Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - College Football Playoff Expansion and the Top AFC Teams

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

Geoff and Matt Ford share their opinions on the expanded college football playoff and then discuss the similarities between Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson's offseason strategies to get what they want from their organizations. They then talk about Travis Kelce calling the Browns the biggest competition for the Chiefs this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Reduced speeds after 20 gigabits of usage per line. Most reliable based on RootMetrics UL's report. June 15th. We're talking about contenders in the AFC and NFC. College World Playoff is expanding and Travis Kelsey is afraid of who? I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Matt Ford. This is Jeff Schwartz's Tomorrow Than You. afraid of who i'm jeff schwartz alongside matt ford this is jeff schwartz is smarter than you matt brought up the point that we have maybe the most jewish people per capita of any podcast i did not notice before the break so if you are a jewish person like myself welcome to the show that is produced by the tribe by members of the tribe i did matt we've been doing this show together

for a long time now i've known you for even longer I didn't know you were Jewish. So welcome to the tribe, I guess. You're a part of the tribe already. Thanks, Jeff. It's great to be here. It's great to be among friends. I love learning about these things. All right, let's get into the first topic, which is college football, which I know we're a pro football podcast, but guess what, everyone?

I cover college football full time. I also cover a lot of other sports, but you don't want to hear my takes on the college world series. So let's go to college football. I'll speak for yourself, Jeff. I'm pretty intrigued by that, especially if there's gambling to be done. But OK, I'm glad we're here to talk about this because I simply don't know what to do with this latest news out of the NCAA or the College Football Management Committee. It's a little unclear who's in charge over there. There's this proposal that they'll maybe expand the college playoffs from four teams to 12. This is all a proposal.

They're going to vote on it later this week. But the main gist is the four champions of each conference will get a first round by in a one through four seated out of 12 competition thing uh there's sort of lots of different variables here this seems to screw notre dame which has like a lot of twitter up in arms like i guess my first question jeff is what do you think of this and why is this a thing well what i think of it is exactly what i think everyone else thinks about this is a money grab plain and about. This is a money grab, plain and simple, right? It's a money grab to generate more money for college football, which in turn hopefully goes to the players, right? We know name, image, and likeness is happening very soon.

But it's going to be hard to say, hey, look, you're playing 16 or 17 games, and we're making billions of dollars in a playoff system, and the players see zero dollars of that billion. It's going to be a tough sell. But the reason why they're doing this, is for that reason right it's for money it's for um better quality games i think in that market right we have bowl games have been you know the bowl games are fun but the playoff games we've had so far a lot of them have been blowouts or hoping maybe we get some closer games what we're not doing here is finding a new champion we're not finding a new champion bingo if you think this playoff is for finding a champion that is incorrect alabama clemson ohio state are the cream of the crop that does not change the system i would argue matt that actually

makes it easier for them in this system they get a buy now right they have a buy so alabama gets to play a team who just played the week before who's more beat up. They play Alabama who's fresh and rested. Alabama has less games to win to get to a title game or a championship versus another team. And it makes it easier, in my opinion, for those top teams. And there's a big discrepancy now in talent. What wins in college football is different than any other sport in my opinion people say well the the bucks with the fifth seed they won the super bowl or you know the the tampa

bay rays made a world series or whoever ball yes you can it's a lower seat in those other sports you can win but the talent discrepancy between you know the the best baseball team and the fifth best baseball team is not the same as Alabama and even a fifth best football team. When we saw it last year with Alabama and Notre Dame, the talent discrepancy is so large that we're not finding a new champion. We're going to have maybe better games to get to a championship. We might have an upset here and there to get to a championship. We're not finding a new champion in the system.

And I argue that a lot of things that people think this is going to help aren't really going to help. I'll give you an example. I'm a Pac-12 guy. I went to Oregon. I cover Pac-12 for a living, Pac-12 radio. Good for the Pac-12 conference.

We get a playoff team in at least one every year, even though last year, ironically enough, we wouldn't have because of the weird way it went with COVID. We get someone to the playoff. How great is this for our conference? Well, it's only great if we win the freaking playoff game. Like, if we go to the playoff, bravo, everyone else goes to the playoff.

It's not as exclusive now as it was with four teams. Now we have to win the playoff game to get the recruits to come. People say, well, that's going to help recruiting exposure. Guys, exposure is plenty now you don't need exposure to you know you don't have to go to usc to have people watch you play football right you could do that anywhere now well if you make the playoff players want to come win with you no you have to win the playoff games for players to want to come play for you like if you are a top player you are bryce young who went from southern california he's now alabama's quarterback in this season he's going there to win a championship alabama the reason why he passed up oregon and usc and all those schools it's not because they don't make playing a playoff it's because they

can't win a championship so i'm not sure this this makes that any easier and i would argue too that now at pac-12 school, by the way, has to win four games probably against top 10 teams to win a playoff. Where in the past, it was just two games, right? We saw Oregon beat Florida State, unfortunately lost to Ohio State. This is great for the group of five. Okay, fine. They're in the playoff now. But guess what?

