NFL Week 3 Power Rankings + MNF Double-Header Recap

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I was wrong.

Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99% of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles and it could reactivate at any time.

I developed it and the blistering rash lasted for weeks.

Don't learn the hard way.

like I did.

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Sponsored by GSK.

Mark, I know we're just coming off the Sunday night show where we did 13 games, but guess what?

I got two more games, four more teams for us to dive into for the Monday night show.

You're doubly generous, and I thank you.

God bless the NFL, and guess what?

The power rankings are back.

Stay right there.

Heyo.

Welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast.

On a Monday night here in Los Angeles, Dan Hanses, with Mark Sessler,

Justin Graver on the ones and twos.

We got two NFL games to get to.

It's one of these weird double-header Mondays that, Mark, I know lights up your Christmas tree.

I know that historically I've complained about such a thing and I think a lot of people have mixed feelings.

I have moved into a place philosophically where it's like, look,

either you sign up for it or you don't, because you're not going to change anything.

It's not going to change.

So it's like, do I want to sit around like scolding everyone and like screaming at the wind?

It's like, just roll with it.

There's two of them.

We've been here before.

I like that attitude because I feel similarly to you, you know, the Sunday, the Sunday lift of doing what we do for a living, it's a long day.

And then when you stack these two Monday games back to back,

you know, there's a little bit of an attrition in terms of the passion for watching pigskin.

But at the same time, we're very fortunate to do what we do and get paid for it.

So, we're going to dive into the two Monday night affairs, and we're also going to get you caught up to date with all the big news around the league.

Unfortunately, much of it is quarterback injury news.

If there's one thing that could mess up a season, it's quarterbacks getting injured.

That will tank the quality of play, especially in the island games, as I'm sure Cincinnati dotted the schedule, for instance.

And now Burrow might not be back till around Christmas if he's lucky.

So we'll get into all that, Mark.

Yeah, and we, you know, from a purely selfish

show standpoint, when like a star quarterback goes down, so does that typically that fan base go down with it into the sea.

And so it's like, hang around.

We're going to make this fun no matter what's happening.

We don't, we don't root for teams that succeed.

We're still here.

There you go, Mark.

I like your attitude today.

Okay.

I'm going to have to rise up to meet you.

I'm going, because they don't sponsor us.

This is an unnamed energy beverage that I will be working off to just give this episode the little extra juice it needs and deserves.

Here comes Justin as well.

Who knows what Justin's drinking?

His definitely has the,

you know, certainly.

A little THC.

Yeah, a little THC.

100 milligrams of THC.

Just drink that on deck.

1,000 milligrams.

He doesn't even know where he is anymore.

All right, let's get into it.

Let's go,

even though it was, yeah, let's go with the first game, actually.

Let's dive right in to game one that went down deep in the heart of Texas.

Yes.

I like this song.

This is a

This is a man who

a police detective in Miami

who him and his partner got shot in a drug cartel situation.

His partner passed away, unfortunately.

And this man is now, this is his training montage as he's getting back into shape to then get revenge

and take down the whole cartel.

Spot on.

All right, thank you for checking out today's edition of Heath It.

No, okay, let's get into it.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven't always been perfect this season.

But you know what, Ceci?

They've been perfect when it matters most facing a deficit in the final minutes baker mayfield led tampa bay on an 11 play 80 yard drive capped by rashad white's two yard touchdown run with six seconds to play oofa bucks

rally past the texans 20 to 19.

um

you know the that that That thing that makes Baker so fun and the

way that when you have him walking onto the field in a situation like that, you know you have a chance to win it and you know you're probably going to get his best football.

That's what makes a game like tonight so fun to watch.

I'm hearing people say of late that like this has really only been the Baker Mayfield of the Bucks that has these sort of late game dramatics.

Well, we saw it with the Rams, but his first game ever was, and sorry to bring it up, it was that incredible evening Thursday night game where he came in and beat the Jets as a rookie.

I mean, there is an element to Baker that's always been doing this.

I think he's got a better cast around him.

But this was a quarterback tonight that, and both of these guys were under arrest.

Like, Luke Gadecki is not in at right tackle.

Tristan Wurfs is not in at left tackle.

You are playing a defensive line from the Texans with Will Anderson, Sheldon Rankins, Daniil Hunter that are going absolutely nuts.

And I thought that this was one of his most incredible fourth quarter chapters and comebacks because of what he had endured and suffered early on.

And there was this one moment, and it was such a Baker moment from the last couple of years, because I thought he got let down a number of times.

On that final drive,

he throws an

on-the-nose pass to Amika Abuka, who's going to be a star, and he drops it.

This is unusual for him, but he let him down.

And it's suddenly fourth and 10, and this thing could go south.

And we get what we've gotten so many times over the past couple of years.

Baker Mayfield just putting it on to himself and and rumbles for 15 yards for the first, and then they march down the field and they close the drive with Rashad White, who's not their number one guy in theory, right?

Like he showed up tonight.

So certain people on the Tampa Buccaneers simply refuse to not go 2-0.

But it is a Baker Mayfield win in every possible way because what he was facing and what he faced at the end.

And the fact that there's just something about this quarterback, it's like, I don't care what's going on.

I'm going to stick my face

in the defender's face and say, you're going to sit sit down because I'm Baker Mayfield.

And for as long as it lasts, we're going to turn this thing into a success.

And I thought tonight it was a weird game, but it was like exactly what I wanted to see from Baker Mayfield.

Yeah, you know, with the Joe Burrow injury, you know, that's the guy I like to watch the most.

But in the last couple of years, really specific to this

Tampa Bay era where his game has just risen to another level.

He's right behind Burrow.

He's just Baker is box office.

And, you know, there's a couple different moments in this game that I think of.

One is a scramble where he kind of gets tripped up and he goes into a slide and he turns his ankle clearly and he's a lot in a lot of pain.

And then there's a defender for Houston that's right there when it happens.

And you can tell the defender starts talking some shit.

CJ Gardner Johnson, who is CJ Gardner Johnson, a guy who knows how to talk that.

talk that talk and baker goes from feeling a lot of pain in his lower extremities to oh wait are you challenging me right now?

And he pops right up and he's right in Garner Johnson's face.

And it's just like, man, this guy's such a dog.

He's such a leader.

And later, I think it was on the game-winning drive on the big scramble.

It's not just that he scrambles for the first down

in a

game-on-the-line situation.

He welcomes the contact.

This is not a big man.

And he takes a vicious beating in this game.

And it's the type of beating that makes you worry, you know, how sustainable it is.

But he's also been, for the the most part, a guy that stays on the field as well.

So he's just working from a

different place, and he's just a lot of fun to watch.

And we'll come back to Baker a little bit later.

On the other side of it, I'm worried about C.J.

Stroud.

I just am.

I think that...

Last year was a very frustrating watch, and there was a lot that you could pin on from scheme to offensive line to wide receiver injuries, and that was all fair.

