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NFL Week 1 Pre: Are Commanders Prepared To Take Next Step? · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to the Inside the Birds NFL weekly
• 0:13
  preview show. I am Jeff Mosher and this is year
• 0:17
  two of our show. I did the show last year,
• 0:20
  got some really good feedback. People enjoy the breakdowns, the matchups. Yes,
• 0:25
  I give the spread for each game, and at the
• 0:28
  end I'll make my three picks. But at the end
• 0:31
  of the day, this is more of a matchup show.
• 0:33
  I like to go into the schemes, the coaching advantages
• 0:37
  or disadvantages, the on field schematics and matchups that are
• 0:42
  going to make a difference each week in the game.
• 0:45
  So I look forward to doing it. And away we
• 0:47
  go here with year two of the show. But week
• 0:50
  one of the twenty twenty five NFL season. Obviously two
• 0:55
  games already have been played. The Eagles open Thursday night.
• 1:00
  It's the Cowboys. I was there. That to me, the
• 1:03
  more I've thought about that game, it is such a
• 1:05
  vintage Eagles game. They did not have their A plus
• 1:09
  game and they won anyway. There's not a lot of
• 1:11
  teams talented enough to be able to win when they
• 1:15
  don't play their A plus game, especially against the division rival,
• 1:19
  but the Eagles have trademarked winning this way especially in
• 1:23
  the regular season. There are plenty of examples of Eagles
• 1:27
  regular season wins that didn't pass the eye test or
• 1:32
  the smell test, or you came away feeling that there's
• 1:35
  flaws or there's things to work on, and there are.
• 1:37
  It is week one, and remember this team is replacing
• 1:40
  half of its defense, and obviously a couple of the
• 1:43
  offensive weapons like aj Brown, missed a lot of training
• 1:46
  camp time, so it was not a well oiled machine
• 1:50
  to begin with. But there were some really, really good positives.
• 1:53
  I thought Jehad Campbell played really well as a rookie.
• 1:56
  Mccouba got in there, Johan Dodson, so I'm with the
• 2:00
  big catch to stretch the field there as a guy
• 2:04
  who's building a rapport with Jalen Hurts. So they'll go
• 2:08
  off to Week two and play the Kansas City Chiefs,
• 2:11
  who lost. They are under five hundred. When's the last
• 2:14
  time you could say that about the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 2:17
  But it should be a good game week two out
• 2:20
  there in Kansas City. We'll get to them in a second.
• 2:23
  You know, I don't like to put too much into
• 2:26
  week one, especially if you're just not sure about a team.
• 2:30
  I used to call week one. If you heard my
• 2:33
  shows with Adam Kaplan are inside the Birds shows. When
• 2:36
  we talk about the NFL, Week one is the biggest
• 2:40
  con job. I can go and show you games from
• 2:43
  Week one, some ridiculous outcomes where teams that never should
• 2:47
  have won beat teams that at the end of the
• 2:51
  year are in the playoffs or winning the Super Bowl,
• 2:53
  things like that. It's just it's a nature of the
• 2:57
  beast of Week one, where there's new coaches, new schemes,
• 3:01
  new players, and sometimes you're not always as prepared as
• 3:06
  you think you should be, and so you'll see some
• 3:08
  Week one upsets. And I bring that up because I
• 3:13
  came away from Eagles Cowboys game thinking maybe Dallas is
• 3:17
  a little better than we think. I thought their interior
• 3:21
  offensive line played really well, and it should. I mean,
• 3:24
  you've got the rookie Booker from Alabama there, You've got
• 3:27
  Tyler Smith, you got a good center. So I thought
• 3:30
  the interior o line did a nice job. But I'm
• 3:33
  taking too account they didn't have to face jail and
• 3:36
  Carter he obviously got suspend it for spitting. So I
• 3:39
  really want to see it more from the Cowboys going
• 3:43
  into Week two and beyond to see if they can
• 3:45
  be a lot better than they were last year. There's
• 3:47
  no question they have talent. I was a little surprised by,
• 3:52
  I guess how effective their secondary was with guys who
• 3:55
  missed a lot of time and weren't even certain back
• 3:58
  in training camp to play in Week one, Trevon Diggs
• 4:02
  being an example. You know, obviously you know Doron Blan
• 4:05
  got out there. I thought their secondary played fairly decently,
• 4:10
  And I don't know if that was just the Eagles
• 4:12
  being off a little in the past game as they
• 4:14
  tend to be until the playoffs come around and then
• 4:17
  all of a sudden they are a juggernaut, but or
• 4:20
  if that was the Cowboys, who, again they've got some talent.
• 4:23
  They have a good defensive coordinator in Matti Eberflus, who's
• 4:26
  done this job before, knows exactly knows the league really well.
• 4:30
  Knew Nick Sirianni because he coached with him in Indianapolis.
• 4:33
  So I don't know if what we saw from the
• 4:35
  Cowboys was more of a right time, right place, or
• 4:39
  if with George Pickens and with a healthy Dak and
• 4:42
  CD Lamb and what they do have on defense, and
• 4:45
  they've got some young pass rushers who will come along
• 4:48
  a lot of second round picks. So yes, they'll miss
• 4:51
  Michaeh Parsons. But I guess I'm wondering, can the Cowboys
• 4:54
  be a little more competitive than maybe people think. I
• 4:58
  think the prevailing notion going into the game was that
• 5:01
  the Eagles would win, not only because they're better, but
• 5:04
  because they had a drastically better roster than the Cowboys,
• 5:09
  who were a bad team, bad organization. Some of that
• 5:12
  stuff about Jones is true. I had the Cowboys fourteenth
• 5:17
  in my power rankings on Philly Voice. You can go
• 5:20
  to Phillyvoice dot com check out my NFL power rankings,
• 5:23
  and I felt I was a little bit higher on
• 5:26
  them than most because I do think they have good
• 5:28
  talent at good positions, important positions. If these guys are healthy.
• 5:33
  I probably gave them a little bit too much of
• 5:35
  the benefit of the doubt at fourteen. But after one
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  week they at least in this matchup. Maybe I was
• 5:42
  not wrong. Maybe I'm not too high on them. Maybe
• 5:44
  that's where they belong, and then we'll see going forward
• 5:47
  if they can carry it on. Chiefs Chargers. Again, don't
• 5:51
  try to make too much of Week one, but the
• 5:53
  Chiefs offense to me, is problematic. They don't have Rashi
• 5:58
  Rice for six weeks, all right, Xavier Worthy leaves the
• 6:02
  game really early, and that basically leaves them again very
• 6:07
  kind of underwhelming with their weapons. You know, they have Pachecko,
• 6:11
  who's a good contact running back, but he's not an
• 6:15
  Andy Reid running back that we think of when we
• 6:17
  think of like you know, Brian Westbrook or Shady McCoy
• 6:21
  or when he first got to Kansas City, I think
• 6:24
  he had Jamal Charles for a year. Pa Checko was
• 6:26
  a grinder, bulldozer. Really, Kareem hunt is they're more multi
• 6:31
  facinted back, but he's at this age he's not going
• 6:33
  to touch the ball, you know, more than five to
• 6:35
  ten times a game. And then you look at the
• 6:38
  wide receiver group without Rice and with Worthy out of
• 6:41
  the game. I mean, Hollywood Brown got sixteen targets. He's
• 6:45
  not that kind of receiver, but he only caught ten
• 6:48
  balls for ninety nine yards. You know, Juju Smith Schuster
• 6:52
  five catches fifty five yards. This is a short passing
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  game and Patrick Mahomes has really struggled to drive the
• 7:00
  ball over the last few years. If you go back
• 7:03
  to the Super Bowl. Yes, he threw the really long
• 7:06
  touchdown as Xaviere Worthy when the game was completely out
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  of hand, but a couple of times he had a
• 7:10
  chance to go deep and he just wouldn't let the
• 7:13
  ball go. And I don't know if he's sort of
• 7:16
  reached that stage of his career where he doesn't trust
• 7:18
  his receivers because ever since, you know, losing Tyreek Hill,
• 7:21
  he may not have had the most dynamic outside playmaker,
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  but year after year he gradually becomes more of a
• 7:30
  more surgical But they've lost that deep ball element that
• 7:33
  makes the Chiefs, had made the Chiefs so prolific at
• 7:37
  one point, and I'm still not sure they were fixed
• 7:39
  on the offensive line. You know, the Super Bowl was
• 7:42
  sort of a big It was a little bit of
• 7:45
  a misconception for people down on the Chiefs because they
• 7:49
  were playing their left guard, Joe Tooney, at left tackle,
• 7:51
  and they were playing a third stringer at left guard
• 7:54
  because of injuries, and because they had not developed some
• 7:58
  offensive linemen that wasn't It's not like that's who the
• 8:01
  Chiefs typically are. They weren't like that they went fifteen
• 8:04
  to one for a reason. Last year, Toney was a
• 8:07
  great left guard, but he's with the Bears now, so
• 8:10
  they riddid the line. They got the rookie Simmons from
• 8:12
  ohiuse State to left tackle, and they got the second
• 8:15
  round pick from a couple of years ago who couldn't
• 8:17
  get on the field from BYU out there at left guard.
• 8:20
  And I'm not I'm just not sure that that's fixed.
• 8:23
  Kingsley Sue Sue Mattaya. I believe is the how do
• 8:27
  you pronounce it the left guard's name? So you got
• 8:29
  a rookie and a second year guy on the left
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  side of the line. Is it any surprise that Mahomes
• 8:33
  was running all games six rushes fifty seven yards ran
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  for a touchdown, No, it is not. Outside of three
• 8:41
  big plays. He had a forty nine yard at a
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  Hollywood Brown, he had the Kelsey Cut touchdown obviously, and
• 8:48
  big big play he made on a corner route of
• 8:50
  Taekwon Thornton. Outside of that, it's a dinkin dunk offense.
• 8:53
  And if they're not going to have Xavier Worthy and
• 8:56
  without Rashi Rice, I think they just just don't have
• 9:00
  the horses on offense for Patrick Mahomes. I know how
• 9:03
  I still think Malmes is great, and they were in
• 9:05
  this game, right, I mean, they were down to the
• 9:08
  end and then the Chargers put it away in the
• 9:11
  fourth quarter. And good for them, because the Chargers have
• 9:13
  been knocking at the chief store last two years. I
• 9:17
  don't have the results in front of me, but I
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  do recall that each game between the two games between
• 9:22
  them last year were very close, and it was games
• 9:25
  that the Chiefs would pull out the end, like the
• 9:28
  Chiefs always do. The Chiefs trademark pulling out games last
• 9:31
  year in the fourth quarter, but you could tell that
• 9:35
  the Chargers were on to come up. You could tell
• 9:37
  that they have built themselves. I still think they're lacking
• 9:40
  a little bit in the playmaker department. It was nice
• 9:43
  to see Quinceton Quintin Johnson catch the balls. I think
• 9:46
  he did that last year. He had a couple of
• 9:47
  touchdowns early on, made you think he was going to
• 9:49
  be a real factor. But he's one of those guys
• 9:52
  who's a factor one day and then not a factor
• 9:55
  in the next game. So I don't know. We'll see
• 9:59
  about the tr Chargers, but yeah, the Chiefs beat them
• 10:01
  seventeen to ten in the first game in nineteen seventeen.
