Fantasy Football Daily - Champs and Chumps + What Every AFC Team Wants for Christmas | NFL First Read

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

Welcome to First Read, your go-to podcast for the latest in NFL analysis and insights. Join hosts Brett Whitefield and Joe Marino as they break down "Champs and Chumps + What Every AFC Team Wants for Christmas." Whether you're a fantasy football enthusiast, a die-hard fan, or just looking to stay informed on all things NFL, "First Read" has you covered. Tune in for expert opinions, detailed breakdowns, and engaging discussions every week. Don't miss out on the ultimate NFL podcast experience! Where to find us: http://twitter.com/BGWhitefield http://twitter.com/TheJoeMarino Find Our Podcasts Here - https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/podcasts#/ Use promo code - SCOREMORE for 10% off of your subscriptions Subscribe to FantasyPoints for FREE - https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Check out The Waiver Wire - https://www.fantasypoints.com/nfl/articles/2024/the-waiver-wire-week-5#/ FantasyPoints Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #fantasypoints #nfl #fantasyfootball #dynastyfantasyfootball #FantasyFootballAdvice #dynastypoints #dynasty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First read. We are your first read, the film and analytics podcast featuring Joe Marino of lockdown and myself, Brett Whitefield, the CEO of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after it. Merry Christmas to you, Joe. Merry Christmas. How are you? It is the Christmas episode. Merry Christmas, Brett Whitefield. What's your take on Christmas music? Are you in on it? My take on Christmas music. I, I do love it. You do love it. You use the word love.

This is sort of a new thing for me. I don't know what it was a couple years ago. So here's actually I'll, hmm, I don't know if I want to go on this rant on this podcast. I'll just say this. I don't love Christmas music that isn't focused on the reason why we celebrate Christmas. That's okay.

Yeah. I hear you. So there's, there's an album by my guy Tommy Prophet called The Birth of a King, best Christmas album hands down. I strongly recommend anyone check it out. It's freaking awesome. My wife starts listening to Christmas music on November 1st, Brett Whitefield.

November 1st? November 1st, exclusively, exclusively. Yeah, nothing else, brother, nothing else. You probably start dabbling around November 1st, and then obviously through Thanksgiving, it really cranks up. And then I wouldn't say we're exclusive, though. We're still a pretty diverse catalog over. here. The commitment here is just unbelievable.

Absolutely unbelievable. Are you going crazy with decorations or anything? I am not. My wife has gone crazy. We have eight Christmas trees. Brent Whitefield, eight. Eight. What? One. Yeah. And dude. E-I-G-H-T. Eight. Yeah. It's nuts, dude. That sounds, uh, that sounds like a choice. Not mine. But I'm happy to, um, say, babe, that, that looks beautiful.

That's a good looking tree. Wait, they're not all real, are they? Two of them are. Okay, yeah, well, that's good. Six are not. So that's six are not, exactly. We have two Christmas trees. We have one in each main area that people dwell in, you know, like common area.

I don't have one in like my bedroom or they. I don't have one in my office like you. Yeah, I do. I do, Brett. Do you think I'm responsible for this? Actually, the listeners of lockdown bills are responsible for this. They sent a bunch of ornaments. It's actually really cool.

This is my second favorite tree in the house. My favorite is the one that's in the living room. I also have one in the foyer, one in the front patio, and one in each bedroom upstairs, the four bedrooms upstairs. That's incredible, man. You guys must love yourself some Christmas. My wife does, and I love my wife. So there's that. So you love Christmas.

I do. I do. All right. Well, let's dive in, Joe, champ and chump. And then we're going to get into a Christmas special here. So I don't know. Do you want to start us off with your champ? I want to start us off with my chump.

Okay, cool. That's what I want to do. Because I think this is the biggest talking point in football right now. Oh, no. What do you think it's going to be? You're not, you're not doing the college football playoffs. Oh, I'm doing. I am doing it, Brett Whitefield.

All right. The chump of the week is anybody who wanted a 12-team college football playoff. We didn't get a single competitive game. And look, you know what the playoffs are for, whatever the postseason is, the intent is to crown a deserving champion. And that's not what we're doing. What we're concerned more about is stopping hurting the feelings of the teams that are left out that lost two or three games, no matter how many teams, whether it's two teams like we

had in the past, four, six, eight, twelve, someone is always going to feel left out and I don't care. I want to crown the most deserving football team as the champion that season. And the way that this is set up where you have automatic qualifications to the five highest rated conference champions has put this in a situation where you're just not going to have great competitive matchups, particularly in the first round. You have better teams hosting lesser teams with more time to prepare with a home field advantage. What did you think you were going to get. Now, I'm sure the advertising revenue, the ticket sales, all of that's really, really good. But we just wasted a lot of time here playing football games that shouldn't have been played

in our quest to crown a champion. Okay. I can respect the take because it wasn't the same take I've heard over and over. So that's good. Good job, Joe. What happened to college football? NIL, money? I mean, it started way before that. I think, I feel like the initial college football playoff kind of ruined this maybe like here's a thing there was so much tradition and pageantry pageantry soaked up in college football that it made it special like bowl games mattered even if it wasn't for the natty you know what i mean all hundred percent rose bowl was like growing up that was the game was true rees versus marquis too yasa sopo brother i won't forget it

man heck yeah and then and then all of a sudden it just died just completely died. And I think the 12-team playoff is an attempt to rekindle some of that pageantry and come up with more meaningful games because nobody is watching bowl games right now, Joe. Nobody. I get that. But what it goes hand in hand is players have made a choice. And I'm not saying they're wrong, Brett. I'm not saying they're wrong. They've made a choice that it's time and when it's time to get ready for the NFL, it's time to get ready for the NFL because it's life changing. It's generational money. You want to maximize your stock. So they're not playing in games that really don't matter. So yeah, what do you do? You, you handcuff 12 teams worth of players and make them play because it is important.

