What's Wright - NFL Week 6 Reaction: Rams REELING, Jalen Hurts’ season ends, is Brock Purdy the best QB in the NFC?

0:03 Welcome in What's Right with Nick Wright episode 517. This episode of What's Right with Nick Wright is presented to you by Boost Mobile after a very busy weekend in the Wright household as October is our busy month as I have a birthday. My youngest daughter has a birthday. My wife has a birthday and the anniversary of her store Trentage. And every couple of years, we have a big party that goes along with that. This year, we had about nine people staying at our house, the last of which left this morning. Ladies, I loved you. You're always welcome. But it is a little relief to have the home back to normal. Demondze, great to see you. However, now October just rolls into November in the busy season

0:54 in our families as your baby is about to turn one. So I need to book some plane tickets here in the next few days. And the other thing that's changing this year, first of all, how are you? You look great.

1:07 I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Rough weekend. I feel like there was a crime committed on Sunday, but doing fine.

1:15 Would your teaser get robbed on you?

1:17 The Browns are on top of the division somehow right now. Oh! Beat the Rams.

1:22 Okay, so the... Yeah. So I thought it was a teaser related crime, but instead it was, yeah, it was the Browns. Well, we'll get to the Ravens game. There's a lot we need to get to. No, but what I was going to say is actually the other thing is the NBA starts tonight, which we'll get to in a moment and straight to voicemail. But the reason it's noteworthy is as I am now a Philadelphia 76 or season ticket holder. And while I only own half the season, split it with my buddy. Um, I realized I'm like, wait, Thursday and Saturday, I'm going to Philadelphia Thursday. I'm actually leaving the TV show early. I told, I said it on the air once. And I thought, I think everyone thought I was joking, but it's LeBron's home opener and

2:13 the game tips at seven. And the last to sell out that I can catch is 5. So I'm leaving the show during the show.

2:21 So who does Philly have Thursday?

2:24 Say it again?

2:25 Does Philly have Knicks? Who do they have Thursday?

2:28 No, they have the Knicks tonight, and then Thursday they are home for the Cavs. And so it is, yeah, so all of that, it's all good. None of that is bad. And there is some other basketball that I want to discuss briefly in a moment. First, though, let's get straight to voicemail brought to you by Boost Mobile.

2:50 We have a World Series. It is the Rays and the Brewers, the two best teams in baseball all year long. I understand it's not the biggest markets. It should be great baseball. I personally will be rooting for the Brewers because they were my pick, because a buddy of mine is a diehard, and because I know the Rays also have never won a World Series, but the Brewers have been around quite a bit longer than the Rays. The Brewers haven't been there since 1982, so I'll be rooting for the Brewers. The NBA tips off tonight, which we're not doing an NBA preview here because we would be doing it basically, not haphazardly, but we wouldn't be giving.

3:30 I'm not going to spend three hours doing an NBA preview. There are great pods out there that are doing exactly that. We are still locked into football mode, and so we're just not doing one. And the WNBA finals are tied at one game apiece. I do, however, before we get to the massive Jalen Hurts news, want to spend time 60 seconds here, updating a story from a year and a half ago. When I sat right here and said that if Angel Reese was going to be, have her status as a player stay at the level of her status as a celebrity, she needed to get better. Because her celebrity was getting larger and larger and larger. And you saw her in more and more non-basketball, you know, things like a real celebrity endorser can be. And it

4:29 felt like her game had stagnated, if not dipped. Well, this year, that changed considerably. This year, she was the defensive player of the year in the league. And... I will hold the same standard for the WNBA that I hold for the NBA, which is I weigh playoff performances and finals performances far greater than regular season performances. And in round one of the WNBA playoffs, Angel Reese averaged 14 and 10 in a sweep. Now again, it's best of three, so the sweeps are quite fast, but still a sweep all the same. And in round two of the WNBA playoffs, Angel Reese upped that 14-10 to 20-8 in another sweep. And then in her first ever WNBA Finals, first game, and again, this is while being the defensive

5:29 player of the year, she had 14-12 as the Atlanta Dreams suffered their first loss of these playoffs. And then last night, Angel Reese had By any metric, the single greatest game of her WNBA career as she went 30-16 as the Dream got a victory over the favored Valkyries and stole home court and maybe, maybe took control of the series. And I understand that. Because some folks are either fools or charlatans or bad actors that they can't hear a white commentator talk about a black WNBA player without calling it virtue signaling or some type of bullshit or trying to make Caitlin Clark a part of this story.

6:32 I'm just calling it as I see it. Angel Reese's performance these playoffs, as she might have her team on the doorstep of a championship, give her the opportunity to be right alongside, I'll call it a step behind, Asia Wilson as the top player in the sport. Rules are rules, guys. You can't be defensive player of the year in your sport And then throw up a 30-15, by the way, a 30-15 in a game with a final score of 79-65.

7:10 So 30 of your team's 79 points. You can't do that while playing great defense as a young player and not be in consideration for at least the medal stand. a best player in the sport. So shout out to Angel Reese. Like, I'm not going to, again, it's football season. I'm not even doing an NBA preview. However, it's the finals.

7:37 It's a sport we have covered on this show. When I thought her play needed criticism, I criticized it. She's been phenomenal this year and this postseason run. And Chicago, Chicago getting rid of her is... Really, in all time, what are you doing? But maybe it worked out, you know, it didn't work out best for them. It certainly worked out best for her. All right, there is that. Now let's get to one of the most fascinating NFL stories in years. Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, Demondze.

8:17 Jalen Hurts is set to miss the remainder of the season with blood clots in the leg. So very weird situation. Schefter had reported that Philly wasn't putting him on IR, but that ended up being a lie or false, I guess. And then Pellicero reported that Hurts didn't sleep for 36 hours before the game and played in it, obviously. And now Sirianni's frustrated with the questions.

8:39 But also Pellicero then walked that back. The reporting around this has been wrong. The blood clots started in the legs. We now hear they're in the lungs. None of this passes the smell test, and it didn't from the very beginning. So I'm going to give everyone the timeline here, okay? Jalen, they get to London. Jalen Hurts reports that he's feeling funny in his calf from being cleated. They check it out.

9:15 They discover a blood clot in his calf, a superficial blood clot. This is, again, according to the reporting that we have. And they decide it is safe for him to play in this game. However, there is conflicting reporting about how safe it is for him to sleep before the game. Pelissero initially reported he didn't sleep for 36 hours leading into the game. They then came back and he came back and said, well, actually he was able to sleep some amount of time leading into the game right after the game. Jalen Hurts said, you know, it was a very interesting, before we knew about the blood clot situation, more on that in a second. Well, more on that right now, because they didn't put him on the game day injury report. He popped up on the

10:14 Friday injury report with a calf, but he had no game day designation, which to me is outrageous. And it leads to the next part of this story. The fact that they didn't even list him as questionable, even if he wasn't questionable because of the blood clot, questionable because he's not going to be on his regular sleep schedule.

10:34 And whether he was up for 36 hours straight or got a cat nap somewhere in there, there's a chance the game comes around and he's like, man, I feel drunk. Like anyone ever been up for 36 straight hours or for 33 of 36 hours? You don't have your wits about you. I can't imagine that is a safe way to play an NFL game. It's insane. They didn't put him at least questionable for the game, but they didn't.

11:01 Which is why when they got back to the U.S., They released, and I called this at the time, a very curious, long, let us cover all our bases statement on what exactly happened with Jalen Hurts. I'm going to read it to you because we talked about it. This is again, you know, three developments ago. But when it first came out, it seemed odd that they were being very, very clear, if you will. I don't even know if clear is the right word. They were being very diligent in trying to cover, in my opinion, cover their bases on everything that did or didn't happen with Jalen Hurts' initial blood clot. So I should have had this pulled up before. Here it is. I'm going to read you their initial statement from.

