The Ringer NFL Show - Can Anyone Beat the Chiefs?

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

Cole and Ryan are joined by The Ringer’s Kaelen Jones, and they start by talking about the Baltimore Ravens' shoot-out victory against the Cleveland Browns (2:00). Then they talk about how to improve the Pittsburgh Steelers now that they’ve lost two in a row(12:30). And are there any teams that can challenge the Kansas City Chiefs (27:10)? Hosts: Ryan Shazier and Cole Wright Guest: Kaelen Jones Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, what's up, gang? Cole right here alongside Ryan Shazir and our special guest, Caitlin Jones. And today we're taking a look at the epic Monday night football matchup between Baltimore and Cleveland. We're going to break down how to fix Ryan Steelers and reveal which teams, if any, can beat those Kansas City Chiefs. All that and more coming up next right here on the Tuesday edition of the Ringer NFL show. Today's episode of the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer podcast network is brought to you by State Farm. Getting great car and home insurance from State Farm in a surprisingly great rate? Well, that's like drafting a player that becomes an all-pro, the real deal.

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like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Well, it's another Tuesday three-man weave. It's myself, Cole Wright, Ryan Chazier, and Kaelin Jones. And guys, I know you were on the edge of your seats last night for a little bit of Monday night football. And Ryan, I know that one was a game that you were watching particularly close because, of course,

it was an AFC North matchup. I mean, does it get any better than that? The Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns, Collins, a shootout from start to finish, even though Lamar Jackson had to make a run to the locker room for whatever it may have been. He said he had cramps, you know, social media said that he may have had a case of the bubble guts.

Who knows what it is, but one thing I do know is that man came out of the locker room and got his team that big time W. That was huge, right? I'm gonna be honest, man. It's crazy that that was a shootout and it was like all Russian touchdowns. You know, like normally it's like so many passing touchdowns that go out throughout the game. And they broke the NFL record for what most much are tied for most Russian touchdowns in NFL history.

And that was in like 1922. And that wasn't even considered the NFL back then. So like, this is crazy. You know, so now this is crazy. But it really shows you like the NFC, I mean the AFC North when it comes to football, how when we got when we got all three, three teams rolling, man. It's a tough division to win. And yeah, I was definitely watching this one close. And with Tracement Sorely went out there.

It kind of, I was like, hey, man. Man, we don't need to browse winning this game right now. You know, the Steelers trying to pull off with the division. And Trace Smith sorely caught me in. I'm like, hey, man, you were straight at Penn State. But, yeah, it today. You ain't it. The thing that I loved is when Lamar Jackson came in,

and he said he was watching back in the locker room. And he said, yeah, I saw my man Chase Money go down. Like, how often does an MVP have a nickname for his backup? I mean, I haven't seen that too much, Caitlin. I don't, I don't recall a single time. I know that, you know, Aaron Rogers got a good relationship with his backups, but I can't think of another time where, you know, you got a superstar like Lamar Jackson.

Yeah. Who's caping for somebody like Trace McSorley, who, you know, honestly, it shows that the Ravens really need to make an investment at backup quarterback. I know this is not the point of this show, but, you know, they need to think about getting somebody like Kelamont, Altex, you know, someone that's mobile, someone that can throw the ball, you know, Trace McSorororor just wasn't it.

And like Ryan said, it was looking, pretty shaky for a second when Lamar Jackson was out of the game there because I wasn't too confident that they were going to be able to hold them off until he, you know, made his sprint back from the bathroom or the locker room and came back into the game. Yeah. And Ryan, you know, one thing like you said, you know, to see a game that has shootout type numbers, but, you know, it was all about the rushing touchdown. But when Lamar Jackson came back in the game, I mean, it was it was hard to not notice

that what was he doing. He wasn't running. He was throwing the ball. And that's what got that team to win. Yeah, no, that was crazy. When, you know, when Trace went down, I was like, who's coming in, RG3? You know, because, you know, I haven't seen the RG3 site in a while. So when Trace got hurt, I was like, man, so what are they going to do?

You know, there was up about 14, then they ended up being down by 1. And then, you know, Lamar comes in, and you're like, hold up, what's going on? And the thing is that that's crazy is we seen Lamar of last year. You know, Lamar this year, he hasn't been playing like. like itself. Or he's been playing like itself, but people are starting to figure him out a little bit. But last year,

you know, he was getting out of pocket making things happen and still kind of keeping his eyes down field. And it really showed right there, you know, it was a misshop and coverage. But Lamar, you know,

MVP Lamar found a way to make it work. And, you know, he pulled a Superman cape out and won him the game. Yeah, Kael, you know what, man, I'm not going to lie. I know this isn't a fantasy football show, but I was going last night in the semi-finals.

