Are Both NY Teams Actually Good?! Plus: Belichick's UNC Drama & Week 1 Overreactions (Feat. Gregg Rosenthal)

The Dan Le Batard Show

The Dan Le Batard Show dives into Week 1 NFL chaos, debating whether the Jets and Giants are truly good, analyzing Belichick's struggles at

Key takeaways

• The Jets and Giants showing early promise may be premature despite strong Week 1 results.
• Belichick's UNC tenure is under scrutiny due to off-field drama involving his son and alleged player misconduct.

Main topics

• Week 1 NFL performance analysis
• Bill Belichick's UNC coaching challenges

Notable quotes

"He could break your tackles. He could be the best power running back in the league, and he's still the best receiving back in the league."

Conclusion

Despite early chaos and overreactions, the show urges fans to temper jud

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) So if he's better than Emmitt Smith, then he's better than Marshall Falk, and he's better than the other name you threw out there that I've missed right there. Speaker 3 (0:08) Falk's better. LaDainian Tomlinson's better. Speaker 7 (0:10) LaDainian Tomlinson? He's better than LaDainian Tomlinson. Speaker 3 (0:13) No, no. Tomlinson is on another planet to me. Speaker 3 (0:20) He could break your tackles. He could be the best power running back in the league, and he's still the best receiving back in the league. So you got Barry, you got Tomlinson, you got Marshall Falk. But you're right. But you're saying those guys Speaker 7 (0:31) are better than Emmitt Smith. I am, yes. Speaker 5 (0:35) So where are we 60 minutes into this season? The Jets and the Giants are both actually good? And what about that vaunted Texans defense? 36 points, I know it was against Josh Allen, but still, and speaking of the Bills. What's going on with Bill Belichick down in UNC? His old team, the Patriots, ain't doing that great themselves. We'll see if they can update things in Foxborough against the Pecksburg Steelers. Then there's the sleep-drunk Rams, the power outages of the Chargers offense. But again, slow down, everybody. We're just 60 minutes into this thing. Our pal 10-Day Tony is here along with the great Greg Rosenthal to make some sense of this mess. Let's start the show! Speaker 5 (1:30) Football Americans, welcome to NFL Week 2. Welcome to Football America, presented as ever by our pals over at DraftKings Sports. Now, in all 50 states, go tell your mom, go tell your pals, subscribe, comment, feel. It's episode number 83. We have a lot to get to here. Hello to Buddy Badowski and Gino Fuentes. Do we have any answers for... Who wore the number 83 best in NFL history? Speaker 4 (1:59) Well, we could draw a lot of degrees of separation here to the Miami Dolphins. We get to start with Andre Reid, the Hall of Fame Bills receiver, who was one of the main cogs in that team going to the Super Bowl four times. But then it's Ted Hendricks, who went to school at the University of Miami. Then we got Mark Clayton, started wide receiver with Dan Marino. Then we got Wes Welker, started with the Miami Dolphins. It's weird that Mark Speaker 5 (2:23) Clayton's not in the Hall of Fame. The numbers don't bear out. I think neither of those guys are, right? Mark Speaker 7 (2:27) Clayton or Mark Duper are not in the Hall of Fame. Speaker 5 (2:31) I take Clayton over Duper all the time. But what about Geno? You didn't mention Louie Lips. Number 83, the mid-80s Steelers star. Number 83, very quickly, because I promise I Speaker 4 (2:42) will do. Speaker 5 (2:42) Wes Welker is another one Speaker 4 (2:43) of Speaker 5 (2:43) them. The Speaker 4 (2:43) 83 Speaker 5 (2:43) draft is the most iconic of them all. Happy birthday this week to my guy, Danny Marino, many moons ago at Pitt. He was the best quarterback in the nation, a Heisman finalist going into his senior year. And my old man was the Pitt doctor. And one time at camp, one of the trainers said, like, hey. Marino's roommate isn't feeling so well. Can you check on him up in his dorm room? This is during summer camp in advance of the season. So me and the old man went up there to the dorm room and... knocked on the door like, Dr. Damoshek, you know, hold on a sec, Doc, hold on, you're here behind the door, dorm room, scrambling around and all that sort of thing, and like, what could be going on in the dorm room? It's the size of a shoebox, and eventually the door finally opens up, and there is Marino on one bed, there's his roommate on the other, and two girls, and also, the room is filled with smoke! Like a van opening up and dazed and confused or something. And we go from there. I'd never seen this kind or smelled this kind of smoke before. Jump to springtime before that 83 draft. A lot of NFL teams were calling our house saying, what's the story on Dan Marino? Are the rumors true about all that? My old man didn't spill. He didn't say a word about Speaker 2 (3:55) it. He Speaker 5 (3:56) was loyal to the end. Black and gold over red, white, and blue. All the rest of it. And now. Speaking of red, white, and blue, let's talk about the New England Patriots and their upcoming matchup with our guy, Greg Rosenthal. Speaker 5 (4:11) All right, he's a proud son of Tulane, the host of NFL Daily, to which you better be subscribed. He's a Patriots fan. He's the boss. He's our old pal, Greg Rosenthal. What's the poop, fella? Best wishes in Foxborough on Sunday. I just want to get that out