• 10:04
  In the second game, So it was kind of interesting.
• 10:06
  This was a little bit more of a of a
• 10:08
  high scoring affair when they compared to when these two
• 10:11
  teams typically meet. But the Chargers are, want to know,
• 10:14
  off to a good start, trying to make a push
• 10:18
  here under Jim Harbaugh, get back into the playoffs, make
• 10:21
  some noise this time. And the Chiefs, I think it's
• 10:23
  going to be a little bit, a little bit tough
• 10:26
  sledding for them early on, until they get the left
• 10:29
  side of the line acclimated, and until Rashi Rice, you know,
• 10:34
  obviously out five more games till he comes back. They can't.
• 10:37
  They don't have the depth offensively to be able to
• 10:40
  lose guys like Worthy earlier in a game and then
• 10:44
  be able to come out and you know, go to
• 10:46
  toe to toe with some really good teams. So it
• 10:48
  didn't surprise me that they lost that game. However, I
• 10:51
  wouldn't bet on the Chiefs to completely implode here. They
• 10:54
  are still the Chiefs, and I still think their game
• 10:56
  against the Eagles at Arrowhead next week will be a
• 10:59
  real good game. Obviously a rematch of the Super Bowl.
• 11:05
  All Right, I'm gonna get into the one o'clock games.
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  Four o'clock games, the night games. I just want to
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  say that when going through this slate, it surprised me
• 11:15
  how much in these Week one games that I thought
• 11:20
  some of these matchups will be critically determined by the
• 11:23
  play of rookies. I don't know what it is about
• 11:26
  the last year's or this past draft, but it produced
• 11:29
  a lot of rookies who are going to either make
• 11:32
  or break depending on how they play their team, and
• 11:36
  they're gonna be a big part of whether their team
• 11:38
  is successful and really takes a next step or not.
• 11:41
  At least that's just just the way it felt to
• 11:45
  me as I was going through each one of these games.
• 11:48
  So let's start with the first game, Bucks at Falcons.
• 11:52
  The Bucks are one and a half point favorites over
• 11:56
  the Falcons. Now this game is fascinating to me because
• 12:01
  last year the Tampa Bay Bucks won the division despite
• 12:07
  losing twice to the Atlanta Falcons. They lost to them
• 12:12
  in Week five thirty six thirty and then they lost
• 12:15
  to them in Week eight thirty one, twenty six, so
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  they could not figure out a way to beat the Falcons.
• 12:22
  And of course we all know that they had a
• 12:26
  big win over the Eagles, so they're kind of strange,
• 12:29
  and that they kicked the crap out of the Eagles,
• 12:32
  then went and lost to the Falcons and lost the
• 12:35
  Falcons again. And they had some weird losses last year
• 12:38
  for a team that won the NFC South. They lost
• 12:39
  to a San Francisco team that wasn't very good. They
• 12:44
  did go toe to toe against some teams, you know.
• 12:45
  They lost to the Ravens last year, they lost to
• 12:47
  the Chiefs, but both were pretty good games. But they
• 12:50
  lost to the Cowboys, which is just sort of shocking
• 12:54
  to me last year. So this Bucks team is very good.
• 12:58
  They obviously won the division last year. I think a
• 13:01
  lot of teams have them as a top four team
• 13:03
  in the NFC. I'm not sure how I feel about
• 13:06
  that yet. I want to see them be a little
• 13:08
  more consistent. I'm concerned about them losing their offensive coordinator
• 13:12
  for the third straight year. I thought Liam Cohen did
• 13:15
  an unbelievable job with Baker Mayfield after Dave Canalis the
• 13:20
  year before had done a really good job unlocking Baker Mayfield.
• 13:24
  And now they're on to a new offensive coordinator, Josh Grizzard.
• 13:28
  He was with the team already. He was their pass
• 13:30
  game coordinator, but he hasn't been with the Bucks for
• 13:33
  a long time. He's mostly from the Dolphins, so he
• 13:35
  probably has that Mike McDaniel which is tree in him,
• 13:39
  which is really a branch of the Kyle Shanahan tree.
• 13:44
  So it'll be very interesting to see if there's some
• 13:46
  kind of Shanahanish influence on the Bucks offense. But if
• 13:50
  I were Josh Grizzard and I just spent a year
• 13:53
  as the pass game coordinator under Liam Cohen and I
• 13:56
  watched Baker Mayfield have forty one touchdowns, I'm probably not
• 14:00
  trying to change too much. Just like Kevin Patula with
• 14:02
  the Eagles. You're trying to add what you think you
• 14:05
  do well and what you think your personnel will do
• 14:08
  well for what you do, But you are not trying
• 14:13
  to broke or break what isn't fixed or fix. I'm sorry,
• 14:17
  you're trying to fix what isn't broken. And clearly I
• 14:20
  thought Baker Mayfield came into his own last year and
• 14:23
  Josh Grizzard's job is just to keep building on that
• 14:26
  and not try to do anything too tricky to make
• 14:28
  him take a step back. Now, the Bucks are fighting
• 14:31
  the fact that they don't have Chris Godwin yet, and
• 14:34
  they don't have Tristan Wurf's their left tackle. That will
• 14:37
  hurt them ordinarily, and until Worfs comes back, we'll see
• 14:41
  how they're able to function offensively. But this is where
• 14:46
  I talk about the rookies. There are a lot of
• 14:48
  expectations for first round pick a Mecca Agbuka. For the Bucks,
• 14:52
  he's probably he's gonna start. He's gonna start opposite Mike Evans.
• 14:56
  They're also down Jalen McMillan as far as wide receivers,
• 14:59
  so their depth will be tested here the Bucks at
• 15:02
  wide receiver. It's to me, it just means that there's
• 15:06
  gonna be a crapload of targets for Mike Evans and
• 15:11
  for this rookie Ak Buga at Ohio State, who they
• 15:14
  absolutely love. And it wouldn't surprise me even if when
• 15:17
  Godwin came back, if Goblin goes back to the slot
• 15:20
  at BUCA stays as either an outside or an inside receiver.
• 15:26
  I mean, it's scary to think that this team is
• 15:28
  one injury away from Strolling Shepherd having to play a lot,
• 15:31
  or the rookie Ted Johnson. But Evans is one of
• 15:35
  the best that there is, and there are big expectations
• 15:38
  for Egbuka. Meanwhile, the Falcons, they're the Falcons are almost
• 15:43
  the same team every year. It's like they have to
• 15:47
  me very few really elite blue chip players. But they
• 15:52
  also have a lot of pretty good to decent players,
• 15:57
  so they're not a terrible team, the team that you
• 16:00
  think should compete for the postseason somehow though. Last year
• 16:05
  they beat the Bucks twice, so they owned a two
• 16:08
  game division lead in the NFC South and still lost
• 16:13
  the division to the Bucks by two games. So that's
• 16:17
  a four game swing that they somehow blew by having
• 16:21
  that two game lead over the Bucks, and that just
• 16:22
  shows you how up and down they are. I liked
• 16:26
  what I saw from Michael Pennix when he took over
• 16:29
  for Cousins. He's gonna get the chance to lead this
• 16:32
  team to be the quarterback that he needs. Does he
• 16:35
  have a ton of playmakers? No, but he does have
• 16:38
  one of the Leak's best players in Jean Robinson, So
• 16:41
  that's one of those few blue chip players that I'm
• 16:44
  talking about. The offensive line is good. They lost their
• 16:46
  center center gwent and Simon with the Paris Dolman, so
• 16:49
  we'll see what kind of impact that has. It's a
• 16:51
  good offensive line. I don't call it a great offensive line, though,
• 16:55
  so I'm concerned about it as far as weaponry. Drake
• 17:00
  London is an example of what I'm talking about, a
• 17:02
  guy who's a good player. He's a winning player. Not
• 17:05
  top five wide receiver, top ten probably, but that's what
• 17:10
  this team is filled with guys who are not top
• 17:13
  five kind of guys. You go through the Eagles roster
• 17:15
  and you say, hey, they got the best right tackle league,
• 17:18
  top five left tackle, top five wide receiver, you know,
• 17:21
  top five tight end. You go through the Falcons roster
• 17:25
  and you say, all right, they got Pajon Robinson. On defense,
• 17:29
  they have some pretty good players. Jesse Bates is a
• 17:31
  good safety, but you just don't find yourself talking about
• 17:35
  most of the other players as top five. But you
• 17:39
  also don't think that they're terrible. David an Yamana good
• 17:42
  defensive tackle, Caden Ellis good linebacker. Again, Jesse Bates good safety.
• 17:47
  Aj Trell good cornerback. All right, we'll see how some
• 17:50
  of their rookies performed. This is why the Falcons, who
• 17:54
  year after year fall shortened pass rush US two high picks.
• 17:58
  They used the first round pick on the kid from Georgia,
• 18:00
  Jellen Walker, and they they trade it back. I believe
• 18:03
  into the first round to get James Pierce, the pass
• 18:05
  rusher out of Tennessee. If Walker and Pierce are really
• 18:10
  good pass rushers year one, then I think the Falcons
• 18:13
  could be more competitive against this Buccaneers team, especially while
• 18:16
  the Bucks are shorthanded early on. But that's a lot
• 18:20
  to ask for two pass rushers to sort of carry
• 18:23
  a defense. And it's a lot to ask for Michael
• 18:24
  Pennix in his first year as a starter to consistently
• 18:28
  outscore teams put twenty eight on the board. When after
• 18:32
  Bjon Robinson and after Drake London, you don't have a
• 18:36
  ton in the playmaker tank. Darnold Moon's a nice number
• 18:39
  two receiver. I know he's been battling some injuries. We'll
• 18:42
  see if he plays again. They can play, they can
• 18:45
  move the ball, They be competitive, But do they have
• 18:48
  enough horses to win games? Is my question about the Falcons.
• 18:52
  Bengals five and a half point favorites at the Browns.
• 18:56
  I liked what I saw from Zach Taylor, the coach,
• 19:00
  in the preseason. He said we're gonna play starters. We
• 19:03
  want to get off to a hot start. We know
• 19:05
  that the Bengals are really struggling defensively from a personnel standpoint.
