The dust has settled and the smoke has cleared on the 2021 NFL offseason; Jenny, Conor and Gary convene to talk about the teams and storylines that flew a little too under the radar.
The Vikings drafted a quarterback in the third round and reportedly had interest in Justin Fields. Are they getting a little more serious about moving on from Kirk Cousins—and, if they are, should they be?
Another look at the Rams, who did make a move at quarterback, and the Titans, who have revamped their defense but need to find a way to keep the magic going on offense.
The NFC East maybe, kind of, sort of is back... perhaps? And did the Panthers passing on Justin Fields mean they weren't enamored with the prospect, or that they have their eye on some possible big QB names in the trade market?
Plus, Conor reveals a Power Rankings Poll scandal—and it's not that the Bucs were knocked from the top spot.
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Hello, and welcome to the m m QB Monday Morning NFL Podcast on Gary Grambling. I'm Jenny Brentis, I'm Connor Or. That was our That was really good, guys. That was our little last sixty minutes intro for this show that we're trying out now. Seem less the podcast equivalent of the three person leave intro. I love it. Yes, it's uh And really, anytime to do a good intro, you have to acknowledge it and you have to celebrate it, which is what we're doing now. But now we've got a show to do, and look, the dust is settled, the smoke has cleared a little bit on the NFL offseason, and they're just a handful of teens, and I think the three of us overlooked. I guess is the word. I mean, we know what the major storylines were. Obviously everyone saw Aaron Rodgers at the moment, and we'll see what happens with that as the spring and summer unfold, But just a handful of teams that were I don't maybe a scratch heads. Maybe you're excited about it, maybe you're just kind of confused about the entire thing. But we're gonna We're gonna help break down some of these situations here, and we'll start with a slightly newsy topic, and that is the Vikings, who were reportedly interested in taking Justin Fields had he fallen into the four team pick of the draft. Now, obviously they end up taking Kellyn Mond in round three. Not that round three quarterbacks necessarily are your uh locked in dude to the future or whatever it might be. But uh, it's kind of clear the Vikings have at least one eye toward maybe a Kirk Cousins less future. Yeah, And I don't know how much it makes sense. I mean, I think that Kirk Cousins is the perfect example of the you get excited about the idea of something that you don't have without maybe fully processing, um, the value of what you do have. And I'm not saying, you know, I think he's probably just a little underappreciated. Like if you look at I don't care what sort of analytical stats you prefer. I mean, you know, I'm I'm on, you know, yards above replacement defense adjusted yards above replacement football outsiders. Um, you know, Kirk Cousins is the top ten quarterback. He had about as many defensive yards adjusted yards above replacement as Justin Herbert Um he had more than Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Matt Stafford, Kyler, Murray Baker Mayfield. I mean, he's always kind of been that eleven guy, you know, But I think we've seen better teams take worse quarterbacks to the Super Bowl. UM, and he seems fine to me. UM. But you know, I think everybody kind of wants what they can't have, and I think some coaches probably do feel the pressure when they're seeing non mobile quarterbacks UM generate a lot more offense, and so you know, maybe that's the natural inclination is to start kind of looking around and seeing what else is out there. I also think he's under contract for for one more year at a significant price tag, and perhaps the Vikings saw Justin Fields, they really liked him, They saw a lot of potential there. And if you make that pick, then you have the flexibility to move on from Kirk Cousins and you can potentially shift away from this model of you know, or get you know, being in the overpaying a veteran quarterback who's not one of the top three quarterbacks too. Okay, now, we have a guy in a rookie deal, So I think it makes a lot of sense from that perspective. Obviously, there are some quarterbacks that is very worth paying, and you point out Connor that Cousins has been decent, but he's not in that elite level where you can say this significant portion of the salary cap is the thing that's going to get us to the next level. Yeah, it's It's funny. I would say Cousins is legitimately underrated while also being legitimately overpaid, which is just sort of the function of what you get when you sign a veteran quarterback at this point. And and look, you know, Mike McCartney has done a nice job leveraging Cousins over the last couple of years. When the Vikings needed to get that contract restructure a couple of years ago, or I guess I was last offseason at this point, uh, in order to fit some things under the cap. Uh, they pretty much locked in Cousins through the two season with some of some of the UH levers in that deal. So, uh, he's gonna be there for a little bit. And I do understand the Vikings kind of looking around the league and being like, man, wouldn't it be sweet we had a dude for like eleven million a year instead of like thirty million a year. And also that dude was also like Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen or someone like that. So I understand why they're looking around