Chase Daniel talks Dak Prescott, Trevor Lawrence discourse, Lamar, more | In the Pocket | #nfl

Is the existing Trevor Lawrence narrative correct? Can the Lions win the Super Bowl with Jared Goff, if not this season then at some point in the near future? Robert Mays and Chase Daniel dig into those questions, and more, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show’s In The Pocket.

0:00 Intro
1:57 Most Impressive QBs / Dak Prescott / Lamar Jackson
16:18 Trevor Lawrence / Jaguars
34:41 Cowboys Offense Home vs. Away
44:19 Can the Lions win it all with Jared Goff?

#nfl #nflfootball #dallascowboys #baltimoreravens

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Welcome to the athletic football show I’m Robert Mays joining me for this week’s edition of in the pocket it’s a long time NFL quarterback Chase Daniel Chase how you doing man good good just uh being busy like everyone else during the holidays and I feel like because

I’ve been playing for so long and it just spent the holidays at work and worried about my wife doing everything now it’s like everything falls on me too so it’s a little bit different we just got done with a kids party we’re you know it’s just like we’re going to

Another kids party we got a Christmas show going up for pressing our oldest we got like family coming in town in two days we’re leaving we’re going to the Cotton Bowl we’re going to New York so it’s just a lot of stuff going on but it’s good though it’s good are these

Kids birthday parties or kids holiday parties holiday parties dude wait just just you wait man it’s like we had a we had a holiday party for a three and a halfy old my wife was up to like midnight like cuz she’s the room mom doing a bunch of this this is school

Oriented School it’s okay I’m just making sure these aren’t parents throwing holiday parties at their houses for their children this is all foreign to me so everything that goes on with what you do for small kids I’m watching this very much from afar I dominate as Uncle Robert but that’s where I’m most

Comfortable right now it’s the best thing like Uncle and Aunt man you can like hang out with the kids you’re the fun Uncle like I have a niece but then you can give them back like here here take the kids back you know I don’t want

To have to deal with anything else so you can have fun sugar them up get them on a sugar hide give them back to their parents so they don’t sleep at night but yeah that’s sort of what we got going on just like it’s everyone else too right

In in America celebrates Christmas it’s like man this time of year is just is wild and crazy it’s just different in this sort of job my wife is working from home these two weeks she’s like I got two emails today it’s like yeah that that’s how it is for most people I think

In this stretch of the calendar for us not the case we’re barreling toward the most important part of our year 15 weeks into the season I thought that today would be a good opportunity to zoom out a little bit and have some big picture discussions both about the quarterbacks

In the NFL at large but also about some specific quarterbacks in the league and maybe not even about how they played last week but about how they’re playing and maybe how they fit into their team’s plans moving forward so I wanted to start with a pretty broad question

Because you’re in a unique position you come in first year in media this is the first time that you’ve watched the guys in the NFL with the eye that you’re taking to it right now I know you’ve watched them when you’ve been studying other defenses or just as a fan watching

TV but as you’ve taken this more intense scope into what the quarterbacks in the NFL look like I’m curious who is different than you expected them to be which guy now that you’ve actually gone back and studied it is maybe a little bit different than what your preconceived notions of them

Might have been coming into the season yeah that’s a that’s a difficult one um I think the obvious one at least for me is Dak because like when I used to watch Dak when I was a player if he was on an offense that we were studying or a

Defense that we were going up against you don’t necessarily watch the actual quarterback you watch okay formally they’re in two by two 3 by one empty what is this defense if we’re playing Philly in we’re in the Chargers and we’re watching Phillies defense and he’s playing against Dak because it’s in

One of the last four or five games um you sort of only get a feel for like okay cool that’s a nice pass or yeah that’s that’s good and you don’t necessarily get the whole stretch of the season right because when we’re playing um what we’re doing is we are

Trying to we just break down the last four to five games so if it’s Midway through the season then you’re you’re like you’re breaking down week like say it’s week 10 you’re breaking down nine eight seven and six so the first four or five games of the year you don’t even

Pay attention to of that team and so when I’ve watched Dak in the past I’m like oh yeah he’s made some good throws and it’s really his offensive line that’s played really well and he’s given them some chances and you know turned the ball over last year so forth and so

I wasn’t necessarily really high on him uh in terms of just the ability uh to throw the ball but then I’ve watched him every game this week or every game this year um because not only do I think it’s fascinating I really wanted to study that offense under Mike

McCarthy and how they were going to transition from Kell Moore right but especially because I do a breakdown on him almost every week on my YouTube channel and it’s it’s magical uh the way he’s playing obviously like last week’s game against Buffalo uh wasn’t it and they struggle they struggle on the road

Vers home but when you may not know this though when you have one bad game it does not neate all of the good games that you had prior to that I know that’s not how the internet works right now but that’s not how it actually goes just

Throwing that out there yeah and that’s why when you said this I was like oh it’s Dak for me because like when you actually study him this year and really get into the thick of it and how he’s playing in terms of like big time throw

Like I always thought that Dak was just like an easy thrower like not really making a bunch of tough throws he was turning the ball over a lot last year now granted a lot of those were tips in some overthrows and not necessarily on him and tipped to the line of scrimmage

Or receiver dropped it I think half of them were last year and then you look at this year and just how well he’s been able to take care of the football but honestly I don’t know if I’ve seen a better quarterback this year throw in the middle of the field deep down the

Field between two high safeties like it seems like every other game or every game there’s two or three seam throws to CD lamb or to Jake Ferguson up the middle and it’s not it’s not like like this Dink and dunk offense and I don’t think Kell Moore was a dink and dunk

Offense but Kellen uh pushed the ball down the field in more creative ways where I felt like there were a lot more open receivers if that makes sense so Des sh more than in the rhythm of the offense yeah and so in my opinion it was

