The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Are Both NY Teams Actually Good?! Plus: Belichick's UNC Drama & Week 1 Overreactions (Feat. Gregg Rosenthal)
Episode Date: September 18, 2026Sixty minutes are in the books, and the NFL landscape is already pure chaos! Are the Jets and Giants both actually competent? Is it time to panic about the vaunted Texans defense after giving up 36 po...ints to Josh Allen and the Bills? Plus, we dig into Bill Belichick’s second chapter at UNC, the Patriots’ continued struggles, the sleep-drunk Rams, and the total power outages plaguing the Chargers’ offense. To make sense of the opening-week fallout, our friend Ten Day Tony joins our show along with the great Gregg Rosenthal (that’s Gregg with three Gs). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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So if he's better than Emmett Smith, then he's better than Marshall Falk,
and he's better than the other name you throw out there that I've missed right there.
Ledian Tomlinson is better.
LeDadian Tomlinson, he's better than LaDanean Tomlinson.
No, no, Tomlinson is on another planet to me because just the, he could break your tackles.
He could be the best power running back in the league, and he's still the best receiving back in the league.
So you got Barry, you got Tomlinson, you got Marshall Falk.
But you're right.
But you're saying those guys are better than Emmett Smith.
I'm just...
I am, yes.
So, where are we 60 minutes into this season?
The Jets and the Giants are both actually good?
And what about that vaunted Texans defense?
36 points I know it was against Josh Allen,
but still, and speaking of the bills,
what's going on with Bill Belichick down in UNC?
His old team, the Patriots,
ain't doing that great themselves.
We'll see if they can update things in Foxborough
against the Pexburg Steelers.
there's the sleep drunk Rams, the power outages of the Chargers offense. But again, slow down everybody.
We're just 60 minutes into this thing. Our pal 10-day Tony is here along with the great Greg Rosenthal
to make some sense of this mess. Let's start the show. Americans, welcome to NFL week two. Welcome to
Football America presented as ever by our pals over at Draft King Sports. Now in all 50 states, go tell your mom,
go tell your pals subscribe
comment
feel it's episode number 83
we have a lot to get to
here hello to buddy bedowski
and gino fentes
do we have any answers for
who wore the number 83
best in NFL history
well we've got to draw a lot of degrees
of separation here to the Miami dolphins we get to start
with Andre read the uh the Hall of Fame
bills receiver who was one of the
main cogs in that team going to the
Super Bowl four times but then it's
Ted Hendricks, who went to school at the University of Miami.
Then we got Mark Clayton, started, wide receiver with our Dan Marino.
Then we got Wes Welker, started with the Miami Dolphins.
Mark Clayton's not in the Hall of Fame.
The numbers don't bear out here being here.
I think neither of those guys are, right?
Mark Clayton or Mark Duper are not in the Hall of Fame.
I take Clayton over Duper all time.
But what about Gino?
You didn't mention Louis Lips.
Number 83, the mid-80s Steelers star.
number 83 very quickly because I promise
I will do. The 83 draft is the most iconic of them all. Happy birthday
this week to my guy, Annie Marino, many moons ago at Pitt.
He was the best quarterback in the nation, a Heisman finalist going into his senior year.
And my old man was the Pitt doctor.
And one time at camp, one of the trainers said like, hey, Marino's roommate isn't feeling so well.
Can you check on him up in his dorm room?
This is during summer camp in advance of the season.
So me and the old man went up there to the dorm.
room and knocked on the door like Dr. Damasek, you know, hold on a sec, Doc, hold on you're here
behind the door, dorm room, scrambling around and all that sort of thing. And like, what could be going on
in the dorm room? It's the size of a shoebox. And eventually the door finally opens up. And there is
Marino on one bed. There's his roommate on the other and two girls. And also, the room is filled with
smoke, like a van opening up and dazed and confused or something. And we go from there. I'd never, I'd never,
seen this kind or smelled this kind of smoke before jumped to springtime before that 83 draft.
A lot of NFL teams were calling our house saying, what's the story on Dan Marino or the
rumors true about all that? My old man didn't spill. He didn't say a word about it. He was loyal
to the end. What a goat. Black and gold over red, white and blue, all the rest of it. And now,
speaking of red, white and blue, let's talk about the New England Patriots in their upcoming
matchup with our guy, Greg Rosenthal.
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All right, he's a proud son of Tulane, the host of NFL Daily to which you better be
subscribed. He's a Patriots fan. He's the boss. He's our old pal, Greg Rosenthal, what's the
Poop fella. Best wishes in Foxborough on Sunday. I just want to get that out of the way.
How are you, fella? It's rivalry week. We're not friends this week. I don't like that you typecast me as just the
Patriots guy and the Tulane guy, although a big Tulane game against Kansas State this week.
Can I say, I don't want to get in with a hot take here, but you included, I'm obviously the
uniformant, not you. You're a man of a certain style. Everybody who's watching us right now can see that.
I'm not over the moon about the green and teal that everybody else.
Oh, you're crazy.
Go check out the Mardi Gras uniforms.
We broke out last week.
That is the best uniform in college football.
They've got some good ones.
Hey, another question quickly before we jump into the pigskin.
We were talking.
Why the third G in your name?
It just finishes it off.
It gives me a rap name.
I'm 60% G.
But they didn't like Gregory.
The real answer is Gregory Rosenthal.
They thought too many letters when you're filling it out, too many syllables does end it with a strong third G.
But it's one of those names that now you've spent probably like it's only been like three or four seconds each time.
But when you add up those four seconds over the course of a lifetime, you've probably lost out on like a half hour of your existence explaining to people.
No, it's two G's.
What do you mean?
Like yeah, I did.
G-R-E-G.
No, no.
like so three Gs, two at the back end.
Like that explanation is, is heavy, no?
And having correct people that call me Gregory.
You're absolutely right.
And it's not a good name.
I never liked it anyways.
Nobody names their kid Greg anymore.
It is a name that is completely dead.
It is not in like the top 100,000 names anymore.
It's a cute name for a baby, I guess, little Gregi.
And I was also thinking about Neil.
Neil is one of those names.
It's the name of the week that is terrible for both the baby and a grown man.
Nobody should be named Neil at any stage of life, right?
I'm trying to think of any Neal's I like.
Most Gregs I know, too, are kind of jerks.
I'm trying to represent for them, but it just is a jerkish name, I feel.
And well, now see, I'm trying to see if I can.
Popovich is a good one.
He represents.
Yeah, he's nice.
All right.
