40s and Free Agents: The NFC East Race, What's Next for the Colts, and a Bloody Saturday in CFB

What's up, my party people? Welcome to 40s and Free Agents. I'm Bucky Brooks.

That's my man, Lance Zerline. We are getting it in, talking all things ball. And Lance, I got to tell you, I did the turn and burn Sean McVay style to London this weekend. I left on Saturday, touchdown, 10.30 London time. Game is at 2.30 London time.

Right back on the flight out the next morning.

Did the whole team do that or just you?

No, just me. They stayed a while. But the way they played, they might as well have kind of done the turn and burn.

But I got to tell you, I don't know what Sean McVay was thinking about trying to do that trip in Australia like that. I wouldn't advise it because right now I am so caffeined up.

Trying to get through the morning. So to give people an idea, we're taping this on a Tuesday. So I think it airs on Friday. And– So I was curious what that was like for you. So you're doing it even more difficult than most. I know the Texans left on Thursday this last week to get ready for it. You left on a Saturday, which is bananas. They are seven hours ahead. No, they're nine hours ahead of me. Well, the flight is like a nine hour flight, I should say.

I think they're seven hours ahead of central time, but they're nine hours ahead of your time. That is brutal. I was wondering how what that was like for you just yesterday, what it's like for you today. It can't be easy to recover that quickly. And I'm asking you this because with so much international travel in the NFL, and it's only getting more and more, this is something that we're going to have, you know, the league is going to have to continue to think about, test, and look at the results of games, talk to teams, and find out what the most optimal way to schedule those games.

Are going to Yeah, it was broken up a little bit for me.

But, yeah, no, it's not the easiest thing because you can either go direct or you can do it a couple different ways.

I did it. It was kind of split up for me.

But, yeah, I would say that it's a really interesting thing, like in terms of like the international piece, the travel piece, all of those things.

And then we don't.

Have enough information to talk about like the Jalen Hurts deal. But like all of the travel and all of the different things that you have to take into consideration when it comes to trying to get your team to play at its best.

Yeah, it's a challenge. And I don't know if there's a perfect formula or recipe that goes along with it. Because we always look at the results and we're like, well, that team won, so they did it right. But I got to.

Tell you, man, it still is a weird thing when you think about all the travel.

And let's imagine you don't have a bye week coming off of it.

Like, the Jags have a bye week next week, so they can kind of recoup after being away for 10 days. But for some of these other teams, man, they come back and jump right into playing, which is crazy, which is also why I understood what Sean McVay was trying to do, going to Australia and then coming back knowing he has a week too. But yeah, I think the international travel, I think everyone are going to be experimenting with different ways to try and get it right for their squad.

There's only one way to do it. To me, you just got to go try to stay up. I mean, you know, you can mess up with how, mess around with how much you stay up, how you sleep on the plane, but there's, there's no really, there's no real easy way to do it. And if you don't have a bye week, um, I've got to ask you, do you think that that has had any impact? We know Miles Garrett's been out almost the whole season. Devontae Adams, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Devontae Adams is going to be out six to ten weeks with an injury. Do you think there's been a carryover effect?

That's a much longer trip to Australia than even to London. Has there been a carryover effect? Is there any chance that it hurt them? I know they won the next week. but do you think that's hurt them at all coming back from, because it hasn't hurt San Francisco?

No, like it's funny, right?

In both of those scenes, because what I was about to say about the Rams being a team loaded with 30-somethings, you can say the same thing with the Niners because their stars are all over 30, from Deebo to Kittle to Mike Evans, Trent Williams, Ushek, McCaffrey, they all are older. I would think with an older team, it would be harder with the travel. You have to make some concessions with the practice schedule and those things, but I mean, the Rams certainly haven't figured it out. I just think, I will say, because both teams are beat up, because even the Niners are beat up. I just think if you have an older team, everything is at play. Like when you're rattling off the list of injuries at the Rams,

you have Devontae Adams hamstringing like six to eight weeks before he comes back, Myles Garrett being out. I mean, they just have so many guys that are out. And then even the Niners losing people. I just think in our league right now, it is hard to be an old team and think that you're going to get through the season healthy.

Yeah, it's become– it just seems like injuries are playing a much more pivotal role this year than in years past. It's probably not the case. It just seems like it to me right now. We know Caleb Williams missed his time. The news now on Devontae– I mean, yeah, Devontae Adams. And, of course, the big one was Jalen Hurts. Now, the Eagles were not playing particularly good football, but it's a weak division. So, you know– everything's up for grabs in that division. Now word comes out that he is going to be out for the year blood clots. Um, it was, he was diagnosed initially with superficial blood clot. Then it turns into blood clots in his lungs out for the year.

