NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 17 picks & "Go get my lunch"

Episode Date: December 23, 2014

A room with a couple of heroes -- Gregg Rosenthal and Marc Sessler -- recap the Bengals-Broncos showdown and preview the biggest AFC and NFC matchups in Week 17. Plus, Dan Hanzus and Chris Wesseling join the show to review the 2014 season "Go get my lunch" propositions.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. Hey, this is Greg Rosenthal with the Around the NFL podcast. Before we get to the show today, got to talk a little bit about Fandul. A lot of fantasy seasons are over. I wrapped up a big-time title with some help from Demarius Thomas on Monday night, but the season's not over at Fandul because they have weekly leagues. You just play, you win some cash for your one week of fantasy action, and that week includes Week 17.

A lot of big games this week. Joey Watts. Joe Cephys. Joe Watson from New York. Played fantasy football on Fandle for less than two weeks last season, and he won over 30,000. Geez, rain and money. Go to Fandul.com. You can click on the microphone in the upper right-hand corner

and use our code around and sign up now. There's a special new user special. 50 people can get $200 free. The offer is only good if you use our code around. Again, that code is around. Help us out. Support our sponsors, hook us up, and go to fanzuel.com. The Around the NFL podcast, can't do epic shit with basic people.

Welcome to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal, and I'm sitting next to one sad, solitary hero. Mark Sessler, how you doing? I'm good. You know, it's stunning to me that, uh, You know, Dan Hansis and Chris Wesleyan prioritized being with their families over producing the show today. Yes, we're taping this a couple days before Christmas. Dan and Chris will join us later in the show for a pre-recorded segment that we did before they both hopped on some planes

and they headed back to their nuclear families, and so they're going to have a nice... They're extended family. They are a nuclear family with it. I guess that's true. Yeah. But they're going to see their parents and whatnot. Chris is on to Cincinnati. Danny. Dan is in the New York area and hope they have a great holidays. We'll be holding down

the fort here back in Los Angeles. Yeah, it's been an interesting... You've been here a decade. You are an L.A. man at this point. Yeah, I mean, I think it takes about that long to feel like Los Angeles is a home and it is. And the city has told me many times, that's true. I went to the beach on Christmas last year. It was like 80 degrees. That's very Australian of you. Well, we opened all the presents. You know, we did it. It's like, it was 11 o'clock. It's like, let's do this. If you're going to be here, embrace it. We made some hamburgers and whatnot.

I think we'll do the same thing. I don't even know what the plans are. We roll in with no plans. Just see what happens. So this is a big show, as Dan would say. As I mentioned, Dan and Chris will join us later. We're going to go over all our season long, go get my lunch propositions.

That's at the beginning of the year. We made some picks, what's going to happen. So we'll find out who is right and who was wrong. But before we do that, we're going to talk a little bit about the Broncos. goes bengals game and then we're going to go through quickly the week 17 slate and to help us out there let's bring in our old friend td what's happening guys and dan always says it's a really big show you know i know i it is it's every show is big our fans they it's big to them someone on twitter said they should give us we should give them a christmas present with a two hour long podcast i like

that i think this is let's be on this is a truncated show fewer people in the mix and we're going to whip through these games we can make it happen though guys you know guys you You know, you can't do epic stuff with basic people. I did notice a certain bounce in TD's step, though. Sometimes there's some heat between Hanzas and TD as the two real leaders of the podcast, the producer, the host, talent versus producer. It's an age-old battle. It's an inherent battle.

It's there. You know, it's part of the game. But it's all love. Daniels is all love. But you kind of walked into the studio today. You're like, this is my show today. Oh, yeah. All right, let's do some news.

It's a disturbing clash of egos is what it is. Let's do some news. I like this kind of party. All right. Well, that's not my news job. I was just saying, you know, without Dan. Oh, I see. I'm feeling this party.

But time for the news job? Is that what you want? Let's do it. All right, all right, all right. The Cincinnati Bengals are headed back to the playoffs for the fourth straight year. We can't get rid of these guys. In an upset, an upset that Mark Sessler had a little Sessler about, but he couldn't pull the trigger. They take down Denver, and what I believe was the best.

primetime game of the season because there was so much at stake, so much happened in the game, and Cincinnati, and their defense especially in the end, was too good. Yeah, I really, I was in the office with you guys telling you, I so want to pick the Bengals and take my pick away from the Broncos. And when I didn't, and the game unfolded as it did, Wesleyan and Greg received about, what, 407 angry IMs? It was strange. You were texting us.

I've never seen you so emotionally distraught out of nowhere. especially because you were rooting for the, you know, you're watching a Bengals victory. I will say this is the first Bengals team of all these, you know, kind of milk-toast playoff entries that we've gotten. I think there's some grit to this team. And for me, the turning point actually came early. When Andy Dalton throws that awful interception, you thought, you know what, oh, we're getting the evil Andy, and this thing's going to go down a bad avenue,

just like it did against the Browns in that primetime game, Jeremy Hill willed this team back into the grid. I thought that run was one of the better. athletic moments of the entire season. I love Hill. I think he's the best young rookie running back. I agree. And I loved what John Gruden said on the show when Mike Tarrico kind of went through all these reasons why Gio Bernard. Well, they want to keep him fresh and he's good on third down

and they're going to use him in certain different ways. And then Gruden just said, well, that's a nice way of saying Jeremy Hill's a better runner. That's what he is. He's a great right. And that's no slight to Gio Bernard, who is a great role player for them. He caught five passes for 45 yards. He had a touchdown, 36.

yards on the ground. That's a great one-two punch. I don't know if there's a better one-two punch in the entire league. He'll makes people miss. That's what I didn't know about him. He's a power guy that can be volume, 20 carries, but he makes people miss. He's got some juice. Well, yeah, and they always advertise them as this like inside between the tackles, hammer, and O. G. O. G. O. Bernard's going to be doing all this stuff in space. They absolutely didn't tell us what he really was, and on tape, he's completely different. I'm shocked that LSU wasn't a powerhouse. They had Beckham. They had Jeremy Hill. Jarvis Landry.

