The Herd with Colin Cowherd - What’s Wright - NFL Week 4 Reaction: Chiefs STAY UNBEATEN vs Raiders, Jaguars officially CONTENDERS? Eagles fixable?

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Nick Wright recaps Week 4 of the NFL season, starting with his Kansas City Chiefs remaining undefeated against the Las Vegas Raiders ahead of their bye week. Then, Nick debates who is to blame in Philadelphia after the Eagles' disastrous loss to the Rams. Later, Nick discusses how the ceilings have changed for the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Atlanta Falcons. Finally, Nick and Damonza go rapid fire around the NFL in Quick Hitters and answer your questions. #Volume 18+ Only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur. See polymarket.com/tos for more information. The Polymarket US App serves as an independent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing, the CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing organization.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. The hard rock bet casino app is here, Ontario. It's safe, secure, and crystal clear with fast payouts and 24-7 local support. You can play over 3,000 games right here, including hard rock bet casino exclusives. The hard rock bet casino app is here, Ontario. Roll with us. Must be 19 years of age or older to play.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned about your gambling or that of someone close to you? visit connects ontario.ca. Welcome in, What Driving Nick Wright episode 511. This episode of What Driving The Grite is presented to you by Boost Mobile. DeMonse, great to see you. How are you?

Good to see you. Amazing. Fresh off a weekend in Vegas. Won't spend a ton of time on that. What I will say is this. The last couple weeks ago I was in Vegas. It went so well. The New York Post wrote a story about it.

This weekend I was in Vegas. It went so poorly that at the end of the trip, I got a little note from the host of the casino like, hey, man, next time you come, stop by the office. We got a little rebate for you. So like, you know, sometimes it goes the other way. And it's important if I'm going to share my wins with the audience that I share my, you know, not wins.

and Friday night at the craps table and then Friday night at the blackjack table where at the table across from me was Michael Jordan and his crew did not go great and you know what such as life I know yeah I I know better than to be playing the table games I like I've got I've spent a lot of time

really honing my craft in poker that's where I should be but the siren song of the craps table table, you know, lure me in. Yeah, Jordan's squad over there. Right, exactly. And then like there is a seat open at Jordan's table, but it's like kind of invite only. And, you know, there's a piece of it's like, oh, you think I can't play on that level?

Like, well, watch me play over here. Like, what are you guys better? I'll do it. And you know what? The variance may be caught up with me. Saturday morning, chase a little on college football, Saturday afternoon, bleary-eyed walk into a poker game where I just played. the worst poker I played in 10 years.

Shout out to Table 1 at Aria for then texting me the next day. Like, hey, Nikki, seat's still open. I'm like, yeah, I know, fellas. I was failing off. And thank God. Thank God. Chief's Money Line, Vikings Money Line, Little such a square money line parlay came in to salvage a bit. Tough weekend, though.

But you know what? We move on. It happens. Here is one bright side of the weekend, one quick anecdote, and then we will move on. I've told you guys a bunch on this show. We've talked a lot about my buddy Nick Shulman, the poker player. I told you guys how he won the Triton main event in Jju, Korea, biggest score of his career for $3.9 million about a month ago. And good luck to Nick today as he's playing the Super Eye Roller Bowl, 100K PLO.

So I think I told you this, DeMonze, just real quick, and we'll get to all the football. the audience will like this, that before last summer, I lent Nick a watch as like a good luck charm. And he was getting rid of his watch. And so it's kind of a thing poker players do. They like trade off watches, like you wear mine, I wear yours, whatever. The watch that I am giving you when I see you, I had lent to Nick over the summer as good luck charm. He then ends up having a great summer and winning the Triton.

and Triton is brought to you by Jacob and company, and if you win the Triton main event, they give you a custom one-of-one Jacob the jeweler Triton champion watch. So when I saw Nick on Friday, I had told him like, hey, bring that, the watch I lent you because I'm giving it to my son for his birthday present. So he brings me that back, and he's like, hey, man, I got something for you. He's like for a couple months.

And so right here, is a watch you cannot buy. It is a trite. I don't know if you can see. I'm so bad at this, but the logo has the Triton logo on the top, and on the back it says Triton Champion. And so like there's only one of these in the world.

He got it for winning the main event in Korea, and he's letting me have it for a couple months. So really, that part was really cool, less cool when Friday night for a moment, I was like, if I sell the watch. But you know what? It's fine. And so that was a joke.

All right. So there is the Vegas recap. I don't know if that's self-indulgent or not, but I also feel like it's important since we talk about gambling and predictions and games of chance on this show. It's not all sunshine and rainbow. Sometimes you got to take, sometimes you got to take your medicine and walk around a little bit like, ooh, tough one. Such is life. We move on.

Straight to voicemail brought to you by our friends at Boost Mobile. Cat wants $270 million. The Knicks are off from $200 million. Vibes in New York starting off a little shaky as they're defending the championship. As Pat Riley and Isaiah Thomas discussed with Bill Simmons and the greatest book of basketball ever written, the book of basketball. The disease of Moore is a real thing. I don't blame Kat for being like, yeah, Jalen got to, took a discount. His dad's on the coaching staff.

I don't want to take a discount. Oh, you want him out. Because you want what's good for yourself. Medvedev disqualified from the China Open, hit a fan with a ball. It didn't seem intentional. The NBA preseason tipped off. I actually donated my Sixers.

Sixers' Knicks preseason last night. I have the Sixers season tickets. I obviously couldn't go. It was my first night back from Vegas. We donated them to a nice little Sixers charity. I was going to give them away online at first. Then I decided not to. I will be there for their home opener. Reminder, you can always email us. What's right, Mailbag at gmail.com.

All right. So we have, obviously, Sunday was an amazing day in the NFL, but let's quickly do Monday night football. And then there is a Lamar Jackson injury update we need to get to. And then we'll get to the Sunday games. DeMonse, take it away. Falcons are looking nice. Two and O since Michael Pinnock stepped in. Dijon's looking nice, got two touchdowns. Drake London's looking good. This is your deep sleeper team of the Falcon series. They're looking really nice. Yeah, I mean, right now they're the best team in that division.

The Saints were looking, we'll get to the team you want me to talk about DeMonte in a moment. The Saints were looking semi-legit and the Falcons annihilated them in a game. That's the best rivalry in the NFL Saints Falcons. those fans legit hate each other. It's in New Orleans. It's the 20th year anniversary of what they called the rebirth game, the first game after Katrina that they hosted there. And that, you know, the emotion in that stadium 20 years ago,

you got to keep mind during Katrina, people were living in that stadium. Like that was such a, not that it's been forgotten, but kind of overlooked true American tragedy, everything that happened to New Orleans in that time. And then for them to win that game, it kind of sets the Drew Breeze era off on course with Sean Peyton. 20 years later, you play your hated rival and Bijon just annihilates you. I mean, just that 60-yard run to start the game and they never looked back.

The Falcons had the worst quarterback situation in the NFL the first two weeks of the year. They don't have that anymore. And now all of a sudden, while Kyle Pitts still can't get involved, they are a legitimate offense, a better than I expected defense, and I do think they're the best team in that division. Now, the two teams in that division we have not discussed. My division pick, because I picked the Falcons to make the playoffs as a wild card. I was maybe the only person in the world that said NFC South, two playoff spots,

because I thought the Falcons could get to nine wins and get in. I thought the Bucks were actually going to be good. Instead, the bucks are dreadful. They, you know, I guess that you could argue they came close to winning with their backup quarterback. So that's something. But they're o' and four. They're in real trouble. And then DeMonsei, the team you wanted me, I could tell, because you want me to apologize to someone.

I already know it. The Bryce Youngled Carolina Panthers. Yeah. And I will say here what I said on the TV. show yesterday and then we're not going to spend much more time on the NFC South. Fair enough. I have officially moved on my Bryce Young opinion from 100% convinced it's not going to work for him. He is too small.