Tell me what you make of that division. Now in general, let's, let's, let's talk about the Eagles, but then also big picture. This is two weeks in a row. No one in the, in the division has won a football.

I think it's completely wide open.

And, um, if we talk about quarterback play, I think it puts the Cowboys back in the mix, even though we can talk about how bad they've been on defense. We can talk about the questions that people are now beginning to throw out about Brian Schottenheimer and that offense. I just think the fact that they have a quarterback gives them an advantage. Like, I mean, you can throw the commanders, they play better with Jaden Daniels, but right now, Dak Prescott is head and shoulders above everyone in that division.

That should mean game on for the Cowboys, but they just have to figure out how to play. They brought in Mike Petten to be a senior defensive assistant to kind of maybe be some eyes and ears to Christian Parker as he's trying to figure it out as a first-time play caller. But this division, man, is one where the Eagles aren't playing great. The Giants are a little up and down. Jameis Winston's experience has led them to maybe J.J. McCarthy being the starter. The Commanders are undisciplined and just can't finish it off. So yeah, it's wide open.

It's a real interesting thing. And The Eagles, you would say, should have the pedigree to do it. How much confidence do they have in their coach right now?

Yeah, I don't feel like a lot. I don't feel like a lot. And it's a mess over there. It looks like it's disintegrating with the offensive line play. Now, you know, the quarterback play, we know there has been some stress points in terms of the offense and the head coach and the media with the fan base. It just doesn't look like something that the Eagles are going to get back on track. It really gets tough when you have a backup quarterback. The Giants, I am curious to see what J.J. McCarthy does. Got off to a very slow start when he came into the game for Jameis, something like one for six with an interception, nine yards or 19 yards. And then he went bananas in the fourth quarter, just absolutely bananas. And I believe his next

game up is going to be, you know, against the– what is going to be against the Texans. So– We'll have to see what the starting quarterback situation looks like and if McCarthy ends up playing. But that is going to be a very interesting one if McCarthy comes in and whether it's starting or relief and plays well against the Texans, whose secondary struggled for whatever reason this year.

They struggled again against the Jacksonville Jaguars. What if McCarthy has a good game there? I mean, I guess that's a problem to have. You have an up-and-coming– a young quarterback who never really– got a foothold in Minnesota in J.J. McCarthy. You have Jackson Dart, who's often injured but has shown some ability when he has played. So it wouldn't be the worst situation in the world to have two young quarterbacks, even if you're not sure yet, if both guys are still kind of undetermined. We will see. But like you said, on paper, you just say Dallas Cowboys. They got two good wide receivers, a good quarterback, a pretty good offensive line at that. decent running game they just have to become average defensively you just at some point you got

to get to average if you're dallas on defense.

Yeah you got to get the average and you got to get there um i would say in a hurry because you don't want the division to run away from you but like you probably feel more emboldened uh that you can do it you can you're confident that it's not going to get too far away from you so if we do it the right way we can put it back um I would just say, like, we talked about the.

Giants and J.J. McCarthy.

I think that experience that he got in going in the game and doing some of those things, I didn't notice until I looked at the stat sheet. Malik Nabors has gone over 300 yards the last three games. Like, he's put up big numbers the last three weeks, had a big game or whatever. And so coming off that ACL, you're like, okay, they got that weapon. They're beginning to put these things in place. Harbaugh will get them to play decent enough defense and the physicality.

Maybe, just maybe, if J.J. McCarthy can take care of the ball.

Over James Smith, maybe that gives them a chance. I just, man, when I look at it, I watched that Commander's team last night. I don't know how talented they are in terms of keeping up with the rest of them. The quarterback is good. I mean, I saw Traylon Burke show up. I was like, oh man, okay, he's there making plays, but then they have a serious injury with Terry McLaurin, potentially.

And then defensively, they're fine, but you still wonder how the pieces of the puzzle come together for them. So, man, your guess is as good as mine when it comes to who wins.

It's like the whole division for them. You mentioned Malik Nabors. He was a great prospect coming out. I really liked him a lot. The guy I had right below him was Marvin Harrison Jr. Marvin Harrison Jr., of course, was drafted ahead of Malik Nabors. You got a first– I watched on TV. A lot of us watched on television.

I'm here in Houston, so we were talking about this. I figured he would get somewhere around 12 snaps. That's what he got, 12 snaps. Give us your take on what you saw down on field level with Marvin Harrison Jr. when you were watching him.

You know, it's funny, man.

