NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl Picks with Cynthia Frelund + Hall of Fame Snubs

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund lock in their Super Bowl picks (1:48) and break down what’s next in the ever spinning coaching carousel (13:20). They also dig into the latest Hall of Fame snubs and the debates surrounding them (16:31). All that and more on NFL Daily! Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're picking games for the very last time in the 2026, 25 season, whatever you want to call it. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm with Cynthia Freeland. I'm on stage five. We just taped what could be our last game debut ever. Who knows?

This company is a lot going on right now. But we've been doing that show picking games together for seven years. We've been doing a podcast. pick a games against the spread for two. And it really bothered me, Cynthia. I don't know if you remember this. We never actually picked the Super Bowl last year. I do remember that.

People complained. I'm glad they complained. I was one of those people, actually. I used a burner. Just kidding. I don't have a burner count. But if I did, I would have done the same thing. But we needed to pick the Super Bowl.

So I'm glad we're fixing that this year, even if it may be our last year. Well, I think we thought, oh, well, we don't want to spoil the pick early in the week. And we'll find you at Radio Row. And it's like, it gets complex. It gets complicated once you get down there. So who really cares?

Let's not be precious about our picks. First of all, if you've been paying attention to this show, you've been doing well, and you saw that Cynthia and I both got our picks right last week, 2 and 0 each. I'm up to 38 and 24 on the season. I struggled in the playoffs, but at least the 2 and 0 championship round where we had the Broncos covering. And I threaded that needle. I said Patriots win, Broncos cover. You nailed it.

Got that one. You nailed it. We both had the Seahawks. You had the Broncos covering as well. So you're finishing strong. You've been doing very well in the playoffs. I mean, I'm just looking at your overall season numbers. I'm chef's kiss.

You won the picks on game debut. You tied for the overall in the playoffs. And so now you have to let the people know. What does the model say for Super Bowl 60? Avert your ears, my Patriot friend. I have the Seahawks winning by more than four and a half points. The thing I feel best about is a high scoring game. More than 46.5 points.

So I feel strongest about that, but I do feel, well, the model, at least, models feelings, you know, it's almost sentient now. The model feels that the Seattle Seahawks will win. Are you worried that the model might join that social media where it's AI only bots, you know, just talking to each other, getting ready to take over? Did you look at any of that stuff? Because that's terrifying. So, and human programs.

There's one that's actually called The Humans Are Screenshotting us, which is like very interesting because like human wrote that. Obviously, I don't know. I'm afraid my model will kill me in my sleep, but I'm not afraid it's going to enjoy this. It doesn't like something for me. It spit out a seven point win for the Ciox. Six point win, right?

Yeah, yeah, six. That's right. Patrick had seven. Patrick, I'm six, yeah. So still, that's significant. That's a point and a half over, and that's a big number. So where does the model kind of show the biggest mismatches?

Because I, as a Patriots fan, and we'll get to me picking them because it's obvious I'm going to. in a second. I've started to convince myself they shouldn't really be that big of an underdog. They're 17 and 3. They have a lot of really high highs. But a six point margin for a conservative modeler like yourself is a pretty big difference. So where is the biggest difference where it sees a problem for the Patriots O line is the problem. And not just, and again, I don't care about Will Campbell's short arms. It is not that. That is actually not the issue. The analytics people here that do our

connection stats. They did a fun thing on arm length, but for me, it's more that since he returned from injury, he probably hasn't been healthy. And he surrendered like almost double the pressure rate, a lot more sacks, like more than all the sacks before he left. So I just don't think he's right. And that's a huge deal at left tackle and being a rookie and being a rookie against the Seattle defense who they don't even need to blitz to get pressure. So now you're devoting resources to help him. You're bringing a tight end to chip, like all of these different things. So now your conceding numbers to the Seattle Seahawks defense, it's just going to make it more difficult. And it's not like the right side has been a shining example of right tackle play as well.

