One of my friends and welcome back to NFC Beast.
This is the only show covering the topics that matter
the most to your fan base in the NFC East.
And now welcome in and wishing a happy Thanksgiving to
our esteemed panel.
First and foremost from New York, the man himself, Lou
Albanese in Dallas being comparable.
Mike Ducey is in the building in flying high with
the Eagles as always.
Breeland Moore as well.
Now today we're going to talk everything from the Washington
command three-game losing streak to Saquon Barkley setting records and
Big D potentially running it back with Mike McCarthy.
But the conversation today starts with new the New York
Giants.
So Lou, I'm coming to you on this.
The Giants of course, release Daniel Jones on last Friday.
Daniel Jones in the second year before year, $160 million
contract.
Jones then moves forward and signs with the Minnesota Vikings
this week.
So, Lou, did the Giants in all totality do right
by Daniel Jones?
Well, if you're Daniel Jones, let's say 2 and something.
Giants two and nine and two Vikings.
Yeah, he did OK.
But like I said, the biggest problem with the Giants
and Daniel Jones is they never gave them things to
work with.
They never seem to have the full confidence behind Daniel
Jones.
And now the greatest fear for owner John Mara is
that Sam Donald gets hurt and he sees an NFC
Championship game with Saquon on one side, Daniel Jones on
the other.
Going for the Super Bowl.
There'll be a lot of people upset at MetLife Stadium
if that happens, especially 1 Joe Shane LL Saquon Barkley
of Custom.
No one knows more about him right now than Breeland.
So, Bree, I'm coming over here to you again.
Daniel Jones, $160 million signed on his second deal, had
a first deal in which he made some money as
well.
However, it seems as though it's been woe is Daniel
Jones by everyone in the media.
Your thoughts?
Yeah, I agree with Lou here that they did the
correct thing, especially when he's asking to be released and
you're benching him, right?
Just get just call a spade a spade and get
rid of him if that's what you choose to do.
That being said, it was very interesting to speak to
Saquon Barkley last week when this news broke because he
and Daniel Jones apparently have been in a lot of
communication recently and had talked that day.
And he said he wasn't going to get into it
completely.
But, yeah, it's unfortunate that something like that happens.
But maybe it's for the best because after all, he
said, look at me, me.
Look what I've got going on here.
I'm doing just fine.
So who knows?
I mean, I'm very curious to see what Daniel Jones
is able to do with the Vikings.
Of course he's going in there behind Sam Darnold.
But as Lou said, if that day comes, oh boy,
if I was the Giants, I would certainly be kicking
myself.
Certainly difficult to take a look at.
Two top six draft picks playing on other teams.
And of course, Sam Darnold could be out.
Daniel Jones could find a place that he can stay
for a time being.
Mike, it looks like players get better after they leave
New York.
What do you say about this?
Yeah, You know, in terms of whether they did right
or wrong by Daniel Jones.
I mean, he got he got paid.
Obviously he'll continue to get paid.
But, you know, he's 2444 and one as a starter
for that friend.
I don't know what more you need to see.
What more needs to be proven in terms of him
just not being the guy, whether the supporting cast is
there or not, you're the quarterback.
You're getting paid.
You're going to be judged by how many football games
you win and, and whether you're you're struggling to win
games.
From the outside, you know, it looked like it was
botched.
It looked like a big time embarrassment for the Giants.
But I don't necessarily blame them for doing it.
Maybe, maybe it was clumsily handled, but the move had
to be made.
But to lose point, man, it's going to be tough
for them if this thing turns around for him in
Minnesota, that's for sure.
And to that point, Lou, is it because Daniel Jones?
Because by all accounts, he appears to be a good
guy.
He appears to be a leader.
He appears to have been loved by his teammates, but
he didn't get it done on the field.
Why do so many people feel bad for Daniel Jones
right now?
I think a lot of it has to do with
the fact that when the Giants were on Hard Knocks,
now remember we watch Hard Knocks, players watch Hard Knocks.
