2026 AFC West Preview

Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays division previews kicking off today. We are starting with the AFC West. It's not waste any time. Let's get right into it. Me, Dave and Derek previewing the AFC West right now. Kicking off one of my favorite stretches of the entire year in the NFL calendar and on the athletic football show calendar. The division previews start today starting things off with the AFC West. Just a disclaimer at the beginning of all of these I'm going in divisional odds order. I know we're doing the team's. I was wondering what your methodology was here. Yes. I took my notes in order of finish. I did. So you're doing future odds. Okay good to know. That's I felt that was just a safe way to do things. Maybe it's disrespectful to the teams that won last year, but that's how we're going to do all of these shows. So let's kick things off with the Kansas City Chiefs. Our preview for the 2026 Kansas City Chiefs. They're offseason in 60 seconds. Eric B. Enemy back as the offensive coordinator signed Kenneth Walker, Kairos Tonga, Loey Gilman, Cater Kohu in free agency. Traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams. Lost Brian Cook and Leo Chanel in free agency. Drafted Monster Delaney and Peter Woods in the first round. R. Mason Thomas in the second round. We're going to kick off every single one of these previews. We're going to kick off every one of these previews. With a conversation about what we are most excited to watch this season when it comes to these teams. We'll have to pick something for all of them, even if there are teams where maybe it's a little bit harder to find an answer. Derek, what are you most excited to watch this year with the Kansas City Chiefs? I mean, for me, it's just as simple as like this is a team that for years has not had an explosive runner and really has struggled to gain explosive plays. And they just signed Kenneth Walker to a huge deal. And that's kind of his whole deal. And I think I've said it a number of different points this offseason. You know, I think sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly how much a running back's value is going to like cascade to the rest of the team. But I think in the in the case of the Kansas City Chiefs, where they were so like historically bad at generating these field flipping runs and getting these 15, 20 plus yard gains that I think bringing in a player like Kenneth Walker, where he obviously gives that to you, it's pretty easy to see how that actually adds something to this offense and where it doesn't just feel like. I think every single play is them trying to squeeze four yards out of everything in the way that they can. I think if they can just get one of these field flipping plays a game on top of what I think might be a more aggressive and potentially volatile defense, which we'll end up talking about at some point, I do think that that almost kind of gets them back to the formula that was working for them in like 2019, 2020, where they were more explosive on offense and the defense kind of worked because they were like, we're just going to get explosive plays and sack the other team and get turnovers and give our offense as many chances as they can. And so I just really believe in what Ken Walker is going to do here. I'm just going to offer up some stats to agree with Derek. Kenneth Walker had 42 explosives in the 2025 season, combining regular season and playoffs explosive runs. All Chiefs running backs combined regular season and playoffs over the last two years had 44 explosive runs. So Kenneth Walker's equaling. Two years of Chiefs production last year alone. All Chiefs running backs over the last two years had 10 combined runs of 20 plus yards. Kenneth Walker had 10 of those last season alone, tying Jameer Gibbs for third in the league. Walkers, this one actually really surprised me. His 32 runs of 20 plus yards since he got into the NFL trail only Derek Henry, Saquon Barkley and Jameer Gibbs. Fourth in the league in 20 plus yard runs over the last four years. The Chiefs haven't had a guy like that. We're going to talk about this in a minute, and even like even if you include receivers, obviously, we know Xavier Worthy is a fast guy, a proven consistent commodity of this caliber just hasn't been a factor for the Chiefs on a regular basis since Tyreek Hill. I would even say like the year Rishi Rice was really good. I'd still think Kenneth Walker is more explosive than that. So I'm excited to see the Chiefs with a genuine threat that can help Patrick Mahomes. They had one running back run of 20 plus yards last year. Yes, Chiefs did one got out over the course of the season by Mahomes. And I think Worthy had one or two as well. How is that even possible? I don't know. And it was by Kareem Hunt. Why is Kareem Hunt taking significant snaps for you in the year of 2025? The Chiefs overall had a 3% explosive run rate last season. The league average is 6.9%. So you are less than 50% as explosive as an average NFL team. It is a drastic shift. And I was looking at some of the numbers. About specific types of runs. Because I'm actually curious not only about what the addition of Kenneth Walker will do to the overall explosiveness of the run game. But structurally, how much change are we going to see? Because we've heard so much about the under center stuff we've seen from the Chiefs during the preseason. How much more of that is going to happen? Walker's run, Walker's explosive run rate on outside zone runs from under center last year, Pursumer Sports, was about double the Chiefs rate. Part of the Chiefs issues with explosive runs is that they were under, they were in the shotgun on 60% of their runs last year, which is the fifth highest rate in the league. It's just harder to be explosive from the gun. We talked about that with the Bengals this offseason. Like that's just a consistent talking point. So I think that them being under center a little bit more combined with the Kenneth Walker thing, that is the plan here. And I completely understand that plan. And it really should be because if you think about even when the Chiefs had been good at running the ball, what was it two years ago? A lot of it was downhill. Like you're saying, it's either gun like inside zone, they were doing like some counter and stuff, but it was a lot of duo. Like it was like, we are grinding teams down and they were still kind of able to do that this year, but they just haven't really had a runner where it's worth running that much outside zone in a long time. Like even when Isaiah Pacheco was really good, I just don't think that that's really like the best use of a runner like that. Whereas like Kenneth Walker, you're trying to do as much of that stuff as you possibly can. We'll talk about the pass catchers later in this section, but clearly the hope has to be too, that Walker has an outsized effect. I think that's a good point. I think, I knew we were going to hit the Kenneth Walker stuff in this conversation, but I'm really excited to see what a remade defensive front looks like for the Chiefs, because this is a team that has been relying on Chris Jones, sort of George Karloftis, and not much else over the last few years, especially in the interior. Like, I mean, this is a team that, year over year, we have a Derek Nottie or a Derek Nottie-esque player next to Chris Jones over and over and over again. The leading interior defensive line snap getters for the Chiefs last year, other than Chris Jones. We have Gary Tillery and Derek Nottie, both of whom signed with the Colts this year for the minimum. Those are their two other interior defensive line snap getting guys. So now we're in a spot where you've got Kyrus Tonga at nose. You drafted Peter Woods in the first round. R. Mason Thomas is a pass down option with Ashton Jalati hopefully in there on early downs. It's just a completely remade group. Last year, they had Chanel play up on the line of scrimmage because I think their edge depth was so questionable. He played 35% of his snaps on the line of scrimmage last year per PFF. They had one, they had one other defensive lineman other than Chris Jones or Carl Loftus get more than 25 pressures last year, one. And so I just think on top of them being a little bit punchier on offense, Derek, there is a real chance that with some of these additions, even if they're young players, even it's going to take a little time, they're going to be a lot punchier on defense and especially upfront than they've been over the last couple of years. And they're young players, but like they were hot. They're all high draft picks like, you know, Delane, they take sixth overall. And I thought that he was an incredible cornerback prospect. Peter Woods, I realized that some people were a little bit more up and down. I thought that he was really talented. Our Mason Thomas, I think in the preseason has looked electric. Like he clearly has, I think of the juice that they were hoping for when they drafted a guy like that. And then those sorts of guys that those, those guys have not been here. And cause even, I think George Carl Loftus is a good player. He's not like a fly around the edge and get to the quarterback in the snap of a finger type of player. He's a little bit more of like a utility kind of set the edge, push the pocket hustle sacks player. Not even like Jaladi is that, but he's again in the similar vein to George Carl Loftus, our Mason Thomas is truly like the quarterback might go down in two seconds. And then again, they just haven't had a player like that. And so if you can weaponize that with Tonga can be a piece who can move around a little bit and be an explosive guy. Chris Jones is obviously at his best. One of those players, like it just feels like even though they lose some flexibility with losing Chanel, right. It just feels like they have more flexibility upfront because of just how much explosive they are with some of these players. I know he's not new. Anymore, but Felix on you, DK, um, is interesting to me as well. He didn't have a season last year. I remember we brought him up in the preview last year, cuz it was still early enough that he hadn't gone out for the year yet. in name at least like he's the other guy across from Karloftis right now yeah I assume that's going to be a mix of Gelati and R. Mason Thomas when it's all said and done that's how I'm looking at it I think you're you're probably on to something there but year three coming off of an injury another highly drafted guy I get that it hasn't panned out there as of yet but if you're looking for somebody to help you out with that rotation it's only 24 years old despite the fact that this will be year four of his NFL career I don't have high hopes but when a when a guy like that who hasn't done a whole lot misses an entire season anyway he just tends to drop completely off the radar so I think it's at least worth mentioning next question we're going to ask for all of these teams and this is slightly different so bear with me for a second I want to talk about what we're watching the first month of the season and this is not necessarily the thing you're excited to watch we already hit that this is a curiosity you have something that you feel like is sort of a question hanging over this team where I want to see just what it looks like how they deploy a certain guy structurally what they want to do so Derek when you're looking at the Chiefs over the first month of the season what is the biggest curiosity for you associated with this team I mean we're talking about it with the defense and I think obviously we're excited about the talent that they're bringing but I think to me it's like this talent I think might inform the scheme being something a little bit different both in efficiency and in terms of what they're actually doing one one in terms of what I think it's actually going to look a little bit different but I think it's going to look a little bit different and I've talked about this before I think when you bring in Tonga you bring in a guy like Peter Woods who can play kind of anywhere from like two tech all the way out to five tech you bring in more of a true pass rusher like an R. Mason Thomas outside land back around the edge it feels like they're trying to build a little bit more of a three four odd front style of defense and they played a lot of those fronts last year with Chanel down on the ball but I think that this is a little bit more of like a that style of front that can be a little bit more attacking be a little bit more blitz heavy if they want to and actually get into the backfield which that's really I think what Spags wants to do this is also a team that when when the Chiefs defense was really good in 23 and 24 they ran man coverage about 30 to 33 percent of the time and I know that man coverage rates have gone down league-wide in general but that number dropped to about 19.8 percent last year and I think part of that is in 23 especially you had you had Josh Williams and well Jerry Snead as these big outside just mug the shit out of you at the time and I think that's the line type of corners and they just have a fee in the slot with McDuffie in the slot exactly and McDuffie was a cover guy in the slot who could just run with anybody he could run with slot receivers I think when it became like Shamari Connor in the slot who can't really do as much of that and then McDuffie on the outside who can't really do as much of the press man on the outside I think they were just they that that part of their game fell away I think now you have Noel Williams who I think we're all kind of high on as like a press style man corner and I think the man sword Delane can really do that and so it just feels like this defense is shifting and it's just kind of like a towards I think but again potentially a little bit more odd front and potentially a little bit more man coverage because really at Spag's core I think that's what he really likes to do there's one more little breadcrumb that I would pick up as it relates to that Chris Rowland Wallace right now is the starting nickel instead of Shamari Connor and so now you're going from