Latest / Know Your Personnel Pod / KYP - Ep#20 Lebron to Philly, AFC South Breakdown, and Fantasy Players to Avoid

Transcript

KYP - Ep#20 Lebron to Philly, AFC South Breakdown, and Fantasy Players to Avoid · Know Your Personnel Pod

• Nathan Hawthorne: And we are alive in See that little hand switch? Welcome back, baby. I love the hat. Jarod McInroy: Got small hands. Damn. Nathan Hawthorne: Yo, what what are you talking about? Small hands. What do you mean? Take it easy on me. Saying I got small hands. Whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to episode 20 of KYP, aka Know Your Personnel. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host Jared McEnroy. Again, episode 20, another milestone episode. We have more episodes out at episode 20 than the average podcast does. Average podcast makes like one and a half, maybe two. We are in like the top ninety-nine percentile. There is so much content. Jared, didn't you say the other day we have like over a hundred videos, including shorts out? Jarod McInroy: yeah. I th we're well over it now. Nathan Hawthorne: Listen, we love you guys. We're gonna keep putting out the content. We would appreciate a like and more importantly, a subscribe to our channel. We love doing this. We're gonna keep doing this whether you guys watch or not, but it would be excellent to have your support. We've got plenty to get into today, so you wanna hop right into it? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I will say this might be our last episode. Just keep that in mind, folks. And the only reason being because maybe we'll pivot. Maybe we'll start doing these little mid form videos where they're just a little bit shorter. We cut it up for you so you can watch exactly which segments you want. you let us know if you would rather it just be in this hour format or if you'd like it, you know, cut up. Just that's why you leave a comment. That's why you leave a like, you leave a subscribe and We respond more than any other podcast out there. We always say it. But Nathan Hawthorne: Guaranteed. Jarod McInroy: we we talk the talk, we walk the walk. If you put a comment on a video, we're gonna comment back. So yeah, let's get right into it. LeBron. LeBron James has signed. Nathan Hawthorne: LeBron James. LeBron James. Jarod McInroy: Let's talk about it. So he signs a vet minimum deal, which he kind of already alluded to before choosing a destination that that was gonna be what he wanted to do. I don't know, man. What l let me hear what you gotta say first before Nathan Hawthorne: I mean, here's the deal. We already said that the Philadelphia seventy Sixers were going to be the best team in the Eastern Conference. And it wasn't going to be particularly close. Maybe you could argue the Knicks this year. again, they're obviously the returning NBA champions. But we said the Sixers were going to be the class of the East. Now you add LeBron. Is it year twenty, whatever LeBron? Yeah. So what you're doing is adding depth. The Sixers already made moves to have a great roster anyways, acquiring Jalen Brown, acquiring Anthony Simons. Like they've already got things in place. Adam LeBron is just I is just icing on the cake. It's a nice little bit of sugar sweet. He's not gonna necessarily need to give you, you know, 40 minutes a night. You know, you give him 30 minutes. He's gonna have, I don't know, 22 points, 11 boards. Like that's all you need from LeBron James. And again, it just adds to the depth of the 76ers. Don't think of this as like LeBron's gonna change this roster around. Man, that just so much depth. And if you're the Sixers Don't let him get in there and start being lay manager. Don't let him start shipping off Maxie, shipping off Jalen Brown because he just got there. You can bounce and beat actually, but don't let him get too entrenched. But enjoy it, 76ers. You've trusted the process long enough. Now it's your time shine. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, that's that's facts for sure. They've stuck around. Those fans are they are true, they believe every year that it's their year, but one thing about every player on that team is they all need each other and that's what's awesome. And Bede needs a lot of scoring around him so he can take time off. LeBron needs people who can go be volume scores and people like Maxie, people like Jalen Brown who really draw defenders and he has the space to do whatever he needs to do. Yeah, exactly. You know, and then also like an Anthony Nathan Hawthorne: People under the age of thirty. Jarod McInroy: Simons who we we've seen him in Portland go get thirty, forty in a game. Like a random regular season night where maybe Embiid and Jalen Brown are taking a night off and you need someone to go get you buckets and get a win. 'cause those those wins add up. They w They're not they're not here to just make the playoffs. This isn't one of those old, injured, typical LeBron teams we've seen where they're like, let's just get in and we'll deal with it. This is they're going for the number one seed in the East this year and they want to make it make a run and they want home court advantage the entire way through. So Depth is a good way to put it. I feel like with LeBron though, it Is that really the destination we wanted him to go to? Like I feel like there would have been a lot more fun options. Like I get it. This is great and it's probably the best for him. Easy for us to root for. There's a lot of really likable people on the team. But just I don't know, if it was his last leg and he really had something to prove, I feel like there were so many other options he could have chosen that would have been a lot more impressive for the end of his resume, rather than Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: just joining this already finals ready team. Nathan Hawthorne: Totally. it'd be weird for him to go to Dallas, but you know, go hang out with Kyrie, go develop with Cooper Flag. That could be interesting. Although you don't want to stunt Cooper Flag's development if you're the Mavericks. I think that's the biggest problem. People have literally seen enough of LeBron James to know my roster is going to play entirely different with him on the floor, whether I like it or not. No matter how old he is, no matter what his production is on the floor, he changes the way people plays around him. And so if you've got young rookies, if you've got, you know, second, third year stars and you don't want to stunt their development because they're trending up, then yeah, don't bring him in. And I think I feel like that's what we saw is teams, although it was the vet minimum, and then he obviously had a list of teams limiting where he would go. I just don't think that there was as many teams that were willing to take LeBron, knowing all the media that comes with it, knowing all the pressure that comes with it. Do we now have to trade for Brawny? And all of these other things with bringing in lay manager. So I I mean I we're s we're serious. It's it's a serious thing. Jarod McInroy: I don't know. But there's teams like