KSR - NFL Cover Zero: The Playoff Push!

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Matt Jones and Drew Franklin explore a baby being on the way for Drew and his adventures of picking a name and pregnancy cravings.  Onto the NFL, the Chiefs dynasty run in the AFC West is over.  Matt is amazed at the prospect of Philip Rivers coming back to play for the Colts.    Who figured out Jordan Love plays well during a car promotion?  Matt relives his recent car buying experience.  After the Eagles fall to the Chargers, are you out on their season? What has happened to Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson? As the Patriots host the Bills, Matt is pulling for a Super Bowl win for Buffalo.  Are you ready for some flag football?  Shedeur Sanders will start the remaining games for the Browns and it starts against the Bears on Sunday.  Matt has been impressed by Caleb Williams.  How would you rank the 2nd year QBs? Drew would like to see Baker Mayfield get back on track. Matt gives his three favorite games in Week 15 along with Survivor pool and TD Parlay picks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and I-Heart podcast. 15 NFL Cover Zero, Matt Jones and Drew Franklin. Big shout out to Billy and Drew for filling in for me the last couple shows that I had to miss due to family health situation. But glad to be here today. it was exciting week of games and now we get into the week 15

this is where you start to get the finale of who's going to make the playoffs and who's not and Drew I'm glad you're wearing that hat because that way everybody knows what letter your name starts with thank you to actually stand for dad it's a dad hat so shout up

wait a minute that's a dad hat oh yeah it just has a D on it how am I supposed to know that it's like a secret club we're all in there's other things See right here it says if you know, you know. Because there's other things that start with a D. A lot of people think it's a Dallas Cowboys hat, honestly.

It kind of looks like Dallas hat. It's just like one word. Drew, probably my first name would be the best. There are others. There are others. Yeah. So that's for dad. Correct.

Okay. Interesting. Getting ready from my dad era. It came straight from an appointment straight here. So yeah, so people don't know. You're pregnant. I am pregnant. I am enjoying the pregnancy cravings.

I joke with my wife. I am eating is more unhealthy than I've ever eaten. Well, you get to do that. Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to, but I'm doing it. So even like last night, I got out of bed, went downstairs and I ate ice cream when I was like, it's a pregnancy craving. Just let me be pregnant. I didn't know that was a rule. So you craft mac and cheese for dinner.

You're having a girl. Yeah. Right. Do we know the name yet? We don't. We have some in mind. We have like a top five, but not ready to commit to any. That's much harder than I ever imagined.

I have an idea. Okay. Bartina. Martina. Martina? Bartina. Okay. Why are we going with Bartina? It just came to me. It's not on the list.

I think it's unique. Okay. All right. People will be like, Mar Tina, you go, no. Bar Tina. Okay. Because you met, didn't you meet Abby at a bar? I did meet her at a bar. And you were broke up with a little girl named Tina. I mean, it's right there in front of me. I can't believe that's not on the list already. I think that makes perfect sense.

Mario's on the list. How are you going to decide, though? It's tough. Honestly, I knew that would be on the list, but now that's here... What, Martina? Like something I had to do. Yes. Just like buying a crib.

I knew got to come up with a name. But when you get down to it, this is someone's life. Like, they have to sit in school. Does that scare you at all? Like, this is going to be like this little thing of flesh and organs and you're in charge, and you can't really do anything? Well, I'm pretty confident in that part. I think I'm going to know that.

Oh, you are? You're confident in your baby rearing skills. I will say naming someone else and not having to deal with the consequences. I kind of feel like babies should be able to name themselves. See, because I have a good idea, but then I'm like, well, she might hate it and she will have to live with it. Yeah, I think you're looking at this the wrong. I think actually rearing the child is going to be harder than the name. I mean, you could pick a name.

Obviously. You could just call her Sarah and it's going to be fine. Like you could, I wouldn't worry, unless you go with Bartina. That could hurt her. And I thought all the things you're thinking until you're in the moment of deciding, and then you're playing in your head. She's going to be in a job interview at whatever age. And they're going to address her as this.

And she's going to have no saying what that name is. I have to come up with that. Okay, let's do this. Let's play a game. I want you to Google Billy baby girl names. Oh, my God. I've done this every night for four months. I just want you to just look at a list and read me every third one until we have five names.

And we're going to act like it has to. be one of those. Okay. I'll go through this exercise. So what is the third name? Olivia. Olivia. I could have told you that's number one on every list. Get ready. There's going to be so, there are already a bunch, but get ready. Olivia's going to be everywhere. I did this trivia question the other night at the bar. It is the most, it's the most popular name in 2025 is Olivia. All right. In 2024 and maybe 2023. Get ready. Olivia's are going to own the earth soon. Okay. Charlotte. Charlotte. All right. What's the third? Isabella. Isabella. What's the fourth? Sophia.

Sophia, all right, and fifth. Barbara. Barbara. Okay, so we have Olivia, Charlotte, Isabella, Sophia, and Barbara. You can only name your child one of these five. That's the rule, not in real life, but in our fake world. Which one are you naming them? First of all, thank you all.

This is what I do when I go home. So my distraction here of talking football, thank you for ringing this game back into my life. You're welcome. I do like the name Olivia, but seriously, there's two. Every list in the world has Olivia number one. Every year there's going to be too many of Livas. We're going to throw that out. This is honestly the first time, and I feel bad not having Abby here to hear me say this.

This is the first time I've considered Barb. Barb, Barb, move the needle for me. You wouldn't really name your kid, Barbara. I don't believe that. Older names are in. What? The older names that you thought were gone. You can't call your baby Barb.

She comes out smoking a cigarette. And she works as a waitress at a truck stop. She'd love Billy's suitcase from Buffalo, though. can't be like, hey, Barb. They can't be your name of your child. Olivia, Charlotte, Isabella, Sophia. First of all, it can't be Isabella because that's cultural appropriation. Yeah.

So you either need to be Sophia, Charlotte, or Olivia. Well, when you said Charlotte, my brain immediately went, if I had 150,000. There you go. Think about that. You name them Charlotte. Panthers fan. Carolina Mike, Godfather.

I see no problem with any of this. favorite band can be good Charlotte, which is also a... I can tell her about Meow Mix, how it used to be a thing. And then you can tell her, you can say, your namesake is the banking capital of the world. And NASCAR. Or of the South, maybe not the world. So Charlotte is...