Like yeah he should make that throw it’s wide open a corner route to the field I mean it’s schemed up this year I’m not saying it’s not schemed up but since the the uh the San Fran game where they got embarrassed like the dude’s been on a

Tear and and if it wasn’t for the egg uh that he laid last week in buffo like he was my front runner at MVP because what he was doing I don’t know if another quarterback within an offense could do that and so I think it’s that to me when

I just really step back and look at it from a from all 15 games or 14 games whatever we’re at it’s been really fun to watch because and that’s the first I’m glad you asked that because like that’s the first thing as a media I hate call myself media member as a former

Player who’s diving into analysis you know you sort of Miss the boat because you don’t really you’re so nearsighted when you’re on the field and trying to prepare for this next opponent if we’re playing the Denver Broncos my I have goggle like tunnel vision just on

The Denver Broncos so I might watch the last four quarterbacks of den Broncos but I don’t even have an opinion because I don’t need to have an opinion on the quarterbacks I need to have opinion on their front defensive backs linebackers stuff like that so it has been cool to actually

This is what I like really enjoy to do uh and it’s just like watch quarterbacks and understand like how they’re playing within offenses so I think for me it’ be Dak in terms of like that answer I think that’s fair and I think that even if he

Isn’t going to win the MVP the perception of Dak has certainly shifted a bit this year in what he’s giving that offense because if you ask people even that were supportive of Dak and fans of Dak coming into the year what does Dak do best it’s a lot of pre- snap

Operation it’s a lot of the work he does at the line of scrimmage and he’s surgical in the underneath area of the field right he’s just there’s a Precision to the way he plays the position but that didn’t always translate to pushing the ball down the field creating explosive plays right now

As of today he is tied for the league lead in Big Time throws according to PFF and stylistically I just don’t think that’s ever how we talked about or consider Dak Prescott so I think that’s a very good answer and an understandable answer are there any other nuance is

Just to the way he plays the position that maybe you appreciate now that you didn’t have a sense of before this year started yeah I I I think with Dak like you got to look at sort of his journey as a professional quarterback and I just remember like his rookie year the dude

Went off like I remember even in preseason like I’m watching I’m like Dak Prescott from Mississippi State like who is this guy and then all of a sudden he’s just like crushing people in the preseason and he just continues that all the way through and so he set the bar

Really high for for himself as a rookie quarterback on America’s team and so everything that this dude does is going to get over scrutinized talked about so much more and you have to sort of at least what I’ve learned on this side of the mic you have to sort of pick through

And I I have to sort of make my own opinion and and because it’s like the people that are talking about Dak most of the time um a lot of them just do it for clickbait if I’m being honest and so I don’t I used to and I I as a player

Because I didn’t have time to study I’d have certain media members on my phone and Twitter and X that I follow and that might push a narrative that I’m was like okay yeah you know I don’t have time to check into it but I believe it yeah whatever it’s it’s what everyone’s

Saying oh Dak sucks this year okay yeah and now it’s uh the complete opposite and I’m not saying that people don’t know what they’re talking about because they do but there are a few and far between of people who have played the game or that study it like you do or the

Athletic football family that really Dives deep into the actual nuts and bolts and details in actual real football I’m not saying it’s not real football because I gotta I don’t know if you see the comments on on these YouTubes that we do I I I try not to I I

Look at every single one of D I think they’re hilarious and a lot of them were like well Chase stronger man than I am well dude that’s what happens when you play football for 15 years like I I love to see everything about me but I looked

At our last YouTube video uh that we put up last week about Herbert and the Chargers or something they were like man Chase really loves to say just like he knows ball and he studies ball and like you know he he doesn’t believe anyone else and I’m like dude shut up like look

I I study ball and um I don’t know everything at all but I I being out of the game just now for 15 years and being a lot of different off offenses I feel like I have a a really trained eye and so I don’t pay attention to these

Narratives that I hear anymore at all like I I used to get all my NFL news on on Twitter and I still do because it’s the best way I think for Sports football as of now to talk but I don’t pay attention as much to um reporters

Anymore because I want to do my own reporting and not saying that they’re not doing a right job but you can have an opinion and I can have an opinion it doesn’t make mine better or yours better it’s just when you actually study Dak especially Dak is what I’m saying like a

Lot of it can get lost in translation and so I try to just base my facts on knowledge of just like here it is here’s what it is it’s very black and white and I try to like like I got a breakdown coming out tomorrow it’s just like okay

Well you know it’s not going to be good because it was Buffalo and he laid an egg but that like you said one game doesn’t go back and er race the whole season of greatness you talk about narratives and the guy I also think probably deserves mention in this conversation I think you

And I talked about this a little earlier in the week and for me he would be one of these people what Omar has done to shake some of the narrative surrounding him I think he’s also one of those guys that you probably your perception of him has probably shifted this year based on

What you thought he might be before you actually started studying him yeah that’s a great that’s a great call and it it just seems like you so the whole the whole thing around around Lamar at least from my vantage point when I was a player was like yeah he’s a

Great quarterback yeah he won MVP yeah but can he throw the ball can he throw the ball can he I’m like what are you guys watching yeah he can freaking throw the football like look at his days in Louisville he was a under Center quarterback like Pro style offense at

Louisville so like what has changed and then like I I I do agree like the last couple years under Greg Roman I think I think it was a smart change because they were getting a little bit too like tight endend heavy they never really had a receiver true receiver that he could

Trust he was run and now it’s like with monin like it’s impressive like it took a couple weeks um three or four weeks for that offense to sort of start clicking on all cylinders which is honestly not that big of a deal in terms of like hey it’s a brand new offensive

Coordinator you’re learning a new offense but their receivers at the beginning year were dropping a lot of football so I think those hidden yards weren’t like getting into his stats I guess you would say but like they at one point they were like third most percentage of dro passes now I think