Hey, speaking of coaches who have, you know, proven to be a little salty here and there,
Bill Belichick, I'm sure you saw the photo that's going around of him at UNC.
That's the least of his troubles.
or maybe it's his greatest virtue right now is how Chesa is.
Oh, he's so busomy.
What what the hell is going on there?
The remaking fight club with him in the meatloaf role.
This is what makes you special, Damasek,
that everyone's thinking it,
looking at that picture and you're the only one
that does a social media post about it.
Hey, legitimately, is the UNC experience,
now his son has resigned for what appear to be some really dark reasons,
Lombardi's long gone.
The team is mediocre, all that.
Is this fall from grace?
Is this as bad as it's been for a legend since, like, Bob Knight?
Is that the comp?
I don't think it's as bad as Bob Knight.
It's not.
His son is allegedly or it's rumored to be, like,
giving drugs to the players.
That isn't as bad?
I don't want to get in trouble here.
What do you think happen there?
I mean, was he smoking weed with some players?
that seems like that was what was happening.
Who knows?
Either way.
Oh, well, if that's it, then I don't want to be up on Mount Pye.
I don't really know.
Okay.
I think it does call into question some of the character concerns you might have had about
Belichick over the years is coming out in his old age.
But again, it doesn't change the football acumen that he had in his prime.
That's always your fallback.
All right, that's fine.
Five and a half is what the Patriots are giving the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers,
which is very strange.
By the way, oh, wait a second, wait.
Foxborough, the New England Patriots at 0-1.
And then there are the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Yeah, I'm offended for the Steelers,
and I'm not trying to be biased,
but the opening number was four and a half,
and A.J. Brown ain't playing.
What gives here?
I'm confused.
We do a pick show at NFL Daily.
Pittsburgh plus five and a half
is going to be one of my three picks.
you're getting this first.
Even though it's against my team, which I hate to do,
it makes zero sense to me.
To me, they occupy a very similar place in the NFL-en-Fle-Ecosphere.
And I would have said that going into week one,
and week one only made me feel stronger about that,
that they are teams that are hoping to get to the playoffs,
so I don't get five at a half.
Yeah, the other side of that coin is that pro-football players
have an understanding of, you know, how the season flows,
certainly their head coach does.
And going into an 02 hole in a division that includes the bills coming off of what I think was borderline, the number was the number, but still leaving Houston and not just leaving Houston with a win, but how, I mean, what the hell happened to that Texans defense, which by the way is a great example of don't overreact to what happened in week one.
Do you think the Giants and Jets are both durably good this season?
Do you think that that Texans defense is overrated based on week one?
Slow your role.
We need more evidence than just the 60 minutes that we've had.
As far as that goes, I maybe am consumed by the Aaron Rogers experience a week in here.
But I really did find his performance against the Falcons to be sort of a Roershack game.
We talked a lot in the preseason about Roarshack teams in 2026.
A lot of people initially saying, boy, that was a star.
stinker. He is the limiting factor that we thought he would be for this team. And then over the
ensuing 72 hours, it became like, look a little bit closer. I don't think you know what you're
looking at if you don't understand that Rogers was actually very good. The guy perpetuating that
conversation primarily is one Aaron Rogers. How say you? I'm somewhere in the middle. Both of us
have kind of planted our flags that Rogers is going to hold this team back. I think he showed a few
signs that he could be better than last year, which is what I was hoping for. I think the
offensive coordinator will help him. I think the offense helps them. And maybe they get him to do
some things he doesn't want to do. Like hang in the pocket, throw a few more deep balls, throw a few
passes over the middle. If you squint check, you saw three or four pretty good examples of that.
The problem I don't get is he's just not that accurate anymore. He had some throws that were there
that he just missed. And when you think Aaron Rogers, that's what you think, plus being able to make
plays on the move, which he's better than most guys his age, but he's not great at it. And
anymore. So if he's not consistently accurate, he's still going to be very erratic snap to snap
week to week. Him and D.K. Mecca, after me, are an incredibly erratic combination.
Few ways to go off of that. But first of all, the thing I do have to say about Rogers
compared to his old man, QB peer group of the 21st century, namely Brady, Peyton, Rathusberger,
breeze. I mean, if you're measuring Rogers of 26 versus Rogers of 16, he's, you know,
obviously a pale version of that. But man, moves pretty well in the pocket. Otherwise,
compared to those other guys, we're all just stiffs back there, completely above the neck
kind of experience. He actually is a little bit nimble. But to your other point,
about staying in the pocket, it seems maybe simplistic, but seems pretty clear watching what we
just saw there against the Falcons, when he's in the pocket, whether he wants to be or not,
that's the issue, right?
He is the tail wagging the dog with McCarthy.
McCarthy announces, this is what Aaron and I have cooked up for this week.
And he just blatantly says it that we're doing what Aaron wants to do.
But what Aaron wants to do is long gone in reality, right?
I mean, he has to stay in the pocket because when he does, he still can throw some strikes
back there.
And the arm was never the issue.
I just think when he's on the move, he can't get away with that stuff.
more. That's when he gets wildly inaccurate.
And he'll hit one or two plays. Like the touchdown that he had, the first one of the game,
like he moves outside the pocket. It's in the red zone. You love to see that. But he tried
plays like that three or four times. The reason why I'm a little higher on it maybe than you,
or at least than compared to last year, it was such a low floor. The play was over the second
there was any pressure in his face. And he was statistically pretty bad with pressure in his face
in this game. But he got a couple penalties. And at least he tried a few. And I like seeing the
the average depth of targets down the field.
They're trying to mix things up.
I think the Steelers, like I've been saying it all offseason,
if they had CJ Strout, who I like,
I'm trying to think of a more agreed upon quarterback.
Just an average mid-level quarterback.
I think this is a good team.
And I think they showed some of it last week.
How about this?
Because I try to self-validate out of vanity at least.
I mean, I advocated before the 25 draft.
Eric Harmon may or may not turn out to be great,
but it's not the defensive tackle league.
it's the QB League, and the Steelers put themselves in a spot where they had to take some wild swings.
Was I right now 17 games plus one in that they should have taken Jackson Dart?
Ooh, yeah, just to have another option.
I'm always for continuing to take quarterbacks, take swings until you find him.
I mean, Tyler Shuck in the second half of last week's game and over time.
I just knew they weren't going to take him.
He looked like, I don't know who he looked like a mix between Carson,
Palmer and like he was incredible and young Aaron Rogers at late in that game so yes they should
have and I can tell you I'm sorry to the Steelers strand Derek Carmen's not going to be great he's
he's fine that's a bummer and I I do say it all the time Greg Rosenthal is one of the rare
people who talks into a microphone with authority not just flailing about pretentiously he watches
every second of every game and the people out there Rosenthal spelled with two G's
I think the public would be stunned by how many people don't watch a whole lot of football,
and yet they opine about it.