a guy who's a bigger safety body who struggled in coverage at times there were limitations on what they could do if he was going to be their primary nickel player and so them them going with a more traditional cover nickel body as their main guy in that situation I think that's what he really likes to do and I think that's something to pay attention to the number that I thought was really jarring when I was looking back at some of the splits about this Chiefs team last year and again I think it's maybe a little bit of a signal about them playing a little bit more man coverage last year we talked about this in real time the Chiefs last season had a below average drop back success rate when blitzing on defense the Chiefs right it's just not a way we typically think about a Spag's team they were 17th in EPA per drop back per next gen on blitzes overall last year was not very the split on that they were 30th in the league the Chiefs were an EPA per drop back on zone blitzes second on man blitzes and so them getting back to a place where they just want to play a little bit more you ball and having the guys to do it and the way they've structured the secondary I think there's a there's some signal there I'm very curious how quickly that plays out and how forcefully but it's something I'd be paying attention to how well it plays out too just I mean these are young unproven players even as they've been playing for a long time I think it's not as high as we are in Noel Williams we mentioned it now no one's already started the other structurally I'll throw this in just really quickly we talked a little bit about Walker and I think that's part of it but I'm interested in the structure of the offense as well because this is a team that was incredibly siloed so beyond running the ball under center beyond the changes of what running the ball under center could do for their explosiveness I just think having more optionality and murkiness about what you're doing situationally a lot of teams in the NFL have done this they've gone back to an under center world in part because you're giving away no information by doing that while making things easier on the line on the quarterback the Chiefs last year were one of the most siloed teams in the NFL Percher Media 19.3% play action rate from under center last year which was 31st in the NFL they ran the ball 80% of the time when they were under center last season that's not going to happen again I think because of the running back because they know there are benefits waiting if they diversify that a little bit so I think there are structural considerations on defense like Derek mentioned and I'm also curious what some of that stuff looks like on offense and then Dave very quickly what are you watching the first month of the season you had something a slightly a little bit different I think it's it's more or less the same just in particular it's it's easy to get excited about guys that were drafted highly Peter Woods and R. Mason Thomas specifically because it's very easy these are highly rotational highly specific roles to Derek's point Peter Woods is a guy that could line up in a variety of different places like I I think ideally you would play Peter Woods at three technique well guess who the Chiefs have the Chiefs have Chris Jones well I like the fact that he's not going to have to like eat glass on early downs early in the season where you could probably use him a little bit more situationally as he comes along because you signed Tonga in free agency and I'm guessing that would happen because yeah you you gave Tonga a lot of money to be that guy you have Chris Jones and you have the Chiefs put Woods and Jones out there in the preseason on a third and long together where and Jones was aligned at the three Woods was at the one I was like this is very fun same thing for R. Mason Thomas where is he a DPR is he not useful to you on rundowns is he a pass rush specialist just how three-dimensional is his game I just want to see where they are and obviously how often they're out there in the in the early going specifically like how how they're out there in the in the early going specifically like how already are these guys for legitimate action when we looked at these defensive line rotations that have been really well constructed over the last couple years there's a variety of body types you can use guys situationally we've got some guys that are these bigger body rundown players we've got some guys that are more of those speed demon third down type players and you look at Jaladi and R. Mason Thomas and the way that they're built twice 270 right let's throw him out there when it's first and 10 on the other side of Carl Loftus and let's let R. Mason Thomas get going on third and eight and I think it makes a lot of sense when you look at that room and it's just so much more varied than it has been for this team in a while when it feels like we've had I think generously framed more plotting body types overall when you've looked at their defensive line yeah exactly like it's just again I think the juice gives them a lot of flexibility even if maybe they've lost that in the ocean all for all these teams we're going to talk about just the stuff that maybe worries us a little bit what is keeping us up at night about all these teams but here specifically the Kansas City Chiefs Dave what about the Kansas City Chiefs is keeping you up two weeks before the season gets going here what if Kenneth Walker's presence in the offense isn't enough to change the fact that this could be like a bottom five receiver core yes and I think it's I think it's good to put a parameter on that like I don't think anybody is confused that the Chiefs receiver core isn't great but what if it's like a bottom five unit like what if Rishi Rice has lost a step for various reasons be they injury or incarceration related we're what is it's running on Saturday we talked to Jesse Newell our chief our chief strider as part of the beat writer notebooks and we were just talking he's like he just so casually was just like well yeah because he was rehabbing in jail and it just it's just important I think keep reminding ourselves that their most important receiver was having to do his rehab in jail this spring Xavier Worthy weighs 165 pounds and dealt with injury last year he's hurt now he's not even in contact drills now we joked about it we joked about it several times this summer but and and I hope Cyrus Allen is awesome but if a fifth round pick is like the the talk of camp and there's a genuine panic when he suffers a practice injury that's not a good sign if you're supposed to contend for meaningful things and that's where the Chiefs are right now like I went I went through and I was like who who do I think definitively has a worse receiver core than the Chiefs and I came up with like Miami and Vegas and the worst teams in the league right yeah so you can't even say Washington now that they have Stefan Diggs so I mean like this could be a really really bad unit and I don't know if Kenneth Walker alone can fix that all the explosive run talk is really fun but when it's third and eight what happens other than hey Pat bail us out what happens well and that's the problem can can Pat bail you out as much especially in the first like six weeks of the season we haven't even mentioned the fact that the most important player is coming off of a torn ACL, which I do think is important to bring up in this exact situation so last year per next gen 34 man coverage rate overall that was the second highest rate in the league on third and medium to long they faced 49.7 man coverage they've seen two of the top five highest cover one rates on third down in the league over the last two years since 2022 so two of the top five that's a hundred combined seasons they have two of the top five rates because teams just have no respect for what they can do in those situations why should we have any more respect now like cyrus allen is your answer to that and i think that's been my frustration the entire offseason i understand the kenneth walker part of this but is that enough like if that's your true difference making move on that side of the ball that does not address all of the issues that we have seen with this team and so how are they going to address those issues and the answer is just cyrus allen okay i'm just not sure i'm you moved by that i i would love if cyrus allen was good a fifth round pick fixing the biggest problem with your passing game going into the year is probably not a bet i'd be wanting to make well and like a fifth round pick who again he might be good he is also 180 pounds so he's he's smaller i mean because here's it's not just that the receiving core is not good like vegas's receiving core isn't good either but at least like there's different body types that like if stuff hits you theoretically solve a number of different problems it this the chiefs even in like the best case scenario still don't really have like a ball winner they still don't really have a guy that you can just like pin it on his back shoulder and when like it's still a lot of like we've got to do this deal with your bullshit if you don't have one of those by the way he's even giving the ravens the time of day anymore is because jacoby lane is there yeah because jacoby lane is going to be t higgins but i like i do think that there's something to like listen if teams are going to make you throw more of these outside the numbers maybe man you up a little bit more like it's kind of nice to just have a big man who's going to go dunk on somebody and i think even in the best case scenario even if this is you know only the 20th best receiver core if things work out they still don't have that guy at all 57 explosives from the chiefs receivers last year which is a perfectly average number 11 of those 57 came versus man coverage which is 29th in the nfl they were 20th in e-paper drop back against man on third down with mahomes with mahomes scrambling as part of that equation scrambling as much as he ever has in those scenarios over the course of the regular season mahomes if he's healthy is a heck of an equalizer but doesn't mean we should be asking he shouldn't have to yeah we shouldn't be asking this have to be yeah all right that brings me to my answer to this question but i'm going to pose it to you guys as well what does success look like for the 2026 kansas city chiefs this is a naughty question i'm trying i'm going to try to be kitschy with most of my answers this year and my answer i can define it more clearly if you want to but a successful season for the chiefs is if they restore the aura that's i i 100 agree like that that's okay pretty much my answer we outlined 10 reasons why you might be mediocre win the division anyway you're the chiefs that's that's successful for the and they don't they don't have to get back to the super bowl they don't have to make a run through the playoffs win the division that you owned for a decade with a roster we're not 100 sure about because we're not going to be able to win the division because that's what the chiefs that i grew to respect so much would do i think a solid playoff showing winning a playoff game getting the division around all that stuff is probably baked into this but it's secondary to me because i'm 100 with you are we excited about them again do they feel scary again do they feel like the chiefs yes because like winning the division it's like well they won the division in 2024 and they didn't read like they and you know they get to the super bowl because they're the chiefs and they have patrick mahomes but they never felt like this scary like they're the chiefs and they're the chiefs and they're the chiefs and they're the oh my god team if kenneth walker makes them explosive again if patrick mahomes looks 100 and the defense is like young and explosive and can do all the shit that spags wants to do it's like okay that feels like the kansas city chiefs again do we have juice do you the teams go into the game against you shaking in their boots a little bit because that has not happened in a while and i would love to see that type of kansas city chiefs team again and if we do results aside and the playoffs aside i do think that we can start to frame that season as a success yeah derrick was your answer generally in that same range what was yours yeah it was like you need to feel like the team that everybody kind of has like you're they're putting a target on your back again whereas i just don't think that right now anybody really feels that way about the chiefs all right before we get to the chargers preview let's take a quick break let's get to our next one here the los angeles chargers our preview for the 2026 los angeles chargers they're off season in 60 seconds hired mike mcdaniel as their offensive coordinator brought back chris o'leary as their defensive coordinator signed cole strange tyler biadish rip in free agency charlie kohler keaton mitchell alec ingold dalvin tomlinson lost the dafe oa zion johnson benjamin saint justin deshaun hand in free agency in the draft the key mesador in the first round jake slaughter in the second round a lot involved there now travis burke and jenison smith in the fourth round derrick don't leave out bernie and thompson don't do that i'm so sorry brian thompson is exactly the type of guy that she's made you can't leave out the 428 40 receiver i'm not doing fifth round picks for every single one of these teams i'm just letting you know right now derrick what are you most excited about watching with the 2026 los angeles chargers justin herbert gets a play caller that we all know is damn good at this like it's as simple as that and we talked about it on the play caller show and so i think you know we handled some of the details there but like i i think for so much of justin herbert's career it's been like this is the best thing i've ever seen in my life i've ever seen in my life i've ever seen this and that it's been in the offensive line and even when he's had decent play callers it never felt like he was still protected by the system and stuff like that and this feels like the