They’ve they moved on to that but all those receivers one Steelers game they managed to lose yeah yeah which is wild and you look and it’s like all right Lamar is he’s doing a little bit of everything and that’s what I want my quarterback to do I don’t want him to

Just hey Lamar drop back first read not there just run around scramble and do your thing no like he’s doing that sometimes but most of the time he’s reading pure progression plays he’s getting through his progressions he’s throwing these deep to intermediate dagger layered throws better than I’ve

Ever seen him do uh they have this under Center play action where he’s got a good firm grasp on they do still a bunch of rpos they still do a bunch of QB runs like they are super super multiple and so not only from a physical standpoint

Can he handle that but from a mental aspect that is a lot to put on a player in a first year offense when you’re quite possibly one of the better teams in the league and you’re playing like it so he deserves all the flowers in my opinion for that and quite honestly

I I was wishing that he’d have a MVP type game in the Jacksonville game look they won he didn’t put of MVP numbers but I was hoping that it would like raise him up the charts charts to the favorite of the MVP race because he deserves in my opinion the counting

Stats just aren’t going to be there they run the ball so much but when he what he has been asked to do within that offense and the fles she he has shown in virtually every single area it’s hard not to be impressed with the way that he’s played the position this year the

Feel in the pocket the sense of the pocket how to manipulate it how to navigate that space the arm Talent is there the arm angles and how creative of a thrower he is all these things that we saw in little flashes under Greg Roman over the last few years but it never got

To be the centerpiece of how we understood Lamar as a player now it’s the foundation of how he plays the position he still runs a lot and he still scrambles a decent amount but it’s not the same set of responsibilities and requirements that’s beinged placed on

Him it’s more and he has more than risen to the occasion and that’s why I think that if I’m picking two guys that I think have changed the narrative around them maybe outside of Brock py which is a whole different discussion but two guys that had an established narrative

That had been in the league for several years we thought we understood what they were and then you go through this season it’s hard not to look at Dak and Lamar and just see them as different sort of players than a lot of people characterize them to be before this year

Started yeah Lamar’s a good one too I I totally agree I mean you know the Brock py situ ation that’s a whole another that’s a whole another like segment six games right I mean there there was the preconceived notion of him he’s a seventh round pick dropped into a really

Good situation he’s played very very well but these guys have years of established tape and established narrative around them and I think that they’ve both done a very good job of reshaping what that conversation looks like speaking of big picture conversations about quarterbacks there’s been a lot of chatter this week about

Trevor Lawrence and about what Trevor Lawrence has been as an NFL player and maybe how that corresponds to what sort of prospect he was supposed to be coming out of Clemson it’s another rough loss for Jacksonville on Sunday night they turn the ball over a couple times it’s

Been a rough stretch for them period so I’m curious as you’ve watched Trevor Lawrence this year what do you see out of Trevor Lawrence like in your opinion what type of quarterback are you watching when you watch Trevor Lawrence is he an elite quarterback is he a

Border line Elite quarterback is he just a guy where does he fall for you he’s between just a guy and borderline Elite the way he’s been playing as of late and I would say more borderline Elite like I did I did a couple uh like top 10 power ranking

Quarterback or whatever the past couple weeks and he was always like that 10th or 11th guy that would like move up and down depending on who was hurt or who wasn’t and I’d say top third in the league like that’s still a good assessment of him but assessment of him

But you know this is what I was talking about like this is this for me is hard to break down uh and it’s hard to break him down in terms of man like who is he and you just haven’t seen the consistency I think out of him that

People would like to see because coming out of Clemson it’s like I remember people like oh man this is the next Payton Manning he’s got all the tools in the toolbox like can you do it and then he went to Jacksonville didn’t really have a lot of people around them had

Urban Meyer that fail experiment and then brought in Doug Peterson press Taylor and I think he’s played well as of late but like what’s interesting to me is like the first go to last year is when I started like watching him watching him more the first like eight

Or nine games of last year it just wasn’t good for Jacksonville it just wasn’t a fun offense to watch they were learning it they were so bad and all of a sudden they beat I think they beat Baltimore right that was the Turning Point yeah that game against Baltimore

And the comeback against Baltimore there were several throws in that game where it’s like okay this is all starting to click this is all coming together yeah okay so good I’m glad that was the one and and I agree with you it started all coming together and then they rolled off

A lot straight and then they came back from 28 down and beat us on the field and I remember me being on that field the first half and me thinking like okay this is the Trevor that like I thought he was because in the first half it was

Bad I think he threw three interceptions um and then by the end of the game I was like oh my God like they’re having to throw it every snap to get back into the football game and I’m sitting there on the sideline like oh maybe my misconception maybe maybe there’s a

Little bit misconception there like it was like okay like this dude is legit and they end up winning a playoff game and then um it like the start of this year they’re rolling and all a sudden now it’s like hey he’s hurt you go to Cleveland throw three interceptions you

Got a couple more turnovers it’s just the Inc consistent um like nature of his play that I feel like is holding him back a little bit from really making that step from borderline Elite to like one of the best eight to seven guys in the

Game I expect I went I turned down the Ravens game yesterday and I expected to face a reality where you know what maybe this guy just isn’t as good as I thought he was and it was just going to be a let down watching that game I turned down

The game and I watched every single play and I come from I come away from that game with him playing in a high ankle sprain by the way yeah and I feel no differently about him he had those two fumbles and they were rough plays those are hugely impactful plays but and that

Is something we can talk about because the turnovers in my opinion are one of the biggest things that are is currently holding him back it’s those one or two just bonehead plays in high leverage situations I tweeted about this last night the sequence on his first fumble

