Full Show | September 10, 2026

0:00There is May. Quick look was closed. Throw it up in the air. They're in the feet down. Job. Yes. A terrible decision. Yeah, it was a bad decision by Drake May. The third interception of the quarter for Drake May in the season opener last night in Seattle. The Seahawks hold on 13 to 10 without their starting quarterback Sam Darnold who left after the sixth snap in the game with an injured hip will no more about that injury later on today after an MRI. Remember Seattle plays here in week three. That's why I am always hesitant to play the schedule game. It's not who you play. It's when you play them Seattle with a season opening win in defense of their Super Bowl title 13 to 10 good morning everybody more picks and predictions on today's show we did the AFC yesterday today we will do our NFC picks

1:13which will be a bit of a tell on our season prediction for Washington which we will do on tomorrow show but we will not give the record if we have Washington doing well in the division or at Wildcard. I'm not sure what you have max but the one thing that I realize every year is you can't pick favorites when you start picking division winners and wild cards and Washington is certainly not a favorite this year on the show today. So today Denton will join us at 1040 every Thursday during football season at 1040 am Denton day will jump on and we will do a college football preview and maybe a little bit of a look back to the previous week. The chart is back with us on Thursdays as well. Fantasy football talk and a lot more with chart at 1125 and Brooks Cubina who covers the Eagles for the athletic will join us at noon today.

2:23We start with the game last night you know it's such a thing to essentially say that the last thing you saw is what it is you know it's called recency bias and sports lends itself to recency bias as much as anything else does. Drake may was the runner up for the MVP in the regular season last year because he actually was a really good quarterback in 2025 in his second year sure they did not beat a team with a winning record they did not play many good defensive teams in the regular season but if you watched New England last year you'd be hard pressed to say that Drake may didn't look the part he looked like a legitimate upper tier. NFL quarterback on his way to perhaps greatness at some point in his career and the debates started about the 2024 draft you know Caleb jaden or Drake may the recency tells you that Caleb Williams and Drake may look like the winners out of that class because jaden didn't play football last year for the most part after the first year you would have said jaden Daniels is the guy I'll tell you one thing you can say not with any level of certainty because you can't bury.

3:45Players especially at this position this early in their careers but JJ McCarthy got demoted yesterday to third string in Minnesota they traded up to take him at number 10 overall he was the fourth quarter back I'm sorry the fifth quarter back taken out of the six in the top 12. Caleb Williams one jaden Daniels to Drake may three Michael Pennix junior seven right JJ McCarthy 10 and Bo Nick's 12. It's not a good sign if the guy that you picked in the first round of the 2024 draft is a guy that when he's played he's been pretty much terrible except against our team last year. And that's the truth that was the best game of his career the game that he played in December against our wretched defense in Minneapolis and then if you've got to go out and sign Kyler Murray as he's entering his third year and Carson wence not a good sign or bring back Carson wence because he was actually on the roster last year.

4:57JJ McCarthy third string quarterback he'll be the emergency quarterback in their opener against the Packers do you know that there were reports max and I was off for a well we were I was back last Monday post cuts. But there were some reports that he might get cut by Minnesota on that final cut that would have been unbelievable to have cut your first round pick at a quarter back spot from two years earlier clearly Kevin O'Connell is not a fan of JJ McCarthy and I'm not sure that that was necessarily his choice anyway when they selected him it's too early to bury him because we've got so many examples of quarter back to being buried Sam Darnold you know Baker Mayfield Geno Smith so these guys tend to develop at their own speed and many of them it takes several years you know a quarterback doesn't hit his prime really until 30 the late 20s 30.

6:02I did not like JJ McCarthy coming out I liked Michael Penex Jr coming out probably will be wrong about him but I was not a big fan of JJ McCarthy I didn't see it I didn't get it I said there's just not a first round quarterback there is he of a day three pick or a late date night to pick maybe but he didn't do that Michigan national championship team they ran the ball on every single offensive play in the second half against Penn State on the road to win that game he didn't throw one pass but things could change for him too but anyway back to Drake May I like Drake May I saw a really talented quarterback last year with my eyes with my you know untrained fan eyes I saw a guy that looked like a fan I saw a guy that looked like a legitimate top half of the league if not top 10 quarterback I love his mobility I like his arm I thought last year that he at times held it a bit too long and then when they faced really good defenses he really struggled in the post season

7:09their team struggled in the post season offensively but so did he against the chargers the Texans the Broncos and then the Seahawks and the Super Bowl the four best defensive teams he had faced in year two but I like Drake May and I made a note at halftime that I thought Drake may had a good first half even though statistically didn't look like overwhelmingly great I thought he made some really good plays with his legs he's very mobile I think he is a decisive runner I think he's a really good runner I think he can throw it I think he can process there's a lot to like about Drake May but he had an absolute horrible fourth quarter and he made one of those throws that is unforgivable at the end of that game you're down three with seconds to go and you are in easy chip shot field goal range and it's third and five and you've got nothing and you scramble a bit and you put it up for grabs in the end zone he was not trying to throw that ball away he was trying to throw it to Mac Collins who was his third and fourth down go to guy last night he was throwing it to Mac Collins because he thought Mac Collins could make a play

8:32but the risk was just absolutely not worth taking in that moment down three that's an unforgivable throw for a college quarterback or a high school quarterback let alone a pro quarterback he's a young quarterback too and guess what he's going to have some really good games this year and he's going to look the part this year at times because he's got real talent you know the one thing at North Carolina and it was the one reason that I put penics ahead of him is that I thought at times he held it too long would run too quickly and would take too much risk in his decision making but he was also a college quarterback who was big strong and could make every thrown was mobile so of course you got to look at a guy like that for sure and I think he's lived up to the draft position so far but last night and off of a postseason which was not good for him nor was it good for his offensive line I get it you know will Campbell was terrible and was hurt they were struggling to protect him last year but his decision making wasn't great times in those playoff games and last night he throws three picks in the fourth quarter three and a quarter and none of them were good decisions

9:54through into double coverage to dobs on the first one through late to dobs on the second one and then the third one you cannot do that you have to throw that ball completely out of bounds and get your field goal team out there and live to fight in OT and he didn't do that he certainly strikes me though as the kind of guy that totally recognizes it and will learn from it I think Jaden is the exact same I truly think that those two and Caleb Williams I think that drafts going to produce three really great quarterbacks I think 10 years from now we're going to look back and say wow out of one draft one two three quarterbacks and they were all great but that was not a good night for Drake May he legitimately was the number one runaway reason the Patriots lost to the Seahawks who played all but the first six snaps of the game without their starting quarter back in the game Sam Darnold

11:00who injured his hip an MRI later today will determine whether or not it is serious we'll find out I'm sure much more later today on how long he will be out but that is the NFL in a nutshell last night you know every game is a different game and a complete entity of its own and one player can essentially cost you a season I thought Drew Lock came in and played well I think he's always been a bit of a gamer he's not a starting quarterback necessarily but I think he's a pretty good backup because he is competitive he is capable as with mobility and with with an arm and he played well he managed the game well he was 16 of 22 for 187 yards one touchdown didn't make any killer mistakes I mean there was almost the you know beyond the line of scrimmage throw that actually got overturned by replay assist I thought Drew Lock did a nice job it's interesting about Seattle in that when you take the great teams in the NFL you know they have been more recently quarter back lead you know whether it's the bills or the chiefs or the bangles in the AFC or the Ravens in the AFC or you know even a team like the L.A. Rams you know when they won the Super Bowl a few years ago or last year ended up with the

12:28very good record and if you take Matt Stafford or Joe Barrow or Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen off of those teams those teams are going to fail big time just like Washington last year you take the best player off your team and that best player place quarter back your season 99 times out of 100 is doomed doomed all right it's over the Rams have one of the best rosters we've ever seen heading into an NFL season if Matt Stafford goes down their season is doomed I mean do you really think that Thai Simpson as a rookie is going to come in and give them anywhere near the same chance or steps in Bennett no but I bring that up to say that we had a team win the Super Bowl last year that was really defensive lead as much as anything else Darnell had a nice season he had a really a really good season the year before and then completely melted down down in the playoff game against the Rams when he was the quarterback of Minnesota I don't feel the same way about Seattle that I would about the Rams is what I'm saying or about the chiefs or about the bangles or about the Ravens I think

13:43Seattle with that defense can still be a competitive team and I think Drew Locke is in that you know in that area where the difference between him and Sam Darnell is in his great as it would be between Matt Stafford and Thai Simpson or Matt Stafford and Stetson Bennett back up quarterbacks pretty important in the NFL if you can find one that can at least keep the team afloat you're in good shape now we'll find out about the Darnell Dingerian whether or not he'll miss a few games it'd be much better to face Seattle in week three without Sam Darnell I'd rather face Drew Locke than Sam Darnell but I don't know that Seattle season is doomed if he were lost to it it certainly would diminish significantly their chances to be a really good team but would they do what Washington did last year without their quarterback or what Cincinnati did without their record or what their quarterback or what the chiefs did without their quarterback I don't know they've got an outstanding defense by the way last night I was very impressed with

14:53Jadarian Price the 30 second pick last pick in the first round the other Notre Dame running back Jeremiah love being the first one I thought he looked really good in his first game as a rookie and clearly they like him a lot now they were without two key players last night and Nick Amanda worry on defense was not there he was outstanding in during the playoff run late season Super Bowl and then they were without a sharpening their other really good back so they went with price last night as a rookie I thought he really showed well the game over all was typical of a week one game it was sloppy you know these teams are actually you know preparing for the game for and playing a real game with real players for the first time since the end of last year and you had a ton of penalties in the game Seattle had a lot of penalties that were very very hurtful penalties at 10 to 10 the delay of game after locks scrambled to a second and one at the three and a half yard line was a penalty that nearly cost him the game

16:05they had the offensive off sides on a push push in the first half that was really hurtful but 10 penalties for 98 yards in the Patriots had seven 50 yards and then you had you know the turnovers and more of a defensive game I think New England's defense is it they was outstanding at the end of last year and the corner combination for New England of Davis and Christian Gonzalez and then you know with the game they were very well fired and they've got a very good defense and a smart defense I thought both teams defensively looked apart you know you can say defense is a head off fence etc at this point in the year you don't always get that in week one week ones really a total wild card you know weekend I point out last year New England I've said this before in week one at home they lost to the Raiders and then went on to win 14 of their next 16 regular season game and the Raiders went on to lose 14 to their next 16 were they 14 and three last year I'm forgetting with a 13 or 14 and three 14 Patriots were 14 and three right 14 and the Raiders are three and 14 yes yeah so yeah so and the Raiders beat the Patriots in week one in Foxboro so you know what did we learn from last night I think the most important thing is are the Seahawks going to have Sam Darnold and by the way well the Patriots have a James

17:33Brown he sprained his ankle and there's no you know update on that as of now but it looked like you know a bad sprain he left the game and then of course there will be a lot of conversation about drake may personally if I were a Patriots fan I would certainly have concerns about some of the decision making going back to last post season with that said you still have a very talented quarterback with an exceptional offensive coordinator and that's a tough spot Seattle on the road in week one I did not give out the Patriots as a smeltes pick I did on the show yesterday say to all of you who have to play any game that stand alone in prime time regardless of whether or not you like a side I said if you have to play it play the Patriots plus the points I did I played them I could not get a three and a half I look for three and a half is everywhere I ended up playing the game at three is that where you played at max or did you just play the under I just played the under and a couple you know parlay's and a JSN touchdown which was nice but outside of that okay

