August 26, 2022 • 38 mins
Brian Noe and Jason Martin fill in for Jonas, Brady and LaVar on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe and talk about the teams that they have concerns for heading into the NFL season including the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What's happened an hour two here to pros and a
cup of Joe, And they're acting like pros. Brian know
as we welcome you into the Fox Sports Radio studios,
they're acting like Tom Brady. Are LaVar and Brady and
Jonahs taken a couple of days off, scheduled days off.
They'll be ready to go uh here in a couple
of days once we get into next week. But speaking
(00:23):
of Brady, I don't want to talk about Brady specifically.
I want to talk about his former team. I want
to talk about one team, Brian, in the a f
C East and one in the NFC East, And positive
this question to you, which team feels like they are
set for a more baffling, confounding, kind of sad season.
(00:45):
Is it the Dallas Cowboys or very close to home
for you in your division, the a f C East,
is it the New England Patriots, Because that's been kind
of outside of Deshaun Watson, that's been the most interesting
story of the offseason and certainly summer, is what exactly
is happening in New England with Bill Belichick? Is he
getting near the end of his career there? Because I
(01:07):
can't see him being part of a full rebuild. I
don't know what they're doing. Nothing that comes from that
place seems like it's positive right now. But then on
the other side, you look at Dallas. I don't know
what Dallas is gonna be. I know they've lost some
talented guys, one to my Denver Broncos specifically, and now
Tyrone Smith again is out. He's missed twenty games over
(01:29):
the last two years in Dallas. This is an offensive
line that was already kind of problematic. Tyrone can't seem
to stay healthy. He's not gonna be back until December
if everything goes well. Tour his left hand string. It
came off the bone during Wednesday's practice. These are two
teams to glitzy franchises too, of the IT franchises in
(01:53):
the NFL. Brian No, and I'm looking at both of
them and I'm thinking definitely a universe were neither one
of those two teams is in the playoffs. Yeah, I um,
if you're asking me between both. I'm more skeptical about
the Patriots because I look at their plan and I
think it's brutal with Matt Patricia being the play caller,
(02:14):
although he's not you know, his title isn't the offensive coordinator.
He essentially is, right, he's the guy calling plays, and uh,
it's just a weird deal where they were splitting play
calling duties at one time between Matt Patricia and Joe
Judge in a preseason game against the Giants, and it's like,
what is it going on here? It's just become the
(02:35):
story of the off season for the Patriots and their offense. Well,
document has been struggling in training camp in preseason games
and it just doesn't seem like they have a good plan.
I know, and Belichick has said this that there have
been guys Brian Dable, uh, Josh McDaniels. They came from
the defensive side of the ball and they became offensive
(02:58):
play callers, and that's fine, but it's not the same thing.
It's that the same thing as Matt Patricia who was
a de coordinator for six seasons and now he's the
guy calling offensive plays, and mixed with their general lack
of overall talent, that is one of the lesser talented
teams in the NFL. Even in their division. The Bills
are towering over the Patriots and talent the Dolphins have
(03:21):
more talent than the Patriots do. So a lack of
talent mixed with a weird plan and a loaded a
f C. I expect far less from the Patriots, who
are acting like a downsizing radio station. They're acting like
they had a couple of cuts, and it's like, all right, Chris,
that you you run the hip hop station also as
(03:42):
the program director. That's how the Patriots are acting. And
so I don't like Tyrann Smith going down. It's a
big deal for the Cowboys protecting das Blindside, but the
NFC is not even half the gauntlet that the a
f C is. So I'm far more skeptical about the Patriots. See,
I agree with you. I think your points are all
right on, and that's exactly the way I feel about it.
(04:02):
I just I think the Patriots are gonna be bad
this year, and I've thought that since before everything started
coming out about the offense not coalescing during training camp,
because I looked at what they didn't do while everybody
else in the conference was loading up. Like the arms race,
the dreaded arms races, it's sometimes called, it's happening everywhere.
It's happening across the a f C. West. Everybody's trying
(04:24):
to get better, and it seems like the Patriots got worse.
They let some of their better players go. It felt
like a fire sale, and I don't really understand it.
I think that the other and yes, the NFC is
a much easier conference the NFC East. It's still I
like Washington and I like Ron Rivera. But they got
Carson Wentz playing quarterback, Like how am I supposed to
pick that and still have a job afterwards? Like that?
(04:46):
That can't be a thing. And the Giants Daniel Jones,
It ain't Josh Allen two point oh, Brian Dable. He's
gonna get this guy at some point, but I don't
think this guy is there right now. You can see
Tyrod Taylor being the starter by the end of the year.
There at least, just again is a stop gap before
whatever it is that the Giants are gonna do. That
quarterback situation just has not worked out at all. But
(05:08):
so it's Dallas in Philadelphia and there's still question marks
as to what exactly the quarterback is surrounding those weapons
in Philadelphia, and then you get to Dallas. I think
the other question between Dallas and New England, it makes
it interesting? Is it two coaches, two older guys that
have been on the league. Both of them have won
Super Bowls. Mike McCarthy. Seed is hotter because it's Dallas
(05:29):
and and and I just don't think he's done all
that much to create any kind of good equity. And
I don't think Jerry Jones is gonna tolerate that as
long as he did Jason Garrett, who absolutely loved as
a person. But I'm still looking at Belichick and I'm
just trying to figure out what's the endgame here. Like
you know, Nick Saban came out and said I feel young,
basically saying I'm not going anywhere. I still have my
(05:51):
doubts about that. My my prediction is within five years
he's no longer at Alabama and maybe completely out of
college football. I mean, he is seventy years old. But
you look at Belichick. Is Belichick wired for this? Is
he wired too not win games, not be particularly relevant?
Have a quarterback that I like Mac Jones, But I
(06:11):
don't think anybody loves Mac Jones in terms of what
his actual ceiling is in the NFL. I'm just looking
at the rest of that division and saying there is
certainly a universe where the Patriots are the worst team
in that division. Now was Zack Wilson, They're probably not
going to be, But the Jets have done some good
(06:31):
things around Zack to at least put him in position
if he can be the guy. He's gonna have every
opportunity to prove that with some of the things that
they've done, both in the draft of free agency over
the last two years. But New England, who is mac
Jones throwing the ball too? That you feel particularly good about?
Like Kendrick Bourne's a solid two three wide receiver in
the league, and maybe that's undercutting his skill set a
(06:53):
little bit. But Agalore and the two tight ends, nothing
makes sense at all, and it in what world do
you become better by giving Matt Patricia control over your offense.
He was a defensive guy who everybody wanted to retire
in Detroit while he was the head coach there because
(07:13):
he wasn't fun to play with. He's now supposed to
be the mastermind behind this. That almost feels like Belichick
knows this ain't gonna go well. I'm gonna go ahead
and find a way to create a scapegoat. Not gonna
give him the title, but everybody's gonna kind of know
he's one of the play callers. You've got multiple dudes
calling plays in the same game. Belichick doesn't look like
(07:34):
it just seems like it's miserable in New England right now,
which look as a Dolphins fan, Brian, I'm sure that
you I'm sure that you have a slight grin on
your face talks about this. Yeah, you gotta have what
It's just weird. It's one of those things we've talked
about the Patriots for so long. Stability. They know what
they're doing. If you're Mac Jones, you go to that organization,
(07:55):
you're in good hands. And now you look at this
plan and it's like it's just makes zero sense. And
this is the Patriots right where Belichick easily could have
one of the sharper offensive coordinator minds, an up and
coming guy or a guy that's already established. He could
have someone better than Matt Patricia right now. I think
(08:16):
that's why Josh McDaniels hung around as long as he did,
where he was sort of the coach in waiting, and
I think he got tired of waiting and he had
an opportunity to go to the Raiders. But the next
offensive coordinator, if it's a young, bright mind or just
a bright mind, that could be the next guy up
as the head coach right there, and so they could
(08:36):
have a better candidate than Matt Patricia. Right now, I'm
just scratching my head why this is the setup. A
buddy of mine we talked about the Patriots, he's a
Patriots fan months ago, and I was like, who's gonna
be your offensive coordinator? And he's like, I think we're
just gonna roll with Patricia. I looked at him like
he had three heads. I was like, what And that's
(08:57):
exactly what's basically happened here. And I also think this, Jason,
I think it comes down to we know Belichick is
a smart guy, but the question that I think of
is how much smarter did Tom Brady make Belichick look?
