3 & Out - Best of The Week: Colts Fire Ballard, NFL Week 7 Primer

What is going on? This is John Middlecoff from the 3 and Out podcast and this is the best of of my favorite takes, our best takes of as we head on into football season. Big news of the day that the Indianapolis Colts have fired Chris Ballard and are now looking for a GM. Dan Patrick, after the news came out, guy in the loop, knows a lot of rich, famous people, knows a lot of people in powerful positions, said the Indianapolis Colts not only will but have. reached out to Peyton Manning and want him to be the grand poobah and run the operation, I think a little bit a la John Elway years ago in Denver. And because he's no longer a player, they have mechanisms now that the dad was never willing to do that maybe

the daughters would be open to of doing some sort of equity. You can buy in, become a little bit of a part owner and be the boss of this operation, which to me feels a little PRE. This is an organization that is currently a laughingstock. They just lost to a team that didn't sniff 200 yards. That a team that we all agree is god-awful. Where they, I'm pretty sure, had a 13-0 lead at home. They got embarrassed. And Chris Ballard knew this in the beginning of the season, was on his contract year, and was competing for his job.

They probably had to make the playoffs for him to keep it, which would have meant an extension. Same with the coach who is now also, who was already on the hot seat, who I would say is a dead man walking. Like Shane Steichen is not going to be the coach in 2027. I think it is fair to assume that. And I think a lot of people around the league, I heard Albert Breer say this, there's a potential Stefanski situation where it's like, don't be shocked when he gets a job. We'll get into the Eagles later, but if Sirianni loses his job, that seems like a pretty easy transition. You already know him, you've had success with him, and he can call plays. And then when you factor in, it's not like, it doesn't feel like

there's many Ben Johnsons and Kyle Shanahan's in the market. I would say the two top coaches, assuming Tomlin wants to get back in, and there is no guarantee. Every time I see him, it's like, God, he's looking a little slimmer. He's got a big smile on his face. As he said, I get full-time pay for part-time work.

Life is fucking good. I was thinking last night watching him on Sunday Night Football. It's like, you think that city looked good after 12 years of coaching. Can you imagine the work he's done in the last nine-ish months on that city? I mean, he's probably added like... three cities the size of New York City since. So who knows?

We have seen guys before take some time off. Hell, Gruden took like 10 years off. So that will be yet to be determined. But the Eagles, I'm just using them as an example, don't have a history of hiring defensive coaches. The one thing just on a GM job opening, they don't open nearly as much as coaching jobs open, right?

When you think about it, most GMs get multiple coaches. Just look around the league. Joe Shane was on a second coach. Hell, John Spitek, second coach. That's not usually the way it works. Their turnover, they have longer leashes. They also have huge advantage. They get to sit with the owner way more than the coach. They speak more the language of ownership than the coach because they deal with the contracts. They deal with the money. Coaches are dealing with three, four defenses and you know, gun runs and they speak a language that hell someone who's worked in football does this for a living. I don't understand it.

We hear when these guys rattle off the play call, it's like, what did he just say? What just came out of his mouth? And that's what's so unique about this sport. And I, My initial take when I see this headline, it's sexy. It's going to get people to click. And I'm not even saying Dan Patrick's wrong. He's just saying what he's hearing. And, of course, they would reach out to Peyton Manning. I'd be a little surprised. I really would. One thing Peyton Manning has going for him is, one, didn't his kid just enter high school? Like, wouldn't you bet on his kid being in the mix of being a name that we start hearing about going to some big-time colleges over the next couple years? Pretty sure he left Denver a couple years ago, which also is something

to acknowledge that when he got cut from the Colts and went to Denver, he made Denver his home post-playing. It's not like he moved back to Indianapolis. No shot at Indianapolis. I love, let me repeat, love the city whenever I go there for the combine. It is my type city. It's not massive. It's easy to get around.