I was going up against Kareem Hunt and Jarvis Landry. I was down by like 26 points and I said, I just need these guys to not have games today. And what happened? Oh, my goodness gracious sakes alive. Kareem Hunt, I mean, he was punching in the end zone every turn of the way, whether it was he or Nick Chubb. I mean, that running game for Cleveland,

even though they lost this one, it's looking pretty potent right now down this backstretch. No, and that's exactly what they needed to be. You know, the Browns have probably the best one-two punch when you talk about running game in the NFL, when you look at Nick Chub, Kareem Hunt, what those guys have been able to do this year, they're both on track, you know, the rush for a thousand yards.

That would be the first time, I believe, since, you know, Carolina Panthers had the duo Jonathan Stewart and the Angela Williams. So, you know, the Brown's running game, you know, it's their bread and butter. And it's really what makes their passing game. So we fishing, you know, allows Baker Mayfield to get into play action, allows them to settle down the pocket,

keeps him from, you know, being under pressure because defenses have to account for what the Brown's able to do in terms of the running games. So, you know, as long as they have that going for them, I know, like Ryan talked about earlier, like this is the first time. Most NFL rushing touchdowns have in the single game since, what, 1920? But, you know, there's a reason for that. You know, the Browns are dominant in terms of what their opposite line is being able to do, both, you know, in past protection and run blocking. So it really makes them a dynamic threat, you know, going down the stretch. And I'm really, you know, interested to see because we saw

last year a run heavy team like Tennessee, you know, maybe they had a pretty solid offensive line. But when you look at this one two punch and then plus what their quarterback can do as a result, Baker Mayfield, when he gets it going, you know, he's a little bit better than Ryan Tanahill when he gets it going, in my opinion. And so I think when you have that one two punch plus a Baker Mayfield, I think it really makes them an interesting team going down to stretch, especially when they can hang in a shootout like this where you're able to drop 42 points. I think that was really the biggest telling difference for me because in that first matchup early in the year, you know, we saw the ratings bull them out 38 to 6. You know, next time,

Cleveland shows up, they were ready to play. Even though Lamar Jackson went out and they were down my 14 points, they were able to keep up. You know, the biggest thing to me, I feel like the biggest game changer for this offense, and a lot of people are going to be mad at me because this dude is an all-generational talent. Their offense really changed around,

obviously when Nick Chalos came back, but when Baker and Odell went out, their office changed up. And I feel like they understood, like, hey, like, let's not lean on Baker and the receivers. Let's lean on these running backs. And it's really showing that this team, and this coaching staff really evolved

to understand like what's best for the team, what works well, and they're really figuring things out. But I can't agree with you. I can't take Baker right now over Tannenhill. I'm sorry. Wow. Okay.

Beef in the streets. It's Ryan Tannenhill. It's like a versus battle. It's like Keisha Cole versus Ashanti. Let's just hope this one doesn't get postponed or cash. It's not on the same level. Not on the same level at all. I don't know.

Who would have won that one? Keisha Cole or Ashanti. I mean, I heard that Keisha Cole is not a great live singer, Ashanti. maybe a little bit deeper catalog. It would have been a lot of battle. I'm going to say, shots have got more hits. Yeah, it would have been a live battle.

So maybe Keisha Cole would have taken a back seat in that one. But, you know, the marriage between Kevin Stefancy and Baker Mayfield, it seemed to be a match made in heaven right now. And Ryan, I don't know if Kevin Stefansky was listening to our Tuesday edition of the show earlier in the season. But you and I spoke about it earlier. We talked about the fact that Baker, he needs to be more of a point guard instead of that superstar quarterback.

