Welcome to NFL Daily, where we were smart enough to draft Jordan Mason in our fantasy league, but not smart enough to play him on Monday night. I am Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wesling podcast studio late at night, but not as late as it is on the East Coast, where it's already Tuesday. The first week of the NFL season for 2024 is over, and I'm so happy to be joined by nick Shook, joining me straight after writing up the Jets' loss to the 49ers on Monday Night Football. And sorry for framing it that way, 49ers fans, but it's Aaron Rodgers in his return from an Achilles injury. The Jets were the big story here, nick, but pretty disappointing in a 32 to 19 loss.

Yeah, one of those rare instances in which my five points and what we learned, I usually try to give three to the winning team and two to the losing team. I got done. I looked up and I went, Oh, God, there's three points for the Jets, and they got beaten this game pretty soundly. But you're right, that's the way the narrative goes, and it doesn't overshadow a great night for Jordan Mason, but the Jets are going to be a story for much of the season because of Aaron Rodgers.

Yeah, when the Jets with Rodgers, it was just very interesting to see him back on the field after so long, and the score was what? 32 to 13 late in this game before Tyrod Taylor takes on some garbage time. And yet, Let's give Jordan Mason some love. If you're listening to this, and I don't know, you went to bed maybe over in the UK, you didn't stay up to watch the channel 5 coverage with yours truly on Monday night, you might have thought, Oh, am I going to get my Christian McAfree fantasy points? Nope. No. Christian McAfree was out, and it was a surprise. We'll get to the... I don't know whether the 49ers acted honestly by keeping him in this game or not in a second. But Jordan Mason looked freaking awesome in this game. That's my biggest positive takeaway before we get to the Jets, is that the 49ers offense had a three and out on their first drive and then scored on nine straight possessions. And most of it was just with bully ball inside runs. Mike Golik put out on Twitter that last year, the 49ers were actually the team that ran on the inside, the fifth least of any team in the NFL.

And tonight, it was all about those inside runs. Jordan Mason winds up with 147 yards on 28 carries. He also had one really nice catch. I didn't think he had good hands, but he had a nice third down conversion. There were a lot of nice third down conversions from Brock Purdy, but this was about one team in the 49ers just saying, We're tougher than you. We want this more than you. This is going to be a little easier than we expected.

Yeah, 28 carries is the most by any running back in the Kyle Shanehan era, according to NFL research. Consider all the running backs that have occupied this backfield not just Christian McCafree, but Matt Breta, and Raheem Mostert, and Jeff Wilson, and Elijah Mitchell. You can keep going down the list. And that's the beauty of this, really, is that no coach can be trusted better than Kyle Shanehan to get the most out of a running back you've never heard of. How many of you paid attention to Jordan Mason before tonight? Not many.

I just told you, I drafted him, and I got my... I think it was my daughter. No, she doesn't draft 49. It's mostly been my son to draft him, too. When I saw that Calf injury from McCafree early on, I was just like, Oh, that's That's alarm bells. Then, Elijah Mitchell got hurt. Supposedly, Mason had a great camp, and he backed it up. He's actually been with the team since 2022 as an undrafted free agent. This is a good example. The 49ers are good at developing players. He gets his chance, and he looked like vintage Chris Carson to me, the old Seahawks running back. Just a rugged guy you do not want to get in the way. There was a play where he ran over Chuck Clark of the Jets and then stepped over him. He was We're delivering punishment tonight, Jordan Mason.

Yeah, Troy Akemen described him as a violent runner, and I thought that was accurate. No offense, I think, can scheme up better to take advantage of a violent runner between the tackles like the 49ers. The great thing about this was, and there was one drive in particular, where I'm sitting back just watching Kyle Shanean deep in his bag, just whipping out different plays, different run concepts, and they're executing all of it almost flawlessly. You got a little split zone inside. You get a little bit of some classic pulling and guys moving around outside of a zone concept, and they're just mowing through the Jets defense with Mason leading the way. I think in a game like this, if you're going to establish control of the game on the ground and in time of possession, which, by the way, 38 minutes and 40 seconds to 21 minutes and 20 seconds, that's dominant. Then you need a violent runner, a rugged guy like a Chris Carson, like this player right here, Jordan Mason. I think it worked out to near perfection for them. You couldn't really ask for a better start for the 49ers.

Yeah. At one point in the game, because the Jets score the first breakdown of the game was a really nice drive by by Aaron Rodgers, and you think, Okay, this is going to go back and forth. Then you look up in the late third quarter, at one point, it was 285 yards to 87, 25 minutes of possession to 12. You were like, Wow, this was an absolute beat down. Getting to Rodgers, I had a hard time evaluating this game. I would give it a C plus, B minus for Rodgers, specifically. I actually thought, if you're listing the issues the Jets had tonight, Rodgers was relatively low on it. Some nice throws, throws. A shutdown pass where he gets the free play. They somehow have a stat that he has three times as many free play touch downs as any quarterback. Which is wild. In the league, another nice throw to Lazard, actually earlier on that same drive. Some other decent throws. Then a couple of times where he looked a little panicky against pressure, maybe didn't look quite as athletic as he used to. His accuracy, just a smidge off on a fourth down throw late in the game.

