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Welcome in Episode two eleven, What's right with Nick?
Right?
All right, so a few housekeeping items before we get going. Demanse not here today. Sadly, Demonse hurt himself pretty badly playing basketball the other night. I mean, he's gonna be fine, but uh, hurt his leg and so he is out. He is getting that checked on. We all wish Demonse our best.
Sucks.
This guy played his entire from the day he was born until he went off to college. He never suffered a single injury of any sort playing sports or otherwise. And then, kind of heartbreakingly if you ask me, his body kind of betrayed him over the last five years.
He's suffered a couple.
Very significant injuries in college, got hurt post college, and now playing ball in LA hurt his ankle pretty badly. And so we wish Demonse our best. He's going to get the news on that tomorrow and hopefully he can be back sometime soon. But that's why he's not in today in Happier News. You may have seen and by the way, if you're you know, in if you want to send Demonse well wishes via social media, do that
if you wanna. You know, I'm sure he's got nothing but time on his hands at the moment, so I'm sure he's probably running some great Fortnite sessions.
I'm not sure what.
His what his dating situation is, but if anybody wants to, you know, send him a nice, hear, heartfelt message, I'm sure it'd be greatly appreciated.
Now in Happier News, there you go. Appreciate that. Guys.
You guys have seen me a couple times wear these Chip Bully sweatshirts. So it's my buddy, Joe Black's brand poker player. Joe is right now at the Borgatta in a multi day five thousand dollars buy in tournament. First place is a little over six hundred thousand dollars, and if you check the website given the updates, there's seventeen people left and my buddy Joe chip Bully himself is he's a massive chip leader with seventeen left with a little over six hundred thousand up top and so listen,
long ways to go. They get the cards in the air in about ninety minutes. I wish I could go down and watch him, but I have the show. The final table will be streamed tomorrow. Hopefully he's in it, and really happy for him, so trying to send good vibes his way by wearing the chip Bully gear. And actually, since I know he's prepping, if we could clip this little section, if you guys could send it to me, I want to text it to him before the cards get in the air. But we have a ton of
actual work to do today. Here is what missed the cut for today's show. Te Pain do It halftime show for Kansity Baltimore. I want to be on the record, I'm anti halftime shows for anything but the Super Bowl. I think halftime shows of non Super Bowl football games should exclusively be uh, dogs doing awesome things, or kids playing flag football games, or mascot's wrecking kids in flag
football games. That should be the entirety of halftime. Halftime of NBA games should either be a magic act or somebody you know, red Panda throwing the balls on her head something cool like that, or once again, dogs, but musical acts should be reserved for the Super Bowl. Australian Open semiser underway. We're not going to get into that. And the Team USA playerpool announced. I saw the thing. Oh man, they didn't pick Draymond Green because of his outbursts.
Really, it's funny.
I thought they didn't pick Raymond Green because he's not good enough anymore to be on Team USA.
Who knows?
All?
Right?
Major news before we get to conference championship a weekend. Jim Harbaugh heading to the Los Angeles Chargers. That is our top story today, and everyone wants to know. Nick you nervous? I mean we basically could just re rack from this time last year. Sean Payton heading to the Denver Broncos. Nick you nervous, No, I'm not nervous.
For the Chiefs.
But Harbaugh is an excellent coach, and you could make an argument that of all the coaching candidates Rabel, Belichick, Ben Johnson, Harbaugh, all of them, that Harbaugh is the best one, and he not surprisingly went to the team with the best quarterbacks. So they will be better, There's no doubt about that. And maybe we see Justin Herbert, who came into the league as an A minus, which was unbelievable for a rookie, and now, in my opinion, has just maintained his status as an A minus, which
is then a little disappointing. Maybe we see him get a tick or two better and the team as a whole better coached. The problem for the Chargers is this, and I hate to, on conference championship weekend start the podcast with some cap nerd stuff, but we have to. The Chargers are one of a handful of teams that really took their shot and now have to retool a bit so going into next season. The Los Angeles the cap space available to teams. The team with the least
cap space eighty million over the cap. It's of course the Saints. Now Saints fans will tell us the cap is fake. Nick, you don't understand it. But that's because they've been being lied to by their local media for years and years and people covering the team. That bill has been coming due over the last few years. It's why that team can't get over the hump. And the bill is fully coming due here in short order for them.