18:42uh yeah so I ended up pushing personally some of you I know probably had a three and a half and one and we're happy to see the interception rather than overtime overtime's never the friend of the under better or the underdog better but uh yeah look there were I thought the throw that lock made on fourth down to JSN quick decision reddit perfectly and then JSN turns it into a touchdown the catch the cup had on their first scoring drive down into the red zone was a great catch um yeah AJ Brown really an insignificant contributor in his first game what did he have a high ankle coaches for 26 yards on four targets he had a big third down reception I know that I thought Mario Douglas look good for them uh he was good last year he gets a lot of separation he is really really quick um all right I don't know what

19:46else do you have from last night's game what have I I'm just not going to be the person that comes in here and says see drake mea and that good either he's not that good jaden's much I think jaden's I would take jaden over drake me you know 2024 2025 and even now after last year but drake mea is a talent at that position and he can get coached out of bad decision making that was a terrible decision last night to Rico said it himself picks run him yeah it was I had a drop to dobs drop to key third down it was for the second interception yeah it was a rough fourth quarter for the Patriots offense but once Seattle kind of got started to figure it out and see diagnosed with the Patriots were doing they were dialing it up like crazy and putting all that pressure on drake mea just like they did in the Super Bowl it was honestly I came away really impressed by the Seattle Seahawks especially with how the game started I mean it was

20:47slow Sam Darnell got hurt so your your offense is just kind of looking all over the place for answers and drew lot came in wasn't steady to start and then mellowed out did really well they ran the ball well jadeurian price I thought I came away really impressed with so credit to the Seahawks man good win. Yeah it was it's a good win they actually we'll see what the Darnell situation is but I'm sure their fan base is like Sam take your time you don't have to hurry back we've got Arizona next week in Washington the week after that you know before we play the chargers in week four we'll see it's a good win for Seattle you know you don't have to be good in September or October but you have to harvest enough nuts as Eddie Jordan once said so that if you become good late in the season the games matter when you become good the NFL season is a sprint but man there are several legs to that sprint and early in the season you just got a harvest enough of those wins while you're figuring

21:53out who you are because like I've said many times 25 to 28 teams every year have no idea what they're going to be before they start playing real games I thought for the most part an exciting second half boring first half sloppy game yes but man it was nice to see football back all right when we come back I'm going to play something for you that Nick Allegretti said yesterday you know him the starting center who hasn't played much who's been injured who will be asked to do a lot against Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter in the opener on Sunday you'll hear that and then we'll get to Denton at 1040 Kevin Chiencho the team 980 and the team 980.com I got this from someone who calls himself Ion's number one fan Max oh boy there's no other name I'm just Ion's number one fan I mean I didn't know that Ion had a fan but he writes the tennis talk yesterday was so good I had

23:00no idea that you were such a tennis fan Shelton over Tiafo is what he ended with I'm rooting for Tiafo Shelton is a favorite in that match I was I was a massive tennis fan for so long but not in recent years but this has been a very interesting and fun open specifically for the US men you know Taylor Fritz got beat kind of early and he is along with Shelton I think they were considered to be the best opportunities to win a major Shelton's there and I'm going to tell you this too if Shelton wins the US open this weekend he's going to become a major star he already is internationally because there are more tennis passionate tennis fans internationally than there are in the US US used to be a big tennis country but really Europe South America Australia much more passionate

24:02about tennis than the US is but Ben Shelton's got charisma and star power written all over him and so if he wins a major and he's a threat to win majors moving forward as a major winner you're going to see this guy get elevated to kind of a major sports star internationally and I think here in the US look Tiafo has a lot of charisma too Tiafo isn't the same level of player of Shelton in terms of built to win majors plural but can Tiafo steal one or two he's been close this is his third US open semi final and it should be a really good one tomorrow night looking forward to it very much so I got this from Cody Cody wrote Kevin I'm a Washington fan living in Ohio and then he writes in parentheses hard for me to say commanders and I'm only 30 I think he is trying to say to me

25:03hey man it's not just people your age there are plenty of people my age that don't like commanders but he writes I'm a Washington fan living in Ohio I found you and Tom he listens to the podcast as well in the last year and really love your show it makes sense to me that fans are swayed by what they've seen recently but how do people who cover the sport who ranked Washington in the top 10 last year in preseason rankings now have them in the low to mid 20s when the only reason last season went the way it did was because of injuries make it make sense to me this is kind of a conversation on repeat to a certain degree first of all I know we talk power rankings and by the way Max and I will do NFL power rankings for the first time next Thursday not today unless you insist on us doing it Max do you want to do a power rankings before we start

26:05the season or one game into the season or should we wait until after a week now we can do one later today we'll sneak one in sneak what that was not a that was not on the show rundown sneak it in we'll sneak it in it's a joke preseason NFL power rankings I know I've done this before but I'll just repeat it last year's NFL dot com power rankings before week one let me just give you some examples here first of all three of the top five teams did not make the postseason Kansas City Detroit and Baltimore but even better than that all right here are the seven division winners last year new England was number 22 in the NFL dot com preseason rankings Pittsburgh was 16 by the way Baltimore and Cincinnati and that division both picked much higher than Pittsburgh Jacksonville was 23

27:05in the preseason NFL dot com power rankings they won the the the AFC South Denver was nine but Kansas City was picked to win the division in the NFC Chicago 18 preseason power rankings won the division Detroit Green Bay and Minnesota were all all three teams in their division ranked higher than Chicago they won the division Carolina was 29th all three two teams Tampa and Atlanta were ranked ahead of them they won the NFC South and Seattle was 19 listen to this I this was surprising me actually Seattle was picked to finish last in the division based on the power rankings on NFL dot com before week one last year because the Rams were 11 San Francisco was 15 and Arizona was 17 Seattle was 19 they won the Super Bowl won the division the one seed won the

28:07Super Bowl new England was 22 they were the two seed won the AFC championship went to the Super Bowl I mean I looked at you know the AFC picks that I made it's like seven of the eight division winners last year were not supposed to win their divisions they were not anywhere near the pick to win the divisions the only preseason division favorite last year that won the division Philadelphia in the NFC East New England was picked to finish second or third Miami was ahead of them in some places Pittsburgh was finished pick to finish third Jacksonville pick pick to finish second or third Denver picked to finish second behind Kansas City but not second exclusively because the chargers were up there as well Chicago was picked to finish last Carolina picked to finish next to last or last Seattle picked to finish third or last in their division seven of the eight division winners last

29:12year were not expected to win the division so don't worry about these preseason rankings and yes I get it when you say Cody why do people who cover the sport forget they do they they're just as swayed as you say uh by recency bias as fans are they are you know because most of them are fans I'm a fan even though I'm in the sports media so to speak I'm not a reporter but you you can really be fooled in this league by recency bias I I think I had done this before but it is remarkable just to say it again that seven of the eight division winners in 2025 were not predicted to win the division seven of the eight and in fact of the those seven basically six of them five of them weren't supposed to be even close to winning the division only one preseason

30:13division favorite last year one its division the Eagles and yet you and I had New England and Buffalo in the AFC's I did pick Pittsburgh in the AFC North and they're not anywhere near a favorite we both picked Houston in the south and we both picked Kansas City in the west we'll see in our NFC predictions if we veer off the perceived favorite path yeah you can't make it make sense Cody it's the NFL brother you just got to enjoy it week by week because you're not sure what's going to happen with most teams week by week it's what makes it so great. Nick Gallagready the starting center for our team who we've not heard a lot from right we just haven't it's not like he's held a press conference they haven't scheduled a presser for him during camp he had the calf injury he missed most of camp and he's going to start as a center for I think the second or third

31:17time in his career on Sunday against one of the most imposing defensive tackle you know tandem in the league in Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Scott Abraham got him yesterday at his locker and I just thought it would be interesting for you guys to hear Nick Gallagready speak and answer some of Scott's questions here it was yesterday. From when we last talked to you last week to hear a yard this week how do you feel comparatively where are you at? Oh pretty good I mean really today was hot one out there great great finishes after the plays really tried to you know burn it out there today and get after it felt good body feels good wind felt good. It's found out AKs never seen caddy shacks that that brought me down a little bit but other than that good really good. What type of progress have you made with just the rapport timing silent snap count with Jaden? Good the silent we feel really good with like I said having the ability to like we have a home

32:19game that first week of the season that extra week you worked maybe silent one day but having these two away games like we made silent in a thing we made it really important and getting those extra four practices silent was really big so felt good about that and then even today make you know that's part about practice is you get to make some mistakes and making those mistakes getting into sideline and talking with the guys felt good feel like the communications really get up front real easy with J so happy buddy. Nick Gallagready he's the starting center and some of that information about silent count I thought was interesting that they obviously need to be buttoned up when you start with two road games versus a home game look this team has played home games in recent years that have felt like road games where they had to be prepared with a silent count hopefully that's a thing of the past but just remember this about 30 year old Nick Gallagready he's played a lot of football in the NFL he played for a championship team in Kansas

33:22City five years played 74 games with the chiefs 32 years now he's played in 33 games for Washington he has started 34 games during his career and this isn't you know putting a rookie in and their confidence level stems from they believe he is really smart football wise and an outstanding communicator the line about AK never seen caddy shack I had to look this up because I didn't know who AK was I think he is talking about I think he is talking about because I think the only AK on the team is the rookie quarterback from Rutgers athin caliac manus that would be the AK and he's young enough that maybe he missed caddy shack please tell me max you've seen caddy shack of course I've seen caddy shack okay dent in day we'll join us next with a college football week two preview which includes his thoughts on Texas Ohio State we'll get to that after these words from

34:25a few of our sponsors you're listening to the Kevin she and show on the team 980 and the team 980 dot com pick up your book bags grab your notebooks it's time to go on campus with debt and college football talk on the team 980 is presented by Xfinity score the most reliable Y5 one price five years guaranteed Xfinity imagine that dent in day is back for another season with us doing college football talk on Thursdays in this time slot dent and of course is the host of the commanders pre and post game shows on one of six seven the fan and the team 980 he also is a co-host with our guy Lennell on an overnight show for westward one sports and he does college football work on serious XM as well I had Heather Denich on the show yesterday and we went through the Michigan

35:31western Michigan stuff and the LSU SEC stuff so I wanted to save the football talk primarily with you although she and I talked some football yesterday as well I'll start with this off of week one give me the number one takeaway and the number one statement made by a team or a player in week one yes I'm torn between you two two teams for the statement element but I think the general takeaway was that we are in for and we knew this but we are in for real treat when it comes to quarterback play across the country you know obviously last year for an end of Mendoza put together a hell of a season but it felt like there's a pretty big drop off between him and whoever you felt like the second third foot best quarterback was in the nation and you know I know it's early no one really played anybody but at least through week number one and considering week number zero with Jaymey Abba the quarterback players at a very very high level and that's exciting to me because when

36:33you get to these games where they are big matchups you'll really start to see some guys elevate so I think that was my general takeaway and then the statement I'm torn between LSU and what they did to Clemson and just how efficient Miami looked on offense you know they played Stanford and Stanford isn't like this they're not this barn burner of an ACC team but they are an ACC team and when you're comparing who some of these other schools played which was nobody small schools that they're paying a million dollars to I do look at the way that Miami played and hold it a little bit higher than most teams across the country and then obviously with LSU not only was it the link if in dramatic that everybody was was kind of worried about or interested in but then you hang 50 some I don't Clemson and you can say whatever you want about dabbo I've kind of come down a lot on dabbo over the past couple of years at one point he was one of my favorite coaches in college football he just hasn't adjusted to the times and whatever he is to you as a head coach he doesn't really let

