The Ringer NFL Show - Big NFC Predictions for the 2024-25 Season

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

With a brand-new NFL season looming, Sheil, Steven, and Diante get together to share, debate, and analyze their picks for the teams that will win their respective divisions in the NFC this year. They then speculate on who’ll make the next playoffs through their individual brackets and use their expertise to determine which team will represent the National Football Conference in Super Bowl LIX (36:27). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producer: Chris Sutton Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Social: Kiera Givens and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, guys, your boy Johnny Bananas here. The Challenge Season 40 Battle of the Eras is finally upon us. I'll be covering every episode with all your favorite challengers on my podcast, death taxes and bananas on the Ringer Reality TV podcast feed, and on the brand new Ringer Reality TV YouTube channel where you can find full video episodes all season long. So buckle up. Come along with me as we see who will be crowned winner of the Challenge

Season 40 Battle of the Eras. Follow Ringer reality TV on Spotify and subscribe to us on YouTube. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, Shield Capati, here with Deontay Lee and Stephen Ruiz. It is prediction day. It is prediction week. We're doing the NFC today. We're doing the AFC later this week. Division by division.

Who do we think is going to win? Wild card teams. Who's going to make it out of the NFC? Playoffs, seeding, Super Bowl. representative. That means the season's here. We spent so many months just, yeah, I think this team, maybe this team. But now your takes are out there for fan bases to cut and paste in November and December when you're horribly wrong and you make more enemies.

Ruiz, you love this type of thing, don't you? Yeah, that's my type of thing. That's why I picked every team to win eight games last week when we did the pause. I learned my lesson. I need to ask you guys, are you guys completionist? Like, when you guys do this sort of thing, do you go through every game and pick it? Like, there are websites that help you do it. I do not do that.

I have a spreadsheet where I do wins and losses and make sure they all add up to the same number at the end. So I didn't actually haven't finished doing that yet. I'm a few numbers off. But, yeah, I know I don't go and pick every game. How about you, Deontay? Well, the funny thing is for the conference that we're talking about today, as I was going through that, I was like, wait, I know the seven teams that I really want to pick. And I know who I think is going to win each division.

It was really just a matter of like the fifth three. eight seeds and which one team am I leaving out more than anything. And then the funny thing about going through this process is you try to be ethical, right? Like I had that thought of, all right, I know who I'm going to pick, but do I want to configure the seeds to where I get the matchups that I want in the playoffs? And I was like, ah, no, I think that that kind of robs me of actually having a stand on something. So let me do this the way that I think it's actually going to play out. The way I did it is actually, it sounds like the best way to do it, but it's actually

a really flawed way to do it. Because at the end, you look at the standings in like Washington's, oh and 17. There's like 5-0-1-17 teams and like 4, 15 and 2 teams. So I kind of had to edit myself there too. And then you're picking up, that's just the pickup and then it doesn't feel right. So I probably did it the wrong way. Somehow Shield found a nerdier way to do it. He made his own spreadsheet.

Listen, if there's a nerdier way to do it, I'm going to find it. That's for sure. No, I had the same issue as Deonti. In my head, I'm like, I think these two teams are going to play in the NFC championship. Then I did the exercise and I'm like, wait, they can't play in the NFC championship. Oh, well. All right, we'll pick a new team in the NFC championship. So this will be fun.

I'm going to set the over-under on teams that we all have in the NFC playoffs. Let me think about this at four and a half. Ruiz, over under four-and-a-half teams that all three of us have in the NFC playoffs. I'm taking that over. I'm even looking at mine right now. Yeah, I was going to say, I think you get very conservative with set in line sometimes. I think you could put this at like five and a half because I feel pretty confident. am I over. I should have learned from last time. I don't know, Deonté hit me with some surprises when we were doing top

10 offenses. So maybe, maybe we're not going chalky. All right, let's get to it. Let's start with the NFC East. I just start with the ESPN, you know, standings and go down in the order. They have it. Deontay, why don't you get us started here in a moment? Eagles are the favorites minus 140, Cowboys at plus 175. What's interesting there is they were kind of had the same odds around draft time, and that's really changed really this summer. So Eagles over undersers, 10 and a half wins. Cowboys, nine and a half. Commanders, six and a half and Giants, six and a half. Deonti, who do you have winning the NFC East? I do have the Eagles winning, and it's funny going through the over unders on win-loss totals. I think I will probably bet under on all four NFC East teams. Like, I do think Philadelphia is going to win this division,

but I think it's going to be like an ugly 10 and 7, an ugly 9 and 8 because they do have some holes that they're going to have to address throughout the year, whether that's making a move to bring in a third wide receiver or, you know, having to take some time to figure out what this pass rush unit is actually going to look like on the field, you know, how much you can trust Nolan Smith, what Bryce Huff looks like with a bigger, you know, snap load, what they're going to do with the linebacker position, these young ds, there's so much that's kind of in the air. And I think, Steve, one of you two, I think made this point last week, right, where it's kind of easy to say, like, you look at a name and acquisition, and it's like, oh, okay, the hole on this roster has been solved. And then you start thinking

about it and playing it out a little bit more in real time. And it's like, wait a second, rookies are rarely that good when they hit the field, you know, in their first year. And just because you go bring guys in that are marginally better than whatever you had before does not necessarily mean it's going to transform the unit. So Philadelphia, I think, is a prime example of that, but I do still think that they'll find a way to eke out this division. All right, Deontes got the Eagles. I've also got the Eagles. Now, I've said for a while that this is maybe the highest variance team in the NFL. that you could tell me it's December 10th, and it's already known who are the Eagles hiring as their next head coach. You could tell me they're competing for the one seed in the NFC. So ultimately, I looked at it and I said sixth the easiest schedule in the NFL.

Last year, for as bad as things got, they were 10th in offensive DVOA. They've just the talent. They've still got A.J. Brown and Devante Smith and Seekwon Barkley and Dallas Goddard. and then the coaching change from a Matt Patricia coach defense to a Vic Fangio coach defense. I mean, I don't know in the history of the NFL if there's been a bigger upgrade in coordinator from one season to the next. So I'm pretty much in the same boat as you there, Deonti. I have them at 11 and 6, but I would not be surprised if, you know, it really could go either way for me. Ruiz, is it a clean sweep for you or do you have another team in the NFC East? It is not.

I have the Cowboys winning the division. I have them winning the division quite comfortably. I agree with you on the Eagles. I think it's an either-or situation. Either this is a dumpster fire continuing from last year's dumpster fire at the end, or this team is right back to where they were two years ago. And I can see either happening. And it's just like a matter of opinion.

I was going through these games. I actually have them finishing four and two in the division, but finishing nine and eight overall, which kind of explains how they get their wins. I think they're going to feast on the bottom of this division, be competitive with Dallas. And then it's how do they measure up against the other teams, the other tough teams on their schedule.