• 19:10
  You know, they have a new defensive coordinator, Al Golden
• 19:12
  comes over from Notre Dame. Did a great job at
• 19:14
  Notre Dame, got into the championship game. Now he's got
• 19:18
  to take on a defense that has not a lot
• 19:21
  of talent. Now they do. They've they worked it out
• 19:23
  with Trey Hendrickson. They drafted Schamar Stewart and after some
• 19:27
  drama with his contract, he's on the team and he's
• 19:31
  a guy who has to be coached up. So they
• 19:34
  have a decent pass rusher there. And we'll see and
• 19:37
  Joseph A. Siah is okay. But they're just not They
• 19:39
  have not been a very good team for a couple
• 19:42
  of years now. On the back end. Fortunately for them,
• 19:45
  they're playing the Browns. The Browns have got Joe Flacco
• 19:48
  a quarterback. You know, they don't have a whole lot
• 19:51
  of weaponry on the offensive line. They've got a couple
• 19:55
  of decent receivers. I guess Tillman Jerry Judy will see
• 20:00
  how that manifests. But I think if the Bengals get
• 20:04
  off to a fast art and if they can just
• 20:06
  generate a few defensive stops against the Browns, which they
• 20:10
  should be able to do, they should be able to
• 20:12
  win the game pretty handily. Dolphins at Colts. This one's
• 20:17
  interesting to me. The Colts are one and a half
• 20:18
  point favorites, and I can't figure out why. I guess
• 20:21
  because they're home. I don't know if Daniel Jones, who's
• 20:24
  going to be their starter, deserves that kind of benefit
• 20:26
  of the doubt, but there are one and I get
• 20:29
  the Dolphins are not a Jugger not either. They've got
• 20:31
  some real question marks on their O line defensively with
• 20:35
  Tyreek Hill. But I don't know what the Colts have
• 20:37
  done other than this. I will say this, they've assembled.
• 20:41
  The Colts have assembled a good roster. They have a
• 20:44
  good fifty three man roster, but they have a gigantic
• 20:48
  question mark at the biggest spot in the game. And
• 20:51
  I just don't know that Daniel Jones is going to
• 20:54
  be the guy. I think he's gonna have some moments,
• 20:56
  and those moments are going to be good, because again,
• 20:59
  they've got players like Jonathan Taylor, great running back, Quentin Neilson,
• 21:03
  great left guard, they had a pretty good offensive line.
• 21:06
  Their kid left tackle Ryeman, has come along, decent receivers
• 21:10
  in Pittman and Downs and Alec Pierce. All right, and
• 21:13
  I'm really I am very excited. I know you guys
• 21:16
  are all going to call it the Homer bias, but
• 21:19
  I do believe that Tyler Warren. I told you, I
• 21:21
  think that rookies are really going to have an impact
• 21:24
  on some of these teams. I think Tyler Warren will
• 21:27
  have a chance, a chance to be offensive rookie of
• 21:31
  the Year. Just to me, it depends on how Travis
• 21:33
  Hunter is going to get used in Jacksonville and can
• 21:35
  you stay healthy and handle the workload. But Tyler Warren
• 21:38
  will absolutely have a chance because I think he's going
• 21:41
  to touch the ball eight to ten times a game
• 21:44
  at least. I think they are going to force feed
• 21:46
  him the football to bring a little toughness to that
• 21:50
  offense and to make sure Daniel Jones has a very
• 21:53
  quick outlet to get the ball to. But this is
• 21:56
  a team that if it had a quarterback, I consider
• 22:00
  it a top twelve quarterback. If you put, like I
• 22:03
  don't know, Kyler Murray on this team, I would say man,
• 22:06
  I think this team can win some games. They've got
• 22:08
  some players. I love some of their defensive players a
• 22:11
  lot too. As a good pass rusher. You know, they've
• 22:14
  got some good guys up front, DeForest Buckner, Quitty pay
• 22:18
  so they can play some defense. They drafted JT. Tumalou
• 22:22
  in the second round. They've always been able to play
• 22:25
  some pretty good defense. Iire Franklin's a good linebacker. It's
• 22:28
  not a great defense, but they've got a good enough
• 22:31
  defense and their overall roster is good enough to win
• 22:35
  some games. But to me, Jones is a huge, huge
• 22:39
  question mark, and I just don't know how long that's
• 22:42
  going to last. If Anthony Richards is going to get
• 22:44
  back in there at some point. I really don't understand
• 22:47
  the plan that they've got a quarterback. But we'll see.
• 22:50
  They're gonna play a Dolphins team that has a lot
• 22:52
  of question marks. I mentioned the Tyreek Hill down year.
• 22:55
  He's looking for a bounce back. They deal with injuries
• 22:59
  all the time. They're more talented. I do think that
• 23:02
  they have more pass rushers and more prolific playmakers than
• 23:07
  the Colts do. The question is can they put it
• 23:09
  all together? Can it matter when they needed to matter.
• 23:12
  Are they able to kind of function offensively and defensively
• 23:16
  despite the fact that their offensive line in particular isn't
• 23:20
  very impressive. But it would not shock me if the
• 23:22
  Dolphins won that game. I think they are the better
• 23:25
  overall team because of the better overall team, because their
• 23:30
  quarterback knows what he's doing, and when he's healthy, to
• 23:33
  a tongue iolo, they have a very They have an
• 23:38
  offense that can be hard to defend. They throw the
• 23:40
  ball horizontally more than they throw the ball vertically, but
• 23:44
  with devon a chain with Tyreek Hill assuming he's still
• 23:48
  at least a decent receiver, and getting Jalen Waddle back
• 23:51
  into the action, which I think the Dolphins really missed
• 23:53
  last year. They just threw the ball to the John
• 23:56
  new Smith the tight end too much, and threw the
• 23:57
  ball to e Chan too much because their off into
• 24:00
  line and because they had to backup quarterback for a
• 24:03
  long stretch while too was out. But when two is in,
• 24:06
  they're way more functional. The ball goes where it's supposed
• 24:09
  to be, and they become tougher to defend. So I'm
• 24:12
  going to go, well, I'll give you my picks later.
• 24:15
  But I'm a little surprised by the Colts being one
• 24:18
  and a half point favorites there. If anything, I think
• 24:20
  that would be a pick them. Raiders Patriots is a
• 24:23
  game that I'm really excited about. I'm excited to see
• 24:26
  what the Raiders have now that they've got Pete Carroll
• 24:29
  as their head coach, a proven winner, a ground and
• 24:32
  pound philosophy. Gino Smith, new quarterback, played his best ball
• 24:36
  under Pete Carroll, loves to workoff play action. A very
• 24:39
  accurate quarterback when working off play action. Ashton Gent. They
• 24:43
  drafted him, you know they're going to give him the
• 24:45
  ball twenty to thirty times. That that's what Pete Carroll
• 24:48
  does his running game, play defense, workoff play action, make
• 24:52
  things efficient, make things simple, try to play defense. The
• 24:55
  Raiders do not have very good horses on defense, so
• 24:58
  that's going to be their issue on the on the onset.
• 25:01
  But this Patriots team that they're going to play, they
• 25:03
  made a ton of changes and they look on paper
• 25:07
  better because of who they brought in. We all know
• 25:09
  they signed Milton Williams. We all know that they have
• 25:14
  Mike Vrabel as their head coach. Now who they're expecting
• 25:16
  to bring a little bit more. I guess Polish and season.
• 25:20
  You know they drafted Will Campbell to help the offensive line.
• 25:23
  They brought in who's the corner they brought in to
• 25:27
  in free Carlton Davis. In free agency. They've got Christian Gonzalez,
• 25:30
  who I do think is quietly one of the best
• 25:32
  corners in the league. Christian Barmour is a really nice
• 25:36
  defensive tackle who missed last year that I believe was
• 25:38
  the blood clot issue. So I didn't play a whole lot.
• 25:41
  So you look up and down the roster, you say, man,
• 25:43
  they brought in you know players, you know their center,
• 25:46
  Garrett Bradberry from from the from the Vikings. But you know,
• 25:51
  we know this more than anyone. If you watch football,
• 25:54
  all right, Stefan Diggs, I forgot to mention him. You
• 25:56
  watch football, you know that the teams that win the
• 25:59
  off season don't typically win the regular season. The teams
• 26:03
  that make the most free agent moves and the biggest
• 26:06
  splashes and dole out all the money, it doesn't always
• 26:08
  manifest in wins or even you know, functionability. I do
• 26:13
  think the Patriots will be better off. I think Drake
• 26:16
  may showed you something last year. He could play, and
• 26:18
  it was smart of New England to go spend some
• 26:21
  money and to bring in a guy like Diggs, assuming
• 26:24
  he's got something left, and to you know, help out
• 26:27
  the offensive line and then help out the defense. And
• 26:30
  on top of that, you draft well on the offensive line.
• 26:32
  I think that everything the Patriots are doing, it's not wild,
• 26:36
  wacky and unwise, but it is a whole lot of
• 26:40
  moving parts and a whole lot of newness. So I
• 26:42
  wouldn't be surprised if the Raiders could come over to
• 26:45
  New England. You know, last year the Raiders in Week
• 26:47
  two went over to Baltimore pulled out a surprise win.
• 26:49
  Traveling east is not as difficult anymore for these West
• 26:53
  Coast teams in one o'clock games. I've been through that.
• 26:55
  I went through that a lot last year where it
• 26:57
  used to be a slam dunk. The West Coast traveling
• 27:01
  to the East Coast for a one o'clock game was
• 27:03
  going to lose that game no matter how good they were.
• 27:06
  The percentages were something like over seventy percent. It's changed.
• 27:10
  Travel has changed, sports science has changed, conditioning has changed.
• 27:14
  You see, West Coast teams come to the East Coast
• 27:16
  for one o'clock games and win all the time. And
• 27:19
  last year the Raiders came down from ten points behind
• 27:22
  in the fourth quarter to beat the Ravens of all
• 27:24
  teams in Baltimore in a Week two game. I think
• 27:27
  it was Week two where they had to do that travel,
• 27:30
  So I'm not afraid of the travel for the Raiders.
• 27:33
  I think this will be a really fun game to watch.
• 27:35
  It'll be a close game. There'll probably be some ugly moments.
• 27:38
  You're going to get that. These teams are not not
• 27:41
  very talented from top to bottom compared to some of
• 27:43
  the best in the league. But I like the direction
• 27:47
  that both teams are trying to head in and I
• 27:49
  think this game will actually be fairly exciting to watch.
• 27:51
  If anything, just to see the rookie Ashton genty for
• 27:54
  the Raiders and then Drake May in year two should
• 27:57
  be fun. Good game again. Patriots two and a half
• 28:00
  point favorites Cardinals. Cardinals are going to the Saints. They
• 28:04
  are six and a half point favorites at the Superdome
• 28:07
  and they probably should be the Saints. Let's I feel
• 28:11
  bad for Kellen Moore. You know, he's in a really
• 28:13
  tough situation. They need to lose games to be able
• 28:17
  to put themselves in position to get a quarterback. Quarterback
• 28:21
  to going with Spencer Ratler. We'll see how that long
• 28:23
  that lasts. You know, they obviously didn't see enough from
• 28:26
  Tyler schoff In in the in the preseason camp. He
• 28:30
  was their second round pick out of Louisville. Obviously didn't
• 28:33
  see enough to name him their starter. So they're going
• 28:35
  with Spencer Rattler. They got some injuries already that they're
• 28:38
  dealing with. You know, Alave is a really talented player.
