NFL Commentator & Analyst Michael Carlson | Previews the upcoming 2026/2027 NFL Season (10/9/26)

0:00You're on Sport Nation mornings with Rick and Chappy and we welcome into the show, NFL commentator, writer as well and former schoolmate of Bill Bella checks. He's got the CV for it all. I have Mike Kalson. How you doing brother? I'm doing fine. I'm in the land of your forefathers, your forebears in Croatia. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's summer and just having a great time. Yeah, a bit. I bet jealous much, mate. I don't know if you've got your VPN sorted but you'll be ramping up the laptop later on. I would imagine to catch the pets up against the sea hawks of the opening game in the NFL. Yeah, funny thing is we're out having dinner just a couple hours ago and there was a big advert for it on Croatian TV in the bar. So I might wind up going out afterwards. It's kind of late in the morning. In terms of, I mean, it is a rerun, a rematch if you like of last year's Super Bowl.

1:03It's supposedly according to the weather forecast or you can never be sure with Seattle. It's going to be fine apparently. So I'm thinking yardage in this game with two quarterbacks who love to throw. Yeah, I think that the new look, Mike Vrebel Patriots, you know, would really like to run the ball as much as possible. But I think they understand they'll have a difficult time against Seattle and Seattle right now. Their weakest point seems to be the back end of their secondary and of course New England's got AJ Brown. They're their big acquisition in the offseason to create more of a deep threat for Drake May who had a pretty good season last year. So that's going to be, you know, I think one of the key matchups will be if Ramandra Stevenson can can run the ball for them. And Trebyan Henderson is out injured. They're other top running back. So New England's got a better line than they had last year. That was

2:06the real problem against Seattle and the Super Bowl offensive line. And I think that'll improve them. They've got a bit more receiving, but with Stefan Diggs in case on Bouté both gone, it's not that huge improvement apart from AJ Brown. And defensively, I'm not sure there were strong as they were last year. That to me is the real fulcrum of this whole match. And then on the other side of it, Mike Seattle, they are third favored in the market to defend their crown that they don't seem to be talked about as much as some other teams will get to those later on. But why do you think perhaps there isn't this, or there is this perception around Seattle that they can't go back to back? Well, you know, they were favorites at one point to do that. And then the Rams, which I'm sure will mention, you know, later on, went on an acquisition spree that strengthened them tremendously. Part of the problem too is the Kenneth Walker,

3:07who had such a great Super Bowl running back, he's going to Kansas City. And part of the problem is that nobody really trusts Sam Darnold, you know, as well as he plays, everybody always thinks he's going to stumble at the last hurdle. And he didn't in the Super Bowl or basically he didn't have to play super well to win that game because of Walker and because of Seattle's defense. And I think that's what the stumbling point actually is. I really think Mike McDonald is a good young coach and a real great defensive coach. And I think they'll be well organized. Like I said, they may have a hole at the back of their secondary. But at home, given the, what's the way to explain it, given the incompleteness of preseason nowadays in the NFL, the limited number of contact practices, you can have the almost meaningless preseason exhibition games, you know, I think Seattle's pretty well suited to win this game. You mentioned Coach

4:10Vable before I'm sure he'll just be wanting the season to start after all the off field drama with him after the Super Bowl. How determined do you think not only him, but this team will be to ensure that all that off field noise is now silenced? To be honest, I think it's pretty much disappeared. But it's interesting the way that it does carry on when everybody says, oh, you know, the NFL's 24, 7, 365. Well, you know, if that's the kind of thing you have to do to keep in the headlines, it's not much. I think they'll find it more interesting that the owner of the 49er's jediork is not in Melbourne because, you know, he was arrested in Ohio last last month for soliciting prostitution online. And the too funny things about that were that he was charged with possession of criminal equipment, you know, as if he had lock picks or something like that for using his