But the one point I would push back against is, like, yeah, you look at their holes and they get acquisitions, especially on defense, and you're like, oh, they might have filled that hole. I don't think it's naive to say that because they were one of the worst defenses in the league. They only have, the only way they can go is up. And I think replacing Patricia with Vic Fangio, and they kind of have invested in the Fangio defense the last couple of years. And now they're getting the real deal thing. And I think that's going to really improve their defense. but that's not the question mark I really have about this team's ceiling. It's the offense and what that's going to look like.

And it's so hard to speculate just because it's going to be so different. You would imagine. I know Kellyn Moore has talked about carrying over some of the stuff that worked last year, the last two years into this offense, but I really just want to see the offense before I can buy into this team. I think they're going to be a good team, I think they're going to be competitive. I just see more talent on Dallas's roster.

There are some concerns. Left tackle is a concern. They have a rookie penciled in the starting lineup. I know Tyler Guyton has looked impressive in preseason, but he's a rookie, and that's an important spot. There are question marks about the receiving corps. There are question marks about this coaching staff, Mike McCarthy. So I wouldn't be surprised if these teams flipped how I haven't picked, but for now, I'm going with a team with the more talent. That's interesting, the talent thing, because I'm looking at it.

You can give Dallas the edge, I would say, at quarterback, at defensive line, and at corner. I mean, you could give the Eagles offensive line. You could give the Eagles wide receiver for sure. So I actually don't know that I agree that the Cowboys have the better roster. What do you think, Deonté, when you just look at, take coaching and everything else out of it, just the kind of 53. I mean, it does feel kind of close as we're talking it out here. I think the offensive line might be a little bit closer maybe than I would have thought on first glance,

especially when you just think about the fact that, like, Tyler Steen kind of lost his competition, has been banged up. But now, Mackay Beckton is a guy that Philadelphia has to count on, who's somebody who's really struggled to be available period, let alone finish the season. You lose Jason Kelsey. So I would say in years prior, I might have leaned Philadelphia because the trenches were better. But I look now like they're very light on the defensive line. They are banking a lot on Jordan Davis being able to handle that 80, 85 percent kind of snap, you know,

snap participation rate, him in Milton Williams and Jalen Carter, right? there. Two of those three guys are going to have to pay 80 to 85% plus of these snaps in order for that defensive line rotation to make sense, I would say. So it's close. I probably still lean Philadelphia because they have the number two receiver that's an advantage. I do think that Dallas Goddard when he's on the field is better than Jake Ferguson. But I think if you want to make like almost a basketball as comparison to where Dallas's top three is better than Philly's top three, but maybe the rest of Philadelphia's rotation. is better than Dallas is, right? Like Dallas has guys, you just can't do anything with them they're playing their best. You can't do anything with Dak Prescott when he's at his best. You can't do much with CD Lamb when he's at his best. You can't do anything with Michael Parsons when he's at his best. I would just say

I maybe feel a little bit more competent banking on the entire 53 man roster of Philadelphia, but I do think to your point, see, and it can go either way. I would just say, I think Dallas is a little more top-heavy, which is the point you made. And I think those are premium positions. I think a quarterback advantage is a huge advantage. I think the offensive line is a little more even. Then having Michael Parsons, a player like that,

the Eagles could get production like that from out of Jalen Carter. We saw his high-end play, especially in the first half of the season last year. That's definitely within the range of outcomes. I think with Philly, you're kind of banking on some younger guys, taking the next step to match. Dallas has already established core. All right. I like it.

We didn't agree, too. Me and Deontay, go Eagles. Ruiz goes with the Dallas Cowboys. Now we move on to the N. NFC North, and this is a special part of today's episode because this is sponsored by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Any serious NFL fan knows that the best way to watch football this season is NFL Sunday ticket. It's a must have with features like Multi-View, where you can watch up to four live NFL games at once. Plus, there's a

stats and fantasy view to help you keep track of your teams and players. Best of all, when you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game, every Sunday. It's the most live NFL games all in one place. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games, device, and content restrictions apply. I mean, I'm looking at my TV setup right beyond you guys. Like, I'm looking at the camera beyond that. I got the TVs on the wall. I am a paying YouTube Sunday ticket customer. I can't wait to just sit on this chair to my right on Saturdays, on Sundays in the fall, and watch all of these games. There's no better way to do it than with NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Now, why did we want to talk about Sunday

ticket before the NFC North? Because this division is loaded. The Packers, I believe, are going to be must see TV. The Lions offense last year, you saw it putting up huge point totals. Can their defense improve. You got Caleb Williams in there. You got the Sam Darnold hipsters. I mean, three TVs might not be enough just to watch the NFC North. So in this division, you've got the Lions as the favorites at plus 130. You've got the Packers at plus 200. You've got the Bears at plus 350. And then the Vikings are big underdogs. Win totals. You've got the Lions at 10 and a half. The Packers at 9.5. Bears at 8 and a half. And Vikings at 7 and a half. So kind of bunched there. Everyone between seven and a half and ten and a half, Ruiz, start us off in what was my opinion,

maybe the hardest one of these divisions to pick. Who do you got? Yeah, and you're going to need a second screen for all the excuses for Sam Darno. He doesn't play well. You always need that. But I have the Packers winning it, and I had a closely competitive division, 14 and 3 to 12 and 5 for the Lions. 14 and 3 for the Packers. That's right.

Let's go. Wow, you undersold that. You kind of just, wait, you said, I'm like, wait, did he just say 14 and 3? All right. I didn't want anybody to notice. It was too hot of a take. I don't want people to fact check me on that in a couple months, okay? Don't blow up my spot.

No, but I think the game comes down to those two games between the Packers and the Lions. I have them splitting it. I think the Packers are the better team. I do think the Lions catch a break because they get the Packers in Detroit later on in the year. They avoid, you know, Jared Golf playing outside. I think they only have to play in a cold weather spot outside only once in the last two months. It's once all year. That's at Chicago, which I have the Bears winning that one in an upset because of that.

But they are indoors, and I think they're going to end this season hot. I think there might be some question marks, especially in the middle of the year. They have a tough stretch where they go to Dallas. I think it's when they play Green Bay. I think they play the Texans too. I could see that kind of tripping them up, rebound over the last month, get into the playoffs easily, maybe have a shot at the division the last couple weeks. But I think the Packers, I have more faith in this quarterback.

I have more faith in the coaching staff, even though that's close. We've just seen the Packers coaching staff do it before at a high level. And I think there's high-end potential for this defense that we haven't seen tapped into in the last four or five years. Deontay, what do you got? Are you rolling with the Packers or are you going with the Lions here? Or another team. You could surprise us.

No, I'm not feeling that. I can pump the brakes a little bit. I'm going with Detroit, though. And it's for one of the reasons that Stephen pointed out is the fact that Detroit doesn't have to play many difficult games outdoors, right? And it can feel kind of like a hokey take after spending all this time talking about Ben Johnson and Jared Gough and this offensive line and what James and Williams is going to be as a field stretching wide receiver. But what we know of Jared Gough is that when he gets ideal conditions of playing within this offense, he usually puts up big numbers, right? And you look, they get to see the Rams indoors.