it. And it seems like that's kind of been the situation with uh, whether it was WA Shington first or now Minnesota. When you have Kirk Cousins, you're kind of like, all right, this is this feels pretty good, but you know what else? What else might we be able to do? But I feel like this is the first time either one of those teams with Cousins of the roster. Really I don't know start to get if I could use a meaningless buzzword proactive about about finding the next guy. Yeah, I was definitely a proactive approach and it didn't work out. So they ended up taking a guy in round three, which is a very different spot to take a quarterback that's a little bit more of a flyer. Um doesn't reflect necessarily as much on Cousin's future with the team. Maybe they like the way Mon's developing and that gives them flexibility down the line, But It's not the same thing as grabbing Fields if you falls to you, which in their defense, was potentially an opportunity that they wouldn't have been able to pass up. That would have been that would have been spicy, like, that would have really that would have been the draft day heat that I needed. Um And I think the whole my whole issue, since a lot of this is about me anyway, um Is, I was so I was so upset about what the forty Niners did at three, which is what I wanted them to do, but then I chickened out and said they would do something else. Um Is, Like, I I just wasted so much time kind of kicking stones about that and being bummed out that I didn't really like. By the time the Bears came up to get Justin Fields, I was like, okay, well the Bears need a quarterback. But like I could have really used like a little bit of like you know, intrigue there, you know, and just been like, oh, you know, Kirk Cousins is mad not and that's Kirk Cousins being mad is different than Andy Dalton being mad, and I, you know, I just you know, it just it would have been better for me if the Vikings had done had done that, just kind of gone up and got him. But it's also a lazy and kind of ridiculous thing to leak, because if you like the guy, then let's throw out this idea of best player on the board, because clearly you're just kind of sitting on your hands, like, go get him. Then if he's that good and you like him that much, don't buffer it and protect yourself so that if he plays well, you can be like, well, we tried to get him, but no, just go up and get him and make it happen. That's a good point. There was a lot of that with Mahomes a few years ago too, right, Well, Sean Payton would have taken him if Andy Reid didn't move up or such and such guys. I definitely would have taken Russell Wilson had had another guy in the war room not said he was just too short to take, but I was banging the table for him. So I happened to cover a team where that was a a very oft recycled storyline um that I believe when I covered the Jets, it was the director of prope I was looking back at my stories that I had written on it in the past. I think it was Terry Bradway was the pro personnel director liked Russell Wilson so much that they called him, uh, Terry Wilson or Russell Bradway. I forget, like they called him that throughout the draft week and then they didn't pick him, And I think would that have been the Geno Smith draft somewhere around there. Oh boy, I'm getting the years mixed up, but that's sort of I think. No. I think Gino was like a year or two after Russ. Gino was a year or two after US. Okay, they took somebody else or maybe they had resigned Mark Sanchez Um to a contract at that point. But um, you know, I was doing a story on it and then I asked the GM about it, and I said, hey, you know your pro personnel director loved Russell Wilson and he said, well, Connor, success has many fathers and failure and orphan and so I always remembered that when when I think about exactly what we're doing right now. That was a great point by Jenny, Like the Mahomes positing was just so epic last year. It's well, we liked him well, he felt to like ten and he was a generational quarterbacks. He probably should have just gotten up and got up. So the year that Russell Wilson was drafted, the New York Jets took Stephen Hill in the second round. Um oh he was he was a project. Let's see how it plays out before we judge that. So yeah, you know, they had opportunities to get well Wilson and didn't. So yeah, that's that's the thing with Fields and the teams that you know, if Justin Fields does become a star, who will sort of go down this path of saying like, oh, well, we really wanted we we didn't have the draft mo to the draft gut of the move up or whatever it might be. Uh one, he's a quarterback. Number two. I mentioned this a couple of times. If you look ahead to next year's draft class, especially if your team like the Vikings, who's you know. I mean, look, the Vikings are probably gonna be pretty good. They're going to be I think, as a worst case scenario, probably picking in the big teams, more likely picking in the twenties. Uh. Next year's quarterback class is not shaping up to be particularly good. Now there are about ten guys who you could look at and say, this could be the Zack Wilson of this year. Will multiple guys become that guy and sort of break out? I you know, I think it's unlikely at this point. But uh, if Justin Fields had gone back to Ohio State, I don't see any scenario where he's not the odds on favorite to be the number one, number one pick in the draft. And therefore, I don't know if you weren't, if you didn't have enough conviction to move him and get him this