January 12, 2024 • 46 mins
With all the recent coaching news, Tim O'Keefe asks how big a difference do coaches really make in professional sports? Also breaking down the #Eagles-#Buccaneers match-up and other #NFL Wild Card predictions.
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For national winners. From a localperspective, You're in the right place.
It's balls, Bats and bets withTim o'kee right here on the Gambler.
It's another Friday. It's NFL PlayoffsFriday. As we come in on balls,
bats and bets. Hi everyone,as always your host Tim o'kee.
Follow me at TKO underscore picks andno shortage of topics this week from Eagles
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playoffs, rest of NFL playoffs.Got some NBA talk, of course,
and the thing I want to openup with spend this first thing went on
coaching and coaches changes. Obviously,this week tons of huge coaching news.
The main three i'll call it bigtwo. It's a big two, and
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then a very very respectable other one. Nick Saban retires, Bill Belichick gone
from the Patriots, and Pete Carrollforced into retirement. I'm going to kind
of do a little question mark.He's still with the organation, but seems
like Pete didn't want to go.Obviously, some huge names here. In
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my opinion, in the opinion ofmany others, Nick Saban the best college
football coach of all time. Thisrun with Alabama is just absurd. I
saw a stat here and I'm goingto tell you a second that really just
knocked me back. I mean,we all know, Hey, the six
titles in seventeen years with Bama forhim, seven is seven total titles for
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me of the one at LSU.That's great. Those are great stats.
Always dominant wins from for out withAlabama from two thousand and eight to twenty
twenty two, he was ranked numberone at some point during every season.
I need you to think about that, they were ranked number one, saying
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hey, at some during some week, could have been preseason two. I
want to make that clear, butthe AP does rankings every single week every
single season. There was a pointwhere everyone had Alabama as the best team
in the country. Not this pastseason, unfortunately, for from twenty twenty
threes on that list, so it'snot this pastor but every season besides that,
at some point people thought Alabama wasthe best team in the country.
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That consistent of consistency and dominance justdoesn't exist in sports. We're never going
to see that again. We're justnot, especially in today's world with nil
and the transfer portal. I thinkto maintain that streak of dominance is going
to be tough because at some pointit's just someone else will write a bigger
check man. Incredible dominance, justabsolutely brilliant, fantastic coach. He's a
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fantastic coach. He's an incredible recruiter, relentless on the recruiting trail. I
remember the I forget which title itwas, quite frankly, but one of
the titles. They were asking himon the sideline or after the game after
he won, like, hey,how's it going? You know how you
feel? What are you going todo next? And he was like,
heh yeah, I'm going to taketonight and celebrate with I think it's Miss
Terry. I think that's his wife, Celebrate Miss Terry. And then then
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tomorrow he's going out and recruiting.He had some offensive tackle or that he
wanted to go see. I don'tknow the position, but you get what
I'm saying. The man, everysingle day he didn't give himself a chance
to celebrate. Now, I'm notsaying that's how you should live your life,
but that makes for a dominant,dominant program if you have somebody that
dedicated that high profile, giving iteverything you got. And he demanded excellence.
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He demanded excellence of himself obviously heldthat standard, but then of his
assistant coaches, of his players,and really Batma for these this past couple
of decades, decade and a half, I guess a little over has been
the epitome of football culture. Inmy opinion, it has. We'll talk
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about the other example in a second, with the other guy who's uh getting
a new job. But Saban wasjust so dominant and right now you could
bet while Tuscaloosa is of course thankfulto him, upset losing him and moving
into a new era, every otherteam in the SEC is saying thank you,
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thank you, it's our time,mate. I mean, Georgia was
the only one that kind of startedto get to him at the end,
but hey, he got the lastlaugh on Georgia won that SEC title game.
And really, if they don't runthat, I mean, I don't
want to say it was a badplay call, because guess what everyone looks
at a play call, and ifit doesn't work, you say, oh
that was terrible. If it works, you say it was great. The
drop the middle with Milroe, itdidn't work. If that worked, I
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think Saban goes out with the title. I really don't when he comes that
close and know what, good forhim though he's getting up there. Believe
he's seventy. I believe he' seventeven No, he's right there. You
got to retire at some point inenjoy life. So congratulations to him,
and it is going to be amuch different college football world now that he's
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gone. The next coach will goBelichick, of course. I mean Belichick
absolutely has led the most dominant stretchof football by any team. Hey did
the Patriots from two thousand through twentynineteen twenty twenty the most dominant two decades
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by a team in NFL history,at least in my opinion. Let me
in the Super Bowl era for sure, I'd have to go back and look
at the Lombardi stats. I knowthat the Packers were incredible, but Super
Bowl era, there's no doubt themost dominant. And I get the Cowboys
had their runs. Forty nine Ershad runs. Steelers had runs. They
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were not what this Patriots team was. Also, the Patriots did in an
era where there was more teams,and it was it was so much more
difficult to stay on top. Itfelt like no other teams held up.
Even when I think like the Cowboysand forty nine ers in the eighties nineties.
They were going against each other,but their their rains didn't last as
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long. They were efficient and gettingtheir titles in, but the rains didn't
last that long twenty years as impressive. Now, granted, the last couple
bad, really bad, quite frankly, and it does open the question to
his legacy, and it's gonna leadinto another topic that I have for tonight,
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but before we get there, I'llbounce back to that in a second.
But Belichick with the Patriots the mostagain in my lifetime, born early
nineties, most iconic head coach associatedwith the team. There's no question about
It's I'm that close and for alot of people even older than me,
that's gonna be the case. Hewas that dominant and it was just an
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incredible era. Lastly, do youwant to give respect to Pekarrol uh Pee
Carroll not in the same category asthose first two guys, but he is
one of only three coaches to winan AP title in college Pee Carroll in
usc and then also win a SuperBowl obviously with the Seahawks. What was
that be twenty thirteen twenty fourteen timeframewhen they won it with Russ that's huge.
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I mean, that's very difficult,and Pee Carroll's had success in this
league for a long time. He'sdone a great job of that Seahawks organization.
Quite frankly, I am a littlesurprised at Seahawks forcing him out.
I think the Seahawks are going togo into rebuild mode. They seem to
be in a spot where they aren'tquite good enough, but they're also not
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bad enough to tank. I thinkthey need to tear it down, you
know, start moving some pieces andgoing to the tank a little bit.
But it sounds like Pete wanted tostay. He's the oldest coach in the
NFL. I get that. Atsome point he's got to move on.
But man, that guy has notseen He's seen seventy two or whatever the
hell he is. He is spry, he's moving around. Look, we
saw him celebrating when he was playingwhen Drew locklo that drive on the Eagles.
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That man does not seem like he'stoo old to be a football coach.
I think it's a little bit ofa mistake by the Seahawks. Probably
would have given it one more year. But I do get it. I
get it a little bit. Atleast. Now I'm gonna go back backwards
over to Belichick, and this leadsme into something that might be a little
bit It's a lot of people aren'tgonna like this statement. Quite frankly,
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this is gonna be a hot take. I think you're either gonna agree with
me or not. But I thinkBelichick is the one of the best examples
of how in professional sports the coachjust really means so much less than what
everyone puts on it. One hundredpercent Belichick again me some people would argue
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the best coach of all time.Without Tom Brady, he's eighty three and
one oh four since it was He'sstill gonna try to keep He's still gonna
keep coaching. I'll get another job. Eighty three and one oh four without
Tom Brady. That's a ton ofgames for some blow five hundred like he
really is. And Belichick had madethe playoffs one time since Brady left.
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In that first year with Mac Jones, they got obliterated by the Bills.
It's really it just feels like anabsolute sham. Almost sham's the wrong word.
But Tom Brady leaves, goes winsa Super Bowl in Tampa with Bruce
arians as his coach. Again,good for Bruce, like you know,
good coach, not Bill Belichick.Belichick all of a sudden, he's useless
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without it, right. And alsoI also say this about the Belichick tenure,
Brady always taking so much less moneythan he should have got at being
the best QB in the league.Huge benefit of that Patriots dynasy, Brady's
Brady taking less money. Really,honestly, I think made that dynasty happen.
They obviously would have won several titles, but that's what really made that
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happen. And before I get peoplesay, oh, well, you don't
know what Brady would be without Belichick, you need to be honest and ask
yourself if in ninety nine when theywent out, Tom Brady's drafted. I
believe I think it's ninety nine,maybe two thousand, if Andy Reid and
the Eagles drafted him the fifth roundagain, because we all know we went
in the sixth round of the Patriotsthe Eagles picked him in the fifth round.
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Are you telling me Tom Brady's stillnot one of the best quarterbacks of
all time? Maybe, look,maybe there is some adjustment that happens,
but you're not telling me that guy'snot going to be great. That's just
a ridiculous statement. The Eagles wouldhave three to four Super Bowls on a
minimum. Again, I'm trying togive Belichick some credit for this year,
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but I really don't know. Forall we know, we might have more.
It's really possible. We'll never know. But the idea that Brady wouldn't
have won in the NFL without Belichickseems crazy to me, especially now that
what we've seen post You know thattwenty nineteen twenty twenty split think I'm crazy.
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I think it's this is across mostprofessional sports. I don't know enough
about hockey coaching oustly to give aninput, so I'll say I'll keep hockey
out of this. But major LeagueBaseball, NBA, NFL. I think
the amount that we talk about headcoaches and how much of an impact they
really have is wild. Now,I think a bad coach, like,
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if you are terrible at your job, you will have a negative impact on
the team that I think you cansee. But I think there are so
many coaches that are average to goodthat just end up becoming great because of
the players they have. Look,I gave you, I gave you my
thoughts on Belichick. Let's jump overto the NBA. Let's go Greg Popovic,
Greg Popovich, Hall of Fame coachright easily not even close what five
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six I think with the Spurs regardas one of the best basketball mines of
this century and last coach Team USA, all right since the twenty nineteen season,
that's when Kawhi left. So Kawhiwas like the last like big star
that they had, really right,because Belich, Eric Belichick, sorry,
Duncan, Genobi and Parker they hadleft before this, Kawhi was like the
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last big star. So twenty nineteenseason is the first season Pavovich has without
Kawhi. That's the last one.He is below five hundred by forty four
games over those five seasons, andso they got nothing but worse. He
did have some talented players, theyhad de Jonte Murray, Larry Walker.