Instead of playing an Auburn team who's depressed after losing an SEC championship game, you get Oklahoma trying to win a championship in the first round. Congratulations. And I would argue, Matt, that a win against Auburn by UCF stands alone, standing alone with one win against Auburn, is better than a playoff win followed by being massacred by Ohio State. I feel like that that stands alone is hey

we won this one game we can recruit off that it's great we feel great it lessens if you go and lose to ohio state by 45 afterwards so to be clear i will watch the football me and matt we will bet on the football we will enjoy the football i'll enjoy the first round i'll enjoy florida having to go play Wisconsin. That'd be fantastic. I would love for Oregon to host Washington, USC, whoever out West, to host a playoff team who normally wouldn't come out West. Those are all great. But for all the reasons I said, it doesn't, I think, fundamentally change

why people wanted more teams in the playoffs, which is better competition. Yeah, I agree with you, Jeff. It feels like they're trying to address the problem which isn't even a problem of that one team that gets left off every year right like this is expanding it so there's no sort of fifth team that can sort of complain and say well we should have gotten our chance and screw the powers that be like that debate that they have every single year between who's fourth who's fifth who's sixth whatever who's going to make it who's going to get screwed that is the only fun thing about the college football regular season anymore is that debate like you check in you know

six seven eight weeks in and you're like oh interesting this team might actually have a chance to do it uh to i think one of the things that we're seeing with all these sports across the board the nfl is potentially going to run into this problem, too, with the 17 and 18 game thing is scarcity is an asset. Like the fact that the NBA, the regular season is so diluted, it's because there's too many games, right? Like if every single game mattered, this is why football is so fun in the regular season. Every single snap, every single game matters for college football now to say like well we're in this playoff like we're one through 12 and you're right there's going to be 70 point wins if alabama plays the 12th best team in the country like i i just i just don't feel like they're making this product any more special and it's

obviously a money grab like you said but like fancy through that stuff man like at some point people are just going to want to watch good football. And, you know, your team might be on and that might matter to you. But to me, this just feels like a little bit of an overreach and they're not leaning into the one asset they have. I would have loved if this was, you know, a four-team playoff or a six-team playoff or eight-team playoff.

Like those feel like the better ways to handle the situation. Look, you'll still get a group of five-team men if you go to an eight-team playoff. And again, to your point, it's not too many games. I think it's a perfect amount of games for an enjoyable series. I really do think this bye is a huge advantage for the top four teams. And you can also pencil it. Also, too, if i'm oregon okay oregon has ohio state this season who does maryland have a big non-conference game i don't have no

idea okay but let's say that our favorite team that we have ohio state this year i know you have ohio state in conference but let's say we have ohio state week two. In the current system, that game is really important, right? Yeah. Because if we lose that game, we cannot afford to lose a conference game. Then we'll be 10-2 and we'll be out of the playoff. Now that Ohio State-Oregon game in the new system, no, it's important. Because guess what? 10-2, we're in the playoff.

And I would say that actually I would schedule Ohio instead of Ohio State because you have a better chance at 12-0 or 11-1 to get a bye than you do at 10-2 not getting a bye, right? I'm telling you guys, it is going to be really hard for a lot of these teams to win four straight games against the caliber of opponents they're going to play. And maybe you could argue the same thing that's true about Alabama or Clemson-Ohio State, but guess what? They already win four straight games against the caliber of opponents they're going to play and maybe you could argue the same thing is true about alabama or clemson ohio state but guess what they already win all these games right so um it is um again i'm gonna watch all of it i'm gonna enjoy it but the conversation we're gonna have to have at some point when the numbers

come out about what this is gonna bid for whether it's bidding on Fox and CBS and NBC, I've been to all of those ESPN is I'm not really for paying players, a salary, a stipend for playing college sports. I didn't name them as your likeness. I'm all for, I should just do it now, sign up and get it done now. But Matt,

when these numbers come out, billions of dollars, they're gonna have to start paying the players, Matt, like you're playing 16, 17 games. Now players better see some of this money yeah jeff it's a lot of money to go around uh it's obviously interesting timing as this conversation about unionizing and player comp comes into uh into i don't know the next level um we'll see where this goes but i haven't seen

one person online who's like yes awesome like this college football format sounds amazing which is just really bizarre like this is something we all wanted 10 years ago and now we're all just like oh this feels like a gross money grab well i think people are happy for more football but i think people realize that 12 is a lot i mean we went from four people were like oh let's go to six or eight it's like 12 oh oh and then there's not not automatic qualifiers and i think again i think the money thing you know people are like man like are the players gonna see some of this money yeah i don't know but it's gonna mean a lot of like conference usa getting murdered by ohio state in a game where you and i have to bet like ohio state by 30 and somehow cover it anyway oh god it's gonna be just it's