He was a little late on a throw that ends up getting tipped up and intercepted in a nice play by Lenor. But then you look at the drive chart, and it's like, they just... I know there were a bunch of three and outs, and there was a fumble forced by Fred Warner earlier in the game, but also they just never had the ball. So They had two pretty good drives in the limited amount of drives that he had. To me, it really wasn't about Aaron Rodgers in this game.

Yeah, I had a buddy text me saying, The Jets don't have any weapons. I said, They got weapons. They just haven't had the ball all night. I mean, you talked about the three and outs. Look at some of these Niners' possessions. Nine plays, 12 plays, twelve plays, eleven plays, eight plays, eleven plays. That's all in succession. That's how you just dominate a team. You play keep away and you keep the ball out of a future Hall of Fame quarterback's hands. It was as simple as that, really.

Right. Let's actually take a listen to that interception, which came at a point that the Jets were trying to make a comeback in the second half.

He's yet to have a catch. Play action from Rodgers again. Pressure off the edge, and the pass is broken up and now picked Intercepted by Flanning and fouls after the tip by Lenor.

Yeah, and like I said, when you watch that again, I think in form, Aaron Rodgers. Ideally, let's go that ball a tick faster. There's a little bit of pressure on the edge. Leonard Floyd had four pressures in this game, had a nice night. I mean, Aaron Rodgers, who got injured against Leonard Floyd last year, he does not want to see that dude anymore. He must be giving him a nightmare nick Bosa also had a good night. So the protection was not great. His numbers against pressure actually were terrible. Two for five within interception, four yards per attempt, and a sack. No, rather, three for seven for 36 yards. And that was when he held the ball more than two and a half seconds. So if he was holding the ball, it did not go well. When he was under pressure, it did not go well. When the ball came out on time, he looked like Aaron Rodgers. And I'll give him a little bit of a pass that maybe that's just a little bit of rust.

Yeah, and I think it was the pump fake there, which gave away where the ball was going. But I really enjoy a lot of these games, especially between two teams that are expected to do significant things in NFL season, is the chess match that goes on between series and everything else. Because early on, that breakdown drive, the Aaron Rodgers was taking advantage of linebackers in coverage against Garrett Wilson. You had a moment there where one linebacker came down and basically was playing in the slot over Garrett Wilson and got That loss peaked in the backfield. He found Garrett Wilson right behind him for a first down. Then there was another instance where Fred Warner drops back in coverage and chases the tight end down the center of the field, opens up underneath for Garrett Wilson to catch Paul, get another first down, continue the drive. They end up scoring a countdown. Then the Niners said, Screw it. We're not going to However are you with linebackers anymore. We're not really worried about the run. We're up by multiple scores. Just put corners on him. And guess what? Diameter Lenor is right there to close the window, tip the ball up in the air, and pick it off.

It was a beautiful thing.

Lenor is a nice player. I don't think people know a lot about him, and he could get paid sooner than later. Charvarius Ward and him are a nice cornerback duo. I agree with your friends, though, that they don't have enough weapons. They have two, Breesall and Gary Wilson. Wilson goes 6 for 60, but the offensive line did not Well, that would be the concern for me for the Jets was it wasn't really about Rodgers, but Jonathan Franklin Myers gets hurt early in this game, and the defensive line had very little pressure. They missed Hassan Redek. We talked about how they got pushed around in the running game, which if you had success against a Robert Salah defense, that's how you did it in the past was run the ball. That's not as shocking, although the amount of big runs that Mason made was a little surprising. But to not have any pass rush, he as well Then the offensive line, not really blowing open any holes in the running game either. I think of the sequence that ended the game. The 49ers are down 16 points, 29-13, after Kyle Shanahan wimps out and kicks a field goal on and one inside the five-yard line, considering how well Mason was playing.

It's like, just go for it. You're up 13, but he lets his kicker get a sixth field goal, I believe, on the night at the time. Maybe that was the fifth. I guess he knows his team because they weren't going to do anything. The Jets run the ball on third and one. They get pushed backwards. Then Aaron Rodgers gets everyone spread out, and he throws a bad ball to Wilson on fourth down that basically ends the game. So I would say uneven from the Jets offense and just poor from the Jets defense. Let's listen to Aaron Rodgers after the game, and he was asked if the Jets not playing together in the preseason contributed to tonight's loss. I mean, that's an excuse for sure. I mean, I'm not going to use that. I don't think we should. We expect the greatness when we step on the field. There were moments for sure. There were moments that felt really good, but not sustained. Felt like if we could just get a first down, we'd be rolling. Then we had those three and outs, which really hurt us. Yeah, they finished with 266 yards, and that's after Roger, like I said, Tyrod earned himself one more year in the league with a nice shutdown drive at the end of the...