They've had some talent, not elitestar talent like he had before. But
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the Spurs were not like a barrencopboard that were cooked and they've become a
disaster. What are they like sixand twenty they're like next to the Pistons
at the bottom of the standings.They've got a top overall Picknyama. They've
got some talent, but it's adisaster. And now this is also for
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me to say this is not allon Popovich. It's not. But I'm
just saying that a coach, nomatter how good he is, if they
don't have the players, there's nothingthey can do to blame the coach in
these situations. And again, Popovichisn't gonna get fired because of his success
in the past, but his successin the past is driven all by players.
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It's this chicken in the egg andit's kind of like if you got
lucky with players at one point,having great players, then all of a
sudden you're redeemed as this incredible coachand not able to be persecuted for how
bad you have seasons wise, Yetsome coaches takes a job where know what,
guess what, they blew the firstoverall pick. They messed something else
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up. And this is across allsports. They get blamed. The first
person you blame is the coach.It's like, oh yeah, let's mix
it up, get a different voicein there. It's ridiculous. There's nothing
you can do if you don't havethe players. You don't have the players.
I know that coaches help in development. I know that coaches keep the
message on point for the team tostay motivated. I'm not saying they're completely
that they're There's not a use,of course, there's a use when I
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see owners going out and let's takeDavid Tepper. David Tepper going out and
giving Matt Rule before who he'd firedbefore he fired Frank Raich this offseason.
This is the Panthers owner David Teppergive Matt Rule like one hundred million dollars
to come in and be his coachand fired him in like two seasons,
three seasons. Guess what I don't. I don't know if Matt Rule is
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a good or a bad coach.What I do know is he was good
in college. And I think thisis a very different argument with me for
college, mainly because in college,I think recruiting is the biggest deal.
Now we'll see over time if thatchanges with an il it certainly could,
But I think in college it's beingyour head coach matters in more like if
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I if I were to put avalue on it, I think colleges should
be paying their coaches. And thisI'm in this case, I'm mainly talking
uh basketball football, but sure trueto baseball for an extent too. College
coaches are so much more valuable programthan appropriate team. It just is right.
It's all about the players. Andnow again, someone could be terrible
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and that gets noticeable and then youhave to move on. I get that.
It's like terrible with like Brandon Staley, I think is a good example
from the Chargers. Let me giveyou this will be my example how I
mean it. Brandon Staley was amoron going for on fourth down in cases
where he had no business going forit and was just like trying to be
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this trendsetter, like, oh,I'm going more advanced with analytics now,
that made you look like an idiant. You didn't need to go to four
on fourth down on your own twentywhen you're down by three. You didn't
need to do that. Like thatstuff is stupid. So if you do
stupid stuff, you move on.But if it's just hey, it's not
working a little bit with the players, or it's not working over all as
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a team, it's so much moreon the players than it is the coach.
And it just drives me wild howmuch people end up focusing on the
coach when it's literally five percent ofhow a team's going to do. In
my opinion, it's it's important,but it's not not nearly what we all
make it out to be. Likeon these airways, we've all been talking
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about Sirianni all we can all talkabout that moment of the Eagles break down
the next segment and yeah, Iguess what a Sirianni been a great coach?
No, of course the locker room'sa little up and down, really
down, I guess more in recentweeks there's been some drama. He could
be doing a better job of takingcare of that. But the problem is,
for me, the defense is barren. It's a bad defense with players.
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And guess what, there might beproblems with Jalen not nearly being as
good as we thought. Right,Like everyone's reaction is to blame the coach
because it's easier to move on fromthe coach than you know, certain players
to big contracts. And that's whatwe'll do and we'll see. I don't
think again I went over the lastI don't think sirian is getting fired,
but that's where everyone wants to gofirst. And if you think that's going
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to solve this team's problems. Ihate to break to you, it's not
it's not this, it's more onHowie and I'm going too far into the
Eagles, but you get my point. The GM who decides the players is
infinitely more important to me than thecoach across professional sports, and I think
Bill Belichick is the best example ofthis, and we've seen it so recently
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over the last two decades. Withthat, and congratulations to Saban and kind
of Pete Carron retiring great careers,Belichick moving on to the next gig,
and who knows, maybe trying toprove me wrong, but man, there's
just so much out there. Iam I I wanted to do head coaching
Karrosel. With those opening jobs,we'll actually open up with the next segment
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with that, and then we'll getinto the Eagles playoff breakdown. So we're
going to take a quick break hereon balls, Bets and Bets. Stick
with it. We'll be right backafter this. The Gambler, Philly's home
for all things sports gambling, backat it on Friday. Ball's Bets and
bets. Uh. Obviously, Iprobably had anyone who's ever been a head
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coach in their life be mad atme after that last segment. But I'm
sorry, not sorry that that ismy true opinion. But we'll dive into
We're gonna keep going with actually alittle bit of coaching stuff before we dive
into the Eagles, just because youknow, the NFL coaching carousel is in
full swing. Obviously, our firstjob has been filled, actually by one
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of the last jobs that became open, the Patriots. We just went through
Belichick leaving Drod Mayo taking that Patriotsjob as the first head coach to be
picked up in this off season.Uh will be a first time head coach.
Drameo obviously former Patriots player assistant coach. Hey, potentially it will do
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well. I always do find itvery interesting when they hire someone that learned
from the guy leaving, because it'slike, well, why didn't you just
keep the original guy? But sometimesI guess they wanted to change a voice.
It was just that time to drawMayo getting the Patriots job. I
didn't want to go through all thejobs, and I ranked the top three
of attractiveness in my opinion, Ididn't have the Patriots in my top three,
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so it doesn't impact that s list. But let's just read off the
rest of the open coaching jobs,as we just said, New England,
but that's now filled. Atlanta,Carolina, Vegas, the Los Angeles Chargers,
Tennessee, Washington, and Seattle.All those franchises not the best.
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I mean, the Seahawks have probablybeen the most successful of the last decade.
And some of these, all ofthem up and down. But you
do have some destitute franchises there inlike you know, the Commanders and the
Panthers. So some of these aren'tgenerally attractive. But I do my top
three, and actually I guess Ihave said one of them number three.
I have the Commanders as being thethird most appealing job out of this.
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They've done a good job at youknow, realizing this year wasn't their year,
and they shed off. They shedsome players like Montes Sweat, and
they made some other moves trading playersaway, Oh, Chase Young, that's
the other one, to acquire anew draft capital, clear off some money
and get kind of rip that bandaid off. They have a top two
pick in the draft, So ifyou're in on Drake May or potentially Caleb
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Williams, but I think it's likelyDrake May going to that number two slot.
That's that's not a bad option.They have a decent offense, some
decent offensive weapons. I think Dotson'snot bad to Johan Dotson. Terry mclaurin's
slid again, a little up there, but very solid receiver. And the
defense hasn't been great and they movesome pieces. But again you have some
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salary cap flexibility there. I havethe Commanders as the third most attractive job
if I was a potential head coachnumber two. It is, it is.
I was about to say San Diegoand Los Angeles Chargers, Justin Herbert.
It's if you like Herbert right like, that's honestly it if you are
in on Herbert as a head coach, saying, yep, that is a
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stud quarterback. I can make thatwork. I can win with him.
That's so much. Again, Ijust went through the first whole segment saying
how important players are compared to coachesand coaches. I'm sure realize that players
drive their success. If you believein Justin Herbert, that's the most attractive
job. That could be the mostattractive job on this market in a lot
of people's eyes, because Joe,you have the quarterback. If you're in
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on him. I am in onHerbert. I don't look. You never
know if a guy's gonna ever takethat next step and win a Super Bowl.
But I do think the talent's there. I think he's elite armed talent,
the pretty good decision making. Ithink he's had a little bit of
a mess with a pretty bad organizationaround him, but I think he's been
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very solid. So justin Herbert ismade. That's my number two job,
number one job, and my mightsurprise some people. I think the Falcons
are the most attractive job this offseason. They've done a great job at gaining
talent at every position kind of outsideof a quarterback. I think their defense
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is pretty solid. I think theirweapons on offense, you know a Kyle
pitts oh b Jeon Robinson, that'sthe running back Drake London. A lot
of first round talent from the Falcons, and they've shown sparks, Like these
guys are not duds. They've shownsparks. Arthur Smith just seem to be
awful at actually utilizing them. Butthese guys have been very, very say
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aggressive in gathering high end talent downthere in Atlanta, and I think they're
a quarterback away. So if you'rea head coach and you think, you
know, I have a what dothe Falcons have? Probably a top fifteen
pick. I have some decent capflexibilitis. A lot of those guys are
on rookie contracts. If you canattract a quarterback to Atlanta, maybe a
Justin Fields, the Bears are movingon somebody like that. All of a
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sudden, I think Atlanta becomes thebest team in the NFC South, and
quite frankly, I don't know ifit would be that close. I think
Atlanta has a ton of talent.They are missing the quarterback, and Arthur
Smith didn't for some reason, didn'tchoose to utilize the guys with talent.
It was a little weird. That'san example of a bad coaching job right
there, and that's why he's movingon. But I think the Falcons are
the most attractive job on the market, and we'll see. I mean I
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could see a you know, ifBelichick believes he can make a quarterback work
there, if he gets somebody inthere, like a Justin Fields or something
else like that, that might bethe most attractive job. That's if you
think he's the most attractive coach onthe market. In my mind, I
would think he is, but they'relike I like Acton ont let me back
off that I like Vrabel. Ithink Vrabel is the best coach on the
market in my opinion. He's young, a little bit younger than Belichick of
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course, and he seems to bea guy that wins. I know they've
had two losing seasons in a row. I think the ownership in Tennessee is
a little bit of cuckoo. They'vemade some really weird moves and just doesn't
seem to think logically with how theydo things like the aj Brown trade and
things like that. So I kindof think it's more of a Tennessee problem
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than what was Rabel. So Ithink Rabel's the most attractive head coach to
me on the market, But Belichick'sgonna be up there and a lot of
other guys and a lot of othernames you've seen floor around. Ben Johnson
from the Lions is gonna be absolutelya very popular name as well, and
from the Falcons, and I wantto utilize those offensive weapons. That could
be another way that I go.But that's my head coach in Carousel.