first time where it's like no mike mcdaniel can if he could do it with two a tongue of iloa i'm pretty sure that he can do it with a quarterback like justin herbert so just seeing what that looks like and not even just the like wow justin herbert might go nuclear in this offense like it's i'm kind of excited to see like an iteration for mike mcdaniel because he's always had those tweaks to his offense right but the fact that this is like such a just a new batch of ingredients that he's working with like this could be just the appointment viewing on monday morning type stuff i'm frustrated thinking about it because there there's not much else to say i mean we have a host of stats and evidence about what mcdaniel did during his time in miami and we do know he's good at this but how much how much can you extrapolate other than i know that mike mcdaniel knows how to design a really good run game and the chargers have the opportunity to do that and i think about how much of his offense there was designed around tua's very specific skill set and you couldn't have a more different quarterback from tua than justin herbert so just how different it's going to look from miami is so interesting to me i'll say a few things first of all let's just talk about the overall quality of the dolphins offenses that derrick is alluding to when it comes to when two was on the field over the last four years because i think a lot of people are going to go to well there's some stylistic stuff that's going to be stylistic quirks to what mike mcdaniel does and is it built for the playoffs and it's a little bit specific i acknowledge all of that right all of that but there's no denying that he built something incredibly exciting with a very limited quarterback when two was on the field the last four seasons per true media the dolphins averaged 0.14 epa per dropback that would have been fifth in the nfl behind the bills the lions the niners and the packers they had a 13.3 explosive play rate which would be number one in football over that stretch with two as the quarterback and so i think even if well you know are those teams physical enough all that fine i'm willing to acknowledge all that but the quality of the passing game specifically is really unimpeachable over that stretch and so i'm very excited to see what justin herbert looks like in those circumstances it's funny that you say that about the passing game because i did want to touch on that and i was looking up some of the numbers around this and i was going back and re-watching the dolphins from last year because i don't think we were all super keyed into what the miami dolphins looked like for a good chunk of last season not after like it was weird i'll tell you that not after the colts game so i went back i went back and i was watching it because in part because i wanted to watch waddle as we're going to talk about the broncos here last year so in 2023 the dolphins ran 40 or 26.3 percent outbreaking routes per next that was bottom five in the nfl last year was 34 and a half percent which was a top six rate in the league and i think part of that is because the dolphins were seeing so much cover too over the last few years and they were seeing it again a ton of it again last year and so i think they were really trying to design a lot of stuff to get back into those whole shot windows whether all right we're going to snap back a crosser return route we're going to run some sail type stuff and they were doing a ton more of that and so i actually think that's the element of the offense where if teams want to play them the same way that they played the dolphins for structural reasons personnel obviously is not going to be the same you don't have tyree kill and jaylen waddle but i wonder derek if some of the reasons that we saw so the dolphins last year saw 10.8 percent cover one so lowest rate in the league by a ton the chargers saw 28 of the time so that to me is one of the most important considerations is that teams were challenging the chargers receivers in a way they never challenged the dolphins receivers but i think part of it might be the amount of motion that the dolphins used and so if you think all right even if the receiving talent is different two teams play a different role in the league they're going to use so much more motion than they used a year ago and then do we see some of those that mike mcdaniel started pulling last year with some of those outbreaking routes because you're having to deal with all these cloud coverages that's a way of kind of squaring the justin herbert skill set with some of the stuff we've seen and heard from training camp so far that actually does kind of align with what the dolphins were doing more of last season i think i think a lot of the motion stuff does kind of inform a lot of the main cover stuff and again obviously you know you're a little bit scared of manning up a guy like jalen waddle in a way that i'm not sure you're quite as scared of that uh for anybody with the chargers even i think in the best version of lad mcconkey but i do think a lot of that is the motion and i think it's both run and pass like obviously mcdaniel is does such a good job of like finding ways to get guys out free in the flat or you know open up a window so he can throw the drift route but he's also like if you're playing any amount of man coverage he's just going to rip the nickel out of the fit and then he's going to be able to be able to bend back you know a zone run and just stuff like that so i think that he does an incredible job of that and to the point of the physicality stuff and miami being a team that was just so much more speed than it was power i i think part of that was like some of mcdaniel building the offense a certain way and you know maybe some of that was because he had to with tua maybe that's just what he wants to do but i think him working under the jim harbaugh umbrella like physicality and being able to go toe-to-toe with people it's not really something i worry about with that building whether or not they have the talent up front it makes it a really interesting marriage in that exact way you know like i mean like a jim harbaugh team with rashaun slater like those guys that you know and all the tight ends that they have i'm like i i feel a little bit more comfortable that the physicality will come like it'll be there it's i i thought about that when you mentioned how it translates to the playoffs and things like that and harbaugh you know his calling card is this physicality smash mouth football remember mike mcdaniel contributed plenty to some ferocious 49ers teams that ran through the playoffs too i'm more speaking i think for the the crowd out there that has questions about mike mcdaniel i'm not talking about i'm not talking to you i'm talking to people that might think that that like the niners when mike mcdaniel was drawing up their run game were hell to play i was at that game where they just absolutely curb stomped the packers in san francisco man i can't remember it was in santa clara i can't remember what year that was maybe 2019 i think it was the 2019 season where he most just did horrible horrible things that entire packers defense 2021 dallas wildcard round 49ers just hellacious so the one last number i want to throw out as it relates to this i was looking for when you were talking derrick last year per next gen dolphins used motion at the snap on 49 percent of their of their passes it's the third highest rate in the league chargers were at 25 so literally twice as often and so i think that on top of the areas the field they might attack they feel a little bit different than what the dolphins had just how much more movement and how this dynamism where potentially they're not going to be able to do anything they're not going to be able to do anything they're not going to be able to do anything they're not going to be able to potentially going to see from this offense compared to what the chargers were doing a year ago i think is worth at least acknowledging another thing i'm curious about really quickly is just tua was famous for getting the ball out faster than anybody in the nfl his average release time is a half second faster than justin herbert over the four years that mcdaniel was his coach herbert's got a cannon so i'm like how do you marry that being such a staple of what mcdaniel did in miami versus having a quarterback like justin herbert that is something they've talked a lot about and that's what i'm curious about because i'm curious about what mcdaniel did in that's been from the spring on mcdaniel kind of trying to convince him hey you need to let this go before you see it come open like i trust me trust that this is going to be there and i think i remember talking to frank smith uh for something i was working on a few years ago when two was really rolling about what that process looks like with a quarterback where you've really got to earn a certain amount of trust for that guy to play that way to play the way the two was we were calling it anticipation but in reality it was more so just i'm putting myself in the hands of the offense and i think that's fine right that's not even to take away from him because that's a skill in and of itself in order to let yourself go and be willing to play that way there are benefits waiting for you on the other side and i think that's been a process with herbert this offseason and how quickly he's willing to do some of that stuff and what sort of throws he's willing to let loose maybe a half second before he would have in a previous offense i think that's going to be something to watch with this team speaking of what we're watching dave what are you watching the first month of the season with the los angeles chargers it makes a ton of sense to think that chris o'leary is just an extension of jesse minner because he he played when jesse minner was his coach at indiana state he got his first job under jesse minner he's very intrinsically tied to jesse minner uh daniel popper our guy who's done so much good work around the chargers he's got great notes in his stories about you know o'leary took minners foundational aspects of defense to ball disruption tackling effort angles those are like the five pillars that minner likes to coach even to the point where o'leary was just tagging chargers tape last year and showing it to his western michigan defense and saying this is what the scheme looks like at the best possible level so it's understandable that we think the defense is going to look the same chris o'leary is still a person and he has to call the defense and so he's going to have his own tendencies his own ideas of how you know what he might do differently from jesse minner or to be blunt he just might not be as good at this at the nfl level as jesse minner is so how he calls his defense and the subtle little differences between what it looked like under jesse minner and and what chris o'leary will be doing i think that's a situation where the first four or five weeks of data and just watching their games i think will inform you a lot about how he might be different what i think is going to look like and what chris o'leary is going to look like and what jesse minner is going to do in terms of what he's going to do in terms of what he's going to do in terms of what he's going to do he did that at the beginning where they just walked in and he was like here's the chargers playbook this is what we're going to do and i think he realized over the course of the early part of that season we can't do this we just don't have the personnel to play this way and i think over the course of the season i don't have any numbers behind i don't have any western michigan blitz rates for you which i did but anecdotally what was said to me is that they really had to tap into a level of aggressiveness we wouldn't typically ascribe to those jesse minter chargers teams more exotic pressures a little bit matchier on third downs some man pressures to kind of force the issue a little bit we saw a little bit more of that with the chargers last year but that's not how you would describe the identity of the chargers defense but that's what they needed to do a little bit more of and i think he was willing to embrace that and i think he's willing to do the same thing now where i think the early part of this season because even the guys even if they're the same those guys are maturing right if you feel a little bit better about cam hart this year than you did last year on the outside can you play a little bit more man coverage right can you play a little bit more dime if tar he still is going to bounce inside and you have cam her on the outside what does dante jackson look like this year after having a really nice season last year you've got some moving pieces on the interior of the defensive line and so i think you only know so much about your defense before the season starts you have to get some information early on about i think the defense is going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good and i think you're going to be really good can we cover one-on-one on the outside and what sort of tools do i need to allow my defensive tackles to hold up against the run i think you want to start as simple as possible with all of those answers and then if you need to get more complex that's what the process looks like and based on what happened at western michigan last year it sounds like he's very open to what that process is going to need to be and i'm really interested to see it because i think jesse minter's defense like to me is it's not like domico ryan's defense it's not like domico ryan's defense necessarily but like when i watch a domico ryan's defense it's like they kind of do what they do and it's just taught so incredibly well and to me that's what it is with jesse minter it's like when they pressure when they bring five it's it's still just three deeps and three under like three deep three under it's a lot of cover three and they they were a little bit more mixed up last year they threw a little bit more cover zero but it's still kind of like they run what they run they run a lot of quarters and