From Fourteen to Two: The Journey to the Super Bowl

And then there were two.

We started with 14 teams in this end of season tournament that we call the NFL playoffs.

And now the two teams are set to play in the Super Bowl.

We're going to rank the teams that are eliminated from the playoffs, talk about the big games from last weekend and talk about some, some upcoming things coming too, with Ed Cleese.

Check it out.

Pigskin Dispatch video.

Yeah.

Woohoo.

Hey, Darren, how you doing, man?

I am doing great.

How about you?

I'm doing well.

I'm doing well here in Oklahoma.

We survived the snow apocalypse, you know, barely.

Kids got basically an extra winter break, so I am ready for them to go back to school as I sure most of the parents around here are as well.

So we made it.

Are you getting another cold spell this weekend?

No, no, this.

I mean, it's gonna be pretty cold through about Saturday, but no more precipitation or anything like that.

So we are free and clear from the nastiness for now.

They're telling us probably Saturday will be negatives again, so.

I saw that.

I saw that.

Yeah, we're going to be, we're going to be in the teens, I think on Saturday, but no snow, no ice.

I think we're fine.

All right, well, we had some, some things that really warm people up because we had some, some pretty good ball football games last weekend in the championship games to determine who goes to Super bowl and what.

Do you have some thoughts on those games?

Sure.

Well, first of all, Championship weekend has always been my personal.

I've always preferred it more than the Super Bowl.

I think probably because there's two games, you still have a home field aspect to it.

Just kind of growing up, that's, that was always my favorite.

I came away from.

You know, it's funny that the number one thought I'm going to have.

We'll talk about the games in order, like we always do.

And my, my takeaway from the Broncos Patriots game is going to be maybe surprising for someone like me that grew up with NFL films, that grew up with the history and the lore of the NFL and John Facinda's voice and all this.

So I'm going to tell you about that in a minute.

What, what my take that goes counter to all of that.

But we'll kind of go through the, the scores really quick.

I'm gonna get a big old zero because we both had the Broncos winning.

I'm sorry, I had the Broncos winning the game.

You had the Patriots winning the game.

So right off the bat, you know, you're gonna get A leg up there.

I had stid him with two touchdowns and one or fewer turnovers.

He only got to one touchdown.

That's the only touchdown they scored in the game, of course.

And I also had the Denver defense forcing five or more sacks plus turnovers.

They really didn't get close to that either.

Whereas you, you're going to get a little bonus.

You did have.

You had Stidham also having a pretty good game, which you didn't, but you did have Courtland Sutton scoring a touchdown and he scored their only touchdown.

So you're going to walk away from this game with four points and I will walk away from this game with zero.

So before we get to the second.

I don't have a problem with that, Ed.

Yeah, you're right on you.

So right off the bat, you did well.

And my.

So my bigger takeaway from the game is this, Darren.

I think the snow ruined it.

Yeah, it was basically two games.

The first half looked like very pleasant weather, maybe a little chilly, and then it was like, you know, an avalanche of snow hit the second half.

I think, I think the weather kind of ruins a lot of these games.

And I know that sounds so blasphemous for someone like me who's an NFL guy and, you know, with all the mud and, you know, but really, that was not very good football and the weather ruined the end of the game.

Now, aesthetically, right, if you're just flipping channels, there's something about weather games that's super appealing to watch on tv.

And I don't know if you saw, but the early game actually outrated the late game on the TV ratings and it spiked big time, like in the fourth quarter.

Because I think what happens is people that really don't care even get word like, oh, there's a snow game going on.

You know, like, oh, let's turn it on.

Because it's.

It is interesting.

It.

Visually, it's interesting.

It's kind of fun to watch.

Except.

Except for.

I have an issue with it, though.

Why did they have to leave those.

The lines on and use the green.

The field as a green screen.

And the.

The Patriots in white were, you know, they even commented they look like ghosts half the time.

That was so annoying to do, you know, go old school.

Turn off the.

The damn lines in the green screen.

Let the white team be the white team.

And you know, when you have a white background, the green screen does you no good.

Nobody cares where that first down marker is.

You can figure that out after the play's over, you know, it's, it was.

They did remove it.

I don't know if you noticed, like later in the fourth quarter, they were gone, because I think it was, it was kind of blinding.

So I think people probably like, you know, and that's sort of, you know, the one cool thing about the snow games and stuff is you can't really tell where everything is.

So just don't try to, don't try to use, use tech to outsmart the weather.

You know, it's, it's, it's not happening.

But the greater point to me is that, gosh darn it, I, I want to slap myself for saying this, but I think all of the new stadiums should probably either be retractable or be closed.

It's very miserable for the people that are there.

And it just like that, that, that Monday night game many, many years ago between the Steelers and the Dolphins, the three nothing game.

It's terrible.

It's terrible.

It was a, it was a downpour.

It was disgusting.

It was a punt fest.

No one could have any footing.

No one could move.

And so, yes, there's sort of this sort of like entertaining aspect to it, but it's terrible football.

And at the end of this game, neither offense could do anything at all.

So it was, it kind of made it boring, to be quite honest.

It took the drama out of the game in a lot of ways.

But I'll tell you what, though, okay?

Go back to that Monday night game.

Do you remember the Monday night game the week before or the week after that one?

No, of course you remember them.

Yes, but they're memorable.

And that's part of, that's the beauty of football, especially being played on grass turf.

You know, that's the way it's been played for 100 years in the NFL, 150 some years in football overall.

You know, people, you played the game in mud and conditions that were unsavory and, you know, not, you know, like baseball where, hey, it's raining, let's stop the game and tarp the field.

No, you play ball.

You keep, you keep playing, you know, unless there's a lightning storm, but that's part of the game.

