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This is The Dan Levator Show with the Stu Guts podcast. EA sports.

Wow, that was amazing.

Are you before?

A couple of times?

Well, I mean, I've been playing my whole life. I've done it in the mirror a couple of times. Maybe on a microphone or two.

Yeah, we're just rolling here. We're already started. How did you feel about and how important how important was the Madden rating in your life and in the locker room?

I was just happy to be in the game. I was one of those guys. I was like I was happy to.

Be you weren't dissecting your awareness? I wasn't sending a strongly worded email. Like, I'm very aware.

There was two that I always wanted to make sure it was on point was Agility and speed. And they pretty much had those right for the majority of my career. Even in college, they had it up there. I think at my height, I might have been like a 98 Agility, which is about right.

It is.

They shorted me a little bit, but that was about right.

I always wonder when I see some random right guard with like a 42 awareness, I'm like, what math are they doing?

Yeah, you're just basically calling him stupid. Like, I just think you're a dumb guy.

We had the madden raider on, though. He takes it very seriously. What are you doing?

Of course he's going to say he takes it seriously, but that doesn't mean they're not just how can you possibly know every single football player's awareness?

I understand. Hawk, how do you feel about fans that blame the referees for a loss?

I like it. I'm with it. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think it's an easy way out. It keeps you in the fight. It's about hope, man. Every situation in life that you want to get through, you have to find a way to put it on somebody else.

Right.

Otherwise, if it's on us, it's like eventually you'd be like, I'm out on this. Anything that you eventually realize is your fault or the doing of yourself, you move on from. You know what I'm saying, my mate?

I do know what you're saying.

You feel it.

No one knows better.

It's like if you're in media, it's like, I just haven't gotten my chance right. People aren't giving me a fair shot. The moment you decide I suck at media, your career is over. So you got to blame the ref.

You were a 98 overall Agility in Madden 2016. You were 80 overall in general. Smartest player is not on there.

That's crazy. I graduated Columbia with a 4.0 masters.

Well, were you Carlos Dansby? Because he was a 94 smartest player?

You know what?

You're insulted.

I am insulted. Carlos is a smart player. He played like 100 years because he was so smart. But boro, I feel like I should have been up there. Paul Krueger. Paul Krueger was smart.

He's 87. Not as smart as Randy Starks. 89.

That's crazy. Don't talk to me. Now that you're saying it, I feel like the longer you play in the league, the higher they put basically your smarts because you know everything at that point.

Right.

Your physical goes down, and now your awareness.

You're a vet.

Exactly.

When you're watching Eagles Dolphins last night, you're not an emotional fan. I'm sitting there saying, we're getting screwed by the refs. Are you just saying that might be a small factor, but they got outplayed.

Watching that game, there wasn't a single time where I felt like, oh, man, Miami is getting screwed by these.

What about when they put the graphic up that said ten penalties to none?

Yeah. No, I still didn't feel it. I think that's just how the cookie crumbles, man. You're on the right side of that sometimes, and you're on the wrong side. Eventually it balances out.

Right. But fans blaming the refs is fine. You're fine with that?

I'm good with that. You should do that.

But Dolphin fans have no right to blame the refs.

But Dolphins, you have zero right. What is your problem? Grow up. You know what I mean? It's a balance. We got to keep it balanced.

I got it. What surprised you the most from the NFL this past weekend?

But what surprised me the most was finding out that Chris thought that Close Friends just came out on Instagram.

Yeah, he was doing a thing.

It was like one of those things where it's like it kind of told in yourself. It's been out for, like, four years.

Is it that long?

Yeah, it's been out for a while.

Wow.

So it's good that you're finally in.

People thought we were, like, a year.

Yeah, no, it's been out. I might have been in high school when that came out.

Are you a Close Friends poster? Like, do you post things just because you're a bigger celebrity than us?

Yeah, sometimes you got to close friends. It because I have a lot of followers that may not when I want to show certain personal things too, but also you switch your close friends up. So it's like a thing where it's like you want certain people to see one thing and then you change it to this demographic. Might want to see this thing. So it's not really a close friends. I'm in people's close friends that I've literally never met in person. That's weird.

Every time I'm like, wow, sid Coulson.

Who is on our show, friend of Metal Lark on here all the time. We were close friends with each other before we actually met. Face to, like it's more of a like, oh, this is a no judgment. Is that possible? When you get that energy that you're a person that doesn't judge, you feel like you're a part of my tribe. You might put them into close.

