First Things First - AFC West and NFC West predictions, Cam Jordan joins, Is Josh Allen the best QB in the NFL?

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

(0:00) Josh Allen top QB, DPOY predictions, Will the Patriots make it back to the Super Bowl? (26:10) Are the Packers Super Bowl contenders? (38:01) Is Jalen Hurts underrated? (47:18) AFC West and NFC West Predictions (01:10:26) Cam Jordan joins (01:21:43) Will the Cowboys be ‘vicious’ with Pickens and Ceedee? (01:27:26) Danny’s AFC West and NFC West predictions (01:49:36) Will Caleb Williams be a more serious player this season? (02:01:58) Can the Ravens get over their playoff woes? (02:08:51) Who will win Defensive Player of the Year? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See? First hour of first things first. Today, Josh Allen. Yesterday, Tom Rinaldi started the show. He's named the number one QB in the NFL. Of course. Why not? But is this the last year he holds that illustrious honor? He's probably also top five, top seven all time.

Everybody is these days. Move over Peyton Manning. Talking defense. And is his team a sneaky contender? Friend of the show, Saints Cam Jordan joins us. Also a guy who we'll talk to him about it might be top 10 history of the NFL and Sacks at the end of this year. Top 10 history of the NFL.

Also said Sacks overrated. Well, he said that the year after he had two. Last year, he had 10 and the half. Maybe he likes him again. And finally, heading out West for predictions week. Some Super Bowl winners, Mahomes, Sam Donald, Stafford, AFC and NFC West predictions alongside Nick Wright. I'm Kevin Wilde, Chris Broussart.

How did you feel like day one of predictions week went? I thought it was fantastic. Me too. I thought it was great. Really? I thought you'd be mad at me. You didn't talk to me. I didn't see you before the show.

You avoided me. I didn't avoid you necessarily. But I think I'm going to try to, you know, walk in your footsteps a little bit, show a little forgiveness, and try to bring people to the light. Okay. I'll put that. Yeah.

Brew and I walked in together today. Oh, that's sweet. He looked resplendent for the second day in a row. He's got a whole new wardrobe. A whole new wardrobe. No more bad. Brew used to wear those and one shorts to wear. We're starting in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

in the Pittsburgh, Massachusetts where the Super Bowl silver medalists will prime for another run. Matt Verde Ram writing in Sports Illustrated that after the Super Bowl, the Pats responded, quote, with a proactive approach to a roster that needed reinforcements and got them. I did a training camp tour of the East Coast, saw the Bills and the Ravens, among others, two teams with the consensus best odds to emerge from a wide open AFC.

A little editorialization there. But the best team I saw this summer, The Patriots. Could you see the Patriots going back to the Super Bowl? Brew, you have them famously missing the playoffs. Yeah, okay, Matt. Anybody that missed the polooms, Matt. All right, enough of that.

I think he's actually a Chiefs fan. Whatever he is. I mean, the best team I saw this summer, all right. No, they're not going back to the Super Bowl. It doesn't give me pleasure to say this, Wilds, because, you know, I don't like hurting your feelings. Yeah. But I have talked about, and I don't expect them to be bad.

I think they're going to be about 9 and 8 and just miss it. Just mediocre. Just miss the playoffs. And I've talked about it before, but it's worth repeating. The schedule is so much tougher. That's true. Last year you played three teams with winning records. This year, you play 11.

And look at these roles. Well, just for the record. 11 from last year. Yes, but the three, it is. It's a little different math, Brew, because the three they played were teams that finished with winning records. So we don't know how these teams will finish. But it does look like it's. But teams that last year had winning records.

Yes. All right. And so it does look like it. These are your role or some of your road games. Buffalo, Seattle, the Chiefs, Jacksonville, Chicago, and of course the Chargers in your division. The Chiefs would be a team that did not have a winning record. Yeah. Exactly.

That makes it worse. Exactly. You might as well have 12 teams. All right, here's the other thing. And well, let's just go here. I like Drake May. I do want to see him prove it again. Yes.

But last year when he played teams with winning records, it wasn't the same. You love throwing up that graphic about first, first, first, first, first. Well, yeah, against the losing teams, he looked great. 13 and 1, 72% completions, 29 to 16D interception ratio. Yeah. Look against the winning teams, though. Four and three.

Yeah, eight touchdowns, six interceptions. That's probably, yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying. Nine and eight. Well, you're playing 11, all right. And so here's the other thing. Last year you faced zero teams, zero in the regular season, that were top ten defenses. Zero.

You talked about, you tried to slide that in there. The Cleveland Browns didn't have a top ten defense? No. No. They gave up like two. 20 something high 20 points a game. All of that is because the Patriots put the Patriots game out

and you sneak that in. Look, in the playoffs of course. What about the mighty? Yeah. In the playoffs you face some top 10 defenses. And your boy Drake six touchdowns, four picks, 82 passers rating. Lots of fumbles. Fifty-eight percent. A lot of fumbles. And 58 percent. On way to the

Super Bowl. All right. And look, your big acquisition A.J. Brown very good. Better this Stefan Diggs, I believe, who you lost. Yeah. But let's just look at last year. Look at the production last year.

Oh, this is a great take, bro. Wow. Maybe you got worse. You thought Diggs was a top five receiver. And seven catches. Yeah, I mean, I'm just saying. And look at the yak. AJ should be better yak at than Stefan at this point.

But he wasn't last year. Can I ask it? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Now we're going to start doing it for real. Okay. I'm just saying. Let's go it for real.

Let's just do it for real. What else do we don't? You said Diggs was a top five receipts. When he was targeted by Drake May, the passer rating was top five. But he was, I don't actually think he was a top five wide receiver. And this is, and again, if you end up just doing the What's Right podcast exclusively because of this segment, I apologize to you. If the whole show breaks.

Wow. Dusty, can you put the graphic back up with Stefan Diggs and A.J. Brown? Okay. Please, we'll take a second. Brew, do you honestly believe this? For real. Do you think this is an apples to apples comparison of Stefan coming off in ACL with Drake May that maybe he popped and in a down here for the Eagles.

An Eagles offense in a disgruntled AJ. That there's like, oh, just this is. Wait a second. I just put up the fact. Thank you. That's all I did. So can I be the arm here? I prefaced it would say that AJ is better, but this was the production.

This is no more or less disingenuous. And I'm not calling it disingenuous. I'm saying no more or less than your, the argument we got in last year, which was you saying Stefan Diggs, this year has been a top five receiver. And you're like, I'm just showing you the numbers. You're like the passer rating is top five.

These are these things. And so. So when you were making that argument, I thought you were drastically overrating how where Stefan Diggs fell in the quarterback hierarchy, or in the wide receiver hierarchy. And I do think last year, A.J. Brown's numbers understate probably where he is in the wide receiver hierarchy. You know what I mean? Like I expect. And his numbers is you. Let's put Justin Jefferson's numbers. No. And let's see how that. Certainly if we got Justin Jefferson.

numbers were not great last year. So you can... Probably were better than did. The yards. I'm guessing. Like a $1,050. Yeah, he had a super down here. So I...

AJ has dropped. He has dropped. He has dropped. I don't think AJ Brown is any more a top four receiver in the league and he had an argument a couple years ago he was. But I think he is clearly a top... It would surprise me if he's not a top 10 receiver in the league this year.

And I think Stefan Diggs, last season, season was his stats outstripped where he actually is in the wide receiver hierarchy. I think that's totally fair. So here would be, because I have him going 9 and 8 just missing the playoffs. I am going 10 and 7 just making the playoffs. I think you have him going 11 and 6 and barely winning the division or just winning. I don't know about it. I don't think the bills are going to be as strong as everybody else.

So here, let's start with the winning record playoff teams, that whole. idea. If we put, Bruce showed his numbers, you know, playoffs included bad teams, good teams. If we used to do regular season versus the playoffs, and this is the point I was making yesterday, if we just show it, that right-hand column gives me pause in three different ways that I would like to discuss with you. Yes. Area one, there is this Josh McDaniels, man. Josh McDaniels. Josh McDaniels is great and I think Josh McDaniel is really good.

Did that make me reconsider? Is it possible that against the majority of NFL teams, certainly against the bad ones and maybe against the ones that aren't coached that well defensively or don't have that great defensive personnel, Josh McDaniels, 20 plus year history, all of those things,

he can just solve it. Like, nope, I saw on film, you do this poorly. We're, we've got it. but against the best defenses, some of the Josh McDaniels magic, if you will, wears off a bit. That is to me at least something

that I think is a possibility that I'm concerned about. The Patriot's ability to protect Drake May against teams. Yeah, exactly, against quality pass rushes. And I know you think the offensive line is going to be much better because Will Campbell's going to be healthier

and they added another guy. I don't, I feel like Will Campbell was less about injury and more about ability last year, but we'll see. So that to me is a, you know, a question. And whether or not Drake, and this is, I think, a real thing that at least is a possibility, whether or not Drake may, after being so great all year long, playing, I think you could argue, four of his five worst games consecutively in the postseason, even though they won the three of them, if that has any knock-on effect to this year. All of that unsteadies the Patriots in my eyes in a way that I would not have expected them to be unsteadied headed into the postseason.

So like that to me are all fair questions. And then the history of move the Patriots, 2025 Patriots entirely, the history of Super Bowl losers has been, unless you are the Jim Kelly, Thurman, Thomas, Bruce Smith, Buffalo Bills, historically, you don't make it back the following year. Now, the Patriots with Tom Brady. Tough graphic. It's the first one says Patriots. Except I don't, yeah, but again,

I think the Brady-Belichick Patriots that have, and I don't think Josh McDaniels was there for that. I think he was coaching another team. Bradle certainly wasn't there. Like Elliot Wolf wasn't there. And so the Patriots... The mystique, though.

Sure. The culture. And then it's, you know, there's a lot. It's just a long history of that's when it's been since the merger teams that have made it back. All of that, if the answer is could I see it? I certainly, if I were drafting AFC teams to go to the back to the Super Bowl, I think the Patriots would probably be my fifth pick of that draft. So I certainly could see it.

But I don't, I think it is, I think there are a lot of reasons to have real skepticism bound. But I want you to go from your team. Here's the thing, bro. Predictions week we always say is in Penn, but it's not submitted officially to the close of the show on Friday. Okay. So I can change my mind. So you can change your mind if you come across any intel or any data that says, you know what? Maybe the bills won't be as good as I thought.

I'm open. I'm an open book. Well, of course. You're a journalist. You're just going to follow where the facts take you. If you got something, I want to see it. So just a few things. just want to see if this tickles your fancy at all.

Good coaching, something that you usually like. Strong-armed mobile quarterbacks, something that you like. Playoff experience, something that you like. An offense that is strong and adds weapons in the off season and upgrades, undoubtedly, at the wide receiver position, you like. Sounds like the bills. The bills did upgrade at wide receiver. They did all that.

I mean, that part they definitely did. Offensive line, old PFF, our friends. Patriots went into last year with the 29th, according to PFF, and it's always tried a little bit of a moving target with the offense line. 29th. This year they have us at 13th because of Elijah Vera Tucker, draft it and a healthy Will Campbell. You say it's health, but the guy did potentially,

had an injury that he put a towel over and said we thought it and got carded off. So it's not just all kind of just a skill. level thing. Okay. Where do they have, the PFF has the Bills offensive line? I didn't research the bills. I would think it's,

it's, the bills have a good high. I'm not trying to be Mr. negative about the bills. Oh, okay. I thought you were, okay. No, I'm just saying we went from 29th to 13th. Okay,

appointed PFF, just trying to level set. You hate the schedule. Yeah. You hate the schedule. But that's like saying, you know what? And that you like the bill's schedule, I guess. Well, I do think the bills are better. Okay.

Because the bills have a harder schedule than the, Then the Patriots. We've got 10 common opponents. If you could put the Patriots schedule back up, the bills start in Houston. Then they've got, well, they've got the Rams in Baltimore. Those are the Bill's opponents outside the common opponents.

The Patriots start in Seattle, and we have the Steelers in Jacksonville. So if you had teams that you had to pick, I would rather play Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Jacksonville than Houston, the Rams in Baltimore. And then I've got a lot of Warren's Sharp type stuff about the schedule. I think the bills usually play a tough step. Yeah, I mean, the bills have more, a longer history of consistency.

I'm worried about the Patriots start of the season. I'm worried about that opening month, and I'm worried about a team last year that all of a sudden, your road to the Super Bowl is road playoff games. And it's fighting to get in the playoffs at the end of the year, very different than what it was last season. I mean, I think that's fair. if I could put a little cold water on that. I think it would give you a little bit of confidence that we didn't lose a game in an opponent stadium.

We lost only the Super Bowl. It was the only road game we lost all last year. Easy schedule or not, that's hard to do. Yeah, I, no, that's all. Listen, I think you guys are good. I think that it would be not quite shocking, but I would be, if you guys, this is what you have in front of you.

if you guys go back to the Super Bowl, you are simply the class of the AFC. Yes. Yeah, it would be nice to win it. No, I said class of the AFC. If you win the conference, if you win the conference for back to back years, right now, people can get mad at me for saying this, it's objectively true. The chiefs are the class of the AFC.