I don't like the dome stadiums and the artificial turf because of that fact.

You know, it takes the elements out of that.

And it know if your team from the south, like Miami having to play in Kansas City a couple years ago and it was, you know, sub zero out, well, Miami, you should have won more games and had home field advantage.

You know, I don't, I don't know what to tell you.

That's the advantage of having the home field advantage.

So it's a big advantage for northern teams.

Now Denver and, and the Patriots, they're both, they're both used to the cold weather.

I don't think that that affected their games.

I think it was the bigger factor was not having Bo Nix as your quarterback and having, you know, Stidham, who hasn't taken a snap in three years, you know, anything meaningful.

I think that was a bigger fact.

And he really didn't have a horrible game except for his choice of he should just threw that screenplay at the guy's feet instead of what he did, you know, with that, whatever it was, the shovel pass ended up being backwards.

You know, that was, that was crazy.

He was bad.

I thought he was pretty bad.

And then once the snow started, he was completely useless.

Their touchdown driving looked pretty good though.

Yeah, that was it.

That was.

He really.

And honestly, it was one play, you know, he.

He hit the big one to Mims was it, I think.

And then he made a nice throw on the touchdown to Sutton.

And at that moment I was thinking, okay, maybe this guy's gonna have a day.

And he didn't.

After that, he was not good.

We can talk about the.

I said it in real time that Peyton should have taken the three there to go up 10.

Nothing in the second quarter context is everything.

The context of the game matters a lot more to me than what the analytics say.

And I'm, you know, when it comes to analytics, I'm also a big baseball fan.

I think analytics should rule the day 90% of the time in baseball.

In football, it's different.

It's so much of a smaller sample that it's difficult to just point to.

Well, the book says this.

It's not quite like blackjack in the NFL.

It's not the same thing over and over and over again.

And that you're going to over time, you know, win the odds game.

It's right now.

And right in that moment, they should have taken a 10 nothing lead.

They should have given their young quarterback or their backup quarterback, I should say, a little bit of cushion, a little bit of margin.

And they should have shifted a little bit more pressure on to May and the Patriots because the other thing is even if you get that first down where they were in the field, it's not like it's going to be a touchdown.

You still have to gain another 20, 25 yards or something like that to score a touchdown.

So they may have wound up settling for A field goal anyway, so just take your three right there.

You can kind of tell that this game points are going to be precious.

Your defense looks awesome.

Give them that backing and you know, you never know.

You can't say that if they would have kicked the field goal, the game would have been 10 to 10 at the end of regulation because the whole game gets played differently.

But I think that that was a mistake, especially given the circumstances.

Yeah.

And both teams, from what I've been told or heard on serious radio and NFL Network, that both teams were aware the weather was coming in.

They knew there was going to be, you know, for better expression, a shit storm coming out, you know, after the half.

So yeah, take those points because as you saw at the end of the first half, nobody could kick a field goal.

And even parts of the second half, you know, it was just terrible conditions for trying for a kicker.

The wind, I guess were swirling pretty good.

You know, they had Pat Kerwin and Jim Miller who do moving the chains in the afternoon.

They were on the sidelines for that game and they said, yeah, it was really bad.

The wind was, you know, everything was going sideways on there.

It was tough to even keep a cap on.

You know, it looked terrible.

It looked, it looked borderline unplayable.

And so, yeah, I think now hats off to Rabel because I think he recognized it.

Once they got that 10 to 7 lead, he essentially said, this game is over as long as we don't do anything super dumb.

So he just kept handing the ball off, totally content to punt.

May had to do.

You know, I, I hate to take a guy who's in the second year that just won three straight playoff games to get to the super bowl and be somewhat negative about it.

But you know, like I said, we always say two things can be true at once.

He hasn't been very impressive in the playoffs.

He didn't have to really do much of anything on Sunday.

He had a couple nice scrambles that were very key.

But you know what he throw for 80 yards, I think.

But I think he ran for six first downs in that game.

And that one at the end where he, even though he went out of bounds, that was crucial to run that clock out, you know, especially.

Yeah.

But the fact is this, they scored 10 points in the entire game.

Seven of them were handed to them on a platter.

Right.

I mean they got the ball, they started that drive at the eight yard line.

So.

But that should have been a scoop and score if you really.

Right.

So.

So the, the offense, the mate generated Three points in the game.

Now, I do think in the second half, they were obviously playing to the conditions.

They were playing to the context of the game.

So they weren't necessarily trying to score or add to their lead.

They were just sort of playing it through and they made enough plays, I guess.

But it was, it was a bummer of.

I thought it was a bummer of a game, to be perfectly honest.

I. I didn't feel like you want to, when, when a championship game is over, you want to feel like, oh man, they're champions.

And that was sort of like, I guess, you know, it was kind of like that was a.

That was a very anticlimactic way for the AFC to end this year, in my opinion.

Yeah, it was.

But both teams were in the same conditions.

Denver's in their home field.

You know, they won the home field advantage.

They had the crowd and they didn't, they didn't perform well enough.

They.

They only mustered seven points at the very beginning of the game.

You know, they had three quarters without scoring.

Yeah, I think that combination of the backup quarterback and the snow sort of.

Like, man, but you have two rock solid defenses.

Absolutely.

And, and they both were all year.

And, and to the Patriots credit, their defense was excellent in all three games.

Now they faced three offenses that were shaky at best in the playoffs with some serious flaws and each team missing super key players on their offense.

So look, we will talk about it more next week when we analyze the Super Bowl.

It's fine to say this New England.

I think I saw another thing that had their schedule listed out.

It said basically the team they beat in week one, coach fired, coach fired, coach fired, Jets, NFC South.

Coach fired, coach fired, coach fired, Jets, NFC south.

Coach fired, coach fired.

