January 6, 2026 • 57 mins
It's Fox Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! Dan Beyer and Mike Harmon open the show reacting to Black Monday in the NFL as a multitude of coaches got let go... They look at each vacancy and debate which will be the most attractive opening for this year's candidates. Then the guys move into some playoff talk, first previewing the AFC Wildcard games before moving over to the NFC. They make their picks for each game and break down what should be the deciding factors in each one.
Hosts: Mike Harmon, Dan Beyer
Producer: Ian Roddy
#fsrweekends #jss #crshow
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, Well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is I want your flex with Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bayer and Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down everything
you need to set your lineups, from position rankings.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
To starts and sits.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The guys help you make those hard decisions. And now
let's get your flexod here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Well, that's a wrap on the NFL's regular season, and
now we look ahead to the playoffs. And guys, we
look ahead to the unemployment line. Six jobs now available
in the NFL. He's Mike Carmen. Find him at Swollen Dome.
That's Ian Roddy, our executive producer. Fine, you meant Ian
Roddy underscore. You find me at Dan Byer on Fox.
Did I get that right?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ian with it? Ian Roddy underscore for the X.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That's right?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Okay, all right, just head the double check. It's the
new year. You never know, you may get it wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, remember the tail at the end. Yeah, that's right. Okay,
that's a good way to remember it.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Yes, I'm at dan Byer on Fox and We've got
a lot to discuss. We've got a wildcard matchups in
the AFC and NFC that we will get to. But
I do want to start out with what was Black
Monday in the NFL, and the actually started on Sunday
night with Raheem Morris being dismissed by the Falcons. We
knew the Titans job was open, we knew the Giants
job was open, and now we found out that the Browns, Cardinals,
(01:29):
and Raiders.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Are also looking for new head coaches. Six is the
number right now.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Could always change, Mike, but that's about the handful I
think that people thought going into this offseason.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Yeah, we always do the six to eight. There are
a couple of surprises, I'm sure Ian even though we
knew the proverbial vote of confidence had been out there
for Aaron Glenn, still we're waiting for the sort of damnicicles.
Still some rumors about Lafleur. Should they go and get
worked or just beaten by the Bears in the wildcard
round Harbaugh in Baltimore, what may or may not transpire
(02:03):
there so still potential for some more chaos in here.
But Steichen's gonna stay Cincinnati either stay in the course
in terms of you know, surprises to any of it.
I mean nice ron at the end for Raheem Morris,
was he the guy that forced Michael Pennix to start
the season?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Sorry, I I gotta ask the questions here.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
You know, when he comes down because they finished strong, right,
they finished tied for the division lead eight and nine.
They're right where they were supposed to be. Well all right,
two games under what the projection was. But all in
he ends up finding his way to the unemployment line
with their GM Pete Carroll. We kind of tearfully said
(02:46):
goodbye because it's the end of an era of coach
and then Kevin Stefanski will be hired by time this
podcast posts.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Probably yeah, he's a hot name that's out there there.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Raheem Morris one though, does go back to the quarterback
situation in how everything evolved, and also a team doesn't
look as bad as it did at one point in
the season, but the trade made last year to trade
away your first round pick ends up being thirteenth, a
(03:18):
couple of top breakers could have been twenty four to
twenty five, and then it's kind of no damage. But
at one point we really thought this was an awful
trade by the Atlanta Falcons. In the end, maybe not
as bad. But when you're the Falcons and you're eight
to nine and you see these other teams Tampa, I mean,
everything seemed to go wrong for Tampa from about like
(03:38):
week six on. They just weren't the same team. And
then you had this Carolina team that was whatever, but
they beat Atlanta twice this year. And so if you're
Arthur Blank and you're looking at this Panthers team and
you're saying, boy, what could have been? I mean, heck,
they manhandled the Rams. The Falcons did as you said,
they played good football seemingly down the stretch, but you
(04:00):
kind of have to wonder where did this all go wrong?
They weren't necessarily great with Pennix, and now, like the
pieces that you would need to fill out this team
maybe weren't there for this year and now maybe won't
be for next year because of the moves that you made.
And I assume if Terry Fontt knows probably was Mike honesty,
(04:20):
he may have been the first one out. But you
just do it procedural and fire Raheem and then fire
font No next. But if they were going to bring
in a new GM, and it sure seems like they're
restructuring their front office. That doesn't seem like there was
much hope for Raheem Morris to stick around anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
No, you look at kicking McKay upstairs to another level
and font No out. So now you make those choices,
new GM, new coach, new guy, But some significant roster
questions that you have to address because Kyle Pitts is
an unrestricted free agent. Are you gonna franchise him? Are
you gonna pay him? Have you seen enough in his
(04:55):
five years that you suddenly are thinking he's the world
beating guy going forward? I don't know your quarterback position. Look,
with Kirk Cousins contract, it'll be him and whatever Pennix
is or whatever he's back, I would assume, because I
don't see or presume that any team's coming in to
rescue Arthur Blank from that cap hit unless he takes
(05:19):
on a significant part of it, Which was part of
the problem coming into this season. Who knew they'd need
Kirk Cousins as early as they did because of the
big injury to Penix and Cousins obviously slow coming back,
but coming off a big injury himself, looked pretty good
down the stretch in spots and then Bijon you just
(05:39):
figure out how to give him the world right, but
in a division that was there to be taken to
your point, Dan, you didn't go get it right. Tampa
winning those games early miraculously, Carolina, I saw the cool
grid someone put up on Twitter, the here's the point
differential by playoff teams, and then you have to scroll
(05:59):
forever to get it to where Caroline is like the
difference between Yeah, no, it's funny, so like dot dot
dot dot dot all the way down to what is
it minus sixty eight? So you know, so you've got
like a two hundred point gap between the best team
in the NFL playoffs and where they are, even though
(06:19):
Bryce Young and company made strides, Ted McMillan go on
down the line, the running back whatever. But all of
that to say, you had the if you'd gotten the
defense to the level that it was supposed to be
and jump started that offense a bit earlier the playoffs.
So Arthur Blank didn't have the patience and Raheem Morris
finds himself on the outs.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Too bad that you know, he one guy with the
great meme stayed.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The other didn't.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
With Well Morris had the great meme.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Of you know, after a special team's play of you know,
gesturing to the camera and all. And then he had
Aaron Glenn still in with the Jets dancing on the sideline.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Before they lost.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, the high stepping Yaron Glenn and the win against
the Bucks with Raheem doing that. Yeah, now I follow
It's it is interesting. I think it's a I think
it's an appealing job with Atlanta, with that division with
b John Robinson. You mentioned Kalpits. Something's wrong with Drake London,
(07:18):
you know, saw the outburst. But yeah, there's there's gonna
be an opportunity there. And again the trade that they
made to give up their first round pick looks a
lot better now than it did in the middle of
the year. Also at the beginning of the year when
you thought like this draft class was going to be
something really special, maybe with quarterbacks and the Rams were
going to be able to do something. But James Pierce,
(07:40):
the guy that they ended up getting using their second
first round pick on at ten and a half sacks
this year. So yeah, so so maybe there is something,
But that's the Atlanta job. The Raiders job is not
surprising with Pete Carroll gone, and you expect with the
number one overall pick that they're going to take a quarterback.
It's just a matter of which quarterback. Some people are
(08:03):
higher on that gig. How you look at the division,
Mike and have questions about it still on?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Maybe why?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And then you just have to look at the history
of the organization to wonder how appealing it is.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, that's the thing, right, you got a couple of
huge component parts because we saw bits and pieces of
genty to say, Okay, this guy could very well be
the guy, right because he was a good receiver out
of the backfield still finished, strong Bowers will be back healthy.
You need to retool the offensive. I mean, there's a
million things that go to it. And to your point,
(08:34):
in the larger structure, how much does that change with
spy Tech and Brady to the point that they're putting
out press releases saying they're in charge now, almost as
if to say Mark Davis going, hey, hey, I'm putting
this out so it's not on me and my bowl
cut this year. Okay, leave me alone, But yeah, how
appealing is it in that division, right. One of the
(08:55):
other potential dominoes to fall is like there's still speculation
that Andy Reid, after some content plation, steps away. But
either way, Patrick Mahomes will come back, and whoever takes over,
you still have a retooled Chiefs team to look at.
Chargers are built with Harbaugh to win for a while,
and Sean Payton's just getting started. Really it looks like
in Denver rights still some wrinkles in the bow Nicks,
(09:18):
you know, to smooth it out to a more efficient
offensive explosion. But they're still the number one seats. So
I mean, you know, for all of their awarts, you're
still chasing. So if you want to go and look
around going all right, I want to win because you
don't get a lot of and brought this up and
forgive me if you've gone down this highway, Dan, But
you know the Mike Tomlin John Harbaugh thing that we've
(09:40):
talked about these last couple of weeks. In almost any
other organization, they would have been fired a long time ago,
right A, you won, that was cute. Now you're eight
and eight or just above five hundred a couple of
years agow, you're getting fired. You don't get longevity in
this league. So even if you're on a train, you're like,
you don't get the build. I made fun of Lincoln
Riley repeatedly and talking about this stuff in that you
(10:02):
don't get three or four years to say here's the vision.
All right, we'll get this piece and the next year
we'll get no.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, no.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
You need to turn things around and at least show
progress right away, which is why Pete Carroll ends up
getting shown the door after showing his love for Gino
Smith and that high turnover rate. But yeah, of all
the jobs other than I get to wear the silver
and black and if I turn it around, I'm a
god Like that's the only thing that's appealing about it.
And I guess I get to say I work with
(10:28):
Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Which we get to do right now. I mean, how
about that, Hi Tom?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Technically yeah, yes, my teammate at Fox.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I just don't know what their identity is.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I said this on Sunday to carry Rhodes on
our show on Fox Sports Radio, and we had Tom
Telesco on on Monday when I was filling in on
Fox the former Raiders GM for a year, and I
just kind of asked to said, what's what are the
challenges there? And he pointed to the health of their
offensive line, which wasn't there this year, that everybody was injured.
(11:05):
That happens in the NFL, like it does. And I
just felt like the Raiders problem, I told Carry, I said,
the problem is that Ashton Genty and Brock Bauers other
best players because there's nothing there around them to support
them in their positions. Right, Like the offensive line is hurt,
Max Crosby can get after the quarterback, but there's no
(11:27):
one else on defense that does anything. So while like
drafting Brock Powers was the right pick, like he fell
to them and you get that generational talent, they just
haven't been able to fill it out long enough to
have a respectable team. And just very top heavy isn't
the right word, because they're really really good players. Powers
(11:50):
a top player at his position you talked about gent
just kind of ascending. But now if you draft a quarterback,
so you have a quarterback or running back at a
tight end, and again, you don't know if you have
people who can block for them, and you don't know
if you have people that can stop the other team
from doing anything. So that's just My problem was with
the Raiders entering twenty twenty six and how appealing it
(12:10):
is if you could be there for the long term,
maybe then you're you know, on the rise while everybody
else is, you know, on the fall down and Kansas
City is still trying to figure it out or whatever.
But yeah, it's just to me, isn't the most appealing
gig that we've got out there.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I just got to convince them that at some point
you need a second year or a third year. Yeah,
I mean, since John Gruden was forced to walk away,
what do we have six coaches?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Right? I mean it's it's.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Not a job where you're even getting a long rope
to go and try to build anything. I mean, genty
was nearly fourteen hundred yards. As much as we talked
about him from a fantasy week to week perspective, he
wasn't exciting the total numbers. All right, it looks okay,
you know, the offensive line horrible. Uh, you know, the
(12:56):
injuries set them back. But yeah, you got you got
three ideas play identifiable players, right. Max Crosby has that.
You know, we'll get to Cleveland in artists. But it's
like him and Miles Garrett.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
We got we got two guys. We got one guy
on each event, and I liked chquestioner. He didn't play
the final week. He'll win Defensive Rookie of the Year
and all. But like they're they're operating in a vacuum.
So whatever they do, like they can't cover up for
eleven guys, he can't clone them. So can you outscore teams?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The answer is no, Yeah, you're right about that.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Not too far away from Vegas, the Cardinals made a
change with Jonathan Gannon.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I didn't think that was surprising at all.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
I think there's obviously going to be some sweeping changes,
but Manti acid for it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The GM ends up staying.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
The Cardinals, to me, were always the try hard, max
out as much as you could get nice and when
you only end up winning what three games this past year,
there's only that's that's run its course, you know, there's
only so much that Jonathan Gannon max out.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I was surprised. I think I saw his overall record
was like fifteen wins. My gosh.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
I felt like, for some reason, I felt that they
were just a little bit better than that, but they weren't,
And so not necessarily a surprise that he's out, as
we expect to see sweeping changes in Arizona.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Yeah, I think your try harder mantra there is probably
the way to say it, because they fought in all games,
even Week eighteen. They fought the Rams well before ultimately
getting blown out.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
But it's the kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Jacoby Brissett on his seventh team three touchdowns per pick.
