Welcome to the Thunderdome: AFC North Preview

[00:00:02] Sports Reports As Ordered, Michael Wilson/Rafeal Ruttley

[00:00:33] Sports Reports No Gimmicks No Clowns 2-5 Mr. Logical We Run This Town We'll Talk Only No Chaser No Doubt From The East To The West It's The Order We Shout It's About To Go Down

[00:00:59] Yes! It's Friday Night Y'all! The Sounds In Your Ears A 2-5 Sports Reports As Ordered Be Sure To Check Out Your Boy Sunday Night On The 300 Pounds Of Sports Knowledge With William Martin More To Come On That You Know Do Me A Favor Out There Get Ready You Know We Go To Talk About Some College Football We Go To Talk About Some AFC North Mr. Logical Will Be Here Shortly

[00:01:25] So In The Meantime What You Could Do For Me Is Like Review Subscribe Share Rate Do All The Free Things Do All The Good Things Hopefully You Got A Liquid Death In Your Hand We Are Everywhere That You Get Your Podcast Just Like Say Less Say More Let's Get It So After Waiting For So Damn Long

[00:01:47] It's Finally Here College Football Is Upon Us And I Know It's Week Zero So There's Some Of Y'all Out There That's Like I'm Here For Texas At Ohio State I'm Here For LSU At Ole Miss Well You Can Wait I'm A Watch I'm A Be Here Watching Games All Day Tomorrow Right? Because I've Been Waiting All Off Season For This So We Got A Couple Of Things Going On

[00:02:12] You Know We Started Things Off In Ireland With Bill Belichick Going Up Against Sonny Dykes In TCU Now This Is Going To Be A Crazy Game Because They Already Talking About Wet Conditions And If You Remember The Last Couple Of Times That We've Seen Games Over There Whether It's Been Florida State Georgia Tech My Knowles Started Out Top 10 Georgia Tech With The Long Field Goal In The Fourth Quarter

[00:02:37] Georgia Tech With The Long Field Goal In The Fourth Quarter 24-21 Victory And Then Of Course Last Year Kansas State Who I Was Very High On To Win The Big 12 They Succumbed To Iowa State And It Just Kind Of Set The Tone For The Whole Season And It Did The Same Thing To Florida State Right? That Was The 2 In 10 Year Coming Off The 13 And 1 Playoff Snub So Be Careful TCU TCU Is Breaking In A New Quarterback By The New Quarterback By The Name Of Jaden Craig You Know He's Been Getting A Lot Of NFL Height

[00:03:05] He's Transferred In From Harvard TCU From Everything That I've Been From Everything That I've Been Hearing For Spring From Spring Practice And Just All From Spring Practice And Just All Over The News Is That They Can't Hold On To The Football They Can't Catch The Football Outside Of Jordan Dwyer Who's Going To Be His Number One Target

[00:03:20] North Carolina On The Other Hand Had Some Coaching Drama In The Off Season You Know That Led To You Know Some Issues With Lombardi And Steve Belichick So You Know I Think That North Carolina Has A Medium Chance To Win This Game Because I've Seen The Spread At Seven And A Half I've Seen It That Eight And A Half I've Seen It This Are mal shipping Last Year In Their Head Asyer Because If You Remember Last Year

[00:03:45] North Carolina Came Out Scored The First Touchdown Of The Game And Everybody Thought It Was Off To The Racist Right Bill Belichick One Of The Greatest Coaches Ever Was Probably Considered The Greatest Coach Ever Before Tom Brady Left New England With The Lead So Turnover After Turnover Gio Lopez was ineffective, so on and so forth. Before you could blink, TCU walked out of there with a 48-14 win.

[00:04:15] I don't know if we'll get that this time. You know, TCU's got some questionables, you know, as far as players that might miss the game, some big players that they're going to need. You know, now North Carolina went to expect. You know, no Gio Lopez. You know, Max Johnson is gone. Enter in Billy Edwards Jr., who started out his college career at Maryland, had a pretty decent freshman year, transferred to Wyoming,

[00:04:42] transferred to Wisconsin, and had an okay start to the season. Things were looking on the up and up for Wisconsin. He got hurt in the, I think it was the Alabama game, he got hurt, and then it all just kind of went to hell from there for the Badgers. And you know what I mean? So he is looking for redemption, a fresh start. North Carolina's the perfect place to get it. You know, right now, I think it's just too big of an ask, you know,

[00:05:09] because Sonny Dykes, I think, is going to start doing some of the things that he should have been doing a few years ago. You remember they made the national title game with Max Dugan, where they got beat by Georgia 65-7, and they were just tossing the ball all over the place, Quentin Johnston and the gang, you know. So, but now, you know, Kendra, you know, Kendra, the running back, I can't think of his name right now. But anyway, you know, now as we, Kendra Miller plays for the Saints now.

[00:05:38] But anyway, so then as you peel it back, TCU might run a more pro-style offense, which I think is a benefit to them, because as we were talking about a few weeks ago here on Sports Reports is ordered, the Big 12 is actually morphing into a running conference now. You know, gone are the days of the air raid and 4,000 yards every quarterback, right? You got guys like Avery Johnson. You know, you got guys like Devin Dampier.

[00:06:08] So, the Big 12 is taking more of a tough running stance. TCU, or sorry, Texas Tech is leading the way with that as the flag bearer of the conference. So, when I think about it that way, it makes me wonder if North Carolina has the quality depth to stop TCU. Like, they have a good enough defense, I think, with a guy like Bill Belichick running the show that they could give TCU some problems.

[00:06:34] I just don't know if they have the quality depth to hold up over four quarters. So, I'm going to go with TCU to win this game, and I'm going to call it along the lines of 27-17. So, I do think that they cover, but I think it's just a little bit harder than the experts think and a little bit harder than last year. Then you got an ACC game that was supposed to take place in Brazil and not even be a conference game. You know, that's NC State in Virginia. Now, these schools don't play every year,

[00:07:04] which is a shame because they got history. They go back, Tobacco Road, all that good stuff back in the day. The same thing happened with Wake Forest in North Carolina a few years ago back at the Sam holidays where they would just schedule each other and it would serve as an out-of-conference game, but it was because they wanted to preserve the rivalry and play each other. I respect that. But now the ACC has this stupid schedule that, what is it, 14 teams,

[00:07:31] you know, I'm sorry, 13 teams are going to play nine conference games and five are going to play eight conference games. So, this is one of those scenarios where now you flipped this out-of-conference game into a conference game. So, last year, you know, these two teams played and it was a bar burn up and down the field. Pinball. 35-31, NC State walked away with the win,

[00:07:59] which served as UVA's only ACC loss of the regular season last year. Obviously, they made it to the ACC title game and lost to Duke. So, there's your incentive for NC State to win this game. I'm sorry, Virginia to win this game is because they're coming off that loss to Duke that left a bad taste in their mouth. I know they had a bowl game, but I'm focused on the regular season. You know, they had that where they were this close to winning the ACC title and they just couldn't pull it through.

[00:08:29] Whereas, NC State, on the other hand, has the schedule that you could only dream of. Last year, Virginia did benefit from the soft schedule, if you will. You know, they didn't have Miami. They didn't have Clemson, so on and so forth. You know, whereas, NC State has that schedule this year. So, NC State getting off to a win in this game can propel their season forward. And maybe you see them as Charlotte at the end of the year.

[00:08:55] Now, Dave Doran, the head coach at NC State, has never lost to Virginia. He's 4-0 lifetime against them. You know, so Chandler Morris, the quarterback that led Virginia to 11 wins last year, gone. What is Virginia, right? Because last year they came through, crushed all the buildings, but prior to that, they were 11-23 in Tony Elliott's career prior to last season. So, now what do you do? You know, you got Chandler Morris gone.

[00:09:25] You know, Trail Harris is gone. You know, the other two leading receivers gone. New running backs. New quarterback, right? Bo Pribula coming in from Mizzou. Has he learned how to throw the ball? You know, he was functional at Missouri because they had Ahmad Hardy and Noah Roberts. They were able to run the ball and keep pressure on defense. And then Pribula was able to add his legs and just make, you know, passes every so often to keep the defense honest.

[00:09:54] But I think to win this game and for Virginia to have success in the long term this season, I think he's going to be able to display that he can throw the ball somewhat. Now, you know, NC State on the other side, they have one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC, C.J. Bailey. He might even be the best quarterback in the conference. I'll call him top four. But he could actually be the best quarterback in the conference.

[00:10:18] But what he doesn't have this time around is Hollywood Smothers, who is a Texas Longhorn. You know, they're bringing in new receivers. You know, Victor Snow and JoJo Trader from Miami, who had a lot of hype at Miami. Last year before Miami went on their run, starting the regular season, JoJo Trader was one of those guys that a lot of national prognosticators had as one of these breakout guys

[00:10:46] that was going to be making plays all over Miami. So now he has a chance with a new quarterback, what I think is a better quarterback than Miami had last year, Carson Beck. But Virginia in that game last year against NC State, 8.3 yards per carry, 257 yards on the ground. Their offensive line is made up of fifth, sixth, and seventh year seniors. So that's going to be a tough task for NC State.

[00:11:14] But Cam Robinson for Virginia is questionable. So that is huge for the Virginia defense. Virginia, as I mentioned experience-wise, has the most experience coming back by way of snaps. You know, if you're just tracking snaps that players have played prior to this season, Virginia leads the nation in that. So NC State's going to have a rough time of it. But I think C.J. Bailey is good enough to get this win. I saw the spread sitting there at four and a half.

[00:11:44] I'm taking NC State straight up. NC State straight up to win this game. You know, and I'm going to call this 30-23. You know, so that is slightly under from what I've seen. I think it was 53-and-a-half, so slightly under right on that line. So what I'm saying is stay away from the over-under because I don't know what we're going to see. Bo Pribula is going to emphasize the run. So you can see a lot of possessions in this game, punts and all that kind of stuff if it's not working.

[00:12:13] If it is working, then that means that Virginia is going to be chewing up some clocks so that under could be looking real tasty. You got my Seminoles starting the season tomorrow, bringing in New Mexico State. What do I want to see? I saw the spread at 32-and-a-half. What do I want to see? One, I would like to see Florida State cover the schedule. How about that? Second of all, I would like to see our new offensive line get pushed because we got SMU on Labor Day next week, right?

[00:12:44] So this is your tune-up to kind of get things in order, reevaluate where you are in the season. I need to see Chris Jones, you know, transfer linebacker from Southern Miss, lead the defense. You know, you have the DeSere twins. You have Ryland Kennedy that came in from Texas A&M. But I think Jones is the short tackler that makes everybody else's job a little bit easier with his presence.

[00:13:10] You know, Jabril Rawls, you know, had a great season last year at the corner position. The problem with Florida State last season was they couldn't get pressure on the quarterback. So against a team like New Mexico State, give me five sacks. At least five sacks. You know, Trey Wisner is in to join Usain Chroma in the backfield. Ashton Daniels at quarterback. I want to see a turnover-free game from Ashton Daniels. You know, he's going to be using his legs, you know.

[00:13:38] So if we are in a position, if Florida State's in a position where they're going to need Ashton Daniels' arm to win this game, then it's going to be a long season because that means that they can't push around a CUSA team, a bad CUSA team, coming off of the season that they're coming off last year with the head coach Mike Norvell on the hot seat. Right?

[00:14:01] Like, so in my best optimistic mind, Florida State's 8-4 this year. Realistically, it's probably closer to seven than five. You know what I mean? Like, realistically, you could be looking at five and seven because when you look at the schedule, it's rough. I'm talking about SMU on Labor Day night. Then you get a bye before you go to Tuscaloosa.

[00:14:27] You know they're going to be looking for blood after what Tommy Castellanos and the gang done to them last year, right? So then you get Louisville on a Friday night. The next week, you go to Miami Gardens. You still got Florida coming in at some point. You still go to Pitt when it's a little bit cold outside. You go to BC. Even though BC's not a good team, it's another cold weather game and where it fits on the schedule.

