NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 212. Most Important Games Remaining For 2024 Draft Order

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers update the 2024 NFL D order and discuss what has changed, plus look forward to the games that mean the most for the final draft order

This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better. With NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get the most live NFL games all in one place, every game, every Sunday. And you can even watch up to four different games at once with MultiView, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical. And also, YouTube TV is great. I got it this year.

It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. In this episode, we're taking a look at the updated NFL draft order after week 12 in the NFL. We're picking out our favorites, picking out a lot of the storylines that are starting to manifest, but also something we

really wanted to do on this podcast is we wanted wanted to look forward over the next six weeks, we are going to tell you which games are going to matter the most for the final 2024 NFL draft order. I'm Trevor Sycamore with me as always is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. welcome to the opening bell of the nfl stock exchange podcast i'm trevor sikama that is connor rogers joining you guys post thanksgiving edition post rivalry week and right after week 12 in the nfl what we're going to do on today's show we're going to talk a little bit about thanksgiving i gotta catch up with connor because you guys know that we don't do any of the pod before the pod, so I got to ask him about how his Thanksgiving was. But also, we're going to take a look at the

draft order. We've got six weeks left of the NFL regular season, so we're going to take a look at all the teams that are not in playoff positions, update the draft order for you guys, and then we're going to identify some of the biggest games for the 2024 final NFL draft order that we're going to see over the next six weeks. Connor, how the hell are you, my friend? I'm good. It's good to be back. You could tell that you are still in a very sunny state as you're sitting there with the glow and a t-shirt and winter is not coming. Winter has arrived. I'm in a flannel layered with a hoodie right now, of course, in the great state of New York. So Thanksgiving was great. Had really, really timed up my dessert this year. Like, I feel like I had plenty of room left to really go ham on dessert, which was a nice change. And you know what? I've said a lot of bad things about turkey, but the fried turkey

was phenomenal. So it's good to be back though, man. man we had we had a lot of fun last podcast closing out with some holiday takes it was it was a lot of fun and uh just for listeners of the podcast if you go all the way back to some summer scouting episodes that we had uh we had some fun questions on some mailbag episodes and uh we also had a lot of fun focus around the uh adult beverage modello that both of us have championed here on this podcast. Championed, for sure. Choose your fighter. I walked in to the Thanksgiving gathering that we were having with my family. I walk over to the cooler, and Modelo happened to be the beer of choices in the cooler. So, of course, the very first thing that I did is I took a picture of it,

sent it to Connor, and said, yeah, we're about to have a good-ass Thanksgiving. A hundred percent. So I'm glad to hear yours as well man it brought my vibe up though so much when you sent me that i was like god it's it's just you love to absolutely see it um so yeah it's you know what and this is that time of year a little stretch run here as we're in between thanksgiving and christmas i feel like the draft dial turns up a little bit maybe from like a seven to an eight and a half i've i've seen fans complaining about wins on twitter which is how you know it's draft season baby so we're we are so back man listen i fired off my my first of the season when the giants won this past weekend i

tweeted absolutely brutal devastating soul crushing i mean it is dude it is i can't look not good look i'm just look i'm a draft guy at heart and i gotta keep it real obviously i know the players they want to win football games the coaches they want to win football games but i want teams to win championships and this is what we do here on this show we're going to be uh talking about that and that angle as we go through the top 10 so you just want to get into it i I can start and I can read off those top 18 teams. And then I'll let you probably start the first couple of teams and see what really catches your eye. Before we then move on to some of the schedules a little bit later in the show. You ready?

Yeah, let's jump right in. Carolina. Or not Carolina. Still picking number one overall right now. A 1-10 record, which was good enough to get Frank Reich fired and just to give you guys a little bit of a preview of what the rest of this week is going to look like fix your franchises back baby this move has accelerated our timeline for when we were getting into the fix your franchise series where we take a deep dive into

totally changing these franchises and improving them for the short and long term that first episode is going to come out on Thursday so I mean I'll pause I'll pause there I guess a little bit Connor and say dude I mean I did not he lasted less games than Urban Meyer he got 11 games Urban Meyer and Nathaniel Hackett 13 games yes Hackett got 15 oh my god Hackett got man urban got 13 right got 11 man so i don't know just i figured we'd have a little bit of a back and forth of it because that's the news of the day but damn i knew things weren't going well in carolina but that not well sheesh yeah this is a tough one right for a lot of reasons now keep in mind david tepper is a uh a different owner this

is a man that has quite a sum of money very careful adjective yeah very i mean this man knows he knows people in high places i'm treading extremely lightly if you can't tell we've told the story on this podcast how he this is a guy to put in perspective at one point bought his former boss's house i believe for more than 40 million dollars and then just tore it down like that that is that level of human this is a different cat folks so should i sit here and be flabbergasted that a respected nfl man like Frank Reich only lasted 10 games I mean it feels like no because I feel like all bets are off with an owner like Tepper who is really not unfortunately not gotten a lot right since he's bought the Panthers and it just goes to show you that no matter how much money you have the NFL is a different beast as a business and both the financial aspect and the winning

aspect and it's not that I don't have confidence in this franchise. I just think they are in a really tough place. And I think that here's the thing for me, Trevor. We don't know if it's true. It just seems like it's caught on really like fire and oxygen at this point. If Tepper wanted Stroud and that staff wanted Stroud and not Tepper, The staff wanted Stroud and Tepper wanted Bryce Young as we as has been reported. I mean, if things go, things are going this poorly, how badly do you even want to be on this ship anymore? If you're Frank Reich and as you and I are sitting down right now, I know Josh McCown was fired as well.

