Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - AFC Squad: Week 13's NFL Slate Sets The Table

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

In this AFC Squad show, the crew the Kansas City Chiefs hanging on against the Carolina Panthers, the Baltimore Ravens winning the Harbaugh Bowl, the Denver Broncos beating the Las Vegas Raiders and why Bo Nix is the favorite for NFL Rookie of the Year, why Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley are the frontrunners for MVP, and a Thanksgiving themed preview of Week 13's AFC matchups.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Skylight FrameGet $20 off a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NFL. 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/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload 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)

Was last week a dream around the AFC? No, it was not. It's time for the AFC Squad. You are talking ball with the AFC Squad. From the Chiefs to the Bills, the Ravens to the Texans, and everyone else around the AFC, it's the local experts of the Locked On Podcast Network bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming weekend for hard-hitting AFC football with our harder-hitting takes. Buckle up. It's the AFC squad, and we have a seat for you. No hurt feelings allowed. Squad up. You're part of the AFC squad. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to another AFC squad here on the Locked On Podcast Network, where you know it is your team every day. Sit back, grab your favorite

beverage, and get ready to talk about the wild week that was week 12. Not only just around the AFC, I just think even the NFL, there were some thriller games coming down to the final minute, some overtime stuff. But ultimately, it brings you all the way here Thanksgiving week as we set the table. Pun intended there, Thanksgiving week for week 13. You get all that here on the Locked On AFC squad here.

Brought to you by our friends over there at FanDuel. And start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet, and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit FanDuel.com to get started. I'm your host, as always, Cody Rourke. I host the Locked On Broncos podcast. We're joined today by John Hickman, one of the hosts over there. Locked On Texans, Mike DeBate, Locked On Patriots,

Chris Clark of Locked On Chiefs. I don't know. Up to the minute there, the Chiefs, I don't know how you're feeling, Chris. There was a little bit of a nail-biter there in Carolina. We'll get to that. Kevin Ostreicher of the Locked On Ravens podcast, winner of the Hard Bob Bull on Monday Night

Football. David Droegemeier of the Locked On Chargers podcast. Kind of the runner-up in the Hard Bob Bull thereid droegemeyer the locked on chargers podcast kind of the runner-up in the hard bob bull there we'll break it all down and look you're not first you're last i know it's thanksgiving week and david i was very curious you know are you gonna invite quentin johnson over for thanksgiving because i'm a little worried if you try to hand him the turkey's gonna drop it you know you never know yeah of course yeah you had to go there you had to go there i live i to go there. I live, I live in temple, Texas, actually that that is Quinton Johnson's hometown. So if he was

coming home for Thanksgiving, I would absolutely extend him a seat at my table. The yes, it sucks whenever you drop a ball like that, that obviously had all kinds of green grass in front of them. You honestly, you he probably scores a touchdown on that because the blocks were set up beautifully had receivers and strategic points to block down the field but you can't catch the ball before you run okay yeah uh yeah so unfortunately he just wasn't you know had a concentration drop and after that it you could see his confidence just leave uh leave it because he had dropped two or three right after that Justin was trying to get him the ball trying to get him back

get that confidence back but man it's such a fickle thing guys you know you drop one, one turns into four and then all of a sudden you're losing a football game that you had every opportunity to win I was with Jerry Judy at one point alright so I understand that there David but obviously you had every opportunity to win. Hey, I was with Jerry Judy at one point.

All right. So we're, you know, I understand that there, David. But, you know, obviously it's good to have a leader like Justin Herbert. You know, I've still went to bat for his guy there. We're going to take a look. I mean, obviously we're going to break down the AFC here in week 12. We're going to go around the room here. John Hickman, let's start things off with you, my man.

Locked on Texans. You know, obviously CJ Stroud getting Nico Collins back. That's been a big thing that we've been kind of highlighting here in these shows. I know it's been a buildup since he was on IR with the hamstring injury. Unfortunately, they fall short to Will Levis and the Tennessee Titans. What happened with the Texans this week? The same thing that's been happening all year. They can't score points in the second half.

The defense in the last 18 quarters, I think the last four or five games, the defense has more touchdowns in the second half than the offense. And they were not able to get a touchdown in the second half until it came down to their final drive against Dallas, and that game was already won. It was a Joe Mixon touchdown, Russian touchdown. Same game that they had a defensive fumble return. So the problem is, hey, in the first half, we got all the confidence in the world that they're going to win the game.

