Fantasy Football Daily - Chumptastic Weekend for Antonio Pierce and Ryan Day + NFL Power Rankings Update | NFL First Read

Episode Date: December 3, 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 "Chumptastic Weekend for Antonio Pierce and Ryan Day + NFL Power Rankings Update." 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 C.O of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points. Data Suite. Let's get after it. Joe, how are you, sir? We are, what Thanksgiving is over, Joe? How was your Thanksgiving, man? This is magical, dude. Smoke the turkey. It was phenomenal. Then went to the North Carolina Mountains. for the weekend with the family. We came home on Sunday morning. Don't worry. We didn't miss any of the NFL action. I spent Friday, Saturday, North Carolina mountains in a cabin, beautiful, got a Christmas

tree. Things are good. Vives are good, man. How are you? I'm doing great. Speaking of traveling, my wife is asking me to give her some dates. We can travel during the Christmas break. And I'm like, babe, traveling inside the NFL season is so hard.

It's nearly impossible to do. So I'm like, here's the NFL calendar. You go ahead and look at this. and then tell me where you think we can fit a little, little trip in here, you know what I'm saying? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You've been with the misses for a while. She's been through the football season grind.

What's going on here? Is there is a communication breakdown? Are you losing control of the house? Is there, what, what's going on here that she would even approach you with something like that? No, well, so it's twofold. One, you know, the NFL gets greedier and greedier by the year. So like this year, Christmas week, for example, we got two games on Christmas, two, or a game the day after Christmas.

Like, it's middle of the week stuff. Two Wednesday games, Joe. Yeah. What are we doing? So I think some unexpected things have come up. And then also my wife, my wife is home this year. She's not working. She's stayed home with the young two kids.

So we're, uh, she got a lot more time on her hands. That's actually not true at all, by the way. I'm, I'm retracting that statement. She has less time on her hands, actually. But, um, she thinks a little bit more about. family stuff, you know, wanting to do family stuff. So I get it. Well, we'll figure something out. The problem is we don't live in a nice state like North Carolina where you're a couple hours from the mountains. Now, Michigan's beautiful in the summer. Best place to summer ever is Michigan.

You have so many cool things to do. But in the winter, dude, it stinks because, yeah, I could drive three hours to look at what, like 18 inches of snow. That's not cool. So anyways, vacationing in the middle of the NFL season is hard. That's what is great about living in Charlotte, is that If we want to take a quick weekend, it's two hours to the mountains. It's two hours to the beach. Yeah. Bada, boom. But I hear you on that, man.

These stay at home moms, unbelievable. My wife did that this year as well. And we welcomed our second child. And she's never been busier, man. It's unbelievable. There's no doubt in my mind she's the hardest working person in this household. So I hear you on that. It's the truth.

All right, dude, we're going to do champs and chumps. James and chumps. And I want to take a different approach, kind of, this week. there are so many candidates for chumps show i feel like you just got to throw them all out we'll we'll nominate them and i want the listeners of the show to then tell us who their chump of the week was okay so if you're listening to the show whether it's on twitter tag us whether it's in the youtube comments reply get it on there i want to see what you guys think are the chumps um but yeah let's just start dumping names here for chumps first and then we'll backtrack and do champs

does that sound good sounds good um yeah let's let's just start jumping names here for chumps first and then we'll backtrack and do champs that sound good? Sounds good. Um, yeah, let's, let's do it. Let's, let's, uh, let's figure out who these multiple candidates are for chump. Obviously the leading candidates, Matt Eberflus. Yeah. Come on, man. And I was rooting for Lions. Listen, I don't need the Lions to be any more pissed off at the world than they are. So go ahead, keep winning games. Keep winning games. But come on, Matt. Come on, Matt. Absolute embarrassment at the end of the game. Everybody saw it. It was horrendous for those that somehow missed it. If you did, you know, bears basically were in a weird situation where they had to either decide to kick a field goal or go for a Hail

Mary type play at the end of that Lions game. A great game played by them actually. They came back. Lions were, you know, kicking their face in the entire first half, left a few points on the board, or off the board rather, which gave the Bears a window to come back. They did. And they had a timeout in pocket Joe and didn't use the timeout to recalibrate the offense even though the play came in late Caleb Williams was scrambling he had to make an adjustment at the line basically snapping the ball with one second left in the game and refusing to call that time out which crazy is they were kind of in field goal range too Joe I don't see how you like take the time out to get the correct play call for sure but also take the time out to make sure you don't want to kick a field goal you know what I mean like get that at least have that conversation feel everyone out get the right play call, get your, you know, your correct checks in. The whole thing was so messy. And then just in typical Matt Eberflus fashion, Joe, he, you know, immediately denied any

responsibility, any culpability. So he liked the way it played out. He would have done it all the same again. And this attitude has actually trickled over through the whole team, which is why he had to go, honestly. When you listen to like Jalen Johnson talk and he's anti-Eberflus, but it's like, it's been excuse making the whole season. for them. Tyreek Stevenson, the whole Hill Mary thing, like, there's so much excuse me going on.

When you're not taking accountability for your actions, and I know Iberfuss is the biggest problem there, but when I hear Jalen Johnson, you know, point the finger at somebody else at his head coach and say, oh, it's that guy, like, that's not the attitude of a good football player. That's not the attitude of a winning culture. So Ibrufus has to go, had to go. He did go. They fired him. And, and they got to get someone in there that's going to rebuild this culture. I'd be surprised if, the votes don't come in very much in favor of Matt Eberflue. So curious, one of the contenders we have here. Who is the chump that we're rolling with for this Raiders situation?

