2025 NFL Season Predictions: Awards, Playoffs & Super Bowl LX!

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Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, Ember Finrick, Columbus, Ohio. And by the way, while we're on the subject, if Kevin Stefanski gets Coach of the Year one more time, I'm going to lose it.

All right? I'm going to freaking lose it. They've already given him up twice.
The guy's never done anything in the league. Can we please, can we please not give Kevin Stefansky another trophy?

If they win nine games and Shador Sanders makes multiple starts, he should win Coach of the Year. Jesus Christ.

Hey oh

welcome to Heed the Call, an NFL podcast heeding that call

on hump day. Ow!

Dan Hans is here with Mark Zessler.

Mark, this would be the equivalent for football fans of Christmas Eve. where the jolly old fat man

works his way down the chimney to deliver all the gifts to the boys and girls who are not naughty, but celebrate.

Well, we've not been naughty, so I believe we'll receive that gift tomorrow when the games begin.

It does feel it's there's a weird spiritual vibration in the air, like the day before genuine real football begins. Like, I don't know how to describe it, because it's excitement mixed with...

Just a sense of the unknown, Dan.

It's always weird, too, because you spend so long, like when we do a show like this, and even just, you know, as a football fan, going through the summer, reading about your team, and you just, it never feels like the season's going to get here.

And yet, now here we are. It's coming.
There's going to be a real football game tomorrow night. The Dallas Cowboys, without Micah Parsons,

traveling to Philadelphia to face the champion Eagles, soon to be defending champion Mark. There's a distinction there once kickoff occurs.

And just just so everyone knows, our schedule will be, and it will be this way tomorrow, Thursday, and it will be this way for the regular season.

We will have a week preview, like our Sunday preview podcast. It will be combined with our Thursday night football recap.

So you will get your show at the end of the week before the football Sunday, late Thursday, early Friday, depending on where you are. So be on the lookout for that.

We've got some fun stuff coming up as we're excited in this new season.

Mark, should we, let's bring in a con man. Let's do that.
Well, I have a question for Connor.

If we can ask, like. Hello, Connor.

There he is. I mean, traditionally, I understand as a youth or a small child that there would be something fantastical about a fat Santa Claus type figure coming down a chimney.

But this is a relatively endearing figure, like coming with gifts. Why not just open the back door? Why are we sending a large-esque fat man down a chimney, especially certain chimpanzees?

We don't even own a chimney.

I'll clear the runway for Connor to answer this one. This kind of feels like an alien trying to figure out why the humans are the way the humans are.

Just a little bit, just a tiny bit of an alien vibe.

Connor,

help the potential human.

I would say it depends on where you are. At my mom's house,

I have a niece that lives in London.

And so when she comes to visit, Santa comes through the back door because she doesn't like the idea of him kind of covertly attacking us through the air and coming through the ceiling.

And she likes him to be more approachable that way. So we do that way.
At our house, he's a straight-up chimney guy. But I know a lot of people who mix it up.
Santa can enter

many different doors. Yeah.
Yeah.

I'm doing one thing you don't want to do for nightmare fuel, and this is a great focused way to start the show. I'm talking a little Santa

here on September 3rd. But I just want to say

one of those things that you don't want to do is just Google origin of Santa Claus because then you're getting into like all weird like medieval times and customs that seem completely insane.

I just sent Justin a photo. Maybe he could fly it up

of a particular photo of a Santa Claus-like figure stuffing a child into a sack and the child looks terrified.

It's almost like we don't want to know what the chimney thing is because it probably involves boiling children alive or something like that. Like

Santa Claus must come down the chimney so the children don't burn. It's a good point on your, on your what are you talking about?

Well, like most of these Disney...

Most of these Disney stories or our modern fairy tales were not as they are now. They got Disney-fied where like the little mermaid was like, yes, she wanted to leave the ocean and she was selfish.

so now she must die, you know. And that's really how it, that's really how they all started.
They just kind of got cuter endings as we went along.

Santa will take a toy out of the sack, but then he will take six of your toes.

Yeah, if you're watching this, if you're watching this on YouTube, this is a horrifying image of uh, and it's like, honey, I thought this was a football podcast.

What's this show about?

This show is about what the last thing we need to do before we uh, lock the doors,

deadbolt,

close the flu, do everything to keep the Santa out of our house, to take our fingers and our toes,

is before the kickoff of a new season, we're going to do our predictions. We're going to predict division winners.
We're going to predict playoff results. We're going to predict a Super Bowl winner.

We're going to predict the major awards.

Another Christmas connection there. The old man.

Ralphie's dead.

We're going to do it right now. How How about that?

Who's excited?

I am. Hand raise.

I thought you were going to do it with the mad horns. Kind of like your mad horns drop you have where it just completely derails the show for 35 seconds.
Yeah, this one.

It's like, all right, let's get to the mid.

And now the major

prediction to come out

high school band on LSD

Yes

stupid. Do you know what that reminds me of?

It's like when you go to Christmas Eve Mass and it's like the one time a year the priest has like people playing instruments and singers and like most of the time it's totally vacant and now he has to deal with like actual accompaniments, and he just gets so frustrated because he's totally out of rhythm.

That's what I like about this. Yeah, I also like another mass memory of youth:

you know, it's like, well, it's Christmas Day, so we're going to have someone sing. And it's like,

Aunt Diane volunteered. It's like, Aunt Diane can't carry a tune, right? She's losing the rhythm.

She's losing the rhythm.

We're trapped here

for 55 minutes.

Even God is annoyed at this point. She's got no pitch.
She's got no tone in the house of God.

All right.

And by the way, a little bit later, we're going to close the door on something we talked about last week, but we'll get to that.

Right now, we are going to, how do we want to start? Do we want to go through our awards first, or do we want to do our division, our playoff results?

I would vote for awards because I think we all feel like awards are a little fugazi and like the actual on-field results.

Okay. That's just let's start.
Let's start. I'm going to start with a fun one.

Let's start with Coach of the Year. All right.
So this one might be a little bit of a tell for some of our

playoff picks, but who cares? Coach of the year, Mark Sessler, get us going.

So my one thing about Coach of the Year, I think it's obviously, I know they tried to change the award. It's a little bit different in some ways, but it's narrative.

And what is a great narrative than taking a lost franchise

afloat on the water about to sink and change it and bring it up and make it relevant? Aaron Glenn of the New York Jets will win Coach of the Year.

I genuinely believe this in my heart because I think also we're already talking about him as this firebrand, this type of leader that will come and sort this mess out.

And so I'm going Aaron Glenn, and I feel it with a hammer drop. Yeah, the last couple of years we've done this exercise, I've had the Jets float into the Super Bowl,

just hoping against hope.

I'm not doing that this year. Everybody stand down, guns down.
Santa, stay out of my house. I'm not picking the Jets to go to the Super Bowl.
I'm not even picking the Jets to make the playoffs.

But yes, I did want to bring something in terms of optimism for the Jets. So I'm with you on Aaron Glenn.