there's teams like the Timberwolves, like the Blazers, like there's a lot of teams that really would just be like one like a piece like LeBron would really round out what they got going on and and make competitive Nathan Hawthorne: Okay. But he Jarod McInroy: and it would have been a lot of fun to see. And he was never gonna Nathan Hawthorne: He can't launch Jarod McInroy: choose him, I get it. But I I'm saying why was he not thinking from the lens and you alluded to this, we never know what's truly going on, in LeBron's mind and what his ulterior motives are in choosing these teams. However, if I'm thinking about his career laid out, everything that he's done, he's done it all. He's done it all. He's done it all in multiple places. He he brought a championship home. He won back to back in Miami. He gotta play with all of his friends. He went to LA and won a Mickey Mouse ring, but nonetheless a ring. and he gotta hang out in LA for what you know, it seemed like two years, but he was there for eight. Yeah. Like Nathan Hawthorne: Like eight years. Jarod McInroy: it was it's crazy. But so now it's just like, okay, what what else is there to do other than go really earn a hard earned championship with a team that r hasn't won one in a while. And I don't know. I mean the seventy sixers that's a great place to do it, but their team's already built out. They were gonna make a f a run this year regardless. So I don't know. It's weird. But I don't hate it. There's a lot of worse options. I would have hated Golden State. I would have hated Miami for sure. But this is one thing I want to tack on to the end of this before we move on to the LeBron stuff. And I'm not a petty person, and you know I am a petty person, but Miami you lost out again. I'm sorry, you did. It's that's just another they thought it was in the bag. Miami Twitter is the worst fan base of any fan base in the NBA because they truly, truly think that they can put together the worst trade packages. They think everybody wants to play for They think everybody's gonna go there. Ever you lost out again. You have not been the same since LeBron left the first time. I don't know what to tell ya. Let's be a little more realistic. Not every superstar wants to go there. Yes, you won you won the Giannis trade, congrats, you got finally. You had to give up your whole team. I'm not gonna go into it again. Y did you really win? We'll see. I'm just saying there's a lot of very competitive teams in the East right now. And I know people are talking about who's gonna fall 'cause somebody has to. Philadelphia ain't one of They they're gonna be at top of that list come the end of the season. And if anybody's gonna kinda be toward the bottom, it's probably gonna be Miami. But I digress. What what else we got? Nathan Hawthorne: Just wasn't there somebody in the comments talking about they were like guaranteed to get LeBron and they were mad that I said that they were gonna win less than fifty games or that fifty wins would be their max. Like, man, we're gonna have LeBron. Well, you don't. You don't. You ain't got You Jarod McInroy: You don't you never you never really wear a gun. Nathan Hawthorne: never you never were gonna get We're gonna make sure we clip that out. We're gonna tag you. You know who you are. We're gonna find you. We're gonna tag you. We're gonna clip it out again and just give you a nice big I told you so. You wanna hop into some NFL? Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Let's do it. Nathan Hawthorne: All right, training camp just started. It is time for us to break down division by division what we think each team is going to do. We're going to, again, we're going to go division by division. We're going to look at things from the lens of this is what Vegas says are going to win. And maybe we're on the same page as Vegas. Maybe we're not. But regardless, we're going to break it down and we are going to start with one of the less loved divisions in NFL football. We're going to start with the AFC South, the Indianapolis Colts. What do we got? Jarod McInroy: Indianapolis Colts. So they're over under right now. Seven and a half games. Well let's just let me just list off what everybody's at before we go team by team so then I can use that as some context. So Colts are supposed to be seven and a half games, Texans nine and a half, Jags eight and a half, Titans six and a half. So here's what I'm thinking when I hear those numbers is they think that they're basically all gonna split and then they're gonna just all do okay outside of division. So and when I say split I mean split in division games against each other. those numbers are not convincing that one they really know who's gonna win the division, but two who's gonna win outside of division. the Colts, seven and a half, th don't see winning that many games. That felt generous and it felt like, Hey, what if they catch fire again with now that Daniel Jones comes back? We don't know what's going on with this team. Sasgarner will be healthy, like the team that they have envisioned will be fully healthy. I have them under. I have finishing third. I'm I'm just I'm not fully convinced that they're gonna make that leap and maybe it's because I like two of the other teams better. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, they're gonna I think seven and a half games is perfect, and they put that hook out there, so you have to say eight games. They're not gonna win eight games this year, and it's no knock again on Shane Steichen, who I love, but he continues to try and take discount quarterbacks and make them into something they're not. Was Daniel Jones' run last year incredible, right? They were eight and two before he got injured, and then they lose two games with one of them coming out at halftime. He tears his Achilles. Now a big mobile quarterback who's not very accurate throwing the football is coming back to lead your team. That doesn't spell success for me. Does it spell success for you? Daniel Jones is a mobile quarterback. Jarod McInroy: I love calling him a mobile quarterback. I know, but like it's the worst type of mobility. He's scootin' but like Nathan Hawthorne: It's hard to unsee when he had that big breakaway with the Giants and he just fell. Jarod McInroy: Exactly. Nathan Hawthorne: But he's he is athletic in that way. And my concern is you've got Jonathan Taylor again. It's the last year of his contract. Your wide receiver one is Alec Pierce, whom you paid a lot of money to this year. Then you've got Josh Downs and who else? I just I don't think that there's enough offensive power firepower for them to be a consistent team this year. And it might be time, and I know Indianapolis fans, you don't want to hear this. It might be time to move on from Jonathan Taylor. He's going to be an unrestricted free agent in 2027. His salary cap is not going to be a big hit this year, right? It's going to be the most expensive of his contract, but in terms of trading him, you can probably get a second or third round pick for Jonathan Taylor, knowing that you have to pick up the