Yahoo Sports Football Season Preview

Yahoo Sports’ Caroline Fenton, Nate Tice, and Charles McDonald are joined by DraftKings’ Mike Golic Jr. to preview the 2024 NFL season and discuss Super Bowl favorites, pretenders and contenders, and everything you need to know for the upcoming season.

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Video Transcript

Welcome to the Yahoo Sports football season preview show presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL.

I’m Caroline even joined by my friends, NT Charles mcdonald and Michael Junior joins the party as well as they always say, don’t get too high, don’t get too low.

And anything that happens in preseason football, obviously, we’re going to get too high and too low and things that happened preseason football, but we are so close to making it through the desert.

We are so close to football season.

We are, we’re two weeks out as we’re recording this, which is like, I just did a big board this week and it was like, oh, it’s draft season that means football season.

Oh, I saw the Kirk Herb Street Indiana Jones map tweet today.

And I was like, oh, we’re really, we’re cooking now, unlike any other Scott Hansen’s fighting with trolls on the internet mocking the red zone.

We’re so close, but you mentioned it, it is our God given right to overreact about preseason in this country.

And so all of you make sure you exercise that and don’t do it responsibly.

That’s get mad at me.

You’re practicing for the regular season.

You want to get mad now.

So you have a perspective and week one comes around, get mad on Twitter, get mad online.

Get mad at the tiniest things that happen in practice because you are a fan and you’re allowed to.

It’s like Bruce Banner said, that’s the secret to being the Hulk.

I’m always mad.

That’s the secret to being an NFL fan.

I’m always there, practice the remote throws, maybe get some spare remotes, you know, just already prep for the football, maybe an extra TV, just in case because you never know what could happen throughout the season.

We don’t exercise caution around here, but let’s get into it a little bit of inside baseball for everybody that’s listening.

They always say start with the biggest story.

So that is exactly what we are going to do.

The biggest story of this NFL season is Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, the back to back Super Bowl champions.

Some changes this off season, losing legs need to the Tennessee Titans bringing and some much needed pass catching help with Xavier worthy in the first round bringing in Hollywood Brown.

See back, we’ll start with you.

What are your expectations for the Kansas City Chiefs this year?

The expectations are to get back to the Super Bowl, right?

That’s the goal every year.

You have Patrick Mahomes as your quarterback.

You played in the AFC championship game every single year he’s been your quarterback.

The expectation is the Super Bowl, but I’m gonna move it away from the quarterback just for now and focus on the other side of the ball.

The defense, defensive line, uh, you know, last year they had a big contract in pass with Chris Jones, that’s not here anymore.

Uh, George Kaas has really stepped up as a former first round pick on the edge.

I think they have the guys up front to really, you know, crack heads for, you know, uh for, for, you know, saying to use there.

Uh just I know, yeah, but if you’re gonna be able to be a team that scores a lot of points, obviously, you’re gonna put teams in passing situations and I think they have the group up front to, to at least get home and uh cause pressure on the quarterback, we’re just gonna help just everything else flourish on the back end of their defense.

Yeah, I’ve always felt like this Chiefs team with Mahomes, especially the early iterations was like like a pressing basketball team where they just go on runs, ok?

We make a turnover, ok?

We gave up a three there, whatever, whatever, hey, we got a touchdown, we get another turnover.

So bring up the defensive bags like that’s been more of a AAA steady thing for them over the last 18 months, maybe two seasons.

But the offense has Mahomes and they have a bunch of new faces you mentioned the receivers, Xavier worthy Hollywood Brown guys that they want to go speed, speed, speed just to open things up.

They still have Rasheed Rice who is a, is a good player, you know, get him to stop running from certain situations, keep it on the field and we’ll be ok.

But I think the run game will improve uh the offensive line, improve the Kings of Mati at left tackle.

They got Jared Wiley in the fourth round from TCU at tight end.

I think those guys, they’re maybe not the most major additions, but they’re gonna let them do other things.

So many of my homes are always contending.

So it’s just more about the flavor you want last year was a different flavor.

I think this year is gonna be a little more speedy flavor.

Yeah.

And I don’t think any team in the NFL does a better job of adjusting flavors year to year.

They’re like a store that’s got a restaurant menu that changes every week.

And anyone who watched season three of the Bear, you’re getting PTSD right now, but I, I think with this team is special, you mentioned up front.

The only time we’ve seen this undermined is when the cracks start in the foundation at the offensive line, most notably in that Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl.

And so having Donovan Smith walk out the door and seeing what that team looked like when he was injured down the home stretch of the season last year and getting Kingsley in that left tackle spot in an offense where you’ve got a great offensive line coach and culture in that room with Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith up front leading the charge there.

But also you mentioned the tight end pieces, all the motion, the things Andy does are so conducive to helping offset young offensive lineman or a young player in those spots, giving them chip help giving them the motion that makes a defender sit back on their heels for a little while.

And so as they on board those pieces under a foundation, they’ve already reset, they’re in such a good place because holistically that program can do it as well or better than anyone.

And it really does feel like as long as Patrick Mahomes is in a Chiefs uniform, as long as Andy Reid is on the sideline, they’re going to be Super Bowl contenders, but they do say girls need love to.

So does the NFC 49er, the better half, the better make sure you take care of the NFC NFC happy life.

Exactly.

That’s exactly what they say.

And you know, 49er take down the Lions in the NFC championship game last year.

I think we all kind of expect them to be right back in that conversation.

But if you had to pick one or the other, the Lions or the 40 who are you picking?

It’s hard.

But I’m going with the Lions and I trust this offense, even if they’ve lost a few guys like Jonah Jackson up front, they kind of did some reconfiguring.

I still think it’s the best offensive line in the league, but that’s first, like the first thing they think of the LS.

It’s a defensive improvement this year, especially the new faces again, on the back end, they have totally shifted their identity where they added whole bunch of corners, all kind of the same type Carlton Davis and it’s Rake Straw and Terry and Arnold from Alabama, all feisty hand fighting corners and it’s because they’re defensive corner, they’re going, they’re going to want to play a lot of man coverage.

But what helps that is guys ascending on their team.

A le mcneil, a defensive tackle.

They added DJ Reid to pair with him on the inside.

They still have Aidan Hutchinson.

I’m a fan of Jack Campbell, their middle linebacker.

I think he’s been a little, got a lot of heat that he shouldn’t have and I think actually he’ll send this year.

So really, I think the offense will keep being that top five, top six offense that can run the ball on anybody.

But also, I think the defense is going to be better than average and I think it’s going to really help them ascend to contender ship.

I’m gonna go with the 49ers still here.

I, I know Brandon Aiyuk hasn’t showed up to camp yet.

He’s still doing his hold out situation trying to get a new contract or trade, but as far as I can see, they still have the Avengers on offense.

Right.

You got Trent Williams Brandon Auk, I know that they have their contract situations, but the expectation is they’ll be back for week one.

Brock, Purdy Christian mccaffrey Devo, Samuel George Kittle, uh, the offensive line, maybe you have some parts you want to see improve.

But still this is a, to me the most, it’s talented offense in the league.

And until that changes, I think they should still be considered the NF, uh, the, you know, the champion of the NFC.

So Nick Fury and right now they have got one of the Avengers.

I don’t know which one you’d slot Brock Purdy and maybe a lot of people slander aside would go Hawkeye, but either way you’ve got Hawkeye and a rookie deal still this season.

I think that sense of urgency for the 49er where the Brock Purdy last year of bargain bin status comes into play.

We talk about it a lot with roster construction that you just mentioned of how that’s going to look in the future where if Brock Purdy puts up the numbers he did last season, it doesn’t matter what we think of him, he’s going to get one of those next market, setting quarterback contracts and it’s going to change.

Not totally hinder because we’ve seen plenty of teams evolve past it, but it’s going to change how they team build.

And so I think that sense of urgency and just, I mean, the narrative goodness of Brock Purdy in a contract here will sustain the sports talk machine for decades to come.

Great content machine.

We’re only talking about the Lions and the Niners, which might be some rams erasure, might be some Packers erasure.

So like I only gave you the Lions or 49ers options, but like, are we good?

You are missing someone there?

Well, the Rams injuries in training camp have scared me a little bit now seeing Cooper Cup, Miss time Matthew Stafford dealing with the hamstring injury, the offensive line because taking turns on the offensive line, it is a game of musical chairs in the worst way for an offense that I think could be top five in the league.

Everyone is healthy at the right time.

Uh You have, uh Whittington no or uh Jordan Whittington now joining from Texas who seems to be in that next mold of a puka Nua.

But uh Nate, I know we’re gonna hear plenty about the Green Bay Packers.

Yeah.

Yeah, they, uh they come around on the Packers a lot even on this segment.

I want to go Packers question mark.

We had a third team in there.

I I’m just super high in the Packers offense especially, uh Jordan love the ascension.

All those guys, the young guys that they have, I just have come around on the defense.

