Episode Transcript
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[00:01:08] Speaker B: Welcome to the PON After show with Kyle Mauer, Marshall Hesslaw and Ian DeWitt. This is the show where the guys attempt to pick the winners of the weekly NFL games along with some healthy debate about current topics.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Let's go.
[00:01:22] Speaker D: Hey, guys.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Hey, dudes.
[00:01:23] Speaker D: What's up dudes?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: What's up, dude? Back in the dudio, dude.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Dudio, dude. Like a rodeo.
[00:01:29] Speaker D: I'm a dude. You're a dude.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: He's a dude. He's a dude.
[00:01:32] Speaker D: Hey.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Hey. We missed you last week, Marshall.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Somebody here to keep us on track. You had to come back just to make sure we don't do another hour and a half episode 25.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: But who is counting?
Was it bad?
[00:01:45] Speaker D: Because it felt pretty good.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: The ratings were great. I think sky high all time. High number of downloads. I think it was five stars. Multiple people listened to the podcast.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: You guys got ratings and reviews is what you're telling me.
[00:01:58] Speaker D: Michelin stars.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:01] Speaker D: By the way, Michelin stars. Never really realized that was the tire company that gave those out. I always thought like that was weird.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:09] Speaker D: When I found that out.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Another one of those strange brands that does like unrelated things.
[00:02:13] Speaker D: You know, I just thought it was different.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Like Guinness is like Guinness Book of World Records and beer.
[00:02:18] Speaker D: Right. It's just weird.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: Good book though. If we were going to the library for like the Scholastic Book Fair. Yeah, you get the.
I mean, you want to see how long the world's longest, like, drop of spit.
[00:02:32] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Like nails.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: So that stuff is just oldest person. Just see if he's still kicking the next year when you get another book.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: 20, 24. Is he there?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Oh, man.
With the most tattoos.
[00:02:44] Speaker D: It's like getting an encyclopedia, you know, you just want to make sure.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: You have all of my day back in my day. Speaking of my day.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: My day today.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: We're going to keep you on track, guys. It's not going to be an hour and 25.
And being on track.
I was on the other night was watching that Bills game in the snow.
[00:03:03] Speaker D: So good. I love snow games.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: They look like a play.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: I got to hear Ian talk about his. Oh, my God.
Six minutes later. The Steelers and Cleveland Brown game was a totally different game.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: That's what it sounded like from Napoleon Dynamite.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:03:19] Speaker D: Hey. But, hey, that's a great game.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: The Bills game. Was that the entire time? So it was.
[00:03:25] Speaker D: I love that game.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Think of as a child, what did you like to do in the snow?
[00:03:29] Speaker A: So many things.
[00:03:30] Speaker D: A lot of things. It depends on my age. So in basically middle school, high school, and college. That kind of age range. So basically all of puberty.
[00:03:43] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:03:43] Speaker D: Plus college. And then my favorite thing. Skiing. Loved skiing.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:49] Speaker D: Did a lot of it. Nubs Knob, Timber Ridge, all those places. I'm sure there's some other ones that we went to, but those are the ones that I remember right vividly because we went to Nubs Knob with some guys.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: Wouldn't have taken you as a skier pretty frequently.
[00:04:02] Speaker D: Yeah, but I was.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: How about as a little.
[00:04:05] Speaker D: As a little sledding going?
[00:04:07] Speaker C: Pretty good.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: We will set up good ramps at the bottom of our hill. Out on the farm, we get some air.
[00:04:12] Speaker D: So, I mean, we didn't live very far from Cascades and that hill on the back. Oh, I always loved when they had to put a sign up like, this is closed. It's too dangerous.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: It's so dangerous.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: I liked when I would connect with people and just make the train and then we would just absolutely, like, knock people down.
[00:04:32] Speaker D: Do they have a lot. Do they have a lot of people over there now?
[00:04:36] Speaker A: I've never slept on the backside. I've always only sled on our side.
[00:04:40] Speaker D: That's the side that, like, by the.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Baseball diamonds and the band.
[00:04:44] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. That was the more popular side, Right?
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I've always said it there.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: That's the scarier side. It is steeper.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: The Other side seems intimidating because there's more trees and obstacles.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: It's only intimidating because you could go into the traffic.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Oh, you could, you could go right into the road.
[00:04:58] Speaker D: Oh, that's kind of scary fun. My grandparents, they had a. A chalet.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: A chalet?
[00:05:05] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, you sound like you grew up in such privilege.
I went skiing into my grandparents chalet.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: Grandfather, where is your.
[00:05:14] Speaker D: Okay. When I went skiing, I generally went with friends I never, almost never had.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: To pay for actually.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:20] Speaker D: We'd get in the hot tub and we'd have our killians and we'd drink our beer butler.
Okay, okay.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:29] Speaker D: That's not fair.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: What about you, Kyle? What did you like to do in the snow?
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Well, half my life it's been shoveling because I've been an adult for more than half my life. But for teenage years I'm going tackle football in the snow. You're all bundled up, you're padded.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: The puffer jacket.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah, you're all padded up in the snow's like that's the best thing nasty out there.
It's so fun.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: We haven't played tackled on the way out of here.
[00:06:00] Speaker D: No, but I'm not prepared for it right now.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: Oh, I was asking.
[00:06:06] Speaker D: Donald was here.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: Totally reference back to 40 episodes ago.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: I was a big fort builder. So I definitely like made some snow forts.
[00:06:15] Speaker C: So that was my answer. We would get like sleds and like all of a sudden it's a wall and we're like building snow around it. We'd dive through, make these little tunnels and then like if somebody in the neighborhood broke it, death or exile, I mean it was awful.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Were they fortresses for snowball wars or.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Just sometimes they'd even be just to go hang out. Like I go get my Game Boy and go play out there.
It's pretty fun. Little Game Boy color.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Uh huh.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Little Game Boy color. How about it?
[00:06:46] Speaker D: Best Games Boy, Game Boy Advance.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: Okay, now we're speaking on privilege.
[00:06:52] Speaker D: Well, no, it's because I had an original Game Boy and then I upgraded to the Game Boy Advance.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: I respect it.
[00:06:57] Speaker D: I didn't go in the. I wasn't an in betweener with a Game Boy color. I went right for the advance when it came out.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Right to it.
[00:07:04] Speaker D: But that was after sd, I think.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: It was like those scary.
[00:07:09] Speaker D: It was flip ones. Right.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Let's. Speaking of cutting to the chase, guys, we got some questions from our listeners and the first one we're hitting is Justin Manson. Justin, he gave us a little criticism that we're turning into simply a Lamar NFC north pod. And I take great offense to that. It's been about six weeks since we talked about the Indiana boy Colts, who is our team for this podcast. Thank you very much, Justin.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: Right. We also, honestly, can I push back, Justin?
[00:07:36] Speaker D: I don't actually think we talk about Lamar.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Hit the button. Hit the button, Marshall, to be fair.
Right there. Hit the button. To be fair. To be fair, Justin.
[00:07:47] Speaker D: Ooh.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: This season, I was reflecting a little bit on this.
