NFL Week 3 Insights with Insider Adam Caplan: Analysis
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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. Our SportsGrid NFL insider Adam Kaplan is
00:07with us to go over some of the ramifications from what we saw, both positive and negative
00:11coming out of Week 3 in the National Football League. Adam, it was, you know, I mean, for
00:15the first time this season, I said it earlier in the show, the slate from start to finish
00:21was not as exciting as it was, I would say, in Weeks 1 and Week 2. You know, some teams
00:27were having a hard time scoring a lot of these games. That's been a theme in the NFL.
00:32More unders and overs again in the NFL. And then, naturally, the quarterback play is,
00:36you know, what we focus on here, and we'll do it here again on the show. Thanks for coming
00:39on.
00:40Yeah, no. I know on Coast to Coast last year at this time, Scott could not believe, and
00:45I, we were shocked at how low the scoring was, but it usually levels out depending on
00:50injuries and quarterback play and so forth. But what you're seeing is, and this has been
00:55a big talk in the media last couple weeks, is teams are like, you're not going to beat
00:59us deep, so we're going to play a lot of two-deep safeties. So, the tight ends will get involved.
01:03You saw with the Eagles yesterday with Dallas Goddard. Dallas Goddard was the star with
01:07170 yards. There are some weeks that it could be crossing routes, okay, that if you can't
01:13get it deep, you got to find another way to move the football. And look, by the way, the
01:17Dolphins I know we're going to talk about, not every deep pass is deep. When Tua, unfortunately,
01:22got hurt, but when Tua is healthy, he's not going to throw the ball 50 yards downfield.
01:26A lot of crossing routes where you run after the catch. Run after the catch right now is
01:29really big in the National Football League.
01:31Yeah, and that's why it's so stunning to see the 49ers get beat deep so many times like
01:35they did yesterday at the end of that game. So, I'm going to say something here, and you're
01:39going to call me crazy, or maybe you'll use it for a future column or something like that
01:43or somewhere on the air. So, Will Levis, okay, this is how to me the NFL has changed so much.
01:49I want to, Brian Callahan, by the way, saying they're sticking with Will Levis, and probably
01:53so. So, he has, if you look at the stats, four touchdowns and five interceptions, okay?
01:59Now, Adam, this is to me where the NFL has changed so significantly because no difference
02:06between a guy like Will Levis and a guy like Brett Favre early on in his career. No difference
02:12between Will Levis and a guy like John Elway in the early part of his career. Both guys
02:16are in the Hall of Fame. By the way, Favre kept throwing picks for like five, six years
02:20consecutive, 20 picks, 25 picks. But in this day and age, Adam, of scoring and with it
02:25being so down in the NFL, you can't have this anymore in the NFL. But 20 years ago, it was
02:31like, all right, we'll just keep playing, and we'll win close games, lose close games.
02:35And that's a dynamic where it's like hard to believe what Callahan is saying here, just
02:39like it was hard to believe with Dave Canales last week.
02:42Yeah, but I would say this with Brian Callahan. You could say prior to yesterday, he had put
02:50out his frustration. There was no question when he was being interviewed by the media
02:55that he was frustrated. You could see his body language on the sidelines with the craziness
03:00of some of the picks from Levis. Not good. Now, I was with the Ravens, excuse me, the
03:05Titans two days in training camp when they were hosting the Seahawks. I'm talking to
03:09folks there. What they want is consistency. You see Levis, who's, by the way, very gifted.
03:14You see highs where he has a great practice, and then turnovers, inconsistency, inaccuracy,
03:21by the way, ball sails on you. You want it here, it goes there, that kind of thing. You
03:26can't have that. And they're looking for consistent football play. By the way, Mason Rudolph, who
03:31clearly bit out Malik Willis, who's now with the Packers. Malik Willis didn't do the good
03:36job that he's doing now with obviously Green Bay, but Mason Rudolph had a good training
03:40camp. He won the number two job. So if this continues, and now look, at 0-3, it's next
03:46impossible historically going back to 1990 to make the playoffs. They just want to play
03:51good football. Now, I want to mention one thing here. When you look at the head coach,
03:54Brian Callaghan, he inherited this quarterback. Ran Carthon, the general manager, did draft
04:01Will Levis last year. So obviously, he has more of a vested interest. This is a situation
04:05to watch going forward if this continues.
