Charting Offseason Waters: NFL Team Previews

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We are those guys and we hope to be your guys as we continue to chart these off season waters.

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So much time between now and training camp.

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We're going to get some team previews.

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As we go along here this offseason, but I'm Alex Hardy joined as always by Nick Ferguson.

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Nick, we're going to be doing some plotting, some things we're looking forward to once we see guys in pads once again.

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But until then, Nick, what do you have to say for the people? Hey, it's almost that time and the countdown has started.

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I mean, once again, it seems as though at the end of the NBA finals.

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That's when everyone starts hitting the button and looking around like, Hey man, I don't want a honeydew list.

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You know what I want? I want the NFL.

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And it is right around the corner.

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Yeah, I think it was, I think we're almost down to like 10 Sundays until we have nine hours of football every Sunday.

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So enjoy them while they last.

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Um, or maybe Enjoy them when they get here, however your perspective may be.

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Um, I guess what I wanted to do today, Nick, and it's not, I don't want to call it informal, but you and I are sitting here and there are 32 teams and we could ask questions of all of them, two teams in particular, Nick, that you feel there's a, there's a, there's a question out there.

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There's something about this team that you're really excited about once training camp gets underway.

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We're not doing position battles.

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We're not.

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It trying to figure out who our top fantasy guys are just yet.

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I'm sort of curious, Nick.

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Um, if there are a couple of teams you can identify, at least start with one where there's something hanging out there and you're excited to see kind of how things shake out once we do get more organized football underway later this summer.

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Yeah, uh, there, there are two teams, uh, the Chicago bears and the Washington Uh, football team.

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And let me start with Washington first.

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Start with the Commanders.

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Yes, start with the Commanders first because, you know, uh, they got Jaden Daniels as their quarterback, Adam Peters.

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They have a lot of new guys, new faces in the front office.

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And one of the guys that, that's really intriguing for me, he's been really productive and just kind of a throw a little tidbit in about fantasy football, he was definitely one of those guys.

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That I had over the years on my fantasy football roster, and he never really disappointed and that was Austin Echler.

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Now, Austin Echler didn't have, I guess, uh, one of the more productive seasons as he's had in the past, and that's probably a reason why he's not with the Chargers, but If you were to ask him, he would say something different because he felt as though, well, the Chargers really wanted to run the ball a lot.

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And granted, I mean, that's something that he does.

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I mean, it's in the title of his job description, running back, but Austin Eckler is not your typical running back.

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This is a guy that can both run between the tackles.

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And for me, he's, he's, he's a Darren Sproles, a guy who I played against.

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He's the, this new era.

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Versions of Darren Sproles and Austin Eckler works best when you are dumping the ball off to him at a flat.

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He is a match up nightmare.

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That's something that the Chargers We're not able to do at a high clip.

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So with him being in the offense now with Cliff Cleansbury, with the Washington commanders, I feel as though he's going to have a better year.

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And I'm not going to say a breakout year because we always hear that about a player, but their offense has some tools.

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Jayden can run, Austin Eckler can run.

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No, by the way, Brian Robinson, Jr.

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He's a guy that's in the backfield.

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He could be that sort of complimentary piece if you want to call it that.

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But yeah, the commanders is one of those teams and Austin Eckler is something that's really intriguing.

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Right.

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Eckler is always been, you know, a total media darling, a proud fantasy football player himself.

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Uh, you know, he's in the podcast industry like we are.

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Uh, and I've always had a ton of respect for Eckler, but certainly things are different in Washington compared to the way that they were in Los Angeles, where they had the type of offense with, uh, Kellen Moore and Justin Herbert under Senator the last four years that they were looking to do that, and this is more of a big picture question, um, with that commander's offense overall, because Jaden Daniels to me is such a lightning rod in terms of How many guys could he possibly get involved in this offense? Based on the way that he played in college, we saw two of his receivers at LSU, Malik Neighbors and Brian Thomas, both get drafted in the first round.

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Both have, uh, you know, great stats this past season, but you talk about an Austin Eckler.

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You talk about, uh, Terry McLaurin, who's now closing in on 30 is one of, you know, the great consistent wide receivers for a team that hasn't been that successful.