Yeah. They've been to five of the last eight Super Bowls. They've been to three of the last four. They're the class of the AFC. If the Patriots get to back to back, you're the class of the conference. I think it's a very hard road. Patriots open up the season's eight days in Seattle. We'll see how that goes.

A lot of people will start singing a different tune if you come out of Seattle. Yeah, and if you get stomped again. Hard to believe we're going to get stopped. Really? I mean, you didn't believe you were going to get stopped at the Super Bowl. I don't know if you saw the fourth quarter. You watched the whole game? Oh, we like it.

Reigning MVP, Matthew Stafford, comes in at number four. NFL top 100, which means Josh Allen will be the number one QB. Of course. Here's the list. How could he not be? Finally, Josh Allen, Stafford May, Mahomes, Donald, and Dach in the first column. Piss poor. Wow.

It's not a, it's the Lamar. Wow. That's one of them. That's the biggest. That's the why in the oil. It's going to devalues the whole list. It looks a little ridiculous. How much pressure is on Josh Allen this year?

peak pressure, that peak sports pressure that an athlete can face. You know, there's obviously it's different life. There's, but as far as what... Athletic pressure, it's

maximum. The coach was fired. I don't think it's fair that the owner did this, but the owner was asked about firing. He's like, well, I saw my quarterback crying, so he had to go. So there's that. He is coming off all time, not an all time bad playoff game, because I don't think it was that. Because he obviously had some high moments.

They scored a bunch of points. But four turnover playoff games since we've been doing the show, since the show, we've been doing the show together four or five years, but since the shows exist in the last decade, here they are. And they really marked these players. If we can show them, Dust. Like the four plus turnover playoff games, the Big Ben game against Cleveland again, he was super old, that was this, you know, COVID year. Trevor won his playoff game and it still talked about the four turnovers. He was on pace for eight.

Jared Goffs is why these exist. It's this. Herbert, put that back up, please, Dust. Sorry, I know you wanted to get a zoom in on the tiny hands. Herbert, that was really, I mean, Herbert's kind of on here twice because he lost the other one to Trevor, is what really started to take the bloom off the rose. C.J. Stroud's team reverted course and said no new contract because of his four turnover playoff game. That was this all, it was the same weekend as Josh's. And, and so there's that.

There's also the fact that his greatness is what creates the. pressure. And by greatness, I mean, if we just show the quarterbacks who have had this many bites at the apple and not been to a Super Bowl, so most playoff wins without winning a Super Bowl, okay, he's one behind Jim Kelly and Donovan McNabb, tied with Dan Marino. That's kind of like Dan Marino's thing is he never won a Super Bowl. But most playoffs. Those three have been there. Correct. Most playoff wins without getting to a Super Bowl. Philip Rivers, Danny White, and Mercer. Brunel and they're at five.

He's at eight. And so just peak peak pressure, Bru. No, I agree. Look, until he wins the Super Bowl, it's every year is tons of pressure. It's like Lamar. You got an MVP. You're on a Hall of Fame trajectory. So we expect you to be able to win a Super Bowl. And until he does that, there's tons of pressure.

But I agree with you, this year it's ratcheted up a bit because most of the, you, most of the The Holmes, we all feel he's the best quarterback in the league, like certainly historically in the league right now. But this feels to me like kind of the first time, it feels like a lot of people actually think Josh is like the best quarterback in the league. He's with tops on every list. Yeah, like this is, I mean, the one, what the athletic, he was second with the GM. The home's opened it up.

Yeah, a little battlefield promotion. Yeah, no, he did. Right. But this is the first year on this top 100 list that he's. the highest ranked quarterback, Josh, ever. So there's that now. It's like, okay, you're the best quarterback in the league, including Mahomes, to a lot of people.

All right, so that adds pressure. Secondly, he blew it last year. So did Lamar. They both blew it, but more so Josh, because at least he got to the playoffs, and there was no Lamar, no Burroughs, no Mahomes. You lost to Bo Nix on a play. You mentioned the four turnovers.

Here's the worst one that one of what, Was it a GM scout, whatever called it, like the worst play he's ever seen? That might have cost them the game. They lost by three points. In overtime. Yeah. And so you're coming off that thirdly. You mentioned Sean McDermott getting fired.

And then there's also he is now beginning his ninth season. I don't hope this doesn't happen. I'm not even necessarily projecting it to happen. But he has a style of play like Cam Newton where he doesn't, avoid tacklers. He runs over tacklers. And Cam had eight, like, high-level seasons, and then the bottom fell out. I'm not predicting that for Josh, like this year or next year.

But at some point, it might hit him. So he might not have as long of a peak as your typical dropback passing quarterback. So I just think he has to get it done the sooner the better because he's got to win the Super Bowl. Do you think it's fair for me just to, and injuries aside, because I think Mo Holmes, even if he was healthy, I think the Chiefs were going to miss the playoffs. Lamar was like banged up, but it wasn't anything catastrophic. And Burroughs team healthy can miss the playoffs. We've seen all of the Mount Everest quarterbacks just miss the playoffs. Do you think that it's fair for me to be like, oh, you know what, it's your turn just for, you know, a few missed field goals, a few.

untimely turnovers. Whoops, you lost in Miami, and the Patriots are hot, and all of a sudden, you're out of the playoffs. I think, listen, I think that, and this is, you know, we all, and Danny poked fun at us on social media today, and

from a gambling perspective, really not even gambling, let me rephrase it, from an odds perspective, he's correct in that. We all reacted with, like, dismay that he had the Eagles missing the playoffs. But by, you know, again, using the Vegas odds turning them into math, they say

there's like a 35% chance they miss the playoffs. Like 35% chance is a real, it's a real chance. I, you know, I think the bills have, I think, the second best odds to make the playoffs of any team. And it's still only like 80% implied probability. So they're just saying, you know what I? So they're saying one in five.

Yeah, man, sometimes you just, you know, you come up to snake eyes. So I don't think it's like, a crazy hot take ever to pick an NFL team to miss the playoffs. I think it can be in the NBA because you have 82 games and there's a much larger margin for error. I don't ever think it's crazy. And if I've got them winning 11 games, which is what I have the bills winning, and I think there's going to be, you know, there could be a 10-win team that misses it,

then of course I think they could miss it. Okay. Yeah. I'll give my official predictions on Friday. You got a missing. I have a missing playoffs. Wow! Yeah.

Wow. Wow. I don't like that. Like, have you done the math on who your seven teams are then? Yes. I don't want to get into it. We'll save it on Friday. But go look at Warren Sharps.

Like, you know, I'm big on that. Rest advantage. I know. We're going to get into a big argument. Four games in 17 days. Buffalo, the only team to play three short week road games. This Texans opening night is going to be bad for them. Josh has played two of his worst games.

So they start, uh-oh, here comes Sean McDurran. They've made a coaching change, but they didn't. It's without real precedent. Listen, I've come around. Here's where you have swayed me. I do think they're going to lose week one. Okay, good. I do think that week one new head coach, that Texans defense,

I think that early in the season defenses are often, ahead of offenses. So the Texans might be the worst team you want to play in week one. I do think starting 0-1 is even though they're a slight favorite is what's going to happen. And then I think we've got, I think that Thursday night game, I don't know if I don't have it memorized correctly. That's, that was that at my house? That's at your house. Is that Lions Bills?

Lyons Bills, week two. Yep. Casa Day, right? Oh, my. Buckle up. I'm in Friday. Mike's hard. Oh, oh, oh, H.

The HL is rolling. All right. Packers to the Super Bowl. Here what Greg Jennings has to say next on FS1 on the Fox Sports Channel on Sirius X-M. Podcast is back. Steady episodes now until the Super Bowl. And our YouTube channel, show recap,

steady stream of original content from Gianna. Also, comment to the day from George Thomas, 8891. The best morning drive starting again with this show, from Hawaii, I guess. Wow. Yeah, I don't know if he's actually from Hawaii. Oh, you know what?

Maybe. I think early in the morning before wake up barstool, they replay our show. Oh, I listen to that. So I think he's driving in and hearing. So is that a new thing common in the day? Maybe. I like that. On to Green Bay, where Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer has a new article about Jordan.

Jordan loves growth as a quarterback. A lot of talk about protections. Yeah. It all comes back down a consistency. Aaron Rogers, I was able to watch him. It was like every day, you know you're getting the best player in the NFL every single day. And for me, I think it's always about trying to find that. Got plays in practice might be good.

A couple plays, not so good. Trying to find ways to be as consistent as possible. Jam-packed division last two years. Everybody's been pretty good. So do we view the Packers as real contenders? I do not. And Bengals fans often think that I'm mean to them because a couple presidential administrations ago,

they beat the Chiefs once in a playoff game. When the Bengals come up and I say, I don't, like, I look at them and I don't view them as contenders. For me to view you as something, you have to at some point have ever been it. And the Packers, like, I'll be late to the party, I guess, because new teams come around. It's like, oh, they're a contender now. The Packers, since Aaron Rogers left, we can show you there three years. They have something all in common. Very fortunate the playoffs have been experienced.

bandit. They have been the seventh seed every year. One year they did win 11 games, which is good. It was still the seventh seed. They won one playoff game, which was against the most famous team in the league, and it was in blowout fashion. And so now, Greg, we thought the Micah Parsons edition could be the thing that puts them over the top.

And it looked like it might be happening. Sadly, he got hurt. And sadly, that injury is going to extend into at least the, first third of this season. And so, no, I view them as they, you know, will fight for that final playoff spot, but I don't view them as a Super Bowl contender. I don't think, did you have them as a contender last year? Did you have them, you had them missing the playoffs last year, didn't you?

No, Danny had them missing the playoffs. I had them once they traded for Micah, I had them in. Okay. So that I had them missing the playoffs. Then once they traded for Micah, I had them in the playoffs. So, of course, I believe that they're contenders. And it's not just because I'm biased. This is, when we look at and we view teams, we start at the quarterback position.

We say, okay, do they have a quarterback that we feel like is one of the better quarterbacks in the game? Can he get it done when their backs are against the wall? You look at Jordan Love and he can get it done. Regardless of what you feel about him, he checks the box as a quarterback that you believe that can get it done. Whether you believe he's inconsistent at times or turns the ball over at bad times, which is some of the things that we've mentioned.

This is what we start our gauge with, quarterback player. Then we go through the team. Now, you ended your statement talking about Michael Parsons, and that's where I go, because they are a contender with Michael Parsons. Without Michael Parsons, it is going to be challenging because now you're going to be asking Jordan Love

to be everything, because we don't know what we're going to, to get from the defensive side of the ball. But if we look at their numbers with Michael Parsons, without Michael Parsons, this is who they've been. Like last year, the record was fantastic. They were trending up. They looked great.

They looked great. But when you start to look at when Michael Parsons, and that's including when he got hurt in the Denver game, like the opponent's points per game skyrocketed. Doesn't that really worry you since he's going to miss? It does. But this was something they had to adjust to. Now you are prepared for him to miss these games. So you know this going in.

Your game plan is surrounding that idea. Once it got to like, you know. Micah not being available. Fourth week, everything you feel like that way. Yeah, I. Hey, Micah's not here again. Well, part of those last five games, Jordan missed two of them. Okay.

So it's not, it wasn't just Micah, but this is, these are the numbers. And so if we get a healthy version of Jordan Love and we look at that receiver core and what they are with Jane Reed, Christian Watson, and the emergence in I believe of Matthew Golden, they can be a fantastic group. Understand what they're dealing with at the running back position. But in my history of witnessing this team and this organization, they've always had a guy back there. It didn't have to be a named guy. it was just by committee or someone that can just get the ball in their hands. They don't have to have a star running. They don't have to have a star.

And so defensively, that's where Micah just, he tilts the scale. If he comes back and he's not the version of Michael Parsons that they trade it for and they got. It's a huge problem. It's going to be problematic. Well, look, what you said, Greg, their first, the beginning of their schedule isn't that bad without Micah. Right? They got Minnesota, which is a be a tough game, but that winnable clearly, the Jets, the Falcons, the Bucs.

They play one playoff team. Yeah. So they could be, they need to be at least three and two going into Dallas. Or they could be four and one. If that's the case, they're fine. I'm more, you guys know I really like Jailo. I think his best years are ahead of him. He's going to have a really good career.

But I'm with Nick right now. Like I don't think they're a contender this year. I just don't like the way this season is starting off already. Like you got Josh Jacobs, we'll see when he's back. He's really good. I get it that they haven't had a great back, but as good as J-Lo is, he ain't Aaron Rogers yet, and he's not Brett Farve yet.

So those guys were why they were able to do it without a great running back necessarily. So I think that's the problem. They're going to have to – J-Lo is going to be throwing it a lot more, which does open it up for some inconsistency, some recklessness, see some reckless play, which he's done before. And Greg, I'm not sure they have a number one receiver. Maybe I'm hopeful. It will have to be golden.

The other guys are not one. Right. Like, they got a bunch of good number two. I can respect that. But I'm not sure. I like golden to emerge, but we have to see it. It's just to me a lot of concern. I think you two, Brew and Greg, are a little higher on Jordan Love than I am.