My only beef is the airport's a little far away from downtown. But again, that's nitpicking. It's beautiful by all accounts. There's some super nice areas in the suburbs, golf courses. Obviously, Peyton can live wherever he wants. But I would be a little surprised of the guy I just saw a clip of going to Neyland Stadium with some other famous guys who seems like he's really enjoying life, who you can't turn on a game without during Monday night football, Thursday night football, during the weekend, and not see commercials with the guy still involved. So his business operation, just in terms of marketability, is still high as ever. He's printing money as an advertiser or as a front man for advertisements. And he has a big-time company, Omaha Production,

that has a massive deal with ESPN. So this isn't anything about financial means of like, you know, he's made some bad investments. I'm not saying every investment the guy's made is perfect. But this is not one of those situations like you could argue now he's making as much money as he's ever made. It's just going to be like, does he truly miss it? Does he miss the juice? Well, one of his things is why he and Eli want to do the Manning cast was like, yeah, you know what?

I don't really want to fly around and call games. My life's too good. I've made too much money. There was a story I once heard when I was in the NFL. Tom Condon, as famous of an agent as anyone not named like David Falk in the 90s and the 2000s, represented Peyton Manning. And a story I used to hear, him and Bill Polian used to go at it.

And he'd basically tell Bill Polian on the phone during Peyton Manning contract negotiations, not enough, not enough. And Bill would, you know, old, curmudgeon, angry guy, would be like, how do you want me to build the team? And Tom would essentially hang up and go, it's not my fucking problem. Make that number go up. Peyton was, I would say, the opposite of Tom Brady. Two guys whose careers paralleled each other. They were rivals. Tom Brady, I would say, is famously known for taking discounts, at least on the salary cap. Who knows what was going on on the side, which all four. Kawhi's problem wasn't that he was doing shady shit. It's like, bro, just do an advertisement or two on Twitter. They wouldn't have been able to catch you,

but he refused. Peyton had no problem doing any of that, right? And I just think from a financial standpoint, Peyton wouldn't be doing it for the money. And the one thing that goes along with this life is you don't have a life. John Elway was at the office every single day. John Elway's golf game went out the fucking window. John Elway's days of just going out and drinking beers at the game didn't exist. And he probably was having a little more fun than some of these lifer GMs. But it's not a job, it's a lifestyle. And Peyton, like Tom, are good examples of when they played, they had no life during the season. They grinded 24-7. Remember, part of the reason Peyton Manning liked Adam Gase is because when

he was at his house studying film at 1 o'clock in the morning, he could text Adam and he'd get a text immediately back. That was like Tom's deal with Josh McDaniels. They could communicate at all hours of the night. Drew Brees and Sean Peyton. Remember Eli used to talk about, yeah, Tuesday's an off day for the players, not the quarterbacks.

And does he want that? Also, if you are the Colts and you have hit rock bottom, you got bent over by Daniel Jones, you have a roster full of aging players and you're going nowhere fast. Shouldn't you be in the mix of like, who's the next Howie Roseman? Who's the next John Schneider? Who's the next guy who's been doing this as a profession for a long period of time to get us going in the right direction?

than just trying to make the PR higher. Because my first initial thought was like, I would doubt Peyton would take this job. And if he did, I would view it closer to Tom Brady. Like, yeah, I'll buy a piece. I'll kind of, you know, be a part of the organization, but I'm not coming into the office and grinding 13, 14, 15 hours a day, basically 10 months a year. Because as a GM, the season ends. It's chill for the coaches.

That's when your season starts. Senior Bowl, Combine, free agency, the draft, the meetings. It never ends. It's why I give, listen, John Lynch is highly paid. Some sources will tell you he's the highest paid GM in the league. He doesn't need to be doing this. Now, he's paid a lot of money for those services, but it's like, God, I give him a lot of respect. He could be with his feet up in San Diego if he wanted to, but he likes to juice. It's not like Peyton hasn't had these opportunities and he's passed on. Same with Tom. Like, if Tom truly had wanted to do, like, listen, I respect Matt Ryan. And Matt Ryan said when he got hired, like, I'm going to go into the office every day. Like, this is going to be my full-time job. Quit CBS.

And I would bet if you were having a beer with Matt Ryan, it's like, God, this job is a little different than I thought as a player. I don't just get to like, yeah, just go to the steam room and the hot tub and the cold tub, just hang out for like an hour in the middle of the day. Like, no, that's not really the way this thing works. Plus, everyone's looking at you as the boss.