Oh, I don't know. Jackson Powers Johnson. Tell the people about the Raiders situation and then. Well, at the end of the game, I mean, they're not set and JPJ snaps the ball. And the Raiders aren't perfect position. to kick a modest field goal to win the game. They're down too to beat the Chiefs. The Pixie toss at some point has to wear it on the Chiefs.

I guess it never will. But obviously that's a major problem because O'Connell wasn't ready for the ball. The Chiefs fall on it and we don't even get to see the game winning field goal attempt. So is it who do you? It's got to be head coach, right? Yeah, I think that's where you always go. Like when you have that big of a meltdown in a moment where you're just not situationally ready to go, it goes back to the guy in charge of all of it.

So Antonio Pierce. Antonio Pierce. So we got Ibruflu, so we got Antonio Pierce. I got a combo, do it to throw out. Ryan, Day and Jack Sawyer, Ohio State. Guys, you had 60 minutes to defend your turf. Yeah, and this is parroting a lot of cliches on X, but I don't care. 60 minutes to defend your turf and then you're going to throw an emotional tantrum because somebody planted a flag.

Also, Ryan Day, you hired Chip Kelly and we're okay with him not targeting your best player one time in the entire game on offense and Jeremiah Smith. That's a real, that's a real thing, Joe. They did not target Jeremiah Smith in that game. Michigan playing without their best corner in Will Johnson. Yeah, Ryan Day. I hope, you know, for Michigan fans' sake, they don't fire him because Michigan fans are loving this. Oh, and four against the... Yeah, it's not good.

Yeah, not good. But that whole scene at the end of that game, dude, I know it's an emotional game. The flag planning thing, I get, you feel like it's disrespectful. It happens, man. It happens in a lot of games. Texas did it on Michigan's turf early in the season. You didn't see Michigan, you know, needing to get pepper sprayed because of that situation. So, yeah, Ryan Day and Jack, or Jack Sawyer, fake tough guy, you know,

like tough guy is going to go, you know, basically loses, lose control of his, his emotions because of a flag, you know, when he could have been defending that field for 60 minutes in the game. How about Kirk Cousins? Ooh, I didn't think about this one. Well, I'm tired of the Falcons lying to me about who they are as a football. football team. I mean, out of the buy, out of the buy, got there and throw four picks. I mean, and these were, these are bad picks. And that last one dude was like, like, whoa,

like you've watched football enough times in your life to know that based on the rhythm of the quarterback, if it's going to be a pick or not. It's like a routine, outbreaking pattern. It's like everything looked on schedule. And all of a sudden, he just floats it out there forever. able to, you know, it's kind of like a game losing play. It's like unbelievable. I think Kirk, as this season moves along, I have less and less confidence that he can be the answer. I mean, they lost three in a row to the Saints, Broncos, and Chargers.

They've had that devastating loss. I mean, Chargers are coming across the country. Yeah. And you're off your by week and you lose to them. Same thing as Seattle, you lose by 20 at home to Seattle? Yeah. Three turnover game, man, I don't know, dude. a door's open for the bucks to do this thing in that division absolutely and it's it's crazy we bought in at what six and three falcons are six and three we bought in they beat the eagles they went toe to toe with the chiefs two wins over the bucks yeah we were feeling good we're feeling saucy about this falcons team and then three losses in a row to just really it feels like they just slammed the door shut now i know things can change quickly in the NFL and they do have the severe head-to-head match up against the bucks but

You feel like the Bucks are playing significantly better football right now. The Bucks, the Falcons haven't been able to sack a quarterback in like 15 years either. It's absolutely insane how bad their pass rush is. That's a good one. John Gannon, Arizona Cardinals head coach, played for the field goal. I don't know why coaches are doing this, especially younger coaches where you'd think you'd have a firmer grasp on the analytics. When you kick a field goal to go up six at the end of the game, you're inviting pure chaos into your life.

You're actually giving the other team advantage because they now know they have to score a touchdown. And then you've basically told them you have four downs or a single time. And it changes, it honestly changes the way they call plays. It changes a lot of things. And this almost never works out for the team that goes up six. Almost never like the data. it on it is actually insane. And John Gannon went and got complacent,

kicked the field goal to go up six. Um, it was very strange. I don't know. We keep seeing from the four yard line too, Joe. That's the other thing. It's not like they kicked it from the 15, dude. It was fourth and four from the four. You, you got to go score a touchdown there and, and win the game. Not my other can. Any other candidates? Yeah, pretty robust list. What do you keep going, man. I, I, there's a lot. Todd Bulls. Same thing. He got bailed out, though. He would have been my chump of the week because he Todd Bowlesed his team again. Because he does this all the time, Joe.

Same thing. They, oh my gosh, this disinferiorated me. They get to the 11 yard line. It's like first and 10 from the 11. They're up three. There's like four minutes left in the game. He just goes three carries and kicks a field goal. Three runs.

We're not even going to try to score a touchdown. We're fine going up six. The Carolina Panthers, they do what? they go tie the game and put it in overtime. Yep. And they still won. They got lucky. You know, Chuba Hubbard on, you know, bad fumble there. But they shouldn't have got lucky. So, um, yeah, I got another one. Jamir Gibbs. My guy, Jemir, you know about this story? The Jemir Gibbs story? I don't know that I do. This one's a little bit more lighthearted.

But he, uh, he posted a, oh, this the picture thing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I guess. front of a white board containing all the lines calls all their code other codes for their protections big deal probably not those are easily changed also there's 13 weeks of tape plus you know 20 weeks last year including playoffs like teams know what the lines do it's not like mystery at this point right so not the end of the world but i just need in a in a super pool contending year i just i just need my guys to be a little more dialed in you know i mean we can't be doing that you know There's some conspiracies out there that it was intentional, by the way. Like that line.

