Danny drops unique Rams stat that can win Matthew Stafford MVP, Caleb is the NFL’s Ohtani 🤔 | FTF

Danny drops unique Rams stat that can win Matthew Stafford MVP, Caleb is the NFL’s Ohtani 🤔 | FTF

Wednesday at 5 o’clock, it is time for First Things First overtime, and we have Ben Johnson coming up about 20 minutes. Did you ask him about his enthusiastic locker room speeches. Oh yeah, right off the top. It’s in the plan. It might come up the whole time, who knows? I, I was trying to be my best. Good, better, better, never let it rest. I, OK, until, until your good gets better. I, I think I’m gonna start supporting Ben Johnson. Too, no, too late. No, I think I have a lot of old pent up Patriots Bears. Yeah, 1980 from the 1985 Super Bowl, dude, you guys getting beat what was it, 55 to 10? It wasn’t great. 46, 40, thank you. I got you. First things first overtime right now we’re starting with. Get in Philly with it. I say it. I get it. Just say it. Philly starting in Green Bay, where the first place Packers will take on the first place Eagles. Eagles GM Howie Roseman added Jalen Phillips from the Dolphins. Jy Alexander from the Ravens. That was a short lived. Uh yeah, classic one by me. That was thank you. Lamar was so happy. Didn’t even, I don’t even know if they played together. Uh, Michael Carr is ridden from the Jets, and you probably love the toys, you know. Brandon Graham from retirement, did the Eagles do enough to go back to back? I normally let the confetti fall on my head. I just plop it on my head. Uh, I thought that the Eagles had enough to go back to back before any trades were made, and I don’t know if that’s a cop out here, but. They arguably have the most impressive this season resume of any team in football. It’s, it’s at least arguable when you figure in like strength of victory, which they actually among the playoffs, Drew loves strength of victory. Well, it’s a good precursor. Well, among playoffs. Teams like teams that would be in the playoffs today, they’re number one. The Giants is actually higher, but they don’t have enough wins to really qualify for it because the Giants beat the Eagles, they beat the Chargers, but they have the best strength of victory. They beat the Chiefs, they beat the Cowboys, they beat the Bucks, they beat the Rams. But also just the eye test, Saquan’s coming off his best game. Which was right after Jalen Hurts was coming off of his best game, and they added 3 players and whatever we make in TV about AJ Brown and whatever’s real about AJ Brown, they said it’s not bad enough to trade him because if they would have traded AJ Brown, everyone would have agreed this team got worse this year. Like maybe it would have been better for the future, maybe you would have gotten a good draft pick, but this team would have been worse, and they’re saying. No, we’re good with AJ Brown, and so they’re gonna go try to win this year’s Super Bowl, and I think they’re one of the 2 or 3 favorites to do it. They won the Super Bowl going away with AJ Brown reading books on the sideline, and, and, and really lighting the season on fire. What, 5 weeks with 5 weeks left? I mean, it was late in the season when he made those comments about we need to throw more and they still didn’t have a problem winning. Uh, I agree with you. Look, I think the addition of Jalen Phillips is, is decent, you know, he’s, he’s not a superstar, but their pass rush hasn’t been great either, you know, they’re, they’re near the bottom as well in terms of sacks. So I think he gives them a little bit of a boost there. But I agree. I mean, on paper, they can do. The only reason, and I did not pick them in large part because of this reason. But it’s just history says, man, it is difficult to even get back to the Super Bowl, let alone win it again. This century, 3 teams have gotten back, right? Uh, the Chiefs and the Patriots with Brady and Mahomes have won it, Mahomes have won it, and then the Seattle. Got back but didn’t win so that it’s just hard to do, um, but on paper, yeah, they have enough even if they didn’t make a move, they still had enough to win it. So yeah, they, they, how he’s done a fine job. Yeah, listen, I think the only The, the question about Philadelphia was not a question that was gonna be addressed at the trade deadline. I do think adding Jalen Phillips was a real impact addition. That is, while everyone was talking about the Chiefs adding Bruce Hall, I, I would have liked if they had added some Jalen Phillips, you know, something like that, the best edge rusher moved that, right, that was available. Oh, and that was moved. I think it was definitely, yeah, definitely the best edge rusher moved at the deadline, and then Quinnin Williams for best rusher. And, and so I, I like that move, but I don’t think that’s the question for them because I do believe, uh, if Philadelphia doesn’t reach their ultimate goal, I don’t think it’s going to be because they don’t get enough pressure, in part because I think Jalen Carter can attract enough attention that you’re gonna, you’re not gonna be awful at getting to the quarterback when you have healthy Jalen Carter. The question to me is going to be what Saquan are they getting? And that is not gonna be, you weren’t gonna trade for a running back. Like the, the, the, it is, and that is the question looming over post-bye