NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Raiders-Broncos Week 10 TNF Recap and Midseason Power Rankings

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

That was one of the football games of all time. The Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos combined for 17 total points as Bo Nix, Sean Payton and the Broncos faithful have to feel like they got away with murder after coming away with a win in Week 10. Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook have recap and analysis of the day's action, but also provide league-wide power rankings of every NFL team. HINT: NFC West teams make up two of the top three slots. Listen to the latest edition of NFL Daily to find out why!NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. empty set three to the right, two to left. Nix drops back, throws a ball to the end zone. The pass is caught. And that is a Denver touchdown. Troy Franklin with the catch at the goal line. And he had Eric Skokes on his back. Stokes made the tackle, but Franklin had the ball and a touchdown.

That was Dave Logan on K-O-A. That was the only Denver Broncos touchdown of the night. That was the last time we saw anyone in the end zone in this game, a 10 to 7 victory by the Denver Broncos over the Las Vegas Raiders. Nick, when I asked you before the season to do every Monday night game recap with me, every Thursday night game recap with me, I never promised that they would all. be beautiful and I submit there will not be an uglier primetime game than this all season or maybe

for many seasons there there are some games that are ugly and fun and this one by the end was just ugly it makes me think about that Colts Broncos game that was a Thursday night or a few years ago that was also just about as ugly as this one but that one had like a a sense of like this is we're all having a good time by the end because it's so bad that it was that bad yeah and this one not so much And to that point, so my youngest sister lives with me, and she made some incredible banana bread today. And to feel something again before getting on the show, I just took a big chunk of banana bread and housed it before I came in here to do the show. I appreciate that. I appreciate your sister.

I want some of that banana bread. And we're still going to break this down. But we're also going to break down the entire league where we made our first power rankings of the year, me and you, a little bit of a power poll. where we averaged our rankings together. And, yeah, the Broncos, you know, might have to move down a couple spots despite winning tonight's game. So, you know, we'll give this game all the time.

It deserves maybe a little less than most Thursday nights. And then we'll do some of the power rankings. You know, my takeaway here in a game that had 22 penalties, split evenly, 11 each, 15 puns and just incredibly long stretches of offensive incompetency, especially, you know, in the second half of this game, was that this Bronco's offense, like, I know they won the game when usually talk positive about, you know, we'll talk about the defense and how good they look, we know they're great.

Like, their troubles are not going away. Bow Nicks through a unforgivable interception late in this game. They never got it even going in the fourth quarter. The reason they won is because their defense kept setting them up with short field. They eventually got a little bit of a running game going. But my God, their passing game against. a defense that has struggled all season was kind of my biggest takeaway because this is an eight and two team leading the AFC West with a chance to get the number one seed.

Yeah, and it's another example of what this team has been for, I mean, months, not month, but months at this point. I mean, they are a team that looks as if they are sleepwalking offensively almost every week and their story has been they turn it on the fourth quarter and come back and win games. And frankly, tonight was setting up to be that if Daniel Carlson makes the game tying field goal, which he missed. We were going to have to see them put the foot down on the pedal again and see if they could pull another one out of thin air. Instead, luckily, because the Raiders missed their field goal,

the Broncos simply had to salt it away. I will give them a little bit of credit. Before that touchdown pass that we heard to start the show, Lennox did have a handful of really good throws where he stepped up in the pocket. He extended the play and he's got guys 10, 15 yards down field that he's hitting accurately. Other than that, nightmare. They didn't run the ball effectively in the first half.

they decided to commit to it in the second half, and it helped a little bit and helped them put the game away as well. But it is a team that lacks an identity, has talent, has an ability to move the football at times, but lacks an identity, so it takes them forever to get going,

and we were left with this same thing. You know, I described Bo Nix recently as a firecracker quarterback because he's silent and it's just like lighting a pack of firecrackers. Everything's quiet, the fuse is lit, might hear the fuse, and then pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,

that's how he's been in almost every game. Tonight he wasn't even really that, except for when they scored that touchdown. Yeah, that was one drive. It was late in the second quarter. It was the best field position that they had until the second half where they blew a couple really short fields. But they started at their own 47 and they drove down and you're right. He's made a few plays where he steps up in the pocket and, you know, sees open lanes and hits a pass.