The second half rolls around in each and every game this year, whether I'm in the press box or whether I'm at home. I sit and think to myself, hmm, Houston can lose this game. And Tennessee, Green Bay, Detroit, New York. Those are games where going into the second half, I thought to myself, he's going to lose this game, and that's what happened. So it's just a season. Put it in the universe.

I think they'll be okay. I just think you're running into some issues right now. You mentioned you can't score. You got a good run game there with Joe Mixon, but the reality is like, hey, you just got to find a way to put up points consistently. think that'll that'll iron itself out but uh speaking of teams need to put up points mike the bay come on what as covering the denver broncos here right we're watching this afc playoff race right now denver's in the wild card of the seventh spot right now but miami's been creeping up we needed the patriots to take care of business a little bit

they couldn't do it what's going on with the patriots mike yeah we definitely wanted to take care of more business than we could for you, Cody, but unfortunately, the New England Patriots just continue to bury themselves with sloppy play, undisciplined play, and you're not going to win football games in that fashion. The Patriots do not have enough talent to be able to rise above that and move above that. Ten accepted penalties against the New England Patriots on Sunday, completely unacceptable. You cannot win at any level when you're doing stuff like that. So the New England Patriots have a lot of soul searching to do.

They need to find a way to protect Drake May. One of the biggest problems heading into this matchup against the Miami Dolphins, in my opinion, was going to be second year offensive lineman Trey Jacobs, who does not have a tremendous amount of experience, really struggles when you go against an edge that can really turn a wide or a very prominent corner. That's a big problem. And Chop Robinson absolutely ate him alive on Sunday and kept Drake May under a lot of duress.

It led to shoddy decision-making. And then on the defensive side of the ball, you're not seeing the Patriots make adjustments the way they have in years past a lot of duress. It led to shoddy decision-making. And then on the defensive side of the ball, you're not seeing the Patriots make adjustments the way they have in years past. When a team is going at you and they're attacking you in a certain way, New England just does not have either the ability or the indifference to make adjustments either at the half or during the game to be able to play to the other team's strengths or at least try to neutralize them. So it's just a mess right now in New England, but to score points, you've got to have the talent

and you've got to have the coaching in place. Drake May, I think, is a solid addition to this team, and I think he's going to be, but they're not going to win with the supporting cast around him right now. We're going to throw it over now. Chris Clark locked on Chiefs, and I tell you what, the Cardiac kids down there in Kansas City on the road to Carolina. Bryce Young, I don't know what it is.

There seems to be a trend here with the Denver Broncos. They're either playing teams and making it so bad for other teams at times they're forcing their head coaches to get fired or they're forcing changes, but all of a sudden they face Bryce Young, and all of a sudden now he's starting to snap into a little bit of a productive, nice little quarterback's finding his groove a little bit. What's going on with Kansas City, Chris? Because I know one thing you've talked about is they're in these close games.

And I know you said that you would love to just be part of one game where your heart is not racing at the end of the game there for Kansas City. So what's happening? This should have been one of those games. And they have another one coming up this week on Friday against the Raiders. And it shouldn't be a close game because they just lost Gardner Minshew but yeah my guess is is in the fourth quarter it's going to come down to who scores last and that is something that I absolutely hate this team just can't put teams away right now

uh the other thing I will say is every single week it seems like the teams that Kansas City plays gives them their best shot go back and watch some of that game. Bryce Young made throws I haven't seen him make all season long, and it was just him throwing the ball and his receiver went and got it. You're going to get beat sometimes. That happens. Obviously, you want to play better defense. They haven't been able to get to the quarterback.

I think they have a total of maybe 22 sacks on the year. They had 55 in 18 games last year. They're way off that pace. Can't get the quarterback down on the quarterback. I think they have a total of maybe 22 sacks on the year. They had 55 in 18 games last year. They're way off that pace. Can't get the quarterback down on the ground. Chris Jones I don't think has a sack in seven games, seven straight games now, going into eight this week against the Raiders. He'll get one against Houston. Well, John, I would like to think that he would,

but I'm not so sure about that with the way it's been going. He's still getting pressure. He's just not getting home. They don't have somebody helping him, but they do have a lot of reinforcements coming. Isaiah Pacheco is probably going to be back this week. I don't know if Charles Minahew is back this week, but he is going to probably be back when they take on the Chargers on Sunday Night Football after this weekend.

So I expect him back for that. Yeah, David, I'm sure you're excited about that one. I do expect Pacheco back this week, and that's going to be a good one. But then they also have Hollywood Brown possibly coming back by the end of December. And you're looking at maybe around Christmastime, you'll have Hollywood Brown back. So you have a Chiefs team that's 10-1.

