The Josh Innes Show - Are The Packers The Best Team in NFC?

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

USA Today has a story about the Packers being Super Bowl favorites. People have lost their minds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Start winning. Winners, find fabulous for less. Well, I've made the mistake of looking at USA today. Now, maybe some of you are listening and you say, Josh, that's not a mistake at all. Because we love when you read USA Today and get angry about the dumb shit you read in USA today. It's kind of my trademark on the podcast because I don't have a co-host. I don't have phone calls.

I don't have any of that. So it's just me and things that I find interesting or want to talk about or yell about or whatever. But following up on the previous pod about Micah Parsons, this headline reads, Micah Parsons trade to Packers automatically makes them Super Bowl contenders. I disagree. But if you go back to the initial headline, and this is the headline on the main page, opinion. Packers are NFC's best team following Micah Parsons' trade.

Well, let's talk about why that's bullshit, and we will do that after these words. The idea that the Packers go from just being in, oh, they're just the Packers, and they're just kind of hanging out to Super Bowl contender because they added a linebacker that's really good is preposterous. But I will read the story, and I will engage because you have my attention. Congratulations, USA Today. You've drawn me in, and now I'm curious. The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions sustain their place as the class of the NFC during the 2025 offseason. The Los Angeles Rams and Washington commanders occupied the next tier where the Green Bay Packers joined them entering the 2025 season.

Boy, I read that terribly. Let me see if I – look, my brain didn't work reading that. Let me try rereading that here. I'm going to reread that. The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions sustained their place as the class of the NFC during the... Oh, you know why? First of all, they put the word during in this story twice. Congratulations, USA Today.

Do you not have somebody... It's one thing if it's on a shitty, like, rock radio station website. You are the nation's newspaper and we get typos. Christ! The Los Angeles Rams in Washington, commanders occupied the next tier where the Green Bay Packers joined them entering the 2025 NFL season. But the pack elevated themselves into that premier tier, if not all the way to the top, following

Thursday's blockbuster trade with the Dallas Cowboys for edge rusher and linebacker Micah Parsons. Then let me ask you this. If Micah Parsons is that big of a fucking deal, then why weren't the Cowboys the number one team in the NFC? There isn't some sort of huge divide between the talent on the Packers and the talent on the Cowboys. Like, it's not like 90. They're all pros, first of all.

So this isn't college where you're like, well, that's the difference between LSU and, like, you know, South Florida or Florida A&M or something. Like, they're all pros. Like, I don't look at the Cowboys roster, which isn't incredible, but I don't look at the Cowboys roster and go, well, that Packers roster is just exponentially better. So then why weren't the Cowboys a Super Bowl favorite? But now there. Tell me, oh, because of Jordan Love? Please tell me what Jordan Love is done. He's a stat gobbler who can't stay healthy.

Please enlighten me about Jordan Love. Well, then you would say, well, Josh, tell me about Dak. You would be absolutely right. Dak is a stat pattern that can't stay healthy. Tell me what the difference between those two guys is. Please. Oh, well, the Cowboys have a first-year head coach. Cool.

But like top to bottom, these are all NFL teams. and one of them is not amazing, and the one was just totally void of talent. Let me look at it. I'll continue this story, but it's amazing the overreactions people have. Again, we go back to the 2004 or 2004 Eagles. You're one piece away, and it's an obvious piece you're missing, and if you get that piece, you feel like you're moving in the right direction. That's one thing.

I don't believe that adding this player to this team automatically, makes you that good of a team. Most notably because you're not guaranteed to make an impact on every play. When the offense has the ball, they can make an offensive player have an impact because they have the ball. Teams can scheme you out of situations. Again, not that Michael Parsons isn't going to be involved in plays, but when someone adds a defensive player, I just don't look at it the same way, unless it's like a pass

rusher. I mean, not that Michael Parsons is, I should say, like a defensive line edge rusher type a guy. But you can avoid linebackers. But anyway, point being in all of this, currently the Packers have the second best odds of winning the NFC, according to Fandool. The Eagles are still the favorite at plus 380. So please let me know how the Eagles are plus 380 in Vegas, yet they're not as good as the Packers, who haven't won dick. It's not like the Eagles got exponentially worse this offseason, please let me know what the Packers have ever done with Jordan Love that would make you believe that the Packers are going to be like this cock of the

walk team. And the Packers are now tied with the Lions. And look, the NFC is open. Like, look, the Eagles are the best team because they're the defending champs. Do I think they're going to win it again? I don't know, maybe. But if you look at the NFC, it's not like when you look at the AFC and you're like, well, it's either going to be Baltimore or the Bills or the chiefs and somehow it's going to end up being the chiefs. And like, it's not like that, right? It's not like where there's three obvious teams. Like the Eagles are an obvious team.

