Sports
Struggles in the AFC North + Should Eagles be concerned? (10/7 Hour 2)
In this episode, the hosts discuss the struggles of the Cincinnati Bengals and the implications for head coach Zack Taylor's job security. They also explore whether the Philadelphia Eagles should...
Struggles in the AFC North + Should Eagles be concerned? (10/7 Hour 2)
Sports •
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Interactive Transcript
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Devin, this is your moment.
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Seven of your 35 picks came against the bills, lavishing it.
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Uh, man, shut up, my guy, Ryan Fitzpatrick.
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How lots of things have happened.
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They're doing handerson right there.
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Monday night game.
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What do you look down on?
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That's what I'm doing.
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So what am I doing?
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Ryan Fitzpatrick, catchin' his tray as he's making the trip by bus.
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From LA to New York.
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I don't know why they did that.
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It's Andrew Whitworth and Ryan Fitzpatrick
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on a bus together for a full week.
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I saw him with Pat McAfee yesterday
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when I was at the airport.
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So yeah, they, uh, they're getting it done.
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And he caught a little stray there on football night in America, Devin.
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Fitz is my guy, man.
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And we always laugh and joke because later when he was on the jets,
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my brother picked them off.
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They played Cleveland.
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And then the next week I picked them off.
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And we always laugh about it.
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Um, but no, again, like I had a good time against Buffalo.
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A lot of good moments.
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A favorite moment was the Derek Anderson interception, obviously.
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Um, but I was, I was laughing when we got off and we finished.
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And I saw that and I was like, Dan Fitz definitely caught a stray.
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Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned them, but he's still my guy.
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I saw a love.
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Here's my Ryan Fitzpatrick story.
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Right. And Ryan Fitzpatrick told this story on this show
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at some point in the past 10 years back when he was playing.
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In the early days of PFT,
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Ryan Fitzpatrick in the early days of his career learned
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that he was being traded by the Bengals to the Rams,
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not from Mike Brown or wherever the head coach,
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the Bengals wasn't the time Marvin Lewis maybe or Katie Blackburn
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or anyone else.
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He learned he was being traded by reading it on PFT.
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Which says a lot about the Bengals.
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It doesn't say nearly as much about PFT as it says about the Bengals.
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That's how your guys find out they're re-entrated.
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And speaking of the Bengals, an accidental, but we'll take it segue.
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The Cincinnati Bengals stink right now.
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And they're the worst two and three team in the history of the league.
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It was funny because when they lost last week,
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Zach Taylor coached the team said,
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Hey, you know, we're still two and two, but I mean,
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come on, you're sinking like a stone man.
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I mean, you don't have your starting quarterback.
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It's falling apart there.
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They are the only team that's beaten the Jaguars.
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And somehow they did it with Jake Browning taking most of the plays,
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which did give them optimism moving forward at two and oh.
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Was it two and oh?
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I think it was two and oh.
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Yeah, they went from two and oh to another two and three.
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It's been bad.
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It's been horrible the last three weeks.
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They ran into a buzz saw in Minnesota and they they aren't just losing.
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They're losing soundly.
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The offense has been horrible.
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They had 10 points against Minnesota, three points against the Broncos
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and then 24 points against the Lions.
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And some of that had a garbage time feel to it.
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And it all comes back to the quarterback and look, Jake Browning.
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He was four and three as a starter a couple of years ago when Borough had the wrist injury.
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His numbers were good.
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It's just it's not there this year and I've said this.
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There's no shame in being an NFL backup quarterback.
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But at some point the team's got to acknowledge this guy's just a short term bandaid.
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He's not a guy that you can make the centerpiece of your operation for a full season.
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Especially when the team is built around the quarterback throwing the football.
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They put all the resources into their passing game.
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So when you lose Joe Borough, you can't just plug and play the backup.
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Because that's the guy that's going to be carrying your team.
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You know how they're running game?
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Your defense has been diminished by the resources devoted to the passing game.
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You better have a better option at quarterback when you have a pass first pass-centric team
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and the starting quarterback's injured.
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Yeah, it's rough.
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And I think it started last week that Monday night game where they walked away
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and Jake Browning said, I got to give the receivers a more of an opportunity to make some plays.
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Because I think for all of us, when we watched the Bengals play to Broncos,
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our mind instantly went back to last year and that thriller at the end of the year
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where Borough's throwing up balls at T-Higgins, T-Higgins walks away with like three touchdowns,
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unbelievable game and Denver had the same game plan.
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The only difference was Joe Borough wasn't there throwing the ball.
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And when I went back last yesterday and I watched Detroit game,
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the defense didn't play that bad.
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Like as much slack as the defense gets and they're not that good as them.
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When you go back and watch the game, Detroit had an opening driver to go down the score
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and then the next touchdown came off a turnover from Cincinnati.
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Then Cincinnati turned the ball over again.
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Detroit got to stop.
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I mean, Cincinnati got to stop.
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They stopped Detroit Lions offense.
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But then there was just nothing coming from the offensive side.
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And the offense showed some life right before the hat.
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They go and they get a field goal.
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And how did they open a second half when they get the ball?
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Brown and throws an interception to Anzaloni.
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And they go and score another touchdown.
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And then at that point, it was over.
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So again, I think the thing here is what quarterback do you get that changes your season
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and makes you a playoff team?
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Maybe no one out there.
