Hello, and welcome back to the week Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis here with Connor Or on this Monday in August. It was an interesting weekend for the NFL regarding COVID testing. There was a spate of false positives that were traced to a lab in New Jersey, making for an unusual Sunday. There were practices delayed, players who were not practicing, notably Bill's quarterback Josh Allen. And it was kind of a reminder that this year there's going to be some stops and starts, different circumstances that come up. We've had false positives before, Connor, but this was the first example of there being a cluster of them traced to kind of a contamination in the testing um. And as the situation that happened with Matthew Stafford, which was just an isolated false positive test um, certainly this will prompt a conversation potential additional protocols added to respond to situations like this come up. Again. What were your thoughts? I like how the New Jersey got called out in specific, so we got banged down here, um, but it's like that ominous like it all started in a lab in New Jersey. It's like a very it's like a very ominous sort of thing right there, you know. But yeah, I mean this is going to be the tenor of our regular season, right. We are not perfected as a country, um as as a global society. Yet I think when it comes to testing, Uh, this virus really started attacking us, what six months ago? Seven months ago? And if you look at the timeline of how things evolve in medicine and how how long it takes to safely fight something, um like this, it's gonna take some time. We're gonna have issues like this, and I think it's better off, um, you know, to just continue doing what we're doing instead of saying, well, okay, well these tests are not accurate, and let's pole through. I mean, we at least have an obligation to the players who are playing to keep them safe, just like we have an obligation to anybody who wants to take a COVID nineteen test to be able to make sure that they get fast and reliable information. Yeah. And when you're doing the volume of tests that the NFL is doing, they're doing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tests, there's going to be one false positives. There's also the possibility of, as we saw with this cluster of seventies seven false positives, of there being some kind of contamination and testing. If you've ever worked in a lab, I spent some time working in a lab in college, it's pretty easy to see how there could be contamination. Things don't always go correctly. Sometimes tubes get mixed up. Sometimes probably pet needles get mixed up. So there's a lot of different ways that contamination can occur. And given the volume of testing, not just for the NFL but around the country, it's understandable that there would be mix ups. I guess the question is how will the NFL potentially adjust these protocols so that if a situation like this came up again before a game day, how would teams be in a position to get answers on those players and know if they are false positives or can be traced to another inaccurate cluster as this was with the Stafford case. They ended up beginning to institute the point of care testing, which is essentially you get a test on site and you get the results right away. It's a rapid test, and then so if you've got a positive test. The next day, you would get both the point of care tests and get that result immediately, and then they would also send away the other as usual PCR tests, and you would wait twenty four hours for that to be sent away. I wondered if one option here, and the NFL is having a call at three pm, so maybe there will be some updates there. One option I thought of was potentially having two point of care tests, maybe twelve hours apart or something. If you had to rap bid tests during one day, then you uh the point of care tests. It's an anagen task. The accuracy rate is lower, so if you had two of the tests, presumably you would have an increased rate um of accuracy, and so I think that would be one option. I'm not sure what the NFL will do. I wonder if there is a way to get an expedited PCR test, but again there's already such a strain on testing resources in the country and at these labs that I don't know what's possible. Those were two thoughts that came to mind. Connor of ways that they could adjust. And I've never been in the lab, and what I'm about to say it might sound incredibly stupid, right, But even the best testing is what they say percent accurate. But if you're testing football teams with eight man rosters and thirty two of them, like okay, ninety nine out of a hundred are going to be right. But you know, there's a way more than a hundred people at a time that we're testing here, and so you know, I think the expectation that this is just going to solve all of our problems, Um what is it was sort of misguided in the first place. You know, we were always going to have these issues even if the test was I'm guessing most like tests right for flu and everything like that are probably in that two percent range. Like that's like nothing is full proof. Nothing is and when you're doing it at the speed, at the volume, the capacity is this like this is this is going to be a part of our entire season. And it's about how the league is choosing to react instead of just I don't know what what this massive sort of backlash against the testing. The testing is. People are doing the best that they can here. You know, it's not like it's not like, um, you know, they're they're trotting out some shoddy product. I mean, these are good labs with safety procedures and everything, and like you said, things just get mixed up sometimes. Yeah. So this will be another preseason for the protocols, right, I mean, we're kind of seeing how things are working. This is a period of time when it's not quite the same stakes as it will be during the season when their games to be played. So another example, I guess in which the NFL can examine the protocols and figure out the best way to move forward. UM. I can imagine kind of the panic that's sent through those teams. As we understand, these emails get sent out in the morning with the test results to whoever the main point of contact is for running the infectious diseases protocols, and I'm sure that there was quite an alarm uh in several facilities as they got those results. UM. And I'm sure a relief that there was some kind of error UM in this case. But Kevin Stefanski said he was one of them today, the UM. But we hear a lot about coaching and it's like it's it's all at once, the most probably terrifying position in the building besides quarterback to get it because you're in contact with so many people. But then once you know you have it and you have to quarantine, maybe one of the least consequential because then if you're a coach, you can watch practice virtually, you can communicate with all of your assistance virtually, and and all that. But it's just interesting to see, like, you know what teams are doing now, and you know somebody who's in contact with almost everybody gets a positive test. Yeah, And we saw that on Hard Knocks last week. I mean, I think that was one of the things that the show really captured and we might not otherwise had too much visibility into that. But Seth Ryan Rex, Ryan's son is a quality control coach with the Chargers. He had a false positive test, and he was talking about like kind of the panic that sets in, like did I give it to the players? Did I do something wrong. I've only been you know, at work and playing Call of Duty or whichever video game he mentioned, I could be getting this wrong. Um, So I think that's like a pretty relatable feeling. And then kind of the relief of getting the news that it was a false positive. And that was right after the NFL had changed the protocols introducing this point of care testing as one of the two confirmatory tests for presumptive positive. So that was a good look I think into how, um, how these false positives can affect people and teams and kind of the immediate um ripple effects that occur when there is one. Rex Ryan Sunset is an NFL head coach makes me feel older, not head coach. If he was a head coach at this stage, yeah, that would make us feel really old. But him being in the NFL as like an adult coach probably makes me feel older than and if any of the other things, like we always say, oh, these players that we covered in two thousand and ten are retired now or whatever, but for some reason, that makes me feel far older than any of the other things. I mean, because remember Rex used to talk about his son is a high school freshman and sophomore and we're covering the covering the Jets. Yeah, and they had some good clips of that on Hard Knocks, kind of foreshadowing his coaching career um and Rex saying I think I'll end up in coaching one day, and sure enough he's in the wide receiver's room as a quality controlled coach for the Charger. So that was pretty interesting. To see. Um, well, Connor, we got some mail this week, some good questions, So we're gonna we're gonna get to that in a second, but, uh, anything else you want to add before we move on. Just you know that I hope, I just really hope that this gets squared away, and and not for the sake of the NFL or for the