First Things First - 49ers beat Colts, Brou’s MVP Ballot, Pro Bowl snubs, Mahomes Mountain, Harbaugh Hot Seat?

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

(0:00) 49ers beat Colts, Draymond Green & Steve Kerr get into argument (27:25) Is John Harbaugh on the hot seat?  (39:17) Brou’s MVP Ballot  (46:57) Mahomes Mountain (01:09:07) Myles Garrett on winning, DK Metcalf suspended (01:25:28) Should Trevor Lawrence be in the Pro Bowl over Justin Herbert? (01:29:31) Top 10 Tuesday, Are the 49ers legit?  (01:53:05) Eagles beat Commanders, Is Phillip Rivers adding to his legacy? (02:02:21) Superlatives for Week 16, Who had the best performance? (02:11:07) Any issue with the Pro Bowl QBs?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York. It's a show. It's wishing you a very happy holiday. Yes, we are. I'm really in the Christmas spirit. Are you? Oh, big time. I might make a gingerbread house tonight.

You want to know something, I don't know if it's embarrassing, but it's just true. Guess what me and my wife and daughters did this night? Saw the tree. Decorated the Christmas tree. That's way too late. I know. That is. Wow.

It was way too late. I know, but we traveled for Thanksgiving to see my grandbaby, and then my wife traveled because She's, we went to traveler. My daughter was back from college. We couldn't know. We were busy people. Was the tree sitting there naked for a while? Not cool. I'm just telling them. That's horrible.

That's what I made the executive decision. It's stay up till Valentine's. I said it. Because it makes me happy to have it. Yeah, you should have put ordinance on the tree. We did ours the day after Thanksgiving. Well, you're empty nesters.

We got nothing to do. What we had the whole ad daughter, my son-in-law, my future son. Sunday law, my daughter. Uh, probably second week of January, maybe. Maybe first. You got to do it when the son-in-laws are in town, make them take care of it. No, it's a bright tree.

That's the benefit of the Sunday laws. First hour, first thing's first with some more holiday tales throughout the week. Today, five touchdowns for Brock Purdy. Two for Philip Rivers. Are we going to talk? Yes. We talk about the 49ers. The show rule is we only talk to do something when he throws interception.

Thank God he threw that last interception. He might not be in the rundown. My gosh. Mewell, John Harbaugh talks job security. Is it time for change in Baltimore and Brew has a list. The top 10 coaches he wants with their coordinators to tell. Do not believe that. All right.

Coming in number five. Bob Salah's going to be a candidate. I actually like that. I don't think I don't think in Baltimore, but I think he'll be a candidate. Finally, bruise ballot and an icy edition of Mahomes Mountain. Second week without Mahomes on the mountain. He's injured. He's off the mountain.

He's injured. Really the return of the prince. Oh, he never. I saw somebody on there who's injured, though. Who? Lamar. Oh, stop it. Lamar has a hurt.

No, no, no. Oh, really? But he's not out for the year. No, he hasn't, you have to miss a game to be knocked off. Like, Jordan Love has a concussion, so that's a different story. But no, Lamar is, Lamar got hurt during the year. the game, but he's expected to play this week. All right.

He didn't tear his ACL. He's hampered. That's true. We start with a historically great game from Brock Purdy through five touchdowns to wrangle the Colts, move to 11 and 4. They now control their own destiny for the one seed, depending, of course, on your view of existentialism. Here is Brock Purdy. Everybody just did their job.

I feel like Kyle was in his bag with his play calls and the run game, the O-line, just doing a great job for Christian and then obviously the past game to be able to dish it out to a bunch of guys and then make plays like it's just a team effort across the board he said Kyle was in his bag what do you mean about that I mean about just the play calls everything was I just feel like it timed out really good the play action pass all the things he did a great job call in plays here's our 75th graphic featuring Brock Purdy Steve Young and Joe Montana this one's for five past touchdown games over the last 50 years including the playoffs for party last night brew do you want to go since we never talked about the 49ers on the show and all of a sudden they're your favorite team, although you don't pick them to go far in the playoffs? I picked them to make the playoffs. Make the playoffs. Okay. I picked them to make the playoffs and they've had a ton of injuries.

They might be if the pack, if injuries befell my packers, if that's the right word. Yeah. Then I think they will be here. You do like the Eagles too. I like the Eagles. I got some options out there. What's the question? What was your number one takeaway?

Two words. Two words. Okay. Mack who! Say it with me, Wiles. What? Mac who? He would have done the same thing.

Oh, really? Really? When has he ever thrown five touchdown? Did he even do it in college? Even the whole quote was like Kyle Janahan was doing his thing. Of course. I was just a vessel. He's not going to go up there.

He's a humble guy. He's a humble guy. It's just. You just. Just justify why I said MacMogg when you said he would have done the same thing. He may have. He hasn't thrown five touchdowns since high school. When did the last time Brock Bernie did?

Last night. All right? Against an NFL team. Against a darn near playoff team. No. A team with a winning record. Barely. Not for long.

Look, let me not diss Mac Jones. Well, that's your whole thesis. Mac, you did a great job. You did what a backup quarterback is supposed to do. He did a little more than that. You went in there. We've seen Cooper Rush, other guys do well as backups. I mean, Jacoby percent, look, backup quarterbacks usually have four or five.

He had, he played eight games. They were five and three. He played well. But they usually have a string of, you know, where they can play well. And then it's going to go, they're going to go downhill. I don't know that he would have went downhill, but he was playing well. He did a good job.

Okay. But last night is why there's no quarterback controversy in the bay. All right. When you do so, you showed the graphic. There's no, there's no Matt Jones, Steve Young, Joe Montana graphic.

I'm not sure. All right? There is none. There is a Brock Purdy, Steve Young, Joe Montana graphic. You do something that has. hasn't been done in 30 years. That's impressive, all right?

And here's the thing I liked about last night, Nick. He was throwing the ball well downfield. Yeah. And we had seen him. Yeah, we had seen him have some trouble. You know, you can, maybe that was the toe, because obviously can you plant and everything like that. But I thought him throwing the ball down.

Like, he didn't look hurt at all. No. There was no, I don't know what the state of his toe is, but it appears to be fine. But he was threading needles, as you see right there, through the ball well, deep, played really well. And the good thing for the Niners fans is this is kind of what's been going on. Here's this, they won their last five games. They're five and one with Purdy, I think, or six and one.

But last five games, pass the ratings, great. Look at the, they're leading the league in points, 34 a game, TD interception, interception, interracial is nice. He's accurate. Like, he's really starting to find this. groove and that was a big takeaway. If their defense, Nick, I'm not sure yet if they're like a real, legit Super Bowl contenders. I think the defense could get them.

Yeah. And now we're going to find out. I think these next two weeks and you don't always want to, I mean, they would go into the playoffs on a seven game win streak. That's good or. You want a good loss in there? Well, no, but I'm just, I would like to see them win these games. And then that would tell me, okay, they got a shot to get.

also would give them the one seat. They give them the one seat. And then it just would put the, they already beat Seattle. They've beaten some good teams. They beat the Rams. Their last two were at home. The Super Bowl's in Santa Clara. Yeah.

And if they win the next two, they don't travel again. You got to figure. And they will have beaten some really good teams this year. No doubt. And so I, it's going to be interesting. Listen, I agree with you on the, I worry about how that defense is going to do against the Bears run game this coming weekend.

Like, that's to me a real concern. But on last night, listen, Purdy was exceptional. There's no denying it. And I agree with kind of the Point Wilds was alluding to a degree, which is the Colts past defense is particularly post-sauce gardeners in shambles. But it doesn't matter. Like five touchdowns score, putting up 48 points. No one's done that.

Right. That was the best game against them. Against them. And they played some great quarterback. No doubt. So like Purdy was great. But I knew. I thought we were done with.

the Mac Jones Purdy argument. I didn't even know we were doing it. No, but because I just had a little inkling Brew was going to go there. He made a graphic. Well, listen, I think Brock Purdy is definitively slightly better than Mac Jones.

That's good. And I think this year, so I agree with you, Brew, if he's healthy, there shouldn't be a quarterback controversy. Because if you show their numbers this year, and this is kind of to my point forever about the Niners' quarterback situation, that Kyle Shanean is a bit of a stimulus program for quarterbacks. This is the same players or the same position, same team this season.

And I think the guy on the left, even though Mac Jones throws for a little more yards, the guy on the left is better. Now, is he drastically better? Is he demonstrably better? I don't think so. Brew probably thinks he's more better than Mac Jones than I do. But he's obviously better than Mac. I think one of the big.

Not to cut you out. Yeah, no. One of the big differences is just Purdy's mobility. I totally agree with it. Because Mac did a great job. I'm not, but Purdy's mobility makes it. I think the ceiling's higher and I think healthy, he's better. I just think how good you think any of these players are really has to, like if you think

Mac, not you, the generic you, if you think Mac Jones is like a legitimate starting quarterback in this league, then you probably think Purdy is an excellent quarterback. If you think like I do, like Mac Jones is a backup quarterback in this league when you see his ability to put up 80% of the numbers Brock does, then you don't think Brock necessarily, even though the numbers are there, is an excellent quarterback. But that's, to me, the story of the Niners season, even though for our show it will always be Brock Purdy, no matter what,

is two people that are not Brock Purdy. It is Christian McCaffrey and it is Kyle Shanhan. And on McCaffrey, that he has, now 150 yards away, 151, I think, from being 1,000 to thousand again. That's all of the seasons ever. Richard McCaffrey as a Panther, Marshall Falk, greatest show on turf year, and Roger Craig, one of the underrated great players of the 80s. Because when you think of the 90s,

the 80s Niners, they think Montana, you think Rice, obviously, you think Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig was unbelievable. That's not a guarantee he'll get that. No, no, no, no, 150 is hard, But he has been so prolific receiving the ball this year. And if you show where he is numbers wise, he's second league in yards from scrimmage. He's third in the league in touchdowns. He's first in the league in touches, more than that in a second.

And being sixth in the league in receptions as a back is crazy. This also speaks to, in my opinion, even though we look at this year's Niners as, oh, think about next year when they get Warner and Bosa back, that I do think it is incumbent on them to see if maybe the year, they've had a lot of years where it looked like they could win a Super Bowl and they came, fell just short. This year they were kind of written off because of the injuries, maybe sneak up on people because Christian McCaffrey leading the league by a mile and touches to me is not a recipe

for next year Christian McCaffrey having this type of impact. Like they are, they are pressing the Christian McCaffrey button. more than any other team is pressing the button. I think that means they're going for it. They are obviously going for it. Why not? Why not? Of course.

It's wide open whether you consider them one of those teams or not. And I think Shanahan deserves a real coach of the year consideration. There's some great candidates. Ben Johnson's a good candidate. Sean Payton, Liam Cohen, are good candidates. Probably Liam Cohen. Because Coach of the year is always kind of a sneaky diss. It's like we thought you were going to be bad.

You ended up being good. But I just don't know how many other coaches in the NFL could have their starting quarterback out a month, or out two months, pardon me. All those injuries on defense. What turned into a difficult schedule and what I think we all believe is the single best division in football. I mean, you have to if you have three, 11 or 12 win teams. And they're alive for the one seed with two weeks to go. It's pretty unbelievable. Games missed by starters, most among current playoff teams.

San Francisco, 62. Buffalo 15. I don't really talk about the bills missing guys, but they are. In Carolina, and all we do is talk about how many people are missing for the chargers. San Francisco hosts the Bears on Sunday. Did you see that graphic that was on the game? The most yards from scrimmage for a career, and it was Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Christian McCaffrey, and Walter Payton, per game.

Oh, per game. I was going to say, Emmett's got to be up there. Total yards from scrimmage. Passing. Catching. Running. On the other side of the ball, Philip Rivers completes 23 passes for over 275,

two touchdowns in his second game off the couch. New York Times playoff predictor, however, puts the Colts down at 1% to make the playoff. Well, they could win out and get up to 23% according to the New York Times playoff predict. Yeah, they're dead. What was your number one takeaway from Philip Rivers' performance? Look, I mean, obviously,

what he's doing is incredible. Now, I'm going to be, I'm going to give two big takeaways. And I don't mean this, this is not in any way, not even a smidge of a diss to the modern day quarterback. But I do just think it speaks, a guy that's been away five years, that's 44 years old, that three weeks ago was on the couch, can come in and play pretty well. I mean, last night he almost threw for 300 yards. I think that speaks to how it's not easy,

but it's easier to play quarterback today than it was 20 years ago. Because you're not getting hit. Like that was our biggest concern about him was, is he going to get hurt? You don't, not that you still can't get hurt, obviously, but you used to, I mean, you used to be at the clock quarterbacks anywhere.

Down low, up, you know, you can hit them hard wherever you wanted. And receivers too. You can hit them across the month. middle and stuff like that. So I think that makes it a little easier for him. He's not as worried as much about getting hit because of the new rules changes. But the second takeaway, Nick, is could he, is he like a viable option for them next season? Obviously, you'd love to have Daniel Jones.

He's injured. But he tours of Killings. Right. So if you can go get a Mac Jones, then sure. Sure, because I think Mac might be a starter. You know, it's like Darnold. Yeah, but he's under contract. You have to trade.

Right. So you have, and I don't know because of Purdy's has some injuries, do they give him up? You have Anthony Richardson. Well, look, okay. He's better than Anthony. If you've got Anthony Richardson and you, I would, if Rivers is willing to come, then I would maybe have Richardson pencilled in as my starter and Rivers right behind him. And if Anthony's not ready from training camp, then you would.

could go with river. You know, I try to have the backup in the starter be a little bit of, you know, two peas in a pot. Well, no, that's totally different. I think the only thing that might, and I don't even know if Rivers would do it, but the only thing that might hinder him if he were to play next year, he can't throw the deep ball clearly. You saw that last night.

