The Browns took the big guaranteed gamble on DeShaun Watson and will be paying the price for years. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the quarterback situation of many struggling NFL teams as the red-hot Ravens head to Cleveland to take on a disgraced franchise in disarray.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens preparation, Browns game, Deshaun Watson, NFL QB situation, Lamar Jackson, Justin Tucker, Kansas City Chiefs, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Tom Brady, NFL parity, franchise quarterbacks, playoff contenders, field storming, Maryland Terps
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
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Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore and Baltimore positive. Celebrate 26 years of doing this crazy stuff and Monday Night Football with the Ravens sitting around all day on Sunday and doing it. We’re going to be sitting around all day on Friday and Owens Mills at mama’s on the half shell. Can’t wait to get up and see the new space there. I am a big, big proponent of all things Nacho mamas and Canton, as most folks know, and and Towson, all of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, we’ll have the Raven scratch offs the lucky batch to give away on Friday. Also got some great guests coming out on Friday. I’ll be announcing a little later on in the week, Luke Jones will be a part of a short week in Owings Mills this week as they prepare for the Cleveland Browns, and certainly not the Sean Watson. I’ll have some Cleveland guests around here. We’ll have some residue for Monday Night Football in Tampa. Luke Jones joins us now behalf of our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, as well as royal farms, even though he’s wearing his pizza John’s hat, Luke, I got my feelings hurt on Saturday night into Sunday. I had to soothe myself by going to Pizza John’s at approximately 12:32pm on Sunday, we rolled out wings, rolled out cheese steaks, rolled out the works pizza the way I like it. No meat sauce, half onion, half green pepper. I avoided the pineapple did that last week. Crab cake did that last week, and we brought it all home. And I had to soothe myself, after all these people beat me up, how dare I suggest that the Maryland Terps fan base not storm the field when they beat a three and three team by a point in an unlikely comeback. I mean, where do you stand on that? Most importantly, before we get to NFL talks,
Luke Jones 01:50
I don’t have any problem with it. You’re talking about 18 to 22 year olds who have had so little to nothing to get excited about as it pertains to Maryland football. And look, I’m very jaded when it comes to Maryland football. I didn’t watch the game. I live in Pennsylvania,
Nestor Aparicio 02:08
so you’re like, wise markets. There’s a lot of Penn State going on up there. It really is, once just hit here for go on my normal road. Boom. It’s Penn State, Landia.
Luke Jones 02:18
It is. But, but that said, I mean, they erased a 14 point fourth quarter deficit. It is a signature program. When you’re a program that is trying to find your footing in Yeah, we’re in the Big 10 before this recent expansion, and it’s so odd to think about USC in the Big 10. I mean, that’s another discussion for another day, but it is a signature program, and it is something to feel good about. Look, am I going to sit here and say that was that truly a win that warrants storming the field? How many wins really warrant storming the field? And, look, we could talk about that’s why safety issue of it and all that, but,
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Nestor Aparicio 03:00
but that said I’m thinking, I’m not even on the Okay, that’s fine, but, but I’m fun. I’m on a big enough game to storm the field. And if it’s any other program, you’re picking
Luke Jones 03:12
on 18 to 22 year olds, but, but you’re just picking on 18 to 22 year olds. If it were 50 year old men, you know Maryland middle age Terps fans that were the ones storming the field then, but I would be
Nestor Aparicio 03:24
okay if you’re Mike Collins or me storming the field because you beat Florida State and you’re going to the Orange Bowl like
Luke Jones 03:34
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storming years ago. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 03:35
you don’t want to storm the field anyway,
Luke Jones 03:39
not not at my age.
Nestor Aparicio 03:41
I’ve never shrugged the field. I kind of want to, that’s for but I don’t when you beat USC, when they’re three and three and think you beat OJ Simpson in his prime, that’s all, or Matt Leinart, it’s, I guess. I mean, it’s just one.
