00:00and right now senior nfl writer for the athletic the purveyor of truth of the all 22 and one of
00:06the hosts of the just win podcast it is ted winn good afternoon sir hey how you doing we're doing
00:14much better than we have for most of the cowboys season and one of the things i was immediately
00:20curious about is what is it about cooper de jean that has turned so wrong this season
00:27uh i mean i've heard he might have gained some weight to play more safety which he he used to
00:33be a corner when the eagles went to base but now he's playing safety when the eagles went to base
00:39and maybe he's gained a little too much weight it just does not look like he's moving as fluidly as
00:44he did before um and he's getting beat a lot whenever he's get he's put into coverage and
00:50match coverage or man coverage and we saw that last night and teams are kind of picking on him now
00:55and
00:55it's not like he was ever a you know super locked down outside corner which is why he moved nickel
01:01but he he was always very good at sticking coverage and would at least be in position now he's nowhere
01:07close so it's one of the stranger things that i've seen just because i held cooper de jean to such
01:12high
01:13regard before now are those dishes being put away is somebody moving what is happening in the background
01:19ted oh i'm sorry i'm at i'm at the gym i'm at the gym right now
01:27what's today is it chest day is it a push pull what are we doing
01:31uh today is leg day i'm actually rehabbing my my knee uh i've had i've been having some knee pain
01:37from basketball so i'm actually uh yeah rehab having my knee right now those violent dunks can definitely
01:43be damaged on your knee you're the second guest we've ever had on our show though that is done is
01:48doing rehab in the middle of an interview with us it's kind of fun it is one of the more
01:52interesting things for us so at least we get to have some fun with it too so uh i i
01:57did notice that
01:58de jean last night did was having like he had some problems there were a couple plays that looked
02:03really they looked really poor for him one of the things that i didn't understand though ted was
02:06why do you think that the vic fangio defense didn't look at what most defenses have done against
02:11the cowboys and say let's just blitz them all night
02:15yeah i mean i thought we might have seen that but i mean it's not in vic fangio's dna to
02:22blitz heavily so i think they didn't want to go too far outside of their um their norms which was
02:28probably a mistake because the cowboys were just having a lot of issues with answers against the
02:34blitz as far as you know what kind of routes to use the hot route site adjustments and just who
02:39to
02:39pick up in general and it's just been really messy uh the last couple weeks ever since um the
02:44buccaneers uh what the best buccaneers did to them on thursday so i was a little surprised we didn't
02:48see a little bit more of it but hey i mean good for the cowboys they they didn't have to
02:52pass that
02:53test that they couldn't pass um the last couple weeks very true i did think especially obviously in
02:59running the ball we felt great about jamonte williams but this clearly felt like the best performance
03:04across the board by the cowboys offensive line as well because they were opening up some massive
03:10holes were they not yeah i mean they absolutely were and this was something that i was really
03:16excited to see ever since you know we saw that tyler guyton has really taken his game to the next
03:21level i was waiting for tyler smith to come back so i can see the two tylers together or three
03:26tylers
03:26together because booker in there um and we finally got to see it i mean they they were just moving
03:31people and the eagles have one of the better defensive lines in the league too so this wasn't
03:35just some some chump defensive front they were moving around so that was good to see and i'm
03:41excited to go back and look to all 22 and watch guyton smith uh blow guys off of the ball
03:46i i'm just
03:47kind of curious what you've seen over the last i don't know maybe monthly or of games with uh with
03:52george pickens cd lamb obviously has had a couple of really great games pickens said last night uh they're
03:58still not doing that much different to uh to him it's still they're bracketing both sides i was just
04:04kind of curious on what you've seen on how they've kind of kept george pickens from being a monster
04:09uh like he was last year yeah i mean you're definitely getting brackets on both sides that
04:15opens up some opportunities for fortnoy on on the inside it also opens up things for the run game too
04:21you can't put that extra defender in a box when you you have to deal with uh two guys on
04:26outside or at
04:27give extra attention to those two guys on outside so i think we're just seeing more uh zone stuff
04:32zone coverage and brackets in in uh obvious passing situations which is why jack's um air yard for
04:40target is a little down this year now bouncing around the division just a little bit you wrote