And we pivot off of their opinions on that.
As far as that goes, though, one game in, Drake May, how disconcerting was that performance up in Seattle?
Maybe I am biased that I'm not that worried that I thought he played a relatively composed game
that made sense through three quarters.
The problem is I think there's a book out on him.
and the Steelers are as talented defensively up front as anyone.
So it's a really tough matchup in terms of their offensive line for the Patriots.
But the book, I think that's out on him.
And the Steelers basically did it last week is just play safe.
Just make him beat you with singles and five-yard thing.
And he's got to get impatient and he's got to get stupid in the end and he's going to get reckless.
And it's pretty much worked and maybe change up the picture from pre to post snap
because he makes a lot of rookie eras where he thinks he sees something.
And he's so confident.
and he just goes for it.
That's a young quarterback thing,
but I think the Steelers are particularly well positioned
to kind of go with that strategy.
Well, we were texting this week about the matchup.
And, you know, my takeaway is that the Steelers defense
is officially loaded up.
And, you know, if they could inject Joey Porter Jr.
into the mix,
and I don't want to get detoured with a conversation
about Omar Khan's potential failures here.
on the outside, both with a shutdown corner and J.P.J. Jr.
I mean, if he ain't a scheme fit for your court, I hate when teams do this.
Like, well, we don't know if he's a scheme fit for what the current D.C. wants to do.
Like, yeah, in success, Patrick Graham's going to leave in a year or two.
So not signing a guy because he ain't a great scheme fit for right now is crazy.
But that notwithstanding, this defense has a chance to be a difference-making unit.
And I do think without A.J. Brown, is that, I guess, basically would be the answer to the question, why would the Steelers win this game this week?
Yeah, that they'll get after it up front. The Patriots gave Elijah Vera Tucker from the Jets a ton of money. He had a rough week one. They have a young player at center. Like, you can get after them. And then the thing that really intrigued me about the Steelers. And I do think the secondary has questions. Them playing Nick Herbig at linebacker out of nowhere. Nobody expected that. Suddenly he's on the field. Peyton Wilson.
back there. He looked like a brand new player.
And it does make you wonder. And T.J. Watt, they're going to keep him fresher.
They're rotating like people wanted to say he looked. He looked good at the end of last week's
game. I think they're going to take a lot of Mike Tomlin's players and make them look better
this year. I have some concerns in the secondary. Are the Patriots the team to take advantage
of it? I don't know. But that front seven is dynamite. It's one of the very best,
if not the best in the week.
Speaking of staying fresh and all that at a late age,
Derek Henry is now,
it sort of hit me,
I should have hit me in the offseason,
that Derek Henry is now officially the best big back,
as one might describe that category in the Super Bowl area.
He transcends Zonka and Jerome Bettis and anyone else you might say.
At age 32, where does he rank for you?
We've had some football Americans, the younger ones,
don't blame them, Greg Rosen,
all now have Derek Kendra.
What's not supposed to mean?
Top five running back in the Super Bowl era.
How say you?
Name names, you know?
I'm going to name names at the very end of this show.
That's my promise to you.
Oh, I'm saying who did it.
I saw Taran Armstrongstead, who's a great young analyst.
I mean, young compared to us, former saint.
I've heard him be great on saying.
And he made that case.
It's interesting to think about.
If you're going history, it's before we were watching each and every week,
Walter Payton and Jim Brown and OJ.
You know, there's a lot of them.
So top five is ridiculous.
But if we're going top five that I've watched,
he's getting closer and closer because he's so unique.
But was he better than Marshall Falk?
No way.
Like, was he better than Ladani and Tomlinson?
No way.
Here's a good place to put your marker down, in my opinion.
Is he better than Emmett Smith?
Or as good.
Yeah, I think so.
That's where I...
So if he's better than Emmett Smith,
then he's better than Marshall Falk.
and he's better than the other name you threw out there that I've missed right there.
Ladian Tomlinson is better.
LeDadian Tomlinson, he's better than LaDainian Tomlinson.
No, no.
Tomlinson is on another planet to me because he could break your tackles.
He could be the best power running back in the league,
and he's still the best receiving back in the league.
So you got Barry, you got Tomlinson, you got Marshall Falk.
But you're right.
But you're saying those guys are better than Emmett Smith.
I am, yes.
How about Adrian Peterson?
Is he as good as Adrian Peterson?
No.
I'm saying Adrian Peterson is better.
But that's a good comp.
Because I think they're a little more just, you know, not one dimensional,
but just pure running ability, him and Derek Henry.
But yes, I would go Adrian Peter.
Greg, if you're looking for the guys that did this, it's me and Tony.
We're right here.
We both agree that Derek Henry is a top five running back of the Super Bowl era.
Mike Ryan also is in on that.
Well, Mike Ryan was in here.
Yeah, he's not here now.
he was in here and said that he's already better than Emmett Smith, which I don't know if I'm ready to go there.
We have Emmett Smith in different tiers clearly, but I mean, granted, I'm very young.
So I, you know, don't really know for sure, but just based off what I know.
I love people the way in.
Yeah, but do you see what, do you see what jacket I'm wearing here, Dave?
Do you see what jacket I'm wearing here?
Obviously, I'm going to be partial to Emmett Smith as the greatest ring of all time.
Cheshay.
Greg, I've been heartened by the return of running backs relevance.
And I'm curious, I mean, for real in the last.
couple of years. It's hard to argue against that now that they're more important to offensive
schemes across pro football than they were five years ago. You know, a lot of hand-wringing,
I assume, in Patriots country right now because A.J. Brown is immediately down in Pittsburgh.
A lot of hand-wringing about, man, D.K. Metcalf and Michael Pittman don't add up to a one.
They're both twos and all of that. I have long made the argument in this century that it is an
overrated position. Where do you rate? At least as a number one that you have to have a
defined number one game breaker difference. There are a lot of teams that have won Super Bowls
without having that. The Chiefs really changed that with Tyree Kill. He was the first high-end
wide receiver this century, believe it or not. Randy Moss and Terrell Owens and Antonio Brown and
all those guys. Then there's Cooper Cup and all that. Anyway, give me your ranking. I'm curious.
is QB1. What are the
tier or the rankings
two through five in your head? Well,
it's tricky because I agree with
your overall point about the receivers, but I think
your receiver group is more important than
you're running back. You know what I mean? Like so
I think what Kyle Sannahan and
McVe have helped to teach the rest of the NFL,
it, like I always think about that
2016 Falcons team,
which was four deep.