They saw, they felt that Saquon was I, I, I
want to say, you know, basically they, you know, they
didn't really want them.
It's really obvious.
And now we have Daniel Jones and they signed a
contract and now they, they worry about the injury clause.
They don't want him.
So veterans and guys like Dexler, Lawrence and players like
that are thinking, well, they're going to do that to
Saquon and Daniel Jones.
What are they going to do for me?
And I think that was a big reaction last week
by a lot of the players where they feel like,
you know what, they don't have our back.
You know, they they, they basically just said, hey, two
star players goodbye.
Now, I'm not a fan of Daniel Jones, as you
know, but he's still with your starting quarterback.
Wow, That's not a good sign.
Yeah.
Yeah, that is excellent information there.
I tell you what now, Lou, we'll go ahead and
take this debacle in New York and AD on top
of it as we bring Saquon Barkley into the mix.
Last week had another huge performance as he ran the
ball for 255 yards on the ground over 300 yards
from scrimmage out there.
And so, Breeland, what I want to know from you,
he leads the NFL in Russian right now.
Has Saquon Barkley finally made that number two overall pick
a good decision?
Absolutely.
It just unfortunately didn't work out for the Giants because
they didn't give him anyone in front of him.
This Eagles offensive line, we know they've had a reputation
for years of being one of the most formidable units
in the NFL.
And the fact that you can put someone as talented
and versatile as Saquon Barkley behind those guys.
I knew off the RIP, and I think so many
other people did as well, that this was going to
be an incredible combination to watch.
But never in my wildest dreams did I think it
was going to be this dynamic.
That man has come in here and really revolutionized this
franchise and honestly, the running back game in general in
the league.
Him and Derrick Henry, my goodness, the things that they've
been able to do and they've really been able to
transform the conversation.
He absolutely has earned that number two overall selection.
It's just unfortunate the Giants didn't know how to use
him.
Mike, you all have used the number one pick overall
or number one pick, I should say, first round draft
pick on running backs in the past.
Was Saquon Barkley worth that number two overall?
It's interesting because, you know, the Cowboys used a high
pick on on Ezekiel Elliott and early on in his
career, obviously, he won two rushing titles in his first
three years.
But things haven't worked out so well here lately for
Zeke, that's for sure.
Running backs typically typically don't have much of A shelf
life.
Saquon may may go against that trend.
Yeah, he's he's proving right now he's the best player
in that in that draft class.
And as Breeland said, it's just it's for the Giants
that it didn't didn't work out there.
But to me, you know, Saquon Barkley may be able
to break that streak of quarterbacks winning the MVP each
and every year.
He may become the first non quarterback since Adrian Peterson
in 2012 to win the league MVP.
He'd have my vote right now, that's for sure.
Yeah.
Just kind of going back to the last week, it's
it's as if Saquon Barkley is starting to look like
the best free agent signed in the last 10 years.
But we can have that conversation a little bit later
on.
Lou, for you, your Giants had them first.
Maybe they and treat him right and now he's starring
with another another man out there.
What do you think?
You know, I think Breeland hit it right in the
head.
It's how you build a football team.
Was he worth the number two?
Yes.
Was he worth the number 2 for the Giants?
No.
The Giants didn't have the offensive line in place.
They didn't have players around him in place.
You pick the running back last, you build the lines,
you will you build out.
And the last piece should be that star running back.
And you know what?
The Eagles have everything in place.
They lacked one thing, a star running back.
They added it.
The Ravens had everything in place.
They lacked that one dominant running back.
They had a lot of guys who could run, but
a dominant running back.
And that's what you do.
And that's what winning organizations do.
They build a football team, then you add the other
pieces and a running back should be your last piece.
Building football teams from the trenches, offensive line, defensive line,
and then put those guys on the outside a little
bit later on.
What a novel thought that that is.
All right, coming up, we're going to talk about the
Washington Commanders, once the hottest team in the football, now
riding a three-game, a losing streak.
All that and much more of Next on the Beast.