contract, but don't let him walk out the door this year, knowing that he's not coming back. Jonathan Taylor's gonna take a moderately sized contract somewhere else. He's gonna go somewhere where he's gonna run over you for 9,000 yards next year. Just do the do the right thing and trade him away. Get him to a contender midway through the season and allow him to leave Indianapolis on a what do you call it? On a good note. Don't make him sit there and continue to suffer as one of the best running backs that we've seen over the last six years in the NFL. Jarod McInroy: You know, it would be a great place for Team who's pretty stacked, maybe just won a Super Bowl and would love to have another running back in the room. Nathan Hawthorne: Patriots? Jarod McInroy: Seattle. Seattle would be a great spot for man. I 'cause I was thinking about Fitz 'cause I I also had this th the same thought of like you hate seeing a running back's career just just wash away and I mean we thought we were gonna see it with Saquon before the big move happened. We didn't know how long Christian McCaffrey was gonna be stuck in Carolina. like it's it's their second spot. We'll be saying also we'll be having this entire conversation three years from now about Jeremiah love, but anyways. Nathan Hawthorne: Or B. John Robinson. Jarod McInroy: Probably both, yeah. but him and Seattle would be great. They got picks that they don't really need to use. so if we're looking for for spots, but yeah, they gotta dish him. It's this this is not the team. They they got a lot of work. They have a great foundation. I still really like their defense. the problem is that defense is going to age very quickly. It's gonna get very expensive because you're gonna have to start paying people. Do this now. Do this now. Rather than later move off a couple pieces, do a quick retool, find your quarterback for the future. You have a great foundation. You do. Your O line's not terrible. we again, you and I both like Shane Steiken, like he's a good coach. Do it now before you have to go into a full rebuild three years from now because you tried to force this thing. yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Yeah. You missed on a big pick with Daniel Jones or sorry, not with Daniel Jones, with Anthony Richardson and that sucks. 'Cause you could have got your guy. And I can't remember who else was in that draft c class and who they could have made out with, but obviously Anthony Richardson proved to be a very unfortunate pick. But that's what happens in the NFL. But what you can't do is what the Cardinals or not sorry, not what the Cardinals did. what the Giants did with Daniel Jones. Is you you stick with him too long. And again, I I love you, Shane Steichen, but you gotta You gotta pay the premium for a high caliber quarterback. And another team I think that could trade for Jonathan Taylor, the Denver Broncos. I like their running back room. It's okay. But I also Jarod McInroy: Yeah. I think they like their yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: think the commanders, two two teams that I think like the top of their running back room, some young guys that have some potential. But if you slot Jonathan Taylor in there to be the lead back, take a lot, a lot of pressure off your off your quarterbacks. Jarod McInroy: Or maybe even the Cowboys. He's Nathan Hawthorne: But yeah, seven Jarod McInroy: kind of just a luxury piece at this point, man. Like that's that's how how you gotta think about those big names in bad spots, is he's like you said, he's gone. This is the cheapest he's ever gonna be, and you don't want him to hit free agency and and whiff on a chance at him. So yeah, we'll see. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Yeah. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, anything else on the Colts or shall we move on to the other team that's on the bottom of the addition division? Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: Seven seven wins is the max. That's max. That's best case scenario. Yep, let's keep moving on. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Titans, six and a half. I have them under also. I thought that was a very generous seven games? Who who's putting the money on the over there? Nathan Hawthorne: It's the Robert Sala effect. I'm telling you. Jarod McInroy: A shot. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm telling you, he changes organizations. He does. You can't change Jarod McInroy: Yeah, the Jets are they're sick, bro. Nathan Hawthorne: Dog, he had a top five defense with the Jets. They were unbelievable when he was coaching the defense. But you can't, you can't wipe off the stink of the Jarod McInroy: my god. Nathan Hawthorne: Jets. He goes back to the 49ers and instantly makes a difference on that defense. They were injured all up and down the roster and still were able to have a successful season. Now here's the deal you've drafted Carnell Tate, who I think is going to be a superstar in this league for years to come. You snagged Wandell Robinson. You've still got Calvin Ridley. Tony Pollard has proven to be a strong weapon. You've still got Tajay Spears, a decent guy, but a rotational back. Cam Ward, if he has any sort of development with Brian Dayball, this offense could be really good. An offense that you don't want to play, especially second half of the year. Again, this is assuming Cam Ward takes a leap. But you've got elite pass catchers, you've got a solid run game, and you've got a head coach that wants everybody to play physical. Now, the problem is I don't think that their roster top to bottom is very good. They just don't have enough guys, especially on the defensive end. Jeffrey Simmons is getting a little bit old, and I can't name anybody on their back end. No disrespect. And people love to comment, well, if you can't name anybody, you're not doing your research, KYP, blah, blah, blah. I can you? If you're not a Titans fan, Legarius Sneed said, I'm out. Jarod McInroy: No. Nope. Nathan Hawthorne: They paid him a bag. He said, I'm out. I'm going back to Kansas City. So there is no help on that back end. There's going to be so much pressure on that passing game. Like they're just not again, they just don't have enough quality yet. so they'll be an interesting team. They'll be a feisty team, but I don't think that makes them a good team. Jarod McInroy: I don't even I think you're giving them way too much credit. I think I think we'll Nathan Hawthorne: How? Jarod McInroy: see. Again, I think we'll see. once once the season plays out a bit. I j I don't think they're that good. I just don't think they have as much talent as you're alluding to. I think they have a few really talented pieces. Like like you said, I Nathan Hawthorne: Exactly. Jarod McInroy: I believe in Cam Ward. I I think Cam Ward is well, here's the problem is he you have to have a really good coach when you're a young quarterback. That's very important. We've seen it proven time and time and time again. a a a bad coach can really, really stunt your growth. and maybe it's another stop for him. But