NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2022 Win Totals O/U with Mina Kimes

Episode Date: August 10, 2022

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal are joined in studio by superstar NFL analyst Mina Kimes to bring you all the latest news from around the league. We start with new Broncos' owner mispronouncing Roger Goodell's name (5:42). Mekhi Becton is expected to miss all of the 2022 season with a fractured kneecap (8:20), Roquan Smith has requested a trade from the Bears (13:38), Shaquille Leonard may miss some of the regular season recovering from back surgery (16:44), and Aaron Rodgers spoke recently about his ayahuasca experience (21:11). The group quickly shares their thoughts on the Hard Knocks season premiere (24:20) before getting into the 2022 NFL Team Win Totals Over/Under draft (32:01). We go around a few times with each host picking over or under a team's win total based on how confident they are in their selection, and we will track the results throughout the season. Picks include the Bears, Saints, Texans, Patriots, Eagles, Lions, Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, Cardinals, Chargers, and Bills. We close with a rapid-fire final round hitting the 49ers, Colts, Raiders, Dolphins, and Titans. Note: timecodes approximate.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. The Around the NFL podcast. Signed Gino Smith to a record-setting deal. From the Chris Wesleying podcast studio, it's Around the NFL. I am. Dan Hansis, and I come to you in a studio filled with some heroes,

Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, and a very special guest. I believe this is her third time on our program, and we're very happy to have her. The great Mina Kimes. What's up, Mina? Hi. I was trying to remember when my last appearance took place. It was definitely pre-pandemic.

In person. You did do some pandemic shows. I remember you did one with Colleen and Claibon one week. And then there's one with the three of us. Right. Okay. Inner monologues was a fun one. Inner monologues, yeah.

It's a very strange episode. In person, you made an impression that first time. Well, speaking of being in person, I have seen Greg, but I haven't seen you two in person. For the listeners who don't have the visual, you guys look tan. You all look like you have been vacationing, like in the Micanos or however you say it or something. I have attempted to put sunscreen on daily, and it does not. seem to affect, affect what's happening. Tan, I didn't say burned.

I feel burned. You look great. You look hot all the time. I don't mean hot. He fell asleep at a Hollywood hotel pool for like six hours. And he still has that day. Two months ago. It's legit burns my calves.

And I'm continuing my transition to become my father, which is I'm working outside and working up a lather in the sun, stupidly not wearing a hat or any. They just. Freckley. I get those freckles. It's the Irish of me coming out. Anyway, me. you know Mina Kimes.

Mina is a star. NFL on ESPN. She's all overplace, Mina Kimes show. And what a treat this is for football fans, really. Let's be honest, the world over, to have a single podcast with two of the top 10 analysts in pro football. Well, four, really, according to the London-based prestige publication, The Guardian.

Sessie made it, Sessler. I mean, how about that guy? Who is that guy? He's a top 10 football insider. Damn right he is, Dan Levitard. Mina number two, ATN number seven. And, you know, not since, Mina, the Stephen Urkel showed up on Full House in 91. Has there been a crossover episode with this much juice, this much appeal?

So I'm Erkel. Well, you could be that or Stephanie Tanner. I mean, it's your choice. Erkel feels like the move. Breakout Star. Kind of you've become bigger than the, you know, you know, SPN NFL operation. You're such a star.

They're like Urkel overshadowed all the Winslowes. I like that. I like to. Erkel is my podcast, Mina. Stefan is television Mina. Oh, I like that. Stefan Erkel for people that get those references. I hope so.

And by the way, I know you've been a regular visitor on the Dan Lebitard show with Stu Gatz. Do you want to, some people call me the peacemaker on this show. I smooth things over when necessary. Greg and whatever, whoever he's feuding with any given month. You heard Stugats there, of course. Maybe you should hear it again. I think it deserves another. A little context.

They were making fun of Mark for some reason. Sessie made it Sessler. I mean, how about that guy? Who is that guy? He's a top 10 football insider. I don't think we needed the context. I think it's all laid out. But, Mina, do you want to play Peacemaker in this scenario?

Okay. I don't know why he singled you out to be. honest out of the group. I want to think it's random, but part of me thinks maybe not. Knowing Stugas, and I know him pretty well, I think it's your name. He probably just thought Sessie, or whatever.

What do you say? Sessie? Cessie. And that is 1,000% that he likes, he would just zero it in on your name. He saw the nickname potential. You guys have names that are not easily mocked in the same way. I think that's probably I wouldn't take it personally. That's a generous way to look at it. Because there's a lot of people

on the list. Now, I guess it could have just been any of the three of us, but he chose, you know, one of us as the person. Let's not twist the knife, Greg. We've been down this road. But J.B. Long, when we were at Rams camp, was very complimentary of you. And I feel like that kind of made it even Stephen in a lot of ways. I think he was attempting to curry favor, but he already had my favor. So, you know, I appreciated it. All right, Mina. Another, another Rams employee here doing the preseason games this year with Andrew Whitworth. Yes. Very exciting. Yes. I want I went to Rams camp, I want to say, a week ago, actually, from today. And Siciliano was there, one of the Andrews, but Big Andrews, sorry, I'm not trying to refrain from calling them Big and Little Andrew, but Big Andrew was, he's enormous.

I wanted to do a group photo where I, like, cut his head off. I had like a whole humorous, but he wasn't, he didn't make it that day. So, yeah, I wasn't able to do it. Just circle back around on that. Tough. But, yeah, so check out Also, Mina on Rams, preseason. and telecast. She's all over the place. Today's show, fun.

Gregi, you're excited because we're going to talk some over-unders on the 2022 season. We're going to do it with a little twist, little pizzazz, do a draft style. So all four of us are going to take turns, picking over-unders that we're comfortable with going one way or the other, obviously. And then we'll track these. These are things we'll track and circle back to later in the season. But before that, let us hit the news. Thank you, everybody. It's great to see you today.

And I'd like to thank Roger Goodell, Commissioner Goodill. Roger Goodell. What is the background there, Mark? Well, that is the – that's Rob Walton, the new Broncos owner. And that was his introductory greeting to the fans in the world, and he utterly botched the name of the commission. That's an amazing flex. Did he botch it, though? Yes, that's a power move.

He's worth 70 billion, so, you know. He is worth something like three times as much as any previous NFL owner. And that wasn't like, oh, I'm nervous speaking in front of people and said his name wrong. He said it multiple times. He just doesn't know the man. He does not know Roger Goodell. Also, let's understand the hierarchy of our league. He's Rob's boss.

That's true. I remember we had a really bad boss a long time ago in the newsroom who's no longer with us. He's still on the planet, but I don't know where he is anymore. Good luck to him whatever he's doing. It was his first day and he was very much, you know, laying. He was making it clear in the newsroom with this energy that he was the boss and he was looking to fire people and he was looking to clean up the ship and make it his own. And I was like, oh, geez, we were very young copy editors at this point. A bellowing voice intentionally.

And I was like, oh, shit, I better go up to this guy and introduce myself, you know, and play the game, Corpo game, you know. So I go up to him. I say, hi, doing. Nice to meet you. Dan, and he just looks at me, and he goes, do you have a last name? I was like, oh, God, this is going to be horrible. And it was. That invites, I think, the obvious question, which is, did Roger Goodell correct him?

Because, okay, so someone whose name has been mispronounced since the day I, you know, entered this earth. I, until recently, maybe until adulthood, when adults would say my name, teachers, referees, authority figures would say my name wrong, I would just let it slide. What did you get? What were the... Oh, my God. Chimis? No, no, my first name.

Both, really. Mina? I got some Kimes. Mina is a really common one. Straight up. Mena, you've got... You've not dealt with not... I mean, the person saying Mena has not dealt with a lot of our language, if that's what they're coming out with us.

Nina, even though it's right there. But I wouldn't... Being the beta that I am would never correct them. Oh, Goodell's not. Goodell's not correcting him. Not even privately. That's too embarrassing. I mean, to Rob Walton.