They're not playing great. I can tell you based on my heart monitor that I am highly stressed throughout the game because it says that I'm highly stressed throughout the game every single week that they play. I wish I could have a game where they just blew somebody out. I thought it was going to be this week. It looked good to start. It didn't end up that way. They got the win. It is what it is, though. You find a way to win. I will say one thing, Mike.

I disagree with you. Teams cannot win with 10 penalties unless you're the Kansas City Chiefs and you're playing a bad team in Carolina because they did that against Carolina. That's one of the reasons that they didn't blow Carolina out is because they got down to a scoring area and then got multiple holding penalties

in multiple different drives. They finally called it. Let's not talk about the refs and the Kansas City Chiefs, all right? Let's not do that. Let's not do that, okay? We're going, man. Oh, my God. Oh, no.

My blood pressure is so high. My team is 10-1. Oh, no. It's so bad. The sky is falling. Give me a break. I didn't say the sky was falling. I said it's not fun watching games where they can't beat somebody.

It should not have been a game. Tell me about it. I know. I agree with you. Tell us about it. Yeah. Kevin, let's kick it to you. It's a choir you're preaching to right now.

I'll tell you that. Kevin, let's kick it to you. Obviously, the Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh coming out victorious in the Harbaugh Bowl. We heard from the Chargers side of things. They dealt with some drops, and obviously that impacted some of the momentum in this game. We've seen the Ravens capitalize on little mistakes.

You make a mistake against them, they find a way to create an explosive play out of it. That was the case. Big win for them on Monday night, but now they've got also a short-term round this week as well. Your thoughts here on the Ravens there. And then throw it here because Broncos fans are killing me hosting these shows. They're like, you don't talk about the Broncos.

I'm like, it's weird for me as the host to try to talk about the team that I cover. Just like, all right, guys, let's talk about them. So you answer the Ravens and throw it to me. We'll actually do that segment too. Throw it to me in segment two. We'll open it up there. All right? Okay.

All right. Well, starting off with the Ravens, I mean, this was a game that the Ravens and Chargers both needed. And for the Ravens side of things, I think it opens up a lot of possibilities for them because the Ravens' destructor can be their savior a couple weeks later, and that man is Jameis Winston. We were on this show talking last week about, was that a trap game for the Pittsburgh Steelers and

James Winston delivered a gift to Baltimore and said, here you go. Get yourself back in the AFC North race in Baltimore. Did that think they couldn't squander? Yeah, they couldn't squander the W they couldn't squander it. So they get the job done. Now, part of the reason why Baltimore is able to win this game. I know a lot was made about mistakes. Part of that is Baltimore didn't let their own mistakes get in their way as much as they have in the past. We talk about penalties a lot. Mike talking about 10 penalties and this, that, and the other.

The Ravens won this game with nine penalties. They're the most penalized team in the league, averaging about eight and a half penalties called on them per game. Including a phantom holding call. Yeah, 101 through 12 games for the Ravens they're the only team in triple penalties this year but I thought that a couple of really nice things happened in this game the Ravens stuck with the run game the Chargers could do nothing against Eric Henry he was stiff-arming guys left and right and they kept going back to that well and they kept working play

action off of that too and on the defensive side of the ball, I thought that the Ravens defensive front did a really good job against Los Angeles's offensive line. And I thought Justin Herbert did a pretty good job of navigating pressure throughout the game. I thought he stepped up in the pocket very well, found some ways to run around it and get out of sacks. But with being pressured that much, it's impossible to get out of all of them. So I thought Baltimore, a lot of high leverage situations they converted into three fourth downs including from their own 16 yard line which flipped

the game i know david you you and dan are probably going crazy over there that's a harbaugh special that's look i i was expect john harbaugh john harbaugh special let's wild wild man john harbaugh is he was asked at halftime or you know they do like the halftime interviews now with the coaches. So pointless that they do that. I know. I don't agree with it, but it happened. And John Harbaugh was asked about it and he said, well, how far backed up were we again? I just thought we were going to get it.

So they just went off of vibes. They're like, all right, we're just going to do it off of vibes and get the first down from our own 16 yard line. So they go eight at 15 on third down. I thought Baltimore did a good job of executing at a high level. I thought that's how they did a good job of trying to win this game. But, uh, I know in the wild card race, Baltimore, Los Angeles still in it. So it was Denver. You like that transition, Cody? I tried it. I like that. That's fantastic. We'll, we'll talk about that obviously, as well as the NFL award races that are going on right now, MVP, and also Rookie of the Year. From the AFC perspective, who's in it, who's not?