Trey McBride takes another step forward. Harrison couldn't stay on
the field, but Michael Wilson steps up to become a
guide to them, someone we've talked about a lot in
the Fantasy podcast, you know, rising up before Harrison showed up.
I mean going back to last year and finally week
(14:52):
to week you saw that running back. It became a
committee situation once Connor and Benson were both done and
the offense was interesting. The problem was Ganna was a
defensive guy. Yeah, and had no teeth, even though they
drafted all defenders this year, like they couldn't stop you
me Ian and eight of our closest friends.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
No young, Yeah, a lot of pieces. Walter Nolan was drafted,
Will Johnson, the corner from Michigan. All draft picks but
you're right, can't stop anyone. I am curious to see
because there isn't a ton of great offensive candidates out
there coordinators to.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Take that job.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
But if you've got the pieces right, I mean, I
don't know if Marvin Harrison Junior is expendable. We know
Kyler Murray likely is, you know, so there's going to
be moves, but I'm curious to see what they do
with their head coach, and that head coach hiring could
say a lot about the personnel. And then the final one,
I guess maybe the big one shocking to some not
(15:51):
shocking to others, but that the Browns finally pulled the
plug in Kevin Stefanski, that one.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I kept waiting for the meme to be aied where
he's doing the giant heel click as he goes to
his car dancing and just mad, good, congratulations, I'm done
kind of thing because again, like a joke, but I imagine
he can go wherever he wants. Jackson Dart was already campaigning,
go yeah, I like him, good coach, you know that
(16:16):
kind of thing. So for Stefanski it becomes the Jimmy Haslam,
and I don't know how much you heard the quotes
guys ear on Monday after the firing, like the more
Haslam talk. You're just like, really, you these words are
being processed in your brain unless they're being fed to
(16:37):
you through some supercomputer. And you're not paying attention because
you're talking about all the personnel issues you have and
everything else. Yet you keep Andrew Berry and then you
try to enumerate all the things he did. Right, Look,
they had a couple of draft picks.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Hit.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
I'm not gonna you know, deny that. But you also
took two quarterbacks, and what do we need in this league?
We need a quarterback, a guy to go to. And
you have the the other thing that's still swirling out
there of what what's the future? You still have Deshaun Watson.
You got to figure out for twenty six. So I
mean you want to talk about appealing jobs. No, thanks,
Miles Garrett. Congratulations on the sack record. It would be
(17:14):
better if you actually had a win to go with
it every now and again.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
But yeah, we have why from the Bengals.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
You know there wasn't there was a lot of wins
for the bat got the whining from Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yeah, you at least won that war right where everybody
started complaining about it's like you're it's the battle for Ohio.
I don't think anybody's getting anything out of this game,
So enjoy the five minute break, Go call the perfect
play and get after it.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
And not to put you guys on the spot here,
but out of those head coach openings, which do you
think is the most attractive if you were a candidate.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Well, if you take give me all six, it's it's
the Giants, I would say, so unless I mean, and
that's the question of GM and ownership, how much you
love or not like because depending on whose ear you
you you got or what you hear in the grapevine,
how much that may not be an ideal working situation
(18:12):
let alone. Uh nevertheless, never mind the talent that you
might be able to coach yet, right, so that that
kind of bridge there.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Would I will have just to be different because you know,
I've other people have said similar things with the Giants
talent on defense, neighbors, scataboo, all those guys coming af
from injury. I'll just say Atlanta, the division is gettable.
You have Bijon. Sure there are decisions, but I'll say Atlanta.
(18:44):
But yeah, You're probably right with the Giants.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
But I look at like Tennessee if if you can
get them to get out of their own way, And
that's the problem with all of these teams, right is
historically you've got ownership that won't get out of their
own way. Right in Tennessee is probably the best because
if I were an offensive guy, I think I saw
enough from cam Ward that I'd love.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
To go work with cam Ward. Yeah, but I still
got to I got a bet, but I got a
manage jump. Yeah. And I might have my locker room,
but I got a manage jump.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
Amy Adams Strunk has been actually awful, Like she's she's
comparable with Whatdy Johnson when it comes to the worst owners,
like not only in football but in sports.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Well, yeah, we talked about the Raiders and the change
that they have had on off you know, moving guys
in and out. It's been the same thing with head
coaches and gms and in Nashville for a while.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And the people are still saying we never should have
let go of Rabel. No, that's right, you know, like you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Know, and I think, yeah, like when you know, when
you look at it now, like maybe everybody needs a
fresh start at some point, you know, so maybe ultimately
it was it was the right move, but they haven't
made any right move since he's left, and in the
training of A. J. Brown, was the move that he
didn't want to make right in Nashville. As much as
I'm anti A J. Brown a lot on this podcast,
uh didn't seem like the Titans benefited for his absence.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
I bet AJ Brown's a patriot this offseason.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Ooh, interesting like that.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
But yeah, it's just one of those you're looking around
at all of these jobs. I mean, the Bidwells don't
want to spend money, right and everything You've had go
on in Arizona all the time.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
And change. You got to figure out what you're doing
with Kyler Murray.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
New York ownership Tennessee definitely, ownership has limited. Like just
go on down the line and Arthur Blank's gonna hug
you and then fire you minutes later. So you got
all of that going on, and he'll be on the sideline, Scott,
you know, giving you the skull if he doesn't like
your Blake call.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Let's take a time out here and I want your flex.
We got some playoff games to look at. A wild
wild Card weekend, both in the AFC and NFC. That's
Mike Carmer. That's he and Roddy. I'm Dan Byer. It's
all next here and I want your flex. It is
playoff time. He's Mike Carmon, that's Ian Roddy. I'm Dan Byer.
(21:02):
Let's look at this AFC wild guard picture. I always
start with the AFC. I don't know if it's because
it always becomes first in our standings, you know, when
we're looking at it. But let's just start with the
with the AFC. Some interesting matchups. I'm gonna say this.
The first thing that surprised me that Chargers and Patriots
got the Sunday night football game.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Like I didn't.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I thought, Mike, I thought it was maybe gonna be
Packers Bears. I thought that would have been a great matchup.
Granted we've seen it nineteen times in the past four weeks,
but I thought that could be a possibility. But Chargers
Patriots very intriguing and intriguing enough to put on Sunday Night.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Football, trying to sell the new new blood, you know,
because you've got the MVP candidacy of Drake May, you've
got the love of Mike Vrabel. Even the casuals know
who he is as a player and certainly as a coach,
as we talked about in the prior segment about his
time in Tennessee and the Chargers. I mean, Jim Harbaugh
(21:59):
is good for entertainment.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And it's one of those the mean movie, Mean girls.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
There's the line of hey, stop trying to make fetch happen.
I think there still is this want to for Justin
Herbert to take that next step forward as one of
those faces of the league. And it's Los Angeles, sure,
and maybe Prime really stomped up and down say we
want the Bears game.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Well, yeah, there's you know, there was something in the
Sun Times too about about that matchup as well, where
all the networks were fighting over Packers Bears and Eagles
Niners and Eagles Niners ends up on Fox and that
that primetime Sunday window. But when you look at the
and the Bears Packers game is on Prime, which is
a whole other part of the equation. But when you
(22:44):
look at the three AFC matchups, you say, Bill's Jaguars.
For as fun as that game could be, it's still
the Jaguars. Like for some reason, the NFL like cannot
get away from that, and they may they honestly may
need to just be the London Jaguars and continue to
play in Jacksonville, like to make like this for some reason,
(23:05):
like this is an awesome game and it's going to
be put in the early window on Sunday morning, the
first game of the tripleheader. I think it's going to
be the maybe the best of the three AFC contests.
And honestly, I don't need to see the Steelers again,
but we're going to and we're going to see him
in a likely I would think bit of a bit
of a rock fight with the Texans with that defense
(23:27):
coming to Pittsburgh. So I guess ultimately they didn't like
the appeal of Jacksonville and Texan Steelers is kind of
home hum.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So Chargers Patriots for the points.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That you make of the young teams, the up and comers,
the new blood ends up fitting the bill.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yeah, if you're the Houston Texas, you're excited not to
be the Saturday early game.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yes, what was it?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Eight for eight?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
It was crazy, like just historically every time, Hey, they're
in the playoffs, Because I actually joked, is that why
they sat.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
In Nico Collins last minute.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
It was they were going to lose those days, so
it's like all right, and instead they get the Monday
and I hate Nico.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You got two extra days off, buddy.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I mean there were there. I felt like there were
like two Bengals games. We know, the Raiders game when
they didn't have a quarterback, the early I'm talking about
the first Saturday Texans games. We've had a Bills game,
we had the Chargers game last year, like all of
those we can remember. We had the Browns game a
couple of years ago, and Flaccos had like two pick sixes.
(24:26):
Those were all that one thirty you know, local time
for US, four thirty Eastern time kicks in Houston on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
You're so right.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
It's it reminds me of how we look at the
NBA Playoffs on what games are on NBA TV. Sure,
right when you get into the midweek stuff and it's
like I knew it, Like I know the Bucks and
Pacers are going to be on NBA TV, right, you know, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
But here's the thing. Right now, we look at that
matchup and now that it's on Monday night. But Mike
Tom want doesn't lose on Monday Night football. Yeah right,
So all of a sudden, that game's so much different.
It's like Saturday. I don't know, it's like Monday night.
I'll e don't lose, Like something's gotta give.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
This is it's it's gonna be a fun weekend. And
even though you know, looking back on last year's in
the TV schedule, they put Bucks and Commanders on that
Sunday night game and that's where jayde and Daniels and
the Commanders went in and pulled off that upset and
then it went into Detroit the next week.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
But that was the Sunday Night or.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
That was kind of caught everybody by surprise last year.
And so maybe that Chargers Patriots game does fit. What
about Bills Jaguars when you look at that matchup, I mean,
is it just betting on Josh Allen to do his thing?
That Jacksonville was a nice story all year, but now
like the real playoffs come about, or how do you
(25:42):
view that game in South Florida, excuse me, in North Florida.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I just wonder if when you get down to it,
that the Jaguars secondary, even though the Bills don't have
a number one guy that they're Look, they're not bad,
but they're not a strong point of this team, so
where you might be compromised in later rounds or against
(26:06):
other opponents Buffalo and not having that number one, you know,
looking at Shakir who's a nice possession guy, but not
necessarily the explosive Keon Coleman is your next leading receiver
or did he have thirty six catches or something like
that on the year and got suspended multiple times? Right,
and then you look at your two tight ends who
are in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
As much as we love the physicality of what Kincaid brings,
you know, it's sporadic. But with Josh Allen and James
Cook and even Ray Davis a little bit, I think
you got enough there for the Bills. Can you contain
the run game?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Right?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Trevor lawre has been fantastic, but it's all gone through
Trevor Etn. Travis Etn. Sorry, I just was sorting cards
and I had his brother, Travis Etn and yeah, see
there you go. But as a runner and receiver or
how explosive he's been, because what's amazing about this? Right?
(27:04):
And we talked about it a bit on the podcast earlier,
as we did the fantasy stuff. Is like Trevor Lawrence
did all this without Brian Thomas most of the way,
without Travis Hunter virtually the whole way. Jacoby Myers came
over after wearing a trade Me sign in Las Vegas
for two months, and he's been as good a blocker
to help that run game as he has been a
(27:26):
component of the receiving corps. So yeah, something's got to give.
I'll put the cape on Josh Allen that that foot's
just enough for he and Cook to get you over.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I'm going to throw this out there. We talked about
it on a Monday, the great scene at Heimark Stadium
with Buffalo closing down their stadium against the Jets. We think,
and the only reason I say we think is when
you end up looking at the bracket in the way
that the bracket is the Bills being able to get
(27:58):
that six seed because the char didn't play anybody on
Sunday against Denver, so it allows the Bills to at
least move up a spot. The only way they'd be
able to host the AFC Championship Game would be if
they were to play the Chargers. But let's just say
the Chargers do upset the Patriots coming in on Sunday night,
New England's only a three and a half point favorite.