12:06 October 8th. On Thursday, October 8th, Jalen visited the training room after practice requesting treatment for his calf. He informed the medical staff he had been cleated during the Rams game on October 4th. This was his first treatment session for the calf injury following the game. After having practiced in full both Wednesday and Thursday, on Friday, Jalen received treatment, practiced in full, and was added to the practice report.

12:31 Out of an abundance of caution, An ultrasound was performed on Saturday following the team's flight to London and walkthrough. The ultrasound revealed a superficial blood clot. Our medical staff and doctors in London reviewed the results and concluded that activity and mobility were important and that Jalen could safely play.

12:53 I'll get back to the statement in a moment. I love that little added piece of that. our doctors and medical staff concluded that activity and mobility was important. In other words, kind of safer to play in a tackle football game than not. I think usually when you have a blood clot and they're like, hey, stay active, they mean like hop on the treadmill, take your dog on an extra long walk, not have Trayvon Walker trying to spine bust you at midfield at Wembley, but neither here nor there. Doctors recommended a follow-up ultrasound within 72 hours of the game and the return flight to Philadelphia. More on that in a second. Jalen played without limitation in the game Sunday, received treatment on Monday and Tuesday, practiced

13:45 in full Wednesday. This is again from six days ago. As reflected in the practice report throughout our time in London this week, we remain in communication with the league office regarding the matter. On Wednesday night, A follow-up ultrasound revealed movement in the small clot. Jalen will be out for Sunday's game versus the Panthers as we determine the appropriate course of treatment. His health and safety are our highest priority. That last line is a tough one to fully believe. Because again, I am no doctor. You guys know that. However, I do know that even if you have no issues with blood clots at all, simply going on a long flight can cause them to form. It's why some folks wear compression socks on flight. I don't

14:43 understand the biology of it, but long flights and blood clots are a dangerous combination. And it is a very fair question to ask. A, why was, if you knew before the game in London 10 days ago, Jalen Hurts had a blood clot and you knew there was some type of, hey, we got to monitor your sleep. You have to get less sleep. Jalen's sleep was affected enough that when he was asked after the game why he came out of the tunnel later than usual to warm up, he said, and I quote, I was trying to get some rest. That is worthwhile putting the quarterback on the injury report with a game day designation. They didn't. But the thing I'm most interested in, would a doctor not related to the Philadelphia Eagles have told Jalen Hurts, buddy,

15:41 Do not get on a nine-hour flight back to Philly right now. Stay here. Get an ultrasound here. Let's see what these clots look like. Even if you have to stay here indefinitely while we address it. It's not what happened. He then goes back to Philly. They practice. They do whatever. Wednesday. They see the clot has moved. That is when they ruled him out for the game on this weekend. And that is really, DeMondsey, just where the story starts getting interesting.

16:25 Because Saturday morning, Adam Schefter sends out this tweet. More about the Eagles, it's a link to an article. Not planning to place Jalen Hurts on injured reserve, even as he remains sidelined indefinitely because of a superficial blood clot. In which they say, this is an article posted at 7.30 a.m. Saturday. Graph 2, the team, according to sources, has not even discussed the possibility of injured reserve. which would sideline Hurts for a minimum of four weeks. That is Saturday morning at 7.30 a.m. that goes out. Saturday evening or afternoon at 3.56 p.m. this tweet breaking After consultations with numerous doctors and experts that went into Saturday, the Eagles are placing Jalen Hurts on injured reserve. The

17:37 move will sideline Hurts indefinitely. So Saturday morning, sources say they've had no discussions. And he even writes, the team, according to sources. So you know what? I'm going to go ahead and say those are sources on the team, not sources with Jalen Hurts camp and Jalen Hurts agency. within eight hours and about face, actually not happening. And then we don't hear anything until not the Philadelphia Eagles, but his agent releases the following statement. We can put it on the screen. And now she releases this. Did I just freeze? Gosh, darn it. We're going to have to do this camera thing again.

18:31 Okay. I'm okay. All right.

18:33 Sorry. It just might, maybe my return froze, but the now, okay. No, I, I did. Hold on. I think I'm back.

18:40 I think I'm back.

18:41 Sorry about that. Um, now his agent said, this is a joint statement, but she's the one who released it. I will read it. Exactly. Over the last few days, Jalen Hertz has received comprehensive medical evaluations, this is from yesterday, by physician experts. In the interest of transparency, we are providing additional information on the diagnosis and treatment plan related to his condition. Jalen was initially diagnosed by specialists in London with left calf superficial vein thrombosis. That's a superficial blood clot. After further testing and monitoring, The current diagnosis is deep vein thrombosis. So that's no longer superficial blood clot.

19:31 And then the very scary part, as well as bilateral pulmonary emboli, pardon me, that is blood clots in both of his lungs. And the reason blood clots are scary if they're in your leg is because they can travel up to your lungs and kill you flatly the risk is not that the blood clot in your leg is the problem it's that it travels gets to your lungs which is exactly what happened to Jalen Hurts now they caught it And he'll be treated for it. And if treated for blood clots, you know, your risk is very, I don't want to speak out of school here, but as long as they catch it and treat it, usually okay.

20:20 I'm going to go back to the statement. He is clinically stable and has no significant functional limitations. His treatment should only involve anticoagulation, which are blood thinners during this time. He will not be allowed to participate in any contact activities, including football. And that is very simple. Blood thinners, anticoagulants, do exactly what they sound like they do. They thin out your blood. So if you get cut or even suffer a bad bruise, which is like internal bleeding, you can die because your blood doesn't clot. Like you just bleed and bleed and bleed. So you can't play pro sports on blood thinners. Now, most people have to go on blood thinners for only a period of time. The

21:12 blood clots never come back, and then you're good to go. That's what everyone is hoping happens with Wimby. Wimby's, by the way, never traveled to his lungs. However, Chris Bosh, and there's other NFL guys who had blood clots in the offseason, went on blood thinners. They're playing right now. Chris Bosh, sadly, Demanze, got a blood clot, went on blood thinners, wanted to come back. got another blood clot, and if you get them multiple times, the way I understand it is, the medical recommendation is you got to be on blood thinners forever. You're just somebody who develops blood clots. And that ended Bosh's career. I don't think they're worried about that with Jalen because Jalen's happened due

21:52 to a trauma due to being cleated in the leg. His body didn't just spontaneously create this, but it is a concern. Back to the statement. Jalen's prognosis is very good. We expect a full recovery. We anticipate that he will have the opportunity to resume contact football activities when all flood thinners. All good. In the meantime, he will remain active around the team and continue to condition. More importantly, we anticipate that he will have no long-term effects. We're thinking of Jalen looking forward to a strong recovery.

22:19 Okay.

22:21 Amen to all of that at the end. And I hope this is a one-off thing for Jalen Hurts and his health and his career. But none of this passes the smell test on the Eagles side of things. None of it. The way they handled it going into the London game, the way they handled it right after the London game, The very weird reporting, which seems to obviously have come from, and this is why, like, I know I hammer on the NFL insiders, but sometimes the reporting actually matters. And then the fact that it appears to me the Eagles messaging on Saturday morning was not even putting him on IR. He should be fine. And by Monday morning, the messaging from the agent on behalf of the Eagles is, my client has blood clots in both

23:25 of his lungs now. And we have to include things in a statement like the term medically stable. And he's out for the year. Speaks to a massive disconnect. Massive. So I, and I, poor Nick Sirianni is up there yesterday to Monze stumbling and bumbling around a press conference. That guy's got a hard enough time explaining what offense they're running, much less anticoagulants and, but you know, bilateral pulmonary emboli. This is not my guy's area of expertise.