[00:14:55] So that's where it gets a little tough for the Seminoles, where they can have losses against teams that they should beat, but the schedule says otherwise just because of how it lines up. Now, I also want to see Nehemiah Chandler transfer a corner from South Alabama. I want to see because I think that by the end of the year, he could end up being the best defensive back on the team. You know, so I'm here for it.

[00:15:21] Let's go Noles represent and let's go get this thing. You know, Stanford in Hawaii. You know, last year, Stanford went out to the island and got beat. Mikey Alahado took him to school. You know, and like I said, that was out on the island. Hawaii ended up winning nine games last year, right? Where they do that at? Jimmy Chang at head coach.

[00:15:45] You know, Stanford had Frank Reich walking in who I don't want to call him a lame duck because to be a lame duck, you have to be in place to begin with. And then like Mike Norvell would be an example of a lame duck. But, you know, so it was a one year deal just to add some kind of stability to the program after they had to fire their coach Taylor, who, you know, was getting in trouble for abuse and things like that. So where to start?

[00:16:14] But Micah Ford has to be the answer here because rumor is that Stanford's got injuries on the line, you know, maybe a receiver or two. There's just a lot going on in Palo Alto. Now the game is on the farm. So I'm going to trust Stanford to cover this three and a half, but it's going to be tough, tough, tough. Then the game that I'm looking forward to that, you know, makes people think that I'm crazy or some kind of sicko because I'm excited for Memphis and UNLV.

[00:16:44] Why would I be excited for that? Because Coach Charles Huff has taken over the Tigers. You know, Coach Silverfield is a Razorback now as a head coach. Huff comes in from Southern Miss after the year after he leaves Marshall, takes half the team to Southern Miss with him, you know, is close to winning the Sun Belt with Southern Miss. And then, of course, he takes half of them to Memphis with him. So Memphis has about 70 new players.

[00:17:13] I also am excited to see Marcus Stokes because Aaron Nolan had the leg up in this quarterback race, right? Like he had the pedigree, the Ohio State high recruit, and obviously that didn't come to fruition. So he got beat out by Marcus Stokes. So I want to see this guy that beat out Aaron Nolan.

[00:17:37] Now Memphis has been one of the better G5 programs over the course of history and within the last, say, 15 years or so. I know Cincinnati made the playoff. You know, I know that Boise is obviously who they are. But Memphis has been consistent, you know, and that's throughout different head coaches to include Mike Norvell. You know, Memphis has always been on the brink of something special, but they just can't follow through.

[00:18:05] Now, what helps and hurts Memphis this year is that they don't have a power four opponent. Now we saw Liberty come up and they didn't have power four opponents. They get to the Fiesta Bowl and they get ransacked by Oregon, right? Well, Memphis doesn't play a power four team, so they could end up undefeated if all things go right because Coach Huff is that type of coach. You know what I mean?

[00:18:33] But at the same time, even if they go undefeated, you don't have that marquee victory. So not only does Memphis need to win this game, they need UNLV to basically win out, you know, which is a little easier for them to do because New Mexico's quarterback is out for the season, right?

[00:18:56] So as I look at the Memphis football schedule here, you know, they open up with this UNLV game and it's in Vegas. So that's already going to be tough. You're starting out the season on the road with a new quarterback, right? Then they get Arkansas State, which is a bit of a rivalry game of sorts at home. Then they go to Boise.

[00:19:18] You know, after they play Boise, they get some easy games, UT Martin, Charlotte, UAB before they go to Tulane on October 16th. So what I'm saying is, is that Memphis needs to win this game and they need other teams to help them out since they don't play that power four team. So they need to beat Boise who opens the season with Oregon. So Boise is more than likely already going to have a loss.

[00:19:43] So by the time you get to the end of the season, you need Boise to have that loss to Oregon, a loss to you and not a damn other loss on their schedule, right? You need Tulane, new head coach, Billy Napier taking over. You need Tulane to kind of run a little bit through the American, you know, maybe three losses at worst. You got at Navy, you know, who some people like myself are picking to win the American.

[00:20:08] You need to beat Navy and maybe Navy's only other losses to Notre Dame because you can't do it yourself without a power four team on the schedule. Now, when I look at UNLV, it's all in their face right now. Like I mentioned, New Mexico quarterback is out for the season. That was their number one challenger in the Mountain West outside of Hawaii and Mikey Alahado.

[00:20:29] Now, if Hawaii goes out there and loses to Stanford tomorrow, then UNLV better damn sure not lose that game down the road. You know, obviously, North Dakota State, who I'll get to in a second, is coming up into the FBS in Mountain West now. So that'll be another game that they'll have to navigate through.

[00:20:48] But as I look at this, UNLV should be in the playoff driver's seat because I imagine Boise is going to have a tougher time in the Pac-12 with teams like San Diego State and Texas State's offense to deal with, right? Problem. Who's the quarterback for UNLV? Jeopardy music. Jeopardy music ends. Jackson Arnold? Could we see Alex Orji?

[00:21:18] Do you trust either one of those quarterbacks to do a damn thing to help a team win a football game? Because I don't. Now, Dan Mullen is a very good head coach, so I think he'll find a way to make it work. And they got a big one with Cal down the road as well, UNLV does. So UNLV has the schedule to make the impact to get into the playoff. But it all starts with this game against Memphis tomorrow.

[00:21:43] And the way that I'm thinking about this is a 31-30 game that UNLV pulls out. You know, but if they lose that game, their season might as well be over. You know, Jackson State – I'm sorry, Jackson State. North Dakota State and Sacramento State are starting in FBS tomorrow for the first time. How awesome is that? North Dakota State brings in the Jacksonville State Gamecocks from Conference USA.

[00:22:10] And then Sacramento State goes on the road into MAC to play Eastern Michigan up in Ysplanty. Now, what's interesting about that for me is not necessarily the game within itself, but Sacramento State paying the way of all these MAC teams to travel out to California for the next five years. So that's how committed they were to this FBS move in the Pac-12 didn't want them. So from there, let the games begin.

[00:22:37] But just to recap real quick before we get into this AFC North preview. In the national title, Mr. Logical has Ohio State taking down Miami. I have Oregon taking down Notre Dame in the national title game. My conference championship picks, Oregon over Indiana in the Big Ten. Then BYU over Texas Tech – I'm sorry, over Houston in the Big 12. I don't got Texas Tech getting there. We'll see.

[00:23:07] Then you got ACC. I got Miami over Louisville. And then you got the SEC. I have Georgia. Georgia – and this is the one that I, like, kick myself over all the time. I got Georgia over Oklahoma. The SEC is hard to figure out this year because there's just so much going on. Like, what is LSU with Lane Kiffin, Sam Levitt, and Jace Brown? I love him. LSU's going to put up points.

[00:23:36] But the questions still remain the same from last year. Can they run the ball and can they stop anybody? You know, Oklahoma has the defense. I think they're going to have one of the top three defenses in the SEC. You know, can John Mateer stay healthy? Because when he was healthy last year, that was a Heisman candidate that you were looking at. And then once he had the thumb surgery, it just kind of dissipated from there. Alabama and Keelan Russell. I think Alabama's going to have a top three defense in the SEC.

[00:24:06] Now, Georgia is the standard of the SEC. Nine out of the last ten SEC championship games they participated in. But they're one of the younger teams in the country. Now, they're getting experience back because a lot of these young players played a lot of snaps. But they're young nonetheless. Texas, right? You know how I feel about Texas. You know, one of the biggest choking programs in the history of college football, if not the premier choking program based on expectations,

[00:24:36] based on what you know they have as resources. Based on how people view their job across the nation as one of the best jobs in the country, Texas hasn't fit that moniker in quite some time. One national title in my lifetime. And I'm not saying that you've got to win a national title all the time or whatever the case may be. But you can't be Texas. You can't be... You can't expect what Alabama did with Nick Saban, right?

[00:25:05] But they should at least be somewhere in that Ohio State realm where you expect them to win a national title. And they're around the national title. They're national title adjacent. You know, Texas has way too much talent coming through that program to not have won since Vince Young. You know what I mean? Now, granted, two years ago, they were in the semifinals. The year before that, in the semifinals. But everything after that, going back to Colt McCoy, not a whole lot to talk about.

[00:25:33] But Texas this year is going to be a team to keep your eye on. You know, if Arch can maintain the momentum that he ended last season with, that defense, I think, is going to be even better this year. So those are my top four SEC defenses. No order. Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama. And you throw Texas A&M into that conversation. Oklahoma. Those are the teams that I think are going to carry the defensive water for the SEC.

[00:26:02] So that's why the SEC, for me, was the hardest conference to pick who was going to go to the conference championship game. Now, when it comes to Ohio State, because I didn't pick them in the Big Ten title game, you know, I got them losing, you know, to a couple of teams. I got them losing to Oregon. You know, I got USC upsetting them. You know what I mean? Whereas Indiana, you know, I only have one loss going into it, and then they lose to Oregon.

[00:26:29] And then I have Oregon with one loss, which is the loss at Columbus. You know, so that's kind of how I broke that down. Now, as far as Notre Dame goes, we're going to have that same debate all year round. Should Notre Dame be in a conference? Should I respect them since they're not in a conference? And I say, if you want us to not respect Notre Dame in the way that we do, beat them. They're on your schedule. Handle your business. And they won't be in the playoff if enough of y'all beat them. But, you know, they do play Miami again.

[00:26:59] They get them at home this time. Revenge. You know they're going to be up for that game. They go to Lavelle Edwards Stadium to play BYU. And then, of course, they play SMU. So, Notre Dame is going to have their own challenges, if you will. But I still think that a 10-2 Notre Dame team gets in. Because all remember, all Notre Dame has to do. Yeah, I'm in the building. We're in the building. All Notre Dame has to be. Oh, he's in the house.

[00:27:28] It's the logical is here, y'all. Don't bring those feelings to these fact fights. Say that. I'm joking. But, you know, Notre Dame, beat them if you don't want them in the playoff. It's that simple. You know, we used to go through this with Boise State. You know, people used to say, they only play one game a year. And, you know, they get to the bowl game. And then they beat somebody. And it was all year. They weren't getting beat up every week. Beat them. And then we won't talk about them. It's that simple.

[00:27:59] So, we're going to get to this AFC North preview here. Mr. Logical's here. You know, Sam, we got some questions that we got to answer as we do with all these previews. So, let's hit the ground here, Mr. Logical. Pardon my tardiness. Pardon my tardiness. I was at my son's senior year first varsity game of the season. It got rained out yesterday. It was a lightning. The lightning was crazy. He basically hovered over the stadium.

[00:28:24] But I think it helped them lock in because I think winning 51-0 counts as a lock in. So, let's give a round of applause for the Northropshire Greyhounds. It was great. A lot of depth. I think we scored seven touchdowns by five different players. A couple of seniors, a junior, two seniors, junior, a couple of sophomores. Yeah, we was getting busy tonight. I'm proud of them. Thank you.

[00:28:53] A round of applause. There you go. So, Mr. Logical, taking it from the top. Can Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers recapture that magic? No. I don't think there's any evidence to support that they could. They had some time in Green Bay. It didn't go very far. Now they're in a tougher.

[00:29:23] They did win the Super Bowl now. All right. Now I'm going to say this real quick. My son just played his senior game. Like, senior year football game. He was one. He was one when they won that Super Bowl. He's a full-grown person now driving around, going to school, like, living his whole life.

[00:29:48] That's a long time, considering, like, the time they had in Green Bay. I think in Green Bay they were probably your odds-end favorite or your betting favorite to win the NFC North for all those years. Because we knew Detroit was kind of always, you know, always kind of sputtering. Chicago was up and down. And then Minnesota would have, like, very high highs and lows.

[00:30:13] I think Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers and McCarthy, they were, like, pretty locked in to be the number one team. And they still didn't really excel in those moments. When you had the advantage, now I think you're in a division where I don't know if you have anywhere near close to that kind of advantage. And like I said, Mike McCarthy just – I mean, like, is he a coach that you guys believe that can get guys over the hump? He didn't do it in Dallas. Nobody does it in Dallas.

