The Kevin Sheehan Show - Captain Haskins & Postmates

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

Kevin and Thom today on the start of football season tonight at Arrowhead. The boys discuss Dwayne Haskins being named a team captain. Thom has his Skins' season prediction and then the guys give you their AFC and NFC picks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. All right, a Sports Fix Thursday, Tommy back in Frederick at his fortress of solitude. I'm in these lovely but very chilly today studios in Bethesda, Maryland. It's so humid outside Tommy today with some of the rain. And it is just for, frigid. I have no temperature control ability in my studio here. There's one of these fake thermostats on the wall, which I fell for initially and would be fooling around with, you know, the temperature. And it has, it's fake. And I went to these people and it was probably a couple of months into being in this studio space. And I said, I don't think my thermostat works. Like I, you know, I had turned. I had turned off the air or turned down the air and it was blowing even, oh yeah, yeah, no, those thermostats on the wall are just sort of there as decoration. We control the temperature in this place.

To be honest with you, I don't think I had ever heard of anything like that. You know, and I, if you see a thermostat on a wall, it is a, it's a pretty good sales job that you've got the ability to control the temperature in your small space. The space is pretty small, as you know. It's all of like 150 square feet or something like that. But anyway, it's frigid in here today. I don't know why. Did you bring your shawl with you? I don't have a shawl. Got rid of it? I have never owned a shawl. And I, you know, not that there's anything wrong with shawl i um i usually prefer chilly you know i prefer cold i love sleeping in the cold um but uh i don't know it went from you know incredibly humid outside to very very chilly in this office but i think i'll

live i think i'm gonna well you know as sign i'm getting old is your blood gets thinner and you and you're getting colder i have i have noticed that i've gotten colder i'm not i'm not usually someone who gets cold, but I have noticed in recent years that I feel cold a little bit more. Maybe it's time. This is why you break out the shawl again. Yeah, I don't know. You know, speaking of getting older, I had Joe Thysman on the show, on the radio show this morning. His birthday was yesterday.

It was his birthday yesterday. Yes. It's funny because I... 71, 71 years old, so it. what I was going to say. Can you believe that he is 71 years old? I know. I know. I mean, it's really... You know what's amazing to me is, I mean, I can remember watching him in college. And, you know, I guess I never did the math, but he was only five years older than I was. Now, that's an eternity when you're, like when you're 16 and he's 21. It seems like in a turn,

but it's only five years. It's only five years different. he seems so much older to me. Oh, well, he certainly doesn't look older than you. No, he doesn't. You know, Joe has always had this incredible Dick Clark-esque, you know, youthfulness to him. And I called him last night to see if he would come on the show, and we ended up talking for a little while.

And he said, I'm celebrating my birthday. And I said, oh, my God, it is your birthday. And I said, you know why? I remember you have. have a September birthday, Joe, and he said, why? And I said, well, that Monday night opener in Dallas that year when you threw like seven interceptions and they started singing happy birthday to you. And he goes, thanks, Kevin, for bringing that up on my birthday. But, you know, I did remember it when he said it. I didn't ask him how old he was last night. And then this morning when he

came on the radio show, I asked, I didn't ask him, but I looked it up before. And I didn't bring it up. but I couldn't believe that he was 71 years old. And 71 is not, you know, super old in 2020. And Joe has always looked great and is kept in shape. But, wow, 71 years old. I mean, Joe Thysman, you know, essentially for the most part, the quarterback of my youth. I mean, I am old enough to remember Billy and Sonny for sure. but really, you know, Joe, when Joe took it over, I remember those years, you know, vividly, and he's 71 years old.

Wow. Happy birthday, Joe, many more. Yes, and you're going to be very surprised at this. Joe, you know, every single year I'll have Joe on the radio show, as you and I did, before the season starts, just to get his overall thoughts on the football team. And what is typically Joe's predictions? Something very optimistic, right? Yes. Yes. Glory and champagne and glory.

I'll never forget the year he predicted Jason Campbell would be the league's MVP and the team was going to go 13 and 3. That was one of the Zorn teams. that was really out there. So I guess I was expecting, you know, Joe to come in with, you know, 10 and 6 in the playoffs, you know? Uh-uh, Tommy. Joe gave me 7 and 9.

That was his prediction. I immediately said to him, Joe, I, you have far and away given me the most pessimistic season prediction for this team. you're always double-digit wins and the playoffs. And he said, well, look, it's not going to be about the record this year, Kevin. It's going to be about how they play. And, you know, I added to it, you know, seeing this culture change. And he said, absolutely. So I think Joe is realistic.

And by the way, seven and nine, we will have, you're going to have your prediction with me today. And I'll have my prediction tomorrow on the season. But, you know, maybe seven and nine, considering they were three and 13, I should have perceived that or received that as optimistic. Because I think a lot of people will have less than that. Yeah, look, if there was ever a year for Joe to feel safe cover with a losing record, it would be a year with a new coach and a relatively new quarterback. This would be the year to do it.

So, I mean, and I think seven and nine is, you know, I've, and we'll get to this. I think seven and nine is optimistic. You know what he didn't say about his prediction, and I didn't think about it in the moment, but I'm thinking about it now. And I don't even know if this is true or not, but I think it's true. Joe's not as inside as he was. It's Ron Rivera's show. Ron played against Joe. Ron doesn't, I don't know that Ron and Joe are close.

They might be. And maybe Joe's just as inside as he was. But, you know, he did mention to me, he said, I've been more distant from this team than ever before, but he attributed that to no preseason. You know, him not working the preseason games and being at training camp and being in the building a lot. He can't be in the building with the pandemic. But I wonder if being maybe a little bit more distant.

I wonder if Joe perhaps wanting some sort of position in the organization and didn't get it, maybe if that made it a lot easier for him to go seven and nine. rather than the normal 11 and 5 or 12 and 4. Maybe. That may be the case. I mean, it's certainly understandable that he's more distant because distance is the operative word for what we're dealing with right now. It's true.

Literally and figuratively. You know, the thing that's true about the preseason games, which I hate, but Joe being close to what's going on, talking to the right people and being there and having access that, you know, virtually nobody else in media has ever had. He's a, you know, he's a made man in the organization with the owner. But one of the things, you know, I think we missed out on with no preseason games is Joe was very good in these preseason games at really telling you or certainly leading you

towards what he's been hearing. Even if he never came out and said it directly, you got a sense of what Joe, was being told about various players, you know, specifically. And you didn't get a chance to get that this year. I did not miss no preseason at all. Now, I always think that there's a normalcy to football being on television in August, you know, because there's preseason games and you're starting to get back to that feeling up. The season's right around the corner, and we didn't get any of that.

but I really didn't. I mean, I think it's the worst product in all of sports. I don't think fans missed it. As a consumer, as a fan, I agree with you. I think it's the biggest fraud in sports. As a journalist, I appreciate the storylines that come out of preseason football. The star receiver who fans fall in love with, who's never going to make the team, the fake quarterback controversies that emerged from preseason.

