Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where last Christmas I gave you
Speaker 1: my heart. Very next day you took it away. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg rosenthalm here in the Chris Westling podcast studio with
Speaker 1: Jordan Rodrigue of The Athletic, and Yeah, that song just
Speaker 1: is not getting out of my head. So that's why
Speaker 1: I started the show with it. Jordan rodrig I've never
Speaker 1: seen you in such a bubbly good mood. You were
Speaker 1: a holiday person and your your twin sister is in town.
Speaker 2: I'm not a holiday person, but this year you are.
Speaker 3: Maddie's here, Maddie's here, she's off the boat.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for you. I can I can only imagine
Speaker 1: what it's like to see your twin after a long
Speaker 1: time connecting. That's what this time of year is all about.
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna try to be concise. It's it's tough.
Speaker 1: Our producer had some doubts that we can get through
Speaker 1: this show in under an hour, but I believe in us.
Speaker 1: We started the show NFL Daily, our first ever show.
Speaker 1: You were there with me and Patrick Clayband and we
Speaker 1: talked about what's gonna give us joy in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four season. So now as we're winding down, we're
Speaker 1: gonna look back a little bit and just quickly go
Speaker 1: through the AFC. We each have teams and talk about
Speaker 1: what what brought us some joy in this season. We're
Speaker 1: also going to preview the Netflix games on Christmas that
Speaker 1: feels like it's just about to start, and then T
Speaker 1: and F Seattle and Chicago we'll talk about that, and
Speaker 1: then hopefully our elves are working on a zoom connection
Speaker 1: with one of our favorite people to end the show.
Speaker 1: So I hope we can make it happen, and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll even hear from some of our listeners you ready
Speaker 1: to do it?
Speaker 3: And we both wore our hopefully special guests favorite color
Speaker 3: because it's the color of her football team.
Speaker 1: There you go, Greg and I.
Speaker 3: Accidentally, if you're watching on YouTube, you'll notice Greg and
Speaker 3: I actually were accidentally were the same outfit today.
Speaker 1: I mean it's the same like you.
Speaker 3: Got swoopies, I've got swoopees, you know. But I'll say
Speaker 3: the person who topped us both in the outfits today
Speaker 3: is our producer Eric behind the Glass, who's wearing what
Speaker 3: I'm told is his second best Santa Cat sweater.
Speaker 4: Yes, I have actually have two cat sweaters Christmas hats,
Speaker 4: and this is number two of.
Speaker 1: My Santa cats. And one thing I love about Eric
Speaker 1: and Randy, who has moved on to a there was
Speaker 1: a better job, is they love all animals. They're not
Speaker 1: trying to divide the world between cats and dogs like
Speaker 1: you're for You're for both, right.
Speaker 4: I actually have a dog, no cats, but I grew
Speaker 4: up in a house full of them. I have like
Speaker 4: four dogs and two cats at one time. Sands, my
Speaker 4: wife is allergic, so.
Speaker 1: I'm team cat and dog. Why why can't you love
Speaker 1: them both? Let's not divide it.
Speaker 3: I appreciate the effort of the group behind the glass
Speaker 3: to at first try to stay out of the shop,
Speaker 3: but then then immediately lean into it. As you guys,
Speaker 3: everybody needs some shy everybody's working on this Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2: Everyone does such a great job.
Speaker 3: One thing that has brought me joy is this year
Speaker 3: is how kind everyone everyone has been. And that starts
Speaker 3: with everyone behind the glass, and then slowly you bring
Speaker 3: up the rear, so.
Speaker 1: I will I was like, that doesn't include me, But
Speaker 1: let's talk a little, yes about what brings us joy?
Speaker 1: And like I said, there's been some doubts whether the
Speaker 1: two of us can get through this quickly, and I
Speaker 1: have a good start. I believe in us. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let you get us going. We're going to go through
Speaker 1: the AFC. I hope to do this again next Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and if we don't, we will do it for the
Speaker 1: NFC at some point.
Speaker 2: I'll see you next Tuesday.
Speaker 1: That's absolutely right, and Colleen Wolf should be there as well.
Speaker 1: Why don't you start with the Ravens. What's given you
Speaker 1: a little bit of joy?
Speaker 3: Derek m e fing Henry Okay has brought me joy
Speaker 3: all season. King Henry now in purple, a color reserved royalty. Historically,
Speaker 3: it's thriving in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson and company. He's
Speaker 3: given us one of the more dominant rushing seasons that
Speaker 3: we've seen. And what especially brings me joy is the
Speaker 3: way this is like the ten Things I Like about
Speaker 3: You kind of a thing too Christmas kind of thing.
Speaker 3: The way if he gets even a little steam, he
Speaker 3: runs through and passed people. Entering week seventeen, Derek Henry
Speaker 3: has now gained six hundred and seventy eight yards after
Speaker 3: mistackles this season, which is one hundred and forty four
Speaker 3: more than anybody else in the NFL per next gen.
Speaker 2: What joy?
Speaker 1: I love that two all time greats bringing out the
Speaker 1: best in each other, kind of like us joining force.
Speaker 1: Is this I, by the way, should have mentioned Eric
Speaker 1: has a horn back there. If he thinks we're honking
Speaker 1: too much and it's going on too long, he can
Speaker 1: just hit it. Oh oh, now that was definitely not
Speaker 1: too much. That was nice and concise. That was beautiful.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to Eric's bills and dere Damar
Speaker 1: Hamlin in his story. This year gives me joy because
Speaker 1: to me, he is a better candidate for the Comeback
Speaker 1: Player of the Year or this season than he was
Speaker 1: last season. And everything that he's gotten over as a
Speaker 1: human is to be lauded, but now what he's overcoming
Speaker 1: as just a football player, to me is just as impressive.
Speaker 1: It's kind of representing all the sixth and seventh round
Speaker 1: picks that take to their second or their third year
Speaker 1: to really get a chance like his career, even if
Speaker 1: what happened to on the field had never happened was
Speaker 1: on a knife's edge, because that's what it's like for
Speaker 1: all these guys that are just special teamers that are trying.
Speaker 1: He was a year to year type of player, and
Speaker 1: because of the injuries and because the things that happened,
Speaker 1: he got a chance to be a starter this year
Speaker 1: and he proved to be a really solid starter for
Speaker 1: them on a really good defense. And I think he's
Speaker 1: guaranteed himself many more years in the league a second contract.
Speaker 1: So he's kind of representing all those different types of
Speaker 1: players that are battling earlier in their career. Now he's
Speaker 1: overcome more than most. But it's also really cool to
Speaker 1: just see him get kind of a foothold into the
Speaker 1: NFL and know he's going to be part of our
Speaker 1: lives in the NFL as a safety for a long time.
Speaker 1: Really cool.
Speaker 2: I love that one.
Speaker 3: He's having a great year and he overcame literally death.
Speaker 3: So love this for him. This arc for him is
Speaker 3: beautiful in so many ways.
Speaker 1: Well said Greg, and I had to I had to
Speaker 1: not even bring up James Cook's running style, which is
Speaker 1: just so cool that him and Dalvin are the exact
Speaker 1: same as brothers, Like, how is their running style the
Speaker 1: exact same? All right?
Speaker 3: Hit me with the Bengals, Cincinnati Bengals, it's the season
Speaker 3: of like insane offensive lineman gifts by quarterbacks to their
Speaker 3: offensive line. Joe Burrow gave his offensive line authentic samurai
Speaker 3: swords obtained from an armory in California, some of them
Speaker 3: dating back to the fifteen hundreds. I think we have
Speaker 3: an explanation from Joe Burrow. Oh wow, joyful gift that
Speaker 3: he bequeathed upon his offensive line. Used an old word
Speaker 3: for an old gift, Joe Burrow here he is talking
Speaker 3: about why he gave his old lineman samurai swords.