if we're just talking ability, talent, mindset, everything, I'm all in on Cam Ward. Carnell Tate, same thing. G he's gonna be awesome in this league. I just w what what really promising big names do they have outside of those two people that you really love? that you see competing that you see in the dog days, in those in the trenches, in the really tough games when you're, you know, in September against Houston. Who who outside of those two names? Nathan Hawthorne: I exactly. They've got talent. They're gonna be feisty, but they're not gonna be a very good football team. Y you don't think Tony Pollard's talented? Jarod McInroy: They don't have talent. That's what I'm saying is they don't have any talent. I I think they got a couple guys. He's he's good. He's good not great. That's that's all I got for ya. Nathan Hawthorne: Exactly. He's good not great. But when you pair him with an electric guy like Cam Ward who can cover over a multitude of sins just by his ability, you're finally getting a stable offense. Not that's not Brian Callahan. Jarod McInroy: Look, maybe I'll maybe I'll eat my words. Nathan Hawthorne: Again, I'm not saying they're winning ten games. Six games six six Jarod McInroy: No, I I hear you. Nathan Hawthorne: games is wow. I'm stoked to find Robert Salah. But I'm saying don't be Jarod McInroy: I hear you. Nathan Hawthorne: surprised if they're scaring teams. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, no, I again you you're totally right. Nathan Hawthorne: You're not gonna show up to you don't you don't wanna go to Tennessee, you don't wanna go to Nashville and have to deal with them because they're gonna be a hard nosed team coached by Jarod McInroy: I think you do want to go to Nashville. I think that's that's a great place when you just when you just fought against, you know, the Patriots or the Broncos. You just played someone the week before. I'm stoked to go to Nashville. I'd love. I'd love to go to Nashville and and have a free win. Yes, I do. I really do. Nathan Hawthorne: You think you got the week off in Nashville? With all right. That's fine. Okay, we just we know this, we see Robert Sala differently, and that's okay. Jarod McInroy: No, he's fine. Like he's a good coach for sure, and I'm not saying he's not. I'm just saying like there's only so much he he's not it he doesn't have pads on. He's doing nothing on that field and you and you can't name a y Nathan Hawthorne: Dude might as well have pads on. That man's a physical presence. Jarod McInroy: you can't name a guy on that defense, so that's all I'm saying. We'll move on from the bad teams. Yeah. I have them finishing fourth, by the way. Nathan Hawthorne: Jermaine Johnson they picked up. They still got Solomon Thomas. Solomon Thomas he brought with him essentially from the Jets. Yeah, it's probably true. If if things go No. Jarod McInroy: But I didn't know if we were framing this as who we how we think they'll finish in their their division this year too. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I think I think if it depends on how quickly the Colts decide to really, really move on from things. Cause the Colts I think could make a run for the bottom of that division if they decide that things aren't gonna work this year. Jarod McInroy: Vegas thinks they're a full game above Nathan Hawthorne: I mean, quarterback Jarod McInroy: Convincingly. Nathan Hawthorne: quarterback plays worth a full game. You know, if Daniel Jones has proven that he can't get it done, maybe he starts having knickknack injuries following the Achilles injury, like, you know, who even says he's gonna be fully healthy for week one? So Jarod McInroy: Okay, now let's talk about the disrespect here. Th all of these teams are only one game apart. So now we jump up to the Jags at eight and a half games? Nathan Hawthorne: They think these dudes suck? That's insane to me. Jarod McInroy: Like damn, what w what are we doing? Nathan Hawthorne: I have no idea. I think this is a minimum like when I say minimum, I mean so minimum eleven win team. I think they're gonna win twelve games. Thirteen was a lot last year. I think they escaped with a couple lucky ones, a couple second half comebacks, but goodness gracious, there is n i in no way do they would not win at least eleven games. Jarod McInroy: They only need to win nine to get the over though. That's that's the crazier part. Like what are we talking about here? Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I'm I'm sl I'm s I'm slam I'm slamming the over button right now. I'm slamming Jarod McInroy: In the Nathan Hawthorne: it with all the money I got. Jarod McInroy: and again we're gonna start with the Jags, but then we talk about Houston twelve wins last year. They're n like nine and a half. Wha w you think they're Nathan Hawthorne: The Jaguars have the eleventh easiest schedule. Okay, I'm looking at their out of conference schedules. So you're gonna have to deal with Denver. You don't wanna deal with Denver. Jarod McInroy: Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: That's early in the season, but you have Cleveland, Denver, New England, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Houston. Like your toughest games are gonna be against Houston and Baltimore. And outside of that, then you got Chicago, got Dallas and Washington late, but like nothing is that terrifying. I but nothing terrifying. Jarod McInroy: Some pretty tough games. No no not but th th that's the thing is no no. Nathan Hawthorne: They're wit they're winnable games with the talent that they have on their team. Jarod McInroy: But that's the thing is like I I don't think people view the Jags the same way that you and I view the Jags. I don't think they think of them as a top team. When you're a top team, it doesn't matter what your roster is. It or Nathan Hawthorne: It's har it's hard not to think of him. Yeah. Jarod McInroy: it doesn't matter what your schedule is, I mean. it doesn't matter if you you gotta go on the road and win a game against Philly. If you got like it whatever your route is, you believe you can win week in, week out, and they have the team to do it. Again. They won thirteen games last year. Who cares if the point is, is did you get the win? It doesn't matter in what way you get those wins, it's did you get the win? They got thirteen of them things. Okay. yeah. Eight and a half is Nathan Hawthorne: It's a what have you won for me lately, League? No, but let's be let's be for real. There Jarod McInroy: disgusting. And may they the only thing they did bad in the offseason was they had a pretty bad draft. It wasn't great. But also They weren't really relying on that draft to really take them to the next level. Sure, a a good draft will always help, but that wasn't the point. The point was we have a year of this tandem of Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen under our belt. Now let's kick things off in year two. Let's make sure we still have the weapons. Let's make sure we keep doing the right things on the defensive side of the ball, et cetera. And I think they're they've they're doing that. But I don't know. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, Bishal Tutin's gonna be the clear lead back. I'm not sure how great he is. A couple of flashes last year when Travis Etienne was injured. So we'll we'll get to see him in a you know a full force front here. I can't I think Chris Rodriguez Jr. or something like that is their is their backup. So run game might be a little weak, but you've got Brian Thomas Jr. hopefully is healthy this year and a little bit more mentally in the game. You've got Parker Washington and Jacoby Myers. I think that's a great wide receiving core. Jarod McInroy: And Travis Hunter. Nathan Hawthorne: Travis Hunter It's All indications are kind of seeming he's going to be a little bit more on the defensive side of the football this year. So I'm not discounting him, but he is still going to be a weapon for you. But still, just those three that I mentioned first before Travis Hunter, that's one of the better wide receiving cores and probably the best wide receiving core in the division, depending on how you rate the health of both Nico Collins and Tank Dell week to week, right? You've got a three headed spear on defense of Josh Hines Allen. You got Trayvon Walker and Aluakan, a linebacker. That's a three headed spear. Spirit like you don't want to have to deal with that week in and week out. Like these guys, like this is a good Jacksonville team. It's a really good Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: Jacksonville team. I don't think last year was a fluke. I think Liam Cohen has to be start like people have to start putting him in the category of one of the best coaches in the NFL, if not one of the best young coaches. Maybe we can stop there at one of the best young coaches at the NFL, but we have to start thinking about him that way. He made Baker Mayfield better. Like people thought that it was Brian Callahan, so he got the job. In my goodness, Carolina? No, Tennessee. Jarod McInroy: Tennessee. Nathan Hawthorne: No, who was it that went to Tennessee though? Not Callahan. Dave Canales. And I remember Jarod McInroy: Yes. Nathan Hawthorne: this distinctly when I was doing strong opinion sports. Someone said, actually, yeah, Jarod McInroy: And that was Carolina. Nathan Hawthorne: and they actually said, Dave Canales was holding this team back. Liam Cohen's gonna be better. And the dude was right. I don't know what inside rope this guy had to knowing who Liam Cohen was, but he called his shot and was correct. Listen, again, I gotta hop off here. Liam Cohen's the guy. This Jacksonville team is gonna be good for a number of years. Trevor Lawrence, Let's see. I've been a Trevor Lawrence defender just like I've been a Justin Herbert defender. Let's see. Let's see what you got. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. And the other thing is is I've def said this before too. If you don't think it's gonna work, I think Liam Cohen will be very vocal at this point. I feel as though Liam Cohen might be a better asset to the franchise than Trevor Lawrence at this point. So that means if you need to move off him sooner than later, and that that might be a hot take. If you need to move off him sooner than later to get a young quarterback and go get your guy. in Liam Cohen's hands with some time to spare. let's do that before, you know, all the crap hits the fan and all the fans call for Liam Cohen's head, because we know how they turn on head coaches in this league far quicker than they turn on quarterbacks. So we'll see. I don't know. I I hope it works out. I hope this is the place where it works for Trevor Lawrence. But we've talked about him working in other locations for sure. I don't know. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, buddy, that's getting clipped. That's getting clipped and put out there. Jarod McInroy: It might be. Hey put this all put this in there as well. if he does go anywhere, I'd love to see him as Matt Stafford's replacement. Nathan Hawthorne: Ooooo spicy. How many picks do you have to give up for that? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, that'd be a great spot for him. bro. I I Nathan Hawthorne: Or is it a free agency thing? Jarod McInroy: I d do the Rams even have picks at this point? I don't think they got much to work with. They would really have to wheel and deal something, but yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: I don't know. I don't know what they I don't know what they have to spare. I don't know what they have to spare. They'd find a way. Aaron Donald sounds like he's coming back. I anyways. We don't we're not talking about the Rams today. But let's talk about the obvious I think the obvious top of the A or of the AFC South, and that's the Houston Texans. Fuck Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: nine and a half wins. Jarod McInroy: That's so disrespectful. Like it's actually disgusting. They're a twelve win team last year, Nathan Hawthorne: This team is scam is scary. This team is legitimately scary. Jarod McInroy: and they they're better now. They are better now. Now, that was a very concerning video we saw of CJ Stroud. I think he's just a goofy guy. I the outfit, the way he's walking. I don't know if he's been training too hard or what. I think he might just be a goofy guy outside of football. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: so we won't read into that too much. But looking at this roster, man, nobody wants to play that defense. Nathan Hawthorne: No. Jarod McInroy: Nob th I think they've solidified themselves as the top defense and they haven't even played a game yet. Nathan Hawthorne: They're unbelievable. We already talked about it. They've got Will Anderson Jr., they've got Daniil Hunter. They've still got Al Shayer at at linebacker. They drafted my goodness, Kaden McDonald. One of the great Jarod McInroy: Uh-huh. Nathan Hawthorne: he's gonna be a great defensive tackle for him, kinda clogging up the middle. And then on top of that, you've got Tooto at safety slash, you know, kind of lineback like Jarod McInroy: Stingly. Nathan Hawthorne: The Derek Stingley at corner. I mean, these guys, and not only are they great talents, but they play physical and they play together. D'Amico Ryans is one of the best coaches in football. Hands Jarod McInroy: Yes. Nathan Hawthorne: down, one of the best coaches in football, and especially on his side of the ball. The offense does worry me with CJ Stroud. But last year, even with CJ Stroud being in and out due to injury, whether it was the concussion or the ankle, again, you still won 12 games because the defense was that good. So if you get CJ Stroud to get his head on straight, and what I love this year from CJ Stroud, the whole offseason, I didn't see any podcast clips. I didn't see him raiding other players in the league. It was pretty quiet from him. And that's what I wanted to see. A little haircut, a little quiet off season, putting the work in, coming out a little cheesy because he wasn't trying to be all cool. I love what I saw from CJ Stroud with that walk in. I don't know if love's the right word, but it tells me that he hasn't been locked in on anything other than football. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, a hundred percent. He's locked in. He's ready to go. He he's got a lot to prove. This is the time. Nathan Hawthorne: And I love that. I love because he no he knows he's gotta prove it. He knows he's gotta prove it. So is this is this a thirteen win team? Jarod McInroy: They might be. They're certainly more than nine and a half. They're they're ten, they're ten or more. Let's just put it that Nathan Hawthorne: Okay. And also Jarod McInroy: way. Nathan Hawthorne: their their offense we didn't even talk about. Not only did they make their own their own line better, right? They drafted Keelan Rutledge. They signed Miles Teller, one of the best offen or one of the best guards in league. Jarod McInroy: Miles Teller, the actor? Nathan Hawthorne: No, not Miles Teller. The actor. It's Mil Miles Teller. Am I am I going crazy? Or are you just throwing a bone? Jarod McInroy: It might be. I don't know. I just I hadn't heard that name. There we go. You good? Hey top gun. Nathan Hawthorne: I'm pretty sure I'm pr I'm s you know you're right. No, you're right. It's Wyatt Teller. My fault. Hey, that's on me. They they've got Wyatt Teller. They've got they drafted Keelan Rutledge. They've made their offensive line better. You had Woody Woody Marks, and then you brought in David Montgomery. So you're gonna be taking a lot of the pressure off of CJ Stroud to be a great passer. Nico Collins, if he can stay healthy. Tank Dell if he can stay healthy. Like this the offense is good. The offense is good. And you're the you're s Jarod McInroy: Yeah, they're really good and also Nick Cayley, yes. That's Nathan Hawthorne: second year with Nick Cayley, like trending up. Jarod McInroy: what I was gonna say. I was gonna pull a page out of your book, the big offensive coordinator guy over here. they looked r refreshed last year. And again, it wasn't that he was coming out here with these like really elaborate schemes. They were doing a lot of the right things the right way. but they also just looked calmer. They looked more CJ Stroud looked a lot calmer in in his decision making. I felt like he trusted his receivers a little more to be in s in the spots that they needed to. he didn't push it into you know, any crazy windows he he didn't need to, but also they were able to rely on that defense. So that is that's another piece of the game that when you're not on the field over and over and over again and you get those long breaks and like you you do come out ready to go. So, No, I hope they keep building on it. I hope they prove us right. I think they will prove us right. I'm gonna go smash two overs on on the Jags and the Texans for sure. But Nathan Hawthorne: Same. Same. Jarod McInroy: let's let's let's wrap this up with what we think the the final standings will be. Like I kind of alluded to, I think the Texans will finish first, Jags second, Colts third, Titans fourth. Nathan Hawthorne: That's insane. I don't know how I don't know how you have that list. Because I have the exact same one. Get out of my head, bro. Get out of my head. Yeah, I think that's Jarod McInroy: No, perfect. Perfect. But you don't want to go into Tennessee. Nathan Hawthorne: You they're a feisty team. I mean, Houst Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: Houston certainly certainly doesn't have to worry. The Jags maybe can get a little bit flustered on that defensive side of the football, but I mean, they still they're a hard nosed team. Anyways, that's gonna Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Alright. Nathan Hawthorne: do. Jarod McInroy: That's gonna do it for the AFC South though. That's that's we're we're gonna keep bringing these. We got a lot of odds in front of us, and hey, don't put any actual currency on our takes if you want to. It's not a bad idea. But Nathan Hawthorne: No, put throw your money down. I ain't never been wrong. Jarod McInroy: let's let's shift it shift gears into fantasy football. So we're gonna we're gonna get out of out of this realm for a second. You're a big coordinator guy. We were just talking about The the offensive coordinator over in Houston. What fantasy football players should we be avoiding? Because they Nathan Hawthorne: Yes. Jarod McInroy: got coaches that are gonna stunt their growth. That's that's the Nathan Hawthorne: This Jarod McInroy: segment we're gonna talk about here. Who who who's gonna be ruining a player's chances at really succeeding? And it's it's more than just their talent, their abilities, their surrounding, it is who's coaching them as well. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, this man, if you are playing fantasy football, you need to watch this. And if you are playing fantasy football and you are not looking at the offensive coordinator on your team or on the team that the player you're picking is on, you're not playing the game the right way. The offensive coordinator can completely change how your player performs throughout the season. Everybody loves a great new offensive head coach coming in, but a lot of the times they are distracted. They're pulled in a number of different ways because the head coaching responsibility is entirely different. Who's the number one guy you gotta watch out for? Right now it is Shane Waldron. And do you know where he is? He's in Jacksonville. And do you know who's in pr in trouble? Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas Jr. Let me explain why. Shane Waldron, when he was in Seattle, had a bottom 20 offense, made Jackson Smith and Jigba look like a bust, and DK Metcalf look like he could only run one route. Don't love that. For some reason, for some reason Jarod McInroy: He can. I'll let you have the rest of it though. Nathan Hawthorne: take it easy. For some reason, the Bears saw that and were like, my goodness, Shane Waldron's available. Let's sign him with rookie quarterback Caleb Williams. And we're gonna make DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, Roma Dunze. And and our offensive line look horrible. Ben Johnson comes in the next year and takes his team to the playoffs. Shane Waldron, the problem with Shane Waldron in Jacksonville is not that he is going to be the play caller, it's gonna be Liam Cohen. But the issue is is he's also the passing game coordinator. And Shane Waldron is plagued by having an offense that is oversimplified. Your wide receivers line up in one position and one position only. They don't mix up in between. being in the slot and being outside and being moved around. There's no dynamic ability for each one of the wide receivers, meaning none of these guys are going to be schemed open in a way that's effective. You don't have clear reads. I'm not sure if you saw the route chart for Jackson Smith and Jigba in Seattle. It was a five yard in, a five yard out, a go ball, and a seam. There's just no diversity for the wide receivers. So if I'm a corner and I'm a safety and I and I get a guy