First Things First - Top Ten Matchups to define season, Shedeur Sanders Named QB2, RJ Young's Top 138

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

(00:00) Big Ten to pass rule today to block players form returning to CFB from NFL (26:06) CFB Analyst RJ Young joins to discuss the latest in college football (38:41) Chances being named QB2 is good for Shedeur Sanders? (55:56) Danny’s list of Top Ten matchups to define this NFL season (01:13:06) Pro Football HOFer Dwight Freeney discusses the latest on Aaron Donald and the Colts (01:25:44) Winners & Losers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Live from New York, it's the show that's counting down the days to predictions week. I'm Danny Parkins alongside Coach Manjini and Jeff Schwartz on remote.

Coach, can you believe we are less than a week out? Throw away your pencils. We have to write in these predictions in Penn. This is the preseason for takes. It's regular season starting next week. Very serious. I have a countdown clock in my house. Yeah, I can see that you're nervous. I am.

I can sense that you're a little nervous. It is very unsettling. He's tiptoeing around these takes, Schwartz. He's very nervous. I'm just curious how many Bears predictions you have going to the Super Bowl, winning the division, winning the NFC. I'm looking forward to those. All of them.

Every one of them. Listen, I mean, winning the MVP for Caleb and the NFC would maybe be enough, but you'll have to tune in next week. That's pencil instead of Penn. On today's show, though, is Patrick Mahomes better off waiting to play until the real game start? I've got to be honest. I'm surprised at myself on this topic.

Also, Fox Sports College Football analyst joins the show to tell us if the new look Indiana Hoosiers are primed to repeat. Not a lot of people think so. And finally, I will reveal the top 10 matchups that will define the 2026 NFL season. And coach, I know you have loved every list I've ever made, so I'm anticipating absolutely no pushback from you. Yeah, your lists are kind of like bruised bud lists. They're impeccable. Impactable. Thank you. So again, Jeff, the criticism is going to have to come to you because coach is just going to shower me with praise.

They're so good, Jeff. In this fantasy land that I've created for myself. I'm sure I'll find some reasons to dislike them. Don't worry. I got you, coach. You will. It's been over a decade of you disagreeing with my takes as well. So let's start with college football. To say there's been blowback to this might be a bit of an understatement against the recent pattern of players returning to college football after joining NFL teams. You heard that, right? On Monday, the SEC released a statement that read in part,

individuals who choose to leave college, signed professional playing contracts, compete professionally, should not be permitted to return to college competition, end quote. And then this morning, Pete Thamele broke this news, that the Big Ten is set to pass a rule today that does not allow players to return from the NFL and play for a Big Ten school. Anyone who has declared for the NFL draft and did not withdraw appeared on an NFL. roster or signed a contract with a pro league cannot be on a big 10 roster. So there's obviously a lot here.

Coach, I will start with you. Do you like this rule change from the big 10? No, I think it's theater. It's make believe. And the idea that they're saying college athletics versus professional football, and I only looked at the big 10, the big 10 roster averages about $30 million a year. Sounds like professional football to me. Now, it's my league, but $30 million.

a year for on average per roster and you're going to you're going to take a stand on this issue because of the integrity of college athletics. And I would say if I was if I was one of those teams and then lost because of a player that went to a team that didn't have that rule in the playoffs, I'd be pretty upset by it. It's not universal. So you're going to be at a competitive disadvantage to the teams that are allowed to bring these players back. There's that component to it. And you're just saying something, denying what the reality is, which is you're paying players a ton of money, which makes them pros. It's just the minor leagues, not the NFL.

So the reason why the conference are doing this, right, making this rule, because they're not allowed to make any other rules. They can actually enforce maybe something one time, right? There's no more rules allowed. It's a free-for-all. The court system is allowing these things to happen. This is maybe one thing these conferences can do. Hey, if you've gone pro, you cannot come back.

Now, do I expect this to stand? Absolutely not. And look, here's the deal. This 2022 class, right, they feel discriminated against. Because starting in 2023, moving forward, right? Five years to play five. We know that's a new rule. They didn't get five years to play five.

And the previous classes before them got extra COVID year. These guys are kind of out of luck, man. Like, I don't know what to tell you guys. Like, you played your college. That was the rule at the time. The rules changed now. If I get a speeding ticket six months ago, and the rule changes for what's,

the speed limit is legally allowed. Do I get to go back and get my ticket at a race? That's what they're asking, right? The rules change. It's a new rule. Rules change all the time, guys. And it feels like in this instance, the conference is saying, you know what? We're enough of this. We're going to have a little bit of semblance of rules here. We're going to have a little bit of stuff we can be in charge of.

Now, I don't expect this to stand, Danny. I think this will be, just go to court. They'll get an injunction. The judge will wave it off and they'll be back anyways in the Big Ten and the SEC. I do not expect this to stand. But as conferences, just having a little bit of power they have, left to try to make some rule enforcement. They're trying to close a loophole that they created basically, right?

By just like, hey, let's just have a meeting and let's install this rule and we'll do it retroactively for this thing because it doesn't make any sense intellectually. Say it out loud. Can you play for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns and then go play for LSU? Like it's it's preposterous. But to your point, Jeff, this is what they created. The five year eligibility for five years of play, that rule was. make sense in theory, but they didn't, they didn't button it up. Because like everything with

college sports, or most things with college sports, there has been a tremendous leadership void. And I generally do not like to do a lot of reading on national television. It's not the best form of entertainment. But the statement that the NCAA put out today, I actually thought was worthwhile here. So I'm going to read this to you. Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college, sometimes without even having a hearing are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect that there as we move on their rulings are having on college sports. The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won't be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option,

regardless of the opportunities it strips from both those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience and those who are currently on campus working out with the team and attending classes. Thankfully, Congress can pass this, can write this wrong by passing the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act and ensure student athletes can have a level playing field with rules that apply fairly to everyone. What bothers me so much about this guys is that they are playing, they want us to play the violin for a system that has destabilized college athletics, and then they are running to Congress as if they don't have bigger issues to potentially deal with for all of Americans than fixing college football.

When if they just had competent leadership that could see around a corner, that could anticipate a problem, they could have solved all of these problems years ago. And instead of just being like, it's a free-for-all, players are getting paid under the table, no big deal. Now it's a free-for-all with name, image, and likeness. Now it's a free-for-all with the transfer portal. They didn't see any of this coming, and now they have egg on their face.

to your first point about closing the loophole, the loophole's not really closed. If only a few... I'm saying, if only a few of the conferences do it, it's not closed. And people are going to have an advantage. So therefore, but they're all going to play in the same playoffs format. So some teams are going to have advantages over others. So that part is not closed. And the whole idea of saying student athletes, it's not real.

When you're paying this type of money, it is professional sports. And then because of greed and the fact that they didn't share the ridiculous amount of money that they were making in college sports over time, this is where we are now. And the idea that if the court issues relief to a player and allows them to go play, that's the way it is. That's how it works. And they found that that's what is fair. And to me, now to restrict that athlete from doing it because it's college sports and student athletes, it's not. It's not true. It's not true.

That's a good way to put it. But they want to hide behind the appearance of it being. Because it's convenient and because that fits the narrative, but it's not the reality when you have $30 million worth of players on your roster. That is a professional sport. That's bigger than a lot of other professional sports salary caps. Yeah, no question. Look, Danny, you said it, right?

the reason why we're here is the end to double A, right? They had no foresight to what was coming. They lost in the Supreme Court 9-0. You know what? Hardest to lose 9-0 in the Supreme Court? Every justice said, you know what? Your model is not something we're going to do anymore. And they lost, and since they've lost everything.

And so they had no foresight for this. They've yet to have a plan. This plan of we're going to get this bill. This bill's not getting passed. Okay. So like that plan, you need to find a plan B or plan C or plan D. It's not going to happen. What has to happen is something that may never happen, which is collective bargaining.

That's what they have to get to at some point. Probably unlikely to happen. The players have no incentive whatsoever to collectively bargain with the school or with some sort of association or the NCAA or conference, wherever they will collect the bargaining against. There's no incentive for that. But that's the only way that this ever changes because they're going to keep losing in court and they're going to keep having to rewrite rules and they're going to keep having to change rules. Look, a judge in Louisiana has one rule.

The Judge of Oregon has one ruling. Judge of New York has one ruling. It's never going to stop until someone puts an end to it. And the end is a collective bargaining agreement, which, again, Danny feels very unlikely to actually happen because what's the incentive for the players? Coach mentioned they're making $30, 40 million dollars without a union, without any protection in place.

Why would they change that? Listen, this is one where if anyone is placing even 1% of the blame on the players, I don't even understand how you make the argument. Like, Dayquan writes, like, I can make chump change, maybe on a practice squad in the NFL, or I can make seven figures and compete for a national championship because this rule has allowed this loophole for me to walk right through it. There's been a leadership void in college sports for a long, long, long time

that has just, they're always playing catch-up, and it is a personal pet peeve of mine when leaders in any industry of sport, entertainment business are like, well, let's just run to Congress to fix the problem for us. It is crazy to me to be like, well, maybe Congress should take its time and try to fix college sports. It's insane. Yeah, the group that has the least amount of experience with what the problems are and knowledge of what the problems are, and for so long, they restricted the ability of the athletes to benefit from the things that they were doing and the volume of money that they were creating.