Speaker 1: Well, they wanted gons.
Speaker 4: I was know about guns, guys, and so I was
Speaker 4: in the weapon mindset and I was Michael, what's a
Speaker 4: cool weapon?
Speaker 5: Sam My swords?
Speaker 2: I think are.
Speaker 1: Pretty dank cool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's giving me Dwight Shrewd energy. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: including the outfit, and it's dwyt shrewt adjacent. You know,
Speaker 3: when he really means business, he takes off the mustard
Speaker 3: shirt and there's a tank underneath, and that's.
Speaker 1: That's all he's got with the beautiful hair. I absolutely
Speaker 1: love it. You know, it's giving me joy that Jordan
Speaker 1: rod Rigg is throwing to tape and doing sound element
Speaker 1: without even letting me know that is amazing and very
Speaker 1: cool I got I never got a I didn't check
Speaker 1: the run down before. I gotta admit I got a
Speaker 1: not a sword from my father in law, but one
Speaker 1: of these wooden sort of blocks with with Japanese lettering
Speaker 1: and a saying that comes in a very fancy little holder,
Speaker 1: and so like, I know, what a what a great
Speaker 1: gift that would be around the holiday. Still got that
Speaker 1: in a nice position. All right, let's tuck Browns. Okay,
Speaker 1: not a great season for the Browns, but I am
Speaker 1: happy that Jerry Judy is becoming the player that a
Speaker 1: lot of us Jerry Judy fans coming into the draft
Speaker 1: thought he would be someday, and we kind of had
Speaker 1: him peg drong that he was just this really unique,
Speaker 1: amazing route runner. And I don't think he's turned into
Speaker 1: that exactly. He just moves differently than other people. But
Speaker 1: he's gotten more mature, I think as he's gotten older,
Speaker 1: and he creates big time separation and him and jamis
Speaker 1: kind of making each other better and just helping out
Speaker 1: their fantasy teams along the way made it happen. And
Speaker 1: the fact that he did this after the Jets didn't
Speaker 1: trade for him, because his Madden rating wasn't high enough.
Speaker 1: That's just a little extra sprinkle that you get here
Speaker 1: for the holidays. So Jerry Judy brought me some joy
Speaker 1: this year, fulfilling his potential. A nice little contract they
Speaker 1: got him under there in Cleveland.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one. Good for him.
Speaker 3: Loved his tweet and also Madden's tweet about this situation.
Speaker 3: Little great teamwork over there. So I've got Denver. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 3: Now we're gonna show you some clips and some highlights
Speaker 3: of well one Patrick certain the second akaps two AKA
Speaker 3: still one of the best cornerbacks in the league. Who
Speaker 3: is playing like the best cornerback in the National Football
Speaker 3: League right now. This is more tape than you've seen
Speaker 3: probably if you're a casual fan or watcher. It's not
Speaker 3: in the All twenty two. Then you've seen of ps
Speaker 3: two all season. And why is that? Because quarterbacks are
Speaker 3: not throwing to him, so you're not seeing him on
Speaker 3: your broadcast screen. He has only been targeted on ten
Speaker 3: percent of his coverage snaps this season, the lowest rate
Speaker 3: among all cornerbacks with the minimum of two hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty coverage snaps.
Speaker 2: And it's a good thing.
Speaker 3: The quarterbacks are not targeting him because when he has
Speaker 3: been targeted, offenses have lost minus twenty eight point one
Speaker 3: in EPA, which is the second fewest targeted PA that
Speaker 3: any defender is forcing in the NFL per Next Gen Stats.
Speaker 3: Pat certain Is was and should be a Defensive Player
Speaker 3: of the Year candidate in my opinion, despite missing some time,
Speaker 3: and he brings me joy. Watching him play brings me
Speaker 3: so much joy.
Speaker 1: I think he's got a chance to win it. It's
Speaker 1: so wide open this year. We talked about how there's
Speaker 1: gonna be ballots where you have to pick five players.
Speaker 1: I believe he'll be on yeah, a lot of those ballots.
Speaker 1: I think he's got a chance if he happened to
Speaker 1: have a big final couple weeks. Sometimes it takes you
Speaker 1: know he's an NFL network on Saturday, it's a big
Speaker 1: game against the Bengals. Maybe he dominates to Jamar Chase
Speaker 1: does something like that that could get him over the top.
Speaker 1: I think it could happen. I'm going Houston Texans. I'm
Speaker 1: going Jalen Petree. I like it when a player gets
Speaker 1: a lot of buzz coming into a second season, we
Speaker 1: all think he's gonna be great, and then he has
Speaker 1: a disappointing year, and then the following year after that,
Speaker 1: it's kind of the guys you forgot about. He has
Speaker 1: that breakout that you expected. They changed him completely into
Speaker 1: a slot player. This year an absolutely awesome year after rebound.
Speaker 1: He is so physical that really stands out in the
Speaker 1: running game. But he's been better in coverage than anyone
Speaker 1: would have expected. He's basically turned into that slot defender
Speaker 1: that Jalen Ramsey was. But sometimes it's a safety, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's a cornerback. I didn't think Petrie had an in him.
Speaker 1: He's had a really nice rebound season for the Texans.
Speaker 1: So we'll talk about a little later on the previews.
Speaker 3: I love that when I'm trying to make this a thing,
Speaker 3: when he gets an interception or he makes a play
Speaker 3: on the ball, can we call it.
Speaker 2: Like a Petrie dish?
Speaker 1: Ooh?
Speaker 2: Can we I like it?
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, We'll take it. All right, I've got the
Speaker 3: Indianapolis call.
Speaker 1: Gets sold that better, Petrie dish.
Speaker 2: Let's go, Thanks Greg, Indianapolis Colts. I've got that.
Speaker 3: We already went through the young quarterback panic a few
Speaker 3: times in recent memory, including with Bryce Young, who is
Speaker 3: and was an outlier to Anthony Richardson, the Indianapolis Colts
Speaker 3: quarterback in so many ways. But let's apply the same
Speaker 3: patience and the same logic that we just need to
Speaker 3: see this young, talented, very erratic player get a full
Speaker 3: year of development and work with his biomechanics specialists, which
Speaker 3: their job and they did this with Josh Allen as well,
Speaker 3: is specifically to work through the entire off season to
Speaker 3: make Anthony Richardson a better and more efficient thrower of
Speaker 3: the football. Efficient not meaning statistically he's racking up stats
Speaker 3: and metrics. Efficient meaning every piece of energy in his
Speaker 3: body is transferring to the other piece of his body
Speaker 3: in the appropriate correct way that helps him throw the
Speaker 3: football at the most biomechanically sound which helps short yardage,
Speaker 3: mid range yardage. And he's already got the long ball
Speaker 3: speed or the long ball target range down.
Speaker 2: So I just think that this is going to help him.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see a full off season.
Speaker 3: With this before he actually has to have faced judgment
Speaker 3: from all of the jurors that the analysts and the
Speaker 3: usses of the world are sort of assigning.
