Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Take Talk Episode 38

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Hosts Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Steven ORourke (@callmesteveo7) are joined by Chris Wecht (ChrisWechtFF) to reveal their award-winners for the season, as well as look ahead to the AFC and NFC Championships. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived. Golden Nugget online casino is live. Bringing Vegas-style excitement and a world-class gaming experience right to your fingertips. Whether you're a seasoned player or just starting, signing up is fast and simple. And in just a few clicks, you can have access to our exclusive library of the best slots and top-tier table games. Make the most of your downtime with unbeatable promotions and jackpots that can turn any mundane moment into a golden, opportunity at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Take a spin on the slots, challenge yourself at the

tables, or join a live dealer game to feel the thrill of real-time action, all from the comfort of your own devices. Why settle for less when you can go for the gold at Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call connects Ontario 1866531-260. 19 and over, physically present in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. Please play responsibly. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Hello, everyone, and welcome into the Take Talk podcast.

I'm Stephen O'Rourke, and as always, I'm with my co-host, Brett Whitefield, and joining us today, as he has the last couple weeks. because he's an awesome addition to the podcast is Chris Wecht. And gentlemen, before we jump in, us being all big TV show watchers, we have to talk about how HBO didn't miss again. They never do, but they have another banger of a show out in The Last of Us. And I know both of you are watching. Yeah, I mean, so HBO, well, first of all,

my background, I knew nothing about The Last of Us. I didn't play the game. I didn't even see a lot of hype for the show. I just know that The Mandalorian plays the main character. So I was interested. And then the other day, Chris was like, hey, man, you should watch the show. I assumed when he said that, the show was done. Or, like, had already, like, a season had passed.

I didn't realize I was jumping into a newly minted show. Yeah. For the last two nights, my wife and I went back to back and we got both the current episodes out done. But when you say it's not a, you know, they didn't miss. I would agree so far, but it is only two episodes. But two fantastic episodes at that, so. Chris, you on the other hand, you've, you played the game, you know the lore and all that. Yeah, I was, I was excited that they were making the show and was anticipating it coming out

and was not disappointed at all for two episodes, two episodes in terms of, you know, how things they've tweaked from the game, things they've kept pretty much the same from the game. I think they're pretty much nailing it so far. It's a great show. Brett thinks it's a little too scary, but he's going to get through it because it's a very good show. Full of disclosure, my wife and I don't do scary. Like, it's the one genre we don't really dabble into.

And so it is, it's a little breathtaking at moments. Yeah. I know, I know. A little jump. I know zombie shows are a little bit overdone at this point, but this has a nice tweak on it and it's not exactly the same. and you know just it's a little bit of a different spin. That's what I was going to say is that for a genre that has been hammered the last like

two decades. Yeah. And especially with like the Walking Dead actually like ironically just finishing up as well. It's it is like refreshing to see that it isn't just the same old like, you know, repeat formula, insert different actors, insert different city or whatever and then go. it is different and well thought out yeah and then they they booked a pretty solid lead too with oh my gosh i'm blaking on his name Pedro pascal heyro pascal there you go so and then uh and then bella ramsie yeah lady morbaut from the game of throne series she's a little bit older now but uh she's she's

fantastic too yeah yeah yeah the uh i mean this might be one of the this might change the narrative on video game narratives being turned into shows. Like most of them have been not good. Right. There's been some. Yeah. Assassin's weird. Oh, yeah.

Wait, that's a show? No, it's a movie. Yeah. Not good at all. It didn't go well. Yeah, it didn't go well. So, so far,

I mean, like, it's almost amazing how, how, like, because video, not all, but a lot of video games are basically just giant movies you're playing through.

And like, how are they not had success? doing this for people that don't play the video games yet. So hopefully it's more to come in that area. I couldn't agree more because I yeah, I think the same thing all the time where I'm like it feels like they basically just they wrote it out for you like it's 20 whatever you know 20 plus hours of gameplay usually like the blueprint's there like it's funny how that can be

so hard to adapt it. Yeah. But enough. enough of TV on to the stuff that we're really that's really important and that's the NFL awards coming up. Oh yeah. Not the games. It's the NFL awards.

That's the most important thing. Well, we only got two games this week. So it's like, you know, do we really want to spend over an hour talking two games or should we splice in a little extra fun and we have not revisited the award talk? You know, we did a preseason award thing. we did a mid-season recap and now we have we can actually pick our winners who we think should win do you guys have who you guys gave out those awards in pre and mid-season i can find it or have they or have they i guess the better question is have they changed

a lot since then for you i know thinking back there are there are a couple that did not land but i do have i did have a couple from pre-season that i still feel solid about, I should say. I don't think I picked anyone that necessarily is going to win, but I think I was, I can stand by my, a couple of my preseason choices. Nice. Yeah, I think actually my, uh,

Offensive Player of the Year award is going to, I'm picking who I picked to win it. So I think, I think I was close on that. But, uh, Yeah, well, let's just dive right in. So let's start with the less interesting awards and kind of build up to MVP. I know a lot of people do it the other way.

And I'd rather not be anti-climatic. So let's start with Coach of the Year. I know Chris is probably going to be different on this than us because he's biased. Chris, who do you? I don't, I guess I don't have who you think I have. Okay, wow. I'm assuming you thought I would go with Siriani. and while, man, it's, I think he's definitely deserving of it.

But I think, man, I don't know. I don't want to give it to him because it feels like I should. But I was more impressed, I think, with what Doug Peterson did. Oh, there is. The other bias. Former Eagles coach, Doug Peterson. To go. to go from the first

Got you on that one. Yeah, you did. To go from the first overall pick in the draft last year with a team that, you know, Lawrence had promised didn't really show anything in his rookie year mostly because of Urban Meyer, but the rest of the roster was also not good,

but in most people's eyes. And to come out and win the division and then win a playoff game in the fashion that they wanted was just I mean Doug's a good coach like he really is a very good NFL coach and he'll be around as long as he wants as long as he doesn't let some loyalty issues get to him over the years and wherever he is but him what he did turning around Lawrence's career I mean we we talked multiple times on this podcast about how good Lawrence looks and how he's basically close

to getting in that tier of up and coming young QBs with Herbert Burrow. I mean, you can make the argument he's even past Herbert at this point as far as what his expectation should be going forward. Absolutely. But we just need more sample size, right? That's the key. He's going to keep doing it.

Yeah, I mean, just they went on and they still have tons of, I mean, they've no superstars on that team. It's particularly on off, like, look at the offense is, we thought was some of the worst free agent signings of the season all looked like massive hits

now yeah a lot of see ingram and zay jones do for sure right seemingly spare parts christian kirk definitely does yeah i think you're so overpaying him for sure but that's what that's what it takes to to pull a top free agent and free agency you know right right so they did what they did what they had to yeah and i know he doesn't get too involved on the defense he's mostly an offensive guy, but defense doesn't have any super big names. Josh Allen and Trayvon Walker are probably the, you know, two of the bigger ones and they were solid. But again, not like, there's nobody on that team that you're like, yeah, they, you know, this is the guy you have to worry about in particular compared to the rest of the team. Right. Yeah, to Doug's credit, it's mostly because they're so young.

These guys haven't had the opportunity to turn into superstars yet because they are so young. the similar issue that Detroit has really lack of star power because everyone's under you know 24 years old so um I can't disagree I didn't pick him but I can't disagree with the take he was definitely yeah a finalist for me or even probably my my runner up if I were to do runner-ups so uh yeah that's a that's a good take uh Steve what about you I went with Brian Dable I feel like it as did I just when you look at what they did in the off season and it's they had a pretty you know average draft they didn't have any extra picks i think they made like two free agent signings daniel jones was dead in the water saquan barclay you know he was coming back from an injury but it was just supposed to be you know

it was more so of like an audition for free agency for him was the view because of how bad the team was going to be and to like rally and make now daniel jones potentially a guy that they could look at resigning, and that's not a horrible choice. And the way that he got that defense to play with, you know, similar to Jacksonville, but, I mean, similar to Jacksonville in that they have no stars on their defense. But even then they're like a little bit older.

And, you know, they had some, they had emergence on the defensive line. But like that back end and those linebackers were in flux the whole year. And so for them to even make the playoffs or even be in the conversation for a winning record, I think that Daibol is, I mean, the job that he did overall with the team and the overall team chemistry, it seems. It was overall, it was a masterclass of coaching, in my opinion. Yeah, he was, he really was phenomenal.

Slight correction, though they did have two top ten picks this year. So they did have one extra pick that was pretty juicy. Oh, that's right, because they picked Kavon and Evan Neal. Yeah, Kvon. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean, the reason I went Daibol instead of Peterson is just, because the Giants had a rougher go of it.

Like they play in a good division. I mean, shoot, almost all four teams in that division made the playoffs. Yeah. Where Jacksonville basically had layups for most of the season. So I'm not going to discredit Peterson because of that, but I do want to give Daibu a little extra credit because of,

no one expected them to compete in that division this year. Like literally nobody. So the fact that they were in it, they made the playoffs, won a playoff game. I thought that was really impressive considering where the state of that team was a year ago today. Yeah. But like you said about Daniel Jones, like you saw him develop and take actual big time steps forward to the point where they don't really have a choice.