That’s why I kind of got a little lower even with the Rams.

It’s like they’re missing a guy named Aaron Donald and that does a lot of lifting for a team and especially a unit that’s kind of patchwork.

So that’s why the Rams to me are good and frisky but maybe not that final four.

But the Packers to me, it’s like, well, the, they have, they have defensive pieces, they have a pass rush and they have a quarterback and they have a play caller.

Usually those add up to maybe a team that’s ascending, maybe a team that can go to the final four as long as you can keep things spicy.

That’s all we ask for those fans of the NFL.

So we mentioned the Lions, the 49 ers, the Chiefs very clearly contenders.

I think we can say it’s easy to say that they’re all contenders.

Not every team is as easy to label as a contender or not.

We’ll play a little bit of a game of contender or Pretenders starting with, I think the most divisive team in the league, a team that you could say is a contender because of their roster and is a team that could be considered a pretender because of their roster.

And that is the Dallas Cowboys, Nate are the Cowboys a contender or Pretender this year.

This is impossible because, uh, uh, uh Charles mcdonald, I, we have football 30 on our podcast on the, and we, we also like, we’ve gone from, oh, this team is easily a pretender and that’s why I’m gonna stick with that.

That’s my answer that the Cowboys are pretender.

But we’ve come around a little bit.

We’re coming around.

I don’t want to steal Charles Thunder because I know he’s gonna throw down this alley.

Oop a little bit.

But, uh, but I think when I look at this team, what concerns me is what’s concerned me in the past is the spy on their defense stopping the run.

It’s old school football adages.

It’s running the ball stopping the run.

I, I trust d more than most people will.

I think he’s a fantastic quarterback and he can win in the playoffs.

They have CD Lamb, they have an ace secondary, passive catchers aren’t great.

Jake Ferguson is a good player though and I just get scared though.

I look at the running backs and it’s like, yeah, I recognize Ezekiel Elliott but, uh, you know, and then like the offensive lines got a couple of rookies and then also on the defense, just the spine.

What is Maisie Smith other than he has an allergy and then what is like, what are their linebackers and, you know, so it’s just those classic things that kept me from going like, yeah, I really like the steam even if I’ve come around on them a little bit, it’s pretender question mark for me where I, you have to look at the off season, right?

And it’s just the vibes have been bad, right?

Jerry.

Jerry, they’re not, they’re not good.

And Jerry is walking around with a T shirt that says bad vibes on it right now because he’s come out and said CD Lamb, not really a priority.

D’s not paid, Michael Parsons not paid.

And that’s what everyone was hoping would get done this off season, but those three guys are still in the roster that’s still here and I’m with you.

I think he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL CD Lamb.

He’s gonna get a deal that pays him north of $30 million a year for a reason.

Right, Michael Parsons, probably the best defensive player in football.

And if you’ve hit on your two rookie offensive line picks, then this should be a really good team.

The only problem is the depth that they didn’t really address this off season because they didn’t make any pre signing.

So you’re kind of relying on a bunch of rookies to come in and set the tone.

But the core of this team is so really good God, you’re talking about Jerry Jones is the bad vibes.

Minister made me think of the breaking bad.

He’s Walter White.

I am the vibes who not.

I am the one bringing the bad vibes to this party of my own accord for this franchise.

I claim to love.

But, uh, no, I, I’m kind of with you guys here.

I have a podcast, Gojo and Golic.

My dad is very low on the Dallas Cowboys.

He thinks they’re taking a step back this year to me.

Contender or Pretender is a postseason award.

I think the Cowboys, you’re still going to be really good in the regular season.

I cannot trust them in the postseason for all the reasons you guys mentioned, Tony Pollard coming off career lows last year.

You’ve got two bona fide studs, Zach Martin and Tyler Smith are both great there.

I think the guys that they brought in, especially Tyler Guitton at left tackle, have a bright future there.

They’re as good at identifying early round talent and developing them as any program in football, but you mentioned it, you replace Tony Power going out with a career low yards per carry there to L A to a 3.5 yards per carry last year in New England and is on the wrong side of the age for running backs.

And so all those things together for what we’ve seen, hey, postseason football for all the new world stuff we want to do, especially in the NFC.

Now, in the last number of seasons, this is a place where you got to run and stop the run in the postseason and that hasn’t gone away.

Just think of the teams.

They play 49ers, rams Packers, all teams that are going to pound the rock in the playoffs.

So you got to stop it.

Contender.

Question mark.

Pretender.

Question mark.

I’m Ron Burgundy.

Question mark.

That is the Dallas Cowboys, but we’ll stick in the division.

It seemed that a couple of years ago, if you even questioned if they were a contender or not, it would have been ridiculous.

But now the Philadelphia Eagles, it’s a fair question mark to ask if they are a contender or a Pretender.

Yeah, I, I went with Pretender here.

I just, they’re a team that I stare at the stars and it’s kind of like the cowboys a little bit where it stars and grubs with the Eagles.

I keep coming back to the term.

They’re my Enron team where they’re a little too big to fail, too good to fail, but I don’t think they’re like, they’re a little hollow on the inside.

They have and I could talk about their defense and some of the issues there.

But really I keep, keeps coming back to, to me is Kellen Moore, their c their new center, Cam Jurgens and Jalen Hurtz and their relationship that battery mateship of those three is gonna be huge and decide their whole season because what has been their kryptonite is blitzes, aggressive defenses, defenses that change the picture.

Once it’s your film is your resume.

Once you put that on film, especially a playoff game that everyone’s gonna study.

Well, every defense they play is gonna do the exact same thing.

So those guys offense coordinator Ch Stalin, their offensive line coach too, but Cam Jer and Jalen Hurtz, that’s kind of has me a little worried that I think other teams can pick at that.

Plus some of the kind of defensive holes that I think that they have kind is more of a good team but incomplete still, I’m gonna go Pretender as well and I think when you look at the, the roster, yeah, it’s a lot of good players.

But when you start looking at the split between offense and defense, it’s almost all offensive guys.

You have Jalen Carter who for the 1st 10 weeks of last year’s season was playing as good as any defensive tackle in football, hit a bit of a rookie wall.

But I think you can count on him being a star outside of him.

You’ve got Brys off who couldn’t even be a full time player with the Jets last year and we’ll see how that role shifts with him and being, uh, being with the Eagles.

Now, you have two rookie defensive backs with Queen on Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.

Uh, Dej who hasn’t even really practiced all that much because he’s been injured.

I really think that you could be looking at a disaster scenario on that side of the ball if the pieces don’t mesh together and you kind of just get hit with the bug of youth right where you have all these young guys at the same time, but it’s still the Eagles, right?

They still have all this top, top end talent.

I just don’t think they have the defensive depth to really get where they want to go this year.

I, I’ll say this, I went contender still on this because you mentioned all that talent.

You know what, the bug of youth can’t be worse than the bug of injury that they got hit with in the back half of last season.

Like they, at the very least we talked about the Cowboys failing to go out and meaningfully address their deficiencies in any way.

Philly at least tried with all the guys they brought in like they tried bringing in Devin White did swap out with Bryce Huff there.

They drafted young guys in the secondary to give him a little bit of depth so that, hey, if you got to throw Quinon Mitchell in while Cooper DeJean gets going, Keely Ringo is still on the outside like they tried and there’s more there than there was last year for a team that was still competitive, even though they were losing or winning in ways that we didn’t feel were sustainable and now going into this year.

Yeah, it’ll be interesting.

But I still think offensively the offensive line around Cam Jurgens who was personally scouted by Jason also has a good group to bring him along a coordinator that’s probably going to give him a few more answers than they had last year and sewn Barkley running behind the best offensive line he’s ever had that.

I’m interested to see.

I feel like that’s an underrated edition this off season and we’re not talking enough about sewn Barkley and his addition to that offense.

But let’s stick in the NFC A.

Your team.

Dare.

I call it your team, the Green Bay Packers.

Your dad might throw up breaking remotes.

No, so no, but yes, the Green Bay Packers, I, uh full on contender for me.

I really, I don’t want to spoil anything for a later answer, but why I’m high on the Packers, I kind of hinted this earlier.

It’s this offense that I’m super, super, super, super high on, uh, because even at the offensive line, I’ll start there because that can usually be the weakness, the Thor on the side of a contender.

It might not be star laden and, oh, yeah, they’re losing David Bakhtiari who has like played like 400 snaps in like five years, but they have like, it’s kind of more the whole of the team.

It’s the whole of the unit and they’re well coached and they play in a scheme that makes them, you know, the greater the sum of the parts.

But also Jordan love who I really legitimately think could, you know, contend for an MVP this year if all things go right.

He does the big boy stuff.

He does the throws over the middle, attacking downfield trick shots, all the good stuff you want to see that matters in the playoffs.

When you have to do that, teams are going to make you do that.

He showed it a little bit to me even if it didn’t end great against the 49ers in the playoffs.