And I just appreciate some of the underlying storylines that come out in preseason. But you're right. If you're a paying customer, it's a fraud. Complete fraud. We get the real thing tonight. We get the Chiefs in the Texans. The Chiefs allowing 22% capacity. at Arrowhead, at least for now. That would roughly, you know, come out to be about 15,000 fans at Arrowhead tonight for the opener.

They're nine and a half point favorites over Deshaun Watson and the Texans without DeAndre Hopkins, as we know. Tommy, we've made it here. We've made it to the beginning of the NFL regular season. You know, I was thinking, and I didn't say this on the radio show this morning, I was thinking it really afterwards. can you imagine the kick in the gut if we learned, you know, right now it's 10.50 a.m. on Thursday. If we learned early afternoon that Patrick Mahomes tested positive for COVID-19, the results just came back. You know, the last group of results and he's out tonight. Can you imagine the kick in the gut that that would be? That would be a kick, all right. I don't know if it would be in the gut.

but it would certainly be a kick. Look, a challenge for the NFL will be once they play. I mean, it's been a self-contained atmosphere right now, still for the most part. You know, they're amongst themselves. Once they play other teams, once they travel, and once we get into October and November, where the surge is supposedly coming, the second surge, where I saw expert predicted less deaths, but more cases.

And all it takes it's a case. It doesn't take someone dying of COVID, you know, on the field to stop this from happening. That's going to be the test. I mean, people taking victory laps for the NFL right now, very premature. Well, I totally agree with you on that. And I totally agree with you on the fact that these teams haven't traveled, they haven't gone head to head, et cetera, with other teams. And there hasn't been nearly the level of contact that there will be beginning tonight.

I mean, we saw this with baseball. Once they started to travel, you had, you know, a significant number of cases. But the last, you know, period of testing, Tommy, the league put this out yesterday of six days, August, I forget what it was, August 30th through September 5th or whatever, there was one confirmed positive case among the players. and seven among team personnel. They should feel good about that. Yeah. But it should be cautious optimism.

But I guess... You know, no saying, oh, look, look, you know, everyone was scared about the NFL and look what's going on. That's premature celebration. And again, I don't know what's holding it up. It's beyond my pay grade. But these rapid tests that they see will come up with, once they're available, that could change.

a lot. Yeah, it could. Yes. We're here, though. I mean, I guess that's my point, because there's certainly been a lot of wondering, a lot of skepticism about whether or not we would arrive on September 10th with the Chiefs playing the Texans when the schedule came out. And we're here, and we've got a full slate of game scheduled for Sunday, and some of these stadiums are going to have fans, and some of them won't. And just as an aside, real quick, quickly, I don't care about the competitive disadvantage of that at all. You know, there are cities and states that have handled this better or perhaps just gotten luckier than other places. And, you know, it's those states and those locales that should

make the decision on this. There shouldn't be a league mandate that for competitive reasons, either everybody allows 20 percent or nobody allows 20 percent. I'm definitely not in that boat. I mean, this is unprecedented. And we're going to end up with more likely than not a competitively unbalanced situation at the end of this year. More likely than not. So I'm fine with all of that. It's going to be interesting to see what Arrowhead looks like tonight. If you've got to be socially distanced in the crowd, six feet is what, three or four seats, maybe? So you got one person every three or four seats? Yeah, I'd say about four seats. Right.

So, anyway, you know, there was a college football player that died of COVID-19 in the last week. It was a player from the University of California at Pennsylvania. Yeah. Or, you know, California College in Pennsylvania, whatever it is. I know this is going to sound so absolutely off base, but it's not meant to be that way. But personally, and I think the reaction to this is probably proof of what I'm saying, it's going to take somebody at a Division I, you know, LSU kind of place. It doesn't even have to be LSU.

It could be Duke. It could be, you know, college football, it could be Georgia Tech. for it to reverberate around the sports world, I think. You may be right. He may be right. And even that, I'm not sure. You know, I don't know what it would take to stop the train going down the tracks. You know, so it would be bigger news if it was somebody from LSU or Alabama or something

like that, but, you know, you may be right. I just don't know what kind of impact then it would have after that, after the initial shock. Yeah. I'm excited for tonight. I, you know, I love football. It's just, once again, it's crazy what's going on in sports right now. I mean, you know, Tonight, the Lakers and Rockets play at 7 o'clock in game four. I mean, that game the other night was sensational the other night. I didn't get a chance to talk about it with you, but, I mean, one of my favorite players, as I think you know, for a long time has been Rajan Rondo. I just love Rondo's basketball IQ.

I love Rondo in games that matter. I think he always, you know, he's got to be engaged and interested. He came off the bench and had 21 points and nine assists. And it was such an entertaining stretch that he played in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. It's just interesting, right? I mean, you've got the NFL opener. Usually it's got this entire night to itself other than some U.S. Open tennis. And tonight it's going to have the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs.

Obviously, it's got baseball that it competes with as well. But it's just going to be interesting. You know, I've been into these NBA playoffs here. I think they've been phenomenal. Oh, by the way, I think I emailed you this. I think I did. I told you the other day on this show that Nicola Yokic is one of the best passing big men I've ever seen. And I went, you know, later that day, Doc Rivers, did I send you that story or not?

I forget if I said you the story. Yes, you did. Yeah, you did. Doc Rivers, after that game the other night, said about Yokic, he may be the best. best passing big I've ever seen. And he, you know, he compared him to Walton. And then, you know, as a player, compared him in ways to Mikhail and Elijah won, which I thought were interesting comparisons. But, you know, I told you that you're not, you know, you're not watching it, but this is a player that you would love watching. And it's because of just his incredible passing ability. He's

got other talents as well. Last night in the game, far different game against the Clippers last night than this series has shown so far in that it was a defensive struggle. I mean, Kauai Leonard was just incredible. I mean, you talk about a stat stuffing performance in terms of just filling up every category, 30 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, four steals, two blocked shots. I mean, he was just incredible. But Yokic in the game, 26 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, you know, from the center position. He's really, really, really. fun to watch. The Clippers are going to win this series. They're up 3-1 now. And it's going to be Clippers Lakers, and that's going to be the de facto NBA championship

series. The winner of that, I think, will win in the NBA finals. It'll be entertaining to watch. Who wins that? I bet the Clippers, before the playoffs started at plus 250 to win the NBA championship. If Rondo is the factor that he was the other night, And God, he just makes everybody better. I don't know. LeBron's really playing well, too. I mean, I'm not a LeBron fan, but I can't. I cannot take away from his brilliance.