5:12telephone, his telephone became a criminal object. And then Michael Irving, the ex-Cowboys receiver, he said, you know, he was paying $140 for the woman's services. He says, you get, you need to get expensive women, but the expensive women always get you into trouble. Did he foul just never stop it? It's just a guaranteed product every day. You mentioned the Niners, they're taking on the Los Angeles Rams. It is rich touched on in Melbourne. There's a lot of love for the Rams. Mike, they're a dollar 48 in the opening game. They're 380 to win the NFC. They're $6. Super Bowl favorites. Is there so much love for the blue and yellow? Or are we now at the stage with the Rams? Where it's if they're going to do it, it needs to be now. Yeah. I think the, you know, the whole move in the betting was justified. You know, first, first you sign, you had the best miles gear at the best defensive player in the league, probably. Best pass rusher in the league,

6:12certainly. And then Aaron Donald decides to come out of retirement. Now he's been going two years, but he was, he was always a small, small error and very fit, very fast defensive tackle. And I'm sure he's stayed in shape. Now whether he's in game shape is another, is another story. But they'll rotate him in, you know, probably about sparsely at first and then more and more. Probably specifically for passing situations, but if he's inside and Garrett's outside, that creates a huge problem for most. There are very few guys who can block either of them one on one. And you remember a couple years ago in the Patriots beat the Rams 13 to three in the Super Bowl. One of the biggest things there, not that they're off. And so ran over the Rams for only 13 points, but Joe Tune, their guard at the time, will please for Kansas City. Now he blocked Donald one on one for most of the whole, most of the game. And Donald after the game said,

7:14you know, it's on me because he just couldn't believe one guy had handled him for most, for most of the game. But the, you know, the Rams, they ran, they ran Seattle right to the, right to the limit last year. They didn't have many losses. If Pukinakua has his head on straight, which he hasn't had since the end of last season, their offense is probably, you know, as good as it was last year. And their defense is going to be much, much better with the addition of those two guys. So I think it's justifiable that their favorites. Yeah. The NFC with this, stacked, right? You got the reigning Super Bowl champions. You got the Rams who are the shortest of short Super Bowl favorites. And you got the 49ers, who I think a lot of people are sleeping on, aren't they? I mean, are they the smokers to smoke you to this season? Yeah. The problem with the 49ers is constant injury. And a few problems at receiver. I mean, you have a team who have two receivers who were shot. One before last season, one before this,

8:16that's that's that's an interesting way of getting injured, you know, and they've rebuilt the receiving court. They brought back Ebo Samuel. They they signed Mike Evans. George Kiddell is supposedly healthy again. Christian McCaffrey, of course, had a, you know, went through the whole season last year without getting hurt, which is a almost a first for him. They need all those pieces to be functioning in order to be playing at top level. They also Kyle Shanahan, who was in a car crash during the summer, more of that offseason, you know, gossip news. But he had the line of preseason so far when they got to Melbourne. And one of the reporters asked him about their injury list. And he said, well, we're in the future here in Australia. And the Rams are still in the past in California. So we don't have to tell you until the Rams are in the future. And we're both in the present and we can tell you then. Was there a delorean in the car park? Are you got a wonder? Looking at the NFC overall, I mean, it's very, we've talked NFC West. It's very heavy

9:22there. NFC South is tight, but I don't see anybody really making a run from there. What about in the East? We've got Dak Prescott here. He's got the expendables with him in Rashan Gary in Von Millow. I mean, they got enough to top the Eagles in the Eastern Maker run. To be honest, I think the Eagles are going to be better than they were last year because I think Sequan Barkley will be back to his his 2020 for four. You know, we had that great season for for the Eagles. And they do a great job of building their roster from the inside out. Jerry Jones does a great job of getting shiny hood ornaments for his luxury car of a roster. And I'm never totally convinced that the sum is as good as you know, the whole is as good as the sum of the parts with Dallas. You know, the big question will be Dak played very well last year. Can he kind of brace the game a little bit? Can their defense play without Mark Micaparsons?

