Super Bowl Recap: Brady, Barrett, Bowles Lead Bucs Romp, Chiefs Have No Answers | The Monday Morning NFL Podcast

Published Feb 8, 2021, 9:00 AM

A whole lot of narratives got turned sideways on Super Bowl Sunday, as the Bucs outclassed the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.


Conor and Gary, being the pessimists they are, start with what went wrong. Andy Reid had two weeks to prepare and knew he'd be doing so without his starting tackles. Yet, K.C. did nothing to help their O-line out against a dominant Bucs pass rush, leaving Patrick Mahomes to get absolutely battered.


Give a ton of credit to Todd Bowles, who had a formula that worked. Tampa's front four took over the game, and the back end more than held its own against K.C.'s game-breaking receiving options.


We also look ahead to the offseasons for both teams. The Bucs have to make decisions on a number of free agents, most notably Chris Godwin and Shaq Barrett. Barrett is in line to set the market for pass rushers, while Godwin could end up the odd man out among Tampa's receivers.


As for the Chiefs, how worried should they be about an ugly performance in Super Bowl LV?


Plus, Michael Fabiano stops by to talk 2021 outlook for Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Leonard Fournette and more.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Hello, and welcome to the mm QB Monday Morning NFL Podcast. I'm your host, Gary Gramling. I'm joined by Connor Or and Connor. We are still basking in the I don't know, the fest tvous nature of Super Bowl fifty five. That kind of it was not very interesting. It was kind of a blowout. It was a bad super Bowl, Like it kind of sucked. And it sucked because you know, and I'm sure we'll get into it a little bit later on, but like, there was one thing very wrong about the Chiefs that they couldn't stop. And you know, we just sat there the whole game being like, well, when are they gonna try to do something else about this problem? And they never did, and then the Buccaneers just scored thirty one points and it was over. They're waiting for game two of the best of seven. I was like, yeah, like what what what? Now is the time to empty the coffers here, so let's go. But apparently, uh Andy Reid wanted to save some stuff for it was wild. We'll get into it, and I'll just say at the top of the show, I have no interest in really criticizing Andy Reid, who has obviously been one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time. This was a head scratcher, though, and it really was were they looking for the splitt in Tampa and then you get back to Kansas City for Games three through five and then the whole series could swing. But uh, it was. It was a strange night where a lot of things we just kind of took for granted and assumed going into this one. They just didn't really work out. But one thing you and I did talk about last week when we preview this game was Todd Bowls and what Todd Bowls would do, and uh, you know, I always give the caveat it's difficult to see exactly what was happening on the back end of the defense when you're watching the broadcast angle. You have to see the all twenty two to see what was what was really happening back there. But uh, it looked like for the most part, it was a lot of too deep safety and he was kind of like, I bet our pastors can dominate. And it did. Yeah. I mean after the game, I was doing some of the postgame interviews and uh, I think it was um, I think it was Shaq Barrett who said, you know this was four man pressure. I mean, it's not like we were doing anything exotic. UM. Some of the Chief's offensive lineman after the game had said, you know, there there was some stunts and stuff that obviously you don't see on tape, but that's every game and UM, and there's kind of some interesting stuff there that you have to adjust to at halftime. But yeah, the Buccaneers are running four man pressure. And what was crazy was UM, you know, Jason Pierre Paul wasn't as much the noisemaker. UM. Shaq Barrett had a great game. UM, but it was all over the place. It wasn't just the two guys on the ends that we were worried about. So like Vida Veia, for example, UM had the had the best average in terms of average separation per play UM out of any Buccaneers player. Then it was Shaq Barrett and Dominican Sue was in the backfield quite a lot during opportunities like that. So it was like it wasn't always the people that we thought that we're wrecking the game. But at the same time, I mean, every time you looked at Remors or uh On on the left side or you know, on the right side, I mean, it was just a disaster, and and it was the thing that we thought might come into play here. But I just thought at some point, uh, they would be able to figure out what Bowls is doing or put an extra guy or two in there to help. But they just never did. Yeah. And as far as Bowls goes, uh, you saw him bring a blitz on that third and eleven on what end up being the first points of the game on that drive, uh, and Mahomes just sort of sidesteped it, got out of it through the end zone and and I'm I'm not sure how Tyreek Kill didn't catch that ball, but that was almost a signal to Bowls of to be like, oh, whoa, we're not gonna we're not gonna mix this in. Let's uh, let's play it straightforward to hear and we're probably gonna be just fine. Let's let's not create any opportunities for Patrick Mahomes here. Yeah, And and that was something that we had talked about last week too, was you know, at what point do you want to take guys away from coverage when you know there four or five weapons deep. And I think that you're right that was probably the best realization that he had made all afternoon. And of course you're gifted a little bit by the fact that, just from an emotional standpoint, the Chiefs just seemed to be defeating themselves from the outset. Um, you know that dropped past by Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelsey, Um had a bunch of big drops there too, and so but yeah, Todd Bowles comes out of this looking every bit the plumb defensive coordinator that we thought going in and uh, you know, uh, it's it's hard to imagine, Uh, it's hard to imagine us seeing it going exactly this way. But then again, uh, we spent all week talking about the pass rush, the offensive line, and and it ended up making all the difference in the game. Well one, it was boring because we talked about it for two weeks and then we just sort of got sick of talking about it. And that's the way it goes. Do you think that the Chiefs didn't listen to our podcast and so they didn't know that there was going to be a problem with the protection upfront? I think they won't make that mistake next year. Yeah, Well, let's let's get into that a little bit. And again, I'm not gonna sit here and say, like, boy, and you read what what a bone had? That guy is. Uh. He is an all time great coach and he's probably going to win more Super Bowls here because of the Chiefs will probably be back there the next couple of years. But they had two weeks to figure out how they were gonna work around the fact that they had to backup offensive tackles in they If you look back over Andy Reid's career here, I mean, you know, like in Philadelphia, they used to chip a ton with like slot receivers, they used to have ways to help their tackles. I was actually, I mean I wrote it in my in my Sondy more in column. I was looking for, uh, Byron Pringle to do a little bit of Jason Navant work here and sort of chip Shack Barrett and Jason Pierre Baal. I noticed them do it once all game and that