37:33a team hang 50 on him so the fact that LSU was able to do that I thought was really really impressive so I think just because Clemson is a little bit of a better team than Stanford I would say that that was the the biggest you know I would say win in week number one but I think Miami is very very close to that yeah I'm gonna be really interested to see what that result uh is from Saturday night is LSU really that good is Clemson really that bad you know because we've had week one results before where it's like uh oh that team looks I mean Florida state beat Alabama remember last year in week one and it's like uh oh they're they got a team they got a squad and remember the quarterback who was that quarterback the guy that had come I think from BC I'm from Canada is like a piano he's now a piano he looked great in that opener and Florida state won what three games last year two or whatever it is I don't know how it'll play out do you have a hunch did we watch a great

38:36football team that will contend for a national title in Lane kiffons first year or did we watch a matchup between a good team and a bad team I would say that I feel way more comfortable saying it cloncent is just bad this year you know I think over the past couple of seasons not only has Davos we need not made the proper adjustments in roster building and look if NIL is in your thing if transfer portal isn't your thing I still think you can be successful but you have to have the coaches around the program to really develop the talent that you have and they don't really have that ever since Brenn Venables left defensively it feels like they've taken a couple of steps back and then when Tony LB it left it feels like offensively they've taken a couple of steps back so when you combine not taking the measures necessary to build a roster in modern a college football and then on top of that struggling to develop they're just not a very good football team so I feel way more comfortable saying I just think cloncent's bad last year at this time it was Nuss Meyer it was

39:37arch it was club Nick and I just looked this up Fernando Mendoza's first game last year was against old Dominion Indiana was in a battle with old Dominion they won the game 27 to 14 Mendoza was you know 18 to 31 for 193 yards nothing special nobody knew anything about Fernando Mendoza at this point do you is there a quarterback that you've got your eye on right now that is you know way off the radar like Mendoza was a year ago that you think will rise maybe not to Mendoza level but will be a big conversation you know focal point at some point during the season yeah so I think there's a couple that are we we off the beaten path you know and that's hard because there's a lot of quarterbacks that we know we know that we know he's like he's great right but we know who John Matier is I would lower back about Oklahoma for those that you quarterback

40:37Oklahoma um Keelan Russell at Alabama was really impressive but he plays in Alabama and everybody's very well aware of Alabama I would say the quarterback that I think could really rise and this is going to be tough because they play a tougher schedule but I think to modern Williams at Washington you know he had had a few in the off season with NIL but he stays at Washington they were kind of slow in the first half in the apple cup but then in the third and fourth quarter he really started to turn it on I think given the schedule that they have where as the season progresses they're going to be in front of some really big audiences on you know big time slots during the season I think he could be a guy that is going to really ascend and if Washington starts winning we're going to be forced to pay more attention to him that's a good one now as a Maryland fan they were undefeated when Washington came in here and the Terps had a big lead in demon Williams brought Washington back by the way with Denzel Boston at wide receiver and with Jonah Williams Jonah Williams might end up starting I think in Denver this year is a rookie he's going to get

41:40some time but that that's a good one because I don't think he's in like a top 10 of quarterbacks because there are a lot of them for sure all right let's look ahead uh two week two because week one was you know we had the drama of the big house we had the going into excitement over death valley and that game got delayed by nearly two hours because of lightning but the game of the weekend is obviously Saturday night in Austin number four Texas against number one Ohio state go ahead and preview it and pick it for us yeah so there's a lot of different angles to this you know I try not to put too much stake into what we've seen week number one especially considering that these two teams didn't really play anybody but I will say it did look like Ohio State defense we'll be missed a lot of the guys that came out in the series NFL draft which like you lose NFL players I know everybody thinks they just have like this army of five stars and to an extent that's kind of true but it does take a little bit to replenish when you're losing sunny styles and Caleb down and

42:44Arville least among others but it did feel like they were a step or two slower defensively in week number one than they were last year so we'll kind of see if that was them just playing with their food against ball state or if that's something that we need to take into consideration I think they're under a ton of pressure Kevin because this is the first time in a very long time that Ohio State has a difficult schedule I mean they have a three game stretch later in the season where you get Oregon and Indiana with USC right so it's at Indiana by week at USC Oregon they're going to get in if there are two lost team but they never really at least recently had to face that kind of music in a 12 team playoff so I think they're under a lot of pressure and then on the flip side this Texas team is so much better top to bottom roster wise than what they were the last time these two teams squared off and while I still have reservations truthfully about both quarterbacks like I think saying's good I think archmaning is good I don't think either of them

43:44right now are you super spectacular but I think arch has a lot more weapons at his disposal this year compared to what Texas put on the field last year I'm going to be really interested to see how Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo can attack this Buckeye defense as of right now I think I'm leaning that Texas wins this game's at home obviously prime time so I think I'm leaning Texas I just think that they have a little bit more to offer right now top to bottom we know that Jeremiah Smith will be you know a top three to top five pick depending on how the quarterback shake out in the 27 draft I was a big fan of Cam Coleman at Auburn last year and now he has a quarterback he to me looks like a big time NFL receiver I haven't looked at any of the mocks for 27 in terms of receivers he's got to be a projected first round pick right Cam Coleman yeah yeah Cam Coleman in most projections I think he's top 10 so like everyone in the NFL is is very so you ask for question

44:46always your biggest takeaway week number one I say quarterbacks right there second as receivers you there's about seven or eight wide receivers that are playing at a really high level and will and Texas happens to have two of them but Cam Coleman is if he doesn't go in the first round something tragic would have happened this year all right talking quarterbacks that aren't very good even though the perception and the hype around them were you know was off the charts price under would can't play the position I'm sorry he might develop at some point right now he is not capable of playing big time college football you know big 10 football at the quarterback position does Kyle Wittingham know that and do you think he'd actually bench him at some point I don't even know what Michigan has but give me your thoughts on him Michigan and you know I'm gonna be on the Wolverine Saturday plus the number because nobody's gonna be on them but it's gonna be painful because underwood stinks yeah he is he leaves a lot left to be desired and you know it's

45:51funny there has been some drama with that this week so Kyle Wittingham said earlier this week that there is a finite distance or a finite level of time that they're gonna have to go with price under would if he doesn't turn the corner and then price under would was asked about that yesterday and he kind of played it off but he played it off in a way where he didn't seem thrilled that his new coach is making those kind of comments and you know the reality of this air of college football price under would could have left when they made a coaching change and he didn't know he didn't paid a lot of money but that's like another really interesting what did he get what did he get from Michigan last year after he'd committed to LSU and and and backed off what was the number was it the number was it was either 10 or 11 million dollars and then I think that there was there might have been some extra incentive for him to stay when Kyle Wittingham took over so at minimum it's 10 million dollars and like we've never seen a guy bench who's getting 10 million dollars like that's just never happening college football because it's a crazy sentence to say we haven't seen

46:53many players get 10 million dollars in this and I have era like none right like none so the fact that he might be the first to ever get that magnitude of money and then not even be able to go two full seasons is quite honestly stunning but I do think like they're going to have to make a we big decision who are you more committed to the quarterback that could leave or Kyle Wittingham that I mean if we're being honest like how would he get him to not leave Michigan for another job he was at Utah for over 20 years this is his final stand as a coach in college football and you are Michigan like you're a really good job uh he's a really good coach for those that don't know he is an excellent college football coach I mean he had Utah yearly in contention for the pack 12 when that was the conference they were in and then the big 12 I mean he he filled in for urban Meyer and did a wonderful job over 20 years I think they're way more committed to him as head coach and they are Bryce Underwood if Bryce Underwood stinks up the joint like we really stinks up the joint against Oklahoma that decision might be coming sooner rather than later I know and I'm going

47:59to have Michigan plus the points for the maximum allowed because they will be the least bet team in the country this week uh so there you go I'll tell you what we you were talking about receivers that kid that caught the Hail Mary JJ of Buchanan who came from I think he came with Kyle Wittingham from Utah he has big time NFL potential he's a big dude with really good hands yeah six four wide receiver that knows that I'm playing the ball in the air that's really really nice to have a year's puzzle all right uh enjoy this upcoming weekend and uh you know Denton will be on the pre and post game call on 980 and on 106 7 the fan simul casting on Sunday before and after the Eagles game thanks talk to you later yeah Denton day everybody at the Denton day on X uh by the way that opener Sunday in Philadelphia will be week number one in all of our NFL opening week conversation on the team 980 is presented by

49:03hands-free sketchers slip-ins just step in and go uh speaking of the NFL we'll have our NFC predictions next Kevin Chiencho the team 980 and the team 980.com I've been a BMW guy for more than 30 years I've had several of them dating back 30 plus years I know the brand I know what I like I know what I am looking for and so I have to tell you about BMW of Silver Spring because my guy general manager Steve Sirecki is the absolute best it was time for me to look for a new X5 I went to see Steve and he really took good care of me at BMW of Silver Spring I drove away in a beautiful new X5 a nicer model than I had before and the price didn't change at all with the upgrade I was able to keep my payment right where it was

50:04my experience couldn't have gone any better I couldn't be any happier uh then I am working with the guys at BMW of Silver Spring and it's not just Steve and I would ask if you head out there ask for Steve and tell him that I sent you but Dave Strossman and some of the guys and customer service are incredible they just really know how to handle the customer so if you're looking for your next BMW BMW of Silver Spring has plenty to choose from more than 350 vehicles in stock backed by a 4.8 star rating after 30 plus years of driving these vehicles BMWs I bought a few of these things BMW of Silver Spring made this one easy and was by far in a way my best experience ever they're conveniently located just off Route 29 and Briggs Chaney Road in the Silver Spring auto park when you go in please make sure you ask for my guy

51:06general manager Steve Sirecki and be sure to tell him that Kevin Sheehan sent you take it from me visit BMW of Silver Spring today or start online at BMW of Silver Spring.com all right uh it is time for our NFC predictions which will include the NFC East winner and three wild cards out of the NFC including the Northwest and South yesterday Max and I both had a different AFC title game matchups in different AFC champions I had Kansas City over Houston the chiefs going to the Super Bowl and Max had Denver over Buffalo and the Broncos going to the Super Bowl all right I'll start off we'll save the East for last I'll start off with the NFC North I mean I mentioned earlier in the show seven

52:08of the eight division winners last year we're not favored to win the division only one preseason 2025 division favorite won the division that was Philadelphia and of the other seven five weren't even supposed to be close to winning the division so picking favorites picking teams that are even in the top two or three can be dangerous in the NFL year to year a green Bay is not the favorite in the NFC North Detroit is followed by kind of Chicago and Green Bay I'm picking the Packers to win the NFC North look they don't have a Micah Parsons to start the season but they'll get them back at some point they don't have Josh Jacobs the running back position worries me right now in green and Josh Jacobs is a situation if you haven't been following it's a domestic situation and there are reports out there that there might be a video which whether he is you know he's got a court hearing this week whether or not he ends up going to jail or not he could certainly be

