2021 Week 1 Preview

the neighborhood of twelve hundred shows. By my count, at least I said nothing that was uttering some sort of words. At least twelve hundred shows. We've had at least six d six producers. I was gonna say six hundred by my count, about six producers. We've been to eight Super Bowls as ap to London Games three. If J. J. Watts manager didn't get mad at us, Ice Cube was on the show once, as was Little Debbie multiple times. Get your act together, Bro, get trash. A serial killer

almost iced Erica last year. West eight pieces of a softball pants sprinkled over a four ft hot dog once m West West. Yes, we miss that dude. This will be our first journey boys without him, but he is with us in spirit. Football is back. I think I guess today it's like a like, that's for real, this is really you could do it. You could do it again on Sunday because it's like that's the football is back again. This time it counts. Um. I do want to point out it was Mark who made that sound early.

I'm just a pro. I would never cut someone off. And I'm looking forward to uh seeing you guys later today. Depending on when you're listening to this, maybe it was yesterday. We're gonna be taping our Thursday Night recap altogether this week over at Keisha Manner, so I'm excited about that. I will let me just to be to clarify, it was a recording of my voice that Erica you know, pumped into the program. It was not me, um. And I would also note this whenever you're listening to this,

if you have not already done so. UM. I had the pleasure of reading this this morning. Greg Rosenthal, back on the QB Index, wrote an incredible tribute UM to West to open up that article. UM, it honestly brought a tear to my eye. UM. I think that football is back, but it's it's it will never really be the same for me. The sport will never be the

same because we've lost our friend. But I do think that there is something um about the fact that, you know, before John and West would want us to so here we go. Appreciate that. I too was in my head. Yeah thing, I it was in my head that that was like the right the right time and place to write about him, um, which is tough obviously, But I think of us as like it's like we're we're Internet writers. That was how we started, all all four of us,

you know. Uh, it's it feels like it's a little bit on the back burner now, but we're still doing it. And that's definitely how I got to know West, you know, on on the Sons of the Tundra blog at road World and now here. He uh no one could put his everything into a like an Internet piece more than West, which I always admired because it's like it's gonna be there and then it's sort of ephemeral. It's gone in a few days. I mean, it's sitting there, but it's gone.

And he would just like pour everything into that, whether it was like the best third down backs or or whatever he was writing about. And though I was moved by your words and you spoke about west with great admiration and love. I did not shed a tear because I am dead inside. Oh I'm sorry to hear that. Although not surprised, I like cried at the end of like when they kick someone off Lego Masters yesterday afternoon and my kids are like, what is wrong with you?

So yes, we're um later tonight. Depending when you listen to it, whatever your time situation is, I'm sorry we were talking about it too much. Whenever you're listening to this, uh you. We do have the Thursday Night football recap. It is the opener obviously between the Bucks and the Cowboys. That is a separate mini pod that we're gonna release every Thursday. And we're doing that one yes at west Manor with Lakisha. Connie Fox will be there, even John

Gonzalez will be there. Um, so that will be a nice gathering and boar. Mar twe is an American sports writer, was married NFLBA broadcaster College Wolf johnho was a Pisces reside in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs. That guy and um. Of course, as we spoke about on Tuesday, we lost Tara Deaker this week and over the weekend and that was a crushing blow for the

for our group and for the larger media groups. So it's gonna be nice to be together tonight and um one more plug before we get into the games and the draft, as we do every year. In our locks, Greg looking up for the three pet and don't there. I don't forget Greg what we discussed a couple of months back, because you know, everybody knows Greg's been trying

to kill the locks for years. If you do manage to win three in a row, we will hold a vote on this podcast, with majority deciding whether it stays or goes between the three of us. So that's something for you to really aspire towards. I mean, if you win three in a row, you're the majority. I think I I just would get to decide. That's it. I got the thirty nine and the statement my votes, my votes count triple if that's the case. I mean, what kind of what kind of thing is that? It's gaudy

of you. It's very gaudy of you to have the trophy um right over your left shoulder there that we must stare at every time we do a show with you. It's very out front it's someone I had to take it. I was it was like buried in the corner next to our old shadowy League Figures office, and I was like, oh, there's there's at least a ten percent chance that this just gets left here. So I had to take it home. And it might as well beautiful. It's a nouveau reach,

you know. It's like if you're from the old money, you're gonna be more flashy about it and letting people know. I mean, people forget that I outright one the locks um title and then tied with Dan, which was a little bit um fraudulent on some level, very fraudulent, but um, you know that's the history of the sport. Creig, you're the new team. You're the flashy team of today. But

that it won't last. I mean, I want the picks two back to back when we were doing just records, and now this is too and that's pretty super Bowl, you know, Brown's That's all they got is pretty super Bowl. And by the way, Mark, I don't know why I'm I'm taking sniper fire there. There was nothing fraudulent about my co title. You collapsed like the Falcons in the super Bowl. In the playoffs that year I was able

to catch you. That's how you remember it, and I know I I remember it differently, Dan, and it's it's it's my personal history that I reflect on, not yours. Okay, anyway, last plug. NFL Network show Around the NFL Broadcast premiers Friday. Check your local listings. Make sure you pound that DVR button if you can't watch it live. It's a two hour show and it's in the format of our beloved segment we like to do every year. We couldn't do

it this year because Mark was unfortunately out ill. But we have the Around the a f C, the Around the NFC in three minutes, around I guess it's Around the blank in forty eight minutes. We're gonna take that format to NFL Network and cover every team every week, uh, in a two hour edition of the Around the NFL broadcast on Friday. So give it a give it a watch, let us know what you think about it. All right, here we go, It is time for week one. All right,

here we go. Thirty two teams two already played, Third State, thirty teams, nold team sound by thirty by two fifteen game stock. It's really the pregnant pauses that make it you know, you know, it's a he's a confident comedian when he can he can live in that silence. That's the that's where the tension is. I love it. Well. I think he's also genuinely still regulation mathematical power. He's done it. But all right, so yes, let's get into it.

And if you're new to the show, or if you're just a little bit rusty, we do this draft style. So ricky, how are we going to determine who has the first pick? All right, you guys, so you know, we went last year and I don't remember once whoever got the first pick? Then we started to rotate. But I think this year I'm going to throw out a trivia question and the first person to answer, you know, gets sort of like family feud style, gets it and

if it's wrong, then we keep moving on. And so whoever gets it first and right is going to get the first or if someone was wrong correct, But if we don't yell it out, we just yell at how many questions do you have lined up? Like? Could this? This could go for hours? But all right, I made it very easy. Okay, here we go. What was the first music video played on video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. Dan's got the first over, I'll pick all right, let's find out who picks second. Okay, how

about I just say who picks second? All right, now, let the kids. Let the kids have another question they might have. I'm fine with that. Let's hear it. Who sings the hit song? Girls just want to have fun. Mark, I think you got it. Okay, so we go Dan, then we go Mark, then we go Greg. But then Greg, it's snakes back to you, the old snaker who I am struggling with knowing what to pick here, So I'm

almost glad not to go Dan. I purposely didn't cut a snake slithering sound effect because I love every single time you do. Okay, it's a favorite thing. I will I will do a little over that for you. I want to make you happy Erica than um yes, um, all right, here we go. And and the reason it's not just a draft for draft purposes of having fun on this podcast. It also determines, um, how we cover the games on Sunday and how we break down who's responsible for what game for when we talk about every

game with Nick Shook on Sunday Night, the flagship program. Alright, a lot of housekeeping. And remember this is this is like the NFL Draft when they spent twenty minutes of you know, little ceremonies and they've got you know, machine gun Kelly comes out and Roger Goodell's talking. They're like, let's get going with the actual draft. Mark, what was up with that machine gun Kelly? I thought he did an excellent job. I means he was pro Browns. I thought his message was on point. I don't know why

you're continually contriqued seeking the guy. Absolutely. My favorite part of the off season was Mark loving machine Gun Kelly for about a week, becoming like a hardcore machine gun Kelly fan. What was that? The culture question was about out the Detroit Rapper, machine Gun Kelly or Cleveland. He's a Cleveland, He's a Cleveland, a native son. All right, here we go. I have the first overall pick. That's

a great way to start a season. And I will go, I'm not gonna overthink this, and I will obviously even though yes it is a draft, there are you have to have um some integrity. So even though I love, for instance, absolutely adore that Cleveland at Kansas City late game. I'm not touching that. I got too much respect from Mark. We'll do it, so I leave it, and I will pick the Pittsburgh Steelers traveling to Orchard Park to face the Buffalo Bills breaking and there's a lot cooking here

with this game. There's a Buffalo Bills offense that was virtually unstoppable last season, including against top ten defenses like the Pittsburgh Steelers were a year ago and have been for the past four year. Four years Josh Allen six and oh lass season against top ten total defenses. Um, nobody was that good last season, not even how Aaron

Aaron Rodgers. He completed almost of his passes against top defenses last year four teen tds, three picks, pass rating of one oh eight and yes, undefeated in six games. So if you're gonna say, well, the Steeler defense, they're gonna go into Buffalo and they're gonna slow down the Bills, I don't know about that. Um. The only thing you can say, uh, And I'll open it up to you boys this way and we'll get to the Steeler sex.

