The Ringer NFL Show - 'GM Street’: Saturday Sit-down Week 16 (Ep. 208)

Episode Date: December 23, 2017

The Ringer’s Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier run through the five games they are most intrigued by this week: Jacksonville Jaguars at San Francisco 49ers (7:15), Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints (9:55), Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys (12:05), Los Angeles Rams at Tennessee Titans (14:05), and Cleveland Browns at Chicago Bears (18:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before we get started on GM Street today, I'd like to tell you about the Ringers YouTube channel. We have stepped up our game in 2017 with weekly videos like Cousin Sal's Best Bed, Slow Newsdays, NBA desktop, no BS, table reads, directors, commentary, and Captain Morgan's Make Believe Riverboat Casino, as well as our video podcasts and many movies like Take Hunter, Ringer 360, and Claytheism. Coming in 2018, a weekly video mailbag from Bill Simmons, Mallory out of a hat, and a slew of other new digital shows. don't miss anything, just go to the ringer.com or even better, go subscribe to our channel at YouTube.com slash the ringer. Let's get into GM Street. Welcome to GM Street part of the ringer podcast network.

My name is Tate Frazier, and it is Friday, December 22nd, Saturday for the listeners, and I am joined by Mr. Michael Lombardi. Lombardi, how you doing? I am great, Tate Frasier. You got all your shopping done? Are you going to do it when you get home? What are we doing? I leave late tonight on a right eye.

I have a few more things to buy before I fly back. The worst thing about going cross-country is that you have to fly with your gifts or you have to ship your gifts home so that, you know, the people, you know, my family, they will see the gifts that I bought them. So it's a predicament. Well, can't you like send it to somebody else's address? So I could, but then I have to, I don't have a car when I'm back home now. You know, my car is out here. So then I have to borrow my car, you know, my parents car or my brother's card. And, you know, they would all, basically have to bring a big suitcase. Do you have like a store you shop at it there in the little town? In my town? Yeah. No, there's not a bunch there in Henderson. But I'm going to go to Skipper's barbecue. Best Barbecue in the world, Henderson, North Carolina. If you've never been there, go check it out. Skippers Barbecue at Henderson, North Carolina. Yes, go check it out.

Right by my old high school, Northern Vance High School. What do you get there? I'm going to check this out on Google too. Go check it, write it down. They actually used to ship out barbecue out here to some famous North Carolinians like Andy Griffith and yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah.

Back in the day. That's the word on the street. There's a lot of folklore in the South, so we don't know if that's necessarily true. But that's what I've been told. Is it sweet sauce? Is it like? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, vinegar-based. That's North Carolina.

Should we get Joe House down there to test it? I don't know if Joe House, I don't know if he's ready for that, you know. He may not have the palate prepared for how good this barbecue is. He may never leave. He may stay in North Carolina forever. I love it. I'm not a big barbecue guy, but I mean, I grew up in New Jersey, so I don't know. Yeah, South Carolina's mustard, North Carolina's vinegar, and vinegar is the best.

Oh, is it really? Yeah. I did not know that. I would have failed that jeopardy question right there. Yeah, see, I got you. Well, if we talk barbecue, I can handle that. But we're going to talk football, and that's what you can handle. We've got a lot going on.

First off, before we get into this, Dick Emberg, a true legend. I just want to bring up. I mean, the guy's been calling games for 60 years. Obviously, the classic and patent and, oh, my, everyone remembers those moments. Just a quick thought on Dick Inberg. You know, it's such a different era. There's so much difference in our age that when I was growing up, Tate, there was only one game on a weekend.

And so these announcers became like, like your best friends. You know, that voice became synonymous with you, you're going to, like, it was like a moment where you were getting happy. Like, if you heard Brett Muskberger say and, you know, you were looking live or if you hear Dick Enberg say, oh my, or Al Michaels, can, do you believe, you know, like those voices were like, they triggered a happiness in your, in your way because you were enjoying. Now with, you know, Springsteen says 200 channels and nothing on, like you, you can't even, like, I don't even know who the announcers are all the time. And so that the error that he came in, he was a byproduct of that he was a single.