they play like off quarters where they're just like we're going to let you throw in the flats a little bit we're going to let you get this we're going to come up and rally and tackle and so they were really good at that because those guys were really good guys could come up and do that and so i think jesse minter solved problems by kind of whittling down the playbook in a way and being like we teach this incredibly well everybody knows all the rules we're going to do it this way i just wonder if o'leary's way to solve problems is like maybe he doesn't teach things as well i don't know again he's a completely different person than minter but maybe his way of problem solving is we're just going to throw different things at the defense and like or at the offense and make them think a little bit more throw some more unique pressures maybe play a little bit more man like you mentioned the man coverage stuff the only team that ran less cover one than them was the vikings and obviously they do so much weird shit on the other end to kind of make up for the fact they don't do that that's just not really what the chargers did so i'm just very interested to see what knobs they kind of turn in terms of the blitz rate and the blitz packages and then maybe the man coverage stuff what i do think is encouraging is that even if we have a new defensive coordinator one he's been here right he was here on the staff in year one when they introduced the system so i think there's a lot of room for them to do that there's a little that that doesn't matter that does carry some weight but i think the other part of it is these guys have been in this system now going on three years and some of the things that they were able to build in last year they just had more optionality pre-snap as a defense last year than they did the year before because you have continuity so you have a system of kills where like you have the right tool for the right situation whether it's formational down a distance all of that in a way that's harder to do in year one because you're just trying to build the bones of the system that stuff you can carry over even if the coordinator changes because all of the communication points especially in the back seven are the same all of them and so i do think that kind of earned equity within the defense and what that provides you overall with the players does matter in a situation like this even if you're swapping out the coordinator i like that point because i'm and i've said before i'm lower on like the personnel on the chargers defense yes but you can make up for personnel with a hive mind mentality and the chargers have the continuity to to perform at that level i would guess assuming o'leary is not going to drastically change too much dave what is you what is keeping you up at night about the 2026 los angeles chargers i promise i was already worried about this before tyler biadish got sent to injured reserve but i just i need to see the offensive line be something worth being excited about before i believe it screw being excited about it i need to see the offensive line not being actively terrifying and harmful to the quarterback to believe it and tyler biadish is already out for the year joe alt missed 11 games last year rashaun slater's only played 60 of his possible nfl games to this point in his career just came back to practice just just came back to practice i'm terrified justin herbert's offensive line is a mirage again and even though they've they've definitely tried because they'd signed biadish to a 30 million dollar deal that's up in smoke at least for the first year jake slaughter i guess if you're looking for maximum cope at least jake slaughter has a chance to play his natural position now because before that is maximum cope and it is a thing worth bringing up before this it was well jake slaughter's never played guard in his life but he can do it so now at least he gets to play center so i guess that's nice and like it was talking to people there they had examples ready of guys who had done that before they were just like well cam jurgens played guard his rookie year and it's like oh yeah i guess cam jurgens did play guard his rookie year it's a good point that has happened sure when you're in the eagles ecosystem sure if we're being thorough i guess jake slaughter practiced at guard at florida but never in a game in his life so that's terrifying left guard as of tuesday august 25th is a total free-for-all no i don't sounds like it's going to be aliceca it sounds like it's been coyote aliceca is probably going to win that job 11 career starts over the course of his career and then it's a bunch of young guys and guys brought to the team and they're going to be the ones that are going to back from a line that was awful last year yes he was a spot starter on a terrible interior for the lions last year yeah cole strange is a guy that was a cast off in new england that only works in this sort of offense i was gonna say he's mcdaniel is his sponsor like so clearly and then you have jake slaughter stepping in here you talked about this with the chiefs receiving corps derrick is there a worse interior offensive line trio in the nfl right now than what the chargers are trotting out in week one i mean i'm sure if i looked at all of them there might be one or two but it would i would be hard pressed to say it's not bottom five like unless slaughter is just net back to his natural position he looks great but i think the fact that they've never seen him play an nfl game exactly like and the fact that he like could not win the guard spot and again i know that that's not his natural position but you would hope that a higher draft pick would be able to do that and like fend off guys who had only been spot starters before so it is probably one of the worst interior offensive lines in in football and like i don't know if i'm going to be able to do that but i'm going to i didn't love necessarily like the amount of money the browns paid to like zion johnson but this is worse than that and so like i just have some questions yeah yeah i mean at least the browns threw some resources at it i don't know how the bang for their buck probably won't be the same but the collective amount of money paid to awasika and cole strange plus a second round pick we've never seen play beyond the over like the quality concerns just what you've poured into this without biadish is going to be one of the thinnest offensive line and interior offensive line investments in the league period right now you're asking the coordinator to do a lot of lifting to make sure we do not notice these guys can't you just imagine too like i'm holding out hope that the tackles being really good can mitigate a lot of this i think they are too well sure but then it week two i don't even know who they play week two but the announcer is going to be like on that's joe alt who looks a little bit nicked up after the play don't even do that i don't even want to start i legitimately lose sleep thinking about it i don't even want to start thinking about it i don't even want to start thinking about this and i don't i'm not even a chargers fan i just feel like they're doomed for their offensive line to disappear in a puff of smoke every september and i hate it for them but it doesn't mean i'm not afraid i'm in a similar boat with this like i just think that we ended up in a place where the offensive line isn't any better than it was heading into the 2024 season when it was an absolute disaster it'd be better than it was last season because the tackles will hopefully be back but the interior so much of the optimistic case to be made about why the chargers would feel different this year is the upgrade in the center quality and experience right like it's biadish being able to just get guys on the right page and you know but obviously uh bradley boseman's played a lot of football but you watched it last year and the interior and just the plan and past protection was an abomination so often and the whole argument was that biadish will be able to get that to a place that you would feel better about it and now you're putting in a guy who's never played in the nfl to carry that responsibility and it just it like that that is the thing i'm probably most worried about and like you mentioned you know kind of comping it more to 2024 where it was a little bit different and obviously last year they were so banged up 2024 they get to the playoffs and just get eviscerated by the houston texas defense which like that's gonna happen because that defense is like that but they just really did not have a chance in that game and so that scares me i think my concern is i guess a little bit related to that but mine is more that like i'm fairly confident this will be a good team that this can win nine ten maybe eleven games if things break right i still just kind of feel like they're the doorman for who is like a serious nfl contender because i'm just not sure they have like the star really get you over the finish line talent outside of like quarterback derwin james and i the tackles are great but like they don't touch the ball and i do think that in the playoffs like it that kind of matters that you need guys who touch the ball or touch the quarterback derrick's note was so mean but so true the contender table's doorman and i think that's a good thing because i think that's a good thing because i think that's a good that's what they feel like we left them off for a reason last two years and i think on defense the most important consideration with that is they played above the they were more than the sum of the parts like they were the classic more than the sum of the parts defense with jesse mentor over the last couple years i think they finished sixth in epa per play defensively last season and that takes a phenomenal coaching job by a guy who has a pretty universal level of praise and it justifiably got the best head coaching job that was available to anyone in probably the last 10 years and what he's Baltimore that's the type of coach we're talking about even if you can be excited about Chris O'Leary's potential as a coordinator he's stepping into massive shoes without a ton of truly difference-making players Tully had a really nice season last year I tie your tart has been really good for this team but I think the best part about the Chargers defensive personnel over the last few years is that they've gotten so much more than they've paid for with some of the guys they've gotten off the street like and that's great like that gets you to a level where you're playing top 10 defense in a way that people are surprised by but does that is that enough for you to be beating teams in the playoffs is it not enough for you to be a Super Bowl contender and I think you could ask that same question when Jesse Minter was the coordinator let alone when we have a guy who's never done this before and so I think that is a completely reasonable thing to worry about on the offense Derek we didn't talk about the pass catchers at all I'm willing to see this in like the rosiest possible version right now I can I can get there with I think the overall explosiveness they could bring to the table that in my opinion it's not the same because it's not one-for-one roles but as I think stylistically about the offense that feels scary and I think this could be like a version of that like kind of a funhouse mirror image of that is like what the Lions have been over the last couple years where McConkie is like it's not the same player as St. Brown but that's like the best pass catcher you have within the offense it's not your traditional prototype number one receiver but it absolutely gives you enough in terms of a guy you can build it around Quinn Johnson and more of a Jamison Williams-esque role where we're taking drag routes 60 yards you're getting him on these runways Trey Harris just having that level of vertical explosion like even if there's all there's a little bit of guesswork with all of those guys I see that potentially coming together like I think Charlie Kohler can be like a glue guy tight end that does a little bit of everything we've talked a lot about O'Marion Hampton we've talked a lot about O'Marion Hampton we've talked a lot about O'Marion Hampton that part of it even if those guys aren't stars now I can see a version of the offense because the quarterback can lift it a little bit and the play caller can lift it a little bit where they feel really dangerous and dynamic on that side of the ball even if there's not a lot of proven star power on defense yeah I think it requires more guesswork on defense it's just a little bit harder for me to get there because on defense it's like they again they have some pretty good players but it's like who would take the step into stardom like maybe they're going to be a little bit more this is the year for day on Henley and like Tarheep still is good over in a playoff game yes who is taking over in a playoff game and I think that is still my question whereas like you say on the offense like there's a chance O'Marion Hampton is just one of those running backs like I do think that he's talented enough that in an offense like this he can become that on defense I think it's harder for me to find like who would that guy who takes that level of step really be I'm sorry for not mentioning Brennan Thompson as one of the guys who could really give them that gear offensively you go ahead you laugh and you can be there Kalief Raymond Brennan Thompson's gonna catch he's gonna catch like 18 passes and average 21 yards per reception that's my guess also did mention keaton mitchell like keaton mitchell also i think has is one of those guys that were just like there's a chance that there are so many dudes on this team with giddy up on offense that we're just watching a really explosive group when it's all said and done what does success look like dave for the 2026 los angeles chargers it's time to win a playoff game it sure is at the bare minimum look like you belong you know oh no we we gotta win one you gotta win a playoff game this year okay longing is whatever you gotta win one if they you