Apparently, Goodell is just an underling, so it would be hazardous to correct him. Anyway, a new owner enters the NFL. Let's get to the news, starting with bad news around my Jets. Why can't the Jets get through in August without something awful happening? I don't know what that's all about. But Mackay Beckton, the former first round pick who missed most of last year with the knee injury, the hope was he was going to kick over to the right side of the line and get things back on track. Well, that's not going to happen because he suffered a.

fractured right kneecap during Monday's practice and the injury according to rap sheet is one that will likely end his season uh robert sala talking about beckton who's obviously been scrutinized and criticized uh for work ethic and other issues uh salah came to his defense uh on with social media in this world we we we um dehumanize these athletes in the worst way imaginable and uh makai has walked in this building and he is taken every single punch you can get from every which way and he shows up and he works his tail off and he grinds every single day he shows up to camp and he's fighting to get himself back in shape he's got videos of him vomiting and people are throwing shade and he's limping and he's doing all

those different things and he's fighting for this for his family for himself for his teammates for this organization for this fan base and he's doing everything and then everybody wants to drop them like a wet rag. That ain't the case. There's a lot of frustration, Mina, around Becht and amongst Jets fans because he was so tantalizing when he was on the field as a rookie, and now you wonder what the future holds. Sala said that we love Mackay.

His ride is not over, but this is another huge setback. A huge setback for him personally, and obviously the organization, given that he was such a high draft pick. But I would venture to say for Jets fans, if Dwayne Brown steps in his left tackle, that seems to be, he seems to be the prohibitive favorite, he's there. I don't think it's that much of a downgrade for Zach Wilson this year. If you have Dwayne Brown bending the left side, George Fan, who's been rejuvenated in New York on the right side, that's not a bad tackle combo. I see Jets fans panicking about this season, oh, this is going to step back Zach Wilson. And I don't think it's that bad if Brown plays.

He played at a pretty high level last year. It's been good for a long time. They're just getting those former Seahawks. I mean, no, their offensive line is a strength. The Dwayne Brown thing is a little strange to me. Joe Douglas was quoted saying on Tuesday that it's like the wheels are in motion. I mean, I've never seen a free agent spend like a scrimmage on the sidelines before signing and then had like a two-day sit-down. My only guess could be that Dwayne Brown doesn't want to sign.

until the official training camp portion of training camp is over, which is now, basically, it's today, Wednesday. Training camps are generally ending around the league. And that he's going to join the team. He just didn't want to do it too far in front of the season or else none of this really makes sense. But yeah, if you have Dwayne Brown, that's probably about the median expectation

or better of what you could have possibly expected from Bechtin, except he's a lot more reliable. You actually expect him to play. I think if you're a Jets fan, because I think you're right, If Dwayne Brown signs and he's adequate, you're good. But they're reading things like this from The Athletic. It said after a completion to Denzel Mims, Wilson was sacked on four consecutive dropbacks.

On a few of them, so many pass rushers got to Wilson that it would be unfair to even credit one player. I just feel it's like the wreckage of August for Jets fans has been long. It's been storied. And can you get out of this with an adequate offensive line? If so, that would be a major victory for the Jets. I think the Jets could have potentially a good offensive line. And that was a bad practice. There's been plenty of positives.

It's been much better than past August in terms of practice reports. Remember the green and white scrimmage a year or two ago when they got shut out by like the second team defense? Like there have been positives. And I think with like, no, nobody remembers that except for you and other jet fans. We remember. iconic moment. But I will, I will say. Snoopy bowls though.

You could, you could. There are Snoopy bowl losses. This is for Jets fans that are even more optimistic than me, this could be seen as a crushing loss. because you're imagining the version of Beckton that was going to play this year was the guy that flashed in 2020. You're like, oh, he was going to be that guy. But there are a lot of bad vibes around Beckton, obviously, going into the season and last year.

So, yes, I'm with you, Mina. This could be something they can recover from, but obviously disappointed. But the team seems to have come around and appreciate Mackay's, like, effort this over the past 40 days. Sounds like he busted his ass to get back into shape. They're trying to be nice humans to him. And then the financial aspect is going to come up quickly on them next year because they'll have to decline as fifth year option. And it might partly be because their defensive line is so good.

That's the number one reason I'm excited about the Jets is like they're so deep up front. Maybe that's why they're crushing the offensive line. Are they going to be in your over-under draft? Do you have them? No, I don't feel that strongly. Hold a thought. I'm just saying like when I saw Jacob Martin is like their seventh defensive line, I'm like, dang, they're pretty deep. Another former C-Ox legend.

In other news, NFL Network's rap sheet reports Bears linebacker Roquan Smith has requested a trade. We all know Mark Smith's ability and the fact that the Bears are rebuilding. You would want a 25-year-old to be part of the rebuilding process, but there is some bad blood and it goes back to some negotiations that he feels haven't been done in good faith. Well, he's his own agent. And I think part of that would be, you know, the Bears obviously a new regime, they want Ryan Poles says we want to keep them. They did make an offer.

I think you're looking at somewhere between Shaq Leonard and Fred Warner on where, like, this contract would go. And I wonder if you're your own agent that, you know, you're hearing stuff that your agent would protect you from. Like, we do value you, but there are aspects of your game and what we're going to do with our defense. And with Fred Warner and Shaq Leonard, those were existing regimes that knew what those players were and knew what they would do in their scheme.

I think with Roquan Smith, it's gotten a little rocky because. this is a team in a rebuild that can't really project what Roquon Smith will be exactly in the new defense. Maybe it's because I had to do 10 shows about where Debo would go, but I just don't want to play this game of like believing a trade request, especially when I do think the team is going to try to keep him. For a few reasons, Robert Quinn makes sense for this team to trade because I do think they could get something pretty sizable back from him. They're obviously not a contender.

he's 32 years old. Roquant Smith, I don't think they would get huge return. Some of that's just positional value to me and destinations. And you've got a defensive head coach who's coming from Indianapolis where the star of his defense was a Will linebacker, Darius Leonard. I have to think he's coming in. He sees Roquant Smith, who is the best player on these defense outside of Quinn, as the centerpiece.

it just doesn't seem like Ibrufluse. Obviously, he's not making the shot, calling the shots here, but I just don't really think he'd want to move on from this particular player. I saw some analysis, and I think it was Sam Monson, although sometimes the PFF guys blend together. I apologize for that. I'm just saying, like, well, here's,

they all have PFF in the Twitter name, so you're, like, out picking up your daughter at Beach Camp or whatever, and you just see a tweet. It's just like, it sort of runs. Yeah, it sort of runs into each other. But the idea was like it makes sense that they're not going to extend too far to sign Roquan Smith. He's an offball linebacker. And like by the time they're actually good, like that's not a position that you pay a lot of money for.

And I totally disagree just because I think it's much harder as the bears have shown to find players that are worth spending on than it really is to work around the salary cap. And they have virtually no players to spend big money on. And this is one of them. Like the point is to keep your good players. Don't they have like $500 million in cabspace next year? They are set up to make a lot of moves. But Ryan Poles is saying they're like a sneaky, cheap, big market team that ultimately they don't spend as much money as they possibly could,

especially this year. We mentioned Shaquille Leonard. Oh, pardon me, Shaquille. Yeah, you'd be. Oh, you said Darius? I said Darius. That's a fine. It's like the Washington football team tax.

San Diego. Initially, yeah, you get. Schuil. Yeah, Los Angeles charged. You get a little leeway. I think there has to be, like, an acceptance that it's going to take people time. It's like when you were young in the year, you have to put your date on your schoolwork every day, and the year would flip, and it would take me to, like, January 25th to figure out what was going on with the year.

I also think Washington football team is fine to just keep. Like, you can just keep saying that. People get it. Yeah, it works. You don't need to move on. It's technically true. So we mentioned Shaquille Leonard. He had the back surgery, and, you know, the hope was he's going to be ready to go.

But he still doesn't have a timetable. And people should know that follow our league. It's August 10th. It's my wife's birthday. Happy birthday, Emily. Happy birthday. I'm going to pick up some Prosecco and some nice cheese. Emily.

I've been told not to talk about your wife. Well, respectfully, you can. Justin isn't normally that creepy. That was a callback to a time before when he was creepy. Notice how I said my wife's name, Emily. And then when you brought up your girlfriend's name, it was Jessica. And it freaked everybody out. I continue to think this is being over-exaggerated.

