January 2, 2026 • 41 mins
Jason & Buck talk about the job security of Falcons coach Raheem Morris, if it is time to panic in Cincinnati if you're a Bengals fan, and how it's hard to really trust any team in the AFC playoffs. Plus, another edition of Would You Rather?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the final weekend of the NFL season, which means
there is pressure everywhere as we're trying to figure out
what the future holds for some of the teams that
are trying to find their way in to the playoffs.
He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason fitz hanging out for two
pros and a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
A buck a correction. It is not winning in for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I absolutely misspoke on that. The
(00:21):
total chaos of the NFC South now gives us a
situation where even if the Buccaneers win, they then need
the Saints to beat the Falcons.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We have this ugly three way tie scenario.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I will remind everybody there's a very real chance this year,
depending on what happens through this weekend, that an eight
and nine team will make the NFL playoffs. So Q
all of the people that are freaking an eight and
nine team will make the playoffs and have a home
game in this wild NFCF.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
In an NFC, in a world.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Where you turn around and you've got so many good teams,
you have so many capable like we are now looking
can get a very real situation where you know, an
eight and nine team will be hosting the thirteen and
four San Francisco forty nine Ers in the first round.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Of the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's a while while west.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Out here in the NFC, I love it. I love
it so much.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I feel like the NFC South always does this too,
don't They always feel like they are the most likely
division to get a team in the playoffs under five hundred.
I mean, I think it's actually happened before with the
Carolina Panthers and Ron River and Cam Newton a couple
of years ago. I mean, I guess it's been more
than a couple of years ago at this point in time.
But still now, that doesn't mean that playoff team is
(01:35):
going to be long for this world, right, because if
you're the eight to nine Panthers or something like that,
and you end up hosting the San Francisco forty nine ers,
who most recently whipped your ass. The Niners have already
beaten the Panthers in this run of what have they
won now six in a row I think for San
Francisco dating back to mid November. Yet Cardinals, Panthers, Browns,
(01:59):
Titan Colts, Bears are the teams that they've beaten in
this stretch, and that, in fact, Carolina played the closest
game against them of any of these other teams. Where
San Francisco has put forty one on Arizona and thirty
seven on Tennessee, forty eight on Indianapolis, forty two on Chicago.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Carolina lost that game twenty to nine.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Ugly game, but at least they made it a game
against San Francisco, and you know, postseason results, it's tough
to beat a team twice, no matter if it's an
opponent that you're used to seeing, a divisional opponent or
a non conference opponent. If you see that team again,
it is very difficult to beat them twice in a
twice in a row. Which is why I think you
(02:40):
know I'm we talk about the fact of the Titans
are the team that I cover on a regular basis
here in Nashville. Titans are getting ready if they lose
to Jacksonville, which I think is a fair expectation at
this point in time. Though they are playing better a
little better football. Cam Warden and the Tennessee Titans looked
a little better here in the last month of the season.
(03:01):
They would be held winless in the division for the
first time in Titans era history. So going back to
nineteen ninety nine when the damtam moved here from Houston,
it would be the first time that they did not
win odd divisional game. So, you know, unless you're the Titans,
it's tough to get swept or tough to get beaten
twice in the same season by the same team.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So let's look at.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Some of the other games here and try to figure
out if there's massive change coming from the outcome. Because
I just mentioned New Orleans, Atlanta has huge implications for
the NFC South depending on what happens in that game.
If Atlanta loses that game, if we're sitting here and
suddenly we're talking about an Atlanta Falcons team that went
(03:40):
seven to ten, that feels like a disappointment. But it
also feels like Atlanta has had a bit of a
revolving door. Nobody can seem to figure out how to
maximize some of the talent that certainly has flashes there.
I don't I mean, does it Atlanta have pressure to
make big change?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
In your mind?
Speaker 4 (03:59):
If you hear Falcons fans talk about it, they'll say
that Terry Fontina, the general manager has done a good job,
and that team is not well coached. I struggle with that,
and I think I might have asked you this question, like,
do you think the Falcons are a well built team?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
At some point in the last couple of weeks? Have
I asked you that? Have I posed?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
No, you have that question?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think I think the Falcons are hard to evaluate
because I think that there are video game players on there,
you know, and I mean that Kyle Pitts is a
perfect example. We all know how you know, just beefy
Kyle Pitts is. We all know how what a great
mismatch he's supposed to be. Also, if you've watched a
lot of Falcons football, you realize that at times he
just disappears, right. So is that at some point, is
(04:40):
that Kyle Pitts is that every single offensive coordinator that's
walked in the door, it's just too stupid to figure
out how to work it. I don't know, so you
know it's for and then they've had the problem with
I think one of the dumbest things we do in
all of sports is we anoint or we dismiss a
quarterback after a handful of G.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
James.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I had a real problem with the way the narratives
were shaped around Michael Penix Junior being clearly the answer
after he'd played all of a few games his rookie season.
I just think, we don't know, and so then you
get Michael Penick Junior back yet another catastrophic injury. Now
Kirk Cousins coming in from that. Kirk Cousins is not
somebody I don't want to build my franchise around.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So I don't think like I don't look at seven.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I don't look at them on paper and think seven
and ten is such a massive departure from where they
would have finished. I think seven to ten kind of
feels like about who they are.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So is seven and ten enough to make drastic change?
I guess there's the question there because that Raheem Morris.
I don't know that he's done a bad job. I
can't say definitively he's done a good job as the
head coach there. They do seem to have some issues
where they just they's such a jecky and high team
offensively when Pennix is healthy and Kirk Cousins does seem
(05:55):
to be a bit of a stabilizing force. But again,
you have a very clear and obvious ceiling with Kirk
at this stage of his career. Even though I'm I mean,
I might argue that he's giving them a better chance
to win on a week by week basis than Pennix was.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
It's a problem in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So do you fire Raheem Morris for just being kind
of mid if you're Atlanta, Because they're not bad, but
they're not good either, and I don't know and their future,
like the prospect of their future is a question. That's
why I ask whether they're a well built team or not.
Because this was Terry Fontina's kind of gamble here, the
(06:31):
general manager there. They went in all in on defensive
players in the draft this year. They drafted Xavier Watts,
who's a star. They drafted James Pierce, who I think
has like eight and a half sacks as a rookie
out of Tennessee. They traded up to get James Pierce.
They traded their number one overall pick in this coming
draft to the Rams for the right to draft James Pierce.
They drafted several other defensive players to fortify that side
(06:56):
of the ball, and the defense is a solid unit.
Now it's not been good enough to make a huge difference.
It's not Denver, it's not Houston, not some of the
top defenses that we talk about in the NFL. Seattle
even the Rams right have theoretically better defensive fronts, although
John Robinson made that Rams front look silly. I've never
you don't see Jared Verse get caught in a blender
(07:18):
that often, and Bijon definitely did just that to him
and several other Rams defenders on Monday Night football. I
am fascinated by them because they feel like they should,
like if that job were to come open, that would
feel like a good job if you're a coach or
a general manager. But they don't have a first round
pick next year. Their depth is perilously thin, and their
(07:43):
biggest question on that roster is the quarterback who's coming
off a huge knee injury. It's a very interesting proposition,
and you know, Falcons fans are just tired of suffering.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I don't feel worse for Falcons.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Fans than I do any other fan base, just because
the Jets and the Browns and how could you not
pity those poor people for all the suffering that they
go through on a regular basis.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Shout out our guy Ian.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Roddy, who just seems to and Shay for that matter,
Shay and he and a Jets fan and a Browns fan.
Whatever it is about Fox Sports producers and the teams
that they root for seems to have them in a
bit of hell at this point in time and basically
their entire lifetimes. But it's just it's got to be
a tough existence as a Falcons fan. They don't seem
to ever be close to anything. And the one time
(08:25):
that they did was the twenty eight to three moment.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, I mean, so I'm looking up up here and
to your point, by the way, if I.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Told you, if I what if I told you.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The overall production from the quarterback position, this was surprising
to me. I'm combining Panis and Kirk Cousins here, completed
sixty one percent of their passes for thirty five hundred yards,
eighteen touchdowns, seven picks.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That's not gross, it's not disgusting, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So it's funny that they've underperformed, when in my mind
I would have thought that those numbers looked worse. Now,
what's interesting to me is that This really depends on
I think you thought of Raheem Morris from the day
he was hired. Because Raheem Morris went eight and nine
last year, has a shot of going eight and nine
again this year. I think they'll beat the Saints, so
puts them at eight and nine two straight years second
(09:11):
in the division last year. They're gonna end up probably
what a three way to high for first, right Like,
so it it's crazy that they're in this contention. But
what's wild to me is that Raheem Morris has been
an NFL coach head coach for six years, three in
Tampa Bay, three in Atlanta. My guy has had one
winning season in six years. He went three and thirteen,
(09:33):
ten and six, four and twelve in Tampa, So who
had one ten and six year and now in Atlanta
four and seven, eight and nine and the best they
can do is eight and nine. It's had one winning season.
