First Things First - Patriots re-sign Christian Gonzalez, Aaron Donald out, Week 1 Mahomes Mountain, Alex Palou joins

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

(0:00) Patriots re-sign Christian Gonzalez with record-breaking deal (26:33) Will Josh Allen be the best QB this season? (40:15) Will Drake Maye win MVP? (46:31) Mahomes Mountain (01:07:18) Alex Palou joins (01:18:35) Aaron Donald to miss game vs. 49ers (01:26:08) Top Ten Tuesday (01:47:15) Baker Mayfield signs extension (01:58:21) Will the Bears dominate the Panthers?  (02:06:47) What can Josh Allen prove this year?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function, and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you.

Discover coffee plus on nispresso.com. Told you. He's getting a lot of forceful. It's football season. It's football season. I'm very excited. About what? Our first topic.

Don't even, don't even, don't even do the I told you so yet. Just wait for the first topic. I got something for you. Great. I got something for you. I don't know if you've heard the news. Christian Gonzalez ended up signing with the New England Patriots. Yeah.

Now the richest corner in all of football. Grasers. Oh, thank you. Gonson. Even international football too, Australian rules. Well, yeah, they don't pay as well as the NFL. They also don't have a corner. Well, you don't know the position.

Oh, really? Yeah, name them all. Do you think I don't know Australian? I don't. We don't have time to go through all of it right now. First hour, first things first. Everyone knows wingback. Today, what would a Super Bowl mean for Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry?

Meanwhile, good list. If you think you're getting through the A block without hearing the name Eric Dickerson, think again. Champ stays the champ five-time Indy Car champ. Alex Pillow joins the show. Did we get the milk? No, that's an indie thing. But it's a good visual. I understand.

And then I thought about it and it kind of might twist the knife a bit because he did everything this year except for winning the Indy 500. Well, all the more reason. I'm chugging milk. He's celebrating. It doesn't. Obs, can you bring the milk? And finally, a fresh episode of Mahomes Mountain. Indeed.

And some news about Patrick Mahomes that you correctly predicted. Almost to the word, certainly to the tone of voice it would be said. And some concerning news about his protection. Correct. Nick Wright, Kevin Wilde, Chris Brousard. We are starting in New England slash Seattle, where Christian Gonzalez, it turns out, is not going to be traded as you guys kicked around. He isn't going to sit out the Super Bowl rematch as you guys kicked around.

Yeah, yeah. Turns out he's a very rich man now. Highest paid corner in the league, four years, $135 million, $101 million guaranteed. Here's his career number. It's $45 million per interception. Well, they don't throw him the ball. Oh, he has four. I thought he had three.

One must be in the playoffs. So you know what I was wrong? He won against Bo Nix to a 34 million per interception. You want a lot of interception? No, I'm kidding. I think he's great. Okay. I'm just messing with you.

I think he's great. Missed tackle percentage, 7.3. I had never seen that. And Josh is like, we could flip it. We could flip it to 92.7% of his tackle, which is really good. Fourth best among corners since 2020. Does this give anyone more faith in the Patriots tomorrow? Caviot, the answer has to be yes because you guys said this was a big deal.

Okay, well, before I answer the question, there's something I need to say. Sure. To you, Kevin Wilde's and to Pat's fans watching, you're welcome. Would you do put the pressure on? Well, I think me and Florio and Brew and those of us that, you know, made it clear he might not play. Florio came out KW, you can think I'm making these things up. Floreo came out

this morning and said flatly, he was not going to play without the new contract. Again, you can take issue with Florio if you want. Politely disagree. Okay, well. But it's water under the braid. It's all done. I think the Patriots actions

give more credence to it, that they were worried. Because if they were ready to make him the highest paid corner ever and give him this deal, a month ago. He would have taken it a month ago. I think they they I think Christian gave a little I think the Patriots gave a lot in where they were in the negotiations and the only logical reason I could come up with why that would happen is because they were nervous he was going to sit out. I was on last night with your buddy and super pats fan Bill Simmons. He was worried he was the one bringing up that they might

trade him. So I think this was a very big deal. I know you think we were making too much of it. But to point, it doesn't matter at this point, and the answer is yes. I think they have to have him because I probably more than you, I don't know about Brew, am somewhat concerned about the Patriots' overall defense and certainly the pass rush. Caleb-on-Chayson is gone. Harold Landry is injured. I thought last year that they feasted somewhat on some lacking quarterbacks that we can get into more later, and I think they obviously have great detackles.

most notably Milton Williams also Barmore and they have a good secondary but without Christian Gonzalez it's not a good secondary they have a true one of three or four in the whole league true shut down corners

so yes like I would have thought if he all of a sudden popped up on my back I can't play I would have thought JSN was going to torch you guys tomorrow so yes the answer is it absolutely gives me more faith in the patch tomorrow because I was worried and I don't think it was make-believe

I think it was real worry. One for one. Yeah, no, I'm glad to tell you. Yes, it does give me more faith in the Patriots. So now what you're going to get beaten so bad. You're still going down, but it'll be, it won't be a two touchdown plus deficit. I think touchdown to 10 point game. Okay.

That's, I mean, that's fair. Coming off of being blown out, I think that is a fair to. You guys have made some good moves in the offseason. Look, I think A.J. Brown is better than Stefan Diggs and Kishon Booty, what you had last year. But I don't think he is peak A.J. Brown. I talked last week about the separation from defenders is not there. The yards after catch is not there. So I think that is not an issue, but I just don't think you should expect to see the A.J. Brown from three or four years ago.

I still think, let's see what they do with Seattle's pass rush. You mentioned the defense, but let's see if they can protect. Drake May was sacked 47 times last year. He was sacked 21 times in the playoffs. He was sacked 30-something times the year before as a rookie. So some of it, you know, sacks is also a bit of a quarterback stack too. I think it's hugely. Yeah, so some of it's him too.

So the line, they made moves. They should improve. Let's see it. And then he's going to have to do some things differently as well. I totally agree with that. But look, I think they'll be competitive. It'll be a good game, but I still think Seattle wins. Do you have some spoiler alert, mean graphics about the Patriots?

No, I do want to talk about the Patriots defense as a whole, but I want you to go first. No, I look, it's hard to have a hot take saying I'd never thought this was a big deal. But the fact that this was a contentious contract negotiation, and he showed up every day in pads, with a helmet on, playing hard against AJ Brown. He got hurt in training camp. That was an easy exit. He'd be like, you know what? I'm just going to make sure I'm okay.

He healed up and went back out there. Every quote was, I'm worried about today. It was very Patriots Pablam. I never thought it was a big deal. I don't mean to, I'm sure it was a lot of hard work with the agent and the Patriots, but I just have a lot of faith in this Patriots front office to get things done. So that's, so before I get to the Patriots defense thing, I think Christian Gonzalez handled this perfectly.

Totally. Like he didn't give, he wasn't overly effusive about how happy he was with the organization, which would have weakened his negotiating position. But he did show up to work. He didn't do anything to sour his standing with the fans or his teammates or any of that. You have far more faith in the Elliott Wolf led Patriots front office than I do. And I don't think they have a good draft track record. And some of that was Belichick, but the first draft that he, that Elliot Wolf ran, there are major question marks about.

And then I do personally wonder, if they were going to end up here, why did they let it take this long? You're saying it's nothing. It was always going to get done. It literally got done at the last possible second. You did strain a relationship, even if it's now mended. I don't understand what was gained from that from the Patriots front office standpoint. I don't know the machinations of it. How the guaranteed money works.

First, you needed to have Devin Witherspoons come first. I just felt like that was going to know. His hit first. I'm going to be a little bit over that. Kraft last month says, hey, we gave him a big deal. So I don't know. I didn't think it was a big deal. But moving forward, I'm thrilled that we have the best defense,

one of the best defensive players in the league locked up. So here's the question I have about the defense. Yes. we've shown a hundred times the Drake May stats against good teams, bad teams. We might show them again. Right. And we might show them again. We have a Drake May MVP conversation.

But it's not like your guy's schedule was that, you know, you were just playing bad defenses. In fact, I don't even think you were playing over. You didn't have the easiest defensive schedule in the last 26 years in the NFL. No, but it's a complementary game. But the, but what you did have was. a list of very, very mediocre at best quarterbacks. So I, for your regular season last year, here's the names of the quarterbacks you faced. I'm going to, and I ranked them basically in my own personal list.

So look at all of the players below or to the right-hand column of Aaron Rogers. Like, Allen's the best, then Lamar, Baker, whatever. And Lamar even played half the game. Correct. Yeah. So that's, you know, 14 quarterbacks, Rogers are worse. You play Rogers again this year, so he's a good kind of level set of where it is. Show the quarterbacks they face this season.

Mahomes, Alan twice. The audience, we don't need that. Trevor, Caleb, golf, Herbert, Love, Darnold, Knicks. Kyler, who you like. I'm not a big Kyleor guy, Rogers. And then the only guys, Rogers are worse who plays are cousins. And that might be Mendoza, who knows. Juno and Malik Willis.

That is, to me, the sneaky biggest question mark about the Patriots. I really believe in Brable. You know how much I believe in Drake May holistically. Was that a league average defense last year that looked better because of the quarterbacks you faced? That this year is going to be around league average again, but is going to look worse because of the quarterback you face. That, to me, is like a major concern. And it's why Christian Gonzalez is so critically important. to this team's ability to defend the past.

Yeah, I think that's a fair critique. You didn't add, you know, even in the playoffs. In the playoffs, you could add Herbert and CJ Strong. Playoff Herbert would have been at the bottom of the list. CJ will see, and it was Stittam. It wasn't bonus.

I know. Yeah, and so like even then, then darn old you guys lost to. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. We're a very powerful organization. A lot of people say team in the century, but we have no control over the schedule or the quarterbacks we face.

I would like to. Belichek tries to put his thumb on the scale in the olden days. But it turns out we can't do it. Okay, Patriots in Seattle tomorrow night. But right now we're headed to Kansas City. Andy Reid met with the media. Solid prediction from Nick Wright.

An understated Mahomes will play announcement. Take a listen. Pretty good chance of Patrick. We'll go ahead and start unless something were to come up here in the next couple days. But most likely he'll be the guy that's out there. One other note, undrafted rookie Khalil Benson, who most recently played for the Hoosiers will start if Josh Simmons can't go, and that seems to be trending towards likely that he's not out.

Yeah, Andy put voice the fact that they don't think Josh Simmons is going to go. I do want to say on the front end of this, there's been additional reporting that it is more the chiefs holding Simmons out on a timeline than Simmons holding himself out. I know we speculated on the show about whether or not there was frustration, you know, organizationally. There's been kind of dueling. A lot of reporting today. Right.

And now and now there seems to be counter reporting. in the other direction. So there's kind of dueling reporting there. I just want to be... What do you feel better about? Would you rather him be kind of... I mean, I certainly wouldn't feel good if the team feels like he's good to go and he's just not going.

I also don't feel great about the fact that if the team feels like this is a significant enough thing that we don't want to rush it, I do think him being done for the year could be a season alter. I didn't know that was on the board. No, no, no, it's not at all. But that would be an argument as to why the chiefs might be being cautious. Odd conversation topic, but I look at that report with a bit of a quizzical eye. Which report?

That the cheats are holding Josh Simmons back. I don't, they did it with Mansour. The only reason that I have less of a quizzical eye is they did this with Mansour Delane in the off season. Remember, Delane wasn't practicing, and he was on a very regimented schedule as far as when they were going to allow him to have contact. He got through that schedule, and now he's a full go, full participant. Just seems weird that that would put. That's different, though. To protect Mahomes.

Like, hey, we need to protect you. Like, if I was Patrick, I was like, hey, remember my knee? So, but if the question is, is it a good idea to start Patrick, the answer is unequivocally, yes. He is your starting quarterback. He is healthy enough to go. He is itching to go. And in professional football, sometimes you don't have all five of your starting offensive linemen. This is, this will be the 10th, if Khalil Benson starts, this will be the 10th,

different starting left tackle Patrick has had in the last four years. The chiefs have not been able to fix that position and they believe they have fixed it with Josh Simmons, but he has to be available. Yesterday, when I got into it with Danny and I said, I don't care if he throws for 75 yards, the point I was making then and I will make here is you must have a game plan that does not ask Patrick to win you the game. So it wasn't that I'm okay with him throwing for 75 yards on 25 attempts. It was, I was saying, if Patrick throws the ball 20 times in this game, I'm fine with that.

If it is all quick passing, if it is a lot of screen game, if it is leaning on Kenneth Walker, I think that's what you need to do. But you don't preemptively or added, if Patrick has been targeting starting week one since the day after he blew out his knee. There's an article written in The Star two days ago that his first step of rehab was him trying to walk before his 11-month-old daughter walked past surgery. He has targeted this. Someone else being out of the game should not change that at all.

It should change the game plan. It should change the plays you call and the offense you try to run. But Patrick is healthy enough to play and wants to play. So obviously he should play. Yeah, I totally agree. I mean, football players play, period. And if the doctors have cleared him, if he feels like I have no hindrances, I'm ready, which he's looked like he's been ready for weeks.