They'll probably see the Texans indoors, even though that's on the road because they have the retractable roof. They'll have the Cowboys indoors because that's going to be at AT&T Stadium. You get to see the Bears at home in November. So like you said, even though they do get a Chicago game late in the year on the road, they will have already seen them indoors and will probably be playing to split those divisional games. So I have them going probably 12 and 5, 13, and 4. Green Bay is pretty close. I think that they're probably pretty solidly an 11-1 team, if not better, right?

I think they are betting on their ceiling as a smart play, I think, just because of the way that they ended last year. And some of the things that we talked about are projecting out with this. offense can be and what this defense might look like playing a little bit simpler and a little bit faster if guys are healthy. So it's close. It's really close, but I feel really good about Detroit. This has been my NFC team, basically wire to wire since I've been part of the ringer. And I'm not going to fold on this now. I'm riding with Detroit all the way through. Yeah, I've been flip-flopping on this for for months on end here.

I ultimately went with the Packers at 12 and 5. Very close. The deciding factor for me was I feel like maybe the Packer. can withstand a little more. Like if the Packers have a wide receiver go down, I'm like, okay, if the Lions have, I'm on Ross St. Brown go down, I'm getting kind of nervous. If the Packers have a couple O-line injuries, I'm like, all right, the quarterback can get them out of it.

If the Lions have a couple starting offensive linemen go down and Jared Goff's getting pressured more, then maybe I get a little bit nervous. And then just the ceiling with the Packers. I mentioned it. I forget on a recent pod that just I like to look for that quarterback, who's in his second year as a starter, who I think just might take off and we're all like, oh, this is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

And I think love is a great, great candidate to be that guy. So this was a tough one for me. Ultimately, went with the Green Bay Packers at 12 and 5. Thanks again to our friends at NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV. Don't miss a moment of the action. Watch every game, every Sunday when you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. Sign up today at YouTube.com slash ringer, local and national games on. YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games, excludes digital-only games, device and content

restrictions apply. Again, I love it. We haven't agreed yet. Will we agree on the final two? We'll find out. We'll take a break here. We'll come right back. We'll get to the NFC South, the NFC West. We'll pick our wildcard teams, and then we will go through the entire playoff scenario. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. So Ruiz, as you're explaining this, I don't think it struck me when you said it in the beginning. So you went to a site and just did week by week and you picked every game of the entire NFL season? Yeah, PlayoffPredictors.com. They've had this site around for like the last five years.

That's how I do this exercise every year. And like I said, it's very flawed. I have not recommended it at all. It takes up a lot of time and then at the end you hate the results. I was going to say, it's a lot of games to pick. Yeah, I'm sitting there thinking about like, oh, the Packers are playing the Dolphins in November and actually trying to suss out who's going to win that game. It's a nonsense exercise.

but did it anyway. So tell me this, when you're picking games in like week 11, does it tell you what the team's record is so far based on the picks you've made, or do you have no idea? No, it does, but I ignore it because I don't want it to influence my picks. Amazing. I'm doing it completely ethical, okay? There you go.

I love it. All right, we did the NFC North. We did the NFC East. We split on the Cowboys and Eagles. We were not all in agreement on the Packers and Lions. Now we get to the NFC South. And you're welcome YouTube TV and NFL Sunday ticket that we didn't do the ad read for the NSC South here. You know, I got it for the good divisions of the NSC South.

Falcons are big favorites. Mine is 145. Unbelievable. Bucks at plus 340, Saints at plus 430, and then the Panthers are big underdogs. Falcons over under wind total, nine and a half. Bucks are at seven and a half. Saints are at seven and a half. And the Panthers are at five and a half.

Deontay, do you like the favorites in the Falcons or are you going with a sleeper in this division? I just want to say that whoever is putting money on the Panthers to win this division, we really got to sit down and have a conversation, guys. But there's betting on long odds and then there's, you know, relying on the Panthers. I think this will probably be the first division where we'll have consensus. I'm going Atlanta here. I just, the more I think about it, I've tried to poke holes in this thing all offseason. I couldn't stay in the draft.

I really was confused with the whole Kirk Cousins paying to bring him in if he're bringing in a rookie to play quarterback. And then a guy who's not playing quarterback in the preseason, which kind of opens up the door to even more questions about exactly what the plan is, short and long term for the quarterback room. But you look at Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Bejohn Robinson, I think this offensive line will be fine. I trust the offensive system that they're bringing in with Zach Robinson. I really don't have much reason outside of them just not maybe having enough pass rush even. after bringing in Matt Judeon and kind of banking on Justin Simmons, who I think is kind of starting to take a little bit of a step back in his career, still a productive player, but not what he was in 2018, 2019, and 2020 in Denver.

But I'm not ready to walk off of that ledge, not for the Bucks and certainly not for the Saints. So I'll just go ahead and stick with them as the winner of the NFC South. I'm not sure if they'll win more than 10 and 11 games because of that defense, but I think that they should win this pretty comfortably. Ruiz, what do you got? Yeah, I'm going to be boring and go with the Falcons too. I have them winning the division by four games.

And I think there's a chance that they not only have the best offense in this league or in this division. And I think they're kind of getting the best of both worlds. Like they have the Arthur Smith offense, which you could criticize as saying they kind of leaned into the run game stuff a little too much, having fullbacks on the field, you know, setting up to play action pass. Whereas I think this new coaching staff has kind of found the right balance. Like the McVeigh guys, the Shanahan guys have kind of figured out a way to have a run first off. but you're not giving up those early down passing opportunities that are really efficient. So I think this offense is going to be even better than it has been, even at the top of like Arthur Smith's best when they finished, I think, like, 10th in EPA the one year,

the first year he was there. So I have them winning this division. I really think the bucks are due to take a step back. Them losing Dave Canales is a bigger deal than I think people are letting on about. Like I don't know how in one breath we kind of hype up Dave Canales and the work he's done with Baker Mayfield and what he's going to do with Bryce Young and then kind of discount the fact that. that the bucks are moving on from him, really who I thought was the bright spot of that coaching staff,

because I think you could make the argument. I love Todd Bulls, loved him for a long time, but I think you can make the argument that the game is passing by a little bit. And there are some offenses, some types of offenses, that tend to expose his style of defense, which is like playing-based defense, doing a lot of like five-down stuff, a lot of fire zone. And I think these play-action coaches are really good at exploiting that.

So I think you could see that defense also take a step back and if both units take a step back, I don't know who pushes Atlanta in this division, maybe the Saints, but even there, I don't know, I'm not going to make that argument for them. This does not make me feel good, guys, that all three of us are picking the Atlanta Falcons to win this division. Now I feel even more strongly that that's not going to happen. I swear if there was another team in this division that I even just liked a little bit, I was ready. I was so ready to say this isn't going to work for the Falcons and I'm picking someone else. I couldn't do it now. Ruiz, you said you have them winning by four games.

So what's your win total for the Atlanta Falcons? Just 11 and 6. Bucks and Saints finishing 7 to 10. Yeah. I have this as a good old fashioned Garbonzo Beans Division where the winner wins it at 9 and 8 and it comes down to week 18 and you're sick of all these teams. So I just think you look at Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. You know, the offensive ranked between 9th and 20th every season. And he had Stefan Diggs and then he had Justin Jefferson. And now he's 36 and he's coming off in Achilles.

