Welcome to NFL Daily, where the show's title overrides the concept of Labor Day. I'm Greg Rosenthal, and pleased to be joined by now a repeat guest. Hopefully, we can make this as regular as possible. Ollie Connolly, who does great work over at The Read Optional on Substack Him and John Leddiard do a great podcast there. It's renamed, and that's gotten going for the year. You know him and love him. He was on the Meana Keim show last week. Welcome, Ollie.

Thank you for having me. This is a huge, huge week for the north of England. You have me doing NFL Daily, Oasis is reform. There's just big news popping off all over the place.

You took off the hat, which what were you doing? Hiding this beautiful lettuce you got there. Forget the Kirk Cousins comps that you have because he can't rock that.

Every single comment I see under anything I do, my entire social media feed is, Oh, you look like Kirk Cousin, so I'm trying to do everything possible to move past the Kirk comps. Not a terrible comp. I love it. You pointed out last time, not an awful cump. It could be way worse.

No, he's a successful man, handsome man, nice family, nice guy. We spent the whole episode talking about him last time, which was fun and a coincidence because I didn't know quite how similar you looked to him. This I thought it'd be fun, Ollie, because I've spent so much time, certainly over the last month, but especially over the last week, going through the league as a whole and predicting and season. It's like, these games are here. We're at these games, and we really haven't gone through the matchups of week one. Week one is a very different week in the NFL. You know this because these teams really do prepare for their week one game longer and more extensively than they We're not really prepare for any other game until maybe the playoffs where you start getting ahead of time. And so, yes, we have our preview show coming up on Thursday. I'm really excited for that show every week. Steve Weiss and Patrick Claibon are going to be with me on that. But I thought we'd get a jump on it and look a little more just big picture into these matchups. We've had this long offseason, Ollie, and talk about, Man, what are we looking forward to the most matchup-wise?

Just opening up a on Christmas week one, because to me, week one is still the best week. I don't know if you agree with me on that or what, Ollie, because you spent a long time, you've been covering soccer. Now you're back to doing American football full-time, so I'm excited about that.

Yeah, as excited as could be. My favorite thing about week one is overreactions to week one is two bad teams play each other, and you think one's really good after one does really well. But you spend a whole I'm the person where as we go through all the draughts, all of for agent transactions, I can be critical of them in the moment. Then two weeks before the start season, I start talking myself into basically every single team, having an appropriate plan, something that could work, some change they've made that may make sense. I look forward to within by week three, week four, immediately going, That was terrible. I was right the first go around. Everything is ruined. So week one is our first chance to find out where these teams lie.

All right, let's get into it. I might as well start Why not? The first thing I thought about, and again, we're just going to pick out instead of like, games, just more concepts or matchups, part of the matchups. I'm going to talk about the egos running game. I just want to see that off the bat because I just think of the trajectory of Kelen Moore. I also wanted to hear your thoughts on this, especially that a year ago, we were being sold this bill of goods that he's going to fix the chargers running game, and they actually had a monster week one. Again, week one can be misleased. Heading. I think they were over 200 yards in that game, and they're doing the under-center stuff in the outside zone. He's mixing it all up. It looked great. And then they end up having the worst running game in the league. Obviously, they were effective when he was in Dallas, but now he goes to a team in Philadelphia, which for all their troubles last year, and Jalen Hertz wasn't even 100 % for a good chunk of the season. I mean, they were the number five most efficient running game, according to DVOA.

They were pretty effective the whole season. Obviously, Jason Kelsey's there. You have the push-push, but he's coming to a group and a system that's been good. Now you add Saquon Barkley. The offensive line is different. You go against this packer's defense, which could be a whole 'nother' conversation. But I have heard some reports, Ollie, from EGLE's training camp that they've had Hertz pretty involved in the running game, which I think they were encouraged by. A little more running backs in the passing game, which they talk about every year, but that's exciting. So I just don't know what I'm going to get because to me, they're one of the signature units of the entire NFL, EGLE's running game over the last couple of years, and now it's going to be different. What are you looking for there?

