Can the Patriots make a playoff run in 2025?, Predicting the AFC West with Adam Rank | The Insiders

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They’ve got their quarterback in
New England. They also feel like
they’ve got their head coach as well. So Robert Kraft, the
owner, looking forward to having
some fun once again up there in New England. Winning equals fun.
Can they start doing that
elsewhere? The Kansas City Chiefs We keep saying that AFC
West is loaded with veteran
talent and veteran coaches looking to come for them. Is
this the year somebody finally
gets them? Adam Rank says maybe so. Plus, Broncos offensive
tackle Garett Bolles. He’s a
veteran on the field and he knows what he’s doing off the
field as well. Is this
partnership with USAA? What’s he doing? We will tell you that,
and we will also talk some
football with our buddy Garrett coming up here on the program.
Welcome inside with the
insiders. Mike Garafolo here Stacey Dales joining us, Cameron
Wolff along as well Brian
Baldinger with us, Adam Rank, as I mentioned, Sam Schwartz, theme
Prime Video’s analytics expert,
who joins us during the season. Going to have some big picture
stuff for us when it comes to
the analytics right now. And I mentioned Garett Bolles. You’re
not going to want to miss that
interview as well. But everybody with us today to talk what’s
happening around the league in
the NFL. And the latest is Robert Kraft, Patriots owner,
talking to ESPN and saying that
the last two years were the worst of his 31 years of
ownership. He said we have to
change that. Kraft also promising that they are going to
have more fun up there in New
England, which is sort of ironic given that Lane Johnson, the
Eagles offensive tackle, made a
crack a couple of years ago about yeah, they win, but they
never have fun. Now they have
fun when they win on game day. Just haven’t done a whole lot of
that lately. So Stacey Dales and
Cameron Wolfe get on in here. Let’s talk about this because
Robert Kraft I know like we’re
talking about the Patriots as the team. The schedule sets up
nicely. They’ve got a veteran
coach that has proven himself elsewhere. We feel good about
the additions that they’ve made
talking about them as like could they shock the world and make
the playoffs? Like, are we
getting too far ahead of themselves? Because I know
Robert Kraft wants to hit the
ground running this year. Stays. No, I’m shaking my head. No.
Right. Cam. No, no, I think you
agree with me. I think once you’re the New England Patriots
every year the expectations are
playoffs. Right. And I think it all starts with your
quarterback. I watched Drake
Maye extensively last year. And even though they didn’t play to
their record that they wanted
to, Drake Maye showed a lot of promise throughout his struggles
with talent around him. And
that’s why I think the connection with Stefon Diggs is
going to be so important. Of
course, we’ve had some headlines of Diggs this offseason on
boats, but when he’s on the
field, he can do what he did for Josh Allen early on in his
career. Remember, Josh Allen had
struggled early on. He needed that go to weapon and Drake Maye
now has that weapon. I know that
Josh Allen talked to NBC Boston and talked about how he watches
Drake Maye, how Stefon Diggs can
be a great safety valve for him. And I remember going down to
Buffalo last year and talking to
them about the impact of Stef before and after this era. They
said early on in Josh’s career
everything was so fast for him, and so he knew that when Stef
was on the field, he was always
the guy that if all fails, I can go to Stef and he’s going to run
the right route. He’s going to
be the responsible guy. That’s what he now is for. Drake Maye
and I talked to someone with the
Patriots a few weeks ago, when all this stuff was going on with
Diggs. They were talking about,
hey, do you regret this move? They said no, we had to take the
chance on this move. But the big
thing with Stefon Diggs is he’s a competitor. He’s a dog and no
one works harder than him. Six
straight 1000 yard seasons before he got injured last year.
And his quarterback is also a
dog. I remember being in there a couple of years ago for the
draft the night before the
draft. Drake Maye is playing no blood, no foul basketball with
his brothers. And so he and
Stefon Diggs will bring the dog that Mike Vrabel loves for the
Patriots in year one. Absolutely
cam listen Drake Maye isn’t going to be sneaky good by any
standard this year. He is
freakishly athletic at the quarterback position. And what’s
really cool is we heard those
comments. Mike and Cam from Robert Kraft. I love how candid
he is. He always is candid, but
he’s sleeping a little bit better at night because he got
his guy. That’s Mike Vrabel, and
Mike Vrabel automatically brings stability back to the New
England Patriots, where he was,
as a player, a three time Super Bowl champion. Not only does he
come back, but Josh McDaniels
comes back. Imagine the comfort level for these men coming back
into Foxborough. And Tyrell
Williams the new defensive coordinator was with rabies that
whole time in Tennessee where
they took that group to the playoffs I believe three years
straight in three straight
seasons. So that stability is back. You talk about Drake Maye.
What do they do. They go into
the first round and they grab Will Campbell out of LSU. I
think he’s going to be an all
pro at some point. The new left tackle for the blindside
protector for Drake Maye. And so
when I think about this offense and talking to people there in
Foxborough, the efficiency with
how the operation has has been groomed this offseason, this
team absolutely could be a
playoff group in the AFC East running. Mike, talk about Will
Campbell I know a guy that is
really high on Will Campbell and he’s listening to us right now.
