Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - NFL Schedule Release, Contender Check-Ins, and More Offseason Storylines

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Geoff is back alongside Matt Ford for an NFL offseason check-in. Schedules are out, Jared Goff got paid, and we learned that Sean Payton was planning on drafting Patrick Mahomes (but Bo Nix will be just as good). Plus, which contenders improved their title chances this offseason, and who's lagging behind? All that and more on Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You.Be sure to follow the podcast to be notified whenever a new episode is released, and leave a rating, comment, or tweet @GeoffSchwartz to share what you think!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday may 14th i'm jeff schwartz it's just worth the smarter than you we are glad to be back matt we took a little hiatus after the draft and i am so excited for today because there's just like so much converging all at once on this glorious tuesday we have nfl schedule out full tomorrow but we know the leaks are coming out so we know basically primetime games week one we know week two thursday out. So we know basically primetime games week one. We know week two Thursday night game. We obviously know they're going to Christmas and overseas and whatnot. And today, too, college football is announcing their start times

for the first three weeks of the season, Matt. There's just so much to get to. Golf got paid. There's other NFL stories out there, buddy, and it's been a long time since we chatted. How are you doing? And by the way, everyone, we're going to get to Matt. Matt has a young child. We talked talked about jack originally like when he was

first born he's a little older now so we're gonna talk to matt later about kind of flying to college of that yeah good good matt how are you doing buddy i'm good buddy it's good to see you it's been a while um we we both look like we've been outside like you look like you've even slept not so much for me but for you like congratulations on that it. You look like you've even slept. Not so much for me, but for you, congratulations on that. It's good to see you, man. It's good to be back here. And I feel like all this news broke for us specifically. Here we are and we get to have some fun.

It's nice to talk to you via this platform instead of complaining about politics to you via text message. So that's not the show we're going to do today everyone uh but uh we we can do that show do that one on threads yeah

with the other one blue scott blue ski i'm on that one too whatever the other one blue i got a little invite code for that all right matt let's start with the nfl schedule release so i'm going to approach this from a player perspective, right? I want to hear your opinion about the schedule as a fan. You're a Commanders fan. Supposedly, it feels like Commanders at Giants can be week one, by the way. It's not in the football. Love it.

Want to know? But how do you view the schedule release, which will be fully out tomorrow on wednesday if you're listening this on wednesday uh you might have it all leaked out before then but it's like a fan how do you view the schedule yeah i mean i you know i used to think it was kind of silly but now i think the nfl has done a really good job of turning it into an event right like this used to just be like a day where it was like oh whatever and you'd go through and maybe you with your favorite team you'd go you know what i just did like win loss

whatever but now they're sort of like doing it in pieces and they're building the excitement and they're stacking this season with a lot of like these fun early games that i feel like they just didn't used to do there'd be divisional games which would always matter but would feel kind of early yeah now it feels like they're throwing these marquee matchups on the schedule. Do you feel that way too? I think specifically, the ones we've gone so far by the way are basically Chiefs games, right? The Chiefs are hosting the Ravens on that Thursday night, and then

the Chiefs are playing the Bengals the next Sunday at home as well. My take on the Chiefs-Bengals specifically, because that game has been the end of the season, is they're specifically doing this so Burrow's healthy. They want Burrow to play week two and they want it to be burrow mahomes because look you typically i think would not want to get the tiebreakers in the afc out of the way after week two essentially right because i think the

bangles are going to be good the ravens are going to be good matt if the chiefs win or lose those games that that's two tiebreakers already down, right? And then you have only a couple teams left in the AFC. I think they play Buffalo. They should play Buffalo right later in the season at some point. So, like, you're getting all these tiebreakers done early. My guess is it's because they want Joe Burrow to be healthy. They want Lamar Jackson to be healthy in this game. They want him to play the Kansas City.

And, look, the Chiefs schedule is what it is. It's always going to be a little bit harder at first play schedule. Remember last year they were talking about the Chiefs schedule, the travel. They had, like, the worst rest ratio. Warren Sharp discussed this, like, the rest ratio. How often do you play a team off a longer rest than you? And the Chiefs had, like, a terrible schedule last season. Did not matter, right?

But also, to me, this benefits the Chiefs more than anyone else because they're typically really good in week one, right? Now, they lost last year, and I think they lost in 2014. Otherwise, week one, Andy Reid has always crushed it. If you recall, it was in 2016, they went to New England, Matt, and beat the Patriots, like, and dominated them. And we're like, oh, okay. Yeah, everyone was shocked.

Yeah. And they blew out the Texansans one year on uh on opening weekend and then they get 10 days to play the bankles right and so you get this opportunity for andy reed to basically prepare for these two teams from now until kickoff it does feel like this is an advantage for the chiefs i was thinking that too i mean imagine if they go to an o what that means for the afc like If they were to beat both of the top, probably, contenders for the one seed besides them in the first two weeks, man, that would be something. But yeah, I mean, it's interesting. You mentioned the health of the

quarterbacks, and that was the big story last year. And I think that we forget that. It's been a story now for a couple of years. It feels like's been more so lately you know you have the jets on monday night football that first week with the hope that you could see that aaron rogers sort of you know come back from last year i i don't know man i think i think they've done a really good job of sort of front loading the schedule getting the interest super high really early i mean last year there were really good matchups early in the season and then the tay Swift thing happens and then you kind of forget like I feel like weeks like three through maybe not three maybe like four through nine there's a bunch of stinkers in there and you're like wait a second like how am I watching like you know Marcus Mariota and Jacoby

Brissett like all these random just like quarterbacks that you just see in there for these weird games. I don't know. I love it. I think one of the things that's been really fun too is the teams embrace it. They have these stupid videos that get the fans all fired up. It's just another example of the NFL doing things right

and turning everything into an event. It should be really fun. One thing I wanted to point out jeff there are five week one lines that are currently available i'm just going to read them to people because uh you know they're they're my hope is to get you to lock in a week one or season long wager on the show today doesn't have to be just now um every time i click this nameless book it takes me to some other place but you've got the chiefs game i think that line has actually moved now uh the chiefs are laying two and a half the ravens opened at plus three um the packers are

going to the eagles that's a four o'clock game in week one uh the eagles are laying one and a half there's i already know which one it's going to be the cowboys are laying one and a half as road favorites in cleveland and the 49ers are laying six and a half to the jets on monday night football oh i is it bad that i like at least three of those. Okay. So I – What's wrong with me? Okay. So, I mean, the Chiefs – Strong opinions.