53:11suspended by all you know by the NFL for conduct detrimental we'll see I'm not counting on Josh Jacobs he's a really good back I'm a big Josh Jacobs fan as a football player let me be clear on that I don't know him as a person um I just like Jordan love man and I like that defense and I like that coaching staff I like the Packers to be there at the end as the NFC North champs they were so close last year they should have beaten Chicago in the postseason they should have beaten Chicago in that season finale uh at soldier field when Jordan love got hurt and Malik Willis came in and made a bunch of money by playing well in that game I'm going green Bay in the NFC North in a very competitive division with Detroit and Chicago I'm not a Minnesota fan because I'm not a Kyler Murray guy if Kyler Murray ends up playing great this year Kevin O'Connell you should never even consider moving on from Kevin O'Connell because he can coach up offense in quarterbacks but I'm going

54:13green Bay in the North max who do you have I am also going with the green Bay Packers I just I they're going to figure it out I think they're doing running back by committee to uh Phil Josh Jacobs void at the moment now you don't have Michael Parsons but I think that defense is gonna gonna get things right uh heading into this year so give me the Packers you know that the running back because I was looking at this I mean there are not a lot of options they they signed that Caleb Johnson who played at Pittsburgh last year and was the Iowa running back from two years ago I actually like him he didn't get a big opportunity last year because they you know Jalen Warren was a good back for them and um you know what's his face who was with Philadelphia before Pittsburgh last couple years uh they want to run the football Jordan love is better when you've got a running game I just like Jordan love I think that we're going to see the best at him I think we'll see the best out of Matthew Golden we started to see it at the end of last year

55:17into the postseason game against Chicago Christian Watson and yeah they're well coached I mean no halfly but they they you know hired Jonathan Ganon from Arizona after he got fired to be the defensive coordinator you and I both have the Packers uh to win the NFC North I'll let you go first with your NFC South pick all right my NFC South pick is the New Orleans Saints I think Tyler Schuck showed a lot last year I think it's going to be pretty much the same you added Jordan Tyson now he is dealing with some injuries at the moment but you still have a larvae and you still have a pretty solid offensive line up front the Saints defense is underrated to say the least I think it's going to be really good this year um their back ends like a cool immigrant street chase young up front and he has been performing quite well since he left Washington so I think there's going to be another big year for him give me the Saints to win

56:21the NFC South well you know I'm picking the Saints too I've been talking about them since the end of last year is a team that was on the rise I thought Tyler Schuck looked the part at quarterback no Alvin Camera to start the season but they have Travis ETN or however he's pronouncing it these they've got a lavet they've got a very underrated I think pass catching tight end in Johan Johnson and defensively they added Kaden Ellis from Atlanta they've got now I don't I think Cam Jordan is out for the opener on Sunday against the Lions chase young uh did you forget about him you shouldn't have he had a good season last year he's only 27 years old and he can get after the pass or when he's healthy and the thing that I like about the Saints is I like Kellin Moore as an offensive designer and play caller and I think Brandon Staley is an excellent defensive coordinator I think it's a really good one two combo uh to have Kellin Moore's the head coach slash

57:22OC play caller and Brandon Staley not as a head coach but as a fewer a pure focused on defense guy I could see Tampa winning this division because I'm a big fan of Todd Bulls and they were injured last year and if they're healthy this year it'll make a big difference and Rubin Bane Jr I think is going to certainly be a guy that buys for defensive rookie of the year but I'm picking the Saints as well to win the NFC South let's go to the NFC West I'm picking the Rams uh I just look if what happened to Sam Darnold last night were to happen to to Matt Stafford but it will you know if it ended up being more serious they're doomed like you're not going to start tie Simpson or Stetson Bennett for 12 games and end up winning the division or winning the Super Bowl but you're looking for relative health when you make these predictions and Matt Stafford being upright and healthy is the key because the rest of the roster is the best in the NFL on paper

58:23I'm taking the Rams to win the NFC West I think Seattle and I think the 49ers are still I think the 49ers even though they're older I think they're still very good but yeah the Rams are my pick to win the NFC West all right I'm going the other way I'm taking the Seattle Seahawks I mean we saw it last night I'm a full blown believer in Mike McDonald's ability to it's in game adjustments and just put pressure on any and every quarterback that they're going to face I just it's it's a really good front from Seattle and Jerry Price showed a lot last night JSN is still at the top of the game uh he can any any play JSN score touchdown Rashid J on the other side now Drew Lock does give me you know a few qualms here and there but I think honestly they're going to be fine Sam Darnold was able to get it done Drew Lock's going to be able to at least keep the ship afloat while he's out so give me the Seahawks I like that defense a lot so I mean you're not

59:29picking the favorite in the division so that's a good move I'm picking the overwhelming favorite in that division not overwhelming um the Rams are the Super Bowl favorite and they're the NFC West favorite they're the NFC championship uh champion favorite uh it's it's it's it's a good division like if you if you end up in already Seattle's not at relative health if they lose Darnold for a few games we'll see maybe they won't miss some or lose them at all like if the 49ers are healthy they're still an excellent football team I don't care that they're older but getting you know Fred Warner back and getting Kittleback at some point and adding even though he's older but he was good last year Mike Evans he's uh to the mix they love the rookie uh stripling they think he is a perfect fit for the offense and at the end of last year when they played Chicago and they scored on almost every single offensive possession I was like wow the Niners still even with the injuries although you know they their injury situation was different

1:00:33that they lost some of their really good players but they didn't lose all of their really good players and they've got like seven or eight a plus players on that roster uh but that was an incredible end of the season and then speaking to your Seattle the fact that Seattle destroyed them twice at the end of of last season and the 49ers could barely score against Seattle in the season finale and then in the playoff game really speaks to how great Seattle was at the end of the year defensively but man that division you know at least going into it looks like if all the teams remain relatively healthy you're gonna have I mean you're gonna have those six matchups you know head-to-heads between those three teams be some of the biggest games of the year and one of them happens to be tonight in all Australia all right NFC East you ready I'm ready

1:01:34I've got Washington winning the oh no oh no part of it is that you got to pick teams that aren't favored to win these divisions because that's the way it works out half the time last year seven out of the eight um we're not favored to win the division and most of them were way down the list I I don't know why this team isn't being given more of a sleeper label at the very least a sleeper label like this team two years ago was in the NFC championship game with a quarterback who was elite during the season and last year they went five and twelve because that elite quarterback didn't play for the majority of the season I don't know why Washington isn't getting some of the same treatment that Kansas City or Detroit or Cincinnati or Baltimore is

1:02:35getting you know they lost key players lost quarterbacks Detroit didn't but you know Baltimore lost you know had an injured Lamar at times obviously Cincinnati without Barrow Kansas City without Mahomes and look Philid I guess Philly and Dallas are part of that reason because both of those teams are thought to be you know really really good teams but I'm just surprised that there aren't more people nationally saying why not them in the NFC East because we should be looking for teams that didn't win it last year because that's the way the NFL is and this team didn't win the division two years ago but they got to the NFC championship game after winning twelve games and you add to that that it shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as they were last year or in 2024 and defense now there's no guarantee they're not going to be a bad defense but I think there's a guarantee they're not going

1:03:37to be as bad as they were last year that'd be almost impossible to duplicate even the 24 defense would be hard to really duplicate in terms of their inability remember to stop the run they could not stop the run in 2024 and then you add to it they've added a true number two receiver we think yes the tonsill injury is real that's impactful but they didn't have them in 2024 I'm picking Washington to win the NFC East it you can say home or all you want I've picked Washington to finish way down the list many many years doing this but I am a believer in the quarterback obviously this prediction is contingent on number one jaden being healthy and playing 17 games and then number two the defense improving I think if those two things happen they're going to win more games than they lose I don't play the schedule game you guys know that I don't do it for the

1:04:42exact reason we watched last night because it's not about who you play it's when you play them Sam d'Arnold may not be the quarterback here in week three a game that everybody chalked off a chalked up as a loss already when you play the schedule game I just think that they can win the division I'll save my record prediction for tomorrow's show and the NFC East in general how I see the records shaking out max will have that as well but I'm going with you know new Orleans and Washington is surprise division winners along with in the AFC I've got Pittsburgh nobody's picking them to win the AFC North you got to pick some surprises when you do this Washington's probably my biggest surprise they win the NFC East max all right last year you and I both had the commanders winning the division no what oh I did yeah this year going the other way the Dallas Cowboys are going to be at their office is going to be incredibly potent I mean CD lamb and George

1:05:47pickens both healthy coming into the season pickens is playing on the tag so he's going to try his damnedest to have one hell of a year for all these teams that are going to be looking at them and then on the other side the defense it was the worst in the league last year next to ours but it's just got to be it's got to be okay it's if can they go from bottom half or last in the league to somewhere in the middle like maybe high 20s and I think the the the sky's the limit for the the cow well the NFC championship game is the limit for the Dallas Cowboys I look at Dallas and Washington similarly in that it's all about you know the quarterback being healthy and DAX had unhealthy seasons and is missed big portions of seasons and it's all about whether or not their defense as you said can at least approach kind of a middle of the pack defense and if those two things happen jaden daniel's and dac press got play all 17 games and the two defenses move towards

1:06:50the middle of the pack rather than being near the bottom of the league in Washington's case dead last on a lot of the key numbers at the end of last season not to mention takeaways next to last then both teams are going to be improved significantly all right my wild cards in the NFC are Detroit and I think they could win the division but I picked green bay Tampa I think Tampa could be in in a good position to battling it out with New Orleans and the aFC south and I'm going to stick with the 49ers and assume that they can't possibly be as injured as they've been in their off years last year they survived for the first time their injuries by making it to the postseason but they were non competitive against Seattle I like the 49ers to be that last wild card following Detroit and Tampa Bay who are your wild cards my wild cards are first ones going to be the Rams I think they finished like very close with the sea hawks I mean it's going to come down to those last two games at the end of the year and I'm not sure how healthy Matt Stafford's going to be by the end of the season so

1:07:55that that's I just kind of have the Rams taken up that first wild card spot number two I get the lines I also think that they can contend for the division but it's going to be quite a race up there in the north for that second wild cards but and then wild card three the Washington commanders who okay well save our record predictions for the team for tomorrow I will tell you that I've got the Rams is the one seed green Bay is the two Washington is the three in New Orleans is the four and my NFC championship matchup and winner I've got the Rams over the Packers in the NFC championship game uh who is your NFC championship winner and matchup I've got the Rams taken on the sea hawks again I'm giving the game to the Rams right now at the beginning of the season but ask me closer to game week and I'll give you the right not gonna ask you this is your this is your prediction you're gonna have to stick with it uh Rams over Seattle I've got Rams over Packers that means your Super Bowl

1:09:01matchup is Rams Denver my Super Bowl matchup is Rams chiefs will give you our Super Bowl winner later on in the show all right uh and we'll give you our MVP selection later on in the show charge next that was Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready last night with the national anthem not exactly Hendrix from Woodstock 69 but not a bad version of it although I saw it get pretty much pinned overall on X uh afterwards uh not everybody necessarily um going back uh last night to the grunge days but one guy that can can go back to those days is my good friend Paul Charcine who will join us during this football season every Thursday in this spot with fantasy football talk and more you know I in watching that national anthem you know whenever Seattle plays I mean you

1:10:04get all the Seattle bands is rejoins you know yeah all the grunge stuff you had sunny day real estate you know I think two or three songs last night coming back into segments but I think for the majority of the country and I'm a big Pearl Jam guy I don't think that was the best choice last night what did you think I liked it you know for me this was uh I thought it was I thought it was cool you uh I think it's still very respectful of the anthem and um I I what I'd like is that he didn't try to make it all about him with some you know wicked guitar solo in the middle of it or something you know something weird and so I actually I kind of liked that it was unique I feel like the national anthem all-timer it's not Rose and Bar to me it's a Rita Franklin in that Lions game from like seven years ago do you remember this I do but it's not my number one is a runaway number one