Once the hottest team in the NFLI think that I
called them the NF LS Darling.
The Washington Commanders 7 and 2.
Four time now, three games in a row in the
L column have fallen to seven and five.
What's worse is that the offense, the pronounced rookie of
the Year, Jaden Daniels, has begun to fall flat as
well, beginning to give more fuel to the fire that
Cliff Kingsbury is not a second-half of the season.
Offensive mind.
Breland, coming to you now.
Now we've seen these, these these kind of fall offs
from Kingsbury's teams in the past.
Is this real or is this just something that happens
to be happening?
I'm not entirely sure that you can really compare this
team to the other teams that he's coached simply because
there's so many new elements, right?
And when you have such a young quarterback, we've talked
about this over the past couple of weeks, the NFL
starts to catch up, right?
And it's not necessarily that they figured out a blueprint
per SE, but this is not college.
There's a lot of different challenges.
And you really start to see that in the second-half
when it comes to things like conditioning or, or just
the length of the season, right?
There's a lot going on here when you have a
rookie and sometimes these things just naturally happen.
Jayden Daniels, obviously incredible level quarterback and I think we
can expect great things from him in the future.
But I just, you know, the league may or may
not have started to figure him out a little bit,
but I think the other half is just him being
a rookie and making the adjustments.
And it is their first year really together.
So I'm interested to see what they do next year
for sure.
But I had a sinking suspicion this was going to
happen.
Yeah.
And and Breeland, just to that point there.
I think that if anyone here in the DMV area
had been told that the Commanders were going to win
nine games this year, total 9 games, I think that
everybody would have been pleased with that because this roster
really isn't in a 11/12 win position right now.
So Ducey, is this Kingsbury here or is this just
where the Commanders are?
Yeah, I think it's less about the coordinator and more
about the quarterback.
It's it's it's unusual for a rookie quarterback to come
in and from the beginning to the end of that
rookie season be consistently good to outstanding.
And Daniels was that early on, obviously.
And I think he's going to be really good clearly
the long term.
But I, I think it's a combination of factors.
You know, some of it has a little bit to
do with a little better defense as they've been running
into.
I do think Dallas's defense has gotten better here in
in recent games, But I, I think it does have
to do with the rookie struggling with maybe fatigue, physical
and mental through the grind of of a long season.
You know, there's no pressure quite like the pressure on
an NFL quarterback.
And until you've actually experienced it, I think it's it's
difficult to know how to handle it.
And I think that's kind of what Daniels is going
through right now.
And Mike, I was at Northwest Stadium this past Sunday
and I tell you what Micah Parsons closing speed is
through this world until you've actually played against him and
seen it in person.
It it, it's a difficult thing to game plan for.
Lou.
I I think that's the thing that the people are
saying around here, though, is that Jaden at the end
of games has played at that high level.
Should Kingsbury be opening up the whole playbook to let
him do that throughout the rest of the games?
Well, I mean, that's a Kingsbury thing.
Jaden.
Look, all rookie quarterbacks go through this.
I don't care who it is, he's played way above
what what you could expect a rookie to do, which,
you know, you look at some of these other rookies
over the past few years, so have not excelled.
Look at Trevor Lawrence and the struggles he's had, and
he was considered the greatest quarterback to ever come out
of college.
But I think it's inevitable that this was going to
happen.
But then he comes up with that play to Mclaurin.
You know it's and then next you know they're right
back in the game.
If the kicker makes the the extra point, it changes
the whole and that's what it's all about.
He still comes up with big plays.
He's still in the game and as long as he's
doing things like that, he will get better and better
and this team will get better and better.
So I wouldn't be that concerned.
And you know, Kingsbury is what he is.
I I still think Daniel is is still a top
of the line Jaden Daniel.
He's he's a top of the line quarterback.
I happen to agree with that.
Seven and five Washington commanders playing host to the Tennessee
Titans this weekend.
And when all of a sudden becomes a bit of
a must win game, All right, news coming out of
Dallas from Jerry Jones is radio appearance.
