Micah Parsons Returns to Dallas, Lamar and Harbaugh Battle The Chiefs, a List Off with JuJu Gotti, and the Five Most Interesting Games of The Week with Matt Verderame

How's this for some pigskin serendipity?

Seven years ago at the 2018 draft, Dave Caldwell and Doug Marone's Jaguars were a little too high on their own supply after almost going to the Super Bowl with Blake Bordles.

So with Louisville's Lamar Jackson still on the board, the Jags used the 29th overall pick on Tavin Bryan?

Tavin Bryan!

Spoiler alert, the Jags made a mistake there.

Doug Marone's been an O-line coach ever since, and earlier this week, the Baltimore Ravens signed to their practice squad, you guessed it, Tavin Brian.

Or was it Brian Tavin?

Either way, forget about the Jags.

Let's talk about the team that did get Lamar, and more specifically, their head coach.

You remember the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ads?

Guy eating a chocolate bar bumps into a woman scooping peanut butter straight out of the jar while she's walking down the street?

You know, like people did.

Point is, the combo made magic.

It's kind of like that with good football coaches and great great QBs.

Both work on their own, but together, they can provide an even better outcome.

There are many great QBs who've won Lombardies with lousy head coaches and vice versa, but how often is the great coach great QB formula not yielded at least one Super Bowl trip?

Now listen, John Harbaugh's nice and consistent.

He won a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco, but of course had to pay that worth it but heavy Super Bowl winning QB tax after Flacco won that Lombardi.

But then they missed the playoffs in four of the next five years.

And by November of 2018, Baltimore was under 500.

And here's the part a lot of people forget.

Look it up if you don't believe me.

Harbaugh and ownership actually agreed to part ways after the season.

Until Flacco got hurt and rookie Lamar went in and the Ravens went 6-1 and won the division.

And see, Brian Dayball, there's hope for you yet.

And Harbaugh unpacked those moving boxes and in 2019 went 14-2.

And Lamar won the MVP.

And Harbaugh got tons of credit for his nimble genius.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Except seven years later, still no peanut butter cup.

The Lamar Hawbaugh Ravens, the Lamarbaugh Ravens, were a lot of people's Super Bowl favorites and one in three in the 17 conference playoff era wouldn't be a killer, but it wouldn't be good either.

Not with Lamar's ongoing postseason habit of being a little less good.

And now Derrick Henry's fumbling issues and this garbage defense.

And if the Ravens don't turn things around soon, Harbaugh might be asking Doug Marone to mutually mutually agree to put in a good word for him.

Well, unless Tavin Bryan has a good arm or Brian Tavin.

Ooh, Russell Wilson.

Brian Dable knows what I'm talking about.

Let's start the show.

Yes, hi and hello, fellow Football Americans.

Sports Illustrated is Matt Verder.

I'm in the Lebatard shows.

Resident Liz King, Juju Gotti are on the way.

Bradley's in NYC.

The Fuentes Brothers have the con in Miami.

Your old pal Dave here in L.A.

This episode of Football America is presented by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Welcome to NFL Week 4.

Welcome to episode 11.

And starting it off, as we always do, let's name the greatest number 11s in pro football history.

I've got it, fellas.

Danny White.

The guy who took over for Roger Stauback in 1980 and did pretty well.

Drew Bledsoe started a Super Bowl, of course, for Parcells and the Patriots.

The former Micah Parsons, Champaign Tony Eason,

who started Super Bowl 20

against the Bears, got replaced by Necroll.

Steve Grogan, I have Alex Smith.

But number one, I think it's hard to quibble with, it's Larry Fitzgerald.

Did I miss anybody?

Dante Culpepper, maybe, but I mean, Larry Fitzgerald, easily number one.

Like Dante Culpeper, yeah.

Yeah.

Culpepper's a good.

Go ahead, Brad.

I got Sebastian Janikowski.

Seabass, yeah.

Left-footed.

Oh, yeah.

First-round kicker.

Yeah, first-round kicker.

I'll also say Julian Edelman, who's definitely the best player to ever play in a Super Bowl with a concussion that he hit.

Yeah,

I feel like when we swoon about Brady and about the Patriots dynasty, you could either give Brady an extra five Lombardies or you could take away five from his and the Patriots ring count.