(28:19):
I don't think it would shock us that the Bills
would go to Jacksonville and win their point and a
half favorite. So now you have a matchup where Buffalo
would play the winner of Pittsburgh in Houston on the
road at one of those sites. Now, the Bills did
lose in Houston earlier on the season, revenge factor, they
won in Pittsburgh earlier on the season. And then you
(28:41):
have the Chargers and Broncos playing, and the Chargers, when
the teams were full strength, did beat Denver earlier this season.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I'm not saying it's.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Going to happen, but we thought we said goodbye to
high Mark Stadium and it all kind of I think
if the Chargers win on that Sunday night against New England,
it could open up a whole bunch of possibilities for
some crazy stuff within the bracket, because I don't think
any of us would be shocked if the Chargers went
to Denver and won, because Denver just hasn't looked like
(29:12):
a great team the second half of the season and
if the Bills can get by Jacksonville. Jacksonville went to
Denver a couple of weeks ago, and one I'll win
against the Texans or Steelers. Wouldn't surprise anybody. Just throwing
it out there just so I can have it on
record somewhere.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
No, it's a fun chess match to go through, right
because if coming out of this weekend it was I
mean pick it either way, the Bills or Jaguars. But
for the purposes of this, I still want to a
pair of those gloves they gave away. I've not found
any on eBay yet for the five hundred shovelers they
(29:46):
gave them those commemorative gloves. I'd seen one bear and
a guy was asking like five thousand dollars to so yeah,
and then those disappeared. I think they just said, you're
a joke, get out of here. But all right, So
the Bills win Steelers and Aaron Rod look he made
it the old Toby Keith. I might not be as
good as I once was, but there were at least
four throws that I remember on Sunday night against the
(30:08):
Ravens going, man, those are those are some big boy throws,
he could still get it, you know, into the tight
windows and over the top. Now he had a couple
of broken coverages that help augment those stats. But if
we get Bills, Steelers and Chargers rolling out it, Chargers
at the run, game gets gone because if they get
on top, I think the Patriots in trouble. Yeah, you know, right,
(30:30):
like Henderson big plays Stevenson. But like the passing game,
I don't trust the passing game.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
At all.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Right for New England, when we look at going down
the depth chart, like there's there's a lot of issues
in Jesse Minter, Like he's a guy looking for a
head coaching job. He's gonna throw the kitchen sink at
these guys.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, there's I mean, there's there's a bunch of options.
But let's be real, like the last couple of weeks
have them well in the last week or two for
New England, off field not the greatest, no, you know,
so you never know if those things can end up
being distractions when they happened in the playoffs, I have
one percent think they are. I'll never pick a team
(31:08):
to win a game if there is a distraction that
happens in the playoffs, so it could be there, you know,
for them Chargers didn't look great against the Texans, but
that may have been a Texan sort of deal, but
should be an interesting AFC playoff picture.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
What is your favorite game of the three in the AFC?
Speaker 5 (31:24):
I like the Monday Night just because coming off of
the the even though I just bought a new Duvall shirt.
When I was on my trip down to Florida for
the holidays to visit my folks, I went to a
thrift store dan Ian I found this great Douvall. It
was either a giveaway or something they made people at
one of the grocery stores where so it's really cool
(31:45):
and it's form fitting and it makes me look tough.
But all that said, like Pittsburgh, how many times were
they written off? How many times were they done? And
then we get Mike Tomblin preening for the camera and
doing the King Kong Ain't got blank on me kind
of thing. And Aaron Rod, like I said, I don't know,
people love hate him and certainly he's the act has
(32:06):
been tired at times, but his little postgame thing like
easier to become a really good actor or like legitimately
the emotions of everything and actually being a winner again
really hit him right, being in that organization, being able
to laugh at the Jets are because even Breese Hall
did it. Hey, look that guy can still throw the
ball on Twitter as he did. But and then Houston
(32:29):
with CJ. Stroud and the offense, the highly heralded defense
that you on paper you would say they run through
and Pittsburgh can't do anything. But this is where two
defenses collide and you know what's the one play that
gets made from the offense to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, we'll see if Stroud can hit some of those
younger targets outside of Nico Collins, the Jayden Higgins, Hutchinson.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
All those Iowa state guys.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, and everybody else is in Happy Valley with Matt
Campbell though. So uh, that's a look at our AFC
playoff picture. Ian, what game do you like best out
of the three?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (33:11):
To me, it's the Bills Jaguars, just because I just
want to see how far the Bills can make it, Like,
is it now their year now that the Chiefs are out?
Because that was their everest? So is it is the
path clear? Now? Can Josh Allen finally get his Super
Bowl because you know, yeah, hall of Fame talent, we
know that it's just a matter of actually getting the
hardware for him.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Now, yeah, yeah, that's it's going to be a fun
Sunday for sure. That's there's there's no doubt. Yeah it is,
because I just think that the Bills are always the story,
you know, like I just of them trying to break through.
Just think if the Browns were to make the playoffs.
I feel that it is and I do think that
(33:49):
there's a path for Buffalo. I don't think it's their
greatest team, but at some point you're wondering, is it
going to cash cash in? And now you know the
Chiefs Surravens in this bracket, right, especially the chief in
this bracket, So that opens up things. So I like
Bill's Jaguars, and I think it also like if Jacksonville
wins this, it propels them to the to the point
(34:11):
of yeah, we're here, like like we could make it
to Santa Clara.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And I don't know how many people even believe that
right now.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Sure, entering the wild card weekend, but you win that game,
you're the three seed. Depending on how it goes out
they could go to New England and win. They've gone
to Denver and as we mentioned one a few weeks ago,
so that would be the arrival. So whatever outcome it is,
I think it's it's a shot to the rest of
(34:41):
the AFS.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
All right, let me ask two questions coming off that
then Number one, will you then bet? Actually three, will
you then bet on any coach who has a really
bad introductory press conference going forward?
Speaker 4 (34:56):
The transformation from duval to black aviator glasses and black
vest and Johnny Cash and the man in black Liam Cohen?
Maybe so, but the Jonathan Gannon theory kind of throws
that out.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Yeah, so many examples of it not working out, all right?
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, well it's jets so true.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Uh. Second, does McDermott get fired if they lose? Uh?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I I think that that could be a possibility.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Yes, I just don't see it happening because like it's
such an unpressed like they have we ever seen a
situation that good, like that would instantly become the best
situation for a head coach candidate that maybe we've seen.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Honestly, if you're Kevin Stefanski and you went to Buffalo
to work with you know, like to work with Josh Allen.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Would you would you rather have Stefanski or McDermott. That's
a question right there.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Think I want the offensive guy at this point. Yeah,
it's not crazy take. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
And then third, let's just spin it back to Sunday
Night Football for a second week eighteen where you shocked
that they did a kneel down before the field goal
attempt instead of either giving the ball a to Derrick
Henry or doing some modified tush push with Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, so they because they had their one more time out.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, I wasn't shocked by it. You know, it's makeable,
especially with the field goals that we have nowadays. Honestly,
you know what I was shocked about that they went
middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
I don't know why, but like, like I now like
I have more confidence when a guy lines up on
a hash because they're like, Okay, he's gonna work it in.
But so when they went middle of the field, I
was like, oh, interesting.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Okay, cash almost feels like the guy personally has a
preference in there, come out and like he's going to
be better from that side, whereas middle it's just give
them the most generic good.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Yeah, you know, yeah, and that was a slice into
the woods, like that thing just moved, and I mean
Boswell's kick was, you know, very similar, but it was.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, I was so.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I wasn't surprised that they didn't that they didn't hand
it off to Derrick Henry. I was surprised that they
just did the let's line it up in the middle
for a I give it for like a twenty seven
yard er, right, just boom right there. Jason Myers missed
one from uh. I think he was on the right
hash in the game against the Niners on Saturday night.
But yeah, forty four yards out.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
That was. That was a little surprising to me. What
do you think they should have gave it to Henry
for carry?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:37):
I just think you got you still have your time
out in your pocket. Why not add a couple of yards, like,
even if it's neg, even if it's two yards positive
instead of taking a knee for a minus two?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, right again, young kicker.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
Pittsburgh notorious for being a tough place to kick field goals,
Like as good as Boswell's been, right, he knows the elements.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
He's kicked in every condition.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
This guy has not, so putting it on the young
guy's foot in that situation just seemed silly, although Mike
Tomalin got off the hook for his early decision in
the first half. So I guess it's all kind of chaos.
But well, we'll see how that all transpires into the offseason.
But you know, the wishing and hoping, particularly with Derrick
(38:25):
Henry having not seen the ball for the twelve fifty
three a couple of weeks ago, that it just stood
out and I had someone write me saying, well, you know,
you gotta worry that he's gonna fumble, like really, okay,
then get the handoff to Lamar.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And do something.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
But still just I don't know, try to put him
in the best place. To your point, the field position
itself was as important as anything as that thing just sailed. Yeah,
they called out Kundiff's name, he started trending.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Well, I just went back and looked at Jason Myers
missed the other night. It's from twenty six yards and
it was a hash. He tried to like fade it
in there and bowing from just from twenty six yards out.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So nothing is a guarantee.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Oh sure.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
The only guarantee is we're going to be back talking
about the NFC playoff picture. Can Mike's Bears do it
again against the Green Bay Packers. We'll talk about it
next year, and I want your flex NFC Playoff picture time.
We start with the Rams and Panthers. That is Game
one in Carolina. I don't know if anybody who would
(39:31):
think that the Panthers can win this game. However, we
can look to the regular season and see the Carolina
did beat the Rams. Rams got off to a slow
start against the Cardinals in Week eighteen before turning it on.
Are you buying that there's something wrong with the Rams
right now? The you know, the loss in Atlanta that
they had in Week seventeen, took a while to get
(39:53):
going against Arizona in Week eighteen. Any concern on the
side of the Rams with you, Mike Harmon.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
We've seen the defense be a little bit more susceptible
to big plays, so that's a little concerning. Offensively, you'll
get DeVante Adams back, so your red zone and some
of your your down distance kind of decisions get a
bit easier. You know, as much as as much as
you love the next man up mentality, I mean that
guy was money all year long, so suddenly to not
(40:23):
have him down the stretch as an extra safety valve
and Pooka getting the extra coverage that he did certainly
changes the complexion there. So not terribly concerned. This is
one that really for Carolina, the only hope is that
somehow you're you're able to run the ball and just
(40:44):
keep the Rams offense off.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
The field, right that that's it.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
But time and again they had to rely on Bryce
Young's arm to get them out of trouble. But I
think in this case, you're not winning a shootout with
the Ram.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
No and the Cuba Hubbard Rico dowdele backfield. That maybe
should have said it in reverse order. They kind of
needed that against La the first time around. But you
have to think that the Rams aren't going to turn
it over three times, right, you know in that contest,
and that's why they're a ten point favorite Carolina. I
don't even know if it's a nice story. I'm not
(41:22):
even sure if it's considering the way they got in.
You know, they have a win and get in game
and they'd lose it and then they just need Atlanta
to force the three way ties. So there's not even
like a neat story with them coming in, except that
they've sucked a lot and now they're in the playoffs.
Like that's basically the story with Carolina. So I'm surprised
they didn't put that at six am on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
For us, We're gonna play it like it's a London game.
Let's go right here, we are live from Germany. That's
your pregame show. Is the game actually Germany? No, we
just thought we'd show you some German highlights. I think
for the season as a whole. Right, we talk about
ten millan, we talk about the run game, and we
certainly did it from the fantasy standpoint a bunch. But
(42:05):
Bryce Young took some huge steps forward with you know,
year two because he was getting written off by a
lot of folks after his rookie seasons, so excited to
see what might become there. Twenty three and eleven touchdown
to interception ratio just over three thousand yards, can make
some plays with his legs. Yeah, they needed a lot
of help to get to this point, and the fact
(42:26):
that they'd become the tallest of a very difficult you
know division overall and stumbling and bumbling to the finish line,
so try to take some positives, but they would look
to be a training sparring partner for the rest of
the NFC for these Rams if they come to play
(42:47):
as they had for much of the season.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, I was looking at the when the Seahawks were
playing the Niners, and the Seahawks lost, they would be
the five seed, and I was kind of looking at
that path and I said, you know, it's not as
bad is maybe you would think. I know, you want
to buy and you want the home field advantage. Don't
get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that that
wasn't the value.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
But like for.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
You know, any of those three teams in the NFC West,
because I'm using the Seahawks for an example of you
have no idea what's going to happen when you play
one of those teams, and you could have had a
situation where, you know, Seattle could have a situation where
they could face the Rams in the divisional playoff, which
I think would be a nightmare, and they could face
San Francisco if they end up pulling the you know,
the upset against the Eagles and all those rematches are difficult.
