NFL Network Insiders Tom Pelissero, Mike Garafolo, and Judy Battista discuss the biggest news from around the NFL including, the Raiders hiring Pete Carroll as their new head coach, the Jaguars hiring Liam Coen as their new head coach, and the Texans moving on from offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik. Plus, the Insiders get you set for Championship Sunday with analysis and discussion from Brian Baldinger, Adan Rank, Stacey Dales, Steve Wyche, Sara Walsh, and Cameron Wolfe.
Loosen up that John pop in eight sticks a gump. Pete Carroll is back in the NFL. We've got the scoop on why the Raiders chose to hire a seventy three year old Super.
Bowl winner, and Weather perhaps.
His old quarterback in Seattle might want to join them. The Jaguars also have their new head coach, and there is no turning back this time.
What can do all expect?
With Liam Cohen now drawing up for Trevor Lawrence, our guy Baldy will break down the fit. After a wild few days in Florida, the four teams are still alive for this season, and only two can advance to Super Bowl fifty nine. Conference Championship weekend is almost here, and we've got reporters and analysts across the country to tell you who's got the edge. I'm as excited as Bob Costas in basketball. Welcome inside with the insiders alongside you, Batistep and Mike Garafalo.
I am Tom Peliicero.
It is our last show before Conference Championship weekend. It's our last show from the home studios for quite a while, because come Monday, we'll be headed down to Mobile, Alabama for Senior Bowl week. I'm already here in a VAT shirt, absolutely ready to roll.
You know what else I'm.
Ready for to talk about the return of a legend to the sideline. Pete Carroll is back as the Raiders head coach. He will be the oldest coach in NFL history by the time September rolls around.
This was something that was in the works for the past couple of weeks.
Pete Carroll have been putting together staff, making a lot of phone calls. The Raiders wanted to pump the brakes a little bit after Ben Johnson decided to go to Chicago instead. They hired their general manager, John Spytech. He then became a part of the process, and then they moved swiftly last night into this morning getting a deal in place with Pete Carroll. Did I imagine he's pretty old by l head coach standards. He is very old, the oldest that will have ever been. You see Romeo Crenell currently holds that title, ahead of the likes of George Hallis and Marv Leafy. You had been on the job for a long time before they coach their final game. Pete Carroll seventy three years old and three hundred and fifty one days by September, when he's on the sideline, will be the oldest ever come week one. All of which brings me to this question, Judy, you know who's running the search out there in Las Vegas. It is Tom Brady among others in that building. Those two have squared off even on a Super Bowl stage. What do you make of this match out there in Vegas?
Well, first of all, I think we have to dispense of the oldest coach thing because Pete Carroll is the youngest seventy three year old you will ever see. He doesn't act seventy three, he doesn't look seventy three, he does not have the energy level of a seventy three year old. So put that aside, he is the ultimate culture guy. And more than anything that they need at the Raiders, more than they need clarity on the quarterback or roster improvements, they need a culture reset. They have needed a culture reset for years. It has been upheaval and turnover and chaos. They've only been to the playoffs twice since two thousand and two. They need the entire building to be reset. And that's the kind of thing that Pete Carroll can do right. He's not just an x AS and OS guy. He comes in with an entire vision for an organization, for a program, and that's what they need. And he Look, you're not hiring somebody who is seventy three years old to be there for fifteen years. But if he can sort of change the feeling in the building, get them on the right path, then he will have accomplished what Tom Brady and Mark Davis need him to accomplish, and that is just changing the trajectory of this franchise. Pete Carroll can do that. He's spent eighteen years at a head coach in the NFL and he only missed the playoffs six times. They would more than take that in Las Vegas right now.
Yeah.
The year that they ran him out of there in Seattle, I mean was twenty three. He went nine to eight and that was considered a down year for the Seahawks. They did have that one seven win season as well. Yeah, I mean it's pretty solid right there. Incredible what you're seeing in the AFC West now with regard to the skins on the wall for these guys, super Bowl appearances, super Bowl titles, Yes, I was going to.
Call for it.
I want to see more Pete.
The cutaway shots alone are why I'm excited to see Pete Carroll back in the NFL. We'll talk about Russell Wilson potentially joining him. Didn't end on the best note between these two guys, so I don't know if they would truly revisit it. I mean, at the very least, I think Russ would use it as leverage in his negotiations with the Steelers, which he says are underway. And I know that there's a thought for the Steelers and Mike Commlin to retain Russell Wilson at least in some capacity.
