First Things First - AFC North, NFC North, and DPOY predictions, New-Look Chiefs, Clippers and Kawhi punished by NBA

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

(0:00) DPOY predictions, Expect a new look Chiefs? (26:53) Caleb Williams ‘goofy’, Have the Bills done enough for Josh Allen? (41:28) Is Joe Burrow as good as Micah Parsons thinks he is? (48:45) AFC and NFC North predictions (01:09:50) Patriots in a must-win Week 1 vs. Seahawks? (01:20:02) Clippers and Kawhi Leonard penalized by the NBA (01:27:18) Danny’s AFC North and NFC North Predictions (01:49:07) Micah Parsons predicts awards, Will Josh Allen win a Super Bowl? (02:01:53) What’s next for Kawhi Leonard? (02:08:08) 49ers leave for Australia early, Should the Rams be concerned? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaa and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll.

So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. that's bringing back good afternoon. How dare you? I've been saying that to be throughout the building. Drew heard me say good afternoon and have a plan to bring back good afternoon throughout the world. And he comes in and sees me and says,

Good Afternoon Wilds. And he got ticked off. No, I changed my mind. You were really upset. We're starting to get the ball rolling on Good Afternoon. Next time you see someone, say good afternoon. When Greg comes out and say good afternoon. You know what?

I'm on. What? Top of the morning. Oh, that's sad. That's a good one. He definitely went up. That's not a good one. That's really nice.

Top of the morning. A little European. I'm going to try to go back further than that. But the top of the morning. Top of the morning. You're going back further. That's number one right now. I got to see.

What were they saying before top of the morning? Oh, wow. Good day. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Good day. And the Rams are down there.

Boom. Good day. Good day. I like top of the morning, I'm sorry. Thanks, fruit. First time. You use. He's out whenever you want.

I won't get upset. Like he invented good morning. I just brought it back. Good afternoon. Well, especially if you bring a style back, you get credit for it. One week away from a Super Bowl rematch is one of these teams already facing a must win. Meanwhile, an esteemed journalist that we all like says that the Chiefs can get to the Super Bowl. They can't win it.

What? That's the way it is. Is this disrespectful? Or does it even make sense? And he's not only a team journalist we all like, a new colleague. Yeah. He used to be with the ringer. Now he's with us.

I do like him. And finally, who will be the Kings of the North, NFC and AFC North's predictions week? It's certainly a question in the NFC. Huge question. I'll give you that. AFC's a question. AFC North?

I don't. Yeah. I bet you we all have the same. The Steelers won last year. I understand. Yeah, but I just, Aaron Rogers is the reigning. Wacking things happened last year.

The Steelers won, the Broncos one, the Patriots one. Last year was a weird. It was a little year. It was kind of a lost year. It was a weird year. In the AMC, it was a long year. It was kind of normal. Yeah, the decade, though, it's very rare.

We're not talking about decade. Well, I was talking about the decade. We're not talking about the decade. Alongside Nick Wright. Sorry. I'm Kevin Wilde. We start in Seattle. Super Bowl rematch.

Seahawks favored by more than a field goal. Historical precedence says, hey, that's fair. In the last 30 years of Super Bowl rematches in the rest of Super Bowl rematches in the regular season, not necessarily the first game, but just any Super Bowl rematch. The Super Bowl loser usually loses again, the only team to win the Eagles in Kansas City, 2023, the famous yelling at the fans game from once foe, Nick Seriani. Foe turned friend for you. When did he turn my friend?

Because I picked him to win the division? Yes. No, that's not how it works. That's exactly how it works. I think, yeah, you're buddies with him. Okay. I think you're trying to cozy up to everybody in Philadelphia. Wait till you hear my defensive player of the year.

We take about 20 minutes. See what you guys think of that. Quinn. Who has more to prove this year, Drake May or Sam Darnold? It's obviously Drake. Okay. I think you agree.

I'm very curious what you're going to say about this. Okay. Darnold, listen, as weird as it sounds, I, Darnold's proven most of all you can prove. He is, in the last two years, both years his teams have been in the regular season excellent. One of the years, he was a fringe end-of-ballot MVP consideration until the final week of the year.

And the following year, he was just solid statistically. And so put up numbers, but not MVP caliber, and then won the Super Bowl. He also has, you know, what some people like, I'm one of them, the pedigree, the drafts, status, the college career. It's a lot of things that for Darnold, he has proven. Drake May, up to this point, has

proven very, very little. He has now, he hasn't had an opportunity to prove up a lot. Like most quarterbacks through two years have not had an opportunity to prove a lot. He has had one outstanding MVP caliber regular season.

That's what he has. And we have seen many guys who have done that and become stars and many guys who have done that and that was the single high watermark of their career and they never quite came close to recapturing it. I don't think this will happen to Drake at all. You know, I like Drake. But there was a graphic we showed the other day that Carson Wentz in 2017 popped up on and you were like, oh, he was going to be the MVP before he broke his leg. Now, I also wonder how much his career would be different if he didn't break his leg. Like was that, you know, a turning point moment for him?

but the thinness of the resume plus the last month that we saw him play being so far beneath the standard he had set in the regular season. The team won and he did make a few, I think, very impressive clutch plays, but the numbers are stark, regular season to postseason. And most guys' numbers drop in the postseason, but it's, I mean, he went from three to one

touchdown to turnover. Can I say so? I interrupt you and just talk to Brew for a second. They plummeted. Just for a second. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you

because I know you're a Drake May fan. You're fine. Brew, it's the inconsistency that gets my goat. Wow, what are you mad about? What do you mean? Because you are a guy with a few

moral sports morality tent poles. Okay. Sports morality corners. stones that you build your takes upon. Okay. One of those is just win, baby.

Win in advance. That's what I care about. That's one of your things. Basketball, team, football, that's a player evaluation. That's for win in advance, baby. That's what I care.

And now it's like, what do you look at the EPA? The advanced statistics. No, how about touchdowns? The turnover. Hold on. What do you actually dig into it? Hold on. KW.

Win in advance. KW. Wait, but that was, hold on, that would be a more Patriots. Leave this up just for a second. Yeah. After being one of the highest scoring offenses in the league, and after having, being first and almost everything statistically and being one vote

from winning MVP, in the postseason, Drake May led a Patriots offense that scored a total of 60 points in four games that scored 16, 21, 10, and 13 offense. They did score 28 against the Texans, but seven was a lot. a pick six. So the offense average 15 a game. After being so good at taking care of the ball, 11 turnovers in 17 games, eight in four

playoff games, the passer rating plummeted. All of that makes it to wear. It is certainly on the board. It is, again, not what I predict. But it's certainly on the board. Hey, Drake May, you know, could follow the path of,

can't trust him in the playoffs. Sorry. I don't, again, I don't think that is. I don't understand. If we've ever said that about someone that made it to the Super Bowl, can't trust him in the playoffs. Made it to the Super Bowl. Can't trust him in the playoffs. Scored the winning touchdown. Sure.

If you think he's Trent Dilfer, if you want to roll with that. Hold on. Wait a second. Now you're like twisting. That's the way it goes. I literally just said. Competitive of sports debate.

I literally just said, I don't think this is what it is. But he's saying the question is more to prove. Would you agree that this year, Drake May, let's assume the Patriots make the playoffs. It is very important for him that he play well in their first playoff game. Of course. So he needs to prove he can play

well in the playoffs. That's what I'm saying. I would love to have him throw for 300 yards every playoff game, throw for three touchdowns. Or just do it once. I'll take it. Well, he's had three touchdowns against the Texan. No, the 300, throw for 300 yards and look and have it. How about a playoff game where

he has good stats once? Because the Texan game, what he has? He threw three touchdowns against the Texans. No other team did that except. He had four turnovers in that game. You didn't think he played well, right? No, I think he, I think throwing three touchdowns against the Texans to advance to the AFC championship game. Okay.

And then running in the only touchdown that you need in a blizzard to advance to the Super Bowl, your sophomore year, I think is good. And now we're like twisting it around. I'm like, you know what? The style wasn't there for me. Well, look, to answer the question, I will say this. Darnold, like you said, he's won the Super Bowl. Last two years he's thrown for 60 touchdowns, over 4,000 yards, both in the last two years,

been a pro bowler, all that. He still, though, I think we all would agree, still has not fully redeemed himself from the first six seasons of his career. Like, people still have, we saw him in the ranking. Yes. So he does have something to prove, too, but the answer is clearly,

I'll be shocked if you go differently. Clearly, Drake May, for a lot of the reasons, Nick said, one of them is expectations. Now, again, Darnold just won the Super Bowl. But we all think Drake May is better. We all expect Drake May to play at an MVP level this year and for basically the bulk of his prime. We expect him to be like one of the great quarterbacks of this era,

top five-ish QB. We don't expect that of Darnel. So that puts more for him to prove on it. Like Nick said, he's only done it one year. If you look through the starting quarterbacks for this season, it's only a handful that haven't had like one impressive season. You know, so that, I mean, he was great. He was better than just about anybody in terms of a season.

But he still got to prove that. I brought it up and he's got to prove it to me. Better competition. Because we saw him against the better competition in the playoffs. Yeah, they won. But he struggled. He didn't play that well. This year they've got a schedule full of better competitors.

So he's got to prove that. So here's the other thing, A.J. Brown. Yeah. A.J. Brown turned on the godfather of his daughter. You don't think if Drake May is not bawling and in turn, Antonio is not bawling. I'm sorry, AJ is not bawling. You don't think that could be an issue. Well, that's just something to why.

So he's got to prove that. He's got to prove to H.A. to H.A. as well. So he's got, he's got more to prove without question. Those all make sense. I think we all think that Drake May is going to have a pretty good year. I think he's awesome. Yeah.

I think his, I think his floor is situational. I think his floor is pretty good. This year. It's hard to say after one year. We would have said that about CJ. But I think CJ. had CJ's fall and Jayden's fall that we talk about it, were really based on injury, offensive line breakdowns and weapons.

Right, and I hear all Patriot fans after they got clocked into Super Bowl that all Patriot fans told me they were going to win, explain that what happened was Drake May wasn't fully healthy and the offensive line wasn't good enough. So if those things bedeviled those quarterbacks, then we have to at least acknowledge that floor is definitely on the board. But I don't think Jayden, I don't think the war is not pretty good. If we're saying he was banged up last year, so then I guess he'd get banged up again.

Of course. If you get injured or your offensive line or you don't have any weapons like a combination of Jaden and C.J. Stroud, I think you can fall. But can I make your argument? My argument is my, I think it's Sam Darnold. Wow. And it's not necessarily like a, I kind of think Drake May is not necessarily minted. But I think if I, if we ask 100 people who's better Sam Donald or Drake May. why Drake runs away with it.

And I think some people could have an argument. It's hard to find them. Like, no, it's actually Sam Donald. Sam Donald's record, statistically, the last two years, he checks the box that you want from Drake May, where you win 14 games. You don't do anything in the playoffs. But like, do it again.

He's like, okay, I will go to a new team and do it again. I've got the best record. I'm top 10 in all these things, but no one considers me a top 10 quarterback. Again, anecdotal. A little bit of nothing, but a little bit of something. Jersey sales. Josh Allen was number one.

Drake May was number two. JSN, number four. So they are buying jerseys out there. Cooper Cup, number 41. Sam Darnold came in at 49. Cam Scadaboo was 35. Mike Evans was 40. Everybody in Tippa Bay Area had Mike Evans jerseys.

Just Sam Darnold, I think, has won the Super Bowl. And like, I agree. It's all because of respect. his first six years. But he's put together two excellent years and a Super Bowl. So I agree with that. Can we just ask, can we have two extra minutes here?

We can, the, I want to go back to the thing that I was saying about the playoffs and all of it in this. And I'm going, sometime, I'm going to apples and oranges a bit, but I'm going to compare him to a player that I think there's even fewer questions about

and whose ceiling we think is even higher and is held in higher esteem. I pray. to God you say this person's name. Can I write it down? I was going to do this, but I thought Brew was going to go crazy. Wimby. Yes. And I thought you were, I thought she was going to go off rail. I think Brue will agree with me. If somebody said, hey, you know, Wimby this year has to prove that come the postseason, he can keep his composure, that he can play 35 plus minutes, that he's not,

you know what I mean, that he's going to stay in the moment. Like, hey, I'm not predicting that some of the things that befell him last year are going to do it again but I need to see him go do it. Think he's a great player, then you could win league and compete. But you look different in the highest level than you did. Then you did in that. And so that

that's when I... I'll take that. No. I agree. It's the same just logical track of... But I would throw this out and not just to defend Wemby. There's no question Wemby is like great. Like, one of the best players in the world.