He was so special the other. He had 29 in the first half the other night. He was so good. And Anthony Davis is so good also. I'll stick with the Clippers because I think they're just a better defensive team, Tommy. They just have three outstanding defenders in Leonard, George, and Beverly in particular. I also think that they're just a bit better coached. I know not everybody's a Doc Rivers fan.

You can think of them what you want, but Doc Rivers can figure it out. And I'm not a big Vogel fan. The Lakers stand around too much for me. I think it makes him easy to guard, although it's not easy to guard LeBron James. but I'll stick with the better defensive team when we get to that. And the player that I love more than any other, which is Kauai Leonard, against one of my true favorites over the years in big games and in the postseason, and that's Rajan Rondo. Hey, I wanted to, before we get to some other things, I wanted to mention this to you. Last night, and whenever I see a score, like the score I saw last night in Major League Baseball,

I'll always, you know, look at the box score because it's always interesting to look at the box score. Last night, the Braves beat the Marlins 29 to 9. Did you see that? I saw the score. Okay. Before I get to the box score, that is the second, tied for the second most runs ever in the history of baseball, or what they call Tommy the modern era. Do you know when the modern era in baseball started,

at least according to the Wire story last night on this? I'm thinking 1920. 1900. Really? That's the modern era of baseball. 120 years of modern era baseball. Anyway, it tied for the second most runs in Major League Baseball history. The record was set by the Texas Rangers in 2007.

They beat the Orioles 30 to 3 in 2007. Anyway, the box score is remarkable always when you see this level of offensive output. They had 28, they had 23 hits, 29 runs. Adam Duvall had three home runs and nine RBIs. But here was the most incredible part of the box score. The Marlins pitching, which of course you know isn't going to be very good. when you give up 23 hits and 29 runs. But the first reliever, Yamamoto, came in late in the second inning,

with two outs in the second inning. He pitched Tommy a total of two and two-thirds innings. He gave up 11 hits, 13 runs, 12 of them earned. But he pitched in two-and-two-thirds innings 94. pitches. Oh my God. I don't think, like, when I was looking through this, I was really a full game for Greg Maddox. I was looking to see, you know, mostly the offensive things, and it just sort of, I

was scrolling down and I'm like, wait a minute, that can't be right. That's got to be a record. There's never been somebody that's been allowed to stay in the game in two and two-thirds innings with 94 pitches. And it was not in the game story. as to whether or not that was a record. I mean, I wonder whether or not anybody in relief has ever had 94 pitches. I'm sure somebody's coming very early in the first inning and then finish the game with 94 plus pitches. But two-and-two-thirds innings, Yamamoto, 94 pitches.

Wow, that's amazing. These games are always bizarre to watch these outrageous scoring games. The most outrageous I saw in person was, again, the Orioles and Rangers, like it's like the 30 to three games. But in 1996 in Arlington, I was there when the Rangers beat the Orioles 26 to 7. And the Rangers scored 16 runs in the eighth inning. All of them earned. That's one away from the record in one inning for scoring.

And it was so bad that shortstop, Manny Alexander, under came in the pitch and got the final two out to the inning. And he wound up giving up five runs before that happened. So there's always unique stories that come out of beatdowns like that. I was talking to Zuckerman this morning about it, and he said, you know, at some point, when you're getting absolutely clubbed, you're not going to burn through your bullpen. somebody's got to take his lumps and continue to get beat up. And, you know, the funny thing is this guy Yamamoto went two and two-thirds

and threw 94 pitches and gave up, you know, 12 earned runs, 13 overall and 11 hits. They did throw in three more relievers in the game. As a team, they had 200 and the pitch count was 240 for the game. I mean, I wonder what the record is in a regulation, not extra innings. You know, I wonder what the record. And remember, they only faced the Braves. The Braves were the home team.

So there were only eight innings pitched in the game, and they had 240 pitches thrown. That's really incredible. I tell you what, there's a dynamic that happens among teams when this is going on where position players go to the manager and convince them to let them pitch. Right. And there's a, I mean, because they've been dying to do it all their lives, and they love a chance to do it. I remember in this game I was at, Billy Ripkin desperately wanted to pitch, but for some reason, Davy Johnson went with Mani Alexander to let him pitch.

I think Josh Willingham for the nationals may have done this in a similar situation. Yeah. Yeah. But a lot of times players will fight with the manager over getting a chance to beat a guy to beat a sacrificial lamb. Sure. As sort of like a fantasy moment for them. One last thing on baseball, two things. The Nats actually have a stretch here where they can get back into this thing.

They have the Braves for four straight nights here, four straight against them, and then they get Tampa Bay twice. I mean, if somehow they come through this thing four, two, five, and one, they're going to be back in this thing. I don't know that they will. But in my conversation with Zuck this morning, I got clarification on the MLB playoff format. Are you familiar with how the playoffs are going to work in Major League Baseball a month for now?

Not at all. Okay. I want to share this with you because I think even you, and you don't get involved a lot in the minutia of this stuff, especially a month before it happens. but there's something very unique about this postseason in addition to the expansion of the postseason field. The expansion is to eight teams in each league, eight teams. The top three division winners, the three division winners will qualify. The second place finishers in each of the three divisions will qualify.

And then the next best two records to get to eight total teams. And then you'll have a one versus eight, two versus eight, two versus. versus seven, three versus six, four versus five. The first round is going to be best two out of three. Not best out of five, best two out of three. And then when they get to the final four in each league, it'll be best out of five, then best out of seven in the championship series. However, none of that is really interesting or as interesting is this. The three division winners, Tommy, get to select their first round opponent. As an example in the National League, if the Dodgers have the best record, the Cubs have the second best record, and the Braves have the third best record, there will be a draft, if you will, where the Dodgers will have the first choice on who their first round opponent will be of the other five teams, okay, that are in the playoffs, that have qualified for the playoffs. then the Cubs will have the second choice and the Braves will have the third choice. They select who they are going to play in the first round.

What's the point of that? What's the idea, the benefit of it? Well, because this is the way Zuck explained it to me, because there's no benefit to home field advantage in earning with the best record or a division title, any sort of advantage from being at home because there's no fans, they are offering up this unique way of what they believe is offering these teams that have won the divisions and advantage,

which is picking your first round opponent. I think it's, first of all, I think it's wildly entertaining. I think it's really, you know, interesting. I don't think it's ever happened. I don't know that it's ever happened in the history. of American sports where a team in the postseason gets to pick their opponent. I mean, maybe I'm missing something here. But I do think I know what the strategy will be for those three teams picking.

And that would be, Tommy, in a best two out of three series, you got to pick the opponent with the weakest pitching staff. So as an example, if the Nats got in to the postseason and were among the five, teams being picked by the other three? Would you want to face Scherzer and Corbyn back-to-back and a best-a-two-out-a-three? They might be the last team selected. Yes. But this is just a one-year thing, right?