[00:30:42] It's probably difficult. You got to do it somewhere recently for me to think that you could do it at your current location currently. You know, so I'm a little higher on the Steelers, I think, when we get to this. I think I'm a little bit higher on the Steelers than you are for a lot of different reasons that we'll get into. But how long until the Browns give the keys to Shadur?

[00:31:14] I mean, Deshaun Watson still has to have that same talent that got him through high school, college, and as early as in the NFL. It didn't go anywhere unless the injuries really slowed him down. That shouldn't slow your brain down. You should still be able to process and be light years ahead of Shadur.

[00:31:37] It's probably earlier than we think just because it's one of those – the Tim Tebow effect is now the new Shadur Sanders effect. The camera is going to want to talk to the backup quarterback more than want to talk to the coach, really. I think he has more cachet than the coach. I think the coach has cachet by position. So, if you start off – let's just say they don't beat the Jets week five. Okay.

[00:32:07] If you're looking at their schedule, I got the loss to Jacksonville. I got a loss to Tampa Bay. I got a loss home to Carolina. I got a loss to Pittsburgh. No slouch. You lose that game to the Jets, which I'm going to circle for them. But if you lose that game to the Jets, he might get one more week because it's Baltimore the following week.

[00:32:33] And if that doesn't go well, then I think you give Shadur his shot at Tennessee just because you and I have kind of – we're still kind of teetering on Tennessee. When we get to the AFC South, we'll get more in-depth on that. But that might be a winnable game for Shadur, whereas Baltimore potentially could kind of thrust him into this position where his confidence – I don't think his confidence is going to get shaken.

[00:32:58] But I think that might put him in a situation where he's putting bad film out there as well. I think you let – you lose to the Jets, and then if he loses to Baltimore after that, then yeah, I think the reins belong to Shadur after that. See, I think you touched on something. The talent didn't go anywhere, but the mentality did. You know, like as far as he just doesn't look confident. He doesn't look like he believes in his actions.

[00:33:28] So the thing that made Deshaun Watson such a great player was just his feel of the game, if you will. You know, like the touch that he had on the ball. Like when he knew when to tuck the ball, he wasn't like a, oh my God, the play broke down. I got to go. But he just kind of had that feel of knowing, like a certain IQ. And you know what I mean? Because he was never like necessarily in that class of like Trevor Lawrence, for example.

[00:33:59] He had a winning impact. Like he was winning plays. He might go for 234 yards, but he'll run for four first downs on the drive when you get a field goal to win. Right. And then the last couple of years that we've seen him, the offense has just kind of halted, you know, when he's on the field. Like, you know, even the game that he got hurt in against Philly, you know, they were moving the ball finally, but they weren't putting up points.

[00:34:24] So I think that for me, you know, because I think that sports teams and obviously, you know, they get handicapped by the money because he's obviously they broke the bank for him. So you can't sit him on the bench to start a season because you're paying him all this money to just sit around. Oh, much money. So much money.

[00:34:48] But I think that Shador is better at this point, you know, because I think that last year Shador came in under some of the worst circumstances that you could as a rookie, you know, because it seemed like there was a disconnect where the coach, either the coach or upstairs didn't necessarily believe in Shador in that way. Because Shador Sanders is a better quarterback than Dylan Gabriel. I don't need to blink on that. I don't need to think about that. It just is.

[00:35:15] But for whatever reason, Dylan Gabriel was kind of Stefanski's guy that it seemed like he was trying to mold. The only problem with that is that this guy was in the same draft. And even though Shador went in the fifth round, you know, coming into the draft before the draft, before we got to that point, people had Shador as a top five, top 10 pick. You know what I mean?

[00:35:40] So as you look at this, there's no world in anybody's mind that you ever looked at Dylan Gabriel as that elite level of quarterback. So by the time Shador came in the game, besides the fact that, if I remember correctly, he got his first action against the Ravens, you know, which isn't ideal either. You know what I'm saying? Like, he was just set up to fail. It's just like I said, you and I are sitting in our houses having this conversation.

[00:36:08] I'm looking at the schedule and just I've never been a football coach, but I do know how people operate in tough environments. Why would I put a young guy into a pressure cooker for no reason? Either give him the week before or the week after.

[00:36:28] Like you said, the Dylan Gabriel thing, I believe someone's going to break their silence and say, yes, we all had a group text that said we're not going to draft Shador. Because we talk about like these guys making these deals behind closed doors. They've already come out and said that every owner in the NFL is like at gym. Like, yo, why did you give Deshaun is $230 million guarantee deal? We're not doing that.

[00:36:57] You got it, L.A.? Yeah, we're not doing either. Hey, Cincinnati, you doing it? No, we're not doing it either. We're not doing what Cleveland did. So I think they already kind of colluded in that position as well. So that story is going to come out later. But with Cleveland, Cleveland paints themselves in the corners when there's no reason to paint at all. It's like they can consistently put themselves behind the eight ball where it's like I don't know what their direction is ever.

[00:37:28] I know they traded Myles Garrett and they got younger, but I think they got lucky because they're dealing with a team that happened to be, hey, swinging for the fences. And the Rams have been one of those teams for the past few years that's been like swinging for the fences. Normally, you don't get that deal. In years previous, they should have probably built the defense around Myles Garrett, locked it in, and then kept it simple on offense. Like, listen, we haven't figured it out. Well, let's keep Baker.

[00:37:58] Let's get him weapons. And let's see what we can do as all these other teams are just kind of in the – I think they just weren't aware of what was going on around them. And it's going to backfire again this year and next year because I think Deshaun still owed money. So stay in there for a second. Is losing Myles Garrett the equivalent of losing an all-pro quarterback?

[00:38:23] No, because you have a young prototype that can fit right in. And I think Jarrett Burst getting up – I don't think he's getting up to 20 sacks in the next two years. But if he left this season with 15 and a half, it wouldn't surprise me. You know, even 12 – let's say 13 and a half sacks.

[00:38:48] That's still a lot of effort, a lot of pressure considering that that team – if we think about Cleveland the way we are, they're probably going to be behind very much like the situation last year Myles Garrett still was able to break the sack record. I think you're going to get 13 and a half, 15 and a half. You're going to pay him his money. I think he's going to be a staple. So I think that Jarrett Burst is a great player. I think that right now there's just something missing.

[00:39:18] So he gets to the quarterback, but he doesn't always hit the quarterback. But he's always right there. So there's just like a step off or a half a step too late maybe that he has to figure out. But he's always in the mix. And, you know, and he's a tough physical dude. This might be his year. This might be his year. It could be. And maybe being traded is one of those things where it just brings out extra gear in him.

[00:39:41] But I do think that for this team, losing Myles Garrett is maybe not an all-pro quarterback, but I think a top-flight quarterback from the standpoint of everything begins and ends with him. You know, because we saw Carson Swearinger last year step in, you know, as a rookie, win defensive rookie of the year. His job was easier because Myles Garrett was there. You know what I mean?

[00:40:07] Jarrett Burst is going to have to force these defenses to double him the same way that Myles Garrett did. Because, like, he's not a step down in the sense of you're starting over. Like, you could get much worse players to replace a Myles Garrett than a Jarrett Burst. But he is not Myles Garrett. All right. So, as we get into this mystological, here's my quick thoughts on this division. All right.

[00:40:34] So, Baltimore has the stability of the roster, but uncertainty at coach. Cincinnati has the quarterback, but uncertainty on defense. Even though they did some things to address that, we'll get into that later. You know, Pittsburgh, I think, has the defense, but they have uncertainty at quarterback. Because Pittsburgh, I think, is going to have a top-eight defense this year.

[00:41:05] Cleveland has the most uncertainty, but they're the biggest swing team. Because, remember, like, as we go back to last year, Joe Flacco led Cleveland to a win against Green Bay. You know, before he ended up in Cincinnati. Green Bay had a very weird year. Yeah, they did. You know, but that's the type of team. So, I'll say that to say this last thing real quick. Like, that game that you mentioned, you mentioned a game earlier when you were talking about Cleveland's schedule.

[00:41:35] But you didn't focus on the one I needed you to focus on. Let's hear it. If Carolina want to win that division, they better not lose that game. I put it like that. Yeah, but, I mean, the NFC South, like we said, we talked about it. Like, the 10-17 I picked out of NFC South could end up still being 7-10 just because.

[00:42:02] Like, they haven't got their quarterback squared away, and he is the heartbeat of the team. And I think he knows that he could probably still go somewhere else. So, like, there's a lot of problems in the South. So, I think with that division, the AFC North, I go with reliability. Like, I remember this movie I like called Snatch's character named Boris the Bullet Dodger.

[00:42:29] He was trying to sell guns, and he was like, heavy is a sign of reliability. He was like, if it don't work, you're going to always hit him with it. So, it's like, that's what the Ravens are to me. The Ravens can have problems at wide receiver. They never, I want to say never. The Ravens haven't had a wide receiver that they drafted that turned into a guy like D.K. Metcalf. They didn't draft a guy like the third or fourth round.

[00:42:56] Big guy that turned into, like, this all-pro type wide receiver. But they still always were able to make it happen. They keep solid tight ends. They're probably one of the only teams that were really incorporating a fullback. And then they just play good defense. Well, maybe not anymore. They have that reliability of the heavy gun. Like, yo, the bullet.

[00:43:19] Lamar Jackson's not throwing these bullets, but we can still hit you with this gun with the 240-pound running back that Dallas could have got for $16 million. And somehow Baltimore did. That's the thing that Baltimore has. The problem that they have is I think they're a lot like Buffalo in a way where you have a quarterback that's MVP-caliber quarterback. Obviously, he's won two. Should have won the other one that Josh Allen won, but Josh Allen won it. But, you know, it's either here or there. He still has a couple.

[00:43:47] And they don't have the playoff success that you need. But now you bring in rookie head coaches, but you still have the expectations of playoff success because you still have these quarterbacks. I think that's the biggest competition for Baltimore in this division, in my opinion. So, you know, for Baltimore, it was 18 years. 18 years. You know, John Harbaugh is now gone. Jesse Minter is in.

[00:44:14] And Mr. Logical hates it because the reason that I think Mr. Logical hates it is because when you go back and look at Jesse Minter, you know, he coached under John Harbaugh from 2017 to 2020. Then he went to Michigan to coach with John Harbaugh's brother. And then he followed John Harbaugh's brother to the Chargers. And now here he is taking over for John Harbaugh. So somebody like Mr. Logical would say, well, what really changes?

[00:44:45] You know, because it's still the same type of thought, the same type of philosophy you would think. Okay, now this is where it gets a little different, you know, so which is kind of funny, too, actually, now that I think about it, Mr. Logical, because when Jesse Minter went to Michigan, he replaced Mike McDonald as the defensive coordinator there. So kind of funny there. But anyway, a lot of guys coming out of Harbaugh, Ken. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:11] So where it gets a little different this time around, though, is at offensive coordinator, Declan Doyle, 30 years old. So for the first time in the NFL, Lamar Jackson is about to have an offensive coordinator that's younger than him. Now, the good thing about that is maybe that's some kind of innovation because where did Declan Doyle came from? Well, last year he was on the coaching staff in Chicago.

[00:45:40] So Ben Johnson, disciple maybe, forming here. He coached other places before that, but that's his most recent place. So now I wonder about that because you brought up the fallback. You know, Ricard is gone. So I think Baltimore is going to abandon that and look more modern in that way and not necessarily employ a fallback. Now, as far as Derek Henry goes, to your point, he's 10th all time in rushing.

[00:46:09] I think by the end of this season, he can get up to number six, you know, possibly number five. You know what I'm saying? If things go in a certain way. Now, Baltimore last season was interesting, right? They started off with that collapse in Buffalo that we talked about. And then Lamar got hurt. You know, then Matabuke got hurt. Matabuke, he got hurt. You know, Roquan Smith was battling some stuff. Humphrey got hurt.