That is no longer my opinion. Call me a flip-flopper. I have shifted 28 degrees to open-minded to open-minded to the positive. that his work ethic, accuracy, and intelligence will allow him to overcome his physical limitations. So that is my updated Bryce Young opinion. I am not right. I'm not stamping him. I am not saying I am convinced, but I am now open-minded to the possibility that all of his intangible qualities to go along with tangible qualities as far as accuracy, those things will allow him to overcome what was my only real critique of him, but I thought it was a

on that basically a crippling critique, which was just too little. And he has, he's been dealing. Yeah. Yeah, some movement. The games have to matter. Your growth has to matter. Your success has to matter. Now, the Lions defense is just truly, truly dreadful, but still, you got to go put

up those points. But I think the Falcons are in the best shape of anyone in that. division and the next week de monsee the falcons take on your baltimore ravens so let's get right to actually your baltimore ravens because that is while it was kind of a nothing game on sunday there are a dozen point favorites against tennessee they're up 14 Tennessee gets a late backdoor cover but baltimore controlled every second of that game and because of that i think a lot of people thought, oh, Lamar got dinged, but they're sitting in for precautionary reasons because they're in such control.

The latest news says that is not the case. Let's go to your Ravens. Yeah, so obviously we got the dove. Lamar went down in the first half. He has a spring ankle and there is an outside chance that he plays on Sunday night against the Falcons. How concern should meet and other Ravens fans be right now? scale of one to 10 i would be a six

and that's probably higher than you might be right now and here is why and this is i get it that there are a lot of people that feel like i am too negative or you know too critical of lamar and so this they i think they might lump this into a similar part of their brain but that is not what i'm trying to do right here i'm trying to do a fair reading of the history. And before I even do that, let me say this on the front end.

He was absolutely dealing in that first half. He has been dealing all year. He is having another kind of vintage Lamar Jackson style, just phenomenal regular season where it is not high volume passing, but it is crazy high efficiency. Let me fix my lights a little bit. And he has just been, well, is that better? Let me see. I'm doing it in real time.

Yeah, you know what? I like that one better. I look more tan. Looks better. I was getting all. I looked all pale. The, this is the benefit of watching on YouTube. Subscribe on YouTube.

250,000 subscribers. He's been playing great. With that said, I'm going to read you Rappaport's exact report on this. And then I'm going to translate it for you through our. NFL Insider Injury Report Translation. Okay? Lamar Jackson is dealing the sprained ankle that gives him only an outside chance to play Sunday against the Falcon, sources say.

Jackson could end up missing multiple games based on how the rehab goes, but the injury is not considered long-term or surgical. Okay. So remember, NFL insiders almost 100% of the time, skew injury reports. reporting positively rather than negatively. Meaning if they if someone says this player could miss this week, that almost never means they're in great shape to play. Very rarely means they could miss this week and almost always means they're missing this week.

You have whatever that, whatever we are told make it one iteration more negative. So when I hear outside chance to, to play Sunday, I read that as he ain't playing Sunday. And then when I read, could end up missing multiple games, I read that as is expected to miss at least a couple games. And when I read, but the injury is not considered long term or surgical, I read that as it is most likely not long term or surgical, but it is not definitive 100% ruled out.

So that's concerning in and of itself. You then add to it that Lamar's return from injury in his Ravens career has always been otter than almost any other quarterback. We did a ton of this last year where we went over the Harbaugh quotes, the three times Lamar's dealt with significant injuries and about how Harbaugh and the team was always more optimistic about his return than the timeline ended up being. Now, last year, we thought some of that was maybe Lamar being displeased with the organization or with Harbaugh. But the other piece of it that I think De Manze would be concerning if you're

a Ravens fan is a few years ago when Lamar missed the end. to both of those seasons that was under the context of he had wanted a long-term real contract from the team and they hadn't given it to him. And so he was, in my opinion, very protective of his health in a way, again, in my opinion, he might not have been had he gotten the long-term guaranteed contract. I want to add, I 100% support. football players doing that. If your team has, I think there is a shift in expectation. If you have just been given a long-term contract with real guarantees, I think there is a higher expectation for you to play through pain and try to, you know, right, put more on the line. I think that's fair.

I think that's kind of the bargain you, like a team is making with you. But if the team has not given you, a long-term guarantee. The bargain they're making with themselves is, man, if this guy gets dinged, he might be very cautious with his return timeline, which, again, I don't begrudge the player at all. Lamar is coming off three consecutive, or I'm sorry, two of the last three years, Lamar was arguably the best. best regular season quarterback in the league. He was first team all pro twice. He won an MVP.

Last year, obviously, he dealt with injury and it didn't go great. He has one year left on his deal after this year wanted a extension because he was making $52 million a year, which is not in line with the top top quarterbacks anymore. And the Ravens did not. give it to him. The Ravens had a hard line with him this summer. Now, Lamar, to his credit, never held out, didn't, you know, make it messy. But the risk the Ravens ran there is, man, if he gets dinged, he might not be back anytime soon.

At least that's how I read it. So I, so, Demand, now we can go to what their next stretch is. and where if I were you, I would be a little concerned. So we've got Atlanta, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. I mean, who will have Snoop Huntley through the run. Who I trust. So, yeah, so I don't think Jesse Minter has yet had the huge impact on the defense. The defense to me has been shaky so far this year and was pretty fortunate.

it, the Cowboys butchered the end of that game in, where were they playing? Oh, in Brazil. Yeah, that after blowing the lead, gosh, everything's running together in my head. Who the hell did you guys lose to? Cowboys. Oh, the Saints. No. The Saints, thank you.

Oh, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. You guys dominated the Colts, blew the lead to the Saints, had the classic against Dallas in this weekend, Tennessee. So I don't think the defense is great. And Atlanta, all of a sudden, with Michael Pinnock's, averaging 40 points again. So that part's a little concerning.

Now, can you feed Derek Henry, get some Snoop Huntley, you know, quarterback-driven runs? You certainly can win that game, but that's a harder game than you thought. I kind of see this as him being back by Cincinnati as well. Like, I think it's going to be two games. I do, too.

Right. And if we could be one-in-one, we'd like to be two-and-oh in that stretch, but it's just not O-and-2, obviously. No, so correct. So I agree with you. My gut right now would be a couple weeks is what just reading the Rampaport report. Oh, and two, though, at Atlanta at Cleveland, certainly on the board with how Cleveland's playing with how Atlanta's looked. And here's the other thing. Well, and here's the other thing that we always do a bad job remembering. quarterbacks in their first game back from injury don't usually look like their immediate back to form. And so that Cincinnati game all of a sudden, it's like, oh, man, huge spot.

It's a huge game, too. It's not like a regular game that he's coming back to. No, it's arguably your single, if the Bengals are the biggest threat in the division, your home game against your biggest divisional threat is as far as percentage impact on your chances for the season, the single biggest game of the year. Like for the Chiefs, the biggest, the most important standings-wise game they were going to play all year was week one against Denver. Because Denver was the only threat in the division. Now, we'll see if the Raiders actually turn into a real threat.

But I thought Denver was the only threat in the division. That's your home game. that's the one you want more than any other win on the schedule. So panic is not where I'm at. All is lost is not where I'm at. With that said, first month of this new Ravens season, all of a sudden a little rockier than you thought it was going to be.

You have the blown lead. Good win, but weird circumstances against Dallas. the defense hasn't turned this corner. I think a lot of people thought it would with Minter there, and Lamar now banged up again. And this is where I also remind the audience in one of the most stunning facts that you will ever hear. Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow,

let me make sure I have this exactly right. I'm 95% I have it exactly right, but I can't call it a stunning fact and then have it not be a fact. That would be bad. Lamar since 2021 has played, gosh darn it, I'm trying. This is why you shouldn't do these things on the fly, but I'll give it to you. Lamar Jackson, since 2020, in my head last year, when we did this, the number was 70. and now he's played four more. But I'll double check here in a second

what the exact number is. But I'll give you the punchline first as I'm doing the quick math on it. Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow in the last what this now would be six seasons have played, if my record is correct, the exact same number of games. Joe Burroughs played 71 regular season games

and yeah, it was 74, 74. I knew I was right. and seven playoff games. So Joe Burrow in the last six years has played 78 games. Lamar Jackson, in that same time frame, has played 74 regular season games and four playoff games, so 78 games. And the only reason I mention that is everyone looks at Joe as, of all the star quarterbacks, one of the bigger injury risks.