The Jags have the ball inside the 25 yard line they have a negative run on first down the Jaguars have a negative run percentage on first down of 26% this year it is the highest rate in the NFL they have more negative runs on first down than any team in football and they

Are one of the Run heaviest teams on first down we’ll talk about all the circumstances here in a second anyway it’s second and 12 pre- snap penalty second and 17 they’ve had a lot of those recently on second and 17 he with anticipation throws an out breaker to

Parker Washington H him in the hands and he drops it yeah third and 17 just drops it the Jaguars have lost the second highest amount of EPA in the NFL on drops this year only the Chiefs have been worse than them and it is close they are in their own ZIP code together

So all of the oxygen talking about the Sheep’s issues in that area the Jags have been just as bad on Third and 17 he tries to scramble and make a play after that drop and he fumbles that is the jack Jacksonville Jaguar season in a nutshell that is their issues and what

They’ve been having but I went back and I watched every single play in that game he had more big-time throws this week than any quarterback in the NFL and you go back and you watch some of those throws the one to Z Jones down the sideline the one to Calvin Ridley in the

Back corner of the end zone that he didn’t end up catching yeah the guy is capable of some really high level plays so when I went back in through all of this and I looked at some of the numbers surrounding it my question is okay is he

The eighth to 10th best quarterback in the league eighth ninth best quarterback in the league right now I think you can make an argument that he is yeah he is eighth in qbr he’s eighth in total EPA according to ESPN he’s like right in that range if he has Matt Ryan’s

Career if he’s the sixth to eighth best quarterback in the league for a decade goes to a bunch of pro bowls gets one MVP award independent of Team success just the quality and production of the quarterback is that a dis appointment even if he was the number one overall

Pick no not at all I I I don’t think so not even close like you’re talk like Matt Ryan’s career I would yeah anyone would sign up for that dude absolutely because he gives he toward toward the end of his career like Matt Ryan was giving Atlanta like four or five like

Legitimate Contender years like in a row putting up massive passing stats and I would yeah I mean yeah yes and do you think that’s reasonable do you think that right now when you watch him play he can have a Matt Ryan sort of career

It’s so much it’s so much of it is based so much of it’s based on fit and scheme and who they have around him do they have a defense but it’s just like I mean I I I think it’s reasonable to say because I think what doug Peterson’s done there has really built

The culture to last to be successful I don’t view them and no one views them around the league anymore as the same old Jacksonville Jaguars like that they were for forever and just couldn’t win I mean even even and I say that but even like they got to uh the AFC Championship

Game with uh Lake Bortles like so they can win you know what I mean and it’s just uh it’s an interesting take because I feel like because they are in Jacksonville they don’t get a lot of Prime Time games and they just don’t it just I don’t know it’s a weird situation

To be playing in Jacksonville but I do like what they’re doing around him the GM the head coach they they have a a plethora of weapons and it just seems to me like when I saw all these stats in the run down I was like they gotta get

Better like stop running the ball on first down like their run game is a disaster their their run game and what their run game looks like right now is a disaster so they have lost more EPA on run plays than all but two teams in the NFL they’re 30th in the amount of

Negative value that’s come from their runs we talk about the negative rushes that’s another issue they’re 30th in the EPA they’ve lost on fumbles they are 32nd in the EPA lost on wide receiver and tight end screens that they’ve run this year and they’ve run a ton of them

This this stat was mind-blowing to me if you take out wide receiver and tight end screens the Jags are 10th in passing success rate they are a top 10 passing offense in passing success rate if you include wide receiver in tight end screens they drop to 6 so they

Go the reason they’re running the screens is because they’re trying to supplement a run game that isn’t working so all these things are starting to compound and cause these issues so I think this is going to be about season ends you take a step back what do we

Need the my answer my number one answer is offensive line Talent they need to go out and they need to draft interior offensive lineman and beef that up and maybe make some sort of change at what the structure of your run game looks like because right now that is broken

Whatever you’re trotting out there whether it’s the talent or the guys that are constructing the Run game they need to take some really hard looks at what that looks like and if you start building some of the stuff around him into just the league average stuff stuff that’s not sabotaging you before this

Even gets started I think that we’re going to potentially look at him as a different sort of quarterback I think right now he’s probably in that Matt Ryan range in terms of where you fit in the hierarchy Matt Ryan was often like the sixth to eth best quarterback in the

League if that’s the case right now if Trevor Lawrence is the eighth best quarterback in the NFL which I think you could make a solid argument that he is he’s 24 years old yeah he’s 24 years old the guy is in his second season in this offense after his third season

Technically second season with this group after the Urban Meyer year I just think it’s way too early to start making these declarations just because he’s not pton Manning doesn’t mean that it’s a failure because how many number one overall picks have never developed into decent quarterbacks let alone a Matt

Ryan s quarterback that you can put you in a position to win for a decade straight so I seriously when I turned on that game I was very ready to be like man maybe he just isn’t it and after I was done watching I was like nah that

Guy still much the best def in the leag it makes it even better it makes it even better when he’s doing it against the defense like that and like you I mean everyone knows but like the quarterback’s best friend is a run game like I don’t care who you are like even

Payton and in in in indie or pton and Denver like they had such a good run game where they didn’t have to shoulder every single hey all right and it doesn’t seem like a lot but when you are trying to supplement these receiver and tight end screens which EPA lost their

30 second they’re worse than the league honest because you can’t get the Run game going like even that puts a little bit of pressure on the quarterback because you still got to be able to throw it as accurately as possible worried about getting tips like all this

Stuff it’s not like some play off on a quarterback’s mind if you throw a receiver and tight end screen because a lot of these are two by two you’re reading one guy then going back to the other so it’s a lot of work on Trevor to

Have to work every single snap we talked a little bit uh a couple shows ago about like hey just can I get a breather for the quarterback like I don’t want to mic anything I don’t want to have to throw a receivers like I just want to hand it