The Chiefs have minus two and a half, I will take. It was three. It was three, right? Must have people been like, oh, well, the Chiefs have no wide receivers. The same nonsense we always hear, right? The Chiefs do have wide receivers now. Well, I see three on DK. But I like – Oh, man. right um the chiefs do have wide receivers now well i see three on on dk but um i like uh oh man i don't like you right okay i'm gonna yeah so i'm gonna guess you like the browns i would imagine

um you like the eagles i would imagine i don't know about that are you laying are you taking the six and a half of the jets i think so yeah it's five and a half a dk yeah yeah i think six and a half is a pretty is a pretty serious amount to lay for for the niners who seem to always kind of stumble at the beginning of the season i feel like that that got me last year when i liked Pittsburgh. But Jets, the Rodgers back in the Bay, I feel like I would potentially be interested in a Jets and Browns in those two wagers right now. The Chiefs one is tough. I mean, that's going to be a really interesting game.

I see Chiefs-Bengals week two, Chiefs here by four. I would take Bengals plus four. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I also see see by the way i'm gonna give you some wagers that i uh i'm gonna make you ready um tony uh where is it right here um oh it's oh okay here we go you ready you ready okay i'm gonna take deandre's uh no that's not the right one come on come on dk you're killing me, Smalls. Running back unders?

Yeah, I'm trying to do it in a fun way, but it won't refresh the page to the rushing numbers. It just goes touchdown. So now I look like a doofus trying to get this done in a fun way. But yes, I was going to list every running back and just take their unders, Matt, like we did last season. But it's not loading for me right now. The only wager I've made so far is Chiefs to win the Super Bowl because I don't know why you wouldn't make that wager.

I have that in my pocket already. That's the one I've made so far. I will tell you, a sharp friend of mine has taken the Packers and Chargers under for wins this year and, Matt, the Steelers under wins, for wins this year, and, Matt, the Steelers under wins, which would make them not be a team that goes far. Are you ready? So DeAndre Swift is at 850.5 under, Pollard under, Zach Moss under.

Henry is the one I – Barkley under. I mean, just take all these under. You might as well just do this now. Just tie up some bankroll, some NFL futures, Matt. All right, buddy. So players look at the schedule a little differently than fans. Now I'm a fan now. So I look at just like,

cool, what are the fun games going to be? The players look at the bye week first. They want to see when the bye week is. And you might think to yourself, why is that? Why would a player care when the bye week is? They should play every game. They should want to see when the bye week is and you might think to yourself why is that why would a player care when the bible is they should play every game they should want to play it's about taking a break man you grind through training camp and you want to see when that little mental and physical break of the season is i like to see it typically between like week eight and week ten

right right in the middle of the season um And then you can start planning your mind around the physical toll it takes to get to that point, knowing you have that week off to refresh yourself and then moving forward, what that will be like. So we look for the bye week first. Then along the same lines, you look for Thursday night football next. That's again, you get a short week to prepare for that, not pads typically and then get those 10 days off between that so we look for bye week thursday night football i think you look for for primetime games man like you want to see when you're on national tv what the nfl thinks about you you know that you can tell when i was in Kansas City in 2013, the Chiefs were off a 2-14 season, Matt. We had one game scheduled that was not a 12-central kickoff the entire season. Now, we started 9-0. They put us on a football like they can change it, obviously.

But the NFL is letting you know how they feel about you most often by the amount of primetime games you get. So that gives you an idea of when your friends and family can watch you, when you're going to be on the big stage, on the delights. And then from there, I think it's just like a personal choice. Like, are there revenge games? Are there players that left a program want to get back at the next one? So that's how players look at the schedule.

And you're going to see tomorrow when players talk about it, they're going to mention they look for bye weekweek first yeah well it makes sense i mean so you when you see like you know i know as a fan you're like oh man i have a bi-week in like week five or you have the bi-week in like week 15 like there was one year where like i think a team had a bi-week in like week 17 like just when they had odd number of teams or something like do you automatically go like oh my god we're screwed if you have one of those like weird schedule quirks or it's like how do you react to that as a player um yeah i mean i don't think you like it to have the early bye right i mean again you'd rather have his body your body as late as possible um the late buy is you know week 12 or 13 is probably too late right your body

needs a little bit of break before then. But you can, you know, you can, again, you can offset that by a week five Thursday night game and then a week 12 buy, right? Matt, you feel better about those situations like that. I also think, too, like the travel and when you play games. Outside of Kansas City, that's a period of matter at all. But you look at like the Eagles last year.

Do you remember we talked about the back half of their schedule? They had that stretch where it was like six games in a row, and they beat the Chiefs to go 2-0 and then just crumbled off the end. Sometimes you have three road games in a row, which is rare but hard to deal with at times. Weather, right? Are you a dome team playing outside in December, Matt? That matters.

We see those dome teams often struggle. If you're the Lions and you're outside in Chicago and Green Bay in December, that's different than hosting them at home in December, right? You'd rather play those games in September and October in those places. If you're the Commanders and you're playing, I mean, your division, I guess, is mostly outside, doesn't matter. But, again, you'd probably rather play Dallas in December, right, Matt? Inside, feeling good about yourself than having to go to Philly

in late December or MetLife. I do find it funny so far that Rodgers, other Achilles, can do the funniest thing all season. Like, wouldn't it be so Jets? Might not have football again. And just, do you think Robert, Robert Kennedy Jr. will come on Manning cast that week? I don't know.

