Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Preseason Thoughts, Rookie Check-ins, and Teams to Fade in 2024

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Geoff is back with his reactions to the first two weeks of the NFL preseason starting with the Steelers' QB competition, thoughts on a few rookie QBs, and some reminders about how to weigh preseason when evaluating teams. Also, Geoff shares a few teams to fade in your NFL futures.Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You will be back in a regular cadence soon, so subscribe and follow the pod to get notified when new episodes drop, plus follow @GeoffSchwartz on Twitter to see Geoff's reactions on all NFL and CFB headlines, offensive line "spoon" breakdowns, and musings on dog parenthood.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 august 20th i'm jeff schwartz as jeff schwartz is smarter than you we are back at least for a little bit hopefully for a while thank you guys for your tweets and your messages asking when we are coming back uh we are back for now i hope to be back the rest of the season this is of course a business and we have things to work out on our end but i'm glad to be back for today for this week talking about all things nfl maybe we'll throw a couple wagers at the end i know you guys are used to the preview shows that we do every year and those are probably not going to happen we examine uh division by division we give you our favorite wagers there's still some time possibly next week if we get

some things worked out. We're still working on trying to find the best way to present this podcast for the 2024 football season. When we get that figured out, we will let you guys know. Part of that may be doing those shows on a smaller scale. Matt and I have talked about the wagers that we are going to

give you guys. I will at the end of the show, though, I make a list. I told you guys a long time ago when legal sports wagering happened in North Carolina, I was going to make a detailed spreadsheet of every wager I make. I have it down for our futures as well. And so I'll go over some of the futures I like, win totals, things like that, as we get going here toward the NFL season. Lots to talk about today. Preseason takes, the Steelers quarterback situation,

Tua, Tonga Bailoa, Rips, Brian Flores, and much more to get to. But first, we got to start with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the quarterback situation there. As we know, Mike Tomlin, for all these years that he has been the coach of Steelers, they have not finished under.500, some 8-8 years, but never under.500, never 7-9, never 8-9. And I have said this whole offseason, you follow me on social media, at Jeff Schwartz. On other podcasts, I do Bear Betts. On this podcast, I believe I've said this in writing at Fox Sports. I'm kind of all over over the place I have said that I think the Steelers this is the year where the 500 streak ends and part of

it is quarterback and I get over the years Steelers have had less than ideal quarterback situations since Big Ben has left and Big Ben was hurt there toward the end of his time in Pittsburgh they have had situations that are not great whether it's Rudolph and Pickett and all these guys playing, and they still managed to get over 500 or at least at 500 as seasons end. But with the division and the way it is now and the quarterback room, what we've seen in the preseason so far, I'd be very concerned if I were a Steeler fan. The Steelers have Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, And both those guys have limitations, and both of those limitations have shown in the preseason. I understand that preseason is what it is.

We'll talk about what the takeaway should be from the preseason in a few minutes because it varies from team by team. You have to pay attention to who's playing and who's not playing. But the Steelers went into their game against Buffalo with a game plan to have Russell Wilson be the starting quarterback, which I've said all along I thought was going to happen. The moment he got there, the moment Fields was traded, I thought all along Russell Wilson would be the starting quarterback for this team.

He is a veteran. He's played a lot of football. You know what he is, and you know what you're getting from him, right? He's going to play conservatively for the most part in the competition. He's not as mobile as he once was where he was good in the pocket, but some of those plays he made outside the pocket, those deep throws, those ones sort of just come out of the sky down and maybe the best deep

passing ball in the NFL when you look at his career, it's fantastic. But a guy that takes a lot of sacks, a guy that holds the ball too long, and a guy that if you see color in his face, the ball's getting out of there. So you know what you're getting with him, but I figured he's the veteran.

They're going to give him the opportunity early in camp to win the job, and with less reps in training camp, you default to the veteran who's done this a long time, a veteran coach who wants exactly what Russell Wilson can give. You know what Russell Wilson is.. You know what Russell Wilson is. You also know what Justin Fields is. We'll get to that in a second.

Russell Wilson was hurt at the beginning of camp. Justin Fields took the one reps. But for the second preseason game, that's the game that most teams care about game planning. And when you do that, you put your starting quarterback out there for that week. And they put Russell Wilson out there with the ones. So they headed the Buffalo game with a game plan. They just didn't go in there without a plan, and it looked bad.