We'll break that down. That's more here on today's squad episode. Today's AFC squad show is brought to you by our friends over there at PrizePix. And PrizePix is daily fantasy sports done the right way. With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, PrizePix has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash. So run your game all season long on PrizePix.

And PrizePix is the only real money daily fantasy platform with an injury insurance policy so that your lineup stays in play even if one of your players gets injured. If your player leaves in the first half and doesn't return, PrizePix keeps your lineup live. Sign up today and get $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It's guaranteed. And think Justin Jefferson will get more than 83 and a half yards next week lamar jackson passing for more than one and a half touchdowns cook up hot takes with your friends and win real money this football season when you and your crew run your game on price picks check it out today download the app today and use code locked on nfl to get 50 instantly after you play

your first five dollar lineup once again download the app today and use code LOCKDOWNNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks run your game. Today's squad show is also brought to you by our friends over there at Skylight Frames. If you're missing someone this holiday season and want them to be part of the festivities from afar, well, guess what? Skylight Frames has the perfect opportunity and the perfect gift for you. Skylight Frame is the touchscreen digital photo frame that

your whole family will love. You can upload thousands of photos with your phone and watch them appear in seconds. It's so easy to use. Setup takes less than 60 seconds. And on top of that, the touchscreen feature that it has on the frame is a game changer. You can swipe through photos. You can tap to see new photos that are sent. You can tap the heart button to say thank you to the center wherever they are at. Plus, it also has a gift mode, which makes it very meaningful, a personalized gift. You can preload it with memories without ever opening the box. Surprise them with old sentimental photos as soon as it's plugged in. And now is a special limited time offer for our listeners.

Get $20 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go to skylightframe.com. That's S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T-F-R-A-M-E.com. Get $20 off your purchase now at skylightframe.com. We're going to be talking about some of the NFL award races inside the AFC. We'll highlight MVP rookie of the year, offensive rookie of the year as it pertains to some prospects around the AFC real quick. We got to talk about the Denver Broncos because look,

I don't talk about them enough on here. I feel like that's why I always like to have Sarah on here because like, I want to host and drive the show. It just doesn't make sense for me to talk about, you know, to start off, but Kevin threw it to me. So there were the rules. I want to get your, your guys' quick thoughts on this before we get into the, the NFL award races here.

Obviously the Broncos a little bit of surprise more so than I think a lot of people had expected them early on in this season. You know, you have a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix and, and, and John was saying it early on, like, he's like, I, I hated on Bo Nix for a little bit and especially after the first two weeks, but he's turned it around and now he's, he's legitimate because this kind of ties in perfectly. Now he's in the Rookie of the Year conversation alongside

Jaden Daniels of the Commanders. The Broncos 7-5, and obviously Denver this weekend beating the Las Vegas Raiders. Chris, David, obviously when you look at the AFC West perspective right there, kind of opening things up a little bit. Your guys' thoughts on the Broncos from an outsider's perspective. Just being completely wrong about that team and sean payton honestly i i really started to not like sean payton as a coach

uh just how he kind of handled everything when he first got to denver uh even before he started coaching again but honestly when somebody's doing their job and doing the will you got to give them props got to take emotions out of it and sean Sean Payton and Bo Nix have been working well together. I think Bo Nix, as of right now, he's my favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. He's played some damn good football. And I think because of his story, a lot of people were shocked that he was a first-round pick, and he's shutting a lot of people up

on the field. So I've got nothing but good things to say about Bo Nix. I don't know how long that run is going to continue, but as of right now, he's my favorite to win rookie of the year for the offensive side of the ball. I told everybody who would kind of listen about Bo Nix that it was going to take some time for him to adjust his game to the NFL level, right?

So the NFL level speeds, it's a lot faster, and you've got to make decisions a lot quicker, especially at the NFL level, right? So, you know, the NFL level speeds, it's a lot faster and you gotta, you gotta make decisions a lot quicker, especially at the quarterback position, which, you know, Hey, you know, there's a lot that you have to undertake. He's learning a new offense. I thought it was going to take six to eight games for things to start to slow down, start to click. And that's kind of what's happened so far. So, Hey, yeah, I definitely feel like, you know, he's probably the front runner for the AFC rookie of the year i gotta throw my god joe alt in there too i know uh obviously they don't get the glory you know you know you know he's not gonna win it but history he's one of the he's one of the best tackles in the league already uh back to bo nicks uh yeah i

hate to see it in the division i was enjoying the the, the carousel, the quarterback carousel that the Denver Broncos were throwing out there week after week, after year, after year. It's funny. You talk about, uh, you know, carouseling quarterbacks and, and you had, uh, the chargers there for a couple of years. Obviously they have Herbert now. Uh, now you have Bo Nix in Denver. Uh, now the question is, is who's going to be the QB in Las Vegas?