But there was also something that seemed to be missing from Stroud's game last year.

And through two games, I still see this Houston attack that kind of needs someone to lift them.

And the quarterback has not been it.

I mean, I think they've been, they had 266 total yards in this game.

They had 265 yards in week one.

So they're 0-2,

and they've barely passed 500 total yards in the game.

And I think that, you know, here's a quote we're going to play here from D'Amico Ryans about the team's struggles and where the quarterback factors in to that.

I have to look at the film, but obviously if we go out on offense, it's a collective effort.

But if we go two for nine on third down, right, what do we expect?

If we can't get the ball in at the goal line, what do we expect is going to happen?

Like our guys, everybody on offense, they got to make plays.

Defense, we got to make a play there.

We got multiple opportunities at the end of the game to close it out.

We got to tackle better and we got to make the plays.

There's no magic secret or any secret salt.

Like Like, we got to stand up and make the plays.

If you want to be a big-time player in this league, you got to show up and make plays.

And it feels like Stroud is missing the thing.

To win games, you have to win the game,

not lose the game.

That's true.

Stroud is not making the plays that Baker routinely does.

And that possession early in the fourth quarter where they go right down to the goal line.

And then on third and fourth down, they try to throw the ball.

The third down passes toward Nico Collins.

And if he puts it in the right spot, Nico Collins is going to make that catch, and it's a huge touchdown for this team.

Fourth down is kind of a doom play, but it's just like the guy's not making it happen, and you don't like to pin everything on the quarterback, but Stroud's struggles are hard to deny.

Yeah, I mean, when you contrast it to what Baker did with his own issues, personnel-wise on offense, like I look at the Texans and I'm kind of like, How have you changed?

Because we were sold over the offseason that we're throwing a ton of resources at the offensive line.

Now, they weren't stars, and you moved on from Laramie Tunsell.

So, it's like it's new, it's new faces.

We get that.

It's not plug-and-play like

pro bowlers, but

you put everything on the offensive coordinator, you move on from him.

Okay, new offensive line, new coordinator.

You have a running back injury, but then you've got Nick Chubb, which we understand is not prime Nick Chubb.

But I just see like Stroud for all his ups and downs.

It's not supported by on the offensive side of the ball,

a lot of change that really suggests outside of Nico Collins and some good skill receivers that he is really in a great place to succeed.

I see just a lot of the same problems from a year ago.

It's been one of the more sluggish, hard-to-watch attacks of the first two weeks.

Can that change?

Yeah, but it's like the only real run support he got tonight was the one Nick Chubb touchdown, which at this point, like when you see that, it surprises you, right?

We're not expecting that from him.

Chubb is, you know, flashing a couple points, but overall, he's not the guy that you want leading your attack.

I think his team misses Joe Mixon a lot.

And I don't know if we're going to see Joe Mixon or when.

So that's a problem.

They don't have a real hammer in the running game.

And the offensive line, which was a problem last year, has been a problem against so far.

He was pressured on 42% of his dropbacks in week one.

And I bet that number is very close again today.

He just doesn't have time.

Gravy, what were you seeing in this game?

So something that I've been looking for this season with Houston is, because I had their week one Texans-Rams game, and then obviously watched this one.

Nick Cayley, the new offensive coordinator.

So the Texans fire Bobby Sloick because he was, you know, things were too stale.

They weren't, you know, getting better and whatever, getting creative and innovating, whatever.

So they hire Nick Cayley.

Nick Cayley comes in and makes a massive change, which is to give CJ Stroud a lot more control pre-snap at the line of scrimmage.

It's putting a lot more responsibility on his shoulders because now Stroud is in charge of the protections.

He's in charge of making adjustments, identifying run fits, and calling all this stuff at the line of scrimmage.

And that might be too much for him at this stage.

He's only a year three quarterback.

I know he's seen a lot of football.

I know he looked really good as a rookie, took a step back last year.

Nick Kaylee is also a first-time offensive coordinator coming in here to fix the Bobby Sloick situation.

He doesn't necessarily have the experience to make things right.

And I think the two of them together, like, is putting more responsibility on Stroud, which was touted as a good thing in the preseason and the offseason, is that actually helping them?

Or is, you a 42% pressure rate partially on Stroud for not recognizing and adjusting the protections correctly?

I think it's an odd choice because let's say it's Stroud in year three of the same offense.

Because

even though Baker has endured year after year of coordinator change, and that goes back to before Tampa Bay, this Tampa Bay offense looks remarkably like the past one, and that's exactly what it was.

And so you're emboldened if you're Baker and the people around you.

It's not a mental game.

You're able to react.

And I think that is an odd move to put Stroud in what Troy Aikman called a completely different offense, as you just noted.

Like, that's when we're going to have you in week one and week two making adjustments at the line.

At the same time, you're a pro quarterback and like this is your job.

And like, I don't know when you decide to hand it over.

I think it's fair to say, with all that being said, it's too much, but he's simply not making some of these throws.

we need to be made.

After what we were introduced with CJ Stroud, where we were like, this is maybe a top three quarterback.

And now it's like, we're forced to think differently about where he is and the challenges he faces.

AFC South stinks, by the way.

Not the Colts.

I know the Colts are now, you know, God's gift to football.

I get it.

They're 2-0.

But they kind of needed a miracle call to get to that point.

They probably should be 1-1.

And all these other teams, I mean, the Titans are, Justin, you know,

this Texans team has a lot of issues.

And the Jaguars, I can't make sense of.

That seems like a team that has talent and maybe a better coach, but still making a lot of mistakes.

So,

the court jesters, that division, and we need we need that sometimes.

Yeah, that's a levity.

Um, all right, so and yes, Houston at Jacksonville next week.

I mean, you gotta find a way to win that game, and that's a big test for D'Amico Ryans.

All right, let's stop right there, take a break, and we'll be back with game two of the doubleheader.

I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around.

I was wrong.

Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99% of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time.

I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks.

Don't learn the hard way, like I did.

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today.

Sponsored by GSK.

All right, we are back.

Let's get to the second game game of Monday night.

Yes, the Las Vegas Raiders

and minority owner Tom Brady.

More on that later.

Welcome the Chargers into their building on Monday night.

It was supposed to be a party, but man.

The only party for people that were in on the Chargers in the offseason because this team looks damn good.

Justin Herbert in total control.

Once again, 19 to 27, 242 and two touchdowns.

He added 31 yards on the ground and that Chargers defense, even after losing Khalil Mack to an ugly-looking elbow injury, just dominate in a 20-9 win over the host Raiders.

Geno Smith had a rough one in this game, throwing three interceptions, averaging Mark Sessler.

A sub-gabbard zone, 4.2 yards per attempt.

It was a rough one for Geno and give all the credit in the world to that Los Angeles defense.