It looked bad. There's no other way to say it. It did not look good. There's many reasons why this year's offense did not function well. The offensive line did not block well, right? Tackle had a problem. Couldn't run the ball very well efficiently. Other problems well the offensive line did not block well right tackle had a problem couldn't run the ball very well efficiently other problems around the offensive line

the play calling i thought again preseason i get it very bland and boring just so nothing to it um two-man routes getting sacked screens aren't executed properly you just all over the place not what you want to see in offense. Then Russell Wilson, the same problems he had in Denver, showing up here. Now, he got sacked, and some of those times were not his fault, but the second he saw color, the ball was out. The ball was out.

There's a third down play, two of them really, where the wide receiving options are not even available yet. They're still in their routes, or they're just breaking out of their routes. And Russell Wilson has thrown the ball already to someone else on a check down. Now, Pittsburgh might want that. They're one of the teams I would imagine subscribe to the idea of every drive that ends in a kick offensively is good for us. A punt or a field goal.

No turnovers, or a PAT I should say. punt or a field goal. No turnovers or a PAT, I should say. No turnovers. Let our defense do the work, which is what Pittsburgh has done for so many years. And let's preserve the game as long as we can. Get to the fourth quarter and let's win the game. Okay. It didn't look like it should. You're playing the starters. I believe the Bills play a lot of their starters. The offense was not functioning very efficiently. And when you have an offense like this, I've mentioned this many times, where sort of a new guy does something wrong every play.

One time it's the right tackle. Then the running back doesn't hit the right area on the field for a screen. He should put his foot in the ground and get the field. You have a situation where another guy misses a block. Wilson gets the ball out to a goal. You can't game plan any of that out. If you have one guy, excuse me, who's a problem,

you can game plan that out. You can't, right? Okay, right tackle's a problem. Left guard's a problem. We were down a wide receiver. Tight end's not good. You can figure it out. A running back's not great. You can figure it out. But when you have multiple guys, that's a problem systematically in your offense.

Justin Fields gets in the game, and with his legs, and with his sort of energy, there's a shift in the offense. They didn't score any points. They had three opportunities late in the game, no points. But you see with Fields, all the things that he is good and bad at show up on the film. He can make some throws.

He also misses some throws. He takes chances down the field. He's able to run the football, but then, you know, fourth and two, and I broke this point on Twitter, maybe misses on a read on fourth and two, ends up getting a loss for 80 yards. So the good and bad is there.

So we know what these quarterbacks are. There's a myth in the NFL that when quarterbacks switch teams, they become something else. Not really. We know what Fields is. He's shown what he is so far in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson has shown who he is in Pittsburgh. I have very much been on the bandwagon of Russell Wilson starting quarterback,

and I still do think he starts week one for Pittsburgh. However, I'm warming to the idea that Justin Fields should be the guy because of the energy he brings to that position and the ability to use his legs and get out of bad situations if the offensive line cannot block. Russell Wilson's not that guy to play behind a bad offensive line. He gets jittery. He does not trust himself in the pocket. And you saw in this game, the more color that's shown in his face,

the color that shows in the defensive lineman in his face, the ball's out now. Ball's out now. Well, on third eight, you might have some color in your face. Teams are rushing the passer. Justin Fields is better equipped physically, athletically, to make plays with his legs and move the ball down the field. That doesn't make him a great quarterback. You have to throw from the pocket to win in the National Football League. Having the ability to move and get out in space is helpful, but it's not going to change the season that Pittsburgh is going to have.

But Justin Fields probably provides them a better opportunity for explosive plays and making things happen when nothing is there to happen. And I'm warming to the idea of Fields becoming the starter. It doesn't mean I think the Steelers are automatically going to be a playoff team now or win nine games. But when you look at the two options you have, you know what you have in both these guys, which provides you the better chance to score points. I think it's Fields right now.

Now, the preseason, it's difficult to determine where these guys stand because, again, we don't know how much they're game planning. We don't know how much the team they're playing against is game planning. But three points in a game where you're at least trying. You started year ones. Buffalo didn't start Josh Allen. The team that started Russell Wilson, it was not good. It was not good. So I'm wondering if you're thinking about starting field. I think I would lean in that direction now, even though I never thought I'd be there because you need a spark,

and I could see there being a situation where the team and the offense with Wilson just sort of dies out with a quarterback that it's a run-first offense. We know that with Arthur Smith. You're going to have to hit the plays that are available to you in the pass game when they happen. They're not going to happen a lot.