You have to play him. It's not, it actually is sending, would send up terrible message if they held him out. We're the chiefs. We're the winners of three of what? The last five Super Bowls. We get to the Super Bowl every year except last year. And now we're afraid.

Now we're scared. Not to mention you probably upset my home. So, no, look, you can't go out there and play football worried about getting injured. Yes, you play smart. you don't put yourself in harm's way, but you have to go out there and play and send the message to your team and organization.

We believe we can win without Josh Simmons if it comes down to that. And they've won, they've been to three of the last four. They've won three of the last seven. My mistake, go ahead. Look, I think that sounds great. I think in like a pump-up video, they should use that clip.

But if I was hooked up to a scared meter, which I think they have, it like measures your heart rate and perspiration. As soon as someone gets past Khalil Benson, which should happen at least once, I'm going to be very scared. And I think you're going to be scared. I think you're going to be scared. I think Annie Reid's going to be scared.

But do we think? I don't know. There's no good answer, but I'm going to be scared. But would that, I guess, do, I don't think Josh Simmons, and I think he's when healthy, is very good. I don't, I was not going to anticipate that he was going to pitch a shutout against the Broncos defense, that he was no one was ever. going to get past him. If you are, if the scared meter is Patrick can't get hit, then Patrick can't

play. You know what I mean? Like you're whether you're with or without a healthy offensive line. Now obviously, he's more likely to get hit with an undrafted rookie free agent who played right tackle in college, playing left tackle. There is a lot of question as to why you don't have Jalen Moore playing left tackle and have Khalil Benson playing on the right side. This is what Andy made it clear. This is what the chief's plan is. I am not, I said this a few weeks ago, I will reiterate it here. Aside from the fact that he will be rusty because, you know, he hasn't gotten hit in months and the Chiefs are used to playing into February and his season ended in December,

I do not think Patrick feels like there are going to be any limitations to his game post-knee surgery. And so there, under no other circumstances, would we ever be discussing, you know, adjusting whether or not Patrick plays based on injuries to other players. It is weird because it's his first game back from the ACL, but I don't think that's back so soon. Right, and it's like one of the fastest recoveries ever. And it's the defense that's had 68 sacks last year. And so, yeah, but I, again, I just, I don't, this is, I, I have said how important I think Josh Simmons is to this team's long term hopes. I think one of the reasons they are, if it is true, that they're being cautious.

is because of that. If they thought this was a long-term injury, they would have simply put him on IR and, you know, it cleared up the roster spot for at least a month. So that's not what's happening. And Andy didn't even definitively 100% say he's out, but it certainly looks like they would now,

at this point, I think it's fair to say they'd be surprised if he plays. This is, there is a lot of criticism right now amongst Chiefs fans at how they have tried to thread this roster build needle. And there's been a lot of people reaching out to me, like Nick, you're the Chiefs fan on national TV, you need to lay the hammer down on some of this stuff.

The reason I haven't is because I agree with it. I think they are trying to model after your Patriots, which is have a 15-plus year run, which means you don't put Band-Aids on things. If you draft a player in the first or second round, you give them chance after chance to make that work, which is why they, you know, people are like, Why didn't they do more at wide receiver?

Maybe they should have, but they drafted a wide receiver in the first round in Xavier Worthy and the second round in Rishu Rice. Why didn't they do more at tackle in the draft? Well, they have a first round pick at left tackle in Josh Simmons. They addressed the must-habs this offseason. They lost so many defensive players. They had to draft new ones. They did have a running back. They spent their free agency money on that.

So I actually, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the front office is wrong. But it is trying to thread a needle. And there are a lot of ifs that have to fall into it. And one of them we thought was a healthy Josh Simmons.

We're now looking at week one. They don't have a healthy Josh Simmons. That's not good. I don't feel good. You were sitting if it was your call. It's interesting the line didn't move at all. There's still just two and a half point favorites. A lot of faith in Mahomes, but Justin Fields can play a little bit.

Derek Henry preparing for the Ravens opening game in Indianapolis. He talked about his own Super Bowl drought. Take a listen, bro. I want to win the Super Bowl. So that's a big motivation. I just want to be able to feel that feeling. I'm tired of watching. Every year, I'm tired of being at home on the couch, watching.

I want to be a part of it. It would be crazy for me to say, I play with Lamar Jackson, and we win no championship. I cannot have that. I do not want that to be a thing. Like, we got to do it. We got to do it. Brew, what would a Super Bowl mean for Lamar and Derek?

Well, let me first say this. I actually think Henry has it reversed. If they don't win a Super Bowl together, Lamar and Derek, I think it'll be more Lamar played too. It's crazy that Lamar played with Derek Henry and didn't win a Super Bowl. Because great running backs, we know. Very often don't win.

Yeah. I mean, most, I mean, Earl Campbell, Barry Sanders, Adrian Peterson, Eric Dickerson, you mentioned. They never won a Super Bowls. The best running backs in the league now, McCaffrey, Bejohn, Jemir Gibbs. Like, they're not in the – Derek Henry. CMC got there, didn't win it.

Derek Henry, like – so – Sequin has won in that. Right, and he was on a really powerful team. Yeah, great take. So I think it is more a great quarterback like Lamar. Oh, you had one of the greatest running backs ever, and you didn't win the Super Bowl. So I think it would be reversed. But if they do, look, there's a great argument that they would be the best

quarterback running back combination ever. It depends. Like people say Terry, I don't know who people think is, but Bradshaw and Franco Harris won four Super Bowls together. Peyton and Edge. Peyton and Edg. But I think Henry, I think Henry's better than Edron. Now, obviously, Peyton, you got him over Lamar.

But as far as some of the Aikman and. Smith, they won three. You can put Emmett ahead of Henry. I think Lamar is better than Troy Aikman, even though Aikman, I'm assuming he's got the Super Bowl. Yeah, if he were to win the Super Bowl. Well, this is all predicated on him winning the Super Bowl.

So he's going to be better than most of the quarterbacks that are in that group. And Henry is right there. I mean, Henry actually, because the list I have is Emmett Marshall Falk with Kurt Warner, Franco and Terry Bradshaw,

Ladanian and Philip Rivers Torell Davis and Elway But it's so brief Yeah, it's brief And then Dorset and Starbock Derek Henry of all those guys Has the greatest yards per carry 4.9, almost 5

So you can argue him against Some of these running backs So I think there'll be a great argument for it So I looked at this a little differently than you I looked at what a Super Bowl win would mean for Lamar And what a Super Bowl win would mean for Derek Henry Not them as a duo So I think the four greatest running backs ever,

and I'm not really that open to debating this with people, are Jim Brown, Emmett, Barry, and Walter Payton. I think that's your Mount Rushmore of running backs, and then I think there's a bunch of, you know, people arguing. Dickerson. There's a long list of guys that, you know, are arguing for that fifth spot. Derek Henry is 1100 yards away from being coming, the fifth all-time leading rusher.

his level of consistency and the fact that he is that high on that list without having that long of a career yet speaks to like we didn't even talk about the season Derek Henry had last year he had 1,500 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns last year the year before when Sequin went crazy he also almost ran for 2,000 yards if Derek Henry finishes his career which I would be stunned if he doesn't in that top five all-time rushing yards and helps deliver a championship to Lamar,

I will be open to the argument of I'm going to have to remove someone from that Mount Rushman. Really? Wow. Yeah. I mean, I think like... Give me the Mount Rushmore one or not. Jim Brown, Emmett, Barry Sanders, and Walter Payton.

So that does not include O.J., Dickerson, Campbell, Ladanian, who I think is historically underrated, Adrian Peterson, Marshall, Falk, Derek Henry. It's like that next group of guys. I mean, he is, he will have all the stats and then also, I think, be a critical, like a team that hasn't been able to win. Yeah. Then, you know, until. No, look, if you start, because I don't really put Super Bowls into the equated to running backs.

But if you do that, then yeah. Then you definitely look at. And no, I don't look at Super Bowls as a must have like they are for quarterbacks. But one of the reasons, the reason Torel Davis is a Hall of Famer is not the 2,000-yard season. It's the dominant post seasons. Like, it's that. Right. And for Lamar just quickly, and we've talked about this ad nauseum,

but if Lamar wins a Super Bowl, he skyrockets up the list of all-time quarterbacks because his regular season resume is already so immaculate. Like the conversations that folks were trying to erroneously, and I love the player, put Matt Stafford in if they were to win the Super Bowl, actually apply to Lamar. Like if Lamar wins the Super Bowl this year, if you want to say he's a top seven all-time quarterback,

you can make that argument quite easily. If you want to talk about the best quarterbacks of this century, if you want to say it's Brady, Manning, Mahomes, Lamar, jumping ahead of the, you know, everyone else on the list, that's totally legit if he were to get one. So that's kind of how I looked at it, is where they are at their positions individually if they win it. Ravens in Indianapolis,

then they host the Saints before they go play the Cowboys in Brazil. Are the Rams travel plans hurting them in week one? But first, here's Trent Williams on facing Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett whenever they show up. You know, it's just on the hills of them getting Miles Garrett, you know, it's just so saying when it rains it pours, right? So, you know, luckily, we're not the only people who got to deal with them too, but I guess we'd be the guinea pigs of the NFL to kind of see how they are together. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range, infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function,

and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on Nispresso.com. Coming up later in the show, we've got five-time IndyCar champ and friend of the show, Alex Palo. But joining us right now is Australia expert.

Coach Manjini, it's going to come up in just a bit, but we just want to establish that you are an expert on Australia. Josh Allen, we'll have a better year than every other quarterback, according to the latest poll of coaches and execs. These coaches and execs, bro. They love them. They just love, but they love, I'll tell you what, they love more than Josh Allen, doing polls. They're right. Wait, me, are they supposed to be prepared? No, all day.

You're just doing polls. I never got to ask to do it. Well, all right, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. Stafford came in second. Mahomes came in third. It's just a projection for this year. It's not necessarily a resume. Do you expect Josh Allen to finish this year as the best quarterback in all of football?

No. And Josh is great. I'm not trying to take anything away from him. But I think Lamar will have a better season, statistically. I think Stafford, Joe Burrow, will have better season

statistically. And I don't think they're going to win the Super Bowl. If they win the Super Bowl, you can say that. But people will, as great as he is, they will give him

and already are, more credit than, I don't want to say he deserves. He's the quarterback. We always give the quarterback a ton of credit. But they do have the leading rusher

in the league in James Cook. So we can't act like Josh is just doing it by himself. He will have a true number one receiver in DJ Moore. And then the receivers after him, Shakir, and you know

they all fit in the place now as two and three where they should be. So Shakir's not out of place as the number one receiver. So I'm just saying he will have help. He's got good tight ends as well. But no, I think these guys will have better

seasons than him. And the other thing with Josh coach, the last two years, they took the ball out of his hands. His four previous seasons, he had thrown the ball at least 560 times, sometimes 600 times. The last two years,

he hasn't thrown it 500 times, or even 490. Now, you might say, well, Lamar doesn't throw it. Lamar's never thrown it a lot like that. So it's not like they said, No, they all start too much. Yeah, they said Josh is throwing too much and he's throwing too many interceptions,

so let's take the ball of his hands. So I just think that people need to work that into the equation when you talk about him being the ultimate best quarterback on the planet. Why did they have to take the ball out of his hands? The last time we saw him, so he fumbles at the end of the half, right? That leads to three points. Then he overthrows Dawson Knox at the end of regulation. That could have won the game. And then overtime, he underthrows Brandon Cooks and it gets picked off.

So that's the last time we saw him. Last season now. You left to turnover out. two, but maybe that's just saying that one turnover led to the three points and the half. That was terrible. That could have been the game. And then those two other opportunities to win the game in regulation and win the game in overtime. And now, you know, they blow up the whole, what we all know that story.

So he throws 25 touchdowns last year. It's the lowest total he's had since 2019. He throws 10 picks, which is, I think, four more than a year before. He's in the playoffs with no Lamar, no Mahomes, no burrow. and gets knocked out of it. So I'm trying to figure out what is exactly the equation here that we're putting together

to say that he's clear-cut the best of the group. Josh Allen wins games and the bills lose games. We know how that works. Like this has been the story of the last few years. Now listen, I think he is going to be a Hall of Famer. I think of all the quarterbacks currently playing who don't have a Super Bowl. If you were to be like, hey, pick one of them that you're most confident will get one.

He would be my pick over Drake, over Caleb, over Lamar. He would be my pick. I really do believe he is a great, great player. And he is the only quarterback in the entire league that if you tell me I get Patrick at his best, that I think the other guy can, the other guy, and the other guy at his, like, Patrick at his best is not guaranteed to be, Josh at his best. We saw them both play at their best in 2021. And listen, I think Patrick slightly outplayed him, but that also could have come down to the coin flip and overtime when that game played. So I want to give him requisite credit.

But it is, as I've said, a hundred times. So much of my Josh Allen criticism is really a media criticism. Because do I expect him to have the best statistical year in the NFL this year? No. Do I expect the bills to have the number one seed or the best record in football? Well, they never have, so I'm going to say no. Do I expect him to play outstanding in their final playoff game of the year? Well, he hasn't done that since 2021.