There are so many flukes there, and the big fluke of that one, unless it was the

Julio Jones catch, there's another number 11 for you.

Julio Jones, he's probably the closest of anybody to Larry Fitzgerald.

It still is Larry Fitzgerald.

But Edelman makes that insane catch off the ground.

And I know the career numbers do not support this.

Here's a hot take.

I think he can make a pretty powerhouse case that he belongs in the Hall of Fame.

How many big moments do you need to deliver in the postseason, aka the whole point of the entire NFL season to then still be left out of the Hall of Fame.

How say you, Fuentes Brothers?

I mean, he's definitely a big contributor to a lot of those big Tom Brady moments.

So I get the thing is, when he got categorized as like that slot receiver, that safety blanket, I think it was always going to be hard to put him in the same category as like a Larry Fitzgerald or Julio Jones or something like that.

And one more thing before we forget about Larry Fitzgerald, still one of the craziest stats of all time, more tackles than drop passes for Larry Fitzgerald.

Sheesh, one of the great sports stats out there.

Before we dig really into week four, some biz here to get to.

First, big news.

I'm updating my Super Bowl 60 pick.

I'm sorry to have to do it, but of course, I'm going to react.

Here we go.

Well, whatever evidence, when new evidence comes into me, I'm not going to dig my heels in.

I'm not going to react to it.

No faith in Mac Jones.

It was the Bills versus the Niners.

That's how I had it.

And the odds on that had gotten shorter and shorter the more Football America talked talked about it it is the buffalo bills versus the green bay packers i don't see what happened in cleveland last week that's now my pick welcome to

i'm pretty sure geno predicted that yeah

welcome to my side real football is getting yeah that's all geno that's all geno

listen good for geno drafted before

geno

we're now in the same spot um yeah it's the jenga theory he is their jenga piece he's been removed now the niners are going to collapse maybe not collapse but they're not going to go to the super bowl meantime shout out to all all the football Americans who've subscribed and shared the good word.

We appreciate you.

Special thanks to the Football American of the Week, Lo's Real Ali.

He put some great artwork out there on social media.

I hope you've gotten a chance to take a look at that.

It's grand stuff.

Great episode, The Start the Week with Greg Rosenthal and Jeff Schwartz.

Go back and listen to that if you get a chance.

Like I say, keep spreading the good word.

And as far as that goes, a decade after Football Baby first made the scene, we're now looking for a new Football Baby also out on social media.

Send in your baby and let's see if he's magic or she is magic and can pick football games.

Now, it's time for this week's pick six presented by DraftKings.

The crown is yours.

We're going to build a lineup together, Mike, Gino, Gino, and Mike, together instead of doing our separate ones, because quite frankly, I'm a little disappointed in our collective performance so far.

Three weeks in, and we haven't won the million dollars yet.

So let's see if we can fix that.

Here's this week's Football American pick six lineup.

If we win, we all retire.

And I'm going to start it off with, tell me what you guys think about these plays.

Quentin Johnson over half a touchdown.

He's had three touchdowns on the season, none in week three.

But in fact, against the Mighty Broncos defense, his targets increased up to 10.

So I think he gets in the end zone.

Jordan Mason, over 78 and a half rush yards, 116 just last week against the Bengals.

Now, people will say, well, it came against the Bengals.

My retort, have you seen the Steelers run defense?

Mahomes over 25.5 rush yards.

He had two against the Giants, but that game was never in question.

In the first two weeks, 57 and 66 rush yards.

He'll go well over the 25 and a half.

And lastly,

Jalen Warren over 23.5 receiving yards, 86 and 34 in his last two games.

Plus, the guy who throws him the ball, Aaron Rodgers, said, we got to get that guy the ball more.

So that makes good sense to me.

How say you?

I think Jalen Warren is a good call.

I think Aaron Rodgers is going to be terrified with that Brian Flores blitz coming at him.

So he'll probably just, you know, that dump off where he just falls back and drops it off.

Oh, I do.

A lot of that.

Yeah, and I think Patrick Mahomes, he's clearly the number one rushing option for the Chiefs.

It's terrible.