Assuming Joe plays next week and Lamar doesn't, Joe will have played more football in the last six years since the year after he blew out his knee than Lamar, that's a bit of a tough pill to swallow. You don't love that. And what did you say? You don't love that as a Lamar Jackson fan.

No. And again, he's playing great. I know my very harsh criticism of him as a playoff performer has, you know, soured, I'm sure, him and a lot of Ravens folks on thinking I'm just a stone Lamar hater. And, you know, it's the cost of doing business the way I kind of do this job. So I can deal with that. I do try to be as fair as I can.

But the numbers are the numbers in that. From 2021 to right now, Joe Burroughs played 78 games. We look at him as a huge injury risk. From 2021 until right now, Lamar Jackson's played 78 games. And he's about to miss more time. It's concerning. All right. we had an unbelievable Sunday slate.

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All right, DeMonday, let's talk Chiefs Raiders, please. So you were in person to watch the Chiefs take care of this big one. Andy Reid is now the most winningest head coach at Allegiance Stadium. And Mahomes is still not lost. unbelievable. Yeah, how are you feeling about your chiefs heading into the buy? Listen, I, it's not perfect, but that's why being one of three undefeated teams and the only AFC undefeated team feels so good because they can get a lot better. And by the way, what we thought was going to be a very easy schedule first month of the season,

turned out, at least by my opinion, to be a touch tougher than expected as far as how good the opposing teams were. Saw Miami on the schedule, knew Miami was going to be awful. Miami's kept up its end of the bargain. They've been awful. That's fine. It's lucky to get Miami particularly early in the year. But the Broncos, the Broncos de Monzae, when they don't play the Chiefs, are two and one. The Broncos just played the Niners this week and lost, but the Niners had more of a problem with the Broncos and the Chiefs did in week one for sure.

The Colts, when they don't play the Chiefs, are two and one. Like the Colts and the Raiders, when they don't play the Chiefs, are three and up. So those three teams, you know, are seven and five combined, but seven and two outside of the games against the Chiefs, obviously. the dolphins are terrible. So, so there's that piece of it. There is no one in the media who was more bullish and more optimistic. And now we can say it more abjectly, obviously 100% correct about Kenneth Walker's impact than me.

And I underestimated it. I was the most optimistic and the most right. And even I didn't see this coming. The guy is carried. Honest to God, bro, it's. No, but you couldn't. Right now this moment, he is at worst, the third best back in football. Like, if you want to put Bejon and Gibbs ahead of him, so be it.

Like, he's having the best season. But right now this moment, he is just, he's better. than Christian McCaffrey. He's better than than Brian Cook, who's been awesome. Brian Cook's not his name. James Cook. Yeah, Brian Cook's former Chief Safety. He is, he is, and he does, and again,

I know this is going to sound a little like Chiefs fanboyish, but I think you guys agree. He looks like a super elite back while he's running. Like if you didn't see any of the, His balance is crazy. Yeah. Like, and this is kind of being. He can get like knocked back, like legs going like backwards,

ended up on his feet. It's kind of crazy, yeah. Like, I know he had like the 70-yard run or whatever, but his best run of the day, again, I was watching from the opposite side of the field as the TV angle. So I like see it in reverse of how you guys saw it. But his best run of the day was, I think to, the left side line where like he bounces off a tackler is going to get seven yards

gets stoned at the sideline bounces back a bit goes up again gets another six yards bounces off another tackler cuts inside yeah and he got like 19 yards on a play i think four guys could have gotten him down so he has been just unbelievable unbelievable So that part is great. Patrick is after the only critique that I would have accepted over the last few years about Patrick's play that I thought was an accurate one and not circumstantial was his accuracy on deep passes had been mediocre the last couple seasons. that is back to Apex Patrick deep ball accuracy.

Like, they're not always caught, but he is not missing these throws. So you feel great about that. Those things are the super positive things, okay? Here are the things that are less positive. Well, let me give you one other super positive thing. The guy they traded up for, the sixth pick of the draft, the corner Mansour Delane, is an absolute stud.

He has the ability to be, by the end of this year, the best corner in the NFL. Like, that absolutely can happen. And he is such a great tackler. It is stunning how good he is on like the swing passes or the little screen passes. He is so tough and so physical.

and such a great corner. So that's all very positive, all right? Concern points. The Chiefs just became the third team since the merger to go on a three-game winning streak. This is a crazy stat. Only three teams ever, or since the merger, have had a three-game winning streak

without recording a single sack. They don't have a sack since, the third quarter of week one. And I was so optimistic about the improved pass rush after week one because the Broncos, pardon me, have a great offensive line. And it's like if you can get to them, you can get to anybody. That has not been the case, which is why Kurt Cousins out there looking like the best version of himself he's ever looked like, he just had so much time to throw.

So that's got to get better. That must get better. Now, they have two rookies playing a ton of snaps on the D-line, so you would expect it to improve from there. Chris Jones also has a tendency at this point of his career, and I don't, again, I think staying healthy and being at your best in the playoffs is a vastly underrated skill in the NFL. and for older players who always have a track record of being available and at their best in the postseason,

I cut them some slack on if it appears they are moderating or modulating their, I don't know if effort's the right word, but their ramp up early, yeah, early in the year. I believe that's what's happening with Chris Jones. If that's not what's happening with Chris Jones, then he is simply moving to a different phase of his career from best detackle or second best de-tackle in the sport to simply really good. And if that's the case, that would be pretty devastating for the Chiefs because they need Chris in the biggest spots to be a double team,

must double team and still might be unblockable. So that is something that is noteworthy to watch. And then there is the receiver piece of it, which we felt shaky on the receiver situation before week four. And then Rishi Rice tweaks a hamstring and Tyquan Thornton tragically gets his ankle turned sideways. Now, he's having the surgery. Again, a little translation from the insiders. They called it a three to four month, 12 to 16 week injury. I'm going to go ahead and say it would be pretty stunning

if Taekwuan Thornton is able to play again this year. Deep run. Say it again. Deep run. AFC championship game, Super Bowl. Yeah, I mean, the idea would be like, could he be back for the postseason or a Super Bowl or something like that, but that would also be really odd.

It's like, hey, you've missed four months. It's the AFC championship game. You're here now. So, this means the chiefs are going to need to go get. Now, I don't think Rice is going to miss time. I think Rice, because they have the buy, and it's one of the reasons I'm glad they have the early buy, Rice will be back. They can kind of reset everything.

But even if Rice is back, Taekwon, the single best deep threat, as far as, I don't know, it can call him single best. The most efficient deep pass combo in the league through four weeks was Patrick to Taekwuan Thornton. It's like a 152 rating. He was also coming off maybe the best game of his career. It's just a brutal, brutal spot for him. So let's just assume he's out for the year.

go right ahead. Polymarket has Tyreek out a 78% chance at joining the Chiefs. Do you like that? Do you think they have a right? I think so that, you know, it's basically translate that. It's like minus 380, you know, in the way we would do it, you know, as far as odds, 78% chance. I would put that as a 90 plus percent chance.

now there is a there is a possibility that a different a fc rival attempts to or tells drew rozenhouse tyreeks agent whatever the chiefs offer will offer more i doubt the chiefs are going to end up offering and and by the way that other team might do it simply to keep them off the chiefs even if they think they don't really have a huge use for him but that he would be great in Kansas City. I would be pretty shocked if Tyree Kill plays for anyone other than the Kansas City Chiefs this year. I think I've told you guys

for three years, and I always targeted the 2026 season that Tyree Kill would be back in Kansas City, and I believe Tyree Kill, well before Halloween, will be back in Kansas City. Now, doesn't mean he's going to play much, before Halloween. I know he's been targeting a November return, but I thought the chiefs were going to bring Tyreek back before Taekwan got hurt. With Taekwan getting hurt, he can slide into that role exactly. Like Rashid can still be your true intermediate number one. Xavier Worthy, who was the

guy with how well Tyquan Thornton was playing, that I thought if they signed Tyreek was going to potentially see snaps cut. Xavier Worthy, he's coming off his best game and they're you know they are still that still optimistic that he can really get going but now they have a huge need for that deep threat the question is how much impact will tyree kill have no one has any idea that's the honest to god's truth he suffered a truly catastrophic knee injury okay The flip side of that is He was such a freak athlete

That even if de Monzae he is 80% If you were to tell me Tyree Killoo Go sorry No the same thing like his speed him Trickling down that'll end up to be in just like me There's something that's like my full speed you know I like the comp

I the no but that That's, Tyree kill, if he can get to 80% of what he once was, that's still an elite athlete by NFL standards. Yeah. Because he was so head and shoulders above everybody as far as, I've told this story many times, but I tell it again, that three years ago, somebody, just call it, somebody super close to LeBron, text me one, to, that. during a Dolphins game and said Tyreeks officially replaced LeBron as the best athlete in the world.