And also credit to Matt Money Smith, who came on our podcast over the summer and made a point to say, hey, this Chargers defense isn't good.

It's great.

And they have maybe the best coaching staff in football.

Everything's in place.

And so far, with wins over the Chiefs and now the Raiders, it certainly feels like it.

Yeah, it's why a year from now we'll be talking about Jesse Minter as the head coach of some team that collapses this year because that's where he's headed.

And

their secondary just seemed in complete control.

And it's Derwin James.

And we're not like, we know that, but he really, I think, had like a top three to five

game of his career tonight.

Just for the way it happened, the chaos he caused.

He's doing stuff that no one else can do.

Geno Smith, 0 for 10 on passes of 10 plus air yards.

You get the interception out of the gate on the first pass, which, you know, like that, you almost want that to happen then because you've got the rest of the game to overcover.

But I thought he just crumbled in the red zone.

There was the

Brock Bowers situation, the end zone miss.

I mean,

like we've seen Geno Smith be competent, good, not turn the ball over, and avoid some of the critique that we were so used to heaping on him.

And he's been that.

But he also is in a new offense with Chip Kelly.

And this didn't scream to me tonight like, wow, we get the Chip Kelly experience experience here.

It was like quarterback crumbling, not protected well again.

Austin Genty is not completely there yet.

I give credit to that for Connor for talking about that weeks ago.

It's like, they aren't what we thought they would be.

I like Jacoby Myers a lot, but it's all these pieces are lost on a night when the quarterback cannot keep the ball safe against a secondary that's scrambling them mentally.

Yeah,

Geno is terrible tonight.

And terrible.

It's interesting that,

you know, I'm not going to turn this into a turkey shoot about Gino, but it's even weird with this telecast with Fowler and Orlofsky and who's the third guy?

Lewis Riddick.

Lewis Reddick.

Riddick.

Like, it's okay.

You could just say he's having a really bad game.

Like, the last interception he threw as an example.

Yes, Derwin James had an incredible game, but I saw this and I saw Barnwell, who we love, fly up that tweet, Justin.

And I saw this in various other places.

Like, oh, this was the right play.

This was the right pass.

It's like, all right, but he's covered by the best defensive player on the field from the get-go, and you just forced it in.

We don't need to be saying, and Bill writes, Gino throws this ball where it's supposed to go.

I get all that, but some of the, sometimes there's a protection of Gino that's unnecessary.

Because by the way, Gino's a tough dude.

Gino's been through a lot in his career, and

he could take it.

I guess unvarnished criticism that Geno Smith had a garbage game from Heed the Call.

And that doesn't mean that we're out on Gino or Gino is now being proven right.

Like you can, you can, I think part of what it is, Mark, if I had to theorize it, is that people have this thing in our industry where it's like, check my priors, check my priors.

And that means go check out all the things I've said about this player to prove that I was ahead of the game on it.

And it's almost like you don't want to now criticize Gino because then that would negate that you were in on that Gino is actually better than a lot of other people people believe.

There's some type of a little bit of a psychological thing going on with the Cognicenti and Gino.

And I just think, I find it more amusing than anything.

Maybe it's only amusing to people like us that work in the industry, but amusing nonetheless.

Yeah, because I don't think it's like entirely, it's not inside baseball because like we're all listening to these people talk and most of them are on TV and stuff, but it becomes a slight agitation because players change over the course of one season to the next and game to game.

And we might find out later that there's an injury to a player or

there's a discord with a coaching staff.

But to

kind of ignore what we're watching, because I'm with you, like this was, like, Geno Smith would be the first to say this was a game where I saw him throw a string of unlike dangerous passes into double coverage.

Like, there's got to be three or four of those in that game.

And it's like.

He could have had five picks in this game.

I mean, it was.

It was dreadful.

Yeah.

It caused that kind of a problem to the offense.

And there's a lot going on with that offense, too.

It's not just him, and we're not out to sling an arrow into his face or something, but it's like bad game.

Move on.

Who looked at that and said, wow, this is exactly what we were hoping for?

No.

And, you know, one thing is...

He doesn't have a waterfall of talent around him.

Genti is off to a very slow start, and it's just two games, but he averaged less than four yards of carry in this game, got shut down, of course, in week one.

I don't want to make any long-term judgments about him, but he hasn't passed the eye test, as Connor alluded to, the same thing when he was watching him in the summer.

Perhaps he's just finding his sea legs still.

The Brock Bowers knee injury was legitimate.

I mean, he played in this game, but he was not Brock Bowers.

You could tell he couldn't make guys miss.

There was a play late in the game when Gino overthrew him and he went up to get it.

And you could see the knee wearing this big bulky knee brace, kind of buckle.

It almost made me think maybe he would have been better off not playing in this game as much as that hurts to try to get him right.

Hopefully that's something he could shake off because they need him.

And yeah, to your point, I think you said it, that Smith 0 for 11 on past attempts for 10 plus yards.

He was great in those situations against the Patriots last week.

He was 9 of 14.

And in Seattle.

Yeah.

So it's like, we know he can do it.

We know he can do it.

He just couldn't do it in this game.

So the Raiders, one and one.

I still think they're a team that is going to be a pain in the butt, even if they're not a playoff team this year.

But this was a a very frustrating game.

And the reason it was, and the reason I don't want to kill the Raiders, because the Raiders are a team that's trying to build something.

It's similar to like our Jets and Browns

on Sunday.

Like they are up against a team that's just better than them.

And the Chargers, and we're going to get to the power rankings a little bit later.

And I'm curious where everybody has the Chargers.

I'm very high on this Chargers team.

And I was high in them, obviously, after the Chiefs game.

This game I'm watching.

It's like, what is not to like about this team?

I I love the defense obviously balls out.

The MAC injury, it looked like a potentially serious elbow injury,

one that who knows could end his season.

We don't know.

We don't have an update, but just by he was out of his uniform, had his arm in a sling.

It was a nasty looking injury.

That's going to hurt their defense, but they have playmakers at every level.

But what's really interesting to me, Mark, about this.

this Chargers team under Jim Harbaugh.

A little bit of a disconnect last year was that when Harbaugh was doing the, I love my quarterback and he's the greatest player ever.

And I wake up in the middle of the night wanting to get him Super Bowls and put him in the Hall of Fame.

And then it'd be like, well, how come he only threw 22 passes?

Like, how come, you know,

he was thrown for like 200 yards a game for the first half of last season.

It's different now.

This Greg Roman offense seems to be almost moving away from being a run-dominated attack and saying, this guy can handle running this team.

And Herbert, for the second straight week,

looks like one of the best quarterbacks in the league right now.

It feels like he's taking a leap right now in what I believe is year five.

Even though you lose Rashawn Slater, which has got to be one of the biggest season-altering injuries in the AFC, he's well protected.

I have hope in the whole thing because I think Greg Roman, you'd have to say, he's surprised us with what they're doing on offense.