I'm just looking at it going. Is this going to really be the best version of Kurt Cousins we see? So that makes me nervous. The defense, Deonti, you mentioned it when, like, Matthew Judon is at 32 years old coming off an injury is viewed and rightfully so as like this massive addition. Like, what does that tell you kind of about the rest of the defense? And so I like their secondary a little bit. Like I was looking at it.

I'm like, okay, AJ Terrell, Jesse Bage, Justin Simmons. These are veteran players who have been good football players at one time or the other. I like Rahim Morris. He had, you know, those weren't the most talented Rams teams in recent years. But it just screams mediocrity to me. Now, the reason I still went with them, they have by far the easiest schedule in the NFL. If you look at Vegas win totals, if you look at Super Bowl odds, really any of the things you want to look at, it is the easiest schedule in the NFL.

So I'm like, they went seven and ten last year with Desmond Ritter and Taylor Heineke. Now they have the easy, they still have the easiest schedule in the NFL. Like, can they win two more games? I think they can win more, two more games. I will say this. I mean, it is very interesting. They're an interesting team this year, not only because they're the favorites, but also this Pennix thing.

I mean, if Cousins doesn't play well, if Cousins goes down for a little bit and Pennix has to play, like, I'm going to want to see what that looks like and what Pennix looks like. So I'm with you guys. on the Falcons, I couldn't go with the Saints, Derek Carr behind that offensive line, I don't think that's going to be good. The Bucks, I'm with you, all the nerd

stuff that I like to look at in terms of first and second down performance versus third down performance last year for them. It's night and day. I mean, a lot of it was Baker Mayfield throwing it up to Mike Evans on third down. Some of that, I'll give Canales credit for scheming stuff up, but that wasn't like, you know, I think the reputation

of that offense is probably not matched with some of the numbers you might look at. So I think they're taking a step back and then to Deontes point, I wish, I wish the Panthers, if Bryce Young just had shown me a little, so I really would have attempted to say, oh, they could turn this around, but I couldn't do that either. So we're all going with the Atlanta Falcons. So one more thing on the schedule point, and this was really where I wanted to try to poke a hole in Atlanta's schedule, and we made this similar point about Detroit. They only play five games outdoors, two of them, or after Halloween.

And I think it's like it's the Broncos and the commanders as those two games. So it's like in terms of playing surface, in terms of just like the conditions necessary to play really well, high-powered spread offense, which is what we're probably going to see from Atlanta, they're going to have it pretty well lined up to be able to put up big numbers with Kirk Cousins and not really be challenged probably until they get to the postseason. I think they open with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.

and then you can look at the rest of the schedule and say, these are at worst coin toss games outside of like the Dallas game in November, right? So they've got it pretty easy. I think they'll probably be coasting throughout most of the season. This is probably going to be a team that does go 11 and 6, and we don't actually know how good they are because we're not going to have enough frame of reference based on who they play throughout the year. They're the team, Ruiz.

We bet you on the last pod. We can be telling everyone in Week 12, forget the record. This team's not that good. Look at this. And then their fan base can get upset. Again, I said that, see, that's what gives me the goosebumps football season coming. Stuff like that that I can think about delivering in November. All right.

So we all got the Falcons from the NFC South. And now we go to the NFC West where the 49ers are the biggest favorites for the division of any team in the NFC. They are minus 190 to win the NFC. The Rams are plus 330. The Seahawks are plus 700. and then the cardinals, the hipters cardinals, as Ruiz rightfully called them out the last episode, our big underdogs here. So Niners over under, 11.5 wins.

Ram second, eight and a half. Seahawks are seven and a half, but that's juice to the over and cardinals are seven and a half also, and that's juice to the under. Ruiz, you start us off here. You got a surprise up your sleeve or you got the San Francisco 49ers. No surprises. I got the 49ers. And I somehow managed to pick the over for all of these teams. I have the 49ers winning 13. I have the Rams winning 10, the Seahawks winning 8, and the hipster Cardinals winning only seven games. But a very feisty seven games that won't derail

the hype going into next year where they'll be the hipster team again. That's an under. They're over under is all the way up to seven and a half because of the hipsters are just loading up on them. Oh my. That's insane. That's insane. You just said the winners. I know. I was trying to be optimistic. But anyway, The only reason to pick against the $40 this year is the potential of injury problems, because they do have an older roster at some places. And we've seen some of their key guys have injury problems in the past, like Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey,

even Brock Pardy has suffered an injury. So I think that's the one thing that could be the downfall for this team, but I'm not predicting that in August. It's not fun to predict that a team's going to have worse injury luck in that we're not going to see some of the coolest players in the league be out there for 17 games. So assuming that everyone's out there, I would set their floor for wins maybe at 13 if they get a healthy-ish roster

because this team is just so good. And I think defensively, we saw issues last year that are correctable. And I think they will be corrected with this new coaching staff coming on. I think Deonti talked about this when we did the defensive pod. They're kind of going back to what they had been doing under D'Amico Rines. And the skill on that team, especially on the defensive side, like sets them up to play that style. I think going back to that is going to make their defense what it was two years ago. And I think the offense, I mean, we don't even have to say anything.

They have all these stars, I think Brad and Iyke stays put. And then Kyle Shanahan, I mean, he's going to have answers to any problems defenses present to them. It speaks to just how ridiculous the top of this roster is that I can list off the fact that Brad and I, you can trip Williams aren't practicing. Telanoa Hufunga is coming back from an injury. We have no idea what the timeline is for Dre Greenlaw. They've lost Eric Carr, Senator DeForest Buckner over the years.

So I don't like their interior of the offensive line. don't like the interior of the defensive line. They're missing linebackers. They're going to probably be starting a young guy or inexperienced guy at safety. And I still think that this team is probably going to 12 and five. You know, and I'm picking them probably to win this division, maybe going away. You know, I don't know exactly how I feel about the Rams because that defense is going to be so young in some spots and inexperienced in spots. And obviously they have like a number 99 sized hole that they have to fill on the defensive line, right? But to me, I mean, every

thing is still set up so well for San Francisco to just put up a bunch of numbers on offense. I don't know if this defense is actually going to land in the top six or seven the way that I think I predicted when I was on the podcast with Stephen when I first started. There's a lot of variance there because they're playing with lighter bodies, guys that are probably not as fitting for this scheme in the way that it used to. It used to be Win DeForest Buckner and Eric Armstrong over there. But still, I think that all the pieces are there for them to win a bunch of games, I don't think that they'll get pushing up in the division outside of the two games you have to play against the Rams. I think they're still lining up pretty well to go 12 and 5,

even if they're not the number one overall seed in the NFC or in the NFL, I still think that they'll probably be pretty comfortably playing at home in the playoffs for most of their run. I was tempted to pull a surprise in this division. Super Bowl hangover. Is it really? I mean, I do think it is. There is something to it when you get that close. I mean, I just remember the faces Kyle Shanahan, the players after that game. I mean, I remember Nick Bosa, which right after the game, he's like, you don't realize, like, when you lose a game like that, you're just thinking of all the things you have to do now just to get back to this point to give yourself a chance.