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Luke Jones 03:55
It’s just kind of a shorter shrug. To me, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I well,
Nestor Aparicio 03:59
it began quite a weekend football. So I mean, if nothing else, we awakened early on Sunday to awful football from London and then worked our way through Deshaun Watson worked our way through the lions and the Vikings and bears, oh my and the 40 Niners and chiefs. It brought interesting comments from Tom Brady, and then I spent the entire evening chasing baseball in the Dodgers and my friend Janet Marie Smith and wanting to beat the Yankees, if nothing else afterwards Soto did the other night. But it was a great weekend of football. Ravens game Monday night aside, whenever that chargers, ESPN plus thing is where none of us are going to be watching. I’ve been watching a lot of sports, lot of baseball, lot of football and the NFL. For me, it was a great day to be on the couch. A beautiful day too, but it was a great day of football Sunday.
Luke Jones 04:57
Yeah. I mean, you always get an opportunity to assess. The rest of the league. And I’ll go back to something you said last week, where you, you basically said, all but eight teams in the league stink. And look, there are a lot of there’s a lot of haves and haves not have nots. I mean, there really is. And you know, one thing that that struck me was, you know, we did get a few really good games, like, for example, Detroit, Minnesota, was a really good game, two really good teams in the NFC division, rivals, all of that. But you also had, I mean, even going back to the Thursday night game, where the Broncos just completely destroyed the saints, you had quite a few games that ended up being pretty lopsided. I mean, you mentioned I didn’t see, I saw five minutes of the Jags Patriots game. I went to church and then went to brunch. I mean, I wasn’t wasting my time waking up watching the Jaguars play the Patriots. You know, maybe, maybe a decade ago, but not now. Um, but you know that that game ended up being the Patriots are one and six and the Jaguars, okay. They want a game good for them, but they stink. Yeah, I thought Seattle beating Atlanta was good for Mike McDonald. I mean, the Seahawks, they started out so good, but three and oh, and then they had lost three in a row, and their defense had gone sideways. So but, but, you know, you kind of just go down the through the list of games this weekend. And as I mentioned, you had that NFC North clash packers and Texans was a really good football game. I think that was a game that good for the ravens, you know, with the Texans falling to five and two as you’re trying to look ahead to potential AFC seeding for the playoffs. So always good to see some of the other perceived elites in the AFC go down as the Texans did. But you know, also a lot of just bad football too. I mean, dolphins, Colts.
Nestor Aparicio 06:50
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I mean just there’s a perception of quarterback play, which is where I could take this while we’re watching Lamar run around and even Baker Mayfield’s resurrection on Monday Night Football, right? But for me, Russell Wilson, talk of the league, right? Aaron Rodgers got his coach fired last week, and everybody on NBC has to run around on eggshells about what they say, what they don’t say, who they’re critical of because of who owns the team. And the Jets are a disgrace. The Steelers are what they are, which is, you know, if you’re gonna make a case for Mike Tomlin, go to the Hall of Famer John Harbaugh, I’ll bring Tony Romo in on that Tomlin manages to do it without the top notch talent that Jeff Beauchamp once talked about here at W NSD, and I see what Jared Goff has done with his career. You mentioned Seattle, and Geno Smith, and these guys have had resurrections. Sam darnold, despite the the outcome this weekend, and Deshaun Watson, who we might be the end. And as much as we talk about CAP numbers, we’ll have the whole week to talk about the browns, and we’re going to play them this week with whoever their quarterback is. And I saw Jameis Winston staying and you know, my dear friend Daryl writer from Cleveland, was videoing that in the locker room does same work you do out in Cleveland. And the quarterback thing for me can’t be illuminated more in week eight, when you say, Have and Have Not. Very few teams have a quarterback and have not anything else,
Luke Jones 08:26
yeah. But, I mean, this is all we hear about, is parody in the NFL. And I think it, you know, this is actually an appropriate time to bring this up, because you had the Yankees and the Dodgers in the World Series and payroll and that conversation, which I’m sure you and I will have at some point here this week, but in the NFL, as much as we talk about parity, and it’s a parity driven League, and you have the salary cap, we see the same teams there in January over and over and over. Why? Because they have quarterbacks. They have franchise quarterbacks. You don’t see teams, okay, you might see a team get in as the number seven seed when they don’t have a an established answer at quarterback, you know. And certainly, the Browns last year, with what Joe Flacco was able to do for them was, you know, kind of the exception