gonna be terrible man but i will say the one thing i do like about this is the the first round at the home site yeah that's nice i guess yeah just more advantage for the best teams um all right well moving on back to the pro game so you know we've got these two soap operas with two of the best five quarterbacks in the league russell wilson and aaron rogers you know, we've got these two soap operas with two of the best five quarterbacks in the league, Russell Wilson and Aaron Rogers, you know, as we get closer to training camp, we're sort of seeing where these two things shake out. There's, these two stories are kind of looped together in my mind because they're both

sort of, I don't know, they both sort of have similar complaints. So there was news out of both camps this weekend. First, let's go to Seattle and Russell Wilson, who for the first time talked to the media since the end of the season he said i think there were some unfortunate frustrations after the season i've always wanted to play here for my full career obviously remember he was saying he got hit too much he wanted to get traded to only four teams but meanwhile seahawks signed game jackson they hired a new offensive coordinator it seems to me that Russell Wilson kind of played this perfectly because he got what he wanted he got some help on

the offensive line he got Seattle's attention and now all the all the fans think oh well Seattle just had done such a bad job protecting him all these years what a saint Russell Wilson is I do you feel like he kind of played this thing perfectly he did because he got what he wanted in the end right he got a great offensive line he got a new oc supposedly they're going up tempo i want to comment on that by the way i saw russell wilson talk about the up-tempo offense they're going so i've been in many offenses where in the offensive program and training camp, maybe week one or two, it was all about up-tempo. We're going fast. We're going to do it.

And then like by week four, it's back to normal tempo because attrition on offense, defenses catch up. You know, play callers realize things are a little more complex when they're not scripted during training camp and things slow back down. So when you hear quarterbacks say that, don't get caught up in the tempo thing. Everything kind of slows back down. Things get more complicated. Like I said, there's different players in and out the lineup.

It's hard to do that when you have new pieces. Now, some offense like Peyton Manning, right? That's always what they did. And I would even argue that it wasn't so much up tempo just no huddle right they come to line scrimmage they take their time you know to me up tempo feels like get to line snap the ball let's go i wouldn't expect that but we've also hear all the time not all the time but recently that seattle is gonna throw the ball more all right well i believe it when i see it matt yeah i mean we'll see i mean they they plucked another offensive coordinator out of the sean mcveigh tree which like has had mixed success across the league um as we've seen some

of those other candidates go through things i i just think like look he won the battle of public opinion like for for a few weeks it was like well seattle's got to trade him like you've got to make russ happy he's one of the best players in the league and you're right he's been hit so much it's like dude they lost to the rams last year without jared goff in the playoffs like russell wilson fell apart at the end of the season and deflected all the blame entirely so like credit to him i guess and you look at what's happening in Green Bay. So this weekend, Mark Murphy called Aaron Rodgers a quote, complicated fella and said that his trade request has divided the fan base.

To me, this just looks like Russell Wilson three months later. Like it's the same odyssey of trying to sort of win people over and deflect some of the blame, I think. So Mark Murphy said this at a you know like a closed door packers team club thing um and this is what he said ted ted thompson talked about with according to aaron rogers so a couple things that strike me is pretty interesting in this one is that i looked this up because i cover this on the radio mark murphy is 65 years old

i think some of these dudes don't realize everyone has a cell phone and even though it's a private meeting what you say is going to get out because i think you make the argument that you should why would he say that well what's the purpose of saying that you don't have only a piss off aaron rogers um i just don't think rogers is moving i just i don't see it the more this goes on the more leverage the packers have in my opinion they in the new cba it was stipulated that the team has to find aaron rogers for not showing up to training camp it used to be in the past that you would you would kind of either not find a guy or find a guy and then rescind the fines once the player showed back up.

But you can't do that anymore. Now, you can excuse it for absence, which we talked about the Packers might do for Rodgers for minicamp, but they're going to excuse absence for training camp as well. I think the Packers have Aaron Rodgers by the balls. Does Aaron Rodgers really want to retire and lose all this money?

Is that what really, deep down, is that what he wants to do to prove that a point that the packers didn't tell him jordan love was gonna be drafted before he was drafted like matt i just don't believe deep down that's it roger remember the last quarterback to do this was carson palmer in cincinnati the bangles aren't the packers right or the packers aren't the bangles either way, this is a two-time NFC champion. Well, you know, two-time play in the championship two years in a row.

They got in the football team. And guess what? They drafted Rodgers' replacement already. And whether we agree or disagree with whether they should have done that, I would say they shouldn't have done that, especially not trade up for him. He's there.