But I just think that that offense I keep coming back to and then they just got, you know, defensive editions, defensive, you know, person now that makes more sense because it can’t be worse than it was the prior years with the defensive coordinator all comes together.

And I just think it’s a nice cheesy package that he may be a contender this year.

There you go.

Cheesy.

Indeed.

They’re very cheesy.

The defense is what has me excited.

I think they’re contenders for sure.

Um, the NFC North and General, this is gonna be a tough division, but the Packers, the collection of talent they have on defense now I think will help them kind of get past, you know, whatever problems they had last year when they almost knocked off.

Uh, San Francisco in the division round on the road.

I, you’ve got Xavier mckinney and I think if you had just had him out there on the field trying to tackle Christian mccaffrey instead of Jonathan Owens.

That game might have looked different at the end of it.

Uh, but now they’ve made these, uh, they’ve made these upgrades, you’re hoping that guys like Devote Wyatt can hopefully come out and improve upon what he showed in the past couple of seasons.

And like you said, Jordan love the offense.

They’ve got so much talent here.

I don’t know if it’s like, sometimes it feels like a little bit too early to just anoint them because like you said, we’re, we’re kind of working off just one back half of the season where they went supernova, but it feels like they can do that.

It feels real and that’s it.

And even if not everyone goes to the moon, I think it’s just all little baby steps, they all take when you have a bunch of babies like that can add up to something bigger and you talk about like position this football, that one’s almost starless football.

The receiving core is this group where anyone could do it on any given day.

The offensive line is a bunch of extremely versatile pieces like Elton Jenkins as the face for an offensive line that’s got so many guys that can play in different spots.

Jordan Morgan playing in guard right now, who I thought was gonna be one of the better tackles coming out at the end of the first round of this draft, but I’m with you, the defense, Jeff Hafley coming over.

You want to talk about an identity shift in terms of what you allow the athletes that you’ve been bringing in to go and do he is a solve your problem with aggression kind of coordinator where it’s simplified.

We’re going to the 43 stuff.

Trace your roots back to the legion of Boom Seahawks and let these guys get up and raise hell.

Let all the Georgia Bulldogs that you brought into this Co Walker and Devote Wyatt pin their ears back, get up in gaps and do what they were put on this earth to do and go make life miserable for the offensive line.

And people in the backfield, they do all the things I think, especially on offense and now defense where it’s gonna be, they have an identity and that’s like what a lot of teams you need or you need to be a contender and just, that’s what’s cool about the offense is that they can shift to however, what defenses are gonna present and now they just have stuff on defense where it’s like they have answers.

Finally.

It’s like they don’t feel hopeless on that end.

Let’s take a look into the AFC A team that got a little bit in the off season, but also lost a lot.

And that is the Baltimore Ravens, Nate are the Ravens a contender.

This is shocked even me when I put this down, but I put them down as a pretender.

Yeah, it’s, it’s, yeah, not saying they’re not missing the playoffs or anything.

I may, I think they’re making the playoffs.

I just think they’re gonna have regression on both sides of the ball, I think.

First and foremost, you have offensive line stuff that they’re, they’ve dropped out there.

They’ve lost some guys.

They’re kind of resh shifting it with the younger players.

Uh Lamar Jackson had a great year last year but, you know, it’s just hard to do it again with another MVP.

He’s already has actually.

So that’s terrible to say that.

But sorry, so maybe that’s not a great point.

But I like the, the addition with Derek Henry, but it’s just, you know, I have some receiver question marks.

Yes, I like Zay Flowers but to me, he’s like a number two.

Can we get anything out of Rashad Bateman if we, can I have some great Dynasty fantasy shares that are gonna hit finally, but it’s gonna take some time, but just some of the defensive brain drain that’s happened like they’ve lost a lot of their, uh, uh, assistant coaches, they lost their defense coordinators now in Seattle.

Zach Orr gets promoted.

I’ve heard good things about Zach Orr.

I know him as a player.

You just never know when you get a new play collar.

You just never know what’s gonna happen that first year, especially if they got some guys missing now.

So it’s just more that I think they take a step back to just a playoff team as opposed to a team that we think could be a Super Bowl favorite.

I think those are all valid for, but, but, but I’m, I’m, I’m just a believer in this organization is like a machine, you know, I, and when I look at the, the defense, I think there’s definitely got to be some concern with just a new defense coordinator, Zach or replacing Mike mcdonald who did, did such a tremendous job last season, but they still got the same players for the most part, which is where I keep going back to.

Uh, and now you’ve added Nate Wiggins who had maybe the greatest preseason debut that any defensive player has ever had with three pass breakups in the first half.

Shame on you cant pick it.

Come on.

But at the same time, you go back, I, I think this could be the second, the best secondary in football.

Um They still have guys like Justin Mauke up front, still hoping you can get something from guys like, uh Ada Owe and some of the other young Ed rushers that they’ve drafted and then on the flip side, I’m with you on the offensive line concerns because we got killed by Ravens fans for saying that.

But Lamar Jackson, Derek Henry, if there were two guys that could survive something like that, I would say you hear me spiral on my point, Henry wearing the Ravens all black uniform in the backfield can’t lose.

It’s just defense plus Lamar Derek Henry, I’m still in, even though I think the offense is gonna take a bit of a step back.

Yeah, I think defensively, I remember Ted Wynn, uh, wrote about them and Mike mcdonald’s Secret sauce was what a great teacher he was, find concepts, making it easily digestible.

And so having the guys a part of your core that still have that internalized and go through as it stays consistent, I think, helps that side.

But to the offensive line point, listen, losing as many guys off that group as you did for a group that already last year rotated tackles a bunch.

There was some added, uh, development of the depth in that way.

I do think it is offset by just first and foremost.

You want to talk about in the rushing attack with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry where of ball carriers with at least 100 K last season, Derek Henry second behind only Christian mccaffrey in terms of yard after contact per rush, Lamar Jackson, almost 1/5 of his runs last year went for 10 or more yards.

So you’ve got true thunder and lightning in the backfield on any given play, holding the backside of the defense making defenders at the second level have to worry all that stuff as a former offensive lineman helps offset the job in front of you, especially as you’re trying to get some of these young guys up to speed early on and like we talked about with the Chiefs, this is an offense now with a health mark.

Andrews back and Isaiah likely gets a lot of their flexibility formation wise back, can do a lot of that same stuff under Todd Monken that can help these guys out in the early going, but still give them shots downfield with flowers and all the parts we sell developed last year.

If anybody can withstand a little bit of pressure up front, it’s Derek Henry, but I’m intrigued to see how he fits in this new role because what he did in Tennessee is going to be much different than what he’s asked to do in Baltimore.

It’s two very different offenses.

And one thing about Derek Henry is he gets better, the more touches he gets, he gets better later in the season.

It’s like he has a ramping up period if he doesn’t have those touches in Baltimore that he had in Tennessee, like, are we really going to get peak Derrick Henry?

So something to look at there.

But with the Houston Texans, I think this is one of the most intriguing and exciting teams this off season.

Are they legitimate super bowl contenders?

I think they are, I think they are contenders.

I think they have this guy named CJ Stroud, that’s really, really good and he looks really, really good in the preseason.

And so I was like, yeah to the moon.

Uh but no, it uh I would say first and foremost the concerns I have with them before I get into why I like them is they have some defensive spine issues too.

They have Aziz Scher now playing linebacker for him, but that was, they gave a lot of explosive plays last year against the same types of offensive attacks, but they counteracted it by adding a lot of juice on the defensive front and a lot of juice on offense.

And I think because they have Stroud, they have Nico Collins who I truly think is a, I really think he, he could make a standing as a top 10 receiver after this year.

Even though people think Stefan Diggs is going to take a little bit of way.

I think this is going to be more of Nico’s show and then that he’s going to really assent that we’re into kind of the public consensus.

He got paid already, usually all the money.

Uh but also they have tanked out if hopefully he can play a full season, but now he can kind of take a step back and roll with, which I think will help out, but more, more than anything, they’re going to run the ball because this is a Kyle Shanahan offense with Bobby Luke as a coordinator.

Joe Mixon is way better in Devon Single.

That helps if we get some old line health with Joe Mixon, it’s gonna make everyone’s lives easier and it’s gonna make cj.

Stroud’s lives easier, which is like pretty scary, I think for everybody else.

Motor singletary disrespect.

Wow.

II, I think that I would have the detectives as contenders too.

I do think that this is an interesting case though because they make me feel a little hypocritical where, like, I’ll talk about the Cowboys being held together by this top end talent and the rest of it.

You’re like, uh, I don’t know, but the Texans to me, I, I still think they’re contenders where you have CJ Stroud in this offense and how they were able to just take off last year.

You know, they get to the wild card game against the Browns, one of the best defense in the league all season throttle them, killed them.

But what makes me excited now is Will Anderson has a buddy this year, Zil Hunter who comes over from the Vikings, that already might be the best edge duo in the league, right?

Um Or at least has the potential to be the best edge duo in the league for this season.

