OverDrive - Willson on the Commanders and Packers' showdown, Purdy's injury timeline and Hayes and Bro's pick

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

TSN NFL Analyst Luke Willson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NFL, players signing autographs for fans in the league, Brock Purdy's injury for the 49ers, the Thursday Night Football matchup between the Packers and Commanders, Hayes and Bro's pick and more.

With a Subaru, a vehicle that's built to last come standard. Heated front seats? Standard. High ground clearance? Standard. Eyesight driver assists to help spot the scooter delivery guy texting, merging, and eating all at once? Standard! Parallel parking perfectly while someone watches? Uncommon. But in a Subaru? Standard-ish.

Subaru. Uncommon come standard. Hurry into your local Subaru dealership today for lease rates from 1.99% for 24 months on select models and get great value that, you guessed it, come standard. Conditions apply. See dealer for details. Josh stares down the business end of his baby brother as he takes the reins on diaper duty. But Josh comes prepared with a diaper change tutorial. The video stream fast and strong.

The baby stream contained. Yes, when the Harmon switched to Bell Pure Fiber Internet, they wondered why they didn't sooner. Experience proven reliability with Bell Pure Fiber Internet, Canada's fastest awarded by Ucla. Switch today. Plans starting at $60 a month with a two-year term. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, Internet, just got better. Hit you smell!

What the, Owen Wilson is cooking. Just got hit with that. It sucks when it goes the other way, man. I hate, I hate getting hit with the rock music, the Owen Wilson music. Do you have any ticket stubs from when you played in a Super Bowl? I do. I was listening in there, and it's kind of funny timing. This year, I'm trying to become a little more professional on my own,

at home set up so I went home to Windsor and my mom's got a treasure trove of memorabilia and she goes why don't you bring up your Super Bowl autograph ball and I go man I forgot about that thing she goes you forgot about it and she goes check it out she was really quite nice but she had

kind of a thing made where one of the tickets from the Super Bowl is also in the frame so I've got like the team signed ball and then one of the it's actually quite a nice ticket as you would imagine the tough part is as I was slipping through the next year's

Super Bowl tickets were also in this treasure trove and you just see it and any time I see that stuff I just want to puke you know just give it to Marshawn God I can't even stand to look at that trust me Partsy it gets you get to a point

when you get older you just start looking at stuff and you're like I'm glad I kept that my wife doesn't want to see it in the living room or in the basement so you just get to a point where you're like what What am I going to do with this? Totally, totally.

The funny one for me is, and this is like the lowest level, but as I was flipping through this, I played in extended spring with the Jays one year, and I wore number 86, and I was like, and I don't tell a ton of people this. Not many people know I was a bit of a baseball guy. So I'm like, what is this? And my mom goes, it's your jersey when you played with the Jays. I was like, what? I didn't even know I got to keep this thing.

And it's, I mean, it's not, again, it's like the. lowest level of the minor leagues the bottom of the basement. So it's not a very high A ball? We're talking A ball? Way less. It's below Rookie League. It's like the guys that don't get to go to Rookie League. What's the league that

Manoa went and pitched at? The California, what was that? Florida Complex League. Yeah, but I'm like, dude, I got my Jay's jersey, man. I was pretty jazz about that. So you're going Dionne Sanders back in the day. Yeah, except nine minor league teams below Deion Sanders.

Okay. Well, like, I don't know why I had never thought of this, but you played against Peyton Manning and Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. I remember Hayes going into the second Super Bowl, and it was a bit of a weird, it was such a different shift because the first one, Peyton in that offense had set every record. They still have a bunch of offensive records, and it was like, man, we're going up against juggernauts. They were loaded, and then the next one, obviously we won that one, not that Tom Brady