So now they're mad because the athletes are actually benefiting from this freedom that they have. And it's okay. It's okay because the athletes are benefiting and I think that's a positive. All right. Let's move now to the NFL where Patrick Mahomes has not called Congress on the issue of preseason football. But he has not played in either of the Chiefs games. Yet he, of course, is coming off of a serious knee injury, which he suffered back in December. Mahomes spoke about not getting playing time during the Chiefs preseason against the Bucks on Saturday.

Here is the quarterback of the Chiefs. Take a listen. I feel great. You know, I'm getting more and more athletic every single time I'm in the football field. And that's all you can ask for. And it's been good to go through training camp and get that full training camp experience. And so I feel great. I really wanted to play today. They would not let me. So I found that fascinating, Jeff. And you played for Andy Reed. in Kansas City, you know better than any of us how he likes to handle the preseason. Give us your perspective on that and your experience with him, but also whether or not you would want Mahomes to play in the preseason or wait until week one.

The reason he didn't play was they were down three offensive linemen. That's part of the reason why, right? With five healthy offensive linemen, I imagine he plays in that game, but they had two. They had their center and left guard. Now, one of the tackles might end up playing this season, but they're sort of trying things out on the offensive line right now. Guys are moving all over the place, but Travis Kelsey played. Walker played, all the starters play except Mahomes.

Chris Jones has played now in two straight games. Andy Reid does like to play the starters. It's routine I'm sure Mahomes is familiar with, right? They do a game plan week. So it feels like you're preparing for a game week. And I imagine he wanted to be out there with his teammates. But I would think, coach, and, you know, you have inside on this. If your offensive line's not playing in a preseason game,

the starting quarterback's not playing, especially with Mahomes. And two guys are sort of trying out a tackle. We saw how that went. They struggled to tackle. And some of the backups got hit. So I'd imagine that's the reason why you didn't play. quite simply the offense line wasn't healthy so buddy you can't play either we can't take that risk and and patrick is coming off his worst season in terms of sack percentage which is coming off

his previous worst season in terms of sack percentage and now he's dealing with this injury i like the idea of them not playing him even with a healthy offensive line because the more that he can go through practice and and test that injury in a controlled environment and there i'm sure pushing them more and more every single week. But the longer they can take and the more time that they can give them to adjust, I think that's a good thing. What would have been better is if they did have

a couple of joint practices, or at least a joint practice, where it's still a controlled environment, but he gets to work against sort of the surprise elements that another opponent brings you. I gotta say, I think what you're saying, Jeff makes all the sense of the world about the injured offensive. lineman and I normally am just very consistent like don't play my starters in the preseason be concerned

I would rather have week one rust than risk injury in me in meaningless games but because I know that like you do that Andy Reid likes playing guys in the preseason and he wants to he wants to go through this whole camp as if he is 100% normal I mean he was cleared for for day one so he wanted to approach this whole training camp as if it was any other season and in any other season the homes would play in the preseason. And he's like, I want to get that first hit out of the way. So my guess is he is even looking at it like, okay, I might have to play in front of an imperfect offensive line in the preseason.

I just want to get that out of the way so that I'm not thinking that I'm any different coming off of this ACL injury because I want to be treated like I have been in all of the previous training camps where I've been put out there a little bit in the preseason. So when I heard his rationale for it, I actually totally understood why he would do it. it's sure it's prudent to protect him, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mahomes continues to lobby Andy Reid to play. I think he wants to play.

I think what you said is exactly right. You want to feel that first contact, that first hit, that first movement, that first adjustment in the pocket, right? You want to get back and on the field with your teammates. You want to feel that before you get to week one. Also, we are creatures of habit, right? Throughout his entire career, he's playing the preseason.

And now he's not playing the preseason. I imagine it feels odd to not be out there with your teammates. And you want to feel, to your point, feel normal again, and normal again is getting preseason reps. I'm surprised they didn't play them, honestly. I get what coach is saying about. You're sort of just holding them out and doing the joint practice, as we know Andy Reid is not done in Kansas City,

not one time had a joint practice. I'm surprised he didn't play, but I get why they did it. I'm curious if he sees time this weekend, I doubt it. Maybe he lobbies his way on the field for one drive and just to sort of see what that feels like. Because I'd imagine there's some anxiety in him to get that first play out of the way, just to just know what that feels like again and not have to do that in week one when it matters.

Coach, is there anything to a player of Mahomes's stature? I get it. Andy reads the head coach. He's got stature also. But like, like if Brady walked into Belichick's office and want to be like, I know, I understand, I understand you want to protect me and that our offensive line isn't healthy, but I want to play. Like, Mahomes does have that cachet. If he knocked down the door, could he talk his way into playing in a number? a preseason game? He absolutely has that cachet, but Andy Reid has that cachet too. And sometimes

what you have to do is you have to save a player from themselves. And great players and competitive guys, they want to get out there as quickly as possible. But if you can have that player go through another full two weeks of practice and movement and stressing it and building it and strengthening it, I think that's the way to go. And it's not ideal because he's had a routine in the past. He's never had an injury like this. So you're dealing with an unfamiliar area for him. So he's going to have to deal with a little bit of an unfamiliar level of preparation for him.

Both guys have cachet and I'm going with Andy. I wouldn't play him until the start of the season and give him another two weeks to be at his best when he gets that first hit. It's a different situation too now because with the three preseason games instead of the four, like the last preseason game that's There is a little bit more time before the start of the regular season,

so you can maybe make that argument. But I would expect Jeff with you, like, he's not going to get his wish. Like he's just going to, we are going to see him week one, and that's when we'll get to judge him off of the injury. We will, and maybe they start slow because of it. I don't think so. I've liked what I've seen so far just schematically in their offense. They're under center a little bit more, which has been nice to see.

Their placer pass under center, which I've been begging them to do now for years. Like, schematically looks like Eric Bienn and me has added that back to the offense. they talked about with Kenneth Walker in the lineup. We're going to run the ball more. The screen game has come back a little bit as well. So there's elements I've seen so far in the preseason, although it's a small sample size of things they're doing to maybe help Patrick Mahomes out.

So he doesn't have to do a lot of things himself. Over the years, he's had to do a lot on his own because the wide receivers have been as good, and the offense has gotten very stale. So coach, I've liked so far seeing some of the things they've done under center, the play action pass. It feels like the offense might be able to help him ease in a little bit more than it was in the past.

Yeah, they should be able to, and they need to. They haven't been very good at running the ball for a long time. And as you know, if the offensive line is struggling, one of the best things you can do is run the ball consistently. So it gives those guys a chance to tee off on everybody, slows down the pass rush, it builds on the play action. And, you know, starting there and making him honor or potentially put eight in the box where he doesn't get that many, he hasn't historically gotten a lot of eight in the box defensively, that should open up some things in the passing game for Patrick as well. All guys, let's move on and talk about the Steelers who have a bit of, you know, news bubble into the surface today. They're trying to work out a new deal with cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

Porter, who has been on the physically unable to perform list since the start of training camp is in the final year of his contract. He's extension eligible. This is head coach Mike McCarthy and Jalen Ramsey, a leader on that defense and a fellow cornerback on the bubbling situation for the Steelers. Let's take a listen. This is a challenge for both Joey and us because, you know, we're first year staff. You know, we've seen a play. I've competed against Joey. I would love the opportunity to coach Joey Porter.

I know our defensive guys will love the opportunity. So, you know, we're at an impasse right here. I'm overly in Joey's corner. Joy needs to get compensated for being a valuable part of this secondary and a value of part of this defensive team. We need the whole secondary out there. They got to pay Joey Porter. All right, guys. We're a couple of weeks away from the start of the season.

The Steelers historically have an organizational philosophy of not negotiating contracts once the season has started. So Coach, I'll start with you here. You heard Mike McCarthy talk about the coaching staff. It's a new staff and they're had a bit of an impasse here. Should Steelers fans be getting worried? Well, when you look at the Steelers defense last year, there was a lot to worry about. There were 24th and points allowed. And they were 29th against the pass.

And Joey Porter was part of that defense. And so was Jalen Ramsey. What they did this offseason, if you look at their too deep depth chart, there's five new guys. There's three free agents and two draft picks and that too deep. So they're trying to address it, whether or not this is going to get done in the next two weeks. The idea of everybody says it, pay the man, what his expectation of pay is, and what the Steelers' expectation of pay is, is probably very different.

And this back injury, you know, is it, is it a lingering back injury or is it a lingering contractual back injury that, you know, that's part of kind of this process? I'm not a doctor, but it feels like it's potentially as soon as he signs on the dotted line for like 20 million a year. His back's all of a sudden not going to be tight. But when you're 29th against the past last year, it's not like you can drop that much further than what you were last year. I'm sure they're hoping for a lot better with the new additions. But I imagine some of that is coming into play as well as they look at collectively where they want to be as an organization. And maybe he wants to be the highest paid quarterback. I'm not sure what his expectations are.

Look, he'll be back for week one, right? We know how this works. Unfortunately, players don't have a ton of leverage in these spots. The leverage we have is basically a camp hold out and maybe an offseason holdout. And maybe we go to the media and talk. And they put out some tweets and stories about how we're unhappy. The fact is, you know, you don't get paid if you don't play, right? And then, of course, if you wait too long, your frequency year tolls over,

and it just feels like in the end, a lot of players end up caving in these spots. And I get it. I would, too, if I was in a situation where I ever had to hold out. Like, you got to play week one. You got to earn your money. You have to start getting filmed for next year. You got to be able to do that. So I think he'll hold out until Monday before the first game,

and he'll be back on the practice foot ready to go. I can't imagine it lasts any longer than that. And of course, every player wants their teammate to get paid, right? I'm not surprised they're pro-teammate. But I would say, though, when it gets time to regular season, though, we all want everyone back in the building, right? Because we want to win collectively together. Winning makes everyone money, right?