You know, when I would, Saturday afternoons, Notre Dame play UCLA when they broke the streak or these incredible college basketball games that when I was growing up, we weren't privileged to seeing 400 of them. Like, you know, Fordham playing St. Johns would never have been on, you know. Now it's all the games. Well, it used to be a big deal if you were on TV. Oh, my God. It was huge.

And I went to Hofstra. The Big East was just starting to come around, Georgetown, Syracuse. So we would go over to St. John's and watch their games. games if they played at home. I mean, I saw Pearl Washington play in at St. John's Arena. They didn't even play at the Garden at that time. So it was just building. And I can remember being in Williamsburg, Virginia, on a Monday.

I was scouting Bill and Mary. And I was dying to see Georgetown play St. John's. And it was on this channel called ESPN. And, of course, naturally, I was staying at the Williamsburg Inn. And, of course, they didn't have it. So that era, you know, Dick kind of brought that era in. And so it's really his voice was incredible. His storytelling was, I think, really remarkable.

He's one of the great wordsmiths of all time. He really was. Yeah, it's a last of a dying breed. I mean, for me, I always looked up to announcers. And it's sad to see that whole era of guys that there's no one to point to, really. I mean, as Al Michaels, you know, as all these guys sort of wrap up their careers, I mean, Vince Scully we saw. I mean, it's sad because it hits home because we don't know if we're going to get a golden generation again.

You know, Al Michaels goes to this restaurant in Los Angeles called Toscanos that's over in Brentwood. He's there like four or five nights a week. So last night we have a bunch of family in town. So we went over to Toscados, which I absolutely love Toscados. It's like one of my favorite places in the city. And he was on his way to Green Bay. But, you know, would have been like I was hoping he would have been there. I thought, you know, the Monday night game because I wanted to talk to him about his memories of Enberg, which would have been probably pretty good because Al doesn't tweet or anything like that.

But I will do a live report from Toscados the next time. And we'll get Al Michaels on that much. Please do. We always enjoy Al Michael's stories. He was one of my favorite guests on the Bill Simmons podcast. He's just literally the coolest guy you could ever meet. Yeah, he really is. And he always had this hostility between Al Davis and the Raiders. So whenever we were good and they had to do a game, it was hilarious. It was like, like backhanded compliments and things like that. And you almost had a read between the lines what he was trying to do. Now he's a really, now he's also a really an unbelievable guy. And I think there's an instinct that, you know, when you like,

when you grow up with that and you hear those voices, it's just, it's, it's, it's, like you hear a song from your childhood that makes you feel better about it, you know? And I think that's what Michaels does. I know that's what Enberg did. And, you know, like, look, Keith Jackson on college football, I mean, that was like, whoa, you know, you hear his voice. You're like, oh, my gosh. So it's really good.

Rest and peace, Dick. Well, we hope we get another group of guys that will do that and strike a chord. But we're not sure that will happen, so we have to appreciate the ones that we had. Absolutely, yeah. Let's get to the games. The whole point of this Saturday, sit down, we've been doing this for what, about eight weeks now? We give you five games. Mike Lombardi gives you five games to point to. A hard five games.

I mean, look, I will confess, full disclosure. I listen to the great Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal. And I listen to them go over the lines. And I kind of hear what they say about the games. And I love Simmons's poop fest. And I think this was... He changed those nicknames about 15 times. If you've kept up, I really am impressed.

I love it. You know, so it's always so hard to, like, what game do you want to do? Do you want to do Detroit, Cincinnati? Like, is anybody really other than the people in Detroit? I don't think people in Cincinnati care about Detroit, Cincinnati. There'll be eight people at that game. So this was a hard week to really pick a lot of games. So we'll go through it.

Yeah, we'll do it. First game we have. And I think this is actually an interesting game. Because that was part of the problem. As you were picking these games, I mean, you just want to have a game you want to watch too. And I think one of these games will be this first game we have. And that's Jacksonville Jaguars taking on Jimmy G and the 49ers. I think this is the first test.

We're going to see this Jacksonville defense. their past defense is unlike any other we've seen in the AFC this year, and we're going to see if Jimmy G can take it. Yeah, and I think people really need to, if you have a moment, you should, and I know I'm president of the Jimmy G fan club, and I know I go over the top. You might be vice president. I think Bill might be at the top.

