December 30, 2025 • 46 mins
Brian Noe is in for Big Ben and talks about the Rams getting upset by the Falcons on MNF and the playoff implications of that loss, why the NFL needs to change the way they seed the playoffs, the QBs with the most to gain from winning a Super Bowl, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
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Speaker 3 (00:32):
So we get to the losers first, like, losers go first,
it's always you know, winners outs, No, no, no, losers
go first. So that would be the Los Angeles Rams.
How about that? The Rams end up losing on Monday
Night Football. They lose twenty seven to twenty four. Matthew
Stafford did not play well. Matthew Stafford channeled his inner
(00:55):
Josh Allen at least on the final throw from Josh Allen.
Josh Allen's still a fantastic coquarterback. Matthew Stafford still a
fantastic quarterback. He's been so fantastic this year. He was
the front runner to win MVP, but on Monday Night
he played like anything but an MVP candidate. He stunk
up the joint, something severe. He threw three interceptions, is
(01:18):
what our guy, Matthew Stafford did. Three picks against the Falcons.
One was a pick six and the theme of the
who am I game? A little bit later this hour.
But the Rams, they erased a twenty one point deficit,
they came roaring back. They tied the game up. Falcons
took the lead with a fifty one yard field goal
with twenty one seconds left. And so here we go,
(01:40):
Matthew Stafford. Time right, You got a chance with twenty
one seconds left, no timeouts to hit a couple of
passes and maybe get your team in field goal range,
get the game into overtime, and then all bets are off. Baby,
and Matthew Stafford had a couple of opportunities. First down, play,
(02:01):
wide open receivier receiver Xavier Smith was just wide open,
ran a little corner route. The Falcons just were like, eh,
Xavier Smith, it's not like he's a DeVante Adams or anything.
We don't need to guard him. They didn't even pick
him up. Wide open a quarterbacks stream, and Matthew Stafford
threw a ball not even close to Xavier Smith, not
(02:23):
even remotely close that was the opportunity right there, because
if Matthew Stafford makes that throw, they're in field goal
range already. They're inside the thirty with about fifteen seconds
to play. They're gonna take one or two shots at
the end zone. They're gonna try to win this thing
in regulation if he can hit this throw. And he didn't.
It was a horrible throw. It's a horrible performance by
(02:46):
Matthew Stafford. And so you get the second down. I'm
not gonna break down everything here, but it was really interesting.
The end of the game, second down, Stafford throws a
deep ball do too at Well. It was a nice throw,
a little grabby grabby should have been pass interference. The
arm of two to two at Well was grabbed prematurely.
(03:07):
The ball wasn't there yet. That his past interference pass interference.
I forget the guy's name, York something, whoever's in the booth.
You always have to have a former official in the booth, right.
The former official in the ESPN booth was like, that's pi.
That is past interference if I've ever seen it, is
what he said, But it was it was a little
(03:29):
bit hard to detect. I know, we want to look
at these officials and we slow it down in super
slow moan. We're like, how did you miss that? In
real time there's hand fighting. Maybe the player's back has
turned to you as he grabs the the hand the
arm so slyly right there. He got away with it,
got away with it on second down, so we get
the third down. No, this this was the play of
(03:51):
the game. So Stafford throws a great ball to Pooka
Nakua along the sideline. Pooka Nakua just grabs the ball
with his left hand, one hands it, beautiful catch, gets
his feet down, going out of bounds. It's like they
ruled it incomplete. We go to the replay. The first
(04:12):
couple of angles we see, oh, that's a catch. The
next thing, that's a catch. The last angle, ooh, not
a catch. He grabbed the ball with his left hand
and it just stuck right there, and uh, you know, uh,
and he's dry. He's falling down. And then Ajterrell, that
(04:34):
savvy Falcons cornerback right there. He kept on grabbing Pooka's arm.
He was just grabbing the arm and he forced the
ball to come loose for a millisecond. He just forced
Puka to lose control just for a little bit as
he was falling out of bounds and his feet were
no longer in bounds anymore. And so with Pooka losing
(04:56):
control of that, with Ajterrell pulling at his arm, it
turned it into an incomplete pass. So it's fourth down
there five seconds left. Stafford tried basically the same throw
along the sideline incomplete game over. Crazy. It was that close,
and man, you go back to the first down play,
you gotta make that throw. Savior Smith is wide open.
(05:19):
That's a throw Matthew Stafford makes in his sleep. But
Stafford was not on point at all on Monday Night.
Man three interceptions and the MVP odds, Oh baby, they
have taken a turn. If you look at the MVP
odds market, Matthew Stafford was a healthy favorite before the
game before Monday Night. Matthew Stafford's looking good. If you've
(05:43):
got any of your Matthew Stafford MVP bets, you're like,
you're like, all right, let's go Stafford. Monday Night's time
to put the final nail in the coffin right here.
Good performance, win the game, gotta be MVP. And then
Stafford is like here, pick six, here another interception, there's
one more interception and you're like, oh my gosh, what
is happening. So during the game, after Stafford threw that
(06:06):
pick six earlier, the odds changed where it's almost even
money on both sides, whether it's Matthew Stafford or Drake
May the Patriots quarterback. It was, you know, like minus
one point fifteen and minus one ten, Like it's very
very even in terms of the betting lines, almost even money.
Let's just not confuse people. It's almost even money on
(06:29):
either player if you were to bet on them at
that stage. And then we fast forward to the end
of the game. It's Stafford missus a wide open receiver,
you know, throws a couple more picks as the game
goes on, ends up with three total, and the MVP
odds have shifted to now Matthew Stafford is a three
(06:51):
to one long shot. He is plus three hundred if
you bet on Stafford, meaning whatever you bet, you get
three times that amount. If you bet ten bucks, you
would win thirty bucks. If you bet one hundred bucks,
you would win three hundred dollars. So that's right, Lorena,
you know you're rolling those deep pockets if you bet
three thousand dollars, you would win nine thousand dollars. That's
(07:13):
how I think its would get deeper. That's right, right,
if you start off with deep pockets to get deeper
deep pockets, right, that's right. But really, if you bet
on Stafford now you probably just lose everything. You bet
on Stafford probably how it would work out. I think
he lost the MVP. I think he lost the MVP
on Monday night. Right now as we speak, Drake May,
(07:36):
the Patriots quarterback, is minus four hundred, meaning you have
to bet. Let's say, if you bet forty dollars on
Drake May, you would earn a measly ten dollars payout.
That's how big of a favorite he is. You would
have to wager four hundred American dollars to win one
(07:57):
hundred American dollars. That's the way it would work. So
Drake May is a healthy favorite right now to win
MVP when he was just maybe watching Monday night football
from the comfort of his own home, just kicking back,
you know, feet on the sofa, just like let's watch
some ball here, and then it's just Stafford pick pick pick.
(08:19):
It's like, oh wow, I would imagine his phone was
blowing up. He's got to have one degenerate gambler friend, right,
He's got to have one guy. Hey eight dude, dude,
look at these. He's like, I'm a professional football player. Now,
I can't have you in my life, degenerate gambler, you
know that sort of thing. But yeah, Stafford, he blew it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He has lost the MVP. That's the way it's shaping up.
And I don't think anything in Week eighteen is going
to change that now. Sean McVay did confirm after the
game that the Rams starters will play in Week eighteen,
and so that's that's a little bit interesting. The Rams
host the Arizona Cardinals. There's not much on the line
(09:00):
for the Rams. I think they're a sixth seed right now.
I think they technically could move up to a five
seed and you could face the winner of that god
awful NFC South Division, right, So some people would say
that's a more favorable matchup. So maybe you want the
five seed instead of the sixth seed. Yeah, I could
see that, but I think it's more so I think
(09:22):
that Sean McVay just wants the Rams playing sound football
heading into the playoffs, right the seeding thing matters. Health matters,
of course, but playing your best football at the right time.
Like we always talk about this getting hot at the
right time, and the Rams are the opposite of a
hot football team right now. It's amazing how quickly things
(09:44):
can change. If you just go back one week ago.
You had the Rams. They were the one seed in
the NFC playoffs heading into week what sixteen, heading into
weeks last week, heading into weeks six at Seattle Thursday
night game, Rams at the time were the one seed.
(10:05):
Rams in the fourth quarter had a sixteen point lead.
They're ahead thirty to fourteen. They had just intercepted Sam
Darnold twice. They're looking great. Things are looking fantastic. And
then somehow Someway punt return for a touchdown, two points. Okay,
one possession game, Seattle's down by eight. Seattle scores again,
(10:26):
Seattle goes for two. Somehow Someway, the football gods, they
just twist things into Seattle gets the two point conversion,
bounces off a Rams player's helmet. Charbonnage just picks it
up in the end zone. They're like, that was a
backwards pass. That's actually two points. Tie. Game goes to overtime.
