Max, how are you? I thought it was something that Mike Tomlin kind of said it best in the week leading up to that Jets game. He's like, don't think that this is a bad thing and that Justin's been playing bad. It's not that he's been playing bad, he's been playing good.
But he said also, don't mistake good with great. I thought that was kind of the signal of what the expectation is for this team this year is we're going for greatness. And I think the one thing that made it a lot easier in the decision making was in that Raiders game, early on in that game, Justin had three straight opportunities for passes to open receivers. And he kind of sailed it on all three of them. And that was one of the things where it said, okay, well, let's open the door.
Let's think about what the options are. And he'd been watching Russ. Obviously, there was something there. That's why he named Russ the star. That's why he never changed that starting position. When Russ was injured, he never said, okay, Justin, your QB one.
He said, nope, we're operating business as usual. Justin is going to prepare as though he's going to start. And I think we saw the difference between the two approaches. You saw the touch throws downfield to George Pickens, to Pat fryer moved to Calvin, Austin, then Jefferson on a touchdown throw. And you said, okay, this is different because you have to remember last week, that was the first time that wide receivers had touchdowns this season in seven games.
So it's one of those things that look at it. And that was the difference. We want to be a team that threatens through the air as well as on the ground. And Justin had the mobility to get out of bad situations and extend plays and make something out of nothing. But sometimes you want that more professional polished quarterback look with a touch throw this 30, 40 yards downfield.
And when you look at this 2016, Russell Wilson is tops in the league that and 10 plus and 20 plus air yard throws. So that's where I think it was. I wanted to see it. I wasn't necessarily on board like, Oh my God, get Justin out there.
But I wanted to see what it could look like with that. And I think it paid dividends. I think it was the right decision. And that's why Mike Thomas says he's well compensated for decisions he has to make.
It's short, sweet and to the point when he said it to Max Starks is joining us here. Former Steeler on the JR Sport Reef Show. You talk about quarterback play. It was good to see Russell Wilson back there on the field. I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that they're going to wipe out and beat the New York Giants on Monday.
We got to wait for that before we get there. We will see another great quarterback. This one, Patrick Mahomes stepping out onto the football field for the first time, likely with DeAndre Hopkins.
What do you think this pairing is going to look like? I certainly believe DeAndre Hopkins still has something left in the tank. How is this dynamic going to change and elevate these chiefs? Well, you're already bringing in a guy who has 12,000 plus receiving yards. So you know what this guy can do when you put the ball in his hands. He's a guy that I think, you know, watching him with the Cardinals over the last number of years.
And of course, following his career when he was with the Houston Texans. I mean, he's dynamic. I mean, you know, 50-50 balls become 80-20 balls when he's involved. He's going to get that ball more often than not.
He has humongous hands, great catch radius, great body control. And I think that's something that chiefs haven't had the last couple of years. And that's why Patrick Mahomes' numbers have struggled, you know, in the last two years since Tyreek Hill left. And I think that's where you kind of, you know, Rashid Rice was that guy that was on target before he got injured in week two. You have to realize Rashid Rice had 24 catches in two games this year. And it wasn't until recently that Travis Kelce actually overtook him for the lead in receiving and receptions for the team.
That's how dynamic of a loss it was. And that's why you go and you get a Juju Smith-Schuster. And Xavier Worthy's good, but Xavier Worthy also hasn't had more than three catches in the game and he got targeted eight times.
You know, last week. It still only came with three receptions. So, there's a question about consistency in catching. When he does catch it, it's magical.
But the problem is, there's win in front of that. And I think with DeAndre Hopkins, you get a sure-handed receiver who has the respect of every defensive back in the league. And now, does that free up Xavier Worthy on the deep ball by drawing the safety away and making it easier for Xavier Worthy to catch it? Or does he pull that linebacker out of the box just enough on those deep digs and crossing routes, and now Travis Kelce gets even more open on the underneath stuff?
Which is kind of what Juju was doing, to a lesser degree, a poor man's version of that. And I think that's where the intrigue is there. Because you have to realize, Patrick Mahone's coming off one of his worst quarterbacking performances since his rookie year, where he had a passer rating of 44 and he threw two interceptions and no passing touchdowns. So, there was an inflection point, I'm sure, with Andy Reid and Pat Mahone, like, please go get me somebody.