24:05 Where's Howie Roseman?

24:06 Okay.

24:07 Where's Jeffrey Lurie? Where is someone on the Eagles medical staff to explain why they thought Jalen Hurts was definitively so healthy going into the London game he didn't need to be on the injury report? Healthy enough to get on another long flight back from London. Didn't get the secondary ultrasound until Wednesday where they saw that the clot had moved. And why, on Saturday, were you guys telling reporters, basically, he'll be fine, and on Monday, he's dealing with a very serious, significant medical condition? If I'm Jalen Hurts, I am livid.

24:58 Do you think this will cause a problem for them, like him and the Eagles, for when he gets back? What happens when Jalen Hurts gets back and can play again? He could have died. I.

25:11 I don't know. I do know that people that are talking about, oh, he has no guaranteed money left in his deal and the Eagles could tank the year and all of that, flatly don't understand the salary cap. So let me just explain something to folks because, again, this is another thing that I hammer on because it matters.

25:34 We've talked ad nauseum about the way the Eagles do their cap and void years, all of that. I don't have to do that again. But I want to explain something to the audience that everybody seems to have wrong.

25:45 Okay?

25:46 And again, I have not read the contract. I am trusting the people at SpotRack who do this for a living. Jalen Hurts, this offseason, Demanze, if they were to trade him this offseason, if they trade him before June 1st, It is $ 85 million of dead money because of the way they have structured the deal. If they trade him after June 1st, it's $ 30 million on this year's cap and $ 54 million on the following year's cap. It's not tenable.

26:31 And by the way, it's one thing to trade A.J. Brown after June 1st because... The Patriots know they're getting him and it is what it is. We need to do it for cap purposes. Hard pressed to trade for a team to be like, oh yeah, we'll give you the draft capital necessary to get a franchise quarterback, but he's not going to be allowed to be in our building until halfway through the off season. So the way I read the contract, if Philadelphia did want to move on from Jalen Hurts, It would be the offseason after this one, 2027, when again, still trading him then is $ 54 million of dead cap. So I don't know that they can just move on from Jalen. By the way, I don't think they should want to move on from Jalen,

27:34 assuming he's able to play football again. With that said... What if Jalen's like, I don't want to play for you guys? You guys did not do this properly. That salary cap Armageddon moment that I've talked about with Philadelphia could be on the precipice. So, none of that is good.

28:03 Go ahead. Does it seem like Jalen Hurts wasn't fully aware of the situation? Like, I know the Eagles, like, does... He was told that he had to stay up. He was aware of the blood clots. Is there a chance that he was like, I'm playing this game?

28:19 Yeah, but that's what doctors are there for. I'm sure he wanted to play, but no, it's not Jalen Hurts' job to know the ins and outs of blood clots and risks. It felt to me, and I said it on the TV show a week ago, before we knew any of this was going on, That the Eagles were, they gave such a detailed cover your ass style statement last week when the news first broke that it felt to me like they knew something, they had screwed something up.

28:56 And the reporting since then has not been, has not moved me off that. I'm going to add one other point because there's a piece in The Athletic this morning about Sirianni's job security. I do wonder if when Jalen Hurts comes, of course I wonder, but I'll make a prediction. I don't think Jalen Hurts has played his last game as an Eagle, but I bet he's played his last game for Nick Sirianni. Said it before, I'll say it again.

29:32 The Philadelphia Eagles and Jeffrey Lurie have fired far better coaches than than Nick Sirianni. And there's not usually a lot of extenuating circumstances around it. Andy Reid went 4-12 in 2012. He got clipped. It didn't matter that prior to that, He had had a winning record in, what is the number there? 11 of 12 seasons that he had been to five conference championship games in a Super Bowl.

30:13 They went 8-8 and were disappointing the year before. They went 4-12 and he got clipped. The next coach, Chip Kelly, went 10-6 in back-to-back years, then went 7-9 one year out of there. The next coach, Doug Peterson, after going 7-9 his first year, went 13-3, won the Super Bowl. 9-7, won a playoff game, both the Super Bowl and that playoff game with a backup quarterback, Nick Foles. The next year, won the division at 9-7. The next year, 4-11, out of there. Jeffrey Lurie's history is one disastrous season, extenuating circumstances be damned. I don't care what your track record of success has been. If we think we can do better, we'll do better. And so Sirianni's winning percentage is great.

31:10 The resume is great. I understand that. But the Eagles, all of a sudden, Demanze, they're the easy game on people's schedule. And I just don't... Season over. I don't think Sirianni survives it. I don't think he survives it. And I think I would really appreciate if some actual NFL insider, not somebody trading favors so they can get their Twitter count up, so they can get better brand deals, but if an actual NFL insider gets to the bottom of what the fuck just happened here, Because we got a Super Bowl MVP, one of the faces of the league, who the too-long-didn't-read timeline is this. Gets to London. Team finds out he has a blood clot. The doctors tell him, according to the team, actually, you know what? Crazy thing.

32:22 Kind of like if you've got brittle bones, drinking milk's good. If you've got a blood clot, playing in an NFL football game, good for it. It's helpful. In fact, you know, we wish that when we had regular civilians who come up to our office with superficial blood clots, We try to tell them, hey, the first thing you should do is try out for your local football team. See if you can get in next week's game. It helps you there.

32:47 By the way, try not to sleep before the game. Hopefully that doesn't, you know, lead to any other type of injuries. But if you do got to, you know, get a, you know, catch a few Z's, no problem. But throw that off. Fly back to Philly. Couple days later, they're like, is there anything we forgot? Oh, Jalen's ultrasound.

33:06 Let's do that follow-up. Oh, the blood clot's moved. Uh-oh. All right, he's not playing this week. But hit up Schefter and Rapp. Don't worry. It's no big deal. We haven't even discussed IR. It hasn't even come to our mind. A few hours later, turns out he's on.

33:25 IR.

33:26 36 hours later, wonder if Jalen was up for the whole piece of it. He's got blood clots in both his lungs. His season's over. He's on anticoagulants, and he's medically stable. Give me a break, man. You're supposed to be one of the best organizations. Say it again?

33:41 Give him a key to the city.

33:43 I mean, this is, you know, I picked this team to go to the Super Bowl. And was that in part to curry favor with the fans that I'm going to be seeing all the time? starting literally Thursday. They couldn't even make it to the home opener before I got to torch the team. But I think Eagle fans should...

34:08 Eagle fans on this got to hear this and totally agree with me. This is messed up. And Jalen Hurts deserves better than this. And I think his agent knows it. And I'm very curious... I don't think this story is close to over. I know that was a half hour. I know we normally, you know, we're going to still hit all the games. I think this is such a massive story. And it's clear we're not getting the real version of it. It's so clear. All right. We'll get to week six in the NFL in a second. But first, I want to tell you guys about the new prediction market, PolyMarket.

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36:06 All right, Demanze, let's get to the super team that wasn't.

36:12 Yeah, everybody had super high hopes for this Rams team. They just lost outright to the Cardinals. I think they were 13-point favorites. Devontae Adams got hurt. Myles Garrett still has not played. I think his practice window opened up. Yeah, it's looking rough. Matt Stafford's looking rough. Is it too early to call this super team a failed experiment?