But he missed so many of those tonight. And they had a crazy amount of drives in this game, 13 drives. So, like, that game should have ended at you. Usually you get about 10 drives in a game, and they had seven points at one point. And there was a stretch where through 11 drives, which is more than a game, you know, a normal game, where they had eight three and outs out of those seven drives and an interception in those eight drives, another very short drive and then the touchdown drive that we just talked about. And then on top of it, like, if you want to extend it out to 12 drives, it was that groaner of an interception in the fourth quarter. So that's a 12 drive sequence with just total struggle fest.

And there wasn't a lot of pressure on him. I mean, there was at times, but I looked and there wasn't much quick pressure. Max Crosby was generally taken care of tonight by their pass rush. So one play really stands out to me where Kirk Herbstry on the. the broadcast is like, you know, Bo Nix, not feeling very settled in the pocket. And I'm like, yeah, that's true. But it was a three-man rush against a five-man protection with absolutely no one there. And then he just like throws it away on a third down. That was at the beginning of the fourth quarter. And yet, I appreciated them, if nothing else, running the clock out at the

end of the game with some good J.K. Dobbins runs. And if nothing else, that got us to the end of the game quicker. Yeah, there was one inexplicable miss of a running lane by J.K. Dobbins in that sequence where you see it on Prime Vision from the over the top. You're like, the lane is there. And he just tries to swerve right around it. Otherwise, they put the game way. But you're absolutely right.

I mean, this offense had no rhythm the entire night. This game was really won by their defense. And their defense's ability to completely eliminate Brock Bowers from the equation for the Raiders. They dedicated defensive backs to them all game. There were multiple instances in which the Raiders are running play action trying to slip Bowers out into the flat. There's two DBs right there covering him.

Gino looks to him first, has to go somewhere else. So, I mean, this defense won this game. They won it by not really blitzing that much, but getting semi-consistent pressure doesn't really show up in the numbers, but shows them visually. And it's not really like their hallmark, like they have a good defense. We know that.

But when you think about the Broncos, you don't think like great defensive team. They win with defense. You think of them as a team that has a good defense and then just happens to find enough success offensively. And it felt like a diet version of that tonight. An extreme version, I would say. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up something positive here.

So, yeah, let's give Nick Benito his flowers, eight or nine QB pressures, six quick pressures, two sacks. I think they'll count it officially as one and a half. I don't believe in half sacks. Another couple quarterback hits on the day, Zach Allen with three quarterback hits and a sack. And the Raiders start out this game with a really good touchdown drive. And the image I remember at best is on the score. Jackson Powers Johnson, their guard, you know, blocking Nick Bonito out of the play and Ash and Gentie running through a tackle by Hufunga. And I'm thinking, okay, we're live. This is going to be

an interesting game. And that was like the last we saw anything of that. And partly because Jackson Powers Johnson left this game and that left their left side, which has been missing Colton Miller thin all night. What the hell? Let's listen to the one Raider's touchdown because we really aren't going to have any other highlights. Time out. Gino's clapping his hands on third and short. Inside handoff. Jenty inside the five. First down to the goal line. Touchdown Raiders. Ashton Jenty on the inside handoff. A six-yard run. Deuce is in the end zone. Oh, Ashley Jentie started this game great. And then he ended the game with 3.2 yards per carry. I was watching part of the game with Maurice Jones Drew. He thinks Jentie misses some holes. You were talking about not having like the greatest vision. He thinks he missed them tonight. after really that first drive or two, the Broncos dominated in a way that you just rarely see. There was a sequence, and I keep going, while the Broncos were doing all those three and outs

that I just mentioned, there was an eight drive sequence by the Raiders where they had a total of 10 yards. I mean, that's crazy. A total of 10 yards. A four play turnover on downs. Three and out, three and out, three end of half, three and out, one play interception, three and a block punt and then another three and out. That's wild in an NFL game that we all watched and we were paid for.

