Fantasy Football Daily - The Lions Won't Quit, Champ and Chump of the Week, and Franchise Cornerstones | NFL First Read

Episode Date: November 19, 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 "The Lions Won't Quit, Champ and Chump of the Week, and Franchise Cornerstones". 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

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Eligibility restrictions apply. See Golden Nuggett Casino.com for details. responsibly. First read. We are your first read, the film and analytics podcast featuring Joe Marino of Lockdown and myself, Brett Whitefield, the C-O-O of Fantasy Points. This podcast is powered by the Fantasy Points Data Suite. Let's get after it. Joe, how are you, sir? Man, I'm pumped up, fired up, motivated, dude. So, yes, that's every day, right? Like, we are. we're in it to win it. I'm going to just kind of cut the pleasantries, though.

I got something to do real quick. All right. Another week, another Lions bludgeoning of another NFL football team. Well, an NFL football team. Okay, sorry. A defunct NFL football team. Listen, I made the statement a couple weeks ago that the Lions break several records every week in this current evolution they're on.

Well, we got some things. on this list. I got to get to real quick. I'm just going to, I'm just going to read through a list of records, the Lions have broke. Well, some of them are franchise records. Some of them are NFL records. I think we only have an hour for this show today. So I've already, I've already trimmed some fat here too. Yeah. And then at the end of it, you just tell me which one you thought was the craziest. All right. All right. So here we go. The Lions have notched their third win with at least a 38 point margin this season alone. That's an NFL record. But also, previous to this season, Lions have only had three such wins in the last 40 years.

That's pretty crazy. Their 138 passing yards allowed to Mack Jones is the sixth fewest they have allowed to a QB over the past 40 years. They averaged 8.49 yards per play on offense, which is the highest mark in NFL history in the Super Bowl. Sorry, in the Super Bowl era. They had 38 first down, which is a new franchise record, 645 net yards. offense, which is a franchise record. They allowed just 3.6 yards per play on defense, which is the lowest game average in NFL history. Sorry, Super Bowl era is NFL history to me. I don't go before that. Amon Ross St. Brown scored a receiving touchdown in his eighth consecutive game, which is a franchise

record, and it's only one game off the NFL record. David Montgomery and Jemir Gibbs became the first running back duo to each notch at least eight rushing touchdowns to the first 10 games since 1971. Also, they're the only running back duo in NFL history period to each total 800 scrimmage yards and nine plus touchdowns through the first 10 games of a season. They scored touchdowns on the first seven possessions. The first time a team has done that since the 07 Patriots. Kirby Joseph has recorded an interception in seven of the first 10 games of the season. The last safety to do that was in 1979. They're the first. team since 1975 to rush for 100 yards in a touchdown in each of the first 10 games of a season

and they're one of four teams in NFL history to allow just one passing touchdown or fewer and intercept at least one pass in each of the first 10 games of a season the other two teams in the superl era to do it were the 1985 Eagles and the 1984 Broncos I think you forgot one really good stat. Did I? The Detroit long, the 2024 Detroit Lions are the first team in NFL history to win the Super Bowl twice in one season. It's incredible. And it's, uh, the best stat I think there's two. It's, three wins by a 38 point margin after doing it three times in 40 years, but 8.49 yards per play. That one that had me like perk up in my chair a little bit. That's, that's pretty crazy.

It is kind of crazy in the same game. They average the most yards per play gained and also the least yards per play allowed ever. That's, I mean, that's wild. I mean, you knew it was going to be a bloodbath. The 13.5 point spread wasn't enough, man. It wasn't enough. Yeah. I mean, it wasn't enough.

But like, have you seen a spread higher than that in the NFL? Yeah. You have? I mean, the bills beat Minnesota, Josh Allen's rookie year. they were 18 point favorites. Wow. Yeah. And the Vils covered that spread.

That is crazy. It's rare, though, to get a spread that high in the NFL these days. Yeah, it's, and I mean, they could have tripled it and it wasn't enough. Right. Well, that was basically four minutes of stats. And again, I did trim some of the fat there. There was more that happened. But with that, Joe, we should probably get to our champ and chump.

Yeah, champ and chump of the week. You want to start with champs or chumps? Let's start with chumps this week. All right. My chump of the week is Bengals owner Mike Brown. Oh, brother, I'm sitting there watching Bengals, Chargers on Sunday night football after I'm just swimming in the glory of handing the Chiefs their first loss of the season. I'm marveling at Joe Burrow, man.

What a player. What a good player. Bonafide, legit top five NFL quarterback throwing dots, battling, leaving it all on the line. But yet I see the same problems around him. We've got a mid-offensive line at best. Your two best players around him are T. Higgins and Jemar Chase. Both contract issues.

Thinking about all the defensive talent that has walked out the door as they give up way too many points to the Chargers. And you just realize how much Mike Brown handicaps this football operation, man. It's embarrassing. Just not enough. invested in the operation. Smallest scouting department in the league. They don't take care of their players. Trey Hendrickson is their best player on defense. Another guy with a contract problem. What is you've got the guy, man. You got Joe Burrow. He's awesome. Give him a chance, dude.

Give him a chance. And it's it's impossible for me to not look at the current state of Cincinnati Bengals and look all the way to the top of the organization and realize that Mike Brown handicaps his football team, and they're going to spoil their opportunity with Joe Burrow as their quarterback. That's a great jump call. How much capspace were they sitting on coming into this year? Decent amount. I think they're at about $8 million right now.

So they, I mean, they signed a few players, but I don't know, man. Gino Stone's not making me forget about Jesse Bates. Shelner Rankin's ain't making me forget about DJ Reader. What are we doing with, like, we have got to. to understand that this middle three of Karras, Kappa, and Bolston, just barely passable starters. Yeah, that's where I was going. There's

a lot of good guard contracts this offseason. They could have a guard or two. Yeah. And then not to mention the, you know, all the stuff going on with T. Higgins, Ray Hendrickson asking for a new contract and not getting one. Bray Hendrickson's a animal,

by the way. I know we've talked about it a few times. Every time I watch that game or watch that guy live, I'm just like, he feels his presence. And just the fact that you're not honoring a request from a guy, a player of that caliber who did a, he did like a soft hold in, right, for like what a OTAs or something like. Yeah.