(43:34):
If if you could just get different opponents sometimes I
think it's a little bit better for you in the postseason. Again,
I'm not advocating that the Seahawks should have lost, or
that the forty nine ers are now at this great
advantage because they are on the road and playing the
Eagles in the first week. But you look at the
Rams and their opportunity here to get a win under
their belt. Hopefully they can stay healthy, and maybe you
(43:58):
gain momentum from playing in that wild card game against
the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:01):
I think that's the biggest thing, right, You get get
the job done, and in theory, you get out unscathed
and walk away. I mean this spread, I saw it
at ten and a half, started to push towards eleven
before getting a little bit of pushback to where it's
sitting at ten as we record. But all signs point
to the Rams, you know, avenging that earlier loss, cleaning
(44:24):
up the mess, and taking care of business.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
So what about your bears against those Green Bay Packers
on Saturday night on Prime Video?
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Yeah? How healthy are the Packers?
Speaker 5 (44:34):
I guess this is the main question to it, all right,
And Jordan Love was the backup for Week eighteen. Clayton
tune everybody, how about that he was QB sixty two
on the year. Mitchell Trubisky didn't count because he technically
was in relief of the.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Short experience of Josh Allen.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But didn't start. Yeah, Alan starting streak, yep, and.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
The Jets interception less streak. One of the great graphics
of the season was the end of the NBC telecast
when they said guess these guess these marks, and it
was a you know, a silhouette and it had these
stats of the accumulated quarterbacks against the Jets, the thirty
six touchdowns against zero picks. Just I don't know to
(45:20):
add insult to injury to all all that they did.
And I'm filibustering because you know, the heart is always
the Bears. But I've also been a pragmatist over the
course of the year of this team had a lot
of narrow escapes, a lot like Washington did a year ago.
You had a lot of things that broke right, but
(45:40):
you have some fundamentals in place to where you can
go and get another win. I love the confidence. Ben
Johnson would spoke to after the loss, and he was pissed, right,
he and I and Caleb Williams were absolutely incensed at
the effort and the results against the Lions, because that
was a prime had won right when we talked about
(46:01):
it for fantasy purposes or whatever, it's they all right,
they wanted revenge for that nonsense that went on back
in week two. Hell yeah, I remember people in Chicago
calling for him to be fired. It's like, this is
not the guy now. I can also tell you after
that Lions game, I love comedies, I love Ron cons.
The Bears postgame show on WGN Radio was the funniest
(46:23):
damn thing I've heard. Like you would have thought they
won two games like on the year, like two games
in they wanted to have gone this guy, what is
this He's a genius whatever, and then they're the number
two seed, and you would have thought they won two
games on the year the way they were going at
Ben Johnson the offense, like in everybody, they left no
stone unturned DJ Moore and that interception and effort.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Or lack thereof on that, you name it. They went
at it.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
But I think we're looking at a point where post
Micah Parsons injury, they're they're gettable on the ground that
you'll get more of swift and manung guy and you coast.
Colston Lovelin ended up as the Bears leading receiver now
at Dunes. They had to miss a couple of games
to get there, but he's a guy that didn't really
catch more than two passes in a game unt a
week nine, and he ends up as their leading receiver
(47:13):
ten catches in the final week. And suddenly you start
to play a little more chess and wondering if if
there's a little more still to be deployed, how much
against the Lions did they not bring out of the
bag that was there, you know, based on different things
that they're seeing. So I'm curious and knowing that this
was a likelihood right that the Packers were locked in
(47:37):
to this spot that you know, with that result, here's
where you end up that you want to make sure
you've got a little bit extra and ready to go.
And let's face it, I mean familiarity breeds contempt. Like
you were saying before, you'd love to see a different
opponent most times. I think the Bears really want this
one for once.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
This is what I think is important for Chicago and
it's actually Jordan Love based Love obviously has dealt with
some health issues really throughout his career, at least the
last two seasons, but for the most part he's been there.
And also Jordan Love does have a little I don't
(48:22):
want to say Brett Farvinham, but he can give you
one or he could give you two. And so you
saw it in interceptions earlier on in his career. Maybe
not as much this year, but that's where your defense,
mikes thrives if you can get a turnover or two.
And he didn't play in that game in Chicago, but
I think Love can give you one or two, and
(48:44):
if you're able to get it, I think that could
end up being the difference in the game.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
Yeah, I extolled the virtues of what Al Harris has
done with that secondary. I mean it's been amazing, the
ball hawking shades of that Super Bowl run. Sure you
know where everything bounced right up until you know they
were playing in the Super Bowl, and the thing everybody
remembers was Hester's return and then print singing Purple Rain
(49:09):
in the Rain. But all of that to say, big
opportunity here primetime on a Saturday. I'll be taking over
a bar in Boise, Idaho. As I moved my daughter
into Boise State. So anybody that's at a bar that
hears this and has a good place for game watching,
count me in.
Speaker 4 (49:27):
That'll be on on Saturday night. And yeah, the Sun
Times said that they decided to put what they felt
was Niners Eagles best matchup on that Fox window, and
the way that I read it was it was a
toss up maybe between Sunday Night Football and the Amazon game,
and they kind of threw a bone to Amazon and
be like, all right, you get Packers and Bears streaming,
(49:50):
let's move on to the future. So that's how that
ended up settling out. But that leads us to that
Niners Eagles game, which I do think is the most
intrigued gave him the weekend. I don't know what Niners
team is going to show up, and I have no
idea ever what team Philadelphia is going to show up.
So it should be fun between the Eagles and Niners
coming up on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (50:11):
Yeah, as we lock in for this one, Philly a
four and a half point favorite over under sitting at
forty four and a half and tickets over over two
hundred bucks. As for all the NFC matchups, as we
look at the grid just some crazy numbers, but in
Chicago lowest ticket four fifty four to seventy, So if
(50:33):
you want to pay the piper. But for the Eagles,
it goes back to, you know, as we surmised, I
think a bit over the course of the year, right,
they thrive in chaos And for Sakuon Barkley, how much
of his early usage was knowing that you want to
you need him as much as you can coming off
(50:53):
a massive workload season for the end of season strength
and to get the run game going.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Now they've had injuries on the.
Speaker 5 (51:00):
Offensive lines that have beset that, but Barkley's looked better
the last three weeks than he had all season, running
with more authority and juice at that next level. And
San Francisco comes in really banged up defensively. We've talked
a lot about the lack of pass rush, but now
you've got lack of bodies when you're talking about that
(51:21):
front seven. So the opportunity to play a little bit
of smash mouth of football, and then Jalen Hurts picks
his spot for you know, your nemesis a J. Brown
or Devonte Smith or Goddard to get involved that you know,
I think maybe there's just too much there, particularly if
Barkley starts running downhill, because we know brock pardy as
(51:42):
good as he is at times. You know, you talk
about Jordan Love giving you one, rock Perty will give
you one too.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:49):
These Seahawks are their best running game in weeks against
San Francisco on Saturday Night. They're just like it looked
like it was a running game. I mean, heck, they're
kind of their final drive after the the McCaffrey interception
because I'll put it on him. Even though the ball
was tipped at the line, you know, they were able
to work the you know, work the clock and took
(52:12):
seven minutes off and just work the football downfield. And
Philadelphia is a much better running team than than Seattle is.
So the Niners are going to have their work cutout
farm And you're right, there is there is no pass rush.
The Niners injuries that they talk about. I mean, if
and if Trent Williams can't play, then it's kind of
a kind of a rap. But if he's there, San
(52:35):
Francisco does have a chance when you have McCaffrey, when
you have George Kittle. But they're gonna have to be
They're gonna have to be on point. And what a
weird way for San Francisco again, just you know, you're
entering you're entering the weekend thinking like we maybe we
don't have to leave home at all, right, and now
you could have your season end in Philadelphia. Uh, they
(52:57):
just there isn't much of a pass rush. But sometimes
Aalen Hurts doesn't need a pass rush to make a
bad decision or a bad throw that could also keep
the Niners in it.
Speaker 5 (53:05):
That is a fair point with a guy whose average
air yards is among the highest in the league certainly
does put the ball up for grabs on occasion. I
gotta say, just you know, even though your squad's got
the buy dan, that defensive effort by Seattle.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Oh yeah, they was something man on Saturday night.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
It's fun to watch, right, like, I mean like and
it was funny because in San Francisco doesn't have this
and it's not going to happen every single week. But
anytime like brock Purty threw short, it was it was
just it was it was game over. Like you weren't
you weren't going anywhere. There was somebody always around doing something.
(53:48):
I think he had. I think he was. Maybe I
want to get his official stats up because I'm going
to quote he was sixteen of twenty for one point
for ninety seven yards. Party was so sixteen completions that
he hadn't even broken one hundred yards. Like that's all
I mean, that was just they just locked them up.
(54:10):
Crazy seauc should have been up twenty to three in
that game, you know, I mean, they had plenty of opportunities.
But it's also why I'm a little skeptical as the
number one seed.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
Because we're still making these mistakes eighteen weeks into the season.
Speaker 4 (54:23):
You know, so we're missing twenty six yard we they
are missing twenty six yard field goals, which, by the way,
there wasn't even a need.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
To kick the field goal.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
They should have just went for.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
It and you know what, maybe a score, you know,
maybe you throw it into the end zone. If not,
they're backed up, you're up ten, there's only two twenty
to go, and uh yeah, but I digress.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
It was a great drive.
Speaker 6 (54:44):
There is no perfect team this year, Dan, I'd feel
pretty good about them.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (54:48):
No, that you're you're absolutely right, But that's also then
kind of you know, for a way, like like when
Seattle made their first Super Bowl twenty years ago in
Super Bowl forty, I felt pretty good that they were
probably going to go to the Super Bowl, just like
the way that it set out, the way that team was,
how good they were at home, and I felt like, Okay,
(55:10):
all right, this is probably going to happen. Even in
the legion of boom years, you know, like they you know,
got the host the Niners. I'm like, okay, well, maybe
the next year they beat Green Bay in the in
the championship game in a game they probably should have lost,
they should have lost it since they probably they should
have lost that game, and they ended up winning it.
But this year, it just it's such a coin flip,
(55:31):
Like I kind of feel like Detroit last year, Like
I don't know, like it caught Detroit off Garden. I
feel like I'm more prepared, Like, you know, they could
they could lose in the divisional playoffs, especially if a
RAMS team ends up coming to town. If you know,
the Eagles and Bears end up winning and face off
in the one divisional and the Rams beat the Panthers,
they got to face the Rams again in Seattle, and
(55:52):
that is just that is no fun.
Speaker 5 (55:54):
Well, I mean history, I'm sure you've seen it a
million times. We speak it out here right of when
they're a number one seed, they take care of business,
find their way to a super Bowl. They don't lose
it in those spots except when there was nobody in
the stands. And then when there's a.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
New pope installed.
Speaker 5 (56:14):
Yes, yeah, so you got you got that, just like
the Steelers with the Holy Water. I mean like you
got divine intervention perhaps on your side.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
But again, Mike McDonald is only lost. You know, they
were better on the road this year than they were
at home. They lost one road game this year. They
lost two games at home. Crazy as crazy as it was.
Speaker 6 (56:34):
And the thing is this new pope is a Bears fan,
because that's true.
Speaker 3 (56:39):
White Sox fan.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Is he a neighbor, Mike? Was he your neighbor?
Speaker 5 (56:42):
Because he certainly wasn't very far away, like I know
the neighborhood. I feel like I need to go make
a pilgrimage there. I did send him a card to
see if he'd sign it, because the Tops made a
card of him, so I sent one to him to
maybe keep in one to sign. But yeah, it's maybe
maybe maybe we got it on the side because we
(57:02):
already got the number one draft pick for the White Sox.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
So things are working.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
Oh well, things are turning around on Chicago's South Side.
All right, that's gonna do it for us. On this
wild Card Preview, we'll be back again. We're doing one
episode through the NFL playoffs, and then we'll wrap up
the year with our recap of the Super Bowl sixty
and our Top sixty preview going into next year's fantasy campaign.
(57:29):
All right, guys, let the playoffs begin. Let's have some
fun for Ian Roddy and Mike Krmen.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
I'm Dan Beyer. We'll talk to you next time right here,
and I want your flex
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, Well, buckle up,
sweet cheeks. We've got all the experience in the world.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This is I want your flex with Dan.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bayer and Mike Harmon. Mike and Dan break down everything
you need to set your lineups, from position rankings.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
To starts and sits.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The guys help you make those hard decisions. And now
let's get your flexod here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Well, that's a wrap on the NFL's regular season, and
now we look ahead to the playoffs. And guys, we
look ahead to the unemployment line. Six jobs now available
in the NFL. He's Mike Carmen. Find him at Swollen Dome.