Off and and bootleg out like or just like running like stuff like that so don’t take that out of the context either because that that does at the end of the day like when you’re just constantly having to think and do and it just it gets old after a while one of

The other numbers I kept coming back to is that they have 267 dropbacks this year in 2.2 seconds or less which is second most in the NFL only the Bengals have more and that also to me feels like a product of a lack of faith in your

Offensive line and a lack of faith in your protection so I think that these issues that they’re having up front are causing these cascading effects across the entire offense and when they do let him push the ball down the field when they’ve used under Center play action

This year they’ve had an explosive pass on 40% of their drop backs that is the highest rate in the NFL so there there’s so many little nuggets when you watch his play and when you watch the offense overall where you think okay one more off season go get a blocking tight end

Draft a guard or an interior offensive lineman in the first two rounds go get one more outside receiver I’m okay with the Z Jones experience being over you can do that in the draft you can do that in free agency theoretically with who’s available they add a couple more pieces

To that offense they do have some resources this offseason they could have some potential Financial flexibility they didn’t have this spring I really do think that there is a much much better version of this offense out there they are seventh in passing dvoa even with all of those numbers I just threw out

There wild like I I just feel like we’re getting we’re going being way too quick in how we’re characterizing this 24 year old guy that has played in an offense that shot itself in the foot over and over and over again and I think that we should show a little Caution in making

Any Grand proclamations about what this guy is yeah and I think I’m glad you brought up the uh the Deep passing because the first two years of his career really two and a half years of his career TR Lawrence was just not a very good deep thrower and you could

Tell and I can tell based on film that he really took that to heart in terms of like getting to work at it in the offseason going more under Center you know you’re so used to being in gun especially with the Clemson offense that he was like getting his footwork right

Getting his arm angle right getting his his uh like his shoulders lined up directly at the Target making sure that his eyes coming off a fake are looking at the exact right thing at the exact right time it was really coached well and he’s shown so much improvement over

That like his deep ball actually I think he’s like 48% of balls over like 15 to 18 yards in the air are complete like I don’t know the stat on that but I know it’s like way up there in term because I had NFL Network we talked about this

Game on last Friday when we were on I said hey give me these stats and that was my biggest key to the game for Trevor Lawrence was these deep throws against Baltimore Ravens defense because they had it to get had to get some yards and he hit one down the sideline for a

Touchdown and it’s just like th those are impressive to me because if you can I feel like if you can shoot like 20 to 25 to 30% on deep ball accuracy It’s a Good Year my guy is doing 48% over like 1,800 yards passing and I think he’s throwing like eight touchdowns four

Interceptions but you look at those numbers from the past two years they are completely different and it’s just it’s a brand new Trevor in terms of he used to not really want to throw the ball down the field he used to go through his reads and check down and that had a lot

To do with not having a lot of time so now what I see is he’s getting back on his drop a little bit quicker he’s finding his read a lot faster instead of doing full full uh field dropback play action reads they’ve moved it more to half field reads so they happen faster

So he doesn’t have to worry about what’s on the other side of the field and it’s really worked for them I’m glad you brought that up yeah I love watching him in those situations one of the problems though is that their run game is almost completely shotgun based so there is a

Disconnect between their run game and their play action game so I think that all of these things are just structural considerations to think about this off season two more things worth bringing up about Trevor Lawrence one he has been hurt a good chunk of this year and he

Has played hurt a good chunk of this year and if you’re on the field you’re healthy enough to play you should be judged for the product that you’re putting on the field but I still think it’s important to think about what some of that nagging stuff has looked like

And the fact that he’s still played pretty well outside of the circumstances even Wall hurt the last thing this is something that even if you’re trying to defend him which I have no reason to do by the way I just want to make this clear I have no reason to think that

This guy is good or want him to succeed there’s no priors involved with this because you don’t get credit for thinking Trevor Lawrence was going to be good I truly don’t care how this turns out this is just what I see when I watch him anyway the other part of this that

There is no defending him on he cannot keep playing herob ball in these situations and turning the ball over just slide just go down just live to play another play and just little tiny kind of brain farts like that with whether ball security or that play at

The end of the half where you just cannot throw that ball short of the end zone that is a fade or it is nothing it Chuck that thing out of bounds you you cannot have the play end on that but the half end on that but again he’s 24 he’s

In his second season as a starter with a competent coaching staff and already he’s On The Fringe of being like a top eight to 10 quarterback so I just think that there’s a lot of context and a lot of different considerations when we’re trying to frame who this guy is and

Eventually who he can be yeah I think it’s all good and that’s the biggest thing for me when I’m talking about the inconsistencies is like those four drives they had inside the 30 and no points against a good team it would have been a completely different game not all

Of it’s on Trevor but a lot of it is so you just eliminate those like you were saying he’s still young 24 which I I didn’t even know that that’s wild it seems like he’s been in the league a lot longer than his third year he’s only 24 and and they do the

Pieces they have around him are fine you know it’s not malpractice they’ve missed Christian Kirk for sure he’s hugely important as an explosive part of that off offense but they absolutely need better Personnel up front and I think they know that just in on the interior of the offensive line they’ve had to

Cycle through injuries there you know now they have Walker little playing left tackle with Cam Robinson getting hurt they have a rookie right tackle who should be a little bit better so I think those considerations are important and I do think that they could pump some more resources into receiver this offseason

If you wanted to spend a first round pick on an outside receiver Calvin rle is a free agent Z Jones they can move on from him if they want to I think that is a reasonable consider ation when you’re trying to think about how can we take

This thing to the next level so it’s going to be a fascinating offseason but again going back and watching that game my takeaways and my feelings were much different than I anticipated them being going into it yeah yeah me too me too another storyline narrative talking