The challenge will be the Jets still, if you like Glenn and what he's bringing to the operation there, and a lot of it I do like a lot, they still need to win enough games for this to make sense narratively.

So they got to win, they got to get to eight or nine wins, I would think.

I think you need a winning record, to be real.

And I struggle to get there, but the world's a weird and wonderful place.

I hated the news that we got earlier today that Elijah Vera Tucker, who's such a talented offensive lineman, former first-round pick, cannot stay healthy. He's missed large portions of his

in his first four seasons in the league. Now he has a potentially or what's understood to be a serious arm injury that may require surgery.

We might not get the guard, which is going to lead to a shuffling of the offensive line. And if that is not a strength of this team, it's going to be very hard for this team to score points.

So I'm very concerned about that. But I'll go with you on this one just because I want something to root for, even if I don't think the Jets are a playoff team.

Connor, how about your coach of the year prediction? Well, I'm going to kind of moneyball this.

I agree with Mark that that should be the narrative, but how the hell is Dan Campbell not won a coach of the year award at this point, if I'm not mistaken, right?

And he made the ultimate turnaround of a Will Be Gone franchise.

And so I'm trying to moneyball this a little bit because I think of late, the Coach of the Year award has come from coach who pushes team into the playoffs via stiff white retread quarterback.

And so for me, that is Shane Steichen.

And if he can get the Colts to nine wins and let's say the Texans just kind of hold serve or plateau a little bit, I think that that's an easy way for him to push his way in.

The Daniel Jones narrative is built in. We think of him what we think of him already.
And then he looks like a genius. So I like that one.
I don't like the Colts. In fact, I hate the Colts.

But at the same time, I like the cohesiveness of your argument here because a lot of us believe that Shane Steichen can coach ball. Yeah.

But Shane Steichen has just been in a very difficult situation the last two years because Richardson has essentially handcuffed the entire organization

let's see just just to take a look so we're all all three of us so far and I want to hear Justin's as well actually Justin who's your pick let me get you too before I check a little history lesson

I went with Mike Vrabel

for my coach of the year winner Patriots have a fairly easy schedule there's a decent path to see them double at least if not triple their win total Vrabel's won it before so he has that like media darling narrative, and he's got a good, what we expect to be a good quarterback.

So, and if they, if they turn things around even a little bit, I feel like that checks boxes.

I think that's the move coach taking over

a team that was bad. That's a good one.
If you're trying to get this right, I think Justin's on the fastest track right here. Can you check the Vegas side of things?

See what the desert's saying, who the favorite is for this.

Let's see.

And there's the Dan Campbell one's also good if you believe that the Lions are going to have another big year. It's like when Scorsese got the Oscar for the Departed.

It was like his sixth best movie, but they hadn't given him one yet. So like, we don't know.
We're running out of chances to maybe give Marty one.

So they gave it to him for the Departed, which is a very good, but not quite transcendent film like some of his greatest works.

Maybe even if Dan Campbell doesn't have a transcendent season, but he's like, you know, they win the division. He goes 12 to 5.
Maybe he gets it.

Yeah, and there's the narrative aspect of like, he lost both coordinators and the Lions didn't skip a beat.

Yes. How many times times are we going to say narrative this episode? Let's see.
The favorite for coach of the year

is Mike Narrative. Mike Vrabel, yes, do that.
At plus 600, Ben Johnson, that's another good one. That's actually a great one because you want to talk narrative.

There's a lot cooked into Chicago football and him saving it and taking what is a potentially talented roster. So there we go.
Liam Cohen at 1,200 is the third.

And just for a history lesson, because we're all picking non-superpower teams here

to a coach from one of those teams, the last three years, Dable won it for the Giants when he had his over 500 season with them, a surprise season.

Stefanski with the Browns in 23, another surprise playoff team. Kevin O'Connell with the Vikings last year when they overperformed with Darnold.
All right, good start.

What's that? What are you laughing about? Overperformed. I don't know.
Well, they did. If you look at the word just made me,

you know, and They were 14 and 3 in the Pythagorean theorem. They overperformed.
They won a ton of one-score games. That's stuff that's going to help.

Well, what the quarterback people thought was a lost cause.

All three teams propelled a stiff white quarterback

who was previously unsuccessful into the playoffs. Joe Flacco, Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold.
Let's go. That was

the stiff white quarterback.

What would you call Joe Flacco? No, no, no. I think Darnold is a little bit limber.

I think he's a little wiggly. He's got a little bit of a drink.
I get where Connor's coming from, though.

So you're just saying, like, a boring white?

No, I mean, like, I mean, no. A vanilla.
Well, vanilla, but also like not completely mobile.

You know, not someone

run your offense through on both the run and the pass. I don't know.
I see where you're going. Yeah.

Racist.

All right.

Defensive player of the year.

Who do you got on this one, Connor?

So I've just been continually doing TJ Watt because I think that he's so good at accumulating glamour statistics.

And this year, theoretically, and this was my same logic in years prior, is that he might actually be playing with a lead a little bit more, especially early in the season.

The Steelers' schedule is pretty backloaded in terms of difficult games.

So if he gets off to a hot start over the first six or seven games, when he will be fresher and healthier, I think that he has a chance to maybe pad the stats a little bit to the point where he ends the season at the top of a lot of these categories.

All right. How about you, Justin? I have Nick Bosa with a similar thought process because the Niners have the, you know, the easiest schedule in football.

If they have a lot of second half leads, there could be a lot of opportunities for Bosa to get after the quarterback. He's apparently healthier than he's been in some time.

He would have to stay healthy to win this award. But if the Niners win 11 games on the strength of an easy schedule and Bosa has 16 sacks, that wouldn't be shocking to me.

Okay, I'm going to go with Jalen Carter.

I like the Eagles.

I think he has been, since he entered the league, immediately was like, oh shit. First of all, the GM did it again, how he got a guy that 10 other teams should have jumped up and gotten first.

And by the end of last season, and the reason why the Eagles won that Super Bowl and did it so convincingly is that the defense just took over and just started breaking backs in the last and the final stretch of the year.

His ability

to just dominate,

whether it's a one-on-one matchup, you try to send a double team his way. He's just one of those guys that's a freak, and he made guys around him better.

And a lot of guys got paid off Jalen Carter a little bit, I thought. And I think as he enters this, it was his year three.
This is when maybe you get into apex of power territory.

So Jalen Carter is my pick, and I hope Eagles fans and Dan Campbell Supi heard that. I like that one.
Oh, go ahead, Connor. Because I think that Aaron Donald walked so that Jalen Carter could run.

And it's one of those things where we're still not there yet with offensive linemen in terms of their in the big picture, the big awards.

And the offensive linemen got their own award this year, thank God, so at least get some form of recognition.

But I think we're starting to understand globally the effect of interior defensive line play more. And I think that now we'll have our eye on Carter this season a little bit.

And I think that he automatically kind of jumps to the front of the pack there. All right, Sassy, how about you? Yeah, I think like Carter,

he's written about in a way that generates votes.

