00:0597.1 jim costa john jansen heather park we've got gov and greg behind the glass on this
00:10thursday it's time for our check-in with ross tucker nfl insider presented by nationwide for
00:15your insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your side guten tag ross yeah guten tag are
00:23you guys going are you there uh no no we are we're back here in sunny detroit
00:31man i would love to go to germany for i feel like beer sausage or brats or whatever that the
00:41meat and
00:41soft pretzels those are like three of my staples right there i feel like i feel like i could just
00:48eat in germany and hang out there for weeks yeah finish it off with a little apple strudel and
00:53you'd be all set uh ross obviously the trade deadline happened this week we'll talk about
01:00the lions here in a moment but i do want to know the reshuffling of the you know the the
01:05power
01:06struggle that is the nfc north how much we already talked about jeffrey simmons in chicago we've seen
01:11that impact how much of an impact do you expect kirk cousins to have and how long does it take
01:17to make that impact massive and i don't think that long i mean he's been in the offense before
01:25first of all it's basically the offense he's run most of his career remember kevin o'connell was his
01:31quarterback coach for the i guess i can't remember if they were the redskins or the washington football
01:36team or whatever they were back then um kevin o'connell was his quarterback coach he obviously
01:42already played two years for kevin in minnesota i mean that that was the year when justin jefferson
01:47was the offensive player of the year so nobody's happier right now than justin jefferson tj hockinson
01:54jordan addison and as i said all week on the raw sucker podcast and elsewhere even if they just got
02:03average quarterback play the vikings are legitimate super bowl contenders because their defense has been
02:11that good the thing is is kirk cousins has been giving the raiders top 10 quarterback play i mean
02:18the raiders have the worst defense in the nfl they have the worst running game in it they're 32 out
02:24of
02:2432 in both those categories and yet cousins helped them win four games highly competitive against teams
02:32like the bills and chiefs and other games he's thrown 20 touchdown passes second behind only joe burrow
02:39it is absolutely a power move and it alters the hierarchy in the nfc north there's no question
02:48so we look around at these teams that made additions our team didn't was it a mistake for detroit not
02:54to
02:54add at the deadline you're not you're not all uh fired up about andre cisco you know what i'm saying
03:03ross everybody else is adding starters the bears the vikings the niners yeah i mean they didn't make
03:10a big move you're not you know they didn't make something bold i always think that that's
03:15interesting but first of all let me take a couple things it always takes two to tango because you
03:23guys know i live outside of philly and everybody wanted howie roseman to trade more guys than he did
03:29he didn't do that he really just traded jordan davis which by the way was a phenomenal trade
03:33for the eagles uh but eagles fans are spoiled and they wanted even more but he's not going to do
03:40a
03:40deal unless there's value for example like reek woolen or dallas goddard guys on expiring contracts
03:48he's not going to trade them for a six-round pick when he's going to get a six-round pick
03:54back as a compensatory pick when they leave in free agency so it has to make sense to do the
04:01deal
04:01that's the same for brad holmes there in detroit uh so there's two ways to look at it number one
04:09they could look at it and say three ways actually just none of the deals worked out that's number one
04:16we were looking at it but it takes two to tango none of them worked out number two is that
04:21with the
04:21improved play on the defensive side of the ball perhaps the lions don't feel like they needed to
04:29make a move perhaps they feel like they're good enough to be a super bowl contender with just the
04:35improvement from within the last one and you know you guys have to decide this that the organization
04:42has to decide this is maybe they don't really feel like they have a super bowl caliber team maybe they
04:50look at some of the other teams that are out there some of the other moves that have been made
04:55whether
04:56it's you know the niners or maybe even just the bears and the vikings and they think we have a
05:03really
05:03good team we probably are a couple guys short of actually being super bowl contenders so we're not
05:10going to push all of our chips in for right here and now knowing that even if we get this
05:17guy or that
05:18guy we're probably still not you know among the elite in the nfc i don't know if they feel that
05:24way
05:24or not those are the three possibilities in my mind for why the lion did not make a move just
05:30looking at
05:30each of those three prongs really quick if you're saying takes two to tango eight other teams i guess
05:35seven now the denver deal was rescinded seven other teams found ways to get deals for starters so
05:40you know i don't think you get an out there if you're detroit if you feel like boy the the
05:46second
05:46pillar of that was what that uh this that they they think they're already a super bowl team well
05:51then all the more reason to make the addition and if you don't think you're a super bowl team
05:56isn't that also a reason to make a trade so that you are more competitive in this division and in
06:00the
06:00mix so let's talk let's talk about this for a second because you can't you can't say they should have
06:08gotten guy x y or z that did not get traded because you don't know what those teams were asking
06:16so out
06:17of the guys that did get traded is there one whether it's amani hooker or jordan davis or even
06:26you know some of the receivers you know like keenan allen or josh downs for the guys that were
06:34actually moved is there a move that you guys look at and say they should have done that that should
06:41have been what they did well i would say if you feel you need a safety you're unsure about kirby
06:46and and you you did add a safety why not add a more impactful safety in amani hooker i could
06:50certainly make the case they could have made that move but i also think i could say they should have
06:54made a trade that didn't happen because all the deals didn't happen until they did right like if the