I'm not being mean. I'm just saying that it's not the tackles are an area of concern. Morgan Moses is the more solid tackle of the two, but there's a reason why he's been on one-year contracts. And then you're thinking about like interior. Jared Wilson is a rookie and has had his struggles. Like Garrett Bradbury, there's a reason why he didn't cost much in free agency. And I think what you've seen in the playoffs is they've gone against elite pass rushing groups.

Right. The craziest thing is they could look at this group and say, well, actually compared to Houston and Denver and maybe even the Chargers, they don't send a lot of pressure, maybe not as dynamic one-on-one, although they're obviously very good in terms of their defensive line. So they have been put through the gauntlet of maybe, you know, four of the best five pass rushes in the NFL. And maybe they'll be a little more ready. Because to be honest, Benito's speed and the depth that the Texans have, especially on the edge, like I was even more afraid of that. So they survived that somehow. Okay. But so part of the difference is so maybe Denver and Houston, whatever, I will give you to you.

They're scarier pass rush. But now you have to put things into balance here. Is it how much different, right? Because it's not like the Patriots were like just narrowly getting like, they won the games, obviously, right? But their defense, they're offense stunk. Their defense really helped them. Right.

So it's even if they settle down and they're a little bit better against the Seahawks defense, which they forecast to be, I think they can get a little bit more push in the run game. I will say that's where I think they'll get a little more push in the run game. But even so, is it enough is the question? Yeah, we're going to. break down the game at a little more depth in terms of our preview on the show that we'll go up Thursday night. And we're going to include some current NFL players in that mix and they'll help

us preview. Can you tell me who? I'm trying to think who's involved in the preview. Like Kendrick born, some players that have gone against these teams recently on both sides. I think we're going to get Isaiah likely who played against the Patriots initially. And so we thought we would get some players in the mix who have faced these teams. to give us some insight and Jordan Roderigan, Nick Shook and I think are gonna be talking about it as well. So I don't wanna go too deep into why I think this can happen. But ultimately, like the Patriots defense

has gone to a completely different level in these playoffs. They've performed like a top two or three type of defense. They've gotten a lot of pressure. I do think the Patriots have an advantage at quarterback, ultimately. I do think there could be a lot of variance in this game. These are the two teams that have fumbled the most in the entire NFL this season. The Seahawks were second worst in the NFL in terms of turnovers in the regular season. They haven't turned the ball over once.

Now, when you start immediately going to like variants, turnovers, like that's not the best sign if that's like my main argument. But the Patriots defense is kind of the same thing, right? In the regular season, they weren't turning the ball over. Fair. And then in the postseason. They've gone crazy with it. They've gone crazy with it. So who's the, who's truth?

and who's Fugazi? I don't know. I think ultimately, like, you need Drake May to move in the pocket and almost be unaware of his surroundings in a way that Sam Darnold would not be in this particular game. Like, both of these quarterbacks seem like they have extremely high ceilings and pretty low floors. And so where is that going to come out? Ultimately, I think the biggest mismatch the Patriots can take advantage of is the interior offensive line for the Seahawks. talked about it a little bit on game day view, but Milton Williams, Christian Barmore,

against Sundell and Anthony Bradford, and even Gray's Abel sometimes in past protection. That is something with a blitz plan that's going to, I think, target the weaknesses of Seattle. I'm not going to say Sam Darnold is going to be seeing ghosts, but I do think sometimes, like you can tell what type of Sam Darnold game it's going to be pretty soon. And if you get him not reacting as fast, moving through his progressions, not as fast like he did, he was outstanding in the NFC championship, getting him to think a little bit with some early pressure. I could see him having maybe closer to that floor game. I'm curious, because there really isn't a lot of data to support this, but I'm curious what you think about,

facing two teams you faced before for your only two postseason games versus facing teams, novel teams. And we don't see a lot of that, right? like usually you don't play your division rivals for two games. Sometimes we see a three Pete, but I can't remember the last time I've seen it twice. So I'm curious to see if that game plan change, like, is it like I'm smarter because I've seen these people twice before? And now my third time I'm going to have an even better plan and Sam Donald's more confident. Or is it going to be like a mess? They got to mix it up.

