Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Chris Harry with you on a week sixth
Speaker 1: edition of Chargers Weekly. A bit later, the voice of
Speaker 1: the team, Matt money Smith preview Sunday's game against the Browns.
Speaker 1: I'll also check in with ABC seven's Ashley Brewer, who's
Speaker 1: at the center of the LA sports universe right now,
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers in the playoffs, Lakers preseason, and of
Speaker 1: course the Chargers heading to Cleveland and London. NFL Networks
Speaker 1: Marcus Grant closes the show with some Week six fantasy advice,
Speaker 1: but we start with some sad news from the team family.
Speaker 1: Patriarch and Chargers owner Alex Spano has passed away on
Speaker 1: Tuesday at the age of ninety five. Our deepest condolences
Speaker 1: are with the entire Spanos family. And before we start
Speaker 1: this week's episode with Mary Kay Cabott of Cleveland dot Com,
Speaker 1: here's head coach Anthony Lynn on the lasting legacy of
Speaker 1: Alex Spanos. First thing I want to start out with,
Speaker 1: I just want to pay respects to the Spannel's family.
Speaker 1: We lost the owner yesterday and even though I never
Speaker 1: got a chance to meet him, I heard a lot
Speaker 1: about him now. I worked with his son, I worked
Speaker 1: with his grandkids, and I got to know him through them,
Speaker 1: and that was a big loss for an organization. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's done a lot as far as in the communities
Speaker 1: that you know, in San Diego and Los Angeles alone.
Speaker 1: He just he just gave a lot, and I just
Speaker 1: really respect him and his family for all they've done.
Speaker 1: I mean, so many people, We've gotten so many letters.
Speaker 1: He affected so many people lives that is unbelievable. So
Speaker 1: I just wanted to pay respects to the family that way,
Speaker 1: all right. To get this week's opposing view, Mary Kay
Speaker 1: Cabot of Cleveland dot Com joins me and Mary Kay.
Speaker 1: The Browns coming off win number two of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: They beat the Ravens twelve nine and overtime, and so
Speaker 1: far you've got three overtime games, a win, loss in
Speaker 1: a tie, an overall record of two two and one,
Speaker 1: and you could probably argue this team should be much
Speaker 1: better than in that at this point, you know what,
Speaker 1: it really should be much better than that. They had
Speaker 1: the one game in Oakland where the officials reversed a
Speaker 1: Carlos high turn down conversion. If they hadn't done that,
Speaker 1: the Browns would run up the clock and they would
Speaker 1: have been celebrating their victory in that game instead of overtime.
Speaker 1: They lost forty five to two overtime. Two other games
Speaker 1: that they had kicker shoes, a blocked field goal in overtime,
Speaker 1: less from an a tie with the Steelers, and then
Speaker 1: their kicker in New Orleans missed four different kicks, two
Speaker 1: extra points, two field goals, and that proved to be
Speaker 1: the difference in that game they lost to the Saint
Speaker 1: So there's three victories that they really should have had
Speaker 1: if they had a different kicker and if they didn't
Speaker 1: get a little help from the officials. Well, it was
Speaker 1: a big one. Last Sunday, their first division went in
Speaker 1: a long time against the Ravens Mayfield. The Higgins looked
Speaker 1: to be the lone touchdown and the Browns on offense,
Speaker 1: they looked like they had a tough day on third down,
Speaker 1: but Cleveland's defense kip Baltimore the end zone and held
Speaker 1: the Ravens just four for sixteen on third down. Mary kay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that include zero for six in the first half. They
Speaker 1: were just absolutely tremendous on third down. And here it was.
Speaker 1: The Ravens came in number two in the NFL on
Speaker 1: third down defense, and it was actually the Brown that
Speaker 1: kind of showed them the way on third down. It
Speaker 1: was right off the bat on the first drive, Denzel
Speaker 1: Award knocked the ball away from Michael Cratty to get
Speaker 1: them off the field on their first drive, and it
Speaker 1: just kind of went on from there. They had pass
Speaker 1: breakups from EJ Games, all kinds of things on third down,
Speaker 1: and then Denzel Ward really came through with a very
Speaker 1: big game. He had an interception and a block field
Speaker 1: goal in the first half, so that prevented that prevented
Speaker 1: the Ravens from from scoring at least, you know, possibly
Speaker 1: ten more points there. So he was a major major
Speaker 1: factor in the victory. Well, I wanted to get to
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield in a second, but let's stop there at
Speaker 1: Denzel Award because he's having a heck of a start
Speaker 1: to the year. And I think you could argue Derwin
Speaker 1: James here in Los Angeles and Denzel Award probably the
Speaker 1: two best defensive rookies to this point. What has Cleveland
Speaker 1: seen from Denzel Award? Wow, he's just been tremendous. Now.
Speaker 1: He was the number four o CLTIIC and a lot
Speaker 1: of people wanted the Browns to draft lead shut there
Speaker 1: in the NC State pass Russia. People kind of scratched
Speaker 1: their heads a little bit about what John Dorsey was
Speaker 1: doing there at number four. Well, boy, has Denzel and
Speaker 1: John Dorsey proved everybody wrong here. Denzel has been amazing,
Speaker 1: starting with the very first game when he picked out
Speaker 1: Ben Roethlis furtherer twice. Then in his pass game he
Speaker 1: picks off Joe Flacco, had three pass break out to
Speaker 1: the block field goal. He's just playing lights out his
Speaker 1: He helped Flacco I leave to it like nineteen point
Speaker 1: nine passer rating in his past game when in pass
Speaker 1: his throne, his way. He's just been really tremendous in
Speaker 1: coverage and otherwise. He missed a couple of the tackles
Speaker 1: in this past game. But the good things you did
Speaker 1: far outweigh that. And the Browns overall they have a
Speaker 1: plus eight turnover differential fifteen takeaways. That's four more than
Speaker 1: the second ranked team, the Chicago Bears. And then you
Speaker 1: just you know, it's it's just funny too, because I
Speaker 1: look two weeks ago against the Raiders, you give up
Speaker 1: forty five points and you just give up nine to
Speaker 1: the Ravens who have been scoring a lot of points
Speaker 1: on teams this year. Which week was more indicative of
Speaker 1: who this Cleveland defense is? Mary Kay, Well, they have been.
Speaker 1: They hadn't been giving up points point back, and I
Speaker 1: mean if you look at their Saints game, they held
Speaker 1: the Saints play twenty one points. And the Saints every
Speaker 1: it seems like every time I look up on the
Speaker 1: scoreboard these days, the Saints are scoring forty points and
Speaker 1: the Browns held them to twenty one. So I think
Speaker 1: that's more indicative of who the Cleveland Browns have been
Speaker 1: this year. They have good defense, they really do. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of talent on the defense, and a lot
Speaker 1: of it had to do with the These guys are
Speaker 1: healthy this year. Some of the guys were around last year,
Speaker 1: they just weren't healthy. It wasn't healthy all year. And
Speaker 1: Daniel Ogle wasn't healthy. Jamie Collins wasn't healthy. So all
Speaker 1: these guys are back healthy this year. It's making it.
Speaker 1: He looks difference. And then John Dorsey did go out
Speaker 1: and add a lot of key pieces like Karence Mitchell.
Speaker 1: Now he's out for eight weeks at the broken wrists.
Speaker 1: But Damarius Randall has been a great, great addition to
Speaker 1: the team, he came from the Packers in a trade
Speaker 1: for Deshaun Packer. He has been tremendous at free saying,
Speaker 1: moving over from cornerback where he played for the Packers. Then,
Speaker 1: of course Denzel Ward has been tremendous. So you know,
Speaker 1: so they've just been really, really good on defense. And
Speaker 1: you just said the name Miles Garrett. Through the first
Speaker 1: five games, five sacks, nine quarterback hits, and in his
Speaker 1: second season, it looks like he's turning into what are
Speaker 1: the game's elite pass rushers before our eysbury, Kay, how
Speaker 1: much better has he gotten from your one to present day? Well,
Speaker 1: he's gotten a lot better. He studied a lot of
Speaker 1: Julius Pepper's film in the offseason, and he's definitely gotten
Speaker 1: a lot better. But I also do firmly believe that
Speaker 1: it has a lot to do with his help. He's
Speaker 1: some of the high angles last year I've been before
Speaker 1: the season opener, he missed the first four games, kind
Speaker 1: of rushed himself back. He felt bad the team had
Speaker 1: gone all and four. He needed to get back out there,
Speaker 1: and he hurried back. So he played the rest of
Speaker 1: the year kind of hurt on that ankle. He spent
Speaker 1: most of the offseason rehabbing, getting himself together, also playing,
Speaker 1: getting his conditioning together so that he could play more snaps,
Speaker 1: which he has done this year. So all of those
Speaker 1: things have added up to a really, really great Miles Garrett.
Speaker 1: Now he's aiming for a defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: It'll be tough. There's an amazing amount of great pass
Speaker 1: rushers out there, but he's really committed to that. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's get to this rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, because he
Speaker 1: looks have changed the culture in the overall outlook in
Speaker 1: Cleveland's and I was one of the millions from a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago that Thursday night game where you
Speaker 1: just felt the energy shift when he came into the
Speaker 1: game against the Jets. Was that the moment when it
Speaker 1: kind of all changed, Mary Kay or has this been
Speaker 1: something in the makings for a while now. No, I
Speaker 1: think that's the moment where he proved to everyone and
Speaker 1: he can actually go out and do this in a
Speaker 1: real football game. It just did right. It seemed like
Speaker 1: a paradigm shift. There are a sea change or something
Speaker 1: like that. You could feel it in the stadium that
Speaker 1: everyone in the stadium felt like, you know what, the
Speaker 1: savior might have arhived, and it was just a great
Speaker 1: feeling for everybody that has been all these long suffering
Speaker 1: brown stands. It just seemed like it was time to
Speaker 1: be happy and they have hope and to be joyful.
