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00:00Adam Kaplan is our NFL insider. A double shot on Mondays. You can follow him on X at Kaplan NFL.
00:06Almost 30 years covering the National Football League. You see him on SportsGrid all across
00:10the board and on C2C three times during the week. Double shots on Monday and double shot on Friday
00:16plus bust a cap in your ass on Fridays where he does the spread picks. I gotta just start with
00:21this before we get into everything else. I was just saying to you, you're paying this guy $35
00:26a year to do the games. He's the number one announcer. Immediately takes a guy's job that
00:32was great at it, allegedly. People thought that Greg Olson was great at it. They just bumped him
00:38right out of there for Tom Brady, which everyone, I understand seven rings, you get whatever you
00:42want when you're Tom Brady. But he was really pedestrian at doing it. And I'm telling you,
00:49he wasn't worth $3.5 million doing that game. Yeah, and I expect Brady to improve that. He
00:54needs to relax a little bit. I thought he was a little bit uptight. But you were talking about
00:57Greg Olson, who's just phenomenal. See, the thing is he's relatable. He's got great energy. He
01:03explains it well. Olson has done it in a way as a broadcaster, as a analyst that we all can
01:13understand. And that is the key to broadcasting no matter what sports that you're doing, being
01:18relatable. And Greg was really good in the beginning. I think you and I were talking about
01:22that off the air. You kind of see it sometimes when guys have it. And in Brady's case, yes,
01:27you're expecting greatness because of what they're paying him. It's going to take some time.
01:32Yeah, I just can't. You can't explain that to me, that he's worth $35 million. I guess it's
01:38just because of his name and his rings. Because, I mean, that was really lame is what it was. It
01:45was lame. All right. Takeaways and intel from the opening Sunday of pain day.
01:53Where do you want to start here? Yeah, it's interesting. Oh, by the way, this just came down,
01:57and we shouldn't mention this. The Rams will host the Cardinals in their home opener. They lost last
02:02night at Detroit. They are a mass shooting on their offensive line. Three of their starters are
02:06out. The left tackle, Larrick Jackson, has got to serve this second game. It was two-game suspension.
02:11Puka Nakua is going to miss a minimum of four weeks with his PCL sprain. He aggravated the
02:15injury. And I was there that day when they had a joint practice with the Chargers and El Segundo
02:21in early August. So Nakua got hurt early in the game. He was headed for a big game. He had four
02:25catches in the first half. That's why you saw Cooper Cup get a ton of passes his way. So that's
02:31a problem. They're in trouble, man. They are in trouble. They just don't have the depth. Who
02:37could withstand losing three players? They're going to be down at least two. Now, the third
02:42guy, they'll see his day-to-day. But that's a problem. And that was a tough loss. In fact,
02:46that game wasn't a little tough, I'm telling you, because we'll talk about the overs in a second.
02:51That game had an overpaced, but the problem is the Rams couldn't protect Matthew Stafford. I
02:55give him all the credit in the world. They really hung in that game. You and I talked about this
02:59game Friday that we both liked the Lions. Lions made it more interesting than it really should
03:03have been against those Rams. They blew it. They had the game won. They came back and took the lead
03:11and then they blew it. I thought their overtime defense was anemic. Yeah, and I got to give the
03:19Lions credit getting Jameson Williams the ball. That was one of the big stories of the game,
03:23because if you remember, Jameson Williams last year did next to nothing, right? And this,
03:28talking to the Lions, this was his breakout season and he did that. And the one issue you
03:32have with the Rams is, yes, their defense kept them in the game, but they've got issues at corner
03:36and that's where teams are going to go after them. If you could protect, there were some protection
03:41issues in that first half with Goff, but they got it together and he made some big plays when they
03:46needed to. Montgomery cashed it in, but I give the Lions credit. And now you look at that with
03:52the Packers problem now with Jordan Love going to miss time. Right now, you got to see the Lions are
03:58shooing to win that division. The Packers can, they're going to have problems winning without
04:01Jordan Love. Malik Willis is not ready. Do you think, because we talked about this earlier,
04:07I want to get your assessment of it. We've already discussed it. Do you think that injury
04:14in Brazil is going to ruin their season? It's going to set them back. Okay. First of all,
04:20with the NFC North, right? Where it's really tight. One of the reasons why I thought the
04:25Packers could certainly win that division or win more games than nine and a half, which I still
04:29think that they will, is because of Jordan Love and the way that he played in the second half of
04:33last season. What's interesting is against the Eagles, he did not play well. Okay. Let's leave
04:37the injury to the side a little bit. Right. Throwing off his back foot, inaccurate, passes were not
04:43really on target. He made a couple of big plays, but overall he didn't play well. Now, and you just
04:47talked about, can this injury down sort of derail their season? Well, it's not going to derail it,
04:51but it's going to set them back. Malik Willis is a guy who's super raw. Okay. The Titans were
04:56trying to move him. They found one team that would trade for him. That was the Packers. Now,
05:00I know it's the same West Coast offense at the running with Tennessee, but we saw this two years
05:04ago. He wasn't ready. If you're going to develop Malik Willis-Farrell, you need a full off season
05:09to do that. It's going to be very, very tough for them to be able to win without him. And it's not
05:12like their defense played great against Philly either. If you want to look at why some of the
05:17totals were going over, well, look at how many coordinator changes we've had, Scott. A lot of
05:21defensive changes and with Green Bay, Jeff Halfley, their defense at times collapsed against Philly.