Yeah, you do, but it doesn't, it doesn't solve the greater problem. And is it even a problem? Should we fight this? These kids are going to, and rightfully so, put themselves at the priority so to maximize their opportunities in the NFL. Yeah, I understand all that. That doesn't, that's not the main driving point. That bothers me, I don't think.

So what is the solution? I think an 18 playoff would be more of a sweet spot. And then you'd have to go, what, neutral feud, neutral field for all of the games? Treat it like to actually make bowl season the four games.

You know, the Rose Bowl gets a CFB game, yada, yada, yada. I like eight better than 12. I even, I mean, six might be what I would be fine with because you get two buys, one and two get a buy. and playing game and then a playoffs, you know, three plays the six, four plays the five. Yeah.

I also think we should be cautious and not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It's one year, Joe. You're telling me every year this would be the result. You know that for sure? Of course I don't know that, but I can guess. I've seen what one through 12 looks like. And I mean, usually the difference between one and two and 11 and 12 is, is pretty pretty big uh it's usually big between one and two and nine and 10 the difference between

two and three is normally big though like even why do we need 12 bro we i agree with that we don't need 12 but i'm just thinking i think we got a bad like for year one it was a bad hand that was dealt maybe in future years it'll be a little more competitive at least and you might you might get an upset here and there you know what i'm saying but let me think about even in the in the 14 playoff joe you were still getting one of the four teams usually get Correct. Or sometimes two of the teams would get crushed. Right. Dude. And I think, well, of course, money is at the core of this, but also like manufacturing upsets in Cinderella stories. People like that. I don't. I don't. I like the best team to win the championship. That's what I like. Yeah, I feel like on that. That's a good chunk. I like to take it. It was unique. Thanks. I, I asked, what is what are other people saying? I respectfully, I don't listen to much or consume much other analysis. Oh, no, people.

Me neither, to be honest. But I know Herb Street set everyone off with whatever he said. People are arguing about the teams that should have been in rather than, like, that's just a symptom of the problem to me. Oh, no, no, no, yeah, yeah, that's silly. Yeah, what week, because SMU got in over Alabama or something like. Yeah, and Alabama played like trash for most of the year. Yet they were like, we're just supposed to accept now that they should have been in it

because SMU got popped. Who, no, they didn't deserve it for one. And then for two, they probably, the results a little bit in the same. Alabama stinks. Like what are we talking about here? They lost to two six-win teams. Yeah. So I'm glad I didn't want to spend time arguing about.

Oh, no, no, no, no. You know, that's not going to be me. Okay, do you want my champ or do you want to get your chump out there to yours go hand-in-hand? Mine don't go hand in hand. Okay. I can throw my chump. Let's do it. Okay.

Let's get Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know, we've championed you at multiple times this season. you were in the driver's seat to go win that division and you somehow just cough it up against a bad Dallas Cowboys team playing hard. I'll give him that playing very hard. Cooper Rush trying to make a case that he deserves to play in the NFL still and he looks good. But still, you controlled your destiny

and now you don't. You're giving it away. The Atlanta Falcons somehow are still alive. This is crazy to me, Joe. So Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you choked. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble. I think that's a great call out. And it goes hand in hand with my champ of the week. My champ of the week is Mike McCarthy. Oh, okay.

Do I love Mike McCarthy? No. But I respect what's happened here lately. After the Philly and Houston games, when they dropped a three and seven and everyone was hurt, I thought that was a lifeless football operation. I thought it was going to be an absolute bloodbath the rest of the way. You know what they've done? They've won four out of five, 34 to 26 win over the commanders,

26 to 24 win over Tampa Bay in that stretch. Those are two playoff contenders for sure. You beat Carolina as road dogs. You smoked them 30 to 14. Smoked them. First time Carolina was favored in like over 30 games. I give a hat tip to Mike McCarthy. His team didn't lay down.

He's squeezing everything he can out of a very depleted football team that already had issues at full strength. and he's making a case to continue as a head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Whether he should or not, I mean, we can debate that. But he's certainly putting his best foot forward to do that. And I think Jerry Jones, if you notice the tone on Mike McCarthy, the last couple of weeks out of Jerry has been very different. Is part of that because he missed out on Bill Belichick?

Maybe. But also, Mike McCarthy, I mean, when you just kind of look at it, said what a couple of 12 win seasons in a row to teams depleted they're still fighting hard at the end you know he's at least forcing this conversation and not just going to let his contract expire and then hire somebody else so hat tip to mike mccarthy for getting what he can out of this season this is a great call joe um i'm not a big mike mccarthy guy but to your point this is what he's done the season is kind of incredible it's really hard to win a locker room back. Yeah. And there was a moment in this season where it seemed like he had lost it. Like you heard all the rumblings, a Micah talking about being traded and C.D. Lamb having some issues and the whole Dak Prescott saying on national TV that we effing suck.

So not only did he, he win that back and get these guys playing hard for him, they went through an identity change in the middle of the season. And they went from this real finesse kind of soft team to a hard. hard knows, run the football, stop the run, play defense team. And Joe, this is a team that led the NFL and pass attempts last year. That was who they were. No Dak Prescott now, and they've completely changed who they are and they're winning football games. Those two things, winning the locker and back and changing an identity midseason is very hard to do.

And he's done both of them and they're winning. They're competitive. Oh, by the way, he's coming off three 12 wins seasons. Yeah. Like, could you imagine? talking about firing coach after 312 win seasons. It's crazy, right? I'm not the guy.

I said the bill should fire McDermott after like four straight division private stuff. Kick Roxburgh, Whitefield. Two division championships in there in a very competitive east. I mean, I get it. One and three in the playoffs. I get it, right? I get it.