And with an offensive line that's leaky right now, can you afford to have a quarterback that doesn't play well, holds a ball forever, doesn't seem comfortable back there, where Fields can make some plays with his legs? So I'm leaning toward Fields' play. I never thought I'd say this. I don't think he's much better as far as win-loss record. I still think they go under the 8.5 wins, and I think that they

are not a playoff team. And lastly, on sort of the playoff front for the Steelers, most often division winners, which is how you get the playoffs first, are teams with the best quarterbacks in the division. It's very simple. In some years, let's look at the NFC North last season.

Jared Goff played the best last season. He may not be the best quarterback, but he played the best, right? So is Pittsburgh, at the minimum, going to have the best quarterback in the division? The answer is no, whether it's Wilson or Fields. Can they now be a wildcard team against the likes of the Dolphins, the Bengals, the Bills, the Jacksonville, the Texans, the Jets, the Browns? Is their quarterback room good enough to get them in that situation when you look at the rest of the teams that are going to be up for a wildcard spot?

The answer is no. If Deshaun Watson plays average, average. The Browns quarterback room is better than the Steelers. And their roster, I'd argue, very talented roster in Cleveland. Need some offensive line guys have to come back. Curious about the secondary times, gives up a lot of yards, but they're a better roster than Pittsburgh is. And so Pittsburgh has the fourth quarterback room in the division. And when you're batting that room, I lean toward the guy gives you a little more juice. And that feels like Justin Fields.

We're heading into the third week of the preseason, third week of games of the preseason. And the thing that I have found most interesting, and it certainly will skew the way you feel about who did best and who did worse in the preseason, and we'll get into that in a few minutes, is the wide gap, the gulf between teams that care about these games and teams that do not care. I don't think

we've seen this before where it seems like it is a wide gap between teams that are playing starters very clearly the intention of game planning for the week. of the preseason you you may spend uh a day a day just getting familiar with your opponent if you've done a joint practice that's done a joint practice obviously you head into a game with a modified game plan but you know you feel comfortable with the plays you've put in but you might not have game plan everything to a certain, a specific situation in a game. Okay. Game two, for the most part, if you're trying to win, is a full game plan week. You are preparing like you would in the regular season. So young players understand what that feels like and veterans and coaches can get used to doing that again. So if you notice teams like the Chiefs, who had their starters play,

very clearly they were trying on offense early in that game. You look at a team like the Bears, very clearly they were, it didn't go as well early in the game, but they were trying in the game to, you know, to the game plan. They were trying, right? You look at a team, I think CJ Stroud played for the Texans. You look at teams that were, the Steelers I mentioned, I mean i mean they were trying it didn't work out well but they were trying the broncos were trying offensively and defensively if starters are playing to perform like it was

a quote-unquote game and the the other way is you have teams like the falcons who played none of their top two quarterbacks cousins did not play and panics did not play you have teams like the Falcons, who played none of their top two quarterbacks. Cousins did not play and Penix did not play. You have teams like the Jets and Panthers played each other, just would rather not even be there. It was just going through the motions, and you watch that game, there's nothing to take away from that game whatsoever.

Just literally nothing. Maybe individual guys, I'm going to watch Oluf, Fashano, and the Jets later. Maybe you look at him and you look at his play. You look at a team like the Packers against the Broncos. If you're a Packers beat writer and you follow the team, there's nothing to take away from this game. Just absolutely nothing. And the gap seems to be widening.

The Rams, I think, and Stetson Bennett has played well. He played well last week. They didn't play Jimmy Graoppolo or Matt Stafford. The care level of these teams compared to the teams they're trying to actually sort of game plan and

have an idea of what their offense or defense is going to be feels like the gap has never been wider before. And I'm not sure what the right thing to do. I mean, look, the Chiefs played the Lions. The Chiefs cared. The Lions seemed to not care as much. The Lions are good.

The Chiefs are good. I think there's no right way to approach this, but it does feel like it's very, very noticeable when teams do not care about these games. So how do you judge these games if you're trying to look at quarterbacks specifically, because that's what we spend a lot of time looking at. Working quarterbacks, right?

Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Michael Penix did not play, Drake May. How do you look at these players? Or, and I do a lot of the offensive linemen, I look at these top drafted guys. How do we look at these players when they're playing against backups? And I go back to the idea of, does it look like it should? Does it look like it should? Let's go Caleb Williams first. We saw a little sluggish early against the Bengals backups. The drop pass on third down wasn't really his fault.