So to me, I don't think that Raheem Morris has
done anything that I think is so underperforming to what
I expected of Raheem Morris that I would expect huge change,
But also that's not encouraging results. Kind of like Cincinnati,
(09:56):
let's go there, like Cincinnati. Their defense sucks, and every
time they fire their defensive coordinator they hire another one
that is well respected. The athletic writer that covers the team,
and I think the athletics pretty well to tied into
everything has made it clear that it seems like behind
the scenes, no change is coming for the Bengals. Nothing
at the GM spot, nothing at the headcut coaching spot.
(10:18):
They're going to run it back. Nothing on the defense.
They think, more time on task it is going to
fix all of this, get Joe Burrow healthy.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
The whole way.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Should there be panic in Cincinnati?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Oh? Panic? Well, what would make you panic more?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
The idea that Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin are coming back,
or the fact that Joe Burrow is.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Miserable, kind of all of it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Like, I think you're right though, that's the part of
this we don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Is Burrow miserable and he happens to love Zach Taylor,
Because that's got to be a factor in this, right, Like,
if Burrow loves Taylor, this conversation is over.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I if Burrow loves Taylor. But like, is Zach Taylor's
offense the problem? No, it's the fact that their defensive
personnel is just falling off a cliff. Like speaking, we
were just talking about Atlanta. Jesse Bates, the safety from
the formerly a Bengals player, but the Falcons gave him
a big deal. Every time he makes a play, and
he makes a lot of damn plays defensively. Hell, he
(11:18):
had a tip drill on one of the Stafford interceptions
that went to Xavier Watts on Monday Night Football.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Every time Jesse.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Bates makes a play, a Falcons or a Bengals fan
just dies a little more inside, it seems because they
had that guy. They let that guy walk because they
don't pay people. They've let their defense fall to tatters.
And they've invested in Burrow and Chase and the Tea Higgins.
I mean, T Higgins got a deal, but it's not
it's a little monopoly money more than it is like
long term security for T Higgins. But still the fact
(11:47):
remains that they've invested far more in the offensive side
of the ball than they have in the defensive side
of the ball, and the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Is killing them.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
It gets them in these track meet games that Joe Burrow,
you know, maybe every once in a while he can
outlast on opponent end because he's really good and Chase
is really good when they're healthy. But that's not Zach
Taylor's problem. I mean, it is his problem because he's
the head coach. But what is Zach Taylor going to
do about that? Matt Heberflus looks fine in Indianapolis with
better players or not, Matt Eberflus, I'm sorry, Lou ana Arumo,
(12:15):
loui Ana Arrumo looks fine in Indianapolis with better players.
That doesn't make any damn sense. You fired lou just
because his defense. You gave him, You gave him nothing
to work with. You gave him other teams scraps to
go out there and field at corner and safety and
defensive line and expected them to just you know, get
by I mean this by by logic.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You see teams do this every once in a while.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Right where When I ask you, Fitzie, how many players
if you were talking about foundational players for a franchise,
how many players on a fifty three man roster would
you say are foundational players for every team?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Just kind of generally, and.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I think it most teams shoot to have four guys
that are like just absolutely lead beasts.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yes, so, but that's such a smaller number than I
think most people would guess. Right, I would guess that
people would say, you know, somewhere between ten and fifteen
foundational players on a fifty three man roster.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's not the way the teams do this. They'll look
at four.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Guys that they're going to max out on them be like,
all right, we've just got to figure everything else are
out around this. This is what the Chiefs have tried
to do and done with some level of success. Right
where Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey and
Nick Bolton will say the linebacker, those are their guys,
(13:38):
right to some extent on both sides of the ball,
you looked around and said, all right, Mahomes is good enough,
Chris Jones is good enough that if we give them
reasonable replacement level pieces and parts, they should be able
to get this done. And that worked for a period
of time until it didn't and the Chiefs fell off
a cliff and then all of a sudden, there're one
Mahomes injury way, and not even a Mahomes injury they
(14:00):
were going to get eliminated even if he didn't tear
his ACL So they're in a situation where they got
by with it, and they won with it for a
period of time, but they skimped around the star players
because that's what you have to do to get this
done effectively. Cincinnati is in a similar situation, or seems
to be trying to do a similar thing, except all
(14:21):
of the dudes that they decided were foundational pieces are
offensive guys. Who is a foundational defensive player for the
Cincinnati Bengals right now?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I'm supposed to be Trey Hendrickson and even that has
gotten contentious. And by the way, a lot of smart
people around the league will tell you, you know that
Trey Hendrickson, there's a lot of good to him, but
he's not the same level of foundational player to your
point that you know Miles Garrett is, for example. On
one thing you can't debate is how great Louisiana hot
sauce is a hotly debated topic because who's this year's
(14:50):
MVP the most valuable Poor mine the original Louisiana hot
sauce and know just your favorite eats with ease on
Nacho's pizza and gumbo.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
The taste is going to that's my.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
VP.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
That's weasy and buy you some. I'm just gonna the
more uncom that's my.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
VP.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
That's just for you.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
That's just worse because I can see the face that
you're making when you do it, and I like, I
dislike the face more than I like the sound, or
more than I dislike the sound.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Oh god, well, you know what.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I'm sorry that you not only get to hear my
sexy voice, but you get to see my sexy o
face all at the same time, this early in the morning.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Thank you, all right? Coming up from all the pressure
we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
The number one seed.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Is on the line, not just in the NFC, it's
also on the line in the a f C. And
Buck is clearly decided who's going to represent the Super
Bowl from the AFC. Problem is he's wrong. We'll talk
about it coming up next on Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe, with the Buck rising Jason Fitz fitting in.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Filling it. I should say, but Buck, you need to.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Tell everybody first about TCL and the great things that
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Well.
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Speaker 6 (16:50):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
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Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports
Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a
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Speaker 2 (17:09):
Jed.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and
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Speaker 7 (17:28):
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Speaker 6 (17:30):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away take.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Over a Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio. If you just tune it in to
us for the first time, We're with you every Saturday,
usually from six to eight pm Eastern. You can hang
out with us there, have a little bit of fun.
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I love that strike.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
There's somebody who hides money in mattresses.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Uh no, the freezer. Now I'm giving away my secrets
a cold hard cash. The origin of that phrase is
from back in the day when they kept money in
the freezer. So I always keep my little casino slush.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Fund in the freezer. There you go, so like you know,
you's got to do some.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Digging into a freezer. Bang, you can go over hit
the casino, that is, try it out. Sometimes pull that
cold hard cash out of the freezer.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
But I probably won't.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, okay, it says the guy in the terry cloth
rowe with no shirt on.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Still we are hours into this shirt this show, and
you still have not found a shirt.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Like.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I find it weird to have to ask you twice
pants at a time like this. I don't know hangover references.
I'm just curious, at what point do you actually put
the shirt on?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Like you work for a living buck? We are you?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Are you gonna wear the terry cloth and the keep
the chest hair out for your local show today in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Oh, I don't have to do the local show today.
I'm chilling today.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I've got Titans practice at eleven thirty and then I'm
done for the duck.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I uh, we need.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You to go to Titans practice in that terry cloth
room and just sit.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Sit, just like, just just off to the side.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That Are we gonna wear a suit to Titans practice?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Maybe a suit? Why would I wear a suit to
a practice?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Go to the Wars you always look you look very
nice for the game.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
So yeah, that's got games.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Are you're gonna wear a suit to the practice facility
to go talk to these sad boys?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Again? No, stop it, Okay, No, I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I mean, like, you can't even wear a shirt to work,
so I don't even know what the hell we're doing anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I don't have to wear a shirt in my home
if I don't want to, is it.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
If it's going to continue to bog down the proceedings,
then for my own sanity, I will go grab a
shirt out of I mean, hell, there's a closet my
office where I have shirts. I can go if it's
such a problem for you for me to be sitting
here in my bathrobe with a comfort of my home.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Again, nobody, but you can see this, So you getting.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
This bog down for a national radio audience about something
so menial.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Well, I mean you can't. It's not even like.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Robe is so open. The robe is so open. So
it's so open.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Yeah, but it's not like you know, it's it's nip
up like we're good. You're not seeing any you're not
seeing anything. Relax, like you see a little bit of
taco met It's okay. I can't help that. You're like
a like a naked mole rat as a human being. Okay,
I can't help that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm just I'm just imagining, imagining having a one on
one with HR to nine to five job and on
zoom and you're like, it's just me and you.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So I'm just wearing the robe. I'm just I just
I love this.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I wouldn't cut it in corporate America. Thus why I
do broadcast for a living.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
That is that is one hundred percent fact. We've got
a big weekend in the AFC.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We've talked a lot about the NFC, but the AFC
has the number one seed out of their playoffs.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Is absolutely out of control for the AFC.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
There's so many different possibilities that still seem to be
out there. But I know that you're hot on the
Jacksonville Jaguars as your they are the best team in
the AFC. My question is when home field advantage change
that for you? If the Broncos or the Patriots control
home field advantage. And you know, and I know, Jacksonville
just went to Denver in one, but the weather in
Denver wasn't what the weather in Denver can be. Like,
(21:25):
I'm a couple of hours away from New England, and
I can tell you that right now. I went to
Jillette this summer to go see Morgan Wallen and so like,
I just when you think about how cold like it
is so cold here right now you walk outside seventeen
degrees and it feels like it's two and there's snow
on the ground constantly, Like New England is already seventh
(21:47):
layer of hell cold at this point, Do you have
concern for Jacksonville if they have to go to one
of those types of places?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Sure, yeah, I mean and because they went to Denver
in one earlier in the year, it doesn't mean that
they can't go to Denver and lose. By the way,
Jags do still technically have a path to the one seed.