year, you just you didn't like him that much in the end. Yeah, And that's why some of these post these draft post mortems, which are done anonymously, you know, for good reason obviously, but like you know, the Packers leaking, for example, that they were going to take Justin Jefferson if he fell to him. Yeah, I mean, of course I would too in hindsight, you know, uh my, you know, when you put all the players into a pool and Madden Franchise mode, you can look a lot smarter when you already realize what they've accomplished. But um, you know, now the pre doing of that and saying, well, you know, we were thinking about going up and getting him and decided not to. It really is like the ultimate politics move, like because if he's good, then you can say we liked him, and if he's bad, you can say, but we realized that Christian derrisol was so much more important to the franchise. Or you just hope that everyone forgets that you mentioned that you liked him. I won't forget. People don't forget A month a morning NFL podcast never forgets. And by the way, speaking of things that we we don't forget. Uh, quick update on last week before we move on to to the Rams, a team that did make a change at quarterback this offseason. Uh, that Tom Donahoe storyline we talked a little bit about on the draft recap show and that he was, Uh, he appeared to be a little bit upset. He did explain himself and uh it was no big deal because he didn't realize he was on camera and therefore all of his actions are no one void was the explanation there. I mean, I think that there is some value in draft room cameras for capturing that moment just like that. You know, people say, well, everyone's just celebrating, you don't actually see anything. But I enjoy the draft room cameras. I like to see who's in the mix, who's sitting next to each other, how people are interacting. And every once in a while you have a dysfunctional team that has laid bare for the world to see. It is amazing that like, um, with all the like faux military preparedness that they all claim to have, that like, they can't just look happy for too freaking seconds when the thing is on them, you know. And I'm sure that they have some kind of warning. I'm sure the light turns green and it's like, hey, by the way, you know, you guys are on here, Like how many times have we watched NFL games and you know, in Sunday night football and the and the camera goes into the booth for like Elway and someone gives them the nudge, you know, because whatever, he's half asleep in his popcorn or I'm just not saying l Way, I'm saying this Jerry Jones, whoever it is character and they get the nudge and then they like stand up and they're just like yeah, yeah, like football guy doing football stuff, you know. Um, but I just can't believe that some of these teams can't manage to look professional for like a like a forty five second window that they're going to be on this thing. But I mean there's so many times when a moment that's captured like that looks very impression in retrospect, Like bell O'Brien freaking out, yeah he's draft when he was you know, at home in his home office, you know, by himself, but freaking out at somebody over the phone. That that really took on a lot of new meaning when the events of the fall unfolded. So to be a fly on the wall of that that one, right, Yes, that that was a good one. So the Rams are a team that actually got one of these moving franchise school for backs here. You know, that's been sort of the the storyline of the off season, the uh, the increasing power that franchise quarterbacks wheeled here. We haven't seen and Rodgers move yet. We haven't seen Russell Wilson move. Uh, Matthew Stafford did get moved, and we all kind of forgot about it because immediately after we were wondering Baron Rodgers is gonna move? So, uh, just taking a quick look at the Rams here, and and as we know, this is their m O, they trade all the first round picks and get veteran talent. But this is the first time they did it for a quarterback and they moved on from a guy who um, I mean Jared Goff's extension was supposed to kick in in two It will excuse me one, it will. It just will kick in for the Detroit Lions rather than the l A Rams. But uh, what do we make of the Rams at this point? Entering this year? Uh, now that Stafford is in, they continued to sort of lose all this young talent, both on the field and in the uh you know, on the coaching staff. I mean, Brandon Staley's gone after he did such a tremendous job at that defense last year. I mean, was this kind of the next step forward for them? Or is this a team that's sort of, I don't know, thrashing a little bit stay above water in the in the NFC. I put this down as a topic to discuss today because when we were doing the mm QP power rankings last week, the Stafford trade just felt so far from my mind, Like, for half a second, I was like, what did the Rams do this offseason that would change their flower? Ranking. Oh yes, they traded for Matthew Stafford. So it just feels like a distant memory, right, like it happened so soon after the conclusion of the season. But it was potentially the most significant move. I mean, if Sean McVeigh was as held back by Jared Goff as he apparently believes he is, or the rest of the organization be se is, then this is supposed to be the move that would put them over the top. But it's also something of a truth serum for is this working with the Rams? Because you go out and you get the quarterback that's supposed to not hold you back in the least physically mentally