The NFC North's Civil War

I feel like last week we talked about the NFC East and how they are pretty much like the TV most interesting division. They have the coaches, the big markets, the kind of deva players. They've got a lot of things going on. But I think the most interesting division in the NFC landscape is the NFC North because you could argue maybe the Vikings and we'll talk about them last. But the top three teams in this division, the Bears, the Lions and the Packers, they're pretty much like the Spider-Man meme where they're all pointing at each other. Like they could all, and we saw this, they could all win 12 games this year. I think too, there is an argument that if Tyler Murray who is not as bad of a quarterback as people think, but if he can stabilize the offense, get the ball to Justin Jefferson, the defense is already a top 10 defense. Are we looking at another year where this is a division that beats each other up and they all end up with like 11 games because they win outside of the division, but then they all go what like three and three inside the division? That is kind of the damning part about being a part of this great of a division is that you might all win 11 games, but also in like you kind of need one team to only win three in that scenario just based off the way the math worked. But also you could all win around eight and only one of you makes the playoffs. And so like it is, and it's the Lions. And it's just such a strange thing, but also just because of the 17th game like you did a lot of different things that have changed the math on some of this over the last couple of years, but at the same, it is going to make it really interesting because like you said, they're all Spider-Man memes pointing at each other, but like what do the Lions do? That's a little bit different. Oh yeah, they're run game. Jamir Gibbs, who I think is, he's probably my favorite running back in the entire league. I think he's going to be the best running back in the league by the end of this next year. I think that with the bear's Caleb Williams is, we saw what he can do even in the highest pressure situations. And so like even when it does come down to, you drag him to deep water, see what happens, you've seen what can happen, what you've mentioned about the Vikings and then the Packers on top of all that, they kind of have all of it. Ken Jordan love keeping consistent, keeping a decent cruising altitude. And so that's why I think that why I think it's the storylines, maybe a little bit more interesting, the football storylines are more interesting in the NFC North and because of what the sea, how the season is going to play out, but it's going to matter how these teams play against each other, not necessarily how they play against the rest of the conference or across the conferences. No, I agree. And I think that's why they're kind of the anti-NFC South, right? Like this is the team, we legitimately could see 10 plus wins for all four of these teams. There's a scenario in which we could easily see that for all of these teams. The other thing too is though, each one of these teams kind of has a fatal flaw. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's look at the headlines here. I think the one of the biggest ones was DJ Moore just never really fit with Chicago. And I think the thing with you have to understand about these kind of big time receivers is that a lot of times it has to be the fit. He was always considered a number one. I think he fit with Justin Fields. He never fit with the Chicago Bears. Right. And I think with the, it just never worked out. They gave him a ton of money. I think they really liked what that first year there he was there. They really liked them. But I think his production slowly waned. I think Ben Johnson slowly wanted to move on. I think he's going to go into a situation with the bills, which is a much better situation for him. He's going to have a top peer quarterback. He's going to be kind of the boss going to be funneled to him. I think for the bills it takes a lot of pressure for Piano Coleman and Shakir to make all the plays. So I think that's a good move. I think an interesting thing, you know, keeping with the kind of the thunder and lightning duo with the Lions. I do agree with you. Gives is set for a take off. Getting Pacheco who you're familiar with as a cheese fan. That straight line runner, hard-knows guy. Seeing the contact, some of this high level contact on the short yardage in the red zone area off of Gibbs so that he can, I think it's more of a, he's not as big as, you know, he's not a 250, 240, 235 pound running back. But he's also not a finesse guy. So I think that's where he's progressed. But you still want to keep the hit count low on a guy like Gibbs to keep him fresh and to keep him really explosive the entire year. Right. He's probably like a 25 touches a game type of guy and that's like 18 carries and with you can get him involved in the patch. I think that's perfect. Yeah. 25 touches about 18 to 20 carries. You let Pacheco come in on some of these just get him 10 to 15 carries. Already in line running concepts. He's working a gun system. So if you