But you better make sure you can get a better coach. You fire the one you got that led you to 312 win seasons. And again, I, it feels like, I'm going to bat for Mike McCarthy and in a way I sort of am because ultimately I won't lose any sleep over who the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is. I respect what he's been able to do to give himself an opportunity to continue. And technically they're not out of the playoffs yet, right? No, they're out. Yeah, that's only, yeah. That's even courage that they're playing this hard then. Yeah, they were out before they beat Tampa. Wow. Okay. All right. So that leaves my,

my what, my champ? Your champ. My champ. My champ is Brian. Thomas Jr. wide receiver, Jacksonville Jaguars. This dude is having a heck of a rookie season. Incredible rookie season, despite playing on a dumpster fire team with the rotating cast of Trevor Lawrence and McCorkel Jones who are playing subpar quarterback. So I just wanted to shout him out. And it's not really just this game. He was awesome in this game, though, Joe. He's kind of, they kind of have him doing like the Jamar Chase role in that offense where it's like, it's just.

Anything and everything we can get him. We're getting him. We're moving them around to the slot to get him these cheap little one-off targets. We're getting them isoed up in space. We're using him in the screen game. He's running the prototype X route tree digs and fades and slants, glances, and posts. He's running the whole freaking tree. They get man coverage.

They immediately check the play to Brian Thomas Jr. He's going to go win man coverage. The route running to, me has really elevated it's taken a step forward um he had moments of it at ls u where you saw the you know the athleticism the ability to to kind of control his body in a way that suggested he would be a good route runner but the development we've already seen is crazy i mean really compact uh you know he builds a stem sinks those hips head over toes i mean really like really good stuff and it's just rapid development from a guy that was kind of supposed to be raw and he's not

really that raw Joe. Like he is just good, just freaking good. So, uh, wanted to throw him out as my champ. Love what I'm seeing. He's the man. Dude, that's a great call out. And I think anybody that watched Brian Thomas recognized the opportunity for him to be a really good player in the NFL. You're just, you just knew there was some development needed and you watch him at LSU and you're like, man, that's really cool that you can run by everybody and Jane Daniels can put it on you. But like, we didn't see a lot of technical work out of him. And you watched the Missouri game in the Alabama game last year. Those were the two that were like,

like oh man i don't know like you know i don't know if he's anything more than just a run by everybody and he's answered those questions very very quickly and you know in a world where everybody wants a receiver just like brian thomas junior we might be left wondering well how'd that guy get to 23 right or whatever jacksville trades back and gets them and um looking like one heck of a pick especially after you know they had a big time production out of kirk ingram set the record for receiving receptions or whatever they spend money on gay davis um you know they had they had some some players, right? I didn't feel like the most pressing knee that they have, but boy, where would they be without this guy right now?

100%. 100%. Okay, we got some fun coming up here. The rest of the show, it's, it's Christmas time for all of the AFC teams. We're going to give them a gift. Folks, be sure, to stick with us. Okay, Brett, we got them in order 1 through 16 based on the current playoff standings. And kind of like what we did with Thanksgiving, where there's a lot of liberty that you can take with this. But we're going to give every single team here in the AFC a Christmas gift. And mine are very wide ranging. And this should be a lot of fun. And it'll give us an opportunity to kind of get into every team. And because we're going in order of current playoff field, we can get into some of those storylines as well as things stack up here with two games

to play. Things are going to get decided here very quickly. Which speaking of things getting decided very quickly here, the Kansas City Chiefs are the one seat at 14 and 1. They win one more game. Guess what? They're the one seat. They get that buy. They need that buy, week six was their original buy. Patrick Mahomes, whatever ankle deal he's got going on. They can use the buy in a big way. So let's do it. Let's give out a Christmas gift to the reigning back to back three of the last five Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. I hope I prepared for this correctly. But I took it as a, hey, we're hoping we get this for Christmas kind of thing. That's good. Yeah, that's fine.

So for Kansas City, they're hoping they get a pass rusher this Christmas. I was going to go offensive tackle, but I feel like DJ Humphreys played okay the other day. So pass rusher it is. They need a pass rusher bad, Joe. Maybe, you know, too bad. Maybe it's not Felix and Duque Usoma, right? They use the first round pick on that guy. I agree, man.

I think that they could use some pass rush. They could use a corner. They use a tackle. They can use a receiver. But here's the reality with the Chiefs and me. you know i think a lot about my father-in-law great man great man and he's one of those dudes he retired like really early saved his money like he's he's figured it out right he's done a good job and getting a gift for that guy christmas birthday's father's day very difficult very difficult

right because he's got it he's got what he wants man he's got everything yeah you know what we like to do we like to make a donation to a charity and his behalf and that's what you do with a team like the kansas city chiefs that has won three of the last five super bowls you say you know what we made it we made a we made a charity charity donation whatever it is whether it's the you know pets or you know human trafficking whatever cause feeding the hungry whatever it is man you just give the donation on their behalf and you move on with your life that's what you do with the kansas city chiefs all right excellent i don't know where to go from there but you're right Well, I have a lot more significant answers for other teams. But like, yeah, I mean, kick rocks, Kansas City.

Here's Cole, dude. You know, like you're 14 and 1, you're least deserving 14 and 1 team we've ever seen after winning three of the last five Super Bowls. You've never been anything less than the AFC championship game since Mahomes has been your quarterback. Like, come on, man. You sit this one out, you know, sit this one out and give a donation to the boys

and girls club. Give the gifts to the other kids, man, you know, showing up at the party wanting something. get out of here. I love it. That's good. Number two seeds, the Buffalo Bills. They're path to the one seed very complicated.