It's worth noting now they need Denver and New England
and some other things to happen for that to be
a possibility. But they're still technically alive, so home field
advantage theoretically could run through Jacksonville unless they stub their.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Toe against the mighty Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
This weekend at home, which I don't think is a
thing that you would that you would expect. There's no
one dominant team in the NFL this year on either
side of the bracket, right we agree, or you think
there's there's a team like because we've talked about the Rams,
but the Rams, like, even the Rams have their moments,
Seattle has their moments. San Francisco has no def Well,
it's not that they have no defense. They have no
(22:39):
defensive players. So they're doing the best that they can.
It's you know, you're you're you're doing so good, sweetie
out there defensively. If you're Robert Sala like, you're just
you're doing the best. I'm just doing the best that
I can to try and get through this. And their
offense is a juggernaut, so it's giving them a bit
of a skewede sample size there on how good they
can actually be unless they get exposed, but it is
(23:00):
truly wide open. I feel like there is no best
team in the NFL this year. And if you're not,
if you're looking around and maybe you know, I'm sure
in their respective locker rooms, there's probably a team that believes.
I'm sure every team that's competing at the highest level
believes that they are the best team in the NFL.
But truly, at the end of the day, and we
(23:21):
just saw this with Indiana and the College Football Playoff,
the team that plays together the best will win the championship,
will win the Super Bowl, We'll win the College Football Playoff.
The team that collectively plays its best football will be
the team that ends up winning it all. And also
is as healthy as humanly possible. Health is a huge
(23:44):
factor in the middle of all of this. So who is.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Playing the best team football right now? Is it Denver?
Is it New England? Is it Jacksonville? Is it Chicago?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
On the other side of things, I Seattle, Los Angeles,
all these different things.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Would you make it? Could you make an argument for it?
Because I know you like the Jags. My thing is,
I think Houston has a better defense than the Jags
right now. I don't think that's a hot take, right.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
No, but not by much. Hey, Jacksonville's defense is playing
really well. They are still number one against the run.
They have been basically all season.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Totally fair, And my biggest argument on the Texans is
that offensively.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
They've felt work.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I cannot believe after what we saw the rookie year
of CJ. Stroud that now we're at a spot where
I'm like, well, the offense is the problem with the Texans.
De Miko has that that defense flying for the Texans.
I trust the Jags offense a little bit more, but
that still asks me to trust that Trevor Lawrence Like this,
I mean, we've seen this resurgence to Trevor Lawrence everybody
keeps talking about. But if we're gonna be fair, look
(24:46):
at the teams that that resurgence happened against. And I
know that you know the outlier to this is the Broncos,
but the other teams that we've seen him beat up
on are a decimated Colts team a couple of times,
the Titans, the Jets, the Cardinals, the Chargers team that's
basically without everybody, the Raiders, like these are not These
are not great teams that Trevor Lawrence. For all the
conversation about the resurgence, Trevor, the last six weeks, it's
(25:08):
been against just the worst of the worst in the AFC.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
That's okay, though, Like that's I mean, that's the Patriots
are an eleven win team because of that? Or do
they have twelve wins on the season Patriots?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Either way, they're a double digit win team on the
season because they've been feasting on a bad schedule and
they haven't stubbed their toe against bad teams. You could
say the same of Jacksonville in this run. You could
say the same of San Francisco, for as impressive as
they've been.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
But but when you're trying to figure out how that
extrapolates forward, right, like that's all.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I just don't think that. I think that's the mistake.
Though there is no extrapolate forward. You we don't know
what they're gonna look like against other quality teams because
we haven't seen that in a larger sample size. And
I understand that that is garbage for the purposes of
sports talk radio and game preview analysis and all these
different things. But I and we do this anyway, right,
(25:56):
you can spend all the time in the world doing
I mean, orts media is basically an infomercial to get
you from game to game. Okay, like we understand this
as an industry. We are just doing this to get
you from one game to another game each and every week.
It's great, it's it's keeping us all employed. It pays
my mortgage. Very happy about all of that. But at
(26:18):
the end of the day, you can spend all the
time in the world trying to micro analyze every element
of how these teams got there, why they are here,
what is what, what can be you know, what should
be discounted about their success versus what should be kind
of how skeptical you should be of them because of
(26:40):
whatever you want to, whatever sample size you want to cite,
whatever opponent, whatever quality, strength of schedule, whatever the case
may be. You can nitpick all you want to. At
the end of the day, you can get into a
game and none of that matter based on the hours
upon hours upon hours of analysis that you've just done.
I feel like this year in the NFL is the
most extreme version of that. We're yes, the best teams
(27:04):
are so clearly better than the dregs of the NFL
this year, But what happens when these quote unquote best
teams are thrown into a single elimination tournament against one another.
There will be some rematches, right We will see some
things from the regular season again in the postseason in
the same way that we are on the College Football Playoff.
But I think it can be a completely different Like
(27:25):
I don't think the Jags Broncos game that's already happened
in the regular season, where Jacksonville went to Denver and
handed them their first home loss of the season. I
don't think that happens again, and I bet it looks
like a completely different game, even though those are largely
the exact same teams that we just saw three weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I don't disagree with a lot of the concept of
what you're saying. I just think that when we as
a general group, when we talk about some of these
teams and we say, Okay, well Trevor Lawrence has figured
it out in Leeam comes Liam Cohen's offense, that's a
big narrative right now.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I'm just taking what I think. I think. Then this
year in.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
The NFL requires a very college football mindset. You have
to look at who you play, you have to look
at it and say, well, have you really figured it
out or is it just that you've feasted on the bad?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Because right now, and this is.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Something that I think is worth continually pointing out to
people right now, if you want to talk about bad
in the NFL, if you want to talk about like
what the rest of the league looks like, you are
talking about already. There are ten teams in the NFL
that already have ten losses, ten that already have double
digit losses, And depending on how this weekend shakes out,
(28:31):
we could end up with thirteen teams out of this
league that end up with double digit losses. Ten or
more losses for thirteen teams like that is such a
staggering number, you know, when you start to think of
it that way. That's why I think part of what
we have this year is everybody wants to make these
big sweeping statements, But how do you make big sweeping
(28:52):
statements when most of the time it's a really bad
team taking on a team that might be good, might
just not really suck, Like you know, to your point,
part of what makes this season great is I have
no idea who the best team in the league is,
because there's a yeah, butt. For so many of these
teams right there, just right now in the AFC, of
the of the seven teams that are going to make
(29:13):
the playoffs, six of the seven or eleven to five
are better, which you could turn around and say, oh
my god, that tells you how good the top of
the AFC is. Everybody but the winner of the AFC
North has at least eleven wins already.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
That's great, No, it isn't.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
It's just if you're the if you're the Chargers and
you're the Broncos, you got to play the Raiders twice.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
You've got to play really bad teams. The Patriots and
the Bills have played a Charman soft schedule. You know,
you just go up and down the list.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
If you're the Texans and the Jags, you got to
play against the Titans, and you got to play against
whatever version of the colt you may have gotten, depending.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
On what you got them. Right.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So, like, I don't know what to make of it,
Like I don't know what teams are actually good going
into the playoffs. I know, to your point, that's not
a sexy first take take because everybody wants a clear,
definitive answer. Man, If you told me that the Broncos,
the Patriots, the Jags, the Chargers, the Colts, the Texans
were all going to have a falloff next year. You
could probably talk me into that, I don't know how
much of this is sustainable or good.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Well, I think you know again, you can't do this
with you can't do this and say, well, if they
were healthy, I would trust this team the most because
I would say that about New England despite their Charmann
soft as you described it, schedule this year, and it
is very much that their defense, like they were getting
(30:32):
the best out of the the players that they paid
for this offseason in ways that you very rarely see
actually work that well when you spend all that that
much money. I think it was a record high in
free agency spending for the New England Patriots this offseason
on guys like Milton Williams, the defensive tackle formerly a
Philadelphia Carlton Davis the corner, and all these different pieces
(30:56):
and parts that they added beyond and their draft class
has been solid tributors and they've missed some time throughout
the course of this whether it be Will Campbell on
the offensive line or anything else. And Drake may has
really taken a meaningful step. I think because of the
combination of coaching and quarterback, I would probably take New
(31:17):
England as the team that I trust the most. Now,
I also have to admit that I'm a little bit
biased here. I covered Mike Rabel for six years. I
know what that dude's capable of. I know that dude
also has had some pretty significant in game crashouts, not
like on the sideline, like temperamental crashouts, although you know,
maybe Mike has had a few of those in his career,
but like, for example, they get up twenty one to
(31:39):
nothing on Buffalo a couple of weeks ago at home,
and they blow it, and Mike Rabel comes into the
press conference after the fact and says that was a
learning lesson for everybody involved. We'll see if we can't,
you know, for lack of a better term and being cliche,
watch the tape and improve. I feel like New England
is the team that I feel the best about because
I trust May more than I trust Bo Nicks. And
(32:01):
I don't want to say that Trevor Lawrence can't do
it until he does, Like I won't believe that Trevor
Lawrence is capable until he does. It's just it's it's
I think fair to have a little bit of skepticism
around him for what he's been his entire career versus
what he's been in these last how many if they
wanted to row six games, because even at the start
(32:23):
of the season, or for for the better half first
half of the season, Trevor Lawrence was still making some
pretty critical errors. That Arizona game was not you know,
that was not a dominant performance. He had a He
had a couple of gnarly turnovers in that game that
made you think, Man, I do not want to if
I was I don't bet on the NFL obviously as
a as an NFL as somebody who covers an NFL
(32:45):
team for ethical reasons.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But if I was betting the postseason, I would have
a really, really.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Difficult time putting any kind of meaningful money on Jacksonville
Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence guiding themselves through the postseason.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
That would be tough for me.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Well, I mean, just history says when's the last time
a franchise? And I know I'm the guy that says
history doesn't really matter. How does that impact these guys
right now? When's the last time a franchise made their
franchise debut in a Super Bowl. So whenever somebody comes
in and says, oh my god, well the Jags are
going to the super Bowl, the Texans are going to
the super Bowl, it's just I think there's a little
(33:23):
bit right now. I'm not betting on any of these
teams in the AFC, But if you told me that
I had to put my lunch money on one team,
it's the Bills.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
And it shouldn't be the Bills.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
And I know it shouldn't be the Bills, But like
I just I look at it and say, well, this
is the most any given Sunday I've ever felt about
the playoffs coming into it. And if I'm gonna go
any given Sunday and I'm gonna roll it out, then
I'm going to bet on the best player. And I
think right now, the best player in the AFC not
gonna be in the MVP.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I get it. I think the best player in the
AFC is Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
It's so funny that three quarters of the AFC South
have never won a Super Bowl. God, there's only twelve
teams that have never done it, and three of them are.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
South all right.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Makita tools at the Home Depot built were precision. They
could go to the super Bowl without shortcuts. Designed for
the toughest job. It's the choice for the pros. When
the job calls for the best call of Makita built
to be the best available at the home depot, house
pros get more done. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
If we are just if you're the first time ever
hanging out with us? We end every show the same way.