Point that’s come up a lot this week is what’s going on with the Cowboys offense at home versus playing on the road and there is a gap okay so the Cowboys right now are fifth in offensive success rate at home this year they are 11th on the

Road Dak is second in EPA per dropback at home this season it’s 10th on the road to get some context about what that Gap looks like Dak at home is essentially the Niners offense this year Dak on the road is wedged between Gino Smith and Baker Mayfield in EPA per

Dropback it’s not terrible but it’s definitely a far cry from what that offense has been doing at its best so I wanted to ask you is this real and why would this be real are there actual tangible reasons for why an offense would not be able to operate the same

Way on the road that they could at home okay it definitely is real like let let’s just start there but what’s what’s not super real is I can’t believe these especially these Dak Prescott numbers home and away that to me is not normal so there’s something else going on there

Which we can get into um but it’s hard to put a like it’s hard to put a thumb on it like I have no idea because I’m not in the meetings but in terms of like an offense going on the road right I always enjoyed especially in college

When we were on offense like going on the road um to play in hostile crazy loud environments because I thought there was nothing better and even in the NFL when I played and threw a few touchdowns on the road in some places that play are so loud when the opposite when the visiting

Team’s offense is on the field nonstop loud and so when you score touchdown or when you throw a touchdown like the entire crowd just goes silent like it is dead silent the second a the second an opposing team scores a touchdown and I thought that was like the coolest thing

In the world because it’s like man yeah we shut the crowd up like what’s up like you know stuff like that and we did it a lot in college at missou like we were throwing like people on like we beat Nebraska at home at their place like 56 to7 and it

Was awesome and I think the biggest thing for playing on the road is what I always enjoyed is there’s very little communication because it’s just hard to hear especially in an NFL offense okay like Buffalo is wild like their Stadium okay it doesn’t hold a lot of people but

It’s open air and those fans are like college fans in terms of they’re just loud all the time so extremely drunk extremely drunk jumping on tables take it a night game take that Notch up a couple more levels because they have all day to drink so many Molson that you can

Drink so many laat Blues you can put down between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. yes yes and so for me as an offense the first thing that I think of is communication right and where does that communication start well it starts on the sideline before you even go out there in terms of

Like hey if the coach is trying to give you a tip or this it’s just like you have to be extra locked in to the actual like almost like the lips of the person okay and then and then it starts when the quarterback hops onto the field and

Then you you see all the time you know there there’s earpieces in the helmet you see all the time that quarterbacks even with earpieces are holding the little uh hands over their ears to make sure that they can hear the the play caller call it in and so I think that to

Me is like another level of uh like you gotta make sure that you are just completely focused on the task at hand so you can actually hear it and then the biggest thing to me is once you’re in the Huddle the Huddle’s a lot tighter uh on the road than it is at

Home and I’ve heard people tell me before like the quarterback is screaming as loud as they possibly can he has to take his mouthpiece out like there’s just all sorts of different angles of it and I’ve heard and I’ve been a part of huddles where they’re like I never

Really heard what you said but I can lip read enough to understand and your you have to be very demonstrative in like these aren’t all situations but like especially like if you’re backed up or if you’re in a third down situation or if you’re in the red zone so all that

Takes place even before the snap and then you’re on the snap and if you need to make an adjustment at the line of scrimmage if you’re a quarterback you’re having to go through and talk to every every offensive lineman hand signals have to be tight you got to make

Sure that these you know you don’t jump off sides you got to make sure on silent count okay is it silent one is it silent two are we doing a head Bob on the silent three there’s so many factors that go into just getting one single

Playoff and so much energy burnt on just the outside influence of not even the play at hand and then the play at hand it’s a two- yard run you’re like well I got to do do it all over again it’s second and eight let’s do it all over

Again so I think the amount of focus that you have to have is extremely important especially on the road and when you’re at home it’s like all right you’re just Cadence you can talk easy everything like that because the crowd’s uh like not loud so I think so that’s my

Question for them specifically the amount of work he does at the line of scrimmage do you feel like it’s more of a hindrance to their offense to operate in those circumstances that it might be with an offense that doesn’t have as many checks and doesn’t require as much

Work and communication when you’re in those situations I think I think it’s definitely a little bit more of a hindrance for sure but like you’re not going to change you’re not going to change your offense right and that’s that’s just it’s so weird to me because

We we never really had on on teams that we’ve played on there’s never really been anyone that’s like I don’t know it’s hard to point point a finger on like well why aren’t you good on the road and it’s just got to be a lack of communication I guess it’s just like you

Can’t hear everything’s loud but at the end of the day if you put a good game plan together and you’re going against teams that you should beat there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a good showing so it’s that’s a really weird subject to talk about because in my 14 or 15 years

And meetings for games that we’ve had like on the road we’ve never really talked about oh hey our mechanics need to be better or this just like hey we didn’t execute the plays like just bottom line that’s all what it is but clearly there’s something with Dallas on

The road is there anything that would let lead you to motion less because looking at a couple different sources their motion rate falls on the road it’s like five to seven percentage points depending on the source that you’re looking at is there anything mechanically within an offense that

Would not allow you to have as much pre- snap movement when you’re on the road versus at home I wouldn’t think the Dallas offense I would go more like if I’m on the road and I’m Miami’s offense because of how much jet sweet motion they do so you’re not able to call it

Out so normally when I say jet sweet motion so there’s there’s a couple different motions there’s a tight end get off motion on and get on it’s like a reset motion right or like a receiver motion them from 2 by two to 3 by one you’re over there getting set cool and

Then this Jet Sweep motion which the Cowboys don’t do a lot of they do it with Turpin um but I really look like look at Miami it’s like these jet sweet motions where you’re getting guys on the Run you’re having a certain snap Point say it’s a it’s a receiver coming from

