In the latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we discuss the current state of the Silver and Black and the NFL.
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00:00 Hey everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast, joined by my dear friend, colleague, and a man that's been doing
00:12 this with me for a long, long, long, long time, more than some of you have been born.
00:18 That is the great Johnny Shoppe, terrific journalist, great attorney, and we love having
00:23 him on each and every week.
00:24 Raiders, 2-0 under Antonio Pierce, they should have beaten the Giants.
00:31 A loss to the Jets would not have been embarrassing, as good as that defense is.
00:36 When you look at what the Jets defense has done to several good quarterbacks, Aiden O'Connell
00:42 fared better than any of them.
00:44 I thought it was an encouraging win, it was a good win, it was a game they should have
00:48 won and they did.
00:50 Big win, what's your thoughts on the Raiders?
00:53 Surely, it was a pretty wild ending there, but my thoughts were, everybody got to see
00:59 this game and they probably all thought a lot of the same stuff.
01:02 Number one, there is talent on the Raiders.
01:05 You know, we heard earlier in the year from different broadcasts, the national ones, that
01:09 look, this is not a team that doesn't have talent.
01:12 What I liked that I saw was a very clear effort to get the ball in the hands of the best players.
01:19 That was pretty clear, Adams, Jacobs, let's go, let's get those guys the ball, let's make
01:24 sure we get accomplished the main idea that we want to get accomplished.
01:29 While the offense struggled a bit, they're going up against the Jets who probably have
01:33 a super bowl defense if they're running well and if the rest of their team is there.
01:38 You can't tell me, and nobody should be able to tell anybody out there, that the Jets defense
01:43 is playing as well as it would have if their offense was complete and if Aaron Rodgers
01:48 was healthy.
01:50 That's not the case.
01:51 So I do think that the business was taken care of.
01:55 I think that there's some positive momentum with the Raiders and their new head coach
02:00 and their new offensive coordinator.
02:04 When we look back at this, I think we don't want to underestimate that there's a pretty
02:09 big change too.
02:10 It's not necessarily all a criticism of the last offensive coordinator.
02:14 It's more a praise of the new head coach.
02:16 You guys want me to be the head coach?
02:19 Okay, these are changes I want to make.
02:21 Those changes have worked so far and we are turning a big page as we've talked about since
02:26 the summer.
02:27 This schedule looks different for the next month or so.
02:33 I think there are three games that when I look at in my, and you know, I've done this
02:38 for years so you know this, when I look at any game there are 10 components to every
02:44 game.
02:45 And then I go off who has the majority if I think who's going to win.
02:52 If it's 5-5, I always go to the home team.
02:58 Now not my components, but just in my opinion after analyzing this game, if the Raiders
03:04 played the Dolphins in this exact situation 10 times, I think the Raiders would win three.
03:11 It's matchups.
03:13 And the matchup here with the Dolphins and the way they attack aerially is not good for
03:21 the Raiders.
03:22 But you've got to get contact on the receivers, you've got to be physical with the quarterback.
03:27 How do you see this weekend playing out, Johnny?
03:30 It looks very difficult on paper.
03:32 You've got a rested Miami Dolphee team coming off a bye.
03:36 You've got a Miami Dolphin team playing early.
03:39 I still think that matters a little bit.
03:41 Now it shouldn't at the pro level, but it sometimes does.
03:44 I think it does.
03:45 Folks just look at the stats.
03:47 This is the best offense in the NFL so far.
03:50 It's going to be very difficult.
03:51 You're going to want an outstanding day for the Raider pass rush without any question.
03:57 You're going to want to make some mistakes, but you understand going in this one is looking
04:02 like it's going to be uphill.
04:04 It's one thing to play the Dolphins, to play the top defense in the middle of November
04:08 in the NFL.
04:09 It's another thing to play them after they've had a bye.
04:13 Look out for the first half.
04:15 The Dolphins are, you can't knock anybody out in the NFL, but they're going to swing
04:19 hard and try to put the Raiders too far behind.
04:23 One of the biggest keys to this game is going to be avoiding getting in a hole quick where
04:30 your offense has to do what it doesn't want to do.
04:34 You go down 14-0 quick, 21-0 especially.
04:38 That is going to be a hole where you just can't run the ball.
04:41 You're going to have to throw with a rookie.
04:44 I think the rookie can throw, but when they know that he's throwing, they're going to
04:47 pin their ears back and it's going to be a nightmare.
04:51 I want to go on and get into some other subjects.
04:53 As you know, I was the first national reporter to report that I was hearing Bill Belichick,
04:59 if he didn't get to the playoffs, was going to lose his job.
