00:00we will go back here at the opening of the show to Saturday.
00:05And by the way, two preseason weeks now completely in the books
00:08with one to go this coming weekend,
00:10and then that'll be it from this absolute dreadful portion of the NFL calendar.
00:17The conversations about preseason results baffles me.
00:22I mean, I just don't understand the people that have followed the NFL fans,
00:29NFL analysts, et cetera, that have followed this league forever.
00:32I get it.
00:33You got to have content.
00:35You know, if you're doing shows, you know,
00:37you've got to come up with something this time of year.
00:40But to say something like I heard Orlovsky this morning.
00:43I like Orlovsky.
00:45I think he's good.
00:45He was on the Greenberg show get up this morning.
00:48I'm going to paraphrase here.
00:50But basically he said about Cam Ward, the Tennessee Titans quarterback,
00:54and Carnell Tate, the number four pick in the draft, a rookie from Ohio State,
01:01he essentially said that he's not impressed so far.
01:05And there's reason to be concerned that Cam Ward and Carnell Tate
01:10haven't developed any chemistry yet.
01:13What?
01:16It's game two of the preseason.
01:19What are we doing here?
01:22This from Kay in Rockville.
01:25Kevin, you downplayed it last week,
01:27but I would assume you can't avoid the topic this week.
01:31Styles has been a big disappointment so far.
01:34We're back to this again.
01:36Max.
01:38Hooray.
01:39How many snaps did he play in the game?
01:41I don't even know the total.
01:42It's not many.
01:43Are you guys serious?
01:45Like, if Styles turns out to be not worthy of the number seven pick in the first round,
01:53I promise you it's not because of what you saw last week against the Dolphins in one series
02:01or this past Saturday against the Lions.
02:05If he turns out to be a bust, you're going to claim that you saw it coming.
02:09No, you didn't see it coming.
02:12These are preseason games, limited snaps, no game planning.
02:18I mean, and by the way, just his second NFL experience.
02:24I got this from Jason O.
02:26Sound the D-line alarm bells.
02:29We can't stop the run again.
02:31Can't rush the passer if you can't stop the run.
02:34I think you've said that, Kev.
02:35I have said that.
02:37I have said that the number one defensive priority in 2026 is to stop the run much better than they
02:46have the last two seasons.
02:47Because it is hard to be a great pass rushing team if you are constantly either not in third and
02:56passing situations
02:57because the other team has gained first down territory, 10 yards or more on first or second down.
03:05Because there are teams that are so bad defensively, they don't face enough third downs.
03:09Got to get teams into third downs.
03:11And then you got to get teams into third and obvious passing.
03:14Because then, it's predictable what the other team's going to do.
03:19Versus third and ones, third and twos, third and threes, not as predictable.
03:24Nullifying, many times, the effectiveness of a pass rush.
03:29But sounding the D-line alarm bells when Deron Payne hasn't played one snap.
03:34When you've had, do you know how many snaps the expected starters played on Saturday against Detroit?
03:41Jason O?
03:43Two!
03:44And by the way, the result was sack, fumble, touchdown.
03:50I don't know.
03:51I feel like this is an annual exercise of trying to talk people off the ledge on preseason results.
04:01It is absolutely true that these declarations this time of year turn out to be dead wrong at least 50
04:12% of the time,
04:13if not more.
04:14If not more.
04:15It's impossible to evaluate the team performance or even a unit performance when they're not out there much in terms
04:25of your best players, A.
04:26And, B., you haven't game-planned.
04:30Taking into consideration who the opponent is each week and crafting a plan to best stop that opponent for that
04:41week based on what they have is such a big part of the game.
04:46Just rolling guys out for a couple series and then pulling them with no game plan is a player evaluation
04:54exercise for the coaches, not for us.
04:56And typically, they are a player evaluation exercise that really is focused on who are the last four or five
05:04players that are going to make the roster and who are we going to try our best to bring back
05:10to the practice squad.
05:13But, Cam Ward and Carnell Tate haven't developed any chemistry yet?
05:19They've played two preseason games for like, yeah, they've actually played more than Jaden Daniels has played and some of
05:28the other quarterbacks.
05:28No, you just can't do that.
05:30I'm telling you, guys, it's the basis of the smell test every year.