As a player, clearly you are a leader. But as the boss, from the secretary to the scouts to the assistant coaches, everyone looks at you. And if I could give advice to Carly, Ursae, Gordon, assuming that Peyton Manning says no to this or is not interested or this doesn't come to fruition, hire the best possible people in the league. Do a full-on search like all these other teams do. You've had Chris Ballard for a long time.

I don't know him personally, but everyone seems to like him. His downfall clearly was couldn't find a quarterback. And then kind of thought he did and then gave the guy $ 90 million guaranteed on a torn Achilles. I thought that was, listen, you never want to make deals out of desperation because typically they blow up in your face and this one blew up in his face. Like he got... the Josh McDaniels things would have been a disaster, but he wasn't the only guy that tried to hire him. A lot of people were trying to hire him constantly. The Niners tried to hire him. He said, no, they got Kyle Shanahan.

The Raiders hired him, blew up in their face. He tried to hire him and he turned him down at the altar. It happens. Everyone was on this guy because it was believable. It's like, well, he's changed his life. He's looked in the mirror. He's a nicer guy. Players like him. And then now he holds a record of the only guy to have a two different jobs as a head coach in the NFL and not make it through year two either time. And then obviously the Shane Steichen thing, like you just, you don't have a quarterback, you got no chance. And that's the situation they're in.

So this Colts, I would say trajectory is, this is going to be a rough year. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. But my gut says Peyton Manning doesn't take this job. Life's too good. He's making too much money. And the stress of this, like, why would he want to take that on? He had the stress of being the lead dog in the league with Tom for almost 20 years. The other big story of the day is the Eagles PR nightmare. And I want to defend Nick Sirianni. And you know, it's not like I'm some Nick Sirianni backer here. You could make the argument that he is one of the luckiest men in the history of America. Be the equivalent of like, who was your college roommate? Yeah, this guy started Google.

One day he asked me, he's like, hey man, you got any spare change if you want to invest in this company? I think it's going to be big. And I gave him 20 grand. And then 10 years later, it was $ 800 million. I didn't have to do shit. They just put me in the room with them first day of college. He was my doormate. I mean, it's like, that's how you made your $ 800 million? Yeah, I gave a guy $ 25, 000. I actually heard a story once about from a guy in the finance world. I played golf with him one time. good guy. And he told me there's a pro sports owner. I'm not going to tell you which sport, but he's a pretty famous guy. And he's pretty outspoken and arrogant. He bumps his chest out there.

And said that a lot of his wealth came in the business he was in because of a decision his partners made that essentially invested in one of the biggest companies in the world, When they were essentially being built in a garage, you got in on the ground floor for, you know, a couple hundred grand. And that thing became the majority of the wealth of their firm. And, you know, he gets a lot of credit for it. But from what I was told, he had nothing to do with it.

Which again, being partners with the right people, making decisions, happens to a lot of our lives. But sometimes things just go well for you and you didn't have that much to do with it. Pretty rare. I would say it's very rare. Like you look at Andy Reid, where's his success come? Well, he's created a lot of it.

I would say he has been a driving force in the success that has followed throughout his career. Sirianni would go, well, he got hired, which was a desirable place. No one else was going to hire him at the time. And he inherited a Hall of Fame general manager, an owner willing to spend a ton of money, and within a couple years, one of the most talented rosters in the NFL.

But today he's being peppered about this situation that Jalen Hurts is now out for the year, which I don't know why once he had the blood clots in his calf, anyone thought he was going to return. My neighbor, retired doctor, I thought he was retired, but I always see him on the phone like talking with patients and other people.

But he tells me he's retired from Philadelphia. Diehard Eagles fans. Saw him at the grass the other day walking our dogs. And he's like, yeah, I don't I don't. This was before the news came out about the lung blood clots in his lung. This one was in the cap. He's like, he's not gonna be back this year. No, no chance.

And then it comes out the blood clots in the lung, the story about the hospital and not sleeping all night. My first thought was, would this have happened if they were just sent him to a Philadelphia hospital? Or if he had been in Jacksonville, Florida and been in the States? I don't know. No one knows the answer to that.