I. I know that for a disproportionate amount of time over the course of our episodes in the historic history we've talked about the NFC north. This has been, you know, like a heavily focused lion's pod in the years in the past. And that could be a fair criticism before. I don't think it's an un. It's a fair criticism this season because they matter. They are. They are the cream of the crop this season. And we do talk a lot about the good teams. We neglect the bad teams. I'm really sorry. The teams that are irrelevant get a lot less time on this show. And we should be talking about the Lions. We should be talking about the Packers. We should give some attention to those spicy Vikings right now. And occasionally a mention for the NFC north is relevant right now. The whole country is paying a lot of attention to this division. I think it's the most interesting and compelling division in the foot in the league right now. And if we're not talking about it a lot, I think we're doing listeners to this show a bit of a disservice. Meanwhile, Lamar is on another planet in terms of his performance. This guy's insane. He's the MVP of the league again. And we are going to be telling our grandkids about when we grew up watching Lamar. So if he comes up each episode, even just a little bit, not really going to apologize for that one in particular.
[00:09:05] Speaker D: It's also, when I think about it, we tend to focus on, like, the bigger storylines, which happen to revolve around.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Better teams, better teams, better players. They're going to come.
[00:09:16] Speaker D: There's not much to talk about. Like the Patriots, like how Drake May. Yeah, he looks. Looks promising.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: I mean, highest rush per attempt in quarterback history right now.
[00:09:27] Speaker D: Right?
[00:09:27] Speaker A: But this is like, just like, nothing does look promising. That's great. He should come up. He should come up if. But if we're talking Drake May every single episode, that would be a little more weird.
[00:09:36] Speaker C: It's just worth hearing from a listener who's giving us a little constructive criticism.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I respect it. I respect it.
[00:09:41] Speaker D: Talked about. I'm actually curious.
[00:09:43] Speaker C: Tennessee Titans. We haven't talked about Titans in a long time.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: We've joked about Will Levis. The guy. The guy.
[00:09:48] Speaker C: Guys, let's hear Justin's question because he does have a good one.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Guys, he said I need five players for the Naughty and the Nice list.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Will Levis is on the naughty list for just some of the most boneheaded, ridiculous.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: I think he's on the nice list for his mayonnaise and infomercials that are on the tv.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:05] Speaker D: What's the.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: That's fine. Off the field he can behave, but on the field he is misbehaving.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: Naughty is like when you're not nice.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: No.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: And nice is when you're not naughty. Oh, yeah.
What's that one guy that your mind just blowing.
[00:10:21] Speaker D: I didn't know what that was.
The. I'm going to butcher this guy's name. But he's. He's relevant.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Aziz Al Shahir.
[00:10:28] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: I was Zel, obviously on the naughty list.
[00:10:31] Speaker D: Can I just say before we. It sounds like that's right out of Dune or something like that.
[00:10:38] Speaker C: I haven't seen Dune, so I'm a little out of the loop.
[00:10:40] Speaker D: Yeah, it sounds like right out of the movie the book.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: He definitely is on the naughty list for the big hit he put on Trevor Lawrence. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. We got a question about him for sure. I'm going to put on the good list. You ready for this one?
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Hit me.
[00:10:55] Speaker C: Everyone that's had to play in the cold last week.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Okay, you get. You deserve that, Buffalo. You deserve it. Except for the Dolphins Naughty list.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Disgraceful.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Your coach is sitting by the heater during halftime complaining about how cold it was and shivering. You're the man of the team.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: And meanwhile, Tua is talking to the press conference about how he wants to. What did he say he wants to do with the narratives? He wants to beat the narratives or something to that effect. And. And that they just continue to do exactly what they're predicted to do.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Did you hear Terry Bradshaw talk about it?
He's gonna do great. This weather doesn't have anything on him. They go literally less than seconds to the graphic of. Oh, and 7 when it is 30 degrees and lower, 0 and 6 when it's 40 degrees and lower, 1 in 5 when it's 4 and I'm like, oh, my gosh, Terry. Bless your heart.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so cute. And then they go and do exactly what Everybody says they only reinforced the same narrative.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: Anyone on the naughty list for you, Ian?
[00:11:58] Speaker D: The naughty list. You know what? Maybe this is unpopular.
I'm going to put Kyle Shanahan on that list.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: Oh, and tell me why.
[00:12:09] Speaker D: I just think I get injuries. I get injuries. Yeah, but Christian McCaffrey getting trotted out there and cold game.
I just. And I don't know.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Because it's cold here.
[00:12:24] Speaker D: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This dude has been battling an injury all season. It's kind of weird that right before the first game of the year, oh, he's got Achilles like Achilles tendonitis or whatever it is. It's just like, oh, this is going on and he's going to be out frickin half the season and then he comes back and then what happens? Like what? He's. He's played how many weeks? Like four or five maybe at most.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:53] Speaker D: And tears his pcl.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: That calf looked awful.
[00:12:57] Speaker D: He should have never been out there. He should have never been out there.
[00:13:00] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: He clearly.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: I tend to think you're right.
[00:13:02] Speaker D: He clearly wasn't fully healthy and they're trotting him out there just because it's like we.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: And you might hear from the commission might be on the same side as you. Anybody on the nice list for you, Ian?
Anybody that's been good to the Lions. How about that?
[00:13:17] Speaker D: Let's. I want to stay away from the lines just because you know, we could do that.
[00:13:21] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:13:22] Speaker D: I love it because apparently we, we hover there. Go. You can go first.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: I'm going to put Joe Shane and Brian Dabel on the naughty list for their conduct in the off season. I think that they've, it's inexcusable what they've done. Just. I can't believe that we got.
It's so priceless that we got this like early off season hard knocks series on the Giants to chronicle publicly. Now we have this footage of them in the room. We all get to see this that.
[00:13:53] Speaker D: I have seen it so many times.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: We all get to watch this and we all get to point to these moments where these boneheads are in the room with now they're freezing cold takes and they're ridiculous predictions looking like morons.
[00:14:08] Speaker D: The owner though was in that meeting though saying, but Saquon is like really.
[00:14:15] Speaker C: Good, like hot take.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Does anybody ever tell you, Marshall, that you have a Brian Day Ball resemblance?
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Okay, okay. So they're on the naughty list.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: Is it because I'm in the hoodie right now? That helps.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: I think the hoodie does actually help. Yeah. But you know, you're put together. It's not a bad look. I'm going to put, I tend to put like some of the, the second tier quarterbacks who get a lot of play time on.
I'm putting like, you're like Jacoby Brissettes and your Joe Flaccos and your Andy Dalton's this season who everybody knows, including themselves. Like you're not the future.
You're. You're a stop gap. We're trotting you out there while and we expect you to kind of support the guy we actually want and help lift him up. Even though clearly the fans in the stands are mostly watching you and seeing you do better. And this is like your kind of goodbye tour of the league.
[00:15:16] Speaker C: And so they're on the nice list.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: These guys are. They're. I think that they're good sports about it.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: They're cool about it.
[00:15:21] Speaker C: You know who's ultimate nice though? Jameis Winston.
[00:15:25] Speaker D: I was thinking Jameis, he's wanted to.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Put him on it.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: He's on it. Love the ultimate game yesterday by him.
[00:15:31] Speaker D: Great game.
[00:15:32] Speaker C: Two pick sixes he threw and four touchdowns.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: Like, what was it, 497 yards.
I love to watch him.
[00:15:40] Speaker D: What I loved was watching Bo Nicks throw that ginormous 98 yard touchdown pass.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: What a. What a die.
[00:15:48] Speaker D: Immediate next play. Jameis does the exact same thing. So what a great game. And what I loved at the end of the game when they're interviewing Winston about the whole thing is like I just got to pray to the Lord to deliver me from these pick sixes.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: I love him.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: He's amazing.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, he is.
[00:16:08] Speaker D: What this, this is what. This is what the Browns are.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Can I just tell you?