Obviously, that's going to be a big question. I know we're talking about Bo Nix, but the reality is this division is just continuing to get harder and harder and harder. Chidur. Yeah, probably. Yeah, we'll see if Deion lets him go there. You know, he might pull an Eli and make him get traded. Shadur and Tom Brady are very close,

and if Tom's going to have any say in that organization, that's very interesting. But he can't tamper, though. That's the thing. You've got to watch for tampering. That'd be the most Raiders thing ever. You have to wonder if Deion's going to be trying to get into a head coaching gig in the NFL.

So, I mean, that all kind of plays into it. But Bo Nix is playing fantastic football. I was not impressed the first couple of games. Like you said, David struggled the first couple of games. Cody, you said that as well. We've talked about that. But he has come on. He is now seeing the field a lot better.

And the big thing that the Broncos have going against them right now is they don't have the cap space to be able to add talent around him because they're getting out of the Russell Wilson deal that well, but this year they don't, they will in the near future. So they're going to be able to build around him. And I think that's going to be a big thing for this division going forward. And I will say this,

it was really weird rooting for the Ravens last night against the chargers. You can do it more often if you want it to, you can do it more often if you wanted to. You could do it more often if you wanted to. We'll see you in a few weeks. It's going to be huge. It's going to be very huge when you look at the playoff implications. I'm still sticking firm. I still think that the NFL playoffs should expand for conferences based on

record, not necessarily like, hey, you can have the worst record in your entire division and still be the fourth seed. I just don't like that. We'll see how that all pans out in the future. The NFL, if they want to make it more fun, you might change it up a little bit here. But let's kind of segue here because I feel like we just spent a lot of time

here on Bo Nix and obviously props from everyone that was able to share it from the outside perspective. Certainly seen a lot of growth from him. I definitely think he's the favorite here for Rookie of the Year. And when we talk about offensive offensive rookie of the year, I'm going to also throw something into the AFC West hat a little bit. Despite what he's working with, I think Brock Bowers has been fantastic for the rest of what he's been able to do.

As much as everyone here dislikes the Raiders. He's a fantasy team savior. Yes. He's coming up big. And look, he doesn't have much around him right now. And maybe Daniel Jones makes his decision by the time this episode publishes on all the feeds they're out there on the lockdown podcast network but i definitely think way to throw in brock bauer's name here for offensive rookie of the year from what he's

been able to do um considering who's throwing him the ball i mean it's a rough situation there they find a way to get a really good quarterback in that situation. I think Brock is going to be a little bit of an explosive hybrid guy. That is going to be a hard, I'll see it when I believe it. Speaker 2 Speaker 1 This kid is off to Cody. This kid is off to historic start. I'm so glad that you mentioned Brock Bowers through his first nine games. He had more receiving yards for any tight end. The only other two that had more Mike Ditka, Kyle pits. So, I mean, that's a pretty good crew to be in right there. And then you talk about, you know, things that he's able to

do. He's doing this all as a 21-year-old. And again, he's doing it on a team that's not showing a whole lot. I keep watching this kid and I remember Bill Belichick from the days of his coaching in here in New England and how he loved to take opposing tight ends out of the game. He wanted to have all the good ones on his side and he had arguably the best in the game in Rob Gronkowski, maybe the best of all time in Gronk doing what he did. But you just know that Belichick is going to come out of retirement and going to try to call a double 89 to get this guy out of the game. So, you know, that's the type of command that he's, that's the type of attention he's going to command. Yeah. I love what I see from Brock Bowers.

I really think that's a good drop. Well, there's also another award we got to talk about real quick. We'll go a little rapid fire because then we obviously got to get into our third segment of the day. NFL MVP, Kevin, you're Baltimore Ravens. Lamar Jackson's been in that conversation facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles, who now I feel like Saquon Barkley this past week really kicked down the door and saying, hey, I deserve to be in the MVP conversation. I think if he doesn't win MVP, Saquon, I definitely think it's an easy shoo-in for him to win Offensive Player of the Year in the NFL for what he's been able to do.

That was insane. No. Tell me. Talk to us, John. Why? No. No. The MVP should not be just a quarterback award.