Yeah, I think the number one thing you hit up top is how involved is Hertz in this run game. When they were really rolling with Shane Steke, and that, to me, is Probably the best offense in the last four or five years. But what all the meta trends are on defense, how you would attack them all, is what Shane Steigen came up with, which was a power spread offense. All five guys can pull, downhill running threat, and then a really talented, accurate deep ball thrower. That is the go-to way to disrupt what everyone's doing with movement up front, movement on the back end. That's the way to get after it. Kelen Morris, someone I've been pretty critical of in the past because he, to me, is a guy who is only really interested in the payoff plays. He's not as involved in the down-to-down sequencing of how to get those pair of players. There is an awful lot of highlights, social media clips, great whiteboard stuff, as opposed to maybe having a feeling and sense for the rhythm of a game itself and how to dig out of a hole when things aren't going well, which is why I think you get moments where he has 55-point explosions in Dallas because everything is just clicking the way it was designed, and he can't necessarily get himself out of a hole when it's not flowing the same way.

For me, he's walking into an organization where he should just ask them all for the playbook from two years ago. Hand it to me. Good stuff. Let's get rolling. That's still the best way to approach this thing, and it's just getting Jalen Hertz as a downhill runner as involved as possible.

Okay, so a few There's a lot of things there. I can't remember because one of my favorite things you would hit on on your podcast. And again, if I can do one thing today, it's to point people towards the read optional, Ollie Substack. I've been paying for this podcast last year. I do like the coordinators you get on for being too flashy, that there's some that you think it's a look at me coordinators versus having an overall smart scheme. I can't remember if Kelen Moore was in that category.

He might be the poster child of it, of the I go viral, people write nice profiles about me because I do interesting or cool things that draw attention. But is it really helping the offense move? Is it efficient enough? And he's got some unbelievable numbers, though he has worked with incredible talent. The thing for me was he goes to the chargers and everyone was saying, Wow, this is going to be incredible, Justin Herbert with Keller Moore. And once again, it becomes, Look how clever Keller Moore is, rather than, Is this thing effective?

And yeah, again, we'll see what the difference of Jason and Kelsey not being there. I think it's going to be a difference, but they've been ready for this moment with Kim Jorgens. Also, that game is on Friday night in Brazil. It's one of the best NFC games of the season. I can't believe this is all happening, but it's fantastic. I'm looking forward to doing a recap of that show. We're having Adam Lefko, who I'm a big fan of and is an Eagles guy who's going to join me after the show. So he's either going to be bummed out or happy. Why don't you get me going with your first one, Ollie?

My big thing is the state of the Ravens defense. You We don't have very much data on… Defensive football year to year fluctuates so much. It's so volatile. This new breed of we sim a bunch, we roll a bunch on the back end. We doesn't have much data on how those perform year to year. You have a first-time coordinator who's not been coaching football for a long time with a team that relied so much last year on one guy in the middle of the field being an absolute monster and Kyle Hamilton being the most unique player in football on the and playing all three levels, going against the best staff in football, the best player in football in prime time, to me, it's the number one thing of… I don't expect him to find a way to confuse and befuddle Patrick Mahomes, but It's more finding out, is he just going to run the same system as Mike McDonald, or does he have his own identity and imprint he wants to put on the team, which may be more reliable, sustainable as the year goes along?

Yeah, I'm curious, too. I'll just pick that one next, which is Which is what Mike McDonald is going to do. But sticking on the Ravens, you're right. It used to be a cliché. You do these shows long enough, you find yourself repeating yourself. And there was an Andy Reid Week One thing going for a little while. I feel like that's calmed down a little bit. It definitely peaked in the Week One where Kareem Hunt just went crazy on the Patriots in Foxborough. But he would always come up with some stuff that you just hadn't seen before in week one. Mike McDaniel does that, too. And thinking about that versus a brand new coordinator here in Zack Orr. I'm not worried about their defense, but yes, I'm curious how it's going to look. I'm excited to see what the secondary is going to be with Nate Wiggins. That's an interesting week one guy. I do just put some faith, and maybe it's too much faith that Zack Orr is a great coaching prospect just because the Ravens chose him. They apparently had four defensive coordinators on their own staff last year, and Mike McDonald left, and so they chose Zack Orr out of the other I guess I'm going to give it to John Harbaugh that he's going to make a smart choice, but it's hard to guess exactly what that's going to look like.

I just think if your predominant blue-chip thing isn't that we have one or two top-tier pass rushers, that, to me, is a thing that's sustainable. I love the sim pressure world, all the dorky stuff. I get it. I just don't know how reliable it can be year to year. You can't teach Kyle Hamilton, you can't teach Roquan Smith. All those guys, Madabuike, I think, will still be as good as he was last year.

Well, they're still there, though. They're not going anywhere.