Yeah, we were. Thank you. I will say that Jackson Powers Johnson, like Jackson Powers Johnson supposedly going to be coming in to be the center. He loses the center job. He ends up being a guard. He is kind of in the mold of Ritchie Incognito, although he's taller, but he looks like him physically. And the way that he moves and blocks is kind of similar, which is funny because incognito,

you know, end of his career, he was a Raider as well. But once they lost him, the right side of their offensive line was just consistently bad. You see him pulling from right to left there on that touchdown run. After that, DJ Glaze is getting beaten consistently in one-on-ones by Nick Benito. The right guard that replaces Jackson Powers Johnson, getting beaten consistently in one-on-ones. To where Gino never has any time to survey the field, and that's before he gets banged up, this offense had no life. We've talked all year about how Gentie is consistently getting hit behind the line of scrimmage.

Watch it on Prime Vision tonight from above. It's the same thing. He's getting hit a yard, half a yard, yard and a half behind the line of scrimmage. He's got nowhere to run. This Raiders' offense, if it's not dead, it's basically on life support right now. Like, they just can't do anything. Their leading receiver tonight was Tyler Lockett, by far, five for 44. You know, Bowers has one good catch where he's singled up on Jaday Barron in the first half.

And in that drive, I believe, ended either in the turnover. on downs or one of the three punts that the Raiders had in Broncos territory. I don't know how they pulled that off. They also had the missed field goal that you mentioned when Gino did get some passes going in the second half, their only sign of life, and then they settle for the field goal attempt, and he missed it. And Gino is struggling in general. He definitely missed a few throws tonight. He held on to the ball a little bit, but he had basically no chance. And the offensive line you're talking about is Dylan Forsythe, or Stone Forsyth at left tackle? Is it Dylan Putnam at left guard?

Jordan Meredith, Alex Kappa, and Glaze. DJ Glaze on the right side. So that's three replacements. And then one of the starters, Glaze, just getting killed. It's rough going for my guy. I don't think he had much of a chance, but there's just, there's not much more you can say, I think, about this Raiders offense. Maybe not of this game, unless you have anything.

more you really want to get to here. Tip of the cat to Gino for trying to gut out the injury that he was dealing with. It was pretty clear. He was limited by it. He gets hit after scrambling. He basically gets tripped up by Nick Benito. You're going to see it if you're watching on YouTube. And then Malcolm Roach falls on him.

I believe that's where it happened because he starts grabbing his left leg and he continues to grab his left leg. Kaley Hartung later reported it was a left quad injury. So if you see the replay, again, if you're watching on YouTube, Gino stumbles to the ground and then Roach falls in. And the replay view from behind, which I'm not sure we're going to get here. We don't get there. You can see the impact on his leg, his knee kind of goes inward.

At first, I thought it might be a knee issue. It ends up being a quad. Either way, it was a significant hurdle for him physically. And ultimately, I think it limited him in key spots. But you got to give him credit for trying to gut it out. Yeah. He had a dime to Dante Thornton in the first half, which could have been caught and just completely dropped, probably his best throw of the night by far.

he had a touchdown taken off the board by a jack better no that was a dante thornton penalty rather um on an offensive pass interference where i think the play call would have worked it obviously i don't think that defender's going to actually cover that ground even if he doesn't hit him i don't think he gets there it was absolutely the right call don't don't get me wrong because he went out of his way to to hit the guy it's just too too easy and uh that took seven points off the board too and then he had a sequence where rehem moster uh had a blow assignment, trying to protect him against the blitz, and he just starts yelling at Moester. There, there were, see, there was a moment where I thought it was going to get to like

fun, ugly, and that was the sequence where the Broncos who are running it down the Raiders' throats, get the third in one, and then Sean Peyton calls a trick play. Oh, my God. And they go backward five yards. It was so bad. And then they come up short on the field goal attempt after that losing five. yards on the third and one. And then the ensuing play is, you know, Smith hitting Ash and Genty in the chest and the ball pops up for an interception. Like, it just was like, okay,

now we're having some fun. Then there's a block punt, but it didn't even continue to be fun. It just, it just was ugly. You know, that that missed kick, by the way, is my favorite example of an, or it's the latest example of what my favorite new trend in football is, which is announcers being infatuated by the whole K-ball, juiced K-ball revolution, and kickers can kick balls a mile now. And Will Lutz lines up for a 59-yarder, no small feet.