And you don't think of who was it,
Gabriel as their fourth receiver and like
beyond Julio, but they had
four guys you have to worry about and that's what's shown to be important but to rank the positions
in important okay uh i still in any defense offense you're saying to whatever you want yes if you're
if you are daniel jr well not daniel jeremiah he's not a gm i he's not a gm but you know
if you're a draft whiz i mean supposedly he had offers there were rumor you know there was
reporting back in the day he had offers to get into front offices and then suddenly he gets a
kind of weird i would take that job instead of getting to do what dj gets to do i i just think it's
crazy when coaches go back into color.
Mike Tomlin, everybody's swooning,
and I do think he's a little bit better coming out of the gate
than I anticipated him being.
And people are resentful.
Like, oh, now he's in a good mood.
Yeah, now he's in a good mood.
Of course he's in a good mood.
There are no stakes to what he's doing.
We're just talking about it.
Why would you want that pressure of a sort of Damocles or Damashek
hanging over your head all the time like that this might be my last year
if we don't turn it around?
Anywho, go ahead.
Rank him.
Right.
Plus, I think they were giving him like the assistant job.
You're right.
You get to see your children.
It's much better.
I think you've got to go edge on defense.
That's the second most important position you can have.
Okay.
Yeah, I think so.
Because you're talking individual players.
I think an edge can change.
I agree.
So much for you.
If you're talking individual players,
then I'm going to be like the average GM.
I'm going to go offensive tackle.
Now it doesn't really matter if it's left or right.
Like Joe Altz at right tackle, who cares?
You know who ushered in this era, I think,
or at least was the first one talking about it?
Daniel Jeremiah, he and I were yapping on my old show about exactly this.
I'm like, why wouldn't you, if you're the coach, why wouldn't you, or if you're the
quarterback, more importantly, more viscerally, wouldn't you want to see the guy who's chasing
you coming at you versus the blind side?
I know it lets you play free or if you don't know what you don't know doesn't hurt you.
But in football, it does.
Like Lawrence Taylor hitting you from behind without you.
you seeing him coming is going to hurt.
Wouldn't you rather, though, see the pressure to know how to adjust to it?
It makes sense.
And when you see where the best pass rushers in the league like Max Crosby are lining up,
they're on the right side, half the time or a lot of them even more.
So, yeah, I would go tackle because it's just so impossible to find tackles.
Then I would go receiver.
But I'm with you.
It's more about having multiple receivers.
This is where it gets tricky.
Man, cornerback is so up and down.
Maybe cornerback is the position.
I would say is slightly overrated.
Linebacker, if you can find the linebacker, it's so hard.
Do you know what an advantage that the 49ers and the Eagles have
to have Fred Warner and Zach Bond?
They are the most underpaid position right now.
So then I go cornerback.
Then I go tight end.
That's kind of about the group.
And they feel like they're coming up in terms of value right now.
You need the group.
And then it's our poor running backs and safeties at the end.
Guards were ahead of those three positions, by the way.
You get free access, I believe, still to SoFi Stadium.
And so you can go and watch the Rams if you so choose.
And then there is in the Big Apple, the weirdest of stories, that the third.
So wait, in New York, the most popular teams are Yankees won, Knickerbockers with a bullet at number two.
Or maybe the Knickerbockers.
I would say the Knicks won now, yeah, especially after the championship.
Probably. But then the Giants three, then the Mets, then the Rags, then the Jets.
but anyway, so those teams are relevant now.
Does it all come apart once we go from 60 minutes of evidence to 120 specifically in SoFi,
Rams laying seven against the Giants?
I thought you were going to say Chargers with the Raiders and invading SoFi.
That's a weird one.
No, I don't think it all falls apart.
I think the Giants are a good, sneaky.
They could raise the floor, win 10 games type of team because I think their offensive line,
defensive line are good, but I am far from like getting off the Rams train, especially on
offense. Their offense is going to be awesome. It is a tough matchup against a Rams, a Giants
defensive front, but I do not think that they're going to have that many problems with
the defense. I'm going to say it until the season is over. I think probably you do have to put
the asterisk next to that Rams offense. If Buk and Nakua gets hurt, he is the Jenga piece of
2026. I mean, what would they do? I'm really, what would they do? Devon DeVon DeVan
Adams ain't the answer. I can assure you that. Anyway, the answers you seek on all matters pro football
are ready to be answered by one. Greg with three G's Rosenthal plus Jordan Rodrigue and the rest of
the gang. Jordan is the best. Her energy, her, her unironic love of football is great. Not as great
as her giving me shoutouts on NFL daily, but make sure you're checking out NFL daily or
what are you doing with yourself. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Jack. You're the best.
the last time I called you Greg.
It's not a good name.
Not Gregory.
There he goes, everybody.
Three G's.
Oh, I was excited for football.
But now I'm really, really excited because Yeagermeister is on board.
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All right, there goes Rosenthal, and I hope you younger football Americans just learned a lesson about, you know,
Prisoner of the moment kind of crap with Eric. He's very good.
Prisoner of the moment. He's been having an All-of-Fame career for 10 years now.
All right. You just said Emmett Smith ahead of Ladani and Tomlinson. You have to pipe down now.
go. Here's what we're going to do, fellas. It's time now to dig in on the week two
matchups are more of picking up on where Rosenthal and I just left off with this edition of
Stress Free Sunday delivered by Little Caesars, the official pizza sponsor of the NFL.
Right now you can score two of your faves with Detroit-style slices and sticks for just $4.99
only at Little Caesars, officially delicious. Fellas, I think what we're
looking for is the team or teams who we reckon will have the breezyest Sunday.
And I encourage you to remember this is not college.
All the teams in pro football are good, except for the dolphins and probably the Browns too.
But long story short, the team your most confident is going to win this week.
This will be helpful for survival pools and beyond.
Let me show you what I mean.
I'm going with, I know this isn't the most obvious one.
I'm going with the Dallas Cowboys at playing.
against the Washington commies.
Lay in four and a half.
I suspect this number is so low because the Cowboys didn't look great against the Giants.
Washington probably looked a little bit better than people expected.
That leads you to a number of four and a half.
I think the Cowboys win with the greatest of ease.
Who's next?
Tony, you go.
I'm going to take a bounce back spot for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
a get right spot against the Cleveland Browns.
I know they're laying a lot of points at eight and a half.
I just don't know how in the hell the Browns are going to score
with what they got going on on offense at quarterback.