That’s Brian Baldinger. He’ll be
with us shortly here. So that is a huge addition, along with some
of the other ones that the
Patriots have made this offseason. Time to have fun.
Time to win once again. That is
the order from Robert Kraft up there in New England. The Jets
have been trying to do both for
quite some time and just haven’t been successful. So enter Justin
Fields. Look, I know we’re
thinking about him potentially as a bridge quarterback, but
Aaron Glenn has been extremely
high on fields so far this offseason. We’ll see if he can
carry what he did in the spring,
into the summer and then into the season. Cam Wolfe So your
thoughts on what you’re hearing
right now on Justin Fields and what’s happening in Florham Park
to engender some of that
confidence? Yeah. Can’t wait to see that Justin Fields and Aaron
Glenn pairing confidence and
trust are some of the things you were kind of mentioning there
that makes me have a different
feel about Justin Fields this week. Aaron Glenn did not
hesitate. Quarterback one. He
also didn’t hesitate by saying he is going to be able to play
quarterback. We’re not going to
put him in a box and say he can only be a one read guy who runs,
as he’s had to do in past stops,
and maybe more importantly, he is letting him lead his own way.
Justin Fields is not a huge yell
at you, but he’s trying to communicate and lead and find
that niche within himself with
his teammates. That’s some of the things he’s talked about.
And as you see him running, one
of the techniques the Jets have used with him this offseason is
this team helmet cam. It’s a
GoPro style camera they put on his head. The offensive
coordinator, Tanner Ekstrand,
had it in Detroit with Aaron Glenn. They brought it here. A
few other teams around the
league Miami, Atlanta have done it as well in the past with
their quarterback. What it does
is you can watch the film from the quarterbacks views. They can
see how Justin Fields goes
through his progressions, what receiver he looks through first,
what’s his mindset. And they can
work the offense and frame it with him that way, going better.
And in the past, Justin Fields,
the question has been can he get the ball out quick enough to his
receivers? This is hopefully
going to help that process. They plan to continue it into
training camp, and the hope is
that he can maybe have that resurgence that we saw from
Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold,
other spots after it didn’t work out in their first team. Yeah
he’s got to figure out a way to
get that camera as part of the game day coverage. Amazon
Prime’s been experimental. Prime
Video Sam Schwartzstein is coming on later in the program.
Maybe I can get Sam to convince
somebody to get a little camera on top of Justin Fields helmet
that we can watch live on game
day. Cameron, thank you very much. It is the summit time of
the year in the NFL. You got
tight end university happening and you got the Sack summit
happening out there in Las Vegas
where we can find our Brian Baldinger. Look I know during
training camp we do the Ian
Rapoport plane where he put his little stupid head in that small
airplane. Oh look at all the
places I’ve gone during training camp. I want that for Baldy in
the offseason because he’s been
everywhere. And he’s joining us now live from Las Vegas. We’re
going to call it Baldi’s 11.
Right. That’s like the offense. You can get 11 guys like Ocean’s
11. You see where I’m going with
that baldy. Tell us what’s happening there at the Sack
Summit. Well, at the moment I’m
being blinded by the desert sun where it’s 102 outside. So
forgive me right here for
squinting, but. No, this is great. I’m Max Crosby. Von
Miller invited me a couple years
now, and I do all the video for it, but it’s really a great
think tank. It’s a great way
for, you know, the pass rushers in this league, both defensive
tackles and ends to really talk
about the techniques, the fundamentals, what they’re
looking at and trying to really
get after these quarterbacks, you know, every Sunday in this
business and how important that
is affecting the quarterback. I just I’m here I am with Von
Miller last year just talking
about you know, some hand placement, some things that von
likes to do. We do a lot of
drills on the field. We talk through a lot of different
things that we go in the film
room, and then we kind of watch it and talk about it. So that’s
sad. I mean, and you know, I
just downstairs getting a cup of coffee, I saw Trayvon Walker
from the Jacksonville Jags. He’s
all excited about being here in the new regime in Jacksonville.
But what I’m excited about this
year, Mike, is we have probably 50 to 60 players, but we have 7
or 8 rookies that are coming
here. And I remember last year Braden Fiske was a rookie with
the Rams. And he came. He was
sitting in the front row the way you know rookies sometimes learn
how to do. Got a pen got a
notebook. He also led all rookies defensive linemen in
sacks a year ago with eight and
a half. So Jalen Walker is here Michael Williams is here Landon
Jackson is here. You know we’ve
got rookies here. They’re going to be learning from Max Crosby.
Cam Jordan Calais Campbell is
here. You know a really an opportunity for young guys to
really mix it with a lot of
older veteran players that have figured this thing out. And this
thing is just kind of mushroomed
and growing year by year right now. Yeah. And you talk about
two of those veterans, TJ Watt
and Trey Hendrickson, two guys looking for new contracts. We
haven’t heard a lot from T.J.
Watt, but this Hendrickson one has been public. And the sides I
know that they’ve tried this a
couple of times to get something done. Still not done at this
point. We’ll see if right around
training camp they can get to some kind of agreement there.
Same thing with what as well.
