Green Light with Chris Long - NFL Playoff Picture. The DK Metcalf/Jim Schwartz 'Thing.' Chris Goes Full Monolith!

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

(1:00) - Welcome and NFL Updates. (18:17) - Broncos, Ravens and COVID. (29:45) - 2020 NFL Playoff Races. (38:31) - Jim Schwartz and DK Metcalf. Sign up for your DraftKings account at https://www.draftkings.com/sportsbook and use promo code : Greenlight Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy Wednesday afternoon, everybody. This is the Greenlight Pod. I'm your host, Chris Long. And sorry for the late start today. I'm working on my stress levels. And, you know, I'm not going to force anything, guys. I know that might be, you guys might be like, well, I need my pot early on Wednesday morning. I got to get some sleep sometimes.

And I got to manage the stress levels. Family man, I have a life outside this. I love doing it. Wednesdays, I mean, to say. they might be a little inconsistent on the times. Let me explain what Wednesday is for. When we made the move to Sunday night record Monday morning drop and we stayed with the Friday morning drop,

we said Wednesday's kind of a catch-all. If we want to do some non-football stuff, great. Like if we have an interview that's been floating around that we could do over the weekend and drop it Wednesday, like a Matthew McConaughey interview would be perfect, right? We booked Matthew McConaughey, along with 1,500 other pods, but it was awesome having.

him. Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament. You know, like, that's a perfect pod for Wednesday. But some weeks, you know, you just don't get to a guest. So today I got football for you. And I got Wednesday afternoon football. And I'm glad that I waited. Maybe you guys can listen to this before Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon football, which is an NFL staple. A tradition is old as time. You know, is that what you would say? This feels super weird. 340 kick on a Wednesday. I don't even know what to make of it and half the Ravens are missing. So we'll talk about that in a little bit.

We'll also talk about just the other stuff going on with COVID around the league. And then I just want to take a look at the last quarter of the season and kind of the playoff outlook. December is like a different season. You know, it's you talk about New England, keying in on this pretty good to say after Halloween, the playoffs or the season really starts, right? Well, like December is when you really want to be playing playoff football.

So you don't have to make the adjustment into January. And, you know, then coaches aren't all tight in the ass running around in a byweek practice or prepping for a wild card game because you've been playing like shit the last four and you snuck in. That's bad for morale. It's bad for the team. It's bad for coaches. Coaches aren't their best when they're stressed. So this is a huge month around the NFL.

And another thing is the weather's finally changing. So, you know, if you're a warm weather team, great. I mean, that could serve you well when you get to Tampa, but between now and then you're going to have to play in different conditions. Everybody knows that. But that's what makes September and October, besides the fact that teams aren't who they're going to be in November and December, such a crapshoot. That's why we have teams that fade every year.

And there's teams that always struggle in the cold weather. So I think December is huge. You know, it's not just deciding who's going to be in the dance and where they're going to be but also what a team feels about themselves when they take the field in January, which is a big thing. That vibe is big. We're going to hit Jim Schwartz and D.K. Metcalf as well as I will touch on Doug Peterson, Carson wins, Howie Roseman. The Eagles have been thrust into the national spotlight.

It's almost like the last thing they wanted was a primetime game. Because people talk about Carson and people talk about the Eagles with regularity, but nothing like when the whole world saw it on Monday night. And there's nothing that makes you feel like the whole world's watching more than a football game in prime time in a pandemic because there's nothing else going on. Right. So if you got issues, stay off prime time. We will hit that stuff. First off, okay, I tweeted last night. I couldn't sleep because of the monolith.

The monolith. I'm just thinking about this thing, right? the monolith that they found in Utah like two weeks ago. I'm a little late to become fixated on it, but fuck it. I'm going to do a monolith deep dive. In fact, okay, so if you haven't heard about it, it's like a 16 foot steel beam that's like perfectly triangular the way it was described to me, third hand out in Utah and they just stuck it in the desert and some people found it and they had no idea where it came from.

Was it aliens? Was it the government? Is it some really bored rich person just spending their money doing like a, Is it like this is such an Elon Musky thing to do, right? Or just some artist doing some sort of experiment, like some sort of gallery where we're not sure what's going on. I have no idea what it is. But a UVA fan direct message me last night and said that I could stay at their house if I needed to track down the monolith. And I appreciate that.

They live in Utah. Appreciate you very much. But I'm not tracking now, Monoliths. I'm going to make one. that's where my head was at yesterday. I'm going to make my own monolith. I'm going to drop that off right on the side of the app trail, like off of humpback rocks, if you know, the area here in Charlottesville.

And I'm going to do a copycat monolith. I think it's brilliant. I think it's absolutely brilliant. I'm jumping up and down. Me and my buddy Tom, we tracked down a welder. They could sure use the business. They do quality work. we figured maybe we spent a couple hundred bucks

and we haul that thing up the mountain and bury it in the darkness of night and then we go viral in secrecy and we can just sit there and watch our work and watch people freak out. Everybody's going to be like, hey man, do you see the monolith? That was us the whole time. And we don't say shit about it. It's like a blood oath.

We actually are going to make, we would have made the welder take a blood oath too. We just watched the internet explode, dude. My lovely wife, Meg, absolutely hated the idea. just totally crush me. Not even like, this is a bad idea, Chris. It's like, you know the feeling where you think you have a good idea and somebody's just kind of dismissive of it.

Then I called my mom and my dad and they loved the idea. Big Howie loved the idea. He actually was like, I have a really great welder. And he was describing the welder and sending me pictures and all this stuff as the welder we were going to go to. But then again, I got off the phone and I was like, my parents love everything I do. So probably not a good barometer for whether or not I have a good idea.

And then I decided against it. You know, what if it falls on somebody? I don't know if I have the time. I don't know if I'm going to be comfortable with the fame that goes with going viral over a knockoff monolith, the copy copycat monolith. And I'm also not sure I would feel safe. Like, what if the people who put the monolith out west are fucked up people? You know what I mean? We're going to see like other monolith start popping up.

We saw one in Romania. That's where I learned this morning. Romania totally beat me to it, so I'm glad I didn't fall through with this plan. There's already a copycat monolith in Romania. What if it's the same people? Do you know what kind of range you have to have to put? What if they're not copycats? And then did you hear that somebody's just strong armed the monolith in Utah?

They just went out there and pulled it down, fucking hauled it off in a wheelbarrow. And the guys, they were all like, I think they were dressed like coal miners with the white hard hats with the big flashlights on the top. and the blue like dicky suits that's at least how i imagine them being dressed it looks like that in this grainy oh no that's not how they're dressed at all they're just dressed like uh hippies that live in utah yeah they took it down they just they just absconded with the monolith in the middle of the night and as they were breaking it down there was there was a dude there uh and they like broke it in half and put it in a wheelbarrow and then when they left they said leave no trace that's the account of what the guy said in the middle of the night snatching this monolith up that's like some

movie shit that's why i don't believe that these people had anything to do with putting the monolith there they're just dudes that wanted to take the monolith home it's probably sitting in these dudes living room or in their backyard plus like when you say leave no trace to a guy uh that ironically puts it on instagram and gets like over a million likes like puts the entire account and quotes you in the Instagram post. The only way this shit scares me actually is if this Instagram photographer who had a lot of followers. So good luck with the leave no trace thing. The only way I'm worried about these people that broke down the monolith is if this cat comes up missing.

Because I don't know about you, but like if dudes take down a monolith that looks like it was put there by aliens or the government right in front of me and say leave no traces, they leave. I'm not posting it on Instagram. So I've decided against doing it. Romania, you got it. I actually think we might have a, we might have a doctor of some sort on on Friday. Me and Macon, we're talking about it. Somebody who's an expert on like modelists, aliens, you know, conspiracy type stuff. I don't know. We were looking a few experts up in the field. And if we have any luck, we'll let you know. We might have them on Friday. I'm a big monolith guy now.

And I was calling it a monument for like an entire day yesterday. And my lovely wife was like, I'm pretty sure that's not what it's called. So I've learned what it's called. I've done my research. I've opted against doing the copycat thing. I'm going to do a deep dive, I think, on Friday. Go look that shit up, man. It's pretty freaky.