That's Ian Roddy, our executive producer. Fine, you meant Ian
Roddy underscore. You find me at Dan Byer on Fox.
Did I get that right?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Ian with it? Ian Roddy underscore for the X.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
That's right?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Okay, all right, just head the double check. It's the
new year. You never know, you may get it wrong.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, remember the tail at the end. Yeah, that's right. Okay,
that's a good way to remember it.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Yes, I'm at dan Byer on Fox and We've got
a lot to discuss. We've got a wildcard matchups in
the AFC and NFC that we will get to. But
I do want to start out with what was Black
Monday in the NFL, and the actually started on Sunday
night with Raheem Morris being dismissed by the Falcons. We
knew the Titans job was open, we knew the Giants
job was open, and now we found out that the Browns, Cardinals,
(01:29):
and Raiders.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Are also looking for new head coaches. Six is the
number right now.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Could always change, Mike, but that's about the handful I
think that people thought going into this offseason.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Yeah, we always do the six to eight. There are
a couple of surprises, I'm sure Ian even though we
knew the proverbial vote of confidence had been out there
for Aaron Glenn, still we're waiting for the sort of damnicicles.
Still some rumors about Lafleur. Should they go and get
worked or just beaten by the Bears in the wildcard
round Harbaugh in Baltimore, what may or may not transpire
(02:03):
there so still potential for some more chaos in here.
But Steichen's gonna stay Cincinnati either stay in the course
in terms of you know, surprises to any of it.
I mean nice ron at the end for Raheem Morris,
was he the guy that forced Michael Pennix to start
the season?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Sorry, I I gotta ask the questions here.
Speaker 5 (02:26):
You know, when he comes down because they finished strong, right,
they finished tied for the division lead eight and nine.
They're right where they were supposed to be. Well all right,
two games under what the projection was. But all in
he ends up finding his way to the unemployment line
with their GM Pete Carroll. We kind of tearfully said
(02:46):
goodbye because it's the end of an era of coach
and then Kevin Stefanski will be hired by time this
podcast posts.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Probably yeah, he's a hot name that's out there there.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
Raheem Morris one though, does go back to the quarterback
situation in how everything evolved, and also a team doesn't
look as bad as it did at one point in
the season, but the trade made last year to trade
away your first round pick ends up being thirteenth, a
(03:18):
couple of top breakers could have been twenty four to
twenty five, and then it's kind of no damage. But
at one point we really thought this was an awful
trade by the Atlanta Falcons. In the end, maybe not
as bad. But when you're the Falcons and you're eight
to nine and you see these other teams Tampa, I mean,
everything seemed to go wrong for Tampa from about like
(03:38):
week six on. They just weren't the same team. And
then you had this Carolina team that was whatever, but
they beat Atlanta twice this year. And so if you're
Arthur Blank and you're looking at this Panthers team and
you're saying, boy, what could have been? I mean, heck,
they manhandled the Rams. The Falcons did as you said,
they played good football seemingly down the stretch, but you
(04:00):
kind of have to wonder where did this all go wrong?
They weren't necessarily great with Pennix, and now, like the
pieces that you would need to fill out this team
maybe weren't there for this year and now maybe won't
be for next year because of the moves that you made.
And I assume if Terry Fontt knows probably was Mike honesty,
(04:20):
he may have been the first one out. But you
just do it procedural and fire Raheem and then fire
font No next. But if they were going to bring
in a new GM, and it sure seems like they're
restructuring their front office. That doesn't seem like there was
much hope for Raheem Morris to stick around anyway.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
No, you look at kicking McKay upstairs to another level
and font No out. So now you make those choices,
new GM, new coach, new guy, But some significant roster
questions that you have to address because Kyle Pitts is
an unrestricted free agent. Are you gonna franchise him? Are
you gonna pay him? Have you seen enough in his
(04:55):
five years that you suddenly are thinking he's the world
beating guy going forward? I don't know your quarterback position. Look,
with Kirk Cousins contract, it'll be him and whatever Pennix
is or whatever he's back, I would assume, because I
don't see or presume that any team's coming in to
rescue Arthur Blank from that cap hit unless he takes
(05:19):
on a significant part of it, Which was part of
the problem coming into this season. Who knew they'd need
Kirk Cousins as early as they did because of the
big injury to Penix and Cousins obviously slow coming back,
but coming off a big injury himself, looked pretty good
down the stretch in spots and then Bijon you just
(05:39):
figure out how to give him the world right, but
in a division that was there to be taken to
your point, Dan, you didn't go get it right. Tampa
winning those games early miraculously, Carolina, I saw the cool
grid someone put up on Twitter, the here's the point
differential by playoff teams, and then you have to scroll
(05:59):
forever to get it to where Caroline is like the
difference between Yeah, no, it's funny, so like dot dot
dot dot dot all the way down to what is
it minus sixty eight? So you know, so you've got
like a two hundred point gap between the best team
in the NFL playoffs and where they are, even though
(06:19):
Bryce Young and company made strides, Ted McMillan go on
down the line, the running back whatever. But all of
that to say, you had the if you'd gotten the
defense to the level that it was supposed to be
and jump started that offense a bit earlier the playoffs.
So Arthur Blank didn't have the patience and Raheem Morris
finds himself on the outs.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Too bad that you know, he one guy with the
great meme stayed.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
The other didn't.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
With Well Morris had the great meme.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Of you know, after a special team's play of you know,
gesturing to the camera and all. And then he had
Aaron Glenn still in with the Jets dancing on the sideline.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Before they lost.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Yeah, the high stepping Yaron Glenn and the win against
the Bucks with Raheem doing that. Yeah, now I follow
It's it is interesting. I think it's a I think
it's an appealing job with Atlanta, with that division with
b John Robinson. You mentioned Kalpits. Something's wrong with Drake London,
(07:18):
you know, saw the outburst. But yeah, there's there's gonna
be an opportunity there. And again the trade that they
made to give up their first round pick looks a
lot better now than it did in the middle of
the year. Also at the beginning of the year when
you thought like this draft class was going to be
something really special, maybe with quarterbacks and the Rams were
going to be able to do something. But James Pierce,
(07:40):
the guy that they ended up getting using their second
first round pick on at ten and a half sacks
this year. So yeah, so so maybe there is something,
But that's the Atlanta job. The Raiders job is not
surprising with Pete Carroll gone, and you expect with the
number one overall pick that they're going to take a quarterback.
It's just a matter of which quarterback. Some people are
(08:03):
higher on that gig. How you look at the division,
Mike and have questions about it still on?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Maybe why?
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And then you just have to look at the history
of the organization to wonder how appealing it is.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah, that's the thing, right, you got a couple of
huge component parts because we saw bits and pieces of
genty to say, Okay, this guy could very well be
the guy, right because he was a good receiver out
of the backfield still finished, strong Bowers will be back healthy.
You need to retool the offensive. I mean, there's a
million things that go to it. And to your point,
(08:34):
in the larger structure, how much does that change with
spy Tech and Brady to the point that they're putting
out press releases saying they're in charge now, almost as
if to say Mark Davis going, hey, hey, I'm putting
this out so it's not on me and my bowl
cut this year. Okay, leave me alone, But yeah, how
appealing is it in that division, right. One of the
(08:55):
other potential dominoes to fall is like there's still speculation
that Andy Reid, after some content plation, steps away. But
either way, Patrick Mahomes will come back, and whoever takes over,
you still have a retooled Chiefs team to look at.
Chargers are built with Harbaugh to win for a while,
and Sean Payton's just getting started. Really it looks like
in Denver rights still some wrinkles in the bow Nicks,
(09:18):
you know, to smooth it out to a more efficient
offensive explosion. But they're still the number one seats. So
I mean, you know, for all of their awarts, you're
still chasing. So if you want to go and look
around going all right, I want to win because you
don't get a lot of and brought this up and
forgive me if you've gone down this highway, Dan, But
you know the Mike Tomlin John Harbaugh thing that we've
(09:40):
talked about these last couple of weeks. In almost any
other organization, they would have been fired a long time ago,
right A, you won, that was cute. Now you're eight
and eight or just above five hundred a couple of
years agow, you're getting fired. You don't get longevity in
this league. So even if you're on a train, you're like,
you don't get the build. I made fun of Lincoln
Riley repeatedly and talking about this stuff in that you
(10:02):
don't get three or four years to say here's the vision.
All right, we'll get this piece and the next year
we'll get no.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
No, no.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
You need to turn things around and at least show
progress right away, which is why Pete Carroll ends up
getting shown the door after showing his love for Gino
Smith and that high turnover rate. But yeah, of all
the jobs other than I get to wear the silver
and black and if I turn it around, I'm a
god Like that's the only thing that's appealing about it.
And I guess I get to say I work with
(10:28):
Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Which we get to do right now. I mean, how
about that, Hi Tom?
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Technically yeah, yes, my teammate at Fox.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I just don't know what their identity is.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I said this on Sunday to carry Rhodes on
our show on Fox Sports Radio, and we had Tom
Telesco on on Monday when I was filling in on
Fox the former Raiders GM for a year, and I
just kind of asked to said, what's what are the
challenges there? And he pointed to the health of their
offensive line, which wasn't there this year, that everybody was injured.
(11:05):
That happens in the NFL, like it does. And I
just felt like the Raiders problem, I told Carry, I said,
the problem is that Ashton Genty and Brock Bauers other
best players because there's nothing there around them to support
them in their positions. Right, Like the offensive line is hurt,
Max Crosby can get after the quarterback, but there's no
(11:27):
one else on defense that does anything. So while like
drafting Brock Powers was the right pick, like he fell
to them and you get that generational talent, they just
haven't been able to fill it out long enough to
have a respectable team. And just very top heavy isn't
the right word, because they're really really good players. Powers
(11:50):
a top player at his position you talked about gent
just kind of ascending. But now if you draft a quarterback,
so you have a quarterback or running back at a
tight end, and again, you don't know if you have
people who can block for them, and you don't know
if you have people that can stop the other team
from doing anything. So that's just My problem was with
the Raiders entering twenty twenty six and how appealing it
(12:10):
is if you could be there for the long term,
maybe then you're you know, on the rise while everybody
else is, you know, on the fall down and Kansas
City is still trying to figure it out or whatever.
But yeah, it's just to me, isn't the most appealing
gig that we've got out there.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
I just got to convince them that at some point
you need a second year or a third year. Yeah,
I mean, since John Gruden was forced to walk away,
what do we have six coaches?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Right? I mean it's it's.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Not a job where you're even getting a long rope
to go and try to build anything. I mean, genty
was nearly fourteen hundred yards. As much as we talked
about him from a fantasy week to week perspective, he
wasn't exciting the total numbers. All right, it looks okay,
you know, the offensive line horrible. Uh, you know, the
(12:56):
injuries set them back. But yeah, you got you got
three ideas play identifiable players, right. Max Crosby has that.
You know, we'll get to Cleveland in artists. But it's
like him and Miles Garrett.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's great.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
We got we got two guys. We got one guy
on each event, and I liked chquestioner. He didn't play
the final week. He'll win Defensive Rookie of the Year
and all. But like they're they're operating in a vacuum.
So whatever they do, like they can't cover up for
eleven guys, he can't clone them. So can you outscore teams?
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The answer is no, Yeah, you're right about that.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
Not too far away from Vegas, the Cardinals made a
change with Jonathan Gannon.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I didn't think that was surprising at all.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
I think there's obviously going to be some sweeping changes,
but Manti acid for it.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
The GM ends up staying.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
The Cardinals, to me, were always the try hard, max
out as much as you could get nice and when
you only end up winning what three games this past year,
there's only that's that's run its course, you know, there's
only so much that Jonathan Gannon max out.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I was surprised. I think I saw his overall record
was like fifteen wins. My gosh.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
I felt like, for some reason, I felt that they
were just a little bit better than that, but they weren't,
And so not necessarily a surprise that he's out, as
we expect to see sweeping changes in Arizona.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Yeah, I think your try harder mantra there is probably
the way to say it, because they fought in all games,
even Week eighteen. They fought the Rams well before ultimately
getting blown out.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
But it's the kind of thing.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
Jacoby Brissett on his seventh team three touchdowns per pick.
Trey McBride takes another step forward. Harrison couldn't stay on
the field, but Michael Wilson steps up to become a
guide to them, someone we've talked about a lot in
the Fantasy podcast, you know, rising up before Harrison showed up.