There's a lot of interesting things there too. But with the Bills, the only thing that I step back and wonder about is that greatness of their offense last season is that sustainable for another year or is it only natural to think there could be regression. I know it's very They were very fortunate to keep their offensive coordinating their building. Brian Dable did not get a head coaching job,

so that works in their favor. But Greg, there are some advanced analytics out there that tell you that perhaps Josh Allen will come back to the pack just a little bit, and yet I don't buy it, especially not early this season. I'm thinking about like continuity versus teams that are trying new things out, especially in Week one. And it's it's funny because you think the Steelers have them. You know, they're just team continuity there. They never go

crazy in free agency. They've had the same coach as you know, Tomlin forever in ownership and GM and all this stuff. And yet the Bills have better continuity than almost anyone. The Bucks got so much heat and love for they brought all twenty two starters back. The Bills essentially did it too, like you can call John Brown a starter there. They've made some upgrades I think on

the defense, but basically everyone's back. I think if you were, you know, teaching a collegiate class and how to rebuild an organization, it's all the brand and being McDermott rebuild. Over the last four years, I can't remember anyone doing it better in the history of this show. The roster looks loaded, and yet I think this game will be competitive. They're almost a touchdown favor right here Buffalo. That that makes sense, But I just think like the Steelers offense

should be respected. I think they have things. They have receivers, they have tight ends, they have a running back, they have a front seven. I'm more worried about the Steelers defense in this game not being kind of Week one ready. There's no step onto it that's been totally under the radar. He's on he's on injured reserve. One of their very best players, t J. Watt, is expected to play. His contract might be updated by the time you listen to this or by the end of the week, but he

did return to practice. It's more of their defense not being totally ready, the fact they had to trade for a killer weatherspoon from Seattle to play meaningful snaps. Their cornerbacks don't look great. That there's not a lot of reason to think if if this Steelers defense couldn't shut them down for four quarters last year and they didn't. If you remember that ugly ass game in Week fourteen or fifteen on in prime time, they're not gonna do it here. So you like the Bills. But I think

it'll be a close, high scoring type of game. I mean that that was ugly game, low scoring. Uh I. I look at the Steelers, and you know, I can't think of another team in the a f C where you know that We've spent the entire offseason asking the big questions, is Big Ben still functional? H He looked great in against the Lions in the preseason. I mean he looked fine to me, and I do take into some account that maybe his elbow was not last year, according to his own words. The offensive line, I mean,

we've been talking about it all offseason. It is a patch work line the Bills last year. On defense, I thought they were very well coached by Leslie Frasier. That that matters that He's back to to your point on continuity with Brian day Ball as well. But I look at this I look at this Bill's pass rush and wonder can Gregory Gregory Russo, the rookie who's had a nice preseason as well, on a good camp um be an impact player in this game. Someone they need someone

to on the pass rush. They didn't have it last year. And I'm with you on the Steelers defense. I mean, look at their secondary. I don't think that if Josh Allen is going to have some sort of analytical regression that it comes in this game. There is continuity, you know, traditionally franchise wide from the Steelers, but there is a lot of unanswered questions, and it starts with their offensive line. If that thing is, if that line is not get up to speed the way that they hope it will.

And I think they're well coached along the line. They did not look that bad in the preseason. But if that is a problem, I think the problems begin right there for Big Ben and everyone else. Nagi Harris, though, who was a good receiver out of the backfield as well, is basically their new Levy on Bell. Yes, he is, he's an X factor here. They love him. He's the first round pick and we'll see what happens in year one. A lot of times rookie running backs burst out of

the gates. Um, they don't. They're not as uh, it's not as necessary to have some type of pro ramp up period, so he could be a star right out of the gates. And I wonder, now, this is my big overarching Steelers question, and I think a lot of people have it. Is that fade in December when they entered the month to think eleven and no, and then they lost all those games and then they got embarrassed and that empty stadium by the Browns. Was that the

of the Roethlisberger era? Or was that just a really ugly bump in the road. And there's a prologue here where they remain a competent and even um high level team. I'm kind of leaning towards the ladder, and that's why I think this is gonna be a a good game, competitive game. I'm with you guys to see it like a thirty seven. I'll go with the home team, the Bills on this one, but we'll see, we'll see where the Steelers are and this will be a good litmus test.

Early price, no one surprised. No unlock this game. This would have just felt like like the logical lock. It was like just maybe maybe it didn't feel bold. Now I do like by you know, just quickly that Gregory Rousseau is bringing Gregory back. You know, I'm not a Gregory um. Greg has totally fallen off the map. I checked the rankings. There's like four kids under the age of ten in this entire country named greg that's not

but they've a name now. It's like out of the top ten thousand, greg has has really been acted in the gutter. And Rousseau maybe maybe he's bringing it back, right, Gregory feels like it would be more of a child's name. You'd start with Gregory and become a Gregg. Don't hear a lot of Gregory's. You don't hear a lot of Gregory? It also really does. Greg's a guy that like, he does a lot of a lot of stuff, like bothering him where he decides a lot of things. Aren't we're

worth worrying about that? Greg's up in the middle of the night, perhaps googling his own name, and one short, well, Greg, where are you? I mean when you were naming your kids, you didn't just start like looking at you looked at like the ranking that just started being curious looking up all the ringing. Now, I've always been an anti Greg just sounds kind of like a jerk. I note, I know of so many jerks that are Greg's and that's

why that's why it's fallen off. It's fallen off. But where are you on, Gregor to answer to ask my question of Gregor Mendel the scientist who created that something or other. Greg's interesting? Sorry, all right. The number two overall pick in the A T and Week one draft goes to Mark Sessler. What do you got, Well, A course,

I'm gonna go Cleveland at Kansas City. This is the rematch from the divisional round playoffs a year ago, a twenty two to seventeen game where the Browns, you know, if you want to point fingers, could not take advantage of the fact that Chad Henny was in the lineup. They're not going to have that kind of luck this time around. But why I think that there is reason that what Cleveland accomplished last year, UM not unlike Buffalo that finally do feel like they have a union between

coach and front office. There, you know, after decades of infighting, Um, there's consistency. I think you know, Kevin Stefanski has proven to be a very good game day coach. And for all the nitpicking around Baker Mayfield, and I don't think this will ever change for Baker Mayfield, largely because of his personality. I think he is someone that um people uh don't really look at how he finished last season, how well he played. He threw one interception, I think

it was from about Week nine on. And this is the first time in his career. This is so unlike what happened to Sam Donald. But Baker Mayfield's career has not been that different to some degree where it has been constant coaching overhaul. And for the first time in his career, he's in the same offensive system. You know, two seasons in a row, too off seasons in a row, and it was actually a real off season this time around.

I look at this offense and I don't know why they can't be a team that puts up you know, twenty seven points a game, if not more, UM in the defense. You know that last year. I think if you look at that game again, Travis Kelsey, there was no answer for Travis Kelsey. He he absolutely slaughtered Cleveland in that playoff game. It puts rookie Jeremiah a Woasukamoa into a big spot because he's I think he's someone that they're gonna want to affect Travis Kelsey's game in

this thing. You still have Travis Hyree Hill. I mean the Chiefs to me, you know, if their offensive line, which I think you know, they've done a wonderful job rebuilding that, if that like the Steelers, if that can, if that checks out and they can in their competent along the line, nothing tells you that Kansas City can't be a dominant team once again in the a f C. So I just gonna Cleveland. They've added all these years on defense as well, will it take a little bit

of time for them to gel? They have it? You know when they go into a Nickel package, there's up to nine different new starters on defense. So if you're Joe Woods the coordinator, you know obviously you've had a full camp this year this time around. But is this a bad draw for Cleveland early on to deal to try to mesh as a defense and get Kansas City in Week one? I would have liked this game to be deeper into the campaign, But you gotta deal with it.

It's a bad draw for NFL fans. I don't like these rematches in week one, Like, that's the last game we saw the Browns play and now we get in week one. Don't like it. These are two of the best rosters in the league. Don't need it week one. Uh Like, I think it's a bad time to play the Chiefs. I'm with you, Mark, because Andy Reid always comes into the season with a whole lot of triggeration. He throws in a lot of new stuff that everyone

else starts copying. I always think of that, you know, Kareem Hunt game in Foxboro and Week one, like they just they always have something ready and ready for Week one. Cleveland didn't play their starters at all in the preseason, and the Chiefs played their starters more than just about any team, possibly more than any team. I think that's a little bit of a disadvantage, not knowing what's gonna come. There might be no Honey Badger. Though tested positive for

COVID over a week ago. He is vaccinated, but judging by the sound of the coaches, it sounds like he's been struggling with symptoms and it might not be back in time for the game. And so I'm just expecting lots of points. That's my that that's it, lots of points. It's a great early test for the Browns. Obviously you think the Chiefs. Everyone's gonna pick the Chiefs, and rightfully so. They're back to back, defending AFC champions. They're at home.