They're going to have to retain him. I don't know that they'll throw a long-term contract on them, but I think they might get into a Kirk Cousin situation where they franchise him, maybe franchise him again next year. And then, you know, if they're left still wanting more after that, maybe. maybe they go a different direction, but they're, I mean, look at the landscape of the NFC, like Jalen Hertz and then who, especially if Rogers moves on, if Brady retires, like, Daniel Jones, you could make the argument he's competing for the number two spot in a year ago. He was almost out of a job. Like, huge credit to Brian Daibble for that.

So I will, so I thought I was going to go dayball. And when I dug deeper, so a couple things. you guys said that what ended up changing my mind so you both said you know davil wasn't expected giants weren't expected to win much the giants actually had a higher preseason win total than the jaguars coming into this season well that doesn't surprise me i mean jaguars were literally the worst team in the NFL last year well yeah i just i think the the sharp money and whatnot all thought the giants would be better than i think the public i gave them and the jaguars had an even worse outlook.

I mean, you said the Giants had a terror. They didn't even beat, they only beat one division team this year. And it was Washington. They, they have wins, you know, against the Bears, Packers, Ravens, Texans, Colts, Tennessee, Carolina. So they beat the same division. Jacksonville had to beat. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I think their schedule. I think their schedules are more or less the same. Yeah. That's fair. And I just think the jiris had a little bit more to overcome. Yeah. And that's where I like the difference in that for me, Jacksonville was, you know,

they're trying to build their team to be better. And I felt like New York, they like, other than, you know, the draft, like, they made no concerted effort to really get better in the, of like the right now. Like, they were, like, we all thought they were going to rebuild, like full rebuild mode, rebuild mode this year. Yeah.

They attacked the trenches of the draft. They didn't address wide receiver or corner. And like the biggest, and for me, the biggest difference is that Jacksonville, I thought the upside was there just because of Trevor Lawrence. Whereas, yeah, New York with Daniel Jones. I mean, Daniel Jones was. Yeah. I mean, beginning of the year, it was like, there were conversations about, like, if he should even play. if he should even be the starting quarterback.

But both guys are very deserving of the award. It's nitpicking at that point. 100%. All right, let's move on then. Let's go comeback player of the year. I have no idea where you guys are at on this, so we could potentially have three different players here. Steve, why don't you start us off?

I went chalk with like my first. thought was Gino Smith. Okay. And I'm just going to leave it at that. Like I said Gino Smith. I'll see if you guys mentioned the other person that I thought of, but I'll, just because I think there's a potential that Chris might actually mention him. But I just, Gino's emergence from, you know, seemingly the backup purgatory for the

rest of his life to be like, emerge from that and have the year that he did command a very effective, efficient offense. It was, it was just, it's impressive and like, you can argue like what is he coming back from, like his own inability to start games or whatever, who knows, but still I think that like, he deserves to be recognized in some way for like out of nowhere in year. What year is he? Like year nine. Something like that.

It's so like just, I think it, for me, it just. came down to, I think he deserves to be recognized in some way, shape, or form. Similar to how, like, with Daible, like, Gino Smith was not even supposed to start the year. The team was supposed to be one of the worst in the NFL. And he commanded, like, a pretty high-powered offense all year and was delivering insane throws, like big-time throws at the rate, like right up there at the pace with Mahomes and Josh Allen. He finished third. He finished third in our system.

Yeah, so he played with the best of them. And so I think he just, he deserves to get recognized for it. And I think that this is like the spot for it because he's not, I don't think he's, he's not offensive player of the year. And he's certainly not MVP. That's fair. I did go Gino for the reason you mentioned. Like what does he actually coming back from? Right.

But Chris, where did you go? you're putting me in a tough spot here with the two awards that make me look the most biased because mine is braining graham nice okay good the eagles uh he so he tore his achilles back in week two last year which even i forgot about honestly with how well he's been playing and then when i was trying to think of who to give it to i i remember that he you know I remember that he missed most of last year. So he's got 13 sacks on the year, which is top 10 in the NFL, despite only playing. I mean, he probably rushes the pass or probably half the time of guys like Nick Bosa and

Miles Garrett and the other big names. PFF has him as winning on 23% of his pass rush snaps, which is only lower than Miles Garrett, Nick Bosa, Josh Yucci, and Micah Parsons. So he, I mean, a 34-year-old coming off of Torne Achilles, which is usually a career ender for guys at that age, and playing at the level that he's playing is, I mean, it's crazy. Like he should not be playing as well as he's been playing.

And I think, I don't even think he's like a finalist for the award, which is just crazy when you got, not that like guys like Gino, like McCaffrey didn't really come back from anything. saying Gino didn't really come back from anything. Barclay's like two years removed from his big injury. So, yeah, how he's not getting more recognition for this award is, is crazy to me. Yeah, not even in a finalist. Yeah, not even brought up.

Yeah, I didn't even consider him, to be honest. And I'm a huge Brandon Graham fan as well. So that's, yeah, I mean, good call there. I mean, he's been a phenomenal player for the past decade. So, and he kind of picked up right where he left off, possibly even had a better season than he's had before. Yeah, he's never had double-digit sacks before, first time in his career. You know how I know that is because on the PFF NFL podcast, Steve and Sam, they have this bet every year where if Steve bets that Brina Graham will get to double-digit sacks and they bet a dinner on it. And Sam has basically got a free dinner like 10 consecutive years in a row.

And then finally the one year, literally nobody thought Graham would get the 10 sacks he does. Steve finally wins the bet. And, but yeah, that's funny. So anywho, I did go Barclay. You know, I did note that he wasn't coming back from that catastrophic injury this year. But he still had a pretty bad injury last year. and he came back to be a true workhorse running back. And we talked about the Giants and what they were able to do.

Barkley was such a big part of that for a good stretch of games where they heavily relied on him. And I know they were beating up some bad teams in there. But man, like, I mean, especially down in the Red Zone, using him as a wildcat QB a lot. Like they just put a ton on his plate for a guy who hasn't really been able to stay healthy. And I thought he answered the call pretty well. And I know some of his like yards after contact per carry numbers were down.

He wasn't forcing miss tackles at the same rate where you would expect the guy like Barclay to do so. But I was still impressed with the season. I think a lot of what the Giants were able to accomplish on offense started with Sequin Barclay in that run game. And I'm a running back still matter guy and I'm still giving it to him. Yeah, that's true. So you must really feel passionate about it. Yeah, my other my other option was was Gino or McCaffrey and I just like McCaffrey never really had a catastrophic injury. Yeah.

And he's also playing on the, you know, behind one of the best offensive lines of the league. Yeah. Come back play of the year I feel like usually has a very clear defined person and this year it just wasn't. and so there's like there there is the weird air of like okay Sequin Barclay is coming back from injury is Christian McCaffrey's coming back from injury kind of and also just like a bad team and Gino Smith was just not good for a long time and then now is good it's like different comeback stories than what I think what like this award usually is yeah there's truth of that for sure all right let's do uh

Offensive rookie of the year. This award is intriguing because, like, recently we've had these years where there's several rookies that have really good seasons. Like, there were probably like three or four receivers you could pick alone for this award. I went a different direction. I'll lead us off since you guys have each led off the other awards. I went with Brock Purdy for this. Oh, no. You did.

I did. And I know he only started six games down the stretch, but he was six and no. he looked very good in those games. I expected multiple times for him to have that meltdown, and he never did. And he was responsible for like 14 touchdowns, only turned the ball over four times, you know, basically did exactly what he was asked to do

and probably exceeded expectations. He added an element to that offense that they didn't have with Jimmy Garoppolo. I actually think they got better when he took over as a QB, which no one was expecting, literally no one. And so for that reason, he plays the most important position. That's the most important thing to me is this is a guy who, you know, he plays the most important position.

The quarterback can make you sink or swim, even with the 49ers who are allegedly QB proof. But, yeah, are you, are you excited two years from now to know that you gave this award to the new Nick Mullins? Listen, I'm not, it's not a mark of future projection or anything, but I'm just a recognition for what happened this year. so and Nick Mullins never went 6 and 0 and led the 49ers to a playoff run

so yeah so that's my take I'm pretty there were like I said a million other guys I could have went with I thought about Olave I thought about Garrett Wilson I even thought about Jahan Dotson because of the crazy touchdown production

there was a bunch Kenneth Walker is another obvious one but ultimately I decided that QB trumps all that and you know he's been playing good football so where did you guys go um so this one came down to me to two of the rookie receivers and one of them you didn't mention was Drake London London too yeah I said there was four or five yep so for me it was between Drake London and Chris Halaave I think I'm ultimately going to go with London. He finished the year with 2.2 yards per outrun,

29% target share, 34% threat rate and had 30% of his team's yards on a terrible passing offense. You can't under understay. One of the worst we've ever seen possibly. He didn't cross the 1,000 yard mark like Alave and Wilson, but that was largely a product of how bad the passing offense was. A low opportunity.

