2026 NFC Win Totals Draft with Dave Dameshek

Gregg Rosenthal and Dave Dameshek take a look at the NFC win totals and draft the over or unders that they feel most confident in headed into the 2026 NFL season. Can the Rams and Eagles get over their totals? Gregg and Dave find themselves on opposite sides of the Lions win total, which side are you on? Are the Cardinals being disrespected with their number? Who will come out on top of a possibly lackluster NFC South?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're looking good with some
salt and pepper in our hair. I'm Greg Rosenthal, joined
by my friend Dave Damoshek. No one. rocking the grizzled
facial hair and improving in looks with age more than
Dave Damoshek right now, the host of Football America. You

(00:24):
can catch it as a podcast. He's with Levitard and
their whole crew over there. You can catch it on YouTube. Welcome, Dave.
We're going to do some NFC over-unders. Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm ready, the boss. Let's get into it, fella.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Um, and yeah, you are, you are looking handsome. I
think these cross country trips with you down to my,
you're in Miami right now, right? That's where you record sometimes.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
I wanted to check it. The, the, the, the sleeper
team of pro football, 2026. I had to check in
on the Miami dolphins with my own two eyes.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Three and a half wins over under. And they were
one of the teams we didn't choose on our AFC
over unders. You can check that out. Our win totals
with Nick Wright. But I would have gone over because
I just think it's hard to lose 15 games, although
they could certainly do it.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I agree. Well, I agree for the I agree for
the most part, except that they've announced that they don't
want to win games this year. So I think it's
I do kind of lean under the meager three and
a half.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
That's why I didn't pick it was I just avoided it.
Maybe we'll take the other team.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, Malik Willis does want to win games, as it happens.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
The players want to win. The defense has some players.
There's only two teams in the NFL that are actually
even under five and a half wins in terms of
their win total. It's both the Cardinals at three and
a half, the Dolphins at three and a half. We'll
see if we get to the Cardinals on this show.
The format, relatively simple. We go win totals. We pick
an over or an under. We draft it. If I

(01:52):
chose a team that I thought is going to be great,
you can still go opposite me and we can clash
on them. We did that with the Chargers, with the AFC.
I will give you the first pick. So you can
choose any team you want in the league, over, under.
What do you feel the strongest about in the entire NFC?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
All right, I'm perusing the board here. I mean, the
first thing that jumps out at you is how funny
the entire South is, that the high-end expectation for just
one of the four teams is the Buccaneers at 8.5.
That makes me laugh. And then you have the Rams
at 11.5 at the high end of the NFC. I
am going to go with, And I'll start right out

(02:33):
of the gate with an adjacent hot take. I don't
think this team is winning the division, but I do
think they're going to win 11 games.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's the Philadelphia Eagles.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Ooh, I like that. In the end, just as an exercise,
I just kind of want to put it down on paper.
I landed, you know, I did a pick for all
of them, and I think they would have made my board.
If we get through about seven or eight picks, they
were towards the bottom. I'm with you. Why are you
sneaky optimistic on a team that has a very high
win total? Ten and a half is, I believe, second

(03:04):
highest in the entire NFC, in the entire NFL. Why
do you think they get over it?

Speaker 3 (03:09):
You know, the buzz is hard to push back on.
It doesn't make a lot of sense to my two eyes,
but addition by subtraction, with AJ Brown moving on, somehow
he was disruptive or his relationship with Jalen Hurts was.
And that remains gray, what's going on with their quarterback
and what wasn't working last year, but he's modified his

(03:30):
behavior and now it's better. And as much as it's
the quarterback league, and you and I have talked about
this for the last three years now, would you rather
have the offensive play call or the best in the
biz or one of those high-end quarterbacks? You might say
you'd rather have Kyle Shanahan than Brock Purdy.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
As a for instance.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
So.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Given that that's the case, how do we explain Nick Sirianni?
It's real weird.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Right, I was going to say, do they have either?
We are hopeful that Sean Mannion coming from Green Bay
and implementing a very new system is going to be better.
I think it's going to help the running game. I
think it could be bumpy along the way. And so
this is maybe why I had them a little lower,
but I would have gone on the same side as
you because the schedule's tough for the Eagles team. You know,

(04:18):
just this first place schedule and everything. It is difficult, but...
I liked what they said, though, when they asked about,
is this a do or die year? And by they,
I mean Howie Roseman for Jalen Hurts. And he's like, no,
it's not. You know how many games Jalen Hurts has won?
And to make your Sirianni point, you want them to
go over 10 and a half. Here's Nick Sirianni's win
totals the last four years.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
I know!

Speaker 1 (04:39):
11, 14, 11... 14. How many rosters you taking over them?
Like I I'm with you.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
And how many seasons was it talked about during the season?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
We got to get rid of this guy already.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
It makes no sense. He's been to two Superbowls. He
won one of them. Both of them were against the
Kansas city chiefs.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
It does. And in the off years, he almost got fired.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Like I say, uh, you know, The foundation for that
team as much as any over the last decade, why
they've been playoff relevant is the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
They are loaded up.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I think they're a tick diminished on the offensive side
of the line of scrimmage. But that defense is so
mighty that it's going to offset any struggles that you
point to with the offense, rightly. And I think trying
to replace A.J. Brown with a couple few options and
see if you can sort of flood the zone. I mean,

(05:35):
you know, quality may be dinged a bit there, but
there's still some quality among that quantity that they brought
in there. It's more about the defense for me, though,
and to carry the day.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Most weeks.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
And that's why I think it's not that tough, a
prediction to say that they're going to get to, uh,
get to 11 wins based on exactly what you just said.
Some voodoo is going on there that Nick Sirianni winning
11 games or more.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
I don't think there's many rosters in the entire NFL.
I would take over them defensive. You're absolutely right. It's
the best one of the Howie Roseman era, I think.
And you're like, it could be the best Eagles defense since,
since buddy Ryan was the defensive coordinator.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, I don't want to.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Jerome Brown and Reggie White and Clyde Simmons. We got
to go. We're going to move.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Oh, you cut me off. That's fine. That's what makes
you the boss. Cheers to you.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Okay. Now I feel bad about it. What did you
want to say about these old?