I’m confident that what one’s going to get done, it just needs
a matter of, you know, hey,
training camp is around the corner. So in the meantime, you
look at these guys, you know,
they’re worth every penny because you see exactly what
they are capable of doing right
there. Well, I mean, look, TJ is basically the face of the
franchise and has been I mean,
he’s got he fills up the stat sheet. You know, his 108 sacks
and 33 forced fumbles and seven
interceptions. I mean he really does it all. I mean not just a
pass rusher. You know he’s
dropping into coverage intercepting the balls. But you
know his effort is just
contagious. And so you talked about right tackles in this
league that have to face him.
They have a lot of sleepless nights because he can make you
like we’re
watching right now. And so I think this should get done. You
know I remember Nick Bosa after
he was the defensive player of the year in San Francisco. He
got signed on the Friday before
the opening day of the season. One thing we know about TJ now
when whenever this gets done,
he’s coming into camp Latrobe, wherever it might be in shape.
And so you’re going to get him
really at full speed I think whenever he does show up. Yeah.
And you see the numbers there on
the lower third, the sack numbers, it’s pretty remarkable
how good these men have been
over the years. And they just don’t come off the field. By the
way, you’re a national treasure,
Baldy. I think we all agree. You’re either snorkeling
somewhere in an ocean or you’re
at a sack summit. But when you look at these numbers since
2020, over the last five
seasons, this is an interesting full screen here because T.J.
Watt obviously, yeah, he wants
to be the highest defensive player in the National Football
League. He’s in the final year
of his contract currently and so is Trey Hendrickson. Nick Bosa
was injured with the ACL in
2020. So he didn’t play. But that’s probably maybe why that
number is a little skewed in
the. Micah Parsons has only played four seasons in the
league, but those three at the
top Myles Garrett currently the $40 million annual man as he
should be. But Trey Hendrickson
folks the third most sacks in the National Football League
since 2020. And then look at the
quarterback pressures. Baldy and Mike. This is an important stat
to me, simply because the motor
never stops with these superstars. And Trey
Hendrickson, is it because he
was a third round pick to the Saints eight years ago out of
Florida Atlantic? I’m not sure.
But his production, for a guy that doesn’t come off the field,
has been masterful for the
entirety of his career, and certainly for these Cincinnati
Bengals and for a defense,
fellas, that was not good last year. Al Golden is now taking
over as the defensive
coordinator. And to hear Duke Tobin, sort of the pseudo GM,
tell us all the way back at the
combine, I won’t forget we believe we have a championship
caliber team. But specifically
he said defensively our defense wasn’t good enough. We couldn’t
get stops when we needed to. We
couldn’t protect leads. We didn’t get off the field. We
didn’t win in critical moments.
Defensively, you’ve got to ink this thing up with Mr.
Hendrickson because he is a fine
player. And yeah, he may be 30, but he’s he’s the focal point of
that defense and a headache for
quarterbacks. They struggled in the secondary. You know what
makes the secondary even worse A
pass rush. They can’t get home. So you want him there obviously.
As for what I know the Steelers
have felt really good about their recent offers. They feel
like they’re there. It’s just a
matter of, you know, training camp being that pressure point
to get it done. So again, I feel
confident that T.J. Watt is going to have a deal in the near
future. Baldy, thank you very
much. You’re back with us in a little bit. Two tight end
university. We go where Taylor
Swift performed and debuted her new single, Tight End of My
Heart. I don’t know. My kids
listen to Taylor. That sounds like it could be a Taylor song.
Meanwhile, Trey McBride, who
just got paid as a tight end that catches the ball a lot. The
Arizona Cardinals wide receiver
saying Mahomes and Kelce. Yeah, that could be McBride and Kyler
that you’re talking about. We
can have that kind of connection, which I’m sure
McBride would like to happen
more in the end zone, because we didn’t see a whole lot of that,
despite as many catches as he
made there. Yeah, Jaden, Jaden Daniels and Zach Ertz. They’re
another tight end quarterback
connection that we saw last year and could see plenty of this
upcoming season. Stacy, I gave
you a couple of combinations there. Give me one quarterback
tight end combination that
you’re looking forward to in 2025. I cannot Mike and Baldy
got to do this quickly because
we got to get to break soon. But I can’t wait to see Geno Smith
with Brock Bowers after what we
saw Brock Bowers do as a rookie. He shattered basically every
record. He caught balls, by the
way, from footballs, from three different quarterbacks
throughout the season.
O’Connell, Ridder and Minshew. But he shatters Mike Ditka’s
1961 record for catches by a
rookie. I mean, he was brilliant. And what’s really
cool in three seasons in
Seattle, when Geno Smith targeted tight ends, he was at
about an 80% completion clip. So
I think this is going to be a fun marriage in Chip Kelly’s
offense. Baldy. And certainly
going to be exciting to watch, but I can’t wait to hear your
potential duo this season. Well,
one little tag to Brock Bowers. They couldn’t cover him. And
when they did and he caught the
ball, they couldn’t tackle. That’s a pretty good combination
right there. I’m going to go to
Minnesota. Stacy, J.J. McCarthy and TJ Hawkinson. Just remember
now TJ before that devastating
knee injury at the end of 2023 he had 95 catches for the
Vikings. I mean he was used as
soon as he got there. He’s fully back and recovered after
finishing the second half of the
season on the field last year, but I think TJ and JJ have a
chance to be a really good
combination. We know the receivers on the outside are
special, but I think TJ in the
middle of the field runs good routes. He’s got great size and
I think he could be used quite a
bit in this Vikings offense. Those are some great duos I’ll
give you a trio. How about this.