And Al Michaels is like, he hit these with ease and warm-ups, and Lutz comes up like eight-yard short. I'm just like, yeah, maybe we don't think everybody can hit 60-yarders routinely. Let's be reminded that these are humans. And it was a windy night.

We should point out with some of the offensive struggles. Although, like, inaccurate passes, weirdly of everything, didn't seem like it was the biggest issue in general on the night. Yeah, not everyone's going to be able to hit. Although he did bounce it in, which if you tried to do that a hundred times, I don't know if you could. Like the ball bounced and went over the crossbar. Doug Flutie, drop kick, remember that back in the day?

That counts. Well, that's a little different. That's a little different. The bounce there starts at the beginning. They started this game, and it's been a really dark day in the NFL. And like I said, we're going to do the power rankings right after this break. But there's no other great place to address this. But everyone listening probably knows right now.

What a difficult day this has been in the NFL. A lot of people woke up, myself included to the news that Marshawn Neal and the 24-year-old defense event of the Dallas Cowboys died on Wednesday night. And the Dallas police, the Texas Department of Safety, said he died of. an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after crashing his vehicle. And more reporting is out there. I'm reading the athletic right now, and they're reporting from the police. This is all directly from the police, you know, had a police dispatch where his girlfriend called and said that he was having suicidal thoughts and said that that was going to happen. And there were text messages that he sent. And there's nothing.

more you can do than just send your heart to everyone that knows Marshawn Neeland and of course to his family and to the Dallas Cowboys and everyone struggling with mental illness out there. The reporting also indicates he had been struggling with a history of mental illness. And it's just an insidious thing. It's impacted my family, my life quite a bit and just rest in peace. Marshawn Neeland, 24 years old, we'll be back on the other side. Hey, y'all, it's me, your man, M.G. Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Lerio. And I'm Laquan Jones.

If you're looking to win your fantasy football league, you need to tune in to the NFL fantasy football podcast. It's right there in the name. Every week, Florio, LQ, and I bring you the latest news from around the league. We break down every matchup, give you our analysis and advice so you know who to start, sit, drop, and trade to bring that championship trophy home. I just want to remind everyone how good Rashid Rice was last season. And there's three healthy games. He was the wide receiver two in fantasy. I think Rashid just goes off this week. The Chiefs come on a flip pass to Rice. Near side. Touchdown! Remandre Stevens is my sleeper this week. This is a matchout where I think I can slide in Stevenson into my flex position and he

could deliver double-digit points this week. Drake takes the snap. Hands it off. Remodry running it Right. And we're running into the end zone. Touchdown. It's never too late to turn your fantasy season around. Subscribe to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. If you love breaking down football from every angle, you're in the right place. Every week on Move the Six, Bucky Brooks and I dive deep into the game from the X's and O's to the front office moves shaping the league.

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I kind of took stock of the league while we were in. Ireland. But here we are. One game past, the midway point, shook. And I think it's time to just kind of break it down who we think are the best teams in the entire NFL. You made it a list. I made a list. And we combined them. And now we're going to talk about it. And we broke it into four different sections. And we'll start. We'll go bottom up. Let's start with the they gone section. Self-explanatory. They gone. Dead last. Tennessee. Titans. We both had that, by the way. I should have showed you my list, so you know where we agreed, where we didn't. The New Orleans Saints, second to last 31. We both agreed on that

completely as well. Number 30, the Jets, 29 Raiders did not help themselves tonight. Sad to see the Washington commanders who shook absolutely buried down at 28. We got the Dolphins at 27, Shook's Browns, who he had a little more faith than me up at 26, and then the Giants at 25. And I broke them into sections, but this naturally to me are like the teams that if you see them on the schedule, shook, you're counting on a W. Why did you have Washington that, that low? Because they're just so banked up. Like, I'm not talking about them being healthy. And the way we looked at them going to the season.

We're talking about Jaden Daniels dealing with his third injury. And they have so many losses on both sides of the ball. This is where we are at week 10. And I don't expect the Washington commanders to contend in most games that are ahead of them, even if they have. have Jay and Daniels available, just because that's how banged up they are. They have lost so much. And we saw exactly what they are on Sunday night against the Seahawks. So, yeah, you got to below the Dylan Gabriel Browns.