Like this isn't just right. Like the staff is being fired i mean it's not it's a situation that you look at and go things have been bad in carolina and bryce young is absolutely a part of that things are so good in houston right now for stroud that it feels like all of that combined led to this firing yeah but this is approaching a rudderless ship where they're the worst team in football. They're not making that pick at number one. So they need to get somebody to come in and do everything they can to develop Bryce to his full capacity. And if Reich and the staff weren't fully on board with that or it just wasn't working i mean cut ties now reichel reichel get

another nfl job not as a head coach but he'll be a successful play caller somewhere else and it's just an all-around honestly very disappointing situation in my eyes and when owners meddle in things nothing good often comes about that i've seen it a lot in my time uh in new york with both the jets and the giants at times and unfortunately this is another circumstance in that light yeah and we're gonna get into a lot more of the details of how carolina got here and how we get out of it we'll devote a full podcast to that but yeah it's just it that news breaking and the fact that it was right now it's like damn a lot of things have to go wrong for that to be the case

you know and and i think a lot of things have and you know we'll dig into it a little bit more but getting back to the order okay you got carolina that's sitting there at number one overall you get arizona still sitting at two and ten competitive at times but still two and ten new england massive massive the big massive loss this weekend. This was very key for them with their loss. They're 2-9 on the season, so they're picking number three overall. You got Chicago. They're playing on Monday Night Football, so when this is coming out,

they're going to be playing against Minnesota Vikings, so their spot could be a little bit different. But as of right now, they're 3-8, sitting at number four. Their strength of schedule is pretty low. Damn, okay, so even if they win this evening on Monday Night Football, they will not change because they'll go to 4-8 and they'll still own all the strength of schedule stuff. Right.

And if they lose, I guess they won't change either. So take back everything that I said. Great for the podcast. Good job, Trev, you moron uh number five overall great hosting idiot uh the washington commanders they're sitting at four and eight giants also sitting at four eight four and eight after their win tampa buccaneers uh in the new york chats ah you just love it's amazing you just love to see it side by side they keep being side by side just very closely just going up the ladder to have a higher pick.

They're now picking at 7 and 8, respectively. Chargers, another loss. They're picking now in the top 10 at number 9. Tennessee Titans at number 10 because their win over the Panthers, that was a big swing. I think that got them either from 5 or 6 all the way to 10. Vegas is at 11. They're 5 and 7.

New Orleans is at 12. They're 5 and 6. And this is a string of a couple of 5 and 6 teams here. Green Bay at 13. Rams at 11. They're 5-7. New Orleans is at 12. They're 5-6. And this is just during a couple of 5-6 teams here. Green Bay at 13. Rams at 14. Bengals at 15. You got the Buffalo Bills sitting here at 6-6. That one's wild.

Dude. That one's wild. And the Bills aren't even, they're not out of it still. No. It almost just feels like the Bills are out of it, right? The fan base has no confidence in the head coach. And once that happens, yeah, you start to feel like nothing matters even when you get right.

That's what stinks about that. It's tough. Houston is 6-5. Denver is 6-5. They're the last two teams here outside of the playoffs if it were to end today. Bro. I mean, what?

Denver's won five in a row. Them and the Philadelphia Eagles are on the longest winning streaks in the NFL right now. And both couldn't beat Zach Wilson. Damn. Isn't that crazy? That's how crazy this season has been. I know.

Robert Sala was right all along. You should have kept him in there to the very end. Just madness. Complete madness. All right. So outside of Carolina, we touched on Carolina a little bit in number one. I want to kind of just bounce around the top 18, if you will, before we get into what's coming up over the next six weeks

and identify some of the most pivotal games for what's eventually going to be the top 10 order. But I don't know. Any of the teams really stick out to you from what we saw this past weekend or where they're at in the order? It feels like we have to talk about Patriots-Giants, right? Because there are such interesting ramifications there where New England, I mean, we know they need a quarterback, right? They literally don't have anyone that can play the position.

It's still mind-blowing to me, and I was never a big Mac Jones guy. I didn't have him as a first-round quarterback that year. But what we saw with him as a rookie compared to where he is at now is really jarring to me. I don't even think he's playing at the level that an NFL backup could right now. And when you looked at him as rookie, you're like, okay, maybe he could be an average starter. But anyway, they don't have a quarterback.

So New England needs to keep losing because it becomes a slippery slope with just a couple wins here. I just, I constantly fall back on, if Arizona just keeps losing, and with it being a new regime regime is there no chance they take a quarterback none the cardinals yeah it's it's just so advantageous for them if they don't if they take marv because i like i think comes down to this. I think Kyler Murray is good. So when it comes down to it, right?

You could actually miss on the quarterback and downgrade, in a sense, from Kyler. There is a reality where that exists. If you get Marv, man, I just don't see it any way. He's not a blue-chip NFL player. I really don't. He's such a stud and so yeah it's just it's so avid i hear what you're saying because i think that there is any time you finish with two or three wins total in a season you basically have to question every point of the coaching staff

in the roster now you can answer some of those questions in the coaching staff emphatically like yeah it was gannon's first year okay we're not moving on from him it's fine we're giving a little bit of time here kyle murray i think is playing really well and i think this team is they're they're showing some fight against a lot of teams that i never thought that they would so i think they're going in the right direction so i think that holds off really thinking that you got to pick a quarterback and also murray's contract is a big one and i get that that's that's a big one on the books but it's like i said it's so advantageous for them if they don't have to use one of these picks on a quarterback because you could pick marvin harrison jr if you wanted at number two or wherever they're gonna end up picking if it's not a quarterback and still in the top three

so you can get marvin harrison jr or if you want to get fancy with it if you think that this class is deep enough if you don't think that marvin harrison jr is just like the the the gold standard you could maybe do a little bit of what you did last year yes back with trade back with somebody continue to get multiple first round picks because they still have pick number 17 right now in the draft. So you move down, especially this. This is the important part, Connor. If the Cardinals end up with the number two overall pick or the number one overall pick, right? That has the ability to set their franchise and their roster up

for the next two to three years of having incredible drafts. Because if they're picking one or two and you're rolling with kyler murray you're about to get three first round picks from somebody right yeah so then you'd have two this year you'd have two next year and you'd have two the year after that all while having a guy that is played a at a potential mvp caliber level for the quarterback position. So I know that moving on from getting Marvin Harrison Jr. would be tough if you're in the top three. But if you're in that top two, man, this team could really set themselves up. Monty Ossenforth, their new general manager from last year,

has a chance to really control the first round of the next three drafts if they end up getting the top two pick. Exactly. Losing is beneficial to them still because of the asset management and acquisition that can take place from that point of power in this draft like we know despite their warts that picking one and two in this draft has such an insane amount of value because of the demand for both caleb and drake and i get we're at the point of the demand for both Caleb and Drake. And I get we're at the point of the draft where I see it all the time. People are now talking themselves into the next tiers of quarterbacks. And I like,

I get it. People are excited about Jaden Daniels and McCarthy. And I really like panic still. And Bo Nix, like I, I totally get it. I still see a significant drop off in quarterback tier where like the power point of this draft still matters a lot and three because of Marv like Marv being the third being such a blue chip talent at such

an important position matters as well where I think my overall take on all of this is that Arizona is going to be fine it's almost like they can't screw this up. In my eyes, it'd be really hard for them to mess this up. It's more just a conversation to me now of do they just sit where they are and go, we'll take who we think is the best player in the draft? Or do they get a little cheeky and creative, kind of like they did last year, but I think it's even on a higher scale, and go, what can we squeeze out of this draft? Say we're picking at two, and the Giants are calling us.

