Kickoff with Boomer Esiason and Mike Valenti for Week 3 in the NFL | 'Kickoff with Boomer & Valenti'

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

It's time for Kickoff with Boomer Esiason and Mike Valenti.

Mike Valenti (0:08)

All right, we are back. It is week three in the National Football League. It is Kickoff with Boomer & Valenti. Booms, you look fantastic. Thank you, Mike. The opposite of the Green Bay Packers. What's going on, buddy?

Boomer Esiason (0:18)

Yeah, thank you, Mike. I appreciate it.

I feel bad for the Green Bay Packers, man. Half of their salary cap, almost half of their salary cap, is standing on the sideline, not playing, and I feel bad for Jordan Love is just getting drilled. He got drilled against the Jets last week as well. But I have to tell you, what I love to see is a young quarterback come back from injury and play the way that Michael Pennings did, man. That was the Michael Pennings that we saw at the University of Washington. If you remember us talking about him when he was playing with Roma Dunze out there, that was the kid that I saw at the University of Washington.

Mike Valenti (0:53)

But here's what helps.

The offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. The running game was incredible. Yeah, Drake London was Drake London. But man, look, Atlanta, it's a bounce back. And you know, I like Stefanski. I was happy he got his get out of jail free card leaving Cleveland.

The problem here is if you're Green Bay, there's losing. And then there's whatever the hell we watched last night. And this is you cannot, I don't care who you're facing, Boomer, you cannot give up 21 pressures. And they barely had the football. I mean, imagine a world where they had a couple extra possessions in that game. Jordan, they can't function. It's truly unbelievable how bad that offensive line is.

Boomer Esiason (1:33)

Yeah, it's not only that, but there's also a couple of plays in this game that went against them. And, you know, one of those was a roughing the passer against Michael Penex. That kind of changed the momentum that that game early on. And it gave Atlanta life. But there's no question that Bijon Robinson right now is unquestionably the best running back in the NFL. He's the most dynamic. He reminds me of Barry Sanders with the way that he cuts in the hole. He can do so many things like a Marshall Falk could do out on the wings and in spaces, they say.

But they have a really good team. But to me, it really comes back to the quarterback. When they had Cooper Rush playing, they didn't believe. And Michael Pennex comes back, and he throws a touchdown pass to Austin Hooper in the end zone. And Mike, the way that he did that and the way that it happened, he knew pre-snap where he was going. He planted his back foot, and that ball was on the way before Hooper turns around and hits him right in the chest. And that's the way you want your young quarterback to play. So I was really, really impressed with his performance.

Mike Valenti (2:34)

Yep, south is wide open. Maybe Atlanta gets back into it with some competent quarterback play for the pack. They just look like the team is going to finish last in a hyper competitive north, but we'll get to more of that.

Let's get to the main story. I won't belabor it. I know you've handled it on fan all week. I would just like to say rest in peace to me and my father's football season after one week and like six plays Giants, Jaxson Dart, one week of happiness, Q, Ava Maria. There's just no point to being a Giants man. And I feel like we're cursed.

Boomer Esiason (3:05)

Yeah. Well, you got Super Bowls over the last decade or so.

Mike Valenti (3:09)

But yeah, those are standard definition booms. I'm looking for HD.

Boomer Esiason (3:13)

Yes, I know.

So it's really unfortunate. I mean, with all these quarterbacks that have gotten hurt and six of them having been in the NFC. Now we got a couple back and obviously Michael Pennings is one of those. Maybe we'll see Sam Darnold this week and Kyle Murray. Both should be back this week for their respective teams. But look, this is why you hire a $20 million coach. He's got to keep the team together. He's got to keep them believing. They have a game against the team over the next three weeks, I would say, about the Giants. They have three games now where these teams are about similar to them.

You have a backup quarterback that has started his what? We'll start his 99th or 100th game here. He's a player that should be able to manage the offense and give them something of a presence at quarterback, which means that everybody else has got to raise their level of play. And that includes the coaching staff and that includes John Harbaugh. That's why you're paying him $20 million to keep things relevant here.