Now, maybe his arm would get stronger over time, I guess. But that, I think, defense is knowing he can't throw it 40 yards down the field. would make them more predictable and maybe not. I also think if Philip Rivers is considering any of this, the idea of a training camp competition, if I'm Philip Rivers, I'm like, yeah, I don't think I'll be doing training camp, guys.

I was on my couch until December. I'll be there. Just some of you know, like hit me up Labor Dayish and see what's going on. I'm as stunned by this as any NFL development since I've been on TV. I was thoroughly convinced that this, it's not that it was silly, it was so irresponsible that I thought the league maybe should step in.

Like I was saying that. Like, I'm not going to run from that take. I have been utterly stunned at how more than competent he's been. And as they did a good job showing on the broadcast last night and social media cutups today, how much what he's able to diagnose pre-snap solves problems that I thought were going to come, which is he just, there's never a free rusher coming at him because he knows where it's coming and he's getting the ball out so quick.

So for Rivers, I give him a ton of credit. A ton of credit. I poked at Shane Steichen for saying he was so, you know, thought his system was the whole thing. They have gotten better quarterback play than they were going to get from Riley Leonard or from anybody else. So I was stone wrong on that. Now, the team is

in the midst of an all-time collapse anyway. They were 7-1, and since then they have won win and it's in overtime. And I would just remind everyone to think about the end of the Cowboys season

and the end of the cult season next year, NFL trade deadline day, when we're We are just a guy. Oh, who future picks, schmoocher picks. This team's going for it.

I like them. Good for them. Okay. Well, sauce got hurt. If that was an issue, were they, were they last night a sauce gardener away from being a competitive team? I don't know if he would have gone five touchdowns.

No, but I, so here. I mean, I, I didn't think they were the best team in the F.C. Anyway, but I'm just saying, they didn't know Daniel Jones was going to get hurt.

I understand. But the last night. Philip Rivers gave you Daniel Jones level production and if you think I disagree it's fine you can think it that one corner was going to be the difference between the Niners hanging

48 on them and them winning I just we get the the Colts are now on a spot and yeah they got unlucky their quarterback got hurt but that's why you don't make rash decisions when you're a team at the deadline who is

beaten the Titans twice the Raiders the Cardinals and Miami to have a slightly inflated seven and one record to make you to trick yourself into believing we're going to win the Super Bowl this year. Are you going to be seven and one and be like, well, we're the Colts. No, no, there's a difference between you could make moves around the margins like the Seahawks did, trading a mid-round pick for a player, Rashid who's made a difference. Well, that was a good one. And trading multiple first round picks.

And now, by the way, the pick they sent to New York is going to be around the six. 16th pick this coming year. And Bruce talking about that team having to start a 45-year-old Phillip Rivers next year because they don't have a quarterback. Like it is... I like going for it, man. Can't keep your powder dry if you...

You're 7-1. And I, there were they were 7-1, but I don't think anybody actually thought they were the best team in football. And I think everybody thought, okay, this is a good story.

And maybe Daniel Jones are going to keep this heater up, but there's a difference between going for it and putting your whole 401K on black on the roulette table and being like, well, we'll see, and that's what they did. And if you're a Colts fan,

it feels like now you're super stuck amidst a really bad collapse. Could you see Rivers there next year? I think Rivers is going to, I wonder why, the thing is why even playing them these last few games? I mean, I guess they still got a little life. as my co-worker once said,

because he's a football player. I think he wouldn't want to go. I think that he wants to try to have one last win. He didn't come back to. He didn't think they try Riley Leonard. No, that's if he can play. This is awesome. This is putting butts in the seats.

It is awesome. I actually wonder about next year. I do. Colts host the Jags Sunday at one. Head to San Francisco for some NBA. Third quarter, Warriors down five to the magic. Draymond is deep. Kerr. Get into it.

Draymond then heads back to the locker room, spent the rest of the quarter there, but came back to the bench for the fourth. Warriors went on a 41-18 run with Dremont gone, and they win easily. Here's Kerr and Dremont on the interaction or lack they're of. We got into it, obviously, and I took the time out just because I thought we lost our focus there a little bit. We had it out a little bit, and he made his decision to go back to the locker room to cool off. That's all I'm going to say about it. He didn't play the last 20 minutes.

Would you have gone back to? No, no, no. He wasn't going back in. Temper's spilled over, and I just thought it was best that I got out of there. I don't think there was a situation where it was going to get better. So it was just best to remove myself. Your reaction, bro. Well, terrible situation.

You hate to see it. But I will say this. I think after the incident, I think everyone has handled it the right way, including Draymond. I guess this is during the incident. It's unfortunate that he doesn't have the self-control or the anger management to not worry that I might do something I regret. But it's responsible of him if he's that volatile and knows my anger. is what it is. There's a guy that knocked out a teammate once to get up and leave.

Like, it should have never got to that, but I will give him credit for just being like, look. Now, if you think he's lying and he should have just could have sat there, I'm saying that's what they say. If you can't control yourself, get out of the situation. So for him to leave, so I thought that was good, even though it's sad that you can't control yourself. I thought it was good that Jimmy Butler,

but he healed and Al Horford went back to check on him because I was wondering, is this going to, like a guy like Butler, does he look at this and like, what am I doing here? Like this is, or Horford, you know? I'm a babysitter. Right, right.

And so for them to check on their teammate, I thought was good. For Draymond to come back out to watch the fourth quarter on the bench was good. I thought for Kerr to not play him and to let you know the reason I'm not playing him is because he made the decision to get up and leave the team. Like you set a standard. If Kerr put him back in the game,

I'd have been like, dude, where's the leadership? And then Steph came out and said to the reporters, I think the question is a little more negative than it really is. He understood it and the questions were good. But I agree with Steph that this is freaking Draymond Green and Steve Kerr. How many times have they have blown? that we know of and then there's probably many more that we don't know of. All right.

This happens. I think this is a good story for the media for a day or two and it will blow over and they will be back to normal because this is normal with the warriors. I am constantly amazed at what a great person you are, bro. I mean that. I really mean that. Like you're, you, that was the kindest reading of it. And everything is correct.

I mean, I think Draymond was wrong. Don't get me wrong. Everything you said is correct. Like, if we just take for a given that this is a grown 35 year old man who has no self-control whatsoever, take that as just a fact of life. He hand, then he made the right decision tree. And when you put it like that, you are correct. You are correct that if in his head he's like, I'm going to do.

something bad, let me leave. That is the right decision to leave. The problem is that he will never grow up. The problem is that he has not, you mentioned anger issues. I remember him going to anger management after I forget which Eastern European player he clocked one of them and when he was suspended. And Draymond's got to be careful. Because the juice has always been worth the squeeze with Draymond Green when it comes to winning.

But the squeeze is getting so much harder and there's less and less juice every year. And this team's not going to be good. They're fine. They're a 500 team. Since they've won the championship, they've been a play-in-level team every year. They're a play-in-level team right now. Draymond is having basically his worst individual season since he became a starter aside from maybe the year Steph broke his hand and everybody knows Draymond doesn't like to play basketball unless Steph Curry is there as well.

And I if I were Draymond, I would try to be on my best behavior until the trade deadline unless I, assuming I want to be on the Warriors. Because I, this is, this is unacceptable. It's flatly unacceptable. It could have been worse, and you are being, I think, incredibly charitable and giving him credit for not being worse. But you are a future Hall of Famer, one of the older players in the league, leader of your team, and you just can't, you have to take your ball and go home. And then your other teammates in the midst of a comeback have to go check on you. It's pro sports.

You just can't act like that. And so I just, I think Steve Kerr is nearing his limit. I don't know that he's at his limit, but I think he's nearing his limit on wanting to deal with it, especially for a 500 team. I agree with that. Dremont and Steve Kerr, 898 games together, ninth most all time and most for an active coach player duo. Hey, chair of the podcast, if you get a chance and we're a few million views away from a billion views. By a few, I mean like 30. But still, 30 million views. Bang out a million views a week.

Let's get the, no, a day. A day. We do a million a million a day, buddy. No short changes. Why I know? You're trying to get Giana fire. No. If we don't get to a billion, she's out. Also, a special holiday edition of first things first overtime. It's 10 a.m. to noon. What time's the meeting? Early. Like that. As you can see, coach is hype. If that and if that graphic were a seesaw, Danny's to the moon. I knew that right. Go flat. So true.

John Harbaugh's Ravens are a game under 500 on the verge of missing the playoffs. They need to win out and the Steelers need to lose out. Of course, week 18 is Steelers' Ravens in Pittsburgh. Here's Harbaugh on his job security. And it's never been about keeping a job. And there's no such thing as like your job or my job. You know, we have responsibilities.

We're given opportunities to steward those responsibilities, and you're given a job, to do that until you're not. And then you try to do the best. I try to do the job, not try to keep the job, because there's no such thing as having a job, just doing a job. And so my focus is on always, it has been, for the last 18 years here and the last 41 years in coaching.

I kind of like that, I think. You don't like it? I like it to do the job, don't keep the job. I don't know if I agree with there's no such thing as having a job. Yeah. Is it fair to pin the Ravens issue on Harbaugh, before you give your top 10 coaching candidate? No.

Not solely on John Harbaugh. I mean, this is a group effort, all right? I mean, you got the injuries are real. Lamar missed, what, three games. He's been hindered and missing practice for the last. month essentially, month and a half, two months, whatever. Matabuque, remember, they lost him. They have no pass rush.

So that, Madabuque out. And then they had a lot of guys, remember early in the season when the defense was struggling, a lot of that was injuries. All right. So the injuries are there. The fumbles I can't put on hardball. Derek Henry, who knows if they, if he doesn't fumble and they beat Buffalo, week one, maybe things go differently.

Zay Flowers has fumbled and, you know, cost him. him some games. And then Lamar's play. I mean, that's, Lamar deserves a lot of this blame because of the way he played during that five game stretch. He was bad against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Two games, we would have thought they would have won.

That is correct. And had he played his normal game, maybe they probably win. And they're in the playoffs right now. So, I don't put it all in a hardball. And coach, if he was in his third, fourth, fifth year, something like that, and let's say it won a Super Bowl, else because that's one of his big things I won the Super Bowl. I wouldn't even be thinking he should be on the hot seat.

This would be like, okay, Lamar was banged up, didn't play well, a lot of players were injured. It's a bad season. He's a good coach. No. It's just that he's been there 18 years and it feels like it's time for a new voice. Obviously, there's the game strategy things we've talked about, not running the ball sometimes when you feel they should.

But overall, it's just, it just seems. stale. And this seems like this is the final straw and they need to get something fresh in the building, is my view. Wow, that was like a roller coaster of emotions for me because initially when you're talking like, God, I wish Brew was a beat writer when I was

because he's making some compelling points. That's why John should stay. Excellent. I'm like, of course. But then he fired him at the end. Yeah, and then he quickly, like, but he's been there a long time, so we've got to get rid of this guy. So it's a little of a whirlwind there. I believe John when he says that he doesn't, he doesn't focus on keeping the job.

He focuses on doing the job. And I think that when he was explaining the rotation and why Derek Henry didn't get the ball, all that to me is true. And that does happen. Sometimes you go in with a plan and you can lose track of, you know, who's in at different moments as a head coach. But you don't want to lose track of it in this pivotal moment at this. pivotal point in the season. Like that can happen during the course of the season. It just set the timing was as bad as it could be. And he may be in a point where he trusts, not trust, but he gives the coordinators a lot of room to work, which can be very good, but also as a head coach, you've got to make sure you're getting what you want. And if he wants Derek Henry to be in the game, regardless of what the rotation is, regardless of how what they decided prior, then Derek Henry

needs to be in the game. You can't lose track of that. But I see the sincerity in his comments and I believe him when he says he's about doing the job, not keeping his job. Look, if he gets fired, you know, maybe do TV for a year and have five offers the

following year with a raise. So, I think the Harbaal-Lamar relationships run its course and they're not and they shouldn't move on from Lamar, so there's only one other option. Now, I think to your point,

there's a lot of culpability here. You mentioned Derek Henry's fumble in week one. He then fumbled in the fourth quarter of week three when it was one score game to the Lions. So Derek Henry has a critical error in week one loss and week three loss. Lamar, fully healthy, plays his first awful regular season game in more than a year in week four against Kansas City. And that was the, that game was, they were down 17 when he left with injury.

Like that game was over in that moment. And then to your point, when Lamar came back from injury, it's so weird. Because his first came back from injury, he was sensational. He had four touchdowns, a 1-30-something-passer rating, and then started this cold streak when it wasn't the hamstring anymore, seemingly. It was the knee, then ankle, and toe. But they won those games. And then when he was no longer listed as injured is when they played those two games.

where he was brutal and they lost, which ended their season for all intents and purposes. And so that is your star quarterback, who is the two-time defending first-team all-pro, who's having, I think it's fair to say, all things considered, his worst season since his rookie year. Yes. That gets people fired.

And when you've been banging on the door like that, people get fired, and you don't break through, people get fired. I think there is, I think something really weird is going on between the hardball, Lamar relationship at this point. I can't read the injury reporting stuff any other way. I thought, I personally

thought it was weird the way Harbaugh described Lamar's injury yesterday. I would have... But it's been weird for a while. Correct. Right. Even going back beyond this year. Every week it doesn't make sense. Agreed. And so I, like... Let's take your radar too? Or is it like Nick is kind of

on an island with this? No, no. I don't think Nick's on island at all. No, you're fine. When you're missing a day a week and every, At the end of every week, everything's fine. Right. And then you come out and play, and we all know what Lamar looks like when he's healthy, and he plays the way that he's playing. It doesn't add up.