But I think it's a fair thing to ask. If we had sent him to a local hospital, like if he had just gone to Honor Health, where I'm sitting right now, or the Mayo Clinic, Would he have come back at four in the morning and been like, everything's good, man. Just don't sleep. I don't know. Whoever that doctor is that gave that okay feels like his medical license should be in question. But when coaches say, I'm no medical doctor, it's not my decision. This is in the 70s. This isn't when a guy is injured, you're like, don't be a pussy, shake it off and get out there. Those days are done. Especially a guy like Jalen Hurts who's making 50, 60 million dollars a year. That once he goes away to the doctor, it is completely out of

your hands. It's why during the draft process, during the season, when a doctor says he can't go, He can't go. There's no way. I'll just tough it through. And guess what? And we've learned this for a long time because one thing was clear, which thank God nothing terrible happened. Obviously, blood clots in his lungs. That could be game over.

I mean, the worst possible situation here. We talk a lot about these situations like coming back from injury too early. Micah Parsons. It's like tearing another Achilles, tearing a calf, tearing a hamstring, overcompensating. These aren't life or death situations. This clearly is. You get them in your lungs, boom, game over. It's a wrap. The plane flight home could have been a disaster. Very fair for everyone to go, what the fuck is going on? So Sirianni, because the head coach and talks like four times a week, that's part of the deal in the NFL, is getting peppered with these questions. He doesn't control any of that. The doctors do. The trainers do. And to me, someone dropped the ball on this situation and they're going to pay

for it. Clearly. The Eagles have fired doctors before. My guess is doctors are getting shit canned again. Unless, you know, based on the information that I have seen, And just following the league. I know this, and this is what the Eagles should do. I actually think it's unfair to throw Sirianni out there to get peppered about Jalen Hurts in this situation with all the information because people are going to want answers. And clearly he's had more information based on things that doctors are telling him, but he's not saying anything. But it's not his call. If they knew he had blood clots, like, well, just don't go to bed. That's where it's like, what? The guy didn't sleep.

It was like, well, he kind of slept. He got back. Even Jalen's like, it was a bizarre situation. And think about Jalen, right? He's seen it all in his football career. The guy was benched after going 26-2. Starting quarterback at mid-dynasty at Alabama. Got benched. Didn't see his job back until the following year in the championship game or SEC championship game when Tua got injured. And then on the flip side in the NFL, he essentially did that to Carson Wentz. So this is a guy that is not giving up his spot for anything, which is how a lot of football guys think. So it's on the doctor to take it out of their hand and go, you can't play. But to think that coaches have the juice with players of his stature. So, I mean, I feel

like I'm defending a guy that I don't even think can coach. And I think inevitably gets fired. But he is going to get destroyed on social media. I would imagine. I just don't put this on Sirianni. I really don't. This is on the doctors and their situation of completely fucking up. And they got extremely lucky that this didn't turn out to be, I mean, potentially one of the worst moments in the history of the sport. And obviously everyone talks about how do you let him fly back on the plane on those eight, nine hours from London to Philadelphia. This is a massive, massive ball drop by everyone involved in the medical community. But to think, I mean, Sirianni can't even call an out route. You think he

knows how to diagnose blood clots? You think he knows how to diagnose? What are we talking about? I just think sometimes these coaches, and this is why you get paid a lot of money, You get thrown out in situations that you had nothing to do with and you got to answer for. Obviously, this is a situation that's not going to go away. I think in a perfect world, the easiest way to kind of slow it down is like throw out the person that made the decision. Obviously, not the dude in London that probably has nothing to do with the team, but like your doctor who was probably traveling with you, your training staff. Other teams have done that and let them kind of describe the information they got had, maybe an information that they fucked up

on that maybe a scan didn't show. Who knows? I'm no medical doctor either. Just went to a couple state schools, got a couple degrees, no big deal. But I don't know. I mean, I think this situation is definitely not going to go away, and this is one that people are going to dive deep on. This is like Pablo Torre written all over it. I need to tell you about this new sports trading app called Polymarket. It's the best way to trade in sports. In the past, if you wanted some action on the game, you'd put some money in.