1:11:06and that is Marvin Gaye from the 83 All-Star Game in the other direction I'm going I was thinking about the bottom honestly uh for national anthems uh but yeah I mean Marvin Gaye how do you beat Marvin Gaye at anything basically so yeah that makes sense if you can pull it up I'd love to hear the Marvin Gaye version you remember I mean it's yeah you you max fine Marvin Gaye national anthem 83 All-Star Game it is truly one of the coolest smoothest but you know that it was in the moment heavily criticized because it was not a normal version and many thought it was disrespectful of the anthem go ahead do you have it Max I have they're talking over it but give it a second they they talk over at the very beginning I've watched it a million times I mean one of the great sole voices of all time and in a version I've probably watched that

1:12:10no less than a hundred times over the years you you do remember it right you know I don't remember it oh you got to watch it when the show is over I'm glad you brought it up um the um you know obviously you know one of the best and it's I can understand where people are saying hey you know this and to me I think there's some validity that it's not about you the national anthem yeah not about it's not about you it's about it's about the the meaning of the song so I can understand where people didn't love that but you can't you can't love not love this voice I read the Franklin's national anthem before the Lions thanks giving game against the Vikings in 2016 ran four and a half minutes long okay yeah so you were you were being critical of it I didn't necessarily yeah we were on the other side of that and I wasn't clear about that foreign happiness now Aretha maybe has the best female voice in the like history of music of course I'm not denigrating her career but her decision to go for a two-minute song to go four

1:13:12minutes and thirty five seconds and if you remember the broadcast and this was genius by by Fox at one point they showed the time of possession for the lion and the time of possession and yeah so here's here's just a list Whitney Houston and Marvin Gaye are considered to be the two greatest national anthems of all time Whitney Houston 91 Super Bowl bills Giants Tampa Gulf War you know going on the intense sort of patriotic moment and then here are a couple of others Luther Vandross I do remember Luther's version in the Super Bowl I wouldn't have been able to name the year but man did he belt it out it was the Super Bowl in 1997 and then Chris Stapleton's version a few years ago in the Super Bowl people loved as well so those are sort of the

1:14:14highest ranked all-time versions in sporting events anyway of the national anthem I thought Mike McCready was fine I knew when it started this was not going to be for everybody you know which by the way it never is you know whether it's the Super Bowl halftime show or the person that sings the anthem it's you know age dependent it's very subjective as we know but very predictable for a Seattle game and I mean you get Seattle music for a Seahawks game you get the fish market shots you always get a fish market shot at some point just like you know when Washington plays you get the shots of all the monuments all right yeah of course and you know okay and if you're Seattle I think you're fine with this you know if we were to roll back the clock to 1995 and say what is Seattle music known for the answer would be absolutely nothing and unless you really knew your Seattle rock history and then maybe you could go Louis Louis I mean there was like you know channel well no

1:15:1795 you already had you you would grunge at its height well not 95 was not a little later maybe you're right to me no no no I mean I'm not in Pearl Jammer 90 in 91 you know I know you have changed sound garden that that whole that's early that's early to mid 90s I mean you're right you're absolutely yeah so okay I'm gonna retract this if you go back to 1988 I'm sure and ask what this Seattle you know Seattle music mean it would be absolutely nothing so you know I you know for them I was from Seattle right yeah but I don't think but that's just one artist from yeah I know you know I don't think there's an identity from that like like Bob Dylan is from Minnesota sure but he doesn't you know but it doesn't really identity of Minnesota for his music like there is a prince yeah did you see the Dylan movie last summer no I didn't see it what did I right well I

1:16:19thought it was an excellent movie and I thought Timothy Shalame was incredible I would I'm not a Dylan guy was never a Dylan guy me but I'll tell you what after that movie I ended up for about a month going deep dive on Dylan and it is great I mean there is a spectacular part to his songwriting it was just always the voice for me but the movie was great it was a finale so I you know I worried that like you know I like a lot of agribusely we only ever see the good stuff not the bad stuff and that you know we come up thinking that you know they whitewash the reality of it you know I think I think Dylan as a person pretty surly you know I don't think there's a lot of great you know a lot of great friendships in the industry he's been very material so I don't know I just and that you know just the voice does it just does nothing for me I've total respect for his place in music history but that if I mean I like it right all right what else pop culture wise

1:17:22before we get into football what what what what what shows are you watching are you watching any good shows my wife and I have got into this lioness recently oh I've heard it's great it's great it's good it's good it's the Zoe Seldonna bit right exactly yeah Zoe Seldonna yeah exactly she's very good I don't think after her the acting is necessarily great Nicole Kidman has had far too much work done she just she doesn't look anything like she used to look and I think she's terrible in the show personally but it's kind of a you know it's a it's a you know CIA you know spy kind of thriller of a show it's good I've enjoyed it what about you I've been watching widow's Bay on Apple and Matthew Reese is one of the I don't know some of the actors alive so he I think he's great have you seen widow's Bay I have not but I like Matthew Reese and of course I am a big fan of

1:18:24Kerry Russell and I love the Americans which we see the first real big thing yeah yeah the Americans was fantastic and when you find out he's actually Welsh and you can you know when you hear him talk in real life and you can think you understand what you're saying you're like I can't believe you pulled off this American actor so well yeah the other guy that ever I think every every one every everybody loves an actor that's in this and has a big role is Steven Root going all the way back to news radio you'll remember I'm sure you watched plenty I did not I did not what yeah I did not I'm sorry given given what you do for a living and how good news radio was I am very shocked and a little disappointed sorry I did not yeah that you didn't I've got I have some major major blank spaces in in in in some of these things you'd be shocked at what I haven't watched and then you'd be shocked at what I have watched but anyway um so widow's Bay is good and Steven

1:19:26Root is excellent it's here's what it does the term special it is a horror comedy and it's very hard to put those two together and they do it brilliantly there are every episode uh accepting a couple have got five or six big legitimate laughs in it um and then it's also a horror story it's set in uh New England on it yeah yeah okay I was gonna say is it it's like man tuck it or somewhere in New England right yeah yeah it's on a little island in in uh off the shore of Massachusetts we assume and um it's something it's cursed the the whole the whole island's cursed but you don't know how or why you don't know why some people never leave the locals never leave the island um they're trying to attract tourists to come in and bad things happening all the tourists and it's um it's and he's the mayor um Matthew Reese is the mayor and he's trying to keep the town alive uh against all odds as this horrible curse is striking it it's

1:20:32it's really good and you really need to see news radio I mean think about the cats of news radio still Hartman right Joe Rogan uh it had Andy Dick when he before he went insane Steven Root day fully it was oh it was so good John well John love it's with that great but yeah I mean like the combination of comedy and horror like to me I mean the cone brothers are the best at what I mean we that that's not would you describe that as a combination of well that's actually described as what like a black comedy right black comedy yeah this is yeah this is more of a comedy comedy yeah with horror mixed into it so uh as opposed to like the subtlety of the Cohen brothers where you're you're laughing at parts that you really don't feel like you should be laughing at and yeah yeah yeah yeah did you what did you watch for the TV series oh the first the first two seasons are some of the best television ever made actually I'd say that the first three because I think McGregor and then Mariel is a bit Winston in season three were incredible but

1:21:37yes Bill I think Billy Bob Thornton you could put that up there with his best work for sure and the Kirsten Dutz and her husband Jesse Plemmons combo in season two were incredible incredible they ended up getting married yeah they're married off of that show off that show I presumably yes I I have to believe that's where they ended up falling in love in getting married after they worked together on that show and good for Jesse Plemmons I mean we are not exactly talking about like a male model here good for him to to wrap that one up that works in his favor I'm going to amend one thing you just said that yeah that Fargo season one might be Billy Bob's best role Billy Bob's role in season one of Fargo might be the the best like male drama role ever I mean so good and the transformation that he has is unbelievable I mean like like history of television

1:22:38kind of stuff here what Billy Bob did with that role was just I'm not under well James the first episode when he's in the waiting room at the hospital sitting next to Martin Freeman and sort of hearing his story that the dialogue there is some of the greatest of all time Martin Freeman by the way was so good in that role you know he was in the original office with Ricky Jervais the BBC if you've never watched is I think two of the greatest seasons of a comedy of all time and I am a big American office fan as well but the British version is you know the goat for sure yeah and Martin Freeman is great in that like every show that is got both an American and a BBC version the BBC versions are better nine times out of 10 yes although that one's close you know I did not for years even give the American office a shot because I was you know nose in air total snooty

1:23:41snobby over yeah no there there's no way I mean after watching the BBC version with Ricky Jervais there's no chance it could and I gave it during covid I gave it a shot and now it's probably my favorite comedy after the BBC version of all time I think I've probably seen every season like eight times well it's excellent no lap track which is also great have you seen Martin Freeman and Sean of the dead I yeah I have but tell me tell me more because I've seen Sean of the dead but I'm forgetting the role so Sean of the dead is a another of the rare comedies in which London undergoes a zombie attack right and he he plays a key role in it and it is it's fantastic it started director is Edgar Wright and he went on to make three four five just phenomenal phenomenal movies but this was the first one and he went on to do hot floods after

1:24:44that which I consider to be one of the 10 best comedies of all time but this is a and with this is Sean of the dead it's Martin Freeman and it's Simon Pegg and Pegg will goes on to be yeah I'll have a really great career for himself as well but yeah it's um it's and what's her face from the BBC the the one that plays Pam in the BBC version at the den day of the offices in that movie uh by the way that opener Sunday you know the the number one eight out of your and the phone no no it's um conversation on the team nine 80s presented by the one that plays three sketchers the BBC version which is the Pam Aquivel and go speaking of the NFL and I don't see predictions Lucy Davis Kevin G show the team nine 80 there we go. Yeah uh that's that's a roommate uh character's name is Diane and the roommates to Sean of Sean of the dead all right um okay we can come back to some of this next week let's talk some football with

1:25:47charge by the way charges new podcast is fantasy football world you can go to ffworldshow.com to link to it you can go to at Paul Charchin on x uh as well uh charge is one of the preeminent fantasy football experts in the country and has been for 30 plus years and we do occasionally get fantasy football uh when charges on but let me just ask you real quickly about the NFL season coming up uh you know one game in the books but did you do you have kind of strong feelings about teams or a team maybe a sleeper just give me your overall thought about the upcoming season are you just on the Rams like everybody else's or give give me uh some big takeaways before the season begins well i'll tell you two teams that i've drafted basically no players from uh which tells you

1:26:47where i uh how i level of concern for those teams one is the Atlanta Falcons uh really feel like that's and i i love Kevin Sopanski as a person i think he's good coach is on coach the year two times yeah um but i think once again he has put himself in a position where he's on a team with no quarterback and if you're a spandex he you're like the first coach hired in this last cycle of nine or whatever i don't know why he ran himself to an organization that doesn't have a solution a quarterback and he's right back to where he was with with Cleveland they got to start to uh um and two has looked dreadful they're trying to try to hasten Michael Penix back off his ACL not to be felt like a breast sp first success and Penix isn't that good anyway so i'm nervous about Falcons and the other team in the NFC that i that i've almost completely avoided fantasy players from is one called the Washington commanders okay um nervous about your squad your offensive line has got me at i'm i'm very concerned there um Terry McCloreen is obviously a good player i wish they'd brought in more