But after the Saints, the Dolphins and Bills both fifty million over the cap, and the Chargers forty four million over the cap, what do all three of those teams have in common? All three of those teams thought, you know what, we can go win right now, let's borrow a bit from the future. And if we're Miami, screw it. We have Wattle. We're gonna go get Tyreek Kill. We're gonna trade for Jalen Ramsey. We're gonna upgrade our pass rush. We're gonna try to win while our quarterbacks on his
rookie contract. Buffalo, we're so close. We're so close. We're so close. You know what, We're gonna bring back Poyer and hide this. You know in the past. We're gonna go out in the big mistake, go out and sign Von Miller. We a few years ago. We're gonna instead of drafting a wide receiver. We're gonna trade that first round pick for a very expensive wide receiver and stuff
on Diggs. We're trying to go right now. And then there's the Chargers that traded for Khalil Mack, that kept, brought Eckler back, that kept Mike Williams, kept Keenan Allen, paid Derwin James paid Joey Bosa, paid justin Herbert, and now the team is in a position wherein we'll go through it quickly. They have one more year of Herbert cheap. He's at twenty million next year, But that also means you can't really restructure Herbert's deal to free up a
bunch of cap space. Eckler is a free agent. You have no other running back you trust. Keenan Allen next season right now has a thirty four million dollar cap hit. He is going to be either extended, which I would be nervous about at his age, restructured, but there's only a year left, so again that's just adding void years barring from the future, or cut to save twenty three million bucks. Mike Williams next year has a thirty two
million dollar cap hit. You can save twenty million on the cap by cutting him, maybe you extend him because they're both Alan and Mike Williams are on the last year of their deal. But they drafted Quinton Johnston believing they were gonna move on for Mike Williams. But you can't have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams combined for sixty seven million dollar cap hit, and Quinton Johnston obviously had one of the most disappointing rookie seasons of any highly drafted wide receiver.
Last few years.
You keep it moving and you're like, okay, what about the rest of their team. They obviously have a star left tackle and Rashawn Slater. They have to extend him. They cannot let him go, and the rest of the offensive line has a big question mark. Corey Linsley unfortunately has some health issues. He's got a fourteen million dollar cap hit. You wonder if he they have to move on from him, but he's a good player when he's healthy.
Defensively is where the pain is really coming. They don't have a single d lineman you love, and they're not gonna have this the cap space to go out and improve it. Bosa and mac Khalil Mack next year, last year of his deal thirty eight million dollars on the cap. Again, you can extend him at thirty three years old if you want. He's coming off a great year, but that would be risky if you ask me. You can move on from him and save twenty three million, but he
was the best player on your defense last year. Joey Bosa, who has not lived up to he when he's healthy and right, looks awesome, but how often is that Joey Bosa thirty six million on the cap next season, and moving on from him, which they're not gonna do, doesn't even save you that much money. And then, of course there's Derwin James, who at time, James looks like at early in his career he's gonna be the best safety in football. Instead, he's just been very good, but he
is paid like he's the best safety in football. So and by the way, they have twenty million debt against the cap next year because of the J. C. Jackson disaster. I say all that to say this, the Chargers are not going to have enough talent to be a true contender. They don't have the money to fill in their holes, and they are going to have to move on from some of their more productive older players. So in a few years we'll see what the Chargers look like. And
because of hardball, they are scary adjacent. But the they are right now not competing with the Chiefs. Right now, they are competing with the Jags, the Broncos, the other theoretically talented teams that just missed out on the playoffs to try to get back in the tournament. Because when we talk about when you look at the AFC and you say, Okay, who are we confident next season is
going to be a playoff team. I know it changes year over year, but with the seven playoff spots that it's very And I understand there's injuries, but Kansas City's not going anywhere. Cincinnati was despite all the quarterback injuries and Burrow being hurt before and then during the year, still won nine games. I don't think Houston's getting worse. I don't think Baltimore's going anywhere, and I don't think Buffalo, as far as missing the playoffs, is going to go anywhere.
That's five guys.