I saw Dan Campbell was initially asked about it and he didn't know. And then he was asked about it later on. He's like, I don't really care. Yeah. On the radio, he does a Monday morning interview with the local sports radio guys. And he said, yeah, I don't really care. Like, we could post the whole playbook online and you still have to come stop it. Like, we'll tell you what we're doing.

It's not a surprise. It's very Sean Peytony. Remember a few years ago, Sean Peyton was on Twitter. And he's like putting plays out there. He's like, well, no, the Panthers can see it. And he's like, well, Panthers hadn't stopped it in 10 years. Okay. Then last one is James Winston.

I mean, just a complete meltdown at the end of that game was balling. One of the best games we've seen James play in a while, you know, big time throw after big time throw, tight window throws, reading coverage as well, getting the ball out on time. then the last two drives he takes a couple bad sacks you know chucks up another pick six has another ball that's almost intercepted then ends the game with the interception as well so just complete meltdown the final two drives of that game it's more fun than watching to sean watson though i will say that but james is always kind of going to be james right yeah darnell had some funny moments in the cardinals game too where some of the sacks darned took was that guy never knows when he's hot bro i don't know how you play quarterback in the NFL not knowing you're you're hot it's the vikings are hard for me but

the reality is 10 and 2 10 and 2 my guy good football team all right chumps or we did is that it for chumps robust list that's it that's all my chump nominations so i want the listeners to tell us out of that list who's your chump it's going to be iber flus probably but yeah it's got to be a lot of contenders though ready for champs yes my champ is going to surprise people. And my champ didn't win their football game this weekend. Oh. But I think they deserve this recognition. And I want this also to be a moment where people understand that I'm not clinging to priors. And when there's new information, it's okay to change your perspective on something. And I want to give my champ of the week to

Bryce Young. Woo. Yeah. Bryce Young has come back into this lineup for the Carolina Panthers have played a lot better. Like there's legit reason to have buy-in to think that Bryce Young might be the guy. And that doesn't really happen. Like once you're benched as a quarterback of that type of statute, that's pretty much it for most guys. He's come in with a horrible supporting gas, like legitimately not good. And he's playing good football.

And I thought he played his best football against Tampa, 26 to 40. 26, 298 yards, a touchdown, multiple big time throws, took care of the football, brought them back into the game, overcame some really devastating drops by leg it and more. The pocket movement looked good. He looked comfortable. The Panthers really couldn't run the ball. It kind of became on him to get him a chance to win the game, and I thought he did that. Obviously, Chuba Hubbard fumbles and that spoils things.

But I think the culmination of the whole story to this point for him to have a performance like this, for it to be the trajectory that he's on with the supporting cast that he has him. You're talking about like Adam Thielen and Moore and Leggett. These are the best receivers they got, man. And went out there and is inspiring

some level of belief that he can be the guy. I think he deserves it. He's my champ of the week. That's a great. That's a great call. I mean, two weeks in a row, Bryce is balled out. Probably his best two games is a pro for sure. And the confidence just looks different. Yeah.

And he's winning for. in the pocket, Joe, which is something I've been very skeptical of is that this is like, I thought you're going to have to be on the edges, tons of design rollout type stuff to win with him, get him out, you know, where he can see. I mean, that's not even a joke. That's like legit. Yeah, I think he's not a good job of moving within the pocket to have those visuals that he needs. I think that comes with reps, right? He's going to, it's always going to be deficiency that he has. He's short. There's no doubt about it. How do you overcome that? And I thought he did a good job of

within the pocket finding those throwing windows that he can have the vision that he needs to execute. This little jump throw that he does, the amount of torque you can get on the ball is actually kind of nuts because he's so little. And then he doesn't have his cleats in the ground. It's so wide. He propels. Oh, they never are. They never are all on the ground. He's always on his toes.

Yeah, I don't know. He had one to leg at against Kansas City that was like, it was like a 45-yard. jump throw and it was like on the money and he did another one in this game i'm just like bro i don't that's like a the fact that he's hitting that though he wasn't hitting that the first you know two stints as a starter here so this is good stuff so my nomination joe is a fellow top five twenty twenty three quarterback pick and that's anthony richardson and that he's playing good ball didn't work out against the lines i thought he played better than the box score comes back against new england and leads his team in a fourth quarter come from being

behind win, drive, all the cards in the table. And I thought he was really good. And you can easily go box score or scout this guy. Oh, 50% completion rate, whatever. He played a lot better than that. I think we charted him with like a 70% accurate throw rate, like high level accuracy. So like he was dealing. There were some untimely drops in this game.

He had some bad turnover luck. But man, when in the pressure cooker, when it, when it mattered most, that late fourth quarter. They gave him the ball and he went down and led his team to a dub. And I think, you know, that's a, that's a good sign for him, man. He's playing with a ton of confidence as well. You're seeing the feet, the legs get him get him out of some trouble too, which is good. I think Stuyken's getting a little bit more comfortable with him in that regard and entrusting that he's going to protect himself. And I think that's a big deal. So everything's coming together for both these two young quarterbacks. Yeah, both benched, right? I mean, very unlikely for them to come back

into the lineup and play well. And for us to kind of go through this journey, like within a 12 game sample size this year to, all right, let's see. Oh, no, this is bad. Crap, they're benched. Okay, they're back in. All right.

They're playing well. Maybe they are the player, right? So it's really unique from those two players. So you have it. Champs, chumps of the week, a lot of chumps. Let us know who you think the number one jump is. Maybe we forgot somebody. Throw them into the contestant.

