CeeDee Signs and Power Poll with Patrick Claybon and Cynthia Frelund

00:00:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where they would never make up an injury about us before putting us on injured reserve for the season. I'm Greg Rosenthal and I'm here in the Chris Westling podcast studio with Patrick Claybon and Cynthia Freeland. We never had this trio as a podcast, but we have done a television show together for a few years.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: Game debut spoiler alert, it comes back. There we go the Thursday, so the Friday, Friday whatever, the day after the first game of the season.

00:00:43
Speaker 3: I'm excited for it.

00:00:44
Speaker 1: That's a show where we pick games, where we go through every games. I like to think of it as man versus model. Ye in the model being Cynthia's computer. See, I thought it was just me you as well, and I've gotten too old for that now.

00:00:57
Speaker 4: That is the way the characters the show.

00:01:00
Speaker 5: Not warranted and conclusion, sorry the description of the show, because I have not model.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: Man versus model and Patrick's there too.

00:01:09
Speaker 4: Sorry.

00:01:09
Speaker 2: Actually, actually Patrick could be a model, so it works out. He's a really good actor. We've seen, remember, all of us are really good actors. We were in a really fun commercial together.

00:01:19
Speaker 3: That that was fun.

00:01:20
Speaker 1: Little Little Caesars come back at us if you're if you're involved in twenty four seasons.

00:01:25
Speaker 5: Still want to be a part of the family like you enjoy Little Caesars.

00:01:28
Speaker 4: I do.

00:01:30
Speaker 5: I have been in contention in all of these seasons, but then I really go on tilt at some point and it just goes horribly wrong.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: And yeah, Cynthia and I have done this show.

00:01:40
Speaker 1: I think this is either the fifth or sixth season now, and I was not a competitor. I was not even close to what the first three, but I'm a back to back defending champions for the model got to step up. We're going to be doing some math today. Actually, I mean it's going to be more fun than that.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: We did a power bawl fine where we each.

00:02:02
Speaker 1: Submitted our power rankings and in Cynthia's case it's her wind projection model, which is even more exciting to me, and we average them all together, and we decided kind of going into the season, this is the last week really before our Week one schedule, and I just kind of wanted to say, where are we how do we view the league right now, and then we can look back on it at the end of the year. That's how we looked at it, so we have some fun exercise this week. We have an AFC and NFC preview also coming up. I'm going to be going over all the cuts, and a few of them started on Monday, but for the most part, they're going to be happening on Tuesday. So I'll do that with Evan Silva. But before any of that, let's do some news. Ceedee lamb, it's done. It happened. He has signed with the Dallas Cowboys. And if you had to guess what day would it possibly happen.

00:02:57
Speaker 3: I would have guessed the Monday.

00:03:00
Speaker 1: Uh, you know, almost two weeks before the season start, because that just gives you enough time to sign. That was my guest for Trent Williams. That one hasn't happened yet. We'll talk about that in a second. But the financials, frankly, aren't that interesting. It's just justin Jefferson, but a little less, which if I'm in the Cowboys front office, I'm just thinking like, well, why didn't we just do that three months ago? Just take justin Jefferson's contract, which was four for one forty with one hundred and ten guaranteed, and then say to CD you're great. You haven't produced quite as much as justin Jefferson. Let's go four for one thirty six, one hundred guaranteed and that gets the deal done, Cynthia.

00:03:42
Speaker 2: I mean, but he got a summer off. Yeah, I'm sure he did fun things, you know, like, no, he didn't have to go to camp out here in California. He didn't even he didn't have to do anything ox Start.

00:03:51
Speaker 3: It's nice though.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: Oxnard is hot. It's like it's smoking up there. Sometimes you're like, oh, it's like I've been there and it's been like swampy.

00:03:59
Speaker 1: It's like a twenty men ride from the beach. I mean, I'm not gonna cook, you know, stay up or or something. They're not allowed to.

00:04:04
Speaker 5: But he's been there before. Yeah, yes, he's been there before. He's done all of this. I'm with you, Greg, they needed you in the room. Apparently I would have hopped in there. CD could have given me a little bit of a percentage think to say, hey, why not do this because the price isn't going down. The price is never going to go down. But it was, like Colleen prophesied last week, maybe all these things happen and we do dak right as the Chiefs for getting their Super Bowl rings before the game on Thursday. Maybe that that's how it all goes.

00:04:35
Speaker 1: I guess that that's the bigger question. And Dak's been practicing this whole time. And yeah, they gave thirty eight million dollars on the signing bonus for CD so that they could call it a record when the insiders report that it was a record signing bonus. Every agent wants some sort of record, and there's a way to slice it eight different ways.

00:04:52
Speaker 3: So he got that record and it's well deserved.

00:04:55
Speaker 1: Look, they've done a great job identifying talent in the draft, so you got to give Cowboys credit for that. It's one reason why I'm not as worried about the Deron Bland injury because they've done a good job drafting cornerbacks and they have another guy ready to step in. I don't think Dak wants to sign with the Dallas Cowboys long term. I think he wants to push this into the future. What do you think is he going to be a team you likes quarterback. I don't know who he's gonna be, but I think he wants to see what the world looks like next February in March.

00:05:22
Speaker 4: That's all.

00:05:23
Speaker 1: It's right, he's reached this far that he's annoyed enough with the situation and knows he can make more money by just kind of kicking the can.

00:05:29
Speaker 2: Well, he's an athletes first person. You know. They are located in Newport Beach, just saying so, I do know. I mean obviously Asians can be anywhere and they go for any team. But I don't know. I just feel like I'm with you. I don't think we see I don't think we see Dak there next year. But that's not it's just informed by tea leaves, not by math or data.

00:05:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, and there's no need for bombas from Dak. Like what he said about previous quarterbacks and going to other teams, I think it's entirely true. I think he would be just as comfortable being a Dallas cowboy as he would not being a Dallas cowboy.

00:05:59
Speaker 3: And Rar is really mature now, and like, I feel like it'd be more comfortable to be a quarterback of any team than the Dallas cout. That's just me. This doesn't seem comfortable.

00:06:09
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mentioned Trent Williams before there was a report from ESPN Jeremy Fowler that Trent Williams is willing to skip games if he doesn't get his contract fixed, which almost goes without saying that's what a holdout is. But I think just the fact that that's getting pushed to the front right now on a day that I thought he might be signing maybe tells you there he's not as close to signing.

00:06:31
Speaker 3: And he would be.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: The rare player that I believe would push it into the regular season just because he's made enough money where that the money he's losing maybe isn't going to bother him that much. And he knows he's one of the greatest players of all time and he's thirty six years old.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: That's a big part.

00:06:48
Speaker 2: I mean, he's already signed, sealed, delivered to Canton no matter what happens now, right, But I'm looking at the opportunity for him. And I watched that Raiders and Niners game, and I've said this now Patrick's had to hear three times today, but Brock pretty sliding was scary to me, Like, and that was the.

00:07:04
Speaker 1: Wait, why three times you did Fantasy Live earlier? Everyone should check that out. It's on air now every day of the week. Yeah, to check it out at six pms.

00:07:13
Speaker 2: And then we were sitting in the green room talking about it, and I brought it up again because you guys are just.

00:07:17
Speaker 3: All about ball. It's all ball in the green all ball.