I think those are the top threejobs again, I'm a Commander's number three
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charge number two Falcons number one theleast attractive. In my opinion, it
has to be the Panthers. Theownership seems really terrible, not giving guys
a chance to establish some roots.They've traded away assets to get Bryce Young,
who seems like was the wrong pick. I think the Panthers are gonna
be bad for a while. They'vedug They've dug a little bit of their
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own grave here. Someone's going totake the job. Of course, because
NFL money talks and temper is knownto overpay coaches. They're still paying Matt
Rule, They're still paying Frank Wright. So the Panthers are gonna get somebody.
But that's that's a team that's goingnowhere for a little bit. And
I'd also like to say on theRaiders actually jump into them real quick.
They absolutely Mark Davis needs to keepAntonio Pierce. That man deserves to keep
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that job. Give make it takeoff the interim tag. He got those
guys to play down the stretch.Do they make the playoffs? Know?
But they are? They played somuch better than under Josh McDaniels. They've
made this mistake before. Of firingthe interim guy after Gruden, they should
have kept him. Now you havethat chance again. You better keep Antonio
Pierce if you're the Raiders, unlessyou're getting like a Horrball and man,
I forgot to mention Horball and allthis or somebody of that caliber. I
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think you have to keep Antonio Pierce. It better be a blockbuster move if
you're going to get let that mango next over will jump over into the
Eagles. And of course, howdo I put it. I've I was
talking with some friends and this Eagleseason of me kind of feels like,
look, I'm gonna use a movie, so spoilers if you haven't seen it,
but I think it came out likethe sixties, so you've had plenty
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of time. Anyone has seen oldYeller. Right at the beginning of the
movie, it's so much fun.You got Yeller goes in there, fights
off. You know, he's savingthe family. Everyone likes him except the
one the one boy builds a relationshipwith everything's nice and happy, and then
I feel like since that forty nineErs game has been when uh, you
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know Yeller got in the fight.I think it was the bear. I
forget the animal, whatever animal,you know, he fights, and then
you know the slow progression and weget you know, he has the rabies
and things are just geg And Ifeel like the last like month has been
the Eagles have been the Yeller Rabiesperiod where it's just a disaster and we
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know what's coming, we know what'scoming, you know how this has to
end, but man, it's justpainful. And a lot of people.
Look, I've heard a lot ofpeople say, hey, that's want to
get onto the offseason. Let's,you know, put us out of our
misery. I'm not there, butI get it. I get the mindset.
I want the Eagles to win.I want the Eagles to beat the
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Bucks on Monday, and I thinkthey will. And you know, you
might see a lot of people outthere are saying, Tim, you're crazy,
And guess what, I can't evenfully argue with you, because the
way this team's played for last monthand a half, I a little bit
of myself is saying I'm crazy.The line is telling me Eagles favorite on
the road in the playoffs, andalso it's Baker Mayfield in a must win
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game where they had a must wingame last week. They did win against
those Panthers that are hopeless hopelessly lost, and they were able to win.
I think it was nine to nothing, twelve nothing, something like that.
They didn't score a touchdown. Yeah, I guess for their defense shut out
Bryce Young Okay, great, notoverly impressed here, and their offense was
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not able to get anything done againsta bad Panthers. D Am I nervous
about the corners versus the wide receivermatchup? The I am Mike Evans is
a stud. I want slay onhim the whole time, which might leave
us, you know, a weekagainst Godwin and other receivers with Bradbury having
a step up. Yeah, becausewe're not gonna shut them out. I
agree with that. But also Ithink our offense finds a little bit of
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consistency getting back to running the ball. You don't have to have this super
exposive, explosive plays against the TampaBay You just don't to win that game.
Beat him in week three. Obviously, both teams are extremely different.
Tampa's also, I need you needto give them credit in this context.
Tampa has been playing some fantastic footballover the last month. I think they're
like four or five and one Iknow, like I just ripped into them
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last week a little bit for theirperformance and the Panthers, but over all,
the Bucks have been very solid.It still comes down more for me
that the Eagles talent should step up. I know we've been saying this.
I know we've been saying this forever, so please bear with me. We
do have the better offensive line,we have the better quarterback. I think
we have better weapons on offense.Might be close. I think it's that
(29:06):
parts close than people think defense.Defense is probably edged to them, Yeah
it is, But again, Ithink that edge of quarterback with Jalen hopefully
being able to contain the ball andwe get back to running the ball,
and honestly running with Jalen too.Because it's playoff time. I gotta stop
worrying about the you know, thebumps and bruises. We just kind of
win to stay alive. I buyit. I think the Eagles win this
(29:29):
game. My official prediction. Ithink the Eagles offense gets to going.
I go thirty one to twenty,and that's where about we end up.
I think it's a relatively comfortable win. Two scores at the end. It's
a little bit messy in the factthat the Eagles ceiling is still so high
in my opinion based on the talentthey have, but the floor is so
(29:51):
locus. We've seen it for thelast month and a half. I'm not
going to make it a heavy playfor me also out there, for the
gambling folks out there, I can'tmake it a heavy play this based off
on how much variability there is withthis team. But we'll see. We'll
see if Sirianni and Brian Johnson,uh and other folks are able to get
people up and at him. Whichalso going back to keeps rolling back to
(30:15):
coaching, the fact that Brian Johnsonis getting head coaching interviews is wild to
me. I know he's here.I think it was the Panthers, and
maybe he was the Patriots of thePatriots jobs gone now, but there was
another team that was also interested inhim, and I just find that why
outo was the Titans. It wasdefinitely the Titans. I don't know what
(30:36):
you've seen out of that guy tomake you think that, yep, that's
the guy I want run of myteam. When the play calling on the
Eagles have been has been a disaster, like it really has, It's been
pretty bad on an example of waysthat coaching can hurt you, but just
absolutely mess But still I think theyfigure it out this weekend. Back back
to this weekend, I think theyfigure it out. Sirianni reportedly could be
coaching for his job, depending onwho you asked. Again, I did
(30:59):
a whole segment on this last week. Feel free to go back and listen
on the FOXHL Gambler dot com.But I can't imagine that he's actually coaching
for his job. I mean,unless you lose by like forty, then
fine, then may we have tohave a conversation. But even if the
Eagles were to lose this game,Siriani has made the playoffs in three years,
each year made a Super Bowl.There's no way that I can fire
(31:21):
this guy. There's just absolutely noway. Doesn't make sense to me.
With that, we're gonna take aquick break. We're gonna do a full
NFL kind of my bracket preview ofwhere I see the NFL's playoffs going.
I know a lot of people dobracket polls. I'll give you my full
prediction as we go through that.No, it's an NFL for the rest
(31:42):
of the day. NFL Playoffs comingback. We'll be back on Balls,
Bats and Bets right after this spreadstotals and all the prop bets in between.
It's the Gambler third and final segmenttonight here on Fox Sports Gambler,
Balls, Bats and Bets. Andagain, like I mentioned right before break,
I'm going to go through every singleplayoff game this weekend, give you
(32:05):
what I think to watch out for, give you a pick in each game,
and I'll also kind of go throughthe way I see, you know,
the full NFL playoffs shaping up.Give you kind of my January Madness
bracket if you want to have it, if you want to call it that,
and that'll help us, you know, make some predictions for going forward.
(32:27):
So let's start it off. Iwant to go in order of the
way the games will be played thisweekend. So starting off with the Browns
and Texans. Texans obviously exciting wayto get into the season with that kind
of winner, and in on Saturdaynight beating the Colts in them with the
Jags losing, Texans actually get ahome game for CJ. Spertroud's first playoff
action in the NFL. Exciting funteam. The Texans are like they have
(32:51):
been fantastic this year. Jamiko Ryansgreat job. C J. Stroud is
a phenomenal, phenomenal talent, quarterbackWill Anderson Junior on defense, other great
Nicocollins. They've had a lot ofguys step up. They're a young squad.
They're gonna be fun for a longtime. That being said, I'm
(33:12):
going with the Browns in this one. The Browns Joe Flacco, say what
you want about him. He hasbeen elite for the last month and a
half. The guy has had alittle bit of a resurgence. That Cleveland
team is set up what their offensiveline is very solid, their defense is
probably best in the NFL in myopinion, quite frankly, right there with
(33:32):
the forty nine ers. I thinkthe Texans are going to struggle. I
think, especially with Cleveland essentially havinga bye last week, they didn't play
anybody that they really didn't need.They were already locked into their slot.
I think that makes that a verytough situation for this Texans team. Especially
there's more playoff experience on the Brownside there just is Texans are a young
(33:52):
squad. My prediction, I'll goBrowns twenty Texans thirteen. Favorite playing that
game obviously you can tell it's anunder by the score. My real favorite
play is the Texans team total undertwenty and a half. That's too many
points for the Texans. That's toomany points. I love CJ. Stroud,
I love Nico Collins. I thinkDevin's singletary has been very solid at
running back for them filly in thisyear. Yet they're they're not Miles Garrett's
(34:15):
going to get after it. Thecornerbacks on the Browns outclass the Texans receivers.
This is I think the Texans aresstruggle to score, so under twenty
and a half team total for theTexans will be my play in that one.
Next, the Saturday night game,the streaming game, which just annoying.
NFL stopped trying to throw it downour throats that say, oh,
(34:36):
you're part of history. No stopit, just stop it. Let's put
it on cable too. Don't weknow you got paid a ton and that's
why it's only streaming. We knowit. Chiefs Dolphins though games going to
be freezing in Kansas City. TheDolphins historically struggle in those snaries. Granted
all are all the players the same, of course not, but Tua has
not traditionally been good in the cold. Again, from Hawaii, it's a
(35:00):
little tough, and then he goesto Miami and Alabama before that, not
a ton of experience in the cold. Quite frankly, that's just the truth
of it. It's also Patrick mahomesin the playoffs at home, so he
has his home game before you allhave to go on the road for the
first time. I guess most likely, I guess there is a scenario where
he is not on the road inthe second round, but very likely he
(35:20):
is on the road in the secondround. I am going Chiefs twenty seven
Dolphins seventeen. Fair playing that onestraightforward, Chiefs minus four. I think
the Chiefs are a very well builtdefensive team. I think they'll have an
idea of how to slow down theDolphins offense, especially in that cold.
Yeah, I think it's a prettyconvincing Chiefs win double digits there. Next
(35:42):
up the Sunday one o'clock game,freezing temperatures, high wins up in Buffalo.
