Welcome to NFL Daily, where we'd also boo if we paid money to go to a preseason game in the rain and they took out Drake May after one series. Give me a break. I'm Greg Rosenthal, and I'm beyond lucky today to be joined later in the show by Ollie Connolly, a talented writer about football, podcaster, from over in the UK who's going to talk to me about what if Kirk Cousins really isn't the guy we think he is, especially this season with the Falcons. A little thought experiment, but that's going to come up after the break. To start the show, I'm going to go over news really quickly in the two preseason games that we had on Thursday night. And before I do that, I just want to ask our producer here, Eric Roberts, how annoyed he is at me that I'm asking him to produce on a Thursday night in the preseason while he's got his baby Austin James, making his NFL Daily debut. If you check us out on YouTube, you can see this beautiful boy. Nice set of hair, just like his dad. Yeah, dude. Nice hair. Maybe look at the mustache, Jean.

But yes, spit bubbles and all right now. Not doing it all. I'm glad we can do this at home and stuff just to get some time with the kid. I was off for a little bit of time, but anytime with this guy. A little bit of football, too, on the TV for him. No Bills games yet for him, so he hasn't got the misery, but watching a lot of Dodgers games with me. And maybe he'll be a little podcaster. Who knows? That is beautiful. And yeah, that is something beautiful about it. It's not like we're in the studio, but we are putting you back to work. You can hand him off now if you want, if he's feeling uncomfortable. But it is cool. These preseason nights, we're going to try to take you, especially on the Thursday nights, and get you covered with all the games. So I'm making Austin, James, and Eric do a little overtime. So why do we not waste any more time? We'll get to the news. Eric showing versatility, hitting the buttons with Austin on the lap. Let's go back to Brandon Ayuk. I can't believe this thing hasn't happened yet.

It's still hanging out there days now after a report in Pittsburgh that the deal was happening from a radio station there. And I did want to just update you on what Kyle Shanahan said on a KNBR radio appearance on Thursday night. Very interesting. He said, quote, If it doesn't work out, and he's talking about getting that you signed in San Francisco, you always try as hard as you can to get fair value, whether it's fair value for the future, fair value for now. You're always hoping for both. B. A. Has got to agree on that, too. We're looking at every possibility. So this thing is getting held up. There was a report from Diana Rossini of The Athletic that spelled out what seems pretty obvious, which is the 49ers are not happy with the trade terms that the dealers are bringing to the table. And yeah, they don't have any receivers to send back. And Shana Hand also said, quote, there's got to be two teams tied to that. And anytime there takes three things, it's not easy. And again, they're looking at every possibility. And when it's all said and done, the best thing for the 49ers and the best thing for BA.

So I just think this is happening. The head coach would not be on the radio talking about how tricky it is to complete a trade like that. They're talking about this guy as if he's not there. And it does make you wonder whether they're trying to get a third team involved or whether there's ever a world where they're just trying to run out the clock here and get Brandon Ayuk back on the team, because to me, that's what makes the most sense. But hearing the coach talk about it like that, almost as if he's already gone, talking about how tough it is to complete a trade, it does seem like he is going to go somewhere. I don't think CeeD Lamb is going in anywhere. Eric, I want you to play the sound for me. Jerry Jones, this comes after he was asked if he's in any hurry and feeling any urgency to get CeeD Lamb's contract done. This coming from KDFW Fox 4. Are you saying there's a sense of urgency as you begin the preseason to get CeeD done?

No. Why do you say that?

I went to high school or I went to college.

I don't know why I said it, but I'm just saying I don't know. I don't have a sense of urgency about getting it done.

Why is everyone laughing? You're at the board meeting and your boss, who's not funny at all, just made a half joke, and then everyone laughs way too hard. It just was an odd comment that he doesn't have any urgency. I think what he's saying, and he did talk a little more, that they don't feel like they're losing that much with a player like CeeDee Lamb at this point in time. That I get. But Dak Prescott took the podium just a little bit after that, and he said, I know you all want to ask. I got urgency for it to happen. So just a strange moment, strange times with the Cowboys. Why are you sending this message out? Ceedee Lamb actually, quote, retweeted it on Twitter with the L-O-L over it. Just like, Michael Parsons retweeted that. I mean, we're getting deep into it. Michael Parsons could also use a new contract pretty soon. So it's never great when your player is L-O-L your owner on a Thursday evening. A couple of other very quick items of news, and then I'll hit the preseason games. And again, get to that her cousin's conversation will also hit on nick Foles, rather, retiring on Thursday.