36:34 It's too early to call it a failed experiment. It is not too early at all to be highly, highly concerned. And to start what... I mean, it is an unequivocal failure if they miss the playoffs. It's like... It is already disappointing and not what they thought it would be. But they can make up for that if they make the playoffs and go on a run. And in theory, they have the talent for it. But I think people are...

37:04 Here's the problem for them right now, Demanze. A... Well, let me get to how they got here and then get to the problems in front of them. How they got here is not that complicated. The three most important people to the Rams' success this year have, for various reasons, some not their own fault, have not held up their end.

37:34 Person number one, Matt Stafford. He didn't have to be the league MVP again. But he can't be mediocre. And that's what he's been. He is throwing for a ton of yards, which seems to actually be rubbing Kyron Williams the wrong way. Kyron Williams was asked why the offense can't get in a rhythm, and he's like, I don't know.

37:59 Probably because I'm not out there.

38:00 Yikes.

38:03 Yeah, not great. Not great. But aside from yards where Stafford's near the top of the league, here's where Stafford is in other significant quarterbacking stats. In passer rating, Matt Stafford is 18th in the league. If you like the total QBR metric, he's 16th in the league. In interceptions thrown, he's tied for the 4th most overall. Behind only Drake May, who had the brutal start to the year, Darnold, who's been bad, and Justin Herbert, who is decomposing as we speak and falling apart. Even yards per attempt, where he was so good last year. Matt Stafford, 15th in the league.

38:55 He has just been a slightly above average starting quarterback this year. That ain't going to get it done. So that's most important person number one. Most important person number two, at least from a player perspective, Miles Garrett. The reason we were talking super team was they traded for Miles Garrett.

39:18 We're six games in, he has not contributed at all. Now I'm not, he got hurt. Like that's not an indictment on him. It might be an indictment on Les Snead, one of the reasons guys get a little nervous. About trading a very good young player. And a ton of draft capital. For a player past the age of 30.

39:37 Is sometimes. They have sore knees in training camp. Try to fight through it. Then all of a sudden they need surgery. But thus far. They've gotten zero return on their investment in Myles Garrett. And last but not least, maybe the most important person in the whole operation, Sean McVay, not having a great year. For basically the eighth consecutive year, can't get special teams, right? I don't think he has handled end of game situations, including the end of the Cardinals game where the Cardinals are out of timeouts. You have second and three from the six. There's 50 seconds left.

40:19 Everyone in the world knows that's a must-run spot, and you actually don't mind if you don't score. In fact, if you're the Cardinals, you're probably best off trying to let them score. Instead, not only do the Rams not run it, they throw a pass to the sideline where the guy might go out of bounds, and then instead of going out of bounds or stopping short, he leaps for the end zone, and you have the very rare chance review where the defense is hoping the play gets overturned to be called a touchdown because their best chance of winning is getting the ball back with a chance to kick a field goal. He hasn't been great there.

41:02 They had an unforgivable loss to the Broncos where they blew a 16-point halftime lead. One of the only reasons this season is not already shot was because philadelphia participated so heavily in its own demise in that game like so stafford's been mediocre garrett hasn't been there mcveigh's having a tough year that's a recipe for two and four so here's here's where it gets tricky to manzi they still have on the schedule four games left against Seattle, San Francisco, and Kansas City. So they obviously have to win all their easy games. They're also going to need to win a few of those hard games because the way to look at the NFC playoff picture, oddly, is the NFC North and the NFC West are going to

42:13 get five spots. Can you be one of those five teams? Because the NFC East is going to get a participation trophy playoff spot and the NFC South is going to get one team in. It would appear to me. So, teams that right now appear to be better than the Los Angeles Rams in those two divisions, the Niners, all four teams in the NFC North and Seattle, which means, right?

42:49 Don't you agree? All four NFC North teams look better than the Rams.

42:53 Yeah. I guess it's green Bay, but yeah, I mean, all of.

42:58 A sudden turned it around. So just, but point is this. So right now you're in seventh. The only team that I'm saying you look better than in those two divisions is Arizona, which by the way, just came to your house in one. And you're behind them in the standings. But I'll still say they're better than Arizona, obviously, even though they literally just lost one. You got to jump two of those. You've got to get ahead of at least either get ahead of Seattle and get ahead of one NFC North team or don't get ahead of Seattle and get ahead of two NFC North teams or you're going to miss the playoffs. And I don't know what Miles Garrett's going to look like when he comes back, man. Like, I'm...

43:49 I don't know if it's... I think it's a.

43:50 I think they're in a deep hole. By the time it takes for those guys to get ramped up, I mean, you probably got to bank on Aaron Donald.

43:59 But.

44:00 Here's the thing.

44:03 They... Their next four. Raiders, Chargers, Commanders, Cardinals. Three of those four on the road. Only one long trip. That's Commanders. And then a bye week. It feels to me like DeMondse, they have to go 4-0. And then they'll be stabilized. They'll be 6-4 going into their final seven of Green Bay, Kansas City, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, Tampa, Seattle. A very, very difficult final seven, but alive. But if they lose one of these four games and fall to 5-5 with those seven games left, I think they're finished. So I think if you're the Rams, your playoff run, you know, you're kind of in playoff games through the bye week and then you have some margin of error again. But you got to get these four games where you're a

45:08 big favorite in all four. And the way they played this week, The Raiders can beat them. The Raiders can, I mean, the way they played this week, anybody can beat them. And that was what was so disappointing. It wasn't like some, oh, fluky game, missed a bunch of kicks, had a bunch of unlucky turnovers. Turnover battle was even. Arizona, I was super invested in this game because so many people in the Splash Survivor Contest had the Rams, and I was not one of them. By the way, Rams were the most popular pick. They got clipped. The Colts were the third most popular pick. They got clipped. Your old buddy Nick Wright had the Patriots, second most popular pick. Nice, carefree victory. Now, 1,018 people left in that contest, and

45:58 I have the second most valuable entry. And there have been people on the Splash Marketplace that have been trying to buy it from me. I told you guys last week, I will tell you again, first place pays $ 21 million. My asking price is $ 21, 001, 000. I'm going to win the contest. More on that on Thursday's show. But the Cardinals were moving the ball up and down the field. They just had to keep settling for field goals. Like the Cardinals outplayed the Rams, which was really concerning. All right, before we get to Caleb and Purdy and some other games from this week and Monday Night Football, which... Well, I guess that'll be in the Purdy conversation. Let me remind you guys about my friends at Boost Mobile. Boost Mobile

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47:08 Based on average annual single-line payment of AT & T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan as of January 2026. For full offer details, visit BoostMobile.com. All right, Demanze, let's talk Caleb and Purdy.

47:26 Caleb looked pretty solid on his first game back, completing 30 of 36 passes. The 49ers cooked the commander. I shouldn't say cooked the commanders last night, but Brock Purdy continued to look good with him and Caleb cooking and Matthew Stafford kind of dipping a bit. Do you think that the top quarterback spot in the NFC is up for grabs and could one of these guys get it?

47:47 Oh, what an interesting framing here. So let me first talk about the Monday night football game just for a moment. Okay. Um, And then I'll answer your question. The concern point for the Niners, even as they're at 6-0, is Mike Williams went out of the game and the offense instantly died. The only offense they had once Mike Evans went out was Purdy Scrambles. And Purdy was awesome last night. Purdy's just been awesome all year. There's no getting around it.

48:22 There's no ifs, ands, or buts. McCaffrey is still good, but he's not what he was a few years ago. At least hasn't had that impact. Yes, Shanahan's dialing it up like he always does. But Purdy is playing great, great football. If there was a quarterback of the year award right now, Purdy would win it. He should win it.