And I would imagine that is going to frustrate a lot of people in Vegas because it's not corresponding to what the sheet says. And it felt to me like Harbaugh didn't let him off the hook with his comments yesterday. I thought John Harbaugh basically saying, we expect him to play. I'm paraphrasing. But there's no worries about him missing this week. It's a bruise on his back. Makes the fact that your superstar quarterback didn't even attempt to go back by attempt.

I mean, didn't take a series in the second half. It made it seem weird. If he'd have come back and like, man, we see how Lamar treatment progresses like that. That's not what he did. And so I know you think I'm reading too much into it, which is it's totally fine. Like maybe I'm wrong. I something is consistent for it not to be

something and so I just feel like that and Lamar would never do this because Lamar is I don't think people when I criticized Lamar last week people sent me videos of him doing charity stuff like I don't think Lamar is a bad guy in the least

and Lamar's too good of a guy to publicly flame his coach he's not going to do that but I think if Lamar got the news if Steve Boshaddy called him like hey we're going to move on from Harbaugh I don't think he's disappointed. I think Lamar is ready for a change there. And be careful what you wish for.

You spin the wheel. You don't know. He's a unique type of quarterback. Right. And so all that, but I think that's what's coming. Coach, I was joking around that brood for Harbaugh. Thank you for putting that job. And I wanted to have a full list of coordinators.

Without naming names, because I know you don't like to be in there, what type of coach would be great for the Ravens? A lot of times, you know, you see the pendulum shift from a player's coach. to kind of a hard-nosed coach. What type of coach could you see fitting the Ravens culture in Lamar? That's a great question because they haven't had any type of coach

besides John for 18 years. They don't even know what type of coach would fit in their well. And to me, John is such a unique, was such a unique hire because he came from a special teams world. And that happens so rarely in the NFL. He's either the only one

or one of a handful of guys who've had that background. Shout to Joe Judge. But, yeah, I guess Wasn't great. One didn't. Yeah. But I do like that, you know, the way that they took a chance there.

But it's been 18 years since they've had a coaching search. It's going to be hard for them to figure out what they want to do. Nick, you mentioned Robert Sahl. I don't know if you were kind of joking. But think of, he obviously is great defensively. And that's the kind of been their culture. I mean, him having a great quarterback. Quarterback could solve a lot of the issues.

from the Jets. I wasn't joking. I think he'll get another look. That's interesting. I also think that had he made slightly different decisions maybe in his personal life, or maybe just stayed in TV, we would all be saying this is where Bill Belichick's going to go.

I think that that would be, but I think because North Carolina hasn't gone great and because I think his personal relationship has now become a legitimate story that makes people question whether or not he still has his fastball for lack of the better term.

I know if Bashati would be up for the Belichick. Oh, so that maybe that's, but I just, there's, in years past, there has been like this head coach in waiting. Last year it was, we thought it was Belichick. You know what I mean? It was Jim Harbaugh. It was Sean Payton. McCarthy?

Mike McCarthy is the name that's going to come up. That feels like even though he won a Super Bowl as well, that would feel uninspiring. Yeah. Let's see how the rest of the season plays out and whether or not. Maybe they get into the playoffs. Yeah. And then who knows? Pittsburgh, who knows what's going to happen there.

Coming up next, a special edition of Bruze Ballot in the weirdest and most wonderful plays in the whole sports world. I looked at the whole sports world. Came up with four plays. Christian McCaffrey racked up almost 150 yards while scoring two touchdowns last night and went over the Colts. He's got eight on the ground, seven in the air. But does he have a spot on Bruise Ball?

I hope so. Let's find out. He is indeed having a great year. He is in strong consideration. I'm old school, though. We know. Right? Yeah.

Not old. I remember today's coach when running backs were running back. He doesn't care about it receiving. And they, I mean, I do, Marshall Falk, I get it all that's a thing. I want you running off tackle. Yep. Tote the Rock. And I want 4.5 yards per carry or more.

It's hard for me to give the guy an MVP. vote when it's 3.7 yards of carry. I get it. He's been great catching the ball in the back field, all that. I'm old school. He was in consideration, though. So was Caleb. Wow. And this is, look,

I don't think this guy should win the MVP or that would be a travesty. But when you get down this low at number five, it's just a recognition. Wow! Numbers are getting up.

What a moment. And I kind of had to go. He's an 89. pass the rating coach. But. The rating is an overrated. Who, I mean, he's bawling. All right.

He's, leave it. He is, what did I got in here to justify this? 17 touchdowns is his last five games. Yeah. All right. So, and he's third in the league in total touchdowns with 33, 26 passes, seven rushing. I mean, again, it would be a travis if we won the MVP, but a vote, some votes. And he had some outstanding throws.

Yeah. Yeah, he's, I mean, and they're shocking. Yeah. I mean, you did pick them. Did you win the division? Of course. Of course. But, no, they're having a great year.

Can I ask you this question? Because you're saying, so you think it's on the board that for the second time in Trevor's career, he finishes in the top seven in MVP bowed? Because that was pretty good. I had trouble filling out five. I have no idea who else was on that balance. Two top seven finish. 1600 players in the league. 10 years from now, Nick will be saying people

said he didn't start his career off. Yeah, two top seven finishes. MVP. Exactly. What a good player. That is correct. All right. Number four, Wiles, I know you hate this.

Look, I thought about taking him off because it's been a slow, for him, because he's got four sacks in the last four games, which is bad. I mean, that's great, right? That's 17 for a season. 22 on the, no. He's right.

Pretty good. All right. I just thought he was going to destroy the record and get 26 or something like that. We'll see what he does. But anyway, he needs one more to break the record that's held for 20 years. Michael Strayan, T.J. Watt. So he's number four. And in the top three, look, he was, he just didn't do anything.

Josh Allen, number three. He didn't do anything last week. He could fall out, man. I mean, he should fall back. Okay. I want when we're done, because look, Drake. to Drake is just to Stafford so far ahead at this point. Drake was phenomenal last week, obviously.

But Stafford's 40 touchdowns. His career high is 41. Drake had a phenomenal finish to the game. Well, the finish. And he almost threw for 400 yards. Coach does not. Stafford is the only. Jared golf's second with 32 touchdowns.

Stafford's got 40. So that's how far out he is in front of everybody. But okay, you don't like Josh Allen and three. Who, like I said, after the top two, and then it's kind of like, like who you put in there? That's a good question. Christian McCaffrey. Probably. Yeah, maybe.

At three? I mean, look, I joke about his yards per attempt. But McCaffrey has had a great seat. My question. I think it's more eye test with him. Well, but it's eye test and what do we attribute the, if they end up being the one seat, which they could be, and they are already 11 and four, What do we attribute it to? Like what players?

Like Shanahan, obviously, he's done a great job. The defense has been ravaged by injury. They've played two different quarterbacks. Brandon and I quit the team. Kiddle missed time. You know, it would be that he has been the engine behind it. It would be the argument. But to Bruce's point, it is hard when you see a running back

averaging 3.7 yards of carry. Now, the receptions are really impressive. And obviously, everybody's been driven to stop him. But there's, I forget how many hours. out of 15, I think 11 out of 15 games. He's averaged under four yards to carry. And there have been a few games where he hasn't done much statistically at all. Yeah, I get everybody's trying to stop him.

It's just, that number is very surprising in relationship how he historically played. If we put up his season numbers, I just feel like it's totally offset by his production in the receiving game, where as far as production, one player in the league has had more yards than him, two players in the league have had more touch. than him. Like so he I agree on a carry by carry basis he has not been as dynamic. I also wonder would he have a little more burst in the run game if his usage in the receiving game wasn't the same as Amon Ross St. Brown's damn there like that. You know, so I just I if we're, I just don't know how else we assign the 49ers having the season they've had when we can't give it to one of the quarterbacks because they've had two different quarterbacks for basically after the season.

What if the Broncos are the number one seed? So I can assign that easily. They have the best defense in the NFL. But no MVP candidates? No, because I think the defense has been a collective. You know, and I guess you could say the same thing about the Niners' offense, but the Niners' offense, the only constant has been him. Yeah.

And so the – but, I mean, I'm not saying he should win the award, to be clear. But I have no complaints at all. Trevor Lawrence just was on somebody's MVP ballot, and it wasn't my own. He's got 10 touchdowns last two games. Yeah. And they've beaten really good teams. That's the thing. They beat Denver in debtors.

And put it on. They crushed the Chargers, you know. Or did. Yeah, they beat them Chargers 35 to 6. The, I do, Brew, do you think, I wonder if Drake ends up catching Stafford. I mean, again, how many, he's got, I don't think it was. This is, no one cares about the county. running stats.

The Rams throw the ball when other teams run the ball. Like goal line. They got a decent running. Oh, but goal line, like, Devante feasts on those that no look to poop. And obviously they count, but. I, so listen. And he does it. I think it's a little rich coming from the Jalen Hertz push touchdowns are all the same guy.

But I do understand what you're saying. I don't think that's what will change it, though. I think some voters, if the Rams, no matter if the Rams and Pats could have identical records, and the Rams are the five seed and the Pats are the one seed and they'll vote for May. But even if they're both 13 and four. Well, I think some people look at the two wins against winning teams, right? Oh, KW. Don't get KW started on that.

You know the Giants have as many wins. When we beat the Panthers, that was an easy win. Now the Panthers are over 500 and say that was a good win. Live from New York. It's a show that hopes the Jets do get an interception eventually, just not against Drake May. Well, he's one of only two options they have left. You know what?

Maybe Drake May, because he's such a good guy. Oh, this. He's almost, and with Mahomes injured. Just hear me out. It's bad. With Mahomes injured, we need a new face of the league. Maybe Drake May says, you know what's good if the Jets get an interception, New York metropolitan area?

I'll throw a few bombs down there. Throw a nice pillowy ball, see if you guys can grab one. It's like a little holiday face. Yeah, we'll be up 35, nothing. That's not buried the league. Face of the League? He's a little ahead of him. Drake May.

Wilde vacillates greatly. Wow. From, hey, it's been a great season, no matter what. A face of the league. No, you didn't say A face. He said Duff. You said D face. Not A face.

Mahomes is injured. No, he's one of the faces of the league this season. Yeah. Drake, Matt. That's fair. He's a top. He's been one of the best players. He's not one of the faces yet.

Well, I do think first is a good point. I think most people don't know what his face looks. They have no idea. It's like winning is what it looks like that. Second hour of first things first. Today are the Eagles peaking at the perfect time to play the bills and ramp up into the playoffs. My buddy Dan.

Oh, we got to stop hearing about your only friend. This is your only friend that isn't a relative. Face of my friendship group. Meanwhile, Pro Bowl QBs announced, did anyone get left out? Well, you tell me, bro. Yes. There's six quarterbacks. We just did Bruce Ballot.

He didn't make Bruce Ballot. A bunch of them didn't make Bruce Ballot. Just saying. But right now, you're in for a real treat. It's the holiday season up here where the air is rare. And if you're anything like me, well, I know what's on your wish. list. Trip to the playoffs, a spot high atop the mountain, fresh new pair of goggles. Let's open up our version of a weekly sports present as we climb Mahomes Mountain.

Not great? That was nice. Can I ask you a question? Isn't that lovely? Well done. Can I ask you a question? Sweet by me. Because you obviously didn't put in, you know, want to do the cool AI intro or even the

green screen intro, which is fine. I'm not asking to do that every week. Did you forget to put the goggles on? You know what? And then when you saw it in your script, you realized they were sitting next to you, so you meekly raised them up? I'm having a bad hair day. If I put the goggles on, I'll just never recover. I think you have to put them on.

I have bad hair days all the time. That's true. See? My hairpiece. It's like going crazy. It's time for my home's mouth. Thank you, Kevin Wilde. All right.

It does look better like that. Yeah, of course. Give an effort. Especially with the snow coming out. All right. Here is who's off the mountain. Now, I've got it. I put Jordan Love off for injury because if you miss a game, you're off.

And I assumed Love every time a guy's gotten a concussion thing, it is. Right. But it seems like they are open to the possibility that he's going to play this week. So maybe that was premature. If so, I apologize. I thought concussion for quarterbacks meant at least one week. Maybe it's maybe it doesn't. Obviously everyone else is done for the season with an injury.

And then also off the mountain. Shador's performance of a 60 passer rating did not impress me the way I think it did brew. Jackson Dart, they asked him to stop running. And as it turns out, that won't work. He had two passing yards in the first half, 31 in the second half. That was a problem. Toa lost his job to a guy named Quinn yours who's also off the mountain. He can't play at the moment young player maybe one day.

Not an NFL quarterback right now. Speaking of non-inval quarterback right now, Chris O'Ducan, yikes. And then I called this guy Quinn Cook in the document. That's an old guard for the Warriors. It's Brady Cook, but I was thinking of Brady Quinn, Quinn Cook, whatever. Roe 7. Quinn Cooks like what? Kitchens.

Nobody cares. but I just have to, I have to just, I took all my Anthony Joshua winnings and I made one of the greatest sports bets of my life that involved what, the only thing I needed to happen that didn't happen was the Bucks win the game. And they didn't win the game.

And I, what have won, basically a brand new Toyota Highlander. And now I'm just mad at Baker and I might be done with him. I'll never forgive him. Kurt Cousins Falls, J.J. McCarthy. What are we doing? Gino, give him his love, bro.