So I'm going to say no. Do I expect them to win the Super Bowl? They're not my pick. But do I expect him to be at the top of all of these polls coming in next season? Of course. Like, I don't, I, I, do I expect that he will once again get graded on a curve different? than all the quarterbacks I've seen in my lifetime. Yes, because every other great quarterback that I've seen,

when we discuss them, we talk about their strengths, and then we subtract from it the weaknesses. That is not how we do it with Josh. There's never been a player that I can remember who could have that type of playoff game to end last season and have his standing universally rise. He was not the number one guy on all the, polls last year. He's number one

in everything this year. And so he didn't win MVP. His team didn't make a Super Bowl. He didn't. So that part is odd to me. I do have a piece of, I think, something that's very important to the bills actually achieving their goal, which is one thing they haven't done,

which is get that one seed. Avoid that wild card round. Get rested. You know what? Like what we have seen repeatedly in Buffalo is they are a high seed, but not the one seed. This year they had a dog fight in the wild card round, but it was against, you know, an elite quarterback and Trevor,

and a 13-win team. Did Patrick ever win it without the number one seed? Yeah. He did, right? Yeah, yeah. No, he's not Patrick. No, but you said earlier, Patrick had his best versus Voss at his best, that there's only a small separation.

To me, it's not even close in terms of separation. Patrick had his best. But it does come down to big moments, and Patrick consistently, delivers in big moments. And last year, in a field that had none of the stars that are normally there, none of the guys that usually get in the way of him moving forward, and to find a way to lose that game is pretty damning.

In Houston, then they host the Lions when they open up their stadium, then they host the Chargers. Watch out. Just saying. Rams are the home team for Thursday's game in Melbourne. Might be taken a little too literally, coach. 49ers. been in Australia for a week.

The Rams are still in L.A. and aren't flying out until tonight. The land in Melbourne, Thursday morning, local time, Wednesday disappears, and then play at 2.35 a.m. Friday local time, Thursday night for us. Then they're hopping on a plane heading back to the United States. Wait. No, it's not 2.35. They're not playing 2.35 a.m. Did I say 2.10.

I'm sorry. 10.30. 10.30. Yeah, you did. I'm sorry. 10.30. I was like, that would be brutal. The wild scenario. for the band.

10. Not you. 10. You are our resident Australian expert because you lived and coached there. Lived coach. My brother lives there currently. Goes there a lot.

How often have you been to the game? No, no. My brother's going to go to the game with his family. How many times? I don't even know. Probably 10. Not thousands. Thousands of times.

Just recently, though. Beautiful place. Chances that the Rams' late arrival strategy backfires. This is going to be such an. interesting study for especially sleep experts because it's you've got two proteins with radically different approaches and and I get where the Rams are coming from in the sense that when they went over to London they they had a

short amount of time that didn't spend a week there worked out really well they ended up beating Jacksonville was it 35 to 7 I can't remember what it was that 35 to 7 but the difference there is they were in Baltimore they had gone to the East Coast to play Baltimore they stayed on the East Coast so they'd already gotten through that level of of time change and then went over to London, which is radically different than flying to Melbourne. And they had success.

Their medical experts have said they feel this is gonna be successful. I'm not sure. It's a transition when you take that flight. And as much as you wanna say, we have lay down beds on the plane, those are big guys. Those laid on beds are for normal human beings, not for the,

human beings that populate a pro football team. And then even playing a game at 1030 in the morning is really different for NFL teams as well. That's the part that I think might affect the Niners. The East Coast travel every year. If the Niners are on a regular, if they fully adjusted to the time change, they're certainly not used to playing a football game at 1030 in the morning. But they've probably, I would imagine, work that into their practices or, you know, their schedule overall.

I think that's, listen, we're all kind of. kind of guessing on this. Yeah. But I... Our coaches are Australian experts. No, I get that. Here is what... Where I...

And I'm not the first person to have this opinion. I do wonder if this strategy the Rams are taking hurts them in week one but minimizes the negative impact this has on weeks two and three and the opposite's the true for San Francisco.

Whether or not San Francisco is able to treat week one like a regular game, but then because they've spent so much time there, it is harder for them to transition back, you know what I mean, to West Coast time and get their bodies acclimated there. I also am, I couldn't, I knew,

I kept reading, the Rams are getting their late, getting their late. And then this morning really is when it dawned. I was like, wait, we're live right now at 3.40 Eastern. They're still in L.A. They won't go for another like six hours or something over there. So they are going to in like a 70-hour span have approximately 32 hours of flying

and play a football game in the middle of it. Like what does that? It's also the flight back is crazy. You know, and so right at being on that long of a flight, getting your feet underneath you, playing a football game, and then immediately getting back on a plane seems very, like almost treacherous. Like it seems very, very odd.

The 49ers is definitely going to have some, jet lag coming back. But the nice thing for them is there is downtime between when they have to have to start preparing for week two. And so that's, a little bit of that is built in. But that jet lag coming out, the other way,

is going to be real for them. It seems like the Rams are trying to have a psychological edge of no excuse. Just fly in. Don't think about it as we're playing in Australia. We're playing on a whole different day and times on it. Just going there, no excuses, let's lace them up.

Because a lot of times, I mean, I haven't done anything like this, but covering the NBA and traveling all this time and you're in different time zones all the time. And you just do what you got to do. You might, you don't have time to worry about I got jet lag or I've got, you know, you just, I got to go do what I got to do. And I know I'm not playing football, but I'm just saying. I'm just saying, I think coach,

psychologically they're trying to say this is a regular game. And just go out there. We're not making any excuses about jet lag and this and that. Just go out there and play. As San Francisco wins, they're going to be so happy because they spent a week in Melbourne. They went to the Australian rules football game.

They're loving it. They're having a vacation. Yeah, they really don't. Why'd you do? Which if you, your team... I imagine we'd go out early and try get used to it. But look, I didn't have great success going from the East Coast to the West Coast, so I'm probably not the best guy to have. I do think that the Niners being out there for the full week

will shift this to a significant Niners crowd. I think the Australian fans who were going. There's a ton of Niners fans in Australia. So I think they were already going to have it. But it was supposed to be, it's a Rams home game. You know what I mean? They're supposed to be the host. I bet the neutral Australian fans are probably a little annoyed

that the Rams are not spending any time in their country. And I think the Niners will get them. Tickets sold out in like 10 minutes. for the MCG. The athlete, this is from the athlete. Notably absent from the list, da, da, da, da, da. They, 49ers are Australia's most popular team before they're showing of goodwill this week

according to research conducted by the NFL provided to the athletic. So we're gonna roll. Then the Rams have the Giants on Monday night, right? Yeah. Bold predictions from the athletic. Wow, this one is bold. Holy cow.

Drake May will win MVP, man. Chad Graff writing, May really is this good in his age, 23 and 24 seasons. We're talking Patrick Mahomes territory in terms of quarterbacks who are this good this early and back to back. It's a big if. It's a big if. Patrick Mahomes, okay.

Through for 5,000. And won the MVP as first year as a start. Vote away. Go ahead. It's a bold prediction, guys. It's got to be bold. That means it's just ridiculous. Well, you kind of.

Bold prediction here is May joins that elite club with an MVP. season. Anyone buying another MVP level season from Drake May? So the good news is it's a second year with Josh McDaniels, which I think is positive, and that should, there should be some growth there. He is hardworking. He is smart. He seems like he's coachable. I think those are all positive. But the last time we saw him, the last time we saw him, can we bring up the playoffs? I don't know if we can do this. Drop it knowledge. Whenever we bring this up, KW explains how this happened to the He didn't. Seven touchdown, eight turnovers, an 82 passer rating, sacked 14.9% of the time. That's the third highest in a single postseason with a minimum of three starts. So as much as we want to say, Patrick Mahomes, I think it's a little too quick for that. So pro Mahomes in today's show. I really am enjoying it. I just think we're, you could say, and I know Brew was big on this for a while, there were some tomato cans in the, you know, tomato cans in the show. I really am enjoying it. It's, it's, I just think we're, and I know brew was big on this for a while, there were some tomato cans in the. There were some tomato cans in. I was. I was some tomato cans in the. I was so. I was so

that line up last year. Absolutely. Absolutely. I wish I had it under this. Now, now everybody is treating him differently. This is a totally different level of competition in terms of winning percentage, the teams they have to play. So it's going to be interesting to see which version of Drake may we get. And I'm encouraged, obviously, by what he did during the regular season, and then there's a little bit of C.J. Stroud-type feel to his postseason. Yeah, there is. Look, I... Not really. I need to go to the same ball. I mean, it was... Coach, I agree. And just to piggyback off your graphic... Oh, no. They're playing 11 teams with winning records this year. You played three last year. And when he

played winning teams, he was not good. I mean, he was four and three. That's a team record. Look at his individual numbers. Like that part I will. Yeah. I got you. And so that's going to be every week you're seeing better teams. I like Drake May, but I'm not, one season is not going to convince me that you've,

unless it's a season like my homes had, which with all due respect to Drake, it wasn't it, 5,000 yards, wasn't it 50 touchdown? Come on. I mean, that's one of the best seasons ever. So I think that I mentioned earlier. I don't think A.J. Brown is what he was four years ago. Still very good. I mentioned the sacks. Has Drake learned to not get sacked as much?

How good is the offensive line? So, no, I, plus, it's hard to win MVP when you don't make the playoffs. Wow. And I've already told you they're not making the playoffs. That's very true. KW. Yes. I think you should defend your guy.

I don't think it's that bold of a prediction at all. In fact, if I was Chad Graff and they asked me for a bold prediction, I would say the guy who came in second place, comes in first place is not that bold. If I was saying, hey, we need bold predictions about the 100-yard dash, I would say, the second-place guy. I'm like, okay, I don't think that works. Here are the last, what is the six seasons of MVP runner-ups.

These guys are all good players. Again, it's not the MVP, but the silver medal MVP has got great company. So is he totally minted already? No, of course not. But do I think that you guys have overdone the schedule thing a bit? Yeah, I do. So can we leave this up? A little bit.

Can we leave this up? Because it does warrant mentioning that none of those guys want MVP the following year. Only Josh Allen won an MVP after it. And from Brady on, all of them had pretty down, following seasons. Brady the next year was his first like bad year. Jalen Hertz was the supernatural funk. DAC two years ago, I don't know. Probably injured. I think that's when he was injured. Lamar last year missed the playoffs. So that, but you're right, it's really good company, but the year following their MVP year wasn't, you know, we're not outstanding individual years or

team success years. And only two of them were those Super Bowls, right? The, um, well, after this only Just in general. Yeah, I mean, Brady already had and Hurts did a couple years later. I like the list. So just real quick, KW, because I think I'm very prepared for, and this is an old argument from the show, the Patriots have a worst record, Drake to have a worse MVP finish, a worse playoff finish, and worse stats,

and you guys would be like, but he's better. He's obviously. And he's obviously bad. When I said this about Brock Purdy, I was nuts. No, no, I'm still saying you're not. Brew, I'm still saying that. I'm saying I'm prepared for you guys to be arguing, like, hey, even though they went from 13 wins to 10, they went from the Super Bowl to out in the wildcard round. Drake went from second an MVP finish to not getting MVP votes.

He got better. And it was just what I don't think that can be possible? I'm just saying I'm ready for that to be the discussion that we have. My biggest concern, darn it. Go ahead. Let's hear it. I just, I don't think they fixed the offensive line. And I think the level of Sacks Drake has taken over the first two years are very alarmed.

That's the only thing that would prevent him from being great is if he gets hit that much again. That's my concern. Yeah, that's a decent take. All about next. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove.

I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. and today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. Live from New York, it's a show that feels very good about the Patriots and everyone is coming around. I like that.

You came around. I've been, I have been, not just because they call me Mr. Consistency, very consistent on the past, dating back to the midway point in last season. Once I said, I believe Drake May is going to be a perennial top five quarterback, I believe in you guys to a degree. Brew's a holdout, though. I am. Could anything happen on a Wednesday that would make you come through the Door of Destiny? How do we do that?

A little Door Destiny bet. A little Door Destiny bet. I don't want to go that. Hold on. Let's just walk you through the door. I got a suggestion. If they do to the Seahawks what the Seahawks did to them in the Super Bowl, you'll go through the door to destiny.

What does that mean, though? Dominator. And I'm saying they're going to win this. No, you just have to walk through the door destiny. Just walk through the door of destiny. Yeah, I'm open to that. Okay. If they do that, yeah.

You want to walk through the door to the last. It doesn't mean. You guys shouldn't be asking me. How about this? How about this? You guys don't walk through it. We'll all do it. If they.

You're not invited to the door to. I'm just saying I'm inviting people. I'm trying to help you out, bro. Oh, you can't. I'll do it. I'll do it. I live in the first house of destiny. Yeah.