Come on. And this is a game that shows how good the rest of the Bengals are because A.J. Green was hurt. He was in and out. He didn't have a catch. Andy Dalton did nothing. Andy Dalton. For the second week in a row.

Everyone wants to talk about Peyton Manning with four picks. Oh, wow. It's like he pulled the Dalton. Dalton did even less than Manning. He didn't do anything. They only had two drives in the entire game on offense that were scoring drives that were over 30 yards. So it was special teams and it was defensive.

And one of those two drives, all Andy did was Andy Dalton did was hand the ball off one time to Jeremy Hill. And the other one where Geo Bernard scores, all he does is throw a little dumpout posse. You don't do anything. And that's how you win with Andy Dalton is your quarterback. I mean, are you flipping sides? Are we officially concerned about the rest of the season for Payton Manning here? Well, that is, you know, the big hot take fiascos after the game. We're going to hear a lot about Peyton Manning over the next few weeks.

To me, it's interesting. I mean, watching that game last night, I was fascinated. because for the first half, we think, oh, my gosh, Peyton Manning's done. They can't do anything. The timing was off. He was confused. His arm doesn't look good. And then in the third quarter, three straight touchdown drives just like that.

I mean, everyone says he's done, but they kind of ignore the fact that he had a 45-yard throw to Demarius Thomas, a very nice throw up the sideline to Sanders. He had five plays over 25 yards in the air against San Diego last week. It's just like his decision-making's wrong and the arm's not strong. He's just not quite the same guy. Yeah, I mean, I think that he's going to have a game, and it certainly could probably come against the Raiders on Sunday, which if they win that, they get a buy number one.

He's got time to get right. I don't want to overreact to a guy that we've seen. You were last night on your text. I was saying I think this is one of the best Broncos teams or the best teams that Peyton Manning's ever been on. And I know they didn't show it last night, but I believe that because I think this can be a top three or four defense, and I think they have a good running game.

You don't need Peyton Manning to necessarily be, the dominant quarterback. He just needs to not throw picks like that. Yeah, and I mean, I think Adam Gase has showed us over the last month that they can plan an offense that steers away from Manning's arm to some degree. And that's crazy to me. And that's why all the conversation about Manning is fair, because over the last month, he has done very little. He threw 20 pass attempts in the last two weeks. This game, they started out again just playing very slow, running the ball, and then eventually they did the hurry up.

That worked for a quarter. It didn't work in the fourth quarter. It's just been so... When was the last time there was a Peyton Manning offense that just didn't feel like a finely tuned passing machine? Yeah, I mean, TD, I think these guys are coming around to the sandwich bet that I put up in week one. It said, Manning, after one week in the playoffs,

which will be a loss into the sunset, it's over. Mark might be on to something. It does feel like those last few weeks. He's just sort of... He's looking like an old man now. It's sad to see, really. He might just be like, you know what, guys, I'm done. It's crazy that that would be the all-time cessler.

We're actually going to talk about that one a little later with all the other sandwich propositions. But it is insane. It wouldn't totally stun me if he had two terrible games. This loss was big for them, though, because they have no chance now at the one seed. They're going to have to beat Oakland to make sure they get the two seed. You know, it just sets up an interesting second round match.

We could very well see a rematch of this game in the divisional round. If Cincinnati was able to win the AFC North and they get the three seed, that's looking far ahead. I still think people are jumping off this Broncos team too fast, and they have almost a 50-50 chance with the Patriots to make the Super Bowl. Can't disagree. That's my hot take. All right. Let's move on since we have a short amount of time today and start looking at the Week 17 slate. And if you want to check out our NFL now video this week, it's three.

three things to watch in week 17. It's in our folder on NFL now. You guys do that at home, Mark. You and Simone actually watch us on your television. Yeah, well, you know, here's the thing. You click into it, and then you go make dinner or you go wrangle the kids, and it keeps playing them. So it's great for the clicks, the company, whatever.

I don't know how to do that, how to put it on your TV. I'll show you. I'll come over and show you. Simone said, though, whenever you guys fired up, it seems like it's always me. It is often you. I think that the people in charge have identified. If I tried Greg is the most impressive analyst of the group. I can't find anyone else's videos.

I've gotten way off track here, but one of our takeaways, one of our things to watch is the AFC wild card bonanza that's going to happen at 1 p.m. Eastern. Four teams go in. One team comes out. When we find out all in three hours, Chiefs and Chargers play each other. Ravens and Texans are involved elsewhere. Only one of those teams gets through. Let's start with San Diego, because they're first in line.

Going to Kansas City, this team has a little bit of magic. What do you think about this Chargers' Chiefs magic? Well, a team of ATL is the Chargers. So I would like to see them go in and play the way they did down the stretch against the Niners. I think this is a tough deal for them having to go into Kansas City. But what about Kansas City's offense really captures you at this point? I don't want to see Kansas City in the playoffs as a football fan. No, I don't either.