Yes, because here's the thing. The Browns can't stop anyone on the ground. I can't believe I have to defend the Browns. This is not me defending the Browns, but the Browns defense will at least keep them in a game. Washington could just get rolled by anybody because of all the losses they have personnel-wise. That's absolutely right, although it's a big week for not only draft positioning shook between the Jets and the Browns, but for the power rankings, because if they can't beat the Jets who are below them here, then you're in trouble. And it shows that your ranking was. I like how you're

revealing mine just without revealing yourself at all. I'm trying to find mine. I am the scapegoat. You are the scapegoat. Okay, Giants 25, Browns, 26, Dolphins. It's, it's crazy to think that the commanders are behind those teams. But you're absolutely right. Like, who would I take on a neutral field right now? Dolphins commanders, I probably would take the dolphins. Which of these teams would you least want to play on a Sunday of these 18? It's undoubtedly the New York Giants. Like, it's not even close. Because Jackson Dart brings an element of aggression to this offense. He's a playmaker. Like, I know that they've, they lost Cam Scadaboo and they've lost, you know, Malik neighbors. And he is an absolute.

absolute warrior for them. Like, watching them is still fun because of him. Like, he is trying to carry this offense on their back. And I think their defense has enough talent to cause problems for a lesser team. So, like, if the Browns are playing the Giants, I'm taking the Giants. Because I don't think the Browns can protect against that defense. And I think Jackson Dart eventually will find a way to score enough points to beat them. And Raiders fans out there, I had you 30th going into this game and just the head of the Saints

and Titans. 29th when you average me in checkout. So you're looking at 32 pretty soon. It's a tough situation. All right, let's go to the next segment. The next group is called Stuck in the Middle. So these teams have a chance to make the playoffs, certainly. Number 24, the Cincinnati Bengals, they're right on the edge of that.

The Cowboys at 23. Falcons at 22, disappointing season. The Carolina Panthers, little disrespected here, at 21. Texans at 20, Cardinals at 19, some love for the Cardinals, considering their record, 18 for the Chicago Bears, and 17 of the Jacksonville Jaguars. So the Bears are five and three shook. Explain to me kind of your thought process of why they are here. And we did not disagree much there.

You had them 19th. I had them 17th. Yeah, we were super close here. I think that the Bears could easily climb out of this tier. because I love the development of their offense under Ben Johnson's direction. Like they are getting creative and running all kinds of wacky stuff

that you don't expect, but they're also executing it. Now, Caleb is still a bit unsteady. He doesn't, like, his highlight plays are really fun to watch, but he's, and he's getting more comfortable, he's getting better, but he's still not at that point

where you're like, he's going to lead them to victory. Now, he's done a couple times in clutch spots, but I, and I have questions about their defense, because they can't generate a pass rush to save their lives. So that's why they're kind of stuck in this tier. But I think if their offense continues on the trajectory they're currently on,

they could climb out of it and get into the bottom of the next tier. Yeah, I think part of their issue is just the quality of their opponents. And you could say the same thing about the Patriots. But the Patriots quarterback's playing better and they're seven and two. So there is a little bit of a difference there. I just want to see more out of this Bears team because I think the defense is struggling. The passing game is up and down. it looks better in the box score than the numbers,

but they are trending up. And it is crazy to think, like, man, the league feels deep if the Jaguars are 17th and the Panthers are 21st. And I think the Panthers are just an eye test thing. Ultimately, like, yeah, it is the year of the running game and everything. But if you can't consistently throw the ball and your defense is not a difference maker, and I don't consider the Panthers defense to be a difference maker, I think that's where they get edged out a little bit compared to teams like the Cardinals and

the Texans, for instance, to me, have a higher upside despite their record right now. What was your thought process of kind of where they are versus, say, the Cardinals and the Texans specifically? Yeah, maybe I'm one of the last believers in the Texans, but their defense is very, very good. And like, you know, we talked about with the Browns, it's going to keep them in most games. And if they could protect CJ Stroud, who got knocked out by a concussion last week, then I think that they would be a competitive team against most teams, which is why they're ranked higher. And it's not to say that the Panthers are, they just upset the Packers, but we see the