Rams lose. Rams lose unreal, and now you fast forward
(10:48):
to what we saw on Monday night. Rams lose to
the Falcons, and they are just slip slip slipping in
the NFC playoff picture. In terms of their seeding. They
have no chance to earn the one seat. Their odds
were long after they lost to Seattle, but their odds
are nonexistent now after they lost on Monday night. They
cannot be the one seed and right now they're the
(11:10):
sixth seed. They can only move up to the five.
That's it. That's the playoff picture for the La Rams.
Now the interesting thing with Atlanta. With Atlanta winning, this
shifts the playoff picture even more so. This was a
good thing for Carolina, This was a bad thing for
Tampa that Atlanta won. So what happens now on Saturday
(11:33):
when Carolina goes to Tampa Bay. If Carolina wins that game,
they win the NFC South. But if Tampa wins that game,
Tampa hasn't won anything just yet. Okay, Tampa, if they
win on Saturday, they would then need to cross their fingers,
hope and pray that the Falcons lose to the Saints
(11:57):
on Sunday. Tampa does not control their path to the playoffs.
They don't control it. Even if they beat Carolina, they
are not in yet. They would have to have the
Falcons lose, because if the Falcons win, it would create
a three way tie, and it seems like that would
just be poetic justice. Wouldn't they be fitting for the
(12:18):
NFC South? How decrepit It's been all season, three teams
all finish eight to nine. All three teams at the
top of the division have losing records. That seems to
be fitting of the NFC South this season, doesn't it.
I don't think it's gonna happen. I think Carolina's gonna
win that game. But if it were to happen and
you had a three way tie, if Tampa beats Carolina,
(12:42):
and if the Falcons beat the Saints, certainly possible, right,
you would have a three way tie and Carolina would emerge.
So even if Carolina loses on Saturday, they still have
a chance. They would have to hope and pray that
Atlanta wins, and if that happens, Carolina is in. So
(13:02):
that was a bad result for Tampa. Tampa wanted Atlanta
to lose on Monday Night against the Rams, and then
Tampa would control its playoff path if that were the case,
if Atlanta lost on Monday, Tampa would just have to
win on Saturday and they're in. But with Atlanta winning,
that is no longer the case. Now Tampa needs help.
(13:25):
That just shows you how far Tampa has sunk. Right,
That was a team that was six and two. They
started off the season six and two, and now they
are seven and nine. They need to beat Carolina and
then they have to they have to get Atlanta to
lose and then they can get in. They went from
(13:47):
six and two to need Atlanta to lose. That's how
That's how far Tampa has sunk. Man. I just I
think they're a dead team walking.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
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Speaker 4 (14:05):
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Speaker 2 (14:17):
Every day.
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Speaker 3 (14:33):
Or wherever you get your podcasts. The Rams lost on
Monday night, and yet they still have an eleven and
five record, And I'm just looking at the playoff picture
in both conferences in every year, and this year more
than some recent years, the standings just look dumb. I
(14:58):
really don't understand. I get as much pushback on this
as I get because this has driven me crazy for
a number of years, and this year is no different.
This year. It's just more intense, if anything. But I'm
looking at the records and it just something just stands
out like a sore thumb. Remember the old school, Like
(15:20):
one of these things is not like the other. I
don't know how the melody went, but it was like that.
It was it was a sesame street thing. One of
these things is not like the other. And as a
little kid, he had to be like, oh, what is
it all right? It's not the same. Yeah, that guy's
wearing a yellow sweater, that girl's wearing a yellow sweater.
That kid is wearing a yellow sweater and this other
(15:42):
guy is wearing a black sweater. It's like, that's what's difference,
the black sweater guy. Right, that's what it looks like
in the AFC and the NFC playoff pictures. If you
look at the AFC. Okay, now, I'll just give you
the records, so right now, in order, it is Denver
thirteen and three, Patriots thirteen and three, Jags twelve and four,
(16:08):
Pittsburgh nine and seven. They don't even have ten wins,
they don't have double digit wins. Then underneath the Steelers
Houston eleven and five, Chargers eleven and five, Bills eleven
and five, all these wild card teams in the AFC
have eleven wins, and yet Pittsburgh, who right now is
(16:30):
leading the AFC North, they have to beat the Ravens
to win the division, otherwise the Ravens will win it.
So I don't understand why it's structured this way. It's
so dumb. It's so dumb. The way it is is
the division winners, they're seeded one through four. We don't
(16:51):
care about their records. If you win your division, no questions, asked.
You get a playoff Berth, you get a home playoff game,
You're seeded one through four, and that's what That's the
way it remains throughout the entire playoffs. It's crazy, it's insanity.
In no world has the Steelers season been better or
(17:12):
more impressive than the Texans, the Chargers, the Bills. All
those teams have two more wins than the Steelers. The
Steelers play in a bad division like that, it's not
an impressive season. It's not an impressive achievement that they've
won their division. What I want to do, here's my idea.
It's not very difficult. The four division winners, they get
(17:36):
into the playoffs. Okay, you get a playoff spot. We
might not even have that, like in the NFC Carolina
they might if they win the NFC South, they might
not be guaranteed a playoff spot, right like, it might
not work that way. So at least you get a
playoff spot, you're guaranteed you're in the playoffs. We don't
(17:58):
care if you're under five hundred. That's happened. By the way,
there have been teams that made the playoffs that had
a sub five hundred record that would not have made
the playoffs unless they won their division. So if you
win your division, you're in the playoffs, no questions asked.
That's your reward. But you don't get the extreme luxury
(18:20):
of then hosting a playoff game on top of that.
You don't get that. No, sorry, it's too much. So
what you do. Division winners, you're in one, two, three, four.
You guys are in the field. Then we have three
wildcard teams one, two, three. Those seven teams make it
in each conference, and then we seed the teams based
(18:41):
on record. That's what we do. We see them based
on record. You know who figured this out in one year?
College football? College football. What they did is what the
NFL currently does college football. Last season, they said, hey,
we're gonna have the highest like conference winners. If you
(19:07):
win your conference, you guys are gonna be seeded one
through four. You guys are gonna get the buye, which
is a big deal. You get to rest, you don't
risk injury, you don't risk losing, you don't risk anything.
Get you earn a bye. It's a big deal. And
then they had Arizona State and Boise State get buys
and college football is like, this is stupid, Like these
(19:29):
teams are ranked low. I forget the rank. I'd have
to look, but it's like Boise State was I don't know,
like twelfth, and Arizona State was ranked sixteenth, and somehow
these teams got buys. They're seated like three and four.
It was insanity. And College Football looked at that and
they were like, yeah, we're changing that immediately. This is dumb.
(19:51):
This is just this is dumb. And so they seated
teams one through four based on record based on rankings,
like the way they r them is the way they
seated them. And they're ranked primarily based on record. So
it's not like, oh, okay, you won the UH, you
won the Big twelve, Okay you get a bye. You
(20:13):
won the UH, you won the ACC, Okay you get
a bye. Like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. You
actually have to be ranked one through four to get
one of the top four seedings and thus a bye.
College football figured it out in one year. It took
them one year to be like, our system is dumb.
(20:34):
Visit this is freaking crazy. And and the NFL is
still beholden on their dumb system if you look at it,
like right now, Carolina, the Carolina Panthers who lead their division,
which sucks. They're like Boise State. Last year, Boise State
won a sucky conference. They they were ranked lower and
(20:58):
they were inappropriately handed a bye, and college football changed it.
The same thing with Arizona State. They were ranked too
low and college football was like, all right, yeah, we
kind of messed that up, or we're changing that. You know.
I'm looking at the let me see the rankings here
(21:18):
the uh well we have the final rankings. Sorry, let
me try to get this week sixty. Okay, so going
in here we go. Arizona State was ranked twelfth and
they were seeded number four just because they won the
Big Twelve. They were like, hey, you won your conference,
so you get a bye. I guess the twelfth ranked
(21:40):
team gets the number four seed. That makes a ton
of sense. Boise State was ranked ninth and they got
the number three seed. Again, makes zero sense whatsoever one year,
and college football was like, yeah, all right, that's that's
gonna Change's dumb. We're dumb. We admit that we're dumb,
(22:03):
and we're changing this immediately. So if you look at
what happened in college football, now look at this lines
up a little bit more logically. So Indiana ranked number one,
seeded number one, Ohio State ranked number two, seeded number two,
Georgia three and three, Texas Tech ranked four, seeded number four. Wow,
(22:29):
it's amazing how that works out. It almost like makes sense, right, Like,
I don't know why the NFL doesn't do that. It
really is ridiculous. Ask yourself this. If we were ranking
these teams in the AFC, and we're looking at their records,
and we're factoring in some other things like what's your
(22:50):
strength of schedule? The things we do in college football,
what's your strength of record? Like who did you play,
who did you beat? Who are your quality loss? Is
all of that stuff we do in college football. If
we were to do that in the NFL, where do
you think the Steelers would be? Do you think they
would be fourth out of these seven teams that make
it into the playoffs? No chance, they would be dead
(23:14):
last out of those seven. So why are they seeded
number four? It's dumb, It makes no sense. So you
win your division, you're in the playoffs. The three other
wild card teams based on record, you're in the playoffs
as well. And then you see those teams based on record.
