Soaring Josh Allen, Falling Kirk Cousins, and the NFC Playoff Picture: Good Morning Football Selects
December 20, 2024 • 21 mins
Highlights from Peter's reporting this week on Good Morning Football. Peter breaks down the week's big quarterback stories, the physicality of the Eagles, and his Fab Five Rookies!
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We got quite a quandary, don't we. This is a
pickle if you're the chiefs, how do you handle the
next few games? So you want the one seed? It's
very important. That means you get an extra week and
they get a buy when none of the other teams
do and they got to beat up on each other.
You want that one seed. But I think more important
than the one seed is Patrick Mahomes's health for that
playoff run. So do you sacrifice Mahomes for a couple
(00:49):
weeks here if you have to, and then maybe sacrifice
giving up that one seed. That's the question they're having.
Mahomes is waking up right now. It's eight am on
the Central Time. His ankle could be a giant balloon, swelled.
We don't know, could be swollen. It could be fine.
We'll get deep tales in the next couple hours. I
look at the schedule and they play Saturday, so short
(01:12):
week against the Houston Texans. Can Carson Wentz go and
beat the Houston Texans that home? Can they get that
job done? Then? In four days? Four days from Saturday
to Wednesday, they have to go play the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
If I were to tell you that Patrick Mahomes could
have the next two full weeks off, let this thing heal,
(01:36):
and then finish up in week eighteen and then go
have a bye week, have another week and then play
in the playoffs. Think you would sign up for that.
But do you sacrifice that if you give up the
one seat to the Bills. Remember they lost to the Bills.
They are only losses to the Bills, So though they
have a two game advantage over the Bills in the standings,
it's really just a one game advantage. You have to
win two of the next three to secure that buy
(01:58):
Can you do it without Mahomes? That's the question. And
what a gut gut wrenching deal that would be for
Netflix in the NFL if it's Carson Wentz and the Steelers.
I'm just telling you that right now, the NFL and
Netflix are not looking to see Carson Wentz on there.
So do you rest them this week, maybe lose, and
then start them against Pittsburgh and you get your Christmas
game and you get your Mahomes and you get all that,
(02:19):
Or do you play it really safe and potentially have
this situation on Christmas where it's Carson Wentz to not Mahomes,
not the Chiefs problem, folks, not the Chiefs problem at all.
They're worried about Lombardi's not about satisfying everyone else. And
it's almost like you need to take out a calculator
and an advocates and kind of do the math here
and see, because if they had one more win or
the Bills had one less win, then you could just
(02:42):
rest them and like we're good, We're fine. They need
to win two the next three to confirm that they
are going to still be the number one seed to
the next three. However, their next three games involve the Texans,
the Steelers, and the Broncos, three teams that are all
going to be playing their hearts out to try to
get into the playoffs or try to solidify where they
are in the playoff field. So what do you do
with Mahomes? What was a full participant yesterday, but he
(03:05):
even said it, He's like, you don't want to put
yourself in harm's way. You don't want to do anything
to get in the way of the team. And if
I'm just sitting there in the pocket and I'm not moving.
That could be harmful. The Texans have the second most
sacks in the league. They have this great defensive line,
and it's a short week. I would think you give
Carson Wentz the start this week. Let's just say you
go with Wentz, all right, and you put Wents in,
(03:25):
and Wentz says, well enough, whether you win or lose,
they are home. It's not like they can they're gonna
fall apart and lose thirty one to three. Here. They
still have one of the best defense in the league,
and Wentz has played in this league. Then you have
a four day rest to prepare for another game. Now.
I think if you win, you bench Mahomes the rest
of the way. If you can beat the Texans with
(03:47):
Patrick Mahomes out, you bench them and you let Wentz
go Christmas, and you let Wentz go Denver and we
figure it out from there. If you lose and Buffalo,
of course wins against the Patriots, well then you're one
more loss away from losing that home seat. I think
the focus right now should be on Christmas, and do
you play Mahomes on Christmas? And I think you have
to play him if you lose this weekend. So that's
(04:11):
how I would manage it. I would go with Wentz.
I would give it my all. I would try to
win with Wentz and if you win, Pat enjoy your Christmas.
Sorry Netflix, Sorry NFL. It's a really weird conversation, but
like that's what I would do. And then if you lose,
it's like mahomes ice it up, shoot it up, whatever
you gotta do. Roll it out there. We're playing. We
got to win this game against it. Josh Allen is
(04:32):
Superman right now, and I want us to appreciate what
he's doing, how he's getting better as the weeks are
going on. He is your MVP. We made a faint
attempt and a good effort back when the Eagles beat
the Rams on a Sunday night and say one out
three under scrimmage yards to say this could be Saquon's ord.
It's not. It's Josh Allen. It's over. It's done. Put
it in bed. We'll see an NFL honors on. We
(04:53):
won't because you'll be preparing for the super Bowl in
two days. Alan. In addition to all the fourteen total
touchdowns in the last three games, guys, he's only thrown five
interceptions the whole season. He's been great with the ball.
Last night was a master piece. The two handed touch
pass that was taken back. All the stuff was great.