[00:46:39] Like there was just a lot going on around the Ravens last year as far as the injury and the medicals. You know, they get these players back. Maybe not Matabuke just yet. You know, he's doing some stuff. But the neck injury, I think that's going to be a casual, a slow, casual process. I don't think he's going to be ready week one. But Roquan Smith probably had the worst season of his career last year. Picked it up late but started out bad.

[00:47:06] But with all that being said, we were sitting here and the Ravens were something like four and six. And we were sitting here on this show arguing about whether the Ravens could win out and make the playoffs or not. Oh, man. I was adamant against it. Yeah. I mean, you ended up being right. You ended up being right. But all they needed was a field goal against Pittsburgh. And they would have won out and made the playoffs like I thought they were going to. So it was that close.

[00:47:34] Yeah, like my argument didn't allow that margin of error. And I thought that it wasn't even going to be close. Well, I just thought it was a schedule thing. You know what I mean? I just thought that they benefited from that late season schedule. And so when I think of Declan Doyle bringing it back to the Ben Johnson point, we were arguing about Chicago and Caleb Williams.

[00:47:58] So now can you imagine empowering Lamar Jackson to do Caleb Williams things? You know what I mean? Where like we think of Lamar in that sense of running the ball, his speed, you know, the pressure that he puts on defense is that way. But what if I actually just use him on boundaries to misdirect the defense and dump the ball on the other side where somebody's wide open up the sideline?

[00:48:26] Lamar Jackson not running play action bootlegs with deep over routes. Like I'm taking any wide receiver on my roster that ran a 4-2 anywhere in the 4-2. I don't care if they're the seventh wide receiver or not. Like, listen, dog. I'm going to put you in here on this left side. Lamar's going to play action hard to the left, roll hard out to the right.

[00:48:55] He's going to throw the ball as far as he can. Just use your speed, track the ball, and catch it. Like I just – I think he got caught up for years in the hype that, oh, he can't throw from the pocket, can't beat teams from the pocket, can't pass from the pocket. And then he did, and then everyone was able to say, well, can't win the playoffs. And then he didn't win in the playoffs. So now all the pocket stuff was like, well, why do you keep throwing from the pocket? You should be doing this.

[00:49:23] Lamar should keep doing what he's doing already. And the offensive coordinator that comes in should just take advantage of the fact that you have one of the most dynamic quarterbacks with his legs since Michael Vick. But he also puts up Patrick Mahomes-like passing numbers. I don't think people really understand. I know there was always a speculation that, like, the way he threw the ball was odd. He didn't throw it on time. I was guilty of that myself. But then I started just kind of watching.

[00:49:52] It's like I think because he gets back to the spot way faster than everybody else. I think his seven-step drop, he's just there quicker. So it looks like he's not throwing on time. It's like, no, I'm throwing when these guys get open. And I think Lamar has shown for years that he's a good passer. He just has to be able to maintain that throughout the year and make a splash impact in the playoffs. And I think that's exactly it is that play-action portion of the game.

[00:50:20] You know, like, you know, that's what you could do. So Baltimore is in that Buffalo position of, like, you don't like to do Super Bowl or bust. But here they are, these teams that have a certain window. Because I think Baltimore might only have a year or two window left. You know what I mean? And even though they have a new head coach in here, I don't think fans are trying to hear that. You know what I mean? Because they're 3-6 in the playoffs with Lamar Jackson. You know, but they went out this offseason. And, you know, I don't know, right?

[00:50:50] You know, they went 1-4 last year, you know, in one-score games, including that game against Pittsburgh that I was just talking about. They bring Justice Hill back. You know, they tried to go get Max Crosby. And then he couldn't pass the physicals. So they ended up with Trey Hendrickson, which is not a bad thing. But Trey Hendrickson is still another year older. Not that he's, like, 35 or something, but another year older. Matabuike, like I said, is coming off the neck injury.

[00:51:18] You know, Hendrickson does have 39 sacks over the last three years. You know, I think Marlon Humphreys might be on his last legs. Last year was his worst season of his career. Time to play safety. Well, not quite yet. But I think they just need to put him back in his spot. Because last year they used him in the slot a lot. And he gave up the fifth most yards in the NFL as a corner. You know, and that's according to next-gen stats.

[00:51:47] But he still led the team in interceptions. You know, you got a guy like Kyle Hamilton who's just Army Swiss snipe anywhere you need him. They brought in Calais Campbell. So, you know, so that's where you get some more of that veteran leadership. But that goes back to the point of your window is like that. You know what I'm saying? Because now you're relying on these older guys. You know, I like Chandler Rivers out of Duke. He's going to be the new slot, I think.

[00:52:16] Nate Wiggins is going to be one of the best corners in the league in the next two to three years. They still have Chiboba Awuze. So, I think that in L.A., Mentor was forced to play a lot of zone because they didn't have the bodies that the Ravens have. Yeah. You know what I mean? The Ravens are going to be – he's going to be able to employ a different look. The only thing I don't like, though, is because the word on the street is that he might be calling the defensive plays.

[00:52:46] You know, he brought in Anthony Weaver as his defensive coordinator. Yeah. He brought in Anthony Weaver as the defensive coordinator from – you know, he's formerly the defensive coordinator at Miami. So, I don't know. I don't know. But I think that – Has that been successful? I'm trying to think of – I believe Belichick. Brandon Staley is the person I think of. That called the defensive plays? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:14] But Brandon Staley's problem was like he would always green light fourth down when he should not even – And, I mean, he did a great job with New Orleans last year, you know, so I got to give him the credit there too. You know, but I think that the Ravens, you're going to see tough football come back. I think you're going to see a lot of 12 and 13 personnel. Isaiah likely is gone, so Mark Andrews' health is going to be pivotal, you know, to their season.

[00:53:41] The one thing that I will nail the Ravens on as far as if this doesn't work out for them, and I don't mean Super Bowl, but just division, you know, expectations, is that offensive line. You know, Linda Baum's gone, and it was already kind of shifty, kind of not quite there to standard offensive line anyway.

[00:54:05] They got Ronnie Stanley back, so if he goes down with an injury at all, then all bets are off. You know what I mean? I think Jacoby Lane, wide receiver out of USC, is going to free up Rashad Bateman to do a little bit more because, to your point, the Ravens, for whatever reason, just doesn't – they don't go get Lamar weapons in that way in the receiver room. So, Zay Flowers had a great year last year that went under the radar because their season was so bad.

[00:54:34] But Bateman has been pretty much stand out here, play X, this is your job. I think with Jacoby Lane, that's going to free him up to move around a little bit more. And if you could use his big body in the slot, that could give your offense a different look as well. So, you know, now they end the season, you know, with the division games. So, you know, at Pittsburgh, home against Cleveland, at Cincinnati, and then home against Pittsburgh.

[00:55:02] But as we look here, this early schedule, Mr. Logical, sets up for a nice run for the Ravens. Like, if they're anything less than 5-1, and they should be 6-0 realistically. But if they're anything less than 5-1, it's going to be trouble in Baltimore this year. So, is your one Dallas? Or is your one New Orleans? Okay. It's Dallas, and that's an overseas game.

[00:55:33] No, I wouldn't say New Orleans. Like, if it was at New Orleans, maybe you give New Orleans a little home field there. But, no, not at home. I think also when we talk about Baltimore, I think we're just kind of used to, like, the nostalgia of their top-tier defense. So – And that's what I think you don't have this year. Yeah, I think if Mentor can get them to scheme properly, because we talked about the Chargers. I mean, yeah, you had Khalil Mack, you had Dermott and James.

[00:56:02] But they just had a lot of guys that just played well in the positions that he put them in. So, I think that bodes well for the Ravens. And you still have Lamar. A healthy Lamar is when deployed properly is a cheat code. Because if you look at 3-1, the entire stadium can think you're giving a ball to Derrick Henry. And it'll probably work.

[00:56:34] But just a simple bootleg action with Lamar Jackson, and he runs it for two yards. He's getting to the sideline faster than any linebacker. That's not keyed in on him. Like, if you're, like, spying Lamar and you are told, I don't care whatever happens anywhere else, you just watch 8, then maybe you can get to him on that bootleg in space. But even if you do, now you've got to get him on the ground.

[00:57:01] I don't think the Ravens took advantage of that as much as they could. But it's like having, it's equivalent of if they had the ball first and goal at the two-yard line, and, like, Derrick Henry never gets the ball. That would sound crazy. It would sound like a crazy fly. Like, yo, you got the ball first and goal at the two, and Derrick Henry didn't touch the ball for four plays, and you ended up turning the ball over in downs. That's how I feel about some of these plays with Lamar.

[00:57:27] It's like, you mean to tell me you couldn't just call, like, a little play to get him on his third and three, get a guy on the edge and just have him just scamper and get to three yards and then come up with the next play? Did you have to throw that post route to Zay Flowers because it was third down? Like, you know, so it's just a matter of, like, are you going to be willing to do that? Because I think as far as the talent position and, you know, the weapons that they have, I think they have an advantage over this entire division.

[00:57:55] Yeah, so then, you know, after that Cleveland game, which is at Cleveland, it gets a little rough. They get Cincinnati, and I feel like with, at this point, these division games for the Ravens don't matter. So, like, you know, when I look at the NFC South, I see a team going to New Orleans, and I'm like, that's going to be a close game or New Orleans is going to win outright. You know, you go to Seattle, I say the same thing. You know, you look around the NFL like, oh, you got to go to Mile High?

[00:58:24] That's going to be tough sledding. But when I think about the AFC North, I don't think about the games in that way because we've seen them trade wins on each other's fields. But this schedule gets real tough real quick after that Cleveland game. And you could argue that the Cleveland game is tough because Cleveland's been known to sneak up on Baltimore a time or two. But they get Cincinnati at Buffalo, Jacksonville, Chargers on Monday Night Football, so you benefit from the Chargers traveling across the coast.

[00:58:54] Go to Carolina and go to Houston back-to-back. So that's where it gets a little tumultuous for me. So I got the Ravens starting out 5-1. But then after 12, they could be 8-4, maybe 7-5. Yeah, I'm pulling up the strength of schedule 1-32. Then you get the bye week.

[00:59:21] You get Tampa at home, and then you get those division games to close out the year four in a row. So, you know what I'm saying? I think the Ravens finish somewhere. You know, at worst, I think they finish 9-8 at worst. And then, you know, at best, if things are clicking in that way and Declan Doyle is doing what we're talking about, then maybe Baltimore can find themselves 12-5 and maybe sitting atop the AFC.

[00:59:49] But I just think that that's too big of a range for me to trust them in that way. More on that later. But Mr. Logical is going to lose his mind if he turns on a Baltimore game and it's third down and they throw the ball to Justice Hill. I'm no defensive coordinator, but I know if you take Derrick Henry out, you're throwing the ball. I can bank on it.

[01:00:19] I wouldn't even look to the pass. It's almost automatic. I don't know what the statistician company that ESPN uses that finds all these obscure stats, but I'm willing to bet that if Derrick Henry runs the ball two, three times in a row and after the third time it's third and short and they take him out, they're throwing the ball to Hill. The defense knows it.

[01:00:49] I know it. And with that little screen action to the left, a little bubble action to the left, and get Lamar, use his legs, get out of bounds. I don't know. I mean, I said to myself, you know, self, and I told some other parents, I am a fan of football and I've been a coach. I played one year in eighth grade. I was not good.

[01:01:18] And I play video games. So I'm no head coach. So I'm just going to sit back and just watch. But if I'm on the Baltimore sideline on the offensive staff and you're literally sending out the clear signal to the defense that this is probably going to be a short pass out of the flat to Justice Hill on third and four, we got to be able to catch that. Because if I can pick up on it by just watching random Baltimore games,

[01:01:46] the three division opponents you have, even as dysfunctional as they are, monetarily, as far as quarterback desire, and then subsequently with this new old coach, quarterback combination, they're going to pick up on it. So you said nine and eight. I think nine and eight is a little, is a bit much just because I believe they have the, I think a new coach is going to play a little bit more conservative.