• 28:42
  Rashika he he's a talented player. So they've got some weapons.
• 28:46
  But I just I don't know that Kellen Moore can
• 28:49
  come in with that quarterback and limited you know, they
• 28:53
  have some decent offensive linemen, but they're not great. I
• 28:55
  just don't see this team being very good. And the
• 28:59
  Cardinals are a team and at NFC West that made
• 29:01
  a lot of improvements that were they were there. You know,
• 29:03
  that whole NFC West last year was a slugfest until
• 29:07
  the Rams pulled it out over the last few weeks.
• 29:10
  The Cardinals think that they're an improved team. I don't
• 29:12
  think that they're a team loaded with playmakers either outside
• 29:17
  of Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison junior. But they have
• 29:21
  built up the offense. Connor can still grind away and
• 29:24
  their defenses are merging. So I think the Cardinals can
• 29:27
  come in here. It's always dangerous to take a road
• 29:29
  team with a six and a half point line, but
• 29:34
  if there's a team that can do it, I think
• 29:36
  the Cardinals can do it. The Saints are just a
• 29:38
  long way away in my mind, from being a good team.
• 29:41
  But remember Week ones a con job. So if the
• 29:43
  Saints win, don't get fooled into thinking like Kellen Moore
• 29:46
  is gonna, you know, perform miracles out there in New Orleans.
• 29:50
  Week one can be a con job. But I would
• 29:52
  be surprised if the Cardinals didn't win that game. That
• 29:54
  was a good popular survivor pool choice. The Cardinals beating
• 30:00
  the Saints. Steelers two and a half point favorites at
• 30:04
  the Jets. This is like two teams that First of all,
• 30:08
  it's well done by the schedule makers to have Aaron
• 30:10
  Rodgers new team against Aaron Rodgers' last team. But this team,
• 30:16
  if you're of the older generation and you really love
• 30:20
  defense and running game, you don't want to see a
• 30:23
  quarterback throw the ball forty times a game. You don't
• 30:26
  want to see this thing being thirty four, thirty one,
• 30:29
  thirty eight, thirty four. If you want this old school
• 30:31
  eighties nineties style football, this game is right up your alley.
• 30:36
  I mean, this is the game for that era. Okay,
• 30:41
  the Steelers they have outside of DK Metcalf, I don't
• 30:45
  know who Aaron Rodgers is going to throw the ball to.
• 30:48
  Fryar moves a good tight end. Roman Wilson year two.
• 30:51
  I mean, he got lost in having an injury last
• 30:54
  year and he was just not a part of the offense.
• 30:55
  But I'd like that kid coming out of Michigan. He
• 30:58
  can play a pretty decent slot receiver. But the Steelers
• 31:01
  are gonna run the ball with three different guys. I
• 31:03
  don't think Caleb Johnson. They're rookie who will probably might
• 31:07
  be by the end of the year their main ball carrier.
• 31:11
  Not ready yet. Caleb Johnson, the kid from Iowa who
• 31:14
  is a perfect zone runner and a great match for
• 31:18
  Arthur Smith's zone rushing offense. It's gonna work, It's gonna
• 31:21
  be good. But for now, look for Jalen Warren to
• 31:24
  get some carries. Look for Kenneth Gamewell to get some carries.
• 31:27
  Look for Caleb Johnson. They're gonna go RBBC for the
• 31:31
  start of the season. Unless somebody emerges. They're gonna go
• 31:34
  play a Jets team that I like the higher. I
• 31:37
  think Aaron Glenn, who played for the Jets, who was
• 31:39
  a Pro Bowl cornerback for the Jets, who just comes
• 31:42
  over from Detroit and watched how he and Dan Campbell
• 31:47
  and Ben Johnson how as a coaching staff they changed
• 31:50
  the culture. They brought in the right players in Detroit,
• 31:53
  and they took a franchise that had been down for decades, decades,
• 31:58
  a franchise known for just making the wrong decision every time,
• 32:01
  and they lifted it up. And unfortunately for the Lions,
• 32:04
  they had all those injuries and we really never got
• 32:06
  to see their true potential. They're still a very good team.
• 32:09
  We'll talk about in a minute. But I like that
• 32:12
  the Jets take one of their own and Aaron Glenn,
• 32:15
  who just was part of a coaching staff and a
• 32:18
  franchise that figured out how to get out of its
• 32:21
  own way and build up. And that is exactly what
• 32:25
  the Jets need. Because the Jets never, because of their
• 32:28
  owner never figure out how to get out of their
• 32:31
  own way. So if Aaron Glenn can do anything, it's
• 32:34
  take what he saw, learned and helped do in Detroit
• 32:38
  and bring that to the Jets. They are going to
• 32:40
  run the ball. They're going to put like most teams
• 32:43
  that have a defensive head coach and not a great quarterback,
• 32:47
  They're going to try to run the ball as much
• 32:49
  as possible. Breeshall is a name that has been on
• 32:53
  everybody's radar over the last two or three years. He
• 32:56
  hasn't really emerged into what people thought he would be,
• 33:00
  and I think he'll be a big part of the
• 33:02
  offense because it will be a ground and pound offense.
• 33:05
  But do not forget this name. Braylan Allen the second
• 33:08
  year running back out of Wisconsin. He is a really,
• 33:12
  really good ball carrier, had a nice rookie year last year.
• 33:17
  It sounds like they're going to be sort of fifty
• 33:20
  to fifty splitting carries. We'll see between Breisee Hall and
• 33:23
  Braylen Allen. But they're going to run a lot, so
• 33:25
  both of these guys are going to get plenty of work.
• 33:27
  They might even get Isaiah Davis in there as a
• 33:30
  third stringer. They're going to run with those three guys.
• 33:32
  They're going to run the ball when they can with
• 33:35
  Justin Fields, and you know when they get into those
• 33:38
  third and long situations, they're going to try to pop
• 33:40
  the ball to Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson's a really, really
• 33:43
  talented wide receiver on a team that has absolutely nothing
• 33:47
  else at wide receiver to be excited about. And that's
• 33:50
  why I mentioned again rookies. You know, Areman Membu their
• 33:54
  right tackle first round pick. They now have two first
• 33:57
  round picks at left tackle and right tackle. Pretty good
• 34:01
  interior with Joe Tittman. Now I think he's gonna have
• 34:03
  to move from guard. I'm start from center to guard
• 34:05
  because they lost unfortunately Elijah Vera Tucker. But their offensive
• 34:09
  line is coming along. They will run the ball ken
• 34:12
  Justin Fields make enough plays on third down, either using
• 34:16
  his legs or getting the ball to Garrett Wilson or
• 34:19
  getting the ball thrown into a running back or Mason Taylor,
• 34:22
  a rookie tight end at LSU who I really liked
• 34:25
  coming out of the draft. Sort of thought he might
• 34:28
  be a good fit for the Eagles. Can that be
• 34:30
  enough to just average? Can they get to twenty one
• 34:34
  to twenty four points a game. That's not a lot.
• 34:37
  That's not gonna win you a bunch of games. But
• 34:40
  the Jets have very good defense, pass rushers everywhere. Jermaine
• 34:44
  Johnson returns from his ACL Will McDonald stepped up last year,
• 34:48
  Quinn Williams in the middle, Sauce Gardner one of the
• 34:52
  best corners in the league. Andre Cisco is a good safety,
• 34:55
  Brandon Stevens. They have players up and down the roster
• 34:59
  around defense, so they can they can perform if their
• 35:03
  offense allows them to be if the offense can be functional,
• 35:08
  if they can move the chains, if the defense doesn't
• 35:10
  have to be on the field for three hours every
• 35:14
  Sunday or every time they play. That's the question facing
• 35:18
  the Jets, and I'm just I'll be interested to see
• 35:21
  as the year goes on how Aaron Glenn coaches and
• 35:24
  what they can do offensively to try to maximize the
• 35:28
  very little offensive weaponry that they have, because the defense
• 35:32
  is there, and that's what's gonna make Steelers Jets a
• 35:34
  really good It's going to be an ugly run the ball,
• 35:37
  run the raw run the ball, play defense, play defense,
• 35:39
  kickfield goals, kind of game, which is pretty apropos for Steelers, Jets,
• 35:45
  Giants at Commanders. Now, the Commanders are going to be
• 35:48
  a really fascinating team to watch this year. There's six
• 35:51
  and a half point favorites because they're coming off a
• 35:53
  twelve win season, going to the NFC Championship Game, and
• 35:58
  all the offseason additions that they made. But let's remember
• 36:01
  this about the Commanders, and I'm high on I like
• 36:03
  the Commanders a lot. I think they made good moves,
• 36:05
  but they won a ridiculous number of close games last year.
• 36:11
  They beat it. They won a game against the Giants.
• 36:14
  I think it was the first game between them somewhere
• 36:16
  week three, Week four, Week two where they kicked nothing
• 36:20
  but field goals. I think they won twenty one to
• 36:24
  like twenty or something or twenty one seventeen and they
• 36:26
  got seven field goals. All Right, we all know about
• 36:28
  the Hail Mary game. They they all know about their
• 36:32
  win over the Eagles. Jalen Hurts wound up getting hurt
• 36:34
  in that game. They won a ridiculous number of games
• 36:40
  that either team could have won at the end, and
• 36:43
  they did that because their quarterback played otherworldly. They put
• 36:46
  a lot on his shoulders he handled it. I think
• 36:49
  the sky is the limit for Jayden Daniels. I think
• 36:52
  it was smart that they got on Deebo Samuel. I
• 36:54
  think it was smart that they traded for Tunsel. I
• 36:57
  think it was smart that they drafted a right tackle
• 36:59
  the right way. But they are very old. My colleague
• 37:03
  get Jimmy Kempskiet Philly Voice. Every year after the after
• 37:09
  training camp when the fifty three man rosters are announced,
• 37:11
  does an average age story and he calculates the average
• 37:15
  age of every fifty three man roster, and the Commanders
• 37:18
  are number one, and it's not even close. And even
• 37:21
  if you took away some of those, like you know,
• 37:24
  like maybe they have a thirty something year old long
• 37:26
  snaper or a punter, if you took away three or
• 37:29
  four of their over thirties, they're still one of the
• 37:32
  oldest teams in football. Bobby Wagner has been around the
• 37:36
  block for quite a while. But what they have is
• 37:40
  a unbelievably talented quarterback and they've given him more, and
• 37:45
  they've got some pieces on defense that I like as well.
• 37:49
  I thought Sanders still the cornerback, played well. You know,
• 37:52
  Latimore is always an injury threat, so I can't even
• 37:54
  take him seriously until I see him play four or
• 37:57
  five games in a row. But they drafted a kid
• 38:00
  that I really liked at cornerback out of Mississippi Unless
• 38:06
  that I think is going to be a pretty decent
• 38:08
  player when he does get on the field. They've got Kwon, Martin,
• 38:12
  got Sanders still, Trey Amis is the guy that I
• 38:14
  was talking about that they drafted. I like him. Luvu's
• 38:17
  always always, always a spark plug as a linebacker who
• 38:22
  can rush from the edges. They've got some good defensive linement.