to the rule at this point in time. And I don’t say that, you know. It’s a compliment to Joe, you know, and it’s a disparaging remark to the Cleveland Browns, but you know, these teams that have quarterbacks, they’re at a distinct advantage compared to the teams who don’t. I mean, it’s, you know, that’s, that’s kind of the captain obvious statement, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. And I mean, even look at Kansas City right now, Patrick mahomes is not playing his best football. I mean, he’s thrown more more interceptions and touchdowns, but I will say what he is doing for them, and obviously their defense has played at a very high level. He manages the game, you know? He he has the awareness right now to look at what they have. And what they don’t have in terms of their receivers, in terms of Isaiah Pacheco, and he manages, right? I mean, Patrick mahomes, right now is a game manager, and I don’t I’m not saying that to be a not that to be a knock on him. It’s kind of where they are right now. He’s kind of looking at that night, and I get it, you’d say, well, he threw a couple interceptions, but if you also look at those plays, they’re kind of both freakish plays. But, I mean, that’s the difference when you have a quarterback who has won three Super Bowls and, quite frankly, isn’t really all that interested in the regular season at this point in time. You know, I’ve made this comment about Lamar. I mean, Lamar is putting up great numbers, but we’ve seen Lamar on multiple occasions after games this year be ticked off, and he’s kicked off because of something that happened late in the game, or, you know, frankly, the defense not playing well in Dallas, for example, you could tell he was ticked off about that, even though he didn’t, you know, he didn’t say it. You know, he wasn’t throwing anyone under the bus, but he was unhappy about it. But you know, you have these quarterbacks who have, in mahomes, this case, has either been to the top of the mountain, or, in the Mars case, is trying as hard as to get to the top of the mountain that, you know, you kind of go through this regular season, and you just say, Okay, that’s great, and you got to win games, and you need to get there. But the destination is all about January, but, but then you look around at, you know, so many of these teams who don’t have that. And, you know, you just see a lot of listless, mediocre football, right? And, you know, I mean, look at, look at the Raiders rams game. And I get it, they have Matthew Stafford, but the rams have been ravaged by injuries, right? They’re two and four even with that win. And okay, they’re going to get Cooper cup back, and they’re going to get poo can the cool back in the coming weeks, and we’ll see if they can turn things around. But you know, you look at that game and you just look at those two teams, and you’re like, where are they going, right? I mean, at least the Rams won a Super Bowl a couple years ago, but in the case of the Raiders, it’s like, where are you going, you know? I mean, even O’Connell gets hurt, but it’s like, it’s not your answer, you know, that’s not your franchise quarterback of the future. So you have him, or Gardner Minshew, and you just look at that, and you say, like, what is this? I think the browns, and we’ll get into this. And I don’t want to belabor the point, the browns, to me, are at such a it’s, it’s horrendous. But it’s interesting from the standpoint of, do you just lean all the way into tanking and start Dorian Thompson, Robinson, who I don’t think that kid can play. I mean, I just, I don’t, I know they, they’ve liked him in the preseason the last couple years, but he was awful when he came in on Sunday. Or Jameis Winston, who might be able to win you a couple games here and there, and probably only mess up your draft pick, if we’re being honest, right? I mean, you know, because they, you know, they still have some semblance of a decent defense, you know, if they would get anything at all positive from their quarterback play. But again, what are they playing for at this point? What’s going to happen with with Deshaun Watson, you know? I mean, are they going to, I guess they’ll be able to pick up some insurance, you know, money in terms of, you know, cap and all that with him getting hurt. But, I mean, it’s just, you look at some of these teams that don’t have that, you know, giants, another example. I
Nestor Aparicio 13:10
mean, even Daniel Browns can’t bring Deshaun Watson back next March and say he’s our quarterback, because we’re
Luke Jones 13:17
paying, I mean, you wouldn’t think so. You wouldn’t think so, but, but, well, they, I mean,
8Nestor Aparicio 13:22
they are what they are. I mean, it’s like the Jets, I know, but they’re back, getting their coach felt. I mean, these organizations that are mismanaged. I watched the baseball team here, well, that’s my point,
Luke Jones 13:35
