The Ringer NFL Show - The Best Games From the 2020 NFL Schedule | The Ringer NFL Show

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

The NFL schedule was officially released, and it includes a coronavirus contingency plan to potentially push back the Super Bowl and add weeks to the back end of the season. We highlight the best games of the season, the Bucs' top matchups, and the teams with the most prime-time games. Host: Kevin Clark Host: Danny Kelly and Rodger Sherman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's the Ringer NFL show, part of the Ringer podcast Network. I'm Kevin Clark. Joining me on, Dynamic duo, Danny Kelly and Roger Sherman. What's going on, guys? Hanging in there. It turns out all the NFL teams are going to play each other. We think.

Seemingly, yes. Or so it seemed. So this is the Schedule Release Reaction show. A bit, a bit of an overhaul. hype day because we've known the opponents since January of last year. It's based on a rotation and how teams finished in the division last year. But it's still exciting because we get to know, for instance, that we're counting down the days until week three when the Ravens play the Chiefs,

which from my perspective is probably the best game of the season because I think those are the two best teams in the NFL. Okay. We also know kind of the built in, I guess you could call it contingency plans for for what this season could look like. We still don't know, listen, there's home and away attached to all of these games. There's essentially a normal structure here, but we know that could change at any second. And so we know now, Adam Schaefter reports this on the schedule of a show.

We'll read it right now. If the season is delayed early weeks could occur after week 17. The Super Bowl could be pushed back weeks, which we knew already. and any week could serve as opening week, which means obviously, you know, if they lose the first four games in season, they would just start in week five. Every team shares the same by week as their week two opponent.

So you can kind of have that built in where you move week two later in the season. You don't lose as much of the calendar. Now, let's get into what we think this schedule says about this season or the contingency plans. There was a report that there was only going to be, AFC versus NFC the first couple weeks of the season in case you had to chop that off. That's not going to be the case.

There's divisional games. I mean, the Bucks have the Saints week one and then they have the Panthers week two. Like, there's not a whole lot of schedule contingencies built in. But does this guys say anything about what the NFL thinks is going to happen this season when you look at these 17 weeks? I mean, I didn't really, I don't think so. I didn't really notice anything that felt all that different.

I think they have, obviously, they have all these contingency. contingencies in mind. They have, I guess, like kind of set aside some weeks that they think that can, they can get moved around. They're not locked into starting the season on time, but to me it just feels like they're going about it, like status quo. They're going to start the season. Like, it's going to look different, that the games are going to look different. And we were talking about this before show, I don't know where these games are going to be played. Are we assuming these are all going to be played in stadiums? Well, they have home and away. They have a home and away right now.

It is built so they can play in the cities that they're supposed to play in. Okay. But obviously that's subject to change. One of the things I thought was funny when I saw that AFC versus NFC report that the first four weeks could easily be locked up is this is all so unknowable that it's almost not worth building in anything. I mean, you have no idea what September, October, November looks like and whether or not September would be more or less safe than October and November or, you know, what we'll know in August versus July, all that stuff. it is so unknowable that it almost in a weird way doesn't matter what contingency plans you build in. So when I look at the schedule and I see a bunch of divisional games, you know, bills versus Jets

week one, it's like, who cares? Like they can figure it out. They can go from there. If they have to push the season back a month, they will. Like this is, I guess the overarching thing here when I look at the schedule is the NFL thinks they can figure it out. And I agree with them. Whether they're not, it's behind closed doors, whether every game's at Jerry World,

whether every game's at Disney World or whether every game is, whether every game, is at the cities that they're supposed to be in. I think that the NFL is smart enough to figure out how 17 weeks of football can be played. Now, let's get into our favorite games. We'll start with you, Roger. When you're looking at this schedule, and again, we already knew the opponents. What are you circling? Yeah, I mean, you already said Chiefs Ravens Week 3 is the highlight.

A very good Monday night football game. Yeah. Surprising this every other year would have been a Sunday night football game. And they finally give it. I'll say this. So in the same way that like when Jaguars Titans escapes from Thursday night, we feel like it's spiritually Thursday night game. This is a Sunday night game being played on Monday. You know, we already knew the Chiefs and Ravens would be playing each other because they both finished first in their divisions that was already locked in. And it would

have been really weird if they didn't make it a prime time game. Like if they just put that at 1 p.m. on a Sunday along with 12 other games. They said it was the one game that was sent to England. They were just like, we're just going to put this. But it's going to be the biggest, you know, Monday night football game since Chiefs Rams two years ago. And, you know. And I would argue that that Chiefs Rams game was a bit of an outlier because no one knew

