NFL Network Insiders Tom Pelissero, Ian Rapaport, and Judy Battista discuss what the devastating losses of Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons to ACL tears mean for their respective teams.
Then they look at how the Bills second half comeback in New England and the Bengals listless effort against Baltimore impacted the AFC playoff picture.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Happy holidays everyone, and welcome inside with the Insiders alongside
Judy Batissa and Ian Rapaport, I'm Tom Pellicero. This is
a Monday podcast edition of the show. If you are
new to this aspect of what we do, it's two
part podcast. You also might be watching on fast streaming
(00:28):
platforms and on YouTube, in which case it's all in
one place. If you're on the podcast, well, there's again
multiple parts to this, so we hope that you take
in all of it. As usual on Mondays, we dive
into everything that we saw from the Sunday that was
and today. That means starting out heavily on the injury front,
because there was a span of time yesterday when it
(00:49):
seemed like superstar players were essentially an endangered species on
the field. No injury bigger and no storyline frankly bigger
across the NFL. Then Patrick Mahomes suffering a torn acl
moments before his replacement, Gardner Minshew throws an interception that
seals the Chiefs missing the playoffs. To put that into context,
(01:14):
not only had the Chiefs been to three straight Super Bowls,
they've been to seven consecutive conference championship games. Every year
Patrick Mahomes has been the quarterback. They hadn't missed the
playoffs since twenty fourteen. Judy, it all comes crashing down
on the same day that Patrick Mahomes now suffers an
injury that potentially could imperil even his availability at the
(01:35):
start of training camp at the start of the twenty
twenty six NFL season. Take me through all aspects of
this from the Chiefs perspective and really more broadly too,
what it means for an AFC that they've dominated for
the better part of a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I mean, all injuries are terrible. Some are even
more terrible than that, and this is one of those.
It's always awful when a major star suffers a big injury.
It's awful for the league, it's awful for all fans, right,
I mean, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are the biggest
draw in the NFL right now, even bigger than the
(02:11):
Dallas Cowboys, and so for him to go down is
huge and imperil the start off next season, and obviously
for them to miss the playoffs is huge because it
opens up let's just start with that. It opens up
the AFC. I mean, who burrows not in it Mahomes
is not in it. Josh Allen, it appears, is going
to be in it, and he is certainly the most
(02:33):
accomplished of the quarterbacks who are very likely to be
in it. We'll see if Lamar and the Ravens make it,
but the AFC is wide open without Mahomes in there. Listen,
I mean, we all watched the Chiefs all season and
they were never right. The offense was never right. But
you kept thinking, I kept thinking, he's got They're gonna
(02:54):
pull this out somehow, right, Like he's gonna he will
pull it together. He and Kelsey will do something like
they will manage he will drag them on his back
into the playoffs. And to have that not happen and
then you know, to now have this shadow them the
entire offseason and going into next season, Like, will he
be able to run and move the way he has
(03:17):
in the first part of his career after an ACL,
I don't know. I mean Tom Brady was dominant after
his ACL injury, but Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Was not the same. But it took a year a
while exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It took a while for him to look right and
he got hurt obviously much earlier in the season than
Mahomes did. So certainly you've got to look at now
the twenty twenty six season and say, what's he going
to look like and what will he look like, you know,
going forward for the rest of his career. It's it's
just such a bummer, such a bumper.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
The Brady comparison is an interesting one because it does
a little bit feel like, you know, like on all
the shows, including Game Day Morning, there's the debate of
like is the Chiefs dynasty over and you could say, like, well,
you know, are they the dominant team in the AFC?
They're not, so like is it over? Like maybe?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
But the Patriots have felt like had two dynasties. They
had like the early one and then they had the one.
So basically it was like dynasty.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I showed up to cover him, they had a little
bit of a break, and then they had the dynasty
again after that, which is you.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Know, even during that time they were going to the playoffs, right,
I mean you know they they didn't, Yes, right, I
mean they were going to playoffs and even going to
the AFC Championship game.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yes, right, that that is true. But they also the
year I remember is the two thous.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I mean, I remember all of them, but the twenty
ten year, which was my first year on the beat,
and I didn't know anything about Tom Brady. I had
just been covering Missippi State then Alabama, and I knew
a little bit about the NFL, but not a ton
and everyone revered Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And then he gets there and.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
For the first like six weeks of the season, I
was kind of like, is this this is it? Like
he looks okay, but he was like a mid level
quarterback at that time, and the stats kind of back
it up and he looked okay. And then you get
into like November and his knee starts getting really fully healthy,
gets back to one hundred percent, and then you're like,
all right, I get it, And I just wonder if
(05:10):
Mahomes with a similar timeline would sort of face that
same thing. Now, Brady was injured earlier, but obviously had
a more complicating injury. We think we don't know details
and Mahomes yet, but then went on that like next run,
and you would hope as the Chiefs reboot, that's kind
of what they're gearing for. It was so interesting for me,
(05:30):
Tom is like this whole year everyone sort of said
the same thing, including me, like, yeah, they're probably gonna
be fine. And we also said about Mahomes like every
time he's down, anytime he had he had a left
knee injury for like a month, it was.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Like, he'll probably be fine.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well, he is not fine, and they are not fine.
And I'm really curious to see where the next step
is here the.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Tom Brady comparison to if I'm not mistaken, I believe
the first graft acl graft failed for him. He might
have used to condemn it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
There was a was an infection or an infection.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
But essentially they had to redo the surgery and get
the kneeback. So that's part of the reason that was
impacted here. For Patrick Mahomes, he's notoriously been a fast healer.
I mean, he's a guy who can dislocate.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's hardly yeah, right back out there, right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I Mean, the dissocated kneecap is probably the most significant one.
But he's had high ankle springs, He's had all kinds
of stuff. He just always plays and so you wonder,
you know, he's a little older, he's still not old.
I mean, we just saw forty four year old Philip
Rivers start a game yesterday, which we'll talk about a
little bit later on. But he is older in his career,
and so yeah, how does the body bounce back? Even
More broadly, though, beyond Patrick Mahomes, you really have to
(06:38):
wonder what does this Chiefs team look like in twenty
twenty six. The last time that they, you know, lost
a big playoff game was against the Bengals back in
twenty twenty I believe twenty twenty one, right, twenty twenty one.
