NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Midseason Power Poll

Episode Date: November 10, 2015

A room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, and Chris Wesseling– discuss the latest news from around the NFL, including the Colts announcing quarterback Andrew Luck will be out 2-6 weeks with a lacerated kidney, and Broncos cornerback Aquib Talib’s one-game suspension for poking another player in the eye. Then the heroes present the ATN Midseason power poll, ranking all 32 teams in the league before making their final “fork ‘em” picks for 2015.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast. Making America great again. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with some heroes. Chris Wesleying to my left. Greg Rosenthal to my right. What is up, boys?

Hey, Dan. What is happening? What's up? Mark Sessler not with us. feeling a little bit under the weather part of me wants to do the old office episode where Michael Scott sent Dwight Trute to check in on Oscar who had called in sick on spring cleaning day is there anyone from the desk perhaps Greg we could send

to Sessler Manor just to make sure Mark is actually ill well it is within walking distance as you know yes so it wouldn't be a long trip I know where Mark is though he's on his computer working hard on his sick day posting stories from home while trying not to infect us i tried to give him the day off after i heard he was sick he said no i'll i'll post from home so i don't really like the the angle you're taking well in his integrity that's not what i was doing i was just saying maybe just by way of checks and balances west you know where i'm coming from yeah just for gits and shiggles yeah exactly it would be fun just to just to literally see just to make sure he's not like drinking in the

backyard sitting in one of those kitty pools in the sun typing his laptop if i know mark he could be sick and drinking in the backyard that's true this is the tuesday edition of the around the NFL podcast big show a lot to get to we can't we can't dilly dally too much here because this is this is a very busy show on tuesdays we have here's the rundown in case you wanted to know it uh we are going to uh recap monday night football which was a big bear's charge of showdown of two also rounds. So we'll get through that. We had a lot of news, including some massive news coming out of the AFC South.

The Colts not having a great season. It just took an even worse turn with Andrew Luck going down with an injury. So we'll talk about that and what that means in the AFC playoff picture. Some other news to get to. We are going to investigate, discuss, debate, embrace the debate, Greg. the mid-season power pole. Yeah, we had the mid-season report last week. There was just so much good content.

We figured let's save the power pole for this week. It's really the poll that gets people talking around America. Winds and losses are nice, but most fan bases, they look to the power pole to find out really how is their season going. That all seems to check out. Our opinion matters more. That all seems to check out.

We will also take out the old fork for the last time, this season we have set a goal of forking and by forking forking for new listeners that means deeming a team or teams to have no shot or just not make the playoffs this season we have forked 14 teams to date some have been regrettable and we're going to be a little white knuckles grabbing onto things down the stretch but we want to get to 16 we want to fork half the league so we're going to nominate three more teams for for forking and see if we can get to that magic number of 16. So that is also coming up.

And finally, the Thursday night preview of AFC East Rex Bull 1, Buffalo Bills versus my beloved New York Jets. So that's all coming up. Let's start, though. Like I said, Sydney, behind the glass. How are you? I'm doing really well. Thanks, Dan.

Yeah. I was just joking about the Disneyland thing, by the way, the four, what was it, four decade ban or four-year-band? I think it was one decade, but we, You're spiraling here. Okay. Well, because you guys messed up behind the glass four times, so, yeah, 10 times 4, 40. Oh, got you.

Double Jeopardy. Per mistake. It's a decade. But I was just, all that was a joke. You can go to Disneyland any time you want. Excellent. It's Christmas time at Disneyland right now, so. Do they dress up the theme park?

Oh, always. In the middle of, it's only November 10. Yeah, well, nothing is small at Disneyland. And it's already packed all the time. Interesting. Okay. Would you mind if we could do some news? Absolutely.

I feel it's my due diligence to protect his house. Did he really say due diligence? It doesn't even make any sense, but I love it. Cam Newton, of course. He's told all kinds of background data on protecting the house. And if you do want a full rundown of Bannergate between Cam Newton and old Dobbsy, Mike Dobbs, I did write a piece on Monday afternoon that basically takes you up to date, almost like an oral history of what's going on with Bannergate

and what it means for Cam Newton and the undefeated Carolina Panthers. Well, I see, you know, preening Schmo, yes or no? He is a printing schmo, and, you know, I feel like you should get credit for how, you've basically been a hard-line journal impartial on this stance. Big time. And just the facts, really. Facts only, Greg, your thoughts. Yeah, you guys take all of this way too seriously,

and Cam Newton's just having fun out there. Yeah, I take larceny seriously, yeah. Right, but, you know, Greg Rosenthal, a guy who taught tennis on Martha's Vineyard, does not side with some, you know, blue-collar guy who bought a sign for $500. A blue-collar loser who wasted a $500. Why has he got to be a loser? You bring it into an enemy house, you got to expect something bad to happen. If you're a Red Sox fan, you go to the Yankees game, you're wearing a Red Sox hat. That might get taken off.

You come, Cam's going to protect that house. It's not all right to take a Red Sox hat off a guy's. Yeah, just because you're a Yankees fan. That's not okay. We live in a civil society. By the way, if you wear a Yankee hat at Fenway Park, David Ortiz isn't, he's not going to rip the hat off your head and throw it in garbage. Oh, it's even worse if you, you know, Yankees fans are actually more forgiving than Red Sox fans.

You don't want to show up to the Yankees. Fans are crazy. To show up to Fenway. Anyway, great, come on, relate to the people for once. This has nothing to do with the people. America's on my side. You guys are the hardliners that don't like football players to have fun. Oh, my gosh.

That's exactly what it is. Don't celebrate after you win a playoff winner, get a first down. That's terrible. We should take it very seriously. Not a good look, right. Let's start with the news. And yes, Andrew Luck is out two to six weeks with a lacerated kidney and multiple abdominal injuries. The team announced on Tuesday.

This is what Chuck Pugano had to say in a statement released by the team. The injuries happened at the end of the, at the end of an early fourth quarter scrimand, when Andrew was doing everything he could to get us the win. Andrew was sore after the game and was feeling a little worse Monday afternoon, so we sent him to get tests. Those tests revealed the laceration in one of his kidneys and a partial tear of the abdominal muscle. They will not require surgery, Greg.

But this is where I have a question. Two to six week injury timetable, everything, every injury is specific and different. Keenan Allen, the charges, just sent him to IR with the lacerated kidney. Are they being a little hopeful that their star quarterback is only going to be? going to miss a couple games. We have no idea. We have no idea what the severity of lacerated kidneys are like. It doesn't sound great.

No, it just makes sense, though, to me on some level, that maybe there's difference in severity, just like there's difference in all sorts of tears. So maybe, you know, Keenan Allen's, that knocks him out for the season. Maybe Andrew Lux, he's able to recover from it quicker. Who knows? It might be the tear in the abdominal muscle that is the six weeks. The thing that confused me, as Pagano said, it's way too early to guess. but you guess directly below a team statement that said two to six weeks there's a huge difference

between two to six weeks of course they have a bye week then they come out of it with two games against the nfc south at atlanta and then versus tampa which aren't the most challenging games in the world especially not for a quarterback but six weeks almost takes you to the end of the season and then this entire afc south race looks totally different without andrew luck I was watching the game when this happened, and I couldn't believe he got up like nothing happened. I mean, he didn't win, he didn't feel, he didn't look like it. He threw a touchdown pass, literally the next play to Ahmad Bratja.