Dude, everybody would be calling you. Everyone's calling you. I mean, as much as I don't hate Sam Howell, certainly. I mean, if Washington's still sitting here at five or six, they're going to consider it. Right. And then you're moving up. You can get New England to flip and you still get Marv.

Now, New England under Bill is they're pretty stubborn, but we don't even know if it's going to be Bill. I was going to say. It might be a new regime trying to make a splash. It's going to be so weird the first time we see somebody with a head coach headset on wearing Patriots gear that is not Bill Belichick. Yeah, it'll look like how they couldn't put him in Madden. And you're like, who the hell is that? It's just like some NPC on the sidelines.

That's what it's going to look like no matter who it is. John Dowd, shout out MVP Baseball 2004 when they couldn't put Barry Bonds in there and they had to just make up a name. You're like, why does he have 99 power? And it's like, oh, I get it. As a kid, it was very startling. Do you think there's people, there has to be, do you think there's people out there

that have a San Francisco Giants John Dowd jersey? Absolutely.? There has to be. You think there's people out there that have a San Francisco Giants John Dow jersey? It's got to be. It's such a good bit. It's such a good bit. Somebody from our generation's got to have a John Dow jersey. I'm going to look and see if I can find anything online. I bet you can.

I bet you absolutely can. Yeah, I mean, look, the Giants are certainly in an interesting spot because their fans were very very excited about having a top three overall selection and they're not in the worst spot when it comes to strength of schedule right now but they're not in a great spot either like of the giants yes yeah of the teams that they are around were you were you looking up john dow jerseys i did i did i just saw a ton of pics of his character in the game and then i realized i need to get back into the podcast i knew you were talking about the giants but i really need to confirm it about this spiral you're about to spiral and i clicked twice on google images i was like stop

you're still recording a show and trevor has definitely moved on to a new team unfortunately i like talking so much we probably could have gone like 10 minutes while you were just in an absolute rabbit hole trying to find a uh john dow jersey from from china or something for for 20 bucks but okay anyways yes the new york giants their strength of schedule right now which for everybody out there strength of schedule is one of the highest tiebreakers that you have right if it's it's obviously wins and losses first but then strength of schedule is is very high on the priority list you can't remember it's three or two because the worst record you have against worse opponents, those teams are going to get the higher draft pick.

That is where the tiebreaker comes from. So you want to have as low of a strength of schedule as you can with whatever record you have. The Giants have a.52 strength of schedule. Sorry, yeah,.521. And of the teams that are around them, chicago at four washington at five tampa at seven jets at eight all four of those teams have strength of schedules that are below what the giants is right now so you start dabbling into teams that have a you know an extra win on top of them then you're getting into who's this here um this would be the titans because the schedule is a little weird now still with bi-weeks because teams still have

bi-weeks so at least they're under the titans and strength of schedule but the giant all this to say i'm kind of saying a lot to say a little. Giants are in a tough spot now with four wins. They are. You're pretty damn close. You need help at this point if you want Caleb Williams or Drake May. Yeah, you're almost out of territory where, like, the teams don't even need to trade with you unless you just godfather them. Right.

I mean, and here, the Giants aren't completely off the hook of winning another game i mean i am i am i should i stay away from schedule talk right now am i am i jumping into the second half of the pod you feel like i kind of am you are you're jumping this is the difficult part second in the second half of the pod here you know i'm getting too excited you know we got the structure for a reason yeah let's wait we don't you know if we don't have discipline if we don't have rules connor then what are we we're just anarchists you know yes then we are a a mess of an outfit so which we are already so you know we'll get to the giant schedule in a second but no i i do agree with you that's that's something that we're going to go through and i wrote down a bunch of kind of

like pivotal points within the schedule and the giantsants have a couple where damn like I know Giants fans don't want to hear this but they might not be picking top 10 like there's a reality where they might not even be picking top 10 you get two three more wins here down the stretch if this team starts playing anything close to what they thought that we they were going to be when we started the season then you're in a little bit of trouble there so Giants are obviously where my mind goes as well Bucks and Jets I mean they're just going in the wrong direction obviously I think it you know Baker Mayfield had an interesting quote this past week after the game and I'm kind of paraphrasing it here so forgive forgive me, but it was basically like, we're going to keep losing unless people want it more.

And that was a little, that's a little jarring when the starting quarterback is basically like, yeah, people got to basically want it more on this team. Because that tells you that the locker room is not where it needs to be. And right now, I don't think that Bucks locker room is where it needs to be with Todd Bowles. I don't think a lot of people have faith in where it's going and I think that a lot of people are frustrated so Tampa has one of the easier schedules left and we're going to get to a handful of those games in the second half of the podcast but they're a team that could absolutely

be picking in the top 10 it's crazy to think this Jets defense is a team that's going to be picking in the top 10, though. It's weird, right? There's so many variables where when you look at the Jets, I mean, I keep saying like they're too talented on defense to be losing this much lately, but they just are so bare bones, literally anemic and dysfunctional on offense. Like, I'm starting to believe it. Like, how can they ever win again? That's how bad it got. But there are variables. One, the schedule doesn't get much easier,

but the Bills and the Dolphins, they're going to outscore the Jets in those scenarios. I'm not saying the Jets beat the Falcons and Texans but at least it's a little bit more interesting and then we don't know what the deal is at Rodgers like at first it felt like he's only coming back if the Jets have a shot to make the playoffs like a good one and now you hear the chatter like he just wants to play and I think part of that is him trying to galvanize a franchise that is really lost at quarterback right now and you already you know everybody's like how could they have brought Hackett here how could they have brought it like Salah's under fire right now there's Joe Douglas is under fire right now I'm not saying it's smart

but what if Rodgers comes back for the last three and they they try to win two of the three or they try to win all three and he's like see all you needed was me and everybody's running it back for next year and we're gonna do this and we're going to do that. And the Jets end up Jets end up, what, eight, nine. And it's like that looks totally different than where they're picking right now in the top 10. Definitely. So who knows what the Jets for me? It's like totally 50 50.