Well, not very complicated. They need the Chiefs to lose their last two. The Bills have to win their last two. And I don't know, Chiefs have won 14 to their first 15 in heroic fashion. So I don't think that'll happen. But for Christmas, I think the Buffalo Bill should want two Chiefs losses. They go to Pittsburgh. They go to Denver.

And we've seen the bills go on playoff runs under Josh Allen and Shaw McDermin. They've won at least one playoff game every year since 2020. The only team that can say they can do that is the chiefs. The one thing we haven't seen out of the bills is an opportunity to go on a playoff run with the benefit of not having to play in the wildcard weekend. And they've won those games, but there's always been a cost associated with it. Last week or last year, they go and they beat Pittsburgh very handily before hosting Kansas City. And in that game, they lose like half their defense.

And now it's like, oh, here's Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey in the playoffs. When you don't have your top two corners, your top three linebackers, you're down on safety. You know, it's like, what are we doing here? I'd like to see the bills have that opportunity to go as a one seat. Unfortunately, I think that's unlikely, but I think that'd be a great Christmas gift for them. Yeah, that was an easy one. I had the same answer. All right.

Number three seed is the Pittsburgh Steelers at 10 and 5. They still hold that tiebreaker over Baltimore, despite losing to Baltimore, courtesy of Russell Wilson's fumble and Russell Wilson's pick six at a game. They're on the road and without George Pickens. They made that very, very difficult on themselves, but they can still be the three seed here. They got a path to do that, but they do have a pretty tough schedule the rest of the way.

They're going to go to the playoffs, obviously, for Pittsburgh. I went first on Buffalo. What do you have here for Christmas? Yeah, they got to win out. I have two wins. They need two wins to make sure they get the host of playoff game and ensure that. So two wins for Pittsburgh. I think it's what they're wishing for.

Not sure there's anything better that they could ask for than that. Yeah, there's no question. That's the obvious thing that they should want. And you know what this is going to come down to is I think either Pittsburgh's going to be the three or Baltimore is going to be three and the other one's going to be the five, right? So who gets to host the division rival in the opening round of the playoffs? I think that's what that comes down to. I think that matters, right? Both of the teams at home will have won this year, even though this rivalry has really tilted towards Pittsburgh, right?

It really has over the last several years. I think that's the obvious answer. and I don't, I'm not going to shame you for taking the obvious answer, but I'm going to go with George Pickens being healthy. And I think that offense is just better when they have him, right? And Calvin Austin, dude, like made some plays in that game. But like, could you imagine if they had both of those guys going, right? That's going to give them their best chance.

I think Pickens availability is going to be a decisive piece in them being able to be the three and maybe win a playoff game or, yeah, this is going to be a little harder and we're probably going to be the five and lose. Yep, I had wide receiver as my other answer here. But not, I didn't have Pickens healthy, but I had another wide receiver. So that makes sense. Same thing, same track. A lot of liberty here, Brett Whitefield. That's the point.

That's the point. We're having fun here on recording this puppy on Christmas Eve. All right. Houston Tech Texans, your number four seat at nine and six. And they've locked up this division. Obviously a trying year, right? A lot of injuries to offensive line. digs now they've lost tank dell they've had availability issues at linebacker with harris and then

shire with the suspension they've had you know defensive line it's been a problem that corner tandem's not bad though brett whitefield you know at camari lasseter don't look too bad he's playing pretty good ball jo yeah yeah we're not we're not we're not going to forget about this here's where i'm at with with houston right i think they need dante johnson they get up the speed very very quickly right they're able to get him off waivers and boy with the tank dell loss they need it. And look, Johnson's polarizing, man. You watch him play. You can run routes. He's a very, very talented receiver. But this is what his fourth team in the last year, man? This is not good, right? These teams are throwing this guy around. There's plenty of red flags there. But you want to talk about

being here stabilized right now, dude. You get to go to a pretty good offense with a good young quarterback. You got a clear path through a roll. You can go on a run here. Deontay Johnson, get up to speed and try to try to get some, get some success. They've had a successful season. They won the division, right? But like, you're in a situation now where you know, you don't want to be one and done in the postseason and you're probably going to have a tough draw. There was rumors when the Baltimore Ravens traded for Deonti Johnson that they did it in order to block competitors such as the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs. That kind of makes sense because they never played him, literally never played the guy.

I think he had his like most snaps in a game really eight and they all came in garbage time. So yeah, that's, that's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I kind of agree here. I was struggling with this one. It's like they need, they just need wide receivers. So Deonti Johnson getting up to speed would be huge for them. I was going to also say they need CJ Stroud to pull his head out of his butt. Honestly, I think that's what they want.

Like, and Joey, you know, I passionately want to discuss. young quarterback play. We're going to get to that next week. But C.J. Stroud, man, he is just not seeing it, not feeling it at all right now. And it's kind of crazy to see, you know, as alarmists, we've been saying since last year, he got away with a lot, but it's ramped up a notch this year, Joe. Like, there's a lot wrong on his tape. And so I think the biggest wish here is that they get C.J. Straud back to where he was. I agree. Well, I think that comes with some good fortune along the way for that.

to be the case. Man, he had some big moments last year. Layton games, big throws down the field, man. There's like a clutch factor to him. Next up, Baltimore Ravens number five seed currently at 10 and 5. Got a chance to still win the north. I think at worst, they're going to be the five seat. I think it's your turn to go first year.

Yeah, low-hanging fruit. They need Pittsburgh to lose a game and they need to win out. That's the low-hanging fruit. To me, they want to be a team that's hosting playoff games. I think they've always been shaking the playoffs at best. So getting to host a game or two, depending on how things fall, would be great. Yeah, I think going to Baltimore is probably one of the underrated hard road dates in the NFL, right? Especially in the postseason. I know that Kansas City was able to go in there and win the AFC championship game last week or last year.