05:02 Now everybody's talking about it as if it's a done deal.
05:07 Here's the deal.
05:10 Clearly he's failed as a general manager.
05:14 I still am hearing he's done, which I think everyone else is.
05:21 I believe he will find a job very quickly in the NFL.
05:25 I don't think he'll find a job where they let him become the general manager.
05:30 What do you think?
05:34 What's easier?
05:35 Is it easier to say, "Hey, Belichick, you can't do this general manager thing either.
05:41 We need somebody else to come over you in GM."
05:45 Is that easier in New England or is it easier for him to go elsewhere?
05:48 It's definitely easier for him to go elsewhere.
05:51 He's seen Brady leave, which means it can be done.
05:54 You can go on.
05:56 The interesting thing is, what kind of power is he going to have?
06:01 How long is he planning to coach?
06:02 Is this a thing where I'm going to be the coach in GM and then I'm going to hand off
06:05 the coaching reins in a certain number of years?
06:08 Is it going to be wide open-ended?
06:10 I don't know.
06:11 You obviously see the Washington football team in there for many reasons.
06:15 Geographically, maybe, number one.
06:17 Some folks know the Belichicks spent a bunch of time in Annapolis, Maryland, which is not
06:21 far from Washington, D.C.
06:24 Terrific.
06:25 Terrific time to be back with a new franchise.
06:27 They're going to get a new stadium, new name.
06:31 All that makes theoretical sense.
06:34 Does that new ownership want to hand those reins over twice?
06:38 If not, where can he go try to pull that card?
06:41 I would want to know what the game plan is for Bill Belichick and what we could contractually
06:46 get him to agree to.
06:49 But I am with you.
06:51 First of all, you're way ahead of the curve.
06:52 The curve is now like, it's like almost a wave crashing now.
06:59 What options does New England have?
07:01 I don't know.
07:02 Can't be easy to expect that Belichick's just going to be wide open to, "Okay, I'll hand
07:08 over all this responsibility," unless it's like a figurehead.
07:11 He's handing over the responsibility.
07:13 He's still doing the work.
07:15 The bottom line is he hasn't done a good job at it, and he has a tremendous record when
07:21 there were other people doing that job.
07:24 Let's see some smart heads prevail on this one.
07:27 And be careful out there.
07:28 If you're Washington or any of the other teams, be careful what you trade and be careful what
07:32 you get in for, because look, the clock ticks the same for everybody.
07:36 Bill Belichick is not 55 years old anymore.
07:40 I was told today by a senior NFL league source, and I'll be glad to tell you who it was when
07:46 we're off air.
07:47 The only owner that he thinks would let Belichick do it would be the Chargers.
07:55 And I thought that was pretty fascinating.
07:57 I thought that was very, very interesting.
07:59 And I would get a kick out of that.
08:02 All right, let's keep going, Johnny.
08:05 Recently another media outlet reported this, but I think it's a topic of conversation,
08:10 that in today's NFL, it's just a matter of need, not luxury.
08:14 You got to have two good quarterbacks.
08:16 Imagine how Cleveland feels letting Josh Dobbs go.
08:21 Your thoughts on the need for two quarterbacks.
08:25 This is where it is now.
08:27 This is where it is now.
08:28 And it's not just the 17 game schedule.
08:30 It's a combination of everything.
08:32 It's a combination of players bigger, faster, stronger than they were decades past.
08:36 It's a combination of quarterbacks needing to be dual threat, which I think we can accept.
08:40 Yeah, I think it's a must now.
08:43 Again, I'm going to be the guy waving the flag for expanding the rosters.
08:47 They've already kind of done it with the quarterback.
08:50 Expand the whole damn roster situation, number one.
08:53 But I'm looking at it now as, yes, we must have two quarterbacks or more.
08:58 I'm looking at it now as more than half the teams in the league should be thinking we're
09:03 going to draft a quarterback next year because of the way the rookie scale works and because
09:08 of the situation that you're in.
09:10 I saw somebody say, arguably, Cleveland has a championship level defense.
09:15 I don't know about that, but I know what chance do they have when the drop off from one to
09:20 two and quarterback is so far?
09:22 And yeah, you don't want to make a mistake with Josh Dobbs, an incredibly polished and
09:27 smart guy.
09:29 Everyone around the league knows that.
09:31 All of a sudden, he's in a playoff hunt himself in Minnesota with a brilliant move to pick
09:35 him up.
09:36 And you're telling Brown fans, whoops, we let this guy go away earlier when we're bringing
09:42 a quarterback in who didn't play a whole lot.