[01:02:16] And he has, they have real weapons in Baltimore. We've talked about them not getting like a top flight wide receiver. Most teams don't. They should be, they should have done better. Well, I think, but they, I think Baltimore, they have enough talent to win 10 or 11 games. I think Baltimore falls into that trap of, remember when Kansas city lost that game to Philly and it was like, Oh, they'll get it right.

[01:02:46] Then they were five and six and it's like, it'll turn around. And then like, you just kept waiting for something to happen. That wasn't, that wasn't there. I think that's where Baltimore finds themselves because we think of Baltimore in this way, like, because they've been so good for so long. They have those players that you're talking about. Like we, I think that we look at Baltimore through that lens of, and especially coming off of last year where a lot of it was injury based. So it's easy for us to go back and go,

[01:03:16] well, if that team was healthy, they're X, Y, Z, you know, not realizing that what I know, but, but, but not realizing that there's a lot of AFC going on because like, you know, you got the potentially three teams from the South. I mean, from the West, you know what I mean? I don't know how Kansas city is going to be, but I think LA and Denver are playoff teams. You know what I mean? Then you look at somebody's got to get in from the South. Maybe just one team, but somebody's got to get in. Then, then, you know,

[01:03:46] Buffalo and new England, I think for the most part, both had a shot to get in. So then those playoff sports spots start drying up a little bit. And that's where a game or two makes that difference. You know what I mean? And I think that we trust Baltimore in a certain way because of who they are and who their quarterback is, but, you know, but I don't know. We'll see, but let's get to the Bengals, you know what I'm saying? So the Bengals, you know, and here, here comes the bold statement of the year.

[01:04:15] The Bengals don't need Joe Burrow to be better. They need everybody else to stop wasting Joe Burrow. So, um, is Zach Taylor on the hot seat? I mean, you mean hot, like you could fry it, like you could sear a steak on it. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. That steak, that steak's damn near well done. A hottest seat is. I don't know how he's so hard.

[01:04:45] Only thing I can imagine is that if you were in that division and you looked at three teams, they got rid of their coach and you figure as a, Ooh, little there in city bling bling. Yeah. So you figure like, well, if we stay, if we stay in pat, keep our guy, that gives us an advantage of the head coach position each week.

[01:05:11] Cause we talk about who has advantage of head coach, who has advantage of quarterback, who has advantage in the trenches, who has better weapons. So I think if you figure, you know what, we got to advance your head coach. That should maybe counter out the fact that we're not always a top flight defense or even close to it. Maybe the, the, the scheme, the, the preparation for the week, people understand what's going on.

[01:05:41] The problem that I see in Cincinnati is that their franchise quarterback is one foot out the door. I don't care how you slice it. If you were in a relationship with, with Joe Burrow, and you were living in a nice high rise apartment, but he kept talking about how consistent, you know, how the comfort of a single family home on a farm feels. You're like,

[01:06:11] hold on dog. We live in a high rise condo. Why do you keep talking about a place? We don't live. And every time he talks, he talks about things that aren't happening in Cincinnati. I don't want, you know, you know, being here, you want to win. That implies that you haven't been winning enough where you are. Well, did he say something along the lines of, he wanted to have fun again or something like that. Last year was fun. This year is like, when,

[01:06:41] you know, a small window, I'm paraphrasing, but it was like small window, not opportunities. You don't get to play this game for this long. A lot of those things that aren't happening in Cincinnati. So he's one foot out the door already. And if he goes, if you, Shamar Chase is going to be happy there. So yeah, that's the problem. Well, good news for Cincinnati. Yeah. Good news for Cincinnati. I think they addressed a lot of that. So, you know,

[01:07:10] so as far as Zach Taylor goes, I think that the thought is one Cincinnati is a cheap franchise. You know what I mean? So they don't want to have to come out here and pay another head coach or somebody higher. There's high school teams in the state of Ohio that have indoor practice facilities like legit to protect them from the weather. And they stopped playing football.

[01:07:36] And most high school championship runs will call it first week of December. Best case scenario. Most playoffs probably start right now. We'll say playoffs start Halloween weekend and high school football across the country from California to Maine. These guys have an indoor practice facility in multiple schools in the state of Ohio and the Cincinnati Bengals don't. They play football into January. So what you're saying is that once the calendar turns November,

[01:08:04] you rather be at Kent state than Cincinnati. You might as well have not, not even Kent state. Manus, Manus Sola high school in Ohio that has like a Robert, the crosstown rival that gets 20, like 50, like 10,000 people to the game. They have indoor pack facilities and the Bengals don't like, that's what Joe Burr is looking at. He hangs out with other quarterbacks. He hangs out with other professionals. He's at the white party and long out in every year. It's like, he's,

[01:08:34] he knows what's going on in other places that he's not getting in Cincinnati. He's one foot out the door. And then I think the other part of it is if you're the Cincinnati leadership ownership, you look at things through the lens of, well, if Joe Burrow was healthy, you know, we would be a lot further along. So as much as Joe Burrow might be sick of us, we're sick of his ass being on the sideline all the damn time. So that could be something too. But I think Cincinnati has addressed some of that, you know,

[01:09:04] because last year they had games where they scored 33, 33, 38, and 42. They won one of those games. Yeah. One of them, you know what I'm saying? They were 30th in the league and points allowed per game. Mr. Logical, they gave up 28.9 points a game last year, 28.9 points a game. All right. This is what Cincinnati did. Mr. Logical,

[01:09:33] they went out and got Dexter Lawrence. They went out and got Jonathan Allen. You know, they drafted Cassius Howell out of Texas A&M. They went and got Brian Cook safety from Kansas city. They went and got Kyle Duggar. You know who at one point in time, remember he was all the rage back with the Patriots a couple of years ago. Kyle Duggar, you fall out of favor with the Patriots so fast. I know. So, so good players. So hopefully that means, Oh, I forgot a name.

[01:10:03] I'm sorry. I forgot a name. They went and got, um, boy, a mafia from Seattle, you know what I'm saying? From the Superbowl champs. So I think Cincinnati went out and actually addressed a lot of this stuff that you're talking about. Flash flood coming. Um, you know, the linebacker room is the question mark here. You know, Demetrius Knight and Barrett Carter, both rookies last year, got picked on, especially in coverage. You know,

[01:10:33] they couldn't stop anything missing a lot of tackles. You know, Shamar Stewart. Remember he held out. He was the guy from A&M that we were talking about. Could he actually go back to college and go through the draft again? Well, he played last year. He had one sack in eight games and then hyperextended his knee and he's still not necessarily healthy. So is he going to start the season? We'll see. But where Cincinnati did improve last year was in the defensive backfield. You know, Dax Hill, DJ Turner,

[01:11:02] Dax Hill in particular, you know, has a lot of talent and they were so good that they made Cam Taylor Britt expendable. So he's gone now. They went out and got to Cario Davis out of UW out there playing with Ephesians Prylock, you know? So Cincinnati, I think has done some things that could improve their fortune. The question is, is the quarterback going to be on the field? You know? So the other day we got some scary news, right?

[01:11:32] Jamar Chase. We thought that he did something to that knee. Hopefully he didn't. You know what I mean? Like, so Chase. We're going to have to be fine. Yeah. Chase Brown has become a matchup problem, you know, especially out of the backfield catching the ball. You know, there's a lot of teams that are going to have to track him. And you know, if you had him on your fantasy football team, you know what I'm talking about. They still got Sam P Ryan on third down. They got Todd Brooks that they're trying to implement and give carries to.

[01:12:01] I think that their offensive line towards the end of last year looked a lot better. So. So. I won't say that I'm all in on Cincinnati as far as being a Super Bowl contender, but they are live to win this division, I think. Oh, absolutely. I think anytime you have the weaponry that you have offensively and the, and the, the recent history that they did, like they were, you know,

[01:12:28] a couple of calls away from kneeling down and Joe Burrow hosting a Lombardi trophy. I know people love Matt Stafford, but I still, we all. It's not a conversation we have because people love Matt Stafford, but I mentioned on the show all the time that illegal contact was a bad call. That linebacker completely did not touch the wide receiver growing across the middle. He deflected the ball. They're fourth and seventh from the nine yard line. Matthew Stafford and the Rams without that automatic person, that first down inside the five.

[01:12:58] And I just want to know if that doesn't convert Joe Burrow's taking a knee with most of these same people, the Zach Taylor, T Higgins, Jamar chase on the field. He just has to not break a bone that keeps him out for six weeks. I think every quarterback gets sacked. I think every quarterback gets knocked down. I think every offensive line takes time to gel, especially when it's when you pass the ball a lot, 40 plus times a game. It's, it's just a line of your quarterback up. If he doesn't break a bone, I think they're fine.

[01:13:28] And I just want to know, you know what I'm saying? As much as I used to piss Mr. Logical off, I know I should have got a Burrowhead t-shirt by now, you know what I'm saying? But anyway, anyway, let's get to this schedule. So, so they, so they got a tough schedule to start, you know, a lot tougher than with the Ravens start with, you know, they get Tampa, you know, I think that's a win at home. They go to Houston, go to Pittsburgh, back to back. That is tough.

[01:13:57] You got to split there somehow. You got to split there. They get Jacksonville at Miami. So if they could be sitting at three and two, I think you feel okay. You know, going, going into the next stretch of games, which goes like this by week, then to Baltimore, then you get Tennessee and Atlanta, that Atlanta game, I believe is an overseas game on NFL network. But thank God we don't want that trustee over here. Yeah.

[01:14:27] Then you get a Pittsburgh at Washington, New Orleans at Cleveland. So you got to win at the very least. You got to try to win all those games and maybe you give up the Pittsburgh game. If you're going to like, you know, be, be a factor in the playoff race or the division. So we're looking at this schedule. And you said, this seems tough that week seven, through. So we go week seven,

[01:14:57] looking at my schedule to about 13. Yeah. It's the reason why as we rank the Cincinnati Bengals schedule, they are 30th. So they have is like, is Cincinnati. Thank Cleveland is the last. I told Mr. Logical. I told Mr. Logical three years ago when we started sports reports disorder,

[01:15:26] you got to check the schedule. But with that being said, I think their schedule is like that because they're playing at NFC South and they're playing the AFC South. Maybe. But the tough games are tough games. Yeah. Yeah. And then 11 and six is reasonable. Yeah.

[01:16:16] Division games at home. If I'm, if I'm, if I have 200, you know, if I have $300 to bet on three games, a hundred each game, I'm willing to bet a hundred each time. New Orleans has a home game because of division opponent. And I'm willing to take that. I don't think I'm behind the eight ball, no matter what the, the pundits say, just certain places have that kind of advantage. Kansas city, I think has that kind of advantage.

[01:16:44] Maybe not so much now because with the chargers and Denver getting a little better, but for years you can kind of bank on them winning that home game against their other three opponents, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, you're almost sort of at the window. So if you can be the one team that gets, if you can go four and two, any one of these teams end up four and two in division is probably going to be the team.

[01:17:14] Granted, it's pretty easy to say, but, but four and two, like the ability and the capability and the consistency to be able to go four and two is probably going to put you ahead of everyone else. In your division. Yeah. So I got Cincinnati winning the division. I think that the defensive moves are going to pay off. And I think the, the mafia move in particular is going to be the underrated one because he wasn't necessarily a starter at Seattle. He was just a part of the rotation,

[01:17:41] but I think now with this elevated role, you know, I think it gives room for him to take off. I like Allen and Dexter Lawrence, like Dexter Lawrence didn't have the best year in New York last year, but you know, like obviously like you were saying about the Sean Watson, the talent is there. So with the improved secondary, you know, if Cincinnati could just get to, let's call it. 16th best defense.