Uh, and I just think about, man, if you’ve got an offense that’s gonna be able to score like they do.

And now we’ve got Will Anderson, Daniel Hunter pinning the years back with Derek Stingley and Petrie on the back end.

Like that sounds like a lot of sacks and turnovers to me even if you’re not a great like down and down defense.

So I think the variance that those guys will add can kind of push them over the top and get them seeing like Pete Jalen Petrie again during the preseason now has been a wonderful return to form for the people that loved him in Baylor in college.

But I, I would say to just continuity, we’ve talked about the brain drain on other staff coaching changes, the losses there, there’s so much continuity this team but maybe nowhere more important than especially an offensive coordinator getting Bobby Sloe back for this team.

Kind of similar to what we saw with Detroit last year where everyone thought Ben Johnson was going to go and get one of those jobs.

And everyone this year thought Bobby Sloe would be that young hot coordinator that people try and poach and now you get another year of him and CJ Stroud cooking together and we all know the media loves CJ Stroud because he does, he talks as well as he plays about the game and he’s so giving of all that, that a guy with that attitude walking into a year with an actual off season that we always talk about being huge for these guys.

I just think that development time for everyone to have time under task together, gives this team such a leg up in all the ways we’ve talked about negatively with other teams last and certainly not least who do not come for me.

Bills fans, the Buffalo Bills contenders or no, I don’t remember what.

All right, we’re gonna go with actually.

Now I remember I have the the first and foremost answer is Josh Allen.

And that makes these, the Buffalo Bills always contender.

It’s the same argument for me with Mahomes if they have Mahomes and he’s healthy.

Yeah, I’m gonna think of this team as a contender.

They have the Dragon and that’s Josh Allen.

Uh, uh, when you have that it’s gonna keep you in every game.

It’s gonna keep you in every season to make the playoffs.

Make some noise.

I also just, I don’t think there’s as big of a drop on offense that others maybe think they, they lose Stefon Diggs.

Yeah, Stefon Diggs got weaned out of that offense in the second half of last year for better, for worse.

But they made a consensus effort to add a guy that fits them better now, which is Kian Coleman, the guy with size, the guy that can play inside and out, maybe not gonna be as speedy as Stefan and of course it didn’t time like that but can add that zone beating element that they have.

So I think him and Donkin Cake have a really fun two man game and also the offensive line.

This is a good run game.

Not even just using Josh Allen.

We always have to have that caveat oh, with quarterback runs even just excluding the most dangerous weapon in the game, which is Josh Allen’s legs.

This run game is top five last year and I think they’re going to be top five this year and I think they’d be more consistent.

So to me that’s why I go with them as always going to be a contender.

Yeah, I’m with you.

I think they’re still contenders because they have Josh Allen, the offensive line is still pretty good.

They should be able to run the ball.

But I think on the defensive side they’ve already suffered an injury with Matt Milano, they’ve got a lot of turnover on that side of the ball, but you still have guys up front that I think can be a source of continuity for them.

Ed Oliver Greg Rousseau, uh the defensive member from Miami for a few years ago, those guys I think can do just enough to kind of keep that Bills defense together in a way that can support an offense.

So I’m with you.

I think it’s gonna be one of the top 10 offenses in the league.

You have one of the best quarterbacks in the league and I don’t really see a reason for you to be in a spot where you’re saying.

Oh, no, I’m doubting the Buffalo Bills even though nothing’s really changed except maybe what you think about Stefan Diggs.

Yeah, I, I would agree and I think Nate’s points well served there.

I think d line depth.

You want to ask you talk about reactions to preseason, ask the fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, how they feel about the Buffalo Bills defensive line?

They’re gonna have nightmares about what Greg Rousseau did to Broderick Jones on a few of those plays there.

So not to bring up a former Georgia Bulldog dealing with a hard time there.

But between that and what you mentioned on the other side, a running back room were already James Cook was so incredible opposite him.

And yeah, Ray Davis is one of my favorite college running backs for the last few years now and I think him is an off speed pitch in that group just committing to that portion of this while they flesh out whatever the passing game is gonna look like around 11.5 personnel, whatever you wanna call it with Dalton Kincaid and company there.

II, I just think the foundation, we’ve talked a lot about that with a lot of these teams and the foundation around this team on both lines of scrimmage is strong.

One of my favorite things about August football is like, we feel like we have it all figured out, right.

These are the teams that are good.

These are the teams that are bad, let’s pack up our stuff and we’re out of here.

We don’t even need to play football and then a team like the Houston Texans come around and they’re like, oh, you thought, you thought so in light of what the Houston Texans were able to do last season, they go from the worst team in one of the worst divisions in the AFC South just a couple of seasons ago to finding themselves in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Who is that team?

And we’ll start with you Nate this year.

That could go from worst to first in their division.

There’s a lot of rookie quarterbacks up there and I’m going to pick one of them and I’m going with the Chicago Bears.

It’s really though outside of Cale Williams.

I know that’s exciting is really, this pick is based on the defense.

It’s just because I think the defense is going to be sweet.

I think it’s gonna, what they have 11 good players.

Like, I really think that good starters are better.

It’s a really good zone defense that’s going to be like Zenia on the top from golden eye, just strangle the life out of offenses.

That’s, yeah, that was a good reference there.

But, uh, yeah, but they have Cale Williams.

It’s gonna be exciting offense even if they’re gonna have some up and down this, I think because of the offensive line, I just think they have good pieces around Cale that it’s gonna be at the very least average.

So with a really good defense and an offense that I think could be exciting in the top half with an exciting quarterback.

That’s, that’s why I think they can make a jump and have a really tough division.

Yeah, I went with the Cincinnati Bengals because it’s tough when you’re looking at these teams that finish fourth.

Most of them suck.

Right for a reason.

Like they’re, they’re not actually good football team.

So if you’re gonna go with the Bears and I don’t wanna copy you, I’m gonna go with another team that has a quarterback with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Um, Joe Burrow is he’s back.

We’ll see if he is able to quite honestly make the offense look as good as Jake Browning did towards the end of the back seat, the back half of last season where they were able to get under center, they were able to do all these other things, but they still have a collection of talent that I still think most teams would be fearful of every Sunday.

Uh, Joe Burrow, he’s gonna be out there.

Still got Jamar Chase T Higgins, the offensive line t or the offensive line room has been a little bit revamped with new offensive tackles being brought in this off season.

Uh, they’re, they’re still, they still have like the nucleus of a team that can go out and go on a run.

Maybe the depth of defense has been chopped off over the past few years is gonna hurt them.

But if there’s gonna be a team that’s left on this list, I think it’s a Bengals just because they have a core that is filled with all pros on offense.

I can’t believe with the Joe Burrow haircut.

You missed the opportunity to go guess who’s back back again, burrows back.

Tell a friend.

I have no shame.

So I will do that for you.

We don’t listen too much M and M around here for understandable reasons.

We don’t have to talk about it, but I digress you guys make great picks there.

I, I agree those especially the Bengals.

I, it seems like it’s tailor made for this.

So I, I’ll go out on a limb here.

The Tennessee Titans are really interesting to me.

A lot of new parts around there.

Calvin Ridley comes over in an offense where you saw Will Levis and Andre Hopkins already had some chemistry last year.

He was gonna get his man the ball but it was boom or bust.

It was deep passes or short passes around the line of scrimmage in comes Brian Callahan who is great on his own and there’s things I can talk about in the defense, but Nate, you and I both are familiar with the feeling of people being a little more excited to see your dad than they are to see you when you walk into the room.

And Bill Callahan coming on over to coach this Titans offensive line is why I’m most excited because you look everywhere this man has gone and anyone who’s ever been on a team when a new coach comes in, you look at where they’ve been and what they’ve done.

And Bill Callahan, you go back to the Dallas Cowboys offensive line with Tyron Smith and Zach Martin and Travis Frederick early on.

There you go to Washington after that and you see Brandon Sherp and Trent Williams, you go after that down to the Cleveland Browns where you saw Joel Baton and Wild Teller and all the rest of these guys that he helped turn into incredible players who are great talented players themselves, but got the best coaching.

So if you are JC Latham, if you are Peter Skat on that offensive line, you are getting the best coaching that money can buy in the NFL at that position.

You’re getting a kingmaker.

And so we’ve talked a lot, I’ve almost probably said it too much now about resetting the foundations along these teams.

But I’m just fascinated to see what this time offense can become.

They’re giving will Levis the best chance possible for a second year quarterback.

That’s all you can ask, find out what he’s capable of by putting this around him.

And I think Bill goes a long way in helping out with that.

I love that pick.

I do, I’ll ask you.

So you picked the Texans as a contender if you’re picking the Titans to finish first in the AFC South, I’m saying they got a chance.

I’ve already nailed the Lions and Packers as final four team and I just had the Bears the first.

So we don’t have continuity in the slightest here, but that’s OK. That’s why all the multiverses I got covered Oliver takes in a vacuum here.