00:07:21
Speaker 1: I was just sitting by myself alone at the huddle, just eating.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: You know, why did you text us?

00:07:27
Speaker 3: Well, I texted you the news rundown was going to be. I didn't know.

00:07:30
Speaker 4: That's when I was for not being like, hey Greg, we're downstairs.

00:07:33
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, the cool kids.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: So you didn't like you didn't like brock pretty sliding.

00:07:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it scared me. It scared me. It didn't look natural. I mean, it just was not a baseball slide. It was like it was like my dogs pulled me down and I was little.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: You know, because this should almost go without saying, But if you had to choose, as a forty nine Ers fan, which player is more necessary to have the top shelf offense that we need on the field, Auk or Trent william It's Trent Williams, just because of how great a player in the position he plays.

00:08:04
Speaker 5: Yes, And I don't get the logic that like, well, if we do this with Trent, you don't like, you don't have to treat anybody else like Trent, Like Cynthia said, Trent's going to the Hall of Fame, right. Trent had people mess with his money throughout his career, had a team in a GM like Massaga, cancer diagnosis, like Trent's been through a lot. Like just give Trent his money, get him on the football field, and Tront to win in Super Bowl.

00:08:27
Speaker 4: It seems weird. Ayuk stuff is weird to me. The Trent stuff is even weirder to me.

00:08:32
Speaker 1: And Ayuk was at that game traveling with the team to the Raiders. It really seems to me like that is just a matter of time. All Right, We're gonna go quickly through the rest of the news, but there were some just interesting nuggets. The Dolphins, their head coach Mike McDaniel said, Bradley Chubb, Isaiah Winn going to the pup list. Odell Beckham's uncertain, so they're not putting him on it now, which to me says they're hopeful. I think that he plays in the first few weeks of the season, but they also literally have not seen him practice yet, and he didn't practice on Monday.

00:09:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a little I mean the Dolphins. If you look at their team as like a healthy team, it's a good team. With all of these injuries, it starts to become a little less the picture becomes a little less rosy, you know, especially in the AFC East, which is a weirdly volatile It's a very volatile division.

00:09:20
Speaker 1: I gotta start looking at the lines for Week one because Dolphins Jaguars, like the Dolphins to me are the classic. Like man, they're a tough Week one team to talk about because of the injuries you talked about, but also because like Mike McDaniel has now a two year history of cooking up some insane stuff Week one that just blasted.

00:09:39
Speaker 2: Who do you trust more Mike McDaniel architecting plays are Press Taylor, That's the question.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: I would go Mike McDaniel in that Jaguar another Chubb. Bradley's brother Nick will also be on PUP. But the Browns activated it though.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: That's not new.

00:09:54
Speaker 1: I mean we no, we kind of knew that, but it's official now. But it's just checking the back. I was pleasantly surprise Jalen Phillips his back practicing close to full right now. In my play week one sounds like you will, which is great news for the Dolphins. But yes, Nick Chubb to pup was not a surprise, and they activated a four pack of starters though, Dalvin Tomlinson, Judgeak Wills, Jack Conklin, and Greg Newsom.

00:10:19
Speaker 3: So that that's.

00:10:19
Speaker 2: Bills and conklind to me and Greg Newsom too. But in the back, like that's a great defense. But like, let's that O line is a big deal because we have I don't know what I'm looking at with that Browns offense.

00:10:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I and we don't know if they're gonna be ready for Week one. Well we'll get there next week. But that's just kind of checking box on a story. In terms of the Browns that we followed a lot. The Seahawks lost Uchenna Nuosu. He only played a handful of snaps. He was gonna play one series in that last preseason game. Unfortunately got injured. Hurt his knee. He's a candidate for injured reserve. The prognosis is two to six weeks. They just traded away a pass rusher and so then they just traded back for a pass rusher. So they traded Darrel Taylor to the Bears. But then they get Patrick Trevis Gibson from the Jaguars. You just kind of hate to see them lose who I would say, if you had to choose one, is maybe their most important edge rusher and maybe just defensive lineman.

00:11:10
Speaker 3: Period of Chedna Newils.

00:11:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't think it was a probably about it.

00:11:13
Speaker 5: And then we saw last year because Mike Max defense was so good, Like the contributions from Genevian Clowney, especially like early on in the season, were so key, and like that edge piece is such a key part. And now they're clearly scrambling to do a replacement where just at a time where these guys aren't available, like there's nobody to go get off the couch or in a deal if they're valuable, unless of course it's somebody maybe in New York that maybe they don't want to pay and maybe we can, Oh, that.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: Would be fun, but they've already traded for Trevis Gibson.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: They traded.

00:11:48
Speaker 5: I don't know if Trevis Gibson precludes you from.

00:11:52
Speaker 3: From doing that move. I guess you're right. That was like a late run pick.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: And if the Jaguars are giving up on you as an edge guy. It's probably not a great sign, but he's been a backup for the Bears before.

00:12:02
Speaker 3: That is a rare case.

00:12:03
Speaker 1: People always say like, hey, you're putting the tape out there for the all the other thirty two teams, but you actually don't actually see that. Many players get claimed off waivers or things happened. But Travis Gibson had like a great preseason game right before this trade, and so that probably helped him. Yeah, Juju Smith Schuster is back with the Chiefs. It was a little surprised about this. I guess it's or she Rice insurance.

00:12:27
Speaker 2: I think it's more familiarity with the scheme because now you've got you know, Hollywood, You've got Xavier Worthy, you have some injuries, and then now you've got a guy who knows how to run like he knows the playbook. I'm not suggesting it's helpful from the standpoint of fantasy, or he's not gonna be catching a bunch of touchdowns, but I just think it creates a little bit more depth and you don't have to teach someone something they already know.

00:12:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, especially considering like Hollywood's had the health concerns this preseason as well. You get some you get a guy who knows where to go and how to play within.

00:12:55
Speaker 2: The Travis Kelsey still there. They're fine.

00:12:57
Speaker 1: It's I think they're fine, but the vibe, it might be maybe it's more vibes too, Like I can't imagine Jujus Smith Schuster is active on game day for the Chiefs.

00:13:05
Speaker 3: This is a good wide receiver group.

00:13:07
Speaker 1: And Jujus Smith Schuster did not get cut from the Patriots because like he was a problem. It was because he couldn't play football anymore. Like his body. Unfortunately. I think all those blocks and the way he played football kind of like a young heinz Ward.

00:13:21
Speaker 3: It happens in football.

00:13:22
Speaker 1: The body just broke down, where by all accounts in Patriots camp is he couldn't move, he couldn't separate, and they owed him eight million dollars guaranteed and they still cut him.

00:13:32
Speaker 3: So we'll see.

00:13:32
Speaker 1: I guess it's just insurance. Maybe he's someone that really is there in case Rashid Rice gets hurt.

00:13:37
Speaker 3: That's my theory. All right.