(23:34):
There's no world where if you look at the NFC
playoff picture, Carolina is number four right now because they
lead their division, and below them you've got San Francisco
twelve and four, Carolina's eight and eight. So right now,
an eight and eight football team would host a twelve
and four football team. In no world does that make sense.
(23:59):
It makes ab solutely zero sense. And for anyone who says, well,
I just think you should get more for winning your division,
why why do you get more for winning the NFC South,
which sucks this year? They might not have one team
with a winning record if Carolina loses to Tampa, and
(24:20):
by the way, I don't think they will, but if
they do, no team will have a winning record in
that division. How is winning that division more impressive than
the Niners being a twelve and four football team, at worse,
a twelve and five football team. How is that more impressive?
It isn't, So they shouldn't be rewarded as if it is.
(24:43):
They should break these teams, seed these teams based on
record all day and for anyway, I was thinking about
this too, thinking about this today, because you'll hear this
quite a bit it's like, okay, we just let's how
about this. I hate this idea, but let's keep it
the way it is, which is dumb and makes no sense,
which I've outlined in great detail, probably more detailed than
(25:04):
I initially set out thinking I would do. But you know,
you know me, I'm a ball junkie and I just
get off and running, and you know, I get passionate
about this stuff anyway, So a lot of people say,
let's just keep it out. It is the four division
winners one, two, three, four boo boom boom, boo boom.
That might have been one too many booms. I don't
know if it was four or five booms. It was
(25:25):
one too many boom. I apologize, but boom boom, boom boom.
There you go. Then you get the three wild card
teams boom boom boom, and then we keep it just
the way it is, and then after the first round,
let's recede. You hear that a lot, let's reseed these
teams based on record. And I was playing this game,
(25:45):
so like, play this game out here real quick, just
based on the playoff picture right now. Okay, so the
playoff picture right now, what you would have is your
two to seven matchup would be the Bears hosting the Packers. Okay, now,
humor me on this one. Let's say the Bears win
that game. They just beat the Packers in at Soldier
(26:07):
Field a week ago, right, let's say they do it again.
Packers have lost three in a row. Jordan Love has
been banged up, like, it wouldn't be crazy if if
the Packers went to Soldier Field and lost again. So
let's say the Bears win that game. Then we also
get the four to five matchup that would be right now,
Carolina against San Francisco's let's be radical here and say
(26:31):
San Francisco wins that game on the road, okay, And
then the last one that we would have in the
first round, we would have the Rams at the Eagles.
Let's say the Rams win that game. Rams went into
you know, Philly before, and if not for a couple
of missed field goals, one was blocked at the end
(26:52):
in return for a touchdown, they win that game. Like
the Rams should have won that game. Wouldn't be crazy
at all if they went in there and beat the Eagles.
So let's just say that's what we have, all right.
If you were then to reseed teams based on record
after the first round. This is what you would get
(27:12):
based on what I just said. Bears beat Packers, the
Rams beat the Eagles, and the Panthers they lose to
the Niners. Right, so your three winners are what Bears, Rams, Niners.
If you reseed those teams, what you would have is
Seattle would be the one seed, San Francisco would be
(27:33):
the two seed, then it would be Chicago, and the
Rams Rams would be the four seed. You know what's
funny about this? Two would play three, right, So you
would have a wild card team in the forty nine
Ers hosting a division winner in the Bears. So if
(27:54):
you're okay with the idea, if you're one of these like, hey,
let's receed after the first round, if you're up for that,
then you do realize, right that a wild card team
could very well host a division winner in the second round.
So if you're cool with that in the second round,
why are you not cool with that in the first round?
(28:17):
That makes no sense. None, I hear that all the time. No,
I think I think you should get a home playoff
game if you win your division. But they should definitely
recede after that going forward, it's like, you do realize
that you could have a wildcard team hosting a division
winner in the second round, right like when the stakes
(28:37):
are growing and it's getting more serious and we're inching
closer to Championship Sunday and then Super Bowl Sunday. It
just blows my mind. Man, it makes no sense. And
yet you'll have team after team after team in the
NFL ownership they're just they're dead set against changing the
playoff format. They don't want to see these teams base
(29:00):
on record, and they're like, hey, if you win your division,
you should get a home game. I think it's like this, really,
if we cut down to it, more franchises benefit from
the way it is right now. Like Carolina would benefit
from the way it is right now. The winner of
the AFC North, the Steelers or the Ravens, they would
benefit from the way it is right now. And yet
(29:22):
you might have one team or a couple of teams
that get screwed right now. It would be the forty
nine Ers, they're a wildcard team right now. It'd be
the Rams, they're a wildcard team right now. All these
teams in the AFC, Texans, Chargers, bills. They have better
records than the Steelers. I really don't know why they
aren't thinking the way I'm thinking, Like, I just I
(29:43):
don't know, man, Like they don't think, hey, man, why
are we on the road exactly? This socks that shouldn't
be like this. I would think there'd be more of
a groundswell to change this format, but there just isn't.
There isn't when they bring it up, like hey, should
we even vote on this? I don't even think it
gets voted on. I don't. I don't think it even
(30:03):
gets to that stage where they're like, yeah, yeah, I
think it was what the Lions brought it up last year.
So the Lions, if they didn't win their Week eighteen game,
they would have fallen from the number one seed to
the number five seed, and they brought this up, like, yo,
we might want to change this. It's a kind of
dumb slash. We almost got screwed by this stupid setup,
(30:27):
and it got shot down right away. I don't think
they even voted on it. I don't think it even
got to that stage. So there is not any momentum
for changing this rule, and I think it should be
changed immediately. It makes absolutely no sense. I don't care
that you won your sucky division. I don't care. You
(30:49):
know what's funny too, they they rank these teams or
seed these teams based on record among the division winners
and among the wild card teams. It's like, why don't
we do that altogether?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Why?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
In what world is Carolina's season this year more impressive
than the Niners or the Rams? It's not. It's not
even close. Even with the Rams losing on Monday Night
to the Falcons, not even close to more impressed. They're
a five hundred team, they're eight and eight. It's not
more impressive. Like which division is more impressive?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
The NFC South with no teams with a winning record
they have no teams with the winning record right now,
or the NFC West, where you've got three teams with
at least eleven wins. The NFC West is light years
better than the NFC South. So why are we acting
like winning the NFC South is better than being a
(31:46):
wild card team in the NFC West. It's just dumb.
It makes absolutely no sense. I wish they would change
it right away, and for now you have a little
bit of ammo. I just figured this out maybe a
little bit late to the party. But for anyone who's like,
I think the division winners should have home games, but
I'm in favor of receding after the first round, it's like,
(32:08):
you do realize that wildcard teams could then host division winners, right,
they could be hosting the game, Like the wildcard team
would get the home game. Something that for some reason
you're against in the first round. Like that argument makes
absolutely no sense. It's a complete contradiction. For anyone who's like,
I don't think that a wildcard team should host games
(32:29):
in the first round, but we should recede going forward,
it's a complete contradiction. It's like they don't even realize
what they're saying. So no, they should just base these teams.
They should see these teams based on record, whether you
win your division or your wildcard team, all in order,
based on record. But your comments are more than welcome.
(32:51):
I know a lot of people, for whatever reason, they
rage against logic. I put it this way, Sometimes people
just get used to stuff. Okay, there is no way
if the setup all along is what I'm saying it
should be, we've got our seven teams or back in
(33:14):
the day when we had six teams from each conference
make the playoffs, if they just seated all these teams
based on record, nobody would suggest changing it to the
system we currently have, all right, Like, we're seeding these
teams one through seven based on record, whether you won
your division or you're a wildcard team. We're basing it
(33:35):
on record, okay, and we'll have tie breakers if we
need to, just like we do as now. Right, Well,
you don't change anything like that. We're one through seven
based on record and tiebreakers. No one would be like, hey,
I got an idea. How about we do this so
you get a playoff berth if you win your division
and you automatically get a home game. Yeah. I know
(33:57):
you might be like eight to nine and you might
host a team that's like four or five wins better
than you, but we think you should get something more
for winning your division. Right, Everybody would look at that
guy like he had three heads, like who invited this
freaking guy to the meeting? Get the hell out of here,
Like that makes no sense at all. I think we
(34:17):
just get used to stuff, and a lot of people
are used to this format.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Be sure to catch live editions of the ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Who are the top five quarterbacks that would benefit the
most from winning a Super Bowl? And now let me
just say this, because I'm gonna throw out my list
and it's going to turn into, well, what about this guy?
What about that guy? It's everybody, every quarterback that's going
to be in the playoffs. Each one of them could
(34:50):
benefit greatly, would benefit greatly from winning a super Bowl,
every single one. So you're gonna hear my top five
and just make sure you understand that. I am fully
aware that anyone winning a super Bowl it would be
a big deal for them. Now I'm trying to find
the top five, like the biggest of big deals, right,
(35:11):
who does it mean the most four? Because Aaron Rodgers,
it would meet a ton, it'd be a second Super
Bowl ring, it'd be another ring with another franchise to
be huge for Rogers. But he doesn't crack my top five.