And they drafted Rodgers' replacement. So he's not as good as aaron rogers i would imagine he might not be good at all but if you're the packers for office you're like all right well all right rogers see you later we have your replacement you know i mean like yep rogers doesn't have leverage here yep they still have davante adams they still have aaron jones and they still have bakhtiari and all those you know a really good offensive line i we talked about this last week i agree with you i think the thing that's interesting to me out of this whole saga is you know we saw this in some ways it feels like the nba kind of previews these things that happen in the nfl like

we've seen this now with stars in the nba where they're just like they go sort of around the team and into the media to sort of like lay out their complaints like make known their feelings it's really interesting watching these two franchise quarterbacks who appear to have all this leverage try to do their thing out in the media to and you know put the pressure on the team to do something but the team doesn't really have to and we saw that with russell wilson you know they threw him a bone getting gabe jackson doesn't shouldn't solve everything for him or should a couple years ago russell wilson said i want new money and i'm not i'm sitting out till i get it and like three weeks later he got his money seattle's giving in to him um and again i i think the big difference here is that i think russell wilson

likes p carol and john schneider rogers clearly doesn't like the front office in in seattle and in green bay so there's a difference in like when you like someone like working for someone you know Snyder, Rodgers clearly doesn't like the front office in Green Bay. So there's a difference in like when you like someone, like working for someone, you know, you might put up with more shit than you would if you don't like the person, especially when you think you have leverage to kind of air your grievances as Aaron Rodgers has done. But I just refuse to think the Packers are trading him. And whether or not he plays I don't know but he ain't playing for someone else next season no there's there's just no way there's no way that

Green Bay could throw away that roster that's that's so close to competing and it's you know just because a guy got a little bit grumpy in the offseason it's been fascinating to watch this I have a feeling there will be a lot more stories like this moving forward uh for you know the other top quarterbacks you think so though you think they're gonna be like this defiant as rogers has been like like like we're like russell wilson yeah okay fine i want better offensive linemen or i want you a better coordinator sure um i also think quarterbacks look at what the chiefs did for pat mahomes this offseason look what tampa has done for tom brady and they say hey why can't my team do that for me?

And they get pissed at their front office as other teams have gone out their way to shore up situations for their quarterbacks. I agree. But I think that, you know, two years ago, we would have called Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson model citizens. And you just see how this goes.

Like these guys i think that they're all really competitive and really aware of the legacy and all that's all of the perception that's going on around the league the the talk of the league is is brady and mahomes and if you're rogers who just won the mvp and you're like wait a second people are talking about every other great quarterback in the league besides me. And meanwhile, they drafted Jordan Love. Like, I got to start raising hell out there. And, you know, every other sport has figured this out, how to sort of manipulate the media into telling your story. And look, it's just it's going to happen.

Look what just happened with Julio Jones. Like everybody's playing this game and we all act like we're surprised that it works. It works every time. It's going to keep happening. I agree. I agree with that yeah i mean i mean at least it might not work every time but players are going to continue in this player empowerment era are going to continue to to try to use their power yeah it'll be interesting too to see if they ever start happening during the season like it did with the nba like i that will

be really interesting like james harden like james harden yeah if somebody just starts tanking and it's like yeah you know it's so hard to do that i think it on the on you know in a team sport like that because you know the nba if james harden tanks no one's health is at risk but if if i tank as a player in the nfl i might hurt my teammates which i don't think no one wants or we're not if someone's saying i don't want to be there rogers still wants his teammates to be healthy. Right. Yeah. And I think, yeah, I agree.

I think the Sarand Rodgers thing blows over and he just, he won't be able to sit with like the whole of America thinking he's a total asshole for bailing on his teammates. I just think that's how it ends. I was going to add,

I'm going to add one more football topic at the very end of this next one. Something came to my head. I don't know why I just thought about it right now, but after the next topic, I want to throw one more thing in there. That end of this next one i just something came to my head i don't know why i just thought about it right now but after the next topic i want to throw one more thing in there anything actually pretty interesting story this week okay cool well this one i found really interesting which was uh travis kelsey of of the kansas city chiefs this week granted it was at a uh at a jarvis landry softball game said that uh the the browns are definitely a contender

without a doubt i think the browns and chiefs are definitely neck and neck which was really interesting because usually you don't hear players talking about like hey these are the you know the other teams that we're kind of looking at but he named the browns which like by the way amazing work cleveland here you are in the title conversation in in june who would have thought um i'm curious what you made of him talking about this this early in the off season and also from a football point of view if you actually buy the cleveland is ready to potentially be in that list of upper tier title contenders uh yeah it was uh very interesting comments i'm glad that players continue to speak contrary to like levy on bell saying that uh that you know people say you can't

