Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - NFL Squad: New England Patriots Jerod Mayo On Christmas Naughty List?

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

In this week's NFL Squad, the crew discusses the whether or not the best of the NFC can actually contend with the AFC and the Buffalo Bills who look like a force after they beat the Detroit Lions. The crew also hands out gifts or coal to their team or rivals. Plus, what does the crew think about some of the league's biggest games this week including the Denver Broncos/Los Angeles Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers/Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles/Washington Commanders. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month. Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started. PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

If the Lions are the best the NFC has, is the NFC screwed against the likes of the Buffalo Bills? That's coming up on today's episode of NFL Squad. You are locked on NFL, your daily NFL podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And welcome to this week's NFL squad. Sit back, grab your favorite beverage, learn how to speak English, and join us as we get ready to go over another wild week that's about to happen across the National Football League. We are part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

And this episode is brought to you by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnNFL. Use the code all lowercase LockedOnNFL to win $50 instantly when you play your first $5 and as always we are going to go over the best games coming up this weekend. We're going to have a little bit of holiday fun here on

this NFL squad episode but we're going to kick it all off with something that Tony Wiggins and I actually just talked about for Locked on NFL for Wednesday. So we want even more conversation about how the NFC may just not stack up against the AFC this year. You can check that out, but we're going to dive deep into this, and we're going to do it thanks to our NFL squad,

Landon McCool of Locked on Cowboys, continuing to come through where his team that he covers is not coming through, unfortunately. Cody Rourke, usually behind the scenes here when we're doing this, the NFC style, but locked on Broncos host coming through here for us. Aaron Freeman locked on Falcons, no matter what his name tag says. Locked on Ravens host Kevin Ostreicher. Mike DeBate locked on Patriots.

John Butchko locked on Jets. We've got a very, very solid NFL squad here this week. And gentlemen, we're going to kick this all off with Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills. The Detroit Lions have surprised and impressed a lot of people this season, especially with how they've been able to stay resilient, rebound after injuries. But the question now is the injuries may just be too much. And after falling to the Buffalo Bills, it's looking more and more like the NFC just can't keep up with the NFC.

And Cody, let's actually kick it off with you, my friend. How realistic is that? Can the NFC really challenge the best in the AFC teams like the Buffalo Bills when it comes to Super Bowl projections? Yeah, no, I think they can. And I think everybody was, for the most part, at least over here in Denver, was thinking that the matchup we saw on Sunday between Detroit and Buffalo was a little bit of an early Super Bowl preview. Sorry to Kevin Ostreicher, who's got, you know, his Ravens have Super Bowl ambitions here.

I think they're the only ones right now. Denver's obviously in the playoff mix, but that's not really the realistic outlook for them right now. So I would say the buffalo bills have been this team though one week they look like the best team in football they look unstoppable they turn it on and then they look human one week and look not to kind of discredit them in any way shape or form like we were really talking about it last week josh allen had a game where he accounted for six total touchdowns zero turn, and they still lost the game.

That goes to show that they are human in the aspect that their defense can give up points, and their defense certainly can give up some big plays. I think this past week we saw that between Detroit and them. It was a fun shootout. I enjoyed it. I still think the NFC can compete with the AFC. You know, I don't want to get too deep into this conversation myself because, like I said, I just got done talking with Tony Wiggins about this,

but I am curious from a weak division standpoint, Aaron Freeman, Lockdown Falcons, the NFC South, not the worst division in football according to our conversation last week. That honor goes to the AFC South, and then the NFC West is second place. The NFC South is certainly maybe 2.5. But here's the thing I look at when I talk about the NFC North, and I talk about the Detroit Lions specifically, the Minnesota Vikings, the Green Bay Packers,

because a lot of people are pointing to these records, and look how strong the NFC North is. The NFC North played two divisions this year, just like every other division did. They played the AFC South, and they played the NFC West. And when you look at all three of these teams, their biggest quality win comes against their own division. And we all know how division matchups go.

So to me in the NFL, you got to take your own division games out of the conversation because the reason partially possibly that these, these, this division has such a heavy double-digit win team stack is because they're playing two of the worst divisions in the NFL. Aaron Freeman, how much should that weigh into hype? Because I'm never asking a team to apologize for their schedule, right? Their schedule is what it is. But when it comes to hyping up a team, how much should who have they beaten,

quote unquote, come into the conversation? I think that's a great point you make, David, there, because, you know, you do want to sort of when you measure, okay, who's really got it, right? You want to measure the quality of opponents, right? Like, did you beat anybody notable? And a lot of times you'll see a team racking up a bunch of wins and then you, you're like, they didn't, you know, the toughest team they beat was like Arizona.