And at the time, we all said the same thing. The Bengals aren't going to do anything. Yeah. They didn't. And they have them under contract next year too, I think. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's good at a bad situation probably. Should be. All right. I show up at the week was Matt Eberflus. You know, it's just, Joe, they had a play in this game where they had 12 men on the field

and they jumped the snap and were offsides. And they gave up a long touchdown, all in the same play. It's like the defensive coaching trifecta. I don't know how we're doing this. And at some point, you know, it starts at the top, man. You know, you can say players got X-U all day. I agree. I'm not typically a blame the coach-vers kind of guy.

But, man, you hit the defensive penalty trifecta in one play. And then just in the post-conference, just all the excuse-making about losing this game. It just feels stinky in Chicago. And we've talked about it a couple weeks in a row now, but I don't know, man. This was a tough game for them to lose. They had it in the bag. And it just a little bit more situationally sound football down the street. down the stretch here, they probably get an easy win against Green Bay,

and instead they just fumble the bag completely. Also, Caleb, you know, he played pretty well in this game, especially in that final drive. That was probably the best drive of his career so far. And it was squandered away, and I think top to bottom, it was a coaching issue. Question for you. Yeah.

The Bears are amid a four-game losing streak. They've scored 15, 9, 3, and 19. do they score 20 points in a game again this season? They're next four. Vikings, Lions, Niners on the road. Lions.

We getting 20 points in any of those games? They have Vikings twice and Lions twice. Lions twice, yeah. 49ers right between them. Yeah. They could, gosh,

that's tough. You know, you'd like to, like Detroit and Chicago, always play each other really tough, even when Chicago hasn't been good or Detroit hasn't been good. So I could see them putting up a fight in one of those games. Maybe not the Thanksgiving Day game, but. And the Thanksgiving slate stinks, dude.

It stinks, man. We get Lions Bears, which of course, we'll watch because everybody watches the Lions on Thanksgiving. Then Dallas and the Giants Cooper Rush versus Tommy DeVito. And if you're not in the turkey coma, at least the Packers and Dolphins feels like a decent game. Yeah, that could be. But yeah, that's gross. I mean, I literally don't. It's nice that the middle game has no oomph,

because now I sit with my family and eat dinner, not worry about football at all. I'm just like, cool. We'll watch the Lions, you know, set 57 new NFL records. I'm sure there'll be a lot of Thanksgiving records. Oh, true. Good point. A lot of good opportunity here.

Yeah, with that middle slate, yeah, we'll just spend time. with the family and get ready for dolphins and packers. Champ time. Champ time. Come on. Everybody knows my champ this week. Yeah, yeah,

it is. But I'll go first. I'll get, because I just want to give you the runway. You know what I mean? Yeah, go ahead. My champ correlates with your,

your chump, actually, a little bit. And I was going to be Homer and go Jared Gough, you know, the, it was like his fourth game of the season where he had more touchdowns and incompletions.

That's another mind bender. It's like, so I could have easily got, you know, four over 400 yards of four t d's that's crazy performance any of the running backs i could have gone with but i'm going with um jim harbaugh joe he's got the charges at seven and three baby like this dude is a coach man what a what a culture builder i i i love jim harbaugh and i it's funny because i what i ranked them in my top five in the off season for coaches in the nfl and uh i took

some some flack for that not just from you but from from the fans of the show we had youtube comments calling me crazy for having Jim that high. I think it's pretty clear as day why I had him that high. This dude is a culture builder. He's got Herbert absolutely balling right now. Bro, Justin Herbert's back. You know, he almost squandered that game away. Well, I should say the team did.

But to come through to get it tied up like it was and then to come through and win that, I just felt like it was a harbaw win. That was the imprint of a harboh win right there, culture, culture, culture. I don't think it was that Harbaugh didn't warrant the selection. I just don't think he deserved it. You haven't coached in the league. Yeah, it's like, okay, sure, like this won't take a long. But can we just make sure that you still got it, you know?

It's coming off of national championship, Joe. Right, you know? Make sure you still got it, yeah. Yeah, I don't know, man. Jimmy Johnson or whatever. Doug Marone got the Syracuse to a winning record for the first time in 100 years. And I don't know, man. It's just, I think we just wanted to see it a little bit.

And when we redo those rankings, I got a feeling that like a little bit different this time. Yeah. My champ of the week, Josh bleeping Allen. Josh bleeping Allen, fourth and two, play of the year in the NFL. Jim Nance said it. I thought that was a good way to put it, man. I love that decision by Coach McDermott to go for it. on fourth and two. Didn't care about that field goal, man. Everybody knows what happens. You kick that

field goal. You go up, what, six points or whatever? Give the ball back to Mahomes with two and some change left. I didn't need to see that game winning touchdown passed as Travis Kelsey. I didn't need to see it. You know what I mean? And you take that off the menu. You don't give Patrick Mahomes that chance. You allow Josh Allen to go get a first down and he says, I'll get you more than that. Here's a go-ahead score, or not a go-ahead score, a score that puts us up. now by nine with a tick over two minutes left in the game. That puts it on ice. I thought that was a great decision, but obviously a great play by Josh Allen, who they had the wrong play call, dude. They had man beaters, Kansas City gives them zone. They didn't have the

right look. But because they ran that mesh concept and all of the eyes are focused on capping their routes, Josh takes the crease, baby. And four or five different chiefs couldn't figure that out. But I thought, obviously that play stands out. But I really just like the way that Josh operated in this game. You got a ton of blitz looks from Kansas City, and I thought Josh did a pretty good job of finding his answers, some good throws down the field. I think his hero throw percentage was 12.5%,

which is a really good clip. And did this without a starting right tackle. And Spencer Brown, who's an impact player, no Kian Coleman, no Dalton Kincaid, no problem. let's go hang 30 points on the Chiefs for the first time in 30 games. Josh Allen, champ of the week for me. Awesome. I love that for you.

I love that we both have the opportunity to nominate our quarterback. That's pretty cool. Well, now I think this is three weeks in a row. I went Tyler Bass, Taryn Johnson, and Josh out. The good news, the bills are going to buy this week. So unless I can really just drum up something, that's probably a bit of a stretch. Yeah. We'll be bills free in the champ section of this.

conversation next week. But speaking of the bills, massive week in the AFC with a lot of the results on the other side of the folks. We're going to talk about all of those implications. So be sure to stick with us. Brett Whitefield, Steelers beat the Ravens, Bills, beat the Chiefs, Chargers with the big win over the Bengals. This is a week 11 was a form. week in the world of the AFC. And so with all of it on the table, let me just put it on the platter for you. What's your prevailing thought as you saw these results roll in for the AFC on Sunday afternoon?