know if if they pull a if they pull a jags and tre'davious white makes the play of his life to seal a hotly contested entertaining game it would be disappointing but i could live with it what i can't live with is them being the sacrifice of the wild card round where we just know it by the end of the first quarter that this is over here's why i would push back on that a tiny bit i think in a lot of circumstances i would be okay with that where it feels like all right we took a measurable step forward as a team this year because we didn't get blown off the field there's progress being made how long we think my daniel's gonna be here two years max assuming that you're making the playoffs and whatnot and so and that two years max yeah if it goes really well offensively and he's just out the door does this feel like a missed opportunity if you were like ah we were plucky in a playoff game no you're right i said kitschy win a playoff game damn it sure i think they have to win a playoff game and it's probably going to be hard like they're i i don't think they're going to win this division and so they're going to be probably the underdog in whatever game that they play in the wild card round i don't really care like you've you've got to go win it because like and i guess it would be some amount of measurable jump if they go from getting just absolutely wiped off the face of the earth the last two times they played in the playoffs to at least like like dave said playing that jags bills game but the difference like what you're saying robert the jags were a horrific team the year before and so them taking that measurable step to being like we can go toe-to-toe with josh allen and the bills that means something if the chargers do that it's like okay that's a little bit better than what you had done but we already knew that you were a good team you just reaffirming that for the third year in a row doesn't really do anything for me before we get to the denver broncos let's take our second quick break let's get to the denver broncos our preview for the 2026 broncos their offseason 60 seconds this is an easy one davis webb is the offensive coordinator brought back alex singleton and jk dobbins traded a first round pick for jaylen waddle lost john franklin myers and drake greenlaw and free agency drafted tyler and yottam in the third round it's a quick one it takes way less than a minute what are you most excited about watching with the 2026 broncos dave the afc runner-up just added a top 15 wide receiver which i genuinely think jaylen waddle is and i've said before i don't think player i i don't think jaylen waddle is a top 15 wide receiver i don't think a lot of people recognize that it's because the miami dolphin the 2025 miami dolphins did not exist of course yeah i think that's part of the reason and if you don't exist for a single year in the nfl you no longer matter justin jefferson is irrelevant now yeah sure well did you see him by the way talking about that where he was like people forgot i'm the best wide receiver in the league i will prove to them i'm like that happened he said my clout was under attack or something like that which that's so true if you can't afford to fall off for even a year or you might as well not even exist but guess what he's awesome i mean i read all the i read all the stats on a show we did a couple weeks ago but jaylen waddle bring him back over the time over the last four years he's fourth in epa per target in the league he's seventh in explosive receptions he's 11th in first down first downs per route run he's 12th in yards per route run uh he's i mean where else am i going he's 13th in the league in yak over expectation which i think is interesting remember broncos they have no problem generating yak because they throw a million screens because they throw a million short balls they do not generate a ton of yak over expectation and that is why jaylen waddle is so fun jaylen waddle is the type of guy who can catch a 12 yard in and be in the end zone and from 50 40 50 60 yards out and i think that's an important distinction compared to the other created manufacturer touch guys they had marvin mims can take a screen marvin mims is not taking a glance route to the house like that's just not the type of player he is that is the type of player that jaylen waddle is even that short post he ran from the slot in the preseason he didn't house that but like those are the types of plays where you see that happen like that's just not something they had before like that's just not the type of skill set within the offense that they had before they were 25th in the league denver in explosive play rate and i have a feeling jaylen waddle is going to change that for the better and it's you know that i think that's that's really been the only criticism with denver during these back and forth games back to back playoff runs is they're not a very explosive exciting offense and they went and traded for a guy who can change that almost single-handedly and i think with waddle he changes it by what he can do with the ball in his hands like you said he's one of the handful of the guys in the league who can take a slant or a glance or whatever and just make one guy miss and all of a sudden he's got 40 50 yards and i do think that he absolutely has that ability and even on the screens like mims can do it and he can get you a handful of yards the ones they throw to waddle are probably going to be even better because he's obviously pretty good at that i would also say that he i think has the chance to bring explosive plays back to the offense just by gravity like he's a guy where if he's running the clear out on dagger courtland sutton is going to be wide the hell open pat bryant is going to be wide the hell open like whoever it's going to be or if he's just running some of these if he's running a deep over and the linebackers are like panicking and they want to get depth okay well rj harvey is now sitting two yards in front of the line of scrimmage with nobody even in his vicinity just stuff like that i just feel you know we obviously know what he's going to do with the ball in his hands but i think just some of the opportunities he'll create because defenses are actually scared of somebody running by them making a play i think that is kind of also what's going to go a long way for this offense denver had the this is another thing that i think jaylen waddle can do a lot to fix denver had the fourth worst starting field position in the nfl last year part of that their their defense for as good as they were just had a very surprisingly low number of takeaways i think it was 14 on the year they also which should be better this year i think that's what just normalizes yeah absolutely their average drive distance on touchdowns was 68 yards because of that fourth longest in the league and it took them an average of eight plays to get down the field this was a a very methodical team when it was good and obviously we talked plenty about how inconsistent it was just having that guy who can get you in the end zone in one or two or three or four plays like this team did not have three or four play scoring drives and ideally i think jaylen waddle can fix that another thing tied to everything i just said they were also 30th in the nfl and special teams dvoa which for a team with the expectations that the broncos have probably something you want to fix this year there were nine and two in games decided by seven points or fewer last year nine and two i thought it was 11 and two nine i think seven points or seven reading barnwell's column right now that he did about the team's most likely to regress this year but like you said the fact that the turnovers is something that could be a little bit better if we're trying to figure out what's on either side of the ledger with regression with the broncos in theory if they take the ball away a little bit more often does that one score record matter a little bit less having i mean if this team could have some short fields with a receiver who can do what jaylen waddle does i just i think that could be huge i mine was on the other side of the ball just quickly like i just think sometimes we don't talk enough about the broncos as one of those like terrorizing pass rush teams like the way we do about the texans like the broncos do have that gear to them and i think consistently showed that last year next gen third and medium to long last year when the broncos brought five they had a 73 percent pressure rate what 73 percent when they blitzed on third and medium to long last year no other team in the league was above 67 percent their their pressure stuff last year especially when they started bringing the safeties like and i will see what that world looks like without jim leonard who i think probably had a hand and how some of those pressures were built but vance joseph is a really good defensive coach and i think the layers they added to the pass rush over the course of the year in part because they had to in the front in the first half of last season they had a 55 pressure rate when bringing four the broncos did it was 37 in the back half of the year and so they started blitzing a lot more on third down last year than they did in the first half of the year but when they had a lot more pressure down last year they had a lot more pressure than they had to tap into that some of the stuff that they're able to pull out is phenomenal and so that version of this broncos defense where we're gonna run some crazy shit on third and eight and we're gonna be able to play man behind it because we have the best cornerback in the world i'm excited to watch that again because that is i think my favorite thing about this team when you mentioned the regression the fact that they were for most of the year what the third best defense in the league probably they fell off a tad at the end but i think you would probably say over the course of the year probably the third or fourth best defense in the league and didn't really if that flips at all with as much as volatility as they bring with all the crazy stuff that vance joseph is doing like they just get a couple more fumbles strip sacks whatever it's going to be like this team that's how they fight off the regression of you know winning a lot of close games the way that they did what are you watching the first month of the season derrick with the denver broncos mine is kind of specific and i think part of that is just this roster is like really good like it's just a really good and clean roster, so it's kind of hard to figure out like and it's a lot of bringing back a lot of the same pieces i think for me though i am curious about what does the rotation at running back look like um because i think you know they brought in uh rj harvey last year and i think expected him to or wanted him to be a huge part of the offense and he scored a bunch of touchdowns but i think they probably want to get him a little bit more work in the passing game but can he really hold up in pass protection i think them trying to sort that out is interesting and then jonah coleman who they drafted this year has been pretty good for them but they also still have jk dobbins who started and played fairly well last year i think you know is a little bit banged up this camp as he often is unfortunately but i think they still expect him to be a pretty big part of this rotation too so i think just trying to figure out how much they want to lean on different parts of this rotation and like can rj harvey be a little bit more consistent because i think it's very obvious that he is a good explosive player and he can be a decent pass catcher for you but i think part of why the the broncos run game feels a little bit lacking is that for his efficient as jk dobbins can be he's not maybe as explosive or as elusive as you want and rj harvey is the opposite where he is pretty explosive but he's just gonna get you three yards when seven is blocked sometimes just because he's a little bit blind with stuff like that so i think just figuring out how this rotation works out i think is pretty interesting to me because it could go a number of different ways i think going back to the defense mine is just acknowledging the elephant in the room which is don't 100 for sure know what's going on with jonathan cooper right now and record this, he's a week away from an arraignment. He was arrested twice in June over a variety of charges stemming from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. So from what I understand, he enters a plea in a week. From there, he gets a trial date that might not even come till 2027. So no idea what's to come with the legal process. But then the NFL's system for determining the conduct policy is its own world. So is that something that hangs over Cooper and the Broncos all year? Is Cooper facing a suspension before the season starts or during the season? How all of that plays out is something I have a close eye on and doesn't feel like it's being talked enough about. And then on top of that, I have no idea if this will happen. But if Jonathan Cooper is unavailable for the Denver Broncos, what you just talked about, like when I think about Denver, obviously, Nick Bonino is an amazing player, and you still have Zach Allen. But the thing about Denver is it just feels so overwhelming with the number of guys they have that can generate pressure. Jonathan Franklin Myers is already gone. So if you take Jonathan Cooper out of that equation, sure, you still have your two top pressure guys, but three and four are now removed. And does the Denver defense feel lacking compared to what we got used to if that's the case? I'm getting way ahead of myself because we don't even know what's going to happen with Jonathan. Cooper, but when one of your best defenders status is up in the air, I think that's worth highlighting. I mean, he's got he had 51 pressures last year. He has 112 over the last two years. That's top 20 in the NFL over the last two seasons. He's been a very meaningful piece of this, even if Allen and Benito rightfully get more publicity. And so I'm curious about that. You mentioned on Yadam, not