Mahomes was going to be that good. That wasn't the best game coming into the season. It just happened that both of those teams started out eight and oh. and the Rams are no longer a thing we talk about. No. Although they're in primetime. They're in prime time, I think. They're in a lot of prime time, I think,

because they're going to be showing off the new stadium, which they may or may not get to show off. May I may not be finished. There is a lot of stadium scheduling here. There's a lot of Las Vegas Raiders in prime time. Raiders are getting four. Chargers and Rams and primetime games. So if those stadiums are open and full of fans,

that'll be cool. They won't be full of fans. For sure. They won't be full of fans. And I also feel like in like the second quarter of like a random when when Derek Carr is is 11 of 19 for 172 yards that it's going to be Al Michaels and Chris Collins worth talking about how this game was supposed to be played in a beautiful stadium in Las Vegas. But well, that's that just not how it worked, Al. Okay. So let's get to the bucks.

because I think that they have, I mean, listen, there was no way the Bucks were going to be in any primetime games or maybe one primetime game before Tom Brady gets there. And now he goes into a division where he gets five, obviously. And I think that I'm probably the most intrigued to see him week one against the Saints. And I can't wait to see, and this is just as basic football analysis as you can possibly get. But that's the week one game that I'm most excited for. It just Breeze versus Brady. I know this should be a high level of analysis,

but like those are two awesome teams, two old quarterbacks. I like the fact they're playing the Packers. I have a weird nostalgia for the Packers' Bucks games when they were in the same division. I'm the only person who has that nostalgia. It's very 1999 core. I was going to say.

I don't remember that. I had that. You don't remember that? They're in the same division. I mean, to this day, when those two teams play, you throw the records out. You throw the records out. The first football game I ever went to was a Packers' Bucks game.

So that's the only reason that anyone would have this specific bit of nostalgia. That just happened to be the first game you ever went to. Yeah, that's not a universal experience. Not everybody's first game was a Packers' Bucks game. My first game was a Jets Colts game, which was also a divisional rivalry that no longer exists. They have the Chiefs in week 12. they had the Saints in week one and week nine. The week nine is a Sunday night football too.

Week nine is Sunday football game. And then week six is the Packers. Is there a matchup guys when you look at this buck schedule that you think you want to see Tom Brady against? I mean, yeah. So I'm just looking at their schedule. They don't have a ton of great defenses necessarily. We talked about the Saints. The Panthers, I don't know what they're going to be this year, whether they're like somewhere between rebuilding and good.

I don't know. They went all defenses. I don't care about the Panthers until otherwise, until that's proven otherwise. So then they got the Broncos. The Chargers have a good defense in week four, so that'll be very interesting. The week five against the Bears,

are we feeling good about the Bears defense this year because that could be a really tough game at Chicago? So that one, I think you could probably circle. Packers, Raiders, Giants, Saints again in week nine, Panthers, the Rams, Chiefs, Vikings, Falcons, Lions, and Falcons to finish out the year. I mean, to me, it doesn't really matter so much.

I'm just curious to see whether the whole experiment will work, regardless of opponent. Like, putting Tom Brady in this weird environment with this weird set of teammates where it's warm outside, kind of, and Bill Belichick is not there. And this team has not been accused of any major cheating scandals in the last few years. It's just going to be a strange spectacle regardless, I feel like. I'm really curious, is Brady going to have like a different personality on the field?

Is he going to be like having fun and whooping it up? Like, because he's, he's very business. He's tweeting more. He's tweeting more. His personality seems to have changed

now that he's gotten off like the out of the yoke of Bill Belichick. I don't think that's much of a surprise only to the context. Tom Brady really prides himself on being a good teammate and doing everything that has been asked of him.

And I think that he cares about the locker room a lot. Like I remember, he said this a million times. the highlight of his career, basically, he said, was being named the captain at Michigan. Like, he's really into that stuff. And I think the expectation in New England is you just kind of keep things in house. You know, we know that. Like, they don't like talking to media.

And now he goes to Tampa Bay where they're going to let him be himself. And I don't think that this is, like, necessarily a big picture, like, change in personality. But I think that he was up for following team rules in New England. And now he's up for following team rules in Tampa Bay. And that means he's allowed to be a little looser. Is he going to become like Dennis Robman? I'm probably not. But I don't think he's going to be Tampa.

I don't think he's going to be New England, Tampa, Brady. He's going to be Tampa Bay. Right. He's going to be. All right. So let's quickly take a look at the five teams, excuse me, the eight teams that have five prime time games. Packers, Rams, Chiefs, 49ers, Cowboys, Bucks, Patriots, Ravens.