So it's good to hold out and we're supportive until that time where we kind of have to work together as a team to win some football games. So I would expect them back week one, Monday, week one shows up. Maybe even Wednesday. I can't imagine he misses any game checks over this, man. And I think that's bad business. We saw, you know, previous players do that over the years. How many guys have actually had the leverage to have this?

Emmitt Smith very famously did this, what, 30 years ago, coach? Like, not many guys hold out for two or three weeks. The team goes, yes, you're the reason why we're losing. Here's all your money. So I would expect them back in week one and ready to roll for the Steelers. And we just talked about Patrick Mahomes not playing the preseason games and the rust aspect to it. When you're a cornerback and not only you're not playing the preseason games, but you're not practicing and you do have lingering back issues.

You know, we can, we don't know how deep those go, but, but they have been a problem. So for you to be able to go out there and compete at a high level against, against top wide receivers or NFL wide receivers with very little practice, that's hard to do. And often what happens in these situations, and it could be running backs. And in this case, it's a cornerback. There's a lot of soft tissue injuries that come into play because, you're trying to get up to speed against those guys that have been working all through camp,

and you've only been on the field working competitively for two or three days. Yeah, I would expect him to sign. The other thing is, this is not a former first round pick. This is a former second round pick. So there's no fifth year option attached to him. He's made a little over $7 million in his three years in the NFL. Great money for the three of us. But if he plays on the franchise tag next year, it'll be over $21 million.

He will more than triple his car. career earnings in one year. So like if he's trying to do a contract extension now off of that future number and the Steelers are saying, well, no, we're going to do something smaller than that because we're coming off of your second year deal. It could be like a George Pickens situation where like Pickens sign the franchise tag and is going to play on the franchise tag because it's his first real huge number as a second round pick.

The Steelers have the most expensive defense in football to coach's point, didn't get a return on their investment. High Smith has been paid. Queen's been paid. T.J. Watts obviously been paid. They've got a very expensive defense. And if they're going to pay all of these guys, they're expecting them to be top five. They haven't been. So I don't think Porter has a lot of leverage in this spot. And he doesn't, he hasn't earned hundreds of millions of dollars or tens of millions of dollars in the NFL where he could really like actually credibly say, yeah, I'm going to hold out. I'm going to I'm going

to miss game checks and sit this thing out. So my gut tells me this goes into next season. and the Steelers just having the franchise tag over his head. And it's a little bit harder to make the argument when you do have the highest paid defense and you weren't very good. And when you're 29th against the pass and now you want to get paid, organizationally you're saying, well, we've been down this road. We've paid a lot of money and gotten very little returns. And as I said before, it's not a big cliff when you're going from 29 to 32 if he's not there.

So I'm sure some of that comes into play with these negotiations. We know we're counting down to predictions week and the NFL's right around the corner, which means college football is coming up even sooner than that. Are the Indiana Hoosiers primed for a repeat? RJ Young, Fox Sports, joins us coming up to discuss. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk.

Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 colloquy. in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca. Speaking of college football, we are now joined by Fox Sports College Football writer R.J. Young, who recently released his ultimate CFB 138 rankings, a preseason ranking of every single college football team in FBS. You see that. That is 138 teams. Check where your team ranks at fox sports.com or the Fox Sports app. RJ, thank you so much for the time and welcome. There's a lot of things we can do here and we can jump into it, but I want to actually zoom all the way out.

Tell me the process of ranking 138 teams. What goes into it? Careful planning and a lot of thought. But at the top of the list, strength of schedule or the rate of perceived exertion, right? Big Ten teams, SEC teams. What do you return? And as far as is your head coach back or your coordinators back? Is your starting quarterback back? How did you do in the transfer portal? How did you in 2026 recruiting this year?

How was your administration lineup, right? Your president to your athletic department, all the way down to your head coach to your players. And then household names and star players. How many of those do you have? And how many of those will we need to introduce to folks as we get started to play football this Saturday? All right, well, so you've got Indiana at number one on your preseason rankings,

and based on a lot of what you just said, that certainly makes sense. Are you picking the Hoosiers, though, to repeat? I'm not picking them to repeat, but I'm going to give them as much of a chance to do it as UGA did in 2022. Oh, wow. In large part, because Kurt Signetti has earned that, right? And in giving him that number one spot, I expect him to retain it up until October 17th when they got to play the Buckeyes. Yeah, it's interesting. There's the talent, and then there's the coaching.

And it feels like in Indiana right now, how much of a weight am I supposed to give to? You probably have the best coach in the sport by a decent amount. Would you agree with that? Like, it seems like you're maybe heavily weighing his impact as a coach. I am as it pertains to Indiana. I believe that coaches drive our sport in a sport that has basically been bathed in chaos. Right. Coaches have been the through line.

And coaches can layer over their attitude, their personalities of their programs. And his personality is winning. That's what they do. We learned this in 2024. We learned it again in 2025. I expect that they will march to the beat that is Kurt Signetti and that is winning at a high level. I want to get right back to where we left off here and talk some Notre Dame football. You seem to be a little lower than most on Notre Dame, ranking them sixth.

But they are tied for the best odds to win the national title and their quarterback. C.J. Carr has the best odds to win the Heisman Trophy. So what do you see as potentially stopping the Fighting Irish this season? I just don't know about their running back room in Aeneas Williams. That's the guy that we think is going to be the starting tailback for the Fighting Irish. And I think many people forgot that they lost not one but two first round tailbacks at that position last year. And not just Jeremiah Love, but Judarian Price. It's a team that predicates its success on running the football,

and that's why its defense was so dominant last year. If Anius Williams turns out to be another Jeremiah loved, then absolutely. Let's have a conversation about them playing for a national championship. I'm just not ready to put them there just yet. Yeah, and it's not like sixth is very disrespectful. Yeah, Seattle definitely hoping that price is going to make a huge impact in the NFL. I want to get back to your ranking in the 138 and the tremendous work you put in

and people should check out the 1 through 138 ranking at foxports.com. But the biggest news today in college football and yesterday is that we got players going from the NFL to LSU, and then the Big Ten comes in and it's like, nah, we're not going to do that in our conference. But there's the 5 at 5 eligibility thing. It could just be a one-year loophole. What do you make of the state of college sports

as it relates to this rule that the Big Ten is trying to implement here? I applaud the Big Ten for getting out in front of this and for all 18 members voting unanimously to put this rule into place. That seems very common sense, right? You go through the NFL draft process. You're not allowed to relearn to college no matter where the circumstances are. It's unfair to your roster at LSU. They've had to cut some players to make room for some of these players like Xavier

Harris coming from the Saints and Dacuan Wright coming from Cleveland. However, I also understand a player wanting to get another year of eligibility because you can get paid to play on a team that can play for a national championship as opposed to playing on a team where you might make the practice squad. I don't like it. I don't think it's fair, but it comes down to can you get a judge that supports your opinion? I think that that makes total sense that I would never blame the players for this. And I know we have not invented time travel yet to go back in time. But it seems interesting to me that they couldn't see around the corner on this. And they couldn't see the issues into the future

of we're not going to let the players profit off their name image and likeness. We're not going to pay the players. We're not going to cut them in on the revenue for years and years and years and years. And then the floodgates open and all of these problems exist. So I have talked about like there being a leadership void of being able to anticipate some of these issues into the future. And it's a the tail wagging the dog situation. It feels like college football and college sports right now are constantly playing catch up. Would you agree with that characterization? I do. I also agree that it is mostly leaderless, but I'm also going to point to leaders having to do what is in the best interest of their programs and their universities.

Like this is what Lane Kiffin believes. It is in my best interest in the interest of LSU for me to recruit these players and put them on my team because my job is to win championships. As long as what I'm doing passes muster for my bosses, then I'm going to do it. Now, can we get adults to stand up and say this isn't right and we are not going to do it? Sure. But generally, it costs you to stand on your principal. rather than try to do what's in the best interest of your program. I don't see a solution for this in the short term or the long term.

I think it is being uncomfortable for a very long time and finding some comfort in that. Take it day to day, take it game to game, and then let's see. Because we're going to start playing ball here pretty quickly. Yeah, the games do have a tendency to push these stories to the back of our mind. So let's get back to the games and the teams and the players. Arch Manning may be the most polarizing player in college football. They're one of the favorites for the national title. He's the second favorite for the heistman.

I feel like everybody that I hear on this is like, yep, he's the next great Manning, or we're only talking about him because he is a Manning. Where do you come out on Arch? Fear that man. He's very good. I feel the same way. He's very good. It's extremely good.