He's on there? Back up. What do you mean? Against the Texans defense? Gino was out there cooking. They almost won. That was a strange game. Jacoby Preset stays.

Marcus Marriota, again, I don't know if he's playing or Josh Johnson. There's too many injuries. And I put Joe Flacco back up there because of how Philip Rivers is playing. I'm like, you know what? I'm like, did I miss it? No, I just thought Joe Flacco is better

than the quarterback's off the mountain. I put him on there. Philip Rivers can do it. Joe Flacco can do it. Roe six. Bonix drops. You might say that's a pretty steep drop for a guy whose team is the ones who don't care. Tyler Shuck has been playing quite well.

I guess. He might be all right. Shuck up. He has been the best rookie quarterback? I guess. I think he's been better than Cam Ward this year, but Cam Ward moved up. He's starting to play better. Yeah, and Cam played really well against what's left of the Chiefs.

Bryce, Wilde's guy. Playoffs right now in the playoffs. I am stunned. What? I'm trying to a Carolina guy for a long time. Yeah, but you've been a Carolina guy. But Wilde is a Bryce guy. Hold on.

You're a Carolina guy. Wilde is just a Bryce guy. We all know Wilds doesn't like small southeastern markets. He doesn't like Carolina at all. Roll time. But he likes Bryce. Philip Rivers, I know you're not winning. It's unbelievable what you're doing.

And I just think Malik Willis, you're talking about brew, like, called starters next year. Malik Willis, maybe they give him one year, million bucks is a stop gap. Him and Anthony Richardson. I think Anthony Richardson might be... He's probably better. He's better, but I'm just saying like similar stuff. Yeah, I think I, yeah, that's what I was going to say.

I think Richardson might need to go. Maybe Richardson goes to Green Bay. It's the Matt LaFourer rehabilitation treatment. I don't know. Roe 5. CJ Stroud's fit and are very fortunate. Nobody was watching Texan traders. Yeah.

Very fortunate. That offense has a big problem right now. It seemed like maybe it was fixed. It's not fixed. Again, Lamar got hurt, but I think he's going to play so he stays on the mountain. There was an argument to move Jalen Hertz up. I understand that. We will look at who is in the top 10.

I don't know who we're going to replace him with. Sam Darnold give you immense credit for overtime. It doesn't erase the first 58 minutes of that game. So he stays where he is. Jared Gough's numbers are great. The team's mediocre. I don't know what to do with it. It also, he saves where he is.

Roll four. There you go, bro. Brock Purdy moved up. It's not bad. It's good. I mean, listen, he threw five touchdowns. He threw five touchdowns. I moved him up.

I don't know what more people want for me. Dak Prescott drops a bit. Aaron Rogers. Listen, America, I don't like it any more than you do. But the mountain is fair. Aaron Rodg's been cooking. They're going to make the playoffs. He's feeling good.

They win this week. He gets to give himself a buy, get rehab, spend some time with his wife, whatever he wants to do before the playoffs start and see how everything's rolling. Joe Burrow, listen, as he had a row four or better season, he hasn't. Did he remind everyone this weekend, though, he's still Joe Freaking Burrow,

and, you know, when he's happy playing football, I guess, that he's going to dominate. Yeah, I moved him back up. Row three might be the strongest collection of arms in the history of any row. Wow. There's three of the four strongest arms in the league. Josh Allen does have to move down. I understand.

He has no help whatsoever except for the league's leading rusher. I get it. And the next one offensive one. And maybe the best tight end room in the league. I get it. He has no help. He did not play his best game this weekend. I think he has been,

I think he will go into the playoffs as clearly the best quarter. quarterback on his side of the bracket, even though Drake Mays had the best season, but it had to move down. Herbert, after having a really tough month, but playing through injury and winning, put it all together on Sunday, and played statistically a great game and a spot as team needed. And now, in a story, I don't know that anyone's fully recognized. The Chargers control their own destiny to win the AFC West. If the Chargers win the next two weeks against the Texans and then the Broncos, they win the AFC West and Denver is a wild card. That's shocking, but it is what it is. And Caleb, none of it happens without the onside kick.

The onside kick happened and then Caleb had all-time moments. Now, people want to say, what about, why didn't you do that for Darnold? Darnold had a nice drive. Caleb had the two, maybe the two best throws of the year, and I like Caleb more. Road two. Yeah. I just, I jumped in front. Oh, my God, look at that.

You're in charge of it. What do you mean? You're in charge of the mountain. What are you doing? You're in charge of the mountain. You can't act surprise. Oh my God. You look at that.

You do it. Who saw that? It's a present that. It's like when my wife opens up her own stocking. Oh, she put that in there. It made you feel good. That's a thing. You like it.

That's why you're referencing it on TV. We're in the entertainment business, buddy. Okay, sorry. This was shocking. Look at the Prince, that's the highest he's ever been on the mountain. Roe two. And again, it's not left to right.

But if it were, I'd have it like this. Okay. Yeah, why is it like that? Why is it May? Well, it's not left to right, but I'm telling you, if it were left to right, I might have it like, have you seen it over the last month? Oh my goodness. And still atop the mountain despite the loss.

They scored 37 points lost by one in overtime. Matthew Stafford. Coach, I know you like to dig at the mountain. It's holiday season. Yeah, that's true. Tell me how great it is. This is for the way that the league has played out this year, for the way that the quarterbacks have played out this year,

the fact that you have Baker Mayfield on the bottom row, which is incredible to me because how much you love him. It's been six out of seven weeks and it cost me $41,000. This is one of your better mountains. This is one of your better mountains in a lot of ways in a very unpredictable, strange year in many ways. Thank you. But I'm going to make one change because I think you are being unfair to Brock Purdy.

I think that Brock Purdy now, what's this, five in a row they've won? Yes. He's got nine touchdowns and one interception in the last three games. And then I get that you love what Caleb did after the onside kick, but you can't discount all the things that led up to the point to where we got the outside kick, where he wasn't playing very well. And then I don't know why you're downgrading Purdy. for controlling the game completely from start to finish.

And he made a bunch of really good throws in that game yesterday. There were a couple that I would say changed my mind to some degree about his ability. Not completely, but I definitely moved forward. And then if you just compare him and Caleb this season, as much as we can go apples to apples, because I know Brock has played less games and completion percentage. That's a big difference. I know you don't love it, but we're talking about 10 points there.

Yards per pass, that's different. So right on down the line, Brock Purdy's been better. And I'm cheering for Caleb, and I think Caleb does a lot of really impressive things and has improved in a lot of ways. But you can't discount what Brock has done just because of where he was drafted. I moved him up. It has nothing to do with him being drafted. Coach, what's the best ability?

Put that back up. up? Um, durability? Well, or available. I mean, I mean, Brock's played less than half the games of Kaelen. Like it's like the, if we're, we're gonna do season long stats, and there's always a tell that there's some funny math going on when instead of we just put up past touchdowns, we do this weird past TD percentage.

Then nobody, nobody can translate that day. Well, hold on, the reason you do that is because you have to try to do apples to apples, and you can only do percentage when one guy's played seven games. One guy's played. Why was he a war? Why did he not play? Why was he deemed ineligible? Was he redshirting?

One guy's been there. One guy's been there for a team that's 11 and 4. The other guy has been there less than half the season and they're 11 and 4. It just feels to me. So therefore you grade him down because he had an unfortunate injury. It's not that I grade him down. I'm just not going to give someone who has been here half as much time as much credit as someone who's been there the whole time.

I think that's fair. I moved him up. I moved Brock Bertie up. I was surprised to see him high, but I agree. I moved him up. Thank you, bro. The fact that Caleb's as high as he is. I don't know.

I mean, it's a greatest quarterback season of Bears history. Potts. You know, he didn't leave room for the heroics. That's exactly right. He was just good throughout the game. That's about 60 minutes. All right, I got a few issues. Oh, here.

First of all, this is not. First of all. Go ahead. I'm here for it. How is Flacco? Flacco threw one pass coach for four yards last week. There's a hell of a pass. Right.

Just the only. Is he on there over Shadour? And you know why, you know this because you're a student. You know why Shadur's pass rating is so low because of that interception that was off. It wasn't a perfectly thrown pass. He threw a bullet behind a guy. It was beyond catchable. It hit him right here.

Brew, it was a hundred miles an hour behind him when he's running that way. That was not a good pass. It wasn't a great pass, but it was very catchable. I mean, come on. You got to catch that, Judge. All right. But, yeah, so Shador should be on there. That's all I'm saying.

Okay. All right. Now, my real issue is this. Yeah. We got to give Jared Goss some love. We got to give him some love. I'm switching him. And this might not even be enough love, but I'm switching him and Aaron Rogers.

Golf your rocker, Nick. Your golf your rocker. Yeah. Grandpa. You're calling me Grandpa? That's probably why you put Rogers so high. They played last week. I get it that Rogers won.

All right? You don't like that was... I don't know what that even means. It was Dusty. Doesdy loved it. Dusty said it was his best work. Golf your rocker. He said direct quote, might be my best work.

He went to Jared, Rogers. Anyway, focus on what I'm saying. All right, Jerry golf, they played last week. Yeah. Golf had more touchdowns, three to one. Had a higher pass rate in like 102 to 92, something like that. threw for more yards, through for over 300 yards, all right? Lost because he had 15 yards rushing as a team,

and Aaron Rogers got 230 yards rushing. And so golf is second in the league with 32 touchdown passes and only has five interceptions. I mean, it's incredible. He's second in the league in passerating with 109. He's third in the league in yards per game, 269. He's completing 68, 69% of his passes. And I get it.

He's not, there's something about him that doesn't jump. Superhero doesn't jump off the screen. You know what it is. I'm just saying he should be higher. He should be higher than he is. The dude has had a great one thing to live with Roger. I'm moving him and Aaron Rogers, switching him and Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers just all played him.

No, he didn't. Did you not hear anything I said? Was it or? He threw three times as many touchdowns. is Rogers. Jared golf, you were like, hey, we don't really only have 15 rushing yards, do we, coach? Yeah, so you know what? Let me throw for 350 yards.

Change the play at the line of scrimmage. You think, yeah. So that's my. I'm a Aaron Rogers guy all of a sudden. Evidently. Rogers having a nice year that's a little too high. It just feels like I have got to give Rogers credit for this heater. And maybe it's, they had a better record this point last year.

The, I, yes, that is true. But they, this point last year, they were to miss. collapse and this point this year it feels like they are cresting. That's what I would say. And I am, I think if, I think they're going to beat the Browns this weekend. This is projection, this is not so much about the Mountain. We'll just say it real quick. I think we're going to beat the Browns this weekend.

And I am telling you, the Steelers playing in the wild card round off a buy when whomever they played, seemingly played a meaningful week 18 game is going to be so helpful. They win this week. They go back to Pittsburgh. They don't have to play any of their old guys. They then have a home playoff game. If they are playing any team other than Buffalo in round one, I think I'll pick Pittsburgh. Texans? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I think I would, yeah. Off a by with those teams like the Chargers playing a week 18 war that they lose to Denver and then all of a sudden they have to go to Pittsburgh. I don't like that. It's not because I love it.

I don't like it. I have a question to start the Smalls Mountain. What is the Statue of Limitations on I Told You So's? Because I feel like I need to roll this out yet again. But I'm like, man, I don't know. Maybe I'm getting annoying to the audience

or my fellow castmates. What is the what? Statue of limitations. Or statue of limitations. statute of limitations. It's limit endless. Go ahead. Vikings, I told you. Oh, good one. I said 14 wins and 4,300 yards. There's nothing to shake a stick at. No, no, no. It's just the system. We'll offer Sam Darnold some symbolic contract that he's not going to accept to sort of play a game, but we're going to go with J.J. McCarthy, who is injured yet again. on the Minnesota's Kevin O'Connell and he can make everything work. Well, let's look at how Sam Darnold is doing. How he did last year, everybody thought it was an aberration, how he is doing this year.

Vikings, Sam Darnold was 14 and 3, 12 and 3. Yards, very similar, yards per pass, even better. Touchdown's down a little bit, but pass rating down just a hair. Game winning dries 5 to 4. So Sam Darnold's the real deal. And I just think, if we're going to have Caleb up, and I don't want to be the Caleb hater. But Caleb had a very pedestrian game outside of the last two drives. And it wasn't like, hey, Caleb needs to change his whole narrative.

I know there was a little Packers Bears thing. But this was Sam Darnold's narrative career hanging in the balance, and he turned it around. I just, and beating the number one defense, not a defense that was riddled with injuries. So, listen, I think you're a. Sam Darnold probably switching. I think your greater Darnold points are fair. The distinction I would draw is between Caleb's comeback and Darnold's comeback. Caleb had not done anything really well in that game.

He hadn't had the disastrous mistakes that had dug his team a whole the way Darnold did. Also, the comeback for the Bears was all Caleb's plays. It was Caleb's play on fourth down. It was an onside kicker. No, no, no. Right. I totally agree. Is he in the kickoff return he's getting penalized for it? Darnold is?

I'm not. There's a difference between, there's an difference between penalizing someone and not giving them credit for it. The, the, the, the, the, Rashid Shaheed returned a punt for a touchdown. Then on the next drive had a reverse that got them down into the red zone. And from that moment forward, Darnold delivered. But Darnold had dug them the hole. Rashid Shaheed dug them 80% of the way out of it and then Darnold finished the job. Caleb had done next.

nothing and then made brilliant play after brilliant play. And so I think that, I think, at least for me, a fair distinction. Your overall point that we need to retroactively take some credit away from Kevin O'Connell that we gave him last year for Darnold's season is fair, because Kevin O'Connell has not been quarterback whisperer genius this year and Sam Darnold has been as good this year as he was last year. That, I think, is a fair point. And classic two by Kevin Wilde.