But we're not talking about Russell Wilson necessarily just yet.
We're talking about Pete Carroll, and we're talking about him and this ownership group. Tom Brady being a part of this new ownership group that was really impressed with Pete Carroll and the fact that this is a guy that can come bring energy and you know, it's Vegas, so you got to bring a little bit of starpower, a little bit of recognition. He certainly has that, and he certainly brings that as well. Just got to figure out the quarterback position and the roster across the board, there's not a lot of talent on this night. We said that when Antonio Pierce got let go, not sure what anybody could have done with that roster. So even Pete Carroll's not going to get that roster over five hundred. They've got to improve in that area. John Spytech recently hired a general manager. He's gonna be charged with that.
Spytech and Tom Brady were old teammates in Michigan. They also were together with the Buccaneers who had a sixty eight year old coach and Bruce Arians who guided them to a Super Bowl. Now they also had, you know, the greatest quarterback who has ever lived, at least in his generation here, so that's helped. But point being not as surprise when you're thinking about culture and getting somebody in who's going to galvanize a building, that they're willing to look past some of those other things and say Pete Carroll is a guy who can do that. As they undertake what is a big time turnover with that roster, the Jaguars roster much closer to being competitive, and they are now optimistic that they've found a guy who is going to get the most out of it. Liam Cohen, after a dramatic couple of days in which he agreed to a new deal with the Buccaneers as their offensive coordinator, told the Jaguars he was out on the search. Than the Jags fired Trent Bulky called back and said how about now? And then Liam Cohen headed to Jacksonville, went in the building and agreed to terms. He is now locked in as their head coach. As you saw in a statement announcement from Shad Cohn, he sent in part to repeat my message earlier this week, I am deeply committed to building a winner here in Jacksonville. I also believe in being judged my actions not words. That's why I took swift and decisive action this week to hire Liam Cohen as the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He says he is pumped. We're pumped at Brian Baldinger here with us to talk about this. Balding we're talking about Pete, but also focusing on Liam Cohen here. You know where he comes from from an offensive perspective. You know the talent on that roster. What are the Jaguars going to look like now with Cohen calling the shots.
Well, I mean, if you just look at what Tampa just accomplished this year.
And I remember talking to the general manager, Jason Light a couple of times during the season. They went from being the thirty second ranked rushing football team in the NFL in twenty twenty three to the number four ranked.
Now.
They drafted a center, and they drafted a good rookie running back in Bucky Irby. But Jason said a big part of the turnaround was the scheme that Liam Cohen installed.
Now he has a college background at Kentucky.
You know he's coached three He will now coach three number one picks at quarterback from Stafford to Baker coming off a year where one of only ten quarterbacks in the history of NFL to throw for forty touchdowns and over forty five hundred yards. And who needs help right now?
It's Trevor. Lawrence needs a lot of help.
I feel like he compare it with Trevor, and I think he can help repair Trevor the way we've seen Baker get repaired from where he came. And then I think the running game needed a lot of work. They tried to do it they didn't get it done. I feel like they commitment to the run game, how they run the ball with scheme. I think all those things I think Jacksonville can look forward to with Liam call and I think it's a good hire just based on what he has been able to accomplish both with the Rams and certainly with Tampa a year ago.
As for Pete Carroll, I remember talking to Pete.
Yeah, there's so many different memories of sitting down talking to Pete before games off season out there in Seattle. One thing, you know that he loves his competition. Competition Wednesday. That's a real thing. Go out there and compete for your job. I like that as I think the Raiders could use that. And then the other thing that he always said, he said he did this when he was at USC, he did it at Seattle, he did it his first year with the Patriots, is that I believe in playing young players and if they're the right people and the right mindset, they might make mistakes early in the.
Season, but they're gonna help us win games late in the year.
And I think you can point to a lot of players, whether it's Bobby Wagner starting his rookie year becoming a Hall of Fame type player under Pete Carroll. You can point to a lot of different players that have been drafted by John Schneider helped by Pete Carroll. I'll bet that Pete spend a lot of time this year looking at the college game, looking at some of these kids that are coming out of the draft. It won't surprise me to see the Raiders come up with the draft where a lot of rookies end up playing this first year with the Raiders as they try to rebuild that franchise.
Right now, you're.
Gonna be a young roster, but potentially a very veteran staff too. Because my understanding has Pete's been in touch with a lot of his assistant coaches that he had through the years in Seattle. A lot of those guys are available right now. You're gonna see some familiar names, I believe headed to Vegas.