It's great to check something off the list now. Now I can go build a nursery. Charlotte Franklin. Are we going to buy Char? Charlotte Bartina Franklin. We will welcome to this earth. Oh, Shar bar. I like this.

Abby's going to be so excited. She's going to be excited about Charbar. It's what I call your kid no matter what, you name it. People don't like when I say it for baby. They think I should say her, right? But I get it, though. It's still like this. It's not a real thing yet.

I guess it is. Yeah, I have pictures that would prove otherwise. But I'm with you. I understand. But it can't talk to me. So I don't consider it real. Well, Sharbar will talk to you soon. Me and Shari.

She lists us to cover zero. All right. So we'll get started. I think the thing I wanted to start with was the Chiefs are dead. So the dynasty, and it is a pretty amazing dynasty. In the last seven years, Chiefs have made the AFC Championship game every single year. They've won three Super Bowls. They've lost two Super Bowls, and they've been to the AFC Championship twice.

Pretty astounding run. I mean, if you're looking at long runs, you could make an argument that along with the Patriots run, the Steelers run in the 70s, that maybe the Packers in the 60s. Those are the best runs of all time of multiple years. I mean, you had, you know, the Cowboys and the 49ers would win like two out of three or whatever,

three out of four. But that's, I don't think, the same as being that good for seven straight years. and it seems to now be over. Does that make you sad? I mean, it had to end at some point. It did. And this year's been kind of a roller coaster. I thought it ended.

Then they'd win a big game. And I'm like, oh, I'm an idiot for doubting them. And then they'd go lose a game. And I'd write them off again. And they'd go win another one. But this past week felt like the end. Even Travis Kelsey's got comments out there where he's like, anytime we faced adversity before, I felt like I had an answer.

I don't have an answer this time. Yeah, because he's probably going to retire. And I think there'll be a second act for Mahon. I think he'll... Rice and Worthier, a great young town. Brady did this too. I mean, Brady had his first run. Then they had two or three years, like 20, 10, 11, 12, something like that, where they weren't as good.

And then he had a second run, right? I think that'll happen with Mahomes, too. They're probably going to have to, I mean, Kelsey's going to retire, but then they'll probably lose a couple of other guys as well. And then there'll be a next act where, but he may be the only him and worthy or, like, they maybe the only ones left. Andy Reid's 70, so you wonder, will he still be the guy? So I'm a little sad.

I think the Chiefs are what make the NFL great. You had Star Power in a secondary city, right? It was just in a secondary place. One of the best fan bases. A great fan base. And every game was an event with the Chiefs. And so the fact that it ends does make me a little bit sad. it does and like when you're in it you're like oh the chief's in the Super Bowl again you almost get the exhaustion like anyone else but then when you're seeing that kind of end there is a little bit of changing the guard there is a little bit of like oh well yeah but people say they get tired of that and i think they're wrong because i mean let's say we get a Broncos Rams Super Bowl heading straight for it you're telling me that Chief's Rams would not be more fun I mean you're telling me like of course it would be you know it's like twin tiger people

You got tired of Tiger winning. No. Who wins now? Some guy named Max. Yeah. You know, I mean, I, I, stars, star power matters. And we probably won't get that Bill's chiefs AFC championship. We all thought we were heading straight for again.

But when we get there, there will be a little bit like, oh, this isn't. I mean, I wants to see Bo Nicks versus Trevor Lawrence. I want to see Mahomes Allen. And we're just, we're just not going to get that, unfortunately. There is a weird part of like when you're in it, it's a little too repetitive. but then when you're moving in the New Guard, it's like, well, wait a minute, where's my home,

why aren't they in the mix? What was it? Ed Helms said on the office, wouldn't it be great if you knew it was the glory years when you're in them or something? I wish you knew they were the good times when you're in them. Yeah, these were the good times. And I feel like C.J.

Stroud and Will Anderson ended them Sunday night. That was a nasty defense. The Chiefs won't be done. They've drafted well. The Kelsey stepping away is a big changing of the guard there. I wonder so much if they had just finished the job against the Eagles last year and he just has a walkoff. I think he would have retired.

It has to be haunting him that they couldn't just get over, get one more ring last year. Think about how many games they should have won this year. I mean, I think about that Jaguars game where he threw, they were going in to take, I think, a two-score lead, and Mahomes throws a pick six, and then the Jaguars win. I kind of think that was the game that they sort of fell apart. And they have several examples of, like, Kelsey a pass hitting them in the numbers

and popping in the air and getting interception. Three interceptions and two of them were not Mahomes' fault in the last game. That's what I mean. They almost have, like, bloopers that are adding to it, where if you had any thought of, well, maybe they're fine, you see them making the mistakes that they never made before that adds to the fall. Yeah, I do wonder if Kelsey retires last year, like. If they beat the Eagle, Taylor's there.

That was a big story already. Yeah. It's Jason Kelsey's team. I do wonder if he was going to ask her to marry him at the game if they were. Had it in the pocket. Just had to win the game. By the way, the wedding date is June 13th, I saw. It's the day after my birthday.

We're going to go. Are we going to have a party? We should. Bill and I brought... Be and O. Sharbar and you. Yeah. Billy and I brought this up Wednesday, but skipped over it quite a bit. We mentioned it briefly.

But they just... There's like this castle and, like, someone already had the date, and their wedding plan and they just bought them out. Like, what do you think Taylor Swift offered to just be like, no, I want that date? Like, people are already established. I didn't know that. So they said get out. Yeah, I mean, you had to have gotten a nice.

How much would they call? Like, what would you have gone for? I mean, at the very least, I'm getting my entire wedding paid for with a little bit of honeymoon money. But when you know on the other end, you have a mega billionaire superstore. Well, presumably, though, they're really rich if they had already gotten the castle that Taylor wants. So, like, I would want, I don't know, an invite to them. There we go. If you're already that wealthy, then what's the one thing you can't buy?

Yeah, you can't buy experience. That's a great answer. You know? So maybe that couple will be front row at Travis and Taylor's movie. Yeah, I would say, sit me at your all's wedding, trying to think of who will be at that wedding I'd want to sit with. Jason Kelsey. Andy Reid.