48:45 I know some folks would give it to Josh Allen because they'd give it to Josh Allen every year, but Purdy would deserve it. The reason I'm saying quarterback of the year, not MVP is because I think Kenneth Walker more on him later has a very, very legitimate MVP case. you could argue the Kenneth Walker acquisition flipped both conferences.

49:06 That Seattle went from best team in the league and now can't run the ball, and people are mentioning pumpkin mode again with Sam Darnold, and the Chiefs, meanwhile, are able to ease my homes back in because kenneth walker is just that good so the but this is about purdy purdy's been unreal he's been unreal and it's just going to get harder because mike evans dealing with achilles tendinitis like i'm worried like that is he hasn't got something going on Well, here's the thing, Demonte. He didn't for the first, like, 10 years of his career.

49:43 Okay.

49:43 And then the last few years.

49:46 He has... Since I started, like, heavily paying attention, I feel like Mike Evans.

49:49 He's always dealing with something. Yes, but he was incredibly durable and incredibly available, but he's just an old player. But when he's out there, he looks unbelievable.

50:01 Yes, Dominic.

50:01 He looks unbelievable.

50:05 Caleb... Caleb.

50:07 Was great in this game. Great in this game. And I will go a step further than the question, because I do think that Jared Goff would be like, why am I always forgotten? But I think Purdy's been the best quarterback this year, certainly in the NFC, and you can make a great argument for the whole conference. And I think Caleb has the most upside there. And in two of the three games Caleb has played, he has been absolutely phenomenal. But I'll take this a step further in that I think that these are the two best teams in the conference right now. I think the Niners and the Bears, like Seattle I have concerns about. We'll get to them in a moment. Like I think Seattle and the Bears right now, or Seattle and the Bears,

50:59 pardon me, the Niners and the Bears are, have the most upside of any two teams in the conference. Looks like you want to say something. Go ahead.

51:06 First off, Bears were my Super Bowl pick at the start of the year. You're like, oh, the defense is going to have to take some steps up to make that happen. It was Bears-Ravens. Okay, well, that's.

51:20 Not a bad one at all. I mean, that's not a bad one at all. I'm still worried about the defense for whatever it's worth. But the offense has been– the offense has had two really brutal games recently. against the Packers, and against the Vikings, divisional games. But the other four games, the offense has cooked. But go ahead.

51:37 So Caleb posted a TikTok video before the game of people questioning his injury that your voice was the centerpiece of. Do you think Caleb's got a little ball to pick with you?

51:47 I think pretty clearly, yes. Listen, I stand by every single thing I said about Caleb and the hamstring. I thought I was incredibly fair throughout the entire thing. I also did not treat it with the seriousness that I just treated Jalen Hurts' blood clots in his lungs, and Caleb seems pissed at everyone who did. And this is also where the NFL insiders really can irk me. Let me go inside baseball just a bit. A muscle strain technically is a tear in the muscles. It is a slight tear. Like a grade one hamstring strain is you have a slight tear in your hamstring. A grade two hamstring strain is you have a significant tear in your hamstring.

52:51 A grade three hamstring strain is you have a torn hamstring. Oh, we didn't even talk about this when we were talking about the Rams. Devontae Adams out six to ten weeks with what sounds like, you know, a grade, at least a grade two, if not worse, hamstring strain. A grade three hamstring strain is traditionally what we call a torn hamstring.

53:13 That's what Dak Prescott had famously a few years ago when James Jones got in a little, you know, hot water because he questioned why Dak was just going on IR and he said on, on, you know, one of our shows, he was like, come on, Dak, what is it, off the bone? And then the next day, the Cowboys reported Dak Prescott's hamstring was, in fact, off the bone.

53:35 It was torn. Caleb won't tell us what grade it was. But we all know it was a grade one. I don't know if it's right.

53:45 Caleb, I wouldn't tell you guys either.

53:48 But we all know what it was because he's back and he's running around. It's a grade one. And it's fine. He got worried. It's grade ones can be very painful in the moment. And he was, he thought, obviously thought his season was over and he got emotional because of it. That's fine. The NFL insider thing that I was saying is while these two things sound like they're the same thing in NFL injury parlance, they have never meant the same thing. When you say someone has a tear in their hamstring, that is not the same as someone has a torn hamstring. You guys understand? Like, a torn hamstring is, historically speaking, the type of thing that is a grade three and that is, you know, knocks you out for months.

54:50 And a tear in your hamstring can be grade one or two. And it was frustrating to me to see that after Caleb scolded the media before the game about how we talked about his injury, that Saturday, right in between his misreporting of What was going on with the Eagles and Jalen Hurts? Schefter got this one in. He's back.

55:27 The Bears are planning to start Caleb Williams after he missed the past three weeks due to a torn hamstring, but went through full practice, blah, blah. Again, I know that it wasn't a torn hamstring. He had a tear in his hamstring, but it wasn't a torn hamstring. And I don't, Like, I've got these What's Right stickers here.

55:50 I'm going to waste one and show you guys something just so we can be really pedantic about this. This right here is a tear. Oh, man, they're stickers. They don't tear.

56:03 Yeah, you have to take the sticker off. Oh, man.

56:07 Stickers don't tear. Gosh darn it. That's mortifying. All right, Caleb, you can make fun of me for this. No, that's not going to work. They're not going to tear. I've got to do it differently. Hold on. Here we go. I've got to use actual paper. Okay, now we'll be able to do the example. Here's a piece of paper, okay?

56:24 This right here is a tear in the paper. You guys can see it on YouTube? Subscribe, link, review. That's a tear in the paper. This right here is a torn piece of paper. See the difference?

56:39 That's the difference.

56:41 And just because Caleb threw a bit of a fit with the Chicago media about all the misinformation. What was the misinformation, bro? From credible media people. There was a lot of Twitter accounts making fun of him. And there was, and this is the thing he used my video on or my voice on in this video. where I said, listen, no one's questioning your toughness or your love of the game, but we all can acknowledge that the information flow of Caleb Williams is wailing in pain. Caleb Williams is on a cart with a towel over his head. Caleb Williams is giving a thumbs up, which is typically the all walk again sign. And 12 hours later, the Chicago Bears won't rule him out for their next game. What's up?

57:43 That was odd. And so his real beef might be with the Bears. And Danny made this point. The Bears thinking they were going to get some schematic edge in their next game. against Philly by making them prepare for, yeah, prepare for Caleb. But that's why people had real questions about it. And here's, let me, Caleb is just very, very, very online. And I don't know if that'll be helpful for him when he hits inevitable ruts. I think it's fine when he's flying high and he's a great player.

58:23 You guys know how great of a player I think he is. But it is a little concerning.

58:26 If he was going to break, he could have been broken a long time ago. He'll deal with it.

58:35 I mean, that's how Danny thinks. I think he is resilient. I think he deals with a lot of shit that's unfair. This is the point I tried to make yesterday on the show and why I said I'm a little worried about how online he is. I'm yet to hear the super successful person in a competitive, highly scrutinized field who, you know, at the end, you know, after a great success or reaching the pinnacle of an industry or some achievement when they're, you know, doing the 60 minutes interview or the wall street journal piece or the long profile about.

59:23 So tell us what was the key to your success? And they're like, well, let me tell you, of time reading what people said about me anonymously on the internet. You wouldn't believe how many alerts and accounts I have to find out what people are saying about me. Maybe you'll be the first.

59:45 Last year it came on after the game with that big diamond chain. He's like, this is what y'all wanted to see, right? It's like a version of that.

59:53 I do think there is athletes getting motivation from doubt.