I don't. I love this. This is a true question. I'm not, I don't have an answer. This is one of my new pet theories now. I love this because I've kind of been toying with thinking about it and now hearing someone as smart as yourself throw it out. It's like Darnold did feel like he knew the answers to the tests

against the Rams in a way that maybe he certainly didn't the first two times that they played in a way that he was comfortable with what he was seen. And to me, that's the story of Sam Darnold's career. He has it all, but mentally he's not always totally confident in what he's seen and reacting as quickly. Drake made good or bad, he's out there playing, and he's almost a little too comfortable, and I don't think he's going to hold the ball.

There was one throw, like, ball where he didn't throw the ball in the red zone against the Broncos. It was the third down play before they kicked the go-ahead field goal in the snow that I was like, ooh, he never turns that down. That was rare out of him. Ultimately, I think he's going to, like, go down swinging if he goes. Sam Darnel, on the other hand,

I think a brand new defensive game plan to have to go against new players. Will they mix it up? Could that be the difference? I also need you to come up with like a funny, like witty banter about like some, there is something here about like Josh McDaniels, former coach of the Raiders, got fired one back to the thing. And then Kuwbiak about.

It's a revenge game on the Raiders and against Tom Brady for not rooting for the Patriots in this game. Exactly. Josh McDaniels. See there's so many levels of there's so many levels of inside baseball here. we're taking you through all of them. It is really funny that Josh McDaniels probably is still getting paid by Mark Davis, so it shouldn't be a revenge game.

Like he got him. Listen, as a Northwestern grad, thank you, Mark Davis, because Chip Kelly is getting paid by. And as a Patriots fan, thank you, Mark Davis. Because Josh McDaniels... It's like Santa. With a couple weeks to prepare, I think there's a chance at least that they have a coaching advantage in this game.

McDaniels been involved in these games. I think Rable, in terms of his game management, is just excellent. And do you have enough kind of designer plays to pull it off? But one thing I agreed with you, and we're going to move off this game and get to just a couple little items of news before you go get your flight, that I really agree with you is I feel better about the number than I do the Patriots winning. To put a bow on it, my score, and I didn't give a score, 27-26 Patriots. I am having them win straight up.

Why not? Why not? And I do think it's going to be some points. Ultimately, I think there could be some turnovers. I think there could be some big plays. Seattle did give up a lot of big plays. I just think tricks matter too. We've seen both.

We saw flea flicker. We saw some crazy stuff. We've seen tight ends being used in sneaks. There's all these different fun things that both these offensive masterminds could be putting together for this game. And with a little extra time, I fully expect them to be on display.

just a few little snappy tricks here and there. So I love it. I love it too. Like get a team that can do the normal stuff, but do the weird stuff. Get a podcast that can do both too. We can do the picks and we can do a little bit of news because why not? Like it's a daily show. This is our show for today.

Our next show will be from Radio Row with a lot of big time guests. I love that. As long as they don't cancel. Jackson Dart is on Wednesday. Justin Jefferson is on Wednesday. Oh my gosh. Do you want me to give you that? bucket chain thing.

Liam Cohen is coming up later in the week. I think we have Garrett Bowles, all pro first teamer on Wednesday too, just thinking about Wednesday. That is a huge man. Garrett Bulls is like one of the biggest people I've ever seen. The picture with him is going to be silly and funny. Justin Jefferson is one of my favorites.

And even though he's on a team that plays against my team, I still like really love it. Like I can't help it. He was my favorite of all the guys coming out of college. You know, we're almost going into draft season. I actually had my first mock draft due today. It's coming out. Who knows when, but soon.