Oh, definitely. I mean, some people would say Leo. Hmm. I want to say with Andy Reid. What a great call. You think Andy Reid's coming off at the reception? That's a good question.

Who from the NFL is going to that wedding? It's awkward in that locker room because they're not inviting everybody. Oh, no. That's why he has to retire. You can't invite the whole team. Right? He'll invite Mahomes because he has to. Yeah.

I don't know if they're close or not, but he has to. They got the steakhouse together. And Andy Reid knew Taylor before this. From Philly when he was an eagle. So Andy Reid is going to be there. Which side of the aisle is he sat on? He knew Taylor first Had ring has rings

I feel like Travis is going to need him more It's true Maybe he's the best man I think Taylor's going to have a lot more options I bet Andy Reed cries though You know we I've talked about we I met Tony Pike

Who is his quarterback At Cincinnati And he said they were close I was like are you getting the invite And he was like I assume not It's a tough one You guys can't invite Tony Pike They should have picked

More inviting venue I don't think a castle in Rhode Island. It's off by itself. They're looking for a big wedding. Tony Pike should be there, though. Tony Pike should just show up. Hello? I'm sure you meant to have me here. Well, I wish them well. I didn't. Congratulations to the couple.

Yeah. Who never fights. All right. So the biggest story today, in my opinion, Philip Rivers has signed with the Colts. He is 44 years old and may start this week. Riley Leonard, who by the way, is a rookie. you got to think your career's done. If they're like, if they're like, we don't want you, we'd like a man who hasn't played football in five years.

By the way, did you see what somebody did? Somebody took his NFL profile, Philip Rivers, and replaced the picture with Joe Biden. Oh, no. I'm that old. I have to say, it made me laugh. I'm not going to lie. I thought that was very clever. But this is a baffle.

Have we ever seen anything like this to set out a sport for five years? That's a long time. And he looked old when he played. I got to admit, at first when they signed him, I thought, what are they doing? I watched that press conference. He nailed the press conference. Who cares? But first he walked in.

I mean, just like the self-deprecating, like, I don't know my weight. Why would I possibly know my weight? But what has he been doing? Has he been like? He's got nine kids. He's been busy. But has he been working out? I don't think so.

The man that I saw at that podium. Do you think he wasn't even thinking about it? I kind of feel like Flacco and that Rogers. But that game, that game gave everyone so hope when 40-year-olds were just throwing haymakers. Like, what's he, there's no way he's going to be. First of all, he's going to get hurt. He needs a good offensive one. He said it himself.

I'm not outrunning anybody. But there's no way his timing and his speed can be right. I wouldn't think so. Because he's not been coaching, right? No, and that far out of the game. I believe he was selling lawn mowing equipment. Is that what he was doing? I believe I saw he was selling lawn mowing equipment.

I think he's probably with the big family, probably just running around the house all the time. You're saying he's not selling long mowing equipment. He could have been. I don't know what he's doing in his free time. Well, you know, they did a post on. on ESPN, which was other guys who left the league at the same time as Philip. Oh, this would be good. Rivers and what they're doing now if they decided to start playing.

They got their LinkedIn profiles. Toby Gerhardt. Do you remember Toby Gerhardt? Running back. He is the senior director of sales and enablement at Asurian. Okay, good for him. Life after football. That's important.

Mike Glennon. Remember him? He had the neck. He had the neck. He walks so Davis Mills could run. He's a commercial real estate broker. Okay. That's nice.

Prince Amakamara. Mara. Remember him? I do, yeah. Giants. He is the CEO of Mr. Chat. It's a children's chatting app. Okay.

I'm very impressed all these guys finding second careers after football. Josh Rosen. Quarterback? Yeah. Form a card. He is getting his MBA at the Wharton School. Good for him. It's a really good school, by the way.

late to go get an education. What do you think Ryan Leif is doing? I've actually seen him on my NFL network. I feel like he retired before 20, 21. I've seen him doing some analyst stuff. The CEO of Ram consultants and production. That's good. What about Jake Plummer?

What do you think Jake Plummer's doing? Jake, the snake. He's the vice president of peace, love, and mushrooms. I already had suspicions of what he might be doing. That actually confirmed them. I like that one. That one. That one, maybe one of my favorite.

So there you go. That's who else. No idea if those guys would all get brought back to play as well. I saw that it works in like Rivers had to consider his Hall of Fame induction because this will now, he was already on a timeline where it was coming up. This resets it, I guess. So he had to take that in consideration too. So he now, wasn't he the same year as Eli or no? And Jake Plummer?

Yeah. Well, I'd be funny if Eli was peace-loving mushrooms. To give up, you know, the Hall of Fame resetting that clock, you know, so he really wants to be part of this and wants to play. Well, I wish you were missed. But on the original point about Riley Leonard, just you get there, you live your dream. And they're like, can anyone else, let's call a 44-year-old, we can't possibly put in this guy in. That's like if they decided tomorrow, they'd be like, Matt, we're going to put you his backup host for cover zero. We're bringing in Pat Summerall. I'm like, he did?

Like, yeah, but give him a chance. I let you know where you are, though. Or Paul Harvey. Good day. Well, I wish him the best. The thing is the Colts still like, I guess they're doing this because they think they have a shot to win it, right? Well, what they opened?

7 and 1. They went out and got Sauce Gardner, which is a win now thing. I mean, it's a lot of, they were kind of think they were unexpected. be where they were, not just to fans, but even in their own eyes, like, whoa, we're in contention to the AFC, let's make some moves. And that has, over the course of the last five, six weeks turned into now you have. Let's bring in this old guy. Yeah. And let's see. What a weird roller coaster year for them. Yeah, no kidding. Well, there you go. So those are, those are the Matt Jones headlines. What I call our secondary headlines, Billy, uh, nice to see you in your official Roblo

NFL hat. That's right. What do we got? I'm here ready to go. I do have one more note on Philip Rivers. You mentioned he has 10 kids. his oldest child is as old as Riley Leonard is. What? He has a 23-year-old? 23-year-old. I knew he had a lot, but not that old. That's got to be weird.

Is it weirder that your oldest kid is the same as your backup, or if your girlfriend is the same age? She's your oldest kid. Which one's weirded? It's tough. Probably the girlfriend. Yeah, girlfriend. You know, you see that sometimes, where it's usually like a girlfriend and like a daughter.