Ron Del Moris, the injured reserve. I had mentioned that it looked like he had broken his leg on our last show. Unfortunately, the third receiver for the Falcons is going to be out for the season. Also out for the season, Drake Jackson, who you might remember was a second-round pick of the 49ers in 2022. They put him on the reserve PUP list. He's trying to come back from a really devastating injury, a patellar tendon injury that's going to keep him out. It was at the end of last year, all of this year, which is tough. I bring that up because it's just a reminder, this 49ers defensive line is just not the same. They were hoping to get some juice from Drake Jackson at some point in this rookie contract. After nick Bosa, it's Leonard Floyd and Yttero Gross Matos, as his other edge guys. Not that bad. Malik Collins is a starting defensive tackle on this team. It's just not the talent up front that they had a few years ago. And then finally in the news, I'm really testing you here, Eric, because earlier in the day, Jameis Winston said something that only Jameis Winston would say, and this has no news value, but I'm just happy that Jameis Winston is still in our lives.

I think that's one of the things that a lot of people forget. When you can go out, you can see practice, you can knickknack this, that, pattywhack, give a dog a bone. The Sean Watson is going to turn it on.

He always going to find a way to shine when the lights come on.

Man, I just ran. Can I leave off that?

But I know that's what I'm going to hit.

You can tell that man is a preacher. He truly is. I love that man. What an odd guy. But you know what? Maybe the perfect backup quarterback for Dashaun Watson, because he has been Deshaun Watson's biggest supporter and Rhymer this preseason. All right, finally, let's hit the two games. I would have gone with the games first. I was excited. It was Drake May's debut. But as I mentioned in the open, only one drive. It was pouring rain. Maybe that had an impact on how Gerard Mayo decided to give May snaps on Thursday night. Jacobi Braset only had one drive. May threw three passes. Two of them were screen passes. One was a heater that was a little high for Jalen Rager that Rager got his hands on. But I don't think they wanted May out there with a backup offensive line. He actually played with the starting offensive line, which he hasn't been doing in all of camp. Hasn't really been a competition with Braset like we expected, but they decided not to really use him tonight. So, yeah, that Patriots defense looked good against this Panthers team. But for the sickos out there wanting a few little takeaways, the Patriots did use their rookie receivers that people are getting excited about with their backup.

So that's just something to keep in mind. Jalen Polk with the second team, Javan Baker with the third team, not getting played with the starters yet. It's early. My guy Joe Milton, their fourth stringer, got a huge ovation when he came into the game. The poor Patriots fans were booing Bayly Zappi when he came in. More booing Mayo for taking May out of the game. But then they were waiting They were restless for Joe Milton to come into the game, the big-armed quarterback from Tennessee. And he looked good. He looked good scrambling and checking down and then throwing a wide-open shutdown pass. So it was fun for Joe Milton. I do not think Bayly Zappi is going to make the team. Even less the takeaway from the Panthers who were not playing their starters. They started a man named Jack Plumber at quarterback. Jonathan Mingo was out there, had a drop early, but not many takeaways there. The Giants also played, and the Giants got a W in the preseason against the Lions who were playing their backups. Malik Nabors actually played three drives in this game but did not get a target, which was too bad.

Wanted to see him do a little bit something. Tyrone Tracy was the clear second running back for the Giants if you're in a deep fantasy league. But Eric gray, who was their third stringer, had a big long countdown. They'll both have a role. And then I think we hit peak preseason late Thursday when it was Joe Milton and Hendon Hooker out there both playing. And this is what the preseason is all about. If you forget, Henden Hooker was an intriguing quarterback prospect, got taken in the third round, but was coming off a torn ACL. Some people thought he might challenge Jared Goff at some point for the starting job. Now he's just trying to fight for a backup job behind Goff, of course. And Nate Sudfeld is the backup right now. And Hooker showed some moves and looked okay in a game where Drew Locke for the Giants took a bunch of big hits, left with an injury pretty early. But Joe Shane, their GM, said it wasn't anything serious. He could have come back into the game. And that's about it for my preseason takeaways. We'll hit more on your Monday morning show with nick Shuck all the rest of the games, all 14 games.