And Mike, I know you got to love it.
There always appears to be news when Jerry Jones hits
those radio Airways.
He stated, and I'm paraphrasing here, that it wouldn't be
crazy to run it back again with their head coach
down there.
Would it be crazy to bring Mike McCarthy back?
Yes, unless they rally in a way that no one
is anticipating.
They're four and seven right now.
Now look at their schedule over the last few games.
They get the Giants, they get the Bengals, they get
Carolina.
Say he gets it back to 7:00 and 7:00 and
then they work some magic down the stretch and get
into the playoffs.
That I think Jerry would have a decision to make.
But that is highly unlikely.
To me.
The bigger news would have been if Jerry had said
on his radio show when asked, would it be crazy
to think of Mike McCarthy being signed of a contract
extension?
If Jerry would have said, yeah, I don't want to
talk about that right now, we'll address that at the
end of the season.
Or obviously if he would have come out and actually
said hell yes, it would be crazy.
Now, the, the fact that that Jerry is, is offering
some support from McCarthy right now is, is it's not
surprising at all.
It certainly doesn't mean that Mike will be back next
year.
I, I don't think he will be.
And Lou, I mean, when you actually look at what
Mike McCarthy has done, I mean, 12 win seasons, he
is over the stretch of his career, he's won a
Super Bowl as well.
Is he the right guy to lead this Dallas team?
Well, I'm not sure if he's the right guy, but
then again, I'm not sure who the right guy is
with Jerry.
Jerry loves playing these games.
You know, Mike knows better than I do, but it
just seems from afar he loves playing these head games.
He just enjoys it and it and it seems like
he would rather have a coach that he could string
along and keep dragging and dragging and dragging then changing
the coach.
This is more fun for Jerry, I think.
And you know, it seems like even if he brings
back Mike, it's not for the right reasons.
So yeah, he should go.
He's not a great coach.
He wasn't a great coach in Green Bay.
He had a lot of problems with the Rodgers down
the stretch and but Jerry is Jerry and he's going
to enjoy keep doing that and long as he gets
the attention for it.
Jerry is out there doing his thing.
Breeland I was a fan of the whole chador and
Dion coming to Dallas saying nobody else was a fan
of that and I understand.
What do you think Chad McCarthy have a chance to
run it back?
No.
But then again, as Lou just said, Jerry's going to
do what Jerry wants to do.
And we talked about this last week or the week
before about this being a systemic issue with the franchise.
And it starts with Jerry Jones.
He is a terrible decision maker and it's trickling down
to the rest of the organization.
But that being said, when your quarterback is caught on
national TV saying we bleeping suck, that tells me that
the head coach and that personnel have lost that locker
room, right?
And you have to make some serious changes after that.
You can't really move forward when you have your quarterback
caught saying those things on national television.
Some major changes have to be made and he's the
first one to go.
Major changes in Big D Maybe Mike McCarthy will not
be running it back.
Coming up, we are going to talk about our big
Thanksgiving Day game, at least big to those individuals right
here, keep it locked.
It's the beast.
Welcome back to NFCBSI don't know if you have noticed,
but all of a sudden the Philadelphia Eagles are looking
like arguably the best team in the NFL, winners of
seven games in a row.
They got a huge game coming up this weekend though,
as they will head down to Baltimore to do battle
with the Ravens.
Now, Breeland, we look at this team, of course we
know that this is Saquon Barkley versus King Henry, Jalen
Hurts, Lamar Jackson, these two rosters, which one of them
is more offensively potent?
I, I have to be biased here and I'm sorry.
I'm going to go with the Eagles because they're playing
their best football.
And what I'm seeing right now is that they're playing
their best football and it's continuously going on an upward
trajectory, which is incredible to see.
Usually, you know, you worry about peeking or those conversations.
It's just sustainable.
And I actually think that it is.
They played last week without Devante Smith.
We still have not gotten an injury report to see
what's going on with that situation.
But they have looked so powerful and with A.J.