• 38:25
  I listen, I'm not down on the Commanders, but what
• 38:29
  I'm telling you is the ball bounced their way quite
• 38:32
  a bit last year. Now, good for them for not
• 38:35
  resting on Laurels and still going out in the offseason
• 38:37
  and making some changes and trying to improve the roster.
• 38:41
  But it would not surprise me if they don't reach
• 38:44
  twelve wins. Again. I'm not saying if they did, fine,
• 38:47
  Maybe if they if they have a breakout year, even more,
• 38:49
  if they win thirty fourty, maybe they're that good. I
• 38:51
  don't know, we'll see. I'm a little skeptical of it.
• 38:55
  They're certainly in the conversation to rub elbows with the
• 39:00
  But I don't want to rubber stamp this team as
• 39:02
  a top two or three seed or the biggest threat
• 39:05
  to the Eagles in the NFC. Yet, Let's see how
• 39:07
  they do against the Giants team this week get home.
• 39:10
  They'll be at home against the Giants team that I
• 39:13
  have no issue saying could produce the best four man
• 39:18
  rush in football. And that is a very very significant step. Now,
• 39:22
  obviously that means that Abdual Carter, the number two overall pick,
• 39:26
  has to be sorry three over flock. It has to
• 39:29
  be as good of an edge rusher as it looks
• 39:34
  as he looked in camp, as it looks as he
• 39:35
  should be being that high of a pick. But you
• 39:38
  put Abdull Carter on the field with Dexter Lawrence and
• 39:42
  with Brian Burns and with Cavon Thibodeau, and you get
• 39:45
  them stunting and twisting and overloading, and you do things
• 39:49
  like that, you will probably have a chance to hit
• 39:52
  the quarterback and cause a lot of pressure. And the
• 39:54
  Giants are pretty good at linebacker and secondary as well.
• 39:58
  They're not great. You know, they add von Holland, the
• 40:00
  safety from Miami. You know, they draft at that position,
• 40:04
  Nuban the safety. They have good expectations were I thought
• 40:08
  he was good as a rookie. I mean, they've got
• 40:10
  some pretty good players on defense. They just need the
• 40:12
  offense to be functional, and I'm just not sure it
• 40:15
  will be. They're still waiting for Andrew Thomas to get
• 40:18
  healthy and come back. He's not gonna play, so they'll
• 40:20
  be without him, and obviously Russell Wilson's gonna try in
• 40:24
  his shot. I have not liked how Russell Wilson has
• 40:26
  played quarterback in about four or five years, and I
• 40:29
  don't think he's a great fit for this team. He
• 40:31
  loves to throw the moon ball. Yeah you got Milik
• 40:33
  Nighbors will probably get the ball to Mitt Neighbors nine
• 40:36
  to ten to eleven times on third down. What about
• 40:38
  first down and second down? Is he gonna be able
• 40:40
  to make the throws that he needs to make. Are
• 40:42
  they going to just try to run the ball until
• 40:44
  they get the third down? That's what the Broncos tried
• 40:46
  with Wilson a couple of years ago. It didn't work
• 40:48
  out very well. So I don't know. The Giants have
• 40:51
  a lot of questions until until Jackson Dart takes over
• 40:55
  a quarterback and then when he does those stuff questions. Sure,
• 40:58
  he looked good in the preseason, but you know, we
• 41:01
  all know the preseason and the regular seasons are different.
• 41:03
  But he does appear to be their guy. In the future.
• 41:06
  He probably will get a chance sooner than later. Right now,
• 41:09
  it's Russell Wilson, and it's really Russell Wilson elite neighbors.
• 41:13
  Try to get the ball to Tyrone Tracy, their running
• 41:15
  back who was pretty good last year. But the offensive
• 41:18
  line is still a problem. It's better, but it's still
• 41:20
  a problem, and it's still going to come back to
• 41:22
  hurt him. And I just see, you know how Russell is.
• 41:25
  He likes to run around and hold on to the
• 41:27
  ball and try to avoid the pass rush, and then
• 41:29
  he winds up taking a sack or throwing the ball
• 41:31
  away or trying to throw a ball into the coverage
• 41:34
  after he ran around for three seconds. It's I don't
• 41:36
  think it's going to be very pretty offensively, and I
• 41:39
  think that's going to hurt the fact that the Giants
• 41:41
  have good defense, because the defense is going to be
• 41:43
  on the field for quite a bit. I mentioned Paulson Dedebo,
• 41:46
  another player that they got in free agency. The defense
• 41:48
  is good. Defensive, he has to be very very good
• 41:51
  if the offense can be functional. But I think that's
• 41:54
  the big question. Can the offense be functional? Next game
• 41:58
  Panthers are Jaguars. Jaguars three and half point favorites. Another
• 42:01
  game that you know you look at and you say,
• 42:03
  oh God, Black Right, AFC South, NFC South, not good teams.
• 42:09
  I'm kind of really fascinated to see what Liam Cohen
• 42:12
  does with his Jaguars offense. He's got Brian Thomas junior
• 42:16
  or emerged last year as a rookie, really good wide receiver.
• 42:19
  They draft Travis Hunter, They've got something. I got a
• 42:22
  young tight end from Penn State, Brenton Strange. They want
• 42:24
  to get involved. They have this, uh, this kid they
• 42:27
  drafted running back in the sixth round. But shule touton
• 42:30
  that is one of those sort of training camp darlings,
• 42:32
  and we'll see if you know, he actually emerges as
• 42:35
  their top ball carrier. Because there's a big question marks
• 42:38
  right now whether they really like Travis atn as their
• 42:41
  running back or if Bigsby is good enough to be
• 42:44
  their guy. It sounds like they by the end of
• 42:47
  the year, maybe this Teuton kid will be their guy.
• 42:51
  But listen to me, it's about the passing offense, and
• 42:53
  to me, it's about can Liam Cohen do for Trevor
• 42:58
  Lawrence what he did for Baker may Field with the
• 43:01
  route concepts. You know, this is a McVeigh style of
• 43:04
  offense because Liam Cohen used to work under Sean McVay.
• 43:08
  I believe it was either his pass game coordinator or
• 43:11
  offensive coordinator at one point. But those are the concepts
• 43:14
  that he helped bring to Tampa and can he do
• 43:17
  that here in Jacksonville? Can he get the ball to
• 43:19
  Travis Hunter? Can he get the ball to Brian Thomas?
• 43:22
  Can he make things easier for Trevor Lawrence with layup routes?
• 43:26
  They can they target Breton Strange the tight end a
• 43:29
  little bit more. The offensive line is a big issue.
• 43:31
  It's a question mark, there's no doubt about it. Defense
• 43:34
  is okay hasn't lived up to its potential. They've got
• 43:38
  some pass rushers with Josh heinz Allen and Trayvon Walker.
• 43:42
  This is a team to me that if the Liam
• 43:44
  Cohen impact is real, that I think can be surprisingly
• 43:48
  competitive in the AFC South that we're going to play
• 43:52
  a Panthers team that they should be. I like what
• 43:54
  the Panthers are doing to Obviously we saw last year
• 43:58
  Bryce Young can play a little bit when he came
• 43:59
  back in got the ball. You know, they get him
• 44:02
  a receiver like Tech McMillan, who again, as we're talking
• 44:05
  about rookies, I think ten McMillan, if healthy, has the
• 44:09
  ability to go and be for them what Marvin Harrison
• 44:13
  Junior and Milik Neighbors were for the Giants last year.
• 44:16
  High volume, high target receivers, highly productive receivers on teams
• 44:21
  that just don't have a whole lot of weaponry around them.
• 44:24
  Maybe xavieler Get takes a big jump in year two.
• 44:28
  Touoba Hubbard's is a very nice running back. The Panthers
• 44:31
  are okay offensively, not great. I think that they're our
• 44:36
  question marks defensively about them, and they're going to struggle
• 44:39
  this year. But the big thing is can they start
• 44:41
  to build offensively. Can they believe in the long term
• 44:45
  in Bryce Young here third year, now that he's got
• 44:48
  Tech McMillan, now that he's got year two of xavierler Get,
• 44:51
  Now that they can run the ball a little bit,
• 44:53
  their offensive line on the interior is actually pretty good,
• 44:56
  so they can they run the ball a little bit
• 44:57
  there with Chuba Hubbard and keep games honest. But then
• 45:00
  their defense, they've got to be able to build that up.
• 45:03
  So but I'm excited about this game. A lot of
• 45:05
  young talent. Between Brian Thomas Junior, Travis Hunter, Teed McMillan,
• 45:11
  Xavier le Guett, and the two quarterbacks Lawrence and brace Young,
• 45:14
  I think there's just enough worth watching to make this
• 45:17
  one interesting. All right, I'm gonna get to the four
• 45:20
  o'clock games in a second. I want to remind you
• 45:23
  I've been talking about this guy. You know, that one
• 45:24
  guy in the group chat who hits a five leg
• 45:27
  parlay week one and then doesn't shut up about it
• 45:30
  for the rest of the season. Well, hey, we may
• 45:32
  not love that guy because he's a bragger, but we
• 45:34
  all want to be that guy. I mean, that guy
• 45:36
  could be you. That person could be you, could be
• 45:38
  a guy, could be grow up. Anybody could be you.
• 45:41
  And my bookie makes it stupid easy to get in
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  They get all the spreads, the player pop props, and
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  That is the beauty of my bookie. If you're new
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  to my bookie, just use our promo code the Birds
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  one word T G B I r DS. Use that
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  time to jump in and no better place to play
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  football is back. Let's make some money with my bookie.
• 46:21
  All right, the four o'clock games listen. The Broncos eight
• 46:24
  and a half point favorites over the Titans. That's a
• 46:26
  deserved line. The Broncos were a much improved team. Expectations
• 46:29
  are high year two of bon Nicks and Sean Payton.
• 46:33
  They have a great defense, not a good defense. They
• 46:36
  have a great selection of pass rushers and that's gonna
• 46:40
  make life difficult for the Tennessee Titans. But the Titians
• 46:43
  are gonna be bullied by having the number one overall pick.
• 46:46
  They are gonna be more functional this year offensively than
• 46:49
  they were with Will Levis, who just did not play
• 46:51
  good foot well, they played terrible football last year, cam
• 46:54
  Ward will give them something. Tony Pollard is gonna be
• 46:57
  their main running back now because is hurt. They've got
• 47:02
  I think the Ward Calvin Ridley connection is going to
• 47:05
  be something worthwhile to me. That has a chance to
• 47:08
  be this year's version of last year's Jade and Daniels
• 47:11
  Terry McLaurin connection, which kind of came out out of nowhere.