[01:18:11] That's a long ways for them. Like, as far as definitely top, right. Tier one, tier two at best. We'll put some right top, top five to nine in the league. Yeah. So if they can get that defense up to 16 or 17, cause you know, they were at 30 last year, if they can get up to just jump there. Like, cause I think that a lot of times when we have these conversations, you get to 22, you probably get the 10 wins. Well,

[01:18:41] well, I think a lot of times when, when people have these conversations, they think of it as like, you got to have this dominating defense and you know, you do when you have the Browns offense, you know what I'm saying? But like, but when you're like, a straight like bill for a quarterback in the super bowl, you need to have multiple hall of famers and the coaches to have the owners, right. And in the box making tackles. Yeah. Right. But a team like Buffalo, you got a Josh Allen.

[01:19:11] You can get away with having a top 18 defense or something like that. As long as you're not at the very bottom of the league, you know what I mean? So then, you know, saying let's go on over to the steel city. If you will, or actually my notes say, let's go to Cleveland. So let's go to Cleveland first. All right. So we, so we, so we talked about this thing called the decision. Cause nobody wanted to go to Cleveland. Oh, that's terrible. That's terrible. So, so, you know, Cleveland, right? So,

[01:19:40] all right. This is so, so here you go, Mr. Logical. This is my thought about the Browns for Cleveland to win the North. You don't need something to go right. You need about six things to go right. You know what I'm saying? So, so you need about six things to go wrong to per each other team. Hey, that might be it. You know what I mean? But, but, but you know, but, but like Cleveland has their things, right?

[01:20:10] So you look at this team and the problem with Cleveland is that they're young. Cause they went out, you know, obviously last year, Quen Sean Junkins was having a pretty good rookie year, but he got hurt. He broke his fibula, you know, Dylan Sampson, my guy, you know, he came in, played. Okay. Jerome Ford is in Washington now, but then you go back and look through the draft because Jerry Judy was their best receiver last year. You know,

[01:20:38] they cut Cedric Tillman yesterday. Why would they do that? Because they went and got Denzel Boston and Casey Concepcion in the draft. So Casey Concepcion, I think is that new, exciting special teams, but he's good enough to be a number one or two receiver. Yeah. Is that, see, look at that. I was, you know, it's easy. Look at that. Yes.

[01:21:05] I think that he could be what people thought Zay Flowers, because Zay Flowers, like I said, he broke out last year, but I think that like Concepcion is even more dangerous in space than Zay Flowers is. Like Zay Flowers is straight line fast and can get to spots. I think Concepcion adds the shiftiness to that. So, so like he could be a star in this league, but maybe not a Tyreek Hill, but the next best thing, you know,

[01:21:34] Denzel Boston was one of my favorite receivers in college football, period. So I have high hopes for him. So the problem is, is Cleveland is a quarterback away. Maybe, you know, now going back to it, I'm surprised Mr. Logical that they didn't hire Jim Schwartz as their head coach. You know what I mean? Because the team just sort of, you know, he was the defensive coordinator and the team just kind of, or the defense,

[01:22:01] at least the way that they embodied his personality, you know, with their aggressiveness and things like that. I thought that would have been enough for the building. To say, we got culture. Like we might not have a good team right now, but we have culture. So they went to the Ravens and got Todd Munkin, the offensive coordinator to come in as the head coach. I didn't like going older at head coach. All right. Say more. It hasn't really worked.

[01:22:32] I am two weeks away from 45. Okay. I don't know if I could be an elementary school teacher right now. Now I'm probably in line to being a good superintendent at a high school or some kind of administrator at a college. That's my space. That's what I know. Like intrinsically.

[01:22:59] I have an extension that far back on the calendar. So my age is 45. I got about, I think I got about 25 years of like, okay, I can, I think I understand that. A lot of these older head coaches don't have that far of a reach, you know, to the point where it's like Todd Munkin probably looked at the quarterback situation and said,

[01:23:29] I'm going to just go with the vet. Whereas a younger thinking guy, remember Pete Carroll, when Pete Carroll picked Russell Wilson over Matt Flynn, Pete Carroll was like, I just came from college. I know what new young and up and coming quarterbacks look like projecting going forward. Matt Flynn wasn't that guy, but he had that perspective because he had a fresh vision of what young

[01:23:56] quarterbacks look like in America and what from college and what was going to look like in NFL. So he had that. I don't think Todd Munkin has that. And I think he was like, I'm going to just go with the veteran with the physical capabilities, Deshaun, and see if that works. Whereas I think a coach maybe around our age, somewhere 40 to 45 would have probably picked, probably would have gone with your door. The problem is the money with Deshaun Watson.

[01:24:26] So you pretty much had to pick them. But I think, well, I think the real problem is that. Well, I think the real problem is these teams and their lack of patience. And you know what I mean? Especially a team like Cleveland, who has recycled so many quarterbacks throughout the years and things like that. You know, I think that when you're a head coach, especially one that hasn't necessarily been a head coach, like he, he coached at Southern miss. He was the head coach there before he went to Georgia. But when you think about it,

[01:24:56] right, we've seen, I think, and I don't have any numbers to back this up. Yeah. But, but, but we've seen coaches get more coaches get fired in year one or year two. Then I remember growing up or, you know, in my twenties and thirties, like it just seems like there's a shorter leash for a head coach. So now if you come into this new operation, you know, especially, you know, saying around a team that is bringing in this young talent in your mind, you say,

[01:25:26] place your door because he's the young guy that's going to grow up with this young talent. But if I'm the head coach getting a head coaching job in the NFL for the first time, NFL coaches tend to be a little bit more conservative than college coaches. So you're kind of looking at this, like, I got to preserve myself. So if I could win six or seven games with Deshaun Watson, does that outweigh me winning four games with Shador, even though he's getting experience?

[01:25:55] You know what I mean? And I, you got to win nine to 10 with Deshaun Watson. No, no. But the point being, but the point being is that coming off the season that the Browns are coming off, you know, with like, I think they went three and 14, if I remember correctly, like, you know, like, like coming into this, coming into this new season, that's a four game improvement. So you said six games with Deshaun Watson, right? So you're looking at the wind column right now,

[01:26:25] because that's what coaches care about. Oh, they went five and 12 last year. Nevermind. Okay. So look up this while I'm kind of formulating this point, look up Deshaun Watson's contract and see what's guaranteed on it. Cause it seems like been a lot, a lot of up and down with the injuries and the suspension. Cause I know the year he got suspended, they tailored his contract to where he only got a million dollars or something like that year, like a million and a half. So he still owed 46 million.

[01:26:55] And that's just for this year. That's just for this year, the final year of the contract. Okay. So I think Todd Munkin is good, no matter what, because I think they're going to let Deshaun play it out. And if he sucks and you start your door. And I think he gets, he's allowed to start fresh next year. The problem is this. If he does not, if the ownership is like, Hey, we're paying this guy 46 million. You got to play him.

[01:27:21] Then every single week for 18 weeks to include the bye week, you're going to get questions on. Why should do it not starting? Cause six and 11. When you have a backup that's as charismatic, that should do it. Coupled with the fact that his father's also still in the media, still coaching at his school. He's going to get the question. He knows. Dion is not going to hold back on his response.

[01:27:51] He might be kind of like, it might be, you know, it won't might, it might not be super direct. Do you believe? It's going to be enough to where first take talks about it. First things first talks about it. Get up talks about it. And if a lot of talks about it, Joe Clark talks about it, it's going to be everywhere. So you're going to give this guy so much grief as a Cleveland head coach. So Deshaun has to win. He has to dig deep into that Houston.

[01:28:20] I don't know who the head coach with the head coach is doing below Brian time and make things happen. Because if he's out there throwing these ducks into the boundary, just to collect the check, it's going to be a long year in Cleveland. And it's going to be a lot of Shador giving a lot of great answers. Oh, it's going to be a long year, be a long year. But, but like to your point, right? Deshaun Watson,

[01:28:45] since he signed that contract has only played 19 out of a possible 68 games, you know, 19 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 11 fumbles, you know what I'm saying? So now the thing with Shador, right? Is I think Shador is a pure passer. He's a pure as, as Stephen A used to say, a thrower of the football. Now, the problem with Shador is the little things, the attention to detail,

[01:29:15] the IQ, because he's still young and still looks to make that play. So he'll hold on to that ball, you know, for seven, eight seconds to try to let something open up. And then he ends up running backwards, you know, and losing 13 yards on a sack. So he still needs to develop that. This is appropriate to take a sack. This is where I throw the ball away. This is where I slide. This is where I just run to the sideline.

[01:29:44] Maybe I pick up that Peyton Manning thing where I snap the ball and here comes miles Garrett or somebody. And I just fall on the ground. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, like, like, yeah, that's where, that's the stuff that Shador, I think needs to develop before he's ready to be a full-time starter in that way. Problem with Cleveland is that they brought a guy in that doesn't have those opportunities to get that. So last year with Dylan Gabriel was a third round pick. Shador was five.

[01:30:13] He didn't really get the opportunity to just. Well, Tyler, Tyler, the Tyler Shook. Experiment, I guess we call it in New Orleans. Made the most sense. And I think it's going to pay dividends for New Orleans because it's going to allow them one or two things. Either the time we gave him. So Spencer Rattler started because he was in company guy. Didn't like what you were doing. He drafted a guy,

[01:30:40] maybe out of position the early second round, but let's get him out there. See what he can do. So he took his lumps. Now we're going to go on a year two with him. He's the starter. Take your lumps, show your growth. Let us know if you're ready for year three. Cleveland hasn't allowed for that to happen because if they do, like I said, we looked at the schedule and I'm looking at Tennessee week seven,

[01:31:10] potentially is the first game that you hand the reins over to Shador. That's still Tennessee, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Houston. That's a couple of tough defenses, division opponent in there, mixed in there as well. Vegas is probably a layup. Another potential, you know, division opponent. So it's like, there's no reprieve for Shador to get an opportunity. And if you think about the team as,

[01:31:40] as a whole outside of quarterback, they drafted very well. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. That's the one thing that they do have going for him. Yeah. Like, like the mid season mock draft had five of their rookies getting drafted in the first round. So you, you, you understand something, but it's just like, you're just beholden to the money you're paying to Shador or you have no idea what to do with the quarterback or to Watson. Oh yeah. Excuse me. What you paying,

[01:32:09] what you paying to Watson, um, draft through Shador, draft. Well, not only that, but now they made Denzel. I mean, take his number. Jared versus showed up to practice with Dylan Gabriel's number on. And then they let Denzel Ward. What are you doing? They, they, they, they made Denzel Ward, the second highest paid corner in the league, you know, saying meanwhile, you know, new England and Christian Gonzalez out here fighting over money. You know, Devin Witherspoon, the highest paid corner in the league, you know,

[01:32:39] I don't know. Like, so I think, so I think that Cleveland is on the right path. You know, I love Harold Fannin, you know, and Joku's gone, but you know, I love Harold Fannin. And even though he's a smaller tight end, he blocks a lot better than you would think at his size. You know, maybe we see some spells from rocket Sanders at running back. He's looked pretty decent in the preseason. Um, you still got Carson Swessinger, Mason Graham, you know, Malik Collins is coming back from a torn quad.

[01:33:09] So I still think the defense is going to be there. You know what I mean? Like maybe they go down to say 12th or 13th, but I think they'll still be a good defense. So, you know, you mentioned it, you know, and I'm a, and I'm a reiterate to a bigger degree. Six of their first nine games are on the road. You know what I mean? That's an easier way of saying that. So, so you got, so you got the two games and then the first two games are, are back to back in Florida.

[01:33:37] So now you're talking about the travel on top of that, you know, say two teams that Cleveland's the type of team that will go to Jacksonville, fly home to Cleveland, practice all week and fly back down to Florida. Yep. Then you got Carolina, Pittsburgh, that Jets game that Mr. Logical circled earlier, Baltimore at Tennessee, at Pittsburgh, at New Orleans, back to back to back. Who made this schedule? Like,

[01:34:05] who did this? I mean, what you got at Tennessee, eh, Pittsburgh and New Orleans is tough. And then Houston at home. So it's like you go to two out of three tough places to play on the road. And then you bring in the Neil Hunter and the creative player body. Did you see Will Anderson? Yeah. Yeah. Daniel Hunter. He looks like the Hulk. He looks like the Hulk.