Maybe they can just book the worm in his brain. Will that, oh my God. It's spilling over, Matt. It's spilling over and their text messages are spilling over. Yeah, I don't think it was a worm, though, by the way. Just FYI. All right. Moving.

Shocking, guys, right? Moving right along. So, by the way, the college schedule, we know what weeks everyone's playing. But now we get to the times. And I know, Matt, you're not as big of a college football fan. We're going to have to renew our Maryland-Oregon rivalry pretty soon. But dude, I like the times. It just feels real when you see week one, like there's an incredible, there's an incredible like ESPN stretch of games

where they have, I think it's like Clemson georgia it's right here right so on the first saturday of the season okay they have clemson georgia then miami florida then a&m hosting notre dame that's on saturday alone that's on one day followed by sunday lsu and usc in vegas like oh buddy i oh, buddy, I cannot wait. Labor Day weekend, cannot wait. It's around the corner. I always feel like the college season sneaks up because I'm so focused on the NFL schedule,

and it's like, oh, my God, here we go. How do you feel about the Ducks right now? How are things in Eugene? So, good. I saw win totals today for the big 10 organs at 10 and a half really the highest you know anyone really gets i think in georgia last year was 11 and a half for the most part 10 and a half is sort of the highest they might go for for a season um and i believe that the highest win totals yeah ge, Georgia, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas are 10.5.

The Bama, Clemson, Florida State, Kansas State, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Mizzou all 9.5 next. Look, Oregon, Ohio State is in Eugene this year, Matt. Middle of the season, going to be an all-time game in Eugene. That place

is going to be nuts. It's going to be wild, loud. And they owe us a visit because we went there in 2021. We go to Michigan, who's not going to be as good this year, and Wisconsin, who I don't know. We go late November, and we're told six and a half. One thing that has bothered me the most about the talk about the Pac-12 teams coming to the Big Ten, Matt, so that's Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and USC.

The Big Ten fans say, watch out for the weather, guys. Watch out for the weather. And it's like, it's November. Yeah, you might get a cold day, Matt. It's not Buffalo in January. And look, UCLA and USC have not played well in cold weather in November. That's certainly a problem of theirs. But if you've been to the Pacific Northwest where it rains and it's cold

for six months of the season, six months of the year, I should say, like going to Wisconsin, Matt, in the middle of November is not playing in a snowstorm in Green Bay. It's not the same thing. The bad weather games in the NFL, for the most part, happen in December, in January. Very rarely do you get a really bad weather game outside of rain. Rain can happen any time. But a cold, miserable game, Matt, outside of rain, rain can happen anytime, but a cold, miserable game, Matt, in November. You don't get those often.

It's not that cold in a lot of places around the country. And it's so funny that people keep bringing up this topic. Oh, the Pac-12 team is ready for the cold, the bitter cold of Michigan in November. Yeah, they're going to be fine. That's not the problem at all. I mean, I think that the time difference is the harder thing. Yes, that'll be the hardest problem yeah when ucla or whatever has to fly to college park or happy valley or

wherever and it's like college park's actually probably a better example where it's like you're playing this bad team it's you know nine in the morning i remember my first year at maryland's my junior year they they played cal on that team that javid best was on i guess that must have been in your probably played against them my brother played on the team i think yeah so my brother was on that team in maryland maryland right like oh eight oh nine yeah oh that's right yeah so and we beat them and we were not i mean we were okay but like we smoked cal and it's because, and we were not – I mean, we were okay, but we smoked Cal, and it's because – yeah, exactly. They were asleep, and one of our corners knocked Jabba Best out of the game,

which was insane, and the next year they beat the shit out of us when we went to their place and played in Pacific time. But that's what happens. It's like you have these fans who are like it's a huge game for them like when oregon comes to play some you know iowa it's gonna be a big game for iowa and oregon's just gonna be like man we were like we're not even usually awake yet that's what's gonna get them more than the weather yes and not just football by the way like imagine that for like you know the lacrosse team or whatever yeah i i do think though that teams are more acute

and they pay attention now to those type of problems matt like sleep schedules and whatnot that if there was a game where it was a 9 a.m kickoff they would be more prepared they were in 2008 for sure i i actually think i actually see this in the nfl though you see this in all professional sports baseballs and basketball all the time. The 1 p.m. day game for basketball, just bet the under in the NBA. I actually think it's not talked about enough, too, is each week of the football season, whether Friday or Saturday night, one or two Big Ten teams is going to play a night game in Los Angeles

or in the Pacific Northwest. That's going to be a 10-30 Eastern kickoff for Rutgers and for Maryland and for Michigan and for Ohio State, for the teams that obviously play in the Eastern time zone. Even in the Central time zone, it'll be a 9-30 kickoff. That, to me, is not talked about enough. We talk so much about going West to East, Matt, but that's a late kickoff, man.

That's a super late kickoff, a 9-30 p.m. kickoff, a 10-30 that's a late kickoff man that's a super late kickoff a 9 30 p.m kickoff a 10 30 p.m kickoff so that's something to watch with the schedule release uh look we're gonna cover all things sports wagering when it comes to august right uh we don't have our plans um sort of locked in place yet but we will do our preview shows as we've done last year. We made money again last year, Matt. So we'll look forward to doing this for the third year in a row. So just stay tuned for that.

This summer, we start typically in August. We make our way. Maybe we'll do a little more college football this year. Maybe I'll just throw in some, some college football there at, at some point. All right,

Matt contract news, the NFL nfl yeah so there was a big story jared goff just got a huge contract uh he's gonna average 53 million a year which i think is second behind joe burrow's average uh my home's contract looks better every day i mean it's interesting because you know people mock jared goff the lions you know i had to double check this myself got to the nfc championship last year won two playoff games are as good as they've ever been in the history of their franchise you know what was their move here right like golf is their guy i think they had to do this but it seems like everyone's just sort of like i don't know um that's that's one take, I don't know. That's one take.