surprisingly, in the preseason, he's looked like a rookie defensive tackle. He has one pressure in 30 pass rushes. So I don't know if it's realistic to think that he can step in and be a meaningful piece of this right away. Or maybe that's something worth watching over the first month. But just all the young guys, I mean, there's going to be relying on more of those in-house draft picks from the last few years in a world where John Franklin Myers isn't playing. I don't know how many snaps exactly he played last year, but obviously was a very key part of that rotation overall. And you're not going to have him to rely on and you're going to have to lean on some of those young players on Yadam and the other guys they've drafted over the last few years. the easy decision for you when Bo's at his best we're doing sluggos outside of the numbers he's throwing goal balls like he is making quick decisions he's accurate with the football and you're combining that like Derek said with some of the both off schedule and on the move stuff that he gives you but when you're making him chew on things a little bit more what does that look like and the numbers against zone coverage last year lead you to that place the only guys with a worse success rate versus zone coverage last year than Bo Bryce Young Tyler Shuck Gino Aaron Rodgers Jalen Hurts Joe Flacco Cam Ward the only guys with a lower explosive play rate against zone coverage last year Joe Flacco Aaron Rodgers Cam Ward and Gino that's the step that I think needs to happen and like Derek said where he can hurt you is in a specific enough way where I think we need a little bit more breath to that for you to feel like the Broncos you I feel like a protective football coach protecting the quarterback because the thing I'm losing sleep about is not Bo Nix getting better which everything you just said is totally fair but I am sitting here losing sleep about wanting more from the run game like how can I help Bo Nix be better without Bo Nix actually having to be better basically and it pisses me off that we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos offensive line is and we know how good the Broncos that they've got a pretty solid stable of running backs. The running game's not bad, but it's not good. It's not good. It's always been a little bit middling considering how good the offensive line is. One of my consistent frustration points with this team. Across two years with Bo Nix, they are firmly in the middle of the pack in any metric you want to look at. They did have 51 explosive runs last year. A lot of that was Bo. 34 explosive runs by running backs, which is 20th in the NFL. And that's not to penalize Bo Nix for being athletic. That's a good thing. But A, he is coming off of an ankle injury. You probably want to protect him a little bit. And B, take some of the load off of him to be that playmaker. Like, let's pop some big plays in the running game. Dobbins, I think he can do it. He was actually, he was one of only eight running backs to carry the ball 100 plus times last year and average five yards per carry. It's just that he has durability issues. There's no way around that. I mean, he was done for the year last year on November 1st, I think. And so he pinky promised us, though, he pinky promises he's going to play 17 games this year. We're holding him to that. I hope he's right. I really hope he's right. Another fun stat I wanted to share with y'all. I think it gets lost that R.J. Harvey scored 12 touchdowns last year. Derek, yeah, Derek alluded to that. A lot of touchdowns, not a lot of else. Not a lot else. The only, okay, but the only rookies that scored more touchdowns than R.J. Harvey over the last decade are Zeke, Saquon, and Alvin Kamara. I just think that's crazy. Like, you do not think of R.J. Harvey as having a season like that. This is a talented backfield. Jonah Coleman, I mean, he's been my guy since last college football season. Harvey, you hope Scott Moore to show in year two. And if Dobbins is healthy, this is a good stable of backs. The offensive line is good. I would like to think that this could be better than a middle-of-the-pack running game. And if it is, on top of adding Jalen Waddell to the mix, maybe you don't need Bo to be that much more than what he was last year. And I. I think that could go a long way. It's Jalen Waddell, and it's the. There's a new play caller, right? And so I'm curious, like, how much about the offense changes. Jalen Waddell came from a place where they used more motion than any team in the league over the last few years. The Broncos were 30th in the NFL in motion rate. What does the Davis-Webb offense look like? Is there a little bit more movement? Does it feel a little bit more dynamic? Does Jalen Waddell really kind of fill in some of the gaps we've seen from this passing game? Pat Bryant, we have not mentioned yet. Like, Pat Bryant being, like, a big physical presence in the middle of the field and being an inside-outside flex guy, that you can use with Jalen Waddell. Like, I'm open to the idea that the passing game can get better in a world where Davis-Webb is calling plays and that there's a smooth transition there. We add Jalen Waddell to the mix, and the quarterback takes a step. But we talked about it a little bit earlier this week. Two teams in the last 10 years have won the Super Bowl with a passing success rate outside the top 10. To get inside the top 10, you usually need to clear, like, 48%, and usually get up near 50. 44.5% for the Broncos last year. That is a big gap. Like, to be the sort of. To be the sort of passing game that typically can win a Super Bowl, that is a big gap that you have to fill in. There are reasons to believe that can happen with what they have done this offseason and some of the in-house improvements that you might see from the Pat Bryants of the world. But I think we have to see it for you to feel really good. Maybe not. For you to feel really good about them coming out of, let's call it, normal AFC. Because I think that would be a retort from people. Well, they almost won the Super Bowl last year. It was f***ing weird last year. Yeah, last year was. You can acknowledge that it was weird. It's going to be less weird this year Yeah, last year was, like, historically bad Chiefs season where Patrick Mahomes gets hurt. Josh Allen, by the end, is throwing to Brandon Cooks in the playoffs. Lamar Jackson's team, like, completely explodes because he's not healthy. Like, it. Joe Burrow was basically never healthy the entire. Like. They needed Josh Allen to turn the ball over 17 times in order to win that game against the Bills. And so, again, I think we can see a. a scarier version, a Broncos offense that has more teeth than it has had over the last couple years. But I think that version needs to emerge for them to be the sort of team they want to be this year with the sort of aspirations that they have. David, what does success look like, speaking of, for the 2026 Denver Broncos? Prove it's not a fluke. And I don't care about the win-loss record because 14-3 is a hard thing to do year over year, even for somebody like. I don't think they're winning 14 games again. I think that's okay. No, that's my point, though. You don't have to win 14 games. Win 11 and look for real and win the AFC West again. And, you know, I think people talk about them as being prime for regression because the one-score games and, you know, how consistent is this? How much volatility is there? Prove that you can do this again and be one of the league's best teams, you know, I get two years in a row for sure. And then, I mean, three straight playoff trips is a hell of a statement as well. I think it's get back to the AFC championship game, but have a real shot this time. Yes, I was just going to say, like, I think Final Four is. that's what you should be aiming for. And, like, I just think that if you have what could and should be a top five or six defense in an offense that you're hoping makes the jump into the top eight, I think if you just paste those numbers on top of any team, any logo, any helmet, that should be a team that should be in the Final Four. Yeah, I think that's a high bar to clear, but I would like to get, like, six beers in a Broncos fan and ask them, if you guys didn't make the AFC championship game, would you be disappointed? I think the answer would be yes. A hundred percent. Because, again, I think. Again, I can quibble about whatever the quarterback is and all that stuff. I think if we remove the quarterback from the situation, this might be the best roster in football. That should. You should probably get to the AFC. Obviously, the Rams are up there. I think the Eagles and the Rams have a. But they are, like. They at least have an argument that this is the most complete. They're probably more complete. I think some teams, like the Rams, like maybe the absolute. And the Eagles, like the absolute star power is a little higher. But I think completeness, like the Broncos are a pretty, like, holistic roster, it feels like. The Broncos are a pretty, like, holistic roster. The Broncos have Walmart money, so they're a little bit immune to this. Like, I mean, they can pay whoever they want and they can do shit to make their lives easier, but it's always easier to just get the trophy before you have to pay the quarterback. Like, there's an urgency to get that done before you have to worry about Bo's money, even though the Broncos can afford whatever they want to. Let's get to our last one here. The Las Vegas Raiders. Our 2026 Las Vegas Raiders preview. Hire Clint Cooper. Kubiak is their head coach. Retained Rob Leonard and promoted him defensive coordinator. Signed Tyler Linderbaum for just an insane, obnoxious amount of money. I'm so happy for Tyler Linderbaum. Quinny Paye for three years. Quay Walker, N'Kobe Dean, Jalen Naylor. Brought in Kirk Cousins as the. Let's call him temporary starting quarterback. Lost Jamal Adams and Alandon Roberts in free agency in the draft. Fernando Mendoza in the first round. Trayden Stukes in the second round. Keyron Crawford and Trey Zune in the third round. And we'll mention Jermod McCoy in the fourth round because that is not a normal four. What are you most excited about watching with the 2026 Raiders, Derek? Brock Bowers and Ashton Gentry with an NFL play caller. I know that I did this last year where I was like, oh, I'm excited to watch Ashton Gentry and Brock Bowers. Derek is ready to be heard again. I am. I literally, I have somewhere in my own notes that like I'll slip on the banana peel again. How are you doing on Sunday night when the Gentry practice injury news hit? That freaked me out, but was also like the most misleading initial report in the NFL. Ever like it seems like they're like, it's not going to like miss the season or anything. But when it first came out, everyone made it seem like he died. I think I think it was Hayden Wings tweeted it, which was very funny. He's like the injury has just gotten lower and lower on his leg as we've gone. Now it's a low ankle sprain at a certain point or just be like he stepped on a nail. They said on the afternoon that there was a prayer circle involved and I just I wrote him off for the year. So that was they said everybody like stopped practice. And I was like, shit, it sounds like the Teddy Bridgewater thing. Like, is he okay? And it seems like he'll be fine. So as long as we get that, if they can get to the season, week one will be good. Like I just and and Bauer should be healthy this year. That was the other thing is obviously going into the last year. Bowers, I think was healthy. But by week two or three, he was already getting banged up and he still had a pretty good season. So I just think him being healthy, Gentry having a chance behind again, what should be like an NFL adult offensive line and, you know, play calling situation. I'm just excited about what those two can look like because I think talent wise, it's not even just that they're good. I think we talked about it. about this last year, if you have an elite tight end and one of the top let's say 10 running backs you know maybe genti's a little bit better than that it's just kind of a unique identity as an offense and i think i'm just excited for what that could look like that's that is my answer is clint kubiak having an encore as this difference making play caller the way that he was last year can he sustain that as a head coach not everybody can and what does that offense look like when you're channeling it through these players i feel like we've never really seen that before and so i was trying to first of all the first thing that's worth mentioning here i'm already more invested in this raiders team than i care to be i i swung a trade for brock bowers in my like long time keeper league and i i'm very excited about the prospect of what could be waiting for me as part of that but it also puts a real deep fear into my soul we're just dogs chasing cars i'm not i'm not happy about it but i think it was the right choice but in order to kind of build the excitement for that i'm trying to figure out like all right yeah what does this role look like like this type of offensive system channeled through a tight end have we ever really seen that before where like the tight end is the most important pass catcher on this type of offense at some point george kittle with the niners i think that you can make that argument but there's such different players but they're very different players exactly like kittle is a true in line why like part of why he works is that you're always scared of what the run game is going to look like when he's on the field and when like bowers is an acceptable blocker like i don't think he's like a guy like an isaiah likely you just can't put him out there at all but he's not the best blocker even on his own team at that position so i do think it is a little bit different i actually robert i had a thought about what his role might look like and we did this after the we were doing uh research for the play caller show and stuff like that i almost feel like they should draw a little bit of inspiration from what the falcons