Coming up, an incredible Chiefs Ravens game, million dollar picks. Football's back. We're also brought to you by. The Ringer podcast network put up a new rewatchables. On Monday night, we did night shift, Michael Keaton's breakout movie. You can watch it on Ringer movies on our YouTube channel, the Ringer Movies channel. Speaking of the Ringer podcast network. So the Ringer NBA show, it's a little dormant right now at the NBA. We decided to get a little WNBA show going on, I think, Fridays, and maybe do it a little more than that, but Sir Tsohee is hosting it, and, you know, we don't cover every sport. We look for either opportunities. The right host, the right talent, the right match. And WNBA has just been incredible this season. The storylines have been great. The product's been really good. Anecdotally, I've been in a lot of conversations about it and just felt like we were missing out. So I think Sarah can really pull off a good pod for us. So listen to the first one on Friday, and we will be doing it pretty regularly throughout the rest of the season on the Ringer NBA show. So there's that.

And then if you missed it, we ran a trailer for Mister McMahon. The new docuseries that I'm involved with that's gonna be on Netflix on September 25. If you wanna see the trailer, go to my Twitter feed, go to my instagram, go to Netflix's Twitter feed or Instagram. And I. You can see it. We're really proud of it. So that's that last piece of business is Sunday. Remember our old Ringer wise guys show? Well, now it's the Ringer Sunday pregame show, and we're going to be running it. It's going to be on YouTube tv. Same time. It's going to be 11:00. I'm actually going to be popping on the first couple weeks, but it's going to be the usuals. Our east coast buys, guys House, and Raheem and JJ, cousin Sal. I'm going to be popping on for 20 minutes, and we're just going to be talking about football, favorite bets, all kinds of stuff. So make sure you check that out. If you have. If you don't have YouTube tv, I got it within the last year, and I'm mad I didn't get it sooner than that because it's really great. But you go to YouTube tv or YouTube, because we're running all this stuff on the, on the ringer NFL channel, and you can see our show.

So there you go. All right, we're going to talk Chiefs, Ravens, and then a whole bunch of 2024 NFL subplots with Peter Schrager, who is in my house. I watched the game with him. We were together. And then after that, Joe House is joining for million dollar picks, week one. Super excited. It's all next for star friends from Pearl, Chip. All right, we're taping this right after the Chiefs Ravens game. Normally, Peter Schrager is on Good Morning football in the mornings with a good night's sleep or maybe no sleep and some coffee and a chance to react. You're doing this podcast style. We're going right after, baby. Go. What a game. Chiefs 27, Ravens 20. It seemed like the Ravens not only covered the plus three, but we're going for two in week one with an incredible comeback, incredible revenge game, chance to win in Arrowhead or whatever it's called now and then. Kevin Durant, Brooklyn, Milwaukee style. Foot on the line.

Oh, great throwback game.

Overdose.

Do we feel robbed of the opportunity of not getting that two point conversion, or do you feel like that's just an amazing finish we'll always remember as the toe game? Like, if likely's toe is a centimeter smaller, that is a different. Or do you feel like, what would have happened, like, if they went for it and they just walked off and they won it? Like, what a cool ending for Harbaugh. I feel a little bit robbed right now. We literally finished watching Bill two minutes ago on your couch.

Well, the Ravens had a chance to steal the game. Yeah, it felt like the Chiefs pretty much gave the game away over and over again. But then we're still leading seven and then had multiple chances just to get one more first down. Couldn't do it. And it was a weirdly sloppy game.

A lot of penalties from the Chiefs.

A lot of penalties.

Hockey just threw another flag.

Ravens offensive line looks super shaky at first, right? And then at the end, it was just Lamar going back, waiting, scrambling, creating plays, doing all the stuff that we love when we talk about Lamar. But it comes down to the Chiefs. They look gassed.

Chris Jones was on his knees.

They have two timeouts left. I don't understand why you don't call timeouts to give your dudes a three minute breather. They're all like, sitting on the field, basically during these stoppages.

You had the long stoppage when likely goes down with the injury late. And you'd think you were saying just, you know, at some point call a timeout cause they're so exhausted. They're obviously gassed all the big guys. I disagreed. I said to you while we were watching it, Baltimore's got no timeouts. Lamar's out of a shotgun. Looking over the sideline, they look like they were frenetic. You give a timeout, you give Todd Monkin a chance to give Lamar a play. But, gosh, of all the plays we watched as this is really fresh, the Marlon Humphrey blown coverage on the second worthy touchdown, which was a complete mental lapse.

Yeah, not supposed to happen.

That's when he's looking off. He thinks he's got help with the safety. That's a freak play. That is something you practice a million times. There's some sort of circuit stick cross. That's a huge chunk play. If they don't give that up, the Ravens are in control and the Ravens do have a shot. Big mistake there. And then you think back, and then.

They almost steal it anyway.

Almost won.

Better win for the Chiefs or worse loss for the Ravens.

Oh, I think it's a fine loss if you're the Ravens. You come out of that thing, you're.

Like, oh, your heads are held high. Yes.

Because the Chiefs came out humming and they're like, we have three new offensive linemen, we have a brand new defensive coordinator, and we hung with the world champions in their building and could have stolen that at the end.

So a bunch of legacies from this game. Oh, we're doing the legacy stuff already.

Yeah.

Four minutes into week one, we're doing legacies.

Let's go.

Legacy is legacy. Number one for me is the Chiefs nailed their two draft picks. And not only that, but they somehow retool. I was on multiple Patriot fan threads where we're just like, we couldn't find guys for Brady for 20 years and the Chiefs in back to back years just get rice to get worthy this year who was looked like Tyreek 2.0. They also get a left tackle, who they highlighted during the game that the Patriots could have traded up this year and gotten second. They retooled, reloaded. They looked faster. They had that stat where it was like they only had 420 yard plus touchdowns last year. They had two tonight. And I guess my big takeaway from the game is the Chiefs were. They won two straight super bowls. I didn't think they were very fun to watch last year, except for the Mahomes part. It was like a grind. She was like, just, let's get it done. The Chiefs were fun tonight, weren't they? Like, I'm back in on like, holy shit, the Chiefs are on I'm watching, which I didn't feel that way last year.

No. And they grinded it out, and they showed those stats throughout the embassy broadcast that they were like, you know, a middling offense all last year, and they couldn't really get out of their funk and didn't seem.

Didn't have that swagger.

They had it tonight.

They had it tonight.

Worthy's first play from. First time he touches the ball as a reverse play. Pretty cool call.

Touchdown.

It's not just the past two years, like that. 2022 draft. No, 2022 draft was Pacheco, McDuffie, Carloftis, Josh Williams. I think Creed Humphrey and I think, yeah, Creed Humphrey, and that's like seven. Like, that's a credit to the front office. Brett Veach and those guys. And then, like you said.

Did you just give me a credit to the front office? Six minutes in, that was good. You're in mid season form already. Credit to the front office.

I haven't slept in a couple days. They find these guys. But, like, you and I looked at each other, it's the fourth quarter, there's two minutes and 30 seconds left, and they're handing the ball off to Carson Steele.

Second down. Yeah, Chiefs need one more first down. Basically, first down. They get five. And you and I said, carson Steele.

There's holes on this roster. Not that Carson Steele came, but like, yes, they had, but like, there were moments where, like, okay, interesting. Juju's getting the ball there. Like, there are still holes on this roster, and Mark and Hollywood Brown will get back.

Wait, but hold that thought, though. You put Hollywood Brown out there today, and that's probably 35 plus points. Juju was covered the whole game.

Yeah, Juju's not getting, you know, not broke deep. Offense looked good, and early on, they were destroying that offensive line with that defensive pressure.

But one of the things that was nuts, the first half, the Baltimore ran 36 plays, and I think the Chiefs had 20. And usually when that. And the Chiefs got the ball to start the second half, but usually when that happens, you see in the second half, the defense just gets gassed, which happened anyway, but the Chiefs were able to convert a couple of times, get some scores.

That, yeah, that, that bateman catch along the sideline, and then you're like, okay. Also, there's 10 seconds.

Again, you're kind of rattled. You got up at 245 la time today. I made that sheep's game, was going to be 34 ten at one point.

Prediction about 40 hours ago on live television. It is now midnight eastern. I've got to be up in three, 4 hours. But I will tell you, I come out of that thing and if I'm a Ravens fan, I feel pretty damn good. There was a lot of talk about their offensive line coach passed away three different offensive linemen who are not like seasoned guys, and they got likely looked amazing tonight. So, like, you have the pieces and lamar was awesome. I was a little nervous when Lamar was running around and I know Tirico and those guys are like, he looks faster and good, like, over 17 weeks. I don't need to see Lamar getting cracked by Connor like he was. So that's worrisome to me, but he was great tonight. Lamar was fantastic.

That's legacy number two for this game for me. Lamar ends up 16 carries for 122, throws for 26, for 41 for 273. Great game that we need some sort of version for. We're unleashing this Lamar tonight because we really want this game. 16 carries in a 17 week season. I'm not good at math, but that's a lot of carries.

A lot of carries.

That's over 260.

Probably not sustainable.

Yeah, so, but the point is they're not going to be able to do that every week. So I want to know when you're not unleashing your. Hey, we don't care if Lamar takes a ton of hits this game. We're going to have him run around, do his thing. What's plan B for this team? I would guess it's Derek Henry, but they're lying. I thought they were lying the first three quarters, especially, like, look pretty iffy.

What they were doing was they were, they weren't running the ball too well, so they were getting little dump off passes to Justice Hill.

Right. But the Chiefs just didn't see adjusted for it.

And then Derek Henry did have a couple big carries. We got that third down. Or he converted or was it a fourth down? I'm delirious, but it was fourth and short. Yeah, and they went for it and he was stopped behind the line and his powers through. Yeah. The receiving options, by the way, that got the.

For that. The two that got the Collinsworth doing the. That is 250 pounds a man, Mike, 4K.

Let's look. Zay flowers played well. Isaiah likely played well. Derek Henry, Rayleigh, just like their offense look good to me. They can compete.

So you're thinking the Ravens were a little bit better than you were maybe expecting in your head?

Yes. I didn't. I didn't think they were going to hang offensively with those guys, and I thought they the Chiefs defense struggled all night corralling Lamare. Chris Jones was dominant early on, and then it felt like every time he.

Got behind, I'm going the other way. I think they were lucky to be in that game because you go back. The Chiefs ended up with 27 points anyway. But think, like, they had that one, that swing pass to Perine where he was ready to run for a touchdown. Lamar missed them. They had that crazy play at the end of the first half with Lamar just to the Ravens. No reason, picks it off.

They get a field goal to stop it.

But, and we never got the right replay to explain why the pass was seven yards short. And it doesn't do stuff like that. So you had that play and then that last drive, you know, he missed a couple. He missed a couple. I'm saying Mahomes missed a couple. And then, you know, it was just three downs. You win the game, second down, Carson steals in the game. Like, I would almost rather use a timeout than have Carson steal. Let's come up with our best play. Let's run the Tyreek play with worthy. Let's do something. But for some reason, they were happy to give the Ravens the ball back through the pass.

I got deflected by Simpson. Great play.

Then Mahomes catches it, which saves about whatever. So it makes the Ravens use the last time out or I forget what happened. It saved them time.

Arizona has a great punt.

He did. Yeah.

And I'm like, all right, they're on the ten, on the ten with the minute, like, and Lamar took him and he went and he missed zay flowers and he missed likely in the back of the end zone. So to me, those are two passes Lamar will usually make.

Well, the thing with Lamar, we said this after the third quarter because it was 2 hours of them telling us how amazing Lamar was. And he's faster and he's angry and he had this game circled, and this is a different kind of Lamar, and he's competitive and look at him in the sidelines. And it was like, they have ten points. Let's settle down. But then fourth quarter, he almost ended up with 17 points in the fourth quarter. Poured it on, but I thought he was great tonight. He also missed flowers wide open on that second to last play.

Had him had likely in the play before.

Wide open. He does say it likely, but likely doesn't know. Keeping it. I guess if you're a Ravens fan, you're excited. That likely, all the preseason hype, all the buzz, all the quotes about him, like, watch out for this guy. And it was like, he looked like he was Tony Gonzalez. Yeah.

Did you feel like we didn't get enough Derek Henry? If you're a Ravens fan, this is all summer. Also, it's going to be thunder and lightning, and they did a couple cool plays where, you know, it was like a fake handoff to Henry, and then it was Lamar outside. But I don't leave that game thinking, like, I know he scored the early touchdown. He had that big conversion. But I don't leave that game thinking that Derek Henry is the focus of that offense by any means.

13 for 46. So what is the walk me through the morning talk show topics tomorrow?

So we do the.

Did Lamar. Lamar was great, but he didn't get it done again.

Did Lamar. Lamar came into this thing two and four in the playoffs and, you know, one in three versus the.

Should we be worried Lamar can't win big games?

It's like, did Lamar silence any doubts? We'll do that one.

Oh, that's a good one. Cause that's like a little glass half full.

Did he silence any doubts?

Did Lamar silence any doubters for you?

Did he silence the doubters? The ambiguous? I'd say yes. I thought Lamar showed up and was. Was way better than we saw him in the playoffs.