I don't think so. It's never happened. I don't think so. Anyway, we are getting to the point. Mina's like, can I call a cabing? We're getting to the point on the calendar where these injuries, we're getting closer to week one. So with the fact that Shaquille Leonard doesn't have a timetable, Mina, that's not great for

the cults who really need him in the middle of their defense. Yeah, this injury freaks me out a little bit. And, you know, back generally. but then when you hear the back might be connected to the ankle, I hope I'm not misrepresenting. I'm most definitely misrepresenting the actual medical nature of what's going on. But it is one of those injuries when you read every report. It does make you a little nervous just because it doesn't seem as clear cut as maybe some others.

And then, of course, yeah, where we are in the season, I would be worried. I like this Colts defense a lot. I think the front could be really exciting. It's, I guess Bradley, we know what he wants to do. But if you take out Leonard, even though, you know, they've got a couple of other decent linebackers there, it loses a lot of the sizzle for me. Right. Plus, like, exciting might not be the word that, like, fans of the last few Gus Bradley teams would use to describe his defenses. They struggled. And so, you know, Matt Eberflus gets a job elsewhere. And the wording around this, it was Arkham Wolf, who I believe has been a guest on the Mean Time show featuring Lenny. It was Arkham Wolf.

I think that sort of broke this, that the wording around Darius Leonard is at some point during the season. Oh, wow. To me, and this is going back to the surgery, reading between the tea leaves, like, he's pretty likely, I think, to start on PUP. And that there's certainly no guarantee that he's even coming off PUP after four games when he's first allowed. So a Gus Bradley defense, which is the CX defense, works if you have stars, right? and they do have stars on this team. You've got Stefan Gilmore now back, you know, the Iraqi scene left. Who they say has been like dominating in practice.

I still like he's a good player. You know, you think of him as being more of a man corner, but this is obviously going to be primarily cover three. But you do, he has both, I think you do need like a shutdown corner. And then you need that four man rush. They do have a four man rush. They've got DeForest Buckner on this side who's better than any interior defender the Raiders had.

And then ideally you'd have, okay, well, who's the Bobby Wagner? That's Leonard. But if you take out any of those stars, the defense doesn't really protect its players. And it suddenly starts to fall apart, which is what we've seen in his recent stops. I like it when the Seahawks fan and Mina kind of comes out. Like, she's got to stand up for Gus. This is the only defense. No, I'm not standing up for it.

This is the only defense in the NFL left that plays this way, right? None of all of the former Pete Carroll disciples, including Pete Carroll himself, has embraced a Fangio-style defense in Seattle this year. Gus Bradley is the last. Oh, Joe. So who gets whispers? Just Vic Vangio and our producer's girlfriend. Okay. And the latter one is they both came up.

Where is Vic Fondgio right now? He's got to be like... Vicks, cash and checks. He's got to be grumbling. It just can't be a happy city on the sidelines. Good news for both Mark Sessler and Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers, whose use of the drink ayahuasca, which is a hallucinogenic. Right, yeah, a drink is an interesting.

from the earth. During an off-season retreat is not considered a violation of the NFL's drug policy. Rogers talked about it on the Aubrey Marcus podcast. He went to Peru, maybe with Mark, maybe not. Why is this good news for me, according to you? And he won the MVP before that season, and then it won it again after that. And according to this write-up on ESPN, ayahuasca is defined as a, and Mark can tell you this, but as a psychoactive beverage native to South America and is often used for religious.

ritualistic or medicinal purposes. So, Mark, this is excellent, excellent news for the Packers and the MVP. And of course, for you and your continued employment here. I'll accept it. I mean, it's from the earth. I don't think it should be on a banned list. He's not taking it during, you know, game preparation or game weeks. It seems to be when he's off on his own in Peru and stuff.

Like in Hollywood at a hotel. Right. That's self-exploration or in a hotel. He said it was the best day of his life. better than winning the Super Bowl. Have you ever, if you've ever taken mushrooms, I will just say this. This goes back many,

many years. You are put into a different reality and I can totally understand. Also from the earth. Also from the earth. And I can see why he would call an experience like that the most mind-blowing experience is at.

Right, you said, when he opened his eyes, it felt like opening his, it was a wild interview. And then the host, it was a guy named Brandon Marcus. I had to listen to this because I don't know. It just, it sounded so wild.

Aubrey Marcus? He said it from the Aubrey Marcus podcast. Okay, I guess that's it. Brandon Marcus. Just another PFF guy with a beard, Greg? Brandon's a colleague here. A former producer of our. He still works here.

I saw him today at the commissary. All right. He said it felt like having a hundred hands all touching you at the same time. And I wasn't sure if he meant like literally there were 50 people there because he said it was a big group thing. But it felt like a hundred hands on you all at once. And it felt like pure love. Yeah.

I was never that dude like in college. And I got scared off when a buddy of mine told me that he went down this road of, you know, natural products from the earth. And he said that Jay Leno on TV was the devil talking to him. And I was like, all right, I'm going to stick to Bud Light. The host answered his story by saying that when he took ayahuasca, he, like, imagined every different way to die possible, most of which, like, included bugs, like, clawing out of his eyes.

I had a friend trying to convince a group of us in a farmhouse when this occurred that his father invented two objects, one TV guide, which was not true, and two, would. But he made a convincing case for a amount of time. I feel like we were talking. I had a beautiful two or three weeks kind of taking acid on and off for like 20 years ago. And it was great. It was fun.

Mina, your turn. I'm literally the biggest star in NFL media. I got to get out of here. Let's take a quick break, finish the news, and then get to everything else. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision makers, and share

the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies, roster construction, and the trends that shape the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Matt Jones. Now, I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel?

That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more.

I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Florio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast

on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right. Welcome back. Where is the Mina Fame Meter app, by the way? I know this might make you uncomfortable,

but I'm just curious. You're here with us. Two years since we last saw you all together here, like if you go to Chipotle or something, Are people like, hey, Mina, do you get that a lot here in L.A.? Sports bars, definitely sports bars. Well, you're probably on one of the televisions at the sports bar, too, half the time. I would say airport sports bars, too, is probably, that's airport sports bar in the middle of

that of that Venn diagram. I mean, you know, the airport sports bar just can't, yeah, can't handle that. Seems annoying. Pretty low, though. I don't know. I had trouble getting in here. That's true. We did.

I didn't, we did not know the security procedures here. with a don't you know who I am? You're the first outside the building guest we've had. No, Greg observed first. And maybe this is a little bit connects to what I said about my name, my meek obedience in any situation where I'm confronted with a barrier. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I probably shouldn't be here, you know.

I'll drive home. We have a similar sort of fame, but it's just only directly outside of a London football game stadium. Right. We're basically the Beatles during Hard Day's night. And that's definitely in the news, yes, the hard knocks training camp with the Detroit Lions season premiere was Tuesday night. Of course, you know the listeners that Colleen Wolf and I launched a new podcast, which you can check out in this very feed. So I don't want to say anything else about it because I've said enough.

But I'm curious if you guys watched it and if you had any takeaways, let's play a little bit from our friend Dan Campbell from the premiere. The last thing I'm going to say is this. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no light. There's a song Metallica has no leaf clover, and it says, man, when it comes to the soothing light at the end of your tunnel, it's just a freight train coming your way. So if you're seeing a fucking light, it's a freight train.

Just put your head down and go to work. It's about to be fun, man. It's about to be fun. Ciao! Wait, but it's not going to be fun. There's a freight train coming. No, no. What does that mean?

I'm a little afraid. I love the, when they were showing the crowd there, the Lions, you know, players there, because there were a couple that looked like they were ready to run through a wall. Their eyes were so big. But there was another couple because, you know, this is the, you know, humanity. Just saying, yeah, golf, go on. That kind of looked like I feel like I would have looked in that scenario. It was like confused.

