Coming up live from the in season tournament in Vegas. Plus, we're going to do some football next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. We put up a new rewatchables on Monday night. We did Sea of love. You can check out all of our sports and culture podcasts and everything else we're doing. We had a live show that was scheduled for Vegas last night that we had to cancel because there was a shoot at UNLV. Three people died, a fourth was injured, and the shooter was then killed by police. It was really scary. And this is a city that had a truly awful shooting at Mandalay Bay seven years ago, a mass murder in 2017. So obviously it's always the biggest fair when you're in Vegas because there's just a lot of people and a lot of people coming in and out. But we end up canceling the show, obviously. And our condolences are with the families and everybody on campus. I have a daughter in college. There's no scarier thought than sending your kid away to college and then having something like that happen. So really sorry that we couldn't do the live show, but obviously we couldn't.

And sorry for all the people that might have come here to go to it. We're going to try to make it up at some point over the next couple of months, so stay tuned for that. And Unov, everybody there, you're in our prayers. We're going to talk in a second about the in season tournament at Las Vegas with big Wads and Rob Mahoney. And then Peter Schrager is going to come on and we're going to talk football with him first. Our friends from Pearl Jam. We're taping this. It is 845 Pacific time. I am in Las Vegas, just went to both of the NC tournament games. I sat with big wise. Rob Mahoney was too cool for school. He just stayed in the Bay. But we wanted to have him on as well to get the TV takes of what he saw from our television. We watched the Lakers absolutely murder the Pelicans and we saw an awesome Pacers bucks game. Rob, we weren't with you, so what do you want to start with? You want to start with Lakers Pelicans? You want to start with our thoughts on Zion in person? Or do you want to start with Tyrese Halliburton being the best guard of all time?

I kind of want to hear about the building in person. Like how was it being in the room for the first true NBA doubleheader?

Well, I mean wise, don't you agree? The first game and the second game felt like completely different sporting events. The first game, yeah, it was quiet in like, a good way.

They weren't JV basketball ish.

Yeah, but in a good way for varsity.

Yeah.

They weren't playing music during the game. I'm used to going to these Clipper games where they're just playing 70s disco and Shakira, and it's just blasting during key possessions. And in this, it was so quiet. We were staying close. We could hear everything. We could hear them talking to the refs. We could hear Carlisle yelling at Ben Matheran. We could hear Halbert and talking shit to Portis. And it was like, I hadn't had an experience like that at a basketball game in 15 years. I was like, this is going to be amazing for LeBron. We'll get to hear everything LeBron says. Second game wise, what happens?

It was a Broadway production. It was even more than that. Like, all the pyrotechnics, the craziness, the Laker girls had to come out before the introduction. If you go to a Laker in a Clipper game, it's like completely opposite.

Right?

Like the Lakers do, the curtains come down. They're like, we're giving you a show. And they brought the show on the road to Vegas. And the second game definitely had that more Laker atmosphere to it, for sure.

Yeah, there's music during the play. There were a ton of Laker fans. And LeBron always in Vegas. Yeah, LeBron was awesome. That was the best I've seen him every year that he's been on the Lakers. I actually thought that was the most explosive and best that he's looked in any game I've been to with LeBron.

What did it look like on TV? Very much that and just him being.

In complete control of this game, which in and itself is not surprising. Of all the things to worry about on a basketball court, I have not once worried that LeBron will show up for a game that matters. But the way he got anything he wanted against the know, they tried packing the paint, they tried zoning it up a little bit. They tried throwing a bunch of different looks at him.

Seemed like he got pretty much any.

Kind of look he wanted, whether it was one for him or somebody else. And the fact that he treated, really, this entire tournament like something worth winning has what made it something worth winning. And so that's why I can't wait to see him and this Lakers team against the Pacers, who have taken a similar approach we get a true battle of the undefeateds in the NBA Tournament championship. This is a league where the unbeaten teams actually get to compete for the championship here in the NBA.

Right. Well, Waza's telling me that LeBron's wanted to win this in season tournament since he was a kid. He had an interview last week.

He heard about it a long time ago.

Yeah, he's dreamed of being the NBA Cup MVP. Waz, you were equally in awe. Like LeBron, it was like a borderline. I'm kind of in awe of what's happening. You're the 21st year. I know everybody's Year 21. He's so old, but this is fucking crazy. Holy shit. It is.

It is crazy. And the part that I love the most is the hamming it up. It's like he really relishes the moment when he took that final third three in the first half where he literally pulled from almost half court damn near. And he did that to juice the crowd, to juice the energy. And then my favorite part, honestly, was the Pelicans started having some success with his own defense, and LeBron wasn't on the court. And then LeBron comes on the court and he's just like, guys, you can't zone me up. Greatest passers that's ever lived. Two straight dimes for threes. And I was just like, man, this guy, like you said, Rob, is just in complete control and he's loving every single know. He does the custom handshakes with all his teammates, getting them hyped up and involved. It's just really incredible to watch, honestly.

Yeah.

The only person who enjoyed that long three more than you did wise was Christian Wood. I don't know if you guys saw it in the arena, but we got cutaway after cutaway after cutaway to Christian Wood going full home alone hysteria after that. LeBron logo three.

Yeah, I don't fully understand it because it should be getting worse, not better, but he had real disdain for the Pelicans, which I thought was interesting, and I don't know what the genesis of that is, or maybe they were just in his way, but the entire game he was just like, I'm going to demolish you guys. Every time he's going to the rim. He's like, not one of you guys are going to be my guardian.

Yanis, from the tip.

Zion. Well, Zion.

Excuse me, sorry.

Just completely neutralized him.

Not only guarding Zion, but playing 7ft off him just to fuck with him.

Where he was mean.

Zion had the ball 22ft from the basket and LeBron was like in the paint, just like, go ahead, dude, knock yourself out. And you're not going to be able to go by me either because I'm as strong as you and it's not happening. But yeah, there was mind game shit happening and there was a performance element which actually reminded me of the first part of his career in Cleveland, in the first two MVP seasons, in nine and ten, when he really figured out the performance, these people are here to see me, and really fed off it. And then he went to Miami and became the villain. Then it became this. He was the best player in the league and there was like, know he had to act certain ways. Now he's like hamming it up again. It's like watching Pacino and see a love, but he's like, there's a performance aspect to some of this stuff that, I don't know, it just seems like he's enjoying the ride. Was my take, you agree wise?

After every single timeout or TV timeout, he goes to the Little Lakers section and he starts whooping it up with them, encouraging them to go nuts. It's just again, from the opening tip, the way that he's running the break and filling lanes and again, taking a serious defensive, like this is stuff he does in the playoffs. And by the way, doesn't the playoffs like game three and four, right? Not game one, even in the playoffs. A lot of times in the playoffs, LeBron treats those first two games as feeling out processes. He came out today, he's like, no, I'm going to guard the other team, who is allegedly the other team's best player, and I'm going to take the assignment. Yeah, he just. They came out to play and I don't know what. We talk about it on group chat all the time. Every time we want to bury the Pelicans, they rip off seven straight wins. And then we're like, oh, maybe this is a serious team, and then they get smoked by 40 in one of their biggest games of the season.

Yeah, I think the rule we've settled on, on group chat is simply never trust the Pelicans. Under whatever you think of them, don't trust it. You can't stake your claim too hard on either side of the aisle. But I think where New Orleans finds itself is like everything they do is hard. And when they're winning, it's because they're defending hard and they're flying around and they're getting second chances from offensive rebounds. Ingram is hitting tough, contested shots, but if any of those things gets off.

Its axis a little bit.

Who is the guy on the Pelicans who makes things easy? Because LeBron makes things easy. He's going to get you wide open shots. He's going to get himself layups, he's going to get ad dunks. Who is the guy on the Pelicans who makes things easy?

Well, I'll tell you one thing that was apparent with the Lakers tonight because know they've been working him back. He had like a facial fracture. But I never ever for a second gave up on the Lakers this season as like in my inner circle of teams that could win the title. The size is just really hard. Like the size and the agility. Know Valam Shun has I think has been really good for the Pelicans this year. But Davis is just a bad matchup for just he's long and he's fast and it's just not great. But when they just always have two guys with Size and sometimes three on top of LeBron, just like a battering ram, just pushing, pushing, pushing. I thought it was really interesting how hard he was pushing the pace. I don't know if a piece of it was we got to play the Pacers in two days. I got to get the wind up the Lakers. The Russell thing is still a little weird. It doesn't feel like a great fit. We haven't seen Gabe vitson. Vanderbilt's not playing the same kind of minutes that he played last year.

Really?

So they're still a work in progress and feel like they're a three for one. Like Jackson Hayes now gets the Christian wood minutes, but God only knows who that's going to be. But for the most part, they're still in the inner circle. For me, they're for you, too wise, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I think Denver is a nightmarish, hellish matchup for them. But outside of Denver, there's no team in the world.

Who do you have third? I'm not even saying rank them, but if I give you a top three.

Phoenix, Phoenix by default, but it's not some confident third for me. And then Golden States look the way they've looked, right.

Sacramento, Golden State's a cross off for me. I think they have to make a trade. They're too small. I don't see it with them.

Sacramento again, I love the team, but their center is their center and I don't think that's going to work in legitimate playoffs.

So no Minnesota because I'd have Minnesota.

Oh, no, Minnesota is in there. I got to stop overlooking the number one seed in the West. I got to stop doing this already.

I think it's Denver, Minnesota and the Lakers and then I think it drops off. What do you think, Rob?

I think the Thunder in that group, too. To be honest, I think I have trust in their young guys to deliver much in the way Indiana's young guys are delivering that they can step up in this kind of competitive moment. But I think once you get past Denver, all those teams have big questions. The Lakers in some matchups are going to have huge offensive questions. I would say Minnesota and OKC are right there with them and that's kind of my next layer of the inner circle. But all those are pretty flawed contenders and they're going to have to prove it over the back half of the season. Definitely.

Well, OKC has the easiest path to get better because they have a million picks and contracts and different things. They just did that sneaky Bertons thing to make him a little more tradable and I'm not ready to put them in the top three until they get one more big guy because they just feel, especially the game we watched tonight, they're just going to feel small in a game. Like, know when you watch LeBron and he's got the crowd like he does and he's going to the rim hard, he's getting calls. He is. He's one of the greatest players we've ever. If you're, if you're going to foul him, this is going to the rim. They're going to call it and it's probably going to be the right call most of the time, but I'd see him like attacking.

Okay, one last Laker thing I think Bear is mentioning because we're going to talk about the Bucks. The fact that they've gotten something, anything out of Cam Reddish is kind of crazy.

He's like the head of the snake.

He's the point of attack Defender. It's kind of crazy that he's thriving in that role. Again, the shot is still a little funky. I remember when he was supposed to be some three and D person, one of those three and DS without the three. But the way that he's defending somebody has gotten in his ear that he's going to get paid if he defends people. And it's pretty heartening to see.

We sat next to Polenka and.

He.

Was like 5ft away from us and he was really into the game. And every time Zion got the ball, he was just like, he's going left, he's going left. But by the second quarter he moved into. I got this mode. He's like, I'm going to relax. I'm going to have a really good night in Vegas tonight. Maybe I'll go get some sushi after this 30 point win. We got to talk about the elephant in the room wise.

It's funny you would use that euphemism.

Yeah. I was even very rude.

Very rude.

Listen, this is not a fat shaming situation. I don't like talking about other people's weight, but when you're a professional athlete and you're a max player, and you're the most important pick in the history of the franchise, the Zion in person was stunning. And I saw it on TV, and in TV, you're like, you never know. TV adds ten pounds. He's just gigantic. He's way out of shape, and it doesn't totally affect him in the games because he still, weirdly, has this first step explosiveness. He doesn't have the second jump anymore. Second jump's gone, but he's carrying too much weight. And I thought there was a real disrespect with the way the Lakers even defended him because they were like, we're just playing 7ft off you. You can't shoot threes. He missed, I think, five of his first six free throws. They attacked him on defense. He had a bunch of defensive lapses. And I look at, I like this Pelicans team. It's two different teams. There's the Zion team, and then there's this other team I really want to see with Daniels and Brandon Ingram and. And Alvarado and McCollum and just like flying around kind of like Indiana, and they can't fly around with Zion in this condition.

But Rob, Waz and I were just, well, Waz, I'll start with just. Neither of us could believe it.

It was tough. It was tough first. So they're doing the little handshake, hand clap after the anthem thing, and Zion kind of walks by us, and I don't want to step on know, body language corner, but the guy looked like he just woke up from a nap. This is a big game, prime time.

Yeah, he looked out of it.

The crowd is juice. There was legitimate juice and energy in the building. By the time that game had started, it was already there. It wasn't like the first game where folks were still trickling in. Six minutes into the first quarter, the game was ready to go, and Zion looked like he was still wiping the eye crushed out of his eye, and I was, hmm, that's curious. Then Bill pointed out to me, what happened to best shape of his career? First serious offseason, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, that'S long gone.