Yeah, that's what we were saying. Drake, there's still, I think he is going to be that. Yeah, that's why he said, Wimby's a step above. Wimby's a more sure thing than Drake. If Drake comes out in his so-so this year, it's going to be like, okay. I would be, but I'm shocked if. If Wemby comes out with so-so, it is. Yeah, Wimby is a shot like he must be injured.

Yes. And if Drake comes out and he's the 14th best quarterback this season, and be like, ah, down here, bounce back. But that's the point I'm trying to make. Because I'm walking a delicate line because I actually think the kid's awesome, but I don't think he's proven yet. That's it. But half of his career has been awesome.

That is 100% true. Head to Kansas City where the Chiefs had a luncheon and Patrick Mahomes was hungry to get back to dominating. Take a listen. The bad taste that we had from last season, you know, it didn't go the way we wanted to. Coach Reed talked about that, but we learned from it. And we've gotten better. And I've worked to get to this point right. here and be ready to go for the season.

And just as hungry as I am, it's as hungry as everybody on the stage and everybody in this audience. I mean, we're going to go out there with the mindset. We're going to be the new version of the chiefs that goes up there and dominate the same way the old one did. Very interesting. Your reaction to that. Listen, I think he is thinking and believing that this can be 2022 all over again. The last time people that the chiefs were kind of downed. in the public's eye.

They had just, you know, they had back-to-back years, hadn't won the Super Bowl like this time. They had had a demoralizing playoff defeat. You know, pre-s, to the Cincinnati Bengals, they traded away Tyree Kill. And the, and he was a couple years removed from winning league MVP.

And I think people, or three years removed, actually, at that point from winning league MVP. And people thought, okay, chiefs, you know, are good, but the Bengals are there. and Lamar, all of that. And what he went out that year and did was set the single season total yardage record and win league MVP and do it

because he had the best offensive line that he's had up to that point. Eric B. Enemy was there. They had a very reliable running game and they patchworked it together with this group of wide receivers. and that's those are the got the wide receivers on the chiefs when mohomes threw for 5,250 yards only sky more still in the league and he is a kick returner for the packers more than he is a receiver and so I think he he is very confident that be enemy plus Josh Simmons

dependent a strong offensive line plus a running game you have to respect that you know what doesn't so much matter who's catching passes from me we can go out there and score 30 points consistently again i don't know if i think that's their path but i think that's what patrick believes well look is what i want to hear from him is what i'd expect to hear from him and i agree with you nick i think he fully believes that i also think that when he said dominate now this is my speculation when he said dominate like we always have or have in the past I think he meant dominate, like when. I don't think he meant the same way.

I don't think it's going to be the light show with Tyreek Hill and Kelsey early in his career. And I think it's going to look differently because they're going to have their best run game, maybe since he's been there, but certainly in several years. Right. And so I think it's going to look different. I also think I picked them to make the playoffs. But I think this year, I think it's going to be a new reality for them, where I think they are.

good, but not great. I think this year is about Mahomes reestablishing himself is like the best the young players getting experienced. They're the third youngest team in the league, so getting experience, and

these receivers, whether it's worthy or Rishie Rice, one of them proving, I'm ready to take the torch from Kelsey. And then I think next year they will be back like they could win it all. Whereas this year, I think it's more they're going to be good, but not great.

I, I, this is going to come off the wrong way. I'm not worried about it. It's, it's to a friend of the show. And look, you hit a certain age, you start getting that AARP magazine just automatically. You don't have to sign up for it. You're right. It just, it just shows up. In 2022, Travis Kelsey had 1300.

140 yards and 12 touchdowns. Yeah. Last year he had 851 yards and five touchdowns. Yeah. Again, it's not because I think this. It's an automatic thing if you're going to be 37 years old. Kelsey has to be on washed watch. I'm not saying he's washed, but he has to be on watch.

I think that's for it. And I don't know. I care less about like all those wide receivers. If you have a tight end with a hundred and ten catches and twelve touchdown. So tell me, hold on. So tell me how many yards he had that year, 1340? Yeah, 1338. And how many you have last year?

8.50. 8.50. So can we say he's going to have 800 yards? Yeah, I'll give him 800 yards. Okay, so we're going to take 550 away from Patrick's 22 season. Yeah. So he only has 4,700 yards? I'm okay with it.

That year he had 40. Again, that year he had in the regular season, Patrick had 5,200 yards. and 41 touchdowns. You think Patrick was going to have 40. No, no, no, no. No, I am not saying that. What I'm saying is I think that attributing what they were able to do in 2022 with that receiver core to a tight end having 1,300 yards is not accurate.

What I'm saying is even if Kelsey's production is halved, if some of the other structural things are in place, you don't get 5,200 yards and 40 plus touchdowns because you have a tight end go for 1,312. touchdowns. You get it because you are protected. Teams have to respect the run and you are delivering the ball all over the field, which is what they did in 2022. Again, I am not, for the record, even predicting that that is what's about to happen. I'm telling you what I think Patrick believes can happen. That he believes in the offensive line. Again, Josh Simmons didn't practice today. That is starting to concern me, but we'll see. I know how much they think B&M matters. I think

Walker was one of the biggest editions of the offseason. And I think I think like the football fans are more worried about the Chiefs receivers than Patrick is. I think if Patrick is like power ranking, hey, what I want

from my Chief's team, I think he would probably put offensive line defense that can turn the opponent over, you know, a running game that has to be respected all before he went dynamic receiver. because I think he feels like that's where I can help the most.

Now, again, maybe that's wrong. But I'm just telling you, I think that's how he views it. And so I think there's been a lot of focus on the chief's huge question marks in the receiver room. And I'm saying, I think those are in the building less concerns they are out of it. Now, maybe that's wrong. Last year it was wrong. You know what I mean? Like last year, the whole thing fell apart.

But I think it was, a couple years before. A couple years before. I think that was more about the three straight Super Bowls and the injuries of the offensive line and the lack of a running game. But we'll see. I just, I don't think that's false bravado. I think the chiefs believe they are still the chiefs.

Dusty, you want to do awards? Yeah. Oh, we are doing awards. We floated it yesterday, but we're back. Predictions week, full steam ahead. Today's award prediction. Defensive player of the year, past winners. Miles Garrett was unanimous last year.

Sartan, Miles again, Bosa, and T.J. Watt. Brew, your defensive player of the year. Well, look, in an effort to be different, okay. I could just go with Will Anderson, who I think is a great candidate out of Houston. So he's up there.

But, man, I'm not going to try to be all, you know, different and all that. Miles Garrett. I think that's a solid pair. I mean, I think if Aaron Donald is, if Garrett's healthy, we know he's had his issues in training camp. I don't know if that's a Matt Stafford thing where he'll be fine once the season starts.

But if Aaron Donald is 80% of himself, I think this sounds, 25 sacks could be on the table for Gary. I mean, he had 23 last year playing with no lead for the most part, with the Browns, and he only had a sack and a half over his last three games.

So with the Rams having the lead, most games, most of the game, with Donald drawing double-tebrose, teams and attention. They got other great linemen. Like, Miles Garrett, I think he could break the sack record.

He just broke last year. I like it. All right. That is, I think, obviously, the smartest pick. I know this is not really how we do this,

but I did a bit of a gambling angle to this as far as, you know, the, what I think would be a good value bet if you're betting on it. You know what? And so yesterday I had said, somewhat tongue-in-cheek when I was doing the chief

so that I was going to pick Chris Jones when a defensive play. of the year. I think Chris Jones going to have an awesome year. I don't think he's going to win defensive player of the year. I think a different defensive tackle has good, again, good value. And it's not Aaron Donald.

He does happen to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. And it's Jalen Carter. You're going to have flowers. I think the, I think that the Eagles are going to be, I don't want to say carried by their defense, but I think their strength of their team is going to be their defense.

Jalen Carter has, defensive player of the year ability. Last year, he missed games. He was seemingly underwhelming. But he is entering year four. You know, he understands Fangio's scheme. They try to keep him on the field so much. I think there is a world that exists where he has, like the Eagles win 13 games.

And they have the number one defense in football. Garrett and Donald kind of split the credit for what the Rams do. and they're like, hey, that's been the best defense this year. He's been the best player. So I think Jason Carter, and as everyone knows, I'm beloved in Philadelphia and will be. They're going to be throwing flowers. I would like to see, like, Gianna, we should make a social media video. Me going to Philadelphia?

Next trip to Philadelphia. Oh, whenever LeBron's first home game is, I guess we could do. Well, no, no, no. If you're beloved in Philadelphia, it doesn't have to be LeBron-centric. You should just be heading down there. Well, I mean, I'm there. You know, a couple times I want to play cards. I should go there.

But you're saying I shouldn't wear the hat in the sunglasses. I've got Daniel Hunter. A little bit of a combo platter with Will Anderson. Will Anderson has better odds. But over the past two seasons... He's got 30 sacks? He's huge. He's unbelievable.

He might be the most historically underrated active player. You know, he's got like 115 or something career sacks. Well, he's so good. But he was underrated in Minnesota, too, I'm saying. People don't look at him. They don't know how many sacks he has. Why is Ben Johnson? Johnson calling Caleb Goofy.

Okay, that's next on FS1, the Fox Sports Channel, series, because he is. Hey, you can take first things first on the go like a travel toothpaste, all socials, podcasts, and YouTube, which features our comment of the day. Dr. Father saying multiple Lamar Jackson and Drake May jerseys with no Greg Jennings jersey is wild. Then Angry Nod responded,

Greg Jennings guy is Daniel Jones. He should be upset. there isn't a Jones jersey up there. That's the YouTube comment of the day. Please subscribe. Josh Allen getting ready to start the season in Houston and talking about how the last few seasons have ended sadly.

Take a listen. The way that last season ended, I actually wasn't happy with it. Haven't been happy with any of the seasons the way they've ended. So I've got to continue to find ways to keep getting better, keep pushing ourselves and, you know,

just keep grinding away and keep knocking at the door. Brew, we got a new coach, got a new stadium, got a new wide receiver won, got a new DC. Have the bills done enough for Josh Allen? That's the way you word the question. Have the bills done enough to help Josh Allen? Look, I get that Allen is superb, and he is the driving force of that franchise, right? Without him, they're not a Super Bowl contender. But it's not a situation where it's everybody else's fault.

Poor Josh doesn't have any help, and that's why he can't get the Super Bowl. If they don't get it done this year, Josh is part of the issue. Now, he's great. I'm not saying you move on. I'm just saying he is a, like, they didn't lose last year to Denver because everybody else was bad. I get it, the defense gave up 33 points. But he also had two interceptions, two fumbles. They lost by three.

His fumbles led to what, six points. The one that was just terrible at the end of the first half. I'm just saying to your point, Wiles, they added a legit number one receiver in my view. He has a better receiving court than Mahomes than Lamar. He's got the leading rusher in the league. He's got, according to pf footballfocus.com, the six best offensive line entering the season.

He's had... And he got to pick his head coach. He picked his head coach. Last year they had the 12th ranked defense. Before that, three of the last previous four years, it was top five defense. Like, I get how great Josh is, but this is not, oh, poor Josh. We got a pity, Josh. He gets no help.

No, he's got enough help. Mahomes team has some issues. The Patriots have some issues. The Bravens have some issues. Nobody's got the perfect team. If you want to say the Rams, maybe. But like in the AFC. so go get it done.

You're right. Look, this started with the firing of Sean McDermott. That's where it started. Okay, how can we change things moving forward? After that game, you move forward from your head coach that you felt like wasn't getting it done, getting you over the hump. And then you start to add all these pieces. You say they added DJ Moore.

Can DJ Moore answer some questions? Can he be the number one? We felt like a couple years ago, Josh Allen, if he's able to perform with this caliber of receivers, meaning they weren't that great, this is an MVP type of a year opportunity. Well, he did that. Now you give him an additional receiver. We'll see what he does. But defensively for me, I keep going to this defense in Jim Leonard.

I get it. They're excited about it. There's a lot of unknown. You get Ed Oliver back. We'll see what their rush defense looks like because they needed Elle Oliver. last year. They were really bad stopping the run. Bradley Chub is going, we're going to see if he answers a lot of questions because pass rush with this defense has been non-existent. And I know they had injuries to, I think it's Michael Hoyt. Rosso wasn't what they expected him to be.

They need productivity as it pertains to rushing the passer. And if we put up the numbers defensively for them in terms of rushing the passer, this is what it looks like. Like 36 sacks, 108, 9 pressures. That's 20th in the NFL in Sacks, 25th in NFL. But both, if you look at the bottom look... Yeah, because they had been great defensively.

Yes. Both were fewest of Josh Allen's error. And so we go through this sometimes when we look at a quarterback and we're like, man, their offense is great because we know they score a bunch of points. They always score a bunch of points. But then it's like when they're not getting it done,

well, you're not helping them defensively. Well, he's typically had some good defenses now it's about the pass rush. They feel like they've answered that with Bradley Chubb. You feel like you've given yourself an offensive weapon and DJ Moore. I'm with you, Brew. Josh, you just got to deliver. Listen, this, there are certain moments that resonate to me in ways they don't to other people necessarily.