And I was sitting there and I'm like, oh, I really miss Justin Jefferson's tracking data. Is that sad? He's a guy where what you see is what you get. He's awesome. He's awesome. He's ever been around him in the Minnesota building. Awesome. He's just like he is our leader.

That's why, you know, they not only have one of the best players, one of the best leaders in the league, so it'll be a treat to talk to him. A couple coaching items, Davis Webb gets elevated to offensive coordinator in Denver. In Denver. Do you know anything about Davis Webb? Yeah, okay. Denver person. Yeah, yeah. So I did preseason with them.

and I was surprised that Davis Webb was even allowed to interview for anything else. Now, remember, he had to interview for head coaching because they can put the kibosh on, they can block certain things. They can't block that, though. So Davis Webb was one who, you could see it. Sean was like, let's not talk about him. Let's not, and that's how you know that Sean Payton thinks someone is really good because he doesn't let the good ones out of the building or he brings them back like Darren Rizzy.

Darren Rizzie's back. You know that that's always a good thing when Sean brings us people back. That's how I know. He likes Davis Webb a lot. And how about this coaching tree right now? Ben Johnson, Dan Campbell, Declan Doyle, I would consider actually part of the Sean Payton coaching tree in the end. I'm going to be intrigued to see how that goes. Matt Nagy is your new Giants offensive coordinator.

I thought he was going to get a potentially embarrassing situation where it really sounded like his people thought he was getting the Titans job for whatever it's worth. And then not only not getting that job, but the chief's moving on from you pretty quickly and just deciding, okay, that was going to be his last year in Kansas City. I thought he might not get a coordinator job. And he might not have if Todd Munkin didn't end up in Cleveland. But now Matt Nagy in charge of Jackson Darts future, I'm willing to be open-minded about it. Certainly an experienced play caller. It can be very similar to Mike Kafka.

You know who Mike Kafka worked for? Yeah. Matt Nagy. So I don't think it's going to, I actually think it could be a good thing for Jackson. Ex and Dart in terms of play, like the style of the way that the offense is taught. Like, remember we talk about, like, this poor quarterback has had 10 different coordinators or 10 different people. I think it could be good for him.

It could be, you know, you look at the stats for the Chiefs pre-Naggy, post-naggy. Maybe it's not fair. Maybe it is. Like, their worst offensive seasons by a good chunk were the nagging. But he also won with the Bears. He was the last coach of the year when he was a best. You know. Yeah, it's a moment.

So he's, I think you just got to remember that there's, there's always value to having worked with Patrick Moll. Like, you can rehab with Josh McDaniels and have him do other things, but we can't rehab Maggie going back to Patrick's Moll. I haven't seen him provide this schematic advantage on his own. Just saying. Let's see, because this will be a big test. And he's no longer with Andy Reed.

But I like what you're doing. It was just pushing backwards. I think Matt Nagy struggles a little bit from a PR angle for whatever reason. from the way the various thing in. You know what I want? You know what I know what I want? Yeah. And nobody agrees with you on this one.

But as just an offensive coordinator, you know who I want back? Who? Adam Gays. Wow. Okay. That'll be, who knows, there's still a couple jobs available. I'm telling you, though, you talk about someone who, coordinating an offense and relating to offensive players?

I saw, I saw a crazy stat that almost every offensive coordinator in a league was hired 20, in the last three years. There was, like, one one who doesn't have play calling duties. That's it. before that. That's crazy. A couple other quick items. Robert Kraft did not make the Hall of Fame. I don't like this trend of leaking the news about the Hall of Fame of who didn't make it

ahead of time. It's just not great because it makes it feel worse. But it's not new that Robert Craft is not making the Hall of Fame. Unlike Bill Belichick, he's been eligible all these years. Can we talk about the Bill Belichick thing for a second, though? Please. You're the one with the plane to catch. I'm furious.