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Ah, you know, I love my Jenga theory. Jalen Carter
might be the Jenga piece of the NFC.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Unless Buka Nuku is.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
That's a good call, because if they get full Jalen Carter,
what they they expect, it could go to another level.
He could be better than he was a year ago.
But if but if he's not that dude, it might
all fall apart. Lane Johnson's a little bit that way
on the offensive side, too. I agree with you about
the offensive line. I have stronger takes on the NFC,
I believe, than the AFC. My number one pick on
the entire board. I hate to do this to the

(07:00):
beleaguered Falcons fan base. But in either conference, it's under
Falcons 7.5. Are you kidding me? I saw this, and
I know the entire NFC South has inflated win totals.
If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see the Falcons, Panthers,
and Saints are all at 7.5. The Bucs are at 8.5.
So they're all a little inflated because on paper, the

(07:21):
schedule is easy. A, because they play each other. And
out of division, it's not the toughest schedule either. I
don't care. There's no pass rush. This could be the
worst team in the entire NFL. Kevin Stefanski has no
juice to me as a head coach. Maybe he'll be right.
Maybe the offensive line could work. It's been guys that's

(07:42):
been around for a while. They bring in Bill Callahan,
who used to be an offensive line guru. You can
always make a case for the other side. But they
coached up that defense really well with Jeff Elbrick last year.
And they didn't really have the talent. And now you
take away talent in James Pearson, Jalen Walker. I just
think with the quarterback situation, there is a better chance

(08:02):
they are drafting top three than they are winning eight games.
I really think that I think they are the worst
team in this division and the vibes are all wrong.
I am loving under Falcon seven and a half.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I like all.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Just about everything you said there, but I caution everybody
when you get bullish about a team and specifically about
their season win total, take a look at the neighborhood
that they inhabit. How heavy are the, not one, but
two games that they're going to have to play against
potential heavyweights. That's a factor in, say, the NFC North here.

(08:39):
The opposite is true here. The Falcons do have six
games against the Bucs, Saints, and Panthers.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
There's a chance.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
I mean, if there were a real heavyweight in that division,
you would predict them to win 10 and a half
and wreck.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
The rest of the division, right?

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yes, and we'll get to the Bucs at some point.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
But my point being, my point being is that they
have six games that don't present as super rugged right
out of the gate. And so if they win half
of those, they're getting fairly close to that win total.
That's the devil's damn check pushback.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Fairly close. I just expected, I expected them to be
at five and a half or six and a half.
So that number got me excited. And then on paper,
like if you read the strength of schedule, it says
it's easy. But out of division... They play your AFC North,
which I think has improved this year. And overall, top
to bottom is good, except for the Browns. And the

(09:32):
Browns could beat the Falcons. And then out of the
division in the NFC, it's the NFC North, which has
no easy games. And even one of like the stray games, like,
you know, versus third place. It's like the 49ers. So
I don't think it's that easy of a schedule. I'm
This is the one. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
I'm just trying to.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We don't give recommendations. You know, we can't give strict
recommendations here at the league. You used to work here.
You you know the process the the the gambling policy
we have to sign but this is the one of
all the ones i feel best about all right what's
your number two.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
Pick you're just sharing some vibes all right i'm gonna
go right to it here we're talking about the north
already i'll say it the minnesota vikings over eight and
a half wins and Not that you ask, but I'm
going to say it anyway. They're going to win that
division outright.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
You've taken my Vikings optimism, and I would have drafted
this as well, somewhat high. And you've made the take hotter.
It actually annoys me because I'm thinking, well, we're doing
a playoff prediction show. I know you're doing your... you know,
getting to the top of the mountains on your show

(10:40):
and how you rank them. Mount Lombardi. We're going to
give our official playoff predictions on Thursday, but I'm definitely
eyeing the Vikings as a wildcard team. I don't know
if I can get there to win this division, but
I'm with you. I love over eight and a half.
Why do you like them?

Speaker 3 (10:54):
I can't wait to hear who you do have winning
that division and how many playoff teams the North is
going to provide. Yeah, you want to wind up on
Mount Lombardi, which means you made the playoffs. You don't
want to wind up on the don't matter horn. I
think that's self-explanatory what.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
That gets you, which is nothing.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Listen, just as Shani, the aforementioned one, has his Trey Lance,
KOC has J.J. McCarthy now. Everybody swings and misses once.
The body of work, though, with KOC is he gets
the best version of every quarterback he's ever worked with.
And I suspect that we're going to see that with
Kyler Murray here. Obviously, the weapons... are grand on the

(11:35):
offensive side of things. Brian Flores has worked magic with
some mediocre units. It's not flawless on the defensive side
with the Vikes, but it ain't bad either. And I
think that in a division... that is going to be

(11:57):
jukebox type of scores. I mean, all four are huge offenses.
And so who is going to rise up in that
division and play some defense? I think it's the Vikings
who have the best chance to do that, and that's
the margin that provides them the division, I say.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
And one reason... to be optimistic about the entire division
is you get the NFC South out of division. So
you got, you got to go three and one in
those games or four and oh, but you can, you
can beat up on those Falcons. that I talked about.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
I couldn't think of like, what did they say? Video
game scores. I don't know why I said jukebox scores.
I couldn't, I couldn't think of the turn of phrase
I wanted.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
It did age you a little bit. But does every
video game back in the day?

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Not for me. It wasn't. But then again, our video
people always do.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
They're like, Oh, video game scores. Like are all video
game scores, super high. Don't some video.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Yeah. Unless you're playing like three minute quarters for the
most part, Madden scores get pretty high. It's pretty rare
to be a defense battle. I know much more about
the Madden world. with an 11-year-old son right now that's
very into it.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Eric Roberts, go back and fix that thing up for me.
Take away.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Just take out the word jukebox and put in video
games for me.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Eric points out the don't matter horn is so good.
We are jealous of that. That's pretty outstanding. I will
go number two. Let's go optimistic. I might be overly
influenced by watching Hard Knocks and coming away from it.
Not only is Mike McDonald a great coach, But I
think Mike McDonald might be the number one example of

(13:29):
masculinity and leadership in the year 2026. Just become like
Mike McDonald. He's everything you want out of a leader.
He's emotionally intelligent. He's buff. He can handle any situation.
He's tough. He's fair. Everyone loves him. And he's got
a big old brain. That beats the entire tree with

(13:50):
Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan on the field. I'm such
a fan of him. I think they just do things
the right way. It's the one game between them and
the Rams that bothered me. They are ten and a
half in terms of their win total. And ultimately, I
want to go over on the Seahawks. I know the
schedule gets much tougher. the defense like it's, it's possible.
I suppose the defense would not be as dominant because,

(14:13):
because they were so good. And, and Darnold has his
streaky plays, but you only got to get to 11
wins here. I felt that was disrespectful damage check and
I'm going Seattle over 10 and a half.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
I agree with you and spoiler alert. I came within
a whisker of taking the Hawks to win, to win
the West. Um, for a lot of the reasons you said,
first thing though, with, um, with, uh, Mike McDaniel, it's
Mike McDonald. Um, I keep hearing this about him. What
he doesn't seem to me, and it's not a knock
on him, it is a distinction from 21st century head