I sense that there's going to be some exhaustion around like the Miles Garrett, TJ Watt scenario where like I feel like they've been voted in or highly voted like 40 years in a row.

I'm going Kyle Hamilton of the Ravens because I think it's also like a highlight driven award where I could see Kyle Hamilton, he wins a game on like a tremendous pick six that catapults the Ravens somewhere special.

And he's just going to make plays like that all year. And I think he's worthy of the award.
And it's like, it's been a while since it hasn't been

a pass rusher. So I'm going Kyle Hamilton.
But last year it wasn't a pass rusher. Well, sure, sure.
It's been a year.

It's been

since last year. It's been a year.
They gave the award out about

with Miles Garrett and T.J. Walbert.
Has enough with these guys the same two years. Has a safety ever won Defensive Player of the Year?

Charles Witten. That feels like it's a good thing.
Charles Wittzalu has got

Palomalo.

Did Ed get Ed get it? So, I mean, these are Hall of Fame players.

And maybe that's Kyle Hamilton, too. But I feel like you really got to be a next level of the next little season.

Check out the odds. The last safety to win it was

Palomalo. 20s.
Hand, that's a long, but you got to have those plays that

everyone has eyeballs on. And we'll see.

The two

desert favorites, by the way, is nobody brought up Micah Parsons, who, by the way, needs a back injection to play in week one. Not typically how I want my honeymoon

after signing the highest contract ever for a non-quarterback to begin with back injections, but hopefully it's nothing too serious. And Aiden Hutchinson, another guy that I think is a darling.

He was a game wrecker before his leg got blown up last fall, and the Lions are expecting big things. Apparently, camp reports have been off the charts as well for him.
Great figure. Justin.

One last point of context. Justin, you're also just more in this episode, just like in terms of like basic ground rules, you're more part of the

segment-to-segment dialogue because you're

not going to be able to do it. We don't need the sound drop.
We love the sound drop. You just jump in.

We understand that you love to announce your arrival, but you don't, which doesn't need to happen every day. It's almost like having that drop sometimes.

It's like having Howard Finkel from the WWF come out and be like, and coming down the aisle, the graveyard.

Like, we get it, but go ahead, it's yours. Yeah, no, I just didn't want you guys to say, oh, is somebody talking?

Since 2010, when Troy Palomalu won it, the only non-pass rushers to win, and that's 15 years worth of awards, are Luke Keekly in 2013, Stephon Gilmore in 2019, and Pat Sertan last year.

Now, there's defensive tackles mixed in there. Obviously, Aaron Donald won a bunch.
J.J. Watt won a bunch, but the rest is like, yeah, the TJ Watt, Miles Garrett, Nick Bosa, Terrell Suggs.

So it is Khalil Mack. Usually it is a pass.

That plays into the excellent point that I made during my last speaking engagement here on the show.

Luke Keekly, or as Connor Orr would put it, a stiff white. No.

I feel like stiff white is pretty clearly, you can show me a lineup of people and you can pick out the stiff whites.

Yeah, all four of us.

All right. This show.

Let's see, let's see, let's see. Offensive player of the year.
Now, this is a controversial, oh my God,

category because

sometimes it feels like the O-P-O-Y is simply the guy that you wanted to be MVP, but you couldn't quite do it because you thought someone else was slightly more deserving.

So you throw the bone of that award. And you know what? I'm going to go against the grain, Ceci.
Good. Cool.
Because sometimes the guy that doesn't get MVP,

you know, that sucks because he had like an all-time level season. It just happened to have it the wrong year.

It was like the biggest example of this ever was 2012, I think it was, when Peyton Manning went to the Broncos, threw... 55 touchdowns or whatever it was.

And then Adrian Peterson came back from ACL, MCL, and ran for 2,000 yards. And it was like,

we got to give Adrian something. So they gave him the OPOY.
I always think about that year, Mark. It's funny to go down memory lane sometimes, Sese.

Well,

we've talked about it. It's best picture, best director.
Like, they just split things up. You know what I mean?

It's like, I always think it's like, well, it's the guy who's just not the quarterback typically. Yeah, all right.
What's your pick? So

I believe the quarterback is a true MVP candidate here. And so I'm going with the wide receiver Jamar Chase, who had 17 touchdowns,

1,700 plus yards a year ago, totally could see him doing it again. I think they're an offensive, obviously offensive-reliant team if they want to get to 9-10 wins.

And Burrow gets close from the quarterback angle, and Jamar Chase gets offensive player of the year. I feel pretty good about this.
I'm in lockstep with you on this one.

I think, I don't know, maybe Jerry Rice did it, maybe Randy Moss did it, but to win Triple Crown and then win it again,

that

is rarefied air. But I think that Chase is that talented a player, and I think he's in an offense with a quarterback that's going to have a big year.
So I think he will be that guy.

And I think it matters that I think there's one wide receiver in the league that's better than Jamar Chase, and it's Justin Jefferson.

And I do believe in the Vikings this year and what KOC can do with the young quarterback, but I also think

his numbers could come down a little bit and it allows Chase to win this award again. What do you think, Connor? I'm going Jameer Gibbs.

And the reason why I'm going Jameer Gibbs is because I think the Lions will still be good.

I think the offense will lose a little bit of its magic, especially the way that it just gives Jared Goff a lot of answers when he drops back. And that means leaning on the run game a little bit more.

And it also means leaning on Jameer Gibbs as just simply a receiver out of the backfield, as a guy that you need as a last-minute emergency check down.

And so I think that means a lot of catches, like top 10 catches, top 10 targets, but also a top five rushing season, a ton of touchdowns. I think the offense runs through him.

Good one. Justin?

All right. I have a quarterback winning this award, which is kind of odd because a quarterback has not won Offensive Player of the Year since 2018 when Patrick Mahomes also won MVP.

But I'm going with Dak Prescott. Oh, okay.
Wait, hold the Dak thing a second. They gave him both? I didn't even know who can do that.
I mean, that was one of those like 50 touchdowns. Yeah.
Yeah.

They used to do this more often, but I think 2018 was the last time that it actually happened. But I want to say 2013, Peyton Manning won both.

It almost feels like they'd want you to never allow that to happen because you're spreading this around. But that threw me too, Dan.
Wait, did I get that wrong too?

Did the year that Peyton threw 50, whatever, did Peterson not get Offensive Player of the Year? Peterson was the year before 2012. Peterson won Offensive Player of the Year.
Manning won it in in 2013.

Who won in 2012? MVP in 2012 was also Adrian Peterson. Okay.
The last non-QB MVP. Good, good memory there by the Zuzzer in a big spot.

All right, so Dak Prescott.

So, yes, I chose Dak Prescott. I think that's sorry.
One more thing, Justin. I like that.
I did that whole thing.

Like, this always makes me think of that fabulous year of 2012 when Peyton Manning was the MVP and Adrian Peterson was like,

kill yourself. All right, go ahead, Justin.
Without further ado, Dak Prescott.

We don't have to issue a correction because we just corrected it.

Yeah, so I think Dak is going to have, I think he's positioned to have an MVP type of season statistically with their defense could be one of the worst.