Quick shout out before we get into this thing. Defensive tackles. Nothing reinforced the value and importance of the position this weekend for game-changing defensive tackles. Like the Bears' defensive performance and the Colts' defensive performance, you know, Indy looked hapless against Derek Henry and Tennessee, and it looks so different than what you saw three weeks ago even against them. And you would think that, you know, maybe common sense would tell you, okay, Derek Henry's going to be tired.

Have you ever seen Derek Henry get up slow? Like once? I don't care how many carries he had. I don't care if it's a short week, Thursday night. He's not tired. He's going to be the hammer. You're going to be the nail. And both those teams came off of overtime games.

So not having Buckner made a big difference. Okay. Akeem Hicks, his presence or his lack of presence was felt in Chicago. It goes on and on. I mean, how different does L.A. look? And of course, Aaron's the cream of the crop here, but without Aaron Donald, not only without Aaron Donald, but Michael Brockers. You know, that that's a heck of a duo there. You know, I think one of San Francisco's, the biggest things they're missing this year is a Buckner.

I know they're missing a lot of stuff, but I thought that Buckner was a big key to what they did. And we got kind of caught up with the shiny objects. Buckner is a dog. and de-tackles in this league, it's a very valuable position. So, you know, look at Philly without Fletcher Cox. That defense played pretty well the other night, pretty well. And Fletch changes game plans every week. I know it because I play with Aaron briefly,

and I play with Fletch for a couple years, and I see the different ways that people block when you have a competent detackle right inside. And that's not necessarily always going to be good because sometimes teams will get the ball out extremely quick because they're scared shitless of the monster lined up two yards inside you. So it's not like you necessarily always get free stats off those guys. But I have my fair share of free stats off Fletch.

I mean, Fletch would just go, I mean, up the field. And you always knew that he was going to penetrate. He was also a very smart guy. So he could have easily been an asshole and rushed just for Fletch, but he rushed for everybody. And that's my Fletch sidebar there. But yeah, D-Tackles. They were sorely missed this weekend. It's a very important position.

I want to pay those guys. COVID, okay? Just learn today Cleveland had, you know, on the, Cleveland's fucking up. The Ravens, the Steelers, they're just reveling in their, their spotlight. The entire football universe is going to watch them today at 340, Wednesday afternoon football. Guys, they got to get the, they get the world by the balls here. And then Cleveland's trying to steal their shine with a contact tracing situation. I guess they're they shutting down. that facility. It certainly feels like things are definitely not winding down because they're going to do this thing however they can. But it certainly feels like, you know, the bullets are coming from everywhere here. And that makes sense because that's the way it is around the country

right now with cases going up. And the NFL is just a microcosm of that. No matter how hard they try to to shut this thing out, you have the Cleveland thing today. You have the Niners having to go play in Arizona. Okay. That's an interesting deal. Okay. Like does that increase their chances of getting COVID? You know, like, I don't know. I haven't looked. Are the cases up in, you know, Phoenix? Are they going to be able to effectively bubble? You know, basketball needs a lot less staff than football. So basketball bubbles. If you're calling this a bubble at the Sheridan or wherever they're staying, like you're going to have fans that are going to linger around there. How good are they going to be able to keep them out, like autograph people outside

the hotel. That's a big one. There's always autographed people outside the hotel. You know, you might have to have different body work people coming in. You might have, you know, there's more interaction with hotel staff. I don't know. In general, even without COVID, this is a tough card for a team that's in a playoff race, right? They're trying to slide in the Niners. And they've been, you know, played the Rams last week. They have full custody of the Rams. But, In general, we know that they are dangerous or they're a team that you might not want to see if they slide in. I've been down on Niners all year because I think the injuries are too much to overcome as far as talking about them as a contender. But they're a spoiler.

And if they get in, nobody wants to see them. So you're doing this thing where you send them down to Arizona. And that's a great facility. That is a remarkable stadium down in Phoenix. It looks like a fucking toaster, but it's gorgeous. inside pristine, great grass, the whole nine yards. And that's a really nice area to be. If they were a cold weather team, they'd probably be happy they're going down there in a

bubble. Like if they were Cleveland, they'd be psyched about going down there because all of a sudden, you know, now you've got, you've got 80 degree weather outside, no snow. It doesn't hurt warming up to practice every day. The surface is probably better. Older guys' joints feel better. But they're coming from San Francisco where it does cool down, I'm told, in December. But that's not as big a gain as coming from like the shores of Lake Erie or whatever the fuck, wherever the Cleveland sits.

I think it's a net negative for them. I don't think it helps their chances. But I was on NFL Next last night with Andrew Hawkins, who played in the league and played under Shanahan and said, you know, if you're going to have this card get dealt to any team in the NFL and expect that they overcome it, Shanahan's near the top of list as far as people who can pull this off. There's a lot that goes on besides the behind the scenes operationally when a team takes over a hotel for a couple weeks, way more than you think, way more. And that's why these football operation guys are really valuable.

I mean, if you're in, you know, NFL football ops type, you know, field, you're constantly booking travel, buses, you're, you know, the police escorts, the, you know, the meals, the bodywork. like this is all the stuff that's constantly going on behind the scenes in the NFL this is this season has added a whole other element to that department and you know like this is you thought you were you thought you were up you're really up now if at the drop of a hat when when we used to go out to Napa if we went out to Napa if Jeff Fisher had us go out to Napa because we had two West Coast trips in 2015 this was my last couple weeks in St. Louis before I knew I was getting cut I was out in Napa it was me knowing I was about to get cut and it was me past

Wes Welker in the hall who's wine drunk every night because he knew he was just in St. Louis for a couple months and he was going to get to fuck out of there and be done with football. And I just remember, consist, I would walk by West Welker all the time and I'd be like, you know, we're both just here for a second. But we were out in Napa and that was a trip because we had two West Coast trips back to back, as I said, that they planned like a year out. And, you know, Bruce Warwick, who handled a lot of that stuff and some of the guys in St. Louis who did a great job. It takes a long time to plan those trips, transportation,

where are you going to practice? Where are you going to lift? Like what ballroom in the hotel are you going to put a bunch of bands in there? Or is there going to be like a local high school or a local college that you can go get your lifts in at? You're going to have to take the bus there. Is there a wait room at the Cardinal Stadium they can use? Can they use? They obviously can't use the Cardinals facilities. That would complicate things. But there's a ton you have to consider when you're doing that stuff and now they're doing it to drop of a hat. So the players will be pretty adaptive,

but how do the coaches lay out the plan, the logistics of this whole thing, and how do players hit the curveball a little bit with their body work, with their home life? They don't get to see their families, okay? You know, NBA just did it for a long time. This is a different game. It's a different grind.

You know, and I know it's only a couple weeks, I'm not comparing that bubble situation to something like that, but it's different. The Baltimore thing, it's a whole other issue that we've gotten. It's developing right now as we speak leading up to Wednesday afternoon football. The tradition is in peril. I mean, we'll get to that in a second.

But the Denver thing, I've looked at it closer. Initially, I was pissed off because I had Denver. Okay, I had Denver like plus six or whatever. And I thought that was, I thought it was the right side, guys. I thought it was the right side. The issue that we really have, I think, with the NFL and the Broncos and what they did there, as I thought hard about it. It was that we're so cynical of the NFL and we should be.

But I think our issue is more what we think we know about the NFL and how they'll act in the future, not what's happened thus far when it comes to the consistency with which the NFL schedules and reschedule games. Okay. It's also about the NFL being so uptight that it couldn't seem to make an exception for a bad team and just give us a watchable game. Like give us something that can write this wrong. We talked about teams putting their third quarter. quarterback and quarantine the entire season and not bring them into the building, well, maybe that's not realistic. Maybe the NFL needs to build something in for the next time this happens.