whatever you want to do on the field, And so now there is a lot of pressure. Can can all of the moves that they've made over the last few years, all of these bold moves, uh finally payoff? And in fairness, obviously they went to the Super Bowl, but they're clearly in search of winning a ring and getting all making all these bold moves with a purpose in mind. Just a crazy thing for the Rams to do, Like you had such a good setup where everybody thought you were smart, but that you just didn't have a good enough quarterback and ask any ask any psychologist and will tell you the healthy thing to do is to blame everything on somebody else and to just allow that healthiness to linger for a long period of time. And that's what they should have done. But kudos to them for, uh for going all in and and and showing us. I mean, I don't see I don't see any statistical evidence that you know, this was a market upgrade, right like, but the RAMS system is great and the Lions system for a long time was horrible, and so I think that's the great equalizer here is is what it's gonna look like. But um, I feel like so much crazy stuff happens in the NFL now that we're going to reach the point where we were last year, where it's going to be like August and and we're all going to look around and say we should start talking about the fact that Cam Newton's on the Patriots, you know, And I think that that'll that'll hit us all collectively, like, Wow, Matt Stafford is on the Rams now, and that's, uh, that's a lot different than it used to be. Yeah, the uh, I think the arrival of Stafford. I mean, look, theoretically, you can do a lot more with your offense with Stafford than then you come with Golf. You know, it's funny. I think back to Week one last year. I mean, you guys, you guys remember he was so long ago. Uh, that Cowboys Rams game. I think it was a Sunday night game that week. Uh, But that game ended the Rams wanted. The game ended on a play where uh McVeigh had clearly set up a play action on it. You know, it was a third and medium had said a sort of a final nail on the Coffin play action call where Cooper Cup was gonna leak leak out and come open and it was gonna be an easy throw. It was gonna be a fifty yard game, even though the Cowboys are kind of expecting them to run it one more time, run out of the clock, et ceter etcetera. So he makes the call and Golf rolls out and Cooper Cooper Cup is wide open and Golf just doesn't throw the ball. And I remember collins Worth kind of staying very gently. Uh, He's like, I don't know your your coach just designed that play and he called it and it worked and he didn't throw it. So now you gotta go explain something to the GoJ He checked it down and the Rams punted and they held on anyway, So I don't know happy is ending, I guess, but uh, yeah, as far as that goes, it was just kind of a moment that I keep thinking back on where it's like, I don't know, it's it's like McVeigh is trying to unlock a little bit more out of golf can play a little more aggressively, and golf just kind of shrugged his shoulders in that moment and said rather not and uh did his thing. Uh. The one thing that's gonna define this Ramcyne though, is gonna be what the defense does post Brandon Staley. We see it time and time again, where uh it's just very difficult considering Uh you know, it's it's it's entire unit. You need to sort of keep together and keep that chemistry going. And uh, it's just difficult, especially with the with the pieces that they lost this year, to to imagine this being the number one defense and football again with Rahee Morris coming in to run it now. Uh, just because of the pieces they lost and just because it's difficult for anyone to do it year to year. We've seen what the Bears have done, uh since that sort of historic season they had in eighteen. Defensively, there's still a good defense, but they're not a stand on your head and you're gonna win in twelve games because this side of the ball type of defense anymore. And you wonder if the defense kind of sinks back a little bit, uh, and that kind of maybe cancels out the improvement they get offensively and ultimately end up just being a uh. I don't know, one of one of these sad eleven win teams that doesn't play in the Super Bowl. I mean, if you look at the run that Brandon Staley had over the second half of the season as defensive coordinator, they were on pace to break the NFL record I think until the last two games of the regular season, they were on pace to break the NFL record for few a second half points allowed in NFL history. And and it was a ridiculous stretch where you know, it was like you know too, you know, three points, six points, three points and they're Staley in particulars ability to adjust at halftime I think got him a head coaching job. But if I were less need and Sean McVeigh. You know, if you if you made that move, if you knew you were going to make that move for Stafford, I would have been so much more aggressive in trying to keep him for one more year two. And I understand that Staley had to go. I mean, it was a good opportunity and it's a great roster to go coach, and you don't have to move very far. But like, I think he was almost as integral to their being good enough to make the playoffs as anything last year and and would be this year. Like I think, I think you're if it makes sense, you're adding Stafford to a team because you believe you're one guy away, but then you remove a lot of the foundational aspects of what made that team good and is no longer that team that