It's not there.

Guys, I thought we had an understanding as a nation that between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we're not going to do this to each other.

Give the guy A.

Is. It's. It's kind of sad. I think it's a sad NBA story because at some point this isn't coming back. This is kind of what your body becomes. Barkley's talked about this. Barkley came into the league, he was 300 pounds his first season on the Sixers. He was able to move around. He carried a lot of weight. But I think Barkley even said on my podcast last year, it's like, the problem with carrying this weight, you can do it. You can know. You can look like a version of yourself, but you're going to get hurt because he looks like Jalen Carter. He looks like he should be playing nose know for the. And it's just. It's irresponsible. He's the franchise guy that made this huge commitment to him, and it's like, get in shape. Look around the league. Look at all these dudes. We just watched Halburn. That guy is the most locked in possible, and it's another young star who takes his shit seriously. And it doesn't seem like they missed. I think they had a chance to trade him last summer. Now, I've also heard that there weren't a lot of people knocking on the.

Yeah, yeah. It's like, did they try? Did they? It's. I remember I said something and it got aggregated. It's like Simmons says they're going to trade him by the end of the week. It wasn't what I said. It was one person who told me, hey, don't be surprised if they trade Zion this week. That was it. But I think they might have missed their window. Now, I don't know what you would get for them because it's a super expensive guy. Waz, we're going to do the worst contract strap at some point. Super expensive guy is not in shape. I've seen this play. I'm old. I've seen a lot of NBA seasons. This never ends well. So, Rob, am I panicking or is this fair?

You're not panicking because once you make the decision to not trade him, and I'm sympathetic to that decision, for the record, he's an impossible player to think about trading because he could burn you so, so badly. If he gets his career on track, but this is what the darker timeline looks like. And, Bill, you know, it's not affecting him yet on the court, but it is affecting him. Well, it's affecting his role. For one, the Pelicans do not prioritize him in their offense because they can't trust him to, one, be healthy, and two, to have his win at the end of games if you're going to him over and over and over.

Oh, my God, he was sucking it up. That was something we noticed.

Possessions later, he's sucking win, and they're taking him back out.

Yeah, they. Four or five minutes birds. It's fucking December.

It's just so strange to see him, too catch the ball on the move.

Going toward the basket, not even look at the rim.

Just, I'm going to dish off to the corner. I'm going to dish off to another guy. He clearly has it in his head that he is playing a more facilitator role for this team, and I can understand how they got to that point and why that would be a healthy thing for their offense. But just seeing a player who's as explosive as him be so locked into what he thinks he can't or shouldn't be doing, it's a failure on a lot of different fronts. It's a failure of the management of his career to this point, in the holistic sense.

And then he'll have this stretch like, what was that play? Watts, when he all of a sudden exploded right to left across the lane at warp speed and laid in traffic, did a layup, and we were all like, holy shit, how did that happen?

He has those bursts. He definitely does. And even there was a play where he got fouled, where that was like a quick twitch play where it's like, oh, look at Zion being explosive. And I'm about to do the thing that I used to hate when my mom did it to me. She'd be like, look at such and such and son. He's an engineer. Look at such and such and son. I heard he's in med school. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And again, look at Halliburton. Like that guy. He is lighting a fire under his guys asses. He gets those guys excited to play. He's a leader. To me, that's the biggest disappointment about Zion, is that he doesn't carry himself like the franchise guy. He doesn't carry himself like he did carry himself.

He has it in him. He did it at Duke for a couple of weeks, but he really gave a shit when he was at Duke. And I thought we were saying. Rosilla was sitting with us and was saying when. When Zion had that stretch, what, two years ago, when it was point forward Zion, and he ripped off that two and a half, three month run, and it was like. Like, favorite random league pass event, he just lost his mind. And I was saying we could almost do a narrative podcast about the one year Zion was in shape because it was fucking magical. He was one of the best four offensive players in the league for three months of the season, and I don't know, to watch it like this, I was really surprised, and I don't know what they do because we got the trade deadline in two months, but they have a good team, they have good young players, and it feels like there's an identity in there, but then there's also this Zion piece, and I don't know how they reconcile. It was. That was, I think, a big surprise to all of us.

That's kind of the damning thing about this game, though, is the Pelicans do have a good team. They have a good supporting cast. They have seemingly a lot of the things you should have to at least compete in a game like this. And they couldn't even hang on the same floor with LeBron and these guys.

We were saying they might be better off telling Zion to go away for a couple of weeks and lose weight and get in shape and then try to find an know, because they could be a really good defensive team if they wanted to be, especially when Nance comes back. It's not going to happen with Zion. I hope he figures it out, man, because we've seen with him and with Ja so young, these are two of the most talented dudes we've had in the last 15 years, and both of them are just getting in their own way, and it's like, just look around, get competitive with the other people that you're competing against in your age range. You should watch that Tyrese Halliburton game and be like, fuck, that should be me. So it was a little somber, but at the same time, watching, I guess, to put a bow on it. Then there's LeBron, who's maximized every drop from this already unbelievable body he had, right? He's had the same blessings that Zion had in a lot of ways, physically, and maximized. All he does is put money and time and energy into his body so he can do what he did tonight.

And I don't know how Zion walks away from that and goes, am I doing something wrong? Because when you pay somebody 50 million a year, 40 million a year. Whatever it is, you reward him with the extension. He thinks he's okay. He's fine. He got paid. He got the contract. All right, we're going to take a break and I can't wait to talk about Halliburton score early this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now. New customers get $150 bonus bets. When your 1st $5 moneyline bet wins. We'll be doing million dollar picks for Week 14. A little bit later in this podcast. We've been red hot, so you better listen to that one. You've been thinking about joining FanDuel. No better time to get in the action right now. Easy to use app. So many different ways to bet. You got same game parlays, you got bets. In the new Explorer tab, you got the parlay hub. Visit FanDuel.com BS kick off the NFL season. FanDuel official partner of the NFL. You must be 21 plus in President select states. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only $10 1st deposit required.

Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after a seat. Seat terms at sportsbook Fanduel.com. All right, the first game of the day was Indiana versus Milwaukee. And holy shit. Do we have some in person thoughts on this one, the things we saw and heard? Yeah, my big takeaway though was because we talked about it all between the games, but just where is Halliburton now? We did the ringer NBA list. I think I picked him 11th. It's really hard for me to put him behind Devin Booker at this point. I know Devin Booker has been to a Finals. I know Devin Booker is awesome. What I watched from Halliburton today against a team that has Giannis and Lopez that threw different defensive looks at him, that put him in zones. The way he's able to keep the pace, the way he's able to close these games he did against Boston, did against Milwaukee. I don't even know what guard historically to compare him to wads watching in person. I think what was the most shocking to me was just how fucking fast he is. It's not just like pushing the pace, but like, man, he can go zero to 60 in the half court and over and over again.

We were joking about it with Malik Beasley in the first quarter. He just, eight times in a row just went by him. But then he had another gear for the fourth quarter. I know, I know. Rob, this is your guy Malik Beasley.

Do you guys think Tyrese even knew that Malik Beasley was in the building? Maybe he just went the whole night without seeing it.

No, it was like they picked a fan from the stands. They're like, you're going to guard Tyrese Halliburton for the first quarter wise. Did he seem faster to you in person than you thought?

It's not just obviously, there's the speed with the ball, but for me, what's fastest is his decision making, how quickly he decides to get off of it, when it's time to get off of it. The hit aheads. When he's on the pick and roll, like the fastness with which he's going to whip a pocket pass, his decision making is very quick, too. It's not just that he's on the ball, just moving at a whirlwind pace. Man, that was just really cool to see tonight. One like the fact that Beasley couldn't do anything with him and he treated Beasley as if he was a traffic cone. And then they zoned him up and he started picking apart the zone as well. There was a moment where I think the Bucks started smartly playing Halliburton to shoot because his inclination is to get his guys involved and not be ball.

Steve Nash, Jedi mind trick of yes. Hey, go ahead.

And then he said, hold on, these.

People think I can't score.

And he proceeded to just keep getting buckets. So it was just an incredible game to watch. Now, as far as the pecking order, obviously, I think he's a clearly All Star starter level.

He's first team on NBA right now, right. I don't see how the guard list starts without him first.

Well, thankfully, we don't have to do by position anymore. So it's just going to be five guys first.

I'm doing it by position. I'm not listening to their instructions. Of course they can fuck off on that. They threw away 75 years of history. They're like, oh, no, everybody gets a position now. It's like, go to hell.

If you're picking two guards right now, you've got Steph, you've got Luca, you've got Shay, you've got Tyrese Halliburton.

I forgot we have to count Luca as a guard. Even though he's six, 8270, he plays point guard. That's fine. So it's Luca and Halliburton then?

I mean, that's brutal. Shay, with the season he's having, is not first team All NBA.

Yeah, that's what it might be, but I think Halliburton's been at their level. Man, you guys.

Leadership raising, elevating the guys on your team.

No doubt.

He's been the number one guy. Rob, the thing that what was talked about, the decision making, it reminds me of what they talk about with, and you're in the base, so you appreciate this with the Brock Purdy conversation about how he processes things just fast.

Okay, you need to catch me up on the Brock Purdy conversation because I used my one. I know two things about football.

Rob. Just nod. But Brock Purdy seems like average physical skills for a quarterback, but right away, he just kind of knows where the ball should go and fast. And what was fascinating with Halliburton today is the Bucks couldn't keep up with the speed of how fast he made decisions. He's going over half court, and he's already like, I'm going to go by Beasley on the right, and then I'm going to cut across, and then I'm going to swing it in the corner. And he's already figured out before he's done it. And the Bucks were just constantly going backwards. They have their own issues anyway with, they have literally nobody on the roster who can guard somebody like that. But he eviscerated them, and he did the fucking dame time thing, which I'm sure blew up on social. Not only did he look at the watch, he milked it. He was like, it's time. Time. He's just going nuts.

He was having a great time.

Yeah, this was like some alpha shit he was doing. So anyway, how did it look on TV?

Much the same. And I think not only is it the speed of decision making that you guys are talking about, but how quickly he learns within the games. It's not just on an individual possession, but I think the biggest point of contrast on this front is in the first half when he got Lopez or Yanis switched on him. He was pulling up for, like, 30 footers, and those are shots he can hit, and some days he will hit them. They weren't quite going in this one, but when he got Lopez again down the stretch in crunch time, he sold that 30 footer and then blew by him for a layup. And that's the kind of thing you can see him doing all game long, man versus zone, different kinds of coverages. As you were saying, waz, like, no matter what you throw at him, he's going to be better at tackling it in the fourth quarter than he is in the first. And that is fucking terrifying.

Do they keep the stat of just. I just drove by the guy who's trying to guard me. That sounds like that should be a second spectrum. Call it that blow eyes.

They have that stat in soccer, like when you beat a guy off the dribble. That's a stat that they keep. The NBA probably should keep that, too. But yeah, the Beasley thing was funny, Rob, because I'm watching him in pregame warmups, and he's doing like, these crazy footfires. And in my head I'm like, I wonder if this is something he does every game. I've never watched this guy warm up or I've never paid attention to it. And then I'm just, oh, like, he's like, I'm about to guard Halliburton all day and I need to get my foot.

And he was trying to do shit starting stuff. There's a timeout, and he's got to try to block the shot if somebody's going to take the extra. None of it was working. The soccer thing is a good analogy because the way he goes by people reminds me of those guys in soccer that can just beat anybody and go by them and do scissor kicks and just shit like that. We're like, oh, that guy in open space, he's going by almost messy, like, but I can't say enough about it. That was one of the best games I've seen a guard played. No turnovers.

Yeah.

And he never turns it over in.

Either of these tournament games. Between the two games, 53 points, 28 assists, 17 rebounds, zero turnovers, I had a parlay.

I'm in Vegas. I did Indiana to win with the Pelicans. For some reason, I wrote myself in. I don't know what I was thinking that never realized. Well, and LeBron in Vegas, like, come, like, he's going to own the team here in five years. But yeah, that Indiana, the pace that they play, watching Milwaukee, a team that can't guard really any pace, they had to play the zone in the second quarter. That was like the first white flag they waived. But it's a really limited team from a resource standpoint. They just have a lot of sameness. They had to play campaign so they could go two guards to kind of match up with the Pacers. And that didn't work because he's campaign. But the fact that they don't have somebody to guard the Halliburton types, which I've been flagging since the Summer, is a problem because guess what? There's a lot of guys who play the guard position who go by people and they can't stop those guys.