And that's exactly what we're seeing. He's not need. He doesn't need. to be the guy right now who makes all the plays for his team to win the game. And I know that they were defeated last night. We saw Baker Mayfield with that rushing touchdown, got all nice and excited. But the one thing we're seeing him do right now is we're seeing the offense not necessarily go directly through him. It's going through that run game. And like Kaylin said, Ryan, I mean, this run game right now, it's one of the most poit we've seen in a long time. You go back to

Carolina. You go back to New Orleans, Alma Kamara and Mark Ingram. These guys, I mean, they're a one-two combo. There's no doubt about it, Thunder and Lightning. To me personally, I told you these guys at the beginning of the year. Obviously, it's another guy in Tennessee getting 200 yards of the game because nobody in the NFL wants to tackle him. But I really still feel like Nick Chubb is the best run back in the NFL. Like when it comes to like just strictly running the ball, you know, like Nick Chul's, he breaks linebacker tackles, D-Line tackles,

DB tackles, you know, he's a fast, he's decently fast. With Derek Henry, he's just like a giant running playing football. So it's like a lot of guys. guys look at him and it was like, a giant. He's like, like, we like, think about it. Like, Kayla, how big are you, though? 5-7 and 135 pounds.

Yeah, well, that's not a good example. All right. Cole, how good are you? How tall are you, brother? Six four. Six-four? Yeah, six-four, two-20. See, well, you know, that's not a good example either.

So how about this, though? Derek Henry back in the day, when I did the morning show at NFL Network, where Derek Henry came in, fresh off his Heisman campaign right before the draft. He came in, it was like 5.30 in the morning. He sits down next to me on set, and I was like, damn, man, like, why you got to come in here and make me look like Mark Ingram

at the national championship game? Like, I know you remember. I know you remember that picture. And he looked at me and was like, no laughter, no nothing, strictly business. And that's what I've seen right now. I mean, I said that when it's all said done with Derek Henry would be the best running back

out of his draft class. Not Zeke Elliott. No disrespect to Zeke. Oh, no, no. I feel it. Yeah. But the thing is, the reason, the reason I said that that's not a good example is because most D.Bs are like 6-1,

six foot and like 180ish, 175. You know what I'm saying? So like both of y'all is like not a good example. So like that's why I said like that. But like if you see a guy that 6-5-240 and you're six foot 180, you're like, I'm not about to tackle you. Like, because Michelle was like, Ryan, you said Derek Henry, he's a good player, but he's not all that good.

I'm like, Michelle, when you watch him play, when he goes against linebackers and D. linemen, they tackle him. When he goes against D.Bs, you can see him flying across the field like diving away. And it's because, like, they're just like, man, I'm just going to attempt to make a tackle. But to me, I feel when D.Bs and linebackers and everybody actually try to tackle Nick Chums, he's like, yo, get off of me. Like, you know, but when with guys that are D.Bs try to tackle. but Derek Henry, obviously, he still get off from me,

but he's just so much bigger than them guys. But just me personally, when it comes to just the running back and skill of running back, I think Nick Chubbs is better. Well, you know, Ryan, I'd say if you go back about three, four weeks ago, the one team that could take him down and he would be no match for, I would have said that would have been the Pittsburgh Steelers. But after the last two weeks, I mean, there seems to be a fly in the ointment right now.

Now, I'm not saying this team isn't still, on a Super Bowl trajectory. However, there are a few things that need to be fixed. Maybe they need to go to Midas and get one of those little tuneups, have them lift up the hood and see what's going on. Because at the last look, this Pittsburgh Steelers team is leaking oil, man. What's up? We're leaking oil because we've got a lot of people hurt.

But I'm not going to use that as an excuse because it's a lot of people that have a lot of people hurt. You know, it's a few things that they definitely have to work on. And I feel like at the beginning of the season, it still has really had everybody was like, man, they have to make sure Ben is healthy, just run the ball. And, you know, then Ben, you know,

he gets the ball out quick and we don't make things happen. Then everybody's seen Chase Claypools going for 10 touchdowns, Juju's going for 100, Deonti Johnson's going crazy. So then they're like, oh, we got receivers. Let's go out here and pass the ball. And it was like at the beginning of the season, I think James started the season off with like four straight 100-yard games.

You know, like we were running it really well. And then once we started figuring out, Hey, Ben is healthy. We got receivers. Let's go out there and throw the ball. It's like they forgot who James Connor is. It's like, and to me, I feel when we go back to how we were planning at beginning the season, that's when we were scoring 27 points, 25 points a game.