The toughest team they beat was like, you know, I can't even think of another mid-term team or something, the Saints or something like that. And it's like, you you know those aren't you know terrible teams or whatever but like you're probably not as good as people hype you up to be and that's always the interesting thing about the schedule where before the season we sort of say oh this team has a really soft schedule and then the season plays out and schedule looks a lot harder like i know the falcons went into the season with like the second easiest schedule in the league and

i checked the numbers i think they right now have the seventh hardest schedule in the league based off a lot of teams like Cody's, Broncos, and other teams that were much better than I think a lot of people thought they would be. Then you have the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to those things. I do think you're right that taking the division games out of it because we know those division games you can have a place you know one lost chiefs team going up against the raiders and basically win on like a serendipitous you know block field goal or whatever it is uh in those games and and whatnot um but i think when you take the the outside the division games like those are really the the true measure of a team skill. Yeah. And that's the point I was trying to make.

So I'm glad somebody agrees with me because obviously I agree with me. So I'm glad somebody else also agrees with me. And, and to Aaron's point, the Washington commanders are one of those teams, right? Right. If you had the Washington mayors on your schedule,

picking number two overall this year's NFL draft, that certainly made your strength of schedule a little bit easier right now. If you're stacking and racking by just record alone, they're picking 20th in the NFL draft. That's quite the chump for one team to make it one uh one season kevin austriker locked on ravens um here's here's the question i want to ask you because philadelphia eagles looks pretty decent right against the pittsburgh steelers who are obviously one of the quote-unquote better teams in the afc the ravens are right there and if they can figure out how to really marry this

lamar jackson derrick henry dynamic and get their defense fully rolling. Certainly a contender in the AFC. So if you're talking about the Ravens going to the Super Bowl, facing the Detroit Lions, understanding some of the deficiencies that they're taking because of injuries and or facing the Eagles, which of these NFC teams are you more scared of right now? I mean, I think with the injuries that Detroit has and with the way that Philly looked against Baltimore just a couple of weeks ago, I'd probably say the Ravens prefer Detroit. And that's not, you know, me saying, oh, Detroit's this terrible team.

Buffalo's a good team. Right. And I know there's that whole conversation about, you know, big losses and how do you kind of assess that against weaker wins? But to me, I feel like both the Eagles and the Lions are still top Super Bowl contenders and I'm not putting the Lions out of contention but now they have Minnesota breathing down their neck and it's crazy we're talking about the possibility of a team that's been as dominant as Detroit in so many spots this season maybe being the five seed here when it comes down to it and I know that we had the conversation last week about weak divisions and

should they be changing up things, this, that, and the other, but from a Ravens perspective, at least you start to get down and look, I've had a couple of these seasons recently where your injury report looks like a CVS receipt. It's just every single week, you're adding on like three separate names every it's it's terrible. And it takes away really quality seasons. Like where are this Detroit team be with Aiden Hutchinson back in the fold or what if David Montgomery was healthy for the

stretch run what does that team look like but to me you look at kind of the weakening NFC from an AFC perspective and it's almost like is the Super Bowl the AFC championship or in the NFC it's Super Bowl the NFC championship those are conversations that happen every single season with Detroit kind of being this favorite coming in and they have all these dominant wins it just feels like they're just getting weaker and weaker every week and that has to play a part in how you look at them moving forward yeah no 100% and uh you know there's there's a host here that covers the team that knows a thing or two about an injury really derailing a season and of course talking about about 2023 when Aaron Rodgers went down and John Butchco. I want to ask you this question.

Looking at the AFC, talking about them being the much stronger conference, now the MVP race is kind of considered to be really maybe a two or three-horse race. Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, but Josh Allen is, I think, most people's favorite. Is Josh Allen the clear-and-away favorite, or do you think there is an opportunity here for a guy like Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, if that ankle doesn't completely erase the rest of his season, to take that award still? I think there is an opportunity for Lamar Jackson to get back into the race.

The last three weeks of the season will always tell us a lot. But I think right now the favorite is Josh Allen because if you look at the way he's carrying this buffalo team on his back um yes you bet look you look their defense has not played well the last two weeks i look at it you know we talked a little bit earlier about how you know josh allen accounted for six touchdowns and they lost the rams i kind of look at the other way i look at look at how bad their defense played in that game and there was they still had a shot in the fourth quarter because of the way josh played. I also think when you talk about MVP, you also have to put yourself in the minds of the voters.