It's been a long stretch for them where the core of this team and the coach, especially, the highly strong coach who's just like, can I just get one of these things here? They're getting so close and they haven't done it. and you've got the IUC stuff and you've got got the Trent Williams contract and you've got some of the injuries, Deante, which you've mentioned. I mean, the defense is very interesting to me. Like, if I'm Steve Wilkes's agent, I'm going, listen, they were fourth in defensive DVOA last year. And in that Super Bowl, my defense held the chiefs to two field goals on their first nine possessions of the game. My offense could not take advantage when I was giving them the ball back for, I mean,

an average game, you get 11 possessions. The first nine. possessions, the chiefs had not scored a touchdown. Like, you could easily make that case. Now, I understand if you're saying, Shield, were you watching the games? I get it. The 49ers did not look good in the playoffs. They looked very vulnerable defensively at times last season. I'm not convinced that, you know, Nick Sorenson's going to come in, first-time defensive

coordinator. I would imagine his number one rule is, Kyle, what do you want me to call here? Hey, Kyle, just wondering, you got a second. Hey, Kyle. I mean, I think that's what Shanahan wants. I mean, Shanahan, if he could call the offense and the defense, like, and maybe he can, I think he would very much like to do that, right? I can tell you exactly what the defensive game plan is.

It's the same thing whenever our offensive coaches talk to me as a coach, I would say, what do you have for him this week? And I say, it's our offense scoring 28 points. That's the best defensive game plan that I can come up with. How about we do that? And then I don't have to worry so much about getting stops. I think that is a good point about this defense, though, is like the offense puts so much pressure on you as a play caller, an offensive play caller, where like maybe by the second

quarter, you have to abandon maybe a good chunk of your game plan because you're behind already because this team puts up so much points, especially early on when Kyle Shannon is on script, that even if the defense is a little suspect, I think the overall numbers at the end of the regular season are going to look better than maybe the actual talent on the team. That's a good point. You have to play a certain way. If you're not all NFL coaches think like that, but if you're like a reasonable, realistic coach and you go, into a game against them, you kind of have to coach it a certain way and just acknowledge that unless you're the Ravens or something, you're not going to be shutting them down. And so what do you

have to do to win the game? Which I think NFL coaches think more about now than maybe they did 10 years ago. I do think like the most fascinating in this team. The team that I'm excited to watch and didn't necessarily pick them to make the playoffs is Seattle and how Mike McDonald gets this defense up and running and how he takes on Sean McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan. And even even the Cardinals are doing good things on offense with Drew Prezzing and they have Kyler Murray and they do some interesting stuff. The indivision battles in this game, I know the NFC North looks like the best division on paper and maybe will be the most competitive, but this is the one I want to watch. This is the most watchable division in the NFL. Yeah, no doubt. Those

matchups between McDonald and McDonnell and McBey are going to be very fun. So yeah, I've got the Niners at 11 and 6. I mean, you just assume Ayuk and Trent Williams are coming back and they lost, Who did they, they lost Charlie Warner. They're tight end too. It's literally this, everybody else is back on offense. So it's like the stuff I talked about with the Packers where they can withstand stuff. I think that applies to the Niners. You know, Debo goes down for a little bit.

I, you even if they get worse injury luck, like there's enough there with the coaching, with the scheme that they're going to be pretty good. And then on defense for, I do have questions, like I said, but you've got the pass rush. You've got the best linebacker in football. You've got a lockdown corner. It's not a daunting schedule. And so I think there could be maybe some more bumps in the road than maybe you guys think. But at the end of the day, I just looked at it and I said, no, I can't pick anyone else to win this division.

So I've got the 49ers. All right, let's take one more break. We're going to come back. We're going to go with our wild card teams. You guys might have mentioned some teams where I was saying, not so fast. That might be getting to them later. So we'll get to our wild card teams. And then we each pick our representative to go to the Super Bowl.

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Redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG dash help.com. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. I'm trying to think of the best way to. Well, let's just start. Deonté, we'll start with you. You give us one team that you've got as.

a wildcar team and then Ruiz, you and I can say whether we've got them as well and we can just take turns until we've knocked all of them out here. Go ahead, Deonte. Let's have some phone with this one. I want to start with the hottest one that I have is my wildcard team. And it's Chicago. It's the Bears. I have them getting in as the six seat in the NFC going nine and eight, sneak it in as a six seat. I do not have them. I have them eight. I think they finish eight. So they finish right outside the last spot for me. I am with you, Deontay. I've got them in. I've got them 10 and 7. It was between the Bears and one other team. And I said, She'll remind yourself that this year's different than last year, remind yourself of all those nerd stats about six different playoff teams every year or whatever it is. You can't go chalk, even if your heart's telling you to go chalk here.

So I was just looking at it, Shane Waldron in Seattle. I mean, their defenses were above average all three seasons. They had offensive line issues there. And I just look at it. it. You know, Ruiz, you were talking about this on the last episode, that Caleb Williams is just much better set up for success than other quarterbacks who are usually in this spot. And then defensively, after they added Montes Sweat last year, and I still have questions about their pass rush, but I'm like, I like the linebackers. That corner group has a chance to be like one of the stories of the season. I mean, they're really young ascending players where we could be saying, man, these corners are locking people down here for the Chicago Bears.

Schedule is, depending on what metric you like to look at, third easiest, seventh easiest. I saw different ones there, but it's not a daunting schedule. And so this is the last one I was deciding on. It was between the bears and another team. And I said, you know what? I'm going with them. The heart wants what the heart wants. I've got the Chicago Bears also sneaking in as a wildcard team.

So there you go. Deontay and I have the Bears. Deonti, did I miss anything there with my explanation that made you think you, why you wanted to pick the bears? No, I think that was it, right? it's really banking on the defense just as much as it is being excited about Caleb Williams. I think that this defense has a chance to be one of the top six, top five defenses in the NFL if everybody is playing at peak capacity.

What I believe in with Jalen Johnson, what I think Kyler Gordon has shown since kind of having a role change, spending more time in the slot in Chicago. I like Tyreek Stevenson a bunch. I've always liked Jaquan Briskery when he was at Penn State. I think that they have a really good collection of talent in a lot. versatile collection of talent on the back seven. And what we saw after they finally got an edge rusher and Montes Sweat was that the whole defense kind of started to click pretty instantly after the fact. And I think that this is going to be a year where they build on that. They might even be,

I might have even picked them to be a 10-11 win team if they weren't paying in the division that they were playing in. But I do think they're going to be one of those teams. If we get to the postseason, if Caleb Williams is the quarterback that I think he can be, this is going to be that, you know, a eye-roll proverbial team. Nobody wants to play in December or January, right? Because they have so many factors that you need to be a dangerous team late in the season. Now I feel insecure because I didn't have like an out-there wild-card pick. Like I feel like a loser with my wild-card picks.

