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Team Power Rankings, Game Of The Week & Upsets To Look Out For | NFL Week 7 Look Ahead 🏈👇 · Know Your Personnel Pod

• Nathan Hawthorne: We need to see better coaching this week in the NFL period. It the these teams have to tighten things up, they have to clean things up, and I'm not gonna be quiet about it until they do. I'm I'm tired of the penalties. I'm tired of people saying that the NFL is controlling games, which they might be, we don't know. But the bottom line is is there's a lot of controllables out there in what we're talking about that these teams just simply are not controlling. You love to say it, we love to say it. What can you control? You can control your matchup, your effort, your energy, and your focus. You gotta be able to do these things. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host Jared Mac McEnroy. Welcome to episode forty-six of KYP. We are breaking down week seven in the NFL, some of the sleeper potential upsets of the week. We're gonna be looking at the games of the week and telling you what to expect and how. So, Jared, where do you wanna kick us off? Jarod McInroy: I'm gonna kick us off with the power rankings. Let's start off with going into this week. Nathan Hawthorne: Woo we Jarod McInroy: I'm gonna give you my power rankings, my top ten. I'm gonna just list them off one through ten. You give me a few notes on what you think, and we'll go from there. Nathan Hawthorne: All right. Jarod McInroy: First and foremost, number one, I have the Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, I'm going one to ten because I'm gonna let you know who's ten who's number one first. We'll talk about ten later. Number one, Kansas City Chiefs. Number two, San Francisco. I they're right there. They they're almost number one. but I'm I'm gonna give the Chiefs a slight edge. Number three, Buffalo. Only because of offense. I'm not gonna give their defense any credit to nothing. Give up thirty to anybody who asked nicely. Number four, Jacksonville. Jacksonville, like what I'm seeing out of Jacksonville. Tough loss, but I still like Jacksonville four. Then I got Minnesota at five. I got the Chicago Bears at six, the Seattle Seahawks at seven, Baltimore at eight, the Broncos at nine And the bangles at ten. Nathan Hawthorne: Mm. Jarod McInroy: Initial reactions. What do we got? Nathan Hawthorne: There's every team just about except for I think the top two, Kansas City and San Francisco, feels like they have holes. Like kinda on honestly, four through eight feels like you can kinda switch swap and move some guys around. And I think there's some even a couple teams that maybe could be as high as eight. I think one of those teams is is maybe Detroit. Detroit could be up there. I know that their defense is tough, but their offense can still put up like nobody's business. I think the Steelers are an interesting team right now. I think we ripped them in the last episode, but Aaron Rodgers is is getting the football around. Tampa Bay's defense is solid, so we can't really knock them too much for that. And then the Browns, as much as I dislike them, they they've got something going. I can't figure out what it is. Maybe they belong in that eleven to twelve territory, but I Jarod McInroy: The only reason I left the Browns out was very similar to why I had Minnesota at five. I think there's a lot of fool's gold in there. I think there's a lot of wins where maybe Nathan Hawthorne: Mm, mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: they shouldn't have had wins, especially this last week against you know, Baltimore team with no Lamar Jackson. That's probably a loss if you didn't get a little bit lucky. So I I think there's a lot of really good teams with records that don't reflect how good the team is, Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: or even played up until this point. Again A Jacksonville team is a perfect example. They played a very good game in London last week, regardless of the outcome. They had to stay in London for two weeks. Like there's a there's a lot at play there, and I I really like what I'm seeing from both sides of the ball. so that that was that was my justification. But if I had to pick an 11, I got the Lions. Like they're they're right there knocking on the door. Steelers, not as much. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, we also this is this is power rankings, not necessarily here's my team's record. Where are the Texans at? Are they sniffing top ten? I know they're two and four, Jarod McInroy: they're sniffing. Nathan Hawthorne: but CJ Stroud, Nick Cayley in the offense, Marvin Harrison Jr., Nico Conn like they're figuring a little something out. We assume the defense is gonna Jarod McInroy: I need three weeks. Nathan Hawthorne: pick it up. You need three more? Jarod McInroy: No th or in addition to this one. So I need three straight weeks to be convinced. Do it Nathan Hawthorne: Okay. Jarod McInroy: this week, do it next week, and do it one more week after that, and then then we'll be tough. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. I have a tough time. here's my deal with Minnesota and I again, Brian Flores is getting a lot of credit out there. I think that people are underestimating how much of a learning curve that Kyler Murray has right now. He's basically going back to school in what is this year seven or eight of the NFL. First couple years you get Cliff Kingsbury. He's just running a modified college offense. And then you get Jonathan Gannon, you know, pew pew pew, you know, gonna take shots. Kind of a strange guy, but then you Bring in Drew Petzing, who doesn't know how to get the ball to anyone other than Jameer Gibbs. So what was he doing? And then Kyler kind of in and out with some injuries. And so I think that this is the first year that Kyler Murray's getting real NFL quarterback head coaching. And so I think it's gonna take him a little bit longer to f to figure things out. So I don't know if like Minnesota at five is necessarily fool's gold. I think it's more, you know, there's some there's there's Jarod McInroy: The jury's just not out. I'm not convinced. Nathan Hawthorne: Th there's there's there's some gold in the river and you know you're panning for it. You're just not sure you're not sure how much is how much is there. You know, you're seeing Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: some shimmer, but if you keep if you keep going, how much more are you gonna get? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, and I think there's a lot of talk about maybe they go get another quarterback too. maybe that maybe they make a big swing at Justin Herbert. I don't know if resetting all of this progress you've made with Kyler to this point is worth doing, but Nathan Hawthorne: No, no. Jarod McInroy: at the same time, you are paying Kyler next to nothing. So to get rid of him, you didn't take that much of a swing getting him in general. it it's gotta be you gotta commit to whoever that guy is. If it is Justin Herbert and the Chargers Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: do p w w let him walk. You gotta fully fully go in. So that would be crazy. Nathan Hawthorne: You can Chargers Chargers cannot ever afford to let Justin Herbert walk. Never, ever, ever. But if there was, Jarod McInroy: Him and Jim don't get along. Nathan Hawthorne: you know who's picking up the you know who's picking up the phone for Jarod McInroy: Who's that? Nathan Hawthorne: Justin Herbert? Carly Ursay Gordon. She's made her first she no, Jarod McInroy: Okay. Nathan Hawthorne: listen up. She has made she has struck her first move. Okay. She has chopped the first head of her time. in Indianapolis as the owner. She you see her down there on the headset. A lot Jarod McInroy: Love it. Nathan Hawthorne: of a lot of owners could probably use use some work like she's doing. And she said, Hey, Chris Ballard Outside of Jonathan Taylor and Quentin Nelson, what have you done for me lately? And neither of those have been done for Jarod McInroy: A hundred percent. Nathan Hawthorne: lately. So Jarod McInroy: I d I fully agree. I I really, really like that move. Nathan Hawthorne: Interesting. But Shane Shane Steichen and Justin Herbert, a little re a little I think they'd be reuniting as well. I think some Steichen spent some time with him in Los Angeles. So that would be woo woo woo. But Chargers are unfortunately not in the top ten. Chargers are not in the top ten. No, they are not. Yes. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I I don't hate it. But there I think they have a lot bigger problem. Yeah. They're not in the top ten. So those are the power rankings. let's next week we're gonna hear yours. We're gonna keep doing a little flip flop here and there. and and we'll see how things change. 'Cause the the big thing is next week I don't know that I'm gonna see enough this week to make many changes. so I think two weeks of sample size between My next one and yours will work out perfectly. let's let's get into our games of the week. Who who do you have for your game of the week? Nathan Hawthorne: My game of the week is going to be Cincinnati at Baltimore, a classic AFC North battle where both of these teams desperately need a division win. We just talked about Baltimore losing to the Browns inexplicably last week. I know you didn't have Lamar, but it's still inexplicable to be losing that game in the fashion that you did. And then you've got Cincinnati coming off a bye week and they've been a little bit Jekyll and Heidi this year. They don't really know what they are offensively. They know they're throw the ball to Jamar Chase, but Chase Brown on the ground hasn't been able to get going. Defense has looked good at times and not great. So maybe this bye week they can peel things together. but I'm looking at this game to say, like we talked about in our power rankings, how good are both of these teams? And I think it's going to be a great lit litmus test for us to see. I believe Lamar is set to come back this week. You know, again, Bengals off a bye. Both teams need a division win. It is going to be hot and contested in Baltimore. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I'm really excited for that one too. I I w I n again I hate when teams have a ton of different injuries that really affect the game because they started to they've almost started I know it's quarterback play more so than the weapons that they have available, but they're starting to look a little one dimensional again with the Ravens. you know, yes, Jacoby Lane is new to the team, however, losing him was a big piece of the early part of this offense offense and also it's Nathan Hawthorne: Very much so. Jarod McInroy: Some people don't think about how much time they spent in the off season developing what their scheme's gonna be, what their offense is gonna look like. Like he was with them for multiple weeks. That's all they've been working on. He has a pretty productive first couple of games and then boom, he's out injury reserve. So it's getting healthy is certainly important, but also adapting to when those injuries occur. Tyler Huntley, again, is it Tyler Huntley, is it Bonex, whoever it is. Nathan Hawthorne: Ha ha ha. Jarod McInroy: it doesn't doesn't quite matter to me. It's I I don't like watching games with backup quarterbacks where you have to scheme so d almost desperately. Like you you really just like you you don't want to lose the game on af offense and you try to win in on defense. If that's the case, go get a different quarterback. Tyler Huntley's eight and nine as as a Raven. Like that that's not great. So you let him walk, you let him walk and then you come back like Five hundred, yes, I I understand. Five hundred's not terrible, but Lamar does have injuries. You want somebody who you can really rely on to to go sling it. If you're gonna go out, I would rather go out with a guy who has three picks than go out ten to thirteen against the Browns. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, you know, I I get that for for Lor for Huntley, but also as a backup quarterback, sometimes you really only need to spell for a game here and there. And if it's n if it's more than three games, if we're talking about four or five games, then you start talking about a lost season, right? So if he's going five hundred and he's playing two games, you got one. But unfortunately the one that you lost was your division game and a game that was very manageable to win. and like you mentioned, this there's no There's no reason they should have lost that game. But you know, here you are. Again, now if you get Lamar back, this offense looks entirely different. Just his ability. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: as a passer, as a runner of the football, he was looking great to start this year. So I I mean, I I really hope he's back and I hope we don't have another lost Lamar season that just adds to the to the what ifs. But yeah, as as far as the game goes this week, it's gonna be electric. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm also excited to see what we see out of the Bengals this week too. It's gonna be a really g really good test for them. my game of the week, it's gonna be a big test also for these two teams. it's it's the Chiefs at the Seahawks. Chiefs, you like you said, you bought five wins. You got five wins, you went five and now if this is a game you go lose, it's not that big of a deal. But you now have a a chance to prove that you're a powerhouse. Like this this isn't You know, we didn't just stumble into five wins like we're here to play, go get a win on the road in Seattle, tough place to play. You're six and all of a sudden this team is absolutely rolling. And a thirteen, fourteen, even fifteen win season seems like it's very achievable at that point. but from Seattle's standpoint, you've got to get back on track on offense. Again, I who knows when Charbonnet is gonna come back. And I don't I'm not convinced he's the answer. I'm not even convinced Jadarian Price is the answer. but the offense has to get back on track. the defense is playing, you know, their butts off, they're trying, they're getting healthy, which is great. But in terms of value, what I'm really looking at, send Monsour Delaine and tell him you do not leave JSN. Nathan Hawthorne: Ho ho ho ho Jarod McInroy: And and just show me a matchup. Like that's a matchup I would love to see. Let him wherever he is on the field, that's where you are. And I know that's not really the scheme of Kansas City, but let's see it. Why not? Give it a week. Why not? Nathan Hawthorne: If hey well w welcome to the rook or I'm sorry, welcome to the NFL rook. You got a matchup with JSN. Whoo! That's a tough one. Seattle, it's gonna be tough to watch K9 run all over you. Now again, Mike McDonald knows how to put a defensive scheme together, but this game actually sets up nicely, I think, for the Seahawks. They don't want to have to outscore people. If you have to outscore people, you have to throw the ball. If you have to throw the ball, Sam Darnold is gonna give a couple away. That's just that's just the nature of the game. He's gonna give a couple away if he has to throw it, you know, in in a 40 times. But we talked about in the last episode, Kansas City is running about 53 plays a game on both sides of the ball. This plays perfectly into what the Seahawks are capable of. You don't have to have your defense on the field for very long. Kansas