And that daughter has to hate that woman, right? Yeah, it's just in the back to your brain at all times. Like, you don't want to focus on it, but like the math, math is right there. You can't ignore it. Wait a minute. We had home room together, I believe. All right, what's next? We need to talk about Jordan Love during Toyotathon.

Matt, you know a Toyotathon, right? Is that where you get like a deal on Toyota? Yeah, that's right. You go buy a car. It's bigger than Christmas this time. But strangely, Jordan Love always plays well during Toyota Thon. It's usually from mid-November to the first week of January. In 19 games over the last three seasons, Jordan Love has 35 touchdowns, three interceptions, and is completing 68% of his passes.

So who figured this out? It's a great question. Jordan Love's been playing well in the month of November. It also happens to have been during Toyotathon. Maybe a Toyota lover and a Green Bay fan. It has to be someone that works at Toyota. Because, I mean, if you told me, Jordan Love is always good in these few weeks, there's no scenario where I would think that's Toyota Thon.

I think you all. I don't know when, you could have told me Toyota Thon was at any point in life, and I wouldn't have known. And they, trust me, Toyotathon will tell you about it. They'll advertise, but I'm with you. My brain would not go, oh, he's good from mid-November to beginning of January or whatever it is. That's Toyota. This has to be a Toyota employee. This is a big Toyota trying to work their way in.

Nobody just knows when Toyotathon is. Car dealerships, though, are serious about their deals. Have I told you my story about buying my car a couple weeks ago? So I got a new car. It's like a BMW. So this was like the nicest thing I've ever bought. So, and I don't know if when you buy a new car, if you are like this, like I'm, I'm so scared. Nervous.

Yeah. Like, I think I'm going to crash getting out of the market. I'm not like that in regular life, but right when you buy it, are you like, big purchase? I've only done it once ever. It wasn't even for me. You're like, I hold out my hand when I'm doing the turn just to make sure everybody knows. But there was some sort of financing deal where on December 1st, the rate was going to be 0.99%. It's like an amazing rate.

but then the next day it would go back to market, which is like 6.1. Okay? It's weird to me you have a system where it can fluctuate that much in a day. But Mario dropped me off to get it. The paperwork had to be in and signed by 5 o'clock. I guess I don't know why. It was their internal system. But this woman was running around like crazy.

and she was like, hurry, hurry. And I'm like, I don't know what, I'm signing my name. And she's like, it's 453. Faster. Faster. I may have signed away the rights to Billy.

I don't know. I signed whatever sheet they put in front of me. And like, you know, you had to figure out, are you going to get the extended maintenance? I had to decide in like two and a half minutes. It's an uncomfortable situation. And I was like, I probably won't try.

things go, yes, give me the extent. So anyway, they're serious about these thons at these car. Fond, thon, bon, bons. Sometimes I think there might be some, listen, I don't want to blow up any, I don't want to blow up me by spots here, and we appreciate the NFL sponsors. Everyone needs to drive cars. Oh, by the way, do we have a car dealership with, you can beep out BMW, just say whatever car sponsors this show.

Hyundai. All right, go ahead. I do worry there's a little bit of dishonesty in the process. They want you to be as uncomfortable as. possible. I think so. Yeah. There's like put pressure on. Like screaming.

See, I always have the thing of, I'm going on the radio. I tell them that up front. Oh, that's a bargaining chip. My dad, Larry, his method of doing cars is the one I've done. He would sit down and look at the person and go, I don't like to haggle. So bottom line, I'm going to give you one chance to give me an offer. I will either take it or leave it. There will be no negotiating.

So you have to make a profit. I understand that. But this is it. And we will get something else if you do not. Surprisingly effective because you're not, you're taking the power from them. I like that idea. It's a power move.

Larry had a power move. And I've adopted that. But I throw in an extra line. I'm going on the radio. It's not a threat. Don't take this as a threat. I'm just letting you know. No, I'll do it with a smile.

And that I think is how you make sure. And then you get, you might get a little more, might cost a little more than if you really haggled. But it guarantees you don't get screwed. So shout out. Feel free to use Larry's move. It's the Larry Power move. So I've never done something like that over a car,

but I've been in negotiations where you have to turn your back and say I'm leaving. And even though that first step, you're like, oh, I don't know if I'm doing this right. They're the ones freaking out. But you have to be willing to leave. You have to be willing to leave. Yeah, they'll chase you down. You have to be willing to walk out the door. And then they know you've meant business.

Because if you really walk out that door, they're getting nothing anyway. Yeah. They also said to me, they're like, Matt, this is a car that you must do the maintenance. then Mario said it's all. Because like, you know, I had the Lexus and those things will drive into the moon. They were like, you have to do the maintenance on this. So I won't. You're not a big oil change.

Oil is the line. We all know our weaknesses. Yours might be oil changes. But I got to do it on this one. Apparently the car like calls you. It goes, hey idiot. It's time. It locks the doors and won't let you out until you take it for an oil.

change. That's right. All right. What's next? It was a big win for the Chargers on Monday night football. They beat the Eagles in overtime 22 to 19, but probably what got the most attention was Justin Herbert and Laura Rutledge after the game. I didn't like this. Laura was trying to interview him for the TV broadcast, and Justin was blowing her off. He said he was trying to celebrate with my team. He eventually rolled his eyes and did do the interview with Laura Rutledge.

But in a week where there have been a lot of questions about Justin Herbert, he had surgery last week on his left hand before they played. Maybe he was a little bit too defensive. I'm rolling eyes. Laura Rutledge is the nicest person in the world. I've known Laura Rutledge for years. She's so nice. She's sweet.

She's smart. He was, that was not, he owes her an apology. Go celebrate with your team. That's fine. But you can do the interview or just walk away. But don't roll your eyes at Laura Rutledge. I didn't like this, Drew.

And everything you said about Laura of Relage is accurate, but also a big part of why you're Justin Herbert are these media deals. This wasn't like a random thing on the street. Every player after every game has done that quick interview coaches. Like that's just part of it. Yeah, this wasn't like somebody holding up and going write yourself on a scale 1 to 10 for a TikTok video. They're not interrupting his dinner. This was post game on the field. Everyone does it.

everyone then goes and celebrates with their teammate. This wasn't like some big intrusive thing that Laura Rellos was doing. It's something that's been done after every game for decades. He should have expected her to be there. He started dating Madison beer and he's gotten too fancy. I thought that was an interesting game though.