Caleb Williams right there in your backyard. Stays with Cole
Kmet and now Colston Loveland as
well. Interested to see how Ben Johnson uses those guys as well.
Stacey Dales Brian Baldinger
thank you so much. You guys are back later on. Garett Bolles is
up next, the Broncos offensive
tackle. He knows how to protect the pocket on the field and off
the field as well. What am I
talking about. You’ll learn that next as we talk what Bolles is
doing here and some football on
the inside. We’re making a it without you. You know, we’d
like to do the additions, the
losses for teams when it comes to the off season. Here are the
Broncos additions. After a ten
and seven season that may have surprised a lot of folks outside
the building, but not those
inside the building. They knew with Sean Payton and the talent
that they had, that they were
going to be competitive. So how do you now add to that and take
the next step? Well, here’s what
Denver has done this offseason. But you know what? Sometimes
it’s not about who you’re
adding. It’s about who you’re retaining who’s coming back.
This guy offensive tackle Garett
Bolles back for season number nine in the NFL with the Denver
Broncos. It just seems like the
other day you were you were holding up Kingston your son at
the draft. We’re going to get to
all that in a second. But for right now, tell us what you’re
doing with USAA. You said you
were sweaty before we came on. Don’t worry, man, we can’t we
can’t smell a thing here. I hope
you don’t smell me. No, but I’m out here in Eagle Nest Ranch,
which is about 30 minutes
outside of Parker, Colorado. Just out here clearing brush,
using chainsaws, machetes, all
the fun things that you do on the ranch to prevent wildfires,
which is Colorado, which is
known for a high risk of wildfire. And then teaming up
with Team Rubicon and USAA to be
able to be impactful to Iran’s like this, that provides therapy
for PTSD veterans. Yeah. For the
Veterans Voice initiative. Also, this initiative, as far as
clearing the brush referenced
the Protecting the Pocket USAA Protect the Pocket Brush
clearing event. When I say
protect the pocket, you know what that means? I mean, that’s
what you do for a living, my
friend. Protecting the pocket. So tell us where you are. I
mean, I mentioned it’s year nine
right now for you. A lot of times we say, oh guys, once they
get past 30, they’re on the
downside of their career. But offensive tackles I mean we’ve
seen them play for a long time.
We see the way that you’re still holding up. The Broncos gave you
an extension recently. So
obviously they believe there’s a lot of good football left in
you. Tell us where you feel you
are in your NFL career. I feel right where I need to be. I feel
like, you know, I’m in the best
shape mentally, physically and spiritually and along with, you
know, just me being comfortable
in my position, you know, being me being comfortable in the
offense, being my third year
with Coach Peyton, you know, what a hell of a coach he is and
all that he does for us to
provide for us and puts us in situations to help us win, you
know, big time moments and big
time games, which we did, which you saw us do last year. And
we’re just hopefully we can
build off of that this year. But you know, he’s smart and then
you know our ownership. You know
the Walton-penner group and you know all the amazing people that
we have on that ownership group
are putting us, you know, with the great players and the great
coaching staff and, you know,
just so much exciting things heading our way. I talked about
it last season being a ten and
seven season that you guys inside the building expected.
What’s been the talk amongst the
players in the locker room from coaches to players about okay,
that was great. Now we got to
build on it. Now we’ve got to strike. No for sure I think you
know you know as an iceberg. You
know there’s you only see the tip of the iceberg. You don’t
see the bottom of the iceberg.
And you know I feel like that’s just what they tell us is like,
you know, we’re we’re right
there. And now we now we have a serious climb that we have to
do. You know, being out west and
being around mountains, you got to climb and, you know, the
harder that you climb, you know,
you’re going to get different obstacles and different things
that you’re going to have to
face. And it’s only going to get harder from here. But, you know,
we have so many young guys that
pushes us older guys. We have a hell of a coaching staff. And,
you know, just from top to
bottom from, you know, from the cooks in the kitchen to, you
know, the janitors to the
training staff, to the equipment staff, to our coaching staff, to
all of our players and the
veterans on the team with me and Cortland. And, you know, it’s
just an awesome time to be a
Denver Bronco. And, you know, I’m just looking forward to the
season and all the many things
that we’re going to accomplish along the way. It takes
everybody, dude. It does
everybody in the entire building, just like you said.
But if all that’s right and the
quarterback position is wrong, we see that it still doesn’t go
where it needs to go. So tell me
about Bo Nix, what he showed everybody in year one. And then
when he shows up in the spring
right now all the way through minicamp because he got a little
bit more swag, does he got a
little bit more confidence in him when he’s in that huddle?
That was a tremendous football
player man. I’m so grateful I get to protect him. And you know
you know being his blindside
protector and you know giving him all the time in the world.
You know he’s he’s a freak of
nature. You know you look at the numbers that he put up last
year. You know you know between
him and JT Daniels you know those were the two young
quarterbacks in the league
that’s going to be very successful. And you know I have
one of them behind me. And you
know his demeanor his composure his you know his work ethic. You
know just always wanting to get
better. And you know his arm talent and just the way he sees
he has swag man. He really does.