00:13:39
Speaker 1: Two other weird stories I mentioned Artist Jones the show with Nick is on the trade block from the Rams. It was clear it came from the team, not from the player, just a little update that he's not even with the Rams anymore at practice, and Sean McVay was uncertain if he ever would be again, and so that that says to me, they've just kind of decided they're going to trade this dude for whatever reason. We can get into another time when it actually happens, but the fact he's away from the team tells me it's it's probably it for him, which is interesting. He had a nice run, was a team captain, helped them win a Super Bowl. And I think they're going to end up starting this undrafted kid, Omar Spate, who they're really high on at middle linebacker. And then finally, this is minutia that not many shows who would bother to cover, but I found it interesting. Did you see the third quarterback rule story today? Cynthia, Okay, how do we explain this? We thought, because the owners approved a rule that you could bring a guy from your practice squad as your third quarterback to the active roster for games, that it would be easier for teams to kind of keep a third quarterback and then you keep activating them.

00:14:49
Speaker 3: It's very small minutia. I didn't know this was a thing.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: But the NFLPA, the Players Assocition Association, had to approve that, so it really wasn't a rule, and the Players Association said no. The takeaway for me is just that teams are more likely to keep quarterbacks right now when they're cutting down their players to fifty three this week, right it just means.

00:15:08
Speaker 2: They're on the active as opposed to on the practice squad. Yes, they're trying to. I think the spirit of it is to not hold people on your practice squad, But now you're just gonna hold them on your fifty three like there aren't thirty two greats, Like there aren't thirty two amazing quarterbacks, let alone sixty four or ninety six. Like you know. It's it's it's hard to find to get quarterback right, especially with injuries.

00:15:32
Speaker 3: And I find this stuff interesting. I guess the.

00:15:36
Speaker 1: Reason they pushed against this, most likely is they just want the active roster to be bigger. Stop pretending to practice squad is your active roster for people who don't pay attention to this type of stuff, which is ninety nine percent of the people that you know love.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: In the world.

00:15:53
Speaker 1: They've really changed the practice squad significantly, year after year after year where it's this huge thing that you really have a seventy man run and you can do all these elevations and that I kind of like, but just just make it active and so that's going to all be part of like the next CBA and making the eighteenth game if they re sign stuff. But it never made sense to me, like, why can't we have more than forty eight players active on a game day?

00:16:15
Speaker 3: Patrick, I don't know.

00:16:16
Speaker 5: Let's carve it out right now, let's carve it out right. Now, Let's make this particular point and negotiation and let's go from fifty three to something else. Because I definitely understand the PA's position in this where we're doing all this manipulation with the practice squad and the elevations. Let's just pay somebody, right.

00:16:32
Speaker 1: And they do get paid if they're on the active roster, right, Yeah, when they elevate them.

00:16:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, active has a minimum. Practice does not.

00:16:41
Speaker 3: And then yeah, it's very it's very.

00:16:43
Speaker 2: It's truth the other you know, that's the other thing I will say, just to put a point on like things people don't like look at. I think the extra Coach's Challenge flag is the same thing nobody's thinking about we're all talking about the new kickoff rule. Blah blah blah, kick off rule. Kickoff rule. Well, now you don't have to get both of your challenges right to have the third challenge, So you just have three. Like before you had to get your both challenges right. You just have to get one of the two right now to earn your to your earn a third challenge. That's going to take certain coaches who are very smart with it up a level. They're gonna get another time out basically.

00:17:13
Speaker 1: And then eventually, and I hope too, and plan to be doing this NFL Daily Show a long time.

00:17:19
Speaker 2: So if well it's day so you have to do it every day, right, right?

00:17:21
Speaker 1: If if we can somehow remember this Eric in the year twenty twenty six, when this comes true, eventually, they're going to just let you have as many challenges as you want if you keep being right.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: Because it's still stupid.

00:17:34
Speaker 1: There will be one game where some coach goes three for three and then there's another fourth call, and then when after that game happens, then they'll change the rule.

00:17:42
Speaker 3: What do they always wait for like a dumb reason?

00:17:45
Speaker 5: What if hypothetically, yeah, we just we just fix all the mistakes without anybody being involved.

00:17:51
Speaker 1: That would be fun too. I'll be without the challenges, Yeah, I'll be done. That could have happened sometimes too, that would be from the eye.

00:17:56
Speaker 2: But think about it though now. But in the way it currently is, you only to be right on half of those two childes, why wouldn't you take one that's dicey?

00:18:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, you should get it extra time.

00:18:05
Speaker 1: It's going to be annoying to slow down the game, yes, a little bit, but that's how it alwayshould have been anyway.

00:18:10
Speaker 3: So I like it.

00:18:11
Speaker 4: We're not breezing through any of these games.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: Anywhere, I know, Patrick, but Pacer.

00:18:14
Speaker 4: We're sitting there. We're sitting there the entire day on Sunday.

00:18:17
Speaker 3: Pace of Sports. You can feel it.

00:18:18
Speaker 1: It matters that the three to zero one length game, it feels way better than three fourteen. I just especially as someone that's been watching We've been watching football our whole lives. If you're a fan, like the two point fifty five game feels great, the three twenty game doesn't feel good.

00:18:34
Speaker 3: I'm just telling you. It makes it.

00:18:36
Speaker 5: I could not tell you the length of any particular football game that I enjoyed.

00:18:39
Speaker 1: Greg well after the fact, no, but while you're watching it, that's what matters. You know what else matters a lot is our power pol I mean, this is going to determine who's mad and who's happy among all the fan bases. We're gonna take a quick break and yes, we're gonna come back and reveal who are the best teams in the worst teams in the NFL.

00:18:59
Speaker 4: Because we know we should get a physical power Pole Planet place.

00:19:15
Speaker 3: Back on NFL Daily.

00:19:17
Speaker 1: With my two co hosts of Game Debut, but my two coasts of NFL Daily more importantly and uh two cost but only once celebrated a birthday this weekend.

00:19:30
Speaker 3: Thanks Happy birthday to Cynthia Freely. Thanks what did you do?

00:19:34
Speaker 2: Nothing too crazy? You know, went to the beach, hung out, a little bit chilled out. The dogs were especially nuts. So we have two now, two rescue dogs. One came from the draft. His name's Clyde. He's getting settled.

00:19:47
Speaker 1: You got one of the dogs that were on the stage at the draft or in that from them. Yeah, that's pretty incredible because I think if you know, our listeners watched the draft, they saw the whole the dog things a thing now at the and you have one of them.

00:20:01
Speaker 3: Does that make them more valuable, like more lovable?

00:20:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, people, he's the most level. I mean they're both the most little. But here's the thing I don't think, you know, Like the cool part of the draft is all the wood and like the materials from the draft they made into a homeless shelter and a span neuter set, So pretty cool, like recycling effort of that huge thing that they built. And its not gonna lie like Clyde just stole my heart. And I didn't even you know, didn't didn't ask Kyle, just showed showed up at.

00:20:27
Speaker 3: Home significant other. Here's not your other dog?

00:20:30
Speaker 2: No, well I didn't ask Gordy Ei though, yes, just wanted to clarify. I just showed up.

00:20:35
Speaker 1: But Cynthia, I gotta say, you know her a long time. She's doing La right.

00:20:39
Speaker 5: Uh.

00:20:40
Speaker 1: Patrick and I are close. We love our families. We're close ish to the beach. But just to live like right there in the beach town. If you're gonna live in La, just just do it all the way.

00:20:52
Speaker 3: And you do.

00:20:53
Speaker 2: And so you guys at are right because like you had your children at like a normal age.