I feel like it's felt like lately they're never going to win another game. But we just don't know the Rogers timeline. And, you know, and they've won games that nobody thought they would win this year as well. So top eight, it's just odd. I feel as though we're going to be doing a fix-your-franchise on the Los Angeles Chargers very soon, right? For as much as I think there's a level of commendability with being able to put yourself in every single game no matter what opponent you're going up against you know some of the best in the NFL

the Chargers are always right there they're always a team that's close they cannot win these games they're just they're always in single possession football games and they just come up on the wrong side of things more often than not and there comes a time where I think this has happened plenty of times before where like I honestly like I thought this was Dan Quinn people probably think I'm a broken record talking about Dan Quinn but I think Dan Quinn's a good football coach and I think his players like him but you look at those you look at those last couple of years in Atlanta I still like Dan Quinn as a football coach but it's just it was time to you had to move on it wasn't working right you just the roster needed a jump it needed to go in a different direction it just felt like it was in purgatory and if there is anything that NFL general managers

owners whatever it is hate big decision makers at the top, it's purgatory. It's when you are going nowhere. It's when you are middle of the pack, there is no emotion, and apathy is truly the worst trait, especially when it comes to your fan base. When your fan base just goes, ah, yeah, we lost. Oh, well. That is truly what ownership fears in the NFL the the most and i feel as though people were have

been very mad at the chargers and people are still very mad at the chargers so i'm not saying like that it's that it's totally void of that but we're reaching a point where i'm watching the game of football the other night and the game comes close at the end and i'm like yeah chargers are losing this game like we already know we already know what's going to happen and it's going to be about you've seen the story so many times we've seen the story so many times you are correct so i think staley's going to be out i think this is a team that um is going to be floating around a top 10 pick and i didn't think that that was going to be the case moving forward but um yeah any other team that uh anywhere like 10 through 18 that really stands out to you maybe any of these teams you think could jump up within that top 10 list?

Well, the team that I would, that should want to is the Raiders, right? Because the Raiders are playing really hard right now. And as much as he's done some things, they feel like a team that if they can get a quarterback, they have pieces. Like they have some talent on defense. We know they have some of the key areas on offense figured out wide receiver, running back left tackle.

You just look at them and you're like, man, are they a team that maybe it makes sense to make a godfather offer and try to go up for a top two quarterback if they lost a couple more? I think in this draft, it's really hard to get to one and two from 11. I really, really do. Because if you're a one or two, 11, that's a big fall. You're falling out of blue chip prospect territory at that point.

So the Raiders are just, they're interesting to me because they're a team that i don't think they're bad enough that you go into the offseason and just say okay like they could and they could do this like detonate it like somebody could come in there and be like all right davante adams i gotta get something for him now josh jacobs and they could right and they could and i we like we're just in a weird place we don't have a quarterback But they're also not bad enough in my eyes where if somebody came in there and they're like, I'm going to try to get a quarterback. I'm like, we're going to go. We're going to go for it a little bit in these two to three years because we think we're a tough football team with pieces. They're just a totally both directions team to me, Trevor. You know, first and foremost, it's Aiden O'nell slander and i won't stand for it you know here

on this podcast so i just had to make sure that i got that out of the way yeah the raiders are one of those very interesting teams in this order and it's just where are they because i feel like the raiders over the last couple of years, especially with Mark Davis himself, he's tired of losing. Like they're like they're tired of the closest the Raiders have been is like maybe on the up and coming, you know, during some of the Gruden tenure. But really, it's just I mean, it hasn't been good ever since. So this team's done a lot of losing, losing. Are they really especially the fact that they have an opportunity to wipe the slate losing. Are they really, especially the fact that they have an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, are they really going to do that? Like, are they really

going to detonate the roster? I feel like they're not going to. So I instead think that this team is not going to be one that we're talking about trading up from wherever they are around the top 10 to go get a Caleb Williams or a Drake May. I think that they're going to ride with a lot of their pieces. And I think that they're going to hire a head coach who understands this roster the way that it is and has to build on from there. I think that they could be totally wrong, but it just feels as though this is going to be more of a foundational team,

and they're going to try to build it up rather than tear it a little bit down. New Orleans, to me, that's the last team that I really have to point out here. They're picking number 12. New Orleans is sitting here at five and six. They've lost their last two. Now they're tied with the Atlanta Falcons who are also at five and six, but the Falcons are picking 19.

Falcons are hosting a playoff game. Because in the NFC South, five and six is getting you the division lead right now. Falcons host the playoff game. And when I go back to that strength of schedule, see, Arthur Smith knew all along, dude. You don't give the ball to B. John Robinson, you host a playoff game.

See, Connor? It all comes back around. He's taking a shot straight at you. When you go back to the strength of schedule, the New Orleans Saints have the second lowest strength of schedule of any team in the NFL. Can you guess what the other team is? Oh, yeah, it's the Atlanta Falcons.

So basically, whichever team doesn't win this division is without question immediately winning whatever tiebreaker they have when they get vaulted around the top 10. So for the New Orleans Saints right now, that is the number 12 spot. But this is a team like some divisions that we've seen in the past where you're either picking 19 and you're hosting a playoff game or you're picking nine in the top 10. So that's the big one to me because if the Saints cannot win this division this year, I mean, you're blowing it all up. You have to. I don't know how much you can get out of that Derek Carr contract.