Right to left and you want to snap it before the the ball so before he crosses the ball you want to snap it in the B Gap there’s such thing as called like silent quick Cadence is what we used in the Chargers and so instead of saying

Ready blue Ed BL H where you have to time it up and it’s just for show and your jet sweeping or you’re running a naked off them and you just want them to continue on the motion now it’s like the Center has to look between his legs and

I have to time it up as soon as my leg comes up the center snaps it so it’s perfectly it’s just a lot harder to do that on the road in silent it takes a lot more practice for something that Maybe not maybe doesn’t give you like a

Whole bunch of it it’s just like window dressing if that makes sense so that’s the Bigg quick motions at the snap so there is a chance that they don’t feel as comfortable doing some of that and one of the reasons that the offense felt more Dynamic since the buy is that there

Was a little bit more movement were doing stuff to create separation for guys coming off the line of scrimmage so I think there might be something to that and I’ll be curious to watch their next couple games on the road and maybe compare that to some of the stuff

They’ve done at home and see structurally what looks different and what looks similar about that offense yeah because even in Dallas like in teams that I’ve played that have played in Dallas’s Stadium it’s not like it’s a hard Stadium to play in so it’s not like

It’s super loud yeah and it’s a whne cheese crowd for the most part like just like wants to go drink their wine be seing get in the sweet game stuff like that so they’re not really so the fact that they’re good at home is awesome but yeah it’s going to be something

Interesting to watch for sure one last guy we wanted to hit before we got out of here today a quarterback in an offense we haven’t talked about in this show at all but they played great and he played great on Saturday and that is Jared gof and what the lions are doing

The Lions have been yet again for the second straight year a top 10 offense by virtually any single metric you look at there’s six in offensive DV away there’s six in EPA per play Jared G when he got traded to Detroit was left for dead okay

He was considered a throwin in that deal with a bloated contract and a lot of people just dismissed him in the immediate aftermath of that and I think that I’m guilty of that to a certain extent I think that was kind of the conventional wisdom about it and he has

Responded by playing some very good football over the last couple years especially within the confines of that offense in your mind can the Lions win the Super Bowl with Jared gof and maybe not this year but moving forward because at a certain point here there’s going to

Have to be a decision made about Jared go and how he fits into the long-term plans of that franchise and I’m wondering how you see him as part of that equation yeah I mean I I yeah I think I think that he absolutely can win a Super

Bowl with the Detroit Lions like I I think he’s I think he’s got enough to him I think he’s got enough stuff to him I think that they’ve surrounded him with the right offensive scheme now now this this is sort of a tricky question we talked about it before it’s like does

Ben Johnson stay probably not now what’s he gonna do under a new offensive coordinator because him and Ben Johnson have been click in man so I think that’s a huge like factor that we can’t really answer like is Ben Johnson gonna get a job probably but if he doesn’t then yeah

They can win a Super Bowl but no I I think that within the right scheme and honestly golf’s taken up La team to Super Bowl like I think that he can do it again and I think that that but that’s the that’s the to me that’s what’s the fascinating consideration

Okay the Rams make that move whether fair or unfair in the way that they kind of cast gol aside they made that move definitely cast him off they it was he was done sha McVey was done with Jared gof but they made that move because in their minds they needed a quarterback

Who could give them more outside of the structure of what the offense provided yeah and I think even if you’re encouraged and excited about what that offensive structure has looked like in Detroit it feels like we’re going to arrive at a similar conversation because Ben Johnson’s going to get stripped away

Some of these offensive skill position players are going to get more expensive Aman Rin Brown is going to be up for a contract extension this offseason pen Su is going to be up for a contract extension this off season Jared G has been totally reasonable in terms of what

He’s cost the Lions if you look at that contract over the last four years it’s essentially been four years 100 milli million on average 25 million a year for the quarterback play he’s given them with a young cheap team and Ben Johnson you can live with that they’ve been really good in those

Circumstances but if you take away some of the pieces of that it’s harder to succeed because what he needs is he needs everything to be pristine around him and I don’t even mean that as a dig at Jared Goff when things are great around him he can rip

That man but he doesn’t scramble he doesn’t make off schedu plays he is dead last in the amount of value he’s created as a Scrambler this year among all NFL quarterbacks he is 30th in the amount of EPA he has created outside of the pocket

Like he is what he is and so if you chip away at the the house that you can build for him what does he end up looking like and I think that has to be the question that the Lions ask themselves moving forward I don’t know the answer because

I totally understand the Lions Landing in a spot where they say we can win with this guy we we we know what He Is We like his presence in the building we can win win with this guy I just wonder how dangerous that is when he’s going to be

Asking for the Daniel Jones contract in six months yeah and I think he’ll get it I I think he’ll get it I and I think honestly this comes down to who is so you’re Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder right and the beholder right here is Brad Holmes Brad Holmes loves

Him some Jared Goff so he’s got that going for him and if he can find a creative play color that’ll come in and pretty much just run the exact same scheme as Ben Johnson or maybe they they you know Elevate somebody who’s in the building I just think the pieces around

Golf and the coaching staff from Dan Campbell Mark Brunell I think has done like a really good job that doesn’t get talked about enough and just the the former players that Dan’s brought in and just sort of stuck to his guns their offive line is clearly very well coached

It’s a lot of really impressive detail in what that offense looks like yeah and I think that as long as he’s in a dome for 10 games out of the year then you’re good like you know it’s like it’s like The Best of Both Worlds you’re an a d

You got Brad Holmes as your GM you know they’re going to pay Aman ra St Brown you know and I I think that they’re headed in the right direction and and I mean they there were so many other chances that they could have drafted or

Gone away from them or said hey but from the second that golf got in that building man Brad Holmes like credit to him he was just like this is our guy like we this wasn’t just some throwin we want Jared G I believe in Jared G and

