Thirty five after the hour. Welcome back Exes and Bros. Monday through Friday throughout the great state of Michigan from six until nine. It went so well last time we had him on, we had to dip into his knowledge again. David Berman for Pro Football Network joins us to Talk NFL. You can follow him on Twitter or on x at David Berman b E R M AN p f N. David, thanks for joining us on this Wednesday. I know your time is valuable because you are swamped with what's going
on right now, and that's a good thing. I didn't notice we talked about this the other day. The over underwins for the Lions after winning twelve games a year ago is ten and a half this year. Would you take the over or the under? And why?
Good morning and thanks for having me on. It was a great introduction. Love being on. As far as the over under, I would definitely take the over here. They won twelve games last year. I think they're just as good, if not better, this year. I think if you look at the division, and I know we talked about it a few weeks ago, yes, the Bears are probably better than they were last year. With their quarterback and going
and getting some pieces. The Vikings have a rookie quarterback, just like the Bears do, and I think the Packers played above what they actually were last year, so I think they're in the division that they're gonna win. You should take the Lines to win the division. Obviously gonna lay money there, so it's not just good value, but I do like the over ten and a half. The schedule's not tremendously hard. They have a pocket of games
in the middle there that'll be difficult. But I personally think the Lines are the best team in the NFC, or one or two of the top two teams in the NFC, and I think they're gonna win eleven twelve games. Again, if I was making my prediction today for the NFC, I would say the road goes through Detroit. I would have them as the one seed right now, with just the way things are going to break down with San Francisco and Philadelphia in my mind playing in toper divisions,
I think they have all the pieces. My one concerned one and a half concerns last year in the Lions was could Dan Campbell be an NFL head coach and consistently take a talented team and do things with them, and they did. And the other aspect of my concern last year was this is just hyper Bowl. Is there's the Lions, and Lions do Lions scenes, and they put that to bed last year. They did you know, yeah.
It's a fair critique.
Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, Bengals do Bengals things, and then they wind up in the Super Bowl. So Lions. Not to remind your viewers of what happened in the fourth quarter of the NFC Title Game, but they weren't there, and they were a quoter away from representing the NFC in Vegas at the Super Bowl. And I think they're just as good, if not better, this year. So I'm gonna take I'm gonna take. I already took the over ten
and a half. I think they're a twelve win team, just like there were last year, and I'd be surprised if things would have to go wrong. And of course you never know, you get your your one hit on a quarterback away from being a nine win team. But all things considered, I think that the best that here is to take the over.
Ten and a half one hundred percent, with you know, the label that oftentimes behooves certain organizations. Cleveland is, you know you mentioned Cincinnati. Cleveland is in that conversation until you can break through. That's what people feel, even though players and coaches will tell you yeah, but we weren't part of those teams. It doesn't matter. The fan bases lived through it. But you did say something that I kind of piqued my interest. You said that San Francisco
and Philadelphia play in tougher divisions. Give me the top, give me the tough the top three toughest divisions in the NFL in your mind, I.
Think number one goes over to the AFC North, and I don't think there's much debate about that. In my mind. You have a division that all four teams legitimately could finish five hundred to better. You know that the Steelers do it every single year under Mike Tomlin. So there's that, not to say that they couldn't go under five hundred.
You have two legit super Bowl hopeful in both more who again was right there at the end to go to the super Bowl was the one seed last year the Bengals with a healthy Joe Burrow or a super Bowl team as we saw a couple of years ago. And you mentioned the Browns. The Browns have the talent to go to the Super Bowl. Browns do Brown things, and they don't do it. And they still have question marks at quarterback. And if you were lying on last year Joe Flacco taking him to the Promised Land, you
have a problem. But across the board, that Cleveland team has talent to get there. So I mean it hasn't happened yet. But if I was going to pick one division for all four teams to make the playoffs, it would be AFC North because they're that talented, and you know somebody's gonna get injured, or somebody's gonna have an off season, whether you know it's Lamar Jackson or Sean Watson or Burrow again or the Steelers are to me, the least talent team in that division, So one team
will fall off. Last year was the Bengals. But to me, that's the best division in football. Number two, I was prepared to answer the best one. I was thinking two and three. I would probably go to the NFC West, San Francisco being the defending NFC champions, Rams made the playoffs last year. Seattle was right there at the end last year in Arizona, is going to be better than they were last year with a healthy Kyler Murray. So
I do like the NFC West. If I were to pick a third division thinking, I'd probably choose the AC East because you've got three legit playoff teams in Buffalo, New York, and Miami. Again, New York will do New York things, Jets or Jets. They have the talent, they have the defense, and they have a three time MVP
candidate back there, so wouldn't stun me if all. And by the way, you have the Bills who won the division one hundred straight years, so it would not surprise me to see three teams come out of the AFC East. So those, to me, would be the three best divisions in football.