season, but maybe, you know, I was thinking in the back of my mind like, if there's more pressure put on these labs, and not necessarily the pressure is a good thing, but maybe more money, more pressure put into this that eventually it will trickle down to you know, the people that need it. And maybe if if some of this stuff is kind of some of the things that aren't working and testing, if it can get hammered out, um in a city tuation like the NFL, where these guys get tested every day and they have the benefit of all this, then maybe hopefully at some point this will benefit the common person, you know, the lay person that needs this test. I don't know, I'm trying to put a positive spin on this some way, shape or form, even though we agree that it's bad that nobody has this type of access. Now, I actually a friend of a friend, UM received a point of care test recently, just like a regular lay citizen, not an athlete, not a government official. UM. So that kind of gave me some uh some hope that maybe these rapid tests are UM improving inaccuracy and um maybe more available. I also want to say that earlier accidentally said pipe needles, and I really meant to stay pipe tips. So all of my biochemicsy professors at Penn State would be ashamed of my performance here on this podcast. I think we know that's not true, that your ability to blend high science and football is helping both industries, right right, Sure, I'm sure there's a maybe one person who thinks that, and I'm on the podcast with him. So all right, let's jump into our reader mail because we have some good ones this week that will and in gender a lot of good discussion. Let me see if I can pull them up. Connor, I am struggling over here. UM. As always, you can write into Weakside pod at gmail dot com and send your questions, thoughts, etcetera. UM, Okay, I've got one from James who lives in Australia. UM, you might work for the Australian government by the way, Oh, did you kind of do some googling? I'm just like looking at the email address. Maybe not, James, I don't want to speculate on this, but I'm just saying it's it's probably a very high ranking Australian government official, is basically what I'm saying. Who's listening to our podcast? Well, thank you, James, I appreciate this. That uh, you would spend some of your time listening to the weeks Side podcast means a lot to us, and you sent in a great question. Um. There was also a comment about a double unintended meaning of roots in Australian vernacular. Um, so that's something we'll have to consider Connor if we need to have a rebrand of our restaurant before we even opened. Um. But we will move on to the other part of his email, which is a great one. So basically working off of the idea that generally the average over the last couple of decades is that the playoff field turns over every year, so about half of the teams who made it last year won't make it the following year. So he's asking us, if you had to pick from last year's playoff field, which are the teams that would not make it this year. Now, it's an interesting question because we talked a little bit last week on if there would be less turnover overall and like good bad team this year because of the shortened offseason and kind of less time for teams to improve, or maybe less of an opportunity for surprise contenders. But there's also a lot of unknown variables with this season, so who knows? UM. So I went through and I have to say, Connor, I had a much harder time in the a f C than the NFC. There are a lot of NFC teams last year that I could see not making the playoffs. This year, I could have picked more than three in the NFC. I struggled with the a f C though, Um I struggled getting to three, and I don't really love all of my picks. So let's start with you, UM, of the a f C teams, which three did you think would not make it? So last year we had the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Patriots, the Texans, Bills, and Titans. So out of those teams last year, I would say that the Titans, the Bills, UM and the tech Sins would be the three teams that that would not make it back this year. Wow, Connor, I picked the same three I haven't written down you could see on my paper synergy. Wow, that's pretty good. But the reason I didn't love my picks was because essentially, by saying both the Titans and the Texans are not making it, you're leaving that to either the Jaguars or the Colts to make it. And the obvious choice between those two, because we know I'm low on the Jaguars perpetually, is the Colts. And I don't think that that that's a bad pick. I'm just not super high on the Colts this year. So UM, I don't know that I love subbing out either the Titans or the Texas for the cults. But the task was to pick three that would not make it, So I picked three that would not make it. You know, it was interesting. I mean, in this, as everyone knows, is a Bills forward podcast, this is a progressive bills podcast, and um, while I was doing some deep research specifically on the Bills for Project UM that I was working on, UM, I noticed how brutal their schedule is, Like, their schedule is awful, and you know, I was trying to put it this way, um to make it somewhat digestible to Bills fans. Your most optimistic scenario is probably that you split with the Dolphins and the Patriots and you sweep the Jets. You would say that's pretty optimistic, right for a divisional slate for the Bills, And then what you have left is just a brutal like you know, Steelers forty Niners, rams, like, you know, you're facing very good divisions, You're out of conference, schedule is very tough. I just don't know how many places you're picking up a lot of these additional wins. So you start four and two and then you kind of just kind of pinball um the rest of the schedule down there. And you know, I think this team is definitely going in the right direction and is definitely an ascending team. But some some years you just get crushed schedule wized, and I think this might be one of those years for the Bills and picular, Yeah, I think that's really good reasoning for them. As for the Titans, I think we've talked about this before and we all kind of share the belief that it's hard to sustain the workload that Derrick Henry did last year. UM, it's hard to perform that well and back to back seasons. I think that would be a key reason for our regression there. UM And with the Texans, you know, there's a lot of questions about the composition of the team, notably with the trade of DeAndre Hopkins Way, so I think there are another team that I could easily see regressing this year. But yeah, again, I'm I'm not sure that I love putting the Colts in for the a f C South over either the Titans or the Texans, but it's definitely possible. Yeah, I mean, you're betting between Philip Rivers and like Derrick Henry, would it be tough for Ryan Tannehill to replicate UM his his season from last year. You're looking at UM next gen stats the other day and they had the plus minus UM completion percentage versus expected complete and percentage. He led football last year with a plus eight. So he completed almost ten percent more passes than he should have UM, and that was more than any other quarterback in football. You have to believe that that's going to regress to the mean a little bit. Not that that's a super lucky statistic, but Ryan Tannehill. Is he that much more talented than the rest of the field that he could be doing this on a consistent basis. A lot of things went right for the Titans last year towards the end of the season. Yeah, speaking of lucky three teams to make the playoffs that didn't last year in the a f C. Okay, um, So this is difficult because you know, like we said, we're boxed in on Colts, dim you James from Brisbane, um. And then I guess I would have to go with the Steelers. Definitely think the Steelers are back um in the playoffs. And then the team of the week side pod uh, not the Bills, not Danny Dimes, but the um uh the l A Chargers I think are going to sneak in this year. I think they're gonna have a good year. We're really in a FC synergy Again, Connor written proof I did that the show in Green. Marker wrote, I N D slash P I T slash l A C. Now, interestingly enough, let's see what our friend James has. James had the Patriots, the Texans, and the Titans not making it, and then the Colts, Dolphins and Steelers rotating in. Good on you, James. That's a I don't know if I could bet against Bill Belichick like that. That's tough. But it's a bold pick, like the bold like the boldness. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, Well, you know, we all we've discussed our feelings about the Chargers. We think, you know, pro Chargers, as we've said, um and yeah, you know, I'm I'm not sure it's a make up the skepticism of Ben Roethlisberger's return from the elbow surgery. But if it's as good as advertised, then they would be a strong contender. He's the only miraculous person you've ever recovered from oh man, imagine the stories way. Um. But even if he's let's say he's Peyton Manning in the second Super Bowl ineffective, like basically a one armed man essentially with I think that Steelers team is good enough if Ben Roethlisberger just doesn't make any horrible decisions as like a three quarter armed human being to get that team into the playoffs. Like I think he that team, I think the team around him is is that good? Yeah, I think that's a good assessment. I agree Connor bad during those playoffs. Yeah, I know, I was thinking about that recently because I was, I don't know, I was washing dishes the other day and it just came to mind that, like our last view of Peyton was how he played down the stretch, and I was thinking about Brady, like how that ultimately shapes a player's legacy in the final glimpse of them is a slightly diminished form um and heavy thought for dish wash. Yeah, it really was. I'm not really sure why it came to mind, but I know what it could have been. Like you maybe saw like a wet paper towel, like something limp, and then you that reminded you of Peyton's arm during the playoffs the year. Yah could have been something like that. Or maybe I just had some leftover avocado and a bowl and I was thinking Brady could have been a lot of different ways. There. By the way, just as a quick as side, um, I went to a barbecue this weekend to celebrate um new a new baby in the Or family, which is very exciting. One of my cousins and uh his um as part of their post pregnancy recovery plan, no dairy in the diet, and so they went full on avocado ice cream and The reviews were rave for the mint chocolate chip in particular, they said you could not tell the difference. So they made it themselves. They bought it, they bought it brand. Okay, okay, I've made avocado moose or chocolate moose with an avocado bass and that's pretty good. It's a little challenging to mix, like you have to like the blender works on overtime, like it wouldn't work on ninja where you flip it over because then the avocado doesn't go to the bottom where the blades are. But if you have a normal blender, I think it would work a little bit better. But it tastes good. I was, you know, I was skeptical at first. I think everybody kind of latches onto Brady for that in particular, makes fun of them. But I'm glad that, you know, some of this stuff is gaining momentum. You know, I'm a little bit lactose, so I'm in the market maybe for something. Yeah, the avocado is good. I mean there's a lot of alternatives now for desserts that are dairy free. You know, there's the oat milk ice cream, which is decent. I'm a big fan of oat milk, not so much the ice cream. But okay, not really a good way to transition from oat milk to the NFC, but we will try, all right. Last year's alternative milk. Last year's NFC playoff teams were the San Francisco forty Niners, the Packers, the Saints, the Eagles, the Seahawks, and the Vikings. Connor, I could actually make a case for all six of these teams not making it this year. Totally. Yeah. So, I mean if I had, I should have, just like I could have picked six all from the NFC, is what I'm saying. I'm gonna go with. Well, let's start with the team that I would like to pick but cannot find a basis in reality for doing so, and that's the Saints. Uh. And here's why, we just don't know. Drew Brees continually does this, and I think they benefited from the fact, really that he lost some time in the middle of that season and his arm was stronger down the stretch. I mean, we just don't know what he is right now over the course of a sixteen game season, and so I don't know. I'm sort of tempted to sneak that one in there. Because I think that would be an interesting pick. But the roster, like we said, if my argument is the Steelers can get in with half an armed Ben Roethlisberger, I think the Saints could probably get him with a half arm Drew brees to Um. So the teams that gonna pick that our out are the Packers, Uh, the No, I'm going to rescind that, the Vikings, the Eagles in the forty Niners, Vikings, the Eagles. Oh my gosh, Connor stop, wait are you serious? I'm serious. I have this written down. Also Minnesota, San Francisco, Philadelphia. This is wacky now, I have to say, based on what I said earlier, I mean, the turnover is about half. So I guess we could have just picked six from either conference. Um. We did. We kind of did the three and three just to kind of split it up and make sure we're devoting equal times to both conferences. But I guess we could have had an unbalanced thing because it's it works out that way sometimes obviously. Um. But yes, I had the three same teams. Minnesota just had a lot of losses on the defense, which is really what concerned me, and I know Mike Zimmer said, He's always had a good defense and there isn't a reason to doubt that, but it is a lot of players to overcome, and the defense, as we know, carries the team. UM and they also lost to Fan Ski, so I that to me was kind of an easy pick. And you know, what are you gonna do without Stephan Diggs. I mean, I know you drafted a wide receiver in the first round, but the team is historically struggled specifically with first round wide receivers getting on the field. You know, it was Lakwan Treadwell, it was quarter out, Cordarrel Patterson. You know, over time, you know, some of these guys have struggled again in the field. Now would just say it's law of averages and this next pick is is the guy that's going to make this better. And having Adam Feeland helps possibly, But I think that the losses far outweighed the gains in general for them this offseason. Yeah. Yeah, And it's as we've discussed before, it's a difficult year for a rookie receiver to make an impact. UM. And I think we've said this before and stand by it. I think it's going to be difficult for the forty nine ers to overcome the end to last season, and you know, it's it's hard to think of a team that was in the super Bowl not making the playoffs. But you don't have to like look back very far. I mean obviously the Rams maybe you know, they made they went to the Super Bowl loss of the Patriots, and then missed the playoffs. So, um, I just think it's a difficult thing to overcome. And um, you know, especially because you know, Shanahan's had a couple of difficult Super Bowl losses at this point. So uh, and especially with the situation with Jimmy Garoppolo, right, like, how confident is he and the team's confidence in him and how does that affect him this season? Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, if we would have been standing there maybe okay, if we would have been standing on the field before the Rams Patriots super Bowl and you would have said this team is not going to make the playoffs last year, we would have next year. We would have all laughed. Now after that game and then everything snowballing down, I think it became slightly more realistic possibility. Plus that division might end up being I think you can make an argument for the NFC South or the NFC West is being the best division in football this year, the strongest division in football this year, so it's going to be a harder road. The Cardinals are just getting better. Um, we're trendier. I'm not sure what the difference is there, but um, I'm not sure either, but yeah, and thenting to trendy. By the way, I'm released, I might release my responsibility as because again we were on them. Week Side Pod was on them a long time ago. But I think it's ready to I'm happy with the rise in stock price and I'm ready to let that guy go. I'm selling, Okay. I wouldn't say the Week's Side Pod. I would say Connor was on top of the Cardinals early on. That was all you. It was. It is a good you're a taste maker in NFL. Um you know. Also, I've seen a rising Surgeon popularity based on seemingly not much. I don't know. The Lions seem to be like zooming up popularity boards. And this is odd to me because like what could possibly have happened in August when there aren't preseason games, when there's limited access at practice, Like what could possibly be happening to make the lines stock shooting up. My argument there would be we've run out of things to talk about, just like not you and I, but just sports loving could be made. I will say that in James's email, he was like, would you if you need something to talk about? And James, we appreciate you looking out for us because this has become a robust subject in this week's Week's Side podcast. Jenny and I are so out of things to talk about that we have a text chain for um, a lifetime reality series, UM. And we just enjoyed talking to each other. So I mean now that text change is also populated with other friends. It's not just us. There's five generate discussion between good friends, like minded individuals. You know. Well, it's it's very good. It's the highlight of my week. Wednesday's Merit at First Sight. If anyone listening to the Week's Side pod would like into our our text chain or or an email group, please let us know accepting new members. Um. Okay. So Connor and I we were again aligned on the NFC teams that would not make it. This would really creep me out if we nailed the same, and this would super cream out, Okay, go for it. Well we're boxing on Cowboys, um right, because no Eagles, UM. And I don't think Giants or Washington is going to get there. Um. Rams would be my second. Um, and I'm going to get sneaky cute here and uh and I'm going to throw the Falcons in as my third team and kind of bang the Buccaneers a little bit. Okay, I almost went with the Falcons, but I stuck with the Cardinals for the third spot. So we aligned on everything except that