I think Jordan loves solid. I think Jordan Love is, you know, if he's your team starting quarterback, you're not in the market for another quarterback. You're not, you're fine, but I don't, I think in, you're not going to have an edge at the quarterback position in the games you really want to. That's my feeling. Other people will disagree. And then after that, it's a lot of people really like Jeff Hathley, their D coordinator.

He's gone. He got a head coaching job. Tucker Kraft, who might have been their most reliable weapon, he's coming off in ACL. The Michael Parsons were like, okay, when is he going to be back? He's targeting week six. And he's talking about comeback week six. All of a sudden, they're starting running backs on the commissioner's exemplist. We think Matthew Golden can be that guy.

And I liked him coming out of school. Like, I get that. It's just a lot of things have to call. And it might take Micah three weeks to get back to him. That is the worry. But Jonathan Gannon is a legit defense coordinator. No, that's fair. That's fair.

He got a head coaching job himself because of what he didn't feel. And if there was one thing we watched about the Arizona Cardinals, their defense was getting after it. Like, they stayed after the quarterback. They were, not that they were a good team. No, I get that. But he is a formidable defense coordinator. So I'm not going to sit here and say they're just going to fall apart just because Mike is not available. With Jonathan Gannon, I think he'll have a game plan.

You gave me some life advice. Wow. Two years ago. Wow. I wish you had taken it. I've used this. in several parts of my life. This is a true story.

We were talking about Gerard Mayo, and I wanted to keep Gerard Mayo, even though it felt like he was on the way out. And the Patriots were terrible, and nobody was watching them. And you weren't watching every two-win team at that point. And I was like, I don't know, I just want to give him another chance. He didn't have, you know, doesn't have the weapons, rebuild. And you asked me, you're like, what are they excellent at?

And I was like, um, nothing. And you're like, that's a problem. So I'll ask you. Like, we're like, the defense will be okay. And Jordan loves pretty good. And the running back by committee and the wide receivers are all good. Like, what are they excellent at? I think their passing attack is going to be fantastic.

Oh, okay. Absolutely. Okay. Questionable running game. I think they're passing game. Do they have a true number one? Oh. Watch.

I hope you're right. Okay. But is it good, I mean. I'm skeptical. All right. I think that's, I mean, is it better, just in the, just in the NFC North, is it better than golf? Is it better than like Kyler and Justin Jefferson?

Oh, you're sorry. I'm there. Hold on. Hold on. Wait, wait a second. Tyler and Justin Jefferson. Lee put the camera on me. Why?

Kayla's pretty good. There's pretty good too. That's what it was. He said just in the NFC. No. You have to let me go. last two minutes in the game. Just wait, turn on your television.

You have to let me go. That guy's going to be throwing missiles out there. We just saw the real-time devil on his shoulder, angel on his shoulder. Because he's like, yeah, Justin, the NFC. North's got a bunch of really good quarterbacks and stuff. He's thinking. And he's like golf. And then he's like, who's next?

He's like, oh, boy. I like Kyle. I like Kyle. I'm going to have to say Caleb. I like Jonathan. So you pivoted to Kyle. Oh, the witching hour? Oh, boy.

What's not hit? Oh, here's when the games are. Here comes Caleb. He's ready to play some football. Can I ask you another question for. we go to break. Yeah. What are these elements in your life that you've used this advice? Oh, that's a great question. Thank you. Because you were like, Greg told you, like, to think about things. What is the excellent about? Okay. This will be a longer, you could be a longer podcast.

I cook several meals. I'm serious. Okay. I cook a little chicken. I cook a little pasta. I'm like, am I actually, am I actually like crushing anything? What am I? So now you just cook one meal. I haven't done. No, because the kids don't want to, if you want to really dial in on something, I'm trying to get good and like chicken thighs with rice. I'm just, I'm trying to, chicken thighs right now. That's not going to be. That's not going to be. It is. I'm bringing in. And fries. That will please Billy in on. I'm talking about being excellent. I'm like, oh, this is my thing. Come to my house. I do this. I do a mango salad bowl. That doesn't sound good. It's great.

Nothing worse than a mediocre mango salad bowl. If you do a mango salad bowl, it better be delicious. It's great. The mangoes carry it. A little grilled shrimp. Throw some cilantro on that? I want an average mango salad bowl. That was supposed to be about Jordan Love.

Jalen Hertz projected to have the 15th best season for a quarterback in a new top 100 poll at ESPN. Overall, he was number 97. Sam, Donald was 100. I can't even. He was also number 15. 56 in the NFL top 100. And in Mike Sandoz, QB poll, he was QB 17.

QB 17 in Sandos poll. You've recently come around. Well, hold on. Don't get ahead of yourself here. But it feels like you've been chatting up the Eagles all of a sudden. Well, I do like the Eagles to pick the Eagles win the NFC East. And saying all offseason, they could be the number one seat or they could struggle. And I'm leaning more towards number one seed.

So that's all true. The question is, What can Jalen Hertz do to change how he's viewed in all these polls and outside of the Philadelphia region? Brew, I think he has two distinct paths. I think they, and this may be obvious commentary, but I think either of these, I don't think he has to do both. I think because of his track record, if he does either of these things, he jumps significantly. Because his resume says these are outrageous. His resume says where he's ranked is outrageous.

So I think if either, he has a statistically awesome year. You know, I don't even mean 40 touchdown passes, 32 touchdown passes. 4,000. 4,000 yards passing, you know, a good passer rating. And the team goes 10 and 7 and loses in the first playoff game. But he has, you know, he's on, it bruise ballot for MVP at some point in the year because of his individual numbers. I think we'd be like, okay, guy wins every year.

Now he's put together the passing year. You know, he's in that top, call it eight. You know, the top five argument in there. Or if they go to the Super Bowl again, it just, I don't care if he throws for 2,000 yards. If it's like, hey, I've been to three of the last five Super Bowls, guys. You know what I've been to the playoffs every single year. I think either one of those things and the resume becomes undeniable. I think the resume right now is great,

but there's enough weird stuff for the supernatural funk and the way the offense just shut down at different parts last year that you can nitpick it. I think either of those things. I agree with you for the most part, but I think his brand is winner. All right. Yeah, huge stats, nine and eight, ten and seven, huge stats, that would be fine.

But it's not prolific passer. It is winner. So I don't even think he has to get to the Super Bowl. He throws for his, I don't know, typical it's up and down sometimes, but 3,600 yards, a good TD to interception ratio. 21 touchdowns. And they go, as you predicted, 13 and 4 and make just the NFC championship game. I think that's enough where, okay, he did it without A.J. Brown. This is what he does.

He just wins. I think that's enough outside of, like you said, just ridiculous numbers. the numbers have to be there. The stats, they have to be there. If they win? Because, and again, every since you talk to mom, his mom,

ran to his mom down to the Super Bowl a few years back, you've been very kind of tiptoeing on. I haven't been tiptoeing. You kind of have been. I have not been tiptoe. I'm going to be honest. The player's mother tells you they think you're being unfair. You take that furiously and you want to make sure.

And mom, I understand. You speak. You speak too. He's been the most wide receiver take. No. He is definitely a winner. I agree with you. I don't think anybody would say

Jalen Hurts is not a winner. He's been the beneficiary of really good teams. Really, really good teams. So now I want to see who are you? Because there was a period in Lamar Jackson's career

where I sat right here and I'm like, as a receiver, a former receiver, I wouldn't want to go and play with Lamar Jackson because I didn't believe in who he was. passer at the time. Now that has changed. Why? Because

Lamar changed it. And you saw Zay at 35 million. I'm like, my God, what could I am. He changed that. He worked on his in pocket, his accuracy, all those things. He changed the narrative. Jalen Hertz has the same opportunity to change the narrative. We understand that you can

win with a really good roster and really good executive front office and all the things. But what we have not seen, you almost prolific passer, can we see that? Can we see you be awesome? Is that who he is? Well, can it, can you be that?

Because we will excuse him as long as, well, the Eagles, they really haven't leaned into their running game. They haven't got, they're not able to get their running game going. So the passing game. When do we say that with Joe Burrow? When do we say that? When do we say that with Dak Prescott just got a running game? When do we say, we don't say this with, with quarterbacks that we truly believe that they can carry their team in terms of the passing game. We don't do that.

We don't, we don't excuse them. So the argument to support your argument that has to be stats is the, I know you've comped him to Terry Bradshaw, but I've comped. Who had, didn't have you. And they kept winning. It won four Super Bowl. I've always comped into Russell Wilson. And Russell Wilson

got more respect when Seattle was losing in round one of the playoffs going 10 and 6, but he led the league and passer rating or came close to it. This is true. You know what I mean? Post-Legion of Boom. That might be a flaw in Russell Wilson's career trajectory. Oh, I don't know.

I think at the end, he got a little high on his own supply, and that was a flaw. But if Jalen Hurts, be the Jalen Hertz non-numbers guy, if Vic Fangio, I'll take a random, commanders, they open up in the commanders, if Vic Fangio is like, hey, we're going to get after Jaden Daniels, this team is not going to score, you know, if you get us to 17, we got you. Just don't turn the ball over and get us 17 and we got you. Like, and that's kind of the game plan. Are you still, do you still want to be like, no, I got to get, I got to put three touchdown.

I got to air it out knowing that's Washington can't put up points unless you put the ball in danger. I agree with that. I agree with that. That's a one game scenario and all. But if that's, if that's how we're going to go about the entire season and it's like, okay, our defense is going to have to be shut down, lockdown defense and we're going to have to lean into our running game to open up our passing game because just yesterday

you were saying addition by subtraction with AJ Brown. You have them winning the division. So if you have them winning the division, you clearly feel like he's one of the better quarterbacks within that division, if not the best quarterback in that division. I'm not saying that's what you're saying. But you're basically saying

he's going to be awesome. What I'm saying is you have a young receiving corps, a veteran guy obviously in Devante Smith. It has to be on you now. We can't, we're not going to give you the excuse of AJ Brown's in the building. He's making all these noise. He's chattering. And then we're not going to give you an excuse of Nick Siriani is just doing whatever he does. You've dealt with all these things.

I'm not going to give him an excuse of he has a new coordinator. He's had that every year he's played going back to, we know all these things. Now all we want to see. All I want to see is Jalen Hertz just be flat out good. Forget it. If he throws with 3,500, Yard. Last year was Jalen Hurts good? 12. Last year was Jaylen Hurts good. Not necessarily. But throughout his career, he did not get carried to the Super Bowl wins. He was the driving force, particularly in those games.

I don't know. I don't know that I agree was the driving force. In that there was a game. He was awesome in the Super Bowl. In that game, yes. In the game that they lost, in the, in the Super Bowl run that they had that they lost, in that year, he had some awesome games where he was coming back. It was like he was clutch. We were saying, man, Jalen hurts his clutch.

Every since then, it's been few and far into it. I don't see him being a Joe Verro. The Super Bowl that they won, I felt like the driving force was the Eagles' defensive line. Yes. I feel like they. Yeah, I'm talking about that. Yeah. No, he was outstanding.

He was outstanding. But if you were asking me, the story of that game was the Eagles destroying the chiefs offensive line in Mahomes. But that's not the point that I understand what you're saying, and I know we have to go dust. I get the point you're making. What I was really just trying to do was, I don't even know if changing how he's viewed is good or important. But the evidence is, in order to do it, it is either the winning becomes so overwhelming that's undeniable. I do agree.

Or he pops with the numbers. Because Russell Wilson finally, he had got the Super Bowl ring, been to another one. And then the numbers came. People like, hey, did you know Russell Wilson's ever got an MVP vote? Holy moly. He checks every other box. All right. Predictions week, AFC and NFC West next.

He is. He can't stop. 100%. He can throw the ball, man. Slaggy. Wait till we still. It's true. Bruce, some of those highlights of Tyrae Shooks.

Okay. We can ask Cam Jordan about that. By the way, the audience is never talking about Tyler Shuck during the break. That's how dialed into ball we are. We're talking about Tyler Chuck during the commercial breaks. You're a sleep routine. Not anymore. They're just like the darlings of the NFC South.

Second hour, first things first. Today, predictions week headed out west. Chiefs, Rams, and the Super Bowl champs. We could shock the world with some of these predictions. Could shock the world. Well, yeah. I mean, I don't think any of us are picking the Raiders or the Cardinals to win these divisions. So I don't think the shock the world.

Also, just warning, everybody better lock in on Bo Nix and the Broncos. All right. Sean Payton is paying attention. Meanwhile, friend of the show, Cam Jordan, joins us to talk about its quarterback. This is a nice little team. This phrase gets thrown around in the media far too liberally. But with Cam Jordan is correct. Future Hall of Fame.

Yes. It is a, in the NFL, it gets thrown. I had to watch the last three years. Jason Witten's crew. They're like Future All of Fame I'm like, well, that is college? Cam Jordan, it's true. Yes. Future all Jason Witton. Like, what? Catching straight.

