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NFL Playoff Preview | Eric Messersmith & Brian Johnson · Kenny Wallace Media

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  It's our favorite time of the year.
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  You and I are both big NFL fans. The NFL playoffs are here this
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  coming week. I won't ask you for predictions
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  or anything, we'll talk about it after it happens, but just going
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  to give me your thoughts on the season heading into the
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  playoffs. Where, where is your head at for
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  what the main storylines are? What team or are you most
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  looking forward to seeing? What, what?
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  Where do you see the NFL at this point?
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  Well, I mean, the playoffs come down to what they almost always
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  come down to, which is quarterback play, with the one
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  wild exception of Joe Burrow, who had like a season for the
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  ages in Cincinnati and they're going to miss the playoffs
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  because they dug themselves a four and eight hole.
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  But with that one exception is you go through the quarterbacks
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  on these rosters of these playoff teams, Oh, man, they're
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  just, they're all, they're all good.
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  Of course, the best ones are there.
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  And then you kind of go down the list.
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  A lot of veterans like Stafford and Russell Wilson who have done
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  it, you know, in the past won Super Bowls, things like that.
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  I'm locked into the NFL. You and I talked a little about
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  about college over the break and it's really hard for me to
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  watch. So thank God the NFL has been
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  there. I think this last weekend was
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  kind of anticlimactic 'cause there wasn't too many things on
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  the line, but how, how cool is it that so few games matter and
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  you're still locked in because Mike Evans is getting $3,000,000
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  for breaking the yards record? And then you got the Lions and
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  Vikings on Sunday night, which didn't turn out to be a great
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  game, but certainly that was a huge match up for home field in
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  the NFC, the NFL playoffs. There's nothing better to me.
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  Those are the best sports games to me that are played because of
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  the stakes, because the NB as great.
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  Major League Baseball is great, but just the stakes of winner go
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  home in the NFL playoffs in one game.
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  It's just, you know, it's when legends are made.
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  Man, it's so cool. And the drama and the storylines
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  and it can can they can anyone finally get over the hump of Pat
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  of of Mahomes and the and can Lamar Jackson finally
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  breakthrough in the playoffs? Can Josh Allen finally leave
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  Justin Herbert past them? Justin Herbert maybe as a as a
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  never. Won a playoff game.
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  And then in the NFC, you've got these these guys who were never
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  thought of as elite quarterbacks but are now like Jared Goff and
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  especially Goff and even Sam Arnold played at elite levels
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  this year. Now, well, you know, like Goff
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  was a guy who was traded away because the Rams wanted to win a
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  Super Bowl with a better quarterback.
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  And they did, you know, they I don't think they regret it.
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  They. Got no.
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  That was a good. Trade, but look what Goff has
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  become. So it just goes to show you two,
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  you don't always have to get the franchise guy who's like a top
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  ten pick or for, although I think golf was.
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  Yeah, I was gonna say Darnold, Goff and Baker.
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  Mayfield Baker. Mayfield was the number one
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  pick. I think Goff was too, actually.
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  Darnold was like #2? You don't have to get the guy
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  who looks like the guy from the moment he steps on the field.
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  Oh. There are other ways to find it,
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  which gives hope to some of these teams 'cause there are
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  only so many guys like Joe Burrow that you pick and they
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  look like the guy from day one and then they are that guy year
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  after year like that happens. And good for those teams that do
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  it, but that's that's fairly rare that that happens.
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  I think that's like that with most people.
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  I mean, I don't know when your athletic prime was, dude, but I,
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  I would take me no, Well, what I was going to say is for myself
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  personally, at 30 years old compared to 22, I was much
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  stronger physically. I was much more athletic.
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  You're like, you're in your prime when you're 30.
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  So this idea that people are just going to come in at age 22.
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  And I know I, I, I'm not an elite athlete.
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  These guys are elite athletes, but still people mature at all
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  different times, especially playing court back.
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  Like I look at a guy like Zach Wilson, for example, you know,
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  he was a disaster in in New York, but I mean, he's 24.
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  Like, you know, these guys, they have no time because there's too
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  much at stake. You have to come in and perform
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  right away. And the other thing is there's
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  12 guys behind you that are almost as good as you, that want
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  your spot. So that is the thing to perform
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  at a high level immediately. But there are so many players
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  that I, I, and this is kind of an old sports radio
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  conversation, but there's so many people that are just put in
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  terrible situations. Like the number one for me is
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  always David Carr, who was the number one pick for the Houston
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  Texans. He got sacked.