week because the numbers going into that last game when he was awesome were grim. It was almost his, his yards per carry were barely 60% of what they were the previous year. They had no explosive runs, averaging 50 yards per game, and then he has the monster game going into the by when they don’t have AJ. And I, I don’t think this team is at its best win. They have to just turn Jalen Hurts into a dropback passer. I don’t think it’s what they want to do. They have shown when they in an emergency press, press that button. He has come through quite often in that spot, but I don’t think that’s their path for 3 consecutive playoff victors. Victories leading into a Super Bowl. I think it’s the type of team they’ve tried to be since Jalen Hurts has been there, which is a run first play action, you know, Jalen Hurts deep bomb or Jalen Hurts with his legs, and Jalen’s not running as much this year, and they need Saquan. So that to me is the overwhelming question about your Super Bowl pick is. Is the, was week 8, a fork in the road for Saquan where it’s like, OK, we’re getting closer to last year’s Saquan, or was it a blip? And that part, I don’t know. And so I, I, I, I don’t, I wouldn’t have been moved. They have too good of a roster. To unlike Buffalo, people like to trade for Chris Olave or even the Chiefs trade for Breece Hall. Once they added Jalen Phillips, there was, there was nobody out there really we’re like, man, the Eagles need to go get what? Because, and that’s a testament to Howie, it’s because they don’t really have a lot of holes and on defense, it’s young players that they want to play because they want them to get the experience. Yeah, Howie Rose. Is probably the best general manager in football. Not every trade that he makes works. They did the Robert Quinn trade last year. They didn’t really do any dividends for them, but you know, we were talking about the value of the draft pick that they gave up. They traded their 3rd round pick for Phillips, and they still have the Jets’ 3rd round pick. That’s probably 20 picks, 25 picks difference in this round. So they’re just a very well run organization. The reason I’d. Optimism about Saquan though, offensive line’s getting healthier. If the, if the offensive line is healthy and he can get back to last year where those yards before contact, he was best in the NFL, which is what it looked like in that last game, he’s good. Like I don’t, I don’t think Saquan fell off a cliff here. I, my guess is that that game last week, or I guess a week ago because of the was not, was not a blip for him. My buddy from Philly. The one who was hollering at us at the Super Bowl saying, was he in New Orleans when we were up on the thing was, yeah, yeah, that’s OK. Wiles doesn’t have a lot of friends, so I can identify him very quickly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was big on like the Eagles were planning on a 2020 game season for Saquan. And that’s one of the reasons why like you would see like less usage now and that was probably just, uh, well, they, they clearly, no, listen, you don’t trade multiple picks for Tank Bigsby. You don’t have, um, gosh darn it, the big guy Quad Quadzilla, thank you. uh, they like they clearly want Saquan to be fresh going into the postseason. And I, to be clear, I don’t think Saquan is bad. I do think he might be tired, and I don’t know that just the bye week is enough to get over the weird thing. They’re 98% to win in the division. The Cowboys are done. The Commanders are done. The Giants are done. So how do you use Saquan from here on out? Well, I listen, I super value the buy. So I don’t think, I, I don’t think that they can just go into 3rd gear and be like, we’re gonna, you know, we’re gonna win the division, we’re gonna have a home playoff game. I understand they didn’t have the bye last year and they didn’t need it. It’s a hard, it’s a much harder path, obviously. And because the division’s so soft now, they, they have the smoothest. The other teams going for the bye, this is one of the reasons I believe in Tampa. I know you don’t. Tampa has a relatively smooth path after these next few weeks, but the NFC West. The NFC North teams are gonna be in a fight for their life just to make the playoffs while, while the Eagles and Bucks are gonna be fighting for seeding, not to make the game. It’s hard to see the one seed coming out of the North or the West. That’s what I’m saying. I just because I think they’re gonna beat each other up even with Saquan not playing up to his standard. They have those wins you mentioned, Kansas City and, and Tampa Bay and the Rams. So if he gets going, then like if, if every team plays its A plus game. They probably win it. I was thinking about that. Like if you were grading the Eagles every week, you wouldn’t have really given them A’s. Oh, they beat the Chiefs with like a minus game. They beat the Rams with a B game. That was great. Uh, Rams 49ers this weekend battle two excellent quarterbacks when Mac Jones takes on Matthew Stafford, who is the subject. Of the first edition of this week’s edition of Pack Stats, stats are cool. Making stats cool again. Oh, you guys both just wanna fight over the slogan. No, I’m just, I’m just adding to it. We’re all, we’re all, we’re all, we’re all the same in agreement. All right, stat number one. Stats are making