I don't feel like now we're just looking.

Can you be close friends if you've.

Never met let's away from Instagram?

You guys are being literal. Are you really a follower of somebody if you follow them on social media?

I feel like it's hard for me to consider someone a really close friend if I've never met them in person.

Really?

We can get away from the close friends on Instagram, but just like yeah.

But if they're willing to pay 499, you're fine, right?

That's family beyond close friends. That's family that's feeding his family. Yeah. Come on.

So someone could buy their way into.

You could obviously buy your way. There's not a single family you can't buy your way.

Billy's giving a look right now. You could be good friends with someone and then they move away and you remain good friends. But I feel like if you're connection with someone has always been over zoom or just phone calls, I feel like there's just something missing there.

I don't see some of my closest friends ever, very rarely. And some of my closest, closest friends I don't even talk to.

And that's how you know it's love.

I'll just check in like once or twice a year and there's no hello. Just send a meme, send whatever.

We're good. You all the time. We're probably not close.

We're not won't be for very no.

But here's the other key. You can pick up the conversation right where you left.

Exactly.

That's a close friend.

It doesn't feel like you've missed any time.

The worst is the needy friend, the one that makes you feel guilty if you haven't checked in on them in like a month or two.

Not a close friend, that person.

Right.

It's like we're all living our lives here.

Yeah.

You're so personal.

Can you be close friends with somebody and forget their yes.

Yes.

Because it happened to me.

Yeah.

A birthday radar went off for me this month, and I was like, oh, wait, my budy Tyler sound like it was like and I was like, Wait, what?

That was a silent radar.

It was a silent radar.

Oh, it was a vibrator. Yeah. Okay. It was like a thermal he was at work.

It was a thermal one that required.

A sound, but that's no, no, it was silent.

It was just me.

Well, an alarm makes exactly. Yeah, it was more like pings. Have you discussed or were you here the day that Chris was talking about how he wants people on text to say goodbye?

Yeah, I think he wants mean I'm okay with it because I like the fact that we can close it out. I don't think it's a necessity. But I don't want a continual conversation. I want to move on. I want not to think about did I text you back?

I just love a TTYL. It just really hits home.

Just hit him with a thumbs up. Yeah, that's it. Once I start responding with apple tap back, you know, I'm done. I'm not talking anymore. It's a rap.

See, that's what the thing. There's people in my life that put so much weight behind that. It's like, what do you mean? I did respond. I liked your text. It's like, that's not a response.

Yeah, I don't like that you're not a real friend. You're also not a close friend. If you judge me for tapping back. You're not a close friend. If I forget your birthday and you hold it against me, we're not a close friend. I have kids I can't remember everybody else's to do. I have 13 jobs. Come on, man.

Have you missed a kid's birthday ever?

One of my children.

You just forgot about it?

Yeah.

That's a lot.

Come on.

I can't say I haven't done it. My wife helps out, so it's like, hey, I forget my own birthday. Every birthday of mine, right? I wake up and I'm scared to death because I look at my phone and I have 50 text messages and I get scared. What happens is I feel like something bad happened in my family because that's what happens. It's like when something bad happens, everyone start blowing your phone up. And I get nervous and my heart starts racing. I open it up and it's like, Happy birthday. And I'm like, oh, shit, it is my birthday.

That's a power move is when you screenshot some sort of conversation and you can see how many texts they have at the top left. And it's like, I think I've seen Dan's before. It's like 490.

He doesn't respond well.

You know, he's never going to see.

It, but it's just like it's a power move to send someone that to send someone a screenshot where you can see how many texts.

Is it a power move to not respond to someone, or is it just rude?

I've learned that a lot of these either. When the numbers get big, it's usually just a group text that you've muted. I'm in a few Mike Ryan group.

Texts that are just the worst.

They're a lot to keep up with. So it's like, sometimes you'll look at my phone and you'll see 78, 79, and I feel like an important person, but it's really just one stupid group chat that I click on it and they're all gone.

You know, the worst part about one of the group texts that he's talking about is that I was included in it. It's this baseball group text that he started, and Mike just invited a bunch of people in it and he doesn't participate, he doesn't care. He pretends to be annoyed by this baseball chat that he forced on absolutely everyone else. And he's like, I don't follow this anymore. It's like, why did you force all of us together?

Right? Leave the chat.

Politics.