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Maybe not James Winston Russell.
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Well, maybe none of those guys make you a playoff team.
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But my whole thing is you're now going to move into the category where you lose the locker room.
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Where guys start to realize it doesn't make sense.
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It's actually insanity to come in here and think, well, we're going to do something.
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We're going to win.
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No, like we have no shot to win.
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Again, I always bring us up.
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I talked to my brother through the 2017 Cleveland Brown season.
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Like every day you came in there each week and you were like, oh, this game plan is going to work.
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And he said it was insanity.
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Like we knew we were going to lose and we kept telling ourselves that this was going to work.
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Even though our coaching was bad, our front office was bad.
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Everything else around us was bad.
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We thought we can fix it.
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And right now with this team, no matter what anybody does, Jamar Chase, how the big game did a good job.
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It's not, it doesn't matter because at the quarterback position, we just don't have it.
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And we're not going to win games.
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I think they have to decide what they're going to do and they have to try to be aggressive and see if there's some move to make these guys continue to buy in week after week.
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And not only buy in because they're paid, I get it everybody.
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They're paid. They should go do their job.
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Like, yep, check mark it.
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But like you can have guys that just show up, put their punch their card and then go right back home.
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And I think that's what the bangles are in danger following into.
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And Devin, for the first time, I'm starting to sense questions externally about Zack Taylor's job security.
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Now, the easy answer to that for anybody who's paid any attention whatsoever to the Cincinnati Bengals for the past 25 years.
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And I've paid close attention to that organization.
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There is no way that Zack Taylor is being fired if he has a single penny left on his contract.
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Because one of the few things that Mike Brown and Cowboys under Jerry Jones haven't common is that they are extremely cheap and they refuse to pay anyone to not work.
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Zack Taylor will remain employed at least as long as he still is owed anything from the bangles.
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But the chatter is there.
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And I think that Taylor is starting to wonder.
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And we don't know what his contract is.
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Maybe the years after 2025 aren't guaranteed.
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Marvin Lewis had a year left on his contract. He got fired.
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I thought, wow, Mike Brown's changed. Then I saw.
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Nope. It was a team option for the next year and they just didn't exercise it.
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So Zack Taylor has changed his tune in less than a week.
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He went from being resolute in his supportive Jake Browning to being a little more equivocal.
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Here's Zack Taylor from yesterday on the possibility of a quarterback change and also the urgency to get his high price playmakers involved in the offense.
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We'll see where it goes.
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You know, it's I think I get all personnel decisions.
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We got to evaluate it. Jake's been very accountable for how the game went for him.
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I've got to be accountable for how the game went for me as well.
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And so we'll continue to progress here through the days.
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I think finding more opportunities for our playmakers to get the ball.
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You know, and finding ways to get them easy touches that they can lead to productivity in our offense.
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We haven't been productive enough.
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I don't worry about statistics right now. I care about wins.
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That's all I worry about. But at the same time, I know that we've got to get more productivity.
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And that's more opportunity from a lot of our key guys on offense to be able to get the ball in the end zone.
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And that's that's me finding the cleanest ways to get them the balls so they can impact the game.
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Well, if you care about wins, you're going to have to wait a little while.
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Most likely they go to Green Bay on Sunday and then they get the short week, short straw visit from the Steelers.
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The three and one Steelers week seven. Jets bears by week, week 10.
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They definitely need to do something going into the Denver game.
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That Sunday when we were in Dallas, one of the items I was exploring to possibly add to Football Night in America was about the benching of Russell Wilson,
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the potential availability of Russell Wilson at a low base salary for the rest of the year.
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So that fits with the overall cheapness, frugality, I'll be a little more tactful.
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They're extremely careful with money. That sounds better than cheap.
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But low base salary, get Russell Wilson.
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And I was trying to find out whether or not this was something the Bengals were interested in and through an intermediary I was told and they were getting ready to play the Broncos on Monday night.
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Hey, they think they're just going to be able to throw it up to Jamar Chasen, T Higgins and everything will be fine.
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They've invested all that money in those two guys. Just throw it up to them. Just throw it up to them.
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And that's what they tried to do against the Broncos. And as you said, it worked last year when Joe Burrows the one throwing the passes.
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It didn't work as well when it was Jake Browning. So you need somebody who can get these guys the ball.
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And the sooner they get the guy in there, the better off they're going to be because you need time to build chemistry.
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This isn't just like a kicker or kicker's bad. Let's go get a better one.
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Okay, hey, we got a better kicker. You need time to develop chemistry.
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You need time to develop a rhythm. It's changing a tire on a moving car. That's the problem.
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So their backup plan has blown up in their faces. They're dragging their feet one week at a time as to what to do.
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We've got four weeks from today until the trade deadline arrives.
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And I see three practical options for the Bengals.
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Russell Wilson, James Winston, Joe Flacco.
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Kirk Cousins isn't practical because there's too much money tied up in it and they're the no-go elsewhere for their bandaid for the rest of the season or until Joe Burrows is ready to go if somehow they're still contending.
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But it's just a mess. Devon, it's a mess. And it just shows you how important it is to have a good backup plan.
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And it's critical when your team is built around your quarterback.
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That's all they've done in Cincinnati. They've built the team around the quarterback.
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A quarterback who's had three major injuries in six NFL seasons.