That's the issue. But all the aging veterans, certainly I think a lot of guys on that coaching staff that have been around a long time, you are moving on from basically everybody that you possibly can they're in a horrible spot when it comes to the salary cap and they just put every they kick the can down the road even further to try to win the worst division in football and they couldn't even do that i think they're blowing it up if they can't do it this year they're just so boring right now right honestly they're just gonna be they shouldn't be they shouldn't be this isn't typically a very exciting franchise a lot of energy with the fan base they usually have a

really strong defense it's just man you look at the car contract there's just no way trevor there's no way like he's their quarterback next year i think so undoubtedly even look at the car contract. There's just no way, Trevor, there's no way like he's their quarterback next year. Undoubtedly, undoubtedly. Even look at he's there. He's their quarterback next year. I mean, it's,

there's no way the earliest is if you cut him post June 1st for the 2025 season, then you could save 40 million on the cap and you'll you'll eat the 5.7 and dead money like but like next year he's you can't cut him next year you can't so yes it's like the russ situation it feels exactly like the russ situation you just try to get the most out of it like sean payton's starting to do with russ but they don't have a sean payton anymore but that's why i think they i mean seriously like this snap is god the irony is there it's a man you know it's just it's the best drama on television it really is hey you know who the saints could really use sean payton sick world so yeah i mean that's that's kind of the the look out

from um from the top 10 the way that we see it now we're gonna get into some of the schedule because this is this is the main exercise when connor and i were talking about what we're going to do on monday we wanted to update the draft order but we also wanted to take a look at some pivotal points uh that can really affect this top 10 moving forward throughout the rest of the season before we get into that though you guys know what it is this time of year it's all about the routines. It's all about setting up the checklist. And to remind you guys, the most important task on that checklist should always be securing your family's financial future, starting with our friends over at Fabric by Gerber

Life. They make it quick and easy and affordable to protect your family so you can get back to enjoying life the right way. It was designed by parents for parents to help you get that high quality surprisingly affordable honestly term life insurance policies less than 10 minutes it's got flexible policies it'll fit your family's budget like quality policies that include a million dollars in coverage for less than a dollar a day you can get a personalized quote in just minutes when you apply anytime that it's convenient for you it's all online into your schedule. You can go from start to cover it in less than 10 minutes with no health exam required. You join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric by going to their website, meetfabric.com backslash NFL stock exchange. That's the way that you could do that to help out the podcast. If you guys happen to go

there, meetfabric, M-E-E-T fabric.com backslash stock exchange policies are issued by western southern life insurance company not available in certain states prices subject to underwriting and health questions connor i felt like the the best way to do this and you agreed when we were texting about it is to kind of go team by team like throughout the top 10 we're only going to do the top 10 because there's a little bit of overlap into some of those teams that are within the top 15 and the top 18 as well but best way to do this is go through the teams that are picking in the top 10 and identify one or two games throughout the rest of the schedule that are pivotal to their position in the draft whether it is hey if they lose this game they're pretty much going

to be a lock for a top five pick or whatever or we think or if they win this game like we saw with the Giants this past weekend all of a sudden you're talking about a completely different draft scenario so I'll start with the Panthers when you look at the Panthers they're sitting here one to ten they don't own the pick anyways but for the Chicago Bears sake what are the pivotal games here for this team I would think it's maybe that season finale at home against the Bucs. And it would take a lot of ways to get there. Like the Bucs at that point are checked out. Baker doesn't play. Maybe he's it feels like he's been playing through a lot of stuff this year.

Maybe he doesn't play. And the Panthers have, you know, an interim staff. It's like, hey, let's like, let's get one. I mean, this is the one where I'm the least confident. Out of all the teams we're going to talk about, maybe the Panthers win a second game this year, but they have no reason to. They're bad.

They have no coaches. So you could say most confident. You could say most confident. Most confident that they stay in this spot. Least confident that they get a win, and that's why they stay in that spot, which is great if you're a Chicago Bears fan because I,

I couldn't think of how, like there's no stress for you at all. Not to mention that you also have another first round pick. That'll probably be in the top 10 pretty easily. I just want to say, I think it's hilarious. The tankathon, when you look at their schedule tab,

the L the L's are in green and the W's are in red. Such a good touch from Tankathon. I do absolutely love it. So coming up, the Panthers do have the Buccaneers. It's in Tampa this upcoming weekend. So good. So it's Bucs and then it's Saints, Falcons, Packers, Jaguars, and then they end the season with the Tampa Buccaneers again.

I agree with you. When I look at their schedule, I think the most pivotal games are this one against Tampa this this week and then the one against Tampa to end the season those are the two big ones for me because I don't really see Carolina being at a point where they're even beating either of the two division teams I think the Packers are playing better and I think the Jags are a much better football team even though the Jags can sometimes throw a stinker out there. I don't think you have to worry too much about that. The Bucs are the team that I think that Tampa can basically lose to anybody at this point.

Not that they're horrendous as a team, but they can lose to anybody, I think. And with the Panthers just firing their head coach, do you get the interim head coach bump? The infamous interim head coach bump. And so I think every Bears fan is going to be cheering very hard for the Bucs this upcoming week. But those were the two for me. It's a relatively easy schedule.

I agree with you. There's not too much to be worried about, but those two games against the Bucs are the ones that definitely stand out the most to me. All right, So Arizona? Yeah. So Arizona, we've got at left, we've got at Pittsburgh versus San Francisco at Chicago at Philadelphia and then versus the Seattle Seahawks.

What do you got for the Cardinals? I mean, it has to be the Christmas Eve game against the Bears. Oh, it is christmas eve look at that yeah it's it's a christmas eve gem it has to be that one because i mean if i think chicago is going to win some games here but if you're arizona like you win that one do you flip do you go from like two or three and then outside of the top four? That would be my question where it's like, oh, this draft looks a lot different all of a sudden, like a lot different than what we were

initially doing there. And the thing with Arizona is. With Kyler Murray, like they can win any game. I don't think they're I think their schedule is pretty tough. Like it's going to be really tough against the steelers you don't have much of a chance against san francisco and the eagles and it's going to be tough against seattle but you can win you can steal one of those games and they absolutely can beat chicago so arizona i don't know if we looked up in arizona had four

wins i'd be like oh yeah that's not shocking since kyler came back yeah i agree with you i think the chicago game is the pivotal one the week 16 game so there's that's you know you get two games left after that it's philadelphia and seattle but the thing with arizona as well is that's a winnable game and you're you ain't gonna beat anybody when it comes to strength of schedule 0.558 that's the highest strength of schedule that we have in the top 15 right the only other team in the top 15 that has a strength of schedule higher than 0.558 is the cincinnati bengals and they're sitting at 15 right so you're not you're not beating anybody so all of a sudden like you know we've got a couple of bye weeks that make this a