[00:16:13] Speaker D: I've got a Browns become so likable the moment Watson's gone. It happened last year with Flacco.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: That's exactly what. I've got a friend here in this office who's from Cleveland area and we've talked about the Browns. I asked them about the Browns just today. Hey, how about them Browns? And he said, I gotta tell you, I was. I thought I had written him off. I thought I was done. And then I started to watch them. I watched the Steelers game in the snow and oh, they hit me again. I've got a soft spot. I'm still there.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: Fun.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: And he's getting sucked back in. Winston to root for the team he always grew up rooting for.
[00:16:49] Speaker D: Winston's fun.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: It's fun.
[00:16:52] Speaker D: That was a fun game.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: To watch. We're talking about the Broncos and Browns. Who would have thought that would be a game to watch?
[00:16:59] Speaker C: It was like a guy that's like going back to the girlfriend who, you know isn't good for you because, you know, the pumpkin, fine. The carriage is going to turn into the pumpkin.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: We're not really talking about the future. We're not talking about Super Bowls and chasing championships here. We're talking about.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: You're just happy for the night.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Fun to watch this thing. I want to watch Broncos, Browns. Is that crazy?
[00:17:24] Speaker C: That's.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: That's just ridiculous.
[00:17:26] Speaker D: I put the game on half, expecting to turn it off by like half time.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:31] Speaker D: And I kept it on. I was like, this is a good game. I turned it off once. He threw the last pick six, two minutes left.
[00:17:37] Speaker C: I was like, pretty funny, though. That's kind of a bummer the way it happened, too. Catches it, falls on the ground. Good question, though. Justin.
[00:17:43] Speaker D: I want to put one more player on the nice list.
Bryce Young.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:48] Speaker D: He deserves to be on the nice list. He gets benched because he's been terrible for about a year and a half, comes back two games later, he is literally like a whole new man. Literally.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: And I love it. It's cool.
[00:18:03] Speaker D: I just love that he has taken two pretty competitively good teams, like one to overtime, one almost to overtime. I mean, they needed mirror. They literally needed miracles to win those games.
I love that.
[00:18:18] Speaker C: I like it, too.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: I do, too.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: Good for the list.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Good for him. Good for him.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Bryce Young, his All 22 film for the last three weeks has actually been really good. Some of the breakdowns I've seen on Twitter of just the compilations of it is really impressive. Some of the throws he's had, I'm like, wow. Against the Chiefs, he played great.
So let's move. I want to transition to a couple. We're going to talk lines a little quick and then we're going to move on to some big topics.
Peter Mauer writes in what would it take for the Cleveland Browns to have a major comeback similar to the Lions? Give me three steps they need to do.
[00:18:51] Speaker D: I'm going to say they were. They did it before the Lions first.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Well, they've had rebuilds.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Yeah, but what could they do going the Lions?
[00:19:01] Speaker A: As we talked about last week, the Lions have pulled off what I think is arguably the greatest rebuild ever.
[00:19:06] Speaker C: The blueprint.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: This should be the blueprint for everybody else.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: So it's a great take.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Prescribe it to the line to the Browns. How do they do this?
[00:19:15] Speaker D: Well, I Mean, you need. They drafted Penne not just because he was the best player probably in the draft at that point, but because of what he would bring to the team in terms of attitude and that kind of, like, Persona. That's the guy they need to draft.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: He would have been there first.
[00:19:36] Speaker C: Somebody like that.
[00:19:37] Speaker D: They. I mean, so he wasn't.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: He was the first draft pick of the rebuild. Correct.
[00:19:42] Speaker D: And it was purposefully like, they drafted him with the mindset of, this is who we are building the team around. They didn't build it around, like, Saint Brown. They didn't build it around the running game that they have now. They didn't build it around these guys. They built it with Penne, and they said, this is the kind of guy that can change a game.
[00:20:02] Speaker C: So that I think they need so an interior lineman. I like that strong personality culture. Who do they need to get rid of on the team? That's the second step.
[00:20:11] Speaker D: I mean, I think we all know who they should dump.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Watson. Right? Okay. And then if you're looking at coaching, do you think Stefanski is the guy that could.
[00:20:21] Speaker D: I think he is. He has done it.
[00:20:22] Speaker C: He's done it with worse rosters, so ride with it.
[00:20:25] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:20:25] Speaker D: I would.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Those. I think those are three good steps worth looking at. And while we're on the Lions, a couple questions we have from Addison DeWitt goes, Can the Lions rise above their defensive injuries or is it a cause for concern, especially with a tough stretch of games in front of them? Green Bay, Buffalo, Minnesota. I. I'm going to start selling Lions really like this defense. They are holes on holes on their Swiss cheese, and they keep getting all these players that are great from seven years ago. That would be. I'd love if they got Jamal Adams seven years ago.
[00:20:59] Speaker D: So I'm going to counter this because this is pretty doom and gloom, and a lot of people have been pretty doom and gloom on the lines because they have so many defensive injuries.
That's a little croc. I'm gonna actually tell you why. I'm gonna run through kind of the list of starters that are on the team that have been starting all year, other than Zedaria Smith, who was obviously brought in halfway through the uterus, kind of pseudo replace hutch. Okay. Ali McNeil and DJ Reader both still healthy.
They have both actually increased in the line pressures since Zedarius Smith. So that's three guys right there. That's your front three. Obviously, they've been having a rotating kind of fourth going on. You have two. You have the best safety combination in your secondary with Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph. Jack Campbell is really been proven as a major asset as a linebacker. He's really come on, Terry Ann. Arnold's come a long way. I wouldn't put him like as one of the best corners in the league, but he is definitely significantly better than when he started. Carlton Davis has looked great and he's coming back this week. Those are out of them. Five of them made the short list for Pro bowl nominations.
[00:22:20] Speaker C: And to me, I don't think what what this question and my comment says that they're bad. It means that the people they lost were very good in replacing them with people off of other teams practice squads. There is going to be a huge gap.
[00:22:36] Speaker D: There's three of them that I would qualify as very good and then everyone else that they've lost are they are second or third stringers is what they are. Hutch, Anzalone and Rodrigo, those are the three they're getting. And this is also not factoring the fact that some of these guys are coming off the IR by week 16, 17. They're going to get Barnes potentially back. They're going to have an Zaloni is going to be back for the playoffs.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: Hope so.
[00:23:03] Speaker D: There is a very serious outside chance that Hutch could be back for the Super Bowl. I'll believe it when I see it.
[00:23:10] Speaker C: No way.
[00:23:10] Speaker D: I'll believe it when I see it. But there was videos of him at the Thanksgiving game walking around, so you never know.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: We never.
[00:23:19] Speaker D: But all I'm saying is out of your 11 defensive players, nine of them are still starting. You've lost some major like rotational pieces obviously to keep them fresh, but it's not like the world is ending just yet.
[00:23:38] Speaker C: Okay, well, we're going to see if they fall down to a level that I think they could, which is going to be pretty detrimental to them on.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: The next start beating their opponents by like 50 to 20 instead of 50 to 60.
[00:23:51] Speaker D: Where people really get scared is because this is starting to be like a worry worrying trend. While the Eagles on the other side are kind of starting to play some.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: Healthy you might say they're starting to.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Soar, take on their take flight.
[00:24:05] Speaker D: They're playing their best football right now. They look crazy good on both sides of the ball. Now I will say that Ravens game kind of did show that you slow Saquon, you stall that offense pretty hard.