wasn't loaded but, you know, on paper, New England was not as good as Denver. But the whole thought process was, you know, Bill has this team really dialed in. They're extremely well coached, and obviously they're a great football team. So, but I remember going in thinking to myself, like, man, my first two years in the league, we're about to knock off Peyton Manning in year one in the Super Bowl and Tom in year two. Wow. What a legacy, man. What a legacy. Yeah. And then when we were on the one yard line, I also vividly remember being like we've won. Like we've got, I was in the huddle and I'm like, dude, we're going to

call this goal line play, put Marsha, I think I've told you guys this, put Marshawn a fullback, because we had a goal line play where Marcia would go to fullback, and I didn't really have to do much. I'm like on the outside, and then we got in the huddle, first the personnel, I'm like, oh, we're not doing that, and then, yeah, we all know what happened, but

man, well, what's the, because you see it in the NFL a lot where players will ask, you know, the legends for autographs after a game. Yeah. What do you think Peyton Manning would have said if you went up to him after you smoked him in the Super Bowl and asked for like an autographed football or something?

You think you would have done it? Right after he probably would have punched me in the head and like rightfully so. Rightfully so. You go through the trainers, man. You don't go up to the player. And that's very similar in the NFL is it's like one of those things. If it's like your college buddy or something like that, it's different. But if you're like, hey, I really would like to get this signed by Peyton.

you know, that's one of those where you find someone who knows Peyton or, like, coached him or that Peyton's connected to, and at whatever moment in the future that Peyton decides, if he decides, you will then be given an autograph, whatever,

from Peyton Manning. Right. Because, yeah, Brady famously, I guess, at the end of his career, was just signing every day. And those were his teammates coming over saying, hey, you know, rookies. It is awkward. Like, when we were winning, it's like, you know, you're going, you're involved in some local charity or fundraiser or whatever,

and it's like, hey, can you go get Russell Wilson to sign this football? And you're like, dude, it's not, it's like there's a different relationship between, I'm not a kid, you know, right? It's like, hey, can you get Marchion? And I'm like, I used to tell people, and I love Marchon, and I got a good relationship, but I'm like, absolutely not. There's no world in which I am going up to Marchon in asking for his autograph. I won't subject myself to that. What would he say to you? I can't repeat it on here.

But, I mean, you just immediately become like the butt of the most absurd joke. And probably for the whole week, he's ragging on you about being, like, what are you a fan? Like, oh, like, sure, it's a charity. And Marshaun was quite clever. Again, I love the guy. But he was known, as he still kind of is, for being, like, aggressively offside in his joking manner. And I'm like, I can't. I can't put myself through a week of torment.

Like, I'll get you Russ. Right. Gus Baldwin, Doug Baldwin's great. You know, but now I'm not going to Marchion. I'm not doing that. You didn't have the relationship with those guys. Like, you're sitting on the plane with these guys. Like, to me, I play with lots of superstars, like, lots of Hall of Famers.

Like, Brett Hall comes to mind in St. Louis. Like, everywhere we went, Brett Hall was being asked for autographs. And I remember we. We were in Ottawa one time, and there was a bunch of Brett Hull jerseys on the table. So somebody had laid them out, and they said, Holly, can you sign these? Mark Bergevin grabbed one of them and went to Rudy Postcheck, our tough guy, and said, hey, can you sign on the six really big here? A fan asked me to do that.

And so Rudy Postcheck signed a Brett Hull jersey, giant. Ruined the whole thing. What the hell is it? Burge was dying in the background. But it's like those types of things, like I feel like if you have a relationship with these people, they'd be like, all right, yeah, I'll sign them for you, whatever you need type of thing. But there's certain guys, I guess you just don't approach. Yeah, that was it.