He's six foot four, so you know he has size. He's got wheels. He's got a super soaker water cannon that he calls. calls an arm that is accurate, and he played better in the second half of last year than he did in the first half. But there are two things that need to be known. One is he did that last year because it became apparent to him and Steve Sarkeesian. Okay, I got to do it myself because we went in overtime against Mississippi State. We went in overtime against Kentucky. I need to be able to take over the game. Last year, he also did not have a thousand yard tailback. That's the first time

that Steve Sarkeesian hasn't had one of those at Texas. He's getting a run game this year with Relique Brown and Hollywood Smothers. And he has learned, okay, when I got to go get us a bucket, I can go get us a bucket. We got to get six. I can go do that. I'm excited to see that player play. Yeah, me too. Inevitable is a bit strong, but I will be shocked if he doesn't cement himself at the top of all

draft boards coming up at the end of this season. But all right, I was reading some of your stuff before the show. and you had said that we are in line for potentially the most competitive college football season upcoming, that it'll be tougher to win this title and it's going to continue to get tougher. And I thought it was a very compelling case that you laid out. Could you maybe explain it to the audience and why in particular you think it is going to be so competitive now and going forward in college football? The labor force has never been more skilled. College football as a rule is unskilled labor.

they've been playing four years in most cases, right? Three years if you're very good. Now you have players that are entering the workforce earlier, say Jeremiah Smith, who was precocious at 17 years old, playing right away, and players that want to stay longer because they understand the experience that they have gained and their coaches understand the experience that they have gained is going to make this football team that much better. Then you are paying for your roster.

So can you raise enough money to put a competitive roster on the field. We've never seen more movement in the sport among players. So it's flattening the talent advantage that places like Alabama or Georgia used to have. And finally, we are really taking a hard look at your schedule and we are really making it difficult for anybody outside the Big Ten or the SEC to play for national championships because we value those conference at such a higher rate. Does that make sense? No, I think it does. And this is overly simplistic of just just using one data point. But if you watched, as most people did,

you know, the Indiana-M Miami title game, it was like, okay, Indiana has this awesome head coach, program builder, leader, but NFL, a lot of NFL style to him. Fernando Mendoza is the number one pick. There's other NFL talent all over. They go undefeated. And then you look at Miami, and I remember that Carson Beck press conference, and some reporter who didn't really understand what was going on

in the state of college football, or he was asking a joking question. He was like, so you go into class, you know, title game week, and he's like, I graduated two years ago. Like, no class from, like, these are, this is professional sports wearing college uniforms. And so I do think it's very clear that the level of play has risen accordingly. Very much so. I mean, I find it fascinating that Carson Beck will make less as a professional football player

in the National Football League than he did his last year playing college football at Miami. So I guess back to Indiana, you know, at one point they were over 100 to 1 to win the title. So I'm not going to hold you necessarily to that threshold of a deep, deep, deep sleeper. But if it is true, tougher than ever to win, those teams at the top are not maybe as shoe in as previous number one polling would indicate in college football. Do you have a dark horse that you go like, yeah, I could legitimately see that somewhat out of nowhere team winning a title this year? I don't have someone out of nowhere. aware, but I do have a sleeper. Okay.

And I think we should be paying attention to USC. Very much so. You're returning Jade Myovic quarterback. You got Lincoln Riley called in the place. And quiet as it is kept, USC was the number one offense in the Big Ten last year, ahead of Oregon by about 13 yards a game, putting up 465 a game. When they rushed for 130 yards last game, they were undefeated. They've got Weyman, Jordan, back.

They got King Miller. These are two tailbacks that as a duo are probably as good as Samadji, Ryan and Joe Mixing were for Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. And my favorite part is one of the best offensive play callers in the sport has reunited himself with one of the great defensive play callers of all time in Gary Patterson, who was a head coach of Texas Christian when they played each other in the Big 12. The marriage of those two coordinators, I am fascinated by. I think that is the best coordinator combo in the sport. And I'm including every other college football team in that calculus. then there's their schedule.

They basically get to play eight games at home, but they do have three really tough games. They got to play Oregon. They got to play Ohio State. They got to play Indiana. What that means for us, though, is if they come through and they went two of those three games, we're going to know what we need to know about USC.

And I'm not going to be the only person telling you this team is really good. All right. Check out RJ's ultimate CFB 138 rankings. It is a tremendous undertaking on Fox Sports.com or the Fox Sports at. RJ, thank you for joining me. This was a lot of fun, man. We appreciate you. Thank you for having you, Danny.

I had fun. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a work. free from the fear of cancer. Register today at PMCFWalk.C.A.

Oh, top 10 Tuesday, getting a little promo love coach. Don't look now, the best top 10 list in the business. Getting the graphics treatment. That's going to be good for my ego. We will be ranking the top 10 matchups that will define the NFL season. You do not want to miss it. So stay tuned. Time now, though, for some weird and wonderful.

I'm going to miss this. Have a control when Wilds comes back. Cal Raleigh, going yard three times to snap the Phillies win streak. Now, Jeff, I know you are a big baseball guy. You played in high school. I have to imagine that you were a power hitter. Do you know your stats? I was not a good hitter.

I think I had three total home runs in all my four years of high school. I pitched. I played first base. Did not hit the ball like Big Dumpur has. Dumpur has in previous years. I'm good to see it back. Maybe it's an awakening for him this season. He'll struggle a little bit this year. Three home runs in night. Before September, man, maybe Seattle's going to wake up here. Let's go. Yeah, what a, what a weird season last year might end up being for Cal Raleigh in terms of an outlier on his baseball reference page. But to be honest, three, three home runs from you, Schwartz. It's a little disappointing. I thought you would have been the

big Dapper in high school. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we could get into the whole history here, but very simply, I was not good at hitting the baseball, okay? He was good hitting the baseball. I could pitch very well. I thought about playing college baseball. I was very good defensively at first base. Your boy just couldn't hit, man, okay? I couldn't see the ball, struck out a ton.

My junior year, okay? We'll get into the junior year. I started out with 10 straight strikeouts. O for 10 with 10 kids, okay? I wasn't very good. It is what it is, and we're moved on at playing the NFL. Well, you were very good at hitting people, Jeff. Yes, yes.

That's what mattered. You figured that out. That's correct. I did, yes. Over 10 to 10 strikeouts. That sounds like my little league career. To the weird, the Bears revealed their rivalry uniforms for 2026. Coach, you're the fashion expert on the show.

Do these get your seal of approval? Because I have thoughts. These are absolutely unbelievable. These uniforms are going to lead to massive offensive production, massive defensive production, MVP-type level of play. Just this alone. You must be very proud. All right, you stole my take.

But I got to be honest, I, new uniforms almost never do anything for me. I wish they would only go back. No, no, listen, they're fine. They look fine. But when I, go backwards with uniforms. I like when I saw that the Broncos were going to play the Seahawks and they were both going to wear their throwback for the same jersey in the game was going to look like it was 1992, I'm like, I'm here for it. That looks like it could be a Syracuse football uniform. Do you think most younger audiences, though, are like, hey, let's get those throwback.

Like 92 uniforms? No, they aren't. But I'm an old soul. Yes. And I'm getting legitimately old. I'm still sore from the golf this weekend. More wonderful. Check out Brandon Nimmo.

Catch of the year, candidate. All right, Jeff, you were good defensively. Yeah. We impressed here? The Tatis one last week was better. I mean, this is a great cast. Not going to be wrong. But the one last week to rob a grand slam

and then the theatrics afterwards was fantastic. I'm still so amazing. every time these catches get made. I mean, he's in a visiting ballpark right now. You know, he's got to feel the warning track. Get back there, know where the walls at, jump, not break his arm on the top of the walls. He goes to catch that ball.

Every time when these guys make these catches, I feel like they are super impressive. That was my thought was that my wrist would have detached from my body. How bum was the dude behind the cage? He thought he was getting a little souvenir there and he's taking away from him. That's the other part of robbing a home run. You didn't just robbing from the hitter.

He's right. He's ready too, see him? He's ready. Oh, he's so sad. He is, and he, look at the frustration afterwards. There's his hands over his head. You robbed the fan. Yeah.

People talk about robbing the hitter. Look at Rob. Yeah, you're exactly right. He's a little lonely in that box. He needs some friends. Plenty of good sections available. All right, more weird. You don't see this every day.

Dexter Lawrence delivering a big hit on his teammate Samaji Pi ride during bangles practice. Coach. Is that all good? No, that's terrible. You talk all the time, and Jeff, Jeff will know about protecting your teammates, protecting your teammates. You talk about staying off the ground, about holding guys up if you're a defensive back to do this. And then it's a blind side hit too. Terrible.

Bad business. Bad practice habits, man. I'll tell you what. It seems like a lot of the same team has happened, same bad practice habits, right? Same team that start a fight day one of training. camp for some reason. You don't fight they won a training camp. You're not even no reason to fight any one yet. It's just bad practice habits, man. You can't be decleading your own player like this blind side for no reason. Like what's the purpose to do this?

You're not, you know, they're not being dominant over him. He's a running back. You're an all pro defensive tackle. So don't love this. It just looks like bad practice habits, coach. That's what it looks like to me. Yeah. He has 75 pounds on him. Yeah. And nobody in the film room is going to be excited about. I mean, maybe a few defensive players will give them the thumbs up. But everybody knows it's so easy to get hurt and so much is at risk. Like to do it, do this in practice, just not, not good. And if you're going to make the accusation that I got this last wonderful

into the show, you would be correct. Cubs baseball, Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly, back-to-back jacks in the Cubs seven-nothing win over the snakes. Cubs still five and a half games behind the more than pesky, frankly quite annoying, brewers in the NL Central. But I'll just say, Jeff, watch out for the Cubs come October.

Dangerous. Dangerous squad. Give me your confidence meter on Cubs World Series right now. This has been building that it feels like for a couple of weeks now. I watch your take on Cubs World Series. How are you feeling? Listen, I think lock in the back end of the bullpen, like the Gossman edition.