[00:24:18] Speaker C: Which might be hard without Hutch and two of your starting linebackers. That's, that's where I go on.
[00:24:22] Speaker D: By the time we play them one of them will be back. The only time we're going to actually ever see the Eagles is the NFC Championship game.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: That's the only way we shall see. Would you say NFC north or AFC West? That's Addison's other question. I thought that was kind of a good question to ask. It really kind of highlights two very strong divisions. Kyle, what would you pick?
[00:24:46] Speaker A: I'm going NFC north on this. I think that there's abundant talent in this division. I'm more enthusiastic, honestly, about the coaches.
I really like LaFleur, O'Connell and obviously Campbell in the NFC North. I think that those are three. A cream of the crop really in the NFL.
Over in the AFC west, you know, I, I like Harbaugh, I guess. And Andy Reed has got a great track record, although I'm starting to feel like his offensive play calling has gotten stale.
But in terms of coaching, it's NFC north by a mile. In ter. In terms of quarterback play, comparable. I might be going. I might be going AFC West.
[00:25:33] Speaker C: Vikings or Broncos?
[00:25:35] Speaker A: Vikings or Broncos? That's a tough one. I'm going probably Vikings on that. That defense is incredible. Broncos have a strong defense, but it.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: Hurts me to say, but Sean Payton's making me eat every word that I said. The divorce that Russell Wilson had. Yeah, it was beneficial for both of them.
[00:25:54] Speaker D: This is kind of like an interesting question because obviously Chiefs and Lions are very comparable in the fact that they're the only 11 and 1 teams in the league. And then Vikings and Packers and then Chargers and Broncos. They all feel very samey to me. Yeah, I mean their records are very similar. Obviously. I think the NFC has better records overall. Um, then obviously the two, eight and what? Eight and four teams, I think they are. But the Chargers defense is stout. Very good, Very good defenses can carry a team through playoffs.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Some say that they've won championships.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:37] Speaker D: And so I just think I'm a little skeptical of the Vikings just because they have a lot of close one score games. They're not really dominating people.
They're getting. They're like kind of skating. Okay.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Vikings are the Steelers of the NFC in that technically the Vikings would be.
[00:27:01] Speaker D: The Chiefs of the NFC right now in terms of how they have skated through winds.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: I put them in. I put. I can equate the Steelers and the Vikings together in the same way because they are teams that consistently win a lot in the regular season. But we never really take that seriously and often call them frauds because by.
[00:27:21] Speaker D: The time they hit playoffs, they both get bounced out pretty quick.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: They do tend to not have a lot of postseason success, but they do surprise us with their regular season success with cry regularity.
[00:27:33] Speaker D: Yeah, this kind of brought up. I kind of wrote this down. So we might as well just do it now because we're kind of already talking about this. Like contenders versus pretenders. I think there are only four teams that I think everybody can agree on. These are potential super.
[00:27:48] Speaker C: Tell me I'm four.
[00:27:49] Speaker D: Four teams.
[00:27:50] Speaker C: I think there's.
[00:27:51] Speaker D: Well, I'll say my four and you can add a fifth if you want to. But I'll read my list of my like contender. Like where do they fall?
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:27:58] Speaker D: So I think the four Chiefs and Bills on the AFC side and Lions Eagles on the NFC side.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:04] Speaker D: I think those even. No matter how you feel about the Chiefs, by the way, no matter. It doesn't matter that they're not playing pretty ball. The Chiefs are going to chief. We know this.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Who's your fifth, Kyle?
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Well, I can't count on Baltimore.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: Defense is pretty shaky.
[00:28:20] Speaker D: I mean their kicker has cost them two games.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: It's true. That's kind of wild. He's got to be done.
[00:28:27] Speaker D: So Baltimore was on my list of where do they fall contender. Pretenders. Obviously you're putting them in contender. I had Ravens, Vikings, Packers, Steelers.
On whether you would consider them contenders, like legitimate. They could make it to the super bowl and win it or are they not capable of doing that? Like maybe they win a game in the playoffs, but you're not going to probably see them there.
[00:28:51] Speaker C: The Ravens. The thing that scares me, that kicking part is really important. In the five games that they've lost, they've lost by 22 points.
Do you know how many points was missed by kicks?
[00:29:04] Speaker A: How much?
[00:29:05] Speaker C: 22.
[00:29:06] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: It decides games is the difference.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Is the difference for that team.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: He was a cheat code that you needed 10 yards after recovering the kickoff and taking it to the 35.
[00:29:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:18] Speaker C: Like if I can get it to midfield, I have a shot With Tucker. How many times. I mean he's got ruined Ian's life watching the Lions game against them.
[00:29:25] Speaker D: He's got the worst. He's got the worst kicking percentage in the league right now.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: So bad that he moved from first to second all time.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: No way.
[00:29:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Wow. Wait, now who's first?
[00:29:37] Speaker C: He has to go like 4 for.
[00:29:39] Speaker D: 5 of the next Panero, I think is technically got the better.
[00:29:43] Speaker C: The best. So it's interesting and I don't think we can get stuff down on who's the top five. That's kind of showing and it Will show out. But one thing happened yesterday that was big news wise.
We talk a lot about tua. His injuries. We had a huge injury yesterday.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:02] Speaker C: Or this past weekend with Trevor Lawrence hit by. I'm going to have you say his name one more time so I don't mess it up.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: Kyle Aziz also here.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Defensive player for the Houston Texans. And Eric G. Nunzio writes in does he deserve a three game suspension that was handed out today for this hit on Lawrence or is the NFL overreacting to make a statement to the fans about protecting their players? My feeling is the flag is. Was flag it move on. Or at the most give him the Brian Branch ejection.
[00:30:32] Speaker D: The problem.
[00:30:34] Speaker C: So because he was ejected.
[00:30:36] Speaker D: He was ejected. The. This is kind of where it's hard. And there was kind of a debate kind of going online. I saw this a little bit where it's so hard when you watch those plays and they're so bang, bang, they're so fast that it's hard to know did he go in too early or did he go in too late? Like, you know, did he not see the slide? All these different things. You kind of sometimes want to think maybe it wasn't intentional, that they weren't actively trying to hurt the player. But then you think, how many times have we watched Patrick Mahomes use this to his advantage, Skirts the sideline, doesn't go out because he knows those guys are afraid to hit him because they know they're going to get flagged. Or some of these quarterbacks don't slide as early. Now Trevor slid very early. So I think this hit was very clearly ejectable.
And so I can appreciate on a player's perspective that it can be hard to sometimes determine do I hit this quarterback who is now officially a runner or do I play it safe? Because they have been burned by people doing fake slides.
[00:31:48] Speaker C: I think Mahomes looks like it every time.
[00:31:51] Speaker D: Like fake slides or they skirt the boundary and they try to stay in long to kind of play. You fool. Fool. Because this happened in the Lions game with totally Caleb Williams and everyone wanted to call that a dirty hit. And I was like, dude, he was in bounds.
[00:32:08] Speaker C: That was a great hit. Like that was a football hit.
[00:32:11] Speaker D: Like Caleb Williams complained about it and it's like, dude, you don't, you don't get to try to stay in bounds for an extra yard and then get hit.
[00:32:17] Speaker C: And but me, to me, the NFL has always been reactionary. It was based on what the reaction was in the media to this hit. And they Reacted that way. This isn't vontes perfect. Who's a super dirty player, twisting people, lighting people up, blindsiding people throughout every game that he plays.
[00:32:35] Speaker D: Ah, but false.