For those who don't know, Bucky is the sideline reporter for the Jacksonville Jaguars. And you had a little– they caught you in a long– conversation little conversation five second conversation with yeah Marvin Harrison Jr. I'm like yeah I didn't know Bucky was yeah close personal friends with Marvin Harrison Jr.

So going back I knew him when he was in high school I had a chance to uh get around him at a Nike event coach him and I know um his dad and also remember Kevin Johnson the quarterback from Syracuse who played for the Browns for a long time but is also a prominent trainer he owns a facility in Jersey so that's where Marvin Harrison Jr. would go and work out so I kind of knew him through that and haven't had a chance to meet with him.

You just offer some encouraging words and ask him how everything's going. And sometimes, Lance, and look, Ron Wolf learned this from Al Davis. They would always say, if there's a first rounder that is on the street, you always kick the tires on him because you never know what a change of scenery and a new voice can do for someone who the league typically regards as one of the more talented guys in a draft class. There's no doubt that Marvin Harrison Jr. was a unanimous, first round pick, right?

No matter, there's not a scout that you will find to say, oh, I had a second round grade on him when he was coming out. So now what you're doing, if you're the Texans, can our culture, can our environment, can our scheme unlock some of the things that we didn't see from Arizona? I will say watching early pregame, he's out there early. He's working, he's diligent in his process, getting ready or whatever. You can see the connection already that he had with CJ Stroud, the chemistry and the connectivity.

I'm watching him run routes and I'm like, I don't see the deficiencies in terms.

Of the speed or whatever. Early in the game, right away, Lance, they throw him a slant. Boop, easy. Throw him some in-breaking again. Easy catch.

His first catch, he got clacked on that first catch.

Clacked, clacked. Did not phase him. So now I'm like, oh, this is a problem.

Because I'm looking at him beside Nico Collins, and I'm like, man, they got two big-body dudes on the outside. And now Jalen Noel is beginning to get loose in the slot and doing his thing. And I'm beginning to look at his offense as they decided to like, oh, yeah, forget all that running stuff.

Let's throw it.

And Tank Dell returns this week, too. Yeah.

And CJ.

So it's the return of Tank.

Yeah. CJ's throwing it all over the yard. They have a rhythm.

And I'm like, oh, this could be problematic because he doesn't have the pressure of having to be the guy.

He can just kind of hide in the shadows. Hey, Nico, you're the number one. Cool.

I'll just be on the backside doing my work, doing my thing. I think this is going to be a great situation for him. And I think we're going to look back and kind of laugh and remember.

Yeah, you know what?

He was a top five pick. He's going to make some plays. He's going to have some moments that I think the Texans are going to benefit from. And I think everyone is going to see, like, sometimes it's just a change of scenery that can impact the guy in a different way.

So, you know, I'm of the belief after doing this long enough and you have two and really paying attention, When you are drafted early, Sam Darnall was an example of this. Of course, it took longer, him, Baker Mayfield, whatever the case may be, it took longer. But a lot of times when you are drafted inside of, let's say, the top 10 picks and it doesn't work out with your first team, when you get to a second team, the expectations are not the same. You are always going to be, Marvin Harrison Jr. was always going to be the fourth pick of the draft in Arizona. No matter what, he was going to be the fourth pick of the draft and maybe wasn't going to live up to being the fourth pick of the draft. Maybe it was never

going to overtake Malik neighbors as the best wide receiver, despite being drafted, um, after him or before him. So once he goes to Houston, however, now he's a guy that the Texans got for a second round pick. Now he's wide receiver. Number two to Nico Collins. Now he needs to win some possession targets and try to move the sticks and be a complimentary piece. So you brought that up. And I think that's a great, I think that's a, um, A great observation, and it's also worth noting that when a top player who didn't get it done at one team goes to another team, the expectations immediately are much lower on that player, and it's a little easier for them to rise up with that change of scenery and potentially meet the new expectations.

And I'll say this also, Lance.

Just because you're taken in the top five doesn't mean that you're a true number one. And I'm not saying that Marvin Harrison Jr. is not a number one, but I think sometimes– when we're making these projections on players, sometimes we may miscast people.

We think, hey, he's the best receiver in this class.

He has this height, weight, athletic profile that he's going to be at number one. And maybe he's a guy that is more comfortable or better suited to be the compliment on the backside. Because let's remember this. He played with some great players at Ohio State that was around him. And maybe he, look, he had his moment where he was shining as the lead receiver. But maybe he's better in this role playing opposite Nico Collins. And like I see the money that they throw around. Hey, most teams are operating with two big time pass catchers on the perimeter, whether that's a tight end and a wide receiver or two wide receivers.

There's a role for him.