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  I'd have to look up the numbers 5,000,000 times.
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  I think that's accurate. Is something like that.
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  I mean he probably was like would wake up with like in
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  nightmares. Like he never had a chance to be
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  good. Yeah.
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  You know, so it's situational. Do you want to give a prediction
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  entering the Playhouse? A Super Bowl prediction.
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  I won't, but I will. I want to ask you a question.
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  Why would anyone go against the Kansas City Chiefs?
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  It's like people that used to not go with Tom Brady.
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  I was always confused. I was like, based on what?
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  Evidence I think with the Chiefs this year, the reason is because
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  they have looked so ordinary. They they have not.
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  They're not blowing teams out. Almost all of their wins were
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  were one score wins. Some of them were fluky wins
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  like blocked field goals or botched field goals.
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  Or I mean, I think at one point it's, it may be more now, but I
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  remember it. They had won fifteen straight
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  games decided by 1 score, which is insane.
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  That just doesn't happen. But I agree with you.
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  It's not a fluke when it's that many in a row.
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  It's because of the coach and the court back and the scheme
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  and the defense and their defense is as good as it's been
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  and during their championship runs.
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  And they're not as explosive, obviously offensively, but I
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  just trust in these games and you know these.
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  And they're going to have the bye week to rest up.
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  They're going to have home field advantage.
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  Someone's going to have to beat them in Arrowhead.
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  And look, Baltimore looks better than they have ever looked under
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  Lamar. He looks.
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  The Steelers. I mean, he's the only
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  quarterback in NFL history to throw more than 40 touchdowns
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  and fewer than 5 interceptions in the season.
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  He's the only quarterback ever with 4000 passing yards and 900
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  rushing yards in the season. He looks amazing right now,
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  amazing all year. The defense of Baltimore, after
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  they made that change, whatever they moved, I think what was it,
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  Humphrey to safety? They look great.
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  Yeah, they're offensive line Derrick Henry.
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  Buffalo, right, And Dave, Derrick Henry and Buffalo, man.
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  I don't. Josh Allen is not quite maybe
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  Lamar's level, but damn close. And they're playing great.
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  Their defense, everyone thought would fall off a Cliff and it
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  didn't. But I just can't pick anybody
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  else besides Kansas City. And so I'm going to pick the
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  Chiefs, the AFC and in the NFC, man, how do you pick against
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  Detroit? I mentioned Goff and but the
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  other thing too is their defense.
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  I thought when they lost Hutchinson, who's their stud
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  pass rusher for the season, that that their own defense already
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  was shaky and it was shaky for a while after that.
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  But they righted the ship again in the last four or five weeks
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  of the season defensively. And they just look like that
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  team now like it. It feels like it's their time
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  and it's Dan Campbell's time. And so I'm going to go with, I'm
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  going to go with chalk, the two one seeds.
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  Well, it's, it's kind of like to go with what you've seen.
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  I know in the case of Detroit, you haven't since they haven't
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  won a Super Bowl. Well, not the Super Bowl a
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  championship since 1957. But I guess what I'm trying to
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  say is it's it's a safe pick. I asked about the Chiefs
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  specifically because as long as Mahomes plays, if I pick the
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  Chiefs to go to or win the Super Bowl every year, as long as he
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  plays, I feel like I got a 50% shot.
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  Yeah, I think so. Let's talk about the Steelers
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  real quick because we might not be able to talk about it much
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  longer. Our Steelers started 10 and
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  three look great, but soft schedule.
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  Then the schedule got hard. Baltimore, Kansas City, Philly,
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  and then, as you mentioned, on fire, Cincinnati team desperate
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  for the playoffs. Steelers lose four in a row.
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  They're 10:00 and 7:00. They go to Baltimore Saturday
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  night where they are A10 point underdog against the Ravens.
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  They split the season series. Baltimore convincingly won the
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  most recent match up where again Lamar looked great.
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  The Steelers played better against Cincinnati.