Speaker 1: And he picked that right back up when he came
Speaker 1: back into that stadium. Nobody gave them the chance. Every
Speaker 1: single one of us in the local media picked them
Speaker 1: to lose to the Ravens. And you know, the Ravens
Speaker 1: not only do they are they number two overall in defense,
Speaker 1: but they're heck on rookie quarterbacks. I mean just heck
Speaker 1: on rookie quarterbacks. And you know, he defied all those odds.
Speaker 1: They were fifteen and five against rookie quarterbacks over the
Speaker 1: you know, since two thousand and eight. Now, of course
Speaker 1: that record includes seven and oh against uh, you know,
Speaker 1: against some of the Browns quarterbacks. So you know, so
Speaker 1: maybe that should have been taken with a little tiny
Speaker 1: bit of a grain of salt, because you know, you
Speaker 1: were dealing with you know, the Brandon Weedens and you know,
Speaker 1: just some of you guys like that, the Code Kestlers
Speaker 1: and the Deshaun Kaisers, So that probably had something to
Speaker 1: do with it. But but they dominate rookie quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: and Baker Mayfield just came out and show it any different. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, a rookie quarterback couldn't have a better
Speaker 1: best friend than a guy like Jarvis Landry. I look
Speaker 1: at it the I look at the target breakdown among
Speaker 1: these receivers and tight ends. Jarvis Landry fifty seven targets,
Speaker 1: which is really no different than what we saw in Miami.
Speaker 1: But what is different the yards per reception much higher
Speaker 1: thirteen point one. How much does he mean to this offense?
Speaker 1: Mary Kay, Oh, he means a tremendous amount to this offense,
Speaker 1: especially after Josh Gordon was traded. Now, when Josh Gordon
Speaker 1: was traded, I mean, that's a lot of talent that
Speaker 1: walks out that door, and you know, they really haven't
Speaker 1: even really recovered from that yet, so they even put
Speaker 1: more of a focus on Jarvis Landry and what he
Speaker 1: means to this team and what they need from him. So,
Speaker 1: you know the thing about Jarvis is that he can
Speaker 1: coach almost anything. Now he's dropped a couple of tasses
Speaker 1: here and there from Baker Mayfield, because it comes in
Speaker 1: fast and furious. But for the most part, he can
Speaker 1: catch pretty much anything, and he can get his body
Speaker 1: in some pretty interesting positions to try to catch balls
Speaker 1: in traffic and he's pretty amazing doing that. And then
Speaker 1: you've got Baker who can put it on a dime.
Speaker 1: So I think those two together as they go along,
Speaker 1: are going to be a tremendous combination. You know, it's
Speaker 1: odd not seeing Joe Thomas on that left side. He
Speaker 1: was a mainstay and really synonymous with that left tackle
Speaker 1: position for eleven seasons in Cleveland. You got the number
Speaker 1: one rushing attack the Browns do entering week six, you
Speaker 1: got an undrafted rookie at left tackle, Desmond Harris, and
Speaker 1: what have you seen from Harrison and the rest of
Speaker 1: his old line, Mary Kay, Well, like you said, they
Speaker 1: are blocking now for the number one one game in
Speaker 1: the NFL. So if they didn't just give lip service
Speaker 1: to the running game this year, they are committed to it.
Speaker 1: And Carlos Hides had a lot to do with that.
Speaker 1: Nick Choke came in in Oakland and ran three times
Speaker 1: one hundred five years, including too long touchdowns. So they
Speaker 1: are doing a good job and running now as far
Speaker 1: as Desmond Harrison, he's a little bit of a work
Speaker 1: in progress. I mean, you know, he had missed three years,
Speaker 1: three solid years out of football, and then came back
Speaker 1: and played nine games for West I mean yeah, for
Speaker 1: West Georgia, a Division two team last year. So he
Speaker 1: is a huge leap to go from West Georgia to
Speaker 1: the NFL. Lest cackle filling the shoes of Joe Thomas.
Speaker 1: But he's getting better each week and again they're overcoming
Speaker 1: some of the growing pains that he's having and doing
Speaker 1: what they have to do. But for the most part,
Speaker 1: he has helped out that position to the point where
Speaker 1: you know they're just going to keep working with it
Speaker 1: and working with it. It's not like they're panicking and
Speaker 1: thinking they have to go out and get someone else.
Speaker 1: What's the biggest challenge that you think the Chargers pose
Speaker 1: to this Browns team. You know, you got Philip Rivers
Speaker 1: just two interceptions this year, He's got thirteen touchdowns. He's
Speaker 1: spreading the ball around among receivers in that one two
Speaker 1: punch of Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler, It's gonna be
Speaker 1: a heck of a game. What do you think the
Speaker 1: biggest challenges for the Cleveland Browns well, probably just that,
Speaker 1: you know, they have played some really good quarterbacks this year.
Speaker 1: They've played some future Hall of famers in Ben Roethlisberger
Speaker 1: and Drew Brees. They played a very very good quarterback
Speaker 1: in Derek Carr. They played a Super Bowl MVP in
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco, and they are fearing really well against these quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: I think the fact that the game is at home
Speaker 1: should help them. But when you couple the really good
Speaker 1: tass rush that the Browns have with what they have
Speaker 1: going on in the back end right now, it seems
Speaker 1: like they can handle it. Now. Maybe Philip Rivers will
Speaker 1: prove them wrong. He's such a veteran quarterback and like
Speaker 1: he said, he's spreading the ball around a lot and
Speaker 1: he's having a lot of success. But you know, they're
Speaker 1: not flinching. They're not flinching. It doesn't matter how long
Speaker 1: you've been around, it doesn't matter what it says on
Speaker 1: your resume. They're doing a nice job with these quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: We talked a lot about the big names on the Browns.
Speaker 1: Who are a few players to watch for Chargers fans
Speaker 1: to watch who aren't the obvious names that may make
Speaker 1: a difference on Sunday. Well, there's a couple of different
Speaker 1: guys that you could look at on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. You never really know. Mixed Shuffle only
Speaker 1: had three carries again in the last game, but in
Speaker 1: the previous game, as I mentioned, he had three carries
Speaker 1: for one hundred and five yards, two of which were
Speaker 1: long touchdowns of sixty three and forty one. So he
Speaker 1: can be mixed in there a little bit at any time.
Speaker 1: To back up Carlos Hide. I think Duke Johnson will
Speaker 1: get the ball even more because now Richard Higgins, one
Speaker 1: of their better receivers, is out for at least two
Speaker 1: to four weeks with the spring to MCL, so they're
Speaker 1: kind of going to be patching it together a little
Speaker 1: bit with some cape and smoke and mirrors whatever else
Speaker 1: they can come up with. At the receiver position. They've
Speaker 1: got an undrafted rookie by the name of Derek Willis
Speaker 1: who got big, big thirty nine yard past in overtime
Speaker 1: that helps set up the game winning field goal. Again,
Speaker 1: he's an undrafted rookie, nobody really knows too too much
Speaker 1: about him yet, and you know he's somebody to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on in this game. Antonio'calloway. He's an other
Speaker 1: rookie receiver who's supposed to be starting right now, but
Speaker 1: he's been struggling a little bit, so they're backing off
Speaker 1: on him a little bit, and it remains to be
Speaker 1: seeing if he'll be in the starting lineup. But when
Speaker 1: he gets it going, he's got tremendous speed and if
Speaker 1: he on top of his game, Baker Mayfield and antonio'callaway
Speaker 1: can get it ruling to the point where you'll see him,
Speaker 1: you know, catch a fifty some yard pass and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, running in for a touchdown or catch it
Speaker 1: in the end zone. So you have to be wary
Speaker 1: of that, Arry Kay. Last thing for me, what's going
Speaker 1: to decide this one? Based on everything you've seen from
Speaker 1: the from the Browns playing a lot of close games
Speaker 1: charges come to ten, what are you think is going
Speaker 1: to decide it? Well, you know, I think it's going
Speaker 1: to come down once again, probably to the takeaways. If
Speaker 1: the Browns can continue to do what they have been doing,
Speaker 1: and that is taking ball with an alarming rate to
Speaker 1: the tune of fifteen takeaways so far this season. If
Speaker 1: they can get now, like you said, Philip Rivers is
Speaker 1: not throwing interceptions, but if they can get their hands
Speaker 1: on a couple that will, that will make a huge difference.
Speaker 1: And they aren't punching the ball out too. They are
Speaker 1: punching it out. They are forcing fumbles, They're getting stack fumbles.
Speaker 1: So if they can continue to do that, and then
Speaker 1: if Baker Mayfield cannot turn it over. And the thing
Speaker 1: about the running backs, the Browns running bask they haven't
Speaker 1: turned it over. They've only lost one fumble this season.
Speaker 1: So so if Browns aren't really turning it over that way,
Speaker 1: I think it will come down to who can protect
Speaker 1: the ball. Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland dot Com. Mary Kay,
Speaker 1: you came to visit us last year in southern California.
Speaker 1: We look forward to seeing you this weekend in Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Sounds good. I'll come back all right. Before we get
Speaker 1: to Matt money Smith a quick break to let you
Speaker 1: know that this sea and we've taken chargers weekly to
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Speaker 1: I'm not recording, these are my go to wireless headphones.
Speaker 1: They help me blackout noise. I'll use them on the
Speaker 1: team playing this weekend to Cleveland so I can concentrate
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Speaker 1: All right, welcome back to Chargers Weekly. Here with Matt Money,
Speaker 1: Smith and Money. We're on the road four straight with
Speaker 1: a buy sandwich in between. But you'll leave Carson on
Speaker 1: a high note. Twenty six ten, pretty thorough win over
Speaker 1: the Raiders. Yeah, I think we're still kind of in
Speaker 1: that window right where once Joey made it official that
Speaker 1: he would not be returning until after the bye you
Speaker 1: kind of looked at the way the schedule laid out
Speaker 1: and you figure it on paper, and you have the
Speaker 1: games are not played on paper. Just ask the charts
Speaker 1: that are in the trainer's rooms are getting their them
Speaker 1: in their ice what it feels like. But you said, okay,
Speaker 1: if you can get out of this five and two,
Speaker 1: four and three boasts, it comes back pretty friendly back
Speaker 1: end of the schedule. A lot of tough teams have
Speaker 1: to make their way all the way to the West coast.