04:07Yeah. I think some change probably will come. Now with the Dolphins, I don't know what they're
04:13going to do at this point. They can't block anybody at quarterback. We know, look, we
04:18assume two is going to come back at some point, regardless of what we're saying here. Skyler
04:23Thompson fought last year in that playoff game, but he didn't even have a shot against
04:29Seattle here. I mean, I don't know how you can even blame him. They were constantly in
04:32his face. Seattle had a great defensive game plan coming in. I guess if you wanted to be
04:37critical of something on Seattle's side is how they didn't win 41-3, and it was 20-4.
04:41Yeah, they should have way more.
04:42Right. Yeah, they should have crushed him. But I mean, the Dolphins, they'll just keep
04:46going to somebody else, I guess, but how's that going to make any difference at this
04:50point?
04:51Yeah. Now, let's start with Skyler Thompson. He's got a ribs injury, okay? He's getting
04:55revalued today. Depending on the testing, we'll go, that'll determine how long he'll
04:59be out if he misses time at all. He was in a lot of pain after the game, doesn't sound
05:03good. So, you saw Tim Boyle. Tim Boyle's been on six football teams, okay? Craig, let's
05:08call it like it is. He's a number three quarterback at best. He struggled, you saw last year when
05:12the Jets brought him off the street. They've got Tyler Snoop Huntley. You might remember
05:16him from the Ravens. He was actually, by the way, played some good football on his career.
05:20He's more of a movable quarterback, pretty mobile. He just was signed off the Ravens
05:24practice squad last week. That's it. They don't have another quarterback in their practice
05:28squad now. From what I understand, they haven't made any overtures to sign Mike White off
05:32of the Bills practice squad, but Mike White, no offense to Skyler Thompson. Mike White's
05:37a more talented quarterback. Skyler Thompson's probably a better fit for the West Coast offense,
05:41which they run under Mike McDaniel. He's more of a timing-based quarterback. Doesn't have
05:45the arm that White has. White's pretty talented, but his problem is he's very inconsistent.
05:53They're not in good shape. It's very obvious going forward. They're in a tough way, and
05:57you mentioned their offensive line. Chris Greer, their GM, that's one criticism I would
06:03agree with. He's yet to build a solid offensive line. There's sort of different parts. Tron
06:08Armstead, who's really gifted, has been hurt a lot. That's been a problem. Austin Jackson's
06:12a draftee of theirs. Liam Eikenberg's there. Aaron Brewer's a very undersized center, one
06:17of the small teams in the National Football League. It's just not good enough, and hence
06:21their record.
06:22Yeah, and it doesn't continue, I would assume, although they get Tennessee on Monday night
06:26next week.
06:27Yeah, there you go.
06:28All right. Sam Darnold's been great for the Vikings. A touchdown, two interceptions. The
06:33Vikings' defense, Adam, has been really good. I think, look, give all the credit to Darnold,
06:38but the Vikings have been fantastic on the defensive side of the ball as well.
06:41Yeah, let's start with the former Dolphins head coach, Brian Flores. Okay, he runs one
06:46of the most unorthodox defenses I've ever seen in my life. You never really know what
06:51he's going to bring each week, and that's the unpredictability that the offenses face.
06:56That's why they're so good, and another thing is they're not even that talented, but they
07:00execute really, really well, and Sam Darnold, by the way, has got a knee injury. He's got
07:03the testing today, but he's played lights out. He's never played this well. Give Kevin
07:07O'Connell, the head coach and the play caller, credit. He's the quarterback whisperer right
07:11now around the National Football League.
07:12Thanks, Adam, for coming on.
07:13You got it.