00:20:57
Speaker 3: Well I'm not getting into the children part. Of it. I'm more getting into the location.

00:21:01
Speaker 2: We're like what I think we're called like dinks?

00:21:04
Speaker 3: What does that mean?

00:21:05
Speaker 2: Dum heads? Okay, so dinks? Is that a little easier to live at the beach?

00:21:10
Speaker 3: I don't.

00:21:10
Speaker 1: I don't like that phrase because it's just sounds negative. You're no, it's a great thing. I'm happy for that bunch of Eventually I'll steal one of your kids breaking news.

00:21:20
Speaker 3: They're getting too old for that. They'll be they'll be in college where you're.

00:21:24
Speaker 2: Difficult to give them back for them, because that's that sounds expensive.

00:21:27
Speaker 3: So we each submitted our power pool.

00:21:30
Speaker 1: We did it a little differently because I just thought, I know how Cynthia's mind works, and her mind works through the machine, through the model, and so I just asked for her win projections because the amount of numbers and everything that goes into those projections are more significant, I would say than Patrick and I just doing it off the top of our head. So why don't we take those numbers and combine them with what Patrick and I ring off the top of our head and create an ultimate poll that can't be wrong. So we're going to go through in a bunch of different tiers I name the Tears, and the first tier we're gonna go bottom to top is called the season ends in week eighteen. Now, in general, we're not saying these are predictions exactly, it's just where they're at right now. But I just decided that these eight teams, it would be very surprising if they made the playoffs. And the NFL we're selling hope at this time of year, and so when I think hope, I think you got a chance.

00:22:24
Speaker 3: To make the playoffs.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: And look the teams on this list, they have a chance. But to me, they are the eight teams how I would categorize it. If they made the playoffs, I personally would be surprised. Number thirty two the Patriots, Wow, sad times thirty one, the Panthers, number thirty Giants, this is a nice music. Number twenty nine the Broncos.

00:22:47
Speaker 4: Music is perfect.

00:22:48
Speaker 3: Number twenty eight the Titans.

00:22:50
Speaker 2: I like how you said that Titans.

00:22:52
Speaker 1: I drop that tea offense now I'm trying to h Yeah, no, I like it. The Raiders are twenty seven. Commanders at twenty six a little higher than would in twenty five Cardinals, a little higher than I would have expected.

00:23:03
Speaker 3: So maybe I'll start there. You guys are a.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: Little higher on the Commanders than I was when I when I looked at all of our boards that you know, putting.

00:23:12
Speaker 2: On another twenty five, like why the other team in your division also appears on that list. It just makes it a little bit easier.

00:23:18
Speaker 3: Okay, that helps.

00:23:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, the significant gap there.

00:23:20
Speaker 5: And I already said I was irrationally a little too high on the Washington Commanders, and I'm sticking with that. Uh I, A couple of those teams are significantly below where I had the Commanders, and so that that's it.

00:23:33
Speaker 3: You had him twenty five, by the way, and Cynthia had him twenty four overall, so you were pretty much aligned. I was the only one, you know, I had a bottom three. I was.

00:23:39
Speaker 1: I just look at everything but Jaden Daniels and Terry McLaurin and think, yeah, I don't know, doesn't look very good in the defensive tackles and maybe the you know, coaching staff as a whole. I like Dan Quinn, like as a as a whole, and maybe on defense, no, I think as a guy who maybe can well yeah he's bring a team together.

00:23:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think I'd flipped the Broncos and the and the Raiders.

00:24:03
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought up Broncos. Yeah, you were on the sidelined.

00:24:06
Speaker 2: Bronco preseason, but I would flip them. And I also went to Raiders camp too, so I've seen them both driving up close and in person. But I think I would flip the Broncos and the I actually had the Broncos much higher than the two of you, which surprised me. You had him second to last, Patrick, you were in between me and I didn't think I had him that high. But I guess Patrick, you're not really buying or feeling the positive preseason vibes. I feel like no fan base in the entire league has better vibes just based off the last month where they suddenly they think they are contenders.

00:24:41
Speaker 5: And most importantly the last three weeks of those months. Yeah, because when I was at Broncos joining camp, it was not pretty. It was decidedly not pretty. I remember on this show I said I thought Jared Sidham was gonna win the job. I told that Santhia Sting was like, no, Patrick, this is bo Nix's job. And apparently Bo really got a whole lot better after I left and I'm glad that he did, but I still don't like just looking at the rest of the roster and the way things are, it's tough for me to have them that much higher than everybody else that we had.

00:25:08
Speaker 4: In that group.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: I just I think that the I think that the the thing with the thing that the Broncos have going for them is they're all rowing in the same direction this year. You know, they're a really young team. Uh, they're very like they decided to be Bill Parcell's model. They have big pass catchers, they're all huge, like you know, don't even let their names for you. Little Jordan Humphrey, he is massive, right, So all big receivers, big targets. Greg Dolcic is back who you know, you know, a Sean Payton offense executes best when there's a really great tight end. And Boonix listens to what his coach wants him to do and does it.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, as oppose to the last quarterback. Yeah, it's it could be an upgrade.

00:25:52
Speaker 2: But he's like a Hall of Fame like.

00:25:55
Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, Vance Joseph you know, just hasn't had a I will say defense in a while.

00:26:01
Speaker 2: Not list you put a white corner in and I love you Riley Moss.

00:26:05
Speaker 3: Baby, he might be Cooper Degene.

00:26:07
Speaker 2: To uh oh, I think hell, I haven't seen starting lineup, but Riley Moss actually played really really well, Like it was really impressive to watch. And I mean Patzertan is quietly should be getting paid, like quietly not saying all the things that.

00:26:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Sean Payton when he's asked about Patrick Sirtan is a little cagey that like, hey, he's.

00:26:28
Speaker 3: Kind of good. He kind of is like he's got to prove it to me. Then he is.

00:26:32
Speaker 1: He's downing Is a year ago. It's just a small thing. I have to admit though, Patrick, I hate this. This is the problem with the preseason because I was very down on this Broncos team as just like they're not talented.

00:26:42
Speaker 2: They're fun though, they're having fun on the sideline.

00:26:45
Speaker 1: And this this whole vibes thing. Plus Sean Payton is just telling you he like can't lose more than nine games. It's just kind of been proven so far and last year even last year he did and so then now it's like now I kind of see it. So I was the one who ranked him higher than you I just had him like twenty fourth or whatever. But I just thought, Okay, maybe they're just gonna be seven and nine again. Maybe I was wrong, but I hate falling for the vibes in this month.

00:27:10
Speaker 2: Okay, but the run game. You don't have to fall for the vibes. But the run game and stopping the runner to Baron Browning is starting this season not injured. There's a lot of good things going on. I mean, Malcolm Roach came in there with all of it. He's like the most fun I want to have.

00:27:22
Speaker 3: Okay, Broncos employee, I get it.

00:27:25
Speaker 2: I'm just telling you what I saw firsthand, and it was good things. And by the way, fantasy players, we do fantasy whatever. Javonte Williams looks great, and so does Audric Estimate. Audrick Estimate, Notre Dame. His biceps are the size of like tree trunks.

00:27:40
Speaker 3: Shook like Nick Shook.