Everybody they played the entire year either had their coach fired, was from the NFC south or was the Jets.

I thought that was pretty Steelers.

The Steelers beat them and their coach wasn't fired.

He retired or quit or whatever.

Right.

I think their wins all came against.

So.

But you know what?

Here they are.

And if they win in two weeks, they put another ring, another banner and that one flies just as high and shines just as bright as any other.

You know, you don't have.

Might be higher because that's, I mean that's like.

Yeah.

Almost like as surprising as Brady's first Super bowl, you know.

Yes.

I don't expecting it.

I don't mean to disparage them because all you can do is win the games that are on your schedule and that's what they've done.

But just as a general fan, I, you know, I'll use a word that New England fans will be familiar with.

It feels a little deflating to me.

Like, it's just a little like this doesn't feel like, like it should feel to me.

So.

But we'll, you know who, if you're a New England fan, you say, well, I don't care.

And that's.

And I wouldn't either, you know, so.

But that was my general feel from the AFC Championship game was sort of meh and you know, kind of just kind of like whatever.

Whereas the NFC game felt much more to me like a championship game now.

You know, they had much better weather and they, you know, had two teams that had, you know, healthy quarterbacks and, you know, I don't know that either of them had any major injuries.

I don't, I don't think nothing Seattle.

So they were basically at full strength.

They knew each other well.

They knew, you know, the tendencies of each other and they had close games going into it and why not have a third close game?

So they did.

Yeah.

And in that game that we'll go through the scores real quick.

We both had the ramps, so we, neither of us got the game right.

We also both had Darnold.

I think both of us were a little skeptical of Darnold in the spot and we were really wrong on that because we both had him turning the ball over twice and he didn't at all.

And I had Puka making a huge play in the fourth quarter to kind of like help either win it, seal it, tie it, something like that and didn't quite get there.

You did have Stafford throwing two or more touchdowns that he did.

So you're actually going to get two points for the, for the game.

I got zero again.

So that gives you six for the week.

It gives me zero for the week.

You're at 102 and I'm at 96.

So next week we're going to have.

I'm going to have a Hail Mary in the Super Bowl.

We're going to have an opportunity to make up a bunch of points.

But you are, you basically have like a, this is like you got like a 14 point lead with like, like three minutes to go.

Right.

Right about now.

I think in our contest, the dream of me getting the pigskin dispatch hat is fading fast.

Yeah.

I want to know what do I get?

We never discussed.

Well, we need.

I will say I'm going to surprise you.

Okay.

I will send you something Oklahoma based.

Okay.

We'll leave it at that.

And then you, you know, maybe you can show it off on a pod at some point.

Yeah, it'll be a surprise.

It'll be an Okie surprise.

Well, let me give you some good news because I believe I went first last week or you went first last week.

So you have the advantage of knowing my pick first on the games.

So.

Okay, you may even have to pull them all again and I might have to desperation, you know, check my.

I might have to be a little dishonest.

And if we have the same pick at the last minute, I scratch it.

Out before if I see like a wad of paper, like getting ripped up and thrown over your shoulder.

That's right.

But, but talking about the, the game itself, really, I mean, they played three times, like we mentioned all three games go down to the very end and all.

And all three.

We talked about it way back in November or whenever they played.

The first time was that felt like the two best teams in the league going into the game.

It felt like the two best teams in the league after the game.

It felt like that the second time they played.

And I feel like it felt like that again on Sunday.

I felt like I was watching the two best teams in football this year and it was kind of a coin toss of a game down to the wire.

I think the difference would be, you know, the Rams made a couple mistakes.

The muffed punt was massive.

And then, you know, we talk about the great thing about the playoffs is we get into the minutia, like the Sean Payton decision in the second quarter to not kick the field goal.

There was a very small thing in this game that I don't, I haven't heard anybody else mention.

So I'm, I'm going to mention it the, in the third quarter, you know, the, the Seahawks took the 11 point lead after the muff punt and you're thinking, oh man, that could be a game.

And then the Rams come right back, right back, like two minutes.

And I think it was Adams that caught the touchdown there and they kicked the extra point to, to go back to being down by four at Adams.

Made the big play to get it down to like the two yard line.

Then he caught the touchdown past the next play.

Yep.

And then they kick the extra point to go down by four.

There's still like nine minutes left in the third quarter at that point.

So it's like, all right, whatever.

And then Seattle comes right back down and they make it 31 to 20.

And then the Rams, we have that, they drive, they're going to punt.

The Tariq Woolen has the personal foul.

The unsportsmanlike.

They get an extra life.

They throw.

They throw the touchdown to puka.

There's like two minutes left in the third quarter at this point.

I think McVay should have gone for two there at that point in the game.

It's 31 to 26 in that moment.

At that point in the game, there aren't enough possessions left to sort of like look at it in the long view of let's take our extra point now, get down by four.

And you know, that might ultimately, over the course of the game, be a benefit at that point.

There's a lot of advantage to being down by three.

Of course, there's very, very small difference between being down by four or being down by five.

All right, so if you go for two and you don't make it, then you're down by five.

But if the Seahawks go down to kick a field goal, you're still within a touchdown and a two point.

So, like, you're not out of it.

It's a, it's a risk reward thing.

Right.

And McVeigh is usually great at all that stuff, the clock, management decisions there.

He's really sharp on it, but I thought that was a little bit of a mistake.

And then sure enough, you know, four minutes left in the game, we've got fourth and five, kind of a no man's land there at the eight yard line, and we're down by four.

So do you kick the field goal and go down by one with five minutes left?

You go.

I think, I think they made the right decision to go for it, but had the game been three point margin in that moment, you're going to kick the field goal, it's going to be tied, and you change the game a little bit there.