And look, Tom Brady is the goat. He's gonna make
a lot of coaches look a lot smarter. He made
(09:18):
Bruce arians look a lot smarter, and Bruce has had success,
but not Super Bowl success, And I think that's a
legitimate question where the interesting thing to me is if
Belichick didn't have even close to the success that he
did with Brady in New England. We would look at
Belichick the way we look at Matt Patricia. We would
(09:39):
look at a guy who had great success as a
defensive coordinator, won super Bowls, and couldn't get it done
as a head coach. We don't look at Matt Patricia
like he's some brainy act, you know what I mean.
We'd be looking at Belichick that way if not for Brady. Now,
I don't want to do a whole Brady Belichick thing.
And you gotta give Belichick credit for putting Tom Brady
(09:59):
in that position early on to be as special as
he is a lot of teams wouldn't have had Brady
on their roster to begin with. A lot of teams
wouldn't have started Brady in his first Super Bowl when
Drew Bledsoe bailed them out when Brady got hurt in
the a f C Title Game against the Steelers. But
Brady has made Belichick look far more competent then he
(10:21):
might be. And he's a really smart dude. But I
think Brady has made him look ten times smarter. Yeah,
look within within two to three years. Here's another question,
this is cross sports. Who do you think is in
a better position as a franchise, Patriots or the San
Antonio Spurs, because these are two teams that often talked
(10:43):
about because they were both dynastic, they both had all
time grades, maybe the best to ever play those positions,
and they had all world coaches. When we were talking about,
you know, the greatest coaches in professional sports history in America,
two names that would inevitably be brought up been to
that conversation would be Belichick, who we spent the brunt
of this segment talking about, and Gregg Popovich. And right now,
(11:06):
the Spurs are an afterthought there. We'll see what they're
gonna do, but they are very much a question mark
at best. And you're looking at the Patriots, You're looking
at two guys that we've given a ton of credit
to who in the last few years, nothing good has
really happened for either one of those two guys. Right Yeah, Now,
it's an interesting point. And you know, talk to me again.
(11:28):
If the Spurs end up with the number one overall
pick when bin Yama, that's that's exactly what they're trying
to do. But you know what's interesting, it's almost like
the Patriots with this plan with Patricia. It's almost as
if they're trying and I'm not saying this is the case.
It's almost as if they're trying to bottom out with
like the Spurs are. But that's totally not what they're doing.
(11:52):
This is they're trying to win games. They're trying to
be a playoff team, They're trying to win double digit
games like they did last season. I just don't think
the plan works for that to happen. So it's just strange, man. There.
I can't make any sense out of it other than
Belichick is comfortable with Matt Patricia. He thinks he can
get the job done, and he knows far more football
(12:12):
than I ever will. I just don't think this plan
is gonna work out. I think Patricia mixed with a
lack of overall talent is not a good mixture at all. Yeah,
do you think at all there's a little bit of
ego in this, Like if you want to try and
give Belichick benefit of the doubt that he's so stubborn
at this point, he he has something to prove, and
so he's actually almost stacking the deck against himself. Like
(12:35):
it seems like I'm trying to understand this Brian, Like,
I'm trying to get why somebody as football smart as
Bill Belichick and all time genius when it comes to
the game that this guy could be allowing this to
happen around him. He has the control to have fixed
a lot of this. He has a whole lot of
personnel control. He and the way that they've always done
(12:57):
things in New England, A lot of it has worked out,
but without Tom Brady. A lot of the things that
you used to be able to get away with doing,
cutting guys when they still had talent, like a year
or two before, and and being always on the cusp
of that kind of thing. It works when you have
that guy at quarterback, but when you have virtually anybody else,
(13:17):
all of those decisions I think get put get put
under a bigger microscope because the risk reward scenario changes
so greatly. Yeah, it really it doesn't make sense. I
don't have any explanation that makes sense. There are a
lot of wild theories like Belichick is trying to do
it his own way. I really don't think Belichick cares
about half of that stuff. I just think that it's
(13:39):
really disrespectful to Josh McDaniels. If you really want to
get down to it. If you could talk to Josh
McDaniels and say, hey, what do you think about the
Patriots plan over there, he wouldn't answer on the record,
but off the record he might be like, do you
think that I can just be replaced by Matt Patricia?
Are you kidding me right now? Like Josh McDaniels is
really good at what he does, and to have a
(14:01):
six year defensive coordinator pick up where Josh McDaniels left off,
that's just not realistic. I don't think this is an
ego trip. I don't think it's Belichick said I'm gonna
do it my own way and I'm gonna prove the
doubters wrong. I just think he doesn't trust a whole
lot of coaches. He trusts Matt Patricia. He thinks he
can get the job done. I just don't think it's
gonna work out. Yeah, I mean, Frank Wright trusted Carson
(14:25):
Wentz also, so you can. You can get yourself into
trouble trusting what happened in the past to happen again
in the present the future after things have changed. When
we come back here on two pros and a cup
of Joe with Brian Ow and Jason martin In for
the guys in the NFL with just a couple of
weeks before the regular season begins. Whose Hype Ain't you buying?
(14:47):
That's next? On Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch
live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
with Brady Quinn, LaVar Errington and Jonas Knocks week days
at six am EA sting three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Man in
Fox Sports Radio, We Don't Suffer no Fools, Roberto Flores
coming back with Friday I'm in Love. Uh yeah, we
(15:09):
we know what day of the week it is. We
have made it, ladies and gentlemen. It is Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with the two Pros and
the Joe out. So it's Brian No Jason martin In
at the No Show at j R Radio. You can
find us there on Twitter. So hype is this is
a season of hope, and it's a season of hype
because nobody's actually played a game that counts yet. So
(15:32):
all the fan base in the league are excited about
the rookie classes, or most of them are. I don't
think Chicago is particularly excited right now, but maybe yeah,
I guess you never know. Um, but the hype train
is a rolling for some teams, and be I wanted
to talk to you and and just ask you point
blank because all the pieces are coming out now, the
(15:54):
teams that are gonna overperform teams they're gonna underperform. We're
gonna talk about that, uh here in the bit as
it relates to one piece of ESPN dot com. But
who's hyper you not buying right now? Where you're seeing
You're seeing things said about this team, and you're just
kind of like, you know what, I'm gonna hold off
just for a minute. We talked at the lead of
this show about Trey Lance and San Francisco. I think
(16:14):
you're feelings about what San Francisco can be hinge on
where you are on the tray Lance spectrum right now.
But who else you think fits in that category of
there's a lot of being said about this team, but
I'm gonna wait and see. Yeah, the Niners definitely fit
that description. For me. It's been hype city and like
Trey Lance stunk it up last night and it's like,
(16:35):
who cares? They're not scripting plays settled down. It's like
throwing too open receivers kind of important. Seeing open receivers
kind of important, you know. I just I think the
comparison thing with Jimmy G who won a lot of games.
They went deep in the playoffs two of the last
three seasons, and I don't think he's the primary or
even secondary reason why. But don't let anything like common
(16:59):
sense getting the way of a hot take, you know
what I mean, Like it's just gonna be why would
you get rid of Jimmy G If Trey Lance is
struggling or the Niners as a team or losing games.
I'm just not buying their hype as a team that
was in the NFC Championship Game last season. Another team
you might look at me sideways on this one, Jason,
But another team that I am more skeptical about than
(17:24):
most are is the Buffalo Bills. I know, and it's
one of these deals where everybody just seems in lock
step with each other, like, oh, Bills ton of talent,
and they do have a ton of talent, and it's like, okay,
but they lost Brian Dable as their offensive coordinators. Now
they head coach with the Giants, so you've got Ken
(17:46):
Dorsey doing this for the first time. That's something to
feel uneasy about. I'm not saying it's gonna be a disaster,
it's just a factor that could go south. Also, I
think we forget that they were eleven and six last year,
just a good record. They were one win better than
the Patriots, one win better. And I think that losing
(18:06):
to the Chiefs in the playoffs the way they did
it got them a lot of props. It got them
a lot of attention. It was as positive of a
loss as you can possibly have because it was just, oh,
if the coin toss goes to Bill's way, Chiefs can't
stop them. They're moving on yaha yah, which is true.
But they found a way to kick a game away
(18:27):
when they had to lead with thirteen seconds to go.
And that's the team everybody is all in on. They
have the talent. But it's like they've got the best
odds to win the Super Bowl. Josh Allen has the
best odds to win m v P. They have favored
on the road in the first game of the year
against the Rams. That hardly ever happens. It's just too
much hype to me and It's one of these deals
(18:49):
in the NFL. An injury here, a bad bounce there,
A team with huge expectations. If they lose a couple
of games, sometimes it's snowballs. And for a team that
everybody seems to be an agreement on, like this team is,
they're nasty. It's just the NFL has a habit of
tapping you on the shoulder and going like to Kembi Matumbo,
(19:10):
like no, no, no, Just when you think you have
it figured out, the NFL reminds you that you don't.