I just felt like it was their chance to make an example rather than bend the rules and give us a watchable game because they thought that, hey, we've talked the whole time about we're only going to cancel games if there's an active outbreak, not if there's some competitive disadvantage that comes from contact tracing. And that's what you have had in Denver. So easy chance for them to make an example. And as we said, they haven't been inconsistent on that front. As far as like it's, it's about the outbreak, not one position room fucking up the quality of the game. It's not. Here's where it gets interesting. And here's where I think the NFL might be full of it. The NFL wants to set a precedent with Denver. That's fine. Just be about it next time. We'll see if

they act the same if it's Kansas City. We'll see if they act the same if it's Tampa, right? And, you know, is Tampa on the cusp of getting in the postseason, their quarterback room gets wiped out by COVID? You know, like it's contact tracing or something like that. If it's not an outbreak and contact tracing messes up another key position group on a team that's on the cusp of making the playoffs, what's the NFL do then? I feel like they probably don't act so consistent and buy the book.

But, you know, we got to give them the benefit of the doubt, I guess now until it happens. And that's why I expect the NFL to announce they'll be in a boss, for the playoffs, honestly. Baltimore, okay, on the heels of the Cleveland contact tracing news, I think my main issue with this game going is that it seems like the outbreak has not gotten under control. Okay, so it's a different issue where, you know, it's apples to oranges when it comes to Denver and Baltimore because Denver was a totally different deal and the league can,

they have plausible liability that they've been consistent on that and they'll be consistent on that the Baltimore thing in and of itself is a fucking mind fuck to me right because you've got a dozen players plus at this point 30 staff members the outbreak started last week and you've had positives for like 10 straight days as a Tuesday you had another one that just came out today right um a dude who who is a gno stone tested positive Tuesday which means he was shedding okay and it's Wednesday now leading up to the game he was probably in the walkthrough he was in the walkthrough to this point, I guess we know that teams aren't passing it back and forth to each other competitively, like in a game situation. But still, it's kind of a bad look to kind of to keep going with this

thing as you're getting positives that are coming out the day of the game, man. Like, it's, you know, with the incubation period, we're going to get more. So what is this, it's going to put Baltimore, Dallas, Tuesday night football in jeopardy. Tuesday night football's in jeopardy. We might get Wednesday night football again. I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's It feels a little all over the place with regard to the outbreak side of things. And they just put in the week 18 rule, right, to move some games that are postponed. I don't think they want to do it for one game. If this was maybe the third or fourth game, I think they might do it.

But, you know, it is the perfect scenario to use it. They're not going to use it on the first game. It doesn't make it worth it to them. And, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe within an hour of you hearing this, the game gets canceled or something. But it should be an interesting football game if it happens. And listen, stuff like this is changing by the minute. My Virginia Cavaliers went down to Tallahassee and found out the morning of the game

that the game was going to be off. Okay? Like, that's plane rides, buses. That's the whole night. And that's budget impactful for a college football program. And, you know, they're calling it right before the game. Now, this is a different league. This is they're going to operate on their own.

But we'll see. We'll see. Now, Baltimore, the way it started, and this is what really pisses me off, is as you talk about this, is not only is the league bending over backwards a little bit within the realm of, like, how do you handle an outbreak for Baltimore, but the way it started, okay? the shit show started with a strength coach. I hear Tracer off, left off, didn't report symptoms, not a big mask guy. I mean, I don't know if this is a strength coach macho thing and I don't know the guy.

And I know that like, you know, you might say, well, people fuck up. Listen, you got, there's a lot of money on the line here. You know, players playing it, risking their safety. I know coaches are doing the same thing, but, you know, coaches have to be responsible adults too here. And this whole thing starting with a strength coach, you know, reportedly, that's a bad look. And I don't know, man, it makes it makes me less sympathetic to the Ravens organization, right? You came in, the players had to be adults, all this shit. Well, Tennessee outbreaks started with a coach.

And I'm not saying it's, it's, I'm not saying you're an asshole if you get COVID. Not at all. What I'm saying is if you get COVID and you're not doing the things you're supposed to do and you spread COVID, you kind of look like an asshole. The gyms may not be full, but there's definitely no shortage of madness

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to why in a second. And in the NFC, I think it's all about matchups. That's not a cop out. If I had to guess right now, I do think Pittsburgh can beat Kansas City. I actually like them in that matchup. I'm holding fast to my Super Bowl prediction of Pittsburgh. And on the other side of things, man, I had Seattle. I'm not going to jump off the bandwagon because then I can't do the victory lap if they end up in the Super Bowl, you know, Steelers over Seahawks was the, was the prediction. That's a Detroit Super Bowl rematch. And if you remember, for those of y'all who were around my age 35, you were probably sitting around in college, drinking in your living room, watching that game. And you had to be drinking to watch that game. It was disgusting. It was

ugly. Big Ben played terrible. But luckily, you know, he got another ring. We'll see if you can get a third this time around. And I think this is honestly the most wide open to playoffs, have been in recent memory to me. That's why, you know, yesterday on NFL next, one of the questions was, is Kansas City the clear favorite? Okay. On one hand, it's funny, we asked these questions on the heels of them beating the bucks. Okay, didn't we bury the bucks a couple weeks ago?

Don't the buck suck, you know, for three quarters of the internet? And, you know, we ooh and awe at the chiefs, you know, understandably every Sunday. but if we're going to write off the bucks, then we can't crown the chiefs because they damn near got beat in a game that they had no business letting them back in the game to beat them in. You know, I'm not crowning the chiefs as like a three to one Super Bowl favorite or something. Are they the favorite? Hmm. I don't know. On one hand, they've won their last three games by nine points.

They're behind Pittsburgh and record and point differential. you know the Raiders the pads the charges have all scared them so i would i would say the chiefs would be the favorite if they didn't get bored sometimes you know um it seemed like they got bored in that game the other night after the after the first quarter or you know that just was the game plan or they they changed some things on the tampa sideline maybe after the first quarter they were they couldn't even get a first down for for most of that first quarter, it was, it was bad. So I can't tell with the chiefs, if I can trust them throughout the entire playoffs

that they don't get bored. Like they got bored last year against the Texans and almost lost that game. They had to come back and go crazy for three and a half quarters or whatever it was. So on one hand, there's all that. but also Kansas City has been an off-sides away from gunning for a three-peat here this year. I mean, I really do think if D-4 doesn't jump off-sides in that game. And the Patriots made some unbelievable plays. There were a couple calls at the end there that could have gone either way.

But the Chiefs had them beat. And I think they win that Super Bowl, too. They're that close to gunning for a three-peat. They've lost one game in whatever it is, like, I don't know, a ton of games, okay? They've won six straight, and like I said, they made the Bucks look like a college team for a quarter and a half. So, listen, I think if Kansas City's locked in 60 minutes of every playoff game, they are the favorite, clear-cut favorite. You can't make a case for a clear-cut favorite this year, in my opinion, in the AFC, especially. you know, a healthy Drew Breeze in the NFC.

I'm thinking a little bit more clear-cut favorite coming out of the NFC, but I don't even think Kansas City is the clear-cut favorite to come out of the AFC. Here's how you beat Kansas City. Good luck, but you need to be able to rush for. You got to be able to stop the run in a light box. You know, you got to disguise coverage. You have to play keepaway. So, you know, you have to play.

pretty good on third down. You got to be able to run the football. I want to say, and I'm whispering, like, the L.A. Rams are a good matchup, actually. But you worry about Jared Gough, right? I don't hate the L.A. Rams matchup. I honestly don't. But I think out of the NFC,

if you're asking for the best matchup for the Chiefs, I'm not going to put the Saints in there until I see Drew Bree's healthy, okay? And we're going to see Chiefs Saints later this year with Taysom. Green Bay is actually my pick out of the NFC to best compete with Kansas City if that was the matchup. That's when you might not think about. And as much as I have problems with their defense, if it's going to be a shootout, give me the guy who's got a fucking, you know, missile on his shoulder who looks just scorched earth,

pissed off. And honestly, I don't hate Green Bay as a matchup against Kansas City. Titans, though. The Titans have beaten them. and they've scared them. They were up last year in the playoffs. And you want to call that boredom? This is my thing about the Chiefs.