was it. And than that it was just like, it's whatever, maybe Mike Remers will hold up on this play, and it's just like, no, Nope, not gonna happen. And here's what blew my mind about that. Now you know we are recording this at eleven forty and so the official. You know, personnel usage isn't gonna be out until about six in the morning. UM will be able to confirm this. But the Chiefs only through a hundred passes this year with multiple tight ends on the field, and even in those formations, uh, they were the fourth best, fourth most efficient team out of multiple tight end passing in the league when they were doing it, So it's not like it's slowing you down that much. And all you gain from having that extra guy on the field to help and protection. I don't know why they didn't just come out in that, you know what I'm saying and just run that UM, because that doesn't stop Patrick Mahomes. It gives them more time to run around and you still have Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey there. Well. The other options are, if you want to get all your eligibles out, do you want to play quick game? I thought they I thought they were a little bit quicker getting the ball out in the first quarter than you normally see them be uh. And the other option is do you want to put my homes on the move a little bit, which with a lot of guys who put them on the move, and it's like, oh man, well, we're cutting the field in half. You're never really cutting the field in half. With my homes, you kind of already have the entire field available to you. So again, it's just it's a head scratcher. It's a head scratcher that they uh, it's one thing to go in and say, you know, we we think, uh, Wiley and and Rembers canna hold up here. We think we'll be all right. But you gotta have a plan B, and you gotta be able to go to your plan B. And they didn't. You're right, I mean they did go quick early. Um, but the screen game and and sort of the the pop passing game right off the bat was a disaster. And credit to Tampa Bay for I mean, they're the worst team. They're probably the worst team you're you want to play if that's how you want to kind of establish your offense and get the defense off your back, because they just have such good range e linebackers that are going to be able to make those tackles. Um, and they have and they have a really good secondary in terms of stopping the run and and and tackling and so um, that's tough if you're trying to get it to Pringle, if you're trying to get it to Tyreek Hill any of those guys just to you know, get those five or six yard movement quick passes. You know that wasn't gonna happen in a game like this, And so all of a sudden you're down to you know, your plan being Plans C. But like we talked about, where was Plan B in Plans C. We we just never ended up seeing it to the point where it got to be pretty lean by the end of the game. I mean, it was just you know, drop back mahomes, backyard football, try to find somebody and uh, and that's really what it looked like. He did have some spectacular incompletions and and that amazing not a that is not a backhanded complement. I mean they were just phenomenal plays. Uh. Tyreek dropped one. Uh. I still can't quite figure out what I'm on that fourth down play in the fourth quarter where it was still sort of within reach. Did that hit Darryl Williams hands before it you know, his head? Yeah, like kind of yeah, kind of parallel to the ground. Travis Kelsey had a he had a just brutal game. I you know, he sort of patted the stats in garbage time, which was most of the second half. But uh, he had that huge third down drop that came right after the goal line stand, and he had that that first third down in the second half before the long butcker field goal. He falls down and then it's like you can't shake Lavonte David. I mean, he's he was cooking up like Denzel Award in in the postseason here and like he couldn't shake a linebacker. Yeah, I I mean the whole thing was stunning to me. I wrote, um afterwards that and and I we are a podcast that deals in facts and uh and reality. But at the same point, like, I'm curious if you saw the same thing, Like I never saw the Chiefs this visibly dejected and like seemingly almost uninterested in what was going on. And it looked like, um, you know, every time somebody missed a block, they were down on themselves. Every time somebody missed a catch, they were sitting on the field shaking their head. And you know that this was not a Chiefs team, Like you know, guys are usually picking each other up and and firing each other up, and and this from the beginning, just they they looked like they felt like they had no gas the entire game. You know, there was no emotional search, there was no comeback. It was just complete flatness. And then that translates to, like you said, the miscatches, the inability to break tackles, all that other stuff down the line. This felt like I bring this game up all the time because it's before the Super Bowl. It was the most shocking Chiefs game I've ever seen. It felt like a Sunday night game in October in the twenty nineteen season when the Jacobe were sent Colts went into Kansas City and it was like this, they just Patrick Hohomes didn't do anything, justin Houston completely destroyed. It was Cam Irving filling in for Eric Fisher in that game, and this is what that felt like. And it was just stunning to see the Chiefs with just no answers. Although Tyreek Hill missed that Colts game, so you're down a weapon, you're down your left tackle. It's sort of you know, continues to add up. But Tyreek kills in this game and they're focusing all their their coverage on him. You still have Travis Kelsey still, Sammy Watkins. Uh, I don't know this was this was head scratching and certainly what was going on on the other side of the ball for this defense. And by the way, I apologize to the Bucks fans because we're really just really harpened on the Chiefs here and we still got to get to the Bucks, which we will get to in a second here. But uh, I mean, Tyra Matthew gets an interception. You know, they lose it on a dicey holding call. Uh. You know, Matthew gets up in Brady face, and they just take that as a a reason to absolutely go after Tyrone Matthew on that late first half a touchdown drive. And then you saw on the second half Chief start trying to heat up Tom Brady and it's just screen passes. It's just a little quick stuff that beats the blitz and it just had to be infuriating if you were on that Chief sideline. Yeah. By the way, um, Tyrone Matthew just said this as we're recording the podcast, that Tyre that Tom Brady called him something inappropriate on the field, which is why he got in his face. UM. I don't know if we'll ever know what that is, um, but that is uh, that is an interesting little subplot here that is one too that will fill some content for for a lot of people over the next couple of weeks. So let's, uh, we'll set that aside for a second. Let's congratulate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who are Super Bowl champions Tom Brady who has just it's just what I mean. We're we're thirteen minutes into the show now, Connor, and it's time to talk about Tom Brady and what he has accomplished here. Uh. And look, you and I get frustrated by this because we were men of logic and spreadsheets and numbers, and uh, we have difficulty with things like love and confidence and human emotions. And therefore it is really tough to when when someone says like, well you have to see the effect that Tom Brady has on the locker room, and it's