City is going to play a controlled game, and you're going to have an opportunity to stay in the game because of that. We saw Kansas City essentially shut it down and go vanilla against the Chargers in the second half. We're probably going to see a again, this Kansas City team play controlling kind of football. They're not going to try and and boat race you. So again, you don't have to boat race. You don't have to outscore anybody. And it's just going to be a hard nosed matchup. I wanna say I like the Chiefs in this game, but also the script is kind of setting up, I think, for a A sad return for Kenneth Walker. He's had such a great start to the season. He's gotta have a stinker, right? And what a game for it to be a stinker Jarod McInroy: Well Nathan Hawthorne: against the Seahawks, but also what a game it would be to have a banger. Jarod McInroy: It seems like they left on it seems like they left on decent terms, but like I I just have a feeling Mike McDonald's got a picture of him in his locker in the locker room ready for his defense, like to get hyped. It's gonna be a good one. Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: Anybody, anybody but K9 will beat us this week. Yeah. Tell me tell me tell me your upset for this week. Who's in who's in kind of some danger? Jarod McInroy: Ye sleeper upset of the week. And again, this is just a feeling one, because none of us can make sense of it at this point, and no one really knows why the Cardinals are giving people problems. I I mean, they're second to last in the NFL in defense. They're bottom ten in offense, and they just beat the Rams. now you got the Broncos at Arizona. Broncos Bo Nix, I'm gonna assume has social media. I'm gonna assume he knows what's going on. Nathan Hawthorne: Ha ha ha. Jarod McInroy: He he hasn't proven to be a guy to kind of let things go, but also not a guy that's really like had his back against the wall. So we'll see how he shows up in the moment. everybody slandering his name. Everybody says he's too scared to throw the ball downfield. Maybe he just lets it loose just to shut everybody up. And that seems like a recipe for turnovers and honestly some bad play. again, no one knows why the Cardinals are doing it, but Broncos at Cardinals, I could see them losing that game. F they're four and two, the Broncos, which is, you know, again, a pretty good start to the season. Four and three doesn't look great with the loss to the Cardinals. So they're I think they know that. I think everybody knows that. You just won a game and nobody's saying anything positive about your team. That it a very important Thursday night game as well. Like You played against Seattle where you had a lot to prove. That was almost like the what could have been Super Bowl matchup if Bonex didn't get hurt and they would have beaten the Patriots more than likely. So they had a lot to prove and you came out on the other side of it with a win and nobody saying anything positive. It it's kind of a tough look. and sometimes when morale gets down, you really have to get kicked in the teeth. And I don't think that was enough getting kicked in the teeth, to really flip this team around. so I I see them I see them potentially losing this game. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I I could see it for the Broncos again because they're gonna let a team hang in the game because their offense is just not going anywhere. I will say, Michael Wilson, have you ever met Pat Sertan? There's no Marvin Harrison Jr. to save you now. He's in your jaws all game. Mick Bride, have you met Talanoa Hufunga? He's gonna be right there in your jaws. So I think this matchup actually bodes well defensively to take away the weapons that the Cardinals have. Cardinals aren't running the football very well, but again, If this offense can't get going, we're just gonna have this stuck in the mug slug fest. Somebody gets an explosive play late in the game and now all of a sudden, you know, you're you're in danger. So Cardinals could certainly make this upset. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, who do you have for your upset of the week? Nathan Hawthorne: I have got the Atlanta Falcons hosting the San Francisco 49ers. I think that this is a game that the Falcons can win and honestly really need to win. They're on a two- oh-and-two skid right now. They're two and four, but you get San Francisco on a short week. They're playing tonight, Monday night football. It's a 1 p.m. kickoff. So that means that's going to be in Atlanta, 1 p.m. Eastern. It's actually 10 a.m. for the West Coast for the San Francisco 49ers team. So you might be able to catch them a little sleepy, a little groggy and jump out, maybe put a couple points on the board, make Shanahan kind of have to change that game script a little bit to start playing catch up. So those are the reasons why I think it's it's manageable. And then again, Atlanta's offense is good enough to win in a shootout. They've got enough weapons. Penix can get the ball to those weapons. And then also, when will the Niners actually have a an off night offensively? We haven't really seen that yet. We saw a tough one a couple of weeks ago, but