Yeah, they don't have. And again, the Reason why I brought up Cam Reddish with the Lakers is because he's made himself into this. All right, I'll take the primary ball Handling player, and that'll be my defensive matchup for the Day. That's what I do. I'm long and I'm rangy and I move my feet reasonably quick enough. I got AD behind me. So that combination, it's like, no, you'rE not going to stop Halliburton, but you're going to make it a little bit difficult on him. You're going to actually make him have to think about his first and second reads at least a little bit, whereas with the just, it's just a layup line. And I would love for Bill to get up here and talk, know, body language police or body language.

Rob, did you want to hear from the body language? You want to hear from the body language doctor?

Oh, the bugs. The body language is, by the way.

Confirm because after the game, Chris Haynes wrote a piece of bleach report about how Bobby Pourtis challenged Adrian Griffin in a polite way but challenged him in the locker room because Griffin was talking about, we got to do the rebounding weather, and Portis was like, we got to execute, don't. It was enough to have a splashy bleacher report story, but the body language doctor did not like what he saw from the Bucks today. Now, maybe caught him on the wrong night. It's possible, but the Yanis thing is just weird. It's just weird. Every time there's a timeout, he sits on the scorers table for like, what, 40 seconds? Wise dude.

As the timeout started, he would stay at the scorers table and sit down.

His brother might sit with his teammates.

Doesn'T sit with the teammates. Little time out, he's still in the game. His brother Thanosis might come over and angle over and be like, yo, there's this thing and this that. And then with the, like, 5 seconds left to brick the huddle, Giannis ambles on. One. Two reasons why that's weird, Rob. One, all the reporting suggests that this Adrian Griffin thing was a Giannis pacification. That's a one. So this was your guy, and it seems like you're out on him. And two, the last time we saw a guy doing this was KD, his last year with the Golden State Warriors.

Oh, that's a great point.

Yeah.

He would come back in for, like, he'd come in for the last 20 seconds of the huddle and then walk back. But he was non connected with teammates.

By the rim, though, he would just go near the rim, sort of hang on.

ThaT's a great analogy.

But luckily for Yanis was never like this.

He never did stuff like this. He was always, like, in the middle of stuff. And there was another moment. Yanis was, they were shooting free throws, Indiana, and Yanis was at the low block, about know we're waiting for the first free throw, and Griffin took him out, and the guy comes in. I think they called him Poe because I've heard Brooke call him Yanni, but then some other teammates call him like, I personally enjoy Yanni just as a nickname. I think we should get it going. But he's like, Poe, and he's like, me, I'm coming out. And he was pissed. And he walked out, and Griffin was at half court. And every time a player walks by the coach, they do know they'll slap five or whatever it was just fucking walk by, just right by silence. And then he came back in, like, what, two minutes later? But we were like, whoa. Because we were sitting right there watching it. We were like, that's what I did.

When I didn't get the call for the sea of Love rewatchable. I just coasted right on by you.

We had that dame's not exactly Mr. Charismatic on any team. That's just, he does his own. That's, I didn't feel like he was any, but, but in fairness to Dame.

It'S tough to come in there.

All these guys have already been the same guy.

Yeah, and to be like, all right, guys, we're taking orders from Dame now. That would be, it's just kind of.

It'S a quiet team, except for Portis and Lopez to some degree. And then Middleton was the other thing that I really wanted to see in person before I made my official opinion on it, but he just looks like he's on the other side of the mountain a little bit. He's not the guy from the 2021 playoffs anymore. He's older, and I don't feel like he moves side to side the same way. I thought it was tougher for him to beat guys off the dribble. He's just a different version of Middleton.

I think offensively, he's been pretty solid. Defensively, I'm concerned, but he did pretty solid.

Wasn't going to win the 2021 Finals. That guy was huge for thEm. He's just not the same guy defensively. You're right, though.

Yeah. And that's where you hope that by playoff time, Chris is looking a little bit more spry, a little bit more agile. He has put up points, and when he's been on the floor, by and large, the Bucks have been very, very good this season. I think the concern, and if I were Yanis, if I'm putting myself in his head as assistant to the body language doctor, I'm not sure what my jurisdiction is here exactly.

You're the physician's assistant.

Yeah. Rob Mahoney is going to come in now and see you and take your blood.

We got to pay the bills somehow. If I'm putting myself in Giannis's head, I'm not worried about Chris or Dame so much or even Brooke. I'm looking at everybody else, and I'm looking at, in this game, we can look at these tournament games as a statement for someone like Tyrese Halliburton. Tyrese Halliburton has announced his presence to a wider swath of audience. Stepped up in every situation. You can step up as a star in these games, but it's also about which role players are ready to compete like this. And on Indiana's side, you've got TJ McConnell making big plays. You've got Andrew Nemhardt coming in and making big plays against.

Swinging. Yeah, swinging quarters.

Isaiah Jackson having, like, big stretches in this game. And if you're Yanis, you're looking at Marjon Bochamp and AJ Green. Andre Jackson, who can barely get in the game against a Pacers team that went ten deep and beat you. And I think that is where the win gets out of your sails a little bit.

Yeah, that's a good point. Well, that's what happens when you trade assets over and over again for supporting characters. At some point, you run out assets and you got Bo champ. And they gave Andre Jackson a look. Who is that? Our guy, AJ Green came in.

You got a couple minutes?

We were like, what's going on here? Yeah, he did some sniffing, get some more looks.

And obviously, Pat Conniton didn't play today. If you're missing Pat conniton that much, that's kind of part of the problem, but here's what I'll say. My man Eric Neem, my former colleague at the Athletic, put out a piece today, and it was talking about how come the Dame and Giannis pick and roll partnership has not come out like gangbusters yet. And essentially the piece makes the point that one Giannis isn't used to doing this yet, which I think he'll be better at and two, the spacing has been weird and somebody's supposed to be coaching that up, y'all. And somebody fired Terry Stottz, one of the most respected offensive minds in the whole league, two days before the season. And so Bobby Portis is calling you out in the locker room. Look, these contracts is guaranteed. You know, I don't want to call for people's jobs, but come on now.

The writings on the wall, folks, it's a little rocky. Well, there's that other stretch. Remember when Giannis was super mad because he didn't get the ball for like four minutes? And, I mean, every time they gave Giannis the ball, he just went to the rim, neither scored or dunked or missed a layup, but was just getting great shots over and over again. I think you're right, Rob, about the ying and yang of the Dame and Yanis and just him trying to learn to play with somebody who has a usage rate. Like, you know, in the old days, it was always like, all right, Yannis, come bail us out. Come bail us out. And now they also have to get this dame thing going. Dame had a weird game because he was really bad and then all of a sudden got super hot for seven minutes and then kind of reverted back and they're going after him on defense. But I didn't like what I saw. I'm not going to put my stamp down and say the Bucks are screwed. This is it. But 60 games, you talk about a two month checkpoint. It's not awesome.

And they're missing some dudes. And the vibe didn't seem great.

The vibe might not have seemed great.

But this was a sick game.

Giannis was unbelievable. And here's the thing. If we're going to say the Pacers played great and the Bucks were with them every step of the way, basically, right. I think the A, this was not a good Bucks game, but I thought Giannis played well. I thought Dame again, as you said, bill had a very weird night overall, outscored by Miles Turner, Damian Lillard was, which, that's not a winning recipe for the Bucks by any, but, yeah, I'm not abandoning ship on Milwaukee yet. There's way too much.

These, all of these criticisms are based on a team that we think can win the right?

Yes.

Like, they're not OKC, where if they make the second round this year, we're going to throw them a parade and pat them on the ass. The expectation is championship or bust this year. And so that's what the criticisms are based on. Obviously, it's not time to abandon ship and burn up all of your buck. We still got time here, guys. 60 games.

Listen, I don't like my team either. It's not like I'm like, watch out for my team. I think my team has major issues. That's before you get to. I have no idea how many games to get from for Zincas. I told was today, if I had to bet on a team, I'd bet on Miami. I think they're the safest bet in the conference. I really do. I think they have two of the top 20 guys in the league. They know who they are. If they played Indiana today, they're not letting that Halliburton thing happen, not in that stage. I just think that's the Alpha in the east right now. They made the finals last year. I don't think they're worse. I think they're actually more interesting than they were last year in a lot of ways with what Hawkeye has done, of course, and they have a trade to make. They're going to do. I just. That would be my pick. You think that's an overreaction, Rob?

Maybe slightly. But look, you sound like a person who's been hurt before, and I can understand coming back. The Heat are very good. I think they're going to be a handful for anybody. I don't know that I'm quite ready to elevate them to that status yet. I think they have some stuff to prove over the course of this regular season, too. But apparently the Pacers are just going to beat every good team. They're going to beat the Celtics on their way to this in season tournament championship. They're going to beat the Bucks and now they're going to get a chance.

To go Braun waiting for them.

You know what's funny?

That's quite a challenge.

I didn't think they played. I thought Halbert was awesome and Turner had a good game. Yeah, but I actually didn't think the supporting cast for thought. They're pretty up and down. Buddy wasn't good. Matheran was bad.

That awful. Ben Matheran game awful.

And by the way, that was one of the great things about not having music was we could hear the multiple times when Carlisle was yelling at Ben the same way I yell at my son where I yell at my son. I'm like, Ben, Ben, you left all the lights on in your room. Come on, dude. It was like that kind of yelling. Like, he's just kind of had it with Matheran. Listen, one of the things I think has to be talked about with the Pacers. They're fifth in the east, and we all like their team, and we think they have a top ten guy. They have shit to trade. If they wanted to get frisky, right, they got the buddy expiring the Matheran. They have their own picks. Could they get frisky? And if they got Frisky, who is.

It when they have Jarris Walker, who isn't even in the rotation right now, but a valuable young player? So they've got a lot of options. The question is kind of where you see their needs. Exactly. Obviously, size on the wings or at the four would be really nice for this team.

I think it's in the Matheran spot. Getting like a reliable, awesome wingman guard who could score next to Halliburton, I think would be my number one thing. It's healed. And Matheran, could we get somebody that just is a reliable every night guy? What do you think it is, Wes?

I'd like to see some size at three or four, because at a certain point, you're guarding Yanis onto the Kumpo with Obi Toppin and Aaron Neesmith. Now, look, I just shout out to Aaron Neesmith, though, the newest member of the Smith Hive, but that's not going to get it done.

Oh, welcome to Island. I didn't realize.

Yeah.

It was a revenge game. It was a revenge game against the Celtics the other night where I'm like, whoa, wait a second. This guy is a player now. So as much you don't like those guys, I love OB, but these are not real power forwards, guys.

The defense, I thought Pina did a really good job writing about Indiana's weird defensive strategy, and it was the way he laid it out. I was like, Michael Pina on the ringer, if you want to read the piece where he was just like. And I don't know why more teams don't do this. I always called it the Jedi mind trick, where it's like with Indiana in the Boston game, it's like, hey, Jalen Brown, look at this. You could just drive right to the basket. You should do that. We're putting a guard on you. You should just drive to the basket. Jalen Brown. And then all of a sudden, the Celtics offense is completely out of whack because Jalen Brown's like, oh, my God, I'm going to get mine. And they do this. They were doing it with Milwaukee, where they were like a so much shorter. You should try to barrel through him, but it seems kind of intentional. They use their weakness which is basically lack of rim protection and lack of size. And they're kind of like, fuck it. You can have layups. We're going to run, and we're going to run and we're going to run.

And that's what makes this Lakers, this final game so fascinating. Where, Mahoney, do you think they can play at that pace for four?

Know, the Lakers tried to play fast by Lakers standards and they've been faster this season. They've gotten out on the break more in general, but yeah, they were pushing the Pelicans pace wise. And I think it's going to require two or three years higher than that to keep up with the Pacers. Like we saw Indiana in this game off of makes. Halliburton's got the ball across half court within a second and a half. Isaiah Jackson streaking down the middle, getting a dunk. Those are the kinds of plays where half the Lakers aren't even across half court yet. So obviously, you need to scout Indiana differently than you do most teams. Be very careful about their tendencies, very careful about how quickly they want to get out because you're programmed to take in the game at a much different speed. So I think the Lakers are going to have trouble with that. But where the Lakers are so good is they're a control team in their own right and they're very good at slowing you down, they're very good at taking you out of your stuff. And if LeBron is operating at this level, just in terms of controlling the game in this kind of cerebral way, which he can against any defense, much less Indiana's, that's the kind of battle of styles and wills that would make for a fascinating final.

So I think this is, of the four teams, the best matchup we could possibly get.

Wise. Can I interest you in the following same game parlay on Fanduel?

Let's hear it.

Tyrese Halbert and 25 plus points, three made threes, 14 plus assists and six rebounds.

Wow.

And you got to hit all four of those. This is not even one of those.

You know what?

I'm also going to throw in Indiana. Plus three and a half. That is now 21 to 121 to one. The Pacers covering and Tyrese Halbert just has an awesome game. That's what they should call that on the site. Tyrese Halbert, an awesome game. 21 plus 2100. Rob, who do you think wins?