last one. And I almost wrote down the Falcons. But you don't have the Buccaneers making the playoffs either. I don't, which will actually lead into our next mail bad question. Um. But yeah, I had the Rams, Dallas and the Cardinal and I believe our friend James had the same three teams as you Connor. Yeah, the Cowboys, Grams and Falcons. Yes. So this was a fun exercise. I enjoyed it. It is. I do enjoy this part of every preseason because we all know the turnover is about like it's been that way for what three decades? But every year you look at and you're like, oh, well, there won't be that turnover this year and Certainly there are years when there is less turnover, but it's hard to fathom that a team that it was good the year before, good enough to go to the playoffs, would regress. I think that's the hardest part of making preseason picks because you just don't want to believe that a team will be different at this coming season. UM. And so I think it's a fun exercise to kind of force yourself to say, well, if someone had to regress, who would it be. Yeah, No, it's always good UM. Working on the um former colleague Jonathan Jones Special who loving allowed me to inherit his predict all two fifty six game uh schedule post um, which I'm working on for next week or two weeks from down the road. And it's the same thing. It's like, well, you know, not everything is the same. Everything is going to be different circumstances, schedule, everything, it all gets kind of mixed up into this big blender. So thanks James for for priming us for this. It's a it's a valuable exercise. Yes, it definitely is. Okay, Um, we have our next mail bag item from Pete. I like that listening the other day or do you want to read a Connor, I have it in front of me, I can go go ahead, Yes, I mean either way. Listening the other day, I was amused to hear that Connor was getting angry feedback from New Bucks fans. As a long standing Bucks fan from the Dungee era, I have been trying to keep my expectations in check, but having struggled through the Bruce Gradkowski era, it's not it's tough. Nazi overly excited seeing Tom Brady sleeing it in training camp videos. My question is, at what point will you view these Bucks as for real? If they go into New Orleans and when week one, will you reassess no hard no for me as well? Yeah, that would be an impressive win. Yeah. And I like the second part of his question, which is if they make a playoff run this season, will you reevaluate your view on Jason light Um as for the pot It sounds like you view him as taking steps just to extend his tenure. And that was a great We remember us talking about that like six months ago. So good on you. That is like a really good hard core listener. Yeah, really good callback on that. But I think that you can end up succeeding as an executive by taking these risks, and you're just taking them all at once, it seems, you know, and you're benefiting from it. I think that a good GM is selectively risky and those moves payoff. Whereas you've seen guys like less Need and Jason Light really push all their chips to the center of the table at a moment where they were embattled and it's paid off. We've seen executives like Jerry Reese of the New York Giants do it and it hamstrings the team insanely for two or three years and they have no cap spaceed um an ability to compete for two or three years, you know. So it works both ways. With Jason Light, I mean, I don't think it makes him a bad executive. I think that the fact that they acknowledged the problem um and said that Jamis was an issue here and that we don't want him anymore and that we need to upgrade the position is something that all GM should do. But I do think this is a little bit of a of a tight rope maneuver, because if you didn't get Tom Brady and basically re energize the entire franchise this offseason, I think everyone would be talking about, well, what's gonna happen here in Tampa Bay. I mean, they're gonna have to make some changes soon. Yeah, well said Connor. Great answer. And as for when we might believe that in late November, well, I mean I do think that there's I think November is an important month because they play the Saints for the second time to start the second half of the schedule. Um that would be their ninth game, and then they have the Rams and the Chiefs back to back not long after that. Again, this is assuming everything goes as planned, which with the NFL schedule, so I think that will be a big checkpoint to see where they're at. Then a one week one win, even though that would be impressive to go into New Orleans and win, I don't think would necessarily say what the season was going to be. I'm also curious if Brady will sustain his play throughout the year. That's always the big question with older quarterbacks. You referenced it earlier Withdrew Brees. It's certainly been something that we've watched the last couple of seasons with Brady Connor as well. And the run game in New England was definitely used to kind of supplement his play in their last Super Bowl win. So I think that the true test is really going to come in November and December and until we get to that point, no matter what we see, Yeah, maybe if they're tendant, oh but other than that, I think that there's just a lot to be proved in the second half of that schedule. I just wonder, like we're all um susceptible to this, I guess. But I'm thinking back to like even like the better teams of my youth, like every time this dream team assemblage has taken place, like it's never gone like exactly how we thought it would go. Like you know, the Miami Heat, I guess was the closest thing to that. But even they lost the first trip to the NBA Finals, right, I think they lost to the Mavericks that first year, and they had all the they made it to the NBA Finals, I guess. But you know all these teams that there's one team that just continually bangs the drum all offseason saying, look at us, look at all these stars. But then when you start looking in it critically, it's like, Okay, how old is Lishawn McCoy um. Is Rob Gronkowski going to be as effective of a player if he's more of an in line wide receiver and not this block or hybrid that Belichick had so much success with because he was an excellent blocker like Tom Brady's forty three. Like, I just feel like we're not kind of looking at them with that through that critical lens yet, because there's a lot of things that that offense was able to do, you know, and elevate some of the players that they were able to elevate because they had an armed a young arm talent, a guy that can whip the ball down the field with regularity and somewhat carelessness. And I think that that's not really tom Brady's forte. I think this is gonna be a very different looking offense. Yeah, I it's it's interesting because there is so much excitement around them, and it's kind of like they're out of the up and down roller coaster that the Jamis Winston experience was, right, so there's this like, Okay, well that was such a week by week you yo wing right of emotions and each game itself could be a yo yo wing. So now they're out of that and they've moved on to the greatest quarterback of all time. Um. But yeah, I think we think back to the Eagles dream team, right. I mean, all of these pieces supposedly coming together, and it's very easy to see how expectations are higher than reality. But we might be wrong, and we will revisit your excellent question, Pete. Uh, let's stay in November. He here's a better question. Is my inability to believe in the bucks my own problem and symptoms of previous disappointments that I've sustained during my life. Perhaps, you know, we all have to look inward here on the weak side pod too, so you never know. Sometimes the week's side pod ends up being a therapy pod, but only for us, sorry for everybody else. No, that was a great question. I mean, really, how does our what does our outlook on things say about ourselves and the things we've experienced in our life that we're carrying with us. Connor, that's a question to ask you down to my heart. I want everyone to go eight and eight deep down and what does that mean? What is it the roor shark tests? Yeah, what does your what does your interpretation of the NFL schedule. Say about you as a person, What is your interpretation of the camp for day Buccaneers? Say about your hopes and dreams and general mental state. Lots to unpack on the weak Side Pod. As always, as always, thanks again for listening. Thanks for the great questions, James and Pete. As always, we love hearing from our readers at week Side pot at gmail dot com. You can write in at any time. You can join our merit at first site group chat. Lots of options here, but we're grateful that you listen to us each week and we'll be back again on Thursday. The m QB week Side Pod is Me, Jenny, Brentis and Connor Or are produced by Shelby Royston Sizes. Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody, Ben Eagles, Director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Murravic is emeritus executive director of the mm QB. Keep up with our entire lineup podcast five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify, radio dot com, Stitcher, s I dot com, and wherever else. Listen to podcast