(14:46):
coaching versus 20th century. He's a far cry, and I'm
not saying this positively or negatively, just as a statement
of my perspective on it. He's like Bill Parcells is classic,
like leader of men. I'll shout you down. Cause I'm
running this show. I'm in charge, you know, and Bob
Knight and all that kind of stuff. Mike McDonald strikes

(15:07):
me as sort of wanting to be one of the
guys more than anything else.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
That's why I said 21st century, but I think, and
I don't know if you've watched it completely changed my
view of Mike McDonald. And I, I haven't watched the
last few hard knocks, but I, I thought this one
was the best one in many years because I thought
it was an example of like, okay, this is an
organization that does it right. And I'm sure they gave
him a nice edit. But the way he handles his players,
I think he is, you know, he's tough on them

(15:32):
when he needs to be, but he's got like an innate...
where they want to fight for him and he's not
too tough on them. I think he's like emotionally intelligent,
but they're still running a tough system here. They're practicing hard.
I think he's getting the best out of them. And yeah,
he's putting it all together and he's not skipping leg

(15:53):
day either.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I don't think this is chicken or the egg kind
of thing here. I think that they came to respect
him because he has proven himself to be a football
genius legitimately. I think you buy in if you're like,
Clearly knows what he's doing after a season or so proof, uh,
proofs in the pudding.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
And all that.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
The one-on-ones with the, with the coaches and the, that,
that was what I got out of hard knocks was
like the one-on-ones with the players where he's actually talking
about him. You're like, okay, this guy actually like, no,
you know, he, he kind of knows how to, how
to manage each different type of player.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Without deep diving. Mike McDaniel, Mike McDonald's. I keep almost
calling him Mike McDaniel, uh, uh, personality. It's, it's that
he is not, um, Johnny charisma necessarily. Right. He's just
seems like a regular guy's trying to fit in and
win people over. Not necessarily confident that he is. He's just,

(16:45):
doing his best to be one of the guys and to,
to provide a positive message.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
But clearly it is working.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
It worked.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
I disagree. It worked on me. He seemed so comfortable
in his skin. I think I almost needed that behind
the scenes look to kind of see what he's, he's
really like, I don't.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Think he is comfortable in his skin. That's my big takeaway,
but either way, whatever he's doing is working. The unsatisfying
thing about this entire division is whichever team you're on
to win the thing. Um, It's semi-unsatisfying in early September
to say, but you won't really get a great sense
of things, and the hash won't really start to get
settled until not just December, but late December. That's when

(17:24):
these teams start going head-to-head, and that's when you'll see
who ends up taking the division. In the shorter term,
we'll get a sense of these Seahawks in the middle
of October. They go three straight primetime games. I think
the first one is at Denver. Um, so you'll, you'll
get a sense of whether or not your 10 and

(17:45):
a half is looking real good or whether it hangs
in the balance.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
You got to win that first one, you know, you know,
over a touchdown favorite at home against, uh, the AFC champions.
I bet, but it's, it's hard not to think about how,
how the Superbowl ended.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
All right.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
You're, you're up with pick number three.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Check. All right.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Do I stay in the NFC West? I'm tempted to
do that.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
Or do I go do since I just, um, took
the Vikings to, Does that mean robbing Peter to pay Paul?

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Let's do it. Detroit Lions.

Speaker 3 (18:16):
Under 10 and a half. Somebody has to come in
last place in this division. Maybe it'll be the Packers,
but I think it's going to be the Detroit Lions.
And I talked to our mutual pal Mina Kimes about this.
She kind of sort of agreed at least about this.
First of all, talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul.
That's what the Bears did. in the division, you know,

(18:37):
they took away Ben Johnson, who I had long and
a lot of other people agreed with me. Maybe he
was the strawster in that drink in Detroit. Maybe that's
why they had that mini era of boundless success or
near boundless until they got to San Francisco and the
ball bounced off of the DB and the Brandon Iuke's
arms that may stand for all of time is the

(18:59):
best chance that the Lions had of getting to a Superbowl.
within this mini window, Ben Johnson now coaching, not just
somewhere else, but within the division that hurts twice times
two for lions fans. You're left with Dan Campbell. I
don't have a ton of confidence in the state of
the defense right now. It's not fantasy football. If it were,

(19:20):
I'd be bullish about the lions top to bottom. Don't
love that offensive line, especially with a team that is
predicated on being physical. Um, Jared Goff is, has, you know,
I'm happy for the guy because imagine you appear to
be the answer for Sean McVay's Rams. And then he says,

(19:40):
you're the only thing holding us back. Let's trade you
for a guy who's a little bit better And then
they win the Super Bowl. And we thought Jared got
for about a year or two. We treat it as
a punch line. And now he's, you know, he's shown
himself to be one of the better QBs in the league.
I do think, though, given the other the other teams
in the same neighborhood with them, those are, you know, bear,

(20:02):
you know, I like the Vikes a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
The Bears are.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Well, I'm interested to see what you do with the
Chicago Bears, as a matter of fact. I think this
is a big year in a sneaky way for Dan Campbell,
and I think we've already seen the best of what
this era is going to look like in Detroit.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
I want to believe, I was surprised and don't love
the fact that they're 10.5, whereas the Packers are a
game below that, so are the Bears. So the Lions
are the favorites. And I think that's because the underlying
numbers showed they were a much better team than they
were a year ago at 9-8. And in general, they've

(20:47):
had some bad injury luck, although they're starting the season
without Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch. Those are a couple
transactions that happened after we did our cut-down day episode.
So those two guys are starting on the PUP list.
I do believe in the overall structure of it all.
I do think they are the favorites. The 10.5 in
such a good division worries me a little bit, but

(21:10):
I am tempted to just clash against you and go
on the other side because that's what I feel about it.
It wasn't really one of my top picks, but we'd
save some time and it'd be a good podcast. Let's
go over. Let's go over. Let's clash. We're going to
be keeping track here at the end of the year.
I'll go over.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
And they win the North as well?

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Yeah, I like them winning the North.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I do.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
I don't I feel less strong about the over ten
and a half because this division could just be gangbusters. Again,
it's the out of division schedule, which helps them out
a little bit. I love the start of the season
for them. They open against the Saints. They're in Buffalo
on a short week opening that stadium, which is definitely difficult.
But then it's Jets, Panthers, Cardinals before their bye. If

(21:54):
they can get to that bye very realistically at 4-1
with the wind in their sails and Dan Campbell feeling confident,
I ultimately think they're more talented overall than any other
team in this division. They could have four Hall of
Famers on the roster right now, Sheck, Aiden Hutchinson, Sewell,

(22:16):
I mean, Jameer Gibbs and, you know, all these guys
have a long way to go. But Jameer Gibbs and
Amon Rock could be those guys that they're all just
starting out. But these are guys in their prime that
are pretty elite players. So I'm going with them.