[01:34:35] It's unfair that a human looks like that. And he moves away. He does. It's ridiculous. Then you get the Raiders. Like you were talking about the layup Cincinnati, Atlanta at giants, at Ravens, Colts, and then at Cincinnati to close out the year. So like if, if Cleveland could get the six wins, I might call that a success because, you know, I know our guy, Dallas, Mike, AKA Mayback, Mike,

[01:35:04] you know, says got Cleveland winning the division, you know what I'm saying? And all I tell him is pass me that. Oh Jesus. That's crazy. That don't even look real. That's a human being. You know what I'm saying? Like I know who's playing Colossus in doomsday. That's what I see there. But then let's finish this off with the Steelers. And what are the Steelers? Mr. Logical.

[01:35:31] They are the defending division champion is what they are. So we talked about this earlier in the beginning. No, I agree with you that Pittsburgh is not going to recapture the magic between McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. What I think I do see though, is the Flintstones are over, you know what I'm saying? Because Mike Tomlin was still having that offense where you pat your feet

[01:36:00] inside the beat and you can't get anywhere because your offense is so, you know, maybe, but who hired them? Who hired them? The, the, the Roonies hired them. Well, well, anyway, you know what I'm saying? So now the Steelers have their fourth coach in history, you know, saying go figure. How crazy is that? So what I also like Mr.

[01:36:28] Logical is that at defensive coordinator, Mike McCarthy brought Patrick Graham with them. He was the defensive coordinator for the Raiders for a lot of years recently. You know, they gave up, which is not, this is not very Steeler. Like they gave up 23 points a game last year. They were 26th in total defense, 25th in total offense. So that's where I think I feel a little bit differently than you do because they finished 25th and 26th and they still won the division.

[01:36:58] So, so like, I don't think Aaron Rogers has to come out here and be Aaron Rogers reincarnated for them to be successful, especially, like I said, I think they're going to have a top seven or eight defense in the league this year. So they went out and got Rico Dottle, you know, to help Jalen Warren in the backfield. So I liked that, even though they might miss Kenneth gain. Well, on some of those third downs or some of those plays where you need your running

[01:37:28] back to go catch something in the flat, they might miss that, you know, backup quarterbacks are going to be an issue here because Aaron Rogers has been a little more injury prone as he gets older. So you still got Mason Rudolph. You still have Will Howard. And then you bring in drew our who looked good in their first preseason game, but a waste of waste of staff for quarterbacks on the roster. Yes. I think they, I think they,

[01:37:57] they might try to trade a Will Howard, but we'll see. So Caleb Johnson is who I got my eye on here. You know, he was the running back that they drafted out of Iowa two years ago. You know, he averaged two and a half carries or two and a half yards per carry on 28 attempts on the whole season. I thought he was going to come in and kind of remake that Steeler backfield because he has that Steeler build.

[01:38:27] He, he looks like an old Steeler running back, especially with a terrible offensive play caller. He has zero creativity. He just to do that does a job and he wears a clipboard anywhere. He was terrible. It was a terrible. That's what makes me question him, but that's what makes me question Caleb Johnson, because the, like I just talked about how the Steelers had that old Flintstone offense. Like that would have been perfect for somebody, his build, his size, Mike Tomlin run, you know,

[01:38:57] run through their face, all that kind of stuff. You said perfect. Arthur Smith doesn't pick perfect. He picks the wrong thing to do. He doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't look at the offensive players and say, you know what? Y'all tell that he's a fountain fan. I can do, I can do the, and when DK Metcalf went there, I said the same thing. When Aaron Rodgers, when he, like I said, the same thing is like, this guy isn't going to be the guy that's going to get you explosive. When Mike Tomlin hired him, I was like, Mike,

[01:39:25] you're better off not knowing an offensive game plan. And just coming into Sunday or Saturday night, coming up with something versus letting Arthur Smith come up with it because he just runs the same place. He doesn't get creative at all. Like you said, you had this guy who was a dynamic running back that they drafted. How do you test the ball 28 times in 17 games? When you are ground and pound hard nose football team, how do you not get this guy in throughout the season?

[01:39:55] How does he only get 28 carries? When you don't have a top tier wide receiver. You know, but on defense, when you're as offensive coordinator, you do stuff like that. Sorry. On defense, you know, they still have Cam Hayward, who I believe is 37 now. You know, you still got TJ Watt. You still got Highsmith, but they went out and got Jamel Dean, Jaquan Brisker, Asante Samuel Jr.

[01:40:26] to put them. I like that. Yeah. To put them around Joey Porter Jr. You know, and my thing with Joey Porter Jr. Right. Is like, he would be the perfect corner. If this was 1987, if this was 1997, but now you can't touch these receivers. And you know what I mean? So like, we always talk about, who was it we used to talk about? The Denver Broncos, the Riley Moss. He would always get the pass interference calls that sauce Gardner wouldn't get. And,

[01:40:55] and you know, and that's that vein that Joey Porter Jr. is in is that he's so physical with receivers that you can see him costing the Steelers. But he's also like a bit undersized. So it looks like he's grabbing more than kind of enforcing. Yeah. Yeah. And then you got Jalen Ramsey still. So like, I really liked this defense. The odd thing here, Mr. Logical since 2018, the Steelers are one,

[01:41:26] six, and one at Cleveland and haven't won at Cleveland since 2021. I don't know how that works. Miles Garrett, especially, especially for, you know, a guy like Mike Tomlin, who didn't have any losing seasons and all that. Like, that's just, that's just odd. You know, in Cleveland, as much as Cleveland's a loser. It is very ironic. Yeah. Right. And then you got,

[01:41:56] uh, you know, their Thursday night streak, you know, they got, you know, so Thursday night football hasn't been kind to the Steelers over the years, but now it's a new change of the guard. You know, Sam, we'll see what it looks like. I think the Steelers are going to be a force to wreck with, be reckoned with this year, you know, so looking at their schedule. Now this is the one team in the division outside of the, well, the Browns have the defense,

[01:42:19] but this is the one team I think in the division that has that AFC North swagger that we think of, that toughness, that defense that's going to keep them in every game. Whereas, you know, there could be a game where Cincinnati defense reverts and they lose a game where they score 31 points. There could be a game where Baltimore, you know, they've been injury prone over the last couple of years. Maybe there's some injuries and they lose games.

[01:42:49] The Steelers are the one team in this division that I think have the ability because they also have a quarterback who isn't going to turn the ball over very much. Aaron Rodgers is going to do anything with an impact. He might not, but I might not need him to. I just, there's going to be games like there's going to be, well, no, you need it in the playoffs. You need it in the playoffs. You don't necessarily need it in the regular season because what's going to happen is you're going to play a team.

[01:43:13] Like Baltimore and it's going to be 14 to 13 with five minutes left because Aaron Rodgers didn't throw a pick. It's also 14 to 13 because he didn't shift the ball downfield to get a touchdown, but I'm in the game and all I need is a player to at that stage of the game. Yeah. So I'm thinking about it. The guy that gets the ball the entire game needs to be able to make plays. And it seems to refuse to do that.

[01:43:41] The game also you got last year against Minnesota where Carson Wentz somehow almost came back. I think Aaron Rodgers was something like 19 for 21 for 200. Y'all 19 for something for like 20. But also they had DK Metcalf and not a whole lot of anything else as far as the receiver room goes.

[01:44:02] And I think having Rico Dottle coming off the year that he's coming off last year will help that out as far as just the running game being a little bit better to kind of help him. And they're going to be in like third and fours versus third and sevens. But also on top of that, they went and got Michael Pittman who, you know, I'm not necessarily a big fan of in that way, but he catches damn near everything that you throw at him. He's just not dynamic. You know what I mean? Six four. That's Aaron Rodgers kind of got a problem. Yeah.

[01:44:32] We talked about this with Aaron Rodgers. It's been something that's been a stigma of his for the last, we'll call it seven, eight years. How many passes he throws away. Third down, he'll throw it away just to punt, just to be secure because he doesn't want to risk an interception. But also we talked about how I remember the Colin Cowherd record that we, he brought up and me, you talked about before.

[01:44:59] If you have a lead on an Aaron Rodgers quarterback team going into the fourth quarter, you have like a 75 or 80% chance of winning that game because he doesn't, he, he's not a force multiplier. I think people talk about how great his arm talent is and all the throws that he does make. But when it boils down to it, he does, he doesn't do for his team what Caleb Williams does.

[01:45:27] Like where I'm trying to create victory. Yes. There's an opportunity to throw the ball away and make bad plays. But when you're Aaron Rodgers, that you're like, you're, you're being kind of touted as one of these top eight, top 10 guys of all time to play the sport. You shouldn't be timid. Now you send me throwing for 200 yards in a game. Now those are rookie numbers. Yes.

[01:45:56] And you know, some of that, some of that is defense related to, because there have been times where Aaron Rodgers, and obviously this is going back to his green Bay time where he's made plays in the defense. Just faltered. Like what was it? Eight playoff games that they lost when they scored at least 30 points. Of course, like I would that, but that means he threw for 327, 337. I'm, I understand. Well, he's, well, he's just old and not the same player at this point. But, but he's always played like that.

[01:46:25] He's always played under this, this, this, this conservation style of intercepts touchdown interception ratio. Like you said, that record is for his career. If you have the lead on Aaron Rodgers going into the fourth quarter, you're going to win games. Right. So, so, so I think that, you know, like I said, I think that having that defense this year quells some of that. I think Rico Dottle quells some of that.

[01:46:52] You know, they have the tight end room, Friermuth, you know, the big 6'8 receiver Washington that they don't use as much as you would think that a team would use a 6'8 guy. Maybe that's a change that McCarthy makes, you know, in addition to Michael Pittman, they also brought in Jeremy Bernard from Alabama who surmounted Ryan Williams as the number one receiver on that team. And he's been looking damn good in preseason too. So I think the Steelers have a little meat left on the bone here.

[01:47:22] I think that might be a pause. I don't know. But yeah, so they start off with your Falcons. You know what I mean? They go to New England. Then that Cincinnati game becomes pivotal because, as we mentioned, their record in Cleveland, they go to Cleveland the week after that. So, you know what I mean? I'm just not high on the Colts this year. And I know Q will let me hear about that. But I'm just not high on the Colts this year. Unfortunately, I'm the same. You know what I mean?

[01:47:52] Yeah, I'm just not. You know, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, Cleveland, Cincinnati. So they get all that out the way early. They get three division games or four division games real early. You know, then they go to Philly. They get Denver. And these are the type of games that I'm talking about. This game against Denver on a Friday, you know, which is Black Friday. The game against Houston the week after that.

[01:48:18] Those are the games that that style comes in that we've been talking about, where you're looking at a game that's 17 to 13 or so in the fourth quarter because the defense has kept you alive long enough that you just need one drive to potentially win the game. That's where you can steal some of these wins. But you can also lose those games because you're not putting up enough points. So even though the defense is keeping you there, you don't have points.

[01:48:46] I think it I think I think the Houston game will be like the thing you like, you know what? It took me a few weeks for missile out was right. I think the Cincinnati game with what they did defensively and now the players that they added Philly. It's going to be like Aaron Rodgers isn't trying to make. The play, I think the score, I think they'll be within.

[01:49:12] A possession, whether they're down 1410 137 something like that. And Aaron is going to see that. Yes, somebody is coming in hot. You can stand in here under the gun and deliver this ball. Or slide and throw it away. And maybe maybe you still get hit after the throw, but you're not getting blasted in the chest because you stood in the pocket to make this throw.

[01:49:40] I think it's going to be a lot of highlights of that. It's going to look like it's going to look like pseudo tough throwaways where he can stand in the pocket. And decaf is going to come open or Pittman is going to come open or the flat routes going to come open. And the Neil Hunter is going to be bearing down on him and he's going to slide, throw it over the head of whatever tight end is running the out route. Fryer move to whomever get hit.