And he's looking around at what his biggest strength is, and it's Justin Herbert.

And I just see a quarterback,

I see growth, development, organization.

He reacts to pressure well.

He's kind of just doing everything we were waiting for, and it's coming together.

I think they did him a solid by bringing Keenan Allen back, which I kind of looked sideways at when it happened, but they mesh.

They've got enough from their ground game.

I don't think that's really their strength necessarily.

But Quentin Johnston, like actually making big plays, and it's not going to happen quarter to quarter.

There's still going to be some of those little moments.

But if he's going to give you one or two big plays a game like that, like this is a different offense.

Moving away from some of the problems they had a year ago, they're very dangerous.

And I'd love that you've got, you've kind of given the defense over to Jesse Minter and say, we're going to just operate as a whole.

Let Roman and Harbaugh take their little quarterback and snuggle them all season long and make the best out of them.

And this team is suddenly cohesive and very dangerous.

And that is what money was telling us over the summer.

Like, wait till you see what this team looks like physically.

And the running game could be great.

It's not great yet.

Omari Hampton hasn't really flashed to this point.

Obviously, Najee Harris missed a bunch of the summer because of the fireworks issue.

With the level of

talent that they have on their offensive line, even with Slater out, like the fact that you could slide Joe Alt from the right side to the left side and he's playing left tackle at a higher level than maybe anybody else in the league just speaks volumes.

And I was thinking as I was watching this game, once they got ahead and they went into the half and then they get the ball to start the third quarter and they go on another long drive.

It's like, this is one of the last teams you want to be behind in a game.

Like they, because they have, they're built to kind of, they could beat you,

just beat you up, run the clock down.

And then you have a quarterback when it's time to make a play who could do it with his legs or his arms.

I think Keenan Allen is one of the biggest revelations for me so far this season.

Like Keenan Allen turned back the clock on this team.

He looked old and slow at the Bears, but everybody, I guess, looks old and slow at the Bears.

Comes back to the Chargers, and he's going to, he might have, if he stays healthy, another 100-catch season in this offense.

So he's making plays, and you mentioned Quentin Johnson.

Like he went from draft bus to no, he has a role, he's their big playmaker, and he had the 60-yard touchdown.

And, you know, the way that ball comes out of Herbert's hand is what they used to say about Namath.

It just, it just comes out so easy.

It was like when you would play Tecmobull and, you know, John Elway, the way the ball would come out for him or Marino, just

right where it needs to be.

So, you know, this is a very good team.

And speaking of Herbert,

love this.

I mean, this guy's just feeling it.

He's so comfortable.

I think he really feels like this guy is comfortable in his skin to the point of doing fun stuff like this.

This was captured and NFL actually posted it on their official account before pulling it down.

Here's Herbert walking to the locker room

when he arrived at Legion Stadium.

And there he is.

You're just flashing the bird with his left hand at the camera.

Just, I like that.

I like the cut cut of this guy's shape right now.

We met him once and like he seemed to me like that version of that younger Justin Herbert we met would not have done that.

So yeah, he's feeling something.

I recall you being especially self-conscious about how much bigger he was than you.

I remember that being an issue.

Sitting on the back of the face.

I don't like things like that.

I don't like things like that in general.

It's like, you know, like

I like to hang out with a lesser-looking set so that they're like, wait a minute, who's that foot five eight guy?

Do we want to talk about the Brady thing?

The Brady thing.

Sure.

I know we've got one of our cohorts is literally steams.

We're going to talk about it twice if we talk about it now, but why not?

Sure.

I mean, Brady, they show him at the game in the booth

with the other, I don't know, with the other Raiders.

Like, who's next to him?

Where is he exactly?

Is this with the other coaches?

He's in the coaches' booth.

He's not in the owner's suite, which is weird.

So

he can sit wherever he wants, though.

So it's not.

Oh, yeah.

He's the row above Chip Kelly.

I just saw it.

So like he's in, he's in it.

I guess you're right.

He can do anything you want, just like Ursae's daughter can prowl the sidelines.

But it's just something really out of place about it.

Everyone else is wearing their Raiders merch, and he's wearing his $10,000 suit.

There just is something so striking and strange about this situation.

And we've been talking about this for a while on this show, and now I think it's becoming a bigger story that how can you be the $25, $30 million

a year Fox lead analyst and have all the access that those guys get to team officials and inside information and

pre-game, pre-production meetings, and then also be able to be that entrenched with this team that you're a part owner of.

It doesn't jibe.

Here's James Palmer's tweet today.

Tom Brady meets with Chip Kelly two to three times a week to go over film and go through the game plan.

And every weekend, Brady is calling a game for Fox, gathering as much information as possible from players and coaches from both teams to be at his best in the broadcast booth.

Got it.

Yeah.

It's not often that you find something that

we do a podcast now, but for many years we were journalists talking to people, going to locker rooms, and like it matters how you report something, right?

And where you get your information.

And there's a so-called integrity to that.

There is.

And like, we don't go, we like to, we've always like enjoyed sports from an angle.

We want to make it fun for people.

But it does matter that you do that job correctly and with integrity and

with an element of fairness.

So there's journalistic integrity being slashed here that he's allowed to go do this.

While there's also, I guess, league integrity or professional integrity if you're a football person.

And it also blows that up at the core.

Like, somehow neither one of them work.

Brady is scheduled to call Cowboys Bears for Fox next Sunday.

And then in week four, those same Bears play, wait for it, the Raiders.

Because don't...

Don't tell me for a second.

I don't care what anyone says is going on.

First of all, the NFL kind of just quiet about it, not giving a real reason why this is allowed to happen when it it wasn't, and now it is.

And you can chalk it up to money, but that doesn't explain that to the fan or the or the viewer.

And hey, Brady, like, why does it sit well with you?

Why don't you see why this looks bad?

You're talking about Tom Brady, who is the quarterback to the Patriots?

I mean, there's a well-he's going to do whatever he wants of do whatever it takes to win.

And

he's winning in all ways.

He's making all the money in the world.

But now he also gets to scratch his competitive itch, his ownership of the team.

And as long as the NFL allows him to do it, Tom Brady's not going to have some like moral panic about whether or not he should be doing this.

He's just going to keep pushing it.

And the league is going to let him do what he wants because he's the greatest quarterback who's ever lived.

Like, obviously, it stinks.

And I just wonder if there's anyone.

If it's not the league itself, if there's going to be at some point a pushback from owners across the league being like, hey, he's got to choose one or the other because this don't work for us.

Anyway, why isn't it creating, I see a lot of journals going nuts about it, and that obviously makes sense.

But why isn't there a revolt,

at least overtly, that like owners that have to play the Raiders in three weeks after he's sitting in your facility, nesting in your facility, stealing intelligence.

And then we know it's Tom Brady.

So of course he's going to go tell the Raiders everything he knows.

