OverDrive - Harris on the Chiefs' ultimate prize, Allen's MVP season and the Eagles' team conundrum

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

Former NFLer, SiriusXM NFL and Westwood One Analyst Ryan Harris joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NFL, the Bengals and Cowboys' expectations, Josh Allen leading the MVP race, the Chiefs' successful run in the AFC, the Eagles' clash within the team and more.

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or visit askkelvin.ca former super bowl champion he's a great broadcaster now you can hear him on westwood one and serious xm ryan harris joining overdrive once again how are you ryan mark dave frankie great to be with you well it's great to have you i don't know how much you heard us talk about the block punt but I gotta think when you see a mistake like that that the Cowboys made I feel bad for Oruwariye

because here's a guy that he could get cut today because of something like that you never want to see that happen but it's a huge blunder that decides the game from your perspective as a former player and now a broadcaster, what's going through your mind when you see something like that i just hope that young man has a process for failure has a support group around him that doesn't lie to him about it i mean you know frankie will tell you too you make

a mistake in a game half your family's gonna be like oh it wasn't your fault this isn't it's so easy to to go down that road but the But the truth is you have to be accountable. You have to have a plan. Nobody likes hearing, oh, I'll be better next time. Like, how? Give me some kind of tangible thing you're doing. And, you know, also those things happen. So I think that, you know, my immediate thought is I hope he has a process for failure,

which we all should, and that he's got a great support group around him. Again, we all should have that. And provided he has that, he'll have another opportunity. It sucks in the moment, but he's not the only player that made a mistake on that field. So now the Cowboys and the Bengals, both 5-8 on the season, when you look back and think about the way things have gone for both these teams,

is there one that sticks out as the bigger disappointment so far this year yes the bangles i mean look i love you cowboys fans but you haven't had anything to cheer about in the playoffs for the last 20 years right that's the truth so that hurts mark's heart a little bit by the way well you Hurt's heart has been hurt by Jerry Jones more than me. But I just think the Bengals are in that rare window. You've got star receiver, star quarterback, and they just weren't able to get it done. I mean, Joe Burrow might have the best stats for a quarterback this season, and he's not going to the playoffs.

Jamar Chase has won more fantasy football leagues than any other player in the NFL, right? But they're not going to the playoffs. So the biggest disappointment is how are the Bengals unprepared? I mean, you even had one of their guys on defense was leading the NFL in sacks. I think he still is. It's not Hawkinson, Henderson. That's what it is.

Henderson's leading in sacks. You've got the sack leader, the receiving leader receiving leader and the passing leader you can't win games so that's where the glue guys come into place and clearly the bangles do not understand that you need a full roster for a full season to compete for the playoffs and defensively as you saw last night i mean there are too many holes for that team to consistently win. Ryan, we were talking earlier in the show about the NFL MVP. As we head into the stretch run of the season here, the debate rages.

Josh Allen, obviously, is having a hell of a year. And then there's Saquon Barkley, who the New York Revenge sort of narrators want to say, hey, this guy is carrying the Philadelphia Eagles in a way that running backs don't carry NFL teams. How do you feel about that whole idea that the NFL MVP is essentially a quarterback's award, and what do you make of Barkley's chances here

in the last few weeks of the season of disrupting that tradition? I think the MVP rightfully goes to quarterbacks because, you know, they're touching the ball every single play. Their play directly impacts the game in a way that even a running back or receiver does not. But I think for Saquon Barkleyley look the behind the curtain here guys there aren't a lot of people that believe in his success long term i mean i think this is his fourth or only fifth

uh thousand yard season which yeah that's a lot i think this is fourth right now currently this is a player who's had multiple years in the nfl injuries have been an issue um you know a lot of players 95 99% of players show up when you have OTAs and things like that. Some of that wasn't on him at the Giants, but it also has an effect. He has a lot of

work to do, I think, to repair the perception of him in the NFL. Everybody's happy for him. Everybody said, wow, at the big play when he jumped over backwards. And, you know, 30 kids have probably already twisted ankles trying to do that, jumping into couches at home. But at the end of the day, it's the quarterback that dictates the success. The quarterback in the key moments has to do everything right, even as you saw with the

Lions and the Packers, right? Like Jared Goff had to get the ball there even though he was down, right? So you need that quarterback in each and every play. And a lot of fans miss how much simple run play to the right. A quarterback is sprinting to try and meet that running back. And there's a lot that goes into that position, including people trying to break your sternum each and every play. Well, and normally if you're the quarterback of a 12-1 team, you would think the MVP is a slam dunk for Patrick Mahomes,

and yet the way that they're winning games has been a bigger story than their record. Does their history of winning the last couple of Super Bowls give you a little bit more confidence that this won't be an issue in the playoffs and they'll be able to go on another run? A thousand percent. LeBron James should win the MVP in the NBA every year. We agree, right? And there's no player bigger, better than him. I mean, I'm here in Denver and yeah, we love Nicole

Jokic and in a game of one-on-one, it's not even close. Patrick Mahomes is the man. And let's be clear, a lot of this, you you know they're not the same team what you have a problem with the way they win well they don't have time to talk to you about that problem that you have and consider if you're the president or the gm of another team even in the division and you're asked about the chiefs you're not going to give glowing reviews you're going to say things like wow they're really lucky to be, what is it now, 10-1? You know what I'm saying? Like, wow, you know, Patrick Mahomes really isn't looking the same way.