I look, Mike Tomlin is adouble digit dog. I can't go
against it. I think it's alittle too many points in Lasso songs at
eleven. I don't think Steelers havemuch of a shot in this one.
I think it's low scoring. Ithink these teams are duking it out,
(36:04):
running the ball, being careful withit. The only way that Bills lose
this is if Josh Allen throws itaway. That's the ostrae. Josh Allen
would have to throw it away,and they're going to prevent that and play
a little bit of conservatively with Buffalobecause they can. They don't need to
running gun Mason Rudolph and company arenot going to light the scoreboard up.
I'm gonna go Bills twenty, Steelersten favorite picking that one under thirty six.
(36:27):
It's low total for a reason,Folks, low total for a reason.
I think it's a convincing Buffalo win, but low scoring. With those
wins, the next up I got, we got Packers and Cowboys. That
is the four o'clock ish star timeon Sunday. Might be my least interesting
game for the weekend. I thinkit is a really good wildcard slate.
(36:50):
I guess Steelers Bills is a littleless interesting, but Cowboys at home,
they've been dominant. We've heard itall regular season long. I think they
want to during the regular season intheir own building. I think the Cowboys
do get it done here. Iknow it's the Mike mccarthur revenge game.
He's going back up against the Packers. I've liked what I've seen out Jordan
Love and the Packers having some fight. I think this this is my least
(37:15):
confident game. I will say downon what the Alchemist, but I will
go. I'll say Cowboys twenty seven, Packers fourteen, and they take care
of business there. Ceedee Lamb toget a touchdown. That's my favorite play,
and it's just because Ceedee Lamb hasbeen that good this year. I
think Dak's going to easily find himin the end zone for that. So
that's my play in that one.Next up, Rams and Lions, your
(37:36):
Sunday night game. Probably the mostexciting game for me this weekend. Matthew
Stafford returned to Detroit. I thisis too well. One franchise that's won
Super Bowl recently, another franchise thathasn't hosted a playoff game in thirty years.
I do think Detroit will be rockingand rolling. Dan Campbell's maybe my
favorite coach in the NFL. I'mnot saying he's the best, but he
(37:58):
is just the most electric, enterthating voice that they have out there.
I'm a big fan of what he'sdone with that squad. Unfortunately, though,
I do think McVeigh company have beenplaying great. The Rams have been
on fire. I think Stafford goeshome and Stafford wins the first playoff game
in Detroit in thirty years with theRams over his old team shootout game thirty
(38:22):
five thirty one, Rams get itdone again. I think that's going to
be our best game of the weekend. With a lot of people having off
Monday. That's a Sunday night gamethat I will not be missing out on
for sure. Playing there, Ramsplus three straight and simple. I think
the Rams get it done and thenEagles Bucks. I did already give you
(38:42):
my Eagles prediction, so thirty oneto twenty, I do want to highlight
I think we do have a prettybig game out of a J. Brown.
I've been thinking that for a while. It just feels due for him
and Jalen to just lock it inand you know, dominate a game.
Honestly, so, I think AJBrown is probably in for a big game,
maybe a breakaway catcher two Bucks,Sorry Eagles thirty one Bucks twenty pick
(39:07):
simple Eagles minus three. That andnow I told you we're gonna go through
the whole playoff bracket. So nowfast forwarding these games. I obviously don't
have lines out for yet because they'rehypotheticals, but the way I just predicted
it, your second round matchups wouldbe uh forty nine Ers, Rams,
Eagles, Cowboys, Ravens, Browns, and Chiefs Bills. I'll start.
(39:30):
I'm just gonna go in that order, start with the nfc H forty nine
Ers versus the Rams. It's atough one. It is honestly a tough
one. It's called I think theRams are the team that if anyone's going
to surprise the forty nine ers andget them, I think it's them.
I honestly that they're familiar with eachother. The forty nine Ers will have,
(39:53):
in essence, had three weeks sincethey've played a meaningful game because they
were already locked in in Week eighteen, they would have had a buy.
Now they're coming up and they haveto play the Rams team that's if they
stay healthy, been one of thehottest teams in the NFL. I think
the Rams might sneak up here.I am going to take the Rams with
the spread that part, I canpromise you. I'll say the forty nine
(40:15):
Ers eke it out squeak By,and that's that they get to win there.
So I'll say the forty nine Ersbeat the Rams. In that case,
Eagles versus Cowboys again something that weyou know, most years would love
to hear in the playoffs. Ithink the cautiousness would be absolutely with the
Eagles fans going into that one basedon what happened last time. These two
faced call me crazy, I willsay, I think there's a revenge factor.
(40:39):
There's a if the Eagles do beatthe Bucks, now all of a
sudden, they got some pride rolling. I can see it where the Eagles
win this game. And dear God, I am not going to pick the
Cowboys over the Eagles in the playoffgame physical I might just burst into flames
if I do so. In thatcase, I will take the Eagles to
advance over the Cowboys in this.In my brea, I could here Ravens
(41:00):
versus Browns similar to a it's reallysimilar matchup to what we have with the
forty nine Ers versus the Rams,where the Ravens will not had a meaningful
game in three weeks. The Browns, one of the hottest teams in football,
had a buy but now not twoweeks off of bye. I really
(41:20):
I think the Browns win this againLamar's he has won a playoff game,
but we've seen teams be able toclose down on running quarterbacks in the playoffs.
I think the Browns are the perfectteam to do it. I think
this would be a really rough spotfor the Ravens, and I'm going to
take the Browns. I think theBrowns advance out of here in that slot.
I think the Ravens get knocked outearlier than they hoped in their playoff
(41:42):
run. Chiefs and Bills would beour last match that would almost certainly,
in my opinion, be the Sundaynight primetime mahomes first road playoff game would
have to be going up to Buffalo. The Chiefs haven't had it all together
all year. They just haven't.In the Bills, they found it in
the second half. They've been dominant. I think Josh Allen gets his w
over Mahomes here a little payback forthose playoff duels a couple of years back.
(42:07):
But Buffalo is too much firepower KansasCity's defensive team, and I think
they'll be held a little bit morein check, which might actually help them
because Mahome is a little more carefulwith the ball if you keep it a
lower scoring game. But I stillthink the Bills will have a little too
much firepower, and their defense hasalso been really solid. So I will
take the Bills Overio in that scenario. That would make your NFC and AFC
(42:28):
title games respectively, forty nine Ersversus Eagles in San fran and the Browns
versus the Bills up in Buffalo.Start with my NFC prediction there. That's
where the Eagles are done. Icannot see them being that forty nine ers
team. They're too complete. They'revery good at what the Eagles are not.
They're great at running at the Eagleshave not been good at stopping the
run. I think that's a majorproblem. So the forty nine ers would
(42:52):
be the Eagles there and Browns Bills. I'm telling you, part of me
does want to take the Browns,really does. I will take the Bills
to come out of this scenario.Josh Allen will makes his first Super Bowl
up in Buffalo. Playoff Flacco hasslowed down. I think it's an ugly,
beat them up type of game thatthe Bills just have a little more
(43:13):
edge, especially with that home comingout there. So that would mean your
Super Bowl for my prediction, fortynine Ers versus the Bills. I honestly
do feel very confident putting I havea future in on that matchup. Whether
the rest of the bracket's right,who knows. But I really do believe
that that matchup. I think thatmatchup happens, I really do. I
think it's a very I haven't feltthat this confident since a couple of years
(43:36):
ago and I picked Bengals Rams SuperBowl. That was a beautiful payout,
huge numbers. This one less oddsfor sure, but I got it.
I think five to one, fiveand a half to one for the forty
nine Ers and Bills to be ourSuper Bowl matchup. I hate to say
because I hate this team. Ithink the forty nine Ers are the most
complete team. I think it's goingto be really tough to kick them off
(43:57):
their high horse and get the Billsbeat them. I think it could be
a really good game, might comedown to the end of it. With
Josh Allen sadly maybe throwing a pickand trying to be aggressive and a comeback.
I think the forty nine Ers aregoing to be your super Bowl champs,
and it's going to sting. It'sgoing to hurt because I hate that
team. I really do. Ihate that team, but that's this nature
of the Beast. They are themost complete team, and honestly, I
(44:21):
think the most dangerous game for themis that first round matchup with the Rams.
Should I have this right or sayit would be the divisional round for
them their first playoff game. That'swhen you can catch them sleep. That's
when you can catch them sleep andNA see there's a chance that the Eagles
are playing there, So that wouldbe the chance that if the Eagles have
any chance, I'd want to catchthem then. But I think this forty
nine Ers team goes on wins theSuper Bowl. I'm not going to put
(44:43):
a future in the next it willhurt me, but I do a future
in on the exact matchup for Billsforty nine ers. So again, just
recap all those NFL games again thisweekend. Let me do the recaps of
those for playing each game. Texansteam total under twenty and a half Dolphins
versus Chiefs. Give me the Chiefsminus four, Steelers Bills give me under
(45:04):
thirty six. Packers, Cowboys ceedeelamb gets it, gets in the end
zone. Rams versus Lions, giveme the Rams plus three and Eagles Bucks
give me Eagles minus three. AndI'm gonna leave you with this one last
little bit of messaging. Yeah,it has this Eagle season been frustrating as
hell. Of course it has.Of course it has. It's been probably
(45:24):
the worst season I remember making theplayoffs quite frankly the way we've limped into
this. That being said, rememberthere's a ton of garbage franchises out there
that don't make the playoffs. Lookat the Let's look at the Lions.
They haven't had a home playoff gamein thirty years. Again on this weekend.
Guess what, Even though it's frustratingthe way this team has been,
(45:45):
let's appreciate playoff football. Get behindthe boys, let's root it up,
let's try come on, build itup, and get excited. We got
Eagles playoffs coming down. Monday nightfootball. Let's go Birds. I'll talk
to you next week, hopefully previewinganother Eagles game. Talk to u
For national winners. From a localperspective, You're in the right place.
It's balls, Bats and bets withTim o'kee right here on the Gambler.
It's another Friday. It's NFL PlayoffsFriday. As we come in on balls,
bats and bets. Hi everyone,as always your host Tim o'kee.