I looked at the athletic this morning. I give a
read to that every Monday morning. Let's go around Ty
(05:15):
Johnson in the locker room. He's mythical Dawson Knox. I'm
simply a fan. And yet I go back to July.
I go back to July on this show, and I
was throwing a hysterical fit that Patrick Mahomes wasn't voted
the number one player on the NFL Top I remember
on Hysterical Mahomes was voted fourth or third and Tyreek
(05:36):
Hill was one, and I thought that was the most
ludicrous thing in the world. Do you know where Josh
Allen finished this year in the top one hundred from
the NFL network's top one hundred players. We didn't even
include him in the top ten. I say, we the
NFL players vote on it, but we had a network
to put it on. And there wasn't hysteria, there wasn't
mass outrage. I threw a fit through a fit when
Mahomes was given the indignity of number four. Josh Allen
(05:59):
was voted number twelve this year going in so don't
act like this, says, oh, well, this was the prince
to be promised. And Josh, what we're seeing right now
is not only a historic season from Josh Allen as
a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. No Bills quarterback has
ever done this, but it's also one that is slightly unexpected.
And he has taken the league by storm. And this
happens to be the same year where he lost Stefon
(06:21):
Diggs and lost Gabe Davis, and I believe it is
a audition by subtraction. The way he's playing so free
and the way that so many people are eating on
that field. Philly as we're watching Detroit and Buffalo and
we're doing the Hao, Philly will just beat the crap
at you and they're gonna get you in a in
a phone booth and they're gonna punch you in the face.
And I'm like, now, try to leave the phone booth.
(06:41):
You can't. That's how they win. And it's like, what's
a phone? After reading the Yellow Pages, this is like
the toughest team inside the Steelers. You're talking Cam Hayward
and TJ. Watt and all those big boys and Hi
and they just beat him up yesterday and and I
don't want to get twisted. This was a very close
game at one point, and Cooper Dejan had a bad fumble,
(07:02):
Hurts made a mistake early and like the Eagles were
able to dig out of it. But this whole against
I can't really get around this hole. It's us against
the world thing like AJ Brown, you're the one who
said what you said last week. And then Brandon Graham
is a teammate of viewers, He's the one who made
it a national story. We the media didn't do anything.
And then just as we want to do the whole
(07:22):
it's us against the world, we're gonna galvanize. What's the
clip we have this morning. This is Clin Hurt, the
defensive line coach and Nick Sirianni. Sirianni wanted to talk
to Jalen Carter and Dom's involved and like keep your distance, coach,
like we're good. Those are two coaches having words like
we're not the ones doing this Philly, Like this isn't us,
We're not the ones who are who are making this happen,
(07:44):
Like the cameras caught it, but there's gonna be more
questions on that, and that's gonna be a story this week,
and maybe that feeds and fieldsy But like, I like
this Eagles team a lot because they play a different
style than the rest of these you know, Star Wars
teams that just throw the ball up in the air,
and I think that really works in January. I'm not
sure I can do the whole it's Us against the
World thing because I'm watching it in real time that
(08:05):
there definitely seems to be some sort of interfire and
conflict during these games and after these games, and then
maybe they use that to motivate. So I don't know,
Let's see what happens with that story with Sirianni and
a great defensive line coach, because I didn't make that happen,
and I know my colleagues on the show didn't. Necessarily,
I didn't do it. Yeah, I know that promintly, Mike
Evans is going to cat and he had my game
(08:26):
ball for it. Yes, Today Mike Evans was unbelievable one
hundred and fifty nine yards, nine catches, two touchdowns as
the Buccaneers absolutely blow out the Chargers. Evans absolute baller.
Look at what he's done here most seasons with one
thousand receiving yards fourteen for Jerry Rights Evan the second
(08:46):
Tyraebouth and guess what he just needs two hundred and
fifty one receiving yards well the last three games averaging
eighty four yards per game to get it for the
eleventh time, and that would be every season of his
NFL career. Mike Evans, you balled out when they needed
your most. You always do. This has been with Jamis,
(09:07):
this has been with McCown, this has been with Brady,
and now it's with Baker. We see you, Mike Evans.
I have the utmost respect, especially coming off the injury
the way he has. Yeah, I look at the Packers
and they just dominated Seattle in Seattle, and that's a
good win for the Packers. It's a horrible loss for
the Seahawks and they started off so slow, even when
Gino Smith was healthy. They were down fourteen to nothing.
(09:29):
And then I look at that NFC West, this is
the Rams division to lose. Now, Rams remaining schedule at
the Jets has to be a win. Can't drop the
ball there. I know that Rogers looked good yesterday, and
then home against the Cardinals, who have not looked wonderful
this month, and then home against the Seahawks. The Rams
(09:50):
a team that we all rode off. We thought after
that Miami Monday night loss and after the Sunday night
loss to Philly, and of course we know they lost
to the Bears in Chicago this year. Didn't look like
they had it in the carts. But they are now
seven and two. When Cooper Cup and Poka Nakua are
in the lineup and healthy, the Rams to me stand
out as one of those teams in the wildcard. If
(10:10):
they get there as a division winner, well, they have
a home playoff game. I don't know, if I'm Philly
in Detroit if I would love seeing the Rams in
the second round or Minnesota. I hit to insult Minnesota.