Made he’s made me a Believer because he’s playing pretty damn good ball right now I always am weary of what it looks like for your franchise when you commit yourself to a quarterback who doesn’t rise above his circumstances and you pay that guy and I don’t again I don’t mean that as a

Dig there are certain quarterbacks Kirk Cousins Jared Goff I love watching them play When the circumstances are good but you need to build something beautiful around them so what does that look like moving forward I understand the Lions wanting to commit to that and I if they

Do end up giving him that Daniel Jones contract this offseason I understand why they would where you have Jared Goffin as a known commodity he’s giving you what he’s given you you drafted henden hooker is kind of a developmental maybe this could work out if we have to move

Off from Jared gol eventually it’s another dice roll I understand the set of bets that they have made I just think that after this season and if Ben Johnson leaves and if some of these guys start to get a little bit more expensive it’s going to be a really similar

Conversation to the one we had about golf in Los Angeles except Shawn McVey was still there so do you think that if Ben Johnson gets a job which I’ll I mean it’d be crazy if he’s not because I feel like there’s going to be nine to 10

Openings and he’s EAS he wants one yeah if he wants one right and uh they pay their guys that they’re do you think that gof will have as good of a year if they have similar play structure around him if Ben Johnson’s not the guy calling

The plays do you think he would have and go will have a good year and do you P off that money that Daniel Jones contract I I think I probably would if I were the LI I think I probably would based on what he’s given you based on

It’s it’s a safe bet in that the floor is theoretically sort of high but it’s a risky bet because committing those sorts of res resources and not even just the resources it’s the opportunity cost it’s the multiple years potentially of your franchise and the young years and some

Of the cheap years of these surrounding pieces that you have that you’re spending on Jared gof instead of developing another quarterback so I do think that there is some certainty to it but I also don’t think it comes without risk so I I would do it because based on

Some of the intangible aspects of it what he is in the building what he’s been to the franchise all of those things and just the the stabiliz I in force that he’s been but I definitely think that there’s a lot of risk involved in committing that deal to him

Moving forward especially when you remove the Ben Johnson piece from all of this that to me feels like a very important piece it’s just like I sort of maybe it’s just the recency bias of me and of the Lions but like they’re finally good again man and it’s so fun

To watch hard to let go of that hard to let go of that it’s so hard to let go and with evaluating quarterback such a crapshoot let’s say they go and draft a quarterback in the first round that doesn’t pan out you set your franchise back four or five more years and then

You go back to free agency so I think that’s what a lot of these GM types are doing like they’re going with the safe bet to know that we can win with Jared G and that’s okay that if they don’t play with outside of the scheme like we know

What we’re getting and right now you’re getting a top 12 or 13 quarterback in the league that’s playing the way he’s been playing like maybe maybe a top 10 and so I think that to me is why I say it’s a safe bet because you just don’t

Know what you’re getting like you don’t if you if you’re not keeping Jared golf you’re not gonna go and get another veteran free agent right it’s golf or you’re starting over with a rookie and so I just I just don’t like unless he’s like a you’re drafting in the top three

A guy that’s a franchise guy I just hate starting all over again with how far they’ve come and how long they’ve been bad and all this stuff and the Lions have never had a rookie quarterback since Matthew Stafford it’s been like 20 years since so it’s just like all that

Plays into my mindset on it I get it and I totally understand every bit of that argument and I don’t think that they would move off from him this offseason he’s got one year left on his contract it would be about whether you’d extend him or you’d be willing to go into that

Lame duck year next year I I’ve been talking about this and kind of trotten it out with people over the last week or so and I almost hesitate to even bring this up but I think it’s a worthwhile question as we consider this do you think it’s harder to build an elite

Infrastructure where the 10th best quarterback in the league could potentially win you a Super Bowl or do you think it’s harder to find an elite quarterback oh my God it’s harder to find an elite quarterback I think I I think that that’s true too God so these

Teams that are held so many I think that’s how I feel too and so these teams that say okay we know what this guy can do when we put the right pieces around him let’s make that bet the Miami Dolphins are goingon to be set to make

That exact same bet and have this exact same conversation this offseason about Tua he’s gonna get paid more than Jared gol probably because of how young he is and because of the production but those sorts of bets where you say listen we know that we can be a great offense

Truly like an elite offense with this guy if we put the right pieces around him let’s bet on the pieces I understand making that I understand landing on that conclusion even if I think there’s also dangers in thinking that way yeah it’s a good way to put it really good way I

Agree golf all the way baby let’s go listen I’ve said this multiple times this year Saturday was another example of this I love watching him play in this offense I he is what he is he’s fun he is what he is when I looked up that

Scramble number and I saw that he had just the fewest scrambles in the NFL this year told you that of course you know it’s true but when you see it all it’s just like you see it on paper you just and it was I I went back and I

Started watching the Broncos game before we’re going to have this conversation I was like I’m going to watch the whole game I’m have all these notes okay what what did I learn about Jared Goff in this game I watched three drives and I was like what am I doing I I know

Exactly what he is that’s what and you know exactly what he is and that comes with drawbacks but it also comes with benefits and I think that that push in the pole is what the lions are going to have to consider as they go about this and I say that I’m pretty confident

They’re going to commit to him moving forward this is more of a thought exercise than it is a projection about what the lions are going to do yeah I like it I like it I yeah I I think it’s worth it all right guys that is all

We’ve got for this week as always sincerely appreciate you all listening please check out everything else we got on the channel prospects of Pros with Dan and Nate football GM with Mike and Randy coming out on Saturdays great episode of kefir in the Beats this week chats with Jordan rodrig Daniel popper

About what’s going on with Brandon Staley how that all kind of fell apart in Los Angeles highly encourage you guys to go check that out for now that is all we’ve got appreciate youall listening talk to you Soon