Speaker 1: You feel good. So I think as it sits right now,
Speaker 1: three and two, worst case scenario out of that is
Speaker 1: that you're three and five. Even at that point, you'd
Speaker 1: still feel a lot better. No One. Arguably, if he's right,
Speaker 1: one of the best defensive players in the league is
Speaker 1: here to help you out. And then speaking of the
Speaker 1: pass rush, we saw a little bit of it against
Speaker 1: the Raiders. They're starting two rookie tackles Melvin Ingram It
Speaker 1: was a complete mismatch. How I like, is Melvin ingraman? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's what they had to do, right.
Speaker 1: You've heard it for the first four weeks, which is
Speaker 1: Melvin's not going to be able to do it by himself.
Speaker 1: So those guys got to start winning one on ones.
Speaker 1: And that's when you saw Gus Bradley get creative blitzes
Speaker 1: from Derwin James, pressures by or stunts by moving Melvin inside,
Speaker 1: you know, going over a guard instead of having to
Speaker 1: deal with an end and then getting shipped by a
Speaker 1: back or a tied And so I think last week
Speaker 1: maybe gave Gus some confidence that he can continue to
Speaker 1: move forward with Melvin predominantly out on the edge. But
Speaker 1: then you also, I mean you just said it kind
Speaker 1: of when you were asking the question, you sort of
Speaker 1: tag how athletic is Melvin when he saw it in
Speaker 1: that interception, you know, when Carr thinks he's creeping up
Speaker 1: and he's gonna try to stuff the run. No, he
Speaker 1: car missed it. I mean that was just a flat
Speaker 1: out bad read by the quarterbacks. Terrible read. But you
Speaker 1: don't see Melvin dropped back like that typically. But when
Speaker 1: he does, he can make those plays. And that's what
Speaker 1: reminds you. Oh yeah, that's right. He was an outside
Speaker 1: linebacker and a three four, flying all over the place
Speaker 1: making tackles in space. Oh well, by the way, he'll
Speaker 1: tell you that he got in on that touchdown. He will,
Speaker 1: and to his face, I won't disagree with him. But
Speaker 1: he was about a quarter yard short where he spotted it.
Speaker 1: But it was a good effort. It was a heck
Speaker 1: of an effort, and I think he may get another chance.
Speaker 1: He's gonna lobby for another chance this year, no doubt.
Speaker 1: Oh he's gonna lobby. I don't know if they'll give
Speaker 1: it to him. I'm guessing that that Gus Bradley was
Speaker 1: not happy watching that thing go down and had to
Speaker 1: be barking at Ken and barking at coach Wizon Hunting
Speaker 1: and Coach Lynn about how okay, there's your one chance,
Speaker 1: we're out done. No more of that as long as
Speaker 1: I'm here. It's probably true that he has done because
Speaker 1: the offense is doing just fine. Philip rivers thirteen touchdowns,
Speaker 1: two picks, and then inside the top thirty NFL yards
Speaker 1: from scrimmage. You got Melvin Gordon, you had Austin Ekeler,
Speaker 1: you got Keenan Allen. This is a balanced attack in
Speaker 1: number seventeen is making it all go. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, if you look at if you went again
Speaker 1: on paper right, statistically speaking, I mean, he's at the
Speaker 1: top of nearly everything except for maybe just gross yardage.
Speaker 1: And I think, and I bring that up, you know,
Speaker 1: not to try to play, oh, mister Farren balance. No.
Speaker 1: I think it's important to recognize that what Philip has
Speaker 1: done these last two years, last year and then going
Speaker 1: into this year, the last year plus, he's totally comfortable
Speaker 1: taking whatever's there. He does not care about feeding his
Speaker 1: big receivers that are flying down the sideline trying to
Speaker 1: get the big play and force it perhaps in a
Speaker 1: double coverage to turn the ball over. I know Keenan
Speaker 1: was upset after the game against San Francisco, but they
Speaker 1: got the win. His backs were dominating the middle of
Speaker 1: that field, and he's just comfortable with whatever where it
Speaker 1: is you're going to ask him. He's such a cerebral
Speaker 1: quarterback and has seen so many different defenses that he
Speaker 1: can diagnose and dissect you in a millisecond. And I
Speaker 1: think that's what we've seen this last year plus with
Speaker 1: coach Whiz and Philip working together, and that's why the
Speaker 1: numbers are just so eye popping in MPP caliber. Coach
Speaker 1: Lynn made a concerted effort, I think to tell Philip, hey,
Speaker 1: this is how we're going to play. And Philip for
Speaker 1: so many years has tried to do a lot on
Speaker 1: his own. When you're down and you herely have no choice.
Speaker 1: I mean there were games, there were seasons rather where
Speaker 1: injuries made Philip have to do maybe a little bit
Speaker 1: more than he needed to do. He doesn't have to
Speaker 1: do it with these receivers, and this one two punch
Speaker 1: at running back. And you look at the rushing stats
Speaker 1: going into two weeks six, money, I think the Browns
Speaker 1: have the number two rushing attack, the Chargers number eleven.
Speaker 1: But this is where stats can trick you a little bit,
Speaker 1: because those guys are doing so much in the passing
Speaker 1: these extended handles, Yeah, no doubt. I mean the receivers
Speaker 1: are blocking, the backs are catching passes like you said,
Speaker 1: those Andy Reid as he liked to call him, extended runs,
Speaker 1: and the touchdowns are there, I think, And that's the
Speaker 1: key when you look at the backs. I mean, you
Speaker 1: can have your total yardage or your you know, your
Speaker 1: rushing yards, your rushing yards per carry, and those are fine.
Speaker 1: I mean the Chargers rushing yards per carry, You're fine.
Speaker 1: That rush yards may not be as you said, as
Speaker 1: high up as you'd like. But I'll look at the touchdowns.
Speaker 1: I'll look at total yards from scrimmage and touchdowns, and
Speaker 1: they're at the top in the efficiency and the like.
Speaker 1: Like Eckler, he's out there for a couple of plays
Speaker 1: boom forty four yard touches And that's a key. You
Speaker 1: know a lot of times that that spell back or
Speaker 1: that change of pace back whatever you want to call him.
Speaker 1: It's hard, you know, it's hard to find a rhythm,
Speaker 1: you know, especially when you're someone like Eckler who's so
Speaker 1: stout and strong and can really punish you between the tackles.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he wants a bunch of carries, you know,
Speaker 1: to really exude his will, exert his will, I should say,
Speaker 1: and take advantage of defenses they're tired by the time
Speaker 1: he comes in. But instead he's just so fast, He's
Speaker 1: so elusive in space that you end up with these
Speaker 1: explosive plays on such limited touches that I got to
Speaker 1: imagine it's hard for coach Wiz not to want to
Speaker 1: put them out there more. And you know the numbers
Speaker 1: when he and Gordon are on the field together, they're
Speaker 1: some of the best in the NFL. I mean that
Speaker 1: particular package I believe it's producing going into I don't
Speaker 1: remember what it was coming out of the Radar game.
Speaker 1: I've got to believe it's big because they had a
Speaker 1: big play with both of them on the field. But
Speaker 1: I want to say going in it was producing like
Speaker 1: nine yards per play. I mean, something ridiculous like that, unbelievable. Well,
Speaker 1: you go to Cleveland, here, Brown's two two and one.
Speaker 1: They should be better than two two and one way.
Speaker 1: I talked to Mary Kay Cabott of Cleveland dot Com yesterday,
Speaker 1: and I mean, these guys have played three overtime games.
Speaker 1: They're coming off an overtime game good where they scored
Speaker 1: twelve points. They're a good team on both sides of
Speaker 1: the football right now, what do you see from them?
Speaker 1: With Baker Mayfield leading the chart? So it'll be tough.
Speaker 1: I mean it's you know, when you got top Garrett
Speaker 1: and Denzel Ward in that combination, and because we had
Speaker 1: it here right we had Casey Hayward with Joey Bose
Speaker 1: and Melvin Ingram, So you see what that can produce.
Speaker 1: If you have a top tier corner with a top
Speaker 1: tier pass rusher, you can make life awfully tough on
Speaker 1: an offense, you know. And yes, they did it against
Speaker 1: Drew Brees. They did it against Ben Roethlisberger. So they've
Speaker 1: showed you that they can slow down legitimate Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame caliber quarterbacks. It's not gonna be easy, no question
Speaker 1: about it. I think this is going to be a
Speaker 1: game where the Chargers are gonna have to get not
Speaker 1: just something, but they're gonna have to get a little
Speaker 1: extra something out of their defense, and a defense that
Speaker 1: showed us flashes against the Raiders, that made big plays
Speaker 1: when they needed to against the forty nine ers, and
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna have to be an effort the
Speaker 1: entire game because they can get you between the tackles
Speaker 1: with Carlos Hide Chubbs shown a proclivity to produce those
Speaker 1: big plays. And you know, Baker doesn't look like a rookie,
Speaker 1: you know, back there he's dealing and he's spreading the
Speaker 1: ball out and he's thrown it on time. So I
Speaker 1: think there's gonna be a game the defense is going
Speaker 1: to have to help win. I found this interesting because
Speaker 1: the Chargers entering Week six, they've faced four quarterbacks Bunny
Speaker 1: that entered the game with five or fewer NFL starts.