How many of these, how dangerously do you like to live, Austin Powers? Okay. Like how dangerously do you like to live? Because it seems like most of their playoff games, there is a little period where you're like, oh, shit. And then they snatch you back. So I think Titans are a nightmare on third down defensively. I mean, for themselves, not for the opponents. But if you're playing the Chiefs, it's kind of a wash of anyway.

If you can play Keepaway, run the football, and just out physical the Chiefs, you got a shot, you got a puncher's chance. And maybe the thing about the Titans defense is you made the trade for Desmond King. Things change a little bit. Maybe somebody gets you some pass rush. And maybe you start playing above your head defensively like Kansas City did last year. Like, what if Tennessee's defense improves like Kansas City's defense did? Now, I'm not saying that just automatically happens, but these ebbs and flows happen within a season.

Also, Kansas City, zero games with over one turnover this year. It's a lot of, I mean, like, it's definitely taking care of the football, but it's also luck that could run out, right? And I'd have to look at how many fumbles are they actually putting on the ground, but Mahomes has only thrown a pick to the Raiders, right? Turnovers happen, okay? And the home field thing is big, right? But it's more about the buy this week, this year, I should say. The buy thing is huge. If they don't get the buy, they're not the clear favorite to me.

Okay. I will take Pittsburgh winning three over Kansas City winning four, right? So that's just where I stand on that. And the home field combo is interesting for Pittsburgh. because I suspect Pittsburgh is going to have to go balls to the wall so that the chiefs don't catch them. You know, a lot of times week 17, you see that relaxation game where you got, you know, like the vets get day off or you play a quarter, just stay sharp because you don't want to get, you know, you don't want to get rusty sitting around and then lay an egg like a week later in the playoffs.

I suspect the Steelers are going to know how to manage this stuff, right? I suspect they're going to play as hard as they can week 17 to get to get that against Cleveland actually to get that coveted by week, especially with the age of their team. They're more of a veteran team. But honestly, Steelers, I'm looking at the path they have to get that one seed. Buffalo and Indy are tough, tough games. Buffalo, now this was without Big Ben, but Buffalo beat him in prime time last year. and they get India as well, who's a tough football team. Not sure what that matchup's going to yield.

I'll look a little closer. They'll earn 16 and 0 if they get there, and they really want that buy. Any team does, but like I said, a veteran team. They'll use the buy well. You talk about having great coaches continuity. This is a team with a lot of continuity. You look at Mike Tomlin's track record off a buy in general is pretty damn good, right? I'm looking at it here.

Cowboy Reed had the stats for me. It was in the playoffs coming off a buy. He's two and one. And he won the divisional game after the buy in 2008 and 2010. And then 2017, he lost it. So pretty good coming off the buy in the playoffs. And in general, 10 and 4 during his time as head coach of the Steelers coming off a pie that's in the regular season.

So he takes advantage of time well. I think Andy Reid would do a great job. So it's doubly important for you to get the buy for yourself, to rest your players, to use it well, to tweak some of the things they might need to tweak to get the run game right, to work on third down, to get that defense rested to make that push, but also to deny Andy Reed and Pat Mahomes thereby, because you don't want them cooking shit up over there in the Midwest for 10 days. But also, remember how Kansas City came out of their buy, right? Last year, I think this was off the buy. they played the Texans. That's a big fear of teams, okay, for teams. I mean, Kansas City's better equipped for a sleepy first half, as we've talked about,

because remember last year against the Texans, it looked like they're going to lose that football game. What was the three scores? And they really, it was a fake punt decision that let them back in that football game. They're just too much firepower for Houston. But what if you end up down because you're sleepwalking in the first half to a good football team? What if you end up down to the Colts? that's who they play

you know if the playoffs started today Kansas City and Indy would be playing and like I said Indies Indies like that team that's going to be around Indy's like

Indy to me is like an old dude who can still kick your ass like you may be not afraid of them because they got some joint pain and that sort of thing like they're just they're tough they're scrappy but they're not

it's not like fighting Francis and right now. They're like maybe Chuck Liddell off the couch. Like they're dangerous to me. I don't know. And I'm not a big MMA guy. So if I butcher the metaphor, I'm sorry, but they're a team that that's not sexy. They're not necessarily a public pick, but they're a team that's going to be around. And again, I'm not worried about that indie game so much. The indie Tennessee game just happened so much because, you know, we're just going to disregard the fact that indie played them tough and actually beat them two weeks ago? I think Indy is a tough matchup for Kansas City. If you're looking at first round

matchups, last year, Indy beat them in Kansas City at Arrowhead. It was cold, cold night. I think unseasonably cold, maybe, or rainy. Either way, it was in that little slump that the Chiefs went through. So take that for what it is. Nothing's guaranteed. Week 17, Kansas City and the Chargers, wow, that's going to be fun. I mean, again, remember Herbert went toe to toe with those guys with five minutes to just glance at the fucking tablet and went out there and almost beat them. And that's, again, the four-man rush that you can beat Kansas City with, but you need to be smart, you know, four-man rushing. We talked about that on Sunday night. Talking about the Colts, Raiders, Colts, is one to circle. Raiders are getting a little bit of

the short end of the stick here with the West Coast to East Coast trips here, like two weeks in a row here, Atlanta, they get absolutely crushed going to Atlanta. And now, instead of being able to do like a Greenbrier trip, a lot of teams will stay, West Coast teams will stay on the East Coast, like the Greenbrier on West Virginia, Virginia, border there, and they've got a facility that's kind of tried and true for NFL teams. Like you can't do that this year with the Raiders because of COVID. It's something I read about that was, you know, they're going back west and coming back out again to play the Jets this week.

They had Atlanta, they got the Jets. So those two games look super easy if you're just circling them blind on a fucking schedule. But when you're looking at the fact that you're flying a combined 24 hours over a two week span, that stuff dehydrates you, players are sitting. It's again, it's everybody's having to hit the curveball where, you know, being at home is really nice. And to take those two flights, last year you lost 34 to 3 to 3.

jets in New York. What's it going to be this year? And the Raiders, to me, they're a team that's a little scary when you look, you know, and I'm talking about scary. It's scary for them because I'm looking the rest of the year and this was about the time last year where they just started laying eggs. They lost like three score ball games left and right. And a couple weeks ago, I said, well, I'm taking the champs, the defending champs, the chiefs, as a barometer for how good the Raiders have become, right? This year, the Raiders beat them and the Raiders scared the shit out of them a couple weeks ago. Okay, the Raiders have come a long way. They've won different ways. There are cars bucked certain trends, but it's December now, right? We just talked about how

different December is. And maybe I'm wrong because I was looking at those games. I said, surely they're not the team that lost by, you know, three plus scores multiple times down the stretch and just collapsed last year. They're not that team anymore. So we'll find out who they are this weekend. And I don't know, you know, you know, you're listening and you're saying, we'll give the shit if they you know they're going to beat the jets what is beating the jets it's how you beat the jets how do you show up this weekend and handle your fucking business because it was the total opposite of handling your business um last sunday against the falcons you can hear my voice because the raiders hate my family i had the raiders okay i don't know if i'm going to take you this weekend

you've got to go play the jets you've got to prove to me that you and prove to yourselves that you can handle business when it's supposed to be handled in the who are they can't stop the run and i love the one guy rushing the passer mad max but is this who they are this weekend how you handle business is going to tell me that watch out for baltimore okay and watch out for how you react to baltimore racking up wins against bad opponents down the stretch here they're not playing anybody after the steelers really um you know i'm looking at it uh right now their schedule says they have Steelers Day Wednesday night football Wednesday afternoon football Cowboys, Browns, who they've dominated the Jags, and then the Giants, Week 16, and then the Bengals

with no Joe Burroughs. So you look at that, that's all wins. And if you know the Ravens M.O, it's been to bully people and beat up on bad teams. And you could see some sort of return to normalcy, relatively speaking, with the offense and that could be fools gold. And here's a problem for them. They have six games in the next 30 days, basically. And what happens to guys when they come off of COVID?