I think I can want up Bill Simmons on that one. I had a lot more to do with Jimmy G's getting there than he did. Anyway, I'm not going to pull rank here. But anyway, you know, I think if you listen to this inside the NFL, It's just where he talks about throwing the football, how he throws the receiver open. It isn't just like, you know, what I don't think people understand often is when a receiver's back is turned to the defense, right? And if the quarterback throws the ball to my left shoulder, right, that means he wants me to turn left because the tackler's coming from my right. If he turns it to my right.

And what Jimmy was talking about on that thing was all those things. This goes back to Walsh's days when Walsh was talking about. This is one of the things that Montana used to... It's a lead pass. It's like in basketball and you lead to want to a point. Exactly what it is. It's a lead pass. But you have to be in sync with the quarterback to know what he's trying to get done.

And it takes a unique player to have the ability to control the football that well. I mean, all due respect to Blake Bortles, he's just trying to throw the ball to you. He isn't trying to throw you to where you can catch it. Yes. Exactly. So, you know, anyway, back to the game. There's a little love for Jimmy. I think this will be a hard game for the 49ers because it's going to be difficult for them.

to play from in front. And I think the team that beats Jacksonville must play from in front. If you look at Jacksonville's numbers, just break them down and study their numbers. When they're in the lead, they're a completely different team early in the game than when they are behind. And their defense is remarkable when they can play from in front.

When they can rush the pass here and they can get all those guys going and they can sit on routes, I think Kyle Shanahan's got to do a really good job of staying and base personnel in this game. He's got to keep Callais Campbell in a five technique. He's got to keep, whether it's Darby or Jones, at the nose tackle. What you want to do against Jacksonville is make them play base. You don't want to get a nickel game with Jacksonville.

Jacksonville and a nickel game can create turnovers. And then I think what you have to do is you've got to pressure Bordals. I mean, you can't let him have the luxury to stand back there, count the five Mississippi, and then throw the ball. Absolutely. But I think Jacksonville is going to wear – this 49er team, as much as I love Jimmy, I think Jimmy's going to have his first loss here. I think Jacksonville will win the game because Jacksonville is a better team, and I think they're peeking at the right time.

But I love what Jimmy's done. Absolutely. Next game we have here, the Atlanta Falcons going down to the dome to take on the New Orleans Saints. This is a weird game. I mean, the line on this game is five points for the Falcons. Mike Francesca and Cousin-Salons both said that they love this game with the points that they're getting. For the Falcons. Yes.

Coming into the Dome, the Saints obviously had a hard time last weekend with the New York Jets. Couldn't quite put them away. Is there calls for concern if you're a Saints fan? I think there is. And here's why. I think AJ Klein's a really good player. and they had to put him on IR, and I think that really hurts them. I really do. I think A.J. Klein really played well for him.

He was their version of Luke Keekeley, and he played well, and I think it's going to hurt their defense. And, you know, they've got a lot of guys. I mean, I think Jeff Ireland and Mickey Loomis, they've done a great job of drafting. This draft has got guys in it. This is going to be a game where they're going to have to control the game with their offensive running game. I think that's going to be the most important. 17 days ago they had a chance to win it. Dion Jones makes the play going down the middle of field.

Drew Brees. They didn't play great that day, and they hung in there. Atlanta, to me, every time I want to get behind Atlanta, they have like one of those really bad performances. Like last week, they beat Tampa Bay. They run college sweepball. They looked like USC. I thought John McKay was calling plays again.

Like, they were just running the sweepplay. Well, it was in USC. It was Sarkegee up there. Exactly. The same thing. He probably stole it from John McKay. He, I'm sure he did. He steals all his plays.

The two best play stealers, I think Jim Bob Cooter might be the best place to it. He steals all of, if you watch Detroit tape, fans, okay, if you watch Detroit tape, everything New England does, they steal in Detroit. It's hilarious. It's so obvious. Nobody picks it up. And I think Jim Bob Gooder is obviously, it's a good thing.

Sometimes, you know, what do they say? You know, plagiarism if you steal it once. Research is if you steal it twice. I'm going to say, Jim, I'm not saying he's stealing. I'm saying he's doing research. Well, every single basketball coach in the world does that. I mean, they take place from other people and they usually name it after something else. I remember Steve Kerr talking about that.

