Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're all just trying to
Speaker 1: be in the face of the network. I'm Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 1: and yeah, that titles taken at NFL Network by Rich
Speaker 1: Easen and then maybe like six other guys. Steve Weisch,
Speaker 1: my co host, would be one of them. But my
Speaker 1: guest has that title. It's not right now.
Speaker 2: You don't know that it's been foisted upon me by
Speaker 2: some charlatan's on the internet. Listen, I know you don't
Speaker 2: like FAF to start the show, just so you can
Speaker 2: set a sixty second clock here. There's just a couple
Speaker 2: of things I want to say. One is I went
Speaker 2: through my email lesson I couldn't find it. I really
Speaker 2: think you the first time you came on one of
Speaker 2: my radio shows was sixteen years ago. I honestly believe that,
Speaker 2: and like you were one of my go to guys.
Speaker 2: I would call and you would very kindly come on,
Speaker 2: even though I was like you were getting nothing out
Speaker 2: of it, and I've never been able to return the favor.
Speaker 2: So this is a real treat for me. That's point
Speaker 2: number one. Point number two. I'm a long time Greg
Speaker 2: Rosenthal listener and fan. Loved the old pod and I
Speaker 2: have not missed an episode of this one, and in fact,
Speaker 2: the only one I haven't listened to in its entirety
Speaker 2: is Wednesdays because when we are recording Thursday, I haven't
Speaker 2: had time yet to listen to the whole thing. But
Speaker 2: I heard the beginning of it. You and another guy
Speaker 2: used to have come on the radio show all the time,
Speaker 2: Evan Silva. And the last point is this, and this
Speaker 2: is important. You are one of three people. The other
Speaker 2: two will remain nameless. That way everyone can think they're
Speaker 2: in that group, that here's this who when they say
Speaker 2: something that I vehemently disagree with in the NFL, I
Speaker 2: reconsider my opinion. Everyone else I just think they're wrong,
Speaker 2: and I'm right you and two other people, I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: maybe I need to look at it again. So thank
Speaker 2: you for having me on.
Speaker 3: Well that that is all making me uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: I now just want to spend the show guessing who
Speaker 1: the other two are.
Speaker 2: One of them's Barnwell, Barnaball.
Speaker 1: Okay, I booked Barnwell in a big spot. He's gonna
Speaker 1: do our TNF free cap week too, so there's a little.
Speaker 2: The third used to be Mina, but now she's my
Speaker 2: sworn rival. So now it's got to be so much.
Speaker 2: So again you have to leave a spot like that
Speaker 2: open that way. Anyone that hears it can't be offended.
Speaker 2: They're like, wait, why am I not on that list?
Speaker 2: It's like no, no, no, you were the missing person.
Speaker 3: Oh last thing.
Speaker 2: I do a podcast in addition to the TV show
Speaker 2: with my son Demonse.
Speaker 3: My son. I was a bit old to that you've
Speaker 3: just taken over. No.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say it because you and Walker,
Speaker 2: I think one day are going to do a pod together.
Speaker 2: I hear his takes. His picks sometimes are a little chalky,
Speaker 2: a little square, but I like it. So that's all,
Speaker 2: But go ahead.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that, all you know. I am now reminded
Speaker 1: of a great chew. I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: you or Adam Lefko who was on with Bomani, but
Speaker 1: he noticed on his podcast when you have another host
Speaker 1: on the podcast, they just start hosting.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that's what Nick's done to me. No, I
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: I love it, and I'm glad actually and yeah, Nick
Speaker 1: is of course the host of First Things First on
Speaker 1: FS one that's every day at noon Pacific three Eastern.
Speaker 1: You know, I like to let list Pacific first, it's
Speaker 1: the important people, and then yeah, what's right. I really
Speaker 1: was going to mention that that you co host a
Speaker 1: podcast with your son Demanse, and that's fantastic. That is
Speaker 1: life goals, and so that's what's right with Nick.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: They just did the over unders all thirty two teams.
Speaker 1: I'm jealous of that now, as like, Okay, next year,
Speaker 1: I want to do all thirty two teams.
Speaker 3: That would be fun. And you managed to jam.
Speaker 1: It into an hour, so you got to check out
Speaker 1: that show. And yeah, at the risk of getting too
Speaker 1: heavy on top here, I'm glad you brought up the
Speaker 1: radio thing. And maybe you don't remember this, but I
Speaker 1: actually do remember that. I think the last time I
Speaker 1: ever was supposed to be on your show, I canceled
Speaker 1: that the last second, like two minutes before I was
Speaker 1: supposed to be on.
Speaker 3: And I remember where I was.
Speaker 1: I was in the newsroom in Culver City when I
Speaker 1: was in middle management. Hell, it was like a five
Speaker 1: year period where I realized I had to get out
Speaker 1: of this job. And I actually remembered it, and I
Speaker 1: flaked on you at the last second, And I hate
Speaker 1: doing that to radio host, and at least in my head,
Speaker 1: that was the last time I ever was going to
Speaker 1: be on. I was like, oh, now I got on
Speaker 1: that guy's list, and then what happened? He ended up
Speaker 1: becoming a big national sup.
Speaker 2: No, I listen, anybody that ever comes on for free
Speaker 2: out of the kindness of their own heart. I never
Speaker 2: get upset with the one rare exception of friend of mine,
Speaker 2: so I can now say it. Seam Sheranio was once
Speaker 2: midg mid interview with me on Mad Dog Sports Radio
Speaker 2: mid interview and he's like, oh my, He's like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I'm sorry, I have to go breaking news,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, this is exciting. He's going to
Speaker 2: break major news. And then I checked. Thirty seconds later
Speaker 2: he tweets out that some second round pick signed a
Speaker 2: two way contract. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 2: You gotta be kidding me. That is what took precedent.
Speaker 2: That's the only one that I hold the grudge yours.
Speaker 1: Those insiders are different. We had Ian Rappaport. He's done
Speaker 1: that to us, did that on our own show to
Speaker 1: us in the past. All Right, we're gonna get to
Speaker 1: a lot today. We'll get to Nick of course has
Speaker 1: been blessed to be a fan of the Chiefs, so
Speaker 1: we'll get to them at some point in this program,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. And of Carlos Alkrez, he was at the
Speaker 1: US Open. We'll get to that. But I have a
Speaker 1: structure here which we don't do in every show. It's
Speaker 1: an AFC preview. We're gonna try to get a lot in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get our seven AFC seeds by the end
Speaker 1: of this. But I'm just gonna throw out a few
Speaker 1: categories to start. The first one is just a team
Speaker 1: that's favored to make the playoffs that will rather a
Speaker 1: team that's not favored to make the playoffs that will
Speaker 1: make the playoffs. So first I'm gonna tell you who
Speaker 1: is favored just in Vegas, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans, Bengals, Jets.
Speaker 1: And then the last one I was a little surprised
Speaker 1: is the Dolphins are this favor to be the seven seeds.
Speaker 1: So who is a team that is not favored to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs?
Speaker 3: You would pick Jaggs.
Speaker 2: To me, there's two and they're kind of there as well,
Speaker 2: and are one of them Jags Chargers. So that's but
Speaker 2: I think we'll maybe have different teams out now. Neither
Speaker 2: of those are that bold because but I think if
Speaker 2: we were to go down playoff odds, Jags, Chargers are
Speaker 2: probably eight, nine or nine, you know, eight and ten.
Speaker 2: They're close. It's not picking the Patriots or the the Titans,
Speaker 2: the real low teams. But I just I am. My premise,
Speaker 2: as you'll see throughout the show in the AFC, is
Speaker 2: that I think there's so many excellent quarterbacks that that
Speaker 2: is going to carry the day because if you don't
Speaker 2: have an excellent quarterback, your thirteen conference games a year,
Speaker 2: you're going to be or I guess twelve conference games
Speaker 2: a year, you're going to be at such a structural disadvantage.