04:44about this today do you believe the giants are for real and how is jj mccarthy able to take advantage
04:52of all that single high coverage he saw against the texans yeah i mean i i've been a giant skeptic
04:59for most of the season i just you know i don't think they have a talent to really be a
05:03playoff
05:03contender and they've lost a lot of talent too i mean you know guys like brian burns are going down
05:08with season-ending injuries um but i mean i think watching them you could just clearly see that
05:14john harbaugh has put his stamp on his seat they're a physical disciplined group uh they play good
05:20defense and then now they're running the ball well and jj mccarthy just adds another element to their
05:26playbook i think matt naggy said at a press conference they get 30 of their playbook back
05:31with jj mccarthy just because of his mobility his ability to execute rpos and throw the ball down
05:37field in a way that uh james winston couldn't which kind of makes his extension right before the season
05:43really curious uh i don't know why they did that if they didn't feel like winston could execute the
05:48offense um but yeah i mean mccarthy he's getting in minnesota the offense was a pass first offense
05:55they wanted to go downfield um they you know they wanted to get just jefferson jordan addison the ball
06:01deep and it was a pass first pass to set up the run type of offense and if you remember
06:07mccarthy
06:07and michigan he was in a very run heavy offense heavy personnel uh play action you know took advantage
06:14single high and that's what he's getting with the giants now um they they are 29th in rate of three
06:20or more receivers so they like those heavy bodies on the field and as a result you get those middle
06:24field closed type of uh defenses and that leaves sideline uh sideline routes open you saw him hit a
06:31lot of those routes you saw him hit like a really nice sail route so he's taking advantage of those
06:37access throws outside and it just fits him much better than uh what what the vikings asked him to do
06:42is the uh is the colts fire sale going to affect more teams around the nfl for sure i mean
06:50i think
06:51you know anytime you have blue chip type of players available like the forrest buckner and
06:56john taylor those guys could really swing uh swing the pendulum for some teams so i mean you know
07:03getting quinn nelson was huge for the seahawks it's really going to prove their run game now they have
07:07no weak spots on their offensive line with zabel moving over to the right side and if jadarian price
07:13comes back and he's as advertised that's really going to help out the offense and now we're getting
07:18reports that john lynch wants to make a counter move to respond to the seahawks move so maybe the
07:25forrest buckner goes to the niners and they're already a much improved defense if you add a star like
07:30buckner in the middle like what what can that look like and then johnson taylor i think you know right
07:36now
07:37the messaging from the colts is that they value johnson taylor and they want to keep him on a
07:43team but to me that's just posturing because they really need a first round draft pick uh so we'll see
07:47who's willing to cough up the um the price for taylor but i mean can you imagine johnson taylor in
07:53the
07:54vikings offense like you know that really swings things so i think they have two players that um could
08:00really change the picture in the nfc or amc wherever they get traded you know and i'm glad that you
08:06brought up the vikings i don't stick with the nfc for just one second we were talking about the
08:10quentin nelson move seattle already coming off a big time win over the chiefs people have been really
08:15high on the san francisco 49ers all season and meanwhile there's the minnesota vikings just
08:20lingering at six and oh but it doesn't feel like people are believing that they're the best or
08:28sometimes even maybe not one of the best teams in the nfl
08:33yeah i mean if you look at their defense they're just playing at such an elite level right now
08:39and i mean you look at what the seahawks did last year you know they won a lot of games
08:43off of their
08:43defense and then they they had some spike games from their offense but there was times where their
08:48offense faltered and and the defense won games for them so i think kyle murray is still learning this
08:54vikings offense i don't think it's going to be an easy transition he had a really good game the the
08:59game
08:59before and in this this following week he just missed on a few opportunities had a big play called
09:05back because of penalties so i think they're close i mean i don't think this is going to be an
09:09elite
09:09offense but they definitely have the potential with those wide receivers to uh to be a much better
09:15offense closer to average maybe even below above average and then if you add a back like taylor that
09:22could really help out this run game you know that could really take them to the next level so i