Everybody likes Atlanta in the points. New Orleans in the Dome, I think this is their revenge moment. I think that they really, that left a bitter taste in their mouth. I like New Orleans here. I really do. I think New Orleans is the better team. I think New Orleans is going to have to throw the football effectively. And I think New Orleans can.

Now, they're going to have to play well on defense. They're going to limit Julio Jones. But the Falcons offense is so inconsistent. I like it. I like New Orleans. Absolutely. And let's talk about a team that will be impacted if the Falcons do take a loss. And that's the Dallas Cowboys who are getting Zeke Elliott back.

And they're going to have the Seahawks coming to town. I mean, this is a real statement opportunity for the Cowboys to make a run for the playoffs. Right. I mean, can you believe Seattle's a four and a half point dog in this game? It's really kind of, it's unbelievable. I mean, this is winner go, loser go home and winter might go home too, right? Yes. There's some dominoes between the lions and the Falcons and some people ahead of these guys that have to fall in place.

I mean, and I know Zeeke comes back really helps their offense and Seattle was embarrassed last week. I mean, when you get embarrassed like Seattle did last week, I think there's got to be a sense of challenge and there's going to be a sense of purpose. And I would not count Russell Wilson out in this game. I think Seattle, when their backs to the wall, they've got to show me something. Dallas struggled like hell to beat a really bad Oakland team. And so, like, for me, I think Seattle and the points is a good play here. I know everybody's going to jump because Zeeks's back and all that. And I think that's great.

Zeeck's back. But still, they've got to get open. Des can't get open against anybody. They're going to have to make some plays in the passing game. And I think that Seattle, I think David Irving, whether he plays or not with a concussion, and he's been hurt, that really hurts Dallas's defense. If they can handle DeMarcus Lawrence, I think Seattle will move the football on them. It'll be easier for Seattle to move the ball in this game than it has been for the last couple weeks.

And this is a chance for Russell Wilson basically to this bowl of the season for the Cowboys. So he usually takes advantage of those opportunities. Quick tangent on Zeke Elliott. He went down to Cabo San Lucas during this whole stint. He's apparently working out the whole time. There were pictures that were leaked of him. He looks back in shape. He's got the six-pack going again.

Eric Dickerson was down there working with him. I think we could see something special from Zeke when he comes back. Yeah, I do. Look, I definitely do. But when you know they're going to run the ball and you can play some run defense, which they didn't play against the Rams last week, I think they'll play. I think the challenge, I think, look, when you're embarrassed in the NFL, you have to either make a statement or not.

And I think the best time to do it is on the road. I don't know. I think Seattle's run defense will be a little bit better. I think it's great that Zeeke's back, but he's still got the clapper controlling things. Absolutely. And he'll still clap his way to the top. Next up, we have the Rams. Speaking of a team that blew out the Seahawks last week,

the Rams are going to go to the Titans. the Titans team we have never said many nice things about. And you're not going to get anything out of me nice today. Could it be a letdown game, though, for the Rams? No, I'm all in love with the Rams. And here's what I love the Rams. Okay, everybody's all upset about the Rams losing their kicker, the great Greg Zerline. And who's the leg, yeah.

The Greg the leg, tremendous. I think it helps the Rams in this way. Okay, so when you have a kicker like Zerline, who's so good, and you've got a third and seven. Sometimes you settle. Sometimes you settle, right? And I think when you're not, and you don't have that, like what we should should do, like I think TV should do this. Like, so if the ball's at the 35, okay, and we know it's going to be a 52-yard field goal, right? There should be like going for it on fourth and three,

or making the 52-yard field goal. We should have the odds up there. We can calculate it like immediately, right? But that's how a coach has to think, okay? But a coach can't think like that on fourth down. He has to think like that on third down. So what I'm saying, what I think is going happen for the Rams, just the way they call plays and the way they do things. I think the Rams are going to be more in four-down mode when they cross the 40-yard line, when they cross the enemy territory and they're in their own, like, they're coming down to kick the field goal. I think they're going to be more four-down.

I don't think they're going to settle for the, oh, we got three, don't worry about it. We'll just play defense. I think they're going to be a little bit concerned about it, and that concern is going to lead them to be a more dangerous calling plays on third down. I think that's something that we really, like, people love this. People love the percentages. everybody loves the, you know, look at ESPN probability of winning, right? It's the same thing.