like, I guess, But now it's like, oh, okay, I guess that's right. Yeah, And and there is something to that. I think if you go back and you interview some of the old um his old Patriots teammates, there were people that went on to other teams and they played in other locker rooms, and they would say that that you know, Tom Brady does prepare better and more methodically than anybody else in the league. And it's just, you know, it's one of those situations where once you get the snowball rolling on it, once you learn how to prepare, and then you accumulate the resources that Tom Brady does too, and and and then in the notebooks and the institutional knowledge, it becomes something of an operation. And so I think that, you know, it's almost like you have nine of Nick Saban's research assistant head coaches, UM and air assistant coaches and UH and air quotes there on your team, assembling a dossier. And you know, Tom Brady and Tampa Bay used or in New England used to give these guys notes, you know, on Saturdays before the game and say, hey, I think this is gonna happen. I think that is gonna happen. That stuff matters, you know, and that stuff matters in big games. It matters when Tom Brady's already faced Steve Spagnolo a million times, and it matters when he takes basically fourteen days before the Super Bowl to sit at home by himself and ship his family away and watch nothing but Steve Spagnolo tape and to come up with something that's gonna gut them, and it's exactly what he did. And I think the only disappointing part for fans was that it was not abu beutiful, aesthetically pleasing thing. It was, you know, we're going to run a pretty straightforward offense and just kind of pick apart your weak spots. Yep. They I mean, look, they've benefited from a lot of penalties in the first half. Some of them were a little bit uh, a little bit dicey, a little bit uh, especially in a year where officials really, i mean really the theme was let him play, especially that Sivarious Award holding call at erase the tyrone interception that was that was a really big deal there. But other than that, ye know, like the Mike Evans past refers to the thirty four yard pass inference on show brilland at the end of the first absolutely legitimate call. Uh. It just you know, it's it's not as cool as seeing Mike Evans actually catch the ball like that that has us. That has a a feeling of satisfaction when you're viewing that as opposed to two guys get tangled up and the guy defensive back has clearly been beat and he ends up just reaching out and grabbing Mike Evans. But the one play that gave me, you know, they gave me the goose bumps. I thought it was just the absolutely beautiful football was the Leonard four Nett. I mean that's just that's a classic power concept. Ali Marpett got out there and I think it was Trevarious Ward was out there on the edge on that play. I mean he was You could see Ward was coming up on mar Pet and he was just like this is over, and he just sort of sort of ducked out of the way instead of taking on the block. I mean, there's nothing Ward can do at that point. He's giving twenty pounds to our pet. Uh, he was a decision. Yep. It was absolutely beautiful though. It was perfectly executed, perfect call for that moment, and for Net gets the walk in touchdown, that was Uh, that was gorgeous. Yeah, that was really pretty um and I was happy for playoff Lenny. Um. Playoff Lenny has had a good couple of weeks here, Um and just your life in general, I think improves when you move from Jacksonville down to Tampa Bay and Uh. I think that's true of anybody who's done that in the Florida area, but especially Leonard Fournett, so for him. But yeah, no, I I think that we all get wrapped up in what we think Bruce Arians' offense is and should be. You know how many times did um Tony Romo say about you know, how amazing they are in terms of efficiency and all that stuff and none of that. It's true, like Tony Romo said during the game that UM Tampa Bay runs on first down all the time because they're so good at it. They're the second worst team in the NFL and running the ball in first down, you know, there there are very few teams actually they're worse at it. And so but for for some reason it worked today, And I think that that's what is amazing, is the willingness to kind of stick with the functionality of the ground game and then just to pick up your your little first downs where you can. Gronk coming in the way that he did um and sort of knifing that defense open. They just they had a lot of they had a lot of answers today. For sure, it went up seemed to Gronk they hit one. Uh, sort of a deep end route to Mike Evans at the end of the second quarter. There. I mean, they had it again. It's not a beautiful sustained offense that they're running out there, but you know, if you're gonna play with the lead, it is more than good enough. Uh. Should we hit some some miscellaneous stuff before we we're gonna playing off season look ahead and other things to discuss your Connor, but just miscellaneous things from the night. Uh, this was my first Um, this was so I've I've been covering the NFL since so it's that's only the third Super Bowl that I've seen at home. Um, And so this was the first time in years that I got to see commercials. And I will say that the oat milk commercial was amazing. Uh it was it was like beyond my wildest expectations. It was perfect. So, UM, that was good. I really like that. Um. But in terms of on fields miscellaneous things, UM, you know, I I thought that I was amazed at how much kind of baked in animosity that we didn't realize was there, you know a lot of them, Like this was a much more emotional super Bowl than I had expected, given the fact that there was no build up, right, you know, there's no week before the game. Um, there's no chance for anybody to really say anything stupid. I think the closest thing to a controversial comment was Jason Pierre Paul saying he didn't know who Mike Gramer's was. Um. But you know, after the game, we see, like you know, Antoine Winfield got penalized for taunting Tyree Hill and talking about like, you know, how much he hated the way that Tyreek Hill acted the last time they played. Like I I guess I didn't realize how much bad blood existed between these two teams, and you could tell that one team really sort of carried that with them emotionally. I mean Tampa Bay did come out aggressive, they made some big hits early on and did kind of set the tempo in that way a little bit. Yeah, I mean Antoine Winfield with a peace sign at Tyreek Hill was one that way is a it will be a lasting image. I mean, that'll be tastic. It was fantastic these teams. I mean probably four years from now, unless we see Super Bowl rematch, I guess Winfield and Tyreek will still be will still be around. Tyreek Hill will be like, um, like maybe in like four years will be like uh um, like Ted Ginn or like Tavon Austin where you're like, oh, yeah, he's on the team, and then like and then like once every three months, you'll be playing somebody who forgot to have add a wide receiver on their fantasy team and they picked them up, and then it's the one week where they catch four balls for a hundred and thirty eight yards and two touchdowns. You know, But I think that's kind of the future, that the distant future that we see for Tyreek Hill. But yeah, they'll they'll be around to yell at each other for a while and that'll be fun. He's got everybody likes that he's got a Joey Galloway phase first before he reaches that and then uh and then we'll see what happens. But