I'm gonna be really honest with you guys. I did not expect to record
But just because of the Kirk cousin news and the miles Garrett news as well as the two games that happened this past weekend
We got to talk about it. Do I have to give you guys?
Just a small little gift
Just before I unravel my gifts for Christmas. So here goes
Kirk cousins gets the boot
Miles Garrett gives the browns and ultimatum
Steelers and Ravens recap and
Chiefs and Texans recap. Okay on the 57th episode of the football junkies podcast. Okay. I am your host with the most
Okay, I am your chief back row diamonds. Okay. I am your GM who currently is not on the team right now
But don't you worry about it? Don't you worry about it? My fellow junkies. Okay. I am all these things and more
Okay, but most importantly the most important thing that you must remember is I am your host kale
You already know what I'm getting ready to say. So guess what?
Happy holidays for everybody. Merry Christmas for some happy Hanukkah for others happy Kwanzaa for others
But guess what? Here's how we're going to celebrate things. One two three. Let's lock in
All
Right folks, let's just get into the meat and potatoes of everything that is going on in the league right now
So let's just get into it. Okay. Kirk cousins is expected to be cut by the Falcons. Okay
But here are a few junkie nuggets that we have to bring up
Concerning this situation. Okay. So for one, he has a no trade clause in his contract. So most likely they are not going to trade
They're probably going to cut him either dead cap or try to spread the dead cap
So they can try to soften the blow now Adam Schefter is reporting that it is too early to tell if the Falcons are going to trade
Or release him me personally, I think they're just going to release him and then just try to figure out what they're going to do with the dead cap
Because I don't think nobody's going to want to try to take on the deal that Kirk cousins already has
I think for Kirk cousins. I think anywhere that he would want to go to I think they really wouldn't be as interested to give up draft compensation
To get him. That's just you know, my my personal opinion as a former GM. Okay
Now we do know he is expected to garner some interest
due to
a poor shaky
And if I'm going to be honest here not really good quarterback draft class next year as well as the free agency
Quarterback class isn't good either. So he is probably going to garner some interest from some of those teams
But at the same time though
I do question. Why would they make this move now?
Because granny, I understand Michael pennies, you know has a lot of upside to his game
He has a lot of experience
He's similar to bone X as far as you know, they're they're college football journeys and whatnot
But at the same time you just gave 90 million dollars to Kirk cousins
And now you're about to just let him go for nothing
And now you're about to be in the same situation that the Broncos were in with the whole Russell Wilson situation
Which is you're going to have a whole lot of dead cap that you're going to have to figure out
Either can you you know spread it through you know the next two or three years to soften the bloat?
So that you can still have cap space to surround Michael pennies with talent or you just take it in
You know for one year and then you just figure out what you're going to do
You know the the years afterwards. So all in all it's still a weird questionable
Decision but at the same time I'm not surprised that they would make this move
Simply because the last few weeks Kirk cousins has not played well Kirk cousins look
Old he looks diminished. He looks washed
You can definitely tell that he has not really fully recovered from that Achilles injury
And it's moves like these that mess up the quarterback market because
There's going to be quarterbacks that are going to be looking for deals and guess what they're going to point to this particular situation because
guess what
They can pull up whatever stats that they want, you know from espn pff pro football reference wherever and can say oh
I have better stats than curcums. I want to deal similar to curcums or whatever the case may be
And it's these type of situations that mess up the markets for these type of positions for a long time
case in point
Uh christian curf the christian curc deal that messed up the receiver market for a long time
And if we're being real here the receiver market still hasn't been able to properly
You know fix itself and it's continuing to balloon
Even more especially next year because we know that
Wherever jamar chase goes. He is going to be the first 40 million dollar receiver
I don't care where anyone says right now. He is playing at a triple crown level
And when he does win the triple crown, that's it. He's going to reset the market again
Curcums was here for an okay time not a long time
That's what it is
It wasn't a good time because it really wasn't good. It was just okay. It wasn't you know phenomenal
It was an okay time not a long time. That's it for them to just get off of him this quickly
I don't know if this was an ownership move. I don't know if this was a front office move
I don't know if this was a coaching move
But I do know this
If they're moving off of him this quickly
There is something that they see with michael pennix that they like that they want to surround him with talent with
And believe that he is their best option for winning games
Okay
Moving to the other pressing topic that needs to be talked about and that is miles garret giving the browns an ultimatum
All right. So so this is what miles garret said and I quote. I'm not trying to rebuild
I'm trying to win right now and I want that to be apparent when the season is over and we have those discussions
I want them to be able to illuminate and illustrate that for me
So that can be something I can see in the near future in quote
Now this is what I will say
And I'm I'm going to give miles garret a little bit of bail here
When he was drafted he was drafted into somewhat of a bad team
And since he has been there they have not got it together
Honestly speaking here. There's probably only been maybe one year where you can say hey
They got it
There's a there's a legitimate chance and that was the year when they beat
You know pittsburgh and the playoffs when juju said, you know, the browns will be the browns
Outside of that
They've always fallen short to the standards and you cannot say
That the browns haven't had talent
They've had
One of the best defenses in the last three or four years
consistently
The offense has been doing their thing consistently somewhat
Depending on the depending on who the quarterback is in okay when it comes to the shine watson
No, when it came to joe flacco, you already know what she was getting with joe flacco same thing with james winston
What sense does it make that you have backup quarterbacks who have been more productive with the same weapons that the person that you moved
Multiple first round picks for and you gave him the first in only fully guarantee contract
And what has he done lately nothing the team isn't going anywhere. The starting quarterback is
out, you know for the season
The backup quarterback is basically falling off a cliff
The team right now has multiple positions that need to be filled with young talent
What am I supposed to do?