My prevailing thought is that this conference is kind of where I thought it was. It's bills and chiefs heavy. And I think you got a couple feisty teams and Steelers and the chargers, but probably ultimately lose to both the bills and the chiefs in the playoffs. And then from there, it's a little bit of, a crap shoot you know Baltimore's defense is so bad joe yeah i it's like as exciting as lamar is as good as he's playing right now it's just hard to envision them beating even you know the bills the chiefs

perhaps even the chargers in the playoffs just the way they're playing it's or i mean and obviously the steelers they just lost the steelers so gosh it's just it just seems like the same thing every year to me i I don't know. And then the Texans, you know, they're easily going to win that division, but they're not very good either. So this conference is about what we thought it was preseason. Yeah, Houston, man, I think they're a decent team. I just, I don't fully buy in. I just don't. I still think they're a young team. And I think their best football is ahead of them, but I don't take them super serious. Baltimore is tough to reconcile, man. We got four losses, including one to the Raiders, one to the Browns.

Obviously, Kansas City and Pittsburgh, those are much more high quality losses. They mop the floor with the bills. But like when the complimentary football is cooking in Baltimore, man, it's good. But when it's not and it's not too often, you know, they're just super beatable. And they're the type of team that can show up and beat anyone.

But I just, I have a level of concern about, the consistency of the operation and if it's going to show up in those huge games. And that's kind of been the issue, right? They have their mid-season, mid-season hype train. And then it's like, oh, man, there's chinks in the armor. Good football team, but not a consistent enough football team. Did I give you their defensive, the crazy coverage stat from last week on the Ravens? This is a mind bender.

And now it's even more updated with this week because it wasn't good either. but they've given up 86 pass plays of 15 yards or more this season. The next worst team, so that's the worst of the NFL. The next worst team is 62, Joe. Oh, wow. That's bad. Yeah, 24 more pass plays of 15 yards or more than any other team in the league. Now, you could probably attribute some of that to they've had some giant leads in games,

and they're just kind of playing, you know, this saggy, prevent, eat the clock type of defense. I get that, but, man, it's still bad. They've been in competitive games where they're just hemorrhaging, passing yardage. So I don't. That's like a that's an Achilles heel type situation there, man. And I can't I can't make sense of it when you have allegedly super talented guys, you know, like a Marlon Humphrey and they drafted a Nate Wiggins in the first round. And they have the Kyle Hamilton, the the mismatch weapon of all weapons. I mean, what, what is going on? Hey, Tray White with two nice pass. So in the game. True. I was like, whoa, what was that? Who's

25 out there for the Ravens? Tray White going toe to toe to toe. with George Pickens. Like, what is happening here? Yeah, too many busts, man. I go back to this. I think player for a player, you don't really get concerned with who they have in their back seven. I think they're too interchangeable. I think they're too versatile with their players. They move around too much. They have too many different packages. And I think the reps matter, man. When you have time on task around the same players, you space the field, okay, I'm in this spot. You're in this spot. We've done this a billion times. And when you take that away and you say, okay, let's play this match up and move these players around.

I think you take away from that consistency and you, you wind up being leaky. And I feel like that's at the root of it because it's not, doesn't feel like a personnel issue to me, man. Yeah, that's a great point. And you wonder, like all these teams that have this, this great ability to drafts and develop, the one issue with that, right, is there's always a revolving door year over year. So it's like, it seems like the Ravens lose somebody every year. Like this year, they let Gino Stone walk and go to, go to Cincinnati.

And, you know, he obviously. has played great in Cincinnati, but he was perfect for this, this Ravens defense. I mean, he was awesome there. They allowed him to just be a ball hawk and, you know, you didn't see a lot of busted coverages last year. So it just makes you wonder if at some point you just want that continuity, you want that time on task. Communication is so crucial in the back end.

Kansas City's nine and one. Just a hiccup? What do you think here? Did you see some flaws here that concerns you about your ability to go on a run? I mean, I think I saw a few things. Naze Johnson at CB opposite of McDuffie, I think is an issue, man. They run too much man coverage to expose him on an island. I mean, the bills tagged him, both of the Cooper shots down the field,

the Curtis Samuel touchdown. I think he's a liability out there for Kansas City. And they put a lot on their corners. And I mean, 22, seventh round pick out of Marshall hadn't even played to this season, less than 200 snaps going into this game against Buffalo. Bill's knew where he was and went after him. And then I think offensively, man, it's this, the, Mahomes just is not hitting the throws down the field to Worthy.

He's just not, right? Like that had to be an easy touchdown, dude. And he leads him to the freaking sideline. So. And then they didn't go to him the entire second half. Right. Well, they had the one drive where they rode him all the way down. One time he got freed on the field because of a rub, right?

like I think it was maybe Douglas that was carrying him on an over and then it was like a deep mesh and he got rubbed off. And then it was like manufactured touches. But like I think the story of the season has been, okay, when those chances are there down the field from a Holmes to hit worthy, he's not hitting him. And I feel like that's a huge piece of what this offense is missing. And obviously they're a very efficient offense, but the turn the turnovers are too often. Like they're turning over the ball too much. and I think they're missing on too many explosive opportunities down the field. The good news for Kansas City that feels fixable to me.

But at some more we're 10 games into this thing for Kansas City. And I feel like those are still the issues. We've been trying to fix us for a while, too. This is going back to last year. They won the Super Bowl despite it, but these issues were prevalent then. So you mentioned Naze Johnson. What about Chamari Connor? Dude's given up 84% completion rate into his coverage.

He's kind of up and down. Right. He's up and down. Yeah. He would be their second. biggest problem, I think, in the secondary. Yeah. Dude, anytime you're giving up 84% completion rate. And it will, so like it's different because they don't play like,

Taryn Johnson has a similar number, right? But they play this, this zone where he's just keeping everything in front of them coming up and tackling. That's not really what they asked Chamari Connor to do. He's got to manning up. Yeah, he's manning up and giving up that kind of catch rate, which is just ridiculous. So that's on like, it's on like 30 targets too. So it's not like a super small sample.

I thought the bill's rush plan against Kansas City was so good. Really good cage rush with like, they played more man coverage this game, like 30% man coverage with a lot of cover won, way more than they typically do. And they wound up rushing four and kind of keeping a spy that was more just like a mirror to give them some margin for air with their cage rush. So anywhere that Patrick Mahomes wanted to kind of step up and find an outlet, like he was capped by the spy. I thought Bobby Babbage in his first game against.