Right, yeah. They had multiple games with like less than 15 pass attempts. Yeah. When Kyle Pitts went out, I mean, he was running routes with literally guys that may not be on most NFL rosters and had Marriota playing QB who won't be a QB next year for a team, at least not a starter. And Desmond Ritter, who also may not be a starter next year and still put up the numbers that he put. up is just crazy. And if you watch him play, like he, he's the real deal. Like he, man, I would have to put him on any other team and he would have, we'd all be talking about him like the best receiver from this class. Yeah. When you put on the tape too,

Chris, you see like every concern people had about this guy just that they're not there. There's a good separator. Yeah, good set. Great route runner. Super technical already. You know, And that's the sky's a limit for him moving forward for sure. We got to hope he gets a good QB in there. Yeah. I went with the other rookie receiver. I went with Garrett Wilson. Or the other other rookie receiver.

I went with Garrett Wilson. He, you know, he hit all the stats from there. He went over a thousand yards, 83 receptions. 24.9% target share. He only had a 72% percent. catchable ball rate, which was near the bottom of the league. And he helped make three QBs that are not very good, look good in moments. He helped that Jets offense come alive in moments.

And he looked to be the guy that he was billed to be when he got drafted. And that's a guy that can win contested catches, but also win with route running. and I just I thought that he played very well, and I just hoped that the Jets get a good quarterback in there because I think that he could be a 1,500-yard receiver with a good quarterback in there. Agreed on that. Wilson was a beast.

I mean, he not only made big plays, he made big plays at big times. There were multiple games for the Jets. Didn't really have any business winning, and it was usually a Garrett Wilson play that kind of got them into the game or got them to take a lead. Yeah, and yeah, he did. did have some like the big touchdown against Cleveland to get him right to get him right back in the game where he

toast like toasted Denzel Ward who's you know had a little bit of a down year this year but was recognized as one of the better cornerbacks and he was doing it as the number one in the Jets offense against number one corners in a you know a division that has solid corners in it and Xavier and Howard and the Patriots always have you know a rotating cast and their corners played well this year and the Buffalo Bills had toward the end of the year, Trenavius White. So he faced a good bit of like solid corner play and still put up the numbers that he did. Yeah, it's crazy giving, saying how bad Drake London's passing a game was.

And then Garrett Wilson's was almost equally as bad, but somehow a slight touch better. Right. I know. It's like crazy how, I mean, yeah, these rookie receivers. nowadays come in and just doesn't matter what you know i mean obviously helps if you are jimar chase landing with joe burrow but yes like even the guys that do end up with the zach welson's the marcus like they still come in and just are immediate difference makers right right

it's these ohio state receivers that just come in and are just walk into the building nfl ready players yeah refined technique man yeah yeah not a Yeah, there was no, nothing close to a Jamar Chase landing on the Bengals type rookie this year. Yeah. I mean, like, Alave, we didn't even talk about him, but he also did not have the best passing attack to work with and still put up awesome numbers. Yep. That actually is kind of crazy. All those receivers were playing in subpar situations and they all performed, you know, regardless of that.

The one guy, like, kind of bumble we didn't get to see a lot of was James. and Williams because I think he could have contended for the award but yeah and then and then Greece hall as well I think like yeah to go without mentioning him I mean he he would he would have he would have I mean I think when he got hurt that you could feel the Jets offense change a bit and like because he got hurt what after in week six or seven uh yeah around there And that, like, you know, the Jets got off to a hot start, and he was a big part of that. And I think that when he went down, that was a big aspect of a big, like, big part of getting explosive plays from him was how their offense moved the ball.

You could do the back half of the season. You could feel it in the run game when they didn't, when the quarterback play started deteriorating a little bit. And the run game went with it because they didn't have an explosive playmaker as a at running back and that was what he offered and so i'd be remiss to go without mentioning him because it's unfortunate that he got hurt because i think that he was going to be he was going to be unanimous yeah yeah christian watson would be the other one if he had just stayed healthy all year what could he have been true one note on hall too when he got hurt he was averaging

three point five five five years after contact per carry yeah which is freaking absurd 5.8 yards per carry in general. Yeah. Tony Pollard might have been the only guy ahead of that number. I can't think of anybody else. That's just nutty. All right. Let's do defensive player or sorry,

defensive rookie of the year. Chris, I'll let you start us off because Steve and I have an internal struggle here. Really? I didn't want to go because I have an internal struggle with myself. I'll go. I'll go. A different reason, though. I don't know how if Aiden Hutchinson is in the conversation for you guys.

Oh, yeah, yeah, he is. Okay, so all right, well, then I'll go because I don't have him as one of mine. Not that I don't think he deserves it. I just got locked in on these other two guys and I'm having a hard time deciding. So for me, it's between Sauce Gardner and Tariq Woolen. I thought Sauce Gardner would be the guy I would clearly go with and then looking closer at the numbers. they were very, very close, and, man, picking one is almost impossible. I'm tempted to go with Wollin, given the rest of the Seahawks defense and what he was asked to do.

Both had around a 50% completion percentage allowed. Woolen had allowed a 0.7 yards per route run covered, a 51.1 pass a rating allowed, and Sauce was only a touch above those numbers at 0.8 yards per route run allowed and 57.1 pass a rating. Yeah, I'm going to go with Woolen. I think the Seahawks defense was not perceived as being remotely good and also did have struggles last year, but it was not because of really most of their cornerbacks, but particularly Woolen. I mean, he did not have remotely the expectations that Sauce Gardner had coming out.

of college and he was insanely raw yeah and he's like he is already a legit corner i mean corner play can be is one of the most variable things in the NFL year to year so we'll see but what he came in and did for that team was just i mean nobody saw that coming and yeah the number the numbers back out for him i went with sauce um over hutch hutch is the other guy i did consider woolen but just the way seattle plays defense they take a lot of pressure off those outside corners. So, um, perfect situation for, for Wolin with his skill set, you know, tall, lanky, freak athlete, perfect situation for him. Don't want to take anything away from him.

He, he performed at an insanely high level, especially versus expectations. But I do think that Seattle, uh, defense takes a lot of pressure off of those guys specifically. So, I mean, even Kobe Bryant wasn't terrible. His kind of rookie counterpart. So, um, I went with, Gardner because Gardner was a true shutdown guy. I mean, I know the numbers look similar, but Gardner playing on the left side

specifically, he's going to see more X-type receivers just because of the way the NFL offense's work. And he lived up to the hype. The way they play their coverages, whether it's man or even some of their cover three stuff, it looks like man. And he was a wet blanket.

He completely shut down many good receivers this year. I just thought, I think the reason I went with Gardner over Hutch specifically was because I think corner is a more valuable position. A bad corner can get you killed faster than a bad edge defender can. I have such a high value on stopping the pass. And I know a pass rush is a big part of that, but having a truly elite corner is, it's such a blessing to a defense. and Gardner didn't just come in and play, you know, good for a rookie. He came in and played good for an NFL player.

You could make the argument he was the best corner in the entire NFL this year as a rookie. I don't think Wollett is even close to that discussion, and Hutch probably isn't close to that discussion for edge defenders. So with that said, that's why I went with Gardner, because I think he's already reached the top of his position. And like Chris said, I mean, it is a very volatile position year over year. can he sustain that for his career? We'll find out.

But for at least right now, he's already one of the best corners of the league. Yeah, I also went with sauce. And just for similar reasons and just to mention that like even if you go back and start to watch the last like you've started, even starting like the last four weeks, you can see offenses specifically. avoid his side. Like there will be, there will be moments in like, like periods in the game where offenses just won't even look that way.

And I think that was the biggest thing. That was the big thing for me was that his ability to completely change the way an offense operates and completely, you know, shut down a third or like a half of the field was like something we haven't seen from a rookie like that in a long time. And I, I just thought that that was. that was the part that was the one that put put him head and shoulders above everyone else was his ability to just completely wipe out the side of the field for periods of a time during a game

against against good offenses and good quarterbacks yeah i i agree obviously um anyone else i mean let's talk hutch for one sec because he i think he was there it's too bad because i think any other year ever this is runaway for hutch like Like a no-brainer, easy. Like, if you compare his stats to every rookie, like defensive rookie of the year for edge players recently, he stands, he stands up with every other guy. Like, his stats are all there. The turnover numbers were crazy. The sack numbers were great.

You saw the evolution of him as a player from, like, week one to week 18. Yeah, impact on the run game, too, was pretty extreme. His ability to learn evolve. It was, I mean, it was overall. impressed like very impressive and i think he's going to be you know he's going to be a great player for hopefully years to come and he looks to be on that way my biggest issue with hutch the reason i didn't go with him is it took him a while to get going as a pass rusher yeah he had the big three-sac game against washington but it was three cleanup sacks they weren't super high quality

yeah um he really wasn't beating offensive tackles until later in the year he did get into a group eventually. Yeah. But like that passers win rate, um, is, it's not going to be pretty compared to his class, like probably top 20, top 25, but like I said, Gardner was already at the top of his class where Hutch was like, you know, he was a good edge of good pass rusher, but not a great pass rusher. Yeah.