(34:26):
Every single show ends with the single greatest game show
in the history of sports talk radio. Would you rather
coming up next? We'll figure some questions out on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Welcome back to Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Buck Rising, Jason Fitz, Bucking fits hanging out with you.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Not gonna lie. I love this song.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Fun fact on this song the other guy in Wham
his mom had left a note that said wake me
up before you go go as an accident.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
She read.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
She was just telling him to wake.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
Me up by go Go So Sweet.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And that's when George Michael saw when they were he
was over the house, he saw the note and he
started singing it. And that was the base of this
entire song was just a little note that was left
from Andrews mom. There you go, a show sponsored by
DraftKings sports book and original sports betting partner of the
NFL and NBA. Right now, use the promo code two,
the number two pros.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
P r OS.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's two p r os to claim your special offer
at Draft Kings. Again, that's promo code two PROS at DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
The crown is yours, all right, buck.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
We do this every single time we work together, which,
by the way, it's the first time you're listening to
us Sat.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Six to eight pm Eastern. We do this every time.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's a tradition that probably gonna die at some so
at some point because we're just not good at following
through things.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
But so far, every time we've always done this.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
It is time for the single greatest game show in
the history of sports lock Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Are you ready for wo?
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Would you rather bad nailed it?
Speaker 7 (36:01):
It's easy, guys, don't think too hard. Would you rather bucket.
It's no good or fix it.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I'm not proud of what we just did. Justic Cooper
come and help us.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
You guys threw that up on purpose, right.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
No, no, no, Like we're looking at each other on
the FaceTime.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
We're trying to get it lined up, and then I
wait on him and he waits at me and it
gets Was it.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Bad it sounded? I thought it was good.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I mean, it wasn't didn't sync.
Speaker 8 (36:22):
If that's what you were going for, that is what
we were going I thought it was great. Okay, Well guys, uh.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Let me.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Well, guys, you really suck at this. Let me answer
ask you some questions.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Now.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
You know, maybe if it's a FaceTime maybe it's it's
like a delay thing with the with the connection.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well yeah, our comrade sis are delayed too, our little
boxes to do radio.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
This is all inside baseball. People don't care about I
get it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
But I'm just saying the delayser against us. If we
were in the same room, it would be.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Flawed, right, That's okay. I'm fine to do this from
a distance.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like you'd have to wear a shirt if we were
in the same room instead of just this says you.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
All right, Well, uh, this might go with the whole
shirt list thing. Would you would you rather sweat mayonnaise
or have everything you touch taste like wet cardboard?
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Oh god, I think weit cardboard right.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
To sweat mayonnaise would be disgusting. I mean I have
experienced something like this, just because Will Levis did that
mayonnaise cologne a couple of years ago when he decided
that he was going to go all in on a
national marketing campaign thinking he was going to be a
long term starting quarterback, which did not go to plan,
and the mayonnaise perfume sold like hotcakes. For like, I
(37:40):
think I'd ended up going to a charitable cause or
something like that. But yeah, I'm all set on the
idea of sweating mayonnaise. I'd rather everything taste like white cardboard.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Mayonnaise might be the most disgusting food of all the foods.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Take that that? Yeah, take it back, dude, mao bowl
you hear me on that? Like, I know the answer
is no.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
In fact, I hate mayo so much that I don't
even like ranch dressing because one of the main ingredients
for those people's ranch is mao. So like, you gotta
hide the taste of mail. Now, Mayo is disgusting. It
does not belong on anything in any way. Shape of
my personal hell would be would be that I would
sweat mao. So I have to go wet cardboard. I'll
get used to the taste of wet cardboard. If I
(38:18):
can get used to egg whites, I can get used
to wet cardboard. I cannot get used to mayo.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
It's basically the same thing.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Both mayo and ranch are delicious. But moving on, I
feel like this is an easy one, but I'm going
to ask it anyway. Would you rather have fingers as
long as your legs or legs as long as your fingers?
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Would you would rather have fingers as long as your
legs or legs as long as your fingers?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I want, I want little tiny stubby legs, finger legs,
a little levy tubs.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Well you know what that adds up, because you're already
like four to seven anyway.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Right, I am five to nine, thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I am sufficiently average, okay, I wear very average shoe size,
very average. I am average, okay, But like, think about
if your fingers are so long, like your hand's gonna
be heavy. Everything you do like imagine if your fingers
were as long as your legs and you were trying
to sign a document, how are you even gonna see
the document?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Wouldn't be able to do it.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Use your mouth?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Okay, Well that's that's that's aggressive everything. I'm gonna spend
the next while buck answers and I'm gonna try and
sign my name with my mouth. That's literally what I'm
gonna be doing. Plus, you know, I've been a musician.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
My whole life.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I can't I can't play any of the answers I've
ever played in my fingers and the length of legs.
I'm out of this, Buck. Why I'm gonna sign some things?
Why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Okay? Oh my god, this is very uncomfortable for me
to watch.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
It's only you and I seeing it, so it doesn't.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Are you really doing it?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Yes, he's doing it. It's deeply unpleasant.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
Would rather have fingers as long as my legs just
for the purposes of reaching things that are out of
my current reach?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
I realized that it's put a little bit of an.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Advantage, and I cannot see any advantage whatsoever to having
nubby little legs.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
No, I would take a long finger feature.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I nailed the signature.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
Go ahead justin Okay, I like this one.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Would you rather only be able to watch your favorite
team when they're losing by twenty plus points or never
be able to watch them at all but they win
the championship every year?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I mean, I live this because my favorite team is
the Raiders. Yet I sit there every Sunday and I
watch it. If I don't watch it, I don't get
the joy. Like I know, losing sucks, but like for me,
there's just something special about sitting down, turning on the
TV and being.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Like, yeah, that's my favorite football team. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I wish I could quit that connection. But if they
win championships and I can't watch it, what's the point?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So I guess I would.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
I would never watch an Indiana basketball game for the
rest of my life if it meant they would actually
win something in my lifetime.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Of consequence, their last championship was.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Nineteen eighty seven. I was not even remote close to
being alive at.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
That point in time.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I mean, would you buy like I mean, you're talking
to somebody that literally has a Larry Johnson signed jersey
in my office for this The last time UNLV won.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Anything like, would you.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Buy a championship whatever T shirt or hat if you
hadn't watched a single second of them?
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (41:16):
Are you getting me born to an Indiana football game?
Have I never attended a game in my life despite
it being as of water?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
But this just speaks to Buck.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
He went to Indiana and he's never gone to an
Indiana game until the college football playoff.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Good God, stick with Fox Sports Radio all day. We'll
see you tomorrow. Thanks for hanging out with us.
It's the final weekend of the NFL season, which means
there is pressure everywhere as we're trying to figure out
what the future holds for some of the teams that
are trying to find their way in to the playoffs.