But I think that's going to give them their best chance, especially for a team that has operation. issues on offense. You know, you don't want, you don't want to make it harder for yourself going on the road and being in some tough environments. And more likely than not, you know, if they're the five seed, they're going to have to go to Pittsburgh, Kansas City or Buffalo, which are also tough places to go play. I think that's an obvious answer. I'll go something different here. I think it's their past defense trends to continue how they're going. Obviously, they started the season terrible on past defense. It's gotten a lot better in recent weeks. I think they need that to continue. I mean, you can talk about operational issues. on offense. Of course, they can stop the run, but I think the biggest thing for them is don't make it harder than it has to be with coverage blunders left and right. That's gotten better. That needs to stay that way. Okay, we got more teams to get to here. The rest of the wild card contenders and, of course, the bottom of the AFC where they need Christmas gifts and plenty of stocking stuffers. We'll get to all that here in just a moment. Folks, be sure to stick with us.

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We'd love to talk, business. All right, Brett Whitefield. Next up in our list is the number six seed Los Angeles Chargers at 9 and 6. It's my turn to go first year. And what I think the Chargers need is for the offensive success that they had against Denver to continue. That's the first time in like four or five games that they scored more than 24 points. First time in four or five games, they had more than 300 yards of offense. It's been a really quiet,

offense of late. And I think if they're going to be able to overcome their issues defensively, particularly with their ability to stop the run, I think they're going to be able to, they're going to have to be able to score. And to be able to do that against a quality defense like Denver is really, really important. So I think that is what they need the rest of the way for them to maybe steal a playoff win and make some noise here. I don't disagree with your take. I think that's very important to me. It's just like let them pass the ball more. I think they would Is that really all it is that simple, right? Yeah, for sure.

A lot of teams use the run game to open up the pass game where it's like the chargers need to do the opposite thing. They need to pass, stretch you horizontally and vertically and then get the run game going. You saw it in that game. It wasn't until Herbert had had a couple good drives where finally Gus the bus hit a big one, you know? But that's not what I was going to say.

I was going to say they need some hog mollies up front on defense, bro. My God, this defense is falling off an absolute cliff. and it's largely in part because they just do not have the dudes yet on the D-line. Like the edge is fine. Kaleel Mack, Joey Bosa fine. But in the interior, man, they're getting whooped. Linebackers getting whooped. Like they really need some hog malleys up front, round out that front seven.

Just to really solidify that hardball culture, too, of just like, we're, you know, we're tough and we're going to get after it. They got to get some hog malleys there. So I think that's their Christmas wish list is that somehow they get an early draft pick here or something. But yeah, hog molly's man. I think that's a good call, man. I think with a team like the Chargers, we kind of forget that it's like year one of this regime, a new GM, new head coach.

But what makes that a little bit complicated is you do have a quarterback like Justin Herbert. And you do, you did hire a coach like Jim Harbaugh. It's not like you brought in some hot shot coordinator, right? This is an established coach in football. So it's easy to kind of blur those lines between, okay, this team's supposed to win and we're building something here. So to your point, too, the roster wasn't barren. You mentioned Herbert, but like, O line's pretty stinking good.

Booking and tackles. They have playmakers on defense and Derwin James and the corner, the Santa Samuel Jr. And Joey Bosa, Cleolmac. So, like, they have some dudes. So it's a basic Harbaugh's living up to the Staley hype and where Staley should have been already. So it is year one, but like the expectations maybe were a little too low for most because like anything other than Brandon Staley is probably an upgrade at coach. Yeah, talk about setting your franchise back. Brandon Staley certainly did that.

Number seven seat right now, the Denver Broncos. They're nine and six. And I mean, dude, this is a team that. hadn't made the playoffs since 2015. They're one win away from getting there in year two under Sean Peyton and in Bo Nix's rookie season. This is the easiest one yet. Win one more game, go to the playoffs and this drought and feel like you're really on

the right course. Straightforward. Brett Wefield, just nodding. He's like, okay, Joe, you got it. Thanks. Move on. Number eight, Indianapolis Colts. This is the, this kind of gets us into an AFC playoff seating competition.

conversation or who's going to be these last couple wildcard teams because you have the Chargers and Broncos at 9 and 6 then you have this field of the Colts, Dolphins, and Bengals all at 7 and 8. You know, look, Chargers, Broncos win one more game and all of these teams are stiff-armed, but you're going to play all the games, right? And they got to go out there

and do those things. There's still a path for all of these teams to get in. So it's going to be fascinating. Do you want to call your shot? Do you think any of these teams between the Colts, Dolphins, Bengals get in? I'm looking right now. I know the dolphins finish with the Jets and the Browns, both on the road. So road cold games for the dolphins, certainly winnable.

I think the Colts have like the easiest teams ever, like maybe the Jaguars and the Giants or something. So we'd have the Broncos that have to fall out, right? Yeah, the Broncos or the Chargers would have to fall out. The Broncos finished with the Bengals and Chiefs. You don't think that can happen at CINC and then hosting Kansas City? The problem might be, well, if Kansas City wins this week, and they're the one seed, they probably get the Carson Wentz chiefs in week 18. Do we know for sure Denver has a tiebreaker over Cincinnati?

I mean, the other way around what I just said, Cincinnati has a tiebreaker? Cincinnati has the tiebreaker over who? Denver. Is that true? No, that's not true, right? As things right now, the Chargers are above Denver. Right, right. Because they won the game.

They beat them. But they play again, right? No, they don't. No, they don't play again. Denver beat him twice. Oh, wow. Let's see. Well, yeah, but they both can make it.

They're both in right now, right? I'm sorry, I said that wrong. The Chargers beat Denver twice. Yeah. Oh, the Chargers beat Denver twice. Yeah, so they have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Denver. So they have to have it. Okay, so both teams can get in, though.