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in my algorithm. And he mentioned that the league has had a lot of traction, clearly, in London. That's been successful. Germany, Spain, they feel really good about. Roger Goodell from the owners' meetings. was thrilled with the Australia experience. I mean, they got 100,000 people at 1030 in the morning on a Friday.

I promise you they're doing that thing again. My guess is Australia becomes a yearly thing unless like Tokyo gets involved, which I think would have to be in that similar spot. But I would be stunned if we don't get Australia week one every year. I said that after the game and I feel pretty confident about that. Now, I think this France thing and I was in the car and I was listening to something that potential, you know, some chaos planned for Saturday in France. But I would imagine, like, both these teams don't want to be there. The Saints have been there all week, I think, on the outskirts.

They left from New York after beating the Giants. The Steelers are taking some red-eye, you know, on, like, Thursday night. I don't know, man. I... I would lean the Steelers here. I would like the Saints more if this was just a normal home game, but I don't know. This is just one of those that it feels like I'm prepared for anything. I have no strong takes. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers played really well this year. There is no disputing that.

Aaron Rodgers has looked good. Him and McCarthy, button heads in the one game against the Browns, and that going viral, did not faze them. Like, old married couples can get in arguments that would cripple a young relationship. That couple's unfazed. Once you've been through the ringer with your significant other, some things that look crazy are not crazy to them.

So I did believe when both guys came out after the fact, like, yeah, we're fine. Like, I believe it. And Aaron's into this. I give him a lot of credit for, at this point in time in his career, battling his ass off. And Jalen Warren's been awesome. Kamara's banged up, so their running game could be an issue.

You know, Shuck, who made some plays in that game, but he's got a banged up hand. I'll lean the Steelers here. Okay, let's go four bucks, which again, there's a lot of Cleveland at Titans, Dolphins at the Jets. I mean, the Giants are a massive underdog with J.J. McCarthy going to Houston, which I think is kind of an interesting game. Not making my four bucks, but Houston's defense has looked pretty bad. They've also played pretty good quarterbacks.

Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, okay, Daniel Jones, somewhat of an outlier, and Dak Prescott. Like, they got lit up by three guys making $ 55, $ 60 million. I mean, I do wonder, and then even last week against the Jags, like Trevor Lawrence has completely resurrected his career over the last year and a half under Trevor Lawrence. I would say J.J.

McCarthy's a little bit different animal. uh if you want to go counter you'd be like hey i'll take the points little risky you know he hasn't even been there that long right think about his struggles in 2000 uh what would have been 2025 he started 10 games for for the vikings like he had been there the entire time right i know he was banged up and missed the season but like he was in meetings he knew the offense like how long has he been with the giants Has it even been a month? So it's like the understanding of the offense, the rapport with the offensive players.

I mean, this is his first week truly repping with these guys. He could go on to look better as the season goes on, and this game could be a disaster. So that's not going to make my four bucks. The four games are going to go as follows. The Niners at Atlanta, which I do believe is a really tough spot for the 49ers. You know, anytime you're going west to east, off a short week, they played Monday night.

The defense was on the field a ton. Mike Evans, who, you know, everyone's like, Purdy's the MVP. And then Mike Evans leaves like, maybe Mike Evans and Purdy should share the MVP. Mike Evans is pretty important. Now, as I'm recording this, you know, status is up in the air. To me, this is pretty black and white. You're 6-0.

like how about you got the bye next week how about you just take a deep breath how about you say hey Mike we're holding you back from yourself you're taking the week off this is one of those games when the dust settles and you look back if you win 12 or 13 games it's okay to lose this game Now, that's not how football teams approach it. That's definitely not how Purdy and Kyle and any of those guys look at it. And definitely not how Mike Evans looks at it. Like I would have said, hey, Mike, you're not feeling great. Take the commander game off. But clearly he didn't feel that way. He couldn't practice. And then all of a sudden he's limping to the locker room before halftime. So it would not shock me at

all if he attempts to play. The connection of being in this division, playing this opponent, might mean something to him. Also a big game for Raheem Morris. I don't care who you are. Life's going pretty good for Raheem Morris. Hell, life's been good for Raheem Morris. Football, he's made a ton of money. He's had a lot of success as an assistant coach. Clearly the head coaching situation in Atlanta was a disaster. And they made a horrendous quarterback decision in the Cousins thing off the injury, and then the Pennix draft pick at eight. And it blew up in his face and it cost him his job. And life's good right now in San Francisco, but like, you don't think he wants to win this game? Imagine sitting in