He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason fitz hanging out for two
pros and a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
A buck a correction. It is not winning in for
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I absolutely misspoke on that. The
(00:21):
total chaos of the NFC South now gives us a
situation where even if the Buccaneers win, they then need
the Saints to beat the Falcons.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
We have this ugly three way tie scenario.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I will remind everybody there's a very real chance this year,
depending on what happens through this weekend, that an eight
and nine team will make the NFL playoffs. So Q
all of the people that are freaking an eight and
nine team will make the playoffs and have a home
game in this wild NFCF.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
In an NFC, in a world.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Where you turn around and you've got so many good teams,
you have so many capable like we are now looking
can get a very real situation where you know, an
eight and nine team will be hosting the thirteen and
four San Francisco forty nine Ers in the first round.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Of the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
I got it.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's a while while west.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Out here in the NFC, I love it. I love
it so much.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
I feel like the NFC South always does this too,
don't They always feel like they are the most likely
division to get a team in the playoffs under five hundred.
I mean, I think it's actually happened before with the
Carolina Panthers and Ron River and Cam Newton a couple
of years ago. I mean, I guess it's been more
than a couple of years ago at this point in time.
But still now, that doesn't mean that playoff team is
(01:35):
going to be long for this world, right, because if
you're the eight to nine Panthers or something like that,
and you end up hosting the San Francisco forty nine ers,
who most recently whipped your ass. The Niners have already
beaten the Panthers in this run of what have they
won now six in a row I think for San
Francisco dating back to mid November. Yet Cardinals, Panthers, Browns,
(01:59):
Titan Colts, Bears are the teams that they've beaten in
this stretch, and that, in fact, Carolina played the closest
game against them of any of these other teams. Where
San Francisco has put forty one on Arizona and thirty
seven on Tennessee, forty eight on Indianapolis, forty two on Chicago.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Carolina lost that game twenty to nine.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Ugly game, but at least they made it a game
against San Francisco, and you know, postseason results, it's tough
to beat a team twice, no matter if it's an
opponent that you're used to seeing, a divisional opponent or
a non conference opponent. If you see that team again,
it is very difficult to beat them twice in a
twice in a row. Which is why I think you
(02:40):
know I'm we talk about the fact of the Titans
are the team that I cover on a regular basis
here in Nashville. Titans are getting ready if they lose
to Jacksonville, which I think is a fair expectation at
this point in time. Though they are playing better a
little better football. Cam Warden and the Tennessee Titans looked
a little better here in the last month of the season.
(03:01):
They would be held winless in the division for the
first time in Titans era history. So going back to
nineteen ninety nine when the damtam moved here from Houston,
it would be the first time that they did not
win odd divisional game. So, you know, unless you're the Titans,
it's tough to get swept or tough to get beaten
twice in the same season by the same team.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So let's look at.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Some of the other games here and try to figure
out if there's massive change coming from the outcome. Because
I just mentioned New Orleans, Atlanta has huge implications for
the NFC South depending on what happens in that game.
If Atlanta loses that game, if we're sitting here and
suddenly we're talking about an Atlanta Falcons team that went
(03:40):
seven to ten, that feels like a disappointment. But it
also feels like Atlanta has had a bit of a
revolving door. Nobody can seem to figure out how to
maximize some of the talent that certainly has flashes there.
I don't I mean, does it Atlanta have pressure to
make big change?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
In your mind?
Speaker 4 (03:59):
If you hear Falcons fans talk about it, they'll say
that Terry Fontina, the general manager has done a good job,
and that team is not well coached. I struggle with that,
and I think I might have asked you this question, like,
do you think the Falcons are a well built team?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
At some point in the last couple of weeks? Have
I asked you that? Have I posed?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
No, you have that question?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I think I think the Falcons are hard to evaluate
because I think that there are video game players on there,
you know, and I mean that Kyle Pitts is a
perfect example. We all know how you know, just beefy
Kyle Pitts is. We all know how what a great
mismatch he's supposed to be. Also, if you've watched a
lot of Falcons football, you realize that at times he
just disappears, right. So is that at some point, is
(04:40):
that Kyle Pitts is that every single offensive coordinator that's
walked in the door, it's just too stupid to figure
out how to work it. I don't know, so you
know it's for and then they've had the problem with
I think one of the dumbest things we do in
all of sports is we anoint or we dismiss a
quarterback after a handful of G.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
James.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I had a real problem with the way the narratives
were shaped around Michael Penix Junior being clearly the answer
after he'd played all of a few games his rookie season.
I just think, we don't know, and so then you
get Michael Penick Junior back yet another catastrophic injury. Now
Kirk Cousins coming in from that. Kirk Cousins is not
somebody I don't want to build my franchise around.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So I don't think like I don't look at seven.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I don't look at them on paper and think seven
and ten is such a massive departure from where they
would have finished. I think seven to ten kind of
feels like about who they are.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So is seven and ten enough to make drastic change?
I guess there's the question there because that Raheem Morris.
I don't know that he's done a bad job. I
can't say definitively he's done a good job as the
head coach there. They do seem to have some issues
where they just they's such a jecky and high team
offensively when Pennix is healthy and Kirk Cousins does seem
(05:55):
to be a bit of a stabilizing force. But again,
you have a very clear and obvious ceiling with Kirk
at this stage of his career. Even though I'm I mean,
I might argue that he's giving them a better chance
to win on a week by week basis than Pennix was.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
It's a problem in and of itself.
Speaker 4 (06:10):
So do you fire Raheem Morris for just being kind
of mid if you're Atlanta, Because they're not bad, but
they're not good either, and I don't know and their future,
like the prospect of their future is a question. That's
why I ask whether they're a well built team or not.
Because this was Terry Fontina's kind of gamble here, the
(06:31):
general manager there. They went in all in on defensive
players in the draft this year. They drafted Xavier Watts,
who's a star. They drafted James Pierce, who I think
has like eight and a half sacks as a rookie
out of Tennessee. They traded up to get James Pierce.
They traded their number one overall pick in this coming
draft to the Rams for the right to draft James Pierce.
They drafted several other defensive players to fortify that side
(06:56):
of the ball, and the defense is a solid unit.
Now it's not been good enough to make a huge difference.
It's not Denver, it's not Houston, not some of the
top defenses that we talk about in the NFL. Seattle
even the Rams right have theoretically better defensive fronts, although
John Robinson made that Rams front look silly. I've never
you don't see Jared Verse get caught in a blender
(07:18):
that often, and Bijon definitely did just that to him
and several other Rams defenders on Monday Night football. I
am fascinated by them because they feel like they should,
like if that job were to come open, that would
feel like a good job if you're a coach or
a general manager. But they don't have a first round
pick next year. Their depth is perilously thin, and their
(07:43):
biggest question on that roster is the quarterback who's coming
off a huge knee injury. It's a very interesting proposition,
and you know, Falcons fans are just tired of suffering.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I don't feel worse for Falcons.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Fans than I do any other fan base, just because
the Jets and the Browns and how could you not
pity those poor people for all the suffering that they
go through on a regular basis.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Shout out our guy Ian.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Roddy, who just seems to and Shay for that matter,
Shay and he and a Jets fan and a Browns fan.
Whatever it is about Fox Sports producers and the teams
that they root for seems to have them in a
bit of hell at this point in time and basically
their entire lifetimes. But it's just it's got to be
a tough existence as a Falcons fan. They don't seem
to ever be close to anything. And the one time
(08:25):
that they did was the twenty eight to three moment.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, I mean, so I'm looking up up here and
to your point, by the way, if I.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Told you, if I what if I told you.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The overall production from the quarterback position, this was surprising
to me. I'm combining Panis and Kirk Cousins here, completed
sixty one percent of their passes for thirty five hundred yards,
eighteen touchdowns, seven picks.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
That's not gross, it's not disgusting, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So it's funny that they've underperformed, when in my mind
I would have thought that those numbers looked worse. Now,
what's interesting to me is that This really depends on
I think you thought of Raheem Morris from the day
he was hired. Because Raheem Morris went eight and nine
last year, has a shot of going eight and nine
again this year. I think they'll beat the Saints, so
puts them at eight and nine two straight years second
(09:11):
in the division last year. They're gonna end up probably
what a three way to high for first, right Like,
so it it's crazy that they're in this contention. But
what's wild to me is that Raheem Morris has been
an NFL coach head coach for six years, three in
Tampa Bay, three in Atlanta. My guy has had one
winning season in six years. He went three and thirteen,
(09:33):
ten and six, four and twelve in Tampa, So who
had one ten and six year and now in Atlanta
four and seven, eight and nine and the best they
can do is eight and nine. It's had one winning season.
So to me, I don't think that Raheem Morris has
done anything that I think is so underperforming to what
I expected of Raheem Morris that I would expect huge change,
But also that's not encouraging results. Kind of like Cincinnati,
(09:56):
let's go there, like Cincinnati. Their defense sucks, and every
time they fire their defensive coordinator they hire another one
that is well respected. The athletic writer that covers the team,
and I think the athletics pretty well to tied into
everything has made it clear that it seems like behind
the scenes, no change is coming for the Bengals. Nothing
at the GM spot, nothing at the headcut coaching spot.
(10:18):
They're going to run it back. Nothing on the defense.
They think, more time on task it is going to
fix all of this, get Joe Burrow healthy.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
The whole way.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Should there be panic in Cincinnati?