Andy Reid and this Chiefs team I thought he was able to go toe for toe in terms of how he called that game against Andy Reid Yeah, I agree Mahomes also by the way just didn't look polished in this game

he have three turnover worthy throws in this game Yeah, three turnover worthy throws in this game So I mean he's You know That's problematic for them long term I mean Mahomes is obviously awesome But it seems like when he

lately when he's really had to press he's putting the ball in harm's way. Meanwhile, there's a Steelers. They're eight and two, dude. On an absolute heater with Russ Wilson, they won five in a row. Is it four with Russ as a starter? Yes.

Yeah, he's four and a. Defense, like this, I think I've, for five years, I've said the Steelers script, right? The Steelers script, they just get big plays on defense, big plays on special teams, opportunistic on offense. They run the ball. And it feels like it's really kind of coming together. And you can't,

help but be blown away. And I know that you, this is, a hat to you for when we did the all pro teams last week, you had Cam Hayward as one of your guys, but like, dude, I mean, this guy's absolutely dominating right now. I think, dude, he's at the, at the core of why this football team is who it is, the identity defensively. They're not going away, dude. And, no, obviously a big win against Baltimore, their tests are coming. They go Philly, Baltimore, Kansas City. That's a three-game stretch here after they play all the Ohio teams.

But should we be taking the Steelers seriously? I mean, I think there's three teams in the race for the number one seat in the AFC. It's Kansas City Buffalo and the Steelers. And the Steelers have a head-to-head opportunity against Kansas City. I think we're kind of waiting for, you know, maybe it to catch up as the schedule stiffens up, but they're building themselves quite the cushion here and they're certainly in the mix.

A bunch of things that stuck out to me in this game, Joe. one, the Steelers ran the ball effectively against the league's best run defense on paper. I think that's a big thing. Like, come playoff time with, you don't want to be a heavy volume dropback team, right? With Russ, when you have the defense you have, if you can run the ball against anybody, that's such a, that's what translates late in the season in playoff football, in cold weather. It's all the cliches, but it's true. There's a reason teams build their roster that way, man.

And the, you know, they did it too with no explosives. you know, Jalen Warren, 9 for 41, Nage 18 for 63, no explosive runs. And that's not great. That's like, you know, just over four yards of carry with those guys. But it's, it's pretty, it's still pretty decent against a team that's really good defending the run. And then rookie, rookie center and a rookie right guard. Yeah.

Yeah. That's crazy, dude. Yep. And then on the flip side, they, they bottled up Henry. Like, I mean, we knew their D-line's awesome. So that's not super shocking, right? But like, Henry had a 31-yarder in there. And I think other than that, he was under three yards.

to carry. He fumbled, too. That was like the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Right. They gave up one explosive, though, to him. And then one, I think one explosive to Jackson on a scramble. But like, man, let's defend the run, run the ball, protect the football. These are the things that are going to win. Yeah, it's, it's what they buy into. And I think in this AFC in particular, it's not a bad spot to be, right like you're worried about Pittsburgh going toe to toe in a shootout who's going to invite them to the track meet maybe Buffalo but you can you can certainly you want to play you know that type of clock control pound the rock beast out up front like okay that seems like a good idea against Buffalo yeah can we talk about have the defense to go to do this right since he can score but

they don't have the defense to do this. this? Not at all. They shoot this past game for since he was probably their best defensive performance of the season and they still give up 34. So I just want to talk about what with the Steelers real quick too. They're D-line. I know we've talked about how they have the best four-man rush in the league. Dude, they're like seven deep. You know, you have the starters in Hayward and Benton who look awesome and then obviously Watt and Alex Highsmith when he's back from injury. but then they've got Nate Herberg or Herbig. Dean Lowry, Larry Ogun Joby, they have legitimate depth there.

And Ogun Joby hasn't, you know, he's been a starter his whole career. I think he's in a good spot with Pittsburgh where he's playing 15 to 20 snaps a game. That's about what you want from him, right? So like, it's just deep, man. They can stay fresh all game. They can throw a variety of looks at you. I love Lowry. I know he just got healthy himself.

Is it kind of this, you know, Swiss Army night? if he can kick in and play, you know, three technique on passing downs. He can also, you know, be a base end on, you know, a big defensive front set up. He can play five technique if they want to go with an odd front. It's like they just have pieces, man, to get it. Oh, they trade for Preston Smith too. My God. Yeah.

They're eight deep, eight deep. Crazy. Yeah, and I think Peyton Wilson kind of settling into this sub role. Man, I think he helps that second level. And, you know, they still like to play at Landon Roberts a little bit. But whenever you're able to sub him out and get Wilson on the field, I think that makes your coverage a whole lot better. It's legit, legit, defense, man.

Legit defense. Steelers script alive and well. Don't you dare pick Mike Tomlin to not have a winning record, man. It's inevitable. Absolutely inevitable. They need to win one more game to keep that streak alive. Yeah, they're going to. They're going to.

All right. So that's the top of the AFC. obviously the middle class here is we could spend a lot of time sorting out the broncos and the dolphins we'll see if the colts with a rich back how about that real quick we a little shout out to a rich doing some special things there is getting the jets to three and eight baby that was fun to watch that was fun to watch there i totally forgot about that i should have put a rich as my champ of the week for for getting that done yeah it was fun okay we have speaking of fun the rest of the show is going to be really fun. We're going to tell you exactly what teams that we think are legitimate

possibilities to win the Super Bowl. And then from there, we're going to get into who the most indispensable player is. Folks, be sure to stick with us. When you're flying Emirates business class relaxing in an exclusive airport lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates. Fly. better. Pro Whitefield, step one, we are going to go through and we're going to figure out which teams we believe can actually win the Super Bowl this year. And then we're going to have the conversation that we've had, it feels like a couple of different times about the Lions where we go through all these cornerstone type players and say, who's the one that they got to have

the rest of the way to win the whole thing? And we're not quite. Non-QBs. Yeah, non-QBs. Of course. and we're going to have that conversation about every team that we think can actually win the Super Bowl. So step one, like we said, let's identify which teams we think can actually do it. Let's go with the AFC. Yeah, I agree. Let's- Bills, do bills. Bills on the list, Chiefs on the list, right?

Yep. Steelers on the list. I think Steelers on the list, yeah. Okay. Raven's on the list. Probably have to, even though we just kind of spend a lot of time criticizing them. They're capable of showing up and beating anybody.

I think they're absolutely on the list. That's a good point. On the right day, they can beat anybody, so that makes them a viable contender for sure. Chargers. Are they on the list? I don't want to get too cute with it. What do you think?