Speaker 3 (22:29):
I do agree with you. And it's not like the
roster is an atrocity otherwise. And so somehow I'm using
that against the Lions case. But I do see a
lot of people leading with kind of like what you
just did there, which is listing things as though we're
talking about fantasy football. Yeah, Jameer Gibbs would be a
great guy to start your fantasy team with. I just

(22:49):
don't love him in the equation of running behind that
offensive line. And by the way, I'm not one to
forecast injuries for anybody without any evidence that they're going
to happen, except Jameer Gibbs is awful slight.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
How's he keep doing.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
It, man?

Speaker 1 (23:03):
He's strong as hell. But you're right. I did the thing,
which I try not to do in these exercises, which
I went completely off my board just on a whim.
Because the Lions, over 10.5, I like it. I actually
had it as my 10th or 11th pick when I
did my big board. But I do like it, and
I want to stand for the Lions.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Give us a saucy one. Give us a proper one.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
I'll go next. Now we're kind of out of order.
Let's go Commanders under 7.5. Another team that... I think
there's a world where they're drafting in the top five
to ten, certainly. I worry about Jayden Daniels staying healthy, certainly.
But I also worry about Jayden Daniels in a system
that he hasn't been familiar with, with an offensive line

(23:47):
that doesn't look great with a first time head coordinator,
David Blau. I know there's a lot of good young coordinators,
but he was just starting on Thanksgiving not that long ago.
And now he's he's running this offense. And then more
than anything, I worry about the schedule. They play the
NFC West, so that feels like three potential losses, and
they play the underrated AFC South. I'm not going to

(24:08):
say that's brutal, but I think they're worse than those teams.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Two and a half good teams, at least.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Even their third place schedule teams, two of them are tricky.
Minnesota and Cincinnati are on their third place schedule teams,
and those are good third place teams. So you got
two first time coordinators, Durante Jones and David Blau, and
What are the odds they both hit? The better odds
are that one of those two, and they don't have

(24:35):
the most talented rosters in the world, are going to
be swimming and maybe a little in over their heads,
and then it's a problem and you go down.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
I like everything you said, and somehow you managed to
not just say as a position group the offensive line.
It is.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
pretty much that simple.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
In my opinion, I'm no old line whiz, but from
the people I know who are, they will tell you
Laramie Tunsil was the one piece that they had on that, uh,
on that old line. He's now gone. Um, in that
division in particular, that's bad.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:09):
I mean, look at the teams that they have to
play a couple of times and what their particular strength is.
Even the Giants, who their win total is the same
as at 7.5, the Giants, if nothing else, you anticipate
are going to be able to heat up the QB.
So that doesn't probably favor Jaden Daniels and company going
into that one.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's a savvy pick, I think.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
Okay, now I've taken one more pick than you, because
I went over on the Lions. I went under on
the Commanders. What say you for your fourth pick?

Speaker 3 (25:44):
All right, we're talking about this division. Why don't I
take their arch rival? Although, do you know if you
ask people what's the best rivalry in the NFC East?
I think, or my brain goes as an outsider, I
would go Cowboys against blank, and then you have to
fill in, is it Washington or is it Philly or
is it the Giants? What they will tell you is

(26:05):
the people in it, it's the Giants and Eagles. That's
the toughest rivalry there is. Either way, I am going
to say that the one that we perceive to be
the biggest rival of the commies, the Dallas Cowboys, AKA
America's alleged team, Michael Irvin may say they have 10
more years as America's team.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
To win a championship. And then it moves too late.
I already moved it. Playmaker. It doesn't belong to you.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
I don't know what claim you have to being America's
team at this point, but great news. You're going to
win the NFC East this year.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Ooh, I'm annoyed that going to go. I agree so much. Yeah. I,
I have agreed other than the lions with literally all
your picks. And most of them were ones I was
going to take. The Cowboys were coming up. I'm with
you on Cowboys over nine and a half. I can't
get there on winning the division. Why are you so excited?

(26:56):
And do they get America's team back? The answer, Sheck,
is simple. They're the most popular team. I mean, it's
still true.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
I don't know how you want to measure most popular.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I don't think most people.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
If you said, what NFL team would you most like
to see win the Super Bowl this year? I don't
think that football-watching fans would come back with the Dallas Cowboys.
I bet you they'd come back with the Bills or
the Lions.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
It's hard to measure, but I think in just terms
of who has the most nationwide fans, based on the
TV numbers and... like the web traffic back in the day,
not that I, I traffic in that. It feels like
it is the Cowboys. There's still a lot, you know,
there's still a lot of Cowboys fans here in LA
and the Raiders are still somehow number two. I think

(27:42):
the Raiders are the second most popular team.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
I mean, what it shows you is, is that a
giant percentage of our society is a bunch of front runners, right?
I mean, like if the popular teams are the Niners,
the Packers, the Steelers, the Patriots have now worked their
way into that conversation and as well. I wonder how
they did that when they weren't that 25 years ago.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
And we're an aging society. So, you know, we need,
we need the healthcare to be even worse, you know,
to just start taking out all these Raiders and Cowboys fans.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
Oh, I didn't know exactly what you were getting at.
I thought maybe you were saying in the NIL age
that we need something to latch onto something familiar. Um,
either way, I like, The first of all, Christian Parker
talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul. And I don't
think I'm using that, uh, that, uh, colloquialism correctly. I
keep saying it, but that's not what I mean to say.

(28:34):
You're taking something away from a division rival, which is
a defensive whiz away from Vic Fangio. Who's learned at
the knee of Vic Fangio in the division. Now he
goes to Dallas with all those lessons he learned and
he understands. And it depends who you're talking to. And
I wonder where you come down on this one, Greg.
But a lot of people within the NFL will tell you, oh,

(28:56):
that's a big thing to get somebody who is just
in another team's building because they know all the secrets.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
And then other guys will say, oh, that's nothing. Nobody
knows about that.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
I'm inclined to think that Christian Parker probably does know
some tendencies of the pieces of the defense he just
walked away from and probably the offense, too.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
As it is.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
You know, it's wild to say, because when it happened,
when the Micah Parsons deal went down, you thought, what
are the Cowboys doing? I do think it's fair to
say that they at least, at least it's a wash,
that it was a pretty good deal that they made
with the Packers, because look at what it's yielded at
this point. And you can start with Quinn and Williams.
I think that's a great centerpiece for the defense, but

(29:36):
I like the back end of the D as well.
And then the offense is mighty we already know that
I think that if you want to sort of play
a theme that's You have the Cowboys on the NFC side,
the Cincinnati Bengals on the AFC side. The thing you
would say about them, and by the way, you would
say in a hyper-specific way about the Texans, if they

(29:59):
could just have an average run game, imagine how good
they'll be. If the Bengals and Cowboys have average defenses,
imagine how good those teams will be. Spoiler alert, both
those defenses are going to be at least competent, if
not a little bit better than that.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Yeah, you have the Bengals high up on Mount Lombardi.
I can't quite get there. I'm there with you on
the Cowboys. Does addition by subtraction work better than robbing
Peter to pay Paul?