Because they're going to show Baker what he's missed out,
all the good times.
Exactly.
Since he left, right?
Exactly right.
We got KC. Concepcion and Denzel Boston.
See that?
Concepcion.
All right.
The Caballo gets what we're doing here.
Does Buddy Badowski?
Yes, I do, Dave.
And just on the Browns real quick,
you mentioned there are two teams we know are bad,
the Dolphins and the Browns.
I think the Browns are going to be worse than the Dolphins.
But that's just me.
Stress-free win of the week.
I don't think that's true.
I don't think that that's ultimately
I think I lean a little bit more with Dave here
Yeah? Well, I don't know, man.
The thing is the vibes are just
I mean, the vibes in Miami
And if you're a fan or rotten, obviously,
you know what your team is going to be this year
But there's some hope, there's some, there's a plan here
I have no idea what Cleveland is doing in any way
So we'll see, we'll see
They're both on the Don't Matterhorn.
They're both on the Don't Matterhorn.
Why are we even talking about them?
Yes, so Tress Free Win the Week
I'm going to rock with the Pan.
Anthers.
Minus two and a half at the Falcons.
I thought Bryce Young actually, he got overshadowed, obviously,
because Caleb Williams looked like the MVP last weekend.
I thought he was really good in week one,
and he showed a lot of the continuation of growth that we saw from him last year.
The Falcons are probably starting Cooper Rush again.
That's all you really need to know.
They looked devoid of anything last week.
Kyle Pitts didn't have a catch,
and you want to talk about rotten vibes.
There are rotten vibes in Atlanta right now.
This fan base is distraught over what's
going on at quarterback. They can't figure anything out there. Give me the Panthers minus two and a half
at the Falcons. I do think it's wild. Like if you're, if you know, you knew you had a sense it was
going to be the case, but you get a game. If you're a Falcons fan, they have to win this week
or you know the season is lost, you know, before it barely even got going there. That's a bummer
for those teams, but I'm with you on the Panthers taking care of business. That was weird to give up
59 in week one. Gino, bring it on home here.
Well, the dolphins, I got a good look at them last week.
They are paper thin.
They've got a list of starters.
The starters may or may not be any good, but then it's a bunch of guys on the minimum.
And anytime a starter goes out, you've got an immediate hole on the dolphins.
And I just watched the San Francisco 49ers handle the Rams.
It was in another country, whatever.
13 and a half, I don't think it's enough.
It doesn't matter because you're just picking a winner here.
Wow.
I think the 49ers are going to just, they're going to have their backups in by the start of the fourth quarter.
13 and a half is such a rare number.
Sorry, Dave, but in this case,
the dolphins lost by 14 through the Raiders last week.
I'm glad you said that, buddy,
because that's what I was getting to,
is that in pro football,
double-digit spreads.
If you go through it,
tend to not end up covering.
So beware, that's a heavy number.
Then again, it's a Super Bowl 19 rematch,
and I wouldn't be surprised if the Niners win
by at least 19 points here.
All right, let's move on to some more.
games. It's time for
Draft King's Sports, Picks,
picks, picks, one favorite against the
spread, one over under, one
underdog, and to
our collective everlasting disgrace.
Buddy Badowski is in the lead,
but it's not everlasting.
By Sunday night, I suspect things will be
right as rain. I will quickly tell
you coming out of the gate here
that I am with you
on, I don't want to go back,
I don't want to go back to, you know what,
somebody else go. I'll be.
I need an extra second year.
I'll go, Dave.
To figure out my picture.
Yeah, I'll go ahead and start here.
I'm going to take the Packers minus three and a half at the Jets.
The Packers obviously had the most calamitous loss of week one,
even though the Chargers lost to the Cardinals.
But I thought Jordan Love, you want to talk about playing well and being overshadowed.
That guy was awesome.
Some of the plays that are coming out on tape that I'm seeing out on Twitter,
unbelievable throws that Jordan Love was making all over the field.
I'm not really buying into the Jets just yet.
in terms of playing competition like the Packers.
Give me the Packers here minus 3.5 in New York.
Gino, you go next.
Well, I already mentioned it.
The 49ers, I think, are the safe pick if you're doing a survivor pool.
I think they're also...
I mean, safe.
13 and a half ain't safe.
I think it is.
I think it's probably going to be closer to 20.
The 49ers will probably have their backups in by the fourth quarter.
Caballo.
I'm going to take the Eagles,
laying a touchdown against the Titans.
I don't think we've seen how bad the Titans can really be.
And I think we're about to see it this week.
I think the Eagles stomp them.
So I'm going to lay the seven points with Philly.
Full disclosure, I lost in my file here.
I tend to go from the gut more than I do from the page.
And then sometimes I get sideways trying to find it.
That was actually my pick was the Eagles.
We could share it, Dave.
We could share it.
I don't want to do it.
You know what I'm going to do instead?
I will take just to be a little different there.
and I actually happen to believe this one.
I'll take the Chiefs 2820 over the visiting Colts.
The Chiefs, what's a weird little bit of their dynastic run is they have not been great at covering in Arrowhead.
That did start to change, though, over the last season or two.
They hammered the Broncos.
I suspect the Colts are overmatched at six and a half.
That's not rich enough.
If you like a team to win, like them up to win by seven at least is a good rule to operate.
under. And now let's do the over under. The total that I like is one that buddy just mentioned there.
Carolina, Atlanta, I'm going under 43 and a half. I suspect that number is inflated by the
Panthers no show on defense last week against the Bears. But as a reminder, the Falcons
offense is not the Bears offense, ergo somewhere under 43 and a half. How say you, Tony?
I'm going to take two hot offenses.
I know one is in a little bit of flux with their wide receivers,
but I'm going to take the Ravens and Saints over, 46.5.
I've been very quietly, Dave, buying a lot of Saints stock.
Very quietly.
I've opened up a couple of shell corporations overseas,
had them buying stock over there.
Like, I've got a couple things working.
I'm trying to get the SEC out of my hair
when it comes to how much stock I'm actually buying.
I really like the Saints.
here, as we've previously mentioned. I'm going to take the over.
Tulsa Luce, don't care about that. Oh, you mean a different SEC.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The SEC. It just means more.
Give me the 46.5. I'm going to take the over on Raven Saints.
I like that. Gino.
All right, so Washington and Dallas is 50, 50.5 is the over and under. It's the highest
over under outside of the Thursday night game, the bills and the lions.
So I'm going to just go ahead and say under. One of the things that the Giants did really
well against the Cowboys was control the clock and keep Dallas off the field.