Speaker 2: I'm and I still listen. I'm still a Trevor Lawrence believer. There,
Speaker 2: you know, there is in one version of history, Trevor
Speaker 2: Lawrence after a bad rookie season, had an awesome second year,
Speaker 2: one of the greatest playoff comebacks ever, and then was
Speaker 2: playing on Monday Night Football at eight and three to
Speaker 2: be the one seed and got hurt and the season
Speaker 2: went to hell. That's how I view it. Everyone else
Speaker 2: seems to view it as they fell apart and Yes,
Speaker 2: he doesn't seem to do well in the rain, which
Speaker 2: is unfortunate when you play your games in Jacksonville and
Speaker 2: in London. And he does have a bit of a
Speaker 2: fumbling issue. But I still believe in Trevor and your show.
Speaker 2: Is part of the reason I've been convinced on the
Speaker 2: Chargers is you've just had so many people make the
Speaker 2: point of the year one bump for Harbaugh everywhere he's
Speaker 2: gone and so but I the Herbert injury concerns me.
Speaker 2: But those are my two.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chargers were for me. I did not expect this.
Speaker 1: Jaguars I debated between those two. It was just a
Speaker 1: process of elimination, you know, Browns. I just don't expect
Speaker 1: the defense to be as good. They got too many problems, like.
Speaker 2: Can they might have a bottom three quarterback situation in
Speaker 2: the AFC.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a problem. They have backups. We'll see
Speaker 1: if they trade one of them. But uh, Steelers, maybe
Speaker 1: go if you had if I had done this in June,
Speaker 1: Steelers might have been that team.
Speaker 3: But just it's too messy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then the other teams are too far away that
Speaker 1: the Chargers. I feel like people are predicting them to
Speaker 1: be terrible this year. And yeah, I'm also someone that
Speaker 1: doesn't try to make it too complicated before the season.
Speaker 3: I'm usually a little bolder.
Speaker 1: I think I will be with the NFC, But I
Speaker 1: would rather just bet on a coach, a quarterback, and
Speaker 1: an offensive line and a defensive scheme to raise you
Speaker 1: to just be average. So Mina and I disagree vehemently
Speaker 1: on this. She thinks they're going to be trash. We
Speaker 1: have we have some line here. She thinks their defense
Speaker 1: is going to truly be trash, and she just doesn't.
Speaker 2: So here's this sneaky thing about the Chargers when it
Speaker 2: comes to the AFC Western projections. There's two things that
Speaker 2: I think people know one of them and are kind
Speaker 2: of maybe know the other, but I haven't thought about it.
Speaker 2: The Chargers, despite being in a division with the Raiders
Speaker 2: and Broncos, have the last place schedule, and that is
Speaker 2: such an edge. And amazingly, the Raiders have a second
Speaker 2: place schedule this year, So anyone wanting to be bullish
Speaker 2: on the Raiders, the Raiders did themselves no favors by
Speaker 2: beating the Chiefs on Christmas, and that you know it's
Speaker 2: actually the last game the Chiefs have lost, so it's
Speaker 2: not that bad, but all of a sudden they have
Speaker 2: a second place schedule, So that makes that makes me
Speaker 2: much more bullish on the Chargers.
Speaker 1: Than I'm glad you mentioned that, because you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: people overrate that last place schedule.
Speaker 3: It's like it used to just be two games, but
Speaker 3: now it's three. Now it's three in the NFC.
Speaker 1: But it also depends which NFC and which happened to
Speaker 1: be the last place seam for the Chargers this year.
Speaker 1: Here's the three extra games, Pats, Titans, Cardinals. That's beautiful,
Speaker 1: Like that's I'm.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, and they think about the Raiders, sorry to interrupt you.
Speaker 2: That means for the Raiders, it's in the play of
Speaker 2: the Pats, it's the Dolphins. In place of the Cardinals,
Speaker 2: it's the Rams, and in place of the Titans, it
Speaker 2: would be the Jags, right, I think they finished second
Speaker 2: or no, the Colts. It's the Colts there because they played,
Speaker 2: but regardless, like that's a huge difference. It's a huge difference.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 1: I think people overrate that sometimes, not this time, so
Speaker 1: I'm into that. I've been a team that is favored
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs that won't And I mentioned Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Texans, Bengals, Jets, Dolphins.
Speaker 2: So there's obviously, since I have two in, I have
Speaker 2: to have two out. But I'll give you the one
Speaker 2: that I'm most competent in. The Jets are not going
Speaker 2: to be good. I just I don't I don't understand.
Speaker 2: This is one of those things where I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: this is a smart person whose opinion I respect. I
Speaker 2: wonder why they're so wrong about this. And there's a
Speaker 2: lot of with the Jets. They they're favored to win
Speaker 2: the division. Robert Usually to win the division, you have
Speaker 2: to go at least four and two or five and
Speaker 2: one in the division. If the Jets go four and
Speaker 2: two in the division, Robert Salo will have doubled his
Speaker 2: career division wins. For his career, He's four and fourteen.
Speaker 2: They have an offensive coordinator that they tried to shadow
Speaker 2: replace because they thought he was so bad and they
Speaker 2: were too incompetent to do that. And even if we
Speaker 2: were to just pretend that Aaron Rodgers didn't tear his achilles,
Speaker 2: let's just pretend last year instead of being out with
Speaker 2: the torn achilles, he was out because he was canvassing
Speaker 2: for RFK Junior. Fine, then I'd still be like, well,
Speaker 2: his last season before that, he wasn't good, and people
Speaker 2: are like, no, he just wasn't good by Aaron Rodgers standards,
Speaker 2: but he was good by NFL standards. No, he wasn't.
Speaker 2: Look it up, he was league average in everything. Well,
Speaker 2: who could have won with that team? I don't know.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love played pretty well and in the final, in
Speaker 2: the last game of relevance that Aaron Rodgers played, he
Speaker 2: was at home against a team he had owned forever,
Speaker 2: played one of his worst games of the year and
Speaker 2: threw the game away at the end. So that guy
Speaker 2: is all of a sudden going to be the connective
Speaker 2: tissue and the best, not the best, but a very
Speaker 2: good quarterback. Like I just it's people. Everyone who doesn't
Speaker 2: believe in the Jets says, while injuries could kill him,
Speaker 2: obviously that's true. I think even healthy, they have average
Speaker 2: They have average quarterback play this year.
Speaker 3: I think you might be right, and they're on my
Speaker 3: list too.
Speaker 1: They're one of those teams that, again, if I did
Speaker 1: this earlier, I agree with everything you just said about
Speaker 1: Rogers and the Jets, and I do this thing that
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 3: I'm a hater.
Speaker 1: Basically, I'm a little biased against the Jets, so I
Speaker 1: almost try to like pretend I'm not and make the
Speaker 1: case for them in the end, But when it comes
Speaker 1: down to it, I don't believe in them. They have
Speaker 1: so many aspects of the team, even if you take
Speaker 1: away Rogers that I'm with you, I'd start with Rogers.
Speaker 1: But who's their second best defensive lineman after Leonard Williams.
Speaker 1: Robert Salah counts on a great defensive line to help them.
Speaker 1: They were counting on Hassan Redick. I don't know how
Speaker 1: that's gonna happen, but at this point I'd almost be
Speaker 1: surprised if he plays with them. Jermaine Johnson is maybe
Speaker 1: their second best. They're county on Javon Kinler, like Tac
Speaker 1: McKinley's in the mix. So there's so many ifs with
Speaker 1: this team. On their offensive line, their defensive line, obviously Rogers,
Speaker 1: Tyron Smith. I know they have backups in certain places,
Speaker 1: but it's just so many ifs. All in a season
Speaker 1: where they're a GM and their coach both knows they're
Speaker 1: going to be fired if it doesn't go well.
Speaker 3: So that's too much.
Speaker 1: I think they'll be okay and they'll stay in the
Speaker 1: mix and they'll be dramatic. But they were on my
Speaker 1: list too. They were the one I was going to
Speaker 1: talk about. But I had two teams out too, so
Speaker 1: I also, by the way, we'll throw in the Dolphins
Speaker 1: just because offensive line, defensive line, the edges coming off
Speaker 1: injury just a little too much.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna this is I promise, because I went
Speaker 2: through your producer did a brilliant job, sent me a
Speaker 2: really thorough rundown, so I know what's coming and I
Speaker 2: anticipate we're gonna have more disagreements later. But we have
Speaker 2: the same two out, the same team, the Dolls and
Speaker 2: the Dolphins. Can I give I don't know. Can I
Speaker 2: give a quick Dolphins?