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We criticize the dolphins all the time for that. It's fair to look at the Bengals and say, hey, what are you doing here?
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Building a team around a guy who's had three major injuries in six NFL seasons. You kind of get, you get what you deserve when you roll those dice.
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That's very true. And they thought they had the guy. They thought they had Jake Browning as being that guy because of two years ago when he did go for three as a starter.
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I think the hard thing is I listen to Zach Taylor is I do believe what he's saying of trying to get these guys to ball.
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The problem is everyone knows that everyone knows this offense is going to be built on.
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How do you create ways to give T Higgins and Jamar chased the ball? The issue with that is there's no run game.
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So you come in as a defensive coordinator and you say, hey, they're going to be one dimensional.
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They're going to put in a couple of runs here and there. But it's going to be all pass place.
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Okay, let's go back and watch all of their film on how exactly they go about getting the ball to these two guys.
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And then you create a game plan based off that what people don't get is the gift, the beauty of Joe Borough is he could figure out your coverage.
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He was a guy that wanted to play clock to go down to three seconds. Then to play the coverage you were in, he knew your weakness and he was able to pick those guys and attack your weakness with the game.
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But two of the better receivers in the NFL, not everybody's made like Joe Borough.
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So now you don't have that. Yes, you can design the plays that would work.
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But when a defensive switch and they do different things, not having Borough being able to uncover that and go to those guys, that's where they're falling short.
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And again, to that credit, I don't know if any of these guys will be able to come fixed and I think I think I think James Winston might be one of those guys that might be secure in New York
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because they might feel like he's great for Jackson Dart. And we don't want to let him go.
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We still got another year because of that. And they might only have Russell Wilson or Joe Flaccoon.
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You would know better than me if I'm the Browns. What do I want to give up Flacco within the division?
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You know?
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Well, and I think the Browns are so focused on analytics and value and all that.
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They won't care about moving them in the division. I think the thing the Browns ultimately may have their hand forced by is to show all Watts and showing up and saying, I'm healthy.
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Put me on the roster because their choices will then be put them on the roster or cut them. They're not going to cut them because it would be a beyond crippling cap charge next year.
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They're trying to smooth this thing out from multiple more seasons. So if the quarterback position suddenly gets crowded with the arrival,
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the return of the Sean Watson opportunity to move on from Joe Flacco and keep Dylan Gabriel and Shadour Sanders.
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I think that's one way it could happen. But you away one game at a time, one game at a time. Here come the Bengals against the Packers.
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It's going to be a long day for the Bengals. Stealers come to town Thursday night football.
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You know, they may lose two more games that two and two. Good chance it's going to be two and five by the time relief arrives in the form of the
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game against the Jets. And hell, even the Jets may think, hey, we had a chance to win a game. We got a chance to win a game.
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Well, for as bad as things are for the Bengals, Devon. And you know, this is one of those perspective things that you read about somewhere or family member
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tells you about when you go through hard times, no matter how bad you have it, somebody's got it worse.
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And the Ravens got it worse right now. And it's not funny. Derek Anderson. It's not funny. We're talking about the old Derek Anderson rant during the break. It's great. I said it to you.
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You got to check it out after the show's not funny. He goes from zero to 100 like that when they dare to ask him about laughing on the
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sideline. It's the cartels were losing by 18 points in a Monday night game years ago. Okay. So the Ravens are now one and four for the first time since 2015.
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They're four and 11 without Lamar Jackson since 2018 when he became the starter, including five straight losses. And the Baltimore Ravens are on
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pace to become the first team in the history of the National Football League to allow 600 points to be scored against them in a season. And with all that said, Devon McCordy, the Ravens are still the betting
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favorites to win the ASE North. What? The margin is slim, but what? Good Lord. Fade the Ravens.
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What do you think about all this? They're like somehow, somehow, some way they're going to figure, but the funny thing about this is I think everyone is sitting
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here thinking the Ravens are bad because Lamar Jackson just got hurt. It's like Lamar Jackson got hurt and everybody forgot that Lamar Jackson has been playing and their defense had been healthy.
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And it wasn't just the Houston Texans game where it was like, Oh man, this looks bad. They have all these injuries. No, this has looked bad. This hasn't been good. And I know people
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like, what do you mean it looked bad? They weren't close games and they're playing against top teams. They are the top team. Like I picked the Ravens and win a Super Bowl. I thought this was their year. And again, it annoys me when people say, well, they're losing a good teams. They are the good team.
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They're supposed to beat these teams. They were not supposed to sit here and say they lost to the Detroit lines. They lost to the Buffalo Bills. Like, no, we expect them to win those games. So again, I said it Sunday night. I think that's it for the Ravens. I don't see them making the playoffs. And it's about the way your team goes out there and fights. So yes, you have a lot of guys out, but like going into Sunday against the Houston Texans. The Texans has struggled to beat you when you've played against the Ravens.
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I know that was with the March acts and all that. But it was just the way they lost. It was like, you looked up. And before we knew it, we were like, damn, they're down three touchdowns already. Like, like, how did this? It was just like, well, we're going to go out there and get our ass kicked. And it's cool. We'll move on. And 44 points. That to me is the bad thing. Usually you have like some young hungry guys, a few veterans that are still out there playing. They bond together. Even though they might lose. They put up some kind of fight.