And that it was the age of LeBron plus the ascension of Tyreek, that his ability to land and accelerate to get to full speed so fast. So I don't know that he'll be anywhere close to that player

and it is worth noting the year before he got hurt was his first down year of his career. He played all 17 games, didn't have 1,000 yards, only had six touchdowns. Quarterback situation, one great. Correct. And he didn't seem happy. Yeah. So I think Tyreeks going to be a chief. They still might need to go get another receiver, though.

Like the Jalen Royals, who was a mid-round pick last year, They're trying to get more involved. Cyrus Allen, who was a camp star, was a fifth round pick this year. They haven't gotten involved at all. So maybe they will, you know, hold off on making a major move until those guys get more opportunity. But the names that, and I'm not the only person, you know,

coming up with these names, names that I would be looking for as potentially on the move. Marvin Harrison, Jr. I would imagine the Cardinals are trading him. I would be in, that to me, to Monzae is a by-low opportunity. Like Marvin Harrison, Jr., a by-low opportunity. If the buck season truly goes to hell, Chris Godwin, do they say, you know, older player,

we're not having the year we thought, let's try to get something for him. The. Mac Hollins. Oh, Mac Collins with the Patriots? No, I'm looking at NFC teams first. I'll explain that in a second. Terry McLaurin, if the commander's season truly goes sideways.

The name that I said, I think is possible less likely after. the win they had this weekend, but their season would really, really have to go bad quick, is George Pickens, because the Cowboys don't expect to re-sign him in the off-season. Now, they will never trade him if they're in the mix, and they're probably in that division going to be in the mix all year. So that's probably, you know, a fool's errand to a degree,

but it's something I would monitor. The AFC is trickier because you see, say, you know, any team that thinks they can be good this year is not going to want to trade with the Chiefs. So Brian Thomas Jr. For the Jags makes a ton of sense. He's totally, for some reason, Jags are playing great. Passing games great.

And he's just like their fifth option on any play. He should be available. But the Jags are not going to try to make the Chiefs better. Yeah. Calvin Ridley is. is an interesting possibility. I don't know how good he still is, but the Titans are truly awful.

And then I'll tell you the pipe dream one, but maybe this team is just terrible. And maybe they're like, even though this guy has been so critical to what we do, but we're 0 and 4, Nico Collins. Nico Collins now the Texas offense has not

been the problem. We'll talk more about the Texans in a bit. It's not been the problem at all. But he only has one year left on his deal after this. Like, do they just say, we've got to revamp the whole thing? So I think there's a bunch of potential additional trade opportunities, but I do not think or I don't think that impacts the fact that Tyra Kill is going to be a chief at some point.

I would be stunned if he's not. I want to, before I get to the Raiders, I want to say one other thing, and this is very inside for, like, diehard Chiefs fans, just real quick, because Kingsley Suamataia, their left guard got benched in this game. Mike Calliando had to step in. I don't know what Kingsley did. But for Andy to bench him not for a drive, not for a quarter, not for a half, but for an entire game means he really did something that Andy Reid, you know, can't accept. And Chiefs fans, some of which are very upset that Andy won't tell us what happened.

and Andy has just said that is between Kingsley and I. And this is where I will say there is a reason that Andy Reid is universally beloved by his former players and why he is one of the most well-respected, well-regarded coaches across all of sports. because he will never air guys out in public. Never. And now people can argue you can't bench Kingsley because, and Calli Endo was fine in this game, but Mahomes was under a lot of constant pressure.

People get like that, this is where the whole went to five Super Bowls, won three of them, one of the winningest coaches in the history of the league, might pass Belichick and Shula for total wins. I'm going to appeal to that authority and say Andy knows what he's doing. It's not like he thought the team wasn't going to suffer some type of drop off when you bench the day before the game, you're starting left guard for, you know,

a journeyman backup in Caliando. He did it because he thought he had to do it. And he's not some try hard, hard ass coach where he's doing it for show. Something must happen. Teams in Vegas, you know, whatever the chances. think whatever it is i don't know what happened what i do know is i give full benefit of the doubt that and he thought it had to be done to him given his track record and anybody surprised that he is not going to in front of the media embarrass his players has not been paying attention

he simply will never do it it's one of the things one of the things one of the the reasons I think the chiefs have had such a special run with Andy and Patrick is Andy has the full love and respect of his players and never hangs them out to dry publicly. And Patrick, no matter what the situation around him is, always says, I should do more. Yeah, I could have thrown a better ball there. I should have trusted the pocket more. I need to be better. And I think that's super important.

And so I've got no... The issue is with whatever Kingsley did, I don't have issue with Andy not telling us about it publicly. All right, let's quickly talk Raiders. I'm really curious about it. Eagles, Eagles. No, let's talk Raiders. Oh, my bad.

No, no. You're good. Yeah, so the Raiders hung around with their chiefs. They look serious. Do you think that the Raiders are a contender? They are underdogs to make the playoffs currently. If by contender, you mean, like, can they win the Super Bowl or? No.

But right now, do they look like a playoff team? Absolutely. They absolutely look like a playoff team. That was not fluky than hanging with the Chiefs. Like, they were good. Yeah. The crowd was awesome. I know Mitch Holt, his chiefs announcer, said they were piping in crowd noise.

I don't know if they were, they weren't. It was loud as hell in there. It was shockingly loud in there. They now they have a tough three-game stretch coming up, DeMonse, really a tough seven-game stretch. At Patriots, home bills, home-rams, then at Jets, at Niners, home Seahawks, at Broncos. So that's obviously tough.

If they just beat the bad teams on their schedule, Jets who are mediocre, Browns, who I know are 3 and 1, but I don't think are for real. Chargers, Titans, Cardinals. That can get you to 8. So if they can steal a couple of the other ones, could they be a 10-win playoff team? Could Mendoza get what I think is the luxury of sitting the whole year?

Absolutely. Like, I think they're not a, they fixed the offensive line, it would appear. Bowers is just an unbelievable player. I think Gentie can get better and Cousins playing great. So like they've got... He's one of the biggest surprise players that I've seen. It's just like, what's going on? Why is he not popping off?

He was so huge in college. It's a weird thing to me. It's disappointing. Yeah, it's weird to me too, because that's why I believed in the Raiders last year was I thought he was going to step in and be instantly awesome. And it's not like he's been bad this year. He's been fine.

But like in that Chief's game, he never every time they handed off to him i was happy i was like just don't like her cousins drop back and i have 20 minutes to throw um but i listen the raiders also they can beat the patriots this weekend like they're they're very like the patriots will get to them they didn't fix everything um so no the raiders are in the mix is where i would put them like solidly in the afc right now there are only three teams that I am certain are playoff teams. Chiefs, Jags, Bills. And the only reason the Ravens are not in that is because the quarterbacks currently hurt.

Like the Ravens would be in that group, but I got to see how long the quarterback's out for. And you know what, just for the simplicity of it, one division winner each, let's put the Ravens in there as well. So there's four. So that means Pat's, Bengals, Broncos, Raiders, to me, are the next cut of teams across the AFC. And then right beneath them, I guess, would be cults. Hold on. So I said Pat's, Bengals, Broncos, Raiders, yeah. It would be cults.