That was like, wait a second. Does that mean we're all going to die? Like, what is that? What does this analogy mean? I hear your point on that. Like, some were totally locked in. Some were kind of like, what is this guy talking about? I'm not a scholar in the Metallica realm,

but that's a lot of James Hedfield's lyrics. It's not the most optimistic way to look at things. And that's real, yeah, it's fair. I'm wondering what he was actually trying to say there. I've been like real hot and cold on hard knocks depending on the team, the personality of the team. This is the one based off the first episode that appeals to me more than any of,

other of its previous iterations and it has to do for me with um i think the characters in this on this team are fueled by language dan campbell like he feels to me like um a beat poet on the mind altering drugs that we discuss who completely loses his way verbally but then comes back and finds his way and the crowd responds and it's like you're rooting for him and i love the way he speaks and jamaul williams i just feel his heart beating out of his chest the way he speaks to the team and they just seem unified and fun and real to me and i know that we were on that Detroit Lions thing a couple summers ago, and that train went right off the tracks. I'm kind of back on.

I don't really care what the result is, win-loss-wise. This is kind of why I became a football fan way back when. You didn't know as much about the personalities back then, but they were dynamic people. You are a free agent in the NFL fan. That's a stretch. I'm just saying I'm enjoying watching them. I'm enjoying the experience. What's the stretch?

To pick up the Lions is my next year. But you're a free agent. I, you're still holding on to that. Are you restricted free agent? Are you unrestricted? Are you not going to. Are you on the reserve? I'm like a plan B free agent from like 1989.

Who's been trying to court you the hardest? No one. Yeah, weirdly this hasn't come up. It's not, it's literally, literally nobody. He's divorced from the Browns, but sort of no one totally believes it. So we haven't even thought about the idea of you rooting for another team. Take up the chargers. They would let you, like, walk.

They're high on the list. They'd probably give you a jersey with your name on it. Also, we live here. That's a good self. You have a jersey with your name. Boy. Justin Herger. I don't want a jersey with another man's name on it.

So I would ask if it could be me. I understand that. And I'd pick a number. I would instantly vote to the top 10 chargers super fans. Like, it would not take, I'm not trying to diss the chargers. No, we know the score, but like, they would embrace you. They're looking for that, right. Mark, you got to come on the benched with Beneta podcast and pick a favorite team with Rachel.

I think that, because she's also going through this right now. The same team? Not the same team, but you guys can just like discuss this fandom void. Let's try that, like, next week or something. That'd be fun. I think this hard knocks has the thing you alluded to that makes the good hard knocks good, which is the charismatic coaches, not just Campbell, Aaron Glenn. I mean, this coaching staff is just do staley, just overflowing with charisma.

You think back to what I think is the best hard knocks, the Jets, Rex Ryan hard knocks where Dereyves held out. Rex Ryan carried that hard knocks. The Browns won for a few years ago with that one. Hugh Jackson. No, the coach, the coach who, like, captured America's sweetheart. Tony Wiley was it? Yes, who would jiggle his stomach comically. Also, Greg Williams was there, so it was like you had a super villain on the staff too.

Right, saying wild stuff. I think, and then I was just say I was, I got a little chills when Aiden Hutchinson got the whole team singing. You know, I mean, I felt myself being manipulated emotionally. I'm like, don't say this means Aidan Hutchinson is a leader. But then I looked at my arm, the goosebumps were there, just saying he might have that it factor. That's what this team does. By the way, your pod, I listened to this morning. Everyone should.

Oh, it was excellent. Well, you and Colleen have great chemistry, but it was a thorough, thorough recap. And I thought you did an A plus job. We had a lot of fun. We're using a vector voting system for choosing the MVP based on how MLB chooses their MVP. As you know, Greg, the AP and NFL MVP. it's just 50 guys get one vote each. Right.

And that is lame. But vector voting assigns like a weighted scoring system. So we're doing a first, second, and third place vote for each episode. And then Graver will be tabulating. And then we'll have a Hard Knocks MVP that just locked in load. I'm so excited about naming the MVP. I did notice that during the course of the first episode, Gravedigger, what received about 25 additional jobs to actually producing the show,

including getting you Detroit pizza, but a lot of math because like you, Colleen and Dan, are not into the math side of things. No, yeah. He's already got us some merch, so we're already off to a great start. All right.

That's enough. And by the way, lots of NFL UK around the NFL fans asking when can they see Hard Knocks? It's on NFL Game Pass on Fridays. So there you go. So if you want to set aside the Hard Knocks podcast

until you could watch it, totally make sense. to me it's an evergreen product there you go all right let's get to it let's see i got on my notes here i had the plug there the uk note break i had mina fame i checked in on that and now let's get to over unders on the 22 season um Greg do you want to like set the table on this one because I know this is near and dear to your heart the ayahuasca uh for greggs heart is over unders and gambling in general well that's not true we're not allowed to under league policy, but we are going to

take a look. I believe our trusty friend Sean Kelly printed out some over-unders from draft Kings, and we're just going to pick in a draft style, and Justin, I don't know if you've do a way to, like, randomize the draft order for us on air. Oh, your diggers

got that under control. We haven't really spoken about this, but the idea would be that we all draft, not in a snake draft, just like an NFL draft. You know, say more to the whole time, and we take the over-unders that we feel the most strong about so we'll keep track of this so if if for some reason you think let's say I'm trying to think of one that no one's going to take but like the bill's over 11 and a half is like

your number one pick of the year and that would be your first draft pick and we'll track this during the season so draft order is very important here I would think uh if you have something if we all agree if we all agree let's try to do like at least three each and see where we are time Time wise, Mina has 400 shows she has to do after this. So we want to be respectful of her. What is the winner win, materialistically? You just, the respect of your peers and the audience. Why does everything have to have a money value to you are?

I feel like hopefully I already have those things, but. Maybe not. What if Stu Gautz is listening? Oh, that's true. Can I come back if I win? Yeah, you can come back. We'll get our own prize. Especially if you were to lose, we would definitely want you to come back.

Maybe Nick Fortier, who does keep track of Go Get My Lunch, which is our annual Preseason.org predictions. Could add this to go get my lunch. Dot org and yes. A new tab. We're just giving everyone work to do. Not doing a damn thing ourselves. You do get a free lunch here at the NFL huddle.

A free lunch at the HUD. As we all do. I thought I was going to get that anyway. Yeah. We already pitched that as something. You can come back again. You can come back anytime. You're in the Inglewood area.

I was at a long time ago when I worked at MLB.com, there was a Christmas party with an open bar and former Yankees catcher. Jim Lairitz worked at the time with the company. And I was at the bar and Jimmy Laird was next to me and there was some like attractive women to his right. And he literally turned to them and said, hey, can I buy you a drink? And the girl was like, it's an open bar. And then she just walked away.

Still hit that hang slider from Mark Waller's though, 96. All right. Let's get into it. Graver, do you want to do the automized draft? I'm sure there's a website or something you're working off here. Yeah, let's generate a random list here. Here we go. I suppose we could have just been nice and let our guess.

I would, I think, I thought about that. Well, maybe after Mina randomize it. No, it's fine. We're in too deep. I don't need to go first. We would have missed that sound effect. We have a list. Okay.

Greg, Mina, Mark, Dan. Son of them. And it does, I don't get a snake either. No. No. That's not fair. You said, no. It's like an NFL drug.

No, I said that. I don't think. it matters unless we all are agreeing and we It doesn't matter. Do you want to trade draft picks? If it means that much to you as the host, you can have it. I'm the bigger man. There was no way we were getting out of that exercise without controversing.

Okay. First, if I'm first, then this is one I do think other people would have taken at some point. I'm going bears under six and a half as the very first pick off the board. Six and a half. That's more than a handful of teams out. there. The Seahawks are at five and a half, Jets at five and a half, Texans at four and a half.

It's one of my truisms that it's really not that hard to win six or seven games in the NFL. You can kind of stumble into it, and the bears have a pretty... Hell, the Falcons won seven last year. Soft schedule out of the division, and that's part of the reason there. Some of their underlying analytics are okay. I don't care. Their starting left tackle is Braxton Jones. We talked a lot about their wide receiver group that a few. days ago that they're running out Nassimba Webster, Chris Finkie, and Isaiah Colter. But that's not going to be the group in the season. I believe in Justin Fields.