And when I think about Houston going all the way back, it's going to make you laugh. Andre Johnson and Walter on the backside. They have always been at their best when they've had two big body pass catchers.

On the perimeter.

And whatever it is, this might be their recipe and their formula for getting back on track. We'll see if they can continue it against the giants, but so far so good based on what I saw.

Yeah. It was an interesting game to watch because CJ Stroud played better than I've ever seen him play against pressure. Like there was no pressure look that bothered him. Now I do think that the wet field, I saw Josh Allen, the Josh Heinz Allen slip a couple of times. The Texans couldn't, you know, Daniil Hunter and, and, and, uh, Will Anderson were non-factors. The four pass rushers you have, for them to be real non-factors in that game was kind of crazy, but it was the field. And so teams had to dial up. D'Amico Ryans ended up blitzing something like 39% of the time, which is the highest blitz rate he's had all year. They've had all year by far. Jacksonville was showing mugged-up looks, and every time

they did, CJ would bust them up.

Bust them.

I mean, he just busted them up damn near every time it was a mugged-up look. So whether they came or they didn't come, he was hitting– just quick, quick in the seam, on slants, on quick outs. And so I think that field really caused both defenses to do some things they maybe didn't want to do as much of, and the quarterbacks both took advantage of it. It got to be just a phenomenal game to watch. It was a fun game to watch with the quarterbacks playing the way they were, and that was a good one. For the last game in London this year, that was really a good one. There were some not-so-good ones, though, Bucky, this week. Here are the teams right now who are in a lot of trouble. Look, the Cowboys are on

that list, but you laid out the reasons why. Certainly, they still have a chance to win a division. Rams, Chargers. We talked about the Eagles. We got the Colts. Let's talk for a second about the Chargers and the Rams. We knew the schedule was going to be very difficult for the Chargers. I never envisioned... And I was curious about Mike McDaniel's offensive style pairing with what Jim Harbaugh typically likes to do and then how it would work with Justin Herbert. I got to tell you, I don't know if there's anybody who watches any football who's not shocked by the level of incompetence that that offense is showing right now. I mean– a dreadful offense. The quarterback play is not good. Mike McDaniel cannot create anything over there.

It is a disaster right now for the Chargers.

Yeah, it's bad. It's bad, man. I never could imagine it being this bad.

Now, I wondered about the fit between McDaniel and Jim Harbaugh coming in just because he seems so eccentric to what Jim Harbaugh is as an old school traditionalist.

But it just hasn't meshed. And You know, this is funny, right?

Because it's almost like you can't take any playbook and just drop it with any team. You have to look at the personnel and the people that you have and you have to tailor your offense to suit their strengths. And I just feel like it is the scheme and the skills of the people aren't working, particularly when it comes to the quarterback. Now, Justin Herbert is not playing well and he has to own up to his part of the bargain when it comes to why he's not playing great.

He just has been off target. And some of this started last year at the end of the year. He just hasn't been on his game.

But part of the job is to play caller, is to put him in a position where he can succeed and thrive. And if he's not doing well with the RPOs or the quick rhythm things, then they put him in things where he can go off play action and take deeper drops and fire down the field, whatever that is right now. He is not playing well. And I think number 10 is to blame for some of it.

But I also think the play caller and he has to do a better job of setting his best player up for success.

Yeah, it's not going to get better. I mean, this schedule is just brutal for the Chargers. I don't think there's any way out of that hole. We'll just see if they can start playing more competitive football and get some wins. The Rams are another one. So they're actually fortunate that the Seahawks right now, having their own quarterback issues with Sam Darnold, did not play well last week.

They are three and three. The Cardinals, who are a feisty, feisty bunch right now, are 2-4. They go in and beat the Rams. And, of course, you've got San Francisco, who is head and shoulders above the other teams in that division right now. Where are you on the Rams? They will at some point get Myles Garrett back. We know that's going to happen. But they did lose Devontae Adams.

I just don't know what to think of the Rams right now. They're still in it. We already know the NFC East is not very good. at all. As we've talked about, the NFC South is not super competitive. The NFC North, I mean, they can unload everyone in the playoffs right now at this juncture, but what do you think of the Rams and their chances of bouncing back?

What are you seeing from the Rams?

Here's what I wonder about the Rams. Because we all fell in love with the idea and the notion of the dream team. They're going to bring all these superheroes together. They're going to be like the Avengers and kind of find a way to figure it out. But what we might have overlooked is the chemistry part of it, right?

So when the Rams let go of some of their young guys, like you think about Jerry Verse, you think about how they swapped in and brought in some free agents and those things.