little bit awkward right now but essentially if you give new england another loss because they're sitting here at two and nine new england's gonna jump the cardinals because their strength schedule is gonna be lower and they're gonna have the same record so that's where it gets real tricky for arizona and if they really want to have a situation like the Chicago Bears had last year where they get to trade the number one overall pick stockpile a lot of future first round picks and all that good stuff you gotta lose out because their margin for error is already razor thin since they have played an extra game and the Patriots right now once they get that extra game if it's a loss they're gonna tie them and them and they're going to jump them anyways. So those are, I agree with you that Chicago game

is the big one. If there's a game that they're going to win on that schedule, it feels like it feels like it's the Chicago game the most. Speaking of the Patriots, they're sitting here next. They got an extra game to play. So they got six left. chargers steelers chiefs broncos bills and then jets what about this schedule i mean you think right away the jets because the jets haven't beaten them since god knows when so oh when's the last time that happened it has to be 2015 the overtime game with fitzpatrick is that the last time it's gotta be it's gotta be no okay i'm looking this up keep talking so i mean and there is some irony to it right where you think about it and you go man watch the jets lose again in new england but for the first time it actually hurts new england it's one

of those where it's like they win the last game of the year and they don't get caleb williams or drake may it would be that would be really really ironic that one the jets haven't beaten the patriots in regulation oh yeah since since 2011 yeah since rex yikes i know it's dude it's wild that's tough so that's obviously number one solace solace got to get that he's got to get that dub we got yeah they might have rogers come out just to get that one off their back wheelchair rogers right they're just gonna send him out there. He snapped the ball and Brees Hall pulls the wheelchair back and turns it. No, actually, I take that back.

You'd have Dalvin Cook do that. Brees Hall is actually going to go run around or do something. Pony package. Dalvin wheels Rogers back and turns him whatever way the read is designed. Oh, my God. rogers back and turns him whatever way the reed is designed oh my god and he would have to throw more touchdown passes yeah than tim boyle so here's the thing go ahead go ahead go ahead i didn't mean to cut you off yeah it's okay i'm it's new england no matter how bad things look right now like let's not forget they have given at least the eagles and the dolphins a scare at a time this year if new england beat the chargers this sunday

i would be like sure sure oh yeah right it would be the most yeah brandon staley charger thing of all time i mean if they beat the steelers honestly honestly, this is crazy to me, Trevor. People will think it's not crazy to me. People will think this is crazy. The Patriots are picking third overall. They're two and nine. Everybody thinks they're going to be led by Drake Mayer, Caleb Williams to the future. I wouldn't be shocked if New England wins two to three more games this year. And I know they're dreadful. They're dreadful. But they play all of these ugly teams. The Chargers find ways to lose. They create ways to lose.

The Steelers, I don't know how they're getting away with this, but they are. The Broncos, okay, they've had a nice run lately, but we've seen them with their ugliest. The Patriots usually play the Bills actually pretty tough for whatever it's worth. And then the Jets, who they always beat. You're telling me New England's not going to win four games this year?

Maybe I'm totally scarred and burnt, and I'm the worst person to be talking about this because of my lifetime of the Jets losing the Patriots. But I still don't believe they were going to be picking in the top two or three in this draft. I don't. Oh, man. Yeah, this is a tough schedule when you look at it.

Yeah, it's ugly. And when I say tough, I mean easy. It's actually what I mean because I think that they can pick up wins. 100%. You know, I think them losing each of the last three weeks, I think, has been pivotal for them, right? It's been Washington, it's been the Colts, and it's been the Giants. Those are big losses.

Those are big losses for them. But basically, you look at the rest of their schedule, the only team that's a guaranteed loss for them is the you look at the rest of their schedule the only team that's a guaranteed loss for them is the chiefs that's it because i charge i agree they're gonna play down to their opponent or they have in the past patriots are on the hold on here the Patriots have three straight primetime games. The Pittsburgh game is a Thursday night game. The Chiefs game is a Monday night game.

And the Broncos game is a Sunday night game. We've got three straight weeks of Mac Jones under the lights. Or Bailey Zappi. Or Malik Cunningham. Or Malik Cunningham. Or you and me. It could be me and you in the dual quarterback system. It could.

Both of us back there, you know, hands up, ready to take the snap. It just fires straight in between us. And then by play three, you're literally pulling my wheelchair back. Oh, the turntables. This is tough. This is why I wanted to go through this exercise to take a look at the schedules because... They're a sneaky one. Yeah, I think the Patriots are...

You know, I talked about how if New England runs the table, and by runs the table, I mean runs under the table and doesn't get a single win, they will jump the Cardinals because of strength of schedule. But I think it's far more likely that New England actually has that extra win when it's all said and done, and it might not matter. Exactly.

Interested to hear how Patriots fans feel about where they currently are and how many wins they think their team's going to get. Realistically, you've got to be realistic here with the schedule the way that it is. Bears. Bears are the next team here. Yeah, the Bears have such a house money team, right? Minnesota. Yeah, 100%. Minnesota is a house money team, right? Minnesota.

Yeah, 100%. Minnesota is the team that they're playing on Monday Night Football when this episode is going to come out. So we'll see what the result is from that.

But then it's Detroit, Cleveland, Arizona, Atlanta, Green Bay. Go ahead. So why the Bears are a house money team? One, the Panthers stink. So you're probably picking

number one overall. Yep. So that's great. Number two, even if the Bears don't stink enough that their own pick ends up in the top five doesn't that you probably mean justin fields played pretty well down this stretch where his trade value then is enhanced they can't lose they can't lose we all think that they are going to take their own quarterback, number one overall, and restart this clock. But even if their own pick falls outside the top five,

I would think that's because of the play of Justin Fields, which means that his trade value is built back up. So you're either getting the number one overall pick and a top five pick and something for Fields, or you're getting the number one overall pick, a top 10 pick and something for Fields, or you're getting the number one overall pick, a top 10-ish pick and something better for Fields. Good living. As long as Ryan Pohl still has the job.

I mean, he's basically just been an NFL draft Twitter's dream over these last like three or four years. No, how long has he had a job? He hasn't had it that long. Well, he got it the year after Fields' rookie year. So this is his second year. I know. No, how long has he had that job? He hasn't had it that long. Well, he got it the year after Fields' rookie year, so this is his second year, full year. Oh, that's it? God.