uh yeah, this was a Tommy Townsend the cheese punter rough rough night, And I'm kind of thankful for his sake that this one ended up not being very close because he was boy he was having some issues out there. He didn't end up on the field in the second half because they were playing four down football. But that was the other amazing thing about this is even when it got to the second half, it was like, boy Bucks, better put up some more points here. You know, this is four down territory the rest of the game for Patrick Mahomes. He can't not put up points. They didn't put up points after the Harrison Butker field goal to open the third quarter. I mean, that is uh, that is exceptional. You know it well. And and what I wrote after the game was just something that I'm generally curious about because I think it can go one of two ways, right. One is that we just assume maybe that okay, um, they didn't have two of their starting tackles, they didn't have their best offense arguably their second best offensive lineman who opted up for the season. And so you know, let's forget what we saw um during the Super Bowl because it was a complete indictment of of the pass rush and and nothing further should be taken from it. Or do we look at it like when New England beat the Rams in the Super Bowl two years ago, where and I hate the use of the term blueprint, but that we see a more effective and replicable way of beating a very good offense UM at a high you know, in a place where defensive coordinator can spend the whole off season studying it, you can probably sign a few guys to help you do what you need to do there. And then do we start to see people sort of chip away at the things that the Chiefs do best? Right? Like? Is this you know I'm not saying Patrick Mahomes won't be around for for twenty years and be great. I think that's true. But this itineration of the Chiefs and the quote unquote dynasty in the making, like maybe that that long ter, long term prospects were hurt greatly by by today. I think that. I think that that's absolutely possible. What I'm curious about that with the Chiefs is when they reach the point where Tyreek has lost half a step, and at that point, Travis Kelsey is not in the league, when the weapons slowed down. I don't really know if what the Bucks did tonight was replicable because I don't think you're ever going to dominate in the past rush against really I guess really any team like we saw the Bucks uh due tonight to the Chiefs. And on top of that, I don't want to be one of those guys who's like, well, you know, if Dyree catches that ball and Kelsey catches that ball, but there is a choose your own adventure here that uh if if Kelsey makes a play, if Tyree makes a play, if Darrell Williams catches the ball that hits him in the hands, this game might be a little bit different. Uh. And and make no mistake, the Bucks outplayed the Chiefs severely. They out coached the chief severely, which was uh kind of the most surprising thing tonight. But uh, I don't think the Chiefs were I don't think this is an impossible path for them to to come back on. I just I don't either, you know, I think that they probably will still be back. You know, Am I ready to say that like the Chargers are going to take over in the a f C West or No, you know, I don't think that, Um, that's on anybody's radar. That said, I just think that, you know, maybe they're not as feared as they once were, you know, and and and that's a nebulous concept to right, but maybe uh teams go at them a little bit more than they used to. You know, they don't sit on their heels and just pray that Patrick Mahomes isn't picking them apart. Maybe they go after him a little bit more. I don't know. And again another factor in the fold there's that Patrick Mahomes doesn't have turf toe probably next year. And um, not that it affected his mobility that much tonight. I think he was still as functional in that aspect as he normally is. But UM, I don't know, I could see them just becoming less of like that. Um, I don't know. Uh, what's a good superhero character that like a villain that you can like kind of chip away at, you know, maybe like the like Boss one on Saw, you know that kind of thing. The more times you bop them on the head, the less the less intimidating it gets. Then Eggman and then all of a sudden, he just kind of combusts. You know, that's a deep cut. It really looks a little like egg Man. Dr Eggman. I could I could see that played by Jim Carrey in the movie if if I, if I picked up correctly on the trailer, you're right, Okay, Okay, I guess I'll say this as as we wrap up sort of the game portion of this, and then we'll get into some of the offseason look aheads. But maybe the lesson is, and this just feels two on the nose, and that's why I don't like it. But maybe the lesson is you're just gonna have to ramp up the pass rush here. If you're the Bills and you are depending on sort of you know, they have Jerry Hughes, but they don't have a whole lot else coming off the edge to wreck games, maybe that's the answer you have to come up with, because I mean, look, we even saw in that in that game when they had clean shot that Patrick Mahomes, Mahomes was escaping and making big plays. I guess you just have to dominate to a certain level with his pass rush that most teams are not capable of. So the answer is, you just gotta you gotta find a couple of elite pass rushers, especially once you know Eric Fisher and whether it's Mitchell Schwartz or whoever becomes their their next starting right tackle might be, you know, to perfectly disprove my last point, you know what, this game was exactly like it was like um when the Jets beat the Patriots in the a f C Championship game back in two thousand ten, and like Sean Ellis was a man possessed that day in Trevor Price and how how often they got into the backfield against Brady? And then what did we say after that? Right? Um, this is how you beat Brady is constant interior pressure, simulated pressure, all this stuff. This is the blueprint this and then you beat up Grounk at the line. This is how you how you do it. Patriots are going to start to be diminished, um, and and this is how it works. And maybe that's the same thing with the Chiefs, where to a degree that's true. But how often you can actually replicate it is is the issue. And and we might not see another team be able to beat the Chiefs up this way for a long time. I mean, maybe for another two years, I don't know, maybe Patrick Homes wins the next two Super Bowls. You know, I was hoping you were going to say it reminded you of like the Frog King at the end of Super Mario Brothers. Too. Super Mario Brothers two is is terrible. Um, it's the worst out of all them. Uh. And you know, so I'm I'm a one in three if I have to play it with regularity. So yeah, two was I tried to do that last offseason. I tried to make it through all of them. I got to I got to sixty four. Uh, and I hate it. It makes me angry. I despise that game, and I stopped playing Mario sixty four. Mario to Mario sixty four. No, I'm I went through to I, I did three, I did the whatever. The NS one was uh boy sixty four though, and I know that was like groundbreaking it came out, but it is just miserable. I'm I'm literally looking at my end sixty four with Mario sixty four in it right now. I can I'm pointing, I can show it to you. I can like turn my laptop around and show it to you before I have one interesting fact on Super Mario two and then we can move on with this. Did you know that that wasn't supposed to be Super Mario Too? Like Super Mario