If Herbert's going to play like that, bro, I don't know, man. that's bro i don't know i think the fact that like we're ever looking for no doubt about it teams yeah that's a good way to frame it right so if it's like if it's open to like ah yeah i could see it right i think there's a difference between i can see it and yeah that's that's a bonafide i think they can win the super bowl i think i think we have the correct four then if if it's a a bonafide like they don't need a ton of crazy things to happen for these teams to win yeah i mean the chargers is going to have to go win three road games to win the super

exactly exactly to get to the super bowl yeah okay i'm fine with take i had him i did have him originally down on my list coming in here but i don't anymore the texans no i think they're i think they're yeah i'd agree with you um would it be outside of the realm of the possibilities no would i be surprised yes okay Is there any other team in the AFC? No. I mean, Broncos, Colts, dolphins, Bengals, Jets, Patriots, we're good here? If the Bengals had their crap together and could play a lick of defense, I'd say yes,

because Burroughs absolutely balling right now, but no. Right. But there's no chance we could put the Bengals in there and take the Texans and the Chargers. And the Bengals might not even make the playoffs. Right. Right. Yeah. So we have it as AFC teams that we think can actually win the Super Bowl.

Chiefs, Bill, Steelers, Ravens. Yep. NFC, I think this is even tighter, more tight of a list. Obviously, the Lions. Yes, Lions, for sure. Eagles. Yeah, I'm gonna, Eagles are back on my list, man.

They've turned the corner again for me, so. Yeah, I think, but I feel like that's, we've kind of been there for several weeks, right? Yeah, for sure, for sure. But they put up another win that helps against another NFC contender. So yeah, I'm in I'm in on on Philly. Packers. I want to say yes, but it hasn't been pretty, Joe, like since what week?

Honestly, since Jordan Love got the starting gig back from Malik Willis coming back from injury. It has not been pretty. Are they the Houston of the NFC? Kind of kind of feels that way, unfortunately. What do you think? Because there's the thing, though. The NFC is is not as talented as the AFC, in my opinion. So all they would need really to happen is someone to take out the lines

And they could probably beat everybody else. Could they not? I kind of want to leave them in. Okay, let's leave them in. I like that. Also gives us another team to talk about. Yeah. Okay.

Let's do some more inventory. Arizona, can they win the Super Bowl? No. Atlanta Falcons. What is happening to the Atlanta Falcons? We have no idea what we're getting week over week. Right. It makes sense that they lost at home by 20.

freaking Seahawks. God, they, they frustrate me so much. The 8 and 2 Minnesota Vikings, can they win the Super Bowl? If J.J. McCarthy was playing quarterback for them, they could. Man, that's a, that's a wildly aggressive take. I don't think that they will, I don't disagree they'd be better, but I'm not going to sit here and say that a guy that's never played in the league. It's a difference. Better than turn the ball over three times a week, Joe. Man, dude, I wish we had him. I wish we had them. If we get to see the devil element of Bo Nix and what Jaden Daniels. is done and then I would assume

JJ McCarthy's having a pretty good year. That'd be fun, man. That'd be really fun. I don't want to derail this too much, but real quick. Has Bo Nicks surpassed Jayden Daniels and the rookie of the year voting? I think it's time to have the conversation. His stats since week four, and I'm not a stat guy, but I just

think it's crazy. Unbelievable. 1,700 yards passing. He's got a 17 touchdown to 2 interception ratio. That's total touchdowns, rushing, receiving, and passing. 200 rushing yards dude is what the heck sorry yeah it's time to it's time to realize that there's like another contender here right it was so one-sided for so long but hey you got to play all the games you know

they all count they all count especially the ones towards the end right yep minnesota are we putting minnesota in or not i'm gonna need you to make the call it's i don't think so so you can't we can't win a super bowl at sam darnl's your quarter i agree with not in the year 2024. Sorry. Yeah, like defensively cool, but I don't, I just don't see it. Green Bay's in. Do we say Arizona and Atlanta or no, right? Those are no. Washington commanders, no. Not yet. Rams. No. I thought they were going to make a nice little run here, but. How about the, the reigning NACC champions, the San Francisco 49ers that are five and five in the 10 seed?

No. Isn't that crazy? probably for some yeah how do you reconcile that brett because this team was in the super bowl last year and is there that is there that much turnover that i'm not mindful of right now i know they have hargrave injury but like hard grave is on paper a pretty similar team right yeah i didn't i didn't think they were as good as is the result last year i was pretty firm and that take all season, basically. It's hard to argue with results, though, right?

So a lot of people are very high on them. I think they have offensive line issues. I think they got defensive line issues, despite Nick Bosa playing out of his mind every week. He's the only player having the deal on, right? Yeah. Iyuk, obviously, that injury hurts. McCaffrey missing most of the season has hurt.

He's back. What, there's more. Secondary, I think is bad. Oh, my gosh. we buried the lead on the the lenore contract healthy healthy i know you're the db guy what do you think he's a good player is he probably the worst it's the back contract i've ever seen oh my god you call it the worst defensive back contract you've ever seen i yeah for one the defense doesn't really emphasize slot play lot they give up the most like i think

the most yards per attempt to slot receivers in the nfl he's a slot corner but it's not necessarily They're not playing man on every snap, though. It's not like it's solely his fault. It's also linebacker safety issues, but I don't know. I just, I've never once, like I last year when they played the Minnesota Vikings, I thought, you know, Jordan Addison was playing in the slot a lot at that time. They were down Justin Jefferson. And I was like, you know what?

Addison's going to go kill them because I thought Lenore stunk. And he went out there and murdered them. So I don't know, man. I don't know. I think that's a tough contract for me. I think it's a little bit heavy for a primary slot corner. Was it five Years 92 million?

Yeah. Have we seen? Is the actual terms available? Because I know that's what the agents wanted us to do. I got to see if we got the actual terms here. I haven't seen the actual numbers. Okay. It's five.

It's not, it's better, but it's not that much better. Five years 88. $8.8 million. So an average annual salary of $17.7 million. If you're calling this man a slot corner, let's go to Taryn John.

who just received a extension as a slot corner three years 30.7 million dollars stop are you kidding me he just signed this extension he just signed it oh my and they play similar style defense too yeah yeah holy crap now so you want to talk about age taren right now is 28 lanor is 25 so I don't know if that that certainly doesn't doesn't change he's going to turn 26 year he just turned 25 actually so Terran's in the prime of his career is only a three year deal so it's not like they locked him up until he's 35 or something no the age shouldn't really factor in this situation

not not that heavily not the average anyways I get that Lenore got a five year deal and Terran got a three year deal that makes sense but the average being that that's a that's an injustice that is an injustice on Taryn Johnson. Oh my gosh. Get that man a new contract. No. Yeah, I think he just signed this thing.