If you guys go read the article online, we have the play that he got injured on top of the article. He takes a big hit in the midsection from Danny Trevathan, and then another one right in his back in the midsection from Vance Walker. It's a big blow because luck was coming off his only good game of the season. and they were looking for momentum, but this is different than Tony Romo's injury because Matt Hasselbeck has proven to be

one of the best backup quarterbacks in the NFL. And he's not Matt Castler, Brandon Whedon, so I think the Colts can survive. And they get this bi-week to prepare. That's true. We said it on the podcast. Matt Hasselbeck, the two games he played, I wouldn't expect this to continue,

but the two games he played were probably the two best games played by a Colts quarterback all season until this last Andrew Luck performed. I don't think, yeah, Hasselbeck is having that sort of day against the Broncos ever. So that's a big difference. But in terms of the rest of Andrew Luck season, Hasselback played very well in those two weeks.

Yeah, Hasselbeck did do the job, and now they're going to need them to do it again. And as unfortunate as this is for the Colts, again, you do get a break by being in the AFC South, because when you look at the, they're four and five right now, so they have a one game lead, or a half game lead, I should say. The Texans, Jaguars, and Titans, I mean, if you were to be put on the spot,

those are all probably teams are going to lose 9 to 11 games, you would think. And I still feel that way. So as long as Hasselbeck doesn't implode and they just win one or two games, even if it misses four weeks, they'll be okay. This is a serious question. Yes.

Could somebody win the NFC South with six victories? Yes, the AFC South. In fact, Football Outsiders ran numbers before last week. week before the Colts played the Broncos, and I think they had something like a 12% chance that a six and 10 team won that division. Now, the Colts had a very surprising good win, which makes them look like a much better team. It's more likely that it'll be a seven and nine team. What needs to happen is one of these teams needs to sweep the others. You know, the Jaguars or the Titans or the Texans, they have a chance because their schedules aren't all that difficult to win a couple of these

close games. Tennessee, for instance, in Jacksonville, play on Thursday night football next week, which on paper sounds like a stinker. But it matters, and it's got two really interesting quarterbacks in it. And one of those teams, I think, has a chance to step up and at least be in a race this year. That's a tradition like West of us. What? The Thursday night, Jacksonville, Tennessee game. It is true. No one, by the way, can. I'm surprised they telecast it, to be honest. They have to put them all on national TV one game. They're like, we'll get both, we'll put two birds with one stone. In terms of watchability though right now those two teams are not in my bottom five no they have marriota and bordeaux i love watching bling fordos at this point by the way if you're a jaguars and i said it on sunday in the recap show

they had no business losing that game to the jets they got to be kicking themselves because they should be three and five right now with andrew luck out of picture five and three right now and no one could ever say not that anyone ever criticize andrew luck's toughness but no one can ever say anything about it again the fact that he stayed in the game through a touchdown and had two other effective drives after that now i i went Five of seven for 64 yards and a touchdown after that. Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. And that includes a 26-yard throw to T.Y.

Hilton that they took back by penalty. It doesn't include that. So it's insane that they had their best performance, their best win after this. And did not tear down a single banner that did not belong to his person. They probably put up a banner after the game. Yeah. Actually, maybe they'll do it now. Won a game with a guy with a lacerated kidney.

Survived lacerated kidney. That would be an awesome banner. At some point, they need to start winking with this banner stuff at Lucas Oil Stadium. That would be a great way to start. Moving on, the Broncos will not have Akeeb Talib, most likely for a game. The NFL notified Talib that he has been suspended without pay for Sunday's game against the chiefs for his eye poke of Colts, tight end, Duane Allen, who pulled his best Hulk Hogan impression after getting raked across the eyes in the Sunday game. This is a situation where Talib is going to appeal

and try to get this, I assume, knocked down to a fine over the suspension. But, Wes, are you surprised that the gouge led to potentially game missed? I was surprised that that merited a suspension. I thought it would just be a FedEx envelope. To me, poking in the eye isn't nearly as severe as, you know, illegal hits or, you know, cheap shots to somebody's head. That was like a sign of respect in 1950s NFL. Like, hey, how you doing, Dick Buck is?

Bang right in your eyeball. Exactly. And it's also a textbook wrestling move from the 80s. Maybe Talib's history had an effect. He has been suspended by the league. Although you would think those incidents have now run their course that it wouldn't affect this kind of. I think part of it is also it's on national TV. Everyone saw.

The angle of it. I always think that's a factor. That it was a big spot. Everyone in the country saw everyone was talking about. And the NFL wants the show they're not going to stand for it. They should stop trying to show what they're going to stand for and just do the right thing. Well, the big impact to me is really just thinking about this game

because Talib, it's not the only Bronco that's going to miss this game, Dan Hanses. Okay. It's Marcus Ware is going to miss up to a month. Don't step on my news like that. With the back, I tried to set you up. It was a transition. I was thinking about something else, but that was good.

Keep going. It's about this week to me because I think Talib's out where it could miss up to a month according to Ian Rappaport, our NFL media insider, with his back injury, suddenly you're missing two of your best players. And I think this Chief's team is frisky. I've been saying that all season and nobody's been listening to me. The last couple weeks, the way they've played, I think this is a difficult matchup for Denver.

I think Kansas City will have a chance to pull off this upset without to leave and wear on the field. Kansas City is very frisky. I would have said that even if they were on the field, so this adds to it. They've played two really good offensive games in a row. I know it's not against the greatest teams. in the world but Pittsburgh's had a good defense they moved the ball at will against Pittsburgh that's fine but now the Broncos are going to plug in Shaq Barrett who's been you know 95% of DeMarcus Ware and Lorenti McCrae who's been good and their cornerbacks are

deep too they can stick first round pick brad brad bradley roby in there for talib i don't know like this they don't need to panic but they do have the Patriots in a couple weeks where might be out for that yeah the Patriots in three weeks and shack yeah shack brats first of all it's great to have a shack back in the professional sports radar like every other kid coming out of The college is named Shaq. Jack Mason, guard for the Patriots. I know you're not a huge fanatic. I'm really plugged in on the guard situation for the Petros.

No, but it's good to have shacks in the... The Patros? Yeah, that's the new one. It's good to have a shack in the mix, three and a half sacks and three-force fumbles in limited play. So he's, you know, he's doing some things. Bad news. Meanwhile, over on the throne of sleaze.

Here's the Thundercloud screen. Dionne Lewis, his breakout season with the Pats has come to a premature close. Yes, the dreaded ACL injury takes out Lewis. It was a non-contact injury in Sunday's win over the Redskins. He was a non-contact injury. They had hoped that maybe it was just a sprain, but it turned out to be a tear. And this ends a season that was off, literally off the charts. When you look at a pro football focus, they're elusive.

rating he had scored a mark of 165.2 this season this is typically a scale between one to a hundred to give you an idea and the previous all-time high was 106.9 so his ability to make tacklers miss was really no one did what he was doing when he was on the field and yards after contact even when someone did get a hand on him was just incredible we had a big we had a bit of an argument down in the newsroom whether to break this news. And I was saying, Dionne Lewis is a star. Maybe America, not everyone knows him, but anyone that's playing fantasy football,

which is basically all of America knows him. And he's the best running back the Patriots have had since Corey Dillon. I don't think there's any question. So it's a huge loss for them. They will not replace them with another running back. They'll just replace them by doing what they always do is just adjusting and focusing on their strengths like Edelman and Gronk and Brandon LaFell.