After that season was when they decided we need to
really rebuild the team. They traded Tyreek Hill to clear
(06:59):
a whole bunch of cap space. That was because Tyreek
had seen the puffed up numbers on a Devonte Adams
contract and decided he wanted the same amount of money,
and so then he blew his way.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I appreciate, I appreciate you left some part of that out.
What Tom means to say is he saw the puffed
up numbers that I reported on Davante Adams contract, and then.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, you reported it was a twenty eight million dollar
a year deal. It turns out it was twenty two
million dollars a year in terms of real money so
then Tyreek wanted thirty and he got a deal in
Miami that was really twenty five but looked like thirty
on paper.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
And there was the whole generation of receiver contracts that
were puffed up.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But now they're back to normal anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yes, but bottom line, they made a very At the time,
it was it was a shocky move. I remember when
we first reported that they were going to trade him,
and then by the end of the day they'd gone
back and forth with the Jets and the Dolphins. They
end up trade him to Miami, but they knew what
I was.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Doing that day. Do you remember what I was doing
that day?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Were you skiing? I'm taking a wild guess?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
No, even better, I was leaving Spike Lee's studio after.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
The documentary that never aired for the.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Don Kaepernick documentary that never aired.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yes, all right, we're going to leave that right there.
But that was very intentional because they looked at it
as we need to rebuild the defense, we need to
rebuild the offensive line. We can save twenty five million
dollars a year and get a first round pick and
more for Tyreek Hill. So that was like a point
where they went, all right, let's really reboot this thing.
If you're thinking, Judy about the Chiefs moving forward here,
(08:24):
you've got certainly a big question about Travis Kelcey, who
did not look like Travis kelce most of the year.
The will is still there. I think. I don't think
that Travis Kelcey has lost the passion to play football,
but he doesn't look the same. He just doesn't seem
to have the same burst. He's had dropped passes, He's
obviously expressed frustration. You have to wonder have we seen
(08:44):
you know, he's got three games left, but the last
to Travis Kelcey, you've got Rashid Rice, who's like the
guy that you want to build around. He's had obviously
some issues personally that have taken him off the field,
but he also he didn't play great the last few games.
You know, he had a bunch of key dropped passes. Defensively,
us Jones is getting older. My question to you, Judy
is how deep do you think the changes go for
(09:06):
the Chiefs in twenty twenty six. Knowing that your core players,
which has been Kelsey, Mahomes and Chris Jones are all
getting older and the youngest of the group Mahomes now
is coming off of a major injury.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, I think whatever they project Mahomes to be like
in twenty twenty six, right, whenever he has the surgery,
and presumably that will tell them and eventually us more
about how long the recovery is going to be, right,
how bad is the injury, what's going to be involved?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That you would think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Would sort of shape their approach to the off season. Now,
Kelsey is a separate thing, Right, is he going to retire?
You know, that's a separate issue. You're right, though many
many other of their star players did not look the
way they should have been looking this year. Chris Jones
had games where you know, you didn't hear his name,
he was not a fact. Or Rashie Rice is we've
(10:02):
obviously gone over that. So they have big decisions at huge,
huge positions. And I think, whenever we learn about what
Mahomes is going to look like in twenty twenty six,
if twenty twenty six is going to be like, listen,
we're not going to have Patrick Mahomes for the entire
first month of the season. He's not going to be right.
We know it takes players generally time when they have
(10:23):
major injuries to work their way back into form. Do
they I'm not saying that they take a pass on
twenty twenty six, but you know, do they say like,
all right, this is I don't want to put it
that way, but like a rebuilding trying to reboot.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yes, this is to kind of have a transition here.
You can still try, but without course kind of leveraging
everything that the same way that they have right like.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're you know, they are probably not going to look
at twenty twenty six and say we're we're this close.
We're going to go for it, you know, if Mahomes
comes out of the surgery and they know Mahomes is
not going to be himself at the start of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So a team that is still in playoff position, although
they dropped to the seven seed yesterday, I and the
Packers also suffer as big of an injury as you're
going to get for a non quarterback in the NFL. Michaeh.
Parsons goes down in that game. You could tell based
on his reaction. You could tell, based on how the
knee bent on what looked like an otherwise normal step,
that this was something really serious. We now have confirmation
(11:23):
he's out for the season. He's also going to be
pushing up against twenty twenty six, but more immediately, green
Bay is in the thick of this thing. Just tell
me what we know of Mike's injury, just kind of
the impact on green Bay moving forward.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, you could you know,
you want to wait for the MRI to figure out
what's wrong, but that was one you could tell pretty quickly.
I mean the camera zoom is then on his face
and he says, I'm out, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I mean, that's what That's what it looked like. He knew.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
MRI has confirmed it is a torn acl you know,
he'll have surgery as soon as is possible and as
soon as is healthy, which as we know, is not
always right away. And he is out for nine months
or more so similar time on as mahomes, except different positions,
so maybe an even more challenging timeline. You know, that
puts him right at the start of September. Could he
(12:07):
miss the start of the season as he gets fully healthy.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
For sure he could.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Now he posts posts on Twitter, you know, the the
lion picture with word September, which is awesome, and he
should absolutely keep shooting for that.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
We know that is not always reality.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
And I will say this, and this is I don't
really do very many hot takes.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It's not really my thing.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I always thought that the Packers didn't need Micah Parsons.
They got him, and he's awesome, but I don't know
that they need him. He was more a luxury for
this really good defense. I still think they're going to
be very good. I think the offense is getting better,
not worse, with the weapons that they have that are
kind of in the mix a little bit. I think
(12:53):
Green Bay is going to be okay. Not much of
a hot take, but I don't. I don't know, Judy
that this takes me off. Like the Packers are Super
Bowl contender.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It stings.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
They're gonna have to get it from other places. But
I do think they're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Right, They're going to have to generate pressure from other places.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Now, Yes, I think.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I mean, look, I think they're going to make the
playoffs for sure. Can they Can they make a very
deep run in the NFC without Michael Parsons?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I don't know that I feel as confident about that
as as you do. Like I'm not sure. I feel
very confident about them, you know, taking down the Rams
or the Seahawks or whoever.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
It's going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Without their superstar pass rusher, it's going to put and
it's going to put the onus on the defense to
come up with ways to generate pressure, and it's going
to put the onus on the offense to score score
score score score.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Uh you know that is That's what it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Jeff Affley's got to earn his paycheck. I mean, he's
been one of the best defensive coordinators in the league.