59:59 Yeah.

1:00:00 And that is a tale as old as time. I think that's a little different than being super, super online in the social media stuff. And there was one other thing, post-game Demanze, that I want to discuss that's in the follow-ups here about John Wick.

1:00:19 Oh, yeah. So, Caleb said that Keanu Reeves reached out to him after he changed his profile picture to John Wick. What's your reaction to that?

1:00:29 Not exactly what he said. And again, I used to be the media's biggest Caleb guy. Danny took that from me. That's fine.

1:00:40 Super Bowl first year.

1:00:41 People should watch this. Yeah, I picked him to go to the Super Bowl as a rookie. I had him on Mahomes Mountain like row three as a sophomore at USC.

1:00:51 I was surprised when the TikTok video came out. I was like, wait, what the heck? I know. Whatever.

1:00:55 Who cares? People should watch... This interview with Maria Taylor via FaceTime when he talks... He does not say Keanu Reeves reached out to him. He says.

1:01:11 He.

1:01:13 People in his camp talked to John Wick. And he kept saying they talked to John Wick.

1:01:24 They.

1:01:24 It was.

1:01:25 I couldn't... It was really... It's just. First of all, he's not. He kind of goes back and forth on whether or not his people reached out or John Wick's people reached out. I'm not sure.

1:01:43 John Wick. But....

1:01:48 He's talking about it like John Wick is make-believe.

1:01:53 Yeah.

1:01:53 And so my guess is in the moment, maybe he forgot Keanu's name. Like maybe in the moment, like he got caught up, like he forgot the actor's name. So he's just going, bro, if I... I'm a huge fan of the Bourne movies.

1:02:19 Just call him Jason Bourne.

1:02:20 And if somehow, like, I said something about it on the show and Matt Damon's people reached out like, oh, he saw it and it's cool. And I came on the pod, I was like, guess who I talked to yesterday? Jason Bourne. Just be like, what are you talking about, bro? And just, it wasn't like a one-off. You should just watch the, it's unique. I'm not making too much of it.

1:02:46 It's unique. The one other thing, and Caleb was sensational this weekend, but we're now kind of all muddled together. I do want to say one thing about Jaden Daniels, who, by the way, has won two games since his rookie year. I'm stunned Dan Quinn isn't fired yet. But the end of that first half yesterday, when they went for a fourth down and Jaden threw the ball away on fourth down and then Dan Quinn, and then Dan Quinn, can we, by the way, they just, can we play this John Wick, can you guys get ready this clip so Demanze can react in real time and Demanze, you can tell me If I'm being unfair here.

1:03:47 Okay?

1:03:47 All right, so just put in the doc when we have it ready. And if people are asking if there's a little background noise, yeah, they're cutting up the street outside here. I don't know what to do about it.

1:04:00 We're just going to power forward.

1:04:01 We're just going to power forward. There's nothing we can do. They just stopped for a minute.

1:04:07 Dan Quinn in the game.

1:04:10 Jaden throwing that ball away on fourth down is egregious. Egregious. And then he was like so smiling and happy after it. It was a really weird look last night on Monday Night Football. Almost as weird as after he did it, Dan Quinn pretty clearly saying field goal, field goal, and then appearing to say, oh shit, that was fourth down.

1:04:39 Not great, boys.

1:04:40 Especially after last week.

1:04:43 After last week.

1:04:43 Back to back.

1:04:46 And then at the end of the game, Jaden takes that intentional grounding, which kind of kills them when they have a chance to steal the game. Jaden's situational awareness has really, really been poor the last two weeks. What we saw last week was unprecedented. And to just throw it into the first row on fourth down is.

1:05:16 Unbelievable. He and his head coach, again, seemed like they were unaware of the situation. But, like, this one, I mean, you see, as he's rolling to the sideline, you literally see the down marker with the big four on it. Like, there was no question. It's not like, oh, we thought we had picked up a first down on third and short, and we didn't. It was a really... really bizarre sequence.

1:05:50 And I am surprised. I thought Dan Quinn was going to be fired by the time we were on the air today. They have a bye coming up. The last two weeks, they have a bye this week. I mean, not coming up. Last two weeks have been really rough. Again, I'm not even saying I know if that's necessarily fair. I just thought it was going to happen. Before we get to the other games, we have a lot to get to in not a ton of time. Do we have this audio ready so Demanze can tell me? Okay, all right, so Demanze, let's do Green Bay-Dallas, and then after that we'll play the John Wick audio, and you tell me if I'm being unfair.

1:06:28 So everybody was ready to write off the Packers, but they've now run three straight. And they get Josh Jacobs back soon, and then Michael Parsons eventually. Dallas has lost back-to-back, and they're 2-4, and the NFC, they're still alive. What is more surprising to you, Green Bay pulling a complete 180 or Dallas slipping like they are?

1:06:51 I'm not that stunned by Dallas. I wasn't as high on Dallas as other people this year. Listen, they're now 1-11 under Schottenheimer when they don't score 30 points. They can't run the ball. They don't have a good defense. They have one way to win. Dak has to be excellent, and Dak the last two weeks has been far from excellent.

1:07:06 That's not shocking to me. Green Bay, after losing... seven of eight post Micah injury leading, you know, as of week three of this year, And the one win they got was a stolen win against the Jets. All of a sudden, the last three weeks being a dominant defense, dominant, number one in the NFL in points per game allowed.

1:07:31 And Jordan Love just being like, you know what? We can't run the ball. We got a bad offensive line. Who cares? Watch me cook has been stunning. He's been great. His numbers on Sunday night were not good. If you watch the game, he was awesome. And it is a reminder for all the apologists out there, mostly Justin Herbert folks, who are like, what do you want a guy to do if the team around him? Earn your $ 50 million.

1:08:00 Jordan Love's offensive line is in shambles. His running back was basically on house arrest until a couple days ago. Not literally, but NFL version of it. They couldn't run the ball. They couldn't protect. And he got it going. And so Green Bay now, I take them seriously. I think Green Bay is dangerous. And I am very interested in what they look like. I do not care that the NFC East is wide open. If all the teams are bad, We don't have to pay extra attention to them just because one of them is going to be in the playoffs. I mean, the Cowboys are coming off back-to-back nationally televised no-shows, and they're the favorites in the division.

1:08:52 Because Philly's quarterback is done for the year. Washington's quarterback doesn't understand, it would appear, how football is timed and downed. And the Giants might be going to J.J. McCarthy.

1:09:07 Don't say that.

1:09:10 I mean, he did play decent in the second half. But I don't buy that. So, I mean, maybe Dallas wins the division. They're bad. They're just flatly bad. All right, let's talk Chiefs.

1:09:23 So your Chiefs keep winning. They won in an ugly, I shouldn't say an ugly one, but it didn't matter. The Chargers cannot do anything. Kenneth Walker has been the most consistent thing in NFL this year. How do you feel about this sloppy win?

1:09:36 Listen, this is the type of game you're absolutely supposed to lose. They did everything a team does to lose a game. They had a player thrown out for punching a dude with a helmet on. Mahomes threw... A terrible end zone pick. They missed an extra point. They missed a field goal. They fumbled a kickoff. They had an outrageous call go against them, taking away an interception on a roughing the passer. But none of it matters because the Chargers are one of the most embarrassing franchises in recent NFL history. Herbert is stone broken. Listen, you guys know I think Herbert's always been... a little overrated, maybe more than a little overrated, but he's been the worst player.