to my side, okay, I know he's got three route options in this formation. He's screwed. There's nothing that he can do. Players can get taken out of the game and his offense is so easy. Man, just be wary. So when you have a guy like Brian Thomas Jr., who is going to be the best player on your team or your best wide receiver weapon on the team, teams are going to be able, defenses are going to be able to scheme that out. And you're going to be looking at Parker Washington and Jacoby Myers with unclear reads. Again, I hope that this stop for Shane Waldron is going to be a learning process with Liam Cohen. versus an impacting situation, but I'm just I'm worried about it. I don't love Shan Waldron or the offenses that he's put together. Jarod McInroy: The thing is is Liam Cohen's a really good guy. So he's not gonna be the one that's gonna try and silence anybody on his staff, but he he's gotta tell this guy to take a back seat. And I really hope it's a hire to have someone not butt heads with you because clearly he's the better offensive mind. we'll see. But yeah, that's it's an interesting hire. I got another one for you. Nathan Hawthorne: Timmy. Jarod McInroy: This one less impactful, but I feel like in fantasy football, everybody loves to draft the talented guy on the bad team because they're like, they're gonna get this insane workload. Now, I'm not saying sell this player entirely. Sell him for now. Cause I think this is the year he finally gets moved off of this team. Sell Garrett Wilson if he's gonna be a jet all year. They hired So th they got Frank Reich now. Frank Reich, the the one who was one in ten before he got canned in Indianapolis. his schemes are very much a piece of a lot of different coaches. You know, very much like a Mike McDaniel esque and he he wants his quarterbacks to be very quick with their processing, get the ball out quick, which Geno Smith is terrible at. He his run games are very very reliant on skillful linemen, which he does not have in in New York. i it just feels like a hire to fire situation. It feels like we need somebody running the offense. Let's go get a vet. we'll put him there with Aaron Glenn and a year from now, we'll reassess because clearly they didn't get their guy at quarterback in the draft and I think they're more hopeful for next year than this year. So we'll see. I don't think he's gonna be around long, but at a minimum, he's gonna be stunned the growth of of Garrett Wilson and in his productivity in general. and that's that's aside from having Geno Smith at quarterback also. So I don't know. That's what that's what I got. Nathan Hawthorne: I'll get into Frank Reich literally right now. Not because he's the next name I chose, but I I just can't agree with you more. I'm gonna go to a similar name in my opinion. With the New York football giants, you've got Matt Nagy and Jackson Dart. Everybody loves the foot mobility of Jackson Dart, and you're thinking, what Matt Nagy did with Patrick Mahomes, that was Andy Reid. What Matt Nagy did with Mitch Trubisky. Yes, that was great with Mitch Mitch Trubisky that one year. And then what happened after that? The wheels completely fell off. Watch out for Jackson Dart and watch out for Malik Neighbors. Malik neighbors because of health and Jackson Dart because of development with Matt Nagy. Okay. The Giants hired a walk-around, glorified special teams coordinator, John Harbaugh, who's lost his touch. Great leader of men, no doubt about it, but but not an offensive guy. So Matt Nagy is going to have the full reins. The problem with Matt Nagy, Andy Reid was a primary play caller. And when he was a pli primary play caller in Chicago, he gave up those duties. Several times to his assistance because things weren't going well. So now you flash forward to after Eric Bienemy leaves, Matt Nagy slots his way back in. The Chiefs' offense was never the same. He doesn't attack vertically. He relies so heavily on trying to use pre-stat motion. Everybody loves to talk about pre-step motion and reading the defense, but he does pre-step motion just because it's in his play. It's not to get the matchup you want. It's not to get the matchup you need. He just does it because that's the play. Until your quarterbacks oftentimes have one side of the field reads, and then outside of that, there's not much more to it, and it relies on the quarterback using their mind quickly and scrambling and doing things outside of the play. We saw this over and over again. The only route being open was Juju Smith over the middle. or just like a in a little dump off. Like it's just not an offense that's conducive to being successful. And the problem is, is it's Matt Nagy. It's Frank Reich, it's Doug Peterson, it's Luke Getze, all these kind of guys who had a successful stint at some point with their offenses, they just don't develop their offense. It stays so rudimentary. They don't add wrinkles. They don't continue to develop. That's what makes Sean McVeigh and all these other guys so great. But again, if you're Jackson Dart, if you're drafting, if you're looking to draft Jackson Dart, just be careful. Matt Nagy's gonna make it really tough on him to have defined and clear reads. And then Malik neighbors. I just I w I I don't think you're gonna get many downfield targets, and that's if you're healthy. Jarod McInroy: I didn't it was never gonna be a coordinator segment without you talking about Matt Nagy. I think let's just start there. But I can't Nathan Hawthorne: And Arthur Smith is lucky that he went to Ohio State. You got lucky, Arthur Smith. You dodged Jarod McInroy: Mm-hmm. Nathan Hawthorne: a lot of bullets this year. But if you think he's gonna develop Julian Saiyan, you think that anything's gonna be better for Jeremiah Smith, forget Jarod McInroy: Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: about it. Ryan Day, help yourself, anyways. Jarod McInroy: You're done. All right. My next one. And I d I don't need to go into yours at all. We we know. We know. We've seen it with Matt and Aggie. You couldn't be more correct. it's it's a common theme with these coaches that really have like one good stop and they're like out of all of a sudden they just get job after job after job and it it just it makes no sense. proximity to greatness for whatever reason holds a lot of weight in this league. So good for him. He got hired again. my next one though. We're gonna jump over to Washington. We're gonna sell Terry McLaurin. One, because we don't Nathan Hawthorne: Mm. Jarod McInroy: know how Jaden McDaniels is gonna come back. Two, they got David Blau as their offensive coordinator. Now, we don't know anything about him, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. What we will what we do know is Dan Quinn is not an offensive mind at all. He doesn't even really associate with that side of the football at all. Nathan Hawthorne: He's never been into the offensive side of the facility. He does he doesn't know what it looks like. Jarod McInroy: No, not not once. He he doesn't even know who the quarterback is for the team at this