That's rude. Yeah, it's not rude not to answer. It's not.

But wait a second.

A power move but if you leave.

What if you're blowing up my phone at a time where I don't want it blown up?

It's literally a middle finger to everybody to say, I'm too good for you.

Can't Irish goodbye a text? It literally says, Billy Gill has left.

That's why you got to do it.

In a point where there's a lot of text happening, that's the worst time.

To do no, a lot of texts get filtered through.

So all of a sudden.

Active and.

Paying attention and everyone's going to go back and redo the conversation. Like right in the climax of everyone chat and you say, Hawk has left the chat, it's like, oh, wow, you were having a good time and that's what you think of us.

Are you guys saying that I could not leave a group text without everyone else knowing that I've left?

Correct.

Really?

Oh, man.

But here's the worst part, is I.

Don'T left so many groups.

I don't know half the people, at.

Least half the people in this group thing. So I wouldn't even be offending people that I know, but I still don't want to do it.

You can offend strangers.

I've honestly considered buying another phone and just telling the close people in my life like, this is my new number now.

Hold on.

You know what you should call it? You should build an app. You should call it close friends. Wow. I think you just invented something there. So you want a channel just for people you actually talk to? Yeah. And that you actually like and know and want to show and communicate back and forth with. Right, that's smart.

But what if strangers want to pay 499?

Then what do you do? You give them a phone number.

They're close friends.

It has to be secretive, though, so people don't know you're on the app, you know what I mean? Because then people will try to request it's called the same problem.

That's what it's called.

I don't want that.

Yeah. I've been kicked out of close friends.

Really?

Yeah. There's people that I know, I've been in their close friends and after a while they just why? I don't know. It happens. Well, you just stop seeing the green bubble. I actually only probably look at stories with green bubbles, so I'm like a close friend snob. I don't want to see what everyone else is.

Have you ever hit up a friend?

Let me see your kids at their bars.

Have you ever hit up a friend that you haven't seen the green? So you're like, Are you posting greens?

You have to be a crazy person to do that.

I'm just saying, it's like a real close friend. You must not be posting greens because I know I'd be on your green.

No. A lot of times I feel spared. I feel spared most of the time. Like, take me out your green.

Right, I'm good. Hawk, I want to thank you for not answering my question. What surprised you the most the NFL this weekend? Because you took us to a very delightful place.

That might have been worse than my question for Spencer.

Atta boy.

It's been a long day. I loved see, this is the worst thing about working here is I saw the delight go around the room there when there was that 3 seconds of like, wait, what's his name again?

And it was more like literally, it might not have even been a thing.

There wasn't a team.

There was no one there ready to help me. It was just let's let him sit. Let's see how long it takes.

It was an alarm. I didn't say anything.

I was out.

But what was the most interesting thing about it?

Are you just starting again? You're fast. No, I have a question if you want to ask a real question. Is Billy right when he says Jalen Hurts is a one trick pony? No, he's not billy not me.

What is the one trick? The Twush push. Yeah, that's the trick. I got paid 270,000,000 to do the Twush push.

What I told him last week was I go, I have this crazy thing that I want to run with. And he has positioned this to everyone as this is my actual opinion, just to try to put me in a bad spot, what I did now what you do? We were talking before the show today saying they should do a drive that's just a tush push. Like, see how far they can go with that because it's unstoppable for three to four.

I would like that.

They get four yards every time they do it.

Three to four yards every time they burn ten minutes off the clock.

That's the quickest way to get it banned, though. Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

The way they're doing it now, you can debate the moment you start eating up clock and not scoring points and.

Making it a horrible game.

It's a wrap. Yeah, it's done. So yeah.

All right, we'll come back with Andrew Hawkins right after this.

Don lebotard risk reward of going into the woods by yourself.

You die or you see some trees. I'm not going to die to go see some trees.

Stu guts.

Listen to me.

You've seen one tree, you've seen them all.

Okay? There's no special trees out. This is nonsense. This is the Don Levitar Show with these two gods.

We continue with Andrew Hawkins here. Kind enough to sit in for the hour with us. It's interesting with the Philadelphia Eagles. Really? The NFL is interesting because last week I said the Dolphins might be the best team in the NFL and the Lions might be the best team in the NFC, and a week later, everything had shifted the other way.

I said the same thing, and I don't know if I was influenced by the fact that you were saying it, but I gotta make sure. For my own sports media career. I don't let that happen again.