I believe a good outcome for this team would be five wins. I just look at Matt Eberflus, as Colleen let us know he's called. And I don't see like a great track record of dominating success. I always look for that in my head coaches. Like are you bringing something tangible to the table, like tangible schematic success. And I don't know if I have that in Matt Eberflus. He's been like a totally good defensive coordinator, but not one that like stuck out to me as one of the five best in league. And then you look at the roster and beyond the defensive line with Quinn who may or may not be on the team or beyond Quinn on the defensive line, it gets really thin, really fast. They're excited about the secondary, but they're excited about second round

rookie picks like Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon being a huge part of that secondary. I just look up and down and there isn't one part of this team that you can feel confident is better than average. And so to me, I think they have a better chance of being in the mix for the number one overall pick than they do of going over six and a half. You'll notice on this list, no one is below four and a half. And almost always, you know, there's a one, two, three, four. lost teams but so they're here there's some real teams that are going to drop bombs this season

and I think the bears are safe bet how about you mean a number two overall pick that was so negative that I feel like I have to do it over now like it I'm gonna go I'm gonna go with the saints at eight oh I love it um I figured Greg or Sessler Sessie would I find what they did to the Saints insulting and you're going Saints over over eight to be clear yeah um here's the thing You get to play the Bucks, or pardon me, the Falcons and the Panthers a couple times there. This defense is still, I think, one of the five best defenses in the NFL is getting a little bit older. You are counting on some younger contributors, but the core is still in place. And then offensively, you know, for my own podcast, we do these division previews.

And I took some time to rewatch James Winston starts from last year. I was higher on him after re-watching them. At the time, I thought, hey, it's pretty conservative. You look at some of the deep passing metrics, they're not that great. I was looking at the end of the season before I went back and watched. But when I went back and watched, I thought he looked extremely sound fundamentally. I thought the wide receivers were much worse than I remember. There were some pretty significant drops.

Now you're bringing in Michael Thomas returning. I think people have forgotten how could he is. Chris Olave, who's apparently lighting up training camp. The offensive line is obviously a bit of a concern with perpetual fight starter, Trevor Penning, on left side. Don't love that. But otherwise, I think the skill players... Days in a row, he's been in fist fights.

Are so good. It seems like Alvin Camara's suspension might be delayed as well. Yeah, his court date was moved back a month. At the very least, he's safe for the beginning of the season. So that doesn't really affect the Yorrendor or whatever. But I think this offense, you know, obviously the loss of Sean Payne is enormous. and we'll see who Pete Carmichael is, I guess. Did okay in that Sean Payton season.

He was suspended. Also, did not want the... Did great, actually. He seemed to shy away from more responsibility this offseason until they kind of made him stay as the play caller. We're going to see a lot of him on the sidelines, a lot of shots of him watching James Winston. This offense was disgusting last year without Winston.

I don't know. I just think the combination of an elite defense, I do believe they're elite, with an improved offense, that's better than eight. It should be. I was trying to figure this one out. It's a little confusing, and I think it was the out of division schedule

for that division is challenging. Yeah. That they play the AFC West and they play the NFC West. Because the out of division schedules determine a lot of these numbers. But even then, they were on my list of teams I wanted to throw out there. I hate having to say this over and over again, but Sean Payton's not there and James Winston's the quarterback. There's reason that doubt is not unfair.

around this team also. No, but they won nine last year and they won 12 the year before. I know that was with Drew Breeze, but that was like an older Drew Breeze and most, they have pretty good continuity. I mean, that's the thing. They've kicked the can down the road financially

and they have good continuity. There's something about the Saints, just the way they're built, the way they operate. I mean, you mentioned the rest of the NFC South. They swept the bucks last year too. They don't seem to have fear what's going on in Tampa Bay.

And, you know, Tampa Bay, I'm getting weird vibes from right now. So I just say, I look at eight wins and I'm saying, And, like, that's disrespect. So we're all kind of in on that. Feeling good? But we don't, we don't get credit.

I thought you were next, though, no? No, I am. This may, this may, people may not like this, but I am banging the Houston Texans for a 4.5 over. Okay. I mean, I just, first of all, they're on my list. And it's, I don't need to dig deep into the roster because it's like, I don't think it's a talented team necessarily,

but I don't, I think Davis Mills, they stuck with them for a reason. I like that. I think guys like Nico Collins is going to make a big step up at wide receiver. They were absolutely bereft of talent last year. And it's not that they have so much more. But if you look at what they did down the stretch, they were a ghastly show for like the early part of the season.

Then down the stretch, they beat the Titans. They came within three points of beating them again. They almost swept the Titans. They scored 41 points to beat the Chargers and knocked off the Jaguars. I'm just saying they improved. And I think that Lovie Smith is going to bring a steady influence there. They won four games a year ago. This thing is saying they're all going to win 4.5.

I'm going over. And I'm very confident about it. I like that. I feel like they're a team that's kind of sold out to win seven games. And they totally could by just like adding a bunch of middle tier NFL players that can play football. Like Malik Collins or they add like Mario Addison and Jerry Hughes. They just, like, imported the bill's old pass rush. They're kind of not a young team.

I remember that really caught my eye on football outsiders. Like, they have who are the oldest teams and youngest. They're one of the older teams in the league. So they actually have some promising rookies. We'll see if that works out. Damien Pierce, we mentioned the other day. Sounds good at running back. They might have some fun young players.

But they, like, feel like they'll, they are the, like, it's not that hard to win six games in the NFL team for me this year. The great hype around Nico Collins. Love this quote from David. I don't think there's many people out there who can stop him. He's apparently had an awesome offseason. Hello. Hello.

My turn. It's a little aggressive. It is, but, you know, if we're drinking the Kool-Aid, there's some more. How about? Texans is your first pick. That's pretty bold. I wanted them actually. They have the 29th hardest schedule in football.

Hardest schedule? Oh, no, 29th, so. Oh, okay. That's good. I was suddenly concerned with my picket at 29th. All right. We're bad at Matt. This is something we kind of hit on a little bit a couple days ago.

I'm going to hit it on it again. I'm banging you over on the Patriots at eight and a half. Wow. I know there's a lot of doom and gloom around the Patriots these days because they're installing a new offense and this general idea that Matt Patricia is, I'm going to bring it back, a nincompoop. And, you know, he's going to botch this thing and Joe Judge is involved. I think a lot of people are having fun with all this.

And again, missing the central part of all this is that Bill's still here. Bill Belichick is at the center of everything. And Mack Jones, oh, by the way, this team, they went nine or ten games last year. They won ten games last year with a rookie quarterback. Mac Jones dedicated his offseason to get into even better shape. And he, I think, is going to make a leap. I know you're going to say Josh McDaniels isn't there. And that's fair.

But there's also a scenario where mentally he starts to get even more ramped up. And the physical side, he improves and becomes like a legitimate quarterback with Bill Belichick. Stop me if you heard this before. And they, I think, are in the wildcard race. I think nine, ten wins makes a lot of sense to me. So I'm banging the over because, come on. How many times will we counted out the Patriots before? I just have one.

No, I just have one question. Yes. Is Jalen Mills the best outside cornerback on this roster? Okay. Not only that, but our old colleague, a man by the name of Evan Leland. Lizar, who now writes for Patriots.com. He is very good. He did like a person by person, like recap a training tip.

And he said, Jalen Mills is without a doubt the number one cornerback in this league. And I've seen that in multiple places. And number two right now is a man named Terrence Mitchell, who the Texans did not bring back. So yeah, is it going to be a work in progress? Yes, on offense, absolutely. On defense, perhaps. But many of people have busted out in this realm, this world. this world of Vegas thinking Bill Belichick can't.

I like that you're like you're that you've been pounding this point home about the Patriots for weeks. You're always high on the Patriots. It's some weird reverse Jets thing. You're going for it. I like that. I'm trying to think of like, I'm trying to think of a quarterback that two months ago I felt as promising as I could about Mac Jones compared to the reporting around what's going on with that offense right now.

It's like just distressing. So maybe it all goes away. But it is August. I mean, it's going to take time. But I think by the time you get to October, Please don't be surprised when they get to a softer portion of their schedule and all of a sudden they've won six of seven. Oh, I think it happens.

I think player for player, you could look at this offensive roster and say this is the most talented offensive roster. What about your making the leap conversation? That the Patriots have had in about five years, which is like not sneaky, not that high a bar. I know they won a Super Bowl in that mix. Greg, who are some of the making the leap guys that you were wrestling with because you had to pick one?