Baldy stick around.
We're going to talk about the NFC Championship game with you in just a little bit. Liam Cohen had one interview in this cycle. He is now a head coach. Bobby Slowech had five interviews last year, won this year, and he's now out of a job, a somewhat surprising move, the one that had been rumored for months. Slowick is out as the Texans offensive coordinator, despite the Texans winning a second consecutive AFC South title, going into the playoffs and having the Chiefs on the ropes. Here, Judy again, when you have the type of dip they did through the middle portion of the season, the quarterback CJ. Stroud seemed to regress a little bit, you know, something might have to change, and obviously they came to the very difficult conclusion that change had to involve Bobby Slower.
I mean, this just shows you how quickly the NFL can turn. He was a hot head coaching candidate last year on the back of CJ. Stroud's tremendous rookie season, and now he is out of a job because CJ. Stroud and the offense regressed dramatically.
C J.
Stroud underperformed in basically every category his rookie season. The offensive line was not good. He was sacked fifty two times. It never got better during the season. He looked indecisive, he was making mental mistakes. Certainly, it's not all Bobbley's Slowak's fault. They had big injuries to their wide receivers. But when your star quarterback, the future of your franchise at quarterback goes backwards as dramatically as c J. Stroud did. Something has to change, and it's going to be somebody like the offensive coordinator. I'm sure he will get other opportunities, but I mean, this season, you knew coming out of it, and after the season ended, Dimiko Ryans was very tepid in his remarks about Bobby Sloweck, so you knew something was coming.
Yeah, this sounded like it was an extremely tough decision for Demico Ryans to make. He and Bobby Slowick very close. I have known each other for quite some time, but just decided that this needed to be the move that the team was going to make. I think it's really important to look where they go now with regard to the comfort that CJ. Stroud is going to have with the new offensive coordinator. That's going to be an enormous part of this moving forward. Rod Johnson, their quarterbacks coach, is going to be an internal candidate. But when you look to the external candidates, might be some guys that have some history with c J. Stroud or maybe with the systems that he is comfortable in and folks that know c. J. Stroud or have a connection to other coaches. That's what I think you're going to see a lot of in this coaching search when it comes to the Houston Texans and their offensive coordinator and making sure that this new OC is aligned with c J.
Stroud.
And when you make moves like this, it does up the anteam moving forward here. It sends a pretty clear message intended or not that get into the playoffs. Even winning a playoff game, that's not good enough. We need to sum how managed to push this thing forward, and the OC hire is going to be a.
Big piece of it.
They did, as I said, almost knock off the Chiefs. But here we are once again. Patrick Mahomes is still playing quarterbacks. So the Chiefs are in yet another conference championship game, and once again it's a matchup of these guys, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. We will talk about the latest installment of this rivalry in just a little bit.
Coming up first, though.
Jalen Hurts is off the injury report, but is he truly one hundred percent with that left knee injury.
We'll have Steve Whites and.
Stacy Dale's to be covering that game, but first they'll be here to talk about it with Baldy and so much more stick around.
It's the insiders.
Brace yourselves, Philadelphia.
Did you see what I did there? Yeah? That bottom line there.
Jalen Hurts anticipates wearing a knee brace, onsid they're gonna hear from him in just the second but a full participant one once again. Limited Wednesday, full Thursday, full Friday. No game status does not mean he's one hundred percent. We believe he's going to be affected. How much he'll be affected, we'll see. Here's Jalen talking to the media today.
When to see how it would progress?
How did it?
Progress? Has been progressive? All right? My coach coach said, are.
You going to wear a brace of any kind on game day?
Anticipate?
So I expected a non answer there.
Good for Jalen to give us some information right there. Stacey Tails, Steve Weiss, Brian Baldinger. I'm just gonna get out of the way in this segment with this star power that we've got to my camera left. Stacy going to start with you on this one on the health of Jalen Hurts and what we can expect from him on Sunday.
Well, you heard him right there.