Just like, no. Let him be the most left-com player in the league. Yeah. Yo, that's nuts. That's nuts. Shout out to Chris Ellison, the agent for Diomador-Lanour, maximizing his value. Good money if you can get it, baby.

This is yet another contract where the 49ers have the most expensive player at that position in the league. Yeah, but by far there, right? It's $6 million per over. Geez. Yikes. Yikes. It kind of made sense for some of the other players.

Oh, I don't know. This one. Yeah. Even the BOSA contract, man. The POSA contract's kind of nuts, right? Relative to the rest of the, like, where we thought it was adding Crosby. Right. We thought it was a precursor of things to come.

And then. It really wasn't. Wasn't. Yeah. Really wasn't. Okay. So I think we have the list here, Brett Whitefield. We have Lions Eagles Packers.

Okay. That's it. We only think three teams can win the Super Bowl and the NFC. Chiefs, Bill, Steelers, Ravens, and the AFC. On the other side of it, what we're going to do is figure out who the most important player for that team is the rest of the way, the guy that can't get hurt. We're doing that here in just a moment. Be sure to stick with us. It's time. Did you watch that fight? You watch Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul? No, because I'm not gullible, but I did watch the UFC fights the following day. Brett, I'll tell you what. There wasn't anything you could do to get me to watch that mess, man.

Oh, good. Okay. I thought you meant to. Nothing in the whole world. Brother, growing up, growing up, Mike Tyson fights were, ever the world stopped, man. We got him. Legend.

Yeah. My dad, we didn't miss. No chance we'd miss that. Yeah. So, like, I loved Iron Mike growing up. Come on now. Come on now. I'm obsessed with Iron Mike.

interviews now. Yeah. What do you see what he said to that little girl? No, about legacy. You didn't watch that clip? No, to like recent clip. Yes. No, I didn't see it, bro. I've been in a kind of a, okay. Yeah, it's not appropriate for us to discuss right here. Um, but I'll send you that, uh, so you can see it. Um, but yeah, no, I people stayed up late to watch his fight. I mean, very few things get me to stay up late. But so I woke up and, you know, good, I'm up. usually by 5 a.m. scroll the phone. Like, yeah, everyone's exactly what I thought it would be looking through these tweets. Nightmare.

Hold on. Hold on. There is something relevant to come out of that fight is pertaining to the NFL. Okay. Netflix has streaming rights to an NFL game. Yeah. Christmas week. Yeah. They better get their crap figured out. I'm not dealing with, I'm not dealing with this, Joe.

I can't deal with this. I'm not going to have my day ruined because Netflix can't get their crap together watching an NFL game. Okay. Fix it. Fix it, Netflix. It's not good. It's not good. And what is the parameters for the game?

Do they get to just pick whatever one they want? How does this work? Do you know? I do know. It's a long, laborious process of hierarchy and the networks get to, you know, protect certain games. The NFL gets to protect certain games and it kind of goes into a pool and they basically bid on them in a certain way. Gotcha. So I just want to make sure that Jets and Bills.

Is that the game? Well, that's the Christmas week. game for the for the bills is it yeah the one Wednesday game is the one that they have i think well it's it's no it says right here it's chiefs ravens excuse me chief steelers one o'clock on netflix and ravens sections 430 p.m on netflix bro that's what oh god they better go it's the lord help us all okay we've identified the teams that can win the super bowl there's seven of them. Our job now is to figure out who the most important player on the team is that's not their quarterback. Let's start with the bills and I'm just going to let you just rant for a second.

Then I'll tell you if I have any disagreements. It's tough, man. Wait, can I tell you my two? Actually, I just, I changed my mind. I have for you to tell Taryn Johnson, Dionne Dawkins. And then I don't know who the other two are. You're going to have to tell me. I think you've got two good players identified. I think you got to talk about Greg or so on the edge. I think you got to talk about maybe Terrell Bernard at linebacker, like the leader of that defense.

I think you got to think about Christian Benford at Corner. Oh, I forgot about Benford. Yeah. I want to make one very large sweeping statement. So I kind of preemptively hashed out some lists here for this conversation. Yeah, so did I. And the one thing I left, like, when I, when I came away from this, I felt like more convicted than ever that Josh handled is the MVP of the NFL.

Because the four cornerstone pieces he has to work with versus these other teams. It's not the same, Joe. Right. It's not the same. So. Right. Another hat tip to Josh because that dude is doing this. And I'm not saying it's a bad team.

Yeah. Solid team top to bottom. They don't have a lot of holes. But the star power to here just is not the same as these other teams. Yeah. A proven star power, I would say. right i think i think once the world learns about christian benford and terrell bernard and surely they know about dionn hawkins right i mean you would think yeah but it's yeah it's a

it's a different type of team in terms of eight years into this build transitioning into a lot of younger players that are just they're not household names yet man colica keir right like people are figuring it out but they're they're being re i think in some ways the world's being reintroduced to a new era of the bills. Agreed. You know who my pick is? Who is it? You don't know because I haven't told you. My pick, you can tell me I'm crazy. My pick is Greg Rousseau. Whoa. I did not see this coming. Yeah, I just, when I think about the bills and the success that they've had, but also, you know, they've won a playoff game each of the last four years. They've also had that exit, right? And I think every time it's like,

man, I just don't think the defensive line does well enough. I think Greg Rousseau is very clearly the bill's best defensive lineman. He's unbelievable against the run. And the bills play light boxes more than any team in the league. And a player like that structurally, if you're going to play defense that way, is so important for increasing your margin for air. And he's also the bill's best pass rusher, very disruptive. You know, he's not like a guy that's just going to run circles around offensive lineman,

but his length and his power and how he compresses and the amount of consistent pressure he gets is really, really meaningful. And so I think there's a lot of good options, but I think the bills would be missing so much on their defensive line if they didn't have him. I think he's that important. I think it's Greg Rousseau. That definitely is shocking to me.

I thought you're going to take Taryn Johnson or something like that. The bit about the light boxes is a great one, because if he's not performing, then you guys are getting gashed. Gashed. So that's my pick. I mean, it sounds like you have a different pick and that's fine. No, I was honestly, my plan was to defer to you the whole time.

Like I said, I probably, I would have probably gone Taryn Johnson because I'm obsessed with him. But did you see the touchdown pass? Well, it was one of the thing it was the first one to know of Gray. Terrell Bernard was big mad at Taryn Johnson for that play. It was like a little bunch set. I know that you're probably not going to be able to answer this right now. But after this, I need to know what, what do you think? think Terrell Bernard wanted Terran Johnson to do there.