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Oh? Panic? Well, what would make you panic more?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
The idea that Zach Taylor and Duke Tobin are coming back,
or the fact that Joe Burrow is.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Miserable, kind of all of it.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Like, I think you're right though, that's the part of
this we don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Is Burrow miserable and he happens to love Zach Taylor,
Because that's got to be a factor in this, right, Like,
if Burrow loves Taylor, this conversation is over.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
I if Burrow loves Taylor. But like, is Zach Taylor's
offense the problem? No, it's the fact that their defensive
personnel is just falling off a cliff. Like speaking, we
were just talking about Atlanta. Jesse Bates, the safety from
the formerly a Bengals player, but the Falcons gave him
a big deal. Every time he makes a play, and
he makes a lot of damn plays defensively. Hell, he
(11:18):
had a tip drill on one of the Stafford interceptions
that went to Xavier Watts on Monday Night Football.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Every time Jesse.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Bates makes a play, a Falcons or a Bengals fan
just dies a little more inside, it seems because they
had that guy. They let that guy walk because they
don't pay people. They've let their defense fall to tatters.
And they've invested in Burrow and Chase and the Tea Higgins.
I mean, T Higgins got a deal, but it's not
it's a little monopoly money more than it is like
long term security for T Higgins. But still the fact
(11:47):
remains that they've invested far more in the offensive side
of the ball than they have in the defensive side
of the ball, and the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Is killing them.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
It gets them in these track meet games that Joe Burrow,
you know, maybe every once in a while he can
outlast on opponent end because he's really good and Chase
is really good when they're healthy. But that's not Zach
Taylor's problem. I mean, it is his problem because he's
the head coach. But what is Zach Taylor going to
do about that? Matt Heberflus looks fine in Indianapolis with
better players or not, Matt Eberflus, I'm sorry, Lou ana Arumo,
(12:15):
loui Ana Arrumo looks fine in Indianapolis with better players.
That doesn't make any damn sense. You fired lou just
because his defense. You gave him, You gave him nothing
to work with. You gave him other teams scraps to
go out there and field at corner and safety and
defensive line and expected them to just you know, get
by I mean this by by logic.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You see teams do this every once in a while.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Right where When I ask you, Fitzie, how many players
if you were talking about foundational players for a franchise,
how many players on a fifty three man roster would
you say are foundational players for every team?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Just kind of generally, and.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I think it most teams shoot to have four guys
that are like just absolutely lead beasts.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
Yes, so, but that's such a smaller number than I
think most people would guess. Right, I would guess that
people would say, you know, somewhere between ten and fifteen
foundational players on a fifty three man roster.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
That's not the way the teams do this. They'll look
at four.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Guys that they're going to max out on them be like,
all right, we've just got to figure everything else are
out around this. This is what the Chiefs have tried
to do and done with some level of success. Right
where Chris Jones and Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey and
Nick Bolton will say the linebacker, those are their guys,
(13:38):
right to some extent on both sides of the ball,
you looked around and said, all right, Mahomes is good enough,
Chris Jones is good enough that if we give them
reasonable replacement level pieces and parts, they should be able
to get this done. And that worked for a period
of time until it didn't and the Chiefs fell off
a cliff and then all of a sudden, there're one
Mahomes injury way, and not even a Mahomes injury they
(14:00):
were going to get eliminated even if he didn't tear
his ACL So they're in a situation where they got
by with it, and they won with it for a
period of time, but they skimped around the star players
because that's what you have to do to get this
done effectively. Cincinnati is in a similar situation, or seems
to be trying to do a similar thing, except all
(14:21):
of the dudes that they decided were foundational pieces are
offensive guys. Who is a foundational defensive player for the
Cincinnati Bengals right now?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I'm supposed to be Trey Hendrickson and even that has
gotten contentious. And by the way, a lot of smart
people around the league will tell you, you know that
Trey Hendrickson, there's a lot of good to him, but
he's not the same level of foundational player to your
point that you know Miles Garrett is, for example. On
one thing you can't debate is how great Louisiana hot
sauce is a hotly debated topic because who's this year's
(14:50):
MVP the most valuable Poor mine the original Louisiana hot
sauce and know just your favorite eats with ease on
Nacho's pizza and gumbo.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
The taste is going to that's my.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
VP.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
That's weasy and buy you some. I'm just gonna the
more uncom that's my.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
VP.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
That's just for you.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
That's just worse because I can see the face that
you're making when you do it, and I like, I
dislike the face more than I like the sound, or
more than I dislike the sound.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Oh god, well, you know what.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
I'm sorry that you not only get to hear my
sexy voice, but you get to see my sexy o
face all at the same time, this early in the morning.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
Thank you, all right? Coming up from all the pressure
we're talking about.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
The number one seed.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Is on the line, not just in the NFC, it's
also on the line in the a f C. And
Buck is clearly decided who's going to represent the Super
Bowl from the AFC. Problem is he's wrong. We'll talk
about it coming up next on Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe, with the Buck rising Jason Fitz fitting in.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Filling it. I should say, but Buck, you need to.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Tell everybody first about TCL and the great things that
they are doing.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
He scrambles to get that pulled up.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Let's go quick time out a holiday upgrade. Check if
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(16:29):
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Speaker 6 (16:50):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. Fox Sports
Radio is taking over YouTube and you can be a
part of it.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Jed.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Just go to YouTube and search Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
Hit that subscribe button and smash that notification bell and
catch all the videos from your favorite shows. Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe, Dan Patrick, Colin Coward, Doug
Gottlieb Cavino and Rich The Odd Couple with Rob Parker
and Kelvin Washington, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon,
and The Ben Maller Show.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.
Speaker 6 (17:30):
Subscribe, hit that thumbs up icon and comment away take.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Over a Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio. If you just tune it in to
us for the first time, We're with you every Saturday,
usually from six to eight pm Eastern. You can hang
out with us there, have a little bit of fun.
Don't forget Shop mattress firms once a year, sail and
clearance and find up to five hundred bucks on save
I should say up to five hundred bucks on select
(17:56):
tempor Pedic mattresses with next day delivery.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Frictions apply.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Next day delivery available on select mattresses and subject to location.
Sea Store for details. I love the idea just walking
in find it five hundred bucks in a mattress. That
will be a heck of a way to do the discount.
I love that strike.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
There's somebody who hides money in mattresses.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Uh no, the freezer. Now I'm giving away my secrets
a cold hard cash. The origin of that phrase is
from back in the day when they kept money in
the freezer. So I always keep my little casino slush.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Fund in the freezer. There you go, so like you know,
you's got to do some.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Digging into a freezer. Bang, you can go over hit
the casino, that is, try it out. Sometimes pull that
cold hard cash out of the freezer.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
But I probably won't.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, okay, it says the guy in the terry cloth
rowe with no shirt on.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Still we are hours into this shirt this show, and
you still have not found a shirt.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Like.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
I find it weird to have to ask you twice
pants at a time like this. I don't know hangover references.
I'm just curious, at what point do you actually put
the shirt on?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Like you work for a living buck? We are you?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Are you gonna wear the terry cloth and the keep
the chest hair out for your local show today in Nashville.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Oh, I don't have to do the local show today.
I'm chilling today.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I've got Titans practice at eleven thirty and then I'm
done for the duck.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I uh, we need.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You to go to Titans practice in that terry cloth
room and just sit.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Sit, just like, just just off to the side.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That Are we gonna wear a suit to Titans practice?
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Maybe a suit? Why would I wear a suit to
a practice?
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Go to the Wars you always look you look very
nice for the game.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
So yeah, that's got games.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Are you're gonna wear a suit to the practice facility
to go talk to these sad boys?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Again? No, stop it, Okay, No, I didn't know.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I mean, like, you can't even wear a shirt to work,
so I don't even know what the hell we're doing anymore.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I don't have to wear a shirt in my home
if I don't want to, is it.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
If it's going to continue to bog down the proceedings,
then for my own sanity, I will go grab a
shirt out of I mean, hell, there's a closet my
office where I have shirts. I can go if it's
such a problem for you for me to be sitting
here in my bathrobe with a comfort of my home.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Again, nobody, but you can see this, So you getting.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
This bog down for a national radio audience about something
so menial.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Well, I mean you can't. It's not even like.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Robe is so open. The robe is so open. So
it's so open.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Yeah, but it's not like you know, it's it's nip
up like we're good. You're not seeing any you're not
seeing anything. Relax, like you see a little bit of
taco met It's okay. I can't help that. You're like
a like a naked mole rat as a human being. Okay,
I can't help that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I'm just I'm just imagining, imagining having a one on
one with HR to nine to five job and on
zoom and you're like, it's just me and you.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So I'm just wearing the robe. I'm just I just
I love this.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I wouldn't cut it in corporate America. Thus why I
do broadcast for a living.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
That is that is one hundred percent fact. We've got
a big weekend in the AFC.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
We've talked a lot about the NFC, but the AFC
has the number one seed out of their playoffs.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Is absolutely out of control for the AFC.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
There's so many different possibilities that still seem to be
out there. But I know that you're hot on the
Jacksonville Jaguars as your they are the best team in
the AFC. My question is when home field advantage change
that for you? If the Broncos or the Patriots control
home field advantage. And you know, and I know, Jacksonville
just went to Denver in one, but the weather in
Denver wasn't what the weather in Denver can be. Like,
(21:25):
I'm a couple of hours away from New England, and
I can tell you that right now. I went to
Jillette this summer to go see Morgan Wallen and so like,
I just when you think about how cold like it
is so cold here right now you walk outside seventeen
degrees and it feels like it's two and there's snow
on the ground constantly, Like New England is already seventh
(21:47):
layer of hell cold at this point, Do you have
concern for Jacksonville if they have to go to one
of those types of places?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Sure, yeah, I mean and because they went to Denver
in one earlier in the year, it doesn't mean that
they can't go to Denver and lose. By the way,
Jags do still technically have a path to the one seed.