And they are last in line out of the four teams because not only do they have to beat San Diego, they need the Texans to lose at home to Jacksonville. That's a long shot. They need the Ravens to lose at home to the Browns who have quarterback issues. That's a long shot. So what you could see here is a Chiefs team,

have a nice final week, beat a big time rival, get a win, yay, but the season's over anyways. That's a very possible scenario. I think we would get over that. I mean, the one, if Kansas City looks at what, Frank Gore was able to do against San Diego's defense last week, they can expose them with the run. I mean, if Jamal Charles, I don't know how healthy Jamal Charles is, but if he could have a big day, that's how you keep this game even for Kansas City.

Charles is a huge factor in this game. So is Ryan Matthews. The Chargers seem optimistic that Matthews could return for this week. Philip Rivers is playing through a bulging disc in his back. I mean, that performance, so it was so insane, if they make the playoffs, it will be one of the most insane runs to make a playoff because their chances of winning that game in San Francisco were like 1% for so much of that game. They have to make 17 different plays.

It makes you wonder, is this kind of a team of, I hate to say Destiny, but a team that just has some mojo with them and they're going to find a way to be, you know, a mediocre, generic Kansas City. I just think with Kansas City, with the Chargers, I mean, Rivers is having one of those strange years where he's not been healthy for the... Right. He looked bad in the first half against the 49ers, and then suddenly he's throwing passes to guys that you haven't even seen. This team, I don't think either of these teams are very good, though.

No, and they're very fallible. And so it's, I mean, really at this point, we have to kind of hope that the best, the high-quality teams get in. I'm not sure it's either one of these two. I'm not sure there really is one in the AFC that looks great, because let's talk about the Ravens and the Browns. You know, we've all thought, myself especially all year, I thought the Ravens were a top six or seven NFL team.

that they were underrated all year. And what have they done the last two weeks? They struggled to beat Jacksonville in Baltimore, where the offense really struggled, and then they got wiped out by Case Keenham. So is this team even that good at this point? Well, maybe we were searching to identify the most balanced, consistent team in the AFC North.

I'm not sure one exists at all. And maybe that's the answer, but they're not going to have a problem taking care of Cleveland this week. Cleveland's defense has been a shambles of late, and Baltimore runs the ball well. They're not going to have to go out of their way to win this game, especially with Cleveland starting potentially Connor Shaw, who, you know, 99.9 of the population has never heard of.

But you know him well. I don't know him well. I mean, that's corresponded with him a few times. You've corresponded with him. It's a nice fellow. I mean, I told him that if he wins this game. NFL insider Mike Sessler. I will not need to buy a drink in the city of Cleveland ever again.

But, I mean, he's up against it. I mean, the team has fallen apart. Baltimore, if they thought they were going to get a stingy, Week 17 Brown's defense? That's not happening. Well, you never know. Brian Hoyer might start. We're taping this on Tuesday. It's coming out. You can listen to it all week, but for all we know, Brian Hoyer has a chance to play.

Even if Hoyer does play, and that would certainly help them, I think it's going to be tough to go to Baltimore. But again, I think I have to stress Justin Forsett hasn't done anything the last couple weeks. The offensive line has really banged up for the Ravens. They lost both their tackles last week. That's the issue, I think. Right tackle Wagner, I don't think is going to be coming back. there. You know, everything's been a little bit of a mess.

That Ravens team that went to the Super Bowl, though, there was a coup d'etat in the locker room weeks before the regular season ended, and they looked ridiculous. They did not look good. They got trashed by the Broncos in Baltimore. I think it was week 14 or week 15. Everyone said their season was over, and then suddenly their Super Bowl champs.

How about the fact, TD, that Mark Sessler's buddies with Connor Shaw? I'm totally overstating. I'm not sure Conor Shaw would categorize that. I'm totally overstating this. That's true, and neither will I. It's like Adam Schaefter famously, him and Mike Shanahan, were tight. You know, some people were tight with Bill Parcells.

You're big-time insider, Connor Shaw. Not accurate, number one, and I'm stunned that the man is even taking the field potentially this week. Jaguars and Texans are the other game that matters for this final number six seed. Houston is still alive, big-time home favorites, even though they're facing Case Keenum. I mean, they're starting Case Keenum at quarterback this week. week. They need, like I said, the Chargers and the Ravens to lose, which crazier things have happened. Do you think they could have any problems here with Jacksonville? Well, I think Jacksonville has been such a hot and cold team, but we saw their defense on that game against the primetime game

last week. They got that past rushes. Tennessee. Tennessee. Very typical that you couldn't even remember. I completely forgot that the Titans. There are 32 teams in the league. They're one of them. I don't know. I mean, Jacksonville's a hot and cold act, but again, you wouldn't have thought, Houston can plug case Keeneman last week and do anything but maybe put up a couple points. And Bill O'Brien deserves credit for week to week, keeping this team very competitive with questions at quarterback. It's another nod at why JJ Watt needs MVP consideration for what he does. Well, we have, I know, I think he would be my vote right now.

Him and Rogers are my top two, but I think Watt might be my vote. And he certainly could get more attention if they can somehow sneak into the playoffs or even win a ninth game here to have a winning record. Or catch a winning touchdown pass, you know, while adding a pick six against this Jacksonville team. Well, I've thought a few things about this Texan team all season, which is that their defense is overrated. People remember when they used to be good. But they have played a lot better over the last few weeks.

They beat Jacksonville 2713. That's kind of what you expect. And then they hold the Colts to 17 points in a game where, you know, their offense didn't do anything and put them in a bad spot. They did a great job against Andrew. luck, and they made Joe Flacko look like a bum last week. So their defense is kind of peaking right now. You have Arian Foster healthy.