We'd love that. All right, coming up next, power rankings times. It's been a while since Brett and I have stacked the 10 best teams in the NFL. We're going to do that for you next. Be sure to stick with us. All right, Brett Whitefield, it's time. Time to stack these. Now, the one thing that we didn't do before we hit record was decide what order we're going.

Are we going 1 to 10? We go 10 to 1. What do you want to do here? I think we always go 1 to 10, don't we? I don't know. Yeah, what do you think is most valuable, Joe? Yeah, one to ten. Let's see one to ten.

Okay. I think we'll be very sympathico on the top three, four, and then that last six can get sketch. You think four? I think the top three is pretty obvious. I think the top three is obvious. And then I think there might be a fourth team that's obvious to. I want to say this before we start,

because last time we did this, I told you my methodology in that I went through every single team in alphabetical order. And if it passed the sniff test, as a top 10 team, I pulled them aside, right? I put them into another list, right? I want to get it condensed down. When I did it last time, I had 12 teams. I was like, oh, man, this might be tough to get it down to 10.

When I did it this time, I got nine and I had to find a 10th team. So obviously with more information, it becomes a little bit more easy, but I thought that was a pretty big transition, you know, just four or five weeks after doing this. Yeah. All right, let's do it. Number one, who you got? Lions. I do have the Lions, yeah. Point differential of plus 180 on the season. We've talked about it. They're in rare air, historical error.

I know there's other teams that might appear hotter. Lions have gotten themselves into a close game against the Bears. It's one game, who cares? They're banged up as well. I know the injury bugs concerning a lot of people. They're still my number one team, though, until they stop winning, which could start this week against a very good team in the Packers, but until they stop winning all of these games and by a lot of points,

I'm probably going to have a number one. Yeah, I don't know how you don't have a number one. That's who I have as well. Obviously, destroying a lot of teams, playing good. You watch them play. There's an energy that they play with. There's a consistency. There's an identity.

It's fun to watch. I'm excited to see these next two games. They're both at home. They get the Packers and Bills. Yeah. So it'll be an interesting stretch. And then they finish with Minnesota. They get all three of those at home,

which is very, very helpful. But I guess we'll find out and then obviously they'll go on a run and we'll see what happens. But the reality is there's some other good teams in this NFC that might have something to say with that number one seat. So they got to take care of their business here and give themselves that best, that best path possible of not only getting the pie, but, you know, as a dome team in Detroit, got to make sure you don't have to go play in the elements, you know? They already beat the Green Bay Packers in a rainy game. I had to do that. There's already two years ago they beat the Green Bay Packers. And a snow game in Green Bay, it's Jared Goffs, the man doesn't matter.

He can win in any circumstance. All right. Hold on real quick, though. I will say this about the Lions. How much does the health worry you? Oh, it's notable. And it seems like the concentration of issues, injuries on defense, right? It just makes it difficult.

I mean, you build a team a certain way, counting on certain players that, you buy into, but also they're rep, right? They have thousands of reps doing these things, and all of a sudden you don't have that. It's nothing to thumb your nose at. I think it's been impressive to see how they've been able to pick up the pieces, but as a lot of other teams are getting more healthy, it doesn't feel like that's the case for Detroit.

It feels like the opposite. It blows my mind that with all the defensive injuries, we're just coming out of a 10-quarter stretch of zero touchdowns allowed. But they, so they haven't lost anybody of, significant consequence for at least long term you know there's guys banged up all the all the major injuries recently are are you know more role type players so i think they will get healthy at the right time an zalone's coming back derrick's coming back levi ironsorike josh pascal all those guys are coming back you've got carlton davis who could play this week Karen arnold's back um you know all

these they're going to get healthy at the right time so i the health it is a little scary if it keeps if it continues right more injuries happen but for the most part you're going to expect to get a lot of these guys back right at the right time. So I'm not too worried about it yet, but it is getting a little hairy. What about Jake Bates? Is he going to be able to bounce back from missing the first field goal of his career? Big storyline we got to pay attention to. I think so.

I think Jake Bates is in the position he's in because of his mental capacity, honestly. All right. So we're only out of the lines in number one. And number two, I have the Buffalo Bills, who are 10 and 2, became just the eighth. team in the history of the NFL to clinch their division with five games left to play. They didn't even play the Patriots yet this year. They have three divisional games left. Wrapped up, baby.

I think what's impressive to me about the bills is offensively how efficient they are and how multiple they are and how many different ways they can play. But then defensively, man, the big plays just don't stop. They get turnovers all the freaking time, 18% of drives. and in a turnover against the bill's defense. I mean, they're taking away the ball with consistency. And maybe they'll give up some rushing yards, but they tighten the screws when they need to,

and they take away the football, and they make you pay for your mistakes. And a lot of teams can make you pay for your mistakes, but don't necessarily have a level of dynamic ability with what they do. I think about kind of what the Steelers, maybe not this year so much, but like that type of script, maybe a little bit what you have with the Chargers. But the dynamic ability that the bills have on top of making you pay for your mistakes and inviting you to do that, it's a good recipe that they have. Obviously, Josh Allen's playing great.

Bills are number two for me. They won a million games in a row too, seven in a row. Yeah, it's funny juxtaposing their position compared to the lines because the lines have won 10 in a row and they're still in a battle for their division. Yeah. The bills still have three division games. They already haven't locked up. It's just kind of so funny how different that could be, you know. Yeah. Bills have five wins, five of their 10 wins by 21 points or more. Maybe that's not, maybe the lions have something crazy like that. But you talk about point differential. The bills are number two.