But no one in the running back group can do anything like what Dionne Lewis does. If I wasn't already a football agnostic, I would be having a lieutenant, Dan, out on the ship in the middle of a storm moment with the football gods right now, who smited Dionne Lewis, Andrew Luck, Levi-on Bell, Steve Smith, Jamal Charles, Jordan Nelson, Keenan Allen, and they left us with a washed up West Welker and Blaine Gabbard for the rest of November. Thanks a lot, football guy. And yet the Washington team are still named the Redskins. Let's go, football gods. easy there Greg What's up with that Cindy can you get

Take a picture That we can post something around the NFL account With your iPhone Just because Wes looks like a seventh year College senior today Well He has his He's like his pullover sweater

A sweatshirt A very sweatshirt over a nice button down The glasses What do you think Wes looks like right now Well you don't normally wear glasses Yeah I would say a grad A grad student But a grad student at, like, a college in the south near a beach.

Hmm. And there's a little chill in the air. Yeah, exactly. It's fall there. I could go for that. You got your old board on the roof just in case the weather clears up. Driving a Woody. The old web panel wagon?

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, you mentioned Wes Welker, who is back in the NFL. He signed. Or do you have anything else to say about the end? I know you loved him. No. Both of you guys.

As did I. Fantasy owners. Fantasy owners wasting time on Brandon Bolden and James First of all, I think White's going to get more of the playing time, but I wouldn't bother. Good luck guessing when one of those guys has a good game. Maybe they each have won the rest of the season. I would say Dionne Lewis is among the best, for an eight-game stretch, among the best satellite backs I've ever seen. I mean, it's hard to overstate what he's done.

He was on pace for a better year than Darren Sprouls has ever had. Yeah. And credit to the Patriots because they unearth him and turned him into this play. He was just the perfect fit for that offense. It was a perfect fit for player and team and quarterback. Moving on, West Welker, yes, back in the NFL, the former Patriot, who over the phone with our friend Rap Sheet had said, I don't understand why I'm not in the league when I watch some of these guys playing today.

Well, on Monday, he got signed by the St. Louis Rams after a workout. The Rams needed a receiver after Stubman Bailey was moved to IR. And here comes Welker, who sat out. All of this year, he had two uninspiring seasons in Denver after leaving New England and free agency, especially last year where he looked slow and then, of course, have the concussion issues. And you thought, well, maybe it would be best that his career ends, but Wes wanted to keep playing and Welker has a job.

Will Wes, he have, Wes and Wes, that's funny. Will he have a role in this offense, in your opinion? I don't think it would be a big role. I went back and looked at my game notes from last year, and every week I had. had written, Welker can't separate and can't do anything after the catch. And that's in a much better offense with a quarterback who uses slot receivers. Nick Fulz hasn't used the slot receiver all year. I don't expect Wes Welker to do much in this offense.

All they do is give the ball to Gurley and Tavon Austin. To quote, to quote Chris Russo, Mad Dog Russo. Oh, Wes Welk was terrible last year, Mikey. Yeah, I already have a hard enough time watching the Rams passing game. I don't really want to add theorying for Wes Welker's, you know, future health to the mix. I mean, I'm not the only one. Everyone that, you know, everyone, a Patriots fan, but even I would say most of football America would wince when he's taking big hits over the middle

just because his concussion history towards the end of his career is extensive and significant. And he takes big hits. That's kind of what he did well was go over the middle and be courageous. and he never really slowed down at doing that. But you don't really want to see that now. And unless for some reason he was hurt in another way, like his knee last year, I mean, he just didn't look like he was still ready to play in the NFL anymore. I hope that voters feeling pitiful for him doesn't affect his Hall of Fame chances someday.

And the concussion issue, I think, is like if he comes back and he's a shadow of his former self and everybody's worried about the concussions, he's the best slot receiver in NFL history. I mean, that deserves a place in the Canton discussion, at least. I think he needed, I remember having this conversation on this podcast years ago now, but I felt like he needed those last couple of years with Peyton Manning and being kind of like the similar to close to that level that he was with in New England to put him over the top because he really didn't do anything until he's 26. He didn't have those last couple of years to pad his stats and maybe get that recognition.

He was a matchup nightmare on the two greatest offenses in NFL. history, the 2007 Patriots, 2013 Broncos. And he led the league in receiving three times in terms of receptions. The Rams could certainly use another trusty pair of hands. It's just hard to imagine that Welker is that guy right now, but maybe he'll prove it. They could use another receiver, but they don't use the receivers they have. Moving on, Jim Tom Sula has given Blaine Gabbert another start. This is not a surprise.

Gabbitt replaced Colin Kaepernick. this week against the Falcons and got the upset win over the Falcons. They have a byweek coming up and that will lead to showdown Blaine Gabbert versus the Legion of Doom in Seattle. I do not like that coming out well for old Jimmy Tamsula. I have a theory about what happened here in San Francisco after Jim Tom Sula refused to name Gabbert the starter after Sunday's game or initially, you know, from when he talked to reporters.

I think he was just based on what he was saying about Kaepernick, I think his plan all along was to sit Kaepernick for a week, get into the buy and put Kaepernick back in after the buy week and it would just give him those couple weeks to clear his head and that Kaepernick was his guy. But since Gabbert won the game, he had to reconsider, talk with everyone, realized he would have faced some sort of revolt if he went back to Kaepernick, and that's why he's sticking with game.

I like that a lot. I buy that. Because he did. Thompson literally said that that he wanted him. to get, step away a little bit. I think everyone was a little shocked that Gabbard was able to lead the offense in a competent manner. And I think that locker room is a tenuous place right now.

It would have been a very tricky odd move to get rid of Gabbard there. So I'm in, Greg. Good job. It's going to be an easier call in a couple of weeks. It's one thing to do this against a Falcons pass rush that doesn't exist. It's another to go into Seattle. I mean, that's the other way. That's maybe a no-brainer that you keep Gabbard in.

there, sacrifice him to Seattle, and then bring back cap and nobody's going to complain. Playing Gabbard, sacrificial lamb. Suddenly, Tom Sulla, very Machiavellian. I don't see him being that way, but yeah. Finally, Mike Petten said Tuesday, the Browns coach, that Josh McCown will return to the starting lineup for the Browns if he is healthy enough to do so on Sunday against the Steelers. This after Johnny Mansell performed very well for a half. on Thursday night football against the Bengals,

but a poor second half by the entire team probably doomed Manzell's chances of getting back in the lineup. I still think this is a big mistake by Mike Patton, but what do I know? Your guys' thoughts. It's a no-brainer, John. Josh McCown's a much better quarterback than Johnny Manzell, and Mike Patton doesn't care about your feelings.

He's got a job to fight for it. Right. I think they could do it after the buy. They're going to play Pittsburgh this week. Of course, if they managed to beat Larry and, Andrew Jones, which is, you know, certainly possible, then they'll probably stick with McCown. But if you'll lose to Landry Jones in Pittsburgh and then the bye week

and then you don't go to Johnny Mansell. What has Johnny Mansell shown you so far that makes you think that, like, you even have to see something about him? How many career starts, Wes? I don't know. Three? Yeah, he hasn't shown me any. They need to make a decision ahead of the draft next spring.

Right. And you got to give him at least, I'm saying like eight stars. I don't need to give him that many. I don't need to give them. It's a big investment of first round pick. Right. All teams do. This is what happens when you're not on the same page.