were doing with both kyle pitts and drake london like letting bowers be like some amalgamation of players that's interesting i i landed on an amalgamation behind some of the things they were doing with jsn last year and the way that they deployed elijah arroyo within that offense yeah so and that's what the jsn stuff it's a combination of i i went back and was watching so many of jsn's catches last year and i think i forgot how many manufactured touches they created within that offense for jsn whether it was just access throws screens stuff out of the backfield like the all of that stuff is applicable to what bowers is can give you he can't give you the vertical stuff but he can give you all the manufactured stuff and so i think there's some of that and then you go back and watch some of the ways they're using arroyo when he was in line it was all vertical stuff off play action like we're not asking you to do anything as a blocker just run fast let's be explosive bowers can do some of that slide routes just and they were lining up arroyo at number one in some of those situations and the other part of this that i find really like okay how can we create opportunities for an unconventional player the amount of empty that the seahawks used last year and being able to kind of put any guy at any one of the five spots seattle had 81 empty drop backs for donald last year that was third in the nfl and so that allows you to kind of tweak roles and use them in unconventional ways because you can truly blind him up in any one of those five positions and so i think there's more evidence for what it can look like than i probably thought there was when i was thinking about this offense over the course of the summer but i still think there's enough of a mystery where i'm really excited to unwrap it and i'm really excited to unwrap it and i'm really excited to unwrap it and see what it looks like early in the season y'all are such nerds yes well even as robert was saying the empty thing i was like man michael mayer is like a credible receiver genti can actually line up outside like they've got the dudes to do this your your biggest sicko awards are in the mail because i can't believe we just did six minutes on all of that when such an incredible player like what it looks like is very important the most exciting thing about the raiders is when we get to see fernando mendoza full stop i don't care if that's brock bowers is awesome with all due respect to brock bowers and ashton genti and colton miller and max crosby and a bunch of other really really talented professional athletes can you hear the drums fernando like that's what i want to know about the las vegas raiders and i'll say this he had his growing pains in the preseason against the texans i don't care this guy doesn't need to red shirt he arguably doesn't need to sit at all in my opinion i think we just do the drake may thing where he's on the bench to start the season throw him in there week six or just you let's just play it out let's just see how they feel it's time exactly there there is no urgency here i think kirk is going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and i think that fernando's presence there i think has been good for kirk and just like the urgency that he's played with over the course of the summer and so the same way with the with kirk is going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and just like the urgency that he's going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and just like the urgency that he's going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and just like the urgency that he's going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and just like the urgency that he's going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not lying to the locker room and just like the urgency that he's going to give you enough where it's not going to be embarrassing you're not 5th that's not happening this year i'll tell you that right now you look at those numbers for charles cross and abe lucas last year it's down near the bottom 51 of dj glaze's past blocking snaps last year were in true pass sets it was 41 for charles cross so even beyond tyler lenderbaum that group is going to be lifted in a way schematically it wasn't last year but we're still talking about talent wise a bottom six seven offensive line a group of receivers where the best one is trey tucker jaylen nailer there's a lot of uncertainty and so let's just see what the team is over the first month let's just roll the ball out let kate let kirk take some lumps and naturally this will figure itself out i think that is the approach i would take if i were the raiders i have some thoughts that i will save for the successful season portion of the segment i okay i think the thing i want to say about kirk and this is not even to say that this is going to mean anything in terms of him staving off fernando mendoza but i do legitimately think that he's going to be better quarterback than most of the guys who are placeholders for x top five pick like kirk yeah like kirk still gives you like not good nfl quarterback play anymore but like acceptable in a way that like when when the patriots were rolling out that roster with like jacoby brissett like brissett can do stuff with a decent roster that roster just had nothing doing and he's not going to give you that whereas i do think kirk cousins is like a rung above that and so i think it at you will get a clearer look of like how ready is this offense like i think when it was like jacoby brissett with the patriots it was like they've just got nothing and he can't move so like i have no idea if this is any good i think if kirk looks acceptable you'll be like okay i think this offense actually has what it needs that week seven fernando mendoza can come in and he's going to give us something i'm with you on that and again i do think the floor is considerably higher because of the systemic things an offense like this is going to give you that was not the case in new england two years ago there there was nothing to there was no floor created i think there will be a floor in this situation the famous last words maybe i think we said that truly burned by it but i'm going off what clint kubiak did last year like i i was talking to somebody in vegas this week and we were just talking about clint and his personality and him being a head coach and i i was we're just going over like how impressed i was with the job he did last year because we talked about this a lot there are two different buckets when you're an offensive coordinator but you're the figurehead of the offense there's offensive architecture which that's the marriage of the run of the pass all the play action helping out the offensive lineman that's just by design there's also the play calling stuff he was such a good play caller situationally some of the wrinkles that they had like he is one of those guys that i'm excited to watch and i think that being the starting point does give me a certain level of confidence about the floor of the offense and i think that gives me a certain level of confidence about what it will look like when they decide it's time for fernando mendoza i will say the drake may experience helped teach me not like not to sweat it too much like when and how fernando gets in there just let it happen man i have more to say but we'll we'll save it we'll save it for the end what are you watching in the first month of the season dave when it comes to the las vegas raiders outside of fernando yes if i'm looking elsewhere all of a sudden the raiders entire secondary is just full of young players like the whole thing really other than obviously you have eric stokes and they traded for taron johnson jeremy chen is still there you're not gonna roll the ball out there with rookies playing everywhere in week one but darian porter is a year two player you draft trade in stukes 38th overall fun as hell by the way go watch if you i'm sure i i was i liked him he looked good raiders preseason snaps it's very very encouraging so i'm looking forward to it i'm looking forward to it i'm looking forward to it well in the depth chart you guys are looking at for the raiders defense right now we we made this when isaiah palomar was still taking a lot of the snaps with the ones trading stukes apparently this week sam warren sam warren our raiders he was working with the ones and so that's already outdated in the most fun way possible that we're going to get a rookie essentially getting a little bit more run in that spot what i really liked in the preseason was trading stukes is i mean incredible athlete the range he brings his safety that's the calling card yes the physicality you game that to me was, can he play safety in the NFL after playing Arizona and he's flying downhill he's a fun exciting player he delivers a thump too like he's he you can feel him on tape and he's he's been really fun and Derek I saw you had the same note when we compared notes before the show Hezekiah Massis has been turning some heads at Raiders training camp as well so I don't mean to suggest that they're gonna trot out there with five rookies in the secondary in week one but they have young intriguing exciting players on a team that's been lacking talent in the first place this is a situation where if those guys take the the baton and run with it you can experiment with those things so how Rob Leonard is the DC in Vegas how does he tune those dials and what sorts of looks do the rookie DBs get and and the year two guys how does it all come together and from week one until week six what does that look like hopefully trading Stukes and maybe Hezekiah Massis I would assume Jermod McCoy is not in this place but if he really grows by leaps and bounds and looks like that crazy talented player that people that he was in the pre-draft process this could be a situation where your secondary in week 10 looks so much different than week one and week two and so that's that's something that I have a close eye on I just like that they've so clearly built this room now with the resources where it's like they can arrive at a point in December where they're pleasantly surprised by how this thing has turned out like Stukes really gives them something and maybe one of those young corners is able to give them something and like I just think that they've made this in a spot where not all of these rookies are gonna you know steal jobs in year one and do all this stuff but if one or two of them can be like this is a guy we want to give continued snaps to and be a part of our long-term process here I think that that is absolutely awesome and then mine is kind of related to just like all the rookies on this team like they drafted Kieron Crawford who is probably going to be on their second wave of pass rushers he was the guy that I kind of liked at Auburn um and we talked about Fernando Mendoza on offense but they draft Mike Washington as the second right I think he's going to be the second running back he's looked very explosive in the preseason and if if genti has to miss any amount of time I mean I just assume that he's going to take a lion's share of of the load there Tracy will and I think he'll be a part of this plan even if genti is healthy because of how good he's looked early on and he's just a different kind of runner right like I mean he's big but he's just like straight line north south crazy speed and like genti's got some pop to him but it is a little bit different with uh Washington I think and then trey zoom them just bringing a third rounder where it's still a very unsettled offensive line and I think that there's just a chance that he's the guy who I think coming in out of the pre-draft process part of his appeal is that he's got a little bit of flexibility in terms of can he play tackle can he play guard could he even move to center and so I think that it's such an unsettled offensive line really outside of I think center and left tackle that them just having that built-in flexibility there I think is really nice for them as it currently stands the way that I understand it four spots on the offensive line should be relatively set based on how camp is gone Cole Miller at left tackle Spencer Burford at left guard Tyler under bomb at Center DJ Glaze at right tackle right guard I think is the spot that still needs some answers about it and I think the two guys that are mostly in line in that competition right now are Jackson Powers Johnson and Caleb Rogers who's the third round pick from last year and then it sounds like trey zune could potentially get in the mix over the course of the year but right now I think four of those spots are kind of held down as we sit here on August 25th all right that's a lot of I think optimistic framing for what the chart with the Raiders season could look like we have to talk about the other side of this Dave what is keeping you up at night about the 2026 Las Vegas Raiders I'm gonna look in my one shot over here when I say this if you're watching Raiders Clint kubiak don't you ruin Ashton genti's career for God's sake please we already talked about the injury scare on Sunday and fortunately it sounds like he dodged a bullet we I don't have a timetable of when they expect him back but they he's gonna play this year which on Sunday afternoon I was not convinced but that just throws into Stark contrast for me just how bad it was for Ashton genti last year which it's funny it's funny to talk about this because I was just talking with a friend about the genti injury on Sunday and I was like I can't believe how poorly his career has gone to this point and this person my friend was like he had a thousand yards last year what do you mean and I was like no no no no no running through a brick wall for the entire season which is impressive to an insane degree I was just curious I wanted to look at over the last this decade from to 2025 over those years 282 running backs have carried the ball 100 plus times in a season Ashton genti ranks in the fourth percentile in EPA per Rush sixth percentile in success rate and in the first percentile in the percentage of negative and zero yard