It's worth noting now they need Denver and New England
and some other things to happen for that to be
a possibility. But they're still technically alive, so home field
advantage theoretically could run through Jacksonville unless they stub their.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Toe against the mighty Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
This weekend at home, which I don't think is a
thing that you would that you would expect. There's no
one dominant team in the NFL this year on either
side of the bracket, right we agree, or you think
there's there's a team like because we've talked about the Rams,
but the Rams, like, even the Rams have their moments,
Seattle has their moments. San Francisco has no def Well,
it's not that they have no defense. They have no
(22:39):
defensive players. So they're doing the best that they can.
It's you know, you're you're you're doing so good, sweetie
out there defensively. If you're Robert Sala like, you're just
you're doing the best. I'm just doing the best that
I can to try and get through this. And their
offense is a juggernaut, so it's giving them a bit
of a skewede sample size there on how good they
can actually be unless they get exposed, but it is
(23:00):
truly wide open. I feel like there is no best
team in the NFL this year. And if you're not,
if you're looking around and maybe you know, I'm sure
in their respective locker rooms, there's probably a team that believes.
I'm sure every team that's competing at the highest level
believes that they are the best team in the NFL.
But truly, at the end of the day, and we
(23:21):
just saw this with Indiana and the College Football Playoff,
the team that plays together the best will win the championship,
will win the Super Bowl, We'll win the College Football Playoff.
The team that collectively plays its best football will be
the team that ends up winning it all. And also
is as healthy as humanly possible. Health is a huge
(23:44):
factor in the middle of all of this. So who is.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Playing the best team football right now? Is it Denver?
Is it New England? Is it Jacksonville? Is it Chicago?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
On the other side of things, I Seattle, Los Angeles,
all these different things.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Would you make it? Could you make an argument for it?
Because I know you like the Jags. My thing is,
I think Houston has a better defense than the Jags
right now. I don't think that's a hot take, right.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
No, but not by much. Hey, Jacksonville's defense is playing
really well. They are still number one against the run.
They have been basically all season.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Totally fair, And my biggest argument on the Texans is
that offensively.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
They've felt work.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
I cannot believe after what we saw the rookie year
of CJ. Stroud that now we're at a spot where
I'm like, well, the offense is the problem with the Texans.
De Miko has that that defense flying for the Texans.
I trust the Jags offense a little bit more, but
that still asks me to trust that Trevor Lawrence Like this,
I mean, we've seen this resurgence to Trevor Lawrence everybody
keeps talking about. But if we're gonna be fair, look
(24:46):
at the teams that that resurgence happened against. And I
know that you know the outlier to this is the Broncos,
but the other teams that we've seen him beat up
on are a decimated Colts team a couple of times,
the Titans, the Jets, the Cardinals, the Chargers team that's
basically without everybody, the Raiders, like these are not These
are not great teams that Trevor Lawrence. For all the
conversation about the resurgence, Trevor, the last six weeks, it's
(25:08):
been against just the worst of the worst in the AFC.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
That's okay, though, Like that's I mean, that's the Patriots
are an eleven win team because of that? Or do
they have twelve wins on the season Patriots?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Either way, they're a double digit win team on the
season because they've been feasting on a bad schedule and
they haven't stubbed their toe against bad teams. You could
say the same of Jacksonville in this run. You could
say the same of San Francisco, for as impressive as
they've been.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
But but when you're trying to figure out how that
extrapolates forward, right, like that's all.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I just don't think that. I think that's the mistake.
Though there is no extrapolate forward. You we don't know
what they're gonna look like against other quality teams because
we haven't seen that in a larger sample size. And
I understand that that is garbage for the purposes of
sports talk radio and game preview analysis and all these
different things. But I and we do this anyway, right,
(25:56):
you can spend all the time in the world doing
I mean, orts media is basically an infomercial to get
you from game to game. Okay, like we understand this
as an industry. We are just doing this to get
you from one game to another game each and every week.
It's great, it's it's keeping us all employed. It pays
my mortgage. Very happy about all of that. But at
(26:18):
the end of the day, you can spend all the
time in the world trying to micro analyze every element
of how these teams got there, why they are here,
what is what, what can be you know, what should
be discounted about their success versus what should be kind
of how skeptical you should be of them because of
(26:40):
whatever you want to, whatever sample size you want to cite,
whatever opponent, whatever quality, strength of schedule, whatever the case
may be. You can nitpick all you want to. At
the end of the day, you can get into a
game and none of that matter based on the hours
upon hours upon hours of analysis that you've just done.
I feel like this year in the NFL is the
most extreme version of that. We're yes, the best teams
(27:04):
are so clearly better than the dregs of the NFL
this year, But what happens when these quote unquote best
teams are thrown into a single elimination tournament against one another.
There will be some rematches, right We will see some
things from the regular season again in the postseason in
the same way that we are on the College Football Playoff.
But I think it can be a completely different Like
(27:25):
I don't think the Jags Broncos game that's already happened
in the regular season, where Jacksonville went to Denver and
handed them their first home loss of the season. I
don't think that happens again, and I bet it looks
like a completely different game, even though those are largely
the exact same teams that we just saw three weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
I don't disagree with a lot of the concept of
what you're saying. I just think that when we as
a general group, when we talk about some of these
teams and we say, Okay, well Trevor Lawrence has figured
it out in Leeam comes Liam Cohen's offense, that's a
big narrative right now.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I'm just taking what I think. I think. Then this
year in.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
The NFL requires a very college football mindset. You have
to look at who you play, you have to look
at it and say, well, have you really figured it
out or is it just that you've feasted on the bad?
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Because right now, and this is.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Something that I think is worth continually pointing out to
people right now, if you want to talk about bad
in the NFL, if you want to talk about like
what the rest of the league looks like, you are
talking about already. There are ten teams in the NFL
that already have ten losses, ten that already have double
digit losses, And depending on how this weekend shakes out,
(28:31):
we could end up with thirteen teams out of this
league that end up with double digit losses. Ten or
more losses for thirteen teams like that is such a
staggering number, you know, when you start to think of
it that way. That's why I think part of what
we have this year is everybody wants to make these
big sweeping statements, But how do you make big sweeping
(28:52):
statements when most of the time it's a really bad
team taking on a team that might be good, might
just not really suck, Like you know, to your point,
part of what makes this season great is I have
no idea who the best team in the league is,
because there's a yeah, butt. For so many of these
teams right there, just right now in the AFC, of
the of the seven teams that are going to make
(29:13):
the playoffs, six of the seven or eleven to five
are better, which you could turn around and say, oh
my god, that tells you how good the top of
the AFC is. Everybody but the winner of the AFC
North has at least eleven wins already.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
That's great, No, it isn't.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
It's just if you're the if you're the Chargers and
you're the Broncos, you got to play the Raiders twice.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
You've got to play really bad teams. The Patriots and
the Bills have played a Charman soft schedule. You know,
you just go up and down the list.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
If you're the Texans and the Jags, you got to
play against the Titans, and you got to play against
whatever version of the colt you may have gotten, depending.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
On what you got them. Right.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So, like, I don't know what to make of it,
Like I don't know what teams are actually good going
into the playoffs. I know, to your point, that's not
a sexy first take take because everybody wants a clear,
definitive answer. Man, If you told me that the Broncos,
the Patriots, the Jags, the Chargers, the Colts, the Texans
were all going to have a falloff next year. You
could probably talk me into that, I don't know how
much of this is sustainable or good.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Well, I think you know again, you can't do this
with you can't do this and say, well, if they
were healthy, I would trust this team the most because
I would say that about New England despite their Charmann
soft as you described it, schedule this year, and it
is very much that their defense, like they were getting
(30:32):
the best out of the the players that they paid
for this offseason in ways that you very rarely see
actually work that well when you spend all that that
much money. I think it was a record high in
free agency spending for the New England Patriots this offseason
on guys like Milton Williams, the defensive tackle formerly a
Philadelphia Carlton Davis the corner, and all these different pieces
(30:56):
and parts that they added beyond and their draft class
has been solid tributors and they've missed some time throughout
the course of this whether it be Will Campbell on
the offensive line or anything else. And Drake may has
really taken a meaningful step. I think because of the
combination of coaching and quarterback, I would probably take New
(31:17):
England as the team that I trust the most. Now,
I also have to admit that I'm a little bit
biased here. I covered Mike Rabel for six years. I
know what that dude's capable of. I know that dude
also has had some pretty significant in game crashouts, not
like on the sideline, like temperamental crashouts, although you know,
maybe Mike has had a few of those in his career,
but like, for example, they get up twenty one to
(31:39):
nothing on Buffalo a couple of weeks ago at home,
and they blow it, and Mike Rabel comes into the
press conference after the fact and says that was a
learning lesson for everybody involved. We'll see if we can't,
you know, for lack of a better term and being cliche,
watch the tape and improve. I feel like New England
is the team that I feel the best about because
I trust May more than I trust Bo Nicks. And
(32:01):
I don't want to say that Trevor Lawrence can't do
it until he does, Like I won't believe that Trevor
Lawrence is capable until he does. It's just it's it's
I think fair to have a little bit of skepticism
around him for what he's been his entire career versus
what he's been in these last how many if they
wanted to row six games, because even at the start
(32:23):
of the season, or for for the better half first
half of the season, Trevor Lawrence was still making some
pretty critical errors. That Arizona game was not you know,
that was not a dominant performance. He had a He
had a couple of gnarly turnovers in that game that
made you think, Man, I do not want to if
I was I don't bet on the NFL obviously as
a as an NFL as somebody who covers an NFL
(32:45):
team for ethical reasons.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
But if I was betting the postseason, I would have
a really, really.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
Difficult time putting any kind of meaningful money on Jacksonville
Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence guiding themselves through the postseason.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
That would be tough for me.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Well, I mean, just history says when's the last time
a franchise? And I know I'm the guy that says
history doesn't really matter. How does that impact these guys
right now? When's the last time a franchise made their
franchise debut in a Super Bowl. So whenever somebody comes
in and says, oh my god, well the Jags are
going to the super Bowl, the Texans are going to
the super Bowl, it's just I think there's a little
(33:23):
bit right now. I'm not betting on any of these
teams in the AFC, But if you told me that
I had to put my lunch money on one team,
it's the Bills.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
And it shouldn't be the Bills.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
And I know it shouldn't be the Bills, But like
I just I look at it and say, well, this
is the most any given Sunday I've ever felt about
the playoffs coming into it. And if I'm gonna go
any given Sunday and I'm gonna roll it out, then
I'm going to bet on the best player. And I
think right now, the best player in the AFC not
gonna be in the MVP.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
I get it. I think the best player in the
AFC is Josh Allen.