Like, you know, we weren't in the Brandon Iuke lottery, we weren't in the Devontae Adams lottery, but I need somebody out here that can catch the football consistently. And I think it was a perfect opportunity to get a guy like DeHop. Now, will DeHop change his tune? Because he's now with the Chiefs and realizing he can get a Super Bowl ring and they're trying to go for a three-peat. Will he start practicing on Wednesday or Thursday, whichever his mandatory, you know, union break day is? I don't know, but it is a great opportunity, I think, for this Chiefs team to get some more consistency in passing the football. We're talking to a two-time Super Bowl champ himself.
Max Starks is joining us here on the JR Sport Brief Show. We know Patrick Mahomes got himself a few rings, you got a few rings. This guy who debuted or at least came back last night, Cooper Cupp, he got himself a Super Bowl ring. And Sean McVay, he said that he's going to be sticking around. Do you think that's a matter of posturing or do you think Cooper Cupp will be the next wide receiver move?
You know, I think that Cupp probably won't move immediately. I mean, granted, because I think when you have two dominant receivers like the Rams have with Puka Nakua and Cooper Cupp, and Cooper has a very nice contract that I'm sure it won't hurt him, you know, sitting there and taking the number two type of position, even though I feel like he's still wide receiver one on that team, and Puka gets the beneficiary number two repetitions. But I think as long as you have Matthew Stafford there as quarterback, unless they were tanking, I think you have to assume that it would have to be a really sweet deal to get Cooper Cupp from the LA Rams. And I don't know if there's that much dissent in that locker room.
I think they're more so injury riddled when you think about the offensive line and some of the defensive line injuries they've taken, and now they've gotten their receivers back, but it was bare bones for a minute as far as offensive production. I think now that you have them settling in, I don't see Cooper being the next guy to move. If there's anything I would probably look, you know, elsewhere, I'd probably look at like a Mike Williams possibly from the Jets being a potential move guy. I would think, you know, you've already pretty much taken away the only thing that Tennessee had.
You know, you start posting that bottom of the barrel. Maybe you look at some guys in New York. But, you know, for the most part, I think the big wide receiver moves before this trade deadline have all been made, and it would take something really fantastic to get a talent like Cooper Cupp out of LA. Amash, you talk about injuries. My goodness. Look at the 49ers.
Ayuk is now done. D-ball coming out of the hospital with pneumonia. Christian McCaffrey with the Achilles, their sub-500. Do you see the 49ers being able to bounce back? It's still early, almost midway.
You think they got enough time? I mean, it would take a monumental effort just because of the lead I think that the rest of the NFC has taken, especially the NFC North, right? When you look at that division alone, if the playoffs started today, J.R., all four teams in the NFC North are in the playoffs.
They have the division leader, and all three wildcards are all there because all their teams are two games above 500, right? That's where, you know, I struggle with where can Sam Fran make up space, and they've already dropped games in their division. And that's also conference games, and so when you're thinking about conference and division games being one of the tiebreakers that gets you into the playoffs, I don't know if Sam Fran will have enough to consistently compete week in and week out without those guys present. Like, they have to be at full strength to be able to compete, and since you don't know the timelines for when a Christian McCaffrey's coming back, and you're uncertain because Deebo Sami just popped up, and you lost Iyuk for the year, you know, George Gill and Jordan Mason can only do so much magic. You know, I would love to see what Ricky Piersol can do coming back if he can kind of get some of those catches.
If Piersol can come back and return to form of what the expectation was at the beginning of the year before he had that unfortunate incident, then maybe they got a shot. But if they don't, and they're still waiting, I don't know if it's already too late for the San Francisco 49ers this season. The former offensive lineman, current analyst is joining us, Max Starks. You talk about that NFC North.
We know it stacked the line sitting at the top. The Vikings took a terrible loss last night. But the Bears, man, they got a good matchup coming up with Caleb Williams, and hopefully we see Jayden Daniels out there for the Washington commanders. What are your thoughts on how rookies are now able to make that transition straight from college into the league versus when you were playing, and do you think we'll see these two guys balling out for the next decade or so? You know, I was a little concerned at the beginning of the year with Caleb Williams, and I was like, man, this is gonna be rough for him. And then you've seen he's settled in, and now he's going for the rookie record this weekend.