Who knows? Hopefully, Rodgers can stay healthy, and we don't see more of Tyrod. But if that's the only thing you see this year, that officially gets him a 2025 contract, as it should. I love me some Tyrod. Like I said, I'm a little concerned about this Jets team. One thing that made me more concerned was just this exchange with Robert Salah in the postgame press conference.

We'll be better, 100%.

I'm not worried.

Like I said, give San Francisco a lot of credit. I'm not worried offensively. I'm not worried defensively. We'll get it fixed.

I don't know. Something about, I'm not worried and we'll get it fixed after week one makes me worried.

Well, it worries me because of the personnel. I was keying on Jermaine Johnson against Trent Williams for a little bit in this game tonight. Trent Williams, by the way, went without allowing a single QV pressure in a game tonight, the first time since week three of 2022, according to next Gen stats, and that's without training camp. So feather in the cap for those who think training camp is overrated. You won tonight. Congrats. Have one on me. But yeah, it was concerning because they just weren't generating a pass rush. Brock Pretty all day to throw, and you're getting gashed on the ground. You think you might stack the box and maybe incorporate some guys with blitzes. Maybe it's a run blitz and ends up being against the pass. It just didn't work. It just didn't work. They didn't generate the natural pressure that they've gotten in the past. That's what they've hung their hat on as they've gone through all these quarterback struggles over the last few years under Robert Salah is, Well, our defense is going to show up. It's going to keep it close. It's going to be competitive, they couldn't get off the field.

So as much as Aaron Rodgers sits back and thinks, Yeah, we missed some opportunities here and there, and we just couldn't get a first down, well, it hurts that much more when your defense can't get off the field because instead of going and sitting down for five minutes, you're sitting there for eight, nine minutes watching the other offense dominate you and run the ball down your throat and just makes it that much more painful.

Now, the good news for the Jets, the schedule, to me, is difficult in terms of having to play another road game, but it's against the Tennessee Titans. And then you're on a short week, which isn't great, but it's against the New England Patriots. You have the Vikings coming up. It's not the toughest of schedule. You look at everyone on this schedule and you think the Jets are either favored, really in all those games, they also have the Broncos at home before that Vikings game. The schedule eases up. You got to get some wins. But every 0-1 team, and we'll get into it during the week, week 2 just feels all the bigger. Week 2 at Titans feels not must win-ish, but then it gets a little panicky and it's in New York, and there will be some panic, and there will be some pressure to get Hassan Redik into the building and get other things done. There probably will be some attention on this Brees Hall quote after the game where he just said, They just played harder than us, which I hate it when players say that because couldn't you say that about any game?

But I get it. They were just tougher up front. To give the 49ers a few more flowers, you mentioned it, purdy, He had plenty of time. I thought he was uneven. He was playing out his preseason in the first quarter, and then he got into a rhythm. Brandon Ayuk had a drop in this game, had another pass that was deflected. The drop came on a beautiful throw by by Brock Purdy when he really started hitting his targets. They tried to get Debo Samuel the ball a ton. When they do that, it doesn't tend to work that well anymore like it used to. Debo gets nine targets, but only five catches for 54 yards, eight carries for 23 yards. So that was inefficient. That's what impressed me the most, Shook, about this game is, Ayuk didn't look right. He ends up with two for 28 on five targets, a couple not great plays from him. Debo was fine. Juan Jennings was a little banged up, but he goes five for 64. Mccaffee doesn't even play, and you stop a pretty good Jets team or what we think is a good Jets team. That really shuts up the people like me that were thinking, Oh, there's going to be this hangover.

It's only week one, but they look damn good.

I mean, that's what happens when you run the ball well and when you dominate the trenches because they dominate the trenches on both sides of the ball. You can talk about weapons all day. I know it's a quarterback league and everything else, but it starts, it's a quarterback league and everything else. But it starts, it matches. If you win at the point of attack, you're good. What are you? Meryl Hodge. I'm a traditionalist.

You know what I am. Meryl Hodge from NFL primetime in 1994?

My extremely wide tie knot. Yes, that's me. I'm Meryl Hodge. It's an NFL matchup. It's 2004 on a Sunday morning. Yeah, that's who I am right now. Look, man, you got to win up front. If you don't win up front, you don't have a chance. I don't care how good your quarterback and your wide receivers are. The Jets got beat on both sides of the ball in the trenches tonight.

Now I remember a question I meant to ask you on Sunday night's recap. It feels like we just finished that recap, but I didn't want to cut you off because I'm really trying to improve as a human, as a host, and stop cutting people off so much. But the question I wanted to ask you last night, and then I forgot it, was what position did you play on the offensive line?

I played guard in high school, and then in the brief amount of time I played in college, I played tackle because I went to a division three school before I transferred to Kent, and I was large enough to play tackle in Division 3. In high school, I played next to a 6-7 tackle, so that wasn't going to work for me.