You have Andre Johnson healthy finally. It's actually not that bad a team. Yeah, and Aaron Foster. I think they take care of the job. I think so he's had a sneaky, great season, Aryan Foster. And you're talking about Blake Bordals who, you know, and he didn't even play the whole season is like the second most sacked quarterback in the league, partly because he holds the ball too long, but secondly, that offensive line is a sieve.

Right. And the Jaguars, you know, nice job. You got another win last week. not ruin your... I don't think they've done a great job this season. Let's not ruin your draft pick too much. Let's just stay in the top five. You don't want to get your record too nice. So those are the teams fighting for the wild card spot. And the other games that matter, of course, in the AFC are the games that help decide seating and division. And the big one of that, Bengals, Steelers. Another game that we talked about on our three things to watch

this week, the Bengals' defense is playing much better, but the Steelers are looking a little bit more like a complete team after last week as well. Well, and it's like they flipped places with the Ravens and that they suddenly become that team that we can look to. And really, if the Steelers were to get hot, and they were my Super Bowl pick, and I probably wouldn't if I knew what I knew, go back and do that again.

But if they were to put together some sort of peak performance, if they play the way they can on offense, who can stop them in the AFC? They really are a team that when they're operating in all cylinders, they could take care of the Bengals number one and go on from there. Didn't you double down on that on our mid-season predictions? The Steelers were struggling at that time,

and you just made your mid-season prediction, essentially the same as your pre-season prediction, and you said the Steelers are going to run through the AFC and go win it all. Well, that was a case where... But it's actually looking pretty decent right now. They did go on a run, relatively. Yeah, it was a chance to just do a copy and paste from what I had written in August and save myself some time.

But yeah, I'll stick with that. Although, listen, this Bengals team, which I've never been high on this Andy Dalton, Marvin Lewis combination, but it's because of everything around Andy Dalton, like we just talked about at the top of the show with the game last night, that this is the first Bengals team of these playoff entries that I can get behind that excites me that I would want to watch in the playoffs. Their defense hadn't been the same for much of the year,

but they're playing better now. Carlos Dunlop's playing well. They're a little healthier at linebacker. Gino Atkins has been a little bit better. He's been solid down the stretch. It's a really fascinating game because if the Steelers can win this and they have another game where Worlds and Harrison and their front seven looks good.

I mean, they hit the playoffs as the number three seed. Most likely, the winner of this game is going to be the three seed, barring a big-time Broncos upset. And, you know, that's a good spot. And maybe you're going to Denver in the second round and the Pittsburgh Steelers at least hit the playoffs really looking as good as they've looked all year. Yeah, and I know everyone's down on the cults right now,

but I don't want to be a Bengals team or any AFC wildcard team that gets in and has to go to Indianapolis with a healthy TY Hilton. So the loser of this game goes to Indianapolis. Don't want to do that. We're not even going to talk about Colts Titans this week because it doesn't mean anything because the Colts could win that game as they should, but if they lose it, it really doesn't make a difference. They're locked in.

They're going to be the four seed and they're going to play the loser of this AFC North matchup, Bengals and Steelers. And it does make me wonder, you know, can the Bengals get it done in Pittsburgh just because that's such a big difference for them. They were shut out in Indianapolis, remember, early in the year. So it is such of, even though it's great, they beat Denver, this is really the game that matters because if they have to go to Indianapolis in the first round of the playoffs, that smells like another one and done.

Yeah, I mean, their playoffs essentially started with the Denver game, and this is just as important. So Denver and Oakland play the other AFC game that makes a difference on Sunday. Oakland has won three games here down the stretch. Denver has to win this game to clinch the number two seed. Do we think there could have any problems with it? The only thing about Oakland, Oakland needs to be at home, I think, to have any chance to keep this thing close. Although, you know, honestly, part of that is just thinking of what we know about the Broncos,

that they're going to drop some epic bomb on Oakland. Oakland's defense last couple weeks has looked very interesting. Khalil Mack has been playing lights out. Derek Carr has been really good one game, and then the entire offense has zero rhythm the next. So it just depends which Raiders team you get to even maybe make it a game. They weren't even competitive in Kansas City. They haven't been the same team on the road. No.

But these games, the Broncos game will be at 425. No one's going to be watching that game, by the way, because it's not a single person will watch that game. It's the same time as Panthers Falcons, which is basically a playoff game. And it's the same time as Lions Packers, which decides the NFC. And since we're talking about it, let's just flip over to the NFC. You know, sorry Jets and Dolphins fans. Real quick question, though. He just mentioned a Kalil Mack, by the way.

Was that a question? I had to do that. I had to do it. Right. But serious question, though, I was talking to DJ yesterday and move the sticks. ODB or Killil Mack, who would be number one if the draft was today? Oh, I would go ODB. I think it would be Beckham.

And I know teams value pass rushers more, but Beckham's first, whatever games this is now 11, have been so over-the-top extraordinary. I think it'd have to be Beckham. What did DJ say? DJ, I think DJ was leading to him to my. Mac. He didn't really choose. I'm all in an ODB. I'm like Wes. I'm all in. If you know what you know and you're the GM that goes Mac over Beckham, you're going to have to hope that Beckham doesn't do what we think he's going to do. I mean, because he can sell

tickets for the next decade for your franchise. Because what's the floor for Mac? I think it's a multiple pro bowler. Yeah. But it's not necessarily the best pass rusher of his generation. It's just a really good pro bowler, which is awesome. Well, we haven't seen him as a pass rush, and his numbers are, lately, last half of the season, yes. He hadn't been getting sacks, but he's had tons of hurries, tons of hits, and it's starting to show up. And he's going to be a great player. I mean, I think those would be the top two. You picked the right, too.