Speaker 1: I saw Eric, you know, hovering over that hog, and
Speaker 1: it was about I saw your face onto No, that's
Speaker 1: an awesome one. Still still younger than in Jaden Daniels
Speaker 1: and bow Nicks, and he was a lot of fun
Speaker 1: to watch last week. I want to see more of
Speaker 1: that from the Colts Jaguars tough season. I got a
Speaker 1: lot of teams with tough season. More on that. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I gotta just repeat things I've said. Brian Thomas, watching
Speaker 1: this dude play has given me so much joy, and
Speaker 1: I've talked about it a lot. So what's new that
Speaker 1: I can talk about. I was thinking he not only
Speaker 1: is wide receiver one in this class for me, over
Speaker 1: Harrison and Neighbors and everyone else, because guys that big
Speaker 1: moving like that, it's just rare. I actually was thinking
Speaker 1: about the last three years of wide receivers and other
Speaker 1: than Puka Nakua, which is a different kind of receiver,
Speaker 1: that would be a fun All Pro team. Those two
Speaker 1: guys very different skill sets. I think he's the best
Speaker 1: receiver in the last three classes. I would take him
Speaker 1: over Garrett Wilson and a lobby. I would take him
Speaker 1: over you know, Ze Flowers and Jackson Smith in JIGBA.
Speaker 1: I think his ceiling is just crazy because he does
Speaker 1: the subtle stuff, better already than we expected. And people
Speaker 1: that size just don't move that fluid and that fast.
Speaker 1: Love me some Brian Thomas. They found themselves a true
Speaker 1: wide receiver one you got the Chiefs.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's weird, how I keep kidding. These really fun
Speaker 3: and interesting teams. Andy Reid brings me joys that time
Speaker 3: of year where we talk about Pat mahomes heroics, obviously,
Speaker 3: but I want to call attention again to Big Red himself,
Speaker 3: Andy Reid. Several weeks ago, he secured his tenth consecutive
Speaker 3: double digit wins season in the regular season. He has
Speaker 3: double digit wins in the regular season and eleven of
Speaker 3: his twelve seasons in Kansas City, and the one year
Speaker 3: he won less than double digits, he still won nine games.
Speaker 3: He is astonishing he's still doing it. The contract runs
Speaker 3: through twenty twenty nine. He's sort of hinted that maybe
Speaker 3: he's done after that. Enjoy it while you have him,
Speaker 3: Enjoy watching him. Just his entire vibe brings me joy.
Speaker 1: He clearly has so much joy when it comes to football,
Speaker 1: or else he wouldn't be able to do it like this.
Speaker 1: He doesn't always give it away, but like if you're
Speaker 1: somehow creating a contest of just who loves ball the most.
Speaker 1: I mean, Andy Reid's got to be right there at
Speaker 1: the top. I had him third in my Coach of
Speaker 1: the Year ladder. That shooky, and I did like it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be crazy to make him number one. Who's doing
Speaker 1: it better than Andy Reid? All Right? I got the Raiders. Whew. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a couple of things here. I was gonna go Bowers,
Speaker 1: but I just keep going with these rookie players that
Speaker 1: I love. I'm giving you two things actually with the Raiders. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll be quick. Remember every we always talked about the
Speaker 1: tight end evolution. Oh, the tight end, the evolution. It's happening,
Speaker 1: like these are the new players. All right, Bowers is
Speaker 1: that next guy. He is the evolution. We've reached it.
Speaker 1: This is it. He's next. The other thing, the Raiders
Speaker 1: playing their ass off every week actually has given me joy.
Speaker 1: It's why they made me look smart by beating the
Speaker 1: Jaguars next last week. I was like, they're gonna win
Speaker 1: this game because they were playing so hard defensively, sometimes
Speaker 1: not smart, but so hard. You know it when you
Speaker 1: see it for Antonio Pears. And yet they keep losing
Speaker 1: these games. So just a team that's going nowhere the
Speaker 1: whole time, playing their ass off in the middle of
Speaker 1: a ten game losing streak. That gave me some joy.
Speaker 1: Look two things nailed it? Wow? Did I?
Speaker 3: Uh? The thing on brock Bowers is interesting because I'm
Speaker 3: starting to talk to executives and people in personnel departments
Speaker 3: about evaluating classes of certain position groups coming forward into
Speaker 3: the next couple of years, and he's getting the comp Now.
Speaker 3: You know, it used to be other tight ends around
Speaker 3: the league, used to be the Kittles and the Kelsey's
Speaker 3: and all of that. He's the one drawing the He's like, ah, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't think he does this as well
Speaker 3: as brock Bawer.
Speaker 2: I don't think he does this.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants a body.
Speaker 2: Does things as well.
Speaker 3: Is that like, why are we comping this guy like
Speaker 3: he's just over here comped to someone else.
Speaker 1: Maybe it'd be like quarterbacks, where we really have created
Speaker 1: new quarterbacks that we just didn't see these style of
Speaker 1: quarterbacks before, and now there's like six, seven, eight of them.
Speaker 1: Maybe there'll be more brock Bowers, But to me, he's
Speaker 1: one of one. Go ahead. He died.
Speaker 2: That's great. I have the Los Angeles Chargers, but another
Speaker 2: fun team. How about that. That's really weird how that
Speaker 2: worked out.
Speaker 3: The Justin Herbert Jim Harbaugh pairing and all the sound
Speaker 3: bites that it's given us through the across the year.
Speaker 3: He's Justin Herbert's ultimate hype man. It brings me so
Speaker 3: much joy. This is what Justin Herbert needed. He has
Speaker 3: been open about the fact that he's not necessarily the
Speaker 3: big personality, you know, raw, raw, out in your face
Speaker 3: kind of guy. Well, Jim Harbaugh is that person and
Speaker 3: he compliments Justin Herbert and he brings the best and
Speaker 3: most confident football out of him. And my favorite sound
Speaker 3: clip from the year, I know our producer Hythem has
Speaker 3: it queued up. I'm going to do it again to you.
Speaker 2: Greg. Here's Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert.
Speaker 5: I man, I'm changing his name to Beast. He's a
Speaker 5: beast Herbert, half man, half beast. No quarterback has completed
Speaker 5: more passes in the first five years of an NFL
Speaker 5: career than Justin Herbert in the history of the National
Speaker 5: Football League. That speaks to his greatness and just to
Speaker 5: be around it every day is that's what it feels
Speaker 5: like it feels like you're around greatness every single day.
Speaker 2: I love it. Joy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we could all use a Jim Harbaugh in our
Speaker 1: life to pump us up that much. But then we
Speaker 1: need to be justin Herbert. We need to be that great.
Speaker 1: Think about that. He's earned it. I love it too
Speaker 1: as a Herbert fan, like this is this is the
Speaker 1: era that I've always wanted. I got the Dolphins. You
Speaker 1: might say this is a mediocre team. I've enjoyed this
Speaker 1: team quite a bit this season. I enjoy the song
Speaker 1: that they play when they score the touchdowns. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's been there forever, but I love it. I've enjoyed
Speaker 1: Chop Robinson, I've enjoyed Tua working within very small parameters.
Speaker 1: But the thing that gave me the most joy is
Speaker 1: watching Devon ah Chan actually be the running back that
Speaker 1: plays the receiver position, that actually is the wide receiver.
Speaker 1: Last week, there's a play where he's in the slot
Speaker 1: and he's running an inbreaker against a top cornerback and
Speaker 1: he's high pointing the ball. People always talk about, oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna you know, flex out our receiver, our running
Speaker 1: back as receiver, and they're gonna run routes. He's in
Speaker 1: their receiver. They're running back room in general, but especially him.
Speaker 1: He's the only one I've seen really running those routes
Speaker 1: like a wide receiver run those and they've built a
Speaker 1: lot of the offense around him. So Devon a Chan
Speaker 1: as a receiver.
Speaker 2: Nice one.
Speaker 1: I like joy.
Speaker 3: I like that I have the New England Patriots. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that is interesting. How once again that seems to have
Speaker 3: come up Jordan.
Speaker 1: I thought more on that in a second. I've got
Speaker 1: some numbers.
Speaker 3: I find joy. Look at your face right now. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I find joy, and this is part of it, right.