want to transition to more of a gun roll, I think they're trying, you know, we're going to talk about it when we, when we get into the Lions, how this new pet sing higher is going to work and speaking of the Cardinals, you know, the other big headline here is Kyler Murray is now going to be in Minnesota. I know there's going to be fear around Minnesota fans that when winter comes, he may not ever leave his apartment or condo or whatever. He may be playing a dome shut up. He may just play Call of Duty all the time. Yeah. When he's snowed in and is in his place of living. No, I, in all honesty, I think if you really break a daddy, I mentioned it a few times already. Like, he is a mid quarterback. That's what he is. But you have an all star, you have an all star receiver. You have a decent run game. You have what a lot of people feel like is a pretty good offensive play caller. You just have to get the ball to the guys. I think that's where Jay Z McCartney too, we forget he is really, really young. So that, that to me, those are the big headlines here. Not a lot of player movement, not a lot of huge player acquisitions, but Kyler Murray is kind of the kind of the icing on the cake here at the in impact rookies. I love the draft of Dylan, them in to the bears. They need to be more multiple at the safety spot. They really were living with briskers who is a down safety and fired who's a deep safety. Both of those guys are gone. Briskers with the Steelers, fired is now with the Patriots. This gives them more of a kind of duality with Kobe Bryant being the primary back guy. But again, coming from a Seattle system that was hybrid in nature too high. I think Dennis Allen wants to still run a lot of man. He wants to run a lot of zone coverage, but he understands I got to have a little bit more duality if we're going to play from some of these two high shells. And so that gives him that Kayla Banks, I think it's going to be a huge boomer bust. He's either going to be amazing and fit in with the Vikings or he's going to be another example of a coach saying I can save that guy and it ends up being a massive bust because he has much of a huge human being. He is. He does not play with a lot of size. It is just one of those things like, I can't really be mad. I would have drafted him in the first round too. Lenora's sound was probably going in the first round for me. He is a traits guy. He is a traits guy. I think if you look at the Florida defense, if you go and look at the Florida defense was not the problem with the Gators, but I think some of the plays that he makes is like, oh my gosh, it's highlight real stuff. But then it's like, where were you the last 10 plays? The run defense was really good at Florida. I think he fits the mold of what Florida is once. I'm actually going to defer to Florida's on this. I think that this was a guy that he hand picked. He wanted. It was a little high in the draft for my take just for an inconsistent player. But I think if you can get him in there. Lastly, I thought one of the least talked about because he's a second round pick is the kit from South Carolina, Brandon C.C. who's going to the Packers. The Packers need corner help. We'll talk about that a little bit more in a deck than we get to the Packers. But I think he's going to have an impact and be able to really push. All right. Let's transition to Felix's man crush, which is Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears. Declan DeWale. I'm not saying when you say that. I really got-- I have a bar. I think you're about as bread. You're about to get a drink over here. The big news here though is like Declan Doyle leaves to go to the Ravens. They hire press Taylor. They just promote press Taylor. Who press Taylor, by the way, is Zach Taylor's brother been around the league for a long time. I think he's a former Eagle coach. He's been around. He's got leaders and staffs. Right. So I don't think it's a non-issue. If you're like, well, hey, I thought you could have made the lateral moves. Well, Declan Doyle is actually going to call plays for the Ravens. We know who's calling plays for the Bears. And that is Ben Johnson. So nothing is going to change. I thought what Johnson did last year. was he kind of took the Flores defensive model and said, look, we're going to coin flip everything. So think of offenses a run pass, whereas defense is pressure, no pressure. Flores last year was like, I'm going to make every data coin flip. You're not going to know whether we're going to bring, we're going to stack the line of scrimmage so much anyway that you just never know whether we're going to bring somebody. It's a literal coin flip. That's what you want statistically, then you're guessing. That's what Ben Johnson was trying to do on almost every down. It's like, look, I want everything to be a 50/50 down because if you talk to a lot of these coordinators who are supposed to need a felt, they really are just like, look, we kind of know what you're going to do. I just need to know, is it a run or a pass? And if I can get that, then I know what package to be in, what menu that you're pulling from so that I can pull from my menu to match that. But if