The Eagles, ever since that dude from Philly co-hosted with me on ESPN and said the Eagles weren't good and I went, how can you say that? They've been awful. Are you out on the Eagles? I thought they had figured out had found some kind of defensive identity, but then it's kind of the point

like the offense can't really do much of anything. They had the nice fake tush push where Sequin looked like the coach to Shaquan, but A.J. Brown had a bad drop. I mean, I don't have their numbers in front of me, but they haven't been putting up points really at all lately, and that won't be able to take them far into the playoffs and get to their ultimate goal.

Yeah, I don't get it. I don't understand how Jalen Hertz can be so inconsistent at times. Because at times he looks like one of the best five quarterbacks in the league, And then, I mean, that's, Lamar has completely fallen off the planet too. I mean, what happened to Lamar? You know, for a while you could be like, oh, he's coming back from injury. But it just keeps going and going. And it's bad interceptions.

And it's not just even the scrambling. Like, he just makes bad decisions. I don't know. He's just not Lamar. Yeah. And it makes me sad. I mean, we're losing. My homes will be back.

But we're losing Mahomes. Losing Lamar. Josh Allen had. a big game. Josh Allen's been great. He's been great. Burroughs come back, so that's good. But I don't want to live in a world

that Drake May is one of the three best quarterbacks. I don't want that. Bo Nix. I don't believe in it. Bo Nix. You wait. Bo Nix is going to lose. Bo Nix is losing his first round playoff game and throwing three interceptions.

Write it down. You're right about though Lamar. I'm not even a Lamar fan from our Kentucky Louisville days. But I need, you know what? I know that the NFL needs him to be good because he is when he's at his peak, the most entertaining player in the league.

Tony DeCopal is the new anchor at CBS. Okay. I don't know who that is. He's the guy. He's on CBS this morning. I don't know anything about him, except my ex is his producer and says he's like the nicest guy in the world.

He's the guy who did the interview with Bill Belichick's girlfriend. Or no, but Bill Belichick, where his girlfriend was like... Yeah, we're not talking about that. Yeah. That was him. Okay. He's got a good hair.

He's got really good hair. It does. And he's apparently very, very nice. So then I support it. Was that on your list of news? Yeah, I want to get too far as the sun. I'm glad you brought it up. Okay, I didn't want to take one of your scoops.

Go ahead. It is week 15, so we have clenching scenarios when it comes to the playoffs this week. It's wondering what the next word was going to be. The Patriots can clinch the AFC East this week with a win versus the bills. Meanwhile, both won seeds. The Rams and the Broncos can clinch a playoff berth with a win. So we're almost there. Patriot Bill's a great game.

I want the bills to win a lot. The bills, this is the year for them to get to the Super Bowl. I feel like we're going to pass. I feel like this is the year the Chiefs should hand it to the bills for two years. I don't think we're in Broncos time yet. And that's, and I know we're Pat's. And that's why I really want the bills to win this game. Yeah, and they've been so close for some.

long. If somebody deserves it, it's them. And even the way they're turning it on late, we just mentioned Josh Allen, but I mean, the Bengals had them dead in a snow game in Buffalo, but then you get a little bit that Bill's magic. Part of it was the Bengals collapsed, but just like the Josh Allen 40-yard running the snow,

getting those turnovers to pick six. It's like the bills are starting to find a little magic right as we're creeping up on the playoffs for a lot of those teams that we thought would be in the conversation are going the other way. Yeah. I'm for the bills. Now, the game is in New England, right? What's the name of the city?

Foxborough. Foxborough, Gillette. I'd say Fontaine. The best a man can get. Yeah. Yeah, I'm going with the bill. It's also a rare, like, best game of the weekends at 1 o'clock. They've been doing that more.

I mean, the main event game in the late window is Lines, Rams. I would argue Patriots Bill is a better game, don't you think? Yeah, this is the, even though Lions Rams is huge, the lions are down a little bit. This is big for me. Oh, no. Packers, Broncos, that's probably the game they'll have is the big one. My brain's still not ready to have Broncos as that one Zed, as you've been saying, this whole show.

But for me, it's Bill's Patriots. Because are the Patriots for real? I know they've won a million games in a row and all that. Some of them still not beating the best teams. Can you get the bills again? You're at home. See if they've truly changed the guard there in that division. Breaking news.

One-in-na-na-N-N-N-A. Michigan is firing Sharon Moore. Sharon. It's big news. For cause. They just don't want to pay that buy-up. Wasn't he part of the cheating thing? It was.

So they just go to wait until they start losing and then say it was for cause. Oh, well, you all make staff back in 2000, 23? Every year. Wait a minute. You were a water boy, man. Yeah, how long do you get to bring that up? So that's a big job coming open, right? Definitely.

This is a wild carousel. They just won the title. Well, that was with hardball. So, all right, what's next? NFL teams voting. today at the virtual December League meetings to support financially the development and launch

of a professional flag football league. They will invest up to $32 million for this league and they hope to build on the momentum that the flag football will have when it debuts at the LA Olympic Games in 2028. So who owns it? The NFL is... Oh, then it's a good

idea. What a great idea. Develop and launch of flag football league. I wish I could be there right now. It sounds like something they could have us podcast about. That's true. They can send us to cover the flag. I kind of feel like I'll be a sideline reporter for the NFL flag football.

You're going to be tracking down the star quarterback like Larrell's Justin Herbert. Yeah. You're trying to get that post-game interview. I could be the Laura Rutledge for the, uh, no, okay. So flag football, I like when kids get to play flag football and women. I don't know about flag football. for guys. I mean, we had this conversation

about a year ago about because the dude who's like the best flag football quarterback said he'd be better at the Mahon. Do you remember that? Do we think that's plausible? Is there a different skill to it? There is a different skill to it. What is it?

I couldn't break it down. But like, Ray John Rondo, who played point guard in the NBA here in Kentucky, is like ranked as one of the best quarterbacks in flag football. In the country? Yeah. Could be on our Olympic team.

That's not true. That's fact. You're making it. Mario, tell him. But he's like 42. I know that's the thing. No, he's not. You're making that up.