He has 125 on the year.

Isaiah Pacheco behind him with only 92.

So almost 30 yards more than the next closest guy.

I think he's going to keep that up.

I think it's going to have to become a permanent part of his game if they're going to really want to get their offense going.

Okay.

Do you guys want to throw some in here?

like i say this is a combined effort we're going to split the million dollars 33 apiece and we'll give one percent to bradley i guess although thanks guys yeah

well no we haven't decided to that yet maybe

maybe

he's a bit generous okay all right i'm gonna go uh josh jacobs here uh they're playing against the cowboys uh on sunday night football um the cowboys defense is awful and i think josh jacobs falls into the end zone it could be receiving it could be rushing it doesn't matter uh over a half touchdown easy score for me yeah and for me, I think I'm totally on the Caleb Williams training for the rest of the season.

You know, the Dallas game got him right.

I don't like Vegas' defense at all.

He'll also throw for over one and a half touchdowns again this week.

All right, there you have it.

Our combined list, or is this what we're going to go with here?

This is our final six.

Mike, you're okay with Geno's plays and vice versa?

Yeah, this is the one that's going to have us not in here on Monday.

It was great knowing you, Football America.

I'll be in Mexico if you need me.

Start spinning up the margaritas.

Let's go.

Oh, that's a good conversation.

Well, let's do one more show after we win the million, and we'll talk about how we're going to spend.

You guys have fun.

I'll be in Mexico if you guys need me.

High and hello, football Americans.

Did you hear the news?

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The better your calls, the bigger your payout.

This week, Mike and Geno Fuentes helped me figure out my pick six, including

Russell Wilson's passing yards, how many touchdown passes Patrick Mahomes may or may not throw.

Get in there, surf around, and find your favorite plays there.

And here's the kickoff bonus.

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All right, with no further ado, let's get ready to ramble.

I am thrilled to say hello to this fella.

He is the resident list maker of the Dan Lebatard universe.

Or was he until Damashek arrived?

It's time to settle this hash once and for all.

It's Juju Gotti.

What's happening, pal?

And before you even say hello, what a coincidence, or is it serendipity?

It's our 11th show.

We're listing the greatest NFL players in history, and you're wearing the number 11.

You feel me?

Well, first of all, I'm so happy and honored to share a microphone booth with you, a stage with you, anything I can share with you, Brother Dave.

It's an honor.

But yeah, this is actually, I wanted to show my allegiance to you.

You feel me?

I love the Bills and I love the Eagles.

So this is my,

what was her name?

Dana Jacobson, a version of the NFL right here.

But it's number 11, lucky.

I always love when they do that, when they cut away to the mom whose two sons are playing in the game.

And they're like, oh, tough day for her.

Like, is it a tough day for her?

Her two sons are in the NFL.

I don't think it's that bad.

I'm not down in the dumps for her situation.

All right.

She's doing fine.

Millionaire.

Juju, here's what I'd like to do.

I'd like to trade lists.

As I say, everybody knows who you are.

You don't need the introduction as the resident list maker.

As a vain guy, I'd like to share a list with you that's kind of over the last week or so, it's kind of entered my brain with the rise of Danny Dimes, nay, Indiana Dimes or Indiana Jones or

whatever you want to call him.

All of a sudden, Colts fans had no reason to be excited going into this season if they were listening to the experts, but here they are with one of the great stories going in the NFL.

So here's my list for you right now.

The best state in football America to be a football fan.

Right now, time capsule.

And I'm not talking about next week.

I'm not talking about last week.

Right now the best cities or the i should say the best states to be a football american in do you want to take a guess not to leave indiana out since i kind of tipped my hand there you want to take a guess at another one or another couple there everybody can chime in if they'd like uh i would say pennsylvania has to be atop the list because it's great to be an eagles fan and it's kind of not as bad as you would have thought it would be to be a steelers fan Okay.

All right.

That's a, that's a good note there.

Let me very quickly fire through some ones that would be, I'm guessing, in people's minds, if they had been in a coma for the last five or 10 years and they just woke up, you would certainly say, well, Texas is always a good place to be a football fan.

Not Texas, though.

The Texans stink.