And I make a big deal of it like the day after the days after and usually like make fun of me. And then, well, I'm about to give you an example. And then five years later, I think three years later, four years later, you're like, ah, annoyingly Nick might have been on to something. Like the one, the one, the, uh, three, uh, no, classic, no, classic two. Classic two. A long range. Um, five years. Uh, I mean, we, we referenced the lecture that led to the losing a lot. Yeah, the day after I was like, it's a big deal. I have not bought that. Okay, that's fine.

It's looking good. It's looking good. It's looking good. We'll see what this year did. The first game. of the 2022 NFL season, the first game Josh played after the 13 seconds game. The bills opened up against the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. And that was the game that Chris Collinsworth debuted, who, by the way, is one of the owners and founders of PFF.

Like, he's a broadcaster and influential in the stat game, all of it, a new cutting-edge NFL statistic, not his fault interception. And it was at the service of the first Josh Allen interception of the season. And then before the half ended, he threw a definitely his fault. And I remember the next day coming on and talking about the way Josh is discussed, I found fascinating. I remember that. And I think that was when I was just like, ah, Nick is, you know,

Nick's scared of Josh. Nick's hates the bills. all of it. And now four years later, I think there is an element of the general football public being like, man, for a guy who's nine years in, his team's

never been the one seat. He's never been a first team all pro. He's had ample opportunities in his building or on the road as favorites in playoff games to get over the hump and hasn't done it.

They have, they, you know, he done. does have the rushing champ. He does have a great offensive line. He did have a number one receiver in Diggs. They then got rid of Diggs. He and Josh fell out. And they weren't going to throw his most.

And then the question is consistently like, man, why can't the bills do more for Josh when, since that 13 second playoff game in their four playoff losses, and we can show it to you, in all four games, the opposing quarterback has thoroughly out. played him. And so, yes, they wouldn't be there without Josh. Yes, he is one of the best players in the league. I think he is eventually going to be a Hall of Famer. But in the last four years, twice at home, twice on the road, he has stood across the field from a Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Bo Nix, and their season has ended with the other guy playing better than him. And for about a week, we're like, man, Josh had an opportunity.

Man, like is he... And then two months later, we're back in. He's the best player in the league and the bills need to not squander this era. And that is vexing to me. So I do think they have enough. I think they are excellent. I think Josh is a great player.

He's obviously a great player. But this idea that he has been a passive observer in the ends of their season is just not how it's gone. Josh, going to Houston for week one. It's tough week one. Tough week one. That's a tough week one.

It's not supposed to be easy. Where Ben Johnson is usually full of compliments for Caleb, but this one was a little bit odd. Take a listen. This guy, you know, might have had a little bit of goofy to him a year ago, and I use that term with love. And now you just see a more serious player and intent every time I'm around him. He continues to grow up, and he's going to be a huge leader for us this year. That's exactly how I feel about you, Caleb, telling the Chicago some times that he, Ben Johnson, came up to me and said, they got me. I'm talking about you guys.

He told me and we laughed. I'm going to laugh. I'm going to joke. I'm going to be goofy. I'm going to have some fun. But my maturity level has gone up in understanding what I'm doing for this organization. Reaction to this exchange. I'm going to let you guys talk about the goofy part of it.

My biggest takeaway actually was that Ben Johnson. felt the need to nip this in the bud. That Ben, right, it seems like from what Caleb said, right, walked out of the press conference like, gosh, darn it, this is going to be something that, this is going to be a headline, and he went and front, you know, front ran it to, I don't know if I said that wrong. Got out in front of you.

Thank you, bro, to Caleb, like, hey, because I'm sure he preaches to these guys. Don't say, be super boring at these press conferences. I don't know if that's what he preaches. unless you have Intel on that. No, I think he probably preaches that to the players. Oh, okay. He's like, let me take care of this stuff.

Let me, let me, let me guys see my latest profile. I agree with you. I just, do you think that's a sign of? No, no, no, I don't think it's, I don't think it's anything other than interesting. I think it's interesting that he, it flagged to him. Oh, man, they're going, like, this is going to be a story. So let me go tell Caleb on the front end to make sure it's cool. I, I think it's accurate.

an analysis. I think Caleb did have a little immaturity to him, and I'll take Ben's word for it that he is in year three, third years of pro, gotten a little more mature. Yeah, I think what Caleb said was the great explanation. And I actually think Ben, watching

like the context and you know, a few questions before and after what he said, I think he meant immature. I don't think he really meant goofy. Like, goofy sounds kind of bad, right? I think He meant just what Caleb said.

Caleb's like, I'm a still joke around. I'm still laugh. But I've matured and I'm, you know, more serious when I need to be. And I got to give Caleb credit. I mean, you're a bigger fan of Caleb than I am. I do like him. But he's really shown maturity in that Ben Johnson, I think last year, really broke him down. And this is a guy who is as touted as any quarterback we've seen in recent memory.

And he took it. and he's listened to Ben and done everything he wanted him to do and I think we're going to see even more improvement this year on the field but I just give him credit for taking little things like that and not I'm not tripping he called me goofy

but you know what I mean like so I give Caleb credit on that yeah look I thought it was a compliment to what he's seeing out of his quarterback the number one player that he needs to subscribe to not only his identity but what we're trying to get done and accomplish as an

organization. If you come into this building with a mental focus and a seriousness about how we approach work, everybody else is going to follow suit. And when we listen and we look at Ben Johnson, that's exactly what he did. The moment he got to the podium and took over as head coach of the Chicago Bears, there was a vibrato about him of things are different immediately. And in order for that team to continue to grow, Caleb has to be the one to take on the identity of the coach before everyone else. Especially if you want to win 22 straight games in a row. Absolutely. You know, be the best offense of all time, win all these games in a row, take a shirt off, have a few pictures of getting in the bed. You got to get on that bed.

That's 240 on that, supposedly. You guys got a good angle of me here? I'm a coach higher. I don't see. I long for the days of Dan Campbell's press conference. I don't know if Dan Campbell's still the coach. I haven't heard about him at all up in Detroit. He used to give us some press conference and he said, you know what I'm into. Winning games are getting locked in with the Detroit Lions. KW. I haven't read a profile. I don't know what happened.

Are you still a Nick Siriani fan? I like winning. I like winning football. I mean, this guy has been a head coach one year. They won a division in a playoff game. But are you still a Nick Siriani fan? I like winning football. Okay.

But what you were talking about Ben Johnson there was not so much about football. It was about profiles and bench pressing and pictures. Yeah. And Siri. I got to sleep at the side. I got to sleep. I'm so busy, man. I got to sleep a stadium.

He's the first coach. Come on, man. I'm going to let you know. I got to let you know. I like this in you. I like you leaning in on that. I think you should read the multiple Nick Siriani profiles from this off season that have a lot of the same stuff.

But he's not bench pressing, is he? I don't know. Is he shirtless? Is he talking about how much? Listen, he ripped his shirt off once to get the city free hot dogs. I mean, I'm going to give him a, we,

you were convinced he did that multiple times. Just, just, there's, there's, I think there's four good coaches. Everybody's, you know, the league's full of good coaches. But you, in the NFC North. Mm-hmm. I've, I've just read a lot about this guy. Just seems like there's a little bit of a media push. That's all.

I just read a lot. Dan Campbell's good coach. You don't think, he's charismatic? You don't think there was a lot of media push on Dan Campbell? Yeah. Mike is back on Bleacher Report, giving takes. Here's a quick sample. Packers win the Super Bowl.

That's good, Greg. Jordan Love wins the MVP, another good one. Miles Garrett wins defensive player of the year. Jamar Chase wins offensive player of the year. And he'll be catching touchdowns from one of the best QBs in the league. Take a listen. There was a throw where, like, I was in Joe Burroughs face. By the time I got to, he just put it to the pylon.

And Jamar, before he even broke, like even when you're watching a film, like Jamar wasn't even looking yet. He threw it, his anticipation, and where he puts the ball, no one else can bother. Like, when he's on, I don't think there's a better quarterback in the league than Joe Burrow. Reaction to this. Micah did what you guys asked him to do. He got a co-host.

And now we're going to criticize him because the co-host asks him probing questions. You guys just tell him, make him cancel the podcast, guys. You guys, for years, you're like, get a co-host. Go get a co-host. He got a co-host. The co-host is hitting him up with stuff. Make him do darker stuff, asking him questions, and now all of a sudden he's giving takes. They're all nice takes.

They are all complimentary. The fact that they're all complimentary and he said on the front end, Jordan Love, he picked Jordan Love to be MVP and Dark Horse MVP. He went with both of them. Like, to me, that covered his bases. He just, listen, man, the man loves to give

takes. He just wants to give takes and he's not going to be stopped on giving takes. He stopped for a bit of time after he was traded. He's back to giving takes. And there's some, you know, it's not always just going to be, I love the Packers and the Packers are my team. Like he's going to give real opinions.

It's fine until it's not fine. I mean, I just, that was great. And the Burrell take, he backed it up. I was in his face once. He talked about his accuracy, his anticipation, all that. Good takes, but we saw in Dallas this caused some problems. Like I said, LeBron's got the podcast, Draymond. They're older.

They've won championships. It's tough when you're young. And you're smack dab in your prime, in the middle of your prime, and you haven't won yet. You ask you about a lot of stuff. You're 45 minutes in front of a mic talking about teams. You're about to play your own team. What happened last? It's just a lot of possibility for you to say the wrong thing and it be a problem in the locker room.

That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I don't mind it because I feel like he has a sense of awareness about it because last year when he got hurt, we didn't hear these. We didn't see him all over the place. He was focused on his rehab. So he understands what he's up against. However, I will say this. There are some truth to a lot of the takes that he has.

And I think partly because we see him with the team, whether it was with the Cowboys, and he was talking about other quarterbacks not named Dak Prescott, or he's now with the Packers and he's talking about Joe Burrow being, nobody does it better when he's on. And we're like, well, wait a minute. What about Jordan Love? regardless of if he said what he said at the beginning and gave homage to Jordan Love and told us

that he feels like he's going to be MVP and dark MVP he is honest So let me ask you quickly though If you're if you had a teammate and they were saying Yeah so-and-so is the best receiver in the league Or but nobody's as good as him You know, whatever is this is can that bother you a little bit Is this deep you said DB?

If this is a D. If this DB is Charles Woodson and he's making that statement, I mean, okay, Charles. That's how you feel. I mean, I can feel it. I can feel however I want to feel. But that's, so you're going to sit here. Now, if this was somebody that we're looking at that's not an impact player. Oh, that's interesting.

That feels completely different. But this is coming from Micah. So it's like. Because there's a player kind of similar career, similar age, similar stature in the league plays the offensive side of the ball. that just started a podcast. I don't think his first episode's come out yet. Jamar Chase. Jamar Chase and Annie Agar just announced yesterday.

They're going to be doing a podcast together. And I think that, you know, but superstars, you know, one of the best of what they do. Well, this take would play. Haven't. If Jamar Chase said this take. Yes. I have no issue with that.

But the reason. You don't like it? No, I would have no issue if, you know, the best quarterback in the league is. Joe Burrow. I think that works. Yeah, but what I'm saying, if I was Jordan Love and I'm not.

talented is Jordan Love. This is rubbed. I don't care if you say. Oh, that rubs you the wrong way? If I was Jordan Love? Well, he said nobody does the bad. He didn't say Jordan. Greg's wearing a green tie. He doesn't play 10 years. What is really KW? A hundred percent. Hold on KW. I literally said this. Like, Joe Burroughs better than Drake May. What are you, what are we doing? He didn't say he didn't really say that. He didn't say he's better than him. He said nobody does it. I don't think there's a better quarterback in the league than Joe Burrow. How does that help Jordan He might be saying Jordan's It might not be bad, but it's

There's a children's book that we use a joke around in my house all the time. It's called fill your bucket. We talk about it all the time. It's a little code word for like, hey, you hurt my feelings. It's a little kid's book. We read it to the kids and they're little. It's like, hey, are you filling someone's bucket? Or are you taking a little bit of water out? I'm just saying, I don't think this is filling Jordan Love's bucket.

It might not be taken any of it. When he said I'm going to win MVP. You know, man. Yeah. Oh, he wins MVP. But Joe Burroughs the better quarterback. That's not, if I'm doing, that's me. That would not fill my buckway off.

But this is what I'm talking about. I'm just saying their potential is there. But you're saying that's you. I'm being, I'm being sincere on this. Yes. Is it like, I literally do a podcast all the time. If you heard a clip. It's the best podcast.