Hello, and welcome back to the week Side Podcast. I'm Jenny Brentis here with Connor Or on this Monday in August. It was an interesting weekend for the NFL regarding COVID testing. There was a spate of false positives that were traced to a lab in New Jersey, making for an unusual Sunday. There were practices delayed, players who were not practicing, notably Bill's quarterback Josh Allen. And it was kind of a reminder that this year there's going to be some stops and starts, different circumstances that come up. We've had false positives before, Connor, but this was the first example of there being a cluster of them traced to kind of a contamination in the testing um. And as the situation that happened with Matthew Stafford, which was just an isolated false positive test um, certainly this will prompt a conversation potential additional protocols added to respond to situations like this come up. Again. What were your thoughts? I like how the New Jersey got called out in specific, so we got banged down here, um, but it's like that ominous like it all started in a lab in New Jersey. It's like a very it's like a very ominous sort of thing right there, you know. But yeah, I mean this is going to be the tenor of our regular season, right. We are not perfected as a country, um as as a global society. Yet I think when it comes to testing, Uh, this virus really started attacking us, what six months ago? Seven months ago? And if you look at the timeline of how things evolve in medicine and how how long it takes to safely fight something, um like this, it's gonna take some time. We're gonna have issues like this, and I think it's better off, um, you know, to just continue doing what we're doing instead of saying, well, okay, well these tests are not accurate, and let's pole through. I mean, we at least have an obligation to the players who are playing to keep them safe, just like we have an obligation to anybody who wants to take a COVID nineteen test to be able to make sure that they get fast and reliable information. Yeah. And when you're doing the volume of tests that the NFL is doing, they're doing tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tests, there's going to be one false positives. There's also the possibility of, as we saw with this cluster of seventies seven false positives, of there being some kind of contamination and testing. If you've ever worked in a lab, I spent some time working in a lab in college, it's pretty easy to see how there could be contamination. Things don't always go correctly. Sometimes tubes get mixed up. Sometimes probably pet needles get mixed up. So there's a lot of different ways that contamination can occur. And given the volume of testing, not just for the NFL but around the country, it's understandable that there would be mix ups. I guess the question is how will the NFL potentially adjust these protocols so that if a situation like this came up again before a game day, how would teams be in a position to get answers on those players and know if they are false positives or can be traced to another inaccurate cluster as this was with the Stafford case. They ended up beginning to institute the point of care testing, which is essentially you get a test on site and you get the results right away. It's a rapid test, and then so if you've got a positive test. The next day, you would get both the point of care tests and get that result immediately, and then they would also send away the other as usual PCR tests, and you would wait twenty four hours for that to be sent away. I wondered if one option here, and the NFL is having a call at three pm, so maybe there will be some updates there. One option I thought of was potentially having two point of care tests, maybe twelve hours apart or something. If you had to rap bid tests during one day, then you uh the point of care tests. It's an anagen task. The accuracy rate is lower, so if you had two of the tests, presumably you would have an increased rate um of accuracy, and so I think that would be one option. I'm not sure what the NFL will do. I wonder if there is a way to get an expedited PCR test, but again there's already such a strain on testing resources in the country and at these labs that I don't know what's possible. Those were two thoughts that came to mind. Connor of ways that they could adjust. And I've never been in the lab, and what I'm about to say it might sound incredibly stupid, right, But even the best testing is what they say percent accurate. But if you're testing football teams with eight man rosters and thirty two of them, like okay, ninety nine out of a hundred are going to be right. But you know, there's a way more than a hundred people at a time that we're testing here, and so you know, I think the expectation that this is just going to solve all of our problems, Um what is it was sort of misguided in the first place. You know, we were always going to have these issues even if the test was I'm guessing most like tests right for flu and everything like that are probably in that two percent range. Like that's like nothing is full proof. Nothing is and when you're doing it at the speed, at the volume, the capacity is this like this is this is going to be a part of our entire season. And it's about how the league is choosing to react instead of just I don't know what what this massive sort of backlash against the testing. The testing is. People are doing the best that they can here. You know, it's not like it's not like, um, you know, they're they're trotting out some shoddy product. I mean, these are good labs with safety procedures and everything, and like you said, things just get mixed up sometimes. Yeah. So this will be another preseason for the protocols, right, I mean, we're kind of seeing how things are working. This is a period of time when it's not quite the same stakes as it will be during the season when their games to be played. So another example, I guess in which the NFL can examine the protocols and figure out the best way to move forward. UM. I can imagine kind of the panic that's sent through those teams. As we understand, these emails get sent out in the morning with the test results to whoever the main point of contact is for running the infectious diseases protocols, and I'm sure that there was quite an alarm uh in several facilities as they got those results. UM. And I'm sure a relief that there was some kind of error UM in this case. But Kevin Stefanski said he was one of them today, the UM. But we hear a lot about coaching and it's like it's it's all at once, the most probably terrifying position in the building besides quarterback to get it because you're in contact with so many people. But then once you know you have it and you have to quarantine, maybe one of the least consequential because then if you're a coach, you can watch practice virtually, you can communicate with all of your assistance virtually, and and all that. But it's just interesting to see, like, you know what teams are doing now, and you know somebody who's in contact with almost everybody gets a positive test. Yeah, And we saw that on Hard Knocks last week. I mean, I think that was one of the things that the show really captured and we might not otherwise had too much visibility into that. But Seth Ryan Rex, Ryan's son is a quality control coach with the Chargers. He had a false positive test, and he was talking about like kind of the panic that sets in, like did I give it to the players? Did I do something wrong. I've only been you know, at work and playing Call of Duty or whichever video game he mentioned, I could be getting this wrong. Um, So I think that's like a pretty relatable feeling. And then kind of the relief of getting the news that it was a false positive. And that was right after the NFL had changed the protocols introducing this point of care testing as one of the two confirmatory tests for presumptive positive. So that was a good look I think into how, um, how these false positives can affect people and teams and kind of the immediate um ripple effects that occur when there is one. Rex Ryan Sunset is an NFL head coach makes me feel older, not head coach. If he was a head coach at this stage, yeah, that would make us feel really old. But him being in the NFL as like an adult coach probably makes me feel older than and if any of the other things, like we always say, oh, these players that we covered in two thousand and ten are retired now or whatever, but for some reason, that makes me feel far older than any of the other things. I mean, because remember Rex used to talk about his son is a high school freshman and sophomore and we're covering the covering the Jets. Yeah, and they had some good clips of that on Hard Knocks, kind of foreshadowing his coaching career um and Rex saying I think I'll end up in coaching one day, and sure enough he's in the wide receiver's room as a quality controlled coach for the Charger. So that was pretty interesting. To see. Um, well, Connor, we got some mail this week, some good questions, So we're gonna we're gonna get to that in a second, but, uh, anything else you want to add before we move on. Just you know that I hope, I just really hope that this gets squared away, and and not for the sake of the NFL or for the season, but maybe, you know, I was thinking in the back of my mind like, if there's