Yeah. I like that. It's not going to happen, though. I just hate to rain on your place. Second hour. first things first. Today, should brew be worried about a slow start for the Cowboys? And interesting quotes from Jerry Jones if it does happen. Hmm, little Max Crosby action. Very interesting. That we're really excited. Meanwhile, we've got two pieces of news. First piece of news. Five-time Indycard

champ. Alex Pillow joins the show. Nice. Second piece of news, Aaron Donald not going to Australia. He heard what coach said about those late-flash seats not being big. Like, forget this. You can take a couple weeks off. But right now, we're heading to Seattle. We're in Seattle in the shadow of Mount Rainier. One day away from the start of the NFL season. Who will heat up? Who will cool off?

And which teams will be left out in the cold? Didn't get a fish to throw. We're starting our season long trek today at the base camp of Mahomes Mountain. You were supposed to get the fish to do a salmon thing. A trout. Sea bass. He's going to get a fish. Didn't do it.

Why not? There's a store right around the corner. I said hugs. I would have paid money to throw a wet piece of fish. I think that would have been a bad fish. Yeah. A wet piece of fish. A wet whole fish. A whole fish. Yeah, a whole fish. Why did it have to be wet?

Because they always are, because they're on ice. You see them, they're never like dry. It's all slippery and slimy. And they come out in the face. All right. Mahomes Mountain Week 1. Now, Loyal, viewers will remember shortly before vacation, we did a Mahomes Mountain. I'm telling you guys right now,

it's not going to be a whole ton of movement from a month ago to now. However, we had some quarterback battles decided. I also decided we had some vacancies on that mountain. I decided we're getting rid of the vacancies. And because it was the off season, we tried to, you know, everyone, hope springs eternal. We added an extra row. So every quarterback was involved. Nice. That's nice. That's nice. Yeah, but now it's real, it's go time. Okay. Which means the only spot for seven rows,

28 quarterbacks, 32 teams, which means these four quarterbacks, not climbing the mountain. Gino. Brew, what was he last year? Gino! Thank you, bro. It makes me sad.

Tua, who I don't think is long to be the starter. Jacoby Brissette, shout out Jacoby for getting paid. Deshawn, who is not long to be the starter. Of these guys, the most likely to make the mountain, I think is Gina. Really? I'd say Brissette. It's one of those two. I think Michael Pinnock could be on the mountain at some point,

but he's not yet the starter. He's not yet fully healthy. So now we go to, the coach thinks to it. Well, they are a deep sleeper coach. That would be fun. We are. Now, to the seventh row of the mountain, Cam Ward, Tyler Shuck, Jackson, Dart are in one category. Young players, their fans believe in them.

They're, you know, year two players that it's like, hey, this is going to be the big leap year. You know, Danny believes in Jackson Dart. I think KW believes in Tyler Shuck. I don't know how many people believe in Cam Ward right now, but we'll see. Big year for all three of those guys, obviously. Bryce, they got to the playoffs. That's really all that's kind of the end of the good story there last year. But maybe he and Tech can get it going in year four for Bryce.

Aaron's turning 43. Malique Willis has no weapons at all. Kurt Cousins kind of keeping the seat warm for Fernando Mendoza. Coach, you look like you want to say. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, Coach is the Bryce guy. I'm the Bryce guy. He just got Bryce from the upside alert. No, coach has always been in Carolina.

I'm also a Bryce guy. Coach does. Oh, you know what? Guys, we're both Bryce guys. We just broke ground in sports television. I like Bryce. There's two Bryce guys. There's two Bryce guys on the set at the same time.

That's unbelievable. I love Bruce. Wow. We're Brains fans. Sick throw. I would say these are polarizing players. All of them. Yeah, all of them.

No. But Bo Nix, more wins than any quarterback ever through two years. Good numbers. Been in the playoffs both years. Both years. But on almost all of these quarterback lists, outside of the top 15, Jaden Daniels, awesome rookie season, injury-riddled second year, odd off season. We'll see.

Brock Birdy, once upon a time, main stay of the show. Last couple years, a couple injuries, a little disappointing play two years ago. Last year, you know, you couldn't really tell if you didn't have crystal clear HD where it was him or Mac Jones playing.

CJ Stroud, his star is, you know, dimmed a bit. Kyler, I think the book is in on Kyler, but there's a lot of, a lot of hype surrounding the Vikings this year. year in belief. And Daniel Jones, who was in the midst of what we thought was maybe a career Renaissance and popped his Achilles. Now, we'll see. If you thought row six was polarizing players, how about row five? Guys who you really could make, if you wanted to go to the mattresses saying any one of these guys is the most underrated player in the league, make an argument for it.

And if you want to go to the mattresses saying any one of these guys is, except, for Baker, I guess, wildly overpaid given the production, you can make a case for it. Baker's kind of waiting on that payment. All of these guys on the mountain are outside of the top 10. You can make a case for any of them to be in the top 10. I think you can make an equally strong case against it. Either way, my feeling on these guys is very simple. If they're your starting quarterback, you're totally content.

I don't know if you're ecstatic for any of those guys to be your starting quarterback, but you're not looking for a quarterback. You're not in the market. Again, maybe I think more highly a Baker than the world, but certainly those other four. Now to the top 10. It's four guys. Pretty unquestionably elite resumes.

Only ones won a Super Bowl. I know Brew gives me this. Look, he thinks the Prince. Two top five, top 10 MVP finishes, not an elite resume. It's unbelievable. I don't know what it takes to be elite anymore. Joe Burrow throws as pretty of a ball as anybody in the league.

is one of only two active quarterbacks to beat Mahomes in the playoffs, did get to a Super Bowl, hasn't had the pieces around him, I guess, and hasn't been able to stay healthy the last few years. He's clearly in the top 10. Jack Prescott, as Brewis said, countless times this offseason. If he's healthy, they have an elite offense. If he's healthy, he produces. Now, we haven't seen him produce in the postseason, but we'll see.

Everybody's so excited. Drake May in year two with Josh McDaniels. Caleb Williams in year two with Ben Johnson, the Prince in year two with Liam Cohen, with a little bit more from Travis Hunter, with more from Parker Washington. Coming off his best individual season and a great playoff game, even though he lost it,

and Sam Darnold, back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons, the defending Super Bowl champion for one of the Super Bowl favorites. Third row, two young guys and one veteran, any of whom KW could win MVP this year. Drake may absolutely could win MVP this year. I agree with you. It's not a bold prediction that Drake wins MVP, even he's not my pick. Caleb, I think, has a very good chance at MVP this year because I think they are going

to have to score a bunch of points as long as they can get the requisite wins along with it. And Lamar, basically every year is an MVP favorite. The questions for Lamar typically just come at the end of the season and the postseason last year didn't get there. consider that most likely a blip. Road two. The defending league MVP and the five-time defending off-season MVP, Josh Allen.

Arguably, the two strongest arms in the league, certainly the two highest Q ratings in the league after this past season. And yet two guys who had an opportunity in this past postseason to steal the top play. on the mountain from Patrick Mahomes, who was out injured, and we were just dying for somebody to take the crown from. And Patrick is still atop because the guys who could have taken it, Stafford, Alan, Lamar, didn't really seize the moment. Stafford came the closest, no doubt about it. Lamar missed the playoffs.

Josh, we've talked about Adonautium, Burrow missed the playoffs as well. And so I understand it's now a controversial opinion to say Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the league. What I would say is this before I give it to coach. We've debated a bunch. Are the chiefs are the playoff team or not? You know, they have the fifth best superl odds. Is that too high? Is Patrick Mahomes even coming off in ACL the only quarterback on this mountain that with that exact chiefs roster, with that exact chiefs supporting cast, we would be talking about it all as a legitimate Super Bowl threat? I would argue yes, it's also this resume. I think he's clearly still the best player in the league.

He is atop Mahomes Mountain heading into week one, which then this season will play a lot to do with the future mountains. Sure. Coach, go right ahead. But you had to scowl the whole mountain. It's just amazing

that you put Drake May and Caleb above Joe Burrow. I just, I don't understand how that's possible. And look, Joe had some challenges last season, but let's just look at two seasons ago. Wow. in terms of the numbers that had.

Because it's a rich. Look, we're going, we don't want to look at Patrick Mahomes season last year because we've erased that. Okay. So let's, let's, let's race. Okay, we could, yeah, we look at the first quarter of games. That's not how it's evaluated. But just a couple years ago, 70.6 completion percentage, almost 5,000 yards. He's thrown for over 4,000 yards.

I think it's three or four times in his career. 43 touchdowns and nine interceptions. 108.5 quarterback rating. So Lamar, in his best year, has thrown 41 touchdowns, and Burrow has thrown 43. Let's look at where Joe Burrow ranks in terms of touchdowns thrown in a single season. Okay. There's the list of guys that are above his season two years ago in touchdowns thrown. Is that a good list?

I mean, I know it's not close to Drake May's list, and it's not close to Caleb Williams' list, and it's probably the same list that the Prince is on. and all the other guys that you put on his row. But let's understand the tapestry. And since we're racing last year for Patrick Mahomes, let's just go back two years and go ahead to head and see what it is. Okay. So here's the thing, Coach, because you taught us this.

Yeah. When you pay the quarterback, you ask them to be what? Force multiplier. When you pay the quarterback. Not cry about their left tackle, not cry about their running game. Agreed. Not cry about their lack of receivers. Exactly, especially when you have Jemar Chase and T. Higgins.

And one could argue I'm giving Joe Burrow almost more of a benefit of the doubt because of all the guys in the top ten, you could easily say the biggest injury risk is Joe Burrow. The only of the guys in the top ten. You gave me a furrowed Brown. No, of course. Okay, all right. Well, Lamar has been. Wasn't Lamar hurt last year?

No, Lamar was hurt last year. No, Lamar and Joe, the last five years played the same. Was it? Yes, Mahomes, for the first time in his career, suffered an injury, and he missed three games. Joe Burrow, the other year, was rolling out in practice and missed three games. Additionally, Joe Burrow, so not only of the guys in the top 10, the biggest injury risk, the only guy in the top 10 to not make the playoffs in the last three years. Did Dak make it three years ago?

I think he did. Maybe he and Dak. I thought Dak made it three years ago. So not always available. The team hasn't had the requisite success. We love his weapons. I think he's an awesome player. Who beat Patrick Mahal?

Who's the only guy that's beating Patrick Mahal in the playoffs? It's like in the Biden administration. Thank you. That's what I was about. I don't know this, but it's a rich tapestry. It is a rich staff. It is a rich. Can I tell you something real quick?

That victory over Patrick Mahomes five years ago, which happened six days after the 13 seconds game, is really, the thing that is, that's doing a lot of work for Joe Burroughs ranking. Yeah, I know the 43 touchdowns of nine picks. That doesn't matter, right? No, it does matter. The 5,000 yards almost in passing.

That doesn't matter. How about the fact that he took an organization that was considered to be dead in the water for year after year after year after year and made him relevant? The coach, he has done very similar. That's the mark of a great quarterback. The Bengals pre-Joe Burrough had Boomer Assizing, Ken Anderson, made Super Bowl. They had Carson Palmer and made the playoffs. They had Andy Dalton and made the playoffs.

Like the Bengals, Joe Burrow, yes, one year he got him as far as Ken Anderson did. Like, I mean. So you're talking up the Bengals organizationally to the Baltimore Ravens organization. I'm saying you taught me the hope is a great quarterback can elevate an organization. This is what Nick does. What? You teach me. He doesn't like a point.

He's like, well, what you said. Exactly, you taught me. Remember he's doing the tackle? And you taught me that you can erase previous seasons if it makes you point. Rich tapestry, Brew. Well, first of all, Nick, props for the Ken Anderson, shout out. I know you did that for those born in the 60s. Yes, exactly right.

He was a great quarterback. Yeah. You covered them. Coach, right, close. Coach stole a little of my thunder, but I'm going to raise coach a bit. I like that. I think Burrow and Dak should switch places with Drake and Caleb. Wow.

They're going, those two borough, you know, DAC is my MVP pick. Yes. And they do have the two best receiving tandums in the league. Their numbers are going to be crazy. And if they just get any defensive play, legitimate defensive play, their teams are going to have really good records. So I think statistically they're going to be ahead of Drake and Caleb.

So I would move them. And then quick bonus takes. Bonus takes. Bonus take. I think coach will be with me as much as we all love my homes. I can't have Mahomes at the top right now. And it's only a bonus take because last time we did the mountain, I said that was my tape.

I can't have Patrick at the top. Here's the thing. If you want to, and leave, stay here for a second. If you want to argue Stafford should be at the top. Yeah, that's what I would put right now. I think that's fair. I reject in whole cloth that Alan or Lamar leaptow. That's fine because you're right.

But if you want to say Stafford, I will put Stafford. I think that's okay. Also, can we really take a moment to look at just the word smithing by our producers? Brew had four quarterbacks that he wanted to discuss. We got all of their names in that bar. Nick's DAC added again, burrowing his head into the sand. Maybe Williams agree one day.

Dusty is in his bag. I'm really in his bad. Shout out, Dust. Yes. Shout out. You know, and I like Trevor a little too high. What? But another bonus state.

You don't get a troubled bonus state. No, bonus take. Just quick. Quick. I just don't know if we took this show into focus groups. People would say, you know, I like the chemistry. I like the takes. Not enough puns.