So that kind of stuck out to me as a small mistake.

Yeah, that.

I mean, I think it's kind of a big mistake because if you go, since they've instituted the two point conversion in the NFL, they have the analytics, they have this chart that a lot of people go off.

It's an unwritten rule.

But that's.

At any point in the game, if you're.

You're down by five, you, you know, you go for two, you know, that's.

So you make it a three point game, right?

If you're down by, you know, eight or nine, you.

You got to go for two to get, you know, you got to get it within a score.

You know, that's the whole thing.

But that's really throughout the game, except, you know, maybe the first drives or something the first quarter.

But any point in the game, you.

You got to play, so you keep that differential when you're down to be manageable.

And I, I think you're right.

I think he made a mistake.

It was the same scenario twice in the third quarter.

Two times, you know, that was the same deal.

The, the first time I really didn't have a problem with it because we were still so early in the second half that I'm like, you know, there's enough time left in this game that you probably don't need to be too worried about trying to shorten that.

That margin.

But then the second time, I definitely thought they should have, so.

And that, and that may wound up mattering, but really, I think the bigger takeaway from the game is Darnold was awesome.

He was awesome.

He.

He was fantastic.

He didn't make a mistake or minor mistakes.

There wasn't any kind of huge calamity or anything like that.

And then more importantly, he made some money.

Throws just money on third down, the touchdowns.

He was getting hit.

He was great.

And so, like, super hats off to him.

We know how good that defense is and has been all year.

And, you know, the Seahawks offense, like, the second half of the year kind of took some steps back and people were kind of wondering, you know, is this the wheels kind of coming off a little bit for Darnold?

And he's righted the ship.

He's been great.

So that's really why they're in the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I, you know, I think what he reminded me of is his last college game, he was in the rose bowl with USC.

And, you know, I think JuJu Smith Schuster was his main receiver at the time.

They're playing Penn State and they just went back and forth.

That was one of the greatest Rose Bowls ever, going back and forth.

But Darnold was.

Looked incredible, looked invincible.

And everybody's like saying, oh, my God, this guy's going to be an NFL stud when he gets in there.

And what do you have?

Seven, eight years of mediocrity at best, and bounced through, you know, however many teams he's been on until last year.

And now in the last year, he has that epic fail in the playoffs, and everybody's like, ah, same old Darnold in the NFL.

But the Seattle Seahawks take a chance on him.

And man, he, he really looked money on.

On Sunday.

Yeah, he really was.

He was great, great game.

And, you know, I was thinking you know, it's copycat league.

Right.

And for so long, or for many years now, probably, probably starting with the Brady Run, we.

The narrative in the NFL has been you have to get the elite quarterback and let everything else sort itself out.

Sell out to get the elite quarterback.

Get the quarterback, get the quarterback, get the top five guy, and that's all you got to do.

And that's sort of what a lot of teams have been aiming for for a number of years.

And now all of a sudden we see Mahomes didn't make the playoffs this year, Allen didn't get to the nfc, the championship game, Lamar missed it.

All of these elite quarterbacks that everybody has been chasing and you know, the Seahawks kind of do it in a different way where they get a reclamation project or a guy that was already, I guess, sort of reclaimed a little bit, but still a lot of doubts about him.

And they basically took the philosophy of let's just have an awesome team with a solid quarterback that might have a little more juice in there and see what happens.

And now they're, you know, pretty heavy favorites to win the Super Bowl.

And my guess is going to start seeing some of that around the league now.

You know, guys like Daniel Jones, people investing more in players like that, thinking, well, the Seahawks did it with Darnold.

We're going to do it with this guy or whoever, the other, whoever the next guy might be, as opposed to the.

We have to have the top pick to get the next Mahomes.

Yeah, I, I think it's very much.

I think that's a great parallel.

Not only did they both were Vikings last year at some point and, you know, had the quarterback whisper up there talking to him and really helped their careers.

But, you know, between Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold, I think they're almost like on a parallel course.

You know, it's sort of, you know, great in college, had high expectations.

They sort of felt fell flat a little bit during their careers in the pros and that now, you know, the retreads that are looking great and shiny except for injury for Daniel Jones maybe, you know, who knows what the, the Colts would have done this year.

Yeah, and there's plenty of guys out there.

There's guys like Will Levis in Tennessee who's not going to play there anymore now with Cam Ward, you know, and, you know, I think what you're going to see is for better or worse, potentially is that teams really giving more chances to these guys, especially the guys that were highly drafted and didn't Pan out because, you know, like I said, it's a copycat league.

People say Seattle did it, we can do it.

Let's see.

You know, I still have a tendency to believe you still want that elite quarterback if you can get them.

But maybe now your dreams aren't quite as cooked if you don't.

That Seattle might be putting a little bit of a new blueprint.

Blueprint out for that.

But yeah, I think that was a great game.

That was a great game.

It was a worthy champ.

It was worthy of my stamp of approval of being a championship game that I approve of.

It was very good.

Those are really good teams.

And hats off to Seattle for winning it.

Yeah.

Many have said all week long and even last week that that might be the game for the NFL champion.

Is that game there.

But who knows?

You know, I wouldn't count the Patriots out.

So we'll make.

We'll talk about that next time for the big game.

But it might be a good one.

You never know.

Rematch of a Super Bowl.

Right.

And if you remember what happened the last time that was, you know, interception by Butler at the goal line to seal that one for the.

We'll talk about it next week.

Maybe my heart will change a little bit, but I am not as far as Super Bowls go, this one is not high on my list of anticipation.

It's lacking a lot of stories and interests for me personally.

We've had, we've seen them before.

This isn't the first time that there's been a Super bowl that I thought was sort of, sort of a boring matchup.

We can kind of talk about that next week.

There's been others, plenty others.