Now you're kind of going back to where you were before.
So it is gonna be on you know, the likes
of Sean Gary, Lucas van Ness, who's finally re I
mean it's been a brutal season for him. But the
way that they can use him inside and outside, you
know some of that, you know half of They'll have
a plan. This is obviously not ideal in any regard.
(14:16):
They did also real quick too. Ian Christian Watson reported
not a serious injury, which is big because Watson impacts
a lot of different things in terms of how they
play offense. Fot.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I mean, yeah, he is like, definitely one of my
favorite players and one of the most fun to watch.
He goes down with another injury and you're like, oh
my god, Seriously, he was just out for like half
the year, so.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I think he's gonna be okay.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well he played this week, I'm not sure, but it
was described to me as more day to day than
anything else, which, considering what it looked like and the
fact that they're going to need him, very very helpful.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And it's a short week Saturday against the Paars, a
rematch thirteen days after Green Bay got the win at
lambeau Field. So we'll see about the turnaround on watch. Well,
i'll see the turnaround of Adams. Rams played Thursday night
against Seattle, maybe the biggest Thursday night game of all time.
I'm not even trying to speak in hyperbole. You can
see when he grabbed the hamstring, it looked really bad.
(15:11):
But Sean McVay said DeVante was optimistic after the game.
Hard to imagine you're playing four days after a legit
hamstring poll like it looked like here, but sounds like
some optimism. He may not be out in the long term.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We'll be back with more from the insiders.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
The Rams became the first team in the NFC to
punch their playoff ticket yesterday. The Broncos, by virtue of
that win over the eventually Michael Parsons list Packers became
the first AFC team to get in. And beyond that,
Judy I would fairly say we have relative chaos across
the count even in the AFC West. The Broncos still
(15:48):
have not wrapped it up. The Chargers right now are
just a couple of games back still times with three
weeks to go. Just to run down the various things
that happened yesterday. So the Broncos beat the Packers, it's
just the AFC rally from twenty one points down to
beat the Patriots in.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
That was crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
As big of a regular season win as you're going
to get through the course of the season. We know
the Bills are beating the Chiefs in the past, but
this was for their own division that they are the
perennial winners. This would have been it. Patriots would have
clinched the division instead, all of a sudden, it's competitive.
You had Jayguars and Texans winning. You had the Chargers
of course eliminating the Chiefs. The Ravens shut out the
(16:28):
Bengals to stay afloat. They're a half game back entering
Monday Night football as we record this. And then you
have the Colts who are still alive with some big
games to go, including Monday Night against the forty nine
ers with Philip Rivers at quarterback. Judy, you sign it up.
You're looking at the standings right here. What do you
make right now in the state of the AFC?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Just pandemonium? Pandemonium. The first of all, the Broncos impressed
me because they came back from a deficit. Their defense
has been at that top, top level that it had
been earlier in the season in the last few weeks.
But the offense has picked it up. Bone Nix played
his best.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Game I think as a pro yesterday.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I think we can say so they're sort of coming
along on the offensive side of the ball, which was
what my concern was about them, you know, six weeks ago,
but of course everything changes in the NFL from week
to week, so six weeks is a lifetime ago. So
but I mean, the Bills come back on the Patriots,
I was like, what the heck is going out? First
of all, when they went down twenty one nothing. I
(17:31):
thought like, Wow, the Patriots are awesome, and then oh,
this took a turn, so that.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Was I guess.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I still expect the Patriots to win the division, but
that was a really impressive victory by the Bills.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Can we talk?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Are we going to talk about Philip Rivers? Because that
was just the favorite story of the week.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
He was fine, He was fine.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
All the people who predicted doom and he was going
to die out there and this is a good okay.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But hold on now, hold fine is a relative term.
I give Shane styke In a ton of credits for
the game plan. He is avery time a rusher got through.
I was stressed out? Can I there is why? Let
me explain why? Because a lot of the people commenting
on sports, for better or worse, are middle aged, and
(18:21):
I think all of us can imagine, all right, what
if we went out there?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Would we make it?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
And so I really think Judy that was all the
commentary was like, Hey, Philip Rivers is my age. If
I had to go face the SEATA pastors, I might die,
So therefore he might die.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
But I was struck by the number of former players,
So former NFL players who know exactly what NFL players
feel like on the day after a game. They were
the ones who were saying, this is going to be
a disaster. There is no way this is going to work.
He's not going to make it off the field. So yes,
I agree. Every time a rusher got anywhere near him,
I was like, oh, you know, it was fine. He
(18:58):
put them in position to win the game, right. He
made the most important pass of the day was that
third down pass to get them into field goal range
to give them the lead, which they then seated. I mean,
he was fine. I don't know what's going to happen
in the next few weeks, whatever. It was good for him,
and I loved his comments after the game about like
(19:19):
take a chance, like you know, like what are you
doing sitting on the couch.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Just he got better too as the game went off.