I feel like we've been talking about Ryan Pulse for a long time. It really does. Time clock there is messed up. No, I agree with you. I mean, realistically, I think Minnesota should beat them. It's at Minnesota. Detroit should beat them, even though at Minnesota. And Detroit should beat them, even though it's a divisional game. But then you get into, dude,

Cleveland's up in the air with their quarterback situation. Arizona. Miles Garrett might be hurt. I actually think Arizona beats this team. I actually think on Christmas Eve, Arizona's going to win this game. I would agree. I can feel totally different in two weeks. I reserve the right to completely change

my mind, but as we're sitting here recording this podcast, I feel like Arizona's going to win it. Atlanta, they're going to play tough. It's going to be a coin flip game. And then at Green Bay to end the season, I feel like Green Bay always just has their number. So maybe two more wins for the Chicago Bears, which two more wins.

Yeah, I mean, you're flirting with it. You might not even be in the top 10 at that point. There's a chance. But they'll just still be the asset kings at that point. Yeah, no, there's no doubt about it. They absolutely will be. Before we get to the last half of the team's schedule to talk about, this podcast is brought to you by our friends over at PrizePix.

We do have an official PrizePix lineup for Monday Night Football, and we'll read that out just to give you guys an example. It's basically a multi-entry type of daily fantasy sports game where you get to put some skin in the game with multiple bets to get multiple whatever your entry is. So for this Monday night, to give you an example, the three official PFF picks were TJ Hawkinson, more than 63.5 receiving yards, Josh Dobbs, more than 33 passing attempts, oh, we're gunslinger tonight,

and then Greg Joseph, because we had to get a degenerate kicker one in there, more than 1.5 field goals made. So that is basically what it's like. That's an example of it. You're taking anywhere from two to six entries. You're combining it all into one bet, and you're letting it ride. Obviously, the more entries that you put on there, the better chance that you have to win more times your money.

But it's also really creative how Price Picks is doing this stuff. With basketball season here as well, now you can pick combo projections across both fantasy football and basketball in the special leagues tab. It's a league created specifically for combo projections that include one or more players from different sports or leagues for for an example you'd have lebron james and travis kelsey at a combined 10 and a half three-pointers made and receptions so it's just if you think that you are a swami

at multiple sports this is the way to do it. Okay. Price picks even offers a reboot policy. So your entry stay in the game, even if one of your players gets injured for football or basketball games, if you got a player who exits the game in the first half, doesn't return for the second half, that player is automatically rebooted. Price picks is the only daily fantasy sports platform with an injury insurance policy because they're the best. Go to pricepicks.com backslash NFLSC. Use the promo code NFLSC for a first deposit match up to $100. It's free $100 to play with, guys. Just go do it.

Again, it's pricepicks.com backslash NFLSC. Use the promo code NFLSC for a deposit match up to $100. If you guys have a creative combo sports bet, I want to see it. Tweet it at us. At Connor J. Rogers, at Tampa Bay Trey. Whether you hit it or not, I want to see it tweet it at us at connor j rogers at tampa bay trey if you whether you hit it or not i want to see some fun combined ones because like the lebron james travis kelsey thing that's a lot of fun to me so if you guys are playing send us a screenshot we'll shout it out on the podcast especially if you guys hit it so um pricebooks.com

backslash nflse that's how you get in on it washington commanders their next team here they're sitting at number five correct yep number that's correct they got miami the rams the jets the niners the cowboys let's see if you want a high draft pick and you're a commanders fan boy do i got good news for you because that is outside of playing the jets which is in is in New York. That's a tough one, Connor. Christmas Eve. But man, yeah, the Dolphins, you have the three of those five are the Dolphins, the Niners, and the Cowboys. You almost, the only scenario is if Dallas needed to rest their starters

the final game of the season. Right. Say like the Eagles clinch the division by then and dallas can't move their seating yeah so that's the only one of those three and then of course the the rams they've been a weird team this year but i don't think washington beats them but possible and the jets of course that's a winnable game the thing with the commanders is you have a young quarterback playing to retain his job you have no head coach you know you're going to be looking for a head coach they're they're a they're a team that i mean you obviously

want to be picking in the top five let I think the conversation with the commanders, Trevor, is let's say they pick top eight. Like, what is the... They're looking in that tackle range, right? That's what it is to me. I would think you're talking Joe Alt for them, and you're going to run it back with Sam Howell, and you're probably, unless you make an offensive hire,

going to keep the enemy, because the offense has done some things this year. Yeah. I mean, I've done a, I've done a handful of commanders mocks at this point and it's, I seem to gravitate towards offensive line with that first pick in the top 10 because yeah,

it doesn't feel like they're going to be picking high enough for either of those quarterbacks. And even though I do think the team is a lot closer to a rebuild than a, than a slingshot into another winning window, I don't think it's going to be like full-on panic, got to trade for a quarterback kind of a thing because I think Howell's been playing well enough. We'll see if that's still the case at the end of the year,

but I think they're going to rack up a lot of losses, if you will, and I think that this is a team that absolutely could end up with a top five overall pick. I think that Olufesanu, Joe Wall, any of those trench guys is going to absolutely be in play for Washington. The Giants, they're next. So the Giants have won the last two. They won against Washington and they won against Green Bay.

Or sorry, New England, which gets them this point. Picking at, oh shoot, what is it? Number six, number six. Got a lot of tabs open here folks Green Bay New Orleans Philadelphia the Rams and then Philadelphia again so there's reason to believe that the Giants don't win another one what do you think what's the status of Tyrod right now oh I don't know i thought it was tommy devito show moving forward is it not that's a good question i mean tie rod is gable's guy

that's true yeah it's a that's a good question um i wasn't even i was i honestly wasn't even thinking about tie rod i'm thinking about tierod cause I think that's a scary proposition. That's not a, uh, that's not a slight to Tyrod. I like Tyrod Taylor a lot. I just didn't, I thought it was going to be DeVito the rest of the way. Maybe. And whether it is or not, to me, the Eagles should be resting their starters the last game of the year.