And it sucks for someone like a miles Garrett who's been holding this team down who's been staying positive despite the
You know circumstances that have been around him, but at the same time
It's starting to hit a point where the frustrations are starting to overflow
And at some point if you are the browns front office
Just trade them
trade him away give put him in a better situation to win because right now
You don't want him to be in the same situation like a joe thomas. No disrespect to joe thomas joe thomas
Is one of the greatest left tackles of all time
And the fact that he was never able to experience an afc championship to experience the super bowl
To experience any of those different things because of the browns being the browns
That sucks
And miles Garrett probably realizes I don't want to be that same type of player. Sure. I'll be you know
In shrine as as one of the greats, but I want to be able to hold up that trophy. I'm trying to get me a ring
I'm trying to get a chip and I can't get a chip on this team and that is the truth
You know that the browns need a left tackle
You know that the browns, you know, they have they have spots that they have to fill in the defense as well in the offense
Not to mention you don't even know what's going to happen with the head coach
And granted I understand, you know, they've already said that Kevin Stefanski is safe. I don't believe that
Just because of how bad this season has went
But if you are the browns
And if you realize hey
We're going to have to go through a rebuild again and we're going to we're going to need multiple draft picks
Miles Garrett is your option because you know
You can garner at least two first round picks for miles Garrett at least
Now if you take on his guarantees and a majority of his money
Somebody might even give you three first round picks if we're being honest here
That's just something you have to look into
And miles Garrett realizes. Hey
Sure, I want to defense a player of the year that I probably shouldn't have won
We're not going to get into that because you know, I'll go on a complete rant. I'm not going to do it
Sure, I'm one of the best pass rushers in the league right now
But what do I have to show if I'm always one and done every single season?
Or if or if we never make it to the playoffs or if we never make it to the AFC championship
It's useless. It's pointless
The amount of time that it takes for him to prepare himself to get ready for the season to recover and
Clean up any any, you know injuries that may be bothering him in the season and you know
Preparing himself in the summer and all those different things just for him not to go anywhere
I would lose my mind. I would go ballistic every single time
But at some point the Browns you have to admit your mistakes
Same thing with max Crosby. He's in the same situation
You have two of the best pass rushers in this league right now on teams that are not going anywhere
On teams that have gone through multiple rebuilds multiple head coaches multiple front office changes
Multiple multiple multiple and they still have not got it done
At some point they're they're going to want to go somewhere else into win and if I'm the Raiders move off of max Crosby
You can get two or three first round picks for him same thing with the Browns
You can get those picks and you can try to you know really build this team and the way that that it really needs to be built
because again
You're not going to go anywhere if you keep on trying to piecemeal
You know every single season and then you fire a head coach and then you bring in another head coach
It really isn't that good and they surround the you know the team with you know
Coaches that aren't really that good and then you underperform and then everyone's upset. It's just a whole bunch of hoopla
Okay, but this is the cycle and this is the curse
Of being the first especially for Miles Garrett because I think he was the first overall pick in that draft
But let's get into these games. Okay, I'm going to make this thing fairly short
I keep on telling you guys this episode is going to be short
So Steelers and Ravens let's just get it over with right now. So Russell Wilson 22 for 33
217 passing yards two touchdowns one pick
6.6 yards per attempt in a 66.7 completion percentage
Jaylen Warren 12 attempts of 48 rushing yards
Four rushing yards per carry and one rush of 10 plus yards or more
Calvin Austin the third five targets or four receptions 65 receiving yards 16.3 receiving yards per reception
Lamar Jackson 15 for 23 207 passing yards three touchdowns one pick
Nice at nine yards per attempt in a 65.2 completion percentage Derek Henry King Henry
Okay, he earned his title back this game 24 attempts for 162 rushing yards
6.8 rushing yards per carry and seven rushes of 10 plus yards or more save flowers
8 targets for five receptions 100 receiving yards and 20 receiving yards per reception now
This is what I will say about this game
This was probably the one of the best games
That the Ravens have had against the Steelers in a long time because usually our games as everybody knows
Our low scoring games. They're the 1813's the
2016's it's 22 to you know 14 or just random crazy numbers, right?