I mean, this is not... Yeah, no, no, no. It's the one-year pandemic thing. There you go. I mean, it's a warth season. Why not have a warped process in a playoff? It's pretty... I think it's really interesting because the teams...

the teams that gets, like whoever gets selected first by the Dodgers as an example, really? You think we suck the worst out of everybody else? Okay, we get a two out of three. All we got to do is win two out of three. That happens all the time in baseball. It'll provide quite the motivation. Anyway, I really wasn't familiar with how it was going to work. There were all kinds of stories out there that were very confusing with respect to the baseball postseason.

but Mark cleared it up for us today. All right, I want to read this spot real quickly about Roman. You know, guys, talking about erectile dysfunction isn't easy. Usually we just brush it off, blame ourselves, or saying things like, you know, I lost my mojo, or we avoid it all together with excuses like I had a long day at work, or sorry, honey, I'm just not feeling it. Or as I've mentioned, and certainly you'd be mentioning tonight, sorry, honey, the game's on. We got the NFL back.

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All right, let me go first because it's about your boy, Dwayne Haskins. I don't know if you saw this or not, but there's some prop bets out now, for the NFL season. And sports betting AG has two props related to Haskins that really indicate sort of a level of disrespect, if not contempt for him. I mean, a real shorting, if you will, of Dwayne Haskins. The first one is that Dwayne Haskins is the betting favorite to be the first quarterback benched during the 2020 regular season.

He's plus 150. Ryan Fitzpatrick is next at plus 225. Mitch Trubisky then at plus 250. Then you jump down to Darnold, Tyrod Taylor, Cam Newton, Gardner Minchu, you know, at plus 500, 700 and 800. So Haskins, the betting favorite to be the first quarterback bench during the 2020 regular season. And then there's another one that I didn't mention yesterday. Which second year quarterback?

Which second year quarterback will win more games? The four choices are Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, Drew Locke, and Dwayne Haskins. Daniel Jones is the favorite to win the most games. That's surprising to me. I would have thought that Kyler Murray would have been. He's plus 150. Kyler Murray's plus 200. Drew Locks plus 300.

And the long shot of the second year quarterbacks to win the most games in 2020 is Dwayne Haskins at plus 500. For those of you, and I attempt to do this, for those of you that don't know what the betting odds mean. Dwayne Haskins plus 150 to be the first quarterback benched means that if you bet on him and he's the first quarterback benched, on a $100 bet you'll win $150. All right. So if you were to bet on Cam Newton to be the first quarterback benched in 2020, he's plus

$700. If you bet $100, you'd win $700. If you bet $10, you'd win $7.000. you'd win $70. So that's how that works. Anyway, my question to you is, why do you believe that everybody in Vegas, everybody that is an NFL insider or expert,

seems to believe that Haskins has no chance of being successful? I think it's a combination of things. And I think it's that combination of things that has caused me to do a complete reversal about my expectations for this team this season. I think people from the outside are looking at a team with a new coach, not a rookie coach, obviously, an experienced coach, but a new coach with an inexperienced quarterback in a COVID-shortened training season, all engolt by a team in total chaos off the field. I just think all – I think all that comes into play

when you're judging anything about the Washington football team from the outside looking in. So that's what I think comes into play. I just think they figure that whenever you have a new coach, it takes some time for things to start working the way they want them to work. Sometimes it takes a full year for that to happen. You have a new coach who now is dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Unlike in Dallas, where you have a new coach who's won a Super Bowl

dealing with a veteran quarterback in Dak Prescott, you have a new coach here in Ron Reveve. dealing with an untested quarterback in Dwayne Haskins. I think it's a combination of all that. I think it's in a reasonable position from the outside looking in and speaks more to the circumstances of the football team, I think, more than Dwayne Haskins' ability. Yeah, I mean, I think our answers are similar,

but I think this has been ongoing with Haskins, you know, even before the pandemic. There has been a sense about Haskins from outside, and by the way, plenty of people here inside the market, that there's a lack of belief. And my answer, Tommy, yesterday in answering this question on my own after posing it, is really simple. It's the organization. You know, he got drafted into a terrible organization at the height of dysfunction, although, you know, it's been taken to another level here. this offseason, but she had a head coach who didn't want him. You had football people who were in disagreement with the owner on the pick. You had people because he entered this incredibly

dysfunctional season that were screaming, let's not forget, when he came in as a backup quarterback against the Giants in week four last year, people like Lewis Riddick, who said things like, they've ruined him. They've ruined him, which is still just beyond me. I just don't know. I just don't how anybody could say that it would have been better had Trey Quinn played quarterback that day in the Meadowlands when Case Keenham got hurt. Like seriously, Haskins was the backup quarterback. He went in and he stunk and he stunk for a lot of reasons, some of which could be his fault. But this thing was doomed last year from the beginning. He got drafted by a terrible organization. He entered a very dysfunctional situation. There were narratives and

leaks and all kinds of shit coming out about him, and it's influenced the way people think about him. If he had been drafted last year by a team, let's say that was going to play him because they had a need for quarterback, and let's just say it was the Chicago Bears last year, or a team like Denver had drafted him instead of Drew Locke. I think the feeling about Dwayne a Haskins would have been completely different. Completely different. I think we're basically saying the same thing. I think this is a judgment about the organization.

Yes, but. That's true. The actual abilities of the quarterback himself. Yes. I think that's it. Yeah, so I think that's what this is. And I think, you know what? I don't think that's an unreasonable position.

That's, that he'll fail because of where he is. I just think that basing the way you feel, even basing the odds, and I never, you know, I never disagree with Vegas, although I would not bet on Haskins. I would bet on the, the veteran quarterbacks like Fitzpatrick who have guys like Tuatunga Viloa sitting behind him or Tyrod Taylor or having Justin Herbert behind him. That makes more sense to me that, you know, Miami is one and four, and they decide to go with, you know, with Tua at that point. And so Fitzpatrick is the first guy to get benched. You know, typically, uh, the first guy to get benched happens in the first, you know, quarter of the season. So he's the betting favorite to be benched by the, you know,

by the quarter pole, basically, um, four games into the season. I mean, Jay Gruden, let's not forget was the prohibitive favorite to be the first coach fired last year. Uh, and he delivered, you know, and he delivered, uh, in week five, um, you know, after that Patriot game. But I think that to come to the conclusion that Haskins isn't going to be any good based on just the organization he came in, and it's much more than that. It's everything that came out from the organization, you know, leak central. Rather than basing it on what you saw in the field, I think is dangerous because I think what you saw in the field was a guy that can do it, in my opinion anyway. and a guy that, you know, I don't know, for the lack of a better description, you know, I know he doesn't block out the noise on Twitter,

but I don't see the noise impacting him on the field. I didn't last year. When he finally got a chance to start anyway. Right. I get. I understand that. And again, I think it's fair, though, to, you're not judging. It's not a personal, you have to look beyond it and say it's not a personal slap at Dwayne Haskins.