Um, but you're right though, Steve, like, considering the draft capital, you know, number two overall pick, especially the way everyone views Hutchinson, like everyone loved him. Yeah. Come into the draft. Like literally everybody. and then for him to be as productive as he was, usually that's a slam dunk. Right.

Well, easy, easy rookie of the year pick, but just not the case this year. Yeah, he just went up against, like, one of the best, just cornerback seasons we've seen in a while,

and it was done by a rookie. So, like, it's hard to compete with someone who's competing at an all pro level for their position as well as, as well as rookie of the year. But,

yeah, and, like, Hutch also, faced, I mean, one of the highest double team percentages all year. Yeah. To walk in and face that right away as a rookie. I mean, like you said, it took him a while to figure it out. But once he figured it out, he became a terror for defenses or for offenses.

He was in the, like those last few weeks, he was in the backfield quite a bit and he was disrupting quarterbacks. It also helped that they got healthy later in the year. like some of those the interior the interior defensive lineman McNeil bugs those guys came alive a little bit and helped to kind of take the pressure off of hutch toward the end of the year as James Houston's emergence too

and bringing back a quora it you know it all helped with his development and also to say that he I think he played the highest number of snaps for a rookie and was near highest number of snaps for like all players I mean he was on the field they did they didn't start Subbing him out of games until like week 12.

Yeah. Like he was literally like playing every snap until like week 12, which is crazy. So that'll also affect your pass rush efficiency as well because you're tired. Your legs are jello. And you're just in. You're just in every pass rush wrap. And it's just like, you know, like a Brandon Graham, some of those guys that like they come in and they're fresh and they're ready to go for a pass rush snap. Well, I guess Brandon Graham isn't the right example.

But like James Houston's the right example where. you know for the beginning part he was only playing third downs yeah exactly so he's fresh and ready to go yep all right let's stick with defense let's go defensive player of the year i probably didn't pick anyone you guys picked so i'm gonna go last um i'll go i will lead off i went with i went with fred warner just because i didn't see that coming yeah i i thought nick bosa and i think that he probably is the one that will win it. But I just think that the way Fred Warner played this year, especially after coming off a year of him being more mediocre and, you know,

people questioning like, okay, was he ever that good? Was he more a product of good defenses, good defensive lines? Like, who is he as a player? And then to come back this year and, I mean, just completely shut down middle of the field, pass and run defense was insane. I mean, I know this happened in the postseason, but just the play from last week where he ran, you know, stride for stride with C.D. Lamb on the seam route. From the A gap, too.

Yeah, from the A gap. Up in front of the center and just high tails it backwards. Insane assignment that he was A given and then B fulfilled. Bananas. And he's gotten recognized for it all week. But he made plays like that. Like he was making plays like that all year. He completely he would completely shut down the middle of the field.

I mean, you go and watch the game against Miami, a team that their passing game lived in the middle of the field. Tua was one of the best over the middle throwers in the league at the time. And he completely shut down that off, like the way that offense operated. And he did that a lot. And he was a catalyst and their ability to be the best team against the run all year. He's the brains of that defense. he's you know he just is asked to do so much and i think that i i also picked him preseason so that's also why i'm picking i want to feel good about that that i had said him preseason

and i feel comfortable saying and i feel comfortable giving like saying that he's worthy of the award this year too and when you said that preseason i looked at you like are you what is wrong with you yeah you looked at me like i like my eyes were popping up my head He wasn't even just like, it wasn't even just a bad season last year. Like he was legitimately bad. Like, not even, you know, not even an average player. So to see what he's done this year has been insane. He just looked so much more in control this year, which was why he didn't last year.

Like we had talked about in the preseason episode was he looked lost at times last year. And this year it looked completely in control almost every game. Yep, Chris. I went with. Brain of Graham. Oh, wait, no, I know who it is. I ended up going with Nick Bosa, but I don't, I have a problem with the NFL finalist, whoever decides that, because I don't know how there's not a single defensive,

Eagles defensive alignment up for any of these awards, because Hassan Redick should be also in that conversation. I don't have much to say about Bosa other than that he was just, I mean, he was the best edge rusher in the NFL this year. Yeah. 19 sacks, 90 pressures, like, just ridiculous numbers. It didn't matter who he was going up against.

But, man, I really wanted to give it to Hassan wreck. I mean, he has blown expectations out of the water. I remember when the Eagles signed him, and I think I even messaged Brett, and I was like, this seems like a little bit of an overpay, but I guess that's what the edge rusher market is, you know. And, you know, just didn't think anything of it. I was like, all right, it is fine.

That's what you got to pay to get a decent edge rusher. I mean, he's got 18 sacks, 68 pressures. And he doesn't sub as much as the other Eagles defensive linemen, but he does sub in and out a good amount. He has been, I mean, he made the Giants offensive line, like, be terrified last week. it was he's starting to and as the season went on you could see it more and more that he was starting to really take over games in the way that a Nick Bosa does um but Nick Bosa was just awesome from

start to finish so I couldn't I couldn't take it away from him nice I did not go Bosa um my main issue with Bosa is the amount of pressures they're able to manufacture with him um I think he had according to PFF he had 32 unblocked or cleanup pressures So, not want to take anything away from him, but he also plays a ton of snaps. Yeah, the guy I went with, and I'll explain it more in a second, but I went with Chris Jones. Okay. I actually consider him from Kansas. The reason I went with him over some of the edge guys, so like I had trying to sort out the edge guys between Parsons and Bosa and Redick even, I did consider him.

Miles Garrett was like Basically what we've just done is we've created a cluster of four or five guys that are all potentially worthy But when I went back to the other positions and looked There's nobody freaking close to Chris Jones He's so much better than every other player at that position this year They're getting a ton of value out of that I know Aaron Donald You know probably has a lot to do with that because he missed missed

You know a good chunk of the season or whatever ever, and that was a defunct Rams team. But man, like, Dexter Lawrence was probably the second best interior defender this year. And he's not even in the same stratosphere as Chris Jones. Which is crazy because, like, Dexter Lawrence had a very good year. Christian Wilkins had a very good year. Like, both guys who were very effective and didn't even come close. Yeah, if you look at just raw sack numbers, you know, there were multiple guys over 10.

but Chris Jones had 16 and a half. His pass-first win rate was like almost 2.5% higher, according to PFF, than any other guy in his position, which was nuts. He had more than 15 pressures more than anyone else at his position, and that was Dexter Lawrence, and then everyone after those two is like way down the list. So, I mean, truly an incredible season,

and he makes that Chief's defense go. When he's not on the field or he's not playing well, they fall apart. I mean, he is, he is that entire defense. So you can obviously say the same thing for probably Bosa, you know, Bosa's, if they lose Bosa, they're probably not as good. If the Browns lose Garrett, they're probably even worse than they are. Not sure where the Eagles would be without Reddick,

because they do have a lot of depth. But point being, Chris Jones is an absolute monster, and he is that entire defense, basically. And to that point, I will say that Chris Jones's positional versatility along that defensive line is so valuable as well. He can jump, like the way he can jump from like one to three to like he can go any gap against anyone and he can control it, which is something that like Aaron Donald is probably about one of the only other players that consistently does what Chris Jones does. and it's too bad because like Chris Jones arguably would probably get the recognition that Aaron Donald does. Oh, dude. If Aaron Donald didn't exist, Chris Jones would be Aaron Donald.

I see this all the time like in my inner circles. Like Aaron Donald is probably the best defensive player of all time. Yes. But Chris Jones is a generational talent. He just doesn't get talked about because Donald is that good. It's like, so it was nice that Donald had this year so Jones could finally get this. Right. recognition as man this dude is an absolute freaking monster but you're right dude like he played

like 70% of last year on the edge yeah like just straight and it wasn't the best thing kansas city's ever done because he's a way better guy on the inside but the fact that a dude that's 315 pounds can go give you 500 snaps at edge is insanity yeah you know j j wats really the last guy that's done that and he's not even quite that heavy you know he's closer to 300 so yeah because they basically were like we're not getting pass rush from anybody, Chris, get out there. We need something. Yeah, yeah.

And then he did. He did. And their defense did get better, though, when they moved him back inside. But point being, he was, like, still a very good player on the edge. And then he's an elite player on the inside. But he's so athletic, the things they can do with him, too, with stunts and twists because he's so athletic. It's just, he's a problem.

He is a problem. So that was why I went Christopher Jones. Yeah, like, I mean, there were. so many edge guys that you could throw their name in and it made sense. No one would argue with any of the guys I mentioned. So, yeah. All right, let's go offensive player. The next two

awards will probably be offense, so we'll end with an offense streak. Office player of the year. I can lead this one off. The guy I predicted to win it is who I have winning it, and that's won Justin Jefferson. He,

I mean, we don't really need to go through all the accolades for the three years to be in the league, but he's on pace to shatter pretty much every record in the record book. And this was his best year so far. He's built each year. I think I said on our very first podcast, Steve, if Justin Jefferson couldn't win it last year, I don't know how he'll ever win it.