I think Indiana wins. I think LeBron is going to go hard. I think the Lakers are going to play well. I just think this Indiana team is primed for exactly this kind of competition. What better way to bring in the tournament than with a team like the Indiana Pacers?

I'm not going to disrespect LeBron James in the inaugural NBA in season tournament. This is just going to be another notch on his belt trophy for the mantle. He's going to get the MVP of the tournament. He's going to win the first NBA Cup. Let's go Lakers.

Bill, I think it's going to be mostly Laker fans, right?

Oh, I mean got to be.

But how do we feel right next.

To some Pacer fans? There were Pacer fans there.

Yeah.

How do we feel about the double header at the neutral site? I felt like this was a day where especially with the 02:00 p.m. Tip for the early game, Pacific Time probably could have benefited from being in a local arena and at a non 02:00 p.m. Time, like there's some scheduling and location based issues that maybe the league needs to work out with the tournament.

That was a big discussion between the two games. What the. Right. So one of the reasons they had so much space, they wanted two gates, but they also wanted the NBA players need time to warm up. They have. It's basically like an hour 45 minutes or an hour and a half for the game. Hour and a half I think it is. So they had to have enough time for that to happen. I think they could go daytime, nighttime and do like a 01:00 and then maybe a 07:00 and do it that way. But they wanted the primetime thing. They'll figure it out. What they should really do is it should be Friday and do it like the day night thing. But then the problem is that puts you the Sunday game is against football. They don't want to go against football.

You can see how they reverse engineered.

Their way into seven nights a week.

Is tough for this a little bit. Rob doesn't know. He doesn't watch any of it. The other way to do it is you could do the Wednesday Thursday semi final. So yeah, like Indiana would have been last night, Lakers tonight. I kind of liked having the two games back to back. It reminded me of the Olympics. I thought it was final Four.

I loved it.

I liked it back to back. I would like people to watch them. I want that Tyrese Halliburton game in front of the biggest audience possible because it popped even under those circumstances. So that's what's a little harder to figure out.

I had the parlay wrong. It's plus 836 25 plus points. Three plus made threes, 14 plus assists.

Wow.

Six plus rebounds. And Pacers. Plus three and a half. 14 assists is a lot. Is that too many?

Not for Tyrese Halliburton.

Not for Tyrese Halliburton. Plus 836.

Guys, can you take under on turnovers somewhere?

I would take that. Yeah.

Fando should have. Tyrese will have zero turnovers and the craziest fucking game you've ever seen. Plus 730. All right, so in season, we're still two giant thumbs. Three giant. Six giant thumbs up.

Yeah. Right.

Shout out to Adam Silver, a man who loves a strong US military presence. And the in season tournament. I think he brought this one home.

Rest in peace, Henry Kissinger. The King.

Oh, last thing we didn't talk about Scott Foster's black eye, bro. I didn't even realize.

Shiner.

He had a shiner.

Okay.

Scott Foster had a black eye.

We need the bottle episode. That's just Scott Foster's last 24 hours in Vegas so we can get to the bottom of what happened with that.

The good thing for Scott Foster is we didn't make jokes about it as we watched the game. Oh, no, we made a ton of jokes, actually. We were like, did he run into Chris Paul last night, Vegas? What happened? They just write themselves. Yeah, he had an actual shiner. Listen, who knows how he got it? But it led to a lot of comedy. And I went on Twitter and searched whether people were talking about it, and there weren't a lot of people talking about it. So maybe they're being careful about not showing it.

HD you can see it. Who knows?

Well, he has shiner.

We didn't get a lot of know. This is where I really missed the in person experience. But you guys missed out on Willie Green with a very hot mic next to him.

We could hear everything.

But let me tell you, instead of being very spicy, it was just like the most mundane micromanaging you can possibly imagine. Just yelling at Herb Jones to literally dribble. That was what we were getting on the know.

I always feel like they're holding back on the mics. And yet we were listening to Carlisle and he's basically just saying, box out.

Sometimes it really is that he's just.

Talking like when we're. Things was. We did hear the incredible Bobby Portis, Tyrese Halbert in exchange, though.

Yeah. Just win. We come in. Just win.

He's like, we come in. And then what did Portis say? We hooping? We come in. Halburn's like, we coming? I was like, I always thought these were going to be more exciting. They're just we coming and we hoop. Anyway, Rob, thanks for staying up with us. Waz, don't get in trouble tonight. Be careful. It's a city that never sleeps. Maybe I'll see you at the tables. Thanks for staying on, guys.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Bill.

This next segment is brought to you by Google Pixel, the only phone engineered by Google on the official fan phone of the NBA and the WNBA. With All Star features, Pixel Eight Pro has all the fun tools fans can actually rally around, like audio Magic eraser. It lets you cut out the background noise so you can capture the sound of every swish, every dish, every Yanis slam of the in season tournament. Loud and clear. Google Pixel is built, I'd say a little different. Little like Yanis. Yanis. One thing to watch him on TV when it's in person, it's unbelievable. I'm still recovering from when he almost beat the Celtics in 2022 and was just a force of nature. And you see it, could see it in Vegas this week. There's nobody like him when he's going to the basket. Nobody wants to get in his way. He seems like his arms and his legs and just everything he's doing are just longer than everyone else in the court. And then he feels like he can dunk from the foul line. It feels like he can go from two steps to the mid court. There's nobody like Yanis.

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Elements all right, taping this part of.

The podcast late Thursday morning, Pacific Time. Our guy Peter Shrager is here. Haven't seen him in a while. Happy holidays to you, Shrags. Hope everything is well.

I love coming on. Happy holidays to you. Happy Hanukkah to those of us who follow and observe.

I don't know where to start because so much is going on on the football thing, but I'll start heRe. Looking at million dollar picks, we've been doing really well, and it feels like there's a hierarchy that's developing and looking at stuff. Know Fando has these first half game bets, and you just look and you think, like San Francisco, they're going to come ahead in Seattle in the first half, and then they're going to win the game, and I just actually feel comfortable in them. Dallas's offense, I feel really comfortable with them. Could they just come out, take the lead against Philly and keep it. Miami's offense against Tennessee, I just trust them. They're healthy. They're throwing 30 points a game. Tyreek looks like he wants a record. Are we starting to feel comfortable with who has emerged here or are you not comfortable yet?

I'm not comfortable. The quarterback position is too fickle and just when you want to jump on a team's train, they lose their quarterback. And you have to readjust. It's in a crazy war of attrition and some of these backup quarterbacks, Jake Browning in a spot duty. We've seen a few of the young guys come in and get some wins, and then there's other teams that just fall apart at the seams. And to me, look at the teams that are winning right now and the teams that are at the top of the heap. It's the guys with the healthy quarterbacks, and to me, it's going to be the last team standing with those healthy quarterbacks. I mean, the ones we see in the playoffs down the stretch, well, that's Brock Purdy.

It's Prescott.

He Prescott hurts.

It's Tua who's been not only miraculously healthy, but doesn't really get hit in these games. They have figured out how to just master this formula where he just doesn't take hits at all hurts. So it's interesting you mentioned him, because to me, he doesn't look 100% healthy, and it seems like he's just been gutting through stuff. They said he got hurt in week six. They kind of dropped that in the Thanksgiving game. And in general, that team feels like it's losing steam. And they have this Dallas game know is the game of the year for Dallas. Right. This is home game. They're playing well. Dax got the MVP in his sights now, but you need a win like this to really be in the MVP conversation. You can move the ball on Philly. I don't think anybody likes their defense at this point, and this just feels set up for. There's so many advanced stats set up for like, oh, my God, they're just going to be able to move the ball a game. The counter would be, well, what if Hertz and AJ Brown and Smith, and they just have one of those old school, awesome Eagles games?

I guess my question is, I just don't know if it's in them anymore. Because of the health of Hertz. It seems like it just takes them an hour, an hour and a half to get going. Even in games they're winning and they're playing well, and I don't understand how that's going to get better. From what we've seen with this gauntlet. They just went through these three games in a row. They had where those games counted as like five games almost.

Now they got another one. That defense played 92 plays against the Buffalo Bills and then had to play the 49 ers the following week. And the Niners had ten days rest. And the Niners come in and just absolutely wallop them. Look, the Philly thing is, that's how they're going to win games. They're going to be in these tight games and their resiliency and their toughness and all the intangibles that people can't do on PFF or you can't do with analytics is what's going to win at the end. And Hertz has been able to find a way and get to the end zone, and once they get the ball in his hands with two minutes left, he somehow makes it happen. And you say, well, he looks hurt and he looks like in the first half he stunk and his quarterback rating was a seven to start the game and how does he end it like this? That's the stuff that champions are built out of and that's the grit that they have. You go to Dallas. Yeah, Dallas has better numbers and yeah, Dallas is probably the likely favorite in this game, and Dallas is going to have it rolling.

And the whole thing in the moments that matter, until Dak and McCarthy can get that win, until they can put it together and figure it out. It's hard for me to just say, yeah, because Hertz looks like he's limping and because Lane Johnson doesn't look 100%. I'm taking Dallas now and DAC's the MVP. It's unfair to them. And I said the same thing about the Miami Dolphins. Dolphins have the Titans on Monday night and they play the jets next week. There is nothing the Dolphins can do over the next two weeks, nothing that's going to convince us that they're legit. Like, there's nothing that's inferior competition. They could put up 55 points. They could put up 100 points. People are going to say, yeah, but you lose to the good teams. Final three weeks of the season, the Dolphins face a gauntlet. We'll know in the case of Philly. They faced that gauntlet. They went toe to toe with the Chiefs and Arrowhead and won. They went toe to toe with the Bills and won. They lost this one to the Niners. Go into this one, I think you'd sign up for two and two or three and one and then still win the NFC East.

You're home in the playoffs and it's like, why do we freak out? What do we do? I think they're going to be okay. And I saw my colleague at NFL Network, David Carr, said, maybe you put Mariota in. I think these are the thoughts. When you see Hertz limping off and you see that Hertz has been hurt.

It was nuts.

It was nuts.

It was an insane comment.

It was, and David is a big boy. He can stand on it. To me, it's like what he probably, and I'm not trying to put words in, but it's like Hertz doesn't look 100%, but that's the season. It's 18 weeks. It is a marathon. And as long as that quarterback is under center come January, 100% or not, I'm not running away from Philly just yet.

So my counter, because last week I love the Niners and part of it was the defensive stats on Philly were awful. Plus the gauntlet they were playing, the fact that big overtime game the week before, they get their asses kicked. And then you go into this week and it's like, well, the Niners are just that. Good, healthy Niners are the best team in the league. I certainly believe that, and I think you probably do, too, right? Healthy Niners. Of course, at least they're the favorite. I think we can all agree they.

Haven'T lost with Debo and Trent on the field. So there you so.

And I think that gave the Eagles a cushion for how bad their defense was in that game. But I guess the counter would be what if their defense just isn't good? Like you look at some of these stats, 29th in defense, red zone efficiency, they're 32nd in the other team, converting third downs, they're 20 eigth and first downs. Allowed their 30th in passing yards, allowed their 20th and forced turnovers, they're 23rd in yards per play. And then you go the other side, Dallas is second and third down. They're first and third downs. They're third in passing. They're first in protecting the ball. I just look at, just looking at the numbers and what we've seen the last four weeks, this just seems like a game where Dallas is going to have the ball for like 40 minutes. The Eagles aren't even going to be in the field and I don't see another scenario.

Jonathan Gannon was the defensive coordinator last year, and he did a couple of funny press conference like lines that went viral. When he got the Cardinals job, he was the pew, pew. Like that whole thing with Kyler. Everyone thought, oh, he's a goof, whatever, get him out. And he was always the guy that the Philly fans were like, get rid of Gannon and we'll be okay. He leaves, he goes to Arizona and incomes. Sean, decide who very well pedigreed. Great resume. The whole thing. It's tough to change coordinators on one side of the ball. It's nearly impossible to change coordinators on both sides of the ball. So this is a very different Eagles team. And the defense last year, they had like 70 something sacks last year, and Hassan Reddick was flying off it. They're not going to get those numbers this year. So you had the pressure up front, which took a lot of the pressure off the back end this year. Those guys are sitting ducks and they can't cover.

They can't cover wheel routes, they can't cover stuff over the middle. They can't cover tight ends.

That's why Howie goes and gets a Kevin Byard. He knows. They know. And Debo calls James Bradbury trash. And he's not trash. But when a player comes out there and says that and then scores three touchdowns on you, like, that's demoralizing. That's not what you want. Do I see it going differently?

Yes.

I could see the Eagles going down there and beating Dallas. And if Dallas wins, that's fine. Guess what? If Dallas wins, Eagles are still in first place in the division because of the conference records. We still have four more weeks to play. So I always say I'm in the business of hyping every game up. We're on the NFL Network. Watch this game.