I mean going back to last year and finally week
(14:52):
to week you saw that running back. It became a
committee situation once Connor and Benson were both done and
the offense was interesting. The problem was Ganna was a
defensive guy. Yeah, and had no teeth, even though they
drafted all defenders this year, like they couldn't stop you
me Ian and eight of our closest friends.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
No young, Yeah, a lot of pieces. Walter Nolan was drafted,
Will Johnson, the corner from Michigan. All draft picks but
you're right, can't stop anyone. I am curious to see
because there isn't a ton of great offensive candidates out
there coordinators to.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Take that job.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
But if you've got the pieces right, I mean, I
don't know if Marvin Harrison Junior is expendable. We know
Kyler Murray likely is, you know, so there's going to
be moves, but I'm curious to see what they do
with their head coach, and that head coach hiring could
say a lot about the personnel. And then the final one,
I guess maybe the big one shocking to some not
(15:51):
shocking to others, but that the Browns finally pulled the
plug in Kevin Stefanski, that one.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I kept waiting for the meme to be aied where
he's doing the giant heel click as he goes to
his car dancing and just mad, good, congratulations, I'm done
kind of thing because again, like a joke, but I imagine
he can go wherever he wants. Jackson Dart was already campaigning,
go yeah, I like him, good coach, you know that
(16:16):
kind of thing. So for Stefanski it becomes the Jimmy Haslam,
and I don't know how much you heard the quotes
guys ear on Monday after the firing, like the more
Haslam talk. You're just like, really, you these words are
being processed in your brain unless they're being fed to
(16:37):
you through some supercomputer. And you're not paying attention because
you're talking about all the personnel issues you have and
everything else. Yet you keep Andrew Berry and then you
try to enumerate all the things he did. Right, Look,
they had a couple of draft picks.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Hit.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
I'm not gonna you know, deny that. But you also
took two quarterbacks, and what do we need in this league?
We need a quarterback, a guy to go to. And
you have the the other thing that's still swirling out
there of what what's the future? You still have Deshaun Watson.
You got to figure out for twenty six. So I
mean you want to talk about appealing jobs. No, thanks,
Miles Garrett. Congratulations on the sack record. It would be
(17:14):
better if you actually had a win to go with
it every now and again.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
But yeah, we have why from the Bengals.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
You know there wasn't there was a lot of wins
for the bat got the whining from Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Yeah, you at least won that war right where everybody
started complaining about it's like you're it's the battle for Ohio.
I don't think anybody's getting anything out of this game,
So enjoy the five minute break, Go call the perfect
play and get after it.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
And not to put you guys on the spot here,
but out of those head coach openings, which do you
think is the most attractive if you were a candidate.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Well, if you take give me all six, it's it's
the Giants, I would say, so unless I mean, and
that's the question of GM and ownership, how much you
love or not like because depending on whose ear you
you you got or what you hear in the grapevine,
how much that may not be an ideal working situation
(18:12):
let alone. Uh nevertheless, never mind the talent that you
might be able to coach yet, right, so that that
kind of bridge there.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Would I will have just to be different because you know,
I've other people have said similar things with the Giants
talent on defense, neighbors, scataboo, all those guys coming af
from injury. I'll just say Atlanta, the division is gettable.
You have Bijon. Sure there are decisions, but I'll say Atlanta.
(18:44):
But yeah, You're probably right with the Giants.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
But I look at like Tennessee if if you can
get them to get out of their own way, And
that's the problem with all of these teams, right is
historically you've got ownership that won't get out of their
own way. Right in Tennessee is probably the best because
if I were an offensive guy, I think I saw
enough from cam Ward that I'd love.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
To go work with cam Ward. Yeah, but I still
got to I got a bet, but I got a
manage jump. Yeah. And I might have my locker room,
but I got a manage jump.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
Amy Adams Strunk has been actually awful, Like she's she's
comparable with Whatdy Johnson when it comes to the worst owners,
like not only in football but in sports.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Well, yeah, we talked about the Raiders and the change
that they have had on off you know, moving guys
in and out. It's been the same thing with head
coaches and gms and in Nashville for a while.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
And the people are still saying we never should have
let go of Rabel. No, that's right, you know, like you.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Know, and I think, yeah, like when you know, when
you look at it now, like maybe everybody needs a
fresh start at some point, you know, so maybe ultimately
it was it was the right move, but they haven't
made any right move since he's left, and in the
training of A. J. Brown, was the move that he
didn't want to make right in Nashville. As much as
I'm anti A J. Brown a lot on this podcast,
uh didn't seem like the Titans benefited for his absence.
Speaker 6 (20:01):
I bet AJ Brown's a patriot this offseason.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Ooh, interesting like that.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
But yeah, it's just one of those you're looking around
at all of these jobs. I mean, the Bidwells don't
want to spend money, right and everything You've had go
on in Arizona all the time.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
And change. You got to figure out what you're doing
with Kyler Murray.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
New York ownership Tennessee definitely, ownership has limited. Like just
go on down the line and Arthur Blank's gonna hug
you and then fire you minutes later. So you got
all of that going on, and he'll be on the sideline, Scott,
you know, giving you the skull if he doesn't like
your Blake call.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Let's take a time out here and I want your flex.
We got some playoff games to look at. A wild
wild Card weekend, both in the AFC and NFC. That's
Mike Carmer. That's he and Roddy. I'm Dan Byer. It's
all next here and I want your flex. It is
playoff time. He's Mike Carmon, that's Ian Roddy. I'm Dan Byer.
(21:02):
Let's look at this AFC wild guard picture. I always
start with the AFC. I don't know if it's because
it always becomes first in our standings, you know, when
we're looking at it. But let's just start with the
with the AFC. Some interesting matchups. I'm gonna say this.
The first thing that surprised me that Chargers and Patriots
got the Sunday night football game.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Like I didn't.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I thought, Mike, I thought it was maybe gonna be
Packers Bears. I thought that would have been a great matchup.
Granted we've seen it nineteen times in the past four weeks,
but I thought that could be a possibility. But Chargers
Patriots very intriguing and intriguing enough to put on Sunday Night.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
Football, trying to sell the new new blood, you know,
because you've got the MVP candidacy of Drake May, you've
got the love of Mike Vrabel. Even the casuals know
who he is as a player and certainly as a coach,
as we talked about in the prior segment about his
time in Tennessee and the Chargers. I mean, Jim Harbaugh
(21:59):
is good for entertainment.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And it's one of those the mean movie, Mean girls.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
There's the line of hey, stop trying to make fetch happen.
I think there still is this want to for Justin
Herbert to take that next step forward as one of
those faces of the league. And it's Los Angeles, sure,
and maybe Prime really stomped up and down say we
want the Bears game.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
Well, yeah, there's you know, there was something in the
Sun Times too about about that matchup as well, where
all the networks were fighting over Packers Bears and Eagles
Niners and Eagles Niners ends up on Fox and that
that primetime Sunday window. But when you look at the
and the Bears Packers game is on Prime, which is
a whole other part of the equation. But when you
(22:44):
look at the three AFC matchups, you say, Bill's Jaguars.
For as fun as that game could be, it's still
the Jaguars. Like for some reason, the NFL like cannot
get away from that, and they may they honestly may
need to just be the London Jaguars and continue to
play in Jacksonville, like to make like this for some reason,
(23:05):
like this is an awesome game and it's going to
be put in the early window on Sunday morning, the
first game of the tripleheader. I think it's going to
be the maybe the best of the three AFC contests.
And honestly, I don't need to see the Steelers again,
but we're going to and we're going to see him
in a likely I would think bit of a bit
of a rock fight with the Texans with that defense
(23:27):
coming to Pittsburgh. So I guess ultimately they didn't like
the appeal of Jacksonville and Texan Steelers is kind of
home hum.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
So Chargers Patriots for the points.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That you make of the young teams, the up and comers,
the new blood ends up fitting the bill.
Speaker 5 (23:42):
Yeah, if you're the Houston Texas, you're excited not to
be the Saturday early game.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yes, what was it?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Eight for eight?
Speaker 5 (23:49):
It was crazy, like just historically every time, Hey, they're
in the playoffs, Because I actually joked, is that why
they sat.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
In Nico Collins last minute.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
It was they were going to lose those days, so
it's like all right, and instead they get the Monday
and I hate Nico.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You got two extra days off, buddy.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
I mean there were there. I felt like there were
like two Bengals games. We know, the Raiders game when
they didn't have a quarterback, the early I'm talking about
the first Saturday Texans games. We've had a Bills game,
we had the Chargers game last year, like all of
those we can remember. We had the Browns game a
couple of years ago, and Flaccos had like two pick sixes.
(24:26):
Those were all that one thirty you know, local time
for US, four thirty Eastern time kicks in Houston on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
You're so right.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
It's it reminds me of how we look at the
NBA Playoffs on what games are on NBA TV. Sure,
right when you get into the midweek stuff and it's
like I knew it, Like I know the Bucks and
Pacers are going to be on NBA TV, right, you know, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
But here's the thing. Right now, we look at that
matchup and now that it's on Monday night. But Mike
Tom want doesn't lose on Monday Night football. Yeah right,
So all of a sudden, that game's so much different.
It's like Saturday. I don't know, it's like Monday night.
I'll e don't lose, Like something's gotta give.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
This is it's it's gonna be a fun weekend. And
even though you know, looking back on last year's in
the TV schedule, they put Bucks and Commanders on that
Sunday night game and that's where jayde and Daniels and
the Commanders went in and pulled off that upset and
then it went into Detroit the next week.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
But that was the Sunday Night or.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
That was kind of caught everybody by surprise last year.
And so maybe that Chargers Patriots game does fit. What
about Bills Jaguars when you look at that matchup, I mean,
is it just betting on Josh Allen to do his thing?
That Jacksonville was a nice story all year, but now
like the real playoffs come about, or how do you
(25:42):
view that game in South Florida, excuse me, in North Florida.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
I just wonder if when you get down to it,
that the Jaguars secondary, even though the Bills don't have
a number one guy that they're Look, they're not bad,
but they're not a strong point of this team, so
where you might be compromised in later rounds or against
(26:06):
other opponents Buffalo and not having that number one, you know,
looking at Shakir who's a nice possession guy, but not
necessarily the explosive Keon Coleman is your next leading receiver
or did he have thirty six catches or something like
that on the year and got suspended multiple times? Right,
and then you look at your two tight ends who
are in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Right.
Speaker 5 (26:26):
As much as we love the physicality of what Kincaid brings,
you know, it's sporadic. But with Josh Allen and James
Cook and even Ray Davis a little bit, I think
you got enough there for the Bills. Can you contain
the run game?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Right?
Speaker 5 (26:43):
Trevor lawre has been fantastic, but it's all gone through
Trevor Etn. Travis Etn. Sorry, I just was sorting cards
and I had his brother, Travis Etn and yeah, see
there you go. But as a runner and receiver or
how explosive he's been, because what's amazing about this? Right?
(27:04):
And we talked about it a bit on the podcast earlier,
as we did the fantasy stuff. Is like Trevor Lawrence
did all this without Brian Thomas most of the way,
without Travis Hunter virtually the whole way. Jacoby Myers came
over after wearing a trade Me sign in Las Vegas
for two months, and he's been as good a blocker
to help that run game as he has been a
(27:26):
component of the receiving corps. So yeah, something's got to give.
I'll put the cape on Josh Allen that that foot's
just enough for he and Cook to get you over.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
I'm going to throw this out there. We talked about
it on a Monday, the great scene at Heimark Stadium
with Buffalo closing down their stadium against the Jets. We think,
and the only reason I say we think is when
you end up looking at the bracket in the way
that the bracket is the Bills being able to get
(27:58):
that six seed because the char didn't play anybody on
Sunday against Denver, so it allows the Bills to at
least move up a spot. The only way they'd be
able to host the AFC Championship Game would be if
they were to play the Chargers. But let's just say
the Chargers do upset the Patriots coming in on Sunday night,
New England's only a three and a half point favorite.