And here we are. So, yeah, I mean, phenomenal. I said the same thing about Mark Andrews, too, who was my runner-up. Andrews tailed off, but Jefferson, man, that whole offense is predicated on him being force fed the ball for the most part. Yeah. Yeah.

So he's such a good separator. And the thing that's crazy is even when they can't find scheme to get him open or where he's getting bracketed or doubled, the, Kirk just throws him the ball anyways. And then he's got to go up and make these ridiculous catches. It's pretty rare to see a guy with his separation ability as well as those contestant and catch ball skills because he's basically what that says is you can't win against him so uh for that yeah the production speaks for itself that he's my offensive player the year yeah i'll uh i'll go next just because i also had jefferson uh i've never i don't think i've ever seen a receiver take over a game

like he did when the vikings played the bills yeah whatever week though i just yeah just just sheer dominance um I did, I don't have anything to really add, but I did have Tyree Kill as a very close second. Me too. Just like, yeah, his numbers pop. I might as well let the cat on the bag and let you know that I also went Justin Jefferson and Tyree Kill. That's so funny. Yeah.

So, yeah, I mean, their numbers are, I think he'll led the league with 3.3 yards per outrun. I mean, he changed to his career, assuming, you know, everything medically is okay with two and moving forward. Like legitimately. That's not hyperbole. Like he actually changed to his career. The amount of deep balls he would, that probably would have hit the ground that he is able to track down and,

and catch. Yeah, he totally transformed that offense. He's done it. I mean, we know Mahomes is awesome too, but he also has done it in the past with the chiefs also. I mean,

he's, those two guys are probably the only two receiver. I don't even know. Probably not even Devante Adams can get into that their tier of just taking over a game like solely themselves they they're just massive difference makers compared to all the other receivers in the league so i'll pose the question then since we all went the same route what made you what was the deciding factor of choosing jefferson over tyree kill for both of you for me it's that i think the viking's offense is not nearly as good as the dolphin's offense

yet jefferson would make them look very good at times yeah this was really tough for me though like i i went back and forth so many times between the two yeah because hill philosophically changes the way you have to play defense i'm not sure jefferson necessarily does but it's chris mentioned the bills game there were other games too where it's like in the absolute most crucial moments of the season jefferson put up crazy plays yes yeah that's what it was for me it was like i was like man i i i don't know how to pick between the two and then I would thought back to some of their games and I was like that Bill's game was one of the most incredible things I've seen from a receiver ever yeah just he did the same thing of the

first Giants matchup too yeah yeah so completely took the game over yeah and just like the I mean the offense falls apart if he's not targeted it's just it really does yeah it just totally falls apart so that was ultimately what decided it but it was it was so close yeah For me, yeah, for me it was the fact that Jalen Wattle was opposite Tyree Kill, which helped, you know, open up the offense a little bit, open up the offense and kind of spread defenses out a little bit. Created more. I thought it created a little bit more open space opportunity for him. Not to take away with that from him, but I thought it helped. With Justin, yeah, with Justin Jefferson, it did come down to just the way that if he's not targeted or involved in the game.

their team completely flounders and shuts down. The only game where it like went okay for the, they had, where it went okay that they didn't target him a bunch. It went okay in the Chicago win in week seven, in week eight, yeah, week 18,

which who cares. And the Detroit win in week three, where he was only targeted six times and had three catches. If you look at some of the other games, though, like the Dallas game. He was targeted five times and had three or seven. Dallas, or Minnesota lost 40 to three.

In the Green Bay game in week 17, Jefferson was targeted five times. They lost 41 to 17. Like when he wasn't, like you said, Chris, when he wasn't involved, the, like everything just collapsed. He is the foundation for which that offense is built upon. And it's the same, similar with the house. if you chop down the foundation, the rest of the house is going down with it. It's why this Hawkinson trade looms very large for that offense,

because, like, they got to figure this out. Because they'd go in stretches where Hawkinson's getting 15 targets in a game. I mean, Jefferson's getting nine. Doesn't make sense. That trade happened right around week nine, correct? Is that the deadline, right? Yeah. I think it was a week before the deadline.

Week eight. A week before, yeah. So like, he, like, towards the end of the end of the deadline. the year. I mean, he finished the year with nine targets in their playoff loss. Five targets against Chicago. Five targets against Green Bay. Unacceptable. Yeah. Like just.

Jefferson should be like 14 a game, you know. Yeah. And he, for like most of the, yeah, most of the season he was sitting around, you know, 13, 14 targets a game. But there are those games where you saw it. They started focusing in on trying to get Hawkinson the ball. And there's, there's college offenses that are better at manufacturing touches for their best player than the Vikings are for Jefferson. Like it's not uncommon to see college players with 15, 15, 15 targets in a row, multiple games because they just know this guy is better than everyone else on the field.

And somehow the Vikings don't know that with Jefferson. Right. That's funny you say that. And I don't know why I just remembered this. There was a game with Dan Lefevre was a central Michigan's quarterback. They played Michigan. and he threw the ball to the same receiver on like 12 consecutive plays. And that he caught all 12 of them.

It was probably Brian Anderson. I remember that team back in the day. I just remember the broadcast being like Lefevre, Lefevre, Lefevre, Lefevre, Lefevre, I'm just like, oh my gosh, this is so obnoxious. The Vikings would win games if they did that and Jefferson, like, didn't get tired. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Crazy that we all agreed unanimously on that award. It was one-two race, Jefferson, Tyreek. let's move on to MVP. I wonder if we'll be more different. I wonder if any of us not named Chris will have Jalen Hertz. I don't have Jalen Hertz. Oh, come on. All the bias, but no hurts?

No, no hurts. I thought this is the most boring award. I don't know how you give it to anyone but my homes. I thought it was a two-man race. I mean, he, I mean, led the league in passing yards. That's a raw stand. I don't care about that. All right, sure.

He had the second best passer rating in the league. He, I mean, and look who's on his, like, we wouldn't, if I told you you're running an NFL team and you get JuJJew Smith, Schuster, Markowitz, Marquez, Valdez, Scantling, and then some combination of Cadarius, Tony, Sky Moore, and Justin Watson as your receivers. How many, how many games do you think you win? Like, I, listen. you you kind of omitted probably the greatest tight end of all time yes sure yeah i know he's obviously important but but like the receiving group is is i'm out of five in the league i don't like i'll say this the only reason to go mohomes over borough is supporting cast that's the only reason that's the only argument yeah no i like i mean so i'm

okay with it if that's the argument but that's the only argument burrow was better than the homes in every single way this year yeah genuinely the reason i picked mahomes is that he basically maintained his stats you know like there was no drop off whatsoever we just talked about how good tyrie kill was when there was when there was supposed to be a big drop off and they didn't do like really anything meaningful to replace tyrie kill nothing meaningful yeah so like that was that was my like for sure my reason was that Mahomes had zero drop-off and played to the level that we've seen him and expected him to play without the guy that we thought helped catalyze that play. And yeah, I just, like, and Mahomes, I thought improved in the pocket.

I thought that, like, he improved aspects of his game that had shortcomings. Yeah. And so, like, that was why I went Mahomes, but. I too went Mahomes, but I went strictly further. the cast of characters around him. But I do think, like, throw-for-throw was better and just by every way. Mahomes had a bunch of turnover luck this year, too.

Even despite that, he did. You know, he still turned the ball over more than Burrow did. But Burrow, his turnover-worthy throw-percentage in our data was it. Yeah, it's one of the low. Yeah. 1.7%. That's actually crazy. That's almost...

Herbert was. the only guy lower than him and Herbert throws the ball two feet every place. Yeah, that was almost 50% Mahomes. The homes was 3.2% turnover where they throw rate. Yeah, and Burrow was also top five in wild throw rate. So top five in wild throw rate and then also basically led the league in turnover where they throw rate. And then every other statistic, they were pretty much right on top of each other,

whether it was adjusts a completion percentage or accurate throw rate or uncatchable ball rate. They were like really close. I don't want to take the sunshine off Mahomes, though, because I did pick him. Because what Mahomes did this year without Tyree Kill and with those cast of characters, Chris laid out, is actually incredible. He's proven now that he's team proof. It doesn't matter. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a true dog. Like, he'll be in the Brady realm of potential Super Bowl every single year, no matter who he's got with him. This is their fifth consecutive. AFC championship game. All at home, too. Is this his fourth or his third, fourth for him, right? Oh, that's right.

Smith did get to one, didn't he? One or two, even. No, this is Mahomes' fourth year starts. Yeah, this is fourth. Yeah, so they're like, yeah, there's another Tom Brady in the AFC, again. Like, every AFC team is going to have to deal with him at some point in the playoffs. And he's going to miss the Super Bowl, like, won every, he's going to be at least every third Super Bowl, if not more.