I just trying to enjoy first things for a car. Heck. Headed to the AFC West with a Broncos snatched the division and the Arrowhead Invitational, which was held in Snowy Denver last year. Justin Herbert. That was a hell of a game. Has reloaded with a new coach and O.C. And the Raiders raised them

with a new coach OC and QB. So Nick, as mentioned, You could pull off a shocking. Well, remember last year. Last year, I did have a shocking development. AFC West Day of Predictions Week when I had the Las Vegas Raiders. That was making the playoffs, finishing second. Dial down the shot.

They were my deep sleeper last year. Ashton Genty. Ashton Genty. Instead, they fired Pete Carroll and they got the number one pick of the draft. Am I going to step on that rake again? Wow. Who knows? I know.

Well, the answer is no. The Raiders. Last place. Three and 14. And remember, we don't have to give records, but I'm going to, and they will add up to 272 and 272 if you're pulling all together. They don't have, I don't, everyone's like, oh, when does windows are going to start? When he's going to start, who's he going to throw to other than Brock Bowers?

Their receiving room leaves a lot to be desired. Genties already banged up. They still might trade Max Crosby. I don't like any of it. They're in a brutal division. They're 3 and 14 there in the last place. in third place and missing the playoffs. Ooh.

Everyone's offseason darling for the last decade. No way. The Los Angeles Chargers. Wow. Listen, I think the Chargers, I can't believe you're shocked by this. Listen, I don't think they're going to be terrible. I had them, I believe, going nine and eight. But I don't know if you saw the news today, Greg.

Jim Harbaugh is like, hey, guard by. committee? What if we platoon our guards? Meanwhile, Biotish is out. I don't think they have a single stud at skill positions. Jesse Minter is going to revamp the Ravens defense, so why is the Chargers' Deven's not going to miss him? And oh yeah, by the way, can we show you their schedule? Weeks three through ten, how's this work for you? Bills, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans, Ravens. Round week nine, ten is when we're going to start hearing, guys, year eight's the year, Justin Herbert pops. And so listen, I think

guys, they miss the playoffs and I think they're going to feel like, man, oh, a summer of love and a fall of disappointment. You hate when that happens, but that is what you feel like we're going to be seen.

Love in his eyes. He does have love in his eyes. So, listen, I think they missed the playoffs. I think they win nine games, and I think that We're going to, just like last year, it was, if only they had their tackles this year, it's going to be like, you see the pressure up the middle. Nothing's worse than pressure up the middle. Now, last year, I also famously had the Broncos missing the playoffs. I believe I had them finishing in last in the division.

I mocked Sean Payton. Don't reveal the Broncos thing yet. It is the Broncos' story. But I don't know. You see if there's a playoff stamp or not. Down, the devil's the, you know, glass half empty for the Broncos. They played 17 games in the regular season last year like everyone. They trailed in 15 of them.

They trailed in 15 of their games. They had a historically good record in one score games. John Franklin Myers is gone and Jonathan Cooper's on the exempt list. Who knows when he'll be back? However, even though he is not my cup of tea personality-wise, they do have a good coach in Sean Payton. They have an awesome home field advantage. They have an awesome offensive.

line and they have at the very least a very clutch quarterback. And because of that, I have the Denver Broncos going 11 and 6 and making the playoffs. The Broncos are the number two seed in the eight, not the number two seed, but the second team and they make the playoffs. And that brings us to a team that is simply just one, nine of the last 10 AFC West titles, the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that everyone's worried about the defense. We were going to do this segment earlier. I'm going to do a little spoiler here.

You know, my pick for defensive player of the year was going to be Chris Jones. Really? All of a sudden, does he have someone next to him? Yeah, Peter Woods, who was projected to go in the top five of the draft 14 months ago. And they got him in the late first round. They've got R. Mason Thomas as another edge coming around the other side. And then Mansour Delane, top six pick or number six pick at corner. Here's why I think that matters.

If we show the chief schedule, what you are going to see is, other than Justin Herbert, all the great quarterbacks they face, it's late. Allen, Stafford, Burrow, May, I'll include him in that, Herbert and 17. So you're going to have three months for this young defense, the young secondary, to learn Spag's scheme to get his feet underneath them, before you really get thrown into the quarterback caldron fire. I think Dale and Jones, we too. I think they're going to go 12 and 5.

Keep in mind prior to last year, they had won 90 regular season games in the previous seven years. Twelve wins was below their average. And then, of course, you also have Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker, but more importantly, if we can go to the full shot for everyone,

you have Patrick Mahomes back. And what was Patrick Mahomes doing KW over the summer? Rehabing and golfing, I saw. What was he doing over the summer? Caught some Royals games. What was he doing over the summer? Sorry. Dancing at a wedding.

We have no evidence. Oh, really? Patrick Mahomes. Dancing at Travis and Taylor's wedding. That's not the garden. And starting week one. And we're turning Kansas City to the top of the AMC West. As I promise.

Who knows? I just know that Patrick Mahomes dancing at a wedding as promise. We let's not zoom in too far on that because it's fine. That's good. That is the garden. He's not worry about the detail of the pictures.

Phones were embargoed at the wedding. Everyone who was there knows that. That's it. There it is. So the Chiefs back atop the AFC West. Greg. I am proud of you with putting the Broncos, putting some respect on the Broncos. They earned it.

I'm going to focus on your Chiefs winning the division. Yeah, that's a crazy thing. They will not win the division. Oh, yeah. Why would the Chiefs ever win the AFC West? and shockingly, I think the Chiefs are going to miss the playoffs. Oh, my goodness, great. Yeah.

Throwing boulders right away. I'm here for it. When I look at this team, do I feel like they are going to bounce back eventually? I do. But to bounce back and have it all be on the shoulders of a quarterback that is coming off of ACL injury that you didn't truly support him in the passing game the way that you were possibly hoping or at least I felt like you needed to and who am I, right? You did support them in the running game.

We will see what that looks like because we're just automatically anticipating, well, the running game is going to be amazing now. The running game is going to carry it. Well, if it doesn't, then that guy who's dancing at the wedding is going to get a little anxious and you know what's going to happen. He's going to start pressing again. And when he presses, he starts to go back to the old Patrick Mahomes. Footwork isn't as great.

And he tries to force and do things on his own. Now, he is fantastic. One of the best in the game, I truly believe that. I just think that I don't believe that they did enough for him offensively for this team to be better than a couple of those teams in that division, that being the Broncos and the Chargers. Okay. Greg's full predictions on Friday. I like that, Greg. All right.

Number four, we know. Yeah. The Raiders. I mean, it's all about changing the culture, which they can, and Mendoza learning either on the bench all year or in the second half of the season playing the game. So we'll see. Now, hold it up.

Don't put it on yet, Dusty. I think, well, just throw it up. Okay. The Chiefs in third, but now maybe, interesting. Maybe Greg, maybe at the end of the season, I'll say, you know, Greg had the guts that I didn't have. Because I'm not totally mad at that.

You have the Chiefs in the Patriots. It's fighting for the final playoffs. That week 15 game, I think the Chiefs beat the Patriots, and that determines which of those two make the playoffs. So that's why I went with them. The schedule is kind of light for them. Light early and then it's tough way. So I got them sneaking in.

Squeaking in. Wow. Number two, Denver. All right. The defense is going to be great. We know that. I think Bo Nix is going, look, I love getting Jalen Waddle. I think Knicks, we know he's clutch,

but I think he's going to play much better in the first three quarters. I'm not saying he's going to be one of the top five quarterbacks in the league, but I think he plays well. And then obviously, I'm high on the charge. I really am high on the charge. I think hardball is excellent. I get it that Biotish is out, and I hate that. But they do, at least we think, going to have their two starting tackle.

Slater, he'll be back. Look, I agree they don't have like a superstar skill position. The running backs are good. I like their running back. And the receivers are good. They're not awesome, but I think they'll be good enough. And that defense, yes, mentors a big loss, but

hardball's always had good defenses in the NFL himself. So, look, McDaniel, maybe I'm giving him too much credit. No, you've... But Tua led the league in passing with Mike McDaniel. obviously Herbert's got great talent.

I think McDaniel and Herbert are going to be great together. And if Herbert's not great, like, it's just like, okay, you're not that guy. But I expect Herbert to be in the MVP conversation. Seriously. Look, we got the Chiefs in the same spot. But I want to focus on the Broncos. Like, I love that you guys are putting some respect on the Broncos. Who won this division last year?

The Broncos. Okay, yeah, the Broncos. and they will probably do it again this year. I think we underestimate who the Broncos really are because we focus on how they won and the fashion of which they won. It's hard to win games. It was just like back in the day,

like only one game on a week and you open up the paper. You're like, who won? Like, wow, they won again. The fact that it's on TV really hurt. They definitely have some bad looking wins. They definitely did. And it's hard to win those closed games every year.

Their running game, when J.K. Dobbins was healthy. It was top 10. It was seventh in the league. Once he got hurt, it ballooned to 21st. They couldn't really run the ball, so they couldn't really be who they wanted to be. If they are able to get back to that, which I believe that they will, this team is going to be fantastic again. I know they lost some player or they lost John Franklin Myers and, you know. And Cooper's on the exemplary.

They may lose him for the year. We'll see. But they still have a bunch of players on that side of the ball that can get done. Back in their show's good graces. All right. On to the NFC West with the champs reign in Seattle, but the Rams have won the offseason headlines. The 49ers have definitely lost.

Also, the Cardinals. Nick, who do you have in the NFC West? All right, well, listen, everybody's going to have the Cardinals in last place. I am going 3 and 14. They might be the worst team in the league, and they definitely have the league's toughest schedule. They have 12 games this year against Rams, Seahawks, Niners, Lions, Broncos, Cowboys, Chiefs, Eagles, Chargers.

Rough one. And Jeremiah Love's already hurt. They're in last place. Coming in third at 8 and 9. Don't blame me, blame the substation. The San Francisco 49ers, so many injuries. I don't trust the wide receivers. I think they will miss Robert Sala,

and they press the CMC button so many times last year. I'm just worried they're going to. to be that he's going to have diminishing returns this year. Before we reveal my second place team, I would like to tell a quick story. So we were on vacation for the last couple weeks, and I, as I try to do every year, spent just a couple days in the beautiful principality known as Monaco, amazing cars, beaches, gambling, just kind of a happy place. also has a stunning amount of just objectively gorgeous people.

Just men and women that you can tell have been good-looking their whole lives. And you would see some of these people, Greg, you're like, okay, I think, you know what, you're a little older, I get it, you had a little work done. No problem. To each their own. But then you'd see some people, and you'd be like, you had a little work done, then you had a little more work done. You're like, you know what, I look so good.

I'm going to get even more work done. And at some point, it's like, I see what you were trying to do, but you got a little greedy and you went a little too far. That feels like Aaron Donald to the Rams. I'm not saying, I'm not saying, it feels like a little, like, it's, I get the idea and I'm not comparing Aaron Donald to a BBL. I'm saying that. I'm just saying, I understand why you thought, like, why not? Like, if this is good, that's better. It feels a little too much.

With that said, like I said, still great looking. 11 and 6 in the playoffs, but not quite as good as everyone expects them to be. And then I'll just say the team that won the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks, I think they're gonna go 14 and 3. And aside from losing Super Bowl MVP, Kenneth Walker, is a massive loss. I don't know why they won't be awesome again.

They were dominant all of last year. And I do think one element we haven't discussed, Darnold has played his whole career with different things hanging over him. Is he a bust? Is he ever, you know, is he ever going to get a big contract? Then finally, once a team believed in him, still, like in Seattle, is he going to crumble in the big spots? Pumpkin mode.

I don't know who came up with that. Does, do we see post-Super Bowl win a free Sam Darnold where he actually is better than we've ever seen him before? It's certainly on the board. Huh. So I think Seattle, 14 and 3 and the number one seed again. That is my NFC West, Greg. Wow, that would be a fantastic run for just personally Sam Darno. Three straight, 14 win seasons.

That would be unprecedented. But since this is prediction week, the Rams, I feel like this is your way of kind of setting up what we have come to know as the mail delivery. No, no. Oh, yeah. Wilde says that's done this year. We have not, we have some creative meetings. And we said, you know what? No more lipstick on envelopes.

What worked, what did you? Wild says that wasn't a good bit. I really feel like the only reason why you have the Rams second is so that you can do that bit. Well, if I was, honestly, if the, I wish that were true because I love, it's not a bit. I mean, I was flirted with the Rams for years. I slid them drinks, did a lot. We had, you know, don't. You don't have to go.

We don't have to get into the A mortal chamber. We don't have to get into the detail of it. But Kevin Wilde put his foot down and said that bit is not going to be a part of the 22. We had some differences on that. So, but okay. All right. Brew. All right.

Well, look, like Nick said, we all know who's finishing last. Poor Cardinals. The Arizona Cardinals. I do want to see what Jeremiah loved us. Like, obviously, preseason is preseason. but, you know, he had his moments there. What's the overrunner on the car? It's like four or three and a half?

I think it's four and a half. That might, eh. You might. Four and a half. Okay, they might have five. It was three and a half. I think the only three and a half is Miami. Maybe I like that a lot.