rushes that he had 27 of his rushes last year were for zero or negative yards it's the third worst number since 2020. just abysmal and by the way his 321 touches as a rookie only trailed Najee Harris for running backs in the 2020s like they gave him the ball a load of nowhere they had nowhere else to turn okay and that's fine but and and for what and what does that do to a young running back's career longevity hopes to be an explosive player deeper into his 20s and potentially into his 30s I have confidence for the reasons you outlined earlier Clint kubiak's not gonna let that happen I think he's really good at his job and I think the infrastructure is better but I can't say I fully trust the Las Vegas Raiders either and Ashton genti is way too good to be 26 years old and we're like oh man I thought that was going to be a lot better like his college tape was incredible he was a singular player at Boise State and I don't remember anything cool happening in his career that keeps me up at night and I hope it doesn't happen to him I think we could have the exact same conversation about Brock Bowers sure don't you keep Brock Bowers in a cage now it matters to me it wouldn't matter to me as a general NFL fan now it matters much more now me and Derek are brothers in arms here we're in this together Brock Bowers is future yeah I would basically would have done like the exact same spiel that Dave just gave about genti about Bowers like I I just think that if genti was singular at Boise State and he was what Bowers was at Georgia and even in his rookie he broke records as a rookie tight end on a not very good team like that guy is just incredible so they have these two beautiful incredible talents here can we just make the most of them I think I think that that is important and then honestly like talking about like the best talents on this team what's keeping me up at night and really not a lot of it is related to success with a team like this but like is Max getting traded again it just kind of feels like where the fact that they already did it and the I just it kind of feels to me like this is just they're waiting for whoever the right Target is going to be by the time the deadline comes along so if we're talking about like what is keeping you up at night especially at the early points of the season I'm just like is our only really really good defensive piece going to be gone by the time we get to Halloween that leads me into mine the quality of this team's fronts on both sides of the ball I think is what would be keeping me up at night we talked about them being able to paper over the offensive line part of this a little bit which I think is totally fair but if you just try to isolate the individual talents Spencer Burford is probably going to be a starting guard on this team he got beat out in San Francisco and before getting back into the mix on a team that wasn't exactly flush with great offensive line talent if Caleb Rogers ends up winning that right guard job he played 285 snaps last year DJ glaze has struggled and so even if we think it can be a rising tide lifts all boats situation because of the way they play I still don't think the talent there is very good and if you look at the defensive side of the ball for all the guys they added in the secondary and they had a keyron Crawford as a pass rusher in the third round the interior defensive line rotation on this team is the same as it was last year when they had to play a very specific way defensively with Patrick Graham as the defensive coordinator this team in Las Vegas last year per next gen play with eight guys in a box on 48 of their runs that is 10 percentage points higher than any other team in the NFL the gap between them and the Browns at two was bigger than the gap between Cleveland and the team in ninth place because they had to play that way it's all the same guys they're better at linebacker right now Kobe Dean and Quay Walker should help with this but I still think that interior defensive line rotation is a little bit scary to me and how are they going to be able to hold up especially Rob Leonard I think is going to want to do a lot of McDonald's Seattle type stuff he was on that Ravenstaff in 2022 obviously Quinn Kubiak just came from there the bones of the defense I expect to be that can you imagine or picture a more different collection of interior defensive linemen than what the Seahawks have and what the Raiders currently have I I can't even picture it because again think of all the teams even in that bucket like what Fangio's defenses what Minter's defenses the the interior defensive line talent on those teams is just or even what the Ravens were at that at those eras like it's just so much different and like honestly I I love Adam Butler as one of those just like kind of like mid-tier NFL players I think that he's great and he gives you some explosive plays but he's a who tries to win with quickness and he's 32 years old this year like i just there's a certain point where maybe that falls away and like you mentioned all the loaded box stuff not only were they loading the box last year the linebackers were like jamal adams and devin white and guys like that and they were just firing them all the time i like nicole b dean and quay walker can do that but i think you don't want to have to do that doesn't want to be the only way you want to live so i just think unless like a lot of these rookies and again they didn't even really add that many young guys but unless like quitty pay and kieron crawford are just nails out of the gate to somewhat make up for your interior issues i mean this could be one of the worst fronts in the nfl they just said quay nicobe you want to make 200 tackles each does that sound fun and 15 or 12 million dollars a year whenever they paid them i think it's just a reminder that as there are exciting elements to this team there are things worth being optimistic about new era really fun skill position players number one overall pick quarterback this is still a team that's paying for the sins of its inability to find talent at a lot of position groups over the last few years it is a thin fragile football team in a lot of important areas and i think ultimately that will hold them back even if there's stuff we can get excited about what does a successful season look like dave for the 2026 las vegas raiders i don't see how this can be a successful season if you don't have a really clear picture of what fernando mendoza is by the time it's over and i think like really yes you need you think you need a really clear picture of what a rookie is going to look like and i think you need a really clear picture of what a rookie quarterback is i sure do i think if he's just pretty exciting that's probably enough for me okay do we think do we feel like he's the right guy this is like clinton him are the right guys but it's worth bringing up and i i get your point that it's going to take care of itself but remember we started training camp with the whole bit about the raiders had been making noise that kirk might play the whole season and and i don't genuinely believe that and i never did but i don't want the weather to be cold here in chicago before i'm seeing fernando mendoza like i this and it's not just because i think he's exciting and i think he's better than he gets credit for this guy's got to play rookie quarterbacks have to play and tom brady's there and that's where that whole jordan love patrick mahomes okay i was gonna say i actually no i don't think they have to play no i disagree the difference is to dave's point first overall picks do play yeah like they do play because the team feels compelled to play them because your team is bad you need to win the game you need to win the game you need to win game there's pressure from the outside do they need to play i think is a different conversation what we don't have to have now 100 minutes into this podcast jordan love joined a team that had a hall of famer and i know rogers wasn't playing like an mvp at the point but jordan love was brought there to succeed a successful quarterback on his way out the kansas city chiefs nowhere near as successful as they became but they were a successful franchise with a quality quarterback when they drafted patrick mahomes alex smith was five years younger than kirk cousins is now if like what happens if kirk cousins plays most of this season and the raiders are even like entertainingly decent like who cares so what that is not informative enough for me i think we don't and where causation comes into this is difficult to pin down but i also think the chiefs and the packers were able to operate in ideal circumstances because they weren't pushed off a timeline i think you can make an argument teams should operate that way if they're not pushed off a timeline i think you can make an argument if you're if you're trying to do it in an ideal way but but teams that are bad and draft the quarterback first overall don't approach it that way because they don't feel like they can if you want to get and i know we don't have time because we're yeah we're 90 minutes into this thing it worked out obviously it worked out jordan love whatever you think of him is a good quarterback and and it all worked out for green bay but like it was objectively unideal the way that all that worked and they had to arrange a special special contract with jordan love because three years for fernando we'll see him next year no we need i want to see fernando now i think we're going to by the way i know i agreed anyway i think we're going to see him like six weeks into the season you have three years with which to decide on a quarterback before you have to start thinking obviously about the option and then also earmarking money for a potential extension and considering that the alternative is kurt cousins where he is in his career both age and ability wise i just i don't see the upside to be honest with you especially for a guy that was drafted number one overall i think it's about the downside i think you're trying to mitigate downside which is probably we're probably overstating that we said the same thing about drake may and i was probably the same thing about drake may even his rookie year wasn't even good but caleb williams seems fine now we're not worried about caleb williams i was or his knee up because the bingles infrastructure was so bad his rookie year and he's fine too like they're not they're they're they're they're big athletes they can get out there and take some licks and have a big boy he's huge that's people don't talk about fernando like he's 65 230 because he comes across like a choir boy on the microphone he's a big physical quarterback he should play football and i think he's good enough to weather whatever's coming his way so i i i'm on a soapbox but i think if the raiders are going to have a successful season we need to get to the end of it and be like fernando's exciting and we can add some stuff to make him look better that's part of it i think i think we get to the end of the year bowers looks like a monster genti looks like the guy they drafted fernando and kirker or fernando and clint are both the right choices in franchise altering choices hiring a new head coach and drafting guy first overall those feel like the right guys and we get some flashes from this rookie class that's enough i think yes i think if next year we are going into the march free agency period draft period or whatever and being like man if they get one more offensive lineman and one more pass catcher like that's the team i want to bet on defensive tackle but yes well the offense like i'm saying like if this is the offense that i think it's like they could you know fernando looks good and the offensive line is better than it should be because of you know kubiak raising it and bowers is healthy and genti looks good it's like okay that becomes an offense that i want to bet on to be the one that takes that superstar jump and so to dave's point like some of that is probably a dependent on seeing whether or not mendoza can play and me wanting to feel that way because if he doesn't play at all i think i would have like slightly tougher time making that bet if we hadn't seen him at all but if he plays half the season and he looks about as good as we think he's going to be and he looks pretty good and again to you guys's point like fernando mendoza is built like he's closer to like justin herbert talent wise than i think he probably gets credit for uh and so i think if he looks good he plays good and the offensive line looks better and they are one or two pieces away from being like i want to bet on that in the offseason that to me is success i don't really care about the defense yet that to me is like 2027 consideration yeah like when when did when did tyler struck take over last year it was week eight it was the rams game yeah spencer rattler like exploded versus the bears and then they put him in it's fine half the season your role half the season would be fine but i think it should be more that's fair give me a larger that's fair i think i think if he plays eight games and those games look okay you're gonna feel all right i think it's i think it's should be 12 and fortunately the raiders schedule is gonna keep me from stressing out about this because they open with the dolphins and then it's just murderer's row for like two months after that like i said it's gonna figure itself out sorry i think we're gonna be okay i feel passionate i love the fact that we have three playoff teams with super bowl aspirations and we spent the most time on the goddamn las vegas raiders this is gonna be a fun couple weeks for katie that is all we've got for the afc west preview we got seven more of these coming it is one of my favorite stretches of the year really looking forward to it appreciate all of you guys listening that's all we got for today we will be back tomorrow with the afc north talk to you guys soon thanks for tuning in make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode if you enjoyed what you heard please like comment and leave a rating 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