(28:19):
I don't think it would shock us that the Bills
would go to Jacksonville and win their point and a
half favorite. So now you have a matchup where Buffalo
would play the winner of Pittsburgh in Houston on the
road at one of those sites. Now, the Bills did
lose in Houston earlier on the season, revenge factor, they
won in Pittsburgh earlier on the season. And then you
(28:41):
have the Chargers and Broncos playing, and the Chargers, when
the teams were full strength, did beat Denver earlier this season.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I'm not saying it's.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Going to happen, but we thought we said goodbye to
high Mark Stadium and it all kind of I think
if the Chargers win on that Sunday night against New England,
it could open up a whole bunch of possibilities for
some crazy stuff within the bracket, because I don't think
any of us would be shocked if the Chargers went
to Denver and won, because Denver just hasn't looked like
(29:12):
a great team the second half of the season and
if the Bills can get by Jacksonville. Jacksonville went to
Denver a couple of weeks ago, and one I'll win
against the Texans or Steelers. Wouldn't surprise anybody. Just throwing
it out there just so I can have it on
record somewhere.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
No, it's a fun chess match to go through, right
because if coming out of this weekend it was I
mean pick it either way, the Bills or Jaguars. But
for the purposes of this, I still want to a
pair of those gloves they gave away. I've not found
any on eBay yet for the five hundred shovelers they
(29:46):
gave them those commemorative gloves. I'd seen one bear and
a guy was asking like five thousand dollars to so yeah,
and then those disappeared. I think they just said, you're
a joke, get out of here. But all right, So
the Bills win Steelers and Aaron Rod look he made
it the old Toby Keith. I might not be as
good as I once was, but there were at least
four throws that I remember on Sunday night against the
(30:08):
Ravens going, man, those are those are some big boy throws,
he could still get it, you know, into the tight
windows and over the top. Now he had a couple
of broken coverages that help augment those stats. But if
we get Bills, Steelers and Chargers rolling out it, Chargers
at the run, game gets gone because if they get
on top, I think the Patriots in trouble. Yeah, you know, right,
(30:30):
like Henderson big plays Stevenson. But like the passing game,
I don't trust the passing game.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
At all.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Right for New England, when we look at going down
the depth chart, like there's there's a lot of issues
in Jesse Minter, Like he's a guy looking for a
head coaching job. He's gonna throw the kitchen sink at
these guys.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Yeah, yeah, there's I mean, there's there's a bunch of options.
But let's be real, like the last couple of weeks
have them well in the last week or two for
New England, off field not the greatest, no, you know,
so you never know if those things can end up
being distractions when they happened in the playoffs, I have
one percent think they are. I'll never pick a team
(31:08):
to win a game if there is a distraction that
happens in the playoffs, so it could be there, you know,
for them Chargers didn't look great against the Texans, but
that may have been a Texan sort of deal, but
should be an interesting AFC playoff picture.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
What is your favorite game of the three in the AFC?
Speaker 5 (31:24):
I like the Monday Night just because coming off of
the the even though I just bought a new Duvall shirt.
When I was on my trip down to Florida for
the holidays to visit my folks, I went to a
thrift store dan Ian I found this great Douvall. It
was either a giveaway or something they made people at
one of the grocery stores where so it's really cool
(31:45):
and it's form fitting and it makes me look tough.
But all that said, like Pittsburgh, how many times were
they written off? How many times were they done? And
then we get Mike Tomblin preening for the camera and
doing the King Kong Ain't got blank on me kind
of thing. And Aaron Rod, like I said, I don't know,
people love hate him and certainly he's the act has
(32:06):
been tired at times, but his little postgame thing like
easier to become a really good actor or like legitimately
the emotions of everything and actually being a winner again
really hit him right, being in that organization, being able
to laugh at the Jets are because even Breese Hall
did it. Hey, look that guy can still throw the
ball on Twitter as he did. But and then Houston
(32:29):
with CJ. Stroud and the offense, the highly heralded defense
that you on paper you would say they run through
and Pittsburgh can't do anything. But this is where two
defenses collide and you know what's the one play that
gets made from the offense to make this happen.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, we'll see if Stroud can hit some of those
younger targets outside of Nico Collins, the Jayden Higgins, Hutchinson.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
All those Iowa state guys.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
Yeah, and everybody else is in Happy Valley with Matt
Campbell though. So uh, that's a look at our AFC
playoff picture. Ian, what game do you like best out
of the three?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (33:11):
To me, it's the Bills Jaguars, just because I just
want to see how far the Bills can make it, Like,
is it now their year now that the Chiefs are out?
Because that was their everest? So is it is the
path clear? Now? Can Josh Allen finally get his Super
Bowl because you know, yeah, hall of Fame talent, we
know that it's just a matter of actually getting the
hardware for him.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Now, yeah, yeah, that's it's going to be a fun
Sunday for sure. That's there's there's no doubt. Yeah it is,
because I just think that the Bills are always the story,
you know, like I just of them trying to break through.
Just think if the Browns were to make the playoffs.
I feel that it is and I do think that
(33:49):
there's a path for Buffalo. I don't think it's their
greatest team, but at some point you're wondering, is it
going to cash cash in? And now you know the
Chiefs Surravens in this bracket, right, especially the chief in
this bracket, So that opens up things. So I like
Bill's Jaguars, and I think it also like if Jacksonville
wins this, it propels them to the to the point
(34:11):
of yeah, we're here, like like we could make it
to Santa Clara.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And I don't know how many people even believe that
right now.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
Sure, entering the wild card weekend, but you win that game,
you're the three seed. Depending on how it goes out
they could go to New England and win. They've gone
to Denver and as we mentioned one a few weeks ago,
so that would be the arrival. So whatever outcome it is,
I think it's it's a shot to the rest of
(34:41):
the AFS.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
All right, let me ask two questions coming off that
then Number one, will you then bet? Actually three, will
you then bet on any coach who has a really
bad introductory press conference going forward?
Speaker 4 (34:56):
The transformation from duval to black aviator glasses and black
vest and Johnny Cash and the man in black Liam Cohen?
Maybe so, but the Jonathan Gannon theory kind of throws
that out.
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Yeah, so many examples of it not working out, all right?
Speaker 5 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, well it's jets so true.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Uh. Second, does McDermott get fired if they lose? Uh?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I I think that that could be a possibility.
Speaker 6 (35:30):
Yes, I just don't see it happening because like it's
such an unpressed like they have we ever seen a
situation that good, like that would instantly become the best
situation for a head coach candidate that maybe we've seen.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
Honestly, if you're Kevin Stefanski and you went to Buffalo
to work with you know, like to work with Josh Allen.
Speaker 6 (35:50):
Would you would you rather have Stefanski or McDermott. That's
a question right there.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Think I want the offensive guy at this point. Yeah,
it's not crazy take. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:01):
And then third, let's just spin it back to Sunday
Night Football for a second week eighteen where you shocked
that they did a kneel down before the field goal
attempt instead of either giving the ball a to Derrick
Henry or doing some modified tush push with Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, so they because they had their one more time out.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, I wasn't shocked by it. You know, it's makeable,
especially with the field goals that we have nowadays. Honestly,
you know what I was shocked about that they went
middle of the field.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
I don't know why, but like, like I now like
I have more confidence when a guy lines up on
a hash because they're like, Okay, he's gonna work it in.
But so when they went middle of the field, I
was like, oh, interesting.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Okay, cash almost feels like the guy personally has a
preference in there, come out and like he's going to
be better from that side, whereas middle it's just give
them the most generic good.
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Yeah, you know, yeah, and that was a slice into
the woods, like that thing just moved, and I mean
Boswell's kick was, you know, very similar, but it was.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, I was so.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
I wasn't surprised that they didn't that they didn't hand
it off to Derrick Henry. I was surprised that they
just did the let's line it up in the middle
for a I give it for like a twenty seven
yard er, right, just boom right there. Jason Myers missed
one from uh. I think he was on the right
hash in the game against the Niners on Saturday night.
But yeah, forty four yards out.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
That was. That was a little surprising to me. What
do you think they should have gave it to Henry
for carry?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (37:37):
I just think you got you still have your time
out in your pocket. Why not add a couple of yards, like,
even if it's neg, even if it's two yards positive
instead of taking a knee for a minus two?
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, right again, young kicker.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
Pittsburgh notorious for being a tough place to kick field goals,
Like as good as Boswell's been, right, he knows the elements.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
He's kicked in every condition.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
This guy has not, so putting it on the young
guy's foot in that situation just seemed silly, although Mike
Tomalin got off the hook for his early decision in
the first half. So I guess it's all kind of chaos.
But well, we'll see how that all transpires into the offseason.
But you know, the wishing and hoping, particularly with Derrick
(38:25):
Henry having not seen the ball for the twelve fifty
three a couple of weeks ago, that it just stood
out and I had someone write me saying, well, you know,
you gotta worry that he's gonna fumble, like really, okay,
then get the handoff to Lamar.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
And do something.
Speaker 5 (38:40):
But still just I don't know, try to put him
in the best place. To your point, the field position
itself was as important as anything as that thing just sailed. Yeah,
they called out Kundiff's name, he started trending.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Well, I just went back and looked at Jason Myers
missed the other night. It's from twenty six yards and
it was a hash. He tried to like fade it
in there and bowing from just from twenty six yards out.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So nothing is a guarantee.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Oh sure.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
The only guarantee is we're going to be back talking
about the NFC playoff picture. Can Mike's Bears do it
again against the Green Bay Packers. We'll talk about it
next year, and I want your flex NFC Playoff picture time.
We start with the Rams and Panthers. That is Game
one in Carolina. I don't know if anybody who would
(39:31):
think that the Panthers can win this game. However, we
can look to the regular season and see the Carolina
did beat the Rams. Rams got off to a slow
start against the Cardinals in Week eighteen before turning it on.
Are you buying that there's something wrong with the Rams
right now? The you know, the loss in Atlanta that
they had in Week seventeen, took a while to get
(39:53):
going against Arizona in Week eighteen. Any concern on the
side of the Rams with you, Mike Harmon.
Speaker 5 (40:00):
We've seen the defense be a little bit more susceptible
to big plays, so that's a little concerning. Offensively, you'll
get DeVante Adams back, so your red zone and some
of your your down distance kind of decisions get a
bit easier. You know, as much as as much as
you love the next man up mentality, I mean that
guy was money all year long, so suddenly to not
(40:23):
have him down the stretch as an extra safety valve
and Pooka getting the extra coverage that he did certainly
changes the complexion there. So not terribly concerned. This is
one that really for Carolina, the only hope is that
somehow you're you're able to run the ball and just
(40:44):
keep the Rams offense off.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
The field, right that that's it.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
But time and again they had to rely on Bryce
Young's arm to get them out of trouble. But I
think in this case, you're not winning a shootout with
the Ram.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
No and the Cuba Hubbard Rico dowdele backfield. That maybe
should have said it in reverse order. They kind of
needed that against La the first time around. But you
have to think that the Rams aren't going to turn
it over three times, right, you know in that contest,
and that's why they're a ten point favorite Carolina. I
don't even know if it's a nice story. I'm not
(41:22):
even sure if it's considering the way they got in.
You know, they have a win and get in game
and they'd lose it and then they just need Atlanta
to force the three way ties. So there's not even
like a neat story with them coming in, except that
they've sucked a lot and now they're in the playoffs.
Like that's basically the story with Carolina. So I'm surprised
they didn't put that at six am on Saturday.
Speaker 5 (41:42):
For us, We're gonna play it like it's a London game.
Let's go right here, we are live from Germany. That's
your pregame show. Is the game actually Germany? No, we
just thought we'd show you some German highlights. I think
for the season as a whole. Right, we talk about
ten millan, we talk about the run game, and we
certainly did it from the fantasy standpoint a bunch. But
(42:05):
Bryce Young took some huge steps forward with you know,
year two because he was getting written off by a
lot of folks after his rookie seasons, so excited to
see what might become there. Twenty three and eleven touchdown
to interception ratio just over three thousand yards, can make
some plays with his legs. Yeah, they needed a lot
of help to get to this point, and the fact
(42:26):
that they'd become the tallest of a very difficult you
know division overall and stumbling and bumbling to the finish line,
so try to take some positives, but they would look
to be a training sparring partner for the rest of
the NFC for these Rams if they come to play
(42:47):
as they had for much of the season.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, I was looking at the when the Seahawks were
playing the Niners, and the Seahawks lost, they would be
the five seed, and I was kind of looking at
that path and I said, you know, it's not as
bad is maybe you would think. I know, you want
to buy and you want the home field advantage. Don't
get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that that
wasn't the value.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
But like for.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
You know, any of those three teams in the NFC West,
because I'm using the Seahawks for an example of you
have no idea what's going to happen when you play
one of those teams, and you could have had a
situation where, you know, Seattle could have a situation where
they could face the Rams in the divisional playoff, which
I think would be a nightmare, and they could face
San Francisco if they end up pulling the you know,
the upset against the Eagles and all those rematches are difficult.