Don't.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's so bad.

But how surprised were you? Like the lions. We talked about it last week. Maybe the best you can make an argument. Best team in the NFC. Then they go to Baltimore, who's been good, hasn't been great, and they were great yesterday.

I feel like it says more about Baltimore than it did. Right? Because even the best teams are going to have their week. We've seen it across the NFL, and.

Dan Campbell loved it.

He loved, you know, good teaching moment. He's probably putting out every get over. Like, you got to earn it every week in this league. He's giving it to him this week, and rightfully so. They learned that if you're going to go to the playoffs, you got to be a team that's resilient. But for the Baltimore Ravens, they've been pretty consistent. Even in their losses. They should have probably been wins, right? Because they've made mistakes. But their offense, it actually looked the way that it's been promised, right. Monkin comes in and it's like, oh, the pass game is going to look different. Lamar looked like he was in complete control, and we've seen him do that from time to time. But he just seems poised. He was throwing the ball down the field. He was on schedule. He had pocket presence. He looks like he's playing a different version of himself, which is what has been promised. And if they can sustain that, I mean, that's a scary team, bro. That's a very scary team.

He's a scary player.

He's a scary player.

He's so good, man, it's ridiculous. How about Buffalo? What's going on there, man, I think they're frauds. Really? Yeah.

I kind of feel that way.

I like this.

This is like a social media hot take. I'm sure they'll clip this and put it out and all of Bills.

And by that, Chris will.

Yeah, he's already writing down. He's looking at the timestamp. But the reality is, my issue with the Bills is they play to the level of their opponent. So, yes, they're a good team, but if you play down every time you play a bad team, are you really a good team? And my thing is, no, it's going to take a lot for you to overcome that. And we've seen it just way too much in these early weeks of the season.

How about the Patriots? Why are they able to turn it on sometimes and other times not?

They're not a good team. They're not very talented. But they played well, and their defense is good. And they really got up for that game. It's a division game and all the things. And Mac Jones played probably his best game of the like with the Ravens. When they've struggled, it's like, oh, I can see where you need to improve. You have the it's. You're getting used to the system. You've made small improvements. You've worked this one week and the other. When you watch the Patriots, I mean, they're not protecting the quarterback. The receivers weren't really getting open. And the quarterback, when he did have a clean pocket, wasn't playing well. He wasn't making the throws, he wasn't going through his progressions. And it's like, well, I don't know which way is up for you guys. So every NFL team will have a week where they play well, we'll have a couple of weeks because you're NFL players and you're on scholarship, too, as all the coaches would always tell us. But just ultimately, it's not like, oh, they beat the Is. This is the team. Because honestly, the Giants should have beat the Bills.

Right.

We know the jets beat the Bills. The Zach Wilson Jets, not the nude Zach Wilson Jets.

They've lost the old Mac Jones.

Right, exactly. Crazy. That's more indicative of, I feel like the Bills team, but the Patriots don't.

Seem to have an easy fix. This is going to be them for a little.

Yeah, yeah. Or at least until they get Williams. Yeah. Yeah.

That was a bad win, though. If you want. Yeah, it's when you had to lose.

That was the easy one.

Hawk it looks like going to the Eagles Dolphins game again. It looked like two was struggling against front four from the Eagles. That pressure was something that they really hadn't seen. If you look through their wins, they haven't really faced a stout defensive line like they have in Buffalo, which they lost 48 20.

And against the Eagles, three starting alignment out again.

Yes, agreed. But still, that's the NFL, right? You're going to have lineman out every single week. But Hasan Reddick looked like a man possessed. He was everywhere. Looked like Miles Garrett out there.

He did.

But it looked like McDaniel's offense, even though great in pre snap movement and amazing where Tyreek Hill's always open. If you can't get to a protected against these elite tier defensive lines, it's going to be the same story where they're going to get to the playoffs, get a team that's red hot on the defensive line, and they're not going to be able to really do what they want to do.

Schematically I would say it's less of the D line as much as it is probably the back half of the defense. And I say that because the offense is designed to get the ball out of to his hands. It helps him because it protects him injury wise from taking hits. But also he's an elite processor. If you give him the option and it's there in one to two progressions, he's firing it. Give him the quick. This linebacker does this, do this. If he does that, do that. Right.

It's when you get to the third, though, right?