Everyone's still there. But I just don't know if you give people that long to take a look and review things, and you're coming in week one, you imagine he's going to default to the things that he thinks worked best last year, and then over time, blend in how he views the game. That's what I would assume would happen rather than trying to tear it up what was a great unit last year. And so they've had however long to prepare with the best player in football, with offensive mind in football. That's the thing for me. It's one of those ones where it would not surprise me if it didn't look that great in week one and try not to overreact to it, but I do think it's something worth watching.

Absolutely. I think you point out in terms of the edge rushers, of course, Jedevian Clown, he's not there. After he had a good season. Odafe Owe, he's gotten a little better every year and certainly could have a good season. But after that, they're starting Kyle Van Noy in the year 2024. I know Kyle Van Noy has played well for the most part the last few years, players, but that's a thin edge group. Absolutely. I do like the secondary. It's fun. So that's a good one to look for. I might as well go to my Mike McDonald one. It's not that deep, but it's just, what does his defense look like without a Roquan Smith in Seattle? Because to me, their off-ball linebacker situation could be a total fiasco. I think there's some concern about people who have watched them in training camp because Jerome Baker has not been healthy, and Tarroll Dodson, we'll see. He hasn't been 100% either. They actually traded for a rookie who's going to be a backup off-ball linebacker. And so what does that look like? Now, if you look at the preseason, which I guess does tell you something, they were the leader in stunting in the preseason, percentage-wise, by a good amount, and they were running a lot of sim pressure.

So for as much as people say, the preseason doesn't tell you anything. Todd Bowles was the one running the most blitzes. Mike McDonald is the one running the most stunts. They do what they do, even if it was in the preseason. I think they have enough talent overall to make it work. But I do love the matchup week one that they're going against Bo Nicks and this hype machine in Denver that's a little out of control. I have to stop myself from just pushing against the fans because it's not Sean Payton or Bo Nicks' fault that the fans think Bo Nicks is this awesome. But it does annoy me, Ollie.

Well, Mike McDonald has the chance to win in week one by closing down Bo Nicks in a misbegotten Hype train. And then people saying, Look how smart Mike McDonald is. That being one of the great week one overreactions before they get their heads club for the next five, six weeks. That's definitely in play. My big concern with Seattle, I think the linebacker stuff But the way Mike McDonald approaches things, they really play in a pretty limited plane. You're not asking an awful lot of people. It's pretty vertical and north-south. There's not an awful lot going on there for those guys. So that is something you can pick up with... I mean, he had great ones last year, and I understand that, and that is a true cheat code. The big thing for his defense is their nickel has to be, if not the best player on the unit in the top three, and he's only not the best one because of the two guys are such fripozoites. That's the go-to thing for that defense. They blitz it so often. It is crucial to the run scheme. I don't want to bore people too much with the details.

I love Devon Witherspoon. I thought he was the best corner in that class. I'm not sure for that role where a big part of the responsibility is being a wall defender versus the run. This is a guy who hits, who comes down, who flies around, but he doesn't scream out to me as a guy who can drive someone off the ball, plant and shift a blocker. It is more driving downfield and close-lining someone and trying to create a turnover. That, to me, is the concern that they've got a lot of talent on the back-end, I think, because of the young guys. I'm not sure they're necessarily aligned to what he wants to do, which then means he might have to switch things up and put more pressure on the lineback in group if he can't figure it out with the secondary. I just don't know if we're going to get the pure uncut McDonald's right away. I think we're going to be at least a year away from it.

Because Devon Witherspoon in that defense, just from a basics point of view, it's like, Oh, wow, is he a sneaky defensive player of the Year candidate or an all-pro candidate? I I am buying... There are some preseason stories I buy. And cornerbacks are so up and down that I am buying the Wendel in rejuvenation because he understood what went wrong on some level last year, that he'll be at least a quality corner. All it took for me, Ollie They were a few reps where he embarrassed Calvin Ridley in joint practices, and a few podcasts from Michael Sean Dugard, who does a great job of just saying he's looked awesome. And so I'm into that. There's a lot of talent, and I think way more talent than the Broncos' offense. And so that's one week, one game. I'm just curious to see, I guess, if I'm right and if they can dominate in that game. All right, you give me one more and we'll take a break after that.

It's got to be Kyla versus the Tennessee defense. Is this Titan defense going to be good? Do you think they could be sneaky good?

I would tend to no. That's what I'm going towards.