I don't think we'd get that feedback. But Dusty... No, you know why we wouldn't get that feedback? Does we have the exact right amount of puns. We nail it on the puns. Okay. Look, there's a chance. There's a chance.

I'm worried about this. I'm off the board. I'm a maverick. I know. You're not talking about Jacoby Burset. I'm not talking about Jacoby Burset. You're going to talk about somebody. No.

Come Thursday morning if we did a bonus episode of Mahomes Mountain. Oh, is this about Darnold? No. No. Drake May could have a claim at the top of the mountain. I think he should be in the running for it. Wow.

If he has a great game against the Super Bowl champions, but that's not what I'm doing. That was just a bonus take. Bonus take. Bonus take. Tyler shook. I knew he was going to do this. Hey, you got to talk saints. See, I knew it.

We got to talk saints. We don't. Yeah, we do. Why? Because. It is over there having a fit right. Because Tyler shook, sneaky good. Sneaky good.

That's all. Keep your eye down in New Orleans. For Tyler, yeah, you know what I love? Completion percentage. Back when I grew up, throwing the ball and having it caught meant something in this country. Actually, when you grew up, they were really low. Yeah, but it was good if you had 50%. Yeah, but it was good.

Highest completion percentage by a rookie, Jaden Dack and Tyler Shook. Shuck. I know. Oh, but he's no Jackson Dard. He doesn't have the aura like Jackson DART. I don't agree with that. He doesn't have the aura? He certainly loses an Oryk contest.

I think I like Shuck more than Dard. Well, so do the statistic mavens out there. Yeah. Five and four. He's got a better record, more yards, more yards for past. You made a touchdown passes. Right. T.

They're in a dog. They're in a dog. It was second and offensive rookie of the year voting. Yeah. And he had 96 passer rating. Drake May but it's pretty good. Keep your eye on Tyler Chuck down in New Orleans. Did you pick them to win that division?

Yes, I did. No, I had Carolina. No, I keep my eye on them. Saints first four games. Now look, I got the lions going all the way to the Super Bowl. You got him starting 0 and 2. That doesn't matter. I just believe in the Lions. That Ravens game.

You got the Saints starting only two. Why are you showing me? Well, Raiders and Falcon. Keep your eye down in New Orleans. Keep your eyes peeled down in New Orleans. The Bayou, the Big Easy, they call it. Tyler Shuck. I love, I'm the person on the show, even though Brew is from Louisiana.

That has New Orleans as a top three American city. I'm the only person in the world with that tape. Keep your eyes. Keep your eyes. That's fine, but they're... I've got my eyes in New Orleans. I'll tell you that one. In this segment, we have spent time arguing about who gets to be the Bryce Young guy,

and you just did four minutes on Tyler Shuck. That's more than the NFC South needs cumulative... Well, people criticize us for not covering all the teams. Stop reading your mentions. That's not my mentions. That's other people's mention. It's just people on the street. Customer feedback.

People are walking up to you on the street. Well, the customer's always right. They don't want any puns and they want more. time as I keep your eyes. You got snow in your wrist. Oh, that's right. It's like a clips lyric. Coming up next.

Five-time IndyCar series chip, Alex Palo. Next. I'm ready to say, Palo guy. You're not a lot. Polo guy. He got it. He's going for wins, man.

She has fans. I'm wearing the wreath. He's got the sick ring. Brew declared I'm a paddle guy. From now on. Well, look, Alex, here's the deal. You, Nick has hogged you. He has to do that.

That's part of his job, but I know he's pushing for me. You know what I would do? I would have my teammates. I'm like, here's the plan. You park in front of below. I feel great, but I feel better that you guys are here on track. Yeah. Oh, he's going for it.

He's going for it. Okay, that's a good one. That's a very good one. That was a good one. Yes. To have a guy who might go down as the greatest ever to be a friend of the show was really, really awesome. So thank you, man. And congratulations.

Oh, a friendly welcome back to five-time Indy car champ Alex Palo. Alex, welcome back. I want a Nick to do the milk thing, even though it wasn't Indy Five. I think it's just symbolic of another win. I think I would think it still would have worked. Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you guys for having me. So good to be here with you guys.

basically a member of the show. Yeah, awesome. You should come to the Christmas party, all of it. Can I be a co-host? Yes, definitely. Absolutely. You got a lot of time in the off season now, and you obviously don't need to practice.

Like, I honestly think maybe you should do less practice. It would be a little more suspenseful for the end of season. So what does the off season look like now that you're a five-time champ, or is it going to look the same as when you're a four-time champ and a three-time champ? Exactly the same. Maybe I'll be a little bit tired. here while I do the off season. But yeah, honestly, we're still busy. Like, we're doing a little bit of a media tour celebrating my fifth championship, but then we still have some testing for

the new car that we're doing actually later this week. It's going to be the new car for 28. So we still have like a year and a half to develop it. But we're doing a lot of work now to have like a faster car, a better car and something that will get fans excited in the future. Alex, I mean, you've accomplished so much. You've won 90,500, obviously your fifth championship. And it's all coming so fast. So how do you avoid complacency or overconfidence or something like that? Honestly, it's not that hard.

Like, I just love the fact of showing up to a race weekend. And we start from zero. Like, we need to do all over everything. Like, we need to do practice to get our car as fast as possible, to get me, as fast and as comfortable as possible with the car and the track. And we, next year, when we start the season, I'm going to have the same amount of points as the last person. So as the last driver.

So although I'm super happy of everything that we've achieved, we need to do everything all over again. I don't feel like just because we won five championships now, it's like it's done. I feel like this is more something that once I retire in like, I don't know, 10, 15, 20 years, whatever, that I look back and I'll be proud about the numbers. But nowadays, it's only, we want more. We want to show up to the racetrack.

We want to show up to the championship to the 500 and see if we can beat our competitors. Alex, as you know, I'm a new pillow guy. You know, I became a pillow guy. And I went to my first indie race last year. and I just assumed you were going to win. Like when, no, at the end, I was like, I think Polo was going to make a push here, but there was some interesting gas-saving strategies. Has that informed how you're going to approach next year's race?

The 500 is so tough, man. The 500, it's only one day, 500 miles. So, like, there's so much things going on. Last year, this year, actually, 26, we started first. We had a really fast car, but then shuffle a little bit to the back, and we couldn't make it. We could not arrive at the end with a fast car. We had some issues with balance, and I couldn't really be as fast as Felix did one, for example. So it's a tough race.

You need a perfect day to win that race, and I'm going to try and prepare as much as I can next year. But as you saw, being so long, there's so much strategy that goes on. There's moments where you need to save fuel or tires, or you don't want to be able to be. or you don't want to be at the lead. You just want to be, let's say, trying to extend your stand to be on a better position towards the end of the race. I'm going to put you, I guess, maybe, in a bit of an awkward position because you're a humble guy by nature, at least publicly. Privately, you might be like, I'm the greatest.

But at least when we're talking to you. But this is now a level of dominance that we really haven't seen in the sport. I know AJ 4-18 won seven titles. I know your teammate Scott Dixon has a bunch, you know, has five championships as well. And but the way in which you, the last few seasons have dominated start to finish, you put the championship race out of reach with multiple races to go. There's got to be something that just you and your team are better at than everybody.

And when you're like doing a self-scout, what is it that you're seeing where you go in? It feels to me watching, like you go into a race being like, yeah, if I don't screw up, we're going to win. Like, we have the best. And so what is, what can you say about what has led to this level of pretty unprecedented dominance? I think people, when they see a race of motorsport or they go to a racetrack and they see the cars, they might just see the driver. They see myself driving the race car and that's it.

And they think that we do all the work. But actually, we have a huge thing. behind us. I would not be able to do what I do with the best team on the pit stops. Like they are, they can make a big difference. If they do a pit stop in 6.5 seconds instead of 7.2 seconds, that might give me one or two spots on the racetrack. And that's easier to make on the pit stops than than to overtake the cars on track. So I have that. I also have great engineers that prepare really fast cars, the mechanics that also make sure that the maintenance and that

that car, if it rolls, it's the less draggy and just the most amount of speed possible. Because being a spec series, the race car, it's always the same for everyone. Like, we don't really have different parts to different drivers or teams. We can update or like, let's say, develop some parts of the suspension, but the way the engine, like everybody is on the same boat, right?

So it's all about the details, and I have the best team around me that make that happen. Obviously, I try and look good on track, and I try and deliver and execute, but without them, I would not be able to do what I do. Alex, everybody on this set knew you were going to win the IndyCar championship, but only one guy on this set knew Spain

was going to win the World Cup. Along with you, I know you knew they were going to win too. So after they win the World Cup, as I predicted, and you didn't. And you didn't. No, you got it right. After that, you win in Nashville the next day. So that 24 hours must have been wild for you.

What was that like? That was very cool. I mean, it was a bit of a shame that we had a rain delay and we couldn't go right after the World Cup as it was expected to do. That would have been huge for the series and IndyCar. But I mean just to see from the racetrack the World Cup follow it and see how they won That was insane like it was the first World Cup that I saw like that I was about to to race and that we won Spain so

Then going up on on Monday in our race and winning the race that kind of like just put a perfect weekend for us So yeah it was a it was a cool memory that that I'll always have and it was one of the races that I'm most proud of because that was territory of Joseph, for example. He's always been really, really good there, and we had a nice battle there on the last couple stints. And to get the win there, it was super cool. You want to ask about Mahomes? No, I was going to, Pat, I wasn't going to ask about Mahomes.

You can ask about Mahomes. I was going to ask about being the goat. I guess it's kind of about Mahomes, one goat to another. I'm just going to ask you about that, actually. Two years ago when we first met and you had won three championships two in a row and you had yet to win the Indy 500 is right before you won the Indy 500

we talked to you about the path to being the greatest American open wheel racing racer ever and you said well you know my teammate Scott Dixon as you mentioned had six championships A.J. Foyd, all these guys now it's really in your sights some could argue you already are

but for you, is there a specific accomplishment that you have to get to where if somebody says, you're the greatest ever in this sport, you won't argue with them? I think the fact that both Scott Dixon and AJ Foight were able to win championships in, like, different eras. I mean, like, there was a lot of years apart since their first championship till their last one.

They were able to do it also in different, different cars like different speck of cars. I think that kind of shows that you've been able to dominate or to be the best at different cars, car amalgations. For me it's different. For me, the five championships have been able to win and the 500 it's always been with the same car. So although I think it's very difficult to do and I'm really proud of what I've done, I think you cannot consider anyone the best if you're not being able to do it with multiple

cars, if that makes sense. Well, a new car in 2028, right? Like something new is coming. Okay, well, there we go. So there we go. Last question. I'm preparing. I'm preparing already for Sempe the first race in 2028. Alice, how do you feel about your chiefs, red and yellow?

I think it's going to be good, man. I think a lot of people doesn't really have a lot of belief and trust and I know that Patrick Patrick is going to be right on top he's going to he's had a season to prepare and he's going to be

he's going to be the greatest there is there you go to another that's pretty good yeah all right enjoy your off season we'll see you next year at Indy 500 yeah thank you Alex thanks Alex congratulations more first things first after the break Blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range infused with functional benefits.

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Oh, a great Patriot joins us. Gronk will be in the building. No, he's not going to be in the building. He'll be in a building. He will be in a building. It won't be outdoors. We're in his car. Tomorrow of 4.30, preview Patriots, Seahawks.

Right now, some news being reported from Adam Schefter and Ian Rapaport. Aaron Donald is not traveling to Australia. This is surprising to any. anybody. I mean, moderately surprising that he's not even going to make the trip. I don't find it shocking. I thought if he did make the trip and played, I would have set his over under at snaps played at like 11 and a half.

I'm not surprised by this at all. I wouldn't be, even if the game was in LA, I wouldn't think he'd necessarily play. He hasn't been really in camp and going through all the football related things. that you'd want to go through to get back into football shape, to get to a point where he's comfortable. He's been on the couch for a long time, and I know he doesn't look like it, but those movements and training yourself to be ready to play at a high level,

it's going to take a little bit of time, and there's no reason to rush him. I am surprised that he's not playing. Because even when he, before he said he was coming back, he was working out with the team. I know he wasn't in drills, you know, or in live action and things like. that, so I get that. But it seemed like

it seems like he was way ahead of schedule for a guy who hadn't played in two years, because he started months ago getting ready, you know, and it seemed like okay, he's ramping up toward playing. So I felt like he'd be ready, but you know, there's no reason to rush on it. I know the 49ers

are relieved. Yeah. Do you think this is a reality check with a little bit of media hype around Aaron Donald that they've built this super team and now Aaron Downs back and it feels like we're discussing his comeback like he's going to be in the MVP or in the Super Bowl again. To me, it's going to take time, and I think it's a really smart thing that they're doing

organizationally to give him the time to be in the best position when he does finally play to play at the highest level he can play at. To take a guy who's been off from football-related activities for so long and then pushing him in a game and have the, you know, 16-hour flight, then he's got to play, you know, the game and then fly back. That's a lot to ask for a guy to do in such a short amount of time. And he's such an important potential asset for him. Why not protect it longer?