The third one, he starts to panic. He starts to have happy feet. And that's where it looks like the D line is putting pressure. But in actuality, they did a great job of taking away his first progression and his second progression to the same side of the field anytime he had to start to look and scan the field and he just gets nervous. Right. And I think that is I don't want to say a coaching thing because there's quarterbacks who can do that, but the way the offense is set up and that's why I love it. Because Shanahan McDaniel, if you're going to build an offense where you're saying, hey, it's on me, I'm going to give you the right answers to the test, then when it doesn't work, it's on them, too. And I know McDaniel thinks that way. And so in that game, the Eagles did just a really good job of taking those first couple away because they know at that moment Tua can get rattled and he won't be as poised trying to find the next answer.

I wonder if we're going to get zany Mike McDaniel after they got their ass kicked.

Yeah.

There were pick six wishes, scoring ten points.

Wait, you don't seem to like zany Mike McDaniel.

No, I love him.

I love him. After you're winning, when you score 70 points, you love him.

I am interested to see what he looked because when it's going good, there's no one better on, like the Mic Duck stuff where it's like, hey, I wanted to wear that vest. The little ball boy, he does all the stuff when they're five and one. I'm just interested to see what it looks like.

I don't think you'll get a different version of Mike McDaniel.

They had a stretch last year where they lost like five straight.

Was he still zany?

But he was even in last night's sound. He still had his vibe to him, but he was definitely learn. He started hitting the notes of, like, we got to learn from this. And I was just like, oh, which obviously it'd be weird.

It'd be funny if they're cracking jokes.

It'd be funny for us if he was just the exact same way.

Hey, guys.

Well, that sucked.

Hey, nice shoes. Nice shoes. Hey, those new wait.

So, Hawk, what do you say to Dolphin fans who say, hey, we haven't beaten anyone. We're a different team at home than we are on the road. They're much better at home.

Beat the Chargers on the road.

Yeah, but they beat the Charger Chargers two and four. Beat the Patriots. We'll get to the Chargers in a second, but Dolphin fans are like, hey, we need a big win against a big team, a big time team. We haven't had it yet.

I mean, be patient. I don't know. Yeah, exactly. You'll have chances. We'll see.

Hardest schedule the rest of the year.

Yeah.

I feel like the Vikings are about to take off. What I do?

I'm looking at their schedule without Justin Jefferson.

Well, so they play the 49 ers tonight. They're probably not going to win that one.

Okay, right.

But the packers taking off, though.

Packers, Falcons, Saints, Broncos, Bears, Raiders, Packers, Bears.

A lot of bad teams in there.

Bad division.

There's lots of bad teams in there.

Vikings are a bad team. Right. I think you get you want to.

Know my other take?

That, please.

Tell them I've said in the past, kirk Cousins is a first ballot hall of famer.

That is an idiot take.

It's worse than Jalen Hurst.

He's not a first ballot pro Bowler. And that's count me out.

That's the Vikings.

They're taking off.

I thought that was Tony sonar going off.

That's what I was waiting for the last time.

He didn't do it.

They want to throw my guy under the bus.

You guys mentioned Miles Garrett. Is he the best defensive player in the.

Prototype? He is like I mean, have you seen Miles Garrett in person?

He carried Billy on his shoulders.

Oh, yeah. It's taken off. He's ridiculous. Even by NFL standards, he's ridiculous. He's as wide as he is tall. He doesn't have an ounce of fat on him. He's strong. He's fast. Like, there's literally nothing he can't do on a football field.

The fact that he's able to just jump over a line without touching anyone.

So he workouts Billy. It's insane.

Where he'll have, like, 290 pound dumbbells junk, like 60 inches on a box.

We get it. I thought they took off already. Well, they're about well, no, now you.

Can take your seatbelt off.

Okay. They're at 10,000ft.

You could stroll around the cabin. Oh, my God. So if the Bills hold on, we're taking off.

Do you guys think the jets are still in this? He's asking you all these AFCE questions. He's massaging you to get to talking you into saying that the jets are still in this.

The jets are taking right?

No, I don't know what's going on with the jets.

No, I was going to ask you about the Bills. If you're calling them a fraud because they haven't done enough with Josh Allen right. Then you're saying Sean McDermott probably is going to get fired after this season.

I think it's worth the conversation.

Really?

Yeah. Okay.

Because a lot of people don't want to have that conversation. I don't know when Sean McDermott arrived.

I'm down to have the conversation where.