If you're sitting there at your own, at the opponent's 30, right? That's a 47-yard field goal. It's third and three, right? And you don't get it. Now, 47-yard field goal has a 66% chance of making it, and going for it on fourth down has a 52%. You know what I mean? You wait out.

And if you have Todd Gurley, who's averaging six yards to carry, just give them the football. And you're moving the ball effectively. But that's just evaluating, fourth down versus the kick. If you call plays on third down with the right mentality, I think it becomes way different. So I think the Rams are really going to be more explosively dangerous in this situation. And I think it'll really pay off. I think losing him's going to hurt when they've got to make that 37-yard field goal and you don't want to risk that one, right? And can

the guy make it or not? But if I were the Rams, I think I would have signed, and I don't know if there's somebody out there, but like the old days, like Matt Barr, who's just first. Like anything inside of 40 he makes, right? Like I think I would have done that. Yeah, not for distance, but just for accuracy. I would have just done that. I would have tried to find somebody who's just, I know this fucker will make it, right? I know he's going to make it.

You know, this is it. And so I can count on those points. And then I'm just going to go for it because that I become more dangerous come playoff time. I was going to say Connor Barth, but that was a Homer pick. So I know. I won't sleep with that. Hey, but, you know, going to for Tennessee, I mean, this is a great, like, for me, I know teams are like thinking about, well, they made the playoffs, is going to rest.

Like the Rams right now, even though they lost the Philly two weeks ago, that was a really good game. Like, they're hot right now. I know Bill Simmons has been on them all year. I haven't. But I know he has. He's adopted them as their hometown team. But I think that this is a statement game for the Rams to really, like, put a good, bad team away. Because the Tennessee Titans are a good bad team.

Yeah, and put them away. And I will say this. I have a Jason Brown Rams jersey. I know you do. I've seen it. Yeah, I went to the movies. So I was walking around Hollywood Boulevard. into the arc light here with Mark Titus.

And I had three or four people stop me and say, go Rams. So the L.A. people were buying into the bandwagon, just like we expected. It hasn't made it to the beach because I walk Bell and Lana every day on the beach, okay, and I haven't seen a Rams jersey. I've seen Duke hats. I've seen North Carolina hats. I'm sorry, Tate Fraser. I've seen North Carolina hats. Lost a Wolford.

I don't know. I don't even how he came to work the next day. But anyway, you know, but it hasn't made it to the beach. I haven't seen much of that. You don't see no Chargers anything. Well, I think that's supposed to be Chargers territory right down in Plyer. They pick like 15 spots and they're like, this is Chargersland. This is Chargersland.

And I don't think anyone does dot the name. I don't know if it is. You know, and on Tennessee, like, Mariotta's going to have to play. Like, he's going to have to show he can – like, they're going to have a game where they can stand on their own two feet. Like, I just don't see it here. I really don't. Is there any – this is a little bit of an aside, but is there any world in which the Tennessee Titans go to the draft this year and they address the quarterback position? No, I don't because I think what they'll do, before they'll fire Malarkey and hire an offensive coach.

I think that's what they'll do. Like Jim Bob Cooter. Like Jim Bob Cooter. And I think that that's kind of where they are in this whole thing. I think they're going to have to figure out what they're going to need to do. Okay. Final game this week, and this is a game. Drum roll, please.

Yes, this is for history. This is to make sure that the Cleveland Browns can at least get one win this year. We're going to see if Hugh Jackson can finally get a win on a Sunday. The Cleveland Browns, taking on the Chicago Bears. This is their last chance, right? They have the Steelers next week. No way they win that game. Yeah, yeah.

No, because I think the Steelers will need to win that game next week to hold off Jacksonville, right? Yes, exactly. So, I mean, if the Steelers don't need to win that game, then things might change. If they have the, say they have the two, the three or two seed. Jimmy G knocks out the Jaguars. Right. Or something like that. Then it becomes different.

What I don't understand is, how is Chicago a six and a half point favor over anyone? Well, it's the Browns. That's the only explanation. And I think this. And the reason I asked that question, because I parry masoned you there. You know what Perry Mason is? You really ask a question you to know the answer to already? Yeah, rhetorical.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I pray masoned you on that. Anyway, you know what? Because my man, Hugh Jackson threw Deshaun Kaiser under the bus. Like, how do you think he's going to... And this is now the third time he's done that this season.