1:10:24 I mean, one of the very worst players in the league all year. He's not that, I mean, this is outrageous how bad he's been. So that prevented the chargers from being able to, you know, make do with anything that the chiefs were, any of the errors the chiefs were making. And on the flip side, Kenneth Walker's just unbelievable.

1:10:48 And now, listen, Chiefs are 5-5. Or 5-5. 5-0. Pardon me. 5-5. Not me. They're 5-0, and now the season gets going. And they are probably, DeMondse, oh, remind me on Thursday to talk about Josh Simmons' thing. Because I said last Thursday, if Josh doesn't play in Seattle, I'll be disappointed and concerned.

1:11:15 It would appear he's not going to play in Seattle. Andy said he's still ramping up. They're probably going to be going to Seattle to Monza because their right tackle suffered a concussion with backup left and right tackles against Seattle in a desperate Seattle team that is coming off extra rest having played Thursday.

1:11:37 That's a rough one.

1:11:37 It would be an unbelievable win. But that's going to be a tough one. But that's why, DeMondse, you.

1:11:53 Got to win these ones.

1:11:54 Yeah, exactly. That's why you got to win these ones. They didn't play great. But it is very, very difficult to make a case for any team other than San Francisco being better than the Chiefs. Like, I know it's not just, like, the Vikings have a great defense, a terrible, bad offense. The Bills have a great offense, a bad defense.

1:12:18 They've already beat the Broncos. The Jags, the last couple weeks, are leaking a bit of oil. The Ravens got to get Lamar back. Got to get Lamar back. So they're not perfect, and they're not a juggernaut. But they'll get better. And Kenneth Walker has flatly been the MVP of the league. I know people are like, ah, running backs can't win it.

1:12:42 Why not? The media, it's a weird media thing where the media is like, ah, running backs can't win the award. The media votes on the award. We just like, if you think a running back should be able to win it, vote for him. Purdy obviously is a very deserving candidate. Kenneth Walker's been the most valuable player in the NFL this year. And just week in, week out.

1:13:04 Do you think that there's a possibility that Kenneth Walker hides some of the issues at wide receiver?

1:13:10 Definitely. But that's how teams work. Your good players make up for your not as good players. Like that's fine. Fine with that. And Xavier Worthy, I thought had a really good game this week where they used him more. And I liked that the very first play of the game, he had a 31 yard reception, but it got wiped off because of a Kelsey mistake or Kelsey block in the back. All right. We have a bunch more games to get to that. We're going to kind of run through, but first here is courtesy of, Maria Taylor and NBC football night in America, her FaceTime combo with Caleb demands a, you're going to listen to the whole thing. This is not the whole combo, but this is their whole part about John wick. I'm just what, what stuck out to.

1:13:55 Me referring to him as John wick. Does he know that that's his actual name or that, that that's not his actual name?

1:14:01 He obviously knows. I want to be clear. I am not alleging. He doesn't know that that's not his actual name. It strikes me. A bit like maybe he forgot Keanu's name. And it's also who reached out to who seems a matter of dispute here. Go ahead and play the video.

1:14:25 I was watching John Wick for this week. A couple of his movies I watched. He actually reached out, which was really cool. Or one of my people reached out to him, and he was a fan. Big fan of his. So that was my profile picture.

1:14:44 You're not going to glaze over the fact that you were talking to John Wick. We're not going to do that. So you got to tell me what you heard.

1:14:51 He just reached out and it was, you know, he was a fan and, you know, he and Beast and things like that. And uh it was it was kind of simple um i was so locked in this week i didn't i didn't fully read into it i wasn't uh texting him i would have been a little bit more of a fan uh texting him but uh you know some somebody in my my camp texting him and uh you know like i said he said he was a fan and decided to get.

1:15:16 Back um yeah just a little weird And she doubled down, but she's even like how excited John Wick seems to be.

1:15:29 She was like, oh, you're going to tell us more about you talking to John Wick. Just throw Keanu's name in there, y'all. And then he was locked in, so he wasn't a part of it, but his people reached out. No way to tell. Listen, great win by Caleb. All right, next.

1:15:46 So the Titans win, and they got the Colts GM fired. So Dan Patrick reports that... The Colts' first call for the job is Peyton Manning, who would also be given ownership stake. Do you think that this could be a Jeff Saturday situation? Or do you see this potentially working out?

1:16:03 No, I think Peyton could be a good GM. I don't know that he'll want to do that. Peyton's got a really great life and makes a lot of money. Now, being given ownership stake is something else. But Peyton makes, you know, a ton of money. And... The story of that game, DeMondse, to me, is the Colts just being such a mess. And that they are less than a year removed from trading two first-round picks, including this coming one for Sauce Gardner. And they're nowhere close to contending.

1:16:43 And good for the Titans to finally get a win. It was not because, I hate to be this guy, but I want, again, I was dialed into this game because I needed the Colts to lose for survivor purposes. And I'm texting my buddies saying, the Titans offense is so dead in the water that our only hope is Colts mistakes and a special teams touchdown. And they got it.

1:17:09 The Colts started making mistakes. Titans blocked a punt, like, Titans did what they had to do.

1:17:14 The guy that scored the touchdown number seven on the return stopped me at a ramen restaurant in Los Angeles when I was eating by myself. He went to UCLA and, like, came up to me and was like, what's your name? Asked me where I was from. I think he was with, like, two or three other dudes. His name is, like, Phimmy, and his last name is African. But just legit stopped me, followed me on Instagram, and then two or three years later.

1:17:41 Did he know you from the show?

1:17:43 No, he did not know me at all. It was just him with two friends. I'm eating at Junior Ramen on Sawtelle. Or Tatsu Ramen, I think it's called. And he just pulls up on me and is like, yeah, I play football at UCLA. And now he's number seven on the Titans.

1:17:59 That's amazing.

1:18:00 It was the weirdest thing ever. How did you put this together?

1:18:06 Oh, he unfollowed you on Instagram?

1:18:07 Yeah, so when I was still following him, I was going through the feed, and he had on a Titans jersey. And I knew he was this guy that I followed. And I was like, is he in one of those little leagues, like 37U or whatever? I click on his profile. He plays for the Titans. I was like, what the heck? This dude actually got drafted.

1:18:27 Ola Wafemi Oladejo.

1:18:31 Yeah. Instagram is like Femi Go Crazy or something like that. But yeah, crazy, crazy situation.

1:18:37 Oh, wow.

1:18:37 All right. How about that? That was random.

1:18:39 Yeah, no, but that is crazy. I didn't know any of that, obviously. Yeah, and so he's the one, I didn't even know that he was the one who scored the touchdown that flipped the game. Yeah, and so, listen, Chris Ballard had a lot of friends in the media and had his job for a long time. They didn't do a great job. And if I'm Shane Steichen, I'm a little nervous. And if I am... Nick Sirianni, I'm a little nervous that Shane Steichen might be available because Jalen Hurts had a lot of success with Shane Steichen.

1:19:20 I think the Eagles like Shane Steichen, and I could see that happening in the offseason. All right, let's talk about your Ravens.

1:19:32 So, yeah, we lost the Browns. Browns are atop the division, 13-10.

1:19:35 Yeah.

1:19:37 They beat them without Lamar, obviously. Tyler Huntley was out there. But another Schefter report, he said that Lamar had a realistic chance to play versus Cleveland, but then asked yesterday about practicing this week. Minter said potentially we'll see how it goes. So what's going on with Lamar and the health situation? Seems like the team kind of doesn't know again either.