He's already got a ring. He's already an all time
you know talent. He's on the short list of all
(35:32):
time great quarterbacks in NFL history already with the one ring.
Matthew Stafford winning another ring that'd be a huge deal
for him, So you could go with these guys. He
didn't crack my list though He's already got a ring,
and we already think very very highly of Matthew Stafford.
So my list is it's all quarterbacks who haven't won
(35:52):
a ring yet who would benefit the most from winning
one this season. So I look at this and the
first thing I I will say is Lamar Jackson is
not on my list, and not because I don't think
he would benefit a great deal. He would benefit a ton.
Like what we say about Lamar is he's been great
in the regular season, outstanding, what a talent, two time
(36:16):
MVP arguably should have been a three time MVP. But
man in the playoffs, he wets himself time and time
and time again. He does not have a good record
in the playoffs, he does not have good individual numbers
in the playoffs, and he leaves a lot to be
desired when he's in the playoffs. If he won a
Super Bowl ring, that would change a ton of the narratives.
(36:38):
It would mean a ton to Lamar to win a
super Bowl. But the reason I don't have him on
my top five the Ravens. They might not even make
the playoffs, and if they do, they're going nowhere right
like we know this, okay, So I just can't get
beyond the logical part of this where it's like the
(37:02):
Ravens dude, that they're not going anywhere. They've had a
lackluster defense, They've had significant injuries. Lamar isn't close to
himself right now. He's dealt with the injuries he's had
the hammy and the knee and the calf and the ankle,
and he went three games in a row without accounting
(37:22):
for any touchdowns. Like, he's not close to the same
guy right now. They have no chance to win a
super Bowl. So I just can't wrap my mind around
what a Super Bowl would mean for Lamar when they
just have no chance to win a super Bowl this season.
So it's more so that than anything. So the five
quarterbacks that I have on my list that could benefit
(37:43):
the most from winning a super Bowl, Number five I
would go with Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert has been a
really good NFL quarterback. He has no playoff wins, and
there are a lot of people that say that and
throw it in his face. Where the playoff wins? Where
are they? I would look at the first playoff game
(38:04):
against Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville. Justin Herbert played really well.
They had a huge lead, and the lead went bye
bye and they lost in very embarrassing fashion to Jacksonville.
That's more on the Chargers defense than anything. I don't
know why Herbert took such a tongue lashing for the like,
not from his coach or any it was like from fans,
(38:26):
from listeners, from people out there, just like, oh, Justin Herbert,
It's like, play some freaking defense man. That's not a
Justin Herbert thing. That's a lack of defense. That's a
lack of closing the deal. But he took a big hit,
fair or not. He took a lot of criticism for
not getting that win, and then last year fully should
(38:48):
be criticized through four interceptions against Houston. So I don't
give him the benefit of the doubt obviously for that performance.
But if he were able to win a Super Bowl
this season, think about that. He's got a broken hand,
had surgery on it, not missing any time, not only
gets his first playoff win, but he stacks win on
(39:09):
top of win on top of win. He has a
magic carpet right, he wins it all, that would mean
a ton for him. It would silence a lot of
the critics that are saying, where's the playoff success? Where
where is it? Another guy a little higher on my
list would be Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence, nobody says anything
positive about the guy in the regular season. You know,
(39:29):
at least people say things positively about Herbert in the
regular season, they'll say that about Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence
is just like this freaking guy. We thought he was
going to be the truth in the NFL. He had
some really good college success, look to have all the tools,
and he just hasn't put it together. And if he's
able to win a ring, that would mean a ton
(39:50):
for him, especially in Jacksonville. Though I would have him
number four on my list, number three, I'd go Donald.
Donald would obviously great benefit from winning a ring. He's
zero to one in the playoffs and he's mostly looked
at as just it's like a collective eye roll, you
(40:10):
know when you think about Donald and hey, who's gonna
e merge from the NFC, and it's like Donald Man,
like the one playoff game he's had he lost to
the Rams and he got sacked nine times. I didn't
have a bet on the game. I didn't have a
dog in the fight at nothing. And I'm watching the
(40:33):
game and I'm just yelling like throw the ball, man,
Like what are you doing? Throw it? Throw it away,
don't get sacked for a loss of ten yards. Just
throw it, throw it at the feet of a covered
guy and just save the yardage, man, Like, what are
you doing? So everything we've said about Donald, everything we've
(40:55):
thought about Donald, would be completely flipped if he's able
to win it all. And listen, Seattle's got a shot.
They've got a real defense, They've got a real number
one wide receiver in Jackson Smith and Jigba. If Sam
Donald is all of a sudden playing sound football, not
turning it over, yeah, like productive, they absolutely have a
(41:16):
shot to win it all. And if he's able to
do that, we're clowning, you know, the Jets version of
Sam Donald. I'm seeing ghosts. I'm seeing ghosts. That's what
he's known for. He's known for seeing ghosts and choking
in big moments. That's his brand. His brand recognition is
choking and coming up small on the big stage, and
(41:37):
if he completely flips that that would be massive for him. Uh,
number two on my list what a super Bowl would
mean a great deal for brock Purty. I put brock
Purty number two because, listen, brock Purty is a good quarterback,
and he's known as mister irrelevant, last pick of the draft,
(42:00):
and like people like me, I've been critical of brock
Purty throughout the years because I just I don't understand
the level of people just rushing to his defense. Like
people act like you're saying something far worse about brock
Purity than you actually are. Right. I've never said brock
(42:21):
Purty sucks, he's no good, this guy's a hack. I
don't even know why he's in the NFL. He shouldn't
get paid a penny. I've never said any of those things,
none of them. I'm just like, he's good. He's just
not great. He's good, he's just not worth the contract
that they gave him. He's good, he's just not a
difference maker, meaning when they have to skimp on the roster,
he can just take them to the Promised Land. He's
(42:43):
not on that level. That's what I've said about brock Purty.
The whole time. But there are a lot of people
like me. It's like two sides is like braveheart over here.
It's the people like me and the people that are
like just coming at my jugular for saying anything halfway
critical about brock Purty, Like this guy, he's amazing. This guy,
what do you mean he's it's like, oh my gosh.
(43:06):
But for the people like me that have been critical
of brock Purty, if he won it all this season,
he won a super Bowl, he would have to play well.
He's a difference maker. He's making plays on the biggest
of stages. People like me would have to go, we
just have to shut up and take the l right,
That's what would have to happen. So for brock Purty
(43:28):
to go from last pick of the draft contract extension,
a lot of people saying he's not worth that contract extension.
He doesn't have the goods, he's not elite, he's not great,
he's just good. To win it all, man, he would
silence a ton of people. That would mean a great
deal for him to win it all. And number one
on my list the top five players that would benefit
(43:50):
the most from winning a Super Bowl this season, Josh Allen.
That's right. I have the Bills quarterback Josh Allen number one,
and listen, he has been fantastic, like he was rough
his first two years inaccurate. I'm blown away how great
of a quarterback he's turned into. And I'm also blown
(44:12):
away how he's turned into this great quarterback and then
messed up a throw against the Eagles. He's got a
wide open guy for a two point conversion and a
win that was stunning. He's turned into one of the
more accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. He's fantastic. But what
it would mean for Josh Allen to win a Super
Bowl One? He would obviously he would come into he
(44:35):
would you go into a different tax bracket. He would
all of a sudden be among elite quarterbacks, not just now,
but in the history of the NFL. Now he's starting
to he's starting to enter territory of Okay, he's stacks
five ten more years of great success and maybe builds
upon the one super Bowl ring. Now we're talking about
(44:57):
all time greatness for Josh Allen. We're also talking about
him winning a Super Bowl for the Buffalo Bills, who
have just been known for coming up short, not having
the clutch gene. Disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. You talk
about being knighted for eternity in the Buffalo community. It
(45:21):
would be winning a Super Bowl and Josh Allen doing that.
Oh my gosh, it would mean massive amounts for the
guy because he's been great in the regular season at times,
he has been great in the postseason, but he's come
up short every time, at least his teams have. And
if he's able to get them over the hump, and man,
(45:42):
we go back to the four straight Super Bowl losses,
all the pain, all the heartache, all of that stuff
he's able to come through. Oh man, it'd be massive
for him. Not just now in the NFL. I can
think about if he wins it all this season and
his game's next season being promoted. Oh it's a super
Bowl champion Josh Allen against Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes.
(46:05):
Check it out week sick man. Be huge. It'd be
huge for the NFL. That's the other thing. Ask yourself
who would benefit the NFL the most if they were
to win a championship. I think it's Josh Allen. Absolutely,
You're able to promote all of these marquee matchups going forward,
(46:27):
He's already an MVP. He's already one of the best
quarterbacks in the league. Some people think, based on Mahomes
taking a step back, that Josh Allen is past Mahomes.