It's a weird one because as I go through them, it does feel like me playing Madden and the signing guys I've heard of in two years' time. I understand that. But once you look at the secondary in particular, I do think there's actually a decent amount of talent there. Obviously, the best receiving core could be really overwhelming. Caleb is such an unusual player and can extend and create plays. I get the concerns with the front seven. I love the Ernst Jones pickup. I think that can have an impact. They It may not be a top 12 in DVOA type defense, but I don't think this is anywhere near a troubling dumps to fire type unit. I'm interested to see what that looks like in week one.

Yeah, and it's the same coaching tree, Denard Wilson. We don't know if he's going to run everything the same. Actually, the way he's talked in the preseason does not sound like he's running a Mike McDonald type of defense. It's going to be a different scheme. He's his own guy. The front could be good. Tovandri's sweat, again, it's camp. I just think he's had a very positive camp, a guy that everyone was down on, and certainly a lack of judgment with the DUI and his weight and everything. And yet everyone that's been at Titans camp is like, Other than Jeffrey Simmons, he's been He's the most consistent defensive lineman. He's actually shown up in it's translated, and they could be good up front. And I am a little worried about the Bear's offensive line in general. I think bears fans are higher on it than I am. But is that a matchup that He could lose week one, Caleb Williams. That's spicy. I could see them being good. I didn't love the O'Wuzier signing. And he hasn't been healthy in camp. I didn't even love the Logereous Sneed outside of Kansas City, not always been able to practice because his knee is such a problem signing.

So that's a big mystery box, a big question mark. But you're right, there's a chance there that they could improve quite a bit.

Yeah, I think I'm higher on the secondary than you. I really like the safety room. I think they can do interesting creative things with those guys. I think Sneed's really good. We'll see if you just put him in a pure bump and run situation and say you've got nothing else to do with the rest of the game. That should translate. There's no earthly reason why it shouldn't. Yet for some reason, this happens every year in free. See, these guys don't translate playing the exact same technique as somewhere else. For some reason, it doesn't work. The front, I'm probably more down on from you. I'm not a Devandre Sweat guy. That is, to me, that's camp stuff. It's believe it when I see it. It's believe it when it's eight straight weeks and it's snap to snap and it's not rotating off and just playing running downs. It may be He's possibly considering being in shape to play football at this level. That is something I will definitely have to see before I believe it.

That's a great point, too, because, of course, in camp, they're in pads plenty, but they're not tackling to the ground. It's a totally different sport. They're very thin there that I have picked up on that they're planning on him playing a lot. He's certainly starting, and that's a little concerning. But if you get close to prime Jeffrey Simmons, and it sounds like he's ready to go, and Harold Landry finished out last season well, and I think could have certainly a solid edge. They have guys. Arden Key had that suspension overturn. And so that's a fun one. Titans, bears. Week one, we're going to We're going to come back with a couple more things that we're just like, we just can't wait to unwrap week one. We couldn't even wait to do the preview show, so we'll be back in a couple of minutes.

All right, we are back here on NFL Daily.

And yeah, the big news in the UK, Oasis. It's back. They're back. What's your Oasis connection? I'll give you a second to think about that. As I say, my biggest connection there is the first ever weekend of my life that I ever just got drunk for an entire weekend because I was either a freshman or a sophomore in high school, and someone had a house that was just open for the weekend, and I somehow got... My parents allowed me to sleep over there. And I think we spent two or three nights. And yeah, that ages me a little bit, but it was definitely maybe an oasis live forever, just basically on repeat, while getting drunk as a 15-year-old for 48 hours straight.

Well, I live in Manchester, England. As you know, I'm from the north of England. People can't tell that from my messed up voice of living in Boston for three years and having the world's worst accent. For us, 13 years old in a park with rock and roll star, believing and walking and talking like we are all Liam and Noel Gallagher. That is how I was born and raised.

That is awesome. I can picture, but not picture because I've never been in Manchester. When I go, it's like I always stay in London. This year, I really, on Saturday, want Because Saturday, usually, I have some free time. I want to get outside the city. Not that London is not amazing, but it's time for me to venture out. Maybe you can help me with that, Ollie. Before that, though, let's talk more week one. Where do I go next? Let's go Colts defensive line. Leatu Latu was just such a fun prospect to me, as fun of a edge prospect as there's been in a couple of years. In the preseason, the that we saw, he looked like the same guy in college. It makes you feel a little better that, Okay, this is going to translate. Then you think about that defensive line in general. The question for me is, DeForece Buckner and Grover-Stuart going to be close to where they have been at their peak? Because if they're anywhere close, and they've been pretty good lately, next to Latu, and you have Quiddipe as the other edge. That matchup against the Texans, week one, you got Laramu.