PCA can win a series by himself. I don't know, 28%. Okay. Yeah, 28%. Pretty solid. I mean, anyone but the Dodgers, that's all I care about. If the Cubs, God bless you, Cubs.

Someone about the, anyone with the Dodgers. No one wants the Dodgers to win. Amen. Amen. Afternoon headlines, sponsored by Hilton Garden Inn. Hilton for the stay. All right. We're headed back to Cleveland, where Deshawn Watson has been named

the starting quarterback over Shador Sanders. Yesterday head coach Todd Munkin revealed how Shador reacted to the news of being named. The backup quarterback, take a listen to Todd Munkin. We met this morning for a good long time, and all he had was a smile on his face because he understands what really is in front of him, not really a short-term, maybe long-term decision. I mean, this is like a player, like he's going to work his butt off to get better, and he has already. All right, coach, could this actually be good for Shador's career? Yeah, it could be really good for Chador's crew.

I don't know what that's going to look like, but he's going to play the season. There's no doubt in my mind that that's going to happen. He's probably going to take over for a very unpopular player. And depending on, unless Deshaun has a major resurgence, he's probably going to take over with a very low bar to surpass. So the most popular position on a team, especially when you're losing, is the backup quarterback. Cleveland already really likes Shador and is cheering for Shador. We've seen the issues that Deshaun's had with the crowd. So whenever he replaces Deshaun, which is almost an inevitability,

it's going to be a really positive reception. And hopefully he can take advantage of it when he does. I'm not sure Good is the right way to frame it, but he's going to be a hero when he plays. I'll tell you that. I mean, Deshaun Watson has the fans are booing him in the preseason endlessly. You think it's not going to stop it? week three and four and five, it's never going to stop all season.

Now, if he turns into the 2020 Watson, who's a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback, it will stop, but we don't see that happen. We all agree that that's not going to happen. So when Chajir does get to play, he will get a hero's welcome. Now, the question becomes, like, is he good enough to eventually become a starter long-term in Cleveland or anywhere else? Look, if he give him eight, 10, 12 games, could he get there potentially? And, you know, some of the things that I see out of him, just he needs reps, right?

like the timing. He needs to throw the ball a little quicker, a little crisper, and those just come with reps, I believe, to get better at those things. So, you know, I don't know if it's good, but he'll come back. He's going to get the biggest standing elevation the first time he comes on the field this season at home. Whether it's a starting quarterback, it's a backup, guy gets hurt. No louder cheer the entire season than for Shradur Sanis when he gets to play this year. I wish I could have heard Todd Munkin's conversation with him.

I've never told a quarterback that he's not starting where he left all smiles. So he must have had an incredible, incredible speech to be able to deliver that news and have the player leave and be like, well, that's exciting. So I don't know. Like, Shador, I obviously, I don't know him. I've never spoken to him. Yeah. Like that interview he did on the sideline with the Browns preseason broadcast sideline reporter, it was, like, genuinely adorable. Like, as weird as it is to describe something that way.

He was so positive and so cheery and so present and like seemingly at peace with whatever would happen. If that is genuinely him, and again, I don't know, it did seem like a person who was totally okay with whatever outcome came of this competition, almost like he was expecting to be named the backup. And if that was going to be happening, he's like, I'll just, I'll talk to God. and my time will come and I will be patient. Like, he was saying all of the right things that it did strike me as endearing. And yeah, I agree, coach. Like, to your point, you know, they say you don't want to be the guy who follows the guy.

You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the guy? No player maybe ever in the history of guys easier to follow than Deshawn Watson in Cleveland. But it is, I do think that this has serious like sideshow potential because, To your point, Jeff, if it is the loudest ovation of the season for Shador Sanders, replacing the Sean Watson for their home opener and the Browns are 0 and 2, and then Shadour Sanders comes in and completes a six-yard pass and gets a huge cheer, it's like, you still have 15 games left in the season at that point, and you've turned your quarterback situation, your home crowd, and everything else

into a bit of a mockery. And again, I think the overwhelming likelihood is that Shador Sanders isn't very good. And so you're going to be putting all of your hopes behind this kid for somewhere between 15 and one game audition when he very likely is at best QB2 of the future. It just takes a lot of the seriousness out of the season

if you treat this whole thing this way. Well, we talked about this a little bit yesterday where he said whether or not Cleveland's making the right decision and sometimes there is no right decision, there is no great decision. There's just a bunch of questions. And right now, Cleveland has a lot of questions at quarterback, and they're going to have to work through this and get the answers. And for Shador, the reason you could be happy is as difficult as the draft process was

from where he was expected to go to where he went. He went to a team where he's going to get this opportunity. And like you said, he's going to follow a guy that's pretty, easy to follow. Look, Danny, this whole situation is odd, right? Because he's a fifth round pick. Like, in the end, he's a fifth round pick. Like, I don't remember this being the case for Cousins as a fourth round pick, right?

Or, like, because he got to play a lot early on. Even Dak, when Dak got a chance to play, I don't remember this hoopla around him. He's a fifth round pick in the end, right? So this whole situation is odd where we're sort of not weed, the three of us, but people are treating him like he's a first round pick and getting screwed in this instance, where he's not. He's a fifth round pick. This is the process that happens with fifth round picks.

And look, we talked about us last week. Like, there's just not a lot of history of guys in his position becoming franchise quarterbacks in the end. Could he get there with more reps? I think so. I'm sort of with you. I don't think that's going to happen during his career. I also don't buy that the Browns are starting Watson for two games

because it's really hard to start the year in playing Sanders. I think they genuinely want Watson to play well. I've said from the beginning that they want him to be the starter with the reps they've given him, the way they talked about him. He got the first reps in the first preseason game and the joint practice. They put Sanders in, right, to start in preseason game two

with almost no starters. With Sanders, they put the starters in with him. I mean, with Watson. So from the beginning, I think Sanders has known he wasn't going to start. So it probably wasn't a shock to him to have this conversation with the coach. And he'll play, I would imagine he plays,

I don't know, eight to 12 games somewhere around there. And he'll be what I think he was last season. Yeah, you know, those comps that you mentioned are obviously fair because of where they were picked in the draft. But the hype of Chodor was he could be the number one pick in the draft and he fell, right? And then I was just thinking, I was thinking back to both of those examples. Like Kirk Cousins, he was drafted in the same draft as RG3, like almost like an insurance policy. So that was, that was a weird one from Jump. And then Dak, he replaced Romo who was injured and then it just didn't lose. He didn't

throw any interceptions and he didn't lose. And those of us that were like real Romo fans and Romo believers was like, oh man, Romo would have done the exact same thing in terms of the winning that Dak was doing, but you just couldn't sit the hot hand. It's very unlikely that Shador Sanders is going to be the hot hand in this scenario, given what he has with his own physical limitations and the limitations of the Browns, even if I do think the Browns roster is getting better, it's not ready to win right now. I think a really interesting question is if Shadour does play early,

Does he eventually get replaced by Dylan Gabriel? Is this a three-quarterback season for Cleveland? Or once they go to Shador, are they going to ride it out regardless of how good or bad it is? And just say, it's either one or the other and these are the two we're going to go to or Dylan Gabriel was what, a third round draft pick? And there's been some encouraging things at least said by the coaching staff about him. Is that where this eventually goes as the season goes on? You know Dylan Gabriel, one second, Jeff, the more you think about it, Dylan Gabriel is one of the more nonsensical draft picks that I've ever seen in the NFL. Like, you were willing to use a pick on Shedore Sanders, but your team wasn't ready to play a young quarterback, but you use two mid-delate round picks on quarterbacks, but then you are playing the later-picked quarterback over the middle-round pick quarterback.

But now neither of them have a real chance of winning your job and you're going to draft a quarterback next year. Just talk about wasted draft capital. Well, I think one was a football pick and one was an ownership pick. Not generally the sign of a well-run team. It's not a great situation. And there may be some ownership coming to play, too, with the Deshaun Chidor decision as well. Yeah, the Gabriel pick makes no sense. Anything that made sense of the time, I didn't seem as a third-round pick,

and I don't see him as a player that they consider to be a viable backup. I know Todd Monkin said he's going to play in a third of preseason game. So Sanders and Watts, I believe, are both sitting in that game. And then Gabriel's going to play. I mean, he's not going to play this year, I think, for skill. I'm not sure any point this year that he'll get in it because Sanders has been too bad and Watson's been too bad. I think he's sort of forgotten about it.

I wouldn't be surprised if he plays poorly in this game. Is he on the roster? He has no connection to Todd Monkin whatsoever. There's no reason for him to stay on the roster. If they have no connection, I could see him going to get someone that he might know a little bit better. It just seems like, to your point, Dan, Like, it didn't make sense at the time, in my opinion. It makes no sense now at all for him to be on that roster.

He's not going to play at all. And I will say, I watched that Todd Munkin press conference. The most effusive he was in his praise was about Shador Sanders. It's a very weird situation in Cleveland. So, you know, as the world turns, quarterback soap opera edition, it's the Cleveland season this year. We're coming up. Which matchups will define the upcoming NFL season?

Matchups between players. Matchups of storylines and literal matchups of teams. Sounds like Top 10 Tuesday to me. Next on First Things First. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research.