like could this short week be the reason that they finally have a less than productive week and can Atlanta catch them sleeping early in the game and jump out to a lead? You gotta feed Bijan, you gotta shorten the game, and you have to get the San Francisco offense out of rhythm and again get them chasing. I this is setting up nicely for Atlanta. And also the NFL, they like parody and they don't like Kyle Shanahan. He's gotta lose one. He's gotta lose one. They they don't. They don't. Can't stand it. Jarod McInroy: They also don't like undefeated teams. and frankly, you're right. This honest there's not too much about this game that really reads upset other than you have a five and team that's playing a really talented team. One of these nights, by law of average, they gonna have an off night. And it certainly seems like one that they could. Now, again, it's it is a dome team, which I think does play a factor into like You know, you don't have to battle the elements. That's one gigantic piece of the game that we're just taking away. Yes, it's a short week. everybody's gonna be comfortable inside at the perfect temperature. But that's also great elements for a team that has a really dynamic back, great receivers and a dude who likes to absolutely sling the rock. So yeah, I could see and Atlanta also is desperate for this win. Like this would be a huge win toward their s yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: They have they they have to have it. Have to have it. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, this would be a huge w well okay, not half to. There's there's a lot of wins out there, I think, as the season goes on, but Nathan Hawthorne: But but they do. You're you're two and four right now. And then you gotta go at the Buccaneers, versus Bengals, versus the Chiefs, at the Vikings, versus the Lions. Like you if you don't get this one, I'm not sure when you're when you're getting the rest of I know. I know. Jarod McInroy: We've seen this division we've seen this division year in and year out. Nathan Hawthorne: And that's what makes me sick. But I Jarod McInroy: Carolina looks pretty good though. So yeah, if you're gonna be chasing down Carolina, this this does seem like you're you are Nathan Hawthorne: And you've already lost to Carolina. Jarod McInroy: getting close to desperation mode. So no I like it. I like it a lot. I got y in the future, I think we're gonna have a few different segments that we we kinda talk about week in, week out. We don't have one lined up this week. so I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little impromptu my favorite touchdown celebration of the week. Are you ready for this? Nathan Hawthorne: Let's hear it. Let's see it, let's hear it, let's feel it. Jarod McInroy: I'm not I'm not gonna, you know, recreate it too much, but in London, Bishal Tootin doing the shh tiptoeing in my job. It's it's my absolute favorite meme on the planet right now. and he he absolutely hit it. He killed it. Love it. Love to see Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, while Jarod McInroy: it. Nathan Hawthorne: while we're sticking with the Jags, I I would like to give an honorable mention shout out to Travis Hunter. He looks like he's Jarod McInroy: yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: put on some weight too. Do he's Jarod McInroy: Great celebration, too. Nathan Hawthorne: he great celebration, that's what made me think of it. But hey, he's playing both sides of the ball. Everyone said he couldn't. I know it's primarily defense. He got a he had a touchdown and an interception. And by the way, his touchdown was Jarod McInroy: Back to back drives. Nathan Hawthorne: six. Hit him with a Score, I mean, he's such a special player. Deion Sanders was not kidding. You know, say what you want about Deion in Colorado right now. He said, Yeah, sure, whatever. I like my son, he's fine. Travis Hunter is special. And we're seeing it. And thankfully, you know, for Gladstone and the Jaguars, you know, organization, trading up for this guy is is starting to make some sense. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, and again like i it was also painting the frame of this scenario is also very important. Down ten, go down, score the touchdown, and on the very next drive, interception in the end zone to flip this game back on its head. Right when t the Texans were driving you thought it was gonna turn into points. So yeah, no, he he's a big playmaker and I'm excited to see how they I I like seeing them work him into the offense. The offense does look more dynamic with him on the field. you know, across from Parker, Washington and all all these different weapons they have now. So Yeah, I'm right there with you. Yeah, he was No Nathan Hawthorne: He was a Balintnikov winner. Best receiver in college. So like it's he's not bad you know on offense. So again, super special. one of the players we're gonna be excited to see for years in and years out. That's gonna do it here for episode forty-seven of KYP breaking down what's coming in week seven. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host, Sherid McEnroy, and we will see you on the next one.