ceiling on their offense, especially if their running games not working. I think that the Panthers are on the right path. And a year from now, they'll be in a better place. You see, you know, signs of it on both sides of the ball. It's just that, like, this is the buildup to that. So that's kind of why they are where they are. But I also, you know, we talk about the Jags being in this group at the top of this group. Bitter recency, not biased, but but recency influence with us because I could very easily see us putting the Vikings in that spot

instead of the Jaguars had the Vikings not just gone to a shot and beating the lion. But they just beat the lions. You got to adapt to new information. Right. And I think roster-wise, they're better. And maybe it is confirming my priors.

I thought they would get over eight and a half wins this year and they still have a chance to do so. There's a lot of talent, the coaches. But yeah, you're hinting at who's up next. So let's just do it. The next tier is Frisky, and the Vikings are at the bottom of that tier. But these are the teams that you don't want to play them.

I think it would be a disappointment if they don't make the playoffs, but we're also just valuing where they are right now. Number 16, the Vikings. Big jump, I think, from where they would have been, like you said, shook last week at this time. The Chargers are at 15, a little lower than I expected they'd be in this exercise. The 49ers, 14. Ravens all the way up to 13, despite the 3 and 5 record, but they are the Ravens.

The Steelers at 12, Broncos at 11, and Patriots at 10. Now, I got to say, we did this, assuming the Broncos are going to win this game, like roughly where they would be. I mean, I think just for making us go through this, maybe we should knock them down a couple of spots. Yes, yes. We assumed they were going to win. We didn't assume they were going to win in the ugliest fashion possible.

Yeah. And this is a fun kind of examination of where we differ to, because I had the Ravens all the way up at 11 because I just believe that if Lamar can be Lamar that they're going to be right on the edge of that top 10. But yeah, the Broncos deserve, let's drop them a couple spots

and I'm going to bump the Ravens up. And we should also defend the Ravens up. You already had them ahead of them. You had the Ravens at 11. I had them at 15. And I guess what I would say to that, I did have them behind the 49ers and the Chargers and maybe I shouldn't.

I'm talking about opponent. I'm talking about like consistency. see. Okay, the Ravens didn't look amazing beating the Dolphins to me. I know it ended up being easy, but it wasn't like a game where you look at the numbers and everything that they were particularly dominant. And, you know, they beat the Bears. That was a good effort with Tyler Huntley. I guess I just want to see them in a game like they are this week against a better opponent before I'm feeling like they're back back. So I punish them a little bit for that. That's fair. We should defend where we are putting the chargers though, because I think this is

accurate and and the reason is is the losses in the offensive line we know we are bracing for offense being a challenge for them from here on out after losing joe alt for the rest of the season so that and the defense hasn't been that good right like i thought the defense would be better and it's been up and down i would yeah i would agree i would agree with that 49ers though ahead of the now that i'm looking at it like in my heart 49ers considering their injuries actually i i did have them but below the chargers and i think you should have too But you didn't, you know. I didn't.

I had the 49ers ahead of the Chargers because I admire their scrappiness and their ability to extract winds out of thin air despite all the losses that they've had in personnel. I am still mystified by how they are still competitive every week given all the guys they don't have. I had the Patriots at 11, you had them at 10. Do you think it's fair that they are not in our highest tier, essentially?

That we're kind of saying with this tier, to me, you know, you're not one of the real deal ones yet. And it's crazy to think that about the Ravens. I guess I just want, I want just a little more proof. But what do you think about not putting the Patriots or the Broncos or even the Steelers in like real deal Super Bowl contender status? I think that the Patriots are going to remind me of teams that played soft schedules and got to the playoffs on the back of the soft schedule, not to take away anything that they've done

because Drake May is the engine that drives that team forward, and he's playing fantastic football. But I do think that if they end up facing higher level competition, they could get exposed, you know, on a given Sunday or whatever. So that's why they sit at 10 for me. The Steelers, I sound like a hater. They're just very up and down. Like the way that they dominated the Colts statistically