Don't give me, don't, I don't want to hear about that song and dance.

Like he's going to go do that.

Why aren't other owners and other coaches and GMs being like, absolutely not?

Will we allow this?

We are as competitive as you.

One thing you can do is not tell Tom Brady anything

when he does these production meetings for Fox.

Like, that's the one thing

that Ken can control.

He's sitting there with Kevin Burkhart and the rest of us.

Right.

And that would be, and if that means Kevin Burkhart doesn't get shit either.

That's how it rolls.

I mean,

maybe that's probably part of what it may be also is we're making a big deal of it.

These teams don't think there's actually anything seriously to glean, so it's much ado about nothing.

But I think it's very fair, especially for people who work in the media to be seeing what seems to be a clear conflict of interest and his stature kind of overshadowing what's a clear

kind of violation of certain things that the league typically.

polices.

Wait, one last thing.

I don't want to be like a, because those coaches, some of them are doing it for the first time.

You're young.

You're hungry.

You want to build your identity.

I don't want Tom Brady 18 inches off to the right of me, looking over my shoulder as I'm attempting to call and work through an NFL game with a headset on.

I mean, I don't.

Hang on a second, but you were also, you and Orr both of you were like, oh, it's fine that Carly Ursay is prowling the sidelines.

That to me is also inappropriate.

Something feels different just because it's, I'm just saying, because it's Tom Brady.

Yeah.

If it were, if it were like son of owner that I i don't know that's different i guess but let's uh take a break we'll do quick news and then uh update the power rankings the official of record power rankings heed the cost stay right there

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All right, we're back.

All right.

Power rankings coming up.

New little news update coming up.

But a couple more things I want to clean up from the games tonight.

Okay.

Number one,

shout out to Fowler, who

when I turned on the Chargers game, Chargers Raiders, I was like, is that Dan Soder?

Like, is that Frankenstein's monster?

What is that?

Like, what is that voice?

And I texted us with the direct question.

Who is this monster that's talking?

And it turns out it is Chris Fowler with a bad cold.

Chris Fowler has a cold.

The Esquire profile will be titled.

And so obviously he was laboring through it.

I'm sure that was a nightmare leading up to this game.

There's a moment in the game.

It is the play, one of Geno's fails in the second half where he throws to Brock Bowers in the end zone, incomplete, where Fowler is just trying to, he's just trying to make it through a fucking game, man, when he's sick as a dog.

And here's Orlovsky and Riddick, just like, they won't just give him a little space.

I enjoyed this.

I don't know if anyone else noticed it.

In the pocket, zips it to the end zone.

No chance.

Much too high for Bowers.

It wasn't really open anyway.

You know what, Chris?

I think I may disagree on this.

You got to put this on a line, the block.

You got to just put it on a line.

He probably has a touchdown.

He's just got to fire that thing

a little more flat.

You just want to basically stop him on the goal line.

If he does that, you'll see Brock is going to run it out and up, and that corner is going to overbull Act.

If he pins it on his chest right there, gives him the two touchbox him out.

It's a touchdown.

I mean, no chance wouldn't wave ball just throwing.

Yeah, I get your point.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you're right.

A dart to the goal line would have been effective.

You're right.

Fowler feeling attacked.

The guy

should be in an ICU, and he's just trying to get through this interminable second half that refuses to end.

And he's got these jocks coming after his throat.

Leave what Fowler be.

We've all been there when

you've got a cold and you've got like an hour and 20 minutes left on one of these shoes and you just

want a gunman to come in and take you out.

I mean, hey, Tom Brady, you could have come over and helped out there a little bit with the booth if you so cared about the product.

He was doing the other job.

See, these are different and completely unique to one another.

The other thing I wanted to do is if you would join me,

what footwear are you wearing right now?

Are you wearing your Doc Martins or I've got these

Frankenstein boots?

Yeah.

Yeah, the same shoes I wear every day.

The only shoes I've ever seen you in for the last two years, I assume.

Correct.

Okay, they could be a little tricky for what we're about to do, but can you come join me up in the truss tree?

Come on up.

come on, okay.

I can climb in the yeah, let's let's go to the truss tree.

There you go,

upsy daisy.

I got you,

you're light,

been on that pelt?

I want to talk to you about um

I want to talk to you about Baker,

and I just can't stop thinking about

him on the Browns.

And I'm watching that game.

And the only reason I'm even bringing this up is in the trust tree.

Because I just, I want you to...

It's not piling on or anything.

It's more just like,

damn it.

How come this guy isn't still on the Cleveland Browns?

Yeah.

I think he...

I think...

I'm going to say this and I want to get out of the way because I want to get your thoughts.

I think this is the biggest mistake the Browns have made

in the 30 years

since they came back because the Watson move was after the Baker move, right?

Or they were kind of connected to one another.

But

cause and effect.

The decision to move on from Baker, I think, is incalculable how damaging it was.

That guy should be in the Browns' ring of honor, and yet this is the career he's having.

So I'm just bringing it up in the trust tree because it's games like tonight.

Not to mention Nick Chubb scoring a a touchdown in this game, too, but like Baker, man, he should be a Brown.

Should be a Brown.

Should still be a Brown.

Isn't it also like

the persona we talk about?

It's kind of hard to put your finger on, but there's just something about Baker Mayfield.

And he's doing it for a Bucs team that probably thought, in a post-Tom Brady world, like

we're going to be nothing.

We kind of sold out to get Tom Brady.

We're going to win a Super Bowl and then the floor is going to fall out.

I find this era more exciting.

And like,

the Browns are it, they have missed him.

He fit.

He basically said, draft me, and I will change everything for the Cleveland Browns.

Then they have multiple coaching turnovers.

And then Baker, doing what Baker does, you mentioned it today, physically refusing to give up on a play, hurts his shoulder, suffers, his actual play suffers.

They make a decision to move on from him because he's hard to diagnose as what he is.

And they're like, we're going to sell out to go get a reprehensible character who has not played football in a year plus and assume that everyone's going to ride with that.

Baker Mayfield fit the Browns.

He, like from the character on down,

North.

Right?

He wanted to be there.

And it's like,

and so did Nick Chubb.

And so you see them tonight hugging at the end of the game and saying farewell to each other.

It's like, what are you doing?

Yeah, like, I want to burn this tree down is what I want to do up here.

Justin's up here, too.

Hey, Justin.

Well, I'll hold off on that.

I'm trying to work on that reaction to things.

What's up, Justin?

Guys, there's not a lot of room for all three of us.

Can you like scooch a little?

I'm standing on the ledge.

No, just

give us our space, dude.

We're in the trust tree, and it's a conversation.

It's kind of a private one.

Guys.

Just move out of the way.

Just move out of the way.

Ah!

You lost your produce.

Uh-oh.

Kudos.

All right, let's get out of the tree.

Okay.

And we got to go to the morgue to identify Justin.