I guess we'd have to say Steelers Browns because they're, that's like a lie, but I don't believe in them. All right, let's go to the NFC, to Monzae. It is paying time in Philly. They blew a 10.4th quarter league. Hertz had under 100 yards

and Philly hasn't converted on a third down in six quarters. Oh, who is to blame in Philly? Hertz, Siriani, Big Dom, LeBron. Who are we blaming? What? Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles went three and out more than any team in the NFL. Think about that.

Think about how many unforgivably bad offenses there were in the NFL last year. Not a single, I mean, you had the Titans last year, the Jets, the Raiders, none of them went three and out as often as the Eagles. This year, the Philadelphia Eagles have gone three and out more than any team in the NFL. More than the Cam Ward Titans, the Malik Willis Dolphins, the Justin Herbert Chargers, they are more likely to go three and out on a drive than any team in the league. So obviously, Hertz has to wear some of it. but the lion's share of the blame here I am giving to Siriani for a broken offensive system. He is an offensive-minded head coach who does not call plays, who they did not allow him to hire the coordinators.

Howie Roseman brought in, Kellyn Moore and Vic Fangio, they won a Super Bowl. he then gets to hire his coordinator. It's Kevin Petulow. The offense is herky jerky all year last year. They move on from him. He then brings in Sean Mannion, which knock on effect because of the style of offense, Mannion wants to run.

The best offensive line coach may be in NFL history, certainly one of the best. Jeff Stoutland leaves. And now the offense is just untenably bad. Jalen dropped back to pass 20, well, no, he dropped back to pass 31 times for a net total of 68 yards. 93 yards passing, 25 yards lost in sacks, that's 68 yards.

They are obviously dealing with major injury. Evidently, Lane Johnson's contemplating retirement, Like they're missing AJ Brown. Right now it looks like it. I didn't think that was going to be the case. I thought it was going to be an addition by subtraction thing. But as bad as the offense was at times last year, it was not this bad. And now with that said, they had the Rams dead to rights.

If they can just, I mean, they're, they're at the two yard line, third and goal from the two up 10 with eight minutes left. And they lose in regulation and don't even cover. If you had the Eagles plus three, oh my God. Like that is such a sickening one. But Sequin now, by the way, injured. And Sequin has not been the same guy post-2000-yard season. Last year played 16 games, 1,100 yards. This year has played three games in a bit.

has 180 yards. So that's a problem. His backup, Tank Bigsby, has a core muscle injury, so he's out. Jalen doesn't run the ball anymore at all, which is a huge problem for them. Without Devante Smith,

with him being out with injury, they just got no answers. Their defense has been, to me, a major disappointment, because I thought that defense was going to be the best in the NFL. Here's what I'm telling you. Their next three games, DeMonsay, are in London against the Jags,

then home for the Panthers, then home for Dallas on Monday night football. I think they will lose to the Jags in London. The Panthers are frisky. We'll see about that game. They'll be the favorites. then home for Dallas. If they were to go from 2 and 0 to 2 and 5,

resume be damned, overall winning percentage, be damned. I think Roseman would move on from Siriani. And I don't know how many times before the year, I felt like I was in reruns at times with this take. the Eagles have the highest variance of any team in the league to me, that they can go 14 and 3 and be the number one seed, or they could be 6 and 11, 7, and 10,

and have a new coach by Thanksgiving. Thus far, they are looking like the latter, not the former. And when you even look at their wins, the commanders have a two-point conversion. attempts to force overtime. The Titans have them beat. And Jalen has really their only high point of the season, which is, you know, Jalen's final drive against the Titans.

The Bears embarrass them and they blow a terrible lead to the Rams. So I, you know, I am putting it on Suryani and I think it's been just catastrophic. They are a ugly two and two and two right now. And they're my Super Bowl pick, but that's an ugly two and two. All right, let's go to the Rams side of things. So the Rams were staring at one and three. Do you think that they erased most of the concerns or ease the concerns around them after winning this game? Not to me.

Now, they prevented full-blown panic, but they did not ease the concerns. the defense is banged up. Aaron Donald looks like a player that came out of retirement and, you know, is dealing with for real. Like, he's one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, but that's what he looks like. We don't know when Miles Garrett's going to be back. And Stafford, and I was on this consistently in the off season.

Now, I understand to some, Stafford's just, you know, a dozen or so games away from potential. being a better all-time quarterback than Joe Montana and John Elway. I'm not in that camp. Stafford in 20 in his in 2020 and 2024 combined had 44 touchdown passes and a 93 passer rating. And then last year had 46 touchdown passes and a 109 rating. He is played this is a sixth year with the Rams. two of them he has been outstanding the other three he was solid one he missed half the year with

injury but not great and this year he's been mediocre and puka's clearly not 100% and stafford's numbers are just he's completing 61% of his passes the it's still super high yards almost 300 yards per game. Six touchdowns, six picks, and 80 passer rating. That would worry me. And so the Rams just

don't look anything close to a juggernaut flatly. And now they prevented full-blown panic, but I don't, if I were judging you based on not giving

you know, preseason bump of what we expected of you. You would list 10 teams who have looked better than the Rams, at least. And huge game for them coming up this weekend against Buffalo. I think it's Monday night. But they just haven't looked great.

All right. Speaking of Buffalo, we'll get to them in just a second. But first, I'll tell you about my friends at Boost Mobile, where you don't have to worry about the problem of everything going up in price because everything is going up in price, rents going up, streaming services are going up, your favorite burrito spots charging you extra for salsa, probably the street sweeper that you're hearing outside my window. He probably could charge in the city more, who knows?

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So what are you waiting for? Come connect with us. Listen to out of character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the IHeart radio app, Apple Pods, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, Damansay, let's talk Pat's bills. So the bills gave up, one, to New England. I feel like sometimes teams get saved by the whole divisional thing because, like, what's been going on with New England, there's no reason that the bills should have been losing that game.

We've been looking at them as contenders, but now if you go and assess the games that they have won, it's like, what have they really done? What do we think about the state of the bills right now? So, again, I'm not going to act like I think they're going to collapse. I think they've got a really solid team that is constantly misanalyzed in the media because of the, damn near at this point fetishization of Josh Allen, the football player. This was a wildly disappointing loss for Buffalo because of the opportunity at hand. The bills could have killed the Patriots season and locked up the division. maybe the Patriots could have recovered and found their way into a wild card.

And again, I still fully expect the bills to win the division. But they could have gotten to 4 and 0. Put the Patriots spiraling at 1 and 3. And especially given the fact that in that first half, Drake May did not seem to have fixed anything. He fumbled twice. He threw a pick. Now, the pick was unlucky, but still.

And the bills were leading at halftime and in real position to put the Patriots away. Be four and O, they're one and three, and you have the first head-to-head win. And instead, the... The simmering issues with Buffalo that have existed all reared their ugly head at the same time. So here's the first one. They simply won't acknowledge that they have a truly elite running back that teams can't deal with because Joe Brady in part got the job because Josh loves him and wants to throw the ball all over the field all the time,

even if it's not what the game demands. All right, so that's the first thing. James Cook 12 carries 75 yards in a game that was back and forth the whole game. That should never happen. Josh, I'll get Josh in a second. The Bill's D-line is very good. But if the D-line doesn't get home, that's secondary, is very shaky and can get got by just about anybody.

And that's how Efton Chisholm, you know, has the catch of the year to beat you. And then there's Josh who has just seemingly decided, I'm just going to play every game full-blown yolo mode. And, you know, I've said this. before. I know I'm right. The combination of the fact that at his core,

he is a wild stallion of a player, wildly reckless, crazy high high, some head scratching moments. Plus, I truly believe that 13 seconds game, like, damn near changing his brain chemistry on like, hey man, like, I can just

I can do anything. All of that has made it to wear he just doesn't have the ability or the self-control to tone it down

when the situation demands it. And you got the full Josh Allen treatment in this game. You got he is the most egregious a guy

lightly bumped into me after the play in the history I've ever seen. You saw that. We all complained a week ago to Monzae about receivers acting and flopping to get calls. Nobody at the quarterback position has ever done it like this guy. And that play in this game was about as embarrassing as anyone I've ever seen. So there is that piece of it. Do you want to say something there before I mean, especially with the quarterback being as protected as they already are. But go ahead. It's unbelievable. So there's that.