right? I mean, you’re right. In a vacuum, I wholeheartedly agree with you, in a vacuum, he would have been benched probably in week three. I mean, that’s how bad he’s been. He’s been awful, absolutely awful. And, you know, not even getting into, you know, fans cheering or booing him getting hurt. I mean, that that that that organization, that owner, put that fan base in such an awful position. And, you know, put it putting aside AFC, north, Baltimore, Cleveland. Putting all that aside for a moment, you bring in someone that is such a lowly human being in terms of perception and in terms of off the field transgressions and all those cases and all of that. And on top of that, he’s played at a horrendous level. And then you have players, and look, players are emotional after games. They aren’t going to necessarily have the same kind of perspective that a fan base or outsiders are going to have. So you know, they’re they’re comments, but, but, but it just speaks to just an absolutely toxic relationship right now between that franchise and that owner and its fans, right? That that they were even put in a position that one, they had to root for Deshaun Watson. And two, he didn’t even play good football. You know? I mean, usually, the saving grace is, when you have an off the field issue with a player, is that they’re going to play at a high level on the field, and they’re. That conflict in terms of, okay, don’t like what he’s done off the field. Don’t necessarily think much of him from a character standpoint, but at least he’s a heck of a football player, and we’ve seen that play out time and time again in so many markets and so many different sports. But you have someone who you don’t think anything of off the field in terms of their character and they’re who they are as a person, and they stink, right? So, yeah, when he gets hurt, and, you know, I don’t want to wish injury on anyone or anything like that, but how are the fans supposed to react there? Right? Because you put your fan base in this impossible position, but because you your hubris as an owner, made the move that you did and gave that guy, of all people, a fully guaranteed contract. I mean, it’s just, it’s toxic. I mean, it’s absolutely toxic. It’s absolutely shameful. And we started talking about this a couple years ago when Watson wasn’t looking like the Watson from Houston. We said it at the time. You know the Browns are going to get everything they deserve with this. And you know that’s playing out now, and he’s hurt now, and you know whichever quarterback they’re going to play. I mean, it doesn’t matter. They’re out of it. You know, they’re not going to make the playoffs, or certainly, even if you like Jameis Winston, even if you thought Jameis Winston could have, should have been their quarterback back in week three, yeah, they’re not climbing out of this hole at this point in time. So what do you do? Do you just lean into it all the way and just tank and, you know, try to go about it that way. Or do you try to put your best foot forward with Winston, and maybe you win a handful of games here the rest of the way and, well, that might, that might, uh, prevent you from, from getting the top quarterback in the draft then, so, I mean, it’s just but, but it goes back to any of these teams that don’t truly have a guy. You know the guy as your quarterback, and you know whatever that line of demarcation is. You know, whether you think there are six truly elite quarterbacks or eight quarterbacks that can win a Super Bowl, 10 quarterbacks that can lead you to a Super Bowl. Whatever you think the number is, there’s clearly a line of demarcation, and the problem is what we’ve seen, and Watson’s the extreme example. But how about Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville right now, where they paid him. But do you feel that? Does anyone there feel conviction that he’s going to lead them to the Promised Land someday. Doesn’t feel that way. I mean, tua in Miami is a little bit of a different situation with the concussions, and they’re being a health and injury element. But some of these teams that have played paid quarterbacks where you just look at it and say, should you have you know, just because you can just because some people were saying you should, doesn’t always mean you should. But then on the on the flip side, you are the ravens, a team that has an MVP at quarterback. And, okay, the the one thing you could say is they’ve got to do it in January. Yeah, noted everyone not that, not name the chiefs, has to do that at this point in time, Josh. Josh Allen has to do that. Joe burrow still has to do that, because they didn’t win when they went three years ago. But these teams that have a high price quarterback who isn’t getting the job done, I mean, well, you talk about a scary place to be, at least in the case of Pittsburgh, whether you want to talk about Russell Wilson or Justin fields. They’re not married to either one of those guys, right? I mean, they’re not signed up long term, paying those guys lucrative money. So at least you have that much even if I’m going to sit here and say, No, rulson’s not leading the Steelers to a Super Bowl. Justin fields isn’t leading them to the Super Bowl. But at least they’re not in a position like some of these other teams who have paid a quarterback and yet you still have questions. I mean, look how much the giants are paying Danny dimes, you know, Daniel Jones, to just have have games where they bench him in the fourth quarter because they stink. So I mean, that’s just, it’s not where you want to be, but that’s where a lot of teams find themselves. In the current landscape of the National Football League.