But this game was a very dominant run heavy game for the Ravens. They dipped their toe in the water and they say, huh?
It's not that hot
It's not that cold. Oh, it's just right. Oh, come on in fellas. Come on in come on in
Uh, do a do a frog splash do a do a cannonball, you know do a 360, you know
No scope do whatever if you know, you know all my call of duty fans shout out to y'all but
But when we look at this, you know just to be serious here
This was a situation where the Steelers could have secured and locked up the division if they would have won this game
But because they lost this game, they have now left the door open, which is a great song by the way
for the Ravens to possibly win the division if the Ravens went out and the Steelers lose
I think their last two games
so
On one hand, I understand, you know, all the you know Steelers fans frustrations and whatnot. I get all that
But we had to be real here and we have to be honest
Do you really think we were really going to be able to win that game? Especially without George Pickens?
We are now seeing what this offense looks like without George Pickens playing now granted
There was multiple mistakes that were made that but never should have happened
That you know could have probably kept us in the game
But when Russell Wilson tries to you know extend a little bit farther than what he should have instead of just sliding
And then causing the fumble, you know, it comes back to haunt you and then not to mention you threw a pick six
Which just sealed the game in its entirety. So when you have those two things that happened and then on top of that
You couldn't stop the run. Of course, it was going to happen
and so now
You are in a situation where you
sort of have to you know
Win this game against the Chiefs and then you know you're going to have to beat the Bengals
And we all know right now the Bengals are playing with house money
The Bengals low-key could still sneak into the playoffs. Sure, they would need a whole bunch of help
But right now they are still holding on by the thinnest
Strand of string that you can possibly think of think of it like those spider webs
The spider webs that you don't see
But when you angle it a little bit towards, you know towards the light you can see this ginormous spider web
That's exactly what the Bengals are holding on to right now
but if you are the Steelers
You want to try to maintain the third seed and you want to try to at least have home field advantage
For at least one playoff game at least just one. We have to talk about the final game
Chiefs in Texans, okay
This game proved that Patrick Mahomes's ankle is perfectly fine. He is a okay
There's nothing to worry about. There's nothing to fear. He proved it because he went on a crazy run
Patrick Mahomes is doing Patrick Mahomes things, especially this time of the year for the Texans though
It sucks because you lose tankdale again with that horrific, you know lower leg injury, which was very horrific
I didn't realize how bad it was until I was able to see the replay again. That's really bad for the people that are saying
You know CJ Stroud. You can't show emotions. Why you're on the field? He's human
That's his guy that that's his go-to guy and to see him
You know go through everything that he went through
You know when he got shot at and then you know for him to you know lose the season again because he basically breaks his leg again
Like that's a lot. It's gonna make you emotional. So
I don't understand why people are saying and criticizing and CJ Stroud for showing emotions. That's just that that's ludicrous to me
But I'm not surprised though Patrick Mahomes 28 for 41
260 passing yards one touchdown 6.3 yards per temp in a 68.3 completion percentage
Kareem Hunt 11 attempts for 55 rushing yards five rushing yards per carry
One touchdown and one rush of 10 plus yards or more Xavier worthy 11 targets for seven receptions
65 receiving yards one touchdown and 9.3 receiving yards per reception
CJ Stroud 23 for 39 244 passing yards two touchdowns two picks
6.3 yards per tip in a 68.3 completion percentage
Joe mixing 14 attempts for 57 rushing yards
4.1 rushing yards per carry and two rushes of 10 plus yards or more tankdale seven targets for six receptions
98 receiving yards one touchdown and 16.3 receiving yards per reception
Which is crazy because prior to his injury tankdale low key was going off
The Texas low key could have won this game, but
Ultimately he got hurt which you know prayers to him and whatnot, but for the Texans this season
It's just been a roller coaster of a ride
They have their highs and their lows just like any other team
But you can definitely tell that the offensive line have definitely
Play CJ Stroud a lot especially with his performance. You can definitely tell that you know with them losing Stefan Diggs early in the season
It's definitely taken the toll on them as well, which is why they went and they claimed Deontay Johnson yesterday off of waivers
so
While I expect the team to you know still be dominant
I do not believe they are going to make it as far as they did last year in the playoffs
I just don't I I believe that they
Have a lot of things that they have to overcome
And I just think right now, you know when you have a team like the Ravens who are low key red hot and you have
You know the Broncos and the Chargers who are low key hot as well
And you know that their fronts are a little bit more, you know better against your offensive line