There are a lot of people who think that if
he's able to add a Super Bowl to that, man,
now you're cooking with grease. So I think the NFL
would benefit the most if Josh Allen won it all.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatherlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot Com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
So we get to the losers first, like, losers go first,
it's always you know, winners outs, No, no, no, losers
go first. So that would be the Los Angeles Rams.
How about that? The Rams end up losing on Monday
Night Football. They lose twenty seven to twenty four. Matthew
Stafford did not play well. Matthew Stafford channeled his inner
(00:55):
Josh Allen at least on the final throw from Josh Allen.
Josh Allen's still a fantastic coquarterback. Matthew Stafford still a
fantastic quarterback. He's been so fantastic this year. He was
the front runner to win MVP, but on Monday Night
he played like anything but an MVP candidate. He stunk
up the joint, something severe. He threw three interceptions, is
(01:18):
what our guy, Matthew Stafford did. Three picks against the Falcons.
One was a pick six and the theme of the
who am I game? A little bit later this hour.
But the Rams, they erased a twenty one point deficit,
they came roaring back. They tied the game up. Falcons
took the lead with a fifty one yard field goal
with twenty one seconds left. And so here we go,
(01:40):
Matthew Stafford. Time right, You got a chance with twenty
one seconds left, no timeouts to hit a couple of
passes and maybe get your team in field goal range,
get the game into overtime, and then all bets are off. Baby,
and Matthew Stafford had a couple of opportunities. First down, play,
(02:01):
wide open receivier receiver Xavier Smith was just wide open,
ran a little corner route. The Falcons just were like, eh,
Xavier Smith, it's not like he's a DeVante Adams or anything.
We don't need to guard him. They didn't even pick
him up. Wide open a quarterbacks stream, and Matthew Stafford
threw a ball not even close to Xavier Smith, not
(02:23):
even remotely close that was the opportunity right there, because
if Matthew Stafford makes that throw, they're in field goal
range already. They're inside the thirty with about fifteen seconds
to play. They're gonna take one or two shots at
the end zone. They're gonna try to win this thing
in regulation if he can hit this throw. And he didn't.
It was a horrible throw. It's a horrible performance by
(02:46):
Matthew Stafford. And so you get the second down. I'm
not gonna break down everything here, but it was really interesting.
The end of the game, second down, Stafford throws a
deep ball do too at Well. It was a nice throw,
a little grabby grabby should have been pass interference. The
arm of two to two at Well was grabbed prematurely.
(03:07):
The ball wasn't there yet. That his past interference pass interference.
I forget the guy's name, York something, whoever's in the booth.
You always have to have a former official in the booth, right.
The former official in the ESPN booth was like, that's pi.
That is past interference if I've ever seen it, is
what he said, But it was it was a little
(03:29):
bit hard to detect. I know, we want to look
at these officials and we slow it down in super
slow moan. We're like, how did you miss that? In
real time there's hand fighting. Maybe the player's back has
turned to you as he grabs the the hand the
arm so slyly right there. He got away with it,
got away with it on second down, so we get
the third down. No, this this was the play of
(03:51):
the game. So Stafford throws a great ball to Pooka
Nakua along the sideline. Pooka Nakua just grabs the ball
with his left hand, one hands it, beautiful catch, gets
his feet down, going out of bounds. It's like they
ruled it incomplete. We go to the replay. The first
(04:12):
couple of angles we see, oh, that's a catch. The
next thing, that's a catch. The last angle, ooh, not
a catch. He grabbed the ball with his left hand
and it just stuck right there, and uh, you know, uh,
and he's dry. He's falling down. And then Ajterrell, that
(04:34):
savvy Falcons cornerback right there. He kept on grabbing Pooka's arm.
He was just grabbing the arm and he forced the
ball to come loose for a millisecond. He just forced
Puka to lose control just for a little bit as
he was falling out of bounds and his feet were
no longer in bounds anymore. And so with Pooka losing
(04:56):
control of that, with Ajterrell pulling at his arm, it
turned it into an incomplete pass. So it's fourth down
there five seconds left. Stafford tried basically the same throw
along the sideline incomplete game over. Crazy. It was that close,
and man, you go back to the first down play,
you gotta make that throw. Savior Smith is wide open.
(05:19):
That's a throw Matthew Stafford makes in his sleep. But
Stafford was not on point at all on Monday Night.
Man three interceptions and the MVP odds, Oh baby, they
have taken a turn. If you look at the MVP
odds market, Matthew Stafford was a healthy favorite before the
game before Monday Night. Matthew Stafford's looking good. If you've
(05:43):
got any of your Matthew Stafford MVP bets, you're like,
you're like, all right, let's go Stafford. Monday Night's time
to put the final nail in the coffin right here.
Good performance, win the game, gotta be MVP. And then
Stafford is like here, pick six, here another interception, there's
one more interception and you're like, oh my gosh, what
is happening. So during the game, after Stafford threw that
(06:06):
pick six earlier, the odds changed where it's almost even
money on both sides, whether it's Matthew Stafford or Drake
May the Patriots quarterback. It was, you know, like minus
one point fifteen and minus one ten, Like it's very
very even in terms of the betting lines, almost even money.
Let's just not confuse people. It's almost even money on
(06:29):
either player if you were to bet on them at
that stage. And then we fast forward to the end
of the game. It's Stafford missus a wide open receiver,
you know, throws a couple more picks as the game
goes on, ends up with three total, and the MVP
odds have shifted to now Matthew Stafford is a three
(06:51):
to one long shot. He is plus three hundred if
you bet on Stafford, meaning whatever you bet, you get
three times that amount. If you bet ten bucks, you
would win thirty bucks. If you bet one hundred bucks,
you would win three hundred dollars. So that's right, Lorena,
you know you're rolling those deep pockets if you bet
three thousand dollars, you would win nine thousand dollars. That's
(07:13):
how I think its would get deeper. That's right, right,
if you start off with deep pockets to get deeper
deep pockets, right, that's right. But really, if you bet
on Stafford now you probably just lose everything. You bet
on Stafford probably how it would work out. I think
he lost the MVP. I think he lost the MVP
on Monday night. Right now as we speak, Drake May,
(07:36):
the Patriots quarterback, is minus four hundred, meaning you have
to bet. Let's say, if you bet forty dollars on
Drake May, you would earn a measly ten dollars payout.
That's how big of a favorite he is. You would
have to wager four hundred American dollars to win one
(07:57):
hundred American dollars. That's the way it would work. So
Drake May is a healthy favorite right now to win
MVP when he was just maybe watching Monday night football
from the comfort of his own home, just kicking back,
you know, feet on the sofa, just like let's watch
some ball here, and then it's just Stafford pick pick pick.
(08:19):
It's like, oh wow, I would imagine his phone was
blowing up. He's got to have one degenerate gambler friend, right,
He's got to have one guy. Hey eight dude, dude,
look at these. He's like, I'm a professional football player. Now,
I can't have you in my life, degenerate gambler, you
know that sort of thing. But yeah, Stafford, he blew it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Man.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
He has lost the MVP. That's the way it's shaping up.
And I don't think anything in Week eighteen is going
to change that now. Sean McVay did confirm after the
game that the Rams starters will play in Week eighteen,
and so that's that's a little bit interesting. The Rams
host the Arizona Cardinals. There's not much on the line
(09:00):
for the Rams. I think they're a sixth seed right now.
I think they technically could move up to a five
seed and you could face the winner of that god
awful NFC South Division, right, So some people would say
that's a more favorable matchup. So maybe you want the
five seed instead of the sixth seed. Yeah, I could
see that, but I think it's more so I think
(09:22):
that Sean McVay just wants the Rams playing sound football
heading into the playoffs, right the seeding thing matters. Health matters,
of course, but playing your best football at the right time.
Like we always talk about this getting hot at the
right time, and the Rams are the opposite of a
hot football team right now. It's amazing how quickly things
(09:44):
can change. If you just go back one week ago.
You had the Rams. They were the one seed in
the NFC playoffs heading into week what sixteen, heading into
weeks last week, heading into weeks six at Seattle Thursday
night game, Rams at the time were the one seed.
(10:05):
Rams in the fourth quarter had a sixteen point lead.
They're ahead thirty to fourteen. They had just intercepted Sam
Darnold twice. They're looking great. Things are looking fantastic. And
then somehow Someway punt return for a touchdown, two points. Okay,
one possession game, Seattle's down by eight. Seattle scores again,
(10:26):
Seattle goes for two. Somehow Someway, the football gods, they
just twist things into Seattle gets the two point conversion,
bounces off a Rams player's helmet. Charbonnage just picks it
up in the end zone. They're like, that was a
backwards pass. That's actually two points. Tie. Game goes to overtime.
Rams lose. Rams lose unreal, and now you fast forward
(10:48):
to what we saw on Monday night. Rams lose to
the Falcons, and they are just slip slip slipping in
the NFC playoff picture. In terms of their seeding. They
have no chance to earn the one seat. Their odds
were long after they lost to Seattle, but their odds
are nonexistent now after they lost on Monday night. They
cannot be the one seed and right now they're the
(11:10):
sixth seed. They can only move up to the five.