Are we all in agreement that the Rams should not have five prime time games? Yes. They have a stadium, though. They're playing a stadium this time. I want to go back to your point. This is, we're walking. We run a very, very fine tightrope here with the stadium, stadium games. Because those Monday night games were a primetime game against the Bears where you can't

show anything off. It's a problem. I think the Rams are going to be better this year than they were last year, though. I mean, I think their offense is going to be better. I mean, I would hope so. I mean, just think about the first two years under McVeigh, Goff was amazing. He had a really down year last year.

I just think he's due for a bounce back. So I think they'll be more fun than they were last year because they were just straight up boring last year for the most part. But they finished strong. It'll be, they'll be worth watching at least. So the primetime games are the Cowboys, the Bears, which I just obviously.

I'm opting out. The Bucks, strangely, the Patriots. Now, I think that's kind of, it's Thursday night football in week 14. As are two pretty big question mark teams. Those are two pretty big question mark teams. I'm just saying that's a segue to the Patriots because they have five-time primetime games as well. Is this a risk or will anybody watch any Bill Belichick game in primetime even without

Tom Brady if they're, say, seven and seven late in the year? I don't even think the shot in Freud is going to be there if it turns out they're just kind of a boring football team. You know, like we've wanted to watch the Patriots because they've been the greatest team for about most of my life. And even when they lose, it is the most entertaining thing that happens in the NFL on a regular basis. And I'm not sure that draw is going to be there to watch. it'll be interesting once if this team falters. If it turns out they're successful with Jared Stidham, I will just be upset about it.

Nothing about it has the ability to inspire greatness or anger. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that there's a lot of early anticipation for what Jared Stidham looks like or Brian Hoyer or whoever. I think that later in the year, again, a week 14 game against the Rams is a bigger risk. Because I think you just get into a situation where if Jared Stedon does not like Tom Brady, I just am probably not going to want to watch the Patriots.

There are situations, you know, listen, the Patriot schedule, I think that because they're a little more mortal is a little more intriguing from week to week. But you're not, you're just not going to have sort of the same sort of, I guess you could say, epics that you would when you had Tom Brady there. I am intrigued to see how they play Lamar Jackson on November 15th. I am intrigued to see how they play Russell Wilson on September 20th. Patrick Mahomes, again, on October 4th. I still like seeing Bill Belichick against great quarterbacks because I love to see him game playing against good quarterbacks. I'm intrigued to see both those Dolphins matchups where he plays Tua.

He has Lamar Jackson and Deshaun Watson in back-to-back weeks in November. Then he has Kylo-Murie. That's three great weeks of football nerd shit. but I don't know if America is going to be like, oh man, I really, really want to see I really want to see Jared Stidham against Patrick Mahomes, which is the 4 PM game on October 4th. I was just going to say that too. The reason to watch the Patriots this year is to watch what Belichick schemes up against good offenses. And over the last few years, it's like, I still think people do like defensive slugfest.

There's a subset of the population that enjoys that. but for the most part, everybody seems to just want like a thousand yards and 75 points scored in a game. And that's like what makes a good game. That's a good point, Daniel. I will say this about just the schedules in general. So the Patriots have the toughest schedule by last year's winning percentage in the entire NFL. The Jets are second. There are some some rumblings in NFL slack at the ringer that this this jet schedule will lead to the first.

overall pick for the New York Jets next year. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. But I want to say something that has been proven by analytics Warren Sharpis said this many times, which is that the previous year's winning percentage has almost nothing to do with the strength of schedule the next year. I mean, this is, we know this. If we thought the Rams were going to be a hard out last year, then they just won't. Like, there's a lot of good teams one year that just don't carry over and we say,

oh, man, that's a tough schedule and it ends up not being that. Warren Sharp, again, he's done a lot of research. on that. I tweeted out one of his studies on Thursday night. I encourage you to go look that up. But it's just not, when we say tough schedule, we're almost always looking at the wrong thing. That's why I look at quarterbacks. I look at coaches. I think facing Bill Belichick is really hard as a quarterback or as an opposing coach. I think that a team like playing the chiefs, you know that's going to be really hard or Lamar Jackson at rushing offense. But I think that, you know, If just because a team won 10 wins, you know, I think a team like the Titans, you know,

there was a, if you're playing the Titans this year, that doesn't, it's not guarantee they're going to win 12 games. Okay. Like so, so I think that's something, you have to take all schedule talk, um, as far as strength of schedule with a grain of salt. That's my one warning about that. Having said that, the Houston Texans. The Texas.