09:46 And you know, every quarterback has potential durability issues, but this is a dual threat
09:50 guy also.
09:52 This is bad for the Browns.
09:55 It's a wake up call and should be a big wake up call to the league.
09:58 You better have two guys on your roster that can start.
10:02 I'm not saying they're starting quarterbacks, but you better have two guys on your roster
10:04 that can start.
10:05 And if you're a team, maybe that has none that can start, maybe like Atlanta.
10:11 Ooh, it's going to be pretty tricky, pretty difficult to go anywhere in the league.
10:18 Let's talk about rookies.
10:21 I think clearly the Houston Texans have the best class.
10:25 They've got three rookies in contention for rookie of the year.
10:28 CJ Stroud, Will Anderson, wide receiver Tank Dell.
10:31 I mean, what a job D'Amico Rynes and all the brain trust in Houston have done.
10:36 It's been a long time since we were able to say that.
10:39 What a job they've done.
10:40 What a haul, John.
10:43 The folks out there that saw this show in the summer, they know.
10:46 We talked about it.
10:47 We had big lists out there.
10:48 Come to right down the middle with the rookie of the year on the defensive side, a candidate
10:53 with Anderson.
10:54 B. John Robinson has been great as well in Atlanta.
10:57 Yeah, man, the Houston Texans have somehow turned this thing around.
11:01 They had a really good roster almost 10 years ago or so during that hard knocks there.
11:07 They had JJ Watt.
11:08 They had guys on the offensive side of the ball.
11:10 It looked like they were going somewhere.
11:11 Maybe they didn't quite have a quarterback.
11:13 And then what happened when Bill O'Brien took both roles?
11:17 So what a reboot quickly.
11:20 And I'm telling you, when I saw the story, we might have talked about it.
11:24 When I saw the story that CJ Stroud had like 30 different handshakes with individual players,
11:29 I thought, huh, that side of the ball is probably in pretty good hands.
11:33 We know the other side of the ball in pretty good hands because of who Anderson is.
11:38 Right now, the season's not over, but you've got to take your hat off to the Houston Texans.
11:43 They have evaluated and selected very, very well, and they may well indeed have two rookie
11:50 of the year.
11:51 Whoo.
11:52 That's a pretty quick turn for a franchise that looks.
11:54 Did it last year?
11:56 Oh, yeah.
11:57 I mean, and look, how how bad was this franchise?
12:02 I don't want to dump on Lovie Smith, but Lovie Smith was horrible at the University of Illinois.
12:08 Got fired.
12:10 And that's the guy they ended up hiring.
12:12 And he wasn't able to do this kind of stuff.
12:15 This is an incredible turn.
12:17 If you've got leaders that young with potential on both sides of the ball, maybe the 20s look
12:23 pretty good all of a sudden.
12:24 The mid 20s, late 20s.
12:25 I'm going to tell you, Lovie Smith was a better coach than what you saw at Illinois.
12:30 That's a difficult job to win at.
12:32 And last year with Houston, that one wasn't on him at all.
12:37 I know some things behind the scenes.
12:39 That wasn't on him at all.
12:40 So let's talk about it.
12:43 I made my preseason prediction of Will Anderson, defensive rookie of the year and B. John Robinson.
12:49 B. John Robinson's look really good.
12:51 I think Aiden O'Connell for the Raiders has looked very, very well.
12:56 I don't think he should be in contention for rookie of the year.
12:58 I'm not saying that, but I think he has.
13:00 Devante is a guy.
13:03 Witherspoon, the Raiders really liked a lot.
13:07 Corner, he went five to Seattle.
13:10 He's a guy they really like.
13:12 And again, I think it's just been an interesting rookie year, rookie class.
13:17 I like how the Raiders, Antonio Pierce is playing the rookies now.
13:21 I like what's going on with all the rookies in the NFL.
13:24 Your thoughts?
13:25 A couple other really exciting ones.
13:27 Puka, of course, with the Rams and Jordan Adams.
13:31 We talked about him.
13:32 I threw him out there as a rookie of the year, I.G.A.
13:35 Jackson Smith and Jigba is still out there, although he hasn't made a massive, massive
13:38 impact in Seattle.
13:40 But I think what we've seen is really some skill players, even Tank Dell for Houston.
13:47 What we've seen is some skill players that, you can call it fresh legs or no injured bodies
13:53 yet, but they have made an impact.
13:55 And also Gibbs, of course, for the Lions.
13:58 He appeared to be the running back most ready to maybe complete the season well.
14:04 And all of a sudden, because of the way the Lions are playing, he may be playing in some
14:07 pretty big games with some pretty important carries.