That's a really good answer. We're talking with David Bierman before Football Network here on Exis and Bros. I guess I value the NFC North a little bit more as I live it a little bit closer. I need to open my mind a little bit more. The NFC West. I don't think I quite looked at it that way because I see Seattle as a bit of a pushover in the Rams, somewhat overachieving a year ago. But look, you can make the exact same argument for some of
the teams in the NFC North. I wonder this when you are in your conversations with players and coaches and general managers in your career, what's the biggest adjustment for a team when they go from being the hunter to the hunted, Like the Lions will have to prepare for this coming season.
I think it's expectations because last year the Lions did not have the Yes, sure they were going to be better, and they were better the year before, but no one expected the Lions to win twelve games and make the postseason in a way that they were a quarter away to winning the NFC. I think reminding your team that now people are running for you, they're going to take you seriously. Because you circle every game gets circle on the schedule for some reason, there's seventeen games on there.
Everyone's circling something. And for the last twenty five to thirty years, the Lions were the team that's that's a W. That's a W, that's a W. The Lions are no longer a W. Like you look at the Lions, you're like, you know, that's gonna be a tough one. Might lose that one. You know how many straight things giving days were, You're like, all right, just pick against the Lions. You know that's the easy one. It's no longer the case.
Not only did the Lions win twelve games plus year, but we all know listeners know royally shrewed against Dallas, so chop that one up to another win. And if you actually look at their losses, they were in every single game but two. I know they got blown out in Seattle. Was it trying to remember? There were two games that they were not in. They might have been the Ravens game Ultimore, Right, you lost one in overtime in Seattle and you got screwed by Dallas, or you're
the one seed and you're hosting San Francisco instead. So the expectation of what there is. And I think the biggest difference between this Lion's team and last year's Lions team, which can only help them, is Dan Camp grew as a head coach last year, so now he's no longer just the guy who buys kneecaps. He's actually a legitimate head coach. And I think he learned, you hope he learned some lessons from now I'm just gonna go for it on fourth down, just you know, Ran just gonna go, go,
gonna go. He will reality a little bit, I think, and take some less chances and if he gets it worked for them last year for the most part, I think if he takes it a little bit more conservative this team, that's even better.
Why would you do that when that's what brought you success? Like I use this example all the time. There's a reason certain managers and coaches and players do things. It got them to where they are, and everybody needs to make adjustments. Granted, but if that's who he is, and that's who his team thinks he is and knows that they are, and that's part of their identity, why would you change.
I'm not saying change completely. I'm not saying go back to being, you know, an ultra concernvative coach that punts when it's fourth and two from the forty five yard line. I'm not saying to you that I like the fact that he's aggressive. Mike McDaniel is that way in Miami where the guy has gone forward more times than the team's ever done before because he's looking at the intangibles
of field position everything. I'm saying, don't be spiteful and go for it on fourth and three from your own twenty There are some ways where you can be all right, I'm going to be aggressive. I trust my team to make this. I'm going to go for two because it's the play that I call is better than the thirty five yard extra point, and it puts us in a better position. I'm fine with all that, but let's chill on the whole. It's on my own twenty five yard line.
I'm going to go for it on fourth down because I got screwed on third down type thing like that's on tilt. That's the poker version of I just had a bad beat. I'm just gonna I'm gonna call this next Haan no matter what I'm down on that. He's smart in the way that, hey, this advances my team in a better way and play the percentages and I love it aggression. I love Mike mcdale's aggression. I think it's the new way of the NFL. But I just
wouldn't go for it on fourth down every time. Now, if I'm playing Madden on the computer, I do it because it's just a video game. But you know, somewhere in the middle. There's a good good media because you're gonna lose a game doing that.
I will preface this next question with this obvious observation. Any rankings are very subjective and too oftentimes we get wrapped up in one position in football, and that's the quarterback position. That said, NFL dot Com recently came out with a top one hundred players list in which the players voted, and Jared Goff was eleventh on the quarterback list. Guys like CJ. Stroud, brock Purdy to a tongue of Aloa are ahead of them. That's again subjective by the players.
Some players, I'm sure, vote with their heart more than their head and vote for their buddies more than they do for their adversaries. With that said, though, what does Jared Goff need to prove? Considering a couple of years ago, it was all about, well, you know what, he's not good enough to take a team anywhere, and then the last year people didn't believe in him because he had quote end quote too many weapons, which doesn't appear to
be the case for anybody else in football. When it comes to this criteria, what does he need to do to be considered a top ten quarterback for those doubters out there.
To me, he is. He can thenced me last year. He's the top ten quarterback. So whatever he needs to do here what he did for me. Again, this is a player list. I don't know how he is with the players. I don't know if the players like him or don't like him. The whole argument he has too many weapons. I think it's just a bunch of ball.
I mean, they say the same thing about too well, well, it wouldn't be that great if he didn't have what someone has to get him the ball, Like you know, Tyreek Hill doesn't have the ball glued on his hands when he leased the huddle, wants to get it. I I think off of the top ten quarterback. Yeah, these
rankings or rankings are fun. It's offseason. Fidern PFN had their top one hundred, which to me biased of course, But pfn's top one hundred, if you want to go look at it at Profootballnetwork dot com, is significantly better than the NFL's version. Now, granted, it's players voting versus NFL analysts on the PFN side, Like, I love Tyreek Hill as best as the next one, but I don't
have them. PFN didn't have them. Number one, it was great for our site since we have a Dolphins beat reporter and you know, had to wake them up on a Friday night to go ahead and get out there and do an article on it. But at the end of the day, you know, it's subjective, as you said, rankings or rankings, and I would trust NFL analysts and media members. I bet you if the media voted Jared Goff top ten quarterback. Yeah, I don't know how much credency.