Yeah. Here's how they start out. Chiefs, Ravens, Steve. dealers, Vikings, Jaguars, Titans, Packers. Bill O'Brien.

The Jaguars are there. They got a dub against well, you're a Big Gardner-Minchu fan. That's a dub against Jacksonville and then six really hard games. If there was anyone that could fire Bill O'Brien,

do you think he would get fired halfway through the year? I don't think so. Do all of the trades also count as losses? Are they already like Oh, they're starting.

Yes, Roger. Thank you. Danny, when you look at Deshawn Watson and the rest of that offense, is there any chance the Houston Texans are better than we think can come out of this?

And this is someone I think Bill O'Brien's a pretty good coach, and I obviously think Deshawn Watson is a great elite quarterback. Yeah. When you look at these, the beginning of the season, when you look at the trades they've made,

when you look at where the franchise is at, is there any case be made for the Houston Texans in 2020. Yeah, I think so. I mean, honestly, we make fun of Bill O'Brien a lot, and I think he deserves it a lot. But at the same time, you know, he's actually gotten the Texans to the playoffs, like, quite a few times. Like, they're always better than I think people think they're going to be. And it starts with Watson, number one.

Like, he, you know, he was finding success before that, too. But, I mean, I just think he's one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. They did go out and get him some weapons, Brandon Cooks. if he can stay healthy, you know, could be a good field treasure for them. Well, they got David Johnson. They got David Johnson

because they traded one of the best receivers in football for him. I mean, let's see. If cooks, Will Fuller, David Johnson can stay healthy. What do you think?

Like, that's a pretty good offense, but like, what do you think the odds that all three of those guys are going to be healthy? Yeah. And what are the,

I'd rather have DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I think I would too. Like, it's not, it's not like,

it's not like, they, okay, I, I, we're not going to go down this road again.

I'm just saying, I, there is a case we made in the short term for the Houston Texans. I think that there's a, I think that there's a, the schedule gods did the no favors.

I really do, even though as we said, scheduling, it's hard to predict who has a tough schedule or not. That's a lot of good quarterbacks early. I mean,

just the first two weeks of the season, just to go from Kansas City to Baltimore to great coaching stats, two great quarterbacks. That's really hard. Now, Sean Watson is a, great quarterback as well. They just don't have as good a coaching staff as those two teams.

Again, I think Bill O'Brien's a much better coach than he as a general manager. I just don't know. That's the kind of thing where he's staring at one in five and he said, we've got to get to the buy an emotional Bill O'Brien Press conference. That's all. I can just see it. They're sort of banking at us wanting to watch the Texans because they've given them two of pretty consistently the top 10 most watch games of the year, season opener Thursday night against the Chiefs. And also they get one of the Thanksgiving games. There's going to be a lot of people watching a Texan's team that will be in some, that feels like it might be in some sort of turmoil.

All right. I wonder about the Eagles really quickly because they've got, you know, Chris Ryan talked about this a little bit earlier when we were talking, but they've got two really hard stretches. They go Niners, Steelers, Ravens in week four, five, and six. And later in the year, they go Seahawks, Packers, Saints. I think it's going to be interesting to see Philadelphia, especially, I mean, this is and this is a lot of armchair psychology and all this stuff.

But if they lose two in a row or three in a row, and I think the Eagles have the capability to be a really good team, I think that there is a real possibility of some really interesting drama in Philadelphia. Just because they took Jalen Hertz in the second run, I would also put the Packers in the same boat here. If any of these teams, either of these two teams struggle at all over a month or over three weeks, why that's because of the schedule, that's because they're going against good defenses,

and we think about the Niners and the Ravens just in the three weeks. period. There's a two really good defenses. I think that there's the real capability for, I think that both these teams can weather this storm, but I think there's the capability for some sort of, some sort of drama. Danny, if you're looking at the Packers and you're looking at the Eagles, do you see either Jordan Love or Jalen Hertz being talked about as a potential starter over the course of this season in 2020? Or is that just not in the plans this year? I don't think so. I think both, you know, both Rogers and Wence got these massive, massive deals that have massive amounts of dead money attached.

I think the only way that either hurts or love is, like, really starting is if there's an injury. And with Wence, you know, that's actually a pretty solid possibility, I guess. He's missed the last part of the season a couple times. You know, that's a big reason probably that they feel so strongly about having a second quarterback on their roster. So, but no, I would say, I highly doubt that there's going to be any sort of like quarterback controversy, you know, for either of these teams.