Brothers one was so good and it went so bananas that they were like, oh, ship, we need a sequel, and so they just took another game that was already done and just sort of like pasted the Mario people over, yeah, like and just put like them and like so like it had nothing to do with Mario. And like remember because in that game, you like dug up like turnips and stuff and you were throwing them at like stuff, and and everyone was like, what the hell is going on? It's like because yeah, because that was a game totally supposed to be something else, and they just freaked out and made it a Mario game. I wish they had done that with tech Mobowl. And like Louis Luigi becomes Bill Romanowski and then it's like, I don't get this. What am I doing here? Just just you know, that's that's something maybe a non Buccaneers fan or Chiefe fan might appreciate from this podcast. You know, you can walk away with something. All right, Connor, you hang on for one second, because it is once again time for the SI Fantasy segment, presented by DraftKings and and once again for the last time in the Slash twenty one season. Michael Fabriano of s I Fantasy and SI Fantasy Podcast joins me and, uh, Fabs, we're gonna do something a little different here. We're gonna keep a Super Bowl centric Uh, We're probably not gonna get a whole lot into the Patrick Mahomes Chad Penny quarterback controversy. That's now Bruin going next here. But uh, these running backs on both sides pretty interesting, dude, to this point you think so? I mean the Chiefs at this point, I still feel like are going to be leaning on Clyde Edwards Hilier to start next season. Damian Williams was, of course an opt out due to COVID. He's still under contract. Levian Bell is not under contract. I don't know that he would be back. I think people have to remember that before the Chiefs signed Levian Bell, Clyde Edwards Hilaire was on pace for over eight scrimmy jobs. He was on paced over rushing yards. He was doing pretty well. And the whole Levy on Bell thing just turn that thing sideways from a fantasy perspective, because the Glide was a first round pick in a lot of redrafts. I think he'll be the guy. And it wasn't a great finish to the season. I don't know if he was back at it seemed like he was, but they were using Darryl Williams a little bit more. Of course, in the Super Bowl, they were getting their brains beat in so the running game kind of went by the wayside. But I would suggest I think the glide Is probably can end up being a second or third round pick, maybe more of a third round pick next season in fantasy drafts. All right, I like that value, good feeling, It could be a good value. Andrew Reid's always had success when it comes to the backfields, dating back to Philadelphia, and I remember talking about this in the non existent preseason Do Staley, Brian westbrook Ly, Shawn McCoy, Jamal Charles Kareem Hunt. He had a lot of success and Edwards Hilaire was was right on track to be successful until they inexplicably, for some reason, decided to bring in a wash double Shawn Levian Bell, and it all kind of went sideways from there. Things will be better in one for the former L s U superstar. So we have the Bucks Ronald Jones, we have Leonard Fournette. Four Net is a pending free agent here. Let's let's assume four Nets coming back. I mean, we we know there's never a robust market for running backs here, so they can probably afford to bring for Net back, even though they they have some other guys to to address as far as resigning. But if this ends up being a for Nett Jones backfield, again, what's what's what you're feeling? Who who would you rather have out of that duo? Ronald Jones and I know for Net was the hero and the point. He was the highest scoring running back based on Fantasy points in the postseason, and honestly it wasn't close. He was really good. And I think for Net did play his way back onto the Buccaneers. I think it's the best for him. I don't know that he's gonna end up anywhere else in the league and be a featured back, and I think it would end up being a situation where Ronald Jones would be the lead back and for Net would be, I don't want to say a complimentary back, but it would end up being somewhat of a committee scenario and for Net would be more of the pass catching back, which remember in twenty nineteen he had seventy six catches and he looked pretty good down the stretch as a pass catcher. Leshawn McCoy, whether or not he retires remains to be seen. I would I would guess he probably would sign with Philadelphia, retire and that would be the end. They also have Keyshawn Vaughan in the mix there too, But I would guess at this point that for Net, who was a Super Bowl hero, I mean, he put up very good numbers on another good run, four touchdown, second in Fantasy points in the Super Bowl, behind only Mr Super Bowl Rob Gronkowski. For Net will likely end up being at least in my opinion, in some sort of committee next season in Tampa Bay with Ronald Jones, which will hurt the value of both players. But sometimes we just can't have nice things and that's the way life goes. Uh, let's go receiving options on both sides. Let's keep it on the Bucks side again. Questions here, Chris Godwin is hitting free agency. Antonio Brown was just on the one year deal as well. I would I would presume they are open to bringing Antonio Brown back. I don't know if there's a big market for him for for many reasons, but uh, it's still you know, a lot of a lot of mouths to feed on an offense that doesn't always store it around a lot, right, my guests would be And also, you know you mentioned that Tampa Bay has a bunch of free agents. Shaqu Barrett is going to be a free agent, Lavonte David's going to be a free agent, and domicusu is going to be a free agent. They could probably get Antonio brown Back. He would be an attractive piece for them, wouldn't cost a ton of dough. But the dude super talented. We know that. I kind of think Chris Godwin might be the odd man out. He won his Super Bowl. A lot of teams could be looking at him. I'm actually gonna be posting my top twenty fantasy free agents for on s I Fantasy here this week. I will project every player on that top twenty in terms of where I'd like to see them land from a fantasy perspective, and Godwin will stay on the East coast, but it won't be Tampa Bay, and that's what they qualities, so I would see I will. It's not like I know anything, it's just a guess. It's for fantasy purposes. But Evans a b here's something that I can absolutely see this happening. I can absolutely see this happening. How about Julian Edelman goes to Tampa reunites with his guys too much? They let Godwin go because they have to keep their defensive superstars, the young kids they got there. As much as I love Godwin and Tampa, there's a lot of miles to feed. I'd rather see him go someplace sels where where he is the guy. Right from a fantasy perspective, that's kind of what you want. But the Buccaneers have a lot of very important defensive pieces that they they're going to need to keep, whether it be resigning Tag, whatever the case may be. So Godwin out of the top three Buccaneers wide receivers, we know Evans is still under contract, I would see a b coming back on a on a much cheaper deal than Chris. Godwin is certainly going to be looking for because he's in the prime of his career alright. Other side Chiefs here, Sammy Watkins free agent. I guess the question is I think Watkins Walks, I think you're looking at probably Nicole Hartman taking on a bigger role. But is there any room for a consistent