You also have a coach with a quarterback sitting behind Haskins who started 12 games last year for that coach, who may be quick with the trigger knowing he has a comfort level in his backup. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I get that. I just, I don't, you know, Tommy, he was named team captain yesterday. You saw that, right? I know, come, come on. What do you mean, come on?

What quarter, go through the teams, how many quarterbacks aren't the captain? Oh, oh, I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I would say that. But I would say most are captains. I don't know the answer to that. I'm not going to dispute that there would be a lot of quarterbacks that are team captains, but if you're saying that as a way of saying this doesn't mean anything, I think I disagree with you.

I think, who picked them? The players or the coaches? I think the coaches picked the captains, didn't they? Sometimes players do. Why would it matter in this situation? Well, because if the coaches are picking, of course they're going to pick their young quarterback who they're trying to give confidence to,

the quarterback who already went on record telling everyone, He wanted to be a captain. I want to be the captain. It's like standing in a crowd, and the coach, you know, the coach says to the players, okay, who wants to be captain? Raise their hand. And Dwayne Haskins, he yells up,

me, me, I want to be captain. Of course they're going to pick him to be a captain if the coaches did. I don't know. I think Rivera has stuck with, we're in the midst of a culture change. I don't think he's handing those things, you know, just giving them away. I don't think he would put... Who on offense would he pick his captain?

Well, he picked Brandon Sheriff. I think that that makes sense in terms... Okay. Come up with another one. Well, you don't have to come up with... Come up with an offensive skill player. You don't have to come up with another one necessarily, do you? I mean, is there a requirement?

No, there's not. They have five. They have two defense, two offense and a special team. Or Deshaezer Everett is the special team's captain. Landon Collins and John Allen are the two defensive captains. Okay. I think there's a symmetry there, don't you? Yeah.

Well, the symmetry in that two per unit, well, they only have one per special teams, but it would seem to be the right equation. I don't think he would have – if Dwayne Haskins weren't going to be – Let me just, let me throw it, present it this way. Do you think that Dwayne Haskins would have been named team captain if he thought there was a chance he was going to get benched in the first four weeks of the season as the betting favorite in Vegas? I don't think anyone had a clue before week one,

who they're going to bench by week four. I don't think that matters at all. I think he picked him as, if, I don't know, you're saying, coaches pick them. I don't know if that's true or not. Actually, I don't know if it really matters. That's what I'm saying. I don't agree with you that he would just hand this to him. I'm I'm encouraged that they're not summarining them public like the group did last year, which I thought was wrong with the leaks and everything. They're definitely being upbeat in their public conversation of him. But if he didn't earn this in trying to change a culture, would he hand a culture? Would he hand

it to him knowing that the team would roll their eyes at it? No. I'm not saying that. But my point is, name another offensive player who would be the captain. Alex Smith. I mean, they'll try to Alex Smith out there as a captain. Of course, he's going to pick Dwayne Haskins if the coaches did pick him. It doesn't mean anything. How about Terry McLaren? What do you mean? Oh, my God. God. Terry McClure, you could easily debate was the best. What would it have meant if they didn't pick him?

For the players, if he didn't earn it, it would have meant our coach is trying to change the culture around here, and he means what he says. You've got to earn these things. That's what it would have meant. Look, I don't think he did anything to disqualify him as captain. But let's not make it out to seem like he accomplished something here. He lobbied for the job. So? It would have been a huge disappointment. So?

If publicly, the coach said, yeah, I know Dwayne wants to be captain, but he's not the captain. This guy's our captain. He wouldn't have said it. He wouldn't have never said that. He wouldn't have had to. He wouldn't have had to. I don't even think a lot of people remember that Dwayne lobbied to be captain, and he didn't really lobby. He was just asked what a, you know.

what are your goals? And he said one of the goals is I'd like to be a team captain. Okay. I don't know. Look, with Jay Gruden and with, you know, some asshat coaches, I think I'd agree with you. I don't know that I completely agree with with Ron Rivera. I'm not saying this is the most significant news or indicator. I'm just saying that I don't think he would have been handed it if he didn't earn it to a certain degree. That's all. And I think it's meaningless and was a no-brainer. And by the way, Jay Gruden, as much as I don't particularly like him as a head coach, did nothing wrong last year by submarining the quarterback that he didn't want in the first place.

Well, I do. He's fighting a war against the owner. You know, the rookie quarterback whose buddy, buddy with the owner is on the other side. Okay. So I don't think Jay Gruden did anything wrong and not embracing the quarterback who was shoved down his throat. Not embracing him is different than leaking to the media about commitment and about not knowing the playbook and work ethic and all of that. You're fighting an ugly war against an ugly opponent. It was, oh my God, you know, the book on all this one of these days.

is going to be so great. It's going to be so great, especially if they get everybody to talk. And I don't know if everybody will talk. As long as people are still in the game or close to the game, they're probably not going to talk. Somebody asked me a few months ago, you and I, I think we're talking about the RG330 for 30 whenever it comes out and, you know, what Shanahan and some others will say. And I thought about it, I just don't know that you're going to get people who are close to the game. Like in Shanahan's case, he still is involved in the game with the 49ers. He gets sent practice tape every day. And he's taken notes and helping out Kyle from his home in Colorado. But I mean, you know, you'll certainly get, I mean, I don't know, guys like Rex Grossman,

but, you know, a lot of the guys that were really close to the situation like Colt McCoy or Matt LeFleur or Kirk Cousins or, you know, they're, Kyle's, Shanahan. They're in the game right now. You're not going to get them to talk on record about that time. Listen, let's face it. I don't think you're going to get the truth. If they do an RG3 30 for 30, since I think the narrative outside is that RG3 was a victim, I don't think you're going to get the true story, certainly not from ESPN. I don't think you're going to get the true story. I don't think you're going to get the true story. I mean, come on, Kevin. If you do a 30 for 30 on RCH3 and you don't interview you and me for the media,

then there's no point in doing it. You know, it's so funny that you said that. So in that football culture thing on ESPN that we both agreed there was nothing new or revealing about it, they interviewed people locally who had covered the team. Jason Reed, Kimberly Martin, who was here for five minutes. Three minutes. And I forget who the third person was now. It was not anybody that...

Well, doesn't she work for ESPN now? I think she does. I don't even know who she works for. My point was going to be what you just said. Like, I actually mentioned this to Scott the other day. I said, you know, it's not. I don't give a shit about this, but it's funny how when you watch a show like that and you know a lot more than the average viewer, you just can see the flaws in what they've done. And look, Jason Reed was a columnist here for several years.