Okay. Impressive guard tonight, by the way, Dominic Puni. I'm not going to say I'm grinding the tape on the guards, but Brandon Thorne, who does a great sub stack on offensive linemen, says he was awesome in the preseason. Troy Ikeman called him out tonight, looked really good in the running game. It sounds like they found a good rookie.

Yeah, he's a stud.

Yeah, guard there. And what can I say? They were impressive. They did play harder. Let's play a Jordan Mason touch down. We didn't hear a positive highlight. After all that negativity about the Jets, I feel like I want to end this recap on a positive.

Second of goal, Mason bobbling it, but a TD. What an impressive night tonight for Jordan Mason.

That kid can cut. When he sees a hole and He had holes tonight. He doesn't hesitate. He hits it. That is a perfect Kyle Shanahan backup. So the Jets leave this game wondering. And I tell you what, Shook, you prefer the game to be one in the trenches. For people like you who just always talk about the running game, your time is coming. The NFL is pretty cyclical. We're going to get into this more on Wednesday's show. But because Brock Purdy didn't go over 300 yards, and Aaron Rodgers didn't have a chance to even get close. There's only two 300-yard passers. That's the lowest since 2010, I believe. There's the most 100-yard rushers now that Jordan Mason topped it in a week one since 2014. You can just roll out all these different stats, whether it's passing yards. Epa, if you take out scrambles, if you include scrambles, running was more efficient than passing. I don't know if it's going to keep going this way, but you do see a trend with two tight ends, two backs on the field that the league is getting heavier. And somewhere, Bill Belichick is sitting either in an underdog studio or the inside the NFL studio or the Peyton Manning show studio, whatever job he's got today.

And he's saying, I can't believe I'm missing this season of all seasons. I've been trying to push it back this way for years.

Two things. One, very popular college football podcast I listened to, mentioned, I think it was Maryland, who just their coach said straight up, We're going to run the I formation this year. And defense is saying, We don't know how to fit the I formation in college football. So that's a sign. But the bigger thing for me that makes me happier is about five or so years ago, there would be a couple of teams that ran the ball well, usually like the Titans with Derek Henry or the Ravens with the Greg Roman offense. I think it was a Titans lineman back then would wear a hat in the games that said, Run the damn ball on it. I would like to see everybody start wearing hats to say, Run the damn ball, and I would like to be the face of that. So if anybody wants to get involved, let me know.

What a beautiful face it is. Like I said, we'll get into it more on Wednesday. That's going to be a fun show with Jordan Rodrieg and Colleen Wolf. But you know what? We got more than just a recap. We got a lot of show left on this Monday night recap show. What we're going to do each week, introduce a couple of segments along with the news, and we'll get to that right after a quick break. Back on NFL Daily, and yes, it's the Monday Night Recap Show. We bring you a recap. We bring you news. We're going to bring you our favorite players of the week to wrap the show. But I wanted to hear nick to just clean up some loose ends. We do this big recap show every Sunday night, and I'm so excited to get so much information out. And then there's just things we forgot to say. I'm now introducing a new segment. We are going to start right now. Eric Roberts put two minutes on the clock. I introduced to you the things we wish we had said on the week one Sunday Night recap. Start the two minutes, Eric.

Nick, you start.

All right, first off, after watching Arizona and Buffalo play, Kyler and the Cardinals are fun, okay? I know they lost that game, but the way they operated that offense early in that game, really fun to watch. I'm excited to see how they grow. Oh, and by the way, that was definitely pass interference on that ball to Greg Dorsh on fourth down, okay? That you can't argue with me on that.

I know it was. You're right. Think about that three-man backfield. James Connor, Trey Benson, who looked pretty good.

And Amari D.

Mercado. No, and Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray looked awesome running in that game. Wait, I can't comment on yours or else. We're going to run out of two minutes. No, you can't.

No, this is my part of What are we doing?

All right. One thing that was absolutely disrespectful was the way that the Seahawks defense approached Bo Nicks, lining up in cover one, plain press coverage on third and five, saying, Our cornerbacks are better than your wide receiver. We know Bo Nicks isn't going to throw deep. Incredibly disrespectful.

Yes, but also Bo Nicks will get better. That's my next point. I promise, as long as he stops being Charlie Fry and locking onto one receiver because of his pre-snapper, he needs to learn how to adjust after coverage changes. If you disguise against him, you're going to stop him.

All right, my next one. Nfl teams who are trailing by at least 17 points and scored no offensive touch downs in a game were 3 and 519 since 2000. The bears are one of those teams now. They were also involved in one of those games, and it was the Dennis Green. They are who we thought they were a game where the bears came back from a similar game. So very interesting there. Go ahead, nick.

It's Speaking of the bears, Tori Taylor, the punter, has a hammer for a leg. Ryan Stonehouse, you better watch out. You got somebody coming for your job, your title, as the guy with the biggest leg in the NFL because he boomed some punts in that game.