It seems that way. Brady took, you know, a Dion Branch led receiving core to the Super Bowl. He took Brandon Lafell-led recel. Like, you know, that's basically what we're looking at with Mahomes. He's got Martez-Veldes-Cantling. He's probably his best receiver right now.

Justin Watson, guys. Justin Watson is playing legitimate stamps for them. Seriously, what is the worst receiving room in the other? It's, what, the Giants are probably lower than them? Giants. Yeah. Yeah. Is there another one?

the bears bears bears bears yeah giants bears hussed maybe but they had brandy cooks so i don't know they had uh nico collins yeah yeah gil collins would easily be like a 1,300 yard receiver on this team yeah so there's there's at best three probably only two worst receiving rooms in the nfl yeah mvs wasn't even a full-time starter in green bay like well he was he just didn't do much yeah he was running around running wind sprints over and over again. He was the all-fitness team. Sorry about that. He's getting cardio in for sure.

Yeah. Yeah. To talk about Joe Burrell, playing behind the offensive line, he played behind all year, and to like, it clearly affected him at the beginning of the year, but then he settled in and figured out how to work with that offensive line, because the offensive line did not really get better throughout the year. No. They changed their own. offense. Yeah, they changed their offense and Burrow got better. They went from like one of the most explosive offenses in the league to this offense that

will just slice and dice you every which way. Yeah. But when they still, when they need that big play, they'll still hit it. Yeah, they still have the ability to it, but they're not, they were relying on it last year. And that's why I, let's just go right into it. They're playing Kansas City this week for the NFC championship game. That's why I think it's going to be tough for KC, man, because. This is a different Bengals team.

Yeah. O'N three, the last two years against them. They're calling Arrowhead Stadium, Burrowhead Stadium. I think there's a fire lit under Mahomes to win this game. I think so too, man. It's a little bit like we keep mentioning Tom Brady with Mahomes. This feels like you don't want to get Brady angry. This feels like you guys are poking the bear.

When Mahomes is on the New Heights podcast. So players don't typically talk about this. stuff. They keep it all private. Like, Mahomes actually mentioned Burroughs name on that podcast and is like, yeah, he, like, I can't beat the guy. He's three and oh against me right now and I'm about to change that. But the fact that Mahomes is thinking about it just tells you how he's feeling about this game. Yeah. It's a bummer that he might be potentially banged up too.

But how much is that ankle factor? I know everyone's talking about the press conference yesterday because when he left the podium, if he did not have a limp. Yeah. He was walking very fast. He's definitely hurt. Like, there's no... It's a high ankle.

It doesn't just go away. Yeah. But Mahomes as a pocket passer is still better than like most of the QBs in the NFL. Yeah, I mean... He even hurt, though. He was still making plays with his feet, by the way. Like the second play when he came back, he took off for a first down. Everyone's like, dude, what are you doing?

Yeah. I mean, you can tell that. even Andy Reed was like if you're going to go we're going to go because he was having him do under center outside zone handoff plays like yeah I know I didn't understand that I was like what you like the first play it was so bizarre and then they even when he came back it's not like they shine away from it you were still very comfortable running under center outside zone that was 100% of test for Andy because like most coaches have the mentality of if you're gonna like we don't want to change what we do because of your injury.

Right. Like if you're going to go, you're going to go. We're running, like, I'm running my offense the same way I would if you, you know. So I think it was probably a test. Like, hey, let's see how you do on this outside zone boot. Yeah. So the fact that he took off for a first down, like right away, I was like, what? Why is this guy doing this?

He's, because he's just got that dog at him. He does. He does. He just got the fight. Fun fact for this that I, I went back and I went back and was rewatching the matchup from earlier this year. And Romo said something on the broadcast that I thought was super interesting. And I looked into it.

The last time that Cincinnati has lost when they score first was week five of 2021. Wow. That offense and that team is like you watch like you can see it. Like you I saw you see it in the Buffalo game last week. You saw it in the Kansas City game in week 13. You saw it at times this year. When that team, when they go down and score right away on that first drive, like you can feel the air get let out of stadiums that they're playing in.

Because you can just like, it's so methodical. But when they go down and score a touchdown on that first drive, they did it against Kansas City in week 13. They did it against Buffalo last week. It's just you can feel them take control of the game. And I think that's a huge key for Kansas City is figuring out a way to get him uncomfortable get Joe Burrow uncomfortable early because that's that's just where since like that's the one spot that Joe Burrow can be flustered is getting pressure on him and even

then that doesn't always do it because like if you go back to their week 13 matchup Kansas City pressured Joe Burrow 50% of the time that was that's 30% they blitz 30% of the time they got a pressure on 73% percent of their blitzes and 50 percent overall of dropbacks like joe bro is under pressure the whole time it's just that he they didn't get it early so joe burrow was able to like get himself settled and then go i i think they need to get that pressure going earlier for them to not to like knock this offense off kilter a little bit yeah chris jones should wreck havoc on the bengal's offensive line he needs to do for all the reasons that when brett

was talking about him earlier. I mean. That's, uh, you said his name wrong. I said Chris Jones. Defensive player of the year, Chris Jones, you. He's going to say it's a pretty generic name. I don't know how he knows. When they talk about the greatest defensive player in the NFL, Chris, they don't say

greatest defensive player in the NFL. They say Chris Jones. Just renaming the award of that after him now. The Chris Jones defensive player of the year award. Yeah, he should be a problem for the Bengals offensive line. I'm not worried about Mahomes versus the Bengals defense. I think they're going to put up points and they're going to put up a good amount of points. It really comes down to do they slow down Burrow.

Burrow, he's just locked in in terms of knowing when to get rid of the ball, when to say, all right, this play is dead and move on, where the holes are going to be. You're really not concerned about Kansas City putting up points? No. Really? Because like Cincinnati is the one defense that like has given Kansas City like noted problems. Like the Holmes threw for 223 yards or something like that in their week 13 matchup. And they shut and they completely shut almost I think Mahomes went like one for five in the red zone. He was like like they shut him down in the red zone as well.

Like it was like I don't know. I just like I think that's one of my concerns. is that is Kansas City figuring out this Cincinnati defense? For whatever reason, Andy Reid lost his mind in that game. And I don't want to like, I don't know what was going on, but Kansas City has the highest pass rate over expectation in the entire league. But that game, they actually had a negative ratio. They ran the ball really well, too. It doesn't matter when you're trying to win football games.

I know. It feels just kind of like a small sample size thing to me. Like, I don't know. If they play each other for the next five years, I could see us looking back and not remembering that Mahom's struggled against this defense at one point. Yeah. That's fair. Chris has also not been as big of a believer in the Sinci defense as you have, Steve.

I do know that. I just, since he's pressure rate is what is where I was impressed with, like, in their matchup earlier this year and in their matchups prior is that Cincinnati was able to manufacture pressure. and they also did it last week against Buffalo. They did a lot of, like, very well-manufactured pressures, both blitzing and then they, you know, they were getting home a little bit with four men. But their, that defense is just, they work so well.

I just feel like they work so well together. And they're like their coordinator and their scheme. It's just working so well. It's just meshing on all the levels where, I mean, they were, they were sending like spinner pressure from a guy, you know, like lined up over a slot receiver eight yards deep in getting home. That's because Josh Allen has Matt Stafford syndrome.

Like he does not ID Nickel Blitz for whatever reason. I don't know why. He just doesn't see it. It could be running right at his face and he won't see it. Like Stafford's been sacked on that pressure. So many times in his career and I see it with Josh Allen like every other week. I'm just like, why? Why does this happen?

But I think the big X factor in this game, guys, is I think Zach's, Taylor has grown as a pass caller. I've been the biggest Zach Taylor critic on this show. I even said at the beginning of the year, he is the worst coach to have coached in a Super Bowl in recent memory. I think McVeigh's taking over that title, but. Oh, yeah.

For sure. For whatever reason, Taylor has gone away from his super crazy, run-heavy, stick-with-the-run approach. Yeah. Their second in the NFL in pass rate over-expectation this year with a mark of 9.6%. And it's been consistent that way since about. week 10 since their by week. Yeah, they changed.

And I freaking love it, man. Because when you have Joe Burrow and you've got the weapons they have, there's no reason to feed Joe Mixon 25 times. Oh, that's the other thing too, is they realize Mixon's just a dude. And I don't think P-Rind's better than Mixon necessarily, but if you have two running backs that are of equal, close to equal talent, keep them fresh by playing the other guy. So P-Ride getting a workload, I think, is,

good for mixing and I think it's good for P-Rind. So I think that offensive, that run game will be fresher when they do decide to use it. P-Rind's also a freaking incredible in pass protection and they need him. And he's really good and short-yarded situations too. Yeah, well, he's a load, dude. The guy is so thick, man. What does he weigh? He's got to be like 235.