Who knows if that GM is going to be there next year. Who knows if Mike Patton's going to be there next year? Who knows if Mike Patton ever wanted Johnny Mansell in the first place? So when people aren't on the same page, then you don't get those sort of long-term thinking decisions. That thing's going to get blown up again. I just think Johnny Manzell another year or two away from even being ready to play quarterback in the NFL. Yeah. You get the feeling that if he ever does become anything in the NFL, it won't be in Cleveland.

One other note, since we mentioned a McCown, Luke McCown, back surgery, which I have to say, the Verizon campaign, now another twist. I bet if they just had the chance, some of those backups would really shine. So let's recap. Luke McCown does a commercial of the Verizon where he likens himself to Verizon's backup generators, saying if you give me the chance, I will thrive, just like the generators for Verizon. He gets his chance in place of an injured Drew Brees, lights out, plays great, the Saints win back on the shelf.

Things are okay. All of a sudden. Well, they lost. But they did play well. Yes. A back injury now ends his season and he wasn't even in. So what does that tell you about the Verizon backup generators, Greg? They might not even work when they're not being used.

Exactly. Which is deeply troubling. See that the guy that came up with that ad campaign on top of the world now just driving through the desert like blank stare. It's like, oh, my God. That's where Sessler is today, driving through the desert with that guy. I'm saying just send somebody to check out on Sessler. I'm not saying I doubt him just for entertainment.

I would like to see someone sneak up on him with an iPhone video on. See what kind of reaction happens. That scenario you brought up with Mark before, though, like I would be fine with that. I'm just a results-oriented type of guy. He's out there pounding out post. If he wants to get in a kiddie pool, it's kind of a chilly day for L.A. at least in the backyard. So maybe that's not the smartest thing with a cold.

But, you know, he can do what he wants. Quote unquote, cold. He's a grown man. Well, I'm just saying if he wasn't sick. I'm not saying he isn't sick. I'm saying if he wasn't sick. But we saw him sick yesterday. It all checks out.

We had some evidence. Okay. By the way, Matt Flynn was re-signed, was signed by the Saints. And I only make that mention because on Twitter a couple of months ago, he called me a great journalist for an end-around article in which I posted some of his tweets of alcoholic beverages he was drinking. It's a great signing.

You and Mark have very opposite views on Matt Flynn. Yeah. Mark doesn't care for him at all. He doesn't. And Matt Flynn seems like a nice stuff guy. Mark thinks that Matt Flynn stole money from multiple organizations and he's not far off. This is one of my favorite primetime songs, by the way. Oh, yeah.

It's when they synthesized, well, it's all synth, but then the synth really comes in like a soaring eagle. Ready? Here it comes. Listen. And soar. Zach Miller made a one-handed grab a 25-yard touchdown reception. What a catch it was on a Jay Cutler pass with 319 to play in the game.

It was the difference in a 2219 win for the Chicago Bears over the San Diego Supercharger. This is Jay Cutler, who overcame. He had a pick six in the first half, lost a fumble in Chargers territory in the first half will very much like the Jay Cutler that Chicago has come to loathe and detest. And yet, in the second half, he made the plays. He threw for 345 yards targeting Alshon Jeffrey all night

with great success. And on the other side of the field, Phil Rivers, Chris Wessling had one last chance to lead them down the field to get the field goal. The drive just came. to a halt they never came close and you could perhaps point to some weapon deficiencies now for Phil Rivers with the injuries piling up I don't think I've ever seen anything like it every week they lose four or five key guys and he's left with Javante Herndon is that the guy's name and

Dantrell Inman is his second and third receivers and Antonio Gates playing through an MCL string moving at a basically the same speed as Hansis in a cornhole match hang on wait Cornhole. You don't even have to move much in Cornel. All right. Like it was an insult and then it became, it didn't make a lot of sense, but it landed as like a soft insult. That's okay.

Yeah. I'm not moving to me. That's what he intended. Yeah, that's good. Antonio Gates was not himself, and you're right, the luck of these chargers. It's been reminiscent this whole season. I've been thinking about that Cleveland 95 special that NFL Network did football life.

It's a great one. About how tough of a season it was. when the Browns ended up moving out of Cleveland, everything that has gone wrong for these Chargers has gone wrong injury-wise. It's been a plague. Every game seems to have an opposing fan base dominating the stadium.

You have the local politicians, and you have the Chargers people talking about that we've, you know, trying to relocate. Philip Rivers is there trying to do his best, but the whole thing has this air of just total depression and they find a way to lose a close game every single week. It's tough to watch. Rivers is driving for a chance at the game time field goal,

and Lamar Houston, who played four snaps the previous week, gets two sacks and three plays pushing Joseph Barksdale back into Rivers, basically. Bullied him. Yeah, he bullied him. And that's just how the Charger season is gone. Remember when he was a top 10 free agent pickup? I mean, he got a huge contract. He said one of many guys who blew his ACL celebrating a sack.

And now he looked pretty good in the game. I think he had four or five QB hits over. overall. And you mentioned Cutler looking like the old guy. I would disagree a little bit with that. I think he looked good for most of the game. He had the one pick six where it was appeared to be maybe a miscommunication with Jeffrey, but that's still on Cutler and his receiver. The fumble, the guy, you know, Charles Leno is maybe the worst left tackle in the league. Ingram beat him clean and was there in a second and a half. So I don't put that on Cutler at all. I think he played outstanding. From the minute that they missed the kick to make it 6. 10 it would have been. It was the second missed kick, I believe it was, by Robbie Gold. It was a short kick late in the third quarter. Culler only had two more drives. He had to lead them on a 95-yard drive that included a lot of third and longs.

And then he had to lead him on an 80-yard drive, and he did it. He was just about perfect on those drives. It was a gutsy good game. There are front offices in the NFL right now. And, Wes, you might disagree a conversation we had earlier. Not might. There are front offices in the NFL right now where they have a team, where they have a quarterback problem

where they're going to be watching this tape that Cutler's put down and this game is an example and they're going to be like, damn, I think he could be salvaged and be a good quarterback. He still looks like he's a player to me. He's the same guy he's always been.

I don't know why everybody gets so wound up about Jake Cutler. He's not a franchise quarterback. It doesn't have to be. That's the one thing that needs to change. Everyone's always like, is Jay Cutler a star? No, why can't he be a Ryan Fitzpatrick-type

middle-the-road solid starter? That's one way to look at it the way Greg said. I look at it is Jay Cutler didn't do anything until the Chargers lost their two best cornerbacks for the night. Then forgive me if I don't believe that throwing off your back foot jump balls to Alshan Jeffrey is a sustainable way to play quarterback in the NFL. I heard you say that, but the big plays to me were the third and eight early in that first touchdown drive where they go 95 yards.

And that's just a normal day. Every week since Alshan Jeffries come back, the offense has been Jay Cutler throwing off his back foot for 50-50 balls to Al-Shon Jeffrey. I agree with you that he's not much different this year than he ever is. To me, that's just a mid-level starting quarterback, which has plenty of value in the NFL. He's still better than 12, 14 starters out there. I mean, we've given enough time.

If you're a GM and you trade for Jay Cutler, you're going to be wanting to get rid of him in a year. That's just the way Jay Cutler's career is always. It's been going on for 10 years now. I think he could be more successful and have a better stay with the team if we start adjusting expectations. Yeah. But that's what we've been saying like every year for the past five years.

you adjust your expectations. Jake Cutler is not the answer. I'm sorry. We'll move on in 15 seconds, but you did make a great point, Wes, in your article that it's got to hurt Chargers fans that Melvin Gordon

was not the best rookie running back in this game. Jeremy Langford. Mikeville are good. It shows you how tough the draft is, especially running back. It's tricky to invest. Had to be tough game for Spice.