The Cowboys are kind of an embarrassment and traded away their former number 11, Micah Parsons, in case you didn't hear.

Texas is good, but Arch Manning's a little bit of a disappointment.

Now, AM, TCU, Texas, Tech, Houston, undefeated collectively, but that doesn't offset what I just said.

Illinois, the Bears are only okay.

Illinois got shamed last week by the Hoosiers.

Northwestern's bad.

It's not Missouri.

The Tigers are undefeated.

But what else is new?

The Kansas City Chiefs are dragging down the whole state.

So, okay.

Tell me what you think about this.

Where's Callie in all this?

We got USC's 4-0.

You got both the Rams and the Chargers are doing pretty good.

San Francisco's 3-0?

They're in there.

They're in the Jets missed category.

Also, New York, you have the Bills riding high right now, and the Qs is 3-1.

Their QB got hurt, though.

Michigan.

We got Jackson Dart, baby.

That's New Jersey.

That's New Jersey.

That's true, true, true.

Point taken, point taken

by omitting the Giants and the Jets.

They belong to the garden state.

Michigan has the Lions, and they have Michigan, but Michigan State's no good.

Arizona is a sneaky one here.

You have the Arizona Cardinals still good even after their loss.

And Arizona State and Arizona are a combined six and one.

To your mention there, Fuentes, California, Chargers, Rams,

Niners still pretty good.

USC undefeated.

Now, UCLA is a national embarrassment and there are some rough feelings out there with the Raiders later.

There are a lot of California schools, man.

You can't have it all.

You're right.

You're right.

Now, listen,

those are

here now, my top three.

California is the one that just missed here.

Ready for this, Juju?

Here we go.

Pennsylvania to the Fwent

or to Juju's mention.

You're right.

Eagles, Stillers, Penn State undefeated.

Pitt lost the backyard brawl, though, to West Virginia.

And I'm still up in my feelings about that.

So I dinked them and dropped them to number three.

Number two.

Hello.

Hey, but we also got in philly uh the the phillies fan who stole the ball from the kid i mean look at us

and big dom yeah you're right they're they're less likable as a result of those two just left alone not to mention nick siriani although i just mentioned nick siriani at number two

The best state to be a football fan right now.

And I think this is going to get a weird reaction, but I think it's accurate.

It's the Sunshine State, Miami, where the Fuentes brothers currently sit.

And I know people are very upset about the state of the Dolphins, but that is not enough to distract me from.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing a huge game this weekend.

The Jaguars.

Two and one.

I wouldn't call them good, but they're two and one.

Yeah.

Do you?

A lot of people are calling them the best team in college football right now.

There's a flag.

Florida State.

Go ahead, Juju.

You're throwing a bag.

Matter of fact, this is the right flag.

This is the right flag.

Challenge flag.

I love it.

We need more challenge flags on this show.

Let it be a thing.

Let Juju

start a whole new era here on the show.

Go ahead.

You're against it, Florida.

I challenge your Jacksonville Jaguar.

Proud to be a Jags fan take right there because I don't know.

I seen Trevor Lawrence throw a forward pass 12 yards down the field the other day.

And I was like, what are you doing, brother?

So I don't know.

I throw the challenge flag on the Jaguars.

Okay, that's fair.

Collectively, though, the Sunshine State's having a good season, but you really have to blur your eyes because the fact of the matter is, if you are a Florida football fan, you're not rooting for all of Florida.

If you are, you're a disgrace.

You don't get to have every team in the state, you understand.

If you're a Miami fan, if you're a Kanes fan, you don't also get to root for the Gators.

That's not how things work.

Although people like to cheat that, right, Juju?

That's a fan conduct violation.

You're sitting there in a big jersey, so maybe I'm sharing this for the wrong person, but you're not allowed to do that.

I think that might be teams like this.

I think that might be what's wrong with America right now.

I feel like, you know what?

We're taking allegiances.

We're being so mean to one another.

You know what, kids?

Root for however many teams you want to root for.

If you like the Dolphins, I like the Jaguars.

Split that jersey up, man.

Paint your face in Jaguar paint and wear the Dolphins fin on your back.

If you want to root for Nebraska as well as Syracuse, knock yourself out, man.