Like, that's not true. Rondo's not going to be on the Olympic team. I mean, probably won't be on the Olympic team, but he is one of the best flag football. I mean, like, okay, I believe like in his league, he's pretty good. But like, worldwide, Rondo is not playing flag football at a high level in 2020. He plays for Team USA. And I don't know who. In what?

Flag football. Top ranked flag football quarterback. Stop it. You're making this up. Like you, like our team USA system, not like some Louisville rec league. You're telling me that Ray John Rondo is a contender to play for Team USA flag football. That is fake. From August 26, Rondo is officially.

2026. I mean, excuse me, August 26, 2025. Rajon Rondo is officially the top ranked flag football quarterback in the United States. There's a graphic by USA flag football. Well, okay, so if you're the NFL, if you're the NFL and you're doing this, then he's got to play. Right? Like, if you want to build a flag football league, you want someone I know. With some name recognition.

Because I know the guy you brought up, couldn't tell his name. Like, I know that story, but I know Ray Jean Rondo. I don't know if I believe that. I mean, just think about what the equivalent of that would be. Right. There's a three-on-three foot. There's a three-on-three basketball league. And apparently the best player is Drew Brees.

Come on. I mean, it's the world we're living in. Do you want to watch and throw it around? There's highlights. The NFL is allowing their players to participate in flag football in the 28 Olympics. No, that's cool. So the skill that is different is what, elusiveness, I guess, hips. It's all like Shakira in the hips.

Got to be in the hips. just avoiding getting that flag pulled. Yeah. I'm with you on how I don't love it. But if, you know, we're going to play it, it's in the Olympics. I guess I got to get behind it. We don't want to be losers. We got to roll Rondo out there and get behind it.

Well, I mean, it's like, let's be real. I'll watch anything except pickleball. So what if they did just trot out for the Olympics like the NFL's best? We have Jackson Smith and Jigba out there. Who are we playing in the Olympics? Other countries. But no one else plays football. That's why it feels like we just threw this in there.

right on Italy yeah I mean are they going to be like no one plays football anyway I know so we're taking a secondary level of sport that they don't play where are we going to play we're just going to beat everybody you know

they get us in soccer this is our way of getting them back that's got to be a we're just trying to pad the gold medal stats you know that's I don't hate it you're fine with that just making up sports Only we play. I'm fine with winning. Okay.

We're going to like having a real housewives of Salt Lake trivia contest. We're having Miles Garrett out there and just ripping flags off of people who have never played football before. I don't know that Miles Garrett would be... The skill set? He wouldn't be good. He'd be intimidating. If he wants to play, I said we figured out. I think I would think the talent is speed.

That's right. But if you're one of these other countries, you don't even know what football is and there's Miles Garrett, I would think that's a little intimidating. Well, if you go to the Olympics and you don't know what football is, I think it's going to be a hard, hard sell for you. We support it, though. Good job, NFL. Yes. We'll be rooting for it.

And we'd love to cover a game. What's next? Well, while we're speaking about the international game, the NFL will play regular season games in Munich, Germany, in both 2026 and 28 announced this week. Germany actually has the largest American football fan base in Europe with about 20 million fans. So they will play a game in Germany for four straight years. straight years. They did do it again this year.

I mean, we're going to end up playing these games everywhere, which is fine. I mean, I'm good with it. Germans, you know, there is, the part of Europe that likes football the most is like Germany, the Czech Republic, I think like Poland, like

that's where I think the NFL Europe has had some success as that sort of Eastern European to Germany area, so it makes sense they would play there. And there, you know, we see when they make these trips on these Sunday mornings we're up at 9.30, we see the appetite

for it over there. They get great crowds. I think a lot of times they might not know what they're looking at and they're always wearing Jacksonville jerseys, but that's a start. They want more of it and the NFL would be crazy not to take a lot of stadiums. They have a lot of stadiums they can play them because they built these huge stadiums to host the World Cup and the European Championship.

So, you know, part of the problem is in Europe there aren't, they don't have these mega stadiums like we have, a lot of them. But Germany, I think does. So that probably makes sense. to go there. All for it. And for me, just selfishly, I like the unique times.

And you know, 1 o'clock, 4.30, 8 o'clock, that's great. Been doing that my whole life. Yeah, sure, 6 in the morning. Whenever you got to put them on, give me more NFL. I tell you something I bet you didn't know. Okay. Do you realize how much more north countries in Europe are than America? So I want you to think about where Rome, Italy is on a map.

Okay? Yeah. Where do you think Rome, Europe? Rome, Italy is in relation to North America, like in terms of latitude. Yeah. Where do you think Rome is compared to North America? Like above Florida slightly? Where do you think it is?

Never even thought about it. I'll say somewhere along the lines of Baltimore. How about Montreal? Hmm. Really? Yeah. Montreal. Madrid, which you think of as like hot, is New York.

so people don't realize. So like Germany is like mid-Canada. Interesting. So I don't know what my point is. We're expanding our minds though. I've never even thought about any of that. Because you see the globe and the way the globe looks, you know, they flatten it so as to see.

But so you don't really realize that it's the same latitude. Like I, let me see if I can find real quick. I'm going to give you cities that are the same. latitude. Cities that are same. Is it latitude or longitude? I never know which one's which. Yeah, I don't either.

Yeah, so San Francisco is the same as Beijing. Okay. Did you know that? I didn't. I'm trying to picture the globe in my head here. What else? Let's see. Oh, Fairbac, Banks, Alaska is the same as Réjavik Iceland.

I could see that one I would have predicted a little bit. I envision both of those as being far north. Yeah. What would I run into if I just... Athens, Greece. Yeah. Where would you, if you just thought about it, you'd probably think Athens, Greece is like Mexico. Like a southern climate.

Yeah. San Francisco. That is interesting. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm here for. The stuff we're learning on the show. I mean, does that have anything to do with the NFL? No.

But it just felt like something you'd want. But if you listen to cover Zero this week, this episode, you're walking away. knowing more about how to buy a car and more about our planet. And do you know more about the NFL? Maybe not. Well, no, you know what Mike Glennon's doing. Exactly, yeah. You taught us a lot.