We've had a summer where we've heard about the rebuilt offensive line, how Clyde Edwards Hilaire is going to have a bigger year this year and year two. I do wonder about that offensive one we'll see because with Joe Tuney and Orlando Brown, that might be the best left side of a line you'll find. But the rest of the line is filled with either rookies or um opt out rookie of last year who ha doesn't even played a snap. Um they had Tardif who also sat out

last year. So they're not proven on that line yet. We need to see it in action. But it's like a run blocking line. I think they might be they're taking a little page out of the Browns and they want to run the ball a little more. We could see a lot of that this week. The reports were positive on that right side of the line. During Camp

I it were was far from a disaster. No. In fact, he wasn't sacked once in preseason play Patrick Mahomes, But guess what, this is the season now, and we'll see how it translates against a very good Brown's defensive line with the superstar Miles Guard alright, with the third overall pick, Greg Rosenthal sets, I'm gonna take a game. I'm fascinated by the New England Patriots against the Miami Dolphins. You know, sometimes they try to stay away from the Patriots, pretend

I'm not too into this. Even if I wasn't into the Patriots, I think this is one of the games of the week and I am excited to watch it, just just for the football, all of it all. I think these can both be double digit win teams and I'm just fascinated to see what they look like. They just they're so different than a year ago. Those are

the teams I want to see in Week one. Like I have concerns about Mac Jones in the passing game, not because of Mac Jones, but it was a little under the radar, like Nelson Agha didn't do anything, didn't practice a ton, and Camp didn't do anything in the preseason. Hunter Henry barely practiced all preseason. John who Smith was in and out throughout the preseason. Like these guys have

not played any snaps together. I think they're gonna need to run the ball a lot that like they did in Week one in this exact same matchup where they kind of broke out this nineteen forties offense with Cam and you you expect the Dolphins defense to like have so much going on, but they're a mystery. I mean, they are a turnstyle of like players like at this point last year, it's like Van Noy and Shack Lawson. They brought in Bernard Rick McKinney this offseason, he didn't

even make the team. Like, it's a lot of new faces and they present a lot for the quarterback Mac Jones it's gonna have to deal with. So I'm just curious how he is it. But it's also a new group, like we haven't heard much about Jalen Phillips. Will see how he looks in Miami, especially when the Patriots have the ball. I am just fascinated, and I feel like I have no feel of what's going to happen in

this game. I Mean I look at Miami and they you know, for all these Belichick disciples that have been scattered around the league and typically failed for the most part. I mean, Brian Flores feels the most Belichicken him of the all and and I, I, you're right about the turnover on defense, but I just trust Miami on defense the way they're coached. I thought that they created total havoc for quarterbacks last year. And it's been Bell Bell Bill Belichick for so long. Who has you know, taken

rookie quarterbacks as a as opponents and shredded them. But now he's dealing with the rookie quarterback on his own roster and that may take a little team time to develop Mac Jones, and especially for a Patriots offense that, even with Tom Brady used the first month of the season a lot of times is sort of a you know, it's a warm up to what they were going to become on offense. I don't know if you're Miami, though, you know, it all comes down to toa they looked

more aggressive. He looked more aggressive in the preseason. I think he was one of the bigger stories of August that we saw new aspects to his game. You know, you don't have Stephan Gilmore in here. Can Jail and Waddle make an impact right away? I mean you are missing Will Fuller as well, which I think is a problem for suspension. Um I don't know if you can run the ball against New England's front. I'm just I'm

not sure you can not effectively. Um. Miles Gaskin is probably he's he's the lead guy, but that it's gonna be a game where two is going to have to make some throws right away, and that's what we've been waiting to see. I had to take this game from Dan. I mean, you know, if I let this sit around too long he likes the A f D East too much, I couldn't. I couldn't let it sit there. No. I for the same reason I couldn't take Cleveland Casey at

least in week one, and just got to respect the game. Um. See, this is the perfect example this game, because there's been a lot of breathless hype about Mac Jones and what he did in the preseason and what the beat writers are watching a practice and that's all good, and that could that could inform you as a fan. It obviously informs the team when they make decisions about roster building.

Same thing with Towah the last season and the struggles he had as a rookie um from from time to time, and they obviously sat him down several times and let Ryan Fitzpatrick play, so they're trying to ease them into the mix. And then this summer you're hearing a lot of positivity about him and how he looks so much

better and maybe looks healthier and all that good. Great stuff to talk about in August in early September, But now now is here what I decide personally, whether these guys are actually the dudes, whether they got the goods too. Has got a lot of pressure on him because it's a story what's going on with him, not just with the Deshaun Watson madness and the reports out there, but

just in general. If he gets off to a slow start, he's gonna be in a situation where he could press because he'll know at that point that he's getting into a tough situation. And mac Jones, we're gonna see is he gonna be one of those rookies that hits the ground running or does he struggle out of the gate against first team defenses for four quarters and all that comes with that. So it's really exciting to watch both

of these quarterbacks at different stages of their career. Or even though they're both young and both Alabama guys, only only one as a line though, I mean, at least on paper, the Miami line. They're gonna be without Austin Jackson. That might be a good thing. Austin Jackson's not played well for them. Maybe they're gonna try out this rookie Eichenberg, But I I think mac Jones is in a better position to to excel. So yeah, I give a little edge to the hunting here, all right. I legitimately have

not decided. I was keep going, keeping keep going, keep going, Go ahead, Greg. It's killing me trying to figure out, like, what's the first game of the Sunday season I want to watch? I don't know, Like I'm looking at the broadcasters, ten am. I gotta go with my heart here and it's it's a weird one. It's gonna be Cardinals Titans. I just, I just I don't care. This is what I want to watch it. There is no reach when

you're seeing the games that you want to watch. That's well, of course, if you're coming out of your war room and saying, I'm selecting this. You're not gonna say to yourself in the college the call telling it's calling me to see Julio and that's that's in uh in a

Titans uniform. I want to see it. I want to see Julio Jones go like seven for one sixty five and everyone's just like, oh my god, I want to see what the heck is going on with Like J. J. Watt is on this Cardinals team and they're talking up A J. Green and I'm not like convinced that any of it's gonna be good. I am fascinated by these two teams just because I don't know exactly what I gotta get, But you know what, I gotta suspicion. I got a suspicion that this Titans team is gonna be

a little bit better than people think. I think Elijah Molten is going to help out at slack corner. I like their young cornerbacks, and I think they come out playing pretty well, throwing the ball all over the yard against this you know, be leaguered Cardinals defense. Let's lock up the Tennessee It's the first lock baby, Greg, I like it. I think you've got something here because you look at the Cardinals cornerback situation, it is a mess.

It is a huge mess on paper. I mean, Malcolm Butler retires, You've got Byron Murphy, Marco Wilson, Robert Alford who has not played since. That's like when I played football, Tay Gowing was at thirty years earlier. I will let you know, actually someone you were on the bench too, like the last couple of years you didn't really get

much playing. I was not, in fact before the show today, a friend that I played Pop Warner with sent me um VCR recorded uh tape of a game that we were in, and I viewed myself Dominnecticut that you guys just like save all of your materials and like just rewatch it all the time. It's just Greg, I had a childhood. We understand that you get VCR player to like play it back. No, no, no, he sent it. He sent it to me a video from a VCR copy that he had somehow that transferred it. I did.

I did not mention the last Cardinals cornerback though a human name Luke. It's like Marcus, like, I've got this barkou note, let me get to it. Luke l Uk is his first name, which I kind of think it's cool, but Luke Barku um an undrafted free agent. Anyways, I'm with you. I think that you know, there's no Arthur Smith, and I want to see what happens with Todd Downing running this offense. It's the same offense, he says. I mean, in general, he's been there, he should be able to

run that. But Arthur Smith got hired because of his in game play calls, and he revived Ryan Tannehill's career, you know, from from scratch essentially, So what is the effect with him out of the building. You know, Evan Silva said, never fade the big dog. That's what he said for years and years and years. This year, Evan Silva, the fantasy guru, said he's finally worried about Derrick Henry.