an office and having people tell you, you're not good enough, pack your shit and get out. And I know they probably said it in nicer words than that. But if you're a competitor, I mean, if you're a prideful human, I've been fired. I've looked across that. desk with the HR person and the boss that said, yeah, you're not welcome here anymore. Even if you think those people are idiots, even if you think those people are incompetent, you never forget that moment. And that drives you. And whenever you need a little ounce of motivation in life, I'm not even talking football. Anyone who has been laid off, fired or whatever, you never forget that moment. And every once in a while, you just kind of think about it

to get a little extra juice. I can't imagine in a profession like football where you get to just straight up play them. Now, Matt Ryan, Stefanski, obviously they have no connection, but a lot of these players were there. He should have a very, very good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the entire offense. I mean, their whole core unit is the same, and specifically Penix. Because one thing's pretty clear, if you can get into Penix's feet, he's done. Get around his feet. He's completely thrown out.

If he has time to throw, he can look really good. As he just did against the Bears in a bunch of hollow yards down 31-7. Playing a bunch of prevent defense. I don't even count some of those numbers. And the Bears fumbled to give him the ball to make the score closer than it actually was. But we have seen when you can get around him, he completely unravels. unlike some of the other guys in that draft, that can move around. I mean, you see Caleb and Drake and even Jaden on Monday night. If he just kind of can scramble to keep a ball alive, Pennix cannot do that. Now, the key against Atlanta is you've got to slow down B.

John Robinson that might be, I would say, right up there as the most purely talented player in the NFL. So when he gets going, and I talked to an assistant earlier this year, who played him is like, you can have great defensive calls and it doesn't even matter, which is what happens with a great running back. You can have the perfect call and he can cut it back.

He can make a guy miss. He can run a guy over. He can just beat a guy to the corner. So to me, you slow him down and then just start setting the house at Pennix. Drake London's become an excellent player, but You know, if Mike Evans is out, it'll be interesting how this offense looks. You know, Debo's out, Evans is out. I mean, basically all their offensive weapons are out in terms of the receiver unit, right? Stribling, their first draft pick is on IR, right? And he's still in a boot as of like last week. Debo Evans, I mean, that's your top three wide receivers. So you're Brandon Cooks and Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins. I mean, you're pretty dependent on some random guy. So it basically just becomes a Kittle-McCaffrey game, which is fine. I mean,

those guys are, elite players, but it's asking them to do a lot. And the one thing McCaffrey hasn't really had feels like in a while, it's just like, hey, can you get us like 150 yards? And maybe it's a little bit more committee, right? Him and Kalon Black of just like, hey, can the two of you guys, 30 carries, 140, 150 yards, slow this game down? But I think the sexy pick is Atlanta here plus the points, but tough spot for the 49ers. The travel, the Monday night game, Atlanta just played at home. But who knows?

Is Atlanta the team that looked really good for a couple weeks, or were they the team that just laid an all-time egg against the Chicago Bears, who don't have as good of a defense as the 49ers? Indy, Minnesota. I was thinking about this this morning. I think Indianapolis is on quit watch. This is an incredible spot for the Vikings. Coming off a bye, at home against a team.

Every clip I saw over the last 24 hours for a Colts player was discussed about getting traded. Do you expect to get traded? Their defensive linemen, Quinn Nelson, any wide receiver with a pulse, Jonathan Taylor. That now that Chris Ballard has been fired, could all you guys get fired? Slash, not fired, traded, excuse me. Ballard got fired. Shane Steichen feels like he's destined to get fired. But you can't tell me internally in this locker room, like I've seen, you know, the natural, it happens a lot with the interim coach bump, right? Their record historically is pretty good.