Their run game is, you know, as far as we know right now, pretty much non-existent. They add George Pickens.
CeeDee Lamb's a beast.

He could throw 5,000 yards and 45 touchdowns, and the Cowboys still end up 7 and 10 or worse even because the defense could be so bad that he's going to have to air it out.

So I think he's going to have these insane production numbers that

they have to give him an award, but it can't be MVP because the Cowboys are, you know, maybe not even a playoff team. And so he wins off as a player of the year.

It's sort of like a burrow from last season. Yes.

Can I add that Peyton Manning won comeback player of the year in 2012? Nailed it.

Vegas, Vegas, Vegas. Saquon Barkley, 7-5 plus 7.50.
The favorite, Jamar Chase, number two plus 850. Jameer Gibbs, plus 1,000, number 3.
Okay. Okay.
I like it. Very good.
Let's take a break here.

And when we get back, we do some more awards. Fun.

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All right, we are back.

All right, so we've been through coach of the year, defensive player of the year, offensive player of the year. Before we get to rookie of the year, Defensive Rookie of the Year,

Connor pointed it out. They have added an award.

Is this an official award? Like they'll give it out at honors and it's like the whole thing. AP votes on it, the whole nine yards? I think so, right? Isn't Protector of the Year? It's in there, baby.

Protector of the Year. This is given to the offensive lineman who plays at the highest level according to the voters.

I don't have one for this.

I don't know if anybody else does. I know Connor does.
So maybe Connor, if you want to handle the honors for the inaugural Protector of the Year. I'm going Jordan Milata, who is,

and I think what it might end up being is part of

an appreciation award for last year where he

just mauled people and threw hundreds of defensive linemen into garbage cans on a regular basis.

And like Jalen Carter, I think we'll have more of an eye on it this year, especially if Saquon has another good season.

And the Eagles, too, have that whole Jeff Stoutland thing where I think it's going to be a tastemaker pick to have one of Stoutland's guys be the inaugural protector of the year.

So I think there's a lot going for it there. It's funny because I thought

Lane Johnson, but I think it speaks more to the fact that you're kind of celebrating the greatest offensive line retroactively in football, too. So I hear you.

Okay, let's get to Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Now, this is one I was going to say this could be a clean sweep because

I know this is the big blue fan club this year. And I also know

what I chose, which aligns with the big blue fan club on this one. I'm just guessing.
I think Justin will keep it from being a clean sweeps.

He'll say some like fourth-round pick defensive lineman of the Titans.

But let's see. Did everyone pick Abdul Carter as the defensive rookie of the year? Yes.
Mark's got his hand up. Connor is nodding his head.
Justin.

I did not pick a Titans fourth-round defensive tackle because they didn't draft one. But I did go with my ass.

All right. We all went with the Giants rookie.
Again, another guy where like reports have been stellar around him. Also, he's, this is notable as well.
And it also, it's borne out

on the desert side of things because I don't imagine there's been too many years where there's been such a heavy favorite. He's plus 225.

The next closer is closest rookie is Travis Hunter, who's primarily a wide receiver, but he's going to play cornerback at plus 1,000, and then Mike Green at plus 1,200.

This was a draft where Abdul Carter was clearly seen as the best defensive player, and then there was a little bit of a drop-off in terms of first-round talent on the defensive side of the ball.

So it's kind of a perfect storm, and now let's see if Carter can... Connor live up to the hype.
Yeah, my concern here is going to be pass-rushing opportunities, right?

And I think in the first two quarters of a game, he's probably going to be electric.

In the last two quarters of the the game, he's going to be more of a run-first defender if the Giants can't find a way to hold on to leads.

That's what makes guys like Shamar Stewart at least interesting to me.

And I think the reason we clean swept Abdul Carter is because a lot of the other first-round picks on defense were, again, interior guys, whether it was Mason Graham or it was guys like that. And

they're not up to that Jalen Carter standard, at least at this point.

So for me, the only other guys, you're talking about Donovan Ezaraku from the Cowboys, who's going to have a lot more pass rushing opportunities maybe this year.

Carson Schesinger, someone like that, if he makes a lot of splash plays. But to me, I mean, this is Abdul Carter's to walk home with if he can just get the reps.

The only thing that slowed me a little with the fact that you've got Brian Burns and you've got Kayvon and Dexter Lawrence, like,

are his numbers reduced? Because we love that defensive line and there's so many people piling up sacks that he's not on an island like the only guy rushing the quarterback.

You You can look at it from the other way though, too. Well, no, right.
I picked him because it's like maybe that frees him up to be not double teamed and stuff.

But Travis Hunter is going to do something if it works that we have not seen a player do post Deion Sanders. Narrative alert.

Well, if he also just, if he is a dominant cornerback as well as a wide receiver, it's like it's going to be hard to not have votes go his way for something.

What is going to happen James Gladstone, the boy GM at NFL Honors, if they give Travis Hunter any of these awards? Is he just going to just like

dance pantiless on stage? Yeah, do we need a fainting chair next to the James Gladstone seat at the San Francisco Civic Center?

I have come

to see my vision through.

He's not just a football player

or an award winner.

He's an alien, Superman.

And now you all can eat my ass.

Including you, Connor.

Especially you, or

Smash Cut to Connor, uncomfortable in his rumple tuxedo. What?

Sitting in the back row, journalist row.

I would just say this too, Dan.

So the Giants, what was interesting, when I used to cover the team, they had Jason Pierre, Paul, Justin Tuck, and Osi Uminura. And that was the last three-headed pass rush that they had.

And I remember the narrative at the time among the beat writers, shit, I said narrative again, is why isn't this team getting sacks? Why isn't this team getting sacks?

And Justin Tuck pulled me aside one day and he said, you know what? We commissioned a study. on how much quicker quarterbacks are throwing against us versus the rest of the league.

And by the time we had won that Super Bowl and were coming off of that Super Bowl, teams were throwing the ball.

I think it was like 0.5 seconds faster against the Giants than any other team in the NFL. And they were just like, we're just not going to allow you to possess a strength.

And so that's just another thing that popped into my head when I was thinking about Abdul. I love that he pulled you aside to talk about a study.

That's not the first Giant to pull Connor aside. There's the other Giant that was like, Connor, you got to dress better or no one's going to love you.

True story. Yeah.
Who was that again? Or was that a giant not to be named? same guy

it was like the same conversation he's like uh first up i commissioned a study second of all what the are you wearing it was the the the pre the post of that was i went to h m that day because i was so bothered by it and i bought what was possibly the most horrendous outfit in the history of outfits it was this pink gingham shirt, black jeans, and then these like white sand colored like chucka boots.

And I showed up the next day and everyone was like, You look like a fucking moron. And so

why are you now pressing over a cocaine dealer from Palm Beach in 1991? Yeah,

yeah, just an exercise and failure. Yeah,

and look, but look at you now, senior writer.

I mean, literally, literally look at him right now.

What lessons has he learned here?