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Uh, Jahan Dotson coming into his third year out of Penn State.

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And they're, you know, they added Luke McCaffrey in the third round.

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Um, and, and again, you know, Austin Eckler has Brian Thomas in the backfield, Logan Thomas at tight end.

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How many of these weapons is Jaden Daniels able to unlock to get the full potential out of that? Um, Cliff Kingsbury offense.

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Can he play Jaden Daniels that is at a level that Kyler Murray did coming out of Oklahoma, uh, to where you saw multiple guys, uh, get their numbers.

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And it's just about distribution for me because Jaden Daniels had a propensity more than just about everybody.

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To run with the football.

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He scrambled 14 percent of his dropbacks, which is third among 192 qualifying quarterbacks, uh, trailing Malik Willis in that category.

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And when he was faced with pressure, he only attempted passes 50 percent of the time, which the next lowest number below 60 percent was Justin Fields at Ohio State, 57 percent of the time.

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So he's a guy that wants to run.

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His history shows that he can run and he had two stud receivers at LSU, so dumping off the football for Austin Eckler is something that really needs to be emphasized because we haven't seen him do it in the past.

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This isn't me doubting, uh, Jaden Daniels.

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This is me wondering if there are Is enough, um, you know, distribution coming from him at an early stage to where you have all of these great talented players and that offense being able to eat.

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There's only one football.

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Well, there's only one, uh, football, but there are so many miles to feed.

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And this is a problem that you want to have as a young quarterback, because to me, you know, Alex, you know, It takes the pressure off of Jaden Daniels as far as having to be perfect on every single throw.

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Because like you mentioned, he has shown the ability to pull the ball down and run.

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And I can say the same thing.

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It happens a lot.

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I think it's a lot.

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Yeah, okay, we can say the same thing about Calamari.

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Lamar Jackson, uh, Josh Allen, right? And when we talk about these mobile quarterbacks, usually it's kind of a diss when it's like, well, he's running the ball too much.

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I can personally tell you as a guy that played on the defensive side of the ball and coached in the NFL on the defensive side of the ball, that's a large pain in your ass because once again, you're telling your defenders, your edge rushers, get upfield, keep that guy contained, but every pocket and every hole.

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A guy that's like Jane Daniels, slippery enough to get through those particular areas.

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So what that means is that now you have to dedicate linebackers, spies, safeties to that quarterback in limiting his explosive plays.

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And all be it what it is open up.

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It opens up the office even more, especially if you're an offensive coordinator that embrace that skillset, instead of trying to kind of curtail that guy and say, look, I don't want you doing it at all.

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Well, you want to tell Jayden Daniels.

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And this is what I would tell him.

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Look, take what they give you.

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If it's there, you take it.

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If not, you take the approach of Patrick Mahomes.

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Patrick Mahomes runs to the line of scrimmage.

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Not to just run the ball, but to draw the eyes and attention of the defense.

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So guess what? He can slip it and underhand and throw it to Travis Kelsey.

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This is where the evolution to the game of Jane Daniels would need to take place.

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And if he's able to do it at a higher level, it's going to take that Washington offense to places that we've never seen before.

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No, I'm excited.

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Uh, for comparison, Lamar Jackson, uh, for his MVP season, this past season, 12 and a half percent of his dropbacks were scrambles, uh, whether they were design or not.

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I don't, I don't have the effort to be able to dig into those numbers too much.

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Uh, you mentioned Josh Allen, the first team that I, uh, am interested in this off season in particular are in fact, those Buffalo Bills because of the way that they played finishing the season six and one in the regular season and getting to the, uh, divisional round, losing to Kansas city, again, wearing Ken Dorsey.

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Um, so they, they end up replacing him with Joe Brady, who we saw at LSU, and then in Carolina, Ken Dorsey, meanwhile, the offensive coordinator in Cleveland now, which I think we could definitely Have a fun conversation, uh, meshing the Kevin Stefanski, Gary Kubiak school of center play action versus kind of what we saw Ken Dorsey drop for Josh Allen.

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But that's, that's another conversation for another time.