I have the Eagles and the Lions. I'm switching my last one. I had the Rams. I'm switching it. I don't care. Okay. I'm going with the Seahawks. The Seahawks are my last wild-card team.

Because I think you can make the argument that there are less question-marks on the defensive side. I think you don't even need to make the argument. There are a lot of, the Rams are banking on a couple of rookies to be their edge rushers, a couple of, I don't want to say castoffs, but like, because I think Cam Curl is a good player. I think Johnny Johnson, like, returning has been a decent player. I don't know what he has left in the tank. I'm not super excited about this quarterback group. So I'm going to go with the Seattle Seahawks because I think the high-end outcomes for them,

especially on the offensive side. If Ryan Grub is what I think you can be. I know a lot of people are excited about the offense he had at Washington. like there is talent here. And it comes back to the same question we talked about last time, the offensive line. How does the offensive line perform? I think a good offensive coordinator and a good quarterback, which I think Gino Smith is, can work around a bad offensive line.

And I think Seattle hasn't always had that in the past when they've had offensive line issues. I think Russell Wilson made that offensive line look worse at times than it was. And I don't think that's going to be an issue here. So I'm really banking on Ryan Grub, who obviously hasn't proven anything. Like he hasn't called plays at this level yet. But I have the confidence in him. I have the confidence in Mike McDonald. And we have a hard ball coaching up the special teams.

That's got to matter. Deante, did you have the Seahawks or no? No, so I had them kind of in that six and 11, seven and 10 range where I think they'll be really competitive. I actually kind of look at this roster and I liken it to where Chicago was at last year, outside of like the quarterback situation, especially when I look at this defense, right? Like I think if they get an edge rusher, somebody who can really impact the game and allow them to rush with four, you start looking at the defensive backfield. And there are a lot of things to like there.

I do think that linebackers a bit of an issue for them, but they've got the defensive interior. They do have the quarterback talent that you need. I think they've got enough that safety. So it's really just a matter of them lacking that top tier edge rush talent. So if that guy ends up being available or that kind of player ends up being available around the trade deadline and they go get a guy like that, that might kind of unlock an opportunity for them to make a late season run. The only reason why they're not in for me is the offensive line. First year play caller with an offensive line that I'm a little bit concerned about.

But I think that the wide receiver room fits what Ryan Grub wants to do. There should be a good year for D.K. Metcalf because I think that this offense is going to allow him to do the things that he does best, which is get vertical and try to create mismatches with a bunch of different formations and changing the location of receivers to trip up defenses. So I do think there's a lot to like, but the NFC West is going to be tough. And I think that there may be just one or two pieces behind being that six, seven seed in the NFC right now. My one concern with the defense is the linebacker play. Because I think we've seen Mike McDonald kind of work around, not having that dominant edge. We saw that in Baltimore.

But he had Roquant Smith and he had Patrick Queen, where you could do certain stuff where you're not afraid to leave your linebackers kind of on an island or ask them to cover more space than you would another linebacker, a more average linebacker. So I could see that kind of mitigating what he can do with the pass rush. And that could be the downfall for this team.

But ultimately, I do trust him. to figure things out eventually. And maybe it's a slow start that kind of holds them back from getting into the playoffs this year. And they do that next year. But there's a lot of talent on this roster. All right. So not only did I agree with Deontes surprise pick

of the Chicago Bears, but Ruiz, I got the Seahawks in. I have the Seahawks. 10 and 7. I look at this. This is a good roster. I'm looking at this roster. It's an underrated roster.

I think last year, my two big swings when I did my ranking all the defense, in the NFL. One was the Browns. That was a hit. Another was the Panthers. That did not hit. I'm doing the same exercise for the ringer.com this week. I think you're going to be surprised where I see where I have the Seattle Seahawks. I don't have the exact number yet, but I think this defense has a real chance with these young defensive backs, with the veterans on the defensive line, with the coach. And even the linebackers do worry me, but at least I'm like, these are guys they added this

offseason after they hired Mike McDonald. So presumably he saw something. where he said, all right, these guys will be fits for what I want to do. I know it doesn't always work out that way, but it's not like he's stuck with guys from the previous regime. So I think this defense is going to make a big, big leap from being one of the worst defenses in the NFL last season. And then offensively, I mean, their offensive line wasn't good last year, and they were 12th in offensive DVOA.

Like, they weren't, this was not a bad off. And even if it's a little bit better, I like my chances. The thing I mentioned earlier with, you know, early down success, translocal. more year over year. Gino Smith, early downs last year, third in success rate among all quarterbacks. And then third down, it kind of fell apart because when you have third and seven and you can't protect, you know, that's going to be an issue for your offense. So I think the ceiling on both sides of the ball is higher than people are giving them credit for. And even if everything I just said, like it doesn't all need to hit. Like some of it needs to hit a little. Some of it

needs to hit a little more. And I think they can be a team that goes over 500 and win nine or 10 games. And I think, I don't know, maybe Deonti, you can correct me if you don't agree with this, but I do think this offense, even though Grubb hasn't proven himself and Shane Waldron has had success at this level, I think Walgin's offense was a little more dependent on having a good run game and having like a traditionally good run game, whereas Ryan Grubb, I think, can find ways to cheat the run game and like generate efficiency that isn't based on the talent around him. So I think that's one way to keep Gino out of those third and sevens, because it wasn't Gino putting them in the third and sevens. Like you said,

success rate, that's the stat. That's the stay ahead of the chain stat. And he was one of the best in the league at it. No, I'm with you, I think that they'll find ways whether there's RPO's. They have athletic backs as well. So it's not necessarily that they don't have guys that can create behind an offensive line that might be a little bit

leaky. I think that they'll do enough of mixing looks up, trying to get the ball out on the perimeter. And like you said, the structure of this offense does not rely on Gino Smith having to get under center and running a bunch of outside zone. to set things up, right? You don't have to be in 12 personnel in Ryan Grub's offensive. I'm just to take what we saw from Washington and what I'm looking at right now in the preseason. I don't think this is

an offense that's going to be rigid and how it tries to set up the run game in some of the ways that I think Shane Waldron was, right? And I don't mean rigid necessarily as like, as dogging Waldron. It's just like some of these guys coming off of that, Shanahan McBaytree, are a little bit dogmatic in how they look at offense. I don't think that Ryan Grub will suffer from some of the same problems. I think he'll be able to step in what kind of fresh mind or fresh ideas and say, hey, if we need to keep three wide receivers on the field at all time because that's our best personnel package, then let's find a way to build a spread run game off of that. And I think that that's something that they can do will be functional enough to where they're not just getting blown

up in the way that Houston was last year because they're always running the ball in early downs behind an offensive line that's hurt and maybe not as good as you want it to be. All right. So we've got some of the sleepers out of the way, the Seahawks, me and Ruiz, the Bears, me and Deante. Deante, who's your next wildcard team here. So this is interesting to me, and this is where my biggest hang up was, right? I thought there were three teams for two spots that I was really debating.