Yes, for the audio audience, Connor is, he is living up to the brand name. I think it's a

tie-dye shirt. Is that a unicorn on the front of it? Jerry Garcia.
Oh, it's Jerry Garcia? Yeah. He was a unicorn in his own way.
And a backwards, is that an underarmor cap? It is, yeah.

Yeah, so this is this is peak.

It's his peak, Connor. I have my painting shorts on, too.
So there's paint on them.

You kind of, this is what I would call Connor's David Foster Wallace look. Oh, God.
I think you're dead on. That is an absolutely correct parallel.

Someone I don't want to be drawing a comparison to right now, but it didn't really end well. But

let's say, I don't know, who's another poor dresser that ended up having litter? That's still alive business. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, we'll think on that. Okay.

All right, here we go. Offensive rookie of the year.

Justin, start us off.

All right. Well, you know where my heart is on this one.
Obviously, I'd love for Cam Board to win. I don't think he will.

I think he'll be fine. I think playing for the Titans hurts him.
I think there's a player who might not be the best offensive rookie, but he's going to contribute on the offense.

He's also going to play on defense, and he's definitely not going to be the best defensive rookie. But when Travis Hunter...
ends up playing like

80% of offensive snaps, which is what Liam Cohen said earlier this week, And he puts up a thousand yards and six touchdowns on offense.

And then he's also playing third downs, and he has like some key third-down stops and some big moments for a Jags team that could be a playoff team.

They're all going to sit back and be like, well, this guy's not the best offensive rookie, but we got to give him a Rookie of the Year award. And he's playing more on offense.

So I am going with Travis Hunter. It feels like votes are,

as of right now, going his way, and he'd need to prove us wrong in terms of voting for him because I'm really with you that there's going to be a surge to reward him for what he's done globally, like we just talked about.

Yes.

That's a good one. I really like Ashton Genty for this award.

I know opinions vary on where the Raiders will come down. I think the Raiders are going to be competitive this year.

I think they're going to be a solid team. I think Gino is going to do a lot in terms of stabilizing the offense.

And I think if you look at some of the pop the hood numbers for the Raiders' offensive line last year, they were dead last in yards per carry, but it was who was running the ball on that team?

Is that any Alexander Madison? I mean, it was a disaster. If you put a premium young running back behind an offensive line that actually, its win rate was higher than expected

with an actual quarterback and an adult in the room at head coach, I think that Genti is going to get a lot of run.

I think he's going to be a three-down dog, and I think he's going to put up the counting stats and pass the eye test. So I feel good about Genti.

I like that one. It's just,

I just didn't, it didn't pop to me in the preseason. I don't know why.
It just didn't. Yeah.

I don't.

Everyone knows I don't put too much into it.

But I understand preseason, as Wes used to always say, like running backs specifically, you can get an earlier gauge on them than other position players just on how they move and wait.

Well, specifically their health, he would point to if it was a veteran. Like, is this person back from a meaning?

Yeah. Well, I could, yeah, but he used the other thing Wes used to say was he would see with a young running back, you would be able to see pretty quickly

them on any type of pro field, even preseason. But we shall see.
We shall see. All right.
What do you got, Connor?

So that's why I did Trayvion Henderson, just because I thought Ashton Genty was probably going to be your most likely pick. They're going to have to utilize him a lot.

They're going to have to showcase him a lot. But Trayvion Henderson just, again, in the preseason, made himself look like a guy that you just can't keep keep off the field.

Like he's always going to do something electric when he's got his hands on the football.

And the way that him and Drake May kind of had that mind meld in the red zone where they were working off one another in the past game, I just think he might score a lot and he might be valuable in third down right away.

So this is just a guy that, I don't know, I think picked it more just because I like watching him so much. And I'm hoping that that's just one that I can root for.

Here's an example using the preseason again of why I shied away from it because I did think about it.

He's gotten so much positive buzz this summer that sometimes I feel like that could cloud vision of what actually is going to happen when the games matter.

So I think as much as it's good to take positive notes out of how electric he looked, starting with the running back, the kickoff to start preseason for the Patriots,

maybe some recency bias preseason-wise is what scared me off a little bit.

Totally fair. He's buzzy right now.

Just like the Broncos kind of spooked us a little little bit on team of htc because all of a sudden everybody loved the broncos like that's kind of where i am with with this player even though i do agree like there's a lot of reason to be excited about him well i i i fell for it entirely because um you know we submitted these picks to you love the preseason well it's it's it's i'm on the trivia on henderson train as well i think if you're it just fits with this team right now your head coach is mike rabel they've got a young quarterback this guy can do it all it's going to be about numbers it's going to be about highlights Josh McDaniel needs a pony he can ride to win games.

And

I think he's going to be one of the bigger stories on offense this entire season. And he's going to win people fantasy games.
Like that, this stuff all matters. What adds up?

Well, that matters too, because look at like the vote. These are human beings who are voters.
So they're faulty. They're vulnerable.
Please don't tell me the AP voters are

basing their votes on their fantasy teams. They probably are, but just don't don't let me into this world where that's a good idea.
I just disliked Matt Ryan for like four years because

he burned

an AP voter. Well,

thankfully. I'm the old Zeus.
So you're not, you guys aren't concerned about him being listed as the RB3 on the unofficial week one depth. Yeah, I am, but I am not.
That's what I mean.

Like, I just, you know, let's see.

You would assume that Connor and I are not if we've just picked him for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

Also, like, I know we're all kind of out, and Patriots maybe are too on Ramondre Stevenson, but I would not be surprised if he ends up getting a little more work in this offense than one would expect.

And that would eat into the workload of Henderson, which then could also hurt his chances here. For the record, Ashton Genty is the favorite in the desert, followed by Cam Ward.

I mean, it's pretty crazy, again, and I feel for you, Justin, that you could be the number one overall pick in the NFL draft. You could be a quarterback that's a number one overall pick.

And in an exercise like this, none of of us picked Cam Ward, and the desert didn't either.

So it's just been kind of a weird, funky maiden voyage for Ward, but that doesn't mean anything anymore once the games start.

The last three offensive rookie of the years: Jaden Daniels, CJ Stroud, Garrett Wilson. Okay.

Now

we get to

the big one.

Right? Just MVPs left.

Are you doing comeback player of the the year? Yeah, what about comeback? Oh, yeah. Comeback Player of the Year.
Comeback Player of the Year.

Connor.

So

I submitted this to SI. We ran our season predictions on Wednesday, and every year I have submitted DeMar Hamlin as Comeback Player of the Year, and it just gets returned.

And it's like, Connor, you have to seriously pick one. And then I just, it's like you guys, you get tired of the same argument that the guy literally died and didn't get comeback player of the year.

But I like to have it, and I know we're not going to have it here today, but I just want to let you know that I voted for him. I have Christian McCaffrey.
I think this is a lock.

I think this is one that you can absolutely just lick the envelope and mail it straight to whatever casino Justin goes to and get your money back.

Okay.

Yeah, that's a good one. How about you, Mark?

McCaffrey makes the most sense. Maybe Aiden Hutchinson, if he came back and dominated

Joe Flacco.