But before I go, I do want to point out that during that Giants game, they were testing out the Hawk-Eye system for first down measurements. So close measurements. Is it a first down or not? Or is it a fourth down? Stop. Let's listen to Phil Sims as part of the Giants broadcast crew with Bob Papa in the preseason.

I don't know about what we're doing. What'd you call it? We're going to now... But are we going to use it if it takes this long? Yeah. Okay.

You know what? Can we just run the chains out? Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. The laser is taking as long as they would if they were longer.

It's a virtual animation. Yeah. Bring in the Baxley family and get the chains out there.

Well, it's preseason. Try all the new stuff in the NFL. I understand.Oh, look at this.There it is. Okay.

There you go. Okay. If you're watching it on YouTube, you can see they actually have a graphic for it, like they do in tennis when you put up the Hawk-Eye graphic, and the ball was way short. I think they just wanted to test it out. Hopefully, they work out the kinks there. That is not a system that was ready to go clearly for primetime, but they're just trying it out in the preseason. It is apparently not going to be part of our regular season. But how about Phil Sims back in the booth for a preseason game? It's the circle of life. He probably started out that way, worked his way up, did a bunch of Super Bowl, and now he's back with Big Blue. We're going to come back after the break. I know it's early for a break. This is our only one of this show, which I'm excited about, but we're going to take a quick break. And on the other side, I'm going to talk to Ollie Connolly, one of the smartest football heads out there, and we're going to do a deep dive on the Falcons offense and why I'm just a little skeptical a little worried about how Kirk Cousins is going to look this season.

Okay, we are welcoming in Ollie Connolly to the show. I'm excited about this, not just because he's wearing a Red Sox hat over in the UK, and not just because he hasn't slept at all in two weeks because he's covering the US team in the Olympics for the Guardian. I'm sorry for giving you extra work, Ollie, right now when you're cranking.

Well, nothing gets me more excited than discussing Kirk Cousins. So what a wonderful moment to take out of my life to dig into Kirk Cousins Yeah, you said, Why can't you be covering some other team?

The US is just racking up these medals, but it's been a lot of fun. This is going to be fun. Ollie is one of my favorite voices in American football, although he covers football, football for the Guardian overseas, and obviously the Olympics these couple of weeks. But you can check out his American football content at his newsletter, the Read Optional Newsletter. And he also does a podcast with John Ledyard, who we've had on the show before, too. I really love their podcast, so I really recommend. I don't pay for a lot of sports content, but I pay for that, and it's really good. So check out Ollie. I wanted to have him on this show because I thought, yeah, he'd be a fun guy to hit a one-issue topic. You know how they have one-issue campaign, like a one-issue politician? This is a one-issue show in theory, and that one issue is Kirk Cousins, and I do some issues with Kirk Cousins. But before I get to that, I did want to just mention that nick Foles announced that he's going to retire in Eagle at their home opener. And having you on the show, you always have good takes on quarterbacks.

I just wanted to get your view of nick Foles and where that two-game run, the NFC Championship against the Vikings, and then the Super Bowl against the Patriots, ranks in your mind of a football you watch, because, weirdly, I almost think it's underrated. People remember the Philly Special, and what I remember is a bunch of throws into pretty good coverage that nick Foles should never have been hitting, like throw after throw after throw. One of the greatest performances in Super Bowl history after putting up a 40 burger in the NFC Championship. Just want to give nick Foles some love.