Eventually he hit a big play against Roma Dunze down at the sides. I said, Caleb Williams is a good player. Pretty good. People, oh, it's the backups and Bengals and Bengals. Okay, guys. If a player like Caleb Williams is good in the NFL, he's going to make good plays against backups. If you're an offensive lineman, defensive lineman,

you're high draft pick, you're playing, you're cornerback, you're wide receiver, you're playing in the precinct against backups, and you look good, it should look good. That's a positive if it looks like it should. Because you, in theory, and maybe practicality, you're better than the opponent. So you should play well. It's okay to say Caleb Williams is a good football player because he makes good plays against backups. Now, of course, you have the right to change your opinion with new information.

But when you are playing a backup, when you're playing the backups as a starter it should look good Bo Nix in Denver they were playing the Packers they look Bo Nix look good on offense because he's a good football player they game planned but they're also playing the Packers backups he should look good that is a positive for Bo Nix is a positive for Caleb Williams is a positive for these players that are young that play well against the twos because we see the other thing when young players, high draft picks, don't play well against the twos and the alarm bells go off, right? So to me, it's that simple to judge it. Now, does that change your opinion long-term about a team? For example, the Broncos. Windsor five and a half i believe i think i would lean over

a little bit now after watching bo nicks play but that's because the quarterback room on paper was terrible and bo nicks looks good but you have to understand it's the backups which it looked like it should so should that change your opinion my arguments no right is you look at the at the draft comp how you feel them coming out of the draft. Do you get confirmation of that in the preseason? But at the regular season, these teams get more film on the player. They got to adapt.

They have to change. They got to be something different. Learn, grow, learn from their mistakes, get better at what they can do. There are times game plans are predicated around highlighting good things and not bad things, and someone takes it away. You got to figure out how to do the bad thing better. So it's okay to say this quarterback, this player did good

against the backups, acknowledging that that's not always the case. So Bo Nix, I thought Plex played well. Okay, Williams played well. These young quarterbacks have been really good. Penix played well two weeks ago. I've not watched much of Jayden Daniels, to be honest with you. The Commanders have not. I don't have cover culture ball full-time, cover NFL full-time.

I don't always have time to watch every single quarterback play. The Commanders, to me, are not a team that I have really kind of kept an eye on. So I mentioned the Broncos as a team that had my eye on to be a little bit, a little better than maybe I thought they would be at Bo Nitz is good. A couple other teams that I think are going to be better or worse. I'm already down the Giants this year. When you look at the roster, I do a thing where I kind of just look at rosters

and I think about who the game wreckers are. So when you game plan for a given week, you get a list, and you know the list, but you get a list of game-wreckers. So you look at a list, you say, okay, who can wreck the game for me? The Giants have like five and a half game-wreckers right now, which is low.

Malik Nabors is a half. We don't know what he's going to be yet. I think he's going to be really good, but practice has not translated to the NFL quite yet. He had a nice catch against Houston. Andrew Thomas is up there, so that's now 1.5 basically. And then the three defensive linemen, is my math wrong there?

So that's maybe 4.5. And the three defensive linemen that are good, and they think that Banks can be good at some point, be a Pro Bowl-type player. I mean, there's other guys on the team that may emerge as better players, but right now, so with that 4.5, if neighbors is a half right now, it's not a talented football team. Then you see Daniel Jones out there not playing well,

and I get he's back from injury, all those things. I think if you're a Giants fan, you just don't feel comfortable right now with this team. I already don't think they're going to be very good. I'm not changing my mind on them, but I don't feel great about them. There are injuries on teams that concern me. The Bills injuries are piling up right now.

It's a team that is sort of transitioning from certain players to other players as they've swapped out pieces on offense. Defensively, Milano's hurt now, which is sort of the heartbeat of that defense. We saw last year without Milano in there. defense wasn't as good. They got to rush the passer better, things like that.

I got all these injuries piling up. Injuries are a problem, right? We know this, and I'm not against playing guys in the preseason. I mean, you should play them. Injuries are part of the game. The Bills seem to have some bad injury luck right now. So whether they can overcome that, we'll see. But I'm not downgrading them,

I'm just acknowledging the injuries there. The Ravens' offensive line is a concern. They are going to play three guys, essentially, that have not played much football in the National Football League or any. Andrew Vore, he's the left guard. The big guy, Daniel, at right guard. And then Rosengarten, who they just drafted

out of Washington in the second, I then Rosengarten, who they just drafted out of Washington in the second, I believe the second round, or the third round, plus left tackle situation with Stanley. Really good when plays, a little beat up, right? Not playing all 17 games every year. Linderbaum sent it really good. That unit, Linderbaum did not play,

and I think Stanley did not play, against who did they play now? Let me take a little peek-ski here. They played the Falcons. Not good. It was a struggle. And if you're a Ravens fan, I think there's a little concern about the offensive line

hindering what they can do. You can make the point that Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry and the weapons around them can maybe overcome that. Certainly true, but you want an offensive line that is going to help with the run game, going to make Lamar Jackson comfortable. Because again, when Lamar Jackson's at his best, he's thrown from the pocket.