(43:34):
If if you could just get different opponents sometimes I
think it's a little bit better for you in the postseason. Again,
I'm not advocating that the Seahawks should have lost, or
that the forty nine ers are now at this great
advantage because they are on the road and playing the
Eagles in the first week. But you look at the
Rams and their opportunity here to get a win under
their belt. Hopefully they can stay healthy, and maybe you
(43:58):
gain momentum from playing in that wild card game against
the Panthers.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:01):
I think that's the biggest thing, right, You get get
the job done, and in theory, you get out unscathed
and walk away. I mean this spread, I saw it
at ten and a half, started to push towards eleven
before getting a little bit of pushback to where it's
sitting at ten as we record. But all signs point
to the Rams, you know, avenging that earlier loss, cleaning
(44:24):
up the mess, and taking care of business.
Speaker 4 (44:27):
So what about your bears against those Green Bay Packers
on Saturday night on Prime Video?
Speaker 3 (44:32):
Yeah? How healthy are the Packers?
Speaker 5 (44:34):
I guess this is the main question to it, all right,
And Jordan Love was the backup for Week eighteen. Clayton
tune everybody, how about that he was QB sixty two
on the year. Mitchell Trubisky didn't count because he technically
was in relief of the.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
Short experience of Josh Allen.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
But didn't start. Yeah, Alan starting streak, yep, and.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
The Jets interception less streak. One of the great graphics
of the season was the end of the NBC telecast
when they said guess these guess these marks, and it
was a you know, a silhouette and it had these
stats of the accumulated quarterbacks against the Jets, the thirty
six touchdowns against zero picks. Just I don't know to
(45:20):
add insult to injury to all all that they did.
And I'm filibustering because you know, the heart is always
the Bears. But I've also been a pragmatist over the
course of the year of this team had a lot
of narrow escapes, a lot like Washington did a year ago.
You had a lot of things that broke right, but
(45:40):
you have some fundamentals in place to where you can
go and get another win. I love the confidence. Ben
Johnson would spoke to after the loss, and he was pissed, right,
he and I and Caleb Williams were absolutely incensed at
the effort and the results against the Lions, because that
was a prime had won right when we talked about
(46:01):
it for fantasy purposes or whatever, it's they all right,
they wanted revenge for that nonsense that went on back
in week two. Hell yeah, I remember people in Chicago
calling for him to be fired. It's like, this is
not the guy now. I can also tell you after
that Lions game, I love comedies, I love Ron cons.
The Bears postgame show on WGN Radio was the funniest
(46:23):
damn thing I've heard. Like you would have thought they
won two games like on the year, like two games
in they wanted to have gone this guy, what is
this He's a genius whatever, and then they're the number
two seed, and you would have thought they won two
games on the year the way they were going at
Ben Johnson the offense, like in everybody, they left no
stone unturned DJ Moore and that interception and effort.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Or lack thereof on that, you name it. They went
at it.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
But I think we're looking at a point where post
Micah Parsons injury, they're they're gettable on the ground that
you'll get more of swift and manung guy and you coast.
Colston Lovelin ended up as the Bears leading receiver now
at Dunes. They had to miss a couple of games
to get there, but he's a guy that didn't really
catch more than two passes in a game unt a
week nine, and he ends up as their leading receiver
(47:13):
ten catches in the final week. And suddenly you start
to play a little more chess and wondering if if
there's a little more still to be deployed, how much
against the Lions did they not bring out of the
bag that was there, you know, based on different things
that they're seeing. So I'm curious and knowing that this
was a likelihood right that the Packers were locked in
(47:37):
to this spot that you know, with that result, here's
where you end up that you want to make sure
you've got a little bit extra and ready to go.
And let's face it, I mean familiarity breeds contempt. Like
you were saying before, you'd love to see a different
opponent most times. I think the Bears really want this
one for once.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
This is what I think is important for Chicago and
it's actually Jordan Love based Love obviously has dealt with
some health issues really throughout his career, at least the
last two seasons, but for the most part he's been there.
And also Jordan Love does have a little I don't
(48:22):
want to say Brett Farvinham, but he can give you
one or he could give you two. And so you
saw it in interceptions earlier on in his career. Maybe
not as much this year, but that's where your defense,
mikes thrives if you can get a turnover or two.
And he didn't play in that game in Chicago, but
I think Love can give you one or two, and
(48:44):
if you're able to get it, I think that could
end up being the difference in the game.
Speaker 5 (48:48):
Yeah, I extolled the virtues of what Al Harris has
done with that secondary. I mean it's been amazing, the
ball hawking shades of that Super Bowl run. Sure you
know where everything bounced right up until you know they
were playing in the Super Bowl, and the thing everybody
remembers was Hester's return and then print singing Purple Rain
(49:09):
in the Rain. But all of that to say, big
opportunity here primetime on a Saturday. I'll be taking over
a bar in Boise, Idaho. As I moved my daughter
into Boise State. So anybody that's at a bar that
hears this and has a good place for game watching,
count me in.
Speaker 4 (49:27):
That'll be on on Saturday night. And yeah, the Sun
Times said that they decided to put what they felt
was Niners Eagles best matchup on that Fox window, and
the way that I read it was it was a
toss up maybe between Sunday Night Football and the Amazon game,
and they kind of threw a bone to Amazon and
be like, all right, you get Packers and Bears streaming,
(49:50):
let's move on to the future. So that's how that
ended up settling out. But that leads us to that
Niners Eagles game, which I do think is the most
intrigued gave him the weekend. I don't know what Niners
team is going to show up, and I have no
idea ever what team Philadelphia is going to show up.
So it should be fun between the Eagles and Niners
coming up on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 5 (50:11):
Yeah, as we lock in for this one, Philly a
four and a half point favorite over under sitting at
forty four and a half and tickets over over two
hundred bucks. As for all the NFC matchups, as we
look at the grid just some crazy numbers, but in
Chicago lowest ticket four fifty four to seventy, So if
(50:33):
you want to pay the piper. But for the Eagles,
it goes back to, you know, as we surmised, I
think a bit over the course of the year, right,
they thrive in chaos And for Sakuon Barkley, how much
of his early usage was knowing that you want to
you need him as much as you can coming off
(50:53):
a massive workload season for the end of season strength
and to get the run game going.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Now they've had injuries on the.
Speaker 5 (51:00):
Offensive lines that have beset that, but Barkley's looked better
the last three weeks than he had all season, running
with more authority and juice at that next level. And
San Francisco comes in really banged up defensively. We've talked
a lot about the lack of pass rush, but now
you've got lack of bodies when you're talking about that
(51:21):
front seven. So the opportunity to play a little bit
of smash mouth of football, and then Jalen Hurts picks
his spot for you know, your nemesis a J. Brown
or Devonte Smith or Goddard to get involved that you know,
I think maybe there's just too much there, particularly if
Barkley starts running downhill, because we know brock pardy as
(51:42):
good as he is at times. You know, you talk
about Jordan Love giving you one, rock Perty will give
you one too.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (51:49):
These Seahawks are their best running game in weeks against
San Francisco on Saturday Night. They're just like it looked
like it was a running game. I mean, heck, they're
kind of their final drive after the the McCaffrey interception
because I'll put it on him. Even though the ball
was tipped at the line, you know, they were able
to work the you know, work the clock and took
(52:12):
seven minutes off and just work the football downfield. And
Philadelphia is a much better running team than than Seattle is.
So the Niners are going to have their work cutout
farm And you're right, there is there is no pass rush.
The Niners injuries that they talk about. I mean, if
and if Trent Williams can't play, then it's kind of
a kind of a rap. But if he's there, San
(52:35):
Francisco does have a chance when you have McCaffrey, when
you have George Kittle. But they're gonna have to be
They're gonna have to be on point. And what a
weird way for San Francisco again, just you know, you're
entering you're entering the weekend thinking like we maybe we
don't have to leave home at all, right, and now
you could have your season end in Philadelphia. Uh, they
(52:57):
just there isn't much of a pass rush. But sometimes
Aalen Hurts doesn't need a pass rush to make a
bad decision or a bad throw that could also keep
the Niners in it.
Speaker 5 (53:05):
That is a fair point with a guy whose average
air yards is among the highest in the league certainly
does put the ball up for grabs on occasion. I
gotta say, just you know, even though your squad's got
the buy dan, that defensive effort by Seattle.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
Oh yeah, they was something man on Saturday night.
Speaker 4 (53:25):
It's fun to watch, right, like, I mean like and
it was funny because in San Francisco doesn't have this
and it's not going to happen every single week. But
anytime like brock Purty threw short, it was it was
just it was it was game over. Like you weren't
you weren't going anywhere. There was somebody always around doing something.
(53:48):
I think he had. I think he was. Maybe I
want to get his official stats up because I'm going
to quote he was sixteen of twenty for one point
for ninety seven yards. Party was so sixteen completions that
he hadn't even broken one hundred yards. Like that's all
I mean, that was just they just locked them up.
(54:10):
Crazy seauc should have been up twenty to three in
that game, you know, I mean, they had plenty of opportunities.
But it's also why I'm a little skeptical as the
number one seed.
Speaker 1 (54:19):
Because we're still making these mistakes eighteen weeks into the season.
Speaker 4 (54:23):
You know, so we're missing twenty six yard we they
are missing twenty six yard field goals, which, by the way,
there wasn't even a need.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
To kick the field goal.
Speaker 3 (54:31):
No, that's true.
Speaker 1 (54:32):
They should have just went for.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
It and you know what, maybe a score, you know,
maybe you throw it into the end zone. If not,
they're backed up, you're up ten, there's only two twenty
to go, and uh yeah, but I digress.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
It was a great drive.
Speaker 6 (54:44):
There is no perfect team this year, Dan, I'd feel
pretty good about them.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (54:48):
No, that you're you're absolutely right, But that's also then
kind of you know, for a way, like like when
Seattle made their first Super Bowl twenty years ago in
Super Bowl forty, I felt pretty good that they were
probably going to go to the Super Bowl, just like
the way that it set out, the way that team was,
how good they were at home, and I felt like, Okay,
(55:10):
all right, this is probably going to happen. Even in
the legion of boom years, you know, like they you know,
got the host the Niners. I'm like, okay, well, maybe
the next year they beat Green Bay in the in
the championship game in a game they probably should have lost,
they should have lost it since they probably they should
have lost that game, and they ended up winning it.
But this year, it just it's such a coin flip,
(55:31):
Like I kind of feel like Detroit last year, Like
I don't know, like it caught Detroit off Garden. I
feel like I'm more prepared, Like, you know, they could
they could lose in the divisional playoffs, especially if a
RAMS team ends up coming to town. If you know,
the Eagles and Bears end up winning and face off
in the one divisional and the Rams beat the Panthers,
they got to face the Rams again in Seattle, and
(55:52):
that is just that is no fun.
Speaker 5 (55:54):
Well, I mean history, I'm sure you've seen it a
million times. We speak it out here right of when
they're a number one seed, they take care of business,
find their way to a super Bowl. They don't lose
it in those spots except when there was nobody in
the stands. And then when there's a.
Speaker 3 (56:13):
New pope installed.
Speaker 5 (56:14):
Yes, yeah, so you got you got that, just like
the Steelers with the Holy Water. I mean like you
got divine intervention perhaps on your side.
Speaker 4 (56:22):
But again, Mike McDonald is only lost. You know, they
were better on the road this year than they were
at home. They lost one road game this year. They
lost two games at home. Crazy as crazy as it was.
Speaker 6 (56:34):
And the thing is this new pope is a Bears fan,
because that's true.
Speaker 3 (56:39):
White Sox fan.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Is he a neighbor, Mike? Was he your neighbor?
Speaker 5 (56:42):
Because he certainly wasn't very far away, like I know
the neighborhood. I feel like I need to go make
a pilgrimage there. I did send him a card to
see if he'd sign it, because the Tops made a
card of him, so I sent one to him to
maybe keep in one to sign. But yeah, it's maybe
maybe maybe we got it on the side because we
(57:02):
already got the number one draft pick for the White Sox.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
So things are working.
Speaker 4 (57:06):
Oh well, things are turning around on Chicago's South Side.
All right, that's gonna do it for us. On this
wild Card Preview, we'll be back again. We're doing one
episode through the NFL playoffs, and then we'll wrap up
the year with our recap of the Super Bowl sixty
and our Top sixty preview going into next year's fantasy campaign.
(57:29):
All right, guys, let the playoffs begin. Let's have some
fun for Ian Roddy and Mike Krmen.
Speaker 1 (57:33):
I'm Dan Beyer. We'll talk to you next time right here,
and I want your flex
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.