Part of the secret sauce that has made the Rams really good has been the chemistry connection that they've had in that locker room.

And how much of that has been lost by bringing in so many new people from so many different backgrounds.

Myles Garrett is an older guy used to.

Going about things in his own way and not saying that it's bad, but you got that. You got the two guys, McDuffie and Watkins that you bring in from Kansas city, different locker room, different approach.

How quickly did they adapt?

Aaron Donald coming back off retirement, even though he knows the Rams way, like how connected is he with the young guys that they have in.

The locker room? I just wonder if they are like connected together.

If they, if the chemistry experiment is, It's failing because they're not on the same page. And I've heard some things, Kyron Williams, like you kind of hearing more. They used to be we over me. You kind of hearing more me centric conversations and talk and I need to and roles and those things like has Sean McVay kind of lost a little bit of the the magic that has allowed these teams to go. with an older team where everyone is kind of operating like mercenaries as they chase a title.

Yeah, it was bizarre to hear Kyron say that. You know, once they've got a title under their belt, you do wonder sometime if there's a tendency to go, okay, I did the we thing. Now I want to look out for the me part a little bit. But Kyron and Blake Corham kind of split in carries right now, but that didn't seem to sit well with Kyron. And Kyron has been extraordinarily productive recently. during his time as a starter with the Rams. But Blake Corum is a very similar type of player. So, you know, Sean McVay wants something out of his running game, a certain thing out of his running game. And I think he can get it with the two-headed monster there. But Kyron, you know, I get it. Kyron has had a role. He's done

well in his role. And he doesn't want to give it up. So before we hit a break, I want to touch on something yesterday. A guy who is a friend of mine and really one of the reasons I'm doing NFL draft stuff is I met Chris Ballard yesterday. In 2004 here in Houston, he was a scout. He was living here in the suburbs of Houston, and he was a scout for the Chicago Bears. And a guy named Danny Arnold was a trainer of some unbelievable players here in Houston. Before the XOs and the mega training facilities, I got to watch Derek Johnson, Peanut Tillman, Haloti Nada, Julius Peppers, Sean. I didn't get to see Sean Hampton and Casey Hampton and Sean Rodgers play. they, these guys are all Charles Woodson. These guys are all training here

in the Houston area. They were Carl Poston's clients. Yeah. And so he was one of the originals. And so a lot of the scouts, Reggie Cobb, rest, rest in peace, Reggie and Alonzo Highsmith and Chris Ballard. They were the kind of the Houston mafia would all go out there to the Sugarland Stafford area and go watch some of these guys work out. And so I got to meet Ballard and Danny introduced me to Chris in 2004. You know, he really took me under his wing. I had a, I had a, I was in sports talk radio. He listened to me all the time. But I had a desire to learn a little bit more about the scouting stuff.

And he taught me a lot individually about philosophically different things. And so I've learned a lot. Full disclosure, he's godfather of my youngest son. And so we are friends. Now, I've got a job to do. And part of that job is talking about this. And Chris Ballard was fired by the Indianapolis Colts. after what was a disastrous, disastrous game, 26, 26, um, unanswered points against the winless Titans. They lose. And, you know, I just, frankly, I mean, the, the roster is not where Ballard wants. It is not where the Colts want it.

It's not where it needs to be. They got to be better in the, in the secondary. They got to be better at wide receiver, the quarterback situation. He just was never able to get there. Um, after Andrew Luck shut it down and, uh, it was for a little while. They were too good after luck was, they were winning too many games after luck went out because they couldn't draft early enough to, to get a quarterback. And then I think the sauce Gardner trade is, is frankly, uh, ultimately, you know, two playoff runs in 10 years and Ballard knows, you know, he, he just says no excuses. I didn't get the job done. He, I texted him and he texted back and I'd like to get them on the show here. Hopefully we can get him on, but, um, that's,

You know, he started off with the first year was tough, not a good draft year. The next year he had Shaq, formerly Darius Leonard, defensive rookie of the year. Quentin Nelson was an all-pro his rookie year. Both he and Shaq were all-pros. And he got off to a really good start draft-wise. But, you know, in this league, it is so easy. If you have off drafts for two or, God forbid, three years in a row, who can you get in trouble quick? I mean, quick with the way you have to cycle out first contract to second contract, you really can't afford to have an entire draft class be below average. And it's hard to have one of them.

If you stack two or even three of them together, that becomes a killer. And then, you know, factor in injuries, which has been an issue with obviously Anthony Richardson never got developed. They've been hurt this year by Alec Pierce being out. But That draft, we spend so much time, Bucky, on that draft. We don't just talk about round one, round two, round three, round four. That's the lifeblood of keeping a roster deep and solid in case there are injuries.