of the way. How are you, fella? Speaker 3 (4:30) It's rivalry week. We're not friends this week. I don't like that you typecast me as just the Patriots guy and the Tulane guy, although a big Tulane game. against Kansas State this week. Can Speaker 5 (4:40) I say, I don't want to get in with a hot take here, but you included, I'm obviously the uniformant, not you. You're a man of a certain style. Everybody who's watching us right now can see that. I'm not over the moon about the... The green and teal that everybody else. Oh, Speaker 3 (4:58) you're crazy. Go check out the Mardi Gras uniforms we broke out last week. That is the best uniform in college football. Speaker 5 (5:05) They've got some good ones. Hey, another question quickly before we jump into the pigskin. We were taught. Why the third G in your name? Speaker 3 (5:15) It just finishes it off. It gives me a rap name. I'm 60 % G. But they didn't like Gregory. The real answer is Gregory Rosenthal. They thought too many letters when you're filling it out, too many syllables. Just end it with a strong third G. Speaker 5 (5:29) But it's one of those names that now you've spent probably, like, it's only been like... three or four seconds each time but when you add up those four seconds over the course of a lifetime you've probably lost out on like a half hour of your existence explaining to people no it's two g's like what do you mean like yeah i did g r e g no no like so three g's two at the back end like that explanation is is heavy no and Speaker 3 (5:55) having correct people that call me Gregory. You're absolutely right. And it's not a good name. I never liked it anyways. Nobody names their kid Greg anymore. It is a name that is completely dead. It is not in like the top 100,000 names anymore. It's Speaker 5 (6:08) a cute name for a baby, I guess, little Greggy. But I was also thinking about Neil. Neil is one of those names. It's the name of the week that is terrible for both the baby and a grown man. Nobody should be named Neil at any stage of life, right? Speaker 3 (6:23) I'm trying to think of any Neal's I like. Most Gregs I know, too, are kind of jerks. I'm trying to represent for them, but it just is a jerkish name, I feel. Speaker 5 (6:31) I'm trying to see if I can... Speaker 3 (6:33) Popovich is a good one. He represents. Speaker 5 (6:35) Yeah, he's nice. All right. Hey, speaking of coaches who have proven to be a little salty here and there, Bill Belichick. I'm sure you saw the photo that's going around of him at UNC. That's the least of his troubles, or maybe it's his greatest virtue right now is how chesty he is. Oh, he's so bosomy. What the hell is going on there? They're remaking Fight Club with him in the meatloaf role. Speaker 3 (6:59) This is what makes you special, Damoshek, that everyone's thinking it, looking at that picture, and you're the only one that does a social media post about it. Speaker 5 (7:07) Hey, legitimately, is the UNC experience, now his son has resigned for what appear to be some really dark reasons. Lombardi's long gone. the team is mediocre, all that. Is this fall from grace? Is this as bad as it's been for a legend since like Bob Knight? Is that the comp? Speaker 3 (7:29) I don't think it's as bad as Bob Knight. It's not? His Speaker 5 (7:35) son is allegedly or rumored to be like giving drugs to the players. That isn't as bad? Speaker 3 (7:43) I don't want to get in trouble here. What do you think happened there? I mean, was he smoking weed with some players? That seems like that was what was happening. Who knows? Either way. Speaker 5 (7:50) Oh, well, if that's it, then I don't want to be up on Mount Pye. I don't really know. Okay. Speaker 3 (7:56) I think it does call into question some of the character concerns you might have had about Belichick over the years is coming out in his old age. But again, it doesn't change the football acumen that he had in his brain. Speaker 5 (8:08) That's always your fallback. All right, that's fine. Five and a half is what the Patriots are giving the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers, which is very strange. By the way, oh, wait a second. Wait. Foxborough, the New England Patriots at 0-1. Speaker 1 (8:25) And then there are the Pittsburgh Steelers. Speaker 5 (8:28) Yeah, I'm offended for the Steelers. And I'm not trying to be biased, but the opening number was four and a half. And A.J. Brown ain't playing. What gives here? Speaker 3 (8:38) I'm confused. We do a pick show at NFL Daily. Pittsburgh plus five and a half is going to be one of my three picks. You know, you're getting this first. Even though it's against my team, which I hate to do, it makes zero sense to me. To me, they occupy a very similar place in the NFL ecosphere. And I would have said that going into week one, and week one only made me feel stronger about that, that they are teams that are hoping to get to the playoffs, so I don't get five and a half. Speaker 5 (9:06) Yeah, the other side of that coin is that pro football players have an understanding of how the season flows, certainly their head coach does, and going into an 0-2 hole in a division that includes the Bills coming off of what I think was borderline, the number was the number, but still leaving Houston, and not just leaving Houston with a win, but how? I mean, what the hell happened to that Texans defense, which, by the way, is... A great example of don't overreact to what happened