Speaker 3: I truly am finding joy this year watching you Greg
Speaker 3: Rosenthal fall in love, deeply in love with yet another
Speaker 3: New England Patriots quarterback.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this one. I fell in love with
Speaker 1: him before he was even in New England Patriots. I
Speaker 1: just love young quarterbacks. What I'm not allowed to talk
Speaker 1: about Drake. May we get Herbert and Drake on Saturday.
Speaker 1: I guess we'll preview that game on the previous show.
Speaker 1: I do mat That's everything I've ever wanted in a
Speaker 1: quarterback match. But that's beautiful.
Speaker 3: I do love it, and I love at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the year, it brought me joy how you watched
Speaker 3: His All twenty two very quietly, like with an extra
Speaker 3: screen under your desk, and you held hope. But refrain
Speaker 3: from letty letting any honking about how you were right
Speaker 3: this entire time about it's not about being right, slip
Speaker 3: out you. I'm being earnest here, man like about a
Speaker 3: third of the way through the season, you were all
Speaker 3: in and you wanted us to know it. Yes, loud
Speaker 3: and proud with your love for Drake May and the
Speaker 3: fact that you were right. Don't forget that you're starting
Speaker 3: to fall hard. Drake May comes up in conversations. He
Speaker 3: is not even a part of As long as you
Speaker 3: are speaking, Greg, you're finding slivers of happiness and the
Speaker 3: Patriots fan experience after the long heart years of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty and twenty twenty two. So congrats, and I love
Speaker 3: this for you.
Speaker 1: As twenty nineteen has brought me joy. That last Brady
Speaker 1: season was a little depressing. Try to enjoy that division title.
Speaker 1: I got the Jets, I keep getting these batso I
Speaker 1: gotta be real. The Jets have not given me joy.
Speaker 1: So I think, being honest, that's something that gives me joy.
Speaker 1: But what I would say to Jets fans, is you
Speaker 1: made a good pick in a class with all these
Speaker 1: great receivers. Olufashanu showed enough down the stretch that you
Speaker 1: got one right at left tackle. And I do find
Speaker 1: it ironic that Joe Douglas, their GM, spent all this
Speaker 1: time before they let him go, just desperately trying to
Speaker 1: build a good offensive line and mostly failing. And I
Speaker 1: got to say their offensive line right now looks better
Speaker 1: than it's looked at any point now. I hope the
Speaker 1: next staff can keep it going, but they'll have a
Speaker 1: really good young left tackle that spot. Not taking the
Speaker 1: receiver when Bowers and other people are on the board
Speaker 1: was very tricky to get it right. I think they
Speaker 1: got it right, and they're going to have a dude
Speaker 1: for a long time, So that's good news for the Jets.
Speaker 1: I can't say they've given me a lot of joy
Speaker 1: this year. That's just being right.
Speaker 2: I think that's very fair. Yeah, that is fair fair.
Speaker 1: I don't think they've given their fans a lot of joy.
Speaker 2: I have the Pittsburgh Steelers Cam Hayward.
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of joy I think that
Speaker 3: to be found in Pittsburgh this year. Including all of
Speaker 3: the Mike Tomlin decisions, and also just how every Pittsburgh
Speaker 3: Steelers player seems to be like a perfect fit for
Speaker 3: the Pittsburgh Steelers, which is awesome. But Cam Hayward's having
Speaker 3: a remarkable season that brings me a lot of joy.
Speaker 3: He has eight sacks, But where he is especially making
Speaker 3: a difference is in their run defense, where that defense
Speaker 3: is eighth and total yards allowed this season seventh yards
Speaker 3: per carry. Just gave up one hundred and sixty two
Speaker 3: on the ground to our king Derrick Henry. But per
Speaker 3: Next Gen stats, the Steelers defense has allowed over two
Speaker 3: more full yards per carry on average when Cam Hayward
Speaker 3: is off the field versus when he is on the field.
Speaker 3: This season, it goes from three point four yards per
Speaker 3: carry allowed when he's off the field when he's on
Speaker 3: the field to a whopping five point six yards per
Speaker 3: carry allowed when he is off the field.
Speaker 2: That's astounding.
Speaker 1: Defensive Player of the year, let's push for it. I
Speaker 1: think he might be my choice right now. It's a stranger.
Speaker 1: James Harrison wanted in a stranger. Roll Suggs when he
Speaker 1: won it, that was a stranger. Stefan Gilmore pulled it off.
Speaker 1: There's not an obvious choice. I think TJ. Watt's a
Speaker 1: bad choice because I think just this isn't his worst
Speaker 1: year out of the last five. I know he has
Speaker 1: a lot of sacks. Cam Hayward is a really good choice.
Speaker 1: I think he could be defensive Player of the year.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap it up with the Titans. Now, you know
Speaker 1: what's not giving me joy is that Jordan gave me
Speaker 1: all these bad teams.
Speaker 2: I just went ala as I was going through.
Speaker 1: It last The last five teams that we've talked about
Speaker 1: have a combined twenty and fifty five record. I was like,
Speaker 1: is she setting me up? I think she was. And
Speaker 1: yet you know what's given me joy? Even even in
Speaker 1: dark situations, you can find some positives. This kid to
Speaker 1: and Andre Sweat. I know he came into the draft
Speaker 1: with a lot of problems. I'm not ignoring those, but
Speaker 1: just on the field, a guy that all the draft
Speaker 1: knicks thoughts on the field was going to be a
Speaker 1: bust and was super overrated and they didn't like his
Speaker 1: effort and all this. I watched him, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of effort. I love a three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 1: seventy pound guy. Who is just throwing people around. He
Speaker 1: could be in the mix for a defensive Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year if we gave Nosti any love, because in
Speaker 1: terms of a foundational piece on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball, he has has been as good as any
Speaker 1: and he is just incredibly strong. So when you put
Speaker 1: on that Titans All twenty two, you get a little
Speaker 1: Pollard who's been really good, powerful, but sweat really stands out.
Speaker 1: So I did it. I came up with stuff to
Speaker 1: love about every single team. You know what else I love?
Speaker 2: Can you guess the color green?
Speaker 1: That we did it? That highte them and Eric didn't
Speaker 1: think we could get through this segment quickly. You know,
Speaker 1: you only gave me the sound, you know, as a
Speaker 1: sort of a bit.
Speaker 2: I thought it was real.
Speaker 1: Let's go to break with that sound it is. It
Speaker 1: is Christmas time. Let's talk a little Netflix game preview
Speaker 1: and little TNF after the break.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I love Eric always plays the great rock
Speaker 3: Christmas music for me.
Speaker 1: I love it. It is amazing.
Speaker 2: Can Rama trucks today?
Speaker 1: You know we're in a joyful spirit. You guys tried
Speaker 1: to take me out of it by saying I was
Speaker 1: honking about Drake may. I saw what you all were doing,
Speaker 1: and I didn't want to give you satisfaction. Now I'm
Speaker 1: really looking forward to these games. They're taking over the
Speaker 1: building the Netflix people because they're working out of an
Speaker 1: NFL Network studios. So just downstairs you ran into who
Speaker 1: Drew Brees.
Speaker 3: And RG three, Robert Griffin third, you know the whole
Speaker 3: crew is coming in.
Speaker 2: You ran into one of the goats and legs.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Icon saw our friend Mina Kimes just as
Speaker 1: I was walking up to the studio. She was walking
Speaker 1: down there doing some rehearsals. So everyone check out the
Speaker 1: two games. It's gonna be fun. Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens Texans.