Maybe it's Latu versus Tuncil, which is like film geek porn there. The whole line in general, I have some questions about the rest of the Texans' offensive line, but that line and some good linebackers for the Colts, too, against this explosive Texans' offense. There's some familiarity now between the two coaching staffs. To me, that's a really exciting week one of just like, Okay, where are these two sides at? Especially Latu versus Tuncil could be a lot of fun.

Yeah, that's a juicy one. I really like that line. I don't mind them playing a four down and go situation. They've got the dudes, they can just fire off the ball and make some hay. I do wish he was with someone other than Gus Bradley, not to dump on Gus Bradley, particularly, but you just went through it, right? We've got this guy, this pass rusher, who is an unusual type player. He doesn't win in normal ways. Pass rushers play football. I've described him for us like an MMA fighter. They just let loose on the football field. It's all weird hand movement and uncoordinated body stuff. It's not really fire off the ball and dip around the edge or run through someone's chest. I mean, he can do that stuff, but he's at his best levitating in the air and doing unorthodox TJ Wat type things. You look at the Texan's line, you say, Let's just plant this guy over the center, let him loose, and we'll get 10, 15 pressures. Everyone else can come screaming home. We all high five. What a great day. There's no need for him to be caught up in the Laramie Tuncil hurricane of just the speed and the power.

A guy who will be laughing. If you try and hit him with some weird Bruce Lee then you just wind up in his arms, it's not going to work. That's not a great match. I think for a lot, do week one. If he's going to come and try and do his typical things, which I think can make him a really good player in the league, I would like to see him moved around and maybe Gus Bradley spent six months away, hanging out in the lead, getting a bit frisky, and deciding to change up things a little bit up front.

It is wild to think about the run that Gus Bradley's had. I don't know if he's had a single season where he hasn't run a defense since he He started running a defense, and yeah, he has the reputation. You can tell me if it's changed in your eye in any recent years of, Yeah, he's going to line them up. He's going to have the four linemen. He's going to do what he does. I mean, he's mixed it a little bit on the back end, maybe before, but he's a little more static and a little more just like, our players are going to beat your players more than those coordinators.

It's really static, and it's all about, which is fair enough. The NFL, it's really hard. You got guys rolling in and now injured, practice squad, guys. It makes It makes a ton of sense to say, You get me players. I'll teach them technique. We'll go win games. It is still, for all the fun stuff about rotations and sim pressures, it is still 60/40, a man coverage single high league. That's what it is. That's what he majed in. Him getting frisky was adding in a dose of tamper to him being like, Hey, look at me guys. Getting out there over here. Look at me. I don't think it's going to be a wacky situation on the back end. But he's now been given these pieces where he could do interesting things to them. It could be more Niners-like where it's at least an overload front, and we're trying to do something a little bit different to get after people in the past first game because now he's got the pieces. There's not really an excuse, I don't think, for them to be one of the best pressure teams in the league.

Yeah. Deo Adingbo is still there Samson Abakam, just a little update. I had mentioned he was out for the season, we believe, with an Achilles. They put him on designated to return. There was a Terrell Sugs Achilles tear once where he returned by the end of the season. So if they're I think they can be a playoff team. I put them in the playoffs in our AFC preview with nick Wright as one of the wild card teams. So just something to keep an eye on that maybe he could return. But they're fairly deep, especially on the edge. They have Taekwan Lewis. It's a fun defense. It's a fun off. I mean, it's just a fun division. Why don't you go with the next one?

For me, it has to be the Dallas defense. I have no idea what this thing is going to be. We get Zimmer back. I don't think people quite understand last year how corrupted they were by design for long stretches because Dan Quinn is considered a great coach. He had the two really good years, and he gets a head coaching job. So he gets a job promotion, which I think people think means he did a great job. But structurally, they were a disaster for large chunks of last year. I've made this point before where just because you had that one bad year doesn't mean Dan Quinn can't be a good head coach elsewhere. That could be what happened in a job interview, can run a program, has done the job before. But if he just went in without any of the background stuff, and it was just a tape by tape who had a good year the year before. There is no chance he's getting any job. And so you bring Zimmerman, and they do absolutely nothing. They get Eric Kendricks, who is just scotch-taped together as, Please give us a chance. They say they're not going to run all this three safety stuff.