That's worth tracking, Uh, not just because Evan said it, but after I believe something close to eight d touch is over the last two years. Um, that's certainly warrants watching the the obviously coaching scheme change or at least the coach change. UM, Ryan Tannehill, will he continue to thrive as he has the last couple years, there are questions there. Julio Jones great on paper, the acquisition is the three point favorites. They opened as a two and

a half point favorite. And and then it's I think in Cardinals fans like our buddy jays Umwalt will certainly attest there's a lot of doubt around that team in that leadership with Cliff Kingsbury. Can he be better? Is he the guy to take Kyler Murray to the next level, Because, as I said over the summer, I think Kyler Murray this year could be lined up to be a four thousand yard passing, one thousand yard rushing type guy that's

never been done before. But he's gonna need Kingsbury to be better and be more aggressive and put together an offense that keeps defenses on their heels. That's why he was brought in here to be this game changer of McVeigh type. Uh, and he hasn't been quite frankly, so this is a big year for him. This is a it's a good game, greg Um a little early in the draft, but at the same time, uh, you love it and now you have it, so good for you,

thank you, thank you. I mean I was I was going to lock up the Bills and then it was like that that felt like, you know, for the good of the show, this would be more exciting. So I'm just all about what good for you, Greg and I. And there is a team we haven't gotten to the game, and it might not be until very late in the show, but another team that I thought about locking against, and I was like, no, not weak one, Dan, you need to get this thing off on the right foot, all right, Mark,

it heads back to you. I mean, you have to know that one of the reasons that we picked some of the games that we do is because we are covering them and you've got to kind of space it out through the day. I am I. I don't think in my life I have ever intentionally picked a Lions game. Um it's you know, for obvious reasons. I've avoided that franchise um from a work standpoint whenever I can. But I am very intrigued by seeing the Niners um in

week one. I hate the draw for Detroit. I think whoever needed to be the guinea pig to deal with whatever Kyle Shanahan has cooked up on offense, you know, and Trey Lance the finger thing. I tvd on how much he'll play, if he'll play, how much we'll see him, how will be used. UM. But if he's healthy, you know, I was in the hospital on a very UM severe like delotted drip, which if anyone has not taken to

a lot at most people, I would assume. If not, UM, it puts you into a completely different part of the universe. And that is when I watched, UM the Jimmy G tray lance double quarterback action that Kyle Shanahan unfurled on an August afternoon, UM, and it just blew my mind. I I absolutely thought it was one of the most joyful things I had seen in so long coaches stay away from using two quarterbacks at once. I think Kyle Shanahan is in a dream scenario. He's got to be

loving this. And they really didn't even use tray lance on the ground. That's a huge aspect to his game. Obviously, he is an incredibly fascinating runner, and you just wonder, you know, how this thing will play out, because if he's that daring and uses both of these guys, I think you look at the Lions and you look at their inexperienced in very young secondary and you can throw the ball too. But this is gonna be a run heavy Niners team. They always have been. Trace Sermon is

going to be a fascinating addition to the team. I Greg and I have both picked the Niners as our Super Bowl NFC teams winners. That annoys me that two thirds of the we were not nearly as we were, not nearly as original as we thought, Like the basic bros, you're trying to be cool. Meanwhile, like the Bucks got fewer votes than the forty Niners to win the Super Bowl. They didn't. They didn't, they did? They did? I gotta

think they did. I want to get inside Football second on the podcast here and say to you Mark, just like with Greg, draft the game, you want to watch, but you gotta look at the board here. I mean, you gotta look at the board, and you gotta know Greg doesn't pick for four picks, and you got two picks from me and then you're back. I feel like you could have gotten a more high impact game and then come back and got this. I didn't want to lose it. I don't trust I don't trust um what

you're going to do next. I was not going to watch a line game by choice on Sunday. But well, you also know that I one thing I'm looking for our games that are like severe blowouts. I really enjoyed that um from the coverage angle, So I was not gonna let this slip through my fingers because might not play in this game. By the way, their their left tackle. So after all this nonsense that you moved Penas who looked terrible in the preseason too right tackle, are they

going to move him to left tackle? Decker doesn't play that that's a problem. Like when I first saw this line at seven and a half points, and I'm thinking, I know, I know the forty niners are good. I picking them to win the ser Man. That's a lot of points for a team that won six games last

year against the team that won five games. But the longer you think about it, you're like, oh, yeah, well, also last year their quarterback, starting running back, and two wide receivers in San Francisco, I think they played like two games together. Last year was more like I'm I look at last year and say, I'm more impressed that Kyle Shanahan's essentially swept the Rams and won some of those games with nobody on the field. This is two years ago healthy they were a super Bowl team. They

are a super Bowl caliber team. I'm buying into this t J. Hockenson joining the elite tight end club after the season, just because I think he's gonna get like Darren Waller level targets in this offense. And um, I think if you've followed his career closely, I think he's a former number ten overall pick. He's been kind of edging upward. And I think with Goff, who is obviously nobody's version of a superstar at this phase of his career, but I think he is capable of getting the ball

at Hackinson's hands. That will be something to watch over the season. I just don't know, um, how they keep up with San Francisco once they get rolling. I don't know if that defense can make this ops. One uh one other thought here, boy, well pick this game, Mark, do you think it's gonna be even closer? Do you think this is a blowout? I would go, um, San Francisco Detroit six. Yeah, Dan Campbell's he's trying his best home game. You want to get this out off to

the right star. You don't want to get blown up, blown out. The theory. Their offensive line in their defensive line look pretty good. Their offensive line on paper looked like maybe that's the top five group. But now suddenly your top ten pick doesn't look very good. In your left tackle, who you decided not to move for your

top ten pick is hurt. So that's like, now like one strength doesn't look too strong at least, this isn't it like the most Bengals thing that, Like Jamaar Chase had the worst summer camp of any top ten rookie wide receiver ever, and then the other guy they were

supposed to take was also doomed in the summer. It's like sometimes yeah, Lions fans will point out suwell not looking too good as a very Lions thing, too much like their number three overall draft pick Jeff Alkuda getting absolutely like torched in Week one on the way to a brutal rookie in a year ago. Oh by the way, if the because the line certainly could use a premier wide receiver Jamar Chase. You know, maybe he ends up in Detroit and they switch spots and they're struggling in

these other cities. It's just you know, sometimes you wonder about but the Lions are trying to build a team where they're maintaining a lead and they want to run the ball all day long. Look at their group of wide receivers. They're gonna be in a lot of games where they're down by ten, fourteen points and they have no way out of that situation. I don't like to set up for Jared Goff at all. All right, um, let's move on here. Let's see hmmmm, I'm gonna hammana, hammana.

I'm gonna I'm gonna don't. Yeah, if anybody who thinks that this is all fake and we're not actually trying to figure things out in real time, I am, because you you need to be careful with who Greg I have a snake. So here we go. I will start with a game that I said that I was excited to watch, and I am the Los Angeles Chargers. That's the best at the Washington football team. A nice battle here between um, a Charger's team that everyone is very

excited about. On offense, although you know this Austin Eckler thing, I mean, I don't. I hope I didn't jank them, But you know, you get out of summer, all your stars are intact. Here we go, and now Eckler is down with an injury. U what what's our status? Sero on NFL now just this day said, don't worry about it. He's playing. It sounds like he's gonna he's gonna be what is it a hamstring? Yep? Okay, So we got Eckler there hopefully in the lineup. It's a locked and

loaded UM team. And yeah, Greg, you Mark, you mentioned it and we spoke about it, although I could not shed a tear over it. Um when you were writing about West at the top of your QB index spoke about Um justin Herbert and uh how much West loved him. So as a little nod to West for myself, I want to watch him on Sunday, UM try to beat a Washington defense that is very, very good, especially upfront and the Chargers offensive line. Okay, we'll see if they m are better this year and see if they can

handle the great tandem. You know who they are, Montes, Sweat Chase Young better known as Young and Sweaty. I thought we had a sound drop for a second. I was getting excited. I'm unsure why that's not totally taking off into the skies on a national basis, and it's now going to start taking off as this season and they need to play their role. Uh. Sweat said he believes they could set the all time tandem sack record

as they start to build that sack total. Hopefully Young and Sweaty it's gonna be on T shirts and I will not be cut out of the profits. I don't care. I know there's those companies out there that they I think they their whole hook is when something happens in the sports world, they make a T shirt really quick

and make some money off it. If I see Young and Sweaty anywhere that I P right now September nine, I'm telling you that is the old Zusers I P. That's tug Boats, I P. The new Old Blue Eyes, is I P. Why Why are you waiting around for some other Giberne to st Yeah, Paul Rudd, what was that Mark? Why are you waiting around for some other clown to start creating T shirts? You should We've been

talking to podcast for ten years. Do you have to file like three different UM I P s or whatever under different notes names, like you gotta do one under tug Boat, one under the New Old blue eyes. I have to pay seven times the amount of paperwork fees as the normal human being. Um. Anyway, I do wonder, by the way, do you think if you were to look it up, is there is there a Young and Sweaty dot com. I'm not sure where that would take

us if it existed. It might not be I'm trying to class up Young and Sweaty because I know it's been it's been in the in the in the gutter for perhaps decades. But now it's gonna be more of a wholesome gridiron type scenario, you know. Anyway, back back to the task in hand. Here Washington football team with that great defense against this great Chargers offenses, healthy offense, and then you've got the Joey Bosa angle and what he can do against Ryan Fitzpatrick and your boy uh

McLaren um greg and you got Derwin James back. It's just a great matchup with a lot of star player on both sides. It's gonna be fun to watch. I'm already regretting my Titans Gardener's pick just thinking about this game. I think it's more that I'm like emotionally invested in the Chargers, and I sometimes I don't want that. Early on, I picked against them in this game. I think it was the toughest game to pick, just total coin flip to me, Curtis Samuel, it looks like he's gonna miss

this game. And when you mentioned the Chargers rebuild online, that's where the bad memories start coming in because I can't tell you how many different seasons Philip Rivers went into with this Chargers team, and it really it really, I know it doesn't have anything to do with one team.