The behind the back pass out of the end zone that by any fair reading of the rules was a safety, should have been intentional grounding safety, was, dare I say, will Levesian, Levesse. For real. And then, and this is where, you know, I am a lone wolf in the media. He gets the ball back, down three, with a minute 50 left, and I did not expect him to come through. because it's not that he never comes through in those spots, but he certainly does not excel in those spots.

It is how each of his last three playoff losses have ended, with the ball, down three are tied, got to get a field goal to tie or win last year, or a touchdown to win, and his team's to come away with zero points. Week one this year, he got the ball back,

down, I think, one, if I remember correctly. Yeah, got the ball back, down one, had them in field goal range, and through a lollipop up to Kamari Laster, who dropped it, And then on the very next play, through a laser to Josh Palmer, to win it.

And then in this game, they are facing a second and six with a minute 15 left, 20 yards from field goal range. And he throws into a team meeting. And I get coach Manjini and I went to war over this yesterday because he's like, it wasn't a bad read, it was a bad throat. You don't, you don't have to. take that type of risk on second down with all your timeouts and 20 yards from bilgo range down three and so they lose and so i one other important sneaky note on this

that was stunning to me when i saw it yesterday and i think we'll be stunning to you you guys as well. The Bills in the last, because they all, they had a two point conversion in this game that was failed. You would think the Bills would be a great two point conversion team because Josh is such a great short yardage back himself, plus they have James Cook. That was the 11th two point conversion the Bills have attempted in the last two years. Last year plus this part of this year.

They are two for 11. on those 11 two-point conversion attempts. And far more stunning. They haven't run the ball once. Okay. Yeah, I was just about saying they ran the ball one time. Zero times. Zero times.

Any adult in Kincaid wide open, that would have been a massive spot if you get the two points. Because that was to go up 28, 21. Then when the Patriots score, they don't go, you know what I mean? you almost surely have the ball back tied as opposed to down three and they didn't get it so listen they're probably fine and i get i know it i know how it is i'm just a huge hater josh it was unbelievable the first two weeks of the year and he's a better running back than eric dickerson and he's a better quarterback than patrick mahomes i get that that's just how it works

but since then he turned the ball over three times in a game the rest of his team who he just carries on his back bailed him out and against a Chargers team that can't stop anyone and then he threw a pick with a chance to end the Patriot season

he was still the September champ he's still the you know he's still the you know the greatest and I promise you, if he's awesome on Monday night, we're going to be right back to being to, he's the greatest quarterback any of us have ever seen. He's a great player. But it is stupefying to me about the way his highs are hyperboleed and is low. He's, are what do you want from him? I don't know, man. He's like a damn near a 10-year vet. Not throwing behind your back out of the end zone. Not throwing. And the last thing I'll say,

here is a fair reading of the season for Josh. At least I think it's a fair reading of the season. Week one, phenomenal against Houston. Got a lot of extra credit for that because we assumed the Texans defense was going to awesome. Turns out it's not, but fine. Funomenal. And despite the phenomenal game was very lucky he didn't throw a game losing pick. Week two, lit up the Detroit Lions. The same defense that, Tyler Shuck lit up in week one, Gino Smith lit up in week two, and Bryce Young lit up in week four. But lit him up and played great. Week four, was the weak link on his team against the Chargers to the tune of three turnovers, or week three, pardon me.

And week four played an uneven game against the Pats with a chance in their season and threw a pick to lose it. I get it. He is still the overwhelming MVP favorite on Polly Market. We've never seen a player like him. I did a rant on this on Kevin Clark's podcast, where I, about the media saying he's better, you know, he's going to be better than, if you were a running back, he'd be better than Eric Dickerson.

And then literally the next day, Orlovsky sent out a tweet explaining how he'd be an all pro running back and compared him to Eric Dickerson. Like it was, it was art imitating life, I guess. Or life imitating art. But he is a dynamic, brilliant, fundamentally flawed. odd player that is just going to have to catch good turnover variance at the right time of the year. This is what it is. The Patriots were dead, dude.

They were dead. We were going to be able to write the Patriots off. And on the Patriots, man, like, I just don't. So I guess, I guess Drake May is healthy now. But it wasn't healthy in the first half, healthy in the second half. Like, the Patriots, I don't think the Patriots are. fixed, but they got a lifeline. They got a blood transfusion from this game.

All right. Let's talk about the second best team in the AFC to Monzae. So, yeah, your Jags beat the Bengals and a very meaningful one. Got a stop late on defense late in the game. Trevor's looking good. Defense is looking good. Travis Hunter is effective. You got a pick taking away.

Yes. You said that they were Super Bowl contenders. How much closer to that do you think they are after this last week's game? Listen, I think there's a second best team in the AFC. And I think they're about to go on a nice little run before they have a huge Thursday night game at your Ravens. But the next seven for them to Monzae, they're in a nice stretch.

Home, but not home, but home away from home, in London for the Reeling Eagles. They stay in London for the windless Texans. Then a bye week. Then back home for the Colts. Then at the Ravens, tough. And then how about this three-week stretch in the middle of your year? Off a Thursday night, mini-bye,

before they have to take the arduous track from Jacksonville to Tennessee to face the Titans. then to the Giants, then back home for the Titans. So they're three and one. That next, let's be as pessimistic as possible about that stretch. Worst case scenario, they're going to be seven and four. If they go four and three in this stretch, absolute worst case scenario. They lose to the Eagles, they lose to the Ravens, and they lose another one of them. likely scenario.

They're 5 and 2 in that stretch, and they're sitting at 8 and 3. Absolutely possible scenario. They're 6 and 1 in that stretch, and they're sitting at 9 and 2. Not off the board scenario, which would put me in the awkward spot of, I'd have to start rooting against them. They go 7 and 0, and they're sitting at 10 and 1. because then like the their one seed and all of that is very, very real. And I mean, I and even after that stretch, Desa, it's at Bears, tough, home Steelers, at Texans, at Cowboys, kind of tough. Home commanders at Colts.

Like, they won 13 last year. They can absolutely win 13 again. Trevor's playing out of his mind. Travis Hunter, him playing just corner, has worked. like maybe he's unhappy about it, but he's a sick corner. Making plays. Yeah, making

plays. And Cincinnati, I want to say one thing about Cincinnati in this regard. I think the NFL should adjust a rule. If a player gets knocked out of the game on a hit

that was a dirty hit or a penalty, the player who committed that has to go out of the game too. I know that's sound like Jemar Chase was getting ripped down by his face mask and then gets annihilated. They're evaluating for a minute. It seemed like they were

evaluating that one for longer than usual. They kept saying like he might come back. Yeah. No. But don't they diagnose the concussion so much faster than that? Like I felt like it was like a long time than it passed. I think the way it works is this. I think the way it works is this.

I think in the blue tent they can snap, diagnose you don't have it. But if they're concerned, you do have it after the blue tent, then you have to go to the back for the full test. And so that's, I think that's what it was. T. Higgins also got, yeah, banged up at the end of this game. You know, they can't, they couldn't run the ball at all for Cincinnati.

And the, the Bengals after the hot start, I think we now can downgrade them to, you know, They're fine. They're not great. They're not bad. They're fine. They're going to, you know, they're going to beat the dolphins in Miami this week. They then get a buy week.

They then have that game against the Ravens we were talking about. And then, you know, so they're going to be fine all year. I don't know that they're a well-rounded enough team to be a real contender. We'll see. But the last two weeks had to have been very disappointing for them. All right, DeMonse, let's get to some other stuff quickly before we go. Houston and Tampa Bay entered this year as favorites to win their divisions. They are both struggling.