I got a chance to, that’s it.

We’re just here to talk.

Ok. No wrong answers.

Yes.

Stretch it out.

Let’s look on the other side of the coin teams that made the playoffs last season that could miss the playoffs this season.

See Mac, who you got?

Um, who did I go with?

I mean, I went with the Eagles.

Yes, he did.

Uh, which the f I had to look at mine too.

Yeah, but I’m, I’m gonna go with the Eagles just for the reasons I listed before.

I, I’m just really worried about the defense for this year.

I think for the long term, you’re probably still pretty bullish on how you feel about them just because, uh, they have Dylan Carter, they have those guys that they drafted in the secondary this year.

Uh, the linebacker room has been a mess for a long time.

They tried to be deemed that hasn’t worked out.

They’ve tried Devin White.

We’ll see what happens there this year.

Uh, but I just think the defense paired with Kellen Moore and Jalen Hurtz.

I don’t really understand that marriage from a schematic standpoint.

Uh, I think that that’s gonna hurt them and yeah, maybe the cowboys can get that question mark erased from their pretenders part and pass the Eagles and be not even an exclamation point just like a dot dot dot Trigger for millennials.

The shrug emoji like, ok. Yeah, I guess you got, oh, I have the Steelers, which kind of feels like a, a cop out pick because I feel like we’re always, like, they’re not making the playoffs this year.

Right.

And then Tomlin does his thing and they, like, win nine games and they, like, make the playoffs and they lose to the Chiefs.

But this is, I, I really do think that with this team right now they haven’t figured out the quarterbacks neither has looked really good.

And I’ve still thought that’s been an odd marriage between Arthur Smith and these two quarterbacks.

I’m excited between like, maybe some of the run game stuff that they could do.

That’s got to be interested in this team, but I don’t know if they’re good on offense.

Like, I don’t know how high that is.

Is it interesting or good?

The defense getting up there in some years, they have interesting second year players.

I like Kiana Benton, Joey Porter Junior.

They still have Mica Fitzpatrick, Kim Hamburg, TJ TJ Watt.

It’s just that kind of see this again.

It’s like question marks at quarterback inconsistent offense with a good defense.

That to me is like in a tough division, they could go win eight games, but I still think they missed the playoffs in that way.

All right.

Well, I’m not touching the Mike Tomlin magic with a 10 ft pole.

I got shocked when I said it, I’ll, uh, I’ll think what I take is probably the easy way out here and say the Buccaneers, the NFC South, an infinitely winnable division that generally tends to be average.

A lot of people think that the Atlanta Falcons with Kirk Cousins gonna come back and take that over which, you know, Charles, I understand at your own peril back.

The Falcon careful.

But I I will say this.

I thought this is interesting looking at the Buccaneers success last year and Aaron shots in the preseason Alman act that he puts out, had a great note about their offense and where they were successful as Baker Mayfield had one of his better seasons since his rookie year.

They were third in the league or excuse me first in the league on third down in terms of DVO a last year, their efficiency metric despite being 10th worst in the league in terms of average yard to go 6.9 yards to go.

They were the fourth worst team on first, second down throughout most of the year.

That doesn’t seem like a sustainable way to make a living necessarily.

And so I think them taking a little bit of a step back after we doubted them last year and got humbled and surprised and Baker deserves the payday that he got because of it.

But I think in that division especially a little step back and open the door for maybe a Froggy Saints team with a good defense, maybe the Falcons if the offense comes together.

What a wild division that is.

And when I say wild day, I don’t necessarily mean it’s done to Charles create a camera five on it.

Make that a meme.

Just plaster that wallpaper everywhere.

NFC South and it’s just Charles M NFC South and just like, oh man, it hurts.

But it’s Graham Barton would do a lot for you though.

I, I do love the Graham Barton pick.

One of, we talked a lot about it in the predraft process.

One of my favorite guys out there.

Awesome pick, great for the interior of the offensive line.

When you got a short quarterback that’s at a premium.

But he got a big heart though.

God is so big.

He loves his ruddy, big hearts.

Let’s look at some players that have shown that they are willing to do whatever it takes to do for their team and whatever it takes to win.

This is drive to win presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL N. Who is your drive to win for the season?

This pick is kind of an old Henry pick.

It seems kind of ironic here but it’s not, is Kyler Murray is my pick for her to be the player to drive to win.

And that’s really what it is, is that that contract that happened, that we’ve laughed at Cliff Kingsburg.

Why are they doing it?

Steve Kim, I believe, you know, when you lose that kind of embarrasses a player, especially one that wants to be a professional, gets paid and everything.

And this news coaching staff with Jonathan Gannon and Drew Pets in the offense coord with the Cardinals, they’ve asked a lot of Kyler since they’ve got there and they’ve also put confidence in them said, like, why are you guys talking about trading and blowing up?

That’s our dude.

That’s our guy and I think Kyler is fully bought in.

He came back in the second half of last year.

It’s the most he’s ever had to play quarterback as far as being under center operating the offense, making checks at the line, all these good things.

And then so when, when I went to practice and saw him a couple of weeks ago in Arizona, I’ve never seen him more strapped in and locked into a practice and he was doing all the little things, right.

And I know that sounds like you’re extra playing a little thing.

Seeing what the second half of last year with the Cardinals, seeing that training camp when it’s a grind, seeing the star quarterback doing the little things with the rookies.

Yeah, he’s my guy this year because I really think it’s gonna ramp up and be on a really fun Cardinals team.

I think I was really close to going with his center, his uh Hial fro who just got paid too, by the way.

Congratulations on an incredible under Callahan uh, success story.

Yes.

I think so.

Yeah, technically gets to a claim for that big Bill Callahan grew up here, but I will stay in division and you mentioned Rudy, I gotta go with the Golden Domer here, Kyron Williams last year.

The insane production third in the league in rushing only starting I believe 11 games playing in 12 because he was banged up last year.

So a lot in a little amount of time, really the poster for what Sean mcveigh is trying to do with this league incineration of the Rams offense.

We got bigger on the interior line.

We want to go downhill, big gap duo runs and let him cook.

And I think now that you went out and saw that last year, what did they do?

They bring in Blake Kum this year?

Who’s a carbon copy of him?

Maybe not quite the pass protector since Kyron might already be RB one in terms of past protectors in the backfield, but spell him for a few reps, keep him healthier for longer.

Knowing when Kyron’s on the field, you are going to get everything that dude has because you saw it firsthand last year.

That could potentially be a sleeper fantasy pick for anybody getting in dabbling into their fantasy drafts here.

Both of them make sure you get, both get Kyra and Blake Corum and you’re gonna be set this year.

See who you got.

I’m gonna go with someone that ID P players should keep an eye out for, with Max Crosby, the Raiders deep into them all for me as a former defensive lineman.

I am just, it’s amazing how much football this guy plays, like simply how much football he plays.

You’re looking at a defensive lineman over the past few years who’s played 9495 96% of the snaps hasn’t missed a game in three or four years.

And now you paired him with Christian Wilkins, who’s a defensive tackle that also plays 8384 85% of the snaps.

Those guys don’t come off the field.

And I think we talked about it yesterday briefly where the amount of effort that you see for someone who’s playing literally 95% of the staffs is unbelievable.

So Max Crosby gets my pick for this award.

Caffeine personified.

He earns his cigars post games.

I’ll tell you that he really does.

He absolutely does.

That was drive to win presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL.

A lot of new names and a lot of new faces in new places.

So Gojo, we’ll actually start with you on this one who is new to a team player, coach, front office member that you think can have the biggest impact on their new team this season.

I’m just going to keep staying on Brandon pick an offensive lineman here that Jets team that everyone is so excited to watch this season, Aaron Rodgers coming back from Egypt, feeling rejuvenated here, probably feels a lot better because he looks to his left and sees this guy and Tyron Smith, who he, they brought over from the Dallas Cowboys and Tyron Smith.

We know the concern is in, but when he is on the field, this guy is still playing like the gold jacket he’ll eventually wear courtesy of next gen stats last year.

Tyron Smith was one on 1 84.5% of his snaps.

Last season.

Third highest rate amongst left tackles with at least 300 pass blocking snaps.

He allowed 6.7% pressure percentage on those snaps.

The lowest among left tackles in the NFL.

So he is still a premium player at an important position on a line that’s trying to come together and have success early, you know, for my pick, I had to go with the hometown team Coco Chains baby cousin.

But I, I did, I really do feel like for any team that made an off season trade or signing.

I don’t know if any person or player has an impact on winner losses like her cousins will for the Falcons this year.

And I don’t, I don’t know if this is all gonna be good, but I do know that he is coming in here to basically save the careers of like be John Robinson and Kyle Pitts and Drake London and give them a chance to actually become the players that they picked with two number eight overall and a number four overall pick.

And you’re kind of sitting here like what the heck is going on here.

We got nothing, uh, to, you know, to show of it so far.