Like we've talked about that this year. You know, people suspected that Cam's play when he came off of COVID was, you know, exacerbated. The struggles were exacerbated by the fact that he was experiencing like fatigue symptoms and people just don't feel right. You know, I heard that argument and I've heard that with different players. And I know everybody reacts differently. but when you have 12 plus players and probably more at this point who are going to be coming off of COVID,

I don't know how many are symptomatic. How are they going to feel down the stretch here? Right. I mean, like when you're an NFL player, you need every ounce of vitality and like hydration and restoration and all this stuff every week to just get back to 85%. If you can get to 85% in December, you're doing pretty good. What does COVID knock you down to as a baseline? If it's a 10% energy zap for three weeks, what's this team going to play like?

They don't have any marquee wins. And tonight, they're further behind the eight ball with a loss if they lose. I don't want to count out RG3. My man is making his first start in a million years. And if he goes and beats the Steelers, he's going to be a fucking folk hero. Is there anybody who's gotten more cool than RG3 who's totally turned his image around? Like not that he was ever uncool, but he just wasn't like the cool guy. Like I feel like a couple years of like big trust indoctrination and like just hanging out in Baltimore.

And also now he's instead of being the guy that people are frustrated with, although they never should have been frustrated with his injury prone nature. That's not on the player. It's not like he's trying to get hurt. Now he's instead of that guy that everybody's like teased with his talent, he's the cool vet backup who people root for when they see him in a spot. So that's been an interesting metamorphosis for that dude, like from a standpoint of what the internet, how the internet frames RG3 chatter. I'm rooting for RG3, but not at the expense of the Steelers getting an L here. The team that just actually beat them up, the Titans would play Miami if the playoffs started today. And that would be fun as fuck.

Man, would that game be fun. I love the Titans. I loved them last year. I was an early bandwagon guy. I kind of jumped off for two weeks this year. I just put my foot in the water to see what it was like out there. I did pick the Colts to win the division, so I don't know if I can claim that,

but I would think jumping off the bandwagon would be like, hey, the Titans aren't going to make the playoffs this year. They are rounding into form. They look really good. They look better than they did last year offensively. And here's the deal. The floor is up for them offensively. If you look at the start of last year,

they drugged the Browns out of the gates. 43 to 13. It was unbelievable because every year people are watching the Browns the first game. Are they any better? So everybody was watching that and they were like, holy shit, this Tennessee team is kind of badass. But, you know, they'll come back down to earth.

Well, the thing, the seven and nine Tennessee thing ended last year. But the first third of the season, go back and look at their offensive scoring. It was down, right? they were in the teens a lot that's unheard of at this point how far is this team come so consider the fact that like this group with arthur and ryan and derrick who those last two guys i mentioned were afterthoughts as far as like being an MVP contention or superstar contention like last year like those guys images and reputations have been totally changed by you know playing the way they played the last couple years well when they be clear

Cleveland 43 to 13, this wasn't a thing. So this is another year that they've had momentum. They've had time to work together. I wondered if you could get a nine out of ten out of both those guys this year. But man, you have. And you've gotten a 10 out of 10 out of Derek. So I really like the Titans. I think their offensive floor is up.

I also think consider down the stretch in the playoffs, you know, Arthur is auditioning to get a head coaching job. He's going to be a head coach soon, man. And Arthur Smith, you know, you want to strike while the iron's hot with the situation you have right now because who knows how things are going to look when he walks out the door, right? Frank Wright left Philly. Things haven't looked quite the same offensively, okay? A coordinator can be such a big deal, such a big deal, especially since

Raibs is a defensive head football coach. You know, so get that done. You know, strike while the iron's hot. You know, strike while Henry's still young. I said earlier, I've never seen him get up slow. He never looks banged up or tired. But you just wonder, every year you're just like, can this guy last doing this?

It's unbelievable, week to week, year to year. And that's one of the concerns going to the playoffs. The touches, you know, a ton of touches for him. He gets a hamstring. He had a hamstring last year at one point. I think he might have had a hamstring in the playoffs, yeah? I think it was towards the end of the year. And he was just fighting through a hamstring late in the year,

and then it was still lingering a little bit. You don't want your stud to get a hamstring going into January. So how are they going to use them over the next month? And then, you know, what about that New England game that they dealt with last year, that we framed it so differently because New England was the, favorite at the time they never should have been the favorite i had titans on the money line i was at fitzroy it's a bar before the pandemic man that was a fun night drank beer watched tennessee beat new england made some money um we frame that differently new england uh stopped the run uh stop the run

at least you know like made ryan tan hill beat them right ryan tanahill didn't really beat them Titans defense stepped up. You know, what happens if a team does that and you have an off day offensively? So Miami is a team I'm not trusting a lot, okay? I like them. I'm excited about the start they're off to. Remember, they're a year ahead of schedule. You're sticking with Tua.

I think it's the right move once you've already made the move. And I like the spot, you know, contribution from FITC in the right situation. but two is a rookie, okay? Two is a rookie. December, the playoffs. I'm not trusting them in January. I don't think he's a guy that can make a deep AFC run this year. If they only played the NFC, they've beaten everybody in the NFC West,

but Seattle, who they hung with. So no disrespect to Miami. I just, they're a year ahead of schedule. New England, interesting team. Okay, I've written them off as contenders. I stand by that. but if they win this weekend, things get interesting as far as them, like, maybe like sliding in and making a run. I think the Chargers are a very competitive football team, although they found a way to lose pretty much every week.

By the way, if you remember last week, the situation with the total, it looked dead. There were four turnovers in the fourth quarter. I had the over. I think it was 53. And the Chargers are driving late, and the only way, you know, the overhits is if if they they complete this Hail Mary, which essentially they do down to three, they get down there and just diarrhea down their legs.

I mean, there's like 15 seconds left and they run the football with no timeouts. And then they don't know what they're doing. The next two plays, I think maybe it was a fumbled snap. It was just agony, bro. Just if I'm going to lose the bet, just blow me out.

Just run me off the board. That was just the biggest tease in the world. So the charges found ways to lose. games left and right. But they make things interesting. And I fly on the wall early this week, I would love more than anything to see what Bill Belichick is sitting in meeting saying about Justin Herbert and Joey Bosa because I love hearing Bill Belichick compliment football players that he likes. I bet you he really likes both those guys. He'll get in the big room and kind of just and kind of just tell you why they're so good. And don't let this fucking guy beat you. And

And it's just really interesting to hear. And I'd love to hear what he thinks about Herbert at this juncture in his career. That would be, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that meeting room. They get the Rams after that. We know how they match up against the Rams, even though they're depleted. Miami in division, they're still big brother. But remember, Miami beat them late last year. Okay, Miami's better.

New England's worse. Buffalo, who I thought, you know, damn near. I thought they killed the Pats, you know, the last time they beat them. I wrote the Pats off pretty much mathematically. That was a Cam Newton fumble. That's the only reason Buffalo didn't win that football game. And then the Jets. So there is not a game on the Patriots schedule the rest of the way.

That is a guarantee. But there is not a game on the Patriot schedule the rest of the way they can't win. And again, I said, spoiler. That's not contenders, but spoilers. You know what I learned about Bill Belichick this year? He is through and through a guy who wants to win everything. like that's all there is to it this is not maybe the best long-term thing for them you know to pay cam newton a bridge guy who who knows what his situation is going to be another reason to maybe buy stock in the

pats is that cam newton is going to be auditioning for another job so you can get the best out of him that he can possibly do but this isn't the best thing for the pats maybe unless they see that cams the future and they think they're going to get him at a low price i don't think that this is a five-year thing for them. So this year in its entirety has not been like a future minded exercise for Bill Belichick. Cam's played them out of a high draft pick, but not into contention. And Bill knows that just fine. He just doesn't like fucking losing. It's pretty amazing. And another thing with Cam is he's the only QB that's had COVID. I'm not like, I don't know if the second time around, You know, you can get it.

Can you get symptoms a second time around? Does that give you an advantage? You know, if every team is afraid of that one nightmare scenario, maybe they're not as afraid. Cleveland's in today as it stands. This weekend they have Tennessee, who I talked about that walloping. Tennessee gave them last year.