Together, we can carry the fire and help. Help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at PMCFWalk.CA. We are 15 days away from the start of the NFL's regular season. And for today's Top 10 Tuesday, I wanted to focus on the 10 matchups that will define this season. And this is not exclusively game matchups.

You'll understand as we go. It's themes, it's players, and yes, occasionally games. But let's get started. At number 10 with Aaron Rogers against Father Time. I would be fine not talking about Aaron Rogers, to be honest with you, but he is one of, if not the most talented quarterbacks of my lifetime. Tom Brady is the goat. Patrick Mahomes is chasing the goat.

But in terms of pure talents of throwing the football, I would argue that we have never seen anyone a better pure thrower of the football than Aaron Rogers. he's still doing it and he's reunited with Mike McCarthy. And it is legitimately fascinating to still see him out there as long as it is about the football. And so he's trying to end the playoff drought in Pittsburgh. He's extending his career. One last ride for Aaron Rogers. I'm locked in.

It'll be a huge storyline this season. I think he's got a great opportunity to be successful this year. Yeah, you're buying. This is the predictions we. I think he is lined up as good as he can be to finish up his career. with Mike McCarthy, the weapons that they've added, the fact that he's a year healthier. I get it he's a year older,

but this is lining up for him pretty good. Wow. I mean, that's a predictions week tease right there. And you're a big coach? You're a big coach guy. I am. Yeah, you love the coach making a big impact on the players. I mean, they're only together for a billion years.

Yeah, and it worked out pretty well. My guess is you'll like this one a little less. Number nine. Ben Johnson against the hype. I know that when Ben Johnson said he wants to have the greatest offense of all time, and he doesn't just want Super Bowls, he wants blowouts, he wants shutouts, he wants the greatest win streak in the history of the NFL, that's bulletin board material for 31 other teams.

Hey, Ben Johnson, do you care if there's a target on your back? He's like, no. He's not scared. He's not running from it. So either he will live up to the hype, and it's fascinating, because we've never lived to see the best offense in the NFL reside in Chicago, or he'll fall way short of the hype, and he'll be mocked, and that will also be fascinating. So I'm here for it either way. I hope the Bears' defense plays better than did the other day.

I'll tell you that, Danny, because that's going to be a problem. It's going to be a problem. The one defense getting diced up by two offense can't have that happen. Although, again, Jeff, this is about Ben Johnson and the Bears' offense. If the defense gives up points, that's more chance for Caleb and the Bears' offense to score points. shootouts. You like Max, you like Big 12 football. Jeff, I love the way Danny's saying running from the hype like everybody else is hyping him up. It's not running from the hype. He's creating the hype. Like there is no running here.

It's generating. Coach, word one though. One bear's mention. I put it at two and a half. So we'll see how it goes today for for bears mentions on the top 10. Take the over. It's a really good number. It's a really good number. Coming to number eight. No mention here. for the Bears. Broncos against regression. The Bears are a regression candidate team. There's the mention. The Jaguars are regression candidate team, the Patriots. But in Denver, they're like, we are a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

We have a great roster. And I agree that they have a very impressive roster. But I think outside of Denver, there's a lot of, man, why did you play down to the Giants? Why did you play down to the Jets? Why did you play down to the Raiders? Why did you need 11, one score victories if your defense was there? that good and your quarterback's that good and all that. But on the other side, if Bo Nix doesn't break his ankle,

you're going to be in the Super Bowl. Worst point per game differential for a 14-win team all time, normally you backslide the next year. And it's kind of crazy that the worst point per game differential, meaning the lowest you've outscored your opponents but won that many games are all in the last two seasons. It's kind of weird. That is NFL history, but 24 Vikings, 25 Broncos, 24 chiefs.

The following year, not that impressive. wondering how much regression is coming for the Broncos. Coming into number seven, though, matchups that will define the season, the NFC North. And yes, here's your Bears mention, but I will say this. Is this a quarter mention? Here's what I will say. It kind of is a quarter mention.

Packers, the Bears could finish in last, they could finish in first. The Vikings could finish in last, they could finish in first. The Packers could finish in last, the Packers could finish in first, the Lions could finish in last, the Lions could finish in last. It's the only division you could say that about. Every other division there's like, you know, the NFC West. It's a great division, but the Cardinals are clearly the worst. You know, the AFC North.

Interesting division, the Browns are clearly the worst. But in the NFC North, you can make a compelling case for any of those four teams to be the best, any of them to be the worst, and there's probably whoever wins it, is going to be real battle tested and a really good team. I think it'll define the season in a lot of ways. This one is very obvious, but I'll get it a little deeper into why. Number six, NFC v. AFC. I think the NFC is the conference of the great teams, and the AFC is the conference of the great quarterbacks.

We talk so much about Mahomes and Allen and Lamar and Burrow and Drake May and Justin Herbert and, you know, Bo Nicks and Trevor Lawrence and all of the quarterback talent in the AFC. And then the NFC, it's like, well, the Rams are the super team. The Seahawks just blew everybody out en route to a Super Bowl. Don't forget about all of those rosters in the NFC North that I mentioned. Which wins out? The best teams, the NFC, like last year, or the best quarterbacks, the AFC, like it had been before that. Coming to number five, this is where your mentions are going to come in, Jeff.

Caleb v. Drake, baby. Now, part of this is Mevy Wilds. Part of this is Week 7, Bears v. Patriots. But if the 2024 quarterback class is going to be like the 1983 quarterback class, you got Jada Daniels, Wurkey, the Year, in an NFC championship game. You got Drake May, an MVP runner-up, and an AFC championship. You got Caleb Williams, a Madden cover.

You got Bow-Nicks, more wins and more touchdowns than any of the other guys. It's a legitimately fascinating quarterback class, year three, who separates themselves over the course of the year. Danny only puts two guys on. He lists a bunch of guys that only puts two guys. Well, I think that Caleb and Drake are the two guys most likely to be the best. shocking that you have Caleb on there. I know, I'm surprised, too. Is this the final year, though?

The winner of this competition this season never loses the mantle? Is this it? Like, Drake Bay is better, the rest of his career is better than Caleb Williams? No, but they face each other this year. The expectations on Caleb, I think these are the two frontriner, so they're, like, the avatar for the 24 class.

But, no, this is going to be a... It's a marathon. Yeah, the expectations on the number one overall picker is too high. They're not too high. I'm raising them. I'm raising them. Cover number four, an old school NFC East rivalry. Cowboys v. Eagles.

This is fun because you remember for years, it was, you know, the NFC East parody. There's never the same division winner two years in a row. Well, if you look at the 2024 division winners, that's who won the divisions. It was the Philadelphia Eagles who won the NFC East. Now, if you go to the 2025 division winners, the only one that is the same is the NFC East. So the first time in a long time, you had back-to-back division winners in the NFC East,

and if you can see there at the bottom, seven of eight new division winners last year, first time since 2011, we had that much turnover of division winners from one year to the other. I like the Giants this year. Not sure they're going to win the division. Don't see a real path for the commanders.

Those two classic NFC East teams do in battle atop the NFC East. It's going to be one of the biggest matchup storylines in the NFL this year. Coming in to number three, could have called it S Bob, but bruise on vacation. So trademark to him. Lamar V. Allen. Now, there's a lot here. We could go legacy. We could go first to reach a Super Bowl.

Can Josh win another MVP? Can Lamar win a third MVP with a third offensive coordinator? obviously two of the best players in football, but also they play again this year. And if you remember back to last year, it was week one, we could throw it up there on the screen. It was one of the crazy games of the season last year,

and it happened in week one. It was just a shootout. They were both amazing. There's a million ways to measure these two guys against each other, but if you pull up the actual schedule, like week eight, there it is. You're going to see these two guys who at this point will probably,

both be playoff contention, both be MVP contention, and then week eight of the season, you're going to get Bill's v. Ravens. And you got two new head coaches replacing two long-time head coaches, so it's going to be interesting to see how everything around them unfold. Right. We'll be judging the Joe Brady success as well as the mentor success in Baltimore. All right, as we go to number two, you can't deny this. The matchup is Mahomes v. Old Mahomes.

I expect Mahomes to be great, and I don't think the ACL is going to be a strong. storyline once we're in the second quarter of the first game. But Patrick Malhombs has not put up an MVP caliber regular season since 2022. Now he was Super Bowl MVP in 2023, but he has not had a dominant long stretch of games in going on his fourth season this year. The chiefs were very good. First eight weeks or so of last year, sputtered a little bit, played better defenses, then he got hurt. So I do not think Mahomes will be the problem. But if Mahomes is chasing Brady and then he's chasing, the ghost of himself in the past. He's not really chasing Alan or Lamar or Burrow. Can Mahomes get back

to being what Mahomes was? Obviously one of the biggest stories for this year. And finally, an old school classic team matchup, Rams v. Seahawks. They were the two best teams last year. I had them one or two on every top 10 Tuesday, I believe from week 11 on of the season. Called the NFC championship game, the actual Super Bowl, because the winner of that was clearly going to win it to me. as a reminder of how close these teams were last season when you include the playoffs. Two and one record, combined score, 88 to 85. Neither one had much trouble stopping the other when they got down in close. The belief is that the Rams roster got a little better.

Miles Garrett kind of makes them a lot better. Retooled their secondary. Seahawks obviously losing Kubiak, Kobe Bryant, Kenneth Walker, a couple others getting a little worse, how even that's going to be. I would say, got to give the love to the NFC championship game from last year. The Super Bowl champions saying that Seahawks and Rams will be the matchup that once again defines this season. Guys, I assume we can move on. Coach Jeff, no notes.