But this one is not nearly as intriguing as the first Patriots Seahawks matchup when you had one team going for back to back title against Brady, come trying to win, win another one for the first time in 10 years at that time.

So that was quite a story and quite a game.

And I don't think.

I'm not anticipating we get that in, in a week and a half.

Yeah.

Hopefully the game turns out good and maybe there's good commercials because the halftime entertainment is like.

To me.

Nah, I thought you'd be right up your alley.

I mean, I thought you.

I never even heard of the guy.

Totally Bad Bunny fan, so never.

You never even heard of him before, so.

Well, you know, maybe it'll be Bugs Bunny instead and you'll, you know, maybe.

That'D be more entertaining.

I get into that.

All right.

All right.

So we have, you know, 14 teams that went in the playoffs.

So we, we already talked about the teams that didn't make the playoffs and we, we heard your rankings, how you would put them in based on their end of season rosters when their last game was played.

Right now we have these, you know, these 12 teams eliminated from the playoffs and we, you wanted to talk about how you would rank those 12 teams.

Yes, minus the Seahawks and the Patriots.

Right.

So just like we did with the 18 teams that didn't make the playoffs, I'm just focused on 20, 26.

I'm not saying that this is the team I would rank ahead for the next five years of the overall outlook.

So these teams, we all, we know this every year, Darren, that, you know, 14 teams make the playoffs and you can usually pluck about six of them or so out of the playoffs next year.

So almost half often.

And so of these 12 teams, I wanted to say which team the number one team is the team I am most confident will be back in the playoffs next year.

And the number 12 team is the team that I am least confident.

And I've got a little bit of a theme with these.

We can go through them kind of quickly.

Okay, so, so we, we have at least two playoff teams that no longer have the same coach.

So.

Right.

But you're, you're, you're not factoring that in for next.

I'm just looking at, I'm just looking at the, at what we know right now.

Okay.

So.

Yes.

Okay, gotcha.

Certainly these teams are going to make trades.

They're gonna have free agents signings, some of them, you know, Mike stole.

There might be some coaching issue, you know, losing assistant coach, whatever.

I'm going based just on what we know right now.

And then, you know, sometime in March or April after the draft, we can probably do this again.

But this is sort of how I feel right now.

And so my first, there were only two teams that made it that I am fairly confident will not be back next year.

And you can probably guess where I'm going to go on number 12 is I'm staying right there in your hometown.

And I've got the Steelers.

And in a way that seems silly because the Steelers are always in the playoffs, so they're always right there.

But now we have this big change.

You know, we've got our.

We've got a new coach for the first time in 20 years, a proven coach, A coach that's proven that he can get teams to the playoffs.

I personally think it's a little bit of a boring hire.

I don't feel like the Steelers did what they've done in the past and tried to find the next great guy.

They just kind of found the next guy.

And that's interesting to me that they, they went that route.

We talked about this.

If they hiring McCarthy is in part to keep Rogers, then that is a big mistake in itself because I think what we saw at the end of the playoffs is he's just not the same.

I mean he's just.

Things have to be perfect for him.

And I just don't love the rest of the Steelers roster.

I don't think there's a whole bunch of like really intriguing youthful pieces or anything like that.

I'm not going to say I would be surprised if they're bad.

I don't really see that happening.

But it seems like a stretch right now for me with as many questions as they have for them to be high on this list or higher than the other 11 teams.

So I will, I'll let you chime in on this, but number 11 is going to be the Panthers.

So that, so those were the two that I'm just, I thought the Panthers kind of got lucky.

I'm still not sold on Bryce Young at all.

So I think there's a lot of questions still there.

So I kind of like the Steelers and the Panthers.

You can put them in either order or whatever as being the two teams that made the playoffs this year that I am not so high on already going into next.

Okay, fair enough.

What you said, personally, despite what most of my, my fellow Steeler fans, I disagree with them.

I think McCarthy is a brilliant hire.

I think he was the best candidate out there and I can't believe other teams weren't talking about him.

The guy went wherever he went.

He won.

I mean, okay, he had, he had a losing season in Dallas his last season, but that's when Dak Prescott was hurt, got hurt and had that horrific injury, was out the whole season.

You lose your starting quarterback, there's not a whole lot of teams that are going to be as successful.

But he had three 12 win seasons before that.

Didn't do so well in the playoffs, I'll give you that.

But neither did Mike Tomlin, who, you know, who's been with the Steelers for 19 years.

He's a Pittsburgh guy, so he grew up a Steelers fan, I think.

I like that he's an offensive mind which the Steelers really haven't had in my lifetime.

You know, we've always had defensive based coaches and they were their 30s when they started.

Well, just because that worked, you know, the, the first three times.

It's, that's a different NFL than it was even 19 years ago.

Their last coaching search.

It's, it's, it's really different.

And one area the Steelers have really suffered in over the last few decades has been offense.

You know, even Ben Roethlisberger, they didn't have the prolific offenses, you know, maybe, maybe when Le'Veon Bell and you know, the killer bees were there with, with Ben.

But it really wasn't as potent as what we wanted it to be.

We wanted them scoring 30 a game and they were averaging like 26.

Okay.

But McCarthy is known to be a cultivator of quarterbacks and taking quarterbacks to a young, especially young quarterbacks to a new level.

Now he inherited Brett Favre, had a good, you know, his first year at Green Bay.

Then he took a young Aaron Rodgers and had some success.

They won a Super bowl with them, made it to the playoffs, I think darn near every year.

They were, you know, they were the top or one of the top NFC teams every year when he was there goes to Dallas.

He takes Dak Prescott who is a middle of the road quarterback.

You know, he had some bright moments, he had some bad moments and really made him better.

He really shined.