That doesn't mention Miami, that doesn't mention Cleveland, that doesn't mention Pittsburgh, that doesn't mention the Jags, that doesn't mention the Chargers the Broncos. Obviously the Chargers made a great hire. That hire does not make them anything close to a Super Bowl contender, all right, Next, Lamar Jackson. So I did an all time quarterback pyramid that I'm getting some pushback on because it was I'll try to do it off the top of my head. But here's you know,
it's a pyramid. So it's one guy in row one, two in row two, so on and so forth. And this was the pyramid. Row one was Brady, Row two was Mahomes and Manning. Row three was Montana, Lway and.
Marino.
So there's the top six. Row four was Rogers, Farv Staubach and.
Steve Young.
Steve Young, who I think is eternally underrated. I think Steve Young the only quarterback I've ever seen that reminded me that Mahomes reminds me of is Steve Young. And then row five was Bradshaw, Breeze, Kurt Warner, Aikman, and then in the last spot was Lamar, which means I
had him ahead of Big Ben, Jim Kelly. And this was post merger, so I'm not counting Bart Starr and Johnny Unitis, and those guys had him ahead of If you guys in the control room think there's anyone else that's, you know, fringe that I didn't mention, tell me, but I had him ahead of every one of them, those guys, I just want and I called him a Hall of Famer.
I want to be very clear on this.
Calling him a Hall of Famer is not really a judgment call.
At this point. He has two MVPs.
I'm assigning him this year's MVP because he's going to win it.
That makes him a Hall of Famer.
Here is the full list of people with multiple NFL MVPs. Peyton Mannings got five, Aaron's got four, Jim Brown, Johnny united Is, Brett faarv Tom Brady have three. Joe Montana, Steve Young, Kurt Warner, Patrick Mahomes all have two, and now so does Lamar Jackson. Kurt Warner got in. He didn't get in on his first year of eligibility, but he got in, and I don't think many people were worried that he wasn't going to get in. Steve Young got in either on his first or second year of eligibility.
Everyone else was a first ballot guy it is unequivocal that Lamar Jackson with two MVPs is going to be.
A Hall of Famer.
And if you want to argue like that, putting him in that pantheon is too premature. He now has the pelts on the wall that says it's not now.
As far as.
This game itself, people are wondering, all right, we have been trying to create a Brady Manning for Patrick Mahomes, and it was Josh Allen. People briefly flirted with the idea of it being Burrow. They then really tried to sell us all week last week again that it was Josh Allen and now people want it to be Lamar. But and I talked about this on the TV show, but it's worth time again here.
People are.
Misremembering what Brady Manning was. Brady Manning was a legitimate, real debate that there was not a vast majority on one side or the other for the entirety of Peyton Manning's career when they went Brady and Manning's career when they overlapped.
So let me lay it out for you. Okay, let's go to.
Heading into the two thousand and six NFL season up to that point, and I want to make sure I have this right. Peyton Manning already had two league MVPs and Tom Brady hadn't sniffed one. Conversely, up to that point they had played twice in the playoffs. Peyton hadn't played well in either game, Brady had beaten him both times, and Brady had three rings.
So in the mid two thousand aughts, it was well.
One guy, I test accolades stats is so clearly better. The other guy, on the other hand, has three Super Bowl rings. Is two to zero against him in the playoffs. You could make strong arguments on either side. Then in the two thousand and six season, they play once again in the playoffs tom Brady, but for the first time it's in Peyton's building. Tom Brady's team is up twenty
one to three at halftime. It looks like it's going to just be another time the Patriots roll, Peyton's team storms all the way back, then goes on to win the Super Bowl two weeks later. And now the playoff matchups are two to one, the Super Bowls are three to one, but Peyton's got a couple MVPs. Okay smash cut Now forward five more years. Tom Brady now has won a couple MVPs and has made a couple more
Super Bowls, but has lost them both. Peyton made another Super Bowl, won another two MVPs, but didn't win the Super Bowl. Peyton goes to Denver. They play in the postseason in Denver. Peyton out plays him, Peyton's team wins. Peyton wins his fifth MVP, has a fifty five touchdown season. The playoff records are now two to two. Peyton is now going to another Super Bowl. In that Tom Brady hasn't won a super Bowl in a decade. In that moment, most people thought Brady Manning is Peyton.