But what is he? Never mind. Joe Flacco again.
Like coming back from being a non-relevant player a year ago. No, all right.
Okay, your turn. Go ahead, Mark.

I'm going to go Aiden Hutchinson. I really.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't change your mind now because we're pushing back on it.

Do you think Joe Flacco is going to remain starting quarterback long enough to win comeback player of the year?

Well, I think what will happen is they'll bench him early, and then he'll come back and play the final four games, and they finish with a wild card type berth, and it's like, we got to do it again.

And another player will die on the field and come back to earth and not be recognized for this. Exactly.

If Joe Flacco, after the highway robbery of the dead men who came back to life, if they give it to him again, he's like, well, Joe started four games, but they won one of the games before they went to their 14 other quarterbacks.

Let's just give it to him. Then you're going to know there's something up.
Well, he overcame overcame diversity in that situation. You can't question that.

Just so you know, I'm looking at the odds for this award on DraftKings future bets. Joe Flacco is not among the 50 or so players listed.

Players who are listed include Christian Kirk, Jamal Adams, Tyler Higbee, Amik Robertson. Those guys, according to the sports books, are more likely to win this award than Joe Flacco.

Well, it's a true comeback if no one even sees you. You're unseen in society.
And by the way, while we're on the subject, if Kevin Stefanski gets coach of the year one more time, I'm going to lose it.

All right. I'm going to freaking lose it.

They've already given him up twice. The guy's never done anything in the league.

Can we please, can we please not give Kevin Stefan if the Browns have a great season, they win nine games or something, can we not give Kevin Stefansky another trophy? I mean, the Pennsylvania

second overall draft pick. That's more likely in the outcome scenario.
If they win nine games and Shador Sanders makes multiple starts, he should win Coach of the Year. Jesus Christ.

Or Dylan Gabriel. What did you have on this, Justin? Oh, I didn't have one.
Neither did I, but go ahead. I'll reuse my MVP, Dak Prescott.
All right, I'll just go.

Okay, so because he's the favorite in the desert, I I like Hutch a lot. I think there's a lot.

You know what, though? I'll go with Trevor Lawrence. I'm starting to come around on Trevor Lawrence.
Interesting. Okay.
With Liam Cohen. What was a quote I saw?

There was a quote floating around on social media. There was a rival defensive coordinator that was just absolutely, and people thought it might have been Fangio, singing the praises of Liam Cohen.

It's like, we could not figure out what this guy was doing. It was like he was always one step ahead of us and was driving us crazy.

Go find the blonde-haired statue boy and fix him. Is he coming back from sucking though?

And weren't we told not to do that? He was injured. I think he was hurt again last year.

But I would agree that in the new rules of the comeback player of the year, does he not really fit

the mold?

He is high up in the odds, though, for it. They aren't new rules necessarily.

As a suggestion, yeah. Here's how you should vote.
And everyone was like, no, thank you. We'll vote how we always vote.
Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on. He only played 10 games last year.
Okay.

They only played 10. I mean, it's not like it's Joan of Arc or something, though.
It's, I mean, just dinged up during a bad season.

Dinged up.

It's a brutal sport, Ceci.

I know, but does that really...

If you're getting on all these other award winners, how can you really pitch that as something that's noble? Like, is it a noble return from darkness?

You want an injury?

There's literally only one person who you, if you're talking like in this way, Mark, it's literally the guy who died and came back to life, and you wouldn't even give it to him then.

I'm talking to you specifically now, Mark. You gave it to the Browns.

I also don't have a, I don't have an associated press vote in this, just to be clear. Like, so no, I did not give it to him.
He did not play. His season was essentially over by

the beginning of November. He was out for the last

seven of the last eight weeks. Well, you have him as like Schindler's list, and I just, I don't know if I agree that the journey is that rich or noble.
So

we'll see. All right.

All right, here we go.

Up next.

MVP.

I got Burrow.

I think Joe Burrow is going to be

a damn maniac this season. I think you ain't seen nothing yet.
Last year, it got got kind of shrouded by the dysfunction of the team, especially the defense.

But I think this is one of those special guys, the way like Mahomes is, right? Like, I think, and I think a lot of people understand that everybody knows that bro's amazing.

I think he's one of the all-time greats, potentially.

And I think for that to be cemented, having a transcendent MVP season where the team obviously does some things well, we'll get to that with playoff predictions. That has to be in his bag.

He made it to a Super Bowl, nearly won the damn thing. He didn't play that well that playoff, but here we are now.

I think he is going to lead the league in many, if not all, of the relevant passing categories. And I think Cincinnati is going to have a bounce back year.

For that reason, I got Joe Burrow winning his first MVP trophy.

Does anybody agree? Anyone else have Burrow? I do not, but

if you do,

you go. You go.

I may or may not have said this on the show before, but I've picked Joe Burrow each of the last three years to win MVP in our Sports Illustrated Football Preview issue. And this year it became

an issue, literal issue, where the editorial staff was like, you cannot do this again because it just starts looking like you are just copy and pasting the same one from the year before.

And so I had to stand on a table and almost Gladstone-esque, be like, I really honestly swear to God he's going to do it this time.

And then if he doesn't, I never will be able allowed to pick him again. Wow, I love the stakes.

I love the stakes. There's also a lot going on here.

I'm picturing Connor, who's a very passionate guy. But I feel like we get a lot of these stories, Mark, about like Connor at SI offices and then pushing back on various things.
Are you just like,

are you David Fostering wallacing that place as well? Just like a little bit of a renegade?

Are you renegading that place? Are you wallacing it? Please stop comparing me to like a very sick person.

I don't like it.

Are you you David Foster Wallace in that place? He's brilliant. He was a brilliant man.
Okay. I prefer to focus on.
I feel like he was a little overrated.

Infinite jest, bro.

Okay.

Justin, did you read Infinite Jest? Oh, here we go.

I saw the end of the tour, which is a great film starring Jason C. It is not the same Justin.
It's to do with Infinite Jest. Watching the movie with the guy from

the, what was the movie? With Russell Brand, when his wife broke up with him, his girlfriend cheated on him. Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Watching the movie with the guy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall is not the same as reading the

most difficult Jason Siegel.

Yeah, Jason Siegel. He was actually in the theater.
I saw this at the landmark in L.A. before it closed during COVID, and I asked Jason Siegel a question

about his role. We all have.

I'm going to tell you where the bookmark is, how far I made it.

Well, it's got its, if you go on Reddit and look up the Infinite Jest read-along board where people try to read it together, it's an insane journey into the wild. I got to 478.
By the way, this is the

from our 10th anniversary NFL network party.

Sessler hands us in Wesling in a big spot. So I got to 478 on Infinite Jest, but I still had...

Holy shit.

I got to page four. So you

1,100 pages. So anyway,

it's not the same as the Jason Siegel movie. Show me a person who has actually finished that book, and I will show you a very lonely person who is probably not employed.

All right, where were we? Oh, yeah, we were talking about why you agreed with Joe Burrow. You stood on the table.