00:27:41
Speaker 2: There, they look like Nick Schuk's arms. And he's not as tall as Nick Shook. Nick Schok's much bigger man than Audrey.

00:27:47
Speaker 5: I'm like Geez, which is even more impressive for Shook that he's a chair.

00:27:51
Speaker 4: He's got the pythons like that at his.

00:27:52
Speaker 2: Height, it's incredible. It's incredible, but it's anyway.

00:27:55
Speaker 3: We finally didn't wear a tank top on our Sunday night show. Why it was nice to me.

00:28:00
Speaker 1: Let's talk Titans before we get out of by the way, let's just rest in Peaceton, New England.

00:28:07
Speaker 3: Patriots just that.

00:28:07
Speaker 1: Okay, they're they're dead last, and they're the Vegas favorite for the first overall pick, and everyone's just like, yep, I had them twenty I I had a fourth to last Patriots fans out there, But these two.

00:28:18
Speaker 5: Guys, these before I saw the offensive line in the preseason game, I wish there was a thirty three.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: One thing I'll say about that offensive line is almost none of those players are going to be playing the same position in Week one. Now that's a problem in itself, yes, but they were trying something and didn't work.

00:28:33
Speaker 3: It didn't work.

00:28:35
Speaker 2: They're just not showing us any Let's put a positives fat. They're not showing us anything, you know.

00:28:40
Speaker 1: I like their quarterback better than a lot of this bottom tier. I will say that, like I said, Cardinals, Commanders Raiders, yea Cardinal's getting a little bit of love up towards the top of this Raiders, Titans, Broncos, Giants, Panthers, Patriots. Let's just talk Titans very quickly, because I feel like they are the team I have not talked about.

00:29:00
Speaker 2: Like lost in the sauce, Like I feel like I don't hear as much about them either.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: I am hopeful that Brian Callahan and his pops can create watchable off because of the offensive line just improving that much. If you go from thirty second, thirty first offensive line to thirteenth or fourteenth through scheme, then suddenly the guys they have can look a lot better.

00:29:21
Speaker 3: And litl Levis is a little fun. Do you have any hope for the.

00:29:24
Speaker 1: Is there anyone in this group, by the way, where you you think they do have a playoff chance?

00:29:28
Speaker 3: A real playoff chance.

00:29:31
Speaker 2: I'm looking, I'm trying to remember the group again.

00:29:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm I'm not gonna sit here and say that they have no chance.

00:29:36
Speaker 3: Like I pay you would be surprised.

00:29:38
Speaker 4: I would be significantly surprised. I have them just behind a few teams.

00:29:42
Speaker 5: That I also don't think are going into the playoffs, But I don't think Titans.

00:29:46
Speaker 4: They're not.

00:29:47
Speaker 5: They're not in my bottom tier where it's like I would be shocked.

00:29:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I look the Titans, if they can, if they can, I just have a lot of questions, right, you know, obviously DeAndre Hopkins not playing in the beginning, Like that's a big loss, big target there. It's a Calvin Ridley's team now, like.

00:30:04
Speaker 3: What like that and some weird reports about Calvin Ridley in practice.

00:30:08
Speaker 2: But right, that's what I mean, Like you've been hearing all these conflicting things and then you have some like pieces on the defense like maybe we're all not seeing anything right, Maybe maybe we just have no idea. Tough division, too tough division, very exciting division, up and coming division. So I don't know, Like that's not the one I would pick on that list that had the better.

00:30:28
Speaker 1: Okay, shout out to the Cardinals just for getting to twenty five. Yeah, I think they've got They've got some uphill uphill climb here to be a good team. But the fact that they're twenty five, hete helps when we have a quarterback. We believe in you Cardinals. All right, our next group and this is the smallest one that we have. Oh I called this trapped in the nether world. Yes, number twenty four Vikings, number twenty three Chargers and number twenty two Saints. These are the teams that are just kind of like in the bermu To triangle of like the NFL. To me right now, Vikings, Chargers, Saints. Where are they?

00:31:05
Speaker 3: We don't know. They're trapped in the nether world Fitzpatrick.

00:31:09
Speaker 4: And also I love them use the nether world sounds fighting.

00:31:14
Speaker 5: It's it's creeping me out, literally, Yeah, especially considering the quarterback in this particular group, like one of them being Sam Donald, and so there's a Sam Darnald factor there. But between Carr and Herbo, like, these guys have won a lot of games, and you wonder what the particular I.

00:31:34
Speaker 1: Thought you were gonna say one quarterback really stands out out of these three.

00:31:37
Speaker 5: Yes, well, yeah, for sure he does.

00:31:40
Speaker 4: But everything that changed. They lose so much talent, and.

00:31:43
Speaker 5: I'm not necessarily the biggest Greg Roman fan or believer, and so that's where I had them there. I'm a little surprised that you guys kind of felt the same way I did about the Chargers, but with so much talent leaving, like, where's where's it coming from?

00:31:58
Speaker 2: I understand that they want run the foot. I don't think they've made any I mean clearly, and I think taking Joe out was a great decision. It doesn't make this year easier though, And is lad McConkie going to be your lead receiver? Like, I don't know, even if he's awesome, that's still a rookie and rookies notoriously have a hard time against these NFL defenses. They're not easy to pick up right away. And you're in the AFC West for goodness sake.

00:32:19
Speaker 1: Also was a guy that was like a role player more or less in college. I mean, he just wasn't like a one you know what I mean.

00:32:26
Speaker 2: I'm just saying confusing right Like like I like him. I think for fantasy he could be a great pick, like for a later round guy like cool, but for real football to hard to distinguish it. I actually thought that those Saints were going to be down in that not making the playoff's division.

00:32:39
Speaker 1: So I wanted to separate these three because well, like it's how the numbers spit him out too.

00:32:45
Speaker 3: But I thought they fit well together because.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: So they do for sure.

00:32:48
Speaker 1: I think I think they could make the playoffs if in fact we have. We haven't done our predictions here, but I look at this exercise power ranking as different than predictions. If you're telling me the Chargers get that last day spot because they have a great coach and a great quarterback and they scheme up their defense a little bit, that to me wouldn't be that surprising if it, like the Saints, they won nine games last year, and there's a reason to believe they're the same essentially, and and the Vikings are actually sneaky talent.

00:33:15
Speaker 2: Well, so here's the one thing, the little trick of the schedule. Yeah, this NFC South plays the AFC West, So it would be more likely in my view that the Chargers would make it than the Saints because it then, you know, like the the Chargers get to play perhaps you know some other teams that appear like the Panthers, right like so, and I know that the Saints do too, but that Saints also have to play like.

00:33:36
Speaker 1: It's just I'm debating between Chargers and Jags maybe as like my surprisey.

00:33:40
Speaker 2: Is it with the Jags. We're surprid.

00:33:42
Speaker 1: I don't know, no one's paying attention to them. That's all definitely not okay, what do you mean, I'll just kidd it frisky.

00:33:50
Speaker 5: It's yeah, it's I feel the Jags defensive doubts have been strong in your mind for a company.

00:33:56
Speaker 3: Yes, let's go to the next one, because the Jacks are in it.