I think a lot of times voters focus on narratives. And for Josh Allen, the narrative is the Buffalo Bills traded his number one receiver this offseason to the Houston Texans in Stephon Diggs. This was supposed to be kind of a reset year for Buffalo. They lost some key guys on their defense. They were trying to kind of reset their salary cap this year. And yet they're still at the top of the AFC. I know Kansas City's

probably going to have the one seed, but I think Buffalo is probably the most likely team to go to the Super Bowl right now, and this isn't what's supposed to be a down year. So I think right now, if favors Josh Allen, I do think that there's still an opportunity, though. There's still three weeks left in the season for that narrative to change yeah look i'll i will admit to everybody here and publicly on this show uh coming in preseason i had jets chiefs ravens at least ahead of the bills and i really expected the bills uh to regress back to me but here they are uh potentially the best team in the national football league and uh you know josh allen just the gift that keeps on giving and we're going to hand out some gifts here on NFL Squad as we get into our next topic conversation, holiday time.

What gift would you give to the team you cover? Or what gift would you give to a team you don't cover to derail their future efforts? Hopefully we'll have some fun with that coming up next. Today's episode of NFL Squad brought to you by the Locked On Podcast. Network your team every day. And today's episode is brought to you in part by FanDuel get ready to tackle all of the NFL action this weekend and every weekend remaining this NFL season with FanDuel America's number one sportsbook and right now new customers of FanDuel you bet five dollars

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we got a squad full of NFL experts coming through here to talk about the hard-hitting news. What gift would you leave under the tree for another team to help or hurt them? Landon McCool locked on Cowboys. I'm hoping you come through with some Grinch energy. I'm hoping, I don't know where you're going to go,

but your team that you cover the Dallas Cowboys or any other team to hurt them, whose gift or what gift are you leaving under which tree this is a gift for the team specifically and its fans right and it's the gift of a divorce from jerry jones at this point it's the jones family it's just gotten to the point now where the trust is is eroded you know and and and almost everything that they say whether it's wrong or not at this point uh is just being kind of judged side-eyed so i just think at this point i mean this is not going to happen and and you know

there's no in no world will this gift be received or be opened but if if i could you know wrap it up i would give the cowboys and their fans the opportunity to kind of start with a fresh slate and and see if they can make do with the new ownership no matter you know if it's an oil wildcatter or not i think uh you know we could still probably find somebody willing to spend some money like jerry brother that is that is the kind of gift that makes you believe that santa claus exists which of course he does he does he does you don't know who's watching my debate locked on Patriots what go ahead Kevin I was gonna say what is that before what does that mean it's like uh a divorce from Jerry Jones or a dragon and Santa goes okay what dragon do you want that that's what we're talking about here that's what

we're talking about here I love it maybe the Patriots you're up man which which gift you given and which which direction you going here well Well, if you're 3-11, you're not giving anybody, anybody else gifts to derail them. You're derailing yourself automatically. Look, you know that little mind eraser that Will Smith used in Men in Black? I'd like to get one of those for Patriots head coach Gerard Mayo because it seems like every single week he's walking back a comment that he made at the podium.

Look, part of being a head coach in this league is knowing that you're the steward of this team's identity. And the things you say are going to be used against you in the court of public opinion. Better or worse, Bill Belichick was a master at that. On the Cincinnati, you always make fun of it. It's a joke. And I think a lot of people love to do that. But look, one thing that you didn't see Bill Belichick do was either throw his teammates or his coaches or his players under the bus and i don't think that's what gerard is doing i know him personally he's not the type of mean

spirited guy that's going to do that but he's transparent and with that transparency comes responsibility when you start saying things like oh we're going to burn some cash in the offseason and then you don't do it. Our players are soft, and then take it back and say, well, they're not soft. Or this past week when our beat had the temerity to question him on whether or not Drake May should have gone for a quarterback sneak when they were one yard out, and he says, well, you said it, I didn't.

It kind of throws his offensive coordinator,lex van pelt under the bus so if we could get gerard mayo to have that type of mind erasing capability yeah it'd save us all an awful lot of coffee when it comes to uh you know writing about what gerard said and what he actually meant that's what i think would be a good gift for the new england patriots this year yeah mike. Temerity coming through with, I mean, this is a football show, man. I love it. Temerity means excessive confidence or boldness.