Okay.
They then lose that Super Bowl. The Patriots win the next year, so now it's four to one Super Bowls Peyton. Then in twenty fifteen they play again in the playoffs. Peyton beats him again, even though Peyton that year was not good. The Broncos win the Super Bowl and Peyton retires. So the day Peyton retired, the ledger looked like this. It was MVPs were five to two Peyton. Playoff matchups were three to two in Peyton's favor.
Super Bowls were four to two.
In Brady's favor, and a lot of people the day Peyton Manning retired believed that's the best quarterback of his generation. And then after he retired, Tom Brady in twenty sixteen went to the Super Bowl, had the twenty eight to three comeback, got his fifth ring. In twenty seventeen, went to the Super Bowl, threw for five hundred yards, lost in a shootout, twenty and one League MVP. Twenty eighteen, went to beat Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Title Game in a classic, went to the Super Bowl, won it.
That's his sixth ring. Twenty nineteen, last year with the Patriots, twenty twenty went to Tampa Bay, went to the Super Bowl, won Super Bowl MVP, and twenty twenty one came in second and League MVP and now Peyton Tom it's not even a debate. So but for the entirety of when their careers overlapped, there were strong arguments on both sides of it. So I give that history to say this. There is no goddamn Peyton Brady for Mahomes anyone, there is no argument, there is no rival. Now it doesn't
mean no one will ever beat him. Hell, Joe Burrow beat him. Lamar might beat him on Sunday.
We'll see.
But it is far far closer to Tiger Phil or Gretzky Lemieux or Gretzky Messier than anything we've seen in the NFL, where there is a unquestioned, clear best and then a different people jockeying for second best. That's what the rivalry actually is. Lamar versus Burrow and Josh. That's the rivalry so I and by the way, Lamar might win. They might win this weekend. I folks that watch this show or watch.
The TV show.
No, I thought it was going to be impossible for Miami to win in the wildcard round. I thought the Chiefs were clearly the better team than Buffalo, and I thought they were gonna win by ten. The fumbled the goal line, blew that. But whatever I was, as Brew would say, ten toes down confident in both of those games. To me, this is a sixty to forty game, sixty
five to thirty five game. Now, I think the Chiefs should be favored because if Patrick Mahomes isn't playing Tom Brady in the playoffs, he's thirteen and one and the one is an overtime loss to Burrow, and I don't think anybody when Patrick's healthy. Hell, last year, he wasn't healthy. I mean the last interception Patrick threw in the playoffs
was in that loss to Joe Burrow. Five straight games without an interception in the playoffs, league record, and so I I understand that the Ravens are an excellent team and Lamar's playing the best football of his life.
But there is no rivalry.
There isn't And the producers are asking me if this is me hedging. This isn't me hedging, This is me giving my honest thoughts.
No matter how.
How do you say this, no matter how good I believe the Chiefs are. I recognize that this is not a year where they are head and shoulders better than the second or third best teams in football. Now, I do believe this Sunday at three o'clock on CBS is the Super Bowl. The winner of Sunday's game is going to roll in the Super Bowl.
I believe that.
Sorry to my Lions fan friends, and I guess less star. Sorry to the my Niners fan friends because Niner fans hate me. So I don't think I have a lot of friends in the Bay Area.
Sadly, but this is gonna be a great game.
And the other thing the producers asked me is and I'm more afraid of Lamar with his arm or his legs. This is not about Lamar. It's more about how the Chiefs are built. I'm more afraid of him with his legs. I trust the Chiefs corners. I think the Chiefs have the best pair of corners in football, and I am interested in if they get Mark Andrew's back, if that is going to be as good for Baltimore as they think. Because Lamar, once Mark Andrews went down, was kind of
forced to start to diversify his receiving options. I wonder if Mark Andrews out there, if he tries to force him the ball, but maybe not that now Andrews likely in a two tight end set that could be tough.
To deal with.
Ravens are a very very good team, but I think the Chiefs defense and Ravens defense is a wash.
I think that.