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Because you have his championship type of DNA about you. You have, hey, we're the top one of the top teams in the AFC aura. They just had none of that. It was just like, well, we'll come out here. We'll lay down and we'll regroup and hope that guys get back healthy. And then we'll go, no, like football doesn't work like that.
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The NFL doesn't work like that. When Tom Brady left us in 2020, no one was like, oh, well, you know, Brady's not there. No, they came in there. They want to whip our butt. And we went seven and nine. A lot of teams whooped up on us.
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And like, that's how it's going to go. Like people are going to go play Baltimore. They're not going to feel sorry that they're hurt. They're going to say, let's go and let's whoop up on this Baltimore Ravens team. Let's build some confidence. Look, that Houston, Texas are hoping that win propels them into whatever they do for the rest of the season because they just went to Baltimore and stop the Ravens.
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I picked the Ravens to win that game on Sunday because I said this is a pride game. And at this point, the pride doesn't matter. You know, I'm always watching in a given game for signs, typically from the quarterback.
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In his facial expressions, his demeanor, the things he's saying to other players, you get that vibe where it's just not my night.
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And the best quarterbacks can take those situations and make it their night. They never acknowledge it's not their night. It's always their night.
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There's never a bad night. It's just the good part of it's being delayed a little bit. And I'm always looking for that. And we saw a couple of weeks ago from Lamar Jackson in the game against the Lions and Monday Night Football repeatedly, the frustration, the demeanor that sends to the world of message. It's not our night.
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I feel like for the Ravens, they've adopted a broader demeanor, Devon of it's not our season. It's just not our season. It's just not our season. Let's get to January and go vacation with Devon.
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You made the offer the other night vacation time for the Baltimore Ravens. So we got to get through the next 14, 13, 12 games. How many are left? We're five weeks in. We got 12 games left. It's amazing how it's flying by.
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But I feel like that's the challenge to get them to believe there are still possibly good things out there. If they can dig out of this hole, here's John Harball from yesterday on the sense of urgency or lack thereof that his team is currently feeling.
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I think I think we're perfectly, perfectly capable of doing it. But we've got to become a really good team. You know, we certainly want a good team on Sunday.
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My hope would be four, five, six, seven weeks from now. You know, you guys will look back and acknowledge some of the gloom and doom. But I get it because that's how it feels to us too.
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So if you're asking me, do we have a sense of urgency? It's like I promise you, Charles, these guys, all of us have a massive sense of urgency.
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And we have had a sense of urgency. It's not like all of a sudden we're like, oh, we better get our act together. It's like, no, it's been that way like every single day, you know, in our building.
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We got some guys are approaching it. So we haven't we haven't turned it. We haven't reaped it yet. But we're going to we're going to fight for that.
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It's funny. He was drifting toward that thing that always drives me crazy that when a team that was bad suddenly becomes good.
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They get mad at the people who pointed out they were bad when they were bad. It's like sorry that you were bad and we noticed that he was kind of like I hope in six or seven weeks will be able to stick it in your face that you're calling is bad because
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wait, we currently are bad. He ran the numbers in his head and realized I can't do that.
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I do I wonder a little bit about what what their building is like right now like when you when you're not playing well as your energy still high like I text my buddy I text Van Noy and I was like, hey Wednesday, you got to bring some energy bring and he was like, dude, we practice hard.
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He's like, we got these young guys. They're flying around their practice and hard is just not it's not crossing over to the game is like the game still not going our way.
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So I think they have a lot of things they have to decide and uncover whether it's their scheme and game plan going into the game how it fits their players.
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What is going wrong that one play leads into two to three to four like it's not just the sense I don't think it's just the sense of urgency because this is a team that came in with super well aspirations like I think there was a sense of urgency about them the whole
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off season throughout the season like they came out in the Buffalo game and I mean they were destroying Buffalo and it just all like just fell apart.
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I think there's more going on there of something that's underlying of why it's not working and I think now because you have losses every team has friction every team has things that guys can plan about when's just make you forget it and you pushing on to next week when you lose it brings every issue to the forefront.
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I think they need to go through and fix some things and try to figure out what exactly it is as holding them back from playing her best football and now the problem is you're trying to do that without a lot of your best players.
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Two things real quickly number one this puts on precedent it's stress on the relationship between the front office and John Harbour because they've never been in this spot before where they enter the season as a short list Super Bowl contender and the wheels come up and I feel like right now the
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wind is kind of blowing in the general direction of a mutual parting after the season because there've been a couple of times since John Harbour arrived in 2008 in the aftermath of the Super Bowl win.
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There've been a couple of weird like what's going on and is he going to leave and is there another job that he wants is another team that wants him to the Ravens want to move on.
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I feel like that's going to be a talking point as the end of the season arrives. Second and I say this knowing that the information to support this recommendation will be sparse but watch the relationship between the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
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My spider sense tells me something's up and I think back to when his contract was up the last time once they started active negotiations there was just a sense of stress and awkwardness and they're negotiating directly with him and his mother and they just had a hard time getting where they wanted to be and they're already back in that spot because there's already been public commentary about negotiations because he's seeing other guys getting paid more.
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He wants a new contract justifiably so and the Tyree kill example is all we need to know that you got to get what you can why you can't but I say that Devon because when you throw on top of it some of the evidence that came out this summer with the collusion ruling and some stuff in there that Lamar Jackson would prefer didn't get out for public consumption.