And they surprisingly have several guys to you that could make that beat. Barmore is exciting. Mack Jones is certainly exciting. Your boy Josh Uche, maybe we'll finally step up, Mina. I saw a Patriots reporter tweet something about Kendrick Bourne being used like Debo Samuel. It's intriguing. I mean, they're just trying to install this off. To your point, though, as a longtime fan, obviously,

they always do their best in the seasons where there's the most negativity around them going into it. It's almost like clockwork. Well, they should win the Super Bowl. And when they have a lot of hype, they generally don't do it. So this really, this draft doesn't snake. So I'm going to pick last in the second round as well. Is that for something we're going to track standards-wise? Can I ask you a question?

Yeah. Let's say that the order came out where you were second. No one was taking the exact same thing. Let's say I came in Ford. Would you be like the justice warrior that you are around the snake draft business? I'm not a beta. I speak up for myself when I feel like I'm being taken advantage of. A lot of like beta time.

I'm just asking if you would be concerned for other people if it were not just you in this. I'll give you my pick. You got to look out for the number one. If you want to switch spots, you can have. Don't use things. No, don't see, don't good soldier me. Don't, I'm the bigger man me. I'm just saying maybe it should snake to the zooser, but apparently it's pushed back here.

Greg, you're up. I was fine with it. I literally just gave it to you. Listen, I've said my piece. I'm going to go and I hate, uh, um, actually, you know, I want to take this because I do think Mark might, uh, I'm going to go Eagles over nine and a half because I don't want to go just like hard negative, uh, twice in a row. You got in his head mean, I like that.

I was not going there, but nice job. I just know we're kind of both on the Eagles. A lot of people are on the Eagles. I think they might have started with a lower number, and it's now been up to nine and a half, which concerns me a little bit, because you never want to be too far with the public. The Travis Kelsey injury this week

actually reminded me of why I love the Eagles so much. Obviously, you don't want Travis Kelsey to undergo surgery, but you do have a second round pick everyone loved and Cam Durgan's, like, right there to step on. And that, to me, is the story of the Eagles roster. It's like they kind of found a number one receiver finally in Devontas Smith. And, oh, let's go out another. We have a promising second year defensive tackle who most teams would love to like really like pump up in Milton Williams.

Oh, let's go get Jordan Davis. We still have Fletcher Cox. We get Reddick in free agency. We still have Josh Sweat under contract. Oh, by the way, like somehow Brandon Graham and Nick Barnett are still there. They just like have so much. Even Hurtz, like if Hurtz gets injured, you have Gardner Minshu. It's like just so much depth where they can survive and they're out-of-division schedule for this entire division,

which is why all the NFC East over-unders are inflated is just tasty. You play the AFC South. You play, obviously, you're in-division games and you play the NFC North. I love that out-of-division schedule. I am banging that over of nine and a half. All right. Is Cam Juergens the set of? who got walked back by Jordan Davis

and that viral... No, no, I don't know. Who's not going to get washed to back? No, no. But on the flip side, Jordan Davis, who's obviously more likely to have to contribute immediately

looks freaking amazing. And they say Kelsey is kind of, it sounds like 50, 50 maybe for week one. I'm sure it's fine. I love, I like the Eagles. I had them on my list. I've just... But that's the thing.

Like, you're going to have injuries. And they certainly have, especially for whatever reason over the years, not as bad last year. But it's like linebacker two, Kaysier. White, who you, I remember you shot me down for giving him some pop on your podcast, Mina. And then I was reading the football outsiders.

Why do you need to do that, Greg? Well, because it just reminded me of a score I need to settle. Kaiser Way. That one of the most underrated signings of the off season, top six and success rate and yards per pass allowed. But it's like him and Jacoby Dean, a nice little combo. Let's check back in on that. Let's check back in on that. I just like read that.

I was like, should I take a picture of this and send it? Do you now know why you're on the show today? Greg just wanted to get that point out. He was waiting for the perfect time to get his revenge. It's like super Machiavellian. Now I want to take the Giants just to reference Daniel Jones making Greg's making the leap list. Okay. Seven wins.

No, no, I'm not doing it. That would be solely if I was just using these picks to settle scores. To be fair, it's more embarrassing. That was just like a totally separate. Oh, no. Get ready for Daniel Jones and Drew Locke. That was worse. That was worse.

We tried to help Greg with that one. You just wouldn't listen. All right. Got to take some else. I'm going to bangle, bangle this quote. I'm going one ass cheek and three toes in. Oh, yeah. Is that it?

I am taking the lions. All right. Over. There you go. 6.5 over. Seven or more wins for the Detroit lines three and 14 a year ago. They get in the infamous hard knocks bump. You watch that show and you're always higher on the team.

Is it happening for me in a comes? I have to apologize because I teased you guys. So the Houston Texans actually have a very hard schedule. Oh, no. I'm not that wrong. They're still winning five games, though. I'm using the sharp football, which actually aligns pretty well with the football outsider's projection.

They've got the Lions as the fifth easiest schedule. It's always hard, hardest easy. Yeah, that's right. Okay. I think outside of Jared Guff, I love everything about this offensive. depth chart. I think they have one of the best offensive lines in football. They're healthy, battled some injuries last year. They've got nice depth there. I think the wide receiver group, whenever Jameson Williams comes back is such a fun. It's like a such a complimentary group.

You've got, you know, Chark as the X, the big body pass catcher. You've got Williams stretching the field. That's the Z. You've got Aiman Ross St. Brown working underneath, you know. And even without Williams, by the way, I thought Goff flashed some really nice. chemistry with Josh Reynolds, who knows from the Rams days, they figured out about partway during the season that they wanted different, they wanted, they, Campbell took over play calling, but this season, Ben Thomas is the name, Thompson or Thomas, the tight ends coach. Ben Johnson? Johnson. Johnson. Anyway, so he's going to call the plays, and I think that worked out pretty well for them towards the end of the season. I don't love the defense. I think there's still

a lot of holes, particularly in the secondary, but I think this front has the potential, particularly defensive line with the aforementioned Charisma King, Aidan Hutchinson. Now, suddenly, you've got actual edge rush depth. Charles Harris has another good year. You've got the O'Quarras, the kid from Kentucky, Josh Paskell. So I don't know. I like a Limb McNeil on the inside. I just think they're going to be a playoff team.

I just think they're going to win some games. Look at the schedule for the Lions down near the end of the season. Let's say they're a little bit under where you want them to be. they have the Jaguars, the Jets, the Panthers, the Bears, they have the Bears twice. They're better than these teams. That's probably as the easiest stretch as any team has all year. And if you're ever going to construct a team that Jared Goff could succeed on,

obviously, like a few more established weapons that he's played with, this might be the best offensive line in football. And when I saw that, like, I was reading all the Beat Rider reports and, like, the defense is destroying the offense everywhere except for Detroit, where, like, Jared Goff is lighting them up and how. hasn't been touched. And I'm like, okay, that's the offensive line. Maybe it worries you a little bit about their defense. What do we know about Jared Guff? If he's comfortable, he's not bad. If he's not comfortable, he is very bad. I like that he wasn't even on hard knocks. They

literally barely even showed his face. They don't need him to be. No. He's also been on hard knocks like 47 times. This is the fourth time. He's on a major NFL films documentary program. And that's a wild thing considering what he brings to the proceedings. Anyway, DJ Chark, I know we mentioned that as well. they've been flashing throughout training camp, the chemistry between Koff and DJ. All right, who's up? Mark, you're up. I am, well, first of all, I was so excited about picking the lions,

so I'm not, I don't love what just happened there. I knew somebody would take the lions. It was Mina Kimes. I think for all the reasons that Mina pointed, it's just a great pick. I'm going Washington commanders under eight wins. I find this absurd. I don't think this is a terrible football team,

but I, for me, I think that the car's and when's experiment is already off to a weird start. I don't love those. As well, no, I'm excited to really go ahead and start to take command. Can I just say, you call it, you call it absurd, but you also say they're not that bad. Eight wins, that feels like that's a lamb that they could live in. I would say that some of the choices are diminishing here in terms of what I'm, what I... Tell me about it.