So I don't necessarily have a problem with Jason at all being there. But you can't have somebody who was here for a cup of coffee as one of the top three people. And absolutely, whether it was you or me or Zabe or, you know, if they wanted to go ex-players in media, Doc, or Brian, or somebody from the other station, your station, you know, or somebody that really has been here and lived through every single drama over 21 years. Not somebody who was here for a part of it or for a tiny fraction of it. It's ridiculous. It is. It is ridiculous. That's why you'll never get

the real story in a 30 for 30. You know, Amy Trask, I told you this story before. The former GM out and with the Raiders

on Twitter, a couple, about two years ago, tweeted something about the damage that how the organization, the Washington

football team damage. MHRG3. And I responded back. I said, listen, don't make him out to be a victim. He was a carrier. In other words, he was like a carrier of the disease. You know, he wasn't, he wasn't alone, but he wasn't the victim here. And he responded, well, you know, I guess, you know, it takes a lot of people involved for things to go wrong. But my point is, that's the perception. No doubt. outside looking in.

And look, the organization, the organization's never, never, the organization has, um, never done a thing to earn the benefit of the doubt. So they're always going to be the first go-to in terms of the blame game. But this particular drama was owner and quarterback, you know, and those of you rolling your eyes saying, of course, she is never going to criticize Mike Shanahan. In this particular one, if you line them up, Rex Grossman, Kirk Cousins, Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan, Mike Shanahan, several other players in the organization, Santana Moss, several of the assistant coaches in the organization, people that we've all talked to over the years and had conversations not necessarily on the air about what was going on. this would be a wow situation when it came to how much this guy was entitled and how much he took advantage of it. One of the things that I've always felt is given his age, it isn't really his

fault. Now, he had to be willing to take advantage of it. He had to have the personality disposition to take advantage of it, but it was the owner's fault. The root cause was the owner entitling the young star quarterback and entitling him to a level where he pitted essentially, you know, the quarterback against his head coach, which was despicable in allowing that to happen. Anyway, I want to get your prediction on this season. I've got my AFC predictions on the show today. tomorrow with Cooley I'll do my skins prediction and then we'll look at the NFC East and the NFC in full. But we'll do Tommy's team prediction after a word about Manscaped.

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for the Washington football team here shortly. By the way, just as an aside, a quick aside, if you're expecting a smell test pick, if you actually want it, There's no smell test pick on tonight's game. The action's very split on the Texans and the Chiefs, but I will have a full-fledged smell test for week one of the NFL on tomorrow's show. But you said you wanted to talk about something with me.

So go ahead. Here's your chance. Well, since I'm in isolation here in the fort's of solitude, I'm not plugged in on everything. But I saw this story that became a call their Postmates, a company called Postmates, became the official on-the-man food delivery partner for the NFL. It's a signed a huge deal with the NFL, which includes being a sponsor of the Super Bowl. I had never heard of the company Postmates, and now they're going to be a sponsor of the Super Bowl. Now, I've done some research and see who they are.

It's a food delivery company like Gordash. I could have told you who they were pretty quickly, maybe four or five years ago, three, four years ago when it just started popping up on my credit card receipts because my boys were using them in school. I mean, postmates. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's funny because I don't know when this started. It could have been three or four years ago.

I said to my wife, what the hell is postmates? She's like, I don't know. And then I'm like, what is Postmates? And then she's like, ask the boys. I mean, they probably have access to your credit card number. Maybe it's some, you know. And so I called up one of the boys, I forget. Maybe it was my oldest at TCU.

And he said, yeah, that's food delivery. And I said, well, stop using it seven times a week. You know, it was, Tommy, it was for a lot of you out there who have kids either out of college or in college, but definitely if they were in college like, you know, five years ago, the Uber charges from, from TCU and then, you know, Maryland and at Penn State here recently, oh my God, I mean, but the Postmates started too, and then I figured out what Postmates. I mean, DoorDash Postmates Uber Eats. You know, those things are, I mean, what a home run business they've become during a pandemic.

I mean, really. So, I mean, to grow that quickly, to be a Super Bowl, one of the Super Bowl sponsors. Yeah. And to be an NFL partner, we're talking big time. I mean, I just speaks to how the world is rapidly changing in part because of this pandemic. I mean, it's just, I mean, there's companies that were positioned, obviously, you know, through no way. fault, no brilliance of their own

to be in this position during a pandemic, and obviously Postmates is one of them, but I was just stunned how quickly this company disappeared on my radar and how big they are. And apparently they're about to be bought by Uber

for like $2.65 billion. Wow. Wow. Yeah, I doubt that before the pandemic it had that, you know, it had that high of evaluation. But, you know, look, we at the beginning of this pandemic, there was so much fear about, you know, the food industry, the hospitality industry, so many industries. And, you know, remember in those first, you know, 30 to 45 days, the stock market completely tumbled. And now we're hitting, you know,

we've, we hit an all time high basically every day on NASDAQ. And, We got back to almost March or February levels on the Dow last week, late last week, even though came back a little bit at the end of the week and then, you know, I think it had a big day yesterday. But, you know, I guess if you were really paying attention and you really had some vision on how people were going to change from a habit standpoint, I mean, look at Amazon. I mean, not that they needed any help, but my God, I mean, the deliveries and, And it's really, yes, we've got a changing world and because of it a changing economy. And there have been some people.

A rapidly changing world and economy. That's the key. Yeah. Things are moving so quickly. And like, you know, Liz asked me the other day, you know, we were talking about Amazon. And I said, you know, in 30 or 40 years, or maybe not that long, you know, they could. be a memory. And she was skeptical of that.

And I said, listen, Sears used to be Amazon. There was a time early in the 20th century where Sears was everything. You bought everything you needed. You bought from Sears, including cars at one point. And now, you know,

they're hanging on. And things move much more quickly now than they did in just 15, 20 years ago. And it seems impossible to conceive of a company like Amazon being an afterthought. But all it takes is the technology to come along

that goes to a different level. I don't see it with Amazon. But you're right. I mean, look, it's impossible. It's just that, and I don't know, I don't know the story of Sears and the Sears catalog. I mean, I'm vaguely familiar with it. But, you know, what Amazon's been able to do with their growth and their, you know, their stock growth is they've been able to build through acquisition into so many different industries.

And, you know, they essentially own supply chain management now. And I mean, what you can funnel, you know, product-wise through their system is limitless. I don't know, but maybe there will be something. that will be greater than the technological revolution. I'm sure there will be. Yes. It's impossible to imagine what that would be. Yes, but technology is moving at such a rapid pace

compared to what we grew up with. Yeah. That's the difference maker. So, I mean, you know, today's giant can easily be, not easily, but today's giant can wind up being tomorrow's nostalgia, tomorrow's memory, the fond memories. Remember the days when we used to order out stuff from Amazon? It happened. Yeah, except, you know, we're still in the very infancy in so many ways with Amazon,

even though it's a company that's, you know, 25 years old or whatever it is, you know, early to mid-90s, Bezos started that thing with books, with books. And now, you know, and now it's groceries, et cetera, and everything going through that system. All right. I want to get your prediction on the season. Give me what you think is going to happen here because I sense from part of this conversation today that you've gone back to sort of your pessimistic view versus being a little bit more optimistic. Yeah, when we talked on Tuesday, I mean, I saw –

I thought like six wins, you know, even if things didn't go right. And then I took a step back and looked at the offense, an offense that really doesn't exist that we know of. You know, we think these players might do something. But the offense, as we know right now, doesn't really exist because there's no offensive players of, note, particularly in the skill positions, to make any sort of assertion. Combine that with a coach, a veteran coach, with a new team on a shortened work, shortened handicapped work schedule given COVID, coach dealing with his own personal health issues.