Jalen Hurts, you guys was never going to not a chance in hell miss this football game, especially since he missed basically the most the entirety of their Week sixteen loss to the Commander's got that concussion in the first quarter. I will wear the brace, as he just told us on the left leg. I talked to somebody within the team here today. I saw you guys concerned. Nope, that's the answer that I got. Jalen Hurts, we know is incredibly tough. No designation there. And what's really exciting is add in Saquon Barkley, who the Eagles believe internally fellas is as fresh now and is powerful. Now think about that, then he was at the beginning of the season, and he is running like it a single postseason record currently one hundred and sixty two rush yards on the ground for mister Barkley. But I say all that, and then I think about JD five on the other side, and that's the quarterback of the Commanders. Steve will be on them. Jayden Daniels. I did speak with Nickel, cornerback Cooper Dejean this week, and listen, they all believe he's playing like a veteran quarterback. He's not shy downfield, and that is a concern because of his ability to strike downfield with those legs, and so, as I discussed with Dejene, obviously, plaster coverage and being disruptive in this game are going to be huge, and on the back end with that plaster coverage and the rush.
But two musts.
We must do these couple things to win. Pretty simple. Be incredibly gap sound up front in your rush lanes to contain him, and then you got to tackle right As we saw with the Detroit Lions, these guys kind of picked them apart really offensively, and so I expect Vic, Fangio, Baldy, Mike and Steve to keep things in front and try to win those trenches against JD five in company on Sunday. It's going to be a fantastic third matchup.
You know, Stacey, It's interesting.
I was there a week sixteen in Washington with James Daniels through five touchdown passes.
He'd only thrown more than.
Five touchdown passes once in his life as young player at Arizona State and the winner was with ten seconds to go to Jamison Crowder and Vic Fangio was in his own defense and he just lasered the ball with anticipation location to Crowder to win the game. Now, what's happened in this league and we're gonna see it throughout this postseason, is the way that guys are rushing right now. With these quarterbacks that can take off, it's almost like cage rushing, like they're taking these you know, Jalen Carter and these guys coming after them like they want to rush and keep the guys in front of them and so that Jayden doesn't have the lanes to run through. It's really changing the way guys rush. It's not like quick escapes that were used to seeing from you know, the likes of Aaron Donald some of these guys.
I think it's changing it.
And so I think they're going to try and keep Jayde and Daniels in front of him as much as they possibly can and kind of not mush rush. They still want to get to them, but they don't want to give them those quick escapes if things aren't there in the past game. So there's a lot there for this defense to look at I didn't see a lot of plastering receivers.
I saw a lot of zone coverage. In fact, I saw.
Quinnon Mitchell in that game Week sixteen give up his first touchdown pass of a season to Terry McLaurin. So I think they got to get much tighter in their coverage, whether in man or in zone right now against Shade because he's just playing too well.
Right now, Steve's trying to figure out the formula here for the Commanders to score an upset here. The Eagles are probably going to be able to run on them. The run defense hasn't been thatsed out. Obviously, we know what the Eagles do, but how about like a taste of their own medicine. I just feel like Washington's running game, and Stacey alluded to it, you're gonna have to be a big part of this.
It really is.
I mean, look at these two teams. You know, we're talking about running and rushing and things like this. Washington is speaking with people there. They want to try to run the ball.
Now.
They're coming off a one hundred and eighty two yard rushing game against Detroit. They're not expecting to hit that against this Eagles defensive front running back Brian Robinson told me the way that they attack the box in the run game is probably the most difficult that they'll face and that they have faced all season. But that said, they have to be efficient. That means no negative runs and they've got to keep at it. Think about it, guys, in the two games that they played this year, which they split Washington, averaged twenty six carries per game. You wouldn't think about that just because they wasn't highly successful, or at least to the memory, but they did average more than one hundred rushing yards in each of those games. The first game it was Brian Robinson gaining the yards. The second game it was Jayden Daniels. So Robinson said, whoever is carrying the ball, they've got to protect it for one, and they've just got to be efficient. That's the buzzword they talked about because that run game, Stacy in Baldy, it gets them off those rush lanes like you're talking about on Jayden and Daniels, and that's what they feel they need to do to hit some big plays against this defense.
So Steve, you know, if they want to do that and accomplish what you're talking about with Brian Robinson and Austin Eckler, and you know they're gonna have to do with the backup right guard.
And I don't know if it's Trent Scott right now, but whoever's.
The right guard on Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, they're going against Jalen Carter. And in that first game, you know, the last game, Jalen Carr punched the ball out of Brian Robinson's hands and Nolan Smith recovered it. It was a significant play in the game. But Jami Encarter plays nearly every snap. Whoever's playing right guard has to deal with the beast, maybe the best defensive tackle in football right now, the way that he's playing, the way that he changed the game against the Rams.
A week ago.