That's it. That's the playoff picture for the La Rams.
Now the interesting thing with Atlanta. With Atlanta winning, this
shifts the playoff picture even more so. This was a
good thing for Carolina, This was a bad thing for
Tampa that Atlanta won. So what happens now on Saturday
(11:33):
when Carolina goes to Tampa Bay. If Carolina wins that game,
they win the NFC South. But if Tampa wins that game,
Tampa hasn't won anything just yet. Okay, Tampa, if they
win on Saturday, they would then need to cross their fingers,
hope and pray that the Falcons lose to the Saints
(11:57):
on Sunday. Tampa does not control their path to the playoffs.
They don't control it. Even if they beat Carolina, they
are not in yet. They would have to have the
Falcons lose, because if the Falcons win, it would create
a three way tie, and it seems like that would
just be poetic justice. Wouldn't they be fitting for the
(12:18):
NFC South? How decrepit It's been all season, three teams
all finish eight to nine. All three teams at the
top of the division have losing records. That seems to
be fitting of the NFC South this season, doesn't it.
I don't think it's gonna happen. I think Carolina's gonna
win that game. But if it were to happen and
you had a three way tie, if Tampa beats Carolina,
(12:42):
and if the Falcons beat the Saints, certainly possible, right,
you would have a three way tie and Carolina would emerge.
So even if Carolina loses on Saturday, they still have
a chance. They would have to hope and pray that
Atlanta wins, and if that happens, Carolina is in. So
(13:02):
that was a bad result for Tampa. Tampa wanted Atlanta
to lose on Monday Night against the Rams, and then
Tampa would control its playoff path if that were the case,
if Atlanta lost on Monday, Tampa would just have to
win on Saturday and they're in. But with Atlanta winning,
that is no longer the case. Now Tampa needs help.
(13:25):
That just shows you how far Tampa has sunk. Right,
That was a team that was six and two. They
started off the season six and two, and now they
are seven and nine. They need to beat Carolina and
then they have to they have to get Atlanta to
lose and then they can get in. They went from
(13:47):
six and two to need Atlanta to lose. That's how
That's how far Tampa has sunk. Man. I just I
think they're a dead team walking.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Hey, this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every weekday morning
on my podcast, Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't
your typical sports pod pushing the same tired narratives down
your throat.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Every day.
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Speaker 3 (14:33):
Or wherever you get your podcasts. The Rams lost on
Monday night, and yet they still have an eleven and
five record, And I'm just looking at the playoff picture
in both conferences in every year, and this year more
than some recent years, the standings just look dumb. I
(14:58):
really don't understand. I get as much pushback on this
as I get because this has driven me crazy for
a number of years, and this year is no different.
This year. It's just more intense, if anything. But I'm
looking at the records and it just something just stands
out like a sore thumb. Remember the old school, Like
(15:20):
one of these things is not like the other. I
don't know how the melody went, but it was like that.
It was it was a sesame street thing. One of
these things is not like the other. And as a
little kid, he had to be like, oh, what is
it all right? It's not the same. Yeah, that guy's
wearing a yellow sweater, that girl's wearing a yellow sweater.
That kid is wearing a yellow sweater and this other
(15:42):
guy is wearing a black sweater. It's like, that's what's difference,
the black sweater guy. Right, that's what it looks like
in the AFC and the NFC playoff pictures. If you
look at the AFC. Okay, now, I'll just give you
the records, so right now, in order, it is Denver
thirteen and three, Patriots thirteen and three, Jags twelve and four,
(16:08):
Pittsburgh nine and seven. They don't even have ten wins,
they don't have double digit wins. Then underneath the Steelers
Houston eleven and five, Chargers eleven and five, Bills eleven
and five, all these wild card teams in the AFC
have eleven wins, and yet Pittsburgh, who right now is
(16:30):
leading the AFC North, they have to beat the Ravens
to win the division, otherwise the Ravens will win it.
So I don't understand why it's structured this way. It's
so dumb. It's so dumb. The way it is is
the division winners, they're seeded one through four. We don't
(16:51):
care about their records. If you win your division, no questions, asked.
You get a playoff Berth, you get a home playoff game,
You're seeded one through four, and that's what That's the
way it remains throughout the entire playoffs. It's crazy, it's insanity.
In no world has the Steelers season been better or
(17:12):
more impressive than the Texans, the Chargers, the Bills. All
those teams have two more wins than the Steelers. The
Steelers play in a bad division like that, it's not
an impressive season. It's not an impressive achievement that they've
won their division. What I want to do, here's my idea.
It's not very difficult. The four division winners, they get
(17:36):
into the playoffs. Okay, you get a playoff spot. We
might not even have that, like in the NFC Carolina
they might if they win the NFC South, they might
not be guaranteed a playoff spot, right like, it might
not work that way. So at least you get a
playoff spot, you're guaranteed you're in the playoffs. We don't
(17:58):
care if you're under five hundred. That's happened. By the way,
there have been teams that made the playoffs that had
a sub five hundred record that would not have made
the playoffs unless they won their division. So if you
win your division, you're in the playoffs, no questions asked.
That's your reward. But you don't get the extreme luxury
(18:20):
of then hosting a playoff game on top of that.
You don't get that. No, sorry, it's too much. So
what you do. Division winners, you're in one, two, three, four.
You guys are in the field. Then we have three
wildcard teams one, two, three. Those seven teams make it
in each conference, and then we seed the teams based
(18:41):
on record. That's what we do. We see them based
on record. You know who figured this out in one year?
College football? College football. What they did is what the
NFL currently does college football. Last season, they said, hey,
we're gonna have the highest like conference winners. If you
(19:07):
win your conference, you guys are gonna be seeded one
through four. You guys are gonna get the buye, which
is a big deal. You get to rest, you don't
risk injury, you don't risk losing, you don't risk anything.
Get you earn a bye. It's a big deal. And
then they had Arizona State and Boise State get buys
and college football is like, this is stupid, Like these
(19:29):
teams are ranked low. I forget the rank. I'd have
to look, but it's like Boise State was I don't know,
like twelfth, and Arizona State was ranked sixteenth, and somehow
these teams got buys. They're seated like three and four.
It was insanity. And College Football looked at that and
they were like, yeah, we're changing that immediately. This is dumb.
(19:51):
This is just this is dumb. And so they seated
teams one through four based on record based on rankings,
like the way they r them is the way they
seated them. And they're ranked primarily based on record. So
it's not like, oh, okay, you won the UH, you
won the Big twelve, Okay you get a bye. You
(20:13):
won the UH, you won the ACC, Okay you get
a bye. Like no, no, no, no, no, no, no no. You
actually have to be ranked one through four to get
one of the top four seedings and thus a bye.
College football figured it out in one year. It took
them one year to be like, our system is dumb.
(20:34):
Visit this is freaking crazy. And and the NFL is
still beholden on their dumb system if you look at it,
like right now, Carolina, the Carolina Panthers who lead their division,
which sucks. They're like Boise State. Last year, Boise State
won a sucky conference. They they were ranked lower and
(20:58):
they were inappropriately handed a bye, and college football changed it.
The same thing with Arizona State. They were ranked too
low and college football was like, all right, yeah, we
kind of messed that up, or we're changing that. You know.
I'm looking at the let me see the rankings here
(21:18):
the uh well we have the final rankings. Sorry, let
me try to get this week sixty. Okay, so going
in here we go. Arizona State was ranked twelfth and
they were seeded number four just because they won the
Big Twelve. They were like, hey, you won your conference,
so you get a bye. I guess the twelfth ranked
(21:40):
team gets the number four seed. That makes a ton
of sense. Boise State was ranked ninth and they got
the number three seed. Again, makes zero sense whatsoever one year,
and college football was like, yeah, all right, that's that's
gonna Change's dumb. We're dumb. We admit that we're dumb,
(22:03):
and we're changing this immediately. So if you look at
what happened in college football, now look at this lines
up a little bit more logically. So Indiana ranked number one,
seeded number one, Ohio State ranked number two, seeded number two,
Georgia three and three, Texas Tech ranked four, seeded number four. Wow,
(22:29):
it's amazing how that works out. It almost like makes sense, right, Like,
I don't know why the NFL doesn't do that. It
really is ridiculous. Ask yourself this. If we were ranking
these teams in the AFC, and we're looking at their records,
and we're factoring in some other things like what's your
(22:50):
strength of schedule? The things we do in college football,
what's your strength of record? Like who did you play,
who did you beat? Who are your quality loss? Is
all of that stuff we do in college football. If
we were to do that in the NFL, where do
you think the Steelers would be? Do you think they
would be fourth out of these seven teams that make
it into the playoffs? No chance, they would be dead
(23:14):
last out of those seven. So why are they seeded
number four? It's dumb, It makes no sense. So you
win your division, you're in the playoffs. The three other
wild card teams based on record, you're in the playoffs
as well. And then you see those teams based on record.
(23:34):
There's no world where if you look at the NFC
playoff picture, Carolina is number four right now because they
lead their division, and below them you've got San Francisco
twelve and four, Carolina's eight and eight. So right now,
an eight and eight football team would host a twelve
and four football team. In no world does that make sense.