Year counter.

Yeah.

Not sustainable.

Okay.

He took too many hits.

That fucking crazy one of these shows.

This is an 18 week season, and he took ten flush hits in that game.

He played that game and they coached that game as if it was a winning in and it was everything. And in a lot of ways.

Yeah, that was like a week 18.

We need to make them psychologically like, they probably felt that way. Like, we have to win this game.

Well, you saw the Harbaugh going for the twos.

No doubt.

We're not going to fuck this.

That would be one topic. Second one, we would go 30 times, 40 times, showing the angles on the likely thing and just kind of put that into historical context. This is like one of those games where we're always going to remember Isaiah likely.

Well, what are some of the recent ones like that? Let's see, there was that one Dallas. What was that? Dallas Cowboys game. Everybody got all excited about Dallas Detroit. Last Dallas Detroit was one with the.

Crazy, with the offensive lineman declaring eligible.

Yeah. At least this time the guy was out of bounds.

There was no, no question with the rules. I would say the other topic would be the Chiefs, their new weapons, obviously, with, you know, worthy coming out and what they did with a little bit with P R. I'm but Pacheco tonight was fantastic. Just grinding. And Mahomes was amazing. Mahomes was fantastic. He had a couple mistakes like we talked about. He missed peer on that one through the interception. But like, I took the Chiefs to win the Super bowl, it sounds boring. I leave tonight thinking, yeah, Chiefs are in the Super bowl. Like, that was that team right there in that building. That is a tough team to beat. And the Bravens gave them everything they can handle and they couldn't do it.

Worthy, rice and Hollywood Brown might be the three, the best, like top three receivers that he's had from a explosive standpoint.

Yeah, he had Tyreek and Hardman that one year and I guess the third was like Byron Pringle, right?

He never had like three guys that all had 40 yard touchdown.

Potentially a conversation I had with a source at Texas when they were all coming out because it was him, it's ad Mitchell, it was his kid Whittington. They're all in the NFL. And I was like, you know, worthy, obviously, he's going to be fast before the combine. He's like, worthy is going to be fast and everyone's going to look at his 40 time and immediately compare him to, you know, John Ross or, you know, whoever, Darius Hayward Bay or whatever it is he's like. But worthy is a smart player, too, and is one of the smartest players. And like, you can give him the ball on a jet sweep, he knows where to go. He also runs the full route tree, so he goes 28th. The bills of the team that trades that. I know it's early, it's one game in, but, like, did he not look like this guy was one of the most dynamic players in the NFL? Right out of the gates, he looked like Tyree kill out there tonight.

It's so tough. And same thing with the left tackle, who was the best left tackle left solid and somehow just give up one sack. People just love giving the chief stuff. So they only ran particularly, they ran 48 plays. Baltimore ran 73 plays that game and lost. So if you're, if you're Baltimore, here's take number three.

Okay.

They're at Dallas next week, home for the Bills on a Sunday day, not easy at Cincy.

Not easy.

Is your sphincter starting to tighten if you're the Ravens?

That's why they went with Lamar going 18 carries. We had to win this game. What a great different angle it is. If I. You can beat the Cowboys next week.

Well, and then on the flip side, if you're the Bengals, you have the Pats this week, right. That's a win. You have.

You already go into Bengals schedule.

I love this.

Chiefs the following week.

That's a fun one.

That's a tough one. Then you go Washington, then you're at Carolina. You can be three in one. You might have like a two game lead on the Ravens heading into the home game. Week five, one game into two energized games.

I love this.

Or my Steelers, your steelers going in. Maybe they win in Atlanta this week. Who knows? The Browns had the Cowboys, but you know, I never.

So you come out of this thing saying tough loss for the Ravens.

We started out o and one. Now I need to go now. If I'm getting to eleven wins, I got to rip off eleven and five now. Yeah, I just did that math in my head. That's why, that's why I make the big bucks. That's why I'm right here. I just, the own one start is just brutal. I don't like it. It's tough. And I also don't like that my, my best player had a really good game and we lost.

We lost. Chiefs did lose the first week last season. They figured it out. A lot of teams lose that.

Yeah, I get it.

I know you get it. What do you think of that French Open match that we were or the US Open match?

The Buffalo Bill's daughter when they won the semifinal.

What was her name?

Much of a muchova.

She was.

She collapsed throwing a racket. Yeah, it was a total collapse. All right, any last legacies for this game?

Just a fun, awesome way to start the season. The NFL can't script this any better. And like, we have a game tomorrow night, too. It's crazy. This is like a cool way to start the year.

I had. The new kickoff rule.

Wasn'T as dynamic as we had hoped.

It felt like it was still violent. It was like I thought we were trying to not have collisions. These guys were like crushing each other.

What I heard on this new, maybe I'm, it's one game in, but everyone I spoke to was like, just wait till week one. No teams are showing anything in preseason. There's gonna be crazy reverses and laterals and all sorts of wild bells and whistles that they're practicing on. We didn't see any of that tonight.

We did not. That was not there. The only other thing I have was the coach interviews. Can you explain the coach interview thing? We now have to have a disgruntled coach at the end of the first half who wants no part of talking to a tv person doing that interview. And you've had to do those from time to time. What's worse?

Well, the, they used to be off camera and then a couple years ago we started tinkering with it. The rules now are that every team has to offer up at least a head coach, at least one of the other head coach, offensive corner, defense corner, or special teams coach. That has to speak on air. So those are the two head coaches. Melissa Stark got the two big guys, which is great. We're going to be talking to special teams coaches on the, on the broadcast. We're going to get offensive coordinators who don't do a lot of media. We're going to do defense. So we're going to see if we get anything out of these. But I've only done one of them on air ever, and it was a viral moment. I had Mike McDaniel up in Buffalo and he was absolutely fantastic his first year as a coach, and he was like grilling me about what I was wearing and he was fun and he was awesome. That was not Andy Reid tonight. That was not John Harbaugh tonight.

No. They're like, yeah, we got it. You know, we got to bunt down those turnovers and just playing what we're doing to. And that's gotta.

And if you're Melissa Stark, what else can you do? You know, it's not her fault. It's just these coaches aren't gonna give you that there. So I think the hope was to get some access, but, yeah, I don't think we. No viral moments tonight.

You almost want to zag and be like, Andy, have you seen Taylor Swift yet?

Do something, John.

Andy, how about this weather?

John, your brother's back. What's Jim gonna do? Like. Yeah, yeah, something.

How many times you've talked to your brother this week?

Yeah, just.

He's coached a team, too. Excuse me.

Yeah.

How do you feel about the US open? Any thoughts about Tiafo?

Are you checking Machova fogula? Yeah, we were, we were locked into that.

Well, great game. Great chiefs cover favorites. Now want to know? Bill Simmons in real life now want to know? Didn't get to do it on million dollar picks or do a million dollar picks later with Joe House. You're coming back. Next segment, we are going to talk about a whole bunch of 2024 NFL season stuff right after this.

How fun. Love it.

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Sunny outside.

Yeah, it's still sunny here in Los Angeles. You've been up, I think, for the last 72 hours, but we're talk, we talked Chiefs Ravens in the first segment. We're going to talk about some of the other NFL stuff. You became infatuated with the Jetse so much. I also became a little infatuated with them. I picked them to win the division. You went further.

I have them as the one seed in the AFC this year, and I know there's a lot of jets fans who listen to your podcasts and they do this thing where like they cringe. They're like, don't even go there. We don't want to hear it. It's just, don't even put that out there. And they've been so burned, so scarred. I spent a lot of time around the jets this summer, and maybe it is just because I was in the building a few times and I went there for practice and I called a preseason game and from top to bottom, it will be very difficult for this roster not to be very good, I think, jets fans.

So that's how I feel.

Good.

Yeah. Even without Reddick yet. And God knows when he shows up.

But out of sight, out of mind with him. And you'll appreciate that because I think a lot of people say, well, you know, the Reddick thing that's hovering over them. It's not because he's never been there. They haven't sweat with him. Those guys don't even know him.

You can't miss something you've never had.

They never had him. He came for one day and I don't know if that might get settled this weekend. And if it does, that's like a.

Lot of people don't know. Belichick was almost your good morning football co host. He was going to be a sick show, but then it didn't happen, so you can't mourn it.

Never knew him, so it never happened. You know, we went there. Kyle Brandt and I rewatchables legend. We went for a practice one morning, like early in training camp, and the Jets PR staff comes up to us and they're like, all right, you've got today sauce. Gardner Quinn and Williams, Quincy Williams and Solomon Thomas as the guests were giving you and me and him were like, holy shit, that is awesome. And we're looking at the roster and we're like, they didn't give us Rogers. They didn't give us Bruce hall. They didn't give us Garrett Wilson. Oh, they didn't give us any of the new offensive linemen. Tyron Smith obviously is going to be a hall of famer. They didn't give us CJ Mosley. We're like, we got like the third tier guests and we were like, that's awesome. That is how loaded they are. They go so deep. And last year, the jets won seven games and the quarterbacks were Zach Wilson, who is the third string in Denver. Tim Boyle, who I believe is out of football or on the practice squad with the.

He's here right now. Tim, come on in.

Tim, come on in. And Trevor Simeon, who's out of football, they won seven games. They also used 21 offensive linemen and 13 different combinations and still won seven games because their defense was so good. And Garrett Wilson still had a good year and brief, still ran that ball the way he did. So they beefed up the offensive line. And Rogers, I get it, 41 coming off an achilles. That's not ideal. I saw practice in person. He looks amazing. I saw him. They were against Washington. He didn't do much there. But then they go against the Giants and he absolutely tortures him. So it's like, I can only go by what I see. I have a vibe. I understand that there's 13 years they've been to the playoffs. I understand there's curses galore. They're too good on paper.

You left out the coach. That's got to be one of the. Let's discuss eight kids, Bob.

Um, I saw one of those sites had a power rank. He's the 32nd coach in football. How is he supposed to win with any of these? I mean, you could comment on, but like with, I will say this, this.

Is the best situation he could possibly be in if Rogers is back, because then I, all he has to do is just worry about the defense. Fist pumps on the sideline, handle the media and the offense he's got. I mean, I was in three fantasy drafts the last three days and Wilson and Bruce Hall, Bries hall was the number one, I think, highest priced guy in all three leagues.

Is that right?

Wilson was like the fifth or 6th biggest receiver. These are like massive weapons and they.

Can block and they've got a really good, uh, like, so the number two is Mike Williams. We didn't see him in training camp.

He's going to be practice.

Yeah, he's on track to play.

Yeah.

And guess what? That was Bruce hall last year. He didn't play all training camp. Everyone's like, where's Bryce then? He was great. Um, Alan Lazard, I know, everyone rolls their eyes, they're like, all right, he sucked last year. Alan Lazard was a big signing last year. Everyone's like, all right. They brought in Corley, this kid from western Kentucky. They brought in Mike Williams. They're, they're loaded. They're good. Alan Lazard had an amazing camp. And Rogers, every time he spoke to the media and every time he spoke to us, went out of his way to be like, don't, don't forget about Lazard. I spoke with Joe Douglas off the record, but I don't think he'd have a problem with me sharing this and say, maybe the best camp that anyone had this summer was Alan Lazard, who people have forgotten. And he might be their third or fourth wide receiver. And, oh, happens to be the best blocking wide receiver in football. So like, their offense is loaded. Their defense was great last year. Michael Carter might be the best nickelback in football. Reed and sauce are both lockdowns. Like, I could do flips here. The only issue is you're like, all right, is this head coach going to outwit one of these top other coaches in a big spot?

Is, is, is Nathaniel Hackett going to draw it up? Because we don't know if they can. Both those guys have been on really.

Teams from a talent standpoint.

They're loaded.

They're loaded with everybody else. And that, that was what jumped out when I started doing my player rankings and all that stuff. And I was like, Jesus. Jets are like the fourth highest team on my, my list. I mean, they had like ten guys that made my list, no doubt.

And they have these two rookie running backs. I don't know which one is going to be like. Braylon Allen is the youngest player in football, running back out of Wisconsin. The kid is an absolute wrecking ball, bowling ball. And they hadn't even unleashed him. Like, they played him in one preseason game a little bit. In the second game, they didn't play him in the third. And the other kid is this kid, Isaiah Davis, who was out of South Dakota State, who had what they call like the Red Star. And in their scouting system, you know, each scout is allowed to give one red star. And across the board, they all gave the red Star to him because he was like, captain, broke every record you could imagine at school. And they got him in the fifth round. So they drafted running backs in the fourth and fifth round that aren't even expected to be those guys that they're super excited about. So they're deep, they're loaded.

Can't believe you just went third string jets running back on that. You're that passionate.

Early in the pod, we went right there. But, you know, this. Braylon Allen has a lot of fans around the league and he slipped to the fourth round. The last point I would make because the break glass in case of emergency last year was Zach Wilson, and it didn't work out. The Giants really wanted to bring back Tyrod. Giants offered Tyrod a lot of money. The jets got Tyrod to come. So for the first time in Aaron Rodgers, his time, you know, with the jets, and he had guys who were veterans when he was younger, but he's not the camp counselor in that room. Tyrod can handle, like, you know, all right, let me do whatever Tyrod's like.