Yeah, that's what stands out to me. I just have this image burned in my mind of the greatest defensive mind in the history of the sports, brain melting on the sideline. He couldn't figure out why am I double-bragging people? And nick Fowle is throwing seeds all over the field, and his brain just falling away. I mean, There's never been anyone have that run, obviously, where you come from... If you think back in 2013, he played Dynamite under Chip Kelly, then he comes back after the Sam Bradford trade, and they just reinstall a bunch of the Chip Kelly stuff. And it always makes me laugh because almost the two things that I remember to the Philly special you mentioned. Then people talk about, Oh, Doug Peterson, the RPOs, they brought the RPOs. And I was covering college football all the time, and I was speaking to a bunch of college coaches just laughing at how rudimentary these RPOs were and how scrambling all these NFL guys who had been to all these college programs to figure out how to stop this stuff. It was just the most basic things ever they couldn't deal with. But when you go back and watch him, that stuff is there and it's relevant and it keeps the stuff moving.

But he's mostly just driving things all over the field, like you said, to tight coverage, just completely out of his mind for a six-week stretch, particularly those two games you mentioned. I just don't know if we'll ever see someone put that together against that competition.

Right. That's the thing that gets me with with football that you can't tell me that Joe Montana or braided, and that was one of his best Super Bowl's, too. It wasn't as flashy, but he was awesome in that game. You can't tell me that any quarterback played any better in particular in the two biggest game stretch. I was there. That happened to be a year where they were sending me around to cover the playoff game. So I was there for all three. I'll always remember Matt Ryan missing Julio Jones one on one with a chance to beat the Eagles at the end of that game. I think it was first second down, and you never know what would have happened. And then being at those games, he just had magic, and he was so good. I always thought the first half of Ravens 49ers was as good as I've seen a quarterback play in one half of a game, Joe Flacko. But I think Falls would top him. So I just wanted to give a little love, and that'll be a fun night on the home opener for the Eagles. All right, let's get to our one issue.

It's Kirk. I gave you a couple of options of what to do, but I thought you might be a fun one for this show. We haven't done a show quite that. And yes, it's a one-issue show, and the one issue is Kirk Cousins. And the question that I'm posing is, what if the bad Kirk Cousins shows up this year? And I'm going to lay this out almost like a prosecutor. I'm definitely coming from the angle that this is more possible than people think. I don't know if you have an opinion on it going into it, Ollie. So I'll let you start just your experience with Kirk over the years.

My experience over the year, I think, is the same as everyone, where it's just like you get these strange three week moments where you look at yourself and go, Kirk Cousins is really good. You don't want to tell anyone. You're texting your friends, being like, Should I say this out loud? Kirk Cousins may be incredible. And then he inevitably disappoints you and you go, Why is a team sticking with Kirk Cousins? Does this make sense? It makes no sense why they're giving him so much money every year. And there's a weird thing with him where there's not really one thing you hang your hat on. It's like he does this at a special level. You can go through everything. You can break down everything granularly and say it's that one thing he just bosses at, and it doesn't really exist. He's pretty good at a lot of things. Most notably, I would say, is sac avoidance when pressured, which is huge for a guy coming off the injuries, coming off with an Achilles tear. But even that then gets into, okay, so if that drops a little bit, whether it's guts, timing, whatever it is, it just not lets him to move and navigate the pocket.

So let's say in your worst case scenario, that drops by 5, 6, 7 %. It's like, okay, the one thing this guy was above average at comes back to average, and the rest of it is just pretty good. It's quite scary. I think they've got so many questions everywhere else, the Falcons. I think this idea that for years and years, they're a quarterback away. They spend all these high draft picks and all these talented guys playing on the perimeter. I just don't think that's quite that true.

Yes, that was part of the issue with me is when everyone was like, Well, he's joining the Super Bowl ready roster. This is ready to go. I don't see it, and we'll get to that. And then the other part of it was, and I got to say, if anyone wants to check this out on YouTube, like, subscribe, we're trying to build it. I mean, you don't not look like Kirk Cousin. I mean, just a little bit with a hat on. And that's a compliment. I mean, he's Team America. He's a good-looking guy.

I get this three times a week. When the Netflix documentary happened, my life was ruined. I didn't leave the house. When you text me, I was like, I can't believe this guy asked me to do this. I cannot believe of all that. He's like, You know who I thought of? The guy who looks just like Kirk Cousins.

