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Nathan Hawthorne: All right, we've seen enough of the NFL this year to have a clear idea of who the top five quarterbacks are in the NFL this year. I'm gonna go ahead and give you my top five and then we can maybe go back and forth on what that looks like for who you have. My number one's Joe Burrow. Then I got Josh Allen, Brock Purdy, Caleb Williams, and Trevor Lawrence. Just one, two, three, four, five. That quick, that simple, that easy. What say you?
Jarod McInroy: yeah, mine's very similar. I'm going Joe Burrow one, Brock Purdy two, Josh Allen three, Caleb Williams four, CJ Stroud five.
Nathan Hawthorne: Okay, we got CJ Stroud in there. Okay.
Jarod McInroy: yeah. Yeah, let's let's go down the list. I mean the the Joe Burrow one I think we both know. Seventy four completion percentage, twenty three touchdowns to six interceptions. He's playing clean football, he's hitting all of his targets, he's feeding his best players. That it's it's a no brainer. He's this is this might be the best we've seen him, I think, to this point. And that might even include the Super Bowl appearance that he had that one season. So yeah, man. It's
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I'm
Jarod McInroy: it's looking good.
Nathan Hawthorne: listening when you have an offensive coordinator who says, Yeah, I know that establishing the run is important, but we have T. Higgins and Jamar Chase and Tinsley. I'm not really sure that we actually need to establish the run. And he's right. When you have a quarterback that can dish it to him like that, that's pretty incredible. We've seen teams have receiving talent like Dak Prescott, but he needs a little bit more run support. Joe Joe Burrow in this team just does not need it. It it's incredible. Number two, did you have Brock or did you have Josh? You had Brock. Okay. I I
Jarod McInroy: I had Brock. I have Brock too, and let me tell you why.
Nathan Hawthorne: need you I need you to defend that. Not because I firmly disagree. I do disagree, but I need you to defend that.
Jarod McInroy: This is a part of a full length apology to Brock Burdy and everything I've said about him. I know I said week ten, but this is it's this week. It's this week. He's played incredible, man. eight eight point four yards per attempt, seven touchdowns to five interceptions ratio, a hundred and ten passer rating. He's playing clean, decisive football. He's taking care of it. Again, he's running this offense perfectly, and we th we have nothing to do but praise him for it. Say what you will about systems. Say what you will about smart head coaches, whatever you control what you can control. And he's running this offense right now to perfection, and they are winning a lot of football games because of it. They're looking dominant week after week. This is my sincere apology to Brock Purdy. I know I came into the season, you know. I and again, it wasn't much of much hating going on. It was more so like I need to see a little more of you and I need to see you on the field. And you're doing that. You're doing exactly that. Knock on wood, continue to do that and you'll stay in that top five conversation, which is crazy.
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, coach quarterback continuity. We're talking about two guys right now, Joe Burrow with Zach Taylor, Brock Purdy with Kyle Shanahan. You get you spend some time in that system. You're gonna learn to to to pick out all the best parts and figure out where your strengths are and where the team's strengths are. And again, their one loss was to a Falcons team where they were missing what, their top five targets. So I don't necessarily blame him for that loss, although we did talk about the way he elevates the teams. It's just to me with Josh Allen, I feel like he wills his team. to victory in a different way. And I know there's no stat to back that up. And I know that sometimes he in the same way turns the ball over in moments where he really should not be turning the arm or turning the ball over. Stop with the PR. I'm tired of hearing about arm punts. You threw an interception. All right. But the the bottom line, he's got 20 total TDs in the seven games. I think he's going to do something special tonight against the Minnesota Vikings. Again, you just can't rush guys like him the same way. That you can rush a standard pocket passer. So that's why I have him above Brock Purdy. it's just a little bit more that Superman nature, but man, Brock is mad efficient right now. Crazy efficient.
Jarod McInroy: Crazy efficient. Yeah. And the only reason I also knocked him down to three is to be fair. He at this point we're recording on a Monday. He's only played seven games to what some people have played nine, you know? So that's that's two games of stats that he does not have. and
Nathan Hawthorne: Very true.