Oh, spicy. Spice racks got to be, you know, sucking the tailpipe right now. He's not my go-to guy anymore after this one. Spicy. Spice. You should get Spice rack on the phone at the end of the season.

For the 98% of the people listening, you have no idea what we're talking about. Spicerack, a football Spengali who gives Wesleyan tips, told them that Melvin Gordon was going to have 2,000 yards this year. I don't watch college football, and the Spicer, Brad Spicer, one of my friends from back home. Maybe he shouldn't say his name. Maybe we should bleep out his name. He doesn't want to be connected to this Melvin Gordon Gaff. Well, he's been right on so many college football guys that I've basically. giving him carte blanche but this is this is a big whip a spice rack if you're listening does he

listen to the podcast he's off and on but i i think he's like 20 percent all right we'll give you a pass in this one but you got to nail your prediction next draft season let's move on and uh the group power pole discussion the midseason power poll everyone's excited uh because uh when the NFL around the NFL.com around the NFL team, which is comprised, of course, the three of us that you're hearing today as well as Mark Sessler out sick today. Also, Kevin Patra in Sugartown and Connor Orr in his New Jersey Haunted Mansion. We all have this week made a list of our individual power rankings at the season's midway point. And then we had a mathematician somewhere in the newsroom crunch those numbers.

And Tago, a mathematician. Tago. Parker Tega. Yeah, old Tago crunched the numbers and gave us our definitive power rankings with all the averages. So, and that means, what that basically means without bragging or anything is that this is the order of how good teams are in the NFL. We've got enough voices in the room where there's no way we can get it wrong, right, Wes? Absolutely. This is basically handed down on tablets from Mount Sinai.

Don't tell Elliot Harrison who does the power rankings on NFL.com that the defense. definitive list is in my hand right now. Well, that's why we only come out every quarter or so because you can't, there's no way we could write scripture every week. It's too hard. Thank you. Greg, you've once again put it into words in a really eloquent way. Here we go.

Here's the top 10. Top 10 teams in the NFL right now. Number one, Patriots, two, Cincinnati Bengals West. Can you believe it? Number three, Panthers. There's a tie it forth, which is just exciting. between the Cardinals and Broncos. The Packers at six,

slip in a little bit from our quarter pole. That's what I meant to, Greg, can you pull up our quarter pole? Sure. Okay, number seven, Seahawks, number eight, the New York Football Jets, number nine, the Vikings, and 10, the Steelers. Wes, I'm going to start with you on this.

Anything from our top 10 jump out at you as a surprise. No, not one surprise on the top 10. Well, the surprise to me, I'm looking at some of your individuals, list. The three of us actually have different teams as the number two team in the league. Now, as an aggregate, the group ended up going with the Bengals, Dan, that was your number two team. Well done, aggregate. I have the Panthers. I think the Panthers are the number

two team. I could have seen the argument for Cincinnati. And West, this should not surprise anyone, believes the Cardinals are the second best team right now in the NFL, despite their two losses. Why would it surprise anyone? They've outplayed every team they played. Well, the outplaying teams, but they had, yes, the two losses and didn't dominate the Browns. Right, but I firmly and vigorously believe that power pulls should be based on the best teams, not the best records. I like that way. I think that if you're just putting standings down, power poles are useless. No, I agree.

The Cardinals are clearly one of the top two most talented teams in the NFL. I'm buying in on the Panthers. I think they're not as talented as Arizona, but I think they're a better team. I almost said football team, but I didn't want a national football team. But you never played in the National Football League, so you can't use that. I wanted to because football is a different kind of sport, and I think they're greater than the sum of their parts. I think the defense is great.

And I think the Cardinals have just shown enough to me that they haven't lived up fully to their potential, despite that great record that I think when it comes down to it, I still think the Panthers are a better team right now, if the playoffs started right now. It's interesting to say that because since Bruce Ariens arrived in Arizona, I feel like they've been the best football team. in the league.

Oh, sure. I have them number four. That is why they are the team of around the NFL. Team of ATL. Oh, yeah. The biggest faller in our top 10 would be the Green Bay Packers, back-to-back losses. We had them at two at the quarter pole,

and now, as I said, they're at number six. I've got one other takeaway about this top 10. There is such a huge drop-off, whether you want to say it's after the Packers at six or I would say the Seahawks at seven, Even though the Seahawks are four and four, I think they deserve all the latitude to show us that they're a championship level team. I mean, you're putting the Vikings and the Steelers, the Steelers don't have a quarterback at the moment. The Vikings, the Jets who have been up and up and out, the Vikings as a top 10 team seems crazy to me, but there's really no other options.

I think it's a top heavy league. I have the Vikings personally lower 11. I believe they have the toughest schedule in the league the rest of the way. And they've had one of the easiest so far. And when you watch them week to week, I'm just not that impressed. They've managed to win close games. Their defense is good. They remind me of the Chiefs when the Chiefs made the playoffs.

They win 10 games and then they lose the first. People in Minnesota just rolling over right now, pissed off at Greg Rosenthal. I'd be stunned if the Super Bowl doesn't have two of these teams on the top seven. Right, exactly. It doesn't, it feels like a very top heavy. You just cut the jets out of the Super Bowl. Yeah, we're not going to go to the Super Bowl. It's a top heavy league and a huge middle this year.

The bottom isn't quite as bad as it was for its year. It's the top heaviest I remember in the last decade or so. Here is the middle of the league. Number 11, we have the Raiders, which is, you know, quite an achievement for Oakland's face. At number 12, the Falcons, 13 Rams, 14 bills, 15 Eagles, 16 cults, 17 giants, right in the middle there in the Dalton zone, 18 Saints, 19 Chiefs and 20 the Dallas Cowboys West. I know you're fired up, so I'll tee you up on this one again. You don't believe that Cowboys have any right being in this middle tier.

Did a bunch of Cowboys fans infiltrate our ranks? How did they get to 20 if they've lost six games in a row? You have them 27th. I have them 22nd. Well, I'm going to use your own words against you, Wes. I'm not judging this solely on win-loss record. I'm still holding. I was really surprised they didn't find a way to,

win Sunday so kind of that it really shook my confidence but I will say that when they get roaming back I still think they have a run in them in a bad division where they deserve to be in that number 20 like 20 to 24 range not the 28 to 32 but then you'll be able to rank them you know higher in the the three fourth season power pool or whatever three quarter pool power pull but right now they're one of the worst teams in the NFL well you could are competitive on a weekly basis. Six losses in a row makes them one of the worst team in the NFL. They looked like the better team when they played

the Giants. I mean, they really did. You would have made that argument. You know, the Cardinals you've said have one game and six, they look like a better team. They're doomed. They sold their soul and they're doomed. The Chiefs I had the Chiefs I had a little higher than 17, we said how we like them right now. I think the

Falcons are way too high at 12. Who's responsible for this? That's really surprised me. I think I had them at 17. At this point, you look at their record. I had a 15. Someone must have had them in the top 10. I mean, their record is fine. They're not a good team.

You know, I have to say, you know, just to show that I am not a Homer and the West, again, hardcore, hardcore journo. I had the Raiders ahead of the Jets. I had them in the top 10. He too. I had the Raiders. Actually, I had the Raiders 9 Jets 8, but I had them in the top 10. Raiders, they should be the team of ATL men. They are clearly not in that top tier of teams, but they are just as good as any of those teams that are near the top 10.