They're just, there's too much money like locked in to both of those contracts. And so, um, so I agree. I agree. And I, I think that Wentz is the starter nailed on. They gave them that big contract. Rogers is the same way. I think that what's interesting to me is how quickly and how much they can use Jalen Hertz as sort of a taste of hill on steroids.

in Philadelphia. And that's the intriguing quarterback question to me. Roger, you've studied Jalen Hertz. You've seen a lot of them. You also are a huge Colette fan, by the way. But when you're looking at Philadelphia, how do they work him in, Hertz, not Tate, and what does that look like?

Can it happen maybe September, October, earlier this year, or does it have to sort of be a longer-term plan? I think they drafted him not so much to P. Taysome Hills. much as to play quarterback. If you look at, you know, Taysam Hill and Jaylon. No, no, Taysam Hill, but throwing. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think that Jalen Hertz, personally, I think he's a starting quarterback caliber player.

I hope the Eagles do have a plan to use him because he has such an intriguing skill set and could be useful as a, you know, change of pace from Weds. also like we've all said many times Wents has gotten injured many times that's totally something you can plan for I think they I think hopefully when they drafted him you have to assume that they had a plan to

integrate him as part of their offense pretty quickly and he should see the fields because he's talented Kevin do you buy the idea that because we've heard rumblings of it we've had these little teeny tiny many trends where teams are talking about using another like two quarterbacks on the field at the same time obviously Taysam Hill is kind of like the biggest

headliner for that group right now but do you buy the idea that the NFL is really going to start doing this like regularly are they actually going to take the ball? I think it's possible I think it's possible I here's my concern about that from a from a trend standpoint is if it is such a hard thing to do that I think that even if it's proven to be successful, the rank and file NFL coach can't install that. It's really, I mean,

first of all, you would need the capability to have two players like that. It's almost, it's almost a little bit similar to the Ravens thing with Lamar Jackson. First of all, need the personnel to do it, but you also then need the coaching staff who's smart enough to implement it on. And that was the lesson of Lamar Jackson is just whatever you've got for your personnel, lean into it and build the best team you can around him, right? And if you're, if let's say the Eagles are successful and Jalen Hart's is successful playing second quarterback and two guys, two quarterbacks touch the ball and half the plays or whatever and they break defenses, well, it's going to take a really long time for A, the personnel to

start trickling through where you have two good quarterbacks in the field and for teams to rearrange how they pay their quarterback, how they draft their quarterback, all that. But then it's also just going to like is Bruce Ariens going to install a two quarterback system? Like, is, is Doug Marone, is Bill O'Brien? Like, I just don't think, I think most coaches are pretty set in their ways to where even if there was a mini-revolution started, I don't think you would see a wide-scale shift in how offenses are run over a three or four-year period. I think it would have to take away a couple of generations.

Listen, the Wildcat, Ronnie Brown and the Wildcat, like, broke football. And then people just stopped doing it. The dolphins installed it, and then they obviously drafted Pat Whitewater. to try to keep it going. That didn't work. Pat White was not necessarily the right guy to do it. I'm just saying that even if something works, even if it can win a team at division,

it's not going to spread like wildfire unless teams can easily implement it. Yeah. That's all. I mean, it's like it's hard enough to throw in the NFL if you have a quarterback that, you know, highly drafted,

highly paid quarterback. It's hard enough for him to make throws in the NFL. And trying to find two people on the offense that can do that, you know, regularly or get the reps to do it. It's just so, complex. I don't know if I buy it. I feel like people talking about it and it's it's a thing that teams want to do down the line, but I'm not sure if I buy it. Yeah, the Tisum Hill fig isn't really

a second quarterback either. It's sort of like he's, he's a wide receiver who's gotten to throw the ball a few times. Yeah. And play special teams. And play any play special teams. They like to talk about that. They love to talk about how he's a gunner or whatever. All right, Cowboys. So I understand why the Cowboys are in prime time. I don't think they're in the tippy elite of the NFL, but they're good enough. They're extremely famous, all that stuff. So as we talked about, they opened up with Los Angeles Rams. And in a perfect world, that game is in Los Angeles in a bright, shiny new stadium in front of 80,000 people. They also have the Arizona Cardinals, which I think from my perspective, maybe this is just more football nerd stuff. But when I think about

Isaiah Simmons being added to a team, already has DeAndre Hopkins, already has Kylo Murray, who I think we all are in agreement has the capability to take a leap and become one of the most exciting players in football this year. Are the Cardinals, are we all,

except for people on this podcast, sleeping on the Cardinals as a primetime team? I think this was a game I for sure circled as like this is going to be really interesting. When we were looking at the Monday night football schedule, you know, obviously the Chiefs Ravens one stands out, but this one's very,

very interesting too. Like both of these teams can have high flying, really high octane offenses. Cowboys seem to be leaning into their offensive identity. Last year, Dack had, you know, his breakthrough season. And now they got C.D. Lamb added to that group. You know, I just think that this has a potential to be that.