Speaker 3: Yeah? You can do whatever you are.
Speaker 2: You know this is the year, so I have uh.
Speaker 2: I like Mike McDaniel. I think he's sharp. I think
Speaker 2: he's a good coach. I also personally have graded him
Speaker 2: in Miami on a bit of a curve. The curve
Speaker 2: being man, look at what he's doing with Tua, who
Speaker 2: I think is a limited player. The moment he signed
Speaker 2: off on them giving to a fifty three million, I
Speaker 2: made a decision. In my head, I'm removing that curve.
Speaker 2: Like now now you you are telling the world that
Speaker 2: you think this guy's top light quarterback, and you can
Speaker 2: say it wasn't his decision whatever. That's so in my
Speaker 2: head now it's like, no, now you're graded the way people.
Speaker 1: Great is his decision though, it was like he showed
Speaker 1: up there and he made it, and he's made that work.
Speaker 1: Weirdly too is kind of the least, not the least
Speaker 1: of my concerns. But Mike McDaniel tua as a combo
Speaker 1: to me, that works, that works to be a playoff team.
Speaker 3: It's everything.
Speaker 1: There's other things I think he I'm great amount of
Speaker 1: curve because he's a Dolphins coach, very similar to anyone
Speaker 1: who's a Jets coach. I just feel like, organizationally, there's
Speaker 1: a reason why these teams haven't won.
Speaker 2: And I just I think that, Uh. I think that
Speaker 2: your point on the defense is a great one. I also,
Speaker 2: I know this is called NFL Daily, but I think
Speaker 2: if it had a subtitle, it might be called you
Speaker 2: know where, the regular OBJ Report. I really appreciate that
Speaker 2: you've covered that story when the rest of the media
Speaker 2: you're in my You're in.
Speaker 1: My head though, because I realized after doing the Cutdown
Speaker 1: Day show with So it's like, why why am I
Speaker 1: leading with OBJ?
Speaker 3: I just keep talking about OBJ.
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting.
Speaker 1: It's my old blogger mentality from around the NFL days
Speaker 1: that it's like, well, you got to lead with Terrell,
Speaker 1: Pryor or OBJ because everyone's into it, like they really
Speaker 1: do sell you know.
Speaker 3: But it is.
Speaker 2: But I guess the point that the point I'm making
Speaker 2: is your while it has maybe been a little more
Speaker 2: focused than I would have expected for the whole league.
Speaker 2: Your point that they signed him because they expected they
Speaker 2: I don't want to say they needed him because they
Speaker 2: have Tyreek and Waddell. But the offense they want to run,
Speaker 2: they want to have three guys out there, and they
Speaker 2: want to threaten the defense in those ways. And I
Speaker 2: think it's on the board he plays. Let me set
Speaker 2: it like this, I am a gambler. If you set
Speaker 2: his over under for catches as a dolphin at twenty
Speaker 2: four and a half, I would say, I think that's
Speaker 2: a good number.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, that's about right. I was expecting you
Speaker 1: to say something in the thirties, and I was going.
Speaker 3: To go under.
Speaker 1: But twenty four is about right. Yeah, all right, let's
Speaker 1: go best division race. Just just pick one, which one?
Speaker 3: Which one? You're to me?
Speaker 2: The this is It depends on how you slice it.
Speaker 2: If you want a division where I think three teams
Speaker 2: theoretically could win it, I would say the South. But
Speaker 2: I think the best division races the North because I
Speaker 2: think the Bengals are going to be excellent and I
Speaker 2: think the Ravens are going to One of the things
Speaker 2: that I've tried to hammer on the TV show is
Speaker 2: that during the year, when a team surprises or a
Speaker 2: team's doing well, we always be like, man that coordinator.
Speaker 2: We give a lot of credit to coordinators when it's happening.
Speaker 2: Bobby Slowick, the guy in Detroit. Sorry that everybody loves
Speaker 2: Ben Ben Johnson, you know what I mean. Last year,
Speaker 2: Mike mcdonaldo back in the day, Louis Arumo up until
Speaker 2: last season, Spags in Kansas City. We always do it
Speaker 2: when those guys leave, though it totally removes from our analysis.
Speaker 2: We forget like it when last year nobody went said
Speaker 2: about the Eagles, man, they're gonna miss Shane Stiken. But
Speaker 2: during the year when they were awesome people are like
Speaker 2: Shane Stiken. So that's part of my not that I
Speaker 2: think the Ravens are gonna be bad, but part of
Speaker 2: my Ravens analysis is I think they're gonna miss Mike McDonald.
Speaker 2: You had, You had so many guys who I thought
Speaker 2: were near the end of their career or just you know,
Speaker 2: middling players be monsters, and that to me is usually scheme.
Speaker 2: And so I think that the Ravens come down a bit,
Speaker 2: the Bengals come up a bit, and I think that
Speaker 2: is a division race that will come down to the
Speaker 2: final week of the year and be massive, because that's
Speaker 2: the type of one where the winner of that can
Speaker 2: end up the two seed and then obviously the losers
Speaker 2: on the road the whole playoffs. So that's the one
Speaker 2: I'm most interested in. That's probably the most important one.
Speaker 1: You're right, just from a who's gonna win the super
Speaker 1: Bowl perspective, because I think they'd be on the short
Speaker 1: list we did. We did a power rankings a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago, and they were both near the top,
Speaker 1: so that makes sense to me. I'm also just curious
Speaker 1: will it be like the haves and the have nots
Speaker 1: in that division? I went with AFC South though to me,
Speaker 1: because I do think the Colts, like their ceiling is
Speaker 1: just much higher than people give credit for, I can't
Speaker 1: go all the way there.
Speaker 3: I still like the Texans better.
Speaker 1: And yet if I think, if you play this season
Speaker 1: out ten times, like there's a few scenarios where the
Speaker 1: Colts are the two seed with thirteen wins, twelve wins,
Speaker 1: and I don't think people really like see them that
Speaker 1: way because I don't see why they wouldn't have that
Speaker 1: high of an upside because the defensive line is nasty,
Speaker 1: it's just it's exciting. The defense could be a legitimately
Speaker 1: exciting defense because of their front, they have some continuity,
Speaker 1: and the offensive line's fantastic. And again I always feel
Speaker 1: like which teams are the best on the lines plus
Speaker 1: a quarterback plus a coach, Like, to me, they're up
Speaker 1: there with the Texans. Now, I kind of don't see
Speaker 1: that scenario happening. Richardson's probably going to be two up
Speaker 1: and down the divisions tough. But you throw in the Jags,
Speaker 1: who yeah, I couldn't quite get there. As know that
Speaker 1: the team as my last playoff team, But I do
Speaker 1: think all three of those teams have really good quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and they're really talented, and that it's it's a breath
Speaker 1: of fresh air to have an AFC South that I'm
Speaker 1: totally into watching every game.
Speaker 2: I almost feel cliche though, because I agree with you
Speaker 2: entirely about the optimism about Richardson, but it does feel
Speaker 2: I am aware of my own biases and so like all,
Speaker 2: if someone were like, be Nick, you're starting an NFL team,
Speaker 2: you can pick between these three quarterbacks, Tua Tongue of Iiloa,
Speaker 2: who has led the league in passing and put up
Speaker 2: amazing numbers, Brock Perdy, who's been to an NFC championship
Speaker 2: game in a super Bowl and it's the highest passer
Speaker 2: rating NFL history, or Anthony Richardson, who's played nine quarters
Speaker 2: of pro football. I'd be like, you know, I'll take
Speaker 2: the big, strong guy. And so I recognize that there
Speaker 2: is it just it feels to me like he is
Speaker 2: such upside that it's exciting, but it is. He was
Speaker 2: felt like a bit of an unknown at Florida, and
Speaker 2: now a year into the NFL what we saw was enticing.