Nestor Aparicio 19:00
Lou Jones and I are monitoring football and baseball all week. There is a World Series, even though it’s the Yankees and Dodgers. I’m sure you won’t hear much about it in the media this week at all. We’re getting ready for the Cleveland Browns as well. In the aftermath of the the ravens and the bucks on Monday night, something I noticed just league trends. And I just sort of wrote this down because I can go all night with the fans in Cleveland and guaranteed money and wherever the floor was in that Cleveland deal for all these quarterbacks, kickers and having one, and we’ve kind of always had one here, except in the Billy Cundiff case where, and again, I still go back to one of the reasons to not put Harpa on Hall Of Fame was that game, that decision, running him out. Conde, still a goat, 15 years later here, but it’s been matched over and it’s been Justin Tucker in the way that we watch the Steelers. It’s been three head coaches they’ve ever had there, and the Jets have had 150 and under 50 other quarterbacks, Ken O’Brien, the whole deal, right? Yeah. Kickers in the league, and teams that don’t have them and are trying guys out in week seven, and this guy’s different than the guy week before. This is the time of the year for that a little bit too. And there’s nothing that’s worse than having Lamar, having Derek, having all of that and setting up for a 38 yard field goal to win something and not not hitting it.
20:29
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Yeah.
Luke Jones 20:30
I mean, it’s, you know, and we talk about this a lot in college football, too. I mean, some of these programs, elite programs, even programs that you know, are giving out the niho money and all that that’s changed that landscape where you joke and say, Man, they have everything except, like, how can they not find, like, some walk on former soccer player that could just do the job for them as a kicker, you know? But you know, to bring it back to what you’re saying. I mean, it’s the ultimate missing piece if you have, and look, if you’re a bad team, having a great kicker. I mean, okay. I mean, fine, it might win you an extra game along the ways. But if you’re a great team and have and have the makings of a Super Bowl team, but you don’t have that figured out, or, heaven forbid, something happens to your kicker, yeah, that that’s something that can be devastating to you. You know the narrative early in the season. Of course, we were talking about Tucker. You know, with his some of his issues beyond 50 yards early in the year, even going back to last year, was that kickers are better than than ever. You know, from long distance, they probably are, even though some of those numbers have regressed to the mean a little bit here since the first couple weeks. But yeah, there’s still something to be said for just consistency and just someone that you can depend on. And in the case of the ravens, you know, okay, is just has Justin Tucker the last couple years been peak, optimal? Justin Tucker of the prime of his career, maybe not, but I still trust him a heck of a lot more than just about every kicker in football, if you’re lining up for a game winning kick, and that’s valuable, because as much as, yeah, you want to be in the space that the Ravens have been in occasionally in the Lamar era, where there have been times where they haven’t had to use Justin Tucker a whole lot right, other than kick extra points, because their offense has been that good at times over The last five, six years. But if you’re in that spot, sure you know you want to have that, and if you are in a position where you’re trying to figure that out, I mean, it’s an on the margins kind of move, but it’s an important margin, you know, if that makes sense. So
Nestor Aparicio 22:39
Minnesota Halloween weekend because we had Graham Gano for five minutes. Steve house, both of those guys had great, I mean, Gano just great, great, great careers, not here, and I don’t think about them. I think it feels like they went from starboard to two minutes of kind of to nothing but Justin Tucker, because it’s been nothing but Justin Tucker for a long time. And I noticed kickers around the league a lot on Sunday, and the movement of it more than I don’t think you and I talked about kickers outside of our kicker in a long, long time. But it’s a big issue in a lot of places. It really is. Yeah, I
Luke Jones 23:18
mean, I guess I haven’t noticed it that much. One, I don’t spend a lot of time paying attention. Paying attention to kickers, and I just don’t, but, but when it does show up, yeah, it can be a big deal. And you know, you mentioned a couple of those guys. I mean, throw will Lutz in there. You know, a guy who was with the Ravens in the preseason several, several years back at this point in time, and has had a really fruitful career as an NFL kicker, but it’s one of those things, you don’t think about it. And maybe what I just said kind of reflects this. You don’t really think about it, and you take it for granted until it slaps you in the face that you don’t have it, and then it can really threaten to derail your season. I mean, it absolutely can. It’s