By the way, yes, I had to Google it. I know. I was like, thank you. What does temerity mean? Way, way too smart for me. Cody Rourke locked on Broncos. It's your turn. Secret Santa's up. Who's getting your gift? Well, if I had to do a little stocking stuff for the Broncos,

it'd be a run game for Bo Nix. But I'm going to go for the NFL people here, right? I'm going to give the NFL people a gift. I love the conversation you guys had last week about whether or not the NFL should maybe change the playoff format. If they're going to add an additional regular season game in the future, here is my idea. Add an additional wildcard spot, right? Eliminate first-round buys in the playoffs.

Give teams two buys in the regular season, and that way when the playoffs begin, you got the first seed against the eighth seed, the second seed against the seventh seed, third versus sixth, fourth versus fifth. Make it fun. Like the college football playoff format has expanded. Why can't the NFL do it again? Seven teams? Okay, I get it. But can't the NFL do it again? Seven teams. Okay.

I get it. But one through eight, eliminate the first round buys. I guarantee you that's going to be fun to watch. That's my gift to the NFL people. I mean that. And I got Peter Bukowski coming in and saying, as long as the Packers get a home game,

he's he's, he's all for it. Depends on EPA with Peter. Like that's a, I feel like we could, we could play a drinking game with Peter Bukowski. Every time he says EPA or CPOE, we can just take a drink. We'll be done before 10 minutes.

You know what? I love the idea, and I want to be clear. I love every idea that everybody's going to hear, but nobody's being a troll to another team yet. Landing a little bit of a troll move, right, Jerry Jones? But nobody's being a troll to another team, so I'm going to go next. I gave you guys three opportunities. I'm giving the Philadelphia Eagles a three-year extension for Nick Sirianni

with no firing clause involved. There is a no firing clause with that Nick Sirianni contract. It feels like a gift for us more than anything, David. That's definitely a gift for the NFC East. Absolutely. I'm hoping to see that gift in real time this weekend out there at Northwest Stadium. So I got the troll moves kicking. Let's see

John Butch go locked on Jets. Are you going to continue or are you going to make me the only Grinch out here? No, this is a gift for the Jets where we're going to give them an office. We're going to give them, in this office, it's going to be a desk with a phone that doesn't dial out. We're going to... I'm kind of dating myself, but we're going to give them an office. We're going to give them, in this office, it's going to be a desk with a phone that doesn't dial out. We're going to... I'm kind of dating myself, but you think back to the early seasons

of The Office, a computer that's not hooked up to the internet. Instead, you have a Word document open, not up to the internet, and that's where we're putting Woody Johnson. And Woody Johnson can make all of his moves from this office. He can dial out, make all the crazy trades he wants, look online, figure out what he wants to do. We're going to keep this guy out of any decisions

because this guy has done made more damaging moves in the last two three years than like any owner has done in recent even jerry joe i mean even jerry jones has been pressed by the way woody johnson's the destruction woody johnson's done to this team so woody will continue to think he's in charge and you know like i think we can actually pull this off i think woody could actually think that he's making these moves from the office because that's kind of the level of self-awareness Woody Johnson has. So that's my gift to the Jets. And I think that's the kind of gift that could end this 14-year playoff

throughout the Jets of how the Jets are on. You know, I may or may not know somebody in the Jets' front office. I'm going to have to pitch that idea. I'm going to have to pitch that idea to them, see if we can make that happen. Woody is a stapler downstairs, right? I love that we fired two owners. We fired two owners already in this segment.

This is the season of giving. We're just firing people. He's not fired. He's just in an office where he can't contact anyone. That's true. I guess I'm following you. He's not fired. He's not in charge anymore.

Technically, yeah. Do you want to help Patricia Trena out with the other New York franchise? Do you want to help her out in any way, shape, or form? You know what? She didn't come through, so no. We're not going to do that. Aaron Freeman locked on Kirk Sember.

Is Arthur Blank going to survive this exercise? Arthur Blank is going to be fine. He's going to be fine. The Atlanta Falcons had control of their destiny. They lost it. For this Christmas, I need them to get it back, and I need my guy, Cooper Rush, to step up this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

So I'm gifting the Dallas Cowboys and Cooper Rush. Since Landon went sort of into the abstract world of a divorce, you wrap up a divorce, I'm going to the fantasy world, going back to the video games, right? And I'm getting the Starman from Super Mario Brothers that makes you invincible, right? So I'm going to give that to Cooper Rush so he can be invincible this weekend against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, beat the Bucs,

and give the Falcons just a sliver of a hope that they will ultimately fumble away, as they always do. But just a sliver of hope, just to buy me a little bit more time on Lockdown Falcons to buy into the belief that the Atlanta Falcons can actually win the NFC South. Can I remind everyone the last time Aaron said something nice about the Cowboys? We beat Washington, if I'm not mistaken.