That's one of the teams I'm lower on than most
people are the Buffalo Bills. So all right to that
Bills point, because I find that really interesting. Um, because
they have all the I mean, so many people haven't
penciled into the Super Bowl. I I look at that
and I say, that's much more up in the air proposition,
(19:32):
considering the difficulty of the a f C. Could they
get there? Do they have the roster to get there? Yeah?
Do I believe in McDermott, Yeah, for the most part,
I do. Dorsey has worked with Alan in the past,
so that's at least a good thing. It's not like
he's coming completely out of the woodwork and has never
been with this unit, and he's been with this unit before,
but not in this kind of a role. The other
team in the a f C gets talked about constantly
(19:54):
right now is the Chargers. Yeah, and we know how
good just to Herbert has been and just how much
fun that team looks like on paper they're gonna be
to watch. And then they've had a good offseason, just
like you've gone and picked up Von Miller if you're Buffalo. Uh, well,
I mean the Chargers have picked up J. C. Jackson
(20:15):
and they picked up Khalil Mack and they've done a
couple of things to shore up that team a little
bit more. Um. I have been a little down on
the Chargers just because I just had this sense they
were gonna have health issues and it hadn't happened. It's
actually instead happened to my team, the Denver Broncos, who
have have had a lot of guys dropped in preseason.
But the Chargers hype is awfully high based on absolutely
(20:37):
nothing that's happened in Justin Herbert's career. When it comes
to win loss, Like I know, quarterback, that's a terrible
stat I don't like the win loss stat for quarterbacks
because there's so much else that goes on a football field.
But I saw Kevin Stefanski lad or sorry, I saw
Brandon Staley last year do a couple of things that
we talked about a lot towards the end of games,
(20:58):
and that was what cost Anthony Lynn his job. Brian
was not being good in late game situations. I need
to see that improve. And I need to see this
team make the playoffs before I'm going to put them
in the super Bowl. It's not as if I don't
think they're capable, and all these teams I think you
discussed to have hype. Obviously they're capable. There wouldn't be
any hype if they didn't have a quarterback, if they
(21:18):
didn't have the pieces in place, Nobody is going to
pick them to do all that much. But I need
to see a little bit from the Chargers before I'm
just going to write them into a super Bowl based
on a roster, because we've seen a lot of rosters
that on paper should have gotten YouTube the NBA Finals,
for example, and instead lead to Kevin Durant trying to
(21:39):
get his way out of town, not finding it, and
now still being there. I know I just crossed sports again,
but so that's that to me is one example of
a hype team. The other one I would mention and
I really I like a lot of things about this team,
including I think the best receiver in football right now
is Minnesota. Minnesota is being talked about a lot, being
(22:00):
like green Bay. We know what green Bay has been
in the NFC North forever, but now it's all But
then now they've got an offensive coach. They're gonna unleash
Kirk Cousins, are they? Though? Like, what what does unleashed
Kirk Cousins mean? Because I do think they're better off
without Mike Zimmer at this point. But when you unleashed
(22:22):
Kirk Cousins in prime time or after three thirty Eastern time,
that ain't gone so well. You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
I'll give you two things real fast. With the Chargers,
to me, there's just such a range of what their
season could like. I could see them being this season's
version of the Bengals, where it's like, your skeptical, they've
(22:42):
screwed you time and time again. They've invented ways to
lose games. You don't want to buy in and then
all of a sudden, the Bengals just like, hey, we're
really talented and we don't really care what happened years ago,
and they end up in the super Bowl. I could
see the Chargers doing that. I don't think that's out
of the realm of possibility. Or I could see them
being an extension of what they have been, a very
(23:05):
talented team that underperforms. I could see it going either way.
And as far as the Vikings go, I'm not all
in with them. But in the NFC, like seven teams
are gonna make the playoffs, and so it's really hard
to dismiss a lot of teams outside of the Bears
and teams like that Seahawks, Falcons, Carolina. I feel like
(23:28):
even Carolina, who knows they could sneak maybe challenge for
a playoff spot. I think it's hard to write off
teams just sneaking into the playoffs in the NFCS. That's
the only thing I pause and say. I could see
the Vikings at least making it there. Yeah, I think
it's just more like, oh, they're gonna win the North
and I could almost get there because I'm just I
(23:52):
can't wait to see what Green Bay does or doesn't
do this year, Like I I can't wait to see
that football team play and what Aaron Rodgers is with
this group of wide receivers. And I know he said
Alan Lazar is a one or Alan Lazard is a one.
We know Alan Lazard is not a one at least
at least to this point in his career. But Davanta
Adams was a one. He's gone ken Aaron Rodgers at
(24:12):
this point? Is he that dialed in? How much does
he care? At this point He's gotten the bag. He's
Aaron Rodgers. Uh, the way he walks around and acts.
I don't know how important winning another Super Bowl is
at this point in his career. But at the same time,
it's still Kirk Cousins like, I've got to watch that
happen in the playoffs. I gotta watch that happen in
(24:35):
primetime before I can feel particularly good about saying that
they're gonna dethrone the Green Bay Packers. Be sure to
catch live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe with Brady Quinn, LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knocks week
days at six am East daring three am Pacific. Hey,
it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
(24:57):
Inside the Parker for twenty two two minutes of piping
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We've got all the basis covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
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(25:20):
or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
biggest name the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
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(25:44):
solfa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob
Parker on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you
get your podcast. We are in the Fox Sports Radio
studios to a cup of Joe with Jonas and LaVar
Brady taking a weekend off and excited to be in here,
especially with the NFL preseason finally coming to an end. Look,
(26:04):
I like it more than I used to like it,
just because I'm starved for football B and I think
we all are. But can we get to the games?
That counts? So, because I mentioned how interested I am
to watch Green Bay this year, I thought I would
posit this one to you. What right now do you
think is the number one storyline that you're excited about
(26:27):
entering this football season? I think there are. I think
there's a lot of potential candidates. We could spend twelve
hours probably going down all of them. But what do
you think? Give me a couple. What do you think
the top storylines are for you? What are you watching most?
I know you're watching your Dolphins, and that's certainly important
because of the Toes situation with all the weaponry, But
(26:47):
what else is out there? To me? The thing I'm
most interested in is the a f C. West. I
just want to see how it sorts itself out. I
want to see head to head games. It's an absolute
gauntlet over there, and with these teams that have improved,
the Chargers, they've got a ton of talent. Russell Wilson
added to a Denver defense that's really really good, getting
(27:11):
Derek Carr Davante Adams, Like, we know what the Chief's
credentials are, but to see the Chiefs without Tyreek Hill
and how that plays itself out. I'm fascinated by the
a f C West more than anything else, just to
see how those teams jockey for position and battle it
out and who's in last place, who's the ugly duckling,
who's the team that and what's their record? Are they
(27:32):
nine and eight? Are they barely out of the postseason? Right?
Like I'm just I'm so curious about the a f
C West. That would be first and foremost on my
list this season. Yeah. Look, I think that a lot
of people would have that answer with that maybe the
greatest quarterback division ever assembled. There are a few other candidates,
but it's certainly there. Um, there's always the repeat question,
(27:53):
what can the Rams do this year? I think the
Bengals are pretty fascinating, Um, just because again I think
they addressed what they had to address with the offensive line.
But they're now playing a first place schedule. They're not
gonna get the extra home game that they had last year,
and they're not. I think the other thing, and this
happens a lot. Maybe this explains why it's so hard
to get back. They're the Cincinnati Bengals. Are not sneaking
(28:17):
up on anybody this year. Nobody like they're not gonna
They're not going to surprise. Wow, that's surprisingly. No. Everybody
knows exactly how talented they are. They understand how good
Burrow is. They understand how good Jamar Chases. They understand
how good t Higgins is. They understand how good Joe
Mixing is. They understand the value of Trey Hendrickson. They
understand that Zach Taylor actually might know what he's doing.
(28:40):
They get what's going on there. They've gotten They've gotten better.
I think they're a better team on paper. The chances
they have the same record not as good because the FC,
to your point, got stronger, as did their schedule, and
now not only are they not sneaking up on anybody,
they're kind of the hunted. It is interesting they haven't
(29:01):
been talked about more this offseason. I thought they might
be because of the flashiness of some of the players.