more pressure put on these labs, and not necessarily the pressure is a good thing, but maybe more money, more pressure put into this that eventually it will trickle down to you know, the people that need it. And maybe if if some of this stuff is kind of some of the things that aren't working and testing, if it can get hammered out, um in a city tuation like the NFL, where these guys get tested every day and they have the benefit of all this, then maybe hopefully at some point this will benefit the common person, you know, the lay person that needs this test. I don't know, I'm trying to put a positive spin on this some way, shape or form, even though we agree that it's bad that nobody has this type of access. Now, I actually a friend of a friend, UM received a point of care test recently, just like a regular lay citizen, not an athlete, not a government official. UM. So that kind of gave me some uh some hope that maybe these rapid tests are UM improving inaccuracy and um maybe more available. I also want to say that earlier accidentally said pipe needles, and I really meant to stay pipe tips. So all of my biochemicsy professors at Penn State would be ashamed of my performance here on this podcast. I think we know that's not true, that your ability to blend high science and football is helping both industries, right right, Sure, I'm sure there's a maybe one person who thinks that, and I'm on the podcast with him. So all right, let's jump into our reader mail because we have some good ones this week that will and in gender a lot of good discussion. Let me see if I can pull them up. Connor, I am struggling over here. UM. As always, you can write into Weakside pod at gmail dot com and send your questions, thoughts, etcetera. UM, Okay, I've got one from James who lives in Australia. UM, you might work for the Australian government by the way, Oh, did you kind of do some googling? I'm just like looking at the email address. Maybe not, James, I don't want to speculate on this, but I'm just saying it's it's probably a very high ranking Australian government official, is basically what I'm saying. Who's listening to our podcast? Well, thank you, James, I appreciate this. That uh, you would spend some of your time listening to the weeks Side podcast means a lot to us, and you sent in a great question. Um. There was also a comment about a double unintended meaning of roots in Australian vernacular. Um, so that's something we'll have to consider Connor if we need to have a rebrand of our restaurant before we even opened. Um. But we will move on to the other part of his email, which is a great one. So basically working off of the idea that generally the average over the last couple of decades is that the playoff field turns over every year, so about half of the teams who made it last year won't make it the following year. So he's asking us, if you had to pick from last year's playoff field, which are the teams that would not make it this year. Now, it's an interesting question because we talked a little bit last week on if there would be less turnover overall and like good bad team this year because of the shortened offseason and kind of less time for teams to improve, or maybe less of an opportunity for surprise contenders. But there's also a lot of unknown variables with this season, so who knows? UM. So I went through and I have to say, Connor, I had a much harder time in the a f C than the NFC. There are a lot of NFC teams last year that I could see not making the playoffs. This year, I could have picked more than three in the NFC. I struggled with the a f C though, Um I struggled getting to three, and I don't really love all of my picks. So let's start with you, UM, of the a f C teams, which three did you think would not make it? So last year we had the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Patriots, the Texans, Bills, and Titans. So out of those teams last year, I would say that the Titans, the Bills, UM and the tech Sins would be the three teams that that would not make it back this year. Wow, Connor, I picked the same three I haven't written down you could see on my paper synergy. Wow, that's pretty good. But the reason I didn't love my picks was because essentially, by saying both the Titans and the Texans are not making it, you're leaving that to either the Jaguars or the Colts to make it. And the obvious choice between those two, because we know I'm low on the Jaguars perpetually, is the Colts. And I don't think that that that's a bad pick. I'm just not super high on the Colts this year. So UM, I don't know that I love subbing out either the Titans or the Texas for the cults. But the task was to pick three that would not make it, So I picked three that would not make it. You know, it was interesting. I mean, in this, as everyone knows, is a Bills forward podcast, this is a progressive bills podcast, and um, while I was doing some deep research specifically on the Bills for Project UM that I was working on, UM, I noticed how brutal their schedule is, Like, their schedule is awful, and you know, I was trying to put it this way, um to make it somewhat digestible to Bills fans. Your most optimistic scenario is probably that you split with the Dolphins and the Patriots and you sweep the Jets. You would say that's pretty optimistic, right for a divisional slate for the Bills, And then what you have left is just a brutal like you know, Steelers forty Niners, rams, like, you know, you're facing very good divisions, You're out of conference, schedule is very tough. I just don't know how many places you're picking up a lot of these additional wins. So you start four and two and then you kind of just kind of pinball um the rest of the schedule down there. And you know, I think this team is definitely going in the right direction and is definitely an ascending team. But some some years you just get crushed schedule wized, and I think this might be one of those years for the Bills and picular, Yeah, I think that's really good reasoning for them. As for the Titans, I think we've talked about this before and we all kind of share the belief that it's hard to sustain the workload that Derrick Henry did last year. UM, it's hard to perform that well and back to back seasons. I think that would be a key reason for our regression there. UM And with the Texans, you know, there's a lot of questions about the composition of the team, notably with the trade of DeAndre Hopkins Way, so I think there are another team that I could easily see regressing this year. But yeah, again, I'm I'm not sure that I love putting the Colts in for the a f C South over either the Titans or the Texans, but it's definitely possible. Yeah, I mean, you're betting between Philip Rivers and like Derrick Henry, would it be tough for Ryan Tannehill to replicate UM his his season from last year. You're looking at UM next gen stats the other day and they had the plus minus UM completion percentage versus expected complete and percentage. He led football last year with a plus eight. So he completed almost ten percent more passes than he should have UM, and that was more than any other quarterback in football. You have to believe that that's going to regress to the mean a little bit. Not that that's a super lucky statistic, but Ryan Tannehill. Is he that much more talented than the rest of the field that he could be doing this on a consistent basis. A lot of things went right for the Titans last year towards the end of the season. Yeah, speaking of lucky three teams to make the playoffs that didn't last year in the a f C. Okay, um, So this is difficult because you know, like we said, we're boxed in on Colts, dim you James from Brisbane, um. And then I guess I would have to go with the Steelers. Definitely think the Steelers are back um in the playoffs. And then the team of the week side pod uh, not the Bills, not Danny Dimes, but the um uh the l A Chargers I think are going to sneak in this year. I think they're gonna have a good year. We're really in a FC synergy Again, Connor written proof I did that the show in Green. Marker wrote, I N D slash P I T slash l A C. Now, interestingly enough, let's see what our friend James has. James had the Patriots, the Texans, and the Titans not making it, and then the Colts, Dolphins and Steelers rotating in. Good on you, James. That's a I don't know if I could bet against Bill Belichick like that. That's tough. But it's a bold pick, like the bold like the boldness. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, Well, you know, we all we've discussed our feelings about the Chargers. We think, you know, pro Chargers, as we've said, um and yeah, you know, I'm I'm not sure it's a make up the skepticism of Ben Roethlisberger's return from the elbow surgery. But if it's as good as advertised, then they would be a strong contender. He's the only miraculous person you've ever recovered from oh man, imagine the stories way. Um. But even if he's let's say he's Peyton Manning in the second Super Bowl ineffective, like basically a one armed man essentially with I think that Steelers team is good enough if Ben Roethlisberger just doesn't make any horrible decisions as like a three quarter armed human being to get that team into the playoffs. Like I think he that team, I think the team around him is is that good? Yeah, I think that's a good assessment. I agree Connor bad during those playoffs. Yeah, I know, I was thinking about that recently because I was, I don't know, I was washing dishes the other day and it just came to mind that, like our last view of Peyton was how he played down the stretch, and I was thinking about Brady, like how that ultimately shapes a player's legacy in the final glimpse of them is a slightly diminished form um and heavy thought for dish wash. Yeah, it really was. I'm not really sure why it came to mind, but I know what it could have been. Like you maybe saw like a wet paper towel, like something limp, and then you that reminded you of Peyton's arm during the playoffs the year. Yah could have been something like that. Or maybe I just had some leftover avocado and a bowl and I was thinking Brady could have been a lot of different ways. There. By the way, just as a quick as side, um, I went to a barbecue this weekend to celebrate um new a new baby in the Or family, which is very exciting. One of my cousins and uh his um as part of their post pregnancy recovery plan, no dairy in the diet, and so they went full on avocado ice cream and The reviews were rave for the mint chocolate chip in particular, they said you could not tell the difference. So they made it themselves. They bought it, they bought it brand. Okay, okay, I've made avocado moose or chocolate moose with an avocado bass and that's pretty good. It's a little challenging to mix, like you have to like the blender works on overtime, like it wouldn't work on ninja where you flip it over because then the avocado doesn't go to the bottom where the blades are. But if you have a normal blender, I think it would work a little bit better. But it tastes good. I was, you know, I was skeptical at first. I think everybody kind of latches onto Brady for that in particular, makes fun of them. But I'm glad that, you know, some of this stuff is gaining momentum. You know, I'm a little bit lactose, so I'm in the market maybe for something. Yeah, the avocado is good. I mean there's a lot of alternatives now for desserts that are dairy free. You know, there's the oat milk ice cream, which is decent. I'm a big fan of oat milk, not so much the ice cream. But okay, not really a good way to transition from oat milk to the NFC, but we will try, all right. Last year's alternative milk. Last year's NFC playoff teams were the San Francisco forty Niners, the Packers, the Saints, the Eagles, the Seahawks, and the Vikings. Connor, I could actually make a case for all six of these teams not making it this year. Totally. Yeah. So, I mean if I had, I should have, just like I could have picked six all from the NFC, is what I'm saying. I'm gonna go with. Well, let's start with the team that I would like to pick but cannot find a basis in reality for doing so, and that's the Saints. Uh. And here's why, we just don't know. Drew Brees continually does this, and I think they benefited from the fact, really that he lost some time in the middle of that season and his arm was stronger down the stretch. I mean, we just don't know what he is right now over the course of a sixteen game season, and so I don't know. I'm sort of tempted to sneak that one in there. Because I think that would be an interesting pick. But the roster, like we said, if my argument is the Steelers can get in with half an armed Ben Roethlisberger, I think the Saints could probably get him with a half arm Drew brees to Um. So the teams that gonna pick that our out are the Packers, Uh, the No, I'm going to rescind that, the Vikings, the Eagles in the forty Niners, Vikings, the Eagles. Oh my gosh, Connor stop, wait are you serious? I'm serious. I have this written down. Also Minnesota, San Francisco, Philadelphia. This is wacky now, I have to say, based on what I said earlier, I mean, the turnover is about half. So I guess we could have just picked six from either conference. Um. We did. We kind of did the three and three just to kind of split it up and make sure we're devoting equal times to both conferences. But I guess we could have had an unbalanced thing because it's it works out that way sometimes obviously. Um. But yes, I had the three same teams. Minnesota just had a lot of losses on the defense, which is really what concerned me, and I know Mike Zimmer said, He's always had a good defense and there isn't a reason to doubt that, but it is a lot of players to overcome, and the defense, as we know, carries the team. UM and they also lost to Fan Ski, so I that to me was kind of an easy pick. And you know, what are you gonna do without Stephan Diggs. I mean, I know you drafted a wide receiver in the first round, but the team is historically struggled specifically with first round wide receivers getting on the field. You know, it was Lakwan Treadwell, it was quarter out, Cordarrel Patterson. You know, over time, you know, some of these guys have struggled again in the field. Now would just say it's law of averages and this next pick is is the guy that's going to make this better. And having Adam Feeland helps possibly, But I think that the losses far outweighed the gains in general for them this offseason. Yeah. Yeah, And it's as we've discussed before, it's a difficult year for a rookie receiver to make an impact. UM. And I think we've said this before and stand by it. I think it's going to be difficult for the forty nine ers to overcome the end to last season, and you know, it's it's hard to think of a team that was in the super Bowl not making the playoffs. But you don't have to like look back very far. I mean obviously the Rams maybe you know, they made they went to the Super Bowl loss of the Patriots, and then missed the playoffs. So, um, I just think it's a difficult thing to overcome. And um, you know, especially because you know, Shanahan's had a couple of difficult Super Bowl losses at this point. So uh, and especially with the situation with Jimmy Garoppolo, right, like, how confident is he and the team's confidence in him and how does that affect him this season? Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, if we would have been standing there maybe okay, if we would have been standing on the field before the Rams Patriots super Bowl and you would have said this team is not going to make the playoffs last year, we would have next year. We would have all laughed. Now after that game and then everything snowballing down, I think it became slightly more realistic possibility. Plus that division might end up being I think you can make an argument for the NFC South or the NFC West is being the best division in football this year, the strongest division in football this year, so it's going to be a harder road. The Cardinals are just getting better. Um, we're trendier. I'm not sure what the difference is there, but um, I'm not sure either, but yeah, and thenting to trendy. By the way, I'm released, I might release my responsibility as because again we were on them. Week Side Pod was on them a long time ago. But I think it's ready to I'm happy with the rise in stock price and I'm ready to let that guy go. I'm selling, Okay. I wouldn't say the Week's Side Pod. I would say Connor was on top of the Cardinals early on. That was all you. It was. It is a good you're a taste maker in NFL. Um you know. Also, I've seen a rising Surgeon popularity based on seemingly not much. I don't know. The Lions seem to be like zooming up popularity boards. And this is odd to me because like what could possibly have happened in August when there aren't preseason games, when there's limited access at practice, Like what could possibly be happening to make the lines stock shooting up. My argument there would be we've run out of things to talk about, just like not you and I, but just sports loving could be made. I will say that in James's email, he was like, would you if you need something to talk about? And James, we appreciate you looking out for us because this has become a robust subject in this week's Week's Side podcast. Jenny and I are so out of things to talk about that we have a text chain for um, a lifetime reality series, UM. And we just enjoyed talking to each other. So I mean now that text change is also populated with other friends. It's not just us. There's five generate discussion between good friends, like minded individuals. You know. Well, it's it's very good. It's the highlight of my week. Wednesday's Merit at First Sight. If anyone listening to the Week's Side pod would like into our our text chain or or an email group, please let us know accepting new members. Um. Okay. So Connor and I we were again aligned on the NFC teams that would not make it. This would really creep me out if we nailed the same, and this would super cream out, Okay, go for it. Well we're boxing on Cowboys, um right, because no Eagles, UM. And I don't think Giants or Washington is going to get there. Um. Rams would be my second. Um, and I'm going to get sneaky cute here and uh and I'm going to throw the Falcons in as my third team and kind of bang the Buccaneers a little bit. Okay, I almost went with the Falcons, but I stuck with the Cardinals for the third spot. So we aligned on everything except that last one. And I almost wrote down the Falcons. But you don't have the Buccaneers