00:00All right, Mike Jones jumps on with us, national right of course for The Athletic.
00:04Mike!
00:05We watched a game last night, Mike, that was a lot of offense.
00:10Two great quarterback matchups, a lot better than the Thursday night game last week
00:13where it seemed like nobody knew how to play football for a good period of time.
00:17Look, we're going to have Caleb Williams and Drake May,
00:19and Jaden Daniels is going to be a part of it too, always compared to each other.
00:22But from what you saw last night with Caleb Williams and Drake May,
00:26I asked B. Mitch this, and I don't know if there's necessarily an answer
00:30because they're different quarterbacks,
00:31but is there one of the two in Drake May and Caleb Williams that you see
00:36that might have more upside than the other,
00:38or is it just that they're two different quarterbacks
00:40and they're both just going to have their own levels of success?
00:44Yeah, I mean, their games are obviously different.
00:47I mean, obviously they're both athletic, they both got big arms.
00:49I think that Caleb has a little more wizardry to his game.
00:53He also, though, has the more genius of an offensive coordinator mind,
00:59you know, that he's working with, with Ben Johnson.
01:01Not to say that Josh McDaniel isn't very talented
01:04and has been very successful in this league,
01:06but I feel like Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson are the perfect marriage for each other.
01:13And, you know, you just never know.
01:15If you put Jaden Daniels with Ben Johnson, probably have very similar results.
01:20It's, you know, Caleb Williams always put together a little bit, you know,
01:24better than what Jaden Daniels is
01:26and a little more athletic than what Drake May is,
01:29even though Drake May is a good athlete.
01:31But, again, you know, they're different guys, different systems,
01:35different, you know, supporting cast,
01:37but I think both of those guys are going to have success in this league for a long time.
01:41Do you think, like, when these guys got drafted,
01:44you know, people started trying to compare them to that draft
01:47when you had the Elwes and all that coming out?
01:50And that was an exceptional draft.
01:53And this is, I know this is early.
01:55If they go on and do the things that people think they can do,
01:59can they kind of battle that draft?
02:03I mean, that's a tall task that that draft has to do.
02:07You know, I think if this draft class can even measure up to 2018 draft class,
02:11you know, with Josh Allen and, you know, and Lamar Jackson and those guys,
02:17you know, I mean, Sam Darnold, you know, he's a little shaky,
02:20but he's got a Super Bowl ring.
02:21Baker Mayfield's in that class.
02:23You know, that's a really good draft class for quarterbacks.
02:27So if this, if that class of Caleb Williams and Jaden Daniels and Drake May
02:33and, you know, who else is that?
02:35Michael Penix Jr.
02:37And Bo Nix and, you know, if those guys can measure up to even 2018,
02:42that'd be a fantastic draft class.
02:44All right.
02:45Yeah.
02:45You mentioned Bo Nix too.
02:46I mean, it has not been a great start to that offense for the Broncos.
02:50I know it's gotten a little bit better.
02:51Sean Payton's going to be calling the plays now.
02:53Do you think that they rushed Davis Webb up as an offensive coordinator?
02:56That might've been too soon that teams are getting to the point.
02:58Because we see it a lot, right?
02:59A lot of teams that are like, oh, he's the next wave of great offensive minds.
03:03I mean, the commanders did it too with David Blau.
03:05Now, does it feel like maybe it's getting to the point where these guys are almost
03:07maybe too young and too inexperienced to be calling the plays?
03:10Yeah.
03:11I don't think that Sean Payton really wanted to turn play calling over to him.
03:14But there were teams that were interested.
03:16And I think that he kind of got a nudge like, hey, we don't want to lose this guy.
03:20You know, maybe give him play calling.
03:21That way, you know, we can keep him.
03:23You know, now my thing is you guys are working hand in hand from, you know,
03:29March when you're building this thing to OTA starting in April and May and June, July.
03:35You didn't know, like, that he wasn't ready to call plays then?