He's big mad, dude. You said it was the second touchdown or the first? I don't know. I think it might have been, I don't know. It's one of the touchdowns of Noah Gray. There's two of them. I'm watching it right now. Let me see. Yeah, I mean.

There's some pre-snap communication and obviously he's pissed at Terran Johnson for something on that play. Bernard's 42? 43. 43. Who's 42? Dorian Williams. So he's barking at Dorian Williams after the first one.

Yeah, not the one where Mahomes rolls to his right and it's like a back right corner of the end. It's like over the middle of the field. So that's the second one. The first one, Noah Gray kind of just runs right. Yeah, just sits down like right at the goal line and no one covers him. Yeah, that's the one. But if you look at after the play, Terrell Bernard wants to light Taryn Johnson on fire. What do you think he wanted him to do differently?

Ice. Ice. No, he's actually yelling at 42. We might not be talking. No, it's the same play because Terran Johnson's standing right there, but he's, I'm looking at the end zone angle. And he's, he's actually yelling at 42, not Terran Johnson. Taryn Johnson's on Kelsey.

He has to cover Kelsey. Right, but all of the pre, all, I don't think you're seeing the same thing I am. After the play, Terrell Bernard is like, goes up to Taryn Johnson and like yells at him. And Taryn Johnson has his tail between his legs. I, no, I see that. I think what I'm saying is I think he's yelling at 42, not Taryn Johnson. I think it looks like from broadcast angle, it looks like it's Taryn Johnson. That's the closest to him.

But if you track his eyes, his eyes are going past Taryn 242. You think that Torel Bernard's mad at Dorian Williams on that play? I am. It's the opposite side linebacker. That has nothing to do with the play. Yeah, because it's a four by one. So you're going to want five over four. We're not talking about the same play.

We're not talking about. the other the other noah gray touchdown was the rollout to the right in the back of the end zone so what do you think doris how did dorian williams affect that play whatsoever because i think bernard probably wanted to create a high low situation where dorian williams is undercutting that route and and then bernard has over the top in case gray pushes you want him to buzz all the way over there if he does it it's probably a pick man see that i'm glad i asked you this because i I didn't think about that for a second. Yeah, especially if you look at the route nine runs, Juju.

Bernard has to hold that, that angle. So yeah, I think he, I could be wrong, but I think he, I think this is a, you know, it's a four by one. They want to get a fifth defender over there. So we could talk more about it after the show. Yeah, well, we will have to because I don't know that I agree with you. Okay, so we've identified the bills. Let's, um, let's get one.

one more AFC team done here. Let's go to the, let's go to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay. Let's go to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who's, who are the contenders? Do you mean who are the, the players? Yeah, the contenders, yeah, the contenders to be the player that we identify as the most important. Oh, I see.

Gotcha. T.J. Watt, Cam Hayward. Cam Hayward. Joey Porter, Jr. Yeah, Joey Porter, Jr. Probably Pickens? I thought about Pickens. I also thought about like,

I don't think any of these either Dan Moore or Broderick Jones are particularly good, but my God, we're one snap away from Calvin Anderson. That doesn't make you a cornerstone type player. Uh, good Lord. Yeah, I can't do that.

I got to go like Pickens or something or, um, even Highsmith, but, all right i i i landed on this one pretty comfortably did you go tj i went cam heyward i'm going cam heyward yeah for sure i think this team's just different when he's in there and they he's kind of battled through some injuries of the last couple of years and i think you i don't know if take for granted's

the right word but the impact is just so obvious and there's like an emotional element to what he brings the table i'm not taking anything away from t j watt I just feel like maybe Cam Hayward matters more right now. Yep, I agree with that fully. He's the lifeblood of the team, man. He's on top of the performance on the field. It's awesome. Let's go to the NFC.

Let's go to the Green Bay Packers. Ooh. I think Zach Tom at right tackle. Okay. I think Xavier McKinney at safety. Okay. Those are the two that I thought were. the most obvious. Do you have other players you'd like to invoke?

Rishon Gary. Okay. I think Rishon and Gary is a phenomenal player. Elton Jenkins. Yeah, he matters a lot. The fact that he can play five positions is insane. Man, they've kind of needed him to throughout the years, right? And like, O-line injuries definitely happen.

And so having the ability to make sure you're constantly getting your best five available on the field, I think that's such a underrated aspect. And he's good, too. It's not like he's just versatile. He's actually good. So I like Elton Jenkins. I mean, I know Jayre Alexander has been injured, but does he? I think he's falling off a little, man.

Yeah, I think most Packers fans would probably say he's a cornerstone piece, though, but I'd probably still go Gary over him. So who's the pick? Can I make a case to throw Jaden Reed on the list? And I know he hasn't produced a ton lately. because the offense is kind of this combined, but he can ball. He's a baller. But the picks Xavier McKinney, right?

Yeah, the picks Xavier McKinney. I agree with you with Jaden Reed. I feel like he's their, he's like the spark plug for that offense, you know. But I agree it's Xavier McKinney. The big plays on defense, I think, have been decisive in this team being seven and three and us talking about them right now. Yeah, he's great. And he's kind of unlocked their ability to play this very aggressive style of defense.

which has definitely helped them compared to the last year where they were just getting hemorrhage, especially over the middle of the field, just bludgeoned. He's a math changer, right? Yeah. He's a good player. For sure.

Let's go to the Ravens. Yeah. Hamilton. Yeah. Don't necessarily love the tape this year, but yeah. No, but don't you feel like he's their answer to you got out of problems? Like, the coverage was a little better this week. They started playing him in some deeper alignments.

Like, gives him a chance. Metabweke. Yeah. Linderbom, obviously. That's such a good call, man, Linderbom. Rochuan? Yeah, Rochwan.

What do you think about Marlon Humphrey? Yeah, he's a phenomenal player. It's hard for me to put these secondary guys on here with the way the secondary is playing. Right, right. You know, I think that's the challenge is. We're not sitting here trying to say, who's their second. best player. It's like, who's the most important guy, right? Yeah. So I guess it's hard to say both those guys are super important when they're

also their units are not playing well. I mean, I'm not saying they're not important. I'm just, there's a mental gymnastics for me I'm having to do to kind of get through that. Yeah. It's got to be under bomb. We didn't even talk about Derek Henry. He didn't talk about Zay Flowers. Oh, shoot, you're right. They have a lot. Shoot, Zay's on there. Mark Andrews. I have a hard time. I think Mark Andrews is good,

but like I, I don't know that I could put him on there. Okay. Stanley. He's been bad, bro. He's been bad. Henry's a great call, though. I forgot about the skill players, you know?