They're not an afterthought. But even if you go to
you know ESPM plus. Right now the splash screen, there's
a giant Josh Allen in the center and everybody else
is surrounding it, and it's like, here's Jamaar Chase, and
(29:23):
here's here's Jalen Hurts, and here's all these different people
from different teams, and then there's Josh To your point
from before the update, there, the Bills have the full
hype train, despite the fact that the Bengals have an
awfully good roster and are coming off. Look, if they
had played better in the last twelve minutes, they might
have won the Super Bowl. Yeah, I know it, right,
(29:43):
if there's a defensive penalty that isn't called, they might
win the super Bowl at the end, right there, they
were that close. But man, heading into this season, I
see them being a little bit like the Michigan Wolverines,
right where Michigan kind of came out of nowhere last
year and ends up in the College Football Playoff. But
this year it's a different story. It's not the perfect
(30:04):
comparison because you lose more talent with Michigan, but it's
the comparison of just can you sustain your success. It's
one thing to sneak up on everybody one season. It's
another thing to sustain that success when they see it coming.
And that's the case for Michigan and college football. That's
the case for the Bengals this season. I think one
other thing I have my eye on, it's just Tampa.
(30:26):
How does the season play out for Tom Brady and Tampa.
It's weird with this eleven day absence. That's so unlike Brady,
who's meticulous with this preparation. I don't expect to have
as big effect on him. But with that interior line
being as banged up as it is, and even in
a an NFC, that is very favorable for Tampa. If
(30:47):
this is the last season for Tom Brady, very well
could be what note does he end on? And that's
a question I'm I'm very curious to see how it's answered,
and we'll see how the season plays out. Yeah, I
think that's I think that's right. I mean, when you
had Jensen, who he wanted taken care of it immediately
after the season, you lose him. You even have a
(31:08):
strained oblique last week in the combined practice with the
Titans for Tristan Whorf's who's one of the best, if
not the best is position in the game. And then
you've got a couple of other guys and then you've
got Mark pet retiring, You've got like, at this point,
if you're Tom Brady and us watching this from from
the outside, um, athleticism not really as strong as suit
(31:30):
like it never really has been. We saw the Philly
Special work for Nick Foles and not work for him
in his Super Bowl and that's a few years back.
That's been a minute since that happened. And that was
when we're starting to say, yeah, you know, you're not
exactly watching Lamar Jackson out there with Tom Brady. So
with that said, and the same thing could be true
of Indianapolis with Matt Ryan. Um, those old lines are
(31:51):
real important to making sure that those qb ones stay
upright and have the time to find their weaponry down
the field. And if I'm Tom Brady, I'm just like, man,
am I sure I should have come back for this
because who exactly is keeping twelve upright? Um? With their
offensive line woes. I am definitely concerned about the Tampa
(32:12):
Bay Buccaneers, there is no question about that. What I'm
not concerned about the ratings for the season for the NFL,
whether it's Amazon, whether it's NFL Network, whether it's any
of the big networks, whether it's Monday night, whether it's
Sunday night, the NFL is king. A fun question to
finish the hour. Is there a television show current or passed?
(32:34):
With House of the Dragon the Game of Thrones prequel
starting uh just this past week streaming and doing over
ten million in its first week? Is there any show
in history that you would watch before an NFL game?
Will come back? It is two Pros and a Cup
of Joe with Brian Know and Jason martin In for
the guys here on Fox Sports Radio. Second hour almost
(32:56):
in the books here on Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back
and hope Friday is going well. Hanging out with Brian Oh,
I'm Jason martin In for the guys. We'll do it
again on Monday, and then they should be geared up
and ready to roll. Um Game of Thrones. The House
of the Dragon prequel did over ten million in the
first couple of days of streaming, and that's, you know,
(33:18):
the biggest hit HBO has had, especially for an HBO
Max streaming number, So it's monstrous. We just saw Better
Call Saul come to an end after six seasons on
a m C. But the NFL is king right seventy
eight I think of was it seventy eight or I
saw seventy eight and I saw ninety three at the
top one under shows where NFL games last year. Now,
(33:39):
this is a hard way to say this because you
can't just say, watch an episode of your favorite show,
we're watching an NFL game. No, if I'm gonna enable
you to take the greatest shows of all time and
that was my thing, what what show? Or is there
a show that you would watch over the NFL. I'm
not suggesting would you watch the Sopranos over Panthers Falcons? Like,
(34:00):
that's not a fair comparison to make. So a series?
Is there a series that you would take over great
NFL games that you don't know the outcomes of? And
this would be hard too, But is there anything or
is the NFL king? No, NFL's king for me. I
mean there are some great shows that I certainly enjoyed.
(34:23):
I loved Breaking Bad. It was my favorite series of
all time. But um, it's one of those deals where
it's just different the way we are with binging shows
and watching them. It's not like you have to watch
it live. You gotta watch a big NFL game live.
It's just not the same to be like, I've got
some stuff to do, I'll watch the replay. It's just
(34:46):
not even close to the same thing. So I think
with that being so different, I don't think there's a
way I can make it apples to apples where it's
like one or the other, which are you gonna choose.
If I could like suspend reality and make it like that,
maybe it's a fairer fight. But the way it is
in reality, it's totally unfair. And me being the NFL
(35:07):
junkie I am, I'm going NFL all day. Yeah. See,
that's interesting what you said about it being live, because
I have grown as I've gotten through, and we have
streaming now, and we have the ability to record ten
channels at once and all this other kind of stuff.
A lot of times I like to watch on a
little bit of a delay so that I can dodge
some commercial breaks, so I can kind of because if
(35:28):
I start the game forty minutes after you do, or
if it's college football game on CBS two hours after
you do, I'll catch up by the time you're done,
Like by the time the live game gets done, I'll
have caught up with that and still had a little
bit extra time. Now, obviously if you're watching with other
people or if you're trying to instantly react on social
media at that point, that changes kind of the calculation.
(35:51):
But I and I do this with golf all the time.
I love golf, and I love watching high end PGA
tournament golf especially, but I don't want to watch it
for seven hours when I can watch it for three.
Like if they're gonna give me an entire US Open
third round and it's seven hours of coverage, I want
to watch all of that, but I want to watch
the shots. I don't want to watch all the commercial
(36:12):
breaks during it. The Masters is the one different one
because there's only four minutes of commercials per hour the
way that it's set up with Augusta National and always
has been with their three sponsors and and CBS. So
I think that's the only thing where I have gotten
to where I don't have to watch it all live
in sports. Now, if I find out the results, I
(36:33):
can't then watch the replay. That's the thing, Like there
is a real like tight rope that you have to
walk if you want to play this game where you've
got to go social media dark. You've got to make
sure that everybody that might call you to talk to
you about the game or send you a message about
the game understands the universe in which you're residing at
that point, Like, do not send me a message, tell
(36:55):
me why did you see that play in the third quarter.
I'm gonna watch it a little bit later. And that
sometimes takes more work than it's worth. And yes, there
is nothing quite like live sports, but we do have
incessant commercial breaks, and they drive me nuts because we're
all used to, like like when we grew up, we
were used to watching commercials. Now we never have to
watch them, so they seem so much more obtrusive, if
(37:18):
that makes sense. Now it makes sense what would be
if you're not going series over an NFL game. I'm
just curious, what's letting like your top two or top
three series of all time? Breaking Bade certainly one of them. Um.
I had to write a top ten list years ago
and wrote a lot on all these series as a
(37:38):
TV critic, and I Lost is my favorite show of
all time. Um, but Breaking Bad is right there, like
it's kind of one and one A. And now, after
watching Better Call Saul, I'm gonna have to rewatch better
watch Breaking Bad to make sure it's the better show,
because I'm not sure Better Call Saul didn't end up
being the more consistent show. Then Breaking Bad, which I
(37:58):
don't think anybody could have foreseen, and going through and
then it's the obvious stuff, I mean, Madmen and The
Wire and many many other shows. Uh, and even presently
right now, you've got Stranger Things, which is just a
ton of fun to watch, and you've got Only Murders
in the Building, which is probably the most criminally underwatch
show on TV. If you've got Hulu and you've never
(38:19):
checked it out, you should. So there's there's so many
options out there, and they're good ones. But luckily the
NFL is still king and we have options to watch
them all over the place. We'll discuss more in the
league coming up. One more hour still to come. On
this Friday, we jumped back into the preseason action and
look towards the NFL
What's happened an hour two here to pros and a
cup of Joe, And they're acting like pros. Brian know
as we welcome you into the Fox Sports Radio studios,
they're acting like Tom Brady. Are LaVar and Brady and
Jonahs taken a couple of days off, scheduled days off.
