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NFL 2025 | Week 15 "Tent Talk" | Updates, News & Injuries | Banter with the Boys - Gridiron Updates · Banter with the Boys

• 0:00
  Get laced up. Let's go. It's time for Banter
• 0:04
  with the Boys. Yo, football family. Welcome back
• 0:16
  to Gridiron Updates. I'm Banter with the Boys.
• 0:19
  We've got Justin in the house over here. Kevin
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  spinning the tracks behind us in the cameras.
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  And we're talking some news. And starting off,
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  Phillip Rivers, unretiring and coming back to
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  the Indianapolis Colts to replace Daniel Jones'
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  season -ending injury. Does he have anything
• 0:47
  left in the tank, Justin? He's got these kids.
• 0:50
  He's got to support. He's going to be slinging
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  this thing if he needs to. He's got like 17 kids
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  for number 17. That's fun news. Yeah, they need
• 1:00
  a little spark, so throw anything on the wall
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  and see what sticks. Obviously, Leonard doesn't
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  seem to be the quarterback that they think is
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  going to be able to make that last -second playoff
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  push with that last tough schedule. Other fun
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  news, Miles Garrett's journey to the NFL sack
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  record. He's sitting at 19 sacks right now, 22
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  .5. TJ Watts. Yeah, that's the record. And is
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  it Strahan? Yeah, I think it is. The old Giants
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  last morning news dude now. Yep. But he's been
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  wearing like a little of the 25. So that 25 is
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  the number he wants to hit. So he needs four
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  more to get to 23. Four games left. Could happen.
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  I mean, I hope it does. It's always fun to, you
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  know, and he's been a stud playing on a crappy
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  team. So a little enjoyment for the dog pound.
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  It'll probably be well appreciated. What else
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  do you got on? Hey, I don't have a ton of injuries
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  other than Danny and, you know, a few known really
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  important coming back fantasy wise. Yeah. Yeah,
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  from a fantasy standpoint, some of the major
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  impacts are Zach Ertz being out for the year
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  with his ACL tear against Minnesota, just devastating
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  injury, which just is part of the game. You've
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  got non -fantasy, but Trey Hendrickson going
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  down for core muscle surgery will be out the
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  rest of the year. I mean, if you had the Bengals
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  defense, it may affect you. If you did bless
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  your heart, you probably shouldn't. Yeah, you
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  should be picking up somebody else. Going back
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  to the Philip Rivers piece, you had not only
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  is Riley Leonard injured, but you also have Richardson,
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  who they drafted a few years back, that just
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  has not been it, had an orbital fracture. It
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  doesn't look like he'll be. getting off of IR
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  in time for the Seahawks game. So it really makes
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  sense why they bring in someone like Phillip
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  Rivers. Shadur Sanders, named by the Browns,
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  is the starter for the rest of the season, which
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  I think if you ask a lot of Browns fans, probably
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  should have happened a bit ago just with how
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  their season's been going and how things have
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  transpired. Outside of that, some things to watch
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  is you have CeeDee Lamb, not sure what's going
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  on with him in the concussion protocol, took
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  a really nasty hit last week. game uh hopefully
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  um George Pickens can get his head out of his
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  butt and figure out how to catch a ball and run
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  routes. He was so hot. He had like three weeks.
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  I don't get it. Choosing not to play. Yeah. He's
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  such a knucklehead. Well, it's just so between
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  his ears is where it's his biggest. He's so much
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  talent. So much. But he just gets frustrated
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  and then quits. And then everyone kind of starts
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  turning on him, which happened at Pittsburgh
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  too. Any other injuries you saw? Last major one
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  that I saw was that you had T. Higgins has re
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  -entered the concussion protocol after just getting
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  out of it in their game against the Bills. So
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  he's having a rough go at it. That's not what
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  you want to see. And then, of course, Jaden Daniels,
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  don't know what's going to happen with him for
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  the rest of the year with another elbow injury,
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  whether or not it re -aggravated the same injury
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  or it's a different one. I guess I'm not surprised
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  either way, but I would... think he would not
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  come back for the rest of the season. Probably
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  not for the playoffs. To watch. Yeah. On his
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  100 -inch screen at home. Kevin, let's talk a
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  little playoff pitchers right now. We'll start
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  off here with the AFC East and kind of give you
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  the top seven. If the playoffs started today,
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  Denver Broncos leading at 11 -2. Still... Haven't
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  officially clinched that, and they got some division
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  games coming up. They got New England Patriots,
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  which is surprising, but I'm starting to believe.