I was almost stabbed to death by the Chargers doctor.

I've been through.

I've seen a lot of stuff. I played for the Giants, and you.

Start by Tommy DeVito. Like, I've seen it all. So, like, Tyrod and Rogers together is a really cool dynamic where it's a 40 year old and 36 year old, I think. And it's like Rogers doesn't have to babysit. Like, he doesn't have to come and, like, teach these guys movie references. It's like, all right, let's just go to work.

I don't know whether I'm older and whether I've just watched too many football seasons in a row, but there are some seasons where I just really feel like you see it. Oh, this team reminds me of 50 other teams of, you know, that have come through and they just check so many boxes. It's going to be hilarious when they go like six and eleven. But it could very well have, from a talent standpoint, from the fact that they haven't been good in a while, that the division is kind of going the other way. I think they're getting some luck with what happened with Buffalo's defense. Yeah, I think there's always happening with Miami.

Lost a lot of guys, too.

They did. And they're starting out the season banged up. The Pats are going to be disaster. That's two wins right there. I'd just be really surprised. We had a, we did this winds pool. Have you ever seen that winds pool where they have the, if you get the first pick, you get 20th and 26.

Yes.

And if you get the second pick, you've seen and 29 with four. It's really cool. So you pick three teams.

Four teams. Yeah. Okay, so this is similar.

It's just so I ended up with ten and twelve.

Were the jets there at ten?

And the jets were there at ten and I was like, I can't believe the jets are here at ten.

Yeah.

And that's who I took. And, and then Green Bay was there at twelve and I was like, I can't believe Green Bay is here at.

Twelve teams this year.

A possible Super bowl matchup. But, yeah, it's, the thing is, it's the jets and everybody's been making that point. But it's not like the jets have just been a dumpster fire for, they're not the Lions where the Lions were like, oh, we made the playoffs. The jets have been in AFC title games. That's 13 years ago. But I'm just saying, they at least have had, they beat Brady.

Yeah, they, they beat Peyton Manning and Indy, like recently with Rex.

Every once in a while they resurface is my point. And where it's like, oh, the jets are good and then they go away for ten years.

And like, last year was different. Last year the hard knocks thing was so real. You have, you know, Oz the mentalist coming and being like, they're going to the Super bowl and there's six episodes and, you know, Salah's doing the Tony Soprano drive in and it's like everyone was in and it happened.

Well, when your season three plays in.

That happens the most catastrophic way.

And also like, you know, you've seen the rhythm of some of these football seasons from offseason through the training camp. You can get the bad juju or you get the good juju. It seems like they have that where the Niners are the opposite. And it's like it's, every one of them is explainable and you can be like, okay. And that, you know, ironically these two teams are playing, but there's just a lot of stuff lining up with the Niners. I feel that way where the same that veteran football fan history. I'm like, ah, I don't like the vibe.

I feel that way about San Francisco where the end result. Ayuk's in town. Trent Williams is in town.

Yeah. So you'd be like, oh, it's fine. Oh, it's fine.

It was a long, arduous deal with Iuk that went back and forth and, you know, publicly it was like we've, you know, they've used media guys to take both sides of the story. It was ugly at one point, then he comes back, it's like, all right, he's back, but is he?

He's back and took the same offer.

That was there a month ago. But the fact that even gets out there and like, you know, Adam reported that Schefter and it's like, all right. That means that's pretty well known and like understood. And that he has no problem reporting that, that the offer was made a month ago, which is not great for anyone to hear because he missed all that time. The other team is the Cowboys. It's just, there's just bad juju around it. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they come out and they go like they did last year and they're. Because I was down on them last year. But McCarthy, in his final year of a contract, Mike Zimmer, two years removed from football as the defensive coordinator. And it's, you know, the running. The running backs are Rico Dowdle, Zeke Elliott and Dalvin Cook. Like, these are real things.

The salary cap stuff. The fact that Jake Ferguson's probably the second receiver, no doubt. The offensive lines, worse, they have to, the front sevens probably either the same.

Or worse, they have to pay Dak and Parsons at some point. So it's like everything's on hold and I don't know, I look at that stuff and I. It's like, are you, are you looking at analytics? Are you looking at film? Are you looking at. Sometimes I'm like, you? It's like I'm the common sense guy. I'm the vibes guy. And it's like that just doesn't look right.

But the difference with us is I'm just on my couch or in front of my iPad or I'm listening to pods and I'm just kind of putting together some weird jigsaw. Puzzle in my head, right. You're actually going to these camps and they can present things a certain way to you, but you've been to enough of these in enough seasons that I rarely. You can kind of sift through the.

Bullshit or see what's identify when a team is shit like, because everyone's. When I come, everyone's super happy, everyone's amazing. The guy's in the best shape of his life. And the pr guys coming down and it's, oh, my God, you should meet this third round rookie. He's unbelievable. Everyone's. But I can usually also identify the teams that seem like they're dialed in and it's like, oh, they're in pre, like they're in the mode. And Rogers, like, it was a beautiful thing watching sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson go at it one on one. Like, those are the two best at what they do. And Rodgers is throwing the ball and say what you want. I don't think jets fans even realize. And Mike Francesa did a thing with Chris Russo today and I actually listened to it and it was actually. He makes a great point. And he's like, I don't think jets fans even, like, they don't. They don't know how good Rogers is. Like, they've seen him and we've all seen him. What he does on the routine. He's the most accurate passer that you could imagine, and he does it with such effortless throws, and they're perfect.

And I talked to these players, like, because I did the preseason game, talked to DJ Reed, who's the corner, and he's like, you're defending a receiver as well as you possibly can defend him. And Rogers puts it, and it's literally can only be one inch and it's there and the receiver catches it and then 20 yards later it's a touchdown. Like, he does things still that there's a very small group of quarterbacks in the history of the game have ever done. So if you have him out there and you won seven games last year, and you have an offensive line that had 20 different bodies, I would think four to five wins with a third place schedule more than last year is doable. So that's 1112 wins.

That's where I landed as well. It's funny, you go to these things and it's like you're coming. Like, you came over my house today and everybody's gonna be pleasant when you go to somebody's house, but if you're there for a while and it's like, later my wife's making dinner, and she gets mad at me. Or she starts, she's like, bill, can I talk to you for a second? You're like, oh, shit. What's going on in this house? That's kind of what those training camps are like, right? Everything is nice on the surface, but then you're kind of watching and you might see. You'll see a couple things, right?

The NFL Network guys, we have this luxury where we're flown in. You're there for one day. You're in a polo shirt on a fold on a Sunday. We're talking to the coach. Everyone's laughing, smiling. The beat reporters are there, all in there, like, grinding.

So they see everything.

They see everything. So when we come in, it's. It's a parachute in. Everyone's on their best behavior. Look how great this guy is. Look how great this guy is. But you can get the vibe and you talk to the other guys in the media. And then I have enough sources at these teams where I say, you guys look in and they'll reveal and be like, well, if we. We can get out all right, and we can get a couple wins in September, like, I think we'll be all right. But other than that, like, you know, right.

It's almost degrees of that.

They want to measure your doing like that.

The glass half full, positive, but not.

Over the top because they're like, well.

You know, if we can block, I think we're going to be really good. It's like, you mean blocking the most important, important part of football?

Absolutely. Absolutely. And then, like, the other guy who's super positive and bullish that I have to, like, check my governor on this thing is because Sean Payton's like, over the moon about Bo nicks. And when we talk, he's like, dude, you have no idea. This guy is so dialed in. He's like a 30 year old. He's a captain already in his first season.

He's like, I trust 95% of your info, that one. There's 5% where I'm like, schrager just loves this guy. And champagne could tell you anything. He'd be like, Bo Nicks is Joe Montana. You'd be like, I'm in.

He's like, yes. He's like, we're going to go undefeated. Yes, you will.

But nix is 20, almost 25 years old, and was in college for 100.

Years, 61 career games in college, 61.

There's a case for, I stayed away from that Seattle game, a million dollar pick.

I wouldn't go near that.

Because I want to see Denver for one game, no doubt. And that's, are they going to run the ball? Are they going to be moving him around? Like, what are they going to do with him?

And Sean had his press conference yesterday and he's like, I don't know how to prepare for them because Seattle, new defense, new head coach, is a defensive guy, an offensive coordinator who no one's ever seen, who came from the college game in grub. And he's like, I'm watching Baltimore tape because that's what he ran last year in Baltimore. But I also, the personnel that Seattle has is nothing like the Baltimore personnel. They don't have the Roquan Smith or Kyle Hampson. So Sean's at a loss. So that game is one that I would stay the hell away from.

It's a complete stay away. I am excited for them. I bet they're over.

I saw.

You did find it hard to believe seven wins is inconceivable for that team.

I would think so.

I, did you go to Jacksonville?

Jacksonville? No, but I spoke to their guys a bunch and they're like, don't talk about us. They're very quietly confident. I'm in on Jacksonville. I picked Jacksonville to win the AFC south house.

And I, we have a whole Jacksonville thing later. A million dollar picks.

Like, I'm in on Jacksonville.

I, that's a good zag because they kind of slept under the radar.

Well, Lawrence was in slept under the radar.

They just create a frisk. They also slipped under the radar. Now everyone's on Houston, including me. I picked Houston. Win the Super bowl. Now the more, and it was one of those ideas I had when I was on Simmons frame of cape week in the cape, like, it crystallized. I was like, that's what I'm gonna do.

You start thinking, you're like, I like them. Well, it's like, have it all. Like, it's, fuck it. Let's go for it.

Well, is CJ stroud not Mahomes, but Mahomes ish?

Look, he had as good a rookie season as a quarterback has ever had in the NFL.

Yeah. So your favorite say that they also, they crush that draft.

Great draft.

They have a great coach. They have a lot of talent.

They added beef up stuff, digs, beefed.

Up the d line, beefed up the running backs, Hunter.

But, and this is why, and it's not a negative. Like, so last year, no one expected anything. They were the hunters. They were not the hunted.

I've heard you do this about all the terrible quarterbacks they played all the.

Terrible quarterbacks, but I would also say they played at 01:00 p.m. eastern for all 17 regular season games. Now, I'm not saying they're going to be scared, but, like, it's just. All right. Then they had a playoff game at home and they beat the Browns, which was an awesome performance on Saturday. Like, it was great. And then they were up on the Ravens and lost, and it was like an amazing season. And D'Amico should have won coach of the year and Stroud did win an offensive rookie year and all that. It was great. But then you get all these players and like, I just. They have a first place schedule this year.

Yep.

They've got a fucking gauntlet. If you look at their schedule, it's.

Jacksonville's good, which we think they are. I think indies, at least these actually.

Think Tennessee is going to be good, too.

So I can't. I think. I think Levis is going to get hurt. I just think that guy's a maniac and they're putting him behind, like, this c minus, D plus offensive line. I just feel like.

So I went off. I don't have Houston making the playoffs, which sounds crazy.

It's not crazy. So many people are on them. We've seen the first year jump, second year fallback, third year jump again. Yeah. If I had to do it over again, and I'm not. I don't want to mulligan.

No, no.

I'll ride my pick. I went with it. I really wanted a zag against the Chiefs, and I thought Houston made a ton of sense. But the case is they have to get the one seed, I think, to make the Super Bowl. I don't. It has to be like the road goes through Houston and the domes, and.

Then you're in the two games.

Let Mahomes in round two, you know, have some bloodbath game against somebody and just try to get lucky. Yeah, that's the case. But I like your jets one seed. I would think it's fun, too, jealous of it.

And my story behind it that I did on good morning football, like, could either be roll your eyes, but, like, it's a real story that I was in line for ice cream out in Sag harbor this summer, like, all the way on the eastern end of Long island, and his dad comes up to me with three kids. The eldest is wearing a Mahomes jersey, the youngest is wearing a lamar jersey, and the middle kid's not wearing any jersey. And the dad is like, oh, this kid's cursed this kid, you know, in New York, like, this guy, this poor kid, he's got the family curse. I'm like, I don't even know what you're talking about.

Plus, he's the middle kid.

Yeah, he's the middle kidde. He's like, at the family curse. And I feel terrible for him. It's my dad's curse. I'm like, what the hell is he even talking about? And he's like, he's the jets fan. And everyone's like, ha ha. And I'm like, you don't wear the jersey. And he's like, he won't wear the Rogers jersey. He won't wear it because he wore it all summer last year, and he tore his achilles four games in. Tore his achilles. And I'm like, this is. And it's like, I talked to everyone in New York. It's like, it's not this crazy story of superstition. Like, that's the life they live. So there's this giant shadow that it's like even a ten year old kidde is like, living with that. So it's so hard for jets fans to believe. And all I'm saying is, if ever in my lifetime, if ever. And it goes back to parcels and when they took the Broncos to the AFC championship game, to the wire, like, if ever there was a roster, and I know they haven't been there in 13 years, and if ever there was, like, a season with the way it's working with the Dolphins, Bills and Patriots, like you said, this is the year.

Like, this is the time. And Rogers is not getting any younger. So, like, now, but I don't know. Achilles injury.

So I heard you do that story on the show.

Yeah. You thought I was bullshitting or what?