Jarod McInroy: two hundred and seventy rushing yards, nine rushing T D's. So I'm not gonna knock him for the only eleven passing touchdowns to five interceptions, but Quarterbacking is what we're talking about, and nine rushing touchdowns sometimes. But again, I'm not gonna knock him too much. He's he's
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah.
Jarod McInroy: still playing incredible. He's still three. I mean, are we gonna complain about three? I know he's two for you, but I think we both had the same four, didn't we? We got Caleb about four.
Nathan Hawthorne: Caleb. Yeah. Caleb and l listen, it's this is just purely based off of my own conviction and and the stats to back it up. And just when you watch him, there there was the pass last night, I believe in the third quarter where he is in the process of being snacked and sacked and somehow throws it on a line to his wide receiver right into his pocket. So you see things like that. You see the performances where he's got three hundred and eight yards and zero picks against a team like New England. But then you also see him have that Jekyll and Hyde game where he throws four interceptions. But the good news is, is you're allowed to have that game if
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for the 30 some odd games previous you didn't have multiple turnovers. So you're allowed to have a cheese ball game in that fashion. Again, what he does in the Ben Johnson offense right now, dropping back, hitting his spot, throwing touchdowns, it's it's incredibly impressive. And I think that he is a difference maker, and he is the difference maker.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I think he just needs to find his happy medium. we were talking this whole time about how his completion percentage has improved drastically and he's kind of come down a little bit in the last couple games. He's sitting at about 68 now. he was in that like 70 range, which again, that's crazy if you're sustaining that for an entire season. however, finding that that happy medium of trying to be a playmaker, making plays, but also still, you know, completing a high number of easy passes, making the smart move. Not relying too much on check downs to to kinda carry that for you, but just finding your spots where you can get and and not taking sacks. I think if we can continue to see that from him, it's gonna translate to a lot of wins, a lot of clean football, and I think everybody's arguments against him are gonna kinda go away.
Nathan Hawthorne: That's yeah, I'd I'd agree with that. He's gonna continue to get better. Fifth, I think we also have a difference. You've got CJ Stroud. I've got Trevor Lawrence. I like CJ Stroud, but are we running into a little bit of recency bias just because he had a stellar
Jarod McInroy: Nope.
Nathan Hawthorne: game against the Chargers? Talk to me. it's
Jarod McInroy: No, no recency buys.
Nathan Hawthorne: statistically he he looks great, but I look at Trevor right now with his team, 1900 passing yards, 18 touchdowns, only four picks, eight point six yards per attempt. And when you watch him play right now, the amount of throws that he has, we're like, how why are you throwing that? And it's just an absolute dime into a keyhole. Defender's hands just going, can't touch it. He's he's playing lights out football. And not only that, he's not even playing the full game right now. Because they're just beating the bricks off of teams. And I think that's an even bigger.
Jarod McInroy: Fair.
Nathan Hawthorne: I think that's an even bigger positive. CJ Stroud, he has to be in there. Texans ain't beating anybody right now. He has to be. But Trevor Lawrence is just getting
Jarod McInroy: On a couple games.
Nathan Hawthorne: it Tre a couple games. Trevor Lawrence is just getting it done. he's clean, he's efficient, he's taking care of the football better than any point in his career. And that marriage with Liam Cohen looks like it's working.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah, and it's this is not any knock on Trevor. if he's he's probably six at this point if I'm if I'm going further down this list, but I I just I wanna I need to give some love to CJ Stroud. He feels like the only guy on his team that every week is doing something well. only two interceptions. I need to highlight that. I mean sixteen touchdowns to two interceptions. He's taking care of the ball, he's not making life harder on his defense, although some questionable play calling I think leads to some three and outs that get the defense back on the field quick and we've talked about that. Three and outs, damn near an interception. So, just in terms of the flow of the game. But, you know, eight yards an attempt, he's the he's just slinging the ball all over again. he's not taking too many sacks. He's he just he looks better than I expected him to and ultimately if they want to continue to win games. and keep the streak going and get back into playoff contention. He's gonna need to continue to do that. And I feel as though yes, he does have a talented team. So don't take this too too crazy. I think Trevor Lawrence is in a better situation than CJ Stroud at this given moment. With Liam Cohen, with the wide receiver core he has. Now again it's pretty comparable now that the Texans are a little more healthy and they made the trade for Marvin Harrison Junior. He has no running backs to really deal with right now. again, I don't think Woody Marks is a a w running back one on any NFL team at this point. so a little
Nathan Hawthorne: Is is Bishal Tutin?