Free country, allegedly.

But you know what I'm saying?

At least I think the world should change in that area.

We shouldn't be so strict on fandom anymore.

Root for who you want to root for.

Don't quote me.

Juju shows up here with a message of peace and how we can come together as a society.

And that.

completely contradicts what I said in front of that.

In other words, Juju, you're a jerk.

Taste the plastic.

You don't come in here and start showing me up

with a message of being good to each other.

Okay, maybe he's on to something, especially as this pit slash Indiana Hoosiers fan

roots for both teams as we move on to another week of college football action.

All right, your number one answer, antaclimactic though it is, since I already mentioned it at the top there.

It is in fact the Hoosier state, formerly a basketball state.

And yes, PU, the boilers stink.

They're terrible, and they have for many moons now.

But they're my arch rival as an Indiana University graduate, so that's fine by me.

Notre Dame ain't out of it just yet.

Okay.

They're still in the mix a little bit.

I have my quibbles with them being in the top 25, but it is what it is.

But the big.

You would need binoculars to see Notre Dame in the mix right now.

Neither here nor there.

Keep going, brother.

Well, I mean, it's the twin bill.

It's the Indiana Hoosiers undefeated.

And now, if you've missed the update, Fernando Mendoza is the Heisman frontrunner.

The Indiana Hoosiers quarterback is the favorite in the Heisman.

It's wild times.

And then on top of it, Daniel Gimes, Dimes, who everybody was laughing at almost more than they were laughing at Anthony Richardson, now has the Colts undefeated in first place.

Who told you that they were going to win the division?

Dave Damashek told you that before the season started.

But it's sort of like Juju, if you'll ride with me on this analogy.

You know, it's sort of like being a devout Christian versus an atheist at the doorstep of death.

And

when, when it's

here's the thing:

if you, if you're, if you're a devout, if you're, if you're a person of faith and you die, and then all, and then a couple seconds later, it's like, I'm at the pearly gates.

I'm going to heaven for eternity.

Great.

I always figured this was here and now it's been proven true.

If you're an atheist and you die, and the next thing you know is you're in heaven, what a celebration it'll be.

Oh, my God.

I get to live for eternity

in heaven.

This is the best.

That's what a Colts fan is going through right now.

An Ethiopian fan is like, yeah, we better be good.

That's what I expected us to be.

A Colts fan is like, I got into heaven.

What the hell?

Now, I know it's still September, but you're picking up what I'm laying down, right?

Look, this is all I got for you.

Bravo, that was perfect.

You walked me right up into that hip pearly gates and dropped me right into your point.

I love it.

Well, which side is better?

I think we know the answer to that.

Okay, Juju, there's my list for you.

Take it away.

Let's hear your list for your debut as a football American.

See, I didn't get the memo of make this thing short and snappy.

So I made a top 10 worst NFL jerseys of all time.

I'm going to speed through them.

As a matter of fact, I'm going to take it down to nine to save time.

Number nine.

This is an offshoot of the drip drill that we do periodically with Mike Ryan.

Oh, Jr.

I like it.

Throwing him out here.

Here we go.

I'm excited.

Okay, I'm taking it down to eight.

We press for time.

Number eight, the Miami Dolphins, orange top with the white pants.

Oh,

fanfare.

Get them out of here.

Oh, oh, oh, my goodness.

Thank God.

I misheard you 20 seconds ago.

I thought you were launching into the best jerseys.

And if that was on your all-time list,

I like where your head's at.

Worst jerseys ever.

We're going in the right direction here.

Yes.

Number seven, the Bears 1925 jerseys.

Get them out of here.

Don't throw back to that error ever.

That's the last time they had a good quarterback, right?

If they

Did they have, what were those 1925 ones?

What did they look like?

Are those the sort of like the orange stripes on their shoulders?

They were a dumpster set on fire, made into shirts.

Number six, the Seahawks TJ Hushmanzada, green with the blue sleeves.

They only wore those, is that the neon green you're talking about?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

A visual atrocity.

I don't know why they did that to themselves.

But anyway,

we want people to watch us.

Let's watch something that is repellent to everybody's eyeballs.

Great idea.

Great idea, everybody.