No. My favorite part was the dad just seemed out of unlimited funds for jets jersey.

He's buying so many.

He's just not fanatics. They're, they're just sending him emails.

Yeah, the middle son has every jersey, but he will not wear the Rodgers one. But he's got like 16 other jets jerseys just listing them.

Yeah. Let's take a break and then I want to talk about your biggest 2024 zagdez. So your biggest zag of the 2024 season. Mine. I'll give you mine first. So you know I have Pittsburgh in the playoffs.

Love it.

I think Pittsburgh's defense is the best unit of all the defenses in either conference. And that Tomlin plus the defense plus Wilson just not turning the ball wherever and they're just going to grind out these wins, including potentially week one in Atlanta. And I'm just, I'm in on the. Nobody believes in us with them and I'm alone. House is semi there at least for week one with me, but I'm basically alone. And even Steeler fans are like, no, we're fucked. Our offensive lines at shambles. Russ sucks. We have one receiver like that. Bad pick. You're wrong. So that's my zag. What's your number one zag?

Seattle in the playoffs.

In a load of people with you on that. Because I bet them to win the division, make the playoffs and go over.

You and I and a few others. But, like, it is okay, it's crickets.

Out there for the Seattle and NC.

West because the fact that, like, everyone looks at them like, and there's a 37 year old head coach and they don't really what's on defense, but, like.

That'S how old he is.

37.

Mike McDonald.

37.

Wow.

Dude. His story's crazy.

How many coaches are you older then?

I know it's getting there now.

You have a couple, right?

McVeigh McDonald.

Yeah. McVeigh's still like 31 years old.

There's another one that was, I think, Callie. Brian Callahan in Tennessee. I'm older than.

How old is D'amico? Ryan's?

Miko? Ryan's were probably the same. I'm probably older when he was drafted. So. Yeah, probably older.

So 37. Wow. McDonald, 37.

And his story is crazy. He was a GA, which is a graduate assistant at Georgia in like 2013 and like, rose up really quickly. And then was it the Michigan Wolverines when they were really good on defense a couple of years ago, the Ravens bring him back because he was in Baltimore and then they bring him back and then he gets this thing. But, like, he's 37 and he hires this grub who they don't have a history, who was Washington's offensive coordinator with Pennix and Polk and Adunse and McMillan and that awesome offense at Washington. And he's like, he didn't even know the guy. They didn't have any real relationship. And he's like, I'm going to get a college offensive coordinator and make him the NFL one here. And I just feel like there's no buzz about them at all. And my zag was putting them in the playoffs. But if you've got them winning the division, then I will tip my cap because I didn't.

I picked the Niners to win the vision. I'm just saying I put. They were plus 650 I think to win the NFC west.

So I just sprinkled someone doing it. And then the other one I has, I have the Broncos making it, which I can't even give you a rhyme or reason.

I looked at that. I wanted to do that so badly.

Isn't it fun? Isn't it fun when you looked at it forever?

I just couldn't get past the schedule, which I thought was a little harder than I wanted it to be for the fact that they weren't good last year. But they actually would. They go seven and nine. Yeah. So they didn't even get a fourth place schedule.

Remember, they beat Buffalo.

But the cap, those teams. And this is my fear with buffalo too. And I, bills fans of my life where you just fucking hate buffalo. And I was like, every year I wanted to pick Buffalo. I wanted to zag with them for the AFC all year. But then the combo of all the money that is just dead cap, but it's 61 million in dead cap. And then when Milano got hurt, I'm like, I'm out. That's fair. This is a too tall of a task.

And, you know, they lean into that. They love that. So I talked to those guys and they're like. I'm like, you know, digs a big loss, Gabe Davis. And they're like, okay. I'm like, what? Dalton Kincaid had like 90 catches last year.

Well, the thing is, they think and.

Like the Diggs thing. And I'm not trying to make news here, but like it's one of those. It was time. And it's like he said that there's just like, like imagine just a cloud lifted. And it's not because they don't like each other personally, but like, for the quarterback it's like, oh my God, fine, all right. Now it's like I could throw wherever, do whatever, and they, they got long, but it's all right. Diggs caught two balls in the AFC championship game. I think like eight targets. Like something great. So it's like, let's see what else we have out there. Or AFC divisional round. And they've got the Shakir and they've got Keyon Coleman. And I think they think they're going to be all right on offense.

They're, I mean, the case against it is there. I hate relying on rookie receivers like that. I know as somebody who is, as.

Pats fan, Jalen Polk's gonna have 100 catches.

Well, I'm actually excited for him. But as we had a pat, there's so many guys with the pads that we had to, like, keep our fingers crossed, and the guys just sucked. And it really does seem once you get to that 25 to 50 wide receiver range, just feels like a coin flip.

Yeah.

You're hoping you go back and look at the history and it's like, yeah, there's AJ Brown, but there's Nikhil Harry, and it just does this totally. So out of all those receivers, everybody loves everybody, but a couple of them are gonna be best. Like Leghetta on the, on the Panthers, Keon Coleman, Jalen Polk, pure Saul, of.

Course, has the shit.

Pierce, like, two of those guys are gonna end up sucking. It's just the law of averages.

That's how it goes. The.

Wait, can we go back to Seattle?

Yeah, I'm into Seattle.

One of the things I liked about them, well, they actually have, like, a semblance of a home field advantage if they have a good team. But, you know, they have loaded position groups like their receivers. Their one, two, three are up there.

The Ohio State Jackson spent, like, they rave about this guy, and he barely scratched the surface last year.

They have. They had two first round picks last year, and the first round pick, they got a this year who's really a lottery pick.

Murphy's amazing.

Yeah, he went 16, but he should have been top ten.

No doubt, but.

So they're bringing in blue chippers finally. And I like Gino. I don't mind Gino.

Gino's not going to lose you games. Like, I know it sounds like a back ended compliment, but, like, he's going to keep you in every game, and if your team doesn't make mistakes, you.

Will win you games well and then ever. I mean, Walker's been one of the biggest buzz guys of the year.

Everyone's in on him. Also, I was early on it.

Like, the fantasy drafts were nuts. He was going in the forties.

I wonder sometimes. It was like, and it's not just me. I know. On yours, I think it might have been Danny Kelly was also big on him, too, because I listened to that podcast with the three of them. But, like, you know, I talked to Mike about it, obviously, in the summer, and then someone made me aware of this, which was interesting. When he was at Michigan State, Kenneth Walker, he ran for 291 and five touchdowns in an upset of Michigan and just tore them up.

Oh. Against Mike McDonald.

Mike McDonald's the defensive coordinator. So, like, I know that's like, all right, what does that have to do with Seahawks versus 49 ers? It does. It's just like, McDonald had options. Could he interviewed he could have taken like, that was one of the cornerstones of this team, so they feel really strong about him. They like that. Charbonnet as the other running back.

He's a good backup. Good loaded. The thing is, I don't know how to scout a left guard.

Yeah. I wouldn't.

I don't really know. There's linebacker stuff where I'm like, oh, I'm sure that guy's awesome. I could tell that Fred Warner's awesome. There's other guys on the tv. I can't tell. But with running backs, you can just kind of tell who has it. You know, Lombardi and I always talk about that. We're always like, why doesn't that guy play more? And Walker was one of those guys, when you watch the games, you're like, that guy seems awesome. Why don't they give him the ball breeze? Hall's like that. I mean, some of the ones make sense. There's other ones, like the guy in the Bengals, the backup, Chase Brown, played.

At the end of the season really well.

I like Chase Brown.

Yeah. And there's a reason Joe took him.

In to at least one of my, one of my drafts. But, like, there's certain guys. Really, man, I like McLaughlin on the Broncos the end of the year last.

Year, my other guy, and this is, it's late for fantasy, but I'm like a big Taj spears guy. He's Tennessee's number two again. Tennessee might not be that great, but total, like, change of pace guy out of two lane, and, like, they love him there. So, like, that's the kind of guy where you're like, oh, well, Tony Pollard's there, so he's not going to get carries. He will. Like, he'll get carries.

Can I ask you more juju questions?

Yeah.

What's, how we feeling about the vibes in Cleveland? What's the word in the street?

Yeah, I. It's weird, isn't it? And it's like, they could be the best team in the AFC on paper, they're loaded. Deshaun Watson, I don't know. I honestly don't. And you hear that he looks good in practice.

So they changed the offense, they changed the offensive coordinator.

But Bill Callahan's not there anymore. Who I thought was really important, he was the offensive line guy.

Rabel is there.

Variable comes in, I don't know what he's doing. I don't know.

How is he not hosting a show with Belichick? It could have been the 7th Belichick show.

Can we talk about that for a second.

Belichick here. Oh, Belichick's on our show.

I mean, he's going to be doing news updates for good morning football. Like, I'm not like, does he know the word no? Is he. What's going on?

I think Belichick, he knows he's coaching in February.

Yep, he's got it.

And it's already.

You think the Belichick podcast should have been called the six month money grab? I mean, he's just like, do you have a check? Oh, I'm happy to talk, but I don't think he. I'm watching this. Cause I really want to see in week one.

Cause you gotta do it 22 weeks for seven different outlets. I do it for like four. And I'm like, I got nothing left.

But here's the thing. He's gonna have to actually be critical. And I don't know if he's gonna do it.

Yeah, especially if he's coming back.

If he's coming back. Cause we've seen it. We've seen all kinds of versions of this with basketball and pound, especially in basketball, where the guys, they do tv for a year, two years, straddle it, and they're not. Yeah. And they just don't. They don't wanna really say anything. Cause they might coach again. That's why I loved having Doc on, because Doc. Doc would say, yeah, he has no self edit button. Pat Riley was really good way back when he did studio. He was great. Yeah, it was before your time, but.

It'S really rare, him and Peter Vesey and Bob Costas. Like, what was it, first year?

I think it was just him and Costas, but he was really good. And I want to see with Belichick when we come out of week one.

See, I worked with Sean Payton for that one year, and that would be the perfect thing because Peyton knew he was coming back.

He was a little careful.

He was. But right out of the gate, he's like, I don't believe in tua. And like, it made crazy news. And I'm like, I pulled him aside and I'm like, oh, that's gonna be headline. He's like, well, I don't. I'm like, yeah, but when you say, yeah. And then from there, and then he.

Kind of learned his lesson. Right?

And you didn't hear that again, you know, like, right. It was like. And I don't. Belichick out of the gates how they're using him. I watched inside the NFL and it was like, all right, what is Baltimore? Casey what's Baltimore gotta do to win this game? He's like, well, you can't have Travis Kelsey go nine for 96 in the first half. And, like, let's. And the three other guys who, you know, bless them, whatever, but it's like Chris Long, Ryan Clark and ochre, like, hanging on every word, watching him do film study, and I'm like, that is cool. There's a place, but if you're doing seven different, is he going to be that guy on all these? And then McAfee, he's a little lighter, and we laugh about the instaface and all that stuff, but, like, I don't know what I necessarily am looking.

I know what I want.

What do you want? Just him ripping to shit.

Like, I don't want the ripping. I want. If he's really going to be good at this, I want him to be like, all right. The Jaguars beat the Dolphins week one.

Let me tell you, I'm going to.

Look at the tape, watch what they did against Tua, because Tua, he's good at this, but he's bad at this. So when he's out there, you want to make him roll to his right and, like, explain to us, like, how he would coach against Tua. If he does that, he's going to be good.

He was fantastic with McAfee at the draft because Drake may gets picked. He's like, look, this is a bad thought.

He was awesome. Yeah.

And then there was another thing where he was critical of something, like, so.

That gave me hope that he might be good at this, but I see.

Seven different outlets, and I'm like, well, are you giving underdog fantasy your fastball, or are you giving 33rd team your fastball? Or is it on the Manning cast? Or are you just gonna be a comedian with all of them? Because now he's suddenly this, like, comedian that they all wanna bring on and do jokes about. So I'm with you. And Kyle. Brent made a great point today on the show. He's like. Cause we had to talk about, like, oh, phil belichick's finally on social media. And we all laugh and do a thing, and Kyle's like, I kind of miss the belichick that I knew for the last 25 years. That's like, I'm not going on social media, and I'm not this mormon, fuzzy guy, and I'm the smartest football mind in the world. Let's tap into that. So maybe we're doing too much sports media, but, like, I'm fascinated what this little sabbatical is like. Cause I agree. I think it's coming back next year.

Listen, this is one of the big stories that the two biggest sports media for football season.

Brady, right?

Yeah. Will brady be good? Will bell, chuck. Because it's funny that they're linked together again.

Have you offered your. I mean, I'm sure Brian Curtis had that awesome article this week. Have you had your thoughts on Brady publicized yet? Like, how you think it's going to go or. No? Have you done any talking on it? Because I had a pretty cool experience where fox flies us all out to this terranea, this, like, nice spot in the palace Verde. Fox is great. They put anyone who, like, is on air or is a director or producer, and they put us up and it's like an off site and it's required, and I. Strahan has to be there. And Aaron.

And you get to hang out with Carissa and Aaron, right?

We do. Yeah, we hang with them.

They're great. They're great. Hangs shout out to those two.