So that wraps up our look at the AFC. We're going to speed through some of these NFC games. I think we have to start with the NFC North. Lions, Packers, decides the division. The winner of this game could be as high as the one seed, and the loser could be as low and likely would be the sixth seed. How wacky is that? I've never heard of that going into the final week. It would be very wacky for the Packers with what we've seen them be end up as the sixth seed in this thing. All they got to do is lose this game. It's probably going to happen.

Because to me, if you put them at home, if they get potentially a buy, they are one of the unbeatable forces in the NFC. And this is Detroit's chance because I think a lot of people don't believe in the Lions or they just haven't watched the Lions. There's a lot of good parts. It's a great defense. Here's the defense that can potentially slow down Aaron Rogers and the Packers, if there's one out there. So prove it to me, Lions, that you're a playoff team that can do more than coast into the sixth seed and get bonked out in the week one. Or, you know, win a game and you're gone. Just give us a good game at least. You know, the Lions won, you know, this matchup in Detroit. And Aaron Rogers and this Packers offense didn't look great when they played a good

pass Russian Buffalo. This game, of course, will be at home. But on paper, it's it's not a terrible, terrible matchup for Detroit because they're a rare team that can disrupt Rogers who, you know, a few medical things wrong with him lately. They're not quite in sync. And they're facing a defense that is not a shutdown defense. So Stafford has struggled lately, but Reggie Bush looked good last week.

And it says Packers' defense isn't a shutdown defense by any means. You figure they can score some points against them. I think they can. I mean, we've gotten a different Lions offense week to week. But the thing... I don't know. I actually, I disagree with that. are one of the most consistent teams, I think, in the league when I watched them. I've watched

the lines, I think, more than any team, and they're a consistent C-plus. I mean, they are pretty much the same mediocre offense every week. It's not the worst thing you've ever seen, but it's bad, unless they're playing a really bad team. See, that book doesn't bode well for Detroit in my book, because if Green Bay is at home and they get on one of these explosive quarters where they drop 21, this thing's over. So, like I said, the winner of this game has a chance to get the one seed. It's a lot more likely that they'd be the two seed in the playoffs. But the winner, as long as there is a winner and there's no tie, we'll get a playoff by. And that's because the one seed is likely going to Seattle. Because, you know, there's all these scenarios this week in the NFC, but they

almost all depend on Seattle losing to the Rams. And Sean Hill is going up to Seattle, and he's going in for a world of pain. Yeah, and I, the Rams defense didn't look great last week. I think Seattle's just peaking on, they're peaking. and they're hitting the playoffs at the perfect time. It's shocking that two months ago, we were wondering if the Seattle dynasty or whatever it was was already over, and it's like, no, they just needed to get healthy,

and they're the far support superior team this week. Well, the Rams couldn't win two home games the last two weeks against Arizona and Ryan Lindley, and then they got waxed by the Giants. So this game looked very tricky on paper a month ago. I don't think it's tricky anymore. You figure the Seahawks roll. They get the one seed,

and that leaves the Cowboys. likely in the three-seed. Because the Cowboys, the only chance they really have to move out of this three-seed is either with a tie in some of these games to the Detroit game or with the Seattle losing. So Dallas has a winnable game in Washington early on Sunday. That's a game they lost. They want to get revenge.

Ultimately, it probably won't make a difference to their seeding. Yeah, and it's a game with two potential MVP candidates in DeMarco Murray and Tony Romo. And if they... Oh, I thought you were going to say Robert Gros. Griffin the third. Well, you know, he would be, he'd be on that short list. There's no question. Enough with the MVP for Romo, by the way. Give me a break. I don't think it's that crazy. I do. He's not going to win it, but he certainly has to be the guy you'd have to consider he's in that mix. You're the one that always says, oh, I hate that these

awards are just like narratives, you know, it's just like a storyline everyone likes. And isn't that all Romo for MVP is? Or it's not the MVP of the last three weeks of the season. It's the MVP of the season. Well, it's going to be a quarterback number one. The offensive line has been more valuable than him, and the running game has been more valuable than him, and Romo has been almost perfect in December, but you can't tell me he made a bigger difference than Aaron Rogers did this year, or JJ Watt, or Tom Brady, for that matter. No, I'm sort of saying he's in the mix, though, and I don't think it's like... I think he might win it, because people just love that narrative. I hate that, but I think it's possible. Well, let's start with the understanding that the

awards are nonsense, and we don't really care who wins these things. I care. I care enough that I'm fired up about this. It feels like a big sham to me, but DeMarco Murray, he probably will not get at this point, but he has been the heart of this offense for sure. Yeah, you can't really give it to the offensive line as a group, but it would be crazy. And here's why I wouldn't give it to Romo. I think you can come up with seven or eight quarterbacks,

and you drop them on this Cowboys team, and that offense is doing just as well or better. All right, but I also think that Romo... I don't think Romo has been a different. I think it's been a great year for him, and he's a great quarterback, but he's not better than Aaron Roder. Rogers and Brady this year. I mean, I think he's just very quickly dismissed as, well, this year especially that he's just game managing this team doing 11 and 4 record. He's made some

huge throws. I mean, I think that he also is the guy that he's come back from a back injury. I mean, you want the narrative is in place. I hate the narrative. But the Cowboys, if they win this game, I think Romo has a real chance because the voting happens right after the regular season. And people just get swept up with the, oh, wow, let's give it to, you know what I mean? Like, what a career. He blamed, like, acid rain on him, and they blamed on crime in various cities on him. It's time to give him a little bit of credit. How about that? So the Cowboys likely headed to the three-seed.