a comeback. They’re making a comeback one week at a time, Matt Stafford. The Rams’ passing strategy could get Matt Stafford the MVP. The stat is 8, as in 8 passing touchdowns from inside the 5-yard line. It’s the inverse of the tu push, guys. They added Devonte Adams, and all of a sudden every time Sean McVeigh gets down. Inside the 10 yard line or the 5 yard line, he’s dropping back to pass. Staffford’s got the most pass attempts, the most completions, and the most touchdowns inside the 5 yard line this year, and we know his touchdown interception ratio, it’s working. If, if it were voted on today. If it would, it’s not a projection. If it were based on what they have done up to this point. Are we all in agreement that he’d be the league MVP? That if, if we said, if we did a segment, who’s been the MVP through at the midway point of the season, my vote would be him. You had him at the top bruised. Ballot, I don’t, I don’t know if it would be interesting. I think Drake May would get some votes. Like if you, if the regular voters were voting today, it would be interesting to see cause one thing I’ll say, and even though I had him atop the ballot, and, and I feel he would, he’s my MVP at this moment. You can argue, man, Drake does not have nearly the amount of uh weapons that Stafford has, and so that’s an argument in his place and he’s taken a team from, you know, not quite worst but worst to first, so to speak, so perfectly said. That’s I 100% agree with everything you said. Well, it’s just an interesting formula for the, for the Rams. Like 14 of his 21 touchdown passes are inside the 10 yard line this year. Kyron Williams has not been the, the focal point. Sean McVeigh always talks about, I wanna run the ball. It’s like, well, maybe if you have one of the best pure passers in the NFL and a top wide receiver duo, just pass your way. Yeah, I, I don’t, I think that’s I, I think the inside the five part. It is probably rare. I don’t think it’s that rare that I bet most quarterbacks, well more than 50% of their touchdown passes have come inside the 10. I don’t think it’s a bunch of, I don’t think there’s many quarterbacks inside the 10. Yeah, because he said 14, you said 14 of the 14 of his 14 of his 21 inside the 10, uh, 5 of Stafford’s 8 touchdowns inside the 5 have gone to Devonte, but he leads the NFL in pass attempts and touchdowns. Inside the 5. Yeah, inside the 5, I do find interesting, and I think some of that, Sean McVeigh’s interesting because he, he objectively does not like, I shouldn’t say that, he appears not to like his kicker. He certainly doesn’t trust him. And I don’t know, and I don’t know how much he trusts their power run game. I, you know, and so I think he just feels like you gotta have it spots or in the most high leverage spots. I’d rather just put the ball in Stafford. I’ll take the to push. Well, you can’t do it from the 5. Why not? You can do it twice. Oh, you could. Making stats cool. That’s right, you said it, not me, but I agree. Stat number 2. It’s been a while since we talked about Justin Herbert. Oh. Well, it’s a big game this week. Chargers and Steelers. Herbert’s gonna have to be Superman again this week. I mean, no Slater, no alt, injuries all over the offensive line. He has been pressured 165 times this year. That’s 30 more than any quarterback, and you can roll your eyes and put your head in your hands. You saw what happened. Patrick Mahomes, when he had one game where he was pressured as much as Justin Herbert has been consistently this year, and Mahomes had the worst game of his career. That’s 30 more pressures than anyone. He’s playing in a Pittsburgh team that has what, 4 games where they’ve had at least 5 sacks this year. So are you, are you closing up your briefcase on the Chargers season? I think it’s gonna, I mean listen, I think they can still be the wild card, but I do not think that they can win big this year without either of the tackles. Oh, OK, so this is the, here’s the reason I put my head in my hands. If the, the year the Chiefs traded away Tyreek Hill. I came on TV and picked him to win the Super Bowl. If they then lost a wide receiver, and then I came on, I’m like, whoa, what can you expect? They don’t have that wide receiver or Tyreek Hill. You, all of your Herbert stuff was, hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, was post Slater’s injury. So the Slater’s injury, so they, they, they, they have not lost Slater and O. All of the Chargers’ optimism, but all of the Chargers’ optimism, we knew Slater was out and it was post- Slater. And so if what we’re saying is, Herbert was going to have the, the Peyton Manning year, the Chargers are going to be a legitimate contender, all of that, and they lose one player, and it, and it all falls apart, then he’s not the guy you’re telling us he is. They haven’t just lost one player though. They also lost their third tackle. They also lost Omar and Hampton. Khalil Mack was hurt for a period of time. They have had, they have had 9 starters on their offensive line through 9 games. Second most in the NFL. They’ve been one of the most injured teams in football. It’s not just for Sean Slater. And by the way, Herbert has been great this year. I, he’s been great this year. He’s been great. I mean, leading the league in passing, they, they throw, but again, yards, but