

Yeah.

Also, slow horses. Another guilty pleasure. That's not an NFL.

Is that guilty? Okay. That could be the next James Bond.

What?

That I know. The guy in Slow Horses.

I love it.

I just started it on the flight and now I can't stop watching it.

Okay. He is one of the finalists.

Gary Oldman?

No.

Is that it?

What?

Gary Oldman. Gary Oldman's like 65 years old and no one knows what he looks like because he's such a good character actor that he's always... in different characters.

He's in Slow Horses?

He is, but he's not the one playing James Bond. It's whoever.

Oh, oh, Jack Loden?

Yeah.

Yeah. That's, I've had a couple dreams about him since watching the show.

Married to, who is he married to? Saoirse Ronan or whatever. What a, what a, what a power couple there. I didn't know that. They keep it quiet.

Oh my God, they're cute. Okay.

All right.

That's it. My third one, by the way, is, um, After watching this week, believing the impossible dream again, that the Dan Campbell Lions can win their first Super Bowl together. It only took one good defensive performance. And you're back. This Lions build has been now in our life for a while. And wouldn't that be cool if like right when everyone started to give up on them and the window started closing that they actually get it together. It was just one game against the Packers, but defense looked different with Brian Branch and I just think it would be a great story. As we get deeper into the season, I do. root for the football that I like to watch, but also the narratives that I like to imagine talking

about on this show. And the lot, like, let's say it's a lions 49ers, like NFC championship. I'd be, I'd be that I'm into that. Like both stories are great. And so one week back and a good division win. And I'm like, why not the lions? It's pretty wide open.

Also an emotional Dan Campbell is the best. Like I, I, I just, I love him so much. And when he, he lets us in, which is all of the time. Like it's just when I just love everything about his passion that he has and everything that he puts behind this team and his coaching and all of the players.

And, and we've gotten so familiar with them. They've now really been together for four seasons. All these guys, sometimes some of them more Goff and Campbell, even longer than that, uh, that like, you, you know, the group, I like the continuity and that that's true in San Francisco too. Um, It's just fun to think about them as real deal contenders. Man, the NFL feels wide open this season in terms of who we're going to see at the very end. That includes the team that the Lions beat on Sunday because, look, a couple bad calls went in that game, a couple missed kicks by the Packers. It's not like the Lions dominated that game. The Packers are in the mix. They are on Thursday night football this week. They are going

against the aforementioned team Carolina Panthers coming off a completely embarrassing performance. Is the line really only three and a half for this game? That seems insane.

Really?

Is that right? If that's the case, I believe that the Packers are a significantly better team than the Panthers. And the Packers are at home on a short week. And I think there's real value there. And Panthers fans and Panthers players proved me wrong. You mentioned how embarrassing last week was. Well, this is a chance on a short week to kind of make up for it quickly. Yeah.

And both teams coming off those losses, I think that Green Bay, the drops, that was definitely an issue with Josh Jacobs costing them.

That would have been go ahead.

The two missed field goals, their offensive line is really banged up. But I think that jordan love and the passing game they can they can exploit some of those weaknesses that carolina has in the secondary um and also if they want to get if the packers want to get josh jacobs going on the ground this would be the defense to do it against because of what we just saw happen against the bucks 258 rushing yards.

It was one of the most embarrassing games i've ever seen Because, yeah, catastrophe happened with Bryce Young, you know, throws an interception. It was not a good play, actually. And he gives up a fumble.

Well, their offensive line is a disaster right now.

But they took, like, the Panthers' manhood. That was a home game in Carolina. There is a clip that our friend John Ledyard, who was on the show last week, threw out of one of the blocking tight ends, I think it was Payne Durham of the Bucs, blocking Derek Brown, who's the best player on the Panthers and is known for his run blocking, like 15 yards down the field into the dirt. And if you watch over and over, I don't even know if Baker Mayfield can throw the ball at this point. He's wearing a crazy contraption and everything.

And it didn't even, it's like, you don't have to, Baker. Just hand it up. It was a little embarrassing. I have a point of order to. Ask our producer, Eric Roberts.

Okay.