Perfect top 10. Go ahead, Jeff. I put the NFC North much higher because that's a combination between four teams that might define the NFC this year. So I would put them maybe up in the top four. Cowboys Eagles is fun matchup, but the NFC North is a beast this year. And there's a lot of variables to schedule with the lions, injuries with the lions coming back, the Vikings with Murray. There's a lot there. It's a meaty division.

I do think it's fun. Like, I was thinking about it. Is there any other division that you could say realistically, not just like in any given Sunday? Is there any other division where you could say that any team could win it and any team could finish in last? I don't think anyone's going to make the argument that the Raiders could win the AFC West. I don't think anyone's going to make the argument. That the Cardinals are going to win the NFC. I don't think anyone's going to make the argument that Washington is going to win the NFC East.

Maybe. Maybe. I mean, I think they have as good chance or as the Giants do. So if you think that the Giants and the commanders are live, maybe you'd put the NFC East there. But I still think there's a pretty big talent gap between Philly and Dallas. And there's certainly fewer questions about those teams at the top. than the teams at the bottom. So I just, it's rare that we have a division that is this strong coach, one through four.

Yeah, it is. But it's exciting. And that's what makes the Ben Johnson predictions that much more interesting. It's because he may finish last in his division just because the division is so talented. And the idea that any one of them could win it, that's what the NFL is looking for always, right? where every fan base has that optimism, and that they legitimately have it in that division. All right, so no notes?

So I had a lot of notes, Jeff. I had a lot of notes. I had so many notes that I had to put together my own list. What? So I had so many notes that I had to throw my tops. I don't know if we can get a copy of it. I get a monocle here? Number seven is probably the most obvious.

It's coach and Greg against the field and upset alert. We're back-to-back champions. Yeah, this is a good one. Brew versus Jackson Blade. That's another one of my favorites. This is good. Danny's picks versus Nick's picks. You know, that's very interesting.

49ers versus injuries. So there's a lot of, I could go on and on. But I'm going to go with the first one. It's Justin Herbert and Mike McDaniel versus the MVP race. And every year we talk about Justin Herbert. And I fell into Tim as my de facto MVP candidate after my first one got hurt. And it's about he doesn't have the right head coach. Well, he's got the right.

head coach now. He doesn't have the right supporting cast. Look, they won 11 games last year with the volume of injuries that they've had, and they've won 11 games in back-to-back years with a lot of different challenges. Then it was the offensive coordinator. You know, Greg Roman wasn't the right guy. So they bring in Mike McDaniel all the great things that Mike McDaniel did for two in Miami. So at some point, it's got to stop being about what that player needs, and it's got to be about what that player brings. And he's got to be about what that player brings. And he's got to that discussion. And if he doesn't win it, I think this is the year that Danny gets his Justin Herbert tattoo removed from his leg. I think it's, it's got to give it up. Um, first,

first of all, what a betrayal by the production staff. The list was outstanding. It was a great, your list was spectacular. I always knew you were jealous of my top 10 list. Okay. So we can lean out. No, this, this is flowed. There's so, you're so flawed. It was like low consciousness. Yeah, that's it's perfect top 10. No notes. Yeah, I, people confuse excuses and explanations. I was not making an excuse for Justin Herbert. I was explaining why it was no longer reasonable to hold last year's team to the standard

that I held them to before the start of the year. Ten different offensive line combinations and two of their four highest paid guys got hurt and were out for the season and they played the same position and that position was, that position was protecting the quarterback who's the highest paid player. That's going to derail a lot of things. And to your point, even with all that went wrong, they still won 11 games. So if they have a season where just a league average amount of things go wrong, or heaven forbid, they actually are on the lucky end of injuries.

We talked yesterday about how luck factors in. Like if the Niners get luck, uh, injury luck this year, they are talented enough to make a run. run. Like if the Chargers have a good injury year, I don't expect to be making any excuses or explanations for the Chargers. And I think that they'll be a Super Bowl contender. We could say that, but the offense coordinator lost a job, right? So obviously, that was, he must have been part of the problem. And how many other guys have cycled through there where it's not the right head coach, it's not the right offensive coordinator, it's not the right supporting staff, it's not the right this, it's not the right that. At some point, he's got to make that situation. right and typically franchise quarterbacks are called that because they change franchises and it's not the other way

wrong. I think with Michael McDaniel this is the last time we have any sort of excuses for Herbert even with the offensive line injuries so far this is it like the game a great offensive coordinator he's got weapons around him like it's now time for the excuses whatever they are and I'm a Herbert guy whatever they are it's over

with right like he's time for him to win now. Gotta win playoff games and yeah I'll even say got to win playoff games plural this year. Those are the expectations that we'll be holding the charters to this year. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of the fear

of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca. Welcome back to first things first. Very excited about this. Let's talk about the loaded Rams who traded for Miles Garrett this offseason and may still add a guy by the name of Aaron Donald who has been flirting with unretiring. Those are a couple of Hall of Famers to be. So let's talk with someone who's already in the Hall of Fame. Dwight Freeney kind enough to join us on First Things First. Dwight, I appreciate you joining us very much. Much. You know a little something about Russian from the edge. I'm curious what it would do for a guy like Miles Garrett to be paired with a guy like Aaron Donald. And I feel like you have unique insight that you could lead to this particular conversation, sir. Man, let me tell you, if Aaron is Aaron. Okay. Now, what I mean by that is if Aaron is at his, how he was, I mean, he's not going to be at his peak, right? There's a reason why you retire. You start getting all the things happen, right?

But if he is any part of that Aaron that we remember, oh, it's going to be a problem. Because you have the interior pressure. You can't have quarterback step up. And you obviously have Miles Garrett at the peak of his game coming on the edge. You could put Aaron the other side. You have to figure out where you're going to slide the protection. It's going to be a problem. However, you look at it if Aaron is Aaron.

And I'm just going to preface it has to be Aaron. It got to be Aaron Donald as we remember, not just a guy with Aaron Donald's name. Dwight, how hard do you think it will be for him to come back and play close to that level? Oh, it's hard. I mean, it's kind of like once you take that yoke off, once you take those things off, it's hard to get it back on. And obviously, when you retire, you're doing that for a reason, all right? And usually, you know, sometimes it's physical. It could have been a combination of physically and mentally.

He just wasn't into it anymore. And once you start doing those, having those thoughts, and then you feel how it feels to have an off season where you're not banging your body and you're doing everything that you want to do, it's hard. I can understand why he's not decided yet. I don't know the reason. I don't know if it's a money thing or what. But in the end, you know, maybe he holds out until the first game in the season. I have no idea, but I just know it is hard when you just kind of take it off. This is not a quarterback position.

This is a you have to work hard. And the good thing is about him. It seems it's in decent shape. He still, I'm sure it works out. But there's a difference between decent shape and football shape. Yeah, you see again, I have no pro athlete, but he seems to be in better than decent shape based on the, the workout videos that he's putting out. And I just, I don't know if you would agree that this is fair or not.

like, sure, he is not maybe peak of his powers. But when he walked away, he was first team all pro and he was number one in pass rush win rate for an interior defensive line. Like he was, he was pretty damn good. It just seemed like he had done everything that he could accomplish. He had gotten his ring. And it was like, what else is there? And then his team, his city, his coach goes and adds Miles Garrett.

And he's like, ah, sure, why not? I'll come back. It didn't seem to my eye that he had really declined much at the end. Yeah, I'm telling you, once you start taking those pads off and you sit out for a year, things happen. The older you get, and it can just be a year, you know, all of a sudden, you're not as fast, you're not as quick. Or you get hurt quicker, you know, and that's another thing is when you start getting older, you're not as durable. And take it from me, a guy who played 16 years. in the league, the older you get,

you might feel like, you know what, I have the same speed and the same power. And that might actually be true. But what happens is when you get hurt or injured, your recovery time isn't as quick as usual. And that type of thing kind of just weighs on you as the season goes on. Now, I think Aaron's a great player.

I think he has the, you know, if anybody can do it as him, right, as far as a defensive lineman coming back out He's only one year removed or something like that. So he should be able to go back and do something. Will he be the old Aaron? I don't know. All right. Let's get to the Chiefs here, specifically Patrick Mahomes, who has yet to play in a

preseason game. Mahomes is, of course, coming off that serious knee injury, which he suffered last December. Mahomes spoke about sitting out Saturday's preseason game against the Bucks. Why don't you to take a listen to this? I feel great. You know, I'm getting more and more athletic every single time I'm going to football. field and that's all you can ask for. And it's been good to go through training camp and get that full training camp experience.

And so I feel great. I really wanted to play today. They would not let me. So he wanted to play, Dwight. And I also thought of you on this one because I mean, I remember you guys going winless in the preseason and then winning the Super Bowl. And there was a little big conversation on whether or not it should be concerning. I was like, Peyton Manning, Dwight Freeman, they're probably going to be okay. Um, should we want to see Mahomes coming off that injury in the preseason?

in the preseason given that in the past, he has been a guy who's played in the preseason. Look, I think this organization and this franchise, they've won a lot of games and they know how to win and they know how to get this thing done. And what people don't understand sometimes is the work is put in on the practice field. And that's that Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday.