Love them. And it's like, it's work, but it's also fun. You play golf, but you also do, like, these breakout sessions. And I'm at a dinner the first night, and I see Brady. He's looming. He's like, there. And there's people like, you know, he was at a table with maybe, like Menaphi and Howie Long and at my table, Washington Gronk and Edelman and Michael Vick and Charles Woodson, and Brady just kind of slides in, and I'm all right. And he pulls me aside and he's like. He's like, what's up, man? He's like, you know, I'm excited to work with you. And we've done production meetings with him. I've covered him, but I don't have a relationship with him. You know, I know who he is, and he's really cool.

And then he's like, where can I get some cocaine around here? That would have been an amazing story.

I'm not that guy.

No, I'm kidding.

Tell me your best Tampa Bay bucks for Saint story and maybe I'll find you some. And then Brady starts kind of, like, locking into me and going in on like, he's like, you cover the game every day on good morning football. He's like, what do you think about the current, you know, way that, like, the quarterbacks are sort of protected and, like, locked in? And he's like, I just think when I. And you've seen the clips where he talks about this, it was on me to not get those receivers injured. And, like, I would have to eat it sometimes and take a sack, and I would. Sometimes I have to throw the ball away, and he's like. And I wouldn't run out of the pocket because I'd get my head taken off by Ed Reed or Ray Lewis. And he's. And he's, like, really passionate and dialed in and locked in, and I'm like, oh, shit. Like, he's talking about. He's like, I watched film on Lamar. He's like, lamar's amazing. He's like, but, you know, if you notice, like, this. This was different back when I played. So the question is, is he gonna be critical?

Is he gonna be. I think he's gonna be so passionate and, like, has real thoughts that in real time. I think it's gonna be refreshing. And I don't think we've seen that from one of these guys yet. I don't know how it's gonna go this weekend, but, like, I think that's even more fascinating than the game itself. Cowboys versus browns. Like, I want to hear Brady in between plays. And Burkhart's been working with him and Richie Zyanz and Richard Russo, who are the producer and director, and they're like, he wants to do the work. Like he's watching film. Like, I'm like, I don't know if that's what's the most necessary part, but he's at least colored in as prepared as anybody.

So the roast made me think he might be pretty good at it, because I was really surprised he did it, and he really threw himself into it. But, you know, one of the things I heard was that, because he's. Because he's got that Raiders thing, he's not allowed to go to the pregame meetings. And I'm like, he's like, well, he's not gonna be able to do the meetings that's gonna hurt him. It's like, those meetings are fucking stupid.

I get a lot out of the meetings because it's me. And I go in there and I'm like, oh, it's a chance for my facetime with everybody.

Yeah, but half the stuff you're here. You don't need that. We love this guy. We're super excited about him. We love this guy. We love that guy. His meetings are horseshit.

I've been in a million how they go, because not everyone at home knows. Come in. You hand the coach the all 22, or the depth chart, the flip card, and some coaches will be like, all right, this guy's not playing. He's injured, and that's not public yet. You'll find that out Sunday, but they tell us because we have to prepare.

But somebody can find that out for Brady.

Sure. Exactly. And then the analyst, which would be Brady or my crew, I used to work with Chris Spielman, who was really good at these, and then John Lynch, I worked with as well. And the analyst will usually lead those meetings and ask questions to the quarterback, the head coach, and a defensive player. And the sideline reporter gets one or two questions, and the play by play guy usually will get one or two as well, but it's usually led by the analyst. In that crew, you've got Tom Renaldi, who's a great interviewer. You've got Aaron Andrews, you've got Kevin Burkhardt. You've got three different people who are all fantastic at what they do. I think if Brady doesn't have a face to face with Deshaun Watson, but those guys get whatever information they need to go into it. He's done the work. I almost don't necessarily need him in the meeting talking to Deshaun Watson, 101 MBA. A lot of that stuff is filler, like. Well, as we talked to him yesterday, he told us that, like, you know, he really.

I would. How about this? I'd vote for not talking to anybody. Yeah. Just show up for the game and broadcast it and be objective. I did a couple NBA games when I was at ESPN. I remember one time we had a Lakers game, and they weren't very good, and we talked to D'Antoni. He was the Laker coach, and what was.

I never done an NBA one. Is it you're in person or.

I actually really enjoyed it.

They're amazing, dude.

They were.

They're so.

They're so candid because they want to win you over, but it's all stuff you can't really use, where he's like, ah, this fucking guy. You know? Like, all right, I. I can't use that. Um, I don't know. It was fun to talk to him, but it didn't really color how I announced the game.

No, but if you get a story, so, like, I told you, that DJ reads story about, you know, he's saying that Roger's like, that's a cool story. I don't care if I don't have that production meaning.

But it's, I think, where you really get it. Cause I'm convinced this happens with Roma, where they tip him off, like, first quarter. Just watch out for a trick play. Cause we think Friday's also usually red.

Zone and special teams. And you get to go to practice if you're not doing it virtually, you get to go to practice. I don't know if everyone's going to the practices those years, but, like, it might have all changed during COVID but it used to be you get to go to practice, so you'd have see what they're doing in the red zone, and then that would actually usually happen in the actual game. So you're actually getting practice.

I guess so. I'm going to. I'm going to adjust my take. I'm sure it's worth it, but as a viewer, I'm always annoyed when they do that. We talked last night. We talked to him yesterday. We talked to him on Friday. It's like, just fucking give me the info. I don't, I don't care. I'm not taking notes. It's like when the people report so and so sign an extension. His agent at so and so agency did the extension. I'm like, I don't fucking care who did the extension. Yeah, I barely care that there was an extension.

Yeah. And I was gonna find out. There's an extension tomorrow at 09:00 a.m. anyway.

Oh, who, like, is there a quiz where I get to guess what agents.

That's it.

What ages did it? But back to Brady, though.

I was gonna say one more thing about.

I think he's gonna be good.

I do.

I actually really do think he's gonna be good.

He was super, like, locked in that conversation. And then the NFL comes to this thing as well, because they have to go through the rules, and one of the NFL executives was there and was talking about the dynamic kickoff, and Brady was like, oh, oh. So, like, I've got thoughts on that, too. And, like, he had, like, 20 minutes, like, with this NFL executive, and it was all great. It's all about football, but, like, passionate and I don't know, I'm seeing social media, and Brady's at, you know, the Michael Rubin stuff, and he's doing the, he's doing the boat racing. And I'm like, is he? No, this dude is dialed in. So at the very least, you're getting commitment, and I think he's going to be great.

I have more of a question of if he's going to last the year.

As in, like, does he want to do it?

No, I'm just never convinced that that guy's done playing.

Fascinating.

Turn the fuck. Turn the. 47 years old Cameron Kyle.

Let's go. We're in person. I just talk camera on. I think it's 47, dude.

I don't care. I don't care. I think he's still in shape. I think he's always ready to go. And if anything happened to one of the quarterbacks in the top six teams, I'm just. I refuse to believe he's retired is my point.

Fascinating take. I think he's done.

I don't. It's not a take. I really, truly believe this.

So, like, I'm not putting a team out there.

No, no. I don't want to put bad juju. I'm just saying, if it's a team that has a chance to win the Super bowl and there's a heaven can wait situation where something happens, I think he would come back.

Based on knowledge or just your gut here?

I'm just saying I think he would.

Come back if you're that team.

I think up until he turns 50 years old, I will always believe there's a chance he will come back, because I think these guys are all wired the same way. Boxers, you know, actors, rappers, these dudes that have really had, like, achieve great stuff. And once that switch gets turned off, the only way you stop doing is if your body's not cooperating anymore. I feel like you literally can't do it.

He looks great, dude.

He's in shape. He looks great because he got super skinny there for a little bit, but he's not super duper skinny.

I was with him about a month ago. He looked fantastic.

Yeah. So, anyway, I never believe that guys are done unless their body definitively tells them they're done. And you can't tell me if you put, like, two glasses of, uh, maybe Jagermeister infused almond milk or whatever the fuck he'd be able to drink. You can't tell me, like, hey, Tom, do you think you could be one of the seven best QB's right now without a training camp? I guarantee he thinks he could.

Here's my counter. And tell me if I'm too much of a tv fox guy. Whatever I'm implying, played by the Super bowl year. He's calling the Super bowl. Does he bail on that?

Oh, I thought you were going to say, can he call the Super bowl but play for one of the two teams? Trying to figure out. No, but I guess he would have to have the headphones on the sidelines.

I'm saying, like, I guess even if I don't know if he's eliminated, he could probably go back up.

The odds of a QB on a top five team getting hurt in, like, November, December. Pretty low. But it does happen.

It happens.

I'm just never, I'm just saying, for the rest of the 2020s until he hits 50, I'm not counting on him coming back. It's not a take. I genuinely believe this.

Crazy.

It's you. I don't think these guys can shut it off. I just definitely think Jordan would have kept playing if his knees didn't. Just, like, his knees, like, died on him. He just couldn't but play come back.

And he had all this offseason to come back, and he didn't come back. Why would he do it now? He's watching football. He's in the flow. It's Sunday's routine. My thought was, and this was last year, but now I'm convinced that he's. He's all in and everything. But, like, my thought was, I'm not.

Saying he's done all in.

I was saying, my point is, a.

Team is nine and one, and their QB got hurt and he's staring at it, and they call him. I know that he was ready to come back for that. Niners last year, that was a true story. I'm not 100% positive that that happened. And that was less than a year ago that he was like, hey, Shannon, if anything happens to Brock Purdy, I'm right here. That was nine months ago. He would come back if it was the right team. I'm not counting him out, by the way. Peyton Manning would play again if it's fucking network networked. I also think these guys only retire when something's wrong.

I think Peyton actually plays a role in this. I think Brady's the most competitive motherfucker there is. And the fact that Peyton, for the last three years, is winning emmys and it's heralded as the greatest thing to happen to sports media. I think Brady wants to the best at that, too. I think there's still a fire there also. Like, all right, I got the number one job at Fox. I'm calling the Super bowl. Let me show you what I can do now. I kind of like that storyline of like, all right, here's a ten minute clip of the Omaha musical. Okay, that's Peyton. I'm calling the Super bowl, dude. And I wonder if there's a competitive fire between the two of them there. Look, he had it really good. He could just chill in Bakers Bay, Bahamas, and play on the beach. And he doesn't need to be in Cleveland week one. He certainly doesn't need to be doing Green Bay Chicago.

If it was a seven game run.

You'D say, get out. Get out of the booth and get suited. I mean, can you imagine? Could you imagine and pick a team? I don't know. It's fun.

It's a great, I'll say this, out of all the great players that have retired and this happened, I guess there was like, they always talked about John Havlicek and the Celtics. He retired after his 16th year in 1978.

How old was he?

And he was, I think, like 36, 37.

Okay.

But everyone was like, he was in amazing shape and he would play with the team every while for the next couple years. And there was, when the team got really good again, they were kind of.

Like, yo, Hondo, could you, at 41, could you?

And he easily just could have come back and kept playing. But he was like, nah, I already retired. It was a different era. There was way less money at stake.

Well, dude, I look at to is 50 something right now. But like, we have him on the show. It's incredible. And he's like, I want to still play.

Tyson. Tyson.

Same thing.

Guys fighting. Yeah.

Happened yet. When is that the pole, brother?

Right. I think that got that guy pushed back again.

But like, to comes on good morning football. He's 50 something years old and he's in the most amazing shape and he's like, I still want to play. And everyone, it makes a headline every time. He's like, I can still run a four or five.

I think when you hit a certain point of greatness, you never think you're done. You never think you're done unless your body like, you, you know, it's like I was one of the great blue guy pickup basketball players, you know, in the LA area and your body wouldn't cooperate anymore. And I knew it. And you just, when your body gives out. I don't think Brady's body is giving out.

No.

He was to the bitter end. Really good. So anyway, I don't know.

It's a good topic.

I think if we're going for what would make this like the greatest season ever? And it's like somehow Brady ends up on an NFC team with seven weeks to go playing mahomes, going for a three peat.

That'd be insane.

And then the world, I feel like an asteroid would just sit there.

Well, the world might end in November. Not on either way, but, like, that's how that's gonna.

So are you like, so because this, this happens like with the Chiefs.

Yeah.

You're like kind of an honorary chiefs like, you just kind of, you're kind of in. You're, like, adopting the crew. You went to KC for comedy stuff.

Yes. And they. I do this big slick event with them and I, you know, we auctioned off an incredible chief experience, which.

But you're not from Kansas City.

There's nothing to do with it. I have nothing to do with it. I was early on Mahomes.

Yeah.

Casey fans love that. I picked them early to win their first Super bowl when they did it after, you know, the Mahomes second season, whatever it was. And then, you know, Paul Rudd's a Brooklyn guy. We became friendly, and then he's like, why don't you come to this event? So now I'm at this, this Kansas. I'm like Kansas City royalty because I pick them to win and they win. And I'm like, so bullish about it. So last year, they were the five seed, and I, like, with a ton of arrogance, and I was on your podcast doing the same thing, and I'm like, they're not losing to the bills. I don't care if they're on the road. Like, they're going to beat the bills. And they did. And I'm like, they're not losing to the Ravens.

And they barely beat the bills.