So why don't we talk about that? What's your thought on this? Did they have to do this? Yes. And so this is what happens all the time, Matt, when we get this sticker shock, right, about, oh, my God, they're paying this quarterback this much money. It's the next guy up.

Like Dak Prescott will get more than Jared Goff. That's the way the contracts work. The next guy up gets paid the most money, and then the most money, and the most money, and the most money. You look at what Goff has done for the Lions, Matt. He's made them a viable contender. Now, are you winning a Super Bowl with Jared Goff as the Lions quarterback?

Probably not. Especially when you look at Caleb Williams entering that division, Matt, where Caleb Williams, I think, will be the best quarterback in the division after a year or two. Jordan Love, the way he's ascending right now. I mean, so Goff will be probably the second or third best quarterback in that division. That's not a recipe, Matt, for long-term division winning success, right,

to have the second or third best quarterback in that division. But he brought them back to relevancy. He plays every weekend. He's a leader. They trust him. And they need a quarterback. What's their option going to be if they don't sign Jared Goff? So two things are true, Matt.

They had to sign Jared Goff for all the reasons I mentioned. And also probably not the best deal in the world for the Lions you know like it's probably not they're probably not going to get their money's worth as far as championships but a playoff contending teaming season is well worth the money for Jared Goff yeah we had a an interesting exchange on our group chat about how everyone sort of scored the Goff Stafford trade as a win-win and i think that's a pretty interesting question like everyone's done that like the digs justin jefferson won everyone sort of scored that as win-win now i think you can pretty safely say the vikings absolutely won that one given uh what happened with digs but do you view that that trade is a win-win looking back like i think obviously the rams got something great out of it

they got a super bowl but and and the lions got a ton of picks but i'm curious you know a couple years later how you how you grade that uh trade for both sides okay well with all of these matt it's about expectations right so the rams have an a plus they won a super bowl they they trade for matt stafford and won a Super Bowl. If you're grading the Lions on a scale of like, we're now relevant, they also won the trade. But if you're grading on a scale of who won a Super Bowl, the Rams have won the trade.

They won the Super Bowl. So it goes back to expectations of what your franchise wants to be. I'm sure the lines now have moved from, like, let's win the division and host a playoff game to let's win the whole dang NFC conference, right? So the expectations have now moved. But, yeah, both are a win. I think it's too simple just to say that they both won because the Rams won the Super Bowl.

I mean, they won the whole trade. But the Lions have also gained relevancy. I mean, if you look at the whole list, I mean, it was essentially Stafford for Goff, Jamison Williams, Jameer Gibbs, Sam Laporta, and then Melifanu's a nice corner a couple other you know rotational defensive linemen like it's pretty interesting and i think that the lions did the right thing i think at the time i've always thought golf was probably better than the

consensus um but to add all those other pieces and have them on cheap contracts is really huge. The thing that kind of concerns me is this kind of like the fact that the Lions this offseason, they paid Sewell, they paid St. Brown, now they paid Goff. It always makes me a little nervous of when a team gets close and then is like, we did it, let's reward everybody because they didn't they win the super bowl like they're not giving out these contracts it's like the joe flacco contract of like hey man you got us there like we'll pay a little extra over a couple extra years like they didn't like the goal should be to win the super bowl like the fact that the lions have had such a bad history like i obviously understand that's baked into the

psychology of all this but like now this is their squad like this is it and they're gonna they're not getting these guys cheaply anymore like they're paying they're paying the most to a wide receiver they're paying the most to a quarterback they're paying the most to a right tackle now and then there's just going to keep coming up so it kind of reminds me a little bit of the was it the 19 titans when they got to the afc championship and they were like all right here we go and then a few years later like everything fell apart and they had a coach like campbell who got the most out of that team for a couple years but they never sort of

like had that same vibe as they did that one season i don't know what do you think of that comparison it's a good comparison right um wow the the lions though have a better team than the titans and it sort of felt like a run to the times made just sort of magically where the lines though like have a legit like young core of all pro players the times had an older offensive line some some good plays and some good young players on defense but you know their game was relied a lot on the on the run game golf can sling the rock he can throw the ball um better than i think tannehill can at this point and what they're asked to in these offense so it's a good comparison but what are you you're not going to pay the 22 year old all pro right tackle yeah of course you have to yeah and st brown too like they're both young like and and i agree with

the golf thing it's just a little bit of a like you mentioned the rest of that division like every single team in that division is going to be better this year the bears are going to be a ton better the packers should in theory continue on the same clip they were on and then the bear the vikings like didn't have a quarterback for the entire season whether mccarthy's good or not like they at least have a guy now so yeah this is going to be a tough division like i i have a feeling that we could be talking about them as the best division in all in the whole nfl buddy i feel like the value on the saint brown props is over we've we've hit it for two straight years uh we're gonna find our new saint brown yeah uh we'll we'll have some we'll have some

contenders uh maybe someone who rhymes with sherry schmicks marlin uh and and on the commanders might be it might be no commanders wagers we never win those wagers yeah you're probably right um when we two we were two yards two catches short for dodson last year right yeah because if goddamn sam howell and ron rivera and eric b enemy um speaking of the lions uh i want to talk about this is a nice this is a nice little game that we have sort of this is a good May 14th game here, Jeff. Every year we see a lot of change from the top of the NFL, some teams. Remarkably, they've been pretty consistent lately, right? Like the Niners and the Chiefs and the Ravens, the Bengals,

when Burroughs healthy, have all maintained a pretty successful clip. Somebody drops out every year. So I want to sort of look at some of these teams and talk about how we feel, whether they're going to emerge or remain contenders, or if they're going to drop out and somebody will replace them. Why don't we start with the Lions and just say, like, do you think that they made themselves better this offseason? Do you expect them to be better next season?