I'm not sure to be honest, but go ahead. I do want to see Jeremiah. It might be three and a half. At number three, great year last year, but this team we know it's, they're not above a bad season. Wow. It's just starting. What a betrayal.

Like I said, with the Packers, it's starting off so badly. Half the team is hurt. It's the Niners. And I don't have them in the postseason. Now, I would be pleasantly surprised if Brock went out there and cooked. I don't put this on Brock. I just think the team in and of itself. I mean, really, like, they're just making.

And I agree with Nick. They're going to miss Sala. Like, he kept that defense together last year. I think he's going to be rough. All right. Here's where Nick and I disagree. I've got Seattle. Look, I still got them making the playoffs, but I have them second. And I just think they're going to be a little not quite as good as last year.

Greg, I think it's kind of natural. They just won a Super Bowl. Now, McDonald's great. Yes. But just won a Super Bowl, you know, you do that, you relax. Maybe you don't even do it consciously. But subconsciously. Hard knocks feels like they're being locked in.

Okay, yeah, it always feels that way. Wait until week one. I'm just saying. I'm on your team. All right. And then I got the Rams. I mean, look, I don't see Nick how that Eric, like, even if Donald isn't what he, like, it can't hurt him. It can't hurt.

Is there any way it can hurt that Donald's. You know what? That's what they all think. Like, if he's not what he used to be, how in the world can hurt? It can't. This guy is the whole world. So for me, really quick, the Seattle Seahawks, like you have him won. or I'm sorry, you have them two.

You have them one. The thing that I feel like with the Seahawks is you say Sam Donald can have, can play free. There also is a world in which Sam Donald can actually get back to a version. I don't think he will ever get, I don't think he will ever go down to as bad as what we saw him early in his career. But I do think there's a world where he comes back down to earth. And he's not winning at the clip that he's won in the last couple. Is this the first time he's playing with expectations?

Oh, no. Oh my goodness! Did I not call this? Wilde has despondent beside himself. I'm proud of this. You gotta read it. Those are nice flowers. It's from the Rams.

I'm shocked. No one likes this bit. Gianna told me the audience doesn't like it. audience doesn't like it and Ben from audience research. Really? Yes. Well, you're, tell Christina she's the one who gets the mail. It's not my fault.

Wow. There's a little. There's more lipstick on there. There are lips on it. What a dissolve, Rick. Hi, Nick. Wow. We meet again.

If it isn't another season of playing hard to get, that's just great. I guess that night we spent together in January meant nothing to you. Jeez. Seattle wins one little game and you jump ship. Listen here. You have until Friday to make this right or you lose us forever. Wow.

Wow. With lips. So it's a little bit of a... Insincerely the Rams. Wow. If you're new to the show, Nick pretends to have a relationship with the Rams. With the Rams that he met at a hotel bar. It's not with the Rams.

It's not with the Rams. Across the Rams to the Super Bowl. I'm sorry. Just kidding, people. We have new viewers. It's a relationship with a take. It's a relationship with the Rams to the Super Bowl take. Yes, and you flirt with it and you buy it drinks.

Two years ago, I picked the Bears to make the Super Bowl. The Bears were eliminated by November. I had to switch. I flirted with the Rams. I went with them. Last year I picked the bucks to make the Super Bowl. They didn't make the playoffs. I flirt with the Rams.

I went with them. At some point, the Philadelphia Eagles, I picked them, and then they threw drink in my face. Yes, that's just getting you caught up to speed in previous episodes, first things first. Friday is the day I picked the Super Bowl. Yes, so we'll see what happens. Just because I have the Rams that not winning the division doesn't mean I won't pick them and go to the Super Bowl. Rams to the Super Bowl. It's on the board.

Check your direct messages. Out of the Future Hall of Famer on the show. A sudden straight, Cam Jordan. And the now trendy. Cam Jordan just watched all this. Now trendy saints. Greg wants to come out of retirement like Aaron Donald and join the team. That's next.

Joining us now, friend of the show, entering his 16th season in New Orleans and a trendy new playoff pick, The Saints. It's Cam Jordan currently recovering from a hamstring. 2026, year of the hamstring. I made it started with Luca Donchick. You could take a trip to Spain, I believe. It didn't help.

Right. No, the ham helps. It didn't help. Yes, the ham. They got some stuff over Europe. How is the hamstring? He gives us an update. Man, we're going along fast. You know, I think I'm beating the timeline.

Now, do I fully beat the timeline? Yes, but by how much? That's the answer that where I'm fighting for. Cam, we're going to talk about a bunch of stuff, so I will start off talking about your career personally, and then we can open it up. I think the first time you were on the show was eight years ago. Like, honestly, we were still in the old studio.

We were on in the mornings, and I remember mentioning to you the list you were on about you had X amount of sacks at that point in your career and that it was a potential Hall of Fame trajectory. You have now played as long since that interview as you had played up to that point. If you have seven sacks this year, your top 10 all time. If you have eight sacks, you're the seventh person ever with 140 in your career. Your dad played 13 years in the league. I remember you joking about wanting to play longer. than he did. You did that a few years ago. I know you're chasing a Super Bowl ring,

but how much of you continuing to play is you trying to see, you know, how far you can set this standard and how far you can run these numbers up? Yeah, I mean, the ultimate goal is always a Super Bowl, especially when you enter a locker room where you have, you know, Tyler Shutt that took over at the end of the last year and showed so much promise.

And I was like, you know, you look at a team like, we might have a cornerstone, you know, no, we might have a face of our franchise. And you're like, okay, let's see how far, you know, we feel in the offseason. And this off season, I felt great the entire time. It might have been one of those off seasons that I felt my best at. So it played a major role in playing the game. If I feel like I could play at a high level, which 10-and-a-half-sack season last year, we'll take that.

If I could do that, if I couldn't even get close to that again, well, I'm a love where I'm at. But also, it's more along the lines of how can I help the team? How can I help push Chase Young into being an all-pro player? because he's on the cusp of that the way he was playing last year. He comes in last year, what, 10 sacks 12 games? You get a fully healthy season from him

with the motivated way that he played last year, inspiring, if you will. And let's see where it takes us as a defensive line, as a defense and as a team. Cam, you mentioned, look, you're playing for that Super Bowl ring. We had Howie Long on yesterday. He said you guys were one of his sleeper teams

in the NFC. Obviously, your quarterback, Tyler Shuck has to be great for you guys to do that. You mentioned Chase Young. Tell us about Shuck how good he looks to you and how confident you are that you guys can indeed, your division is wide open. Like all the teams are obviously close together.

How confident are you that you guys and why do you think you guys can be the team to prevail in that division? First, I'm going to take my team versus anybody, and that's just who I am. Second, you look at our division. I like Tyler Shuck. If you say the quarterbacks are Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay, Falcons, you look at their situations.

I like us. If you look at our receivers, who doesn't like Chris Alave? You look at Devon Velle, the way he played when he came to our team last year, why wouldn't you like that? You look at, you know, a backfield. If you had, say, AK and Travis H.N., why wouldn't you like that backfield? You look at our defensive line, and you look at Carl Grannison, Chase Young. You know, you look at Devon, God, Chowell.

out what says you don't like our defensive line? I love us versus anybody. And that's just until, you know, and it's always going to be words until we put our helmets on until we get across the line scrimmage next Sunday and we figure it out. The grid aren't to figure out where we belong. And let's leave it at that.

All right. The Saints are the Sleeper Team. The Rams are the favorites. Aaron Donald just got his deal done. They added Miles Garrett. They made their secondary better. What was your reaction when you've, found out, and again, it wasn't just like, it was official, but he kind of, the writing was

on the wall. What was your reaction when you found out Aaron Donald was back? Hey, you know, if it makes sense, it makes sense. You saw what he did two years ago. What? He left, he left with a Super Bowl championship. He left with over 100 sacks. And now you pair him up with guys like, you know, what, Big Kobe, Big Kobe Turner in the middle. You guys got Fisk in the middle. You got another Puna Ford in the middle. And then let alone you bring him, Miles Garrett, and you have Byron Young over there. It's already one of your top defensive lines, and you then add up one of the greatest players of,

if not the greatest player of our current generation, you know, of defensive linemen of our generation. And then you add them to that, come on. I mean, it's already like, okay, Rams, nobody's ever like, oh, the Rams need help. And then you bring in former Thanos. So can you give us a little kind of, not necessarily X's nose,

but a little nitty-gritty from an edge ruffer perspective of when you have someone on the interior that demands that type of attention, what it opens up for you, because I think a lot of people are very interested in Miles Garrett, who like yourself, I think it's fair to say future Hall of Famer, what after playing, you know, without a lead and where he is the main attraction or the thing everybody's looking to stop, what he looks like on a team playing with the lead and with potentially Aaron Donald Rollins. side. Right. I mean, those are scary hours. When you think about, you know, you've got multiple guys on the D-line that should command a double team, right? You look at Miles Garrett, you have to double

him. You have to chip nudge. But you look at if Aaron Donald's anything of form, you will have to try and double to him. You look at Byron Young, the season that he had last year, you're going to want to chip him out. Like, so someone's catching one-on-ones, and guess what? They can win their one-on-ones easily at any position. So things that Aaron Donald really hasn't had is another, DPOI on the line. I mean, that's just rare air in general. Do you think the,

he's actually, you're older than Aaron Donald. He only played 10 years. Do you think the two years off will kind of make his, be good for his body and he'll kind of come back basically like he was

or do you think it'll be more rust and you just can't take that much time off and come back and be what you used to be? No, I assume there's going to be rust. You can't just take two years off from this game and be like, hey, I'm back in my prime. But at the same time, he has enough of a stalwart defensive line

where they can get him back to where he's supposed to be. And in three games from now, that rust is going to be off. So, I mean, the way you look at it, I'm sure the Rams have a plan for him. The man is at two years off to where, you know, as a defensive line, you're in the trenches, your body hurts. Like, just the continual hits that you take, The fact that he's splitting double teams, he's in the middle of the trenches, you know his body hurt.

That means that said, two years off, he probably feels it was great. We've all seen Aaron Donald's workouts. You know what I'm saying? We've all seen him, the muscle hamster in his environment, just lifting the gym. He outlifting Jared verse when he came over to the spot. We've all seen it. We know he's staying in phenomenal shape. There's a difference between workout shape and football shape, and he knows that.

But if he says he's good, I trust it. I trust that a defensive player of the year. I trust that a, what, eight-time, nine-time pro bowler knows what it takes to get them back in shape. Media critique. Wow. Okay. I saw you were with Edelman and you were like, assacks are overrated. And you talked about the benefits of stopping the run.

Do you think the media could do a better job? Because if we're going to show defensive highlights, we're showing, you know, we saw Mahomes getting sacked and Josh Allen getting sacked and Aaron Rogers getting. sack. It just makes for a better visual as a, hey, look at this defensive play. How do you think we can do a better job highlighting what you think is important as a defensive player? I don't think you can. I mean, it's like watching the offense, right? You don't turn in to see, hey, you see Devante Adams block this edge or chip this linebacker. No, you like when Devante Adams scores touchdowns. You don't want to see Chris Olive just like going out on a flag route where he doesn't get the ball. You know what you want to see.

We will show it. A flag round, like, this is the play. Hey, when I go to a steakhouse, I don't be like, hey, how are you cooking my steak? No, I want to see it done. You don't order the syset? You know, that's what I'm saying. Like, if I go, if I get a red fish, I don't want to see you catch it. I want to see how it hits my

plate on the half shell. That's our sizzle. Cam, your former coach. Coach Sean Payton, our former colleague at Fox, has a different personality than most coaches. It's a little brasher. Talks a little more trash. He also happens to be in the division of my team,

and, you know, it's kind of rubbed me the wrong way a bit, but they also won 14 games, almost went to the Super Bowl. Probably would have gone to the... I mean, anybody with a pulse would have been in the Patriots in that game. But neither here nor there. Can you give us a, you know, not...

not some Sean Payton anecdote that explains kind of who he is and how he is. Look, Sean, it pays attention to the minutia of everything, right? It's all in the finer details of all. And that goes from the hotels you stay at to practice, of course, to, you know, whatever. But if you look at the way he walks to a hotel, he's going to walk him, like, hmm, we walk in, we've got the perfect setup. We got the hotel room here. We've got, you know, our meeting rooms here.

We've got the food here. Boom, boom, boom. perfect setup. This is exactly we wanted. If you just see the way he breaks down a hotel, at least a couple of, every year I was with him, it was he hated the hotel because something was a rye, or he loved the hotel because everything was a perfect setup, easy for the player and for himself. That's exactly how he likes his plays ran. I've seen him go up, you know, Drew Brees does something, motions. Hey, I want him. I've seen him move a right receiver literally a centimeter and a half over.

Not here. Like, yeah, that's the way I want it. Right. Do this every time. And you'd be like, there ain't no way that makes a difference. But you know what? When it works on the field, he turns around, I got 50 more plays just like him. I believe it.

All right, Saints in Detroit to open up the season. Cam, heal up. Hope to see you out there. I hope you have a great season. We'll be pulling for you. I appreciate it. Thanks, Cam. Great job.