I didn't know. I got to admit, I mean, I've seen, I think, your profile on a Twitter page, but we've never spoken. We've never met. It is good to talk to you. So I had no idea. But yeah, you and Kirk, there's a real resemblance, and I love it. I love it for you and for our audience. So everyone, and you got to it right away. Everyone thinks of Kirk Cousins as this consistent quarterback because at the end of the year, you think, okay, he's not quite top five or eight, but he's better than average, and he's just been this steady presence. And I think about back to our the NFL days with Chris Wesling, who always really believed in Kirk, and I think he was proven right over time that he was a better quarterback than the rest of us thought. And he would always make this case that you see five, six, seven game stretches where he's brilliant, where he's one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And what I came to in the end was he's one of the streakeiest quarterbacks in the league. That maybe it's a feel thing, maybe it's a confidence thing.

I don't know what it is, but if you go and look throughout his career, he has some really incredible streaks, positively, some incredible streaks, negatively. And sometimes it's within games, sometimes it's within seasons. It depends. And we happened to end last season on the best he's ever played, I would say, or certainly up there as the best. So that's the last thing that we remember. And you think, okay, well, maybe he's just turned a corner and he's a different Kirk now. I think, well, when was the last bad streak? I think Most of the season before. If you look at weeks 2 through 17, I know I'm cherry picking here, but PFF, most of that season, he was 20th out of 39 in PFF grades. I know that they aren't perfect, but had a lot of late comebacks, wasn't really playing that well this year. I remember in the 2020 season, a disastrous start to that season where people just thought he was done, and then he ends up finishing the season really strong. And it just got me thinking about that Kirk Cousins, it's a little different than how people I think about him now.

And if they happen to start the season with bad Kirk Cousins, and he's coming off in Achilles, and he's in a new system, what does that look like? Does Panek set in with Michael Panic there and everything around him in Atlanta?

Yeah, I think it's strange with him because I think what the general perception would be is he is at his best, triggering on play action. Turn them back play action. That's what people think of as Kirk Cousins. I personally think he's at his best when he's got the whole field in front of him. We get into empty, we get guys out, and he can just dice people up and play matchable. He just picks it and with it. And when you dig into the numbers, he is one of the best empty quarterbacks the league has seen in the past five, six years. He just crushes people out of empty. And yet no one ever gives him a decent dose of empty. Now, they see him a ton. They watch all the film with him. They're around him more. They see all the flaws of the roster maybe can limit how much you would want to run of that stuff. But he's always been above average against the blitz. When you run empty, it limits what you can do blitz-wise. It limits what you can do coverage-wise. It's why people get upset when they see rookies in empty and why they're not giving them protection.

Well, it makes the game a lot easier for them. You can just pick and go. It limits the defensive shell. It limits what they can run in terms of blitz paths. It makes the game a lot simpler for the quarterback. I look at that Falcons' roster and I think, would they not just be best saying, We are a tempo-y from the gun. If you're a turn-the-back play-action team, that is a lot more talk on moving and rolling and all those kinds of things with the injury. But just no one's ever had enough faith in him to say, We play five out consistently, and you just pick and go. It would be a funny thing to just say to a franchise and a fan base like, Hey, our season rests on. We're putting Kirk in the gun 35 times, 20 in empty, and we're going to try and pick people apart to Super Bowl. That's stuff that Peter Manning does. That's stuff that Matthew Stafford does. That's not really what we think of as Kirk Cousins, but that's when I dig through his game, that's where I like him the most.

This is why I wanted you on, because that is a really fascinating way to think about it. That's part of if I'm building this case against Kirk. Again, I have nothing personal against Kirk. I think he'll be a better than average starter, but I think they're needing him to potentially be more than that. I even went back and looked, actually, we do the QB index on nfl. Com. I did it most years, and Chris did it, and Mark did it one year, too. I went and looked, and I know we're not perfect, but he only finished one year in the top 10. It was always 12, 13. He had one year where he was eighth. Last year, he was certainly on his way. What you say is fascinating because Zack Robinson was part of, I guess, if you're making a of some question marks for him. I looked back at some games where he did struggle because I just wanted to remember what went wrong when he did struggle. I think he's a quarterback that relies a lot on timing, a lot on anticipation, that really counts on his receivers to be on his same page.