They'll be ready to go uh here in a couple
of days once we get into next week. But speaking
(00:23):
of Brady, I don't want to talk about Brady specifically.
I want to talk about his former team. I want
to talk about one team, Brian, in the a f
C East and one in the NFC East, And positive
this question to you, which team feels like they are
set for a more baffling, confounding, kind of sad season.
(00:45):
Is it the Dallas Cowboys or very close to home
for you in your division, the a f C East,
is it the New England Patriots, Because that's been kind
of outside of Deshaun Watson, that's been the most interesting
story of the offseason and certainly summer, is what exactly
is happening in New England with Bill Belichick? Is he
getting near the end of his career there? Because I
(01:07):
can't see him being part of a full rebuild. I
don't know what they're doing. Nothing that comes from that
place seems like it's positive right now. But then on
the other side, you look at Dallas. I don't know
what Dallas is gonna be. I know they've lost some
talented guys, one to my Denver Broncos specifically, and now
Tyrone Smith again is out. He's missed twenty games over
(01:29):
the last two years in Dallas. This is an offensive
line that was already kind of problematic. Tyrone can't seem
to stay healthy. He's not gonna be back until December
if everything goes well. Tour his left hand string. It
came off the bone during Wednesday's practice. These are two
teams to glitzy franchises too, of the IT franchises in
(01:53):
the NFL. Brian No, and I'm looking at both of
them and I'm thinking definitely a universe were neither one
of those two teams is in the playoffs. Yeah, I um,
if you're asking me between both. I'm more skeptical about
the Patriots because I look at their plan and I
think it's brutal with Matt Patricia being the play caller,
(02:14):
although he's not you know, his title isn't the offensive coordinator.
He essentially is, right, he's the guy calling plays, and uh,
it's just a weird deal where they were splitting play
calling duties at one time between Matt Patricia and Joe
Judge in a preseason game against the Giants, and it's like,
what is it going on here? It's just become the
(02:35):
story of the off season for the Patriots and their offense. Well,
document has been struggling in training camp in preseason games
and it just doesn't seem like they have a good plan.
I know, and Belichick has said this that there have
been guys Brian Dable, uh, Josh McDaniels. They came from
the defensive side of the ball and they became offensive
(02:58):
play callers, and that's fine, but it's not the same thing.
It's that the same thing as Matt Patricia who was
a de coordinator for six seasons and now he's the
guy calling offensive plays, and mixed with their general lack
of overall talent, that is one of the lesser talented
teams in the NFL. Even in their division. The Bills
are towering over the Patriots and talent the Dolphins have
(03:21):
more talent than the Patriots do. So a lack of
talent mixed with a weird plan and a loaded a
f C. I expect far less from the Patriots, who
are acting like a downsizing radio station. They're acting like
they had a couple of cuts, and it's like, all right, Chris,
that you you run the hip hop station also as
(03:42):
the program director. That's how the Patriots are acting. And
so I don't like Tyrann Smith going down. It's a
big deal for the Cowboys protecting das Blindside, but the
NFC is not even half the gauntlet that the a
f C is. So I'm far more skeptical about the Patriots. See,
I agree with you. I think your points are all
right on, and that's exactly the way I feel about it.
(04:02):
I just I think the Patriots are gonna be bad
this year, and I've thought that since before everything started
coming out about the offense not coalescing during training camp,
because I looked at what they didn't do while everybody
else in the conference was loading up. Like the arms race,
the dreaded arms races, it's sometimes called, it's happening everywhere.
It's happening across the a f C. West. Everybody's trying
(04:24):
to get better, and it seems like the Patriots got worse.
They let some of their better players go. It felt
like a fire sale, and I don't really understand it.
I think that the other and yes, the NFC is
a much easier conference the NFC East. It's still I
like Washington and I like Ron Rivera. But they got
Carson Wentz playing quarterback, Like how am I supposed to
pick that and still have a job afterwards? Like that?
(04:46):
That can't be a thing. And the Giants Daniel Jones,
It ain't Josh Allen two point oh, Brian Dable. He's
gonna get this guy at some point, but I don't
think this guy is there right now. You can see
Tyrod Taylor being the starter by the end of the year.
There at least, just again is a stop gap before
whatever it is that the Giants are gonna do. That
quarterback situation just has not worked out at all. But
(05:08):
so it's Dallas in Philadelphia and there's still question marks
as to what exactly the quarterback is surrounding those weapons
in Philadelphia, and then you get to Dallas. I think
the other question between Dallas and New England, it makes
it interesting? Is it two coaches, two older guys that
have been on the league. Both of them have won
Super Bowls. Mike McCarthy. Seed is hotter because it's Dallas
(05:29):
and and and I just don't think he's done all
that much to create any kind of good equity. And
I don't think Jerry Jones is gonna tolerate that as
long as he did Jason Garrett, who absolutely loved as
a person. But I'm still looking at Belichick and I'm
just trying to figure out what's the endgame here. Like
you know, Nick Saban came out and said I feel young,
basically saying I'm not going anywhere. I still have my
(05:51):
doubts about that. My my prediction is within five years
he's no longer at Alabama and maybe completely out of
college football. I mean, he is seventy years old. But
you look at Belichick. Is Belichick wired for this? Is
he wired too not win games, not be particularly relevant?
Have a quarterback that I like Mac Jones, But I
(06:11):
don't think anybody loves Mac Jones in terms of what
his actual ceiling is in the NFL. I'm just looking
at the rest of that division and saying there is
certainly a universe where the Patriots are the worst team
in that division. Now was Zack Wilson, They're probably not
going to be, But the Jets have done some good
(06:31):
things around Zack to at least put him in position
if he can be the guy. He's gonna have every
opportunity to prove that with some of the things that
they've done, both in the draft of free agency over
the last two years. But New England, who is mac
Jones throwing the ball too? That you feel particularly good about?
Like Kendrick Bourne's a solid two three wide receiver in
the league, and maybe that's undercutting his skill set a
(06:53):
little bit. But Agalore and the two tight ends, nothing
makes sense at all, and it in what world do
you become better by giving Matt Patricia control over your offense.
He was a defensive guy who everybody wanted to retire
in Detroit while he was the head coach there because
(07:13):
he wasn't fun to play with. He's now supposed to
be the mastermind behind this. That almost feels like Belichick
knows this ain't gonna go well. I'm gonna go ahead
and find a way to create a scapegoat. Not gonna
give him the title, but everybody's gonna kind of know
he's one of the play callers. You've got multiple dudes
calling plays in the same game. Belichick doesn't look like
(07:34):
it just seems like it's miserable in New England right now,
which look as a Dolphins fan, Brian, I'm sure that
you I'm sure that you have a slight grin on
your face talks about this. Yeah, you gotta have what
It's just weird. It's one of those things we've talked
about the Patriots for so long. Stability. They know what
they're doing. If you're Mac Jones, you go to that organization,
(07:55):
you're in good hands. And now you look at this
plan and it's like it's just makes zero sense. And
this is the Patriots right where Belichick easily could have
one of the sharper offensive coordinator minds, an up and
coming guy or a guy that's already established. He could
have someone better than Matt Patricia right now. I think
(08:16):
that's why Josh McDaniels hung around as long as he did,
where he was sort of the coach in waiting, and
I think he got tired of waiting and he had
an opportunity to go to the Raiders. But the next
offensive coordinator, if it's a young, bright mind or just
a bright mind, that could be the next guy up
as the head coach right there, and so they could
(08:36):
have a better candidate than Matt Patricia. Right now, I'm
just scratching my head why this is the setup. A
buddy of mine we talked about the Patriots, he's a
Patriots fan months ago, and I was like, who's gonna
be your offensive coordinator? And he's like, I think we're
just gonna roll with Patricia. I looked at him like
he had three heads. I was like, what And that's
(08:57):
exactly what's basically happened here. And I also think this, Jason,
I think it comes down to we know Belichick is
a smart guy, but the question that I think of
is how much smarter did Tom Brady make Belichick look?
And look, Tom Brady is the goat. He's gonna make
a lot of coaches look a lot smarter. He made
(09:18):
Bruce arians look a lot smarter, and Bruce has had success,
but not Super Bowl success, And I think that's a
legitimate question where the interesting thing to me is if
Belichick didn't have even close to the success that he
did with Brady in New England. We would look at
Belichick the way we look at Matt Patricia. We would
(09:39):
look at a guy who had great success as a
defensive coordinator, won super Bowls, and couldn't get it done
as a head coach. We don't look at Matt Patricia
like he's some brainy act, you know what I mean.