Speaker 1: Because we talk about Mahomes his secred career start, Josh
Speaker 1: Allen it is his first career start, CJ. Bethard, and
Speaker 1: now Baker making his third career NFL start. It's wild
Speaker 1: to me. And then you look at the other side,
Speaker 1: the master here, Philip Rivers going on two hundred. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's something they have to take advantage of, right and
Speaker 1: they weren't able to do it against Mahomes. But guess what,
Speaker 1: nobody in the NFL has done it against my home.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, you just kind of chalk
Speaker 1: that up to had a full year to sit and
Speaker 1: learn and have the best play caller perhaps that the
Speaker 1: league is seen in the last twenty years doing it
Speaker 1: for him. Todd Haley's a great play caller, no question
Speaker 1: about it. So I think. And also I think the
Speaker 1: difference is I mean, I don't know how far back
Speaker 1: I gotta go. I could probably go back five years.
Speaker 1: I think I don't have to say ten if you
Speaker 1: go back five years. You know, for whatever reason, the
Speaker 1: NFL refused to make the kids coming out of college comfortable.
Speaker 1: It's just like, Okay, throw you to the fire, You're
Speaker 1: gonna take your lumps. We're running pro style, and that's
Speaker 1: not the way it is any longer. Now there is
Speaker 1: more college play calling. I mean, the Chiefs hack they
Speaker 1: look like high school out there at times to the
Speaker 1: rams with all those fly sweeps. I mean, it's like
Speaker 1: Friday night lights. I mean, and you're so, I think
Speaker 1: what's happened is you speed up the learning curve dramatically
Speaker 1: because Baker feels like he's still doing what he was
Speaker 1: doing at Oklahoma, So you just kind of pick up
Speaker 1: where you left off and you just have to adjust
Speaker 1: for the speed in the windows. And if you're a
Speaker 1: talented thrower like Baker is, you can, you know, and
Speaker 1: you can find yourself comfortable in a hurry because you
Speaker 1: feel like it's the same thing you've been doing for
Speaker 1: the last three years. You know. I ask Bruce arians
Speaker 1: this last week because I find it interesting. Everyone says, oh,
Speaker 1: it's the name dropper. It's so much easier. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: know who Mary Kay Gabot, Oh, I was asking him, Bruce, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, slumming it with me now. The quarterback whisper
Speaker 1: though this is coaching band and popular pretty law coming
Speaker 1: King Harry over here. Yeah right, But he was saying
Speaker 1: that everybody says it's easier to play quarterback now. It
Speaker 1: may be easier from a rules perspective, but at the
Speaker 1: same time, defenses are so much more complex now than
Speaker 1: they were ten twenty years ago. So wow, it may
Speaker 1: be easier for some of these young quarterbacks to execute
Speaker 1: an offense, you're still having to you know, diagnose a
Speaker 1: defense and try to outschem a guy like Gus Bradley,
Speaker 1: which is not an easy task. Sure. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to disagree with Bruce, but I
Speaker 1: do think it has tilted so much in the favor
Speaker 1: of the quarterback. And just speaking specifically to this year
Speaker 1: and some people um that I've been talking to or
Speaker 1: not that I've been talking to, that I've been privileged
Speaker 1: to be on the periphery of the conversation. You hear
Speaker 1: him say that quarterbacks aren't afraid to stand in the
Speaker 1: pocket any longer. They're not afraid to getting absolutely destroyed
Speaker 1: like they used to, and they know if they do,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a fifteen yard flag and it's probably
Speaker 1: not going to happen for the rest of the game.
Speaker 1: So I think that, you know, what is what is
Speaker 1: part of being a quarterback? Confidence, you know, and one
Speaker 1: of the things that you would hear young quarterbacks or
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that were ready to hang it up. So they
Speaker 1: start seeing ghosts and they start getting rid of that
Speaker 1: ball a little bit early because they're tired of getting hit.
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, oh, rookie, poor guy. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about David Carr, right, it got shell shocked but
Speaker 1: his arrival to the NFL was met with seventy six sacks,
Speaker 1: and the guy would never be the same again because
Speaker 1: he was always trying to pick up that pass rusher
Speaker 1: out of the corner of his eye and he was
Speaker 1: never able to overcome it. You were Patrick Ramsey, Patrick Gray,
Speaker 1: when Steve Spurrier was the head coach, just kept putting
Speaker 1: it back to drop backdrop back, hit hit out of
Speaker 1: the league right few years. And that's the thing that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen any longer, because if you do get hit,
Speaker 1: you don't get hit like you used to get hit.
Speaker 1: And you know, I hurt. Troy Agman speak to it.
Speaker 1: You know, he's like, I took the hits that I took.
Speaker 1: You would get thrown out of a game immediately, and
Speaker 1: these are just flat hits that he took that wouldn't
Speaker 1: even get flagged. And you think about the number concussions
Speaker 1: that concussions that Troy had and having to retire probably
Speaker 1: a little bit early because it was just a different game.
Speaker 1: So I do think it has certainly tilted in favor
Speaker 1: of the offense, and probably for the better. I mean,
Speaker 1: like people like seeing touchdowns right more than they like
Speaker 1: seeing you know, twelve to nine Buffalo v. Baltimore showdowns
Speaker 1: or whatever Brown's be Baltimore showdown. Jarvis Landry looks to
Speaker 1: be that security blanket too for Baker and really Tyro
Speaker 1: when Tyro was in there, fifty seven targets so far.
Speaker 1: I think Joku has thirty nine, which is second. I
Speaker 1: think he's plus eighteen plus eighteen. Yeah, that would be
Speaker 1: the simple math that I just did. It's pretty well.
Speaker 1: But you know what his yards per reception are up
Speaker 1: a little bit this year? Is he priority a you
Speaker 1: think and trying to slow you know, I think Baker's
Speaker 1: so good at distributing that I'm being around low. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, he'll take him away. He'll find kallaway,
Speaker 1: He'll find you know. The one good thing for the
Speaker 1: Chargers is, you know, it's probably a big, big product
Speaker 1: of it is Derwin And unfortunately this means he's probably
Speaker 1: not going to be on the line of scrimmage a lot.
Speaker 1: But they take away tight ends, you know, and I
Speaker 1: think you're starting to see Baker really start feeling comfortable
Speaker 1: within Joeku and considering they took away Jared Cook last week,
Speaker 1: they took away Travis Kelsey in week one, I mean
Speaker 1: they're very good at eliminating that position. I think that
Speaker 1: helps you out a little bit, you know. And I
Speaker 1: do think that if you were and I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's gonna be Desmond because they line up Landry
Speaker 1: in the slot a lot, or if you would just
Speaker 1: have Casey, which Gus normally doesn't do, shadow Landry, I
Speaker 1: do think you can maybe limit that a little bit.
Speaker 1: As good as as Jarvis is, you know, when he's
Speaker 1: not being forced to try to go downfield that's not
Speaker 1: his forte, but you know, when he's playing to his strength,
Speaker 1: I do think the Chargers match up with him pretty well.
Speaker 1: If it's going to be kind of a Durwin eliminates
Speaker 1: that tight end position and you kind of like, hey, look, okay,
Speaker 1: so so now you're telling me if I've got my
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, my all Pro corner on their number one receiver,
Speaker 1: my all world rookie safety on their tight end, I
Speaker 1: now have to worry about Antonio Callaway or Nick Chubb
Speaker 1: or Carlo staking out of the bat or Duke Johnson.
Speaker 1: Feel pretty good about that matchup, no doubt. So what
Speaker 1: will decide this one? What's going to get the Chargers
Speaker 1: to four and two hit it across the pond. Turnovers.
Speaker 1: I think you got a force Baker into turnovers. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's any questions turn the ball. They forced
Speaker 1: fifteen already exactly right, So I think you've got to
Speaker 1: force turnovers and cash a man. And we said that
Speaker 1: about the forty nine ers, right, I think we had
Speaker 1: this exact conversation and he said it's probably gonna come
Speaker 1: down to turnovers. And I just get the sense that
Speaker 1: that's what happened. Well, and that's what happened against the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers. Right late in the game, you're up
Speaker 1: to they're moving the ball, Derwin creates interception, Isaac Rachelle
Speaker 1: gets it and take a day victory formation game. So
Speaker 1: I think that's it'll be a tight game. I'd be
Speaker 1: very surprised if it wasn't. I mean, because every game
Speaker 1: has been tight for the Browns. So you hope that
Speaker 1: they're fatigued, you know, I think the Raiders were little fatigued.
Speaker 1: Haven't played an extra quarter of football. Commings that last
Speaker 1: week and coming off the field, how the Raiders played
Speaker 1: that overtime game against the Brows Bros. Varry played three
Speaker 1: That's what I mean so they played an extra half
Speaker 1: of football. So the last two weeks, you know, they
Speaker 1: went almost max time last week against Baltimore. They went
Speaker 1: max time against the Raiders the week before. So you're
Speaker 1: talking about an extra half full on NFL football being
Speaker 1: played by that team compared to yours going into that one.
Speaker 1: So hopefully a little flat footed little Gas by the
Speaker 1: time you get into the third quarter in a tight game,
Speaker 1: and they can do what they did to the Raiders
Speaker 1: and just blow the doors off it. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what special teams to both sides you want to count
Speaker 1: because you look at Cleveland. Cleveland's had some kicker issues
Speaker 1: as well. And you know, I think Donnie Jones did
Speaker 1: a good job flipping the field and no question, you know,
Speaker 1: he those net numbers and hopefully that that rapport with
Speaker 1: his sturgist can just continue. Yeah, you'd hope. You hate
Speaker 1: to see another missed extra point. I mean the field
Speaker 1: of ball. You know, I don't like giving him a
Speaker 1: pass on it, but whatever it happens. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think what coach said coming out of that was,
Speaker 1: you know, he's he liked the demeanor and the confidence
Speaker 1: of Caleb. With the addition of Donnie and maybe said
Speaker 1: well we'll let it go as a week, you know,
Speaker 1: just kind of getting settled. But no question, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest of all the Special team's decisions is keeping
Speaker 1: Desmond King back there to return punch. It's just got
Speaker 1: that has changed everything when you think about the issues
Speaker 1: they had last year, the safety that Travis took the
Speaker 1: fumble from JJ at the start of this season to
Speaker 1: the Chiefs on the three yard line. Just having a
Speaker 1: solid set of hands, a real sharp player that isn't
Speaker 1: going to try to break every single one and Piro
Speaker 1: wet and cut back ten yards to get the corner.