That first week and then it kind of levels off. To me, the GM is not the same. But what the GM is, especially in a place like Indy, like he was in charge, all those players there, especially the guys drafted, the guys traded for, it's like they were handpicked by him. And now he's gone. Is there going to be some pressure from above to like, hey, let's detonate this thing. These are human beings. So I love Minnesota this week. And, you know, it's great. numbers approaching a touchdown but you can't convince me that after that loss to the titans and now they've spent all week like do you expect to be here in a couple weeks and they're all thinking like yeah i'll do whatever i'm just living where my feet are just saying all

the cliche bullshit what do you think they're all thinking to themselves telling their wives telling their buddies like i'm probably gonna get traded and as they should i would trade every single player of value Because this job, one, it's not that desirable. And two, like, you don't have picks because of the Sauce Gardner trade. Think how crazy looking back that trade is. You know, sometimes when you just make a trade because you think it's a good deal, that's where it's powerful. When you make a trade because you're as desperate as the Colts were to trade for Sauce Gardner, it's like, jeez Louise. And I know they had a good record at the time of doing it, but then they get him, he immediately gets hurt, and

then Daniel Jones goes down. And then it's just been a disaster ever since. And now Chris Ballard's at home just hanging out because of it. So this is less to me about the Vikings, who, one, I would like them in this situation at home, Indy, in normal circumstances. But to me, if they could find a way to get an early lead, and obviously, you know, Flores bringing the heat, fucking with DJ, who's kind of imploding. If they find themselves down in the first half, 10-0, 13-3, it does feel like one of those things that could completely crack. And the dam could open, and we could be looking at quit watch. Which, there are two types of quitters. One, people that just quit. We all know those humans that just tap out. And then there's a

situation so weird, so bizarre, so fractured. I don't even blame these guys for thinking like... It's almost like when you have, you're working somewhere, but you have accepted another job and you're just playing out the string. They're probably not getting your best effort because you're mined somewhere else.

How could that not be true for these guys? And I'm not saying these guys, like the one thing the Colts would have, I would agree with like Ballard and the people, you probably Shane Sykes. It's like you do have some pretty high level guys like DeForest Buckner, Quentin Nelson, Jonathan Taylor. I don't view these guys as like quitters.

But I would understand if they're just a complete implosion. And that's what I expect. As long as the Vikings get an early lead, this thing could get ugly. For the Vikings. They're probably not a team that's blowing you out 40-3. But could this just be like a 23-6, just strangle them out? That would be my expectation. Tampa at Carolina. All signs look like Baker Mayfield is going to play. He's going to wear this glove. Still not 100%.

I think I love Carolina in this spot. I mean, that was a pretty devastating loss for Tampa because they played so well. The defense was throttling the Steelers, and it just looked like, God, they're going to win like 19-6 or complete domination of a game that turned into a Steeler home game with an undrafted free agent, like kind of a cool moment. It felt like it was just going to be like, hey, Todd's rattling off a couple wins, short period of time, Thursday the Cowboys, then the Steelers. Like, listen, he still may be very much on the hot seat, but that's a pretty good little stretch.

Your owner's pretty happy if you could back-to-back wins against the Cowboys and the Steelers. And then the quarterback just completely melted down. I mean, there's no other way to put it. The quarterback melted down, which is understandable. He's an undrafted free agent. So I would say Baker clearly is a better player. But one, he wasn't playing that well to begin with. And two, I was reading some quotes today. It's like, does he have full range of motion in the thumb and gripping the ball? He's wearing this glove. Makes me a little nervous. I don't like the Panthers. I love the Panthers. And honestly, the 25-14 game last week does not reflect what we witnessed. That wasn't ass-kicking. Bryce has been exceptional this year. Chuba Hubbard

gashed the Eagles. I just think this is a spot that Carolina at home, like if you're real, like if you're going to be a real playoff team, which I went from last year like, okay, they kind of got gifted 8-9, whatever, to like, Could this team win like 10, 11 games and be a team that, you know, in that first round is the three seed or the two seed or the four seed, wherever, probably not going to be the one seed, but be a team that you're like, yeah, they could win a game. I mean, hell, they almost did it last year. You have a huge advantage just having the home game in the wildcard round. But I think there's a potential by the time the playoffs come, they're a team that in the first round, depending on