Kansas City, like, of course, but they win. Kansas City fans and I, we've hit it off. But it's interesting, the Chiefs as an organization, like, I did this whole thing today predicting them to win. I called it a Chiefs pete, not a three Pete. It was great. Blah, blah, blah. Everyone's tweeting it. Chiefs organization, like, they're not that way. Like, they wouldn't repost, that they wouldn't celebrate. They wouldn't be like a thumbs up. Shrigs, like, that's not their thing. That goes to Clark Hunt, that goes to his father, Lamar. It's like their social media presence, as creative as their content people are, it's like they are not boastful. They are not that way. And it's almost like we're just gonna take care of our stuff. And the win that I talked to Andy and spags about this the year afterwards, the win that they were so proud of their team, and Ted Cruz was the old pr guy, not the Texas senator is a pr guy, who's now with the Bears. Story is coming somewhere, I promise. They, they had the Cincinnati Bengals game the year after they lost to the Bengals, and it was burrow head.

And then the mayor of Cincinnati came out and it was like, talking and no one said anything from KC and then Casey wins and in the locker room afterwards, they were so fired up cause they wanted to talk so bad and they just didn't. And like the team was so proud. The organization was probably like not a single thing publicly. Mahomes, they were, they hated that Bengals team and they hated the fact that the Bengals were puffing their chest and thought they were going to go in.

And that's very patriot esque.

It was Mike Hilton who's not Joe Burrow or Jamar Chase, but it was Mike Hilton running his mouth and like not a single Chiefs player.

The Pats, as it went on with the Pats, they started getting a little more feisty about that. Cause I remember who was the Steelers, was it Ryan Clarke who was the Steelers d back? No, it wasn't ran Clark. It was somebody, let's think.

I'll get it.

The Steelers d back who talked shit about Brady.

Really?

And then Brady just targeted him, torched him. Was it in that shit, one of the playoff games. Shit, 20 years of Pat's history is somebody. But they just, they were like. And then Brady ran up to him after. Yeah, Brady really, like when we got to 2010s, he loved that shit.

Brady loved that and that was his motivation. And it's like, oh, someone else is picking against us. And you know one thing with Mahomes, he sees and reads it all. I know that he sees and reads it all. And the NFL Network does this top 100 list that is like, oh, Tyreek.

Being one, Tyreek won.

Lamar being ready to head to him. He was number four on the list.

Was that. The players did that though, right?

Players vote on it.

And I, but that's the thing, like we players shouldn't vote on anything.

You can't be mad. It was voted in November or December of last year and Tyreek was voted number one and Mahomes number four. Remember they were the five seed in the AFC. But trust me, when Mahomes was, was ranked third and Lamar was ranked one like that fired him up. And I know for a fact that Mahomes sees that he's number four on the NFL 100 player voting is.

They did this in the NBA. That's how the MVP used to be decided. It was like in the fifties and sixties and they finally were like, we got to fix this. It's like you just got agendas. You got people voting against somebody who's a rival against their teammate, having enough.

Ex players who've done it. They're like, you know, the people come in with the list, it's after practice, it's November. It's like, I just. And, like, we hold it like, as if it's, like, the most.

Or they might not even know what the list is. They might think it's for, like, MVP for that year.

That list.

If you have a list with Lamar over Mahomes, Lamar over Mahomes, you almost have to set the list on fire. Yeah, and Lamar is really good. But come on.

I know, and that's what I say.

And, like, Mahomes is up here and here. And then we got the rest of.

The week one because defensive coordinators can't sleep at night. And he says, unbelievable. Fine. We put another quarterback over Mahomes.

He sees that Tyree can't be one when his team traded him and then immediately won the next two Super Bowls.

Yeah.

And I'm a Tyreek fan as well. This was fun. We'll have to keep doing this during the season.

In summary, Seattle, we both like Denver. You kind of, like, I'm sort of in just because of jets.

Jets and Seattle seem to be. And Jacksonville and Jacksonville. And then we're a little worried about San Francisco. I'm more worried about Cincinnati than most.

Oh, Cincy. I didn't have them in the playoffs either.

I just.

What about Dallas? Where'd you come out on Dallas?

Oh, I'm out. Thumbs down.

What about Sal?

Well, Sal is not a reliable narrator. You don't want to go.

Is he, like, excited about.

He's high every year. He can't. You can't take.

All right.

You can't take his.

Belichick and Brady as media mavens. We'll see.

We'll know with Belichick after week one if he's.

You want Kirk Cousins to throw a pick and Belichick to come on inside the NFL and be like, totally missed the coverage.

I want him to be like, here's how the Steelers defense destroyed Kirk Cousins in week one. Here are the three things they did, and now here's what Atlanta has to do because the Steelers did this, this, and this, all the work. So Atlanta now has to do this, this, and this. If he does that, he'll be great.

Am I making a crazy stretch? I just. I mean, I pulled it out of my ass earlier this. I've really thought of it here, and I think it's good now. Brady might be inspired to be better than Peyton Manning at broadcasting. Is that a crazy take? That's me that's trying, man.

You know, I think ten years ago I would have been more into it. I just feel like Brady won. Yeah, it's like he just.

Manning's really good, though.

Manning's. Manning's been awesome with the media side. I'm just saying, like, the Brady versus Manning thing kind of is done now. Yeah.

You don't think he's watching the Manning cast every Monday night and like, uh, Peyton's. He's really fucking good at this. I could be good too.

I don't. I think Fox offered him a lot of money and really went after him and wanted him to do it. And that's fair, you know, he'll do it for a couple years and then he'll own the Raiders or be part owner. Right.

Yeah, whatever that is. I don't know how that's going to figure itself out. But the NFL, obviously, that wouldn't love him to own a team and also be in production meetings.

Good morning football is the show. You're still doing it? Still doing it on some zoom flying LA every once in a while.

Yeah, not zoom. We're in a studio, Kyle and I, which is kind of tricky. We're in a studio in New York City together, Kyle and I, in the flesh, but certain weeks.

Well, not zoom, but you're like on satellite. Satellite's the right word.

Yeah. And now it's actually interesting. And it's like a different approach to sports media. So from eight to ten eastern, we're on NFL Network. Then it re airs three times. So we're on NFL Network. Like we always were, just all day, whatever it was 22 hours show. Then we do a totally separate show.

Yeah.

For 2 hours afterwards for syndicated markets. 119 syndicated markets. Like, we're on after like Richard Bay and Judge Judy and like Jenny Jones. Like, whatever else is on the, like the Sherri shepherd show. And then it's like good morning Football and then on Roku. But like, I'm curious to see how it all plays out. But the thought is that this is a way that in the cable world, like the show can generate money as opposed to just with sinking subscribers on cable like that. These networks are just, you should turn.

That syndicated show into like what Kathie Lee and Hoda did, where you're just drinking. Yeah, just drink wine and Bloody Mary. It's just increasingly get crazy.

Kyle and I are in this studio together in New York and let's get crazy. And we feel like it's a really loose, actually airing all over. So I don't know. And you texted me a picture of the Roku home screen. You're like I like the Roku app.

Like, I'm pro Roku. I like Roku. Yeah, you're watching. I think Roku is a great app.

Roku. I'm in.

I really, I resisted for a while, as always, apple tv, but I'm a Roku person now.

I'm still a pay for cable guy.

I do that, too.

You do?

Yeah. We're about to watch chiefs. Ravens will be watching it on spectrum.

Yeah, let's do. Do it.

Let's go. All right.

For you real quick, and then we'll wrap you. Just give a little bit of a taste on the Netflix Vince McMahon thing because I saw the promo today, and I know your listeners are freaking out.

Oh, the trailer. Yeah, yeah. It's September 25. It's six episodes and it's all at once.

And you had access to him?

Yeah, we worked on it for four years. I don't. I don't want to give away too much, but, you know, it was, it's.

The first day of the NFL season, and I got more text about this series on Netflix of Bill Simmons doing a Vince McMahon piece on Netflix than I did anything about NFL tonight.

It's. We started working on it in 2021, and there were a lot of twists and turns. I don't. I don't want to hype it. I don't want to. I just.

It's.

It's going to be hard to not watch the next one when you're watching the first one. It's one of those.

All right. And they drop all at once.

It's not the HBO drop all at once. You binge it out.

Let's go.

Yeah, let's go. Carve out the 6 hours I'm in. I had somebody watch some screeners, and they were like, I'm just gonna watch one or two.

They did the whole thing.

So I texted him. I was like, you're gonna watch at least four. So then he watched the first one and he's like, oh, my God. And he watched all six and 7 hours, like, didn't go out. And so hopefully it'll be that for a lot of people. But. But we spent a lot of time.

Working on it, so I love doing this in person, dude.

Yeah. Good to see you. Thanks, riggs.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

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Yeah.

Remember back in college when we just had the two channels and sometimes games would be blacked out and there would just be one game on and we would be like, what the hell? Why aren't there more games? Like think how far we've come since we were in college. It's just incredible.

We've led a charmed life. We had Michael Jordan in our lives.

We really have.

Well, had LeBron James in our lives.

Yeah, we've had great basketball players. We've had a Team USA resurgence. We've had just incredible. I've won six Super Bowls, Tom Brady's in our lives. I won four World Series, two NBA titles, just in the Stanley cup. You won a Stanley cup? Like, we've had a lot of good.

Stanley cup and a World Series.

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Well, that was the. When Washington was bad. Washington.

Right now Washington's good. There you go. You can watch every game, including Washington, every Sunday when you bundle NFL Sunday ticket YouTube tv sign up today@YouTube.com b's local national games on YouTube tv and if I'll send a ticket for out of market games. Excludes digital only games. Device and content restrictions apply. Million dollar picks week one, as always presented by FanDuel brought in my buddy Joe house as the conciliatory this year I like having people to bounce my bets off. The funny thing about this jobhouse, I'll send you packing after three weeks. If it's not working out, I don't care if we've been friends for 36 years. If it's not working, it's not working. I go where the green is for million dollar picks. Are you psyched are you ready to roll? How you feeling?

Well, you've sent me packing before, so it's not like anything that I wouldn't be used to. I'm pumped. I'm ready. I mean, we're coming off of a banner season last year on our weekly picks pool, what we do on ESPN, I did kind of dominate. I did finish, you know, like 40 games above 500 against the spread last year. So I'm ready to do my part here.

And I had a big, big, hot stretch on million dollar picks last year after really hitting rock bottom. And I looked into the mayor house and I said, you know, instead of blaming other people, blaming quarterbacks, coaches, bad lines, stupid. I. I gotta look in the mirror. Maybe it's me. What can I do more? What's wrong with my process? And I had a really strong last ten weeks in the playoffs, and one thing that we've noticed over the last few years is you and I tend to gravitate toward the same types of teams and bets that we like. So we're gonna run through a whole of these. We're gonna a whole bunch of these. We're gonna try to do groups, and the first group is stay away. So these bets are not gonna come up. And feel free to stop me at any point in these, but these are just ones that I looked at, I didn't like. It's too early. I want to see the team for a week. The Lions, fishy. Dallas, Cleveland. I just want to watch both teams. I want to see what's up with Deshawn. Don't you feel the same?

I know you like, you like Cleveland a little bit, but I just don't want to bet on Deshawn in week one.

So I did bet on Cleveland and Deshawn for week one, but it was early in the summer when Cleveland Washington getting points at home. Dallas was the favorite. That line has flipped, and Cleveland is now favored by, I think, a full two points. So I like being on the right side of that.

You can hedge it the other way. I'm sure. I'm sure we'll screw up the hedge. We always screw up the hedges. So I'm staying away from that.

The pass rush against that. That Dallas offensive line, which is the worst offensive line, I think, since Dak has been there. That's what I like. I like that Cleveland pass rush at home.

Colts. Texans. I love the Texans this year. This line is a suspicious two and a half, and I'm just. I'm staying away. I feel like I have too much invested in the Texans. It's a revenge game for the Colts. Richardson's all over the map. I don't know what to make him stay away. Bears, Titans. I want to watch both teams for a week. Do you have a sway on this one? Either way or no.

I think the line is too high. I don't know why the Titans are getting four and a half. I would be fine if it was Chicago by three or two and a half.

Yeah, feels like it should be three and a half. Yeah, it feels, stay wish bucks. Washington is a game you like. Washington's getting three and a half in Tampa, and you don't understand why the line is that high. I have some answers. Everything is new on the Washington side. I don't know what you're getting with. We should mention Washington's your favorite team, the Washington defense. I want to see how bad it is for a week. Tampa's got a little, nobody believes in us where it's just they made the playoffs last year and everybody's kicked in the curb. It's a stay away from me. You like, you like DC just a little bit here, right?

Tiny bit. I'm not gambling on that game. I, too, I just want to watch it and enjoy it. I want to watch Jaden Daniels do his thing. I want to see, you know, some semblance of organization, some semblance of discipline, getting rid of all the dumb penalties and the dumb mistakes that I had to live with the last 20 years. Come on, Dan Quinn. Let's go, baby.