• 47:15
  Not that McLaurin hadn't been a thousand yard receiver many
• 47:18
  years before, every year before that, but it really picked
• 47:21
  up when they got Jayden Daniels there. And I think
• 47:24
  Calvin Ridley's career and his his the kind of year
• 47:27
  and playmaking ability he's he has will be accentuated by
• 47:31
  having a guy like cam Ward as his quarterback. They've
• 47:36
  they've got some they have some offensive line issues, but
• 47:39
  they signed Dan Moore to play left tackle from the Steelers.
• 47:42
  It's not a bad left tackle, not an elite one,
• 47:44
  but not bad. You know. That helps them put jac
• 47:47
  Latham at right tackle. Latham was a right tackle in
• 47:51
  college at Alabama, not a left tackle. He struggled there.
• 47:54
  So you got Peter Skorronsky, another first round pick at guard.
• 47:57
  Cushion Barry as the center. They signed Kevin Zeitler, so
• 48:00
  they did what they're supposed to do. They they made
• 48:03
  their offensive line better for a rookie quarterback. And they're
• 48:06
  gonna give this kid Ward a chance. They're gonna run
• 48:09
  the ball out with Pollard right, They're gonna get the
• 48:12
  ball to Ridley. They're gonna try to get the ball
• 48:14
  on a tight end. Chigo on Conkua, who didn't really
• 48:16
  have a good year last year, but from what I understand,
• 48:19
  had a really nice camp. They got Gunner Helm who
• 48:21
  they picked out of Texas in the fourth round. They've
• 48:24
  got some guys they can move the ball with. And
• 48:26
  and listen to this rookie name too, it's a fourth
• 48:29
  round pick. It's Elick a Yeoman or he's out of
• 48:32
  Stanford Elick a Yeoman or maybe it's Elic Elick. I
• 48:36
  don't know. Stanford wide receiver Greg Coso really liked him.
• 48:40
  I think he's gonna wind up starting and he's gonna
• 48:42
  compliment Ridley and a veteran like Tyler Lockett. So they
• 48:46
  have the ability to move the ball and do some
• 48:49
  things on offense. It's gonna be very difficult for them
• 48:51
  to do that. Against a Broncos defense that is loaded
• 48:55
  up front, up front and in the back. I mean,
• 48:57
  Patrick's retain's great too. They draft to day Baron, I
• 49:00
  mean they are. This Broncos team is pretty legit. I
• 49:04
  have some questions about how good the Broncos will be offensively,
• 49:08
  just because it's year or two of bon Nicks, and
• 49:10
  it's Bonicks ran around, He's athletic, He's got some weapons
• 49:14
  with Courtland Sutton and Marvin MiBBs. I don't see this
• 49:17
  team as a juggernaut offensively yet. I think that remains
• 49:22
  to be seen if Sean Payton can really help take
• 49:25
  this Broncos offense to a second level. But the Titans
• 49:31
  defense has some question marks, so I do think I
• 49:33
  understand the high the eight and a half line. It
• 49:38
  wouldn't shock me if the Titans cover, because I think
• 49:40
  they're going to be a little more functionally offensively than
• 49:43
  people think. But the Broncos are. The Broncos are going
• 49:47
  to be a pretty good team, and their defense is
• 49:48
  going to win them a lot of games alone as
• 49:51
  their offense continues to grow and emerge. Forty nine ers
• 49:54
  at Seahawks. I'm in the camp some people are absolutely confused.
• 49:59
  While forty nine Ers are actually the betting favorites to
• 50:01
  win the NFC West, some people like myself think, well,
• 50:06
  it's because they actually, despite all their question marks, have
• 50:10
  a lot of really good players, and that division itself
• 50:13
  doesn't have a true juggern I mean the Rams. I
• 50:18
  like the Rams. I'm high on the Rams. Matt Staffew
• 50:20
  Stafford's got a back problem that could be problematic. But
• 50:23
  if you go up and down each team's fifty three
• 50:25
  man roster and you look at the forty nine ers
• 50:27
  and take health into consideration, that right now, if healthy,
• 50:30
  it sounds like mcaffrey's going to be okay. There was
• 50:32
  a little calf scare, but they've got McCaffrey, got Trent Williams.
• 50:36
  Rock Perty has been a very good quarterback for their system.
• 50:39
  They will get Brandon Ayuk back at some point, but
• 50:41
  even while he's not there, there are high expectations for
• 50:45
  a first round pick and Ricky Piersoll. On defense, they
• 50:48
  don't have as much talent, but they've always kind of
• 50:50
  been that team that has put up so many points offensively,
• 50:54
  which I think that they're going to be able to
• 50:56
  do again. That Oh I forgot to mention George Kittle,
• 50:59
  didn't I George Kittle. They've always had a defense that
• 51:03
  sort of benefited from their offense's ability to control possession
• 51:07
  and move the ball. And the defense isn't terrible. You know,
• 51:11
  Bryce Hall will go back to being in a wide
• 51:15
  nine there, sorry, Bryce hoff will go back to playing
• 51:19
  in the wide nine. That's where he belongs. That's where
• 51:21
  he flourished with the Jets. That's why he didn't fit
• 51:24
  with the Eagles. They drafted Michael Williams out of Georgia,
• 51:27
  are really good defensive lineman, a good pass rusher. He
• 51:30
  he'll play right away. Nick Bost, so we know, is
• 51:32
  one of the very best. So yeah, they're they're not
• 51:35
  amazing upfront, but those three guys alone should give them
• 51:39
  a legitimate pass rush. Fred Warner is a good linebacker,
• 51:42
  and their secondary is always guys who they make it
• 51:46
  work with, you know, j R. Brown, Ronaldo Green's a
• 51:49
  corner they drafted in the second round a couple of
• 51:51
  years ago. Leonor. They looks like they'll have a new
• 51:54
  nickel corner. They're not going to be a great defense,
• 51:57
  but if they can get back to scoring at the
• 52:00
  clip that they tradition typically score at then that will
• 52:03
  help their defense, and I think having Robert Salapak as
• 52:07
  the coordinator is going to be very beneficial for them.
• 52:11
  They're one and a half point favorites in Seattle, and again,
• 52:14
  I think that there's enough talent on the forty nine
• 52:16
  er roster that people They remind me of how people
• 52:20
  felt about the Rams the year after the Rams won
• 52:23
  the Super Bowl. I think Matthew Stafford got hurt, they
• 52:25
  got a little old, they wound up not having a
• 52:28
  great year the next year, and then everybody was down
• 52:31
  and the Stafford was no longer considered a top five quarterback,
• 52:34
  and the Rams tank and then lo and behold. The
• 52:36
  next year and two, they're fighting to the point where
• 52:40
  they're back in the playoffs and giving the Eagles a
• 52:42
  really tough game in the divisional round. And now there
• 52:45
  are a lot of people's picks to win the NFC West,
• 52:47
  and they've got Devanta Adams and all that. But my
• 52:49
  point is, don't make that same mistake with the forty
• 52:52
  nine ers. They have a lot of talent, They can
• 52:54
  really score when things are going well, and right now
• 52:57
  they're healthy. So as we sit here today, I think
• 53:00
  the forty nine ers with that week schedule that they're
• 53:02
  gonna wind up playing because of their bad finish last year,
• 53:05
  are a legit threat to make the postseason. But of
• 53:08
  course health will be their biggest obstacle. Can they stay healthy,
• 53:12
  can they keep everybody on the field, And when Brandon
• 53:14
  Au comes back, will he be the player that he
• 53:16
  was before he got hurt? Seahawks. Seahawks have Sam Darnold,
• 53:21
  have Clint Kubiak now as their offensive coordinator. You might
• 53:24
  remember Clint Kubiak from the first two weeks of last
• 53:28
  year as the Saints offensive coordinator when the Saints averaged.
• 53:32
  I think the Saints scored with forty four points in
• 53:35
  the opener and forty in Week two. Before you know
• 53:37
  it all came crashing down against the Eagles and then
• 53:40
  a bunch of injuries set in and o Lave got hurt.
• 53:43
  But yeah, Clint Kubiak, who is of course from the
• 53:47
  Kubiak slash Shanahan McVeigh, you know, whatever you want to
• 53:51
  call it, that that tree is going to come to
• 53:53
  the Seattle team. He's gonna work a lot of running
• 53:56
  with both Kenneth Walker and Zach Sharbonnay to play a
• 54:00
  lot of that wide zone that is difficult to defend.
• 54:04
  The Seahawks seem to be a little higher on their
• 54:07
  offensive line than maybe I am or the rest of
• 54:09
  the league. But again, these coordinators compensate for their offensive
• 54:14
  line deficiencies. When I say these coordinators, I'm talking about
• 54:17
  guys from the Shanahan and McVeigh tree. They compensate by
• 54:22
  running a lot of wide zone, getting the ball outside
• 54:26
  the tackles with their their running backs, which is you know,
• 54:28
  they've got good ones. They've got Kenneth Walker, they have
• 54:31
  Zach Charbonay, and then working play action and finding really
• 54:35
  good layup routes for guys like Jackson Smith and Jigba,
• 54:38
  who had a breakout year last year. So I'll say this,
• 54:41
  there's there's some intrigue to me about this Seattle offense.
• 54:45
  I don't think it's really fearsome. I don't think it's
• 54:48
  blessed with a whole lot of guys that scare you.
• 54:50
  Outside of I mean, Kenneth Walker never stays healthy himself.
• 54:53
  I think Sharbons are really good number two option, though
• 54:56
  Smith and Jigba is a good wide receiver. I don't
• 54:59
  know how much left Cooper cup hats you know he
• 55:02
  was playing in this style of offense when he was
• 55:04
  with the Rams, and he just did not look like
• 55:06
  the same guy. So I'm not sure that they have
• 55:09
  anybody outside of Smith and Jigba that you can really
• 55:13
  count on to move the ball in the passing game.
• 55:15
  I know they're very encouraged by this fifth round pick,
• 55:18
  Tory Horton. He's probably gonna wind up playing quite a bit,
• 55:21
  if not starting. I know they added Gray's Able out
• 55:25
  of North Akota State to their offensive line, so that
• 55:27
  should help. That's probably why they're They're a little more
• 55:30
  bullish on their line than I am looking at it.
• 55:32
  But the coordinator will will help them out. But I
• 55:36
  don't know if this team can. I don't know if
• 55:38
  there's enough weaponry for them to beat a team like
• 55:41
  the forty nine ers when the forty nine ers are healthy.
• 55:44
  I don't know that there are yet where they want
• 55:47
  to be defensively under Mike McDonald's who I thought did
• 55:50
  a nice job last year and I think is a
• 55:52
  very good defensive mine in this league. And even though
• 55:55
  he doesn't have a ton of blue Chippers, he's got
• 55:59
  played like veterans like DeMarcus Lawrence and Jaron Reed and
• 56:02
  Leonard Williams. You know, they do have a Blue chippern
• 56:05
  Devin Witherspoon. They're a corner who can play outside a nickel.