He can leave on his own terms. Get the hell out of here.

I mean, if Bill Belichick can have a bad couple of seasons and we're going to fire him, right. Because he's underachieved. Yes. I'll be damned if we don't put Sean McDermott in the conversation.

Right.

If they continue on like they're playing in this, what, quarter, half. Close to half of the season? Yeah, it's worth that. If Josh Allen is who we think he is, if Josh Allen is who we say he is and his defense is what we. Say they are, and Stefan Diggs is who we say he is. What is the variable here that needs to change?

The coach.

Hey, you said it, brother.

Yeah, but because they've been bad for so long, people don't want to go down that road. Because in Buffalo, like, I know some Bills fans, right?

Of course they're happy.

They're happy with McDermott because he's been better than any coach they've had since Marv Levy.

I get it. But at every point, it's like, is it McDermott or is it Josh Allen? And eventually you got to show progress. That's why I tell everyone when they get a job, you are either everybody friends of yours? No. Everyone who gets a job. Anybody who gets a job on planet Earth, they pay 499. And I give them this advice as a subscriber to my channel. When you have a job, you are either getting a promotion or you are losing the job. There is no in between. Right? So you are either getting better at your job and climbing the ladder, or you are losing it or you are finding a new job.

What if you get worse and somehow still climb?

Like me? Yeah.

I'm right there with you, Chris.

No, I don't tell people that. Chris, you didn't pay the 499.

Clearly.

What do you mean?

You guys ever wonder what a hot seat sounds like?

Where did you get beat?

Is that what it sounds like?

Trying to find, like, fire sound, right?

We just have a bank of, like.

Fire Dermott's in the hot seat, man.

Is Daniel Jones in the Hot Seat? Is it a QB controversy?

He's asking you, Chris.

Why? Tyrod Taylor?

Or is Daniel Jones taking off?

Is that what that is?

Yeah. What's happening?

He doesn't know. He's lost control of the show. The plane's going down.

Is that up or down? I don't know.

What happened.

I just didn't know whether the plane.

Was going up or down there.

First, we'll answer Hall's question next.

Don Lebotard mustard mixes with mayonnaise better than ketchup does. What? Yes.

No, what you've just said is appalling. What you've just said is an offense to anyone who's ever eaten Stugats ketchup. Oh, my God. I don't like it on anything, but what?

Ketchup.

You're UN american.

This is the Don Levitar show with the stugats.

So you asked me if Daniel Jones is on the hot seat, and I would say definitely no, because.

The same.

Reason Sean Payton isn't. They've given him too much money. I mean, they have so much money committed to him that they just can't financially put him on the hot seat yet. Although he probably should be.

Yeah. Who would you rather have as your starting quarterback, daniel Jones or Tyrod Taylor? Tarod Taylor.

Tarot Taylor always gets hurt, though.

That's the thing he'll give you a few times.

Not his fault, right?

The doctors puncturing his lungs.

Tarot Taylor is he is like, one of the most peculiar quarterbacks in the league because when you think of him, you don't think of how old he actually is. He's been in the league for how many years?

Been a while.

I don't know. That off top of my head.

Look it up.

Twelve years.

I made that up.

It's probably twelve or 13 because he was the backup in Baltimore when I played for the Bengals, which was like ten years ago. Right, but he's one of those players who you're like, he was drafted in eleven. He's a good option. That was my rookie year.

Nailed it, Billy.

But he's old as hell.

He's a great option.

Yeah, but he's also I mean, he's probably better than I would. Yeah.

You're on fire today.

I'm just being honest, man. When you watch that game I did, did it not seem like he was the better option?

No, he seems like the better option. Yes. But Daniel Jones, they were one of the final eight teams in the playoffs last year. Like, Daniel Jones had some good games down the stretch.

It was a playoff, you know?

Right.

It's like when you need that contract, like football happens.

You dig deep, do you?

You take off.

Did you dig deeper in a contract year?

You gotta dig deeper in a contract year. The focus is next level in a contract year.

Oh, that's so great. I like the hot seat sound. Chris, keep it going because I'm about to ask him about cannot like, you cannot have that kind of talent. Herbert Keenan. Allen austin Eckler. Mike Williams. When he's healthy, he's hurt. Right now you have the guys on defense, you have a Bosa, you have Khalil Mack. You can't be two and four with that kind of talent.

Yeah, it's bad. It's bad because they made Dak Prescott look like Patrick Mahomes last week.