So that's a big matchup to watch as they try to, you know, establish some inside zone in some running lanes right now, a guy that narrowly never comes off the field. They rotate the other tackle, Jordan Davis, you know, Milton Williams, different guys over there, But Jalen lines up, plays nearly every snap.
Yeah, and I would advise the commanders Dalon Carter's hard enough when you are blocking him.
Don't not block him.
The last two plays against the Rams, they slid the right side and then the center looked like you, that's the guy you want to start with there, Get some hands on him. Looking forward to Stacey Dale's and Steve Weish on Sunday, NFL Game Day Morning, providing you covers in the NFC Championship game ahead of this one.
Baldy, you're coming back later in the show.
So coming up next, we flip it to the AFC and get you ready for that Conference championship.
Bills Chiefs Sunday night. Cannot wait for that AFC Championship game. Welcome back to the Insiders, Tom Pelisaro, now joined by Sarah Walsh, Camwolf and Adam Rank. Sarah, I'm going to start with you here, this Chiefs defense going up against the Bill's offense. What's the biggest thing that they've got to be worried about in this matchup?
Well, here's the thing.
A week ago, this Chiefs defense sacks c J. Stroud eight times, but if you look over on the Bills side of things, the Ravens were only able to get.
To Josh Allen once.
This is a Bills offense that takes care of its quarterback, they take care of the football. So the Chiefs know this is a much steeper challenge to try to get to this guy. When they faced him in week eleven, they never sacked him once. And not only are they very good at protecting him, but they're really good at doing all sorts of things that really can confuse a defense. And Chief safety Justin Reid talked this week about the fact that they have to have eye discipline, they have to have eye control, and he said what he means by that is they've got tight ends in the backfield, they've got wide receivers in the backfield, they got running backs lining up is wide receivers, and he said that they cannot get caught up in the trash and the things that they're wanting you to see that they're not going to use, but that can trick you into making a bad read or taking a bad step. And you know, their defensive coordinator Steve Spagnolo, who said, yeah, we have been stressing this idea of having eye control, because again, this is a Bills team that is not going to make a lot of mistakes, and it is really tough to force this team into making mistakes. Buffalo has just eight giveaways on the season, that is the fewest in a season since nineteen fifty. This is a Chiefs team, and a Chiefs defense especially that knows it has its work cut out for them.
Rank Yeah, I'm curious how they're going to approach it because we've seen over the course of the season that anytime that teams try to blitz Josh Allen, he has been very successful. His passer rating is well into the one twenties when he's being blitzed. But in Week eleven, the Chiefs styled up the it's about thirty eight percent of the time and they had a little bit of a success. Josh Allen did throw a touchdown while blitz However, he did throw an interception. His passer rating was in the sixties. So for me, the Chiefs have to be patient. Understand, the Bills are gonna move the football. It's not allowing the big plays. It's going to be a great chess match between these two teams on Sunday.
Flip side of this matchup cam the Bills defense has to try to slow down Patrick Mahomes and playoff Travis Kelcey. I feel like he's a different guy over these last couple of years. Here when the lights come on, when the calendar switches to January, something turns on.
How do they stop him? Pretty hard?
That's what Bobby babb Is, the Bills defensive coidinator, said about stopping Travis Kelcey and Patrick Mahomes. The reality is the Bills actually have had some success stopping Travis Kelcey. In the week eleven game, they hold him in just two catches for eight yards. They play a lot of too deep coverage. They bracketed him with their linebackers and their cornerback, tearing John and their safety and trying to limit those big plays down the field. But as you mentioned, playoff Travis Kelsey is a different animal and they have a big difference in this game. Taylor Rap, their starting safety, has been ruled out with a hip injury, and so enter rookie Cole Bishop. That's a name that fans are going to want to get to know. The spotlight is going to be on him a lot. Rap was the veteran, experienced guy, a good communicator. He actually intercepted Patrick Mahomes on his first deep pass in their first matchup. Bishop hasn't played must this year and I talked to Bill general manager Brandon Bean about Bishop. They had an idea that Rap was going to be out. They said, Bishop we drafted in the second round. We have high hopes for him. The reality is he's not his experience, so we'll have to live with him maybe being fooled from time to time. But he has some athleticism that maybe is more than the usual safety and they think that'll benefit them. One key thing is looking at those guys around him. You're Matt Mulono's, your Tarren Johnson's. How do they supplement that? Because I guarantee you Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce are trying to take advantage of Col Bishop. We're going to be talking here on Monday about Cole Bishop either having a great game or having a bad game, and that's going to be a key part of it. One thing that was interesting to learn this week is Micah Hyde, their practice squad safety, has been spending a lot of time with Cole Bishop, trying to catch him up on things he needs to know to prep him for this game. He certainly faced Travis Kelce quite a bit, but Cole Bisha will be out there on his own on Sunday.