so is his passer rate, and he’s very good. He’s like great. That, yeah, I mean, I don’t think I think his passer rates like 8 picks that I, I just, the, this is all you get one and the other. They are passing the ball a ton, which leads to him leading the league and passing, which is great. It also leads to him being pressured more than other people, which is bad. I just, it, we are staring down the barrel of another year of, man, it’s just not Justin Herbert’s fault. It’s been, he’s been in the league. I buy this one though. This is bad luck, man. All of his offensive linemen are getting hurt. But you gotta look, we’ve seen Joe Burrow overcome, you know, bad offensive line play. Like you just gotta, I, I get, yeah, yeah, they made the Super Bowl and the AFC Championship game with bad offensive line. He’s also been, you know, he’s been injured now he’s gotten hurt, but I, I think that’s Burt that’s cool. Oh, the lights move us on. All right, if you guys didn’t like that one, I’m not sure how much we’re gonna love this one. Caleb Williams, people are asking, people are saying that he’s the Shoe Otani of the NFL. Just get ready here. This is worse than 32 rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown. Look at that handsome Irv comm receiving Tom and 2 catches and 2 catches. That’s right. You got or else Josh Allen would have been on it. Last year you gotta go back to Irv Comp. Fun fact about Irv Compnick, he could only see out of one eye. True story. Look at this handsome fella. I mean, honestly, Shoe Otani, we would do stats. We’d be like the first player since Jim Grunting Shaw. This is all because he caught one extra pass. I did like. I did like that he caught the pass, but he caught, I mean he caught 22 he caught 1 on the Philly special and then 1 in the middle of the field. I’m just saying, does your quarterback have 10 passing touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns, a receiving touchdowns, 2 catches? No, he doesn’t. No, because they would never be like, hey, Patrick, we want you to go run a seam route against the safety. It’s not not as good of not what they’re gonna want. A little bit of a unicorn, Shoey Otani of football, bro. That’s too much though, but I like it. It’s too much. It’s too much. It’s too much. I and I understand it might be trying to butter up Ben Johnson because he’s about to be on, be like, oh, Danny’s my guy, he’s calling, but I bet even, I bet even Ben Johnson would say it’s a little too much. It’s a little too much. All right, I’ll, alright, well then I’ll just zoom out and I’ll bring this up with Ben Johnson in a little bit. Do you know who was the 2nd most explosive plays in the NFL this year? Now that I find interesting, the Chicago Bears. Indianapolis Colts 1, the Bears 2. So that part brew to me does mean something, that they are all of a sudden a big play offense. 4th in yards per game, 6th in points per game, 9. Fewest sacks in the NFL this year for all, and I know they played Dallas and Cincinnati, and that inflates the stats. Two of the worst defenses in the NFL. But the Otani of football is real. So that the Otani of football I can’t get with you on, but I do, uh, here’s, here’s where, here’s where I’ll be with you. Because Caleb right now, Colin made this point earlier this week, I think it is a smart point. He is not great at some of the easier stuff, as great as we would hope he would be. To overcome that, you need to be excellent at the explosives. If you’re going to miss some of the layups, you got to hit some 40-foot 3s. I would like to see a You know, if we’re in a scientific experiment, a control, like a normal team, I’d like to see him do it against a normal team, not the Cowboys and not the, but if they’re, but if they’re 2nd in the league, KW for the whole season on explosive plays, that it didn’t all come in those two games. Of course not. A lot of it did though, you know, and, and to be, to be fair, a lot of it has, have been running plays. Like they, they’ve been a very good running team. Now the truth how much of it is Caleb against. Normal teams to use Troy, run the numbers. We’ll, we’ll get Troy to run the numbers one, I look, Caleb, he, he does have some. There’s no doubt he’s got the explosive potential. I mean, there’s no question about it, and they’ve been, they’ve been an explosive offense this year. That part is true, and that’s that, that is a. Surprising, at least to me. You know what? That’s why stats are cool. The Otani thing. The Otani thing, yeah, you went way too far. I went too far. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean we did it with Otani. 43. Troy just said 29 explosive runs, 43 explosive passes, so that’s good. Not bad. That’s pretty good. They didn’t all come against Dallas and since it’s not roy.

Danny Parkins drops a unique Los Angeles Rams stat that strengthens Matthew Stafford’s MVP case, then revisits Justin Herbert’s Peyton Manning quest. They also debate if the Philadelphia Eagles have enough fire power to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Watch as Danny explains why Caleb Williams is the Shohei Ohtani of the NFL.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Danny drops unique Rams stat that can win Matthew Stafford MVP, Caleb is the NFL’s Ohtani 🤔 | FTF
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