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If it's up to him nobody would even know how much money he made he doesn't want anybody to know anything about his business and I respect that I just think it's added stress and pressure to the relationship which makes me think we're not going to see him on Sunday against the Rams.
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He's not going to play until that hamstring is absolutely positively 100% it's just like this stuff that was going on late in the year in 2021 and 2022.
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He's not playing he's not playing in the playoffs wise in playing because he's injured. Well injured guys play not injured guys that don't have the financial security they want they don't and I'm on team Lamar when it comes to that I'm always with the business decision make the thing that's smart for you but I'm saying watch that Devon because I think
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that but just my gut tells me there's something there there's something there that's contributing to this vibe the Ravens currently have.
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The weird thing for me is why is it so hard for them to get this Lamar like he's one of the guys he's two time MVP the first time doing a contra negotiation it was difficult.
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The teams that are good year after year they figure out their quarterback situation they have a good work in relationship on figuring out the contract and they just move on like we think about Josh Allen and Buffalo we think about patching my homes in Kansas City like we I feel like we rarely hear anything about this and they just move on they do his contract do their contracts and then hey let's go play ball let's put the best team around you and try to go win a Super Bowl.
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Well because Lamar wants what he wants and the Ravens want to pay what they want to pay one of the things that became obvious from the collusion grievance the one the Pablo Torrey found he and I were kind of working together
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challenge each other there's their hiding this thing where they hide in this thing and we finally get it one of the revelations in there when Eric to cost to the GM of the Ravens made Lamar the offer that he ultimately took.
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The cost of thought he was going to say no because Lamar was held ben on five years fully guaranteed like the Sean Watson got and they were making plans to move forward without Lamar Jackson and I think once Lamar realize that that's when he said I'll take it so it's just been an awkward relationship and now the contracts back not not on the front burner maybe it's on the front burner but still simmering but it's the same thing.
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There is not boy oh yet but you throw in the injuries you throw in the the obvious frustration he had throughout the Lions game and you sprinkle into that the fact that they currently stink it just it makes for a toxic stew in Baltimore all right let's take a break one return we'll continue to talk about the teams that are currently struggling the Miami dolphins how confident is their coach Mike McDaniel in turning their mess around that's next on the back.
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It's frustrating because there's a lot of talking and we need to major in doing it and I don't think anybody wants to hear me talk about it as much as I don't feel like saying it but it doesn't change the steadfast reality that is you you have to get better at things or you can't do anything.
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You'll continue having the same results.
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Mike McDaniel coached the dolphins in the aftermath of Sundays lost to the Panthers that's the kind of game that the dolphins check the box on a win we figured out what the dolphins are they beat the teams they should beat they feast on the lesser NFL franchise and then when it's time to go play an elite team it doesn't work out.
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Well if you're going to reverse the narrative that's the one you want to reverse not the one where we beat the bad teams they went to Carolina there are 17 nothing and it all fell apart and the Panthers won the game and the win from last week against the jets fades into the rearview mirror and it's just a question I think of of when the big changes are going to be made and who the changes will be made with is it going to be Chris Greer the GM is going to be Mike McDaniel the head coach is going to be both.
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It's going to be one of the other but it just feels like it's heading in that direction Devon I feel like it's unavoidable there by is coming up in a few weeks they have another Thursday night game which is the mini by where you could have an opening to make a change assuming you even do that because dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things so you know they're have been plenty of bad teams that fired guys with only one week to turn it around just because that's what bad teams do still it feels like it's ending.
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It's a really good thing in Miami for Greer and or McDaniel and or both.
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Yeah that was rough Sunday I'm sitting there and I'm talking to Maria and we're talking about like the bad teams and the coaches and I say to our goal I actually think McDaniel is going to be safe and they were up 17 zip I was like because they're going to they're going to steam role Carolina today and I was like because of where they finished in division like their schedule they'll get some games and I think I said the word.
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They play so they can go against somebody's bad teams and all of a sudden it's like oh wow the dolphins look like they're back and that game ends and I was like damn like that like that was just a rough loss the way the game had flowed you're playing against a team that has struggled you just not you're not bearing them putting them away so yeah I don't know what exact changes that will be made but there's no way for the dolphins the expectations they had coming in and I'm going to be like.