I think they're going to beat up on them again. In fact, and this probably means to stay away from this game. But if you look at Sunday, I don't love a lot of bets. Initially, I should have jumped on the lions when they were like plus five and a half. It's down to like three. And I really do like, I really do like Tennessee. So don't let Stanford steal that one from me on the gambling show Friday. And they've got Cleveland's got Baltimore as well.

They have at the Giants where they're probably maybe field goal favorites. It's not an easy road for Cleveland. And the Giants are okay against the run. Here's a question. Who do you like better, Danny Dimes or Baker Mayfield? Like if you're going to start your franchise and you're locked into a guy for five years, Who do you like better? I'm an uncharacteristically supportive Danny Dimes guy.

I've been out on him, but when I'm in on Danny Dimes, when he's not turning the ball over, like the longest streak of his career that I think he's in the middle of three games if he didn't turn it over Sunday. I don't know, maybe I missed the turnover by him before his hamstring exploded for being too fast. If you're white and you run as fast as Danny Dimes,

your hamstring is always at risk. That's why I never had hamstring problems. That's why I was pretty dependent. I was always going to be there Sunday. Availability is the best ability. Yeah, I see that you ran 22 miles an hour, but will your hamstring explode at some point? I just stay at 17. I coast.

And then Cleveland, they finish with Pittsburgh, and that's their luck because Pittsburgh will have to play. Like, you look at that maybe in the middle of year when Pittsburgh's heating up and you're like, okay, maybe we'll get Pittsburgh when they're at half string. And Cleveland's going to tell you all week, week 16. as they're staring down the barrel of like, you know, a must win game. They'll be like, oh, we want them at full strength. We want these guys. We don't want these guys, you know, with the twos. We want to beat them.

That's not true. You just want to get in the playoffs. So you don't want to see Pittsburgh at full strength week 17. Mark my words, if Cleveland is playing a must win and Pittsburgh is playing, that's going to be one of the conversations is, you know, What if Pittsburgh was resting? They're going to say, we don't want that. I'm glad they're playing.

That's not how it works. They would play Buffalo in the playoffs if the season ended right now, Cleveland would. And I like Buffalo in that spot. But I don't trust Buffalo so much in general. They're at San Francisco, Pittsburgh, New England, Miami, three of five on the road. And the one cupcake for Buffalo down the stretch here is Denver. So they would have to show me a lot more on defense if I thought they were really a contending type team.

And I'd love to see Josh Allen get hot. And, you know, there's no city that I'd love to have a parade more than Buffalo probably. But this would just be a sick twist of, of, like, fucked up irony this year if Buffalo won the whole thing. And the parade was just like vacant streets. That would suck. So maybe save your Super Bowl run for a year that everybody can enjoy it.

I'll go undercover as a buffaloan and just fucking have a GoPro when Buffalo wins a Super Bowl. Mark my words. I will go undercover, mustache, the whole thing, and have a blast. I'll act like I've been from Buffalo my whole life. I've got to work on the accent. Maybe if any of all are listeners in Buffalo, I don't want to do an Airbnb. When Buffalo wins a Super Bowl, can I come stay with you and get drunk and pass out on the couch? and do the whole parade thing and act like and you can't tell anybody it's me not that anybody would care

but i just want to be i want to be undercover like like going into a biker gang right that's what it would be like just not as dangerous uh on the nfc side it's all about new orleans and green bay right it's the tie breaker that could happen and if that happens that tie goes to green bay so whatever sean payton uh does right now a quarterback logically is way more about winning now than it is about the future. And I said this on NFL next. I don't know if the Taysom Hill thing is more about not trusting James as it is about us buying this, this story that we've heard for forever that he really thinks Taysam Hill is the quarterback of the future. If he plans on running an option style like gadget style offense in the future, that's great. But I don't even put Tassum, you know,

on the level of like Lamar throwing outside the hatches. You would really have to work the middle of the field. You would have to do a lot of things that Greg's done in Baltimore. And while I think Sean Payton is a better offensive mind than Greg Roman, and I say that respectfully because I think a lot of Greg Roman, Greg Roman systems have run out, you know, after a couple years. In San Francisco, it ran out of gas. We might be in the middle of something like that in Baltimore.

What would Sean Payton have? If you're talking about the future, you know, another thing is Taysam Hill is 31. How many years are we talking about the future being? And then if you, if you kind of augment your personnel to play that style of football and people get used to playing that style of football, do you have a backup that plays that way?

Do you then make the transition, whatever Tysam retires or whatever they, like, I don't know. There's just a lot more questions I don't have the answers to. I also joke that maybe, and it would suck, I wouldn't be able to watch Saints games anymore, and I love watching Sean Payton Cook. But I think even if you don't trust James, this week would be the week to get him reps, okay? You might need him in the playoffs.

What happens in the Kansas City game if you're down two touchdowns? What happens in the first round if you're down two touchdowns? The defense is playing great in New Orleans, but shit happens. What happens when you need to open up a little bit with your vertical passing game? The thing that scares you about James, ironically, is he gets this big gunslinger kind of reputation. But when you looked at numbers last year, he was actually worst throwing underneath. I think that's why a lot of the in-phase offensive philosophy of New Orleans is at risk with James in there. But what if you need to play catch-up?

What if Taysam Hill gets dinged? You need more reps for him. So I think Atlanta, a team that we're probably going to overvalue a little bit coming off of that. Raiders ass kicking is a team that they really did not struggle to bottle up offensively. The D-line dominated that game. Matt Ryan really struggled. You might see the same type of thing. This would be a nice game with a security blanket to get Jameson reps.

You might need his passing game competency if that's a thing if you fall behind. And Drew has impact. This is all predicated on the unpredictability of Drew's injury. So I should say that. You know, 11 broken ribs, punctured lung. I don't know how you heal from that. I don't know if you're healing a couple weeks. I don't know if he'll feel it all the playoffs.

I don't know if he gets dumped again in the wild card round or in the divisional round. And then you might need a quarterback. So Green Bay, Tennessee is, if we're talking about Green Bay, a perfect situation for Green Bay to get exposed and beaten again. Week 16. But, man, as much as I've hated their run defense in the past, it would give me great joy to see Aaron get to. Okay. I'm going to bet you that he wants it more than Breeze the second. I'm not saying he's more motivated or more hard working, but like Aaron really wants this ring.

And I'm sure Drew does do too, but let me do the TV thing for a second. Like this is some shit you'll hear on TV. Who wants the second ring more? Well, they both want the fucking second ring more, okay? I should have called Max or Stephen A, they'd never come on my podcast, but I could have had him on for this segment. Who wants to ring more? And we could have just argued about it. Also, I don't have Max Kellerman's number or Stephen A. Smith's number.

Who wants the ring more? I think Aaron wants the ring more because I think there's the draft pick thing. I think he's generally vindictive, and I mean that as a compliment. And I think also we'll always have this sense that Breeze is seen as some overachiever. Jim rap, you know, shot put in the ball, overcame an injury, shorter guy, guy nobody wanted out of San Diego. Aaron Rogers has been the guy that has been this larger than football physical force. Like he's bigger than the position, right? And some people have counted one ring against him. Well, have you watched Dallas play this year?

I don't know. I'm just saying, and like I'm not saying Mike McCarthy's a bad coach. I'm just saying you can't just pin it all on the quarterback always, you know? And also at times they haven't given him the talent that he's needed around him. And I say that knowing that Drew Breeze is thrown to Marcus Colston more than anybody over his career. So it's not like he's had a spectacular group of receivers and skill guys. And now Aaron Jones is nothing to sneeze at. And they have one of the best wide receivers in the league.

And so I think we can't hold when it comes to Aaron's legacy his ability against him. because his play has not been the problem. You know, some people could say he could play better in the playoffs or whatever, but I think he would deserve that second ring, kind of a lifetime achievement thing. And Drew would too, but I feel like people are going to be harder on Aaron's career

because of his physicality, so I'd love to see him get two, which is crazy because they've kind of goat-leveled him with one, as they should. And also in New Orleans, if we're talking about quarterbacks, I don't think the future at QB is in the building right now. And I don't think that's so much to say.