Absolutely. More first things first. after the break. Saints are going to be good. Big noon Saturday, the kickoff, North Texas. Number six, which I think is far too high or low. You think it's disrespectful?

I think it's disrespectful. I think it's far too long. Guess what I haven't seen them losing over a year, the Hoosiers. Live from Bloomington, 10 o'clock Eastern. I'm excited for this. I think Indiana is going to pull it on. Yeah.

I do. Cowboys kickoff their season on the road against the Giants. next Sunday night. Harbaugh's defense will get the first attempt of trying to stop Dax City and George Pickens. Here's C.D. Lamb on the passing

game reaching another level. Oh, man. We could be real, real vicious together, and I know that. He knows that. And I mean, every day we strive to do it. We've had a lot of success together.

But I know there's much more out there for us. So here was how the combo did last year. A lot of yards second most by any. duo behind Amara St. Brown and Jameson. Do you expect Pickens specifically to repeat his success, Greg? So I definitely think he's going to have a successful season. Those were career best numbers for George Pickens.

And when I think about this team and what they want to be offensively, they're going to be the driving force. C.D. Lamb, George Pickens. With that being said, defensively, if you're a coordinator and you're scheming, you are now going to give him your attention. And so it's going to look different for George Pickens and C.D. Lent, specifically George Pickens, he gets the most attention? I think he will get more attention than what teams were willing to give him last year

because it was C.D. Lambs really the guy. Whereas this year going in, it's like they really got two number ones and you got to respect both. He kind of alluded to it early in camp when he was talking about teams. kind of he's seeing more double coverages and different things like that. So it's going to look different. It'll be interesting to see his adjustments that he has to make because there definitely is an adjustment going one-on-one or just seeing a clear shell coverage or a single high coverage and just knowing where the safety is and beating them versus now they're shading to

you. They're dropping a linebacker in your path, different things like that. But I do think he's going to have another successful season. I think he's going to be great. And remember, there are several games he played without. CD or a few games he played without CD last year. So I actually think talent-wise, he's the better of the two, talent-wise. Now, I know there's a lot of other stuff that comes with it, but just he's awesome,

talent-wise. And last year, for the most part, he still had those couple games where he disappeared. But he, look, he's been great in training camp, great in the off-season when they franchised him, didn't put up a fight. He knows I have to have a great season. season on the field. I have to be a good, you know, soldier off the field, on the sidelines, everything to get my big pay day. And if he does it, he's going to get paid huge. So I expect them to have a great season. And if assuming that, like I said, when Dax's healthy, he puts

up numbers. So those two, both of those receivers going to be fired. So can I, I, I want to, I want you to explain what you were saying a little bit more just so I can better understand it. So I think CED he's the best receiver on the team. I think C, I think he is the most talented. I think he's the best. But set that aside. They're both obvious. I think Pickens would have been a first round pick if he didn't have the issues.

I don't even want to call it character, but just like the extra stuff. Yeah, because that I think people were worried about. And by the way, proved to be legitimate worries in Pittsburgh. Like that was good scouting to say, this guy's a lot. He handled himself great in Dallas and handled the franchise tag, to your point, way better than most

guys would, and I think all that's positive. But I still think that if you're defending the Cowboys, CD is your primary person you want to take care of. Certainly last year, that's how it was treated, and then Pickens killed everybody. What does it mean that he's going to get more attention if it's not, he is the primary guy that teams are worried about.

Because I don't know if you're saying that he all of a sudden is overtaken CD as... They can't do it to both of them. Right, you can't. And so how does that, what does that actually mean? So really quick. So CD Lamb plays more in the slot than George Pickens. It is easier for you to double somebody on the outside

than it is for you to double somebody that's in the slot. Like you can help in the slot, but it's like you can't really assign somebody to this slide when you have a bona fide outside threat as well. Where you can help is the outside. And so George Pickens being one of those predominantly

an outside receiver outside the numbers where he lines up, that safety is going to want to help they're going to want to help out with the safety. You can help out with the linebacker buzzing out. You can help out with the deliming buzzing out. All these different looks that you can

throw at him just to make him kind of hesitate. Throw off the timing and it disrupts who and what you want to be offensively. I think that's going to happen a lot. So that was kind of led to

and I know we got to go. I wonder if the biggest impact in Pickens' 2025 season is going to be that CD has a monster 2026. A live from New York, it's first things first. Overtime.

Today is Ben Johnson have a change of heart around Caleb? I didn't see this story, Danny. Very interesting. in it. Press conference was just a couple hours ago. Fantastic sound from Ben Johnson. Said Caleb was goofy last year. That's fantastic sound. How he's changed year over year.

He's not goofy anymore. That's right. New Caleb. Very interested in that sound. I don't tell you that much. I don't think you need need. I don't think he's like, yeah, he's showing some growth. Oh, you don't think, this is another Ben Johnson. No, Ben Johnson. No, you know what? Start carving the bus. Start, uh-oh, knock, knock, knock. Wow, the first coached ever inducted into Canton and while he's still won two playoff games, two or one?

One. One, my goodness. I'm going to the other one, I guess. What else? Jordan Love, underrated, overrated. Greg Jennings, very high on the passing attack. Yeah, yeah. And finally, Predictions Week continues.

Danny shocked the world. Added a nice spice to Predictions Week. That I'll be honest with you. Was a little... No. I didn't say anything. No. The show was great before Danny got here,

and then it got even better once he got here. But his Jackson Dart take did inspire friend of the show, Bumani Jones, to text Danny and I asking Danny if Danny was using drugs. That happened 20 minutes. You did reveal confidence there, but yeah, that's all right. That text did come in.

Yeah, just happened. The answer is, of course, none of your business. Okay. Well, there you go. Okay. But right now, we're starting with the best quarterback in the world. Josh Allen. Didn't win the Super Bowl, didn't win the AFC, didn't win the MVP, didn't even win the AFC East.

No. But he is the best quarterback in the league. He won the media's hearts for the sixth straight year. According to the NFL Top 100 and a new poll from ESPN, Danny Parkins, do you agree? Of course. Of course. Honestly, I want to punch you. Well, please don't.

Of course. Please don't. It is competitive sports. That would be a bridge too far. Again, it's not competitive. It's just a good hang. It's on the table. There's a battle going in.

It's a tangle table. It's a good hangout. Oh, God. I honestly think, no, I think the only answer, okay, well, get ready, buddy, is Josh Allen. Listen, okay, do we like Jeremy Fowler's list, where he pulls 70 coaches, executives, and scouts.

I prefer Sandoz. Okay, well, he had him... I prefer the games. You prefer the games. Yeah. Okay. Sandos is in tears, right? Yeah.

He had him second. Third. It was... No, just him and Stafford were tied for second. Okay. And Fowler, so coaches, players, executives, Josh Allen won, players won. And then, I guess just to make you upset,

the numbers, like, the team accomplishments are a team accomplishment. Like, he hasn't won a Super Bowl. Has he been to one? He has not been to one. Has he been a first team all pro? He has not. Does he have the most MVPs of any current quarterbacks? He does not.

Does he have the second most MVP's of any current quarterback? He does not. Does he have the third most MVP's of any current quarterback? He does not. Okay. But those types of awards are great and they matter for legacies. But like the scouting of the quarterback, the individual skill of the quarterback, putting the ball in the end zone, that doesn't matter for your defense.

That's not about whether or not your quarterback. coach wins or loses the game. That doesn't matter about the playoffs. Let's do touchdowns for Josh Allen since 2020. He has 46 more than second place. 46. So like when you said it was an unacceptable opinion by Barnwell to have him as the all-decade quarterback of the 2020s, man, 46 more touchdown.

You would have him as the number one quarterback in the 2020s? I think that it is an acceptable opinion to judge an individual, player based on individual accomplishment and not whether or not my team wins or loses in the playoffs. Except here's the thing. The total touchdowns thing, if we were to if we were to shorten the time frame

a bit, you know who's super high on that list that you're no huge fan of Jalen Hertz? Because he runs in a bunch of touchdown. Yeah. A lot of those jobs got at the goal. And so the counts, but I'm just, no, of course they're saying. But they are, but they are not dispositive.

He is a historic touchdown score as a quarterback. And to me, that matters. 35 or more touchdowns. He has a record streak going right now if we can throw up the next graphic. It is a remarkable thing to do this year. Cubies with 35 or more touchdowns seasons. He has six straight, the longest streak in NFL history. Where does six rank all time put up the next one?

It is second to guys who played into the, their 40s, meaning if Josh Allen, at 30 years old, generates 35 or more touchdowns this year, he will be tied for the most 35 touchdown seasons ever 10 years. And that's always how we evaluated the quarterback. I just remember growing up there like, man, you know how many 35 touchdown seasons Dan Marino had? That's not. And my dad would be like, well, Joe Monta did.

You know that Aaron has mattered too. And then hold up. Sure. But the idea that we have just decided that it has to be team accomplices. No, it has to be, no, no, no, hold on a second. I love it. Because nobody is saying that he's not good. Yeah, he's been great in the playoffs.

You can say that in the wild. He has 38 touchdowns against 10 turnovers and 15 games with the winning record. You know how I know he hasn't been great in the playoffs? Because of the current starting quarterbacks who have been great enough in the playoffs to play in a Super Bowl, here's what they look like. But here, hold, no, you just gave me four minutes of the same. He scores a lot of touchdowns. Here's one way.

Here's another way. We know that. The starting quarterbacks who have started a Super Bowl, this is all of them. I at least think we have it. If we don't, I'll rattle it off the top of my head. But you're going to see, okay, there's nine guys on that list. Josh isn't on that list.

He has never once had a season where he was voted the best quarterback in the league from an all-pro perspective. Not one. You just said it's an unacceptable opinion, or not an unacceptable opinion. You said it's the only opinion that it's Josh. Why is it not acceptable to say Matt Stafford is the best quarterback in the league? Why? Because he had one amazing statistical season and the two before that were not,

whereas Josh Allen is more consistent. Wait a second. Josh Allen's two years removed from a 92 passer rating and the team turning its season around by stopping throwing the ball, firing their offensive coordinator and handing the ball off. Josh Allen does, he's not Lamar, who has had year over year awesome. statistical seasons. He isn't. He has been better, in my opinion, the playoffs than Lamar. But Josh Allen's passer rating over this run is not top five in the league.

Josh Allen's overall passing efficiency, he is a dynamic player who is in my opinion, and I've said this even when Lamar ran a lot, the most devastating running quarterback in the league, including Lamar, because of how effective he is at it. But this is the question I would have. has there ever been another point in the history of the league where we thought where the best quarterback in the league was not the quarterback

who was the most individually decorated via MVP's, was not the quarterback had never been an all-pro, first team, had never won or been to a Super Bowl. Is there ever been another time in the history of football where we're like, that's the best quarterback in the league? And the answer is no.

But for some reason, for this player who, again, I think is a great player. You think he's the second best quarterback in the league, right? He is the quarterback that I would. He is the quarterback that I would want second to Mahomes. But I think right now, if I were saying, like, I think Stafford has a very, very strong argument that he is above Josh in the current ranking, which is a different one than who would you want to have moving forward. You understand what I mean? I mean, yeah, sure.

I understand that difference. But if Mahomes and Alan are one and two, and Mahomes is coming off a year where he got hurt and he hasn't had a 30 touchdown regular season in three years, I don't think it's completely beyond the realm of possibility to say that Allen has jumped in. That seems reasonable. Look, Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league.

All right. But I get it. He hasn't had the great individual seasons recently. I'm taking Lamar over John. Now I get playoffs. Josh has been better than the playoffs. Regular season. there's no reason to put Josh over Lamar.

Look at this. This is the last three years. Dwarce him in pass a rating. You love the touchdowns. It just passes. More touchdown passes, and we know Lamar doesn't throw it a lot. And almost half, you know, Josh has twice as many interceptions almost. Completion percentage of wash.

Lamar gives you more total yards a game. Obviously yards per pass is better. And the thing with Lamar, I don't have to worry about. him making the reckless mistake that Josh will make. Now, I get it. Josh has definitely been better in the playoffs, but this, I mean, that's a playoff game. And that probably cost them that game

and his best chance yet to get to the Super Bowl when there were none of the other great quarterbacks, veteran quarterbacks, in the field. And so I just, and Nick hit it on the head. The thing that's taken Josh kind of to that next level was when two and a half years ago Joe Brady took the ball out of his hands. The last two years,

Josh Allen is averaging like 216 yards passing a game. 216. He's only throwing it 27 times of games. So we'll see what Joe Brady does this year, but they were struggling until he said, you know what, we're not going to throw it to Stefan Diggs as much. We're going to start handing it off more, get it out of Josh's hands to stop the interstom.

And that's when they've kind of taken off the last few years. So I think he's definitely the best quarterback's clearly Mahomes. But I'm going to argue Lamar ahead of it. Like Mahomes doesn't take a knock at all from the last year. He has such a huge dream. Yeah. In the playoffs, prior to last year, he scares you more than anybody. I totally get it.