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Maybe like, I think because you are well versed in the school of Kubiak offenses, that'd be fun to do maybe a deeper dive into those Cleveland Browns, but I digress, Nick, let's talk about the Buffalo Bills because.

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The record was good.

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They ran the football under Joe Brady.

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We're talking from week 11 on after a particular Monday night football loss to the Denver Broncos, the Denver Broncos.

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Since that time, the bills were out.

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They averaged 156 yards rushing per game, and they ran for at least a hundred yards in every single one of those games.

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That's more than 40 yards per game than they were under Dorsey.

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And, uh, the most important thing, Josh Allen was your leading rusher for the Bills just twice under Joe Brady.

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Uh, the passing stats declined for Josh Allen, um, 60 percent completion compared to 70%.

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Uh, about 15 yards a game less passing.

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Uh, however, he did limit his turnovers.

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Um, so overall, we had a more balanced offense, an emphasis on running the football with Joe Brady.

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But I'm curious, Nick, with how they finished the season playing balanced football compared to the identity shift because the passing numbers went down.

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Stephon Diggs numbers went down as well.

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He's now in Houston.

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What type of offense are you looking to see? Not just because Joe Brady was made the full time offensive coordinator and play caller.

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They're losing Stephon Diggs.

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And they added Curtis Samuel.

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Um, to replace both Diggs and Gabe Davis, who's in Jacksonville.

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See, I don't know what to expect from the Buffalo Bills offensively, especially from a pass catching standpoint.

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And you mentioned Stefan Diggs, uh, and he's no longer there.

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And we know of the connection that Josh Allen and Diggs once had, which proved to be problematic and why Diggs isn't there right now.

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And I think for the first four weeks of the season, maybe the first three weeks of the season.

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Defensive units are going to try to figure out, okay, what's the bread and butter for the Buffalo Bills? We know Josh Allen, he can throw it, he can run it.

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You have cook there, you know, he can run it.

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He can catch it out of the backfield, but the biggest issue is threats down the field.

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And when I think about Kenan Coleman, who they picked up from Florida state, target, uh, and once before Buffalo had a big target, not the guy from Florida state and Calvin Benjamin.

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Well, I'm not saying that Keenan Coleman is not going to work.

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But once again, this is where when you look at Jayden Daniels as a rookie and you look at Josh Allen as the veteran, they're in two different situations.

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One is a rookie.

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He's surrounded by offensive talent.

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And you say, well, where the hell is the offensive talent, right? So we don't really know, but that offense, probably for the first couple of weeks, Alex, they're probably going to struggle to find their identity because defensive units are going to say, listen, there's no digs for us to worry about.

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Coleman is a big receiver, but hey, man, if we need to double him, we will.

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And if we do that.

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We would definitely shut down the Bills often.

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So Brady's going to have to do one hell of a job in trying to rebuild this offense with a bunch of wide receivers who you, that they really haven't really hit their mark in the NFL.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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And you talk about the first half of that schedule at Miami week two on a Thursday night at home Monday night against Jacksonville at Baltimore on Sunday night football at Houston.

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Uh, are your first are weeks two through five for this Bill's squad.

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So they will be tested.

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Um, so, you know, losing a pair of their, uh, a pair of their starting receivers.

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Mitch Morris, the longtime center is now in Jacksonville.

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So a ton of turnover on offense defense as well.

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Uh, so it's interesting to see where it is the AFC East, their division to lose, but you look at just about every other team around them getting better.

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And I wonder how Buffalo is going to navigate, you know, wholesale changes on the offensive side of the football.

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Nick, you said you were going to talk about the number one overall pick and the Chicago Bears.

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I believe.

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What are you looking forward to with the Bears off season program? Well, obviously Caleb Williams has sparked a lot of conversation, uh, leading him into pre draft, uh, Conversation about who was going to be taken.

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Number one, is it going to be him? Is he going to go back? People say things about him off the field, which, you know, really shouldn't play into what a guy does on the field.

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But once again, this is another intriguing team because what direction will the bears go in? They, they, they rolled the dice on Justin Fields and he didn't really put talent around it, but they now.

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Hit the reset button.

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Get another four or five years with Caleb Williams.

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And what did they decide to do? Ryan Poe's surround him with talent.