Jarod McInroy: health. He's playing like it. He's playing fan
Nathan Hawthorne: Scoot scootin' tootin'?
Jarod McInroy: he's playing yeah, he's playing great. and also he's a dual threat. I that's that's nice to have. especially with Chris Rodriguez Junior. You know, they they got they got some dudes, but yeah, that's he's just a guy. I don't know why I named him like he was a real impact player, but
Nathan Hawthorne: Now, Chris Rodriguez Jr., first team all pro. No. Yeah, I don't hate either.
Jarod McInroy: But I don't hate either list. I think we're I think we're right there. We're locked in.
Nathan Hawthorne: I'm gonna read you a box score here, real quick, from somebody this weekend, and I want to ask why he's not in the top five. Okay, 372
Jarod McInroy: Okay.
Nathan Hawthorne: passing yards, three passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, and just he probably had an average depth of target of 25 yards, just slinging the rock. Th that sir is Jordan Love. Why is he not on any MVP val ballot this year? I I believe he leads leads the league in passing yards right now.
Jarod McInroy: He does. And I'm not he he's not far he's
Nathan Hawthorne: He's got no run game support.
Jarod McInroy: hang on, hang on. He's not far off. so many of his st his yards are and touchdowns both, frankly, are coming when they are down by a lot of points. And that I think y needs to be taken into consideration. granted, he yeah, like you said, he's thrown the ball a lot of times. so The more attempts you're making and don't don't act like that's the game plan, by the way. All of you fans out there, if you think Mike LaFleur's game plan, or Matt LaFleur rather, if you think his game plan is to just sling the ball 30 yards down the
field every single time, then you know nothing about his his where his NFL knowledge came from and how he knows and how he's also called games in the past. You think it's just throw the ball thirty yards down the field every single time. You're out of your mind. You don't know what you're talking about. You're delusional. You're trying to make excuses for this. This is all Jordan Love can do at this point. That's all they have in the bag. He also has two receivers that are ascending and playing incredibly well. So hats off to Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, we kind of knew. We saw we saw flashes of it last year. Getting a full season of it would be ideal for him, but yeah. Let's let's pump the brakes. It's just it's not there. Let's see him do it in more impactful games and games that you're going out and actually winning. but it was a great week. This this this was a great stepping stone to making your your case for
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah.
Jarod McInroy: top five.
Nathan Hawthorne: I need to sneak in an apology here for Christian Watson. I
Jarod McInroy: Yes.
Nathan Hawthorne: pretty I pretty boldly claim that he was not worth the contract. And I primarily said because when he's healthy, he's great. But he also has the dropsies, which I believe Green Bay is also somewhere near the top of the league in drops this year. but then it's a it's a dinged up hammy, it's a dinged up knee, his ankle. And so all these other factors played into why I didn't think he was worth it. He's staying healthy right now. And that you mentioned Golden already. so an apology to you, Sir Christian Watson. You're playing lights out right now. And speaking of players that are just elevating other teams, or not just elevating, you know, their own teams from the quarterback standpoint, but I think if we were to look at all these guys that we just talked about and make a case for MVP, it you know, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen. Brock Purdy, Caleb Williams. Like you, it's it's pretty easy, right? It's so easy for a quarterback to win. But I think we got to talk about Jameer Gibbs potentially winning MVP if the Lions are to make the playoffs. I think it has to be talked about. He's on pace for four almost 450 touches and 2,400 yards from scrimmage right now. He is their offense. Without him, this offense went nowhere, would go nowhere.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Yeah.
Nathan Hawthorne: And I and I think we got to start talking about him as a potential for an MVP.