So for the Dolphins. If either team wins one more game, they're in. Right. Right, but the Broncos have the Chiefs and the, who's the other game? Bengals. So what is the tiebreaker between the Broncos and the Bengals for the wildcard? That leans Denver right now, but since he wins the game, whoever wins the game on. Is it going to be whoever wins the game?

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Well, no, is it conference before head to head? No, head-to-heads the number is first. Oh, okay. My mistake. Yeah, then I think Cincinnati probably gets in. I'm calling my shot there.

Wow. Colts aren't for sure. God, I love Anthony Richardson, but my dude, calm down. Yeah, so I don't think they can pull it off. And then Miami, dude, I can't. I can't with Miami. I don't know. Watch to go to the Jets and to the Browns.

Miami does. Yeah. You're killing me. And the Colts beat the Dolphins, so they have the head-to-head tiebreaker. Colts have a tough one left, too, though, right? The Colts finish their last two are against the Giants and the Jaguars, so no. Oh, my God. Yeah, dude.

This is going to be a crazy finish. Very crazy. Again, this is the most simple thing is the Chargers and Broncos win one game each, and we, this is your playoff field. And the Bengals, I mean, we'll see. It'll sort itself out, but the Bengals finish with the Denver and Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh to close it out. I got to take back what I said. I don't think the Bengals have a clear, clear path here. No.

Somebody other than the Broncos is getting in, though, because I think the Broncos might. Oh, you think they're going to miss? I think there's a good chance. They just got to win one game, but it's at Bengals and then the Chiefs. Yeah. The chiefs could let them in on purpose because they know they can smoke them. Well, if they let them in, they're not going to get a chance to play them because the chiefs are going to have the buy.

They're going to be the seven. The Broncos are going to lose in the first round. They love, they, yeah, of course, they love for Denver to get in and beat the two. And then they get the host Denver in the divisional round. I just, I mean, that's very aggressive. It's very aggressive. Oh, okay. So where were we?

We were Denver. No, we were at Indianapolis. We talked about Denver. win one more game, get to the playoffs. Indianapolis at number eight, seven and eight, their Christmas gift. I think I already said it. Anthony Richardson to be good?

He just 5% more on just regular dropback passes. We just need 5% more, dude. Can you just deliver the ball 5% more accurately? And we're good to go. He's making it. So the stuff with his legs is there. It's come. He looks great.

maybe they need to be more aggressive dialing that stuff. Yeah, that's actually probably true. He had six designed quarterback runs on the first two drives of this last football game. Didn't have another one until the fourth quarter. So like maybe they got to figure that out. You know what I mean? It's a tough needle to thread, man. It's not really drafted Superman.

Yeah, I hear you, but you've got to, you got to pick your spots, man. You, no, there's no spots to pick with him. This isn't Josh Allen where you're, you trust him to. make plays with his arm. This is this is a worst version of Cam Newton from a throwing standpoint. Like you have to, you drafted this guy for one reason and one reason

alone because he is physically superior to any player in the NFL. And we saw him do that last year and he got injured every other game. No, he got concussed badly one time. Shoulder. Because he dove head first into an end zone with three guys barren down on him, which

also started the shoulder injury and then he got hurt with the shoulder. He's been relatively fine this year. The play he got hurt on this year was in the pocket. He got sacked by just a normal play. So if you were worried about injuries in a running quarterback, you can't draft Anthony Richardson, Joe. I'm not saying that you should be worried. I think you have to thread the needle.

You can't be like you're going to, you can't run the ball 15 times the game if you're a quarterback. Lamar Jackson does it? And he's skinny. Right. Lamar Jackson's amazing at not getting hit. He knows, he knows how to handle that. You have to trust Richardson to approve. And I think he has improved.

He hasn't taken a ton of big hits this year. I still think I still wanted to get better as a passer. Well, no, for sure. But until then, you have to be working towards both things. How do we maximize the skill set while also developing him for the future? Absolutely. But you, I've been critical of Shane's plan with him the whole time because it's like you drafted a guy that does one thing really, really well right now and is a work in progress on the other stuff. Now, listen, I think Richardson is unlike most of the young quarterbacks and that he's pretty good at like pocket management and.

resetting his O line and getting through his progressions, but he's just the accuracy just absolutely stinks. And I mean, it hasn't gotten any better yet. So we got to figure this out, Joe. And I think giving him some more layups and the run game is probably the way to do that. Him and Taylor together are a scary combo. You want to tackle those guys all game long? Screw that.

And you know it's funny. Learned about that, right? They did. They found out. But against the Lions, the Colts, I called it. everyone was saying Richardson have a massive game because the lines struggle against mobile quarterbacks. I said, no, Shane Seichen will run him five times on the first drive and then not again the rest of the game. And that is exactly what happened. That's a weird

recipe that you've figured out for them. And that doesn't make a lot of sense. They need to fix that. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the concession. It doesn't, I don't, I'm not conceding that he's got to take care of himself and be available. I agree with that though. That wasn't the argument. Number nine, the Miami Dolph. dolphins, seven and eight, I think this team needs a new general manager. And here's what it comes down to. Chris Greer's been their GM for a long time.

What do you know about Chris Greer? I don't know anything about him. That's the problem, right? He's a guy that is just 100% just aligned with whoever the head coach is and gives them, you know, kind of their wish list. And I think that's gotten him in trouble with both Brian Flores and Mike McDaniel, where they need to get a general manager that comes in and has a vision as well and can collaborate with the head coach and not just be the, you know,

the personal shopping assistant. And I think that some of the ideologies on both sides of that equation, which are very extreme differences between Greer and, excuse me, between Flores and McDaniel. But I think the general manager needs to come in and have a little bit more of a, you know, a vision himself that he wants to incorporate into, what this football team looks like because I feel like the warts on the roster and the warts that have been on the roster are pretty obvious. And we've learned nothing about Chris

Greer over a long stretch of time. I think they need somebody that can actually come in and be collaborative as opposed to, okay, what do you want? Let's give it to you. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective. I agree with you for sure. I don't know that I have a better answer. Yeah, let's go with that. Don't you feel like Miami's kind of stuck? That's what I was getting at. Like I was going to say, like, maybe they need a new quarterback, but like, I don't know that that helps you either. You can't just find something better than two on, you know, on the streets.