Speaker 1: You don't need that nonsense. You need if he can go,
Speaker 1: if he can go fifteen yards to fifteen yards seven
Speaker 1: seven yards, seven yards five yards straightforward, it's Philip Rivers
Speaker 1: and when he did that his entire career at He's
Speaker 1: not the fastest guy, but he just makes place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think that's just been a huge adjustment back there.
Speaker 1: That's the phase you got to travel with the Special teams. Money.
Speaker 1: We're we're excited for Cleveland and uh, like you mean
Speaker 1: a city we're excited for? Well, because I'm not, you're not.
Speaker 1: Actually you're you're actually leaving coming back to LA. I'll
Speaker 1: be coming back to LA and then I'll be going back.
Speaker 1: I will not be in Cleveland for what nine days
Speaker 1: or however many are the six days? I think? Actually Bruins'
Speaker 1: actually the Indians in the playoffs get eliminated. Astro's knocked
Speaker 1: him out. Okay, you actually grew her here. They did
Speaker 1: get swept. Okay. So so I don't even have a
Speaker 1: Cavs game or an Indians game to go. You might
Speaker 1: get a Cavs game. I think NBA season starts Wednesday.
Speaker 1: So you made on the road though I checked. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go. Then I guess sure. Then what are
Speaker 1: you asking me the question for? You're the guy with
Speaker 1: all the answers to the looks stupid. I didn't know
Speaker 1: the Indians. I didn't know about the Indians. I'd just
Speaker 1: go to the schedule. Now, is that what you want? Thanks? Johnny,
Speaker 1: my next guest. I'm very envious of it, and I
Speaker 1: think everybody in Los Angeles, if you're a sports fan,
Speaker 1: very envious of Ashley Brewer. ABC seven joins me and
Speaker 1: actually we were just talking. It's October tenth, so we
Speaker 1: got the Dodgers in the NLCS, ye. We got the
Speaker 1: Lakers starting up. Yeah, we got the Clippers starting up.
Speaker 1: We got the Kings just started up. We got USC football,
Speaker 1: UCLA football of course, the Chargers. Yeah, going to London
Speaker 1: here soon. It's a dream for LA sports fans right now.
Speaker 1: I know. And I always say like, I am the
Speaker 1: luckiest girl in the world because I would pay to
Speaker 1: be going to these games and to be like around
Speaker 1: these athletes, like as a fan. Sure, but I'm getting
Speaker 1: paid to do it. It's such a bizarre thing, like
Speaker 1: that's just my job though. It's all happening right now,
Speaker 1: and I get a front row seat. I don't know
Speaker 1: how this happened that, like we are so lucky to
Speaker 1: be here and be doing this kind of stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean like I kind of had like a weird
Speaker 1: pinch me moment when I was interviewing Lebron James the
Speaker 1: other day and I'm like, how is this possible? Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the fact that he's in LA And then the next
Speaker 1: day I get to co cover at that. It was
Speaker 1: like the NLDS and I get to do these things
Speaker 1: every single day. Every day is different. I have the
Speaker 1: best job in the world. Not to brag, but I
Speaker 1: am so thankful and so lucky. It's awesome. All right,
Speaker 1: So what are you most looking forward to over the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. My guess is Dodger blue. Right, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I get to go to London, and I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to get to cover the charges in London because that's
Speaker 1: going to be such a blast. But I gotta say
Speaker 1: Monday night, I'll be covering Game three of the NLCS
Speaker 1: against the Breweris. I think it's going to be a
Speaker 1: heck of a series. I think the Dodgers are have
Speaker 1: that magic in a different way than they did last year.
Speaker 1: Last year, man, they were on a roll. They were
Speaker 1: just steamrolling through the playoffs. I think this year we've
Speaker 1: seen it's not going to be easy. But they're a
Speaker 1: really gritty team and I think they really step it
Speaker 1: up on offense when they need to, and they've shown
Speaker 1: that and I am so excited to see what they
Speaker 1: can do against the Brewers. It's gonna be fun. You know,
Speaker 1: It's so hard for me to keep up with baseball
Speaker 1: once football season stars because you're just just so locked
Speaker 1: in here. It cost to mesa. But I feel like
Speaker 1: the Dodgers had that feeling like last year everyone expected
Speaker 1: them to win the World Series, right, this is the year.
Speaker 1: And I liken it to being a Capitals fan, where
Speaker 1: like every year you're expecting them to win the Cup
Speaker 1: and they break your heart. The year that you don't
Speaker 1: really expect, it might if it kind of comes together
Speaker 1: a little bit. I feel like this this Dodgers team
Speaker 1: is kind of on the press of something big. You
Speaker 1: never know, And like what I always say about postseason
Speaker 1: in all sports, but specifically in baseball, anything goes, anything
Speaker 1: can happen. It's a crapshoe. So when the Dodgers got
Speaker 1: in it, we're like, Okay, let's hit the reset button.
Speaker 1: Let's see what they can do. You never know with
Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw, as we've seen in previous years, he could
Speaker 1: be off his game and unreliable in the playoffs. Or
Speaker 1: he can go out and pitch like he pitched in
Speaker 1: Game two against the Braves and be lights out and
Speaker 1: throw a shutout. And some guys can just turn it on.
Speaker 1: You just don't know what could happen. I think what
Speaker 1: I love is so much it's about the adrenaline for
Speaker 1: these players. They get their moment to shine and the
Speaker 1: lights are so bright in the playoffs that they really
Speaker 1: step it up. You see who crumbles. You just never
Speaker 1: know what it's going to be. And so we might
Speaker 1: see that with the Dodgers against the Brewers, but we
Speaker 1: might see the Brewers do something lights out too. So
Speaker 1: we just don't know. But I can't wait for it, don't.
Speaker 1: You don't know what to expect. And what I also
Speaker 1: love is just how the athletes in LA support each other.
Speaker 1: You know, you have rampant Chargers rooting for the Dodgers
Speaker 1: and vice first. It's so much fun. But let's get
Speaker 1: into this Chargers team because I know you talked to
Speaker 1: coach Lynn this week. What ad coach you have to
Speaker 1: say to you? Well, I really was interested in talking
Speaker 1: to him about Cleveland and the difference in the Cleveland
Speaker 1: team we see right now this season in the Cleveland
Speaker 1: team we've seen the past couple of years, because let's
Speaker 1: be honest, Cleveland has been kind of the butt of
Speaker 1: the NFL, like the joke. They have just been like,
Speaker 1: you know, if you lose to Cleveland, like you're the gym,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't want to be that team. They've
Speaker 1: just been the laughings talk at the NFL for previous years.
Speaker 1: And it's like been tough to watch them as just
Speaker 1: a sports fan in general. But this year you see
Speaker 1: a swag about them. And Coach mentioned this to me
Speaker 1: when we were just talking. He was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it started with Baker Mayfield. When that he started,
Speaker 1: he brought this kind of swag to the team, and
Speaker 1: now everyone's kind of like got a little like step
Speaker 1: to him and they're having to be fun. I feel
Speaker 1: like he was that final people. Yeah, maybe they needed
Speaker 1: a Baker, and credit to him for doing that. But
Speaker 1: he's a playmaker. But they also have some big pieces
Speaker 1: on defense, and I'm really excited to see what this
Speaker 1: team brings. So he knows that this is not the
Speaker 1: team you want to overlook. They've got two wins, but
Speaker 1: they're much better than that record. They've been really tightened
Speaker 1: each and every game they've played. But I'm excited to see, uh,
Speaker 1: like a veteran quarterback like phill Up a rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: like Baker who's kind of wild and crazy. Both fell
Speaker 1: up a little bit fiery, but fill up a little
Speaker 1: bit more conservative experience. It's gonna be a really good game.
Speaker 1: And then of course I'm going to Cleveland I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't I've never been to that stadium, but I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's gonna be just wild. So they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a fun matchup, that's what he was saying. Is it
Speaker 1: crazy you're fans or I went to a game there
Speaker 1: about twelve years ago, and it doesn't matter if they're
Speaker 1: Owen sixteen or sixteen and oh, but the fans are
Speaker 1: always into it. They're they're very dedicated to their squad.
Speaker 1: And I remember last year actually, when the Chargers were
Speaker 1: on a roll towards the end of the year, that
Speaker 1: game when the Browns came in. Don't if it was
Speaker 1: thirteen or something, that game was concerted, right, Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was nineteen to ten, And that was a concerting game
Speaker 1: for these guys because they were playing much better than
Speaker 1: and it's hard to say that like thirteen team, but
Speaker 1: when you see the pieces they have, like guys like
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett Ye defensive quarter like Greg Williams who's been
Speaker 1: to a Super Bowl and all these pieces that football. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Greg was here with the Ramps. He was with the
Speaker 1: Redskins when I worked there in like oh four under
Speaker 1: the Joe Gibbs two point. He's a great coach. So
Speaker 1: they have the pieces on both sides of the football
Speaker 1: and the coaches. Todd Haley comes over, So you mentioned
Speaker 1: the fact that they are two two and one, they
Speaker 1: probably should be four one and one or they're in
Speaker 1: every game. Yeah, every game, And that's what coach was saying.
Speaker 1: He was like, this is a team that easily could
Speaker 1: be four and one, Like, this is not a team that, oh,
Speaker 1: they won two games, it's just another one will roll
Speaker 1: pass like he was like, no, I'm like concerned about it.