Yeah, and the thing that you hope when you're a general manager like Ballard is that the team's play sometimes can overcome some of the bad draft picks, that it doesn't become a noticeable deal, right? Hey, I may miss on our early round, but I make it up with the late round that pops in. Maybe it ends up being a wash and we continue to have success. The biggest issue that I have, and I actually love the approach and what they were trying to do.

I think we've had a conversation on one of.

These pods where we talked about the Colts were trying to do something very ambitious where they were going to take all of the best athletes, bring them together, put them with a coaching staff that had great teachers, see if they could teach them how to play ball and then benefit from having A plus athletes in an environment that teaches them how to gain the skills and see what kind of team that you have. When you look at what those numbers were, whatever it was, the RAS, the RAS testing, all those other things, they always took guys that I would call a combine standards, right?

Relative athletic score. It was there. They took extraordinarily high RAS scores.

Yeah.

Like tremendous traits, like they were traits and tools and all those things. And they're like, Hey, let's teach them how to play football. And, It worked in individual cases. It didn't work in the collective. And I will say this, the biggest miss, like you can talk about Sauce Gardner, but Anthony Richardson not being able to get anything out of him.

Because when you take.

Your quarterback, number four overall, regardless of the rawness or whatever, but when you take him like that, there's an expectation he's going to be a bit of the franchise savior.

He's going to mask some of the warts.

His athleticism would allow him to kind of grow on the field while he's learning how to be a passer. And when he wasn't what they thought he was in terms of, I'll be honest with you, the tap out situation wasn't great. Then the injury situation, some would say, and I know Ballard won't say this publicly, like maybe not the most diligent when it came to the preparation process, working and those things.

Man, it was just a huge letdown.

So now you have to go and get Danny Dimes, Daniel Jones, and now we're seeing his limitations and all these things are just like spiraling at once for a team that should be much better than they've been. And I'll say this, Sauce Gardner has not been what, I would say like since that first year or two, Sauce Gardner has not been a really good football player in this league.

No, it's been disappointing.

That's crushing him.

That's crushed the Colts, that he has not been what they thought they were getting when they made the trade for him.

Him. Yeah. So they will move on. I would assume Ed Dodds takes over there. He's kind of the assistant general manager. So my guess is he'll take over. And if you're, and I would have to think Quentin Nelson and DeForest Buckner who are in the last year of their deals, I would have to think, I mean, I'd have them for sale personally, if I'm the Colts, I'm not getting to the– this is the way I would do it. I'd treat it like a baseball team. We're not getting to the postseason, so we're going to move Quentin Nelson, try to get a second for Quentin Nelson.

We're going to move to Forrest Buckner, maybe a third for him. He's a little bit older. We know that both these guys don't have contracts, so it's kind of a sliding scale. When they're not under club control, you don't get quite as much compensation a lot of times for guys you have to sign to bigger deals. but there's still a lot of value on both of those players.

And if I'm the Colts, I'm moving on because I need draft picks. I don't have a first round or next year. It was part of the sauce deal. Let's get draft picks because we need to rebuild the, you know, Eric elements of our roster and we need picks to do it. So I think I would, I think I would probably look to start moving some of those guys.

I wonder if the Colts become the next franchise though, outside of that part of it, if they become the next franchise to take a prominent former player, and put him in a high role, an executive role, a president, a general manager, or whatever. We saw the Falcons do it with Matt Ryan. And part of the reason they did that, because the Jaguars successfully did it with Tony Buscelli in Jacksonville. Knows the culture, knows how it should be, knows what it looks like when it's right. Matt Ryan's doing it in Atlanta. John Lynch didn't play for the Niners, but he's been in that. I wonder if the Colts bring back Peyton Manning to have a prominent, big role in that front office. because their most success has come

when he has been attached to it.

He knows what it looks like. He's been successful in business.

You think about him having the ear of Bill Polian, who can help him navigate through some of those situations. I wonder if they reach in the past to see if they can get back to the glory days by kind of trying to bridge the gap between a former player who knows what it was to help them get to where it needs to be.

Bringing on John Elway, two former players, You know, they've done that as well. Or they could really shock the world and just put Pat McAfee in as GM.

I mean, why not? Why not?

I can't do it. I can't. Pat, I already see you enough. I see you enough on TV. I don't think Pat could deal with having his TV time reduced that much and his salary reduced that much. So I don't think that one's going to happen. Let's break it right here, Buck. When we come back, we'll take a look at some– What was a bloody Saturday. Just, if you were a top team, you did not like Saturday.