everything's a 50/50, even on third and long, you might run the ball. And I'm not talking a quarterback girl. I'm trying to mean you may just actually run something into, think about this. Like, you're in dime and you got your pass rushing guys in there. You're running some sort of just like a blanket cover two, right? And then they just run right up, like an actual run play right into the gut. And that third and 10 is now a first and 10 because of that. So I thought he did a good job. I thought him calling out Caleb Williams last year about just consistency, being more accurate. He's still less than 60% completion rate. But I think the big question mark here is, are we looking at an O'Donsey and burden breakout? Because if you can do that with this tight in group, that 12% L burden being kind of the gadget guy, O'Donsey being that Jameson Williams type guy, I think that this is an offense that can cook. Well, and I think, not that you overlooked because you just mentioned it there. But I think Colston loved one is the guy that could take off as a part of his offense. And not saying that O'Donsey and burden won't be really good as a part of it, but I also think that they could be almost how Travis Kelsey's the number one option or was the number one option in Kansas City. Their tight in can be the number one option because he has that type of athletic ability. And it just kind of looks like that's how Ben Johnson wants to run his offense through the tight end. And he had Sam Laporta in Detroit and doing different things like that. So it is really interesting when we talk about who's gonna break out for the Bears. Who's gonna be Caleb Williams is running buddy. Roman Dunes and Luther Burton do have quality resumes and then like could be that guy. I might not be the only one. It might be evenly split up three ways, but I think it's gonna be Colston loved one. - No, I think you're spot on. And I'm actually glad you brought that kind of oversight on my part is that I think Loveland, what you want is I think you're spot on. Ben Johnson wants to run the offense through Loveland. I think what Dunes is gonna give you that kind of that vertical element that you saw with James Williams. I think the the St. Brown element of the Crossroads and kind of the shallow, get him to ball while he's running is where you're gonna see Burton. Loveland to me is the move tied end element. Comet does not get enough credit as a. - Comet very good. - Why? This offense might be built one of the best to handle the modern game. Now Deandre Swift and Kyle Menongai, I think are average running backs. So you don't have that dynamic piece like you had in Gibbs and Montgomery, but we know analytically passing is much more efficient than running. You just need to have a running back that can get you a thousand yards, which I think Deandre Swift can. You need to have a good backup to keep the hit count low on your primary, but you look at the weapons here and the rebuilding of this offensive line, especially on the interior. This is an offense that if. I mean, imagine if Caleb Williams has a 63% completion rate instead of a what, 58, he can raise it up five percentage points. This is a pretty dang good offense, with one of the best offensive play call or situationally too in the NFL. - There was a little bit of talk about their defense not making a move on one of the edgers. Max Krasby, Tre Hendrixson, and I guess Miles Garrett was available at one point or another. But the Bears didn't, they did make a massive move. We mentioned Dylan Thinamon earlier and he's going to bring to that defense. What other things are you seeing on their defense that could be an issue, but I guess the biggest question is, where the hell is Montess? What? - That's amazing thing is the defensive line. I think you had a guy in Austin Booker that was really kind of becoming a better player. You don't really have a dynamic edge. I think Grady Jared is getting older, Dexter at interior is okay. So you're pretty much just average on the rush. You're really open to a guy like Austin Booker and Montess, what just really kind of step up. I think you've stabilized a little bit inside. TJ Edwards, when healthy is one of the best linebackers in the league. So getting him, getting a guy like Devon Bush, who I know a lot of Brown's fans are kind of rolling their eyes at getting him is going to stabilize the box, let you move around TJ Edwards. But I look at this, Tyrick Stevenson was kind of becoming a pretty good corner. And then he just kind of lost out on Nation right, who just because he just had an amazing year and got paid. But I think people, you know, this is a second round pick. I think people were getting, you play more consistency. You already have a dealing with the enemy, the enemy can be that down safety for you. Kobe Bryant, I thought coming off of the Super Bowl played really, really well. Again, these are above average type players. If you can hit on the enemy, Jaylen Johnson is an all pro. Kyler Gordon has potential to be an all pro win healthy. This is a pretty good secondary. And so I think that's what the focus here is, is hey, we got to get this offense right. We're going