And we talked about two of them. I mentioned the Bears. You guys talked about the Seahawks. The other team I was really considering was the Cowboys, and they're the team that ended up being left off. So I'm going with the Rams as my seven seat. And at first I was going to be a coward to say,

all three of these teams go nine and eight, and don't ask me how the tiebreakers work. I'm just giving it to the two teams. That doesn't fly here. I don't think so. But I just have so many questions about what Dallas is going to look like defensively first. And that's with all the trust and confidence in the world that Mike Zimmer will find

something that works. And I don't want to blame him for the poor taste of my mouth that I have from the end of Dan Quinn's time as a defensive play caller. But I just saw a defense that struggle to keep offenses from being explosive in the run and the passing game. And I don't know if their personnel necessarily fits making immediate gains and stopping the run on early downs. And that was a huge issue for them the last two months of the year. So until I see that address, I'm just not confident enough to put Dallas in as a

wildcar team, even though I think this offense will be electric again, as long as DAC and CD are available and healthy. I just really trust this offense, right? Being at training camp with the Rams and watching what they're doing and doubling down on the man, you know, the man in gap scheme runs and setting up play action passes off of it and seeing a healthy Cooper Cup and having and Kyra Williams and Blake Coram as your two backs. So now you don't have to ask Kyran to take on such a heavy workload. Or you can kind of split that up and not beat him down so much. So he's available in the postseason and closer to 100%.

I really feel confidence they'll be able to do just enough on offense around Matt, with Matt Stafford and Sean McVeigh to Eak in, even though I do think, you know, if you want you to make an argument that Dallas would sneak in or you would have two NFC East teams, I could understand that. All right. So Ruiz, I know you have the Cowboys winning the NFC East and did you replace the Rams with the Seahawks? So you have the Rams out or did you replace someone else with the Seahawks? Or are you deciding on the fly here and you need me to buy time for like 15 seconds while you decide?

No, no. I am making changes on the fly, but I've made my changes already in my head. I'm taking back the fact that I took the Rams out of the playoffs. Rams are back in my playoffs. I'm taking the Eagles who were my seventh seed. I'm taking them out of the playoffs and putting the Seahawks in. I think both finished 9 and 8 and somehow Seattle wins the tiebreaker. So I got the lions, the Rams, and the Seahawks as my wildcard teams.

My final decision for this was Cowboys or Bears, and I ultimately decided I'm going to go with the bears. I'm just going to try to predict that there's more turnover than my heart is telling me right now. You know, I'm kind of bullish on this Cowboys defense. Like Mike Zimmer's defensive resume is just very impressive. When you look at his eight years with the Vikings, I think he had five top 10 defenses, is four top five defenses, which is like, that's hard to do over an eight year span. Like fan shows, last eight years, don't, you know, they don't look like that like Zimmerst did. So I actually think there's talent there where I'm sort of, I'm like you, Deontale.

I was like, all right, Quinn had some good years there, but by the end, it kind of got ugly. And I feel like they're ready for a new voice in there with Micah Parsons, with the talent they have at cornerback. And so I think that could be good. Offensively, I feel like what they're asking out of DACP, Scott here may be a little underrated. When you look at, you're potentially starting two rookies on the offensive line. Goes back to what we said in the first segment. Yeah, on paper, the clips, the reports, looks great. Hopefully for DAC's sake, it's going to be great. But you just don't know

when those rookies are in there and they're going up against starters who want to rip their heads out. Like, what is it going to look like? It's normal to have growing pain. So that worries me a little bit that your offensive line isn't going to be as good as it was in the past. I mean, Iron Smith was awesome last year. The run game, you know, Deontes brought that up before. I mean, they're putting Zeke back there. What are they doing at Dak? I mean, this is your run game?

What is going to? So two rookie offensive linemen with Zeke? I mean, come on. That looks to me like a below average run game. And then just, you know, you have CED lamb. Beyond that, it gets a little dicey. So you're a little vulnerable. If he goes out for a month or so, can you withstand that?

And even I was just looking at the new NFL pro. product, not to give them a, you know, a free endorsement here, but it's pretty cool with the next-gen stat stuff. And Dak Prescott had the fourth highest percentage of tight window throws last year. Now, he's very good at those. It's fun to watch him make those. But when you look at kind of offense and is it a little fragile, like the margin for error, he's going to have to make more of those if you don't have your, you know, your wide receiver for every game. So I just think the margin for error is slim. Now, I look at it on paper and I've got the Cowboys as like a top 12 offense and a top 10 defense and it should be a playoff team. So I still think they win

nine or 10 games, but ultimately I was debating between them and the bears and I ended up going with the bears and leaving the Cowboys out. You sound like you don't trust the Mike McCarthy, Brian Schottenheimer Brain Trust. I mean, listen, I bring up every time we talk about the Cowboys under McCarthy, they've won more games than any team in the NFC in the regular season. So if we're just talking about who's in the playoffs, I should mention that. But yes, I would say I think a team I don't trust, I think that is a pretty good way to put it. I don't trust them either. And when I look at this roster, so much of this kind of reminds

me of like, I don't know if you guys remember that, like 2015 to 2018 stretch of the Lions with Matt Stafford, where they started turning over the offensive line. You know, they had a bunch of young pieces that were kind of interesting on defense, right? You had a healthy Zigianza. You had Achaun Robinson

on the defensive interior, Darius Slay. So there's a lot of pieces, right, where you can kind of start to feel good and say, hey, the quarterback's good enough. And What happened in that era of Detroit football was that they always went 9 and 7 and just missed the playoffs. And I think that that might be the story here. And then from a narrative perspective, that's like the worst possible outcome for Dak Prescott, because there's going to be so much on his plate.

There's another chance that he has a dozen interceptions, you know, a double DJ interception year, because he has to do so much to try to bail this offense out. And it's going to be very easily explained to us and nobody is going to want to hear it, especially if they miss the playoffs. I think that's a great point you guys both bring out because there was a thin line between his season two years ago and his season last year where some of those tight windows

throws turned into interceptions and then last year they didn't. I don't think DAC was a different quarterback. I think he was the same quarterback. He might have taken a step up. I think he did better out of structure last year. But it's a real fine line between those two things and I can see it going either way.

You guarantee me an average luck within terms of turnovers and injury luck, I could see Dallas winning 13 games like I picked them to do. I could see them winning only eight games like Sheel has picked them to do. So either way, I can see it. Yeah, I still have them. I think I have nine or ten, but just missing the play. It might be one of those tie situations, but I'm going on the record. I'm not saying I don't know who makes it. I have them out. We'll see, but I agree with you. If I had to name four teams, five teams in

the NFC that actually can win the Super Bowl or get to the Super Bowl from the NFC, I have the Cowboys on that list. There's a situation where things go right for them and all those things that I just mentioned are not big concerns and they end up playing well. But ultimately, I had them out there. So Rams you both have in. I have the Rams out. That was another one that I left just out. I just think they had tremendous injury luck last year and they won nine games and now they don't have Aaron Donald and now they don't have Rahim Morris. I'm very concerned about that defense. Already you're seeing this summer that some of the injury stuff is. hitting them a little bit. But again, they could be awesome. They could, you know, if there's a

sleeper in that division, they could be a sleeper in that division. So I get that as well. All right, Deontes, so you have given us the bears. You've given us the Rams. Am I missing one? Did you name your third one yet? Or are you naming it now? It would be the Packers. The Packers would be the third one. And that was the one that was like the easiest pick of the non-divisional winners that will make a playoffs. And I have been going 11 and 6 this year. So there you go. And then Ruiz, You pick the Packers to win the division, but you've got the Lions as your other wildcar team, correct? Yeah, yeah. All right.