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Don't you throw my stupid things that I've said and
mean that I expect me to explain them or make
any sense of them.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
I can't do that, Greg.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
The only thing that got in my way of the Cowboys,
and I agree with you, I was going to draft them.
There are some really tough games on the schedule. The
Ravens are their extra 17th game. That was kind of
a bad draw. They're facing the NFC West out of division,
so those are three really tough games. You threw out
the Cardinals game, obviously, and then you got the two

(31:00):
games against the Eagles. I agree it's going to help
Christian Parker to know the Eagles' offense. By the time
they play, it's a Monday night game, week seven. That's
going to be a doozy. There'll be a lot of
tape of what this defense looks like. Vic Fangio, I
don't know if he's out scheming you. It's more about

(31:20):
he does what he does. They do it well. They
coach it up well. I just think that there's too
many good players on this team. I like this team.
I think 10-11 wins sounds about right. So I'm with you.
I will go over. Let's go back to the NFC
South on the Bucs. I talked about how these numbers
are inflated. The bucks are at eight and a half breast.

(31:42):
The division are at seven and a half because they
get to play each other. I haven't loved the preseason
vibes from the bucks in terms of Baker Mayfield. And
there's been injuries at wide receiver. And you do wonder,
do they have enough juice offensively? Just explosiveness. They have
a lot of players that are like, okay, a Mecca

(32:03):
Buka and Godwin and, Yeah, they bring in Kenny Gainwell. Like,
I like Bucky Irving, like K-Dot. It's like a lot
of like solid. It's not a lot of guys you're
worried about game planning for. That said, I'm very high
on their defense and I'm very high on their schedule
and their overall structure. And I was really wrong about

(32:24):
being high on them a year ago. I think they
get to nine freaking wins at the very least. I'm
feeling good about them getting to 10. So I'm actually
surprised I waited this long to take him because this
is this is one of my my favorite picks bucks
over eight and a half.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Well, if Ruben Bain takes off, I don't.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Read anything into what you see in august but i
did buy him pre-draft and so i anticipate him being
good especially when the focus is still going to be
on vita vea and i think people have forgotten about
kalijah can't see how good he was until he got
hurt um early last season so that's a great start
to the bucks defense conversation um yeah You know, I'm

(33:06):
not going to push back real hard on saying any
of these teams is good. You know, their high end
is nine and their low end is eight.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Was that a Jordan Rodriguez crack? If it was, kudos
to her.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
That was. See, this is where I disagree with her.
I still think there's a world the Bucs win 12
games with this soft schedule, which is why I should
have taken it earlier. Like, it's a legitimately good roster.
Their edge group could be like one of the most
improved groups in the league. They didn't just add Spain,
they get a kid back that was hurt last year,
David Walker. That looks really good. They signed some free agents, Al-Kahin.

(33:41):
They have a lot of players there. And the division stinks.
So I think they could kind of be the Bucs
we thought they were going to be a year ago.
Good line on the offense. They win 11 games. Maybe
not in the real deal contenders, but with a home
game as like a three seed. I could see that.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
You know, Bake has played well with a chip on
his shoulder that's been there for the whole season. His
last year in Cleveland, it was clear to, I think,
most people he was playing for his job. And despite
the shoulder injury, he kind of toughed it out and
had some moments there. I don't love the head coach
and the starting quarterback, both being in a sort of
prove it year kind of a thing. That's a, that's

(34:19):
an extra weight that you don't need on your shoulders
if you're in either of those positions. And that's why
I will stay in the South and tell you that
the champion and therefore they will transcend the seven and
a half will be the Carolina Panthers once again. Okay. Um, I,
It all comes down to, or a lot of it
comes down to, do you think that Canales and company

(34:41):
have Bryce Young looking closer to what we anticipated? Not
that he was lights out last year, but he was
a lot better than he had been in the preceding seasons. Um,
love the pass catchers there. The big concern with them
is that it looks like both of their tackles on
the offensive line might start the season out. So that

(35:03):
ain't great. Um, but you know, I, I, there are
a lot of pieces on the defensive side that I
like jazzed up the pass rush a little bit with, uh,
with Jalen Phillips. We'll see if how long he can
stay healthy. If he does, we know that he has
stretches of dominance there in this bum division.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
That's enough.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts on the offensive line. Ultimately,
you do have a first-round pick at one spot, and
you have a guy, Rasheed Walker from the Packers, who
all he's done is starts every game, basically, for the
Packers the last handful of years on a good offense.
He has some injury concerns, but he's out there. This

(35:41):
is the team I just wanted to stay away from.
I can see that. I put them at the very bottom.
I was just like, I don't want to deal with this.
This is a stay away from me. Like my mind
thinks they could take a step back, but there is
something intangible there that I buy into that they are
greater than the sum of their parts. I kind of
buy what Dave Canales is selling. Like they have a

(36:05):
good building. Like they get everyone like rolling in the
right direction and all that. And that does matter in
a bad division. So I could easily see them winning
eight or nine games. And I just was like, I
want to stay away from.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
As much as it matters in every division, I said
that about the NFC West, that when the heavyweights start
playing each other in December, then and only then will
we really start to say, okay, it's pretty clear that's
the team that's going to end up winning the thing.
These games are, ironically or otherwise, in bad divisions, all
that really matters, you can look around and say, oh,

(36:40):
look at the schedule they have out of the division.
Do you handle your business against the bum teams? If
you do, you're probably going to get the nine and
take it. Um, and so given the recent history, that's
why I will take the Panthers. Um, go ahead and
already say saints over seven and a half. Cause I
know you're going to get to that. You're not, I'm not,

(37:00):
I am not, you know, what spooks me about them.
And this is a stupid reason to do it, but
I do the same thing that apparently you do, which
is at this point, I hate, I think one of
the lamest exercises on the football calendar is the day
or two after the schedule is released, um, to go
up to a board and start putting W's and L's
next to them as though you know who's going to

(37:21):
be on the team, who's going to get hurt, how
good the other team's going to be. But I think
we're close enough now where we can kind of sort
of read into these things, at least the early portion
of the season. And the Saints are going to be
0-2 right out of the gate. They go at Detroit
and at Baltimore. So that's not a good place to
start off your season, I don't think.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
You you've just led me into going saints under seven
and a half. I'm going to do it. Um, I
feel like I heal. I try not to pick things
that I'm rooting for. Like I want the saints to
be good, but I just, I think there's a bigger
possibility that they're a bottom five team. I think they
have the, among the most injury risk variants of any