to bring in a stabilizing piece in Devon Bush. We're going to bring in a stabilizing piece. It kind of up, here's the problem with what they were last year. Briskour could only play near the box. Buyer could only play in the post. Now you have two guys that yeah, we want the enemy more to the box. Bryant more to the post. But I can sit them. And if I need to draw Bryant down, he can. If I need to draw, or if I need to leave Dean him back, he can. And then I'm going to really lean into the secondary that we already have in three corners, in both the corners and Kyler Gordon. Health, health, health. If that all plays out, this is a defense that is less reliant on turnovers, which we know year to year, you cannot count on. Because if there were something that you could do to produce turnovers, trust me, every defensive coach in all of America would be doing that every day in practice. Exactly, exactly. Maybe football wouldn't be as fun. It just wouldn't be. You offensive lineman, Matt at their quarterbacks with throwing in the saps, and all the time, I'd punch my run-in back for Fumbling. It'd be a whole thing. All right, talking about Ben Johnson's former team, the Detroit Lions. They're shifting around their offensive coordinator since Ben Johnson left. Johnny Morton out, bringing Drew Petsing in after his stint with the Cardinals, who a lot of people loved him with the Cardinals and what he was trying to do at least. And what he was able to do with Jacobi Versett. But now there's some-- they're moving some things around on the offensive line. And we talked about Jameer Gibbs and how we expect him to be take off this year. But when we say bell cow bag, it's not like, oh, he's carrying the ball. He's not dare, can't remember, carrying the ball 30 times a game. Like we said, 25 touches a game, 18 to 20 carries, and getting him involved in the passing game, and whatever else that may look like. Because you want him to be able to break it off for 60 yards and getting Pacheco involved for those short yardage. And he's going to run like a Tasmanian devil anyway. Well, I think people-- because of Arizona-- and I get a lot of-- I get a lot of flexes, too. Because I cover Jonathan Ganon, who, if you talk to coaches around the league, then have you either worked with him, or said, they're like, yeah, the guy is a defensive genius. He can create defenses out of anything. I think Petsing, too, is, man, what they're doing in 12 personnel in the run game and really trying to do some different things. But at the end of the day, they just didn't have the players. They didn't have the health. It's Arizona. So you're kind of stuck in the desert, and people didn't realize this. James Conner was tremendous for the Cardinals. You're now giving Petsing essentially one of the best running backs, if not the best running back, in the league to kind of do that James Conner role. Go back and look at that. And what I will say, and I know that Tisep Pacheco, one of the more unique running backs, just because of the way he runs. Like, nobody really runs like that. It's so strange. And it's like, it's like the things we talked about throughout football school. It's one of those things that's kind of wears on you. It's like, what the hell? That is the Tasmanian devil. And like, if that is the switch up to Jameer Gibbs, who you're saying is already one of the best running backs in football, and then you add in Pacheco, what does that-- you're tremendously dynamic while managing that you still have the speed and the power [BLANK_AUDIO] with both running backs in. Yeah, and I think Tase Law and your two is going to be a much better edition. Big, free-kits receiver. I think if you look at the, you know, they go and draft Blake Miller to allow Swole to move over to left. You bring in Kade Maze. You rebuild the back kind of the back end of your offensive line. You're going to be, you're pivoting more towards the Ben Johnson style of play that you kind of got away from. And you became what? The Campbell call plays. Right. It came a little bit. I think you could argue a little bit too pass heavy. This was a run oriented. Right. We're going to fight knee caps off, right? Well, you can't do that if you're really leaning in. Golf. You can't hear relax. Yes. And I think golf too is one of the better passers in the league. But he functions better when you have a play action and you make clear reads for him. And teams aren't just going to sit back and pin their ears back. So I think that's the thing. My biggest issue with the Lions, the past several years. And the reason why I don't think that they've gotten over the hump has been their all 11 style of defense. This is a defense that has played more base than anybody else in the last three years. The problem with that though is health. When you only have 11 guys that you're willing to play, one of those guys goes down, Hutchins one year, Anzalone gets hurt. They lose what was it? Gonzalez one year. Last year they lost both their safety. And people were like, oh, what's going to go look at the very beginning of every year? This is a defense that essentially carries itself to the end that it's so good early that when