1:27:52receiver help other than the aging step on digs um don't know for sure that we have a qualified replacement at tight end and we need jaden Daniel to stay healthy and your defense is going to put your offense in a bind and a lot of your book fans even better but i just i'm nervous about i'm nervous about your team i'm just keeping it real here you and your listeners now i mean you're you're in sync with i think most people uh most most national people and a lot of people locally are doom and gloom on washington i would just say to you what i said in the last segment when i picked washington to win the NFC east what i would i'll tell you that i don't understand why more people aren't at least attaching the sleeper label to washington from this perspective and obviously we live it day-to-day here charge this team was in the NFC championship game two years ago with a quarter

1:28:54back who wasn't good he was elite he's the first quarter back in nfl history to literally strap his team to his back as a rookie and take it to a championship game every other quarterback that was a rookie that played in the championship game was led by a running game or a great defense washington had neither in twenty twenty four and then last year he didn't play he played in four games start to finish and when he did play he didn't have any buddy out there because it was the most injured team in the league last year in terms of their week one starters i think it was the most injured team in three years in terms of week one starters going down so i would at least if i were an nfl and not washington person at least consider them as hey if he's upright and healthy and they just improve a tiny bit defensively because we were bad defensively not sure they were bad

1:29:55in twenty four on defense why shouldn't they be a competitive team that has a chance to win more games than it loses that's my that's my logic you know if if if this team we're living in the tnfc south i'd be like yeah okay but i i just i think there's more and harder competition in your division ticket to rise to the top miss Philadelphia also by the other the other thing that has me really freaked out about your season is david blow i mean this whole i i have and he might have to be great and you and i talked about this three weeks ago when we last talk you know And Blau, his resume is about the finish. There's ever been for an offensive coordinator, never been a position coach, never called plays. I mean, he might be completely over his head. And that could be a major problem for your offense as well. And could undo some of the positives that you'd like to think would come off. 21 new offensive coordinators in the NFL this year with several of his first time and

1:31:01several defense, too. It's a crazy turnover in coordinators. And we'll see more first time coordinators on both sides of the ball than we've ever seen in the NFL. But you're right. It's a question mark. We have no idea whether or not to be good. I have a lot of confidence in Dorabde Jones because I know him from Minnesota. I think he's going to be really good. Your defense to me, adding guys like we're school Douglas and Amit Robertson into key roles. These guys don't both, these are these are journey men. And if they need to play a lot of snaps in your secondary, I don't have a lot of confidence there. So I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. I don't know. I'm like, who likes the Eagles? Nobody. So I hope I'm wrong. But I'm worried that this is a rebuilding. I guess, I'll leave it at this when it comes to them. For whatever reason, and it's fine, he's a young player who didn't really play football in year two.

1:32:01Some have, this is the silliest and the biggest knit that I've had to pick all off season when people say he regressed last year. Yeah, no, he actually didn't play enough football to regress last year. He only played in seven games and only four start to finish. He's not getting any sort of benefit of, well, if he stays healthy, they'll be a good team. Like if Barrow, if Jackson, if my home's, I'm not putting him in that. That's not going to be a good team. I'm not putting him in that class quite yet. I'm not. But people were, people were 12 months ago. He was listed as the number five quarterback in the NFL in the position by position breakdown. But anyway, let's move on. Yeah, special traits. Special traits. Why not? Okay, so more, more broadly, you find, you find, you find, Jayden Daniels, you finally get your quarterback in the future. And it's better if the defense is. Why not just like you spend a draft in an offseason doing nothing but protecting Jayden

1:33:06Daniels and giving him more and more weapons on offense so that he doesn't have to carry the entire team, give him more and better. Well, that are going to get a last year. Last year, last year they traded the training game. Last year they traded for tonsil and they drafted a tackle in the first round. And then they went out inside the Debo, Debo Samuel. Now this year they said we're going to help Jayden in the offense by actually trying to get off the field occasionally on third down. And they added 11 new defensive players, really nine or 10 of which are expected to contribute. They'll play games at times this year with players on defense, all 11 having not played on the team last year. There will be a couple of moments where you have that and a new coordinator. So I look, I'm just, I'm not, I think the NFL is impossible to predict. You know, I've said the same thing at Nazim for every August and September for the last 20 years, 25 to 27 or 28 teams are between 7 and 10 and 10 and 7.

1:34:11And there are things that you can't predict that will skew at one way or the other like injuries, which is what Washington had last year. Right. I've got like two minutes. So give me, you know, I saw this on your notes and I actually like Green Bay this year, but I'm concerned what are they going to do at running back? Yeah, you know, March on Lloyd is going to be the first man up and they're offensive coordinator earlier this week said that they're going to use a by committee approach, which I know God bless them for being honest, but he also singled out Lloyd and just said, you know, but the one guy we got to get the ball, we got to make sure we get, we get the ball in the hands of March on Lloyd. Now if we can get the version of our sunboy from USC, dude was a freaking beast. You know, he's big. He's fat. He can catch. They threw him down field. He's catching balls, you know, 15, 20 yards down field at USC. Hasn't stayed healthy. Interesting matchup against Minnesota. I think people forget last year. Minnesota put together the greatest stretch of past defense games, maybe in the history

1:35:14of the league. In the second half of the season, Minnesota allowed one passing touchdown. I mean, wow. I mean, didn't they just add Harrison Smith back to the squad? They did. They added Harrison Smith back on the team. You know, he just wanted to miss training camp basically. And I don't blame him. I thought he'd retire. He's veteran. Yeah, he did not formally retire. Fortunately. Yeah. You know, and you know, last year, the Vikings allowed the fewest passing, the fewest passing touchdown. They were giving up absolutely nothing. It was it was an astounding turnaround today. And here come the packers. They're trying to get by with Matt and Golden and see what they got him, what got out of him and Christian Watson needs to need to emerge Tucker crafts on one leg. I think the Vikings are going to end up winning this game and Marsha on Void is the best pass to victory. She can't can't really pass on the Vikings. If it's anything like last year, they need a big game from Marsha on Void in this running game and he's their best chance to do it. So I think it's going to actually going to get a fair amount of running. Charge.

1:36:15Let's finish by pissing off all the people that couldn't stand our boy Kirk. Can you imagine if they had a defense like the one they had when he was the quarterback in Minnesota? I think what I'll actually gone deep into the postseason, I believe they would. They would. The Kirk cousins years, the Vikings had a bottom five overall defense every year by yards, by point to loud. And you know, here's Kirk out there battling. Totally, you know, Vikings are losing games 32 to 28. And the defense was just so bad if they had had Brian Flores during those years. Well, they had him that the very tour of the Achilles where I think he was playing his best football. Brian, that was Brian Flores for sure. Right. And Kirk at the time he went down with beating the NFL in passing yards of passing touchdown. And the Vikings had fumbled away a couple of games. They were like 500 at that point, but they were sitting on what would have been just an epic finish to that season. I'm still better about it.

1:37:16Right. I love doing this with you. Welcome back. Welcome to the 2026 NFL season. I'll talk to you next week. Sounds great. My friend. Bye. Up next, we'll go to Philadelphia and talk Eagles with the athletics Brooks, Kubina. That's next on the Kevin Sheen show. All of our NFL opening week conversation on the team 980 is presented by hands free sketchers slip ins. Just step in and go joining us right now is Brooks, Kubina. Brooks covers the Eagles for the athletic. He is the Nikki Javala of the Eagles. And you can follow Brooks on X at B. Kubina spelled K U B E N A Washington at Philly Sunday at 425 to open up the 2026 NFL season. So Brooks, we all know is NFC East people that 21 years went by without a repeat division

1:38:17winner until last year when Philly went back to back. Nobody's won it three times in a row since the Andy Reed, Donovan McNabb eagles of back in 0-1 through 0-4. They actually won four division titles in a row from 0-2 from 0-1 to 0-4. So I'll just start with not burying the lead. Do you think Philly wins the NFC East for a third straight year? I do. I think they're most positioned to do it. Dallas is, I think, stronger this year and healthier. And I like what the giants are doing. They're going to be better. I think they're the most complete team and have the most talent. Now I think that'll drive out over a year that I think is going to start pretty slow for them, at least offensively. But this is a defense that is going to at least be top five in the NFL. And last year they were an 11 win team by writing on a defense that wasn't as structurally talented on the depth chart.

1:39:18So I think everything's in position for them to three feet there as an NFC's title. By the way, is Grinard going to be ready to play Sunday or not? I looked out on yesterday's the first time that he was in full pads. And I mean, it's a sign that he wasn't on the public's fan to the season. So I mean, I saw him go through workouts and we're going to chance to talk to folks in the locker room. So it seems that he will at least be practicing over the next couple of days. And they will be kind of assessing just his spot. The thing that I'm wondering is not necessarily his physical capability, he also will be practicing it. The parts of the game plan that the big fan show, the edge rushers drop a little bit more in coverage and there's responsibilities that they have that Jonathan Grinard really wasn't doing in his past. And Vic talked about that during training camp. If Jonathan's up to speed, Jonathan Grinard's up to speed, then I think those are things that, well, it also might be a little bit more contained on the field in certain packages.

1:40:20I think if those the next couple of days look good and his, his pectoral is fine. I think he's at least active, how many snaps and how involved he is in the game plan. I think I'm going to those things that I've been told. All right. I'll come back to the defense in a moment because you said that you think it's possible that, you know, it'll start off slowly in 2026 on offense. And I'm assuming that's because there's a new offensive coordinator. But, you know, Jaylen Hertz has certainly dealt with that over the years. And there's no AJ Brown this year. So tell me what you're expecting offensively by first answering whether or not it appears to be a good fit at this point. The manion sort of, you know, Shanahan McVey style offense with what Jaylen Hertz does well. Well, it's all connected to the run game, which is what I'm going to start with. If you look at it last year, it just, it would sell off completely from what it was in 2024. What are that we do to their center cam jurgen's and their left garland and take this and

1:41:24be in vain that the bit they lost their right tackle. I mean, Jonathan later in the year. And they just couldn't run the ball with the vertical power system that they had been using. And that impacted the past game too. And there were structural issues in that. They went to, you know, in the bottom half of the league in terms of running the ball. And that's always what the Eagles have been able to put their hat on in a seriana era. And that was the overhaul of the offseason. Yes, they changed off into coordinators. But what was, to me, a bigger change was that there are a lot of time off into line college and run game coordinator and Jess Doutland. They moved on from him and committed to this wide zone scheme that is a big departure from what they would have been doing. And that was always going to impact the passing game. And it's a very, very, very, very important thing to do is to marry the past that Ron is understanding the concepts. And Jalen Hertz is going to have to embrace more of that. And he has. And in training camp, I saw the growing pain there. We saw an uptick in interceptions. And that's partly because of Jalen Hertz connecting with his wide receivers on where

1:42:26they're supposed to be. This is a room that was only Devonte Smith and Darius Cooper, someone who really didn't have much involvement in the passing game last year. The only returning members after AJ Brown's departure. So a lot of people were learning this new system and how it works within the run game and all those things. But to more your point, whether it's going to be a fit, I haven't seen that yet. That's one of the things most curious that's going to be in his first week and those to come. I have seen Jalen Hertz with his technique under center in training camp. And he had not been one of the things that I think is interesting is the way that they had been playing was more so built on great pre-determining before the snap. What matchups they could get. It was a great gamble to be looking at AJ Brown and Devonte Smith both on the field and saying, OK, I'm going to go to this guy or this guy because it's a high leverage situation. Now they're going to more pure progression reads under this under center.