I have Raiders 11 and Falcons 12. I feel like the Raiders would win by 20 if they played. I agree. And when we were talking NFCEs, I put all those teams in a row. Giants, Redskins, Cowboys, they just put them in an ugly little NFC East grouping. Who wants to guess where we had the Raiders at the quarter pole? Probably in the mid-20s.

You guys should just get a helmet with a star on it and just join the Cowboys. They are marching up their power rings. They are 28 at the beginning of season. 20 at the quarter pole and now all the way up to number 11. So at this rate, that's nice. They'll be in the Super Bowl. The Cowboys, just so you know, Wes, this is where the Cowboys have been. They started at 16, dropped to 17, and now they've dropped to 20.

So they're going in the right direction, back. They're also dropping games left and right. Wes wants to put him at 33 because Greg Hardy's on the team. But that's not what this is about. I don't like Greg Hardy either, but come on. It's not just about that. Eagles moved up eight spots. I think we've kind of circled them as our NFC least champion, basically, as a group.

I think they're too low. They should be. You think they're better than that. Well, they're better than the Falcons. It seems to we put it together a little bit. They're better than the Falcons right now. All right. Here is the last portion of the PowerPole sponsored by Nick's sporting goods.

Can we just make it up the sponsor, or is that even allowed? Yeah, we had a conference call with legal. Earlier today, they say fictional sponsorships, not legal. Speaking of legal, just a little heads-up, shadowy league figures stepped in to make something else go away. We'll get to that in a moment. Here is 21 through 32. The Redskins, the Dolphins, the Buccaneers at 23, the Titans at 24, Bears at 25, Texans, Ravens, Chargers and Jaguars. Oh, Chargers, both tied at 28.

the Niners at 30, the Browns at 31, and the Lions, the consensus worst team in football. I have them at 30, but it's hard to put them anywhere other than that 30 to 32 range. Quite a fall from the 11 and 5 team that basically almost beat the Cowboys in Dallas in January. They're a mess. Who do you think out of this bottom 10, I'll ask this to both you guys, not really make a run to the playoffs because the AFC South isn't fair. that you might not have to be very good.

But who do you think out of this bottom 10 could make a run where they go six and two down the stretch and they're actually a good team? I don't know about run, but it's criminal that Redskins are ranked below the Cowboys on our list. No, it's not.

Sure it is. What are the Redskins showing you in the last month? Look, they've been just as injured as the Cowboys and they've got another win. See, you're going back to what the losses again. Their defense is not playing well lately at all. What are the Cowboys doing well?

They're defense is okay. They're really. running the ball well their offensive line is oh it took it took that to get you to credit there mcfadden they're running the ball well they're protecting well to answer to answer your question i i can't find a team here that's going to make a run i feel like the texans still could Hoyer's not playing as badly as everybody think they're fair i feel like the my answer would be the ravens just because they haven't been blown out once this entire season they're not a good team but they could start getting some breaks i think they're good enough and they have a quarter

back where it wouldn't surprise me. Their problem is, I think they just lost too many games. But they're trying to convince themselves. I don't know if you know this yet, but there's some talk in Baltimore this week. It's like, well, look at the we're only two back in the lost column in the wild card. It's not the craziest thing to imagine the Ravens in the mix in week six. The biggest gainer in the bottom of the league. You ready?

The Buccaneers started our power pole at 31. They dropped a dead last 32 at the quarter pole all the way up to 23. Way to go. At the midpoint, that is progress. If you're a James Winston-led team and you could get to the middle of the power pole by the end of the season, you're excited in Tampa.

I prefer the other rookie quarterbacks team. I think the Titans are friscier than the bucks. The bucks right now are going to save Lovie Smith's job at this rate. If there was any doubt about it, I think they only need to win about two more games and Lovie Smith will definitely be back. Bad move from a strategic point of view. So that is the power pole.

We should just, Greg, both of us should conspire a little, collusion and put the Cowboys at one on our three-quarter pole just to get Wes's head to explode. You'd like that'd be good television. Look, you're embarrassing yourself and your entire family. We'd leave a big hole on the schedule just in terms of like...

Did you just go Sammy Watkins on us? You're embarrassing your team and your cells by not throwing me the ball. That sounds appropriate to me. Well, our polls are theoretically confidential, Wes. so you wouldn't even know where those boats came from. I haven't seen it's very tempting. Dan told me that he thinks the Cowboys are like Super Bowl caliber.

I did. The watch of the Cowboys play spoiler at the very least at the end of the season. The only thing to get spoiled is their entire season by selling their soul to the devil. As I told you, Wes, before we came on, bad people and bad things, good things happen to them all the time. It's just the world doesn't, but they end up unhappy. I'm looking at you from a happiness and living a satisfying life. And you pointed to Donald Trump, who may well be financially successful,

but is not successful as a human being. Okay. I mean, I don't, I won't, certainly I won't argue on that. At night when he goes to sleep, he's got to deal with who Donald Trump is. And eventually that catches up to a human. Eventually. Right. Before the 80s, I don't think people, or even maybe not in this case,

you know, people weren't just measuring happiness by how much money you make, Dan Hans. You know, just because you make money doesn't mean, And, you know, Cowboys, for instance, they're making months of money. They're not getting success. When I sit you down, Greg, in the office with my high-powered agent, Scott Boris Jr. next to me. I won't be able to get Scott Boris, but I will get his son. It's 14.

Yeah, he's eight. Yeah. And he'll decide how important money is to happiness. Yeah, that was an ultimatum right there. Or was it? I don't know. I cares. I tuned out halfway through it.

So did I. Let's now, yes, it is. Time to move on. Good, good power pole segment. Right there, guys, really a lot of good points made by everyone involved. And now let's move on to the fork discussion. Stick a fork in them. And what I was hinting at during the power pole segment was we have been using shame

when we were doing the rundown of the fallen teams, the teams that have been deemed by us to be a lost cause. this season but a shadowy league figure alerted me that we can no longer use that for copyright reasons so instead I will use a different song or a different drop one that does convey a lost cost I mean this is one of the great sad songs of all time this is one of the top 50 breakup songs of all time from one of the best breakup albums of all time it is it's a great sad song. It's called Lost Cause by Beck. And these teams are lost causes. Here we go. The Cleveland Browns, the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions, Norland Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 49ers,

the Texans, the Raiders, the Dolphins, the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Buffalo Bills the San Diego Chargers Baby your lost causes I like the Beck's song I'm doing fine better The one that's with there's a bluebird Outside my window

You know that one? I do not know that one Is that on that same album? It is in its higher ranked on my breakup songs list Sea chain's really full of him Yes It's up there with blood on the tracks and late for the sky by Jackson Brown.

Beck and Bob Dylan in the same sentence. Oh, I think it's absolutely one of the best breakup albums. A lot of people do think that, yeah. Rumors by Fleetwood Mac is always going to be up there. But Beck's album was great. I guess Adele's album. I mean, Beck, who's from that early, you know, 90s, mid-90s is still going strong putting out quality work.

I mean, I don't think it was necessarily. justified, but he actually, in the most recent Grammy Awards, one album of the year, which was a good album, the one he just put out. What's Alonis Morissette doing now? You had told me that. Raising her kids, Wes, and what's wrong with that? Greg, get on that corner. You're big on a woman's rights in her body.

