The Josh Innes Show - NFL Week 3 Preview

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Let's take a look at the NFL Week 3 schedule and give our first thought about each game. Will Jalen Hurts ever be able to throw the ball? Will Cincy/Minn be the best game of the weekend? Can the Cowboys stop anyone? Will the Texans save their season? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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starting at 17 grams per medium latte tim's new protein lattes protein without all the work at participating restaurants in canada all right everybody let's take a look at the matchups for week three in the NFL just first thoughts off the top of your head take a look and let's look of the matchup. She got Green Bay is at Cleveland. Green Bay is a seven and a half point favorite in the game. Green Bay may be the best team in the NFL. Green Bay, to me, has been the most impressive team in the NFL through the first two weeks of the year. But it's also just two fucking weeks, right? They dominated the Lions, and they've dominated, they've dominated twice. They've played really good football. Defensively has been the biggest thing that stood out.

I mean, look at what the Lions were able to do last week against the Bears, and juxtapose that to what the Lions were doing against Green Bay, which was nothing. They said, they scored one garbage touchdown against Green Bay. They were smoked. Green Bay may just be legitimate defensively, and if you combine that legit defense with maybe Jordan Love figuring the whole thing out, they are scary. That said, it's been two weeks. The whole world is like all over Green Bay and oh my God, how good is Green Bay?

And I'm listening to sports radio and they're the best team in the NFL. Who gives a shit who the best team in the NFL is through two weeks? You know who the best team in the NFL was last year through two weeks? The New Orleans Saints. They won like five games last year. Like shit changes. Things can change real fast. The competition you play matters.

There's a bunch of factors that go into stuff, right? So let's just pump the brakes just a little bit on Green Bay being this juggernaut. But Green Bay is good and they are talented. What's fascinating about Green Bay is they don't have like a true elite receiver. That's one of the other things that stands out to me about them is like they don't have, you know, a huge name guy. Like Romeo Dobbs is fine. And, like, they got guys that are nice, but they don't have one stud. Like, there's not a D.K. Metcalf or there's not an A.J. Brown or a Nico Collins or somebody that's like a big name dude, you know.

But I just think Green Bay is probably going to beat the shit out of Cleveland, although it's at Cleveland. And, you know, Joe Flacco and I like Joe Flacco. But I do think Green Bay is legit. But this could be a slip-up spot for them, too, because the whole world's blowing them. And you're going on the road to face a team that needs to win. So it could be tougher than people think. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure.

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This is going to be interesting, too, because the Colts are going on the road. I believe this would be the first time they're going on the road. This is their first road game after playing two home games. really the matchups they've had have been very favorable for them. Miami's not very good, obviously. And, you know, the Colts are set up in a spot now where you've played back-to-back home games with your new quarterback.

The Broncos are a good team. I don't want to write off the Broncos. But they've played the Broncos, and they played the Dolphins. That was a good game with the Broncos. Broncos missed a big field goal, obviously. But there was still a good game played by Daniel Jones. but now he's away from home. It's a bad Titans team.

This team's only a four and a half point favorite against one of the worst teams in the league. I think this ends up being a competitive game, and I would not be shocked if the Titans end up winning the game. I don't think it's going to happen, but I would not be shocked if it did happen. The Bengals are at Minnesota. This could sneakily be a good game, okay?

I get where, you know, you look at the quarterback matchup and you're like, wow, it's Carson Wince versus Jake Browning, and I can see where that'd be a matchup that would make you go, this is gross. Jake Browning has played meaningful football with Cincinnati. He's not just some stiff they threw in there. Do you see what they did offensively when he came in? And maybe part of that was the defense was surprised. They were used to Joe Burrow and now you got Jake Browning.

But Jamar Chase was a beast. And Jamar Chase is still there and is still a beast. And Carson Wentz, for all of his faults and you can hate him or whatever, but Carson Wentz is still a guy that's won significant games in the NFL. So I think this has potential to be sneakily a good game. In fact, I would rather watch Carson Wens play quarterback for Minnesota than J.J. McCarthy. I will make an argument that Minnesota will be a better football team with Carson

Wins than J.J. McCarthy. And I think Cincinnati, while not better without Joe Burrow, you don't get better when you lose that good of a player. I don't think Jake Browning is inept. I've watched him play when Joe Burrow was hurt. I guess it would have been last year. Was it last year that Burrow was hurt again? Browning's been fine when he's had the opportunity to play.

Like he's not Joe Burrow, but he's fine. I think people are going to look at this game like, oh boy, look at this quarterback matchup. The novice would look at that and say that. But the person that really pays attention, that's going to be a good football game. I think that has potential to be a back and forth slinging around the yard. That sneakily is going to be a good football game. If I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong, but I'm putting my money on that being a great fucking game. Pittsburgh and New England, New England needs to win.