First driver to it just kind of looked like he
was aiming the ball and guiding it. By the end,
it was Philip Rivers. Let it rip now again when
there'd be a rusher and he'd kind of take those
two steps backward like, oh my god, get the ball
out of my hands. Now. Those are the ones that
make you nervous. You know, I think he averaged like
four yards and change per attempt. It wasn't like he
(19:45):
was goind it, but that was never going to be
the case. It was get us in the right play
the first two Snapsey and from scrimmage you see Philip
moving somebody in motion, adjusting and to hand off to
Jonathan Taylor. He's doing those things at the line of
scrimmage that you trust him to do. You can put
all on his plate. He just can't ask him to
drop back thirty five forty times and go win you
a game, all right.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I have three things to say.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
One, I remember when I went to visit the San
Diego Chargers and I ended up meeting Frank Reich for
the first time, and.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
We spent a half hour in his office.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
And the whole conversation was on how Philip Rivers was
the best he has ever seen in understanding protection, that
he was the best, and he explained to me, it's like,
here's what this means, and he went in detail about
like why Rivers, with his like amazing brain, is so
good at understanding where rushers are coming from and how
the offensive lineman will adjust. And I thought about that
(20:39):
this week because like that's the most important thing, basically,
make sure he doesn't die. And he did, and I
thought he kept himself out of harm's way, and I
thought he was really good. And my guests, without really knowing,
is that he probably starts again.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Although I wouldn't hate to see Riley Leonard just because
it'd be interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
But certainly put them in position enough to win, almost
almost got it done. I also underestimated how mainstream the
reaction to his story would be, Like people who aren't
football fans last night were like, I gotta watch the
end of Rivers game like that was I thought that
was a very cool thing. And that's like anytime you
(21:18):
can bring this world into like the bigger world, I
think that's really awesome. And then finally on your what
Judy said about the Bills, I always think the absolute
worst thing you could ever do is get up on
the Bills because when Josh Allen gets.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Seriously, they get up twenty or nothing.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And the first thing I thought I should I don't
tweet during games really my thoughts, but like I should
have tweeted like the Bills got him right where they
want him, because that was my thought. It's like when
they can let loose and play free, and he just
gets to be Superman.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
He is like the best player in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Back to Rivers and the Colts really quickly here. So
they've got San Francisco at home on Monday night. They
then played Jacksonville and he Houston. There is like a
realistic path for them to still get in the Seattle game.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Could they be nine and eight and still get in.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I mean, let's say, realistically, you need to you need
to run the table. I think that realistically, just based
upon where the tiebreakers are, what you would need to do,
getting to eleven is the safest is the safest spot.
I mean, look at the teams up above them here.
You can't count on a wild card. You got to
hope that the Jaguars lose a game and the Texans
lose a game, and you run the table and you
(22:30):
can potentially win the division because again you've got you've
got both those teams still on your schedule. You also
lost to both those teams the first time around, so
it becomes it becomes a complicated type of a calculus.
But as much as that game it would have been
nice to get it as like a you know, it's
almost like a Yesterday was the house money game Judy,
(22:52):
where all right, if you win that game, then all right,
you're you know, you're a great say wow, that was amazing,
But that game was always all right, let's get Philip
Rivers feet wet. Now Monday night football against the forty
nine ers. This is potentially the catalyst for them to
get this thing rolling moving forward. Meanwhile, the Ravens shut
out the Bengals, which there's a lot of layers to it.
(23:12):
I thought Draymond Jones made a comment about basically it
was too cold for him out there. That becomes a
real thing this time of year where maybe some teams
that don't have as good of a playoff shot might
just not want to be on the field as much.
I wouldn't call this a get right game for the Ravens,
but it certainly was good for them to show on
defense that they're capable of putting together that type of
(23:33):
performance because Baltimore's defense this entire year has been a
dart throw in terms of what you're getting from week
to week.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, that has to be a feel good game for
the Ravens coming out of that. For the Bengals, like
first of all, what a weird week for the Bengals,
and like, obviously that performance did absolutely nothing to make
the week better or to make this upcoming week any
better either, right, I mean, Joe Burrow sundce tortured and miserable,
(24:01):
and you know, then he gets up there last night
and says, like, you know, like the worst game he's
ever played, and no team could have possibly won if
I were playing quarterback for them, I mean, why do
they have some work to do in Cincinnati? But that
was a shock. I mean for Joe Burrow, the team
with that much talent, that much offensive talent, to be
shut out, even though the playoffs you know, were such
(24:25):
a distant idea for them still to be shut out
at home with Joe Burrow playing quarterback is astonishing to me.
I couldn't believe. I was not watching much of that
game because I was watching other games, But every time
I looked at that score, I was like, what, you know.
At one point I checked, like, is Burrow out of
the game? Is he healthy?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah? T Higgins is a good player, and he makes
a difference, but he shouldn't make that big of a difference.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
You Well.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
The thing, the thing that I always think about we've
seen so many examples this year, is practice really matters?
Like Joe Burrow is the best and he's been good,
but yesterday really was and like it's so hard to
just miss two months, jump back in and be like,
all right, we're just going to go to the playoffs.
I think he expected that, which is sort of like
(25:08):
my senses. That's why he made some of those comments.
It's like, all right, I'm going to save the day.
And then when he didn't save the.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Day, it's like, all right, why didn't I do all that?
Speaker 4 (25:16):
You know, It's like it's I'm sure mentally it's very hard,
but like practice matters, and like it's really hard to
be really good, and they are not good, and it's
going to.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Be an interesting offseason in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I was I was, honestly not that we should be
surprised by the reaction to anything, but I was a
little surprised by the reaction of Joe Burrow's comments. It's like,
how do you expect him to feel If every year
we talk about Maholmes is going to have a long
rehab process, Burrow does it every year.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Every year.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Every year he's dealing with this and then he comes
back and they're losing, and it's you're trying to hey,
we can be the scrappy team that's four and eight
and slides into the playoffs, like you don't want to
live there, Judy.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And also like, don't I appreciate his candor? He is
one of the most reserved, guarded That's what you want
we will ever come across. He's also one of the
smartest players you'll ever come across. You want those moments
of candor where he's telling you what he's really feeling,
because he doesn't do it often, and he gave you
a window into what he is thinking. You want that,
(26:14):
And for people, I agree, the reaction was sort of
like almost mocking him, like, oh, you know, he's struggling.
It's like, are you kidding, Like listen to him, like
listen to what he's saying and take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yes, precisely.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And by the way, as we're talking to Shane Sage
did confirm not that there was really any question. Philip
Rivers starts Monday night against the forty nine Ers, which
means we get that on National TV next week. All right,
if you are watching on the NFL channel on fast
streaming platforms. You're watching on YouTube, stay right here. If
you are listening on the podcast, go over to Park two.
We'll talk NFC playoff, picture, and a whole lot more
(26:51):
over there for Ian and Judy. I'm Tom will see it.