It's huge.

This is going to be a marathon the next few weeks, and a lot of the narratives that we're doing right now, it's going to change significantly based on health and also based on the way these teams are playing come into the playoffs.

We agree. I don't think it's a death notice for the Eagles that they lose this game. I think they are going to lose this game. But we see this sometimes teams hit that, the Peaks and Valleys of the season. I think they're in a valley right now. I think this is going to be the bottom of the valley. And then I'm still not betting against them when we get to the playoffs because I think Hertz will be healthier they're probably a better cold weather protect the ball team than some of these dome teams that we're going to have to be worrying about, but I'm not writing them off.

Did you have no knowledge of Big Dom before Sunday? I know you and Sal were having fun with it. I feel like he's in every shot you see. You had no knowledge of the big Dom, the legend?

It was one of those things where I was definitely aware of him but never thought about it. And then when he was, that was like, oh, that guy. I always thought he was like a defensive coordinator or something. I didn't realize he was such a legend. How many minutes did you get out of it on the show?

Yeah, we've been eating it up. And then there's like, at first, I think Florio and a couple of others were like, he should lose his credential. I'm like, wait. I don't want Big Dom to get in trouble here. Back off.

Like, no Big Dom.

Let's maybe not talk about it. Truth of the matter is, I've known that guy since 2008, and a lot of times it's when you're a sideline reporter, you're trying to get the coach. He's the guy who will take the coach to you, and he kind of clears the path and super nice dude, but I remember he started getting a bigger, bigger role on the team, and it was, yes, security, but also part of the inner circle, the owner and the GM and the whole thing. But an NFL coaching candidate was interviewing with the Eagles. And I remember this is a few years ago when Sirianni ultimately got hired and someone else who was in that cycle, and I remember this clear as day, I texted, said, how did it go? Five hour interview. You met with Jeffrey Laurie. You met with Howie Rosen. How did it go? He goes, you know who's cool as shit? Big Dom is cool as shit.

I'm like, I love it that he's meeting the coaching candidate.

So, like, Dom is in the inner circle, and he's as part of that Philly. So, like, to see everyone be like.

Wait, who the heck is that?

I loved it because I'm like, oh, that is great. It's like the lesser known pieces, and he would hate that we're even talking about him. He's one of those guys as big as he is, the Italian flag, the whole thing. Like, do not talk about me. Do not take a picture of me. Keep me out of the story.

Are there only three states where you can have a Big Dom? It's only Tri state area, right? Can you have it in Massachusetts? I don't even know. I don't know if we're allowed.

Okay. Tommy DeVito in Jersey now. Big Dom in Pennsylvania. So we'll figure it out.

Yeah, I'm not crossing out Philly yet. I just think it's a bigger game for Dallas. They really need this game. Philly would be like, oh, all right, they reclaimed their throNe, but they made the Super bowl last year and they're ten and two. Dallas is like, if they lose this with the gauntlet that Philly just played, with, all the weaknesses they have on defense, with hurts, not healthy, and they're home and they can't win this game. We can't take them seriously after that. Like, they have to come through and Dak has to come through.

The parallels with the Dolphins and the Cowboys are very real. These are teams with great bloated records that have amazing performances and MVP candidates. But the second the rubber hits the road for these teams, they haven't beaten the good teams in the playoffs. You don't play the Washington Commanders in the playoffs. You don't play the Carolina Panthers. You end up playing the Giants twice. Exactly. So I think it's fair to question Dallas until they get one of these wins. This is on a silver platter for them. Sunday Night Football, everyone watching, they're rolling. It's going great. Go out there and win this game. You're supposed to win at home, which, by the way, it's 15 straight, like Dallas dominates at home. And if they can get home field advantage throughout the playoffs, or they can get a couple of home games, or at least one that goes a long way too.

Well. I don't know if you saw what happened with the line, but when Sal and I had to guess the lines on Sunday, we both guessed three and it was three. And I would have guessed two and a half before that Niners game. I think it got bumped to that point. Now it's at three and a half. Now they're dangling the hook at people if they like, hey, I know you weren't. It's like when you get an email with a sale, it's like Nike one day sale promo code, 25% off. You're like, oh, I guess I could use some new running sneakers. And it's the same thing right now with the Eagles where it's like, we know you didn't like the Eagles at three. What about three and a half? Does that do anything for you? I could see it going to four.

I also go back to Siriani. Like, this is such a Siriani game. And they were underdogs last week at home.

You would have said that last week.

I'm like, and it didn't work. And back in 2021, week three, Nick's third game as an NFL head coach, he passed out T shirts and they were actually, like, athletic fit, like Under Armor type, whatever that quality is. Like the workout shirts. And it was beat Dallas and everyone in Philly was like, who is this guy? And it was just like kind of a foreshadowing of deal. Like, he is in his, like, that stuff works and the players love it. It's competitive, it's fun. Lean into it. And I can assure you they are listening to everyone talking about Dak Prescott as the MVP. And here comes Dallas. Meanwhile, Dallas gave up 35 points to a hobbling Seahawks team last week at home, too. So this is like a Siriani game on a platter. But last week was, too.

Yeah, Thursday nights, those are asterisk to me every week.

Does Mike, that's such a weird game, having an appendicitis issue do anything think for you?

Yeah, that worried me a little bit.

The line doesn't move at all because of that. I don't know. To me, the head coach not being around and being in surgery, I don't know.

Maybe the line should have gone up. Maybe it should have been Dallas by four and a half. Watching this clock management in the last game. The other team that we have to kind of side eye here is the Chiefs, a team that we're all notoriously scared of, side eyeing. Like, you can look at the Eagles and you can say, all right, if Valdez Gantley doesn't catch that pass, and if Elliot doesn't make the 59 yarder, they're eight and four right now with a chance to go eight and five. And that kind of feels like the right record for them if you watch them every week. The Chiefs, I don't know what their record should be. They hang around in all these games. I think that thing that shocked me about this year is when they really need to move the ball 70 yards and they can't. When it's like, oh, shit, it's time. 70 yard drive time. And it's the first year in the entire Mahomes era where it doesn't seem like he knows he can do it.

Last year, when they won the Super bowl, there's the same exact storyline. At this point, they can't move the ball. Mahomes isn't Mahomes, and Tyreek's gone and they silenced us by having this amazing emergence of juju in big games. And Valdez Scantling was awesome in the AFC Championship game against the Bengals and then in the Super Bowl. Tony and Sky Moore are making these plays. I don't think it's happening this year. For whatever reason, it's not the same as last year, but because they got that ring, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Now. To me, the big mistake was not getting a veteran wide receiver in the offseason, not entertaining the thought of another pass catcher. I reported it on the Fox NFL Kickoff show last week. Zach Ertz still hasn't signed with a team. Everyone thinks Baltimore. Everyone thinks Philly. I know there has been some talks with Kansas City, or at least, at the very least, Kansas City is in that conversation. To me, that makes a lot of sense because tight end or not, they just need reliable pass catchers at this point. Tony is one of these lightning rods and it's great, but when he had that in motion, he's all off the line and it's a crucial penalty.

Against the packers last week didn't make any of the highlight reels. Everyone's going to focus on the drop passes, that's fine, but when you get five and ten yard penalties because you're lined up wrong, that's the stuff that crushes you. They thought Hardman when they traded for him, maybe he would be a familiar thing. The quote that was interesting was from Andy Reed after they beat the Raiders and Rashid Rice had that breakout game. Andy said, I like what Rashee Rice is doing. He's becoming more and he's and like that to me is like, all right, someone, someone be the guy that Mahomes can lean on in this moment, in this season. Whereas last year they all stepped up when they needed and the AFC championship game will go forgotten. But every receiver was injured and there was Valdez scaling like, give it to me, I'll make it. Like it was awesome. This year. It hasn't happened in any of these games. And I thought it would be rice, but then against the packers, he wasn't the dude. Kelsey is not the same Kelsey that he was last year. In the previous years.

I want to talk about this. I mean, obviously Taylor Swift's fault. I didn't read that in the Time magazine piece. No, he's just older. This happens to tight end 34 years old. It's subtle.

Triple coverage.

Yeah, he's getting double covered. It's subtle, but we always talk about.

The players and that they even say the word retirement is probably done. It was a very, like, J. R. Morringer who wrote the open book with Agassi and did the Meghan Markle and Harry book, and he did a Wall Street Journal piece with Kelsey a couple of weeks ago that got very little media coverage. Like, it didn't even get a bump. And it was a good article on Kelsey, and Kelsey's talking about retirement, and.

It'S like, you hear that?

And it's like, all right, he might not be the guy that he was, and this might be the last. So let's get the most that we can out of it. But you can't expect Kelsey to go. Eleven catches, 189 yards, three touchdowns every game. You have to have someone else step up.

Well, I don't know if he can do that anymore. It's subtle. It's not like a dramatic drop off. But the first downs are down, and yet the touchdowns are down. The yards per catch is down. The eye test, he just looks a hair slower, like even you saw in those last drives. It just seems like, I remember this happened to Gronk, and they're different tight ends, and Gronk was an unbelievable blocker and whatever, but Gronk hit that stage where it was like, oh, his burst off the line isn't totally the same, but he's still Gronk, and he can still do all. He can still get to all the spots. It just takes a little longer, and that's how I feel when I watch Kelsey. It takes, like a whiff longer for him to get to his spots. You could even see it in that Hail Mary pass he's chugging down there. He looked like he was, like, 45 years old. This is what happens to old tight ends, though. They're like point guards.

Of course.

You lose that quick thing, and it just changes.

Gronk's been out of football for three years. He's retired once. He's did a season with Fox, then he went back to the Buccaneers, won a Super bowl, then he's retired two more years. Gronk and Kelsey are the same age, so don't take for granted that the 34 is real, and he's already had a Hall of Fame career, and I hope he can turn it up. But if he doesn't, he's still very functional. He just can't be your one and only.

Well, I think they protect him a little bit, too, and they should, but it's not a lot of just him catching an eight yard pass and getting blasted by a safety. It's all like, safe. Let's get this guy to January kind of stuff, which is what the Pats started doing with Gronk near the end. But I think it hurts them in games when they need 70 yards, sometimes they'll throw that other. They have two other tight ends, Noah Gray. Those are the guys that will get blasted over the middle on those eight nine yarders because they won't use Kelsey for that anymore.

Yeah. The defense is really good, though. So it's like for years it was.

Is it? It is. I wasn't impressed last week.

I know, but the defense good. Really good.

It looks like they had some injuries.

They're going to get Nick Bolton back. That's the thing. This is crazy stat, Bill, and I'm sure you're aware of it. Mahomes has never played a road playoff game outside of the Super bowl in Tampa when he lost. So they've always had the home field advantage, and that place is a huge advantage for everyone. Now he's lost a couple of those games. Patriots beat him and then the Bengals beat him. But to me, that one seed is so important in the 18 week schedule and now the new alignment with the seven teams that you get not only the buy, but you get just two home games and you can do it and you can win. If Kansas City doesn't secure the one, it becomes a different road for them that we have.

I don't think they're getting it. I think Miami get it.

Look, I thought they were done with it after they lost money and then like the Jaguars lose to the Bengals and suddenly they go from the four seed to the three seed. The Dolphins last three weeks are nearly impossible. And the Ravens as good as they've been, and as much as we love the Ravens, they have had their issues in big games as well. So I'm not writing off the Chiefs getting that one seed. I still think it's possible.

Well, Dolphins, who I think are a different team at home. Last three weeks they have Dallas, then they go to Baltimore. Early game, too. Weird that that's not a night game. New Year's Eve, early game, 10:00 in Baltimore, and then their last game is home against the Bills.

And the Bills might be playing still for their playoff lives.

It's tough, but they've had the last month off. They've gone Raiders, jets, commanders, titans this week and whoever hell the jets are going to be playing a quarterback next week. That's like a five week vacation.

It's just how the schedule goes and they can only play who they can play, but you're not going to get the street cred from that. You have JJ in your life, obviously. Do you have a lot of other Dolphins fans? I've got a few, and they're in that amazing place. Okay, so they're in that amazing place right now that I think you can sympathize with or empathize where it's. Do I appreciate this moment and really lean in and just puff my chest, or is it the impending nerves of what's to come? I always say to these fan bases, like, whether it was the Bengals a few years ago or it was the Rams when they started finally winning, and of course, all the Browns and Lions seasons that they've had, and then the couple. Enjoy it, enjoy it. But it's not going to be as great as has been. And hard knocks is awesome. There will be a bump in the road and that's where we're going to really find out about this team.

Well, two things. One is them, and the Niners, I think, are in the same boat of, like, if you're telling me you're going to Be healthy all the way through January, I really like your chances.

Totally.