How do you think he's going to play? Like, it's unbelievable. There's no way he's going to be able to play like that. And he's killing his value outside. I mean, even if he's not your quarterback in Cleveland, you don't have to throw him under the bus because then some other team may see him and like what he's doing and maybe I don't know. How do you even go to a quarterback meeting knowing you just threw him under the bus?

I don't know, but it's never been his fault. You know, it's been a lot of people's fault, but it's never been his. I'm telling you something. I think there should be a 30 for 30 done on Hugh Jackson because it is freaking amazing how a guy who's 1 in 29 has this allure about him that he's a great coach. And my question is this, and I'm not being a Cleveland Brown hater here at all. But if I were a Brown's fan, which I am,

if I were a Browns fan, I would want to know, like, tell me what quarterback this guy's ever developed. He threw Jason Campbell under the bus when he was a head coach at the Raiders. They traded for Carson Palmer, okay? Like, I want to know what quarterback he's ever developed from the time the kid came into his wing, A.J. McCarron, they draft them. What quarterback has he developed that is going on? Like, people get these labels, Tate Frazier, that they're a quarterback guru, right? Like, okay, tell me what quarterback they've developed. Like, John Gruden is really a good quarterback

coach. However, that being said, he's 60 and 57 in his career in Tampa Bay, right? He's drafted three quarterbacks in his career at Tampa Bay. Chris Sims, Bruce Gratkowski, and Josh Johnson. Okay. Gruden's really good if you have a veteran quarterback. The Rich Gannon's of the world. He's good at those guys. He'll Brad Johnson, Rich Gannon, you get those guys to him. But to take a young quarterback and develop him, there's, you know, he had Rodney Pete in Philadelphia. He had Ty Detmer in Philadelphia. You know, it's never going to be easy for a young quarterback with John. And I think, you know, so you have to understand that. That doesn't make John a bad coach.

That just you've got to know what you're getting into, right? Yeah. Same thing with Hugh Jackson. Just show me. Let me be objective. Let me go look up what quarterback he's developed. Let me call that quarterback on the phone and say, what did Hugh do for you? Right.

Like, I can remember we were trying to hire Bobby Petrino at Oakland when I was there before we hired the Great Art Shell. And, you know, Rich Gannon had Bobby Petrino in the Pro Bowl because Petrino coached at Jacksonville for a year and they coached the Pro Bowl one year. So you could talk to Rich. What do you think about Patrino? I mean, he told me everything about. him as a quarterback coach. Forget Petrino as a human being. I'm talking about it's just as a coach, right? And so, you know, he told me

everything I needed to know about him, right? So you could do that. And he's still developing quarterbacks. We see Lamar Jackson. Like, that's where I think people are missing on Lamar Jackson. This guy is one of the best quarterback coaches in the world who could coach young quarterbacks, right? So you know what you get with Bobby. You know what, but John, you know what you get, right?

And so Josh McDaniels, you know what you get. Look what he did with Jimmy Garapolo. Like, okay, he's developed Jimmy Garapola. right and you kind of have a track record Matt Nagy has taken Alex Smith and turned him into this right you know I know I give Doug Peterson a lot of crap but whether it's John D. Filippo, Doug Peterson, Frank Wright, I'm not sure I get it a straight story coming out of Philly but they've modeled Carson Wentz's offense after him. Give him credit, right? So I just don't know like if I'm you if I'm like I don't know how Hugh Jackson gets away from that that area like how does he get away from that?

I don't understand it but I do know this. I think that for my perspective I've always thought Hugh Jackson was a running back guy. I don't know if it's because he coached running backs when he was in Cincinnati and had Gio and all those guys there. But I mean, Duke Johnson has been great. I mean, he's done well in the backfield in Cleveland. But I don't understand how he went from being a good coach with running backs. And now he's his quarterback guru.

I don't know where that leap was made, but I don't know. It's hard to find it. Take Frazier, everything about the NFL is all about publicity. The reality of the league is so far from what's the truth is. Yeah. What a guy's labeled a genius to the reality of it and what people really think behind the scenes, you know. It's called the spin zone. Yeah, it's so bad.