I don't want to see the Rams coming to town
the second week of the playoffs. That's not a team
I want to see the divisional round where the Super
Bowl winning quarterback in Super Bowl winning coach. All right,
(10:43):
it's Schrager's Fab five. We give the top five rookie
performances of the week some love. It was a really
interesting week with a lot of great performances, but how
do we stack them up. We're gonna start off with
number five. Down in Jacksonville for the second straight week,
Brian Thomas Junior makes the list. They were up against
the Jets. They lost the game in dramatic fashion, but
Thomas was awesome again. Ten catches, one five five receiving yards,
(11:07):
two receiving touchdowns. Brian Thomas is becoming the Fantasy football
like must start, maybe the most consistent receiver in the league.
He's the sixth rookie in the first since Jamar Chase
in the Super Bowl era with ten catches, one hundred
receiving yards, and two touchdown catches in a single game.
Brian Thomas is that dude. He's got sixty four catches,
(11:28):
nearly one thousand receiving yards, and eight receiving touchdowns in
twenty twenty four. That makes him third in receptions, second
in receiving yards, and first in touchdowns among all rookies.
Very rarely to put a guy from a losing team
on here, and I'm telling you this guy is going
to be a star. Number four. Welcome back to the list.
(11:49):
Jayden Daniels, you got the win and that's why you're
on here. You also had an outstanding first half of
this game. Jayden Daniels came out and the New Orleans
Saints defense could not stop that Washington Commander's offense. He
also had one of the cooler touchdown passes of the weekend.
Let's go to the broadcast where Kenny Albert and Jonathan
Vilma were on the call.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Actor backfield watch again, dad Us rookie Vin Tullis left
all the crusher staveshnisteet turn down Joannis Corn for a
touchdown by mcclura. Terry mccluord coming up big for Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I was like, where is he throwing this football? I
thought this was one of those rookie mistakes and outcomes.
Terry mclauurin with the touchdown twenty five of thirty one,
two hundred and twenty six passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions,
also ran for sixty six yards. Jaden Daniels, He's like,
don't give that offensive rookie of the year ward to
(12:46):
Bowers or to Knicks just yet. I still can do it.
The Commanders are firmly in that playoff picture. Let's take
a midst here. If you want to see something cool
about comparison, say rookies with three thousand passing yards and
five hundred rushing yards in a season. It's a short
list guy. The other three guys all one offensive rookie
of the year. Jaden's already done it. He's got three
(13:08):
more games to go. How far Handy go, We'll see
he's having an outstanding rookie season. Number three, we go
to the defensive side of the ball and we go
to Sunday night. Who was the difference maker on the
field and it was Packers linebacker Edderyn Cooper. Let's take
a look at what Eddard Cooper did in this game.
All over the field, seven tackles, a sack, and this
(13:30):
key interception in this game of Geno Smith. He was
all over the place. He's only the third rookie since
twenty ten in a game to have a sack and
an interception under the lights, prime time games.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Unbelievable performance from Eddering Cooper number fifty six. He's been
all over the field and he is on a rookie
defense that also includes Evan Williams the safety, and they
have so many other young guys on this roster.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The youngest team in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers.
They have just another guy, edgern Cooper doing the job.
And yet he is in our highest rated defensive rookie
because there was a player in that Texans the Dolphins
game who made maybe the play of the game. We're
talking about Houston Texan safety Kaylan Bullock. Kaylen Bullock's been
outstanding all season. Let's go to Kevin Harlan for the
(14:16):
call on Kaylan Bullock's big play in this one.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Second and six Ikenberg a buy and it's picked up
for the play breakdown, Big Bullock, here's time. I don't
know if you're gonna get him. Here comes at ten
Burgos Bullock to the five. A huge defensial playing. I
love Kaylan Bullock all right. Third round pick out of
Southern California. Okay, so big star, nickname super Glue.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That what they call him, super Glue, and that's what
he does. Here an awesome game here. He had all
sorts of pass breakups, guys, six tackles, the big pass
breakup interception return you saw, guys. He leads all rookies
right now with interceptions. Super Glue's got five five picks
for a rookie that's unheard of. Tarheb still is. For
the course, We've given all these guys love throughout the season.
(15:05):
They've all been on this This is Calin Bullock's first
time on the list. He's going to be playing Saturday
against the Kansas City Chiefs where he can maybe intercept
Carson Wentz. All right, let's see, I could be Mahomes.
I don't know. We'll get to that number one though.
Let's go to our rookie of the week, the number
one player on a team that put up five hundred
yards of offense, two hundred yards rushing and absolutely demoralized
(15:27):
the number one defense in the league. Our number one
rookie for Week fifteen is Bucky the Duck. Let's see
Bucky Irvy highlights. Bucky Irvy seven fantastic yet again, guys
fifteen carries one hundred and seventeen yard dash to the
Chargers defense. The Bucks are four and oh. When Irving
(15:49):
gets one hundred rushing yards or more, that's just the
truth of it. When they rush this guy, he wins.
He leads all rookies with eight hundred and fifty two
rushing yards. He's got six rushing touchdowns. Guys, his one
one hundred and forty eight scrimit yards are the most
bio rookie out of Oregon in the history of game.