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  They start playing against some teams that they
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  shouldn't be competitive with in my mind, and
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  they are. There's magic there between May and
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  Vrabes. Oh, my gosh. There's something there
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  that they're building. I don't want to talk down
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  to their team because they have great wide receivers.
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  They have great running backs. They spend a lot
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  of money in free agents. They don't have these
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  household name players yet. These players are
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  out there saying, I'm going to make my name a
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  household name. It's like the Patriot way of
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  backing Belichick. It is. Come on in. You've
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  got Baby Brady out there just slinging it. I
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  think it's a good mix of the Belichick tree,
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  but also Vrabes doing it his own way and being
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  that player's coach. It's a lot of fun to watch
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  them. Yeah, moving down the list there, Jacksonville
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  Jaguars. It's just Trevor Lawrence having probably
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  his best year. It seems like it. I mean, maybe
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  I haven't really looked statistically, but I
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  feel like their team overall is a little more
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  competitive. And if I was playing against them,
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  I'd be like, eh. Maybe not this year. It's that
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  easy old Jaguars of the past. They are the leaders
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  of the South currently, so their playoff chances
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  is 98%. I think that's what I came up with here
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  mathematically. Moving down to the last division
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  leader, the Pittsburgh Steelers with a big win
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  over the Ravens. Limping along to the finish
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  line is what it feels like with the AFC North.
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  Yeah, it's still not over. So we talked about
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  that a little bit. episode if you want to get
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  deeper into the Ravens Steelers conversation
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  on the Charters 9 and 4 on the current first
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  wildcard team Like we talked about, two games
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  behind the Broncos. They do play, I think we
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  talked about one more time. Yeah, I believe so,
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  yep. And then Bills, I think they have to play
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  with the Patriots. But the Patriots have a two
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  -game lead now, so even if the Bills do end up
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  getting one win, the Patriots are going to have
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  to help them. Yeah, absolutely. For that division.
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  And then rounding off, Houston at 8 -5, riding
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  a five -game winning streak. Defense, oh, my
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  goodness. They're coming around. I mean, that
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  front and back. We talked about in the preseason
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  about how good that hold, you know, the edges
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  are with Anderson and Hunter and then the backside
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  of the cornerbacks and secondaries. Just, yeah,
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  so. Then on the bubble, Colts. They're going
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  to keep being on the bubble. Their bubble's about
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  to be popped, unfortunately. You've got the Ravens
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  there, right? The Chiefs aren't technically out,
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  even though they're out of the division, but
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  they're going to need a lot of people to do them
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  a lot of favors, and they're going to have to
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  win out, those two teams, I think. If you look
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  at it, Texans at 8 -5, and they're 6 -7 the Chiefs,
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  so they're two games out, four games to go. Officially
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  eliminated, the Jets, Jets, Jets, the Dog Pound
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  Browns, the... Raiders. Raiders. And then the
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  Titans with last year's first -round pick. Yeah.
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  So they're looking like, I mean, I think are
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  they technically, officially first? I think they
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  are the first. Two and 11. Yeah, two and 11.
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  Giants. Yeah, it's Giants, Titans, and Raiders
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  are all vying for that first overall pick right
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  now. But they got a W this last week, so. I don't
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  think they want the first -round pick. They want
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  some better mojo coming into the offseason. If
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  they could win out or something like that, they'd
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  prefer getting probably the eighth pick. Yeah,
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  Browns are trying to make it closer. That's why
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  they threw away that two -point conversion. All
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  right, let's move to the NFC pitcher. Rams, 10
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  -3, holding that first in the bye. Looking good.
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  Matt Stafford leading the league in touchdowns,
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  what they're doing with that group, and their
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  defense is insane. They're probably consistently
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  or most people would probably pick them to be
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  the NFC championship. For sure, get to the game
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  at the very least. Because they're trending upwards.
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  Packers second at 9 -3 -1, leading the North.
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  I'd put them in that boat, that NFC championship.
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  Eagles third at 8 -5. They look like the team
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  falling out right now. The Cowboys, you know,
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  they got the lock in their hand. The Cowboys
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  are 6 -6 -1, so they still have a two -game lead
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  on them. So a little cushion. Tampa Bay, 7 -6.