Well, Kerem, you talk about it, you talk about playoff Kelsey and how different he is. Yes, they did a great job against him in Week eleven, but once you get into the postseason, Travis Kelce has five touchdowns in three career playoff games against the Buffalo Bills. And what it comes down to is the matchups. Can you get Travis Kelce matched up against the linebacker or against one of the guys in the secondary.
That is going to be the big thing.
It's the chess pieces, it's moving him around trying to exploit those matchups.
And so wherever you have Travis Kelce, you.
Got to be mindful who's lined up against him and take advantage of it. And for the Bills, you know what, I hate to do it, but I think you got to take a page out of Taylor Swiss, Taylor Swift's playbook, go a little fearless against them.
That's right.
I did that.
Yeah, you had to go there.
You had to go there, didn't you.
Okay, So I think it's pretty well understood how respected both of these sides are. Travis Kelce talked for the first time this week, and he said, when it comes to Josh Allen.
He said, Josh Allen is.
Who I dreamed about being in the NFL, And he said, but I didn't have the arm talent, so they kicked me over to tight end. That has worked out pretty well for him. It's a Hall of Fame career that he's working on there. Everyone knows that he's going to end up in Canton. And then not that this game needs to be hyped up anymore, because it feels like when this season kicked off Week one, we all knew in some shape or form, it was going to come down to these two teams. Travis Kelce said today, this is one of the biggest challenges we have ever had. And when you think about that statement, given how many Super Bowls this team has played in, how many great games this chiefs I mean there, this is a franchise that is a dynasty. Now to think about him saying today that this is one of the biggest challenges they've ever had. If that doesn't hype you up for Sunday night, nothing else will.
Tom, Sarah Cam thank you very much, Stay warm in Kansas City ranks, stick around because coming up after this, you and Baldi have more on this game and the NFC Championship game. Who are the game changers and the game wreckers? Ranked and Baldi have the answer right after this on the Insiders.
I'm hyped to be talking to Baldy and Adam about Conference championship weekend. I want to hear your game changers and game wreckers, guys. Let's start on the NFC side and I'll start with Baldi. Give me a game changer for that game.
You know, Judy, I'm gonna go.
AJ Brown. I don't believe he's going to be any reading any books on the sideline. I saw him week sixteen against this Commander team Marshaun Lattimore. I think he had three holding calls against him. He's scored a touchdown right here. That throw is from Kenny Pickett. In that game, they didn't have much of an answer for A. J.
Brown. And I know he hasn't had an exciting postseason so far.
I know he's battling a knee, but I just feel like this is a game where AJ Brown can really be fed and he can change the game. He had a chance to do it last week against the Rams, had a chance right at the pylon, just couldn't get a handle on the ball, but he usually comes up with those catches. I feel like AJ Brown has been blocking at an elite level. I just think it's time for him to be fed at an elite level because he is a true game changer at that position. It's easy to just say, well, I'm gonna take Saint Quon Barkley. I think that's a given. I just think AJ Brown is ready for this moment at him and that's where I'm going to go with the game changer right now for the Eagles.
Well, I love that pick, and I think that despite the fact that he doesn't get a lot of targets, you still have to keep an eye on him because he has as the ability to make the huge plays. And on the other side, for Washington, I look at a former Eagle, Zach Ertz, and obviously, if you want to go into the narratives going up against his former team, he's also had some big catches against this Eagles team as well. He got that catch right there that we're watching right on the screen. What I really like out of him. He's been a reliable target for Jade and Daniels this season, and last time these two teams met, they ran a lot his zone, and you wonder Bick Bangeo if he's gonna switch it up, if he wants to play a little bit of man, that kind of feeds.
Into the game for zach Ertz.
Zach Ertz has seven touchdowns against man defense this season.
He is a matchup nightmare for a lot of teams.
So I feel like if the Commanders need a big play outside of Jaydon Daniels, zach Ertz is somebody they've consistency consistently looked for.
All Right, Paldy, let's go with a game wrecord who you got.