When we were giving the ball to James about 15, 20 times a game, giving it to Benny Still about five, 10 times a game. And then Ben were throwing about 25, 30 times the game. When we're throwing it 60 times a game, we're not even establishing any type of run. and when we're at shotgun, it's like you know we're not running the ball. Like, because the old lineman, it's hard to get any type of push

when the dude that is 350 pounds across from you or 230 or 300 or whatever is across from you and they're in a three-point stance and you're a two-point stance. You're telling me, hey, push this guy back. He's like he already has natural leverage on me. So I feel like when the team gets back to, hey, I understand Ben is our guy,

Ben is our 30 million-dollar guy, but let's lean on. these running back, there's literally these running backs, get us some, get us some yards, get out formation, getting a single back, and then we do some play action or we do some, you know, short passes or, you know, we surprise people. Every time we throw the ball, it's not a surprise to anybody, and everybody knows exactly how we're doing it. If we get back to how we started the season, our team is dangerous. But when we're playing the way we are now, is very predictable.

Yeah, I like the way you keyed it on that offensive line. I know Booker McFarlane at halftime the other day. He said that the offensive line for Pittsburgh, they've been playing soft, plain and simple. That's what's going on up front with this team right now. They're not running the ball like they were a few weeks back. And it just seems to be a different game plan than what they've had before, you know, Ben Rothesberger with those quick passes. It's sometimes not allowing some of those big time jackpot plays to really materialize. And, you know, you said that Ben's out there throwing the ball 60 times a game. And then you have on the receiving end, you have Deontay Johnson dropping about 15 balls a game by the looks of it. And, you know, I was watching that man.

Kaelan on the sideline. I don't know if you're an old classic rock fan at all, but the only thing I could think of when I saw him looking at his hands on the sideline is, one is the loneliest number that you've ever seen because he was a man alone on the sideline, a man on an island. I can only tell to be alone with your frustrations like that

on national TV, it's not an easy thing to do. No, not at all. And, you know, like there's a whole debate about whether or not, you know, like for a football player, it's kind of like sit him out in basketball, like whether or not you should take him out of the game and then just have them kind of sit there

and think about, you know, drop in the ball. Shooters got to shoot. Exactly. Like, you should put him back out there. The other A. Johnson, you know,

he, you know, he leads a league in drops. Definitely, you know, needs to get back into, you know, being a productive pass catcher.

But the reason why, you know, it's really fascinating. Like, the Steelers have really, you know, transformed their offense to cater to,

you know, Ben Rothesburg, you know, getting the ball out quick. Ryan mentioned it earlier. Like, he's been healthy this year. But it's because of what they've done,

you know, the way that they've structured your past game. He's getting the ball out in 2.29 seconds, you know, per attempt. That's the quickest in the league. At least for me, I'm used to watching Ben Rothesberger sit in the pocket. You know, you always marvel at him because the reason why to call him Big Ben, dude takes 20 million defensive tackles, even at the linemen,

they'll be hanging all over and he'll still chuck the ball 50 yards down field, completely different offense this year. And so it's really, you know, important and key, you know, the reason why there's so much frustration from Ben is because these guys are dropping the ball so often. You know, you have Eric Ebron, who's got a lot of drops, Juju Smith. Shoeser's got a few drops to Yalta Johnson. You know, the passing game really relies, and it's fascinating

because, you know, Tom Brady and Bed Rotsberger kind of flipped because we're so used to seeing Tom Brady operate in a very surgical, you know, crossers, a short action, middle of the field type of passing game. And now he's in a, you know, Bruce Aryan system where they're mentioned

to go downfield. But in Rathesberger is now in the system where he's required, you know, get the ball out quick, get it to his guys and let them run after the catch. You know, I think it's a success, you know, in terms of keeping them healthy, it's done the job. But in terms of production, like Ryan mentioned, their running game has not been there. You know, James Connor's only rushed for over 80 yards since week six once. And that was against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

So the running game has been non-existent. You guys mentioned the office line. But, you know, I really think that, you know, until their offense really gets in sync until they figure out how to balance things, you know, I know that we, you know, even for me, like I really, you know, enjoy when passing games are really, you know, at least audiences rely on their passing game. I think that's the most effective way to go about things. But until the Steelers running game gets back and makes them, you know,

at least competent on the opposite side of the ball, it's questionable. You know, it makes them a suspect team moving forward. I'm not sure if we can trust the Steelers until they're passing game and the running game, you know, get back and sync. Wow, back to back ails. And right now we're calling them a suspect team. Ryan, what do you think? Because when it comes to some of these guys who are dropping passes,

you know, I commented on Booger talking about the offensive line. But then his counterpart, Randy Moss said, what do these guys need to do? Some of these past catchers? They need to go back to basics. They need to, Randy said, they need to get on the ball machine and go out there and catch 100 balls before the game and after the game and during practice. You don't ever hear about gaspian. If there's anyone you can listen to when it comes to knowing how to go out there