So the MVP should not be just a quarterback award. Saquon Barkley is the most valuable player in the NFL for a team that if they put their pride aside and if they hand the ball off to Saquon Barkley and don't try to force Jalen Hurts to go out there and do anything unnecessary, the Eagles should possibly be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl, either them or Detroit. That's how it's going to go down. But Saquon Barkley right now, I mean, he does so many things offensively. He hides a lot of the deficiencies from Jalen Hurts, and a lot of times we've seen Jalen Hurts hurt that offense,

just plain and simple with some of his errant throws and bad decisions. Saquon, if you hand the ball off, then now you're limiting 50% of the inaccuracies or the problems that Jalen Hurst brings. He is the most valuable player in the NFL, and I hate the fact that we just regarded the MVP award for quarterbacks because we've seen – It is trend that way, unfortunately. Should have won that award once before.

Agreed. No, he is the most valuable player. Lamar can win Offensive Player of the Year. That's all fine and dandy. But the NFL has to say, you know what, we got to break it at some point. And Saquon's performance was the MVP performance. Yeah. Create position awards and then create, like, an MVP award, right?

Like, do it how college does. I know everyone's like, oh, well, all pros. I don't care about all pros and none of that stuff. Create like an actual something for like the players, you know, itself there. Kevin, I want to ask you this because look, Madden has not added a Lamar Jackson animation into the game, but yet they added the backwards hurdle for Saquon from it, from your perspective, Lamar Saquon,

how are you leaning despite your Raven affiliation? I mean, you know, it's going to be Lamar, Saquon, how are you leaning despite your Raven affiliation? I mean, you know it's going to be Lamar Jackson, and it's not just because of the Ravens affiliation. It's because, and I hear, John, what you're saying. I get it. I think that we shouldn't automatically assume an MVP is going to be a quarterback. I don't think it's fair. You've got to consider everybody.

But when I think about most valuable player, the most valuable position in the league is quarterback. So when you take Saquon Barkley off the Eagles, let's take them off. They're a worse football team, but let's add a middling running back. I don't know. Let's put DeAndre Swift back on that team. Let's say they lose more games because they don't have Saquon and they have DeAndre Swift, but I don't think it's that far of a fall off considering if you take Lamar off of the Ravens or Allen off of the Bills or the Holmes off of the Chiefs or whatever that looks like. And it's about the most valuable player being recognized. And Lamar Jackson,

he's number one in passing touchdowns, number one in passing yards for a quarterback that's been criticized his entire career for how he doesn't throw for a lot of passing yards.'s not he's not throwing the ball a lot he's not accurate and did it which was never really true in the first place he had to grow as a as a passer he had to grow as a football player but he's grown into that he's number one in total yards number one in total touchdowns number one in passer rating number one in rushing yards we can go on and on and on with lamar jackson here so there are a lot of players who are worthy. He's got to maintain it though. Five games left.

But he's done it through 12. So I'll say Saquon is in the conversation. But I still think that when you talk about the MVP, consider everybody, consider all positions, 100%. But the way that it is, most valuable player to me is if you take a star quarterback off of a roster and you replace it with, let's say Daniel Jones, that team, that Ravens team wins like three games. If you take Saquon off the Eagles and put Deandre Swift on there,

I'd probably say they would. I don't know. I go back to the Ty Huntley years. I wouldn't say three games, but also I don't think it's fair to compare a quarterback to another position. I just think I hate the conversation because you're never, ever going to be able to find a player that does more for a football team than a quarterback does. It's just never a fair comparison.

Yeah. Well, what if that said player is making your quarterback's job? I mean, that much easier. I mean, like if you just hand the ball off to Saquon, you don't necessarily have to worry about Jalen Hurst with another turnover. I think that is what Saquon does, dating back

to the New York Giants, and then, you know, the year that he's gone, they say, you know what, we can't do Daniel Jones anymore. I don't even ask Giants fans about them right now. I'm not going to say that Lamar isn't in the MVP conversation. We're probably even leading it right now. But here's my question. Where is he without Derrick Henry this year?

How much is that different without Derrick Henry? That's John's point, and I agree. Save your thoughts for that because we're going to continue this conversation here on Squatch Home because guess what? It's Thanksgiving week. We're going to set the table a little bit. We're going to look at some Week 13 games and end it with a little bit of fun here on the AFC Squad Show. You're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Today's AFC Squad Show was also brought to you by friends over there at FanDuel. Get ready for a big return this NFL season inside of FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. And look, you got a wide variety of options on your Thanksgiving plate here this week. There's a wide variety of options that you can bet on in the NFL landscape on Thanksgiving, on Black Friday, on Sunday. You got Monday night football.