I don't sign those very often. Eventually correct about Sam Darnel. Good job. So not the Sam Darn guy on the show. Buddy, you are. You're sending out weird loving tweets. Why am I rooting so hard for Sam Darnold right now? Is that two-point conversion the play that turned Sam Darnold's career out?

You act like the two-point conversion is just kicking a field goal. Which one? The one that got batted down that should have ended the game. That's called winning football. Coming up next. This weekend on Fox, Eagles, Bills. That's the game at 4 o'clock. Then at 1, you got Jags, Colts, Patriots, Jets,

Bucs Dolphins, Cardinals, Bengals. And that is a true national, national game. There's one other game. America's game of the week. But even more so than usual, there's only one other four o'clock game. Everybody's going to watch that. It's one of the best games to the year.

We'll have more on that in just a second, but we're going to start with the Cleveland Browns. Their record is 3 and 12. Miles Garrett's pursuit of the sack record, excellent. He's credited with half a sack last week and now it's just one sack away from breaking the record. Two games to play. A reporter asked him about his off-season trade request. Remember that? He wrote a nice letter.

And his stated desire to compete for a Super Bowl, which the Browns obviously are not doing. Take a listen. When you went through that trade request, you said you didn't care about records. Oh, that's the Hall of Fame, all that stuff. You just wanted to win. So with two games to go, and you guys asked 3 and 12. What's it that it like for you? That's the question. I thought that was a fair question, Brew.

And from your journalism background, I wanted your reaction to that. Well, it's definitely a fair question. And I'm glad Miles had like a smirk. I mean, I don't think no comment's the best or next question, whatever is the best answer. But he had like a smirk. So bottom line is I feel you can do both.

If I'm a player, particularly a star player, Yes, I want to win a Super Bowl, but I also play for individual accolades. So I don't think there's like, from the question, the implication is you're a hypocrite. Like you talk to all this stuff, you know, you don't care about these things and you just want to win. And then you stay, first of all, everybody would have taken that contract, the money he was offered. And like I said, I still think he wants to win. but I also do. If I'm that caliber,

it's one thing if I'm a role player and I just, I don't put up big numbers so I'm just trying to win, that's it. But if I'm like that caliber of player, you darn right. I'm trying to get all pro.

I'm trying to be defensive player to year. I'm trying to make the Hall of Fame, all that. So I don't think it's a big contradiction. And when you look at the way the question was phrased, it was obvious it was trying to bait him to say something.

And it was, and I have a lot of experience with that group, like they can do that in that room. And to his point about winning, you can't say Cleveland doesn't try to win. So they went to the playoffs in 2020. They went to the playoffs in 2023. They won 11 games both of those years.

They tried to make a huge move with Deshaun Watson. That backfired, but that still is an indication that winning is very important that they would make a move like that, extend themselves like that. So for him to say that he wants to win and go back to Cleveland, it's about the money. Obviously, things are about the money.

But he has a chance to win there, and they've shown the desire. Does he really have a chance to win there? Well, look, they were in the playoffs two out of the last five years, which, you know, the Jets haven't been in the playoffs in, what, 37 years. They were won and done in the play. Flacco was the quarterback one year. Well, Baker was quarterback the other year. Oh, they won the other year.

And they did make the Deshaun Watson move. It wasn't the right move, but that's a gigantic move to make in an attempt to win a Super Bowl. And he should say at this point, yeah, we're 3 and 12. Is this record important to me? It is important to me because I have a chance to do something to do something nobody else has done. And I don't think anybody in Cleveland or the organization is going to be mad at him for saying that. I think that would be a good response. I've been radicalized by the Browns Patriots game where Miles'

Garrett wrecked the game. He was unstoppable. He had five sacks and destroyed the game. The Patriots won 32-13. And as he goes for this sack record and he's on the MVP ballot, I've been the one saying, they've got three wins. This great player is not contributing to winning. And maybe he is, but he's having the greatest sack record, maybe ever, and they're stuck at three wins. He had four sacks against the Ravens. They lost 2316. He had one and a half sacks against the Bears,

which is really good. They lost 31 to 3. Go ahead. So there is a point where maybe it's selfish, and maybe it's just like I want him to be traded to the Patriots. But I do, to be honest with it. It reminded me of Otani and Trout. They were on the Angels,

and one guy said, you know what, I'm going to leave. And the other great guy always stayed, and we didn't see him play any meaningful baseball, and it's going to be over. So I just hope I'll throw this to you, and then I'll let you go. This is Super Bowl appearances by players with multiple defensive player of the year awards, which we expect him to get it, right? Bruce Smith has got Ford, mean Joe Green, Lawrence Taylor.

We have legendary moments of seeing these guys. Reggie White. It's a similar one. Eagles to Packers. of holding trophies, Ray Lewis, Aaron Donald, making a huge play in the Super Bowl. I don't want this to come off

as being a Miles Garrett hater or critic. I just want to see the best players in the sport. But he got screwed by who he was drafted by in that regard. And this is where I will defend him for taking the contract. He was not a free agent. He asked for a trade. They said no,

and you have two years left on your deal. And it's the NFL, which means when you're two years from free agency, you're four years from free agency. So his option, what, like, if the argument is, he shouldn't have signed the rookie extension in Cleveland, I guess, but to coach's point, they were coming off. They drafted Baker.

They were a competitive team. He signs the extension. He's then a few years into the extensions. Like, this sucks and we're awful, and the Deshawn Watson thing didn't work. I want to leave. They said no. And so then he can really make it messy.

and still maybe, it has no leverage. He has two years left on a deal that he can't even again. The franchise tag is such an ominous thing that even if he plays out, they're just franchise tag. He'll be a bargain. He's the best player in the league on defense. So then he's like, okay, I guess the best available option here is to sign a contract, which, by the way, he can demand a trade again, which I think what you would like him to do.

Would be interesting. But I, I, the, your, my issue with, like, you're bringing up. He had five sacks. They lost by this much. I think that is just evidence that every position in the NFL, except for quarterback and even quarterback to some degree, there is only so much any singular position can contribute to winning. And I don't think you can have a better season as a pass rusher than Miles Garrett is having. And that, though, it's not basketball and it's not even baseball with a starting pitcher for that day. That there's just, there is nothing more he can do than what he's done.

I agree. And you've got a great amount of curve because so many of those games, they're behind. So the amount of passes and attempts that he has to sack the passer had decreased. No, that's a real stat, coach. So there's that. But the other thing is you never hear people talking about him not playing the run and only worrying about stats. And that can happen too. when a guy's chasing a record, he only does that thing.

Then people run at him and they gash him, you know, because that's what he's doing. You haven't really heard people comment that that's the way he's been playing it through this late part of the season. In this letter, the goal is never to go from Cleveland to Ken. It's always been to compete for it and win a Super Bowl. I just want to see that happen. I understand. And I don't think it's going to happen in Cleveland. But I guess my, oddly, KW, I think your real gripe here, this is not good TV, is with,

the existence of the franchise tag. I think because the franchise tag exists, every great player is so deeply incentivized to re-up with the team that drafts them because they know if I don't, if I'm a first-round pick and I don't want to, I have to play for seven years

with this team before I can actually get out of here. And so I just, like that then led to all of this. There's something to say for the loyalty of the Joe Thomas angle. I get it and being a hero. and I get that. But just to watch a truly generational player

celebrate a sack record as they go to 3 and 13 on Sunday, I find it's training. But to Coles' point, that's not every year. And they've gone to the playoffs more than the Patriots have in the last five years. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they have. They've gone to the Patriots. I'm not saying that.

He's been to the Patriots the same amount as Joe Burrow since Joe Burrow's been in the league. That's true, too. Been to the playoffs. Yeah, they both in the playoffs twice. I can make the playoffs and getting beat by the Texans and going to the Super Bowl is different. But if he was playing for the Steelers and it's won in the playoffs and out. I mean, yeah, like T.J. Watt? Like the.

Yeah, he should be traded too, I guess. We saw if Stafford wins the Super Bowl, he was in Detroit. So you know what? This does not work. He got out of there. But he got out. And now his career is on a pole. And Shoah had the contract. He was a free agent.

He got the huge contract. Mike Trout. I should have went to Toronto. All right, moving on. D.K. Metcalf is appealing a two-game suspension for this interaction with the fan. Nick, your response to this incident. First of all, I want to clear something out because we were like, oh, my God, he had $45 million in guarantees voided. Here's the deal on that.

25 million of that is a salary next year. The Steelers are paying that. Like they're not interested in cutting DK Metcalf. So that money is, so now we're, the other guarantee got voided is a money that was only guaranteed for injury and is for 2027. So the only way the void comes into play is if next year, because that's not true guaranteed money. It was money that was only guaranteed if next year he suffers a catastrophic injury. So that's a real potential thing, but it's, you know, everyone hopes that that if he stays healthy, then he costs himself no guaranteed money. It's first of all.

Second goal is this. Everyone might disagree with me here, and I'm not saying it applies to that guy in the blue wig. I happen to believe that something when Brew talks about, you know, the good old days, something we have lost in society is a healthy fear. That guy might punch me in the face. And I think the way sports fans often act at games shows what the total removal of that fear can bring about, which is adults acting in ways they would never act in any other circumstance because there's like an invisible barrier. It's like, I know you can't do anything to me.

And again, I don't think you should ever be able to stab someone, shoot someone, kick them in the head when they're down. But there are certain things where if you're like, hey, what happened? And you tell me what happened. It's like, and then I punch the guy. I'd be like, I'm kind of on your side. Certainly getting mushed in the face. Yeah, something like that. So I want to say, so I am not someone that believes like sticks and stones will break my bones,

words will never harm me. I don't believe that, actually. And so, and I think we've aired too far in that regard. But I have watched the video of what this guy said and did. And I know what Chad Ochosinko reported. The video doesn't support it. If it's true that this guy was using slurs and talking about DK's mother, then I would support DK, even though I think the league's got to suspend

him because you have to set the precedent, but I'd be like, I'm on your side. The video with audio that I've watched makes it seem like DK Metcalf was pissed and overreacted drastically to a guy poking fun at him, which again, is not a way I think an adult should act

in any environment, even a sporting event, but the, again, and I haven't heard DK accused the guy of using any slurs, but it was like secondhand game of telephone. From what I've seen, I think D.K. Deserved to be suspended because I think that he went over there.

The guy called him as DeKalin, and he was pissed and grabbed him and mush-faced him. And the NFL is going to make it very clear. You can't hit the customers. And so that's why. Yeah, I mean, if he was saying racial stuff, talking about his family, that that's one thing. You know, but they even reported at the game or as it was happening that the guy had just called him by his full name. And it looks as bad as it looked on the, you know, one angle. But from that angle, it really looks violent.

Like he really grabbed. And so I do think there's a limit to what fans can say, like I said, racial stuff, family stuff and all that. But I'm not, I don't have a problem with heckling and things like, you know, I've been obviously covered the NBA and you hear all types of heckling. I'm fine with regular stuff like that. And I think you have to I was surprised it was two games

but I think you do have to send a message in this situation and that's what they did by suspended him. One, you send a message to the fans that they're safe and we care about you because the fans pay the bills and two, you send a message to the players. You can't touch a fan.

You can't do this. So I think that's what they did with the suspension. Look, everybody knows you can't touch fans and regardless of what they say, and they say terrible things. They say, and if you let it bother you, then you're probably going to be bothered at every single stadium that you go to. And the idea that adults go to these games

and they feel like there's, it's almost as if the players and coaches have been dehumanized and you can just spurt, yell whatever you want at them, but you know as a player and a coach, you can't go over and engage that, you just can't. It comes with the territory. You may be able to tell security, but at the end of the day he's going to lose in every possible way.

He's going to lose financially. He's going to be suspended time. It's just going to, he'll probably get sued. It's just going to keep building up for that one or two seconds of satisfaction that just kind of comes with the business, unfortunately. I look at these things sometimes through an organizational lens as well. From Brooke Pryor, Metcalfe, who played for the Seahawks before being traded, obviously, reported the man to Seattle team security in the past.

That same person? Yes. So to me, this feels like at least something that should have been flagged for Steelers' security. Like, I don't know how, what is that D.K.'s responsibility. Be like, hey, we're headed to Detroit. I've had an issue with that. Is that the security within the league? Obviously, I'm not saying he should do it, but I hope the Steelers' security wasn't like,

Oh, you had an issue with this guy in the past? But with that said, they didn't kick the fan out of the game. And again, I'm doing it from cell phone video. The people around did not react as if this fan said something. Like, everyone's reaction was not shocked by what the fan did. So I just. How often has he played that he recognizes this one fan? Yeah.

So that's why. That's amazing. That's why I think it's, I don't know. If I've already reported you, I'm not. not saying it's necessarily anything out of bounds. And there's a lot of, you know, we don't have all of the fact. But the fact is from Brooke Pryor, he has reported this guy, maybe not for anything racial, but maybe just for general harassment while he's on the field, if that exists.

Trust in Will, Holiday Bowl, Arizona, SMU. This is next year, January 2nd, 2026. So another way to put it is, it's a week from Friday. But, you know, when I write, I write a lot of checks. I always start writing 20, 25. You write a lot of checks? I'm still writing checks. Yeah.