(38:02):
team in the NFL, just because of the history of
the guys on their team that have been hurt. And
they're already starting off the season. So injured with Camara.
Jordan and Jordan Tyson, rather, and Cam Jordan.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
I mean, Jordan Tyson was an injury risk, and you
drafted him, and he didn't make it to the start
of the regular season. Yes, that's a problem. Chris Alave,
injury history. Why did you do this to me? Cam
Jordan is an older fella. Great, but he's older. Chase Young.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
He finally looked pretty good. How deep into his career
is that you're banking on that? He's the, he's the linchpin.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
I do like Chase Young, but, uh, you're right. He
has to stay healthy. Prove he can do it. Kool-Aid
is your top DB. I mean, you know, it's, it's
hard to get real excited about this. The thing I
do like is, just sort of, I liked him from
a distance, was Tyler Shuck. I think he didn't get drafted,
or he was underdrafted a year ago because of his age.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
As though, people are like, well, he's already mid-20s.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Well, so what?

Speaker 2 (39:06):
What if you get 10 years out of him? That
won't be good enough? You need more than that?

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Well, no, he has to be 21 so that he'll
be our QB for the next 18 years.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
It'll be good.

Speaker 3 (39:15):
It'll work out just fine for the Saints if Shuck
is their starting quarterback for the next decade, right?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
I've talked up Shuck all offseason. I'm impressed by him.
I do think he's going to be a starting quarterback
as long as he's healthy in the NFL for a
long time. And if I get this wrong... and I
got some Saints fans in my life, they're going to
be sticking it to me. I am annoyed to annoy them.
It'll be because Kellen Moore and Shuck are a real

(39:41):
deal pairing. Brandon Staley coached up that defense well last year.
I just look at the overall talent. And I think
that defense is hoping to be average. It is just,
you mentioned it. They have no pass rush juice. They
don't have a lot of talent on defense at all.
They're hoping to be average. It's the high variance of
the offense. Shuck and Kellen, I actually liked what I
saw out of Kellen Moore and Olave and some of

(40:03):
the running game. Like they, if everything works on offense,
they could be a dangerous offense and make me look
dumb for going under seven and a half. That is
my sixth pick. We're going to do seven, Shuck. I mean,
I just called you Shuck.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Sheck.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
Oh, I could do it. He's a handsome guy. You
have two picks left. So just keep in mind, you
are now narrowing it down. You are only going to
get to take two more. So make sure you make
them count.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
All right.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
I mean, listen, I'm tempted to take those Arizona Cardinals.
They're almost certainly going to wind up on the don't
matter horn. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Would you go over or under their three and a half?

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Three and a half. I'm not going to bother with them.
That's the point. If you don't matter, why do I?
And you basically structure your roster in a way that
says to me that you don't think you matter. or
not going to put your best foot forward this season
in favor of what might be down the line, then
I don't have to regard you.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
I'm not going to take up my time talking about you.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Can I say something about them, though? Like they have
a lot of talented players in terms of their skill
position players, and it is borderline outrageous that there's no
other NFC team, if I'm correct, that's under seven and
a half other than them. The odds makers have them
four games worse. They could double their win total, like

(41:27):
the projected win total, three and a half to seven,
and they'd still be the worst team in the NFC.
I've never seen something like that, and that's hooey. I
always start using... check words when you're on, uh, who
eat an applesauce and whatnot. Like that's insane that the
odds makers have them four games worse than the entire
rest of the league. I, I have never seen anything

(41:48):
quite like, I think they have 200 good players. They'll
stumble into four or five wins.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
The bookmakers who are not too far away from where
the Cardinals are playing have now given, uh, given potential
wager or something to look at, right? Three and a
half is intriguing with the Cardinals.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yes. And they really want to do it, don't you?

Speaker 3 (42:07):
Because you look at that roster, like you say, again,
if you look at it as a fantasy roster, ooh,
I want a lot of those guys on my fantasy team.
That doesn't mean they're going to be actually good. But
at three and a half, you want to talk yourself
into any team that's playing. But then you have to
look at the other three teams that they have to play.
Those are six games that... that they're likely to be
one in five in. So it's hard to get excited,

(42:29):
but three and a half does, it does get awfully tempting.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
I'm going to, man. All right.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
The, I want to feel, I'm trying to in the
moment here, divine, which is the riskier thing Rams over
11 and a half or the Niners under nine and
a half.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
You know what?

Speaker 3 (42:50):
I don't, I, I, I don't, this isn't my way
to do this, but I'm going to take the Rams
over the 11 and a half. That's just a, that's
a lot of football games to win. But I was
as recently as 48 hours ago, ready to go with
the Seahawks and pouring through the, through the schedules and

(43:11):
the big concern with the Rams is, as I said earlier,
the Jenga theory is in the 21st century. If you
remove the wrong piece, the whole thing will implode. Is there,
I mean, The Rams are built around Puka Nakua, who
had a fraught offseason, I think we can agree. What
if he gets hurt? Devontae Adams is not Devontae Adams anymore.

(43:32):
He's definitely not somebody who you would ride as your
number one for a few weeks, right?

Speaker 1 (43:37):
And yet you're taking over 11 and a half.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Because I think that they are going to be able to,
to bang around running the ball. And that defense, the
thing that a lot of people are pointing at rightly
is that Aaron Donald is old and there's no guarantee
he stays, um, in good health. And Miles Garrett has,
you know, uh, had, uh, tweak something here or there,

(44:02):
and he's on the wrong side of 30. The problem
for everybody else is the depth that they have in
pass rushing on the defensive front overall.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
They're loaded.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
They didn't need to have Aaron Donald. He's the all-time
luxury item to plug in there, plus Sean McVay. And
I think what's fascinating is that he sort of ushers
in a mini era of going heavier with, with his
personnel on offense. And now in the copycat league, it

(44:33):
feels like a lot of teams are going to start
doing that, putting, you know, I are more and more
base offense is going to have two tight ends out
there and everything else. I'm interested to see if he now, again,
is rabbit and takes it in another direction. Again, Um,
as it is, I do think that Sean McVay is
going to figure out how to move the ball when

(44:54):
he has the reigning MVP at 38. Um, as he is,
that's the other thing too, is Matthew Stafford a year.
This isn't, I'm not talking this year. I'm talking a
full year ago. The conversation was, yeah, the Rams are
pretty good. If Matthew Stafford's back holds up, we're a
year deeper into his career. His back isn't better now
than it was a year ago. Still, I'm going to
say 12 wins.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, it's all on Stafford. I'm annoyed that I didn't
take them earlier. I feel like you somehow led me
down rabbit holes of taking teams earlier than I meant,
like the Saints under and the Lions, because it's going
to be very difficult, I believe, for this team to
lose more than five games if Stafford's healthy. And of course,

(45:37):
you could say that with basically any starting quarterback, and
I guess he's a little bit more of an injury
risk than most. But this is the first time that
you can expect them to have a top five defense
with a Sean McVay, like five, 12 and five gives
you some wiggle room. Now, Sean McVay, if you wanted
to go through his history, it's not like he's gone
over this wind total that often in his nine seasons,

(46:00):
he's done it four times. Uh, he's done it two
out of five in the Stafford era. So on paper,
they're the best team in the league. And yet, you know,
things pop up often, uh, But I'm really annoyed that
you took them. That was going to be my last pick.
I was rooting for you to go under 49ers so
that the Rams could be my last pick.