point, but Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: David Blau, thirty years old. What we see when we see these coaches come in for the first time is they either try to take pieces of who was there before them or they take pieces from the coaches they've been around. Now what I will say is when he was a player, he was around Ben Johnson for a good amount of time, so he has He has that piece of it. He started with Anthony Lynn. not much of an offensive mind really there. nothing to write home about, and then his time in Cleveland was pointless, as everybody's time in Cleveland is. but it's gonna be interesting to see how he comes and tries to either replicate what Cliff Kingsbury was doing, or is he gonna try and implement his own stuff? I don't know what 30 year old has their own scheme and system for a team like that ready to go. especially when it comes to quarterbacks, because really all you're doing is learning somebody else's system and that's kind of a a give and take with the quarterback position. however, they do understand it at a different level than any other player or anybody any other mind that has ever played football. So, that's why we see success with them. Maybe it'll work out for I don't think it's gonna work out this year. This is gonna take growing pains, it's probably gonna take a few jobs, and it's probably gonna take learning under a few different people beyond this job. I don't think anything is gonna be going going well in Washington when it comes to the offensive side of the football. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, it just feels like for a team that had so much momentum a couple of years ago to make a move like this, a lack such a lack of aggression move to support your young quarterback with a quarterback who could still be playing in the NFL if he was anything decent. David Blau, no disrespect. What are we doing? This makes me feel like Sean Mannion with the Eagles as well. A young guy, former quarterback in the league, doesn't have their own system, but what are they bringing? So few guys or a sh are a Sean McVay type guy where they actually have a d a system developed at a at a young age. But 30 is really young, and not only that, but David Blau is an entirely different quarterback than Jaden Daniels was. So how are we equipping Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: Jaden Daniels unless we're asking him to play like David Blau did, just in the pocket throwing interceptions? So that is a little bit concerning. And again, just The momentum, I thought they should have just gone out and overpaid a bigger name. Like you're telling me I know Mike LaFleur wanted that Arizona job. He was gonna take it, but why not go overpay him to be a play caller instead of a head coach? Just things like that, I think, benefit organizations. Nick Seriani is famous for it. You overpay a great coordinator, turns out your team's pretty good. you gotta start looking at doing things that way. I just think it was a bit of a cheap move. Going with David Blau. And you said it's it might cost jobs and it might. And it might cost Dan Quinn's job. So we'll see. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. It makes you wonder how much they actually believe in what they have in just overall at head coach in the team. it really makes you wonder if they're they're in a place where they're like, let's just take a big swing, if it works out great, if it doesn't, we're probably moving on from all of this anyways. The rest of the division, I mean, okay, outside of New York you're not too bought in on them, but Philadelphia's won very recently a lot of games. I think Dallas is going to ascend this year. they so I don't know. I don't know. I just it it felt like like you said, with the momentum that they had. They they've been trying to turn this thing around forever. They had the failed I mean, because of his health, the failed RG three situation. They had Kirk Cousins who turned out to be a good quarterback, but they could never surround him with a winning team. they've just been moving on from guy to guy to guy and all of a sudden they have Jaden Daniels, this electric player who he won rookie of the year to am I correct in that, yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: He did. Correct. Jarod McInroy: and yeah, everything was looking up. You have your your wide receiver one who all of a sudden is getting talks about being a top five receiver in the league. He's finally getting his flowers. a lot was going great until it wasn't and course one injury to a quarterback can can do that for you, but and of offensive mind like Cliff Kingsbury leaving can also do that. So I don't know. We'll see. Interesting move. Good luck. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Terry McLaurin fading. Fading. Jarod McInroy: Stay away. Stay away. Nathan Hawthorne: I've got an honorable mention, and it's gonna be Jeremiah Jarod McInroy: Love Nathan Hawthorne: Love with Nat Hackett. Nat Hackett's already talking about James Connor being the guy. They brought in the cat from Tyler Algier from from the Falcons. Just stay away. Nat Hackett's never been a great play caller, he's ever been a great play designer. Is Mike LaFleur gonna be the guy doing the bulk of all of those things? Yes. But I've seen Nat Hackett at the podium. Too many times already for me to feel comfortable. I don't know how P I don't know how we keep getting jobs. Well, remember, remember their whole Jarod McInroy: How did how did he even get the how did he get the Broncos job? Like what wh what were they thinking? Nathan Hawthorne: their whole deal was to get Aaron Rodgers. That was remember, that was the whole deal. They hired Hackett so that they could get Aaron Rodgers. Didn't get Aaron Rodgers, he goes to the Jets. And then guess what happens the very next year? They bring in Nat Hackett, the Jets do. And then he goes down, and then it was it was a whole mess. There's such an interesting thing about Jarod McInroy: Crazy. Nathan Hawthorne: the coach's carousel in the NFL. It it it truly does surprise me. Jarod McInroy: Well, that's all we got. Stay away from those fantasy players. We'll we'll keep bringing more fantasy content Nathan Hawthorne: Stay away. Jarod McInroy: as we get closer to your drafts too. we're gonna we're gonna bump that up a little bit. There's there's a lot we gotta say and a lot that you're not considering. You're just looking at big names. You're looking at Terry McLaurin, at Garrett Wilson, Jeremiah Love, all these names. You're like, God, these are these are great players. But are they? Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. And we and we say know the players, know the game, you know? You know your person I mean, you might know your personnel, but do you know your personnel? You probably don't. So you're gonna have to find a way to get on it. Ladies and gentlemen, that's gonna do it for episode twenty of KYP, the twentieth episode, the milestone episode for us. This is my co host Jared McEnroy. My name's Nathan Hawthorne, and we will see you guys on the next one.