14:11 John, before we go, we see what's happened with Antonio Pierce.
14:17 We see with Dan Campbell firing some assistance in the middle of the year.
14:21 It used to be conventional wisdom was you don't do it.
14:24 Well, conventional wisdom, I think this year is being proven wrong in the NFL.
14:28 Your thoughts?
14:29 I almost think that what happened with the Raiders and how they responded might have
14:34 been a pushover for the latest move of Ken Dorsey going.
14:39 Way back when, it's a bigger deal when a coordinator gets fired who's earning $100,000 or $130,000
14:45 a year.
14:46 Let's be honest, it's not as big a deal when somebody is getting a half million dollars
14:50 a year.
14:51 It's just plain not.
14:52 I don't have a problem with it.
14:54 I think the trend is going to be more going that way.
14:58 In the old days, some of us older guys were thinking you do all your hiring, firing, the
15:02 offseason, you wouldn't make a change during the season.
15:05 And now almost seems like the clock's beginning for coaches when the season begins.
15:10 So I don't know if this is the last move we're going to see this year.
15:14 I don't have a problem with it.
15:15 I think we as fans need to become more used to it.
15:19 And I think that the Raiders success here early, and let's see what they do.
15:25 Let's see what they do between now and Christmas, and then let's see what they do after.
15:28 But I think that what has happened with the Raiders is probably maybe, if anything, encouraged
15:34 Buffalo to say, "Hey, we can make that move."
15:36 And whoever's next to make one, why not?
15:39 Especially if you are in a situation, I'll give you an example.
15:43 Let's say you're a head coach and you know you're not coming back next year because the
15:46 owners are going to move on.
15:48 Let's say you have a lead assistant who's been up for head coaching jobs before, but
15:52 hasn't had the experience as a head coach.
15:55 Maybe the franchise says we're going to fire the head coach now, or maybe in a weird way
16:00 the head coach somehow slides over to let that assistant take over and run things.
16:06 We may see that in a city that we've already talked about.
16:10 Possibly, I don't know.
16:12 It's something to watch with Washington because we know where this is going.
16:16 Does anything unique happen between now and the rest of the year?
16:20 I agree.
16:21 I want to go back because this will show our age.
16:26 But when Brett Bielema was coaching Wisconsin, remember one game into the year, it may have
16:32 been two, he fired his offensive line coach and moved to GA there.
16:36 Ended up having a big year.
16:38 I remember covering it and saying I thought it was the right move.
16:42 I had coaches call me, "How can you say this is the right move?
16:47 This is the end of coaching.
16:48 This is terrible."
16:49 Well, you know what?
16:50 No, it wasn't.
16:51 No, it was ahead of the curve.
16:55 It was a big deal.
16:56 At that time, Wisconsin was running big.
16:58 I think they made it to another Rose Bowl that year, although Bielema didn't win any
17:03 Rose Bowls.
17:04 That was a forward-thinking move.
17:07 In the college game, I feel like the clock is shorter.
17:10 Obviously, there's only 12 games versus now 17.
17:14 That's a more earthquaking move at the college level.
17:17 That should not be an issue at the NFL level.
17:20 Again, especially with the dollars that are getting paid.
17:23 These guys are running a business.
17:25 It's a win-now operation in league.
17:28 It just feels like it's getting to be more win-now as years go on.
17:33 I wouldn't be surprised to see this more often.
17:35 I'm sorry, Steeler fans out there.
17:38 You're saying, "Why didn't that happen for us?"
17:41 Maybe someday the Steelers will make such kind of moves because we all know that there's
17:46 a lot of blame Canada out there.
17:48 This is around the NFL, so we can't just avoid that.
17:51 A lot of people in Pittsburgh, they wish they had made that move in week two.
17:56 A lot of us were asking, "Why in the world did Mike Tomlin hire Canada?"
18:02 That makes no sense to me.
18:04 All right, John.
18:06 There are three big games left.
18:09 Three games left for the Raiders that I think they're going to lose.
18:13 When I say I think they're going to lose, that means seven or more of my components
18:18 have them losing.
18:20 Six or less, I think it's going to be competitive.
18:25 I'm curious.
18:27 This game, I think between this and the two Chiefs games, this is the most winnable.
18:33 Although I do think they could maybe sneak one in against the Chiefs.
18:35 I don't think any of them are long shots.
18:38 I'm going to make that real clear.
18:40 I don't think any of them are long shots.
18:42 I think it's going to be super difficult.
18:44 What's your prediction for Sunday?