What's next? The Bears, after falling from the one to the seven seed in the NFC, hosts the Browns at home this week. They're saying it's negative 20 windchill at this game. That's crazy. But Kevin Stefanski announced that Shadur Sanders would be the Cleveland starting quarterback for the rest of the season after you threw, 364 yards and three touchdowns versus Drew's Titans in a loss.

It's the most praise I've ever seen someone get for losing to the Titans. Yeah. I mean, we let him have a day. He played well in the fourth quarter, but they did lose to the Titans. But I mean, they should let him start through the end of the year. I think that makes sense. Would you go sit in the cold? Let's say you or me.

Your bears are nine and four. You're playing at home. Would you go sit to watch this game? I would prefer it. Like when we went to Lambo, I wanted a blizzard. Like, I'll, sure, you'll be a little cold, but it'll get a little cold during the game. But that's like, that's the experience. That's what you'd remember.

And you're playing a team that's also used to the cold. So I don't know that it'll have the impact it would if you're playing like the Dolphins or something like that. No, maybe throw Shadour off a little bit here. But no, if I'm from a fan experience, I want the absolute worst. We were talking about how fun just that Buffalo Bingles game was, Leslie, just watching it home. Like there's nothing better than a good snow games. Snow games are the best. Yeah, and hopefully the Bears get one in Chicago this Sunday with the weather being as bad as it is.

The Bears lost to the Packers, but I actually was encouraged by the game. Came down to the final play. Just a bad throw. It was there. Great defensive play. He didn't make a good play. But you know what? We were in that game.

We were legit against the team that I think is one of the three or four best teams in the league. So I was felt good about that game. This is, however, the kind of game we would lose. Oh, come on. Not to the Browns. But what are they? Are we like an eight and a half point favorite? Seven and a half.

Steve, like that to me is a bet the Browns game. Maybe. Even though the Browns didn't beat the Titans, I feel like they're acting like they did with Shadour having a good game. Miles Garrett's got every record you can think of right now. I feel like they're already celebrating from a week ago. I think we win, but I think we win by like three.

Browns beat the Packers earlier this year. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think the Browns. I think the Browns are. they're they're saucy they are they're like a night out with char bar and they almost i mean shadur threw an amazing throw to harold fanning junior from bowling green to almost put the tight the way i did you because of you the brown's back in every time they say the name i just go from bowling i was so far in front of that by the way they didn't play the game yet i don't think when i said

watch i didn't come up with him everybody was talking about in joku and this and that i think i saw a preseason game where they targeted him a lot it's like wait a minute this it's tight in from bowling green and I'd never heard of him. If you'd ask me on draft night, wouldn't have known a thing about him. I just randomly watched a preseason game, probably for Shadour and saw that he was getting a lot of targets. And then it panned out more than I ever imagined.

He's done great. And, you know, Caleb, got to say, happy with Caleb. I saw a clip breaking down that interception. It was a bad interception, but the defender made a pretty spectacular play. How would you rank those quarterbacks in that class now? I mean, McCarthy and Pennix are clearly five and six. but now you go Drake May, Bo Nix, Jane Daniels, Caleb Williams.

What would the order be now? Even though you're not ready to put him up there, I have to go Drake May first because it just keeps winning. Okay. Then who? Michael Caleb. Jane Daniels has been so hurt this year. It's hard to see what he is. It was last year just flash in the pan.

He hadn't had much of an opportunity. So I might go Caleb Williams. Okay. See, I would go Drake May probably number one. I don't want to. but I'd say Caleb 2, Jaden Daniels 3, Bo Nix 4, just because I don't believe in Bo Nix, but he keeps winning. So I'm not, I mean...

It can't just credit when every Sunday goes out and wins the game. But it's interesting because at the end of last year, you might have had Caleb Williams 5th. You might have even had Michael Pinnock's ahead of him. And now he's moved up to where he's probably, in my opinion, either second or third between what you think about him and Daniels. And it shows so much the system and the coach. You know, Caleb Williams has had a good turnaround from a year ago,

on his own. But getting Ben Johnson and an offense that really can produce has been a big part of him playing better too. And you still get the Packers. One more shot at him. Yeah, we do. To try to even the score. By the way, Josh Allen, Drake May, that may be for the MVP Sunday, too. Like we all

expected. Yeah, that may be. What's next? You mentioned Jane Daniels. He will be out for this week's game versus the Giants after he re-injured his elbow injury. How many injuries is he? I feel like he's gotten hurt. It's been all times this year. He got leveled last week. This is my final news note here.

The Bucks are getting Mike Evans back this week. That's going to be a big help versus the Falcons for Thursday night football. They do. They've lost five of their last seven. They're frauds. But they're pulling a little Indianapolis Colts here going back to the vault. They have signed 36-year-old Jason Pierre Paul to be their next edge rusher. You remember he won a Super Bowl with the Giants and the Bucks in 2020.

He also had a firework accident in which he had to remove his right index finger and severely damaged his thumb. Yeah. I mean, I didn't know what Jason. I thought he worked with Mike Glennon, so I didn't know what he was doing. I wish him the best. But your team stinks,

and your coach calls stupid fourth and ones that never work. Ibuka can't catch a game tying touchdown. He's got the drops. Yeah. So you all are bad, and it rains all the time. Yeah, and Baker has not been good since we started singing his praise. And like, he's got to be hurt, though, right? Well, yeah, there was a couple weeks he wasn't running at all.

And now he's doing a little bit more, but you've got to think there's something. I've got to think he's hurt. Like, nothing else would explain the huge drop off unless he was hurt. In hindsight, I'm glad you didn't go ask for that picture in Buffalo. He seems to be down a little bit. Remember he had just taken the loss? We thought it'll be fine. He'll be back next week.

Well, you were going to ask him for a picture. And he was like with his girlfriend and they were making out. And you wanted to like tap on his shoulder. And it's all been downhill from that moment. And I was like, don't. They're making out. I could have cheered him up, though. They were sad making out.

I think he would have changed the season, honestly. Do you think you should have gone up and talked to him? You think in that scenario, by the way, he wasn't really making out. He was not, he was talking to someone. After a bad loss that they had the game. And he wanted to go up and go, here, you're a Billy. They worked with the NFL. Billy NFL.