Stood on the table for him, and then you, again, compared me to David Foster Wallace for

this episode. But like in the living years, in the living years, yes.
Even then.

Okay, again.

Never again. Many controversial years.
How about that? Many more authors I'd rather be compared to.

But yeah, I think that this year was a little bit of a fight. I think it was cute the last two years where I was like Joe Burrow, Joe Burrow.

And two years ago, we actually had him on the cover of the football preview issue, so everything looked right and it looked nice. This year, I really had to, I really had to fight for it.

But I think this is the most obvious year because even though there's that Chase Brown groundswell among the football intelligentsia, I think this guy's throwing the ball 45 times a game.

And I think this is going to be like a Dan Marino type season for him. Sam, what do you got, Mark?

I see more of more of a Henry David Thoreau type Connor.

This is a little wish casting.

A little bit of a wish casting, but I'm going Jordan Love. And I want to tell you why, I think.
I think this team is about to turn the corner big time. We're going to get his breakout season.

And there is a little bit on my part of, because I almost went burrow, of exhaustion of the same four or five quarterbacks. I feel like they play each other every week in prime time.

I just want a new face, but I really think that the Packers are going to kick people's butts this year, and I'm going Jordan Love.

I am very nervous now for Packers fans because we were about to head to the prediction portion. Sure.

And you know that Sesse has to have the Packers going deep in the dance, and now he's got the MVP also from the Green Bay Packers.

Well, hold on to your butts, Green Bay. I talked them up previously, and then four days later, they have Micah Parsons.
So it's like, I think this may be the reverse of that trend this time.

I like that. Good thing that's good.
Or you could say, or then his back stopped working. We don't have

joining the Packers. I'm just saying, you can't see.
You don't need to add that context to it.

Justin, you're MVP.

I am buying one of the tropiest, most annoying off-season narratives.

I went with Patrick Mahomes, bounce back, Chiefs offense, aired out. It's here.
It's real. It's going to happen.

He's going to be that dude again. So, Patrick Mahomes is my pick.
I've done that before a lot of times, and then I got called out on it for how annoying I was being.

Where every year I'd be like, Well, just Tom Brady, right? Because every year he's technically the best player. And then, like, I did it so often that everyone was telling me how annoying it was.

And I feel like now it's my turret to call you out on

to call you out on that.

The odds makers have Lamar at plus 550, tied with Joe Burrow. So co-favorites in the books.
Josh Allen, plus 600 to go back to back. And then Patrick Holmes, plus 700.
Okay, very good.

All right, let's take a break right here. Uh-oh, and I should note because Justin pointed it out, Cam Ward plus 10,000.

Put 100 bucks on that.

And who am I to say, oh, we're not respecting Cam Ward? He's on this. He's literally on the MVP.
Yeah, if you like to gamble so much, throw away

some money on on that.

By the way, Mark is plus

9,500. Mark's plus 9,500.
Just to win.

For more context, Anthony Richardson has the same odds as Cameron. Okay.
See, this is that's a rough one. You got, okay.

Because Jaden Daniels, we just had Jaden Daniels rip the league up.

There's no chance where the number one overall pick has a big season.

There's just no chance?

That's what the desert says. All right, let's take a break and we will get to to our playoff predictions.

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All right. Okay, before we get to our 2025

playoff predictions, I want to close the door on our hot butts conversation.

The one thing we didn't do at the end of that episode, because I said I wanted it to be collaborative and we can move some things around.

Based on the conversations we had, made a few adjustments here. So this is the official hot butt rankings as we enter the season.

Hotbutts being the coaches who are in the most danger of losing their jobs.

Okay, so with the death proof category stays the same: Campbell, Harbaugh, Harbaugh, LaFleur, McVay, O'Connell, Peyton, Quinn, Reed, Ryan, Shanahan. Okay, then, yes, and Siriani.

Okay, honeymoon phase.

Cohen, Glenn, Johnson, Moore, Schottenheimer, Vrabel, all first-year coaches. Okay,

two changes in I Feel Good. Todd Bowles,

Mike McDonald, Sean McDermott, and Tomlin are all still there. I bumped, even though he's a first-year coach, Carol from the honeymoon phase to I Feel Good.

A first-year coach, he's 73 years old or whatever, a little bit of danger. I also moved Kevin Stefanski from the Chandler Bing Memorial.
Could I be any more nervous?

To I Feel Good, because in our conversation, it just felt like Stefanski may be a little Teflon in Cleveland.

And the fact that they are in a very big rebuild, he's probably safer than the other guys, Callahan, Canales,

Morris, Taylor. And then the final category, Molly, you in danger, girl.
This is the most coaches

under the most danger. I kept McDaniel and Steichen, but I moved Dable and Gannon out of the highest danger category to the Bing category, which is the second highest danger.

So Dable and Gannon are still under a lot of pressure, but maybe not imminent fire butt the way McDaniel and Steichen are. In the past, is it a rarity that there's only two men, McDaniel and Steichen,

in that final category? I feel like it's been heavier in the past, typically. Right.

But I listened to, you know, our conversation, and there was a lot of pushback against Gannon and Dable, who I originally had populating on Mickey. Well, you have integrity.

We all see that.

So is everybody kind of good with this? Is there anything that stands out like egregiously before we move on there? No, I think that's perfect. I really do.

This is a mosaic.

It looks great. All right.
So, good luck, Mike McDaniel and Shin Steichen. History is not on your side at this exercise, but we hope it goes the other way.
All right, now let's kind of

rip through this, but let's kind of be a little quicker here as we hand out and make our playoff predictions.

I'll start,

okay?

Let's say everything leading up to the Super Bowl, and then we'll close the show with that. For division winners in the AFC, I have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, and Kansas City.

Wild cards, I have Baltimore,

Chargers, Denver.

And in the AFC title game, I have Cincinnati at Buffalo.

Connor, you're up.

Okay, so I have my division winners in the AFC, Baltimore,

Buffalo, Kansas City, Houston, my wild cards, Denver, Cincinnati, the Chargers.

I have

Baltimore and Buffalo in the championship game. And then, do I go further? Sorry.
No. Okay.
Keep it there. Okay.

Interesting. Mark.

Division winners. I've got the Bills, the Ravens, the Texans, and the Chiefs.
My wild card teams made a little adjustment here before the show. I'm going Broncos, Chargers, and Aaron Glenn's Jets.

Wow,

baby boy.

AFC title game. Put the Jets in.
Put the Jets in. Ravens, Texans.
Okay. Ooh, Texans all the way to the dance.
Okay, Justin.

All right, for the AFC, I have the Bills, Bengals, Chiefs, and Jaguars winning their divisions. Wildcards, I have the Broncos, Ravens, and Texans.

No Chargers. Okay, who's playing in the AFC title game? AFC title game, I have Chiefs and Bengals.
Okay, very good. All right, now the NFC.
I have the Eagles. I tried.

God knows I tried, but I had to keep it real. I stayed with the Eagles.
The Lions,

the Buccaneers.