We've got a few minutes, yeah. You cannot write the history of the NFL without Bill Belichick. You can't. No, he's... You can't do it. You can try to make arguments for different best coaches of all time in different ways, but he has to be in that argument. No, no, no, no, no. He's in that argument, squarely.

I'm not saying that he's the best coach of all time. I think he is, but I can... That would be my pick, and I think there's a lot of ways to substantiate that. however, I can at least see that being a discussion. But the fact that he's not a first ballot Hall of Famer, what the heck are you doing? I almost swore. What on earth are these people doing?

It's disgusting. We've seen a couple of reasons. I don't care if you're not supposed to tell who you voted for. Out yourselves, you 10 voters. Well, a few have. And the whole seniors committee argument is ridiculous that we wanted to get these seniors in. And, you know, we thought...

Then be better. I don't know. Some people, I think, wanted to punish him for SpyGate and make him wait a year. It was all ridiculous. And Cynthia's look icily into the camera right now is why you've got to check us out on YouTube every week. And I really love the Hall of Fame.

Now, I will protest the Hall of Fame. This won't happen. But I will protest the Hall of Fame if Larry Fitzgerald doesn't get in this year. He's definitely getting in. If he doesn't get that damn knock, I will never speak of the Hall of Fame again. He's getting it.

He will. He better. He better. So no craft, but that's not new. Owners is a different threshold. I personally think that the threshold for owners getting... Plus, he could be like 6,000 years old and get it. Should be...

Well, he's getting up there in years. It should be so sky high that you fundamentally change this sport. Right. Patrick put it well to me when we were talking about this in the break room before we came out, which is like, yeah, if you're an owner, you get the victories in other ways. You get the Lombardi trophies. Yeah. You get the money.

You get all of the money. That's your win as an owner. I said on our last show that we would have eight international games. I didn't know that they were going to announce another one. So let's break a record and let's get to nine. They're going back to Mexico City late in next season. Which ones have we announced? We've announced them all.

They're all out there. Paris. Australia. Paris is out there with the same. I didn't know if it was out there. Lord, it's very hard. It's been out. That's one I'm lobbying to go to.

That one's kind of been expected for. I know. it's been expected. That's why I was like... Six to eight months or whatever it is. They finally announced it. But Mexico City was the last one. It's going to be a late, it's going to be a December game. Usually the international games kind of wind down, but since that's not... Tricky that's an elevation game. Yeah, but it's also like it's not that long a trip. So I think... I love that one. I don't think they want to send people to Europe like in December.

Heck no. But I get it. Wait, what do you think about Matt LaFlo? It sounds like it's going to be the 49ers because their owner said, keep an eye on us, possibly going to Mexico City. So, so... Okay. Well, I think Mexico... Mexico City is also an awesome one from the time zone standpoint. So, so That's all I got for news. Now you're just thrown back to... I want to know what Matt Lafleur.

I know it's not... Sorry, Mike Lafleur. They said he's going to call plays. We talked about it on our last show. I think you have thoughts. I want to hear what you say. I think that's a hard freaking job. Yeah.

I think that is the hardest job of all of the jobs. Yes. I mean, for being a head coach. I think that is a, like, I hope he gets hazard pay because that is a hard job that he took. Is he going to be able to fill out that staff? He doesn't have the eyebrows. He doesn't.

doesn't have the vibe. Maybe he'll get over it. He was a great guest He was a great guy. He seems like a really nice guy. Of course. He hasn't shown that he can provide a schematic.

But I couldn't be a head coach. See the guy running the building. You are nice. What a season. Cynthia Freeland gave to us. We got to get her on a plane. She is... She keeps talking to me.

No. We really do need to get you out of here. I need to get it. You're going to be late. We will be back in the NFL Daily feed from Radio Row with all those great guests that I mentioned earlier. What a season. Everyone check out Cynthia Freeland and Numbers Game, her YouTube channel. We will see you from San Francisco. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.