We'll talk about that when we come back here in a second. All right, welcome back. So it's time for us to get into, we've done the pro portion. Let's do the college portion. Bucky, it was an amazing Saturday afternoon of football and evening of football. We'll start with number one. Georgia was upset by Auburn. Auburn led for a chunk of that game. Georgia came back, tied it up.

Big turnover that Auburn came up with on a fumble. They went down, scored, won the game. Just incredible for Auburn to get that win in Georgia. Number two, then we sat and watched number two, Notre Dame lose at BYU. There's another one where BYU got up on Notre Dame, but Notre Dame came storming back. BYU took the lead late, and Notre Dame failed right at the end, even though there was a little bit of controversy about was there a second left on the clock or not for BYU.

for Notre Dame to get another playoff. But that was 28-24.

C.J.

Carr did not have a good game. No touchdown passes, 5.3 yards, an attempt on 49 attempts. No touchdowns, 49 attempts. I mention that because, you know, we're always going to be looking at quarterbacks, Buck. We're always talking about quarterbacks because every year is a quarterback draft, whether it is or not. It's a quarterback draft when it comes to the way we talk about the draft. So it was a tough game for him. Julian San was hurt. and he could end up coming out in this draft as well.

He was hurt, but that one, Ohio State beats Indiana at Indiana. They stop a 22-game win streak. But the big story there was touchdown pass. I mean, Nick Marsh has got the defender beat, and it's a fourth down pass. Comes into the end zone. He doesn't watch his left foot. Catches a touchdown while stepping out of bounds there. And he took away Gus Johnson. Gus Johnson was ready. to just have an absolute stroke on the air, and he had to cut it off because he even saw Nick Marsh went hands to head as soon as he caught it because he looked down and he realized, oh, my gosh, an easy touchdown, and I stepped out of bounds. Ohio State was the winner there, but Julian Sands is going to be out for a little while. Number six, Alabama.

So number five, Indiana, was beaten. Number six, Alabama, was dominated by Tennessee. This kid, Deshaun Bishop. Woo-hoo. In his last three games, so he ran for 159 and a couple touchdowns on 32 carries, workhorse. Big boy, really tough, really strong. He looks like a Jacksonville Jaguar running back is what he looks like. Just running through people. But his last three, Bucky, have been 220 yards against Auburn, 138 against Arkansas, and then 159 against Alabama. This kid, Deshaun Bishop, is making a name for himself right now in college football.

Yeah, man, there's so many things to go over.

But like, and thinking about Tennessee, yeah, I was really impressed with Tennessee and how they came out. You just think about their ability to get this done. And I know we talked about the SEC and people have their own biases in that league or whatever, and maybe they all are just meh, where they knock each other off.

But this really makes for an exciting time to watch them.

But, oh, Rocky Top was rocking on Saturday and Bishop was getting it done inside and outside, played really, really well. The quarterback, Keenan Russell didn't have his best game. It was off the mark a little bit. And I think it's part of a theme that we're seeing with all of these quarterbacks, Lance. Like, every year we look ahead to next year and say, hey, it's the golden age of quarterback play, but we're not really seeing great quarterback play.

And if we are, it's guys that.

Are coming out of blue. Everyone's talking about the kid from Oklahoma State now. Like, he's now the cast me out. We talk about Winadad Chambliss from Ole Miss, but he falls– short.

Of the measurables, but he wins.

Right now, what you're seeing, the reason college football is up and down, because the quarterback play is up and down, and the parity with NIL and people going elsewhere, man, you don't know what is going to happen on a Saturday.

So essentially, yeah, they go down.

But like, Ohio State, because I did get a chance to watch Ohio State, Indiana, Jeremiah Smith is a real dude. One, Lance, it's funny because I can study him or whatever, but it's not until I really look.

At the numbers. I'm like, yo, he's 6'3, 225 pounds. He's basically like Nico Collins and A.J. Brown and one of those rugged dudes.

You know who he is?

I mean, he is.

Size, speed. He's Andre Johnson with size and speed. He's Dre. He's Dre, but he's way more polished and way better hands. And Andre Johnson had that kind of size coming out of, And he was just physically too much for teams. But it's one thing to be a big receiver. It's another one to be a big receiver who can really run.

And then you throw on the fact that he catches everything, and he's a diligent route runner. He's paid attention to his craft. There's nothing Jeremiah Smith can't do. Somebody's going to draft a quarterback ahead of him.

But see, here's the thing. Whoever does that is crazy because right now it's clear. He's number one. He's prospect number one.