And, you know, if it's two games, three games, four games. Really? To me, it feels like it could be a couple games. To me, I thought he should be like the closer. Bring him in the second half of the season, let him play those games. Oh, that's, well, listen, sorry to interrupt, but as Danny talked about in 20 minutes, I'm sure as Danny's going to talk about, they're not paying him like he's a closer. You know, the 20 million that they're giving him, or not giving him, they're paying him plus he can make another 10. So he can make up to 30 million if they were to win the Super Bowl and he plays.

So that's, you know, more than an honorary role. But what has resonated most with me was our Howie Long interview when Howey discussed about how when he retired, was a relief and about how he imagines for Aaron it was a relief and that you know he got the itch to want to come back but there's a long distance to travel between having the itch to want to come back and being ready to come back and again I this is this is third hand I guess fourth hand however far removed I am from being you know a professional football player but just talking to a lot of former professional football players I'm very far removed I don't know I like how many how many thirty third you have a thousand hands no but how many how many

place is removed is what I mean. But just heard it from a professor. That's a feet. I know what you're saying. What I'm saying? How many degrees removed? But I look at Greg. Greg is in better shape than he was when he played.

Like Greg, as far as how he looks, Greg Jennings. Greg is. Yeah, yeah. If you saw Greg working out right now, you would say he is at in the same level of shape or better than he was. at his peak in Green Bay but he would tell you he is so far removed

from being able to play and so I thought from the beginning there was a level of instant impact assigned to Aaron because of his physique that I thought was going to be very difficult to actually at least

instantly produce and people use the Philip Rivers example because Rivers was five years removed but it's the difference in athleticism required for the position Philip Rivers was playing where his entire goal was to see how far into the game he could get without having another human being touch him. And Aaron Donald, his entire goal is to go through another human being in route to the person he's actually trying to get to. It's just so massive that I am,

like I think that there is a good chance that by the midway point of the season, Aaron Donald is one of the best defensive players in the league again. I don't think it's a guarantee. I think there's a good chance. Okay. But I think the ramp up is going to be significant. Flipside, is there a chance this just doesn't work in that it's all just a nice story that we all got high on the RAM supply and this ends up not working?

Well, look, there's always a chance of that with injury and as you get older, the likelihood of injury obviously increases and things hurt. As we all know, you can get out of bed and things hurt a little differently than they did when you're younger. So now you're going from being on the couch. to having to hit people and to Nick's point, it's every single play and you're going to get double teamed and they're going to play a lot of attention to you. So it's the intensity level that he has to get to, it's going to take some time. And there's a grind that goes with the day-to-day, the week-to-week that he hasn't done in a long time.

So why rush it just for the sake of putting him out there, put him out there when he has the best chance to really impact the game at his high. Do you agree that when they do put him out there, at least in the beginning, he will be a situational pass rusher? Yeah, it would be hard for me to imagine that they would put him out there to play 65 snaps. It'd be, treat him kind of like we talk about with Travis Hunter as a specialist where maybe you put him in on third down, maybe you put him in two-minute drives, maybe you put him in the red zone, those places where the biggest impact of the game can be felt. Interesting. I wonder what the shift is in mindset for a guy who was on the field all the time to shifting

to just becoming a specialist. But that's something that as a coaching staff and as a head coach, you would talk to the player about, hey, how are you feeling? Do you want to try some more SNAP? And it's going to have to be give and take to find out, because if you're trying to force him to do things he doesn't want to do, that's not going to work out very well either. But if you can use him in the most impactful moments, that could be able to be able to do. be a great thing. I told you.

Couldn't explain it. You have a funny feeling. Oh, welcome to First First Overtime. We've got breaking news into the First Time's First Overtime News Desk, Parkins. That's coming up in a second. But here's what the other things we're talking about.

What can Josh Allen prove this year? He's an excellent quarterback. And then, are we expecting the Bears? Offense to dominate. I sure am, and I know Ben Johnson is too. I don't believe that you are. I am. I told We drafted Caleb Williams and Billy's fantasy.

So we're at Caleb Williams house now. I didn't know that that was the endorsement. I have no choice. And of course, the return of top 10 Tuesday. What's on top 10 teams entering week one? Yeah. Fastball down the middle. Just what I like, Parkins.

Pretty self-explanatory. Wonderful. Any sightings of the ice man coming up? Put out the signal. Maybe he shows up. And what is the signal exactly? Bad Caleb takes. The mountain was great today.

Yeah. Thank you. So, you know, Iceman didn't make an appearance. Just to dig in a little bit. It's a text of the take that's projected, like, into the clouds, or what is it? I'm back. I am told that Iceman watches and hears everything. Like Santa.

Yeah. Also fan of the cold. Yeah. A lot of similarities. Yeah. I'm told. Yes. Wow.

Chris was sorry, Kevin Walsh. It's Nick Wright and Danny Parkins. And we're headed right now. Folks, you're not going to believe the top 10. How can you have a problem with the top 10? The season hasn't even started. You're not. Everybody's 0 and oh.

You're not going to believe the top 10. I'm telling you. I don't even know what you have a beef with on the top 10. He's already got beat. Top 10 Tuesday. Okay. And Parkins is great at picking games. He's a regular season champion.

No, he wasn't a regular season champion. Including the playoffs. I agree to disagree. Okay. All right. First thing's first news desk. Aaron Donald will not travel to Australia. This was read off of our news desk by Ian Rappaport,

and I'm Shepter who actually reported it. Here's Rams Head Coach Sean McVeigh. I think Hill, Aaron Donald, will be ready to go sooner rather than later, but we're making a decision that we think is best for him and for our team. Being two years off retirement, he's attacked this the right way. But it would have been a really quick, Turnaround and Ben Royer. Parkins your reaction to this.

Mild surprise, but less surprised today than four days ago. Albert Breer had a piece on Aaron Donald's contract and he had the breakdown of the up to $30 million deal and it was a $10 million base salary, $10 million

in incentives that were easily, he wrote that it was like easily attainable incentives based on snap count that he would achieve even if he was a rotational player and he would have to make they would have to be a Super Bowl team in order for him to hit all of the playoff numbers and then the other 10 million was in roster bonuses but divvied up over 15 games not 17 writing it as if there could be a ramp up giving him a week or two to ramp up to the season so when I read that I was like oh wow maybe that's just giving himself a little bit of a breathing room, but really it's

he doesn't want to go to Australia. You think it's he doesn't want to go to Australia or he's not ready to play a tackle football game? I think that if this game was in L.A., I personally think he would play. Now, I don't have any inside information on that. It just seems like this is a weird thing to ask a play. We don't have a lot of examples

of a player playing defensive tackle, one of the most physically grueling positions in the sport, sitting out for two years and then coming back and playing, much less a first ballot Hall of Famer who's being paid like a top 15, 20 player at his position. But that's the case wherever the game's played. I understand, but I think that it was probably more difficult to ask that player to get on a 16-hour flight,

play a football game, get right back on a 16-hour flight, and come back. So they're just like, we're signing you. We were the favorites without you. We're an even bigger favorite with you. So we made this. signing for the Super Bowl for the last game of the year at SoFi, not the first game. So I think that they're letting him skip it. So here would be my, I'm not shocked by it.

I thought if he was going to play, it would be in a, you know, very specific role of 10 to 15 snaps. And I still think that's now going to be his role in whatever his first game is. I also, though, am of the fervent belief that, A, the Rams might not even be the best team in their own division. I think Seattle has a real claim to that. And B, that the Rams path to the Super Bowl, which is at SOFI, really needs to go through SOFI, meaning they need to have home field advantage because I am not sure how potent or dominant that team with a 38-year-old quarterback would be in Philadelphia in a playoff game. in Seattle in a playoff game. Chicago.

Yeah, for real, absolutely. In Chicago in the playoff game where we saw it in the offense, you know, was mediocre for the Rams in that game, which is why I think this is not nothing when you look at the Rams' early schedule. Like the Rams, some of the Rams' toughest opponents and toughest passing attacks they'll face all year is early on. And so San Francisco already feels like an odd game. and San Francisco's as healthy as they're going to be all year right now.

McCaffrey's as fresh as he's going to be. I don't think they need Aaron Donald or Miles Garrett and maybe not Matt Stafford to beat the Big Bad Danny's New York Giants. But then you have Denver. Then you're at Denver, at Philly, Josh Allen and the Bills in Week 5. And I know you're not high on the Bills KW, but I think that's going to be a potent passing attack at the very least. If Aaron Donald is, you know, his first game,

week three against Denver, and he's 10 to 15 snaps there, and then is ramping up. Again, I said this a few weeks ago. It's not a crazy scenario if they lose tomorrow night or Thursday night that the Rams start the year two and three, and they are, you know, more likely a very dangerous wildcard team than the NFC West champions with home field advantage. And I think that's where this is, whatever his ramp up is, is relevant. Yeah, I'm surprised he's not playing. I know, Danny, you're surprised because of the money or that was your main thing.

Yeah, I mean, they're paid him $30 million. I figured they'd want him to play football. Yeah, I'm surprised because even before he announced he was coming back, I mean, he was felt like a part of that team. He was there. I know he wasn't going at it with the teammates and stuff, but it just seemed obvious he was coming back. And I'm sure he's in great shape.

I get it not made. maybe not football shape. But you're probably right, like, they just didn't want him to go through. I don't know if it's him not wanting to go to Australia as much as it's them maybe not wanting to put him through that flight, then the game, then the flight back. Well, I'll just say that real quick, bro, like, if Nick's right, if he was going to be, if it is a real ramp up and it's going to be, I think you said 10 to 15 snaps, that's a snap per hour of air travel.

Like that doesn't seem terribly efficient for air. Get on a 16-hour flight to play 16 snaps for a first ballot Hall of Fame. That doesn't seem like the most effective use of his time. No, I agree with that. Where I disagree with you, Nick, is I don't think they need to have, you know, the number one seed to get to the Super Bowl. Just because, you know, I get it. You're putting it on Stafford's age. That always could be an issue.

But that defense, I mean, their defense should be great. If Donald's healthy for the playoffs, he'll be playing the best football. he can play this season, that defense obviously will travel. And that's why I think even if they're a wild card, they'd have a great shot at getting to the Super Bowl. First checking the, huh, column for the Rams. It was flawless.

Nothing was over there. Then finally, like, huh, going on over there. It's still the team that was favored to. But it was largely perfect once Puka started to get on the straight and narrow. And this is the first one. and was like, a little bit weird. Yeah, and I think the Niners absolutely can win Thursday night.

No, I think they got a shot. And a neutral sight, the, you know, heavy dose of McCaffrey, Shanahan trying to scheme something up, you know, all off season to get ready for this game. I think they absolutely can win. It's 509 on a Tuesday, which means it's time for Top 10 Tuesday. Today, top 10 teams. Perfect.

Seems to make sense, right? Right down the middle. I love this stuff. Right down the middle. It's going to be a perfect top 10. Nick already has some issues. Let's begin. You actually just said it.

Right now, the Niners are a top 10 team. Talk to me in 10 weeks if all their old stars are injured, that's fine. But they were the third most injured team in football last year, and they still won 12 games. So can they be the 10th most injured team in football and maybe even be better than that? I think it is a spectacular roster on paper. Their stars are just. injury prone and old, so over the course of the year, that might deteriorate. But right now, today, they're a top 10 team in the NFL.

Coming in at number nine, the Cincinnati Bengals. Their offense produces if Burrow, Chase, and Higgins are out there, 12 and 6 over the last two years, scoring 29 points per game. It's been the defense, obviously. No team does better offensively in losses. If we throw this up, this is why they invested the fourth most free agent dollars on the defensive side of the ball. They lead the NFL in losses over the last two years when scoring 27 or more.

They have eight. No other team in the NFL has five. And they lead the NFL in points per game in losses in which Joe Burrough starts. So they are like, we are going to score points as long as Burrow, Chase, and Higgins are out there. Can the defense get to league average? Coming in at number eight, the Chicago Bears. Speaking of a defense that needs to get to league average, reports on J.1. Johnson are very good. I think this offense will be spectacular.

They were ninth in points and sixth in yards last year, and that was with a pretty rough first four games of the season offensively, especially running the ball. And it's year two for everybody in Ben Johnson's system. He's been an excellent offensive coach, obviously all four years that he's been a play caller in the NFL. I think the Bears are competing for the best offense in football this year. Coming in at number seven, the Dallas Cowboys.

No team has overhauled their defense more since he made a run at it, But on the too deep on defense, 12 new guys. Some via trade, some via draft, some via signing, plus a new defensive coordinator. We've talked a ton about the offense. We've talked a ton about the hype. But they are just saying, can all of these darts that we're throwing at the wall, at the board? You throw darts at the board more than a wall. Get the defense up to league average to match, which should be an excellent offense.

Coming in at number six, the Baltimore Ravens. By the end of the year, I have the bangles over the Ravens. I picked the Bengals to win the AFC North. But the Ravens are the more proven commodity right now. I love the Jesse Minter higher that they made. Their defense was the 18th best defense in the NFL last year. We know their talent is better than that. Madibuque should be back.