They're betting on Marzie Smith and these guys to show internal development. They lose a cornerback. I'm pretty worried that they're not going to be anywhere near the level people would assume they would be. The thing they've got going in their favor is I'm also not quite sure about Sean Watson, the Cleveland Browns offense. We may get one week where Michael Parsons sparkles, and we still think that they're a really effective group.

That's really interesting, and I haven't heard it put that way. I think you're right because of the presence of Parsons and just the name of Lawrence. Although DeMarcus Lawrence is still a good player. He's not what he was, but he's still a plus player to have out there. Not as much talent, and you're right. I didn't think Dan Quinn had that bad of a year. I thought he had a bad final six weeks. It was It reminded me a little bit of Mike Rable getting the promotion to a head coaching job, too, when his defense was absolutely terrible.

It's not a bad year. If you go by some of the metrics and the measurables, it's not so bad. I'm just saying that if you are someone who's evaluating a coaching job and you sit down with them and say, walk me through what you're doing here, they have things where run fit-wise, they don't make any logical sense. And it was happening weekly. And you've got, they're playing more defensive backs than anyone else in the lead. They got defensive backs fitting B gaps, which regularly Which is not like cool Brandon Staley stuff. It's like an error. Then they have a bunch of players when it runs to the perimeter where two guys are arriving in the same spot at once. So that's just either a coaching issue of feeding it into the players or you've designed a poor defense and you don't have to spin your way out of it midway through the year because you realize we don't have any linebackers. What have we done? And the answer to this is to go and get Zimmer and Eric Kendrix. That's the solution.

Yeah, the Kendrix hype, and I think I said this on this show, so I feel bad piling on, but this weird thing where I'll listen to Cowboys Analysts and it's like, Well, we fixed Linebacker by getting Eric Kendrix. I was like, No, Eric Kendrix was a problem for their last two teams. He's going to be a problem for your team. Zimmer coming off the shelf, you never know. Could he get a little wild or could it be stale? He's a bit of a mystery. Certainly one of the most effective defensive coordinators of the last 20 years. And yet, yeah, different situation. Everyone's on the hot seat. It's weird.

He certainly is. And everyone loves Mike Zimmer. I love Mike Zimmer. I love the tenor and tone of how he just views football. I love the curmudgeonly style when it's this little genius hidden in there, but he's a curmudgeon.

He's so good on hard knocks as a D coordinator. It was so good with the bangles. It was fun.

That is my favorite coach, but I think he's a little bit misunderstood in the sense that they were never that wacky or inventive. They did some interesting things with Harrison Smith, and it was like, Well, therefore, the whole defense must be really inventive and cool. He's very static. It's very cover three. It's pretty traditional. It's three linebackers as often as possible. That's why they went and got Kendricks. You wouldn't have made that move if that was not the style you were expecting to run again. And Dan Quinn, to be fair to him, really overhauled the entire thing, a guy who was playing a bunch too deep and rotating a lot, it just failed. It was just not well-designed by the end of the run there and was bailed out by great players up front, essentially masquerading, covering up a lot of technical flaws with the defense. I think Zimmer can at least fix those bare basics, and that is a starting point. I just don't know if they have that much talent.

Yeah, their county on, Demone Clark, maybe. Who knows? He might be the fourth linebacker, but they think maybe he develops DeMarvian Overshawn, maybe improving. That's a third-round pick from a year ago development there. I've heard there's some concerns about Marshawn Neelen and his hip coming into the ceiling. I know he's a defensive end, but they're a little thinner, and you're right, just the talent isn't quite as good. And certainly, Duran Bland's injury doesn't help there. I hate to go so cowboy's heavy and be basic, but that was my fourth was the offense. I guess I got to watch this game. I really am interested in this game. Plus, it's Brady's first game. I have to admit, as a broadcast head and a braided head, just all of it. This is my main game. I'm in, Fox. I'm not going to be a hipster. I want to watch this game. But it is because of the offense for the Cowboys, to me, more than the defense, that this offensive line versus the Brown defensive line. Now, they've had some injuries in camp, Miles Garrett potentially against Gaiton or whoever. They're going to have it right tackle there.

It was a really effective defensive line. I'm wondering if this Browns defense, like you mentioned with Mike McDonald's defense and everyone getting a year to get used to the scheme and everything, what is year two Jim Schwartz in Cleveland? Can it be as effective? And then all the questions that we have about the Cowboys offense, specifically to me, the offensive line coming into the year and the running game. I don't really have a hot take of how it's going to go. I just want to see it and what the heck happens.