(23:59):
It makes ab solutely zero sense. And for anyone who says, well,
I just think you should get more for winning your division,
why why do you get more for winning the NFC South,
which sucks this year? They might not have one team
with a winning record if Carolina loses to Tampa, and
(24:20):
by the way, I don't think they will, but if
they do, no team will have a winning record in
that division. How is winning that division more impressive than
the Niners being a twelve and four football team, at worse,
a twelve and five football team. How is that more impressive?
It isn't, So they shouldn't be rewarded as if it is.
(24:43):
They should break these teams, seed these teams based on
record all day and for anyway, I was thinking about
this too, thinking about this today, because you'll hear this
quite a bit it's like, okay, we just let's how
about this. I hate this idea, but let's keep it
the way it is, which is dumb and makes no sense,
which I've outlined in great detail, probably more detailed than
(25:04):
I initially set out thinking I would do. But you know,
you know me, I'm a ball junkie and I just
get off and running, and you know, I get passionate
about this stuff anyway, So a lot of people say,
let's just keep it out. It is the four division
winners one, two, three, four boo boom boom, boo boom.
That might have been one too many booms. I don't
know if it was four or five booms. It was
(25:25):
one too many boom. I apologize, but boom boom, boom boom.
There you go. Then you get the three wild card
teams boom boom boom, and then we keep it just
the way it is, and then after the first round,
let's recede. You hear that a lot, let's reseed these
teams based on record. And I was playing this game,
(25:45):
so like, play this game out here real quick, just
based on the playoff picture right now. Okay, so the
playoff picture right now, what you would have is your
two to seven matchup would be the Bears hosting the Packers. Okay, now,
humor me on this one. Let's say the Bears win
that game. They just beat the Packers in at Soldier
(26:07):
Field a week ago, right, let's say they do it again.
Packers have lost three in a row. Jordan Love has
been banged up, like, it wouldn't be crazy if if
the Packers went to Soldier Field and lost again. So
let's say the Bears win that game. Then we also
get the four to five matchup that would be right now,
Carolina against San Francisco's let's be radical here and say
(26:31):
San Francisco wins that game on the road, okay, And
then the last one that we would have in the
first round, we would have the Rams at the Eagles.
Let's say the Rams win that game. Rams went into
you know, Philly before, and if not for a couple
of missed field goals, one was blocked at the end
(26:52):
in return for a touchdown, they win that game. Like
the Rams should have won that game. Wouldn't be crazy
at all if they went in there and beat the Eagles.
So let's just say that's what we have, all right.
If you were then to reseed teams based on record
after the first round. This is what you would get
(27:12):
based on what I just said. Bears beat Packers, the
Rams beat the Eagles, and the Panthers they lose to
the Niners. Right, so your three winners are what Bears, Rams, Niners.
If you reseed those teams, what you would have is
Seattle would be the one seed, San Francisco would be
(27:33):
the two seed, then it would be Chicago, and the
Rams Rams would be the four seed. You know what's
funny about this? Two would play three, right, So you
would have a wild card team in the forty nine
Ers hosting a division winner in the Bears. So if
(27:54):
you're okay with the idea, if you're one of these like, hey,
let's receed after the first round, if you're up for that,
then you do realize, right that a wild card team
could very well host a division winner in the second round.
So if you're cool with that in the second round,
why are you not cool with that in the first round?
(28:17):
That makes no sense. None, I hear that all the time. No,
I think I think you should get a home playoff
game if you win your division. But they should definitely
recede after that going forward, it's like, you do realize
that you could have a wildcard team hosting a division
winner in the second round, right like when the stakes
(28:37):
are growing and it's getting more serious and we're inching
closer to Championship Sunday and then Super Bowl Sunday. It
just blows my mind. Man, it makes no sense. And
yet you'll have team after team after team in the
NFL ownership they're just they're dead set against changing the
playoff format. They don't want to see these teams base
(29:00):
on record, and they're like, hey, if you win your division,
you should get a home game. I think it's like this, really,
if we cut down to it, more franchises benefit from
the way it is right now. Like Carolina would benefit
from the way it is right now. The winner of
the AFC North, the Steelers or the Ravens, they would
benefit from the way it is right now. And yet
(29:22):
you might have one team or a couple of teams
that get screwed right now. It would be the forty
nine Ers, they're a wildcard team right now. It'd be
the Rams, they're a wildcard team right now. All these
teams in the AFC, Texans, Chargers, bills. They have better
records than the Steelers. I really don't know why they
aren't thinking the way I'm thinking, Like, I just I
(29:43):
don't know, man, Like they don't think, hey, man, why
are we on the road exactly? This socks that shouldn't
be like this. I would think there'd be more of
a groundswell to change this format, but there just isn't.
There isn't when they bring it up, like hey, should
we even vote on this? I don't even think it
gets voted on. I don't. I don't think it even
(30:03):
gets to that stage where they're like, yeah, yeah, I
think it was what the Lions brought it up last year.
So the Lions, if they didn't win their Week eighteen game,
they would have fallen from the number one seed to
the number five seed, and they brought this up, like, yo,
we might want to change this. It's a kind of
dumb slash. We almost got screwed by this stupid setup,
(30:27):
and it got shot down right away. I don't think
they even voted on it. I don't think it even
got to that stage. So there is not any momentum
for changing this rule, and I think it should be
changed immediately. It makes absolutely no sense. I don't care
that you won your sucky division. I don't care. You
(30:49):
know what's funny too, they they rank these teams or
seed these teams based on record among the division winners
and among the wild card teams. It's like, why don't
we do that altogether?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Why?
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Like?
Speaker 3 (31:07):
In what world is Carolina's season this year more impressive
than the Niners or the Rams? It's not. It's not
even close. Even with the Rams losing on Monday Night
to the Falcons, not even close to more impressed. They're
a five hundred team, they're eight and eight. It's not
more impressive. Like which division is more impressive?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Is it?
Speaker 3 (31:26):
The NFC South with no teams with a winning record
they have no teams with the winning record right now,
or the NFC West, where you've got three teams with
at least eleven wins. The NFC West is light years
better than the NFC South. So why are we acting
like winning the NFC South is better than being a
(31:46):
wild card team in the NFC West. It's just dumb.
It makes absolutely no sense. I wish they would change
it right away, and for now you have a little
bit of ammo. I just figured this out maybe a
little bit late to the party. But for anyone who's like,
I think the division winners should have home games, but
I'm in favor of receding after the first round, it's like,
(32:08):
you do realize that wildcard teams could then host division winners, right,
they could be hosting the game, Like the wildcard team
would get the home game. Something that for some reason
you're against in the first round. Like that argument makes
absolutely no sense. It's a complete contradiction. For anyone who's like,
I don't think that a wildcard team should host games
(32:29):
in the first round, but we should recede going forward,
it's a complete contradiction. It's like they don't even realize
what they're saying. So no, they should just base these teams.
They should see these teams based on record, whether you
win your division or your wildcard team, all in order,
based on record. But your comments are more than welcome.
(32:51):
I know a lot of people, for whatever reason, they
rage against logic. I put it this way, Sometimes people
just get used to stuff. Okay, there is no way
if the setup all along is what I'm saying it
should be, we've got our seven teams or back in
(33:14):
the day when we had six teams from each conference
make the playoffs, if they just seated all these teams
based on record, nobody would suggest changing it to the
system we currently have, all right, Like, we're seeding these
teams one through seven based on record, whether you won
your division or you're a wildcard team. We're basing it
(33:35):
on record, okay, and we'll have tie breakers if we
need to, just like we do as now. Right, Well,
you don't change anything like that. We're one through seven
based on record and tiebreakers. No one would be like, hey,
I got an idea. How about we do this so
you get a playoff berth if you win your division
and you automatically get a home game. Yeah. I know
(33:57):
you might be like eight to nine and you might
host a team that's like four or five wins better
than you, but we think you should get something more
for winning your division. Right, Everybody would look at that
guy like he had three heads, like who invited this
freaking guy to the meeting? Get the hell out of here,
Like that makes no sense at all. I think we
(34:17):
just get used to stuff, and a lot of people
are used to this format.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Be sure to catch live editions of the ben Meler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Who are the top five quarterbacks that would benefit the
most from winning a Super Bowl? And now let me
just say this, because I'm gonna throw out my list
and it's going to turn into, well, what about this guy?
What about that guy? It's everybody, every quarterback that's going
to be in the playoffs. Each one of them could
(34:50):
benefit greatly, would benefit greatly from winning a super Bowl,
every single one. So you're gonna hear my top five
and just make sure you understand that. I am fully
aware that anyone winning a super Bowl it would be
a big deal for them. Now I'm trying to find
the top five, like the biggest of big deals, right,
(35:11):
who does it mean the most four? Because Aaron Rodgers,
it would meet a ton, it'd be a second Super
Bowl ring, it'd be another ring with another franchise to
be huge for Rogers. But he doesn't crack my top five.