Speaker 4 (33:54):
It's so funny that three quarters of the AFC South
have never won a Super Bowl. God, there's only twelve
teams that have never done it, and three of them are.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
South all right.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Makita tools at the Home Depot built were precision. They
could go to the super Bowl without shortcuts. Designed for
the toughest job. It's the choice for the pros. When
the job calls for the best call of Makita built
to be the best available at the home depot, house
pros get more done. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
If we are just if you're the first time ever
hanging out with us? We end every show the same way.
(34:26):
Every single show ends with the single greatest game show
in the history of sports talk radio. Would you rather
coming up next? We'll figure some questions out on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:35):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Welcome back to Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Buck Rising, Jason Fitz, Bucking fits hanging out with you.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Not gonna lie. I love this song.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Fun fact on this song the other guy in Wham
his mom had left a note that said wake me
up before you go go as an accident.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
She read.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
She was just telling him to wake.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
Me up by go Go So Sweet.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
And that's when George Michael saw when they were he
was over the house, he saw the note and he
started singing it. And that was the base of this
entire song was just a little note that was left
from Andrews mom. There you go, a show sponsored by
DraftKings sports book and original sports betting partner of the
NFL and NBA. Right now, use the promo code two,
the number two pros.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
P r OS.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
That's two p r os to claim your special offer
at Draft Kings. Again, that's promo code two PROS at DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
The crown is yours, all right, buck.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
We do this every single time we work together, which,
by the way, it's the first time you're listening to
us Sat.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Six to eight pm Eastern. We do this every time.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's a tradition that probably gonna die at some so
at some point because we're just not good at following
through things.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
But so far, every time we've always done this.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
It is time for the single greatest game show in
the history of sports lock Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Are you ready for wo?
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Would you rather bad nailed it?
Speaker 7 (36:01):
It's easy, guys, don't think too hard. Would you rather bucket.
It's no good or fix it.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I'm not proud of what we just did. Justic Cooper
come and help us.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
You guys threw that up on purpose, right.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
No, no, no, Like we're looking at each other on
the FaceTime.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
We're trying to get it lined up, and then I
wait on him and he waits at me and it
gets Was it.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Bad it sounded? I thought it was good.
Speaker 5 (36:21):
I mean, it wasn't didn't sync.
Speaker 8 (36:22):
If that's what you were going for, that is what
we were going I thought it was great. Okay, Well guys, uh.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Let me.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Well, guys, you really suck at this. Let me answer
ask you some questions.
Speaker 6 (36:34):
Now.
Speaker 8 (36:34):
You know, maybe if it's a FaceTime maybe it's it's
like a delay thing with the with the connection.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Well yeah, our comrade sis are delayed too, our little
boxes to do radio.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
This is all inside baseball. People don't care about I
get it.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
But I'm just saying the delayser against us. If we
were in the same room, it would be.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
Flawed, right, That's okay. I'm fine to do this from
a distance.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Like you'd have to wear a shirt if we were
in the same room instead of just this says you.
Speaker 8 (36:58):
All right, Well, uh, this might go with the whole
shirt list thing. Would you would you rather sweat mayonnaise
or have everything you touch taste like wet cardboard?
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Oh god, I think weit cardboard right.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
To sweat mayonnaise would be disgusting. I mean I have
experienced something like this, just because Will Levis did that
mayonnaise cologne a couple of years ago when he decided
that he was going to go all in on a
national marketing campaign thinking he was going to be a
long term starting quarterback, which did not go to plan,
and the mayonnaise perfume sold like hotcakes. For like, I
(37:40):
think I'd ended up going to a charitable cause or
something like that. But yeah, I'm all set on the
idea of sweating mayonnaise. I'd rather everything taste like white cardboard.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Mayonnaise might be the most disgusting food of all the foods.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Take that that? Yeah, take it back, dude, mao bowl
you hear me on that? Like, I know the answer
is no.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
In fact, I hate mayo so much that I don't
even like ranch dressing because one of the main ingredients
for those people's ranch is mao. So like, you gotta
hide the taste of mail. Now, Mayo is disgusting. It
does not belong on anything in any way. Shape of
my personal hell would be would be that I would
sweat mao. So I have to go wet cardboard. I'll
get used to the taste of wet cardboard. If I
(38:18):
can get used to egg whites, I can get used
to wet cardboard. I cannot get used to mayo.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
It's basically the same thing.
Speaker 8 (38:24):
Both mayo and ranch are delicious. But moving on, I
feel like this is an easy one, but I'm going
to ask it anyway. Would you rather have fingers as
long as your legs or legs as long as your fingers?
Speaker 4 (38:41):
Would you would rather have fingers as long as your
legs or legs as long as your fingers?
Speaker 1 (38:46):
I want, I want little tiny stubby legs, finger legs,
a little levy tubs.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
Well you know what that adds up, because you're already
like four to seven anyway.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
Right, I am five to nine, thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I am sufficiently average, okay, I wear very average shoe size,
very average. I am average, okay, But like, think about
if your fingers are so long, like your hand's gonna
be heavy. Everything you do like imagine if your fingers
were as long as your legs and you were trying
to sign a document, how are you even gonna see
the document?
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Wouldn't be able to do it.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Use your mouth?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Okay, Well that's that's that's aggressive everything. I'm gonna spend
the next while buck answers and I'm gonna try and
sign my name with my mouth. That's literally what I'm
gonna be doing. Plus, you know, I've been a musician.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
My whole life.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I can't I can't play any of the answers I've
ever played in my fingers and the length of legs.
I'm out of this, Buck. Why I'm gonna sign some things?
Why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Okay? Oh my god, this is very uncomfortable for me
to watch.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
It's only you and I seeing it, so it doesn't.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Are you really doing it?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Yes, he's doing it. It's deeply unpleasant.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
Would rather have fingers as long as my legs just
for the purposes of reaching things that are out of
my current reach?
Speaker 3 (40:01):
I realized that it's put a little bit of an.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
Advantage, and I cannot see any advantage whatsoever to having
nubby little legs.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
No, I would take a long finger feature.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
I nailed the signature.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
Go ahead justin Okay, I like this one.
Speaker 8 (40:15):
Would you rather only be able to watch your favorite
team when they're losing by twenty plus points or never
be able to watch them at all but they win
the championship every year?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
I mean, I live this because my favorite team is
the Raiders. Yet I sit there every Sunday and I
watch it. If I don't watch it, I don't get
the joy. Like I know, losing sucks, but like for me,
there's just something special about sitting down, turning on the
TV and being.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Like, yeah, that's my favorite football team. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I wish I could quit that connection. But if they
win championships and I can't watch it, what's the point?
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So I guess I would.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
I would never watch an Indiana basketball game for the
rest of my life if it meant they would actually
win something in my lifetime.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Of consequence, their last championship was.
Speaker 4 (40:57):
Nineteen eighty seven. I was not even remote close to
being alive at.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
That point in time.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
I mean, would you buy like I mean, you're talking
to somebody that literally has a Larry Johnson signed jersey
in my office for this The last time UNLV won.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Anything like, would you.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
Buy a championship whatever T shirt or hat if you
hadn't watched a single second of them?
Speaker 3 (41:16):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (41:16):
Are you getting me born to an Indiana football game?
Have I never attended a game in my life despite
it being as of water?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
But this just speaks to Buck.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
He went to Indiana and he's never gone to an
Indiana game until the college football playoff.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Good God, stick with Fox Sports Radio all day. We'll
see you tomorrow. Thanks for hanging out with us.
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Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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