06:59vikings didn't trade for kurt cousins what did that have meant the deal wasn't available no it just
07:03meant they had to give up a little more they weren't willing to pay the price until they
07:06ultimately did it's very possible the lions didn't want to pay the prices that's fair but what i'm from
07:13my perspective what you're saying is you wanted the lions to do something that the up that 30 other
07:21teams did not think was worth it and did not want to do so i don't care who the player
07:27is or what the
07:29price is i'm just saying that's the prism through which you have to look at it is what you're now
07:35saying for a move they didn't make is they should have gotten player x they should have given up uh
07:42y to get him that none of the other nfl teams thought was worth it yes
07:52ross trust me i've been dealing with this for every trade deadline of every team that we have i have
07:58to
07:58deal with those same questions that you are now answering thank you for answering them logically
08:03um and let me ask you this one more about the trade deadline who helped themselves the most
08:10well that's a great question well it's the vikings i mean you know if you think if you had i
08:17don't know
08:17if you guys watched the game the other night carson wentz god bless him i mean that's about as bad
08:21as
08:21right yeah i mean there were a couple plays that i thought it was ai i was like there's no
08:30way that
08:31that's what he did right there um if you if you've been getting even when kyler was in there okay
08:38bottom 10 quarterback play and now you're getting top 10 quarterback play and not just that i think
08:47it's the belief that bringing cousins in in genders in the locker room not just because he was playing
08:55well but because for a lot of those guys harrison smith and jefferson and whatever hawkinson they know
09:04him he was already there and so i think the the biggest winner by far is the vikings and by
09:11the way
09:11a third round pick is not like that cost prohibitive to get him the other ones i would the other
09:18one
09:19i would say is the jaguars now i think you can really argue that they overpaid but they lost their
09:26starting safety and their starting nose tackle for the season to injuries and they went jim costa john
09:33they went they went straight jim costa hey let we we we need guys these two positions let's overpay for
09:39guys
09:40for both these spots jesse bates at safety jordan davis at d tackle let's go for it and if we
09:46don't
09:46win the super bowl then next year we have a first round pick in april i can criticize the crap
09:51out of
09:51them for trading a first round pick for a guy that's not worth it ross you gotta understand we're living
09:55in a city where none of our teams ever make the move we can at least respect something like that
10:00where you're you're making a a real push and staking a claim you know what i mean that's is that
10:04right
10:05is that right none of none of the detroit squads ever go for it they haven't in what two decades
10:12maybe 15 years yeah at least 10 i'm trying to i'm trying to think of other years and other times
10:19where the lions could have added that's that's a fascinating dynamic and yes that if that were the
10:25case that would be frustrating you know for me we just get lebron you know no big deal we just
10:29get
10:29lebron and jalen brown right yeah for the lions you'd have to go back to 1967
10:36they've never made like a trade in the last couple years at the trade deadline the biggest
10:41would have been zadarius smith from when hutch got hurt they gave up i believe it was a fifth and
10:45a
10:45sixth yeah but i'm even talking hockey and baseball we don't need to go there all right so let's talk
10:51sunday yeah let's talk sunday you know what you know what's funny about that jim that reminds me a
10:57little bit of the packers in the sense that the packers never do stuff like that or rarely do
11:04stuff like that as well now in fairness they did make a big bold move for micah parsons which is
11:11very much out of character but what i've typically said about the packers is they feel to me like
11:20they've had a commitment to being good enough to not quite be good enough for years now i mean
11:26they've had arguably top five quarterback play since 1992 and they've gone to three super bowls
11:35and won two of them even though they seemingly make the playoffs every year uh that's a philosophy
11:43that there's some people who they're and maybe this is the lions philosophy which is let's make sure
11:47we're really good and we're in the mix every year and one of these years we will break through
11:54with this philosophy as opposed to being more aggressive at any one point in time all right
12:00so let's quickly get to this matchup in germany lions pats how do you see this one playing out
12:09well it's a cliche but it's true it's not always who you play it's when you play them man this
12:17could
12:17not have worked out any better for the lions i mean all the receiver issues for the patriots i tend
12:25to
12:25doubt aj brown plays so you know they don't have dob they don't have aj brown they're down their top
12:31couple receivers they're down their top couple running backs travi on henderson's out remandre
12:36stevenson doesn't sound like he's gonna play they're banged up on the o-line it's just the perfect time
12:43for the lions to get them a few weeks ago i would have said whoa look out now it feels
12:49like it'd be
12:49a really disappointing loss for the lions if they don't get this one done and i'm i'm just super
12:55impressed with campbell and their mindset i told you guys i thought last week was a trap game sort of
13:02played out that way but the lions are showing that they can win different ways it doesn't have to be
13:0934 31 they can win a gritty grimy game they can win 19 to 9 and field goals and whatever
13:17i thought you know i was more impressed with their victory last week against the dolphins
13:23than some of the other ones they've had this year because now they got the defense playing and now
13:28they're showing that they're not a one-trick pony they can find different ways to win games week in
13:34and week out he's ross tucker joins us every week nfl insider presented by nationwide for your
13:40insurance and financial needs nationwide is on your side ross good stuff we'll talk next week ross
13:45sounds great see you guys it's 97 one