Right.

And Dak Prescott is a good quarterback, but it wasn't so much about his stat line where he looked good. If you look at the confidence that Dak Prescott played with, because that's always my question with Dak. He's so talented, but it's like he goes into games and he's like the last person to believe and realize how talented he is. But versus the Chargers, my man was slicing and dicing, and every quarterback that plays against the Chargers does that. And that's an issue beyond what you talk about with Justin Herbert and getting the most out of him defensively. People are feasting on this defense, and that's supposed to be your so that's my issues.

I predicted he'd be fired today. Has he been fired yet? Not yet. Nothing feels like a day ago.

It's early. Well, it's yesterday in Japan.

It's a good point. Thank you, Billy.

Or it's tomorrow.

Yeah, tomorrow. Well, if it was in Japan, it was.

Hawke, what do you think about the Germany game? Big game between the Dolphins and the Chiefs. Can we inconvenience the Germans and have the game in primetime here.

Fair point.

No, because you inconvenience the players and that's about to take off.

Yeah.

That's not going to take off. That take isn't taking off. Wow.

Because the players are playing at times they don't want to play.

Do you remember years ago we had a segment called The Takeoff? That has to be where those sounds are from, right?

100%.

It was you against someone else, and you would just try to get more and more ridiculous hot takes after another one.

I think it was me versus Dan.

Yeah.

And then you would just give a spice. He'd take and then someone else would have to come and outtake you.

Yes.

That has to be where that sound is from.

Right, Billy?

Me and you. The Takeoff.

That's on that app, though. We'll get to that.

Can you do it live on this? No. No.

Do it every yeah.

This is how we interact. Is there something going on with Deshaun Watson that seems weird?

Right? Which part? That he's not playing well.

He's not playing well. He has these injuries, and you're kind of wondering, like, how severe is this? Could he be playing through this? Could he not like Stefanski yesterday just.

Decided there's a weird pressure to come back when he goes out from the fans. There is there's a weird kind of.

Pressure put on yesterday, Stefanski just said, like, yeah, he was cleared, but I just decided he's our franchise guy, I need to protect him. So he's not coming out.

And PJ.

Walker was doing just fine.

Yeah. No, I mean, that's a weird situation absolutely. That they can't get out of. Who is they? The Browns can't get out of it. It's very expensive. It's expensive to get out of it.

But even I'm not saying they want to, though.

It's like you've invested so heavily into this quarterback that you got to start reaping the benefits of that sooner or later. So I'm curious of what Stefanski's kind of strategy is around it. Because if he's clear to play, it should be that this guy gives you the best chance to win. Right. Even under whatever the scenarios are. And if his shoulder is so messed up that he doesn't give you the best chance to win, then he's not healthy and he shouldn't have been starting in the first place. So it is peculiar. I don't know what the answer is, but to be honest, I don't know. You guys talked about his shoulder and it just not looking like he's the same quarterback. I don't know if he's in it.

He was a top five quarterback in Houston. Easily.

Yes, easily.

Right.

And it just doesn't look the same, some of those throws. It's like you would rather have PJ. Walker out there. It is time to find out who.

Has the hottest take. Please make sure your seats are in the upright position jesus. As we prepare for the takeoff I missed that game. Thank you.

They paid 290,000,000 guaranteed or whatever the contract was for the guy that he was in Houston.

Yeah.

We haven't seen that guy not once. Not in a game where he throws for 400 yards and four touchdowns, like he used to do routinely in Houston with a good offense, obviously, Nick Chubb, before he got hurt, a good offensive line of what's happened to be a great defense like this should be set up for the Browns to make a deep playoff run. And Deshaun is just not that guy.

Is that what happens when you just don't play for a couple of years?

But it can't be because he missed, what, a year and a half? Essentially, if you have a serious injury, ACL, reconstruction of your Achilles, anything like that, you're going to be out for a year and some change.

He had, like a psychological injury.

He had more than that.

That's what I mean. He went through a ton. So it's like it's not surprising.

I mean, he's not the victim.

No, I'm not saying he's the victim. I'm just saying it was a wild couple years for him. So you're seeing the layoff and just everything. He's just not the same.

The weird thing about his situation, though, is not just the financials. They sold their soul for him.

They did.

Essentially, I would say there probably is some psychological things going on there, to Chris's point.

Right.