• 56:08
  They drafted Ahman Worri, the safety hat of Clemson, who
• 56:12
  is just totally twitched up and will probably make a
• 56:14
  big difference right off the start. But again, I just
• 56:17
  don't love their defense overall. It's gonna have to be
• 56:20
  highly schemed for them to win, and they're going up
• 56:23
  against a very highly schemed offense of the forty nine
• 56:25
  ers already, So it's an NFC West battle. Anybody can
• 56:29
  win it because of that. But I do like the
• 56:31
  forty nine ers to get off to a pretty good
• 56:33
  start that brings us to the big, big game, Lions
• 56:36
  at Packers. How can it? If you love football, you're
• 56:38
  gonna love this game. The Packers were my team that
• 56:41
  I thought could be a serious, serious threat to the Eagles,
• 56:45
  even before even before the Parsons strad The Parcels trade
• 56:49
  just makes it better. I was just looking for Jordan
• 56:52
  Love to play fifteen to twenty percent better and for
• 56:56
  the defense to be a little bit more vicious in
• 56:58
  the pass rush. Well, they took care of that with
• 57:00
  Micaeh Parsons, and they gave Love a chance to be
• 57:03
  better with the drafting of Matthew Golden, adding that element
• 57:08
  to their receiving core. They're gonna ride Josh Jacobs. They're
• 57:10
  gonna throw the ball to Dubs now. The only problem
• 57:13
  is it sounds like Jayden Reid is dealing who I
• 57:15
  really like as a Z move Z receiver. He can
• 57:18
  do a lot of things, had a big game against
• 57:20
  the Eagles in the opener last year. He's dealing with
• 57:23
  a foot injury that is going to be a season
• 57:25
  long problem. So it's a good thing they drafted Golden.
• 57:29
  I don't know how a wide receiver who has a
• 57:31
  foot injury that's as bad as it sounds. I guess
• 57:35
  he has to deal with the pain is gonna be
• 57:36
  able to make it through seventeen games, and losing him
• 57:39
  is tough. They do still have Romeo Dubbs. I think
• 57:42
  they're still waiting for don Tavian Wicks to be more consistent.
• 57:45
  But I mentioned again at the top of the show,
• 57:47
  rookies are going to play a role for teams this
• 57:51
  year in a really big way. It's going to be
• 57:53
  make or break and if Matthew Golden can get off
• 57:55
  to a good start and give Love that downfield presence
• 57:59
  that he wants. I mean, Jordan loves maybe his flaws
• 58:02
  that he just wants to take too many big shots
• 58:05
  down the field. But if you got a guy like
• 58:07
  Golden who can get a step on the coverage, well
• 58:10
  then maybe that's the perfect compliment for Jordan Love. And
• 58:14
  if that is, then watch out because the Packers are
• 58:16
  an excellently coached team and I think there will be
• 58:19
  a very, very tough out this year and they'll get
• 58:22
  a test right off the bat as their home at
• 58:24
  Lambeau against the Lions, who lost both of their coordinators.
• 58:27
  We talked about it. No Ben Johnson, no Aaron Glenn,
• 58:30
  but Dan Campbell is still there. Ton of talent. Do
• 58:34
  not do not just dismiss the Lions because they lost
• 58:38
  their coordinators. Could it impact them for sure? Do they
• 58:42
  have a ton of talent? Yes? They have two really
• 58:45
  good running backs, an elite running back in Gibbs Montgomery
• 58:48
  is back. He's good. It's a nice thunder and lightning combo.
• 58:51
  Jared Goff has played really well within this scheme, which
• 58:55
  you imagine is going to stay pretty similar wide receives
• 59:01
  obviously a monro Saint Brown, Sam Laporte, a tight end
• 59:04
  Jamison Williams if he plays a full season. I mean,
• 59:06
  this is a team that's got a load of firepower.
• 59:09
  And then they draft a kid at Isaac Teslah in
• 59:12
  the third round and the guy rips it up all preseason.
• 59:16
  We'll see he's kind of got this. I don't know,
• 59:18
  he's being compared a little bit to the Kua in
• 59:20
  his ability to just go get the football. And if
• 59:23
  that's the case, if he winds up being that good,
• 59:25
  this is just a rich getting richer. Now. Defense is
• 59:28
  going to be a little bit of an issue. Health
• 59:30
  is an issue. It was obviously a real problem for
• 59:34
  them last year. We'll see and again new defensive coordinator
• 59:38
  will see what they can do. Aiden hutch They just
• 59:40
  don't have enough pass rushers. Aiden Hutchon is a good
• 59:43
  pass rusher. He's coming back from the knee injury. He's good,
• 59:46
  very good. Marcus Davenport is not that guy to be
• 59:50
  your number two pass rushers. So they're either going to
• 59:53
  have to manufacture it or figure out a way to
• 59:57
  cause havoc for quarterbacks with line. They gonna have to
• 1:00:00
  do something because outside of Hutcheon made me make a trade.
• 1:00:03
  Outside of Hutchinson, they're really missing in the pass rush.
• 1:00:07
  They have a very good secondary love obviously Kirvey Joseph
• 1:00:10
  had a big year last year. Brian Branch very very
• 1:00:13
  good safety, sort of hybrid nickel player. Brian. They found
• 1:00:18
  something un the meek Robinson last year came over and
• 1:00:21
  played really good football for them. Tarry and Arnold or two.
• 1:00:24
  Their linebackers are solid. This is a really good team.
• 1:00:27
  This is a team. You heard me talk about the
• 1:00:29
  Falcons right and comparing them to the Eagles, where the
• 1:00:31
  Falcons just don't have a whole lot of players where
• 1:00:33
  you put the red circle around say that's a blue
• 1:00:36
  chip player. Well, the Lions have plenty of them, and
• 1:00:38
  they will be there at the end. I absolutely guarantee
• 1:00:41
  you that when you're talking about the top four teams
• 1:00:43
  in the NFC and you got the Eagles and the Packers,
• 1:00:46
  the Lions are in that conversation and they are going
• 1:00:49
  to be so motivated to show everybody that last year,
• 1:00:53
  if they didn't have all those injuries, that they would
• 1:00:55
  have been the team in the Super Bowl. That's how
• 1:00:58
  they believe, that's how they feel, and honestly, they were
• 1:01:00
  headed that way until all his injuries set in. I
• 1:01:04
  do you feel little robbed that we did not get
• 1:01:06
  an Eagles Lions NFC championship game. I would have loved
• 1:01:09
  to see how that went. Those were two teams with
• 1:01:11
  the two best fifty three man rosters, so the Lions
• 1:01:14
  will be motivated. It wouldn't shock me if they beat
• 1:01:17
  the Packers in Week one, because they're still just they
• 1:01:19
  probably have a better fifty three I just think the
• 1:01:21
  Packers at home, with the roster that they have, the
• 1:01:25
  coaching that they have makes them tough. I think five
• 1:01:28
  of their six losses last year were by six points
• 1:01:31
  or fewer. So this will be a clash of Titans
• 1:01:34
  when the Lions and the Packers play. We got Texans
• 1:01:37
  at Rams. Rams are three and a half point favorites.
• 1:01:40
  Texans are a bounce back team for me. I know that. Well,
• 1:01:44
  let me just say this, I think CJ. Sturroud is
• 1:01:46
  a bounce back player for me. I think the Texans
• 1:01:48
  defense is very very good. I don't know if the
• 1:01:52
  Texans offensive line is going to be that much better
• 1:01:56
  than last year. Last year was terrible. They moved on
• 1:01:59
  from tunsl the drafted Ursery out of Minnesota. Looks like
• 1:02:02
  he's going to start left tackle. They've made some changes,
• 1:02:04
  you know, they drafted some receivers, got rid of Diggs.
• 1:02:07
  Stroudon Nico Collins is as good of a quarterback wide
• 1:02:10
  receiver connection as there is in football, as much as
• 1:02:13
  it is with Stafford and Puka Nakua. I think that
• 1:02:16
  the Texans, if their offensive line is functional, if it's better,
• 1:02:21
  if it's ten percent better than it was last year,
• 1:02:24
  and CJ. Stroud is ten percent better than last year.
• 1:02:27
  They remember, they made the playoffs, they won the division,
• 1:02:30
  made the playoffs, they won a playoff game, they beat
• 1:02:32
  the Chargers, if I'm not mistaken, and they gave the
• 1:02:34
  Chiefs a pretty good game. So despite all their flaws,
• 1:02:37
  they were not a bad team, and they have a
• 1:02:39
  very good and elite defense. I'll even go as far
• 1:02:42
  as say so, if they're better offensively and CJ. Stroud
• 1:02:46
  is ten to twenty percent better than he was last year,
• 1:02:49
  then I think this Texan team has a real shot,
• 1:02:51
  a real shot to be a very good AFC contender.
• 1:02:55
  And it'll be on display early here a Week one
• 1:02:58
  against the Rams. A Rams team that when Matthew Stafford
• 1:03:01
  is healthy. They're they're good. They're gonna get the ball.
• 1:03:04
  DeVonta Adams are gonna get the ball. You know what
• 1:03:06
  the Rams are gonna do. There's no intrigue with them.
• 1:03:08
  They're gonna run the ball with Kyram Williams. They're going
• 1:03:11
  to throw the ball in the tight windows to Nikua
• 1:03:14
  and Devonte Adams. They're not gonna rip up the scoreboard
• 1:03:18
  weekend week out. But they have the potential to be
• 1:03:20
  explosive at times, but they're mostly methodically going to move
• 1:03:24
  the ball with their run game and their intermediate pass game,
• 1:03:28
  and maybe every once in a while they hit one
• 1:03:29
  deep to two two at well. But they'll be able
• 1:03:31
  to score. And I love their young defense Jared Verse
• 1:03:34
  britten Fisk. I mean, they showed you last year. Those
• 1:03:37
  guys can rush the passer, they can do things. This
• 1:03:39
  is a good this are This is a very similar
• 1:03:42
  matchup between an NFC contender and an AFC contender who
• 1:03:45
  are strong in the same ways and who go about
• 1:03:49
  playing the same way. And that's why I really like
• 1:03:50
  this game. The Rams are three and a half point favorites.
• 1:03:53
  Anybody can win this game. Honestly, I think it's a team,
• 1:03:58
  it's a it's a it's a matchup of two teams
• 1:04:00
  who when we're getting into week fifteen, Week sixteen, we're
• 1:04:03
  gonna as long as Matthew Stafford is healthy. If he's not,
• 1:04:06
  that changes everything for the Rams. And I do question
• 1:04:09
  whether or not he'll be able to hold up with
• 1:04:10
  this back injury, because back injuries are tough for thirty
• 1:04:13
  seven year old quarterbacks. But if he's healthy, these are
• 1:04:16
  two teams that should make some really good football and
• 1:04:19
  this should be a really good football game, all right.