So they've checked all those boxes, but the Tyreek season they're getting is so special. I mean, we had it with the Pats fans, had it with Moss in seven, and it was so special and enjoyed. It was the most fun season and especially when I went into fuck you mode after Spygate, but it was just like, there's no way I'm missing a play of the Pats and Moss and Brady and whatever they're capable of. This is like the best thing I've ever had football wise in my life. And the Tyreek thing is like that. It seems like they want to get like 2200 yards and 20 TDs for him or whatever. They're going for records with him this.

Year and they want to do it in 16 games. They don't want any asterisks. They're going for it. Have you been watching? I know it's hard. There's a lot of content, and football is on every night. Have you watched any of the in season hard knocks with the Dolphins?

I have not. Should I be doing in season hard knocks?

I know so much football.

There's Thursday, Sunday, 13 hours, there's Monday.

Job and I live it and I don't want. I put it on. Oh, it's awesome.

It's good. All right, I'll watch.

And McDaniel is such a quirky guy and his interactions and Tua is so quiet and soft spoken and yet has this edge to him. But then Tyreek steals the is a thrill to watch on television, on the field. And then all the stuff that he's micked up on during the games, it's entertaining as hell. So they're one of those squads where I always would say like September, October, yes, the fastest team on field, but that stuff slows down. Injuries hit you and suddenly you're in a cold weather game. They might not have to go into cold weather at all. You look at that schedule that they have and then if they get a home playoff game and the home seed throughout, the number one seed, they're good at home.

They're just flat out. They're fast and comfortable.

Vegas, Super Bowls indoors in a dream scenario. And I have so many of these Dolphins fans who tweet me into, all of a sudden they're like, hey, we haven't had the number one seed this late in the season for 20 years. It's been since Reno. And even then there were so many demons and so many. You still have to beat the Bills, you still have to beat the Broncos. This AFC is wide open and this Dolphins teams, it's kind of looking good and the schedule lays out. You just won't get the credibility until you beat one of these good teams. If you can handle that, enjoy the season.

They're plus 750 for the Super Bowl. They're plus 310 for the AFC. Casey is plus 220. Baltimore is plus 270. Miami is plus 310. I think Miami should have the best ODs. I actually think those ODs are off because I think they're going to get the one seed. Let's take a break and we'll talk about Buffalo. All right, so Buffalo is in a really interesting spot against the Chiefs, their nemesis, the team that the 13 seconds game, the Bills were really never the same after that game. I think as we get some distance from it, it's starting to look like a famous football game, like a real one, like the biner game and some of the other ones we've had. I think the 13 seconds game is going to ascend up the ladder for like, oh, man, remember that game? What a fork in the, like the tuck world game. We call it the Snow game with Pats fans, but these certain games that, they were great when they happened and really memorable. But then as the years pass, you're like, whoa, there are like seven other things that came out of that. So they're playing the Chiefs this week.

They're plus one and a half. That line moved from three to one and a half. People seem to like the Bills, who have been completely untrustworthy, and yet we talked about how the Eagles could easily be eight and four, the Bills could easily be nine and three, and the type of team they have from what we watched against the Chiefs last week, where you can just kind of move the ball on them with the injuries, the Chiefs defense has this, to me, feels like I'm trying to think of narratives you would have on Monday with Kyle and the gang.

Yeah.

And what time does your show come on? It comes on at my time.

Yeah. Posted re air so, yeah, seven your time.

So you're on at 701 and it's like, all right, what's our first thing? Are the Bills back 100%? Josh Allen Back? That's the most likely narrative this week, right?

Coming off the buy, they had a chance to collect themselves. They get some guys back, and then all of a sudden it's like, wait, we know exactly what we have to do. The water has calmed a little bit. We got to go to Kansas City, where, by the way, they have won twice with Josh Allen over Patrick Mahomes. Yes, regular season games, but they have on there. Josh Allen is absolutely sensational. An arrowhead. I think it's twelve touchdowns, one interception. And then they've got the Cowboys at home in a must win. And it's one of those deals. Well, if we're the Buffalo Bills and this stadium's got such a home field advantage and it's cold, what else could we ask for? In December, the Cowboys coming to our place, and then they end the season with the Chargers, the Patriots, and a Dolphins team that potentially isn't playing for anything and has a, yeah, one seed all locked up. So you start telling yourself this, and, okay, Chiefs come in, they're limping in. They're, they just got beat up by a Packers team that we're better than. And you start forgetting the fact that you lost to the Patriots this year, you start forgetting the fact they had to fire your offensive coordinator.

And I tell you so it's romantic to think that if Josh Allen does do that, you better damn believe they're going to be the hot team going into the playoffs. And all of a sudden you start.

This happens every year. Last five weeks, the hot team comes out of nowhere. It's like, whoa, where'd these guys come from? It's like, well, this is. Put the spotlight on the Bills right now.

This was the Jaguars last year. It was the Giants when they won in seven we've seen might be the Packers. Packers could be that team this year. The Rams could be that team this year. Kyle Britt, my colleague and I would call it the come running teams. And it's forget what happened in September, October. What are they doing now? Hey, look, if the Rams beat the Ravens, their winners are five straight and they're rolling. I don't want to face them, in this case, Buffalo. They haven't even started that yet. But you could already start doing tricks in your mind saying, all right, you look at the schedule, it's doable. It's actually a path. And if they do make it, and I don't want to play a fired up Josh Allen on a tear, no way. They've been the victims of some terrible losses this year. I mean, that Patriots game is going to haunt them. Jets week one is crazy. If you look at it now, you don't get those games back.

What about the Denver game? That was the worst one of all of them. I think they can move the ball on them. And just looking at the, everything that happened last week had to give them strength, right? Burrow gets hurt, Denver loses, Houston loses. Tank, which I think I've watched a lot of Texans this year. The tank dell. That's like not going to lead Sports center, but that's fucking huge for them. That guy lost big plays week after week for that team. Cleveland. I don't know what's going on with their quarterback. And then you got Indianapolis seven and five, who could be eight and five and might actually make it. But if I'm Buffalo, I'm like, all right, we're six and six, but fuck this, we'll be ten and seven.

I don't know if you mentioned it, Jacksonville losing their quarterback.

Right?

He might play, he might not. Either way, it was a high ankle sprain. That shit hurts. You look around that AFC, it is wide open. And if Buffalo thought their season was over after that loss to Philadelphia, they come out of the bye week and suddenly like, all right, we got to pass. Let's just go do it.

And Jacksonville loses Kirk. Yes.

Which is big. Literally.

Buffalo hasn't played for a week and nine good things happen for them, just for the playoff pictures. So they win this, they'rE seven and, oh, and the Steelers, we didn't mention Pickett. He goes down. They're playing tonight against my terrible team. And I can't imagine a worse sporting event to go against the in season tournament. But yeah, it's lined up for Buffalo. They're relatively healthy on offense at.

You.

Know, the Von Miller doesn't look like he's coming. Had, they've had some major injuries on defense.

Yeah, but that's the thing.

It's a shootout team now.

Exactly. That's what they are. And for seven weeks I've been hearing from Bills fans that Matt Milano. We lost Matt Milano. Like, all right, you lost Matt Milano. He's a great player. That's fine. 98% of the league has lost someone important and 60% of the league has lost their quarterback. So you lost Matt Milano, but you do have Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, and you do have James Cook and you do have all these guys that, hey.

We lost Judon and Gonzalez. Right. And we've been lights out on defense, baby. You guys just turned the 26 points in three weeks. Plus Steelers tonight.

Did you see the joke was that they did a promotion for Amazon for the game and it was TJ Watt and it was Belichick. But they replaced Belichick.

Yeah, they replaced. They replaced them. They did.

And they went with Jawan Bentley and that led to like, all right, come on.

Not a household name, but let's go. I actually would have done Barmore because he's been like an absolute beast in there. One other thing we should mention with the Chiefs that I think ties into this Bills game and who wants it more? Who needs it more? The Chiefs are. It's like when you have that stretch from Thanksgiving to Christmas, if you've been working out, staying in shape and then the wheels kind of come off around Thanksgiving, I'm not familiar. And then there's a huge dinner the next Friday. You're like, I'm going to get back in shape.

Christmas party this night you've got.

Yeah, Monday I'm going to get back in shape. And then it's like, it's December 13, Christmas is coming. Do I really want to put my two weeks in right now, bIll?

Are you my.

And then Christmas is coming. This is exactly what I'm, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go nuts now. And then December 27, I'm back, baby. Dial it in. The Chiefs are in that kind of non workout coma zone. Nobody's chasing them in their division, right? The Chargers are three back and they suck. Nobody else is coming to get.

Broncos aren't. They're too far. Yeah.

The Chiefs could go ten and seven and win the division by two games. The Broncos took the step back last week. So I don't know, I just think to me, this is, football is a long season, you're going to have games where one game just means way more than it does to the other team. And I just don't see the urgency for the Chiefs in this other than the Bills or their little brother that they hit with the newspaper. I like the Bills comeback story this week, though.

All right, I'm in on it. Let's go.

Can we talk a couple other quick storylines for you?

Yeah.

There's a Justin Fields audition right now because the Bears are going to probably get one of the top two picks. Carolina loses to Tampa next week thanks to Mike Evans, the greatest receiver nobody's ever talked about. And they're going to be either the one or the two, which puts them in the Caleb Williams Drake may zone. And everybody is kind of settling on those two as like, okay, this isn't quite Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence, but these guys really are pretty special, or at least have the chance to be special now, if you're the Bears, if Fields really show something over the next few weeks, and I think he's looked pretty good the last couple of weeks, they got the Lions this week who have a shit defense and they already beat them or almost beat them. And the Lions came back with 17 points in the last four minutes.

I think it was twelve points in the last four.

Bears dominated the game, should have won. They know they can hang with this team, but do you think there's a scenario where field stays and they either trade out of that top two for more assets or maybe they just take Marvin Harrison into. But what are you hearing? What are you thinking?

I would say this very conversation locally in Chicago, of course, is already being had. I think it's one of the most fascinating conversations in the NFL, and it involves a team that's going nowhere. How many years do you give a quarterback who seemingly has done everything you've asked of him and seemingly, though he has so much more to go, has it in him because we've seen it, or when do you just say, you know what? We know it's not 100% your fault. We have to rip the Band aid off. We have to move on because here's the other part of it. Justin Field is going to be entering his fourth year. That's contract extension time. So it's not just, let's give them another shot, let's give another shot and then, oh, yeah, if we're passing on all these quarterbacks in multiple drafts, we also have to pay this guy $40 million. Are we even confident we want to do that?

It's a smarter money move to trade him for a second round pick and just take one of the two. Yeah, but what's the goal? And they have their own durables and.

They have the first and the fifth pick right now. If they were to have the draft tomorrow, are you going to tell me? So you could package that? You could do some things, but then you're like, Fields is our guy and gosh, okay.

You can't miss this. This is it. This is a 15 year decision. You can't fuck this up.

So they have a new team president. They have a new in Kevin Warren. They have a new stadium situation that's looming. They have a second year GM who's already know. I think that was a savvy move if you're not looking for a quarterback. They traded up. They got DJ Moore. And you have a second year coach. And this team again is not going anywhere. So do you rip it up and blow it all up? Do give it another year. The Fields guess like, you know, we could talk about which player is going to move on in free agency. It's everything in the draft. I look at these logos. You're talking about the Patriots with a top pick. You're talking about the Giants with a top pick. Talking about the jets talking about the Bears. Big markets. Washington is going to have a top pick. Big market teams, great quarterback draft. Don't let everyone pour damp water on this. There's going to be three or four quarterbacks going in the top ten. This is a really good quarterback draft. Yes. And it's like, this is what you want as an NFL draft fan. But if you're the Chicago Bears, are you going to look in the mirror and say, all right, we're moving on from this guy?

Are you saying legitimately we're going to pass on a top overall pick twice because of a guy who's never won us any games?

Yep. Well, right now, I don't know. What do you do? Well, part of it is who would trade up for it, right? So right now it's Carolina, it's the Pats, it's Arizona who's kind of stuck with Kyler. And then you got like that Washington Giants group in the four five range.

Hey, the jets are at the six range. The Jets.

The jets in the six range. But I don't know what they do with the Rogers piece.

How do you handle that? If you're the jets, you have the 6th overall pick and Rogers already, you know how he feels about the pick from Jordan Love. And we're all in on Rogers, who.

Brought all the guys, but you're saying they don't have the balls to take another.

They would keep Rogers, but Rogers took.

Shots at them this week and they were, they could, let's say Carolina gets one because I think that's going to happen because they have a game lead on the Pats that goes to Chicago, but their strength, the schedule is going to be better and that goes to Chicago. So I think Carolina is going to get one unless some miraculous panthers come back happens and you could flip one to Washington. Let's say Washington's four. You get Washington's fourth and you get a first and you get another first and you have the fourth and the 7th picks and you take the best left tackle and the second best receiver. You take Harrison, you take the second best left tackle and you keep fields. If you think Fields is good, that is the move. Sure. So this is why the next five weeks, what happens if he beats Detroit this weekend?