Like, you know how we were talking about the Rams Chiefs game. Like, this game has the potential to be sort of that with, like, two new teams this year. Like, the 54 to 48 game like that everyone's talking about. So I'm really looking forward to that one. Yeah, the Cardinals, you know, one of the most. exciting young quarterbacks in the NFL, one of the most exciting coaches in the NFL, they got DeAndre Hopkins, and they got two primetime games. And one of them is on a Thursday night. It feels like if the NFL missed anything on this schedule, it's definitely

there could be more opportunities to get Cliff Kingsbury out of his beautiful house and onto national television. Who are they playing Thursday night? Seahawks. Oh, okay. Of course. Does that excite you or scare you? Yeah, no, I think that's fun. I think it's fun. He's scared. I can't wait. I'm not scared.

You good? You good, D.K.? Yeah. I can't wait for all the shots of Clip Kingsbury's house. Just the MNF crew saying, if you forgot, all right. I think the Colts are strangely another team that I think, we all were all sleeping on. So they only get one primetime game that's against the Titans. And also on a Thursday night, I think, right? Yes, yes, yes.

And I start to think about a team that we all agree has a really good roster that had some injury problems last year, have a really good coach, and then out of Philip Rivers. I don't know, man. I kind of feel like you should get more than one game and it shouldn't just be Thursday night. Am I crazy there? They should have some of the Chargers game. Yeah, but the Chargers have a new stadium

they're not going to play in. Yeah, somewhere along the line, we decided the Chargers Stadium was more interesting than the quarterback who made the Chargers good over the last. Which is the exact same stadium as we're also going to see in the Rams in this hypothetical scenario in which we're playing games in Los Angeles.

So we're seeing a bunch of games in L.A. And also like, let's go back a little bit here. Just the premise of wanting to watch a football game on TV and a new stadium is kind of a little bit. It's a football. Like, I know they show shots of the stadium outside, but it doesn't really do much for me at home. It's a field.

Yeah. But it's in a different stadium. You know, I'm sure the lighting will be different. And the crowd shots, you know, they'll still do the same aerial shots of L.A. that are places nowhere near the stadium. You know, they'll show, like, the Hollywood sign and they Griffith Observatory,

and then the L.A. state is 30. miles of the other direction. But yeah, I don't see the need to emphasize the new stadium. Sorry, we, I could have covered that earlier when you were having stadium chat. All right. The defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, they're opening as we talked about with the Houston Texans, which I think is an awesome matchup. Then they have the chargers, the aforementioned chargers, then Baltimore and the New England. I like this because I think it's a lot of intriguing defenses. I think it's a lot of good individual matchups. Again, I like seeing someone like Patrick Mahomes go against the Ravens defense.

I like seeing him go against Bill Belichick. I like seeing him go against guys like Darwin James. Like there's a lot of football nerdery inside this, inside this schedule. They had the bills, but I think it's a nice little matchup. They obviously have the bucks. And then they've got the Saints in December. And so I think there's some intriguing matchups. I'm not worried.

When I look at the chief schedule, I just think there's such a good team that I'm not going worry about how many good teams are playing. I don't think it's that hard of a schedule. I just think you have a couple of elite matchups. And I think there's probably no reason to think they're not going to win the FACC West again. A good idea by the schedule makers was making the best teams at every division play the best teams in all the other divisions of their conference.

Big ups to the guy who decided up decades ago? Yes. That was a good thing they did. Rod, you get a helmet sticker to that guy who did it like 30 years ago? Yeah. You have the scheduling formula? It's just a really good. good idea. I'm in agreement. Well, how else could you do it other than the rotation?

I don't know, but we'll figure it out once we go to 17. I mean like the rotation. What I mean is there's a rotation, obviously, for both an in-conference division and out-of-conference division, and then the rest of the games are determined by scheduled, by, excuse me, by fruit as you as finish. I'm very earnestly passionate about the NFL's 16-game scheduler rotation planning, and I'm a little bit distraught by the move to 17. But anyway. So, well, no, I do want to talk about that for a second. I agree with you. 32 teams, 16 games in 17 weeks is perfect. It's beautiful. So when they add a 17th game and they will next year, assuming there's no delay or anything like that, they're allowed to go next year. Is there any preference you would have, Roger, to expand in this season as far as did you want

to just add like a permanent rivalry like college? Would you want it to be a rotation? Would you want it to be like a, like, what's it called the college basketball thing where they would just add bracket busters. So they were just add a game in the middle of the year. At an ACCC challenge. No, no, no. Remember that thing they used to do where they would just like not have a game on the schedule? Brackabusters.

