Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Kelley Ford Recaps Conference Championship Weekend and Explains Why the AFC has a Stranglehold Going Forward

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Kelley Ford Recaps Conference Championship Weekend and Explains Why the AFC has a Stranglehold Going Forward · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

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  Kelly Ford Thelones dot com. Also on x at k Ford Ratings Kforard Ratings
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  dot com. On your radio Tuesdays, four thirty to five o'clock, Kelly,
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  welcome in or how are you. I'm doing well, Jake, how
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  are you today? We are good. We're just talking through everything, as
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  you know, we moved through Tuesday. I notice you're putting on a lot
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  of stuff on college basketball. I do want to touch on that before we
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  get out of here. First, let's go with the NFL. Your thoughts
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  on what you saw this past weekend and you know, were you surprised by
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  any of the outcomes? Yeah, I would say, Jake, one,
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  it was. It was a good weekend of NFL football. Good games,
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  compelling, exciting, lots of good play. Some big time mistakes too,
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  both by players and coaching staffs, as I'm sure we can talk about.
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  But I was surprised that Kansas City won. And people can say, well,
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  you shouldn't have been surprised, Kelly. They got Pat Mahomes. He's
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  one of the best quarterbacks to ever do it, maybe the best to ever
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  do it. I'm not in that camp yet. I think that Tom Brady's
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  resume still speaks for itself. And again, I'm a coach fan, so
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  I did not like the New England Patriots during the Peyton Manning era and Tom
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  Brady and that rivalry. But what Tom Brady accomplished, I think it stands
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  above everything. But Patrick Mahomes is certainly on a pass to being in that
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  conversation, and so you kind of you bet against him, you pick against
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  him at your own peril. I really thought Baltimore was a better team.
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  I still think actually Baltimore is a better team than Kansas City. On that
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  day, Kansas City was the better team and that's what matters. That defense
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  though Kansas City just they're doing it different than they have this last five six
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  years. The defense now is among the best in the entire NFL. The
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  offense with Patrick Mahomes is gonna be what it is. So that result was
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  surprising to me a little bit. I know it was a close projected game
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  and we got that, but I did think that Baltimore would win that game,
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  and on the NFC side, I did think San Francisco would win.
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  I didn't think that the game would play out the way that it did.
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  I was surprised that Detroit jumped all over San Francisco in the first half and
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  even held a pretty commanding lead at halftime. I did not see the game
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  playing out that way, but I did think San Francisco would win, and
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  ultimately they did come back and get it done. So I think, you
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  know, of the four teams that were left Detroit, you know, by
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  the numbers and things that I'm looking at, they were the weakest team and
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  so I wouldn't have been surprised at all if San Francisco, Kansas City,
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  Baltimore, or some combination of that made the super Bowl. And that's what
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  we have here. So I think it's going to be a great game.
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  It's exciting, but yeah, it was. It was a fun weekend.
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  The Conference gims your game Weekend in the NFL. Kelly Ford on your Radio
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  Tuesday edition of the program, The Lines dot Com. Also k Ford Ratings
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  on x and Kford Ratings dot com. Which one of these teams that eliminated
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  the Lions or the Ravens, And a lot's kinda happen with coaches and obviously
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  the NFL draft, free agency and stuff. Do you think has the longer
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  staying power for next year and maybe the year after of those two, Yeah,
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  I think it's Baltimore between those two, and the answer for me is
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  as simple as Lamar Jackson. I know people are disappointed, and I'm sure
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  he is with you know how this season ended here for them, But he's
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  just there's a handful of quarterbacks in the NFL that are just different. They
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  They are the difference makers. They find ways to win games, They carry
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  teams on their back. And Lamar Jackson, it's not all him. That
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  Baltimore defense is really really good and they've got some great continuity within that organization
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  from the ownership all the way down, So it's not just Lamar Jackson.
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  But between the two, Detroit they are a team that's on the rise.
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  If I'm not mistaken. I think they've got some things they need to work
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  out with some potential free agents and maybe backfilling some needs that might come up
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  here this this offseason. But between the two, to me, the answer
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  is the Ravens. Because of Lamar Jackson, I think that the future is
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  bright with him and they will at some point get over this hump. I
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  feel confident he's that good of a player, He's that transcendent of a player
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  that I'll be surprised if he ends his career having never made and maybe even
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  won a Super Bowl. Let me ask you this, NFL wise, you
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  know when you look at teams like Buffalo and you know, just ten thousand
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  foot fly over of what has happened in the league, Buffalo Miami, you
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  look at at Cincinnati with Joe Burrow, you look at the strides that Houston
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  made. You can go across like Jim Harball now comes into the AFC in
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  San Diego or for the Chargers rather, I always refer to them asan Diego
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  probably always will for the Chargers. Yep, you go to the NFC.
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  I mean the Packers made made strides, looked really good in the postseason.
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  Cowboys are kind of what they are. We'll see Philadelphia's going through a transition.
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  Is it safe to say that the AFC looks like it is positioning itself,
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  you know, and we go back and forth with this to be the
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  stronger of the two leagues. Yeah, And Jake, I think that was
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  the narrative coming into the end of the twenty twenty three season as well.
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  And I don't think it's changed the AFC and it starts to the quarterback position.
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  I mean because of the quarterbacks and you mentioned a lot of them there,
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  Because of the quarterbacks that are playing on AFC rosters that I mean,
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  by and large, on average, that's going to be the stronger of the
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  two conferences. So you know, as a fan of the Indianapolis Colts,
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  you know, what do we have in Anthony Richardson? Because for us to
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  be competitive and for us to make runs in the playoffs, we've got to
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  get great play at the quarterback position. I imagine a lot of your your
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  listeners are New Orleans Saints fans, and so I'd rather be a Saints fan
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  from a from a perspective of your conference difficulty than a Colts fan, because
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  I do think the NFC is more gettable right now, if you will.
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  I know, the Saints have all sorts of cap things they're working on,
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  and and folks aren't happy with, buy and large the product that's been on
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  the field or the win loss record. But as my what if standing show,
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  New Orleans was not that far away from being, you know, an
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  above five hundred team, maybe even a playoff team this year if some bounces
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  go their way and they get some breaks in different games. So the AFC.
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  To answer your question, I believe is shaping up to be the more
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  that are difficult of the two conferences, and it ebbs and flows. It's
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  just where we are right now with the quarterbacks that are in the league.