00:33:59
Speaker 1: It's called frisky, and these are just these are just the teams that I conder prisky twenty one, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers yep, number twenty, The Chicago Bears not as much love as I expected, number nineteen, The Steelers number eighteen, the Colts number seventeen, the Jaguars number sixteen, the Seahawks number fifteen, the Browns now Patrick. You mentioned Jacksonville. I've had doubts about that, Devens. I gotta say, having John Shipley on the show and hearing about Ryan Nielsen, sometimes scheme can make up a big difference.

00:34:28
Speaker 3: Trevon Walker's a little better.

00:34:29
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm a little more thinking about Okay, this could be a good year for Trev and people are kind of forgetting about them. But I really like the Colts too. I had a hard time separating those two teams. I had them both, both of them. I had actually a little higher than this seventeen eighteen ranking. Wow, the Bucks are the last group, the last team in this frisky I think they're frisky, and they're not even in the same category as the Falcons because of you guys.

00:34:58
Speaker 5: It's no love for the Bucks. It's no anti it's not being anti Bucks's. I appreciate those teams that are ahead of them. I too like the Colts and the Jags. I think being in the division with the Texans makes things a little more difficult for them.

00:35:13
Speaker 1: But as far as the over you can say that, but you can also rank them twentieth when I ad them sixteen.

00:35:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm just saying the results may not ultimately reveal like my particular rankings. Okay, but that's because the results don't always indicate how good the actual football team.

00:35:28
Speaker 1: You have the Jags, though, Patrick, and then we'll move to you, Cynthia. Yeah, significantly higher than the Cults. So between those two teams, why do you like the Jags? Why do you put them a little higher?

00:35:38
Speaker 5: I think experience as well as continuity, and I like you value what John says about the Jags, and I think they're getting better.

00:35:48
Speaker 2: My only rank, like, the reason that the Bucks end up becoming low for me is because my model doesn't love the South in general, So it's very narrow between who comes out of it, between the Falcons and the Bucks. I think it's hard when you don't have We have yet to see them have like a very consistent run game, and no matter what quarterback you are, that is hard to do. I do love that Mike Evans and Chris Godwin both seem to be healthy, and Godwin's back in the slot. That is good, but it's very hard to consistently. But they've got a lot of turnover on their defense. And I know Todd Bowles is a defensive minded head coach, but I still need to see it all kind of put together.

00:36:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, in this exercise, again, it's a power ranking. It's not exactly like our predictions. Now this season, we see the Browns as a mid level team and we.

00:36:30
Speaker 2: Well, the Browns, no, no, no, they're an elite defense, best defense one two maybe. But I don't know what am I looking at with offense and when will Nick chop me back? I love Nick Chubb, but like I'm confused. I want to know what I'm looking at in the offense. I want consistency.

00:36:44
Speaker 1: Someone pointed out now I forget who it was a stat that shook me. I'm was it me down on the Browns relatively because of their defense, not because they won't be good, but just because they won't be as good. And I think it was that they gave up twenty nine plus points per game on the road last year. I just like, man, that's half the season. They were a bad defense. They were literally one of the worst defenses. So that there, and they were so dominant and they would it's just kind of random and its schedule and backups and so yeah, like them and the Seahawks to me were perfect teams to be fifteen and sixteen because if you each of those teams, I think they certainly have a chance to make the playoffs. I think each of those teams have a chance to win the division, yep, if everything goes right, because the talent that they do have is like top tier talent, and that's what defines a frisky team.

00:37:29
Speaker 3: Do you think of my title of.

00:37:30
Speaker 5: The Yeah, I love frisky because those teams. Every team that's within frisky has a propensity, has a quarterback that they can put that can put points on the board and maybe he can be a round it yeah, like Baker could light it up with anybody.

00:37:45
Speaker 1: But also Caleb too, I think Caleb, Caleb's gonna be I'd rather have Caleb than Baker obviously even this year by by a decent amount. And yet I think he's gonna have some magical games and he'll have some learning moments to this, you know, probably lower today than they would have been if we did this exercise a month ago. I think they are taking a little bit of heat, a little bit up, but maybe even unfair just recency bias because just the preseasons left a bad taste in her mouth.

00:38:12
Speaker 3: Let's go.

00:38:13
Speaker 1: And so all those teams, we think, at least for me, I'm speaking for myself, that if they made the playoffs wouldn't be that big of a So we're like, we have about twenty one of those teams where I think their fans would be kind of disappointed if they didn't make the playoffs. So that's why, Yep, it's tough. The next one, it's more definitive. If these five teams don't make the playoffs, it kind of equals problems, whether that means changes in staff in terms of coaching, or just criticism oh from their fan base, like their fans expect them to make the playoffs.

00:38:44
Speaker 3: Let's take a look at it.

00:38:45
Speaker 1: Number fourteen, the Falcons number thirteen, the Jets number twelve, the Rams number eleven, the Cowboys and how about the Dolphins sneaking in the top ten here? But I was a little harsh and decided to cut the tier. Lie right there. I wasn't gonna put them in the tier above, even though the numbers kind of said I should have. So that's where you can just put your finger on the scale if you host the freaking show.

00:39:09
Speaker 2: Cynthia, I like it. The Dolphins, to me, a lot of that comes down to injuries. Yes, Like I mean, and look, I'm gonna be I'm not going to be popular for saying this, but do we really seeing the Cowboys are that good?

00:39:21
Speaker 3: We had them eleventh?

00:39:22
Speaker 1: I mean, all fans expect them to be twelve games in the last two years, so they've they have a great quarterback. Yes, and they have and CD if I you know, to me, the best defensive player in the world, if I had to choose one, agreed.

00:39:36
Speaker 2: So, but I'm really worried about their O line and Ezekiel Elliott forecasts to be their starting right back. I'm just saying, like, I'm just a little like that one's a little that one's a little high for me.

00:39:46
Speaker 3: Okay, but they get to play. I mean, I'm pushing back on you.

00:39:52
Speaker 1: And yet when it comes to predictions, like I might not I might just have them out of the playoffs because I feel like I need to have a few teams in and out and I'm not picking them the win the division. So like there's a chance there that it falls apart a little bit power rankings wise, when you just look at experience, coaching staff, the roster that they have, I'm even feeling a little better about these rookie offensive linemen.

00:40:13
Speaker 3: What what stands out to you out of that group?

00:40:15
Speaker 5: Patrick, It's the Dolphins. I have the Dolphins significantly higher than that. I understand that there's been Oh.

00:40:21
Speaker 1: That was you were the one that did it, so you had yeah Dolphins six. Yeah, you were the one that did it, and I had them twelve. So I have a high too. It's just all it's all about injuries.

00:40:32
Speaker 3: Okay, six, that's awesome.

00:40:33
Speaker 5: Like why just I think time together continuities was the biggest part of the way that I put my list together. Multimately, you've you've seen the Chiefs went back to back Super Bowls. They they've been able to maintain continuity among key parts of the staff and the team, And I just think the longer you keep a group together, the better the results get. As other teams, like some of that we'll talk about coming up here, are getting worse. Like I think there's some title contenders that are actually getting worse. And if those teams are getting worse, then you've got teams that are up and coming that get better. And I think Miami falls into that. But oh, I know, we'll see, we'll see.

00:41:12
Speaker 3: How things got a lot of questions though offense.