And noodles, I don't know if you ever played with anyone like this, but there's, I would say 90% of the guys like Russ. If you ever asked them to sign anything immediately right away, signed everybody pretty much. But there's a few guys that they just weren't big autographed guys to begin with. And I think part of it was like there was this world where it. it's like, hey, if I don't sign anything, my autograph becomes more valuable. And at that time in Seattle, too, because we were winning, guys are getting paid absurd amounts to be like, hey, show for an hour and sign autographs. And there was a thought process in the locker room that if you didn't sign anything,

and your autograph was so exclusive, these appearances would go through the roof. And I remember, and I'm not, this is my guy, so I'm not going to actually throw him under the bus here, but I remember the one year in Hawaii. Russ, we had just lost a Super Bowl, and Russ was like, listen, we've got to cleanse this thing. I think he was working with Alaska Airlines at the time. He's like, I've got us a flight, bring your significant other. We're going to spend a week in Hawaii before offseason starts,

and we're going to throw the football round, work out, do that whole thing. So we land in Hawaii, and he's got a dinner set up, and it's in a room, but it's kind of open to the public. He's flipping the bill for all of us? No, the plane, yes, but the, like, everything else, you're on your own. But we get into this room and everybody's there on our team. And this is not

a Marshawn story. Marshawn actually was the one guy that wasn't there. But let's just say a member of the Legion of Boom is in there. And a dad comes in with his kid. And he goes, in the traditional line, he goes, you know, I hate to do this to you guy and he's

being polite. We all know he's going to ask for it on him. And he's with his kid. Right. And this guy stands up and just starts screaming at the dad. That don't do it then don't do it and there's like it's the classic line party when the guy comes up in the middle

of dinner and you're eating he goes I really hate to bother you during while you're eating it's like no you don't man you don't hate it that much right so he's screaming at him and he's yelling and he's like you're not sorry and the kids there and there's all of us that are awkward and then of course

what gets strange is then when the dad turns around with his kid dejected Russ steps in and goes, I'll sign the jersey. And this is off the back of, we just threw a pick on the end of the Super Bowl, three months, whatever, two and a half months earlier. There's a lot of animosity between the defensive guys and Russ and all the offense at this point. We're supposed to be in Hawaii to bury this hatchet, and that's how the trip started.

Let's just say it didn't get much better after that. That's awkward, man. That's really, really awkward. And Russ, of course, steps in. I'm on my own here with Luke Wilson ahead of the Thursday night or tonight before we get to that, Brock Purdy

out upwards of two to five weeks George Kittles on the IR like they survived in Seattle. I have no idea how they won that game. Yeah, Seattle puked. Seattle puked all of themselves. You look at, I will say this, the unsung hero of the Niners Seahawks game

was Robert Sala. Yes. Like say what you want about Robert Sala and his time in the Jets, but you look at, I think they held the Seahawks of 3.2 yards per carry, and this is a new offensive line. They got two stud backs. Kubiak, the O.C. for Seattle, is a run-first guy. And then Sam Darnel was held to 150 passing yards. I want to say 127 of them.

He's either 24 or 127 was to J.S.N. So they basically, one guy caught the football. Robert Salah had the boys kick in. They haven't said the big turnover late. But I am, I had a, Dan Fran in my top. kind of flirting around, but, you know, six, seven, put them in there somewhere. I get nervous, and I'm going to float something out here, boys, and I talked about it on Jay last night. If I am Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch right now, I'm giving Mack Jones one week, that's it. Because the window is very, very, very narrow for this San Fran team.

It's a very thin roster. They have a ton of good players, but it's thin. It's not the teams that had a ton of money to spare them. pass. I'm giving Mac Jones one week and if he doesn't look good or if he doesn't find a way to win on to the next guy.

I'm calling Atlanta right now and be like, I don't care what it costs. Give me Kirk Couss. Give me Kirk Cousins. Give me Kirk Cousins. They're saying it might be five weeks. Yeah, that's a long time. And in that division, it's going to be tight. Like Seattle will be good this year. Arizona, I think, is still four, but they

won last week. Grant it was against the Saints. But L.A. is really good. They were great last year. Yeah. It's going to come down to one or two games in that most likely one game. Guys are going to beat each other. It's a very, very even division. And I just sit there and I'm like, there's not, like, McCaffrey is great.