David, is that right? I can't remember. We got receipts. Aaron has a knack for predicting some NFC East shakeups. Cooper Rush, he's my guy. He always comes through for me. You know what he said verbatim? I'm listening. That's all I'm saying. He said it verbatim. He said, Cooper Cup, Cooper Rush, it's my guy. He always comes through for me. You know what he said verbatim? By the Cowboys, I'm listening. That's all I'm saying. He said it verbatim.

He said, Cooper Cup, Cooper Rush, it doesn't matter. The Cowboys are going to win. That's exactly what he said. And then I got fired for a week. It was a lot of fun. I'll tell you, putting a 40-burger on the Chargers and then getting boat raced by the Cowboys would be the most Buccaneers thing to do.

So, I mean, look, don't count it out. Kevin Ostriker locked on Ravens. I don't know if I'm in your backyard or you're in my backyard, but we're pretty close. What are you putting under the tree this year? Man, I think I'm going to give a gift to Lamar Jackson here, and that's going to be a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and hopefully that comes this week because the Ravens are 1-8

in their last nine games against the Steelers. It has not been a rivalry at this point. Like it's, it's a Steeler show and that's what it is. The Ravens have to take it back. And so Lamar, he has never played in both games. He started for six seasons. He's never played in both games against Pittsburgh in his career.

He also has only played one time at M&T bank stadium against the Steelers in his six year career as a starter. That was back in 2020 when there were barely any fans in the stadium. So Lamar has never played in front of a full stadium of Ravens fans in his entire six-year career as a starter. Seven years, obviously, he's been in the league. So I'm gifting that to Lamar Jackson. And what better way to make that happen than to troll the Steelers?

And I'm not going to take credit for this. Obviously, we talked about this pre-show. Deontay Johnson, why not send him back over to Pittsburgh right he's a good locker room fit he's a nice locker room guy Pittsburgh needs a wide receiver you know who knows if George Pickens is going to play this weekend and if he doesn't play I don't know if I'm trusting Ben Skoranek to go out and put up 150 yards on the Ravens secondary so you know you get a nice little veteran presence. Yeah, now it's going to happen. That's practically a prediction at this point, Kevin.

Yeah, exactly. That's my bold prediction for the week. Just the opposite. But let's send Deontay Johnson back to Pittsburgh. And if anything, he'll provide George Pickens. And look, they know each other. They were teammates just a year ago. It's kind of crazy, you know, all of this movement with Deontay Johnson,

this is a guy that's been in Baltimore for two months and has already caused more drama than I remember in Baltimore in the last like five years. So I think Pittsburgh could benefit from a guy like that. This is Loma. If Kenny Pickett was still on the Steelers, it would be a five-year extension, no trade clause, no out clause for Kenny Pickett.

But unfortunately, we're a year too late on that one. I love Kevin channeling his inner Tim Watley here. You're giving back the label maker. What are you doing? There you go. Exactly. I actually think the Jets may have secretly traded for Deontay Johnson and he accidentally flew to Baltimore.

That's kind of like on brand for the Jets this season. We can make that right, John. We can make that right. We can make that right. Obviously, the Pittsburgh Steelers visiting the Baltimore Ravens, one of the bigger matchups this John. We can make that right. We can make that right. Yeah. Obviously, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Baltimore Ravens, one of the bigger matchups this weekend. We've got Saturday NFL football, guys. And the greatest part is I've got a home game to cover

so I can actually watch those games. I don't have to travel while all those great games are going on. So we'll talk about those and whether or not Jaden Daniels can shake up the NFC East this weekend coming up next on NFC Squad, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And this episode is brought to you in part by PrizePix. Today's episode is sponsored by PrizePix.

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NFL squad episode and I wish I could tell you that those examples I gave in that rocket money ad read guys were were just for the ad read they're not just for the ad read and i'm actually waiting for rocket money to say stop jordans but i have i have this beautiful shelf over here that needs more shoes anyway so i asked it to cancel my netflix subscription when i saw that aaron rogers enigma documentary pop up. I had to. Speaking of Aaron Rodgers, John Butchko, Mike Debates, get ready because we've got bold predictions to wrap up today's episode

coming from you two fine gentlemen. So you have some time to ideate those things. Look, Jaden Daniels is going to try to shake up the NFC East by winning their last two games. The Washington Commanders are still in the NFC East race. The Philadelphia Eagles needed to win, needed the Commanders are still in the NFC East race. The Philadelphia Eagles needed to win, needed the Commanders to lose this past week to the New Orleans Saints.