Yeah, stop trying to police them. That's what you do. Yeah. Well, that's what Wes is doing. No, I'm just saying, like, everybody would have assumed when she had that blockbuster album that she would have been the artist who was carrying on. You would have thought loser, maybe that's more like the one-hit wonder. Right.

Loser was definitely a warm-hits it up with a much better album. Radiohead would be abandoned. Right, but Radiohead, like, I would equate creep to loser. Like, it doesn't even fit the rest of the catalog. There. All right, let's get to it now. The forked teams, here are the nominees. Now, the goal here is to fork 16 teams.

This is our last forked session. Again, to clarify, when we fork a team, we decide they cannot and will not make the playoffs. so we have forked the 14 teams that I read off and now here are the nominees as we try to get to 16 we want to fork half the league basically give us wiggle room with four different teams in addition to the 12 playoff teams that we believe will be in the dance

here we go let's start we'll go one by one here we'll start with the Tennessee Titans and now we have three nominees we want to fork two and if we don't we're huge failures we'll start with the Titans who are two and six come up with another nominee always you could write-ins are welcome of course this all this is what was nominees that came out of our danish um i haven't even seen the nominees list here it is

the tennessee titans the first one two and six uh buried uh in the wild card race but of course in the a fc south uh it is a whole new ball game now with andrew luck missing time uh for the last month i would have been thrilled about getting rid of the titans but now Greg, I feel uncomfortable eliminating them with Andrew Luck out for two to six weeks. I don't feel that uncomfortable because Andrew Luck's not out for the season and the Colts are up to wins on the Titans. I wish, if I was going to pick one of these teams, I would still go with the Jaguars as much as they had blown it.

So I don't think we would be found wrong if we do fork the Titans. They are two and six. You've got to win some games. I know they're in the mix, but you got to start winning more games that they just won. Yeah, that was their first wins. It was the opening. Well, Zach Mettenberger wasn't going to lead him to wins. Well, but Marcus Marielo was not playing well before his injury, and he had won many games.

So I would not be opposed to forking. Well, let me just say before we bring anything to a vote, the three nominees should be known. So, you know, you don't want to fork someone when there was two other better options. The Dallas Cowboys at two and six have been nominated after their six straight loss. They must be in discussion. and another NFC East team, the Washington Redskins, at three and five. So yes, let's now go back to the Titans.

Wes, your thoughts on this? I would keep the Titans. And fork the other two? Yeah. Well, anything that gets Wes to jump off, let's save the Redskins corner is something I'm in favor. I have strategy on this. As long as the Cowboys are forked, the Redskins can go too.

This is the backroom dealing that you guys don't often see. It's more, that is what happens inside the conference room. I made a huge mistake during the last show. Very unlike you, Greg. When I did not stand up for the bills, who I believed before the season were a playoff team and who are a talented team. Well, let's hear what, how Greg's thought process,

this is two weeks ago, made one of the biggest mistakes of his professional career and not fighting for the bills and losing a lot of leverage politically in the process. This is how it went down. We were supposed to be getting done. bold we know we're going to get a lot of tweets from the bill's fan base if we forked them in week seven especially if they make a run on us that actually seems kind of fun it does i like

the all right let's fork them whoa yeah rosy rosenthal that was after five minutes of you're saying after five drinks a couple minutes of defending them and saying how they were only one win away from being right back in the mix i mean the only thing that's changed is they beat a they won in a game they were favored in since that happened, but they're a talented team. The whole fork needs to be considered to be forked because we're living in a world where we're... We're saying this every year.

Yeah, but this time, I went along with your little plan, oh, let's get bold, let's fork everyone by week four. I'm sure we'll know everything. At this point in the season, we are saying that the Raiders are not in the playoff mix, the bills are not in the playoff mix, the Saints, and yet we're debating lame teams like the Cowboys, and the Titans, and they're still alive?

The whole thing is... No, this is what we need to do. Troubled. We need to tweak the language. We've said historically have no chance of making the playoffs. If we tweak it to just saying they're not going to make the playoffs, we're covered. Even if we say that, we're saying that about two four and four AFC teams right now, the Raiders and the Bills.

And I don't care what happens the rest of the year really with them. It's silly to say that they're not potential playoff. Do you undermine segments in the Jeslnick podcast, too? I do it all the time. That's what I do. The underminer. Can't we just understand that we're flawed and we're going to get things wrong? Thank you.

We're not unimpeachable. Maybe we'll tweak the formula for next year. I think one thing Dan and I talked about during the conference was, you know, we don't have to go crazy about forking week three, four, five. That's a lesson. The goal is to have the fork committee all decided by mid-season. But maybe you wait until week six, seven to really get the fourth. I could see both sides of this.

It's a key part of the podcast, and listeners seem to like it, but it is ultimately a doomed exercise. It's an imperfect science. Let's put it that way. But getting back to it, so, Wes, you will. It's a little fatuous. You're going to block the Titans and save them. I would rather fork the cow.

I really want to fork the Cowboys, and I'm okay with forking the Redskins if we also fort the Cowboys. I feel like we're in a good place here because I would, would have been fighting tooth and nail to get rid of the Titans if that news didn't break with Andrew Luck. But that changes it, so I'm okay now that they're still existing. In fact... Don't forget they also lost one of their best defensive players,

Henry Anderson out for the year. You're one of the better rookies. Plus, we said we wanted to be bold. You can be a little more bold forking the team with Tony Romo waiting in reserve than the Tennessee Titans. Really, my main, you know, point today was to make sure the Redskins didn't survive have another one of these they should have been forked weeks ago and as long as that's taken care of i can go along i'd the cowboys i would see what happened by the way what just as i predicted

west got put in a tough spot with his his real team that he loves the patriots banged both his little pet projects and the dolphins and the redskins sure and now both of them are out of consideration well look i don't love the patriots they're fun to carry that water up and down the hill they're fun to watch they deserve respect and they win every year what's so wrong i know i know i know i know I can't deny. The Redskins, it was just my anti-Cowboys project. Well, also, that's my, Henry's going to have to use a spork for the rest of his life project

if they win the NFC East. Henry Hodgson, our director of programming downstairs, Hansa Mac. So, all right, so I feel like we're in a good place here. What we're basically saying is we're forking the Cowboys and Redskins, which means the NFC East will only come down to the Eagles and Giants. That's logical. Let the record show I'm forking the Cowboys with Gus.

Okay, it is noted. I will note it here. And the Tennessee Titans. Amazingly have survived. Amazing. The Raiders didn't survive. Titans could end up two and 14 and they haven't been forked yet. We are really counting hard on Mike Malarkey.

Well, part of it is the likeability factor. I'm all in on rooting for the Titans to win this division. I'm fine with that. Or I would be fine with the Jaguress too. So I'm good. At least it's a team I can root for. So the teams, yeah. So the team's really that we're leaving kind of out there to get the job done and fight for the playoffs.

Does some good old-fashioned horse trading. Let's see. We got, yeah. We think the Rams are going to be in the mix for a playoff spot. The Titans somehow. We got rid of the Cowboys. Steelers and Jets. Stealers and Jets.

Vikings. Viking. Okay. There it is. We have forked half the league. The exercise is complete. A flawed exercise, Greg. Yes.

But we'll see how it turns out. It's still fun. If, yeah, I mean, if the Raiders end up going 10 and 6, we will be taught a very, a very hard lesson. And we're going to, and we'll donate to the Oakland area, YMCA Boys and Girls Club or whatever. Wherever you want. Donate to keeping the Raiders in Oakland. Oh, yeah. That's yes.