I think those were dax some of his best years, you know, that he's ever played, except for this past year where he had two really stud receivers.

But I think McCarthy has a little bit of magic to him on that.

He knows the ropes.

He's, you know, Steeler.

Art Rooney the second said it, he goes, they're not in rebuild mode.

They plan on still competing.

And if you want to still competing, you don't want to give up and start off with a brand new coach that's never coached before.

Unproven.

Well, this is probably the next, probably the best thing you got.

Somebody that's proven that knows his way around, has, you know, is networked into assistant coaches and has worked, you know, just about everywhere and knows a lot of people and you put together a good coaching staff, you cultivate.

Probably what's going to be a new quarterback for the Steelers or a young quarterback coming in.

Yeah, they have 11 draft picks this year and I disagree with you that they'll make the playoffs because remember there's out of the four teams in their division, you know, there's only one that still has the same quarterback and our same coach, head coach.

And that's a team that really is dependent on a quarterback that seems to get hurt every year and their season falls off.

So I wouldn't count the Steelers out because I think they're maybe not in a bad position for what the division they're in and what they have with the draft capital.

Now that's possible.

I mean, you know, you know, we saw, you know, a very average Panthers team win their division this year and maybe it could be similar for the Steelers if the division really falls apart.

I think with the Browns hiring Monken today, the.

Schwartz is pissed and I heard, just count the Brown.

I mean, the Browns, they're not, they.

Lose Schwartz, their defense is done.

I mean, he, what he's done for their defense is that's, that's their whole team.

You're in a, that's a benefit.

You are in a three team division.

So that's, you know, that, is that, that, that, that should factor in.

Yeah, I just, I'm going to disagree on certain parts of it.

I think McCarthy's just, I think it's a little bit of, it's a little simple for me.

It's been 15, 16 years since he coached a team that really elevated.

You know, there's a lot of playoff disappointment in Green Bay prior to Dallas, and he carried it over to Dallas and really in Dallas he did fine, but he really didn't do much better or any better than Jason Garrett did.

They kind of had the same sort of results.

It was just kind of like the same thing.

You know, they kind of, they're, you know, Garrett was winning 13 games a year too, in Dallas and didn't make the playoff or didn't, didn't advance.

And so I don't know.

So it's, I just.

Okay.

But.

Okay, let's say this way.

Would you say that, that Bud Grant and Marv Levy are bad coaches?

They couldn't, they didn't win a Super Bowl.

No, no, no.

I don't think anybody's saying that Mike McCarthy's a bad coach.

And that's not, that's not, I mean, you couldn't make that argument.

He's had a good career.

But, but the question is, is he the man, the coach that you want to take over this team that's a little stuck right now?

They're not great, they're not bad.

Their roster isn't awesome.

It's not terrible.

It's kind of in the middle.

They.

And they don't have a quarterback, for all intents and purposes.

They don't have a quarterback right now.

They did in the last two seasons.

This is the third season in a row.

They didn't have.

And that's why we're just stuck.

That's why, that's why, you know, they're good enough, they're just good enough to grow, grind out enough wins and then get wiped out in the playoffs, you know, so, and, and, and is he the guy that's going to be able to vault you from that level to the next level?

And I don't think there's necessarily a lot of evidence to show that he's going to do.

That's hard to do.

And the Steelers might be in a position where maybe they'd be best off having a season or two where they do retool a bit, perhaps with a younger coach.

Take a couple, you know, there's really no tanking in the NFL.

That's not really a thing.

And I don't, I don't really advocating that.

But sometimes, you know, you're like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna make certain decisions.

That trend towards youth.

Maybe we trade a few veteran, established players for more picks or younger players and kind of start this process for a sort of a quick retooling.

Right.

And maybe we do that with a Liam Cohen type or the next Sean McVeigh or whatever.

And that's probably, I think, the direction they should have gone.

Of course, time will tell.

If, you know, next year The Steelers are 12 wins and their quarterback, whoever it might be, is looking great and McCarthy's got him cooking, then it's going to wind up being a good decision.

I just have a little bit of a hard time seeing the Steelers elevate from where they are now.

I think this is a long term play.

I mean, he signed a five year contract with the Steelers, but okay, let's say he reaches that full thing of his contract and let's say, like many believe, which I believe too, that Will Howard, the Ohio State national championship quarterback, who the Steelers drafted in like the fourth round, fifth round this past year, he didn't play a down at all, even in the preseason because he was injured.

I think he's got some potential, he's got size, he's got some tools to him.

We know he can win championships.

If you have somebody like a McCarthy that's tutoring him and nurturing him at his young part of his career, Even, you know, McCarthy's 62 years old, so probably in five years, when he's 67, probably not going to get a new contract unless they've won, you know, two Super Bowls or something in that time.

But I doubt that he will.

And then you bring a new coach in.

Now you've got an established quarterback, sort of like Mike Tomlin got with Ben Roethlisberger, you know, who had won a Super bowl and has been there for a few years and gone through the grind and, and learned how to play the game.

Well, now you got something because, you know, I think that's it.

And I don't think they're giving up on these five seasons.

I think they're saying our best chance to win is with a quarterback, a coach that can cultivate, a quarterback that knows how to win, knows how to put the team together.

And I, I think right now you could probably say, I don't think you'd have much of an argument if I said Mike McCarthy is the best head coach in the AFC north right now.

I don't, I don't know that anybody could have an argument to that because, yeah, he's the only one proven one.

Two guys, Two guys have never done it before and then one that's been fairly under fire in Zach Taylor.

So, yeah, I mean, that's the thing, Darren.

He's not a bad.

I don't think I've read anything that says he's a bad coach.

You know, he's had a nice career.

But just because you're a good coach doesn't mean you're the right coach.

And there was something about that, that, that higher than I saw it.