Speaker 3 (46:19):
Don't you think, though, that it's funny the way it
works because we have too much time to talk about
these things in the offseason. And so then you, you know,
when they started talking about when Les Snead and Sean
McVay start talking about the possibility of Aaron Donald, returning
you knew then a couple months ago well obviously aaron
donald's going to join the team do the head coach
and gm start ruminating wouldn't that be fun if that

(46:42):
happened they wouldn't do that if they didn't know that
the things were leaning in that direction um but we've
now lived in this reality or potential reality for long
enough that we, everybody swooned. And I don't love when
people get fake boners about football things.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Like, Oh my God, hard eyes. Like imagine that pass rush. Like,
all right, settle down. You're not that excited.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Why does it have to be fake? Just because it's
fake for you. It might be, it might be real
for people. It's fun to think about Aaron Donald and
Miles Garrett.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
On the same team.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
It'll be fun. Listen, do as I say, not as
I do. You know, I'm allowed to act a fool.
Everybody else should not act like a fool. Please be professionals.
But either way, yes, we now have to sprinkle in
some cynicism into every conversation. So now it's like, I
don't know if super teams work out. They don't have
much of a history with that. And I don't know.

(47:37):
It's just not going to work. Based on what? Think
about the X's and O's of it. Miles Garrett and
Aaron Donald are going to be out there together with
a few other guys who are great. I mean, go
through it with Braden Fiske and Young. What did he have,
12 sacks a year ago?

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, Kobe Turner next to Aaron Donald.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Had seven sacks last year. It's crazy. I mean, what
are you going to do for real?

Speaker 3 (48:01):
How are you ever going to throw the ball against
this team?

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Okay, enough on the Rams.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
You're right. We get through an off season. We convince
ourselves we know more than we think. And that's why
it's so tempting to take them because we just know
that if healthy, they're going to be good. It's my
last pick.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
You know what everybody says about your team, the Patriots, right?
It's like everybody ends up or 95% of people end
up saying the exact same things about the teams. And
the Patriots thing is like, Better roster, but worse results.
Everybody just says, okay, that must be true. Yeah, that's
going to be the reality here. And there's a late

(48:40):
push now. Seahawks are going to end up winning that division.
I almost fell into that trap.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
It's going to be the Rams.

Speaker 1 (48:48):
I tend to agree, although I haven't made my final decisions.
Those will come on our final show of the week
with the big return of Patrick Claibon to the studio.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I remember him.

Speaker 1 (48:59):
I'm thinking about Cardinals. Man, the Cardinals have a brutal
schedule to start the season, but like three wins when
I believe at the end you have the Raiders. Who
is it at the end of their schedule? It is
in a row. They have the Jets, Saints and Raiders
at the end of the schedule. You're telling me they
can't get to three and a half? But the rest
of the schedule is absolutely brutal. Just to introduce another

(49:21):
team to quickly talk about, I will go Giants under
seven and a half. You know, John Harbaugh's speech, that
was a downer. It's really going to connect with these players.
Malik Naber's idea that he's going to be fully back
after multiple surgeries is, I have doubts about, there's some

(49:42):
real deal top level talent. This is one of those
teams where I would say what they are saying about
the Patriots, check. I like the line play on both teams.
Like this will be a better team. This could be
a much improved team that goes six and 11, that
goes seven and 10. And I still get my under.
I just don't think they're going to have a competitive

(50:06):
passing game which you need in the year 2026. I'm
on the fence.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
Well, I'm going to be interested to see Jackson Dart
in year two, because to this point, as flawed as
he is, I still say that my team, the Steelers,
should have drafted him.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Speaking of the Steelers, before we wrap it up, I
just have a question that I keep asking since John
Harbaugh is the subject, or just was. John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin,
Sean McDermott. At the end of this year, will we
point back and say, wow, turns out that guy was
really holding his old team back.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Will we say that about one, two, or three of
those guys?

Speaker 1 (50:49):
Well, if I'm going to be consistent with my over-unders,
at some level, we'll be saying it about all three.
Because I'm high on the Ravens. I think the Steelers
are going to be better than people think. And I
think defensively, they could improve with some new ideas. I
agree with that. Who was the third one? Yeah, the

(51:10):
Bills won. I think it'll just kind of be a wash.
I mean, I took their over when we talked about
it with Nick Wright. Yeah, I think they'll be more
of the same. I don't know if it'll be a
big McDermott thing. But the other two, yeah, I could see.
I've been introducing, and this is not a popular take,
but it's definitely a big one when I try to
defend my guy, Bill Belichick, that a little bit of

(51:32):
ageism is okay when evaluating professionals uh, in highly paid,
you know, jobs like head coach.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
You did that on football America a year ago. It was,
it was, it was, it was a disgrace that you
did it.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Why? He got old. He got, he ran out of ideas.
He's old. He ran out of ideas. So what?

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Why do we have to assume that John Harbaugh is,
has as many fresh ideas and as much energy and as, as,
like forward thinking ways to run an organization as he
had 15 years ago. I don't have to think that.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
I think it's silly.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
There is the Dick Vermeule thing, which I would not
have expected to work on the level it did because
people forget it wasn't just the Rams.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Then he went to the chiefs and did the same thing.
And almost, and I'm not.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Saying they can't be good coaches. I'm just saying on average,
They've probably had their best behind them like players do.
There's a prime.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
I agree with you, but John Harbaugh is not Bill Belichick.
Nobody says John Harbaugh is in the conversation or pounds
the table.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Obviously, he's the greatest coach of all time.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Bill Belichick was carried as it happens, we found out,
by the greatest quarterback of all time.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
That's what we've now learned here. Bill Belichick is 74
years old in a totally different ecosystem.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Somehow you're trying to defend him by calling him a
decrepit old man. All right.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
It's your last pick. Oh, you have one more. Yeah. I,
cause I, I jumped you at one point. I doubled up.
So you have one more to make it even, we
got to have it even.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
All right.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I will go with, uh, you know, we could talk
about the Niners. I'll go bears up to 10 again,
because yeah, of my faith in Ben Johnson. It's longstanding.
I am not Johnny come lately getting on that bandwagon.
I've been talking about this for many years now about
Ben Johnson is the rising star among play callers.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
And he's made me look smart there.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
It doesn't mean that because he is Caleb Williams head
coach now, And because Josh Allen, a number of years ago,
was inaccurate and then became accurate, that there's any math
that that means, well, Caleb Williams will do the same thing.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
That said....