Happy holidays everyone, and welcome inside with the Insiders alongside
Judy Batissa and Ian Rapaport, I'm Tom Pellicero. This is
a Monday podcast edition of the show. If you are
new to this aspect of what we do, it's two
part podcast. You also might be watching on fast streaming
(00:28):
platforms and on YouTube, in which case it's all in
one place. If you're on the podcast, well, there's again
multiple parts to this, so we hope that you take
in all of it. As usual on Mondays, we dive
into everything that we saw from the Sunday that was
and today. That means starting out heavily on the injury front,
because there was a span of time yesterday when it
(00:49):
seemed like superstar players were essentially an endangered species on
the field. No injury bigger and no storyline frankly bigger
across the NFL. Then Patrick Mahomes suffering a torn acl
moments before his replacement, Gardner Minshew throws an interception that
seals the Chiefs missing the playoffs. To put that into context,
(01:14):
not only had the Chiefs been to three straight Super Bowls,
they've been to seven consecutive conference championship games. Every year
Patrick Mahomes has been the quarterback. They hadn't missed the
playoffs since twenty fourteen. Judy, it all comes crashing down
on the same day that Patrick Mahomes now suffers an
injury that potentially could imperil even his availability at the
(01:35):
start of training camp at the start of the twenty
twenty six NFL season. Take me through all aspects of
this from the Chiefs perspective and really more broadly too,
what it means for an AFC that they've dominated for
the better part of a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, I mean, all injuries are terrible. Some are even
more terrible than that, and this is one of those.
It's always awful when a major star suffers a big injury.
It's awful for the league, it's awful for all fans, right,
I mean, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are the biggest
draw in the NFL right now, even bigger than the
(02:11):
Dallas Cowboys, and so for him to go down is
huge and imperil the start off next season, and obviously
for them to miss the playoffs is huge because it
opens up let's just start with that. It opens up
the AFC. I mean, who burrows not in it Mahomes
is not in it. Josh Allen, it appears, is going
to be in it, and he is certainly the most
(02:33):
accomplished of the quarterbacks who are very likely to be
in it. We'll see if Lamar and the Ravens make it,
but the AFC is wide open without Mahomes in there. Listen,
I mean, we all watched the Chiefs all season and
they were never right. The offense was never right. But
you kept thinking, I kept thinking, he's got They're gonna
(02:54):
pull this out somehow, right, Like he's gonna he will
pull it together. He and Kelsey will do something like
they will manage he will drag them on his back
into the playoffs. And to have that not happen and
then you know, to now have this shadow them the
entire offseason and going into next season, Like, will he
be able to run and move the way he has
(03:17):
in the first part of his career after an ACL,
I don't know. I mean Tom Brady was dominant after
his ACL injury, but Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Was not the same. But it took a year a
while exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It took a while for him to look right and
he got hurt obviously much earlier in the season than
Mahomes did. So certainly you've got to look at now
the twenty twenty six season and say, what's he going
to look like and what will he look like, you know,
going forward for the rest of his career. It's it's
just such a bummer, such a bumper.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
The Brady comparison is an interesting one because it does
a little bit feel like, you know, like on all
the shows, including Game Day Morning, there's the debate of
like is the Chiefs dynasty over and you could say, like, well,
you know, are they the dominant team in the AFC?
They're not, so like is it over? Like maybe?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
But the Patriots have felt like had two dynasties. They
had like the early one and then they had the one.
So basically it was like dynasty.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
I showed up to cover him, they had a little
bit of a break, and then they had the dynasty
again after that, which is you.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Know, even during that time they were going to the playoffs, right,
I mean you know they they didn't, Yes, right, I
mean they were going to playoffs and even going to
the AFC Championship game.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Yes, right, that that is true. But they also the
year I remember is the two thous.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
I mean, I remember all of them, but the twenty
ten year, which was my first year on the beat,
and I didn't know anything about Tom Brady. I had
just been covering Missippi State then Alabama, and I knew
a little bit about the NFL, but not a ton
and everyone revered Tom Brady.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
And then he gets there and.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
For the first like six weeks of the season, I
was kind of like, is this this is it? Like
he looks okay, but he was like a mid level
quarterback at that time, and the stats kind of back
it up and he looked okay. And then you get
into like November and his knee starts getting really fully healthy,
gets back to one hundred percent, and then you're like,
all right, I get it, And I just wonder if
(05:10):
Mahomes with a similar timeline would sort of face that
same thing. Now, Brady was injured earlier, but obviously had
a more complicating injury. We think we don't know details
and Mahomes yet, but then went on that like next run,
and you would hope as the Chiefs reboot, that's kind
of what they're gearing for. It was so interesting for me,
(05:30):
Tom is like this whole year everyone sort of said
the same thing, including me, like, yeah, they're probably gonna
be fine. And we also said about Mahomes like every
time he's down, anytime he had he had a left
knee injury for like a month, it was.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Like, he'll probably be fine.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Well, he is not fine, and they are not fine.
And I'm really curious to see where the next step
is here the.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Tom Brady comparison to if I'm not mistaken, I believe
the first graft acl graft failed for him. He might
have used to condemn it.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
There was a was an infection or an infection.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
But essentially they had to redo the surgery and get
the kneeback. So that's part of the reason that was
impacted here. For Patrick Mahomes, he's notoriously been a fast healer.
I mean, he's a guy who can dislocate.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's hardly yeah, right back out there, right.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I Mean, the dissocated kneecap is probably the most significant one.
But he's had high ankle springs, He's had all kinds
of stuff. He just always plays and so you wonder,
you know, he's a little older, he's still not old.
I mean, we just saw forty four year old Philip
Rivers start a game yesterday, which we'll talk about a
little bit later on. But he is older in his career,
and so yeah, how does the body bounce back? Even
More broadly, though, beyond Patrick Mahomes, you really have to
(06:38):
wonder what does this Chiefs team look like in twenty
twenty six. The last time that they, you know, lost
a big playoff game was against the Bengals back in
twenty twenty I believe twenty twenty one, right, twenty twenty one.