You know, that's the best podcast. But if you heard a clip of me of someone's like, hey, you're talking about broadcast. And I was like, listen, I wouldn't want to work with anyone other than Kevin Love. Kevin Love. We know how you really do it. Kevin Wilde. Kevin Wilde.

But I think the best to ever do with Tony Johnson, that would hurt your feelings. Like you, that would hurt your feelings. Bernie Johnson is legendary. Joe Burroughs my peer. If I'm Jordan Love. Oh, all right. So if I was like, I want greening. Like, hey, yeah.

You're like, I wish we could get. I wish we could get my finger. I love wild. How about this? How about this? If it went the opposite, if Jordan Love starts doing a podcast. And he's like,

I don't like it for defense. By the year. No one's better than Miles Garrett, though. Miles Garrett. Oh, Mike and be mad. Michael, what's fair? That's what I'm saying, potential. I would just, you know, what is it called round the,

what is it called? I don't know what you're doing. Circle the wagons. It's all packers all the time. But that's not a great podcast. It's not a good podcast. That's the challenge we're doing. Oh, my God.

A guy can't have two jobs. It's an overrated. Oh, really? You got a podcast. Exactly. I do. Podcast. I do.

It's cooler to be on the Packers than on a podcast. Is that I take? Well, I don't know about what's right with Nick Wright. You'd rather be lining up in Lambo field. Live from New York, so saying good afternoon. Bringing back good afternoon, Greg. Did he hear? I heard it.

Even though when I walked in, you did not say good afternoon to me. It's still working for us. You did, bro. Thank you. I appreciate you. Second hour of first things first. And, oh, we have some treats in store for you. Predictions Week, AFC North, who will have the most surprising playoff pick?

Meanwhile, are the Chiefs being disrespected? A friend of the show says they can't win the Super Bowl. Can get there? He's not a friend of the show. Why not? He's never been on the show. None of us have ever met him in person. I like him.

I think he does a good job. And now he's a college. Exactly. But he's not yet a friend of the show. Because he said he's a friend of the herd. He's been on the herd. I haven't ever even been on the herd. No, that is true.

You're not a friend of the herd. Wow. Sorry. My bad. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kept that to myself. A.F. North.

Greg, have you been on? I am. You were on today. I was on today. Steve next, Wild. You were next. Are the raining chips in on once in a pin. Joe Burroughs, the only quarterback with.

The same head coach. Brew, this is a division fave, the whole division. You're an expert at it. Start us off. Well, look, this pains me to say this because, as everybody knows, I'm from the land. Yes. But it's obviously in number four going to be the Cleveland Browns. That's fair.

I'm stunned that Deshawn Watson has won the job because he hasn't played well. Which I don't know. It seems like that doesn't say right. There's that too. I don't know what that says about Shadur, but it doesn't seem to be good. And so hopefully, you know. Could be booed in a win.

Yeah. I mean, he better go out and win those first two road games. Good luck. Yeah. So it's just a bad year. I hope to see Shadur soon anyway. All right. At number three, Greg,

this will be the Steelers' first. losing season since 2003. We're gonna find out that Mike Tomlin was really holding that thing together. And I think Mike McCarthy is a good coach. I know this your guy. Good coach. But the last two years,

he was with Aaron Rogers in Green Bay. Now, this is still an MVP caliber Rogers who won it the two years after McCarthy left. They went 8, 10, and 1 with McCarthy and 1. with McCarthy and Aaron Rogers on a team that had the potential to win 13 games, which they did

after McCarthy left. So why is it going to be any different in Pittsburgh with an older Rogers who's no longer MVP caliber? So that's that. Number two, the Bengals, this helps because this is another hometown. I actually live there longer than in Cleveland. They get

to the playoffs. Nick, I'm expecting a nice year from them. Obviously, I'm expecting Burrow to be healthy. Defense just going to be solid. Middle of the pack. A lot of nice additions. Dexter Lawrence at all. Some good guys they brought in.

And I think the offense is going to be one of the best in the league. So I got them making the playoffs, which of course leaves the obvious choice for number one. And that would be. It looks great. It looks great to have you back. Thank you. The box! Oh!

The box! It's got cobwebs on it, the Halloween thing. Look, I tried to get them off. I couldn't get them all off. While Nick was in Monte Carlo playing cards, I was this weekend down in the basement. Oh, yeah. Getting everything ready.

I had to wash the robe. Yeah, it was stunk down there too. I couldn't get the cobwebs off. But I'm getting everything ready. I'm not ready to unveil it yet. Winning the division's not, you know, that's not what we shoot for. but the Ravens, I am excited about this season. I'm looking forward to a great year.

Okay, excellent. Great. No real surprises there, to be honest. Well, the Bengals are a little bit. The playoffs, yeah. Yeah, I don't know how much that's a surprise. But look, the Ravens being the team that you choose, I don't think there's any surprise there.

I am with you, though. I think the Ravens are going to have a bounce back season. I think with obviously the addition of Jesse Mentor and what he's having that defense looking. like already preseason wise and all the talent that he had. That really like registered for you. It really did. Preseason defense.

Without the start. It just the skis. It just looked like they all have bought in and it's working. Like it just with the backups. And then offensively, I just expect Lamar to bounce back. Like a healthy version of Lamar is better for the national football league. It's definitely better for the Baltimore Ravens. Lean into your legs, man.

Lean into the legs. the legs. All right, I will get us going. Brew and I have similar picks, but with a few variations. So at number four, I also have Cleveland. I think they are going to be four and 13. I think it's the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, and I think we can just move on from them.

I'd be very surprised if they get to six wins. I'm winning four games. I agree with Drew also about Mike Tomlin holding things together. The question I have for the Steelers, who I think could finish six and 11, is what is Aaron Rogers going to look like once the weather turns cold? He turns 43 this year. Turns 43. If we throw up their schedule after the buy in Cincinnati, that's cold, in Philadelphia, home for the Broncos, home for the Texans, at Jacksonville, at least that's the weather's not bad, home for the Ravens. I would be surprised if during that stretch Drew Aller doesn't start a game or two.

or if, you know, I would set the over under on Aaron Rogers starts this year maybe at 12 and a half. I just think that Brady, like, sits down? I do not think Aaron Rogers is the starting quarterback all season long. Wow. That's, and I, what a weird ending. It'd be ugly. And so I think that, again, it's not really even a knock on McCarthy. Maybe he'll be good.

Maybe he won't. I just think that because Brady played to 46, we've kind of undersold the fact that this guy turns 40, three this year. Turns his first game is a 43-year-old. You know he gets to play the Houston, Texas? That doesn't sound great. Coming in second, but winning only nine games and missing the playoffs is the Cincinnati Bengals.

You know why I think that? Wow. Because it's what they do basically every year. Win eight or nine games and miss the playoffs. I also think what has been their tendency, the entire Zach Taylor era? Last year, they kind of changed it, but they didn't even play that well. but they won. Slow starts.

Look at this first four weeks. Would a one in three start for Cincinnati shock you at all? Home for the Bucks, at the Texans, at the Steelers, home for the Jets. I'd be a little bit stunned. I mean, I get it that they've struggled early, but Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, you've got a win. I mean, a road divisional game. I mean, I think that in, I don't trust the offensive line that much. So I think, and then by the way, week six is Baltimore.

Like, could they start two and four? Certainly. So you, as if, do you, you, what do you think of their offense? I think they, I think they will have the ninth best offense in football. They've never had an elite offense any year of Burroughs career. Dare I say. They've never been top five in yards or points. Dare I say it, Nick, you think they're going to be some break dancers.

Wow. What time is, Nick? Wow. Oh, yes. Oh, this is I was not ready for this. Neither is I. Oh, I hear it.

Yeah. The Bengals are the break dancers now? I mean, that's what you said. Wow. They're not tough. They finesse. They fancy. I feel like we're warning this in.

Well, a little bit. A little bit. Well, I will be, I will be, the dolphins are just the obvious. I'm tired of picking on the Dolphins. Easy prey. I will, periodically throughout the season, I will be naming a team that is the breakdown. Oh, breakdancing team of the week.

Because they're going to be finesse, of course. I think they're going to make the playoffs. Impressive, but bad defense. You don't need it. Wow. Finesce. The new guy is killing it. Fancy.

What in the world? Yo, that's fresh, bro. Wow. All right. All right. Oh my goodness. This guy hasn't even gotten to go yet. Oh, he's got a spinning glove.

Well, Dexter Lawrence is not going to appreciate this at all. No, that's true. See, I don't think they're right there. In the whole context, it's actually, it seems like a compliment. I guess so. Yeah. Fellas, you guys, you guys. Excellent.

Welcome. Good to see you. Absolutely. Great to see you. Excellent work. You should come to the Christmas party at this point. Should I do the- See the guy 50 times?

Should I do the- Don't know his name yet? Because it's their lack of toughness. Because I do, I didn't. Now I feel like it airs out of the balloon, but I had an announcement with the Ravens. Oh. Oh, wow.

Throw up their schedule. Because I have the Ravens, obviously, there is a stamp them with the playoffs. So that's not the real note here. So I would be shocked, shocked, if they don't start six and up. They don't just sweep that cop. That's a, it's a light scale. I mean, at Dallas, I know you think. Yeah, I feel you.

I am predicting the Baltimore Ravens to be the number one seed in the AFC, to be 13 and 4 this year, and to have the number one seed. And so I listen. Who are their losses? Throw that up? I mean, I think they probably, I did this on my own,

but now it's harder to remember. Buffalo? Oh, start 6-0, lose to Buffalo, lose to Jacksonville, lose to Houston. Houston and then one divisional game. One of those final three divisions,

one of those. That schedule's not that. No, it's not bad at all. And so, but I think they're going to be the number one seed. I think Minter is going to be a breath of fresh air for them. We haven't even mentioned show favorite Trey Hendrickson. And so I think they're going to, I think, you know, we haven't, we're doing it on on Friday. I think Lamar might be win his third MVP.

I really, I think the Ravens are going to be a regular season juggernaut potentially. So that's good. And over to the NFC North. I like that. The bears are the defending champs. The lions are a trendy worst to first pick. Oh, they haven't heard much from Dan. Dan Campbell at all, really locked in off football.

And of course, Jordan Love and the Packers. And Kyler, New Look, Vikings, Brew, take us away. This to me, AFC West was a little challenging. But this is the toughest division to pick for me. I thought you were going to say that. Right? Because I think all four teams are, like, good. Yeah.

And obviously, it was competitive last year. But at number four, Wilds, I'm sorry. I don't believe in your boy as much as you do. The defense has been, we know, you know, Brian Flores. I just think he's carried it for a while. It could take a little step back. Still going to be good. And Kyler's the fourth, even if he bounces back, he's the fourth best quarterback in that division.

Another word for that is worst. Yeah. Right. I mean, but even if he plays pretty well, you know, say he's not playing badly, but he's still not golf or the other guy, Caleb. and Jordan Love, J-Lo. So I got them finishing four. At number three, Greg, I'm sorry.

Greg came into my office and threatened me today. Really? Yeah, and you know he's got some muscles. You're not. Well, he's actually slimmed down a bit. Yeah, I know. I was like, please. You should have came here five months ago.

Then I would, you know. I was like, my guns are up there with yours right now. Yeah, that's right. We're going to parts. The Green Bank. Packers and I hate this. Sorry, Greg. Because I'm a J-Lo guy.

But we saw last year, great quarterbacks missed the playoffs. Greg, this, it has not been a good start this year. I get it we're in training camp, blah, blah, blah, blah. Micah targeting week six, targeting. Doesn't mean he'll be back for week six.

And then how long will it take him to get going? Josh Jacobs, who knows if he'll be, like, It's going to be a rough year. I hate to say it. They were my Super Bowl pick last year to get at NFC. So that's a tough one. Number two, I have some questions about the defense, but I think the offense is going to cook.

And I think Caleb Williams is going to improve, you know, not just be great in the last four minutes, but be really good throughout the game. And I don't think I'm predicting the juggernaut that maybe Nick and certainly Danny are predicting for the Bears. But I think they'll be good enough to get in the playoffs. And then, of course, bounce back here for the Lions. I think they're ready. And Dan Campbell, I trust.

I think he's a very good coach, a great coach. And I think that defense is going to bounce back from last year. And obviously, the offense has weapons galore. So that's my. That was rough. for you, Greg. Sorry about that. It's all good. I just want to throw up this full screen really quick. Because I was doing some research and it was hard to find. It was really hard to find. But last year, watching the Lions, who you have winning the division, love Dan Campbell, love everything that they are about. Their defense juggernaut. Probably one of the best defenses in all of football. It has to be. Has to be at least. They will be this.

Like, we don't want to show it. It's okay. The Packers, the Packers defense. They gave up. They gave up. Micah played their most of those games. Let's just, let's just look at this. Their offense is so good, but their defense gives up a lot of points.