You would think you know a rookie like that would come in
and it would be hard for him to
adjust to the NFL life. And I think it just pays dividends to
all the snaps that he had in
college and the coaching staffs that he had there with Auburn
and Oregon, and then coming to
Denver and just embracing his role and being the leader that
he is to lead our team down the
field to score points. You know, it spoke to us. You know, we
scored a lot of points last
year. And we’re just we’re ready to build off of what we did last
year and continue to get better
each and every day. You mentioned him and his rookie
season. That takes me back to
what I referenced a short while ago. Your draft, when you held
up and won the hearts of
everybody, including everybody in Philadelphia, which is not
easy to do by holding up your
son Kingston, then a baby. There it is right there, man. What a
great, great scene that was. But
now let’s flash forward. Let’s see what Kingston is doing these
days. Because you posted this on
your Instagram a short while ago. Tell us what he’s doing
here and tell us you know how
impressive that is, knowing that he ain’t a baby anymore? No he’s
not. He’s eight years old now.
Can you believe that? It’s time flies, man. But that. That’s my
mini me. He’s my ride or die
soldier, man. He loves football. He tells he wants me to play
till I’m 50. So that’s what he
tells everybody that’s going to play till he’s 50. So, you know,
he’s it’s just so much fun to be
able to, you know, have that relationship with him and
understand that I’m playing
football and him being around the guys and him coming in the
locker room and him being old
enough to understand football and you know, he want to be a
football player. And so coming
to train with me, with my trainer Brad Davidson and you
know, just pushing the sled
around. And you know he’s always working out when I’m working out
at home. And you know, it’s just
a fun bonding time to be a dad. And, you know, have your son
embrace, you know, your job and
your work that you do day in and day out. And you know, him
wanting to do it with you is
just an awesome experience for both of us. Listen, he works
hard physically. He works hard
mentally as well. We’ve talked to you before about apraxia. He
was diagnosed with it. It’s a
speech disorder that he is working through. I know he’s
combining some football with his
speech therapist to kind of reward what he’s doing. You see
him here, he hits the button.
And the Fox NFL music plays when he gets it right. How impressed
are you with what he’s been able
to do and what the progress that he’s made? Oh man. Now you’re
going to make me emotional. No,
it’s been so cool to see with, you know, with him and, you
know, Miss Jenny and you know
what she’s does and, you know, signing a contract here, knowing
that, you know, the most
renowned apraxia of speech therapist is 20 minutes away
from my home. And, you know,
here in Colorado and being able to connect with him and you
know, now he’s, you know, saying
full sentences and, you know, full paragraphs and just working
so hard day in and day out. You
know, he’s an inspirational to me. And knowing that, you know,
I’m going to play as long as I
can to provide him, you know, not just that father
relationship, but just a
relationship with him where he can come to me and ask me
questions and talk to me and
know that it’s a safe environment for him. You know,
every single day he puts in that
work, you know, he’s tired every day as he goes to Miss Jenny’s
house and, you know, and I’m
just there to love him and cheer him along the way. And, you
know, every single year, every
single month, he just blows me away by the hard work he puts in
and the new words that he gains.
And, you know, he’s so excited to share those words with me and
my wife. And so we couldn’t be
more proud of him. You should be proud of him. And I know where
he learned that work ethic from
you guys, from you with what you’ve done on the field, what
you’re doing right now, I mean,
taking your off time and working with USAA, USAA, and Team
Rubicon to clear brush there,
protect the pocket, Garrett, protect the pocket on the field.
Protect the pocket off the
field. Congratulations to you for the work you’re doing. And
thank you for joining us here on
the insiders. Thank you so much, brother. Hope you have a good
one. Yes, sir. Miss Jenny,
you’re the real MVP. Could the MVP come out of the AFC South?
Maybe not, but we’re going to
talk AFC South. We’re going to talk some teams that could make
some noise and potentially
dethrone the Texans. That is coming up with Baldy and Bucky
Brooks after the break. I’m an
overpowered leaf blower and I’m a rivalry looks like. It’s game
time. Are you serious? Welcome
back to The insiders. It was cam Ward, the first overall pick of
this year’s draft to the
Tennessee Titans. It told us in this late period leading up to
training camp that he was going
to throw the F out of the football, and I have no doubt
that was transpiring because the
Tennessee Titans went three and 14. As we welcome in Brian
Baldinger once again. And Bucky
Brooks, they went three and 14 a season ago. And you know guys
the NFC AFC South excuse me a
combined 25 and 43 last season. So we like to see some
improvement from this division
Houston took it Baldy. But let’s start with the Tennessee Titans.
What’s going to you know take
them to the place they want to go and make a case for them.
Well I mean, you know, Brian
Callahan starts his second year and they got their quarterback.
They got they got cam Ward. I
was there at his pro day in Miami Stacy. And he’s a mature
kid that improved all five years
in college really knows how to conduct himself. So I think he’s
going to provide leadership. Can
he provide, you know, the ability that we saw from Jayden
Daniels last year where he took
the commanders from four wins to 12 wins into the NFC
Championship game? Like that’s
what you’re hoping you can get when you get a franchise
quarterback. Now he’s got to go
do it. He’s got to build a relationship with Calvin Ridley,
who’s had some good seasons.