The Browns one is fascinating because that's one where we'll know, I think, within a quarter, is the magic still there? They last year played almost a high school defense. It was 72% of the time, the middle of the field is closed. They ran basically three coverages all year. They had four change-ups. That was the entire defense. Then they've got this outrageous pass rush, which is just players. It was just four down and go. That is great coaching. It's like, I have really good players. I'm going to put them in the best spot. We'll play man coverage everywhere. It's really easy. They had really talented corners. But when you're losing guys to injury, to just say, this is what Belichick always did so well, why he'd always just find a corner by. How does he do that? Belichick's such a genius. He says, You find that guy and you run with him everywhere. That's the job for the week. We're not doing all cool, creative, coverage stuff. I think we'll know pretty quickly whether they still have that talent. I just don't know if it's easy to roll with that year on year and say we're going to be the most static, predictable defense league and not just do well, but house people by a big distance in terms of pressure, sacs, TFLs, all that stuff.

I think we'll know quickly. Then for Dallas, I just don't trust that staff to ever make things easy. It's like as good as Dak is, and I'm a huge Dak believer, it's like they think there's some extra bonus points for it being very complicated. That's how they view offensive football, and that just isn't. If he's not got the time and he can't create a move as well as he has it in the past, then I think they could be in trouble.

Yeah, and it could be one of It was match-up-based things that both of these units are a little worse than everyone thinks, but it's a fun game, it's close, it's the national game, and you feel good maybe about both sides coming out of it. It's like, Oh, that was a good match between two good sides, and maybe not, because to me, Brandon Cooke is not what he was. He hasn't been what he was. And we'll see, they've been high on their third receiver. Who am I? I wanted to say Gaiton, but Jalen Tolbert, not Jalen Gaiton, who's had a good camp and everything. Ferguson is a solid… But this is maybe a group you can cover with man coverage other than Cee Lamb, who's not going to have a ton of practice time before this game. All right, let's wrap up. One more. Pick your best one you got remaining, Ollie Connolly.

Best one I got His remaining is Bryce Young. Has to be Bryce Young. What on earth is this thing going to look like? Do you have any idea of what Bryce Young will look like in year two? Because for me, the big thing is it's like everyone's already moved on. Cee Jay Stroud is great. We get Caleb Williams, we get Drake May, and it's as though Everyone outside of Carolina is like, the number one overall pick who they traded their entire franchise to go get might just stink, and they don't want to say it publicly. I hope he's going to be great. The lead will be awesome if Bryce Young is amazing. That would be lovely. I just From what they've said, what they've messaged, what they've shown in the tiny sample size possible, I'm just not buying and believing it right now.

In terms of the camp progress, and you had one good preseason drive, but it's hard to take too much out of that. I just feel like, and you can tell me what you think about Canales, that it should make more sense. I just am more concerned that even if he plays better, the talent around him is the coaching enough to what's the upside here? The ceiling is still probably pretty low, even if he plays better. I keep comping him to Alex Smith just in terms of where he could go as one of the worst rookie quarterbacks of all time to a pretty respectable second year under Norf Turner with the 49ers, where I was like, Okay, this guy is going to have a career and be a decent enough starter. That's probably the hope, but I still think everything around him is probably close to bottom five level.

Yeah, I mean, For the offensive line, they did improve, and it was such a disaster last year, but it's one of those ones where they invested so much money in it. It's like, even if it's just bad or for the leverage.

Maybe is Damian Lewis and Robert Hunt? How many people were talking about them as difference makers last year? I don't know.

No, I think it's not going to be great. The only thing you can buy… It's like trying to give Bryce Young his second contract now by buying other players in the hopes he may be good, and then you can make a decision. But at some point, you would have to pay him then at that point. So I think it's a gutsy strategy to basically make yourself bad on defense. We will be old and bad on defense to give this guy a hope is to their credit of trying to find out what they got with this guy. I just don't like the pairing of the coach of the quarterback. I think it will work to a point of Canales is a really good motivator, confidence builder. I view him as more of a glorified quarterback coach who's also the head coach. Where I get concerned from what he's been messaging and what they've shown so far is that he will have a hands-on role in the actual offense. That gives me a cause to pause and concern. I just don't think that fits with Bryce Wunge, the player at all. So even if you can build it slightly, I think we're going to end up with the season where it's like, Bryce Wunge, maybe there's something in there, and that isn't really a good answer either.