There's a wide variety of options. And FanDuel Sportsbook is the perfect place to be, especially if you sign up today as a brand new customer. New customers can bet $5 and you can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out live stats. You can view live play-by-play and you can do so much more on the same exact page where you place your bets. So if you want to sign up as a new customer today, Monday Night Football, you got the Broncos hosting the Cleveland Browns. The Broncos are five and a half point home favorites on Monday Night night football if you think they're going to cover the spread you can place

five dollars on it and if that happens you'll be awarded with 150 and bonus bets guaranteed today over on fanduel.com once again that's fanduel.com never waste a hunch and make every moment more with fanduel an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Don't forget to preheat your oven for all of your Thanksgiving festivities and always a friendly word of advice. Make sure you're not that guy or gal out there on the football field on Thursday for your turkey bowl. Don't throw your back out trying to be the hero. Enjoy it.

Sit back and enjoy, obviously, the Locked On AFC squad show as well as your favorite games. We're going to take a little bit of a gander around week 13. I want to make a little bit of a fun exercise here. We're going to take a little bit of a gander around week 13. I want to make a little bit of a fun exercise here. We're going to take a look at all the games, all these teams here that have respective hosts are playing. We even throw out a couple other matchups of hosts that aren't represented here, but also compare this matchup to like a Thanksgiving dish, so to speak, right?

There's some really good matchups here. Let's start off here. AFC West, Chris Clark, we're going to start with you. Raiders, Chiefs. Talk about this matchup real quick in 30 or seconds or less, and also compare it to maybe Thanksgiving dish. What type of Thanksgiving dish is this

matchup? Well, it definitely isn't the turkey. It isn't the main course, I will say that. This game really shouldn't be that good of a game. Brock Bowers is playing fantastic, but the Raiders are going to have a QB question, and we don't even know who the QB is going to be right now as it sits. Aiden O'Connell could be back.

It could be Desmond Ritter. Who knows who it's going to be? I don't think this is going to be that great of a game. I think it's going to be one of those sides, maybe a green bean casserole type thing. It's just going to be one of those sides. Maybe people like it. Maybe they don't.

I'm hoping that it's maybe not even a close game and the stress level is low. I'm hoping that for you as well, my friend. I'm hoping you all have a great Thanksgiving. John Hickman, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars. Your quick thoughts on this game and which Thanksgiving dish best represents this matchup? You know, man, my thoughts on this game is I'll wait to see the one score game that the Houston Texans either barely lost or barely won. There's no faith that they're going to blow a team out right now. There's no faith that they're going to handle business like they're supposed to against bad teams. Again, we've seen several bad teams, way under 500 teams beat the Houston Texans this year. If I were to compare it to a Thanksgiving dish, man,

it would probably just be somebody that they told run to the store to get cranberry sauce. Nobody really cares. If we have it, we have it. If not, another gravy or something, somebody else brought will make do. That's how I feel about this game right now. That's how I feel about the Houston, Texas right now. All right.

Fair enough. We like that. Mike debate, lockdown Patriots. All right. Hey, the Colts at the Patriots, everyone in Broncos country is hoping that the Patriots can take care of business here in this game. Your thoughts on this and which dish best represents it.

Well, this game to the New England and which dish best represents it well this game to the new england patriots doesn't hold much significance other than to play spoiler and i know they'd still love to play spoiler look i don't care what these two teams have in terms of personnel there is still a disdain for the horseshoe in new england you don't want the colts to come in and beat you in the first game after thanksgiving so new england's going to try to keep this game competitive. The Colts are definitely coming in playing for something. That could be a recipe for disaster for New England.

But if they can hit their marks and they can take advantage on third down, this team can win. They can play with anybody when they're playing that game. So for Broncos fans and all the other fans out there that are hoping the Patriots can win this, there is a chance. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to steal too much of what John said, but I mean, there's a cranberry bog right next to our stadium, for God's sake. So I got to compare this dish to a cranberry sauce, maybe a can of Ocean Spey cranberry sauce. You know, the cranberry sauce that comes out with a can of dog food. That's pretty much what the New England Patriots games are right now. But

yeah, I mean, that being said, I mean, I know a lot of people love it out there, but, uh, yeah, it's just not pretty stuff in New England. Right now, Speaker 1, David Droegemeier host of lockdown chargers chargers, uh, facing a Falcons team coming off the buy. We know that Falcons defense has struggled a little bit this year. They can't get pressure on the quarterback. Ironically enough, the chargers are facing the birds.