Speaker 1: When they set these games up, they figured there's no
Speaker 1: way that these games could be stinkers, and it does
Speaker 1: turn out they are two of the best games of
Speaker 1: the week. Only so many good games. We've got Minnesota
Speaker 1: Green Bay on Sunday, but these two games mean so much.
Speaker 1: It is crazy to think, Jordan, let's start with the
Speaker 1: Chiefs and the Steelers. That's a one pm Eastern kickoff.
Speaker 1: It's crazy to think. And we're taping this on Christmas
Speaker 1: eve Day. That in roughly twenty four hours Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: could be done playing football until the divisional round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Rip everybody else, right, because.
Speaker 1: They if they can win this game and clinch home field,
Speaker 1: you gotta think that they're gonna rest him in week eighteen.
Speaker 1: Then they have the buye. That's a conversation for another day,
Speaker 1: but big time steaks for them, and big time stakes
Speaker 1: for the Steelers who are trying to win the division
Speaker 1: and trying to get a home game. They are tied
Speaker 1: right now with the Ravens at ten and five.
Speaker 3: I really like the stakes of this game because it's
Speaker 3: the Chiefs, who I'm not trying to be dramatic here
Speaker 3: because fourteen to one like nothing to sneeze at. Like
Speaker 3: they've already shown that they are going to have a
Speaker 3: strong season. But after this last week, the Chiefs have arrived,
Speaker 3: I think fully because that was one of their most
Speaker 3: complete looking offensive performances where they had multiple layers of
Speaker 3: an offense actually running. Patrick Mahomes was incredibly efficient playing
Speaker 3: through that ankle injury, and he was getting the ball
Speaker 3: out fast and he was moving.
Speaker 2: They were moving this offense.
Speaker 3: They were amassing I think you pointed this out, a
Speaker 3: significant number of yards per play that would have led
Speaker 3: the league in most other weeks.
Speaker 2: The Chiefs are here.
Speaker 3: They are scary, they are not fluky if they continue
Speaker 3: in this way, and this is a Steelers team that
Speaker 3: has its back sort of creeping toward the wall a
Speaker 3: little bit. They really need to snap out of this.
Speaker 3: They need George Pickens back, we'll talk about that. Looks
Speaker 3: like he's going to be back. Might be missing Joey
Speaker 3: Porter Junior, which is going to be a tough loss
Speaker 3: because that means they'll have to play at least one
Speaker 3: backup corner even if Dante Jackson comes back. This is
Speaker 3: kind of a bit of a crunch time situation for
Speaker 3: the Steelers, who kind of tend to show up in crunch.
Speaker 1: Time, right. I think they're going to respond in this game,
Speaker 1: but they haven't been beating the allegations. We said their
Speaker 1: schedule is gonna get really hard down the stretch, and
Speaker 1: for the most part, they stood up to it. But
Speaker 1: last two weeks they've lost by two touchdowns to two
Speaker 1: of the best teams in the NFL and back to
Speaker 1: back weeks. So I do think they respond in this game,
Speaker 1: and it's going to help that they get according to
Speaker 1: the injury report, Deshaun Elliott, who's been really valuable for
Speaker 1: them at safety, back, George Pickens, who I don't need
Speaker 1: to go on, but he clearly is kind of the
Speaker 1: Jenga piece for that offense, and then Dante Jackson at cornerback,
Speaker 1: who really hasn't played that well, but he is a starter.
Speaker 1: And with Joey Porter Junior probably out for this game,
Speaker 1: so they are getting some people back. Chris Jones hasn't
Speaker 1: been practicing, that's something to keep an eye on. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's just because of the strange week, but he obviously
Speaker 1: would be a massive, massive loss for the Chiefs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting because George Pickens being such a crucial
Speaker 3: part and a crucial element of this offense. Obviously, it's
Speaker 3: not just about the place he can make, but the
Speaker 3: space that he creates, the extra room on the field
Speaker 3: in general. When you have someone who can stretch the
Speaker 3: field like that, who is being targeted and is a threat,
Speaker 3: then you just open up a lot more grass for
Speaker 3: everybody to work on, right, and that would help the
Speaker 3: run game in turn. But what I think is concerning
Speaker 3: about the Steelers in general and the way that they
Speaker 3: are playing football. As exciting as it's been as correct
Speaker 3: as they've been in a lot of the decisions they've
Speaker 3: made this year. When so much of your offense hinges
Speaker 3: on one of the lower probability plays that you can make,
Speaker 3: which is the deep shot or the mid to deep
Speaker 3: range pass play, when so much of your offense is
Speaker 3: success and explosiveness is predicated on making that play, and
Speaker 3: it looks this different without and they moved the ball
Speaker 3: well last week, I will give them that, but they're
Speaker 3: not running the ball efficiently. Even though they're trying to
Speaker 3: run the ball and they load up in heavy personnel
Speaker 3: a lot, they're still not running the ball statistically efficiently
Speaker 3: in it.
Speaker 2: And you could see that on the tape as well.
Speaker 3: It's like a style over substance situation, and they need
Speaker 3: to be more complete when immersing, like getting infusing that
Speaker 3: substance into the middle parts of their offense.
Speaker 2: And when the.
Speaker 3: Deep shot is back, that's great, but you cannot hinge
Speaker 3: your offense on one of the lower probability plays.
Speaker 1: And the yet you know they're counting on him, and
Speaker 1: Calvin Austin's played well for them. I think he's a
Speaker 1: legitimate piece in Van Jefferson stuff. It's like that's just
Speaker 1: who they are, and yet Russ Russ. It's funny. I
Speaker 1: actually thought he had one of his best games of
Speaker 1: the season last week, except for the turnovers, whereas I
Speaker 1: feel like he had gotten a little too much credit
Speaker 1: over the course of the season when he hasn't always
Speaker 1: been playing his best. So it's just funny how that works.
Speaker 1: So they're going to need him to play well against
Speaker 1: this defense, which which has played better. We do have
Speaker 1: some updates on the injury report. The official one is out.
Speaker 1: Joey Porter Junior is officially out, but everyone else that
Speaker 1: they were worried about is not even on the injury
Speaker 1: report anymore, so that's important. Chris Jones is questionable after
Speaker 1: being limited UH on Tuesday, and so you would expect
Speaker 1: that he would play. Same thing with Juwan Taylor. They
Speaker 1: won't have DJ Humphreys back, so it's going to be
Speaker 1: Joe Toney again at left tackle. I thought he's played
Speaker 1: pretty well and Chamari Connor, who at their slot position
Speaker 1: could be victimized because this is not a deep secondary.
Speaker 1: They've moved Trent McDuffie back to the slot the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks and that has been huge because he
Speaker 1: wasn't that great on the outside, and so you were
Speaker 1: hurting two positions and now at least you have an
Speaker 1: all pro slot defender and you're just better because of that.
Speaker 3: So well, they use that logic when they move Joe
Speaker 3: Toney too. They're technically hurting their interior a bit by
Speaker 3: moving Joe Tony. But now, want to make more sense
Speaker 3: to me, exactly exactly, but now you're you're it's it's
Speaker 3: the same logical application they're now even though they're weakening
Speaker 3: one element of they're putting a very like an A
Speaker 3: plus plus player at a position that desperately needs it. Now,
Speaker 3: the same thing and moving him back to the slot
Speaker 3: like that is absolutely an A plus plus US player
Speaker 3: playing at an A plus position. Now.
Speaker 2: I know it's not Joe Toney's natural position to.
Speaker 3: Play at left tackle, but you're still putting an A
Speaker 3: plus plus player at a crucial position of need in
Speaker 3: you know, late December, and I think that is a
Speaker 3: logical thing.