Speaker 1: But also he was very confident with what his team
Speaker 1: has shown in the past few weeks. I think, like
Speaker 1: it's been cool getting to know coach and getting to
Speaker 1: see how he's relaxed a little bit over his first
Speaker 1: year as an NFL head coach and now how confident
Speaker 1: he is in this second year. He's a heck of
Speaker 1: a leader. He's a great leader. He leads by example
Speaker 1: in so many different ways. But now like getting to
Speaker 1: talk with him and how he talks about his players,
Speaker 1: Like we just heard into the press conference he was
Speaker 1: talking about Derwin James and how like he's like I
Speaker 1: love him, I love it, And I loved how he
Speaker 1: opens up now and can talk about his players, and
Speaker 1: he's looser and he's really really, really proud of this group.
Speaker 1: And I think that shows on the field too, And
Speaker 1: I think these guys are making smarter decisions. I think
Speaker 1: they're making less mistakes the more this team plays, and
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what they do against a
Speaker 1: really good opponent. It is and speaking of that good opponent,
Speaker 1: they've taken the ball away fifteen times. And you mentioned
Speaker 1: how Philip Rivers is taking care of the football thirteen
Speaker 1: touchdowns just two interceptions. This team, there was a shift
Speaker 1: last year and we talked about coach Lyn and really
Speaker 1: changing the culture of the team. Yeah, I think all
Speaker 1: these guys are believing, but also they have made a
Speaker 1: concerted effort to just take care of the football. They've
Speaker 1: taken care of the football, and when they do that,
Speaker 1: they win football games. Yeah, and that's what coach was saying.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'm not concerned about how good this
Speaker 1: defense is, because as long as we are still doing
Speaker 1: what we need to do on offense like they've done
Speaker 1: all season long, not getting those turnovers and taking care
Speaker 1: of the football, not getting stacked. As long as we
Speaker 1: do those things, what it's not gonna matter, we'll be fine.
Speaker 1: But if we let them break our game plan, then
Speaker 1: they run into trouble. So it's so much about that.
Speaker 1: But I liked listening to Wizzen Hunt and what he
Speaker 1: was saying about credit to the O line. Coach was
Speaker 1: Lynn was talking about that too, great, just great chemistry
Speaker 1: on that line. Guys have been really great, and so
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see, you know, how they do that.
Speaker 1: If that really how much I think the defense will
Speaker 1: test them this week, I'm excited to see how it'll go.
Speaker 1: All right, So let's let's leave your schedule for October wild, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So first of all, you guys have the show on
Speaker 1: Saturday Night YEA with Shawn Merriman, and it's so blast
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Sports, and uh yeah, I love being a
Speaker 1: part of that show just to get to talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit of everything. We talk college football, we
Speaker 1: talk NFL. It's really a football focus show. But I
Speaker 1: love hanging out, of course with Rob Fukuzaki because he's
Speaker 1: just the best if you know him. Um, but Sean
Speaker 1: Merriman is awesome, He's the best. I love how um
Speaker 1: he can talk about his career, bring up stories, things
Speaker 1: that happen to him things that continue to happen with
Speaker 1: him now in his retirement. He is just an open book.
Speaker 1: He's funny as heck, and he's just a cool dude.
Speaker 1: And so I love having him in studio. So that's
Speaker 1: a blast. So I do that. On Saturday Sunday, I'm
Speaker 1: usually at a game, depending on which teams in town. Um,
Speaker 1: and then I host my Sunday Night sports show on
Speaker 1: Sunday nights. So that's really busy. Hashtag What's brewing? Hit
Speaker 1: me up? Um. And then during the week, every day
Speaker 1: is different. I never know what I'm gonna cover, but
Speaker 1: I'm always down for whatever. It's a blast night. H No,
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna be in London. Oh, that's right with
Speaker 1: the home opener? Is the is it? Is it Tuesday?
Speaker 1: The Rockets? I forget. I'm probably gonna have to beg
Speaker 1: to let them, like let me work extra, because I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm working so much right now where they're like, actually
Speaker 1: you need a day off, like it's the rules, like
Speaker 1: you have to take a day off, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to. I want to cover the Dodgers
Speaker 1: and I want to go to London and I want
Speaker 1: to do this and this. Um I right now am
Speaker 1: like great with sacrificing sleep. I don't care. I don't
Speaker 1: need it right now, Like I'm so, I'm fine, And
Speaker 1: like in my personal life, I don't have anything going
Speaker 1: on at all. All I do is work and that's
Speaker 1: for me, that's what I want. So I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: I'm having a blast and to me, like, this is
Speaker 1: why I'm a sportscaster, this is what it's all about.
Speaker 1: So I went this summer. Actually I had no idea
Speaker 1: that I was going to get to go this football season. Um,
Speaker 1: I went over summer. I was there, Me and my
Speaker 1: best friend took a trip to Europe. We'd both never
Speaker 1: been and we were like, let's just go to Europe.
Speaker 1: Why not? So we went to London for five days
Speaker 1: and then we went to the south of France for
Speaker 1: five days, which was I know. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is my one big vacation for the year. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm really ever going to get
Speaker 1: much time to do this. While it turns out a
Speaker 1: few months later I get another chance. Um. It was
Speaker 1: such a blast. We were walking around town in London
Speaker 1: every day all day, just doing all the historical stuff,
Speaker 1: going to museums, going to cool spots, um, eating a ton,
Speaker 1: having a blast. It was so much fun and without
Speaker 1: the France was just like chilling. Yeah, because first of all,
Speaker 1: can we get an NFL game in the south of France? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would really appreciate that. Like is there a stadium
Speaker 1: in Nice, France? I don't know, but I'll be there. Oh.
Speaker 1: I was like, can we get an NFL franchise there?
Speaker 1: And like pasta, let's go there. You can eat all
Speaker 1: the pasta pizza and heck yeah. So London, what are
Speaker 1: we doing? What are the what are the sites? What's
Speaker 1: going on there? So we tour to castle and I'm
Speaker 1: so bad, I need to remember the names. I'm like
Speaker 1: so bad with this. My best friend was more the
Speaker 1: tour guide and I'm like, tell me where to go
Speaker 1: and we'll go. But we went to like Kensington's Palace,
Speaker 1: which was really cool. We went to different parks, um,
Speaker 1: different areas of town that were really popular. We did
Speaker 1: the shopping, but like, I'm all about the food, so
Speaker 1: we will go to great restaurants. Already have like a list.
Speaker 1: I'm already good. I've already talked to Jason, the head
Speaker 1: of production about like Hey, we got to try the sushi. Um,
Speaker 1: we will hit all of them up. It's going to
Speaker 1: be so much fun. I'm looking forward to seeing Wembley
Speaker 1: Stadium because I have no idea what that's going to be. Like.
Speaker 1: One of the things I interviewed Neil Reynolds uh and
Speaker 1: he's he works as Sky Sports last year, right when
Speaker 1: the schedule came out, and he was talking about just
Speaker 1: the fans there. They embrace, yes, all the teams, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna see jerseys from like all thirty two NFL
Speaker 1: teams in the stands. They stay till the end. They're
Speaker 1: really into it. Oh yeah, It's just gonna be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a different vibe than what you get
Speaker 1: in the States. Totally. I just think it could be
Speaker 1: so much fun to watch. Whenever I would meet people
Speaker 1: and like I would be out places, restaurants, bars, whatever,
Speaker 1: and people would ask what I what I do back
Speaker 1: in America, I'd be like, oh, I'm a I'm a
Speaker 1: sportscast and they were like what is that? And I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm a sports host and they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: like a presenter present a presenter? So do you present
Speaker 1: on football? And they thought and they were talking about soccer,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, to be honest, no, I like never
Speaker 1: cover I've never cover soccer, thank goodness, because I'm not
Speaker 1: very I'm not great at soccer. Um. But then I
Speaker 1: was talking with my buddy Scott Hanson about it, who's
Speaker 1: on the NFL network and does red Zone, and he
Speaker 1: said that he has like so many fans from London
Speaker 1: and from the UK fans over there that are obsessed
Speaker 1: with red Zone, and so he's like, they know they're football,
Speaker 1: like they're very, very into NFL. And so he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you go to those games. They know exactly who the
Speaker 1: players are. They have fan clubs on specific teams and players.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited to see and meet people and get
Speaker 1: to know, uh kind of them and how they feel
Speaker 1: about NFL. There's some Chargers fans over there too, actually,
Speaker 1: so we've reached out about you know, hey, when you
Speaker 1: guys get in town, let us know what's going on.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to me. Actually, this was fun.
Speaker 1: We got to do more often and go Dodgers and
Speaker 1: we'll see in London. Thank you so much for having me,
Speaker 1: love chatting. Thanks all right, We'll get to Marcus Grant
Speaker 1: in a second, but I want to tell you at
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Speaker 1: All right now joined on the line by NFL Networks
Speaker 1: Marcus Grant, and Marcus is going to do his best
Speaker 1: to get your fantasy squad ready for Week six? Marcus,
Speaker 1: how are you my friend? Fantastic Chris, good to talk
Speaker 1: to you again, you two man, How's how's the fantasy
Speaker 1: season treating you thus far? As we enter week six?
Speaker 1: You know what I have to say selfishly, it's been great,
Speaker 1: Like most of my teams are doing really well. I've
Speaker 1: been playoff contention to the first with five six weeks
Speaker 1: of the season. So, uh, you know, things have been
Speaker 1: better than not so I said selfishly, I am love
Speaker 1: in life right now. Well that's good. I mean that's
Speaker 1: a good sign for our listeners who submitted questions, and
Speaker 1: you know, we're about like thirty thirty five percent through
Speaker 1: the fantasy season. Before we get into these questions, would
Speaker 1: have been the biggest takeaways, trends, etc. That have caught
Speaker 1: your eye? Well, obviously, you know this year has you know,
Speaker 1: no surprise. It has been all about the passing games.