I think you're going to see some of that from Washington.
Also, Washington's defense is the way they're calling it, it changed a little bit.
And it really threw the Eagles off in week one.
Remember, they had a chance to tie it at the end of the eagle, you know, Washington came
up short.
So I'm going to say that's the under.
Stefan Diggs, yeah, Stefan Diggs came up short.
I'm going to say that's the under, Washington against Dallas.
Buddy.
You know me.
I'm always going to take the over.
Life is too short to take the under.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to rock where Tony went with.
I'm going to go Ravens and Saints over 46 and a half as well.
Both of these teams scored 30 in week one.
The Ravens put up a 40 piece on the Colts.
I love the points here.
I like offense, offense, offense, offense in this game.
And Tyler Shuck, he bawled out at the end of that game against the Lions.
He was fantastic.
So I like them to keep that rolling in a week two.
Remember, opening lines aren't always indicative of where the bookmakers think the game's going to land.
The Jets were plus four and a half to start this as we go into our.
our underdog picks here.
It's now down to three and a half Packers fans and otherwise providing some sobriety
here and saying like let's not get crazy about the Jets.
I'm going to get crazy.
I think the Jets might win this game outright.
I like them plus the three and a half.
I like them more.
That's two weeks in a row of Dave taking the Jets.
That is bold, starting off with the Jets twice in a row.
I like what Dave's doing there because I'm not super sold in the Packers.
You said you saw Jordan Love throwing the ball, which, you know,
to Christian Watson to Tucker Kraft and broken plays.
You know what they also did?
They lost to Carson Wentz.
By 17.
So they allowed 29 points in the second half.
Carson Wentz or Gino Smith?
Right.
I mean, if you want to play that game, right.
In a pinch.
That's a game.
In a pinch, I'm taking, Gina.
I'll take both in a pinch.
Tony, what's your underdog of the week?
I'm going to stick right there with the Minnesota Vikings.
Plus four and a half.
Dave Damashek.
I don't think the Bears defense is ready.
for what the Vikings are able to do offensively with Justin Jefferson.
I also think Brian Flores is going to have some special blitzes and stuff dialed up special
pressures for Caleb.
That's for sure.
Williams,
and I think there's bad blood being brewed in the NFC North completely with Ben Johnson.
I think he's lighting fire to every single bridge in the division.
He already burned down the Detroit Bridge.
He hates Matt LaFleur, even though he's never met him,
which is, I think, one of the best underlying bits of the entire NFL.
and now the Minnesota Vikings, I think they're going to try to stick it to them,
and B-Flow is going to be ready.
Stiles make the fights.
Come on.
Ben Johnson, it's grand.
Who else has an underdog pick?
I'll go here.
My underdog pick is going to be, I'm taking the Steelers.
Wow.
5.5.
Wow.
Pandering.
Yeah.
Pandering to take.
There are the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Exactly.
The Patriots are.
missing AJ Brown. Seleers have a good defense. I don't know where they're going to find
offense in New England, but it's going to be close. It's going to be a defensive war.
They have the pieces. He's just the quarterback who's the issue there.
Buddy, bring it on home. Yeah, I was actually going to rock with that pick, but I saw that
Gina was going to do it, so I changed my. Banwagon. Everybody's great picks here. I'm going to go,
I'm going to go back to the well with the game I picked the over under in. I'm going to take the
Saints plus eight and a half at the Ravens. That's a big number.
for me. The Saints lost by
one point in Detroit last
weekend, forced them to the very end.
They went for two to win the game.
I know the Ravens
looked great in week one. We don't know about the
status of safe flowers quite yet.
You know, the Colts are, I think the Saints
are better than the Colts at this point. Give me
the Saints. Eight and a half is a big
number for these two offenses. I think this will be
a close game. The Saints wear that
old gold, and that reminds me
that gold is valuable because it's rare
and so are wins for the team
in the NFC South.
Ergo, I said, before the season started,
if the Saints somehow got to one-in-one,
and they almost got that one last week with the rally in Detroit,
if they somehow could knock off the Ravens,
I know this is crazy to say in week two.
I think they win the division,
because as I say, it's not like any a team in that division's getting to 12 or 13.
So if you can get one surprise win along the way,
even early in the season, that puts you in the driver's seat to some degree.
All right, let's get to the last.
winter stand. That's how we're going to do it in the 2026 season. We have identified the three
biggest games of the week by our estimation and at number three. So I guess it's a bronze medal.
Or wait, you get a blue ribbon or a, you get a white ribbon for second and red for third. Is that how
it goes? Whatever it is. It's our red ribbon game, our bronze game. Number three, Jacksonville,
Denver, rematch, or one of the biggest playoff upsets in the history of people, 30 to 27.
the Jags knocked off the mighty Elway Broncos in 96, was that?
I love this, Dave.
You brought up that the Niners and Dolphins is a Super Bowl 19 rematch,
and now you're bringing up a playoff game from 96.
Do you think the guys in the locker room are like,
man, we really got to get back at the Niners for what they did to us in Super Bowl 19?
Or do you think the guys are like, the Broncos are like,
we got to get back at the Jags for that upset in 96.
The year my brother was born.
What?
How many of them were alive?
That's a great question.
I wasn't.
Probably about a lot.
I mean,
Jesus, you're right.
We've got to think of the vets on the...
96 is 30 years.
8 or 10 of them?
My brother's born in 96.
He's 30.
So how many guys are 30 or over on all these teams?
I don't like you throwing that in my face.
Makes me feel old.
All right.
The Broncos at home after the bummer of a game in Arrowhead,
they're laying 2.5.
43 and a half is the total of the time of this recording.
I'm going Jags with an upset pick here.
and really putting the Broncos behind the eight ball.
26, 24, Trevor Lawrence.
This is a durable.
I think this team, I know big performance.
I think this is going to sustain itself throughout the season.
Tony, how say you?
I love the Jags.
I've loved the Jags for a couple of years now
with the addition of Leon Cohen.
I think it's really unlocked where Trevor Lawrence is going trajectory-wise.
In the last nine games outside of the playoffs,
which they obviously lost.
The Jags are 9-0.
Offense is absolutely through the roof.
Trevor Lawrence is tied for most,
or, excuse me, fourth in passing yards,
number one in touchdowns,
number one or two or three in QBR.
Like, he is blowing the doors off of every single defense he plays.
And I think last week was super indicative of the style they want to play.
A lot of amounts to feed,
but they're going to spread the ball all over the place.
If they find the running game, this could be a, you know,
Super Bowl contender.
my issue is they're still in flux with that with Chris Rodriguez and Bayshall Trin.