Or do you think their stock went down? They won 13 games last year, right? games right 12 games have that right let me get it to the nfc championship though yeah and then with 12 and five um i i mean i think that they have um i think i think their overall team got better, but I think that their schedule with the division is tougher now. And so I don't know if they have the same amount. I would think that they would lose, you know, like maybe 11 and six type of thing, right? Or 10 and seven more than their 13 and four.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they probably held well um with the rest of their division being a challenge um why don't we talk about the chiefs do you feel better about them than you did this time last season or uh what's your feeling about them uh i've never rooted for a team where, like, I just get to the postseason. Like, just get healthy. Just get to the postseason healthy. Right, Matt? Because it doesn't matter.

Like, it doesn't matter. They had the toughest DVOA schedule in the postseason NFL history last year and played on the road for two of those games and won. And their team is, I think, better this season. They're a better wide receiver for sure. Now, Rasheed Rice getting suspended for eight games would stink. Left tackle is going to be curious because they have Kingsley Sumati, who they drafted, and then they have Wanya Morris from there from last year. Defensively, they lost Snead, but they're still really good on defense. And they added Jalen Hicks in the draft, I think it's really, really good out of Washington State. It feels like a

steal on the draft of Chiefs. They play a tough schedule, but they have the best quarterback in the NFL. The question I have about Kansas City is Travis Kelsey, Gronk was sort of this way at the end, but the load management, right? Like how they load manage Travis Kelsey this season. Because, I mean, ideally, I think you'd want him to cut back a little bit, right? And still win your games and have them ready for the postseason as fresh as possible. So I'm curious how they manage.

I know they drafted the tight end out of TCU this past year. This past draft, which is just recently. Jared Wiley, he's like 6'6". So maybe the thing about him is sort of that wide receiver, tight end role, takes some pressure off Kelsey. But I'm supremely curious about that. Yeah, it'll be interesting. I don't think that there are two, you know, obviously a lot of people are talking about Worthy

and how that could be a nice fit for the Chiefs and Rasheed Rice and all the stuff that's going on with him. The Marquise Brown signing, I thought, is not being discussed enough. He hasn't had... The Cardinals were a mess the last couple years. But he is a true... Maybe not a one, but he's a 1a and two years ago he was traded for a first round pick like every year he's averaging 100 plus targets as like the fixture of the offense i think he's going to carry a bigger load for them than people think and yeah

like he hasn't had the production but like you know what was arizona doing last year like he was not like a big part of their plans he is the exact kind of receiver that would you know is going to drive people crazy like he's just going to get open deep and for one second and score touchdowns and people are gonna be like how do they get this guy and now they have worthy as well you know i i think that i thought that that was a really nice buy low transaction for the Chiefs. I think their offense is going to be better than last year. If Bryce weren't to not be available for the whole season, that'd be a problem. But I think they did some really smart stuff.

Why don't we talk a little bit about Dallas? There's something about this team that just feels a little bit strange. You mentioned Dak and the the Lions you know now have have beaten the Cowboys to the extension that we all know Dak is probably going to get with Dallas they have a giant hole at running back they seem to just keep they keep getting older at all the positions where they've been pretty good for a while including offensive and defensive line Dan Quinn's obviously gone for them does it feel like this might be kind of a nightmare season for Dallas, or am I reading it wrong?

It feels like they're doing a little bit of a rebuild on the run. Right, Matt? They're going to play two rookie offensive linemen most likely that is drafted they have no running backs um you know they're gonna have to pay dac after the season most likely during this season some point during this season it does feel like they're trying to get younger while competing which is sort of a reset, right? Sort of how that works. The Parsons get paid. You have to pay Parsons.

They got some money to give out. So at least a rebuild on the fly, I would say offensively. Defensively, I'm looking at the roster now. They're pretty young on defense, right? A couple third-year players, second-year players. Drafted some guys this year. It feels like a little bit of an offensive rebuild on the run. But again, nfc i don't think they can get away with this season i i would kind of sell some dallas stock yeah i think i would too um especially just looking i don't know

looking across the offense you've just got a lot of older players or players who haven't totally produced what another just like crucial season for prescott um any of these other teams on this list you want to spend a minute on like i i think you know for teams like the bangles it's just about burrows health the bills obviously took it took a bit of a dive this year just one just one receiver for them and pass rush yeah what about the niners their team but well let me let's do quickly, and then maybe you have another. Not a lot changed there, but it seemed like there were just a bunch of weird stories with Ayuk and Samuel. I don't know. Do you think the Niners are going to just continue the way they've been going

the last couple of years? I think their offensive line is still a concern, and that worries me. They'll scheme up. They'll be fine just scheming up. But the pass rush was a concern last year, right? Individual pass rush. They added Leonard Floyd. But those are my concerns. I think they'll win

a ton of games because of what they can sort of just beam at with the players they have on offense especially. They still got Bosa and they still got dudes on defense, but Warner and Hufunga coming back healthy will certainly help them at safety. But yeah, they're going to be in the hunt for the amstey championship yeah they were remarkably healthy last year right mccaffrey got a huge load uh you know oh so

bosa too i mean they're a team that like every year it's like you know trent williams was healthy all season like i don't know their their injuries could be the thing that sort of bites them. But, I mean, obviously not rooting for that. Matt, I want to get to Matt's take corner, please. I've been waiting all show for this. I feel like people will get our feelings on all these teams near the end of August. You've been saving these takes for weeks now

i hope they're better than magic johnson's tweets about the commanders yeah well all right let me start with one okay i remember the jayden daniels uh malik neighbors discussion of a few weeks ago okay so let's prove the point so for those who aren't you know paying attention to twitter all day in may of the nfl there was this bet that actually came out like right after the draft that malik neighbors brought up and said uh that him and jayden daniels had a ten thousand dollar bet on who was going to win rookie of the year with each other and then jayden daniels went on i believe keshaun johnson's podcast and was asked about it again and he confirmed it and what it what was the thing