This particular player has a history.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: This is consistent with a pattern.
[00:32:42] Speaker D: He has actually had multiple hits this season like this.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: He hit pony. He was fined for his hit on Tony Pollard in the Titans game for a late hit out of bounds.
[00:32:52] Speaker D: He did another late hit that resulted in him then eventually getting in a fight and punching somebody.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: He punched Roshan Johnson as well, the Bears running back.
[00:33:00] Speaker D: So this is actually, this is why I think the three game suspension for him in particular is. I'm okay with it.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: He suspended for that punch. I know going from a fine to three games is bonko to me.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: He was so. He was fined $11,000 for punching Ron Johnson. He was fined over 11 grand for the late hit on Tony Pollard and he's been fined for this Trevor Lawrence hit.
[00:33:24] Speaker D: I agree this is probably a reactionary.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: It has been a part of multiple scuffles.
[00:33:29] Speaker D: Right.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: In the Bears game and the Titans game.
[00:33:33] Speaker C: Sure, I get that. So this is totally different than.
[00:33:36] Speaker D: I can agree with you that it is reactionary, but I also am like it may be reactionary, but I think he deserves it too.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: My thought is I think it's a football. Like okay, was it somewhat of a dirty hit? Sure. But I also think he's in a hard space. These defenders are in a hard place to make these bang bang plays.
[00:33:55] Speaker D: That's what I was just talking.
[00:33:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to me in that regard. It's a. He's seven yards downfield running and you're telling me I can't hit him. He's huge. Trevor Lawrence is as big as some of these linebackers. He's huge.
[00:34:07] Speaker D: And half of these guys, they have been burned by players like this by not tackling them. And so it's, it's so hard for them to know.
[00:34:16] Speaker A: Even in this Jaguars game he, there was a brawl after the hit and he pulled one of his opponents down to the ground by the face mask.
And this is, this is a part of the consistent pattern of behavior. And I think this retribution is coming down hard on this particular player because he's setting a precedent that the league does not want to allow.
A strong message is being sent. Yeah, you can't start these fights. He's in fights every game and he's getting more late hit penalties.
[00:34:51] Speaker C: But then they're putting those fights out advertising the games like they can't have their cake and eat it too. The NFL can't say we don't want fights. This entire league is fighting. It's justified fighting. It's what's legal and not legal fighting. You footballed out of football flag.
[00:35:08] Speaker D: So two things can be true here though, right?
[00:35:10] Speaker A: It can be true.
[00:35:12] Speaker D: It can be true. Multiple things can be true at the same time, by the way. It can be true that maybe he wasn't intentionally trying to be dirty and it can be sometimes hard to figure out whether they should make the play or not. That's true. It can be true that he has also been overtly aggressive in multiple games this season, has shown a pattern that needs to be punished. It can be true that he deserves a three game suspension. It can be true. This is reactionary. And it can be true that the NFL is not consistent about this. Which is also what the Texans GM even said. He even came out and supported but mostly said the problem is you're not consistent about this. And I think that's also true.
[00:35:55] Speaker C: Duh. Think of when Kiko Alonso about murder Joe Flacco and he just got ejected from the game and that was it. And then they lost Joe Flacco and had to put Ryan Mallet in. You didn't think Ryan Mallet was going to be brought up today, did you?
But nothing happened to Kiko. Nothing. So that's. That is a frustration of mine. Our last question comes from Ryan Gates. He did joke about how this was the best pod last week when I wasn't here. So thanks a lot.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: Thanks Ryan. You're awesome.
[00:36:22] Speaker C: Question for the boys, how would you categorize this year's Vikings and this year's Chiefs? Two teams. And by the way, we talked a little bit about this so it's okay if we're brief. But he's got a good point on here. Two teams. Teams that to me don't look quite as good as their record shows. But I'm not ready to call them frauds. Certainly not the team led by Patrick Mahomes. We've all seen the stat line of the chiefs of the second worst plus minus of any 11 and one team ever. But I still wouldn't bet against them when they're heading to the super bowl potentially. Also go Packers. Screw the Lions. You don't have to be. You can't be fans of both no matter how pathetic the last 50 years have been in Detroit. Get out of here, Kyle.
[00:37:07] Speaker A: Respectfully, screw you Ryan.
I'm on board and I've always been on board.
[00:37:13] Speaker D: I think it's hard to know, like, is this luck for some of these teams? Is it skill? Is this just like the football gods kind of being like, yeah, this is your time to shine. In the end, when it gets to the playoffs, you're going to have your answer.
That's what it's going to. They're going to get both these teams are going to the playoffs and they're either going to win their first round and maybe make it to the second one or they're going to get bounced right out. Chiefs technically still control their fate in the one seed, which is crazy.
I think they're going to eventually lose it to the Bills. I do think they have a couple of hard games coming up that might test them. They can go through. And the Vikings too. The Vikings have the third hardest schedule in the league.
Remaining schedule right behind the lines.
So I don't know. We're going to find out. I think. I don't know. This is just kind of what I know about playing.
[00:38:14] Speaker C: Just say they're going to. You're going to find out. I mean you could answer every question that way. But like, what do you see that's different about them this year compared to years of the past?
[00:38:23] Speaker D: Nothing.
This is like when they went 13 and 3 and then they. With Cousins and then they got literally.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Set by the Giants.
[00:38:33] Speaker D: Literally the exact same thing. They had a whole bunch of wins that were one score games that were always very tight. And then the first time they got into the playoffs they got bounced right out.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: Vikings are a strong regular season team. They're like the Cowboys or again like the Steelers. You know, there are certain teams to stack up wins in the regular season very consistently. But we struggle. We have. When watching season after season after season, we struggled to just believe, struggle to believe in a team like that. Now I see them, they look different somehow. They look different. Like I look at the Chiefs this year and like Chiefs last year and the year before that. They don't look like the same team to me. Same with the Vikings. The Vikings, they look different to me now. They're like living and dying by their defense, which is incredible. And. And different person under center is very different. Different in so many ways. Lots going on. That's different with that team and yet the results are pretty consistently the same. Yeah, and so it's. I struggle to just kind of fully get on board or believe that it's going to be more than an early upset.
[00:39:30] Speaker C: Some of the, it's some of the Tom Brady effect that he had. It's hard to bet against him until he doesn't. And that's kind of what Mahomes has.
[00:39:37] Speaker D: I was just going to say they've earned that.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the line. They've earned it.
[00:39:41] Speaker D: The Chiefs are the new New England Patriots right now. They are generation.
[00:39:46] Speaker C: Jamie would like to hear that.
[00:39:48] Speaker D: It's just.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: But it's true. Jamie. We don't hear from him.
[00:39:50] Speaker D: It's true. When you watch the Patriots for so long, they were always in the playoffs. They were always winning their division. They were always being relevant. What didn't matter. It didn't matter.
[00:39:59] Speaker C: It's a good question to ask Ryan. I appreciate it. And by the way, forget by the way.
[00:40:03] Speaker D: People were talking like this about the Chiefs last year, too. And then they got to the playoffs.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: People, Us.
[00:40:10] Speaker D: Everybody. Everybody was saying the Chiefs don't look like the Chiefs anymore. They don't look like they got it. And then they won.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: They win at all.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: Ryan, I am with you. I'm against Ian's take. I don't think he can be a Lions fan. I'm glad he didn't wear the shirt when I was here last week.