You just want to know by the end of the year, either this isn't going to work. We got to pull the rip corn and find a way out because we got to build the rest of our roster. We've sunk so much money into the offensive line now. We're going to have to make some tough decisions. Or, yes, we got it. There's a pathway to stardom here, and we can start building around that. I think what they're building here for some strange reason, in my opinion, is some Jared Goffian, Baker Mayfieldian, Russell Wilsonian type offense that just is not a fit for Bryce Young, the player based in the space. Why not?

You said Canales being so involved in running the offense is almost a red flag for you. Their offensive coordinator is Brad Idzic. Just the name Idzic freaks me out. It's the opposite of of a nepo baby, but I guess it worked out for him that he overcame what happened with his dad with the Jets. But why don't you think Canales and Young fit perfectly together?

Yeah, and if you go through the rest of the staff, these are all his boys from Seattle. He just went through the phone book. He brought all his boys to them in Seattle. They didn't go and bring out someone as an outside hire who maybe would blend more with a true spread type style that Bryce Young, I think, would be best. Now, I've said this in a bunch of places, so I'm sorry if people heard this before, but he's such an unusual player to try and build a typical offense that constrains the quarterback that is Jared Goffian. When he doesn't have those skills, makes no sense. It sounds like I've been smoking a bunch of weed or something to say, You've got to build something no one's ever seen before, man. It's going to look completely different, man. But I think that's true. We've never seen someone with that skillset whose best trait is tap dancing in the backfield. That's the number one, Bryant thing. Can he create and play make from the backfield? In a Drew-Breeze body, that's That's who he is. What you have to do is give him as many options as possible on every single play.

Constraining him in a two-man route combination offense where you hit the deep cross or you check it down, he's just not that player. He doesn't drive the ball down the field like Russell Wilson. He doesn't drive the ball down the field like Jared Goff. These guys where it's a point and shoot, take that and go. That's not who he is, and that's the style they've been running in the preseason. It's a whole bunch of concept v coverage. If the concept wins, get rid the ball. You're trying to make him Baker Mayfield by limiting him as much as possible. That's what they're trying to do. When the point of taking the guy would be he can create for us. You can only create if there are as many options out in the route as possible so that he can move around, bounce, and then go find people downfield.

Maybe I'm trying to think, well, what would be good for him? And you're right, I saw, I think people underrate or I've forgotten about his potential creativity. He didn't have the confidence to necessarily do it. Certainly, he can throw with anticipation He showed a little bit of that in that preseason, just the way he was moving looked good. I was like, Okay, this guy's in the NFL. You realize that I'm trying to think what would be good for him. It's like a Deshawn Watson in Houston type of thing? I don't know.

Even then, I mean, the That was, again, to show him drives the ball down the field. It's difficult to play in an offense where you're basically in a three-man situation. That's a lot of what they do, these levels concepts, you call them deep intermediate short. That's a lot of what those offenses are. When your guy I can't truly drive it down the field. It has to be a lot of what the Rams have done when they get into empty is it's an awful lot of double stack switch releases, and then you can just throw it up and someone runs underneath it. That's what you would need. I think they should be 10, 15, 12% in empty and just have us on a podcast, people writing deep features. How are the Panthers running empty at by far the highest rate since braided was really cooking in 2011? That's what it should be.

That's where I threw out Watson because if I'm right, I think there was a lot. I was just trying to think who can be a point guard and just create and options. They will be fun. That's a fun one to watch in week one. They're playing the Saints. I do like week one games where it feels as close to a must win as possible. So on one hand, like Saints Panthers is low on everyone's list of probably what they're watching first. And yet if that game is 15 to 12 in the fourth quarter, Panthers are leading the Saints, and that crowd is booing Derekar a little bit in grumbling. There actually feels like there'd be more stakes in that game because the Saints can't lose that game to start the season than almost any other NFL game out there. So that's fun to me. Every game in week one is a little fun in different ways. It was great having you, Ollie. Again, if I can do anything, listen to this podcast that Ollie does with John Ledyard, and Ollie does a great job writing, too. You can get smarter. And so that's over at the Read Optional podcast.

And we hope to have Ollie on throughout the course of the season. Until Tuesday, look, I'm going to have Jordan Rodriegue back. And before the season starts, we're going to choose what would be our ideal roster, almost like a preseason All-Pro team, but in the 53-man roster form. It's going to be a fun exercise. Until then, football's back.