was one guy away. If that makes sense. Yeah, you're putting double pressure on the offense. Not only do you have Stafford and you're expecting the offense to deliver at the level you wanted them to with golf. Now you're also putting more pressure on the offense because the defense may drop off a little bit. So let's uh, let's go east to the Tennessee Titans. Two years ago, they make the conference championship game in the a f C. Last year, they win the a f C South, edging out the Colts, but obviously go down in the first round of the playoffs and home loss to the Ravens. Uh. They had just very quietly, I mean, they completely redid this defense, and it's a defense that has not played particularly well the last couple of years. Uh. They were built around a really talented secondary, and we saw a couple of years ago when that secondary is fully healthy, and you know between uh Bayard at at safety one of the top seas in the league, and their their top three corners at the time, where uh Dorry Jackson, Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan Uh, you had, you know, arguably one of one of the best, uh not even arguably, you just had one of the best secondaries in the NFL. And that's what was kind of carrying them. They have struggled to find that pass rush. And again, a great pass rush makes your secondary even better, UH and vice versa. But it just hasn't quite syncd up. So essentially that you know, all those cornerbacks are gone now, so you have a new UH group coming in there. And they go and Mike Rabels trying to kind of recapture what he had in Houston with uh, you know, maybe a little bit of this diamond front look type of stuff. Uh. You know, Jeffrey Simmons is a potential rising star. And then you have Bud Dupreez or big addition, he's coming off the torn a c l and we'll we'll see what he does. Uh now that he won't be opposite t J. Watt in Pittsburgh, but uh, it's just really interesting what they've done defensively and then offensively, you know, they lose Corey Davis. Uh, they're still looking for an answer at right tackle. Josh Reynolds comes in. He's probably not Corey Davis going forward. It's just it's a team that looks like maybe they've slid back a little bit. But by the same token, it's a really good coaching staff. And do they end up getting the best out of this roster and they end up winning Ancy South again? Anyway, Yeah, it was a pretty aggressive defensive makeover. And then you also add in Caleb Farley, who slid a little bit because of some of the injury concerns, but has said he'll be ready for training camp. Um, you also wonder if the opt out played into that slide, So they potentially got that possibly the top corner in the draft if he's healthy and can play well in the back half of the first round. So that's another piece that they could could use and could get a similar you know, similar to the situation with Simmons, who was coming off the torn a c L. Right, they could have gotten a player who's stock was driven down by injury and end up getting a really good player late in the first round in their draft spot. Yeah, I don't know. I I think that the Titans, to me, are similar to what we've been talking about with the Rams, where what's made them great is no longer sustainable I think for the long run. And I mean I'm probably gonna sound wrong until the year that I'm not, but I think it's gonna be difficult to depend on Derrick Henry to pace them the way that he has in the past. I mean, you had basically a four Kerry season which was two years ago, which is previously the death knell for all running backs, and then repeated it with another phenomenal performance last year. And you know, he takes great care of his body. I mean, you know, he's he focuses a lot on that and he's shaped differently than other running backs in the past, So there's obviously reason to believe that he can do this for a little bit longer. But and then you lose your offensive cord later. Um, I just don't know how much of this, regardless of what you're doing here, that you can kind of rekindle the magic there. I think really what you would need to do is almost try to pivot in another direction and see if you could kind of, you know, run somewhere else and figure something else out, because I just don't think you're going to be able to win the way that you've been winning in the past for very much longer. Yeah, Connor and I were low on the Titans last year and didn't think that they could follow up the season before his performance and a little bit of a fall off, but ultimately a playoff team. But they still play in the a f C South, And we don't know how quickly Trevor Lawrence will acclimate to the NFL. We don't know what's going to happen with Winston Indianapolis. We don't know who's playing quarterback for the Texans next year. So you know they still have that ability to get into the playoff even with potential flaws, and then get hot at a certain point in time. But I agree with you, Connor, it is a um befuddling formula I would say to go forward with, and you wonder if it's it just runs out, especially now that they have also lost Arthur Smith on offense. Yeah, that's that's a that's a great point, by the way, and Todd Downing is one of the kind of fascinating UH coaching situations here. A lot of you remember him as the Raiders offensive coordinator when Derek Carr sort of took that downturn a couple of years ago. And one of the issues with that Raiders offense was they did not meld the run game and the passing game in any way to your perform. Part of that