in week one. Do you think the Giants and Jets are both durably good this season? Do you think that that Texans defense is overrated based on week one? Slow your roll. We need more evidence than just the 60 minutes that we've had. As far as that goes, I maybe am consumed by the Aaron Rodgers experience a week in here, but I really did find his performance. against the Falcons to be sort of a Rorschach game. You know, we talked a lot in the preseason about Rorschach teams in 2026. A lot of people initially saying, boy, that was a stinker. He is the limiting factor that we thought he would be for this team. And then over the ensuing 72 hours, it became like, look a little bit closer. I don't think you know what you're looking at if you don't understand that Rodgers was actually very good. The guy perpetuating that conversation primarily is one Aaron Rodgers. How say you? Speaker 3 (10:30) I'm somewhere in the middle. Both of us have kind of planted our flags that Rodgers is going to hold this team back. I think he showed a few signs that he could be better than last year, which is what I was hoping for. I think the offensive coordinator will help him. I think the offense helps him. And maybe they get him to do some things he doesn't want to do, like hang in the pocket, throw a few more deep balls, throw a few passes over the middle. If you squint check, you saw three or four pretty good examples of that. The problem I don't get is. he's just not that accurate anymore. He had some throws that were there that he just missed. And when you think Aaron Rodgers, that's what you think. Plus being able to make plays on the move, which he's better than most guys his age, but he's not great at it anymore. So if he's not consistently accurate, he's still going to be very erratic snap to snap week to week. Him and DK Metcalf to me are an incredibly erratic combination. Speaker 5 (11:21) A few ways to go off of that. But first of all, the thing I do have to say about Rodgers compared to his old man QB peer group of the 21st century, namely Brady, Payton, Roethlisberger, Breeze. I mean, if you're measuring Rodgers of 26 versus Rodgers of 16, he's obviously a pale version of that. But man. moves pretty well in the pocket. Otherwise, compared to those other guys, we're all just stiffs back there, completely above the neck kind of experience. He actually is a little bit nimble. But to your other point about staying in the pocket, it seems maybe simplistic, but it seems pretty clear watching what we just saw there against the Falcons. When he's in the pocket, whether he wants to be or not, that's the issue, right? He is the tail wagging the dog with McCarthy. McCarthy announces this is what Aaron and I have cooked up for this week, and he just blatantly says it, that we're doing what Aaron wants to do. But what Aaron wants to do is long gone in reality, Speaker 3 (12:20) right? Speaker 5 (12:21) I mean, he has to stay in the pocket because when he does. He still can throw some strikes back there. And the arm was never the issue. I just think when he's on the move, he can't get away with that stuff anymore. That's when he gets wildly inaccurate. Speaker 3 (12:34) And he'll hit one or two plays, like the touchdown that he had, the first one of the game. Like, he moves outside the pocket. It's in the red zone. You love to see that. But he tried plays like that three or four times. The reason why I'm a little higher on it maybe than you, or at least than compared to last year, it was such a low floor. The play was over the second there was any pressure in his face. And he was. statistically pretty bad with pressure in his face in this game, but he got a couple of penalties and at least he tried a few. And I liked seeing the, the average depth of targets down the field. They're, they're trying to mix things up. I think the Steelers, like I've been saying it all off season, if they had CJ Stroud, who I like, I'm trying to think of a more agreed upon quarterback, just an average mid-level quarterback. I think that's, this is a good team. And I think they showed some of it last week. How Speaker 5 (13:19) about this? Cause I try to sell validate out of vanity at least. I mean, I advocated before the 25 draft, Eric Harmon may or may not turn out to be great, but it's not the defensive tackle league. It's the QB league. And the Steelers put themselves in a spot where they had to take some wild swings. Was I right? Now, 17 games plus one in that they should have taken Jackson Dart. Speaker 3 (13:42) Ooh, yeah. Just to have another option. I'm always for continuing to take quarterbacks, take swings until you find one. I mean, Tyler Shuck. In the second half of last week's game. I Speaker 5 (13:54) just knew they weren't going to take him. Speaker 3 (13:56) He looked like, I don't know who he looked like a mix between Carson Palmer. And like, he was incredible and young Aaron Rogers at late in that game. So yes, they should have. And I can tell you, I'm sorry to the Steelers fans. Derek Harmon's not going to be great. He's fine. Speaker 5 (14:12) That's Speaker 3 (14:12) a Speaker 5 (14:12) bummer. And I do say it all the time. Greg Rosenthal is one of the rare people who talks into a microphone with authority, not just flailing about pretentiously. He watches every second of every game. And the people out there, Rosenthal, spelled with two Gs, I think the public would be stunned by how many people