I was like, ah, it just doesn't feel right to me.

That doesn't feel like the direction they should be going right now.

Obviously, if you hire a young assistant, you're rolling the dice because he could be awful and McCarthy is not going to be awful.

We know that.

He's not going to be embarrassing.

He's not going to not know what he's doing.

They'll, whatever, they have pieces on offense will probably get a pretty good amount out of them, but I just don't see the upside.

Yeah, you know, just not to drag it on.

But I think a lot of Steelers fans are disappointed because they said, hey, we've got a proven formula, 35 years old, defensive coordinator on a different team or defensive background.

You hire him, you're going to win a Super bowl, at least one.

And you, you know, a lot of winning seasons.

Well, that's not necessarily true.

So any, anyhow, let's go on to our other team.

So we have.

You're saying Steelers.

Steelers in Carolina are out.

Yes.

Now I've got another 12.

I've got my, my number 10 and my number nine, going backwards, I call them the commander zone.

So that I've got the bears at number 10, I've got the Jags at number nine.

And that is just, I would just say tread lightly with both of those teams.

Both first year coaches, both kind of came out of nowhere a little bit, had some real good fortune throughout the season getting some wins.

And I like both of these rosters.

I think, I think you could potentially make the argument that they're completely on the up arrow, but I think you would have said the same thing about Washington last year as well.

And I think that both of these teams, because the Bears and The JAGs are two organizations that are not established, there's no real history yet here.

We've, we've seen them both for one year, have good years, and I'm in the.

Let's see it again before we anoint anybody quite yet.

I would be surprised if either of them fall way off, actually.

I wouldn't be if you told me that one of these two teams is going five games next year.

It wouldn't shock me.

We need, we need to see more before I'm ready to just stamp the Bears and the Jags as these teams are going to be in the playoffs perennially for the next five years.

We've seen a lot.

It doesn't really work that way.

It.

Sometimes you, you flash and then you disappear.

Yeah, I, I can see that with the Bears and again, I'm going to go back to who they're, who's in their division.

I can see Detroit rising up again next year and being a good team like they were the past few years.

I can see Green Bay becoming good and, you know, putting.

I could see four losses for the Bears right there.

It's, that's tough sledding for them.

And the Vikings are the other team, which we know they're pretty good.

So yeah, you, you could just take, you know, five or six losses just from your own division and who knows who, I don't know who the schedules, who they play next year, but you know, they could be playing the AFC east or somebody, you know, somebody that's, except for the jets, that's, you know, pretty decent, you know, but.

Whereas the Jaguars, though, I don't know because.

Because I don't know who is better.

You know, Houston is very good.

They'll be competitive with Jacksonville, but I don't know that.

The Colts and who else was it?

Not who, my friends, the Titans, I don't think they're on the same level.

I think the Jaguars should beat both of them and get.

There's four wins for them right there.

Yeah, but we just.

We just know it doesn't work that way.

Somebody in the NFL that went four, had four or five wins this year is going to win 12 next year.

So maybe that's the Titans.

You know what I mean?

Maybe.

Maybe the Titans are the team that nobody sees coming, and all of a sudden they've got 12 wins and all you're like, how did Tennessee wind up with 12 and Jacksonville's at 7 now, you know, because I. I need to see more from those two teams before I'm just ready to say, boom, Trevor Lawrence is going to be in the divisional round of the playoffs every year now.

Let's just.

I'd say pump the brakes.

Let's see him do it again.

Let's see him repeat this when it's a little bit different next year.

A little bit more pressure, a little bit more higher expectations and all that.

So moving backwards, I've got two teams again that are kind of like, I will just call them stuck and not such a bad place.

And that would be number eight, the Eagles, and number seven, the Packers.

Meaning I don't really see like a big giant up arrow with either, but they're both at a point that's not a bad place to be.

I think the Eagles, with the coaching stuff and Sirianni and I think there's some.

It feels a little unsettled, but they still have a ton of talent on defense.

Really, a ton of talent on the roster.

Howie Roseman has proven to be a very good general manager.

I'm going to just assume he'll probably make some moves that at least kind of keep them where they are, so.

And then the packers were sort of similar.

They were really beat up towards the end of the year.

They're traditionally an organization I think you can count on to kind of, kind of be there.

So I kind of had the Eagles and Packers both sort of in the middle.

Just sort of like, all right, I anticipate both of these teams will be in the mix next year, but I'm not so sure that I'm going to say, like, these are like super bowl favorites either.

Yeah, I think you're spot on there.

I can see both of them.

I might have somebody like the Jaguars over the Eagles.

I think the Eagles are in trouble.

I think you've sensed it all year long.

We really saw it in that playoff loss.

There seems to be.

They're not a cohesive team.

They're a bunch of individuals.

Me, me, me.

You know, especially, you know, some of their, their diva receivers and I don't think they play together well this year.

Yeah, and I don't know that can be corrected.

It just, it wasn't a great year for them.

And you do wonder if maybe the window is closing.

So that's kind of why I had them.

They're kind of just in the middle, going backwards a little farther.

I've got the Bills as number six, kind of in their own category, right in the middle.

And the reason is because as long as Allen's there, they're probably going to be right there.

And they're also one high ankle sprain away from being a five win team right now.

So, you know, because they are so Josh Allen dependent and until we see an off season where they fix that, we just have to assume they will be again.

And so, you know, maybe they'll make some moves.

I thought the Joe Brady hire was okay.

You know, kind of interesting that they.

Basically what they're saying is we're going to keep everything the same and just fire McDermott.

So it's like was all McDermott's fault, but we're gonna keep the rest of the staff the same.

It's like, okay, it's almost like they just wanted to do something to do it.

So the Bills are just kind of right there.