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  I mean, that's a feisty division. They're tied
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  with the Panthers. Must have the tiebreaker somewhere
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  in there. Sea Chickens, 10 -3. God, they've kind
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  of fallen off my shelf of NFC contenders a little
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  bit after how we played against Darnold and then
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  how the first half of this last week's game started
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  off slow again. They did heat up in the second
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  half, but also who were they playing? They're
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  playing the Falcons. Yeah, and the Falcons completely
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  second half. I think teams are figuring out if
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  you bottle up JSN, he's going to get loose at
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  some point, but he's not having the 100 -plus
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  games he did. He's still getting to 100 or close
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  to 100. He's having these really good games,
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  but he's not going off in the way he was the
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  first half of the season where you're like, this
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  guy is going to break every receiving record
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  known to man. So I think that's part of it. Defense
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  is still great. I think part of it is also, for
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  me at least, recency bias because you're not
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  seeing as much of them on the national stage
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  right now as you were. They were in some national
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  games, primetime games, where you got to see
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  what they were doing. So you're not seeing as
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  much of that. So I think there's a little bit
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  of that there too. But there's definitely something
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  that's fallen off. At halftime, it was... 6 -6
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  with the Seahawks and the Falcons, and then you
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  turn around and I don't think the Falcons scored
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  another point and the Seahawks took it away.
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  They're still a great team, but you're not seeing
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  that consistent dominance that you're seeing
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  from teams like the Rams. We were talking about
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  three weeks ago because they were in the top
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  five in points per game. I guess they still scored
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  a ton of points last week. But there's something
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  in the tape. I think some defense coordinators
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  are figuring out where Darnold wants to go on
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  his first read. For sure. I don't. I want to
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  give credit to Vikings here a little bit and
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  B -Flow, but what they showed during that game,
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  if there's any bright spot about the Vikings'
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  performance during that game against Seattle,
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  it was the defense. I think you're starting to
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  see some of these really good defenses where
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  they can slow some of these playmakers down.
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  Other teams, because it's a copycat league, are
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  starting to figure it out. I think some of that's
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  starting to simmer a little bit. Yeah, and there's
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  a lot of tape out there now. Every team has played
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  13. 13, 14 games. Thanks, Common Man. A few K
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  -fan people. We'll slide down the rest of the
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  49ers in that division. That West still, who
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  knows which direction. Brock's back. They just
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  keep getting dubs. How did they get to nine wins
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  with how many injuries they had? I know. They've
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  just capitalized on the sloppy, ugly games and
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  pulled them out. I feel like the Vikings played
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  that same season a few years ago when we had
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  Don. Had the most one -score wins. Almost gave
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  me a heart attack. Then you got the Chicago Bears
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  still holding on the 7th at 9 -4. That NFC North,
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  they kind of switched places with the Vikings.
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  Yeah. The same thing as last year, three NFC
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  North teams fighting for playoff spots. You and
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  they're all on the Bears finishing enough. to
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  make the playoffs. All right. This is not bitterness
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  or anything against the bears. This is just facts.
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  I'm out on the bears. I think they're a great
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  team. They could be wrong and they could be the
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  seven seed, but. I think as a friend outside
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  of this world says to me, the trend is your friend,
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  and the trend right now is the Detroit Lions.
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  I know we had a really good game against them,
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  but you look at what they've done. They still
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  have to play Chicago again. They put belt to
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  you -know -what last time they played Chicago.
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  They put up, I think, over 50 points on them.
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  I look at Chicago's schedule. They play the Browns,
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  which you would think, okay, that should be a
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  win. But that defense is really good. Maybe Garrett
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  gets his record again that game. He could. So
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  you have the Browns. You have the Packers. I
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  think it's the Niners. And then I think they
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  end with the Lions. So it's a really tough schedule
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  when you think about those four games. And I
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  think about... What the Packers did on Sunday,
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  if you slow down that run and can slow it down,
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  you can slow down that offense. You just can't
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  let them back in like Green Bay did towards the
• 14:19
  end of that game. Start playing perfect defense.
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  That's a tough one. I would actually flip Chicago
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  and Detroit. Okay, and then Panthers are the
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  other scenario. I'm feeling like, I don't know.
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  They're frisky. Well, I think whoever the Tampa
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  Bay or them is going to get that position. I
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  don't know if the Panthers. They're two games
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  behind. They're tied, aren't they? It's 7 -6
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  and 7 -6, right? They are, yeah. And then the
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  Cowboys, 6 -6, who play the Vikings this week
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  that we'll talk about here in the next episode,
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  still has a chance. That's going to be a tough
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  one. Yeah, it'll be interesting. It's going to
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  be a tough road. Eliminated are the Falcons,
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  Cardinals, Saints, Commanders, and Giants. So
• 15:01
  that's kind of where we're looking at there.