Houston's defense is not nearly what it was last year. And the Bucks have an undrafted rookie quarterback for the next three to six weeks. Do you think that these teams are winless or are they hopeless? Listen, the Bucks, it feels like haven't won in years. Yeah. And they have been in all these games and found ways to lose. You can't expect that Jalen Daniels is going to be able to keep up with Dak and this Cowboys offense on Thursday night.

So it might just be all she wrote for them. Like you fall to 0 and 5, even when Baker comes back, you might just be dead. So they might be hopeless. It's a bummer for me. They were my, you know, I picked them to win 11 games. They don't have that tough of a schedule, but you can't start. Only one team ever has started O and four and made the playoffs, the 92 Chargers. Nobody's ever started O and five, and they are staring O'N5 right in the face.

So that obviously is a huge problem. The Texans are such a weird one to Monzae because CJ's playing really well. He hasn't turned the ball over. You go back is huge, I feel like, but, I still feel like they're air done in my... O-N-4 is O-N-4. Now they, we can go ahead and pencil them in for that they're actually one and four as they're at Tennessee this week. But here's the problem.

And here's where D'Amico Ryan has to be pulling his hair out, figuratively, not literally. They have... Here's been the situation. they were in. Up one against the bills three minutes left kicking off.

Or maybe not even kicking off. I'm not sure if they were maybe they were punting. It doesn't matter. They had to be punting. The bills have the ball down one with three minutes left at their own four yard line. And the bills drive the length

of the field for the game winning touchdown. Week three against the Colts, they score a touchdown to take the lead with a minute 48 left. Get a stop and you win. Now, the Colts only go 29 yards. I understand it's hard these days to keep guys out of field goal range. But the defense, get a stop, you win the game. The Colts get in field goal range.

And last week against Dallas, they score a touchdown with two and a half minutes left to go up three. And DAC drives the length of the field. They can't cover CD-LAM the entire game. So three of their four losses, DeMonse, they have had the lead at the two-minute warning. Get a stop defense. So, like, that's just for a team that was such a team. dominant defense last year. That's devastating. It's hard to call them Stone hopeless because you feel like the defense should be able to be better. And CJ's been good. But O and 4 is O and 4, man.

We should talk a little bit about the Cowboys side of this. So the Cowboys are now slim favorites to win the NFC East. How much do you trust them? Not at all. Trust the offense entirely. Don't trust the defense at all. Like, they're just going to just going to have to win shootouts. They, this year in their losses, they have scored 20 and 31. In their wins, they've scored

37 and 34. They are yet to allow, like, their points allowed a game are 28, 20, 34, 30. So I just don't think you can be a real contender that way. They,

I picked him to miss the playoffs. They absolutely can make the playoffs. Dax's playing great. C. Lee Lamb's coming off the game of his career. But they, that defense, they can't fix it. They just can't fix it. And Green Bay, their side of it, they keep their season alive. But right now I don't feel like the Packers do anything well.

Maybe Micah comes back and saves the day entirely. but they just, I guess, just hope to tread water until Micah comes back. I expect that they are going to get beat up by the Bears this weekend. The music you love. Your favorite radio stations. Everywhere you go. The podcasts everyone's talking about. All in one place.

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IHart radio app today I'm Hamza And I'm Martin And we're the hosts Of Character It's a podcast I know There's a lot of them

to listen to these days How are you gonna get to us Well there's a specific reason Why you should listen to us We are the best podcast In the entire world I swear I know, bold

But why don't we list some of the things we might talk about on a regular episode. So sometimes we'll talk about, I don't know, the Uber driver we just had. And how nice they were, or if we tipped them or not, come and find out. Sometimes we'll talk about that weird news story from last week. It's the one you're thinking about, trust me. Or maybe we'll talk about music and what's happening in the underground or drama in music

or TV shows or the Met Gala and what the actors wore. What we're saying is we're not afraid to talk about everything under the sun. And if you want to see what that's like, come join us. It's a place where everyone can hang out, anyone. Wherever you're from, whatever you're like, you're welcome. Listen out of character from Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Pods, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's go to Sunday night football quickly.

You said the Detroit wouldn't win a game that they didn't score 30 in. That has been proven to be true so far. They lose to Bryce Young and the Panthers, who's surprised in the defense, could not get anything done. how seriously should we be taking the Lions at this moment? Not at all. I mean, everything I just said about the Cowboys applies to them. You got to score 30 to win.

And like the Cowboys, they can make the playoffs, but they are no real threat. Golf has been playing well. Gibbs is obviously awesome. Amon Ross St. Brown's probably one of the more underrated top-flight receivers in the league. but the defense is getting and getting Brian Branch back is not going to fix it. By the way, sidebar, I think Terry and Arnold's going to like go to prison for like 10 years or something. It's a really brutal situation. Someone, one of the guys in that case, just took a plea deal that got him 10 years.

And part of that deal is he has. has to testify against Arnold. Like I, I, I, I'm gonna, this is like a kind of a fatherly moment I'm gonna have with my son on the pod right now. Whenever I see stuff like this from someone who I don't, again, I don't know Terry and Arnold, but I don't think he was like a master criminal. I don't think, I, I don't think he has a track record of like he was always doing awful stuff. Again, I could be dead. happened to him yeah someone did so yes and so like i'm just doing this like generic i'm just generically speaking here using this as an example but i and so and i also to be clear you know even in my worst

17 to 21 year old phase of my life when i did a lot of reckless stuff was never a bad guy like i know that sounds ridiculous but i was never like a harmful bad person but I did a lot of very reckless stuff and hung out with, let's just call it a tough crowd at times, folks that were, you know, on the margins, what do you call on the margins of society at times? I still get like a tight feeling in my chest

when I see stories like this. I'm like, Jesus, man. Everything was going fine. Everything was going great for this guy. He made like a bad decision that then cascaded. And I know he's, not the victim here again people are either hearing this and they're either getting what i'm saying because they can relate to or they they're not but it's just like made a bad decision that then just

cascaded from bad to worse to worse to worse and it's like i i hate to use these terms but not life over but this portion of your life over like your all of your youth over and it like me it like made like and it just i'm not saying if not for the grace of god there go i like i never tried to orchestrate like a kidnapping or robbery operation but um i don't think he thought he was doing that again i don't know what he thought he was doing but i think in his head it's like these guys stole from me we're getting it back exactly and again weapons are involved there's other like i it's a weird p i think i think at least 25% of the audience knows exactly what i'm trying to say here. But I just think back to the dumb situations I could have been in, you know, honestly,

before I met your mom, like before I kind of got my life straight. And again, I was never a bad guy. But before I started being a responsible adult, like, oh, man, like, geez, I just, I, every, every update on this story gives me anxiety. Yeah. And like, I, oh, one thing can really erase a lot of good work oh a lot man yeah it's like a real real lesson that one one great doing something great or kind or charitable or whatever cannot while you should do it one great decision it's very very difficult for one great decision to define your life other than maybe like decided to have a kid Like, that's a separate thing. Yeah.

But one bad decision can define it. Like, a singular bad decision, a singular bad evening can define your life. Um, sorry, I noticed what's wrong about the lions, but that Terry and Arnold thing. I was like, a guy, one of his co-conspirators thinks he's so dead to rights. He's like, I'll just take the 10 years. I'll just, just, I'm so afraid that of how. clearly cooked we are. Yeah. That I'll just take the 10 years.