We know he can run. That's part of the game plan, but you don't want your quarterback scrambling all over the place because your offensive line can't protect. It's good to have as a supplement. It's good to get out of bad situations, but you want to be able to have him stand back there and throw the ball, and you cannot have your offensive line getting beat so quickly and making things a supplement. It's good to get out of bad situations, but you want to be able to have him stand back there and throw the ball

and you cannot have your offensive line getting beat so quickly and making things a mess. So I'm not downgrading the Ravens, but I'm telling you that that's a concern of mine coming out of preseason. Some of the positives, Kansas City guys, Xavier Worthy is going to change who they can be on offense. They

tried to feature him in game two. It worked out really well. They're going feature him in game two. It worked out really well. They're going to start getting those two high shells again. That guy can fly, man. He can fly and the Chiefs are going to be better this season. They're going to be better this season than last year because their offense is better. Their defense

may not be the same. Defense tends to fluctuate year by year, but they don't need their defense to be number one in the NFL. They need them to be 10 to 12 to 13 if the offense is backscoring like they should. I took the Chiefs over points for this year. I took Mahomes over passing yards. I mean, I am high on what Kansas City can be.

They should be better than last season because they're better offensively. So again, difficult to judge everything because ones versus twos again look i mentioned the uh the the the takeaways and how you have to sort of judge them based off of what you see and and who's playing what i mean the ravens offense is a good example of a team of one offensive line playing against the twos it did not go very well right like that's it should look it should look like it should did it yes check good positive if it isn't oh boy not

very good so uh those are my general takeaways of preseason week three is such a wreck it doesn't even matter i mean i i don't think that anything we see in week three this final week of the preseason is going to matter very much and i would not uh expect to really see any starters play i mean these teams aren't even playing backup quarterbacks right now we're gonna see a mess the others have been crushing right now because no i can't it is odd how many teams just do not seem to care about the preseason it feels like we're heading toward that that that area where we end up with 18 games versus games two preseason games because teams are just not giving a damn for lack lack of a better word, in the preseason. All right, let's get to Tua Tungwailoa, the quarterback for the Dolphins,

and some comments he made yesterday about Brian Flores, his former coach when he was a young football player. One of the things I like about when players get paid, and Tua just got paid, And one of the things I like about when players get paid and Tua just got paid is the muzzle comes off and players feel very free to share things that they may not have shared previously. When you're able to not worry about the repercussions because he's now their franchise quarterback, say whatever you want, nothing's going to come of it so i i like that tua is able to speak more freely he doesn't talk very much like this and he was on with with uh with dan lebitard and this is what he said about brian forrest quote to put it in its simplest terms if you woke up every morning and i told you you suck at what you did that you don't belong doing what you do that you shouldn't be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven't earned this right. And then you have someone else come in and tell you,

dude, you're the best fit for this. He's now talking about Mike McDaniels' coach. You're accurate. You're the best whatever. You're this, you're that. How would that make you feel listening to one versus the other? You see what I'm saying?

So it's another example of a Bill Belichick disciple coach just being a hard ass and it backfired on him. Look, one part of coaching that gets overlooked, and we talk about X's and O's, is relationships, right? And understanding how to push the buttons of your team and individual players. There are times when your team needs to be cussed at and yelled at and motivated. There are times your team needs to be cobbled, not cobbled, but, hey guys, it's going to be okay. We're going to be fine. We're going to be good. And of course, there are coaches that have made

a reputation like Bill Belichick of being a hard ass but when you do that you better win players will accept coaches that do not give them enough praise and tell them they're good if you're winning you can set aside the the bitterness of a coach and and maybe how directly you feel the personal attacks might be because you're winning, right? Because it's working. A lot of times, though, that doesn't work. We've seen that so far with all these Belichick disciples that being angry and taking blame away from you