1:43:28So look. And it's something that Jalen has some experience, but not much. And these quick timing decisions that are working with receivers like Elijah Moore and Don Taven Wicks and Hollywood Brown guys he hasn't been around with. And the McKay Lemon, their first round pick, he was out for most of training camp at the hamstring injury. So all of these things, these timing, these connections within the system, it's going to take some time. So I don't know yet if it's going to be a fit. But the things that I've noticed from Jalen Hurts, at least that he has committed doing this. And I could speak more on that, but that there's his confidence in Sean Manion that he has a deep conviction in his team. And that was the number one. The number one thing the Nick Cereyani was looking at an offensive coordinator, talking Jalen Hurts yesterday about that. And he said, that's a great word conviction in terms of what it goes to Manion. And he's bought into this system. And as we see them work through it. I think the the effort will absolutely be there.

1:44:30Yeah, really interesting stuff because you know, Jalen Hurts and Jaden Daniels are kind of going through the same thing. They're both going to play under center more. They're both going to play in a zone run centric offense with a lot more play action and a lot more bootleg off of it. And for me, it's funny because I've been a big Jalen Hurts fan. I think he's played his best football in the biggest games for Philadelphia over the last few years. And I don't think that that's built up as much among NFL fans. It perhaps it is with Eagles fans. But I kind of view Jalen differently than I do Jaden. I think Jaden's going to be a perfect fit in this David Blow, Ben Johnson, Kevin O'Connell, the same kind of thing, a lot of the same concepts. And for me in watching Jalen during his career, I think he's much better when he's a big part of the run game. And look, you might you sound like you don't have an answer and no one will have an answer

1:45:31until we actually see it. But what do you say to that? Like I've always felt like he's at his best when he is a true dual threat quarterback. I agree. And the thing over the last several years, and it's been a point here in several stories across the past several years, the times that he has designed quarterback runs have steadily gone down over the last four years. It was around 110 in 2022. And it was down to I think in the high 60s last year. So the thing that is tied to that is that in 21, 22, 23, and even in 24, Jalen Hertz had been dealing with some form of injury going into the playoffs. Last year was the first time that he didn't have it. It was fully healthy. And you could sense how that was something that he really liked. So it's a trade-off there to understand, okay, how much are we going to risk? I mean, I mean, people, the fans of the commanders, recognize when going into the 24, that's

1:46:34when he got his concussion and things that he was dealing with going into the 24 playoffs. So that remains as we've seen how much he'll be involved. I don't doubt that it will be. John Manian, Nick Serion, and Jalen Hertz even yesterday when talking about using himself as a runner in this offense, they know that it's a skill. And they're going to have it be part of this offense. At what volume is the question at what times this question? And I don't think from the trends that we've seen over the last several seasons, that'll go up any more significantly than we're used to from last year. Brooks Kubino from the athletic joining us, he covers the Eagles for the athletic. So is there like a big exhale with no AJ Brown and no drama around AJ Brown, Jalen Hertz, etc? Or is there a feeling like there's a big hole missing at that position? I wrote about this a couple of days ago.

1:47:35Nick Serion, he opened the first team meeting of the season by talking about take-out-erness. It was something he was saying over the off season. And Jalen Hertz was taking notes during that meeting at any told-ins supporters that he wrote down in his notebook 100% alignment zero entitlement. He didn't name AJ and maybe didn't even directly mean to include him. But some of the last couple of weeks, just seeing how they've talked about the take-out-ness factor of this team, it seems to be that they're moving forward. Jalen Hertz and his opening remarks to start the training camp said he couldn't emphasize how important it was to protect just the camaraderie of the team. Because they know the challenges are going to come. All these players know last year that they had access, frustration, and I don't know if they'll remember, but there was a point where it was so absurd toward the last end of the year. There was this blow-up, Easter bunny in the locker room that they called the positivity

1:48:36rabbit. And it was quickly deflated. But like, it just was showing how weird it was getting in terms of how people were able to express themselves, and it just wasn't getting fixed. So AJ Brown was the most outspoken about his on-field misery. And there's no dispute with that. Even he would test it out. And he thought it was actually part of the accountability that would point towards some of the corrections that need you to be made. But in some ways, it just traced out lines for them to be more miserable. So like, the point for things, this year, things would be directed towards constructive togetherness. I've seen some of that play out in training camp. Obviously, they haven't played a game yet. Obviously, they haven't run into any problems. So that's going to be the test of whether that's actually true. Whenever they get an unscouted look that messes them up in a game, and now they've got to figure it out. And then maybe it persists for four or five weeks in Sean Manion as having trouble deducing how to stop that too. Where does that lead?

1:49:36These are questions that have come up probably midway through this season. But they're at least talking. And I'm seeing some of those things play out in the locker room and in training camp about how they're supporting each other. I thought going into last season, we did kind of the top five players in the NFC East heading into last season. And I think I had Jalen Carter as either the number one or number two player in the division, heading into the season. I just thought he was an absolute game record of the year before. And I'm curious as to how Philadelphia fans and you guys see the season in the rear view that he had last year and then what the expectations are for this year. I mean, last year got off to a pretty weird star with a spitting on back. That was kind of one of the questions about like if the Eagles are going to commit a historic record-breaking contract to somebody that their availability and their maturity is obviously one of the number one things you're wondering about.

1:50:38Him owning up to that, finding his spaces where he can be the defensive-minded player that he wants to be or things that he talked about over the training camps. And he played, I remember the Chicago Bears Game Master was one of the biggest signs of where he was at physically. He ended up having two operations on his shoulders, one on each shoulder, and then missed time towards the end of the year. He was dealing with those shoulder issues and now he's healthy. You know, I see it in training camp. He's poised for what I think and what I know that Eagles believe that he can have a monster season. I think this is something where he can, they're expecting him to take that all-prose step to be in the conversation for defense of the player of the year. And he has the tools. We've seen it. You know, some of his pressure from the inside, that's what Vic Vanjo likes to see from this defense and some of the ways that he schemes it up. And all of those tools are there for Jaylen Carter to be there, just his availability and his maturity, those things that he's kind of addressed over the last couple of months.

1:51:41We'll see if those come out because we know that he can be a dominant player. And they don't commit that kind of money to people that they don't view as cornerstones of their team and now it's time to see that action. Is there a better cornerback room than the one that Philadelphia has in the league anywhere? It's a good question. You know, I haven't analyzed the depth charts post 53 man roster cut downs. I know that the Rams have picked up their defense a lot. But what makes it so unique to the Eagles and why they're so good there is the Cooper Degene's versatility. I mean, they're carrying three safeties on the 53 man roster, which is not normal for them because he's going to play there in base packages. Last year he played outside cornerback in base packages. And he's an all pro nickel. The guy can play, he'd probably be an all pro at any of those positions. And that allows Quinion Mitchell to just basically be attentive on one side of the field or they

1:52:43can, you know, he can just be the outside cornerback that he needs to be. But like, yo, I don't know. He also just twice last year watching them play the commanders. This was a weak cornerback to spot last year that the Kandle did a very good job of masking, partly by using Cooper Degene and base packages. But now bringing Rick Lulin into the equation. I mean, it's looked, it looked like it's looking night and day in training camp because what he adds is, I mean, things that he adds in Seattle in terms of this physicality. Some of the play press coverage, some of you can play in those ways. The thing that he's, and now they don't have to move Cooper Degene around in order to mask that issue. They don't have to worry about one side of the field as much. That's what brings strength to that secondary. The question for him is he was not much of a, you know, off coverage zone coverage type of cornerback. And Vic Vanjo likes to use those mix of those match zones a lot.

1:53:43And that's things that he's even spoken to, willing to ask about his development. But most of all, like you see him in practice in a way that he's matching up against guys like the Bonfay Smith and evening and joint practices against AJ Brown and others like he's holding his own. So like, the question is how much more did he elevate, which I think is why this defense is going to be more of a get off the field team. In 24, their 3 and opposite was amongst the top in the league and it went down significantly last year. They can do that this year. They're really going to help to tie it back to the offense, something that needs as much help as they can get as it's maturing. And they're going to get that. And part of that is how good the secondary is. By the way, I mean, I don't talk kickers a lot, but Jake Elliott had a rough year. I remember as he was going through, it's like this guy's been money for his entire career. And he had a difficult season. He's back as the kicker, correct? He is. I mean, they've given him a lot of money and that's kind of part of the thing.

1:54:45You've got to admit to the guy that you've given a lot of guarantee of money through. And this is that last year where before it becomes feasible for them to part with that. But I mean, he also is capable. I've only seen a training cap and then practices some of the preseason games that he does have that accuracy still. The question is, whenever there's going to be those, it really, his struggles were, apart from some point afters that were a problem. But his, from plus 50, where he had been very accurate over his course's career went down significantly in the late 40s. But this is a team that's going to plant in conditions and it's going to be some tight games. That's the question for me. So it seems to be trend again towards a bad year for Jake. Like I wonder if they're going to start bringing in some competition whether they start making some moves or if they're going to commit to it. That's the question. They've always verbally stuck by him and to this point, haven't addressed that.

1:55:49But this is the kind of year where financially speaking, there is a decision to be made. And as soon as you see something on the waiver wire or something where they add a kicker and camp, that's going to be a big story. All right. We'll finish up with this. Keys to a Philadelphia win. We do it from the other side here leading into the weekend. But keys to a Philadelphia win Sunday against Washington. You mentioned Jonathan Grenard earlier. I'm going to stick with that for the keys for this because you know, Laramie Thompson being out really brings past protection into question. And we don't really know the full depth of this Eagles' head Russia room with Grenard that's the whole reason why how heroism has been a couple of third round picks to bring a man giving him $96 million. You know, J.L.X. Hunt, a guy that's been around for a couple of years now, former third round pick. He's looked at really good spots in certain games. So we haven't seen him have a complete breakout year in Nolan Smith and the other end.

1:56:51This is a big year for him, contractually speaking as well. Former first round pick, he's not been available. He's going to hurt a lot. But how much past rush can they generate from the edge and how quickly can they get off the field therefore because you know, if they can get into some longer second and third round, that's the things where that's for the secondary is really going to help them there. So I think that's the key. I know the defense has the design and the history to be good. If that is in place and they play like that, then it's going to be very hard to say that Eagles don't win. Brooks, thanks. Really good stuff. Appreciate it. Yeah. Brooks, Kubina from the athletic covers the Eagles. Really good information on that team. Grenard is a key man. I wanted Washington to go after Grenard when he was available reuniting potentially with Toronto Jones. He ended up in Philadelphia after a trade. He was outstanding last year for the Vikings as an edge pass rusher.

1:57:52Right up next, we will have our Super Bowl picks. Also the two coordinators spoke today on Thursday in preparation for the opener on Sunday. We'll have some of that as well. Kevin Chiancho, the team 980 and the team 980.com. If you're dealing with drafts and I'm not talking about the one that happens at the end of April early May, but the one that comes through some of your windows, it's leading to higher air conditioning bills, higher heating bills, and you can fix that. And window nation is here to help. I would urge you if this is an issue to at least call them and let them come out and give you a free in-home estimate. They'll walk through your house, room by room. They'll tell you which windows are costing you money and need to be replaced versus those that don't. Then they'll leave you with a quote and then they'll leave you alone. You don't have to make a decision on that day. They're not going to pressure you. There's no obligation.