It's I know it doesn't, but somehow it affects me that, like, there were so many times you thought they were gonna solve things and they looked great on paper, and they just didn't solve it, and they gave him no support. And Herbert's like my new Philip Rivers. He's He's my favorite young quarterback in the league. Absolutely, and I am worried, especially in this matchup, that just it's it will look a little more like last year. Then then you're comfortable

with that. They're gonna have some bumps. They didn't play at all in the preseason. That's sometime I'm kind of watching whether that has any impact at all. Because the Washington football team did play quite a bit in terms of their starters in the preseason. I mean you look at you look at Herbert though, and he had that magnificent rookie campaign and thrived um behind what was arguably the worst line in the league last year. I mean, he's he's still looked fantastic and he was blitzed NonStop.

I do think if anything, you look at Los Angeles, they put resources into the line. They tried at some point it's gone. It has to work at some point. I'm with you on that. I think that you know,

we've talked about Joe Lombardi, new offensive coordinator. You don't like a lot of change for Justin Herbert, But I didn't think wonder if he's getting a little too nitpicked, because it sounds like from everything that he and Brandon Staley have said is we are doing everything we can to build an offense that is from multiple systems um and there's a lot of Shanahan elements in there that will be that will put Justin Herbert into a place to succeed. You still have Keenan Allen, who's a huge

part to this game. If they did not have Austin Ekeler I would be very down on their chances and against this defense. But I think you're gonna get Austin ekeler um in the passing game as well, used NonStop. I mean they had to win games without him last year a couple of times as well. But how do you offset this pass rush? The young and sweaty duo is a huge concern. But I'll tell you one thing about the Chargers too. It's along and along with no, no,

along with the line I'm not locking this up. And the more he talked, the more smart things come out of his mouth, and you think, like, Okay, this guy's get it figured out right. Because I think the other thing that have dogged the Chargers for as long as we've done this podcast, our bizarre end of games scenarios. Half of them you know, missed field goals and all that business, but a lot of poor clock management and

other business. I think Brandon Staley brings a completely different vibe to this team, and a lot of that malarkey is gonna vanish. Okay, don't play the games. See if this Brandon Staley could play the guitar, that's what the games are are. This one's gonna hurt, correct, So I think you thought it might sneak to you like I went to two Lane. What a time it was. I learned so much about different cultures and made a great friend that became a famous person. And now we have

our podcast together. Yeah that jessel Nick and Rosenthal Vanity Project. Check it out. I love New Orleans. I love their game. They're playing this week, the Packers the Saints a late game. The old zooser is going to cover this one. And I'll tell you what, gotta love it. Now stinks that it is not at the super Dome. Let's just start there. This will be played at t I A A stadium. Can we just these corporate stadium names? What a mess?

But that's where the Jacksonville Jaguars played football. Uh, and that's where the Saints will play football. And initially after her Acane EIDs destruction, we thought, man, are they not gonna get in there until the end of October. Now there's the thought that it could happen early October. I believe a game against the Giants in the first week of October. Let's hope that happens, and hope everybody in New Orleans is doing okay and getting um in a

better position after that terrible storm for the Saints. It's just a terrible situation because the Packers, it's Packers Week and this is a big, big starts your season against the arrival in the NFC, and you've got to figure out a way to stop Aaron Rodgers coming off an MVP season, and you're not gonna have that crowd behind you. And maybe and we'll see what the pack What is that crowd gonna be? Like? Is it gonna be a

Packers crowd? Is it gonna be a Saints crowd? Like I could see it being close to fifty fifty with two very um hardcore fan bases, But you never know. Those Packers fans are maniacs um. And then you have the Jamis Winston side of things. This is his chance now and he's in good physical condition, he got the eyes fixed, He's had an entire off season with Sean Payton and his playbook. He easily outplayed your boy Mark

Taysom Hill to be the starter here. He's gonna get the opportunity and hopefully Taysom Hill only has a minor role and Peyton doesn't get too cute. Although I should give Sean Payton the benefit of the doubt if he wants to run his offense a certain way, probably better than my theories on how they should run their offense. UM. So I'm excited to see how this offense looks with Drew Brees gone and an amazing Packers offense and a defense that could be better than it was last year.

And I want to see where za Darius Smith, how he comes back from a relatively down season. This is such a fascinating game. I I don't have a good feel for this, like the Packers kind of playing into

what I was saying with continuity. I like teams with continuity who know who they are going in week one, they're the h a picture of it in terms of Aaron Rodgers in that system that he can make up for whatever the offensive line problems are the Saints, especially defensively, but also at receiver, like they've had so much turnover that even though the coaching staff is the same, they are trying out a lot of new parts. And yet I do feel like Sean Payton's a perfect coach for this.

I do think there's something to having something to play for beyond just yourself if you listen to the Saints players in Dallas the last two weeks, it's on their mind. It's affecting all their families. You know, power is just coming back two parts of New Orleans even now, and and everyone's impacted by it. And you know, I think that that's I don't know, I think it's a factor. I I believe that they'll be playing for something greater than themselves, and that matters to me a little bit.

And I listened to the Saints Twitter podcast with Adam and Ryan. I was on it to check that out this week, and they they had a really good, like in depth look at things they wanted to see out of the preseason. And they got him. Caesar Ruis, their number one draft picked from a year ago, who was a bust as a rookie at he struggled, looked really good in the preseason. That offensive line might be the

best in the entire NFL. Zack Bond kind of a bust as a second round pick, didn't look ready for the NFL, one of the weakest spots there at weeks. Side linebacker look great in the preseason. We might have some Bond time, I forgot, you know, we might have a little Zach bonnissance and never even played well in the first place to have a renaissance, and then they trade for Bradley Roby this week. I love that Bradley Roby trade. Bradley Roby is a good number two cornerback

and they had nothing at cornerback. The problem is Bradley Roby suspended for a week one, and so you're still matching up like Ken Crawley and this rookie Pauls and Nadibo against these Packers guys, and the matchups don't quite favor you in the end. Like it's I don't know, my heart's with the Saints, but your head it's hard not to think the Packers just have the mismatches here.

I mean, you don't. You don't have to, you know, guess if what's happened in New Orleans could be something that galvanizes this team because under Sean Payton, when they went through Katrina, that's exactly what it did. I mean, it's one of the biggest stories in Saints history, I think if you're Sean Payton. Although Saints fans will point out like they went three and thirteen after Katrina, what Jim has I he never got the credit he deserved for keeping that team of flow. But you know what,

they won Week one. It was one of the great Saints wins in history. They won on the road in Week one against Caroline. Well know, we'll see that though that that season where they were actually kind of on the road was immediately after. I do wonder how how the emotion translates in Jacksonville, of all places. We'll see about that. But I think if you're Sean Payton, you basically you love the challenge because it's been the same quarterback for so long. You've got to do something different now.

I think he's the right coach for this, But we still don't know what Jamis Winston is gonna be. I think Sean Payton is gonna have to coach unlike he's ever coached before and be as creative as possible. But I don't understand why people are still picking the Saints as a playoff team and talking about and it's like, I just, I just I just don't buy that at this point because it's a little bit too much transition. I am locking up the Packers with Ultra confo hates

the victims of Hurricane I do not. I wish the victims of the hurricane nothing but good things. And I am awesome, and I am also going to uh oh wow, I'm the bad guy praiser rab Moon. I will lock up the Packers too, And then, as you know, to do with the great people of New Orleans and everything to do with the game of football and the fact that they are strangers in a strange land, a team the Saints in transition right now trying to figure things out.

And I am not buying into the jamis Winston renaissance because he has Lasik. Now, can we calm down with all this stuff? Can't hurt it back to me in a moment the impossible as possible? Like you wait, he should be better now? How is he almost worse? That that's in play too? So I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna be on that Saints podcast, although I like the people that do it, because I don't believe in the Saints as much right now, even though I do like the head coach and think he can coach them

up in time. I think the timing of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers Week one outside of your building in a quote unquote home game is too much, and that's why Green Bay is gonna roll. I have to ask you one quick question. Let's say that you were like back in castle times. You were like an archery person, right, and you needed to defend your castle and you couldn't see, and then suddenly you had crystal clear vision. Would you

not be better at your job? Why are we dismissing lasik surgery for an NFL quarterback as non meaning here here from this perspective, I mean, what does it say about the person? And you've got a factor in all sorts of things with a quarterback, whether he's a success, including what's going on from the shoulders up, What does

it say about him? Man, if he waited until he's like twenty eight and busted out of his first round pick run with his first team before I decided to get this, now you're asking the right question that from that angle, I completely buy that's saying the whole James Marston experience, because he never wears glasses and has terrible vision. Like I've never quite understood that we're at the office, he's like, he's not putting his glasses on, He's he's winting. Man,

I've wrestled with this pick more than any other. I picked those Saints like to cover four but lose the game. And now that you jokers are locking up the Packers, I feel like the switching my pick on NFL dot com just so I can fully like be aligned in rooting against the clowns. Okay, well that's great. We gotta we gotta take up the pace here, Mark, go ahead, alright, I'm gonna go, um Philadelphia, Atlanta at one o'clock, start on the East coast. I want to see what well,

that's how this works. I take what you want away from you. I want to see the Arthur Smith, you know, introduction here, the debut. I really like Arthur Smith. I think it's, uh, you know, he may not come across personality wise the way that you you think of some head coaches, but you look at what he did in Tennessee, and I just wonder the effect that he will have, maybe not in this game, but overall on Matt Ryan and in the tail end of Matt Ryan's career and

what they do there. Um, I don't I think that both of these teams, to me, vibe is total question marks. But I think it's it's Um, it's you look back at what Jalen Hurts and four starts last year had three fifty four yards rushing and three touchdowns. And this is someone who can impact the game on the ground. And I know that the Eagles were whispered about as a team that you know at interest in Deshaun Watson. They maybe we're gonna go somewhere else in the draft.