Yeah, they added in the middle. So like in week eight, they're just like, this is actually your last game of the season. And it's like some rivalry that's developed over the season or two great young quarterback, something like that. There's all sorts of possibilities. Is there a 17th game wish list for you? I think permanent rivalry from another division is probably the best idea or probably more likely from the other conference

would probably be the best option, because that does it best with it. But yeah, even that has the potential to go stale because there are many teams which have a rival in the other conference. It's like four or five. It's like the teams when the same, and also like the Eagles in this, doers don't actually, do they hate each other?

There's just that general, why are we in the same state? How did Pennsylvania get formed whose decision was this to put us both in the same geographical? I don't understand Pennsylvania. They could do it like with preseason how they have like previous former conference and division rivals that like to keep the rivalry alive. like the Seahawks play the Raiders every year in the preseason for some reason because they want to keep that alive. Oh, it's a huge preseason rivalry. Every single year.

And I think it's the last week of the season, last week of the preseason, they play the Raiders. It's just like this is supposed to keep the old AOC West alive, I guess. I want to talk about the Seahawks regular season schedule. They open up with Atlanta. They have New England. They have Dallas in September. They have, I think, an interesting stretch again, in Obesians. where they have the Cardinals and the Eagles.

Otherwise, not a lot of marquee matchups outside the division. Obviously, they have the Niners twice. They do have the bills, which I find interesting. The Seahawks, what's going to happen, Danny?

Just in general, like, what is it going to happen? I think so, yeah, looking at the schedule, and again, you guys, we never know really

what's going to happen at the beginning of season, but just looking at their schedule of quarterbacks that they're going to play, they're going to play, they're going to play Stidum, assuming,

or maybe it's going to, be Hoyer. Tua or Fitz. I don't know who's going to be starting there, but I would assume Fitzgerald at least for Fitzpatrick, at least to start the season. Josh Allen,

Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, and Haskins. So they've got like, they've got some very, I guess, still developing quarterbacks on their, on their schedule.

That was so kind. Trying to be politic because you never know what's going to happen during a season, but like the Seahawks schedule looks pretty light. I think, And going into the season, it typically always looks really, really tough for some reason.

But this one is just, you know, there's a few games to circle. But right now it's like the division games are kind of like the ones that you want to look at. Pick the Seahawks game. You can't believe they lost. Is it the Dolphins? That's the first thing that came to my mind. Maybe the bills.

Although, you know, whatever, the bills are good. No, the bills are good. Yeah, that wouldn't be that way. I feel like I'm circling October 4th, the Dolphins. Let's talk about the Dolphins for a second. So Joe Burrow versus Tua, we think, will take place on December 6th. I think this is an interesting strategy because if Tua isn't ready for training camp or even though we think he's full go, if he's not ready to start in September, October, November,

it's not the last game of the season, but it's pretty close. December 6th, I think that that has the possibility to be an interesting game to watch. because I think Joe Burrow is probably going to get the job week one. Obviously, Dalton is gone? Do the Bengals have a bat? Is it Ryan Finley? Is that who they're going to go with? Not much of a competition.

So Joe Burroughs in week one. Joe Burroughs in week one. I assume two is in by December 6th. I like that match. That's really fun. That's going to be awesome. Yeah. They're making Joe Burrow do the four game Thursday night turn around one week into his NFL career.

Welcome to the NFL Joe Burrow. Yeah. We are forcing you to play on four days so that the worlds can watch you play the Cleveland Browns. This is life in the AFC North, baby. It just seems so unnecessary to subject. Dolphins have the second hardest schedule in the league, as we said, open with the Patriots. They've got the Seahawks, the Niners.

They've got the Kansas Chiefs. They've got the Buffalo Bills, obviously, to close it out. I think that that's a team that's a year away. I think that they've got some really, I would say when I think about their schedule and I think about Iron Jones being at it, I think they're probably going to upset two or three really good teams and they won't make the playoffs. That's my, when I think about a team like the Dolphins having a hard schedule, I think that they're going to give some really good teams a hard time,

but they're still probably a year away. Guys, any other games we're circling that we didn't talk about? I have sort of a question. Do you think it feels like last year, the NFC East being the worst division in football and being brutal for a large stretch of the year, finally convinced them to stop putting NFC East matchups in primetime? I'm counting two here. We got a Giants Eagles game on Thursday night football,

and we got a Cowboys Eagles game, Sunday night football. It feels like they used to just throw as many NFC East games in primetime as they possibly could. And they finally decided we don't have to do that anymore. So I believe it was Spencer Hall who used to say that anytime Oklahoma was number one under Bob Stoops, it was because the market hadn't corrected itself. It was just like, the polls didn't know what to do. It was just like, we're just going to make Oklahoma number one until something actually happens. And I believe that's what the schedule makers did for like 20 years of NFC East football. They were just like, you know what? We're going to figure this out later.