Speaker 3 (53:44):
And by the way, I don't love the defense either,
but I do think that Ben Johnson is not shooting
his mouth off about being the highest scoring offense in
NFL history. If he doesn't think that he has some
chance of having a gangbusters offense, I do think they're
going to light a lot of teams up over the
course of the season enough to get into the playoffs.
The backend is a wild card and get the double

(54:05):
digit wins. Doesn't mean that they're going to, that they're
going to run to the Superbowl or anything like that.
But I do think that, given the pieces they have
on offense, that they're set to win more games than
they lose.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
My strategy coming... I tend to agree with everything you
just said. My strategy coming into this draft was actually
just to avoid Bears, Packers, and Lions. For some reason,
I got hooked into the team that has the higher
win total. Because that all just felt about right. Nine
and a half, it all just feels about right. I
like the out-of-division schedule against the NFC South. I I'd

(54:38):
have to be forcing myself to get negative about any
of these teams. And yet I just kind of look
at it and logically I know, well, it can't all
work out that way. I just wanted to stay away
from all three of them. So I'm glad you, you
brought them up because otherwise we would have avoided the
Packers and bears entirely. We did avoid the Packers. Cause
I just feel like nine and a half.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
That seems about right.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
You know, Cliffs notes it for me, the Niners make
the case for them in either direction here, because the.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
I like them again.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
And if you told me right now, like if you
put me into a coma and woke me up on
Valentine's Day and say.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Guess what?

Speaker 3 (55:12):
The Niners made it to the big game. Let's head
over to SoFi right now, Dave. And I'd be like,
what are you doing in my bedroom? You'd be like,
you're not in the bedroom. You're in a hospital. You're
in a coma. Did you forget I put you in
the one in September? I'd be like, What the hell?

Speaker 2 (55:26):
What do we do?

Speaker 3 (55:27):
You actually did that? I just I just threw that
out on a dumb podcast. And you're like, well, I
thought you were serious. So I put you into a
coma and the Niners made it to the Super Bowl. Anyhow,
what's with the dumb podcast crack?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I'm sorry. Intelligent. Yes. Thoughtful.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
We're trying to really. cater to the best of the
best out there. I don't know what to think about them.
I agree with all that. They felt in a similar
bucket to the Bears and the Packers. Logically, everyone can't.
be winners here. It's part of this weird NFC over under,
if you actually look at all the totals and added
them up, like Vegas sees the NFC as better. They

(56:06):
don't have many losing teams. Even the losing teams they
have are around seven.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
No, it sees them.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
It sees a sea of mediocrity with a couple of
teams that rise above that. That's different than the AFC,
which is you can rightly circle three or four teams
that you know aren't going to go to the playoffs,
and everyone else you can make a pretty good case for.
A lot of these teams are like, I don't know,
I guess if things break right, the Saints could wind
up in there.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
I don't know, maybe the commies pull a rabbit out
of their hat and Jaden Daniels has another great year
like he did two years ago and they wind up
in the playoffs. I feel like that's the conversation around
the NFC save, you know, the two teams in the
same division in the Rams and Seahawks.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Like, of course, the 49ers could finish second or win
that division, but I just can't get there as a
take before the season. And then suddenly you're immediately putting
them into third place in the division with a very
tough schedule. Uh, it's, it's tough out of division two.
And so then I just come away being like, all right,
let's prove it to me. I believe, I believe in Brock.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
You're not supposed to talk about because it's bad form to,
to base anything off of injuries and like, well, I
don't know if that guy's going to hold up, but
the fact of the matter is the teams that make
the deep playoff runs are the healthiest almost every single time.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
That's the case.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
And so you do kind of have to apply some
history there, CMC and Nick Bosa and and so on
and so forth. That is, you're not crazy to ding
the 49ers chances based on that. Like, well, I don't know,
George Kittle, like he's definitely going to be okay. He's
still definitely going.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
To be ready to roll there. All the, all the
guys who've gotten hurt.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
I don't know what happened, what voodoo is going on
out there, what the man is doing with the, with the,
stations out there in san francisco i'm not an intelligent
guy i don't have conspiracy theories about that i'm just
looking at the history of these guys yes cmc gets
heard a lot i'm.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Not worried about the substation i agree with you i
am worried that it's big news on this wednesday as
we tape and get ready to say goodbye here that
nick bosa and george kidd are getting on the plane
oh they're getting on the plane to australia so they
got a chance to play week one They keep saying
Nick Bosa, they're ramping up. He hasn't done any practicing,
but they're getting on the plane. Very interesting, the two strategies.

(58:25):
The 49ers are leaving on Wednesday. The Rams are leaving
almost an entire week later and only spending 24 hours
before that game in Australia.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
I am bullish almost always.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Generally speaking, I will say like, First of all, I
don't love divisional games in week one. We've been out
in the desert without football for long enough. Just give
me a cracker to keep me going now. I don't
need filet mignon to get things going here. But usually
as the Bills and the Bengals to some extent and
other teams that are real good teams, they start out

(59:00):
sluggishly and then they have to make up the ground
and they almost inevitably do. I gotta say, for two
teams that do look good, I think it's a big
game being in Australia. Like remember the chiefs and chargers
that did foretell something that played out over the course
of the rest of the season last year.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
So don't just slough this one off.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
It's like, ah, well, you know, the Rams or the
Niners beat them like, well, but you know, the Rams
are going to be good.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Wouldn't be great if the Rams start their season with
a loss here.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
And the 49ers get them at home because the Rams,
they wanted this game. They, they agreed to give up
a home game. to travel over there, but not for long. Reportedly,
I saw this written about in The Athletic, the 49ers
are the most popular team in Australia, so they might
have a little bit of a home field advantage. This
was a treat, a thin slice of heaven, as Dave

(59:52):
Damoshek likes to say. Check out his podcast. Football America,
it's going to be going live on Mondays during the season,
but you can catch it in your podcast feed and YouTube.
Appreciate you, Sheck. Appreciate everyone that has been tuning in.
We see those numbers growing as the season gets closer.
Everyone go ahead, like and subscribe on YouTube. Leave a comment.

(01:00:16):
Why not? We haven't asked for that in a while
on Apple. And yeah, we will be back for another
show this week. talking about some of our Making the
Leap candidates with our new coworker, Brett Coleman. That's coming
up next.