They're lined up to do something else in the draft next offseason. If they don't love Hurts, they trade for Gardner Minshew, which that happened when I was in the hospital, which was the second strangest thing. I don't know why they went and did that. Um. I mean I liked the player, but the whole thing seems strange to me. I think it hurts is very much UM on a season long audition, So every game matters a ton and I kind of can't wait to see how this plays

out in Week one. I think the Eagles had because last year was such a huge disaster because the front office looked bad, the coach got fired, the quarterback got traded. That you look at you we're maybe overlooking a little bit at some of the hearts on this offense. If you don't have to squint too hard to see an offense that could be I think run heavy and functional and a little more exciting than people are giving them

credit to. Under Nick Sirianni, we will see I like it when Mark goes I like the player, like he goes all Bill parcels. You won't even say I have a lot of parcels. I like the player. That's how it is a lot of Bill just a piece of meat to me. This this Eagles team does have the bones of a good team. They've got a good offensive line. You know, you've got Lane Johnson, You've got my Lotta, You've got Kelsey, You've got the guards, and they've got a good defensive line. You still got um Cox, you

still got Barnett. You have Javon Hardgrave, who looked like he had a good camp. You have Brandon Graham. You they like this rookie Milton Williams. I don't know. You've got a good offensive line and a good defensive line. That's a team that can surprise. I am very intrigued to watch this game too, because I I want to see Kyle Pitts. I want to see what this Falcons

team is and this egos team. They're both kind of mysteries to me by I think the goals do have the bones of a surprising team and this is this is a perfect first test I think for both these teams and first year coach Nick Sirianni, and let's face it, the brain trust in Philadelphia, which is meddlesome would be one way to put it. Are they all going to be on the same page here with Jalen Hurts and give him actual runway here to develop? He's only had

four starts in the NFL. Or with Gardner Minshew in the building, with Joe Flacco still in the building, is there a treachery afoot for the former second round pick Jalen Hurts. I think that's a sub I know people on Twitter, the Eagles fans that try to assassinate me don't want to hear this stuff, but just keep an eye in the situation. Is that organization functional enough right now and locked into the same mindset to let a young quarterback develop that isn't a premium draft pick. We

shall see Greg close out the draft portion of the preview. Okay, I was gonna take Texans Jags, Yeah, because like I like having a bad second game, and then I thought that we got to think about the good of the show again. We should have someone watching this Seahawks Colts game. That is what I'll take, because I think it matters. I think it's two teams that we're in the playoffs a year ago, and we want to see how they look right now. We want to see. Yeah, just like I,

someone should should have their eyes on this game. I guess it could have been Nick Shook and I could have taken Texans jacks. But that's that's silly. I'm not writing anymore on Sunday nights. I should think that way. Now, you don't have to worry about that. That's good. I just think this. I'm all over the place, but I think a lot of mental processing going with here. Yeah. Sorry, I think it's just it could wipe the floor with them, right. I.

I just don't like their past. I love the Seahawks pass rush and I don't love the Colts pass protection, and I don't love Carson Wentz hobbling on his foot. So I guess I gotta see it, can't you see a big story on t A And by the way, total access come back to me. Yeah, the old man. Keith hands us. He calls me yesterday. I call him, Actually, I can catch up with the parents and my dad. I'm um. I got a lot of TV and stuff

going on Tuesdays with Power Rankings. He says, Oh, by the way, I was watching that one show Total Access. They're burying your power rankings, Willie McGinnis, Shawn O'Hara, m J Acosta. I don't think MJ was getting shots in because m J is a pro My lover her. But Willie taking shots at Zeuser, and that's fine. You don't do the power rankings unless you're able to take some fire. That's what the whole thing is about. So I never take an issue with someone saying my rankings are wrong.

But you gotta have the old Juser there right. They did not give you Total Access. You gotta put a camera in front of me. You gotta hook me up with the mic so I could defend myself. Where was I I wanted to hear. I want to hear exactly what Keith Hans has said to you about this in his voice. Okay, Danny, you know it's good that your name was on the show and everything. They had your name on the screen and that was good. But uh, you know who's that big guy the um the defensive

playoff from New England? Oh Willie? Yeah, yeah, he was saying some things. It wasn't so nice anyway, Ricky, you're gonna you have to cut this off for social and creat an in house civil war. Please. Um. What I'm going to send it to, like Willie's McGinness, is private cell phone. I will address this if they have me on Total Access and they actually let me defend my self on the power rankings, I will share with Willie that I was displeased, as was Keith by the treatment.

He's going to be shaken by your your reaction to this, no doubt. I'm sure it's gonna keep him up at night. My point is on Monday's edition of NFL Total Access, there is going to be a portion of that telecast dedicated to is it time to worry about the Colts? Because I think if you have to pick one team that is going to come out of the gates slow,

especially on offense, it's gonna be the Cult. And it doesn't mean they're doomed, but with Carson Wentz, lack of reps in practice time and the fact that he's on a bad foot still or a foot that's healing, and the same thing with Quentin Ellen, the other most important player on the offense, and t Y Hilton's out, and there's just it takes a while for a team to jael typically with new parts and a new quarterback in place. It just seems like they're in a very tough spot

here well. Also quinnin Nelson dealing with a bit of a back issue as well. So you don't like the health of the line. And for whether you're a Wenz defender as you are Dan to some degree, or one who thinks that you know last year was it was an honest look at who he had become in that offense. I think from the neck up I was worry very concerned about whence the player and the person. He just seemed completely detached from what was going on around and

making incredible mistakes, forcing throws. He's barely plays. You know, he's practicing, but this is not the way the off season wanted to go for him at all. Who is this player and he's not in the in the best Everyone's talked about Wentz being in the best possible situation in Indianapolis, because of the coach, because of the line. It's not the case in Week one, Um. The one player I'm interested to see that was Quitty pay their pass rusher, because he has in every report about him

is that he's been freaky. I think he could be an impact player. That to me is someone to keep an eye on. Who rusher? By the way, remember the big kitty pass rusher? Was it for a collision collision low Crossers? Was Mike petton Um, I don't know if it was. It was more of a type of player they were looking for everything to win. Is a nice, little, low scoring game, conservative, a lot of running. It's just

like ugly. I was shocked how high a number this game has between Colt and Seattle because it feels like it's going to be a very defense Hi, I think it's like over or something crazy. Doesn't matter. Let's hit the prime time games. We'll start with Sunday Night football Chicago Bears at Los Angeles Rams at Hollywood Park, our future office in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, sorry, Mark Um.

The story here, of course, is Matthew Stafford's debut with the Rams and Sean mcveigh's he gets a chance to really um the second part of his career, a rebirth here in a functional offense with great skilled players, and then on the Chicago side of the ball. You know, listen, everybody's a little bit disappointed. But Mark, how about this idea that you know they have a home game next week the Bears against the Bengals, I believe, And that's

that's not too that's not too rough. But is anyone else in the NFL can they claim the to be in the position Andy Dalton is where the fan base is actually rooting against you, like Bears fans cannot wait to get Andy Dalton out of the picture and Justin Fields onto the field. Which I get it from a big picture sense, but it also feels like it that has to be maybe a little bit uh tough mentally to know nobody wants you on the field, at least

the home fans. Uh. Tough way to start your Bears career, right, I mean, I think he dealt with that in Cincinnati to agree to where you know they're tired of him, though, because not to this degree to put in Ryan Finley or whatever. No, and it's it's not Andy Dalton's fault, but I simply, you know, and we've I don't want to beat this dead horse, but I just I don't understand the strategy with Matt nig. I mean, they've got

line issues. So I guess from one angle you're looking look at, we want to protect Justin Fields for a bit here versus throwing him into the fire. Nagy was in Kansas City the year that they sat Patrick Mahomes up until that Week seventeen game when we realized maybe they should have just been playing him the whole time.