and catch a football and putting in that extra work, it's Randall Jean Moss. Because Randy, we know he was the first one to show up at the facility, last one to leave. And he would get to the facility pretty much after he caught a few fish. because we know Randy's country is cornbread. He's out there. He's trying to catch something each and every single morning, no matter what team he was on. Man, he has a whole, like, logo, saying,

whatever you want to call it after him. He has something called Moss. Like, you Moss somebody. They don't say you're Deontes somebody. You know what I'm saying? Or you rice somebody. No disrespect to Jerry Rice, but Randy Moss for your book, Randy Moss might be as good as it gets.

No, right, 100%. And the thing is, like, I'm looking at, at these stats right now, since we played the Ravens, we haven't ran the ball more than 18 times for the rest of the season. Like at the beginning of the season, we played Tennessee, Tennessee, James had... Did Coach Tomlin steal Matt Nagy's playbook? I don't know what playbook he stole.

But like, he had 82 yards rushing, and we had 94 yards rushing. If you have 94 yards rushing in the football game, that's a good rushing game. Like, that's decent. You know, and then once we play in Tennessee, after that, it's just like, all right, we're not... Like, James got nine carries. Then he gets, then he gets 15 carries. He's like, man, like, get a chance.

At the beginning of the season, before the Raven game, the Steelers were running the ball at least 25 times of the game. Like, once the Tennessee game, and after that, it's like, all right, forget it, we're not running in no more. And we were getting 100 plus yards rushing from week seven and before. So it's just like, right now I don't understand. I've just seen some on Instagram, and it was hilarious.

You know, social media is undefeated. Yeah. They had a picture of Deonté, and Deiante is a good guy, you know, super, you know, obviously he's frustrated with himself. And I think that coach sitting him out. He'll figure it out. No, he's going to figure it out because the second half of the game, he didn't drop anything. And then I really feel if Deonté played the whole game, it would have made a difference

because he is a playmaker on our team. But the fact that coach had to sit him out because, like, you can't do this. If you're going to be a top tier player in the league, you can't do this. But I seen someone on Instagram. It had the rock. Remember the picture of the rock where he was like in the, like, the turtlene.

Yeah. And a picture of the rock and the turtleneck. Then he had Deontay face. He had Deiote face on it. And it said, Deontay the drop Jocston. That was the funniest thing I seen this whole weekend. Obviously, it's like, damn, you know?

Like, you never want to be putting in that position. But like, in that moment, It was definitely like, oh, shit, that caught me up guard. That's funny as him. Yeah, I don't know if you ever knew this, though, but if you take a look at that picture, the rock, he thought he was so clean, so smooth in his turtleneck and chain, that he had a napkin underneath his elbow

where he was leaning on that, on the wall. Go back and look at that picture. He has a napkin under his elbow because he didn't want that glorious turtleneck to get dirty at all. I don't know. You're not lying. I'm looking at right now. He legit has a napkin underneath.

I'm like, where are you leaning at? That you need to, oh no, oh no, why'd they have to do that to my man, Deonté? But, you know, Ryan, when you take a look at this team needing to write the ship, is it just the fact that they need to get the run game back on track or is that Ben needs to become a little less predictable? Is that what you're seeing? Because if I read between the lines, I think that's exactly where Kalin and I are leaning right now. To me, I think it's a combination of both.

I think before this season, when we, you know, when we dropped 38 on the, on the, on the Browns, you know, and beat them by that much. And we dropped 38 on the Eagles and 28. And, you know, obviously these teams aren't super, super great. But we, we dropping all these points. When we were doing that, guys didn't know when we were going to pass it and when we're going to run it. Like, we'll get a ball to James.

We'll have JJ. We'll have Derek Watt. You know, it's T.J. JJ and Derek. Yeah. Just name him DJ. You know, we have Derek. I've ordered that myself, too. We'll have Derek White at fullback and then, you know, power, power, power.

James is going to pop one. Or we'll have, you know, our back, Benny's nail, you know, or something. And then play action, deep ball chase. That's what works. You know, when we go quick game, quick game, Deontie, Deontie, Deontie, Deionte, Deante, and Chase, like, we know that's coming. Like, obviously, because you're not running the ball and we don't have any play action. We know you go either run a screen, you're running a slant, bomb.

screen slant bomb. That's all we're running. Like, it's like, oh, we're running. It's like double screen, double slant. It's like, come on, man. Like, Randy, like, I understand. We're trying to get the ball out quick, but like, you're getting paid to be, to help us be one of the best offices in the league.