Speaker 1: He's done it before too, he did it with the
Speaker 1: Patriots and did it well. And he's got the toughest
Speaker 1: matchup possible, and that's how the Steelers win. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: I think the Steelers cover they're three and a half
Speaker 1: point underdogs in this game or three either way. I
Speaker 1: like the Steelers there. I think the Steelers might win
Speaker 1: this game. I promise you. I haven't picked against the
Speaker 1: Chiefs all season except for the Bills game and maybe
Speaker 1: one other the Eagles one other game that I got
Speaker 1: wrong that they did win. But I do think this
Speaker 1: is a spot they show up and the way they
Speaker 1: would do it is just what makes them special. It's Wat,
Speaker 1: Herbig and high Smith. You got to show up. Maybe
Speaker 1: Wat hasn't been one hundred percent healthy late and Hayward.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm thinking of the edges, so that's Tony,
Speaker 1: but you're absolutely right their pass rush.
Speaker 2: Now you don't have Tony on the interior anymore. This
Speaker 2: is a Cam Hayward game.
Speaker 1: So they need to just absolutely dominate. And we'll see
Speaker 1: if Patrick Mahomes continues what he did last week. That
Speaker 1: should scare everyone. He got rid of the ball so quickly,
Speaker 1: his time to throw was nothing. They were reading the
Speaker 1: defense and he's been holding onto the ball and taking
Speaker 1: a lot of hits and he just didn't do that
Speaker 1: last week. Hollywood Brown will help that out. Xavier Worthy's
Speaker 1: been a little more comfortable, does Hollywood's role like continue
Speaker 1: to increase. But yeah, to me, it's one of those
Speaker 1: games where one side as Chris Jones and has some
Speaker 1: great defensive players, but it's sometimes it's not about the
Speaker 1: x's and o's, and it's just if wat Herbig and
Speaker 1: high Smith and Hayward, which is the one of the
Speaker 1: best pass rush groups we've seen in a long time,
Speaker 1: can just show up and they all play their absolute best.
Speaker 1: I think they end up winning this game.
Speaker 3: It's going to be interesting because to your point, Hollywood,
Speaker 3: Brown and Xavier Worthy, they have sort of become like
Speaker 3: the three point shooters in this offense where they're making
Speaker 3: these explosive plays. They're making these low probability but high
Speaker 3: reward plays down the field, but they're using the Chiefs
Speaker 3: are also helping get the ball out of Pat Mahomes's
Speaker 3: hand really fast because they're now working Hopkins and Travis
Speaker 3: Kelcey in the intermediate portions, which is so interesting that
Speaker 3: new Hopkins is picking up the gimme plays and picking
Speaker 3: up like the grinded out kind of plays and I
Speaker 3: love that.
Speaker 2: I love because he can do everything right.
Speaker 1: It's like a I was going to say, a smaller
Speaker 1: tight end but he's not even He's still just the size.
Speaker 2: He's just so gifted.
Speaker 3: And so I think that that has been an absolute
Speaker 3: game changer for them, is they can win in this
Speaker 3: way now, especially getting a couple of other players back
Speaker 3: in those deeper layers, because now you don't need those
Speaker 3: receivers to who are at the sort of the top
Speaker 3: of the field and who are stretching the field in
Speaker 3: the way that they do. You're not needing them to
Speaker 3: do more for you. You're only needing them to do
Speaker 3: what they do best.
Speaker 1: Really looking forward to this one, my friend guest on
Speaker 1: the show, Anthony jessel Nick, said, enjoy the Steelers victory
Speaker 1: on Christmas. He is confident. We're also going to try
Speaker 1: to get him back for the playoffs to talk about
Speaker 1: his Steelers. He's feeling confident about this one. There is
Speaker 1: something about that it's home. This it's so stupid. It's
Speaker 1: like home and it's Christmas. I don't know, I could
Speaker 1: just imagine a very Tomlin victory. It's just in my head.
Speaker 2: I'm going to pick the Steelers just because.
Speaker 1: We can't both. Then now I'm taking the chief Okay.
Speaker 3: I think you should take the Chiefs. The Chiefs is
Speaker 3: a smarter pick. They won fourteen games this year. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I'm going to pick the Steelers based on vibes
Speaker 3: because I love Pittsburgh football in December and January when
Speaker 3: they get the opportunity to do that.
Speaker 2: It was described by one of the players.
Speaker 3: I was reading this great Mike Tomlin piece where a
Speaker 3: bunch of players were quoted talking about him as a
Speaker 3: head coach and what makes him special. And one of
Speaker 3: the players quoted and the piece was talking about December
Speaker 3: football in Pittsburgh and he described it as the air
Speaker 3: is heavy and everything feels Gothic. And I was like,
Speaker 3: f yeah, I'm going Steelers.
Speaker 1: Funny because that reminds me more than any team of
Speaker 1: the Ravens. Our next team we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: The Ravens home field advantage is very Gothic in black,
Speaker 1: but it's true, like I think of that home field
Speaker 1: there is like for their night games, in everything, there
Speaker 1: is like a darkness to in the best way possible.
Speaker 1: But they're not in Baltimore. They're in Houston. That gives
Speaker 1: the Texans a little edge here. I think they have
Speaker 1: a nice home field crowd, one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: crowds in the league and one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: fan bases in the league. I feel like the Texans
Speaker 1: fans don't get the love that they deserve, just for
Speaker 1: the energy, the intelligence, the noise. I see you, Texans fans.
Speaker 1: You're one of the least annoying fan bases out there,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna need to help your team career because
Speaker 1: you're fighting on uphill battle. They are five and a
Speaker 1: half points underdogs at home in week seventeen when they're
Speaker 1: gonna go to the playoffs. Is that is tough, but
Speaker 1: it is bad timing. I think they are catching the
Speaker 1: Ravens at a bad time. Both of these teams just
Speaker 1: had their buy They're fresher more than anything. This is
Speaker 1: a Ravens defense to me that is no longer just
Speaker 1: shooting themselves in the foot, and so they're letting the
Speaker 1: league's best offense take center stage while they just don't
Speaker 1: mess it up. And I think that's really important, you know,
Speaker 1: heading into this stretch of the season.
Speaker 3: This defense is it's not as dramatic as a night
Speaker 3: and day change, but they made some personnel adjustments and
Speaker 3: Zach Orr has been coaching his ass off. I mean,
Speaker 3: that dude is thirty two years old. Greg like to
Speaker 3: be coordinating a defense that gets has gotten better, that
Speaker 3: is under so much intense scrutiny at thirty two years old.
Speaker 3: I think he's done a hell of a job this season,
Speaker 3: especially after losing not just the previous DC but a
Speaker 3: bunch of the assistant coaches. A hell of a job
Speaker 3: he's coaching.
Speaker 1: But they've declined. They've declined pretty hard.
Speaker 2: You can't.
Speaker 1: I've had to bring in dnps. But what they've done
Speaker 1: is they've done the Ravens thing where they've made great adjustments,
Speaker 1: and he deserves credit for that. They've simplified the coaching absolutely.
Speaker 2: Coaching a good job at thirty two. I mean, come on, like,
Speaker 2: I'm thirty two. I couldn't do that no way.
Speaker 1: Well right, I mean, at at thirty two, I could
Speaker 1: barely handle I think I had a newborn. I had
Speaker 1: a newborn and we were I was soon to leave
Speaker 1: for the NFL dot Com as an editor, and that
Speaker 1: alone scrambled my brain to trying to start that new job.
Speaker 1: I can only imagine what it's like to be a coordinator.
Speaker 1: So yes, Kyle Hamilton's kind of in the back end.