Speaker 1: And we came into the season thinking that this was
Speaker 1: maybe the deepest quarterback year we had seen in a
Speaker 1: long time, and so far that's proven to be true.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, some of the big names have performed well,
Speaker 1: you know, the guys that we thought would play well,
Speaker 1: Drew Brees, the Shawn Watson, you know, and then you
Speaker 1: got guys like Patrick Mahomes who have just you know,
Speaker 1: we thought he could be okay, nobody imagined he would
Speaker 1: be doing what he has done through the first five
Speaker 1: weeks of the season. So I would say that if
Speaker 1: you have been relying on wide receivers, quarterbacks and pass
Speaker 1: catching running backs, then things have gone pretty well for
Speaker 1: you this year, no doubt. Yeah, Patrick Mahomes leading the
Speaker 1: league in touchdowns. Philip Rivers right behind him with thirteen.
Speaker 1: But listen, Marcus, we've got a ton of questions. Let's
Speaker 1: get right to him. Danny on Twitter, he wants to
Speaker 1: know if he should start Mike Williams at the flex
Speaker 1: this week against the Cleveland Browns. He's at a full
Speaker 1: point PPR league, so it's tough because you don't know
Speaker 1: who he's got on his roster. But but Mike Williams
Speaker 1: a potential candidate to have a big game on Sunday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he absolutely is. And you know, he was a guy
Speaker 1: that we liked this year coming in as a sleeper,
Speaker 1: and he has certainly lived up to those expectations, you know,
Speaker 1: as he has grown and gotten more comfortable in that offense,
Speaker 1: it's obvious that Philip Rivers has some trust in him.
Speaker 1: The only concern I have is that miss Brown's defense,
Speaker 1: it's not your big brothers Brown's defense. You know, like
Speaker 1: this group has gotten better. Miles Garrett has been a
Speaker 1: one man record and Crewe Denzel Ward has shown that
Speaker 1: he is a playmaker in that secondary. So that would
Speaker 1: be my only concern. But the way the Chargers offense
Speaker 1: has operated, there's so many things for the Cleveland brown
Speaker 1: to occupy themselves with that it does open some potential
Speaker 1: for Mike Williams to get some targets. Yep. And you
Speaker 1: know Mike Williams six four two twenty, He's gonna be
Speaker 1: a mismatch on a lot of corners. But to your point,
Speaker 1: Denzel Ward's Marius Randall, Peppers and company. They're doing some
Speaker 1: work there in Cleveland. Luise wants to know if the
Speaker 1: Chargers defense is a good matchup against the Cleveland Browns offense.
Speaker 1: And you know, based on last week they only put
Speaker 1: up twelve points. You go the week before putting up
Speaker 1: forty two against the Raiders. I believe, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I think the ups and downs of the Browns can
Speaker 1: help the Chargers here because if Baker Mayfield has been
Speaker 1: a lot of fun to watch, he's exciting. He's definitely
Speaker 1: the future at the quarterback position for the Browns, but
Speaker 1: for the Chargers, you look at it and you think,
Speaker 1: this is a guy who sometimes gets greedy and sometimes
Speaker 1: he wants to go for that home run. And you've
Speaker 1: got guys in that secondary who are ballhawking and who
Speaker 1: could get after it a little bit. So you know,
Speaker 1: for a fantasy defense to succeed, generally, you need sacks
Speaker 1: and you need turnovers. So if they can get after
Speaker 1: Mayfield from the front seven, and if those guys can
Speaker 1: force him into some bad decisions and make some play,
Speaker 1: I think that's something to keep an eye on. So
Speaker 1: I would give the Chargers defense to spend this week. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Melvin Ingram had a sack last week, and Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: was sacked by the Ravens, I believe five times. And
Speaker 1: to your point about giving up the ball, he's giving
Speaker 1: up the ball three times, one for a pick six
Speaker 1: against the Raiders, So you never know. It'll be nice
Speaker 1: once Joey Bosa gets back. But I think Melvin Ingram
Speaker 1: can certainly pick up the load here this week. All right,
Speaker 1: pick two. This is from Jay Austin Eckler, Philip Lindsay
Speaker 1: or Hines at the Jets. Some intriguing matchups here, Marcus, Yeah, absolutely. Look,
Speaker 1: I have been a big fan of Austin Eckler all
Speaker 1: season long. You know, we thought he was kind of
Speaker 1: a sleeper coming into this year. He's certainly exceeded my
Speaker 1: expectation and obviously if obviously Philip Rivers trust him and
Speaker 1: they have him doing a big thing in that offense there,
Speaker 1: So I definitely would roll with him this week. Philip
Speaker 1: Lindsay kind of the same thing. I mean, nobody talked
Speaker 1: about him. Everybody talked about Royce Freeman in that Denver backfield,
Speaker 1: and so he and Lindsay has come out and surprised
Speaker 1: a lot of people and really you know, asserted himself.
Speaker 1: So he's another guy that I would trust Hines to slay. Well.
Speaker 1: I think the reason I would sit him this week though,
Speaker 1: is because there's so much confusion in that backfield. Marlon
Speaker 1: Mack is expected back, Robert Turbin is healthy again, Jordan
Speaker 1: Wilkins is still there. So there's just it's just cloudy
Speaker 1: as to how the cults are going to split up
Speaker 1: the division of labor there. So of those three guys,
Speaker 1: Hines is the one I would keep on my bench.
Speaker 1: You know, Eckler has been fantastic and limited touches. Do
Speaker 1: you would all get concerned with players like that that
Speaker 1: are really efficient but don't have a ton of touches.
Speaker 1: You just have to really roll the dice in hope
Speaker 1: that you know, with the seven to ten touches that
Speaker 1: they get that they're going to do something with him,
Speaker 1: you do, you know, there's always a concern about that,
Speaker 1: but so far, you know, he hasn't let us down,
Speaker 1: and so I think as long as you just kind
Speaker 1: of keep getting that production. And honestly, it's one of
Speaker 1: those things where I looked at Austin Ekeler and I
Speaker 1: think the eye test for me sort of wins out
Speaker 1: over what the numbers say because of how they're using him.
Speaker 1: That they're getting him out in space, they're getting him
Speaker 1: the ball downfield. I mean, he's catching passes. We've seen
Speaker 1: him kind of run downfield as an actual receiver instead
Speaker 1: of just an outlet pass. So this is one where
Speaker 1: the numbers, I understand, could make you a little bit nervous,
Speaker 1: but just the eye test and watching him play and
Speaker 1: watching his usage gives you a little more confidence week
Speaker 1: after week. All Right, David's got a trade question for you.
Speaker 1: Should he trade Sony Michelle for Cooper Cup? It's a
Speaker 1: half point PPR says he's got the running back depth
Speaker 1: he's week at wide receiver. Sony Michelle coming on lately
Speaker 1: though he is, Absolutely but I would like that. I'd
Speaker 1: like that trade simply because of how he framed it,
Speaker 1: because I know people when they make trade, they want
Speaker 1: to see if they win the trade, if they get
Speaker 1: the better end of the deal. And from my perspective,
Speaker 1: you want a trade to fill a spot of meat,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you gotta give up something to get something back.
Speaker 1: So knowing that he's deep at running back, that he
Speaker 1: can afford to spare a guy like Sony Michelle and
Speaker 1: get something back like Cooper Cup, who's been super productive
Speaker 1: this year, I think that's how you want to approach
Speaker 1: a trade. So in that respect, I have no problems
Speaker 1: with that deal at all. Let's get to Greg two
Speaker 1: very clear cut decisions. He's got to make Rivers in
Speaker 1: Cleveland or Brady in Kansas or versus Kansas City rather,
Speaker 1: and then at tight end Jordan Reed versus Carolina or
Speaker 1: George Kittle Monday Night in Green Bay. Well, I would
Speaker 1: definitely go with Tom Brady here. I said. Rivers has
Speaker 1: been playing well, absolutely, but it's just that Kansas City
Speaker 1: defense has been awful this year, and so in that respect,
Speaker 1: I think Tom Brady has the upper hand, just because
Speaker 1: I think it's a game that will be a high
Speaker 1: scoring one back and forth, So that's where I would go.
Speaker 1: Tight End has been such a headache for so many
Speaker 1: people this year, but I like George Kittle. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: been awful, but I like George Kittle. He's been He's
Speaker 1: super athletic. We've seen him play well, and you know,
Speaker 1: his production hasn't really dropped off when Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us worried that everything was
Speaker 1: going to fall apart when Garoppolo went out. But Kittle
Speaker 1: has been kind of a safety blanket for c. J.
Speaker 1: Bethar and his athleticism help him to be productive after
Speaker 1: the catch. You know, I think the Niners will be
Speaker 1: playing from behind, most likely against the Packers on Monday Night,
Speaker 1: which means they're gonna have to throw the ball a
Speaker 1: lot more. You know, and if you're into the whole
Speaker 1: weird narrative thing. CJ. Bessard and George Kittle were roommates
Speaker 1: at the University of Iowa, so maybe they've got some
Speaker 1: sort of a friendship going there. You go, they got
Speaker 1: they got that rapport go, and we saw it here
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago on that
Speaker 1: eighty plus yard touchdown pass from Bethroom Kittle. So Kittle
Speaker 1: coming on strong. I think Reid burned a lot of
Speaker 1: people on Monday Night as well. So let's get to
Speaker 1: my guy, Mike Trudell, the Lakers reporter. He's got a
Speaker 1: lot of questions Marcus. First of all, PPR flex Okay,
Speaker 1: he's got Watkins, Sammy Watkins, he's got Davis home to
Speaker 1: Baltimore or Philip Lindsay versus the Rams. Let's tackle that
Speaker 1: one first. You know what, I'm gonna go with Sammy Watkins.