Brown in the mix and you know, if Smitty is
able to be healthy, but that's OK because they're still
Dallas Goddard and those depth, those reserve players have been
really helping out as well.
So it's not just Saquon Barkley there.
He's the motor.
But there are so many weapons that Jalen Hurts has
at his disposal that I really, I'm going to go
with the Eagles.
But I do think this is going to be a
really great litmus test, not only for the Eagles offense,
but for this Eagles defense who has also been playing
lights out.
Eagles defense has been taking steps and strides forward.
Breeland siding with the Eagles.
No surprise there, Lou.
Lamar, Jackson, King Henry, those wide receiver, who, who do
you got?
I think the Eagles, it's small, it's a small gap.
I mean, Derrick Henry, Saquon, they're 2 elite backs having
elite seasons on new teams.
Lamar can beat you so many ways.
Hertz, maybe not as much as Lamar.
He hasn't run as much as he used to, but
those receivers on the Eagles.
So I give the Eagles a slight edge because I
think they're receiving core is better.
Hey, I happen to agree with that.
But Mike, doesn't Lamar Jackson, like count for two or
three guys?
Like, don't you count him for multiple individuals out there
to kind of even this up?
What do you say?
Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.
I think Philly has a wider variety of weapons on
offense.
More different positions can can hurt you, but the quarterback
is the tiebreaker and Lamar is still having an MVP
caliber season.
So I'll say Baltimore by that much.
Take Baltimore by about a smidge as well and siding
with Lamar Jackson there.
Our last topic for the day as we all prepare
for Thanksgiving is that huge Thanksgiving Day game.
And I say huge to fans of the NFC East,
New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.
This is all going down.
Cooper Rush, maybe not even Tommy DeVito.
We may be looking at Drew Lock out there.
Our eyes will be on this game.
Lou, I'll start with you.
Tell me why you're thankful for this outstanding game.
Aren't we always thankful for turkeys on Thanksgiving?
If that's isn't that what the thankful's all about?
So we have the biggest Turkey that's going to be
on TV.
So of course it's going to be thankful.
I tell you what you for the giants.
I, I, it's probably going to be drew lock.
But if they come out with the same, you know
what?
They're playing for Brian Dables job because he lost the
locker room.
It's seen.
They swear it's not the case, but I think pretty
much everyone outside sees he lost the locker room last
week.
When Malik Niebens and a rookie is destroying you, you
have a problem.
If they don't come out with effort this week and
they play the same way they played last week, that's
it for Brian Daable.
They need to win this game, not even compete.
They need to win and need to win.
I mean, looking at potentially going fully defeated at home,
maybe not winning the game at home this year.
The Giants need this one.
Mike.
This is a game that, again, if this were being
played on Sunday, not a lot of people would be
paying attention to it.
But it's right in the place in which if people
are coming together and having Thanksgiving dinner, why are you
thankful for this game?
I'm thankful.
Thankful for the tradition of this game.
Having been around Dallas for a little while now, the
first Cowboy game, I think maybe, maybe backup quarterback could
have a huge moment in this game.
The first Thanksgiving game I covered was 1994.
The Cowboys.
Aikman was hurt.
The Cowboys had a backup quarterback going up against Green
Bay, and he threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns.
His name was Jason Garrett.
The Cowboys pulled out a win that day.
So who knows?
Maybe there's more magic from a backup on this Thanksgiving
Day.
Breland, take us home.
Well, guys, you know, I'm really thankful to spend time
with my family on Thanksgiving.
Have this on in the background and hope both teams
lose, quite frankly.
I mean it, It's great.
We we just are sitting around having some quality time
being haters like we do here in the Philadelphia region.
So that's what I'm thankful for.
I hope both of you lose.
Sorry, that is going to do it.
A wonderful way to put icing on our proverbial Thanksgiving
cake.
And we are all thankful for each and everyone of
you for watching NFC Beats.
On behalf of Lou, on behalf of Mike, on behalf
of Breeland, Happy Thanksgiving to all, and we'll see you
next week on NFC Beats.