My concern for the Bears organization in general is like if Fields and I mean, by all accounts, he was not perfect in the preseason, but Fields is the more electric um player that offers you much more than Andy Dalton ever will why wait, what is the weight? Why put him in in Week four? Week five? I just think that quarterbacks in one are not players coming out of college systems that need to sit and wait for four years to play like Joe Theisman forty five years

ago or something. So organizationally, I completely disagree with what they're doing. Uh, the NFL West would always say this, you know, favor of four, the fortune favors the bold. You've got to go for it, and the Bears are one team sitting out there playing it's safe. I don't like it at all. It's hard. It's hard to see where they're like special, you know, defense. Defensively, there's just

been like a little bit of erosion. They still do have pretty good players, but the secondary little bit of erosion there Akeem Hicks maybe not quite the difference maker that he used to be. They hope they get more out of Robert Quinn. I think there is a path to keeping this game close. You know, the Rams, there's so much to be excited about on offense, but you do want to see it. They haven't you know, practiced there, you know, played you know, meaningful snaps together yet at all.

I can remember the last couple openers they had after sitting out the preseason. There was that Raiders game on Monday night which they ended up winning in a walk, and in its other Panthers game where it's like a slow start. They're not the deepest team in the world, and this is a team. This is a week where you'd love to be able to play your backups twenty snaps and and give reps to and break to your starters. So I'm excited to see de Sean Jackson, Van Jefferson

all that fun stuff. But you haven't you haven't seen it. I think there is a there is a avenue here for the Bears to just make this game kind of ugly and everyone's like, oh, how come this isn't a great good game and it's like one at the end

and you know the Rams escape. I could see that there's another catchphrase or another phrase mark um chance favors the prepared mind bad guy number one from under Siege to Dark Territory feels a little less catchy to me, and I botched the initial phrase when I attempted to say it. So perhaps Underseige two, Dark Territory, that's the one on the train, there's the one on the battleship under Siege one, and that's Tommy Lee Jones performance. It's excellent.

And then you have the second one with Eric Bedogian Dark Territory not as good, but Travis Dain is a great bad guy in it. And uh, I will just say that ties into this game. Uh let me forget how it ties in. Oh maybe Eddie Dalton. They just feel he's better prepared for this moment and they want to let Justin Fields marinate. I'm not here to tell you that's what they should do, but maybe they think this will help Justin Fields in the long run to get his feet wet on the sideline and maybe come

in at some point. But everyone wants the same thing and and ultimately Ryan pays the Matt Maggie needed to happen to if they want to continue to coach and GM with the Bears. So okay, I can't wait to see Matthew Stafford was Sean McVeigh. That's gonna be fun. Hopefully stays healthy. All right, Monday Night football, Baltimore Ravens, Las Vegas Raiders. See the way they set this up? You got who got breaking news? I have some unfortunate

breaking news. According to Ian Rappaport, the Ravens cut short practice today after cornerback Marcus Peters and running back Gus Edwards sustained potentially significant knee injuries on back to back plays. Um another running back back to back plays. They think Gus Edwards might be out for the entire season. Whoa they've lost that? Well, they just signed Levi on Bell, so it's like, are we going to see him now? This is it's I mean that is devastating and back

to back plays like what is happening over there? Greg, you mentioned how weird and strange and somewhat sinister their camp was. I mean it is extended with a with a huge hammer punch right there. I mean that is they have no running back. It's insane. They've had a terrible time of it. This is why it's like they shouldn't ask us to lock in our NFL dot com predictions early because it's like, Okay, now I got the Browns in the playoffs. Mark there you go. Um that.

I'm not trying to make light of it. It stinks because for many reasons, but it's there's a point where you still do need a running back. They like Tyson Williams, who I thought showed some things. We don't know much about him, um, a second year player, but he's now in theory would be your lead guy. And you get some other guys off the street. And they left Bell to their practice squad right right, And he might be active, which is a sign he probably will be, especially after

this injury. He's probably not giving him a lot of times. But Marcus Peters is the bigger injury here because as good as their secondary is, I I did think they were a little more vulnerable this year. If even one guy goes down, and now Jimmy Smith who has been banged up, and Marcus Peters, it's just you start to take away a lot of pieces. Man. The Raiders are catching the Ravens at the right time. Unbelievable and that

and it just goes to show you. And when J K. Dobbins towards a c L in the preseason game, it was like another feather in the cap for people that are like, hey, don't don't play your starters in the in these games that don't matter. It's football. These guys, the bodies and the speed and the hour involved even a simple practice um, devastating things can happen. So that is that's a very tough loss both sides of the ball. And we don't know we're learning this in real time.

Obviously we don't know about either injury, but just based on initial reports, it does not sound good. L s Rap report says both of them will be just confirming it. So usually so the Ravens obviously now are dealing with big time issues on both sides of the ball. As they travel to the Desert to face the Raiders UM at Allegiant Stadium. I believe it is Allegiant. I don't know. And uh. And for the Raiders, this is a nice early test for them after their latest late season fade.

UM and it's a big season obviously for them. Is they need to prove that they're going in the right direction. Um, what do you think about this matchup? I think this this feels like to me, and that was even before these injuries, Greg. This felt like one of those on a Monday night with the Ray Raiders and their fans, and that building is gonna be going off the first Vegas home game. Of course after COVID last year, there were no fans in that new stadium. I think this

is a coin flip game, and I'm actually leaning the Raiders. Yeah, I thought it was a coin flip game too. I thought it's two offenses that like to slow the pace down or at least run the ball a lot. The Ravens do it in a fast way, the Raiders do it in a slow way. And those types of games the Raiders played every week last year, eight series, nine series for each team's tends to inspire a close game.

And now with Lamar, who just hasn't had a lot of reps in terms of the passing weapons around him in camp, you just feel like it's going to be more about the running game. I know they're they're short a few running backs, doesn't matter. Lamar makes I mean it matters, but they're still gonna try to run the

ball and Lamar makes them a good running game. But I think the Raiders fans that are optimistic that their defense is going to be better this year, like, there are reasons to believe that the guys who were problems for them last year, a lot of them are backups now and they do look better on paper there and

they do have a good coach. There is a route here to go from like thirty and thirty second in defense to twenty, which would make all the difference in the world for Derek Carr and would make them a contender. And yeah, make this is a tough out. I think the home crowd thing not to just keep rambling, but we haven't talked post pandemic crowds are nothing. I think that matters a lot. I mean, you have your their owner didn't even sit in the stadium last year because

he was banded with the fans. If they couldn't be there, he wouldn't be there. I would note this about Baltimore last three seasons, a few teams have opened as well as they have a hundred and forty four points to nineteen. They've outscored opponents in the last three openers. But the Ravens are changing um dramatically, you know as we speak, so I'm now edging I would I would go Raiders in a in a close one at this point. They

play a lot of their starters in the preseason. As we've noted, they're historically good and that you know that would support that week once that, which I didn't know Mark would support that. They're pretty good starters, maybe because they're ready to go. The Raiders, on the other hand, h sat everyone. But yeah, these post pandemic crowds, they're having an impact. The US Open crowd for tennis is

unlike anything I've ever seen in tennis. I think people are just and check out courts of thunder by the way, you know, my m tennis prob a lot of plugs. That's it. We're done for We're done for the season after that. But like I really think it could be a fact, Like absolutely, how would that not help this Raiders team out on Monday night? I think it could be rock all right, Now, before we say goodbye, we have four more games and we'll do it more in

a speed round fashion. So if you guys have any thoughts on each of these games, get them out and

we'll keep moving. We'll start with the New York Jets at Carolina Panthers the Don Old Ball and there's a lot of mental gymnastics going on on the head of the the old Zuser and every other Jet van trying to make sense of how to process this game, because, um, we all had a lot invested in Sam Donald and now we have a lot invested in Zack Wilson, and now they're both on the field together and they're both under the age of twenty four. It's all it's just

a lot, it's just a lot of process. But I'm excited to see obviously how Zack Wilson looks, uh in his first game. UM, I'm excited to see Corey Davis and Elijah Moore play together. Uh, they'll be starting. Jameson Crowder's status is up in the air after he contracted COVID. So it looks like Elijah Moore will be starting with um, Corey Davis and Keenan Cole in three wide receiver sets and on the Carolina side of the ball, and Matt rule Um didn't get a chance to have Christian McCaffrey

as a main part of his team last year. I think he's gonna give the Jets a lot of trouble in this game. I think if you drafted Christian McCaffrey UH this season, UH, Week one is gonna make you feel real good because I see him going for a hundred and fifty plus total yards a couple of touchdowns. I just don't know if there's anybody on the Jets that can cover him. C J. Mosley coming back from two years off, not a great coverage guy in the first place. There's gonna be a lot of issues trying

to stop Christian mc caffrey. So I think this will be a pretty close game. I think the Jets defense is why the Panthers are gonna win. Like the Jets have a lot of work to do on defense. This is I I would think, I would say the most um dramatic and intriguing Jets opener since the days of Rex Ryan. I mean, I I don't know if you'd agree with that, Dan, but there is optimism. You've got a good coaching staff, then the offense is gonna look

completely different. Zack Wilson looked as advertised in the in the preseason. There is one um member of NFL media's staff that picked the Panthers to make the playoffs, and it is the person speaking right now. I think that the they were being overlooked. They were juicy at times last year. They lost a ton of close one score games. I am not drunk, not yet. I am telling you this Panther's team is going to be intriguing more than

people exact, but it does. You do have to see what Donald is because there's another scenario where Donald is a total flop. Yeah, how about how how about Sam Donald? Um, you don't spend the whole week loss just another game. I'm not really anymore into it than any other game. It doesn't matter. How about a little fire from Sam Donald? No, he doesn't, he doesn't play play with it. I'm I'm just I'm just sick of hearing quarterbacks say like that. Please,

this team gave up on you. They gave you, Adam Gates, they gave you no support. If he's not furious at a lot of aspects of his Jets career, something's wrong here. He should want to like so Cal guy. He's a chill so guy. Um. Up next, the Minnesota Vikings at Cincinnati. Ben Gals. Kind of like this game because I just want to see how Joe Burrow looks in his first game back after the knee injury. And I think Minnesota, who I think I picked them for the playoffs on