fantasy guy outside of Kelsey Hill Edwards Hilaire, which which is really just weird to say because it's it's the best offensive football. Yeah, but when you look past the top two, which of course are Hill and Kelsey, and then you could throw Clyde Edward Hilaire in there. But again, we don't know what the the impact of Damian Williams could be, assuming he's back and he's still under contract in Kansas City. Sammy Watkins didn't really make a consistent fantasy impact in Kansas City. Nicole Hardman hasn't either. De Marcus Robinson hasn't either. I'm not gonna bring up Byron Pringle. So it's it's it's kind of the the top two receiving options and everybody else. And I saw some stuff online people are projecting some of the top free agent wide receivers and where they might go. And you know, there was a couple that had Allan Robinson go into Kansas City. I don't want that. I want Allen Robinson going somewherece. He's gonna be the guy, right because I'm selfish and I want fantasy ports. And so could Kansas City bring in a veteran wide receiver. Could they keep Sammy Watkins, bring them back, resign them. I mean sure that's within the Roman possibility. Did they make the role for Nicole Hardman a little bit bigger? Sure, that's also within the realm of possibility, that would be my guess, uh for for for this pass attack. But at the end of the day, when you've got so many targets funneling the two guys, and even in a Mahomes offense, and we all know Mahomes is great, it's really hard to have enough targets enough room for another player to have big numbers. We haven't seen that. In Kansas City. We have it. And I can't go back to Philadelphia to as a comparison when Andy Reid was the coach there because they never really had all that many good wide receivers to begin with, right, I mean, it was always like some guy like Freddie Mitchell or Todd Pinkston or you know, whatever the case may be. Going going back, folks, you can go look at them up on Pro Football Reference, but I would I would think that Hardman would be the third option in the passing game if they don't bring back Watkins, because I don't know that they would go out and and sign a big name free agent wide receiver. Clearly, Kansas City has some needs, and the offensive line is going to be one of those needs. Alright, fabs we uh we appreciate you stopping by every week. I've very much enjoyed our visits. You and I We're gonna keep talking. I mean offseason. I'm gonna be writing three or four columns a week for s I throughout the entire offseason. And I use that term lightly because we're gonna have a ton of stuff to talk about. Man. So I will be talking to you very soon, my friend. I guarantee it, guarantee it. Alright, Fabs, have a have a great I don't know, four hours of off season here, and we'll we'll get back at it, alright, my brother, I'll talk to you soon, alright, Connor, this is the this is the time of year. The season is officially over. They're not gonna play any more games in the season. I hope I'm not runing it one's day by pointing that out, but uh, this is the time of year when you and I we we signed each other's yearbooks, we say our goodbyes. I hope you have a great summer and I'll see you in the fall. But um, I did want to about some some genuine thanks first and foremost to Shelby Royston, our producer, who uh he is? He is out tonight. He is on the injured list. Uh, not available tonight. Scott Brody pinch hitting. Scott Brody coming down from his Ivory tower. Our are our director of podcasts. Is is pinch hitting for Shelby time. It's also is Scott's in a different time zone. It's it's like it's midnight here on the East Coast, and if my math is correct, it is eleven am where Scott is, So he's got the whole day in front of him. But Shelby, along with making the shows actually sound suitable for for human consumption, uh, he organizes a lot of what we do. Uh. He is just in absolute rock for us, and especially with all the craziness going on with uh, I mean the the pandemic. It was really nice to have that kind of presence this year. Uh. And it's always nice and we greatly appreciate show be Yeah, I mean, speaking as part of the weak Side podcast team, I mean, any time anybody has given us feedback on something that they liked about the podcast, it was Shelby's idea. He is the best and we wish him a speed recovery and a hearty thanks for for a great year. This year. We also do thank Scott who has been a big supporter of the podcast. Ben Eagle, who is moving on to NPR as a matter of fact. Uh, yeah, this is this will be his last time in the end credits here. I know that's everyone's favorite part of the show. So Ben has always been a big supporter of the MMGP podcast. And uh, I guess especially in the case of of myself and and and for you Connor, look, our our families, our home all the time, and we're home all the time, and we both have small kids. We have kids who one might categorize as baby in age, and uh, it is not always easy to get the shows done. Uh. I think for both us, our kids have just been incredibly cooperative and uh and our wives, who certainly have their own work life to worry about, have been incredibly helpful and just helping us be able to do these shows. Uh in a way that I mean just quite frankly, you probably do not hear the terrified screams of children in the background when you listen to the show, but they exist. It is omnipresent. And so another credit to Shelby for for making all that background noise go away. But yeah, no, I you know there are days like this when um, you know you you do, you are struck by the um by that gratitude. You know, like we said, you know, you know my wife Will who works full time to she'll be on zoom calls and and but the trade off there is so great. I mean, a podcast is such a longer commitment. You know, it's like an hour and hour and a half of actual taping. There's the planning before the taping, the discussions afterwards on what we can do better, and to be able to wrangle the kids while you know, all that stuff is going on. Um, for our producers to be able to understand when somebody kicks the door down and wants to grab the microphone to sing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, which happened back in March, actually, um, you know, to understand that, to be able to cut that out, to edit it, I mean, you know, uh, and for everyone to listen to it too. I think you know, after this season, you do kind of get hit by all that gratitude everybody being able to make that possible. So that's very much appreciated, and of course we thank you folks out there who listen to all these shows and if you miss any during the season, go back and listen. Now you'll basically get to relive the entire season. You do it all offseason, just just every day listen to all, uh what are we twenty one shows here? And uh, the magic just comes flooding back in. Yeah. And if I could add one more to that, please do. Yeah. We Um, we lost a great colleague in the football writing world this week, and Chris Westling. And there's a lot of people know I came from around the NFL where I was lucky enough to sometimes uh be on the podcast with Chris, but more lucky just to be his friend, to be able to text with him about books and raising our families together, um, all that stuff. Um. You know, he was always the the first guy that you would see it at Super Bowls especially, you know, that was the thing that I would think of, was I couldn't wait to hit the ground, um, you know, to get to the hotel bar because Chris was just gonna light lighted on fire with