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Nestor Aparicio 24:01
just an automatic in the fan base here, and the fan base here’s just sort of like that. You get to the 50 yard line, bring Tucker on. He can make it, no problem. What’s the win in Tampa or, you know, Cleveland, wherever we’re going to be, you know, is it a good day for our kicker? Um, I’ve never lost that confidence, even three four weeks ago, people beat Justin Tucker up. I see what other fan bases are doing to sort of cross their fingers in hope. Luke Jones is our dude. He is Baltimore, Luke. He is on the football beat all week long, as well as the baseball beat anything else around the league. For you, you sort of took a slap at the Steelers. We didn’t really talk about the Bengals because they struggled enough and in the framework of of the AFC to think that the Jets were going to be anything. I never believed that I had Ian O’Connor on, who wrote a book on Aaron Rodgers right before the beginning of the season. I’m not an interested in Aaron Rodgers guy. I. Way the Aaron Rodgers show pu to all of it, yeah, you know, I said that to my wife too. I’m like, you know, for whatever we have here with the ravens and whatever the stability brings and whatever our drama of the week might be around here, it’s not that around here lately.
Luke Jones 25:20
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even, I mean, let’s face it, even with all the Lamar contract drama, I mean, it’s not like they didn’t win, right? I mean, it’s not like they were having, you know, they didn’t have a five and 12 season in the midst of that, or anything like that. You know, I think a lot of it. And look putting aside any, you know him going on, Pat McAfee, or any of that kind of stuff. He’s 40. Go look at the history of the NFL with quarterbacks that are that age, other than Tom Brady, they’re generally they fall off a cliff. And I would probably say that Aaron Rodgers is probably still better than a lot of Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacks who got to that point in their career. But, you know, it’s drama, coaching decisions, personnel decisions. I mean, they have a pass rusher who they traded for who hasn’t played a snap for them yet because of a contract hold out. I mean, hasn’t just been Aaron Rodgers. I mean, that’s that’s been a a blank show in a lot of ways, you know, but, but certainly he’s been in the middle of a lot of that, you know, even going back to last year. But, you know, I mean, I just, you know, looking at that, and look when I took a swipe at the Steelers. I mean, I don’t think it was a big swipe. I mean, is it really that out of turn to say that I’m not a believer in Russell Wilson at this point in his career? I mean, God bless him. He had a good second half on Sunday night. Yeah, we’ll see what. You know. That decision, I think, is going to be interesting to see how that plays out. I mean, he put up some good numbers in the second half. I’ll give him credit for that. He throws the jump ball, and George Pickens is a wide receiver that can take advantage of that. I I need to see Russell Wilson do that consistently, because for the last couple years, he hasn’t looked anything like the guy, he was back in Seattle, so but, but, you know, I My biggest takeaway from the weekend or from Sunday of NFL action. And I touched on this briefly, but the Chiefs have just mastered figuring out whatever the minimum is that they need to do to win a ball game in the regular season, they clearly have to figure out their offense. There’s no doubt about it. I mean, think about how the guys they’ve lost, they lost Hollywood Brown, they’ve lost for she rice, Isaiah Pacheco is out. Juju Smith Schuster had been the latest guy to emerge from for them two weeks ago, he gets hurt on the first drive. You know, with a hamstring, he didn’t even play after that yet. You know, they piece it together. You know, Kareem Hunt’s done a nice job for them of stepping up with Pacheco hurt and, you know, forget about Kelsey Noah Gray, their younger tight end has really started to emerge and has done a nice job. And and more than anything, though, their defense, you know, I mean, Steve Spagnola, give him credit for all these coordinators we talk around the league. I mean, I’m not shocked because of his age, but it is surprising because of what he’s done with that defense in recent years, that there hasn’t been a little more talk about him getting another shot as a head coach. And that’s not to say that. I know that he would be really great at it or anything like that. But there hasn’t really even been much chatter about him in that space, you