[00:40:26] Speaker D: Hard transition, by the way.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: Yeah, okay, I'm in. I'm in full agreement with you, Ryan, but I will respect that he's allowing Ian to make a decision for him rather than just doing it. That was fair.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: I think the true Lions fan can gatekeep fandom. Not. Not you guys.
[00:40:42] Speaker D: I don't think anybody. I don't think anybody can gatekeep fandom.
[00:40:45] Speaker C: That was.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: I mean, honestly, I like that take better. But, you know, if I. I'm going to talk to a loyal fan who's been there this whole time and say like, if you. Do you think I'm being disingenuous when I.
[00:40:54] Speaker C: What about him kicking you out of a Packers fandom?
[00:40:59] Speaker A: Who are you to kick me out of packers fan?
[00:41:01] Speaker C: He's been a Packer fan longer than you have been.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: Oh, maybe that's possibly. It's only been like 25 years for me.
[00:41:07] Speaker C: Oh, maybe you left football for a while, too.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Oh, okay. You might have me there.
[00:41:12] Speaker C: See, this is. I'm trying to work my way numbers here.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: So you. That's what it is. It's number of years like you have. You earn the right to be a fan over years and years for this argument.
[00:41:22] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: Okay. All I know. Too many rules governing fandom.
[00:41:26] Speaker D: All I know is it's your problem. It's your existential crisis on Thursday. Who are you going to root for?
[00:41:34] Speaker C: I'm super Excited. And we're going to hear about it at the end of the pod.
[00:41:37] Speaker D: You don't have to say but you just like that's your, that's your, that's your problem.
[00:41:41] Speaker C: The end of the pod. We're going to hear that. Anything big news that you guys are missing on here. There's one stat that I wanted to read that just kind of caught my eye. Over the last 50 days the new York teams that have won in the state of New York, the Giants have won zero. The jets have won once, the Mets have won twice and the Yankees have won five times in the last 50 game 50 days.
[00:42:06] Speaker D: The fact that the Yankees have won more times than either of the football teams is combined.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: I thought their season was over. Like.
[00:42:13] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:42:15] Speaker C: The craziest part about it for sure.
[00:42:16] Speaker D: The only thing that I think is worth mentioning is Cousins.
[00:42:23] Speaker C: We're gonna, we're gonna get to Cousins.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: Trust two listener things. You listener things.
[00:42:27] Speaker C: Oh yeah, we missed the commission and.
[00:42:29] Speaker A: A Peter Mauer question.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: Commission commish. Oh no. We hit that Peter Mauer question about two. Oh well give him the two then. I'm sorry.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: Okay Peter, it's two questions were related to the Browns and we kind of addressed one and meant to attack this one on earlier but he asked us to do an exercise of like if we could just magically wave a magic wand or whatever but just relocate to humans from anywhere in the NFL in any potential role place replace their equivalent on the Browns. What which two would maximize the likelihood of the Browns having a Lions esque rebuild pick two. It could be player staff across the league. Who do you think would really the.
[00:43:16] Speaker D: Number one greatest impact you'd have to have a quarterback.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: You're going quarterback.
[00:43:20] Speaker D: I love Winston but I think you need a more consistent quarterback.
[00:43:23] Speaker A: You can place. You can move anybody from anywhere in the league. This is just a thought exercise. And you think that they would have comparable rebuild success to the Lions. He we had a discussion about the Browns and Lions having like this shared misery over the history of their franchises as the two kind of like worst performing teams or long lasting long teams. These are not new teams. These are old teams who've basically sucked forever.
[00:43:48] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: And so the Browns and Lions have gotten to commiserate on that. Now the Lions are peaking. The Lions are as good better than they've probably ever been in this whole new era. What would it take for the Browns to mirror this? And I have the second person who could you move. You didn't. You didn't name a person. You just Named a position?
[00:44:09] Speaker D: Well, yeah. I mean, there's plenty of quarterbacks you could probably choose from that would all.
[00:44:13] Speaker C: Would you pick one for us?
[00:44:16] Speaker D: That's like a reasonable move. Like one that.
[00:44:19] Speaker C: Waving a magic wand doesn't need to be reasonable. Come on.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: It doesn't need to be anybody.
[00:44:22] Speaker D: All right, I'll put Lamar Jackson over there.
[00:44:24] Speaker C: Cool. And I'm giving them the Rooney family because the real problem is not a player, it's the.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: It's the down I like. Thank you for saying that.
[00:44:32] Speaker D: I like that because they're the ones.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure the Rooney family owns the Steelers.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: Pittsburgh Steelers.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Steelers. Okay. I like it.
[00:44:40] Speaker D: I'm pretty sure that the owners of the Browns are the only reason Watson kept getting trotted on that field.
[00:44:48] Speaker C: Oh, for sure.
[00:44:49] Speaker D: Pretty.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: For sure. Yeah.
[00:44:51] Speaker D: I don't think Stefanski ever wanted to put him out there.
[00:44:54] Speaker C: I agree.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
He can't be that dumb. But I think that those are good. I think that those are good ones. My first inclination actually, honestly was ownership as well. I was trying to think like a good one. I was trying to move Robert Kraft over there because he's had success over the tenure of his ownership. I mean, they're all despicable people. I don't like any of them. Like, don't get me wrong, there's not an owner.
[00:45:15] Speaker C: I'm wincing as you say his name as well.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Yay. But he's like an owner that's like been very invested in his team and has had a lot of success under the tenure of his ownership.
[00:45:24] Speaker C: I'm glad that I took the ownership answer away from you.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: I like. I like your choice. That's pretty good. I don't know that, like they would guarantee success, but they've been the mileage, ability, consistency. I think the.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: Which is what the Browns, Ravens ownership as well.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Funny that. I think the Ravens and the Steelers in the same division here are kind of like the models for consistency.
[00:45:44] Speaker D: Tomlins, officially, because they got nine wins, they're going to have another winning season.
[00:45:49] Speaker C: Justin Matson hits his over bet on the amount of wins over the season. Congrats, Justin.
[00:45:54] Speaker D: He's got what, 18 consecutive non losing seasons.
[00:45:58] Speaker C: It's pretty amazing.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: So crazy.
[00:46:00] Speaker D: He's never been below.500.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: I would hate to be below.500. Speaking of hate, let's get my hater aid section going on. Guys.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: We're blind ranking.
[00:46:08] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sorry. Commission and I wanted to trash on Cousins for hot. We're going to talk about cousins during my haterade. So I'm going to give you a chance to talk about them. But right now we're going to hear from the one, the only, the Commish.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: This is Adam Silver, AKA the Commish. And this is the Commish Report.
Well, it's now becoming a habit to warm up the fat lady's vocal cords early in the fourth quarter of Niners games. It's unfortunate, but this is the reality of the 2024.
Normally this would bother me more, but I just returned from running a 50 mile ultramarathon and was able to witness firsthand the true meaning of pain, suffering and heartache by many around me. It's all about perspective, my friends. So with that said, it's safe to say the season is kaput.
It's a bitter pill to swallow, but there's no point in rushing players back into the lineup for a lost cause.
Let them heal and see what you have left on this team, which isn't much for the remaining five games. Work on fundamentals like tackling or eliminating or pre snap penalties, red zone offense, et cetera. There's a lot to work on. Trust me here. Off season activities will be key from the start of free agency to the draft to decisions about defense and special teams, coaching changes and the decision about what to pay Purdy. And let's get that contract done early to the start of training camp. Let's get Kyle some Grecian Formula 44. The graying hairs the season has produced. This team has a lot to work through and honestly needs a hard reset.