Think about all the rookies out of Oregon over the years.
(16:09):
Number two Leagarrett Blunt, who also did it for the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Number seven Bucket the Duck and Oregon Duck.
They're gonna go up against someone in the College Football
Tournament in two weeks and we'll go down. We'll go
big on it. But this is the list. If you
had told me before the season started at this city
the list for Week fifteen, I'd say, you're crazy. That
(16:30):
is too eclectic, too weird, too random. That's what we get.
That's why we do the list the Fab five. Every
more Nay morning, we hand out the coach of the
week who or it could be a head coach, could
be an assistant, could be a coordinator. This week we
go to Los Angeles, where the guy who really made
his NFL resume, bolstered in Los Angeles for years under
(16:50):
Sean McVay, came back home and absolutely lit up the
LA Chargers. Our coach of the week is Buccaneers offensive
coordinator Liam.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
O'wellia the Bucks offense yesterday, I scored forty points, did
not punt once, and racked up five hundred and six
yards of offense on Jesse Minter's vaunted Chargers d Bucky
Irving had one hundred and seventeen yards.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
The Bucks ran for two hundred and twenty three yards,
and they went nine to fifteen on third down. Baker
Mayfield only had five incomplete passes and the team again
did not punt. Liam Cohen, Remember Dave Knalis was the
OC last year, he gets a head coaching job with Carolina.
They hired Liam Cohen as the OC and Liam Cohen's
(17:34):
team look at these numbers yesterday against a good Chargers
defense in LA. What to say at bottom offeter zero punts?
Liam Cohen, get to know his name well. It is
going to start popping up in a lot of head
coaching conversations over the next several weeks. I can tell
you now makes a lot of sense with the Jets,
(17:54):
makes a lot of sense with the Saints, makes a
lot of sense with the Bears, and it'll make a
lot of sense with any team looking to get an
offensive bump and some good quarterback coaching for their quarterback,
Liam Cohen. Of course with Stafford was that at Kentucky,
went back to la and then of course is now
in Tampa. Liam Cohen, yes, the offensive coordinator of the
Tambay Buccaneers, is our coach of the week. Two weeks ago.
(18:18):
I reported on Fox NFL Kickoff two weeks ago with
shock that despite not throwing a touchdown in three weeks
or having all these interceptions, that Kirk Cousins still was
getting number one reps and Michael Pennix wasn't being used.
That was two weeks ago. Since then, they lost another
bad game, and then they just got by a terrible
Raiders team in a terrible game on Monday night where
Cousins couldn't move. So you're looking at Kirk Cousins and
(18:41):
again this is like that you have to say this.
We like Kirk Cousins. We all like Kirk Cousins. They
love Kirk Cousins. You saw the Vikings players and how
they responded to seeing Kirk Cousins two weeks ago. They
love Kirk Cousins. He's not able to play quarterback at
the moment. I don't know if it's age. I think
it's coming off the Achilles Not everyone's a miracle man
(19:01):
and can get back. So what do we do now, Well,
we could still salvage the season. There's three games less
Michael Pennison. He hasn't had first team reps all year.
He hasn't seen the field very often, only in blowouts,
so he hasn't even got in on spot. Dude, you're
putting a lot of pressure on him to go and
save the day, especially because they're behind Tampa in the standings.
Long and short of it is, Kirk cousins time with
(19:21):
Atlanta is likely done if he gets injured. Now they're
on the hook for an extra you know, so on
million dollars. They don't want to see him on the
field because of all the guarantees, and you can't get
him because of the injury stuff. He likely will not
be on the Falcons after March because of what the
salary capstenuates. He could be traded, but he's got no
trade clause, so it'd have to go to a place
(19:42):
he wants to go to. Can't imagine a great team
is looking to trade for Kirk Cousins at the moment,
which puts you in this thing where you're probably gonna
get cut, which means that the Falcons will have paid
ninety million dollars to Kirk Cousins for fourteen weeks of
NFL action, and fourteen weeks that does not even have
them in the playoff position right now. One of the
(20:02):
strangest situations we've seen with a veteran cour her back.
But they're pulling the plug, and as financially committed as
they are, they might have been too financially committed, because
I think the last two weeks, everyone watching at home
and everyone around the league knew that Goose was cooked.
It was probably time to go to Pennix then before
the season's almost lost. As someone who travels every single
weekend during the football season and takes my little carry
(20:25):
on bag and my little backpack that says NFL media
on it, and I go to the airport and I
go to it, and I'm professional. I have my spots.
I go in, I get, I get to my airport.
I go to my little kiosk, I get my thing.
I go I wait to get You're all amateurs, and
I know you're coming. Just get out of my way.
I know you're coming. The airport from December twenty second
to January second, it is like it's like sodom and gomoor.
(20:47):
I want nothing to do with it. And it's just
that's the world is melting, and everyone's the first time
they've ever been inside an airport. They have their three kids,
they're all sick, they all have tissues. Then they get
on the plane and it's like the plane lands and
the guy sitting in thirty seventy and he sprints to
the front and then his wife though, has her bag
all the way back, so she gotta go back to
(21:08):
It's amateur hour. I know New York's Eve is supposed
to be amateur night, Amateur hour at the airport. Just
get out of the way. Just try to make this
as easy and seamless as possible for everybody. I beg
of you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
We got quite a quandary, don't we. This is a
pickle if you're the chiefs, how do you handle the
next few games? So you want the one seed? It's
very important. That means you get an extra week and
they get a buy when none of the other teams
do and they got to beat up on each other.