You're not going to make it that far. I just don't believe they're going to make it as far now
Would I would I have love for them to make it far? Yes for sure
Especially, you know on the defensive side when you have DeNeal Hunter and will Anderson doing what they were doing this season
Of course I would but you know, I just don't see it
But I will say this
Most likely their first pick is going to be an offensive line because their offensive line has just been atrocious
Yeah, I'll just leave it there. I'll just leave it there. Just know I'm giving you guys a heads up right now
When the season is over, we're going to do something like a gut check. Okay
We're going to go through every single team
Give out some recommendations. What what positions they should address in free agency and what positions they should address
You know in the draft. I'm giving you a heads up right now
But the one thing that has proved this season for the chiefs is
We can win in multiple ways. We can win based off of the defense. We can win based off of the offense
We can win, you know in the most craziest ways there is now. I will say this
I do believe
The chiefs do have the upper hand against the Steelers tomorrow
simply because if I'm not mistaken, they are still undefeated when it comes to
One score possessions
They're undefeated now some of that is because of you know tackles holding and
putting pass rushers and choke holds and
Getting off of the line, you know
Three or four seconds earlier before everybody and you know, just just put them out there just letting it be known
you know the chiefs have you know
Gone away with a few questionable calls, you know, just putting it out there for everybody to know, you know
Just want you to you know pay attention to that on Wednesday
Just putting it out there just saying not assuming anything not trying to you know, put out any any fake
You know allegations or anything, but you know just just want to bring it to your attention
But if I can make a prediction on Wednesday, but between both of these these matchups
Chiefs and Steelers and Texans and Ravens. I do believe the Ravens are going to impose their will
on the Texans. I think the Ravens are
Are different. I think they
You know have benefited off of that laid by to you know rest recuperate get them
You know get their minds ready and whatnot right now
They're on a high you're on a two game win streak
You crush the Giants and then you crush the you know the Steelers you silenced all the naysayers
Because leading up to that game everyone was saying well
Can Lamar beat the Steelers Lamar has been playing well against the Steelers
Which we're going to talk about the MVP stuff before this episode ends but back to this though
I do believe it's going to be a close game
But I think the Ravens are going to seal the game
Defensively just putting it out there now for the Chiefs though. I think that's going to be
a hard game to call simply because
The Steelers are going to want to try to play physical. They're going to want to try to you know playing the mud a little bit
Now the question is will the Chiefs be willing to want to play the mug with them as well?
Who knows but I will probably say Chiefs win against the Steelers 28 to
19 and for the Texans and Ravens, I'll probably say
27
20
Yeah, I like that now for this I have to bring this up because I'm seeing a little bit of delusion
Especially on Twitter. Okay, because people are saying that Josh Allen has locked up the MVP news flash. He has not okay
With Lamar winning against the Steelers on Saturday, especially the way that he won
That evens things up right now for the MVP race. Okay, and if Lamar wins out
And he wins the division the division by the way that the Steelers were supposed to win on Saturday
But they weren't able to do it
That automatically gives Lamar the MVP
Compared to what Josh Allen has done. Sure. You got crushed against the Rams and yes, you were struggling against the Patriots
I'm sorry. You have to account that you know when it comes to the MVP voting, but
Unfortunately, I'm not on that list, you know for for when it comes to the MVP, you know MVP voting
So, you know, you won't be hearing it from me here
But I'm going to end this episode here if you guys like what you are listening. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please like share subscribe
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Now as always, I hope I gave you guys the fix that you guys need you guys probably are hearing you right now
But I am completely exhausted right now. So I'm definitely taking a break
Most likely we probably may not have an episode until the start of the playoffs
Is what I would say if there is no news or anything crazy that doesn't happen
But we all know I'm probably gonna be taking a small break and then we're gonna be back into this thing
So I'll let you guys know you'll probably you know realize them when I put out another episode of one up
I am going to take me a break get some rest recuperate and you know
Be prepared to give you guys the new year's junkies fix that we all need
To start the year off the right way. Okay, so as always, I hope I gave you guys the fixes you guys need happy holidays
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you guys from my family to yours. I love you guys
I appreciate you guys so much. Don't drink and drive drink water. Have fun
Be responsible peace and love. This is kale signing out later