Their culture. Defensive DNA, this brew would tell us year after year. It's in the wall. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Also, we haven't discussed it in a while, which I know Wilds misses from the show run down, but Trey Hendrickson is on the Raiders. Yeah. Thank you.

I know. You missed it, but it's like, oh. Are we sure Madabuque is like the level of impact? We're not, we're definitely not sure. We have to see it. And he might be on a snap count early in order. But like, again, Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton, Humphrey, Wiggins, Trey Hendrickson, plus Jesse Minter coming in there.

Plus Madibuque. It's a ton of name talent on the defensive side of the ball. Coming in at number five, you knew they were going to make the top five. Yeah. The Los Angeles Chargers. You might have heard that were Sean Slater and Joe. Joe Walt missed some time last year. So I felt like it was appropriate to go back to when they last played together.

Last time they played, Rashon Slater, Joe Walt, and Justin Herbert was the last game of 2024. They played 15 games together that year. Now, I would have liked a higher volume passing attack that year. They were pretty good. 20 passing touchdowns, three interceptions, a pass array of a hundred. They weren't with him for the playoff game? Say again.

Were they with him for that playoff game? No, Sean Slater got hurt. Oh, that's what I was asking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. last game. Oh, that explains. Last game. Yes.

I mean, it's pretty big. Yeah. It's a pretty big injury. Coming in at number four, wild is New England Patriots. This is the easiest, better team, worst record candidate we've seen in the NFL in years. It's one thing, like a lot of teams are regression candidates. My bears are a regression candidate. The Jaguars, the Broncos, any team that won a bunch of games is a regression candidate.

But I actually think the Patriots are going to be a better team this year. Everybody, including me, has talked about the easy. schedule last year because it was historically easy, but they were five and three against playoff teams. And you have more experience with Drake May and you gave him a lot better weapons. We'll see about the offensive line. But I think the Patriots should be an excellent team this year. Problem for them, the bills are going to be better. And Buffalo comes in at number three. If a team is going to be a better offense than my bears, I think it's the Buffalo Bills. Love their offensive line. Love James Cook. They have a ton of experienced weapons that have

been in that system with Joe Brady for years that have always been a top seven offense since he's been calling plays. And I think DJ Moore is going to be back to 130, 140 targets this year and give Josh Allen a true number one. I don't know who's slowing down that offense. Coming in at number two, the aforementioned L.A. Rams. Six losses last year, all by seven points or fewer, and they added three defensive players who have been all pro and two who will be first ballot hall of famers in Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald. It is a prolific team that is obviously a were the Super Bowl favorite. But I got to give respect to the Seattle Seahawks,

the Super Bowl champs with a blowout Super Bowl victory, who we talked about Kenneth Walker going to the Chiefs. We talked about Clint Kubiak becoming the coach of the Raiders. In terms of pure production, they returned 20 of 22 starters from that Super Bowl. They lost Kenneth Walker and Kobe Bryant, the safety who's now injured on the Bears. 39 of 44 touchdowns, 45 of 47. It's a cool step. It is a remarkable amount of continuity for a dominant Super Bowl champion.

So I believe the Seahawks deserve the respect of being preseason number one on top 10 Tuesday. That's a good top 10 Tuesday, bro. Well, I mean, it's perfect top 10th. No, I think it's good because it can't be your fault. So I don't know, Christina or Dusty, Josh made a mistake. Troy is, with the graphics, where are the Texas? They left the Texas off. I know you didn't leave Texas.

I left the Texans off. Texans come in in number 12, but it's not top 12 Tuesday. It's top 10. What? Brute. That defense will arguably be the best in the league. Well, yeah.

It's going to need to be. And C.J. Strau, I get it. He was a disaster in the playoffs. And he wasn't great last year by any stretch. But he wasn't as bad as everybody's saying. And he improved in virtually every stat from his last year over his second year. and he did it with a terrible offensive line, one of the worst in the league,

and no run game. One of the worst run games in the league. Now he's got David Montgomery, receiving courts, kind of coming into form. I just think, and he's, for whatever it's worth,

he's betting on himself. He could have got a long-term $50 million per year deal. He turned it down, said, I'm going to go out and be better and get more money. So I just, again, I'm not saying they had to be number one or anything, but I think they definitely should have been in the top 10.

I had to several the Niners, the Bears, the Patriots. I put them ahead of those teams. The Eagles were coming into number 11. Very similar teams. I think the defenses should be great. I have massive questions about them at quarterback. And the AFCs jumbled. The Texans, Patriots, Bengals all have virtually identical odds to win the AFC.

So I do think reasonable minds can disagree on how you order this. I just have huge C.J. Stroud questions. and I think there's a real chance he's going to regret turning down 50 million per year if that contract actually was on the table for him. You said the Texans, Patriots, Bengals all have virtual identical odds to win the AFC. Yeah. Anybody have- Chiefs a little higher. A little higher.

Little higher. They're not. They're not. They're not. Not only are they not top 10. We know they're not 11 because that's Philly. We know they're not 12 because that's Houston. That's right.

So they're just, they're not even there. Somewhere the 15th, maybe. I don't know. team, someone on the great quarterback. A lot of questions about that. Right, but so again, great quarterback questions about the roster, which apply to the Bengals, it applies to your Bears, it applies, you would say,

to your chargers, it applies, they're a bunch and it can't be, well, they were bad last year because the Ravens, with all those guys you listed about all the great names on defense, except for Hendrickson, we're all in the Ravens last year. But my issue isn't even with you leaving the Chiefs off. You planted your flag on that when you had to miss them playoffs.

That's fine. That's not even surprised. And my issue isn't even necessarily the text, I think all of the AFC is a bit of a mess here. Like, I know you like the Chargers more in the Patriots, but you have the Patriots. Higher AFC is a mess. But I'm going to do something I rarely do,

which is justify leaving the Broncos out of this. I'd love to hear it. Like the Broncos, everything you said about the team that is number one, Seattle. Well, the Broncos were the number one seed in the AFC last year. The Broncos are, bringing almost everyone back. The Broncos, it made actually a significant offseason addition in Jalen Waddle. The Broncos have the, the, it is another year of Bo Nicks with

Sean Payton. I know you love a good quarterback whisperer. It sounds like the Broncos are not 11, 12, maybe they're 13. What is the argument? Again, I don't think the Broncos deserve to be in the top five, but they were the number one seed and they lost a playoff game where their quarterback wasn't there for it. What's the argument why the Broncos aren't there? I have Bonix questions, but really, they had 11-1-score wins last year, and they were, which is an NFL record, tied for an NFL record for the most in NFL history. And they were not juggernaut.

It was like ekeen-out wins against the Giants, Eking out wins against the Jets, Ekeen out wins against the Raiders, Eke and out wins against the, who is the backup quarterback? Chris Ola-Ducan. But then how do we justify having the Bears who didn't have 11-1 score wins? They had six just straight, pull it straight out of the fire. Four-quarter comebacks. Well, final two-minute comebacks. Like, I just, I know why you don't have the Jags, you don't believe in the Prince.

Their 13 wins are fake. That's fine. Young quarterback, the great second year with the coach, a quarterback whisper, they don't count. The Chiefs, you just don't believe in this year, even though every other great quarterback in the league. Literally every single other great quarterback in the league makes the list just based on them being existing. That's how bad the supporting cast of the rest of the questions are in Kansas City, by the way.

It's how bad the sporting cast is. They're a year removed from winning 15 games during third straight Super Bowl. I don't understand being able to leave the Broncos and Texans for that matter of it, which is why the entire AFC is a mess here. If only they could have the track record of success of the Bengals and the Chargers. One good only way. It's a new year. It's not about your accomplishments.

2019. It's about your accomplishments this year. The Broncos are the defense. They had the best record in football last year. You did you have the Broncos making the playoffs? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Oh yeah. The charge was actually play. Yeah, of course. Okay. Who made the playoffs last year? Yeah. That's top 10 Tuesday. He did top 10 Tuesday. Excellent. Uh, more breaking news. Didn't even talk about the Eagles. First things first. Overtime desk.

Bakes show. Bake show gets a three year, $165 million extension. Good for. Thank you. Congratulations to the bake show. What does this mean for the bucks that's next? 55 million a year for Baker. Good for him. Right, right at the wire.

Welcome back to the OT hanging out with Coach Manjini for some breaking news out of Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield and the Bucks at the wire, get a contract extension done before the season. And Baker got paid, coach. Three years, $165 million contract extension. Of course, Baker was set to hit free agency. after this season. He now locks up his foreseeable future in South Florida. Your reaction to this 11th hour deal with Baker and the Bucks. It doesn't surprise me. And the fact that they wanted to get this done before the season, it's very similar to a lot of the contracts are getting done now.

He has good vibes going to the season. There's all the conflict that they had, all the discussions those are put away. It is a little surprising organizationally. Granted, Baker's done a great job with the opportunity that has been given, especially signing that one-year deal initially and then converting that into a three-year deal and now converting into this. It's just, you wonder, is he the guy that can really bring them to where they hope to go? And over the time that he's been in Tampa Bay,

no one's had more turnovers than Baker Mayfield. And that, to me, is a concern. If you want to live with, I guess, the sort of gunslinger approach, that's okay, but you're going to have to live with the downside of the turnover that it generates. I was pretty shocked by how this contract story went, though, because they were too good to have a bad pick with Baker. Their roster's pretty good. Todd Bulls is on the hot seat. Their defense regressed last year, but there's decent talent on the defensive side of the ball.

Ruben Bain adds to that front. with Vita Vaya and Kalaja Canseley. They lose Mike Evans to San Francisco, but a Mecca-A-A-Bucah last year's first-round pick, slots in. And it's like they were really injured last season. Bucky Irving, great offensive line. We know the Evans injury, the Godwin injury.

Baker two years ago was 4,500 yards, 30-plus touchdowns really produced for them. So I look at it as it's a type of situation, like you weren't going to do better than Baker. Baker probably wanted a five-year deal at this type of number, but 55 million per year, that puts him with Stafford, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, and Joe Burrow. He plays more games than Joe Burrow.

Not as good of a player, but he's been healthier than Joe Burrow. Has not been as productive as Matt Stafford, clearly, but Stafford signed that contract a couple of years ago. If you're Baker Mayfield, why would Jordan Love deserve more money than Baker Mayfield? Can anyone point to it? He hasn't won the division like Baker. He hasn't had the best statistical season. like Baker. So I do think he now keeps the company with his salary for the players of his production.

Yeah, if you're negotiating his deal, you definitely have those bullet points and you can make those arguments and make them compellingly. But is Jordan Love the bar? Do you really think that he is going to be the one that can bring you to the Super Bowl? And when you make a commitment, a three-year commitment like they do, they're organizationally saying, yes, we do believe that that's the case. He hasn't been in the most dominant division in the world either. No question. And they brought in Zach Robinson off the McVeigh tree to kind of rekindle some of that

bake show magic that we like to talk about on the show. And signing at the same rate as Jordan Love a couple of years after, given that the cap has gone up, you could still say that Green Bay made more of an investment in Baker Mayfield. I just, the longer you wait on these deals, I think the teams back themselves into a corner. So like, if you're Tampa and you were going to take. this past the opener of the season when Baker had said he was not going to negotiate and their cap was not in a great spot to give a franchise tag to a quarterback next year, you would

just be in a rock and a hard place if Baker actually did ball out this year and he would be looking at way more money than this 12 months from now. Great, but one of the things that Baker does really well is play with a chip on his shoulder, play angry, play to the idea that he's being disrespected. It's been his whole career. When has he been at his best in those moments? So now he's gotten the respect that he feels like he deserves. Is it going to be the same Baker Mayfield that we saw or could have potentially saw going into the scene? He's a pretty competitive guy. Yeah, but an angry Baker Mayfield is a really, it seems to be a much more productive Baker Mayfield than one that's, you know, just sitting on $150 million new money.

I understand. He was calling out Kevin's DeFansky. when he came into the division on social media, saying, I can't wait to see you twice a year based on how he handled the situation in Cleveland. Like, I think Baker's one of those guys that kind of real or imagined creates the slights and creates the dragons that he needs to slay.

But he's really good when it's real. I get it. I get it. I would just... I probably would have gone into the season. Really? Let him be angry. And then, yeah, and look, they got Baker on a one-year deal when he was, he had been discarded.

We were seeing it over and over. throughout the league where guys are getting let go and going other places and having really successful second acts and this is part of it but is this the have we seen the highest level or is there another level that Baker can potentially go to and I do think the 45 turnover since he's been in Tampa Bay the fact that that leads the NFL that's a significant meaningful stat in a division that that's not an elite division in the NFL and they didn't win that division last year. He played through a lot of injuries last year. He did. He's played through a lot of injuries in his career. That's one of the reasons he was potentially led

go in Cleveland's because he did. But that doesn't mean that he's going to be less injured moving forward. It could be part of the package. All right. I'd reward him for his toughness and I would also say, just maybe this is the soft side of me. Pretty cool redemption arc. It's an awesome redemption arc. Sam Darnold is an awesome redemption arc. There's a lot of guys that that are having that arc, but you want to be, you want to make sure that when, when he goes through that arc, there's more to it.