And he looked unbelievable in week one. But he's obviously in the load management world. You know, he's not practicing anymore as much as he was back in the day. He's got the injuries. You know, how long is his body going to hang in there? Personally, I hope it hangs in. I love watch guy. I hope it hangs in for another 10 years.

Right. But it's like Trent Williams is what, 38? Now he still look good, but like he's 38 years old. Kiddle is getting up there in age, and he's got some injury stuff. Like the window is this year, in my opinion. Yeah, no, I agree with that. I think they're in tough, man. I really, really do.

Even with a healthy party, I thought they were in tough. Go get Mac Jones. Excuse me, if Mac Jones, I'm giving Mac a shot for sure. Yeah. And even if he looks good and something happens, you know, they lose a tight one, but hey, he played really well, obviously stick with him. But if he comes out here and lays an egg, I think you've got to call Kirk Cousins. Well, I mean, that's the story of seemingly every division in the NFC.

Maybe the South, notwithstanding, where I think Tampa's like a clear-cut favorite there, and I think they end up winning that. But the East, you know, the commanders are going to be fighting with the Eagles all year. The Eagles have a tough game at Kansas City this week. We'll get to that tomorrow. But it's a big game. Al's brother was texting me earlier that the commanders haven't won at Lambo since 1986. and like Green Bay

I thought they meet well we'll get to that in a moment but I thought Green Bay made the biggest statement arguably the biggest statement of week one yes and it's a short week I like Green Bay a lot tonight but it's I think it's a big win for both teams

like a big big big game this early in the season considering the jockeying a position that is anticipated totally and that's what's kind of fun about the NFC this year is I still think Philly is like the clear-cut one seed of the NFC, I'm talking about. But you said it.

You know, the commanders are right on their heels. If Philly has, goes into a little rut, the commanders are going to be there. And you look at Green Bay, I totally agree. They definitely made the biggest statement last week because it was such a physical beatdown of Detroit, who is a physical team. But Minnesota in that second half looked good. Brian Flores had the defense running all over the place. Now granted Caleb Williams missed some throw. There's a lot of questions there.

But as we saw last year, it took 15 wins to win that division last year. 15 wins, and it was week 18 until it was clinched. And I'm not saying that'll happen again. But I'm going to say 14, probably at minimum 14 does it? That's my guess. I shouldn't say minimum, but 13 for sure. Yeah, 13 and 4 for sure, man. So it's like if you slip up here at Green Bay and grant it's a great team,

but you're at home, it's a Thursday. I do think you're better than Washington. You slip up here, it's going to, it could potentially cost you. It just makes things very, very tough. Absolutely. There he is. My Pardsey, absolutely on fire to start the season. He's seeing the board.

He's seen the moon readings. He's had one of the great off seasons in the history of professional sports preparing for this year. Great to see you, Parsi. How you doing? I'm doing well. I got to address something. something, though, before we get on to the pick. Something just happened here on the show that made the three of you.

Maybe I'll even include Luke, because he didn't flinch either. Look like a couple of old boomers so out of touch with the youth. This man just hit you guys with a 6-7, and not one of you two did one of these. Not one of you two. Do any of you three know what that means? No idea. None. I got no clue.

Luke, do you know what the 6-7 is all about? Ask your kids. You guys got to ask your kids. I don't know what it means. My kid's age, what the hell's he going to do? Yeah. I guarantee you, I guarantee you they all know. If you tell them 6, 7, they'll all do this to you.

Six, seven. I guarantee it. Okay. What's the background? I'm not going to go ask my kid will run. What the hell is it? What is it? It's from some song, I guess.

I can't remember which rapper it was. He doesn't even know. You don't even know what you're talking about. I don't know. No one knows. I didn't know that I had asked my brother. Listen, who's the dumbest thing I've ever said. I don't even know what you're talking about.

I'm completely. lost. Who said the word 6-7? We're boomers now, Al's brother, because we don't know some stupid rap song? That's kind of what it means. I'm telling you. That's what I'll be kids are doing. Anytime someone says 6-7, it's like 6-7.