That factor is the O line, right?
That for sure, but I just trust Liam Cohen so much, now finding his bag as an offensive play caller
with the weapons that he has around them.
So I love the Jags here in the spot as live dogs, live cats.
Either one of us take him as our dog.
Quickly, Buddy and Gino your scores for this game.
I've got the Jags 2820.
I loved what I saw from Trevor Lawrence in week one.
He looked phenomenal.
I'm really concerned about the Broncos as well.
Sorry, Gino.
I think the Jags are really going to test the fence here, sort of like a Jurassic Park reference.
If they can run on the Broncos and the Broncos can't stop it, then you've got a book on the Broncos.
And things could go down really quickly for Denver.
I think they're going to win.
I think it's going to be close, though.
I think it's going to be like a 24, 23 type deal, Jags.
And then Denver's going to have to figure out something with their run defense because, again, the Jags haven't been able to run.
If they can run on the Broncos, then the Broncos are in trouble.
I mean, it's not everything.
But right, you're getting at, Gino, is the reason for your pick to some degree is that the Broncos can't afford to go to O and two.
And that's kind of why I have the Patriots.
There's not anything in terms of the X's and O's that lean to New England's favor in my estimation.
But I think they have to have the game.
They understand reality.
Now at number two, we have the aforementioned NFC North War.
They're always great games.
Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, at home, laying five and a half, 48 and a half is your total.
You know, I'm fascinated by the regions of Football America,
and the rivalries are great all over the place,
but which ones are the nastiest ones?
Within the NFC North, which is the most hated team among its division rivals?
I didn't want to try to answer this one myself.
Instead, I went to my blue ribbon panel, as I do on our text chain,
on all matters, including the most important game of all the game of life.
my Midwestern pals from Indiana University residing in Chicago and all over the Midwest.
I turn to Bears and Vikings fans.
I think today we have my guy Spugatch, we have T.L. Tom Long, and we have the hog, Derek Bowen,
answering the question, who's the most hated team in the NFC North? Take it away, fellas.
Todd here, I am a Chicago Bears fan. I absolutely hate the Green Bay Packers the most.
Vikings after that, and then the Lions. First, let's talk.
about the non-player elements, fight song. Bear Down Chicago Bears and the Super Bowl shuffle
versus some horn and skull clapping or da-da-da-da-da-da-da-let-go or whatever it is.
Bears have way better songs. Also, uniform colors. Bears classic navy versus yellow or purple?
Not even close. On the player side, one team has someone named Sweetness. The other guys
had Rogers, Fav, and many forget Charles Martin, that dirty punk that wrote McMahon's number
on his towel, hate the Packers, then the Vikings, and the Lions.
Hi, this is Tom. I'm a Bears fan. Bears rule, Packers drool. I hate the Green Bay Packers,
because Charles Martin took out the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL for one season
in Jimmy McMahon.
Hey, Shack, it's the hog.
Let's be clear on one thing.
Vikings, Skoll, number one all the time.
The Green Bay Packers.
Those guys.
And second on the list is the Chicago Bears.
I hate them, but if I got to pick one, I'll take the Packers.
The Lions, who cares?
A bunch of losers.
But I'd root for them if they were in the playoffs.
But anyway, Skull, go Vikings.
Packers suck.
Bears suck.
Packers suck.
Bears rule.
There's so many things I love about this video, Dave.
Not the least of which is just calling your buddy the hog in 1939 when you were in college mean the same thing that it would now.
No reason to work blue like that.
Listen, those are world, those are national champions you're talking about.
They're damn right.
They were in where you guys sit right now, Miami, watch the Indiana Hoosiers.
Okay, okay.
They should have been.
What are we doing here?
It's an NSC North conversation.
Keep it moving.
On behalf of all those guys, I extend my heartfelt condolences for what happened to the U.
I thought we had a no job policy.
But that's in the rear view.
Like I say, bears are the favorite team here.
Five and a half is the number.
If you're cynical about 59 points versus the Panthers,
a better defense awaits as we talk about with Brian Flores.
Nevertheless, I do think because it's Carson Wentz,
it's not Kyla Murray.
That's not a small matter.
the Bears do take care of business and win by a touchdown.
Tony, you go.
I don't know.
I think Minnesota's a live dog here.
I really like what KOC can do from a play calling perspective.
And like the Bears got really tested defensively by Jalen Koker,
who was the best wide receiver on a stats basis this past weekend.
So I'm looking at that defense and I'm like, man, there's a lot of holes.
And if anybody can exploit it, it's going to be KOC.
I expect Justin Jefferson to have a massive day.
And the Bears are going to have to answer offensively.
So I think this could be another nice little low-key shootout.
48 and a half, I probably take it over there.
But I'm going to stick with Minnesota plus the points.
I like Tony going like Troy Aikman there.
If anybody can take advantage of it, it's chaos.
I bet there's some other teams that could take it.
I don't think so.
He's the best we got in the league right now.
It's the best we got.
Yeah, I'm going to ride with the bears here.
I think we're forgetting quickly how Carson Wenz played in this offense last year,
and it didn't look very pretty.
I know they had a miraculous,
come back against the Packers last weekend. They put up 39 points. They looked awesome.
Brian Flores, Tony's right, will have some kind of crazy plan to try and throw Caleb off.
I don't know if it'll be enough because of how he looked last week.
Give me the Bears big here, actually. I'm going to rock with them 31 to 17.
Wow. Gino, your score.
All right. One of the things that happened last week was that the Bears ran all over the
Carolina Panthers. Did you see Green Bay attempting to run on the Minnesota Vikings?
Because you can't, because they blitz everybody on every play.
And so it makes it really hard.
And part of the game offensively for Ben Johnson, it gets overlooked because you have Caleb Williams, is that they run the ball a ton.
I think it was five rushing touchdowns.
It was six rushing touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers.
That's going to be some disruption.
In the end, I think it'll be pretty close.
And I think it'll end up being a Vikings win.
And I think people are going to start questioning whether or not Carson Went should keep this job.
So I'm going to go 24-21, Minnesota.
because I think it's going to be really hard for the bears to get their run game going.
I do think by the end of the game, you're going to be like,
how much longer is it going to be until Kyler comes back here?
J.J.
Number nine ain't the answer.
At number one this week on the winner's stay in the gold medal game,
Bengals, Texans, home team Texans,
laying two and a half, 46 and a half is your total.
And it's a rematch of, of course, the wild card round
when these two teams played one another in Houston.
I think it was 27 straight seasons.