You know, Zach Bonn has been the Eagles best defensive player, no Shaye to Allen Carter, but yeah, any guy never comes off the field in that first matchup Judy back in week eleven, I mean he's stuffed Jayde Daniels at fourth and two, changed the whole course of the game in the fourth quarter. He just knows where the ball is going. He's filled up the stat sheet all year long. I think he'll continue to do that. If Jade Daniels wants to run, he's going to be met by Zach Bawn at some point. His ability to take I don't know if he was a geometry major at Wisconsin, but he constantly takes great angles to the football.
I'm going to go with Zach Bond like that guy.
If he's not a candidate, a high candidate for defensive Player of the Year, then teams have not been watching number fifty three for the Eagles.
And yeah, they absolutely should be.
And I agree with you, he's one to watch, even though a lot of people will spend their time looking at Jalen Carter, who I'm going to be talking about here for a moment, because when you watch that game against the La Rams, Carter was amazing. He got two sacks on Matthew Stafford, part of five total that the Eagles had against the Rams. However, this game is gonna be a little bit different. I don't think I'm telling tails out of school if I'm saying that Jayden Daniels a little bit more mobile than Matthew Stafford, which means Jalen Carter's got to kind of tailor his game towards the quarterback.
And Brian, you talked about this a moment.
Ago earlier on in the show, is like, you just can't run up the field and expect to get to the quarterback. You got to play a different style of football where it's more contained than anything else. Don't let Jaydon Daniels go out there and make a big play on you. However, I think that Jalen Carter could do that, and these two guys can absolutely be game wreckers for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Adam.
If Jalen Carter was in a steel cage match with a bear, I feel sorry for the bear, and so he's my feeling about trying to block this feast.
And they're gonna have a backup guarden there.
I probably Trent Scott, who played pretty good in Detroit last week. But anybody that has that assignment that is a long, hard day. He's going to make plays and it's just you know, how many of those does he wreck your offense the way that he did against the Rams punching the ball out of Kyron Williams last week's hands sack and Matt Stafford on third and four when they're going in to score the winning touchdown, hitting Stafford in fourth and eleven, so he couldn't complete a pass on the outside. I mean, he wrecked the game and he finished the game for the Eagles last week, all.
Right, let's switch over to the AFC Conference Championship game. Give me a game changer, Baldy.
I looked Judy.
I mean Adam just said in the last segment, and I was listing carefully at him. Travis Kelsey does have five touchdown catches in his three postseason games against this Bill's defense, largely playing against much of the same defense, different players. We'll see a different safety for Taylor at We talked about that a little bit on this show, but I mean we saw what Kelsey did last week. He basically put the game on ice a week ago. He knows the moment, he knows that there's gonna be a certain friend of hits up up in a booth waiting to cheer him on. I think there's some motivation there, you know. For Travis Kelcey, there's a connection that we have tried to explain. We've tried to figure out how it happens between him and Mahomes, but it keeps happening, and I think it will find a way to happen again this Sunday evening.
In Kansas City. Travis Kelcey is my game changer right now.
Well, I talked about him in the last block as you said, Bryan, so I couldn't go back to back with him.
But I want to talk about Xavier Worthy because the Chiefs have done a really good job of the ways they've used him over the last number of weeks. Now, whenever you get a player with his speed, early on in the season, the idea was to get him the ball deep. His average depth of target was somewhere around twelve point eight in the early part of the season. However, they put in a slight wrinkle, as you're seeing right there. They now get him the ball near the line of scrimmage. Instead of relying on Xavier Worthy to just run deep, they're just giving them the ball quickly and letting them go out there and do his thing.
And that's one of the.
Mastter pieces of this Kansas City Chiefs offense. It's like Travis Kelcey doesn't necessarily run as much as he just runs the open spots and finds a way to get open. Similarly, Xavier Worthy's just catching the ball near the line of scrimmage and taking it for chunk plays.
That's why this offense is so hard to stop.
All right, let's put a bow on this game wreckers for the AFC Championship Game, Baldi, Judy.
I've watched Chris Jones take games over in big moments year after year, and one of the reasons why they've you know, are going for a three p is because of the guy that goes by stone cold Jones. He just he can line up anywhere and look, I have as much respect for this Buffalo Bills offensive line left to right. Aaron Promer coaches him. He's a great coach. But Chris Jones understands the magnitude of these moments.
He just does.
And when the game is in the biggest moment, Chris Jones just finds a way to win. And it could be at end, it could be on a he done, he could be dropping into coverage the way Steve Spagnola has used him before. But he understands that this is his momenting. It's not about how many sacks during the season quarterback kids. He gets some of those, he saves a lot of it for this postseason.