Speaker 2: But yeah, those were were those were the two divisions
Speaker 2: I was thinking about. So I'm with you on a
Speaker 2: lot of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the ceiling is also partly on Stich and that
Speaker 1: he I mean he made it work pass away minshow
Speaker 1: minshew Yeah right, and if they really, if if Richardson
Speaker 1: can stay healthy and they just lean into the run
Speaker 1: eagle style like they could be dangerous. All Right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break. We're gonna be back. We're
Speaker 1: gonna predict the number one seed. We'll get to all
Speaker 1: the playoff rankings in just a second. All right, we
Speaker 1: are back on NFL Daily, and we've reached the portion
Speaker 1: of the program where Nick admits his own biases.
Speaker 3: That's that he knows his own biases, and we'll have
Speaker 3: to test that. I don't know if we really can
Speaker 3: be sure that, but I have to admit it.
Speaker 1: I would not be biased if you say what I
Speaker 1: think you're gonna say to my next question, which is
Speaker 1: who's the number one seed? I mean, it's how lucky
Speaker 1: are you not just to be a Chiefs fan, but
Speaker 1: to be where you are and to be a Chiefs fan?
Speaker 1: How much of your success is because of Patrick Mahomes directly?
Speaker 2: So this is no So this is this is a
Speaker 2: great If I may talk about myself for a moment
Speaker 2: because people there is there is a narrative out there
Speaker 2: in some corners of the Internet that I owe my
Speaker 2: success to the two greatest American athletes ever, Lebron James
Speaker 2: and Patrick Mahomes, Like, oh, you just said these guys
Speaker 2: are awesome a lot. Now you have a TV show, Michael, Oh,
Speaker 2: you don't get me started on swimming gold medals? How
Speaker 2: many would you say Balds have if they're like I.
Speaker 3: Don't, okay, thank you, I don't believe that.
Speaker 2: Okay. So now, and what I would say is we
Speaker 2: have this incredibly populated sports media, sports take landscape, and
Speaker 2: everyone is at different times fighting over the same corners
Speaker 2: you have. And for the Lebron thing, I was just
Speaker 2: fortunate enough to see earlier than most like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: not is he going to be better than Jordan? He
Speaker 2: already is. So I said that a bunch and then
Speaker 2: it's like, hey, he's the Lebron guy. I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: I'll take it. And then the guy never retires, so
Speaker 2: it helps. I'm from Kansas City. I was at the
Speaker 2: Lynne Elliott game as a child getting frostbite. I had
Speaker 2: my first foray into media was being Nick the kid
Speaker 2: on Bill Grigsby's post game call in show at ten
Speaker 2: years old, calling in from the parking lot after every
Speaker 2: home game.
Speaker 1: I really, yes, that's it's not too early to get
Speaker 1: Walker in the middle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2: I I remind people that I was born in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty four and the first quarterback in my lifetime drafted
Speaker 2: in my lifetime to win a drafted by the Chiefs
Speaker 2: in my lifetime to win a game for the Chiefs
Speaker 2: was Patrick Mahomes. They had not had a quarterback they
Speaker 2: drafted win a game from my birth to nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 2: because black Ledge was the last one to do it.
Speaker 2: He was drafting eighty three. So this idea that like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's been this blessed life of the Chiefs fan is.
Speaker 3: No, it's not a blessed life.
Speaker 1: It's just that the rise of Mahomes happened to coach
Speaker 1: now and you've enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: So now, to get back to the sports take point
Speaker 2: I was making, I did have the wherewithal to recognize hmmm,
Speaker 2: seems like in my business, the sports national sports television business,
Speaker 2: everyone is fighting over the same corner, and it's the
Speaker 2: Cowboys corner. So what if I just say, you know
Speaker 2: what you know, Unlike Marlow's Stanfield, I don't want all
Speaker 2: the corners. You guys have that one, and I will
Speaker 2: fortify the Chiefs corner and make it very clear that's
Speaker 2: my god dang corner and no one can take it.
Speaker 2: And then they ended up becoming the greatest Dinos. Well
Speaker 2: they will, sorry to your patriots here in about five
Speaker 2: months when they win their third strade Super Bowl, the
Speaker 2: greatest dynasty ever. And I just get to be along
Speaker 2: for the ride. So that's all. That's all that it is.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, you're not the only one on that corner.
Speaker 1: I mean, in fairness, And if you go back and
Speaker 1: listen to the Round the NFL podcast back in the day,
Speaker 1: we were debating, like hell before the Chiefs won their
Speaker 1: first Super Bowl on this podcast, is Patrick Mahomes the
Speaker 1: greatest quarterback I've ever seen? Literally, And it was before
Speaker 1: he even won his first Super Bowl? And I was
Speaker 1: in that argument. I was just like, well, you can
Speaker 1: only judge them on what we've seen. The first two
Speaker 1: seasons are the greatest two seasons I've ever seen, easily,
Speaker 1: And the only other person that could possibly be in
Speaker 1: contention would be Dan Marino, and I don't feel I
Speaker 1: can speak to it as much. But through two seasons,
Speaker 1: he's the greatest quarterback I've ever seen. And yeah, he
Speaker 1: had a lot of pushback then and then after year three,
Speaker 1: this is the greatest quarterback we've ever seen. After year four,
Speaker 1: like I've said that throughout, you know, we got to
Speaker 1: cover all thirty two teams, it also gets annoyed and
Speaker 1: it almost becomes obvious.
Speaker 3: So I don't think I don't think you can question
Speaker 3: it that much.
Speaker 1: This season's interesting with them though, because I actually feel like.
Speaker 3: I haven't been down on them going to the last
Speaker 3: two seasons.
Speaker 1: I had them in the Super Bowl, but there were
Speaker 1: just more doubts on paper about them. This year, there's
Speaker 1: it's hard to find any doubts. The schedule that you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the defense takes a step back. Everything is just
Speaker 1: set up for them. The biggest doubts to me, And
Speaker 1: it's why, you know, spoiler alert, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: pick them to win the Super Bowl this year or
Speaker 1: even make it is just is just something ineffable of
Speaker 1: like they're going to get picked off that if there's
Speaker 1: a reason why it's so hard. But I'm still picking
Speaker 1: them as my number one seed. I'm just saying like that,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have a great regular season. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: a great season. The Patriots had some seasons where they
Speaker 1: peaked almost a little too early. Everything was perfect, and
Speaker 1: it's just so hard to get through every year, and
Speaker 1: that's it's hard to define why or why that would happen.
Speaker 2: So I agree with that entirely. I and obviously, single
Speaker 2: elimination tournament things can happen. I would argue that if
Speaker 2: they were that people when I hear a lot of
Speaker 2: people say similar things, which is nobody's doubting how good
Speaker 2: they are. But eventually the ball is going to bounce
Speaker 2: wrong for you know, I mean wrong for them. I
Speaker 2: would argue that happened last year and they won anyway.
Speaker 2: The and so two years ago in the playoffs, Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes suffered a high ankle sprain and they won anyway.
Speaker 2: He suffered a significant injury. They won anyway. Last year,
Speaker 2: they the they fumbled the ball at the goal line
Speaker 2: against Buffalo. Everyone now in the revisionist history in the game,
Speaker 2: the Chiefs were leading by ten points in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: have decided Zay Flowers fumble cost the Ravens the game
Speaker 2: as if that.
Speaker 1: Time Biggs dropped that sticks out right, You're right, though
Speaker 1: the Bills at that point should not have been in
Speaker 1: that game.
Speaker 2: I agree, correct, And so like they there were the
Speaker 2: moments that were those like, oh my god, it went
Speaker 2: the wrong way for you moments might have happened and
Speaker 2: they got by and so I I just think this
Speaker 2: year they are so much better then they were each
Speaker 2: of the last two years. And I do listen, I
Speaker 2: think Sneed's an excellent player and they will miss him,
Speaker 2: and that to me, if people are looking for a
Speaker 2: weakness on the Chiefs, I think the secondary is going
Speaker 2: to be a work in progress over the course of
Speaker 2: the year. They're playing a lot of young guys and
Speaker 2: guys that aren't necessarily you know what I mean fully ready.
Speaker 2: I think the safeties will be good, the corners could
Speaker 2: be a problem, but the mahomes. Let me say one
Speaker 2: I think about the Chiefs that I think I think
Speaker 2: the NFL did the Ravens a disservice by putting them
Speaker 2: that Week one game.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 2: I just feel like that it is such if the
Speaker 2: Ravens had such a great season and then they have
Speaker 2: their worst game of the year and they lose to
Speaker 2: the Chiefs. If this year then starts like that, no
Speaker 2: matter what they do over the next four months, I
Speaker 2: just feel like, psychologically, it's gonna be like, well, damn it.