all of the attrition starts and the defense starts ball turning, it statistically through the whole season that looks like a top 10 defense. You're looking at a defense now that's lost Anzalone. Brian Branch will be back. He's an all pro type player at safety. This stuff coming out about Kirby Joseph does not sound good at all, which is another all pro safety. Who is your post player? Brian Branch is your down. So you added Eisen average safety, Chuck Clark who's bounced around. He's kind of again another average safety, more of a backup than he is a starter. So there's not a lot of depth there. DJ Reed is good. I think that's a good pick up. But opposite, you're looking at Rocketson in a rake show who I think a lot of people thought was going to kind of elevate. Still waiting on that. Kind of rebuilt your D line but with who? Nobody that you're saying is like, hey, that guy coming in is a game changer. You did draft Eric Moore in the second round. But I think at the end of the day, this is a defensive arguably is getting worse. And I think some people when the Lions lost their an FC championship game against the four guys, I know that's three years ago, but it's like, this is kind of why Dan Campbell was so sad and the window kind of like it closes really fast. And I'm not saying that the window is closed, but you said that these are the three teams and there are three teams in the Spider-Man main. This kind of reminds me of the second Spider-Man movie where there's three Spider-Man and one of them is kind of old. And it's just kind of like, I'm going to keep up as best I can with the two with the Packers and the Bears. But the window just might be a little, it's closed. It's closing. And because you have Jameer Gibbs, because you have Gough and then the different offensive talent and like it across your fingers of things do stay healthy and like if things do switch up defensively and you learn some things throughout the year and Aiden Hutchinson and it can put on a phenomenal performance like we've seen before. - I think you've already got her that one year. - Exactly. And so like if they get back to that point, I just if ifs or fifths would all be drunk. And so I just I hate relying on ifs, especially in the off season you're supposed to solve some of those ifs. - Yeah, and I agree with you. So the final question here before we move on to the Packers is can the offense carry? I think if this is an offense that becomes a top five, top three, it's explosive. - You can't see what it was. - Right, and this is that guy. - The defense is stable. I do like look, I like their defensive coordinator. I like Nelman Shepherd. I think that the losing Kirby Joseph, it's going to be a big deal. Brian Branch, I have full on. I think he's going to come back and be fine. Adding Roger McCrary, who I thought was a really good player a couple years ago, kind of has now floated around and can't find a home. If he can find a home at Nickel, they play a little bit more Nickel. I think they'll be okay. Ray Shaw kind of push it, Rock Yesin. Maybe becomes that second round draft pick that they all thought kind of opposite DJ Reed. Then hey, we're looking at maybe the 12 best defense, 14th best defense, but we have the number two, number three, number one offense in the lead. I think it works, but this is a competitive division, right? And this is like we said, this is a division that everybody feels like they can play against each other. Imagine when you play the Packers and the Bears and the Vikings because it comes down to like the teams you play and I mean, obviously you're a division, but like because you guys are so similar and this is kind of the cremd of your conference, it matters. - No, it does. And I love the comment that you said about the window club. This just goes to show you how fast windows open and windows close in the lead. You're talking about two, three years, not, oh, well, we'll have a full contract. I mean, sometimes it is, hey, this was our best opportunity. This was our best team. This was the most and we just didn't have the health. And I think that's what has happened to the Lions. - And they're hard to reopen. You get painted shut real fast. - Right. And I think here's the irony in all of this is like, if you look at like who's slated to start differently, you have, I think they brought DJ Wannum from Carolina who's gonna push Derek Moore. So Derek Moore or Wannum's gonna play that defensive in spot. And then you have Roger McCreary who's gonna come in and play that nickel. Maybe your fifth round draft, pick Keith Abney pushes him. So you're, I mean, those to me are not additions where you're sitting there saying, oh, that's a game changer on defense. The irony here though is that they've completely kind of done the backside of their defense to add, to kind of add depth, right? So you have some depth interior on the interior defense of line, but you're looking at rookies and guys that are kind of like backups as your backups. And a defense that I just said is in all 11 defense, you can't have these guys be playing a majority of your down. So it'll be really interesting. All right, let's transition to another defense