If he goes for another two touchdowns, he breaks the rookie record for most touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in their first season. So I think when you look at that, yeah, they're coming in a lot more NFL-ready, not game-ready, but NFL-ready than they were in the past. It also takes quarterbacks being a starter in college for multiple years. And I think for Caleb Williams, getting a year at Oklahoma, two years at SC, and Jayden Daniels getting the year at ASU before getting the years at LSU, I think those are what the factors are, is that you have to play quarterback more than one season to really hit the ground running because you look at Tyler Murray's struggle, right? He was a one-year wonder. Even the Jaylen Hurts had his own issues in the first year, and even though he was a multiple-year starter, but he was on again off again after his first two years, and I think that adversity made him better in year two. The Mitch Trubiskis of the world, that one-year wonder, 12 starts, and you see what their careers have looked like, guys who played more and more for these top-level programs and played with NFL-caliber receivers to throw to, they've adjusted a lot better. And I think for these two, they're two young rising stars. You know, I think of CJ Strowell from last year, right, how he just came on the scene day one. I mean, literally took Houston from worst to first, you know, in their division and made it to the second round of the playoffs. That's something that's now becoming more the norm than the aberration, and I look at these guys and they have the touch, they have the presence, they have the mobility to help them get out of trouble for things they haven't seen yet, things they haven't cycled into their encyclopedia Rolodex of success, and they're able to manufacture their own version of success until they do get the requisite experience.
So it is something where I think these two can be ballin' and they could be, you know, especially being in the same conference, could be the Brady Manning that we've been looking for as far as two guys that just go at it and duke it out for NFC supremacy. Well, Max, let me ask you this in conclusion. You talk about success. You've been able to have it on the football field with the Steelers. You've been able to transition into business and all your work on air.
We had a conversation earlier in the show about Tua Tonga Veloa. We know this is football. Nobody walks away unscathed.
This is not an easy business. What are your thoughts on Tua and just the return? We've seen three concussions that are documented. God only knows some of the other hits that we have seen.
What are your thoughts? You know, J.R., this is my fear. Because we've seen such devastating hits that led to the concussion, not just hits, but, you know, it's devastating hits, two out of the three, and the other one was a rebound effect, you know, after that first concussion, the rebound the second time was more so the impact with the ground and back up. My fear is that defensive players will be scared to hit him because nobody wants to be the one that delivers the final blow, right? And I don't know if that helps him, that guys will be nervous about that. But my fear is, is what's going to go on in the back of Tua's mind, you know, when he takes that first hit and he crunches up or he winces up at the shadow of somebody going past him. That might be an almost sack, right? A guy falling at his feet, you know, to wrap him, you know, will he be gun shy?
You know, those are the things that go through my mind. I would have loved to have seen him get another week under his belt, you know, because I know they went the full blow in practice and they went and they did contact just to make sure, but it's just for me, like you get cleared and then you're right back out there. I get the level of desperation if you're the Miami Dolphins and, you know, when you accept a contract, if they clear you, you know, and you're ready to go, you got to go. But sometimes you have to protect the player from themselves. And I think now that we have this renewed emphasis in, in player safety, that's one where I just, I get nervous and I get nervous. And, you know, I know production will come back, but man, he's so susceptible to another triggering event that I don't want it to be the final event. You know what I'm saying? Like that's, that's where my fear lies with it. But you know, hey, if the coaches say it and he feels comfortable and confident that he can go out there and play, who am I to say different?
But I'm going to definitely be holding my breath until that first hit happens. Yeah, I think, I think we all are every time we see him out there on the field. Well, Max, thank you for taking the time to join us, a former Gator, a Super Bowl champ, a former Steeler. Where can people follow and listen to you and all your work as you analyze everything going on in the league?
All right. Well, I mean, I'm on Sirius XM. I usually do the Monday night post games for NFL radio.
I'm on, I'm an I heart in Pittsburgh. I do a five day a week show with Craig Wolfley, our color analyst. I'm the sideline reporter for the team.
So you can hear me on every Steelers broadcast for sure. I work for ESPN as well. So I do college on Saturdays, usually have the number two game of the week. And then I also do ESPN Sunday football when the Steelers don't play on Sunday. So I'll be doing the Chiefs Raiders game this Sunday, followed by Monday night football game. And then, of course, you can check me out on X at Max Stark 78, M Stark 78 on IG. You know, try and post some little tidbits and nuggets out there.
And then if you're in the valley, 98.7 every Wednesday, maximum football coming to you live. So that's, that's, that's the quick and easiest way. It's a lot. Matt, you're doing a lot. Go fix them Gators. Go help them out, too.
OK, go fix out your folk, OK? I got a cocktail party next week. I am, I am not happy about that one. So don't worry. I'm a hold my breath and I'll let you know if I live through it.
Jacksonville awaits you. You got a, you got a bulldog here. We'll see what we do. OK? All right. Yeah, absolutely. We'll do battle.