Jarod McInroy: Well maybe that's our that's our next thing we do. Maybe we do V P talk and compare that to what our top five QBs look like. So let's let's keep that one in the back pocket. let's move on let's move on over to the matchups of the week. Who do you have for your matchup of the week? What are you looking at on the schedule?
Nathan Hawthorne: Speaking of Jordan Love, I'm going right to the Vikings and the Packers. Now we haven't seen the Vikings play their Monday night football game against the Bills yet. However,
the the Packers are five and one in their last six games. They're hot. did they beat the Cowboys, the Bucks, and the Panthers, and the Bears without Caleb? Yes, some feisty teams, but we're not gonna say they're great teams right now. The team has found new life. Josh G Jonathan Gannon is coaching the living daylights out of this defense. They should be getting Micah Parsons back in the next couple of weeks, although not for this matchup. But this is going to tell us a lot about what this division looks like because all these teams are really, really good in terms of record wise in this NFC North Division. So the Vikings, are you going to be able to maintain this kind of lead in the division that you have? Are you are or are you going to surrender more ground to what is honestly an inferior opponent? we're not sure who's going to be starting at quarterback. Is this a soft benching for Kyler Murray with the hamstring entry injury? Is this something we're actually trying to move on from? So I think that just this game in particular is gonna tell us, is it gonna be the Vikings that are gonna be taking on the NFC North, or is it gonna be the Bears because the Packers are just gonna split games with everyone else? Kind of giving the Bears you know, that division. I'm just I'm just not sure. But I think this matchup has a a ton of potential and a ton of implications for the rest of the season.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I'm gonna go with with a division rival for for my matchup of the week too. I'm jumping over to Steelers at Bengals.
Nathan Hawthorne: Okay.
Jarod McInroy: Steelers won the last one, twenty-seven thirty at home, and both offenses were just having their way with the other team's defense. I think this is gonna be more of a case of the opposite. I think now that they've had a look at each other and I think both defenses have improved from that week three matchup, I think it's gonna it's gonna be more of defensive side of the ball. Now I do have concerns with the Bengals run defense at this point. they've had a couple bad weeks, but I think they'll kind of get back back on track. So I think look for look for Aaron Rodgers to sling the ball around. find Jeremy Bernard, find hopefully a couple of his big targets. But Jalen Warren and Rico Dowdle, this is the tandem that is going to start eating. Then on the opposite side of the ball, I think we're going to see a lot of throws from Joe Burrow. But if he's not finding his targets, if their the offense isn't rolling, I'm very interested to see what they revert back to as a reliable play, as a reliable, you know, piece in this offense to continue to to target, whether that's Chase Brown on the ground, or if that's just continuing to pepper T. Higgins and Jamar with the wall. Who knows? but this will be a great game. Great game to see it and they gotta they gotta win their home game. If we're talking about who's going to win the division and separate themselves, they gotta win their home game just like
the Steelers won theirs. It's gotta be a split.
Nathan Hawthorne: the happiest player for the Cincinnati Bengals is right now? Mike Gasecki. This guy,
Jarod McInroy: Yeah.
Nathan Hawthorne: he's just wide open for touchdowns all the time because of the attention that these other cats are drawing. yeah, it's gonna be an interesting game. It's gonna be an interesting game.
Jarod McInroy: Shout out to X Dolphin Mike Goseki. sleeper upsets of the week. Who do who do you got for that one?
Nathan Hawthorne: I've got I've got Dallas upsetting the Niners. It's in Dallas, which I don't think is really any sort of advantage for Dallas right now, but it is in Dallas. It's in Jerry's world. listen, CeeDee Lamb just went for 195 yards. If Dak keeps a clean pocket and Dallas can hang on to the football, the Cowboys I think have the wide receivers, you know, provided George Pickens is healthy to to win a shootout. but San Francisco also just took the ball away. five times against the Vegas team that have looked really strong offensively. My deal here is I just think that Christian McCaffrey's got to be on his last leg right now. That man's fighting for his life. And once he is out, still the rest of the rest of this wide receiver core is just not there. So we're going to continue to see what happens, but I think health plays a factor in this one for both teams. But if the Cowboys win, it's going to have to be in a shootout and it'll probably come down to a sixty seven yard field goal made. By Brandon Aubrey.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah. That's that's
Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm.