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1:59:56All right. Let's talk Super Bowl picks because we got it down to our Super Bowl matchup with our NFC picks earlier in the show. This has a Super Bowl featuring the Rams and the Broncos. I have a Super Bowl featuring the Rams and the Chiefs. Not total chalk because Denver is not necessarily a lead favorite for the Super Bowl. The Chiefs really aren't anywhere near where they have typically been, but the Rams are certainly the favorite to get to the Super Bowl. The biggest surprise in our picks so far, I had the big one with Washington winning the NFC East. New Orleans winning the NFC South. You also had that. Other than that, a lot of teams that perhaps are the calls to win divisions and get playoff

2:00:59berths. Not enough surprises. I don't think in our picks, Max. But anyway, we're going to pick the Super Bowl here in a moment. First of all, our MVP pick for the year. For me, I'm going with and I should with a Rams Chief Super Bowl. I should probably say Stafford or Mahomes. But I'm going to go with Jordan Love on a team that I think will be the two seed in the NFC. I think he is primed for a big year. I like the receivers. I think Golden can step up. The running back situation will be interesting. I just am a big Jordan Love fan and I think there were signs of it last year again. And maybe he puts it all together and has an MVP caliber season. Jordan Love, my MVP in 2026. What about yours? A lot of people at the beginning of this season right now, I'm hearing a lot of talk about the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar's bounce back here and how they're going to fare

2:02:04with Jesse Minter as head coach and a lot of people are positive. I am as well. Give me Lamar Jackson to win the MVP this year in a bounce back season coming off of injury. I'm looking at sort of a consensus blend of the odds. Josh Allen is the favorite to win the MVP followed by Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow who are pretty much right there. Neck and neck at eight to one. And then it's Herbert in my homes at like 10 to one Caleb at 11 to one, Prescott at 12 to one Stafford 14 to one Drake May. Those odds have dropped after one game at 18 to one and then Brock Pertie at 18 to one. Let me just mention that this, you know, if we have a continuing trend of defense, you know, really kind of dominating as it has here with the Eagles in 24 last year with obviously Seattle's defense and Denver's defense and Houston's defense and, you know, even in

2:03:04the Super Bowl with New England playing great defensive football, could we end up with a Miles Garrett or a Will Anderson junior being in the mix for an MVP? Maybe because I'll tell you what, the defensive players in the NFL right now are all sort of loud, noticeable. I'm not saying personality wise. I'm talking about in the way they play. Miles Garrett, Will Anderson, Jr. Nick Benito, Aiden Hutchinson, Max Crosby are all players that you can't take your eyes off when they're playing at a high level. And you know, I would assume it's going to be a quarterback. Keep it simple stupid. Quarterback for MVP. But it would be interesting if like a Miles Garrett ends up having not only another dominant Miles Garrett type of a season, but doing it on a Super Bowl team, a Super Bowl one

2:04:07seat in the NFC. If a Will Anderson did the same thing in Houston and Houston was a dominant 14 and three defensive lead team, you know, where CJ Stroud was more of a game manager and they ended up in the Super Bowl. Could Will Anderson, Jr. You know, threaten it. I think that there are some incredible defensive players in the league and just some incredible defenses in the league. All right. Jordan Love for me and for you, you went Lamar Jackson. All right. Our Super Bowl matchup. I've got Rams chiefs. You've got Rams Broncos. Who wins the 2026 Super Bowl? It's going to be the team with with Aaron Donald and Miles Garrett up front. It's hard for me to pick against that, especially in crunch time with two of the best defensive players I've seen in my generation. So I'm sticking with the Rams.

2:05:07Rams over Denver. I've got the Rams over the chiefs, which means we both have the Rams winning their second Super Bowl in their home stadium. Wow. That would be interesting. All right. We've got some sound from Dorontate Jones, David Blow from Coordinator Press Conference Day. We'll update you guys on injuries. They did put out their first list late yesterday. You'll get the second list today and start looking ahead to the opener against the Eagles. Kevin Sheen show the team 980. The team 980.com. Don't forget you can watch this show on our YouTube channel. Just hit the subscribe button and hit the like button when you get there. Also I'll let you know if I have a smell test pick on tonight's game. Damn. What are you most looking forward to seeing from Jayden, especially after what he went through last year? What are you looking for the most seeing as a season begins? Man, that's that's an awesome one.

2:06:07Just knowing John, how much work that he's put in to the system like to see that execution take place. He's really in very good command of it. I would say probably the second thing is the amount of time he and Terry have had together. I think it was less than 15% of the snaps they were on the field together in 2025. That sounded crazy. But the amount of work that those two guys have had to see that and I think just to see his way he's able to express himself in the offense. I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to see that either on Sunday. Order back one wide receiver, one, a legitimate, we think wide receiver to I think perhaps an upgrade overall in tight end number one. The running back situation, TBD, I think we're going to see a lot of Rashad white I do. But Croskey Merritt had a very good off season and summer and certainly could be the guy

2:07:10that gets some of those first down looks. Yeah, offensively two years ago, this team at times, I mean, it's only two seasons ago. At times like most of the time was unstoppable. Last year that team offensively that played in 2024 didn't really play together. It shouldn't be a surprise to you coach Quinn. John Kym actually asked the question and actually had the exact numbers on how much Terry and Jaden played together. It was less than 15%. It was exactly 13.9% of the snaps over the course of the season. They played on 138 snaps out of 990 total snaps. In 2024 they played on 817 snaps out of the 2011.

2:08:15You can kind of do that math. It's over 80%. In fact, it's 80.8% of the time they played together on offense versus 13.9% of the time last year. So you're two, two of your three best offensive players and your best quarterback to wide receiver connection barely played football together last year. That is a big reason why the team did not play well last year. Like the number one reason if we're being truly objective and fair. That hopefully will change this year. First crossed, there's no guarantee because you were the most injured team in 2025 that you'll remain healthy and be much better off in 2026. Injuries don't have memory from the year to year. But if he plays all 17 and if Terry's out there for all 17 and they remain relatively

2:09:19healthy with their best players, I don't know how they would suck, which is what many people think they'll end up being in 2026. The team we saw in 2024 couldn't be stopped offensively and you have theoretically upgraded at receiver. Not to mention there is some hope and reason to hope that you're not going to be nearly as bad on defense, which will help as well. The coordinators talk on Thursday and that meant the first regular season presser for Dorontay Jones and for David Blowell. Let's start with Dorontay Jones. He was asked about trying to slow down and stop Sequan Barkley on Sunday. And I know you weren't here, but ever since Sequan Barkley joined the Eagles, he's rushed for at least 115 yards in a touchdown in every game against the commanders.

2:10:21How do you stop a guy like that? Very cool and special. I don't think it's not a one man job. It's a team effort. Even with that, I mean his explosiveness, his playmaking ability, he's very dynamic and they've done a great job of using him in that way and finding different spaces to get him touches. So you take your hat off to the organization and how they utilize their personnel over there. Yeah, probably key number one on Sunday. And I'll give you my keys to a win over Philadelphia. Stop the run. Stop Sequan Barkley. You've got to be in that position or you get the Eagles into, you know, third and two and second and four and that's not a position where you can, you know, highlight and show off your new pass rush.

2:11:21This was Dorontay Jones being asked about the Tush push, which by the way with the new offensive coordinator, we don't know if we don't even know if we'll see it. I would assume we would given its effectiveness even though it took a bit of a step back last year. But this was Dorontay Jones on stopping Philadelphia's Tush push. Warren coach, the Eagles are kind of known for those sneak packages. We've seen teams have different strategies, including like Frankie jumping over the line. Without getting into specifics, how do you start to build out how you're going to try to prevent that as a coordinator? Probably the easiest way is keeping them out of that situation. I mean, it's like a 75% rate, success rate. I mean, it's tough. You know, the rugby dealers have come into our sport, which has been huge in terms of tackling, but you can see how as some of you say, the scrum has kind of come into play a little bit. Yeah, keep them away from third and two, fourth and one, et cetera.

2:12:21And you don't have to face it. Although, you know, it hasn't been as we know a play that's been legislated or has been officiated very well. Last night we did see an offensive off sides. We saw the right tackle clearly off sides pre-snap for Seattle on a Tush push and they called it. That has to be called more than it has been in the past. This was David Blow, the new offensive coordinator on his confidence in the offense. We've heard a lot from the staff and the players that we really haven't seen everything that this new offense and defense is going to show obviously in the regular season. But if we're not seeing it out there and, you know, you're not wrapping it as much because we're not seeing it, what gives you confidence that is ready for week one? What gives me confidence is that this game always comes down to fundamentals. And the team that blocks better, the team that tackles better, the team that throws and

2:13:22catches better, the team that takes care of the football better, you know, will win the game. And we've been drilling it, we've been teaching. So I'm excited for people to see what our units about and our playstyle and full display. You know, we know as a group what it comes down to. You can't throw three interceptions like Jake Drake May did in the fourth quarter of a game and expect to win. Minus three doesn't usually get it done in the NFL. Washington's turnover margin last year, second worst in the NFL at minus 13. There are a number of takeaways last year. We've talked about this a lot. 10 total next to last and just, you know, for the purposes of comparing, you know, they were too fewer than the next team in line, which was the Cowboys believe it or not. You got to end up this year taking the ball away and being much better in the turnover margin minus 13 equals losing record period.

2:14:28And usually a big time losing record. See the jets and Washington for the bottom two turnover margins from last year. All right. Tonight we get game number two. It's a wild one in Melbourne, Australia, where the Rams got onto a plane on Tuesday. They're essentially, which was really, you know, late late Tuesday night, Melbourne time. They have basically arrived somewhere in the neighborhood of about 30 hours or 34 hours before the game. They're going to play the game and go back. Less need was asked about the decision to basically fly in, play the game and fly out as to whether or not that was a good thing to promote the league in Australia, rather than being there for the last week as the 49ers have. And he said, we've got 51 other weeks. We can go back and promote the game in Australia.

2:15:29We're playing to win the game. And this is what our people say is the best way to do it. It's two different approaches. This is obviously from an international game standpoint, the most challenging in NFL history. It had to be a game played by two West Coast teams. We knew that going into the schedule. Tonight the Rams as a team that is the favorite to win the Super Bowl is a three and a half point favorite against the 49ers in the first of two against the Niners that will be more likely than not very important to the NFC West and to the NFC race all together. No smell test pick on the game tonight. There is a public lean on the Rams. And if you're asking me, well, I got to play the game. Give me what you gave me last night or yesterday. And I said, if you got to play the game, play New England plus the points, either a pusher or a win, I'd play the Niners plus the points.

2:16:30And I probably will personally, but it's not one that fits sort of the smell test formula. I will have plenty of those picks on tomorrow's show. In addition to Max and I giving out our Washington prediction record wise, I've already told you I've got him winning the NFC East. Max has already told you he's got him finishing second in the NFC East because he's got him as a wild card team. Right? Or did you sneak him in with Elfia? No. Did you have Philly as a wild card team? No, I've got us, maybe. Yeah. Well, you could have had Philly too. I could have. Could have. We're taking a look. We'll have our season prediction record wise. We'll give you guys a chance on that. But the first full fledged football Friday of the year coming up tomorrow. Again, the rundown, our schedule has changed.

2:17:31Following me now will be the last hour of B. Mitch and JP from 1067, the fan, our sister station, followed by the first hour of Grant and Danny from 1067, the fan, and then Chris will be in from three to six. That's his new schedule. We are ready for football season. Back tomorrow, everybody.