Follow me at TKO underscore picks andno shortage of topics this week from Eagles
(00:25):
playoffs, rest of NFL playoffs.Got some NBA talk, of course,
and the thing I want to openup with spend this first thing went on
coaching and coaches changes. Obviously,this week tons of huge coaching news.
The main three i'll call it bigtwo. It's a big two, and
(00:45):
then a very very respectable other one. Nick Saban retires, Bill Belichick gone
from the Patriots, and Pete Carrollforced into retirement. I'm going to kind
of do a little question mark.He's still with the organation, but seems
like Pete didn't want to go.Obviously, some huge names here. In
(01:07):
my opinion, in the opinion ofmany others, Nick Saban the best college
football coach of all time. Thisrun with Alabama is just absurd. I
saw a stat here and I'm goingto tell you a second that really just
knocked me back. I mean,we all know, Hey, the six
titles in seventeen years with Bama forhim, seven is seven total titles for
(01:30):
me of the one at LSU.That's great. Those are great stats.
Always dominant wins from for out withAlabama from two thousand and eight to twenty
twenty two, he was ranked numberone at some point during every season.
I need you to think about that, they were ranked number one, saying
(01:56):
hey, at some during some week, could have been preseason two. I
want to make that clear, butthe AP does rankings every single week every
single season. There was a pointwhere everyone had Alabama as the best team
in the country. Not this pastseason, unfortunately, for from twenty twenty
threes on that list, so it'snot this pastor but every season besides that,
at some point people thought Alabama wasthe best team in the country.
(02:21):
That consistent of consistency and dominance justdoesn't exist in sports. We're never going
to see that again. We're justnot, especially in today's world with nil
and the transfer portal. I thinkto maintain that streak of dominance is going
to be tough because at some pointit's just someone else will write a bigger
check man. Incredible dominance, justabsolutely brilliant, fantastic coach. He's a
(02:46):
fantastic coach. He's an incredible recruiter, relentless on the recruiting trail. I
remember the I forget which title itwas, quite frankly, but one of
the titles. They were asking himon the sideline or after the game after
he won, like, hey,how's it going? You know how you
feel? What are you going todo next? And he was like,
heh yeah, I'm going to taketonight and celebrate with I think it's Miss
Terry. I think that's his wife, Celebrate Miss Terry. And then then
(03:10):
tomorrow he's going out and recruiting.He had some offensive tackle or that he
wanted to go see. I don'tknow the position, but you get what
I'm saying. The man, everysingle day he didn't give himself a chance
to celebrate. Now, I'm notsaying that's how you should live your life,
but that makes for a dominant,dominant program if you have somebody that
dedicated that high profile, giving iteverything you got. And he demanded excellence.
(03:35):
He demanded excellence of himself obviously heldthat standard, but then of his
assistant coaches, of his players,and really Batma for these this past couple
of decades, decade and a half, I guess a little over has been
the epitome of football culture. Inmy opinion, it has. We'll talk
(03:59):
about the other example in a second, with the other guy who's uh getting
a new job. But Saban wasjust so dominant and right now you could
bet while Tuscaloosa is of course thankfulto him, upset losing him and moving
into a new era, every otherteam in the SEC is saying thank you,
(04:23):
thank you, it's our time,mate. I mean, Georgia was
the only one that kind of startedto get to him at the end,
but hey, he got the lastlaugh on Georgia won that SEC title game.
And really, if they don't runthat, I mean, I don't
want to say it was a badplay call, because guess what everyone looks
at a play call, and ifit doesn't work, you say, oh
that was terrible. If it works, you say it was great. The
drop the middle with Milroe, itdidn't work. If that worked, I
(04:46):
think Saban goes out with the title. I really don't when he comes that
close and know what, good forhim though he's getting up there. Believe
he's seventy. I believe he' seventeven No, he's right there. You
got to retire at some point inenjoy life. So congratulations to him,
and it is going to be amuch different college football world now that he's
(05:09):
gone. The next coach will goBelichick, of course. I mean Belichick
absolutely has led the most dominant stretchof football by any team. Hey did
the Patriots from two thousand through twentynineteen twenty twenty the most dominant two decades
(05:30):
by a team in NFL history,at least in my opinion. Let me
in the Super Bowl era for sure, I'd have to go back and look
at the Lombardi stats. I knowthat the Packers were incredible, but Super
Bowl era, there's no doubt themost dominant. And I get the Cowboys
had their runs. Forty nine Ershad runs. Steelers had runs. They
(05:51):
were not what this Patriots team was. Also, the Patriots did in an
era where there was more teams,and it was it was so much more
difficult to stay on top. Itfelt like no other teams held up.
Even when I think like the Cowboysand forty nine ers in the eighties nineties.
They were going against each other,but their their rains didn't last as
(06:14):
long. They were efficient and gettingtheir titles in, but the rains didn't
last that long twenty years as impressive. Now, granted, the last couple
bad, really bad, quite frankly, and it does open the question to
his legacy, and it's gonna leadinto another topic that I have for tonight,
(06:35):
but before we get there, I'llbounce back to that in a second.
But Belichick with the Patriots the mostagain in my lifetime, born early
nineties, most iconic head coach associatedwith the team. There's no question about
It's I'm that close and for alot of people even older than me,
that's gonna be the case. Hewas that dominant and it was just an
(06:57):
incredible era. Lastly, do youwant to give respect to Pekarrol uh Pee
Carroll not in the same category asthose first two guys, but he is
one of only three coaches to winan AP title in college Pee Carroll in
usc and then also win a SuperBowl obviously with the Seahawks. What was
that be twenty thirteen twenty fourteen timeframewhen they won it with Russ that's huge.
(07:21):
I mean, that's very difficult,and Pee Carroll's had success in this
league for a long time. He'sdone a great job of that Seahawks organization.
Quite frankly, I am a littlesurprised at Seahawks forcing him out.
I think the Seahawks are going togo into rebuild mode. They seem to
be in a spot where they aren'tquite good enough, but they're also not
(07:44):
bad enough to tank. I thinkthey need to tear it down, you
know, start moving some pieces andgoing to the tank a little bit.
But it sounds like Pete wanted tostay. He's the oldest coach in the
NFL. I get that. Atsome point he's got to move on.
But man, that guy has notseen He's seen seventy two or whatever the
hell he is. He is spry, he's moving around. Look, we
saw him celebrating when he was playingwhen Drew locklo that drive on the Eagles.
(08:09):
That man does not seem like he'stoo old to be a football coach.
I think it's a little bit ofa mistake by the Seahawks. Probably
would have given it one more year. But I do get it. I
get it a little bit. Atleast. Now I'm gonna go back backwards
over to Belichick, and this leadsme into something that might be a little
bit It's a lot of people aren'tgonna like this statement. Quite frankly,
(08:35):
this is gonna be a hot take. I think you're either gonna agree with
me or not. But I thinkBelichick is the one of the best examples
of how in professional sports the coachjust really means so much less than what
everyone puts on it. One hundredpercent Belichick again me some people would argue
(08:58):
the best coach of all time.Without Tom Brady, he's eighty three and
one oh four since it was He'sstill gonna try to keep He's still gonna
keep coaching. I'll get another job. Eighty three and one oh four without
Tom Brady. That's a ton ofgames for some blow five hundred like he
really is. And Belichick had madethe playoffs one time since Brady left.
(09:24):
In that first year with Mac Jones, they got obliterated by the Bills.
It's really it just feels like anabsolute sham. Almost sham's the wrong word.
But Tom Brady leaves, goes winsa Super Bowl in Tampa with Bruce
arians as his coach. Again,good for Bruce, like you know,
good coach, not Bill Belichick.Belichick all of a sudden, he's useless
(09:46):
without it, right. And alsoI also say this about the Belichick tenure,
Brady always taking so much less moneythan he should have got at being
the best QB in the league.Huge benefit of that Patriots dynasy, Brady's
Brady taking less money. Really,honestly, I think made that dynasty happen.
They obviously would have won several titles, but that's what really made that
(10:09):
happen. And before I get peoplesay, oh, well, you don't
know what Brady would be without Belichick, you need to be honest and ask
yourself if in ninety nine when theywent out, Tom Brady's drafted. I
believe I think it's ninety nine,maybe two thousand, if Andy Reid and
the Eagles drafted him the fifth roundagain, because we all know we went
in the sixth round of the Patriotsthe Eagles picked him in the fifth round.
(10:31):
Are you telling me Tom Brady's stillnot one of the best quarterbacks of
all time? Maybe, look,maybe there is some adjustment that happens,
but you're not telling me that guy'snot going to be great. That's just
a ridiculous statement. The Eagles wouldhave three to four Super Bowls on a
minimum. Again, I'm trying togive Belichick some credit for this year,
(10:52):
but I really don't know. Forall we know, we might have more.
It's really possible. We'll never know. But the idea that Brady wouldn't
have won in the NFL without Belichickseems crazy to me, especially now that
what we've seen post You know thattwenty nineteen twenty twenty split think I'm crazy.
(11:13):
I think it's this is across mostprofessional sports. I don't know enough
about hockey coaching oustly to give aninput, so I'll say I'll keep hockey
out of this. But major LeagueBaseball, NBA, NFL. I think
the amount that we talk about headcoaches and how much of an impact they
really have is wild. Now,I think a bad coach, like,
(11:33):
if you are terrible at your job, you will have a negative impact on
the team that I think you cansee. But I think there are so
many coaches that are average to goodthat just end up becoming great because of
the players they have. Look,I gave you, I gave you my
thoughts on Belichick. Let's jump overto the NBA. Let's go Greg Popovic,
Greg Popovich, Hall of Fame coachright easily not even close what five
(11:58):
six I think with the Spurs regardas one of the best basketball mines of
this century and last coach Team USA, all right since the twenty nineteen season,
that's when Kawhi left. So Kawhiwas like the last like big star
that they had, really right,because Belich, Eric Belichick, sorry,
Duncan, Genobi and Parker they hadleft before this, Kawhi was like the
(12:22):
last big star. So twenty nineteenseason is the first season Pavovich has without
Kawhi. That's the last one.He is below five hundred by forty four
games over those five seasons, andso they got nothing but worse. He
did have some talented players, theyhad de Jonte Murray, Larry Walker.