18:46 Sunday, I think it's going to be rough.
18:49 I think it's going to be 33-13 Dolphins.
18:53 I think your fear is so valid.
18:55 My fear is that the Raiders get down beyond 17 to nothing.
19:01 I think the first half is going to be really difficult.
19:04 The Dolphins are going to look as good as they're going to look all year.
19:08 I think this one gets out of hand too soon for any kind of comeback.
19:14 This is the one I see most difficult to compete for the reasons we talked about at the top.
19:20 I said it earlier.
19:23 I thought 21.
19:24 I think 17 is more the number three scores.
19:28 I'm doing very well on our weekly four.
19:33 Let's talk about this week's four picks.
19:35 Remember, we're not talking about spreads.
19:37 We're just talking about straight up winners.
19:38 We're talking about straight up winners.
19:39 We're talking about the featured foursome, the four most interesting games of the week.
19:44 There are some obvious ones this week.
19:46 We might as well start with Philadelphia at Kansas City.
19:50 Eagles, probably a little more to play for in this one.
19:54 Chiefs coming off the bye, coming off trips around the world.
19:58 I like the motivation of Philadelphia this time.
20:03 Just a little more than I like the Chiefs off the bye.
20:06 I like the extra motivation of Philly just a little more.
20:10 I'm going to tell you, originally I was all Chiefs on this because they were the home
20:15 team.
20:18 But I think all the attention on Travis and Taylor is starting to wear on some people.
20:27 I'm not going to get into publicly why I feel that.
20:29 I'm going to get into that later.
20:31 So I'm going to go with, change my original pick.
20:34 I'm going to go with the Eagles here.
20:37 There is an interesting game because, I don't know what the Broncos did, but they flipped
20:43 the pancake over and they got a bunch of gifts, etc.
20:46 The Broncos are hot right now.
20:48 Thankfully, the Raiders don't play the Broncos because the Broncos now versus the Broncos
20:52 the Raiders will see at the end of the year, I got a feeling they're going to be very different.
20:57 Minnesota has to win to try to stay in the playoff pictures.
21:00 The Broncos, they don't have anything to play for, but they are rolling well.
21:04 Plus the interesting Vikings at Broncos.
21:12 I mean the Broncos are going well right now.
21:14 And to his credit, Wilson did a bunch of the little dink and dunk and then he threw the
21:18 nice little rainbow ball and somehow the Bills found a way to lose it, but they're going
21:22 well and the Vikings, they have to win.
21:26 I am such a big Josh Dobbs guy.
21:30 I'm going to have to go with the Vikings here.
21:33 I think that the Broncos have to come back to earth a little bit, but that's why I think
21:37 that one's an interesting game.
21:41 Cincinnati at Baltimore is the Thursday night game.
21:45 It's naturally interesting.
21:49 I mean, it's getting, it feels like something big is coming for the Ravens.
21:57 Sometimes I worry that Lamar is going to get hurt.
21:59 It is a good home environment.
22:02 The Bengals have been going very well.
22:04 You're sticking with the Ravens on the short week.
22:08 I might as well go with the Bengals.
22:10 I think this one should be tight.
22:11 This one should be the best Thursday night game of the year so far.
22:16 I mean, come on, should be.
22:19 And lastly, we have, because of the injury in Cleveland, I think that Pittsburgh Cleveland
22:25 game is not quite as good.
22:28 I do think Tennessee and Jacksonville is interesting and here's why.
22:31 You have to look at the standings.
22:33 The Jaguars slipped a little bit.
22:35 The Jaguars have people on the, they have to win.
22:39 That's why this is interesting to me.
22:40 I think they will, but this is a game for the guy with the big head and the big hair
22:45 to start putting his foot down.
22:47 The Jaguars have to win this one.
22:49 That's why I think it is more interesting than Pittsburgh Cleveland.
22:52 I like the Jaguars too, and I'd like to see them do it big.
22:55 This is a step for the, this is a maturation step game for Jacksonville.
22:59 They need to go take care of business and keep their position for the playoffs.
23:04 Once you hit a setback, don't take a step back.
23:06 Get ready for your comeback.
23:08 That's right.
23:09 That's what they're looking for down in the low country.
23:11 Yeah, I agree.
23:12 He is the great Johnny Shop.
23:14 He is a great contributor to our Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation, Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast.
23:19 He's also the host of his own podcast, the Spartan Pride Podcast on the Fans First Sports
23:24 Network.
23:25 He's got all of us here at Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation, Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast,
23:30 part of the Fans First Sports Network.
23:32 Thanks for joining us, everybody.
23:33 We appreciate you.