00:41:15
Speaker 2: I feel like this line agreed. I think these of all the divisions the AFC East comes down to people's availability. There's a lot of injured players on the Bills. There's a lot of injured players on the Dolphins. There's a lot of injured players, or the Jets maybe don't have people come in.

00:41:30
Speaker 3: The Jets tenth which is higher than Patrick by a good amount. Patrick Adam in the middle.

00:41:34
Speaker 1: I was kind of between you two, and then I notice you have Bill's Dolphins, Jets eight nine tens, so you see those three AFC.

00:41:41
Speaker 2: Sorry, what happens is when you do projections, when things are close. It gets close to point five, right, So I don't have anyone in that division having like zero point six wins, meaning sixty sixty percent of the time they win. And you know how finnicky the model is. You both do, so I think like it's going to be. It's very volatile, like the stock market the past few weeks, a lot of vics. The vix is high here.

00:42:02
Speaker 1: Rams I think would have gotten a little more pop coming into this season. They're twelfth here, Falcons are fourteenth. If it wasn't for the preseason injuries, just dimming them, just the little.

00:42:12
Speaker 2: Injuries they were, it was a totally like that number significantly changed.

00:42:16
Speaker 1: They're the A lot of these teams to me are boomer busts. Actually, I should have called that this section not just no playoffs equals problems boomer bus because Dolphins, Cowboys, Rams, Debts, Falcons for me high ceiling also could easily miss the playoffs, and that wouldn't shock me. I'm not as high on the Falcons as you guys. I just got to see it. To me, a lot of questions on the defense and even the offense, which has a lot of name value. I gotta see it, although I looked at their schedule and man, after their bye, if you were trying to create and who knows how it's going to work out, if you were trying to create like the easiest six or seven games slate you possibly could, That's what the Falcons are after their by.

00:42:56
Speaker 2: If the Falcons don't win, that's the biggest, no problem, like like if they is it.

00:43:00
Speaker 3: Like they pushed Oh here's the thing that's a new staff and.

00:43:04
Speaker 2: Uh, it's it's I don't know, people have gotten fired after one year before in life.

00:43:09
Speaker 3: Like all they got to do is like win nine games.

00:43:11
Speaker 2: I just think, No, I just think if they don't somehow make the playoffs, it's going to be.

00:43:15
Speaker 3: Well, that's true.

00:43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true of the Jets and the Cowboys, certainly of this tier. All right, let's take a quick break and then we'll hit the final two tiers back on NFL Daily Waited all show to find out who are the nine teams nine that are the very best in the NFL. And this next tier is five of them that I'm calling just it wouldn't be a shock if we made the Super Bowl.

00:43:46
Speaker 3: I'm using that word shock.

00:43:48
Speaker 1: If you see these teams in the super Bowl, it wouldn't be that surprising.

00:43:51
Speaker 3: So let's start at number nine. The Packers, who I expect is.

00:43:54
Speaker 1: Gonna get are going to get a lot of like they make the Super Bowl.

00:43:57
Speaker 3: Love.

00:43:57
Speaker 1: I was thinking of going that way. Number eight Bengals, Number seven Eagles.

00:44:02
Speaker 2: You were thinking of picking the Packers to win the.

00:44:03
Speaker 1: Super Bowl all off season. I thought I was going to and then I'm coming off of it now. Uh, six Bills, five Texans. How about the Texans being in the top five after being thirty two in this exercise if we did it a year ago.

00:44:18
Speaker 3: That's an awesome group. And uh, where do you want to start?

00:44:22
Speaker 1: How about the Bengals, Cynthia, You had him number five, I believe, so that was the highest of the three of us, and I wanted you to.

00:44:30
Speaker 4: Talk about it.

00:44:31
Speaker 2: Fourth place schedule, baby, Yeah, that's a huge deal. Fourth place schedule for Joey b and his guy Jamar Chase, who I fully expect to be all good. He's practicing now, Yeah, he's practicing, which means likely playing. And I'm not breaking new yet because we don't know. But you know, I think it's very interesting how things like these small those three unique games can make such a big difference, especially in the North where that's the most difficult division football in my decimation, So that's truly Yeah.

00:45:02
Speaker 1: You had them ahead of the Ravens by a tiny time, and in this exercise, Patrick and I and it to me it's power rankings too, as the best team where they're at now, we had a pretty big gap between the Ravens, and.

00:45:13
Speaker 2: I know you power ranked it, but I did it by winter. I know, and I'm just saying I think I think the Ravens are a better team, but I think the Bengals have a better schedule.

00:45:20
Speaker 3: It's a good combo.

00:45:21
Speaker 1: You had them at a tenth, which is relatively low, but I guess not. They finished eighth, and they're in this group where you wouldn't be surprised to be covering Joe Burrow in New Orleans.

00:45:30
Speaker 5: Oh not at all. And I think they are a better team than they were last year. That would be fun even even without right the Burrow Joe being back. It is something I talked about all last season. We were actually talked about it earlier today that the Bengals lost like ninety six percent of their snaps at safety and then they come into last season and it looked bad on the back end, and so they go get you, you know, stone von Bell comes back. It seems like an admission. Okay, we need that. Yeah, And so I feel better about the the team as a whole.

00:46:01
Speaker 4: And I think Andre Jose of us looked.

00:46:02
Speaker 3: Incredible, complete player.

00:46:04
Speaker 4: I think the whole time that.

00:46:06
Speaker 5: I was there for Bengals camp, and so I believe in the offense, think the defense is better.

00:46:10
Speaker 4: I think they're a good team.

00:46:10
Speaker 1: It's funny the Texans finished fifth, None of them, none of us actually had them as high as five, but it was just six seven six. We all see them in that group. Just the talent's pretty overwhelming. Eagles was a team that I thought I'd be the highest on idem seventh.

00:46:26
Speaker 3: Cynthia had him second love it.

00:46:29
Speaker 2: They might they might be my super Bowl team. You know, I don't do this, but I have to look and see how everything shakes out once all these fifty three are set.

00:46:35
Speaker 1: But I kind of wanted to. I'm thinking about them. I picked them to the super Bowl the last two years. One year that was a fiasco, one year it was fantastic.

00:46:44
Speaker 2: So well, no, I mean the way that I this one's interesting because I think they're super boom or bust, like if things start to go a little teeter tottery for them, like that could be the ones who, like I think that they're just by talent alone exactly really really strong team. But so if something did go wrong, I do see this as being like like that would be terrible. So but you know what, the Niners, who are the other class of the division or the class of the NFC. To me, they're seemingly in a lot of question marks too. So who's unquestion mark?

00:47:15
Speaker 1: Ye, no, buddy, that's a great question. I had the Bills higher than you guys. I would have had them in my first tier. I just I don't get the I don't know if doubts the right word, but you have the Dolphins ahead of the Bills, for instance, Patrick, I don't know. I To me, it's just like they are the closest thing to the Chiefs in the NFL. I know they haven't won the Super Bowls and he's not, Patrick Mahomes, he's not, but they are the other team forty nine ers obviously, I meant in the AFC, just like they're so consistent. They I just know who they are on defense in terms of the schematic advantage McDermott provides. And I know who Josh Allen is, and I'm not really worried about anything else.

00:47:56
Speaker 2: I'm worried about the defense.

00:47:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I'm gonna Matt.