was play calling situations. Partly it was stylistically with the quarterback wanted to do seemingly, but it was like they either come out and spread and it was like okay, well they're throwing, or they'd come out with a heavier personnel and to be okay, they're running. But there's no like play action like and and now Todd Downing a couple of years later, and he's been in that Titans organization for a couple of seasons now, and obvious he's a uh, you know, he's a youngish guy and uh, certainly could learn some new tricks at this point. And I don't think you're gonna see him try and recapture the magic of the I don't know eighteen Raiders or whatever it was. But this is like a completely, I don't know, polar opposite offense. So what he ran with the Raiders and uh, and on top of that, even if he calls it, well, does he get another historic season out of Derrick Henry. That's something that is just a little bit out of his control at this point, and it's gonna be uh, it's gonna be fascinating to see how this plays out with Downing, who you know, was was sort of considered a rising young star in the coaching ranks and maybe slid back a little bit after that turn his Raiders coordinator, and now he's plucked into I don't know, I think it's a really tough spot for anyone to step into, but I think especially for a guy like Downing, you can't run your offense. You can't run the offense that you're bringing. You have to run the offense that was in place, yeah before you got there, because all the offensive line moves that they made, the fact that you're still building around Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill, it's all predicated on running the offense that was in place. And you know, it's just not gonna work any other way. And so I don't know if that was made expressly clear at the outfront. If they think that they're going to, you know, try to do something else, but if they're hanging on to this core group of personnel, nothing else is gonna work. And so I think it'll be really interesting to see what they try to do. No, absolutely, I mean, they have to run the same thing. And by the way, it was when he was the Raiders offensive cordinare. But since leaving the Raiders he has gone to Minnesota and we know what they do offensively with the Shanahan Kubiak stuff. And then he's been in Tennessee as the tight ends coach last two seasons, so he has certainly gotten a sort of master class in this UH wide zone. Offense that the Titans have used, and we'll see what happens. Because it's not only the design in the offense, A lot of it is the play calling. And Arthur Smith, isn't it one of the best play to play play callers in the league. And Uh, Downing will have to We'll have to replicate that, which is a tall order, but you know he's capable of it. We'll see what happens, guys. I don't know if anyone really talks about the NFC East in this league, but we'll shine the spotlight over there at some of these, uh, you know, sort of small market teams going on here. Uh, this was such a bad division last season. You could argue, I don't want to argue with you, guys, but you could argue if you wanted that these are between Dallas, the Giants, and UH and the Washington football team. These are three the most improved teams in the NFL this year. I think the Cowboys, simply as a product getting Dak Prescott back back in the lineup, obviously have a chance to make a big jump. They just spent an entire draft on defenses. Try and fix that. Uh. Washington goes from the they didn't have a quarterback last year. They didn't have they did not have competent quarterback play. And now you get Ryan Fitzpatrick. And we know what the Giants did around Daniel Jones with Kenny Golladay and kid Darius Tony. Uh, they added O'doory Jackson. They're they're going to roll the dice on the former Titans guy who was sort of a budding number one cornerback, uh, and hoping you'd stay healthy there. But all three of those teams got a whole lot better the Eagles in But that's that, that's maybe why Tom Donahoe is so upset about all this stuff. There was ever a division to have the most improved tag, it would be the NFC East. You know, that's always the award you give to somebody who's struggling and trying to get a little better, trying to get in the mix a little bit more so fitting Gary, my basement is full of most improved trophies childhood, in absence of just anything else that they can give you. But I so I think I had to rank uh the not had to, Nobody forced me to, but decided to rank the divisions um for a column that I did on Friday, and to me, the NFC's is still the worst division in the league. Um, but I do think that perception changes quickly. Um. If Dallas goes out and behaves somewhat like they're capable of behaving like that is with with a star quarterback and with a good offensive coordinator, that is an eleven win team. UM. And I think if you have an eleven win team, and I think Washington's kind of beats some people like they're capable of doing, you ride the fits magic like like one is is prone to do. And then the Giants. I mean, I think that the Giants are gonna be a tough opponent this year just because their sound defensively and they do have weapons, and even if Daniel Jones has one or two good days, you know, he can beat some decent secondaries with all those pieces that he has. Like, I think that they could be like eleven nine seven five in terms of like win totals, which is like at LEAs better than it was in the past. Like I don't think, I don't think it can nearly be as bad