At the beginning of the season, we were that. At the end of the season, we're looking very predictable, like we're on some college-type offense that's running the same place over and over and over and over again. But we're not going to be successful in the playoffs if you do that. We've got to go back to the basis. and get back to when still the football was good. When you run the ball and focus on running it,

and then obviously Ben is going to air it out. You know, but we got to allow people to see that, hey, we're running the ball and we're not focused on just passing. Like, we're not going to win any championships like that. It seems to be a personal plea from Ryan Shazir to Randy Featner right there. When you talk about that game plan,

you know, as I'm looking at this collision course, and it almost looks as if it's going to be AFC championship game, everything shake out Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs. And if the Steelers, if they don't get things on the right track, then they're going to be left behind once they do face off against that Kansas City team. Because right now, all I see from Kansas City is gas being thrown on a fire. Kalin, this team offensively, their run game is solid, their past game is solid,

everything, all three facets. Defense, even though that defensive unit for Kansas City, they usually play their opposition. They're playing their opposition just like. they need to and they're going out there and they're getting wins. That's something that Pittsburgh is not doing right now. Do you see anybody being able to beat this Kansas City Chiefs team? Short answer, absolutely not.

But for the sake of the segment, if we're going to make an argument, if we're going to make an argument for the day, exactly, just for fun, you know. You know, Chiefs are the best team, you know, in the league by far, you know, this year and probably, you know, this is going to be the debate for a few years. But, you know, again, for the sake of this segment, if I were going to pick a team, the AFC that was going to be able to compete with them, it's going to be the Buffalo Bills. And look at Josh Allen,

I was not a believer. I was like everybody else. You know, there's a lot of people still hanging on to it. Like Josh Allen is not a good quarterback. Look at the talent has always been there. The talent has always been there. Guys, tremendous arm talent due to six foot five as a tank can run like a deer.

The talent has always been there. It's the fact that he's been so erratic. It makes the really boneheaded, what are you doing decisions like back in that playoff game? in last season that almost cost him a game. You know, he's, one, he's gotten more accurate as a pass. That's the biggest thing. Secondly, you have that defense starting around in the form.

They've forced turnovers in all but three games this year. You know, really last week against Pittsburgh, their pick six was really what sparked, you know, them coming back in the game and ended up going on the win. When you have that, plus the capability of Josh Allen to go off and it's such a, you know, and football is such a QB driven sport. where if you have the most talented guy at that position, anything can happen. Just look at the Kansas & Chiefs.

Literally had three interceptions last week from Patrick McDonald's, but because of what is he able to do within a three touchdowns within a three-minute span, you know, Josh Allen isn't capable of that. But in terms of what they're able to do with their receiving core, when their running game is there, when their defense able to first turnovers, I'm not sure if there's a better, you know,

potential, at least high potential, you know, caliber opponent outside of Buffalo right now. And I know that they played each other early year, but I think it could be a completely matchup, but they face off in the playoffs. You're a man after Chris Berman's heart, look, look, listen. Nobody circles the waggings like the Buffalo Bills. I'm going Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers. That seems like that's his pick every single year.

I don't think he's going to make good on the NFC side, but who knows the way the bills are playing right now, and like you said, that looks to be the team that can challenge Kansas City. Ryan, what do you think, man? Because looking at Josh Allen, I wasn't a believer at first either, but the one thing that's undeniable, that guy, Josh Allen, he can throw that football through a brick wall, man.

The thing is for me, I only think it's two teams in the NFL that can beat the Chief. And the bills, I think it's one of them. Okay. And then the Steelers. I'm going to go with this. I'm talking about the Steelers in a little bit. I'll talk about a Stills in a little bit.

Now, but the bills, like, they really have, I feel like they have the pieces. Their defense is starting to get back healthy. They're starting to play well. And then Sean and Dermans always had a good defense. So the fact that, you know, that their defense actually playing like they were last year and starting to get turnovers

and starting to change things around, I think that could really be a weapon for the chiefs. The thing is, I love Mahomes. I love Mahomes. But people don't act like Mahomes doesn't have the best roster kind of put together also. You know, it's like if Mahomes didn't have the fastest guy in the world on his team are like three of the fastest guys

in the world. He'd still be fantastic, Ryan. No, he will. He will. He will. No, 100%. I'm not going any shade on Mahomes. I'm just saying, but, like, Mahomes has the strongest arm

and then you have the fastest guy. Imagine if Josh Allen had the fastest guy. Like, he had overthrew a lot of passes when he played us. If he had Tyree Kiel, that's a touchdown. You know, and this is like, you know, and then if you overthrow Tommy Kiel, well, he's not going to overthrow McColl Hill or Harmon or he's not going to overthrow Sammy Watkins.