Sure. This is what you called it, an audition. And it's crazy that in year three, in the last month of his season, it's still an audition. This was Daniel Jones last year for the Giants. In a lot of ways he was a top ten pick, had been good enough to consider it, but wasn't good enough to give him the extension. And then Daniel Jones went on this incredible season where he wins a playoff game on the road and you're like, well, I guess we have to pay him. Justin Fields can't do that. But what he can do is he can win the final four weeks of the season. He could take care of business. He can show that he's the guy and there's enough positive momentum where it's like, how about we surround him? The alternative is if you're scouts and Ryan Poles has a good front office and let's assume everyone's back this offseason, they go and they talk to Lincoln Riley and they go and they talk to Cliff Kingsbury and they go and they do the work and they're like, no, this Caleb Williams can't miss. Then maybe you say we got to just tear it all down and we start over and Caleb Williams is our guy.

I'm getting because people know, obviously the Pats are going to have a top two pick, knock on wood, for the Steelers lost tonight. So all these different people are texting me because they know I care about the draft. And I've been talking about it and I've gotten a few, not even just from football, people from outside football, people who are just like Caleb Williams is special. That would be insane if you guys got him after you had 20 years of Brady. This guy might be like a magical quarterback and that kind of got me excited. But I know neither of us are huge college football guys, but that is floating around there like, don't sleep on the fact that this guy might be magical.

Here's where I'm at. I'm not a Saturday afternoon Ryan Roussillo travel to the Death Valley. I'm not that guy. I would never claim to be. I am a draft guy. So I will openly say I don't watch these guys necessarily. I'm not watching the North Dakota State game on a Thursday night to see their prospect. But once the season ends, I am senior bowl heavy and I talk to all the evaluators and my thoughts are usually formulated by here's what people I trust say and it's usually pretty good accuracy. Already I've had the Caleb Williams Drake May conversations. Obviously the Caleb thing is interesting because there are a lot of haters out there, but they're not the football people. The football people say this guy is unbelievable. People don't like the fact that the nil money and he's on a Wendy's commercial and he transferred from Oklahoma and his dad's very involved and he paints his nails and you say all the crap, all that this dude can ball and he makes throws with a way. And the Mahomes thing, I saw Van Lathan compared him to Mahomes and I'm sure a lot of people fell out of their chair.

He's not Mahomes yet, but the way that he can make a play and see a player and throw the ball and release it, it's a good comparison. Now the key person in the contact is going to be Kingsbury through all this because Kingsbury coached Mahomes in college and has just spent the year with Caleb Williams. He's going to be a very important person in this thing and how he sees it all. And I talked to Cliff and he hasn't given me the full breakdown here, but he's like, it's a different deal with Caleb because Caleb was being paid millions of dollars already. Caleb already was this nil, post Nil World and the spotlight's been on him in a way that it wasn't on Patrick. So how he's handled that has been even more admirable.

It's almost like your own rookie season. Yeah.

Yes. And he lives in a nice apartment where in college football that was never the deal. He's on Wendy's ads making millions of dollars and he's handled it with Grace and the players all still love him and he's like, he's one of the dudes. So it's going to be a different evaluation in a post nil world than what it's always been with just the football. And I think people are tearing Caleb down for that. And some of the stuff that he's out there with, he's his own person. He's good and he's a great teammate. So I'm really curious to see how it all goes down because, you know, there's one thing about the draft industry, it's let's tear these guys down and then build them up. And I could see the tear down coming on Caleb. And I say, be patient with that. The people that know say he's unbelievable.

I mean, one move they could make if the Pats got two and Carolina has one, gives it to Chicago, and Chicago could just flip spots with the Pats, get stuff, then go from two to four, get more stuff. They could double trade it and still end up if they wanted to keep Fields. But I can't believe I'm saying this. I kind of like Fields. I think he's gotten better this year. I think there was a confidence to him in a couple of these games, especially that Lions game a couple of weeks ago. I think there's a roadmap for him being a good QB, especially when we watch all these shitty QBs every week and it's like, here's a guy who clearly knows how to do three or four things that are at an elite level, and I don't know if he can put it all together, but there's something here.

Is he accurate?

Not always.

Fact, you're saying? I think I kind of maybe like Fields. Like, I get that's. Is that enough for you to say we're going to pass on two first overall quarterbacks, we're going to pass, and.

Then for the rest of my life I'm the guy that didn't take Caleb Williams. That's the other thing. It's the psychology of the no, that's why New Orleans never traded Zion. You don't want to be the GM that traded Zion, no doubt. And meanwhile, you watch Zion and he's still out of shape and he's been in the league for five years. Sure, four years, but you don't want to be the guy when he figures it out.

And you were the guy that traded him. Tyson Bajant. Tyson Bajant won two games with the Bears and it's know we got it from the kid from Shepherd. Got us two wins, and Fields got us a couple wins. I don't know. It's really hard.

And this is who's the worst quarterback with two wins this year?

I don't know. Who is it, Dobbs?

Does DeVito have two yet?

Oh, yeah. DeVito's got two. DeVito's got two in a row, baby. I've never seen a person in this market. And Lyn Sanity was great, and that was it. Like, Jeremy Lyn was like an incredible sensation. I've never seen someone lean into it more than DeVito. He loves it.

No, if the Sopranos was still on, he would absolutely make a cameo in the next season. He'd be like, hey, guys, can I just stop by the bing?

His agent's a great guy. This guy, Sean Stilato, great guy and super marketing guy, an agent's agent. And he's cool. And he's like, hitting me up with press releases that DeVito's at this butcher this weekend promoting a meat company. If you want to pop by. I'm like, I love it.

Just do it all.

Get it in while you can.

Kudos to him. Does he reach the. Five years later, he's going to the big Italian feast, and it's like, Giants legend Tommy DeVito is here.

He's already there. Like, he's courtside at the Garden already. Like, if he never plays another snap and he's leaned into it. His family is great, and it's a bleak season. They've won two in a row.

They're four and eight.

He's going to be an NFL quarterback.

And he's had his teammates like him. You can see it on the sidelines. As you know, the body language doctor is constantly looking at quarterback receiver relationships. They fucking love DeVito.

They love him. And they interviewed Saquon and Saquon, who can going into a contract year again, and it hasn't gone as he's wanted, and he's been banged up. And they're like, what is this motion that he does with his fingers? And Saquon's like, that's Jersey, baby. That's jersey. It was like the most animated.

God.

And apparently in the locker room, and I'm not there every day, for shame, but I'm in New York, whatever. But I hear people, and I got to, like, after the first couple of DeVito losses, Saquon had his back and was like, no, Tommy's like, one of my guys. And the players really rallied around him. The DeVito story is really fun for what's been a terrible New York football season.

I am not putting the packers in the tease this week. A million dollar picks. The road favorites six and up have been a little dicey this year, but just in general, something about the game scares me. The packers just getting smoke blown up their asses for a couple weeks. Oh, nice, easy game against the Giants. They'll beat the Giants. The Giants. They hang around in some of these games, and their record could actually be a couple wins better than it is. I mean, they got lucky in the Pats game, but they've hung around. One more team I wanted to talk about before we go. The Vikings get Jefferson back and they had a weird Dobbs situation. They're favored by three against Vegas this week. They had a weird Dobbs situation where it seemed like he was going to get benched and then O'Connell, like, double downed on him. And it's like I told Josh, he's my guy. Jefferson's back. Addison now moves to the second spot, which is great for him. I like Ty Chandler. I could see Ty Chandler. Our fantasy guys were talking about him this week on their pod, like, there's some potential Ty Chandler, buz, but it all depends on Dobbs.

They're playing this crappy Vegas team that has a bad defense that they should be able to move the ball on. They can Blitz Aiden O'Connell. The line's only three. Why don't people believe with the Vikings, people are off the scent? It feels think, I mean, after they.

Beat the Niners in that fashion and then they lose cousins and then they still win these games with Dobbs, it was fun, but Dobbs was really bad the last time he was on the field. They go on the bye week and it's like, all right, is it going to be Jaren Hall's time? The fact it's even a consideration tells you they're probably going to lean with.

The somebody else, too. There was some Nick Mullins, Buzz Mullins.

And O'Connell waited all the way to Wednesday, and then he's like, no, we're going back to Dobbs. We'll see. Not every team can make the playoffs. The Vikings, they're one of those teams that they're trying to hold things together once.

Do you think stay away. That sounds like you don't know we're going to Dobs. I do know who you like, though, in a Ravens minus seven half against the Rams with no Mark Andrews game. Yeah, I'm guessing.

Of course I'm taking my boy, let's go.

Your guy's been reliable.

They're hot. He had a kid and they lost the first two games. And I'm like, oh, he's going to resent this kid the rest of his life. And then they went on this hot streak and I'm not kidding, I have an eight month old at home. He's got a couple of month old at home. The text I'm getting at 02:00 a.m. Pacific and he's up and he's with the baby, but he's also in the lab doing the mix a thing. It's great. So he's working on no sleep and he's just got this team going and it's been cool because you knew that Stafford and Donald were going to do really fine if they're healthy and, you know, cup their rookie class. Like this kid, Kobe Turner, number 91, he leads all rookies and sacks, lines up next to Aaron Donald. No one knows who he is. Nakua is a fifth round pick. No one expected that. Kyron Williams is day three pick from last year. No one expected it. And then their offensive line.

By the way, Williams is good.

He's good. Now here's the thing.

Legit good. He blocks his ass off.

I like that guy. This is going to sound dismissive. He doesn't have the top end speed, so he's never going to be the guy that goes for a 70 yard dash. He'll go for the shit, but he's everywhere you need to be. And he's a reliable receiver and they liked him so much last year and I think the story was like, cam Acres and McVeigh don't get along. No. Kyron Williams was so good in training camp that all the fantasy people were pissed that Cam Acres wasn't getting carries, but they loved Kyron and Kyron got hurt on special teams, which killed him. Long story short, they've got the old guys, they've got the young guys, and they've got the classic Bill Simmons best thing you could possibly have. Nobody believe in us card. And it's like great. Where this is house money. At this point, everyone thought we were tanking for Caleb Williams. This might be Sean's greatest coaching job, getting this Motley crew of characters to where they are right now. Now do they go into Baltimore and do what Seattle and Detroit did, come in all high and mighty, then get their ass kicked?

Maybe. I just don't see it. I think they're a very well coached team and they're tough Rams to win.

The first half, Rams to win the game, plus 480 on Fanduel. You figure if the Rams win in Baltimore, it's not going to be a come from behind her. It will be a we came out, we had a really good first drive. We controlled the first quarter and half of the game. Lamar, a couple of third downs that don't go the right way. Now the Ravens get that UhoH sound in the stadium. Ten nothing Rams. What's going on here? And then the Rams just kind of hold on for dear life.

Their offensive line. The Rams is made of nobodies. You don't know their names. A couple of these guys, you might.

The stats are good on them, though.

They didn't give up a single sack last week to Miles Garrett and those guys the week before. They've been awesome. So they're coming together. It's a learning process. They're figuring it out. But you look at that Ravens team and know what is their offense going to look like without their number one option. And I know that's not fair to them. Let's see it. They were coming off the buy and I'm sure Odell and Zay Flowers and Bateman will be fine. But Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews is as important to any team from a receiving option as anyone because he's always been Lamar's guy since they were drafted together in the same draft class. It's real. And Lamar looked really dejected when he found out that Andrews was out for the season. He'll be okay. They'll figure it out.

Isaiah likely is like 38 years old. They're like, this is the year. No, he's a young Isaiah. No, I know. It's just they've done thiS, what, three straight years with him?

Yeah. Been hearing his name for a couple.

Of years in 2036. Isaiah likely. This could be it. Here he comes. I love guys that we see.

Latavious Murray was getting carries for one.

Of the new Fred Taylor.

I love that. I love you seeing these guys that just are still. Josh Norman was on special teams for a team this year.

I'm like, I love, like, just give me those.

Just don't keep on going. See Duran, Harmon is on like a practice squad somewhere. I'm like, hell yeah, Duran, let's go.

Let's end on the Colts because they have a chance to go eight and five, which is just unbelievable. Minshew, who was sitting there for anybody last year, they go get him and just checks all the boxes of the classic backup QB that's like overqualified to be a backup salon. I talked about this on Sunday. Is this a ten win team to you? It seems improbable, but you think, like, they got Taylor after week five. Their younger receivers, I think, have been pretty good. That Pierce makes a giant play every single week. Every single week. He makes like a 40 yard something.

Pittman is not a four three burner. Pittman is very reliable, very good.

Yeah, they move the ball. I've seen them in spots where it's like, oh, man, that was probably it for them. And then they'll go 80 yards and it feels like they can go eight and five. But what do you make of this whole Minshumania?