making the playoffs either. I don't, which will actually lead into our next mail bad question. Um. But yeah, I had the Rams, Dallas and the Cardinal and I believe our friend James had the same three teams as you Connor. Yeah, the Cowboys, Grams and Falcons. Yes. So this was a fun exercise. I enjoyed it. It is. I do enjoy this part of every preseason because we all know the turnover is about like it's been that way for what three decades? But every year you look at and you're like, oh, well, there won't be that turnover this year and Certainly there are years when there is less turnover, but it's hard to fathom that a team that it was good the year before, good enough to go to the playoffs, would regress. I think that's the hardest part of making preseason picks because you just don't want to believe that a team will be different at this coming season. UM. And so I think it's a fun exercise to kind of force yourself to say, well, if someone had to regress, who would it be. Yeah, No, it's always good UM. Working on the um former colleague Jonathan Jones Special who loving allowed me to inherit his predict all two fifty six game uh schedule post um, which I'm working on for next week or two weeks from down the road. And it's the same thing. It's like, well, you know, not everything is the same. Everything is going to be different circumstances, schedule, everything, it all gets kind of mixed up into this big blender. So thanks James for for priming us for this. It's a it's a valuable exercise. Yes, it definitely is. Okay, Um, we have our next mail bag item from Pete. I like that listening the other day or do you want to read a Connor, I have it in front of me, I can go go ahead, Yes, I mean either way. Listening the other day, I was amused to hear that Connor was getting angry feedback from New Bucks fans. As a long standing Bucks fan from the Dungee era, I have been trying to keep my expectations in check, but having struggled through the Bruce Gradkowski era, it's not it's tough. Nazi overly excited seeing Tom Brady sleeing it in training camp videos. My question is, at what point will you view these Bucks as for real? If they go into New Orleans and when week one, will you reassess no hard no for me as well? Yeah, that would be an impressive win. Yeah. And I like the second part of his question, which is if they make a playoff run this season, will you reevaluate your view on Jason light Um as for the pot It sounds like you view him as taking steps just to extend his tenure. And that was a great We remember us talking about that like six months ago. So good on you. That is like a really good hard core listener. Yeah, really good callback on that. But I think that you can end up succeeding as an executive by taking these risks, and you're just taking them all at once, it seems, you know, and you're benefiting from it. I think that a good GM is selectively risky and those moves payoff. Whereas you've seen guys like less Need and Jason Light really push all their chips to the center of the table at a moment where they were embattled and it's paid off. We've seen executives like Jerry Reese of the New York Giants do it and it hamstrings the team insanely for two or three years and they have no cap spaceed um an ability to compete for two or three years, you know. So it works both ways. With Jason Light, I mean, I don't think it makes him a bad executive. I think that the fact that they acknowledged the problem um and said that Jamis was an issue here and that we don't want him anymore and that we need to upgrade the position is something that all GM should do. But I do think this is a little bit of a of a tight rope maneuver, because if you didn't get Tom Brady and basically re energize the entire franchise this offseason, I think everyone would be talking about, well, what's gonna happen here in Tampa Bay. I mean, they're gonna have to make some changes soon. Yeah, well said Connor. Great answer. And as for when we might believe that in late November, well, I mean I do think that there's I think November is an important month because they play the Saints for the second time to start the second half of the schedule. Um that would be their ninth game, and then they have the Rams and the Chiefs back to back not long after that. Again, this is assuming everything goes as planned, which with the NFL schedule, so I think that will be a big checkpoint to see where they're at. Then a one week one win, even though that would be impressive to go into New Orleans and win, I don't think would necessarily say what the season was going to be. I'm also curious if Brady will sustain his play throughout the year. That's always the big question with older quarterbacks. You referenced it earlier Withdrew Brees. It's certainly been something that we've watched the last couple of seasons with Brady Connor as well. And the run game in New England was definitely used to kind of supplement his play in their last Super Bowl win. So I think that the true test is really going to come in November and December and until we get to that point, no matter what we see, Yeah, maybe if they're tendant, oh but other than that, I think that there's just a lot to be proved in the second half of that schedule. I just wonder, like we're all um susceptible to this, I guess. But I'm thinking back to like even like the better teams of my youth, like every time this dream team assemblage has taken place, like it's never gone like exactly how we thought it would go. Like you know, the Miami Heat, I guess was the closest thing to that. But even they lost the first trip to the NBA Finals, right, I think they lost to the Mavericks that first year, and they had all the they made it to the NBA Finals, I guess. But you know all these teams that there's one team that just continually bangs the drum all offseason saying, look at us, look at all these stars. But then when you start looking in it critically, it's like, Okay, how old is Lishawn McCoy um. Is Rob Gronkowski going to be as effective of a player if he's more of an in line wide receiver and not this block or hybrid that Belichick had so much success with because he was an excellent blocker like Tom Brady's forty three. Like, I just feel like we're not kind of looking at them with that through that critical lens yet, because there's a lot of things that that offense was able to do, you know, and elevate some of the players that they were able to elevate because they had an armed a young arm talent, a guy that can whip the ball down the field with regularity and somewhat carelessness. And I think that that's not really tom Brady's forte. I think this is gonna be a very different looking offense. Yeah, I it's it's interesting because there is so much excitement around them, and it's kind of like they're out of the up and down roller coaster that the Jamis Winston experience was, right, so there's this like, Okay, well that was such a week by week you yo wing right of emotions and each game itself could be a yo yo wing. So now they're out of that and they've moved on to the greatest quarterback of all time. Um. But yeah, I think we think back to the Eagles dream team, right. I mean, all of these pieces supposedly coming together, and it's very easy to see how expectations are higher than reality. But we might be wrong, and we will revisit your excellent question, Pete. Uh, let's stay in November. He here's a better question. Is my inability to believe in the bucks my own problem and symptoms of previous disappointments that I've sustained during my life. Perhaps, you know, we all have to look inward here on the weak side pod too, so you never know. Sometimes the week's side pod ends up being a therapy pod, but only for us, sorry for everybody else. No, that was a great question. I mean, really, how does our what does our outlook on things say about ourselves and the things we've experienced in our life that we're carrying with us. Connor, that's a question to ask you down to my heart. I want everyone to go eight and eight deep down and what does that mean? What is it the roor shark tests? Yeah, what does your what does your interpretation of the NFL schedule. Say about you as a person, What is your interpretation of the camp for day Buccaneers? Say about your hopes and dreams and general mental state. Lots to unpack on the weak Side Pod. As always, as always, thanks again for listening. Thanks for the great questions, James and Pete. As always, we love hearing from our readers at week Side pot at gmail dot com. You can write in at any time. You can join our merit at first site group chat. Lots of options here, but we're grateful that you listen to us each week and we'll be back again on Thursday. The m QB week Side Pod is Me, Jenny, Brentis and Connor Or are produced by Shelby Royston Sizes. Executive producer of podcasts is Scott Brody, Ben Eagles, Director of Editorial Projects and product Mark Murravic is emeritus executive director of the mm QB. Keep up with our entire lineup podcast five days a week by subscribing to the mm QB NFL Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please do us a favor and leave a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show, which is also available on Spotify, radio dot com, Stitcher, s I dot com, and wherever else. Listen to podcast