And a lot of times when things go wrong, it's because he trusted them almost too much. And he was working with young receivers which were pushed off their spot or they weren't in the right spot, and he just is throwing to an area. And I think about Zack Robinson, and everyone says, Okay, this is going to be great because he was in this Kevin O'Kanaugh offense. It's similar. Zack Robinson is coming from Los Angeles. He's really been in this offense his whole career. Kyle Shanahan, Jay Gruden. It's all similar. But I do think it's a first-time coordinator, a first joining two new teams. And I think Kirk is at his best. And maybe you saw this, this is year, what, three with O'Kanaugh last year, year two, rather, right? And he was getting comfortable in that offense. There is some concern. First-time coordinator, brand-new playmakers, a lot of young guys, and a new coordinator. I don't think Zack Robinson is going to have the confidence to do what his old boss, Sean McVay, did with Matthew Stafford. Yeah, go out of shotgun and just start letting him cook. Although that would be fun now. If that happens week one, I will remember this conversation.

I think it's funny. People are excited about Zack Robinson. The reality is because Zack Robinson is friends of all the smarty football writing nerds from his days back in PFF, so everyone knows him in text. Everyone's in text chain. It's like, Oh, this is exciting. One of us made it through.

This is my corner. Get on the coaches who kiss up to the writers too much. Although this case, I don't think it was intentional. He just literally worked at PFF, so everyone loves him for it.

Man, he got there really quick. I think people are just saying automatic, well, he's going to bring the Sean McVay offense. We have no idea. He has no track record outside of writing about football and then working with one of the smartest people in the game to know what is his own idea of football. And is he a guy who comes in with a philosophy? He's going to implant it no matter what. Is he a guy who will adjust to the quarterback, adjust to the rest of the roster? Will he find that through the season? Is he a guy who... Offensive coaches are all different. Some of them have a huge playbook and trim down. Some of them start with very little in build up. We have no idea with him which way he is. So that's going to be fascinating to see. And they just have so many question marks on how these pieces actually fit together. And going back to the LA days, the thing with O'Neill that was really interesting to that empty point, they completely remade how they ran empty. It was different than Anyone else in the league when he was in LA, and he was responsible for that under Sean McVeigh.

I don't want to bore people too much with the granular details, but they ran it differently to everyone else. Zack Robinson continued that, and his main thing was redoing the run game. They spent two seasons doing two different things. They want to remake the passing game. They built this different empty system. Then we'll remake the run game. It's all from 11. It's all different stuff with receivers than we've done before. So is he bringing that whole thing in one with him, with Kirk, to Atlanta? And you got to imagine, they spoke about it before, and right, is he bringing Kevin's playbook from the year before or is he bringing the updated one from last season that has both of them fused together? It's to me the most interesting big picture offensive thing the league is. What exactly does Zack Robinson think is the right idea for football because he's had two of the best playbooks, I would say, of the past two seasons. And now he's got all these different players who, again, the writer nerds like me, get excited. Oh, it's positionless football. And then when you boil it down, it's like, I would like to have three good players who line up in three spots and play really well.

I don't really need them to move around a lot. What you end up with is Béjan is your perimeter receiver, London in the slot, where are we putting pits? It all falls down because it's just nice sometimes to have a true above average Next receiver.

Yeah. And look, I think they do with Drake London. I think he's going to have a great season. I don't see why he wouldn't. Pitz just has to be healthy, and at least I think he can be a positive contributor. What the ceiling is there, I think that's a question now. Bajon is there, and they do have weapons. I'm curious how you think this personnel group, and one thing I always keep an eye on is offensive lines that had been playing well. I tend to just not assume anything when a new staff comes in because it's just the position group to me that depends the most on coaching and scheme. And Zach Robinson, you mentioned it, is coming from a great scheme, and that's a point in his favor that Raheem Morris chose this guy, and Raheem Morris has been around, and that was his choice. I give Rahem Morris benefit of the doubt here that he's choosing a good guy. But how do you think this Atlanta group that they have there under Arthur Smith doing all that crazy run blocking that they were doing, how do you think it fits with this scheme?