09:27i really
09:27believe in the vikings team even though they're winning uh below scoring games what to do what
09:33to do with those new orleans saints who had one of the worst rushing games you'll see and after week
09:40two and that went over the ravens i think a lot of people were excited especially given that they
09:45probably should have won that they definitely should have won that lions game it feels like they
09:49have just fallen off a freaking cliff since then yeah uh i mean i think there were some signs that
09:57what they were doing was unsustainable especially with their lack of a run game um and tyler shuck just
10:05kind of waits till the fourth quarter to really uh wake up so anytime you have a team that's winning
10:10a
10:10lot of games by coming back in the fourth quarter um it's just a sign that things are probably going
10:16to
10:16fall off the rail at some point because if you're winning games in that fashion it does require
10:21a bit of luck as much as fans don't want to admit it so there were signs that things were
10:27going to
10:27fall off the rails with these things and it's definitely happening now and it for shuck i feel
10:32bad for him because like it's hard for a young quarterback to operate when you have zero help
10:37from your run game and that run game might be um the worst in the league ted before we let
10:43you go i need
10:44i need some fancy advice oh should i just go ahead and uh just get rid of omarion hampton even
10:50though
10:50he was one of my high draft picks this year yeah i mean if you get anything for hampton um
10:56get them
10:56get it now because uh i mean it to me it was a little bit of even in the preseason
11:03i thought
11:03it's not really a great fit for this uh this offense and it came into fruition and keaton mitchell is
11:10a
11:11better fit and now they're doing a whole running back by committee thing the offensive line it's
11:16just in a worse shape than it was last year which is incredible um yeah i mean i just don't
11:24see any
11:24way for hampton to really get back on track and and be a valuable fantasy asset so if you could
11:31sucker somebody into taking hampton i i would do it in a heartbeat is that is it just the offensive
11:35line
11:36that's the problem because when i watch herbert i just don't know if i see a quarterback that sees it
11:40downfield yeah i mean i feel like it's a bit of a combination of everything i think he is not
11:47a
11:47good fit in this offense because we've seen herbert play at a high level before and you could talk about
11:52the playoff performances but you know he's been a at least a very very good to elite regular season
11:58performer and this year it looks like he's one of the worst quarterbacks in the league so i think
12:05you know when you have tua you have to have him make these anticipation throws and just trust the
12:11window is going to be open and when you had tyreek hill those things worked out and there's there's
12:16times where you think the window is going to be open you throw make a trust throw and then it
12:19ends up
12:20being tipped and intercepted and we saw a lot of that happen with tua later in his uh mike mcdaniel
12:25era but um i think with herbert he doesn't have to do that he doesn't have to make those
12:31trust throws into closed windows and he's trying to do it now trying to learn a new style and those
12:37windows are even tighter because they the the chargers have worse receivers than a dolphin so i
12:42think lack of run game no receivers offense that doesn't really fit herbert it's all a recipe for
12:49disaster in in addition to your amazing film breakdowns you're one of the hosts of the just
12:54win podcast clint kubiak stepped out and said hey there's no controversy about our quarterback
13:00is that the way you feel do you think it should be about mendoza time or the saint on kirk
13:06cousins
13:08i think it's getting close but i i do think that he walked back a little bit because right after
13:14the
13:14game he was asked about a potential quarterback change and maybe he was just emotional after the
13:19game but he he didn't give kirk cousins a resounding um endorsement that he would start the next game like
13:25he did in his press conference during the week so i think he was at least thinking about it
13:30at that point because why wouldn't you give your starting quarterback a rounding endorsement at
13:35that point so um he i think he definitely i think he definitely thought about it i think it's coming
13:40soon but i would wait till after the seattle game especially after watching what they did to uh
13:45patrick mahomes on sunday so i that i would wait till after either after seattle or after the bye
13:51week in week 13 to insert mendoza go check out that podcast we told you the athletic today new article
14:00up from ted kind of breaking down the giants and a whole lot more twitter follow also absolutely we
14:06always love talking with you and good luck with the rehab appreciate it and sorry for the the background
14:12oh no not at all not at all