• 1:04:21
  The Sunday night game. Sunday Night game, Ravens at Bills.
• 1:04:25
  I don't have to say much about this game. Honestly,
• 1:04:26
  you guys know who who the best players are. These
• 1:04:29
  are two great teams. The Ravens are one and a
• 1:04:31
  half point favorites. The only thing that surprises me, even
• 1:04:34
  though I have the Ravens as my number one team
• 1:04:35
  in the power rankings on my Phillyvoice dot com Power rankings,
• 1:04:39
  the Bills never lose at home. The Bills are almost
• 1:04:42
  unbeatable at home. So it surprises me a little bit
• 1:04:47
  that the Ravens are one and a half point favorites.
• 1:04:49
  But all you need to know about the Ravens is this.
• 1:04:51
  They basically brought everybody back on defense. They fixed their
• 1:04:55
  defense at the halfway mark last year and over the
• 1:04:58
  last eight games of the season. Half of the season
• 1:05:01
  they were second to the Eagles in total yards and
• 1:05:04
  points score on defense, so they had the number two defense.
• 1:05:07
  They brought everybody that they wanted back, and they added
• 1:05:10
  JayR Alexander, a very talented cornerback who just struggles to
• 1:05:14
  stay healthy. But it's Week one. They added him. So
• 1:05:18
  their defense is elite, no question about it. Their quarterback
• 1:05:23
  is elite, no question about it. They're running their offensive
• 1:05:26
  line running in. The Ravens are about as close to
• 1:05:28
  the Eagles matching them talent for talent as there is.
• 1:05:32
  They just don't have the wide receiver talent that the
• 1:05:34
  Eagles have. But I would say I think that they've
• 1:05:37
  probably got more secondary talent Between Marlon Humphrey, Kyle Williams,
• 1:05:44
  JayR Alexander, I mean they've got guy Kyle Hamilton' sorry,
• 1:05:47
  JayR Alexander, and Nate Wagans who played well. You could
• 1:05:51
  probably give the Ravens the nod in the secondary over
• 1:05:54
  the Eagles, but those two are the most talented fifty
• 1:05:57
  three man rosters in the league, and after that, I
• 1:05:59
  think there's a a little bit of a drop off.
• 1:06:01
  I like the Bills. The Bills are collectively better than
• 1:06:04
  their individual parts, and that a lot of that has
• 1:06:06
  to do with Josh Allen being able to lift that offense.
• 1:06:09
  Because it doesn't have a bunch of great playmakers and
• 1:06:12
  Sean McDermott is an excellent defensive coach. They also don't
• 1:06:15
  have a great You don't look at their defense and say, oh,
• 1:06:17
  this is a top three guy and this is a
• 1:06:19
  top three guy. But they make it work and they
• 1:06:21
  are almost unbeatable at home, which is why it surprises
• 1:06:24
  me a little bit that the Ravens are one and
• 1:06:25
  a half point favorites. But any team can win this game,
• 1:06:28
  and at the end of the day, the Ravens are
• 1:06:31
  number one of my power rankings for a reason. I
• 1:06:32
  think they're going to be really, really good this year. Again.
• 1:06:36
  Monday Night game Vikings at Bears. Kind of wish that
• 1:06:39
  this was the Lions Packers was the Monday Night game,
• 1:06:41
  but I get it. There's excitement, there's intrigue about the
• 1:06:44
  Bears with Ben Johnson, with Caleb Williams, with all the
• 1:06:48
  moves that they made in the offseason. There's also intrigue
• 1:06:51
  with the Vikings and JJ McCarthy. The Vikings are going
• 1:06:55
  to be a tough team no matter what, even if
• 1:06:57
  JJ McCarthy stinks, because the Vikings are very good in
• 1:06:59
  the trenches. They understand what the Eagles have known for
• 1:07:03
  years and some other teams is that if you're strong
• 1:07:05
  on the d line and strong on the offensive line,
• 1:07:08
  you can overcome some deficiencies. You know, if your quarterback
• 1:07:12
  isn't a top three quarterback, you can you can deal
• 1:07:15
  with that. So we'll see what McCarthy is now. You
• 1:07:18
  can't have a bad quarterback, So if he's bad, then
• 1:07:21
  it won't matter. But if he's okay, indecent, and he's
• 1:07:25
  got a great coach in Kevin O'Connell, then the Vikings
• 1:07:27
  will be pretty good because we know they have a
• 1:07:29
  great defensive coordinator in Flores, and they have a defense
• 1:07:33
  that's got some pass rushers. They added Isaiah Rodgers on
• 1:07:36
  the back end. I mean, this is a very very
• 1:07:38
  tough defense to play against. So I wouldn't be surprised
• 1:07:41
  if this new Bears Ben Johnson offense doesn't just hit
• 1:07:44
  the ground running against this Vikings defense. The Vikings are
• 1:07:47
  one and a half point favorites. Vikings will be fun
• 1:07:50
  to watch as the year goes on, but only if McCarthy,
• 1:07:54
  if McCarthy improves, because their backup quarterback is Carson Wentz.
• 1:07:59
  So if McCarthy gets hurt or if he stinks and
• 1:08:03
  Carson Wentz is in, I don't think the Vikings become
• 1:08:05
  an intriguing team anymore. Maybe the Eagles fans for shouden
• 1:08:08
  Freud purposes, but otherwise they really need Jajon McCarthy to progress,
• 1:08:14
  stay healthy, move the ball, figure out ways to get
• 1:08:17
  it to Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison. Watch for Tyler Hockinson.
• 1:08:20
  He'll have a nice bounce back year. Remember he was
• 1:08:22
  on ir to start last year. He didn't play, he
• 1:08:25
  was coming off the knee injury. But Hockinson's a really
• 1:08:28
  good tight end. And listen the Michigan quarterbacks. They throw
• 1:08:32
  to their tight ends. McCarthy will, as a rookie or
• 1:08:35
  a first year quarterback, will probably try to get the
• 1:08:37
  ball to his safety valves. So I think TJ. Hockinson
• 1:08:40
  can have a really big year. And the Bears, we'll
• 1:08:43
  just see they made all these moves, Well, it's all
• 1:08:46
  about It is all about Caleb Williams. Can he function
• 1:08:51
  and do what's being asked of him to do within
• 1:08:53
  the Ben Johnson offense, they have really good weapons. And listen,
• 1:08:58
  I'll just tell you this. This is a conversation for
• 1:09:01
  like week eight, nine, ten, or eleven if things aren't
• 1:09:04
  going well for Caleb Williams. But the Bears really love
• 1:09:07
  their backup Tyson Baigent, and Beijen has played well in
• 1:09:11
  the few times he's been asked to go in there
• 1:09:13
  and play. I mean, this is a kid who you know,
• 1:09:15
  this is the biggest underdogs, one of the bigger underdog
• 1:09:18
  stories in the year. If he ever winds up becoming
• 1:09:22
  a starting quarterback for the Bears, I think he went
• 1:09:24
  to Shepherd College. If I'm not mistaken this. If you're
• 1:09:29
  not familiar with Baigent and his story and his father's
• 1:09:33
  love for pro wrestling and things like that, it's really funny.
• 1:09:36
  They love the kid in Chicago. He's got an arm,
• 1:09:40
  he can make some plays. Yeah, he went to Shepherd.
• 1:09:42
  He's a really interesting story. And listen, if it doesn't
• 1:09:45
  work out with Caleb Williams, I don't think Ben Johnson
• 1:09:48
  is going to be a freed to give the ball
• 1:09:50
  over to Tyson Bagent and see what he can do
• 1:09:53
  with all the weaponry that the Bears now have. So
• 1:09:56
  Viking's one and a half point favorites should be a
• 1:09:59
  good one in Nice see North Battle on Monday night.
• 1:10:02
  All right, it's time for my three locks. I'm sorry,
• 1:10:05
  I meant to go back and look and give you
• 1:10:07
  guys my record from last year. It was a winning
• 1:10:10
  Recorders are probably around sixty five sixty six percent if
• 1:10:13
  I recall, but I'll get that information for the next one.
• 1:10:16
  But for this one, for Week one, I like the
• 1:10:19
  Raiders getting two and a half over the Patriots. I
• 1:10:21
  don't know if the Raiders are going to win, but
• 1:10:23
  I can definitely seeing this being a one point game.
• 1:10:26
  I can see the Raiders winning by a field goal
• 1:10:27
  and just out covering all together, or losing by one
• 1:10:31
  and covering the two and a half. I just don't
• 1:10:33
  know that the Patriots are ready to be rubber stamped
• 1:10:36
  as a win, and I think the Raiders are going
• 1:10:38
  to figure out a way with their running game and
• 1:10:41
  to keep it close anyway, So this game could be
• 1:10:43
  very close. It wouldn't shock me if they could pull
• 1:10:45
  out a win by a field goal. I don't like
• 1:10:47
  the Raiders overall, but these are two teams that are
• 1:10:50
  probably in the bottom five or six of the NFL
• 1:10:52
  right now. I already alluded to it. I'm gonna take
• 1:10:56
  the Dolphins getting one and a half in Indianapolis. I
• 1:11:00
  just don't know about the Colts right now, and I
• 1:11:02
  think this is the time where you want to be
• 1:11:04
  on the Dolphins, before all the injuries settle in, before
• 1:11:06
  all the drama that tends to happen in that franchise.
• 1:11:09
  I think week one to a healthy is a pretty
• 1:11:12
  good bet to go in there. Give them the one.
• 1:11:15
  I think that don't win that game out right, actually,
• 1:11:17
  and then I like the Titans to cover the eight
• 1:11:21
  and a half against Denver. Can Denver win that game
• 1:11:25
  by two possessions? You know, nine or more? Maybe? I mean,
• 1:11:29
  it wouldn't shock me, but I think the Titans are
• 1:11:31
  going to surprise some people. I think cam Ward's impact
• 1:11:34
  and that offensive line being better is going to help
• 1:11:37
  them move the ball and probably make them a little
• 1:11:40
  bit more of a surprising team. And I wouldn't be
• 1:11:42
  surprised if he saw cam Woard put the ball down
• 1:11:44
  the field a couple of times and make some big
• 1:11:46
  plays to Ridley to you know, maybe locket a lumin
• 1:11:50
  or who we talked about, and you know, maybe take
• 1:11:54
  the Broncos by surprise a little bit. I don't think
• 1:11:56
  they're gonna win, but I think they can keep it
• 1:11:58
  close and I'm taking them to cover. They eight and
• 1:12:00
  a half versus the Broncos. This was a long show, man,
• 1:12:04
  I went on and on, but I really wanted to
• 1:12:06
  give you guys a preview not only of the Week
• 1:12:08
  one matchups, but what to expect from these teams this year.
• 1:12:12
  Hope you all enjoyed it. Please enjoy your football. That's
• 1:12:15
  going to do it for a week one of the
• 1:12:16
  Inside the Birds NFL preview show. Catch up on the
• 1:12:19
  next one.