But Kirk, um, I know there have been a lot of different opinions on how good he is as a player last year I thought was the best football he played in his career.

If you’re gonna get that Kirk Cousins, I think they can win the division, but if not, they’ll lose.

And I say that’s a pretty big impact too.

And then it’s Michael critics junior time.

We’ll see contracts are real as is money, money is also very real.

We have, I have Mike mcdonald and this is kind of a continuation maybe why I was maybe a little lower on the Ravens even if I like Zach or because I thought what Mike mcdonald did last year with the Ravens defense was awesome.

It was just what, uh go mentioned the teaching or whoever mentioned the teaching.

That was a big part of it, sorry for like an hour ago, but it was, they mentioned the teaching that he does.

And that’s why this defense, even if the Seahawks defense doesn’t look star laden, he’s gonna make the most of it.

And I really like their defensive front.

I actually like Devin Witherspoon a lot.

I think he’s a star probably might be a pro this year.

But they have, he can make the most of guys like Julian love.

He can make the most of guys that maybe are square peg, round hole other places.

All right, I’m gonna use Leonard Williams this way.

I’m gonna use Jones this way.

But now they got a guy named Byron Murphy who’s like a different type than they have.

He had a guy named Justin Mata earlier that Charles brought up that he just meta BK now.

So I just, I just write his tweet defense.

I’ve called it the kaleidoscopic defense, which is, yeah.

Right.

I know.

Yeah, just kind of like they change the picture all the time.

It’s always moving, always evolving.

And I think that doesn’t change.

He’s not gonna just lose that from his brain even though he’s gonna have different personnel doesn’t have Roqua Smith.

But, you know, it has, you know, other pieces that he can work with and it was a pretty stout coaching carousel this past off season in the NFL.

And I feel like the sexy pick whenever you’re finding your next head coach is the offensive guy.

It’s the guru, it’s the skinny jeans and the latte and the, you know, the hair gel you’re describing cliff.

That’s mcdaniel would like a word press conference.

What is it?

Two years in Miami now?

All of a sudden he’s the coolest person in the world he’s ready to go, ready to go.

He’s really dialing into it.

I am an offensive minded coach and I’m going to look the part that’s what we call.

But I love that move from the Seahawks this off season to kind of go, you know, defensive head coach.

Uh we talk about maybe some free agents or trades that happened this past off season to have big impacts, even a coach that would make a big impact, but a lot of rookies poised to make big impacts this season as well.

Nate, which rookie do you think is going to make the biggest impact for his respective team?

This is great because you can just rewind and listen to Golic about 5, 10 minutes ago.

And I’m going with JC Latham who was the left tackle was a right tackle in college that the Titans drafted in the first round this year.

I wanted to go with the receiver, maybe something that maybe one of these rookie quarterbacks are probably gonna impact it.

But really, JC Latham and Bill Callahan, they’re gonna be total personality changers, total identity changers in Tennessee.

So you got him with Peter Skanky on the left side that is a weapon that is something it doesn’t matter who the running back is run left.

We’re good like we, we can, we can go behind these guys.

I was super high in Latham.

He doesn’t look like a tackle because he’s so big.

I I said he looks like a globe with arms like that because that’s how he’s built.

But he moved, it was like a guy 5060 pounds lighter and it’s, which is still above 300 pounds.

But it’s just one of, I really do think that his impact to help will Levi’s blind side build around him.

They also had a Lloyd Cush bar at center.

That’s like it turned something that was bad.

So it’s something that I might be good this year because of additional like Latham, I will take a page out of Jim Harbaugh’s playbook when he said offensive linemen are skilled players.

Like that’s what JC Latham might be for an offensive line.

That was one of the worst for this music is your ears chills.

See Mac, who do you, who are you picking to make the biggest impact this year?

I took the Laziest pick possible Bears quarterback Kayla Williams.

I mean, it’s, it’s so it is in fact correct.

I, that takes only on this show.

We, we’ve seen the first couple of preseason games.

Uh, and I think we’re right.

Sorry, sorry, I hang it up and go home.

Uh, this guy, he’s been billed, I mean, since he was in high school as a potential former or future number one overall pick, I, I don’t really see any reason to take your foot off, you know, the hype train now that we’ve seen him actually in a Bears uniform and playing against NFL players in the preseason.

Uh I think one of the most encouraging things to me was last week when you have that throw to Romo Dunes, that was, you know, highlighted all over the place before that.

They are in a rut offensively, right?

Like they’re really not moving the ball, but the thing is, it’s ok. You’re not moving the ball as a rookie when you can flip it 50 yards, five yards down the field and hit ad in stride and have a source of big plays when things are kind of struggling for you.

So, uh I wanna go with Caleb Williams.

Big hot take.

I know here, but I think he’s gonna be pretty good for the Bears.

Have you heard he is good but the other side that too is not even just Caleb Williams and his talent, but it’s not very often that you get a team that’s picking first overall that has the infrastructure in place to support a rookie quarterback, Allah Bryce.

Yeah, how he struggled in, yeah, T and PS uh to everybody in Carolina, but I think that K Williams is stepping into a team, stepping into a roster in a situation in Chicago where he is set up for a decent bit of success goo who you got.

Yeah, I will also make an incredibly brave pick and say Marvin Harrison Junior, a player who’s basically been, we always used to call guys like this, that’s an NFL player that was on loan to Ohio State.

For a little bit for basically the moment he stepped on campus, which they’re used to in that room.

And I just think everything you’ve heard all the feedback since he landed in Arizona has been.

Yeah, it’s all real every bit of this and look at that offense where Trey mcbride was a star last season, burst out of the season in such a big way.

You’ve got Kyler Murray now as Nate talked about before, even more locked in than ever.

And now he’s got his go to target on the outside where you can really shape, shift the defense in the way that you attacked and influence them.

I just think this is one we talked about and listen, Malik Neighbors has been incredible in New York.

It’s not like the pre draft discussion that we had about Malik and Roma Duns and him was undeserved.

They all deserve their place in that conversation.

But I just kept coming back to Marvin Harrison junior is so efficient.

He makes all the slow, so easy.

We can talk about the bloodlines, but I just think he’s gonna win an Arizona team that in year two for Jonathan Gannon is super interesting to me in a thunderdome division in the NFC West and going to help elevate that offense and start to set that trajectory going forward.

Our streak continues by the way, every pod Charles and I have done this summer, we’ve met with the Cardinals.

So, so this is, this is great.

We’re pretty pumped about this offense.

Yeah, Marvin is a big, big, big part of that.

He is.

I feel like the, that, you know, the crux of that conversation gojo is Marvin Harrison junior prepped for Randy Moss.

Ask rookie season.

I mean, I was there for that if we throw out Caleb Williams as our hot take.

I feel like I need to get a little spicy in here.

We’ve seen Twisters or Twister, you know, you see an F five and then it’s like, well, I’m never gonna see that again.

That’s Randy Moss’s rookie season.

This is like Marvin Harrison dream might be like an F three.

Like it might still be really good and destructive for defenses, but it’s like Randy was one of one.

So it’s really hard.

I’m sorry, I thought about that, but it’s, but he could have a very good, I think it’s 1000 yard season, like pretty easy.

Like I really do just because of what the offensive system is.

And like you mentioned the line like the run game is gonna be good.

So it’s Johnson switching back over and he’s now a future star and it’s like, so now it’s gonna make it easier on Marvin Trey mcbride is the number two, Michael Wilson, the other receiver Greg Dorsch.

So it’s like why I mention those names that’s gonna help uh Marvin because they can’t just go, oh, run cover two on him, we, we can’t score on him.

So I know we want some fancy stuff.

He draft Marvin Harrison Junior even as a rookie because it’s just, I still think it’s gonna be productive, draft him in the first round.

Take them as soon as you possibly can.

It’s Marvin Harrison freaking junior in this offense.

Absolutely.

Uh, let’s take a look at maybe some coaches, quarterbacks, front office members that are going into the season, a little uncomfortable seats getting a little hot.

Whose seat is the hottest though?

C Mac, uh, I will go with the team who hire a co they didn’t want with the Washington, the commanders and Dan Quinn let everyone know that year, one year on the hot about it.

You can be honest about this though, right?

Because as after they hired Dan Quinn, after they announced him as the head coach, they were still going back and forth with Ben Johnson’s representative, the offensive coordinator from the lines.

So to me that speaks, you are on shaky ground walking in immediately.

We’re starting a rookie quarterback.

We don’t have a great offensive line, we don’t have a great defense and also this would not even be a new trend.

We have seen a handful of teams since the pandemic started in 2020 that have fired coaches after one year, the Texans have done it twice in that time span back to back even.

Uh, so this is not something that’s as taboo as it used to be.

And I think that if they get out to a bad start and Jaden Daniels are struggling, they’re not playing well on defense.

They’re at the bottom of the NFC East rankings.

We know where it’s gonna come back to and we’ve already know that this ownership group is capable of irrational behavior.