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And you look at DJ Moore, who was extraordinary last year, even with Justin Fields and you know, he was wide receiver run one.

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So you add Keenan Allen to that mix and you got Roma Dunza.

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Uh, you have a DeAndre Swift as your running back, man, that is a bevy of riches for a young quarterback.

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All right.

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You can just pick and choose where you want to throw the ball to and Roma Dunze is a very, I wonder how they're going to use him, deploy him.

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Obviously, extraordinary wide receiver, but he's going to be wide receiver three as he starts to learn the system and learn to be a professional.

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But here's another way they could use him with the rules changing from a punt return and more importantly, the kickoff return rules, he would be excellent back there as a playmaker.

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Now, the only thing that is cause for concern is you're putting a guy you drafted, you know, tops, uh, I think they drafted him in the first round at nine, but you put it in a position.

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Where he can take a lot of hits, right? Which is kickoff return, but I still think to help out Caleb Williams, you need a guy like Roman Dunzay who can find the creases in this open spaces.

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And I happen to know Richard Hightower, the special teams coach.

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He's got to be licking his chops.

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Knowing as though Roman Duse has the big play ability to, I mean, take the ball and make explosive plays.

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So we'll see what happens, but I'm really excited about Chicago.

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And whether you look at it saying Chicago is going to excite people or people are going to be able to say, you know what? I told you so.

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Yeah.

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Caleb Williams was who we thought he was.

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Either way, it makes the Chicago Bears must see TV.

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I mean, you talk about the weapons that both of these top two quarterbacks have around them.

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I mean, Keenan Allen was almost an afterthought.

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He was top 10, uh, with 108 receptions last year, 11th in the league with 1243 receiving yards, seven TDs, and just a guy that's put up volume for a decade at this point.

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But he's the third wide receiver on that squad behind DJ Moore.

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And And, uh, uh, Roma Dunzey, potentially.

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I just, I'm amazed to see kind of the strides that they're going to have to make knowing that there are, you know, there's some continuity there, but the signal caller is the one that, that stirs the drink.

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So, uh, again, I talked about wholesale changes for.

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Buffalo, and I think there are even more for the LA Chargers, but I just, I, you know, knowing the talent that Justin Herbert is, I'm curious to see this offseason, how this Chargers team will figure out how not to Charger themselves out of a good season.

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Because I was there, right? What kind of impact does one Jim Harbaugh have on this LA organization, which has been the butt of jokes, whether they're in San Diego or renting from Stan Kronke in Los Angeles.

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So they, he brings in his usual cast of characters, Greg Roman now running the offense.

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I think this is Herbert's third offensive coordinator in four NFL seasons.

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Um, You know, what kind of changes are coming to a team that has invested heavily? Top 10 picks at both tackle positions, a first rounder at guard, um, but they just watched Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, their top two receivers, walk out that door.

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The constant is you have Herbert and a great offensive line, but Jim Harbaugh How does he put his stamp on this team that may be different than what we saw in San Francisco or at the University of Michigan? Well, he does it two ways, Alex.

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He, uh, one sells the enthusiastic attitude that he brings.

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Obviously, wherever he's gone, uh, it's very infectious and it's, it changes the culture of every place.

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He's gone.

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You mentioned San Francisco.

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We've watched what he was able to do with the Michigan Wolverine.

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So he's hoping to duplicate that same thing with the charges and knowing as though he already has his quarterback, you know, under contract in place.

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That takes a lot of the worry and the stress off the table.

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But the other thing is he's already made those moves, right? He's already said that, Hey.

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We are planning for the future.

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That's why Austin Eckler is no longer there.

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You mentioned Mike Williams, you mentioned Kenan Allen.

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It's just like, it's a changing of the guard.

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And the idea is that none of us like change, but for the most part, most people don't like change, but sometimes you have to peel back the layers.

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To get to the center of that to see robot, right? You always have to do that.

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And that's what coach Harbaugh is trying to do.

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He's not saying, okay, listen, Charger fans, we're going to the Superbowl this year.

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No, I don't think he would be.

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That over top to make that claim, but he's going to say, you're going to see a different team.

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You're going to see a younger team.

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You're going to see a vibrant team.