But man, it's like we got to live in the now. And the now, but then I do think if Mahomes doesn't have a great individual season, this year, I think we can start to say, okay, if you want to put someone with him. So this is where I agree with you, KW. Like, this is why I find, this is why I find Danny's opinion so objectionable. Don't punch me.

Because it's one thing to say, listen, you make an argument for four guys. You can make an argument for Lamar Jackson. You can make an argument for Matthew Stafford. You can make an argument for Patrick Mahomes. You can make an argument for Josh Allen. But that's not what's currently happening. and it's not just Danny.

Everyone's just saying it's Josh. And Wilde's KW, if your point is, listen, we got to be less focused on resume and more focused on what just happened. Then it's Matt Stafford. Because Josh Allen Lester was not the league MVP. He was not close to the league MVP. But I know that you think that the media has it in

because he's captured our hearts and all of that. Do you think he also has coaches, scouts, executives, and players? Because they all also said Josh Allen is. So again. Like Jeremy Fowler's list and the player list. all voted Josh Allen, the best quarterbacked football. I'm going to tell you right now, the player list to me is a meaningless list. I don't love it either.

We just put it in the show all the time. I think Fowler's list is excellent. But what about Sandow? So in Sandow's list, it's a different 50 guys and he was right outside of it. And again, I said, I don't think it's an unacceptable opinion to say this. I think it's an unacceptable opinion to say this is the only acceptable opinion. And it is, I struggle to find a moment in the history. history of the league when someone's resume as thin as Josh's with two of his contemporaries,

one in Lamar has him far outstripped in individual accomplishments, one in Patrick, who has him far outstripped in individual accomplishments and team accomplishments, which I know don't matter. And by the way, outplays him every time they play in the playoffs, now Josh is better. I just don't. And by the way, we're coming off the single worst moment of the guy's career that got his coach fired. The last time we saw him play was the worst moment of his career. and we're like elevate him.

You're just asking how long can Patrick Coast? Josh does that have a four turnover playoff game? CJ's tried a four turnover playoff game. We're talking about the Texans moving off from him. Josh, it's elevated him. Josh also had 350 yards and three touchdowns in that game. Yeah, and they lost and that's a team problem. Four receptions and the bit bad fumble.

Predictions week headed out west. Start in the NSC. Danny, you always believed in the Seahawks. You started singing the Seahawks praises early. Earlier than everybody else. I'll give you that, Dan. But the Rams might be too good to pass up. Your NFC West prediction.

Shout out to Jacoby Brissette getting on here. Jacoby Brissette will sling it. Yeah, yeah. Sling it. He's coming in last place now. I like a few of the players on the Cardinals. I actually do think Marvin Harrison's in line for a good year. McBride's excellent.

Jeremiah loves excellent. Problem is everything else. So they are distant last in the toughest division in football. It gets interesting, though, at number three. with the San Francisco 49ers because I have them making the playoffs. Same as last year.

Same as last year. They won 12 games and basically everything went wrong. You could say everything's going to go wrong again this year, but is it going to be as bad as last year? Well, it started off just off, you know. Start off a little rough so far in the off season. It's been such a bad.

It's been a weird off season, but they also added Mike Evans. Oh, that's good. Don't get me wrong. That is good. That's trying to balance it out. And Christian McCaffrey looks like he is cleared to play at the beginning. And that was a cautionary thing during practices. And we'll see about Kittal. And they definitely have an old team that gets injured, no doubt.

But they were the third most injured team in football last year, and they won 12 games. So if they're just the 10th most injured team in football, could be an improvement. Coming in number two, everybody's super team. The Rams. I think it is going exactly how. how it went last year and it repeats. You could reveal the Seahawks. For the Rams, we've talked about them all the time,

adding Aaron Donald's amazing. It's a super team on paper. I just think people continue to overlook a Super Bowl team that blew out the Niners in their playoff game, blew out the Patriots in the Super Bowl, took two of three from the Rams, combined score 88, 85 in that spot. And the Seahawks for a Super Bowl champion didn't lose much.

A play caller, a running back, who they replayed. Boye-Maufe from their deepest position on defense and a safety in Kobe Bryant. That's not much turnover for a Super Bowl champion, so I have the Seahawks being the forgotten champions and running it back. So here's one, so I have this exact same order. The only thing I disagree with you on is I don't think the Niners make the playoffs. I do think that in the part of the preview for the Rams were because they just signed Aaron Donald or like they added Aaron Donald, I know we all know this and this works against both of our arguments they also added miles garrett which does the right McDuffie and Watson from Kansas City but I agree with you I think the sea hawks are the

I can't remember the last time a Super Bowl defending Super Bowl champion whose quarterback didn't retire was more under the not under the radar but you know more under disgust but I don't know if you guys will have them going back to the Super Bowl but you Look, it's only been Russell Wilson with them, okay. But it's typically Brady or Mahomes that only gets back into the Super Bowl. Or Seattle. Yeah. Yeah, I think they're going to be good, but I think it's asking a lot for them to be basically as good as they were last year.

All right. It's time now for the Justin Herbert portion of predictions week. We're headed to the AFC West. Danny, you could shock the world here with some of these predictions. I could. Shocked enough people yesterday. Had to mute a lot of things on social media. Really fans could be a little rough.

Coming into number four in the AFC West, I actually think it's a pretty solid foundation for a last place team. You like your center, you like your left tackle, you like your running back, you like your tight end, you like your coach, you like your quarterback. Just show that Max Crosby is healthy and then trade Max Crosby for some draft capital.

You could really have something a year or two from now in Vegas. Coming in at number three in the AFC West, Missing the playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs. I love this. I love it. Do you? Yeah, I love you guys all. This is such a strategic error by you guys.

But I had them making the playoffs. You had to make in the playoffs. Should I explain? I'd love it. I just want as much footage of this as possible. I want as much footage of the Chargers are going to be awesome and the Chiefs are going to be bad across media. Just run tapes at all times.

DVR this for us. Yes. Well, this, what day is today? September 1st. No, no, no, what day of the week? Today's Tuesday. Top 10 Tuesday. Top 10 Tuesday.

The Chiefs are going to miss the playoffs. We'll reveal all of them right now. Third youngest roster in the NFL. The other ones are the Browns and the Dolphins. We don't generally say this young. They had the third youngest roster. What they do? They won the Super Bowl.

Playmaking depth. Behind Kenneth Walker, you have Emmett Johnson and Brashard Smith. Talking about our backup running backs? I'm talking about backup depth. Who cares about your back? They're no longer invincible. One in nine and one score games. The aura of the Chiefs is gone.

Maybe it does. People aren't afraid of them anymore. Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey. Kind of old. 32, 36 years old. 12 sacks the last two years for Chris Jones total. Travis Kelsey hasn't had a thousand. Tough schedule.

Or excuse, well, I'm getting to tough schedule. Yeah. Fifth toughest in the NFL. Warren Sharps things got his 10th easiest. All we do it is Warren Sharps. Win. Win, win, percent. Last year, but you don't like, that is such dirty pool by you.

I don't like looking at last year's win percentage. You like looking at projected wins this year. That's also, who knows? Tough schedule. Yeah, tough schedule. It's an unproven secondary. Yeah. Every time, oh, we're just going to rebuild it.

Maybe you will. Maybe you won't. Do you like what's happening with Josh Simmons right now? He was at the chief's lunch in today looking great. He was eating lunch? He was at the goal. Is he ready? Is he ready?

Is he ready to take down the box in? He was there. The Broncos pass rush. The Broncos' past rush. The Broncos' week one. Missing a guy. I am a huge fan of the What's Right podcast. Today, you said if the first two words in a tweet from an NFL newsmaker are Pooka nakuwa.

We're nervous about it. Are you nervous? Is it good? What if the first two are Rishi Rice? I don't like that. Can you trust him? No, you can't. Is there a pass rush on this team?

These are all this. Not sure. And honestly, they also haven't had a top 15 offense in the last three seasons in terms of scoring points. A lot of questions. for the Chiefs. Top 10 Tuesday. Top 10 Tuesday. Bonus episode.

Coming in number two, the Denver Broncos. Listen, they returned 41 of 43 touchdowns from last year. I didn't like all the one score games. They're definitely not winning 14 games. I love the Jalen Waddle edition. Better team, worst record, just like them and the Patriots. And then, of course, coming in at number one, the Chargers. It's a very simple equation.

You have Justin Herbert. You have Jim Harbaugh. You have Mike McDaniel. You have the inevitability of Herbert's talents. You have Justin Herbert. So, all right, I just need that. That's the right word. I know we're going to, I know, I know we're going to.

I need this as part of the video. I need this as part of the video. It's going to be fine. We are, we're recording the September 1st, 2026. Yeah. Viotish is already out for the year. Yeah, I know. Right.

No, you guys should make a move. Hold on. You can't. He's already out for the year. They drag. Harball, Harbaugh today. Harbaugh today said they're going to play the hot hand. at guard.

That's how many guys they have. That's great. Options. You know all of that. I know all of it. And you're picking. So at no point this year are we going to hear about the issues on the interior of the offensive line because because we last year I felt like this happened.

Last year, Slater was already out. You picked them to be awesome. And then a month into the year, you're like, what are they supposed to do without Slater? No, no. Joe Alt got hurt and then they had the second most offensive line combinations of any team in football. And so. It looks like they might be approaching that same offensive line issue this year. But you're saying you don't care.

They're the best team. As long as Alton Slater are there with Herbert. No, no, no, no. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just can't mention Biotish anymore.

I'm not going to mention Biotish. Yeah. Put it out of the bilobility of Justin Herbert. Yeah, that's a good take. Yeah. He had 10 reasons for the chiefs. And you know why? For the Chargers, it was just like this guy that I swore was going to be good.

Oh, I see the NFL. It's going to be good. He is. He is. He's like, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. But Daniel can't believe it.

That passed to Clinton Johnson. Caleb. Nick was texting me about that past from year. And a new South of Ben Johnson. He said I was going to lead the show. And it got eight to. Yeah. Welcome back to the OT.

We got Greg Jennings hanging out. We go to Chicago, where my guy Caleb is gearing up for year two under head coach Ben Johnson. And Ben Johnson met with the media this afternoon. Was asked what he's seen from his quarterback day to day in this training camp compared to the last. And honestly, Greg, it caught my ear and it made its way into the B block.

Take a listen. I've seen a very composed person every time he steps into the building. 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. And I think his teammates feel that as well. He's taken a lot of pride in his approach. right now and it trickles down to everybody around them.

I think it's a great thing. And so I think he continues to grow up and he's going to be a huge leader for us this year. What's your reaction to that? I know how I feel about it, but I'm curious from the player perspective. Player perspective, well, just listening to it, it's a glowing compliment. It just tells you the step in the direction that Ben Johnson, your head coach and play caller believes that you're taking in terms of maturity and how you're now a lot of, you're now a approaching your job and your role on this team.

And so if you're the Chicago Bears, you love that. If you're a fan, you love to hear it. I'm certain that you do. But it also, if you're in that division and you're listening to this, is like, I mean, he didn't look too goofy like last year when he was, you know, driving with two minutes, less than a minute to go and putting together those drives. but if you are in that locker room and you are on that that sideline with them in that huddle on the practice field and you have a sense of, oh, he's a completely different guy from an approach standpoint, you automatically feel like we're going to get a better version of what the world saw last year as, man, Caleb was special, Iceman, if you will.

He is absolutely going to be electric. That's the mentality that I would have if I'm in that locker room and my coach is saying, this, I'm seeing it every single day with his approach, not talking about his play, just his approach to how he's coming to work. Yeah, you feel really good about that. So I love it. And I'm going to try to add a little bit of what I think some of the context is to it also. Because yes, in the clip he talked about how he could get a little distracted on the practice field, but now he's showing up early, making sure all of his things are done. there are blinders on and people are taking notice and he's becoming a real leader in the facility.

Caleb Williams, because I was there doing radio when he was drafted, was one of the most impressive and unicorn draft prospects I had ever covered. He had a charitable foundation that was already established when he was in college. This was a guy who was a known commodity as a grade school quarterback, right? Oklahoma, USC, Lincoln Riley, Heisman Trophy, got drafted. Who's the most famous person in your phone? He's like, I don't know, I guess Denzel. Like, I had never seen someone who I thought was, like, more ready to be a pro than Caleb Williams.