It's like what happened in there, bro? Like, you come to them with, I, like, I see somebody, somebody pleads to four years. And it's like, all right, his lawyer probably tells him, right, four years. You've already served nine months leading up to it with good behavior. We can lop off this. Two years, maybe more than this. Like, you're two years, like maybe, maybe in 50. You tell us, all of a sudden, it starts being told to you in months. It's like another 22 months. And it's like, all right, 22 months like 10 years holy smoke and it was like yes i i raised my hand and i accept the 10 years holy smokes man he's a 6 man man he's gonna miss it he's gonna miss the whole thing uh man oh man

all right let's do the quick hitters please uh cleveland defeats pittsburgh 27 24 classic one by me alan kirk just being like you know what america wants tonight a Deshawn Watson redemption story. Sweet Christ, man. Listen, I am not arguing that every time he plays football, we have to relitigate

the, I think, 40-something credible sexual assault allegations. I'm not saying that. And I'm not saying he's not allowed to play in the NFL. I am the... I'm not saying any of them.

way, dude. But acting, if you didn't know the story and you just watched the broadcast, you might be like, oh, man, was he like jailed for a crime? He didn't commit? Like, did he, like, was he, was he dealing with a significant health issue that he overcame? And Tony Gonzalez, is great chief and a guy I've never had like I've always liked him talking about this great redemption story. No, it is fucking not. And again, I am not arguing he should be banned from the league. Maybe he should, maybe he shouldn't have been, but that ship is sailed. And I am not arguing that every time he plays, we have to go through all of it for the audience.

I'm not arguing any of that. But it shouldn't be a heroic return. turn. Like, I swear, Plexico Burris didn't get this deification when he started playing again after he went to jail for shooting himself in the leg because a gun slipped out of his sweatpants at a New York City nightclub. People were kind of like, dope your back, kind of your own fault you were gone. At least what he did only hurt him. Like, the, I don't think it's so weird. And I just knew that that broadcast was going to do that. All you got to do is this. You know what? Again, I'm no broadcast coach, but here's some free advice for whatever the next Deshaun Watson story is.

If you want to acknowledge it at all. Here's Deshaun Watson. You know, a lot of people thought this offseason his career was over. after coming to Cleveland with a under very controversial circumstances after being accused of some really horrific crimes to the tune of the NFL suspending him for the majority of his first season with the Browns has had an injury riddled not even up and down tenure with the Browns prior to this just downs poor play injuries and this off season seem to really get on the wrong side of the fans.

In one of the most surprising stories of the young season, the Browns are three and one. Deshawn is playing the best football he's played since he was a Texan, and it's possible that a lot of those fans who were vociferously booing him in the preseason might actually be cheering him tonight. Second and seven. That's fucking all.

That's all you got to do. Some of this stuff is not that hard vote. um browns beat the steelers for the fans i think that if you're going to boo him you need to be booing him all the time i don't think that you boo him when you guys are losing i think for those fans that are booing him for what you're booing him for like i think you got to be a little bit more consistent just because he's went a couple games doesn't change what you're so that part i that part i totally agree with which is if you're if you're a fan that was like listen it's an art not the artist

I actually don't care what type of human beings these guys are I'm not separate I only no no but I'm saying if you are a fan who was saying I was I don't care what you do off the field I don't care about any of that I was booing you because you're a bad quarterback

but now you're a good quarterback go ahead and cheer that's fine but if you were someone that claimed no this is I find you morally repugnant I don't want you represent my team, then yes, you can't be like, but we're three and one playing all right. Like, no, that part, I totally agree with you on. And the Steelers, after such a nice high for the Steelers, where Rogers played one of the best

games he's played, gosh, in the last four years, back down to earth against, against the Browns, who have a good young defense and, you know, they've drafted some good players. All right, very quick on these other games. Colts defeat Washington 30 to 13 in London. I got up for this game in Vegas. Damn. 6.30 in the morning. I got up and watched this game.

Again, had a little trouble sleeping due to the terrible craps run. Waking and dreaming about the craps. They're like, oh, God, no, I did lose it all. But Colts looked good. Cults, week one, lose to the Ravens. Week two, play the Chiefs tough since then. You know, that's a tough opening two games. They probably expected, really, to be old.

into there they're alive um washington they're going to get jaden back and see what's what next uh san francisco defeats denver 24 14 n francisco serious san francisco serious purdy playing his ass off hasn't been sacked yet this year pretty remarkable um the just playing great mcalfrey hasn't been great their weapons haven't been great he's been great the defense has been way better than I expected. Meanwhile, do you know, did you see this? Do you know how many first half points Denver has scored this season? I'd guess it's somewhere around 14.

Wow. 13. 13. Okay. Dude. You're averaging 3.3 points in the first half this year? That's really, like that's... They're a second half team, man.

That's a problem. That's a real problem. problem. And I don't know if it's going to cost Davis Webb his job or not, but the Broncos this year have played, we're now up to 16 quarters. They've played well in three of them.

Fourth quarter against the Jags, second half against the Rams. They were bad for all four. Now they have played the most brutal schedule imaginable. Chiefs, Jags, Rams, Niners. So Chiefs and Niners are undefeated. Jags

are great. The Rams will see. they get a little respite with the Chargers this week, and then they get the Seahawks. So, like, the Broncos really just needed to tread water early in the year. They're doing that, but the offense and Bo Nicks do not look good at all. Next. Seattle defeats the Chargers 30 to 23. Chargers have lost seven games in a row.

They've scored 16 or fewer points in all of those games, except for this one where they got garbage time points. Herbert was absolutely brutal for the first three quarters of this game. And Seattle, I let them back in a bit late, but Seattle was in total full control. Seattle, that one loss was a blip on the radar. They were like, all right, it's hard to win 13, 14, 15 games in a row. Seattle's great.

The chargers are awful. And I think Harbaugh might bounce. Harbaugh does not have history of, dealing with it. Yeah, no. Like, all right, well, that's not what it is. Next. Minnesota defeats Miami 15 to 10.

Disgusting. At some point, we do have to ask the question of, have folks just been wrong about quarterback whisperer Kevin O'Connell? Okay? Kurt Cousins was played at a high level under Mike Zimmer. Kevin O'Connell got around the same level of play out of them. Then Sam Darnold's there. It's like, oh, my God, look what he got out of Sam Darnold.

Sam Darnold was just as good the following year. Couldn't make it word of J.J. McCarthy. They had bad offense last year. This year, in the last three weeks, they have scored 9, 23, and 15, and it's all field goals. Will Rikert, in the last three weeks, has 32 points in the, and like, the office. I think has six. Like, I think they've scored one offensive touchdown in the last three weeks. Brian Flores has been unbelievable.

That offense is so bad. Listen, I understand you're a four and O team and you have the Saints, then you have the Colts, then you have the Lions, like, you might be able to keep winning. But Kevin O'Connell's got to figure out how to get more out of Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray, by the way, who I understand, back when we were wearing masks, he threw a sick Hail Mary to DeAndre Hopkins. But everything that's happened since then has been evidence he's not a great quarterback. All right, next.

Chicago defeats the Jets 23 to 12. Listen, Ben Johnson might be a smug, arrogant guy. But they have 450 yards of offense every single game, and it doesn't matter who's playing quarterback. It's pretty good. I mean, doing it with Keenham, then with Bayton. In this game, to Monza, they had more first downs than the Jets had plays. they had more first they had 34 first downs the jets had 32 plays um and then yeah the giants go ahead do the last one uh giants defeat arizona 36 24 oh and two reps were suspended for unprofessional

conduct yeah well the one that said f uf you was crazy um yeah he said to tray mcbride he kept saying f u to tray mcbride was caught on camera and suspended for two games It was crazy. Yeah, I mean, a ref. Yeah, go on. You can't be. The other ref was, the other ref one, Demonsé, if you haven't seen the video, I know you so, it will make you so mad. He's in the middle of the field of Vikings players trying to play defense.

And he pushes him over. Runs into him, knocks him over. And then the ref gets super mad at him. Yeah. The refs starts yelling. I'm like, what do you? Oh, so you did see it. Football field.

Yeah, no, I definitely saw it. It was. Yeah. It's crazy. Um, Giants Cardinals. My only takeaway on this game is this. If you teased the Cardinals and lost on the pick six as time expired, thoughts with you. I don't have many other thoughts. And the Giants are three and one.

And, you know, given the Cowboys defense and the Eagles issues, maybe the Giants are, maybe the Giants are legit. But this was, I was not locked into that game Sunday morning in Vegas. There were too many other good games. All right. This is a super long show. I got to go do Colin Coward, like right now. Great job, Blue Duck and Volume. Thank you to Polly Market and to Boost.

See you guys on Thursday. See you on with Colin like a half hour. I got to run. See you guys. What's right? This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.