As well as Lamar is played, it is unquestioned which quarterback you trust more in this game. And Lamar with his legs breaking contain is a scary thought. But the Chiefs had a pretty good game plan for that last week against Josh and the Bills, where they gave them all the short stuff they wanted and because of that they kind of got eaten up on the ground. But what they didn't do was give up a single play of twenty plus yards. All right, next, you guys, right,
you've been calling the Chiefs disrespected all year. Being a three and a half point road dog versus the best team in the league seems part for the Meanwhile, the Lions are a full touchdown dog after San Francisco nearly lost to Green Bay a week ago. Who is actually the disrespected team? Well, the Chiefs have been disrespected the entire season, as if no one had watched football or Mahomes prior to this year. It was ridiculous. This weekend,
it is the Lions. The Lions have been It's very odd because the Lions started the year off by going to Kansas City with thirty million people watching. However, many people were watching and beating the Chiefs, and despite that, they've never really gotten the respective. Oh, they're a cute team, they're a good story. And I'm guilty of that to a degree as well. I haven't looked at the Lions as an A List contender, and they are a game.
Away from the Super Bowl.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that I think it's twofold. One is the Lions stars skill guys have art haven't been stars as long as some of the other team stars skill guys, even if they're just as good.
Gibbs is awesome.
Laporta but before he got hurt was arguably as a rookie having the best year of any tight end, and Aman Ross Saint Brown might be the most overlooked awesome, awesome.
Receiver in the league. So that hurts them.
The other thing that hurts them, obviously the defense is susceptible, but set that aside. People don't really trust golf. But the fact of the matter on golf is this, He's a hard player to trust because the moment he gets pressured, not existential pressure, but pressured, the moment that happens, he turns into a pumpkin. We saw it in the first playoff game of the year when he got pressured and threw a two in chess pass backwards towards his own
end zone. He can't deal with it. But if they can keep him clean, if they can neutralize Young and Bosa off the edge and Armstead and Hardgrave up the middle, which is a hell of a tall task, but the Lions have invested a lot in that offensive line to be able to do it. Golf can pick apart that secondary and so yeah, they are a bit disrespected, But
some of that's because they don't have the history. Some of that's because they don't have the star a list, name recognition, star power, and some of that, honestly is because people just don't totally trust the quarterback. Speaking of not trusting quarterbacks, we'll go to Brock Parties, the Brock Party discussion producers. Right, Perty has made the NFC Championship Game every year. Okay, by the way, so did Jimmy
Garoppolo when he was healthy. Just for the record. Uh, but you call him, I call him San Francisco's If the forty nine ers make the super Bowl with him, there's.
No way they move on.
But are you gonna make the Galaxy brain take that losing would be better for San Francisco in the long run. I'm not gonna say losing would be better in the long run. What I would say. What I will say is this, if Perdy plays the way he did against Green Bay and they lose, it is absolutely on the board that he's not their starting quarterback Week one of next year.
And all these.
Quotes from Shanahan and his teammates and all of it that what the Niners.
Will do.
If Perdy plays poorly and they lose is try to quietly.
Do recount on.
Kirk cousins, Will you take less than you can get elsewhere to come play for Kyle Shanahan. So Kirk has made an unbelievable amount of money in his career. He's at two hundred and thirty one million. He's about to be a true and clear for free and clear free
agent and can go anywhere. The Niners don't have the money to give him a top of the market deal, but I'm sure they believe correctly that that would be a massive upgrade if they trust his health coming off the Achilles, and if he would take a below market deal for a great chance at a super Bowl, they would investigate it. We heard from Brock Berdy himself this offseason that Kyle Shanahan told him they were going to
move on. He wasn't going to be the starter if they signed Brady and at Niner fans are angry.
With me.
Because, how do I put it, I think it's projection. I think Niner fans deep down are more scared of Purty than anybody. But because the numbers have been so good, because he's twenty and five, because of all these things, they feel like you and the media should be obligated to love him, to say great things about him, rather than to evaluate the games as if they were on television.
And it was truly amazing to me how many people this week are tripling down on Brock even though we all saw that game and he was the worst player on the field for massive stretches of it. And so if they, after being very fortunate to win at home against Jordan Love and Green Bay because of his poor play, if they then lose at home to Jared Goff and the Niners, some real offseason question for San Francisco. Who
do I think is gonna win that game? You guys probably have an idea of who I think is gonna win the Chiefs Ravens game. We'll do both of those in our pick segment next, What's Right? Welcome back What's Right with Nick Wright? Episode two eleven. This episode is brought to you by US Bank. Winter can be a drag. Thankfully, we have sports to get us through the early part of the year, and if you ask me, nothing goes together quite like food and sports, especially this time of year.
