Stephen A. ‘isn’t phased’ the Chiefs are 0-2 to start the season 👀 ‘They will be fine!’ | First Take

Stephen A. ‘isn’t phased’ the Chiefs are 0-2 to start the season 👀 ‘They will be fine!’ | First Take

the Chiefs 20 to7 at Arrowhead. Seaquin and Jaylen Herz both had rushing touchdowns. The Eagles defense secured the win after a crucial fourth quarter interception by Andrew Makubu. The victory gives the Eagles a 2-0 record. And listen to this. Drops the Chiefs to 0 and2. Now, here’s what Stephen A had said about this last week. Take a quick listen. When you spot the opponent 34 points in the Super Bowl, when you down 34 to nothing, when you got two future Hall of Famers, the best quarterback in the game today, one of the greatest tight ends to have ever played football, sitting on the bench looking at one another like, damn, it it’s a bad day. In the third quarter, everybody and their mother knew it was over at halftime. When you see something like that happening that game the following year, it’s not about a win or a loss on Sunday against a team. It’s about how you perform. Stephen A, I’d like the reaction, the followup now that you saw the game. Listen, I’m not fased by the Chiefs being on too. They got Patrick Mahomes and those boys and if and if uh Travis Kelce doesn’t juggle doesn’t juggle that catch and ultimately get it intercepted which led to a Jaylen Herz touchdown. Uh the Chiefs may have won this game, but it was a hard fought game. It was a close game. Uh with three minutes left, it was 2017. Um a after the touchdown pass to Thornton. And you know what? They could have won this game, but it didn’t happen. The key for me was them making sure they didn’t get their ass kicked. That they weren’t punch drunk from the Super Bowl that they went out there and they competed and they showed that, you know what, we’ve learned from the comeuppance we received and we’ve improved ourselves and we’ll be better for it. Particularly as the season progresses. But I know in the Chiefs history, you know, it’s been about 15 times they started the season 0 and two. They only made the playoffs once. I believe it will be twice because I don’t believe that the Chiefs are going to nose dive and suddenly can’t win football games moving forward. I think they’ll be just fine. I just didn’t I just wanted to make sure they didn’t get their ass kicked by the Philadelphia Eagles. A loss is a loss. That happens. It’s the ass kicking that you got to keep your eyes on and that did not happen yesterday. Ham, I want to narrow the focus here really quickly. Are you higher on the Eagles now or are you more down on the Chiefs? I’m down on the Chiefs. And you know, Stephen A, we got the saying that we all know if if was a fifth. It don’t matter how you lose, you just better find a way to win because a loss is a loss. Don’t matter if you lose by one point or you lose by, you know, 40. When I look at the Kansas City Chiefs, the thing that becomes apparent is where’s the weapons? Guju, Hollywood, Thor, where are the weapons? We’ve never looked at what we have before, but they’ve been able to maneuver and generate some type of offense. Xavier Worthy can’t get back fast enough. If I’m thinking about this, because I think the cat’s out now from the philosophical standpoint, all we have to do is really frustrate Patrick Mahomes and we got to play manto man and we bracket Travis Kelce. We’ve never seen ever seen the Kansas City Chiefs rely on Patrick Mahomes as their valuable running source like we’ve have in these last two games. Now, granted, everybody has to evolve their game, but it’s apparently uh uh uh it’s abundantly clear that the Kansas City Chiefs have bigger problems, and we need to find valuable options that can beat consistently man-to-man coverage. And that’s not number 87 in El Travidor. Damian, only three teams in NFL history has gone 0 and2 and went on and win a Super Bowl. I was I I was part of that. One one of the three. Sort of flex. It’s sort of it’s a little bit of a flex. Um I I will say this. Who you scared of on Kansas City? Nobody. Nobody. Nobody. You’re not scared of anybody. You’re not scared of anybody with Kansas City. Listen, we know the greatness of of number 15, Patrick Mahome. We know he’s a all-time great, but what was really apparent is when you watch that game, the way Vic Fangio, defensive coordinator, Eagles, came after Patrick Mahomes, that’s kind of out of character for Vic Vic Fangio. He’s not the type of guy that’s going to bring a lot of pressure. But Cam, why does somebody bring pressure? Cuz they don’t worry about anybody on the outside. They just like, you know what, you you ain’t got the dogs on the outside. So, I’m gonna go out here and I’m gonna heat up your quarterback knowing like he’s the only guy that can possibly keep you keep you in this game. And Marley, I want to say this, okay? I want to say this. The Kansas City Chiefs had a mini buy coming off that game, that Friday night game against the Chargers, right? Playing at home, rested up, playing against a team that obliterated them in the Super Bowl and still lost. Yeah, think about that. Think about that. That I think that speaks to me of the I think the lack of invincibility with the Kansas City Chiefs right now. And I think not only that the Philadelphia Eagles go in there and get the win, you don’t think other teams aren’t thinking to themselves, man. We we we not sweating the