You look at the schedule, just, okay, the quarterbacks, they're playing the next five weeks, Jake Browning, Mitchell Trubisky, Desmond Ritter, Aiden O'Connell and CJ Stroud. Can they do that? Yeah, they could do it. They could do it. They could do, like, the Minshew thing is cool. Shame on every other NFL team. He was sitting there. You said two years ago you wanted him to be the Patriots quarterback. You've been pushing Minshew. And he went to the Eagles last year. They loved him in Philly. Loved him so much so that when Steichen gets the gig, he brings over Minshew. And Minshew thought when he signed, this is my opportunity. I'm going to Be a starter, rebuilding. Then they draft Richardson. And to a man, Bill, I love stories like this. He doesn't even for a second show any animosity, any resentment. Tell me what you need. I'll be there. I'll be his best backup. I was backup for Jalen Hurts. I've been backup. Know whoever else in the past in like, I'll be that guy. And he was great to Richardson. Richardson goes down, and the players, they absolutely love him. They love him. And Steichen and him speak the same language.

It's so important. These guys have carryover from a successful team. They've seen it. They can believe it. And I can't say enough about the quarterback and coach relationship in the NFL. And him and Steichen have a great one.

He's also been very important with those. I love. This should just be a Twitter account where people run these, but the post game locker room. Locker room ball should just be a Twitter feed. But Minshew had a great locker room thing this week.

Great one. And it was, it was an extra little move at the end. If you watch it, stay to the end. There's a nice little Easter egg at the end. It says like another little shimmy at the end. I'm like, that's my guy.

You could tell the teammates like him. Bengals D 27th DVOA 30th on first down, 20 eigth on third down, 32nd yards per play, 27th against the pass, 31st against the rush. Colts are favored by two and a half. Their defense is 26th. Possible Jake Browning, Gardner Minshew shootout It's.

Good over outside in Cincinnati. The weather could play a role here. I know we're wrapping soon, but can I give you a quick Browning thing that I loved because.

Please, I was going to ask you.

So Jake Browning was like, high school player of the year in California, goes to Washington where he plays a bunch of years. Plays like, got hurt 40 games, gets hurt. Was six in the Heisman his sophomore year through 40. Touchdown, like, awesome player. So he's always been the dude, and that matters. Matthew Stafford was the number one high school recruit, the number one college recruit, the number one pick in the draft. Browning has that swagger now. His career, 20 different transactions was on the practice squad. Cut Minnesota. This that ends up in Cincinnati, takes it upon himself to say, okay, Burrows got this thing going. It's me versus Trevor Simeon for the backup role. Spends the offseason training with Burrow and with Jordan Palmer, who's Carson Palmer's little brother, and is one of these quarterback gurus, and basically is like, I got my own shit. I'm going to look at what Burrow does and try my best to emulate Burrow. And so Burrow is younger than him. Doesn't matter.

He goes, he and Burrow, or maybe.

They'Re the same age, whatever it is, it's not like he's ten years younger. They go and they work out awesome. So that when he goes down Burrow, everyone else is like, Jake Browning sucks. Jake Browning doesn't have it. Like, their season is done, but the rest of the team was like, all right, we know he's beaten out our veteran backup for the job. We know that he's put the work in. And, oh, by the way, he was the big man on campus at a huge state school, and also the number one player in high school. This guy can ball, and he carries himself that way. That sort of confidence and that sort of swagger, a lot of that stuff. You and I can roll our eyes at the players. You know, I love it. Yeah. If that guy's confident and that guy knows he's the dude, and he's been the dude before, well, then, shit, I'll go into war with him. And what they did in Jack ##Ville was awesome and he led them. He was awesome.

He was on a Monday night.

On a Monday night under the lights. Great.

It's what the Pats did not have with Mac Jones and Bailey Zappa this year.

Laugh. There's guys throughout the like, you look at Josh Rosen in his career never developed. Mac Jones maybe, and you can do the psychology of it a billion different ways. And the players used to love Mac, and maybe they don't. Who, you know, when Jake Browning comes in and you see the team not miss a beat, it's like, oh, that dude has the locker room. Tommy DeVito has the locker room. Stuff matters. How do you quantify it? I have no idea.

Browns minus three over the Jags was the only other game we didn't mention. I just look at Browns at home. I think their defense is just lights out. Lawrence on one leg, no Christian Kirk, a lot of Parker Robinson in big spots. Six catches for him last night. Parker Washington and Parker Robinson pick them both. But I don't like the spot for the Jags at all. Like at all. This could be a Browns defense win. So the million dollar picks, I'm looking at Browns minus three over the Jags. There's a Dallas to win with the over 42 and a half is minus 111. Does that game have 43 points? Philly and Dallas 24 21 final.

I could see that.

Yeah. Or you do. The Dallas first half, Dallas game, Bears plus three against the Lions, kind of like. So you think Minnesota minus three over Vegas is a stay away?

I would stay away. I don't know what we're getting from the Vikings out of the by week. Jefferson's back, yes, but it's Dobbs. I don't know. Stay away.

We both like the Bills.

I like the Bills and I've already picked the Chiefs to win the Super bowl, and I will not get off that corner. But I like the Bills in this game.

There's a Niners first half, Niners game against Seattle combined with Buffalo plus seven and a half. And that's like -119 on Fando. So it's like, can Buffalo be a one score game? Can the Niners just win the first half in their game? Basically even odds was looking at that. And then it depends on how hard you want to go on this. How much do they want Tyreek to get? 2000 yards in 16 games. But there's a Miami first half end game against Tennessee with Tyreek to score one TD and then he could go 90 plus yards is plus 190. You can start jacking it up. You can get it to 150 yards. Now we're in like the four to one range. What do you think? You want this to be ours?

What do you want? Yeah, the Tyreek thing. It's secondary to them. They've got to win the game. They know it. But it's Monday Night Football. People are going to be watching and it's like, this is the. Yes. All the Tyreek. Yes.

So you want.

I don't want anything.

You do it. I'm just.

No, I want us to have one. All right, here's what it'll be. Miami wins first half game, Tyreek. Anytime. Touchdown, Tyreek. 125 plus yards. Plus 257. That sounds delightful.

It's Monday night.

Let's just bet on Tyreek Hill every week. And should we bet against Zach Wilson in million dollar picks or is that just. I've never seen somebody lose the job and the team be like, you know what? It just can't work anymore. We've broken up with you. And then it's like three weeks later. Hey, Zach, want to be the QB this week? No more Tim Boyle. He's out.

Cut.

Stay away for you.

Cut.

Boyle.

They brought in Bret. Riffin dude.

Cut Boyle. Well, Boyle's the worst quarterback, I think, who's ever played.

I feel for Boyle. He didn't expect to play.

He's a camp. He's like Rogers's Boy.

He's like, all right, I'll come.

They're like, you're actually starting. He's like, what?

It's like if I was a starting quarterback and I'm like, can Joe House be the third string quarterback? He's my guy. We go over the plays every week. They're like, yeah, that's great. We'll get Joe House. And then all of a sudden Joe House is playing quarterback. Sorry, House. You couldn't do it with your bad hip, House.

Rogers had a 40th birthday party and I wasn't invited. I'm bummed.

Oh, no. Well, Texans are minus three and a half against the Jets. And I actually think they're a stay away because that jets defense, especially against the pass, is really good.

I mean, the jets defense, all jokes aside, the jets defense is as good as any of those Niners defenses that Salah coached there. And it's just a shame that it's all for not shrags.

An absolute pleasure to see you.

It's great seeing you, man. Thank you. Enjoy Vegas.

Thank you. All right, we're taping this last part of the pod. Million dollar picks. It is much later than we talked to Shreger almost 10 hours later, and the Patriots blew the number one pick. They beat Pittsburgh. I was stuck in the Lakers Pelicans game. Kyle, you were watching the game. What happened? How did we actually win this game?

What happened?

Bailey Zappi throws three touchdowns in the first half. It's like all the stuff we were talking about with Schrager, like, oh, I think Fields, could he be the guy? I'm like, is Bailey Zappi the Justin Fields of the Patriots? And then they all look terrible in the half. And then there's a roller coaster ride. I think that the Steelers are going.

To crawl back and then there's a.

Ridiculous call that should be, was definitely an offsides on the defense. They call it a false start on the snapper for the punt. What in the hell? How about it was third and two at midfield, 205 left for Pittsburgh. So they have the two minute warning coming up and they only have one time out left and they fucking threw it. Like, run the ball. You can run the ball on the pats. Get the first down. If you don't get it, the two minute warning stops it. You're closer. It just seemed like Tomlin and my phone was blowing up. Apparently Tomlin, people thought he was awful in that game, but awful loss for the Steelers. We talked earlier with Schreger about Buffalo had all these things go right during their bye week. This was another one. Now the Steelers fell back to the pack, but for the Pats. Is that the worst win we've had since you've been a Pats fan? Probably. Especially because in the first like nine.

Minutes of the fourth quarter, I had.

Full confidence we were blowing this. And then I was like, you know, it's actually okay. It was like a hedging of bets of is it cost everything for this win?

It cost us everything. I don't know.

And Trubisky, who is just the worst and just was sailing throws over wide open receivers heads and, man, brutal stuff. All right, we're going to do some million dollar picks. I did really well last week. I won $728,000 and I am up 804,000 for the year. And I've been pretty consistently winning at least a little bit over 50%. And I really like this slate yet again. So here's what we got for week 14. First one, as we talked about with Schrager. I love the Dallas Cowboys. And this week against the Eagles, who have been from the schedule from hell, I think Dallas is going to move the ball on them all game. I think their offense is going to deliver. And I don't love the three and a half, so I'm going to get a little funky here. I'm going to take Dallas to win the game with an adjusted over under of 42 and a half. That is minus 111. And that way if Dallas moves the ball like I think they're going to, the game is going to be let's say 27, 24, 21, something like that. That's what I'm looking for. So we're going to have that one.

Going to put 300K on that. We are going to put 300K on the Niners to win the first half and the game against Seattle because that's what's going to happen with Buffalo plus seven and a half. I wanted to take Buffalo just to win the game outright against the Chiefs and I thought about it all day and I got more and more scared of Mahomes. And what I'm going to do is I think it's at least a one score game. I think Buffalo has a really good chance of winning and I'm going to put that with the Niners first half. Game -119 is the line for that. We're going to put 300K on that. I love the Browns minus three against the Jaguars. Flacco, you impressed me last week. Jaguars on the road. Trevor Lawrence playing with a high ankle sprain. They lost Kurt for the season. I think the Browns defense just wins it. Bad weather. This is a defense, bad weather game. Browns minus three. We're putting 300K on that. The Bears, who almost beat the Lions a couple of weeks ago and should have, and now they're home. Bad weather. Jared Goff, need I say more?

Yeah, I'll say a couple more things. Lions have had some injuries. Lions have a terrible, terrible defensive stretch that they're on right now. And I think the Bears can control the game. Move the ball around, run the ball. We're going to take the Bears plus three, so buy ourselves a little room in case the Lions do something dumb and actually win the game. Going to put 300K on that. And then last but not least.

This.

Is just a weird one. I'm fascinated by the Rams Baltimore game and I think the Rams can hang around, but I think Baltimore is probably going to steal the game at the end. So we're going to do something wacky. You can bet this on Fando. We've done this with first half in the game. I'm going to put 50K on the Rams to win the first half, but the Ravens to win the game that is plus 700. So that's what we're doing for million dollar picks. And just for the record, a couple of things with that Dallas game that I forgot to mention. Eagles defense, they're 29th, 20 eigth, 30th, 32nd red zone, third down, first downs, passing yards, every defensive category, they're really bad. And this is the week DAC, he lays the smackdown. He throws himself in the MVP conversation. The Dallas fan this is it. This is their Super Bowl. And I feel really good about that Dallas game. So to recap, 300K on Dallas to win with the over 42 and a half minus 111. Niners first half end game with Buffalo plus seven and a half. That's -119 300K on both of those.

300K on the Browns minus Bears plus three and then 50K on the Rams to win the first half and Baltimore to win the game plus 700. Those are the million dollar picks for Week 14. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Rob Mahoney, thanks to Big wise. Thanks to Peter Schraeger, thanks to Cockrain and Steve Saruti as always. And I will see you on this feed on Sunday. Him on the west side?

Never. I don't have you with him.

On the west side. On the first must be 21 plus in president select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wager in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. Gambling problem call 1800 GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com Slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. You can call 1800 Next stEp or text Next STep to 53342 in Arizona, call 1887-8977 or visit ccpg.org chat. Connecticut 1809 with it in Indiana 1805 two two 4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas 18770 Stop in Louisiana mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland 1800 Gambler. Net in West Virginia or 1805 Two 2700 in Wyoming, Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 803 2750 50 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 18778 HOpenY or text Hope NY in New York.