You want that one seed. But I think more important
than the one seed is Patrick Mahomes's health for that
playoff run. So do you sacrifice Mahomes for a couple
(00:49):
weeks here if you have to, and then maybe sacrifice
giving up that one seed. That's the question they're having.
Mahomes is waking up right now. It's eight am on
the Central Time. His ankle could be a giant balloon, swelled.
We don't know, could be swollen. It could be fine.
We'll get deep tales in the next couple hours. I
look at the schedule and they play Saturday, so short
(01:12):
week against the Houston Texans. Can Carson Wentz go and
beat the Houston Texans that home? Can they get that
job done? Then? In four days? Four days from Saturday
to Wednesday, they have to go play the Steelers in Pittsburgh.
If I were to tell you that Patrick Mahomes could
have the next two full weeks off, let this thing heal,
(01:36):
and then finish up in week eighteen and then go
have a bye week, have another week and then play
in the playoffs. Think you would sign up for that.
But do you sacrifice that if you give up the
one seat to the Bills. Remember they lost to the Bills.
They are only losses to the Bills, So though they
have a two game advantage over the Bills in the standings,
it's really just a one game advantage. You have to
win two of the next three to secure that buy
(01:58):
Can you do it without Mahomes? That's the question. And
what a gut gut wrenching deal that would be for
Netflix in the NFL if it's Carson Wentz and the Steelers.
I'm just telling you that right now, the NFL and
Netflix are not looking to see Carson Wentz on there.
So do you rest them this week, maybe lose, and
then start them against Pittsburgh and you get your Christmas
game and you get your Mahomes and you get all that,
(02:19):
Or do you play it really safe and potentially have
this situation on Christmas where it's Carson Wentz to not Mahomes,
not the Chiefs problem, folks, not the Chiefs problem at all.
They're worried about Lombardi's not about satisfying everyone else. And
it's almost like you need to take out a calculator
and an advocates and kind of do the math here
and see, because if they had one more win or
the Bills had one less win, then you could just
(02:42):
rest them and like we're good, We're fine. They need
to win two the next three to confirm that they
are going to still be the number one seed to
the next three. However, their next three games involve the Texans,
the Steelers, and the Broncos, three teams that are all
going to be playing their hearts out to try to
get into the playoffs or try to solidify where they
are in the playoff field. So what do you do
with Mahomes? What was a full participant yesterday, but he
(03:05):
even said it, He's like, you don't want to put
yourself in harm's way. You don't want to do anything
to get in the way of the team. And if
I'm just sitting there in the pocket and I'm not moving.
That could be harmful. The Texans have the second most
sacks in the league. They have this great defensive line,
and it's a short week. I would think you give
Carson Wentz the start this week. Let's just say you
go with Wentz, all right, and you put Wents in,
(03:25):
and Wentz says, well enough, whether you win or lose,
they are home. It's not like they can they're gonna
fall apart and lose thirty one to three. Here. They
still have one of the best defense in the league,
and Wentz has played in this league. Then you have
a four day rest to prepare for another game. Now.
I think if you win, you bench Mahomes the rest
of the way. If you can beat the Texans with
(03:47):
Patrick Mahomes out, you bench them and you let Wentz
go Christmas, and you let Wentz go Denver and we
figure it out from there. If you lose and Buffalo,
of course wins against the Patriots, well then you're one
more loss away from losing that home seat. I think
the focus right now should be on Christmas, and do
you play Mahomes on Christmas? And I think you have
to play him if you lose this weekend. So that's
(04:11):
how I would manage it. I would go with Wentz.
I would give it my all. I would try to
win with Wentz and if you win, Pat enjoy your Christmas.
Sorry Netflix, Sorry NFL. It's a really weird conversation, but
like that's what I would do. And then if you lose,
it's like mahomes ice it up, shoot it up, whatever
you gotta do. Roll it out there. We're playing. We
got to win this game against it. Josh Allen is
(04:32):
Superman right now, and I want us to appreciate what
he's doing, how he's getting better as the weeks are
going on. He is your MVP. We made a faint
attempt and a good effort back when the Eagles beat
the Rams on a Sunday night and say one out
three under scrimmage yards to say this could be Saquon's ord.
It's not. It's Josh Allen. It's over. It's done. Put
it in bed. We'll see an NFL honors on. We
(04:53):
won't because you'll be preparing for the super Bowl in
two days. Alan. In addition to all the fourteen total
touchdowns in the last three games, guys, he's only thrown five
interceptions the whole season. He's been great with the ball.
Last night was a master piece. The two handed touch
pass that was taken back. All the stuff was great.
I looked at the athletic this morning. I give a
read to that every Monday morning. Let's go around Ty
(05:15):
Johnson in the locker room. He's mythical Dawson Knox. I'm
simply a fan. And yet I go back to July.