And that's terrifying. That's terrifying. Like Jalen has clearly been playing through something this year. There's no chance he should be playing that game. Lane Johnson is always playing through something. I'm not playing A.J. Brown and Devante Smith. I'm not playing DeAndre Swift. I mean, they got a lot of veterans on defense.

That could look like a fourth, the third preseason game for the Eagles. Yep. Giants can win a game against backups. And I know the Giants are playing a lot of backups right now, but not all backups. And there's like friction between Dable and Wink, as Jake Lazor reported. So you have a Wink Martindale

that might be thinking I'm now auditioning for my free agency so he's going to be going all out no matter who the hell's out there Giants can win the last game of the season I don't think the Giants coaching staff can afford to not win games. With the way that this year has gone on, I don't know if they can afford that. Even with a vulnerable Eagles team that isn't playing starters, getting a win against Philadelphia, they're going to go all out for it. That is a sneaky one. I agree with you. Saints are a mess. We can go to the Bucs.

I was going to say, Saints are a mess too, so I think that any team that plays the Saints are a mess. Yeah. We can go to the Bucs. I was going to say Saints are a mess too so I think that any team that plays the Saints you can beat them but going over to the Bucs they play Carolina twice. It goes Carolina, Atlanta, Green Bay,

Jacksonville, New Orleans, Carolina. Every single one of these games is winnable. Yes. For this team. Yes.

Every single one of these games. The Bucs can win out. Don't say that to me. They realistically lose two of the six, but the Bucs to me are just screaming eight and nine.

No way. I think they win two of the last six. They're finishing eight and nine. They're beating the Panthers both times. Why do you hate me because i've lived this life what did i do it's not what did i do you got a hungry ass baker mayfield you got mike evans who just is always compiling six stats always shout out to him i mean that feels like a pivotal game that Arthur Smith lose.

Wait, does eight and nine get you in the playoffs actually in this division? I didn't think of that. If they get to eight, nine, they're winning the division. Hammer it folks. Bucks are winning this division. No, they're not going forward too. Don't say, don't do that. Get help from the jets.

The jets are going to upset the Falcons because the jets hate themselves too. Yeah. The bucks are winning this division. I've never been more certain. This is the schedule where I don't know what the hell is going to happen. Right. Every single game that they have moving forward is winnable. Every single game that they have moving forward is losable.

All of them. Well, they're not going to lose to Carolina twice, but they could sneakily lose to Carolina because of the new head coach thing this upcoming weekend. Oh, yeah. They do have the interim coach problem in front of them. That's a sneaky one. Do we know who is actually going to be leading the Carolina Panthers?

Because they fired everyone. Yeah, Chris Tabor, who is their special teams coordinator. And he's been a special teams coordinator in the NFL since 2008. So that's all he's been. So it's not like an up and coming like a zero ever wrote did not get named the interim for the second straight year where somebody got fired and everybody thought that he was going to get it so i wonder if he was again like he had in denver last year like no no i'm not dealing with this so tampa ultimately maybe

they they end up with three at three and three i think they're either winning two or three games down the stretch but that four and two bucks might win them the end if they're four and two there ain't nine they're in the division they're gonna host dallas in the opening round of the playoffs okay we're running out of time so this might this might this might be the last one here for us it's the jets i mean is is there a game on the schedule that could be a a just a crushing win for the new york jets yeah christmas eve against the commanders that's a good toilet bowl matchup like wheelchair rogers the jets notoriously ruin holidays notoriously i think butt fumble was thanksgiving I think. I still count this year.

They got blown out by Miami. They gave up the fail Mary to Javon Holland. That was day after Thanksgiving brother. Victor Cruz ended the Rex Ryan era on Christmas Eve with like a 98 yard touchdown to break their playoff hopes in 2011. The Jets ruin holidays. The only good holiday memory I ever have of the jets is i went to the bengals game that brad smith lost his cleat on a kickoff return uh they beat the bengals pretty well that year it was 2010 i want to say or 2009 but the jets they probably beat the commanders

to continue their tradition of ruining holidays if they're tanking well i mean so they go atlanta houston miami washington cleveland new england so those those last three games honestly will be the difference between picking in the top 10 or picking like 16 yeah and if rogers is back if the browns are so if rogers is back by end of december, they could win all three of those games. They certainly can. Just feasting on young quarterbacks. Yeah. Whew! It's going to be an exciting next six weeks.

Honestly, this is a fun exercise to do, even just for us to do. It was fun to research, fun to look forward to what some of the really, really pivotal matchups were for what is going to be the final draft order. We would love to hear from you guys as well. If you are a fan of one of these teams or just a fan of the NFL draft in general, tell us what your favorite storylines are moving forward for the NFL draft. It could be schedule

related. It could be where a team currently is, where you think they're going. Best way to do that, YouTube comment, youtube.com backslash NFL stock exchange. We're reading all those who responded to as many as possible. We love you guys for it. Thank you for always blowing up the chat. We feel like we consistently have over 100 comments, which is awesome. We love the community that you guys are building. It's really cool for us to get to have our finger on the pulse with you guys of the rest of the league and the teams that you really watch very, very closely. So this is a really cool way to be able to do that. If you are audio only, you can still hit us up at team of a trade at Connor J. Rogers on X, Twitter, whatever you're calling it, as well as Instagram. Thursday show.

It's already planned out. We don't have to dilly dally around about what we're going to do on Thursday. We're doing the picture franchise. We're starting. We are. That's exactly what we sound like. We were starting fix your franchise with the Carolina Panthers. I cannot wait to get to it

if you guys are new here on this podcast it is one of the favorite format series that we do here on this show it is a true deep dive we will get into what went wrong where the roster is potential free agents guys that they could sign in free agency guys that they might lose in free agency potential trade targets who they're going to get a head coach lots of head coach candidates and then finally we will have a three-round carolina panthers mock draft for you guys at the end of that episode we're going to do that for a lot of different teams try to do that for shoot as many teams as we possibly can before we get into january and february when things really start to kick up but uh that's coming on thursday connor you got anything else before we get out of here

uh don't twitter search cory perry that's all I'll leave us with today. Oh, no. We'll close the show there. Now I have to do it after this. What are you doing to me, dude? All right. Thank you guys so much. I clicked it. That's it for us.

We'll be back to fix the franchise. I'm Trevor Sycamore. That is Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. We'll see you on Thursday. Bye.