Speaker 2: So I just I thought, if I we're a Baltimore fan,
Speaker 2: maybe that's because I think the Chiefs are gonna win.
Speaker 2: The flip side is if the Ravens win that game,
Speaker 2: then it's like, hey, monkey off our back at least
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 1: But a little but I just was on the radio
Speaker 1: with my friend Glen Clark in Baltimore, and at least
Speaker 1: the way he says it, I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: cop coopium. They're they're like, that game stinks because we're
Speaker 1: gonna even if we win it like no one's gonna
Speaker 1: think it matters because nothing matters now except for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So that's shouldn't be weak one. But okay, I agree.
Speaker 1: I wanted that game to be Texans. It made more
Speaker 1: sense the NFL. Look, they've been out front with it.
Speaker 1: They decided this strategy of they're gonna front load this season.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, they wanted to go big and get
Speaker 1: the most monster ratings possible.
Speaker 3: The first three weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: But the schedule for the Chiefs after the beginning, when
Speaker 1: they do have at at San Francisco, they have the
Speaker 1: Bengals early.
Speaker 3: It's just too easy. They're gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: I disagree though, that they're much better because their defense
Speaker 1: can't be better and that's from Na Hughes out and
Speaker 1: they'll just be closer to average. But they're a freak
Speaker 1: fifteenth in points scored last year and that's never going
Speaker 1: to happen again with Patrick Mahomes, So that'll make up
Speaker 1: for anything, all right, that these can be quick first
Speaker 1: QB to be benched.
Speaker 3: There's a few options.
Speaker 1: Jacoby Brissett, Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, you could throw in there,
Speaker 1: Gardner Minshew, who you go with?
Speaker 2: So I I'm going to get this wrong because I
Speaker 2: the I don't consider Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew as like real,
Speaker 2: I don't consider those, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So I'm going and also, honestly, Jacoby might not even
Speaker 1: make it to week one. I've had this hunch that
Speaker 1: that girod Meyo wants to start Drake May and nobody
Speaker 1: else does.
Speaker 3: And that's just my hunch. And he's the head coach.
Speaker 1: So does he just put his foot down and say sorry,
Speaker 1: Alex Van Pelt, like you're not the coach here.
Speaker 2: Uh so I'm gonna say, Deshaun Watson, Okay, that's because
Speaker 2: that's a real bench and I don't think he can
Speaker 2: play anymore.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: I think that there are psychological reasons, physical reasons, and
Speaker 2: just too far, too long away from the game reasons.
Speaker 2: And I found the Jamis Winston acquisition interesting. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: because they had Huntley, who's a Mac Jones memorial pro
Speaker 2: bowler on his Wikipedia page and a uh and who's
Speaker 2: the is it?
Speaker 3: DT?
Speaker 2: Who's the other guy TTR?
Speaker 1: They say they're not trading DTR, who's you know, solid
Speaker 1: young backup prospect.
Speaker 2: But so my my point is like we live in
Speaker 2: a world where there are teams that have two quarterbacks
Speaker 2: and one of them is Malik Willis. Like you had
Speaker 2: you had Huntley and DTR, you didn't need to go
Speaker 2: get Jamis as a backup. But maybe you thought you
Speaker 2: needed Jamis as a starter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're not blind he's not healthy right now,
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson still and yeah, that's a good choice. I
Speaker 1: just think they'll be stuck on keeping it going. I'll
Speaker 1: go Russell Wilson there, partly because of what rap Sheet
Speaker 1: said on our show. He made it sound like, okay,
Speaker 1: I I think maybe Fields has convinced some people in
Speaker 1: the building a team or let's go with the coach first,
Speaker 1: if any in the AFC to get fired.
Speaker 2: Oh all right, So I I had Do you dream
Speaker 2: about the show?
Speaker 3: You do?
Speaker 2: Sometimes?
Speaker 3: Now I do?
Speaker 1: I never did before, but now that it's every day, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. So I actually have dreamed about the show
Speaker 1: every day this week. It's funny to say this.
Speaker 2: So I also wear nicotine patches. I've worn nickeotine patches
Speaker 2: for seventeen years. I don't know if that's really the
Speaker 2: way it's supposed to go, but it's what I've done.
Speaker 2: And I sleep with them on which again I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's healthy, but it keeps you, like brain moving.
Speaker 2: So I sometimes have a dream that's very specific. Sometimes
Speaker 2: there's even stats involved, and it's stuff that is accurate,
Speaker 2: and I use it on the show. So I had
Speaker 2: Wilds makes fun of me when I talk about this.
Speaker 2: He's like, do we don't want to hear about your dreams?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: And I'm like, I'm not saying they're premonitions. I just
Speaker 2: think they're a good ideas. So I had a dream
Speaker 2: that Robert Sala got fired and Matt Hackett got to
Speaker 2: be the interim headshot.
Speaker 3: I mean the second part of that is definitely never happening.
Speaker 2: But that is what do you mean it's never happening
Speaker 2: if they fire. If they fire Robert Sala during the year,
Speaker 2: who is the I mean that I know who, I
Speaker 2: know who Rogers would advocate for, and it seems like
Speaker 2: he's in charge. We can say it's never happening. And
Speaker 2: I don't know the Jets full coaching staff a week.
Speaker 1: I'm looking it up right now because I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to find someone. Well, yeah, all Breck, who's kind of
Speaker 1: impressive in that hard knocks thing.
Speaker 2: I I don't know.
Speaker 1: I know my initial instinct was, who is the just
Speaker 1: oldest guy that has respect but really isn't cut out
Speaker 1: for it. John Jefferson has been a coach for twenty
Speaker 1: years in the NFL. He's their wide receivers coach. I
Speaker 1: don't know it'd be a guy like that, but you're right,
Speaker 1: they don't really have anyone else.
Speaker 2: They don't have the only guy with head coaching experience.
Speaker 3: They can't.
Speaker 2: Heck, and I just don't think that. I think the
Speaker 2: Jets are going to stumble out of the gates. Oh
Speaker 2: that's fun and so the and so I don't know
Speaker 2: the I'm trying to think of the other possible option.
Speaker 1: There's not really many in the AFC. Doug Nah, there's
Speaker 1: actually coaches that have no worry, and then there's new coaches.
Speaker 1: So Doug Peterson was probably the one I was going
Speaker 1: to throw out there just if things go sour. I
Speaker 1: don't think they will go sour. I think they'll actually
Speaker 1: have a winning record if I had to choose. But
Speaker 1: I think if they were two and six or two
Speaker 1: and five that he'd be dating.
Speaker 3: Maybe they'll leave him in London. I'll be there.
Speaker 1: By the way, you mentioned Jags in London earlier, So
Speaker 1: that's that's a little breaking news. I'm gonna go see
Speaker 1: the Prince versus Caleb Williams, So that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 2: What again, are you going to stick around for the
Speaker 2: next week to see him against him?
Speaker 1: Fortunately, I can only get the the finances or whatnot,
Speaker 1: the approval for one game.
Speaker 2: But I'll take it, believe me, I will. But just
Speaker 2: real quick on this topic. It is interesting that in
Speaker 2: the AFC it feels like you just go division by division,
Speaker 2: take out the guy I mentioned Robert Sala the other.
Speaker 2: I guess McDermott theoretically could be fired during the year
Speaker 2: if they're awful, but that's not gonna happen, feels like
Speaker 2: the rest of the AFC. In the AFC North, all
Speaker 2: four are one hundred percent safe during the year. Feels
Speaker 2: to me Stefanski just won Coach of the Year again.
Speaker 2: In the AFC South, Peterson's the only one who could
Speaker 2: be fired during the year yea. And in the AFC West,
Speaker 2: I think all four are one hundred percent safe during
Speaker 2: the year. Like Antonio pears that I just don't think
Speaker 2: you're gonna hire an interim coach, and then obviously Sean Payton,
Speaker 2: Jim Harbaugh, Andy Reid aren't the The NFC has way
Speaker 2: more coach.
Speaker 3: And now Dennis Allen is.