Ramond J. Stevenson, avoided 12 tackles, according to True Media. His season high last year was six. He looked like a different player. Veterans can suddenly get better, nick Shook.

A clip I wish we got from the Bears game. Caleb Williams drops back to pass. He throws it toward Romo. No, he actually throws it over the middle. Oh, no, I'm out of time. It gets deflected. Romo Dunzay catches it. He fumbles. And Tevin Jenkins, the man following the ball like you're following your shot in basketball, recovers to preserve possession. It was beautiful. It was chaotic. It was calamity.

I'm so glad we got that in. Two minutes of great nuggets that we couldn't get in to the week one recap show. And so all the regrets that I'm filled with as I leave the Chris Westling podcast studio, I can now fill them up the next night. So that felt good to me. Let's do some news, Eric. All right, we're going to start the news with something that seems familiar, serious, and we'll see where it goes. A lawsuit was filed on Monday in Houston, Texas, that alleged that Cleveland Brown's quarterback, Dashan Watson, committed sexual assault and battery while on a date in October 2020. The suit claims Watson exposed himself, requested a massage, and sexually assaulted the victim before she was able to resist. That was back when he was with the Texans. A league spokesman declined to comment on Monday. Of course, the NFL suspended Watson for 11 games and fined him $5 million for violating the league's personal conduct policy. This allegation is different in scope and exactly what it alleges. It puts it in a little bit of a different category, and there's no sense in speculating what this is all going to mean.

I tend to I think it has a chance to have lasting repercussions, not just because of Watson's history, but also because of where his career is right now as a member of the Cleveland Browns, and just wondering if there's a possibility that they look to see what recourse they could have if he ends up being away from the field. But we will see. We really have no idea at this point. In terms of injury news, just while we're on the Browns, we're here with you, Shoxo. I like keeping it to one team. It's like David N'Joku, high ankle sprain, and they sign Kaderius. Tony, that's a big loss, though. N'joku is a big part of that team.

Yeah, they like to rely on him. They rely on him a lot with Joe Flacko last year. They tried to on Sunday, and it didn't really work out well. Then, of course, he gets hurt. Interesting to see how they rebound. He is not the only tight end on that roster, of course, but he is their best. After a rough start, things get a little bit rougher for them. We'll see.

Yeah. I, unfortunately, had a lot of injury news. As I'm filling out this front, and I was like, Oh, there's not much news on Monday. Then one more thing gets announced that we didn't even know was a problem. Then another thing, and then another thing. One thing we did know was Pukunaku got hurt, and he is going to injured reserve. That's not the only bad injury news for the Rams. Joe Noteboom, who is in as their swing tackle, replacing their already missing left tackle, who's on suspension right now, is going to be out multiple weeks. And Steve Avula, who is a great guard center, young player for them, also likely to be out a few weeks. That's tough. They're heading to Arizona this week. That's maybe a game you could pull out without all these guys, but they are the team I think most impacted by injuries in this young season.

Yeah, and especially with a guy like Matt Stafford, who's not young and who has battled through his own injuries throughout his career, even though he started last year healthy. Keeping him protected is key. Right after that Arizona game, they play against the Niners, and they play the bears, whose defense won them in their week one game, and then they play the packers. So it's not going to get any easier. So hope for a speedy recovery, but not looking great right now.

Yeah, they showed. Look, they played so well in that Sunday night game despite all this happening, and now they can plan around it for a week. But yeah, if you're the Rams, it just makes this game huge. You really want to get this game so that 49ers game in week three doesn't feel like a must win when you're not really fighting with all your guys. They could be short three to four starting offensive linemen. That's just a lot at one time in addition to losing Puukunuku. Although I will say the receiver depth is better than I would have expected a month ago. Jordan Winnington and then Tyler Johnson showed up in that game, which was surprising to me.

You have DeMarcus Robinson on that roster as well, and he made a few nice plays in that win or that lost the line.

Tutu Atwell, the world's fastest and smallest decoy, but makes a big play every once in a while. But yeah, it was more Tyler Johnson and Wittington. I just didn't expect them to be a factor, so I would not count this Ram's team out. No. Let's take a step back from the news of the day and dive a little deeper into the Jordan love situation just because we haven't hit it in-depth on NFL Daily since we found out the timeline of how long he's going to be out. They're not putting him on injured reserve. That was the news on Monday. In addition, Matt Lafleur says Malik Willis will be the starter, which I suppose we could have assumed. They hadn't signed anyone, but I don't know. Sean Clifford had been on the roster last year and literally was their game day backup for all of last year. I didn't assume it was going to be Willis, but it will. What a fascinating challenge this is going to be for Lafleur, who's a really good coach, but now has to navigate a significant part of the season. But if you can just get one win with Malik Willis, If it ends up, then maybe you buy love an extra week to come back.

If you get two wins, Matt Lafleur, Coach of the Year, as he starts picking up.