They've had some talent, not elitestar talent like he had before. But
(12:45):
the Spurs were not like a barrencopboard that were cooked and they've become a
disaster. What are they like sixand twenty they're like next to the Pistons
at the bottom of the standings.They've got a top overall Picknyama. They've
got some talent, but it's adisaster. And now this is also for
(13:05):
me to say this is not allon Popovich. It's not. But I'm
just saying that a coach, nomatter how good he is, if they
don't have the players, there's nothingthey can do to blame the coach in
these situations. And again, Popovichisn't gonna get fired because of his success
in the past, but his successin the past is driven all by players.
(13:28):
It's this chicken in the egg andit's kind of like if you got
lucky with players at one point,having great players, then all of a
sudden you're redeemed as this incredible coachand not able to be persecuted for how
bad you have seasons wise, Yetsome coaches takes a job where know what,
guess what, they blew the firstoverall pick. They messed something else
(13:52):
up. And this is across allsports. They get blamed. The first
person you blame is the coach.It's like, oh yeah, let's mix
it up, get a different voicein there. It's ridiculous. There's nothing
you can do if you don't havethe players. You don't have the players.
I know that coaches help in development. I know that coaches keep the
message on point for the team tostay motivated. I'm not saying they're completely
that they're There's not a use,of course, there's a use when I
(14:16):
see owners going out and let's takeDavid Tepper. David Tepper going out and
giving Matt Rule before who he'd firedbefore he fired Frank Raich this offseason.
This is the Panthers owner David Teppergive Matt Rule like one hundred million dollars
to come in and be his coachand fired him in like two seasons,
three seasons. Guess what I don't. I don't know if Matt Rule is
(14:39):
a good or a bad coach.What I do know is he was good
in college. And I think thisis a very different argument with me for
college, mainly because in college,I think recruiting is the biggest deal.
Now we'll see over time if thatchanges with an il it certainly could,
But I think in college it's beingyour head coach matters in more like if
(15:01):
I if I were to put avalue on it, I think colleges should
be paying their coaches. And thisI'm in this case, I'm mainly talking
uh basketball football, but sure trueto baseball for an extent too. College
coaches are so much more valuable programthan appropriate team. It just is right.
It's all about the players. Andnow again, someone could be terrible
(15:22):
and that gets noticeable and then youhave to move on. I get that.
It's like terrible with like Brandon Staley, I think is a good example
from the Chargers. Let me giveyou this will be my example how I
mean it. Brandon Staley was amoron going for on fourth down in cases
where he had no business going forit and was just like trying to be
(15:43):
this trendsetter, like, oh,I'm going more advanced with analytics now,
that made you look like an idiant. You didn't need to go to four
on fourth down on your own twentywhen you're down by three. You didn't
need to do that. Like thatstuff is stupid. So if you do
stupid stuff, you move on.But if it's just hey, it's not
working a little bit with the players, or it's not working over all as
(16:03):
a team, it's so much moreon the players than it is the coach.
And it just drives me wild howmuch people end up focusing on the
coach when it's literally five percent ofhow a team's going to do. In
my opinion, it's it's important,but it's not not nearly what we all
make it out to be. Likeon these airways, we've all been talking
(16:23):
about Sirianni all we can all talkabout that moment of the Eagles break down
the next segment and yeah, Iguess what a Sirianni been a great coach?
No, of course the locker room'sa little up and down, really
down, I guess more in recentweeks there's been some drama. He could
be doing a better job of takingcare of that. But the problem is,
for me, the defense is barren. It's a bad defense with players.
(16:45):
And guess what, there might beproblems with Jalen not nearly being as
good as we thought. Right,Like everyone's reaction is to blame the coach
because it's easier to move on fromthe coach than you know, certain players
to big contracts. And that's whatwe'll do and we'll see. I don't
think again I went over the lastI don't think sirian is getting fired,
but that's where everyone wants to gofirst. And if you think that's going
(17:07):
to solve this team's problems. Ihate to break to you, it's not
it's not this, it's more onHowie and I'm going too far into the
Eagles, but you get my point. The GM who decides the players is
infinitely more important to me than thecoach across professional sports, and I think
Bill Belichick is the best example ofthis, and we've seen it so recently
(17:32):
over the last two decades. Withthat, and congratulations to Saban and kind
of Pete Carron retiring great careers,Belichick moving on to the next gig,
and who knows, maybe trying toprove me wrong, but man, there's
just so much out there. Iam I I wanted to do head coaching
Karrosel. With those opening jobs,we'll actually open up with the next segment
(17:52):
with that, and then we'll getinto the Eagles playoff breakdown. So we're
going to take a quick break hereon balls, Bets and Bets. Stick
with it. We'll be right backafter this. The Gambler, Philly's home
for all things sports gambling, backat it on Friday. Ball's Bets and
bets. Uh. Obviously, Iprobably had anyone who's ever been a head
(18:14):
coach in their life be mad atme after that last segment. But I'm
sorry, not sorry that that ismy true opinion. But we'll dive into
We're gonna keep going with actually alittle bit of coaching stuff before we dive
into the Eagles, just because youknow, the NFL coaching carousel is in
full swing. Obviously, our firstjob has been filled, actually by one
(18:36):
of the last jobs that became open, the Patriots. We just went through
Belichick leaving Drod Mayo taking that Patriotsjob as the first head coach to be
picked up in this off season.Uh will be a first time head coach.
Drameo obviously former Patriots player assistant coach. Hey, potentially it will do
(18:56):
well. I always do find itvery interesting when they hire someone that learned
from the guy leaving, because it'slike, well, why didn't you just
keep the original guy? But sometimesI guess they wanted to change a voice.
It was just that time to drawMayo getting the Patriots job. I
didn't want to go through all thejobs, and I ranked the top three
of attractiveness in my opinion, Ididn't have the Patriots in my top three,
(19:19):
so it doesn't impact that s list. But let's just read off the
rest of the open coaching jobs,as we just said, New England,
but that's now filled. Atlanta,Carolina, Vegas, the Los Angeles Chargers,
Tennessee, Washington, and Seattle.All those franchises not the best.
(19:45):
I mean, the Seahawks have probablybeen the most successful of the last decade.
And some of these, all ofthem up and down. But you
do have some destitute franchises there inlike you know, the Commanders and the
Panthers. So some of these aren'tgenerally attractive. But I do my top
three, and actually I guess Ihave said one of them number three.
I have the Commanders as being thethird most appealing job out of this.
(20:07):
They've done a good job at youknow, realizing this year wasn't their year,
and they shed off. They shedsome players like Montes Sweat, and
they made some other moves trading playersaway, Oh, Chase Young, that's
the other one, to acquire anew draft capital, clear off some money
and get kind of rip that bandaid off. They have a top two
pick in the draft, So ifyou're in on Drake May or potentially Caleb
(20:32):
Williams, but I think it's likelyDrake May going to that number two slot.
That's that's not a bad option.They have a decent offense, some
decent offensive weapons. I think Dotson'snot bad to Johan Dotson. Terry mclaurin's
slid again, a little up there, but very solid receiver. And the
defense hasn't been great and they movesome pieces. But again you have some
(20:52):
salary cap flexibility there. I havethe Commanders as the third most attractive job
if I was a potential head coachnumber two. It is, it is.
I was about to say San Diegoand Los Angeles Chargers, Justin Herbert.
It's if you like Herbert right like, that's honestly it if you are
in on Herbert as a head coach, saying, yep, that is a
(21:14):
stud quarterback. I can make thatwork. I can win with him.
That's so much. Again, Ijust went through the first whole segment saying
how important players are compared to coachesand coaches. I'm sure realize that players
drive their success. If you believein Justin Herbert, that's the most attractive
job. That could be the mostattractive job on this market in a lot
of people's eyes, because Joe,you have the quarterback. If you're in
(21:36):
on him. I am in onHerbert. I don't look. You never
know if a guy's gonna ever takethat next step and win a Super Bowl.
But I do think the talent's there. I think he's elite armed talent,
the pretty good decision making. Ithink he's had a little bit of
a mess with a pretty bad organizationaround him, but I think he's been
(21:56):
very solid. So justin Herbert ismade. That's my number two job,
number one job, and my mightsurprise some people. I think the Falcons
are the most attractive job this offseason. They've done a great job at gaining
talent at every position kind of outsideof a quarterback. I think their defense
(22:17):
is pretty solid. I think theirweapons on offense, you know a Kyle
pitts oh b Jeon Robinson, that'sthe running back Drake London. A lot
of first round talent from the Falcons, and they've shown sparks, Like these
guys are not duds. They've shownsparks. Arthur Smith just seem to be
awful at actually utilizing them. Butthese guys have been very, very say
(22:41):
aggressive in gathering high end talent downthere in Atlanta, and I think they're
a quarterback away. So if you'rea head coach and you think, you
know, I have a what dothe Falcons have? Probably a top fifteen
pick. I have some decent capflexibilitis. A lot of those guys are
on rookie contracts. If you canattract a quarterback to Atlanta, maybe a
Justin Fields, the Bears are movingon somebody like that. All of a
(23:04):
sudden, I think Atlanta becomes thebest team in the NFC South, and
quite frankly, I don't know ifit would be that close. I think
Atlanta has a ton of talent.They are missing the quarterback, and Arthur
Smith didn't for some reason, didn'tchoose to utilize the guys with talent.
It was a little weird. That'san example of a bad coaching job right
there, and that's why he's movingon. But I think the Falcons are
the most attractive job on the market, and we'll see. I mean I
(23:29):
could see a you know, ifBelichick believes he can make a quarterback work
there, if he gets somebody inthere, like a Justin Fields or something
else like that, that might bethe most attractive job. That's if you
think he's the most attractive coach onthe market. In my mind, I
would think he is, but they'relike I like Acton ont let me back
off that I like Vrabel. Ithink Vrabel is the best coach on the
market in my opinion. He's young, a little bit younger than Belichick of
(23:52):
course, and he seems to bea guy that wins. I know they've
had two losing seasons in a row. I think the ownership in Tennessee is
a little bit of cuckoo. They'vemade some really weird moves and just doesn't
seem to think logically with how theydo things like the aj Brown trade and
things like that. So I kindof think it's more of a Tennessee problem
(24:15):
than what was Rabel. So Ithink Rabel's the most attractive head coach to
me on the market, But Belichick'sgonna be up there and a lot of
other guys and a lot of othernames you've seen floor around. Ben Johnson
from the Lions is gonna be absolutelya very popular name as well, and
from the Falcons, and I wantto utilize those offensive weapons. That could
be another way that I go.But that's my head coach in Carousel.