I know. What are you talking about? You've got like literally almost any option. I just had like seven or eight that I was like rock solid on. You could just disagree. we could have like a lockoff type of I didn't even look at it that way that's interesting we could do that oh no I don't feel

you saw my pick I actually I was that was that was what I had slated as my second pick and then Amina got in my head about being too negative I think commanders under eight's beautiful I'm listening yeah it just stands out to me it's like I could totally see them having a five win season that is very chaos

induced I mean sure their defense was worse than their offense last year by a decent amount and I know they had injuries and they they have the personnel up front to certainly bounce back and be averageish on defense but there's not much reason to think that either that the offense would be close to average and everybody hates cars and wins so i get it um and he certainly is not someone that's exciting to watch but you know he had a stretches last year where he was perfectly acceptable i thought as a starting quarterback before things collapsed i just think in that division and we got to

take a break because I think this will tie together. Let's take a break real quick and then finish things up with Meena Kimes. What's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from scouting reports and player development to team

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I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. All right, welcome back. Washington Commanders, we're just talking about it, Mark. I'm going to take the under on the Dallas Cowboys.

I love it. Wow. I love it. because I think these teams are all pretty close together, especially I wasn't confident enough to hit the over on the Giants, but I think the Giants will be better this season. I think I could see the Cowboys coming down, the Eagles coming up, and the Washington just kind of hanging around in the middle, and I could see this being one of those divisions where, you know, 10 wins, nine could even win.

And I just think the Cowboys, with their wide receiver concerns, with that offensive, line. I want to see if Dak is going to be all the way back to Dak and the guy that he was before the injury. The Mike McCarthy drama, I know they're trying to downplay it, but you know, what if they get off to a slow start? And I'm looking at their schedule. If they can get to the buy in week nine in good shape, I'll be in trouble on this because they got Tampa, Cincinnati on the road at home to start the season at Giants, home Washington,

at Rams, at Philly, home Detroit, home Chicago. If they can get out of those eight games at like five and three things soften up and yeah they can get uh to 10 and maybe even 11 but i see them coming out of the gate a little bit slow and i see this team eight or nine wins who's winning this division in your mind the eagles i i mean in the power rankings i have the cowboys and eagles right next to each other so i had the cowboys ahead but at the same time it would not surprise me somebody else sneaks up and takes this i worry about the teams where defense leads the way. And weirdly, that's the Cowboys this year. But on paper, the defense has a real chance to be a top five defense. You know, number one, they were top five a year ago. And in DeMarcus

Lawrence, you get a full season out of him. The secondary doesn't look amazing on paper, but there is crazy continuity and youth on the defense, which is not a bad combination. Very few teams have that. I love the Anthony Barr signing, if only because like it indicates that they want to use Michael Parsons more as a pass pressure. I think that's sort of what that's about. It's a really nice defense on paper, plus Dak Prescott. It feels like 10 to me feels like the right number. And with the easy schedule, I'd probably go over if I had to choose.

But I don't feel strong. I'm with you on the under. And I got wavered between the Eagles and the Cowboys who's going to win the division. It's roster versus quarterback, right? But a couple things about the Cowboys that are concerning. Obviously, the wide receiver depth is just a massive issue. with this team. It has been gotten more and more massive.

I don't know if I'm hopping off to Killenmore Bandwagon, but I feel like he hasn't shown that sort of ability to make adjustment. I look at this roster and I wonder, okay, what is this offense going to look like now as they've lost talent?

And then on the other side of the football, the defense was really good last year. But if you kind of dig through the numbers, they are a prime regression candidate, so dependent on turnovers, gave up big play. but made big plays. They do have the potential

to have one of the best pass rushes in the league and I'm very excited to see how Micah Parsons used this year but behind them, I don't know. It just, I don't think they're going, I still think they're going to be good. I just don't think they're going to be one of the five best defenses

in the NFL again. Can't you see this season doing sideways for them too? It's like one of those years. It's like every other season seems to go sideways for the Cowboys. But if you look at their schedule, I think you're going to be right up against it.

It's going to be close. I don't think they're going to crater. But I also, I don't think this is a 12 and 5 team either. I think nine wins is going to be it. All right. Do you want to do one more real quick, kind of like a speed round and then wrap things up?

Okay. I'm glad I'm annoyed you took the commanders, but I did have like four picks I really liked a lot. And so my last one is Chiefs over 10 and a half. I mean, this isn't that complicated. With Patrick Mahomes, here's their win totals, 12, 12, 14, and 12. That's also a Tyree Kelbo.

It absolutely is. And I obviously that's the big negative here. But I think they have some positives that they didn't have in some of those years. Number one is I have a feeling the pass rush might be significantly better than this year. I'm sort of buying the Frank Clark rejuvenation hype after giving them absolutely nothing. Karloftus and then Dunlop as like your third guy. Like that's better. And then it's the best offensive line I think they've had in that time.

And I'm just not overthinking it too much. I think that over 10 and a half is an easy one. All right. Mina, give us one. I had two overs, so I'm going to go an under. I feel bad because I feel like people think I have a beef with this team and I don't. I have a beef with their social account. Is it the Titans?

It's the Arizona Cardinals. You took mine again. Okay, so basically they're at eight and a half. So are they going to have a winning season or a losing season is kind of what's on the line here? I think they're the third best team in the division, pretty clearly. the Hopkins suspension is absolutely brutal for them. We've seen what Cliff Kingsbury has done without Deander Highgren's, it has not been great.

And then defensively, oh my God, have you guys looked at this defensive depth chart lately? Up front. It's not great, man. I mean, maybe they're going to figure, I've been reading the reports about them using Isaiah Simmons more as a safety, you know, and just giving him that assigned role.

Maybe that gets him on the field more. Maybe. I mean, Marcus Golden is the best edge rusher they have right now. J.J. Watt, I thought it was actually pretty good to win healthy. But, God, this is, it is. And look, Vance Joseph has been excellent at putting something together out of... It's asking a lot of Vance Jocel. It's a lot. Yeah, I just don't, I just don't think they have the depth on that side of the ball.

I feel like we agree. We all agree too much. If you had it next, it was on my, you know, medium list for sure. Yeah. Mark, your last one. I hope you pick one of the two that I'm wrestling with, so it makes it easier for me. Let's see what happens. I am going Los Angeles Chargers. 10 wins. I'm taking the over.

I mean, it starts with Justin Herbert. It starts with everything that's around Justin Herbert. I love the idea that Zion Johnson has been dominant at right guard, their rookie, their first round pick. I look at the defense and what they've added. It's not just Khalil Mack. It's J.C. Jackson. And you've got Derwin James.

And I truly think that Brandon Staley came out of last season, extremely agitated with how the defense just sort of crumbled. and I think he's got a plan. I love this coach. I love the quarterback. I think they're going to flat out win the division. I mean, 11, the Chargers who eternally let us down. Not impossible with 17.

Didn't he have a plan last year? I think they're higher on Stanley than me. I think that what they've found, what they added on defense allows Brandon Staley to basically fulfill his vision. If it doesn't happen this year, I'd have big questions about him. But I don't understand why anyone's down on Brandon Staley. People are going to put out projections with like three AFC West teams. all winning a mathematically impossible number of games. Right.

One or two of these teams is going to have to be a big letdown. But to me, the fact that they're only separated by half a game with the Chiefs are only half a game different than the Broncos and the Chargers. Like, that seems like value to me, whereas the Chiefs, I'm taking them more than a half a game better than those. To be clear, I'm not down on Staley. I just don't know if I see him as a difference maker yet.

I don't know if there's enough evidence for that. Post that on social. You're going to get the Chargers jersey with no name. Well, you know, the machine is starting to work. There is another option. We could save this. Yeah, let's save. Because your fandom is something very interesting,

but also a sensitive subject on this podcast. But it will come up naturally later. We got to get out of here. But I got something. All right. Well, I'm excited for the future. The last one for me, and I was stunned that it was still out there,

but I'm not going to do Ravens over. I think they're going to win that division. And I think nine and a half is something you can live with. But I can see them as 10 or 11. But I'm going to go with the bills. They're number one. And my power rank is 11.5 is a huge number. But I just, I'm, I'm just going to buy in and say everything that they've done,

everything they've been building to is a truly huge season coming up and barring a major injury or injuries or some other issues. I know Brian Dayball's not there. and you can choose to dig in there if you want on the offensive side of the ball. I'm going to go with that. It does come together. They are by far the best team in that division.