Yeah, and that speaks to what we think of Malik Willis, unfortunately. This is a guy who was drafted by Tennessee and never got any better to the point where they were like, We're moving on from you. I don't feel confident about their potential offensively with him, even if they have Josh Jacobs and a bunch of talent around him, just because I know that this is a quarterback who has never really shown me anything. But if you look at their schedule, they play Indianapolis at home, they go on the road to Tennessee, they play Minnesota at home, they go on the road to the Rams, and they play the Cardinals. That's roughly that three to five week range that you're thinking for Love, but we'll see how long it actually lasts. I'm just glad, honestly, Greg, after watching that replay, you see it in slowmo, you see his knee pop. I thought in that moment, he's done for the year. Because anytime you see something like that pop, usually it's pretty devastating in terms of injury. To find out that he's not out for the year at this point is positive news. It's just that you're now going to have to soldier through this next month or so and try to scrape by and maybe get a win or two just to stay afloat.

It makes that eagles loss a little bit more painful.

It really does. But they were sloppy in that game.

Both teams were.

Yeah, defensively, I was almost a little more disappointed than even on the offense because Jordan loved didn't have the greatest of games, but their running game was good. They had a lot of big plays in the running game overall, and I liked the weapons. Jaden Reid, obviously, was good with a run and a catch. I think the offensive line is okay. Malik Willis is playing with a much better group of players around him and a much better coach than we've ever seen. You figure they build it around the running game, the home game against the Colts this week. It's compelling. I mean, it's not as compelling as if Jordan loves the quarterback, but it's compelling.

It concerns me. It concerns me because you lack time. More than anything, you lack time, even with the coaching impact usually is seen over time, and they just got him, and now he's going to get thrown into the fire. So I'm worried about that.

I am, too. The season gets late early for some of these teams, like the packers. Not quite the Rams, but all these injuries, you just suddenly feel like, Okay, we have to navigate this portion of the season if we want to get to where we need to be. Just get us to one and two. I guess Love wouldn't be back by then. Get us to two and four, Malik Willis. Get us to two and three. Maybe Jordan Love can be back by then. I'm thrilled that he is coming back, but still It's already disappointing that he's not going to be in our lives selfishely over the next few weeks. All right, let's talk about other surprising injury news. In the day, Derek Brown is out for the season, the Panthers defensive lineman.

Well, potentially. He's got a meniscus issue, and they have to have surgery, so they don't quite know yet, but once they get in there, they'll know. If it goes like it did with JJ McCarthy, he'll be done for the year. We just don't know definitively at this point, but it's trending toward that, which is not good news. I mean, this is a guy who just got paid. He had a breakthrough year last year, had his first Pro Bowl nod with a bad Panthers team. This is a guy that you were counting on. It explains why they got bludgeoned so badly by the Saints. You take away your best guy up front. It's going to get pretty tough.

That was potentially the thinest defensive line in the lead because Derek Brown is really good, but more of a run stopper than a pure pass rusher. Although he gets some good push. 37 pressures last year. Right. He really improved. He's an example of how those interior guys tend to get better year three, year four, Sometimes it takes some time to develop. He was a guy they were disappointed by as a rookie, I remember, and then he just got better and better and better. Now you have Jedevi and Clowny and one of the thinest defensive lines in the league. I think this could be the worst defense in the league, which is crazy because they were the worst offense in the league last year, and they're hoping for improvement there. We didn't see it week one, but the talent on defense is rough. So that was surprising news. We just had no idea that it was going to be that serious when it came to Derrick Brown. The Bucks, a bunch of bad injury news. Antoine Winfield, their great cornerback, out 2-4 weeks, according to Todd Bulls. Bryce Hall, not Breese Hall, Bryce Hall, but who is getting significant snaps for them at cornerback in part because another one of their starting cornerbacks, Zion McCollum, has been hurt.

Bryce Hall is out for the season. Mccollum still hurt. Kalajia Canty missed their week one game. That's just a team that, I think right now, three of their top four cornerbacks are out. Another safety is out. Another team is just going to have to manage injuries at this point in the season, hope to get better.

Yeah, and it's going to be tough for them because they're riding high after this dominant win over the commanders, but they're facing the Detroit Lions in Detroit in week two, and they're going to be thin up front. Then you go You're going to play Denver and Philly at home. Then you go on the road to Atlanta, and that starts off your divisional slate. It's not going to get any easier. You got to hope that those guys come back because what you don't want to get is dominated up front and on the ground, because then suddenly you're asking a lot of Baker Mayfield who had a great first game, had a great year last year, but you don't want to put too much pressure on the quarterback to try to keep up in a shootout if you can't stop a nosebleed. You got to hope that the guys that they replace them with play pretty well in their absence.