Speaker 1: I actually read something about this that initially this offseason,
Speaker 1: Robert South it was the Vegas favorite to be first
Speaker 1: cotch fighted, which seems crazy to me. But now because
Speaker 1: so many people put their money on Dennis all and
Speaker 1: Dennisallen is, we'll go through these quick and then we'll
Speaker 1: get to our seeds halfway decent team that gets talked
Speaker 1: about the least on your show.
Speaker 3: First things first, well.
Speaker 1: You can take this however you want. If you want
Speaker 1: to just say any team, you can say, no, that's fine.
Speaker 1: It could be a bad team. It could be the Titans,
Speaker 1: because the Titans.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, you said halfway decent. I think the answers
Speaker 2: the Colts. Okay, the because I think the Colts are
Speaker 2: a lot of what you said, I agree with. The
Speaker 2: Other one that I think could be halfway decent this
Speaker 2: year is the Broncos.
Speaker 1: That was the one that popped in my mind that like,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't love this team, but their over
Speaker 1: runners five and a half and it's Sean Payton will
Speaker 1: probably because you'll probably scrape close enough to eight hundred
Speaker 1: and or five hundred and they might not get mentioned
Speaker 1: for weeks on first Yes, first, that's correct, way great
Speaker 1: find I would have never you know, not that, not
Speaker 1: that you found him, but uh a delight.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Kevin Wilds is I think the best at what he does,
Speaker 2: which is a very specific thing in the business. The
Speaker 2: only person to me similar to Wilde's and skill set
Speaker 2: and ability is actually a guy you already mentioned on
Speaker 2: the show in lef Goo, a guy who like can
Speaker 2: you know, host and have takes and be funny and
Speaker 2: just universally likable. But uh, but yeah, the one other
Speaker 2: bonus Broncos take. I think bo Nicks is the most
Speaker 2: likely guy to trick people into thinking he's good. Yes,
Speaker 2: So I think that there is a lot of mac
Speaker 2: Jones rookie season for bo Nicks where it's like you
Speaker 2: reach your ceiling immediately and it's kind of training wheel
Speaker 2: stuff and it's like, hey, look at him, look at
Speaker 2: what he's going to be. But it's actually just that
Speaker 2: the whole time, because he's twenty nine years old.
Speaker 3: That's tricked. But if mac Jones.
Speaker 2: Said, well, I wasn't trying to take a shot at you.
Speaker 1: No, no, but I was tricked because well, first of all,
Speaker 1: mac Jones didn't stay at that level.
Speaker 3: Obviously, the things around it, like if he could have
Speaker 3: just stayed at the level, he could have had a
Speaker 3: real career. He could not.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's.
Speaker 3: Preseason maybe, but if you watch.
Speaker 1: There were some Yeah, he had a lot of numbers
Speaker 1: and highlights, but if you watch those games, he had
Speaker 1: some mac Jones moments too that were like, okay, that's
Speaker 1: why you're back up, all right, one last quick break
Speaker 1: and then we're going to go through.
Speaker 3: Our seeds and our pick for the championship game.
Speaker 1: Back on NFL Daily an inspiration as I've gotten used
Speaker 1: to these daily shows.
Speaker 3: And thinking, okay, it's a lot planning, and every.
Speaker 1: Day I do, I do think about the Good Morning
Speaker 1: Football people and what they've been through the last however
Speaker 1: many years, and then I think of people like Nick
Speaker 1: Wright who have a daily TV show, which I know
Speaker 1: personally take it's a different sort of energy out of you,
Speaker 1: takes more out of you, frankly, and then on top
Speaker 1: of that you then go do your YouTube show. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, if they can do it. And now that
Speaker 1: I've once I got used to it and into the
Speaker 1: flow of it, I was like, okay.
Speaker 3: This is this is quite different.
Speaker 2: It's also let me tell I don't know again, this
Speaker 2: is a little psychological. I guess. I have found I
Speaker 2: really enjoy now like building legos and doing puzzles. And
Speaker 2: the reason is just follow me for a moment, is
Speaker 2: because I like when I finish something there to be
Speaker 2: proof of it. One of the weird things about a
Speaker 2: daily show is no matter how One of the good
Speaker 2: things is if you think it was awful, it's like, well,
Speaker 2: I get to do it again tomorrow. One of the
Speaker 2: bad things is and I've just done daily radio or
Speaker 2: TV or both for now gosh, you know almost twenty years,
Speaker 2: or I guess eight seventeen years. Is you do all
Speaker 2: this work, you can do all this prepe, you get
Speaker 2: everything ready, and then it's just gone, just like into
Speaker 2: the ether, you know what I mean. So like I
Speaker 2: like so just psychologically and like it's like, oh, I
Speaker 2: did this project and now it's sitting on my mantle.
Speaker 2: Not that I build a lot of legos that then
Speaker 2: we display in the house. But you understand, you understand
Speaker 2: the point that I'm making. Yeah, it's it's a weird
Speaker 2: thing in your head.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've and I've been doing ephemeral stuff forever.
Speaker 3: I mean it was doing wrote a world.
Speaker 1: You gotta just enjoy the actual doing of it, and
Speaker 1: that that for me is the reward. Because none of
Speaker 1: this stuck. It has stuck, like rote a world player
Speaker 1: news that does not stick. My PFT posts, all the
Speaker 1: things I wrote on PFT because they messed it up
Speaker 1: now are under someone else's name, and I always get
Speaker 1: like tweets that I wrote some incendiary thing from two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine and it was actually Mike Florio that
Speaker 1: wrote it, but for some reason my name's on it
Speaker 1: because they they messed it up, and so everything's ephemeral.
Speaker 1: Nothing I wrote has ever stuck, and that's fine. I'm
Speaker 1: fine with that cause it's a fun life.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: Let's wrap up with, you know, the most important stuff,
Speaker 1: our seven playoff seeds, and then we'll also after that
Speaker 1: go with our championship result because you know, maybe the
Speaker 1: seeds don't match up the same as as what the
Speaker 1: championship game is. Why don't you go from seven to one?
Speaker 1: You can start.
Speaker 2: Seven to one, all right, So I want to get
Speaker 2: this exactly right because there's nothing I dislike more and
Speaker 2: judge folks more for in our space where if on
Speaker 2: one platform they have X and then on another platform
Speaker 2: they have why, because it's either you weren't paying attention
Speaker 2: and didn't care, or you're actually trying to hedge. You're
Speaker 2: like the guy who fills out seven March madness brackets,
Speaker 2: so you can be like I had that upset. I
Speaker 2: had that upset. So I'm checking my official document Nick
Speaker 2: Right twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: The tricky part is you might change your mind between
Speaker 1: now and the season, but no, it's.
Speaker 2: Locked in stone, locking stone. Okay, seven seed Los Angeles Chargers, Dame,
Speaker 2: six seed Jacksonville Jaguars. Do you want to say yours? No?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to go for three years? Oh? Okay,
Speaker 3: got that?
Speaker 2: Five seed Baltimore Ravens. Hmmm, okay, four seed Houston Texans,
Speaker 2: three seed Buffalo Bills, two seed Cincinnati Bengals, and the
Speaker 2: number one seed the Kansasity Chiefs.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it was harder to get overly creative in
Speaker 1: the AFC.
Speaker 3: None of those will shock me.
Speaker 1: I am pleased, And I don't know if it surprises
Speaker 1: the word, but that you stuck with the Bills, I
Speaker 1: guess I could have figured out because you went Dolphins
Speaker 1: and Jets earlier.
Speaker 3: But why are you staying?
Speaker 1: You know, thinking the Bills, who have just had a
Speaker 1: strange run here under Josh Allen, they just are very streaky.
Speaker 1: There's always a point in the season where it looks
Speaker 1: like things are going to crater, and then by the
Speaker 1: end they're usually the second best team or the third
Speaker 1: best team, which is frustrating for the Bills, but also
Speaker 1: to me is extremely impressive because I as a for
Speaker 1: you know, as a Patriots fan, I think that's the
Speaker 1: hardest thing to do, and the Bills have basically done it.
Speaker 1: They just have done it in an era where Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes is there, and they haven't you know, quite gotten over.