We'd be looking at Belichick that way if not for Brady. Now,
I don't want to do a whole Brady Belichick thing.
And you gotta give Belichick credit for putting Tom Brady
(09:59):
in that position early on to be as special as
he is a lot of teams wouldn't have had Brady
on their roster to begin with. A lot of teams
wouldn't have started Brady in his first Super Bowl when
Drew Bledsoe bailed them out when Brady got hurt in
the a f C Title Game against the Steelers. But
Brady has made Belichick look far more competent then he
(10:21):
might be. And he's a really smart dude. But I
think Brady has made him look ten times smarter. Yeah,
look within within two to three years. Here's another question,
this is cross sports. Who do you think is in
a better position as a franchise, Patriots or the San
Antonio Spurs, because these are two teams that often talked
(10:43):
about because they were both dynastic, they both had all
time grades, maybe the best to ever play those positions,
and they had all world coaches. When we were talking about,
you know, the greatest coaches in professional sports history in America,
two names that would inevitably be brought up been to
that conversation would be Belichick, who we spent the brunt
of this segment talking about, and Gregg Popovich. And right now,
(11:06):
the Spurs are an afterthought there. We'll see what they're
gonna do, but they are very much a question mark
at best. And you're looking at the Patriots, You're looking
at two guys that we've given a ton of credit
to who in the last few years, nothing good has
really happened for either one of those two guys. Right Yeah, Now,
it's an interesting point. And you know, talk to me again.
(11:28):
If the Spurs end up with the number one overall
pick when bin Yama, that's that's exactly what they're trying
to do. But you know what's interesting, it's almost like
the Patriots with this plan with Patricia. It's almost as
if they're trying and I'm not saying this is the case.
It's almost as if they're trying to bottom out with
like the Spurs are. But that's totally not what they're doing.
(11:52):
This is they're trying to win games. They're trying to
be a playoff team, They're trying to win double digit
games like they did last season. I just don't think
the plan works for that to happen. So it's just strange, man. There.
I can't make any sense out of it other than
Belichick is comfortable with Matt Patricia. He thinks he can
get the job done, and he knows far more football
(12:12):
than I ever will. I just don't think this plan
is gonna work out. I think Patricia mixed with a
lack of overall talent is not a good mixture at all. Yeah,
do you think at all there's a little bit of
ego in this, Like if you want to try and
give Belichick benefit of the doubt that he's so stubborn
at this point, he he has something to prove, and
so he's actually almost stacking the deck against himself. Like
(12:35):
it seems like I'm trying to understand this Brian, Like,
I'm trying to get why somebody as football smart as
Bill Belichick and all time genius when it comes to
the game that this guy could be allowing this to
happen around him. He has the control to have fixed
a lot of this. He has a whole lot of
personnel control. He and the way that they've always done
(12:57):
things in New England, A lot of it has worked out,
but without Tom Brady. A lot of the things that
you used to be able to get away with doing,
cutting guys when they still had talent, like a year
or two before, and and being always on the cusp
of that kind of thing. It works when you have
that guy at quarterback, but when you have virtually anybody else,
(13:17):
all of those decisions I think get put get put
under a bigger microscope because the risk reward scenario changes
so greatly. Yeah, it really it doesn't make sense. I
don't have any explanation that makes sense. There are a
lot of wild theories like Belichick is trying to do
it his own way. I really don't think Belichick cares
about half of that stuff. I just think that it's
(13:39):
really disrespectful to Josh McDaniels. If you really want to
get down to it. If you could talk to Josh
McDaniels and say, hey, what do you think about the
Patriots plan over there, he wouldn't answer on the record,
but off the record he might be like, do you
think that I can just be replaced by Matt Patricia?
Are you kidding me right now? Like Josh McDaniels is
really good at what he does, and to have a
(14:01):
six year defensive coordinator pick up where Josh McDaniels left off,
that's just not realistic. I don't think this is an
ego trip. I don't think it's Belichick said I'm gonna
do it my own way and I'm gonna prove the
doubters wrong. I just think he doesn't trust a whole
lot of coaches. He trusts Matt Patricia. He thinks he
can get the job done. I just don't think it's
gonna work out. Yeah, I mean, Frank Wright trusted Carson
(14:25):
Wentz also, so you can. You can get yourself into
trouble trusting what happened in the past to happen again
in the present the future after things have changed. When
we come back here on two pros and a cup
of Joe with Brian Ow and Jason martin In for
the guys in the NFL with just a couple of
weeks before the regular season begins. Whose Hype Ain't you buying?
(14:47):
That's next? On Fox Sports Radio. Be sure to catch
live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
with Brady Quinn, LaVar Errington and Jonas Knocks week days
at six am EA sting three am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Man in
Fox Sports Radio, We Don't Suffer no Fools, Roberto Flores
coming back with Friday I'm in Love. Uh yeah, we
(15:09):
we know what day of the week it is. We
have made it, ladies and gentlemen. It is Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with the two Pros and
the Joe out. So it's Brian No Jason martin In
at the No Show at j R Radio. You can
find us there on Twitter. So hype is this is
a season of hope, and it's a season of hype
because nobody's actually played a game that counts yet. So
(15:32):
all the fan base in the league are excited about
the rookie classes, or most of them are. I don't
think Chicago is particularly excited right now, but maybe yeah,
I guess you never know. Um, but the hype train
is a rolling for some teams, and be I wanted
to talk to you and and just ask you point
blank because all the pieces are coming out now, the
(15:54):
teams that are gonna overperform teams they're gonna underperform. We're
gonna talk about that, uh here in the bit as
it relates to one piece of ESPN dot com. But
who's hyper you not buying right now? Where you're seeing
You're seeing things said about this team, and you're just
kind of like, you know what, I'm gonna hold off
just for a minute. We talked at the lead of
this show about Trey Lance and San Francisco. I think
(16:14):
you're feelings about what San Francisco can be hinge on
where you are on the tray Lance spectrum right now.
But who else you think fits in that category of
there's a lot of being said about this team, but
I'm gonna wait and see. Yeah, the Niners definitely fit
that description. For me. It's been hype city and like
Trey Lance stunk it up last night and it's like,
(16:35):
who cares? They're not scripting plays settled down. It's like
throwing too open receivers kind of important. Seeing open receivers
kind of important, you know. I just I think the
comparison thing with Jimmy G who won a lot of games.
They went deep in the playoffs two of the last
three seasons, and I don't think he's the primary or
even secondary reason why. But don't let anything like common
(16:59):
sense getting the way of a hot take, you know
what I mean, Like it's just gonna be why would
you get rid of Jimmy G If Trey Lance is
struggling or the Niners as a team or losing games.
I'm just not buying their hype as a team that
was in the NFC Championship Game last season. Another team
you might look at me sideways on this one, Jason,
But another team that I am more skeptical about than
(17:24):
most are is the Buffalo Bills. I know, and it's
one of these deals where everybody just seems in lock
step with each other, like, oh, Bills ton of talent,
and they do have a ton of talent, and it's like, okay,
but they lost Brian Dable as their offensive coordinators. Now
they head coach with the Giants, so you've got Ken
(17:46):
Dorsey doing this for the first time. That's something to
feel uneasy about. I'm not saying it's gonna be a disaster,
it's just a factor that could go south. Also, I
think we forget that they were eleven and six last year,
just a good record. They were one win better than
the Patriots, one win better. And I think that losing
(18:06):
to the Chiefs in the playoffs the way they did
it got them a lot of props. It got them
a lot of attention. It was as positive of a
loss as you can possibly have because it was just, oh,
if the coin toss goes to Bill's way, Chiefs can't
stop them. They're moving on yaha yah, which is true.
But they found a way to kick a game away
(18:27):
when they had to lead with thirteen seconds to go.
And that's the team everybody is all in on. They
have the talent. But it's like they've got the best
odds to win the Super Bowl. Josh Allen has the
best odds to win m v P. They have favored
on the road in the first game of the year
against the Rams. That hardly ever happens. It's just too
much hype to me and It's one of these deals
(18:49):
in the NFL. An injury here, a bad bounce there,
A team with huge expectations. If they lose a couple
of games, sometimes it's snowballs. And for a team that
everybody seems to be an agreement on, like this team is,
they're nasty. It's just the NFL has a habit of
tapping you on the shoulder and going like to Kembi Matumbo,
(19:10):
like no, no, no, Just when you think you have
it figured out, the NFL reminds you that you don't.