They're at home. The biggest takeaway from this is Aaron Rogers was very, very good in week one and was not good in week two. Who is this 40-something-year-old Aaron Rogers that we are watching play football, right? And also, New England doesn't need to win. They won last week. So, I mean, they beat the Dolphins. They were fine.

They're one-in-one. It's not the end of the world. Pittsburgh, you could argue, needs to win more. I guess they're one-in-one as well. Really what I want to see out of this is who is Aaron Rogers? Because he was really good against the Jets, but as it turns out, the Jets are dog shit. So who is Aaron Rogers? we'll see.

Pittsburgh, shockingly, Pittsburgh is bad defensively. Just horrific defensively. So this game could have potential to be a back and forth. I think what we're going to see from Pittsburgh is there are going to be a lot of 31, 27, 33, 24s, like a lot of games with points. And Drake may can throw it around the yard. This has potential to be a high, like the over under in this game is 44.5. That's not a huge over under.

I mean, in the NFL, it is what it is, you know, compared to some of the other games that are in the low 40s. This game has potential to be a high scoring game. The Rams at Philadelphia are the Eagles going to figure it out passing the ball? I'm not a Jalen Hertz guy. I defend Jalen Hertz on here against people in Philly because the guy does win. Like you're not going to shit on a guy for winning. And I'm not going to do lazy topics about Jalen Hertz, you know, being bad or whatever. As long as he wins, he's good for what you do there. If I were starting a team tomorrow, he'd be near the bottom of quarterbacks I'd want to take. If you gave me me, my pick if it were an expansion draft

and I couldn't take Burrow. That's actually an interesting conversation. Like imagine there was an expansion draft. Now you couldn't take the top 10 quarterbacks in the league. So whoever you want to call the top 10 quarterbacks in the league right now. So you had to take

let's write this down, who we think are probably the top 10 quarterbacks in the league right now. You would probably go with, I mean, Josh Allen, obviously. There's one. Mahomes. Okay, so Alan, Pat, you'd go with even these guys that are

there's going to be guys that are in the top 10 that are not nearly as accomplished in terms of winning football games as Jalen Hurts but you would probably go with we would go with Herbert so Herb would be in there I mean I guess you could throw in Stroud potentially in there I mean I'm just trying to think of the guys who

you know DAC I don't know like Burrow well Burrow would obviously be in there so you'd have Burrow you'd have Herb let's see who am I missing among like the guys that were obvious selections. I mean, Matt Stafford, you could argue, is still the top 10 guy? But let's say you can't take, like, the obvious dues,

even if it were the top five guys. Like, you couldn't take Mahomes, Borough, Allen. Like, the top three there, Justin Herbert, who's a super talented guy. Like, you could not take those guys. But in your expansion draft, you could take the rest. How far down on that list would you have to go

to get to Jalen Hurd? I find that's an interesting discussion to me because this is a guy that won the Super Bowl has been to another Super Bowl and they're going to be guys like if you gave a coach today the option to take Bo Knicks or Jalen Hertz to start a team who do you think they're taken I'd say they're taking Bo Nicks and you could say well Bo Nix is a product of Sean Peyton maybe but if there were a team start a franchise and you had to take a quarterback today who would you take and you couldn't take you know the top five or six guys like they're locked in, you cannot take them.

Or I should have thrown Lamar in there as well. So Lamar would be in that list of guys you couldn't take. There'd be about five or six guys that are just untouchable dudes. Like the dudes that are considered like the elites of elites. Mahomes, Borough, Allen, guys like that. Lamar, how far down would Jalen Hertz be? Like, even if you don't want to put Herbert in the elite category, because that makes sense, I think he's good, but whatever.

I think Jordan Love would fall into that. same category of not elite. So they, everybody would take, they would take love. They would take, they would certainly take Herbert. I think they would take Bo Nix. I think they would take, I mean, just keep going, they would take Michael Pennix probably over Jalen Hertz, which seems ridiculous. But if you're looking for a quarterback, not a guy who runs around and quarterback sneaks

seven times a game, if you're looking for a guy that needs to throw you the football. like if you need any greater indictment on the dude look at the weapons he's got and look at the passing yards he puts up you're the quarterback the job is ultimately to throw the ball and he's not good at it so is he going to figure it out going back to this game is he going to figure that out but more than likely this is going to be a game where he throws for 145 yards and they grind out the game late and win by you know seven eight points against a solid Rams team and that's how that game's going to finish out they'll have the ball for like nine minutes that's 10 minutes in the fourth quarter and grind the game out. They're not a fun team to watch. You talk about watchability. That is not a fun team to watch, and their games tend to be boring. Let's see, the Jets and Tampa. I wonder how Tampa bounces back on a short week.