Commanders almost did it, but they didn't do it. So they're still in this thing. And if the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Commanders in Landover, Maryland, they will clinch the NFC East. So obviously Jaden is looking to prevent that from happening as much as possible. I'm going to turn this over to Landon McCool. You've seen both these teams.

Your team that you cover has beaten one of them. Who do you think is going to come out of this contest? Who do you think is going to win the division? My heart wants to believe that Washington will win this because if I had to choose between my two most hated rivals, I'm going to choose the one that has, you know, my former coach and half of my former team on it. Honestly, I think that there's a good chance.

I mean, you know, there's every opportunity that Washington can come out of this game, come into this game and play hot early, score a bunch of points, put Philadelphia on their back foot, which is a game script that they're very, very used to. I mean, obviously this is something that happens with Philly all the time, right? But if Washington can come out and really press the issue early and make this a shootout,

I think that there's a chance that Washington can pull away from this game and at least win the game. I don't know if that means that ultimately they win the division because I do think that Philly may still be the stronger team. I think Philly is probably at this point in an argument to be one of the best teams in the NFL. But I do think that there is every opportunity because it's a division game. I think Washington is, as far as stadiums to play in,

the most difficult physical stadium to play in because of the footing and everything there and i think what it can do is it can it can really cause chaos and and and so there's every opportunity that that that washington drags philly down to their level and then beats up on at home and i certainly could see that happening yeah and look you never know when toilet water is just going to dump all over eagles fans and and diminish the ability for Eagles fans to cheer for, for their team. I'm curious. Cause Landon, I'm not going to lie, man.

Like the, the, I have never, this, this year was the first time I saw a Cowboys commanders game where I was like, okay, we're not in Dallas, even though I didn't fly anywhere. That's true. So that's very impressive. I'm also very curious to see if this is the first Eagles commanders game in Maryland. I can watch live. That is not an Eagles home game.

Very curious. That'll be interesting to see. I bet you get Washington fans out. Honestly, I think that there's – I mean, look, I don't cover the team, but the way that the team feels like it's turned around, now that it has, these rivalries become exciting again. And that's what happens. I remember when the cowboys were bad forever and ever and ever not this season but previous uh and and and when they started getting good again the rivalries specifically got exciting again it became

awesome to talk about the eagles it became awesome to talk about playing the the playing washington so i think that same thing is going to happen now that washington's sort of bouncing back as a franchise. Yeah, absolutely. And then you're at the epicenter of another big game this weekend, Tampa Bay Buccaneers visiting the Dallas Cowboys, my favorite stadium to visit, to be quite honest with you, every season. So I'm pumped for that. But the Buccaneers are road favorites, three and a half points.

What are the chances here, Landon, that your Dallas Cowboys you cover can help out Aaron Freeman this weekend? I really hope we can. I mean, only for Aaron's sake, honestly. I don't necessarily have any designs to win the NFC East. Obviously, we're well out of that sort of thing. And at this point, maybe it's better for the Cowboys to, not intentionally, but lose these games in order to kind of help their own draft stock.

But I don't know. I mean, you watch the way Tampa's played, especially last week against a really good Chargers team and just took it to them. It does feel like it would be the most Tampa thing to lose to Dallas, especially since Dallas seemingly can't beat anyone who isn't the New York Giants at home. So, I mean, I certainly think the one thing that the Cowboys have had going

for them recently is that their defense has played a lot better these last few weeks. Uh, and their run game has been really, really good. Um, so it'll be interesting to see if they can maintain that now that they're playing a good team like Tampa. And if they can, uh, you know, maybe they can pull this off and, and it can keep the ball away from Baker Mayfield and, and, and pull off a win, but I'm certainly not betting on it. Yeah, now, Aaron Freeman, your Atlanta Falcons are hosting the New York Giants, so I'm not going to ask you if they can win that game

because they certainly can win that game. I'm going to ask you, Raheem Morris kind of sounds like he's not fully committed to Kirk Cousins, right? But he also said that Kirk Cousins was brought in to help this team win now, and you're still in the division race, which would hint that maybe Kirk Cousins is probably going to start against the New York Giants. Do you feel the same way? And my question is, is it time for Penn Sember to begin this weekend? I'm apathetic to the whole quarterback situation