Hashtag on to 20, 25. This was the chemistry report.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: It's just sad.
[00:47:49] Speaker D: Who is their running back now?
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Running back? How about running Commish? He just did a 50 plus mile ultra run.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:58] Speaker D: That's a long time.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: That's insane.
[00:48:00] Speaker C: Shout out to commission. Hashtag Strava.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: I mean when I'm joking around with him, I'll be.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: I'll.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: I'll be like, you're. You're nuts. You're w. You're a crazy man.
[00:48:09] Speaker D: How.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: But I. Nothing but respect for you. What was his public forum?
[00:48:12] Speaker D: Do you know?
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Commission, you got your time.
[00:48:15] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: Commission, you got your time is his time for that. You know, I mean he finished it. So it's not. It's better than the time any of us could do, which be lifetime.
[00:48:26] Speaker D: Well, 26. So this was 50k.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:31] Speaker D: How many miles is that?
[00:48:32] Speaker A: I don't even know. And he's old. I mean this is like really old.
And he's still out there.
[00:48:39] Speaker D: 35, 40.
[00:48:41] Speaker C: It took him 15 hours and 23 minutes.
[00:48:44] Speaker D: That's a long time.
[00:48:45] Speaker C: Holy.
[00:48:45] Speaker D: I mean, but like I don't even.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: Want to drive that long. That's more than like driving that long would literally be a, like a punishment.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: It would destroy me. Wow.
[00:48:55] Speaker D: 50K.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: That's no miles.
[00:48:57] Speaker C: Not K. Oh, I think 55.7 miles.
[00:49:00] Speaker D: 55 miles.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:03] Speaker D: Dude.
[00:49:03] Speaker C: Shout out to commission. But Commish, we're going to talk a little Niners. Okay.
[00:49:06] Speaker D: Run to Lansing.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: I think we'd rather talk about them. I would too than the Niners.
[00:49:11] Speaker C: You need to hear this because I don't know if anybody has the guts to say it to you. I'm going to say it to you. Your team's done. Okay? Enjoy what has been. You know, the 49ers walking out with beam the boom boxes over their shoulders, talking about how great they are coming into the game. It's over, it's done. You're going to pay his quarterback. That's going to be average for your team. He's not going to make anybody great. Your coach will. He'll finally have the chance to say I'm got a high paid quarterback. And it was the last pick in the draft. So they are going to start losing players. Trent Williams, Goodbye. He's gone. McCaffrey never will be the same. Enjoy what was this island of relevancy because it is gone and you are going into the sea of mediocrity.
[00:49:58] Speaker D: Debo also fell off a major cliff this year. Looked terrible, man. Well, he's probably going to be their major running tool now that they have no running back.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: I love.
[00:50:08] Speaker C: That's the thing that's scary because they're going to just. If it was me in your playing as the coach, you just run the hell out of him. You know what I mean? So yeah, to me that's where I, I get a little bit and I'm sure I'm gonna get a little hate for that and I'm okay with it because we got hate run through my veins right now when it comes to this upcoming segment about the haterade.
Guys, I'm gonna blind rank. We're gonna blind rank five different things. You tell me whether it would be number one, the most hate or five, the least amount of hate that you would have.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: All right, I'm ready. Bring it on.
[00:50:41] Speaker C: Justin Tucker, you just suck at kicking field goals now and you're only known for being a really good opera singer.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: I don't know, you've had a great.
[00:50:49] Speaker D: Career yes, I'd put him at five.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:50:53] Speaker D: I'd put him at five.
[00:50:53] Speaker C: What if you're the center for the Raiders who messed up the snap on the final play and they could have beaten the Chiefs and instead it was fumbled and they lost the game. Oof. That is pretty rookie, by the way. So it's like, oh, you got the whole rest of your career to look forward to hear about.
[00:51:09] Speaker D: Pretty, pretty big bummer. But your season was already tanked. Yeah, I'd probably put that at 4. What would you do?
[00:51:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I'm putting that at four.
[00:51:18] Speaker C: Okay. What if you're Joe Burrow, you have to have that awful defense that made Pittsburgh Steelers look like a Pro bowl offense.
And you know that your owner will no longer be paying for anybody of any value in the off season.
[00:51:32] Speaker A: Right? Right. They've learned a terrible lesson.
[00:51:35] Speaker C: Five years ago we thought Joe Burrow, this was his league. He's the Mahomes defeater.
[00:51:41] Speaker D: Did we, did we talk about how. Yeah, they score like 30 plus points in almost all their games and they are like in the games that they score like 30 plus more, they're like 2 and 5, 2 and 4 and then the rest of the league is like 50 and 1.
[00:51:56] Speaker C: Can I tell you a crazy scoring station that's doesn't. It's not NFL, it's NCA boy football. Purdue, if they started 35 to nothing, winning 35 to nothing in every game, they'd be six and six this year.
Isn't that crazy? 35 points just.
[00:52:14] Speaker D: If I'm Joe, I'm pretty close to one or two here. That defense is atrocious and it is wasting what is probably one of his bet he's gonna end the league with like 4,000 plus yards, 45 touchdowns.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: He's like, this is a career here.
[00:52:35] Speaker D: He should be leading the MVP race.
[00:52:39] Speaker C: Right now, but will not be.
[00:52:40] Speaker D: But if he. If he had a better defense, he would, and they like their record was better, he would be probably leading the conversation. His numbers are that good.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: I could see it.
[00:52:51] Speaker D: I put him at one.
[00:52:52] Speaker C: That's your number one.
[00:52:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:54] Speaker D: That would be my number one.
[00:52:55] Speaker C: What if you're Trevor Lawrence and you can't remember the hit you just took?
[00:52:58] Speaker D: Well, am I hating a hit? But I can't remember.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: Right. Just hating.
[00:53:02] Speaker C: So it's a three then about it.
[00:53:04] Speaker D: I maybe am upset about the future CTE that I have to have, but I probably put it three just because I want to leave.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Two is you are Kirk Cousins and you've thrown Zero touchdowns, six interceptions.
[00:53:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker C: In the last three games. Yep. Yeah.
[00:53:18] Speaker D: I'm at number two because I wanted to talk about this earlier and you're ruining my fantasy team.
[00:53:22] Speaker C: I'm just going to let you. We're going to give your fantasy update and I'm going to let you rip Kirk Cousins at the same time, I'm going to give you exactly. You ready for this? You guys had a little takeoff last week. We're going to see if we can time a one minute take for Ian and see if you can get it all out in a minute. Ready?
[00:53:38] Speaker D: Kirk Cousins.
[00:53:39] Speaker C: Kirk Cousins. You have a minute to.
[00:53:40] Speaker D: I don't. I don't let it fly. I don't need a minute. I mean.
[00:53:43] Speaker C: 3, 2, 1, go.
[00:53:44] Speaker D: Well, I just. I'm upset because I drafted you. I named my team after you, and then you've been terrible, and then I put you on the bench because you've been so bad, and then what does. What does Brock Purdy do? Two points.
I should have put Kirk in. I would have got six.
I. I'm so. Yeah.
I just. I like Kirk. He was supposed to be the saving grace for Atlanta and it's kind of a bummer that they suck.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:54:12] Speaker D: That's all I got to say.
[00:54:13] Speaker C: Pinnock's going to be in there soon.
[00:54:15] Speaker D: No, they'll ride the season now unless he gets. Unless he gets, like, atrociously bad.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: Did you hear what Kirk Cousins says he wants to do after he retires?