[01:50:09] Pause from the back. Fall to the ground. Not take a direct hit in the chest. Go to the sideline. Snap his little headset or his little thing. Click it to the side. And you're going to look back at it and say, if you would have stayed in the pocket, DK Metcalf was coming open over the middle. And it's going to be a lot of games like that. Because first of all, I'm not going to doubt. He's my age. He's your age. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to get hit by the creative player. And then the version of creative player in was the boy Will Anderson.

[01:50:39] I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to get hit by Dexter Lawrence coming up the middle. But that's the thing he's going to have to do. And they will not have the defense that's going to be able to go out drive after drive that he basically gives up to avoid getting hit. Or gives up to avoid throwing a pass. Well, I also think. But I also think that, you know, that might not. Like, I understand your point. And I don't necessarily disagree.

[01:51:05] But I think the difference is that, like, we're talking about C.J. Stroud in the cold again. So they might get out of that game anyway. What up, Mike? They might get out of that game anyway. Possibly. Possibly. But when it's back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and it's like, all right, dog, it's 10-10. C.J. Stroud is playing terrible. Our defense is playing great. You got to stand in here.

[01:51:32] Well, and with the slide protection and slide and make this throw and potentially take this hit. He will not do it. And when it doesn't happen, I'm going to text you because I get the Pittsburgh games out here too. I'm like, see? Told you. That's been the problem for his entire career is that he doesn't stand. And Tom Brady stands in there and takes that hit. You're right. But they still won the division last year with all that being said.

[01:52:02] With a worse defense. And a worse offense, theoretically. But the other teams in the division were Cleveland. So that's just a verb. When I think Cleveland ended up, Baltimore started poorly. And they had a lame duck coach. Because remember the press conference? What's his name? What's his name? Bismarcki? What's the owner of the coach? The owner of the Ravens? Yeah, something like that.

[01:52:30] Yeah, so they asked him if the Ravens would have won that game against Steelers. How long would John Harbaugh still be the coach? He said for one more week. So whatever was going on in the building, that was clearly resonating throughout the entire team. Well, you and I were on the train that Harbaugh should have been fired two, three years ago. You know what I mean?

[01:52:57] I was listening to you and I agree with your points. But I figured they weren't going to do it. So I wasn't as staunched about it as you were. Yeah, and I'm actually surprised that Tomlin walked away. You know what I mean? Because they weren't going to ever move off of him.

[01:53:15] You know, and that's where, you know, I think that Mike Tomlin is a better coach than Mike McCarthy. Like, it's just fundamental football coach, right? Yeah. But I think that Mike Tomlin, we talk about how people are ahead of their time. Mike Tomlin was behind his time. You know what I'm saying? I believe so.

[01:53:45] I think Mike Tomlin would have been a great coach in the 90s. The style of football that we were still playing then, letting defenses be a little more handsy and that type of thing. And when I say better coach, I mean from the standpoint of playing for more Super Bowls or coaching for more Super Bowls and things like that. But in this new era, there just came a window. He went to two. Yeah, he won one. Won one. Yeah, because he lost to Aaron Rodgers, ironically.

[01:54:14] But I think that in this new era, like, there came a point where the game – I don't want to say it passed him by because that sounds disrespectful, especially considering that he never had a winning season. It would be kind of crazy to say that the game passed him by. But I just think that he never continued to evolve. Like, he just kind of – he reminds me a lot of – I don't think it's a byproduct of him as a coach. He reminds me a lot of Dabo Sweeney in that way.

[01:54:43] You know, like, they are just their way. They are more rah-rah than they are X and O. They're motivators. You know, say their players will run through walls for them. And that's – but they didn't have the schemes. But they didn't have the schemes to really put them in the position that they probably could have been in. And I think that was a problem with the Aaron Rodgers-Mike Tomlin relationship.

[01:55:11] Mike Tomlin has an expectation that guys will run through a wall. Aaron Rodgers won't stand in the pocket to deliver a pass on third and seven. Who brought in Aaron Rodgers? I don't care, but I think if you're – You got to care because you can't keep giving – you can't keep giving Mike Tomlin all these excuses. Like, it can't be – I'm not giving him excuses. You are because every time – you're like, it's Arthur Smith. Mike Tomlin hired him. You know what I'm saying? It's Aaron Rodgers.

[01:55:39] Aaron Rodgers – I mean, Mike Tomlin brought him in. You know what I'm saying? So, like, Mike Tomlin got to wear that. Yes, he has to wear it, but in the same sense, the same compliment you gave him of, I think guys that run through a wall for him, I think what he realized when he hired Arthur Smith and then he brought in Aaron Rodgers, like, these two guys can't build a damn wall, let alone run through one. But guess what? But they're just using all the equipment. But guess what? And that's why he was like, I'm out.

[01:56:09] But guess what? He didn't stick it out. But guess what? Arthur Smith wasn't – Arthur Smith wasn't the new it coach. He wasn't Ben Johnson, and then he got to Pittsburgh and didn't deliver. Like, we knew what Arthur Smith was before he came to Pittsburgh. Sure indeed. But I don't know all the nuances of how he got hired, but Mike Tomlin – if Mike Tomlin signed off on it, he signed off on it. But if Mike Tomlin – like you said, Mike Tomlin will read a coaching report or a scouting report and say the guy has short arms.

[01:56:38] And to him, he's like, I can coach that up. So if Arthur Smith – if the rumor was he wasn't creative enough, Mike Tomlin's like, I can get you in here, and I can get you to be willing to do offensively what these guys have done defensively. And I think after two years he realized, these dudes don't have it. I'm out. I'm never going to get fired here. He was never going to get fired in Pittsburgh. You said that at the beginning.

[01:57:08] And he realized that, yo, Aaron Rodgers does not have the thing I need. He doesn't have anything that Ben Roethlisberger has. He might have more arm talent. He might be a better, quote-unquote, historical quarterback. He might have better stats. But he doesn't have my fingers broken. Tape it to my other one. I'm going out to play like Ben does. And I think it took him a couple of years to realize, oh, you don't have it. I'm out. You know what I call that?

[01:57:37] I'm not giving him a pass. It's just a realization that, like, oh, I think everybody before a few years ago – Colin Cowherd is probably one of the only real pundits on TV that's given – that's levated the amount of criticism to Aaron Rodgers that he has. No one else does. Because people keep saying stuff like he's the most talented quarterback ever. I'm like, where are the accolades to back that up? You don't need 11 Super Bowl appearances to back that up. But I need something.

[01:58:06] I need – he needs Mahomes-esque numbers to even keep carrying that title. But people keep giving it to him because no one criticizes him. He is not a force multiplier, and he hasn't been for years. You know what I call Mike Tomlin? The blueprint, too. Listen, I'm always going to ride for the Newport News, Virginia guys on earth. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to Mike Vic, A.I., me, my pops, Jonathan Allen, my boy.

[01:58:36] Plaxico Bears. Plaxico's from Virginia Beach. But all the 757 guys I'm going to ride for him. But aside from my affiliation to that, just my honest assessment of Aaron Rodgers. You're going to see – No, that's fine. But my point is like – And they won the division in spite of his inability to do that because of Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin is the blueprint, too. The gift and the curse because the same way that I laud him for those things, those – you know, I've run into coaching. I love that.

[01:59:06] But at the same time, you make things harder on yourself because there's probably other pieces out there that would have made your life easier. And you wouldn't have had the struggle to get the 9 and 8 just to keep your streak going. You could have been 11 and 6. Yeah, but I think if you – okay, yes, and. I agree. But if you're in the NFL circles and Aaron Rodgers wants to come to your team – And that's a good point, Mike. I believe the assumption is that that guy is what people say he is.

[01:59:36] The realization came true when he put on the Steelers uniform that the nostalgia associated with Aaron Rodgers is simply that. It doesn't transfer. It is. He's not what Tom Brady was able to do. He is not what Peyton Manning was able to do. Correct. I think to some extent, Phillip Rivers had like a couple of good runs. Some guys – But he's still the best quarterback on that roster right now.

[02:00:06] I don't know if that's the case. I think he might be the best. I think he might be – he has the most accolades because he played the most time. But I don't think he's the best for that team. You'll watch. It's going to be so many games where at the end of the game, Aaron Rodgers is going to have 191 yards passing. Maybe. But like I said, I think that you're too focused. I'm going to go eight games under 210 yards.

[02:00:32] But see, that's where I think you're too focused on that part of it because when I look at somebody like, say, C.J. Stroud, right? He could come out here – and I'm just making this up for a conversation. You know, he could come out here and have a game where he throws 499 yards. And the Texans can still win that game because they got a top two or three defense in the league. Bo Nix can play bad and Denver's going to win – that's all I'm saying here is that the Steelers are going to win games that they shouldn't

[02:01:02] because I think their defense is going to be that good. And that's why I have the Steelers finishing second in the division. I have Baltimore finishing third and missing the playoffs. And I have Cleveland bringing up the rear. So that's Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland. Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh by default because Cleveland is going to be a shit show.

[02:01:34] But I wouldn't be surprised. And I wouldn't be surprised. Eight games under 200 yards passing for Aaron Rodgers. Okay. Let me – I'm going to write that down. I'm going to write that down.

[02:02:02] It's in the ledger, you know, eight games under 200 yards for Aaron Rodgers. You know what I'm saying? So – and, you know, Mike is still riding the Browns train, you know what I'm saying? Apparently the Browns are going to win the division. You know what I'm saying? I keep telling that man to pass me the stuff, but he ain't sharing. You know what I'm saying? Like I thought we was better than that. You know what I'm saying? But on that note, we will be back on Tuesday, you know, with our next division preview.

[02:02:32] You know, we got the NFC South and West left to go. You know, college football is back tomorrow. I gave you all my thoughts on that earlier. You know, I'm really excited for this UNLV Memphis game tomorrow. Go Knowles. Mr. Logical's got Ohio State over Miami. I got Oregon over Notre Dame. Those are our national title picks. You know what I'm saying? Let the games begin.

[02:02:59] And then before you blink, we're going to be here on a Wednesday night, you know, watching football too. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. So let's get it. It's the best time of year. He is the one and only world famous, world renowned, cool, calm, and collected. Except for when you're talking about Jay-Z or Mike Tomlin. He is. Mystological. Don't bring feelings to a fact fight. Don't do it. I don't know, Mike. I'm riding with the Wolfpack, Mike.

[02:03:29] I'm riding with the Wolfpack. You know what I mean? Down here in the Alamo, I'm your unorthodox statistician going left so much. You thought I was southpaw going so left that Ryan Garcia better be on his P's and Q's. September 12th, Conor Benn coming to knock his head off. Mr. Logical forgot all about that fight. You know what I mean? Because boxing didn't remind us. Romello. Right? You know what I mean? Who?

[02:03:58] I think Romello. Yeah, Romello fought Tia Fomo last week. Oh, Canelo, you said. Oh, I don't know. I said Romello. Romello, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Romello. Yeah, he fought Tia Fomo last week. Tia Fomo Lopez. You know what I'm saying? Richardson, Virginia. Check it out. Virginia, NC State. ACC game. That was supposed to be in Brazil. Now it's in Charlottesville. Thank you. We love y'all. Thanks for your support.

[02:04:28] Thank God, huh? Like, review, subscribe, share, rate. Do all the free things. Do all the good things. Liquid Death in hand. Man, I got to go get me another one. I drowned this one. Sports Reports is ordered. Out. Sports Reports. No gimmicks, no clowns. Too fly, Mr. Lodicle. We run this town. Real talk only. No chasing, no doubt. From the east to the west. It's the order we shout. Mic check, light splash. Game time. Stay ready.

[02:04:57] Two vets in the zone. Keep the pressure real heavy. Big hits, big plays. Yeah, we breaking it down. Truth rings in your speakers. Every word is the crown. From the north side hustle to that southern flame. Midwest grind. West coast of the game. Sports talk kings. Yeah, we wear that crown. Turn it up. Let them know. It's about to go down. Sports Reports. No gimmicks.