If the lions weren't who they are, the bills would have a commanding lead on point differential. They're at plus 131. Yeah, the lions have five such wins as well, actually. So it's lions at plus 180, bills at plus 131, Eagles at plus 102, and then nobody else. is better than plus 80. Yep, which is a great segue into the number three team, which is the Eagles. Yeah.

And probably I think people are tired of the lines being number one. So there's been a lot of push for the Eagles. I just heard this on the broadcast the other day. They were debating Eagles lines and everyone on the broadcast picked the Eagles. And I'm like, you can definitely make the argument, right? You can make the argument. They're ahead of the lines, but it's still a little early for that. And in my opinion, but this team is scary.

the way they're playing football right now. I would say good on offense, not great, and then they've been great on defense. Yeah, is it eight in a row out of the buy? They start off two and two, look shaky against the Falcons and Bucks. Jalen Hertz looked like a wandering quarterback, like just completely horrible, broken.

Yeah, dude, they, and they're taking care of the ball. They only have three, three giveaways in this eight-game win streak. And I think it's just a matter of the, coordinator changes and allowing things to stabilize, you get a four-game sample size into a buy week. I mean, early buys aren't really typically a great thing. But for those circumstances where you're still kind of figuring out your team and having that opportunity to have a meaningful sample size that allows you to kind of set the path forward, I think has worked out really well for them. And some lineup changes, welcoming in Cooper DeGine has been huge. The defensive line has

really come to life. I mean, Jeff Southland continues to maximize every ounce of that offensive line. And they haven't even been completely healthy with their skill players. Right. You know, so I think the trajectory for Philadelphia is really, really strong. I'd be stunned if if you were honestly putting together rankings like this and your top three weren't lions, bills, and Eagles, I'd have a lot of questions about that. Same. Same. This is the, those are definitely the top three teams and I would say I haven't looked at the betting lines. I got to imagine those are the top three favorites for betting

as well. Should be. Yep. So I think we both kind of knew that the top three would be chalk. You said the top four. So this is where things could get a little interesting. Yeah. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm overestimating

this team because of their presence in my life, but I have the Green Bay Packers at four. As I why. Okay. So there we I was right. Ha. I mean, playing good ball. A couple of convincing wins here lately over the dolphins in the 49ers.

Obviously, the 49ers are just super banged up. But I think that Dolphins one was pretty impressive. Miami was playing pretty well. Obviously, a night game, Thanksgiving, cold, not a great recipe for Miami. But I think defensively what the Packers were able to do in that game was pretty impressive. I think the Dolphins got some empty production kind of late. in the game. But they had the right stuff early on, and I think the front seven looks pretty

strong to me with Green Bay. I think Jordan Love is starting to look a little bit more like we want him to. Obviously, slower start to the year, injury, all of that kind of took away, but he's looking better and better. This offensive line looks pretty strong to me. A lot of depth to their playmakers. Tucker Kraft, dude. Oh, man. That's such an interesting dynamic with them drafting both Luke Musgrave and Tucker Craft and Musgrave was the higher pick. And last year it was all about Musgrave. But Musgrave's always hurt. It's open the door for Tucker Kraft to come in.

And this guy is unbelievable after the catch. If you have the fantasy points data suite subscription, you can look and see like yards after catch per reception, but also yards after contact per reception. This dude's number one by like a lot. And he's, I think he's added something to this, this offense to be able to not only, he's not like a dump and run tight end.

certainly he's very good at that, but he's a very good tight end and multiple ways catching the football. I think it's been a great layer to their offense where they have, you know, some explosive playmakers down the field. Jane Reed, obviously I like a lot. But at this, this wrinkle and the capacity in which he can make plays has opened up a lot of things for Matt LaFleur and how he's designed this offense. For sure. Going back to Jordan Love here, you know, my big critique of him kind of all season has been the turnovers, just doesn't look like himself. he's cut the turnovers back last two games no turnovers even just one of the Chicago games so since the by week just one turnover in three games which that's great he's still not really making

those you know last year he was legit putting on the cape and making ridiculous plays those of they're not as prevalent as they were but he's i think he's you know getting hot at the right time so um got a big opportunity Thursday against the lions um the only thing that drives me nuts about this backers team just an extra layer here is the way they rotate their skill players i hate it i hate it i hate it like the the form five-man receiver rotation it's got to stop do you think it's detrimental to what they do or you just don't prefer it no i think it's detrimental to what they do there a lot of rhythm throws that are just off target from love are simply because he's throwing to bow melton and dontavian wicks and it's just they're

not it's hard to get in a rhythm man like they need their three dudes i don't care if like Melton and Wicks play a couple snaps a game. You want to work them in. You want to take a shot with Wix. That's all gravy. But like this five deep rotation they're doing right now is it's not it's not good. No team. There's a reason no one does this.

This is like, you know, Eric B. enemy type stuff. Who is the other cornerer that always did this too? A little bit further back than that. Was it Norv Turner? Yeah, I think it was Norv Turner. Sean Payton's done this his whole career too. It's just like it doesn't really work. It's, I don't know.

And I get that they like those guys. They want to give them a bone here and there. But man, we got to go back to a three-man rotation. Reed, you know, Watson and then and then Dobbs. Craft. Well, you're saying that receiver as well. Yeah, Kraft can play every snap at this point. I think that's fine.

Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. Because he's got to be a priority for this offense. Defenseably, it's a good team too, man. Detroit's up next. then they go to Seattle, Saints, Vikings, Bears. It could be interesting. NFC North is going to be fun down to the wire, especially if these head-to-head start to be split a little bit.

You can't have a hiccup. You cannot have a hiccup. So that's four. Okay, now we're chalk. We're chalk through four. Yep, which gets us to five. Yeah, I, uh, do you want to toss? I tossed last, you tossed.