Speaker 1: Roquan Smith is doing what he's doing, and maybe he
Speaker 1: doesn't have as much going on there and you don't
Speaker 1: need to be a super football on there to just
Speaker 1: see the busts aren't there, the communication, but they just
Speaker 1: look like a normal defense. I don't even know if
Speaker 1: they're great, but if they're.
Speaker 2: Filling, if they're the third's gotten better.
Speaker 1: Right, if they're the thirteenth best defense in the NFL,
Speaker 1: that's enough to go win a Super Bowl, and that's
Speaker 1: enough to stop this version of the Texans offense. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: as someone who's kind of pulling for them to.
Speaker 3: Be good, absolutely agree and absolutely heartbreaking what happened to
Speaker 3: the Texans last week with Tank Dell. That's that's going
Speaker 3: to be felt in so many ways, even more so
Speaker 3: than on the field. That's going to be really really
Speaker 3: hard for them to overcome. They've already had to overcome
Speaker 3: issues with the offensive line.
Speaker 2: CJ.
Speaker 3: Stroud just getting rattled on certain plays and against certain
Speaker 3: pressure that just is constant. And now he doesn't have
Speaker 3: one of his favorite players as an outlet and one
Speaker 3: of his dear friends on the field as well. That's
Speaker 3: just it's absolutely heartbreaking, and I think that's going to
Speaker 3: be significant for them down the st I mean, it
Speaker 3: is something that they're going to have to overcome. I
Speaker 3: don't know necessarily how they do it, because.
Speaker 1: He was playing his best football things the year.
Speaker 3: Now, I will say, scientists and our top analysts in
Speaker 3: the NFL are working overtime this week trying to quantify
Speaker 3: a thing that some are calling the Beyonce bump. Oh wow,
Speaker 3: in Houston. Beyonce is going to be on the scene
Speaker 3: in Houston.
Speaker 1: She will be in the building. Yes, it's going to
Speaker 1: be very distracting. I feel like for these.
Speaker 3: And so I feel like just her aura, her presence
Speaker 3: just lifts everybody. I don't think that's worth the negative spread.
Speaker 3: I think that she at least gives them a field
Speaker 3: goal advantage, if not a touchdown. You know, I feel
Speaker 3: like the Beyonce, But scientists are working on it. I
Speaker 3: can't specif I love that.
Speaker 1: Lamar said he's gonna watch, He's gonna watch, He's gonna
Speaker 1: come out and watch. So he's already distracted. So that's
Speaker 1: a help.
Speaker 3: I mean her, just her aura and her excellence, right,
Speaker 3: I just feel like that's that's enough.
Speaker 1: To keep Houston's own. You gotta give a little bump here. Now,
Speaker 1: they do have special things about them. I could have
Speaker 1: chosen Joe Mixon for the how he runs, for what
Speaker 1: gives me joy. I think he leads the league in
Speaker 1: a little known stat which is runs hard, plus his
Speaker 1: cuts make me gasp. Composite, Like if you combine those
Speaker 1: two things in terms of just running hard every single
Speaker 1: play and making a cut that makes me gasp. I
Speaker 1: think he's the NFL leader for that, and so they
Speaker 1: just need, like they need him and CJ and Nico
Speaker 1: Collins to just be special. I know that's like bad analysis,
Speaker 1: but they are three special players.
Speaker 3: I think that's not bad analysis. I think it's when
Speaker 3: you go, yes, what's your stern?
Speaker 1: I think played better since the buye. There have been
Speaker 1: rough plays, but I think there's been more of what
Speaker 1: makes him special too, and I think he showed a
Speaker 1: lot of that last week. And so maybe this Ravens
Speaker 1: pass rush isn't that great, Maybe can get it done.
Speaker 1: I am a little worried about the injuries on the
Speaker 1: Texans offensive line. Juice drugs is hurt, Shack Mason is out,
Speaker 1: so that you're adding new injuries to the mix for
Speaker 1: a group that's just rough to begin with. They're already
Speaker 1: missing the right tackle.
Speaker 2: I'm going to pick the Ravens in this one.
Speaker 3: First of all, goes without saying, but should be repeated often.
Speaker 3: Lamar is playing just other worldly football, and especially very consistently.
Speaker 3: You know, he had a couple of games where he
Speaker 3: maybe didn't look totally like the Lamar that we've seen
Speaker 3: throughout most of the year, but overall been absolutely excellent.
Speaker 3: I love that he has some island games. I think
Speaker 3: this time of year, especially as the MVP conversation continues,
Speaker 3: I love that he's getting a couple of island games.
Speaker 3: I think he has the opportunity and the potential to
Speaker 3: do something even more historic than the historic thing that
Speaker 3: he did last year.
Speaker 2: And a lot of his advances, which.
Speaker 1: Is what win a third MVP, and a.
Speaker 3: Lot of his advanced statistics are continuing to ascend and
Speaker 3: continuing to even be better than years previously, and so
Speaker 3: I think that this getting him in front of a
Speaker 3: lot of people is important if he can continue to
Speaker 3: meet that bar and the Ravens in general are an
Speaker 3: absolute wagon. I mean they just and again, like you said,
Speaker 3: I'm not crowning them as a great defense. I think
Speaker 3: that they've coached their butts off and they have made adjustments,
Speaker 3: and that is what good coaches do, and that is
Speaker 3: why they've improved, and they're playing hard for that coaching
Speaker 3: staff as well. And so I think that if you
Speaker 3: can at least be a middle of the pack defense
Speaker 3: and your offense is capable of lifting you to extraordinary heights,
Speaker 3: as they've done all season long, then this team is
Speaker 3: just going to be incredibly dangerous. And I think they
Speaker 3: start to roll continue to roll, because they have been rolling,
Speaker 3: but they especially continue to roll into this time of
Speaker 3: the year that is so important to have that inertia.
Speaker 1: I hope it does happen, but I think they cover
Speaker 1: the five and a half points. Jimmy Ward out for
Speaker 1: the season, as he's Alshai here, their defense is totally
Speaker 1: different without him. He can return from his suspension next week.
Speaker 1: Zay Flowers a little banged up coming into this one.
Speaker 1: Justice Sill probably not gonna play or he's definitely not
Speaker 1: gonna play, and we'll see. I hope you're right about
Speaker 1: the MVP thing's tricky, because it is did. The discourse
Speaker 1: is just going to annoy me. But this is one
Speaker 1: of the better quarterback seasons I've ever seen from Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson and Josh Allen isn't far off, and I'm hoping
Speaker 1: just it is in an annoying debate. I think Josh
Speaker 1: Allen will win it if he keeps it going. But
Speaker 1: it reminds me a little bit of two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: which a lot of people think was the greatest quarterback
Speaker 1: season of all time by Peyton Manning. And I would
Speaker 1: rank Dante Culpepper's two thousand and four at least in
Speaker 1: the top five quarterback seasons of my lifetime, and I
Speaker 1: don't it's weird. If you were there, you remember it.
Speaker 1: And yet he didn't get the award because he was
Speaker 1: in the same year as Peyton Manning having that award,
Speaker 1: And that's what I feel like It's gonna happen, maybe
Speaker 1: a little less, but either Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson
Speaker 1: this year. It's unfortunate. All Right, it's the time of
Speaker 1: the show for our TNF preview presented by Amazon Prime Video.
Speaker 1: You don't have to spend as much time on this
Speaker 1: one because it's the Bears, and yes, they might be
Speaker 1: the best team I've ever seen with a nine game
Speaker 1: losing streak. That's the nicest thing I can say about
Speaker 1: your team hit them, right. Is it nine at this
Speaker 1: point or is it ten? How have they lost nine
Speaker 1: straight games? They really aren't that bad when you watch
Speaker 1: them every week.
Speaker 2: They play so hard.