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every day. Pardon me your way, limited time offer credit or issue of this Bank's US Bank National Association pursued to a license from vc USA, Incorporated. Some restrictions may apply. All right, welcome back in What's right with Nick?
Right?
Demanse out today as he's suffering injury playing basketball. So nothing but our thoughts with the Monse's kind of going through a rough time at the moment. The producers asking me to rank potential Super Bowl matchups, so we will do that right now. There's four potential matchups, ranked them four to one based on what would be the most exciting games with the best storylines. Okay, that's an interesting question. The so I I think that, and I think the
ratings bear this out. I think the best storylines have to involve and I know you guys are gonna roll your eyes, but have to involve the Chiefs going for a second straight title. I think that given the fact that this what did not This is not a fate Accompley season. The last time the Chiefs were going for their second straight title, they were fourteen and one in games Mahomes played. He rested in week seventeen, and they
kind of rolled in route to the Super Bowl. First playoff game, they played the Browns, they had total control, and then Mahomes got choked out on the field. Their second playoff game, the AFC title game, they annihilated the Bills and then so it was really the question was who was gonna come out of the NFC, not the AFC, And then Brady and the Bucks came out of the NFC and kicked their ass. But the lead up to it, there wasn't a lot of doubting of the defending champion Chiefs that year.
This year obviously totally different.
You then add to it, it cements them as an undoubted, unquestionable dynasty. And I talked to all this on the show the other day yesterday. Actually, I think that this that the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl this year would put them number three for all time dynasties. I think there have been six in the true dynasties in the Super Bowl era, and then another seven or eight mini almost dynasties, but the six would be in.
No order, if you will.
The Steelers of the seventies in six years, they went to four Super Bowls, one all four went to five conference championship games. The Niners from eighty one to eighty nine in nine years went to four Super Bowls one them all went to five conference championship games. The Patriots from twenty eleven to twenty eighteen. I think the Patriots thing has to be split up because they went nine years without winning a Super Bowl. So I split up into two. So the Patriots from eleven to eighteen in
that eight year stretch went to five Super Bowls. No hold on, yeah, went to five Super Bowls, won three, went to.
Eight conference championship games.
The Cowboys from ninety one to ninety five, ninety two to ninety five, pardon me, in four years went to three Super Bowls one all, went to all four conference championship games. The Patriots from one to four in four years went to three Super Bowls, one them all and missed the playoffs in the middle year. And the Chiefs from if they win this year nineteen to twenty three, in a five year stretch, went to four super Bowls, won three, went to conference championship game every single year.
Obviously went to the conference championship game of the year before, but he kind of starts, you can't have a dynasty kind of era a start in a year you don't even make the Super Bowl if the Chiefs win it.
I think that the if we're ranking dynasties, it would go Stealers from seventy four to seventy nine number one, Patriots from eleven to eighteen number two, and Chiefs from nineteen to twenty three number three, with the Chiefs able to trump the Patriots if they win one more well, maybe trump them all, but certainly trump the Patriots if
they win another one in the next few years. And obviously if the Chiefs win this year and then they were to win next year, then they are the greatest dynasty ever because they nobody will have had more than the four rings in this time frame, and.
They would have won three in a row.
So I guess the least sexy matchup is Baltimore Detroit, So that would be number four. Still good storylines and that, but that would be built around Lamar. The next matchup would be Baltimore, San Francisco and that would be the League MVP against the guy who a lot of people thought was gonna be League MVP and party will Shanahan
finally get over the hump? And then number two would be Kansadity Detroit Game one of the year, Game two hundred and eighty five of the year, the most tortured fan base maybe in all of sports, Detroit Lions versus all of a sudden spoiled fan base the Kansaity Chiefs. And then the best one would be cheap Niners because it'd be mister Irrelevant against the greatest quarterback we've ever seen. So that's what it would be, all right. Uh to the divisional round gambling recap. I went one in three.