This is a big game.
He understands that Josh Allen is going to meet stone called Jones at some point in this game. Sunday night.
I love that pick, Baldy, but I just noticed we keep talking about the Chiefs, and it doesn't see it doesn't feel like we're giving the Bills a chance. So allow me to take an opportunity to talk about one of the staling of the Bills defense, and I'm going to say at Oliver is somebody who can absolutely be a game wrecker. As a matter of fact, in Week eleven, when these two teams combined are collided, I should say at Oliver had a really nice game. He had four quarterback pressures in that contest and was a pest in that one.
And even last week.
Against the Baltimore Ravens, he still managed three quarterback pressures against Lamar Jackson. So when we're talking about all the game changers on Kansas City side of the football, who can get to the quarterback? Who can disrupt it? Now everybody knows Von Miller, but Ed Oliver to me, is the key to all of this. And if he can get pressure on the quarterback, that gives the Bills the best chance to succeed.
You know, Ed is a cowboy. You know he rides horses, he trains horses.
I mean, he just gets that lasso out there, Adam, He's gonna get that lasso out there.
He wants to last. So you know, Patrick mahomes in the worst way.
He's slippery like an eel. You can't you can't actually get your grips into the guy. He's always on your edge. He's a full day. Now I've got a bad pick and all out.
When I get Baldy's seal of approval, then I know I'm like Anthony Michael Hall at the end of The Breakfast Club when he's proud of himself for writing that essay.
That's all I feel, all right, Cowboys Eels, It's all coming up in conference championship weekend, guys, thank you very much.
First Super Bowl halftime show for Kendrick Lamar, first season for Commanders quarterback Jaden Daniels.
Both working out pretty well so far.
Jayden Daniels in the NFC title Game, set to go into Philadelphia this week and take on the Eagles, a task that he does not take lately.
No matter if it's a home or away game, I'll treat it the same. It's allaly good to have. Like a Everybody tried to write like an underdog story, but for us, it's just originally out there and playing confident like No, we can compete against these guys and that's a very good team. So it's nothing like I take a little extra motivation. I'm already motivated to go into the game, regardless if it was Week two or you know, the NFC Championship game.
Josh Allen not his first Rodeo set to face the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. Again, that means Travis Kelsey's had a few times, both in the regular season and playoffs over the years to take a look at a guy that well reminds him a little bit of himself.
Gosha's who I used to dream about being like in the NFL, big athletic quarterback, big on being able to.
Be a dual thread guy. Yeah, I just I never had the arm talent that Josh had, so they kicked me over the tight end.
And you know his ability to do everything, you know, obviously he's you could tell he's really took the bull by the horns and really been their leader up front and and channeled that. You know, guys come in and out of the building, and he's the main piece in there making that thing go weekend, week out.
And I got so much respect for that guy Across.
Two more teams off the list of teams with a head coaching vacancy thanks to the Jaguars Green of Turns with Liam Cohen and the Raiders doing the same, with Pete Carroll still awaiting the Cowboys and Saints' decisions. But as for Pete, he was out of the NFL last year following a party you know the ways was really a dismissal from Seattle. He took out a new job a week ago and apparently he's keeping it. Pete Carroll, who was back on campus a USC, where, of course, he coached the Trojans, will continue, according to the La Times, teaching his class at USC game is life despite being hired by the Las Vegas Raiders. All of which brings me to an important question. Welcome back to the Insiders. Tom Pella, Sero, Judy Batista, Mike Garafalo. Mike, what is your side job that you're currently hiding from us while also doing your job on this show?
Yeah, I got nothing for you.
I think about bartending all the time, though I do want to hear other people's problems, and I'm pretty good making some drinks here and there, so I may do that, not right now. We're too busy right now. But maybe it may Insiders go right to the bar and just start mixing.
I think I might. You did that, didn't you get one?
That is?
That is correct? For one day? I was awesome at it too.
Would you log into Pete's class, Judy? Would would you show up to Pete's class?
Oh?
Yes, as a matter of fact, can we do it now?
Absolutely? I would do that.
Yes.
I feel like online classes would have been a problem in my day, might have helped. Like, if you can be lazy enough to show up to class in person, you can definitely lazy enough to not open a laptop.
Hey, we got Senior Bowl next week.
We'll be a mobile for the insiders life practicing in Eastern every day. We'll see him