After that season was when they decided we need to
really rebuild the team. They traded Tyreek Hill to clear
(06:59):
a whole bunch of cap space. That was because Tyreek
had seen the puffed up numbers on a Devonte Adams
contract and decided he wanted the same amount of money,
and so then he blew his way.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I appreciate, I appreciate you left some part of that out.
What Tom means to say is he saw the puffed
up numbers that I reported on Davante Adams contract, and then.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, you reported it was a twenty eight million dollar
a year deal. It turns out it was twenty two
million dollars a year in terms of real money so
then Tyreek wanted thirty and he got a deal in
Miami that was really twenty five but looked like thirty
on paper.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
And there was the whole generation of receiver contracts that
were puffed up.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
But now they're back to normal anyway.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yes, but bottom line, they made a very At the time,
it was it was a shocky move. I remember when
we first reported that they were going to trade him,
and then by the end of the day they'd gone
back and forth with the Jets and the Dolphins. They
end up trade him to Miami, but they knew what
I was.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Doing that day. Do you remember what I was doing
that day?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Were you skiing? I'm taking a wild guess?
Speaker 4 (07:53):
No, even better, I was leaving Spike Lee's studio after.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
The documentary that never aired for the.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Don Kaepernick documentary that never aired.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yes, all right, we're going to leave that right there.
But that was very intentional because they looked at it
as we need to rebuild the defense, we need to
rebuild the offensive line. We can save twenty five million
dollars a year and get a first round pick and
more for Tyreek Hill. So that was like a point
where they went, all right, let's really reboot this thing.
If you're thinking, Judy about the Chiefs moving forward here,
(08:24):
you've got certainly a big question about Travis Kelcey, who
did not look like Travis kelce most of the year.
The will is still there. I think. I don't think
that Travis Kelcey has lost the passion to play football,
but he doesn't look the same. He just doesn't seem
to have the same burst. He's had dropped passes, He's
obviously expressed frustration. You have to wonder have we seen
(08:44):
you know, he's got three games left, but the last
to Travis Kelcey, you've got Rashid Rice, who's like the
guy that you want to build around. He's had obviously
some issues personally that have taken him off the field,
but he also he didn't play great the last few games.
You know, he had a bunch of key dropped passes. Defensively,
us Jones is getting older. My question to you, Judy
is how deep do you think the changes go for
(09:06):
the Chiefs in twenty twenty six. Knowing that your core players,
which has been Kelsey, Mahomes and Chris Jones are all
getting older and the youngest of the group Mahomes now
is coming off of a major injury.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Well, I think whatever they project Mahomes to be like
in twenty twenty six, right, whenever he has the surgery,
and presumably that will tell them and eventually us more
about how long the recovery is going to be, right,
how bad is the injury, what's going to be involved?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
That you would think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Would sort of shape their approach to the off season. Now,
Kelsey is a separate thing, Right, is he going to retire?
You know, that's a separate issue. You're right, though many
many other of their star players did not look the
way they should have been looking this year. Chris Jones
had games where you know, you didn't hear his name,
he was not a fact. Or Rashie Rice is we've
(10:02):
obviously gone over that. So they have big decisions at huge,
huge positions. And I think, whenever we learn about what
Mahomes is going to look like in twenty twenty six,
if twenty twenty six is going to be like, listen,
we're not going to have Patrick Mahomes for the entire
first month of the season. He's not going to be right.
We know it takes players generally time when they have
(10:23):
major injuries to work their way back into form. Do
they I'm not saying that they take a pass on
twenty twenty six, but you know, do they say like,
all right, this is I don't want to put it
that way, but like a rebuilding trying to reboot.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yes, this is to kind of have a transition here.
You can still try, but without course kind of leveraging
everything that the same way that they have right like.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They're you know, they are probably not going to look
at twenty twenty six and say we're we're this close.
We're going to go for it, you know, if Mahomes
comes out of the surgery and they know Mahomes is
not going to be himself at the start of the season.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So a team that is still in playoff position, although
they dropped to the seven seed yesterday, I and the
Packers also suffer as big of an injury as you're
going to get for a non quarterback in the NFL. Michaeh.
Parsons goes down in that game. You could tell based
on his reaction. You could tell, based on how the
knee bent on what looked like an otherwise normal step,
that this was something really serious. We now have confirmation
(11:23):
he's out for the season. He's also going to be
pushing up against twenty twenty six, but more immediately, green
Bay is in the thick of this thing. Just tell
me what we know of Mike's injury, just kind of
the impact on green Bay moving forward.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, you could you know,
you want to wait for the MRI to figure out
what's wrong, but that was one you could tell pretty quickly.
I mean the camera zoom is then on his face
and he says, I'm out, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I mean, that's what That's what it looked like. He knew.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
MRI has confirmed it is a torn acl you know,
he'll have surgery as soon as is possible and as
soon as is healthy, which as we know, is not
always right away. And he is out for nine months
or more so similar time on as mahomes, except different positions,
so maybe an even more challenging timeline. You know, that
puts him right at the start of September. Could he
(12:07):
miss the start of the season as he gets fully healthy.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
For sure he could.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Now he posts posts on Twitter, you know, the the
lion picture with word September, which is awesome, and he
should absolutely keep shooting for that.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
We know that is not always reality.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
And I will say this, and this is I don't
really do very many hot takes.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
It's not really my thing.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I always thought that the Packers didn't need Micah Parsons.
They got him, and he's awesome, but I don't know
that they need him. He was more a luxury for
this really good defense. I still think they're going to
be very good. I think the offense is getting better,
not worse, with the weapons that they have that are
kind of in the mix a little bit. I think
(12:53):
Green Bay is going to be okay. Not much of
a hot take, but I don't. I don't know, Judy
that this takes me off. Like the Packers are Super
Bowl contender.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It stings.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
They're gonna have to get it from other places. But
I do think they're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Right, They're going to have to generate pressure from other places.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Now, Yes, I think.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
I mean, look, I think they're going to make the
playoffs for sure. Can they Can they make a very
deep run in the NFC without Michael Parsons?