They played each other.
to my previous point, I know it's simplistic.
The Texans have to have this game.
The Bengals shook off the stink of never being able to come out of the gate with a win.
They've done that now.
I think the Texans survived by a field goal or more.
Buddy, how say you?
I'm going to take the Texans as well, 2824 here.
I expect to see not as much offense as we saw with the bills last weekend,
but still plenty of offense in this game.
Burrow is going to do his best against this defense.
But I just think, like you said, Dave,
they've got to have this one.
This is such an important game for the Texans.
This game's going under, by the way.
Oh, you think so?
Yeah.
Give up 30 points a game defense.
No, that's...
It happens to be halfway decent.
I agree with you.
Amarius Mims just Stonewald Rubin Bain,
so now he goes up in class.
Let's see if he can shut down Will Anderson.
That's a huge challenge for him.
I'm going to take the Texans here, though,
28 to 24.
I think we see some offense.
Wrap it up for us.
I'm going to do 2017 Houston Texans
One thing I do want to have one comment here
One fantasy comment here
If you have David Montgomery on your team
And you just saw him throw up three touchdowns, whatever
I want you to turn around
Go find the James Cook owner
Go find anyone who underperform
Get rid of David Montgomery right now
He will not have another three touchdown game all year
I'm not saying he's going to be bad
But you could really upgrade here
By taking that three touchdown performance
And trying to catch somebody who may be overreacting
a little bit to that first week
All right, listen, I think we've said pretty much everything we need to say in advance of NFL week two here.
But I don't know if it's sad, if it's sadness that we're wrapping it up here.
It's getting chilly in here.
Do you guys feel that?
Downright cold.
Oh, I know what this is.
It's time to talk about Yeagermeister.
Serve it cold or don't serve it at all.
Jaegermeister.
Damn, that's cold.
Visit yagermeister.com.
Drink responsibly.
and I have some thoughts to wrap things up here.
Thanks to 32-year-old Derek Henry
picking up where he left off,
it's refreshedened the Super Bowl-era
goat running back debate.
Why, as we talked about earlier in the show,
some football Americans are now even saying
Henry's top five all-time,
real quick,
understand where running backs are concerned,
it may not be style over substance,
but let's at least put style on the same level as substance.
It's almost like talking about different genres of music.
There's hard rock,
Derek Henry, Marshawn Lynch, and Earl Campbell.
They're smooth jazz like Eric Dickerson,
Marshall Falk, Lidani and Tomlinson,
and their OG inspiration, Tony Dorset,
who could both run and catch.
They're kind of like do-it-all musicians like David Bowie.
Emmett Smith is Blink 182, right down the middle,
not too exciting, but the numbers are the numbers.
And there's old school funk.
That's Barry Sanders.
Not sure where that leaves OJ.
I guess death metal is the obvious choice there.
involving the juice in a list like this feels a little bit weird.
I mean, what an actor he was, that's the headline.
But ranking the goat running backs is also tough
because most living fans, including me,
have barely even seen Jim Brown play.
And when you're ranking guys, you haven't actually watched play.
You've turned this into a term paper.
For running backs, the pleasures in the journey,
not just the destination, even if it is just four yards at a time.
If we just shut up and dribble and stick to the sport of football only,
OJ's unique Gallup ranks him with Sanders,
Gail Sayers and Shady McCoy on the all-time list of pretty runners.
Then again, if clutch counts for QBs, it should be a factor here.
Along with Franco Harris, John Riggins and Marshawn Lynch, number 22, Emmett Smith,
gets extra points for delivering in the big spots.
But to the matter at hand, Derek Henry, is he a top 10 Super Bowl era running back?
Yes, yes, he is.
What's more, he's the best big back of the last 60 years.
But is he top five?
I guess it's worth discussing.
but the first half of that era, aka the 20th century,
had the better collection of runners.
And even among the guys of this millennium,
I've got Ladenian and Adrian Peterson ahead of Henry.
And shout out Lev Bell,
who in an alternate reality would be on here too.
In this reality,
let's start with my best of the Super Bowl era,
number one, Walter Payton,
when people talk about how Barry Sanders
never had the benefit of being on a good team,
tell him about Walter Payton,
who spent his prime taking handoffs from Bob Avalini,
Mike Phipps, and Vincent.
Evans, all the numbers still stack up, but no matter what you think about the numbers,
you don't need to overthink it.
Peyton is football's all-time combo of might and grace.
He was versatile, had almost 500 catches.
He was a great blocker.
He threw eight touchdown passes.
He jumped over entire defenses, and he did it wearing sneakers called ruse,
short for kangaroos.
At number two, Eric Dickerson, it's an oxymoron, I know,
but there are some severely underrated Hall of Fame.
running backs. Frank O'Harris, Thurman Thomas, future Hall of Famer, I hope, Jamal Charles,
but I don't know, and above the rest, Eric Dickerson, maybe 21st century fashionis can't get
past his period-specific look, or maybe it's as basic as that upright gliding gaity had,
which was very much like Jerry Rice's style, which made it all look too easy. If you check out the
numbers, though, he went for a minimum of 18,800 yards in three of his first four seasons.
he averaged 100 yards per game five times.
At number three, Barry Sanders averaged more than 1,500 yards a game,
almost got to 100 yards game average over the course of his career.
But if you watch the games and not just the highlights,
you'll recall Barry was dancing around in the backfield,
looking to break the big one.
He was the RB equivalent of swinging for the fences.
And like most sluggers, he struck out a fair amount of the time.
He also gets too much praise in my book for putting up.
his numbers against defenses allegedly focused solely on him. In fact, Sanders was actually lucky to
spend a fair amount of his time playing in Mouse Davis's spread offense that created a lot of
space for the runners. And then the three-way tie at number four for me is Falk, Dorset, and Lladenian.
I told you about their numbers. I told you about how gifted they were in terms of versatility.
And Ladanian was a little more rugged than the other two guys in that category. But they all are
ahead of Derek Henry and Earl Campbell goes ahead of him too. I love Bum Phillips, but he ran
Earl into the ground and man, watch him running around Earl Campbell. Dig up those highlights.
Massive legs, flailing arms, make them look like an out of control plus size rodeo rider on an
invisible bull. Anywho, those are my thoughts. Let me know in the comment section on YouTube.
Make sure you're subscribed there. Thanks to all the fellows for joining, including Greg
Rosenthal. We'll be back on the other side, bright and early for you. 12.45 p.m.
right after the Levitard show on Monday.
Until then, thanks so much, my fellow football Americans.
It's been a thin slice of heaven.