Speaker 1: It's up and down in terms of that, but they're
Speaker 1: much better. They are a six or seven.
Speaker 3: Nineteen nine consecutive lost team relative to that they play hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Caleb. I think Caleb is coming off his best
Speaker 1: game since at least before Thanksgiving, maybe his best game
Speaker 1: of the entire season. I thought he played really well
Speaker 1: last week. His problem has been stringing those types of
Speaker 1: games together. It won't be easy. This defense shows you
Speaker 1: a lot of different looks. For the most part, has
Speaker 1: been consistent and it's going to be a tough matchup.
Speaker 1: The Seahawks in the playoff race at eight and seven. Stupidly,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to spend much time on this,
Speaker 1: but stupidly, this game doesn't matter for them, which is
Speaker 1: like kind of a dirty secret. They actually have basically
Speaker 1: the same chance to make the playoffs if they win
Speaker 1: or lose, which defies your It just like blows my mind.
Speaker 1: It's like wright really, but because of the strength of
Speaker 1: Victory Tiberger, all that really matters for them. Is that
Speaker 1: the Rams lose on Saturday, and it sort of doesn't
Speaker 1: matter if they win or lose, but they're going to
Speaker 1: want to try to win, and I think they will
Speaker 1: win and cover the three and a half points.
Speaker 3: Yeah, obviously, And there is such a massive hinge right
Speaker 3: coming up this weekend because the Rams would win the
Speaker 3: NFC West with a Seattle loss or tie and the
Speaker 3: Rams beat Arizona. But then Seattle also wants the Rams
Speaker 3: to lose for their own playoff ramifications.
Speaker 2: And I know you've gone over the permutations and they
Speaker 2: just need.
Speaker 1: The Rams to lose. That's all there is. Yeah, really,
Speaker 1: all it.
Speaker 3: Really is we can permutate and permutate and permutate away.
Speaker 3: But that really it does boil down to those two
Speaker 3: games are going on this weekend, and I think that
Speaker 3: it is I have a question. I do have a
Speaker 3: question for you because you've watched probably every snap of
Speaker 3: Gino Smith over the last several years. And I say
Speaker 3: that as a compliment, like you have the data. How
Speaker 3: hurt does he seem to you? Does he seem like
Speaker 3: he's I.
Speaker 1: Mean, he looked a little banged up during that game
Speaker 1: from him. That's something that happened during that game. I
Speaker 1: thought that's been a major factor. Yeah, during that game, yes, he.
Speaker 3: Played, I thought he played great football. But the the
Speaker 3: I thought he got re I'm not reinjured necessarily, it's
Speaker 3: dramatic at the end of the game, but I thought
Speaker 3: he got like just banged up even more. And I
Speaker 3: don't know, I'm concerned about the that takes a toll.
Speaker 3: He's taken a lot of hits this season. It's late
Speaker 3: in the year, short.
Speaker 1: Week, you're on the road cold. The Bears are just
Speaker 1: very unpredictable. They have like their defense will play well
Speaker 1: one game and not well the other, and the offense
Speaker 1: does vice versas, so they never play well. At the
Speaker 1: same time, I actually was encouraged how Seattle played when
Speaker 1: I watched that game. Gino made too many risky throws
Speaker 1: and they were two pass heavy, just forty six passes.
Speaker 2: Well, they've been that way all year, I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was just kind of crazy considering the scenario.
Speaker 1: That said, when I watched that game, I thought it
Speaker 1: couldn't have been more evenly played, And I was just like,
Speaker 1: these are two good teams with pretty good offenses and defenses.
Speaker 1: Going back and forth all the numbers, the success rate,
Speaker 1: the yards, just the eyeball tests, like every unit had
Speaker 1: extraordinary plays and it just looked like two good teams
Speaker 1: and one is a little bit better. And that's the
Speaker 1: Vikings And that's not surprising to me. The Seahawks, I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, they are a pretty good team. There
Speaker 1: are nine or ten win team. That's just where they were.
Speaker 1: We'll have conversations about whether Tariq Wollan and DK Metcalf
Speaker 1: and Draymond Jones are parts of their future. I think
Speaker 1: that's something that's interesting.
Speaker 2: There's some chatter about whether the OC is a part
Speaker 2: of their right.
Speaker 1: That could all be there. I think Gino Smith, just
Speaker 1: because of the because of how his contract looks and
Speaker 1: because of the market, will be there for sure next year.
Speaker 1: But go take care of business. Show me that you
Speaker 1: are the nine to ten win team that I think
Speaker 1: you are. And yeah, I'm torn on Saturday because I
Speaker 1: want a good Week eighteen game. I kind of want
Speaker 1: the Rams to lose, even though my family would hate
Speaker 1: me for that.
Speaker 2: Well, there just a set up, just to set up.
Speaker 1: They're definitely not listening. That was this week's TNF preview,
Speaker 1: presented by Prime Video. Be sure to watch the Seattle
Speaker 1: Seahawks take on the Chicago Bears this Thursday on Prime Video. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is it for our Christmas Day and yes, December
Speaker 1: twenty sixth preview. I kind of forgot that TNF game
Speaker 1: even existed. I was like, what they're they're jamming in
Speaker 1: a one more TNF here for the season. What a
Speaker 1: treat it's been going over all the things that bring
Speaker 1: us joy. Jordan, doing this show with you has brought
Speaker 1: me a ton of joy. But we're not ending, you
Speaker 1: know what, We will see you next Tuesday. Colleen Wolf
Speaker 1: will be back for that show, and we were hoping
Speaker 1: to read some of her cards aloud, and we decided,
Speaker 1: you know, let's get her in the studio. We applaud
Speaker 1: all of our listeners and if you follow Colleen on socials,
Speaker 1: check check it out on Instagram. She put it up
Speaker 1: that you guys came correct. You sent your Christmas cards
Speaker 1: to poor you know, woe be gotten Colleen Wolf. No,
Speaker 1: she's with her family and join the Christmas see Tim
Speaker 1: right now, the whole crew, including Tim, And why don't
Speaker 1: you just keep sending them? Send it here to NFL
Speaker 1: Network care of Colleen Wolf and we will read them
Speaker 1: next week. You can make it a Christmas card, you
Speaker 1: can make it in New Year's card, and we'll get
Speaker 1: that as part of the show.
Speaker 3: My goal for Colleen, because I feel like she is
Speaker 3: the person type of personality that would like truly derive
Speaker 3: so much joy from this, is that she continues to
Speaker 3: get specifically Christmas.
Speaker 2: Cards all through yes, ring yeah, summer.
Speaker 3: So listeners, you guys already have come through in so
Speaker 3: many ways, keep sending cards to Colleen Wolf care of
Speaker 3: NFL Network.
Speaker 2: The address is very public.
Speaker 3: Make sure that you continue the Christmas card theme. We're
Speaker 3: going to do this all the way through July. We're
Speaker 3: gonna make her month week year. She deserves it. She
Speaker 3: is joy personified. I love that we're doing this episode
Speaker 3: today because Colleen is joy personified, and it's been for
Speaker 3: me just like I can't even believe how lucky I
Speaker 3: am to get to come in here every Tuesday and
Speaker 3: see you guys.
Speaker 2: So I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Very well said. Let's go. Let's let everyone behind the
Speaker 1: glass go do their last minute shopping or whatever, wrapping,
Speaker 1: whatever they need to do. We will be back on Thursday.
Speaker 1: Patrick will be with me to recap those Christmas games
Speaker 1: and look ahead to the rest of the week seventeen slate.
Speaker 1: So we got Hanukkah starting, we got Christmas to everyone
Speaker 1: out there. Yes, when old Saint Nick is about to
Speaker 1: go make his deliveries, you know football is back