I go back to July on this show, and I
was throwing a hysterical fit that Patrick Mahomes wasn't voted
the number one player on the NFL Top I remember
on Hysterical Mahomes was voted fourth or third and Tyreek
(05:36):
Hill was one, and I thought that was the most
ludicrous thing in the world. Do you know where Josh
Allen finished this year in the top one hundred from
the NFL network's top one hundred players. We didn't even
include him in the top ten. I say, we the
NFL players vote on it, but we had a network
to put it on. And there wasn't hysteria, there wasn't
mass outrage. I threw a fit through a fit when
Mahomes was given the indignity of number four. Josh Allen
(05:59):
was voted number twelve this year going in so don't
act like this, says, oh, well, this was the prince
to be promised. And Josh, what we're seeing right now
is not only a historic season from Josh Allen as
a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. No Bills quarterback has
ever done this, but it's also one that is slightly unexpected.
And he has taken the league by storm. And this
happens to be the same year where he lost Stefon
(06:21):
Diggs and lost Gabe Davis, and I believe it is
a audition by subtraction. The way he's playing so free
and the way that so many people are eating on
that field. Philly as we're watching Detroit and Buffalo and
we're doing the Hao, Philly will just beat the crap
at you and they're gonna get you in a in
a phone booth and they're gonna punch you in the face.
And I'm like, now, try to leave the phone booth.
(06:41):
You can't. That's how they win. And it's like, what's
a phone? After reading the Yellow Pages, this is like
the toughest team inside the Steelers. You're talking Cam Hayward
and TJ. Watt and all those big boys and Hi
and they just beat him up yesterday and and I
don't want to get twisted. This was a very close
game at one point, and Cooper Dejan had a bad fumble,
(07:02):
Hurts made a mistake early and like the Eagles were
able to dig out of it. But this whole against
I can't really get around this hole. It's us against
the world thing like AJ Brown, you're the one who
said what you said last week. And then Brandon Graham
is a teammate of viewers, He's the one who made
it a national story. We the media didn't do anything.
And then just as we want to do the whole
(07:22):
it's us against the world, we're gonna galvanize. What's the
clip we have this morning. This is Clin Hurt, the
defensive line coach and Nick Sirianni. Sirianni wanted to talk
to Jalen Carter and Dom's involved and like keep your distance, coach,
like we're good. Those are two coaches having words like
we're not the ones doing this Philly, Like this isn't us,
We're not the ones who are who are making this happen,
(07:44):
Like the cameras caught it, but there's gonna be more
questions on that, and that's gonna be a story this week,
and maybe that feeds and fieldsy But like, I like
this Eagles team a lot because they play a different
style than the rest of these you know, Star Wars
teams that just throw the ball up in the air,
and I think that really works in January. I'm not
sure I can do the whole it's Us against the
World thing because I'm watching it in real time that
(08:05):
there definitely seems to be some sort of interfire and
conflict during these games and after these games, and then
maybe they use that to motivate. So I don't know,
Let's see what happens with that story with Sirianni and
a great defensive line coach, because I didn't make that happen,
and I know my colleagues on the show didn't. Necessarily,
I didn't do it. Yeah, I know that promintly, Mike
Evans is going to cat and he had my game
(08:26):
ball for it. Yes, Today Mike Evans was unbelievable one
hundred and fifty nine yards, nine catches, two touchdowns as
the Buccaneers absolutely blow out the Chargers. Evans absolute baller.
Look at what he's done here most seasons with one
thousand receiving yards fourteen for Jerry Rights Evan the second
(08:46):
Tyraebouth and guess what he just needs two hundred and
fifty one receiving yards well the last three games averaging
eighty four yards per game to get it for the
eleventh time, and that would be every season of his
NFL career. Mike Evans, you balled out when they needed
your most. You always do. This has been with Jamis,
(09:07):
this has been with McCown, this has been with Brady,
and now it's with Baker. We see you, Mike Evans.
I have the utmost respect, especially coming off the injury
the way he has. Yeah, I look at the Packers
and they just dominated Seattle in Seattle, and that's a
good win for the Packers. It's a horrible loss for
the Seahawks and they started off so slow, even when
Gino Smith was healthy. They were down fourteen to nothing.
(09:29):
And then I look at that NFC West, this is
the Rams division to lose. Now, Rams remaining schedule at
the Jets has to be a win. Can't drop the
ball there. I know that Rogers looked good yesterday, and
then home against the Cardinals, who have not looked wonderful
this month, and then home against the Seahawks. The Rams
(09:50):
a team that we all rode off. We thought after
that Miami Monday night loss and after the Sunday night
loss to Philly, and of course we know they lost
to the Bears in Chicago this year. Didn't look like
they had it in the carts. But they are now
seven and two. When Cooper Cup and Poka Nakua are
in the lineup and healthy, the Rams to me stand
out as one of those teams in the wildcard. If
(10:10):
they get there as a division winner, well, they have
a home playoff game. I don't know, if I'm Philly
in Detroit if I would love seeing the Rams in
the second round or Minnesota. I hit to insult Minnesota.