That's one of the teams I'm lower on than most
people are the Buffalo Bills. So all right to that
Bills point, because I find that really interesting. Um, because
they have all the I mean, so many people haven't
penciled into the Super Bowl. I I look at that
and I say, that's much more up in the air proposition,
(19:32):
considering the difficulty of the a f C. Could they
get there? Do they have the roster to get there? Yeah?
Do I believe in McDermott, Yeah, for the most part,
I do. Dorsey has worked with Alan in the past,
so that's at least a good thing. It's not like
he's coming completely out of the woodwork and has never
been with this unit, and he's been with this unit before,
but not in this kind of a role. The other
team in the a f C gets talked about constantly
(19:54):
right now is the Chargers. Yeah, and we know how
good just to Herbert has been and just how much
fun that team looks like on paper they're gonna be
to watch. And then they've had a good offseason, just
like you've gone and picked up Von Miller if you're Buffalo. Uh, well,
I mean the Chargers have picked up J. C. Jackson
(20:15):
and they picked up Khalil Mack and they've done a
couple of things to shore up that team a little
bit more. Um. I have been a little down on
the Chargers just because I just had this sense they
were gonna have health issues and it hadn't happened. It's
actually instead happened to my team, the Denver Broncos, who
have have had a lot of guys dropped in preseason.
But the Chargers hype is awfully high based on absolutely
(20:37):
nothing that's happened in Justin Herbert's career. When it comes
to win loss, Like I know, quarterback, that's a terrible
stat I don't like the win loss stat for quarterbacks
because there's so much else that goes on a football field.
But I saw Kevin Stefanski lad or sorry, I saw
Brandon Staley last year do a couple of things that
we talked about a lot towards the end of games,
(20:58):
and that was what cost Anthony Lynn his job. Brian
was not being good in late game situations. I need
to see that improve. And I need to see this
team make the playoffs before I'm going to put them
in the super Bowl. It's not as if I don't
think they're capable, and all these teams I think you
discussed to have hype. Obviously they're capable. There wouldn't be
any hype if they didn't have a quarterback, if they
(21:18):
didn't have the pieces in place, Nobody is going to
pick them to do all that much. But I need
to see a little bit from the Chargers before I'm
just going to write them into a super Bowl based
on a roster, because we've seen a lot of rosters
that on paper should have gotten YouTube the NBA Finals,
for example, and instead lead to Kevin Durant trying to
(21:39):
get his way out of town, not finding it, and
now still being there. I know I just crossed sports again,
but so that's that to me is one example of
a hype team. The other one I would mention and
I really I like a lot of things about this team,
including I think the best receiver in football right now
is Minnesota. Minnesota is being talked about a lot, being
(22:00):
like green Bay. We know what green Bay has been
in the NFC North forever, but now it's all But
then now they've got an offensive coach. They're gonna unleash
Kirk Cousins, are they? Though? Like, what what does unleashed
Kirk Cousins mean? Because I do think they're better off
without Mike Zimmer at this point. But when you unleashed
(22:22):
Kirk Cousins in prime time or after three thirty Eastern time,
that ain't gone so well. You know what I'm saying. Yeah,
I'll give you two things real fast. With the Chargers,
to me, there's just such a range of what their
season could like. I could see them being this season's
version of the Bengals, where it's like, your skeptical, they've
(22:42):
screwed you time and time again. They've invented ways to
lose games. You don't want to buy in and then
all of a sudden, the Bengals just like, hey, we're
really talented and we don't really care what happened years ago,
and they end up in the super Bowl. I could
see the Chargers doing that. I don't think that's out
of the realm of possibility. Or I could see them
being an extension of what they have been, a very
(23:05):
talented team that underperforms. I could see it going either way.
And as far as the Vikings go, I'm not all
in with them. But in the NFC, like seven teams
are gonna make the playoffs, and so it's really hard
to dismiss a lot of teams outside of the Bears
and teams like that Seahawks, Falcons, Carolina. I feel like
(23:28):
even Carolina, who knows they could sneak maybe challenge for
a playoff spot. I think it's hard to write off
teams just sneaking into the playoffs in the NFCS. That's
the only thing I pause and say. I could see
the Vikings at least making it there. Yeah, I think
it's just more like, oh, they're gonna win the North
and I could almost get there because I'm just I
(23:52):
can't wait to see what Green Bay does or doesn't
do this year, Like I I can't wait to see
that football team play and what Aaron Rodgers is with
this group of wide receivers. And I know he said
Alan Lazar is a one or Alan Lazard is a one.
We know Alan Lazard is not a one at least
at least to this point in his career. But Davanta
Adams was a one. He's gone ken Aaron Rodgers at
(24:12):
this point? Is he that dialed in? How much does
he care? At this point He's gotten the bag. He's
Aaron Rodgers. Uh, the way he walks around and acts.
I don't know how important winning another Super Bowl is
at this point in his career. But at the same time,
it's still Kirk Cousins like, I've got to watch that
happen in the playoffs. I gotta watch that happen in
(24:35):
primetime before I can feel particularly good about saying that
they're gonna dethrone the Green Bay Packers. Be sure to
catch live editions of Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe with Brady Quinn, LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knocks week
days at six am East daring three am Pacific. Hey,
it's me Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast,
(24:57):
Inside the Parker for twenty two two minutes of piping
hot baseball talk featuring the biggest name the newsmakers in
the sport. Whether you believe in analytics or the I cast,
We've got all the basis covered. New episodes drop every Thursday,
So do your solfa favor and listen to Inside the
Parker with Rob Parker on the I Heart Radio app
(25:20):
or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk featuring the
biggest name the newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the
basis covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do your
(25:44):
solfa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob
Parker on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you
get your podcast. We are in the Fox Sports Radio
studios to a cup of Joe with Jonas and LaVar
Brady taking a weekend off and excited to be in here,
especially with the NFL preseason finally coming to an end. Look,
(26:04):
I like it more than I used to like it,
just because I'm starved for football B and I think
we all are. But can we get to the games?
That counts? So, because I mentioned how interested I am
to watch Green Bay this year, I thought I would
posit this one to you. What right now do you
think is the number one storyline that you're excited about
(26:27):
entering this football season? I think there are. I think
there's a lot of potential candidates. We could spend twelve
hours probably going down all of them. But what do
you think? Give me a couple. What do you think
the top storylines are for you? What are you watching most?
I know you're watching your Dolphins, and that's certainly important
because of the Toes situation with all the weaponry, But
(26:47):
what else is out there? To me? The thing I'm
most interested in is the a f C. West. I
just want to see how it sorts itself out. I
want to see head to head games. It's an absolute
gauntlet over there, and with these teams that have improved,
the Chargers, they've got a ton of talent. Russell Wilson
added to a Denver defense that's really really good, getting
(27:11):
Derek Carr Davante Adams, Like, we know what the Chief's
credentials are, but to see the Chiefs without Tyreek Hill
and how that plays itself out. I'm fascinated by the
a f C West more than anything else, just to
see how those teams jockey for position and battle it
out and who's in last place, who's the ugly duckling,
who's the team that and what's their record? Are they
(27:32):
nine and eight? Are they barely out of the postseason? Right?
Like I'm just I'm so curious about the a f
C West. That would be first and foremost on my
list this season. Yeah. Look, I think that a lot
of people would have that answer with that maybe the
greatest quarterback division ever assembled. There are a few other candidates,
but it's certainly there. Um, there's always the repeat question,
(27:53):
what can the Rams do this year? I think the
Bengals are pretty fascinating, Um, just because again I think
they addressed what they had to address with the offensive line.
But they're now playing a first place schedule. They're not
gonna get the extra home game that they had last year,
and they're not. I think the other thing, and this
happens a lot. Maybe this explains why it's so hard
to get back. They're the Cincinnati Bengals. Are not sneaking
(28:17):
up on anybody this year. Nobody like they're not gonna
They're not going to surprise. Wow, that's surprisingly. No. Everybody
knows exactly how talented they are. They understand how good
Burrow is. They understand how good Jamar Chases. They understand
how good t Higgins is. They understand how good Joe
Mixing is. They understand the value of Trey Hendrickson. They
understand that Zach Taylor actually might know what he's doing.
(28:40):
They get what's going on there. They've gotten They've gotten better.
I think they're a better team on paper. The chances
they have the same record not as good because the FC,
to your point, got stronger, as did their schedule, and
now not only are they not sneaking up on anybody,
they're kind of the hunted. It is interesting they haven't
(29:01):
been talked about more this offseason. I thought they might
be because of the flashiness of some of the players.