Speaker 3 (13:25):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I don't know that I feel as confident about that
as as you do. Like I'm not sure. I feel
very confident about them, you know, taking down the Rams
or the Seahawks or whoever.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
It's going to be.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Without their superstar pass rusher, it's going to put and
it's going to put the onus on the defense to
come up with ways to generate pressure, and it's going
to put the onus on the offense to score score
score score score.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Uh you know that is That's what it's going to be.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Jeff Affley's got to earn his paycheck. I mean, he's
been one of the best defensive coordinators in the league.
Now you're kind of going back to where you were before.
So it is gonna be on you know, the likes
of Sean Gary, Lucas van Ness, who's finally re I
mean it's been a brutal season for him. But the
way that they can use him inside and outside, you
know some of that, you know half of They'll have
a plan. This is obviously not ideal in any regard.
(14:16):
They did also real quick too. Ian Christian Watson reported
not a serious injury, which is big because Watson impacts
a lot of different things in terms of how they
play offense. Fot.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I mean, yeah, he is like, definitely one of my
favorite players and one of the most fun to watch.
He goes down with another injury and you're like, oh
my god, Seriously, he was just out for like half
the year, so.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I think he's gonna be okay.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
Well he played this week, I'm not sure, but it
was described to me as more day to day than
anything else, which, considering what it looked like and the
fact that they're going to need him, very very helpful.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And it's a short week Saturday against the Paars, a
rematch thirteen days after Green Bay got the win at
lambeau Field. So we'll see about the turnaround on watch. Well,
i'll see the turnaround of Adams. Rams played Thursday night
against Seattle, maybe the biggest Thursday night game of all time.
I'm not even trying to speak in hyperbole. You can
see when he grabbed the hamstring, it looked really bad.
(15:11):
But Sean McVay said DeVante was optimistic after the game.
Hard to imagine you're playing four days after a legit
hamstring poll like it looked like here, but sounds like
some optimism. He may not be out in the long term.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
We'll be back with more from the insiders.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
The Rams became the first team in the NFC to
punch their playoff ticket yesterday. The Broncos, by virtue of
that win over the eventually Michael Parsons list Packers became
the first AFC team to get in. And beyond that,
Judy I would fairly say we have relative chaos across
the count even in the AFC West. The Broncos still
(15:48):
have not wrapped it up. The Chargers right now are
just a couple of games back still times with three
weeks to go. Just to run down the various things
that happened yesterday. So the Broncos beat the Packers, it's
just the AFC rally from twenty one points down to
beat the Patriots in.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
That was crazy.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
As big of a regular season win as you're going
to get through the course of the season. We know
the Bills are beating the Chiefs in the past, but
this was for their own division that they are the
perennial winners. This would have been it. Patriots would have
clinched the division instead, all of a sudden, it's competitive.
You had Jayguars and Texans winning. You had the Chargers
of course eliminating the Chiefs. The Ravens shut out the
(16:28):
Bengals to stay afloat. They're a half game back entering
Monday Night football as we record this. And then you
have the Colts who are still alive with some big
games to go, including Monday Night against the forty nine
ers with Philip Rivers at quarterback. Judy, you sign it up.
You're looking at the standings right here. What do you
make right now in the state of the AFC?
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Just pandemonium? Pandemonium. The first of all, the Broncos impressed
me because they came back from a deficit. Their defense
has been at that top, top level that it had
been earlier in the season in the last few weeks.
But the offense has picked it up. Bone Nix played
his best.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Game I think as a pro yesterday.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I think we can say so they're sort of coming
along on the offensive side of the ball, which was
what my concern was about them, you know, six weeks ago,
but of course everything changes in the NFL from week
to week, so six weeks is a lifetime ago. So
but I mean, the Bills come back on the Patriots,
I was like, what the heck is going out? First
of all, when they went down twenty one nothing. I
(17:31):
thought like, Wow, the Patriots are awesome, and then oh,
this took a turn, so that.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Was I guess.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I still expect the Patriots to win the division, but
that was a really impressive victory by the Bills.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Can we talk?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Are we going to talk about Philip Rivers? Because that
was just the favorite story of the week.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
He was fine, He was fine.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
All the people who predicted doom and he was going
to die out there and this is a good okay.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But hold on now, hold fine is a relative term.
I give Shane styke In a ton of credits for
the game plan. He is avery time a rusher got through.
I was stressed out? Can I there is why? Let
me explain why? Because a lot of the people commenting
on sports, for better or worse, are middle aged, and
(18:21):
I think all of us can imagine, all right, what
if we went out there?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Would we make it?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
And so I really think Judy that was all the
commentary was like, Hey, Philip Rivers is my age. If
I had to go face the SEATA pastors, I might die,
So therefore he might die.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
But I was struck by the number of former players,
So former NFL players who know exactly what NFL players
feel like on the day after a game. They were
the ones who were saying, this is going to be
a disaster. There is no way this is going to work.
He's not going to make it off the field. So yes,
I agree. Every time a rusher got anywhere near him,
I was like, oh, you know, it was fine. He
(18:58):
put them in position to win the game, right. He
made the most important pass of the day was that
third down pass to get them into field goal range
to give them the lead, which they then seated. I mean,
he was fine. I don't know what's going to happen
in the next few weeks, whatever. It was good for him,
and I loved his comments after the game about like
(19:19):
take a chance, like you know, like what are you
doing sitting on the couch.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Just he got better too as the game went off.