And an organization that every day seems to become the model for chaos in sports in America, I just all of a sudden it added up to me and say, what could I possibly be thinking? I mean, if they're lucky, they're a four-win team, you know? I mean, nobody else in the NFL is dealing with the combination of everything that the Washington football team is dealing with. And trust me, no matter how people want to deny it, what is happening with the owner will bleed to the football field. It will. It always does. It will bleed to the coaching staff, and therefore from the coaching staff, it will bleed on to the football field. Youth may impact, maybe not, but it will be another difficulty to overcome.

So I just think given the offensive questions with a new coaching staff, trying to instill a new offense with an owner under siege, with other teams, you know, getting better, I just see four and 12 if they have a good year. Good year is four and 12. So you're predicting a good year for you? Yes, four and 12. Four and 12.

I think we just found the title of today's show. Four and 12. I can tell you, without disclosing it, I'm definitely not going to be that low on the wind total. God, I don't want to get sucked into believing and becoming too bullish on this group. And, you know, I don't know what the Snyder stuff is going to do to Ron Rivera and the guys that are in that locker room every day. I mean, I think some of the bigger issues actually in any NFL locker room are the things that you've been talking about for months, and that is a tumultuous October leading into an election.

and the feelings that people have in these locker rooms. And, you know, this football team has a defensive coordinator who is a major trumper. And I wonder with how that's played. It's really, again, I think I mentioned this to you maybe a month ago or more recently. There's nothing that's come out about that. And by the way, no, there hasn't. I have heard that the defensive players like Del Rio a lot, that they like their coordinator. I don't know how they feel about the position coaches,

but that they like Del Rio and they think he's supremely competent compared to what they've had. We'll see. Yes. We'll see. But I'll have my prediction tomorrow on this football team season. So we'll do that tomorrow, Cooley, but we'll be on the show tomorrow as well. There's no smell test, as I mentioned, but I do want to give you one last

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They're doing it to honor the Super Bowl 54 champion chiefs to celebrate their championship season, to celebrate the return of football. And my bookie has raised the line to plus 54 for a limited time only. It's a lock. I mean, you're not going to lose this bet. Throughout NFL history, only six teams. have lost by 54 points are more. The Chiefs are actually nine, nine and a half point favorites,

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You can't ask for anything more than that. MyBooky.ag promo code Kevin D.C. You're winning season begins tonight, guys, only at my bookie. Tommy's got some more predictions. I didn't even realize that. I did not know that you came prepared. I was going to do my AFC predictions on my own. You say that I'm so surprised. I'm a little bit surprised.

Let's start in the AFC. We'll go division winners, and then you have to come up with three wild cards in the AFC, Tommy, because there's seven teams now advancing to the NFL playoffs. I'll go first here, and then I want to hear your AFC predictions. I'll start with the team that I really like in the AFC this year. I really like Buffalo. I think Buffalo is going to be a good football team. I think they're well-coached with McDermott with Leslie Frazier as the defensive coordinator. I think they've got talent on defense. I think it's going to be one of the better defensive teams in the NFL. But But beyond that, I'm a Josh Allen fan after last year, and I know he made some boneheaded plays in the playoff game at Houston.

I love the way he competes. I love his mobility. I think Josh Allen's going to be a good quarterback in this league, and I think Devin Singletary is going to be a star. You saw last year as a rookie what he could be out of Florida Atlantic. I think he's very good. And then you add Stefan Diggs to the mix, and I really like Buffalo. to win the AFC East for the first time in, I don't know, 17, 18 years was the last time that the Patriots didn't win the AFC East, or it was the year, I'm sorry, it was more recently than that when Brady got hurt, and they still won 10 games but didn't win the division. I like Buffalo to win the AFC East. I love the Ravens in the AFC North. I don't see any team in the AFC North, even with a healthy Rathlisberger back. I don't see the Steelers. taking that crown away from Baltimore.

The Ravens are good. Now, they've got to prove it in the postseason. That's got to happen. But, you know, they added J.K. Dobbins to the mix of running backs of Ingram and Gus Edwards. You know, Hollywood Brown in his second year has a chance to be really good. Their defense is exceptional. And their first round pick Patrick Queen from LSU at middle linebacker is just going to add to what they have defensively in Campbell and Brandon.

and Williams and Matthew Judon, et cetera. I love the Ravens to win the AFC North. I think the AFC South is going to be typical of what it usually is, which is jumbled up. I'm not going to pick the best quarterback in the division, Deshawn Watson. I'm going to pick my favorite quarterback in the division, Philip Rivers. I think the Colts are a good football team, and I think they've been missing a quarterback. With that said, I told you guys last year that I thought Philip Rivers looked like you'd lost arm strength in that last year as a charger. I am hearing and reading reports that he's looked pretty sharp.

If he's healthy, I think they'll have enough offensively, great offensive line. Marlon Mack and Jonathan Taylor in the backfield. You still have T.Y. Hilton and you've got Paris Campbell now in his second year. And I think that's a good defensive team with one of the stars in the league, and he came out of nowhere, Darius Leonard as a rookie two years ago. I think they're well-coached. I think they're the best coach team in that division with Frank Reich and Matt Everflus, who is a phenomenal defensive coordinator, very underrated.

He was certainly one of those guys that a lot of people thought could be a head coach. I think it's going to be Houston, Tennessee, and Indy fighting all year long. I'm going to take Indy to win that division. and I'm going to root for them because I'm a Philip Rivers fan. And then out west, it's obvious. It's the Chiefs. There's not a contender in the AFC West. I mean, Denver, you know, they were my surprise pick last year.

They lost Von Miller the other day. That's a big blow. I do think Denver's got a chance to be much better offensively with the talent that they've added. They added Melvin Gordon to go with Philip Lindsay. They added Jerry Judy and K.J. Hamler in the draft. They already had Cortland Sutton. I think the offensive line is a question mark, but Drew Locke really looked apart. And I think offensively with Pat Schumer as the O.C., I think they've got a chance to be really good,

much better offensively. But missing Bond Miller is going to be huge for them. I've got the Chiefs winning the AFC West. My wild cards, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, assuming health for Rafflesburg all year long. And I'll go with the Patriots as the third wild card, which means I excluded Houston from my AFC playoff picture. I love Deshawn Watson. I still can't believe that D'Andre Hopkins isn't in Houston anymore.