So it's like, yeah, that's a good way of saying they're kind of stuck. They feel like they're this weird limbo team right now and I'm not really sure what to make of it. Yeah. What is there about with the two of though this year? It's still pretty good, right? Yeah, well, they're seven and eight, and I think they went one and three without them. Okay. So I think Miami's sealing with this iteration of what they are is like a nine to 11 win team.

That's the questions are never going to go away about late season finesse football. Too much of like a timing, rhythm-based thing that doesn't always travel. Like it's just. And they're gritty tough players they got rid of Christian Wilkins and Andrew Van Ginkle and guys that like. Robert Hunt. Robert Hunt. Yeah, exactly. Like these are if you want to not be considered a finesse team.

You probably need to retain some of these tough physical players that really win in the trenches for you. Yeah. Cincinnati Bengals number 10, they're 7 and 8. What do you got for them? I mean, obviously they need what? Two wins and a Denver loss here. Well, no, they'll give the Denver loss. So they need two wins.

That's an obvious answer. I'll go with a new owner. Oh, yeah, for sure. I didn't do that because we've had that show a few times already. I know. I just can't stop thinking about it. And you just keep watching this team and you're like, how much harder do they make it than it has to be

because they just make stupid decisions with personnel and how they manage their players? And it's like, you have Joe Burrow, man. Joe Burrow is so freaking good. And the remainder of team just gets worse and worse because you are operationally, ignorant with how you run a football team. It's, I mean,

from just a fan of football and a fan of team building, it's hard to watch. It's hard to watch. But again, I won't lose any sleepover whether or not the Cincinnati Bengals figure it out. All right, Brett, 11 through 16 coming up here. All of these teams are four and 11 or 3 and 12. Bottom of the AFC, not looking so hot. We're talking about it next year. Stick with us.

Okay, Brett. Number 11, the Jets, 4 and 11. There's a lot of directions you can go with here. I'll just say they need the Aaron Rogers era to end. You see him gassing up Tennessee the other day? The great state of Tennessee, no state income taxes. You hear him talking about that on the McAfee show? Yeah. And he also talked about if he gets released.

Oh, that'd be a really fascinating story. I've never been released before. Brother. Listen, the dude can still ball. I'm not going to say he can't. He's as good as he was. Heck no, but he's better than all but what, eight, nine QBs in the league right now?

Wow. You think Aaron Rogers is the top 10 NFL quarterback right now? Bro, he's still throwing it, man. Of course he's still throwing it. He's still got that. Can he run an offense coherently? This team nine points. No, I mean, is it all on him?

They have no wrong. Whatsoever. Their O line stinks. The run game stinks. Is there offensive line that bad? Yes. Don't do that now. Is it that bad?

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. It's bad. Come on. I'm watching Drake May with the three and twelve Patriots impresses me more. No.

Stop. Joe, Drake May? It's, it's, okay, I know why you're saying that because he gave you heart palpitations for the first half of the Sunday.

He's played well all. No, he has. With nothing around him. No, he hasn't. He's played bad for three quarters every game and then when the defense sags into you know drop three and prevent coverage he starts to

tear it up and get moral i'm tired of moral victories with drake may stop he looks terrible the first i disagree he's bad legit he's so much good against buffalo in the first half i'll give him that but every other game no we have to stop the drake may moral victory he's still a rookie very difficult circumstances i i'm not saying he doesn't have difficult circumstances and i'm not saying i'm I'm throwing it out with him. The fact that he's metrically average with that offensive line with the Montre Jacobs might be the worst offensive lineman I've ever seen in the NFL. These guys over there, right tackle for Drake May.

They have no center. They have no left tackle. He's metrically average because of garbage time statistics, though. If I was in England Patriots fans, I'd be really excited about it. I'm not saying you shouldn't be excited either. He's a rookie. Like I, you know. Yeah, but that's the important lens to put on, man.

And I'm putting it on. I agree with that with that like for a rookie it's fine. Like you don't the expectations weren't high to begin with Joe. The situation is dire. But we're not I'm not doing the he's playing better than Aaron Rogers thing. There hell no. I didn't say he's playing better. I said more impressed.

Okay. Playing better adjacent. All right. Jets need a new owner too. Yeah. They do. Come on, dude, this stuff is nuts that's coming out of. Oh, yeah.

The reports, you know what happened here. Sala and Douglas got fired, and they're talking to anybody. Yeah, let me tell you what's going on there. Let me tell you about Woody Johnson and why we couldn't do this, that, and the other, right? I'm inclined to believe all of it's true. Yeah, I called Salah's agents, asked if you want to come on first read for a tell-all. Tell them to come, brother. We'd love to have them.

Love to have him, Robert. He's busy right now with the Packers, but. He's from my town. Oh, oh, yeah, I forgot. Remember, he was supposed to be the head coach of the Lions. What happened there? People forget that, right? It was solid of the Lions.

It was a done deal. They, uh, they liked Dan Campbell better. What a choice. What a choice. Yeah. Under, like, if you do this thing with the NFL where you think about all the like, almost happened, but didn't like how that changes the course of history, dude. Absolutely insane.