It’d be good to get that going. Right now, they’ve addressed the
offensive line. Brian Callahan’s
father, of course. You know, Bill Callahan will be coaching
that. It should be better. It
should be improved. They should have a solid wall in front of
them. And so I think offensively
and can can Tennessee right now take that jump up with cam Ward.
The way we’ve seen other teams
with young core if they can. I think that they can at least be
competitive in this division
where you just addressed 25 total wins for the four teams a
year ago. Yeah, but it’s going
to be tough. You talk about Tennessee Titans climbing out of
the basement. The Jaguars also
have a lot of work to do when it comes to getting back to
respectable and really competing
for the division, but the reason why they’re optimistic in
Jacksonville centers around the
quarterback and the three piece that should elevate his play.
The first part would be the play
caller Liam Cohen, comes over after a very successful stint,
really helping Baker Mayfield go
to the next level. Baker Mayfield played the best of his
career with Liam Cohen calling
the plays. If you take that blueprint, that same recipe,
man, you might get the jump that
you want to see from Trevor Lawrence. Since he entered the
league as the number one overall
pick. But it goes beyond the play caller. There are some
playmakers that can elevate
Trevor Lawrence’s play. Everyone is talking about Travis Hunter
number two overall pick being a
two way standout, but that first way he’s going to contribute is
going to be on offense. Putting
him beside Brian Thomas Jr. You add in Dyami Brown, they now
have more speed and
explosiveness on the outside. And then the offensive line.
Adam, Robert Hainsey, Patrick
McCarthy being able to get Walker Little in these guys up
and going on the offensive line.
If this offense plays to the potential, the defense just has
to be okay. And this team can
overtake the Texans as the team to beat in the AFC South. Bucky
and Baldy is going to be
fascinating to see the snap count percent right for Travis
Hunter on both sides of the
football this season. And how kind of time on task through the
week. How they get him ready for
games every Sunday. Bucky let’s make a case now for the
Indianapolis Colts. We may or
may not see Anthony Richardson at training camp. He’s kind of
indicated recently that that
shoulder is getting better. It could be Daniel Jones make a
case for those Colts. Well look
I think Daniel Jones is going to be in line to be the starter
regardless of whether Anthony
Richardson was hurt or not. You don’t go out and get a backup, a
former number one pick, and pay
him the type of money that the Colts paid him if he wasn’t
going to be the starter. So now
that he’s in play, it really gives Shane Steichen an
opportunity to use his entire
playbook, because you have an experienced quarterback, a guy
who has won games and went
healthy and athletic quarterback that can do some of the dual
threat things that Shane
Steichen likes. That should give Jonathan Taylor and Michael
Pittman and some of the weapons
on offense a true opportunity to make contributions. So the
offense should be better. And
then defensively, Lou Anarumo coming over from the Cincinnati
Bengals, a well respected
defensive coordinator who will have an opportunity to really
expand on what this defense can
do. They won’t be simple, Simon. They will be diverse. They’ll be
a hybrid defense. Look for them
to create turnovers, and that should help them have more
opportunities to take over. And
Bucky, the three teams we’ve just talked about are all
looking up at the Houston
Texans, which have won this division two years in a row. But
things did not end well in the
playoff loss to Kansas City. They made a big change at
offensive coordinator. Offensive
line coach Nick Haley comes in to run the offense. Right now,
it’s really going to be a
different way of doing things and there’s a lot of changes on
offense, and so we know that
C.J. Stroud can flat out ball now. We got changes at the wide
receiver position. We have
changes at both tackles. Cam Robinson Trent Brown coming in
to tackle position. So there’s a
lot of changes here. Now. Are the changes going to protect
help protect C.J. Stroud better.
Are they going to be able to get the ball to their playmakers
better than they did a year ago,
where the offense can take a step up? Something in that
playoff loss to Kansas City was
just dreadful. So a lot of changes in the Houston Texans
offense that it might take a
while before it starts to click. We don’t know when that might
happen, but it might take a
while. So the defense has to step up because they got a lot
of great talent on that side of
the ball. But I think Demeco Ryans, the changes he made were
made for the postseason where
they want to start, you know, going deeper and deeper into the
playoffs. Yeah. And it’ll be fun
to see Nick Haley come in like you talked about. Take over that
offense coming from Sean Mcvay’s
system there with the Rams as the new OC marrying with C.J.
Stroud. Great stuff, Brian
Baldinger, Bucky Brooks. Plenty more to come after the break.
Adam Rank joins us to give his
predictions on a very loaded, loaded AFC West. That’s next. network. All right. Joining us
now Adam Rank who is in his own
silent disco. Listen I should admit the guy’s like on
vacation. He was playing golf
today. But he said you know what? The insiders want me I’m
coming. I’m coming on the
insiders. And here he is with his schedule predictor for the
AFC West, who we starting with
here. We’re starting with the Raiders because we’re talking
about the possibility of the
Chiefs being dethroned here. Yeah. Let’s start from the order
of finish from last year. And
obviously the Raiders were the fourth place team. But I really
like a lot of what they’ve done
over the offseason. They go out there, they hire Pete Carroll.