that then everyone started talking about for the next few days jeff daniel jones well daniel jones yes but when it comes to the two of them like there was this other discussion that just kept happening i missed this i think okay here was the discussion everyone was like this isn't legal this isn't part of like the new cba as you get on sports with against each other because i because everyone's everyone got this completely wrong everyone's a giant yeah everyone's a giant bitch about this stuff everyone was clutching their pearls as if oh no there's like an illegal bet taking place I'm sorry like this this really drove me crazy because of a few things number one the NFL is sponsored by DraftKings and Fandle at

this point right like we're all talking about betting openly and this is the kind of thing that made Michael Jordan have a 10-part documentary was how he put stakes on everything. He bet on everything. Like these guys were just like, yeah, I'm going to win rookie year. They're competitors. They're athletes. They're competing against each other. They're in the same division.

They were teammates. Everyone was clutching their pearls, and it drove me absolutely crazy that that was the takeaway instead of like, hey, we've got like a nice competitor here. Like, why don't we have some fun with that? I hated it. Well, a couple of things I think that are. How was that?

That was a good first one, right? That was good. That are bother me from the aspect of how people cover wagering um in this in this country matt um it's i i there's just an innate like not hatred for it but like what's the right word to put like that people don't want to learn about it i don't know the ignorance is maybe ignorance is the right way to put it is put it you know we have all these other things in our country that are vices right cigarettes and alcohol and and um those things again they can ruin lives like we know that right drugs like ruin lives and we certainly have things put in place to help with

that those same things are put in place for wagering too, Matt. Like sports books have limits. Sports books have things put in place to make sure that nothing illegal is happening. So the idea, Matt, that like gambling is just an unchecked industry that ruins the lives of everyone. It's not what gambling is, Matt. Like, I don't know what yet. Yes, people can get into trouble wagering too much money. Absolutely. They can do the same thing with alcohol.

They can do the same thing with all these other vices, right? And it seems like society says, well, yeah, okay, fine. Like, yeah, you want to be a drunk? Okay, be a drunk. As long as you don't bother me with it. With sports wagering, it's like, no, no, no no no no we can't i i it's ignorance matt okay what is it about people being so weird about wagering i think and this is sort of a separate topic and i i actually i feel like i could spend a lot of time talking about this because i had two conversations with friends that week where

people were talking about like betting and stuff and they were like thank god this wasn't legal when i was in college and i thought that was really interesting to hear um from people who like are just professionals who are like i have a gambling problem i learned the hard way thank god i didn't have access to it and and by the way both live here in here in California where it's still not legal. Isn't that life though? Isn't that like how life works? Yeah, it is. And I think we can't protect everyone from everything in life.

I completely agree. I think the thing that's the reason why this is happening is A, it's new. B, it's like it had such a stigma for such a long time. It was this thing in the shadows. And it was just the people you associated with it weren't just like your friends watching a game like it was so it was always like other people right it was this like sort of cloudy area um but and i think too like we're all learning this on the fly like it was sort of like when marijuana was legalized in a few states everyone was like so wait like like in new york you've seen like the new york city completely changed with the with this perspective shift of marijuana and like for a few years

new york city just is going to smell like weed and it's just going to be a little bit different and then in a couple years it'll be like it is in california where it's just like yeah i don't know whatever it's like part it's not a really big deal so i think that's where we're headed but i was just pissed off that we aren't we're so like clutching our pearls with all this stuff instead of like hey like these two guys are competing with each other like we should like that that's fun it's not well is that part of the cba where these guys are allowed to make the bets and then we're gonna get suspended before it's like stop like like this is just fun like whatever that was take number one yeah any any any final thoughts? Yeah, I think you're right.

Again, I think that people treat gambling as a vice that's more dangerous than other things. I don't see the difference between that vice and other vices that we feel strongly about protecting people. I just don't. The protections are put in place, Matt. They're there. And sometimes, to your point about your friends you got to learn like it's it's we can't protect everyone for everything so all right next up next up there's

a lot of disinformation in our country jeff there's a lot of people out there peddling information disingenuously there's a lot of people who make stuff up there's a lot of people who control the media narrative the biggest source of disinformation in the entire nfl is sean payton okay so sean payton i just want to point out a few things that have happened in the last couple of weeks so sean payton seems like a fun guy to talk to and he obviously has been ensconced with the media you worked at fox we we both work a bit with fox i think it was a great hire great job by those executives great job by sean payton but in the last couple of weeks there's just been these things that have come out that are

driving me fucking crazy including some people comparing bo nicks to drew breeze and saying like sean payton's got his guy he's got an accurate decisive quarterback he can make all the quick throws he's got another drew breeze and then a few weeks ago this story of sean payton telling clearly sean payton telling adam schefter it was just a source telling adam schefter hey we tried to draft my homes like that was going to be our pick but you know the chiefs the chiefs got him so then you know my backup plan was to go with jamis goddamn winston instead this guy if you hear anything i every single report has been that i've read on Twitter is like, man, Bo Nix, really good practices in minicamp.

I haven't heard a thing about any of the other quarterbacks. Everyone's just going nuts, salivating over Bo Nix. Bo Nix is going to be bad. I'm just going to be on the right. He's not going to be good, but we're going to be listening for four years of, well, Sean Pay you know he says he reminds him of uh of drew breeze when he came over from san diego like do not listen anything that the denver broncos say or sean payton says from now on i've refused to listen prove it to me on the field you won a super bowl 15 years ago congratulations i have uh made the point that i think

sean payton's eulogy will include mention that he wanted to draft Patrick Mahomes. That has been talked about, Matt, every single offseason since Patrick Mahomes became good. Sean Payne, I'm like, then you should have drafted him. You should have drafted him. I know the Chiefs jumped you. I get that.