I don't want to see the Rams coming to town
the second week of the playoffs. That's not a team
I want to see the divisional round where the Super
Bowl winning quarterback in Super Bowl winning coach. All right,
(10:43):
it's Schrager's Fab five. We give the top five rookie
performances of the week some love. It was a really
interesting week with a lot of great performances, but how
do we stack them up. We're gonna start off with
number five. Down in Jacksonville for the second straight week,
Brian Thomas Junior makes the list. They were up against
the Jets. They lost the game in dramatic fashion, but
Thomas was awesome again. Ten catches, one five five receiving yards,
(11:07):
two receiving touchdowns. Brian Thomas is becoming the Fantasy football
like must start, maybe the most consistent receiver in the league.
He's the sixth rookie in the first since Jamar Chase
in the Super Bowl era with ten catches, one hundred
receiving yards, and two touchdown catches in a single game.
Brian Thomas is that dude. He's got sixty four catches,
(11:28):
nearly one thousand receiving yards, and eight receiving touchdowns in
twenty twenty four. That makes him third in receptions, second
in receiving yards, and first in touchdowns among all rookies.
Very rarely to put a guy from a losing team
on here, and I'm telling you this guy is going
to be a star. Number four. Welcome back to the list.
(11:49):
Jayden Daniels, you got the win and that's why you're
on here. You also had an outstanding first half of
this game. Jayden Daniels came out and the New Orleans
Saints defense could not stop that Washington Commander's offense. He
also had one of the cooler touchdown passes of the weekend.
Let's go to the broadcast where Kenny Albert and Jonathan
Vilma were on the call.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Actor backfield watch again, dad Us rookie Vin Tullis left
all the crusher staveshnisteet turn down Joannis Corn for a
touchdown by mcclura. Terry mccluord coming up big for Jaden Daniels.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
I was like, where is he throwing this football? I
thought this was one of those rookie mistakes and outcomes.
Terry mclauurin with the touchdown twenty five of thirty one,
two hundred and twenty six passing yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions,
also ran for sixty six yards. Jaden Daniels, He's like,
don't give that offensive rookie of the year ward to
(12:46):
Bowers or to Knicks just yet. I still can do it.
The Commanders are firmly in that playoff picture. Let's take
a midst here. If you want to see something cool
about comparison, say rookies with three thousand passing yards and
five hundred rushing yards in a season. It's a short
list guy. The other three guys all one offensive rookie
of the year. Jaden's already done it. He's got three
(13:08):
more games to go. How far Handy go, We'll see
he's having an outstanding rookie season. Number three, we go
to the defensive side of the ball and we go
to Sunday night. Who was the difference maker on the
field and it was Packers linebacker Edderyn Cooper. Let's take
a look at what Eddard Cooper did in this game.
All over the field, seven tackles, a sack, and this
(13:30):
key interception in this game of Geno Smith. He was
all over the place. He's only the third rookie since
twenty ten in a game to have a sack and
an interception under the lights, prime time games.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Unbelievable performance from Eddering Cooper number fifty six. He's been
all over the field and he is on a rookie
defense that also includes Evan Williams the safety, and they
have so many other young guys on this roster.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
The youngest team in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers.
They have just another guy, edgern Cooper doing the job.
And yet he is in our highest rated defensive rookie
because there was a player in that Texans the Dolphins
game who made maybe the play of the game. We're
talking about Houston Texan safety Kaylan Bullock. Kaylen Bullock's been
outstanding all season. Let's go to Kevin Harlan for the
(14:16):
call on Kaylan Bullock's big play in this one.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Second and six Ikenberg a buy and it's picked up
for the play breakdown, Big Bullock, here's time. I don't
know if you're gonna get him. Here comes at ten
Burgos Bullock to the five. A huge defensial playing. I
love Kaylan Bullock all right. Third round pick out of
Southern California. Okay, so big star, nickname super Glue.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
That what they call him, super Glue, and that's what
he does. Here an awesome game here. He had all
sorts of pass breakups, guys, six tackles, the big pass
breakup interception return you saw, guys. He leads all rookies
right now with interceptions. Super Glue's got five five picks
for a rookie that's unheard of. Tarheb still is. For
the course, We've given all these guys love throughout the season.
(15:05):
They've all been on this This is Calin Bullock's first
time on the list. He's going to be playing Saturday
against the Kansas City Chiefs where he can maybe intercept
Carson Wentz. All right, let's see, I could be Mahomes.
I don't know. We'll get to that number one though.
Let's go to our rookie of the week, the number
one player on a team that put up five hundred
yards of offense, two hundred yards rushing and absolutely demoralized
(15:27):
the number one defense in the league. Our number one
rookie for Week fifteen is Bucky the Duck. Let's see
Bucky Irvy highlights. Bucky Irvy seven fantastic yet again, guys
fifteen carries one hundred and seventeen yard dash to the
Chargers defense. The Bucks are four and oh. When Irving
(15:49):
gets one hundred rushing yards or more, that's just the
truth of it. When they rush this guy, he wins.
He leads all rookies with eight hundred and fifty two
rushing yards. He's got six rushing touchdowns. Guys, his one
one hundred and forty eight scrimit yards are the most
bio rookie out of Oregon in the history of game.
Think about all the rookies out of Oregon over the years.
(16:09):
Number two Leagarrett Blunt, who also did it for the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Number seven Bucket the Duck and Oregon Duck.