05:29No doubt about it, Adam. All right. I want to go through the litany of quarterbacks
05:34that looked terrible yesterday, and I want to go on your list back to front. I want to start
05:40with Caleb Williams because everyone had him. Rookie of the year, offensive player of the year,
05:46Bears go to the Super Bowl, Iberflues coach of the year. He was terrible. Yeah, he struggled.
05:54And the thing that concerns me is trying to throw off platform, not taking the passes that are
05:59there. This is a good scheme that they're playing in with Shane Waldron, who developed Gino Smith
06:05with the Seahawks. They're running a West Coast offense. It's a timing-based offense. You and I
06:09talked about this, about Caleb Williams. If he's going to be a success, he's got to play within
06:13structure as much as possible. I get it. If the pocket breaks down, throw off platform. That's
06:18fine. But within structure, when the play is there to be made, you need to make it, and he didn't do
06:23that. They won in spite of him. Their defense took the game over in the second half. And that same
06:27game will let us struggle. The Titans quarterback, turnovers, indecisiveness. The Titans blew that
06:34game. Let's call it like it is. Yes, the Bears defense took over the second half. The Titans
06:38shouldn't have choked that game. They had it. It was an ugly game in the first half. The Bears should
06:43not have won that game. We'll let them struggle. He's got to play better. He blew it. They blew it.
06:48Bryce Young is still terrible. Boy, he really struggled in this game against the Saints. The
06:55game was never close. They put their defense in a tough way. See, the thing is, Scott, Dan Morgan,
07:00their new general manager, has done a good job of putting talent around him. But you wouldn't know
07:04watching that game. Young just doesn't stand tall in the pocket. He's got to play better.
07:09They can't run the ball to save their life. Yes, their defense gave up some big plays. In fact,
07:14their card, once they got it big in the first half, they pulled the plug on the passing game.
07:19But that was a pathetic performance from Bryce Young. I would agree with you. And then the other
07:22one that, see, with Anthony Richardson, yes, he made it one of the all-time great throws in the
07:27last, like, 10 years. His touchdown, Alec Pierce, over 60 yards. But other than that, very inaccurate
07:35shot. He's not a guy. It's like, we get it. He's got a big arm. He can move.
07:39Big, great size. But he misses the routine throws he's got to make. Just not good enough.
07:45And I got to get C.J. Stroup. For those people who said he might have a sophomore slump,
07:49I don't know what you're watching. Well, yeah, he's fantastic. There's no point in discussing it.
07:56What about Bo Nix and Jaden Daniels? Yeah, Daniels was great with his feet. And I told
08:01you months ago that with Cliff Kingsbury, the offense coordinator with the Commanders,
08:05the quarterbacks are going to run, particularly in the red zone. That's the way he coaches.
08:08Daniels was great with his feet. To me, I was not really impressed with his throwing. It was just
08:13OK. They don't have a great receiver core. That's something that Adam Peter, the general manager of
08:18Washington, is going to have to address in the Draftsman Free Agency. Remember, they were in
08:22the sweepstakes early on. But the thing is, though, getting over to Bo Nix, boy, he misses
08:29throws he's got to make. They're good enough at wide receiver. He's got to be better.
08:33They were in that game, Scott. And in fact, they had the backdoor cover at the end there,
08:36which they shouldn't have had. But bottom line is, Bo Nix has got to play better.
08:42There was more bad than good with the young quarterbacks. Now, it's week one, OK? Let's
08:46relax a little bit. These guys have to play better. The coaches have to help them out a
08:51little bit. But not a lot of encouraging sign from this young, classic quarterback.