They've been very good at beating the teams that they should, though, and that's what I talk about when I'm saying managing the schedule. Okay, Antoine Winfield is, to me, the most important safety in the entire NFL. But they manage the schedule by dropping a hammer on the commander to open the season. Then maybe you lose this one to the Lions, but you had that win in your pocket, and then you got the Broncos week three at home. You have another home game after that. Maybe you can manage it, and it's two and two, and Winfield's back. But yeah, bad news for Antoine Winfield there. Just a bunch of cornerback news today. Dyson Campbell is going to be out for a little while with a ham string injury for the Jaguars. That's bad news for them. Jordan Addison is very iffy to play this week with an ankle injury. I feel better about the Vikings receiver group because of Jalen Naylor than I would have a year ago if they lose a starting wide receiver. But that's big news. Then in receiver news, it's off to the side here. This Tyreek Hill story is pretty crazy.

The body cam footage from when he was dragged, now we know for sure, out of his sports car was released on Monday. It showed there was an altercation between the Miami County officers and Hill. And watching the video, the officer's cursed at Hill. He did not really resist them at all, and he drags them out and strikes them. And the Dolphins released a statement on the incident on Monday, and they said, They condone and want strong action against the officers involved. We are saddened by the overly aggressive and violent conduct directed towards Tyree Kill, Kaleya Campbell and John Smith by police officers yesterday's game, the statement read, It is both maddening and heartbreaking to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use such a necessary force and hostility towards these players. Yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did. What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? Is a question that will carry with resounding impact. They go on to say that they have a strong and proud relationship with the police Department and that they Basically recognize that there are good police officers out there, but then they also ask for this misguided power to have action taken against them.

It's a strong statement and one I'm sure is really appreciated, nick, by the players. It's hard to be shocked when we've seen worse body cam footage over the last decade. Unfortunately, that this is all too common, but it is striking to see it with Tyree Kill, and then Cleus Campbell and Jonu Smith are also involved trying to help it. The videos really just say it all. If you haven't watched them, I would say, and you're interested, too, that they will speak a lot more eloquently than I could on the issue.

We're pretty desensitized to this stuff by now, unfortunately. But at the same time, there was a moment in that footage where an officer said, Do you know who that is? That's one of the Dolphins star players. He just goes, Oh, really? And they're still, they've got him pinned down. They got Kaleas Campbell very aggressively. It It was all very startling footage, considering that these are guys on their way to work, and it's nothing more than a speeding violation and it escalated that quickly. We'll obviously keep an eye and see what type of action is taken, but disheartening, to say the least.

Right. They showed Ty Rakel at one point putting his window up after talking to the police officer, and I believe he was actually calling his agent at the time, because when they drag him out and put him on the ground, you can I hear him talking to Drew, Drew, and I believe that's his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. I know the Dolphins probably had a lot of meetings before releasing that statement, and yeah, I think their fans and their players will certainly appreciate that. We'll see what comes of that. Some final just quickly news items. Hit the music, Eric. Just one by one. Let's go through it. Lamar Jackson, out of practice Monday. We've got another Lamar Jackson missing practice. Mystery, nick.

Yeah. Extra sore, apparently. I don't know.

Okay, is that it?

We don't know. He gets sick a lot. I don't know what it is, but I'm not too concerned. He did play Thursday night.

I'm always a little concerned. Jake, Ferguson has an MCL sprain, the Cowboys tight end, but he could play this week. Ya boy, Katie York missed a couple of kicks for the commanders, and your Browns will not get a seventh-round pick, I believe, because he did not last long enough. The commanders have cut Katie made York.

Yeah, he struggled. The pride of LSU has not had a good NFL career. I thought he was back on track. He was with the Browns in preseason, and it all fell apart.

You mentioned Romu Dunze. He's going to get his knee tested for an MRI. He's believed to be weak to weak with that injury. We will see. Tharon Johnson, who's one of the most important players for the Bills, is out for Thursday night football. He is their slot cornerback. Then finally, Kendrick Lamar is the halftime guest at the Superdome. I'm excited about this one.

All right, so I don't mean to turn this into Shook's Music Corner, but I'm going to you right now real quick. Okay, I got a text today because there's a big discourse online about why they didn't pick Lil Wayne, New Orleans' own, obviously a legendary rapper, but they didn't pick him. They picked Kendrick. Guys, recency. Kendrick Lamar dominated the summer with his diss tracks regarding Drake. He hasn't put out an album that's produced a ton of hits in a while. But this guy, all you need to do is go watch the pop out concert that he put on at the Forum this summer. It was amazing. That's exactly the perfect scenario for a halftime show. I can't wait to see Well, he's a legend.

He's one of the greatest of all time. So is Little Wayne. My prediction will be Little Wayne comes out. I know he doesn't have songs with Kendrick that would be worth playing there, but it'll just come out and do one of his songs. He had one.

He had one semi-recently.

I know, but it's not a song that you would play at the Super Bowl. No. I'm a huge Little Wayne fan. I wanted Little Wayne to be the halftime guest when the Super Bowl was there 12 years ago, which he could have been an option for that. But that was Beyoncé. This is Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar is at that level. Even I'm not mad about it, but my prediction is we get some Kendrick, we get some Little Wayne.