Anyway, I just wanted to have that little conversation.

It did make me sad.

It gave me pause.

I think that's reasonable.

Yeah.

All right.

Quick, quick, quick.

Let's shoot through the news.

So the Joe Burrow injury news is what it is, and it's not what it's not.

It is going to require surgery on his toe.

I believe it was called a third-degree turf toe injury and the type of thing that needs to be repaired via surgery.

So we're hearing a minimum of three months.

And then I've seen some of the fake, you know, I'm a doctor on Twitter stuff that's like three months is best case scenario.

Like the idea that, like I was telling my sweet niece, Lily, 13 years old, loves Joe Burrow, just absolutely adores him as a player, as a teen idol type situation.

And she's just brokenhearted and i was like all right we'll circle december 15th because maybe he comes back for the home stretch but we don't even know if that's going to happen to be honest with you here is uh zach taylor on uh monday

i don't know how a turf toe injury fully happens what how you got to get hit or stepped on um

i know that potentially he could have been cleaned for 99 of the game And the one play is where this happens.

And so I get it.

I understand where people are going to come from.

It's going to be very attacking of us and our style of play.

That's got us to a Super Bowl and an AFC championship and two division titles and won a lot of games for us.

So

we're always evaluating how we can protect our players and put them in the best position possible.

So I take accountability for that.

And if people want to blame me for putting them in a position, I'm fine taking that.

It's official.

This injury turns the Burrow conversation into, oh, shoot, are we now having a what-if situation with Burrow?

Because he has had several big injuries now.

And this from ESPN Research, Justin dug it up.

Bengals pass protection ranks since drafting Joe Burrow.

Remember, his rookie year ended when he got rolled up on and blew out his ACL.

2020, 29th in pass protection.

2021, 30th, 2022, 30th.

There's a Super Bowl trip in there.

2023, 27th, 2024, 32nd.

This season, and, you know, a small sample size, 28th.

So the offensive line is the thing that they can't, and they've tried, Mark, to fix that offensive line, but they've never been able to do it.

And the injuries are starting to mount.

It's not the same thing, but it's kind of how it felt covering Andrew Luck go through wave after wave of injury, and you're losing Cult seasons and chunks of his career to it.

And then he made a shocking decision.

I'm not saying Burrow's that person at all.

It's different, but we're losing Burrow for large chunks of seasons.

Zach Taylor, like, I don't really get the blaming Zach Taylor part of this.

Like, their offense was an absolute stunning fighter a year ago.

No, I think what he's referring to is the protection issues around Burrow and it being a systemic issue for Cincinnati that they've never been able to put a truly functional line in front of him, which has led to these injuries.

And I think that's fair.

Maybe not.

It's not on Taylor specifically, but on the Bengals.

I think that's fair.

They did, though, like they poured a lot of money into it.

It didn't work.

And other teams have done that too.

It's like you got to kind of catch lightning in a bottle.

Like my one thing when you lose, because I think Jake Browning, you mentioned it's kind of a gunslinger.

Like you could maybe win some games with Jake Browning, but just look at this real quick.

Vikings, Lions, Broncos, Packers, Steelers.

Like this is what Bengals fans are going to have to watch with a backup quarterback.

Look, I mean, you're back where you started.

And if you're a Bengals fan, like you'd like to stick together, there's some footage suggesting that's not what is occurring at the moment.

Oh, no.

Narrate this, Mark, for the audience.

Well, this is like Bengals fans fighting Bengals fans.

There's women in there.

There's multiple women in there.

Woman with long hair just took one of the face, it looks like.

I guarantee there was alcohol involved, but it's probably just the general frustration, Dan, of what's occurred here to the shining hope of the Bengal land.

I'm on the side of the back in the T.

Higgins shirt just cackling, watching all these middle-aged people brawl.

It is almost middle-aged.

Listen,

I've said this before.

I like to have a drink.

Daddy likes to have a Tito's or four in a big spot.

But if you don't know how to hold your liquor, don't do this stuff.

You're grown people.

You have kids.

Clean it up.

God, fools.

But I do also feel for Cincinnati fans.

Their hearts were obviously invested in the season.

And now you said, like, you know,

Jake Browning, he can win some games.

He can lose some games too.

And I think you're going to see a lot of both of that.

And we'll see if they can get to stay in the playoff picture as we go down the stretch here.

All right.

J.J.

McCarthy, another guy that now injuries are connected to his name in a way that he would not like them to be.

He missed his entire

rookie season with a knee injury.

He makes it

two games into his maiden voyage as a QB1 before suffering an ankle sprain.

That he finishes the game.

The timeline has led to some conspiracy talk, let's be real, because he played terribly.

He played brutally.

Not just,

he looked lost.

He looked like a scared kiddie.

He looked very much like a young quarterback who's just having a bad night.

But he finished the game.

But we were told from Kevin O'Connell that he came to

the facility the next morning, this Monday morning,

saying his ankle was jacked up.

And they immediately put him on the shelf.

And now we're being told it is a multi-week injury.

Here's O'Connell on JJ.

And then just one final update.

JJ McCarthy,

you know, did come in very, very sore today with the ankle sprain.

I would anticipate we are not planning on having him for Sunday and don't likely see this being any kind of short-term IR thing.

but I do want to see, and Tyler and the group want to see how he responds

to treatment this week.

But

give him a ton of credit, just the toughness to get that thing taped up and keep playing.

But yeah, that is something that we were able to determine today.

So obviously tough news

there.

Carson Wentz, if you believe that, versus Jake Browning

this weekend, not exactly what we were expecting.

Here's the only thing about this, Mark, is the timing of it is a little suspicious in the sense that, and I'm not saying that this is a soft benching, but I'm just saying he comes into the facility with a sprained ankle and then they immediately rule him out.

Whereas I feel if he balls out on Sunday night football, are they treating him throughout the week and trying to get him on the field in week three?

I think there's a conversation to be had without going hot take on this.

Yeah, i don't i don't know if it needed to to have such a definitive black and white announcement today

um

that comes at me a little strange because you treat your quarterback as a possibility right up to the 11th hour um and you would and you'd want him to believe that you believe that he can go do it if he feels well enough so i also i don't hate it in the sense that you've got to protect your young quarterback from being ruined.

And we were getting close to being like, there could be a turning point where we're just never going to look at J.G.

McCarthy this season ever again.

Like, I don't hate a little rest, but you're a pro quarterback, and I think he is a tough guy.

Like, I wonder what he's thinking.

He also just had a baby.

He just had a baby, like, 48 hours ago.

That also happens to humans, but there's a lot going on here.

So I am one of.

Are you saying that the baby is contributing to his inconsistent start to his career?

I've been involved with babies, and like, if I, you know, if you have to go back to work one day later,

you're in a weird place.

You sound like you're with Balco Cognicenti making excuses for Geno Smith now.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I think like...