Well, I, I think, especially if Jaden Daniels does well even, but the rest of the team success and I mean, the history of the NFL is littered, especially like post 2011 where these rookie quarterback contracts became even more valuable with coaches who the organization said that player looks good.

I don’t think you’re the one we want, molding him.

And so we’re gonna go find someone else now before you damage too much, especially if you’re not the Wounder kin offensive play caller where they go.

Oh, man, we don’t have his game plans anymore like Dan, oh, Dan Quinn at least gave himself some fodder.

I’m not calling defensive plays, the defense struggles.

So we’ll see, we’ll see when the first strike, uh, you know, pass whizzes by, uh, their, their, their, their ear who’s got the hottest of hot seats, in your opinion.

I’m keeping in a division, I’m going Nick Ceriani just because we’re just talking about coordinators and maybe, you know, human meat shields.

We’ve already seen some offensive coordinator change and defensive coordinator change and special team changes with the staff, usually that means the head coach is next.

And I think this Eagles team that I still think is, has a chance to make the playoffs and everything.

It’s just, again, it’s that empty calorie stuff that I come back to where it’s just that what he’s been asked already, it’s like, all right, what are you doing here, Nick, if we’re having all these inconsistencies, isn’t that a reflection on you as the head coach, if you’re not calling plays, he’s kind of admitted he doesn’t have much influence on the offense.

And we’re also getting into a source off already, which is just been, we’re having played a game yet and we’re already getting into anonymous source offs.

So that’s why we’re picking a couple of teams here with the Dan Quinn going like they had a source off of that, the Ben Johnson now with Siri and stuff it, so it just, they already feel like they’re starting shaky and I feel Howie Roseman runs that team.

He’s gonna always make sure he runs that team.

So that leads me to Siri is on shaky ground even if they have a decent season.

And even if there, if there’s a Bobby Slock, a Ben Johnson, that’s on the coaching market.

I think teams like the commanders like the Eagles, especially if you’re the young quarterback that we’re looking at that next offensive guru kind of head coach before they inevitably get snatched up by another team looking for a new head coach Gojo hottest seats for you.

Let’s make it three for three in the NFC East this year.

Hours here for Mike mccarthy.

I mean, listen, it’s, it’s set up like the quarterback situation where you’re walking into this season with one year left on a deal.

They decided not to renew Jerry Jones Maverick at the helm of this entire ship and knowing that just winning 12 games is not good enough, Like, I think that’s the other part is, it’s sort of like in college when we would see coaches like Les Miles get fired at LSU for winning.

Mark Rick at Georgia fired for winning 9, 10 games a year because you’re not beating Nick Saban in Alabama when you’re Dallas and Jerry Standard in his mind, even if it’s not reflected by the current team is we’re supposed to be winning in the playoffs and winning Super Bowls and that’s not happening.

You’re a long way removed from that conversation about how Mike mccarthy spent all off-season learning analytics to get Jerry Jones to fall in love with him again.

And so I think, yeah, all of the signs have been sent that it’s kind of this year and then we’ll reassess everything about the current core for the Dallas Cowboys felt like everything hit for them last year and then they still couldn’t get over that hump.

It’s like everything was Tyron Smith was healthy.

It’s like, ok, that’s a good sign here.

We go and they still just couldn’t get there.

And so it’s, and obviously read the numbers, read the money if you’re not gonna renew, that’s what we call lame duck coach.

So that’s, yeah, it’s with, uh, uh, even if the Jerry Jones has given head coaches time before, kind of just like, still feels a little dicey this year and it gets to a point when you’re winning 1011, 12 games this season.

That’s great.

But then it gets to a certain point where that’s not enough.

Ok?

We went 12 and five, but we lost in the wild guard round of the playoffs.

Like that’s not good enough for us anymore.

We need to take that next step.

So we put some coaches on the hot seat.

Shout out to the NFC East.

What a fun division to follow this year.

So we’re going to put ourselves in the hot seat.

Have a little bit of a rapid fire.

I will start with you c A defensive player of the year.

Your prediction.

Ok.

I went with Jalen Carter, the defensive tackle from the Philadelphia.

Uh, and it just kind of feels like we were talking about the other day basketball teams where no one’s here, but someone’s got to score 20 points a game, right?

And that’s kind of how I feel about Jalen Carter and the Eagles defense and the Eagles defensive line.

Are they going to be a team that puts up, you know, an 80 sack season or close to 80 sacks like they have in the past couple of years, probably not.

But when you look at just the talent that he has to work with, I really think that he could come out and say, all right, I’m Superman this year.

I’m gonna put everything on my back.

We’re gonna go out, we’re gonna get, you know, 15 sacks, 15 tackles for loss.

And I think if he can do that, the talents in him, uh, he just kinda used to get past like the rookie wall.

He hit last year because he was in basically the front runner for defensive rookie of the year until he just stopped playing well towards the back half of the season, which caused Will Anderson to get in there.

Yeah, I would say I am, uh, gonna stick with what I know works now, I don’t think we’ve had a player go back to back as defensive player of the year since Aaron Donald.

But, uh, I think Miles Garrett’s got the stuff for it, double digit sacks each of the last six years.

He’s a player that is the perfect fit in the defense that he’s a part of here.

We know got a little bit banged up that shoulder, basically hanging off by the end of last year.

But I just think Prime coming in healthy again to be the guy.

I picked the dude that looks like a space alien and plays like it.

And once I saw him crossing the center, which should be illegal, by the way, if we’re gonna make backside cut blocks and all that stuff illegal for offensive linemen, take away the ability to put edge rushers down in the interior line.

That’s a crime.

It shouldn’t happen.

It’s like a threshold of athleticism.

Would you run some four or five?

Yeah.

No, no, no.

Back to the edge.

Yeah, that’s exactly it.

I will.

I am crying.

Oh, man.

Uh, 00, you just talked about, there hasn’t been one back to back, uh, uh, different player of the year winner.

And that’s because voters like the shiny new toy even.

This guy hasn’t been, uh, uh, where he’s got a little, where he’s going up for contract now that’s Michael Parsons, uh, is because he’s come close.

He keeps getting all pro teams.

He’s a force of nature.

I honestly him, Miles Garrett probably back and forth right now.

But really, I would take Mike Parsons just because I just feel like every play he’s bringing it, he can do so much with them.

I just think kind of, I think that Cowboys defense is still gonna be pretty good with Mike Zimmer.

He’s gonna lock persons a little bit more and use them in some fun ways.

So I think he just racks up the actual numbers where voters go.

Oh, there’s 16 sacks.

Boom.

I’m gonna give it to him and like I said, it’s a shiny new toy for them to vote on.

I went with what I thought was going to be obvious but clearly looking at everybody else’s choice as it wasn’t where with TJ Watt.

Like if you give me the gaudiest defensive numbers in the NFL and the NFL last year, the leading Zacker in the league last year, like I will take him to do that again.

Thank you very much.

Let’s look on the offensive side of the ball but focus in on some rookies.

Nate, your offensive rookie of the year.

I can’t give it to JC Latham.

I’m sorry.

So I just went with the obvious pick with Marvin Harrison JR.

These guys.

Yeah, I know the, the record when we said most impactful rookie, the defensive lineman, the offensive linemen went with the skill guys and I went with the trench player.

So the former quarterback, well, at the record shell, it’s Marvin Harrison Junior.

We very laid out the impact he can bring, I think he’s going to have the stats to back that up.

I, I do think there’s some cool quarterbacks is here that maybe go with this.

But I think Marvin Harrison junior, it’s his award to lose.

I would agree.

Yeah, you heard me wax poetic about it before and, and to Nate’s point, the quarterbacks had the leg up because you get to touch the ball every play and for Jayden Daniels, who’s going to be playing behind an offensive line that might not afford him the most project protection and I’d imagine, hey, yeah, you’ve got Terry mclorin out there, you’ve got some receivers to work with, but his legs are going to be the breaking case of emergency that like it was tantalizing for Heisman voters I’d imagine will also be tantalizing for people looking for an offensive rookie of the year.

But I, I still think like Nate said, and I know you guys are healthy on it.

A healthy offense with a player of that caliber that’s already trending in the right direction.

Seems like a good bet for a guy that’s gonna have a big year.

Uh I’m gonna go with the quarterback that was taken first overall and it’s going to a team that’s not first overall quality.

You know, we’ve talked that now about how good the Bears defense is.

We’ve already talked about Robert Duns being on this show.

We talk about K Williams.

I feel like one people are already inclined to vote for a quarterback to win this award.

Uh Some competition has been knocked out the race with JJ mccarthy being out for the whole year.

I don’t think the situations of JJ or, you know, Jaden Daniels or Drake may are really threatening what this Bears team must put together.

So if you can see the flashes that we’ve already seen this preseason versus real NFL teams, plus the Bears going to run they make the playoffs.

I don’t really see how else gets in there as, you know, Chicago sports fans won’t go nuts at all.