Let's get to our seedings and then who we've got coming out of the NFC in the playoffs. So I've got my – do you guys have yours listed one through seven where you're ready to go through them or do you want me to start while you get that stuff together? I have my set up. And I got the whole bracket. I got the whole bracket laid out too. save. All right, Ruiz, start us up. Give us the bracket. Go from beginning and take your time, you know, build up the drama and let's see who you've got going to the Super Bowl in the NFC.

Go ahead. All right. First of all, I got the Packers as my one seat. So they're the one team not played on Wild Card weekend. The wild card matchups, I have Detroit as the fifth seat going to Atlanta. I have the Eagles going to San Francisco. Wait, I thought you had the Eagles out. You have the Eagles out now, I thought. I did. I did. But you remember I did the exercise at first and I flipped it dirt. That's why you don't make changes in the middle of a pot. adjustment flight. So I'm going to have the Seahawks going to San Francisco for the first wildcard matchup,

a rematch of two years ago, a wildcard matchup. And then I'll have the Rams going to Dallas to play the Cowboys. I have Dallas advancing. I have the 49ers advancing, and I have Detroit upsetting, quote-unquote, Atlanta as the four-seed going on to play the Packers. Got the Packers winning that matchup, have the 49ers beating the Cowboys

in a classic playoff outcome. Oh, man. We definitely need one more of those. We need to see that again. But then I have San Francisco going to Green Bay, and really I would have picked this game based on where it was located. If it was in San Francisco, I'd put the 49ers in the Super Bowl. But Brock Purdy, going to Lambo in January against a team that I think is maybe the deepest in the conference.

I got to go with Green Bay in that situation. I have the Packers representing that NFC in the playoffs. The Super Bowl. The Green Bay Packers getting to the Super Bowl for Ruiz. All right. There's one down. Deonti, who do you got? Give us your matchups. All right. My first round by is Detroit. They're my number one seed in the NFC. My wild card matchups are as follows. Four seed, Philadelphia, at home against the Packers. I've got the Packers winning that game. I've got the three-seat falcons playing up against the Bears. This is a six-seat.

I've got the Bears won in that game. So this is a rare occurrence where two row teams go out and win in the playoffs. And then I've got the 2C-49ers playing against the Rams and I've got the Niners winning that. So now my divisional matchups is Detroit versus the six-seated Bears and the 49ers versus the five-seated Packers. And I have got Detroit winning against the Bears and I've got a Packers upset over San Francisco on the road. So that gives us an NFC North rematch in the NFC title game between the Lions and Packers playing indoors. I think if Detroit makes it this far, they'll seal the deal. I'll go with Detroit as the NFC representative for the Super Bowl this year. Jared Koff back in the Super Bowl.

The Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers are our two picks. Amazing. What if you would have told us this like, you know, two years ago or something, that these would be our Super Bowl picks in 2024. All right. I've got the Packers at the one seat. I've got the Bears going to San Francisco. They lose that game.

49ers win that game. Seahawks go to Philadelphia. I've got the Eagles winning that game, even though they never beat the Seahawks. I've got the Lions going to. Atlanta and the Lions beat the falcons. So, divisional round. Eagles at San Francisco. I've got the Niners there. Niners beat the Eagles, advanced to the NFC championship. Lions at Green Bay, Lambeau Field. Can Jared Golf do it? Not this time. The Packers is no. The Pacers beat the Lions. Forty-niners. Goethears. Go ahead. Fourty-niners.

to Lambo. I got the same NFC championship as Ruiz. Let's go. And I got the same NFC champ as Ruiz. I've got the Green Bay Packers. Deonti, thank goodness you did not also pick the Packers. That just would have been the kiss of death, a disaster if all three of us picked the Green Bay Packers. So funny thing, they were my NFC representative. And that was when I was being a coward in configuring the wildcard seeds in a way that got me the divisional and championship game matchups that I wanted, and I had to go back and really think about the way that I think the season's going to play out. But they still made the NFC title game for me. So I do think that

they'll be one of the top four teams in the NFL when it's all set in that. On the football hipster scale, at a one to ten, how much of a hipster are we for not picking the 49ers to make the Super Bowl? None of us pick them. The best team in the NFC. I think we would all agree, like top to bottom. Yeah, but I would say, I think it's what, this century, only one time has the Super Bowl loser gotten back to the Super Bowl the next year. I think it was the Patriots. They lose to the Eagles in the Nick Full Super Bowl.

And they get back the next year and they win it. Otherwise, it's never happened. That's why I'm like, I don't know. I kind of believe it doesn't mean you're not going to be a good team. It doesn't mean you can make a playoff, Ron. It's kind of just an example of how freaking hard it is to get there. How many things have to go your way? The turnovers, the calls, the injuries.

Do you have home field? what's going on with the other teams? Are they healthy? Are they not healthy? So yeah, I mean, listen, it's an easy case to make for the 49ers. If you're just looking at it on paper, who has the best team? But I was kind of like, I don't know, I'm not going to, I can't ignore the way that's gone with the Super Bowl losers and getting back the next year. So I was between the Packers and Lions. So I feel good about this exercise. Both your two picks were the two teams, Deonti, I wanted to fix it so that I had the Packers and Lions in the NFC championship game, because I think those to me feel like they're going to be the two best teams.

The teams I feel like have a great shot to get there. Ultimately, I think in the spring I was leaning lions. I don't know. I was just buying my own Jordan love hype and I'm like, I'm going. So that got me a cheesehead last year. I might as well just go with the Packers here. So I don't know what happened with my reasoning, but I ended up going with the Green Bay Packers.

If they don't make the Super Bowl, you have to do a pod with the cheese head on the entire time. Absolutely. I like, you know, I'm bald. So anything to kind of cover the head, as long as it's covered, you know, and I'm not feeling the draft of the air condition or anything here. Yeah, I'm good with that. And I think I have access to a cheesehead. So if that happens, I'll pop on the cheesehead, too, if I can get it.

All right. That was a lot of fun. Now, twists and turns, you know, we had some surprise picks in there, and then you find out, does anyone else agree? Does anyone else see this? So that was a fun exercise. We're all on the record with our NFC picks. we come back later this week in a very difficult AFC where I would be pretty, well, I don't know. I don't know if any of us are going to have the same teams there.

I mean, that could really go in a number of different directions. So many good teams, so many good quarterbacks. We will see what we end up with there. All right. Thank you to Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz. Thank you to producer Christopher Sutton. And thanks to the great Eduardo Ocampo on social additional production supervision by Connor Evans and Arjuna Ram Gapal. Later this week, same exercise, AFC. Talk to you then on the Ringer

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