But they probably don't give up a lot of yards. Well, you know what? They do. But they probably, you know, don't at least let you pass the ball all the time or all over. Well, you know what? they do that too. Like, so I'm lost. You just, because you didn't say this about the barriers.

You said, I'm a little questionable about the defense. I'm a little concerned about the defense. And then you go to the Lions and they're going to win because it's just, is it just about offense now? They got some good defense. Do they not have some good defensive players in Detroit? Branch, Aiden. They're going to bounce back.

Were they there last year? Were they there to be before? Brian Branch got it. Yeah. I mean, they're going to be. And they were, they were top. No, I'm listening. No, they're going to bounce back.

The year before they were top seven. I want to hear you as now. Last year and every. Please. I know. I told you. I threatened me. So I knew he was going to be hot.

It's okay. Well, Brew. I, while Greg's threatening you, I'm complimenting you. Thank you. For the first time in predictions week, you got every single thing about a division. Wow. Because at number four, what? I have the Minnesota Vikings going eight and nine.

But the inevitable Kyler Murray December collapse, I think will follow him from the south to the north. I'm stunned by the amount of hype surrounding this team. Again, eight wins. Eight nine is fine. I think each of these teams, one win more than the previous one. In third, missing the playoffs with nine wins, the Green Bay Packers. Wow. I don't think they can.

I don't think they can. What are we doing? Cancel the show. They were 9 and 8 match. You act like they were the goal 14th and win team. Oh my gosh. What are we doing? I don't think they can overcome no Michael Parsons early.

Also, I saw a stunning little stat. It's years since having a thousand yard receiver. And there's three teams, there's two teams that it's been three years since they've had it. Three plus years since they've had it. The Chiefs, whoever's like, the receivers is just awful. And the Packers, who everyone's like, man, they've got four number ones. They got an embarrassment of riches receiver. I think they win nine games.

Making the playoffs, but a little bit of a step back, 10 wins, the Chicago Bears. Listen, I understand KW came to religion on the overwhelming arrogance of Ben Johnson, the moment he became Caleb Williams head coach, but not a moment sooner. It's just who he is. I've never, it's not necessarily my cup of tea. What is this? This might be the worst thing that's ever happened. Have no fear.

Iceman is here. What? Ready to defend Caleb Williams against all doubters and haters, of which on this panel, this guy loves costume. There are many. Looks like the riddler. This is starting.

It's exactly what Ben Johnson was. talking about the goofy. The goofy. Former Packer, great, Greg Jennings. He beats you in the playoffs, and the best you can get yourself to say is he's dangerous.

It's shameful. Which brings me to you, Nick Wright. It started so promising. You had him on the mountain before he was in the NFL. You had him in the Super Bowl as a mere wild card participants. I don't.

like this at all. That's because you deny greatness. Okay. It's shameful. What about, how about Kevin Royal? It's not nearly as bad as you, my friend. Always with a quip and a sarcastic comment to dismiss everything that Caleb has accomplished.

Frankly, you look ridiculous. Which brings me to another wild card. Oh, he's going to make the wild card. Brew, I thought, with age came wisdom. I guess I was wrong. Here's the thing. Tread lightly. Doubt Caleb Williams at your own peril.

I got him in the playoffs. Only the wild card. It's unacceptable. The Iceman is always watching. I'll be back. Muha, ha, ha, ha. It's like a germinator in a bit again. Wow.

All right, I got the Lions winning the division. I think they'll have an awesome offense. I think they're going to struggle to stop the past. I think they're going to lose to bad quarterbacks when they play them, but I think their offense is going to be really good. This is just about offense now. No. Not a team game anymore, guys.

I can't wait. I don't think the past have a good defense without Micah. Micah is going to miss at least a third of the season. The Bears have no good defense with everybody. What are we talking about? That's true. What are we talking about? Yes, but I think the Bears have.

let's say the Bears and Packers both have struggling defenses until Micah gets back. I think the Bears have a better quarterback, a better coach, and better weapons. I know you disagree. That's fine. What? Yeah. I don't think that's a hot take.

I would rather Ben Johnson than Matt LaFlor. I'd rather have their weapons than the Packers' weapons, who you love, I don't. And I think Caleb this year will be better than Jordan Love. I don't think that's a hot take at all. Again, I got him one game difference. I think the Lions from the Division. I can't wait to see your NFC North prediction.

He's going to just worry, buddy. Packers beat all the other teams. It'll be the Packers and the Vikings. I'm not like you guys. He's waving the pom-pom. You said what? Waving the palm. He doesn't wave the pom-poms.

That's the biggest insult that Brew can deliver. It is. The silent shoe. Brew, you might have to come down. It's going to be. It's going to be Bears Vikings. We're going to switch offices. Me and Brew, also for me to get away from Danny's office.

I'm going to come up. What this is I don't know if we needed the replay. Tough one. I mean the mask is fitting. He looks like wonderful. Sunday on Fox Indycar rolls into Laguna. Season finale, Alex Below looks to run out the pack, put the finishing touches on another dominant campaign.

He's already won. It's just playing a run up the score here. Sunday, 2.30 Eastern on Fox. Welcome back to Purdue. Addictions week, one week from tonight, Patriots in Seattle. Super Bowl rematch. And a lot of people are saying that Drake May unlocked something late in the game last year. After a very rough first three quarters, Greg, ends up throwing for a record 235 yards.

Can I say something in all seriousness? Yeah. This is irresponsible as part of the lead. This could be part, once you go from Kevin Wilde's host to Kevin Wilde's takesman. That's when you should throw up this. I'm like Brew. I'm just showing, I just putting it up. This is ironson.

I said a lot of people are saying he unlocked something. But that's, it was a record for a fourth quarter yards. That part's a lie. A lot of people are not saying that. Well, you don't have it. You prove that. I know a lot. I know a lot of people.

I've heard one person say it. Media bubble. And that he's on track for nine, a lot of people are saying he's on track for 900 yards to play the game I'm saying it. They just, yeah. Amazingly, he's still, even if they did that, would have had eight turnovers. Is this week one a must win?

Greg, we'll go to you as the Super Bowl champion. Not at all. For either team? Not at all. Oh, I've had Patriots. Sorry. It's not a must win for the Patriots. I will say this.

We have been talking about the Super Bowl hangover for, months, every since the Super Bowl, about the Patriots. Well, they're going to have a Super Bowl hangover. Super Bowl hangover. Not one time, even though we don't really talk about the Seattle Seahawks, have we mentioned Super Bowl Hangover for the team that actually won. Because that's not how it works. That is definitely how it works. Super Bowl hangovers for the loser. Everyone knows that. What was your record the year after you won the Super Bowl? 15 and 1. Okay. And it was a lockout year. Everybody, you know what they talked about? Packers not

getting together? Super Bowl hangover. Everybody. That's just because you guys have to beat the bowling alley and drank so much. There's nothing to do up there. But I will say this. It would be more alarming if the Seahawks lose this game. Hmm. Not it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be like, oh my God, end all of everything.

But it would be alarming because they've been such a focused team. We look at them as kind of a lunch pail team. They just go to work. They're up in the Pacific Northwest. Nobody talks about them. They got the quarterback that nobody believes in, a great defense, great defensive-minded head coach. But then if they come out week one on their home turf,

lose to the team that they dominated in that Super Bowl, despite the impressive fourth quarter route, we would start saying, well, wait, is there a Super Bowl hangover? Are we too high on this team that's out west? I'm telling you now, if the Seattle Seahawks drop this game, again, I don't think anybody will feel like they're not a great team, but we would start to have more conversations surrounding that team because they dropped their game. Sure. Listen, I think a close loss for either team, it's not meaningless, but it's fine. I think a good game that, you know, is just like, football's back, two really good teams playing each other. I think you could even argue that the Patriots going to Seattle and losing 2724 in a back and forth game, you'd be like, okay, Patriots are for real.

You know what? We saw this team, these two teams play, and they look like they were in different weight classes. Now they went on the road. So I don't think, in that regard, I don't think it's a must win. I think you guys could lose and feel better about your chances this year. but if you get beat up again, I think it has potentially really bad ramifications for the year. Because I think that there has been fair or not.

I think it's mostly fair. But there has been so much conversation about last year's schedule that even if that is unfair, I think there would be doubt creeping in. Through the Patriot? Yes. I don't know. If it's like, oh, were we as good as we thought we were last year?

I don't know if that's, again, I'm a flag football coach. I always thought that that was more of a media thing than like pros or pros. So that's kind of what I'm saying is, I think that it is a media thing. But I think sometimes if a media thing becomes so loud and so pervasive, guys certainly are aware of it. And I think if you get, if you, did the Patriots ever get dominated last year in the regular season? Well, they didn't play anybody. No, okay. But no, but you never got dominated.

Like even your losses were close games. No, everything was close. And so I think if you guys get, especially because I think you have a very tough opening month, if you guys get beat up and then all of a sudden you're staring at maybe starting one and three, it's like, geez, Louise, when's the last time we played awesome? That'd be scary. Like that see, if they get beat 32 to 13, would doubts creep in? No, I don't think doubt would creep in at all.

It'll just be like, what kind of game plan that we have? Where was our growth? I think you would start to look inward and say, we got to change some things because we thought we were going to be better than what we were months ago in the Super Bowl. We got a chance at them again, and we came out and we didn't deliver the goods again. And what I will say is if even if they win or I'm sorry, they lose and it is close, that is a hate moral victories. But you feel better about that because there's not a lot of teams.

I don't care how their schedule look. There's just not a lot of teams that can line up and do the things defensively that this Seattle Seahawks teams can do and pose against you. I get it. There's the Houston's of the world. There's these teams that are like that. But there's just not a lot of teams that we're going to look at their schedule and say, they might have a better defense, but they're not the Seattle Seahawks. They're not the Houston Texans.

Yeah, I'm with Nick. It's not a must win for the Patriots, but it's a must play well and play close. Yeah. Like it has to be a close game because then they can feel like, okay, we made some improvement. We're now in their class. They get hammered. It's going to be bad. Tom Brady famously got blown out in Buffalo like 31-0 and then won the Super Bowl.

That's always part of like Patriots mystique. So there's an element of like if we got crushed, it's like, all right, circle the wagons, let's figure out what's going on. What I'm most interested in, obviously I'd like to win, is if any narrative pops out from the opening game, that we have seen in a few of opening games throughout the years. So last year it was A.J. Brown, Dallas and Philadelphia, A.J. Brown had one target. It's like, no, he won the game. It was great. He got that eight yards sealed the game, and that ended up being an issue throughout the entire year.

Chiefs Ravens, Isaiah Likely's Toe. Ravens, really good. Little details will end up costing you. Story throughout the year. Lions Chiefs, the drops. Oh, it's just a random drop? Nope, it's going to be a story throughout the year. So I'm wondering if anything pops up, if Drake May is still getting flummoxed by this defense, like, man, have you really taken the mental leap that we thought you got from all this playoff experience?

or you still sort of deer in headlights out there. That would be concerning to me. So I'm not as into this as you are, but your beloved Warren Sharp had a big thing on this. Sean McDermott playing a ton of cover six against Drake May in the regular season and how that set the blueprint. That was the game you guys lost to them.

You scored a bunch of points. 30. 30. But Drake had his worst game of the year in the regular season by a lot. that he was in the Super Bowl preview that Sharp wrote. He was like, the Seahawks play a lot of cover six. They can play even more.

And this really gives Drake trouble. And then they did, and it did. That, again, I'm not sure if I buy that fully. But I do wonder if, you know, just like we heard, you know, five years ago or whatever, Vic Fangio with, you know, two deep safeties and the problems that's going to give them homes, if there is a, if Seattle had, even with the other. teams don't have the same personnel. If schematically, they do something that really gives Drake May trouble,

if other teams start saying, okay, we can do more of that. Now, again, it's harder if you don't have the personnel, but I am interested. Just quickly, Greg, because we're going to get to this late breaking story on the Clippers. Addition of A.J. Brown and Romeo Dobbs, so it's kind of a new look offense, is that a big advantage for the Patriots? The defense is like, we don't know how these guys are going to play? It's like, no, Romeo Dobbs going to do his thing. AJ Brown is going to do his eagle slash titans thing just in a Patriot team.

No, I think it is an advantage because you got two bona fide solid receivers, one one elite, all-pro type guy, and then another one that can really get it done. And you have an offense coordinator that is going to scheme them up. So I think you go in. You go in with two guys that they're in a new situation, a coordinator that's excited about it, a quarterback that can get them the ball. It's definitely a positive. Okay.

Coming up next, quick break from Predictions Week. Talk about the Clippers. Punishment came down with Steve Balmer and Kauai. And it's wild. It's wild. Welcome back to first things first. Some breaking news on the Kauai and the Clippers. The NBA has punished the team and Kauai and Steve Balmer for salary cap circumvention.