So he's getting all the reps that he needs then. Okay. And he's not a young guy. who was only in his second or third year. This guy is a Super Bowl MVP, has played year in, year out, has done it all. The only thing that happens

when you put him out there, it risks him getting hurt because bullets are live and anything can happen, okay? Anything. So if I was the Chiefs, I would just continue doing what we're doing. Rep them during practice, let him get all that in,

right if you want to put them out for i don't know a series maybe and that's a series and that's it you know for a one pass but i don't know how much you're going to accomplish with that as well so you know for me i would protect the golden goose get his reps get all the things that he needs to do during the week and just you know pray that he doesn't get her in practice and you can go out that first game and do what he needs to do yeah that that that's my mindset too dwight is the idea of putting him out there where you don't know what's going to happen, and he's got to react to live bullets, and he's coming off the injury. Why not take the extra 10, 14 days, have it all be scripted, controlled,

push him more a little bit each day, give him some contact, you know, with bad, the way that the trainers will do it coming back from that. And I know he wants to get out there because that's been his process, but he's never had to deal with an injury like this. So protect him, push him, control the situation. and he'll be fine once a live bullets come on. He's a competitor. This is what, you know, he's made of.

He wants to be out there. You know, he probably wanted to be out there, you know, who knows, spring ball or whatever. You know, so that's just how he is. I know that's what he's made of. So I get it. But sometimes you've got to kind of, you know, tell your horse, hey, just relax. All right. Now, we put this one in here for you, Dwight.

We see the cold helmet over your shoulder. They started off last year. They were honestly one of the biggest stories of the season, the first half. They went seven and one out of the gate. Then they proceeded to lose eight of their final nine games. Of course, Daniel Jones rupturing his Achilles, a huge part of the reason why. I know you have been talking about the Colts as being a sleeper team. Why should we believe, like make the case for the Colts as the sleeper team this year? Well, look, I mean, I think if you are a person who's not really paying attention,

you would look at their record and say, oh man, there were eight and nine or something like that last year and we're just going to gloss over them, you know, but people forget what they did the first eight weeks. They were the best team in the National Football League. And that does not happen by accident.

All right, that is, you know, them taking what, you know, the coach, Stuyken installed, and with the new, offense with Daniel Jones seriously. And they went out there and it was the most efficient, prolific offense we have seen in a very long time in Indianapolis. Now, the question is for me is how is the defense going to do? I know from a run perspective, they're going to do well, because run, you know, is really blue-collar. You go, you have your gap responsibilities and you're in the second year of your coordinator being there. And all of that's going to fit. But how

How are they going to adjust versus the pass because they weren't great defensively against the past? Obviously, they have addition with Sauce Gardner at corner, so that's going to help, right? I think they're going to be good from, I guess, the DB perspective, the safety perspective, but what are they going to do underneath? I got to see some more from the defensive line and get some pressure, you know, but being whatever they were ranked last year, 28th or 29th, I think even 30th in the NFL against the past is not going to get it done. But outside of that, I think they have a real chance being that sleeper team. Is there anything that they did this offseason, whether it's a draft or free agency,

that gets you really excited? Is there one move or a couple moves or things that you've heard that gets you really excited about this team this year? Really, to be quite honest with you, the biggest thing is Daniel getting back healthy. you know, this team with Shane Stuyken at the helm, right? And he understands how, you know, you've seen what happened, you know, last year. You know, everybody was looking at Daniel, like, who are you? What is going on? Like, we don't remember this guy.

And there's a reason for that. And I think Shane has that offensive humming. Obviously, you have one of the best running backs in the league in Taylor. So that combination, you know, I think they're going to be good. They spread the ball a lot, too. You have Warren at tight end. You know, you have a lot of different, you know, they're not like one of these teams where we're going here with the ball and that's it. So then you can kind of, you know, shift your defense there.

Everyone gets love. And that's the great part about Shane's offense. So for me, the biggest thing in the off season is really just having Daniel back and Daniel being Daniel. And obviously you got, you know, sauce on the other side. Hopefully he's healthy this year. He can go out and dominate that side of the ball the way he has his influence. entire career. I know he's a young guy, but he's done great. So I honestly believe that, you know, the keys and everything is focused more on that offense, Daniel, and hopefully

they can get some pressure up front. All right. Now, Dwight, you know, we're talking about Aaron Donald's making a comeback. You know, it's in vogue. Philip Rivers made a comeback. Guys are leaving the NFL and going back to college. Oh, yeah. Syracuse football could use you now. Our alma mater here could use any, any thoughts. maybe suiting up for the orange, suiting up for the Colts, leaving the golf course to the rest of us and getting back out there. Any thoughts?

Yeah, that thought came and left as soon as you mentioned it. Okay. Let me tell you something. I love my life right now. I mean, my wife is consistent of hit this little white ball and see if it goes where you want to go. I don't have to go into the cold tub. I don't have to do hyperbaric chambers.

I don't do anything. I just don't hit the ball and get frustrated that it doesn't go where I need to go. So I've done my job. Now listen, if you want me out there for one play, I got you. You want me, if it's third down and long, but don't ask me for two. We got to get off the field after that one. He's got one last third and wrong end up.

I respected it. And Hall of favorites are just like us. We just want that little white ball to go in the hole. Dwight, thank you so much for joining us, man. We really enjoyed it. Thank you, Dwight. No problem. You guys take care.

will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Predictions week. They got me in a tie.

I'm taking it serious now. Here's the thing about Nick in his European vacation. He's sweating. He's all nervous. See, I'm not in that picture, so I don't have to make a prediction. Did you know that? You're not in the graphic. I think you're clear on prediction.

Okay. I'm not sure, but I got to check the first thing's first rules. Please pull out the bylaws. August 31st of September 4th. Be here. It's going to be a great season. I'm first things. Winners and losers.

Winner, the Detroit Lions. Jamir Gibbs. I don't love the player top 100 list, but a running back coming in at number nine, he got paid. He's top 10. No more David Montgomery. I could see Gibbs maybe leading the NFL in touches this year. Pretty good to be Jamir Gibbs in the Lions offense right now, Coach. It definitely is.

Although you hate losing Montgomery and having the ability to go back and forth of those two guys and give a guy like Jamir Gibbs a little bit of a break. He's like shockingly good though at the inside the five goal line carry. Like he he really is good at it. He's really good at pretty much everything he does. It's just the ability to give him a break and still hit the defense of somebody else who's really talented. Yeah, that would help.

That's a nice thing. All right, here's a loser. My wallet. The Bears revealed their sweet new rival. jerseys. Now, Jeff, you go to, you're an Oregon alum. They got a New Jersey every game. So you could possibly own all of those. So I feel like, do I have to buy one of these jerseys? Do they, do they meet the threshold of must purchase? As someone who's had new uniforms to have my eyes on to 2005 as an Oregon duck, I would say don't buy them. I mean, look, here's the thing.

If they win in these, Danny, I think you have to buy it if they win, right? If it becomes a yearly, like we win, when we wear these uniforms, then it becomes a thing. If they lose, absolutely do not buy them. So I think you have to wait to see the results of the game before you buy the jersey. But Danny will only buy it if they win by 30. That's his rule. That's right. Style points, baby.

Style points. He won't want a defensive game, you know, throwouts and shutouts. You can't buy it. Print the end. The 2026 bears blowouts and shutouts. Print the T-shirts. Winner. us here at first things first

Brandon Nimmo joins first growing list of catch of the year nominees it's my we had a lot of great ridiculous bits but like I want an actual definitive this is the catch of the year I don't ever really see that but

scale one to ten coach there's so many I'll give this a seven okay I feel like but I'm going to give it a little bit of an upgrade just because of the fan behind them. Look at it. Look at it. Look at see the hands on that? He was so ready. Yeah, it's not it's definitely like a nine. I mean like some of these are not really like robbing a home run. This legitimately the ball is going out of the park.

He doesn't catch this ball. That's a nine for me. Yeah, I I'm with you. Again, my my wrist would leave my body in that exact scenario. I'd be a one-handed man going forward. Here's another loser. Competitive practices. Last week, Jeff Schwartz called for the cancellation of joint practices because guys couldn't be trusted. This is just practice. This is bangle on bangled Dexter Lawrence on Samaji P. Ryan crime. Jeff, do you as an offensive lineman have to fight Dexter Lawrence because he did this to your running back? Like, what's protocol here? That, that, see, that's not funny. That would be protocol, right? Like, coach, like that would be acceptable. Next play. you'd get after Dexter Lawrence.

Like that would be an acceptable protocol. There's just no need for this, right? Like, you have to understand, and I know Dexter Lawrence knows this, so I'm kind of surprised he did it. He knows how to practice. I'm surprised he would blindside one of his own players like this. Yeah, this looks like it was an overload blitz, and if you're blocked, you're popping out into coverage,

and he took it too far. And he just, like, just enjoy the fact that they're letting you drop back into coverage, and don't blow up any of your teammates. It's just such a shocking play to watch. Like the number 52 comes over and he's like, I have to help up the running back. Like this is this is not supposed to how this is go. Oh, we'll squeeze this in. Winner.

Playoff pushes. Brewers are shaking in their boots. Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly back to back homers. Cubs seven no win over the snakes. And then five and a half back with like 30 to play. Probably not going to catch the brewers. But seven left with the brew crew on the schedule. We didn't have to sneak that in.

Oh, we had to sneak it in coach. We had to sneak it in. They're worried in Milwaukee. We could have luck. They're worried. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk.

Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcf walk.ca.ca.