That I can't cash. They're getting fights. Afternoon headlines brought to you by Hilton for the day. Pro Bowl announced today. Four teams had six players, Broncos, 49ers, Seahawks, and the Ravens. Six players? Yeah. Ravens?

AFC quarterback through. Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Drake May. NFC quarterback, Darnold, Dack, and Stafford. Shout out to Darnold. There's a spot higher on the mountain. Pro Bowl cubic. Any issue with this list? So the two things just very quickly.

First one is this. I wish football reference in other places would designate pro bowls by were you named the Pro Bowl or were you an alternate? So like you just said Drake May is not a first time pro bowler because he was like an eighth alternate last year. Because this list to me does still matter. Like were you the? The initial Pro Bowl list, but then the alternates, it gets all screwed up. My only real issue is I think Trevor Lawrence should be there over Justin Herbert.

I think that their years are, if we show you their years, we can show you it's the, you know, Trevor's got him in touchdowns. Herbert has him in rating. Herbert has him slightly in yards. Trevor's been more, his offense has been more prolific. But it certainly matters for this competition, how you're finishing. and Trevor, since they played each other, what's up, KW, what's your problem?

Isn't it weird that, like, I just thought it was odd that this is out already as well. Oh, yeah, there's two weeks left, yeah. Like, oh, these numbers could move significantly. And then since they played each, like, down the stretch run, Trevor's been playing great. Herbert's team's been winning, but prior to last week,

he was in the midst of his worst stretch of football. And so, you know, I think I would put Trevor over Herbert. Yeah, so I had a, graphic very similar to Nick's and thinking the same thing when you look at him. Really? Yeah, I was going to. What a day for the prince. Which is crazy. But when you look at him side to side, they're very comparable. And you got to give Trevor a lot of credit for the way that he's kind of dug out of the whole. Now it's a whole of his own making, but he's dug out of it, where Herbert has had all the love from Jim Harbaugh. I mean, you couldn't get a bigger fan than Jim Harbaugh.

and all that promotion where, you know, with Trevor, he's, everybody expects him to fail. And the fact that he's succeeding, I think it's surprising, surprising most. Yeah, look, I like Herbert. Like, if I had to pick one quarterback to start a team with, I would take Herbert over Trevor. But obviously, I had Trevor on my ballot, so I'm fine with that. I looked at the NFC, and sorry, Wiles, I know he's your guy, but I think Donald. there are those 13 interceptions that only Tua and Gino have thrown more.

And he's only got 24 touchdowns, which is okay, but that's not like Baker last year, 41 and 16. And I just think, I mean, look, I like J-Lo, but I'm looking at golf. And if you put DAC on there, you're not punishing guys because they didn't make the playoffs. So I'm like, golf's numbers are great.

great. Yeah. And, yeah, he's got a lot good supporting cast. That doesn't with the receivers. I mean, so I just think numbers-wise, golf's got him beat in everything. Everything. That's fair. And they won more games.

And he didn't have as good of receivers. Golf? Yeah. He's got really good ones, but I take pickings. Lamb and picking. Lamb. Live from New York, it's a show that is going to find out right now. the answer to a question that Danny Parkins posed on social media.

Danny, you posed to your thousands of followers. What show should we begin watching? I asked you about it, but I never got an answer. Do you have the show for you and your family? Not for my family. I started Mayor of Kingstown. Ah. Dark.

For you and your wife. Yeah, yeah. Pretty rough. A prison show. Not for the... Oh, really? Mayor of Kings. It's a prison show?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. My kids are too young. They're five and three. I thought he was like an accountant. Oh, no. That's the accountant who got sit to prison. That's the accountant.

Yeah, I forgot. That's the last. I like prison shows. Yeah, Jeremy. I thought you were going to tease something else. What? The single worst edition of Topton Tuesday. Yeah.

And there have been some bad ones. Wow. This one, this one I feel like you might have done to us what I did to Wilde once, which is put a fake list in the dock. Like the, I thought it was a perfect list. I'm not perfect, but I do mention that. Okay. All right, good.

First thing first overtime. Today, how will Danny's Bears enthusiasm affect top 10 Tuesday? Will it ruin it? Oh, yeah. He steps on his jokes. That's not really the problem. The Bears' placement is the least of this concern. What do you want?

We'll wait. We'll get to it. Meanwhile, Eagles preparing for the bills. Are they all the way back or partially the way back? But right now, San Francisco rolling. They put up 40. 38 points behind Brock's five touchdowns last night. According to Opta stats, San Francisco is the first team in NFL history with 80 or more points and no punts over a two-game span.

That's good. Here's Brock Purdy. He spoke to the team and just basically told us obviously, congrats and making it to the playoffs and it's not something we can just overlook like it's pretty cool to do that. Obviously we know what's at stake with the first seed and all that, but we can't, you know, get our minds wrapped around just that. like we have to go handle business and play a really good team in Chicago next week coming to our place. So we have to be locked in. We have to watch this film. We have to get better.

But it was cool here in coach, you know, sort of congratulate us. But also there's a lot of work to be done. All right, Danny, they've got 11 wins and they control their own destiny. But do you believe San Francisco is a legitimate team? Well, they're definitely a legitimate team. No, they're not going to be folded. Do you believe their financial is solved? I don't know the question.

They get in? They're one of 32. They won a lot of Super Bowls. No, I was thinking about it. There's no team in the NFL this year that confuses me more than San Francisco. Like, you know how I feel about the Falcons. The Falcons definitely have confused me a lot this year. But for the purposes of this, I do think it's San Francisco because, as you guys have pointed out all day,

they control their path to the one seed that feels like it's out of nowhere, but it obviously isn't. They're on a five-game win streak where they're scoring 30. 34 points per game during that win streak, but the best team they've beaten by far is Carolina. Like, I don't know how. During this streak. During the streak, right. Arizona, Carolina, Cleveland, Tennessee, and Indianapolis. So, like, how much weight.

Yeah, they got their great wins with Mack Jones. Right. Well, they beat Seattle. Right, but they beat Seattle in week one. We tend to not credit week one. What is the deal with week one on this show? It's not. It's not.

It's season. He didn't know where the bathroom was working. It didn't buy one. Then, yes, then Mac Jones beats the Rams. And I just, I think their defense is bad. I just think, I think Philip Rivers was carving them up. A couple of weeks ago, Tennessee ran for nearly seven yards per carry on them, but they couldn't really be competitive because it's Tennessee.

One of my favorite bets in the year this week is the Bears 49ers over. Like, I think that's just going to be a shootout. It might take 35 points to win. So I have to give them credit for being in this position, but I think they're a deeply flawed team. I really do. Yeah, look, confusing, I think, is the wrong word. Atlanta, I get it because they got a lot of talent.

They've played some good teams tough. I was really confused by the chiefs this year. I got a tough. I still don't. I'm still wildly confused at what happened. I don't know. I think they're obviously surprising with all the injuries for them to be in the position. their end is incredible.

The offense, and we got to give Kyle Shanahan, and we've known he's a great coach. He's great. This year might be his best coaching job. Maybe it's not even close. I think so. It's obvious, right? But that offense is clicking. And the defense, I wouldn't say bad.

They gave up 27 points yesterday to a 44-year-old quarterback. I get all that. But the defense, considering the guys they've lost, I mean, Sala's done a phenomenal job with that defense. Danny, I don't know. Look, I feel like the whole field is open.

They have beaten Seattle and the Rams, the teams you think are the two best in the league. And so I have to give them a shot, but I can't wait until these next two games because I think that's really going to tell me where San Francisco is, by how they fare against Chicago and Seattle. So I do feel like I know where they are,

which is I think the offense is going to be prolific. and I think the defense, to Danny's point, is going to struggle to get off the field. They have the fewest sacks in the league. That is typically not a recipe for postseason success. However, the other way to explain what's going on is, remember how you correctly predicted that Saquan could have a CMC-esque impact? I think CMC is having a Saquan-esque impact that was a CMC-esque impact. I think Christian McCaffrey,

I don't know what the odds for offensive player of the year are. I know early it was Jonathan Taylor, then Jackson Smith and Jigba. I think that should be Christian McCaffrey's award right now. I think Christian McCaffrey, when you look at what he has done this season as far as be the Niners offense, where he is the second-most yards in the NFL, he's the third-most touchdowns, and they ask him to do more than any other player in the league. And being sixth in the league in receptions as a back, is wild.

He's 150 yards, so he might not get there, at being 1,000 to 1,000, be the 4,000 to 1,000 season ever, the first player ever to do it twice. He did it early in his career with Carolina. And the reason that I would think, when we're talking about how wide open things are, they have a coach that's been to multiple Super Bowls,

they have a quarterback who, while I have questions about, obviously he was brilliant yesterday, I have questions about where we rank him in the league, He has played in a Super Bowl of the quarterbacks that make the playoffs in the NFC. It'll be him, Stafford and Jalen Hertz. Obviously, Stafford and Hertz have won Super Bowls. And the path going through Santa Clara would be wild. And they are home Super Bowl.

Right. I mean, they're, I don't think they are going to beat the Bears. I just don't think the Bears are going to move the ball on them. But they're favored. They're three-point favorites against the Bears. I don't know what the look-ahead week 18 line is, but I would imagine they will be tiny favorites. It will basically be an essential pick-um at home against Seattle.

And so Vegas thinks they have a real shot at being the one seed, and that then takes weather out of play, which I think is to their benefit. Like they've got a coach who's been there, a running back who's having, I called it a historic season last week. It's uniquely historic. You know what I mean? Because your point that he's not even averaging four yards per carry is obviously correct. And Purdy does look healthy, which was a concern early in the year.

He looks very sharp. Party looks pretty was unbelievable. Purdy deserves a ton of credit for yesterday. Like I thought pretty obviously, five touchdowns. Party was great yesterday. Can I show you this graph? Christine, I don't know if we can pull down this graphic 49ers record Purdy CMC in Kittle. Oh, she can pull it down quick.

When one person is out, they're 10 and 15. When all three play, they're 24 and 5. So we know Kiddell, you know, tweaked his ankle to see if he's okay. But that makes me think like, yeah, they should be favored against the Bears if they're 24 and 5. Yeah, listen, injuries have been a huge part of the story for the Niners for the last couple of years. And this year, they, right, like at this moment, they are healthy offensively. I struggle. And I applied the same logic to the Patriots earlier in the year.

Strength of schedule and the victory, I thought it was fair to question with the Broncos. I thought it was fair to question with the Bears. Like, what do you do with the team that is? 7 and O against teams with six or fewer wins, but 4 and 4 against teams with 7 or more wins. I just, I quite, you don't get to play the bad teams in a playoff. Well, a lot of that. I have a hard time envisioning if they're not the one seed,

them rattling off three straight games against good teams. Isn't a lot of that 4 and 4 with Mack Jones? And not that he didn't play well, but still, your backup. Mac Jones split with the Rams. He was 5 and 3. Lost in Tampa Bay when Tampa Bay was good, lost to Jacksonville. Because party's six and one. Lost to huge.

Lost of the team hasn't played a lot of good teams. The best team is the point. But I'd rather be four and four against good teams, and this is not about the Patriots, I promise, than two and one. Like the fact that they've played. We thought it was going to be a cupcake schedule going into the year because Seattle was excellent. The Rams have been excellent. Jacksonville's, you know, been excellent. They ended up because they played the whole.

whole AFC South, right? Yeah. And that division ended up being better than expected, at least, with Jacksonville and Houston. So the schedule ended up being tougher, but they do have incredibly tough final two weeks. They are, they are alive for the one seat, obviously. So are the two teams they play the rest of the way. But I think as long as Christian McCaffrey keeps doing what he's doing and Kyle Shannon's calling the plays, they're going to be a prolific offense.

They just are going to be a prolific offense. And then in good weather, in their stadium, that's. That's a tough combo. It's different. You have to go to Philadelphia or you have to go to Chicago. All right. The 49ers will host Caleb in the Bears who are coming off one of the best victories in franchise history. Let's see how high Danny has Caleb in company on this week's edition of,

da-da-da-da-dan top 10 Tuesday. Well, we're going to have to wait a little bit to find out because they're certainly not coming in at number 10. That is the team that we just talked about. The San Francisco 49ers, first time in the top 10 since week seven. Quarterback injuries, defensive injuries, now playing great on offense score. I want seven of their first eight drives yesterday, some of the best football that you'll see from Brock Purdy. Don't need to spend too much time on it. I told you I'm confused, so I slot them in at number 10.

Coming at number nine, they also could be the one seed, the Denver Broncos. Their defense is heading in the wrong direction. And I think their defense is excellent. Don't get me wrong. But Bo Nix finally lost the game where he had a pass around. rating under 85 this past week. He had been 5 and 0 because he'd been carried by their defense in all those close games. If we can show the defensive graphic for their first 13 games and the last two,

now it's not embarrassing teams that you played, right? You played Green Bay, you played good offenses. I understand that. But if their defense isn't supremely excellent top five, I do question whether or not they can make a run through the AFC. Coming in to number eight, the Jacksonville Jaguars. This win streak is incredible. all the Trevor Lawrence accolades that you've been doing,

the wig didn't look great though, I will say. But he has been spectacular, and he has eliminated the bad plays and the mistakes and the fumbles and all of that. And Liam Cohen, I think, probably should be the favorite for Coach of the Year. Mike Vrable is. I'll talk more about that on the show tomorrow.

But he has four straight games where he has a pass-ler rating over 100. He didn't have any of them before this year, over 105, actually. He didn't have any over 100 before that. This feels like a very good streak from Trevor Lawrence. I have a hard time believing this is the new Trevor lines. You should watch him from week eight of his second year until it got hurt.