My number five team is the Baltimore Ravens. and they're a very, very, very frustrating team. Indeed. But the Baltimore Ravens, when they play their best football, I mean, come on, man, that's not a team you want to deal with. The problem is they don't often do that, and they beat themselves way too much. This is the most penalized team in the league, 105 penalties already this year. And that's killing them.

And some sloppiness procedurally, you know, they're in a good situation, and they have some play fakes built in and have a sloppy exchange and first and ten turns into a second and 16 and it's to get behind the sticks they've had some some costly drops obviously the past defense can be shaky but when they play their best ball they're in their wagon and i feel like maybe that's a consistent conversation that we have about baltimore and that's that's concerning and obviously I still think they have a lot to prove when it comes to postseason. But when I think about them at their best,

I think of them as a top five team. So I put them at number five. What you just said is causing my brain to, you know, not be super hot on them. They're not my number five team. I have them at eight. It's crazy how much I flipped, too. I think four weeks ago you asked me,

they were the team I was most scared of, you know, coming out of that last Cincinnati win or whatever it was. Because that offense, if they get going, they seem unstoppable, right? But they shoot themselves in the foot so much. And we know Lamar has big game issues. You know, is that actually a thing or is it just, is it just been happenstance? Either way, though, it feels like a thing. And then the thing that scares me, dude, is I don't think this defense is good.

And, you know, they're giving up like 100 plays this year of 15 yards or more. in the past game plus the penalties it's like how many third and longs does this team struggle to get off the field on like i don't know i is i hear you but listen i recognize all of those issues i have bigger issues with the next five teams do you yeah so that that's where it comes in it's like okay what's the the potency of this team and i feel the best about baltimore versus the next five teams that we'll talk about. So that's my, that's my number five.

It's your number eight. Yeah, to be fair to you, I think if, if you tell me, Baltimore's going to play at 95% capacity this game, yeah, they're probably,

they're probably a top five team to me. I just don't. Without flaw, but man, neither are a lot of these teams that we're about to get to. My five is the Minnesota Vikings. And as I sit here and say that,

I realize, Sam Darnold's, Sam Darnold's. Go ahead. All right, yeah, so we got a problem with the quarterback. Got a problem with their quarterback. Their left tackle stinks. I already feel on an island now.

Dang it. Well, that's the challenge, man. Yeah, their left tackle stinks, quarterback. Joe, find someone who loves you as much as Sam Darnal loves not knowing when he's hot, and you'll be happy your entire life. That guy, holy crap. We're supposed to be talking good things about the Vikings. I have him fifth in my power rankings.

Yep, this is your top five team here for the Brett Whitefield. You're going to cause me to backtrack already. I need to be firm in these takes. To your earlier point, though, this was hard. I feel like five through 10 was very hard for me. And arranging them was especially hard. Getting the five teams was hard. And then arranging them in the correct order felt hard too.

It felt like, you know, we can make an argument for the chiefs, but I have issues with them. Like, dude, I don't know. Yeah. So I like a lot about the Vikings. I like their skill players. I think Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson, and T.J. Hawkinson is a phenomenal trio of pass catchers that elevate Sam Darnold to a level where he's doable. Combine that with the defense. You can't run on them. They're going to come after you on third down. When Bowles is right. Now, just like Lamar Jackson of the Ravens, there's times though we're, did I say Bulls? What did I say Bulls?

Flores. Sorry, when Flores is right, he's great. But there's times, man, where he gets like out of sink almost like he needs to recalibrate to the game when he's out of sync it's they get got a lot i think think about the lions game the lions broke their blitz package broke it completely yeah but to the point where like flores couldn't even trust his blitzes anymore just stopped doing it's like oh well shoot that's broken and then it was broke for a few weeks after that game actually um and in fact there were moments in this cardinals game where they they got them on blitzes so um yeah i just said a lot that suggest I shouldn't have them number five. Well, if only, if only Flores had the, the picture that Gibbs posted with the protections,

could have been different. All right. So there's the top five. I feel like maybe Brett Whitefield's going to pivot. We'll take a quick break coming up five through, six through 10. Be sure to stick with us. All right, Brett Whitefield, six through 10 time. I think I went first on number five, where I had the Ravens to much to your disdain as you put

the Vikings. And by the way, I had the Vikings in number seven. So. Okay. I, uh, it wasn't to my disdain. I, I realized there's a lot of fluidity here. But I, I, I'm now disdained with myself. I think I should probably have the Ravens a little higher than eight. Talking to,

um, Kansas City Chiefs, I had six. And this is another one, Joe, where I feel like I could actually say more bad things about the chiefs than good things. Right. It stopped after we got to the first four. Yeah. It's so weird. It's so weird how that happens um i'll say this patrick mahomes has the ability to be that dude at any given point and there's this sort of malaise that comes over the chiefs during the season i know we've talked about this a million times but it's like do they care do they care right now or not that's what i need to know if they care

and they're trying that i'd be very concerned i feel like there's another gear coming in the playoffs that said their their their achilles heels going to be their their cornerbacks absolutely that's johns is not good right now yeah yeah all of them uh chamois chum Marri Connor got was getting smoked by, uh, Brock Bowers and coverage, which I get it. Brock Bowers is good. But brother, you're a corner. You're a cover corner in a man heavy scheme. You can't be getting smoked by a tight end.

Don't care what his name is. Sorry. Just can't really happen. Who's the other one? They've Johnson, Jamar, Jalen Watson. These three guys stink and they're kind of rotating those other two starting spots. Um, not a great situation. And then you combine that with the fact that the chiefs have no pass rush.