10:27And for the Eagles, it's there's always that question mark around Jalen Hertz. You know, he's done very well for them. He's taken them to Super Bulls. He's won Super Bulls. But it's kind of like Sam Darnal. Nobody really thinks that he's a total quarterback. And there's always something wrong with him one way or the other. And I think that will stick. But I just love the Eagles' defense. They they lost a few players and replaced them, I think pretty pretty well. And I think you could make an argument that they may be the best defensive team in the league. If we look at the ABC, we kind of touched on the pets before. Other chiefs, I'm unsure about this team given, as you mentioned, they're a quiet Kenneth Walker, but my homes was off in ACL. Travis Kelsey got married in case you didn't hear about that, Mike. And yet they still yeah, apparently there's still the team that's won three Super Bulls in the last seven years. Where do you sit on Kansas City? Well, I mean, the first thing obviously is Patrick Mahomes. And you know,

11:30what kind of when he's going to be ready to play and what kind of condition he'll be in to play when he comes back. If Mahomes is on to percent, you can never discount the chiefs. You know, they've got a lot of money invested in Travis Kelsey and in Chris Jones on the defensive line. Both of whom are aging and you know, can't can't deliver day in day out the kind of play that they expect. The Andy Read offense is still lacking in receivers. You know, somebody really has to step forward and provide them with the target or Mahomes with the targets that they really need. And defensively, I don't think they're going to be all that good. Bastille's bag donal is one of the very best game planners of defensive coordinators. So when it comes down to big games, he's often been very good at finding ways to shut somewhat better teams down. And I mean, to me, that's another tough, the two Wests are the tough divisions. The really balanced

12:34one. She's got Denver who had a good season and are quite likely to be better this year. And the chargers, if they can keep healthy, another team that persist in injury problems, if they can keep an offensive line healthy and get Justin Herbert really deliver on that immense potential, potential that he has. That's another, it's another three strong team division, which will be tough to get out of. So I'm kind of looking back to the East and rather than New England who moved from a relatively easy schedule last year because they were last place team in their division. So they were playing last place teams from other divisions to Buffalo who, you know, new coach, new head coach, not a new coach because he's been their offensive coordinator, Joe Brady. But I'm wondering if they might become more aggressive defensive team. And they've certainly got the weapons in, you know, especially in Josh Allen to really challenge anybody offensively. So I really think to me, the

13:38bills are my favorite in I think in the in the AFC. And of course, by December Patrick Mahomes, maybe 100% healthy. And then you imagine they'll they'll go into a playoff game and Buffalo will find some kind of way to lose to Mahomes and the chiefs will be back in there. But right now on paper, started the season, when everything's easy to say, you know, I think the bills will be my favorite. Interesting because I was looking at the AFC North and the Baltimore Ravens. They've got obviously Jesse Mentor in there as a rookie head coach. But it's more about what Le Mans Jackson's being saying. He's saying it's basically it's all or nothing for them this season. I think he's had a contract the end of this season and he's already talking about exploring options. If it doesn't go the way he wants, that feels like it's the two things could happen. Baltimore could run a run away with the North or they could completely tank the season. How do you see that setup? Yeah, that's that's an interesting one too because that's that's a division where Cleveland is not

14:41going to be very good. The Steelers are under Mike McCarthy and with Aaron Rogers a quarterback, I think are more flawed than not. And that puts Baltimore into a into a pretty good looking position. A lot of people like Cincinnati this year, but I really feel they're lacking too. And Mentor, I think will be a good head coach. I think kind of like McDonald, he's a good defensive mind who will be able to let the offense go. And the big question for them is can they get Lamar Jackson into a consistent passing game? You know, they they've draft a receiver, they have Zade Flowers, their offensive line lost Tyler Lindon mom was probably the best center in the league, but they should be able to put it again. They still have Derek Henry. Last year Derek Henry you know didn't quite have the season he'd had the year before much much like Saint