Jarod McInroy: the case. That's a tough tough sleeper upset, I'll tell you what, because they are
Nathan Hawthorne: It's
Jarod McInroy: playing terrible football. And I love when people call it Jerry's World 'cause it's they talk they say it as if it's like some big advantage, but they those cowboy fans turn on you fast. Yeah.
Nathan Hawthorne: It's not right now. You know, that's that's so true for everything that happens in Dallas. It's always bigger in Texas, but for some reason, you know, when when you need the fans the most, they just don't care about you. They don't care. They'll slander you
Jarod McInroy: Yeah. They really don't.
Nathan Hawthorne: online and then you got Jerry screaming at you on it on his local radio show wherever he shows up each week, basically airing you out and how bad you are. Schottenheimer's already not a great coach. Christian Park, even a Parker, Park, even a worse defensive coordinator, anyways. Give me your sleeper upset of the week.
Jarod McInroy: My sleeper upset of the week. I got the Seahawks at Raiders. Seahawks are minus three. right now it they think Drew Locke has tendonitus. They might be on QB three. Regardless, Vegas still has him favored. I think they said at this point Drew Locke is gonna try and power through. but I think the there's levels to this and it's not just the quarterback. I think you got Clint Kubiac. He's seen this defense. He knows. He's got a leg up.
Nathan Hawthorne: Blint Boobiac.
Jarod McInroy: He knows what and and he's got a whole different Gear with all these new weapons where Mike McDonald doesn't quite have the look that I now he has some film to go off of. However, I think it's gonna be a fun matchup, and I think that if the Raiders can just really try to run and gun and get the ball moving and make this a fast-paced game and not let it be a slow game, even if you're turning the ball over a couple times, it doesn't sound like there's gonna be much coming from that Seahawks offense. So they might be able to outscore him. They might be able to tire them down and they might be able to get them out of their game plan. it's at home for them in Vegas. Now that's a fan base that they'll rip anybody's head off if you look at them weird. So yeah, I l I I like the Raiders. Again, there wasn't a ton of games where I was really like there too not too many upsets I could really see happening, and this was one that just kind of struck me as one that I could definitely see the Raiders pulling this one out. Which would be tragic
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. And they've gotta be
Jarod McInroy: for the Seahawks.
Nathan Hawthorne: they've gotta be desperate.
Jarod McInroy: Five and four you can't let this happen.
Nathan Hawthorne: No, you they and they gotta be desperate right now. Really their last win was against the Jets, but before that, five weeks prior against the Saints. So this is a team that's hungry, needs a win. Seahawks also hungry and need a win. Seahawks gotta find a way to run the ball. I think Judarian Price I I for some reason I feel like they tried to feature Zach Charbonnet to improve his trade value and it just didn't work. It just didn't work.
Jarod McInroy: I put up seventy yards last game. I was against the Cardinals, but it was a decent game.
Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, i i that's that's my point. That's my point. They gotta find a way to r to move the rock. and yeah, Vegas is a feisty team and they're gonna come out trying to score a thousand points. So it should be interesting. All right.
Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Definitely. W why don't you take us home, brother?
Nathan Hawthorne: That's gonna do it. looking ahead to week 10 of the NFL season, but most importantly, the MVP conversation. And it's not most valuable player in the NFL. It's the most valuable podcast. And that's gotta be us. It's gotta be KYP. And we would love to have your support with a subscription, a like, leave a comment, and just let us know how we're doing. We'd love to talk back in the comments. We love to hang out with you guys. So please let us know. We're trying to build a community where we are giving not just great sports analysis. But we're giving you guys a little bit of fun as well. big booty cays on. come on. We're having a great time out here. So again, you
Jarod McInroy: You're not getting that anywhere else.
Nathan Hawthorne: ain't getting out anywhere else. So again, please like and subscribe. And we will see you on the next one.