speak your mind and no one's actually said that uh that you know people say you can't speak your mind and no one's actually said that um please keep talking it's great for our business he's from the cleveland area right he's near clee's from cleveland i believe is around there so it makes sense he'd hype up his hometown team i think he's right though i think you're looking at contenders in the afc it's the chiefs number one that's tier one they're at the top draw a line browns bills draw a line everyone else i'll tell you why i like the browns i think it's not unreasonable to say they have a better roster than the chiefs look at their pass rushers wow look at their secondary look at their linebackers look at their offensive line look

at this the chiefs are really good with Hill and Kelsey. They don't have a number two. McCole Hardman, Robinson, not great. Running back, right, Browns. But the big difference, obviously, is Pat Mahomes is so much better than Baker Mayfield that elevates the Chiefs kind of above the Browns. So the question becomes, is Baker Mayfield the guy? That's my opinion on this. Is Baker Mayfield the guy? That's my opinion on this.

Is Baker Mayfield the guy? If things break down, if they're not schemed up, if they're not, you know, that offense is that outside zone Shanahan offense, play action pass, get him out of the pocket, heavily schemed. I mean, Baker Mayfield's in the mold of like a Jimmy G and Jared Goff, right? Not a high-trait guy, very schemed up. Are they good enough with him to beat the Chiefs? Look, week one is going to be a bad matchup for the Browns.

I'm telling you right now, bad matchup. Andy Reid is great in week one. He's great off the bat and great in week one. I think with Mahomes, they're averaging like 38 points in three games in week one. The Browns have to break in two new corners in free agency and a third-day draft against the Chiefs. Not ideal, right?

So it'd be a tough go in week one. But can you go to Kansas City and score enough points to beat them, right? Can you slow them down just enough defensively and add the corners to do so to get enough stops, turn sevens into threes, and turn threes into punts? They can do it, I think. But Baker Mayfield's a question. And going a little step further, Matt, the Browns are going to be in the same spot, I think,

that the Rams and Niners have been with quarterback, right? They're going to pay Baker Mayfield. He's going to play well this year. And they're going to be in a situation where a couple years from now, they're going to be like, ugh. I mean, look at the NFL right now. This is not a slight to Baker Mayfield. The top quarterback's the NFL throw brady out of it he's old and i'm not sure he's even like a top five

or seven quarterback anymore they're all high physical trait guys right big bodies big arms very mobile does that is that what baker mayfield was matt no he's crafty but no not no and so Mayfield was Matt? No. He's crafty, but no, not quite. No. And so that's why I think they're contenders, but probably, I just, yeah, I will say though,

the Chiefs getting to four straight Super Bowls, well, four straight AFC Championship games, three straight Super Bowls, would be pretty impressive. Like, if someone's going to knock them off, it might be just injuries. I just, I can't see a healthy Chiefs offensive line and a healthy Pat Mahomes losing a home championship game. Yeah.

Well, I agree. I think you're right. It would be underrated of a dynastic run for the Chiefs if they're able to get back to the Super Bowl again this year, given how hard that is every single year. I agree. It seems like, you know, you talked about the Chiefs going and getting a bunch of offensive linemen. You mentioned the Browns acquisitions in the secondary. It seemed like they sort of looked at that

playoff game last year, the divisional round against the Chiefs. And they were sort of like, hey, you know, we could have had these guys and they really could have like Chad and he pulled a rabbit out of the hat at the end of the game. mahomes didn't have an amazing day he was 21 to 30 for 255 they just kind of you know they gave up a lot of big ones to tyree kill and kelsey and that's sort of how that one went the thing about baker mayfield two things you sort of alluded to this but just to sort of spell it out for people so this is year four of his deal next year they've they've extended the fifth year right so next year he makes 19 million this year he's making 920 in base salary which is amazing this is kind of the window like you don't have to pay baker mayfield the big contract just yet like they're able to sort of

beef up their roster and go for all these free agents like at some point you know they're gonna have to figure out what to do with hunt who they have on a they're going to have to figure out what to do with Hunt, who they have on a bargain. They're going to have to figure out what to do with Chubb and extend him. You know, they've they can carry Odell Beckham's big cap number for now because of all these other factors. So this is kind of their year to do it, which like might make Browns fans gulp a little bit. But like this, that is their huge competitive advantage this year. And you're right about Baker Mayfield. He is limited when you talk about the other great quarterbacks in the league. But they do have the best rushing attack in the league.

And they have a great coach. They have a great scheme. Sometimes a great running attack. Look at the Titans, right? Like sometimes a great running attack could bail you out when you don't have a quarterback who's as good as everybody else. I don't know. They could. I agree with Kelsey.