And this one I've wrestled with throughout the summer, but then when I really kind of drilled down on it,

the Niners. They're going to bounce back and win the division.
Wild cards. I got the Vikings.
I got the Cowboys. And I got the Seahawks.

Cowboys.

Do you? Bounce back.

Do you have the commanders missing the playoffs? I sure do. Ow, I love it.

Let's go. Yeah.
Some of their, yeah, there's a little bit.

I can't shake some of the Texans' parallels, which is not to say I don't think that Jaden Daniels is fantastic, but a team that was maybe, you know, got hot and won some close games and then filled a bunch of their holes with veterans that's supposed to work, but that doesn't always work.

I just got spooked by a little bit. And also, to be fair, I want to just mix things up a little bit and get a little crazy.
So, yes, I have Washington taking a step back and Dow sneaking in the door.

Love it. How about you, Connor? All right.
My division winners in the NFC are the number one seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I have the San Francisco 49ers. I have the Philadelphia Eagles.
And I have the Detroit Lions.

And my wild card teams are the Rams of Los Angeles, the Vikings of Minnesota, and the Commanders of Washington. And I should, yeah.
Tennessee title game. I have San Francisco at Detroit.

And what do you have, Connor? Sorry about that. I have the Eagles at Tampa.
Okay, very good. Mark.

Okay, I've got the Eagles

winning their division, the Packers, the Bucs, and the Rams.

I'm with you on a couple things, Dan, here.

For wild card, I went Lions, Vikings, and Cardinals. Neither the Commanders nor the Niners make the playoffs in my world.

The NFC title game, Packers, Buccaneers. Ooh.

Pack of Bucs.

I think I know where this is going.

I guess I should add a little context to the Dallas thing.

I do think

Dak Prescott being fully healthy, CeeDee Lamb, who was really beat up. I was a little bit slept on last year.
That guy, every other play was holding his shoulder.

He was in a lot of pain that entire season. And a lot of the reason was he was so keyed in on because they didn't have another receiver.
Pickens, I think, could make a huge difference in that offense.

I understand the running game isn't going to be great, most likely, but I really, I think Prescott having a big bounce back year is a part of this.

Maybe I should have made him my comeback player of the year. In fact, I just have comeback player of the year, Dak Prescott.
And then I'll do the old, I'll do the old change.

I'll do the old, yeah, I'll do the old Simmons

Ewing theory with the defense. I understand Parsons is a huge loss,

but perhaps

the team inexplicably plays a little bit better when the star guy isn't there anymore.

Could it be worse than last year? Put it that way. Get Mike Zimmer, cranky old Mike Zimmer out of town.
But I would put Schottenheimer in Coach of the Year territory.

Yeah, that's fair. Good lord.
That's fair.

It's out there. It's out there.
And finally, Justin. All right, NFC division winners.

I have the Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, and the newly added to Green Bay Packers.

My NFC wildcards are the Detroit Lions, Washington Commanders, and Seattle Seahawks. Nice.
I think you have that. Yeah, we're all in on the Seahawks here.
Yeah. Well, not I, but I don't frown on them.

In my NFC title game.

You don't frown upon the Seahawks?

I love that.

Good. My NFC title game, Lions Packers.

NFC North Showdown. All right, time for

Super Bowl predictions.

Give me some dramatic heft music. Justin, we're going to each old NFL.com style read a blurb

as fans across the world are on the edge of their seat.

For the first time since the indigenous tribes of the Mohawk, Cayuga,

Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora ruled the territory.

Buffalo matters.

Yes,

the face of Josh Allen always a touch vacant. Just a scoach adult.

You know, just kind of parked on a corner, like the cross streets of dead-eyed and doe-eyed. Yes, that familiar visage now gives way to wide-eyed jubilation.

Like a 45-year-old dad in the GA pit at the Oasis Reunion concert.

As the red and blue confetti tumbles down upon the masses at Levi Stadium, perhaps the good people at Chrysler will even put some chains on the tires of the brand new 2026 Town and Country Alan receives for being the game's MVP.

Better facilitating his high tail the hell out of Western New York now that he's finally fulfilled his destiny of bringing the Lombardi trophy to Buffalo, Bill's 34 lines 30.

Connor,

nicely done.

Mine's a little less swooning than that, but here we go.

After watching the 320th microwaved television feature on Bill's Mafia, the torture finally ends with the world's biggest underdog fanbase getting free license to be the entitled douchebags they were always meant to be:

Bills 35, Philadelphia Eagles 32.

Perfect.

It's like he would like the subreddit thread. You know, I'm kind of sick of Connor taking things out on the people of Buffalo.

Everyone sucks. Don't you get my shtick now? We all suck.
Don't pull back the curtain, man. Don't pull back the curtain.

Justin.

Oh, okay.

Uh-oh.

Mariko Graver off the cuff. I thought Mark was going before me.
Okay, here we go.

Sean McDermott said this week that never again will a team go to four straight Super Bowls. Well, guess what? Sean McDermott was wrong.

Not only will the Kansas City Chiefs make their annual trip to the big game, they will, for the fourth time in the Patrick Mahomes era, walk away victorious, besting Dan Campbell's Lions, who make it as close to the top of the mountain as possible, but fall just short to Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.

Final score, Chiefs 27, Lions 21.

God.

Man, the Lions are one of those teams. I always thought this is a Jets fan, too.

If they get to the Super Bowl, you have to win. Yes.

You get to the Super Bowl after all these years and then not win. You got to win.

And now two of us have picked the Lions to lose the Super Bowl. All right.

Finally, Mark Sessler.

The luscious

and flowing Packers of Green Bay ride into San Francisco on a heavily ornamented buggy.

Baston flowers and scents of the west, Jordan Love and his band of caring, fearless cohorts, led by Michael Paulsons, systematically rip purple-clad Baltimore into 10,000 pieces as a California sun shines down.

In the deep distance, one can sense the heavenly body of Vince Lombardi speaking about the game itself, whispering into the wilds, Colin, we are back. Packers 41, Ravens 27.
Whoa!

Listen, it was predictable, but it didn't make it any more enjoyable. I mean,

this is the whammy of all whammies. It is.
But you know what? A good way to look at it, as we kick off a new season,

if this comes true, we can't ever talk about that again.

Because

this will be the Jinx. This will be like the curse of the Bambino being lifted.
Like if you can hit on the MVP and the Super Bowl with the Packers.

The Packers, huh?

Then, and only then, will the curse be lifted. The curse of Sessler.
I have probably annoyed Outer Milwaukee, but I'm going to have to work around that for the next couple of months.

All right, but thanks, everybody. Great show.

Great show. That's our prediction.
As you can tell from our voices, we've been doing this for so many years, but it's still so exciting the start of a new year.

And we can't wait to begin breaking down the games that count. Starting tomorrow night, you'll get our recap of the Eagles Cowboys.
Oh man, my Cowboys playoff prediction.

Getting a win over Philly on the road would really

rocket ship those bitches. All right.

So we'll be back late Thursday, early Friday, depending where you are.

And we cannot wait for you to join us. Until next time, heat the call.

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