Speaker 1: And this, I would say, Chris, this is a moment
Speaker 1: of growth for me because back in August I was
Speaker 1: on the never Sammy Watkins train. He disappointed me so
Speaker 1: many years that I had just kind of bailed out.
Speaker 1: But I have to admit the last few weeks kind
Speaker 1: of watching him. It looks like he's found an offense
Speaker 1: that fits his skills that Andy Reid knows what to
Speaker 1: do with him. On top of it, they're not asking
Speaker 1: him to carry the offense like they were expecting him
Speaker 1: to do in Buffalo, and even with the Rams for
Speaker 1: that year, he doesn't have that pressure on him, so
Speaker 1: he can go out and produce he got. He's not
Speaker 1: drawing a ton of attention. And again, I think that
Speaker 1: that Patriots Chiefs game is going to be a high
Speaker 1: scoring one. So you know, I've evolved. I've had some
Speaker 1: personal growth by saying that Sammy Watkins is actually is
Speaker 1: actually a good start this week. Mike, there you go, bro,
Speaker 1: Sammy Watkins. Put him in your lineup. He's got another one,
Speaker 1: non Ppr Edelman or Jordy Nelson. I'm gonna go with
Speaker 1: Edelman here again, just that that that same defense against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs is going to be a bad one. And
Speaker 1: we saw last week when Edelman came back. Tom Brady
Speaker 1: looked for him early and often in this one, and
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's gonna make this Patriots offense
Speaker 1: a whole lot better. You know, I tried to get
Speaker 1: on board with Jordan Lson a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: but that Raider's offense has been so un predictable. And
Speaker 1: even though the legion of boom is gone in Seattle,
Speaker 1: they still really given quarterbacks a tough time this year.
Speaker 1: So that inconsistently keep inconsistency keeps me away from Jordy Nelson.
Speaker 1: So I would go with Edelman. By the way, I
Speaker 1: should mention, Marcus has an awesome column, Fix my Flex.
Speaker 1: So if we don't get to your questions, just go
Speaker 1: to NFL dot com. Go to fix my Flex. Marcus
Speaker 1: got a ton of great stuff on NFL dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, last one from Trudel ru don't get me three?
Speaker 1: A hat trick here, DeShawn Jackson in Atlanta or Tyler
Speaker 1: Boyd home to Pittsburgh his caveat. It's a non PPR
Speaker 1: and you get some bonus points for one hundred yards receiving. Ah,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think I would go with Tyler
Speaker 1: Boyd then in that one, you know, and I know
Speaker 1: it's it's always hard in those Cincinnati Pittsburgh matchups because
Speaker 1: they can they tend to be some kind of brutal
Speaker 1: physical affairs. But the Steelers have struggled in the secondary
Speaker 1: this year, and Andy Dalton hasn't been all that bad.
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd has reasserted himself where a lot of people
Speaker 1: thought maybe this would be the John Ross year, but
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd has successfully held him off on the depth chart.
Speaker 1: And I think that this this is gonna be one
Speaker 1: where Andy Dalton shows out a little bit against the Steelers.
Speaker 1: So I like Tyler Boyd. I think he hits a
Speaker 1: couple of big plays and I think he gets you
Speaker 1: close to that bonus. All right, A couple more here.
Speaker 1: This is Danielle on Twitter. Pick three among Julian Edelman,
Speaker 1: James Connor, t J. Yelden, and Dallas, David Johnson and
Speaker 1: Minnesota Robert Woods and Denver. That's a lot, Marcus said,
Speaker 1: I can repeat if necessary. See, so I got I'm
Speaker 1: picking three out of that, right, Yeah, So Julian Edelman,
Speaker 1: for sure, you know who's the second name. It was
Speaker 1: James Connor, t. J Yelden, David Johnson, and Robert Woods.
Speaker 1: So I would go with Edelman, I would go with
Speaker 1: James Connor, who showed last week that he is still
Speaker 1: a thing there. And I would go with David Johnson.
Speaker 1: And I know that you know on paper that Minnesota
Speaker 1: defense looks scary, but they have not lived up to
Speaker 1: that expectation this year. On top of it, I really
Speaker 1: think that Josh Rosen taking over as the starting quarterback
Speaker 1: in Arizona is going to be good for David Johnson.
Speaker 1: His what made him so great a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago was being a down field threat in the passing game.
Speaker 1: And Josh Rosens, you know, obviously for people in LA
Speaker 1: who saw him play at UCLA, they know that he
Speaker 1: doesn't have any fear about throwing the ball down field.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna start to work David Johnson into
Speaker 1: that offense a whole lot more. And I think that
Speaker 1: the Cardinals have realized that they can't be successful unless
Speaker 1: David Johnson's getting the ball. So, you know, I think
Speaker 1: the workload's gonna increase for him, and against a defense
Speaker 1: that has underperformed this year, I would give David Johnson
Speaker 1: the start. Mark is how frustrating is it for David
Speaker 1: Johnson owners that we're in week six and we have
Speaker 1: him in a question about and should I start him
Speaker 1: or not? It's super frustrated, it is. And I was,
Speaker 1: you know, two seasons ago, two seasons ago. I was
Speaker 1: the guy who you know, my monitor was David Johnson
Speaker 1: no matter what, and obviously that worked out last year.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately he gets hurt early, missus the entire season, but
Speaker 1: we expected big things. And the fact that they have
Speaker 1: used him, you know, not like the offensive weapon that
Speaker 1: he can be. They sort of used him as a
Speaker 1: run of the mill running back and they just kind
Speaker 1: of plowed him into the center of the offensive line
Speaker 1: with very little success. They used him as a dump
Speaker 1: off running back. It just I want someone to sit
Speaker 1: Mike McCoy down, sort of clockwork orange style and peel
Speaker 1: his eyes open and make him watch those tapes from
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen to see what it is David Johnson can
Speaker 1: do in this offense. There you go, all right, last one.
Speaker 1: It's a two parter. I think you wrote about Doug
Speaker 1: Baldwin recently, Marcus, So this is from Adam. Would you
Speaker 1: trade James Connor for Doug Baldwin? Not straight up right now?
Speaker 1: And I love Doug Baldwin, but I want to see
Speaker 1: something from him. You know the fact that he said
Speaker 1: in the preseason that he's not expecting to be one
Speaker 1: hundred percent at all this year's he deals with his
Speaker 1: knee injury. You know, when he finally came back, he
Speaker 1: didn't give much, and then last week a second game,
Speaker 1: he showed even less. So I'm really worried about Doug Baldwin.
Speaker 1: The Seahawks offense hasn't found anything. Russell Wilson is continually
Speaker 1: running for his life and not putting up big yardage numbers.
Speaker 1: So right now I would much rather have James Connor.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe a couple of weeks from now when
Speaker 1: Doug Baldwin, if he gets healthy and puts up he'll
Speaker 1: prove me wrong. But at this moment I'm staying away
Speaker 1: from him. Yeah, maybe reevaluate that one, Adam for now.
Speaker 1: And in the final one, another Doug Baldwin trade question.
Speaker 1: Smallwood for Baldwin. It's a non PPR twelve team league, Um,
Speaker 1: you know that one. I might consider doing that one.
Speaker 1: And you know, Windows Smallwood I think is a decent,
Speaker 1: decent option, at least for now in the short term. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Eagles tend to rotate their running back, so Smallwood's
Speaker 1: gonna he's gonna compete with with Corey Clement back there
Speaker 1: for the time being. The other part that concerns me
Speaker 1: there is those rumors kind of hanging out there about
Speaker 1: a Lashawn McCoy trade possibly showing up if he comes
Speaker 1: to Philadelphia suddenly. That kind of blows up that whole situation. So,
Speaker 1: you know, while I am worried about Doug Baldwin, I
Speaker 1: think his spot in the order, in the in the offense,
Speaker 1: and in the pecking order is still secure. Whereas Windows Smallwood,
Speaker 1: it's a little more dicey. Right now, Marcus, this was awesome.
Speaker 1: You absolutely crushed these questions. Promote what you got going on.
Speaker 1: I know you've got the great Fantasy Live podcast. You're
Speaker 1: doing some television, doing some writing. Let us know what
Speaker 1: you're doing. Yeah, man, Yeah, the Fantasy Live podcast comes
Speaker 1: out twice a week Mondays and Thursdays. You can find that,
Speaker 1: and then I'm on Fantasy Live during the week five
Speaker 1: days a week. We were on NFL Network at two
Speaker 1: pm Pacific time, so find us there and then you
Speaker 1: can find all my work at NFL dot com. By
Speaker 1: the way, how funny was the Marlon Brando Matt money
Speaker 1: Smith peace last week? I told him it was the
Speaker 1: best thing I've ever seen on network. It was absolutely
Speaker 1: the best. I was so sad because I was off
Speaker 1: that day for you. I didn't see you on the set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't see on the set I was on that day,
Speaker 1: but I watched it back that evening and just I
Speaker 1: mean Money with the cotton balls in his mouth through
Speaker 1: the Marlin Brando was perfection. It was And I told
Speaker 1: him it was like Rank was laugh It was like
Speaker 1: an SNL skit where Rank just he couldn't keep a
Speaker 1: straight face doing the doing the skit. Oh so great.
Speaker 1: It was so great, so awesome, Marcus, Thank you so much, man.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you joining us, hey man, appreciate the time, Chris,
Speaker 1: and that's gonna do it. A big thanks to Marcus Grant,
Speaker 1: Sleep Brewer, Matt Muney Smith and Mary Kay Cabinet for
Speaker 1: joining me, and of course thanks to you all for listening.
Speaker 1: You can find Chargers Weekly in our new Backstage Chargers
Speaker 1: podcast on Apple Podcasts. Why Are There? Please leave review,
Speaker 1: help spread the word, enjoy Sunday's game, and until next time,
Speaker 1: I'm Chris Harry