Right. Who would you go with here? I think I can make a case for Linderbomb. I like Linderbom as an as a, I came into this conversation. ready to pound the table for Kyle Hamilton. And I'm coming out of this conversation thinking a lot about Tyler Linderbaum and how he stabilizes that offensive line,

obviously like very young guards next to him. And his range, I think, is so important to what they want to be as a rushing offense and in pass pro, man. Like, it might be a Linderbom. Yeah, I think it's Linderbom. I think he's the starting, outside of Lomar, he's the starting point for what they do on offense. Literally. That's fun. I came in. I can't that conversation took a different direction and I think it's the right one.

All right. Let's go to the Philadelphia Eagles. You did have them on your all pro team by the way. Yeah, of course it did. But I still thought I was going to say, hey, I was came in here ready to champion Kyle Hamilton as like he helps them figure it out on defense. Right. It's bad on defense, but he helps them figure it out. And where would they, I guess where would they be without him on the back end? But I kind of agree with you like, it's, still about that offense and Lamar and Linderbaum, I think is indispensable in what they do offensively. Yeah. Philly. A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown probably. Okay. That's a fun conversation. No. I mean. I think it's going to be A.J. Brown. But there's probably a Lane Johnson conversation to have. Lane Milata. Yeah. Even though Fred Johnson kind of really was pretty decent there for a stretch true my lot has been awesome though for like the better part of two and a

half years now but um it's going to sound crazy because he's a rookie but quinian is he on there yet you think about him i don't nothing's going to there's going to be nothing that's going to trump a j brown right he's no no i'm just trying to get guys out there that they yeah devante even to an extent you know sequin i'm so impressed with zach bond too man jack bond great freaking baller this year. All that to say that it's AJ Brown. Also, our projections guy here at Fantasy Points, our director of analytics,

Christopher Wecht. He listened to the All-Pro show, Joe, and he wrote several complaints about picks, mostly because he's an Eagles homer and wanted a bunch of Eagles on here, but that's it. Who did? Okay. Who didn't we have that should have been on there? You can only pick, it's all-pro team. It's the whole NFL.

It's not like AFC or NFC, all-pro. We didn't. the NFL all protein. Quinyon, Lane Johnson. He was appreciative that we did mention Zach Bonn. But ultimately he just felt like we were short on some Eagles guys. All right. So AJ Brown, it is.

AJ Brown. So we have the Lions and Chiefs left. Let's wait. We'll do the Super Bowl champs last. So Chiefs are up next. We already kind of did the Lions. That's how this whole thing started. Yeah, I know, but now it's a new conversation.

So we'll finish with that, right? All right. Chris Jones. I thought you said we were doing the Super Bowl champs last. Right. We're through the Lions last. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

I love it. Yeah, Chris Jones, Creed Humphrey, Travis Kelsey. Creed's good, man. Creed's awesome. He's good. You make a case for Trey Smith even, right? He's balling too. Trent McGuffie?

Yeah, for sure, especially because I don't, their other corners are not very good. Yeah. alarming. It's Chris Jones, though, dude. It's Chris Jones. There's no. Like, they, they blitz, they have like the third highest blitz rate in the NFL, but they're like 20 something in pressure rate, 25th and sack rate.

They got a bunch of power players up front, but like Chris Jones is that guy, man, like watching the bills tape. And maybe if you watch the broadcast, you didn't think Chris Jones made a huge impact, but my God. He just re-recks everything. He wrecks everything. It's clearly Chris Jones, man. Clearly, Chris Jones. He's their only D-Lyman, you feel confident winning one-on-one matchups. Their four-man rushes is yielding a pressure rate of just 24%.

Yeah, I'm unsurprised by that. They just, they need to get an O'Shea going as a different type of player. And they need Felix Anadukee Yuzoma to be the player they drafted it to be. Like, that stuff is missing right now from this. this rush group. That might be why the corners were picking on look bad too, right? Pressure's never getting home or if they have the blitz to get it there.

Yeah. You took four snaps, by the way, the other day. That's just not enough for a guy you just traded. No, yeah, definitely not. Yeah, man, they put a lot of stress on those corners for sure. They'll run, they'll rush six or seven, like, won't even think twice about it. All right, lions, they have already lost Hutch. St. Brown,

Penes Sewell, Brian Branch. Kirby Joseph. Kirby Joseph. Frank Ragnow. Frank Ragnow. Their list is pretty deep. Aline McNeil, you know. Couldn't, can't lose that guy.

Monster. So, you still with Brian Branch? I'm sticking with Brian Branch. Yeah. He's the best defensive player in the league, in my opinion. I feel like I want to go Penae Seul. That's the other one. Penae Soule. I just, what they do in the run game, the play action stuff, his range, like, just

he collapses that whole side of the line a lot. They win the corner. I mean, yeah, you're right. I got to remember this is a team built to score 50 points in a game. Without Penae, that's not really possible. I don't think so. That's their identity is their offense. So you're right, it's Pene.

It's Pene. It's not Branch. It's Peney. I'm backtracking. See how easy that was? So we go, Chris Jones for the Chiefs, Greg, Greg Rousseau for the Bills, Cam Hayward for the Steelers, Tyler Winderbaum for the Ravens, Penn A Soel for the Lions, A.J. Brown for the Eagles and Xavier McKinney from the Packers.

Yeah. I'm, dude, if we didn't get, if we didn't just talk about the two teams in the Super Bowl, then we have flopped. I'd be stunned if it's not one of those seven. I would be sent too. And also, again, just reiterating here, Josh Allen is the MVP, just because of this conversation. Because I think I would take every one of those cornerstone players,

we just identified over Gregoroso if we were drafting them out. Oh, yeah, if you did a draft. Yeah, yeah, he's the last pick here of seven. Maybe we need to take all the names we put on this list and then actually not right now, of course, because maybe we should do that because that's a very interesting conversation. Josh has an MVP baby, let's go. Well, we'll keep that on the back burner for a, for a week. We don't have a lot of talking points.

How about that? Sounds good. All right, let's get out of here, Joe. You feel good? We'll be back Thursday with some exes and bros. We've got some fun coaching-centric conversations we're going to have. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, folks, no matter what develops, we will always be your first read.

Thank you for listening. We are out. Thank you.