basically at this point in time. That's, you know, I've been beaten down by this team and Kirk Cousins' struggles these last couple of weeks. And, like, you know, there's a part of me that's excited to see what Michael Penes can do and, you know, start the clock on the future of the team. But, like, I don't have any expectations that Michael Penes is going to come in and sort of be the Lisa and Al-Gaib, the savior of this football team. And immediately pick up after basically playing one preseason game and three drives in garbage time this season and be like, oh, I'm instantly going to suddenly challenge Jaden Daniels and Boicks and and all these other guys for like who's the best rookie quarterback in this draft that so but you know i think it's obviously we're at a point where the future is now so i'm looking forward to it but i have no expectations that a quarterback change is going to do anything to move the needle for the falcons down this home

stretch but we'll see if they can take care of business against the giants whoever the quarterback is yeah and personally i don't i don't believe the Falcons are gonna go to Michael Penix at all this season at least until the NFC South division is lost if that if that becomes a fact then maybe you see Michael Penix this year a la Desmond Ritter a little while back but until that happens I think Kirk Cousins is gonna be the guy uh Kevin Ostriker we've already talked a little bit about a little bit about the Ravens and Steelers. My question for you is this. If Lamar Jackson cannot beat the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend, are his MVP chances dead? I would probably say, especially if Josh Allen wins, again,

I would probably say so. I mean, again, at this point in time, I think it's a two-man race, in my opinion, between Lamar and Josh Allen. But the thing is, when Lamar has lost Josh Allen has had big moments for example Lamar had the stinker against Pittsburgh the first time around and Josh Allen was beating Kansas City taking this putting the Superman cape on and saying hey I'm gonna end this voodoo magic myself and then took it in the end zone for the win or when Lamar really didn't play well against the Eagles,

Josh Allen was balling out again in San Francisco, and the Bills just blew him out. That's the type of thing that we're seeing here. But I think that with the MVP race, you look at the stats, both players are having incredible years. Lamar Jackson beats Josh Allen in every statistical category except for rushing touchdowns, and there's multiple other factors in this record obviously plays a role. Division, if you win the division or not, plays a role that all factors into the equation.

So I'm just not going to sit here and say that this is over. And I've seen that a lot this week where I think, yeah, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, these are two guys in the race. And if Lamar loses, I would probably look six losses for an MVP. I'm not sure the numbers behind that or, you know, how often that's happened in league history before. But you look at the bill schedule and there's a chance that this team probably goes undefeated unless, you know, they're not playing proceeding anymore in which they rest the guy.

And then that has a factor, but a big division win because recency bias is real. The Ravens vote-raced the Bills in September. Josh Allen played terribly and, you know, doesn't seem like that game's even talked about anymore because obviously this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-now-lately league. September and December is not lately. That's old news at this point.

So if Lamar picks up a big win against the steelers he beats the texans on christmas day the ravens go undefeated maybe that'll help his chances but i'm expecting if the ravens win and the bills win they keep keeping pace with each other i'd expect a pretty photo finish mvp race yeah absolutely and if lamar struggles against steelers again uh josh allen hosting the new england patriots favored by 14.5 points certainly has the opportunity to ball out on the same weekend that Lamar Jackson struggles. Final game prediction or game preview we're going to have here.

Cody Rourke, Denver Broncos. This is the first game we're all going to get to watch this week being led by offensive rookie of the year runner-up Bo Nix visiting the Los Angeles Chargers. Sorry, Broncos fans. You know, look, the Broncos can clinch a playoff spot this weekend with the Dolphins loss Bengals loss and Colts loss or they can just beat the Chargers on Thursday night and get in the playoffs what uh what's it going to take for that to happen well look I think so much I teased it a little bit earlier if I

could give the Broncos a gift it would be a run game for Bo Nix I mean Bo Nix right now if you look at if you pull up the Broncos rushing yards J It would be a run game for Bo Nix. I mean, Bo Nix right now, if you pull up the Broncos' rushing yards, Javante Williams leads, but you look at rushing first downs, Bo Nix leads the team in rushing first downs by a landslide in comparison. And he's pretty much primarily their offense. They only had 193 net yards of offense against the Colts this past week. Bo Nix accounted for 153 of those 193 there, and they still found a way to put up 31 total points.

It was a weird, weird game there. The defense is playing really well. You got a short week against Justin Herbert and the Chargers who were looking to respond after the Buccaneers came through and mollywhopped them. And now this is it. This is the Broncos' first opportunity since the Super Bowl 50 season to make it to the postseason.