Well, you've done, and I've known you a long fucking time. You've done something very interesting with this Washington team. Like, we, we've been in fantasy drafts. You didn't want to go near Jaden Daniels. You have a lot of eggs in the basket, and you're shockingly optimistic for somebody who's, you've been very honest about Alex Saar. You know, like when the, when the Wizards will take weird draft picks, you, you're just like, immediately like, I don't trust this. But with Daniels, you've been very coy. I feel like you're way, way in on this, and you just don't want to admit it.

Well, it's not the admit part. It's the superstition aspect of it. Like, the last time that we had a quarterback with these credentials, a lot of similarities to a very exciting, electric player who could do things with his legs. And honestly, Jaden Daniels throws the ball as a rookie better than RG three could throw the ball as a rookie. So I'm, I'm very over the top for Jaden Daniels, but I want my optimism to be guarded because I need my guard up. As a Washington fan, you know, it's.

You've been hurt. That's what.

True story.

You've had some bad sports relationships. Oh, Vetchkin worked out that was a win.

He did. Congratulations.

And he's gonna work out. Saints. Panthers. That lines moving toward the Panthers. It's now three and a half. I think we all like the Panthers. I don't think anyone likes the Saints, but that's now. I'm staying the fuck away from that fine Seattle. Denver. We all love Seattle. I'm a tiny bit scared of Denver with this Bo Nicks and Peyton, and they feel like a live dog to me. A lot of people run on Seattle, including me. I have them in multiple bets that lines five and a half. It's in the Vegas zone. Half of me wants to parlay Seattle and put them with another team, but I think I just want to watch that one. Do you have a feel either way?

For sure. I'll be looking for ways to play Seattle on the money line.

That's now you. Now you even give me more conviction. It's just Denver goes up seven, nothing and g, no threat. I'm staying away. I just want to watch.

Seattle is the offensive line. I'm all the way in on every other aspect of Seattle. That offensive line is a TBD to be determined. So let's see it. Let's see it first.

And you talked on East coast bias about the Bo Nick's rookie of the year odds. And who knows? You know, everybody's just. Caleb is basically even odds for rookie of the year. Your guys, six to one. Harrison is getting drafted the highest I've ever seen a rookie get drafted in fantasy drafts. I was in three in the last three days. Bo Nicks, who's like 25, who was in college for 100 years, who's got Sean Payton. I want to watch that for a week. Now, this last one was the final cut for us for a million dollar picks. And it's a bet you like a lot. It's the Vikings and the Giants. It's, it's a home game for the Giants. They are somehow underdogs. And I heard you say this on east coast bias. You like the Giants. I'm just telling you, on million dollar picks, we don't bet two terrible teams against each other. You can do that on your own time. You could do on an east coast bias, but you were pretty compelled by the Giants. So what, what was it?

Well, the case is basically Sam Donald on the road. And, you know, there is this undercurrent of thought that Sam Donald with Shanahan was able to, you know, because he was the backup in San Francisco, was able to address some of the things that was holding him back, but he is, uh, dreadful it, under every kind of situation and scenario. So really it was just the idea of the, the best aspect of the Giants is their ability to put pressure up front. And Sam Darnold under duress, um, even with all the weapons that he has. I, I just like the idea of it when it's basically a coin flip game and Giants at home. Um, that was the reason for it.

Giants feel like a halftime bet to me against bad teams where if they have a lead, then I kind of trust their defense and their pass rush maybe to bring the lead home. But I can't bet on Danny dimes. And I, to me, it's a, I don't blame you. It's okay. Okay, let's go to the bets. We, we actually do like, so million dollar picks. The format is this. We put a assigned number. It's fake money. We use the fanduel line.

It is.

Well, as far as the people know, it's fake money. But we do. We, and when I've gotten into trouble and I went back and I looked at some of the years and especially in summer, I get in trouble and I'm doing parlays and, and I just one team will screw up like two, three bets for me. So we're going to try to keep them more straight up this year. There is a really fun fanduel wrinkle that we're going to get to for week one, where you can double your winnings. Okay, any moneyline bet.

Let's go.

So any moneyline bet, and it could be, that could be favored, that could be underdogs. You just get to double whatever you want on it. We're going to be exercising that one. Use their 100% moneyline profit boost token, the games that we like. So we'll start with the tease. This is the only tease we have. I thought we'd only do one tease or parlay.

You just got through saying that. The exotic reason that you got yourself in trouble, we're only one.

One exotic. The reason I'm kicking it off is it's the Friday night game. It's this weird Brazil game.

Great.

But the packers line, which is two and a half against the Eagles neutral field, which is weird because I think just about everybody likes the packers more than the Eagles. Including me, including you. So they're getting two and a half. You can tease that up to eight and a half on a six pointer. And that allows us to then take the Bengals, who are minus eight, minus eight and a half. It's somewhere in between those. It's been bouncing around. Take the Bengals under three against the Patriots, a team that for some reason people just won't accept that this Patriot statement is going to be terrible, that they can't block, that they have the worst quarterback in the league. I have no idea if their coach can even be a mediocre coach. Must let great one say they have.

The worst quarterback in the league. You think Jacoby Brissette's the worst quarterback in the NFL?

Who's worse than him?

I mean, did you watch Bryce Young last year?

Would you rather have Bryce Young or Jacobi Brissette?

Well, you're, you're, you're doing right now.

I mean, this year you'd rather have Jacobi Brissette.

I don't. What's the case for Bryce Young?

What's the case for Jacobi Brissette? And do you know, in the 2020s, his career record is six and ten. This is for the decade. He's 18 and 30 for his career. And I think he's, you want to.

Know Bryce Young's career record?

Bryce Young's career is bad. All right. Well, he's fine. He's in the conversation for worst quarterback in the league. And then, and then they're front four, which I think actually would have been good with Barmore and Judah. Both those guys are gone and the Bengals chase is coming back. But that, have you noticed there's been some buzz on the Bengals side? That line, that line was down to seven and a half at one point. Now it's back at eight and a half.

Right.

So packers plus eight and a half. Bengals minus two and a half is the first one I have circled. Talk me out of it.

I'm not going to. I think the packers leg is especially compelling. I hate this game. I hate this game being in Brazil. The Eagles are losing a home game against somebody that they're going to be competing with for one of the top seeds in the NFC. I think it's bogus. And I don't know why the NFL chose Brazil. Like, not great stuff happening there really, since the Olympics. But set aside the socio political aspect of it, it's, I didn't realize cable.

News 10 hours away, like, no, it's ridiculous. Come on. Don't take a check from anybody. That's what I said. I said in last week's pod. I just feel like Saudi Arabia is in play or Abu Dhabi.

No.

Goodell will take a check from literally anyone.

I think you're right. But handicap wise, you and I are in agreement. I think the Eagles and the packers are close, and so getting any kind of points on the packers side is positive to be. The big unknowns for both teams are their defenses, both teams with new defensive coordinators and especially the secondaries. Because the.

Well, the Eagles. The Eagles, I would say is, yeah, the Eagles, I'm a little more worried about from a past secondary standpoint. It's weird. I could see a bunch of snares in this game and none of them are the packers losing by double digits. I can see them blowing out the Eagles and us being like, holy shit, the Eagles. Whoa, where's this going? And I could see really close game. It feels like a one score game to me.

Well, I do like, I do like on the Eagles side, all of that offensive weaponry that they bring to the table. I love Suquan, you know?

Suquan, that's what you're calling him now?

Suquan D's nuts. Yeah, that's right. Here we go, baby cheese.

We graduated from college in 1992. What are you doing? All right, so tees, packers plus eight and a half. Bengals minus two and a half. We are going to bowl that one next one. Well, we're cheating because I know you love this, as do I, but the Jaguars are Miami. I've already violated one rule, is that I didn't want to go overseas with any bets. And if we lose that packers, if the packers lose by like 20, I am done with overseas betting on million dollars, picks this up. This is my little tester. Another one I don't love is betting on these games when it's potentially going to be super hot or humid in Florida or Carolina. I just. We've seen those games go sideways over and over again. With that said, a Jaguars team that I really like, that I think is going to make the playoffs, a Miami team that I don't really like, that I don't think is going to make the playoffs. And then you look at Miami, no chubb. Noah Dubecum left, guards out, d backs are banged up. Waddle and Tyreek have had the flag next to him all week, but they're playing.

And then there's this Jaguars redemption season, eight and three last year, and then just all shit broke loose and Lawrence had all these injuries and this just feels to me like a Jaguar. I like the money line, too, but at the plus three and a half is a gift. I want to grab the points.

It's a full point inflated. And I think that's a function of how the Jaguars ended their season on that one and five tilt. You know, just the, speaking of weaponry, what, what the Dolphins bring to the table, here's the important thing. On the observation you made about these early season Dolphins games and the advantage they have. They're playing another Florida team.

Right.

Jacksonville's been practicing in it. They're ready for it, you know.

Right.

That, that corollary applies to just about every other team in the country, but not Jacksonville. So.

Yeah, it's like Jacksonville and Carolina. Maybe Miami would be the only teams that are like, I'm used to this weather.

Yeah.

What about, does your team count?

Tampa? Tampa would be in there. My team close. Yeah. But we're, we're even right now about eight or nine degrees behind Miami at the moment. So it's going to be humid down there.

We've come to visit you many times in DC. There was one time Jack O and I came and it was still the hottest I've ever been. And I've been in Vegas and Arizona and all these different places and we tried to walk around and go see the Capitol.

Yeah.

And we were like, honestly, die. I thought Jacko was going to die. In fact, I think he might have. I think he died. It was reincarnated.

90% humidity.

But Jags, I just like the Jags more than Miami. And if you're backing them for the season as a possible ten win team this again, they have to win in Miami. They lose this one. It was like we had some injuries. Sorry, wake up call. Here we go. All right, so we're marking that one down. Next one, the Cardinals are in Buffalo. This line also seems a little too high. It's, it bounced around. It got down to five and a half. Now it's back up to six and a half. There's cheap touchdown potential, which I love, where they could be down ten, 1112. They get like the last three minutes of the game. Touchdown. I think their offense is going to be move, moving the ball the whole game. I like getting points, getting more than four points with a team that has a good offense and I'm not sure what to make of this Bills team yet. And, you know, this is probably my biggest regret of the over underpod taking Pittsburgh over Buffalo as my last playoff team. But I was so scared off by the, by the Bills defense and some of the uncertainty.

They have 60 million in dead cap space and, you know, them relying on rookie receivers and guys who were third receivers last year is like major third down weapons. I like the cards to hang around in this game. Where do you stand?

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as you. And, you know, here we are starting off another season with this Buffalo defense with Matt Milano on the shelf, and you sit down just in. If you want to put on some, some blinders and think about the impact of Milano on that defense, the splits between when he's on the field and off the field, you can get a very good perspective on it. And so there's just a lot of question marks on the Buffalo defensive side.

Plus, well, their whole secondary is different.

Right, which brand new.

Maybe it won't be that much worse, but it's a complete reboot. And from a pass rush standpoint, in the middle of the pack, you did it.

Pass rush, you just did it.

Pass rush, you did it.

Well, there's some good trend stuff out there, too. Kyler Murray getting six points or more. Eleven and five against the spread. Josh Allen, not great as a favorite. Josh Allen when, when favored by four points or more. 816 and 125 times 16 and one. So we just love the backdoor cover action for this. I mean, a nice backdoor week one. That's great. Way to start it.

I like the cards weapons. They were popping up in all the fantasy drafts I did. Yeah, they had, they must add five guys had actual money spent on them. Trey McBride was probably the number three tight end in any draft. I was in the. So there's some good Arizona bets here, and I want to talk this out with you. We could just take the six and a half. We could also get super ambitious. Take the money line plus 215 and then add that fanduel thing to it. So it would actually be plus 430. That's on the table. There's an alt. A couple all bets we could do. We could pull Arizona up to eleven and a half on Fanduel, go with the overdose, bring that down to 42 and a half, and that's basically even money. -103 we could take Arizona to plus eight and a half. So it basically has to be a two score win for Buffalo. Bring the over to 39 and a half and that's even money. So you could say Arizona plus eight and a half, 40 points and up, we win. Or just take the six and a half, call it a day.

My preference at this stage of the season. I mean, there, there will be, and this is kind of a recent development, a bunch of unders. Unders will be the prevailing story here. You know, we are now in this era of quarterbacks sitting out the entire preseason, a whole bunch of teams had their quarterback. So you'll see across the board now the old, the counter to that is the new kickoff rule. And what impact will that have? You know, will it make scoring easier?

But see, I think it's going to make the scoring go up, don't you? It feels like the field position is going to shift up. That's why I like.

How do you do that? Measure that against kind of some of the other factors about early in the season. I think Arizona is going to try and run the ball. I think that's part of their strategy here. So I'm inclined to stay away from the total and just grab, grab the points because they know they can't defend. They have the worst defense in the league personnel wise. Gannon is not a big dummy. I actually is so impressed with Gannon last year.

Me too. The Eagles fans badmouthed him forever and ever. Then he turned out to be a good coach. All right, so we'll, we'll stay on the plus six and a half. Okay. There's one more bet that I thought was fun. Arizona wins with the over 49 and a half. So it's basically Arizona wins 27 24. And that's almost five to one on fanduel, plus 474. So I like that one. Had that one marked down. Okay, two more. Pittsburgh in Atlanta. Pittsburgh. This has been two and a half. Then it got to three. It was stated three for a while. And now Pittsburgh is plus three and a half in Atlanta. And I think there are five people that like Pittsburgh heading into week one, just in general, and I'm definitely one of them. Craig Horlbeck, my rewatchables producer, host of the fantasy football show. Even he's out. He's like our offensive lines in shambles. Anyway, make the case for Pittsburgh and we'll see if we agree on this.