I think they're right in the mix this year. Which is a lot for Browns fans to deal with that probably, right? quarterback who's as good as everybody else i don't know they could i agree with kelsey i think they're right in the mix this year which is a lot for browns fans to deal with that probably right like you haven't had this yeah in a long time but i think they're i think the browns team is ready for this i think they're ready for this opportunity though i don't think this is one of those things where we're over hyping a team that hasn't been there in a long time i think they've earned this opportunity and they expect to be there at the end of the season playing you know in kansas city presumably we're just going off you know kind of team records and and you know what people uh over unders um and having a good opportunity to stay with the chiefs

remember last year's game though you know mahomes did get hurt in that game uh but but to be fair the browns you know they score at the end of the first half and i'll fall on the back of the end so the game's different too yeah totally um but it's interesting jeff i mean with the other teams the afc and i'm curious if you think there's anybody else who belongs in this list you've got buffalo who has every we have every reason to think that they belong in this conversation like you already mentioned them uh they could easily run it back they could easily be a team that's neck and neck with the chiefs as well we already talked about the browns but then the rest of the conference really does feel wide open to me right like we talked a lot about tennessee last week baltimore is one of those teams where like i can't tell if they're underrated or way overrated like they definitely seem like

they could be in the mix but so much of it depends on what kind of lamar you're getting pittsburgh everybody's falling asleep on of course but mix, but it's so much of it depends on what kind of Lamar you're getting. Pittsburgh, everybody's falling asleep on, of course. But then after that, it's like all these question mark teams, like the Chargers and the Patriots, the Broncos even are some are saying like might belong in this mix. Do you see anybody who belongs, I guess, in the conversation for contenders with the Chiefs at this stage? If the Ravens can improve their passing game they have a chance but i gotta

see it to believe it i just gotta see it to believe it um the titans i we talked about last week i don't feel any different about them after the julio trade um you know people say the colts i mean the best car so went to this year's average we agree on that. Going from the worst in the NFL to average this year in one year of improvement. They're not winning anything with the average quarterback. Phillip Rivers was just above average last year. Just barely above average. They're not winning.

So, no, I think the AFC feels pretty much like a three-team race right now. Pittsburgh, look, man. When quarterbacks start going on their downward slide matt i don't want to go back up buddy nothing with pittsburgh is they really they just it's very clear ben starting his end of his career it's okay to say that he's he's played a lot of football i just can't imagine it just goes back up now i know well at least they have dwayne haskins sitting there on the bench to uh take them to the promised land if if need be you mentioned you had something you

wanted to add to this story um it's not really this topic but something that came up this weekend i don't know why it crossed my mind but something that we've talked maybe not really talked about but it feels more relevant now so there there's been a lot of talk about players being vaccinated or not vaccinated, right? And it's a pertinent question because of the protocols in place. I don't want to hear from players. I don't care if Montez Sweat or Sam,

I wish they get vaccinated. I can't force on anybody. And it's not, I don't care. I don't want to hear from them. But obviously this is what we're talking about. Matt, you think two things do you think there's gonna be competitive advantage for teams with more players and staff vaccine because remember the nfl is gonna have a different tier system right if you're not vaccinated you're a coach you can't be near the players you can't be near the players right if you're a player daily testing mask wearing separated from your teammates

eating a different place i think you have to like i think you probably have to fly a different plane like all these things are different i think to me it's one thing that could be a pen advantage for a team i agree and there was some gm i i want to say it was brandon bean um who said this exact thing uh about i i have to sort of look it up as we're talking, but there was one GM who said it is an advantage for the teams that get vaccinated more. But I'm more curious, like you obviously were the player,

but also like last year, we all thought there was going to be such a disconnect in terms of, you know, all the lack of practice, no preseason, like no training camp, but everybody came out pretty crisp, or at least that's what it seemed like. I'm curious if like, beyond the question of, is there a competitive advantage, but also like, were we all, were they doing practice wrong this whole time? Like, is there a way to sort of do things a little more remotely, a little more

player friendly? Because if that's possible, you know, that's where things are going to head eventually. It's a good question. But really the good teams with veteran quarterbacks were good i mean like there wasn't much of a surprise right like which team last year were you like oh man like they're they're just they're just you're young and they're they've gone the grass of the zoom meetings like i is like you know i mean like the teams that had the same components and veterans were good. I don't know if that matters. I know that players feel that they can practice less and get it done, and maybe they can.

And they're obviously talking about doing that with offseason programs and whatnot. Budgeting, like, for people that think and ask why people are talking about this, that's why. That's why. That's why. Because there's different levels of tiers in the NFL for the season. And if you're a player who's not vaccinated, again, your personal choice,

your teammates who are vaccinated are going to have a much freer experience in the facility. Either they want to go hang out with each other, hang out in the meeting rooms, do all that stuff, and an unvaccinated player is not going to have that same leeway in the facility. And I wonder if the peer pressure of that kind of, not forces players, but they feel like they have to take the vaccine.