Unbelievable. That stretch. Oh, that's a 19. I'm not saying I've never seen the stretch of die. No, you don't take out anything else. It's an uninterrupted guy. I'm not saying he's never had a good stretch. Top seven NFL on MVP without half.

I'm saying he's never had a good study before. Oh, he cooked. He cooked. You should, I have to interrupt top 10. You should like Trevor Lawrence more. considering in no small part you are married because of Trevor Lawrence. Yeah. He and his wife met bonding over Clemson Trevor Lawrence football.

That's a true story and you've abandoned him entirely. Well, stop fumbling in the NFL. He has. He has. And why? So number eight, congratulations. And that's true. Going to the pinstripe bowl.

In the rain against Penn State. Yeah, yeah. Should be a lot of fun. Coming into number seven, the Houston Texans. I think it's the best defense. in football by a considerable margin. Like their pass rush duo is excellent. Their cornerback duo is excellent.

The numbers on this are insane. Second unit since 2020 to allow under 300 yards per game and under 20 points per game in a season and they've done it against an incredibly difficult schedule. Houston's defense has them here. Even though, let's see J. Stroud, said it for weeks now, you need to be better. You were good against the Cardinals.

You were bad this past week against the Raiders. I just think your defense makes you the team that no one in the AFC wants to play. Coming in at number six, My Los Angeles Chargers. That was the best Justin Herbert pass a rating game in three years. He destroyed the Cowboys. Everyone destroys the Cowboys, but the Cowboys offense destroys everyone also.

And they did it against the Chargers. Chargers defense now three straight weeks. They played Mahomes, Jalen Hertz. And then this past week against Dak Prescott, hold him to 16 points per game. Chargers defense has been excellent. Coming in to number five, I can't believe we're here. The New England Patriots, they just keep getting. Get it done.

Nice kid. Well, here's the thing. I'm not happy with five. Okay, that's fine. But they are two wins away against the Jets and the Dolphins from adding Drake May to this list. What? It's just, I feel about you guys, like I feel about the Packers. Like, do you deserve it so soon?

It's just Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady, Brady, 14 wins seasons. And now two years in, Drake May, we're already back here. You should have had 20 years in the wilderness. That's how to make you feel good. Just par for the course. Just par for the course? It's very smug. I'm not happy for you.

17 game season. Yeah. That's an extra win. That does make a difference. I like to see the, I bet it with 13 wins. It's just more Brady years, but still. It's just very upsetting that they're already back here. Uh, coming to number four, Buffalo Bills.

Played with their food a little bit against Cleveland. A little. Did they? I thought it was a big letdown spot. do or give them problems. I think it's a big like. We think I'm enough. Well, they have one

Patriots game. We got the Eagles game coming up this week. One thing though, I will say for Buffalo, first win for them this year where they scored less than 25 points. Maybe proving to themselves that they can do it, albeit it was against the Cleveland Browns. Coming in at number three, figured it was a good time for a little trivia question for you guys.

Seems a touch high. A little bit. Touch high. Touch high. I don't know. They just. I got magic. They got magic on their side.

Oh yeah. I forgot. Danny's big analysis after the biggest bears, one of his life yesterday, was match. Okay. Yeah. And it was accurate. And Wild said, I don't want to hear about the history of the bears. No, I don't want to hear about your element.

A lot. It kind of knee-capped my point right before the second we started. 25 or more touchdowns, 10 or fewer turnovers, 25 or fewer sacks. Hmm. Can I guess? Yeah, you can guess. Go ahead. Well, Caleb's got to be one of them.

That would make sense, given that we're talking about the Bears and the MVP of the league. Matt Stafford. Now, there's a huge discrepancy in the number of touchdowns between the two into. But Caleb has eliminated the negative play. He does not turn the ball over it, and he does not get sacked, and he's been clutch. So, of course, there is a huge gap between him and Matt Stafford. Can I give him a compliment to? He still does wild stuff in the pocket.

It's not like he's just all throwaways. He's still evading tackles, but he's getting away. with it. Yeah. He is the one. Also, can I give you a compliment? I only knew because you did your blind reveal, but had it printed off here. Smart though.

I like printed by graphics in case they don't fire. It's a nice little mental note for myself. Thank you very much. Good job by you. He will look at number. Yeah, he cheats off. He'll steal. Just like in.

I won't steal anyone's stuff. I don't take that. Coming in to number two. The LA Rams. Debated this for a long time. And I'll explain why by the number one. team in just a second, but just kudos to Matt Stafford, eight games this year with three or more touchdowns and zero interceptions. Next closest guy has five. He has been absolutely dominant. But

coming into number one, the Seattle Seahawks went back and forth. You go either way. Obviously, they now have the cleaner path to the one seed. Those two teams have played twice. We talked about it after Thursday night football. They are within a yard of each other. They are within a point of each other. But the turnover discrepancy, Seattle has been that close with seven turnovers. You You could say, well, that's a problem if they're turning the ball over that much. But if they just cut those turnovers in half, they would have won those games comfortably. Three and a half turnovers. Three and a half turnovers would be weird.

Smartity. So I put Seattle over the Rams, but I debated it a lot. But, Brue, I assume, as always, perfect list. No. I kind of feel like Nick, and I just want to bash the whole. I actually thought it's pretty good. The love affair you guys have with the Rams, all y'all. And then the Seahawks number one, as much as Sam Darnold changed the narrative,

I still don't see him. Bro, you don't like the Seahawks or the Rams? Who's number one? I'm just saying they shouldn't be. Here's what I'm going to say. I got so much. I just got general. I just have general comments.

Who's number one? I do you got general comments. Where are the Eagles? 11. That's a good comment. Eagles are 11. But Bruce. Sequin Barclay, 110 yards per game, the last three games.

The running game is coming back. Jalen Hertz, five touchdowns, no picks the last two games. We know the defense is legit. They are two-beat. They are a threat. Let's put it that way. And who's your number one? And then I also think the Broncos and the Niners should be higher.

I think they're better than the Texans, the Chargers, who you love, I know. and Wads, I'm sorry, you're Patriots. So I think that those two teams, and look, like I said, we're going to find out how good San Francisco is. Broncos, I don't think the, look, defense had a bad weekend. No question about it. Credit to the Jags, though. But I don't think that defense is necessarily on the down swing.

So I think those teams should be higher. Who I'd say number one? Yeah, bro. You block yourself out. Yeah, I've ran out a lot of things. Yes, that's the problem. It just can't be Seattle. It's probably Seattle.

Drew does not like the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is third in points scored and second in points of lap. But it's not the Rams. It's not the Bears. It's not the Bills. You won't let it be my Patriot. You know it's out of the charge. There's a reason that the quarterback, that they have so many turnovers.

The quarterback has 13. That's what would concern me. And, yeah, only Tua and Gino have more. In those Rams games, six of the seven are Darnold picks. That's what would worry me. I would feel better. But that honestly, I view that a little bit. Well, you cut it in half.

It's all within a yard. Like, well, how many more drives? Correct. Have you done the math on the drive? Well, listen, part of the Rams yardage issue is they had a lot of short fields because of the turnovers. Oh, that makes sense. That works both ways. Christina, please put my bar on the screen because I don't have a lot of time.

It's just going to be disrespectful. No, it's not disrespectful. Your disrespect is ruining the top 10 integrity because here's the deal. There you and you know it and by your own explanation as to why you doubt the Niners, you should doubt the Chargers. Who have the Chargers beaten that you think's excellent? Who? The answer is nobody.

Their best wins against the Eagles who you don't think are any good. Go I think they're 11. Okay. Well, they're not good enough to make your top 10. Right. Their next best win is against Denver back in September with, Again, you don't think Denver's that good, and that happened when we barely count. Meanwhile, the Jags have beaten on your top 10, the Niners, the Texans, the Chargers by 29, and the Broncos.

All those teams around them, there is no zero explanation to having the Jags behind the Texans or the Chargers. And deep down, you know it. But for some reason, you feel the need to be like, oh, the Jags earned some respect by what? getting the single best win in the NFL this year, going to Denver and dominating them. We're talking about how no quarterbacks could do anything against that defense. Trevor made it look easy.

So there is, otherwise, it would be a fine list. How high do you have the Jaguars out of curiosity? Well, I mean, how high do I personally have the Jaguars? If you were doing Nick's top 10, how good are they? Like, fifth best team? Fourth best team? I would have them right now. Five. I would have them ahead of the bears, behind the bills, and probably behind the Patriots.

Yeah. If I'm doing that. Five v. Eight, I don't think it's a huge discrepancy. To me, Trevor Lawrence right now is on a streak like we've seen Jordan Love go on a streak. Baker Mayfield go on a streak. I need to see it be sustainable. But you don't for Justin. For Herbert, Herbert was on a streak too of bad football. He had a broken hand. Okay, he still does. And then played one great game. and it's like everything's fine. There is just no reason to have the Jags behind the Chargers. There's not. The quarterback's not playing better. The offense isn't playing better. The defense isn't playing better.

There's no reason for it. Sad day for the show as after the Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Holmes twice. Yeah. Out of Nick Wright's Mel. Who have they beat? Who have they beat? But by Danny's top 10.

By Danny stopped in, they beat in one team Denver. Sad. Sad. Chargers, the Jags are beating four of them. Coming up next. The Chiefs aren't a good win anymore. The Ravens aren't a good win. Eagles evidently aren't a good win.

Philip Rivers. Brew wants them to play next year. It's not a bad take. How's you're going to do next week? That's next on first things first overtime. Welcome back. I've been looking forward to this conversation with these two gentlemen all day because I could not believe what I was watching.

Yes, the Colts lost to the 49ers. Yes, it's their fifth straight. Yes, they are basically mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. But old man Rivers, old man route, 277 yards and two touchdowns. And listen, I was impressed by what I saw. I will save my comments for after you guys go. Willie, I'll start with you. What did Philip Rivers prove to you as?

Well, first and foremost, he didn't embarrass himself again. I thought he once again, his IQ, his grit, his tenacity showed up. You know, Aikman talked about it on the telecast. You know, Robert Sala was throwing things at him to kind of really knock him off his kill. Every time Philip Rivers came to the line, he was a traffic cop. He was putting people in the right position. He was commanding the offense. He was throwing the ball down the field.

He was doing all the right things. I mean, after last night's performance, I would seriously have a conversation with Philip Rivers and see if he wants to come back. Wow. I would bring him back. Seriously because I think he can be a player's coach. He can be a pillar in that offense. You talk about Daniel Jones coming off injury.

He can be a security blanket. You have Anthony Richardson waiting in the wings. You can really allow Philip River. was to be a big part of your offense land next year. Okay. Yeah, I said when he first started that this was like a Disney movie and it would be amazing if he could perform well or perform at all. And so he comes out and he's got two pretty good performances.

And I thought both these throws, both these touchdown passes were really good reads, really good throws. And then you cut to his family, his 10 kids up in the boot. There's a lot. It was a total feel good story. I'd say the other thing that says is that Anthony Richardson, is done with the Colts. And here's why. Anthony Richardson comes back from the eye injury,

and they say they've got to get his body right. He's got to get used to football movements. This guy's, what's he, 23 years old? They were willing to get Philip Rivers off the couch at 44 and put him in a game after a week, and they're not willing to take this guy who's 23 years old and play him or even put him as a backup. There's more story, I agree.

So as someone who's in the take business, this is an amazing story because I feel like there is now no such thing as a bad quarterback idea. This is unbelievable that it is competent. And it obviously speaks to how much

of quarterback plays from the neck up because he is smart, he's able to diagnose the defense, he's very cerebral player, always has been. So he's 44 years old. Here is a list of quarterbacks younger than Philip Rivers who have retired within the last five years.

Ben Rothelisberger, Matt Ryan, Ryan, Ryan Tannahan. Cam Newton, Ryan Fitzpatrick. I bet you some of those guys think they can still play. Colin Kaepernick's 38. Andrew Lux 36. Can I show you what? This is Steve Young.

Steve Young to the San Francisco Chronicle, 64 years old is talking about his ability to execute the running game and some passes in the screen game. Now he was saying if this was Hunger Game style and if it was play football or death, so I understand that he's not looking to do it. But like, Tom Brady, 48 years old, has been like, oh, yeah. Well, Tom's serious.

He still feels like you can go. I know. Kurt Warner still feels like he can go. So part of this to me is, like, embarrassing for younger quarterbacks. But it's like, oh. That's not fair because the guys were talking about a pro bowl. Their resumes. Okay.

So can they play forever? Like, they're not, you're not asking David Gerard to show up, right? Like, you're asking guys who have like. Nice drive by on David Garard. But no, like, I agree. And Matt Ryan looked terrible at the end. So I can't imagine four years after Matt Ryan, he would look good. But just it made me stop at my tracks to be like, oh, we should be looking everywhere for quarterbacks.

Like, you know, like not just like the normal pipeline. He's shockingly competent. And things have changed significantly since Steve Young played in terms of the protections of quarterback debt, the protections wide receivers get, the lack of jamming. There's a lot of things that lend itself to longevity for quarterbacks. and for older guys, actually be able to come in and survive. It's some running quarterbacks that, you know, as they get older, have a real problem. Well, think about it, if Rivers had a full offseason to prepare, imagine what he looks like. Like, these are legit conversations you can have because of the last two games in which or how he played.