that's gonna be transitioning. You have half of who took the head coaching job with the dolphins did a phenomenal job early in the year. - What about these two teams playing like the defense of court or excuse me, the defense of head coach and the offensive coordinator from the team that just got fired, going up against each other in the same division twice a year, both of them are tremendously respected by nerds within their circles. - Yeah, I think the biggest thing here too that's not talked about is that Malik Willis is now with the dolphins. We just mentioned earlier in here about back at quarterbacks and their importance. We saw several of them in the East that are now working in the NFC, they're now working as offensive coordinators. So I think that's going to be interesting here. You're also changing the style of defense from half, so again, you're going to another style of defense, right? You kind of fired a guy, you brought in halfly, halfly establishes more of a Sala-esque system. Now you're going more to back to a Banger with Jason system and Jonathan Ganon. I think Ganon's gonna have a, I think Ganon will have a very similar season to what Brandon Staley had with the Saints. It may not look good early, but we're gonna look up and say, hey, this is one of the better defenses in the NFL late because he finally has the players to do it. - Well, and with Micah getting hurt late in the last season, I don't, be honest, I don't know the exact schedule of when he's supposed to come back, but if and when he does, that's when things could be, what you're saying could be even more elevated because of the individual players that they do have. They had an in a bar and they've got really good individual players that I think can make what that scenario like Staley with the Saints even better because and then we'll talk about their offense here momentarily. I think it's the same thing of like why everybody wants to see Kyle Shanahan with Justin Herbert or whatever the case may be. It's like LaFlora's got Jordan Love, who looks like everything in a bag of chips. - Yeah. - Put it together. - Put it together. I think, I think it will just wrap up these things before we go to the offense because essentially they're trying to run it back on offense. You are gonna have a schematic shift. You're gonna be less kind of zone structure, more match structure. Secondary is essentially all there. I mentioned that at the beginning of the show. I just don't know, like he's shown Nick's is proved he can play outside, but do we want him to play outside? He's really a nickel. Well, the problem is that you have a nickel and java on board. Okay. So Kishon Nixon really needs to play to the field. Who's going to be your boundary corner? Oh, well, that's Carrington Valentine. Okay. If brain and CSA can come in and become that boundary corner, I think that allows you to really open up and do a lot of different things. I think we feel really high on Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams. So I'm good with the safety room. It's just, and I think to Ziger Franklin is going that they, you know, they traded for is going to really stabilize that. Allow Evan Cooper to kind of be that hybrid guy that these guys are all going to want. You know, I think it comes down to Lucas Van Ness stepping up to bond hardgrave becoming a really good player. There are nose and Chris McLellan who they drafted into third round, you know, kind of giving them that inside presence. But offensively, okay, you lose wicks, but you did that so that you could kind of let Matthew Golden, Jane Marie and Christian Watson, who those are the guys who chose to be able to say, Hey, it's you guys. We don't have that fourth guy. This is this is it. This is who you guys are. We're going to go with you and move forward. I think everybody loves their, you know, Tucker Kraft. I think Josh Jacobs is a really good running back. So I'm with you. It's it's lover bust in 26. It's got to come down to La Flore, manufacturing the looks that he needs. Jordan love executing, executing. Like that ball and like that's it comes down to it each and every year. We talk about it with the top tier quarterbacks, my homes, Alan Jackson, even Justin Herbert at time, like all these different guys. I have Joe Barrow. And so I think that we see something. I don't know whom C Jordan love in that category. And I where will you hold him to that standard then as well. Yeah. And I think that we're like what year eight in you sat on the bench for four years for three years. Let's go. You're making the money now. It's it's going to go time when the Super Bowl. Like I know that it seems like too harsh a standard. That is the state that they're in tie-al-town. Yeah, I mean, look, you are in your six. You're in your six. You got it. What we said about Kyler last year, honest to God. Yeah, no, it's. Except where we know that he has a higher floor and a higher ceiling. So it's like, look, you've got to and your six prove that this is it. And really, if you could argue it's not really your six, what he he's sit for the first three. That doesn't to me. You get that that counts. You were there. I think that that