The Clippers have lost five first round picks brew. Balmer got fined $30 million. Balmer got suspended for a year. their business ops executive, suspended for a year. Lawrence Frank, suspended for six months. Kauai has to pay back $700,000. And Uncle Dennis, who did work on behalf of Kauai, is now banned from working with the league.

Your reaction, a lot to unpack. Kauai not suspended, contract, not voided, and in theory can now be traded to the Raptors trade can go through. Is he on the rapids? Is he on right now? In Kau, in his statement, $700,000. Yeah, Kauai and his statement said he's excited to resume his career in Toronto. So he thinks he's on the Raptors.

All right. Lots of unpacked, Brer, and immediate reaction. I'm glad that the league took this so seriously because this is, I mean, this is competitive. It's what it's about. They have a salary cap in place to make things competitive and balanced. And obviously the clippers circumvented it. So I love that they're taking this seriously. These are huge penalties.

$30 million. I don't know off the top. my head. Sounds like probably the biggest fine in NBA history. You see teams get fined 500,000. Yeah, I just, I just want to look up what Donald Sterling got fined. Remember he was fine when he had to sell the team, but I think it was less than this. But go ahead. It was probably less. And he, he sold it for $2.1 billion. Yeah, his fine was $2.5 million. This is $30 million. And then the Clippers, the five first round picks reportedly starting in 2029 through the next

five years after that I mean that is debilitating like I don't know because it's not like they're going to win this year so their futures in serious but again it they did this the crime is appropriate

the punishment is appropriate I know this maybe sounds to put it like this but this absolutely cements the Kauai Leonard Paul George

trade and acquisition as the single most catastrophic thing a team has ever done to get Kauai Leonard and Paul George you gave up Shai Gilgis Alexander and 10 first round picks

you made one conference finals 10 first Oh you're talking about with the five Yeah they traded five they traded five for Paul George and SGA and SGA and you got clipped five

for the deal with Kauai and I listen Kauai I don't know in theory Kauai didn't know in theory and that's what he is saying

In theory Uncle Dennis was doing a lot of moving and shaking and Kauai was like listen this is who I want to pay for play for I want to make money playing the league you know if you want me to potentially plant a tree fine paying for it because it is believable

that maybe he was like oh okay I got to deal with this Yes, and so again, I want to say that. We don't know what Kauai's involvement was or wasn't. And credit, I have to swallow hard before I do this. Credit to Pablo Tori for real journalism that really got this going and that he followed up on. But I don't even think Pablo feels comfortable in reporting what Kauai did or didn't know, so I'm certainly not going to. But what I am comfortable saying is that Kauai had the opportunity,

eight years ago, whenever this was, no, it wasn't eight years ago, six years ago, to just sign with the Los Angeles Clippers and tell his uncle, like, we don't need anything. I'm going to sign with the Clippers. And Clippers, you don't have to trade everything in the future to go get Paul George.

I want to live in L.A. I don't want to play for the Lakers. Right. I don't want to play for the Lakers. I don't want to play with LeBron. I'm going to sign with the Clippers and see how it goes. that's not what happened.

And instead, they made the Paul George trade. They did this other thing, either with or without his knowledge. They got no results out of it. And now, famously for old guys like us, we remember the Joe Smith thing. And we say, Joe's, the Timberwolves illegally negotiating with Joe Smith and losing, I think, four first round picks, Brew? I thought it was four. was the domino that ultimately led to Kevin Garnett not finishing his career in Minnesota

because it ruined their ability to put a contender around KG. The Clippers have no path to relevance now, if we are being honest, for the next 10 years. They don't have a young star. They don't have the ability to get a young star. because they don't have draft picks.

Right. They don't have the ability to trade for a young star because they don't have draft picks to trade. They won't have a first round pick again until 2034.

So if they hit that out of the park, then in 2037, they could have a team? So they could have free agents, like, it's hard. Guys don't really hit plain old free agency anymore. No.

This is a, this is a, This is the NBA, as close as we have seen, a pro sports league have as the Southern Methodist University death penalty for football back in the 80s. Was the Pony Express? Yeah, yeah. We've never seen a team just be like, you're just done for the next decade? Yeah. See, when you put it like that, Brew, it makes me think that, look, you want to come drop the hand. on Balmer and, you know, backroom.

No, but it's the fans that pay. It's the fans. It's the city of Los Angeles. It's like when a team stinks, it sinks the whole league, even though it's just one team. And you can't have some stadium or new arena. Yeah, that was a bit of a shining jewel of the league. You are right. But if Kauai, and I think from his punishment, he's not suspended for any games,

$700,000 for him is not huge. They certainly couldn't prove. Yeah, so I don't, he may not have known, yeah. Balmer, you can only punish him so he's so wealthy that even $30 million is not huge to him. But the team is done. The team not being able to compete kills Bomber. Yeah. It makes me wonder if Barmer will sell the team.

But I don't know how valuable they'll be at the age. It loves the moment. I think he'll wait to. I think he'll wait for a year and they can't compete. Live from New York, first things first overtime today, Josh Allen. Is he ending the year with a Super Bowl? Meanwhile, Micah Parsons back on the pod, says Jordan Love's going to be MVP. Danny's maddy.

He didn't say Caleb Williams. It was a mistake. And finally, day three of Predictions Week featuring Danny's Bears, AFC and NFC North. Oh, no. I can't believe you guys got Ice Man. A big character named the Ice Man. That's a big book by Hubs.

need, Iceman needs a bigger mask. Like really, like a full face cover. No, I mean, Superman just takes off his glasses, you know? The Iceman was interesting. Hobbs and I, we haven't talked about it afterwards. Yeah, I'm sure you will. Hey, no comment.

We gave it a shot. Danny, you got to give stuff. I like, I mean, I'll pass it along at Iceman. I don't know what you're talking about. Now you do, but you know Iceman. I mean, of course. He's not mad at me. I defend Caleb Williams.

Got it. How do you think you found the studio? I let him know how to get here. When the Bears are 0 and 3, when the Bears lose to Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers. Go too far. Then it starts to get. Then the Iceman, I'm very interested. I'm very interested.

But KW. You don't. You don't know. You just need. Matthew Stafford barely. Nick Wright take coach. needs to help you on some of this. You put yourself in a position where you can be directionally right,

but because you go too far, like the bears are going to be 0 and 3. I said, I said this will be, that'll be interesting. Okay, yeah. But also, I'm in a different world than you. What do you mean? I'm in a world you're like, you're a takesman, and Bruce is a journalist slash takesman, and Danny's like a radio star takesman.

I'm just vibes guy. When I get something right, people are like, this guy's a genius. And when I get something wrong, no one even talks about it. I remind them every chance. No one cares. I just nobody cares. So I get something wrong. I get it right.

There's Patriots. Caleb Drake, Thursday night football week seven. Wow. Has that ever happened before? What? Drake's already beating Caleb. One week away from Super Bowl rematch, Mike Brable. Get ready.

Looking to avenge a pretty brutal game. It was a pretty ugly game for three quarters. Let's take a listen to Brable. Wednesday night is when everything has to be ready to go. There'll be a lot of energy there. We'll have to be ready for the environment. And we'll have to be really sound in our operation and everything that we do. I know, you know, the magnitude of it is, you know, always important.

There's not that many games. Every game is critically important. And, you know, it would be a great test and a great challenge for us to, you know, to be able to go on the road and do that early in the season. It's absolutely perfect. It's boring. Just absolutely. I know you'd prefer if he took a shirt off.

You did that one time. Yeah. I mean, Brable's fighting people in practice. Remember? No, he just reverts back to being a player. Oh, okay. And shaking everyone's hand as they come off the field. Happens to be right in front of the camera.

Yeah. What a coincidence. The cameras are there. You think that Mike Vrable has got the same on the same. KW. Do you not remember? Super Bowl champion. Mike Vrable who's caught touchdowns at the people?

KW. When, do you remember the COVID draft when he was running the draft for the Titans and they had the camera in his house? And one of it, he had made it to where, One of his sons was wearing a costume, similar to Iceman, and the other one was in the bathroom with the door open, and they were doing a whole little routine during the NFL draft. Brable's got a little showmanship to him as well, my friend.

Okay, okay, we all remember it, but go ahead. It's the entertainment business. Yeah, go ahead, sorry. Would a week one win mean more for the Patriots or the Seahawks, Danny? Pretty clearly the Patriots, right? Patriots, they got blown out in the Super Bowl. Certainly for three-quarters. They got manhand.

They got pushed around. They were down 19-0-smacked. And then they got saw something. Some garbage time statistics that made it look a lot. Unlock something? It's the biggest blowout that 29, 13 could possibly be. Right? That felt like they lost by 40, but they lost by 16?

I don't think that's unfair. Yeah. When you start talking about 28-3 comebacks, like within five minutes of the game, We've done this before. So if the Patriots went to Seattle, who I think everybody thinks was dominant last year and is excellent and should be very good to excellent again. I don't know that many people are going to pick them to repeat

because of how difficult it is, but I will be very interested to scour the landscape of takes and see everyone's predictions week and see if anyone has Seattle missing the playoffs. I think they're pretty universally... I haven't seen anybody yet. I haven't seen anyone yet either. I think pretty universally accepted as going into this year a top five team.

Oh, yeah. Just to be very conservative about it. And the Patriots got blown out by them. So if they open the season when they have gotten better on paper this offseason, add Romeo Dobbs, add A.J. Brown, year three of Drake May, everything that they've done. And the Seahawks have gotten a little worse, lose Kubiak, lose Kobe Bryant, lose Kenneth Walker, Boy A, Maffei, exactly. And so it's like, oh, wow, the gap that was basically the continental U.S.

between Seattle and New England in that Super Bowl has been closed in one off season and New England wins. I feel like not only does it be like, oh, wow, New England's a legitimate contender this year, but retroactively, I will feel way better about last year. And I don't know if that last part is logical, but I'll be like, oh, they closed the gap on Seattle, and now they're ready to be here for a long time. No, I agree. It'll be huge for the Patriots, period. Seattle, you know, you don't want to lose that game

because both of them obviously have tough schedules, so you've got to make it up. But Seattle knows who they are. They're coming off for Super Bowl. Sometimes you even, you might, you expect almost a letdown right away, even if you win the Super Bowl. So they'll be fine.

The Patriots, I mean, this would be glorious for them, particularly with it being in Seattle. I mean, so it would be a nice win. It would be a great win for them. So there's no question. It means more for them. What's up, kiddo? No, God, I want to hear a take.

I was just looking for a statistic. I think it would, I think the most important part of this game is Drake May has to play well. I think that is more important than I. Then winning. If they win with him struggling, yeah, I do. Because I don't think the, it's, you know. You know, well, I have the Patriots. I don't know if they have enough margin of error for the playoffs,

so maybe a win is, but I'm just kind of talking directionally. So don't hold me to it. But I am more than marginally but not majorly concerned about the Patriot's ability to protect Drake May and Drake May's ability to thrive and diagnose complex good to elite defenses. I'm worried about that. This is where, you know, I think Josh McDaniels is really, really good. I don't think he's a cure-all.

And so that, you know, obviously not. I thought he was going to have a better game plan. Game plan. There. I am, I know they drafted a, you know, a tackle in the first round, but not because they have a problem at left tackle. God forbid. We'll see how that works out. But I am worried about fourth overall pick, Bill Campbell.

I am worried about Drake May's ability to thread the needle of, I am still able to hunt those big plays down the field, which was so important to those gaudy numbers he was putting up the first two-thirds of the year, and do that while having a good enough timer in his head to know it ain't come in this play. I got to either get down or throw it away or whatever. I am very interested in Drake May's ability to see. scramble safely and effectively and not take some of the crushing hits we saw him take mostly his rookie year but some last year he's gotten way better and so though so what i what i am focused on

is and what i think is the most fair part of the schedule knock is is not about how good were the patriots really because that doesn't even matter how good they were they won the aFC they went to the super bowl that season's done what i am most interested in is, are the, is Drake May able to be elite against elite competition? And that's what I, that's why I'm saying, if they were to lose 3128, because Donald Cooks and, you know, whatever it is, and Drake May looks awesome. That would be concerning. Defensive, for a defensive team, we're, as good as Drake May was.

Yeah, but I don't know that you want to be a defensive team is my point. Because I don't think you guys have a, any, a top five defensive personnel in the league. If you guys are going to get back to the Super Bowl or win a Super Bowl, I don't think it's going to be because you have this dominant defense. You're going to do the way you do it is because, holy crap, Drake May really, he might be the best quarterback in the league. And maybe it's a product of playing some tomato cans, but we did have the fourth best scoring defense in the league.

Drake May was just kind of the marquee. You didn't play any top of all. Yeah, but I don't think you thought you had the fourth best defense. No, I think some of it was. a little bit of tomato cans. But Justin Herbert still lost that game. Drake May didn't play amazing anything. Lost that game on defense.