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Now you look up in this division and you're like oh no Tom Brady left the division became open we had to deal with Josh Allen and you mean to tell me now the denue England Patriots are going to be back in this window to be the most competitive team in this division with the Buffalo bills not us like we were we were right there like how how do we get past why are we not so I do think it's going to be a change in I think I think you said it before in our
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viewing room of people will continue to be changed around whether it's a high paid quarterback or a young quarterback that you spend a lot of draft stock in and I think that's what's going to happen here in Miami like to have paid and I'm not saying this is all to his fault but like I don't know as it Mike McDaniels he the reason this teams not winning when he came in he was the guy that got to it right now to win and doing all those things but he will probably be the guy that gets changed even though we saw him
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coming here and have success we saw Brian Flores going to Miami have success have two winning season so I don't know you said it like these teams they continue to do the same thing even though it doesn't work I would imagine Miami does the same thing that might not result or yield better results but it'll be a change
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to have the one year twenty twenty three where he went wired a wire in the irony there is that's the year that quarterbacks were injured left and right he's one of the not few but in the minority that played the whole season the next year he was in his fifth year option 24 million and change I believe
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and for whatever reason they felt compelled to tear it up and give him a market level contract and we were saying don't do it I was saying don't do it as loudly as I was saying to the Rams in 2019 don't do it Jared golf don't do it who you who you bidding against who you competing with where you doing this let's see if he can do it another year and if he can good problem to have franchise tag him sign and do a new contract then make improve that he can stay healthy again because then what happened last year after they paid him concussion
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week two it was week two Thursday night against the bills make concussion and and now they're stuck because not only did they give him the long term deal Devon they committed to three years fully guaranteed it signing so whoever inherits this mass in Miami next year they're stuck for one more year financially they don't have to play him but they got to pay him
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and that's all a failure it all starts with ownership ownership creates these messes ownership puts people in place who make these mistakes and they make strategic decisions
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aimed at things other than winning we want to show that we were right to trust to we want to show that this was the guy he's better than Justin Herbert we're giving him this big contract
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and that was like anytime any team is about to give a market level contract to any player it's fair to ask if this guy was on the market right now how much would someone else pay for him
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there's no way we should be paying a penny more than that
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I mean it's true and for some reason I feel like every other position is like that other than quarterback
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quarterbacks the one position where the fear of not having a guy at that helm whether that's to win games or having a guy at that helm that you can sell tickets
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and and have people say hey when I look at this team I envision this guy at quarterback and that makes me want to buy merchandise be a fan like I don't know if that plays a part from a business standpoint
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these owners are businessmen I don't know if they say hey like we can never not have a face of the franchise be this quarterback that's either young and up and coming or there's a veteran guy that people can get behind maybe that has a lot to do with it
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but I agree with you like every time somebody becomes a free agent or they're going to be a free agent or they're options up like every other team like you look and you say hey if this guy was a free agent
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what other guys if we take over from the first time I contract was up they were like Earl Thomas is the cream of the crop like it's that's the top we're not going past that like if we don't think you're that and then they they move you down they name another guy this guy that guy and okay you fall right here but for some reason a quarterback position is okay all right we already know there's four guys that we think are different and everybody else all right well I want more than him
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so it's a weird thing but it happens year after year with the quarterback position I I don't get it and it it doesn't produce wins I think that's the funny thing about it it doesn't make the team that doesn't it doesn't make them go I won't even say one of soup but it doesn't even make them really NFC or
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AFC contenders to go and be in the last game in the AFC or NFC would a chance to go to the Super Bowl but it continues to happen yeah two is in the mid fifties and they haven't been to the playoffs since they sign
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into that contract now it was just last year but still they didn't make the playoffs last year and it looks like they're not going to make it this year meanwhile the bucket years with the best dollar for dollar bargain we've ever seen on a multi year deal and Baker mayfield you better pay him Tampa Bay it's only going to get more expensive all right let's take a break
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it's Tuesdays with McCordy it's hit by a truck Tuesday it's also doctor doom Tuesday because when we return we're going to talk about the mess in Philadelphia it's not our fault the messes are out there we're just trying to help people clean them up we're trying to do our part to turn bad teams around that's next up the FT line
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I mean yeah we always want to give like we want to get AJ touches we want to get smitty touches we want to get sake on touches we want to get Dallas touches right
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and you know that's just the flow of I think that's why you have to look at the the big picture of you know the body of work that we've had so far as opposed to any in game scenario you're doing everything you can do in game to win
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Nick Sirionny word salad to get through the answer you could tell he didn't want to you know I'm going to be answering these questions he had enough of these damn questions there's one football every every team
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has had success offensively deals with this Devon there's one football how do we distribute it and
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the overriding question is are we winning games are we distributing it well enough that we're scoring points whether or not this guy's getting it as much as he'd like it or that guy's getting it as much as he'd like it it doesn't matter are we winning
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game and this is a team you know in their first four games all wins they've been outgained by the opponent every single game the offense isn't clicking they're winning despite their offense and I feel like teams get into this shell where they circle the wagons and they say everything's fine and they're in denial about it I feel like the Eagles are just in this state of denial at least as it relates to what they'll say
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they probably they may be privately they they know it but yeah they're four and one but we all see the offense isn't operating at the level it needs to and I don't know what the fix is and they obviously don't know either they would have fixed it by now
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the the Eagles have to operate within their building like you have to be able to self-scale you have to have the staff to say this is what we're not doing well this is what we got to work on and they they need to just focus on how do we fix things week by week by week
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as remember which is the most important thing as we're winning so we're getting outgain in each game that we're playing in okay cool how do we continue to get better on offense and also win in 2011 as a defense we gave up the most points as a defense it was week after week and we just kept giving up points but we knew and we felt we were a good team so as everyone kept talking about how poor our defense was we just kept playing we kept going
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working and I remember as we're entering the playoffs Vince Wilford comes up and he gets in front of the defense and he brings up his he brings up all these stats from the 2006 Colts team that defensively throughout the regular season they struggle a little bit and what they were able to do in the playoffs and like that helped us build and ultimately we lost to the Giants and the Super Bowl but like that team reached a Super Bowl where once you get in that game