Can I remind you that he's a millionaire with probably a full-time au pair and like a fleet of nannies.

I get it.

A fleet of nannies.

And he didn't have the baby either.

Like, I should also note that.

Like, the baby didn't come out of J.J.

McCarthy.

I'm not calling it

a soft, like,

you know, paternity rest or whatever.

I'm not calling it that.

I'm not calling it anything.

I just kind of, I'm with you that, like,

but it's, it's a soft paternity excuse, is what it is.

It's very feeling.

If that's, if that's a very feeling thing by the Vikings, if they're going down that road.

You know what?

I think what it, because there, again, there is a way to have a nuanced conversation about this.

I'm wondering if Kevin O'Connell's like, because O'Connell knows quarterbacks, and he knows, despite what him getting the award, he knows he was kind of dog shit in week one, with the exception of a couple gutsy drive.

Sunday night was Sunday night.

And he's like, if this kid, this kid's going to want to play in week three because he's tough.

And we're going to, we could shoot him up and tape him up and put him out there.

But if he's going to be less than 100% and not have his mobility, I have a very strong feeling this is going to go very poorly.

So I'm going to protect him almost from himself.

So I think there's a lot of different things that are happening.

The only raging counterpoint as a last note is simply called Carson Wentz.

Because you've got to go deal with that now.

It's like, it's not like there's, this isn't like there's this shining other option sitting out there.

Hey, man, listen.

KOC turned Sam Darnell into a star.

Let's see what he could do with Carson Wentz.

He's had like eight years.

He could see Carson Wentz again.

Yeah.

It's been a while for Carson.

I want to see him again.

Justin Fields is in the concussion protocol.

If he can't go, it will be Tyrod Taylor against Baker Mayfield in week three.

And one last note, if you're wondering, and we did bring it up on the flagship show, Kirk Cousins, what's he up to?

Well, he's the backup to Michael Pennix in Atlanta.

Diana Rossini said on the latest Scoop City podcast, that's the one with our buddy James Palmer.

So make sure you subscribe wherever you get your podcast.

Diana said,

I reached out to some people, and I don't get the sense that Atlanta's moving cousins

right now.

Oh, and one more important injury note I should have mentioned earlier.

Jaden Daniels has a sprained knee.

Man.

Okay.

So

here's the difference.

Okay.

Jaden Daniels has a sprained knee.

He comes into the facility.

I ain't feeling good.

The commanders are going to do everything they can to have Jaden Daniels on the field in week three.

Who do they have in week three, Justin?

Let me know.

The injury is not believed to be serious, but it remains uncertain whether Daniels will be able to play on Sunday.

Dan Quinn said, I know there will be lots of questions about our QB, but here's what I know.

He had an MRI and it's truly day-to-day.

What does that mean for Sunday?

I can't tell you that now.

We will have more on Wednesday.

Justin tells me it's the Raiders at home.

Maybe they think we can take care of the Raiders at home and maybe we'll give him a week.

But what you're going to see with the commanders is they're going to do everything and take it to Sunday morning to see if they can have Jaden Daniels on the field while J.J.

McCarthy is ruled out on Monday.

There's a difference.

There's also the not super important, but still somewhat strategic element of like not telling your opponent that J.J.

McCarthy's not playing.

You can go ahead and start prepping for Carson Wentz.

Or in this case, you got to prep for Jaden Daniels because he might play.

Maybe it's Mariota, but it could be Wentz.

You know, like there's that element is kind of weird.

Oh, shoot, it's Mariota?

Oh, no.

Mariota, Jake Browning.

We're playing all the old hits.

Tyrod Taylor.

And

these guys never go away.

We could have five backups this week if all those guys sit and Mac Jones continues to play for San Francisco.

Should we just not do the flagship show for week three?

And like, we, how about a soft benching for us?

We'll just say, we'll be back week four.

We're on paternity leave.

Soft bench, yes.

I don't remember getting much of a paternity leave at NFL Media either, Mark.

No, I don't think that was not at a time when we were thought of as key figures in any sort of a cog.

I think I had a roughly 20-hour reprieve after my second son was brought to Earth.

Yeah, birthed.

That sounded like an alien.

Well, that sounded just like an alien.

When we spawned, he was birthed.

We took a respite, as is customary for us humans.

It's right back in that newsroom at 5 a.m.

Hey, man, you grinded.

All right, let's check in on the power rankings.

And, I mean, listen, we had, what was his name, Farbett?

Farbett got on us, surprised us

with a phone call.

Farbet, of course, from the,

what was it, the International Power Rankings Alliance.

Well,

some cobbled together organization that took a shot at me midway through the QA.

And I hope you noticed, I don't know if you went back and listened to that call with Farbit.

I hope you noticed that I immediately dismissed out of hand any thought to take Mark Zessler out of the power rankings.

Like, I dismissed it.

You did.

I thought about it, and then I dismissed it very quickly.

Not vaguely, but strongly.

All right.

So let's check in.

And I will say this, as a seasoned power ranker, I understand that week, the first week after the regular season is the toughest one.

This one felt like maybe

if we're still all over the place, it's going to be a problem.

I feel better about our chances with this one.

Let's start with number one in the power rankings.

The Eagles.

They get their groove back.

Didn't we drop them out?

last week?

Yeah, they move up one spot.

Dan and Mark both have the Eagles at number one after they beat the Chiefs in Arrowhead.

Connor has them at two.

Gravy has them at three.

And then the Packers are up two spots.

They've had an incredible start to their season.

And then the Bills,

they huh?

The Bills?

The Bills are down two spots?

Well, they were sitting at number one, I believe.

Was there, were they not?

Yeah, that makes sense if they're at three.

Why would they, what did they do to...

I think for me, because I had the Bills number one, and I don't see a huge difference here, but there's the Packers thing going on.

They put the Jets to sleep in 15 minutes.

I don't know what to take of that at this point compared to the Eagles going into Kansas City.

You dinged them for it.

I know.

They went to three, and the Packers, I think, are a better team.

I just feel that way.

But

that's that wagon that I'm riding.

All right, the Ravens, we all have them at four, down one spot.

We have the Lions after getting their world back in order by blowing out the Bears up three spots to five.

Chargers, I figured, good job, Gravy.

We both had them at number five.

I moved them all the way up

to the top five because I just, I love this Chargers team.

I'm all the way in now.

Mark, you have them at seven.

Connor, six.

The Rams were all kind of in the same boat as the number seven team, up three spots.

And the, look at the Bucs sneak into the top eight, the first quadrant.

Mark has them all the way at number six.

Oh, Baker love.

Number six.

I really just like teams that feel kind of complete all over the place, and that's how they feel to me.

Okay, let's go to second tier.

But that's

okay first tier.

I didn't have an issue with that.

I don't think Farbuck will either.

We have the Commanders down four spots after they lost to the Packers to number nine.

The Chiefs down three spots.