Right. Again, more bad things to say about the chiefs than good things, yet they're ranked number six here. So we got a corner problem, an edge rusher problem, a left tackle problem. Oh, I forgot about the left tackle. Dude, yeah, this team has massive warts. And I just, the only reason I still haven't met six, Joe is because I don't want to get caught in my pants down and say, oh, you know, the Chiefs are bad. And then they go in a Super Bowl. You know, that's what I've done the last two years, actually.

Yeah, dude, it's, I have them exact same spot. And I've said this recently. They had an eight game stretch where they went three and five last year. year. I mean, this was like the 15th scoring offense last season. So yeah, don't do this to yourself. They're not playing well. They're 11 and 1. But dude, it's insane. The Black Friday fiasco, they're needing a game winning drive against Carolina because Carolina couldn't punch it in from like the five yard line like four times in a row. They could lose by two scores of the bills. The Broncos game, right, with the block field goal, overtime to beat Tampa in Arrowhead. I mean, there's plenty to be concerned about, but they're 11 and 1.

Oh, you know, so nine one score games so far. When does the pixie dust? When does it wear off, man? I got angels in the end zone, dude. I don't have to tell you. So they're my number six as well. I just like five minutes talking bad about the chiefs, but yeah, we both have the six. That's so funny.

Is there 11 and 1? There's, there's, the reality is it. That is the conversation with the chiefs. It's all these bad things. Oh, by the way, they're 11 and 1 and we'll have one three in the last five Super Bowl. That's how it goes. Yeah. So I have the Chiefs at six.

My number seven is the Vikings. Okay. So my set, my one through seven is out there. I don't think we have your seven. So let's go ahead and get that. My seven is the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay.

Obvious reason I went Steelers over Ravens is because they beat the Ravens at that right now. It's really the only reason. They also, the impressive wins that the Ravens have, the Steelers also have. They beat the commanders. They beat the Chargers. They beat the Broncos. Oh, and they beat the Bengals.

So basically, when you look at common opponent, very similar, actually. Steelers have just played a titch better, a titch more consistently, and they won the head-to-head. That's why I have them ahead of the Ravens. That defense is world-class, bro. JPJ, you know, him or Certained for Best Corner in the league. And then you have the ridiculous, dude, Nick Herbert this week, did you watch him?

Oh, my God. They have three dudes. Actually, they have four now. They got Preston Smith, too. next four dudes that can rush pass or when high smith comes back so um ridiculous plus the interior guys are all are beastly as well i we've talked about this defense a lot i love this defense so much can't a word man and then russ is he's doing the thing man he's perfect for ardy's offense we're going to throw bombs and we're going to check it down he's like i it's crazy that this

didn't work with sean peyton because that's what sean payton's doing with bow nix right now we're going to throw bombs or check it down but it's working man and that the run game is really helping too and I think that that was a missing element for him in Denver. But this run game is really good. Yeah, I have Pittsburgh at number eight. I thought that Bengals win spoke to me in a lot of different ways. I didn't know if they could go win a shootout. They can.

They score 44. I know the Bengals defense stinks, but I just didn't know if they had that type of capacity to do it. I think that said something to me. What's interesting about Pittsburgh is they have three losses, and they're all the teams with losing records. Yeah. Colts, Cowboys, and Browns.

So they're not immune to a stinker for sure. But you mentioned it. The recipe offensively, Harris has run the ball well, man. And they've overcome offensive line injuries and somehow have gotten better. Defense is stout. They take away the football all the time. I mean, what's their turnover rate? 18 and a half percent of drives.

Number one, turnover rate in terms of percentage of drives. and ended a turnover. It's a good recipe, man. It's hard to score on them. They take away the ball. They can run it. Explosive plays in the passing game. If George Pickens just didn't get a 15-yard penalty every time he caught a pass, man, might even be better. I've never seen anything like this, man. He could be a chump candidate for sure. It's like, dude, like just catch the ball and just go back to the huddle, man. Like, I hate to be that guy, but every single time, it's a freaking adventure with this dude. He's getting away with stuff too, bro. Like, there's some stuff after players are just like, bro, what are you doing?

It's goofy, man, just goofy. All right. So they're my, they're my number eight. They're your number seven. Yep. So I guess we have my eight, which is the Ravens. So we got. Oh, it's for both of us. Very good. So I'll give you my nine. Okay.

My number nine is the Los Angeles Charters. They're my number 10. I'm glad you had them in your top 10, Joe. Well, they made the initial nine. right so you'll find out who the team that I had to drag into it was here in just a second. But the charges are eight and four, man. They got a winning formula. Run the ball, opportunistic in the passing game. I mean, Herbert's playing well.

And defensively, they are pretty stout, man. They can be had in the run game a little bit, but they're tough to throw on. They also are decent at taking away the football. And they're stacking wins. and I think I'm disappointed with the Baltimore outcome. I'm disappointed with that Arizona game. But I think they're going to be a team that has a winning script that I think personnel-wise is only going to get better.

Yeah, when you look at their loss, their quality of losses is great. Very good, yeah. Steelers, Chiefs, Ravens. And then you've got the Cardinals in there. So six and six are better for all of their losses. So it's kind of a weird way to look at it. I was splitting hairs of these last few teams.

So I had the charges at 10. Yeah, Herbert's playing good. I am concerned with their defense long longevity here. They've kind of started to crack a little bit. And I think that's a problem. You can really run on these guys now. They're kind of getting back to that Brandon Staley run defense, which is very bad. They're getting smoked.