Yeah, and it's worth noting, they brought a bunch of their friends, too. If you go through the Falcons' offensive staff, there's just four advisors hanging around with the Rams last year. This is random, guys. I do past game specialist stuff, and was with the Rams for three years. So they brought a bunch of people with them, too. It's not just Zack Robinson coming with Rahim. I think what they ran last year, Arthur Smith, I've said this many times, I think he's one of the great run game design frauds of our era. Oh, no. I think he runs two cool things. There's like a weird wine bag block that goes viral and people get all excited and say, wow, this guy really schemes up cool stuff. I think when you dig through it, most of it's nonsense. 40% of that offense last year was mid-zone. 40%. That's just It's as poorly constructed a run game in 2023 as you could even imagine. And that stuff works when you have Derrick Henry running over everyone and people say, this guy really knows how to scheme up a run game. Running 40% mid-zone with a running back like Béjian Robinson is just incorrect, let's say.

Not good coaching. So they've got a lot of work to do in the run game, and I've got no idea exactly how they're going to draw that up. What they do with the Rams so well is they run it out of 10, they run it out of 11. They're able to cheat away, which is the meta trend in all of football. How can I run two-back football without putting two backs on the field? And how close can I get? What is the trade-off of the best possible receiving option who's a good enough blocker? Is that a second tie 10 or do I have Cooper Cup? And if I have Cooper Cup, what a cheat code, we win a bunch of games. That's what everyone's looking for. And when you run through the Falcons, I think that line is a really, really solid interior, double-inclined, but a dent in the front and lets someone go to Look. And so that makes sense for me with what the Rams did. But where it falls down slightly is, so we have Pitz and he's in line. Not going to happen. Drake London, I think, works best as a power slot, personally.

Does he want to dig someone out inside? Is Ray McLeod going to go in and dig someone out inside? So they find themselves in this situation where if you're not going to have those guys play inside and we're running the ball from a smaller personnel grouping, now you have to try and find a way to move people. And they're just not an overly athletic line. They are forward-facing line. They double and they go. I think Bergeron has a chance, but he moved inside last year, struggled a little bit. He's really springy, but he's not a huge flyer. So again, they come down to what is our philosophy versus what can I actually do with the personnel we have? I think there's a world where you can make it fit, but I think it's telling. They brought in the tight ends from San Francisco. They're like, We need more beef.

Charlie Werner, it's Ross Dwelly. Because you look at the receiver and I don't know if you want if Drake London can do some of the Cooper Cup type stuff. He's at least a bigger frame, certainly, but they lose Rondale more to what sounded like a serious injury. He was going to be part of the offense. Darnell Mooney, I like Tulane grad, like myself, but not a guy you would want out blocking on the edge by any means. And yeah, there's going to be an adjustment. And that gets to the next part of my case here, which is more than just Xs and O's. And it's something Kirk Cousins has talked about. And maybe he has overcome what he thought was his biggest issue as a pro, which you could sometimes see on the field, that he thought he was almost so critical of himself, always seeking perfection so much as a quarterback. And again, my friend West wrote about this, too, that sometimes he fritz out. And people remember him lining up behind the guards in big moments. But the whole Kirk can't play that well. And the clutch thing or primetime was a little He was frustrated, but there were moments where he absolutely fritzed out in a way that top-level quarterbacks don't.

I'm just thinking, and maybe this is going too far, psychologically and just the situation that they're in, the expectations are very high. They drafted Michael Pennix, number eight overall. He was not expecting that. He's made it clear he's not a fan of that. Who would be a fan of that if you're Kirk Cousins? And their defense, we don't need to spend time on their defense, but I just think it's I have to say, talent-wise, it's a bottom five unit. They could be trailing in a lot of game. The schedule is pretty difficult early. The defenses they face is Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Saints, Bucks. Those are tough defenses early. To me, you just add all that stuff up together and a guy who wants to be comfortable, and it's a lot of new things. And I think, is there a chance here where it just becomes very difficult on Kirk Cousins, the human, on top of just Kirk Cousins, the football player?