Okay, good job by everybody here.

I was a little worried.

Everybody was going to overreact.

The Chiefs, yes, they're 0-2, but both games went down to the wire against two of the best teams in in football, in the Chargers and the Eagles.

So we all kind of said, okay, we're in a little bit of a hold, but they're still in the top 10.

We got the Niners holding at 11.

The Colts with one of the biggest jumps of the week up five spots to 12.

The Broncos drop one spot after the Heartbreaker against the Colts.

We have the Seahawks at 14, up five spots.

The Cowboys, ah, there you go.

You guys got to where it needed to be.

Not you quite, Cesi, but

they jump eight spots only because they should have been here after week one, and now they're in the right spot at 15.

The Falcons at 16 up four spots.

Let's go to the third quadrant.

That's all good.

I think this is a mut.

I think Farbuck is going to be gone more smoothly.

Yeah,

I think the threat level orange from Farbuck, it might be.

It might be rescinded.

That's how I feel so far, but we've got to stick the landing here.

The Vikings down four spots to 17.

Obviously, tough, tough Monday night football.

The Bengals win.

The Bengals are 2-0, but they're down three spots.

And you know what?

I think it's fair to say because Joe Burrow might be out for the year, and that changes everything about them.

The Steelers are down five spots to 19.

It's fair to have questions about them.

The Texans, just in sitting there at 20, that makes sense, down two spots.

The Cardinals, 2-0, but still...

Other than Sessler, which is predictable, who has them all the way up at 14.

The rest of the crews got this right at 21, 21, and 22.

So they sit at 21 despite Mark's efforts.

They are up four spots.

Anything to say on that, Mark?

How can you're watching the Cardinals and you're remembering it's not the power standings, Mark.

I always said this when I would do my spot with Andrew Ceciliano on the Phil Network.

It is not the power standings.

It's the power rankings.

And I know they're 2-0, but are you really that impressed that they're the 14th best team in football?

I can't go there with you.

Little Rich.

I understand that.

No, that's the other power.

Don't Don't never back down, Cesi.

Bro, the only thing I want to defend it because we're in this world where

the teams above them have shattered quarterback situations.

And the teams below them, I simply don't think, are as good as the Cardinals in this particular exercise.

So I think

getting them up a little bit would be fine, but clearly no one agrees with me.

They're not buying in, and this is a democratic process.

It sure is, buddy.

Yeah, I have the Cardinals modestly modestly up two spots from week one, but pretty much still in kind of a hold.

I'd like to see more.

We got the Jaguars down six spots to 22.

We got the Raiders, disappointing game tonight, obviously, but just down one spot at 23.

The Patriots get their first win, so they move up two spots to 24.

And now let's head to the fourth and final tier.

These are teams that are not off to a great start.

Look at the Bears sinking like a stone down four spots.

Gravy has them all the way down to 27.

And I get it,

But I think Mark and Connor have the consensus at 25.

I had them up at 22.

Maybe a little generous.

The Giants off that shootout loss move up one spot to 26.

The Jets off getting blown out by the Bills drop three spots to 27.

The Saints are up one spot after hanging around with the Cardinals to 28.

The Dolphins are competitive against the Patriots, so we give them a little pop and move them up from the last spot in the power rankings to 29.

I caught heat for not respecting the Browns last week, but then they lost 41 to 10 or whatever.

So it's just like they're the Browns.

They are what they are.

They're at number 30 in our rankings.

Sese understands it.

He's got them at 28.

Okay, Mark, that's fair.

Well, 28 means you still are a rotting corpse.

Still a rotting corpse, yep.

And then we have the Titoons at 31, down one spot.

And then, yes, rightfully,

everyone but Sessler, but Sessler has them at 31.

The Panthers are the number 32 team in the league, down one spot.

And by the way, they just lost their entire interior line,

including Robert Hunt,

to serious injuries.

So, Bryce Young, the Panthers, they could be steaming towards the top pick.

There are the latest power rankings.

I feel a lot better about him.

Yep.

Gotcha.

What was his first name again?

Ken.

Ken Farbeck.

Ken Farbeck from the International Power Rankings Alliance, IPRA.

I'm hoping we don't hear from him.

That would be a good thing.

Or like maybe a message of kindness and thankfulness that we heeded his message to us.

I think that I think Farbuck's in some type of

mental decline based on some of the, just a lack of disconnect in the conversation.

So I don't know.

Farbuck.

He might not even remember that conversation.

All right.

Anything else we need to say, Mark?

I don't think so.

We've just got a ton of extra wonderful content coming this way, and we've just begun the week.

Yes, we absolutely do.

We will have our old buddy, Pete Sweeney, who covers the Chiefs now for the CC Star.

How about that?

Is going to be sitting in for the end around show on Wednesday.

Looking forward to that.

Pete is one of those guys who gets it.

That guy gets it.

So be there for that.

That's a fun show.

I think you guys are going to like the end around Wednesday shows.

We're going to kind of keep that chair open,

a little jump seat, and try to get some people in there that we think will flow very well with

me and Mark and Justin and Pete will be joining us on Wednesday to go around the league and check out everything that's just out there.

Check out the Patreon, of course, for all the latest fun stuff over there.

And yeah, get caught up on the content we've dropped dropped in the last 48 hours which is abundant all right gravy is in texas gravy's gravy is upset by the way last thing here gravy is pissed he is he is teod about the uh nfl's double header policy right he told a story before we started that and he even he even was like oh man october 20th october 20th our dogs they have the same birthday it's october 20th.

And, you know, we're making the dogs cakes because, you know, they're our dogs and they're our babies.

And it's like, yeah, that's all fair.

And I can't believe the NFL would do this to us on the dogs' birthdays.

I mean, it's kind of an adorable story, but also slightly insane.

Justin.

I was really just trying to emphasize how

inconvenient it is to have a 10 p.m.

Eastern Monday night kickoff multiple times this season.

I mean, you guys, it's late for you guys.

It's 11.20 20 p.m.

for you guys right now as we record this.

It's 1 20 in the morning for me and the poor guys on the East Coast guys and gals It's 2 20 a.m.

You know there's people podcasting right now on the East Coast after 2 a.m.

Because the NFL decided that this is what we're going to do now.

We're not going to play two Monday night games at the same time.

We're just going to pack 12 after dark it like we're watching Oregon play Washington or something and it's whatever.

I don't know.

It's what I like to call the old central time zone bang job.

you go back to sleep i'm right now i'm recording uh my dog captain sleeping on the couch waiting for me to be done to done with this so so we'll do the little captain cam we did that on the friday fun show this week

justin thank you for what you do for um not only the two of us but thank you for your sacrifice thank you yeah

you got it a few times just a few times this year and then it'll be over and i won't even remember it happened so see we don't bitch it's it's just part of the gig all right thanks everybody have a great night And we'll be back on Wednesday.

Till then, do what you must.

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