The Chiefs jumped you. But if you liked him that much, you should have moved up and grabbed him. The Chiefs got you. He's supposed to be that much, you should have moved up and grabbed him. The Chiefs got you. He's supposed to be the smartest guy in the room. That's it. And yeah, no, he's certainly good at playing the media, right? And look, of course, stop playing the media, but maybe that's the wrong way to say it.

But if you give this information to Adam Schefter, he's going to tweet about it. And Sean Payne knows that. Of course. All right, last one. We're watching a lot of NBA playoffs okay and I watched the Boston Celtics play have you watched in the cell oh there's a terrible watch yeah so why is that talk to me about that oh I'll tell you why it's because Jason Tatum so here's why why. Yes. Tell me more about this. I'm going to bring it back to the NFL. Give me the take and I'll tie it together.

Because he's not an alpha. Like he's not a guy who is, in my opinion, 1A of a championship team. Like last night, for example, Donovan Mitchell did not play last night for the Cavs. Boston was the best team in basketball this season. The Nuggets, Matt, would have beat the Cavs by 45 last night. Right?

Correct. Would not have been a game. The Timberwolves would have crushed them. And the Celtics, it was a game with – it was five points with like a minute left in this game. And the reason why is Tatum, while he does take over, he played well last night it's not like i'm not he didn't play well but there's like not that like on the court you don't see this like

like anthony edwards for example when you watch him play you're like that dude is a killer man that guy's a killer you watch you you know you watch uh jokers but like yeah sometimes he doesn't talk to the media and and it's funny. But Duke gets on the court, man. It's a killer. There were passes he made the other night where you're like, he's shooting the ball. Boop.

Gordon dunked. You didn't even know the pass was made until Gordon dunked the basketball, right? And you watch Tatum play. It's just like, okay. Yeah, he scores a bunch. Gets a bunch of rebounds. I'm not saying he's a bad player, Matt. No.

They also do way too much of this ISO nonsense where Tatum just holds the ball for 15 seconds and takes a terrible jump shot, which has been a problem of theirs for a couple of years now. Save that for the basketball podcast because this is where I want to go because you talked about Tatum. It's like, yeah, of course. He's so talented. He can put up 30 a night.

Oh, yeah. He's obviously one of the top, what, six, seven guys in the league. Of course, you'd trade almost anyone for him at any point. I know who he is. Who? He's Justin Herbert. Oh, no. So tell me what's wrong with that so much talent I've I've

called Justin Herbert empty calories for a few years it's like would I would any team want Justin Herbert like of course but like Jason Tatum has this whole complement of of of weapons and team around him like but he's not stepping forward into that role where you're like this is the guy i'm gonna walk through the fire with anthony edwards he kind of reminds me of joe burrow like he's not the most talented guy out there but he does some stuff where you're just like when you need this guy to perform and he's young he's gonna do it but jason tatum and justin herbert are the same guy to me it's like i'm annoyed by them because they're not they don't have that thing that gets them to the next level

and just says like i am the best i am the best player in this building i'm going to have that game tonight i've never seen it out i mean once in a while you see it out of both of them but at the end of the day like i don't really trust either of them they might win their rings but they need somebody else i don't think boston's gonna beat whoever wins the west um i uh i feel really i'm patting myself on the back about that take that was a good one i also i didn't know what was coming i had the right answer how about that look at us i had this rant by the way on the radio sunday so it's not like it's nothing new to me we talked about this about sunday with tatum well take that there There you go.

Well, the Herbert thing, the only difference in the Herbert thing is like he doesn't have he also doesn't have like Jalen Brown and Derek White and when Porzingis is healthy, he doesn't have that around him. He has not had that around him.

He's had Porzingis. He's always hurt. Like two years ago they did the old line has sort of always been a problem i with alt now i feel like you're sort of settled in with harbaugh give me give me like another year with herbert to kind of see it but i agree with with like but i will say though in oregon though he kind of he kind of did put the team on his back in the rose bowl though which i guess tatum has done before yeah it's not a good run at duke like awesome but like it's not about it's not a bad comparison i mean honestly like you could people blame the coach it's like they do the same with the celtics it's like oh like mizzoula like that's the problem it can't be tatum it's

like yeah okay like staley was a staley wasn't a great coach like totally under darvin ham's fault in los angeles yeah exactly but like the years i'm trying to remember like the year i like the the chargers have had their chances right like they've had like at one point it was like keenan allen and mike williams and eckler and rashaun slater and a good defense like and it's like oh well it's just not enough and he plays in the afc west it's just like i'm tired of it like just just do it already uh all right but you know how i feel about justin herbert i just it's i just realized the tater made me the same kind of annoyed it's frustrating because like you watch the celtics play especially in like last night and there's just not like a killer instinct right

like there's not this i mean look the heat the heat lost game two was bad now they came out and beat the show then because they're bad the heat aren't can't score without butler but like last night for example the you knew as a team the only way the calves will compete last night was bombing away from three-pointer. They had to make up 28 points that weren't coming to them from Mitchell. And they shot like 55 three-pointers. And Boston, for the first half, just let them shoot the three-pointers. The only thing they can do, sorry, they had 48 threes. They were 15 of 48. They were like 12 of 25 in the first half. Sorry, they had 48 threes.

They were 15 of 48. They were like 12 of 25 in the first half. All you knew they were just going to shoot threes the entire game. They had 94 shots, and 48 of those were three-point attempts. They had 16 more shot attempts in the entire game than Boston did. They just didn't get to the line at all, the Cavs didn't. But they just weren't prepared for that. It was shocking to me.