Let's talk a little bit about the four-seed in the NFC, and that's going to be the winner of the first playoff game of the year. Ultimately, this is the playoff game, Carolina, Atlanta. And people don't like this game, but you know what? I'm assigning myself this game because I'm excited for it. I think it's interesting to see these two teams that are playing better, two good quarterbacks, and one of them's into the big dance. I think the Panthers right now are the better team,

but I almost would like to see Atlanta get into the show because if you have one of those afternoons where Matt Ryan and Julio Jones are on fire, and it's going to be in Atlanta, they could deal a major upset to someone. They have a good chance, the winner of this game, to host the Cardinals. Now, a few things that have to happen.

But basically, if the Cardinals get into the playoffs, they're very likely to be the five seed and go on the road and probably be underdog to this team. So the winner of this game could easily be playing in the divisional round and be sent up to Seattle, you know, like lambs for slaughter. I mean, that would be a disaster, disastrous divisional round game. But I do think these two teams are playing better. They're playing like 9 and 7 type of teams.

And, you know, you're looking at two quarterbacks who are also playing their best football year. It's not a bad game. Oh, I think it's classic to me that a 7-win team is going to get into the postseason. I love it. The Falcons have been reliable lately. They have a generic defense, but their offense, the passing game is pretty good. The Panthers, they're also stopping the run, so that'll be an interesting match of Jonathan Stewart versus the Falcons.

Panthers are a little more up and down, but it seems like they have more firepower overall. Again, I want to see Julio Jones in the playoffs. He's the best player on either one of these two teams, and that's what you want in the playoffs. So the Cardinals, which we mentioned, likely headed for the five-seat. You know, they could get some help and get a buy and win the division. It looks like they're going to start Logan Thomas at quarterback in San Francisco for Jim Harbaugh's swan song. Yeah, I think it's an absolute statement on Ryan Lindley that they know they're going nowhere with that. And Logan Thomas is a complete wildcard.

I mean, it was just pre-draft process where they thought he couldn't get drafted as a tight end. That's maybe how his NFL career would go. And there's been reports that he's been really up and down in practice whenever he's had a chance to take snaps. So I think that Bruce Ariens is just basically saying, listen, we'll do what we can. If they ever won this week against the Niners with Logan Thomas, you've got to call Ariens coach of the year. That's a feat. Well, he's coach of the year no matter what. He's coach of the century if he wins with Logan Thomas.

There's a decent chance. First of all, Logan Thomas is playing in a game in which his team could be the number one seat in the NFC. That's insane. That's crazy. But it's a fact. He also might be starting a playoff game. I think that's why Ariens did this is because Drew standing at a setback last week, and he wants to see if Thomas could possibly start that playoff game.

I think he's thinking that Thomas is going to give you a higher ceiling, but anything else that happens with him, it's a complete enigma. I just am disappointed that Logan Thomas is going to ruin the best career stat line in NFL history. Right now, for his career, he has one for nine for 81 yards in a touchdown. Remember he threw a little, I think it was a little slant pass. I forget who it was two. Ellington, I think, yeah. who ran for a long touchdown, one for nine for 81 yards.

I mean, that's what you're getting with Logan Thomas. Not a lot of completions, but a lot of excitement. So Jim Harbaugh has a chance to go out in style, try to win that game, and that's really the last NFC game that matters. I mean, you've got Saints Bucks. That's going to help decide the number one seed. Bucks are in great position for it. You got Bears Vikings.

No one really cares about that game at this point. Let's not waste people's precious time. They're with their families. They've taken time away from their eggnog and their various other holiday cheers and booze filled with drinks to hang out with us. And who would have thought Eagles Giants doesn't make any difference in the world either

other than like O'Dell Beckham setting the city on fire a little more? Set it on fire. So that's all we got for you today. We've run through all the games. We are still going to talk a little bit about our sandwich propositions. And to do that, I'm going to throw it over to my main man, Dan Hanzas.

Get you Dan Hanzas. Get your Dan Hanzas. All right, guys. So we have reached week 17, and it's time to revisit our go get my lunch propositions that we made. I believe we made them right after week one, if I can recall. Yes, because of poor planning. Yeah, so this time we're ahead of the game. We've had three months have passed, and I'm a little afraid to look at.

some of these predictions, both on behalf of myself and you guys, I'm sure some of the things we got behind probably didn't quite work out, but we're about to find out as we go through this list and I'll go straight from the top and first of all, a big hearty thanks to, what's the Twitter handle

again? Go get my lunch. At go get my lunch. Strangely enough. It better be. We're going to go through, they did a great job that Twitter handle, like keeping track of all these and we're actually using their official Twitter handle spreadsheet to go through these. So let's just go down the list.

And Chris Wessling's first, and I will say that sandwiches, one lost. It says that you have won five sandwiches. There are a few of these, by the way, that are pending Week 17 action. But a lot of this is settled, and we could talk about it. And that's why we're doing it right now. Chris Wessling, five sandwiches, won, seven sandwiches lost. Let's go down the list. The champion has been taken down.

He used to be great at this. I've seen the career standings and I still stand on top. That's past. All right. So, Wes, Wes threw out there that Teddy Bridgewater will start week one. And Greg said, I disagree. That won't be the case.

There was once a time Greg doubted Teddy Bridgewater. Well, he was on the same team with my other boy, Matt Castle. And I looked like my confidence in Matt Castle was proves correct. So Teddy Bridgewater didn't start until when. It was after Castle got hurt, I think, four weeks in. Right. So then we had Matt Flynn will name. not be on the Packers opening day roster. Greg took that one as well.