There's no way around it. Now, Tampa, I feel like I was on the right side of Houston and San Francisco. I obviously was not Kansas City, never a doubt throughout. So we're four and six. There's three games left, So just to finish above five hundred, I'm gonna have to go three and oh the rest of the way, and we'll start with Kansady Baltimore. Kansas City getting three and a half is outrageous. You want to say Kansaity should be a dog, so be it getting more than a
field goal is outrageous. And the trend stats are in the last twenty years, super Bowl winning quarterbacks are fifty nine to twenty four and two against the spread in the playoffs. As a Mahomes has only been a dog of more than three twice in his career, once a three point loss to the Patriots his first year as a starter.
And once.
Five point win against Pittsburgh in his third start ever. Lamar sneaky not great as a home favorite, sixteen and twenty three against the spread. Harball obviously legendary against the spread because he's won in the playoffs fourteen and seven against the spread. Because they've had so many road games in his career, so they're dogs in most of those.
But this one's simple.
I think the defenses are a push, and I trust Mahomes more than I trust Lamar. It's not a slide on Lamar. I trust Mahomes more than I trust anybody. And I think that the Chiefs offense is rolling right now that before the kneel downs they were at almost nine yards per play that game against Buffalo, they had more yards per play than any playoff game of the Mahomes era, and they barely had the ball and still were a yard away from scoring thirty four points. So
I like the Chiefs in this spot. I like the Chiefs to win out right in a very good game.
I like this is.
A back and forth, tightly contested, but I think the Chiefs offense can really make some noise in this. This feels like a I mean, I know it sounds like cop out because it's the same scores last week.
But a twenty seven to twenty four.
Kansas City victory, all right, Detroit is getting seven at San Francisco. That's way too many points. I'll take Detroit plus the seven. And there is the question about Deebo. Obviously, the Niners have been a totally different team. They're twelve and one with him, one and four without him, and the one win was last week where they didn't look
good without him. Even if he plays, you can imagine he's gonna be one hundred percent, and if it's a shoulder injury, the way he his style of play, you feel like he could, you know, have to leave the game despite it. I think Detroit can win this game outright. I think that Detroit can block up San Francisco and in which case golf is going to be able to
move the ball on them. So I will take Detroit not only plus seven, but Detroit to win outright, and we get in the final game of the year, the first game of the year, Chiefs Lions to start the season, Chiefs Lions to end the season. And shout out to Danny Parkins. I've mentioned this pod before, but you guys should check it out. It's a great football pod called
First In Pod with Danny Parkins and Andrew Philipponi. That was Danny's pick before the season, and he's a game away from nailing it all right, so we can show you the picks.
I'm taking both dogs and both dogs to win outright.
So the offer this week is the Brducer's trying to get me to parlay two goats. Mahomes to win the Super Bowl MVP at plus three eighty and Djokovic to win the Australian Open at minus one thirty. That combines for a plus seven point fifty. I mean that seems pretty good, you know what, Matt Ford, I'll take that offer. I haven't watched any of the Australian Open. But so I'm doing it blind, but I'm trusting Matt. I'll take that offer and then a bonus offer, I have a
chance at redemption for my super Bowl. Exact to bet Kansas City to beat Detroit in the Super Bowl right now is fifteen to one. So here's the problem. So I'm not gonna take that. And the reason I'm not gonna take that is because you're gonna be able to get better odds if you just bet that separately. So if you just if you parlay Kansas City and Detroit to win this weekend, you get that at ten to one.
So if you just were to do that, Kansas City is not gonna be more than a minus two hundred favorite in the Super Bowl if they were to play, so and I don't even know if they'll be a fake like what they would be in that game. I'm sure those odds are out. I haven't looked. So if you believe that's gonna happen, just bet, just bet it this weekend and then take every single thing you won and put it on the winner of the super Bowl. That's just you're gonna get better, at least a touch
better than fifteen to one. All right, quick break, come back and answer some of your listener questions.
Next What's Right?
Welcome back in What's Driving the Great Episode two eleven, we'll get to your listener questions now. By the way, shout out to Lloyd c one of our favorite listeners, who once again one Jeopardy so he is now in the semi finals for the Tournament of Champions. Also shout out to Katie Nolan and Crewe for crushing on Celebrity Jeopardy. One of my lifelong dreams is to get on Real Jeopardy, but I'm not gonna lie. I will take the cop out of getting on Celebrity Jeopardy if I can next year.