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You're going to see a team that's held accountable, holding each other accountable.

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You're going to see better efficiency as far as play, call and execution.

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That's what he's bringing to the table.

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That's what he's selling.

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He's not selling the right now.

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Selling the down the road that we're going to be there.

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And listen, when you got Herbert, you can compete with a Patrick Mahomes, but you just have to build things out offensively.

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So this is his plan of sort of turning the tables, but how quickly will it take for those tables to turn? We just have to wait and see.

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Yep.

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I mean, it's, it's very easy to just, you have a great quarterback.

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You have a great offensive line.

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You add depth to your running game by bringing a couple of former Ravens and JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards.

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And, uh, if you just want to run the football and play defense, that, that is the Jim Harbaugh identity that I.

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I know full well.

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Uh, Nick, before we split, because we'll be able to spend more time previewing your teams, feel free to reach out to us.

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You can hit Nick Ferguson on all social platforms at NickFerguson underscore 25, uh, for questions about your team.

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And, uh, that's right.

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We're going to talk about Kevin Stefanski and the Browns.

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Now that's on our to do list.

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I'm kind of excited for that.

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Uh, but Nick, before we split, before we get out of here, uh, we, I don't normally do this, but we celebrated the birthday of a former teammate of yours.

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This week, uh, on Shannon Sharp had a birthday who of course has gone on to do incredible things in the media space.

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Uh, this of course, following a hall of fame career on the football field, Nick, your first year in Denver was a Shannon's last year in the league.

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So before we split any, uh, words of wisdom from one on Shannon Sharp, whether you guys were On the football field together, or, uh, as you guys have continued to cross paths and the two decades since the one thing I can say about Shannon, obviously, you know, with the hall of fame accolades, he was one hell of a player.

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If they could give a hall of fame, uh, vote or trophy, whatever you call it, For the person who talks the most trash, Shannon would be at the top of that list.

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And he is a certified USDA grade A trash talker.

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So much so in practice.

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That's all he used to do was talk trash.

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He would tell me, Hey, listen, I'm about to run this particular route, young fellow.

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And then he would run the route.

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And for me, it was like, I can't believe, one, he talks this much, he actually told me the route that he was going to run, and he was effective running said route, so being a young DB coming in at that time, being a safety and covering him, it was a pain and dare I say my ass to know that someone's going to talk about it, and they're going to be about it at the same time, and they're going to let you know that they're talking about it and being about it.

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So that was Shannon Sharp at his, uh, his finest, and it made me a better safety at the same time.

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Well, as a Patriots fan, you know, I'm always going to wonder.

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You know, or be relieved, maybe, that they don't keep those phones on the football field anymore.

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He's calling the president because we're killing the Patriots.

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I'm like, man, man, I'm just Yes! You know, I, I, I'm kind of shocked.

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That you didn't get that kind of trash, uh, coming from maybe like Anthony backed when you're in New York to prepare you for what we're going to get with Shannon, uh, and the, one of the nicest guys there is in this business.

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Shout out the UFL head coach of the battle Hawks.

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Uh, Nick, oh man, I can't thank you enough.

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Uh, we'll be continuing to bring you and our listeners, our audience.

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Uh, the latest on the national football league.

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There's going to be more to come for sure.

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You know, we had some Brennan IU trade rumors that, that the stove was getting the hot, the burners turned on and then they were quickly turned off.

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So we'll, we'll keep track to see what certain teams are doing this off season.

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And of course, as we get closer to training camp, the preseason, we'll break down some of the more interesting teams, but there's four of them that, that we're intrigued to the NFC, to the AFC, um, that, you know, should have some bright.

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Moments coming this training camp.

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So Nick Ferguson, that's all we have for today.

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Let's get on out of here.

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What do you have to say for our people? All right.

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The countdown has begun for the startup to training camp.

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So I'm going to encourage everyone who has to do those honey do lists.

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Make sure you knock them all out because.

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When football rolls around, we want hands free.

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Not just the phone, we want hands free.

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So it's football all day, all the time.

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Get those honey do lists completed.

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Well said, Nick.

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Let's, uh, let's get at it.

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And, uh, enjoy your football.

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Enjoy your summer.

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Peace.