And if I'm the Coltsman, I'm like, hey, let's get you right. Let's get you right. Let's do it. Let's see what we can really do because he obviously can run an offense. He can obviously command that much attention where you look at him as a lot of. legit threat. Well, so it's like Aaron Rogers years away from retirement? I honestly, like, are we going to be talking about Andrew Luck for the 2030 Colts? Well, we keep, we keep resetting the clock. Tom reset the clock. This is resetting the clock. And what's possible

keeps changing too. I just, I'm not going to shoot down any idea anymore. This is, this is, it's a wild story to me. Let's go to Philadelphia. Eagles have gotten their second, they got their second straight win. They clinch the NFC East on Saturday. Jalen Hertz had a nice game with 185 yards and two touchdown. Sequin Barkley was probably the bigger story with over 130 on the ground and a score. Some corners of the world believe the Eagles are all the way back. Here's head coach Nick Siriani. There's not a secret pill or secret sauce to, you know, to continue on improvement.

It's boring and it's a process and it takes every single day throughout the year. And I think there are guys have given great effort to, you know, continue to come to as a team to continue to pay great attention to detail and get better at that and you know and to play with with so I am consistent on this stuff maybe to my own detriment but I am not going to give the Super Bowl champs a ton of credit for looking right against the Raiders in Washington who have nothing to play for and like Sequan looks really good and if Seyquan has been like pacing himself this year and is going to be peaking at the end of the season great prove it against Prove it in the playoffs.

But coach, I'm not going to say the Eagles are back until they are dominating teams in the postseason. Yeah. When you look at this game, Washington is 31st in total defense, 29th and past defense, 28th in rushing, 26th and points allowed. Right. Okay, so you've got that component. They've lost nine out of their last 10 games. And then the Eagles come out and they fumble the opening kickoff. They missed three field goals in the first half.

They get two penalties on Tush pushes. And they're behind. go into halftime behind. There was not a lot about that first half where you're like, this is a get right game. It worked out at the end. Yeah. But if this is what right looks like for the Eagles, it's going to be a very short playoff season.

Yeah, I agree. They're two and two in their last four games. And for me, the only positives are they've been able to walk out the building with a W. But if you even go to that game coach, I remember that 1311, 3rd, Jail and Hurts had A.J. running down on the left side wide open. He missed them, right? And so there's things you see where you're like, they're not back. They're surviving, but they're winning, and that's the momentum you need heading towards January. So I'm with you. They have a signature game going against the Buffalo of Bills this Sunday. They got to have it. If they're able to stand up against Josh Island and Bills and play clean football and that had the plunkiness that you talked about, then we can say that there's some spot there. But I don't know. They're not going to get the one seed. Their divisions locked up. I don't think it is a got to have it spot for them. I would expect with the Bill's rush defense. In reference, we're talking to style play. You would.

want to see them look like they're blown on the same field with the Buffalo bills. I agree. Like if they get blown out, it's soundly alarms. This whole thing is fraudulent. But even if they beat Buffalo or hang with Buffalo, I'm still going to have serious questions about whether or not they can do it in January. They're coming off a three game. It was a three game losing streak.

Then you beat these teams. You know, it's just it's too inconsistent for my liking. Yeah, this whole season has been a huge question mark as to whether or not they can actually compete for a second Super Bowl. And I felt pretty strongly going into the year that they were going to be able to come back and be as strong as they were last season. But it's been up and down.

You do have to give them the benefit of the doubt when they reach the playoffs because of their experience. That is a huge edge. See, that's going to be interesting to me too, though, because the NFC is stacked. They're going to have a home playoff game, likely as the three seed, and, I mean, we'll see. They could play anybody.

Well, they also get healthy, not having Jaylon Carter and Lane Johnson is big. So they got to get those big boys back so they can actually make a legit run if they, if they feel like they can get it done. But they easily could play Chicago. If Chicago falls up, Chicago blew them out. They could they could play San Francisco whose offense is rolling right now. Like they're not going to be a big favorite against any team that they play.

Well, you know Jaylon Hertz shows up when the lights is on. That's the one cap. Yeah. He has. I wouldn't be excited in the playoffs to be facing Philadelphia early on. Yeah, they will have the playoff edge, no question about it. And if we get Super Bowl, Jalen Hertz, well, yeah. then everybody is in a ton of trouble.

Superlative time coming up, FTF. Time now to hand out some week 16 superlatives. It's the good, the bad, and the ugly for the most recent week of NFL football. I was assigned the most dominating performance. And I'm going with Trevor Lawrence. Now, Nick thinks I'm a hater. I'm not.

He was incredible against Denver. I have just seen Trevor Lawrence go on streaks like this before. I've seen Jordan Love go on streaks. Baker Mayfield. Some players are streaky and some players are excellent. These highlights of Trevor Lawrence are amazing. Physical toughness, arm strength, decision making, accuracy.

He's one of the better quarterbacks, I think, of like a right-handed quarterback who rolls to his left and can still throw with velocity. I think he is a very, very impressive, physically gifted player. But here's where I struggle with it, guys. And you tell me if I'm crazy. He now is four straight games with a passer rating of over 105. Excellent. No other game this year with a passer rating over 100. And the five games before that, they were passer ratings under 90.

It's just he's on a heater right now. But I did think he was dominant against the Broncos coach. You have to give him even more credit because it was against Denver and how good that defense has been. And then it was against Denver in Denver, riding an 11 game home winning streak. And throughout the course that game, I kept thinking, okay, when is this going to turn back into the Trevor Lawrence that we've seen too much over the course of his career where he's going to throw a pick and it's going to end in a disappointing way? But he rose up and I thought his placement was excellent.

Pressure, dealing with the pressure of the moment was excellent. He does have that streaky side to him similar to Jordan Love where when Jordan's great, he's great. And when he's not so great, you know, unfortunately it's much lower than he'd hope it'd do. Yeah, I would give him the most improved player of the year award. Oh, interesting. I honestly would. I think this game felt like he arrived, especially that everything that was stacked against him. People really weren't believing in the Jaguars, but him himself really elevated his game.

And I think we're at the point where he's matured and we can look at him differently, especially not just because of the game of how he's been playing all year. Yeah, he's been streaky. But the Jaguars are relevant because of his play, bottom line. And so I like him. I think he's big time, man. I like everything about Tremb Lawrence right now. All right.

So that was the most dominating superlative. Coach, you got the vote for most shocking performance of week 16. Take us, tell us who you got to take us through it. This isn't an individual. This is a collection of individuals, including both running backs, the offensive coordinator, the head coach, the organization. It's the Detroit Lions running game. And for them to only have 15 yards last week against the Steelers, to me is it's really unbelievable.

I want to show you kind of where this ranks in the history. So in 2007 against the Cardinals, they had minus 18, 2016, they had 14, and then in 2025, they have 15. So it's every nine years you have a game like this. Now remember, the Steelers had 230 yards rushing. These guys had 15. And then let's look at the running backs from 16 versus 2025. So Jemir Gibbs, he averages 5.3 yards of carry.

Montgomery, he's at 4. 4.6, where in 2016, it was Riddick and Zener, who were both under four yards of carry. So a little bit different package in terms of if you just give the ball to those guys a few more times, we're not going to be having this discussion. I still can't believe this is the numbers we're looking at for the two teams that play on Sunday. Yeah, I think you also, when you turn on tape, you watch Derek Harmon and Cam Haywood and the boys really knuckle up against that line off his line and put hands on.

on the grown man hands, like part-time past their hands. Like they were beating the hell out that lines, offensive line. And I can understand why they got away from the run. What was confusing is they still felt like they gave up too early because the lines weren't getting blown out in this game where they felt like they had to throw to get back in this game. So that was confusing. And Dan Campbell, his superpower, is supposed to be drawing up runs,

you know, scheming things up where they can be efficient, at least on the edges. But they got dominated and I felt like they just gave up too early. I was shocked by it, but I think the physicality scared the Lawrence. Yeah, but this is a team that's supposed to be about grown man hands. Correct. Like you throw yours, I throw mine, and we see how it works out. And when you run the ball that few times, it just doesn't fit the mold.

The Lions are 0 and 6 this year when they rush for less than 100 yards. We talked about this after the Rams game. Kind of saw this coming a little bit. The Rams game was weird. They lost a shootout, 4134. But the Lions scored 34 points, but only had 70 rushing yards. I'm like, man, I never thought I'd see the Lions have an offensive explosion and not run the ball. That game was weird, though.

The game, they had the ball for 51 seconds in the third quarter. Yeah. Right. And then their opening drive of the fourth quarter was a three and out with three in completions and a penalty. So for the vast majority of the second half, they weren't even on the field. Like it was just a eight minute drive in the third, right? Yeah, it was just a very weird game. And so they went away from it.

Jameer Gibbs wasn't involved at all. I agree. Shocking. Now, coach, you and I took care of ours. Willie, you had to go negative. We went with most disappointing of Week 16, Willie. What do you got? For me, it's Baker in the box, man.

Look how we thought about this team in the beginning of the season. We were talking about Baker being an MVP conversation. And Validavit had some significant injuries. Talk about Bucky Irvin. Tristan Worses has been in the lineup. Mike Evans, he obviously talked about his injury. He just came back late. But one of the most disappointing aspects of this team has been the defense.

When you talk about the team, Tempe, Buccaneers, and Todd Bowles, it's about his defense. How to get after you? They blitzed you a lot. They condensed the procket. But they haven't been able to get after the quarterback. And because of the low sack rate, this secondary seems to like fall off the face of the earth. You can't find them out there.

And I thought one of the catastrophic loss we witnessed was against the Falcons, right? The Falcons could convert into third and 18 and then the fourth and 14. They were playing cover two. And you saw Todd Bowles have that absolute meltdown at the end of the game presser. And I'm saying to myself, man, this defense has really failed this team. Todd Bowles' defense has failed this team. And now we're looking at the bucks. And we don't even know who they are right now.

So I'm highly disappointed in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yeah, they talked about not, or Baker talked about not having a killer instinct. They've got a killer instinct now. They're killing this coaching staff. That whole group is not going to stay together. When you start as hot as they started, what is it, five and one? And now they've lost six out of seven. And I don't want to lose track in the fact that Carolina's made a really nice jump.

And got a lot of good things. But this is, this is rough. Before you go, DP, can I show you a graphic that we built up? Thank you, Troy. This is the Buck's defense. Like, how is this real? Like, this is, this is supposed to, this, this defense is supposed to spearhead this team. When you go down to Tampa, you're supposed to be going against a daunting defense.

A valid, the lineback in court, Levanti, David, he's been hurt. They've had some issues. But it's never, I've never seen that this. bad. And this looks catastrophic. This seems like a crisis going on in Tampa. Yeah. And I will say for this game, to me, the story was more the office. I thought Baker was just bad. I thought he was flatly bad. And you mentioned the injuries that they've had, not really in this game. Yeah. Bucking Irving played, Godwin played, Bucca played, Evans play. They had their weapons. It's a must win spot for the division.

and you allow 23 points and lose? That's not supposed to add. But he even give it up 24 points a game. And Baker's got the ball with a chance to go down and at least tie it or win it and throws a pick the end of the game. That's... Yeah, I thought just, again, just watching the game

before I looked into any of the numbers, I was like, Baker was bad. He just, he went, like, that interception? It's a miscommunication. It's nowhere close. And assigning blame there is tough, but just they're not supposed to look that ugly with that level of

quarterback play and those receivers out. We're all veterans. We viewed this team week five. We talked about a little bit about it yesterday. They went into Seattle and got in a shootout with Sam Downer on the Seahawks and came out there building with a dub, right? And we're like, oh man, the boxer, for real. There's no way, there's nobody beating them in the division. Now we're looking at the Panthers. It's like, okay, well, that

was a misfire. Yeah, that was what, 38, 35, yeah, against Seattle. It feels like ancient history at this point. And yeah, now Tampa's got a real problem. Easier path with the last two, but still, easily could miss the playoffs and not even win the NFC South. Pro Bowl lists are out. We discuss if they got it right. Coming up. Day after Christmas. Look at that. What a crew. Festive. What a crew we have.

Look at coach. He looks like he's into it. So fast. Coach, have you been naughty or nice this year? I don't need to ask Willie. I know. A little bit of both. A little bit of both. See? All we're working to double that day too, by the way. All's going to be on from five or six. It's going to be great. Pro Bowl rosters or announced quarterback selections, AFC, Josh Allen, they caught it right, Justin Herbert, Drake May, Sam Darnold, Dak Prescott, Matt Stafford. Any issues here with any of the six? Because the selection, Nick made the point earlier, it's correct. The selection still means something. Guys opt out, alternates. I mean, I don't want to take any shots at any guy's names,

but like, I remember Mitch Trebisky being a Pro Bowl. Like, you know what I mean? Like weird things happen as you go down the list. Those, that six feels pretty accurate to me. Yeah, I I like it. I don't have any issues with it. I think if, listen, one of them is not going to play, most likely Herbert because dealing with the hand. And I could, I would give the nod to Aaron Rogers, honestly. I think if he's able to finish the season strong, they win the division, the old man should get the nod. Trevor Lawrence really has very similar, almost identical stats to Justin Herbert. Now, Herbert's got the benefit of John, or Jim Harvaw's undying love and support, and that's really helped him, where Trevor's fighting an uphill battle

and people are really starting to see how well he's played here in the last few weeks. Trevor Lawrence might have the coach of the year in Liam Cohn. And I think that that is, it was an amazing thing for Baker when he got him there. And it's been helpful for Trevor Lawrence.

Justin Herbert doing a little bit more with less, I would say, given the tackles there. He deserves it. But yeah, good for Sam Darnold. That much. I'm surprised. I like Herbert too, but give Trevor a little. No, Caleb Williams,

Well, he's going to be in the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. He's going to opt out. Enjoy the college hoops.