Number five, the Buffalo Bills Takeo Spikes era.

Can I go one further?

Yeah.

That to me, unless you float one that I've forgotten here, that is, I think, to me, the worst uniform that I've ever seen in NFL history.

I like it.

It was two colors of blue, but neither one of them was light blue.

It was like two

slightly different royal blues, plus red, plus gray, plus fat.

Right.

With a red helmet to top off the cherry.

Get out of here.

Shiny pants.

The whole thing was a mess.

You're right.

Number four, the Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Blue in yellow jerseys.

Senseless, senseless.

And I don't care what the history books say about, oh, they had those at one point.

It's to say, like, but the Red Sox do that now, too.

Exact same color scheme.

So that should tip you off, Philadelphia, that you made a mistake.

Donovan McNabb and the rest of you wearing those.

It's such a shame, too, because the Eagles have,

I think, on the shortlist of best retro uniforms available, the 1960 ones.

White Vic wore them once.

The green, the Royal Green, I mean, the Kelly Green, Kelly Green hats and the white pants, simple and grand, right?

Right.

Randall Cunningham.

Yeah, eat your heart out.

I love those.

Yes, he looked good, too.

Number three, the Broncos 1980 yellow and brown.

Yellow and brown socks.

What are we doing?

Do not throw back to that ever.

What?

Jay Cutler is rolling over in his damn grave every time he wear those jerseys.

Did Cuddy have to wear those?

I didn't remember Cuddy, who's he's he's so pleasant all the time.

So I can't imagine he would have had

the Broncos fans actually, the Broncos fans actually protested.

Those jerseys were so bad.

They protested, we need new colors.

Like, that's how much the fans hated it back in the day.

Is that where the orange and blue came from?

Really?

I didn't know that.

I think it's funny.

I think they're regionally specific.

I think they fit San Diego sand and, you know, beach vibes and the Padre, you know, a fryer in brown.

I think they look good there.

And

the other brown and gold team out there is not in that.

Bottom line is, I think those,

the white jerseys with the brown pants, the thing that makes everybody hate them is the vertical socks.

Those are silly looking.

I don't think they're that bad otherwise.

I know everybody hates them except me, but I think they're halfway decent.

In fact, I think the L Way, the late L Way Terrell Davis era, that navy blue, I think that's way worse.

I really think that's repellent unit.

Oh, man.

But I mean, that's like saying, you know what?

I like your outfit, except that shirt.

Like for the NFL, we see the socks.

So no wiggle room there.

It's like when the broadcaster says, like, hey, as a matter of fact, this offense has not played that badly aside from the turnovers.

Like, yeah, well,

those those do happen to count in the box score, and they do impact the final results.

So I think they are not just a small matter to gloss over.

Okay, two shots.

Yes, sir.

Number two, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 1933,

black and yellow.

It met in a V, but had a logo here.

You know what?

I'll take that.

I was worried you were going to go with the jailbreaks.

Don't go with those because those look cool.

I know that those look good.

You don't see those often, but that doesn't make them bad.

Those are, those are the most striking getups there are.

I don't like when they wear the Steelers, wear the gold hats.

I'm with you completely about the way throwbacks.

It looks like they're wearing a baby carrier.

You know, those

Bjorns.

Yeah, a baby Bjorn.

That's exactly.

If you look at it,

they're wearing a baby Bjorn carrying the Steelers' old logo on it.

I don't care for it.

Yes, do away with those.

Right.

And the number one worst jersey combination uniform NFL

of all time.

The Green Bay Packers, navy blue and khaki pants.

With the leather helmet, get out of it.

But it's like a fake leather helmet, too.

It's like, it's not

an imitation fake helmet.

I admire the effort.

I haven't really leaned into that where I come down ultimately.

Because it's kind of cool that it looks like an actual leather helmet, no?

But then again,

just pull a leather helmet over what you're already wearing or something like that.

If you're going to go that far, yeah.

Yeah, I think you're right, Fuentes.

That is about now.

The worst I don't know about that juju dynamite stuff here.

Before we let you go, though, since you're down south

somewhere in the state of Georgia, by the way, Georgia, not the best place to be a football fan.

Thank you, Falcons.