And next year is going to be interesting because their cap situation is all fucked up. And next year the cap is crazy because the cap goes down, right? And, you know, you're still trying to do all the things you're supposed to do. Imagine if you're in Houston and the cap's down, you don't like your new GM doesn't have a pick barely the whole first couple of days of the draft. Like, and tonsils taking up 10% of, of your cap space.

So it's going to be interesting in offseason places where cap is an issue. In New Orleans, I feel like they've had to do everything left-handed during the regular season lately the last few years. I wonder how that affects them in the postseason. They've had barely any time with Mike and Drew Breeze together this year. And last year it was the Teddy thing. You know, Drew getting hurt, the Teddy thing. The defense is finally rounding into form and you're running.

you know triple option now so who as a team the best version of you has not had an opportunity to take the field and what happens if drew gets right and they collapse again you know like i think this is probably it for drew and that's drew's choice i think drew depending on how the season ends is going to retire i really do uh now that sounds vague but if i had to put a percentage on i'd say 70-30 he's done. I don't know how the ribs thing affects him positively or negative. That could make him think if they lose in the first round or, you know, he's not back that I want to, I want to run it back. I don't think he'll end his career on a rib injury, but it also could be one of these things that this scared the shit out of him. Like sometimes I think we do this with football

players where, you know, it's not scary. And I'm saying we as football players, not fans, because y'all are consistently like holy shit with a violent sport when i played the game we didn't think about it that way injuries that are brutal and me sitting here in my chair podcasting thinking about you know breaking a rib or cracking my sternum or a high ankle sprain just if i walked out to the car to get something and fucking spray my ankle and was a high boy like that shit is just it's you don't think about it in suburban dad life you know there are certain injuries though that scare you more and i think maybe 11 broken ribs in a punctured lung, especially with, you know, Drew having a beautiful family and having a great future and whatever he decides to do. And having a great career to look back on,

you know, maybe this is an experience that he comes out of and he's like, you know, that ain't worth it. Not at 40 some. You know, I got a life to live. So New Orleans has a huge, huge year as a franchise. And I think from a quarterback standpoint, Aaron Rogers, from a legacy perspective, would want this worse than Drew because they're always going to be easy on Drew relative to the fact that he's thought of as the underachiever, a guy who's done way more than anybody thought he'd ever do.

So if the playoffs started day, I think, you know, you got Tampa Bay at Green Bay. Tampa Bay could win that game and New Orleans then is staring them in the face and having to beat them three times in a season. Process of elimination game plan

for the bucks, maybe third time's a charm. Maybe that's a dangerous spot to be in for the Saints if they're not at full strength. You know, and the Rams and Giants could be the wild card if things started today on the NFC side, which may actually be pretty interesting. For the Rams, it's all about golf. They have a Super Bowl level roster. The secondary is great.

If they just avoid the 49ers, they're in. Just about any game they could win. if they avoid the 49ers. They have really good top level wins, the Bucks, the Seahawks, but they're also teams that have had bad losses, the Bucks and the Seahawks. So it's hard to brag about your wins when those teams have also exhibited the ability to lose to anybody.

See what I'm saying? And then also you ran rough shot through the NFC East and Gerald Everett, you know, dubjall NFC champions, which get in line. They also have a monster schedule to end it. Cardinals twice, Pats, Hawks, and I don't think Kyler's healthy while we're on the cards. Unfortunately, I think he'll round back into form, but maybe a little too late this year. I could be just overly reactive to, you know, what I saw in that Seattle game with the injury

and the way he looked the rest of the game. And then last week, and it could have been the Pats with a great game plan. But I'm not saying they're the team to beat. I've held steadfast. The team that won that Seattle, Arizona matchup is the team to beat. And now to find out who the team to beat in the NFC West is going to be, it's going to be that Rams Seahawks game later in the year, in my opinion. So Tampa, they still have a buy, which is big.

I mean, you talk about a late buy when teams look at buy weeks, you want it right in the meat of the schedule. You'd rather have it kind of on the later end than on the really early end, in my opinion, because that's when you need it the most, right? And I think for them, with all the work they have to do to fix things, they can use it, right? They got to work on a lot of interpersonal stuff, philosophical stuff, and a byweek without the live bullets of, hey, we've got the Giants in three days. We can't work on big picture stuff. Coaches are always looking for ways, like there's coaches in the building consistently self-scouting and scouting ahead to the playoffs and future opponents. That's hard to,

to do while you're getting ready for a game. Now, there's people, there's departments for that, but like for the coaches to sit down and take time to do self-scouting in a big room instead of like feverishly game planning. That's what's big. And Tampa being able to do that this late in years is also so big. Minnesota, Atlanta, Detroit, and Atlanta. That's what they got left. It's just the interpersonal stuff, the schematic stuff with them. They could beat anybody, maybe except the Saints. There's nobody that I'm buying stock in outside the current list of teams that are in. And the Bears are worth watching for Nagy's situation and just the general dumpster fire value.

Nagy threw the defense under the bus the other night. Okay. The Cardinals could slide and the Vikings could surge. Maybe that's one thing you watch for. And what if the Saints blew it down the stretch and became the two and the, and the Vikings snuck in and the Saints hosted the Vikings as a rematch against the Vikings.

That would be crazy. And who do you think the league wants to get in from the NFCs? That's a really interesting question. I might ask Mark Sanchez. That question squanched this week. But, you know, they're scary games because it's embarrassing to lose.

It's like fighting a small person. Okay, like it's the first time I'll talk about the YouTube and all that stuff like, the YouTube fights, I'll fight anybody in a dark fucking alley. I'm not fighting a short guy or a guy that's smaller on me on TV and get caught and become a meme for a little bit of money. I got enough money. The point is, you know, like the NFC East, the biggest value for that team in the playoffs

is that they're going to have people's assholes puckered because if you lose that NFC East team, you're an embarrassment. You're a meme. So, like, that's what's scary about playing the Cowboys or the Eagles or Washington. You don't want to lose that team. Teams don't come back from losing those teams. I mean, this is not like any other seven possibly win team that's slid in playoffs ever. This will be the worst playoff team, maybe of all time.

Giants, I think, are a challenge for teams. Maybe they give you the most honest, hard days work if Danny Dimes and not. turn the ball over uh Washington Ron Rivera good D line Alex Smith the feel good karma aspect of it if Washington if Washington slid in whoever they're playing man I am throwing a party for Alex Smith and I am rooting for those guys and I'm sorry Philly fans I am you know Gibson's coming along they have the best point differential I think in the NFC East but I would say I'm torn between the giants in Washington actually it might be either top two in point differential, whatever, whatever that's worth.

I'm torn between the Giants and Washington for competency. And Washington's last two wins were Sincere without Borough and Dallas. So quick thing on the Jim Schwartz and D.K. Metcalf thing. Okay. All right. So I woke up the other morning and the first tweet that I opened, which is a problem. I'm trying to delete Twitter, so I don't look at it all the time. I certainly shouldn't be looking at it right when you wake up.

I mean, that's not a healthy thing, but especially looking at it right when you wake up and reading Eagles news, that's guaranteed to ruin your day. The first thing I saw was that D.K. Metcalfe in the presser was like, you know, one of the coaches came up to me and said, hey, I was in Detroit and you're no Calvin Johnson, essentially. You're not there yet. And he framed that as motivation and an insult. And at that point, understandably. And of course, the funniest part of the pressure was one of the Philly media folks was like, was that Jim Schwartz? Like there's nobody else that was in Detroit. And D.K. was like, yep.

And by the way, let me just say this about D.K. Metcalfe. D.K. Metcalf, I could tell by talking to this kid for 20 minutes to the Aspies, he's a fucking great kid. A great kid, man. If you talk to D.K. Mattcalf for 20 minutes, you'll be like, I'm rooting for that guy. Just a good dude. You know, like, I'm a good judge of character. He's a good kid. So you have to take everything with a grain of salt here

because he was passed up on for JJ Artega Whiteside, who hasn't caught a lot of balls. And he's probably coming into the game with a big chip on his shoulder. Although I think he should be pretty happy. He is where he is. The funniest thing is like, fuck you guys, you didn't take me. I'd rather be catching deep balls from Carson Went than Russell Wilson right now.