I mean, if it was Madden, he's 99. And if you do take a quarterback over him, you're not taking the best player in the thing. And I don't care of all the quarterbacks that we've seen. There's no one that is even close to being comparable to him as.

Just a prospect.

Nobody. Not close.

We can't even talk about it because if he was, we already would be talking about him. We can't find one. So it's going to be interesting. Whoever's number one, if they need.

A quarterback, Are they going to bypass the better prospect to take a quarterback just because they need a quarterback?

That is the dilemma, and that is what we talk about when it comes to the draft.

History tells us that that is likely to happen, so we'll see. You mentioned Drew Mestermaker. I watched Darian Mintz. I had a piece come out last week, my top 25, off the top 300 senior bowl list. Actually, Drew Mestermaker was not on that list, but I included him on my list at number 11. I put Dante Moore at eight just because I didn't want to ding him at all.

I want to wait to watch more of him. And then Trinidad Chambliss, to me right now, is the real quarterback one. For me, it's Trinidad Chambliss. I'm just going to go off of he's got a lively arm. He's a dual threat quarterback. He's been in high leverage situations and played really well against quality competition. And, you know, he's doing it in the SEC. He's had no problems.

He's a little older. He's a little shorter than you want, but. I don't know. That doesn't bother me as much. Now, Drew Mestermaker, I watched him against University of Houston. And Casey Wigman, they've got their own quarterback who came over from Texas A & M. He was a four-star. Didn't work out over there, but he's playing really well for the Cougars. And they got into a shootout. But Drew Mestermaker is the name that you're hearing a lot now and you will continue to hear a lot about. I don't know if he'll come out. I don't know if he'll come out just yet. And that payday for him is going to be substantial, even if he goes back to college. Woo! And he is going to be a portal baby. I mean, Oklahoma State is going to have

to beat people off with bricks, trying to keep them away from Mestemaker. They're going to have to unlock the vault. But Mestemaker can really run. He's very fast outside the pocket. He's got nice arm talent. He's got the old slow heartbeat in the pocket where he doesn't get rattled easily. He just needs to play more football. What I see from him, I like everything. It's just you can't simulate experience.

Experience has to come through actual performance on the field, the highs and lows, and he needs some more of that to become the best. It shouldn't be a race to get into the NFL. The money is going to be substantial if you're a good player. Be your best self before you go to the NFL. And I think Mestemaker could use another year. But maybe something he can't pass up. We'll wait and see. But Mensah, I watched Mensah.

I got to tell you, the arm is just kind of average. Wasn't crazy about the arm. He's smart. Goes where he needs to go with the football. He did a nice job coming back against Florida State. That was a hell of a game that they got into. But Mensah, I wasn't as crazy about Mensah as I was expecting to be. I thought I was going to be much higher on him. And I thought the physical stuff was just really average and didn't really have the juice I was expecting. Doesn't mean he can't be an NFL quarterback.

He was just not the type of quarterback I was expecting on tape.

Yeah, no, it's interesting, right? Because he's only really played two big years, right? Played at Tulane, didn't win the Duke and played.

Right now, what you're having to sort through at Miami is how much is him and how much are the playmakers around him and what they're doing?

He is, look, he has a loaded, crew around him. And he's doing a great job of being the distributor.

We won't get enough info on him until we see Miami playing some of these marquee games against really good teams that can challenge.

Him in a different way. But he's been effective right now.

He is the one that people are leaning into because he does have the size dimension, the measurables, and he's playing really well for a team that is winning.

So he is up there.

I just, when I think about the quarterbacks and I think about the class, I know the NFL has a development problem when it comes to quarterbacks. There's no one that we can say, hey, man, this guy's going to plug and play, and he's your franchise quarterback from day one. So if you're a team that's like that, I think what this is going to do, it's going to make J.J.

McCarthy intriguing.

It's going to make Mac Jones and those intriguing. It's going to make some of these number twos on teams that have shown enough, who might have been previous teams, first round picks that are kind of having an opportunity to kind of like grow their games, much like Sam Donald and Baker Mayfield were able to do it. I think we may see a, the 2027 class versus the journeymen and the cast offs to determine how are we going to build our team going forward?

Yeah, I think that may be it. Well, that's going to do it for us for a 40 some free agents. Make sure that you spread the word, subscribe here, tell your friends and catch us on, NFL, the Fast Channel, and, of course, you can catch us on YouTube as well. Bucky, you need to get some sleep. I know you're still catching up. I appreciate you coming on this morning and doing this, and we'll get back at it next week.

Yeah, it should be fun. We'll do it.

40s and Free Agents: The NFC East Race, What's Next for the Colts, and a Bloody Saturday in CFB

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