So they're going to beat up on the AFC East, take care of business elsewhere, and they're going to win. They'll go 12 and 5, 13, and 4. And somebody's got to have the monster record. Why not them, Mina Kimes? I like it as a Patriots hedge. That's not a pair of over.

40 chess. They only had 10 last year, which you sort of forget. Not 40 chess. They only won 10 games. last year. They did sit their starters in week 18. So that was part of that 10 wins. Right. They had some. They've had hiccups. But on paper, you're right. I think this is one of those, the off seasons too long that at least I felt like, of course. I was like, this is the best team in the NFL. You felt that in May. And now it's just like feels too boring to go

with it. There's going to be a juggernaut or two. And I'm, I'm picking the bills confidently as one of those. That's why. I know it's next on my list was Seahawks over five and a half. Didn't get that in there. That seemed crazy to me. Maybe I should have gone with that, but that, man, Pete Carroll's not losing. Pete Carroll's not losing 12 games. I think the CXD events is going to be better than people expect. The offense. Yeah, let's ask me about that.

What is your feeling about the way they're handling the entire quarterback situation? Even going back to the decision to move Russ and to where we are right now. How much time we have left here? Sensitive subject. We'll give you the floor, a little monologue here. The optimistic interpretation that I find myself sometimes leaning towards is that the organization is actually pretty self-aware about where they are. They're going for the whole halfway rebuild,

the old we're going to retool on the fly, take this year off with the quarterback, get a quarterback next year, get some cap space cleared, use our picks to improve at premium positions like offensive line, Eddresher Corner. So I like all of that.

They seem, at least, more self-aware than certainly some other teams, I think, that actually did go all in on getting some mediocre quarterbacks. that said, it's not going to be fun to watch this year. And this is always the question, right? Which is like, do we want our teams to be smart or fun? I think the defense will be interesting.

I like the coaching changes that they've made. Brought in a lot of really smart guys on that side of the football. Carl Scott, Sean to Sy, Clint Hertz elevated as defensive coordinator. So I'm curious to see how that looks. But, you know, if they don't get a good quarterback next year, it'll all be for not. That's the X factor. Would you have wanted, for the fun angle, I'm not saying this, would have completely solved your problems? Would you have wanted Baker-Matefield?

I mean, I know there was a candidate. Well, so that would have been, you know, I think they would have been like the Panthers, frankly. It's like, okay, well, this is a team that's... If the Seax had Baker-Mayfield, I think we would be talking about them as a fringe wildcard candidate. I agree. And, you know, it goes back to the smart versus fun. Like, do I want to have more fun watching this team this season? Or do I want them to do what is probably the right thing to do for the long-term?

I increasingly maybe it's just me having fewer years on this earth. I lean more towards let's be fun and you never know what's going to happen with draft picks and whatnot. Because being doing the smart thing is nice and it's also a nice way for the people to argue for the Seahawks and what they're doing right now. But you just said it. Like there's no guarantee that they get the quarterback and teams have spent 20 years looking for that person.

And even if you win like two or three more games with Baker Mayfield, you can still put something together, go crazy next year. We see teams do that time and time again. Tanking is pretty stupid in the NFL, frankly. I wish they had taken a flyer on one of the rookies just because there were so much value there, like a Malik Willis or a Desmond Ritter or whatever, just to have some, you know, a developmental prospect.

I think teams should generally do that, and I don't know why they don't do it more often. Maybe it won't be fun for you, but if we're in week 12, they're 11, and they're 5 and 5. And Gino is directing a run-heavy, like ugly sort of like 19 to you know they're winning games 19 to 17 and or maybe they're six and five let's give them a winning record like Pete Carroll is going to be having fun I'm going to be having fun watching this I think Pete Carroll's like dream in the world is to go nine and eight with this team with like a and I could absolutely see that happening with a defensive talent and the running game that they have and at least like the weapons on the outside if the like rookie tackles work out you I can absolutely see them winning nine games. games, and Pete Carroll, like, loving life.

And maybe a certain segment of the Seahawks fan base actually sort of loving this sort of weird type of thing. Basically the pre-Russell Wilson Seahawks. Well, I mean, like, with Pete Carroll, like, Beast Quake and all that other business. Having low expectations and having them mildly exceeded is way more fun than having high expectations and being disappointed. So I'm, I can live in this space. Just like ugly games.

I wish I had taken that as nice. I wish I had taken that. And you see him as nine potentially. Next on my list. I wanted to take them, but I didn't want to look like a homer. They were in my top five. Same, same, same. Can I throw some rapid fire ones at you and you all just go around, say, over, under, no explanation, but just to hit a few more teams.

Depends what rapid fire means. Yeah, do four. We'll each do it. All right, Mark, start with you. Oh, I was going to throw out 49ers, 10 wins, over under. Over. Next. That to me was like, okay, that's the right number.

Yeah. Colts, 10 wins. Great. I mean, that's another one that just felt like the right number. I'd go over if I had to. Raiders 8.5. I'll bang the over on that.

Dolphins, nine wins. They were on my really long wins. This is for me and under. I got under. I don't feel great about it. Good, good rapid fire. That's a tough one. Good job.

How about the Titans Grave digger? Where are we at on your Titans? By the way, we're all fired up at the old Zusser over the Power Riggins and Trail on Burks. Like, calm down. I know. I'm not. I'm not making those reports.

I'm citing reports. So what happened was NBC Sports Edge picked up a tweet from actually my buddy. Yeah, Roto World, whatever they are now, picked up a tweet where somebody at Titans Camp said that Traylen Berks had caught a few passes with the second and 13 quarterbacks and messed up one route assignment. And they reported that Berks is only working with the second and third teams and doesn't know where to line up and all this. It became a huge thing on Titans Twitter.

But this is what's exhausting about the Titans fans. And I love you guys, all the listeners. But you can't, just chill. I have people coming in my mentions like, all right, Titans Nation, let's get this guy because he's incompetent. It's like, chill. Don't get so mad.

Is this why you tried to insinuate that I was beefing with the Titans? I thought that because they're kind of a sensitive fan base. They're one of the sensitive fan bases that maybe they were coming after you. That's what annoys them when you say that. Yeah. Well, when you say they're sensitive.

Then it proves to be true, but it's just like that you want to sound positive. Minakimes. What's the over-under for the Titans? Nine wins. I would say over just because Mike Vrable, I mean, I'm biased, obviously. Mike Vrable, though, has never been worse than 9 and 7, and neither is John Robinson going back to 2016.

I didn't consider them just because we talk about the Titans now so much. We've over-corrected so hard that they... A lot of Titans talk on this part. More than any team, perhaps. Unlike the Gino-Smith topic, which doesn't come up other than four times a show. Sean Kelly, Eagles, over-under-and-a-half. Oh, come on. Here we go.

Yeah, that's going to be an over. Shout out to Greg. Thanks for the overpick. Definitely an over there. I mean, just, I mean, was talking about earlier,

just like packing that lineup and the way that there's always like an option. Kelly Cam. Oh, it's coming in. Let me bring that out. It's too late. Not worrying it.

We're in. No, it's just they have so many players that they've been like the pickups this past season. Just beef up everything. It's great. Over. Keep it going.

Good, good, good, good. All right. Mina Kimes, you've said it all. Wrap it up. And listen. Mina, we don't have a yacht

that we can invite you to. and this is certainly not a negotiation that you're in the building today, but this is for you. Oh, wow. He's handing over a... I took that off someone's desk in the newsroom. An NFL Network hat. But it's never been worn.

And if you want to take that as a gift, that's all it is, it's not a... Mess backing. You're not tampering. Are you allowed to wear an NFL network garb? Oh, God. I was going to put it on unthinkingly. I mean, you're allowed. It caused a little minor controversy there.

Let's just say that was a person. personal gift and nothing more. And when is your contract? All right. Stephen Ross. Mina, thank you so much for joining us. You know where to find me on ESPN, the Meena Kime show featuring Lenny,

all the other good stuff. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Thanks, guys. All right. And we'll be back. What is today? Wednesday?

Yes. We'll be back tomorrow Thursday. We're mixing up the schedule with another show. So make sure to join us. Check out the Hard Knocks podcast. Until then. You know what you got to do. be the call

Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more.

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