You know, it's like, and then, oh, I have the best tight end in the league, too. It's like, like, they said, I think the Chiefs are about to have. have three guys on a team in the 99 club and Madden. It's like, like, like, and they're all in office. It's like, this is not fair, but it's not fair. Like, you know, it's like, it's not fair. You know, but I honestly think that the bills, they have the secondary to keep up with them.

And then they just go out to start getting more pressure on, on the quarterback. The difference between, you know, Ben and the difference between Ben and the difference especially been in Mahon. Mahomes holds the ball a lot longer because obviously he's trying to throw the ball 80 yards. But I think that the bills can keep it interesting and they have the weapons. And if Stefan Diggs played like he played last week, it's going to be a problem because they don't have anybody on the Chiefs that can guard. Not one person. You know, and you see that tweet?

I tweeted out during the game. I said, Stefan Diggs, every day when he wakes up and realizes he's no longer on the Minnesota Vikings. And it was that dead zone watched it. He was like, woo. Because, I mean, he certainly found a home in Orchard Park. 100%. And the thing is, like, I feel like at the beginning of this, like, people were trying him. Like, man, feeling's better than Diggs, da, da, da, da, da.

And I was like, feeling is good, man. But I see Diggs in college. And I don't know why he went fifth round. Like, you know, like, but Diggs is really, I feel like Diggs is just trying to show everybody. Like, I know I have a big contract. I know I have something to prove. Like, people are trying me too much.

And now I have a quarterback that actually likes to throw the ball. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're like, like, Kirk Cousins is good, but like I don't feel like Curt Cudgeon's worth all the money. Kirk Couss is getting me person. Okay. Well, what about this one? Say if the next matchup for your Pittsburgh Steelers were versus the Kansas City Chiefs,

who wins that one? Who wins that one? Do they have enough right now in the tank to take out Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City? The reason I feel like they have enough in the tank is because whenever Coach Tomlin plays Andy Reed, not plays coaches against Andy Reed. It's always a really good game

and Coach Tomlin normally gets the edge. That's one reason I like them. Another reason I like them is our defense is still good enough to make us get turnovers that keep us in the game. As long as we in the game, I think we have enough firepower to win the game. But I just,

that's why I feel like we can beat them. The reason I don't feel anybody in the NFC can beat them is because they don't have any defense. And if you're trying to go into a schooling match, Tastom Hill is not going to beat him. Tasing him is not going to win it. And then Green Bay, they have Aaron Rogers, but Aaron Rogers, I don't think,

he has DePonte Adams, but he doesn't technically have the weapons to beat Kansas City. I feel like they do, but their defense isn't, they're not playing well enough. Their defense is good. They have Jair and Alexander at cornerback. Yeah, but I don't feel like their defense is good enough. I feel like there still is their defense constantly.

Like even last night, we didn't have Bud. If we had Bud, not last night, Sunday night. If we had Bud, that game was completely different. You know, like, because, like, they changed up their blocking schemes and it kind of slowed us down. If they had Bud, they wouldn't have been able to do that. But the fact that we're still getting a lot of pressure on him, I think it's going to really help us.

So I think we can get pressure on our homes and not get him flustered, but get him uncomfortable. And our defense is known for not getting beat. over top. So we're going to make them do the boring stuff and make, do long drives and things like that. And I think that's going to really help us a lot. All right. Now, it's funny you make mention of the Saints and Tayson Hill and Tayson Hill and Tayson Hill not being able to get it done because this last weekend out there, there was a quarterback on the other side line of Tayson Hill. And he goes by the name of Jalen Hertz. And I'm going to, I'm going to put my

Miss Cleo hat on and say the kids don't lie. Call me now. Like, Miss Cleo, rest in peace, Miss Cleo. We know she wasn't a true Jamaican. However, the accent as good as it gets. And so was Jalen Hertz. I predicted at the very beginning of the season, Ryan, I know that you don't like to hear this right now. But I said that before it was all said and done. Carson Wentz, whether or not it would be due to a lack of solid play, whether it would be due to injury. I said Jalen Hertz, would be the starter for the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles before it was all said done with. Kaelin, I know Ryan doesn't want to hear that, man.