who's good. But as of May, where it is rolling with the Eagles Giants, baby. I agree with you. That's the NFC East has been the default for the league office for a long time. And I just think that, you know, listen, Eli Manning was

extremely famous and he was a draw. And I think that that has gone away. I think Doc Prescott in Dallas, obviously a huge name. That's why the Dallas still getting five primetime games. But I think that the week in, week out, we can put the NFC Eastern and primetime thing has

disappeared for this year. Having said that, if Daniel Jones has more touchdowns interceptions this year, we're right back on. Which is annoying because I only want to watch

him have more interceptions and touchdowns. If you count fumbles, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe his hands have grown. You guys, the Thanksgiving slate is actually pretty fun, especially the night game. So the Thanksgiving slate is

Houston at Detroit, Washington at Dallas. There's that NFC East game. And then Baltimore at Pittsburgh, which is really the main draw. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, that's the Thanksgiving night game. So that's one to circle as well.

All right. Super Bowl prediction. Danny Kelly. We are, man. We already do the teams that were, we already do the team. I don't care. I don't care.

It's a schedule reaction show. Okay. I'm going to say, oh, man. Chiefs. versus Saints. Roger. I'm going to throw the Ravens in there.

Yeah, that's... You're saying Ravens Saints? Let's keep the Saints. Are you going to say Ravens Saints? And now I'm not going to. Pick another NFC team, man. Yeah. Are there other teams at the NFC?

Who else is? Top of Bay, baby. Yeah, top of bay. Oh, my God. Wow. Wow. Okay. All right.

I'm coming up with a Super Bowl pick on the spot. out of just because I don't want to have the same pick as Roger Sherman. I'm going to say, damn it, I'm Googling, I'm Googling a list of NFL teams. That's where I'm at in my life right now. Did you hear when I said, I'm throwing the Ravens in there? Kevin tried to pull like, are you sure that you're saying? No, I didn't.

I did. That was a reaction to where I was just like, oh, you were pulling like, is that your final answer? List of NFL teams. Oh my God. I almost want to pick the Eagles again. I don't really almost want to pick the Eagles again. What?

Calm down. The NFC East is back, baby. I know. Wouldn't that be great if I pick the Eagles again? All right. I'm going to pick, I'm going to be boring. I'm going to pick my pick for last year in December. I'm going to pick Ravens 49ers.

Sorry for the chalk. I think my general thought process on this entire season is that the teams that have continuity, are going to excel because it's going to be really hard to make any leaps. Yeah. Because there's no off-season, no anything. Do you guys think that the Buccaneers are a legitimate Super Bowl contender? Yeah, of course.

But I just, I worry a lot about how quickly you can become good and how quickly you can gel when it's a virtual off-season. And I don't know. Yeah. There are chances of getting a buy with the Saints of the Save Division. is seems pretty low. There's one by left. They'll definitely be playing on that first,

on that first weekend. I mean, who know? I mean, there's always injuries or whatever. I mean, I just think, I also think that every narrative

about the 2011 lockout and that canceled off season was completely wrong. And like, everyone was like, you can write the rookies off. And it was like the best rookie class ever. And Cam Newton broke records

in his first two weeks and didn't miss a beat, right? Like, I feel like we're going to learn things about football after this canceled off season that we weren't even thinking about. And that's what happened, 2011. There was a huge offensive explosion in 2011 that was like the combination of a million

things, one of which was a complete lack of practice time. One of the things I think is interesting about the lack of tape study or sorry, the lack of real practice is that everybody's been talking about how much more tape guys are watching. Like maybe that shows up on the field. I think we need to prepare for an extremely weird season where things happen that we really don't expect. And I think the best thing to do because of that is to pick chalk because if you start guessing all the weird shit that's going to happen, you're going to be wrong. We don't know if this schedule that they spent three hours putting on TV will be, will exist. All right. On that note, that none of this might happen.

That's it. It's a pretty important note. We started with it. We started with it. It might not happen. Now we're ending on it. It might not happen. This has been the Ringer NFL show brought to by the Ringer Podcast Network.