Well, it's very simple. The best head coach in the NFL over the last 20 years as an underdog is Mike Tomlin. And we're going into a situation where there are question marks. Yes, on the Pittsburgh offensive side of the ball, but there are question marks galore on both sides of Atlanta. Under what scenario is the Atlanta offense with the weapons that you see on paper, ready for primetime? How would we know that Kirk Cousins is going to be able to come out and be effective in any way, shape or form. They're going up against the top five defense. Here's the thing about this game that to me, just sets it up perfectly. That when I sit down and put side by side the units and compare the units, we're comparing units here. B's that the Pittsburgh defense is absolutely, positively, unequivocally, so much superior to anything on the Atlanta side of the ball. So you're giving me Tomlin as a dog. You're giving me this Pittsburgh defense that is ready for battle, and we're going up against a whole bunch of unknown. I mean, Atlanta's gotten the benefit of a lot of popsicles sucking this offseason, the prohibitive favorite to win the NFC south.

Well, congratulations. It's time to play football. The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming to town, and Mike Tomlin has heard people badmouth in the Steelers all summer long. Let's play the football.

The funny thing is, I told house before, like, hey, we're gonna do guest alliance. Let's make it seem like it's one of our phone calls. Don't get too excited. Pittsburgh's that nobody believes in us team. That's clear. Nobody believes in Pittsburgh. People have shit on them for the last three weeks, to the point that they were one of my favorite picks for them to make the playoffs, when my favorite zags, and even I had real doubt, was like, maybe I should take them. Buffalo. There's an Arthur Smith revenge factor.

Amazing.

Pittsburgh offensive coordinator. I'm guessing he knows Atlanta really well. Couple of them we should mention. Jalen Warren's hurt. I think we'll be okay. We have Najee Harris. You made the key point about Atlanta. So Cousins hasn't played in a year right now. You could say the same thing about Rogers, a guy that I really like, but Cousins actually got hurt, what, five, six, seven weeks later in the season, then, yes, then Rogers did. Pitts is hurt, but supposedly playing. Congrats. I looked up the Atlanta. Who are your receivers? Not named. Drake. London. It's pretty rough. Like, they kind of need a giant Darnell Mooney year. I've watched Darnell Mooney. I'm not sure that's happening. Um, but you made the key point earlier. I think pittsburgh's defense is the best in either conference. I think they have the number one defense. And I think this is a really tough spot for atlanta. I think there's going to be pittsburgh fans there. I think that pittsburgh defense, which has no injuries that I could find, is going to be fucking fired. Up. And cousins is a 500 quarterback. That's who he's been his entire career is a 500 quarterback.

So I just. I like the spot for the steelers. Djdeheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh. Get a lead rust, no turnovers, maybe two deep shots to pickens downfield. But other than that, just, just steer the car.

That's all. That's all.

Just drive the car. Asking for kamala right now. Just steer the car. Kamala, just, you don't have to give a five hour podcast interview. Just steer the car. Steelers plus three and a half. I love it. There's some alt stuff, you know, you could do pit money line with the under 47 and a half, get over two to one. You could do pit up to four, four and a half, under 51 and a half, even odds. But I just like the plus three and a half.

I like that, that money line, an under combo. I think that's a pretty good one. Money line and under 47. I like. I think that's pretty.

Yeah.

Enticing.

Well, speaking of quarterbacks coming back from achilles injuries, the Jetse in San Francisco Monday night. That line has moved all over the place. I think it was at six at one point. It went down to four and a half. It went down to four. It went down to three and a half.

Three and a half. Yeah.

Now it's bumped back up to four and a half. Cause iukes back. Trent Williams playing. All of a sudden I'm just in on the jets especially. Like it's a healthy jets team and I think they can win the game outright. I think it's going to be a bloodbath. And I, there's so many stats against the Niners this season, the Super bowl hangover, the fact that they're, they've had this window now that's now been a few years. Right. They had unbelievable health luck last year with their best offensive players. McCaffrey's already, you know, limping around. We don't know where we're getting from him yet. Their rest schedule stuff is really bad. Their division is going to be better. And it's one team that I think is like kind of a dark horse, maybe even amidst the playoffs, but definitely, maybe not win the division everyone has in Pennsylvania versus a team that I think is going to win their division. And I like the jets and I wish I didn't because it feels like a sucker bet. Jets plus four and a half. What do you think?

So I'm scared of this game now. I had a lot stronger feeling about it and it seemed like Trent Williams wasn't going to play. But now I like the jets very much. I on East coast bias in our AFC east preview couldn't believe that I was advocating for them to win the AFC east. But I believe that to be the right position. I just against this San Francisco team that now feels like it might have a little bit of. Nobody believes in us.

No. Everyone's picking them to win the division. Well, best odds in the in the NFL. I don't think they qualify.

Okay. All right.

I think it was more about we don't have IU could or met Trent Williams but now it's like we have everybody. We're fine. Here we go. I just don't like that.

That's what makes me nervous.

Like we like we kind of are.

They're good.

First round pick got shot right before the season started. Like the stuff adds up where it's like I don't like the. I don't know.

That's just mojo stuff. I want to see the Jets. I want to see that jets offense. When's the last time we saw like three great jets drives that that's. Let me see. So that I'm in a stay away mode now. Like that number on four and a half like prime Vegas zone. I just don't want to get involved. I like the case for the Jets. I like the jets defense a ton. And I do think, I mean we look like pretty. I don't know. We're not going to overdo what we saw in the preseason. I didn't love it, but it's the preseason so I do think Shanahan's going to have some great scheming for that jets defense. I do trust Shanahan much more than I trust Bobby sala.

Big shot Bob.

Big shot Bob. But I just want to. I'm going to stay away from this one.

Okay. Well, unfortunately you're on million dollar picks. We're not staying away. I feel like that line should be three. I feel like that line should be three and it's an extra point and a half and I'm taking it.

Okay. That's okay.

That's where I bed mentally when. When I do better versus where I don't do as well. If I'm just looking at the line and it just seems off like that. I really genuinely think it should be 49 ers by three. I think they're even teams no people. So we'll find out. Okay, last one that we like, the lions three and a half over the Rams. And whats beautiful about this, Fanduel? Double your winnings in any moneyline bet. Special is we can bet on this lions -198 and double what we win. So the bet is the moneyline is -198 if you win, you win $100 back. Were doubling that. So now were basically making this an even money bet on the lions. You know what, as the colonel James once said, thank you, Eddie.

Thank you, Eddie.

Thank you, Eddie.

James lock of the week.

Thank you, Fanduel. We're doing the Colonel James lock of the week.

All right.

Thank you, Eddie. Thank you, Eddie, for helping us out. We're going to take the Lions minus 198 that we don't have to deal with the hook. I do want to follow this year. That hook, though, that minus three and a half, being afraid of that. All right, here's the pick where we argue about, because there was one more game I liked and you were violently against it and we'll probably not do it. But I love the Chargers minus three over the Raiders. And you love the Raiders over the Chargers. So what's the Raiders case out of curiosity?

Just their defensive line and the pressure that I expect them to be able to bring against a guy that hasn't played any preseason snaps because his foot was banged up. And no, no noteworthy weapons on offense. Um, a bunch of no names. Um, I don't like the idea of Herbert Limited in any way, shape or form with Max Crosby running free, and he's going to be running free because they have Christian Wilkins now. And that to me, is a scary proposition. If I thought the Chargers could try and establish the run, could run the ball, then I would say, okay, let, let's try to make the case here. But these guys are going to pin their ears back and they're going to go after Justin Herbert and his beautiful flowing locks. And I'm worried. I'm worried for the Chargers. I'm worried for all the Jim Harbaugh enthusiasm this week, one might be a dose of cold water.

I'm so excited that you called him Jim Harbaugh and not John because you've dropped about ten johns on east coast. Like the Jim John Harbaugh thing.

I'm going to do it.

I'm bad with my pronunciations. You're way worse than I am.

Well, I just, I'm just going to call him hardball and it doesn't matter if we could say if you. It's hardball will be right every time.

Which one's older? Is Jim older?

I feel like Jim's older. He looks older.

So just call him old. Old Jim and young John.

Old Harbaugh. Young Harbaugh, old.

Young. Yeah, I completely disagree. I think the fact that the Raiders beat them 63 to 21 in mid December last year and got everybody's ass fired, and I just think. I think older Jim is walking around the locker room. He probably put the fucking box score up on the chalkboard and was like, hey, remember that? Remember that one? So here's what we're going to do. Because we. If we violently disagree, that becomes a stay away, but we're going to call it the argue pick. We probably need a better name for the argue pick. Keep track of these. So our first one is Chargers minus three. This is gonna be a separate bucket. There's no money. And we'll see how it goes when we violently disagree with each other. But here's what we do. Million dollar picks, week one. All lines from Fanduel sportsbook. We're gonna bet 200,000 on each.

200,000. That's the number.

Let's go see how this goes. We try to keep it simple for the most part, straight up bets, but we're gonna allow ourselves one exotic and then Fanduel's helping us out with the. Thank you, Eddie. Bet. First one, Jaguars, plus three and a half in Miami. We're big in the Jaguars. We're not big on Miami. Trevor Lawrence, comeback season.

Trevor Lawrence, comeback season he's my only.

Fantasy QB in the draft that I've had with my high school and college buddies since 1990. The Jim Grady Rob Stone crew. Trevor Lawrence, that's it. That's how much I love Trevor Lawrence. Jaguars plus three and a half. 200,000 cards plus six and a half against the Bills in Buffalo. We like the Cardinals offense to hang around some cheap touchdown backdoor potential. The backdoor is always open.

Joe House backdoor is always open.

Cards plus six and a half. We're going to take Pittsburgh. The nobody believes in us. Pittsburgh Steelers and the best unit, not only in this game, but maybe one of the best units in the league. Pittsburgh's defense, Mike Tomlin, King of the underdogs, plus three and a half in Atlanta. We don't trust the Atlanta Falcons yet. Plus 200,000 on that. The jets, the only one. Joe House was a little, but I think I'll talk you into this by Monday night. Jets plus four and a half against San Francisco. I just don't like San Francisco's offseason and all the drama, and I think the jets are focused. This is, to me, a I like one team way more than the other team. Line should be three. It's four and a half. I'll take the points. Okay, two more. Fanduel gave us the thank you, Eddie special and said, any moneyline bet, if you win, you double the win on the bet. So we took the lions -198 at home against the Rams. We don't have to worry about the points. Just go do your thing. You have all your games indoors this year. You should be the number one seed in the conference.

This is a team that almost beat you in the playoffs. Do your thing, Detroit. Right?

This is it.

Show us. What do you got? What do you got?

You know, you know, Trojan is a sponsor of East coast bias.

Is that true?

This is my. It's true. Yes. I mean, I think it's very wise that you don't let me do the ad reads.

Yeah.

Or maybe not a sponsor, but they might have had to send a couple.

Emails about that problem that Joe has to the ad.

But look, this is the way I feel about that pick.

Yeah, we love the lines. Lions minus 198, you double your win. So if you bet 200,000 on this, which we are, and we win, guess what? We're in the positive on the actual win. It works out to like 203,000. Last one, one exotic. A tease. Packers teased up to plus eight and a half in Brazil. We'll see how that goes. Teams not allowed to wear green, teams not allowed to tweet. A lot of smog all day. Yeah, it'll be fine. We think it's at least a close game. Packers plus eight and a half, and we're going to tease that with the Bengals minus down to minus two and a half against my beloved New England Patriots. Am I too down on the Pats?

I just want to say, for the record, it'll be the funniest thing of week one if the Patriots beat the.

Bengals, and I'm like, back in, I just do my classic 180. I'm going like, I knew it.

It'll ruin everybody's survivor pool.

Yeah.

I mean, and look, that, that defense, I know they're down Barmore and Judah, but it was still, you know, you get Forbes back, right? Like, still pretty good defense.

It's, it's going to be a disaster.

Likes to come out and play with their food.

Week one play with Bengals this year, Zach Taylor is like, maybe I should take the preseason a little more seriously. Had the people in padst was having people hit like put played people in a preseason game. Packers plus eight and a half, Bengals minus two and a half. Both have to cover. Put 200,000 on that. And those are the million dollar picks for week one. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Peter Schrager, thanks to Joe House. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Ceruti, as always, for producing. Don't forget you can watch all the clips from this podcast on the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. Don't forget you can watch the trailer for Mister McMahon, our Netflix documentary coming out September 25. It is six parts, and you can watch that trailer on my Twitter feed, on my Instagram feed, on Netflix's stuff. So go check that out. And don't forget about Ringer WNBA, which will be covered on the Ringer NBA show, the Ringer WNBA show premiering on Friday, so check that one out as well. I will see you Sunday night with the cuz reacting to the Sunday night schedule and guessing round two lines, I cannot wait.

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