with turnovers and everything else was shocking. But yet they only won that game by a touchdown. And so that kind of points assigned to me that, like, I think Aaron Rogers is playing very good football for them right now. he's got complete command of that offense when he's given, when he's empowered to run that offense. But I think that there is not fraudulence in them, but just a visible ceiling with them, which is why I have them where they are. And it's funny, if we had done this segment before Thursday night football, Broncos fans would have been annoyed, I think, at how low they

are. And now after Thursday night football, even though they got to win, I feel like the Bo Knicks Nation, the Bo Leavers will just like be a little quieter. I got to give them a lot of credit, a big shout out for me because I get a lot of hate for the QV index every week. It comes to the game. Bonix fans have not gotten in my DMs or my mentions once.

In fact, I've had a little bit of back and forth with Broncos fans like when I'm streaming on Twitch or whatever. They're in agreement. They're realists with him and they understand where he is right now. So shout out to you guys for not letting your emotions cloud your judgment.

Shout out to the Broncos fans for the most incredible Bronx cheer on Thursday night when their punter finally had a good punt because he kept punting it off the side of his foot they were booing the hell out of Boe Nix

and the Broncos' offense they did it going into halftime they did it coming out of half time when they went three and out of half time and then he hit this punt which was his first decent pun of the night and they gave him a loud-ass Bronx cheer for a punt

that was amazing this is coming off of the off of the back of him launching absolute rockets a week earlier. Like, to the point where I tweeted, I was like, he has a mortar cannon, like a mortar launcher on his leg. Like, that's what his leg is.

And then he goes out there tonight and just sends like ground balls out there. You know, punting's hard, man. Football's hard. It is crazy that punting was like the most entertaining thing in the game. AJ Cole of the Raiders had two punts go inside the two yard line.

That's the first time that's happened in the same game in like five years. Not surprising there. And then he also had a block punt that basically won the Broncos the game. them up on a short field goal and that's how they got their short field and that's how they got their, you know, winning field goal. Let's do the title contender. I'm calling this the real ones. And it really shows what a crazy year this is. Because I think you could shake up these nine

teams in any direction and I'm not going to argue too much with it. Number nine, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Number eight is Green Bay, lower than I expected. And it is interesting when you force yourself to do this exercise and you realize like, wow, the Packers down there, although I had him higher than you. Number seven, the Detroit Lions. Number six, we have the Colts. Five, the Buffalo Bills. The Chiefs, despite losing last week, is actually ahead of the bills. That's why I like power rankings. They shouldn't just be, you know, your record. Number three, L.A. Rams, number two, Philadelphia Eagles, and number one, the Seattle Seahawks up at number one. I was surprised, shook, we were on the same page with the Seahawks. You had them very high. Was it, was it number one?

I believe it was number two for you. But it averaged out to being number one. You had the Chiefs one. And that was surprising. The Seahawks, two, Eagles three. So what, what strikes you the most just looking at this list of the best nine teams? And then I'll tell you what stands out to me. So this season feels like we've gotten more parity in the league than we've gotten in probably the last five or seven years. And I think that this group really illustrates that because this was the most difficult part of this exercise for me. Because I'm getting, at one, Chiefs, yeah, they lost the Bills. They had a terrible game. That was the Bills best showing in years, defensively at least. And I think that if you play that game 10 times, it might turn out differently, you know, a few

different times. So I'm not going to put too much stock into a regular season win over the Chiefs. I still feel confident as though if I had to take any team in a neutral site or in a playoff game, home or away, I would still take Patrick Bahomes, Andy Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs. But once we got past the Chiefs and the Seahawks, I'm like, oh my God, like, what do I think about the rest of these guys? Because the Eagles have, you know, the personnel to get it done. They had the drama, but they're also, you know, they're coming off of two quality wins. The Rams are like lurking as this team that people aren't paying attention to, but they're playing phenomenal football, especially offensively. Lions coming off of a loss to the Vikings,

but they're still the lions. We still respect them. Bills are lower for me than five. I actually had them at six just because I still need it prove it to me like you need the Ravens to prove it to you like I get down to like six seven eight nine and I'm like oh god I forgot about the buccaneers wait right have all these injuries on offense can they still do it the Packers I don't believe in them fully right now because of some of the performances they've produced recently and the Colts Daniel Jones scared me back into being hesitant about them with accounting for five of their six turnovers so it's really hard to sort these guys out right now which is why the NFL is incredibly fun to watch yeah so first of all it's six NFC teams