03:39I mean, why didn't you disciple him a little bit more and prepare him?
03:43Just, you know, having to pull back play calling duties from after four weeks
03:47didn't seem as much like a failure on Davis Webb as it did on Sean Payton as a mentor.
03:53You know, if you're in there, those meetings, you guys are having conversations.
03:58You can talk about, hey, I want more of this, less of that.
04:01We've got to go with, you know what I mean?
04:02So I'm not saying that Davis Webb won't wind up being very good.
04:06But, you know, it takes time to grow into it.
04:09And it felt like Sean Payton, it was killing him not to call plays.
04:12And at the first opportunity, he was like, yo, let me have that back.
04:15You know, you're going to be good.
04:17But I've got to get back into this thing.
04:20The more I see Sean Payton, the more I don't like him.
04:24He, to me, he reminds me a lot of the quarterback, the coach at LSU right now
04:31where they like to always be out there, but they always point fingers at somebody else.
04:37It's like they never take blame themselves.
04:40And that pisses me off when a coach does that.
04:43Yeah, I will say Sean Payton's a little bit better.
04:47You know, he did talk.
04:48Well, that was the thing.
04:49He kind of second-guessed himself when they lost in the playoffs last year.
04:53And he said he wondered if he had lost his feel for things.
04:56And I think that that little bit of doubt is what caused him to go to State.
04:59Yeah, after he braved his quarterback for getting hurt.
05:02Right.
05:02And then it was killing him.
05:03Right.
05:04Then it was killing him.
05:05And he had to go back to it.
05:06And, yes, there are plenty of times when he comes up with excuses.
05:10You know, at least Sean Payton has his success.
05:13I just am not a Lane Kiffin fan at all.
05:16You know, so I'll elevate Sean Payton just like a step and a half above Lane Kiffin.
05:23Well, look, man, there's a serious problem happening up there in Philadelphia.
05:28Jalen Hurts.
05:29And, like, listen, if you hear about blood clots in legs, we know the airplane is probably the worst thing.
05:35Yeah.
05:36But they flew him to London, then flew him back.
05:38And now they're in his lungs, and he's out for the season.
05:41And I know what the league medical advisor stated, but that just seemed like people trying to PTA?
05:52Predict their asses, to be honest with you.
05:55You know, I just think that's what that is.
05:58Yeah, okay, so I talked to my grandma, 94-year-old grandma, Grandma Darce, out there in Warrington, Virginia,
06:03every Friday morning, 8 o'clock in the morning.
06:07This week, first thing she says to me, what they do to that boy in Philadelphia?
06:12I know that you can't fly on an airplane when you got blood clots.
06:16Why they let them play a football game?
06:19I said, Grandma Darce, you're exactly right.
06:22Everybody's asking the same question.
06:23How did these professionals, making millions of dollars, can say, oh, it's okay for him to fly on this plane?
06:29Oh, it's, you know, I don't know.
06:31Like, there's no reason, there's no logic to it at all.
06:34They can say, hey, we examined him, and our professionals, and the professionals in London,
06:39and everybody made a group decision.
06:42But it's very, feels like malpractice, that you let him not only fly to London, but then play in the
06:50game.
06:51After not sleeping for 36 hours.
06:53Oh, that's, yeah.
06:54Right.
06:55I'm wondering, and somebody I talked to wondered, they don't know this, but they wondered,
07:00were those, did they, how effective was that scan?
07:03Did they scan his whole body the first time?
07:06Yeah.
07:07And only, did they miss the clots that were already in his lungs?
07:11Just a bad situation.
07:12We'll see what happens.
07:14You know, the league, the NFL Players Association called for an investigation.
07:17The league says, oh, we welcome that.
07:19But Dr. Sills was very much adamant, defending, and saying they did the right thing.
07:25But it just doesn't add up.
07:27Why take that risk?
07:29You know, when they say, yeah, it was a superficial blood clot.
07:31And then they try to say, well, this isn't a novelty.
07:34We have players deal with blood clots every year.