Oh, that was an easy one. That was from the summer. I enjoyed that one because West believed in this one. Matt Flynn, thank you, buddy. I did believe in it, and I think Mark had my back a little bit on this one. Nobody wants to see Matt Flynn throw a pass again in the NFL. I certainly felt logical if you're going to run a team, you wouldn't have them on your roster. Mike Vic will start at least the next four games, weeks 9, 10, 12, and 13. That was... A mid-season one. That was a mid-season sandwich wager. that Vic would start at least the next four games, and then, of course, Woody Johnson vetoed that

and banged Wes hard, costing him sandwiches. Hold on! Yes. Got some evidence here. I would like to introduce Exhibit A from... This is the most prep Wes has ever done for the show. He's printed out things that's written down. Exhibit A from at Doug and Paso.

Chris, I followed the sandwich bets. What I wrote down was Vic in weeks 9 to 12, not games 9 to 12. You nailed it. not all right let's there was a bye week in there but didn't he lose the job after three starts he held the job for four weeks but not four games we're gonna have to go and we'll have to go tap that is

that puts your uh it's interesting it's worth digging and i won sandwiches off of that but we'll see i don't think you did we might have to go check we'll have to dig through it all right rams finished with tied with the worst record in the nfl west was down on the rams Greg. See, you guys, here's the secret to the sandwich. Just take them all. Just say yes.

What are the odds that's going to be right? Almost all of our predictions were wrong. Rams are going to win about seven games as they always do, so that will not get it done for worst record. Brandon Cooks, a guy that Wes is very high on, will be offensive rookie of the year. I was high on him. He has been replaced more than capably by O'Dell Bennett.

It's true. It's ironic. You don't see Mark's name as taking any of these. Dan and I did. I am on a budget, by the way. I don't want to do any of them. You have to do this. But you keep saying that that you're on the budget.

But if you had just taken all of these, you would have won all the sandwiches and saved yourself money. I have not been a diehard gambler for two decades. We don't gamble here. But Mark's logic was flawed because he doesn't want to risk losing sandwiches and paying out money. But he's not realizing that to win sandwiches and not pay money, you've got to get involved.

I'm not saying I'm good at this game. That's not my argument. All right. Mike Wallace will lead the AFC in receiving yards. I took Wes up on that, and I believe whilst we'll leave the division, right? No. Oh, he won't. Gronkowski is up up by a couple hundred yards.

Technically, that one is still up in the air, but Dan is looking great for it. You're going to get that one. And finally, Wes, Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford finished with more passing yards than Peyton Manning. That's a big loss. I took that. Greg took that one up. Stafford. Ryan and Peyton Manning might be close.

Greg took everything we all said. What a challenge. All right. Moving on to Mark. Michael Vicks starts week one for the Jets. I was the only one to take Mark. up on that, and I got a sandwich off it. Chomp, Chomp, Chomp.

Blake Bordle starts by week three. This one hurt. This one hurt because he came on the field in week three and essentially won the starting job from there on that. But he didn't start until week four. Greg and Wes both agreed to split the lunch. If wrong, I don't know why they did that. It's weird.

That's peculiar. Mark actually laid this out after Jets went over the Raiders that the Jets will finish with a winning record, and nobody else took him up on that except for Greg, who got a sandwich off it. I'm going to be. full of sandwiches. I should say, by the way,

Cessler won three sandwiches and lost five. And he's going to lose a few more coming up, maybe up to five. Just give us your ATM card, Mark, the Cleveland Cavs will have more wins after seven games than the Browns will have all year. Of course, the Browns are sitting at seven wins. And I believe the Cavs started like three and four.

And no one took that back. So another lesson, we should have all taken it. None of us took that one. Jimmy Garoppola will start at least one game for the Patriots this year. I didn't take that one just because I didn't like when Mark goes down the serious injury route for people. If you keep his quarter, nobody has gotten one right so far. So Mark could be as low as, though, he's losing these two. That would put him at three and seven.

And then the next one is. I will just, I will vanish on transportation into the east. I'm not going to be able to do this. In the non-producer category, because our producers always make the worst sandwich propositions. But in the ATL group, the worst one of all time, Peyton plays exactly 16 more NFL. games, then he's done. That's not as a chance to happen. No, it probably doesn't.

Well, laugh it off. That's fine, but this was said after week one, so that he loses a playoff game and retires. Right, right. So if he loses the opening playoff game and then he walks off into the sunset, Mark looks like a genius. Yes, he does. And if not, he's giving up 11 sandwiches. Oh, my God.

Moving on to Greg Rose and Paul. I'm just going to buy one of those giant, like, 40-foot-long sandwiches, and you You guys can do what you want with it. All right, moving on to Greg. Greg is on fire so far. He's won nine sandwiches and lost just five. First one, NFC East will have three teams with losing records. Nobody took that.

That was wrong. Everyone's been wrong. Yep. Justin Hunter will play more snaps than Nate Washington. This is a Greg West fire joint. Where do we stand on that? Nate Washington's going to play more snap. Well, Wes, this shows the kind of character of the man we're dealing with.

Justin Hunter was leading by a good margin. the man ruptured his spleen, literally, and Wes took that as an occasion to send me a taunting email, celebrating the fact. We don't even need spleens. We can do without them. Big deal. I would have done the same thing, Wes.

Part of this proposition was that Justin Hunter is a slightly built man who will always be in. Oh, yeah, you saw the spleen rupture coming. He got drilled on that play. Wes is a spleen expert. All right, Jake Locker will have more passing yards than two of the following quarterbacks. RG3, Russell Wilson, and Colin Kaepernick. We all took that one. You could have listed any two quarterbacks in the NFL, and that would have lost.