I know he's not saying that, but it is funny. You should be like going up and thanking the Eagles that you didn't join this team. That's just a disaster right now, okay, with a possible rebuild on the horizon, with a quarterback controversy with, with, you know, offensive attrition. Like if D.K. Metcalf played for the Eagles, right now he might be on IRR. So, like, probably be excited that you didn't get drafted by the Eagles. But I get it. We are athletes.

We always look for slights. We always do. Now, the background of this is, when I retweeted D.K.'s presser was the first thing I saw, I quote tweeted with my favorite gif. It was one of these televangelists going, why? Why? Why? Like, Jim Schwartz, why?

Why would you do that? Like, why would you come off the fucking sideline and say anything to this cat other than, like, I'm a big fan. I have your poster on my wall. You do that shit when things are going well. But that's not what Jim Schwartz did, according to Jim. You know, and one of the things I said was right after I tweeted that, I was like, you know what, let me put this tweet under here, which is that the most important word,

and this is for anybody out there who hopes to be a good communicator. I can be a really bad communicator, but I can also be a tremendous one at the same time. It's actually insane the variability in my communication skills. But I think one of the most important things about as a public figure or somebody whose words are going to be taken out of context, taken to millions of people who don't know better, whatever, telephone game, you know, something changes every time you hear the story. The most important thing, avoiding clickbait headlines. So you listeners can avoid clickbait if you take this advice.

Where do you put the butt in your sentence? How do you qualify your sentence? The most important thing in a sentence is where the butt is and what comes after it, Right. So if let's say Jim said some variation of I was in Detroit with Calvin Johnson. Not there yet, but man, you are an amazing player and you're well on your way. I'm really excited for you. That sounds way different than man, you're really an amazing player. You're well on your way to being a superstar. I'm rooting for you. But I was in Detroit and you're not there yet. So think about how you structure your sentence. I'm not saying Jim even structured it wrong.

I was like, that's one of the biggest things. If there was a but in that sentence, the D.K's leaving out. That certainly has right from a motivation standpoint, because he just wants to rub the eagle's face and dog shit, like stepbrother style. But you should share the butt afterwards. Now, I don't know what happened. I'm this way when I hear about any he said, she said back and forth between two grown men. I don't know what was said. If I had to guess, I had people in my mentions like, Jim Schwartz is not that stupid.

but he wouldn't talk shit to a, to a player. And Jim's come out and said, quote, I tried to pay the guy a compliment. I said he reminded me a little bit of Calvin Johnson. At the time, he said, thanks, coach. That means a lot to me. If anybody wants to take offense to that, if you get your motivation that way, then fine.

And I think Jim's handling this fine. And he also said, I can't believe paying a compliment to a player has become such a big thing. I had people in my mentions like, Jim Schwartz is not that stupid. He wouldn't just run up and talk shit to a player like that. I am in unanimous. I totally agree with you.

And by the way, Jim Schwartz did a nice job the other day. And that defense did a nice job. Okay, like round of applause for those guys. Okay, the secondary, I know they got cooked by DK.

Who DK not cooking right now? They fucking played their asses off. They tackled. They played hard in the run game. Rodney McLeod was like a bullet out there. Roby Coleman had a couple nice plays. And Slai competed. And, you know,

it's like, Slay's a great player, but D.K. Metcalf is just a fucking, he's an iconic level football player right now. I mean, you're going to remember when you look back at this year, you're going to remember his big year. These couple years, and hopefully he'll do it forever, but this is his time, right? That defense played hard, upfront, hard. Singleton played well. So no shade to Jim or the defense. One thing that Jim, he's not dumb, and he wouldn't just run up to talk shit to D.K. Metcalf, especially in this circumstance.

Jim's not great at giving compliments. He never has been. And I would tell him this. If I could talk to him on the phone today, I'd be like, so you fumbled a compliment, huh? Like, he'll compliment you and you'll be like, did he just say fuck you? And that shit, if you don't know Jim,

maybe it came out wrong. Or maybe DK's watched a little bit too much of the last dance. And I can never blame a player for watching too much of the last dance. if there was something other than just, I was in Detroit with Calvin Johnson and you're not there yet. D.K. should say that. I'm a big fan of D.K., though. So anybody in Philly that's like, he's a piece of shit for this. I'm just telling you, if you guys like me, I'm telling you who's good people, D.K. Metcalf is good people, dude. He's a good guy. And I also don't look at D.K. as the type to engage in thirsty behavior. So that just doesn't, I don't think his motivation would be,

let me share this to make this pop. If anything, maybe he misunderstood something that Jim didn't communicate well. Or Jim did this and hasn't told anybody because from everything I hear from, you know, people in the building, Jim did not just run up and talk shit to him. Another thing about comparisons though, you know, the Calvin Johnson thing, we've had hints of this is getting old to DK to just be compared to somebody like this. One person, you have to consider that. Guys don't like being comped, even if it would be a good. great compliment. Some guys don't like, like I used to, because I was a white defense event, I get every comparison in the book. And these were great players. Some of them better than me.

Some of them, we were the same type of player, whatever. But like, you know, somebody would say, you know, hey, you remind me of Kyle Vanibosh. I never ran as hard to the football as Kyle Van derbosch. Okay. I think the guy had like Lance Armstrong lungs, okay? Red contact lens. would sprint through the end zone in practice. I didn't grind that hard in practice, okay? And I think I was a better rusher than Kyle Van der Boch. But I got compared to Kyle Van der Boch left and right. We didn't even rush the same.

His style was so different. And he was one of my favorite fucking players. I used to watch Kyle Van der Boch on a little DVD player in my hotel room in college because I just loved his effort, man. And he was a great player. You know, I thought we rushed different. and it would be an insult to Vannebosch to be compared to me. And, you know, I thought as a rusher, it wasn't a good comparison for me.

Same thing when I was in St. Louis with Grant Westrom. You know, he's a great player in St. Louis. We got compared because we were just two white guys. Okay. We also played hard. Yeah. And, but it was probably Winston lists in those comparisons probably wasn't flattered at times in my career. And also, like, I had a pretty nice career myself.

So why do I always have to be just every? And then I think, you know, like there's comparisons that I'm sure the Bosa brothers, when they were getting compared to me, they were like, no, we're going to be better than him. Okay. So you're looking at D.K. Metcalf, you might think, what the fuck are you so mad about with the Calvin Johnson think? D.K wants to be D.K. You know, like competitors want to be themselves. They want to forge their own path. My dad's Howie Long. Even when somebody compared me to him and that would have been like me playing above my head and it would be a great compliment. Like, I'm a different player. You'd almost get annoyed at the at the fact that somebody was just being so lazy We were different players I was an edge rusher. He played up and down the line You know, his strengths were not mine and mine were not his and he was a Hall of Famer and I was not so like comparisons can be lazy and we do them all the time Maybe the Calvin Johnson thing annoys him and maybe you don't get why it would so I mean you know I was more interested in just talking about D.K. and Jim Schwartz today

I've run out of time here you know you guys got to get to to Wednesday afternoon football. That's a big deal. And I promise you, as we've done all year, a lot of people have complained about how much we've talked about Carson. I will talk about Carson, Doug, and Howie, and about what you need to consider if you're Jeffrey Lurie in making all the decisions that people are imploring him to make or not make.

I'll talk about that on Friday because that's going to take a little more time. But just so you guys know, we looked at where people are listening to this podcast. A lot of them live in the great state of Pennsylvania. and, you know, we got to give the people what they want, even when it's ugly. And so I apologize to anybody who live in any of the other 49 states that don't want to hear about the Eagles five, 10 minutes a week. Sorry, guys. If you know me, you know, I love Philly.

So, all right. See y'all Friday. Take care and really, really enjoy Wednesday afternoon football. You won't get to see Wednesday afternoon football again until next week when Dallas and Baltimore are reschedule. All right, guys. Take care.