He's already got a ring. He's already an all time
you know talent. He's on the short list of all
(35:32):
time great quarterbacks in NFL history already with the one ring.
Matthew Stafford winning another ring that'd be a huge deal
for him, So you could go with these guys. He
didn't crack my list though He's already got a ring,
and we already think very very highly of Matthew Stafford.
So my list is it's all quarterbacks who haven't won
(35:52):
a ring yet who would benefit the most from winning
one this season. So I look at this and the
first thing I I will say is Lamar Jackson is
not on my list, and not because I don't think
he would benefit a great deal. He would benefit a ton.
Like what we say about Lamar is he's been great
in the regular season, outstanding, what a talent, two time
(36:16):
MVP arguably should have been a three time MVP. But
man in the playoffs, he wets himself time and time
and time again. He does not have a good record
in the playoffs, he does not have good individual numbers
in the playoffs, and he leaves a lot to be
desired when he's in the playoffs. If he won a
Super Bowl ring, that would change a ton of the narratives.
(36:38):
It would mean a ton to Lamar to win a
super Bowl. But the reason I don't have him on
my top five the Ravens. They might not even make
the playoffs, and if they do, they're going nowhere right
like we know this, okay, So I just can't get
beyond the logical part of this where it's like the
(37:02):
Ravens dude, that they're not going anywhere. They've had a
lackluster defense, They've had significant injuries. Lamar isn't close to
himself right now. He's dealt with the injuries he's had
the hammy and the knee and the calf and the ankle,
and he went three games in a row without accounting
(37:22):
for any touchdowns. Like, he's not close to the same
guy right now. They have no chance to win a
super Bowl. So I just can't wrap my mind around
what a Super Bowl would mean for Lamar when they
just have no chance to win a super Bowl this season.
So it's more so that than anything. So the five
quarterbacks that I have on my list that could benefit
(37:43):
the most from winning a super Bowl, Number five I
would go with Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert has been a
really good NFL quarterback. He has no playoff wins, and
there are a lot of people that say that and
throw it in his face. Where the playoff wins? Where
are they? I would look at the first playoff game
(38:04):
against Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville. Justin Herbert played really well.
They had a huge lead, and the lead went bye
bye and they lost in very embarrassing fashion to Jacksonville.
That's more on the Chargers defense than anything. I don't
know why Herbert took such a tongue lashing for the like,
not from his coach or any it was like from fans,
(38:26):
from listeners, from people out there, just like, oh, Justin Herbert,
It's like, play some freaking defense man. That's not a
Justin Herbert thing. That's a lack of defense. That's a
lack of closing the deal. But he took a big hit,
fair or not. He took a lot of criticism for
not getting that win, and then last year fully should
(38:48):
be criticized through four interceptions against Houston. So I don't
give him the benefit of the doubt obviously for that performance.
But if he were able to win a Super Bowl
this season, think about that. He's got a broken hand,
had surgery on it, not missing any time, not only
gets his first playoff win, but he stacks win on
(39:09):
top of win on top of win. He has a
magic carpet right, he wins it all, that would mean
a ton for him. It would silence a lot of
the critics that are saying, where's the playoff success? Where
where is it? Another guy a little higher on my
list would be Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence, nobody says anything
positive about the guy in the regular season. You know,
(39:29):
at least people say things positively about Herbert in the
regular season, they'll say that about Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence
is just like this freaking guy. We thought he was
going to be the truth in the NFL. He had
some really good college success, look to have all the tools,
and he just hasn't put it together. And if he's
able to win a ring, that would mean a ton
(39:50):
for him, especially in Jacksonville. Though I would have him
number four on my list, number three, I'd go Donald.
Donald would obviously great benefit from winning a ring. He's
zero to one in the playoffs and he's mostly looked
at as just it's like a collective eye roll, you
(40:10):
know when you think about Donald and hey, who's gonna
e merge from the NFC, and it's like Donald Man,
like the one playoff game he's had he lost to
the Rams and he got sacked nine times. I didn't
have a bet on the game. I didn't have a
dog in the fight at nothing. And I'm watching the
(40:33):
game and I'm just yelling like throw the ball, man,
Like what are you doing? Throw it? Throw it away,
don't get sacked for a loss of ten yards. Just
throw it, throw it at the feet of a covered
guy and just save the yardage, man, Like, what are
you doing? So everything we've said about Donald, everything we've
(40:55):
thought about Donald, would be completely flipped if he's able
to win it all. And listen, Seattle's got a shot.
They've got a real defense, They've got a real number
one wide receiver in Jackson Smith and Jigba. If Sam
Donald is all of a sudden playing sound football, not
turning it over, yeah, like productive, they absolutely have a
(41:16):
shot to win it all. And if he's able to
do that, we're clowning, you know, the Jets version of
Sam Donald. I'm seeing ghosts. I'm seeing ghosts. That's what
he's known for. He's known for seeing ghosts and choking
in big moments. That's his brand. His brand recognition is
choking and coming up small on the big stage, and
(41:37):
if he completely flips that that would be massive for him. Uh,
number two on my list what a super Bowl would
mean a great deal for brock Purty. I put brock
Purty number two because, listen, brock Purty is a good quarterback,
and he's known as mister irrelevant, last pick of the draft,
(42:00):
and like people like me, I've been critical of brock
Purty throughout the years because I just I don't understand
the level of people just rushing to his defense. Like
people act like you're saying something far worse about brock
Purity than you actually are. Right. I've never said brock
(42:21):
Purty sucks, he's no good, this guy's a hack. I
don't even know why he's in the NFL. He shouldn't
get paid a penny. I've never said any of those things,
none of them. I'm just like, he's good. He's just
not great. He's good, he's just not worth the contract
that they gave him. He's good, he's just not a
difference maker, meaning when they have to skimp on the roster,
he can just take them to the Promised Land. He's
(42:43):
not on that level. That's what I've said about brock Purty.
The whole time. But there are a lot of people
like me. It's like two sides is like braveheart over here.
It's the people like me and the people that are
like just coming at my jugular for saying anything halfway
critical about brock Purty, Like this guy, he's amazing. This guy,
what do you mean he's it's like, oh my gosh.
(43:06):
But for the people like me that have been critical
of brock Purty, if he won it all this season,
he won a super Bowl, he would have to play well.
He's a difference maker. He's making plays on the biggest
of stages. People like me would have to go, we
just have to shut up and take the l right,
That's what would have to happen. So for brock Purty
(43:28):
to go from last pick of the draft contract extension,
a lot of people saying he's not worth that contract extension.
He doesn't have the goods, he's not elite, he's not great,
he's just good. To win it all, man, he would
silence a ton of people. That would mean a great
deal for him to win it all. And number one
on my list the top five players that would benefit
(43:50):
the most from winning a Super Bowl this season, Josh Allen.
That's right. I have the Bills quarterback Josh Allen number one,
and listen, he has been fantastic, like he was rough
his first two years inaccurate. I'm blown away how great
of a quarterback he's turned into. And I'm also blown
(44:12):
away how he's turned into this great quarterback and then
messed up a throw against the Eagles. He's got a
wide open guy for a two point conversion and a
win that was stunning. He's turned into one of the
more accurate quarterbacks in the NFL. He's fantastic. But what
it would mean for Josh Allen to win a Super
Bowl One? He would obviously he would come into he
(44:35):
would you go into a different tax bracket. He would
all of a sudden be among elite quarterbacks, not just now,
but in the history of the NFL. Now he's starting
to he's starting to enter territory of Okay, he's stacks
five ten more years of great success and maybe builds
upon the one super Bowl ring. Now we're talking about
(44:57):
all time greatness for Josh Allen. We're also talking about
him winning a Super Bowl for the Buffalo Bills, who
have just been known for coming up short, not having
the clutch gene. Disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. You talk
about being knighted for eternity in the Buffalo community. It
(45:21):
would be winning a Super Bowl and Josh Allen doing that.
Oh my gosh, it would mean massive amounts for the
guy because he's been great in the regular season at times,
he has been great in the postseason, but he's come
up short every time, at least his teams have. And
if he's able to get them over the hump, and man,
(45:42):
we go back to the four straight Super Bowl losses,
all the pain, all the heartache, all of that stuff
he's able to come through. Oh man, it'd be massive
for him. Not just now in the NFL. I can
think about if he wins it all this season and
his game's next season being promoted. Oh it's a super
Bowl champion Josh Allen against Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes.
(46:05):
Check it out week sick man. Be huge. It'd be
huge for the NFL. That's the other thing. Ask yourself
who would benefit the NFL the most if they were
to win a championship. I think it's Josh Allen. Absolutely,
You're able to promote all of these marquee matchups going forward,
(46:27):
He's already an MVP. He's already one of the best
quarterbacks in the league. Some people think, based on Mahomes
taking a step back, that Josh Allen is past Mahomes.
There are a lot of people who think that if
he's able to add a Super Bowl to that, man,
now you're cooking with grease. So I think the NFL
would benefit the most if Josh Allen won it all.
Host
Ben Maller
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