15:42Juan Barkley, but if he's back to King Henry form and if Lamar Jackson's passing game just gets emphasized a bit more than the running takes care of itself. You know, he like Josh Allen, he's a two way threat. And I always like Baltimore. I always thought with with Harbler, they were well coached, but they underperformed last year, what were they eight and nine? I think and really should have been an 11 winning team or whatever. So I think they're probably the best star course there in the NFC and in the AFC. And just to skip ahead, I mean they remind me a lot of Detroit last year, who were nine and eight if I've got the two right, you know, and we're better, they're a better team than that. And I think there'll be a better team this year than that. So and that's a pretty well balanced division with Minnesota Green Bay Chicago, who everybody kind of

16:43thinks will burst through this year with Caleb Williams and coach Ben Johnson. But you know, I would, Detroit would probably be my dark horse in the NFC, just like and very similar to the reasons that I like Baltimore and the AFC. There seems to be a lot of teams, Mike, that if you were to choose an emoji, it would be that that thinking face one, you know, with the looking in one direction and in the hand up to the chin. Where do you think there is the biggest uncertainty? Because as you mentioned, Chiefs were not sure about unsure how the pets are going to bounce back from last season. Cincinnati, who knows how long Joe Burrow is going to stay on the field for Josh Allen every year, it seems to be like, right, he needs to do something. We haven't mentioned Houston. We also haven't mentioned Detroit, who won their division over the last couple of years before being a bit way would last year. We do have the greatest unsuitant to you this season, which team? Oh, jeez. And then the most certainty I have is for the jets. You would have that emoji where the

17:47tongue is hanging out of the mouth and the eyes are rolling around it so far. That would be, that would be my pick. I think Houston's a good, a good kind of, you know, great defense. What's their offense going to do? Can CJ Stroud play the way he did his rookie season? Are they talented enough to do that? And I think they're still lacking in a couple of areas. I'm not quite convinced that they've rebuilt their offensive line and of course losing Tag Dell and Nico Collins stage read. I think Tag Dell is probably still suffering the result. That hurt them a lot. The other team that really has big question marks. The bears are one for me that doesn't quite add up because Williams played some games out of his head and created out of almost nothing. But the secret to winning in NFL is being consistent. And I'm not sure the bears are good enough or consistent of this point. And the other one, you know, the team that really tanked last year was was Minnesota who let Sam Darnold go and

18:52thought that J.J. McCarthy as a rookie was going to take his place. And, you know, this year they have Kyler Murray who has been spectacular at times. But I'm not so great teams in Arizona. But sometimes relatively good news. As always had a short coming and I say short coming because he's about five foot nine. And the hard thing for him to do is to stay in the pocket and see receivers, you know, look over the offensive line. He's great when the play breaks down. When he's on the move and running, he can gain yardage running. He sees the field very well and know in those circumstances. But with a really good quarterback coach in Kevin O'Connell as a head coach in Minnesota, I wonder if he could give them the spark to put them back into the into what I think is a pretty balanced division. I'm not sure. I like I said I like Detroit. I think Detroit's the best team in the division. But the other three teams could all be pretty balanced, you know, and they

19:52could could all be each other, which would make it make it difficult, I think, for any second team to emerge from the division. All right, Mike, you're in Croatia, which as you mentioned, you know, I've got ties to it. I know that there was always a bit of a Romano Gypsy get the crystal ball out, get yours out while you're there. Tell us who's going to be in the Super Bowl. Well, I think from what I've just been saying and it's weird because I did a quick pick for for a magazine, I guess, and I picked different teams to win the divisions and then win the conferences. And I think Seattle, I think the Rams will win the division and I think Seattle will go to the Super Bowl from the, from the NFC and from the AFC I wound up in the end. I was going to get clever with Kansas City and the playoffs. And then in the end, I said, okay, this is the year Buffalo be Kansas City of the playoffs. So I'm looking at Seattle and Buffalo, but that that's really much more daring than I think I've been the last five or six years when I try to pick these things out.

20:56Mike, we appreciate your time, man. We'll let you go so you can prep yourself for the Pets and the Seahawks, which is coming up real soon, mate. Thanks very much for your time and enjoy the rest of your time in Croatia. Okay, enjoy the game in Aussie too.