Because it's going to be, maybe we're overblowing it, Matt, to your point. Maybe there is no advantage. But if one team has a herd immunity and one doesn't, the team that doesn't has more risk. It's true. It's the risk, of course. And it's also, you said, it's the penalties

and the things that players won't be able to do. It's going to be interesting. And by the way, like across the country, there's sort of this question of like, well, to go back to the office, like everybody's sort of having this own conversation in their own communities i think the nfl benefits by thing you know the schedule sort of taking place in the fall right like this gives people a lot of time they're going to have seen it and yeah nba players mlb players kind of

go through this and have to navigate their thresholds again the sort of schedule allows the nfl to to sort of experiment of experiment and take from the other leagues and see what worked and what didn't. COVID is going to be a thing in the NFL this year. Something is going to happen with it as the season kind of progresses. So it will be really interesting. And you look at last year,

you can make the example of the Ravens right after Lamar came back from COVID. We kind of just struggled for a little bits right after Lamar came back from COVID. We kind of just struggled for a little bit, right? Cam Newton came back. Not the same player after COVID. We've heard Myles Garrett talk about his wind issues, right? He wasn't the same player.

So, yeah, it's going to – look, it might not determine a Super Bowl. It might not determine who wins a division, but it could. And I don't know. I don't think I want to be the team that had a season derailed for covid when there's ways to to help prevent coving in the facility i agree going back to the question of the practice and stuff you you asked you know was there anybody who came out of the gate hot that you were surprised about like actually there was first of all the first week of the season i'm going to bring up the chargers twice the first week of the season i was huge on the chargers who played the bangles uh because joe burrow got no basically no you know no preseason nothing and that game i

don't know if you remember it turned out to be like a crazy missfield goal or something at 16 13 chargers won yeah it was a push which was which really pissed me off uh so that was one where i was like i was ready to bet my house that that you know joe burrow wouldn't have a great start against a good defense i think on the road it was at home it was at cincy okay so and well they're the chargers so maybe don't read too much into that but justin herbert who got no training camp and then probably got no practice with the first team came in and was fantastic obviously so i'm wondering if there's something to this or what you make of that now in hindsight um well i think people underestimate herbert and i think that he's a special player

and special players are just kind of good at the beginning right the one thing this year same with burrow the one that this year that's going to be unique for Burrow and Herbert and Tua is they didn't play road games with fans last year. They're going to have, and I wonder if early in the season, there's a big adjustment period for young players who did not play in front of fans this past season. Huh. That's really interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think for someone like burrow who played in a national championship that may you know who knows but that is really interesting but maybe even for for players

at a different position i don't know there's a lot of ways that that can that can shake out um yeah i mean offensive line so i'm curious how that it might be minuscule might be nothing but i'm very curious about it this is the nfl man there's so many things that affect the outcome of the game it's why it's so fun and so hard to predict what's going to happen um well we've been going for a while do you want to do the contenders in the nfc or should we save that for next week and just get uh get to the last save it for next week because we've been we've had a uh an afc dominated show let's keep it that way sorry nfc fans uh and nfc i think the nfc just takes it's gonna take a long time to ask nfc because who the hell knows yeah there's like 10 teams i could win

that conference it's pretty fun so i guess jeff we can move to our wild card topic here at the end which is one you've insisted on on bringing up which is you you must have something great to recommend to our folks i'm just curious because like this is the time of year when we stream, like, I just need more ideas. I need people to send me ideas on what to stream right now. I've watched like every show imaginable and I need something for my downtime right now.

I need best shows to stream or movies in the summer. And it was, it sparked my attention because a, the office is just running nonstop on TBS right now. And, you know, after it came off Netflix, I haven't watched very much of it because I'm not paying for Peacock for no reason. And I saw a friend, Joey Molinari, tweet about Shawshank Redemption being on last night at like 3 p.m., which is the most perfect it ever is on. Blake, what are shows we should be streaming right now?

I might start out there for anybody. I don't know, Matt. You don't have kids. You have more time than I do. I guess. I mean, let's maybe start with the football show. Are you a last chance you guy? Yeah, I've seen all the last chances.

I really like them going to the junior college route. I felt like the coach was way more wholesome, especially in the basketball. So both of them, right? Like they actually like cared to be there and coach. It just weren't pricks to their kids about it yeah um that that show's great i just watched uh inside the bo burnham comedy special this weekend and and that's uh that's that blew my hair back that's that's a fantastic watch i'm curious if is it is it the clip you sent me i gotta look i gotta look up that uh but yeah this topic was not really talking about which i mean look i've watched all of them i just need people to recommend shows to

me so i can watch them this summer that's it i've seen like sopranos the wire breaking bad the office parks and rec i've seen like all of them i watch them many times over i don't know which i've seen the office 15 times through sopranos um i've seen them all through i just need some suggestions folks that's it did you watch mayor of easttown the new hbo show is it good very good i highly recommend that one that one's good that show hacks on hbo max was really fun it's not like the greatest show of all time but it's a fun show i like that i need to um go watch one thing i do i do do every summer a couple things. Band of Brothers gets watched through for some reason this summer.