[00:54:22] Speaker D: I have no idea.
[00:54:23] Speaker C: He just wants to live in a big city where he can be a background person for theater.
[00:54:28] Speaker D: I mean, did you. I heard that on his buy, he went and saw Wicked and his wife had to tell him to stop singing the song.
[00:54:34] Speaker C: I loved Wicked. It was so good.
So good. Okay, that's my hater aid section for you guys. Do we have a must watch game of the week? Oh, duh.
[00:54:44] Speaker D: 100% we do.
[00:54:46] Speaker C: It's our first Thursday night football game of the week. We haven't picked one all season.
[00:54:50] Speaker D: I've been trying to actively make sure that. I have been trying to pick games that are maybe like, good, that are Unknowns at the 1:00 slot. But we're kind of at that point in the season where playoffs are looming.
[00:55:05] Speaker C: These are starting to mean a lot more.
[00:55:07] Speaker D: Games mean a lot more. And this particular game is extremely important for.
[00:55:13] Speaker C: Who is it?
[00:55:14] Speaker D: Detroit versus Green Bay, baby. This is a big game because if Detroit loses, they no longer own the tiebreaker off the Eagles. So they will lose. The number one seed. Assuming the Eagles, like, don't lose themselves. It's like the Eagles went out. That would, like, they're going to take it.
[00:55:32] Speaker C: So, Kyle, is this an upset or a lock for you this week? Either of these teams.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: What teams?
[00:55:38] Speaker C: Lions or Packers? The games that you're listening to right now.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: Oh, no, no. I stayed away from that.
[00:55:45] Speaker D: It's a hard game.
[00:55:46] Speaker C: We made. We made the audience wait 55 minutes to hear who you were going to pick for this game, though.
[00:55:51] Speaker D: Yeah. Who are you going to pick?
[00:55:52] Speaker A: Oh, I'm predicting that the Lions are victorious in this game.
[00:55:55] Speaker C: Are you.
[00:55:56] Speaker D: Who are you rooting for?
This is the better question. What shirt are you gonna wear?
[00:56:02] Speaker C: That's a better question.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: Oh, shoot. Is this Thursday night?
[00:56:05] Speaker D: This is Thursday.
[00:56:06] Speaker A: Okay. So I should be able to watch some of this.
[00:56:08] Speaker C: He'll be wearing a shirt.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll be. I'll. What if I just went shirtless for this one?
[00:56:17] Speaker D: This is the existential crisis.
[00:56:18] Speaker A: You know, if I zoom out a little bit, and I don't really like doing this on air because I'm gonna catch heat for this. And I don't actually like the judgment that I didn't invite. Didn't mean to invite from everybody, but I guess it's. It's for the pod content.
Like, there's. I'm tormented.
[00:56:32] Speaker C: Literally asked for it.
[00:56:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I asked Ian. All right. And Ian's a nice guy.
[00:56:39] Speaker D: I'm not. I mean, you don't have to tell me what shirt you're going to wear.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: Here's what I can. I can say without hesitation, I'm very comfortable saying, admitting the fact that I want the Lions to win the super bowl this year more than any other team.
[00:56:58] Speaker D: There you go.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Without. Without hesitation. Hesitation. In 2025, in February, nothing could please me more than seeing Detroit host their first ever Lombardi.
That would be a magical moment. And I'd probably cry.
[00:57:14] Speaker C: I like it. Okay. It's a good take. So that stands for this week, too, then. For you.
[00:57:21] Speaker A: You can interpret that however you want.
[00:57:23] Speaker D: Okay. This is the good news about this game. It's in Detroit. This was in Lambeau. I think I'd be a lot more nervous.
[00:57:30] Speaker C: Let's hear our locks and upsets of the week, guys. We had some good picks last week. Let's hear our locks.
[00:57:37] Speaker D: Fantasy. Oh, fantasy is important because playoffs start and only one.
[00:57:41] Speaker C: Are you guys in the playoffs?
[00:57:43] Speaker D: Kyle is.
[00:57:44] Speaker A: I'm not. Oh, sorry, man.
[00:57:47] Speaker D: You want to know why I'm not?
[00:57:49] Speaker A: Why?
[00:57:49] Speaker D: Both of my running backs, one got concussed so he was out and the other one was ruled like doubtful early. So my two running backs, my weakest positions by the way, were both out. And then I had to put either Cousins or Purdy in, both who have not been playing great. And it's been bad. It's been bad.
[00:58:11] Speaker A: I'm so sorry.
[00:58:12] Speaker D: Past couple weeks, to be fair. This is nothing to be fair about.
[00:58:15] Speaker C: I don't even needed to throw it in one more time. We have a contract.
[00:58:20] Speaker D: I don't even appreciate it.
[00:58:22] Speaker C: Our sponsor sponsored three of those and we only had two.
[00:58:25] Speaker D: So just like in the real playoffs though, Kyle, you're in. You have a shot.
[00:58:30] Speaker A: I got a shot. And my team is performing really well. Last couple of weeks I've had true team wins. Like solid performance by most of my team. Even my top points getter is going kind of weak. Everybody else is stepping up. I'm feeling good about my chances.
[00:58:46] Speaker C: We're excited to hear about how your playoffs next week. We'll hear about it. All right.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: We'll see.
[00:58:50] Speaker C: Let's hear our locks and upsets of the week. Ian, you're going to be our capstone. Kyle and I are going to bounce back and forth between our locks. So I'm going to start with my lock of Cincinnati over Dallas. How about you, Kyle? Your lock of the week. The team that you guarantee will be winning, they will not lose this week. I think it had to do with the Carolina Panthers, right?
[00:59:11] Speaker A: Oh. I am locking the Eagles over the Panthers this year.
[00:59:14] Speaker C: And your upset pick this past week or this upcoming week will be who?
[00:59:20] Speaker A: I gotta go with the Seahawks upsetting the Cardinals this week. I was a little surprised on this one, but I feel pretty good about the Seahawks. I like this team, you guys. I can't say enough good things.
[00:59:31] Speaker C: I'm staying in the division right there. I'm going Rams over Buffalo. I think the travel going all the way to LA is going to be a big hangover from primetime game that they had before. I'm taking the Rams over Buffalo.
Ian, take us home.
[00:59:46] Speaker D: I'm doing a thing. I'm doing a thing. I think this is a safe thing. I was actually when I saw this, I was so comfortable about this upset pick that I locked it in as well. So this is a dual combo. A lock and upset.
Chicago over San Francisco 49ers.
[01:00:06] Speaker C: Boom, baby.
[01:00:07] Speaker D: They're gonna get that new head coach boost.
[01:00:11] Speaker C: Love it. That's all I got.
[01:00:13] Speaker A: I like that a lot.
[01:00:17] Speaker C: I want to thank you for listening to the pod. This is where Kyle and Ian last time they did the pod, they just said, what does Marshall do? We missed him. It's part in the pod where I got really excited. Felt like people cared about me. I'm back.
[01:00:28] Speaker D: Well, I mean, I can.
[01:00:29] Speaker C: So, like I was saying, I came right in here and, you know, like I was saying before, you can't do.
[01:00:37] Speaker A: This to me, love.
[01:00:39] Speaker C: The microphone is just on me, and this is my little time to shine. And you can hear me. Genos Freedom.
Josh Allen. Can you yell Achilles for me, Ian?
[01:00:52] Speaker A: Achilles.
[01:00:54] Speaker C: All right, guys, we hope you have a great week. Stay safe. Tell the people that you love that you love them. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.