05:35When you've got everybody talking about one thing as if it is an absolute certainty, just go the other way
05:44in the NFL.
05:45This is truly a contrarian's best opportunity in sports betting is to just go opposite of the crowd because the
05:55NFL is such a fine line league.
05:58There's so little separating these teams and each week is its own entity completely.
06:06Yes, there are certain teams because of quarterback in particular, more than anything else, that have, you know, that create
06:14a bigger, you know, fine line, a wider disparity, especially with some opponents.
06:20Sometimes a coaching staff can provide a little bit more of separation, but it's so close and it comes down
06:28to things like who's available versus who's not.
06:32And then a couple of plays in a game.
06:37You don't have any opportunity at this point in August to determine how that's going to shake out in the
06:45regular season based on what you're watching in joint practices, preseason games, or even just regular practices.
06:52Now, there are things like injuries that are real, like Larry Mutunsel's injuries are real deal.
06:59Certainly, you can be certain that there's a better chance, a much better chance than not, that he's going to
07:06be missed significantly.
07:08You can weigh in on a big acquisition like Stefan Diggs.
07:12Like they just added a player that is much more of a known than a maybe.
07:18Maybe that's a good thing heading into a regular season where they actually needed more of a known at that
07:26position.
07:27And occasionally, if you listen to coaches or even a player's press conference, you might get a tell here or
07:35there.
07:35And there was a tell from Dan Quinn after Saturday's game about the center position.
07:40And we'll play that for you coming up here.
07:43But these are the worst days of the NFL calendar.
07:48I mean, free agency and the draft are much, much better.
07:54I mean, in terms of, you know, having at least you've got a definitive opinion based on regular season games
08:01that the players have played, like real games.
08:04Now, in the, you know, in the case of the draft, they're college games.
08:09And you're projecting, and the experts get that wrong two-thirds of the time.
08:14But at least you're evaluating players based on a real game.
08:18These are not real games.
08:19They're the worst we've ever seen.
08:21They've got to do away with them eventually.
08:24But they're not going to do away with them because they get ratings.
08:29People love, it's comfort food.
08:31The NFL, just football in general on TV, either the NFL or college football, is comfort.
08:38The NFL in particular.
08:39And it doesn't matter that it's meaningless football.
08:43I'll tell you, that was a hard watch Saturday.
08:46I'm not going to, I mean, there is zero chance.
08:49If I didn't do what I do for a living, there is zero chance that I would watch one second
08:56of a preseason game.
08:58Unless there was like, you know, the number one quarterback.
09:01Like if you're a Raiders fan and Mendoza's picked number one overall and he just quarterbacked the national champion, you
09:07know, team and championship team in college football.
09:10And you just want to see what it looks like with him in your team's uniforms.
09:14By the way, speaking of uniforms, that's the best part of these two preseason games so far.
09:19Our team's uniforms look great.
09:21Yeah, I'd rather have the old logo on the helmet, but man, it really feels like you're watching your team.
09:28The burgundy with white at home against Miami.
09:32The white with the burgundy on Saturday in Detroit.
09:35I mean, major, major plus plus decision by ownership.
09:42When they decided we're going to move as much as we can back to the old feel, trying to reconnect
09:51with a major portion of what used to be our fan base.
09:57This was an absolute plus to do this.
10:02It looks great.
10:03I prefer the old logo, Blackie Wetzel logo, to be on the helmet.
10:07No doubt.
10:08Much prefer that.
10:09But what they've done here is what they can do right now.
10:13And I personally, as a lifelong fan, appreciate it and like it.
10:19But the game itself on Saturday, there's no chance.
10:23Zero chance.
10:25If I didn't do what I did for a living, that I would watch this.
10:28And I know that some of you really, I mean, you're not only watching it, you're then actually immersing yourselves
10:35in the film breakdowns, the internet film breakdown people in these preseason games.
10:42Waste of time.
10:43Total waste of time.
10:46Ethan Kaliak-Manus does look like a quarterback.
10:51But have you ever seen him do it against an NFL team?
10:55Because he hasn't done it against an NFL team yet.
10:58If you were wondering, he's playing twos, threes, and fours.
11:01Yes, there are some players he's facing that might be on an NFL roster, but most of them will not
11:09be.
11:11Still, he looks better than Sam Hartman to me.
11:15But I certainly wouldn't be certain about that.
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