I also had a lot of money in the Cavs not scoring a lot of points and kind of got screwed so maybe i'm a little bitter matt yeah never have faith in the celtics um all right those are those are my takes why don't we uh why don't we wrap this thing up anything else you want to do parent life buddy how we doing parent life i don't need to prepare for that. Pretty good. Pretty good. Jack is six and a half months. A lot different from the last time we spoke. Started solids. Started. What else?

Did we just do? We moved into his own room. I sleep in a little bit better. I think being in his own space. He's in daycare. Yep. He's been doing great there. to his own room i sleep in a little bit better i think being in his own space he's in daycare yep um he's been doing great there uh we took him to a swimming pool the annenberg pool uh on the beach on sunday for for what they call a swim lesson but it's just him hanging out in the water

yeah you just splash them and stuff yeah yeah and you know like i gotta be honest the first the first couple months are are tough and the first time you do it, you're like, what did I just do? What's going on here? And now it's like, oh, we're starting to have some fun. He's starting to sort of participate a little bit more. It gets better and different types of hard, but it gets better as they can communicate. Yeah. It's like oh right there

is a little person in there like uh we have i have a good little bit with him where before he takes his bath i play uh the wham song wake me up before you go go and just like dance like a maniac and he finds it funny every single night and i'm like this this will work i can keep doing this for a while um are you doing the the first time parent thing with the with the food where you like you make him his own food every night like organic pure rate you just pray yourself or you're just buying the food we we talked about doing that and i was like i'm i can't do this like i'm i'm the kitchen guy in the house and i was like i just i can't do this like after we'm, I'm the kitchen guy in the house and I was like, I just, I can't do this.

Like after we put him down, like I do like an hour and a half of chores every night of like making his bottles the next day, cleaning up the kitchen and making dinner. Like I just like, can't do that also. So where I thought, I don't think we're going to do that.

We've just been doing like, you know, a banana or like an avocado and stuff for now. But yeah, did you do that? Well, yeah, we were the first kid you try. Like we tried But yeah, did you do that? Well, yeah, we were the first kid you try.

Like we tried the organic, like let's make him more, let's make him a homemade pureed carrots. And he just didn't want to eat any of it. And we just, we bought this whole machine and just got rid of it. Yeah. Yeah.

We thought about that. And I was like, I was like, I'm spending how much for this? Like, we're sure we want to do this. Like, this is going to be my life from now on.

Like there's, there's services now that are just like, yeah, like here's some like blended up apples. It's $ it's like all right that seems fine yeah those pouches i think for you guys too like because you guys were at home a lot because i know that your wife works from home right she she had been and you work from home some days that makes it a little tougher i think with the first couple of months when the baby's like at home with you guys versus working in an office and you and you someone else is with the baby during the day that makes sense yeah it's it's really healthy for everybody i you know everybody has their own decisions to make about daycare nannies child care whatever it's great for us and it's like i personally like like sets of professional eyes on him where it's

like oh like he seems a little you know he's got this little cough and it's like well they don't they're fine they don't think it's a big deal they see 8 000 babies a year oh yeah feel good like it's nice to just be like like we like i think a lot of new parents are a little embarrassed to say this like we don't have any idea what we're doing still like we're learning we know him better than we did but like i like to know that there's somebody who does know what they're doing like looking at this kid all day yeah spots stuff part of my wife being a nurse was that like she was like yeah they're fine and every time they're fine they're fine they're fine even now matt like my kid has to be like on the deathbed to not go to school i'm like no you're you're you're you can walk okay you're going to school um but now we're at the point where

we're getting into like things that you know like i had to go by my daughter she's not of age to wear these but she has to wear them because of the outfit she has but like sports bras she because she has like these tops that are kind of like narrow and you can't wear like, not spaghetti string, but you can't wear like, so she'd wear something underneath of it.

So I had to take her to go to Dick's Sporting just to buy sports bras underneath these tops that she wanted to wear for the summer. And I was like, yeah. I was like, this is a mom thing to do. Why am I doing this? And things like that, we're just like,

you're getting to the stage now where, you know, it's like real things are happening. And I have to set my son's bar mitzvah date pretty soon. It's three years away. Yeah. Yeah.

Three years away. In August of 20, August, late July, August 27. That's when it'll be. Yeah. Am I when it'll be. Yeah. Am I getting an advice?

Yeah. You guys want to get it? Come on down. It's not like it's a, it's a bar mitzvah. I have asked you that on a hot mic. No, no. I haven't made my list yet.

You guys can come. Yeah. You'll start with us. And then it'll be like, you know, Mitch, your parents like that. And then after that,

yeah, as long as, as long as you're going to dance and drink and have fun, you're, you're invited. If you're going to be like a, like a, like a lump on the log and sit in your chair. No, not going to happen. Surely, surely you just, as long as you, as long as you dance, like as long as you dance with a lucky dancer on your side. No, I mean, dude, it's like my wife's idea for a bar mitzvah party gives me a headache already. It's a lot.

I'm like, it's three years away. I know he's your son. I know you want to put him back in your stomach sometimes, but we just can't do this party like this. It's excessive. We just can't do this. We better save up money now, Matt. All right, everybody. We've reached our time limit.

My dog wants to get out of my office too. Any last words, Matt? Do you have any WBA wagers for week one? I do not. Do you? Bill Krackenberger sent me Aces first half tonight. Minus eight first half tonight. So I have wager on the Aces minus eight for the first half.

If Kraft sends me a wager, I'm wagering on it. All right. Well, we'll be back soon, everyone. Maybe we could do a show in L.A. in June when I'm in L.A., Matt. I know you'll be in town. 100%. We'll do a show in Los Angeles. We'll keep you updated throughout the offseason for any NFL news and notes

and thoughts around other sports. Look, we both watch basketball and baseball. We spend time talking about these sports. The UFL a little bit. Not an MMA guy, not an MMA. Maybe you are. But we can do it all, guys, on this show. So we'll be back in a couple weeks, guys.

Take care, everyone. Have a great one you