They get Ashton Gentry. He falls
to them. I don’t know if that’s a thing. And they also found a
way to make Max Crosby happy. So
if the Raiders are going to be successful this year, there’s a
couple of games that I’ve
identified starting in week two. They play the Chargers. Now.
Last season the Raiders had a
little bit of a problem with the Chargers got swept by them. This
is a key game for them to win.
Week six against the Tennessee Titans. That’s going to be
another one that they need to go
out there and take advantage of both the Titans and the Raiders.
New quarterbacks both think they
can make a charge this season, so that is going to be one to
look for. But in week 13 they go
back against the Chargers, then the Broncos, then the Eagles,
then the Texans. If the Raiders
are going to make the playoffs this season, they need to at
least go 500 over that stretch.
And speaking of playoff teams, I’ll talk about the Chargers
here for a moment, because last
year Jim Harbaugh was hired. I said for the long term success
of the Chargers, this is a great
move. But I thought it would have been a miracle if that
Chargers team with that roster
last year won seven games. Well guess what? Miracles happen.
They made the playoffs. They
didn’t look good in the playoffs. But we’re not talking
about that. But right now I look
at their division I look at their their schedule their first
three games of the season are
all against divisional opponents, and I know that I
can’t sit here and take shots at
Mike North, but like, what are you doing? Why are they playing
divisional opponents to open up
the season? I don’t think that’s fair for them. As a matter of
fact, I would say you shouldn’t
play a divisional opponent until sometime later in the season.
But week six, eight and six,
seven and eight, there is a real opportunity for them. They have
the Dolphins, the Colts and the
Vikings, three teams. Two of those, one of those teams made.
The two of those teams made the
playoffs. One of them, what am I what am I thinking? Those are
opportunities to go out there
and make some noise. And then week 18 they got the Denver
Broncos, which could be not only
for the division but for the playoffs. All right. So now move
on to the top two teams in their
division. I don’t know if we’re giving the specific order here
because it’s important because
the team that finishes first, they win the division. And that
still matters. Despite the Lions
proposal to take away the home game. Regardless. Take us
through the top two teams in the
division. Well, I’ll start with the Chiefs because I think a lot
of people are overlooking them,
but they still have Andy Reid, they still have Patrick Mahomes.
Of course. I don’t know if I if
I botch this, I, I put it in my notes as the Chiefs. So I’m
sorry if I’m messing up the b
roll. I was getting ahead of myself apparently. But the
Chiefs are going to be very good
this season. They open up. They got the Chargers and the Eagles
to open the season, a Super Bowl
rematch in week two. You know for a defending for a defending
AFC champion I feel that’s a
little rich for them. They’re going out there and having to
already start with two of their
toughest games. They have Denver after the bye week in week 11.
We all know that Andy Reid is
great after the bye week. Not in the Super Bowl, but they have
the Denver right there. And then
they close the season with the Denver Broncos. And speaking of
the Denver Broncos, they had one
of the best defenses last year. Really good. And then they go
out there and they add Greenlaw.
They they add Baron Hufanga. Offensively they’ve also added
some firepower as well. They
bring in Evan Ingram. And I think tight end was a huge issue
for them last season. You bring
in Evan Ingram. You redo the entirety of the running attack
of obviously Javonte Williams is
now in Dallas. But you got J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey for all
you fantasy people out there.
Mike Garafolo RJ Harvey is a name to keep track of this
season. What does that all mean
for the AFC West? Well, you know what, I’ll give you a little
spoiler alert of what I see as
the finishing order of the AFC West. Let’s call this up right
now because and this might shock
you, but I have the Denver Broncos winning the division.
They made the playoffs last
year. Why are you so shocked. The Chiefs being very good. The
Chargers also making the
playoffs at ten and seven. And the Raiders I think this is the
best division in football. When
you look at the coaches, when you look at the quarterback,
like all teams have legitimate
quarterbacks, Hall of Fame coaches, this is the best
division in football by far. I
know the NFC North gets gets some run, but I think it’s a
good division. Why are you why
are you cackling. What’s what’s up. Look look look I read I read
a promo on this yesterday so I
pretty much knew where you were going. I teased it earlier in
the show, so I pretty much knew
where you were going. It’s called showmanship, right? And I
also like I like to play into
the fans that right now in Kansas City are like, you suck,
Adam rank. You know usually it’s
the NFC North non bears teams that are saying that their fan
bases. But the Chiefs now are
saying hey disrespect the dynasty. Like that’s not a
Kansas City. It’s not Kansas
City accent. But you know what Adam Rank you know what they
say. If you can’t stand the heat
get out of the kitchen. You know, because you’re in the
kitchen, right? I’m in the
kitchen I love it. You’re in the kitchen. You can’t stand the
heat. Hey, check this out. Hey,
look, bring me back. Oh, I needed to be back on camera. Oh,
well, we lost our moment. I feel
like we should. We should slowly dial down his audio, like, whoa.
Like he’s falling down a well.