and putting on a player, even though it may be true, and being so divisive and brash, it doesn't work for all players. And so you have to understand as a coach how to motivate your players that doesn't mean that you tell your players all the time they are doing good when they are bad but if you have a young quarterback and we're seeing this now around the NFL whether Sean Payne talks about Bo Nix or or or Ibrafu talks about uh Caleb Williams or Dan Quinn about Jane Daniels and they privately might be something different absolutely but with a young

quarterback you need to just reassure them that's going to be okay it's hard to play in the national football league okay it's hard no matter what level you are but as a young quarterback you're going to struggle that's part of it and you have to know how to motivate that player there are players like patrick mahomes that might be motivated by hate and motivated by fueled by people not liking him and maybe andy reed can tell him hey man straight to his face get in his face cuss him motivated by hate and motivated by, fueled by people not liking him. And maybe Andy Reid can tell him, hey man, straight to his face, get in his face, cuss him out. It's not really Andy Reid's deal, but the idea is you can get in someone's face like that and they can accept that. There are players you can't do that with. And it sounds like when Chua was young, he's not a guy who you

needed to get in his face and make him feel like shit. And as a coach, you have to understand the right way to motivate your players. Again, I'm not saying the coach has to tell him things are great when they're not. But to say, hey, Tua, look, man, I know you played bad. You got to work on this and work on this. But I know you can be better. I know you can do this. Here's how you can do this.

Let me show you. And nurture him instead of just being an asshole. That being an asshole doesn't work for every player. And your job as a coach is to understand whether or not a player can handle you being an asshole. Or the team can handle that. And these Belichick guys seem to not understand that. The reason it worked in New England is because they won football games. And players can play with coaches that scream and yell at them and cuss at them and tell them they suck if they're winning football games.

You can put that aside because your job in this profession is to win. And if that works, it's good. And I get it. Brian Flores did win a good amount. I'm not saying he was a bad coach. But he had to understand how to motivate Tua and clearly Michael McDaniel understands the right way to do it with Tua to be positive to be to reinforce good habits and to tell him he can do it Brian Flores just didn't and it's that simple it's probably why he's out of a job I know he sued uh he sued uh the NFL we'll see what happens with that but yeah I know how to do it

and obviously Brian Flores for whatever reason just didn't understand how to motivate tua and he's out of a job now so all right guys uh as i mentioned the gambling things that we have done over the past division previews are unlikely to happen because of scheduling and other aspects of the business that's's totally fine. I love Blue Duck. Matt and Gabe are fantastic. They're the absolute best. So we'll figure it all out. But we already have week one wagers locked in. Matt and I have talked about this.

I cannot wait. So some things I'm eyeing on the wagering side. I'll give you, I'm sure right now. Again, unders for the Raiders, the Giants, the Patriots. I took Patriots, fewest wins in the NFL at DraftKings at plus 320 last week. They're going to be bad. They traded Matthew Judon, quarterback situation. I think percent starts, may come at some point, but they just don't have a lot of weapons on offense, offensive line suspect.

They're just not going to be good, and I'm wagering against them being good. I talked about the Giants and Raiders already. Don't like the quarterback situation there. The Raiders, you know, Connell, Gardner, Minshew, they started Gardner, Minshew, whoopie. Don't feel great about it. I have Steelers under 2.5 division wins as well.

They went 5-1 division last season. Three of those games were Jake Browning twice and Ravens Week 17 not really trying very hard. NFL wagers, I took Browns to make the playoffs at plus 142. Browns to win the division at plus 600 as well. I had Vikings playoffs, but that's a little derailed now.

I might have to get out of that somehow. That's sort of where I stand with some of these wagers. I think the, as I mentioned, Chiefs over their point total this year, you can wager on just whether teams just score points. It's kind of fun. How many points, how many total points will a team have? Mahomes' passing number is at like 43-50. When he's healthy and plays 16 games that's over that number so i always

factor in the week 17 week 18 game they don't play for the 17th game so that's uh that's where i stand on some of these wagers we'll try to get you guys a more comprehensive list of of all the wagers we have heading into next week because next week is a full week of college football labor day weekend will be the first full weekend of college football that we head into. It will be the regular season. I am leaning toward Chiefs minus the points. Shocking. We're going to get Thursday against the Ravens on, I believe it's

September 5th. Alright guys, podcast is back. Thank you guys for reaching out. I really do appreciate it. It's been great to see that support. I didn't know the times that we had it, but do appreciate it. It has been great to see that support. Didn't know the times that we had it, but I love it. Please rate,

review, subscribe. If you have some questions, throw them my way. I can answer those on the next podcast. Have a great week, everyone. Talk to you guys later. Bye.