It smoked on the ground. Yeah. Yep. And it's disappointing because they started so good on the ground. So to have a quite the reversion like that's not great. great. And then, you know, come December, January football, they're going to have to be able to stop the run. So I do think they, you know, they're kind of a cupcake for, for a playoff, one of these legit playoff teams, but they're playing pretty good ball right now. And Herbert, he could, he can cover

a multitude of sins. I think we've seen that. So. So this is my nine. Who's your night? My nine is the Washington commanders. Which is my 10. Okay. We have the same 10. Look at that. Yeah, that's interesting. And, and I had to drag Washington back in. So I'm curious. I'm curious what puts them ahead of Washington or what puts them ahead of the Chargers for you. I think from an offensive standpoint, I think when Daniels is right,

and he looks like he's healthy again, by the way, I think he gives me a little bit more, a little bit more of a floor right now than Herbert. Terry McCorren's playing awesome football too. Always has, really, just now has a quarterback to do it. I love that. The run game's insane. Run game is very good,

It's something that the Chargers can't really do right now is run the ball. Whether it's Brian Robinson or, you know, Jeremy McNichols or Chris Rodriguez, like these guys are not fun to tackle. They're all big physical runners. And then you have the quarterback run element to it as well. I think that they can really run the football. And then defensively, I still can't believe Quinn's getting the production out of this unit the way he is, man. The man coverage stuff has really done a lot of favors for them.

We're still in man coverage has been very good. And they haven't even had Lattimore yet, right? He hasn't played yet, has he? Or did he play this week? I don't know if he played this week. That was a game I did not pay much attention to against Tennessee Titans. It's actually I pick every game. It's the only one I missed.

I picked the freaking Titans. I go, I went 15 and 1. I won loss this week was the Titans over the commanders. I'm checking right now to see if I don't believe Lattimore played. I feel like we would have heard about that. But he did not play. No Lattimore again. So they're playing as well as they are in man coverage without Lattimore.

Once he gets back in the fold, like gosh, I just feel like they possibly haven't even played their best football yet, which is crazy to say because this roster actually stinks. Right. That's what keeps, that's why I picked the Titans. And the reason I put the chargers ahead of Washington is I think they got a better quarterback. That's not anything against Shane Daniels. I mean, it's just not as good as Justin Herbert yet. And I think they're a better line of scrimmage team. So that's what gave me the edge.

but it's like the tears the tears are pretty obvious in these top tens in my opinion yeah that's fair so there you have so who were the so you said you were you had to drag him back in were there other teams you were fighting with but you consider the colts at all or or Seattle i'm just throwing random yeah if i thought about a team it was very quickly pushed aside i gave like the bucks like an ounce of thought i gave Seattle an ounce of thought. Okay. Rams?

An ounce. Okay. But there's no, there's no case to be made over Washington, right? No, no, no, no. So that's why I kind of easily got to 10. But I had to drag in Washington. I didn't, they didn't initially pass the stiff test as a top 10 team for me.

Yeah. The way I ranked this is I threw all the teams I think will make the playoffs in. And then like a team or two that are on the fringe. And then I kind of was like, all right, cool, who are the top 10 in this group? So yeah, that's it. Should we quick recap? Just give us your top 10 really quick? Yeah.

My top 10. Lions 1, Bills 2, Eagles 3, Packers 4, Ravens 5, Chiefs 6, Vikings 7, Steelers 8, Chargers 9, commanders 10. My top 10 were the Lions 1, Bills 2, Eagles 3, tier break, Packers 4, Vikings 5, Chiefs 6, Steelers, seven, Ravens eight, which I'm kicking myself over. Commanders nine, Chargers, 10. Yeah, I'd probably bump the, bump the Ravens to at least six, and then bump Chiefs and Steelers down one. No, sorry, I need the Ravens behind the Steelers still.

So, but anyways, yeah. That complicated. Yeah, I get that. I get that. The head-to-head dynamic. There's, and the Ravens have bad losses, too, man. They lost in the Raiders. Yeah, and the Browns.

And the Browns. freaking browns of beating the Steelers and a Ravens this year. Was that the, yeah, that's crazy. Was that a Deshawn Watson game or a James game? Which one? The, the Ravens loss of the Browns.

The Ravens lost of the Browns was a Jameses game, yeah. Okay, so Jameses is people. Yeah, 334 passing yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Oh, wow. Okay, then.

Yeah, that, Ravens past defense, you know? Super concerning. Super concerning. Burroughs torched them for like 800 yards in two games. The real question about the Ravens Pass defense was how were the bills, the one team that couldn't throw on them? 156 passing yards against Baltimore at 35 to 10.

Like what the frick? That game was just weird though. That was like living in the twilight zone. When the first play of the games in 87-yard touchdown, it's just you're almost in shell shock the whole game. Just like, okay. Well, yeah, that is tough, though. Anything else you want to get to?

Additional playoff notes, Giants, Patriots, Raiders, Jaguars, all eliminated from. Goodbye. Thanks for everything this year. See you. And then I'm surprised you didn't mention this with the bills, Joe. They're the first team. I'm kidding.

You did mention it. First team to clinch the division in a playoff spot. Chiefs also have clinched. Lions can clinch with the win this week. Sure, there's a bunch. There's probably a bunch of clinching scenarios this week, right? other teams. I don't keep the NFC, actually. Really? NFC's weird and tight still, kind of.

Well, think about it. The lines are 11 and 1 and they need to win to get in. That means nobody else behind them can get in. Right? Right. So, uh, come back on Thursday. It's going to be fun, man. We got to update our quarterly awards and get ready for a big weekend in the NFL. Quarterly awards. All right. All right. Let's do it. We'll get out of here. Remember, folks no matter what develops we will always be your first read thank you for listening we are out