Sean Payton has been very much along the lines of saying, hey, if we are going to be who we are, we have to take care of business. You get a win on Thursday night football, you're in the playoffs for the first time, and you're not looking behind you. We're with two other games remaining against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals, Patrick Holmes and the Kansas City Chiefs to round out the year. Take care of business,

and you don't got to worry about those other two games really at the end, unless at that point you're just playing for seating. So run the football here. This Chargers team, they've had two games in the last four games where they've given up 200 yards on the ground. The Broncos simply cannot run the ball. Something's got to balance out here. We'll see if they can do that.

Yeah, the Broncos are another team, man. When they drafted Bo Nix, I was like, oh, so we're just drafting quarterbacks to draft quarterbacks here, and I did not think it was going to work. And the Broncos and the Commanders showing everybody why every draft season if you don't have a quarterback, everybody's going to mock you a quarterback, and it certainly

matters. So we'll see if the Denver Broncos and Bo Nix can handle their business here on Thursday night. We're going to wrap this thing up. Mike DeBay, John Butchco, you've been warned. You've had time to prep, so I expect these to be some spicy Aaron Freeman-style bold predictions this weekend. Mike DeBay, we'll start

with you. Locked on Patriots, what's your bold prediction for Week 16? Well, I know Kevin still holds out hope that Lamar Jackson is going to be in this MVP race, but even if he does ball out the last three games of the season, my bold prediction is that Josh Allen wraps up the MVP race this weekend. If I am pulling on a Christmas theme and diehard,

I believe to be a Christmas movie. I think that Hans Gruber would look at this and say, he'd look at this, David. And he'd say, you ask for miracles, David, I give you the New England Patriots defense. That's exactly what Josh Allen is loving about this weekend. The Patriots cannot stop. They can't make a tackle, and they cannot cover mobile quarterbacks.

And those are two things that the Buffalo Bills bring to the table, and they bring them well. Joe Brady is licking his chops right now, taking a look at what this New England Patriots defense has regressed to. I think Josh Allen looks for a big week this weekend, even if they do find a way to control this thing on the ground, with the exception of Christian Gonzalez, who can only cover one man at a time.

And Christian's been great. I want to give him a tip of the cap to all the Patriots fans listening out there. Everyone knows how much I love Christian and the work he's done this year. They don't have another perimeter corner that's capable of covering Buffalo's weapons. And they're simply just not equipped on that offensive line uh to be able to uh defensive line excuse me to be able to contain josh allen so uh i think the mvp race is over this week josh allen puts up huge numbers and he takes it home congratulations to all of you who have josh allen on your fancy rosters on your playoff win. That's about to, it's about to happen.

And my favorite part of that bull prediction didn't have to Google any of the words, John Butch go locked on jets. What you got for, for week 16. I'll go with this. The jets will be ahead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter against the Rams.

You know, on paper, it looks like a mismatch Rams, three game winning streak jets, four and 10, a couple of factors in this game. First of all, East coast game with a one o'clock kick, which means it's a 10 Pacific

kick for the Rams players. It's supposed to be bad weather. I don't think it's supposed to be any precipitation, but the wind chill's supposed to be in the teens at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, which could impact the game. Aaron Rodgers has had a bad season, but I think he's about

as healthy as he's been all year After the bye, he's moving a little bit better The connection with Devontae Adams Has started to click the last couple of weeks And the Jets, as bad as they've been They've only been blown out three times this year They've been competitive in almost every game So I do think the Jets will be in this game

I think it will be a competitive game I think that they will lead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter They've done that a lot this year The question is whether they can hold it. I don't think they will because every single time the Jets have had to lead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, they've lost the game. But I do think this is going to be a more competitive game in the Meadowlands

this weekend than a lot of people are expecting. Hey, look, Devontae Adams, man, he kept me in my semifinal playoff matchup last weekend. I got to tip my cap to him. Unfortunately, Young-Way Koo, my Korean brother from another mother and also from another country technically did not help me out.

I lost by 2.2 points. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Youngway. All right, guys. I appreciate all of you and I appreciate everybody out there for coming through for this week's NFL squad. Of course, all of us are going to be here every single day, five days a week as part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. So make sure you're checking out Lockdown Cowboys, five days a week as part of the lockdown podcast networks.

Make sure you're checking out lockdown Cowboys, Broncos, Falcons. I almost said Kirk summer Ravens, Patriots, jets. And of course, if you just couldn't get enough of me,

check out locked on commanders as well. We will all see you next time on our respective shows. And the next time we do this NFL squad, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day.