counts too. Hey, you it's an apprenticeship. You should be able to do it. So I think that this is it. I think if he goes out and he has a fantastic year, I think the packers are really pushing. I think if he goes out and he has the typical Jordan love year where one game he looks like the World beater. The next year he, you know, throws three picks to the Carolina Panthers. I think that you're going to be looking at it as like. This is who you are. You're a they've already paid them. That's like the pickle you've caught yourself in. Like if you the tax, I feel like we talk about this every year, you're in quarterback purgatory. You know, it's kind of like the Cowboys. We don't want to get rid of that. But we'd like to level up. Well, you can't level up unless you're you get a top 10 pick. And that's just that's just the reality. That's just the reality of it. All right. Let's finish up with the Vikings. This is again, going from a team that's all about the quarterback in the Packers. I think it's all about the quarterback with the Vikings. This is a Flores has proven he can build a top 10 defense with what he has on the roster. I think it's going to come down to Iler gets a bad rap just because he was in Arizona. He does look goofy sometime, running around. He struggles to throw the ball over the middle of the field in a modern game and what's going to be interesting in a offense that is going to want to hit the intermediate. But he's actually pretty consistent. He's not elite, but he's consistent. And I think we just we just got done talking about her quarterback purgatory. You're looking for consistency at quarterback. And then eventually, can we raise the level of that play? Can we get in? So I think that the non-answered around JJ McCarthy who is still he's cooked. Do you think he's done? I know it's fast, but is he done? No, I think look, I think he is done. If I think he's done, if Murray comes in and has a like when the division like a top 10 statistical year, if he's in the top 10 statistically, I think you're done. You're looking. I don't even think there would be that fast of a drop like since Josh Rosen for a top 10 quarterback or top 10 adjacent or whatever. Well, all the things around this, you know, it's really easy when you fire the GM. And now you can kind of all say, oh, what's the GM? I think there was a lot of people who feel like the GM got scapegoat on us. But at the end of the day, that's your job is player selection. Whether it was your choice or the the hey, coach's choice. That's the politics of welcome to coaching in the NFL. I think the thing out of this is we're going to see more non runs and pistol runs. I think you're going to see more of a look of what the packers I think it's really interesting that this is kind of the environment that we're in. But I had I'm talking to a quarterback coach who is a quarterback trainer. The issue we're seeing in the NFL right now is a byproduct of the spread that you're seeing in college football. And then even more of a byproduct of what you're seeing at the high school level is that at the high school level, you're taking the best athlete and you're putting me quarterback. Not the best quarterback, the best athlete. And yeah, these kids can throw, but not accurate very much. You're relying on on athleticism. You're running a lot of zone reads, quarterback bass concepts, quarterback run concepts. You've a lot of sprints where the quarterback can just run, right? If all hell breaks loose, he just makes the play. We're throwing the ball deep because we probably have faster kids than you do. That's why we have an athlete of quarterback. That's going to college. College is playing a lot of deep choice. Half-field reads quick. This is your fast food of offense. This is fast food. That's what you're eating. You know, high school, it's perimeter screens and vertical and and favorites, right? That's like candy. You're going to college and you're eating McDonald's and Taco Bell every day. The NFL is trying to eat steak. Right. The NFL steak. The NFL is trying to get a Michelin star restaurant. That's what they're trying. So it's like wagyu is too good. What happens though is you can only pull from the quarterbacks that you're given. And so what you're seeing is you have an athlete-based quarterback structure at the high school level. They're moving to college because hey, we want the same thing, right? That's what the top-ends are pulling from. And so the the traditional dropback guys, everybody's like, oh, but what about Lamar? Lamar is one of one. We've got to quit with Lamar. Have you ever seen a unicorn? Right, that's it. That's in. You know, even like a guy like Josh Allen, Josh Allen played at Wyoming guys in a pro style offense. And he got passed up on multiple times and had to go to junior college. So I think it's like, they're I I'm actually really interested in the fact that I think there will be a trickle down. We're already starting to see it at the college level of a more traditional style of play. And I've argued this with high school coaches before. I know I'm getting on a tangent when I really talk about the bike some more, but I've argued that this