And it becomes more and more. And if you talk to anybody in the league or you really talk to people around the league, I mean, you know, they'll tell you. But anyway, the league's going to shake up here at about 10 days when the workforce changes. And we have six jobs we know we're going to open. Could be nine at the most. It's going to be funnier. Yeah, it's going to be good.

And before we get out of here, let's talk about some of the playoff implications that are going to go down this weekend. The Jaguars, as crazy as it sounds, they're still in play for the top of the AFC seed. if the Patriots and the Steelers were to lose one more game heading this out and finish season 12 and 4 the Jaguars have the tiebreaker over both those teams so they could have home field Blake Bordell is going to have home field

throughout the entire playoffs. Amazing. If that happens. I mean, look, New England's not going to lose to Buffalo this week. New England could lose to Miami. The Jets in Week 17, good luck, Mickey. And good luck, Mick, this week, playing home. Who did the Jets have this week? Chargers.

Oh, the Chargers. Mick, block the edges, please. Chip, please, Mick. Chip Joey Bosa. Chip Joey Bosa, chip Melvin Ingram. And when they get in that odd floater look and they put Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa over there,

slide the protection to them. Please, thank you. I can't see them doing that. I would have a hard time thinking Jacksonville secure that. I think Pittsburgh, look, Pittsburgh has Houston this week on Monday night, and you know they're going to win that one. Then they got Cleveland. I just can't see them having the number one seat.

I really can't. I don't see New England or Pittsburgh losing any more games. That's my point. Yeah, absolutely. And also we got the Eagles. if the Eagles win on Monday night against the Raiders, they will clinch the top seed in the NFC. And if the Vikings lose to Green Bay, which most likely will not happen without Aaron Rogers. But if they do, then that will also give the Eagles in the board seat.

If the Vikings win on Christmas Eve or on Saturday, right, then they're guaranteed at least the two spots. Yeah, they're guaranteed a first round by. Right. Yes, exactly. And also the Chiefs. So if the Chiefs get a win over the Dolphins or if the Chargers lose of the Jets, they clinch the AFC West this weekend. which is another big showdown. And then there's just a million ways for the Buffalo Bills

to try to stay in this playoff one. Which would they have to beat New England this week? Basically. When it comes down to it, they just have to beat New England. Right. And then the NFC, it's really going to come down to who's going to get that sixth seed. I think the NFC is going to be, like there's two teams from the NFC should almost go and play in the AFC because the AFC at five and six, whatever those teams are, whether it's Baltimore, Tennessee. I mean, those NFC teams are actually better than those. I mean, I know you can't do that.

That's just in theory. But the reality here is, you know, those six seed at, say, Baltimore plays Jacksonville, let's say, in the opening round. Three plays six. You know, as much as Jacksonville's dominant, it would be hard for that. I know Jacksonville killed Baltimore over in London this year. But that's a rematch game. I think it would be hard for them to duplicate that. I mean, that's why when you play Jacksonville in the first round, it's not like you're thinking, oh, my God, you've got to know how to play the game, but you could play the game.

Yeah, and when you see Jacksonville on the schedule, for the most part, people are pre-conditioned and predetermined. I think they can get a win there. The Panthers win against the Buccaneers, they will clinch a playoff berth. The Saints also, if they beat the Falcons, will clinch a playoff berth. And if the Panthers lose and the Saints win, then they clinch the NFC South. So a lot going on this weekend. Keep your eyes peeled. I'll be at Tony Peace.

We'll be there. I've got a table there at Tony Peace. Got a bunch of people coming. On Christmas Eve. Yeah, hell yeah. I've got to watch the games. Got to watch my man Mick. Chip the edges, Mick.

I got to watch my man and I got to watch all these games. I mean, you know, I won't be able to enjoy the barbecue in North Carolina, but I'll be there. I'll do what I can. I'll be back home in North Carolina. I'll be watching the game. I'll miss you at Tony P's, but it sounds like you're going to have a great time. Thank you. Merry Christmas, T. Fraser.

It's been a great year. Thank you. And we'll be back next year, 2018. Next week, if you want to get some NFL coverage, we got a great Chris Borland interview, a guy that left football pretty early with Kevin Clark and Bill Simmons. And Robert Maze and Kevin Clark will do their regular show next Friday. And we will see you in 2018. Thanks for listening to GM Street, part of the Ringer Podcast Network.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoy the holidays.