07:36I haven't heard of one flying to London with blood clots, and then playing on them, and then it spreading
07:41to their lungs.
07:41You know, I agree with you.
07:43They're passing the buck.
07:45But this is the same league that, you know, paid tons of money to hide, you know, the concussion stuff.
07:50So are we really surprised that they wouldn't be totally forthcoming with Jalen Hurt?
07:56Let me ask you this.
07:57Mike, I don't know if you remember this story.
08:00It was one of the players of somebody.
08:03It was this little rare disease where people get it sometimes in surgery, flesh-eating type stuff.
08:10Oh, yeah, yeah.
08:12The guy wanted to sue the doctors, but something was said that you can't sue a fellow employee or something
08:19like that.
08:20Where the NFL is, a lot of these doctors in the NFL is protected because of the union stuff where
08:26they can't sue.
08:27And I think they may be talking trash because they hiding behind that.
08:32Like, I don't think a player can sue an actual doctor after Tyron Taylor got his lung punctured.
08:40So I think that's why they're being a little bold.
08:44Yeah, very bold.
08:45And we've heard them come out about concussions, whatever.
08:48I and multiple reporters, because I was up there in New York for the owners' meetings this week,
08:53multiple people said, I've never heard Dr. Stills come out as adamant in defending something as what we heard right
08:59there.
09:00But that doesn't mean that they're right because it just feels like that they drew their conclusions very quickly that
09:07nothing was mishandled.
09:09When, again, if you're on blood thinners, if you have blood clots, you should not be flying, let alone playing
09:17a football game.
09:18I just don't understand.
09:20And, you know, Jalen Hurts has been very quiet in this.
09:23They put out that statement.
09:24But I really want to know what his thoughts are, where they are on this, and, you know, where it
09:29comes to.
09:30Because it's not at all.
09:32No way you look at this thing can it make any sense.
09:35I don't see eye to eye with Nick Sirianni, but I think they put him in a bad position.
09:40Nick Sirianni should not have been discussing this.
09:43It should have been Howie Roseman, if anybody, or the doctor from their team.
09:48Howie has basically disappeared.
09:51Yeah.
09:52And that's BS in my book.
09:54And Jeffrey Lowry, the owner, dodged the reporters when we were up there in New York as well at the
10:00owners' meetings.
10:00You know, the people who should be talking about this and coming out, you know, are kind of ducking this
10:07and putting, like you said, people in difficult situations, positions.
10:12You know, and you hope that Jalen Hurts is going to be okay.
10:15They say they think he'll make a full recovery, but it shouldn't have even come to that.
10:20All right.
10:20We know the Eagles now at this point are half of a roster.
10:24We know the commanders are where they are.
10:26We know the Giants are where they are.
10:27J.J. McCarthy's starting for him.
10:29The Cowboys' defense is at least still a mess.
10:31I don't know, Mike.
10:31Who wins the NFC East at this point?
10:33Because it feels like it's just going to be somebody.
10:35Who's it going to be?
10:38I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up being Dallas.
10:41Yeah, they can't stop anybody, but they can score points.
10:44I have more confidence in Dak Prescott than I do J.J. McCarthy.
10:47J.J. looked good in a spark when there was nobody game planning for him.
10:51Once defensive coordinators have game film with him in their offense, they'll be able to pick him apart just like
10:55they did in Minnesota.
10:58I think that Christian Parker is a talented defensive mind.
11:03He's a first-time defensive coordinator.
11:05He's figuring this thing out.
11:06I think as the Cowboys get healthy on defense and he gets a better feel for this down the stretch
11:11of the season,
11:12they're going to get this thing and they'll probably squeak it out.
11:15Now, everybody's kind of a mess, but I don't have confidence that J.J. McCarthy is the answer for the
11:20Giants.
11:20Somebody's got to win the division, and Dallas probably makes the most sense at least with that offense.
11:24Mike Jones, good to talk to you.
11:25Thanks for coming on.