Everyone did, including TD, who won a sandwich off that one. Good job there, Mr. TD. Terry Bridgewater is the new Jake Walker. I would hold off on that, though, TD, because we haven't gotten to you yet. Robert Woods leads the bills and receiving yards. This was a West took him up on this, and then we have another note here. If Greg wins, he gets a side of potato. On top of the sandwich.

I'm going to lose that one. It was close. That's heinous. But I'm going to lose. Greg had to negotiate extra details into the proposition. Well, I was giving up odds, but yeah, sure. This is also another one that just involved. Greg and I, Greg said that Richie Incognito won't play in the NFL again.

I say he will. That is yet to be determined. So that's kind of in the air. On a side note, I have a much darker proposition with Hanson Hake downstairs regarding incognito, but I will not get into it on the show. Last one from Greg Mike Zimmer will receive more coach of the year votes than Peyton, Manning, or Drew Breeze

get MVP votes. Convaluted, but I got a shot at this one. Breeze isn't getting any. Peyton, I don't know if he'll get any. He'll finish like fourth or fifth. I don't know if Zimmer is going to generate enough. I think it might be like two to zero this year. This is a West join.

This is a close one. I'm with Wes. I think Wes is going to win this, but it could be close. All right, moving on to me. I've won six so far and lost three. No, Dan's doing well. The only reason we're doing this segment is because of that.

Yes, thank you. Barring injury, Michael Vic doesn't start for the Jets in 2014. How stupid are we? No one took me on that. Why? You, everyone, we forget how strangely, almost suspiciously high we were in the Jets and Gino Smith after a 1914 went over the Raiders at home in week one. That was.

Moving on, Case Keenham will start more games than Ryan Mallet. The great upset of all time, Case Keenum emerges out of the east. ether a week ago and is most likely, barring something, him getting struck by lightning this week, will finish with the same number of starts as Maud, who was the name. That's going to be a push. Texan starter and then hurt himself and he's out for the year. It's going to be 2-2. You guys were magnanimous, and you said, even though he doesn't have more starts, the absurd

nature of the cover here. That's the miraculous pick of the year. I don't know why we chose now to start being magnanimous. Oh, well, we said it, so we'll follow it. This one has my fingerprints all over it. Andy Dalton will finish with a higher pass rate than Philip Rivers. I don't know what it is. I would assume

it's something about like 93 to 80 or something. It's probably not hugely embarrassing but... Dog has an 82.7 pass a rating. This is actually his worst year, I think, to pass a rate. He had been a 90s guy until this season, and that's what I was banking on. It didn't work out that way. And I lost sandwiches to Greg, Mark

and Wes on that one. Jason Garrett will survive the 2014 season. He's not only going to survive it, he's going to get like a million year extension. Sessler said, No, he's getting fired. Cessler was famously out in the Cowboys to the point where he had the famous adjectives for the Cowboys. That was the one one Mark took basically, and he got that wrong, too. Finally, we've been talking about this all year in the newsroom.

J.J. Watt will have more sacks than DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller combined. Watt is probably going to have more sacks than either of those guys, but Ware and Miller over 20 as a combo. You're going to lose three there, so you'll even out a little bit. Yeah, so I lost that one, two, Greg Wess and TD in on that. And finally, TD, who, great job by TD. He won one sandwich and is down four, and he's going to win that Watt one, so two. But here we go.

Calvin Johnson finishes the year with 20, at least, excuse me, at least 24 receiving touchdowns, and the entire group could not wait to jump on that one, and it's going to cost them multiple sandwiches. Your thoughts, TD? I'm a home run hitter, you know? I took a shot, I missed, but, you know, you got to know who you are in this one. Your home run miss her. You're like Rob Deere

You didn't hit one Our producers for the record Are combined one and six In their careers in this game Yeah, you want to play with the big boys You know If you only get one or two shots You got to take a shot, you know

Okay Can't go for the little ones And the final one which none of us took And it's a good thing The Jets, Dauphins or bills Will make the playoffs TD laid that out And we didn't take the bait

And it's a good thing we didn't Well no We should have We could have taken some sandwich Yeah, exactly. I've noticed a little bit of strategy here. Here's one of the keys to this game. If you reel in three or four guys,

you better hope you get it right or else you're down. You're never going to recover from that. So we'll have the final numbers in about a week, but most of these are settled. And I guess what's the big takeaway that none of us know anything? Right. But we tried to put these things out on the limit. Yeah, we tried to have some fun.

We did it in advance of free agency last year, I believe, And that was, I think we got quite a few of those. We'll do that again. We'll bring it back for free agency again. So that is the Go Get My Lunch Propositions for the 2014 NFL season. All right. That was it. How many people just fast forwarded right to the sandwich thing?

No one. Really? Do you think people care about the sandwich? I don't know. I hope they did because it was a good time for me. Maybe they just like, we need a little Dan and Wes in our lives. I can pretty much tell my wife, hey, you don't have to budget for food in 2015 because I got about 15 million sandwiches coming away.

And I've told my wife that our two children won't be eating until middle of April. That's fine. That's how it goes. You are a factory of sadness. You know, that'll be fine. Wow, what a terrible way to go into Christmas. TD, Abominable. Well, we want to thank everyone that listens to the show all regular season long. Of course, we'll be back on Sunday night to wrap up this week 17.

We'll be back throughout the playoffs with three shows a week. But in the meantime, have a great Christmas. Have a great Hanukkah. Any holidays that you celebrate, you know, get it done. Have a good time for Mark Sessler. T.D. Behind the glass. Zach Dressler's back there. Dan Hansis in New York.

Chris Wessling. We'll see you on Sunday. Thank you.