I couldn't be happier to be considered a boomer if that's what I'm missing out on. I'm happy to miss out of it. The favorite parties, he's like, all you boomers missed it. You're like, what is it? Well, I really don't know. Okay, well, then you're one, too. I'll be honest. The funny part is, brother.

This is the first time I've been called a boomer, and I'm pretty hurt right now. I don't know. It hurts. It hurts. Anyway, else, brother, putting that aside, thank you for coming. I'm just going to let you know there's no way you're making the right pick. Parts, you listen to these guys? They're in shambles. I'm scared of where their headspace is at, kind of hopeful. What do you guys got? Well, speaking of boomers, like, that's all the Washington defense is right now.

They're a bunch of boomers that are way too old, way too slow, and they're not going to be able to catch up to this Packers' offense. Like, I feel really good, Hazie B, taking your pack tonight. laying the three. It's a shift back down to three. For a little bit, it was sitting at three and a half. It's back down to three. I love it. It was two and a half. Doogie? If it's two and a half, doogie, go ahead. I looked about 30 minutes ago, and it was back down to three, and I love it at three.

If it's at two and a half, this is an absolute steel. It's at three right now on fans. We're locking in at three, boys. Three. Oh, I love it, too. We just, we found a half points since we agreed on the Packers hours ago. Exactly. I love it, I love it. And you talk about it. Going into LAMBO on a short week, I don't like their chances. Like you mentioned, the commanders haven't won at LAMBO since 1986. It's eight years before I was born.

Who cares? It's irrelevant. It's completely irrelevant. First of all, the commanders weren't even a team back then. They were called something else. Bad mojo. Listen, we don't care about 1986, man. What are you a boomer?

We care about right now. That is a boomer take-off. Well, right now, you look at that Packers' offense, and it's clicking. and that defense might be even better. They added Micah Parsons. They had 16 pressures on Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions last week. 16 pressures. That's a pretty good offensive line.

You've got to give them that type of credit, Luke. And if they can do the same thing, pressure Jade Daniels tonight, I believe that he'll kind of scramble a little bit, and they've got the athleticism on defense to keep up with them. I think three is an easy cover for the matter. I like it. Lock it in Packers minus three. And this is paying a lot of respect to the commanders

because of what they did last year, they deserve it. They beat the Giants, man. The Giants. Brian Dable and Russ Wilson signing autographs in Hawaii, you know, the Giants are so bad. It doesn't even count. Packers beat the lions at home and dismantled them. How this line is in 4, 4.5 is beyond me. It makes me almost nervous.

I totally agree. What does Vegas know or Fandole know that we don't? I'll tell you what they know. Go ahead. Somebody on Green Bay is going to show up and spit on J.D. and Daniels before a snap count. Yeah, that could be it. Mike is coming in and is going to spit.

He's getting tossed in the game, and this line's going to get a little funky, boys. I guess you could be on to something. But even Parsons, I think, gets more snaps. Yeah, you know, he's 20. He's 20. He's 20 last week. He'll probably get into 40s this week. Big opportunity for them.

They're at Cleveland next week, and then at Dallas, then they hit a buy week. If I'm Lafleur, you don't want to, you know, put the car before the horse, but you should be looking at 4-0 hitting a buy week here. and in order for that happen, they've got to win tonight. I think they win by, I wouldn't be shocked if they won by a touchdown tonight. I'll be honest, this year, in case you haven't been able to tell boys, I've decided to really embrace a little more professionalism. You know, instead of just absolutely running my mouth against you two numpies, if I will,