C.J. Stroud melted. Yes. Did he melt on his own? No, no, no, no. I'm giving you credit. Was he getting harassed behind the line? But don't you agree with me that for the, if the story of this year is the Patriots went back to the Super Bowl, the more likely reasoning is, and Drake May once again was an MVP

finalist, rather than the Patriots once again had a top five scoring defense. That would be fantastic. I think if the Patriots win this game, and I'll save my official pick for next week, if the Patriots win this game, I think there will be a lot of people deciding to get back on the Patriots family. Is it going to be a hard thing for you to project confidence if the game is exactly like the Super Bowl?

Like if it's over, that game fell over in five minutes. If you're down 10-0 at the end of the first quarter, we can't move the ball. 17-3 at the half. you lose by two touchdowns or more. Like, that to me is the real concerning thing. If that would just be shocking. Really shocking?

I would not be shocked. The thing that just happened happens again. Look, everybody is healthy and you have better weapons. It would be shocking if all of a sudden he is, Drake me, I think, 60 yards over three quarters. If that happens, that would be, I'd be vomiting. I'd be vomiting. You should come over my house.

I'd be vomiting. Real invite? No. For game one of the year? No. I'm available. Too nerve-acting. Predictions week.

Here we go. We're starting in the AFC North. Is there going to be a costume change here? No. Okay. By the way, I haven't had a costume change here. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's the good point.

Brew had the Ravens. Nick, who did you have in this? The Ravens is number one. The Ravens is number one. No one was very high on the Browns, unfortunately. Danny, who do you have? We'll start at the bottom with the Cleveland Browns. This is very obvious.

They're going to play. three quarterbacks this season. I think Dylan Gabriel gets some starts. No, they put on the IR. Yeah, it's the other guy. The other guy, whatever. Tailin. They're going to move to Shador Sanders early,

and then they're going to have no other move, and then they're in trouble. But I do think that they're a quarterback away from maybe being interesting. In third place, the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I think they're going to be fine. I think Aaron Rogers is going to go out with a whimper. and there will be, there'll be an eight-win team,

and Mike McCarthy is going to be faced with a very interesting decision of the Ravens or the Bengals have locked up a spot, but the week 18 game is Baltimore, so let's use them for the example. And so the Ravens have locked up their spot, the Steelers are eliminated, does he play Aaron Rogers? Does Aaron Rogers get to play in his last game, or do they play Drew Aller or Will Howard? I think this is the thing that's going to end with a whimper in Pittsburgh.

So first losing season in the one. Yeah, 23 years. Exactly. In second place, making the playoffs, Bruise Baltimore Ravens. Wow. How many wins? You got to win? I think that it's going to take 12 wins to win this division, which is where I have Cincinnati. Wow. So my thing with Baltimore is, I think Jesse Minter is a good hire, but we don't know. Declan Doyle is a good hire on paper, but we don't know. Hasn't called plays. So we have a head coach. He's never been a head coach. We have an offensive coordinator who's never been a play caller. And you lost Linderbaum.

You lost likely. I still think Derek Henry should be excellent, but at some point, it deteriorates for a running back. I got off that train. I think he was going to be 60 and still. Zay Flowers got paid like a number one. I'm not convinced that he is a true number one. And so I do not think the supporting cast around Lamar is enough to make them a truly excellent offense. Meanwhile in Cincinnati, when Joe Burrow T. Higgins and Jamar Chase play,

they're 12 and 6 over the last two years averaging 29 points per game, and they added a ton to their defense. So by the thinnest of margins, I have the Bengals over the Ravens. So you think 12 and 5, 11, and 6? Exactly. I think it's very close. I think they're both very good teams. It'll come down to the head-to-head, and I'll just trust the Bengals.

And I think their offense, assuming health. We assume health for these predictions. I think they'll be good. or better. Yeah, I've got both of them, the Bengals and the Ravens in the playoffs, reversed obviously. But, man, you're right, obviously, in that mentor, you don't know, and same with Declan Doyle, but I think they're both going to be great. I mean, Lamar is always pretty much positive about a lot of things, so I'm not surprised that he's raving about the offense, but he is,

and I think he's excited for this new, this new look offense. I don't think last year any of us had the Steelers winning, the division. No. It was a lot of the same exact stuff. Yeah. First losing season. Aaron Rogers is old. This is and then they won. Yeah. And they both other teams felt so good about it. They fired their both. Both of those guys get injured. Well, so that. No, that's. And you're like, well, this coach is good. Like you know who I know is good. Mike McCarthy. The, the, the, that's, he went 13 games. Like the guy. He's a good. He's good. He's good. Um, well, I, you know. You know. Like, unknown.

Zero wins. That's true. Super Bowl. Just a couple of things just very quickly. I disagree with one of the holistic things you said, which is for predictions, we assume health. Pro football. I unequivocally do not.

In fact, I do the opposite. I bake in a level of injury, which is why I think when we, yesterday, we were talking about the Rams, we talk about them being top heavy, not having a lot of depth. Now, we can hope for frontline guys staying healthy, and we can, and it's not. fun to be like, I crystal ball says this quarterback's going to get hurt. Right.

So I get that, that piece of it. I am legitimately shocked. I don't think it's shocking if someone says, I think the Bengals are going to make the playoffs. I think picking the Bengals to win 12 games is shocking. You're talking about questions you have about the Ravens. Here's questions I don't have about the Bengals.

I don't wonder what caliber coached the Bengals have. I feel like I know. I don't wonder what caliber offensive line the Bengals have. I feel like I know. I guess I do wonder what caliber defense they have. Is it going to be awful like it's been, probably not because of the additions, but is it going to be even average? That I don't know. And, you know, your 29 points and 12 and 6, I get that when those three guys play.

It's also true that at no point in Joe Burroughs career, have they had a top five offense in yards or points? They've always looked like they should have a truly elite offense. They've never done it. 12 wins for Cincinnati. Over the last couple of years, though, like, those numbers would be top five if they were healthy for the full season. They would be. But they've, they've been 7, 7, 7.6 in the early years. Maybe if they, like, maybe they, I don't know.

A little bit. I'm giving their opponents full health. Yeah. Sure. You know, eight games, you know, pro. All right. NFC North, this is a Parkins Fave. A lot of suspense here at who's going to come in at number one.

But I think legitimately, in the. this division, it is the only division in football where you can make a case for any team to win it and any team to coming forth. Wow, that's a fair statement by you. Last year, the Vikings finished dead last had the worst quarterback play. It's still won nine games. Like, it is the best division. Just for the record, the Vikings did not finish dead last. Oh, no. The Lions. We all remember the Vikings finished with the same record. They finished the same record. I apologize. I apologize. I That is a great correction by you, and I'm supposed to know the NFC North. But coming in, dead last this year in the NFC North is the Green Bay Pass.

Where's Greg? Greg. I'm out. He went out for the right look. Yeah. Well, he's going to be out here for the rest of the O.T. So you can get me then. Jordan Love is very good, but he was excellent last year, and it did not translate to actual

scoring production. He had his best touchdown to the turnover ratio. He had his best passer rating, but they were a middle of the pack scoring team. they were winless without Micah, and Micah's going to miss the Vikings game, the Bears game, and maybe the Cowboys game, and a third of the season. So I don't love the Packers in a razor-thin differential of the NFC North.

In third place, the aforementioned thought they were in last, but they actually weren't. Minnesota Vikings. I think Kyler is an upgrade. I think Justin Jefferson will be great. I actually think Harrison Smith in that departure on defense. The Brian Flores defense should be good, but I don't think it is going to be as excellent as it's been.

I agree with that. So I just, they're good. They're, if they are the worst team and according to the odds, they're supposed to be. It's the best last place team according to the odds makers, but I don't think they're good enough to make the playoffs. In second place, making the playoffs as a wildcard team, the Detroit Lions. I think the offense should be excellent. The same questions about the defense have existed. If they could just get like marginal health from their defense, maybe they could be the 18th best defense in the league.

That's probably around their ceiling. But I think the offense is a legitimate shot at being top five. And it's the 30s easiest schedule in the NFL. Outside of their division, three teams that made the playoffs last year, Bill's Patriots and Panthers. That's the entirety on the lion's schedule. And Cumberland at first, best quarterback, best coach, best offense in the division, your Chicago Bears.

You ask you a question, Danny? Please. Are you at all worried about the Bears' defense or lack they're off? Yeah, I think people are overlooking, though. They get a true number one cornerback. Jalen Johnson. missed almost all of last year. And I think their defense will obviously not lead the league in takeaways again.

That is very hard to replicate. And 12 interceptions from last year's team are no longer on the team. And Kobe Bryant, their big safety addition is already hurt. But I actually think the Bears defense should be a little better down-to-down series-to-series, even if they do not make the big plays that they made last year. So listen, I think everyone's overstating Kyler's impact on the Vikings, but we'll see. One thing you mentioned, I have the Lions able to overcome it to win the division, but I think that the Lions, due to Terry and Arnold's being released,

due to the fact that their safeties are coming off injuries from last year, I think there is a chance that the Lions have to score 30 points to win games. And so that is, now listen, I have them winning the division, so I think they can do it. It's one of the reasons I think Shamir Gibbs is a great bet for offensive player of the year, like we talked about. And it's going to be the number one pick and fancy football.

But I am, I am, that is my concern for the lions. Meanwhile, the Bears, I think, I think the Bears' offense is going to take a significant step up. And I think that we usually expect with young quarterbacks

and a second year in a system with the head coach for that to happen. I think it's going to happen in Jacksonville, Trevor, and Liam Cohen. I think we saw it happen with Drake May with the second year with McDaniel. I think you just expect it to happen.

So that's what I think. And it was a big mistake for me saying the Packers or the Vikings were in last place. The Lions getting that last place schedule. It's the difference of playing the Cardinals and Titans who they get instead of the 49ers and Colts. Big advantage. Coming up next. Greg Jennings. Oh, he's going to be mad, man.

He really believes in the Packers. I mean, I wonder why. First year with Drake and McGrance. This is second year. Drake's second year in the league. Thanks for hanging out with us on the O.T. Greg Jennings out here and we're fine after my prediction for the NFC North. But we begin in Buffalo where the last time we saw Josh Allen play football, he ended up while crying on the bench. But to no one's surprise, he was not happy with how last season ended. He spoke to the media yesterday on what his mindset is and his goals are ahead of this season. You could take a listen. I think I'll always have a chip on my shoulder. You know, the way that last season ended, you know, I actually wasn't happy with it. Haven't been happy with any of the seasons the way they've ended.

So I've got to continue to find ways to keep getting better, keep pushing ourselves and, you know, just keep grinding away and keep knocking at the door. Greg, how do you see this Josh Allen's season ending? Similar. Yeah? Yeah, similar. In tears, that would be devastating.

Yeah, look, great player, great team, tend to always dominate in a regular season and for some reason just can't find a way to get it done when it matters most. And my questions around this team is not necessarily pointed towards Josh Allen. It's on that defense side of the ball

and what they're going to look like. And one of the issues that they have had in previous years is they have not been able to get after the quarterback, opposing quarterback. You now go out, you grab, Bradley Chubb.

So the expectations are now, okay, we got a guy that we feel like compresses the quarterback. We got other guys that are getting healthy. Ed Oliver is going to be available. Our run defense should be there. Maybe we'll have a better defense. But they have got to get after the quarterback. If you look at these numbers, when we look at Josh Allen and in his error,

these teams that he's been playing with as of late, have not been great defensively in terms of getting after the opposing quarterback, 36 sacks, 108 pressures. You see the rankings 20th and 25th, but both were fewest of his career. Like, every quarterback needs some type of help. Now, with that being said, not only did they get him help on the defense side of the ball, acquiring that Bradley Chub and the health issues and guys coming back off of injury, but on the offensive side of the ball, we saw them, they've always been a top.

top five, with the exception of, I think, 2023, they were sixth in offense, points per game. Yeah. Every other year, they're like, one, two, one, two, three. And now you add DJ Moore. And in my estimation, where I see him making the biggest impact, if he is who he once was with the Carolina Panthers and obviously his first year with the Bears,

is down the field. in straight drop-back opportunities, when you look at this team and we talk about explosive plays, DJ Moore is an explosive play getter. Dalton Kincaid, good tight in. He cannot lead your team. He is not Colston Loveland.

I don't think any of us think he's Brock Bowers or the kid out in Arizona. Trey McBride. Trey McBride. He definitely not true. He's a really good player. But I got DJ. more on my team to really be more than that. And there's a couple other players on this team that's

on that on that screen that's not there anymore. But this is what we want DJ Moore to do. We want to get the ball in his hands. He's going to help us with those explosive plays, sustain drives. And we're going to be if nothing else what we've always been as an offense. But defensively is where they have to make that jump. Yeah, Bill's fans got mad at me for talking about like, are they going to get Josh Allen a defense? And like statistically, a lot of the the counting stats under McDermott had been solid. But my, the issue was, when they played the good teams and really in the playoffs, they fell short.