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  So I'm I'm not going to give them no chance, but let's be
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  honest, it's going to be tough and assume they lose, which is
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  pretty safe assumption. So there you now you've lost
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  five in a row. The Steelers have won one
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  playoff, no playoff game since, what was it, 2016?
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  Yeah. So we're, that's what, 8 years,
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  people and Steeler fans, man. And I'm, I'm not obviously in
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  that area anymore, but I know a lot of Steeler fans see them
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  online. They want Tomlin gone, which to
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  me again is crazy. Mike Tomlin has coached in the
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  NFL eighteen seasons. He has had a losing record.
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  Zero time. He has made the playoffs in
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  those eighteen seasons on 12 occasions. 2/3 of the time, 11
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  times. They've won 10 or more games.
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  They have won a championship. They have been to two Super
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  Bowls again. To be fair, that all happened.
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  Those post season success happened in it in the first 4-5
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  years of his reign. He is now 12 all time in wins in
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  the National Football League with 183 victories.
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  Almost all of the 11 coaches in front of him, with a few
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  exceptions, either already are or will be in the Hall of Fame.
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  No question, all of the coaches in front of him have coached
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  more seasons than he did, most of them a lot more.
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  Andy Reid is at 26 and counting. Bill Belichick, coach, 29.
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  Papa Bear. George Paulus, who's ahead of
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  him, Coach for 40 years again. Tomlin 18.
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  Tomlin next year will pass Chuck Knox who is three wins ahead of
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  him. He'll pass Dan Reeves who's
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  seven wins ahead of him. And if he wins 10 games, he'll
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  tie Chuck freaking Knoll for ninth all time on the wins list.
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  Here's another thing people talk about the post season.
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  I mentioned this list of all time great coaches that are
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  ahead of him. Here's some of their playoff
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  records. Don Shula who has the most wins
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  all time was 19 and 17 in the playoffs around 500.
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  Tom Landry of the Cowboys, 4th, 5th all time in wins.
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  You know what his playoff record was?
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  20 and 16. Curly Lambeau, 6th all time.
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  Now that was before there were many right?
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  Three and two all time in the playoffs.
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  Same thing with Paul Brown coaching narrow where you didn't
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  have as many playoff games. All time record 9:00 and 8:00.
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  Next on the list is a gentleman named Marty Schottenheimer. 8
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  ball time on the playoff list in the spot 5 and. 13 and not good.
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  Dan Reeves, 11 and 9, and the man right in front of Tom and I
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  mentioned Chuck Knox, is 7 and 10.
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  Tomlin Tomlin's playoff record, by the way, career is 8 and 10.
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  Again, just like most of those coaches ahead of him.
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  Right around 500. The few exceptions we all know
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  Belichick was a unworldly 31 and 13 in the playoffs with six
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  championships, which is absurd, and Andy Reid 26 and 16 with
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  three and counting. So those two guys are in a class
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  by themselves. Like nobody does what they those
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  two do. You can't compare anybody to
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  what they've done the pussy. But man, this, this track record
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  for Tomlin is incredible. Get it.
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  Giving your team a chance every year there's some and getting
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  them in the play offs 2 out of every three years.
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  Does he have flaws as a coach? Sure.
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  But that there's something to be said for that level of
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  consistency and excellence. I think one of the important
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  things to mention as you read out those numbers is that this
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  is a salary cap sport where if you're bad, you get better
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  players. Well, in theory, you get the
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  opportunity to draft higher, which usually means you're going
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  to get better players earlier on.
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  And he still accomplished everything that you just said.
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  I tell people all the time about being a Steelers fan.
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  My favorite part about being a Steelers fan is I know that
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  going into every year we have a chance, except for the three bad
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  years with Cordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox, which, you know,
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  whatever. But in our lifetimes, no, right
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  in our lifetime. So I'm going to start when we
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  are, you know, 10-11 years old where you can actually
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  comprehend and understand sports.
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  So this is going to go back 35 years.
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  The Steelers have been good pretty much that entire time,
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  except the three bad years. It's it's remarkable.
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  And the, and the other thing I like about being the Steelers,
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  Steelers fan is the ownership, because they don't act like
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  Woody Johnson and the New York Jets.
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  I don't understand how any person, any human being alive
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  could be a Cleveland Browns fan. And I'm not saying that because
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  they're a rival, because to be clear, they are not a rival of
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  the Steelers. They're a joke.