They have to say that for their own benefit because they need to carry on any kind of hope that no matter what they do to get to the playoffs, it's going to be worth it. Here's the truth. It's not. You're talking about a team who last year travis kelsey had two catches in the first half and ended with double digit catches in a touchdown i think it might have two right they know how to play the game and frankie will tell you i mean there's there's a way to play three periods and there's a way to win a game in overtime and the chiefs know how to win in

overtime every time they don't panic they've been down in two of the three Super Bowls in the fourth quarter that they've won, right? I mean, this is child's play to them. I mean, did anybody else not like how Tom Brady won during the regular season? Did we have those conversations? Because I don't remember them, and they shouldn't be had regarding the division champion and Super Bowl defending the Kansas City Chiefs. Like, That's the thing about those kinds of teams. If you're playing against them and you're on the opposite side and it's close, it's almost already in the back of your head where you're like, these guys, they just kind of have the secret sauce

where if you're one of those teams that maybe struggles with that, you're almost defeated before you get there. The season has gone on here, and I feel like there's been some great stories. There's also been some teams that have been overlooked from the national kind of scale, even up here in Canada. I think the Vikings are one of those teams where they very... It seems like very quietly just gone about their business

and all kinds of great offensive weapons, but then you bring in Sam D sam darnold and it's like this guy just fit right in right away um like i don't know what have you made of the vikings and are we talking about them enough or do we talk about them just enough well you're talking about them in the division with the lions right that's the first thing you got to understand and let's be clear, the Lions will be hosting playoff games, right? So they've got to go win in Detroit with the noise and a crowd that literally, I think, 30% of Lions fans have already purchased tickets to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

They're going, right? It's not a surprise, though, guys, about Sam Darnold's success. Look, Brian Greasy's not getting enough credit, quarterback coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Not only does he have Brock Purdy playing well, but I got the call the preseason game last year where they had Sam Darnold play. He's a totally different player. He's making quick decisions.

He's staying in the pocket. He's not panicking. I mean, Brian Greasy deserves all the credit of what we see now from Sam Darnold. And, yes, it helps to have Jamar Chase, sorry, not Jamar Chase, the other LSU receiver, Justin Jefferson, but you have to have the ability in that position to understand the game. And he currently is playing like the best quarterback to ever come out of USC in this season.

So the Vikings are a dangerous team to play in the regular season, but when it gets to the playoffs, every team is different on the road in a dome, and that's where they will be playing in the playoffs. So speaking of two playoff teams playing in a dome at 425 p.m. Eastern this Sunday, it's the Lions and the Bills. Which team does this game mean more to? It means more to the Bills because of the fact that Josh Allen is trying to put on a dominance tour

that nobody is buying tickets to yet. And by the time everybody gets there at the AFC Championship game, it's going to be too late. He beat the Chiefs in the regular season. And I said the regular season. He knows he has to beat them again. But he's putting a beat down to Iran this season. He's doing it with less talent that he had on the roster last year.

And he's doing it in a way with the fewest interceptions he's ever had in his career. He has turned the corner. And for him and the Bills, it's proof yet again. What it is is this is probably in the Detroit Lions the best team in the NFC. Let's beat them so we know we can win the Super Bowl once we beat the Chiefs in the playoffs. So it's more important to the Bills.

The Lions are fun to watch. Everybody's rooting for them. Everybody likes Dan Campbell. He's also going to be the reason why they lose in the playoffs at a key point, as he was last year. I mean, just think about the game against the Packers. Everybody wants to talk about why are you going for it on fourth down five times in a game? What's happening on first, second, and third down?

And to do that, to make that gamble, to run it on fourth and short and then the final play to make sure because you're scared of Jordan Love, I mean, those kinds of things are going to come to get you. And not to mention the one earlier, I think it was the end of the third quarter, they did it on like fourth and two in their own territory. So the Lions are, in my opinion, are not ready to win because of the decisions the coaches make. But make no mistake

the bills can win a super bowl this year well what do you make of the eagles chances to win uh ryan given the fact that hey they've won nine straight games here they're 11 and 2 and yet there's still some weird vibes coming out of that locker room you know aj brown's postgame comments talking about how the passing game is not on the same page seemingly a shot at jalen hurts obviously we talked about saquon barkley and the running game really carrying that team what do you make of the friction there between a couple of the wide receivers and the quarterback and and do you think that can can hurt this team long term or is this just normal normal sort of dressing room banter? This is the result of a coach that players do not have the most respect for. I mean, no one's going to take away what the Eagles have done.

You mentioned their 11-2 record. But this is a team in the NFL that probably has the best leadership in terms of Jalen Hurts and other players. And what does it sound like if a player is calling out a coach in a post game? Right? That's what it sounds like, right? Hey, we're not on the same page. And what that means is when we're calling the pass, how we're calling the pass.

Are we calling on a 39? Are we calling a pass play that has three routes breaking at five yards? We're not trying, boys. I mean, that's what that sounds like. So what you're hearing and what's happening at the eagles and for my opinion on the outside looking in are talented players who know their coaching staff are not making the right decisions and everybody knows they're running out of time to get that fixed because once you get in the playoffs i mean

you're going to start seeing thrown helmets and people grabbing each other if it doesn't get fixed well uh given the fact that we are at December 10th right now, it gets better week in and week out with the NFL as we get closer to the playoffs. Ryan, you're always great when you join us here on Overdrive. We appreciate you taking some time to chat with us. Thanks, guys. Go Irish. You have it. Brian Harris.