I was on the right track. You know I had to be. Kaylee, so I'm guessing that's a cold team to beat the Chiefs, because this is the second thing that we're talking about. No, the only team that can beat the Chiefs is the Kansas City Chiefs, as far as I'm concerned. That's the only team that I'm going to get very philosophical right there. That's the only team that can beat Kansas City is Kansas City.

Since you're a better man, give me the field, and you take the Chiefs. I'll roll with the Chiefs. I'll roll with Patrick Mahomes all day long. Eight days a week. All right, $100 bet for both of you guys. You guys got the cheese and that I got in the field. Yeah, absolutely.

You take that bet? That's a hundred dollar bet? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know if we're allowed to put wagers down like that. We'll have to look at the bylines. We talk about that. We do.

We do fan, I think we're allowed to do that. We're allowed to do that. Okay. We'll check into that. Jalen Hurts, Kaelin. I mean, he's out there. He's doing the things right now that Carson Wentz was not able to do with the exact same ingredients.

Yeah, no, we talked about it, you know, on the show, you and I Cole last week when he was named the starter. You know, the biggest thing for Jalen Hertz is that, you know, he makes the offense competent. The big things coming in was that he's decisive. You know, he can buy time. Doesn't take unnecessary sacks.

And, you know, you saw that against literally the Saints who have one of the best past rushes in the league, didn't end up taking any sacks. He wasn't amazing, but he was competent within the system with 17 for 30, had 106, 7 yards in the touchdown through the air. And then what he was able to do with his feet? 18 carries 106 yards. You know, it makes it makes the offense, you know, so much.

It looked functional. You know, that's all the Eagles have really needed this year. And their defense, despite losing everybody, you know, I think they have like four or five different injuries. They had some, you know, showing some of their pass watch, which was great. But they went up against Statesman Hill. And I think, you know, again, I've been. beaten drum for now two years now.

We need to get off this Taysam Hill as a quarterback thing because he fumbles the ball too much, takes too many sacks. If Sean Payton wants the Saints to actually beat, you know, they would be in that conversation for, you know, possibly being able to hang with the Chiefs if they weren't playing Jason Mill quarterback. Because when they got down, that's a dumb, that's a dumb. That's it.

Yeah, play the quarterback. Play the quarterback that you have on your roster. To me, to me, I'm excited that Hurst is playing the role. He's really, he's really well, and I'm excited for him. The thing is, Carson was doing this before he got hurt. He had his legs.

He doesn't have any legs anymore. He doesn't run anymore. So obviously, you know, I'm excited. I'm excited. You were right. I was wrong. You were right. And the thing is for me is just,

I know we can't talk about this today, but if Jalen takes him to the playoff and win in the Super Bowl, do you keep Jailen as the starter? Absolutely. That's not even a question. You have a $200 million man over here. Hey, hey.

What did Herm say? Hello, you play to win the game. You play to win the game. Like, I don't care. Right now, finances, if I'm Doug Peterson, finances, be damned. Throw it all out the window. No, not you.

The owner. You're the owner. I'm playing the guy I pay. Well, I'm sure you could probably wheel and deal and trick the Chicago Bears who need a quarterback into, hey, you want Carson Wentz? I'm sure he'll be great in Chicago, and I'm sure they'll fall for it.

hook, line, and sinker. He probably will, because he actually has a receiving court over there. Well, we'll see. Well, one thing I do know right now that the best quarterback for those Philadelphia Eagles and their playoff chances, it's the man that I predicted at the very beginning of the season. Jalen Hertz went from Alabama to Oklahoma and now he's doing his thing in the city where the love is brotherly. So we will see how things continue to unfold.

And guys, I want to say, this was a fun one this week. I really enjoyed it. And that's going to put a wrap on this Tuesday edition of the Ringer NFL show, alongside Ryan Shazier and Katelyn Jones. I'm Cole Wright. And as always, we're part of the Ringer podcast network. And you can follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. You can also check us out at the Ringer NFL over on Twitter. And next coming up on Wednesday, it's the Ringer NFL show. It's Warren Sharp and Chris Vernon. As usual, some week 14 thoughts, analytics and some betting insights. Maybe they'll be going with the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hertz. We'll see. Only time we'll tell. Have a good one, everybody.