Speaker 2: The Okay, So this is I'm glad we're having a
Speaker 2: chance to talk about the Bills because I understand people,
Speaker 2: you know, might look at me as a Chiefs guy,
Speaker 2: but there are other people that have been close to,
Speaker 2: if not just as correct about the Chiefs over the
Speaker 2: last few years as me.
Speaker 1: No one right here, I didn't pick against them once
Speaker 1: in the playoffs after a couple.
Speaker 2: There, you go, exactly right. No one has been more
Speaker 2: accurate about the Buffalo Bills than me, and I have
Speaker 2: been ridiculed, called a hater, called a hot take artist,
Speaker 2: all these things when it's just been correct. And I
Speaker 2: reject the premise that other people have and I think
Speaker 2: you might be one of them, like ah, you ran
Speaker 2: into Michael Jordan, you ran into the Chiefs because the
Speaker 2: fact of the matter is, there is not a single
Speaker 2: game the Bills have played the Chiefs in the playoffs
Speaker 2: that you have real evidence had they won, they would
Speaker 2: have then won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Oh there's the twenty twenty two right, you know that
Speaker 1: the overtime game. Yeah, I was convinced they would have
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl. Okay, well that's they were better
Speaker 1: than the Bengals and the Rams.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's interesting because the very next year they
Speaker 2: then hosted the Bengals and.
Speaker 3: They were a different team, rocked.
Speaker 1: They were a different team that was their best team,
Speaker 1: and that didn't happen for him, and it is And look,
Speaker 1: they they deserve it because their defensive coach and everything's
Speaker 1: about to be the consistency of their defense and Sean
Speaker 1: McDermott's peeded down his leg and their defense has played
Speaker 1: the very worst in the biggest moments, and so they
Speaker 1: deserve to lose it.
Speaker 3: But they they were.
Speaker 1: If they had had if they had found the way
Speaker 1: to win that game with one more stop, I felt
Speaker 1: like they were winning that Super Bowl. Those that was
Speaker 1: a bad team super Bowl relatively Bengals Rams.
Speaker 2: I understand. But the point that I'm making is that's
Speaker 2: the one everyone goes to. And that season they lost
Speaker 2: to a team that then lost to the team that
Speaker 2: lost to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: I know how it happens, though I do.
Speaker 2: I just think it's for a team that has three
Speaker 2: consecutive seventh place finishes. They've sure been talked about it
Speaker 2: than a lot of Super Bowls. But that's on the point.
Speaker 2: The reason is, despite that, I now think people have
Speaker 2: overcorrected and people are now underrating them a healthy Josh Allen,
Speaker 2: you have a baseline of nine or ten wins, and
Speaker 2: I think that even though they have a lot of
Speaker 2: defensive personnel losses, they were without Milano for a lot
Speaker 2: of last year. I think the guys in the secondary
Speaker 2: weren't still great players. They were good players, but not
Speaker 2: great players. And Digs whether it was because of personality
Speaker 2: or age or whatever after the first five games of
Speaker 2: last year, was not a top forty receiver. And so
Speaker 2: I just think that they are they I think they're
Speaker 2: going to be fine. I think that they are going
Speaker 2: to be what they have been in my opinion each
Speaker 2: of the last few years, which is a good regular
Speaker 2: season team that when it is all firing, looks like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, that team's amazing. That then plays a
Speaker 2: true contender in the playoffs and loses. And so that's
Speaker 2: just how I so I am, but now it's we're
Speaker 2: in a world where they're not even the favorite to
Speaker 2: win their own division. So I think now the Bills
Speaker 2: are being disrespected by Vegas when previously they have been
Speaker 2: way overly respected, which is good for me because it
Speaker 2: just means once again I get to be right down
Speaker 2: the middle about the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 3: I'm with you, and I'm high on the Bills this year.
Speaker 1: Partly maybe I'm just pushing against that, but I do
Speaker 1: believe it that it was the same reason why I
Speaker 1: picked the Chiefs in twenty twenty two to make the
Speaker 1: super Bowl and I think to win the Actually, no,
Speaker 1: before the year, I had Eagles over Chiefs, that was right.
Speaker 1: I got it wrong, but I had the matchup right,
Speaker 1: which is very that does not happen. But it's because
Speaker 1: offensive line and quarterback. Like I'm not making it that complicated,
Speaker 1: and there's enough of everything else. And I think this
Speaker 1: is the best Bills offensive line they've had. It just
Speaker 1: has good continuity. And I do think Josh Allen He's
Speaker 1: never going to be better than Patrick Mahomes overall, but
Speaker 1: I do think we're right about the point. We're getting
Speaker 1: the very best Josh Allen, and I do think he
Speaker 1: can lift all the tides, and I wanted, like, I
Speaker 1: think there was a point in the offseason where I
Speaker 1: probably thought I'd be more creative and not as high
Speaker 1: in the Texans because it's like everyone's going to be
Speaker 1: high in the Texants.
Speaker 3: But they deserve it. They really are that good.
Speaker 1: They really do have a chance, and so I have
Speaker 1: them up there winning the division. I'll go through mine too,
Speaker 1: and then we can talk our championship results. So seven Chargers,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, didn't feel great about it, but I
Speaker 1: had to go somewhere.
Speaker 3: Six Colts. I do have them in the playoff.
Speaker 1: So I have two AFC South teams, five Bengals, four Texans,
Speaker 1: three Ravens. I have a weird feeling about the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and yet when it comes down to it, I just
Speaker 1: can't pick against them. Two Bills and then number one
Speaker 1: two Peas. Yeah, why not? I mean they're the most
Speaker 1: consistent regular season team and there's a lot of Like
Speaker 1: I think Rousseau could have a breakout season every year.
Speaker 1: I think ed Oliver is gonna have a breakout season,
Speaker 1: except what he does is improve like ten percent every season,
Speaker 1: which is fine. Like he improves from very good, so like, yeah,
Speaker 1: closer now he's like pro bowler, And that's fine if
Speaker 1: you have two good defensive linemen. McDermott knows how to
Speaker 1: coach up the back seven, which to me is just
Speaker 1: so valuable even if he's you know, holds the as
Speaker 1: we would say in tennis, like he holds the racket
Speaker 1: a little too tight, like he just he just that
Speaker 1: worries me in a playoff setting, but that that's my
Speaker 1: playoffs and I might as well just go to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have the Bills in the Super Bowl this year.
Speaker 1: I'm going Bills over I'm going Bills over Texans. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna actually be because the Chiefs freaked me out. I
Speaker 1: guess in this scenario, the Texans pickoff.
Speaker 3: The Chiefs, So that's what That's what the Texans.
Speaker 2: Last year, broad Brew had Ravens over Bengals in the
Speaker 2: AFC title game, but his his logic was the chief
Speaker 2: the Bengals beat the Chiefs for the Ravens, yes, and
Speaker 2: then they and then they go I'm.
Speaker 3: Going that way because I really do.
Speaker 1: It's more of a bet against the Chiefs in the
Speaker 1: sense that this is the best AFC I've seen. I
Speaker 1: think there's gonna be four to five really great teams,
Speaker 1: and so I am gonna I take the field over
Speaker 1: the Chiefs. And if I'm gonna take the field over
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, this is the first time I haven't had
Speaker 1: them in a Super Bowl before a season.
Speaker 3: In a while, maybe almost.
Speaker 2: Ever something, Greg, because you're my friend and I love
Speaker 2: this show you. It's one thing to not pick the
Speaker 2: Chiefs to win the Super Bowl, yeah, another thing not
Speaker 2: picked the Chiefs to make the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But the Chiefs seasons start the Chiefs since Mahomes have
Speaker 2: been there, they have a one or two game season
Speaker 2: and it starts in the AFC Title Game. And if
Speaker 2: they go to and oh, it's a great year. If
Speaker 2: they go one and one, it's a sad year.
Speaker 3: I mean they want that. Bill's overtime game was a
Speaker 3: preseason game. I mean, giving a break. You don't know
Speaker 3: when your tough games are gonna come.
