00:00And the worst part about this, Craig, and I was just having this conversation all day
00:04today, is that the NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and they don't have 32 solid starting
00:14quarterbacks in the NFL, let alone 64 with a backup quarterback that is, there is no
00:21chance.
00:22And let's face Jackson Dart, Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams, Sam Darnold, Tua, Michael
00:28Pennix Jr., all of these guys have already started the year off hurt within the first
00:32game or two, and the backup quarterback spots are even worse.
00:37Tyson Badgen, the backup quarterback, has now got a concussion.
00:41They're going to have to go to Case Keenum, who hasn't played in two years.
00:44I mean, but, and this is the league that is supposed to have the best product.
00:48The NFL is king.
00:50Well, if the NFL is king, we're running out of guys who can play the position at a high
00:55level, and that, to me, you want to add games to the regular season, Craig?
00:59You think we should add more games, take away preseason, add more regular season games?
01:04This is a recipe for disaster, as far as I'm concerned.
01:08Yeah, we did this mini exercise before the season started, and I remember doing this and
01:15saying there aren't, like, five good backups in the NFL.
01:19I remember you and I doing this, and we struggled, but I think we may have made it to, like,
01:23an
01:23agreeing that maybe there's five, or maybe there's six, or maybe there's seven, and so
01:28the league is as popular as ever.
01:31It's making more money than ever, and the play is better than ever, but the one transition
01:35that has happened that now puts a big question mark over all of this is that when Joe and
01:40I were growing up, and even 15, 20 years ago, not all that long ago, there were a lot of
01:47guys
01:47that looked like Tom Brady in the pocket.
01:50There were a lot of quarterbacks that didn't move around and handed off the ball, and you
01:57would walk in a locker room, I would walk in a locker room, and you would ask the players
02:02what it would be required to win games in the NFL, and they would tell you the same things.
02:06I think I said this on the air a couple of weeks ago.
02:08The players would tell me with the microphone, me holding the microphone, we got to run the
02:12ball, and we got to stop the run.
02:15This is all that was said, Joe, 15, 20 years ago.
02:17That's all that mattered.
02:18Run the ball with Emmitt Smith, right?
02:20That's it.
02:21Run the ball and stop the run.
02:23Now the game is we got to score as many points as possible.
02:26We got to throw it as much as possible to keep up with the other team, and now that all
02:30these teams are conditioned like this, it's fair to say that the team the Bears beat
02:3859 to whatever is in a much better position than the Bears a week later.
02:45The Panthers are in a far better position than the Bears because of one player.
02:51One player.
02:52I mean, think about that.
02:53They lost by like 40 points, and a week later because of one guy on the team, the Panthers
03:00are now better than the Bears.
03:01There's something fundamentally wrong with that, Joe.
03:04There is.
03:05Yeah.
03:06Well, and there's like, not to say they're all, there are some good.
03:10I mean, listen, we're seeing right now what Drew Locke is doing in Seattle when you surround
03:14him with guys that can actually play and to hold the fort down.
03:20Fantastic.
03:20I think Mack Jones in San Francisco is another one.
03:24I think Mendoza, if something were to happen to Kirk Cousins, also legit.
03:29Carson Wentz has already shown that he can win games without a starting quarterback in
03:34Minnesota.
03:34And then you got Flacco, by the way, which I think is fascinating because could Harbaugh
03:39now in New York be picking up the phone to see what they want for Joe Flacco in Cincinnati?
03:45Because right now, Jameis Winston is not in that category of the guys that we just talked
03:50about.
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