Chiefs like that. Now, I know it’s early, but 0 and2, Trust me, it’s a problem. O2 is a problem. Listen, I get where y’all coming from, but can we pump the brakes? We’re talking about in a guy, all right, in a guy like Patrick Mahomes, we’re talking about a three-time Super Bowl champion and a guy that’s been to five of the last six Super Bowls. Hollywood Brown can ball. We understand that. But he’s not a number one. You know, you get him because you want to stretch the field, right? But Rasheed Rice has been suspended for six games. Xavier Worthy gets hurt on the first play of the game with the run in the collision with Travis Kelce by accident. They don’t have two of their three receivers. They don’t have Isaiah Pacheco out of the backfield. Kareem Hunts not running the football but so effectively and he’s not their number one option at the running back spot. It would be PCO if he was available. They got injuries. They got guys that are not on the field for them. So I’m like, okay, can these guys hold down the four? You starting off 0 and2. You got 15 games to go. All right. And and you the Chargers is one thing. You got them flying all the way to Brazil with that stuff. And then you get injured or worthy on the first play knowing that Rice is out. Okay. And then the second game of the year, you’re going up against the reigning defending Super Bowl champions who stomped you in the Super Bowl. All I’m trying to say to y’all is like it’s not like this isn’t recoverable. I’m not picking them to win the Super Bowl anyway, but I certainly believe that they’re going to make the playoffs because I know they know how to win. And when you look at them being bereft of personnel right now due to the injuries, I think they’ll be just fine. If if we’re talking the way y’all are talking is like they got everybody on the field, they’re fully loaded and then they losing. That’s not what’s happening with them right now. They got to find a way to make amends or or to make up for what they lost right now because you got catch injured. Injuries come with football. I know that. But the point is they don’t have their full their full personnel. They’re not fully loaded yet and it’s two games in. Come on, y’all. Calm down. Listen, Stephen Anthony, you’re not fully loaded. The folks in Atlanta going to love this. So, whoopde-doo. You ain’t got Rasheed Rice. Whoopde-doo. You ain’t got Xavier Worthy. Whoopde-doo. Hey, listen, bro. Handle it. We ain’t got We don’t care about that. Because what I’m looking at, Stephen A, is this. You got the Chargers that are looking dog on good. You got the Raiders that’s looking really good. You got the Broncos that’s looking really good. So, you got all these issues and acting like the Kansas City Chiefs is the only team in NFL history that had to battle back from injuries. Ask Cincinnati Bengals about injury right now. Whoopdeoo. We don’t care nothing about that. Excuse me. May I respond? May I respond? May I respond? First of all, for the first time on national television, I’mma accuse Cam Newton of lying. Woody, he’s lying. He’s lying when he says he’s lying. Are you ready for this? He’s lying when he says that folks in Atlanta are saying whoopde-doo. Whoopde-doo sounds like a celebratory comment. What the hell have y’all had to celebrate? You went to the Super Bowl and gave up a 25point lead. You made the divisional playoffs the next year and ever since then you ain’t made the damn playoffs. So Atlanta ain’t saying that. Atlanta’s in no position. The city of Atlanta is in no position to say that. Let’s call it what it is now. Let’s keep it a buck. They’re in no position to say that. This Patrick Mahomes we talking about. All right. When Patrick Mahomes is in the Super Bowl, folks in Atlanta are throwing Super Bowl parties to watch him. So, let’s let’s let’s be cool. But when we talking about what they say in Atlanta, it don’t matter. Now, I love the ATL, baby. You know that. You know where I come when I’m in town. I roll to that special cigar bus. But, you know, I ain’t got nothing but love for you, bro. But stop that whoop or whoopde-doo stuff from Atlanta. We don’t want to hear that. They They You know what? We proud of Atlanta for winning a regular season game on Sunday Night Football last night cuz in the past that’s the kind of game they were losing. Loud and clear. I got to get into commercial break and I got to let Cam respond real quick. Like a whole 10 seconds. Let him go. 10 seconds. This This has nothing to do with the Atlanta Falcons. Okay. You cite the source. Atlanta the culture. I got to make you hip. Stephen Anthony. The point is I’m talking to damn culture. I’m trying to enhance your vernacular in the culture, Stephen Anthony. And they’re saying, “Okay, whoop you do.” I ain’t talking about no Atlanta Falcons. I never was an Atlanta Falcon. I’m talking about Atlanta. What they got in celebration goes crazy. Welcome back. The Ravens beat the Browns 41 to 17 in their week 2 game on Sunday after a slew of Browns trash talk prior to the divisional matchup. Uh meanwhile, an interesting report from you, Adam Shfterf, on Shador Sanders involving Baltimore. Sanders declined Baltimore’s offer to draft him in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL draft because he did not want to be a backup to Lamar Jackson and wanted a team he’d have a better chance to play sooner. Really interesting stuff. Adam, what more can you tell