• 15:05
  I want to transition to the MVP conversation.
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  Sitting right there, Drake Main was not on my
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  bingo card at the beginning of the year is MVP
• 15:19
  conversation. Favorite at minus 120, according
• 15:23
  to whatever AI generated chart that is. Stafford
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  coming in second. I mean, I would still put Stafford
• 15:33
  over May, personally. I would, too. Law of Allen
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  and Prescott to finish off. What else would you
• 15:40
  change in that? Or do you feel that's pretty
• 15:42
  accurate where you'd put them currently? I want
• 15:47
  to see more variety in there and not just quarterbacks.
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  I know it's a quarterback award. We always talk
• 15:51
  about it. Who's the running back then that probably
• 15:53
  deserves that position? I would have said up
• 15:54
  until the last few weeks, Jonathan Taylor. Okay.
• 15:57
  Or maybe even Jameer Gibbs with just some, like,
• 15:59
  again, I know he's had a couple games that have
• 16:02
  probably knocked him out. McCaffrey's had a huge,
• 16:05
  huge season. I mean, he leads the NFL, I think,
• 16:07
  in scrimmage yards. Or I think one guy we were
• 16:09
  just talking about. Maybe Gibbs might have him.
• 16:10
  Miles Garrett should probably be in that conversation
• 16:13
  as MVP. Yep. So, yeah. non -quarterback MVP odds
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  but no this is this is great you know I think
• 16:21
  May's slightly ahead because You look at what
• 16:24
  that team was last year, what everyone thought
• 16:26
  it was going to be. The Rams were in the playoffs
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  last year, took it to the Eagles, had a chance
• 16:30
  to go to the NFC title game. So I think some
• 16:31
  of that probably plays into it a little bit.
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  And it's new. Everybody loves something when
• 16:37
  it's new. For sure. If you haven't been up there
• 16:39
  before, you naturally gain a little position.
• 16:41
  I'm going Stafford definitely for sure. I think
• 16:44
  he's got to have it. He's having his career year.
• 16:48
  And if they get the one seed, I know that even
• 16:52
  if they make it, gets the one seed i'd still
• 16:54
  take stafford over there yeah um love i he had
• 16:58
  a really bad interception didn't he this last
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  week i don't know if that was the cold air or
• 17:03
  what that was like the play gate or something
• 17:05
  i would love to i think he's gonna get one at
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  one point i just i don't think it's this year
• 17:10
  i don't i think with how well stafford's playing
• 17:12
  i think what's gonna do it is one like you said
• 17:15
  if they lock up the one seed If you want to look
• 17:18
  at it from a stat standpoint, he has 35 touchdowns.
• 17:21
  The next person tied for second is Jared Goff
• 17:24
  and Dak Prescott at 26. This guy has nine more
• 17:27
  touchdowns than the next man up. A 40 -year -old.
• 17:32
  You look at him. I know. You look at him. It's
• 17:37
  got to be him. Everything he is doing, the age
• 17:40
  he is, he's won a Super Bowl. If he gets MVP
• 17:43
  and if they get into the Super Bowl, even if
• 17:45
  they don't win it, they get into the Super Bowl,
• 17:47
  you have to have conversations about the legacy
• 17:50
  of Matt Stafford and what everyone has thought
• 17:52
  it had been years prior. It's a completely different
• 17:56
  conversation with what he's doing this year.
• 17:58
  And I totally agree. We had a conversation in
• 18:00
  preseason, just in fantasy, I thought, because
• 18:03
  his back was really bad. And you're like, oh.
• 18:06
  What are we going to get out of them? Well, obviously,
• 18:09
  a lot. MVP level. More people need back problems,
• 18:12
  I guess. This guy's going to put his cowboy hat
• 18:14
  on real shortly and right after the sunset as
• 18:16
  the MVP of 2025 in my book. So he continues.
• 18:19
  So that'll finish up here the news and conversations.
• 18:24
  So we got one more episode here of week 15 previews
• 18:28
  of our five games. Tune in to that here shortly.
• 18:32
  We're on all the information on the socials.
• 18:35
  You can find us. Go get your pods. Yeah, go get
• 18:37
  it. So thanks, Kevin, from behind the camera.
• 18:40
  Justin helping out. And we'll be back on Gridiron
• 18:44
  Updates. Don't forget to follow, like, and subscribe.
• 18:51
  Tune in next time for more banter with the boys.