And secondly, I don't know. And secondly is I go back and watch the first season of Hard Knocks with the Ravens. Ooh, with Shannon Sarge. And Tony Saragusa. Matt, that was like 2001, bro. The things they say on that show are not allowed to be said anymore on television it is i can't i it was 20 years ago like the stuff that's it's unbelievable i go back on

youtube and watch those that's that's not what i spend my my summers doing watching re-watching hard knocks episodes because i'm such a a goof i love football so much i'd have to watch old football because i just can't get i just can't get enough of it. I used to live in the Baltimore area. And I once was at a restaurant where Tony Saragusa walked in in about 2000, 2001, where the Ravens were hugely popular in the area. But it was like, I don't know, just like a suburban pizza place or whatever. And he walked in and no one really cared. Like he just, you know, whatever.

Someone might have said hi, but he was waiting for his pizzas for a long time. And no one was doing anything. And he was like, why is no one paying attention to me? I'm 350 pounds and hilarious. Like what's going on here? So he turned his car alarm on in the parking lot just to see if like it would make anyone pay attention to him and everyone was like what the hell is going on he didn't he just left his car alarm going for like five minutes and then he walks out of there with four giant large pizzas jeff and as he walks out he turns around and he goes they're all for me and walks into his car and drives away. Seriously? Yeah. Oh, my God. He's so fat.

So fat. What's the fattest meal you've ever had in your life? In my life? Does our meal in Barcelona count? You and I shared half of a suckling pig. After we had like eight other tacos. No, what is like you're like, you have a meal where you're like,

this is the fattest thing I've ever had. Have you ever been to Peter Luger's in New York City? Been to what? Peter Luger's in new york city i know our producer nick's not you want to hear a great i got a great peter luger story though so we were going we were going to israel okay we were flying from charlotte to newark newark to to turkey and into israel so we uh we had a four-hour lay layover in New York city and wanted to get, we're going to get a dinner. And my wife was like, how about that steakhouse? You know, that like famous ones like Peter Luger shows. Yeah. I'm like, hun, they're booked three months

out. We're not just getting in. And so she was no, no, no, no, no. I'll, I'll, I'll make it happen. I was like, whatever you say. So we like land in New York city and she calls Peter Luger and she's like, and she's like, Hey, hon, I got a reservation for like 30 minutes. Let's go. I'm like, no, you didn't. What are you talking about? So we drive to Peter Luger in Brooklyn. We walk in and Mara's like, yeah, like, oh, Snipes for two.

And he's like, yeah, I don't have Snipes for two. She called the one in Long Island instead. Oh, man. That's too bad. And there I peeled Luger before. You had an entire steak, I imagine? I mean, you could just eat a ton there. The desserts and there's bacon that's like this thick.

That's probably the most disgusting I've ever felt in my life. But do you have something cute up here? I've had like a hundred pieces of sushi before at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. Is that a lot? That feels like maybe it's kind of a lot. My brother and I were out one time at a Mexican restaurant.

Don Antonio's on Pico and like Pico and Bundy, I think it's right there. And we both ordered the fajitas for two. And the guy asked me first, like, what do you right there and um we both ordered the fajitas for two and the guy asked me first like what do you want i said i want the fajitas for two and i started to walk away and we're like no no sir and my brother said i want the fajitas for two he goes you guys want two fetus for two we're like yes yes we do yeah look at us yeah look at us look at us so um lobeo the story is guys send me at jeff schwartz um or even matt

too it's what at matt mm410 yep send that's right and i suggestions for summer watches uh that's why i put this topic in here i need some suggestions i need something to watch while uh football um cranks back up the next couple of months i I'm telling you, college football is coming soon, buddy. Media days are in a month from now. I cannot wait. We have 12 weeks and two days until the Thursday night football game with the Bucks and Cowboys in week one.

12 weeks out, we can do it. We have 10 weeks until the first college football game, August 28th the first week at week zero week zero man can't wait we're getting close why at ucla i'm excited that we can finally start to talk about uh over-unders and all that stuff all that by the way we'll get into over-unders we'll get our favorite season win totals we do well one thing we're gonna do this year matt i think better is we're gonna hit some props like we gotta we gotta get in like not not the super contest show we can do that as part

of it but like preseason props we gotta be better at that wait i'm not very good at that that's my goal to you is to be better at that i can only tell you like say call barclay under just 10 minutes just just be done with it we'll be my third year in a row let's get out of here all right guys have a good one talk to you guys next week remember at jeff schwartz at mm410 uh suggestions for shows we used to watch peace everybody