And then he still struggled. He still, the things that I heard his first year were just kind of thought it was going to be easy, didn't put in as much work as was required, was kind of falling behind on some of the install stuff. And just, like, people were kind of looking sideways at, like, this guy has all the talent in the world, but he doesn't have every bit of professional. and work ethic to match it, common among rookies. But then there was a story that came out this offseason about Ben Johnson, Sam Roshed at their rookie tight end, said that he was doing some lifting in the

office season in June. And Ben Johnson had clearly slept in the facility in June, not like Thursday after a Sunday game, like crazy coach. Like Ben Johnson's a crazy person, and I say that with affection. And I think what we are seeing is the mirroring of a coach and a quarterback. And sometimes for the greatness, the, and I'm going to use extreme examples here, Brady and Belichick, Mahomes and Reed, we wonder, like, what would these quarterbacks be if they hadn't been matched with the perfect coach to get everything out of them? And I really think that Ben Johnson's intensity, work ethic, creativity, aggression, attention to detail, has completely rubbed off on Caleb Williams's God-given, physical. ability and we are going to see a blending of 99th percentile coach with 99th percentile

physical specimen at quarterback and that's why the ceiling is so high in Chicago for the next 12 to 15 years. Yeah and it puts perspective I'm glad you went back to when he first was drafted because it puts perspective to his approach and what everybody else outside of himself was saying and what he was hearing about himself. It was always glowing. It was always uplifting. It was always always celebratory. And for the first time in probably his career or his life, outside of his parents, I don't know his personal family and things like that. But from a coaching perspective, early in his career, you heard coaches trying to kind

of praise him talk about the things that he was doing good, almost afraid to be overly critical. Ben Johnson is not afraid to criticize Caleb Williams. He didn't shy away from it ever. No. Caleb has to be better. He knows this. talked about it. Every time we had him on, it was like, you know, he was really challenging

him to be better at something for a purpose. And now when you hear him talking, it's not, he's not gloating about him. He's just identifying what you're talking about. I set the tone. From day one, Ben Johnson set the tone. And his number one priority in his focus was Caleb, because he understands if I can get my quarterback to mirror who I am and who I desire to be as a head coach and what I want our program to look like, then we'll start to have success. Everybody else in the locker room will start to follow suit, but you have to take it more serious.

And so for that, there has to be a level of excitement that he talked about the coaches being excited about it and just even with Rome. He starts talking about Romoom Duzzi being, Mr. consistency and why? The team is clearly fully bought into Ben Johnson. They are. And this is a young team. Again, we have to remind, this is a young team with, especially on that side of the

football, very young. And when you start hearing things like this, it typically allows you to trend in the right direction, which is upward. All right. Let's talk about your team and stay in the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers. Jordan Love impressed last season with over 3,300 passing air. It's 23 touchdowns. But head coach Matt LaFleur said, you know, there's something else that makes Jordan Love special.

Albert Breer in Sports Illustrated had a great piece this morning. And he writes, Love's coach Matt LaFleur now says that Love is the best he's ever been around setting protections, which illustrates why the macro of the 27-year-old as a quarterback has come as far as it has. Hard work, smarts, football instincts have turned these situations from problems into areas love can manage, where the Packers now feel like they've got an advantage over their opponent's defense. So Greg, the question is, are we overrating the Packers? And the thing I've wanted to figure out about the Packers is because I, excuse me, are we underrated the Packer? Underrating, underrating.

I know you're not overrated. Yeah, no, that's not something that I tend to do. My apologies, underrating the Packers. That makes more sense. My question is, like, I think they are a Super Bowl contender. I think their ceiling is very high. The thing that I have struggled with with Jordan Love has been, why doesn't, the production of the team

match the obvious talent that he has and I want to throw some numbers at you. This to me is an interesting last year, the best passer rating, the best touchdown interception ratio, he was throwing it down the field, he was aggressive, he was completing passes,

he wasn't turning the ball over, but they weren't scoring. It felt like he wasn't capitalizing on his talent, red zone, the Tucker Kraft injury, maybe you'd point to third downs. It's like I have my own theories on it, but it's why I can't completely get there with him. It's like, I see the talent, but I don't see the production match the talent. So one of the things that when I watched him last year, they did.

They stalled out a lot. They had some great opening drives. They had some great drives throughout the course of the season, but then they would stall out and settle for field goals. And one of the things that I noticed, and kind of over the course of his career, he's always been pretty consistent. Like he's been accurate. He's shown that he has a level of calm and poise in the pocket. Even when he first took his start, his start snaps under center. And last year, like his passer rating, and I got a graphic for you, in the wins, it's, this is where

he will start to take the next step. Because his right, his quarterback rating in wins, or I'm sorry, his passer rating and wins, and, in, and, one, 14. It's been great. It's been awesome. In the losses, it's like, okay, you are a part of the reason why we're losing. Right. Not a lot of games where he played great in losses. And that's where the differentiation starts to happen.

When you start to become a elite quarterback and an elite team consistently across the board, even in your losses, your team has a chance because you are playing at your best. Yeah. And that's what Jordan Love has to consistently do this year. has a chance, though, like narratively, to really insert himself into the MVP conversation. And I'll tell you why. Like, if they come out hot. No question. Without Micah. Absolutely. And Christine, if we can throw up the schedule, like if Micah is going to miss five to six games, okay. Well, so that's at a Brian Flores defensive division game and the Bears game and the Cowboys game.

You know, Bucks are, you know, they think they're a playoff team. Sure. Jets, Falcons, bucks is not the toughest stretch in the world, at least on paper. But if Jordan Love carries them through that left hand column and is electric and they're scoring 27 and they're winning high scoring games and then Micah comes back and the winning continues, a lot of the credit is going to go to Jordan Love for weathering the storm when Micah Parsons was out. And it's going to have to, Danny, because not only is he going to be without Michael Parsons, he obviously is going to be without Josh Jacobs. Yes. And so he's going to, he's going to have to shoulder this entire offense.

And he has the talent to do it. He has the weapons around him to support the talent that he possesses. It's going to be the Jordan Love show. And I'm more interested in how Matt LaFleur handles it and how he calls the games because he's always wanted to be an extremely balanced. Our run opens up our past. Everything mirrors and looks the same kind of similar to the McVeigh and things like that. Yeah, but he's pretty conservative.

He is very conservative. Yeah. Are you going to unlock Jordan Love and just let him go, not necessarily let him cook because he's cooked, but let him go to where you are almost empowering him to lead your team because of what you know he has to be until my other horses come. Yeah, it's a very talented team that at the beginning, we're going to get a very good glimpse. You don't want to overreact to September, but September is going to matter a ton for this team because they should get a lot better as the year goes on. Out the gate. Out the gate from the gate.

Out the gate. We're going to see what they got. A lot of hype as always around the Ravens, but Lamar Jackson specifically, the explosive nature of that team needs to return on the offensive side of the ball. We'll discuss the likelihood coming up on the OT. Predictions week continues on the OT. AFC and NFC North tomorrow. Oh, boy. Bangles Ravens.

Which team finishes second, third, and fourth behind the Bears? Lots of intrigue. Predictions week for the North divisions, Greg, tomorrow. Hey, speaking to the AFC North, just talk Ravens. Go to Baltimore. Now, there's a lot of hype around the new-look Ravens in their offense. ESPN ran a soundbite this morning on Lamar's thoughts heading into the football season. It's going to come out this weekend.

And this is what Lamar had to say about his new offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle. He's been tremendous. Just how he and coach Jesse Minter hold the whole offense accountable. It's just a great transition for us. Different terminology, a lot of moving parts with the offense, feel like our offense is going to be extremely explosive this season. Greg, do you expect the Ravens to get over their playoff woes?

I'm hopeful. Okay. All right. And I say that. I know. And so I'm saying this because it's hard for me. to expect something that I've never gotten. Yeah, totally fair.

And when I look at the Ravens and their struggles, and maybe this is why they wanted to make the change, because this is the guy, Jesse Mentor, that will get us over our playoff hurdle, our hump, our woes, if you will. But the reality of it is, is Lamar Jackson in this offense, and specifically himself, he's going to have to beat one of these top-tier quarterback. if they are in.

And I don't expect both of them to not make the postseason. And those quarterbacks being, whether it's Joe Burrow, but specifically in his career, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. And I have some numbers that I want to throw up here because a lot of people talk about Lamar Jackson and his playoff performances and him not showing up and not playing well. But it's really these guys that derail his playoff success.

When he gets into these games, his most recent playoff game against Josh Allen, it was great. But 0 and 3 against these guys, if you look at the turnover, touchdown to turnover ratio, not good. And this is not a guy that throws a lot of interceptions, that generates a lot of turnovers. But for some reason, in the postseason, everything kind of ratches up in the direction that you don't want if you are the Baltimore Ravens. Completion percentage drops, all these things. and it's primarily when we need him to be at his best. And again, he has been better. The team has gotten to great spots in the position, in the regular season,

and putting themselves in great position to have a home field advantage one time, like being really good teams, and it's like they fizzle out, and he's going to always garner all the attention, whether they win, whether they lose, and if he's a part of the reason why they lost or we feel, like they could have won and he didn't show up in a fashion of which we were accustomed to and have been in the regular season, then we're going to continue to doubt whether he can get it done and they can get it done in the postseason. I mean, that's why Bruce has S, Bob, right? Super Bowl

or bust? The only thing that changes the narrative for him and Josh, Josh, a little different, I would say, because Josh has statistically been excellent in the playoffs. Lamar, to your point, has played well below his production. But yeah, it's like the only thing missing from these guys's resume is winning an AFC, getting a ring on their finger, all of those things. The reason I think to be very bullish and optimistic about the Ravens is they might have hired a difference-making defensive head coach and a difference-making offensive coordinator in the same off-season. Now, there's a high ceiling and a low floor there because coaches get hired and get fired and

sometimes guys get promoted above their level. we don't know. But Jesse Minter seemed to be a difference-making defensive coordinator with the Chargers, and now he goes to a Ravens team that on paper has more defensive talent than the Chargers. So it's like you're giving the great race car driver the faster car. He should be like, Roquant Smith and Kyle Hamilton and Trey Hendrickson and Madabuque and Humphrey and Wiggins, on and on down the line. It's like if he could do what he did with the Chargers with the Ravens, that should be great for them.

And then offensively, I mean, Declan Doyle worked under Ben Johnson. And he's apparently bringing in a different look for Lamar, hyper-aggressive, hunting big plays, getting Derek Henry to the outside where he can take on smaller defensive players and impose his will. So, like, I don't know if Declan Doyle is the next great play caller like Ben Johnson. I don't know if Ben Johnson's going to have a coaching tree or not. I know he says nice things, but all coaches say nice things about guys who get hired off their stuff. So I don't know. But it is possible that the Ravens upgraded significantly at like modernizing coaching. Harbaugh, good leader there for a long time, won a ton of games.

But you now have young, cutting edge, innovative, potentially difference-making coaches on both sides of the ball to maximize the talent on the roster. Question has never been about talent on the roster. Do they actually have those coaches? To me, that is the case to be made for the Ravens. I'm with you for sure. I believe Jesse Mentor is definitely improved. Because Declan Doyle hasn't called plays. So that is like he is more of a wild card than Jesse Mentor.

Correct. And I think that's where the weight of the offense is going to be shouldered by Lamar. And so when you hear him say things like this, it's exciting because now, okay, you're bought in. Because you have a belief of this, this young, unknown play caller that we haven't heard you talk about in years prior where, man, are you going to be explosive? He's telling us, I feel like we're going to be one of the most explosive offenses. We're going to be exciting. And when you watch them play, specifically defensively, and I know a lot of their starters

didn't play, it just looks good. Like even though they had a very good defensive preseason. It just looked good. And so I see that and I immediately say, well, if you start to insert their true starters, their ones, man, how much better will they look? We'll see Jacoby Lane is a guy that they've been buzzing around in that preseason. A lot of hype. A lot of preseason training camp hype on Jacoby Lane.

We will see how Declan Doyle uses it. Coming up, it's predictions week. We're weighing in on defensive player of the year. Is there a case to be made for anyone other than Miles Garrett? Next on the O-T. Day two, predictions week, almost in the books. Let's get on the record here, Greg. Defensive Player of the Year, last five to take home the award.

Miles Garrett, pretty open and shut case last year, set the sack record. Patrick Sartan, a guy by the name of Miles Garrett, Nick Bosa, and T.J. Watt. You've got a case for a man not named Miles Garrett. I'm fascinated. Go ahead. Will Anderson. He's very good. Like, very, very, very good.

And if it weren't for a guy named Miles Garrett, he probably would have one. But this is a guy that you talk about a defensive line that's really good. He has a book in and Daniel Hunter. So he's going to always have that one-on-one seemingly favorable matchups. He can go right side, left side, switch out, and you can't just focus on him. And he's just been a problem since day one he's entered into the National Football League. Yeah, best player on the best defense is a pretty solid case, right, for Will Anderson. I'm going to go with Miles Garrett.

He set the sack record last year on a five- What a reach. I know, it's a huge reach. He's played 80 total snaps the last two years with a double-digit lead. Something tells me that number's going to go up in like September, certainly by Halloween. So just more pure pass rush downs with Kobe Turner and Braden Fiske and oh yeah, Aaron Donald next to it. So he's going to play with a lead with the most talent ever around him when he's not going to be able to be double-teamed all that much,

and he's coming off the sack record. I feel like 25 plus sacks is in play for my- Really? Why not? I mean, is there any chance, any chance that the expectations of Miles Garrett... Hey, listen, maybe I'm oversimplifying his job, but I'm pretty sure it's the ball was snapped to go get the quarterback. I don't know. I don't know.

I mean, I don't feel like it's that complicated. He does make it look that. He's not thinking about like, oh, there's a lot of pressure. Like, see ball, get ball. Be a defensive end. We'll see you tomorrow, day three predictions week on the O.T.