great stories and you know, just just a wonderful person. And so you know that kind of contributes to it a little bit about what we're saying is the appreciation to get to do this every day. And you know, you you think about all the great people who have who have been there, you know, along along the path, and there's nobody better than Chris. And uh on a night like this especially, think about, um, you know how much he's missed, and you know how much the world misses his right is gonna miss his writing. You know, there's just no doubt about that. And so you know, any time that you know, I've tried to do something, I know that Chris has been a huge part of it. He's hugely influential across the business. And uh, yeah, so the world lost a the world lost a really good writer, but just an even better person this week. So I wanted to make sure we could mention that as well. Now I'm glad you mentioned it, Connor, and uh I hesitated to bring this up because I don't want to be the guy who who is like, well, let me tell you my story type of thing. Uh. I didn't know Chris at all. Uh He d m me a couple of years ago with just an exceptionally nice note about something I had written, which was it was just the kind of thing where you see, it's like Okay, we're strangers, and you wrote me this super nice note. I don't write notes like this to my friends and people I know, And I mean, gosh, just taking a trip through Twitter for a couple of minutes and you can see, uh, just how incredibly well liked and just what a what a great duty was and and obviously you you know what he was if you follow the NFL, you know who he was as a writer and as a podcaster and uh um, gosh, yeah, he's uh he he's going to be just uh m hmm. It's it's it's appropriate to struggle to come up with the words because sometimes you can't. You can't with Chris. I mean, there's just there's too much good. You know, there's just way too much good. And that's that's the bottom line, you know. Alright, let's uh, let's talk about the Bucks offseason. Let's do it. And so Connor, I'm looking at these two teams and we'll get to the Chiefs. The Chiefs are kind of they're kind of intact. The Bucks are going to be really interesting. And and look, you know, if if anyone was wondering, Tom Brady is not retiring. He's come back next year. I don't think i'd surprised anyone he did. He did sort of, I guess officially announced it on the podium after the game. Uh, the decisions they're gonna have to make and the who I have kind of circled, Uh, Chris Godwin is one, Shack Barrett is the other. And then you have some other guys, whether it be Lande, David and dum Kan, Sue, does Grant come back? Uh to me god to win Em. Barrett are the two least replaceable guys among their free agents. And we'll start with Barrett because I think Barrett has basically earned the right to be one of the top paid non quarterbacks in football at this point. He's twenty eight. I know it feels like he's been around forever, but he's twenty eight. And you know, the rule of thumb is these veteran contracts are essentially three year contracts. So pass rushers age well, it's a uh, you know, it's a proactive position. You're you're not you're not getting sort of your body stuck in sort of reactionary poses and things like that that they can sort of wear down a little bit further. We've seen a lot of great edge rushers play well into their mid thirties. I think Shaq Barrett's like, I think he's easily like a twenty million dollar you're a guy for the next three years. I think so too. The problem is, I I would not be surprised if we see that market diminish a little bit. Now. The cap is gonna be slightly higher than we ended up expecting it to be. It's not gonna be flat, it's gonna go up just a little bit. Um. But the teams that you would normally see as the ones who are gonna shop at the top end of the market for a pass rusher because they're one pass rusher piece away, I don't know if a lot of those teams are going to have the ability to spend um that kind of money, you know. I think that when we've seen um other like sort of the franchise tagged pass rushers come close to the market, even the trade market hasn't really materialized, you know, unless it's someone like DeForrest Buckner, where you have that true inside outside presence and you can be a little bit more versatile there. So I don't know. I'm interested to see what happens, but if you're Jason Light, you can't let any of these guys go. At this point, you know, you've sort of created a situation where you have to live in the now and live in the present, and you have to bring back Shack Barrett. You have to bring back Chris Godwin because if you don't win the Super Bowl next year, now, vern's going to be like, well, that's because you know, you let one piece a or piece be go and all of a sudden, you know, we just weren't that good enough. God wins the one that is interesting to me because if you're gonna have to spend money elsewhere. Uh. On one hand, you know, Godwin is is probably gott you look at and say like, oh, well here's a here's the top of the market guy. Uh. The thing is, the receiver market is completely flooded right now. And I think you're gonna see I think there's a good chance Allen Robinson and or Kenny Gollady make it out there. Uh. You know you have those second tier guy, Juju Smith, Schuster, Will Fuller, Curtis, Samuel not to mention the veteran t Y Hilton, Sammy Watkins, J. J. Green. Uh, and you have a draft class coming up that is, um, you don't want to get carried away with it, but it is gaining similar repute to the to the wide receiver draft class from last year that is considered historically great. So again, I wrote about this for the upcoming issue of s I. It is actually a sidebar to a connor or a piece, and I'm very proud to uh to be a part of it. But uh, if you look around the league, these teams are looking at like a j Brown who is on a four year, five point six million dollar deal. Uh, Terry mclauren, who who I think it's like three point eight over four because of lowalk wage scale, and even like a Justin Jefferson who was the first round pick. Justin Jefferson is going to make thirteen million over the first four years. Uh. And obviously those guys can renegotiate, but not until after year three. So all these receivers, all these stud receivers are getting locked in on incredibly cheap deals. And if you're the Bucks and you're already paying Mike Evans, and let's be honest, they're probably open to bringing back Antonio Brown. I mean they you've heard all Super Bowl week. You know, Antonio has been great in the in the locker room, and that seems to be all they really care about. And we won't get too deep into the Uh, just many many reasons that Antonio Brown is contin considered toxic for most franchises. But uh, Antonio Brown will be available on a discount deal and the Bucks will most likely take it, even though he'll you know, he's scheduled to be facing a civil trial for sexual assault around week thirteen next year. I think Brown is back. And then if you're looking at it as the box, it's like, well, we're investing in Mike Evans, we have Antonio Brown, We've got to spread the money around some some of these other places. I wouldn't be surprised if god One gets away, Yeah, that I could see that, unless they somehow convince him that this is his best chance to you know, maybe you maximize your market next year when the salary cap is more generous and there's gonna be a higher percentage of teams that are willing to spend um, you know, at the top of the market on