I'm going to be nice about it, all right? So I do think last week you guys made some good picks. I'm being professional about it. I would pick Green Bay. I would. I think it's a layup. pick. But my butt here would be, I do think it'll be tougher

this week this Thursday than what the Lions presented them. From a film standpoint, I thought the Lions' defensive coordinator, Kelvin Shepard, made things way too easy on Jordan Love. I don't expect Dan Quinn to make things so simple and be like, hey, just, you know, we're going to play press

man on 3rd and 10. That's not really a thing. That's not really a thing very often and did not even hide it or disguise it. I think the, and I don't think the Lions have the back end to do that either, which was a bit surprising. Pardsey, do you think love is the real deal? Do you think it was just an incredible draft at the timing when they did it with

Roger's still there and to develop him? And do you think it's so worth it and he's going to be that guy? I think he's got the ability. Like last week, there were some moments in that first half where I was like, holy smokes, this guy's cooking, like everything he did from a decision. Decision standpoint, I thought was spot on, right on it. Bam, bam, bam. But then when I went back and kind of replayed it and buzzed it,

I'm like, yes, it was great and he had some great perfect moments. But I'm telling you, I was like shocked on how basic and simple, you know, Kelvin Shepard, the D-Corporner for the Lions lined up. And I'm like, dude, I don't know, this isn't the Legion. You don't have the League. I'm not saying they're bad, but it's not the Legion of Boom. But the Lions' back end is not, you know, some just disgustingly talented secondary. And I'm like, how can you line your guy?

I thought he was sewering his own guys talking about the Lions' defensive coordinator. So I think that there'll be a different plan for Jordan Love today. I am very interested to see how he handles that. The other one that's a bit weird. Again, I would have went with Green Bay. I'm being honest. I'm being professional. But Debo Samuel last week

looked like he turned the clock back. Yeah, it looked pretty good at times. And with Kingsbury and what he's able to do, if you can get scary, Terry going, obviously Jane Daniel is a dual threat guy, you know, if you can have that gadget guy in Debo, that can present some problems. So hopefully, for our sake, you know,

the commanders can somehow lose by less than three points. Okay. Yeah. Listen, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a good game, you know, like a one possession game. I just feel like the Packers get it done in the end. And, you know, in terms of defending Green Bay, they don't have like a conventional number one option, certainly not at the wide receiver position. Jacobs is probably their most dangerous offensive weapon inside of Jordan Love, but he didn't do much last week. Is it Golden? Is it going to be Wix?

Is it Reed who's banged up? Is it Dobbs? You know, Watson's not even playing. So they try to spread it out. And if they're all healthy and Love is moving the ball around, that makes it difficult to cover. Yes. That's what they're planning on here.

The key is in an offense like that, Hayes, your quarterback needs to take the matchup and take what the defense gives you. Right. It's like one of those things where there's kind of two schools of thought in this league. You have your big star, whoever that is, and you say, okay, I'm going to throw to this guy until they shift coverage or they developed this whole plan, and then that should open somebody else out, which clearly the Packers don't go that route. But the key for Jordan Love is, okay, I know the strengths of Golden. I know the strength of Romeo Dobbs, you know.

I know strength of Jayden Reed, understand the route concept, be able to identify what coverage is going. and being like, who is my best option here? And I thought you did a great job at last week. But the onus now falls a lot on Jordan Love more so than the receivers. Absolutely. All right, the picks in. Lock it in. Hazen, bro.

Taking the Packers, minus three. I love it, Alice, brother. We're rocking, man. Outside of that weather delay, which was completely bogus last week, we're 3 and O. We're perfect. Everyone knew the Eagles. We're going to cover that spread. That should have been a protest game.

It should have been. I try and extend an old branch talking about professionalism. We had the call of the night Monday night. A rookie quarterback, a rookie quarterback, we've never been seen. And these guys want to sit here and say there should be 3 and O. The Bears will be no kudos from these guys. The Bears will be. They have no class, that's why.

No class. I agree. We're a dynasty. Dynasty continues, Al's brother. Great seeing you boys. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll catch you guys tomorrow. There they are. Luke Wilson and Al's brother joining us.

Hayes and Bro on the Packers. in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now, learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love, on IHartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.