I think those are the top threejobs again, I'm a Commander's number three
(24:37):
charge number two Falcons number one theleast attractive. In my opinion, it
has to be the Panthers. Theownership seems really terrible, not giving guys
a chance to establish some roots.They've traded away assets to get Bryce Young,
who seems like was the wrong pick. I think the Panthers are gonna
be bad for a while. They'vedug They've dug a little bit of their
(24:59):
own grave here. Someone's going totake the job. Of course, because
NFL money talks and temper is knownto overpay coaches. They're still paying Matt
Rule, They're still paying Frank Wright. So the Panthers are gonna get somebody.
But that's that's a team that's goingnowhere for a little bit. And
I'd also like to say on theRaiders actually jump into them real quick.
They absolutely Mark Davis needs to keepAntonio Pierce. That man deserves to keep
(25:21):
that job. Give make it takeoff the interim tag. He got those
guys to play down the stretch.Do they make the playoffs? Know?
But they are? They played somuch better than under Josh McDaniels. They've
made this mistake before. Of firingthe interim guy after Gruden, they should
have kept him. Now you havethat chance again. You better keep Antonio
Pierce if you're the Raiders, unlessyou're getting like a Horrball and man,
I forgot to mention Horball and allthis or somebody of that caliber. I
(25:47):
think you have to keep Antonio Pierce. It better be a blockbuster move if
you're going to get let that mango next over will jump over into the
Eagles. And of course, howdo I put it. I've I was
talking with some friends and this Eagleseason of me kind of feels like,
look, I'm gonna use a movie, so spoilers if you haven't seen it,
but I think it came out likethe sixties, so you've had plenty
(26:10):
of time. Anyone has seen oldYeller. Right at the beginning of the
movie, it's so much fun.You got Yeller goes in there, fights
off. You know, he's savingthe family. Everyone likes him except the
one the one boy builds a relationshipwith everything's nice and happy, and then
I feel like since that forty nineErs game has been when uh, you
(26:30):
know Yeller got in the fight.I think it was the bear. I
forget the animal, whatever animal,you know, he fights, and then
you know the slow progression and weget you know, he has the rabies
and things are just geg And Ifeel like the last like month has been
the Eagles have been the Yeller Rabiesperiod where it's just a disaster and we
(26:52):
know what's coming, we know what'scoming, you know how this has to
end, but man, it's justpainful. And a lot of people.
Look, I've heard a lot ofpeople say, hey, that's want to
get onto the offseason. Let's,you know, put us out of our
misery. I'm not there, butI get it. I get the mindset.
I want the Eagles to win.I want the Eagles to beat the
(27:12):
Bucks on Monday, and I thinkthey will. And you know, you
might see a lot of people outthere are saying, Tim, you're crazy,
And guess what, I can't evenfully argue with you, because the
way this team's played for last monthand a half, I a little bit
of myself is saying I'm crazy.The line is telling me Eagles favorite on
the road in the playoffs, andalso it's Baker Mayfield in a must win
(27:33):
game where they had a must wingame last week. They did win against
those Panthers that are hopeless hopelessly lost, and they were able to win.
I think it was nine to nothing, twelve nothing, something like that.
They didn't score a touchdown. Yeah, I guess for their defense shut out
Bryce Young Okay, great, notoverly impressed here, and their offense was
(27:56):
not able to get anything done againsta bad Panthers. D Am I nervous
about the corners versus the wide receivermatchup? The I am Mike Evans is
a stud. I want slay onhim the whole time, which might leave
us, you know, a weekagainst Godwin and other receivers with Bradbury having
a step up. Yeah, becausewe're not gonna shut them out. I
agree with that. But also Ithink our offense finds a little bit of
(28:18):
consistency getting back to running the ball. You don't have to have this super
exposive, explosive plays against the TampaBay You just don't to win that game.
Beat him in week three. Obviously, both teams are extremely different.
Tampa's also, I need you needto give them credit in this context.
Tampa has been playing some fantastic footballover the last month. I think they're
like four or five and one Iknow, like I just ripped into them
(28:41):
last week a little bit for theirperformance and the Panthers, but over all,
the Bucks have been very solid.It still comes down more for me
that the Eagles talent should step up. I know we've been saying this.
I know we've been saying this forever, so please bear with me. We
do have the better offensive line,we have the better quarterback. I think
we have better weapons on offense.Might be close. I think it's that
(29:06):
parts close than people think defense.Defense is probably edged to them, Yeah
it is, But again, Ithink that edge of quarterback with Jalen hopefully
being able to contain the ball andwe get back to running the ball,
and honestly running with Jalen too.Because it's playoff time. I gotta stop
worrying about the you know, thebumps and bruises. We just kind of
win to stay alive. I buyit. I think the Eagles win this
(29:29):
game. My official prediction. Ithink the Eagles offense gets to going.
I go thirty one to twenty,and that's where about we end up.
I think it's a relatively comfortable win. Two scores at the end. It's
a little bit messy in the factthat the Eagles ceiling is still so high
in my opinion based on the talentthey have, but the floor is so
(29:51):
locus. We've seen it for thelast month and a half. I'm not
going to make it a heavy playfor me also out there, for the
gambling folks out there, I can'tmake it a heavy play this based off
on how much variability there is withthis team. But we'll see. We'll
see if Sirianni and Brian Johnson,uh and other folks are able to get
people up and at him. Whichalso going back to keeps rolling back to
(30:15):
coaching, the fact that Brian Johnsonis getting head coaching interviews is wild to
me. I know he's here.I think it was the Panthers, and
maybe he was the Patriots of thePatriots jobs gone now, but there was
another team that was also interested inhim, and I just find that why
outo was the Titans. It wasdefinitely the Titans. I don't know what
(30:36):
you've seen out of that guy tomake you think that, yep, that's
the guy I want run of myteam. When the play calling on the
Eagles have been has been a disaster, like it really has, It's been
pretty bad on an example of waysthat coaching can hurt you, but just
absolutely mess But still I think theyfigure it out this weekend. Back back
to this weekend, I think theyfigure it out. Sirianni reportedly could be
coaching for his job, depending onwho you asked. Again, I did
(30:59):
a whole segment on this last week. Feel free to go back and listen
on the FOXHL Gambler dot com.But I can't imagine that he's actually coaching
for his job. I mean,unless you lose by like forty, then
fine, then may we have tohave a conversation. But even if the
Eagles were to lose this game,Siriani has made the playoffs in three years,
each year made a Super Bowl.There's no way that I can fire
(31:21):
this guy. There's just absolutely noway. Doesn't make sense to me.
With that, we're gonna take aquick break. We're gonna do a full
NFL kind of my bracket preview ofwhere I see the NFL's playoffs going.
I know a lot of people dobracket polls. I'll give you my full
prediction as we go through that.No, it's an NFL for the rest
(31:42):
of the day. NFL Playoffs comingback. We'll be back on Balls,
Bats and Bets right after this spreadstotals and all the prop bets in between.
It's the Gambler third and final segmenttonight here on Fox Sports Gambler,
Balls, Bats and Bets. Andagain, like I mentioned right before break,
I'm going to go through every singleplayoff game this weekend, give you
(32:05):
what I think to watch out for, give you a pick in each game,
and I'll also kind of go throughthe way I see, you know,
the full NFL playoffs shaping up.Give you kind of my January Madness
bracket if you want to have it, if you want to call it that,
and that'll help us, you know, make some predictions for going forward.
(32:27):
So let's start it off. Iwant to go in order of the
way the games will be played thisweekend. So starting off with the Browns
and Texans. Texans obviously exciting wayto get into the season with that kind
of winner, and in on Saturdaynight beating the Colts in them with the
Jags losing, Texans actually get ahome game for CJ. Spertroud's first playoff
action in the NFL. Exciting funteam. The Texans are like they have
(32:51):
been fantastic this year. Jamiko Ryansgreat job. C J. Stroud is
a phenomenal, phenomenal talent, quarterbackWill Anderson Junior on defense, other great
Nicocollins. They've had a lot ofguys step up. They're a young squad.
They're gonna be fun for a longtime. That being said, I'm
(33:12):
going with the Browns in this one. The Browns Joe Flacco, say what
you want about him. He hasbeen elite for the last month and a
half. The guy has had alittle bit of a resurgence. That Cleveland
team is set up what their offensiveline is very solid, their defense is
probably best in the NFL in myopinion, quite frankly, right there with
(33:32):
the forty nine ers. I thinkthe Texans are going to struggle. I
think, especially with Cleveland essentially havinga bye last week, they didn't play
anybody that they really didn't need.They were already locked into their slot.
I think that makes that a verytough situation for this Texans team. Especially
there's more playoff experience on the Brownside there just is Texans are a young
(33:52):
squad. My prediction, I'll goBrowns twenty Texans thirteen. Favorite playing that
game obviously you can tell it's anunder by the score. My real favorite
play is the Texans team total undertwenty and a half. That's too many
points for the Texans. That's toomany points. I love CJ. Stroud,
I love Nico Collins. I thinkDevin's singletary has been very solid at
running back for them filly in thisyear. Yet they're they're not Miles Garrett's
(34:15):
going to get after it. Thecornerbacks on the Browns outclass the Texans receivers.
This is I think the Texans aresstruggle to score, so under twenty
and a half team total for theTexans will be my play in that one.
Next, the Saturday night game,the streaming game, which just annoying.
NFL stopped trying to throw it downour throats that say, oh,
(34:36):
you're part of history. No stopit, just stop it. Let's put
it on cable too. Don't weknow you got paid a ton and that's
why it's only streaming. We knowit. Chiefs Dolphins though games going to
be freezing in Kansas City. TheDolphins historically struggle in those snaries. Granted
all are all the players the same, of course not, but Tua has
not traditionally been good in the cold. Again, from Hawaii, it's a
(35:00):
little tough, and then he goesto Miami and Alabama before that, not
a ton of experience in the cold. Quite frankly, that's just the truth
of it. It's also Patrick mahomesin the playoffs at home, so he
has his home game before you allhave to go on the road for the
first time. I guess most likely, I guess there is a scenario where
he is not on the road inthe second round, but very likely he
(35:20):
is on the road in the secondround. I am going Chiefs twenty seven
Dolphins seventeen. Fair playing that onestraightforward, Chiefs minus four. I think
the Chiefs are a very well builtdefensive team. I think they'll have an
idea of how to slow down theDolphins offense, especially in that cold.