know, considering what he’s done with their defense the last couple years. So, but that’s the thing. I mean, the chiefs, they’re six and, oh, and does it feel like the chiefs are playing anything close to their best football? No. I mean, not even close. But there’s six and Oh, right. I mean, how many teams can you say? Well, they don’t look all that good right now, and they’re six and oh, so literally for Yeah, but Well, and that’s the thing. Now I’ll say this, and you and I haven’t talked about this at all, and be remiss to not mention this. Now they need to go get a wide receiver. I mean, I think that they absolutely need to go get a wide receiver. And that’s where I’ll compliment buffalo, you know, for all the attention that Adams going to the Jets received, I think buffalo made the better move in terms of what they need, for what it costs in bringing in Amari Cooper. For anyone who wants to bury Amari Cooper and look, he was off to a bad start in Cleveland. Go look at the numbers. Amari Cooper put up with Joe Flacco as his quarterback last December. He I mean, we talked about it then Omari Cooper catching passes from Flacco, kind of, if you squinted, it reminded you a little bit of Anquan Boldin on some of those sideline balls. If those 5050, catches, I think Amari Cooper makes that buffalo offense that much more viable, especially once he, you know, he caught a touchdown Sunday, but once he gets a little more acclimated, a little more comfortable there, Josh Allen and him build a little more rapport. But all these other. AFC teams, chasing, chasing, figuring out how they you know, how to be their best come January. Still looking at the Chiefs right now, who are six and oh, and they haven’t even looked all that great. They’ve had injuries, and yet they figure it out, and they play just good enough every week. And you know they’re going to lose a game at some point. Obviously, I don’t think they’re going 17 and, oh, certainly with the state of their offense right now, with how beat up they are. But you know that that’s what’s frustrating for Baltimore, buffalo, Houston, Cincinnati, if they, if they get up off the mat, you know, go, go down the list of that. Throw the chargers in there, if you’d like to, you know, all those teams, it’s still okay. What about Kansas City? Because that defense is looking really good, and you know, that offense is going to figure it out at some point in time, you know, to be better inside the red zone. So that’s, that’s kind of what’s always weighing in the back of your mind. And you just said it. I mean, whether we’re talking about, you know, the aftermath of the Tampa game, or talking about Cleveland this week, or we’ll be talking about Denver or Cincinnati in a couple weeks. It’s always Kansas City. I mean, it’s always Kansas City that you’re thinking about in the back of your mind. So to see them go into San Francisco and look at Niners, don’t look very good right now. I mean, they’re they’re in trouble. You know it, there’s the juxtaposition of the chiefs overcoming their injuries and the 40 Niners not being able to overcome their injuries. And look, it’s tough. You know, next man up. As I always say to you, next man up. You can say that so many times, and after a while, it’s a t shirt slogan, because you just don’t have enough when, when you go through enough injuries. So, you know, that’s, that’s still my takeaway. I mean, the chiefs unimpressive as it might have been at times. You know, they just, they find a way. And no matter how great the Ravens or any other team that’s vying for that spot in either conference right now looks, they’re still looking at the chiefs and saying, they just, it’s uncanny that it feels like they can just go through the motions and just do just enough to get the job done. And as they’re gearing up for, you know, what I would expect is going to be another deep January run for them, and everyone trying to knock them off.
Nestor Aparicio 32:14
Yeah? And then I look at their schedule and say, well, they got the Raiders, whoever you put them in with. They have Tampa two weeks from now, Monday Night Football as well. He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore Luke. You can find him somewhere out on the beltway between I 83 and Owings Mills. It’s a short week this week, as you we get ready for, I guess Jameis Winston, I’m not sure, Dorian Thompson, maybe whatever. Either way, better not lose this one this week and monitoring all things world series as well. Luke and I are going to get that going. We began this thing talking about whether Terps fans should storm the field after beating USC. And that’s not South Carolina, by the way. Who’d be a different USC at that point? I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 15 70,000 Baltimore, get to Maryland. Crab cake tour back at the mamas on the half show on Friday. Hope to see you out there. We’re Baltimore positive. You.