NFL dot Com. Um, you're gonna want to go to Minnesota and take care of or to Cincinnati and take care of business here? Their offense was shaky uh in the preseason and uh in the summer and the practices according to those who follow the team. But you think they're gonna take care of business here? I do. But I think it'll be like an ugly game, another one where you kind of like like the low score because both teams I think are gonna be able to get

after the quarterback. The Vikings offensive line might be worse than the Bengals, who I think it's almost been overstated how bad their line might be. But the like the Vikings defensive line is gonna be really good. My one little Bengals point is watch out for this defense. They maybe it was just because they were playing the Bengals offense, but man, the reporters really believed like they were taking a step forward. They've had some continuity that it could

be a better defense than people thinking. So this, I'm not sure if I want to watch this game that much. I think it could be low and a little ugly. I don't know if I love their secondary versus Justin Jefferson and Adam Feeling. But we will see, and this will be a better Vikings team than a year ago. I wrote in the Power Rankings that the Vikings offense is built like a Jana tower. You need high level Pro Bowl seasons, level seasons from Cousins from Cook, from Feeling,

from Jefferson. If you don't get those things where you get injuries, look out the Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans. Um As we all know, the Texans are a mess right now. Tyrod Taylor is their quarterback. They just traded their only quarterback cornerback of note to the Saints. So this is gonna be a team. Everybody's gonna stomp on the spread. The Desert only has it at three points here. And I thought about locking up Trevor Lawrence in his debut,

but that's that's just not fun. I thought about locking up the Texans. I think the Texans should be favorite. This is a one win team that's on the road. I think if you look at roster spots twenty through fifty, the Texans are probably a little uh more talented. I'm not into the Texans. I just think like NFL teams aren't that different from top to bottom, and these are two at the very bottom. And I think there is

a route here with the Texans. How they're gonna plays a lot of running, a lot of Philip and Lindsay, a lot of David Johnson, a lot of Tyrod Taylor. And it's not gonna be fun. It's not gonna be pretty. But this is a coin flip at best, and I would take the home team just because they're home. You are you are very low on Jackson. I mean, I mean, couldn't you also see the Texans going to in fifteen

and getting their asses blown out? But this is like if you look at their season, kind like the Jaguars getting that Week one victory last year over the colt It's like, isn't a home game against the Jaguars the easiest game on the Texans schedule? You know, if you flip it around, like this is a game that they absolutely can win, they're not going to be overwhelmed. I don't think with me, you're right. But I look at Jacksonville's skilled players on offense and I there's a lot

to like there. I hate that they lost Travis y t N, but I mean they're their wide receiver group is solid. If Trevor Lawrence this is advertised and I thought, you know, his later preseason work was marvelous that. I think they can be a much better team than they were last year. They lost a lot of close games last year. They were not a genuine one and fifteen team in my book, very spice rack. Uh, it's a

spice rack thing. You know, be aware, like the slight home on you know, the two and a half point slight home underdog, like b beware. You know. One one quick note of both these teams. Uh, there has not been a number one overall pick quarterback that's won his season debut since David Carr in two thousand, two oh twelve and one that surprised me. That's stats. So Trevor Lawrence is against history there. And on the Houston side, I wrote about this in the Power Rankings. This one

NFL coach an anonymous NFL coach on the Texans. I think people are going to play the Texans and think they are and they'll surprise some people slap that on a billboard. That's what I mean. Like, I think they could go right, they could be four and thirteen and people are really like, oh, that's a little better than we thought. It's hard to know who's going to be the very right, but Tyrod Taylor invariably, you know, will fall into some sort of injury scenario two quarters into

this game. Anyway. So and finally the Denver Broncos at New York Giants. Greg, I'm gonna how do you after all this talk about Teddy two gloves all summer driving us crazy, you don't even draft him. You let him play the Giants in the shadows. It's opposite the Patriots game. I you want to watch it with full attention on game pass, so you're kind of knocking out your backup game. The thing you can get me on, get on me for is not locking them up, because that was kind

of my mindset just until the show is started. I do like the Broncos in this game. I'm a little worried that Bradley Chubb is in a percent healthy Von Miller playing his first game, uh in a couple of years. Maybe the mismatch up front isn't quite as big as Giants fans would fear. They have got some good injury news. Goladays practicing, Tony is practicing, Barkley is practicing, So Ingram is really the only key player that looks like he's probably out for the Giants. That's good. Uh. And I

think both teams are so conservative. They both love to run the bass so much that it could be pretty low scoring. But I still do like the Broncos to win it. I mean all I look at the Giants, though, I just don't like the starts of their season at all. We don't know how much we'll see sake one. Barkley, Evan Ingram is out, ka Darius Tony missed essentially all of camp with COVID and a hamstring issue. Kenny Golladay basically told reporters this week, um prepare for the Giants

to start slow. Okay, that's not what you want your big free agent wide receiver to be telling reporters. Necessarily. The offensive line is an absolute mess. I mean, the Athletic had a comment about Andrew Thomas in his preseason finale, setting off alarms because of how poorly he played. I mean, he looks like it could be a complete bust. The line from tackle the tackle is sort of a mess. And they're asking Daniel Jones to make some sort of

Josh Allen leap. Good luck with that. I mean, everything you're saying is true, and they might have the worst offensive on the league. And if the Broncos don't beat the Giants in Week one, everything Greg said, we'll just look Absolutely it's on the road. Absolutely a travesty on for Greg. That's what it would be. Let's go Broncos. All right, good stuff? Hey, Ricky, before we sign off and get ready for the Thursday night opener. Um, what are the announcer assignments for week one? For Week one?

You want me to go through every every game? Who's where's uh the CBS big ones? Yeah? Give me those? Yeah, So the Jets and Panthers, we have Catalan Lofton and bursts. What's the Romo game, the Romo Nance game. The Romo game is Cleveland, Kansas City. Oh, he's gonna go here, you know, I don't I don't even want to deal with it. Romo is gonna just talk about Patrick Mahomes for four straight hours. That's what happened in the playoff game. Totally obnoxious, Greg. You also for Miami New England get

Kevin Harlan and Trent Green, which is decent. Well, I mean it's like it's like being served like the best steak possible at like the most amazing restaurant and then they like, you know, give you a piece of for dessert. Oh that's what goodness, Greg, It's just football. Um what about bucking Aikman. Let's see they are packer packer st Yeah, so it's you know, there's a couple of new teams there. Yeah. Ion Eagles got the Buffalo Pittsburgh Eagle Charles Davis are

still the number two team for CBS. Adam arch Aletta is now with Greg Gumbel. We'll keep guy on that. Spirodidas is now with Jay Feely and Tom McCarthy with Tikey barber Beth Beth Mallens. She she had a regular gig last year. I believe she's some week. Yeah, some weeks not others. You know, it's like depends on how much much they have. Greg Olsen and Kevin Burkhart is the number two Fox team. That might be the biggest team. Yeah, that's a great team. Okay, alright, so one more time,

thank you, ricky Um. NFL Network broadcast premieres. The rebooted Around the NFL broadcast premieres Friday morning on NFL Network. There's a re air later in the day already check so set your DVRs if you can't watch it live. And yes, Sunday night, make sure you constant refresh on your podcast player of choice because the flagship edition of the Around the NFL podcast will drop at that time. And yes, since we started years ago, I think we

kicked some of the industry in the old behind. A lot of people have said, oh, let's wait till Monday to do our show. That doesn't happen so much anymore after we came around. Uh so there are other quote unquote competitors, but you know, the flagship show is where you go to get a great breakdown of all the action that happened on Sunday in the NFL, with Nick Shook helping us out. Anything else, boys, that's it. No, I'm good. I'm gonna. I can't wait to just, you know,

touch your faces later tonight. I'm just gonna i'm your face. That is extremely sensual, a little disturbing. All right, good stuff, all right until Friday for TV and Sunday or podcast, Heed the Call.