I don't know what players voted, but how much credency giving to players who think about it they're on the field on Sunday. There may be eighty percent of the players voting may have never seen Jared Goff before.
Yeah, now that's a great point, it really is. We're talking with David Berman of Pro Football Network. You'll follow him on Twitter on x at David Beer in PFN speaking of your website, and you go to Pro Footballnetwork dot com the front page as the forty nine ers already facing consequences of brock Perty's looming extension with Brandon Ayuk dilemma, Dallas Robinson wrote it, it's a really good article on Pro Footballnetwork dot com. Where do you envision
are you going? Number one? And number two? How much of a disturbing look? And a factor is this if you want to believe or disbelieve that the Niners of the class of the NFC.
I personally don't think I used to go anywhere, and it's going to be a shock to many, But I think the Niners are just playing games here because they don't have any intention of getting rid of him. He's not happy and wants the extension. They're not paying him because they're eventually going to have to pay mister irrelevant who's now very relevant, a whole lot of money in
the coming years. And they've hit the pot of gold with brock Perty, but they're going to have to pay the piper at some point, and they don't want to pay Brandon I. You the money that all these other guys are getting in rightfully. So I don't think Brandon I is in the same class as the Tyreek Hill and Justin Jefferson and Ceedee Lamm. That being said, they have no other than him wanting to hold out and
all that other mumbo jumbo. They gave him a couple of team that he doesn't want to go to I mean, it's no coincidence that the New England Patriots are on that list and he's like, I don't want to go there. I think they're just playing games with them right now. It's a who's gonna blame first ten scenario, and it's going to affect them because they're not going to be
as good without him. We've seen it in the past when he doesn't play or in DEEPO do us the play and Christian McCaffrey is already battling injuries and the season hasn't started yet, and hey, your quarterback is the two hundred and fifty something pick in the draft.
Now.
I like Rockford, but there are question marks there.
Now.
I also want to preface it by saying that I say that every single year about the San Francisco forty nine ers, and every single year they shove it wreck back to me and go ahead and go back to the NFC title game. I just I always have a hard time believing that Kyle Shanahan going to make the right call. They have a superstar quarterback in the last pick of the draft, and McCaffrey's going to stay healthy,
and the wide receivers are going to be happy. That being said, they have one of the top five defenses of the NFL, and those players I just mentioned are all extremely talented, and Kyle Shanahan is among the best regular season head coaches. And I say regular season for a reason. But there are question marks there. And it's not, like we mentioned in a few minutes. It's not like their division is crappy, so I would I'd be very careful when playing the San Francisco forty nine ers.
It's a good point, it really is. I think it's a team that has an awful lot of talent, But you wonder why they have so much inner turmoil. Why is Trent Williams holding out, Aux holding out In the past, Deebo Samuel has had issues. It goes back a lot deeper. You wonder if it's the team wins despite the way the team or the organization does business overall, is there something there that just is it right? And how they deal with players in general.
You also have to keep in mind this team traded up in the draft or Trey Lance, so somehow mainly another team in the NFL who trades all the way up to get a quarterback who's a complete bust and then goes to Super Bowls. So I don't know how John Lynch wakes up in the morning. He's made multiple wrong calls he had. The team consistently wins and goes
to Super Bowls despite the fact that they mean. Trading up to the number three pick to get Trey Lance is a career ender for most gms, and this guy just rebounds and gets Rock Purdy as the last pick of the draft. So they're doing something right by doing something wrong, and I can't figure it out, which is why I always say them and I'm always wrong about it. But they get it done despite their relationship or lack of there for the players and some really bad decisions.
Any other team who trades their entire draft to get Trey Lance and it doesn't pan out doesn't have a job two years later, and this guy's in the Super Bowl.
Let's plump your tires a little bit. Pro Football Network dot com, what are you guys coming for those who visit your outstanding website.
Well, we got covers live coverage from three camps all week long, Cincinnati, Miami, and New England. Beat writers there. We also have starting this weekend fantasy football content. We're going to rule there. We go the content each of the next four weekends leading up to Labor Day weekend. We have fantasy profiles going out there. We're going to
be your home for fantasy content. They're on profooballnetwork dot com and we also got season previews coming up as well as wall to wall camp covering, so we'll be on top of the news as it happens. They're on Profooball Network.
Dude, it never ends for you and your staff, but it's what people love most about Pro Footballnetwork dot Com and following you on x as well at David Berman PFN. David, thanks again, we appreciate it very much. We know you. We've we've bothered you a couple of times here in the last few weeks, but it's great having you on. It's great getting your insight. Keep up the great work and have a great weekend.
Thanks guys, Safe up there.