Yeah, I think it's a prettyconvincing Chiefs win double digits there. Next
(35:42):
up the Sunday one o'clock game,freezing temperatures, high wins up in Buffalo.
I look, Mike Tomlin is adouble digit dog. I can't go
against it. I think it's alittle too many points in Lasso songs at
eleven. I don't think Steelers havemuch of a shot in this one.
I think it's low scoring. Ithink these teams are duking it out,
(36:04):
running the ball, being careful withit. The only way that Bills lose
this is if Josh Allen throws itaway. That's the ostrae. Josh Allen
would have to throw it away,and they're going to prevent that and play
a little bit of conservatively with Buffalobecause they can. They don't need to
running gun Mason Rudolph and company arenot going to light the scoreboard up.
I'm gonna go Bills twenty, Steelersten favorite picking that one under thirty six.
(36:27):
It's low total for a reason,Folks, low total for a reason.
I think it's a convincing Buffalo win, but low scoring. With those
wins, the next up I got, we got Packers and Cowboys. That
is the four o'clock ish star timeon Sunday. Might be my least interesting
game for the weekend. I thinkit is a really good wildcard slate.
(36:50):
I guess Steelers Bills is a littleless interesting, but Cowboys at home,
they've been dominant. We've heard itall regular season long. I think they
want to during the regular season intheir own building. I think the Cowboys
do get it done here. Iknow it's the Mike mccarthur revenge game.
He's going back up against the Packers. I've liked what I've seen out Jordan
Love and the Packers having some fight. I think this this is my least
(37:15):
confident game. I will say downon what the Alchemist, but I will
go. I'll say Cowboys twenty seven, Packers fourteen, and they take care
of business there. Ceedee Lamb toget a touchdown. That's my favorite play,
and it's just because Ceedee Lamb hasbeen that good this year. I
think Dak's going to easily find himin the end zone for that. So
that's my play in that one.Next up, Rams and Lions, your
(37:36):
Sunday night game. Probably the mostexciting game for me this weekend. Matthew
Stafford returned to Detroit. I thisis too well. One franchise that's won
Super Bowl recently, another franchise thathasn't hosted a playoff game in thirty years.
I do think Detroit will be rockingand rolling. Dan Campbell's maybe my
favorite coach in the NFL. I'mnot saying he's the best, but he
(37:58):
is just the most electric, enterthating voice that they have out there.
I'm a big fan of what he'sdone with that squad. Unfortunately, though,
I do think McVeigh company have beenplaying great. The Rams have been
on fire. I think Stafford goeshome and Stafford wins the first playoff game
in Detroit in thirty years with theRams over his old team shootout game thirty
(38:22):
five thirty one, Rams get itdone again. I think that's going to
be our best game of the weekend. With a lot of people having off
Monday. That's a Sunday night gamethat I will not be missing out on
for sure. Playing there, Ramsplus three straight and simple. I think
the Rams get it done and thenEagles Bucks. I did already give you
(38:42):
my Eagles prediction, so thirty oneto twenty, I do want to highlight
I think we do have a prettybig game out of a J. Brown.
I've been thinking that for a while. It just feels due for him
and Jalen to just lock it inand you know, dominate a game.
Honestly, so, I think AJBrown is probably in for a big game,
maybe a breakaway catcher two Bucks,Sorry Eagles thirty one Bucks twenty pick
(39:07):
simple Eagles minus three. That andnow I told you we're gonna go through
the whole playoff bracket. So nowfast forwarding these games. I obviously don't
have lines out for yet because they'rehypotheticals, but the way I just predicted
it, your second round matchups wouldbe uh forty nine Ers, Rams,
Eagles, Cowboys, Ravens, Browns, and Chiefs Bills. I'll start.
(39:30):
I'm just gonna go in that order, start with the nfc H forty nine
Ers versus the Rams. It's atough one. It is honestly a tough
one. It's called I think theRams are the team that if anyone's going
to surprise the forty nine ers andget them, I think it's them.
I honestly that they're familiar with eachother. The forty nine Ers will have,
(39:53):
in essence, had three weeks sincethey've played a meaningful game because they
were already locked in in Week eighteen, they would have had a buy.
Now they're coming up and they haveto play the Rams team that's if they
stay healthy, been one of thehottest teams in the NFL. I think
the Rams might sneak up here.I am going to take the Rams with
the spread that part, I canpromise you. I'll say the forty nine
(40:15):
Ers eke it out squeak By,and that's that they get to win there.
So I'll say the forty nine Ersbeat the Rams. In that case,
Eagles versus Cowboys again something that weyou know, most years would love
to hear in the playoffs. Ithink the cautiousness would be absolutely with the
Eagles fans going into that one basedon what happened last time. These two
faced call me crazy, I willsay, I think there's a revenge factor.
(40:39):
There's a if the Eagles do beatthe Bucks, now all of a
sudden, they got some pride rolling. I can see it where the Eagles
win this game. And dear God, I am not going to pick the
Cowboys over the Eagles in the playoffgame physical I might just burst into flames
if I do so. In thatcase, I will take the Eagles to
advance over the Cowboys in this.In my brea, I could here Ravens
(41:00):
versus Browns similar to a it's reallysimilar matchup to what we have with the
forty nine Ers versus the Rams,where the Ravens will not had a meaningful
game in three weeks. The Browns, one of the hottest teams in football,
had a buy but now not twoweeks off of bye. I really
(41:20):
I think the Browns win this againLamar's he has won a playoff game,
but we've seen teams be able toclose down on running quarterbacks in the playoffs.
I think the Browns are the perfectteam to do it. I think
this would be a really rough spotfor the Ravens, and I'm going to
take the Browns. I think theBrowns advance out of here in that slot.
I think the Ravens get knocked outearlier than they hoped in their playoff
(41:42):
run. Chiefs and Bills would beour last match that would almost certainly,
in my opinion, be the Sundaynight primetime mahomes first road playoff game would
have to be going up to Buffalo. The Chiefs haven't had it all together
all year. They just haven't.In the Bills, they found it in
the second half. They've been dominant. I think Josh Allen gets his w
over Mahomes here a little payback forthose playoff duels a couple of years back.
(42:07):
But Buffalo is too much firepower KansasCity's defensive team, and I think
they'll be held a little bit morein check, which might actually help them
because Mahome is a little more carefulwith the ball if you keep it a
lower scoring game. But I stillthink the Bills will have a little too
much firepower, and their defense hasalso been really solid. So I will
take the Bills Overio in that scenario. That would make your NFC and AFC
(42:28):
title games respectively, forty nine Ersversus Eagles in San fran and the Browns
versus the Bills up in Buffalo.Start with my NFC prediction there. That's
where the Eagles are done. Icannot see them being that forty nine ers
team. They're too complete. They'revery good at what the Eagles are not.
They're great at running at the Eagleshave not been good at stopping the
run. I think that's a majorproblem. So the forty nine ers would
(42:52):
be the Eagles there and Browns Bills. I'm telling you, part of me
does want to take the Browns,really does. I will take the Bills
to come out of this scenario.Josh Allen will makes his first Super Bowl
up in Buffalo. Playoff Flacco hasslowed down. I think it's an ugly,
beat them up type of game thatthe Bills just have a little more
(43:13):
edge, especially with that home comingout there. So that would mean your
Super Bowl for my prediction, fortynine Ers versus the Bills. I honestly
do feel very confident putting I havea future in on that matchup. Whether
the rest of the bracket's right,who knows. But I really do believe
that that matchup. I think thatmatchup happens, I really do. I
think it's a very I haven't feltthat this confident since a couple of years
(43:36):
ago and I picked Bengals Rams SuperBowl. That was a beautiful payout,
huge numbers. This one less oddsfor sure, but I got it.
I think five to one, fiveand a half to one for the forty
nine Ers and Bills to be ourSuper Bowl matchup. I hate to say
because I hate this team. Ithink the forty nine Ers are the most
complete team. I think it's goingto be really tough to kick them off
(43:57):
their high horse and get the Billsbeat them. I think it could be
a really good game, might comedown to the end of it. With
Josh Allen sadly maybe throwing a pickand trying to be aggressive and a comeback.
I think the forty nine Ers aregoing to be your super Bowl champs,
and it's going to sting. It'sgoing to hurt because I hate that
team. I really do. Ihate that team, but that's this nature
of the Beast. They are themost complete team, and honestly, I
(44:21):
think the most dangerous game for themis that first round matchup with the Rams.
Should I have this right or sayit would be the divisional round for
them their first playoff game. That'swhen you can catch them sleep. That's
when you can catch them sleep andNA see there's a chance that the Eagles
are playing there, So that wouldbe the chance that if the Eagles have
any chance, I'd want to catchthem then. But I think this forty
nine Ers team goes on wins theSuper Bowl. I'm not going to put
(44:43):
a future in the next it willhurt me, but I do a future
in on the exact matchup for Billsforty nine ers. So again, just
recap all those NFL games again thisweekend. Let me do the recaps of
those for playing each game. Texansteam total under twenty and a half Dolphins
versus Chiefs. Give me the Chiefsminus four, Steelers Bills give me under
(45:04):
thirty six. Packers, Cowboys ceedeelamb gets it, gets in the end
zone. Rams versus Lions, giveme the Rams plus three and Eagles Bucks
give me Eagles minus three. AndI'm gonna leave you with this one last
little bit of messaging. Yeah,it has this Eagle season been frustrating as
hell. Of course it has.Of course it has. It's been probably
(45:24):
the worst season I remember making theplayoffs quite frankly the way we've limped into
this. That being said, rememberthere's a ton of garbage franchises out there
that don't make the playoffs. Lookat the Let's look at the Lions.
They haven't had a home playoff gamein thirty years. Again on this weekend.
Guess what, Even though it's frustratingthe way this team has been,
(45:45):
let's appreciate playoff football. Get behindthe boys, let's root it up,
let's try come on, build itup, and get excited. We got
Eagles playoffs coming down. Monday nightfootball. Let's go Birds. I'll talk
to you next week, hopefully previewinganother Eagles game. Talk to u
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