They're going to have to show me something in the off season for me to think much different.

And then my number five team is maybe a little bit of a surprise.

And I've got the Rams.

They're not even in my top four.

Just because of age.

Just because, you know, you just never know with an older quarterback.

They do have a little bit of an older roster.

They've got some really good young places pieces too.

But with Adams and Stafford, you know, so many key guys being so much older, you kind of never know when dang, that was the year.

Okay.

Or hurt his shoulder in week two and was never the same now because he's older and he can't rehab as much.

So, you know, there.

I don't think the Rams windows closed, but if you told me right now the Rams are going to struggle next year, it wouldn't stun me either.

Just because of the makeup of their roster and.

And how many chances you may or may not get.

Okay, that's, that's fair enough.

But I'm still thinking a couple teams you haven't mentioned yet.

Yeah, I'm surprised.

You're going to be really surprised.

I'm surprised you put the Rams in, the Bills, some of these teams, because.

You got, you got to factor in this, the topsy turvy thing of the NFL.

I got you.

Where would we have had the Patriots and Seahawks last year?

You know, so number four for me is the Texans.

And the reason I have them so high is because I feel like their floor is very high.

Meaning CJ Stroud can't possibly be worse than he was towards the end of the season.

And they still made the divisional playoffs.

So chances are they might add some talent on the offensive side of the ball.

Chances are hopefully will play a little bit better and their defense should probably be just as good.

So the Texans to me are just rock solid in terms of.

I have a very hard time seeing them being worse than they were this year and they were already pretty good and very similar.

Number three for me is the 49ers.

I think their struggles were all injury related.

We have seen that if Kyle Shanahan is there and that team is reasonably healthy, they're right.

They're like a Super bowl contender every year.

They're all close to it this year with all of the injuries.

So I have no reason to believe that the 49ers are going to take a big step back when they should.

You know, if they can figure out their electromagnetic problems next to the stadium, then I think they'll be just fine.

That that's a team that I would have a question mark.

I would, I would almost say if anybody maybe won't make the playoffs this year.

Of these teams that you're talking about recently, they might be one that may miss the playoffs.

And again, divisional opponents, a team that's aging, you know, you know, I don't you know how much more you're going to get out of kittle that for a full season, maybe, but how much they can't McCaffrey see, you know, he.

There's a guy who, he gets injured, you know, they're screwed.

He's not a gigantic guy, you know, to start with.

I just can't imagine that they're going to be any more injured than they were this year.

It was ridiculous for them and I would think that it would be better.

And I like lynch as a gm.

I think they'll probably add, maybe fill in some gaps to where they will be.

I just.

It's an organization I really trust.

Which then brings me to my top two.

Number two is you're going to be probably surprised because you're gonna be like, how do you have this team?

Number one Number two is the Broncos.

I think they are.

They're ready to go.

They're.

They're fine.

I still have a.

You know, we might still have some questions.

They probably need some more talent on offense, maybe some playmakers, but they can probably get that.

Their defense is going to be good.

We know their coach is good.

It would be really weird to me.

And they've proven it twice now.

They made the playoffs with Knicks as a rookie.

They did even better in the second year.

So we've got that history that, like, we mentioned that the Bears and Jags don't have yet.

Now we've got a little bit of that with the Broncos.

So I'll be really surprised if the Broncos aren't back in the mix with Knicks next year.

Okay.

Well, I, I know the only team left, and I am surprised that you have.

So number.

The number one team that I will be surprised if they are not back in the playoffs next year is the Chargers.

And here is the reason I'm going to assume they don't lose.

Both of their offensive tackles again and both of their offensive tackles are excellent.

They are probably maybe the best set of offensive tackles in the whole NFL.

And we have a massive history with Harbaugh.

He gets better until.

Until he's done and he's worn out as welcome.

He gets better.

And They've added Mike McDonald to run the offense, and I think they're probably going to be adding some talent to that offense.

And the defense is already good.

Now, if you want to say, I'm not understanding this, I'm saying back in the playoffs, Herbert has a ton to prove to say, like, get over the top, win in the playoffs, that's a different story.

But just getting back, I think of all the teams that got eliminated, I'm most confident that the Chargers will be back next year.

Wow.

That.

That is kind of surprising because that's.

That's saying, you know, again, divisionally.

So we don't think the Chiefs are going to come back up, you know, rise back up.

Well, you can have three teams in the division make the playoffs and you.

Already have Denver High, you know, so there, there's some.

Divisional losses are big when you're playing every team twice.

And that's.

That's a tough division to come out of and, and win, you know, and who knows what the rest of our schedule is.

But yeah, I am kind of surprised by that.

Yep, Chargers are number one.

I just.

It's a really good, deep roster.

You can't predict injuries.

So I think you go in assuming everybody will be healthy, knowing that not everybody will be.

But it's, I can't predict it.

So I like the roster.

I think the rock Salt, I think McDaniel is going to do wonders for Herbert and I think that's going to be like a 13 win team next year or something like that.

Interesting.

All right, well, only time will tell as we get into next fall and beyond to see how they play and how they mesh and who they have on the roster.

You know, who knows, could be some big changes here at the draft or trades or whatever.

So.

All right, well, we know that the next week is the Super Bowl.

We have sort of a week off here.

Enjoy the Senior bowl and some other, some, some basketball going on and, you know, we'll get ready for the super bowl next week.

We'll make our predictions.

We have some, some special surprises on how we're going to score that next week.

And I'll take my, my six point lead into the super bowl and we'll see how it goes there.

Yeah, it's Caleb Williams time for me.

I got to run straight backwards and hoist one up to the end zone and catch it.

I hope Comet is sleeping or something.

That's right.

All right.

Yeah, we'll talk to you next week.

Thank you.

Take care.

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