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  But the problem is not Cleveland or the city or the Browns is
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  that they have terrible ownership that, you know, they
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  make decisions on whims and like, you know, they never stick
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  with the plan. And it just ends up being like a
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  cycle of violence. I really love that there's no
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  chance Tomlin is going anywhere because that would require him
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  to be removed by ownership. And that's just simply not going
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  to happen. Or, or a trade.
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  And Adam Schefter said today that he thinks teams should call
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  the Steelers just to check if the Steelers would trade him
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  because he's under contract. As someone else on ESPN pointed
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  out, if that were to happen, teams would fire their coaches.
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  A lot of teams that that have coaches now that didn't already
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  fire them a few days ago or earlier this season.
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  I think, look, I want to be clear, I get frustrated at
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  Tomlin for a few things. I think his clock management has
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  been average at best and and in certain times poor.
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  I think he he he's gotten a little better I think in recent
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  years, but his clock management is, is not always as sharp as it
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  should be. I think he's been way too slow
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  to embrace analytics in that he's been too conservative,
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  especially on things like 4th down calls.
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  But again, to be fair to him, that started to change this
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  year. The recent years I think he's
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  been more aggressive and I think sometimes his game plan, he's so
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  wedded to the idea that we have to be physical, we have to run
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  the ball. If you look at the Steelers this
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  season, I think they're tied for third and rush attempts, but
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  they're in the bottom 10th of the bottom third of the league
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  in efficiency yards per carry. So they're they're running into
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  brick walls a lot of times and they keep doing it even though
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  it's not efficient and they're actually having more success
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  passing. So I think there is now look,
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  Arthur Smith, the offense coordinator, he's got a role in
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  that. But there are fair critiques of
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  Tomlin for not having the breakthrough and the post season
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  and not being as good of a coach as he could be.
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  That's all fair, but that. But I think we overlook some of
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  the other things that that's not all that coaching is.
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  There's the organizing A-Team, keeping everybody rowing in the
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  same direction even when you're going through a tough season,
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  battling through adversity, as Tomlin says, smiling through
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  adversity. Like he coached Antonio Brown
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  and we didn't know he was insane.
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  Like that in itself is a reason to retain him as coach.
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  And one more point on on this, you talked about quarterback
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  play and how look, anyone who watches the NFL in modern times
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  knows it is more and more a quarterback league.
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  And it's so hard to compete if you don't have at least an above
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  average quarterback, if not elite.
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  I would just say this. I know he hasn't won a playoff
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  game in about what, 8 years? We're saying the last three
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  years. Ben Roethlisberger is a great
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  quarterback, a Hall of Fame quarterback.
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  His last three years were not good because of because of
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  injury and also because even though he he was still a pretty
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  good quarterback. But teams quickly realized he
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  just didn't have the arms for them anymore to Chuck the ball
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  down. And he can't move.
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  And he couldn't move. And so his last three years he
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  was, he was better than still. That's what happens.
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  When you're one of the greatest ever play.
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  Right, but no longer elite. Then you spend 2 years trying to
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  develop Kenny Pickett, taking a chance on him.
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  He was worse than Roethlisberger.
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  So now you're at five years. This year you bring in Russell
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  Wilson, who's been OK, but it's not the Russell Wilson of five
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  or ten years ago, let's be honest.
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  So now you've had six straight seasons of quarterback play that
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  is at best, a little bit above average and some of those years
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  way below that. So I think if you look at what
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  has happened to teams and coaches who don't have
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  quarterbacks playing at a high level, they typically don't win
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  championships or contend for championships.
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  And that is where the Steelers are.
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  I mean, hell, look at even Belichick.
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  I mentioned his playoff record. Now Grady with everyone knows
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  he's probably the greatest coach ever, certainly one of them.
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  But Bill Belichick didn't do what Mike Tomlin did and not
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  have losing seasons. He didn't get fired because he
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  lost in the play offs. His last two years in New
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  England, his records or I'm sorry, he lost Tom Brady, OK,
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  here were his records. His last four years in New
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  England, 7:00 and 9:10 and 7-8 and nine, four and 13, three
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  years. Even the great Bill Belichick
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  had did something Mike Tomlin never did, which is have a
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  losing. I just think people lose all
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  perspective.