If we get a forked team wrong or multiple forked teams wrong, we make a charitable donation to that city. I feel like that's very magnanimous of us. right i i think we're we're the real heroes all right let's get to it now our last topic to discuss thursday night football yes rex bowl won jets versus the bills a game at the meadowlands the hype is building and it's you know all rex ryan based and i you know i like rex this i wish ceciler was here right now because sessler is a very anti-rex ryan figure and within the NFL media umbrella. But Rex

really is not having a great week so far. In terms of the hype, I think he he's trying to bit too hard. The IK and Impali, the decision to make him the captain, that's one thing, but to really, not even, there's no wink to it. He welcomed that discussion

when he announced it in the press conference on Monday and everything that meant. Yeah, it's kind of fun, but also a little bit out of school, I think. because Impali, this isn't just the guy that used to be on the Jets. He assaulted the Jets quarterback, Gino Smith, and now he's going to go out to midfield. And then on Tuesday, Rex came out wearing a Clemson helmet

for whatever reason his son plays on Clemson or something, just knowing that all the cameras are going to be on him. So Rex is having fun with this. That's a little tiresome to me. The game itself, I think this is going to be a very close game. The Jets are banged up. They're not going to have Antonio Cromarty, which might not be the worst thing,

but their secondaries beat up. The bills are flying high in terms of confidence and they are more healthy on offense. I think this is going to go either way. Your thoughts, guys. I'm really fascinated to watch when the bills have the ball on offense. The performance they had running the ball last week, the dominance of their offensive line

and how good LaShawn McCoy look going up against what should be the strength of the Jets. What really has been the strength on defense? Except the last two weeks. They haven't been. What's going on there, Dan, by the way? Why aren't they tackling in the run game? They were, they've been better.

Wait, the front seven was fine, I thought. Getting on Sunday. Jaguars? They were terrible the week before in Oakland. Tavius Murray ran all over them. Yeah, they did not have a good week, but they were better last week. It makes me feel a little bit better. And they actually, they did something we talked about on Sunday with Maldon.

They've been getting a pad. They had six sacks of Bordle, so they did a good job. It's the back end of the defense. Everybody gets six sacks of board. Leonard Williams has been quiet for a couple weeks. I don't think that's any cause for concern. Moe Wilkerson is really the best player on that line, as much as they've added Sheldon Richardson and, you know, this whole line around them, of course, with Williams,

Mo Wilkerson's having the best year and he's been the most consistent. But for that team to go up against the Bills team, who really did whatever they wanted running the ball is going to be fun to watch. And they didn't try to throw it much last week, but when Tyrod Taylor did throw it, he had all day. And if he couldn't find anyone open, he made them pay. And I just, I can't wait to watch this game. I like watching both of these teams now. Sammy Watkins had trouble with Revis last year when Revis was playing with the Patriots. And if Revis can do what he did in Oakland, where he basically took Amari Cooper out of the game,

the bills don't have a Michael Crabtree. I don't know. When Cooper got open against Revis, he got open. That was one I wanted to watch just on the All-22 just to see their matchup. And, man, his footwork is great. And it might have just been Derek Carr being smart and just going away from Revis. but he he made some plays that that matchup is great this is a great tnf game one thing to watch and this is uh the book could be out a little bit on the jet's defense they no uh no team is having

to face more uh five wide sets and they're basically trying to counteract the jets defensive line by just getting the ball out quick and taking taking advantage of a second it's not playing well right but the jets probably want the bills to do five wide sets and put the game in tie rod taylor's hands as a passer they don't want to have have to, I don't know. Well, I guess it depends if you think Tyrae Taylor can beat the Jets that way. That's how you decide who wins this game. And that's how the Jets are expected to attack the bills.

Rex Ryan said you can start writing the stories now because we're not, we're going to struggle to get sacks against the Jets. They're going to spread it out. And it's almost like he was daring Chan Galey, who's done a great job this year, by the way, to spread him out and do what they've been doing, which is Fitzpatrick throwing short passes. your boy, Eric Decker, by the way, I feel like he needs to get some credit. Just having a nice, a very good season.

It's the same player he's always been. Everybody just wants to relegate him to some afterthought. Yeah, that's fair. Well, he, yeah, they had him out of position last year trying to make him the number one with a bad quarterback. Speaking of quarterbacks, number two is a much better suited. Wes, Greg, the floor is yours. It's time to give Ryan Fitzpatrick a little love.

He's having a nice little season. He moves very well in the pocket. He's very solid. I liked his performance last week. He's been very good. Better than I think Galey and him deserve a lot of credit together for putting together what they've had. He's been protected.

They need the old Mangold back, though. I mean, you've been blaming Chris Ivory, but I don't know. He's getting hit in the backfield a lot up the middle. I'm not putting it on Chris Ivory, but there's been a total breakdown in their running game. And I don't think they're going to win that matchup against the bills at all. If they're having trouble against the Jaguars in terms of the interior,

the bills are going to crush him. What is up with the QB? You guys love that ESPN QB. I love me some Fitzmagic, but he's ranked third in the NFL in QBR. That's out. Well, how about that? He's been a little underrated on Greg's list all year. Yes, I guess I'm trying to influence the QB into this week.

What do you've got to do to put him ahead of Bridgewater and Cutler? Come on. Cutler, they're close. He definitely will be ahead of Bridgewater this week. That's what I'm talking about. You're right. Maybe even Flacco. He's been playing really well.

I think he's been getting better. His last three games that he's played have been maybe his. three best since the opener since mark's not here i would i would just like to echo that rex ryan sentiment that subconsciously i don't even he just seems like all hype to me anymore i just feel like whenever there's a big game he's not going to come through his team's going to be too antsy they're going to be too fired up and it's going to be all hype and no substance this will be a great test of that theory because they're on a short week and again i think that i think the i think the jets are vulnerable this week with what what's going on with them injury wise

You said Nick Mangold, what's going on in their secondary. If Rex does not have this team ready to play this game, you've got to ask questions. Yeah, I mean, I feel like he's good for the NFL. I like that he cuts it up. He keeps it loose. That's great. But sooner or later, you've got to stop talking and start winning. All right.

Let's go around the table here real quick before we go. Winner and score, Chris Wesley. Jets, 24, Bill's 20. I like that. I will go with the exact same score. I'm going to go bills winning this game. You would. I think the bills win this game.

And then the AFC wildcard is just wide open, blown open. There's no favorites. I think they're the more talented team overall. Although it's really close. I just think they're going to get this. And that's how it's going to work out. So you're sucked in a little bit, though, because you've got the Jekyll and Hyde Bills.

I've been sucked in all year, though. I fully admit that there's a little. They can lay an egg here. There's a little bit of bias in me in that I believe this team could win 10, 11 games. I thought it before the season before. seeing how Tyrod Taylor, I think this team has a really high ceiling. There you go. So there is the Thursday night preview. We will be back on, you know, our late Thursday, early Friday show.

We'll recap this game with Greg and Wes, and then we will get into all the games on the schedule for week 10. We are just rolling. We're going to preview all those games. That'll be fun. We'll have another special guest in the studio. I won't say anything else for now. But that's it. This is Dan Hansis, signing off.

the mailman, Chris Wesley. Greg Rosenthal, also known as the boss. Get Well Mark Sessler, the Sizzler, and Sydney behind the glass. Till Friday. This is an I-Heart podcast.