Yeah, I think you mentioned it with how his game goes. When he gets bad, he gets really grim. He has a chance to crater. You'll just have quarters where you're like, What just happened in the third quarter? He was dealing people with it. It was weird. If that could sustain over two, three weeks, that could be pretty ugly. The only thing that I would say, I guess, in his defense is he did choose this. He had every possibility to just roll back to Minnesota. It's easy. Keep it rolling. I'm working with Justin Jefferson. I got Kevin O'Kunnel. No one's going to criticize me, whatever. He chose this in partnership with this offensive coordinator, basically saying that these guys have better weapons overall. I think this gives me a better chance, and I get all this money. It would be peculiar, I think, to go in there and then recede back from the ownership of like, This is what I wanted. It's like, Well, this is what... He didn't walk in thinking this defense is good. The fact they were able to cobble something together last year was a mining miracle with the way they played to even try and run in against saying, Hey, we're a man coverage team without a pass next season.

It's like you are going to get smoked all over the place. They need two, I think, pretty bad rookies to actually play well this season. It's just not going to happen. They didn't play well in college. So, yeah, he's going to be down in games. He picked it for, I'm guessing, personal relationships and the chance to play with those receivers and probably a slightly better offensive line. That's touch and go, I'd say. And the division. But to your point, yeah, when goes bad with Kirk Cousins, it gets grim quick.

That's where this all started for me, that there are just a lot of ingredients for a difficult start or a difficult season. And then you just think of, I think, the pressure on him. Just football-wise, that county on him to be as good as making this a Super Bowl contender.

The problem he's got, too, Greg, is Penix is probably going to light it up in preseason. He is going to rip through trading camp. I He refused to follow the way you have to for work, all the different reports. I guarantee without looking, blind taste says that there is every report out there that, Oh, my God, Penix looks so special.

It's been a little quiet, I got to say. It actually has been a little quiet to the point where I was like, Is he struggling down there? I need to talk to someone. They also have a quiet media contingent in general, but I have been looking, and some of the numbers and stuff, it's been a lot more positive on Kirk, so there's a point in favor for Kirk.

There we go. But he can spin it. The flaws that I think are in Pennex's game, who I would never have taken the first round, let alone where they did, with the situation they had, just a bizarre decision then and even worse in hindsight, I think. If it tortures the building to your point because they knocked the confidence of a fragile guy before he even walked through the door, would be an all-time bag fumble from a team who just gave him that much money. That could be one lingering thing. If Pennex is just a great practice player because he's not being touched and he can just rip it all over the place, that could add to the burden.

I'm looking forward to it. I just think this team is You said it in terms of the scheme questions of how they're going to run it. I'm fascinated by it. I'm not rooting against Kirk Cousins because of this podcast. It's just one of those situations that I feel has a lot of variability, and people are assuming too much of what's going on there, and it could be a struggle, and it could just be one of these stories we're tracking as much. I love having you on, Ollie Connolly. It's like, Come for the Kirk Cousins analysis and mild criticism and stay for the total sideshape on Arthur Smith. Just killing my optimism about like, Hey, maybe Justin Fields running a bunch of read option stuff is going to be fun in Pittsburgh. I love that you just killed it. You've minced no words.

Yeah, I minced no words around Arthur Smith, Matt Canada, the guys who I think are fraudulent people and somehow get huge media reputations for reasons that remain unclear to me. Then I'm happy to be the guy who will stand in front of the to take out Arthur Smith. I think I've been proven right by history on that one and will be this season.

Like I said, everyone should check out Read Optional and the podcast that he does with John in the writing. Honestly, it's almost like It's almost humiliating how well you do it and how much you know when it's your side gig at this point. You're covering soccer, as we would call it at this point.

Yeah, but I always say this to people, when people are watching Dance of the Dragons, I am just cranking coastal Carolina film. That is like, I get a glass of wine on Sunday night, and I just sit on West Coast of Carolina. I'm a sad guy, Greg, but for the following day, I'm able to do podcast and take shots of Arthur Smith.

That was great having you, Ollie, and I hope we can do it again. That is it for this week's worth of NFL Daily. Will we be back first thing in your feed on Monday morning with nick Shuck, breaking down all the winners, the losers, the notes from the rest of the weekend, the first full preseason weekend. Enjoy. You're watching Olympics, athletics at the highest level. I'm watching the Sean Clifford, Michael Pratt battle and getting super into it. Enjoy. I'll see you later, Ali.

Thanks for having me.

All right, we'll see you next time on NFL Daily.