Oh, yeah. We're going to get some West Coast guests, too. It's going to be real nice.

I'm excited for that, though. Although, is he really going to play Not Like Us?

I don't know. Oh, of course he is. He's just going to center out some words.

That doesn't seem like a Super Bowl halftime.

It goes so hard, though. He has so many players.

I know everyone would go crazy for it. That will be It's the ultimate moment in this track history.

It really will be. Being played in the Super Bowl, especially because Drake was quoted as saying, Big as the what, big as the Super Bowl, except now, Kendrick's at the Super Bowl. So another shot fired.

Okay, let's wrap up. This show, that was it for the news, was something we're going to do every week. It's time for the Captain's Corner presented by Captain Morgan. We're going to highlight a player that we believe deserves There's a little bit of extra shine as we close the book on week one of this 2024 season. Let's start with you, Shook.

All right. So, Sam Darnold, raise a glass to you, my friend, because look, people like me doubted you. I've seen you see ghosts many times over your career, whether it was in New York or it was with Carolina. And then you had that one game with the Niners last year that was all fine and Danny and somehow got you a job. And yet here you are in week one in the Meadowlands, playing the Giants in their crazy throwback uniforms, and you come out and You handle the situation like a captain. You go out there, you complete 19 of 24 passes for 208 yards. You throw two shutdown passes, and even the interception that you threw wasn't really your fault. It was a deflected ball. You commanded the day and led your team like a captain. So I raise a glass to you, sir. Great job.

Okay. Reminds me a little bit of this Sam Bradford game that he had in week one for the Vikings. Am I right?

They traded for It was after Teddy got hurt.

It was the best Sam Bradford game of all time in Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, he got hurt after. I don't want Sam Darnold to get hurt, but I just wonder if that's going to be the highlight of Sam Darnold's season or not. We'll see. That's fair. I'm going outside the box here. I'm going Chris Boswell. When your team doesn't score a shutdown and you win the game anyways because your kicker, and this is the Pittsburgh Stealers' long-time kicker, goes six for 6 and three 3 over 50. Once from 57. We just take these games for granted now. Blake Groupie is knocking out 57s and plus 50s, and it's just like, Oh, yeah, of course. Kickers are so much better now, but he wouldn't have gotten this honor for just hitting 3 over 50 and going 6 for six. As good as that would be. He gets this honor because he did all that. Then with 329 left in the game, their punter, Kim Johnson, gets injured, and there's a penalty on the play on the Steelers. Kim Johnson, by the way, is out for the season, which is very unfortunate for him. He looks like my boss from my other job at the Justin nick.

He looks like Bill Bur. Yeah, at the Justin nick and Rosenthal Vanity Project. He looks exactly like Bill Bur. And now he's out for the season. So I'm very sad for him. And what does he have to do? On no notice, it's not like Boswell had any time to prepare it. He got hurt, and then he had to run out onto the field immediately because they had to run in the next play because there was a penalty on it. And Boswell goes out there and he hits a 43-yard punt. Nice hang time. And it's 43 yards net, like no return because it was such a good punt. That's just a good old pun, and he did it under adverse situations. And then just a minute later, they bring him on to have another kick to make it an eight-point game. To me, that's a hell of a performance by Chris Boswell.

He did it effortlessly. He really did. He came through in the clutch in a day that they couldn't find the end zone. So tip of the cap to you, sir. I'm going to give you a bonus one. I'm breaking the rules, but I'm going to give you a bonus one because I have to prepare in case you went Sam Darnold, just because who knows. Darryl Taylor gets traded in August to Chicago, and in his first game with the bears, records two sacs, including a huge strip sack of Will Levis that helps them swing the game. They kick a field goal afterward at 17:16, and we know what happened after that with the pick six. Hats off to you as well, Darryl Taylor. Great debut for the bears.

There are no rules in the captain's corner. Do whatever you want, but I can promise you one thing. I will never, ever use Sam Darnold in this spot. You can be assured that is not coming from me. That was Captain's Corner presented by Captain Morgan. It's delicious and crisp, perfect for game day and friends. Spice it up. Visit captinmorgan. Com to find a captain near you. Please drink responsibly. I am getting out of here. Nick Shook, I appreciate you. This is just the first of of 18 times we're going to go Sunday night and we're going to go Monday night. You better not call any of them off because I just committed you to each and everyone. I'm looking forward to what you're doing. No.

As soon as the season arrived. I spent last weekend having some fun because I knew it's football time from here on out, baby. I am going to hydrate responsibly with some water tonight in celebration of our first week of the NFL season.

We're done. It's nick at night, Sunday nights and Monday nights. As I mentioned, we will be back on Wednesday with Jordan Rodrieg and Wolf. That is going to be a fun one. In the meantime, it's confirmed. Football is back.