as it was before. Um. But the weird thing is, like the Giants and Washington in particular, the improvements that they've made Sam's quarterback um are really good. Like I think I would put certain position groups that both of those teams have against any other team in the league, Like, that's how good I think that they've gotten at certain places. Yeah, I mean, you look at what Washington did last year again, just really without a quarterback at that point. Defensively, they can they have the type of even that can stand on its head and carry a team to the postseason. Uh. And if Dan new Jones is going to break out, all the pieces are there now, and if he has his big breakout season and Patrick ram is still working his magic on the defensive side of the ball. There with the Giants, I don't know. I think these are uh, three win teams. Somehow A lot depends on Jones taking the next forward. Certainly they have done a lot to set him up to do that, with the exception of making big moves on the offensive line, which is a little bit of a surprise perhaps, But yeah, it's really hard to ignore the Cowboys. The defense has had a total makeover, starting with the coordinator. They bring Dan quinnin and they upgraded defense. I mean they spend their entire draft on defense, UM obviously trying to improve a unit that struggled basically in every way last year. UM. And then on the offensive side of the ball, they of course get back back. So there aren't a lot of excuses for Mike McCarthy's team this year. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. And Uh, finally, before we discussed some of these MMQB power rankings that that came out last week, But uh, I didn't want to mention the Panthers real kick because look, we had, UM, we had a very controversial take during the ma mock draft series we had we had the Panthers taking justin Fields and don't that was not a weak thing. Ultimately they take J. C. Horn. Look, I I know I think they are a little bit, uh overly optimistic. They think Sam Donald is the answer. I don't think they think that. Uh, to be honest, I did not really take passing on fields as a vote of confidence in Donald. Obviously they're gonna play Donald, will will see what happens. But UM, I think this is an organization maybe holding out hope a little bit that they can talk themselves into a Deshaun Watson, or they can get into a Russell Wilson sweepstakes or whatever it might be. I I think they just didn't want to lock in a young guy they weren't one percent confident in with that number eight pick, and apparently Fields was not someone they had one confidence in. Yeah, that's interesting if they were a percent confident in him, and it would have been hard to pass them up. But there are still some situations that are unresolved for various reasons, Rogers and Wilson for on field reasons, Watson for off field reasons. So if there is a movement in any of those markets, there aren't that many available suitors at this point because a lot of teams already addressed the quarterback situation in the draft. So if you're the Panthers, you may be in a somewhat advantageous position. Position um the Giants as well, because they have those that second first rounder next year, So there, you know, they have the draft capital to make a move if they decide to. You know, someone like Rogers would be impossible to pass up on. I think that rule is probably operating under the same uh thought process that a lot of college coaches have brought with them to the NFL, which is that you have to get somebody like that in order to make up for your lack of foothold in in the league in general. And you know, we saw Nick Saban and what did he do? It was between Dante Culpepper and Drew Brees And what did Chip Kelly do when he was in Philadelphia. It was um Michael Vick and then Mark Sanchez and then UM Sam Bradford and all these other guys cycling guys that coming through kind of hoping to hit in the same way um and that Drew Brees mold like a lot of these college coaches have come through. Once they get there and realize, like I can't succeed the way that I've succeeded in the past, I think your next option is to be like, I have to hit on something like this, Like I have to. I have to somehow kind of backdoor myself. If I'm not going to get Trevor Lawrence, if I'm not going to get this, you know, solidified star player, I'm gonna have to go around some other way to get a quarterback that's gonna make up for a lot of what I just don't have right now. All right, we say the most important topic for last year, and that is the and I'm tould be power pol reason our first vote of uh, I don't know the it's called post offseason, and the Tampa Bay Bucks do not get the top spot. It goes to Kansas City, And I don't know. How do you guys feel about it? Do you uh? Do you, out of respect for the Super Bowl champion automatically put them first? Or are you of the mind that uh uh they have the top spot until it's proven otherwise or I don't know. I don't want to. I don't want to reveal who voted for whom, so I I will leave that up to you guys if you want to reveal it yourselves. But I don't know I have. Have we disrespected the Bucks in some way? Well? I did put the Bucks one because they brought back all of their starters. It's very unusual for a Super Bowl team to keep everybody together. But I actually do think Chiefs in the top spot is the right move. They address address their most glaring weakness, the thing that lost them the Super Bowl. Um, they addressed it in a big way this offseason. They