They're not an afterthought. But even if you go to
you know ESPM plus. Right now the splash screen, there's
a giant Josh Allen in the center and everybody else
is surrounding it, and it's like, here's Jamaar Chase, and
(29:23):
here's here's Jalen Hurts, and here's all these different people
from different teams, and then there's Josh To your point
from before the update, there, the Bills have the full
hype train, despite the fact that the Bengals have an
awfully good roster and are coming off. Look, if they
had played better in the last twelve minutes, they might
have won the Super Bowl. Yeah, I know it, right,
(29:43):
if there's a defensive penalty that isn't called, they might
win the super Bowl at the end, right there, they
were that close. But man, heading into this season, I
see them being a little bit like the Michigan Wolverines,
right where Michigan kind of came out of nowhere last
year and ends up in the College Football Playoff. But
this year it's a different story. It's not the perfect
(30:04):
comparison because you lose more talent with Michigan, but it's
the comparison of just can you sustain your success. It's
one thing to sneak up on everybody one season. It's
another thing to sustain that success when they see it coming.
And that's the case for Michigan and college football. That's
the case for the Bengals this season. I think one
other thing I have my eye on, it's just Tampa.
(30:26):
How does the season play out for Tom Brady and Tampa.
It's weird with this eleven day absence. That's so unlike Brady,
who's meticulous with this preparation. I don't expect to have
as big effect on him. But with that interior line
being as banged up as it is, and even in
a an NFC, that is very favorable for Tampa. If
(30:47):
this is the last season for Tom Brady, very well
could be what note does he end on? And that's
a question I'm I'm very curious to see how it's answered,
and we'll see how the season plays out. Yeah, I
think that's I think that's right. I mean, when you
had Jensen, who he wanted taken care of it immediately
after the season, you lose him. You even have a
(31:08):
strained oblique last week in the combined practice with the
Titans for Tristan Whorf's who's one of the best, if
not the best is position in the game. And then
you've got a couple of other guys and then you've
got Mark pet retiring, You've got like, at this point,
if you're Tom Brady and us watching this from from
the outside, um, athleticism not really as strong as suit
(31:30):
like it never really has been. We saw the Philly
Special work for Nick Foles and not work for him
in his Super Bowl and that's a few years back.
That's been a minute since that happened. And that was
when we're starting to say, yeah, you know, you're not
exactly watching Lamar Jackson out there with Tom Brady. So
with that said, and the same thing could be true
of Indianapolis with Matt Ryan. Um, those old lines are
(31:51):
real important to making sure that those qb ones stay
upright and have the time to find their weaponry down
the field. And if I'm Tom Brady, I'm just like, man,
am I sure I should have come back for this
because who exactly is keeping twelve upright? Um? With their
offensive line woes. I am definitely concerned about the Tampa
(32:12):
Bay Buccaneers, there is no question about that. What I'm
not concerned about the ratings for the season for the NFL,
whether it's Amazon, whether it's NFL Network, whether it's any
of the big networks, whether it's Monday night, whether it's
Sunday night, the NFL is king. A fun question to
finish the hour. Is there a television show current or passed?
(32:34):
With House of the Dragon the Game of Thrones prequel
starting uh just this past week streaming and doing over
ten million in its first week? Is there any show
in history that you would watch before an NFL game?
Will come back? It is two Pros and a Cup
of Joe with Brian Know and Jason martin In for
the guys here on Fox Sports Radio. Second hour almost
(32:56):
in the books here on Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back
and hope Friday is going well. Hanging out with Brian Oh,
I'm Jason martin In for the guys. We'll do it
again on Monday, and then they should be geared up
and ready to roll. Um Game of Thrones. The House
of the Dragon prequel did over ten million in the
first couple of days of streaming, and that's, you know,
(33:18):
the biggest hit HBO has had, especially for an HBO
Max streaming number, So it's monstrous. We just saw Better
Call Saul come to an end after six seasons on
a m C. But the NFL is king right seventy
eight I think of was it seventy eight or I
saw seventy eight and I saw ninety three at the
top one under shows where NFL games last year. Now,
(33:39):
this is a hard way to say this because you
can't just say, watch an episode of your favorite show,
we're watching an NFL game. No, if I'm gonna enable
you to take the greatest shows of all time and
that was my thing, what what show? Or is there
a show that you would watch over the NFL. I'm
not suggesting would you watch the Sopranos over Panthers Falcons? Like,
(34:00):
that's not a fair comparison to make. So a series?
Is there a series that you would take over great
NFL games that you don't know the outcomes of? And
this would be hard too, But is there anything or
is the NFL king? No, NFL's king for me. I
mean there are some great shows that I certainly enjoyed.
(34:23):
I loved Breaking Bad. It was my favorite series of
all time. But um, it's one of those deals where
it's just different the way we are with binging shows
and watching them. It's not like you have to watch
it live. You gotta watch a big NFL game live.
It's just not the same to be like, I've got
some stuff to do, I'll watch the replay. It's just
(34:46):
not even close to the same thing. So I think
with that being so different, I don't think there's a
way I can make it apples to apples where it's
like one or the other, which are you gonna choose.
If I could like suspend reality and make it like that,
maybe it's a fairer fight. But the way it is
in reality, it's totally unfair. And me being the NFL
(35:07):
junkie I am, I'm going NFL all day. Yeah. See,
that's interesting what you said about it being live, because
I have grown as I've gotten through, and we have
streaming now, and we have the ability to record ten
channels at once and all this other kind of stuff.
A lot of times I like to watch on a
little bit of a delay so that I can dodge
some commercial breaks, so I can kind of because if
(35:28):
I start the game forty minutes after you do, or
if it's college football game on CBS two hours after
you do, I'll catch up by the time you're done,
Like by the time the live game gets done, I'll
have caught up with that and still had a little
bit extra time. Now, obviously if you're watching with other
people or if you're trying to instantly react on social
media at that point, that changes kind of the calculation.
(35:51):
But I and I do this with golf all the time.
I love golf, and I love watching high end PGA
tournament golf especially, but I don't want to watch it
for seven hours when I can watch it for three.
Like if they're gonna give me an entire US Open
third round and it's seven hours of coverage, I want
to watch all of that, but I want to watch
the shots. I don't want to watch all the commercial
(36:12):
breaks during it. The Masters is the one different one
because there's only four minutes of commercials per hour the
way that it's set up with Augusta National and always
has been with their three sponsors and and CBS. So
I think that's the only thing where I have gotten
to where I don't have to watch it all live
in sports. Now, if I find out the results, I
(36:33):
can't then watch the replay. That's the thing, Like there
is a real like tight rope that you have to
walk if you want to play this game where you've
got to go social media dark. You've got to make
sure that everybody that might call you to talk to
you about the game or send you a message about
the game understands the universe in which you're residing at
that point, Like, do not send me a message, tell
(36:55):
me why did you see that play in the third quarter.
I'm gonna watch it a little bit later. And that
sometimes takes more work than it's worth. And yes, there
is nothing quite like live sports, but we do have
incessant commercial breaks, and they drive me nuts because we're
all used to, like like when we grew up, we
were used to watching commercials. Now we never have to
watch them, so they seem so much more obtrusive, if
(37:18):
that makes sense. Now it makes sense what would be
if you're not going series over an NFL game. I'm
just curious, what's letting like your top two or top
three series of all time? Breaking Bade certainly one of them. Um.
I had to write a top ten list years ago
and wrote a lot on all these series as a
(37:38):
TV critic, and I Lost is my favorite show of
all time. Um, but Breaking Bad is right there, like
it's kind of one and one A. And now, after
watching Better Call Saul, I'm gonna have to rewatch better
watch Breaking Bad to make sure it's the better show,
because I'm not sure Better Call Saul didn't end up
being the more consistent show. Then Breaking Bad, which I
(37:58):
don't think anybody could have foreseen, and going through and
then it's the obvious stuff, I mean, Madmen and The
Wire and many many other shows. Uh, and even presently
right now, you've got Stranger Things, which is just a
ton of fun to watch, and you've got Only Murders
in the Building, which is probably the most criminally underwatch
show on TV. If you've got Hulu and you've never
(38:19):
checked it out, you should. So there's there's so many
options out there, and they're good ones. But luckily the
NFL is still king and we have options to watch
them all over the place. We'll discuss more in the
league coming up. One more hour still to come. On
this Friday, we jumped back into the preseason action and
look towards the NFL
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