receiving you know, I I doubt he does like a high end one year deal. You know or something like that, but you know, you don't know. I mean, you don't know what's possible at this point. But yeah, no, you're right. I think if there's one when maneuver you make, it's there. And and Bruce arians even said it after the game, He's like, I have the utmost confidence in Jason Light. That's he's going to nail the draft and we're just gonna be right back here again next year. And um, and maybe they have that kind of relationship that you know, there aren't a lot of coaches and gms, I would say Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch being one where you can you can count on the draft is being a direct pipeline to your offense and getting the things exactly the way you need it. That said, Tristan Worf's was a great pick this year. He filled in and he was phenomenal. And Jason Lights nailed a lot of these picks that he's nailed, And so maybe a receiver on a rookie contract is in the cards there for sure. Now look worse, Antoine Winfield, those guys are on bargain basement contracts, uh, making you know a fraction of what a free agent veteran makes at those positions. Uh, the Chiefs again. I I don't really know what to say about the Chiefs here. You gotta get your tackles healthy. Maybe you end up finding a replacement from Mitchell Schwartz, who sort of started to show his age finally, uh this season. But other than that, Sammy Watkins probably walks. So you're looking for an ex receiver type guy. But I don't know. I mean, I don't know why that is on your list of priorities do uh to make sure you get a quality I guess fourth option in the offense. Yeah, no, that's a good question. Uh. I'm not well now I'm gonna sound as dumb as I did before the season started. I'm not sure that I pencil in the Buccaneers to come back here next year. Um, but you know you can play this all in the loop when they're playing in the Super Bowl again in l A next year. I guess I have I tweeted this, but I really do have some some work to do. I gotta go back and delete a lot of bad Buccaneers takes. Like I've had a lot of bad ones this year. I think I've written like three or four times that this team is not being built in the correct way, and uh yeah, so here we are naturally with them lifting the Lombardi Trophy. I have written repeatedly over the past month that their offense is broken and not functional in twenty and uh, I don't know if I want to comletely back off of that take. I don't think it's a very good offense, but it was certainly good enough and with what the defense was doing. Uh yeah, I mean that was that was enough on that side of the ball. I do want to pat myself on the back, though, because after they lost that Thursday night game to the Bears. Uh, that that really ugly Thursday. They lost Vida by in that game and it was just a terrible game. Uh. I had written them in I think I picked them like three in the Power rankings after that or something, and just got a torrent of people saying I did not respect the sanctity of the Power rankings by doing that, and I'm just kind of like, I don't know. I think they're a complete team. I think the defense is really good, and I think the offense is probably gonna be fine by the end of the year, which I guess at the very end, in literally the final game, the offense reached a point where it was fine. Well, let let me backtrack here for a minute on the idea of sanctity and the power rankings. Um. When whenever it was my turn to do the power rankings this year and makes Goldish, our editor who compiles the power rankings, used to undo a lot of the changes that he made that I would make because he said that I was not taking it seriously. When all I was doing was I was making it was positioning certain teams in certain places. Um. And yes, it might have looked a little outlandish, but it was just trying to overcorrect some of the other power rankings that I had seen elsewhere that I didn't like. And so there was a method behind my madness. But that was largely censored by the magazine's top brass. And so here we are so too many people meek with their power rankings. Take a stand, be powerful. It's your chance, you know, there you go. It did give me a chance to write an intro about Nikolai Tesla, which is really the only thing I wanted to do the season. I get to cross that off my bucket list. There it is making dreams happen. Uh, real quick, before we go, I will speak for you and say that we both think the Chiefs are are probably your favorite in the a f C coming into next year. Is that is that? Okay? Connor? That's very fair. Yep. When you look at the n f C, I would throw the the Packers, Bucks, Rams, forty nine Ers all up there on the upper echelon. I think there's a case to be made for the Saints depending on what you think of the quarterback situation, and the Seahawks depending on what you think of the non quarterback situation. But uh, I don't know. I mean I would I I think i'd call this forty Niners, Rams, Packers on tier one, Bucks on Tier one and a half, and St. Seahawks Tier two. Yeah, I agree with you, Gary, I I like the forty Niners there. And the forty Niners could be one of those teams like Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and year one. I mean they could get they could move up and get Trey Lance in the draft and they could add another dimension to that offense. There's no guarantee that Jimmy Garoppolo is back, and it's sort of that same plotting offense that we've seen and to kind of further that point along, I mean, Jimmy Garoppolo could be back in New England or he's had a lot of success, and the Patriots could be knocking off the Bills again and making trouble in the playoffs, deep in the FC playoff race. So I you know, I think that there's just so many uncertainties that have not been filled in yet to the point where I don't know, you know, you have to like the Rams too. I mean, they went all in on the on the Matt Stafford deal and they're going to be a force to be reckoned with in the in the NFC as well. I have one wish for one offseason, and that's that Jacobi Prisette ends up with a starting job somewhere. I want him to get another chance. And that's it. Jake Brisket forever, man go get go, get the bag. M hmmm. Alright, Connor, you will be back with Jenny Brentis on the week Side podcast if any of you folks out there are not already subscribing, and I'm sorry because everyone out there is already subscribing, and I hate to repeat myself but I know there's a few of you who don't. Please do subscribe to the weak Side podcast and check out Jenny and Connor and uh I'll be back next week with someone, probably Connor. I don't know. I well, we'll see, but uh yeah, probably Connor. I feel good about that. Yeah. The mm QB Monday Morning NFL podcast is Connor Or and me Gary Grambling. We are produced normally by Shelby Royston. Shelby's out this week, Scott Brody is pinch hitting, and Scott, by the way, is s i S Executive producer of podcasts. Mark Ravick is a meritus center of the MMQB, Andynoi is the founder of the MMQB NFL podcast. Be sure to subscribe to this feed, as well as the feeds for the week Side podcast and the Albert Breer show that has our Breer on it. By the way, they're all for free on Apple Podcasts, and once you do subscribe, please leave a rating mber you for all of them. It really does help other people find the shows, which are also available on Spotify Radio dot com, Stitcher, si dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

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