Speaker 2: No, no, No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying
Speaker 2: is one one hundred of the time when the when
Speaker 2: the AFC Championship Game trophy is in the building and
Speaker 2: the winner of that game gets it, Patrick Mahomes is
Speaker 2: playing in that game. That's why I'm not allowing it
Speaker 2: to get to that game, you know, but you're saying
Speaker 2: that he won't play in it. You're that that's why
Speaker 2: if he gets there, I actually maybe it's game.
Speaker 3: He's maybe the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Fan in me that recognizes how great this Chiefs run
Speaker 1: is and is going to be, and they have a
Speaker 1: chance to be better than the Patriots. It'll be different
Speaker 1: because that was twenty years and who knows, you'll see,
Speaker 1: but they have a chance to be better over a
Speaker 1: shorter period of time this year right now.
Speaker 3: They you know, there's almost an argument they already have. Uh.
Speaker 1: I do think those divisional round games sometimes are the toughest.
Speaker 1: You've come off of a little of a bye, and
Speaker 1: the other team maybe has played in this scenario and
Speaker 1: they're fantastic. So I do think it's just as likely
Speaker 1: that the Texans beat them as some other team, and
Speaker 1: that it's that first game and that it could happen.
Speaker 1: And I just wanted to be a little more fun
Speaker 1: and throw this great Texans team into a big spe Listen.
Speaker 2: I like the Texans and they should pop. And there's
Speaker 2: a you know, a pretty decent history of this is
Speaker 2: how you do it. The Everyboddy knows the rookie quarterback,
Speaker 2: your rookie contract quarterback, load the team up, go go,
Speaker 2: go got it. I think having the having the by
Speaker 2: your predictions, the Chiefs are going to win zero playoff games.
Speaker 2: And I think that's lunis.
Speaker 3: Why it happened. It's happened.
Speaker 2: It's it's literally.
Speaker 1: Like an NFL history where the best team loses and
Speaker 1: sometimes it happened history.
Speaker 2: I'm john about Patrick mahomes history, and I'm just saying
Speaker 2: he is the it's never it's never happened to him, and.
Speaker 1: That's never gonna it's not gonna get you do understand
Speaker 1: as Chiefs, and that will not continue his whole career.
Speaker 2: There will will be games, there will be seasons like this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but the I don't think this is the year. Also,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken, your Patriots did make eight consecutive
Speaker 2: AFC title games, so that's doable. Twenty eleven to twenty eighteen,
Speaker 2: you guys were in eight straight AFC title games. And
Speaker 2: since part of Mahomes' legacy is going to be to
Speaker 2: break all of your guys records, I guess he's gonna
Speaker 2: have to go to.
Speaker 3: Nine I always said that was the.
Speaker 2: Most impressive thing.
Speaker 3: Four.
Speaker 1: It's hard to pick, but that that was at the
Speaker 1: time it felt. And why I always thought twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: was the most satisfying because because they were so good
Speaker 1: for that decade, that they were sneaky. The best team
Speaker 1: in NFL history not to win a Super Bowl for
Speaker 1: a decade was the twenty two thousand and five through
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen Patriots, and so it was it was great
Speaker 1: to get off of that. And who, I don't know
Speaker 1: if the Chiefs all. I don't think they'll ever have
Speaker 1: that long of a stretch without Mahomes. And yet I
Speaker 1: still would take the under. And this is a whole
Speaker 1: other podcast. I would take the under of Mahomes getting
Speaker 1: to six or seven, whichever one you want to use,
Speaker 1: whether it's Patriots or Brady.
Speaker 3: No, I would take the under. Discuss football, you have.
Speaker 2: To take the under. If the numbers six and a half,
Speaker 2: you have to take the under. With that said, it
Speaker 2: couldn't have started better. I didn't give mine Chiefs over Bengals, Okay,
Speaker 2: and me and that this this whole cause you know,
Speaker 2: the Chiefs have ended the Bengals season in consecutive years.
Speaker 2: Last year, nobody cares because it was Jake Browning, but
Speaker 2: they did do it and for three straight years. I
Speaker 2: think that would be good. And I like, listen, I like,
Speaker 2: I really like the Bengals in Burrow and I am.
Speaker 2: I am worried if they don't win the Super Bowl
Speaker 2: this year, they being the Bengals when they're going to
Speaker 2: have a great opportunity, a great opportunity again in the
Speaker 2: short order, because it does seem like ownership might be
Speaker 2: messing this up a bit, and that I don't understand
Speaker 2: the Jamar Chase thing at all. I get the T
Speaker 2: Higgins thing, I get it, but the T Higgins thing
Speaker 2: only made sense because it's like, we can't pay you
Speaker 2: because we're about to give Jamar all this money to
Speaker 2: do the t Higgins thing and then not give Jamar
Speaker 2: all the money is baffling to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in their top level talent on defense and we'll
Speaker 1: see maybe Amarius Mims turns out into that offense. Whereas
Speaker 1: I'm with you that this is kind of their year.
Speaker 1: I think I spend most of the off season thinking
Speaker 1: I'm gonna either pick the Bengals or the Bills to
Speaker 1: win the Super Bowl. That this feels like it's going
Speaker 1: to be one of their years. And I just settled
Speaker 1: on the bills of CAMPI.
Speaker 2: It'll happen eventually. It'll happen eventually. I just think the
Speaker 2: I think that the laser focus on a three peat
Speaker 2: and potentially letting Travis walk off into the sunset. Everyone's
Speaker 2: gonna be long, but we'll see.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, Nick, right again FS one. First thing's
Speaker 1: first noon Pacific three eastern. What's Right with Nick Wright?
Speaker 1: Check out the podcast. It's a YouTube show. This was
Speaker 1: a pleasure. It's a daily show. So I do want
Speaker 1: to have you back on at some point. Maybe this
Speaker 1: is an off season show where we compare who's going
Speaker 1: to have a better career. Carlos Alcarez your guy. I
Speaker 1: do love that you're pumping up Alcarez on a national stage.
Speaker 1: We need more tennis talk or mahomes. I mean that
Speaker 1: that's an interesting I mean.
Speaker 2: I was at the Real Quick before we go, because
Speaker 2: you'll love this. So yesterday I'm texting with Greg about
Speaker 2: today's show and he just texts me go out or
Speaker 2: go Alcarez or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was, like, I said, in the time,
Speaker 1: we can watch some Alcarez. I figured on TV. I
Speaker 1: know you're a big fan, and I had, and I had,
Speaker 1: and I was like, how the hell. I was in
Speaker 1: my car on my way to the US Open. I
Speaker 1: was like, how the hell did he know? I was like,
Speaker 1: did I say it on the air?
Speaker 3: Like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: So I get to the US Open like fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: after the match starts and just buy upper level seats
Speaker 2: for al Carez the for like eighty bucks. And I'm
Speaker 2: watching the kid qualifier. Looks like he's going to win
Speaker 2: the second set, and I'm like, all right, now we
Speaker 2: might have a real match. I'm in the stadium. I've
Speaker 2: already paid for tickets. I go on a ticketing app
Speaker 2: and see four throw sideline right where you serve. There
Speaker 2: are tickets still for sale. But now it's eight thirty.
Speaker 2: So those tickets, which were twenty two hundred dollars earlier
Speaker 2: in the day, we're down to two hundred bucks a
Speaker 2: seat in the stadium. I bought two tickets just so
Speaker 2: I could move down and watch and watch from there,
Speaker 2: and me and Mark Carmon and Danny Parkins went down
Speaker 2: and watched from the fourth row. It was great. I
Speaker 2: love the US Open.
Speaker 3: I'll be back my live tennis.
Speaker 1: I'm very happy with my life here in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: and my family. The thing that happens every year this
Speaker 1: time of year that I wish I was having my
Speaker 1: old life when I lived in New York for ten years.
Speaker 1: I would love so doing a football show and heading
Speaker 1: up to Flushing a handful of times during this US Open.
Speaker 1: Nick Wright can do that and like I said, check
Speaker 1: them out every day on his shows. We will be
Speaker 1: back with an NFC preview on Friday, wrapping up the week.
Speaker 1: Big time, big show, Jordan Rodrieg, Steve Weisch and a
Speaker 1: new guest, new co host Keigan Abdu who does next
Speaker 1: Gen stats for US. So it's a big pack studio.
Speaker 1: We'll do the NFC preview before the week is up.
Speaker 1: I'll see you then