They're gonna go up against someone in the College Football
Tournament in two weeks and we'll go down. We'll go
big on it. But this is the list. If you
had told me before the season started at this city
the list for Week fifteen, I'd say, you're crazy. That
(16:30):
is too eclectic, too weird, too random. That's what we get.
That's why we do the list the Fab five. Every
more Nay morning, we hand out the coach of the
week who or it could be a head coach, could
be an assistant, could be a coordinator. This week we
go to Los Angeles, where the guy who really made
his NFL resume, bolstered in Los Angeles for years under
(16:50):
Sean McVay, came back home and absolutely lit up the
LA Chargers. Our coach of the week is Buccaneers offensive
coordinator Liam.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
O'wellia the Bucks offense yesterday, I scored forty points, did
not punt once, and racked up five hundred and six
yards of offense on Jesse Minter's vaunted Chargers d Bucky
Irving had one hundred and seventeen yards.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
The Bucks ran for two hundred and twenty three yards,
and they went nine to fifteen on third down. Baker
Mayfield only had five incomplete passes and the team again
did not punt. Liam Cohen, Remember Dave Knalis was the
OC last year, he gets a head coaching job with Carolina.
They hired Liam Cohen as the OC and Liam Cohen's
(17:34):
team look at these numbers yesterday against a good Chargers
defense in LA. What to say at bottom offeter zero punts?
Liam Cohen, get to know his name well. It is
going to start popping up in a lot of head
coaching conversations over the next several weeks. I can tell
you now makes a lot of sense with the Jets,
(17:54):
makes a lot of sense with the Saints, makes a
lot of sense with the Bears, and it'll make a
lot of sense with any team looking to get an
offensive bump and some good quarterback coaching for their quarterback,
Liam Cohen. Of course with Stafford was that at Kentucky,
went back to la and then of course is now
in Tampa. Liam Cohen, yes, the offensive coordinator of the
Tambay Buccaneers, is our coach of the week. Two weeks ago.
(18:18):
I reported on Fox NFL Kickoff two weeks ago with
shock that despite not throwing a touchdown in three weeks
or having all these interceptions, that Kirk Cousins still was
getting number one reps and Michael Pennix wasn't being used.
That was two weeks ago. Since then, they lost another
bad game, and then they just got by a terrible
Raiders team in a terrible game on Monday night where
Cousins couldn't move. So you're looking at Kirk Cousins and
(18:41):
again this is like that you have to say this.
We like Kirk Cousins. We all like Kirk Cousins. They
love Kirk Cousins. You saw the Vikings players and how
they responded to seeing Kirk Cousins two weeks ago. They
love Kirk Cousins. He's not able to play quarterback at
the moment. I don't know if it's age. I think
it's coming off the Achilles Not everyone's a miracle man
(19:01):
and can get back. So what do we do now, Well,
we could still salvage the season. There's three games less
Michael Pennison. He hasn't had first team reps all year.
He hasn't seen the field very often, only in blowouts,
so he hasn't even got in on spot. Dude, you're
putting a lot of pressure on him to go and
save the day, especially because they're behind Tampa in the standings.
Long and short of it is, Kirk cousins time with
(19:21):
Atlanta is likely done if he gets injured. Now they're
on the hook for an extra you know, so on
million dollars. They don't want to see him on the
field because of all the guarantees, and you can't get
him because of the injury stuff. He likely will not
be on the Falcons after March because of what the
salary capstenuates. He could be traded, but he's got no
trade clause, so it'd have to go to a place
(19:42):
he wants to go to. Can't imagine a great team
is looking to trade for Kirk Cousins at the moment,
which puts you in this thing where you're probably gonna
get cut, which means that the Falcons will have paid
ninety million dollars to Kirk Cousins for fourteen weeks of
NFL action, and fourteen weeks that does not even have
them in the playoff position right now. One of the
(20:02):
strangest situations we've seen with a veteran cour her back.
But they're pulling the plug, and as financially committed as
they are, they might have been too financially committed, because
I think the last two weeks, everyone watching at home
and everyone around the league knew that Goose was cooked.
It was probably time to go to Pennix then before
the season's almost lost. As someone who travels every single
weekend during the football season and takes my little carry
(20:25):
on bag and my little backpack that says NFL media
on it, and I go to the airport and I
go to it, and I'm professional. I have my spots.
I go in, I get, I get to my airport.
I go to my little kiosk, I get my thing.
I go I wait to get You're all amateurs, and
I know you're coming. Just get out of my way.
I know you're coming. The airport from December twenty second
to January second, it is like it's like sodom and gomoor.
(20:47):
I want nothing to do with it. And it's just
that's the world is melting, and everyone's the first time
they've ever been inside an airport. They have their three kids,
they're all sick, they all have tissues. Then they get
on the plane and it's like the plane lands and
the guy sitting in thirty seventy and he sprints to
the front and then his wife though, has her bag
all the way back, so she gotta go back to
(21:08):
It's amateur hour. I know New York's Eve is supposed
to be amateur night, Amateur hour at the airport. Just
get out of the way. Just try to make this
as easy and seamless as possible for everybody. I beg
of you, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the
NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Jamie Erdahl
Jason McCourty
Kyle Brandt
Peter Schrager
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