I would desperately, desperately like to do that. Mitchell b asked, can you offer your point of view? And why Mahomes is so successful against the blitz and golf is terrible is their ability to read the blitz for the player something else. So I don't actually know if goff is terrible against the blitz. Golf is terrible when pressured. So the phraseology of this matters. The best quarterbacks in football are great historically against blitzes because when we say blitz.
What they mean is sending extra rushers at the quarterback, which then makes it so your receivers are in one on ones. The best quarterbacks can read that, diagnose it pre snap, point out who needs to be blocked, and then make quick decisions. And I don't have Golf's numbers against the blitz. He might be good at that. I'm not certain. What Golf is terrible at is when he is pressured, and Mahomes this year wasn't great when pressured, meaning and so the distinguishing factor is if you can
create pressure without blitzing. That's what is basically every quarterbacks was the thing kryptonite. That's how the Giants beat Tom Brady and two Super Bowls. They had no business doing it. They had a four man pass rush that could get home, so you could double cover guys. You could play coverage and still create pressure on the quarterback. So that's the ideal. Typically you have to send at least a little extra
pressure or blitzer to get to the quarterback. Where Mahomes this year he wasn't great, but historically is is even when he's pressured. It's because of his escapability athleticism. Compared to GoF and arm talent to be so he's athletic enough and escapable enough, which golf is not to get away from maybe the first wave of pass rushers, and then while on the move or without being able to set his feet or without necessarily having his body positioned the right way, he is able to make throws that
other guys can't. So that's why he is It's why Josh Allen historically can be very good in those spots. He just sometimes makes some bad decisions. Goff just doesn't have the athletic ability for it, and I don't think he has the eye discipline to keep his eyes upfield when the rushers are coming towards him. Uh Shade Ocks asked, if you're running the Cowboys, would you rather pay Dack a massive contract like five years to eighty or give
Bakers some the ballpark of three years one oh five. Listen, I I don't think either of those would be great options for the Cowboys. What they're gonna do is pay Dak Prescott the like. When people see Dak's deal, they're not going to believe it that When Dak gets a three year extension for one hundred and seventy five million dollars. People are gonna think it's a misprint, but it's what's coming.
If Dak gets a four year deal for two hundred and forty million dollars with the majority of it guaranteed, people won't believe it.
But it's what's coming.
I spent too much time talking cap stuff early in the show to go through it, but that's what's coming. Scott Murphy as how much blame does Giannis deserve for the dysfunction in Milwaukee given his growing input and pressure he's put on the front office. I was working with my buddy Ty Butler, who hosts radio for ESPN New York, about this actually this morning. If the Bucks don't make the finals this year at a minimums going to be coming after Giannis a bit, the coaching changes, the Drew
Dame trade. That now, it's too early to blame anyone because we don't know if it's gone wrong, but it's certainly the early returns.
Haven't been good.
Noah Rodriguez asked, what were your thoughts on the Chet Wimby matchup last night?
Who's your current rookie of the year. Chet's clearly the rookie of the year.
I loved the competitiveness between Chet and Wimby last night even though it was a blowout, and if both can stay healthy, that should be a great rival re moving forward. Jass had Sirianni gotten fired with Eagles job in a better spot for Harball, unquestionably he'd get the most out of Jalen and it's the far easier conference in a way way easier division. Elijah King said, if you could compare to Monday's basketball style of play to an NBA player, who would it be?
Demanse at his peak was stylistically all right?
So who is just an knockdown shooter, say, you know what with great athleticism Demonse at his peak? Stylistically was Michael Porter Junior just an amazing jump shot, you know, tall for his position, excellent athlete and could be a lockdown defender when he opted to and has no interest in dribbling the basketball. So Michael Porter Juniors, whose Demanse was at his peak, again, send good vibes to Demanse's he's dealing with a hoops injury. And I'll see you guys on TV at.
Three o'clock later today.
What's right?
Hey, it's Nick right? Thank you so much, for watching. Please do us a favor click subscribe.
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