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you have a chance to be a champion like it comes down and I think the Eagles like you I thought last week they they got a little bit too much into what the players want what people are writing what we need to do how do we fit no you were four no keep keep pressing on keep the only doesn't mean close your eyes and just go play no like and we got to open a game of let's throw the ball down the field more all right let's still stick to our bread and brother let's hand the ball to say quampar I think they have to try to do it
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to get out of what everybody else is talking about and you know obviously my time in the wing when that was our thing and I always tell you blame the media but focus on yourself when everything is come up
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Hey man that's just that's just a talking heads they're just talking they don't know anything we know what we're doing in here everyone needs to have that mentality because like we end up talking about the Eagles in this negative like they're four and one
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this is like the only better start is five and oh like you're in you're in good shape but it's just like they always live in this and maybe this is what makes them successful maybe they like living in this world of hey it's doom the world the sky is falling will keep print but it for me I'm just like hey like the Eagles they're fine just continue to work on those things you need to play your best ball
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thanks given December you have put your time to work on these things just keep working on them that's something you said Sunday night you know all of these games now are just money in the bank you're making deposits if you win to set the stage for when football season really starts Thanksgiving as Bill Bellachek always said it starts at Thanksgiving because that's when you get your act together or you don't that's when you rise or you fall
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and what you've done before is relevant because that's going to have a huge impact on where you finish in the standings and how much urgency you have down the stretch do you have a window of air a margin for air a window of opportunity I almost pulled a Sims there do you have a margin for air and can you lose a couple of games down the stretch or are you in playoff mode where you got a win you got a win you got a win you got a win because of all your prior losses but your real football team finally becomes crystallized at Thanksgiving so
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I agree with you but still there are 17 three and they got sake one Barclay yeah and they should have just pounded and pounded and pounded and pounded and and ran out the clock and won the game and got into five and oh here's what we're not going to do we were going to do more on
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seriode just saying the confidence it's it's words at this point the Eagles fans are going to want to see action they want to see improvement they want to see a team that can put two halves of a game together we've seen it for three straight weeks now they have bad half then good half against the ramps good half bad half against the box good half bad half against the Broncos the consistency just isn't there they got the giants on Thursday night you're going to be called
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on that game so you'll get to see I'll hand close hand up close first hand one of those one or two you get to see whether or not the Eagles are any better on the short
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week all right let's take a break Debbie down or Tuesday continues with Jonathan Ganon apologizing to a Maridim Mercado for a sideline interaction that you don't see all that often between coach and player in the NFL or anywhere really
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that's next on pft line the Arizona Cardinals were leading in the fourth quarter 21 to 6th third and one and Maridim Mercado and he's loose
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he's got to touch down and this game's over yes the Titans are going to be on five 11 game losing streak Brian Callahan's cooked it's done see you later
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oh wait he Mercado dropped the ball go to the goal line just one week after Adonai Mitchell of the cults lost possession of the ball as he was
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trying to show boat on his way into the end zone that was not good this was worse Jonathan Ganon berating
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D Mercado laying hands on him twice we don't we have the front end of it he comes kind of walking up tough guy like you
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know strut up like it's high noon in the Arizona desert okay so look I before we go any farther with the after
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math of that what we all know the guys got a hold on to the football we all we all know that a week after I want to ask you
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this before we get the reaction of the the contact we saw well how would Bill Bella check handle the patriots if there
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had been on a given Sunday a play not not by a patriot but if it happens somewhere else does that become like one of the
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things that he shows you and tells you hey guys in case you didn't already know that shit don't fly here
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you you want to know what it be he be walking and he like I mean before we get started I don't know if any of you guys saw
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this and it would pop on the screen and it would tell you I'm just telling any you blinking a holes if you think about
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even doing this in a game your this will be out of here and he'll be circling a guy over and over again with the laser I mean
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just run through the in in zone like act like you scored before and like this is bull and he would probably say that over and over again
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it's inexcusable and like I honestly like I I just wish I could go back to North Carolina right now and just be like a bill
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I don't know if you missed these in the NFL but here's two plays you should show the team and I would just love to sit in there and listen to it
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they got bigger problems right now then guy drop in the ball maybe the end zone they can't even get a guy close enough to the end zone to drop the ball
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Devon so they don't have to worry about that but I look that was my thought Sunday as we were processing all this it's beyond
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inexcusable for it to happen a week after it just happened because that means Jonathan Ganon failed to make sure his
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players understood that you cannot do this and that may have been the thing that when when he
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subjected Demar Cotto to that sideline thing we can play it again like it may be an implicit reflection and admission by Ganon that you know
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what he's he's kind of doing that to himself because he screwed up by not making sure that guy knew so he's making sure he
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knows now it's too late now John you should have made sure he knew about it before the game so that was Sunday or is it that's why he's that mad
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because they did show it well that's possible too but you know he could as he could say that he could he could like that's not throwing the guy
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under the bus like you could say that to the media I don't know what else to do guys I showed him that play it just
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happened last week I showed it to him and I told him don't do it and he did it anyway he's got he's gonna have to deal with it now that's not how it
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went after the game when Ganon was asked about it he said it's it never comes down to one play oh yes it does John yes it does
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because you could go up 28 to 6 it's night night for the Titans if he doesn't do that it does come down to one play and then he was
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asked yesterday if there's going to be any dissimilar for Demarcado and he said no so that that suggests to me that he didn't
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Devon that he didn't put them on notice that if you do this this week or ever there will be hell to pay
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Yeah and it's hard to because to me if he came out after the game and say I did show them that and I get it to the outside world
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I's not throwing them under the bus but there's plenty of times in a game where you might get coach to do something
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and then it ends up being wrong and as a player you don't come out and you don't say hey I did that because coach told me to do that