It's also not very deep in the NFC. Like the AFC is deeper in terms of teams that have a higher variance of who could be good and who can be bad, right? Like, you could see a scenario where the Bengals stay healthy and Joe Burroughs got him in the AFC championship game because he's Joe Burrow and because he's got weapons and they kept Trey Hendrickson. I don't think that's going to be the case because I think the offensive line is still really bad

and I don't trust the defense but you could see a situation where they're able to outslug a lot of people and Joe can get them deep into the playoffs. You can see a world where year two of Bo Nix with Sean Payton like the AFC West is going to be very good. Even the Raiders who are at the bottom of it have Pete Carroll and Gino can sling it a little bit

but the Broncos get another year of Bo Nix where they were already a good team last year with him. The Chargers were a good team last year, and if they can keep Justin Herbert healthy, they're a team that can win games, and then there's the Chiefs. So the AFC West will be good. But you look at the way the AFC shapes out, and you've got the Texans. I'm iffy on the Texans. I just have a bad feeling.

Not that they're going to lose 10 games. They're probably a playoff team. But I have a weird feeling about them. You don't hear a ton about them. I love D'Amico, but I don't know how good of a coach he is. I really like CJ, but I don't know how. good CJ is. I don't know.

The Texans are weird to me. We'll get into that more next week. But you can see a scenario where 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. And I throw the Jaguars in there as well. Look, you can say there's an outside shot that if all things go right with Miami, which they won't. They'll fire the coach during the season. It seems like it's going to be a disaster.

But let's say that Tua's brain doesn't get rattled around on his skull. You could see a scenario where they could throw for 5,000 yards. and they still have weapons on offense. And they're in a division that outside of the bills is not good, right? Look at the AFC East. The Jets are not particularly good. You've got the bills in the AFC East. And then what?

The Patriots? Like, no. So if you look in the AFC East, could you see a scenario where the dolphins become a playoff team that can be scary? A lot of things have to go right, and they probably won't. But there is a variant in there where you can go, okay, I could see that happening. You don't see a ton of that in the NFC.

Like, you know the clear-cut teams in the AFC. In the NFC, like the Packers are tied with the Lions for the second best odds to win. You go down and like you start looking at the bottom of the NFC, like the Saints, the Giants, the Panthers, the Falcons, the Cowboys, the Seahawks, the Bears, the Cardinals, the Vikings, all those teams don't have any shot. I start seeing teams that have a shot with maybe like Tampa. If they can sling it around like they've done in the past and they're going to win that division, I could see Tampa and they've won playoff games. Like they're a solid like Baker's been good. They could.

The commanders could. I don't buy the Rams. Like the Rams are at plus 1,000. I really like Matt Stafford, but who knows how healthy Matt Stafford actually is? Now that division's not particularly great either. I mean, you've obviously got the 49ers who are now. the favorite in that division but outside of that i don't think seattle's a viable threat and who am i missing in the west and i don't think you know the rams are fine 49ers are fine

seattle is like i don't know like the nfc's weird to me i don't know it's like i could see any of one two three four five six seven teams going to the super bowl legitimately right and those would be Tampa the commanders actually I take that back because I don't see the Rams doing it so one two three four five six mostly because I don't think Stafford's going to hold up so I can see six teams I look at the AFC and legitimately in the AFC you'd go Ravens bills chiefs of the ones and then I would throw the bangles in there like I think the Broncos could be good and can get in and could beat somebody in the playoffs but I don't view the Broncos the Texans the Chargers the Steelers or the Jaguars as teams that can win the Super Bowl. But I see them all as teams that if they got in could beat somebody. But it's truly top heavy, Ravens, Bills, Chiefs. And then Bengals are kind of with an asterisk going, is Joe Burrow healthy?

What's the deal there? Anyway, I know it's kind of all over the place on that. And I don't know that I feel like continuing this stupid story about how now the Packers are automatically the best team now in the NFC because they added Micah Parsons. Come on. to me this does not feel like i keep going back to 2004 eagles this does not feel like oh they added t-o best receiver in the game obvious gigantic missing piece a guy that's going to touch the ball a ton

and impact the game a ton like there are times that a defensive player will not impact the game it is almost impossible for a star offensive player to not make some impact on the game but there can be times that a star defensive player doesn't so anyway all right we have got more to come