1:19:59 Lamar Jackson is an all-time great player who, due to his own, I think, personality... plus the lack of an agent, can be one of the more difficult franchise quarterbacks for teams to communicate with. I think we have a lot of evidence about that. It wasn't just a Harbaugh thing now. And Lamar Jackson also, as is totally his right, particularly in seasons where he hasn't gotten a contract extension that he thought he should have gotten in the offseason... does not have a history of rushing back from injury, and he wants to be 100% right. I don't blame him for any of that, but it is a little concerning.

1:20:48 And I told you guys last week, the NFL Insider Reporter Translator, every NFL injury report add 30% of pessimism to it. So realistic chance means outside chance. Outside chance means no chance. Pretty good chance means 50-50. And so when I heard he has a realistic chance, I said on the TV show, I pegged that at 45%. I'd be very interested if I were a Ravens fan to see if he practices tomorrow on Wednesday. Because the fact of the matter is this, DeMondsey, while stealing that win in Atlanta was critical and it bought you some extra time, this loss erases it. You were up 10-0 at halftime and can't get a win. And, you know, it's Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Buffalo, your next three. So this was a reminder that as

1:21:59 good of a backup as Huntley is, you can lose to anybody. if you don't have Lamar. And he was playing great this year.

1:22:07 Yeah. It feels good losing 13-10. Like, if we would have lost, like, 24-10 or something like that, because, like, that just explains that Lamar wasn't there. And when we get him there, when we see them in December, we'll probably thump them. But, yeah.

1:22:20 Well, and the defense has played well the last couple weeks, which is positive. But.

1:22:25 It seems like Lamar should be back this week. I saw the injury. It kind of feels like he should be able to play in this next game. All right.

1:22:37 Lamar's a weird healer is what his history is here. He just is. All right, let's do the other games quickly because I do have to go.

1:22:47 Denver defeats Seattle 17-14 in overtime.

1:22:51 Yeah, listen. This was the opposite of a quarterback masterclass. I'm concerned about Darnold. I am not concerned about Bo Nix. I know what's going on with Bo Nix. He's not very good. But Sean Payton thought he would fix it. And instead, since Sean Payton's taken over, Bo Nix has played worse. And that's on Sean Payton to fix. The defense is great. They have the best weapons or the best receiving core in the AFC West. Sean Payton's supposed to be a brilliant play caller. He's got to figure it out. And Seattle, 3-3 after losing three games all of last year with the Chiefs coming to town. Talk about it being a tough spot for the Chiefs. Important game for Seattle as well. Next.

1:23:36 Houston defeats Jacksonville 34-31.

1:23:38 Yeah, listen. I was, this was the only, you know, I went 4-1 in Nick's picks this week. This was the only one I got wrong. And I got it very wrong because C.J. Stroud's just playing great. Like, just credit where it's due. He's playing great. Their defense still hasn't gotten it together. I thought Trevor played really well in this game. He made one bad mistake. Travis Hunter had the best game of his career. Travis Hunter was awesome.

1:24:07 Awesome.

1:24:07 I'm so happy for him. But C.J. Stroud's playing awesome. They still don't have a great running game, but he's been one of the best quarterbacks in the league this year and just deserves credit for it. And I think Houston's super alive. I think that the... The Texans, because of what their next four are, Giants, Chargers, Browns, Colts, can go from 0-4 to right in it. And so the Texans are officially a scary team to me again.

1:24:36 Next.

1:24:37 Buffalo over Vegas, 33-30? Yeah, so all good.

1:24:42 From Buffalo here, except for C.J. Gardner-Johnson gets thrown out for spitting on a guy, and then you're not going to believe it. Did you hear what Joe Brady said yesterday? Uh-uh. You're going to be so mad. Joe Brady's asked about Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who's been on seven teams in eight years, is a well-known pain in the ass.

1:25:03 Yeah.

1:25:03 And, like, this is, you know, he's a mercenary. He's a good player when he's available, wears.

1:25:08 Out his wallet. Marcus Peters.

1:25:10 Yeah, spit at a guy. Got thrown out of a game and got suspended. Joe Brady's asked about it. And in explaining how it can't happen, but he's still a member of the team, says, it's no different than pauses. And it's like, well, it is different than James Cook with the fumbles. James Cook's got to be like, you got to be kidding me. I'm the rushing champ. I've been here. Meaning like, hey, we love the guy. Just got to clean this stuff up. James Cook's got to be like, you got to be kidding me. I'm the rushing champ. I've been here for years. This guy, everybody knows he's a jerk, just got here. And you're just unprompted bringing up the fact that I fumbled last week again.

1:26:01 Again.

1:26:02 Like, it's outrageous.

1:26:03 After walking it back the first time. And it's so outrageous.

1:26:07 And that Josh Allen play was just an unbelievable play. Just a truly unbelievable play. That touchdown. Hold on one second.

1:26:18 Probably like 10 points in fantasy.

1:26:22 Hold on. I'm supposed to have a call right now. Still doing the pod. Okay. So, I mean, the Bills offense is unbelievable. That secondary is very, very susceptible. And that's, you know, that's a problem. But right now, I think they're the second or third best team in the AFC.

1:26:44 Next. New England over the Jets, 26-19.

1:26:48 Listen, Drake may looks all the way back. It's why the injury stuff was always nonsense. Uh, the Patriots defense has been very good all year long and Drake may looks all the way back. Concern for AJ Brown is at a four. He's had two games with the pats game one. He got hurt. Game two was the worst game of his career from a job drops perspective. Call it rust. It's fine. but he had like four awful drops and then muffed the onside kick. Not ideal, but they, you know, they were, they're four and two. They're feeling good.

1:27:24 They've won three in a row. They quieted the stormy waters and, you know, they beat, they beat a Raiders team that has three wins. They beat a Steelers team that has four wins. Like that's the Patriots look, you know, playoff caliber again.

1:27:41 Next. New Orleans over the Giants, 34-27.

1:27:46 Due to me being a little more dialed in to Colts, Titans than I otherwise would have been, I didn't really have eyes on this one too much. Good for New Orleans to.

1:27:56 Get a win.

1:27:56 I know Jameis got benched. I know John Harbaugh after the game said he doesn't know who the quarterback is. Usually when a coach says, I don't know who the quarterback is, it means the backup's going to be the quarterback. Last but not least.

1:28:08 Pittsburgh defeats Tampa Bay 26-19 in overtime. Tampa Bay's probably done.

1:28:12 Listen, Tampa Bay's probably done, sadly. rogers after being great the week before this very good late in this game and starting to develop a rapport with dk was not good throughout but was good late deserves credit you seem annoyed by something rogers did.

1:28:33 Rogers is like every single time one little thing happens he's throwing a tantrum and it's kind of annoying to.

1:28:38 See It's one of the one times. His body language is not great. But they're 4-2. And that defense is good. And Rodgers, to his credit, is taking hits and playing well. And he wasn't great this week, but he's playing well. And they have to be, like every team in the AFC North at this point, Demase, has to be taken seriously.

1:29:00 Even the Browns.

1:29:02 Oh, we didn't really talk about the Browns.

1:29:03 We were talking about the Ravens. Um, the Browns even it's really good. I don't think they're for real, but six games in your four and two, like all those teams got to be taken at least somewhat seriously. All right. This is a very long show, but it was a good show. We'll be back on Thursday. Enjoy the opening night of the NBA. Thank you to everyone. Like, uh, subscribe, rate, review, do all that stuff for our YouTube, iTunes, Spotify channels, all that great job demands. A thank you to poly market.

1:29:28 Thank you to boost. Thank you to blue duck. Thank you to volume.

1:29:31 I got to go.

1:29:33 On with the owner of the volume, Colin Cowherd, like right now. So I got to run. Talk to you guys later.

1:29:37 We'll try.