We haven't hit the top of the arc. And that would be the enforcement part for Tampa Bay, if they've seen the best of, of that curve. All right, we'll see. I think he can get back to his production from just two years ago in Tampa. Another big contract news

that's going to impact the opener of the season in New England. The Patriots made history with Christian Gonzalez, four years, $135 million, $101 million. guaranteed highest paid cornerback in the league. They've got Seattle tomorrow night, Super Bowl rematch to open the season. Coach, do you see this as having a big impact in the week one matchup? No. To me, I never thought he was going to set out the game. And I know some people did. But when you look at how he treated training camp, there are times where he didn't participate in some of the joint practices, which I understand.

but there was never, I never got the sense that he would legitimately not play tomorrow night. If it was a holdout, it was a pretty soft holdout, right? He was practicing, he was wearing his helmet, he was doing an 11 on 11. If it was a hold in, it was a pretty soft hold in. And to his credit, I think that that does go a long way in negotiations, showing I want to be part of this. I want this to go as amicably as possible. But I also want to get what I deserve.

So it's a great storyline in the building in the sense that they rewarded not only one of their best players, but it sounds like he's one of their best people as well. So that's meaningful. Guys can see that. They're excited to have them. That's all positive as well. But I never felt like we were at a moment where if this didn't get done, he wasn't going to suit up against Seattle. It's a deadlines make deals type of story.

Because this should be one of the easiest types of contracts. to negotiate. You drafted him. You developed him. He's been excellent and available at a premium position. And a good, good guy. And a good guy. No issues. Cornerstone piece. Right. Coaches love him. And Devin Witherspoon, same class, also an awesome player. Just signed a basically identical deal with the same agent. So you've got a cop there. Like this, this should be one of the easiest deals ever to get done. But it took until 24 hours before the opener to actually get the deal done.

Negotiations used to be so frustrating because as a head coach you want to be able to move forward with certainty, understand what you have and be able to plan and sometimes you talk to the GM and says, oh, we're going to get back together in a week. We're going to get together and you're like, how about tomorrow?

What's going to happen? What's different in a week from now versus now except that we're a week further on and what we're trying to get done? But to your, you're You're right. The deadlines do push everything to a closing. It's just, I don't think it needs to be that way. It doesn't, but just also to put a point on it for tomorrow. So I agree with you. He probably was always going to play because it looks like this deal was always going to get done. But the last time we saw these teams play, Seattle destroyed New England in the game. And the best player on Seattle, Jackson Smith and Jigva, honestly didn't play that well.

and when he was guarded by Christian Gonzalez, 14 routes, three targets, one catch, 16 yards. That was the second biggest defensive back on offensive catcher matchup, either team, either side. So Gonzalez got that assignment a ton in the game and held him to one catch. So imagine what the bludgeoning could have been if Christian Gonzalez wasn't there for New England and you've got JSN running free. But that should be another reason this deal should have gotten.

so much sooner in a disappointing as Super Bowl as you could have to have a guy who went out and took out essentially their best offensive weapon. I know he got a little bit of production, but it should have been a slam dunk.

Easy, get it done. And my guess is they'll say it was. You know what I mean? They'll retroactively be like, yeah, he was never in danger. He showed up to training camp. He went through the practices. He was there for the opener and we signed him to a deal. Yeah, so explain why we didn't get this done months ago

so that this wasn't even part of the discussion. You know New England's. Do you think they'll give us that explanation? No. Okay. No. I like that explanation from any of the negotiators. Yeah, it's a very strange way that this thing gets handled. Coach Mangini has the bears in the playoffs, but he did it begrudgingly. Begrudgingly. Coach, they're talking dominance in Chicago. They're going to love this. Coming up. on the O-2. The NFL is back tomorrow. Oh my goodness.

What a graphic. Everyone's talking about the Super Bowl rematch about Australia. Forget. The real sign of football coming back, coach, is the return of cool stats tomorrow. That case is impressive. It is impressive. Could have maybe chiseled my jawline a little bit there in that graphic. That's all right.

I like it. I think they did a great job. You think that is the edited version? They really did that well. I'm going to go home and cry. Welcome back to the OT. Let's go to my hometown of Chicago. Ben Johnson has goals of being the greatest offense of all time,

not with the acronym, just like literally the best. Caleb Williams, he echoes his coach's mindset. He went on the Bears, et cetera, podcast to discuss finding his voice, entering his second year under Ben Johnson, third in the league. Take a listen, coach. I speak up when, you know, when things are needed, you know, times where I get anger on the field. Ben's more or less kind of, you know, calming me down now in the sense of instead of him, you know, cursing me out, you know, I'll get pissed off on the field.

And so I think that's just going to keep growing just because the expectation that we have inside of here internally, that we want to, you know, go out there and execute. We want to be the best offense. We want to help this team in any way possible on our side of the ball, and that's going out there and scoring points and putting up seven points every chance we get. All right, coach. It's a little early for an O.T. bowl. But you, I'm disregarding your pick of the Bears as a wildcard team.

It was so, so, it was like you were in a hostage video. But we know you love Bryce Young. We know you love the Panthers. We know you're picking the Panthers and upset. 100%. Well, I'm not necessarily. It's not enough points. But I don't know if that'll be my upset alert.

It's such a small line. Such a small upset. You want to go big game hunting. Yeah, I do that. So you're not, you're not. all concerned that the Bears are going to be able to just name their number against Carolina. Oh, you want us to score 31? No problem. 40, no problem. Now, when you look at the Bears offseason, what were the weapons they added this past off season? They lost E.J. Moore.

Okay, but who did they add? Nothing. I mean, San Rausch, third round pick tight ends. Okay. And I think they had a receiver too, right, in third round? Nothing of substance. And then defensively, they have tried to proactively address the defense. I don't, did you remember where the defense ranked last season? It was bad,

coach. Can we bring that up? I just want to help Danny remember. Yeah. I didn't know which stat you were looking at. Points per game, they were 23rd.

Total offense. They were 29th. Yeah. Oh, plus 20-yard plays. They were 30th. So there's 32 teams. Third down percentage, 22nd,

sacks 22nd. And they did draft a safety in the first round, which I really like a lot. And the other safety they brought in on unfortunately got hurt, but do you think that they're going to be able to substantially change those numbers? I think that they're, honestly, I think that they will be a little bit better than that, but way worse than

takeaways. 12 interceptions are no longer on the team this year. The Kobe Bryant injury at safety is significant. I think Jalen Johnson's a top 10 cornerback in football. He was basically out all of last season. When he played, he was clearly not himself. News today. Not sure I totally believe it, but there's expectation that Kyler Gordon will return at some point in the early to middle part of the season at Nicol Corner. But I think getting a number one cornerback back, I think the Bears defense will be a little bit better down to down in possession to possession, even if they are worse at takeaway. So I think that they will be bad, not horrific. Carolina at home, they did add to, they had replaced both tackles and the center. And Bryce was pretty good in terms of sack percentage, about five percent.

I thought that he showed marked improvement from last year. I think E.J. Everow, who's a defensive coordinator there, is outstanding. Last year, who did the Bears lose to in the playoffs? It was the Rams. And that's who Carolina lost to, and they lost to him, what was it, 34. 3431. And they beat him during the regular season. That was 31.28.

So they scored 62 points on the Rams in their two games. So we see that they have the potential to score. They also have the potential to compete with the top. teams, both teams played. Well, I think they played the Rams tougher than the Bears did. I can't wait for this game. I cannot wait for this game. They've added some weapons offensively. They've done some good things defensively. They're at home. And to your, the way that you look at them is the way that a lot of people look at them as this is just a, you know, a little bit of a road bump for the Bears before they get on to their real meaningful games.

Yeah, it's a nice, it's a nice opener for the Bears. I was pretty happy. It's a soft opener. It's a soft I was pretty happy with how the schedule broke. I'll be honest. I will concede all the points about the defense. I'm not hanging my hat. If this game is played in the teens, I don't like the Bears' chances. I think that the Bears have a truly special difference-making head coach. And they have paired him with a truly special difference-making talent at the quarterback position,

that that coach will be able to mold that talent into being one of the best players in football. And we saw the comebacks. and we saw what they became as a rushing team over the course of last year. We know that they were ninth in scoring and sixth in yards over the course of the year. And it's Colston Loveland second year in the system, and Roma Dunesay second year in the system, and Luther Burden's second year in the system, and really like the offensive line.

And obviously you know what I think about Caleb Williams. But I would think, given how big of a advocate of special coaches you are, if we look at what Ben Johnson does, both as an offensive coordinator and now as a head coach, He's been a play caller in the NFL for four years. That's where his teams have ranked in points and yards. And those numbers at the bottom, which are the worst that it was, was with a second year quarterback in Caleb Williams that was essentially,

I mean, listen, he had Shane Waldron and Matt Iber Fluse in a pretty disastrous situation his rookie year. I look at that as the floor for what I expect from a Ben Johnson offense. Do you think the offense can be special? that it can be dominant. Because I absolutely think that's where this thing is going in Chicago. Yeah. For his production offensively, as an offensive coordinator, has been really good.

And it speaks for itself. Unfortunately, he's got to be the head coach of the whole team. But last year? Yeah, and there is another side of the ball. And that was 29th in total yards. 30, you go right on down the list. Again, conceded. Yeah.

So as an offensive coordinator, fantastic. As a head coach of the whole team playing complementary football, I don't see where the complementary part is in their approach. So if you just assume they're going to be able to outgun everybody and they're not going to have any bad games and Caleb is going to continue along this trajectory, which we haven't seen him make the layups. You haven't seen him consistently do the things that he's asking to in terms of completion percentage and starting fast. that part of the game hasn't evolved the way that you'd hope it to. It's a lot of theatrics and a lot of heroics. Well, I'm expecting that to happen this year.

But again, I would just want you on the record of this because it was begrudging that you put them in the playoffs. Do you think they will be a great offense? Not a great team. We don't even have to talk about great head coach. We don't have to talk about defense. Will they be a great offense this year? Well, there's so many teams claiming to be great offenses this year. Are they going to be better than Dallas?

Are they going to be better than Cincinnati? I don't know. Everybody's manifesting greatness this year. Are they going to be the greatest of all time? I don't think so. Well, reach for the moon, land amongst the stars, that sort of thing. Yeah. Play total defense.

Play total team. All right. That's fine. Football. That's fine. You just deny the facts on the ground. Ben Johnson, his floor is sixth best offense in football. Josh Allen always has a lot to prove this year.

What's on the line ahead of a pivotal season in Buffalo. Next, Coach Manjian, MBO, too. If you want to ask me, who do I want to coach? I take Josh Allen. It just seems like he's at his best in the most critical moments. Late in the games, he finds a way to do it. There's a look about him in the significant moments that's really attractive to me. He looks like not only does he want it, he needs it.

He looks like he's built for it. And certainly he has the physical skill set running and throwing to make it happen. It's a pretty awesome endorsement from Mike Tomlin saying that Josh Allen is the guy he would want to coach that from the pro football focus podcast. The bills are clearly an S-Bob team, Super Bowl or bust. But what do you expect of what can Josh Allen prove? Look, I like Mike Tomlin a lot and I respect him a lot. But let's just take a quick look at some big moments. can the last big moments that we saw with with with I can't defend this play so here's right before the

half so this leads to three points with two seconds left the difference in the game is three points now this next play this is at the end of regulation you got a chance to yeah here it is you got a chance to win it Dawson Knox is running the over route if he catches this he's going to probably walk into the end zone so misses that and here's at the end of the game or this is an OT he under throws brandon Cooks, ends up being an interception. So there's three big moments in a playoff series without Burrell, without Lamar, without Patrick Mahomes. Gigantic moments doesn't happen. I can't defend individual moments in a playoff game. And I get why they are magnified. And I get why they are a big deal. He had four turnovers in a playoff game that they lost. He also had 350 yards of offense and

three touchdowns. But I'm not, I'm not going to defend. He was not good enough in that game, and he has not gotten it done at the end of multiple playoff games recently, ball in his hands, down within a score, three minutes left, all of those things. I'm here for all of those conversations. I just do not think this is like myth-making by the media. Like I don't think this is like a media creation. He is first or second to Patrick Mahomes since he has entered the NFL in every playoff stat you could want, including wins, wins, yards, touchdowns. First or second two. When you talk about great players, don't you think of the great moments that they had? Don't you think about the special? Do you think about, hey, their completion percentage was awesome. Hey, this was, hey, the lead

up was. The guy has the most touchdowns of any player in football since 2020. He has the most, he has more wins than Patrick Mahomes in the last month six years. When you think about your heroes throughout sports, don't you think about the defining moments of the careers? So are you going to remember he had the most touchdowns? He's 30 years old. Who do you hear throwing that satiron as you talk about greatness? I don't want him to be Charles Barkley. He needs that Lombardi trophy to cement it.

But then retroactively, all the numbers will be there. I'm like, oh, yeah, he's one of the all-time grades. We'll see you tomorrow on the O-T. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions

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