Sam Schwartzstein is coming up next on the insiders. Hey, look,
here’s my Halloween costume. I’m
the SVP podcast logo. Advil targeted relief, the only
topical pain reliever with four
powerful pain fighting more curable. Listen to your
lungs. Learn more at saved by
the scan.org. Here are NFL quarterback rankings by
division. By our guy Nick shook
me all night long. Do you like that one Chris Berman pretty
good. He’s got the AFC West
number one AFC South down there at number eight Trevor Lawrence
got to get that ranking to come
up there. Cam Ward TBD. Yeah we got to see who’s the quarterback
for the Colts. And it’s CJ
Stroud pretty good. But you know got to protect him better a
little bit of a change in
offensive coordinator Sam Schwartzstein is with us. Prime
Video on Thursday Night
Football’s analytics expert. He joins us during the season to
preview the Thursday Night
Football matchups. But we wanted a little 30,000 foot view of the
season here and some numbers
that could affect the season. Coming up. Let’s talk about the
last two number one overall
picks. Let’s start with cam Ward who I just mentioned with
Tennessee, which Titans fans
expect this year. Yeah I mean, there’s little to no fanfare for
a number one overall pick. When
has that ever happened? And it’s because cam Ward is kind of
unassuming guy. He came in, he
played 57 snaps in college football. That’s more than Will
Levis and his college and NFL
career combined, as well as Anthony Richardson in his NFL
career. And what they did to
bring him in is to help what they need up front. The
quarterback and the O-line play.
What I spent most of my offseason looking at is how do
they interact with each other?
And last year, the Titans had a 40.2% pressure rate. And then
they also faced the third lowest
blitz of only 24% on drop backs. So teams are going home with for
what they want to have. Cam Ward
do is able to be able to work the pocket, get rid of the ball
when you need to scramble when
you need to. And that’s what they really didn’t get out of
Will Levis last year. Yeah,
that’s a fascinating look because we think pressure when
the offensive line letting some
stuff up. But maybe quarterbacks got to get it out faster. He’s
got to do a better job of
diagnosing stuff. So he’s got a role to play in the pressure as
well. Which leads us to Caleb
Williams. What does Ben Johnson have to do to help out last year
not last year. Yeah last year’s
number one overall pick. Last year Caleb Williams took the
second most drop backs in the
NFL. The bears put a lot on him. But what he did with those drop
backs, he was really proud of
only throwing six interceptions, 20 touchdowns, six
interceptions. That might look
good when you look at EPA, which is expected, points added, which
accounts for the sacks, how
you’re performing on third and long, you can see that he really
struggled. He’s had so much
sack. EPA the worst in the NFL. He had double what an average
quarterback would have. Now what
does Ben Johnson do. Provides a running game Jared Goff the
third best total EPA in the NFL.
He had 100 fewer dropbacks than cam or than Caleb Williams. And
it’s because of things like this
where he can beat the blitz. An open rusher. Come to him, find
the open guy quickly. Ben
Johnson will help scheme up Caleb Williams so he doesn’t
have to rely on him, but he’s
also able to now use his arm to beat the blitz and not try and
scramble just with his legs.
Yeah, that’s what Ben Johnson is looking at this offseason to try
and get the best out of Caleb
Williams. Do you think Sam Schwartzstein doesn’t know about
number one overall quarterbacks.
He once had one. His hands were right there under him at center
Andrew Luck at Stanford. Tell
him Sam yeah yeah yeah I think this this helmet and a lot of my
personal accolades thanks to
Andrew Luck, GM of Stanford Football. Buy your season
tickets. The shelves that Andrew
Luck built. Sam Schwartzstein. Thank you very much, pal. We
better see you again before the
start of the season with that kind of great information. Aaron
Jones making his way around the
field and making his way around some camps in Minneapolis and
elsewhere. We’ll tell you where
Aaron Jones has been with the youth of America, the football
youth of America. Next on the
insiders. Shake it up, shake it up, shake, shake, shake. Dick’s
epic 4th of July sale is on.
Take 20% off bags and igloo it? Get NFL RedZone now. So we
know the Pope is a White Sox
fan. Is he a Lions fan? Because here’s Sam Laporta blessing. Get
a blessing from the Pope for
your for your you and your bride. That is fantastic.
Congratulations to Sam Laporta
and great job there Pope Leo. See what you can do about your
White Sox because they stink.
You know who doesn’t stink? I was waiting for trying to get
the transition Aaron Jones
here’s Aaron Jones, a three day youth football camp tour
starting in Minneapolis, then
traveling to Fargo, North Dakota and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
That is awesome for a Minnesota
guy getting as much coverage to the Vikings fan base
geographically. Stacey Dales,
your thoughts on Aaron Jones’s traveling camp? We love Aaron
Jones. I feel like every
Non-married, by the way, player in the NFL got married this
offseason, even Aaron Rodgers.
So that’s interesting. Aaron Jones though, he’s just awesome.
He’s one of our favorites. We
love it. I mean, even our buddy Matt Schneidman posted back
during draft week. He went back
to green Bay Mike to hand out pizzas to the new community
shelter. Like that’s this guy is
just a gem. Everybody, you got to have an Aaron Jones on your
team. He is amazing. He comes
out with the sombreros on game day. He is a physical player. He
can run away from you. He showed
that he had good football left. The Vikings still believed in
him. It killed the Packers Matt
LaFleur to let him go. So Aaron Jones continued success to you
and great job with everything
that you are doing off the field. Stacey Dales, thank you
very much. We are back one more
time this week, Thursday on The >> TODAY ON NFL’S GREATEST
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