Because you play your entire career, there are certain players that I've played with, and I would say I was like this a little bit, like I was always the underdog for obvious reasons. It was a place I was comfortable. I was always you liked it. I liked it. People counted me out. Zero expectation. That was your champ on your shoulder. I like that bar because I'm going to blow through that shit every time, right. And then I get my contract and now there's expectation and you handle it, you figure it out. But it is an uncomfortable place to be for people that aren't used to that. And I would say you think of players like Baker. He's very much the same way, the Baker chip. That's what he's used to being the walk on. He's used to being counted out. So now that you place expectation to have to live up to it, it's hard. Deshaun Watson, up until that point, he was the saint. He was the guy everybody loved. He was giving his paycheck to the people in the facility. He was building homes for single mothers. Right. And so now you have to learn to be that guy as the villain when everyone hates you.

And even in success, people are going to tell you how terrible you are. There is absolutely a psychological effect to that that I thought so from the beginning. That is going to take a while for him to understand how to operate from that lane. Kobe was the same way, when Kobe stuff went down, he turned into the Mamba. He had to change because it was like, I don't have a choice, so now I just don't give a damn. And that was how he was able to get over the hump. Most players aren't able to click that switch and go straight up villain. Right? Like, I'm just going to be the person you say I am.

Psychological situation or not, the psychological part of it doesn't have him throwing lame duck interceptions to defenders.

It does, though.

That's what he's saying.

I'm saying the game is more mental than you. It's not just I would say sports.

In general, hawk are more mental than you guys. Really?

Players who were scared to make mistakes are the worst players. I would always get jealous of the guys in the locker room, and this is a bad way to say this, but they were too dumb to understand the stakes of what was going on.

Low awareness.

Yeah. Because I'm like, yo, if I don't have a good practice, I might get cut. It's over for me. So I got to over prepare. And there was the guys who do La La, and they're playing so loose that they're balling.

They play.

And I'm like, Man, I wish I was so clueless not to understand what was at stake. Like, I got to feed my family, right? So if you're playing not to make a mistake or you're playing to be like, if I don't do well, they're going to say that I'm not worth the contract, or people are going to do this and what happens there? And you might act like it's all good and cool. You start to be a little gun shy. It's like you start to put a little on it. If I think about dropping the pass, I'm going to drop the pass. If I think that what happens. If I don't get open, I'm not going to get open. Right? And so literally in the NFL, it is more psychological than I think even the fans realize.

So it's really like, don't be afraid to fail, kind of embrace adversity. It's okay to fail. That's good to fail.

What would help me is I would focus on effort. I'm like, the only bar that I have for myself is, did I go as hard as I can? Did I prepare as hard as I can controllable? Because that's all I can control. If I drop a pass, it is what it is. If I don't get open, it is what it is. If I'm too slow, I can't do nothing about that.

Right.

You know what I'm saying? And that's hard for people to do because you want to go and you want to be successful and you want to be the guy and you want to show everyone how talented you are.

It's just crazy. You were wired in a way that you would think once you're set, you're good. You lose all the stress, you can play free, and you're the opposite. You needed the stress to thrive and succeed.

And it was what I was used to. It's like the chaos of like because there is a lot on your shoulders, you know what I'm saying? Either on the field, off the field, everything. And I would say a lot of NFL players, most are like know and it was like, you got to come up with your process and your equation to try to get the best output in your play because it's not just physical. That's actually such a small portion of it, because everyone in the league is so good. You know what I'm saying? Everybody is super fast. Everyone is quick. Everyone is strong. Everyone is elite. So what is the thing that separates? Yeah, I would say for Deshaun Watson, I knew it was going to be an adjustment for him to try to figure out this new version of where he's coming from. And you see a lot of players that struggle with it's. It's pressure. That pressure is real. It's not just fans yelling. It's like, you read the articles and not only you, your parents are reading the articles, your kids are reading the articles. I wouldn't see stuff because I would, like, try to tune it out, but I got cousins texting me, hey, they're saying you might get cut this year.

So I got to text my cousin back and say, hey, don't ever text me again.

Right.

Not a close friend anymore.

The close friends I literally can show you from seven years ago that say that like, hey, don't come to me with this. I have a process because there's a lot of people dependent on me psychologically. Get out of my equation.

Right.

You're out of close friends.

Check him out. Tomahawk podcast with Joe Thomas. He is Andrew Hawkins. That podcast is about to take off. Yeah.

We appreciate you, man. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.