Bro, he's like thick. Yeah, that you actually, that was what I was hoping you were going to touch on is the their increased usage of Somaget P. Rine to help keep mixing fresher, healthier, and all that. It's that. I mean, like, yeah, like you said, yeah, 236 pounds. Yeah, like, we had, we were breaking ground on the Zach Taylor head coaching grave. Like, we had shovels in hand and we were breaking ground on that, like, week four of, like, how can you take this offense and completely neuter it? And, like, you had a Super Bowl tea.

oh my goodness and I'd love to know who talked him into it because there's no way he just came to this on his own somebody must have said something to him at some point yeah it'd be interesting what if he saw like the the struggles of like McVeigh and those guys and was like ooh I don't want to do that maybe he like saw he like had a vision of what his career could be he went if he kept going down this route and so he quickly snapped out of the vision and was like I'm going to pass the ball more. I think I have something there. Yeah. The, the best part about it, guys, is he made the switch

after Joe Mixen had a 27 touch, 200 total yard, five touchdown game. That was the game that said to Taylor. You know what? This isn't worth it. We're going... What? You can't make it up. You can't write the storylines better than that.

Maybe it was like, all right, listen to here, Joe. We can get you. We're going to get you all of it this week. Then we're going to start going away from you. That's nothing against you, but I just want to recognize you, and you're just going to, you're getting all of it this week. Maybe they don't know how much it took to get a game like that.

And then he's like, you know, we've put up five touchdowns from Burrow much easier. One half. And one half we've done. Yeah. Why are we trying so hard? He was AB, he was AB testing, and he realized how much easier it was to do it with Burrow than it was to do with Mix it. And so he went forward with that.

I support that method as an office report. It tests your schemes. Maybe it was stressing them out. Having to call the right run play every play, that's probably just stressing them out, you know. There's no margin for error. A bad pass play is like an incompletion. A bad run play is minus four, you know?

Right. Or a holding call. But yeah, I think this game will be, I don't, it's a hard game to pick. It's an awesome matchup. Ultimately, I'm, For me, I'm going with the chiefs solely as like they've just got those couple tiebreakers. Like they got the QB banged up or not that, you know, I would put a touch ahead of Burrow.

I trust the coaching. I know, Zach Taylor has done awesome. But all it'll take is if he comes out and runs Joe Mixon on first and 10 for a couple drives and the game's lost. We know Andy Reid will be more aggressive in certain spots. and I just, I'll take those couple tiebreakers, because I think everything else is, you know, they've got their strengths and weaknesses across the board and they just match up so well.

Yeah, I'm, man, I almost lost sleep over trying to figure this out last night. I think I'm going to go, I think the chiefs are going to get their revenge and they're going to, they're going to pull it off. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, Sincey. I do you were? I'm going, I just, I, similar, like, similar thought process is you, Chris. My deciding factor is that I think T. Higgins and Jemar Chase and Tyler Boyd are like enough better than Kansas City's corners that like it'll show through enough.

Like I think Joe Burrell will have a good day. I think it'll be a close game. But I just think that if I'm picking a defense to make a play in a tough spot, I'm picking Cincinnati's defense. over Kansas cities. Yeah, I'm picking Chris Jones. The Chris Jones defense. That's fair. The Chris Jones defense.

It's going to be tough when Chris Jones isn't guarding Jamar Chase as he's pulling two yards away from McDuffie. That will be tough. Jamar Chase would have to run a route further than five yards deep for that to happen, which he hasn't done in a few weeks. Zach Taylor is getting him involved in different ways, and we can get out another rabbit hole here, but I won't. But his usage of Jamar Chase towards the end of the year after he's come back from injury

has been a lot more multiple, and it's been impressive and fun to watch them utilize Jamar Chase in the past game. If you say multiple like that again at this podcast, we're going to have an issue. What are you going to do about it? Yeah, it's a good way it works well. It does. The way Taylor has schemed up deep throws has been different than the way they were doing it last year for sure. You're seeing a lot more like slot fades to Boyd to some seam stuff to Trenton Irwin has caught some deep balls.

Like Higgins is getting loose. I mean, they're not solely relying on Chase for the deep ball now, which is nice. Chase is a freaking monster after the catch, so I understand it. Like if you're forced to get him the ball 12 times a game and you don't want him to be 50-50 balls, I get it. Throw him a slant and let them work. Yeah. But, all right, let's move on. We covered this game adequately.

Let's go to the NFC champs, San Francisco. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Let's go with the San Francisco 49ers at the Philadelphia Eagles. I just wanted to trigger Chris really quick. I feel like he's not letting it show, but I bet he's pretty anxious right now. Just wants this game to be played. Yeah, but the Eagles are winning.

this game. I told you last week that they were going to beat the Giants by 10 plus and I was short. I could have pushed it. You did. And for the listeners, if you ever need betting advice, Chris is a great guy to go to. He had a four-leg parlay. Yeah, I know. No one does that. It's not normal. I didn't. It's not easy to pick spreads, especially when you were moving them around like I was last week to make it. He picked the four-leg alternative spread parlay and hit all of them, including a 10. Would you do 10-and-a-half? Yeah, 10 and a half on the Eagles. Wow.

That's a massive spread. That's a best spread in a freaking playoff game. So yeah, congrats to you. But tell us, why are the Eagles going to easily win this game, Chris? Yeah. They have the best roster in the NFL. They're, yeah, they've got, they just have, they have everything they could need to win this game. And also, Brock Purdy is not going to continue to play this way.

Like, like I are, I said watching him last week, I was thinking to myself. I was like, Chauncey, Gardner Johnson's getting at least two picks on this guy because he was close on Daniel Jones on a couple throws. And he's been a ball hawk all year. Party, like, they're just going to give him, he's never, we saw him kind of struggle. Like the Dallas defense was probably the best defense party has played all year

since he became a starter. And then the pressure got to him a little bit. Um, Micah Parsons was giving him some trouble when he got pressure in his face. There was a play where Purdy literally turned his entire back to the defense at some or the offensive line. And I thought, I thought that was not a purpose, like not a designed. No. Deception.

Definitely not. That sounds like Brock Purdy. It sounds like, oh, here we go. It's coming. And he luckily turned around and smartly threw the ball away. But he's, I think, I think the pressure is going to get to him. I Trent Williams is awesome

and McGlinchie is at least an above average right tackle but the combination of Reddick Josh Swett Brandon Graham Robert Quinn has really not been a factor for the Eagles he missed some time too but he's starting to play a little bit more but I think the Eagles pass rush is going to give him trouble and I think the Eagles secondary

can do well enough against these past catchers the Philly offense versus the Niners defense I think is like the matchup of the of like the past 10 years like yeah like it should be just a grudge match back and forth like throwing like haymakers back at each other like with A.J. Brown deep touchdown Fred Warner strip sack. Like whatever it is like that's the matchup that is going to be interesting and fun to watch. Just seeing how Siriani and the rest of the offensive staff want to attack this defense, and then how the Damiqo Ryans wants to defend it on his side. Like, I don't know. I don't know what the answers on either side are, but it's going to be a good one. I don't, I think Philly's going to win this game, too, of picking the Eagles.

But my only concern for the Eagles, and you didn't mention it, I know you're not a believer in Purdy. you think he's going to have that game, that meltdown game at some point. But the Eagles zone-heavy approach just gives a lot of credence to what the 49ers do on offense. With Debo, with Ayuk, with Kittle, these yards after the catch guys, if they're catching the ball, you know, in space because it's zone, it could be problematic for the Eagles. This is all I'm saying. You don't want to tackle well. You got to tackle well. You got to come ready to hit, put those guys down to the ground.

that that's really where this 49ers offense can just get wild as if they're getting space after the catch to work. Which plays right into Purdy's weaknesses, which I don't think he's thrown a very good deep ball since he's been the starter. And if he doesn't have to, it takes a lot off of his shoulders. No. Yeah, that's what I really want to see with Jonathan Gannon, if he goes, changes it all to try to take that away from Purdy. because he does like to his whole philosophy is we don't get beat deep and we wait for you to make a mistake so he changed that a little bit against the giants he was blitzing more he was he was he was playing closer to the line so can he does he continue to adapt to what his offensive the opposing

offenses weaknesses will be important yeah purdy's lived in the like 10 to 20 intermediate his own since he's taken over that's been his sweet spot all year and oh all year since he's taken over um yeah it's just a it's just a two goliaths two titans going at each other with these teams it's it's going to be really exciting to watch i am interested to see how the eagle if the eagles are just if they blitz at all like i feel like that'll be a big part of it is just getting home with four or five pass rushers, like out of base, rather than sending blitzers and making Purdy step back there and actually pick a part of defense.

I would blitz a lot. Would you? Yeah, I would make Purdy beat me. At least in the first half, that would be my game plan. Like, I'm going to make you beat me. The thing about, especially with, you know, if you're going to play a little bit off coverage, do some fire zone type stuff,

you're going to force the ball out quickly. And you're going to find out real quickly what Purdy's accuracy is actually like. And the best way to shut down yards after the catch is to get the ball delivered inaccurately. If they're not catching the ball cleanly off of an accurate throw, they've got to set up for the yards after catch. It's a lot harder. It gives the Eagles defense time to make tackles. I definitely would be setting some pressure.