First driver to it just kind of looked like he
was aiming the ball and guiding it. By the end,
it was Philip Rivers. Let it rip now again when
there'd be a rusher and he'd kind of take those
two steps backward like, oh my god, get the ball
out of my hands. Now. Those are the ones that
make you nervous. You know, I think he averaged like
four yards and change per attempt. It wasn't like he
(19:45):
was goind it, but that was never going to be
the case. It was get us in the right play
the first two Snapsey and from scrimmage you see Philip
moving somebody in motion, adjusting and to hand off to
Jonathan Taylor. He's doing those things at the line of
scrimmage that you trust him to do. You can put
all on his plate. He just can't ask him to
drop back thirty five forty times and go win you
a game, all right.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I have three things to say.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
One, I remember when I went to visit the San
Diego Chargers and I ended up meeting Frank Reich for
the first time, and.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
We spent a half hour in his office.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
And the whole conversation was on how Philip Rivers was
the best he has ever seen in understanding protection, that
he was the best, and he explained to me, it's like,
here's what this means, and he went in detail about
like why Rivers, with his like amazing brain, is so
good at understanding where rushers are coming from and how
the offensive lineman will adjust. And I thought about that
(20:39):
this week because like that's the most important thing, basically,
make sure he doesn't die. And he did, and I
thought he kept himself out of harm's way, and I
thought he was really good. And my guests, without really knowing,
is that he probably starts again.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Although I wouldn't hate to see Riley Leonard just because
it'd be interesting.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
But certainly put them in position enough to win, almost
almost got it done. I also underestimated how mainstream the
reaction to his story would be, Like people who aren't
football fans last night were like, I gotta watch the
end of Rivers game like that was I thought that
was a very cool thing. And that's like anytime you
(21:18):
can bring this world into like the bigger world, I
think that's really awesome. And then finally on your what
Judy said about the Bills, I always think the absolute
worst thing you could ever do is get up on
the Bills because when Josh Allen gets.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Seriously, they get up twenty or nothing.
Speaker 4 (21:35):
And the first thing I thought I should I don't
tweet during games really my thoughts, but like I should
have tweeted like the Bills got him right where they
want him, because that was my thought. It's like when
they can let loose and play free, and he just
gets to be Superman.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
He is like the best player in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Back to Rivers and the Colts really quickly here. So
they've got San Francisco at home on Monday night. They
then played Jacksonville and he Houston. There is like a
realistic path for them to still get in the Seattle game.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Could they be nine and eight and still get in.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I mean, let's say, realistically, you need to you need
to run the table. I think that realistically, just based
upon where the tiebreakers are, what you would need to do,
getting to eleven is the safest is the safest spot.
I mean, look at the teams up above them here.
You can't count on a wild card. You got to
hope that the Jaguars lose a game and the Texans
lose a game, and you run the table and you
(22:30):
can potentially win the division because again you've got you've
got both those teams still on your schedule. You also
lost to both those teams the first time around, so
it becomes it becomes a complicated type of a calculus.
But as much as that game it would have been
nice to get it as like a you know, it's
almost like a Yesterday was the house money game Judy,
(22:52):
where all right, if you win that game, then all right,
you're you know, you're a great say wow, that was amazing,
But that game was always all right, let's get Philip
Rivers feet wet. Now Monday night football against the forty
nine ers. This is potentially the catalyst for them to
get this thing rolling moving forward. Meanwhile, the Ravens shut
out the Bengals, which there's a lot of layers to it.
(23:12):
I thought Draymond Jones made a comment about basically it
was too cold for him out there. That becomes a
real thing this time of year where maybe some teams
that don't have as good of a playoff shot might
just not want to be on the field as much.
I wouldn't call this a get right game for the Ravens,
but it certainly was good for them to show on
defense that they're capable of putting together that type of
(23:33):
performance because Baltimore's defense this entire year has been a
dart throw in terms of what you're getting from week
to week.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, that has to be a feel good game for
the Ravens coming out of that. For the Bengals, like
first of all, what a weird week for the Bengals,
and like, obviously that performance did absolutely nothing to make
the week better or to make this upcoming week any
better either, right, I mean, Joe Burrow sundce tortured and miserable,
(24:01):
and you know, then he gets up there last night
and says, like, you know, like the worst game he's
ever played, and no team could have possibly won if
I were playing quarterback for them, I mean, why do
they have some work to do in Cincinnati? But that
was a shock. I mean for Joe Burrow, the team
with that much talent, that much offensive talent, to be
shut out, even though the playoffs you know, were such
(24:25):
a distant idea for them still to be shut out
at home with Joe Burrow playing quarterback is astonishing to me.
I couldn't believe. I was not watching much of that
game because I was watching other games, But every time
I looked at that score, I was like, what, you know.
At one point I checked, like, is Burrow out of
the game? Is he healthy?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah? T Higgins is a good player, and he makes
a difference, but he shouldn't make that big of a difference.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
You Well.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
The thing, the thing that I always think about we've
seen so many examples this year, is practice really matters?
Like Joe Burrow is the best and he's been good,
but yesterday really was and like it's so hard to
just miss two months, jump back in and be like,
all right, we're just going to go to the playoffs.
I think he expected that, which is sort of like
(25:08):
my senses. That's why he made some of those comments.
It's like, all right, I'm going to save the day.
And then when he didn't save the.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Day, it's like, all right, why didn't I do all that?
Speaker 4 (25:16):
You know, It's like it's I'm sure mentally it's very hard,
but like practice matters, and like it's really hard to
be really good, and they are not good, and it's
going to.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Be an interesting offseason in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I was I was, honestly not that we should be
surprised by the reaction to anything, but I was a
little surprised by the reaction of Joe Burrow's comments. It's like,
how do you expect him to feel If every year
we talk about Maholmes is going to have a long
rehab process, Burrow does it every year.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Every year.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Every year he's dealing with this and then he comes
back and they're losing, and it's you're trying to hey,
we can be the scrappy team that's four and eight
and slides into the playoffs, like you don't want to
live there, Judy.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
And also like, don't I appreciate his candor? He is
one of the most reserved, guarded That's what you want
we will ever come across. He's also one of the
smartest players you'll ever come across. You want those moments
of candor where he's telling you what he's really feeling,
because he doesn't do it often, and he gave you
a window into what he is thinking. You want that,
(26:14):
And for people, I agree, the reaction was sort of
like almost mocking him, like, oh, you know, he's struggling.
It's like, are you kidding, Like listen to him, like
listen to what he's saying and take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yes, precisely.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And by the way, as we're talking to Shane Sage
did confirm not that there was really any question. Philip
Rivers starts Monday night against the forty nine Ers, which
means we get that on National TV next week. All right,
if you are watching on the NFL channel on fast
streaming platforms. You're watching on YouTube, stay right here. If
you are listening on the podcast, go over to Park two.
We'll talk NFC playoff, picture, and a whole lot more
(26:51):
over there for Ian and Judy. I'm Tom will see it.
Hosts And Creators
Judy Battista
Tom Pelissero
Ian Rapaport
Mike Garafolo
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