Okay, let's move through these, uh, bottom feeder teams. The Cleveland Browns, number 12. They're three and 12. I have written down for them to stick with Stifonsky. This guy's given. Yeah, yeah. And I had this conversation last week with Stephen. They've had two 11 win seasons under Soponsky. You'd have to go back to like 94 and 86 to get their last two 11 win seasons. I think their problems are so little to do with Kevin Soponsky and they have a guy that's actually proven that he can win in Cleveland. I would, I would not be thinking about firing.

To get who? All right, listen. From a coaching standpoint, I agree. Does he have, I need to know, did he sign off on Deshawn Watson or not? Was he evolved in that decision at all? If he was, he has to be culpable for it. It completely ruined the franchise. I'm serious.

I need to know, if I'm moving forward with Kevin Stefanski, I need to know he can have a clear mind with making decisions about quarterbacks. Don't give him, I don't know, dude. We don't know the answer to that. We don't know the answer. But I do know that he has 2-11 win seasons with not Deshawn Watson. Right. So, I mean, you can argue

they botched the Baker thing and they botched the DeShan thing. Yeah. So I think that you have fair questions, but I'm leaning into the to the wins. Okay. What do you, do you have something for Cleveland? I was just going to say, move on, like, New, New quarterback.

Recept the QB room. Yeah, I think a lot of this done, these finishing teams are easy. Jacksonville Jaguar is number 13. They're three and 12. They got to nail the coaching hire, right? Doug Peterson's not even fired yet. Yeah, I know what they're doing.

They're keeping him around to make sure that they don't win too many games. They don't want the one coach bump. They don't want any of that. Dude, the thing is all these three and 12 teams, man. Someone right now that has three wins is going to be picking like six or seven in the draft. Three wins she gives you a top three pick, man. this is bad. Imagine being that bad in getting like the eighth best player in the class.

Yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to happen to somebody. Yeah. New, new, Ben, they need Ben Johnson. That's their wish list. Ben Johnson. The Tennessee Titans at 14, 3 and 12, they need a quarterback. They, yeah, I was going to say they need a universal ban on mayonnaise.

Yeah. I wonder what, Will Levis plays football for who next year? he will be the backup quarterback for hold on be the backup quarterback for the Carolina Panthers yo tepper loved him yeah you're right about that that's where he's going that's that's a great call out there's going to be a lot of weird quarterback movement next year with like

fields Daniel jones will levis like those quarterbacks you know what I mean james all Aaron rogers it's be weird The levis of Carolina reminds me of Mac Jones to Jacksonville. It's 100% former high. Okay. Where do I bet on that? I think you're 100% right about it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right, let's go. I think it's a perfect take. I guarantee, I think it happens. The 3 and 1215 C Las Vegas Raiders, bad win, by the way. That literally happened. They went for the number one pick to the sixth pick. I think Antonio Pierce is handling it correctly, but we all know the reality there.

It's not a good win. they need a quarterback. They need Shadour Sanders, yes. Well, they're not going to get them at six. No, they're not. They need, uh, actually, I don't know, is that true? It's like, I love Shadour Sanders. Does, I'm not convinced the NFL does yet.

Dude, Shooter Sanders is not going to get past the Giants, the Titans, the Browns, the Jets, right? Like, that's too many teams for him to fall through. somebody's going to like him. I would take them first overall. So you know where I'm at, but especially in this draft.

Yeah, true. That's a good point. Last up, the New England Patriots number 16, their 3 and 12, kind of already talked about them. I think their biggest thing is they need growth from Gerard Mayo.

I like the trajectory. I like Drake May. I think the offense, the offensive line is terrible. I think the receivers are terrible. This team has tons of draft capital. Tons of it, right? They're going to be picking high.

in every round. They got the Falcons 3. They got the most cap space in the NFL. They have like $30 million more than any other team. The biggest question I have about this team is Geron Mail because I think there's just been way too much goofy. And it's not just the things he says or kind of like just finding himself having to reverse course and boxing himself in the core. Coaching decisions, right? He's kind of a loser coach. Cowardly punts off the wazoo. Really, really disappointing. I think he's got to grow a ton as a head coach or else. I don't know that they're going to maximize their opportunity here to build. Yeah. Their wish list is long.

They got to get my guy, Drake May, who's absolutely bawling out right now. They got to get my guy, Drake May, though, some legit, like, just a better surrounding cast. Like, we need to upgrade the floor of the offensive line. Upgrade the floor of the. Bro, the skill player unit is so disappointing. It is, and they finally found a rotation. You know, it looks like with Pop and Bouté and Bourne being the main guys. But, like, can we stop whiffin at wide receivers, though, in the draft?

Dude, Polk and Baker? I knew Baker stunk. I thought Polk, they took Polk about two rounds too high, and then Baker I didn't think was very draftable. But credit to them for finally figuring out that Boutte and Pop Douglas were players that deserve reps over those guys and like juju and those players. I thought Bucke was dead too, bro. So like, no, he's clearly working hard because his last year at LSU Plus last year

in New England was bad. So yeah, but they just need they need everything. And they're going to have trouble finding offensive line help in this draft, at least at tackle. So, but they have cap space. So maybe they can swing a trade, get a, you know, Cam Rob. We hate Cam Robinson, Joe, but that would still be a floor upgrade for them. That's how bad it is there right now, Joe. Right.

That's that right tackle. Demontre Jacobs. Horrible. True. You can't go to war with him. You cannot go to war with that guy is the right tackle. You can't do it. They are.

Is that it? Are we done? it. All right, cool. We'll be back Thursday. We're going to do NFC Christmas wish list. If you're listening to this on your way to your in-laws house or wherever, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas. No matter what, thank you for listening to. We're super thankful for you guys. You make this possible for us. Yeah, check out Thursday's episode because we're going to finish the series. Remember, folks, no matter what develops, we will always be your first read. We are out.