And then even beyond that, if they're not giving a lot of pressure looks, I'm playing single high and I'm trying to make him. can beat me over the top. Yeah. You know, pretty, I don't, I don't think you can beat me over the top. So I'm going to, I'm going to give it to you until you do. And make life miserable in that short to intermediate range for him. Flood it with defenders.

That's fair. I just think that the way the San Francisco offense is built, that getting the ball out quickly could play to their advantage because of the guys they have in, like, that they can hot route and scheme if they do start picking up on blitz tendons. Yeah. If they want to get the ball out quickly, yeah. If Eagles are forcing the ball out quickly, I think it's a little different. Rookie rookie quarterbacks are 0 and 5 in championship, conference championship games.

Is that true? Yep. Did Big Bedwood the Super Bowl as a rookie? No, that was, he lost in what, 2004? Yeah, that's right, because they went 15 and 1, but they lost in the conference championship. Yep. Did they? Okay.

Yeah. I think what did Sanchez get to one with the Jets as a rookie maybe? Yep. Yep, he did. Yeah. So it's been a while since we've had a rookie in there, but they are 0 and 5. Is Russ not a rookie when he won the Super Bowl? No.

No. Second year? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like a lot of those rookie quarterbacks have come up against Belichick. That is exactly probably the case. And Belichick is a noted rookie quarterback killer. I don't know

I'm predicting the Purdy fallout game feels like just a short term predicting Brady to fall off a cliff it's just like in a more compact fast-paced method it's like every week I'm like all right Purdy's going to play bad and he has played bad at times it's just that they have so many weapons and so many guys that can make plays that

he doesn't have to play that good He can play below average to average. Now, that has to be up there. I think he has to be above average to beat the Eagles. Right. I want to see what happens when he gets, when the opposing team scores 21, 24 points or more. Because it really hasn't happened besides the overtime game with the Raiders that they almost lost. Right.

Right. And that's in the, I want, it'll be interesting to see if the Eagles look to that Raiders game plan. The Raiders are running a lot of crossing routes, a lot of like you getting Waller and Adams across the field kind of trying to confuse those linebackers and keeping their keeping San Francisco in their base defense by trying out like two, three tight end looks and you having those three linebackers out and knowing that like Waller and Adams are faster, more athletic than even some of San Frans like Al Shazir and guys like that.

So I wonder if Philly will do that as well and use a lot, like run a lot of lineups out with stole and goddard in and try and keep san fran in base in base defense and then throw against them from there yeah i would play i would play fast if i'm the eagles offense lots of no huddle because because of how fast this nineers defense likes to play they don't they don't sub got like we said nick bosa doesn't really come off the field fred warner runs around like he's got his head cut off yeah uh the fun goes the same way dray green law is a freaking coverage too right yeah get them let them just whether I don't running or passing just get run it run as many plays as you can against them and get them tired it might not show off right away but fourth quarter and whatnot when those guys

have been you've been just doing what hopefully doing what you can against them and now they're tired because you've been keeping them on the field so much it's like a no limit jiu jitzu match yeah yeah they're they they can playing fast like they do is awesome for their defense but also can get you in trouble if you're not you're you're going to get tired too yeah uh i'm picky i'm picking i'm picking san fran i think i knew it you're dead to me i think they can i think they can run the ball against philly and i think that brock purdy can play good enough and i think san fran's defense is going to give philly's offense trouble if they run the ball against the eagles i'll be happy because it means they're going to lose the game because they're not going to put up

enough points to win the game. I don't know how many points. I think this is a 2117 game. And we, well, that's wrong because Shanahan's going to kick at least three field goals. So that score doesn't work. But like a witch cackling right there. They missed two extra points. They went three for three on field goals and two, oh, for two on extra points.

2117. This makes me to the last thing I wanted to bring up before we get off the pod. Yeah. Do you think Brett Maher could ever recover? He missed five extra points in a row. And the owner comes down to talk to you? That makes you feel good. Like psychologically, like, I'm a big psychological warfare guy.

But man, I think I might hang it up at that point. I mean, he's playing a real estate or something, you know? He's playing a decent. amount of time so far. That, yeah, that's, the yips are nothing to mess with. If there's anything I've learned in life, it's that the yips are real and there's no telling how long they'll stick around. So it's like, it's tough to say for him because that, do you think, do you think he feels

it as much because they won? Well, they didn't win the next game. No, but in the game where he missed. Yeah, he did. but it wasn't as impactful. It was blocked. Yeah, it was blocked. Yeah, it was blocked.

It wasn't his fault necessarily. It was missing. It was going to miss. It's, yeah. I'm 100% convinced it was not going to be. Oh, I mean,

I think, like, I think they said it probably seven times on the broadcast. Like, everybody was like he would have missed. It was. Could you imagine,

though, you miss four in a row and then you're just, you're just thinking, I just got to get this one through. And then life will be back to normal. And it gets freaking blocked. I'd be worried they're going to replace me in that moment.

Oh, sorry, you're not kicking anymore. He's got to pretend every extra point is a field goal because for some reason those are okay. And you could feel it for Dallas towards the end where every time, every like fourth down nearing the red zone. And somehow it still didn't go for it on Fort Down. It did not one from the 35, I think. Yeah. And I was like that that shows you that McCarthy has no faith in Maher because a 35 yard line, that's that's fuel goal territory for McCarthy. Oh, yeah, McCarthy is not up there on the aggressiveness scale.

He might step on that scale and come back negative. Yeah. Fake, fake analytics guru. I don't know. Shanahan's, I think, worse with the aggressiveness. Oh, dude, he's terrible. He's bad, too. It's why he's going to lose.

That's fair. That's, those edges matter. I'm okay. I'm like, that is one area that, Nick Siriani was like noted to be I think he was number one in the NFL in like points added based on like critical decision making things like going for it on fourth down compared to kicking a field goal compared to punting things like that. Nick Siriani was up at the top of the league as far as aggressiveness. Well, in the words of Nick Siriani, I know what I'm effing doing. Yeah.

That was to a ref by the way. Was it? Yes. That was, I don't know what the ref was telling him not to do, but he knew what he was doing. That's hilarious. Shout out Siriani for completely adopting. What is, actually, I have a, yeah, I have a good question as non-Eagles fans. What do you, do you, do you hate Siriani?

Because I'm seeing a lot of people hate him for the way he acts. Well, he just seems kind of like a sniveling brat. Yeah, okay. But I like him because I like forward-thinking coaches who do analytically sound things. He's definitely that. So, yeah. I like him because he got the team right back to where it was. And, you know, like he was handed a team that it was in flux of like,

who knows which way this team could go. And he, you know, got him right back to where they were, helped develop Jalen Hertz. And I just like, I think his antics are funny. Okay. Yeah, because I feel like if he was not the Eagles coach, I would think he was one of the most annoying coaches in the NFL. I, yeah, like talk your talk, talk, talk your shit, in my opinion. Like, he's winning.

He's winning games. Talk your shit. Like, what can anybody say to him? The only reason people are getting annoyed is because their teams aren't winning. Sure. Win games, beat him, and then you don't have to hear him. Talk about it. Chris, can you guys not fire this one?

We'll see. Because the Eagles have a terrible track record of firing amazing coaches. But then finding new ones, apparently, is easy. Yeah. Yeah. Peterson was a Reed disciple, though. So, like, that was a rectification of firing Reed, you know? Sure.

Yeah. And Siriani is a Reich disciple. Right. Who was a Peterson disciple? So does that mean the next one will be a... Yeah, so the next Eagles coach will be somebody from the Jaguar staff a few years from now, I guess. Or someone that's currently coaching Siriani for Siriani, like Gannon. So they'll find the whole staff.

Gaming will go be the best decorinator in the league somewhere, and then he'll come back head coach a year later once they realized they made a mistake. Try to explain Reich disciple to a non-football watching person. Oh, crap. Just say Reich disciple to a non-I don't want to. I don't want it now, Steve. Exactly. It's just funny.

I heard it and I was like, oh, that makes it sound. Well, at least he didn't say third Reich disciple. I mean, thank goodness Frank Wright is the first of his name. All right, well with that, we should probably get out of here. It's been a while. Exiting point. That's why I was hoping for.

Thanks to the listeners. So a couple things of note, actually. Chris and I will be in Mobile next week for the Senior Bowl. We will be having lots of Senior Bowl content come out on the site that you should follow. I'm sure I'll be writing some stuff. Chris will probably be writing some stuff, as well as John Hanson and Scott Barrett. I'm not sure about who else is coming or not coming. But yeah, anyway, staff will be down there.

We'll be writing it up. If you're interested in the draft and the next group of fantasy football players, this is a good time to take in all that content. Chris and I will also be doing a special pod from down there. And I don't know if we'll have the capability of getting Steve in on that yet. but it will good chances all three of us but if it's not Chris and I will just do a duo thing and then Steve and I will be back at the end of the week so awesome thank you listeners so much for all your support it means the world to us and we will be back shortly for Brett Whitefield

this is my co-host Stephen Rourke our guest host Christopher Weck we are out Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.