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you you take the L and so again for John Ganon one thing I will say with that whole interaction I'm shocked that no like
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there's one player with his arm around him and like
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John Ganon hits him the first time like I would have thought the player would have been like hey coach chill
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like all right like we're like everybody's pissed like as a player I would have been pissed
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let's chill and I think a little bit of Ganon's response I got a chance to meet with Ganon and my brother was
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winning when he was in Tennessee I walked away thinking he was a great guy my brother was telling me
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yesterday it was like man it's bad for for JG because like he's an unbelievable dude and I think the
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response for after is I think he's embarrassed by his actions more than anything of because there
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should be discipline for him like you going you drop the ball like that causes the team and I get
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the coaches talk that no one play loses the game and I think coaches say that because there's going
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to be plenty of games that they lose the game with the bad coaching and they want the players to kind
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of say the same thing but I agree with you 100% one play does lose games whether it's a bad play call
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whether it's a bad job by the player one play can lose the game and that play
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was the beginning of what lost the game for the Arizona colonels without that play I don't think
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they lose the game but again I was shocked by the whole sideline with that interaction when a guy
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has such a bad mistake I get why Demarcado didn't kind of react because he's probably like I've
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done enough I was just surprised that no one else other than that one coach the one assistant coach
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or whoever he was maybe was a get back coach and he's a I don't know but like he was the only coach
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I kind of grabbed John Ganon was like oh let's go this way no one else really reacted to it
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which surprised me of being on the sideline I remember Tom Brady and Bill O'Brien going at
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I remember Josh McDaniels and Tom going at there were players who stepped in between like no like
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go that way like let's relax I was just shocked no one got involved even though football is an
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inherently violent sport we have reached a point where the laying of hands on players is a line that
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you don't see crossed and we'll see how this plays out Ganon said yesterday he apologized to
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the team and Demarcado for losing his cool in that moment be interested to see if the union has
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anything to say about this I think maybe they should I think maybe they should because I do think
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the line was crossed there and Ganon apologized what do you apologize for I think I think he knows he
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went too far all right we've gone too far on time we got to take a break we have more PFT
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library after this
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there's seven four and one teams and one three and one team thank you very much those are the odds
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telling the Super Bowl the bills the favorites at plus four seventy five jaguars thirty five to one
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hey take the jaguar seriously after last night take them seriously Devon give me a team on there
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that you that you like that you'll be leaning toward as a potential Super Bowl champion
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I think that I'm going to stay away from the obvious top three bills lines and Eagles the team
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on here to me that I'm like whoo I kind of like would be the Buckeneers Buckeneers need to continue
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to get healthy throughout this season but I just I'm a quarterback guy I think I think you need to have
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the guy that can beat the guy and out of that list of the remaining is Baker Mayfield for me so I
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would pick the books as kind of that fourth team in there that I would believe in at twenty to one
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people looking for value and again I caution everyone to only wage your money that you are
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able to lose because if you listen to me you will but twenty to one for the bucks I kind of like
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that because they got something and they win these games and it adds to that vibe and Baker Mayfield
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feels awesome and pay Baker Mayfield take a break and we'll wrap up this Tuesday edition of PFT Live
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right after this. Draft King Sportsbook is an official sports betting partner of the NFL
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and new customers can get five dollars and get two hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins
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just download the sportsbook app and use promo code punter when you sign up Draft King Sportsbook
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The Crown is yours.
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Tuesday edition of PFT Live you know definitely I've been doing this for two seasons now
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and many of you would think that Devon and I have very little in common and you know there are
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differences he played professional football at a high level for one of the most successful
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franchises of all time I played in grade school but we share a common love of football and I
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mention this because Devon I realized this morning as I was shaving we do have one new thing in common
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there is no way that either of us will be mentioned by the North Carolina football
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social media team because they hate me and all Patriots content has been banned until they're
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shamed into using Patriots content so you're banned there will be no Devon McCordy tribute not
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that there would be any reason to have one but you and I are joined at the hip forever in the
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in the absence of any social media content in North Carolina I just give me your quick reaction
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to where things currently are with North Carolina and Bella check and and the former front office
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employee from New England Michael and Barty yeah for one you're you're wrong I got invited to North
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Carolina so we're not we're not the same that way but you're a patriot yeah but there's love
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there that they just can't you can't understand I don't understand I can I go with you can I go with
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a call to get you on that list I don't I don't understand what's going on I was the one of the guys
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that thought the football part of it would take care of itself once they started to play the season
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and play the games but overall I don't know I don't watch enough of them to know if it's the players
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and what's going on there and I know Michael and Barty's in charge of that I've I've never heard
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fond things about his time in the win going I was there from people so I'm not really sure
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well it is the players and we don't have time to delve into it any further now but we can
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assume enough have a great Tuesday talk to you Wednesday
Topics Covered
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Cincinnati Bengals
Jake Browning
Joe Burrow injury
Zach Taylor job security
NFL backup quarterbacks
Bengals offense struggles
trade deadline options
Russell Wilson
James Winston
quarterback changes
NFL team dynamics
pass-centric offense
Bengals coaching decisions
NFL season analysis