Jets are desperate, but Tampa's at home. Tampa should win this game. But it could be a game where you're surprised by how close it is. Tampa is a six and a half point favorite, but they played a grinded out last possession game against the Texans, went into late Monday, short week. Jets are desperate. Could be a scenario where the Jets kind of keep it close,

but I don't see the Jets winning. Hard to get a read on the Raiders in Washington. Like even when I do Prop to You Drop here in a little bit, like there are no receiving or passing yards up for anybody. So I don't really have any kind of vibe on this game. Kind of curious to see what the quarterback situation is like for Washington. But other than that, like kind of a mad game to me. Atlanta, Carolina

should smoke these cats. I get that Carolina came back and made the game interesting against Arizona. I think Atlanta's a solid team, and I really like Michael Pennix, and I think Pennix is due to have a big game, which he didn't have on Sunday night. I think he's going to have a good game. I think Carolina stinks, and

I think Atlanta's going to sling it around and really make Carolina look bad this weekend. Texans and Jacksonville, again, Texans are desperate for a win as well. Jacksonville, not as I don't think anybody in that division is great. I don't think Indianapolis as good as their 2-0 record would indicate. I think Jacksonville is fine.

I don't think the Texans are as bad as their 0-2 record is. It's going to be a competitive division race. But it is a must-win for the Texans. If you are a believer in 0-3 means your season is over, then you have to go to Jacksonville and find a way to beat the Jaguars. And can C.J. Stroud figured out his passing yardage numbers have been bad. outside of that initial drive on Monday night, he was not very good. The offensive line is dreadful.

Nico Collins will make a player to a game, but he's not a guy to me that's a consistent 7-8 catches a game guy like you need to be. The other receivers need to step up. So must win. That's the first thing that I think of. And I think of the Texans and the Jaguars is must win for Houston, and they have to. Denver and L.A. I think is going to be potentially the game of the afternoon, the game of the Sunday. I love Herbert.

I've grown to really like Bo Nix. I didn't think he was going to be shit, but he and Sean Payton together have kind of formed this crew. Nix hasn't been as good this year to start so far, but he's fine. I like this game a lot. I love Herbert. I love Ladd McConkey. I love the Chargers. I just love everything about him.

So I circle that game and go. I think this has potential to be the game of the day. Saints at Seattle. Seattle should wipe the floor with the Saints. They were competitive in a couple of games at home. this should be like the real reality I don't think the Seattle's very good they're fine but this should be like

a reality check for the Saints like fans of the Saints who are like hey look we were competitive in the first two games and you know maybe we'll win a couple I think this will be the day that like come Monday Saints fans will finally be like oh no we're fucking terrible because I think they've convinced themselves like hey we're more

competitive than we thought we would be we were in one possession games in the first two weeks yeah at home and you had the ball with a chance to win in both of games and didn't get it done. Now you go on the road, tough place to play. I guess a solid, an okay team. I don't think they're great. I think they might wipe the floor with the Saints, and this will be the moment that it's like, oh yeah, the Saints are not good at all. Dallas at Chicago. I would not be surprised if the Bears win this. And I think this game,

much like last week's Dallas game, I think this is going to be a shootout. I mean, look at the over under. It's 50 and a half. It's the largest over under of the day. So it's not shocking to say this. Dallas can't stop anybody. The Bears can't stop anybody. There's wide receiver talent all over the field in this game. Roma Dunzee, DJ Moore, C.D. Lamb, George Pickens. You got good offensive minds going at it with Ben Johnson. I think this game is going to be shootout city. I think most Cowboys games are going to be shootouts.

You're going to be dealing with a lot of 40 to 38 type games with Dallas. So I think this game's going to be fun. Take the over. Take a lot of the wide receiver prop stats. That game has all the makings. Arizona's at San Francisco. Even though Purdy may or may not play It's looking like he's going to play

But who knows how well he's going to play I don't buy Arizona at all They've played two stiffs to start the year They go on the road to face San Francisco Two and a half point to favorite Even without Kittal I think San Francisco beats the shit out of Arizona And I think we then on Monday

We're all talking about how Arizona was a fraud And they're two and O And nobody bought it and cool You beat the Saints in Carolina You literally beat two teams that are probably going to be, like, at the very bottom of the NFL. Congrats, you're great. San Francisco, while not great, is not going to be at the bottom of the NFL.

Even if the backup plays, even if it's Mack Jones, I think San Francisco beats the shit out of Arizona. And look, you're talking about must-wins. Kansas City needs to win at the Giants. They're a six-and-a-half-point favorite. The Giants are not particularly good, obviously. You would think that this would be the ultimate get-right for the Chiefs. That would be my first thought when I see six-and-a-half chiefs.

I'm thinking ultimate get right for them. They must win. They've been to the Super Bowl. How many times the last couple of years they know how to win games like this? But there's a part of me that says they just fucking suck. Their weapons aren't there. They're not putting it together. There's a part of me that thinks that too.

But something that overrides all that is my belief that the chiefs are just going to smoke them because they have to. You know, Dan Campbell said that the other week before they played the game against the Bears. they said, we're going to win this game, we have to. I think that's Kansas City this week. I think they just go out and they roll them. That is my first inclination, even though I don't think they're great. I think they roll the Giants because they have to. All right, more to come.