three AFC. So I think that. Yeah, it just, I think there's more really good teams this year than most years. I actually, it is parody, but I don't think it's mediocrity because we looked at that group from 10 to 16 and those are good teams too. So the bad teams are really bad this year, for sure. But I think there's a lot of good teams at the top. Like all these teams, for almost all of them have had multi-year kind of buildups to this moment, you know, like Mike McDonald, it's only a second year, but man, they're so different than they were. You know, Sean McVeigh, and they've been in this rebuild-ish phase for the last couple of years. They called it a sprint rebuild. That's peaking right now. The Eagles are in the middle of their primes. The chiefs are the

chiefs, obviously. And like, even the bucks, like, they've been building to this moment. So it's not like other than the Colts, there's not like a big surprise team and there's not a team that like feels like it came out of nowhere. And yet the Colts, and I've talked about this this week when you look at it, like that team has about as much continuity in veterans and guys who have been on that roster for four or five years than anyone. So I just like that we're like really familiar with all these teams. And I think they all have a shot to win the Super Bowl. And the biggest disagreement we had here, well, there were a couple. But we were only three spots apart on any team, but I had the Colts still at four.

Maybe that's too high, but I believe in transcendent offenses, and I just, I just think they have a chance to be a transcendent offense. Is their offense, like the, does it have a chance to be the best thing in the NFL? I think it has a chance. So maybe I'm wrong. It seems crazy. Yeah, I mean, because of the continuity, that's probably the strongest argument. for them that they could have the best offense

the NFL. I mean, they've certainly put up a lot of points, but you also have to consider opponent when you examine some of their victories. I actually want to step into our therapist's office real quick. I am the therapist and I'm also the patient here because this is a great demonstration of the difference between you and me and my abandonment issues. The Colts burn me once, and I'm like,

nope, I'm off the ship. I'm not, you can't hurt me twice, Colts. I'm not going to let you hurt me again. I'm running away from you, whereas you are more of an open-hearted believer. Like they said on the Monday night recap, Greg has kind eyes. You have a kind heart too. You're willing to let the Colts have a bad Sunday. Maybe, or maybe I just stick with my priors and I just spent the week gassing them up

before they stunk up the joint. And a team like the Bills are, I think they have fundamental things that I worry about. And yet, man, they're a good problem solving team like the Chiefs. So if I had to do it again, maybe I would have flipped it and the bills would have been a little bit higher because like the Chiefs, they deserve the benefit of the doubt if they're going to like create. solutions to the problems that the season gives them, and you can kind of see it the last couple of weeks. Do we know that the Colts are going to do that? We don't know because we haven't

seen it. And we are putting a lot of faith there in the Seahawks. I had them one. You had them two. But man, it's a beautiful thing. And you know what? We got a game this weekend with two of these top teams playing. That's all I want. Out of each week, at least one or two, two games where, you know, two of these nine teams are playing each other. And yeah, we got a nice Packers Eagles game. And the Patriots, not too far out of this tier, playing the bucks is a really good one. Nine versus ten. If you look at the windows, I know we had a bad primetime game shook, but this is sneakily one of the best weeks of the year because we have Pat's Bucks in that early window, along with Ravens Vikings, which I think is really fun.

That's a great game. And the primetime windows are absolutely great. In the 425 window, we have Rams 49ers, which I think is good enough to hold that window. It's like every window has a nice, delicious game. You know, it's like a relief, and it also excites me when I see a good Monday nighter. And Eagles Packers is going to be a good Monday nighter. We need it. We'll be live.

and we appreciate everyone who's been listening to all our recaps this season. And that's it for this one. We will be next in the feed. Cynthia Freeland and I, we push back the pick show a little bit this week because everything's been a little up in the air. So we have our picks against the spread. That'll be on Friday afternoon.

We will see you then. And we can only hope to do better at our jobs than the Raiders and the Broncos' offenses did next. See you Friday. This is an IHeart podcast.