the matchup, it's like, yeah, they could beat the Lions. They could beat the Packers in that 3-6 game. They could beat the Bears or whoever, the Seattle, whoever they're matched up against. So I'm really high on Carolina this week. I'm actually kind of excited to watch this game, partly because the bar is low. But the best game... of you could argue the day but definitely of the morning would be the Ravens hosting the Bengals now I'm assuming that Lamar is going to play because if he doesn't that sucks and this game becomes one it immediately becomes must win for the Bengals if you do get Tyler Huntley you know yesterday he wasn't spotted at practice today you know the media during the year is only allowed

out for a short period of time so they get booted and then like once you start running your game plan stuff no one's out there And, you know, he was out of practice based on the point spread. Right. I do believe if Tyler Huntley was playing in this game, the Bengals would be favored. Now, Burrow historically against the Ravens is four and seven. So obviously that's against Lamar Jackson.

And I would imagine all of them definitely in most of them. But this is a team that now a couple of years ago when they went nine and eight, They went 0-2 against the Ravens, and he threw nine touchdowns in the two games. So it by no means was his fault. But I was someone who was really, really high on this team coming in. This is a big spot for them. And even if you get Lamar Jackson, right, how good he looked before he got hurt in that Titans game. Same thing with Baker Mayfield. It's hard to just miss several games, right? with an ankle if you're Lamar Jackson or a hand gripping the football if you're Baker Mayfield and just hit the ground running against another good opponent. Right now, I think the argument would be

Caleb did it. Caleb came back and looked pretty good. But I was talking to a buddy at the gym today who's a big Bears fan. He's like, well... He was throwing the ball exceptional, but you could tell movement-wise this was not the explosive runner. He was just slicing and dicing with his throw on the ball, like 26-26 when he wasn't pressured. But he wasn't gashing him like it was Carolina Week 1, which is understandable coming off the injury. So a huge part of Lamar Jackson, who's obviously a much more high-end pocket passer at this point in time in his career, than the scrambling version early on when he hit the scene. But his game is still pretty predicated on moving around, keeping plays alive. And

if an ankle injury is going to keep you out multiple weeks and still limit you at practice, like it does make me nervous. So this feels like almost too good to be true. Like if it's Huntley, auto bangles. even if it's Lamar, there's still some pressure on Cincinnati. You're getting a guy that probably isn't 100%. You're getting a team that the injury report as of Thursday afternoon was 15 guys from the Ravens on the report, one guy on the Bengals. So from a health standpoint, the Bengals coming off the bye are way, way healthier, which has to factor in. Both of them have, you know, the Bengals lost to the Steelers and obviously the Ravens lost to the Browns. So they're 0-1 in the division.

You never want to fall to 0-2 because then you basically, I mean, got to play really well just to split and go 3-3. This is a big game. This is a massive game. To me, the Lamar Jackson thing, if he doesn't go, that'd be a disaster. If he does go and you lose, it does feel like all this early momentum after you look pretty good, like what the hell has happened? And you have these first-time coaches, first-time head coach, first-time offensive coordinator that I think are good.

But you just start finding yourself a little bit behind the eight ball. The pressure starts mounting. Same thing with Cincinnati, but Zach Taylor and Golden, those guys have been there before. They understand what's at stake. It's pretty intense. I think I'm leaning Cincinnati here. But historically, it makes you a little nervous going into Baltimore. I mean, this is a game that Baltimore just normally wins. At home, against the Bengals.

Say what you want about John Harbaugh. I have no issue with them firing him. It was time. John Harbaugh's feeling good about his spot in the league now. But, man, I think... This would be crazy if you just tell me all of a sudden the Ravens now are fighting an uphill battle because at one point in time, a couple games in, it's like, oh, Lamar was humming. They're playing the Titans, blowing them out. You're like, God, this team looks like 12 or 13 win team. And then all of a sudden you miss your quarterback for a couple weeks. I mean, they're pretty fortunate to have made a comeback in the Atlanta Falcons game. But I do think the injuries play a huge, huge role. So my four blocks would be Niners, Falcons, Indy, Minnesota, Tampa, Carolina,

and since he had Bengals. The Volume.

3 & Out - Best of The Week: Colts Fire Ballard, NFL Week 7 Primer

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