It’s quiet fan base, very measured.

They don’t get too high, too low, always even keeled.

So if he has a good season, we’re not, we’re not gonna hear anything.

Very mindful.

Very mindful.

I’m tripling down on Marvin Harrison Junior though, which is wild.

There were six quarterbacks taken in the first round and three of us are going with the receiver.

I just think that Arizona’s offense will be much better this season.

Kyler Kyler is healthy.

It’s year two in this coaching staff, but I think Marvin Harrison Junior is going to get a big portion of the credit for the offensive improvements this year.

So give me Maserati Marv to win the offensive rookie of the year MVP.

See Mac, who’s your MVP pick Chiefs?

15?

I mean, come on man.

Because why?

Because he’s the most, he’s the most underrated player in the game.

He is the NFL player about Patrick Mams.

I know, but I have one guy in Kansas City fourth in the top 100 man.

I guess I’m talking about, I just need one guy said he of the God sake we have to talk about for dude, dude, if, if, if NFL players and the 58, 140 pound flag football quarterback, if you’re listening to me at this right now, he’s listening to all this.

He’s reading all of this when, when they, when the Raiders made the Kermit the frog voice joke, he said, basically said, yeah, we’ll see him on the field twice a year baby.

And I think you pair that mentality.

Everything we already know about him.

All the greatness plus two real deal NFL receivers that he did not have last year.

Um, he’s, he’s, he’s, he’s everything we’re going 17 and oh NFL MVP, Super Bowl, MVP, whatever is left, he’s taking it this year.

It’s such silly bolt and board material too.

Like nobody’s saying anything bad about that.

So it’s like, oh, you don’t like the way I talk like I’m coming for you n you got, oh man, I went with God.

I’m just repeating my pick from last year because I’m manifesting this and that’s Josh Allen.

I’m betting on the dragon and it again is more where?

Oh, because right now what’s narrative they’ve lost so much?

Oh, they’re not making the playoffs.

I mean, that’s maybe the narrative, the straw man, I’m arguing in my head.

But because if they do make the playoffs, because what I think Josh Allen is, which is I think the clear number two behind Patrick Mahomes in a category by himself is that the narrative is, oh, Josh Allen carried this team into the playoffs, which he already has been doing.

But this time it’s more that our people are recognizing or they’re not getting mad that he threw one interception after he just threw five amazing passes before that those types of things is what I think leads up to because the Bills maybe in our heads took a step back and Josh Allen keeps ascending.

That’s just kind of the math for the MVP.

You got GOO All right, we’ve talked a lot about narrative work here.

We’ve mentioned the Cowboys a couple of times but allow me to hit the button here.

I’ll know Dak Prescott on this one and I can give you a bunch of actual reasons.

He finished second in the MVP voting last year.

Like it’s not an insane thing to think, especially on a team that like we talked about devoid of a run game.

And with Mike mccarthy calling plays, puts a lot of onus on Dak Prescott to make big throws to be incredibly accurate, which he’s capable of, but you hit on it too.

Spi is a powerful, powerful weapon.

This guy walking into a season, we all expect Dak Prescott is actually going to go in this not signing the deal that’s on the table right now from the Cowboys and saying I wanna hit true free agency because they can’t tag him and see what that tastes like.

And so the idea of Dak Prescott winning MVP and Jerry Jones having to watch him walk out the door and pay what $40 million in the cap next year watching him play for somebody else.

If he goes and takes $60 million a year from the Raiders or someone like that is something that again, I talked about the sports talk, uh, machine, you, the things that would be said, just give me a steady cam on Stephen a Smith all 24 hours of the day.

If we get that, that’s all I want in this life.

Just one eyebrow raised, looking at you like boy, what in the world are just him cackling in his living.

I love jojo’s like the whole thing of the show is just like, let’s build this clean path for me for the next year for, for, for, for our show, God, like man, Monday morning, he coming off NFL weekend.

Holy crap.

The Cowboys have to take now.

Oh my God.

Are they going to bring Dion with them the first?

Oh my God.

That would feed families.

That is what we in the industry call A Ts.

Uh I know that back to back mvps are very rare.

We talked about with defensive player of the year.

I’m gonna go Lamar Jackson as my MVP pick if the Ravens can win that division, which uh we can all agree.

That’s the toughest division in the NFL.

It’s a freaking gauntlet in that division.

If the Ravens can win division, it will be because of Lamar Jackson because of all of the changes that they’ve gone through defensively and also some pieces that they lost offensively.

It will be Lamar Jackson’s team.

So if you win the most difficult division in football, which could be enough to secure the number one seed in the AFC.

I think he has a very strong case to be back to back MVP.

Most important question of the day.

Who makes the Super Bowl, who wins the Super Bowl?

Well, it’s kind of easy.

My AFC one is pretty easy, Chiefs.

Ok. All right now NFC is a little more interesting.

I hinted at this earlier because they had a little Lions a little 49er discussion.

But my team is the Packers for the NFC representative.

I have to say who wins right now as well.

And the winner of that is the Packers just to spice things up.

We’re going way back, we’re going 1868 the A FL NFL championship for this and we’re just going to have, I think a really good game between these two teams, but I just think this is the Jordan love year.

I think this is the year that he really anoints himself that it’s like not just an interesting quarterback that’s replacing a legend who replaced a legend.

It’s not like, oh, shoot, he’s actually a real deal too.

And I just think the rest of the teams built up around him to do that.

I mean, it seems like either way in that match up, we get the Jesse Pinkman, they can’t keep getting away with this.

The Packers either go three for three or Mahomes goes three for three in three years in three Super Bowls.

Uh I I I’m, I’m so lame.

I’m gonna pick, it’s the Chiefs and the 49er until further notice, the Chiefs are going to win.

Until further notice.

We took a team that found a way to overcome having next to nothing in the receiver room next year and made it work and now they went out and added Xavier Worthy who Patrick Mahomes is just YOLO everything to, in practice, apparently to prep him for the wars to come.

So I, I’ll rock with that guy until further notice Taylor Swift forever.

Let’s do this thing.

Yeah, I’m gonna manifesting.

I want, I just, I need to see her in New Orleans.

That’s what we need.

As many of these Super Bowls.

She won’t be touring finally at that point.

She’ll be at the game and there in theory is a chance that I could come.

You’re like, you’re like the farmer manual with the weather.

You’re like, ok, her touring schedules and, ok, their playoff run.

Ok. What’s her schedule at the tail end of the season?

Ok.

They, they’re going 11 5.

So that’s a two seed so we can get, oh, yeah, you got all Mats all there.

I’m Zach Gin A in the hangover right now.

Carry the two square root.

I’m gonna continue my trend being like the most boring basic person on the back half of the show.

Uh I’ve been standing, Caleb Williams and Patrick Mahomes like really out there takes uh and I’m also gonna copy you and say Chase 49ers Super Bowl.

I think I copied you technically in the dock.

So I’ll, I’ll, I’ll give you, I’ll shoot you some bail on that.

I appreciate that, you know, but like we’re really being brave here.

The teams that just played in the Super Bowl and have been in the Super Bowl, more than anyone over the past four years are going to make the Super Bowl again and the team that keeps winning is going to win again because I’m picking the Chiefs to beat the 49ers in the first.

I uh I say these are your minus 100 gambling takes.

Exactly.

You’re not here for value, you’re just here for a guaranteed return.

Uh, but I always have a rule.

Just don’t like, don’t get cute with it with anything in life with pigs.

Don’t get cute with it.

So that’s exactly what I did with my prediction here.

Did not keep it simple.

Got really cute with it.

Bingos and the Lions, the Super Bowl.

And I’m gonna say that the Bengals bring home their very first Super Bowl this season.

Like you said, like they can’t keep getting away with this.

The Chiefs cannot keep getting away with this at some point.

Somebody else is gonna break through.

So who better to pick to break through than the team that did in fact beat and the one quarterback that did, in fact beat Patrick Mahomes just a few years ago to get to the Super Bowl.

This is a window for the Bengals.

Like they’re not gonna signed to Higgins.

Like, can they afford to resign everybody that they want to resign?

Do they want to resign?

They will, they want to resign, Jamar Chase obviously, are they willing to put up the cash to keep this window open as long as it can be with that entire crew?

So I’m let me go to the Bengals.

I think most importantly, they’re all big cat.

Super.

Oh yeah, I was thinking of something there.

I was, I was saying I found someone that’s a bigger cat person than I am.

That’s the joke right off on a couple of years ago was the Kelsey Brothers.

Now it’s gonna be just the cat Super Bowl.

Uh Nate Charles Gojo, appreciate you guys as always for your time for insight thing for thank you to everyone for tuning in and for listening.

Make sure to tune into Charles and Nate, the football 301 podcast, all of our Yahoo Sports Fantasy coverage and all of her fantastic podcasts here at Yahoo Sports.

That is a wrap on the Yahoo Sports football season preview presented by Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL.

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