Yes. Like, I think three of the last five Josh Allen playoff losses, his team has scored 29 or more points in the, in the losses. So they clearly need to be a little bit more complimentary in terms of a good defense that shows up against the good offense that he plays in the playoffs. But I wonder if you agree with this. Because I will give this label to three players currently. I believe that Josh Allen is inevitable.

Like, close my eyes, can I see him winning a Lombardi trophy? I honestly think it's inevitable. I think he is too good. He has been too good in the regular season, seven straight double-digit win seasons. He's been too good in the playoffs, 38 touchdowns against 10 turnovers, 15 playoff games, a winning record. He's going to get there. Like, I just firmly believe that he will get there. The other two, I don't want to like muddy the waters with it.

I do believe Justin Herbert's talent to be inevitable. And obviously, I think Caleb Williams, I see him hosting one as well. I would not say the same for Joe Burrow because of injuries and because of the overall health of the organization. I would not say the same for Lamar because of injuries and how I have some questions about whether or not his skills will age into his mid-30s. But I don't know if it will be this year. But another question we talked about for this topic was like, is it now or never for Josh Allen? I don't view it that way. If he doesn't get it done this year, he will go into next year as one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl.

I do not think the window is closing at all on Josh Allen and the bills. So I largely believe that that depends on what the Patriots look like. Because if the Patriots follow up with a back-to-back winning of that division in a fashion where we are looking at Those two quarterbacks, Drake May and Josh Allen, as did Drake may catch up with Josh Allen? Then I think the water starts to get a little murky for Josh because now you have not. Drake isn't in the conversation right now. You didn't mention Drake in that conversation of the inevitables. I did not.

But then if he does this, then now he becomes another hurdle, another quarterback that Josh has to go through when we know he has. to go through Lamar, he has to go through Joe, he has to go through Pat, all these other quarterback. Like, it's only going to get harder. He's only getting older. And how long will we have a roster to where it's like, okay, this is the team that he can do it with. Last year, it was all teed up for him.

I get it. Everyone says in the NFL, it's not for long. Your window is never as open as you think it is. there are few players in my lifetime in football that have been more consistent than Josh Allen. And part of that has been the AFC East has been garbage. That's definitely been part of it. But just like individual production and wins and his level of play largely being consistent from regular season to postseason. He is one of the more consistent players I've ever seen.

So I do expect Josh Allen to ultimately get it done, whether it's this year or into the near future. Micah Parsons. Mikea, Micah, Micah. He went on his podcast, which is called The Edge, with Micah Parsons, to make a lot of bold predictions ahead of this season. Frankly, it's spectacular. Take a listen to the wide-ranging takes of Micah. Who will lead the league in touchdown passes?

I'm not going to lie, I might say Dak Prescott. When you got that tandem of CD and land, and we didn't really see it last year, and we saw what Dag did 30 last year without CD. there missing six games, I think this is going to be the year. I'm not going to lie. I'm going with Jordan Love.

Dark Horse and MVP, don't matter. I think Jordan will throw about for 40 TDs. And I think he's going to have over 4,000 yards this year. When he's on, I don't think there's a better quarterback in the league than Joe Burrow. That's high place. Like watching it and living it, like when he's on,

like in that game specifically, just watching the family, you're like, yo, this was really, a special, like, outing, like, it was, it was really beautiful to see, like, from a defensive perspective, too. I'm going to say Packers Bowl. It's great. Everyone wants to give sports takes. I got a lot of thoughts here, but curious. Who is the best defensive player you ever played with? There's the top of your head. Charles Wilson. Charles Wilson. What if Charles Woodson did a weekly podcast. I'm tuning in. Locked in.

And he was just ranking wide receivers. This guy. Toughest guy to cover is Phil and the Blake. Toughest guy. Oh, this is the best receiver in football. And he's not, now he picks Jordan Love to be MVP and he picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl. So I don't think Mike has said anything inflammatory here at all.

But genuinely curious. And I know Charles Woodson, among the most respected players of his era, how would it have gone over? It would have gone over respectfully. Like, I think there's a level, there's a player that can do these types of things, and then there's a player that can. Okay. Michael just happens to be a player that can.

Like, I know he doesn't have the hardware, if you will, in terms of championship rings. He doesn't have any, but he has the accolades. He's on a Hall of Fame trajectory. He has the info, absolutely. $180 million contract. So when you hear him talk, you don't just hear a guy that's just saying. and a bunch of stuff. Sometimes you kind of feel that way. But you kind of listen a little bit more intently because this is a really good player. And he's had to go up against some of these

quarterbacks. And we've heard him do this when he was down in Dallas with Dak. Right. But that part is what I thought actually was also interesting. Like in Dallas, it's a part of the show. The owners on radio shows and the trailer for the Netflix documentary is drama. 365 days a year by design. In Dallas, it is chaos by design. You can sell tours to the practice facility while the players are practicing, right? It's all a part of the show.

That's not typically how things operate in Green Bay. Very true. That's not typically how it's done there. This is not a player that you can just peg in a square and he's a circle or he's a rectangle. You can't do that with Michael Parsons because we look at him as a one of one. And so because of that, like when I listen to him talk about it, he was a little everywhere. He was talking about CD-LAM going triple crown and all the things.

It was compelling. It really was. It's a good listen. But at the core of it, I truly believe this is how he feels. I agree. This is exactly. Like him talking about Joe Burrow, the way that he talked about Joe Burrow, you get to, He feels this way.

He truly feels. I agree. You cannot knock a player. You cannot like it. You cannot care for. You can wish that he wouldn't do it. But in terms of what we do, we want players to be honest. We want players to tell the truth.

And we want players to provide us with sound like this. That's what Micah's doing. Oh, to be 100% clear, me, I love it. It's content. It programs Tuesdays and Wednesdays when there aren't games. It's amazing. But I can see around the corner to Micah thinks he should come back from injury and be cleared for that Cowboys

game and he isn't and he goes on the podcast and says something. Or you know, Jordan Love throws a few interceptions and they lose 17, 13 and the defense was amazing and he says something. The upside is very limited, even if I personally as a content creator, absolutely love it, and applaud athletes for their honesty. I understand that. And that's where you have to understand your audience and understand where you are and how it's going to come off. I don't think he's going to go out there and say those types of things. Even if he does feel there are some things you have to keep veiled behind the veil. And he understands that. Listen, I'm a subscriber. I think it's great stuff. Coming up next,

the largest punishment in the NBA's history? Possibly, we'll discuss what's next for Kauai and the fallout from this investigation. Next. First things first. We welcome you back to the OT with some breaking news out of the NBA. So the clippers have been stripped of five first round picks and hit with a $30 million fine, while owner Steve Balmer has been suspended for a year for circumventing the salary cap rules around. Kauai Leonard. Now, Kauai has released a statement saying he looks forward to putting this behind

him and talking about people in his inner circle. Very recently, the Clippers have put out a lengthy statement. We vehemently reject the NBA's findings, which are the result of a heavily biased investigation seeking to justify a predetermined narrative rather than facts and evidence. What the league told us privately differs from what it announced today publicly, and they have not held themselves close to the standard Commissioner Silver set at the start of this investigation to ensure its fairness and accuracy. For the past year, we cooperated fully and in good faith, and we will now fight just as hard to demonstrate our innocence. We intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us and look forward

to an ethical and impartial arbitration process. This is a massive story and according to all of the reports and what the NBA has put out, they can be mad with the statement all they want, but this is final. Like that is how the NBA has presented this, that these findings are final. This investigation took almost a full calendar year. They are saying, you circumvented the salary cap, you cheated, and here are the penalties. And Greg, got a lot of thoughts on this, but the first one is, this punishment is massive. Even if the financial punishment to Steve Balmer is change in the sofa cushions for a guy worth billions and billions and billions.

It really is. I mean, $30 million to him is. It's just hard to hear that. I know, but for a guy of his extreme wealth, he will not notice $30 million out of the account. Not being able to attend a basketball game in that arena that he just built for a year, being labeled a cheater, and for a basketball team to lose five first round picks? I mean, that's your currency. James Hardin was traded for four first in 2021. Kevin Durant was traded for four first rounders in 2023.

Rudy Gobert for four first rounders. Premier players in their prime go for less than five first round picks. This is a massive blow to the Clippers. What are your reactions when you see the stories you've been following it? Yeah, so my immediate reaction is it's not surprising that there's a situation where someone's trying to circumvent the salary cap. Like this is in having dealings with contracts. The job of the agent, I listened to Kauai's or I saw his response to this, his public

statement. Yep. And it was great. You got to do that. But to act as though you don't know, every player knows what their agent and representative is doing and how they're trying to get it done. I'll take you through my, like my agent was the late Eugene Parker. Every time we were up trying to negotiate, we were trying, the goal was always to maximize.

Of course. However that money comes, we're trying to exhaust every avenue. So for me, listening to all of this and getting all this information, like players know exactly what is going on. We can say, I let my agent handle that, but you know what? Behind closed doors when there's no cameras, I need to know everything that you're talking about

how is it going to work? How is this money going to be distributed? How can I get more? And so to sit here from a player perspective, to listen to Kauai, give out this public statement and come off as though

he had no idea. He blames people in his inner circle, Uncle Dennis, got some punishment. He's paying 700K, which is also changing his sofa cushion, and he gets to play for Toronto. Kawhi gets out of this pretty much unscathed. The clippers do not. Yeah, and I obviously agree, right? Like, doesn't really pass the smell test that he didn't know, but maybe tough to find a smoking gun there. What I would also just say, I don't know Pablo Torre personally. We've internet friends that I exchanged some messages. I know him and Nick Wright have had their thing or whatever. They have.

Yeah, which obviously I'm Team Nick on. But what I would say is, I do love journalism. Like, I love it. I love it as more than a concept. I love it as the fourth estate. Take a lap. I love it as holding truth to power, revealing things that the rich and powerful do not want revealed. That is what actual journalism is.

And, like, the reporting of the transverse. actions, that's just regurgitating text messages from agents. That's largely just PR. This was a story that would not have come out without the act of real journalism. Like, real journalism led to the most significant punishment, arguably, in the history of the NBA. That is a huge win for the fourth estate. Like, that is just a win for those of us who still believe that journalism can and should matter and that facts can and should matter. So like good job by Pablo. Yes. And like shout out for journalism. Seriously. Like journalism and facts still can make a difference. He took he took a lot of heat initially. He did. And now he's taken. He should take a huge laugh. He should take a victory lap.

All right. Coming up at first things first. I got to say, not one to normally question Sean McVe. Until this next second, coming up on the O2. You watch us tomorrow, the AFC and NFC South. These divisions have a little bit of a reputation like, oh, who cares about the NFC South? Some interesting storylines in those divisions. We'll get into them for Predictions Week, day four. Fascinating storyline ahead of the second game to open the season, Niners Rams.

The Niners left today. for Australia. This game is a week from tomorrow. So it's a long flight to Australia. The Rams leave a week from today. One week from today. It is a 15-hour flight from L.A. to Sydney. And Sean McVeigh is just, we're going to sleep on the plane,

we're going to land, we're going to play, we're going to get back on the plane, and we're going to fly home. People are pointing out in Ramsland, Greg, well, you know, he's undefeated in international games. We flew into London the day before. They were in Baltimore the week before that London game, and they stayed in Baltimore. So they flew from Baltimore to London, not L.A. to London. Do you find this reckless by Sean McVeigh taking a 15-hour flight the day before an NFL game? So I don't find it reckless because I'm sure they've done their research.

Every team has their data analysts and their sleep people and all that. If he has figured out how to beat jet lag, he needs to talk to my family. Because I just flew to the West Coast and we were dragging, you know what, for days. Look, there's six hours. There's always more than one way to do something. Okay. And we see the Niners taking one approach, which I played in London twice,

been there a week in advance and then left a day and two days before the game. and I just played. London is a six and a half hour flight from New York. Six hour flight from New York. This is 15 hours from L.A. Also, here's a question. What if there's turbulence on the flight and the guys can't sleep? What if there's mechanical failures and the plane's delayed four hours?

These are all great questions then. I mean, I'm saying it's a 15-hour flight. You're playing the opener the next day against the 12-win team. You're giving yourself a 24-hour margin for error for a 15-hour flight. seems crazy to me. Ambians for everyone. Okay. A little groggy

for the game the next day. I'm just like, this is shocking. No? This should be a bigger story. I don't know if it needs to be. If they don't show up, it'll definitely be a bigger show.

The Niners are there now. They leave in a week. See you tomorrow. See tomorrow. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad. I get it.

I'm Siyah and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.