I don't know if I'm making a little bit of a tie in here, but your thoughts here. Yeah. So this game, another team that the Chargers are facing off of extra rest when they have a least amount of rest playing on Monday night football, it just seems like that's how it is for Jim Harbaugh's Chargers this year. Everything's a little bit more difficult but uh you know hey the denver broncos beat the brakes off of the atlanta falcons uh before they went into their buy so i think this is a game where the chargers feel like they need to get right get back on the win column um and you know make sure and go enjoy some deep south southern cooking so as far as the the game that or the the dish that i compare this game to it's got to be some nice baked mac and cheese. Enjoying that Southern dish.

I think it's going to be a good one everyone's going to enjoy. How many cheeses in this mac and cheese? Great question. Three cheese blend mac and cheese. How many cheeses will be in this mac and cheese? Oh, yeah. We absolutely have to do at least three to four different cheeses here. We got to get all the different types. I love me this mac and cheese. Oh, yeah. We absolutely have to do at least three to four different cheeses here. We've got to get all the different types.

I love me some mac and cheese. I'm a mac and cheese connoisseur. I think that's a good dish to symbolize this game here. I definitely felt like you were going to go with a turkey leg or something. Yeah, not a main course game for me but a very good side well i think that this next game we're going to talk about probably is going to be the main course talking about the the baltimore ravens versus the philadelphia eagles two battles between the birds maybe it is a little bit more fitting kevin ostriker your thoughts on this matchup between

two nine and two teams in their respective conferences i think that for what baltimore has to offer and what philly has to offer, I'm putting this as the main course. And I'm saying this is a turducken because this has a bit of everything. You got Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson. You got Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley, two really good defenses. Philly's defense has been awesome. Baltimore's defense has played well over these last couple of weeks, especially more so in the passing game, which they've needed. well over these last couple of weeks, especially more so in the passing game, which they've needed.

So I'm looking at the schedule here and I'm not seeing a game that really comes close to this one. I mean, it could have been Buffalo, San Francisco, but San Francisco just looks on the way out. So it doesn't feel like that's the game to look at anymore, but I'm excited for this one because it's a big test for both teams. And I know everybody in respective conferences, they're looking at Kansas City back-to-back champs and rightfully so they've earned that respect. And Buffalo obviously is another team and in the NFC is all about Detroit and how Detroit's doing, but maybe this is an underrated potential Superbowl preview. We're seeing two teams that aren't necessarily getting all the love that some of those other teams at the top of the conferences are. So you look at

that fourth prime 425 slot obviously the NFL thinks highly of it and I certainly do too I think it's going to be a really good game all right we'll round things off here Browns at the Broncos Monday night football and look a battle between two teams you mentioned the Browns they're dangerous they're the they're a team right now who's in a position to play spoils they got Miles Garrett who's playing like an absolute freak of nature here once again this season. Jameis Winston, you never know what version of him you're going to get. One week, he's carving you up.

One week, he's throwing a lot of interceptions. Obviously, the Browns coming off well-rested Thursday night football, a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, and now they get to play on Monday night against Denver. This is going to be a very interesting game, big for Denver right before their bye week here. Very excited about this matchup here to see what Denver does. They're going to be debuting their white snow-capped helmets with the blue jerseys.

I know fans are very excited about that. If I had to compare it to any kind of Thanksgiving dish, it wouldn't go with stuffing because it's got two really good defenses. They're going to be battling and trying to go after each other. We'll go with the stuffing category here. Maybe throw a little shout-out here. Hopefully the Green Bay Packers take care of business. If you're a Ravens fan, Chargers fan, Broncos fan,

you're hoping that the Green Bay Packers, it's going. If you're a Ravens fan, Chargers fan, Broncos fan, you're hoping that the Green Bay Packers, it's going to be a snowy, cold game. That's the hope. Hopefully the Dolphins go in there and lose. It's going to give those guys a little bit more cushion there as well. We all hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving. Stay safe and obviously enjoy time with your family, your loved ones, and thank you for making Locked On whatever podcast

you listen to part of your day every single day, whether you're a first listener or an everydayer. We appreciate you so much. We'll see you next week here for week 14 of the AFC squad. We're already 14 weeks in. It's crazy. Thanksgiving's here. Christmas is on the way, and soon enough, the playoffs will be here.

We'll break it down every step of the way. Thank you so much. Happy Thanksgiving.