But I think they're going to be the odd man out this year, sort of an 8-8, 9, and 7 tussle with Tennessee and Indy in the AFC South. There are my AFC picks. Casey, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Indy is division winners, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, and New England as your wild cards. My Super Bowl pick out of the AFC, Tommy, I'll save after you give me your AFC picks. Go ahead. I didn't know you were prepared for this. Can't wait to hear it.

Okay. Okay. Well, you know, you're going to be disappointed because it's a carbon. The AFC is a carbon copy of yours. Oh, okay. I think the Colts are going to be the surprise team. I think the Colts are going to wind up playing the Chiefs. I think the Colts are going to be one of the most interesting surprise teams in the AFC.

I think Philip Rivers could have an MVP-type season playing under Frank Reich. And if it wasn't for the Chiefs and the Ravens being so dominant, I'd be tempted to pick the Colts to go to the Super Bowl. But literally my AFC is a carbon copy of yours. I've got the Bills win in the east, the chiefs win in the west, the Ravens of North, the Colts I have winning the South, and my three wild cards would be the Patriots, Steelers, and Titans. I too have the Texans out. We've got the exact same thing.

Yes, yes. So your Super Bowl pick is still, you're sticking with Casey? No, no, no. I'm picking the Ravens at the AFC for the Super Bowl. But I'd be tempted to pick the Colts. I think they're going to be that good. But I'm picking the Raven. I've got the Chiefs making it back to the Super Bowl.

I'm going to root for the defensive teams, Buffalo and Baltimore. I'd like to see defensive teams like San Francisco. come through like they did last year, but not in the Super Bowl. The chiefs are, you know, not terrible defensively, and they could be improved defensively as well. I just don't know in this day and age the kind of football we watch if the chiefs can be stopped. You know, they're, you know, barring injuries or pandemic and infections and the whole thing. I mean, we're assuming, you know, relative health and relative competitive balance in terms of number of games and players playing, et cetera. But I just don't see Patrick Mahomes. And now with Clyde Edwards-Hillair

out of LSU, who I think is going to be a spectacular back, I just don't see how you slow that team down. I really don't. You know, it's so interesting because the postseason last year for the Chiefs, every single postseason game they played, they trailed in by double digits. You know, they were down 24-0 to the Texans and then ran off 41 consecutive points in about a quarter and a half. They were down 10-0 to the Titans, and they were down by 10 in the third quarter, late third quarter, against the 49ers in the Super Bowl. It just didn't matter because of their offensive explosiveness. So I'm going to take the Chiefs to get back to the Super Bowl out of the AFC. Hardly a long-shot pick.

They're a prohibitive favorite. They and the Ravens are really the two favorites to win the Super Bowl. And I think you'll see that in the AFC title game. I think you'll see the Ravens. Look, Lamar Jackson, I know it's only the second year of him starting for a full season, but he has played as the starting quarterback in two playoff games, and neither one of them went very well. So there will be when we get to the postseason, hopefully we get to the postseason.

There's going to be a real Lamar Jackson, Baltimore, Ravens playoff, you know, pressure to win a playoff game and to advance when we get there, because I think the Ravens will be there. But we've got a long way to go before we get there. I'm going to go with the Chiefs and the Ravens in the AFC title game with the Chiefs prevailing. They play in week three of the season. They play a Monday night game week three at Baltimore. Kansas City does. I mean, Kansas City, you know, when you're as good as they, were the schedule, which I don't put a lot of stock into, as much of you know, but the early portion of the schedule, you get the Texans tonight, then they play a division game next week in

Los Angeles against the Chargers at that new stadium. And then it's the Ravens, Patriots, Raiders, and Bills on the road. That's a, again, no road environment really, but Kansas City Buffalo in week six is a game I can't wait to see. I think the bills are going to be really good. I think we saw it last year with Buffalo. They certainly had a very good chance to win that playoff game last year at Houston, sort of blew the lead in that game losing in overtime. But they were so good defensively last year. I mean, exceptional defensively.

One of my favorite games of the year, last year, Tommy, was the Saturday late December game that was in that afternoon slot, bills at Patriots. It was such a great football game, and you saw in that game what Buffalo, I think, is going to be. I think they're the heir apparent for the Patriots in the AFC East. I do believe that. All right. Anything else? I got NFC. Oh, right. I want your NFC picks. Go ahead. I'm going to save mine for tomorrow, but give me your NFC picks. Okay, the NFC East. I've got the Cowboys win in the division. The NFC West, the 49ers,

NFC North, the Packers, NFC South, the Saints. Okay. My three wildcard team would be the Eagles, the Vikings, and the Buccaneers. Yeah, you know, the NFC is going to be fascinating this year. I mean, right now, you can't obvious, you know, there's no obvious division winner. You know, the Cowboys and the Eagle,

in the NFC East are the two teams that are almost co-favorits. In the NFC North, you've got the Packers and the Vikings right now that I think are borderline co-favorites. I could be wrong about that. The Packers might be a slight favorite in that. You've got the Buccaneers and what everybody thinks they can be and the Saints in the NFC South. And then the NFC West, I mean, the 49ers, I'm sure, are the favorites.

But you have the Seahawks, the Rams, and a team that I guarantee you a lot of people are going to pick to make the postseason. is Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. They're getting... The Cardinals are intriguing. I think Sean McVeigh and the Rams is going to be a real rough year for them. I've got them at the bottom of the division

and of representing the NFC and the Super Bowl, the Dallas Cowboys. Wow. Dallas and Baltimore in Super Bowl 55. I'm looking at Sportsbook.com right now. They're division odds. And the NFC, the Cowboys are the favorite. They're minus 130. The Eagles are plus 150.

The Washington football team's plus 2,000. The Vikings are the favorite in the NFC North, a slight favorite over the Packers. The Lions are getting some love there. I kind of like Detroit. The Saints are the favorite in the NFC South. The Buccaneers are the second favorite. And then in the NFC West, the 49ers are even.

even money favorites. They're not minus. They're even money. And Seattle is plus 225. Buffalo is the favorite in the AFC East, if anybody was wondering. And Indianapolis is the favorite in the AFC South. The biggest division favorite by far are the Kansas City Chiefs who are minus 400 to win the AFC West, followed by the Ravens, who are the second biggest division favorite at minus 225 in the AFC North. Again, what that means is you've got to wage you've got to wager 225 to win 100 when you're minus in that situation. All right. Have a good rest of the weekend. Have a good Friday.

Then rest of the weekend, Tommy. And I will talk to you next Tuesday. And we will have a whole, hopefully, NFL weekend, including Washington's first game, to discuss. Yeah. Okay, boss. All right, everybody. Have a great day. I'm back tomorrow.

Cooley will be on the show.