Just wanted to ask him a couple questions, you know, and not asking for a selfie. But he was like he was with his family. Yeah, well, I didn't. I've got the respect. But if I did. Because I told you not. If I did, maybe this could have better. You were going to.

I was on one shoulder. I don't do not do it. But it's all been losing since then, right? Has there been a win since that game? Oh, they got the Cardinals. They had the Cardinals. Oh, yeah. Well, we got the Panthers at the end of year.

That's all that matters, right? Yeah, that may be the game that matters. All right, it is now time for the victory bundle, presented by Liberty Mutual. This is three picks that we pick together from the games this weekend. And if you win, then you win. I'm going to take the bingles to beat the Ravens. I believe the Ravens are a five and a half point favorite. And the game is in Cincinnati.

I don't really understand that line. I don't know what the Ravens have done to be a five and a half point favorite. I would even pick the bingles to win the game. So I'm going to take the Cincinnati Bengals to win. What about you? I'm going to go to Sunday night football, a team that I'll admit I had given up on but the Dallas Cowboys are in the mix

and staring down the Eagles and still in a spot in the NFL or in the playoffs out of the NFC. They play the Vikings who I think just had a fluke win last week and they'll get back to the real world and not be nearly as good that they took advantage of that 3010 shutout.

So I think the Cowboys handle business at home in prime time against Minnesota. I believe they're a four and a half, five-point favorite. Cowboys need to win. They have something to play for. The Vikings don't. I think it'll be a big bounce back for pickings and the Cowboys score a lot of points in that one.

So you're taking Dallas to cover? Yes. All right. So I'm taking Cincinnati. You are taking Dallas. And then let's figure out, oh, I'm sorry. The Bingham, boy, that game started at 5.

I'm only one and a half now. I'm still going to take the Bengals, although I like it a lot less at one and a half. I also like the bills, getting one and a half in New England. I don't hate the bills. As I said earlier, that when a lot of teams are going the wrong direction, we're throwing aside. The Bills have just, they had some down games, some questions about their defense,

but they're looking like they're starting to get back to their right form just in the right of time as the playoffs are creeping up. Josh Allen had an enormous game in that comeback. Bills, Bingles Cowboys, that's your victory bundle presented by Liberty Mutual. Start your quote at Liberty Mutual.com. Are you still in the Survivor thing? I am still alive. We actually have to ask the committee. I'm not going to take it away from him.

But the pick he claimed he was going to have last week is questionable. Well, we didn't have a show. On Sunday night? Wednesday last week. You did not do a show on the last week. Correct. So we didn't have a pick. I told you I would have picked the Saints to beat the Bucks because I saw that game coming from a mile away.

If you don't want to count that pick, you don't have to. I'm not. Well, I'm just going to act like you didn't pick because you were not going to pick the Saints. A big underdog against your own team. No one's going to pick a three and a two and a two and. 10 team. I told the whole story. On the road.

Yeah, you can let him know. He doesn't believe. I don't believe you. I'm not going to believe you. So let's just assume that you're, let's just, I'll give you another chance. Because most of the teams got knocked out last week. And in the other weeks we missed.

There's some, I don't want to discredit what he's doing. I was out week one. So it shouldn't come from me. I think he, I think you've been eliminated. Maybe you picked two this week. Hold on.

He picks two this week. I'll pick two. There's a bit. Oh, there's some big spreads this week. You should do this easily. I'm going with the Philadelphia Eagles. That was going to be my first pick. I have not picked them yet.

Can he pick it and the Raiders aren't going to get anything done? I think that's a good thing. There you go. And then I'm going bears. Bears over the browns. All right. So you're taking the Eagles and Bears. This is a two.

You've got to get two to survive. I got to have both. I haven't picked either team, obviously. And I'll even let you pick the Saints again if you won it sometime. All right, Eagles and Bears. Billy, that is his Survivor League. Now, where are we on our,

am I still ahead by one? You are. We all missed week 13. You picked Puka. I picked Trivian Henderson and then Drew went Brosmer. Okay. So, hindsight, Brosmer was a horrible.

I appreciate you. I'm trying to talk me out of that. 5.40. That was a terrible. All right. Drew, I will let you go first. And I get any position player. Any position.

Trying to think, have I used? I know the 49ers play my Titans and I like to fade my titans. and I like to fade my Titans. You go on CMC? Yeah, I'll go McCaffrey. I don't think I've used to.

I think I've used to. I think I've picked them. I don't think you have. So you got Christian McCaffrey. That means, Billy, you can pick either a wide receiver or a quarterback. Yeah, I got a little Kentucky flavor here. I'm going Wondell Robinson versus the Commanders. Commanders' third worst passing defense to slot receivers. What?

They've given up the most receiving yards to slot receivers, the third most. How do you know that? That must be above the best. That must be above the payfold on the website. Above the paywall. There's no way you know that. I need you to take that back. It's...

Because, I mean, it might be true, but you don't know that. I do. The prep work that goes into the show. Well, last week his stat was the Bears are 1-0 in game since Ben Johnson's taking a shirt off. So that's our new stat we're watching. Yeah, I don't know that that's... Oh-in-1. I don't know that that is a stat that's...

You don't like the Wondell stat? I mean, it's fantasy football players. Offs this week. Wondell's a good pick. We're trying to find, though. CD Lamb was bragging about Wondell on a podcast. I'll let you take it.

He needs more credit. All right, so I have to figure out what I'm going to take here. And, you know, I've picked most of the running quarterbacks over the course of the year. Philip Rivers. He's right there in front of you.

Oh, that would be all time. Shador? Dart. Incher Bears. Jackson Dart. I'm going to take Dak. There you go. I'm going to take Dak.

I haven't taken him. I'm going to say, Dak gets it in the end zone and says, Wump, there it is, thought you knew, and gets it. Give me, give me Dak Prescott. I like this. Every time I say I like it, we go on three, so we'd be careful to be too optimistic, but a good thing.

I don't think we've all the three got one yet, but that's, that's okay. All right, so there you have it. All the news you need and some you didn't. We will be back on Sunday to go over all the games. Big Wheat, no buys. There are more games on Sunday. than any other week for the rest of the year.

Because starting next week, you start getting games on Saturday and etc. So this is the fullest Sunday we'll have. So enjoy it. We'll see you later. NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and IHeart podcast. For more podcasts from IHeart Radio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.