with college coach or high school coach before. Kyle is one of the greatest high school quarterbacks of all time. There I brought it back. No, they're full circle. Yeah. But there are certain, yes, the NFL has just aliens playing football. They're the one percenters. I got that. But there are, but it's kind of like that bell curve meme of like what you do with the high school, you know, it's kind of like, oh, but then you have this last minute and then at the end of the day, there's certain things football wise that you just can't get around. And the NFL really showed clearly shows you that. Yes, they're spacing issues that you have to play differently at the high school and at college levels because of the hatches. But the fun of middle of football do not change at all three levels. And so I'm glad that we're seeing a little bit of a trickle down of more pro style in the college game. I'm already seeing more of an emphasis. I mean, my dad who's been a, you know, a staunch traditionalist forever, even though that he modified it for the gun and things like that when he was, when he was at office quarter at the high school level. But, you know, running more boot action, running more play action on early down, throwing more of a quick game, not being so reliant on deep ball things. I think that's slowly trickling down. And so the segue back into the Vikings, Kyla Murray's probably arguably one of the best high school quarterbacks of all time. All right, I think that one interesting thing here that nobody's talking about, is you want Jennings joining the receiving core here. That's going to be really tall receiving core with, you know, I think rebounders. Arguably, Addison and Jefferson have been kind of the best one to punch. You put a power slot in John Jennings and a guy that can move outside. You can kick Jefferson in or Addison inside. I think it gets you a little bit more dynamic. 11 personnel becomes a key factor here as well. I think with the going more towards the style of Jay-Jama McCarthy, more towards the style of Kyla Muria, the more of a spread style, but doing it in a gun run way or kind of like I always go back to LaFlora with Aaron Rogers of this kind of that gun run, spread style of play. And we'll wrap it up with this. I think the Bryan Forest defense, it's not going anywhere and only he can run it. Now Dorate Jones, you talk about this last week with the East. I'm very curious to see that iteration work in Washington. Is this something? Because here's the thing. If they can work in Washington, you're going to start seeing more and more guys start trying to run a similar style. I thought one of the things I was wrong about in 2025. I thought, and we talked about this before the season, I thought we'd see more pressure. We actually did. Pressure's kind of stabilized. I thought we'd see more early down pressures. We did not see that. It's really kind of congregating, pressurized, and a very select few teams. Like the Broncos, the Buccaneers, and the Vikings. The Vikings obviously being a complete outlier. So they drafted two interior defense alignment and banks who we talked about orange, there's a true nose. I think he realized I need more. I mean, the Harrison Phillips, we let him walk and we probably should have kept him. I think Jake Galday from Cincinnati is kind of that chanol piece that you're going to see with the commanders move around. He's a unique piece in the box. I'm still concerned about the secondary, but then again, Flores has proven me wrong. I'm using that kind of Flores is calling cars. He's proven me wrong every single year. You can take advantage of it. Been Johnson has proven that. You can't take advantage of it. But again, I'm going to be concerned. Flores is probably going to prove me wrong. I'm really interested in the North. Again, I think the bears are probably the front runners. You have to agree. Packers are probably right there. The lions look like the odd man out. And I think the Vikings, I think if they don't make the playoffs, I think you could arguably see Kevin O'Connell not make it back in 2027. Really? Yes. Because then we need to reach with retire in that case. Yeah, so I don't think he will. I don't think that he will be unemployed for long, but I do think that if this is another seven and 10, six and 11, because the quarterback situation just doesn't work out, look, I just don't see. I don't see him surviving. I think you just caught me rooting against the Vikings all year long. I do what I think Andy Reeves is going to write off into the sunset and chaos. I need to read right off into the sunset. And you want Kevin O'Connell to pull up? You want that here's your hot take. I think they hires. I think the Rams are going to be amazing this year. And I think Reed is going to do his best. He's going to retire. And I think they hire the the Shoe House kid who is a Kansas City kid to come back to Kansas City. He's an offensive minded guy. He's from the McBachery. This is your hot take for 2027. You heard it live on Let's Talk Ball. Make sure to give me credit. I'll be weeks later. Oh man. I really think that's what's going to happen. Oh god, I don't think you hire a child.