us about what went down? Well, the Ravens were preparing to take Shador Sanders in the fifth round with the 141st overall selection. And then they got word obviously that he would prefer not to be in a situation where he’s in a quarterback room with Lamar Jackson who’s entrenched as the most valuable player where he’s not going to get the chance to play anytime soon or compete for the starting quarterback job. And so he let it be known that he preferred to pass on that opportunity. The Ravens went in a different direction. And then three picks later, Shador Sanders goes to the Cleveland Browns where obviously he has a better chance to get that job at some point in time. We’ll see how it plays out over time. He didn’t know where he was going to go at pick 141, but in Baltimore was something that at that time did not overly appeal to him. Interesting. Now, Cam, I would think you’re the quarterback. It would be an incredible opportunity to sit behind a guy like Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens and learn with that head coach. Yeah. What’s your reaction to this? Uh, I think this is a learning lesson about life because you just never know. And with this particular situation, I don’t want to get too aggressive, you know, because when I talk about Shadore, it’s it’s it’s so sensitive because of the of the passion and desire that I have, not only just for him, but also for his father. Yeah. And there are some things that if you could go back and change, obviously hindsight’s 2020, but when you’re looking at the better situation, the better situation is definitely Baltimore where you can potentially learn from a great and see how he manages so many different things outside of football rather than just performing at an elite level. Well, in Cleveland, you got to go through two individuals to insert yourself as, you know, the starter. Dylan Gabriel who’s now the second uh uh second quarterback at hand and then obviously Joe Flacco and when you consider those things it’s like yo like what situation is is better you know but he didn’t know that he was going to wind up in Cleveland. No he he he didn’t know that he opted for what was behind curtain number two rather than the known curtain in Baltimore. Yeah he opted for the unknown but the unknown turned out to be Cleveland. Stephen A, where are you on this? I’m curious. Two things could be true. Cam Newton can be absolutely right that Baltimore is the better situation. Yet, none of us can look at Shador Sanders and find extreme fault with his position. Lamar Jackson, let’s not talk about him like he’s a quarterback and stop there. He’s a superstar. Two-time league MVP. Okay, this dude is considered one of the greatest we’ve ever seen. And he’s 28. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And when you take a job as a backup quarterback in Baltimore, barring injury, you assume you’re going to be holding the clipboard and you’re going to be practicing, but you’re almost never going to play because that brother’s not going anywhere. Nobody’s supplanting him. And so if you’re Shador Sanders and you’re looking at it from that standpoint, you’re coming out of Colorado, you just completed 70% of your passes. Once upon a time, you projected to be a top two to three quarterback taken in the upcoming draft before things nosedived. Your mentality is is that you have a chance at playing sooner than later on various teams in the National Football League. But Kansas City wouldn’t be one of them. Baltimore wouldn’t be one of them. Buffalo wouldn’t be one of them. Cincinnati, oh, there’s a better chance there because there’s always an injury to Joe Burrow as Adam Shftton pointed out to be to start the show. That’s what you’re looking at. And so again, again, I it might not have been wise. I get it because an opportunity is an opportunity. You never know what it could turn into. I understand that. But if you’re looking forward to playing in the National Football League at the quarterback spot, you’re not going to expect to be playing if you go to Baltimore because Lamar Jackson is there. Can I say this? And I I think if I’m Shadore, you would ideally want to learn behind a guy like Lamar Jackson for this particular reason and this particular reason only. Not a lot of players can really cope with your star power, with your stardom, right? And let’s really give credit where credit’s due. At 28 years old, being a phenomenal athlete, the thing that I respect a guy like Lamar Jackson the most, we’ve never heard him have any off the- field issues. He’s been a standup guy. And if all of our opinion has always led to his own field performance, not a lot of people can relate to what Shadur Sanders has been through in his whole life. And that right there serves even more to make him a better player because it’s the totality of the position. And I think Lamar Jackson would have been able to relate to him. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Cam Newton and Damien Woody weigh in on the Kansas City Chiefs’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2 and debate whether it’s a big deal the Chiefs are 0-2 to start the season.

0:00 Chiefs starting 0-2 a big deal or no big deal?
2:00 Higher on the Eagles or more down on the Chiefs?
5:25 Stephen A. says the Chiefs’ struggles are recoverable
9:40 Ravens planned to draft Shedeur in the 5th round
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