really went after rebuilding their offensive line, and so because of that, Um, you know, I could see why they're they were put in the top spot. But yes, I stuck with the Buccaneers just because you know, it's the same team that just won a Super Bowl, right, They meaningfully brought back their entire roster, and so I thought it was hard to move them for that reason. But I think there's a really good case for the Chiefs to be number one. Can I come clean about something? Um? I was doing the MMQB power Pool in a little bit of a rush and started. What I do is I copy and paste Jenny's just so I have all the teams in there, and then I start kind of moving them around. Um, it's just the way that I've done it for a long time. And you know, if you have a brain that doesn't work correctly, that you just stick with what you know. And and so I was doing that, and then and then I was like making a lot of changes. And then I was like, oh, yeah, this guy goes here, and this guy goes here, and wow, I'm surprised Jenny put this team over here. And then all of a sudden, I was about thirteen moves into Our columnist Mike Rosenberg's column, like, and I just you know, I picassoed his and I don't know if I control zed enough to stop doing what I was doing to his so uh and then I just went back and redid mind again and so uh uh Okay that you know that that I think does have a lot to do with maybe some of the major questions that people are having about the poll. Interesting. Yeah, we appreciate you coming clean. I will say, when Mitch Goldrich put out on Twitter that there was a rogue voter, my initial instinct was Connor, because you're always such a maverick and do things differently, and that's what we love about you. That's what you bring to the MMQB. You have these unconventional views that are often very right, but people are afraid to break away from the crowd. However, we learned quickly that it was in fact Michael Rosenberg, but it sounds as though it was a Connor Michael mash up, which is just perfect, Like that's the ideal combination for chaos and makes a lot of sense. Is why the Power Poll was a little bit all over the place this year. Yeah, yeah, And first of all, when you call me a maverick. It's just like it's like it's like a holdover from like a very publicly failed presidential campaign. Well, okay, I I think that's very unfortunate because the word maverick existed for that, Yeah, great before that. I bought my first car before that presidential campaign, and it would a RAV four, So I named it MAV the Rav four, Maverick the Rap four. You know. So it was a little bit disappointing to see maverick be used in a different context. Um. So I mean that in the context um of which I named my car, you know, lovingly, with respect for the word Connor. So I just want let's say we're taking it back. We're taking it. That's reclaiming maverick. Okay, we're taking it back. I like it, um. But yeah, I mean most of the time I've said this before, and everybody knows my stance on this. My vote in the Power poll is used to correct everybody else's incorrect votes, and so I use I ranked teams much higher than they should be in order to drag them up because people are underrating them, and I ranked teams much lower because they're overrated. So if anything, people should just be thanking you this time, uh was more of just ah, a serious error both on my part and um, you know, Michael Rosenberg should also go in and check those. You know, the power rankings are important enough where you should go back in there before the publishing and make sure that you know everything hasn't been tampered with. Because I will say this, Um, there was a back when we used to do our picks in the spreadsheet, the group spreadsheet. There was one year and I'm not going to say who it was, where somebody was winning and they were doing their picks after everybody else and waiting until everybody else's picks were in and then kind of creatively and selectively sort of sprinkling them in to create an advantage. And so I'm just I'm saying that, you know, Google doc is not infallible in terms of security, That's all I'm saying. And just to be careful so leaving out games so as not to engage in live O'Connor smart. This person knows who this person is. The picks were always scandalous. We needed uh an isolated booth for everyone to do their picks because people would do that. They they if you're in the lead. You just match the picks of the number two competitor, and that's how you maintain your lead. Very controversial. Jenny's texting me right now to find out who it was. Somehow I forgot. I don't think it was behavior. I thought it was Jenny because Jenny did win it a couple of years in a row. So all you know, Well, well it'll save that for another podcast. All right, guys, that'll do it for this one. We'll be back next week. I think maybe like NFL Draft redraft at this point, probably probably that time in the off season. Yeah, Mark drafts. The mm QB Monday Morning ut Off Hell podcast is Jenny Rerentis connor Or and me Gary Gramling. We are produced by Shelby Royson. S Ey's executive producer and podcast is Scott Brody. Mark Ravick is Emeritus editor of the MMQB. Andy Benoit 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 Perier Show. They're all for free on Apple Podcasts, and once you do subscribe, please leave a rating m you for all of them. It really does help other people find the shows, which are also available on Spotify, radio dot com, Stitcher, s i dot com, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.