00:47:59
Speaker 2: Malano not being there. Their safeties are complete.

00:48:01
Speaker 1: You guys have them eighths, not like you have them buried, but you do have them a tier lower than they probably would have been the last few years.

00:48:06
Speaker 2: In the sex or so right now, I mean, this is the first time we'll see the no mic Micah Hyde or Jordan Poyer at safety in however many years. That's a big thing. And they're two starting corners, and they're three starting corners. The best one was probably Tron Johnson. Like, that's scary, man, I'm.

00:48:21
Speaker 5: Gonna need somebody on the defensive side of the ball to be closer to Chris Jones before I say that.

00:48:26
Speaker 4: They're the closest thing to the Kansas City Chiefs.

00:48:29
Speaker 2: What about fun Miller.

00:48:31
Speaker 5: No, I mean we got we got twenty twenty fourteen Vaughn like busting through. You're right, yeah, but it's just it's all Josh, and I love Josh, but it can't just all be Josh. At this point, it seems.

00:48:44
Speaker 1: Like good line, good system. I think good depth throughout the depth chart. Maybe a wide receiver, not as many startes. I no, I disagree. I think I think they're deep enough in the at least at cornerback and at wide receiver. Maybe not, maybe not top shelf talent, but like enough be enough B level play.

00:49:01
Speaker 2: I hope, like see I look to me, Josh cares a lot of evils, and that old line cares a lot of evils as well. I think the way you navigate this is, can they solidify the run game, Because if they have a really solid run game that's not just Josh, that'll be fine because they can control the clock. If they can't, they can put themselves in more manageable downs and distances, anticipate what passes are coming against them. But I would really feel better if Matt Malana were there.

00:49:22
Speaker 1: Agree, And I think Bill and he might be by December. So they just got to stay in the mix and we'll see the final group.

00:49:29
Speaker 3: We went shocking.

00:49:30
Speaker 1: It's the teams that were in the final four, but it's a power pool. It's the favorites. The Lion's fourth so that should make you feel better, Cynthia, that they're not higher. That's right, Lions fourth, Ravens third, forty nine or second, Chiefs first. So basically how the last season, and that's fine. It's a power pool and there's really not huge reasons to go against any of these teams. The forty nine ers maybe in the short term, but in the long term, it's kind of hard to argue with who they've been and I'm finding, at least for this exercise, not a lot of juice here, not a lot of disagreement. We all had the Chiefs first, none of us had the forty nine Ers anywhere lower than third, and the others were pretty consistent too.

00:50:14
Speaker 3: We were basically in agreement on these teams.

00:50:17
Speaker 1: If there was a team here, I'm going to just go hard because I'd be surprised if any of these teams didn't make the playoffs. But if you had to choose one of these four teams that did not make the playoffs, I actually think I would choose the.

00:50:28
Speaker 5: Forty nine ers.

00:50:29
Speaker 4: We're lock solid.

00:50:30
Speaker 2: Day.

00:50:30
Speaker 5: We talked about all the weird stuff that's going on.

00:50:32
Speaker 3: In the division and the schedule.

00:50:36
Speaker 2: I mean, think about it first, games against the Jets. That's like a hard first one if things aren't put back together, and like once that like, it's hard to get things back together if you don't get the you don't get the chemistry going. And you know, I don't know. I also just trust quarterbacks more, and I think the quarterbacks and those other teams are just significantly more trustable.

00:50:58
Speaker 1: I find it interesting how the Chiefs look on paper when the last couple of years on paper going into the year, there was actually more concerns about them, yep, and you know, they won the Super Bowl both.

00:51:09
Speaker 3: Of those years.

00:51:10
Speaker 1: This year it feels like there's less and I don't know, there's not really many things to pick apart with them.

00:51:19
Speaker 3: Maybe the corner back then.

00:51:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, we do kind of handwave away lugarious need in his department a little bit.

00:51:24
Speaker 4: But it's hard to overlook.

00:51:25
Speaker 3: To me, it's more human nature.

00:51:27
Speaker 1: I got into it with Pete Sweeney and Arrowhead Pride that to me, it's more just like human nature. And even that might not be or just like the luck of the draw that like, hey, you just might not get through this single elimination tournament unscathed again, just because it's hard to do.

00:51:40
Speaker 2: That's that's kind of the way I feel like when I close my eyes and think of the difference between the AFC and the NFC. It's like the NFC, those teams should make the playoffs and they're probably kind of gonna fall the way we see them after week four. But in the AFC we see mix and it's like a single elimination tournament could roll the dice either way. That's where it gets more difficult.

00:52:00
Speaker 1: They also are, you know, the most likely team to have the one seede, just because the schedule is not that tough in the divisions.

00:52:08
Speaker 2: But even even so, I still think that two games they would have to play really tough people. It's not like, no, it doesn't like the AFC team like do you want to play C. J. Stroud? Do you want to play the Bengals? Do you want to play the Ravens?

00:52:19
Speaker 4: Do you like?

00:52:20
Speaker 2: The answers kind of know like for all of that, So.

00:52:23
Speaker 1: We're not exactly putting all of our predictions out here. We will have an AFC NFC preview wall so have a game day view season preview where we get into the numbers of it all and try to pick who's making the Super Bowl there too, And.

00:52:36
Speaker 2: I have a I have a request, Yes, can your kids pick their Super Bowl favorites too? They need to be in the mix for that.

00:52:44
Speaker 3: I'll ask, I will ask. I mean, I feel like Ellen in a.

00:52:46
Speaker 2: Few years will get yours too.

00:52:47
Speaker 1: There's ls will pick the Rams. She's not really into the other thirty one teams.

00:52:51
Speaker 2: Who cares?

00:52:52
Speaker 3: And I think the Walker picked the Texans, which would be a fun.

00:52:55
Speaker 2: But I think Walker is like he's really on it. He's on it now, He's he would be there, can be coming for your job.

00:53:01
Speaker 1: Walker might be caring. It's hard. You know, this is a daily show we need. Yeah, Well, if.

00:53:07
Speaker 2: It's gonna be there, goer better be training for this.

00:53:11
Speaker 3: That's right.

00:53:12
Speaker 1: Every day forever includes Wednesday at least Wednesday morning, where we'll be recapping all the cuts around cut on Down. Actually tweet at me, let me know we've been putting up the podcast at the exact same time every day. Let me know on Twitter if for Cutdown Day, you wanna get it out there sooner. My instinct is, actually, okay, it's all the cuts, and I know it's not gonna be like crazy huge news, but this is a day, as someone who's into just like how teams are formed. I'm really into. So I'm thinking about just putting that one out when it's ready. So let me know if that if you want that, if you don't, we should tweet for the older U or if you want to hold it for overnight.

00:53:52
Speaker 3: Thank you, Eric. Let's play the music.

00:53:56
Speaker 1: For Patrick Claybon Yeah, catch him, Cynthia and Fantasy Live.

00:54:00
Speaker 2: MH.

00:54:01
Speaker 3: Like I said, game debut.

00:54:01
Speaker 1: Will start a week from Friday, Week one on NFL Network. But it was it was a pleasure to have you guys.

00:54:10
Speaker 3: Till next time.

00:54:11
Speaker 2: I love you guys.

00:54:18
Speaker 1: Mm hm