I apologize, first of all, for doubting that the Packers were three and a half. I thought maybe it's a misprint. Although, to be fair, it doesn't say who's home. It doesn't say who's home. So I was like, okay, if it's in Carolina, that would make sense. But I see that. And like, am I allowed to make a Thursday night football pick as one of my three picks? Because I do not think I am going to get two picks today.

that I like better than this one this week. People, listen to the show. I don't think we've ever said you can't. Okay. So, I mean, you just have to bring it up again. I will. I will bring it up again, and maybe people will be disappointed. I'll give a bonus pick that won't count on our official pick show later in the week when Nick shook. By the way, back on the winning track, me and Nick last week.

I would also maybe text Nick that say, hey, by the way, this is fair game, because obviously you're feeling strong about it. Because I'm feeling good about this Packers team. I think... they've really solved some things with their offensive line. Not that they're going to be great, but that they're going to be passable. It's all we need. Jordan loves out there. He's out there like, like prime Aaron Rogers, that arm strength, like doing trick shots and backing up.

And yeah, they had some drops or they're, they get open and, I think Carolina is really shorthanded defensively. And I, and because the NFL is how it is when you have a performance that bad, I do not expect the Carolina Panthers to play that poorly again. I just think they're significantly worse than the Packers and a 27 to 20 game would be totally representative and not a bad game for the Panthers at all. And then I, you know, it gets over the three and a half easy.

Ooh, I, I, I could see that happening.

No problem. Um, Golden, Matthew Golden, I know he's been dropping passes, but he is just so crazy smooth. Like he already, like that duo is about as good as it gets. And the other thing I took away from that game was how physical the Packers defense is playing. I know they lost the game, but they really made the Lions offense at home where we're doing a lot of difficult things, earn it. Again, it's without Micah Parsons.

I think Josh Jacobs does help them, especially in the passing game. I know the drop helped and everything, but he adds a dynamic that they just did not have in general. And I think they're a good team. They're the team that's changed my mind the most since that week three blowout that they had at the hands of the Falcons. And I just think they are in the mix and they're not going to trip up to a team like the Panthers, who might be three and three, but... Man, you get bum rushed like that. I'm going to think differently about you. It reminded me of last year's Panthers.

That's what I was going to.

I mean, well, the game that they had was that last year when the Panthers played the Packers.

Oh, they did. They did upset the Packers in Lambeau. Yeah. Good call. So I don't know. Maybe the matchup is good. No, that's good.

Memories of that game.

It reminded me more of like this Panthers team will show up every four weeks where they're just. awful. And even though they won the division last year, that happened. It spooked me a little bit. I didn't think Bryce Young was that bad in the game, but the line play is pretty bad. The defense is pretty shorthanded. I think they'll be better offensively in this game, but I like a higher scoring game. I'll add three points to the little, for instance, I just gave you a 30 to 20.

And they lost their right tackle to Taylor.

Yes.

Taylor Moten is unfortunately out for the season now with that broken fibula. Prove us wrong, because that was a tough watch, man, if you're a Panthers fan. That was a home game. I was impressed that he stuck around. There were still a lot of people in the crowd in the second half. I would have left that.

Rondé was giving play-by-play of it in the car on the way back after the game.

It was something else. That was a guilty pleasure. Never that way. I just fully enjoy it. Every Tuesday, I can spend with Colleen.

Aw, Greg.

You know what? Next Tuesday is gonna. It's rare that we promote it a week in advance. Very exciting. We just got the fourth RSVP. We have the entire crew ready to do a little QB Island at midseason next Tuesday.

Big show.

So that'll be our show with Steve Weiss and Jordan joining us. Before that, I will get back in the studio. Let's get out of here. Play the music, please. Let's... Go sleep. We will have a preview show, Jordan, Rodrigue, and myself on Wednesday, right? What day is it?

It's Tuesday.

Two-part preview show.

I'll see you next Tuesday.

I will.

Quarterback Island, baby.

We're not supposed to say that anymore. It's a really good week. Eight, by the way. The NFL said, no more saying see you next Tuesday. It's controversial. Oh, my God.

49ers and Seahawks Load Up with Big Trades, NFL Guilty Pleasures and Panthers-Packers TNF Preview

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