The dogs, dogs are right back where you expect them, but the Falcons are not where I expect them to be in the NFC South standing so far.

Can you, yeah, that's right.

Can I, can I, yeah, that pulled a big upset there and all of that.

Um, quickly, what are your thoughts on this?

Okay.

Why does it seem, and maybe it's just my perception, but I think by record and otherwise, you can check this out in terms of Lombardi count and everything else.

The AFC South is pretty much the worst division in the NFL.

But I wouldn't say the NFC South is draping itself in glory either, even with the Drew Brees run and Sean Payton that they had.

And, you know, the Panthers have been to a couple of Super Bowls, but overall,

I guess you had the Brady mercenary year too.

But still, neither division.

I would say those are the two worst divisions almost every single year.

Do you have any logic of why this would be the case?

See, what had happened was

Mercury was in a retrograde.

I think about a couple weeks before the AFC South and NFC South were created.

You know, that's a bad omen.

It's pretty much a bad omen.

I think they walked under ladders a while during the meeting of naming the teams.

Crossing that happened.

You see what I'm saying, Gino?

He was there.

He knows.

He got the same information.

Yeah, it was bad.

The Panthers chose their mascot to be a black cat.

Right.

You're inviting.

I hadn't even thought about that.

Come on.

Come on.

Right.

Come on, man.

There's a lot of stuff that happened back in the day down south that I think kind of cursed the people who created them.

We need new directions.

New leadership will change everything, but that's never going to happen.

Well, in SEC country, when it comes to the NFL, it just means less.

It means a great deal, however, to me and to all football Americans to hear Juju Gotti's voice here on Football America.

We appreciate the time, Pally.

Don't be a stranger.

Let's do this again sooner rather than later, eh?

Yes, sir.

Absolutely, man.

Thank you so much for having me, brother.

Good times with Juju Gotti, everybody.

All right, this guy's one of my favorite in the business.

You know him from his great pages and his talking for Sports Illustrated.

He also does that football show on the KC Sports Network, and he's the host of the Matt Verdurom show on Patreon.

It's Matt Verdurom, everybody.

What's happening, pal?

How you been?

Good.

How are you doing, Chuck?

What a pleasure to speak with you once again.

I know you're probably, as a fan, a little down in the dumps, given the state of your Chiefs, but they have a chance to turn it around.

And how, as we jump into the picks here, and we'll tick them down five all the way down to one.

Big game for the Niners, I think, this week.

I suspect you were listening intently to this top of the show, but just on the off chance you missed it, I announced that the Niners' ceiling has lowered Jenga Theory and all that.

The Jenga piece of the 49ers defense is Nick Bosa.

He's been removed.

That means they can maybe make a playoff run, but they are not going to be playing a home game in the Super Bowl this year.

How say you?

Oh, no, I didn't.

I mean, look, I may be older on them than you in the sense.

I never thought they were much more than a team that could maybe win a playoff game.

They've gotten old.

They've gotten really old in a lot of spots.

Trem Williams is old.

Now Nick Bosa is out again.

This is, I believe, the second time he's bought out his knee, knee and he's out for the year.

Look, I mean, IUK's still coming back.

I think the Niners, could they win the division?

Maybe.

I think the Rams are significantly better, quite frankly, than San Francisco is.

But to give the Niners credit, they found ways to win.

This week against Jacksonville,

they get a Jaguars team that's won four games in the history of the franchise in the Pacific time zone.

They just don't win out there.

And even though they're 2-1, I don't know that you've been overly impressed by Jacksonville.

They barely scraped by Houston.

They beat a bad Carolina team.

You know, I think the Niners get to 4-0 this week, and yet still, I'm not really,

there's nothing that makes me think this team is going to make a deep playoff run.

Okay.

Well, I'm now off of the Niners as a Super Bowl contender.

I think if the Jags pull this one out, and I think they have a chance to do it, they will be a very sneaky 3-1 sitting there.

But okay, let's get into it.

At number five, if you have a limited window of time to sit down and watch pro football on Sunday, these are the games you absolutely positively want to be tuned in for.

And if you want to make it a little more interesting, we're about to try to help you do that.

Packers, Cowboys, classic rivalry goes without saying.

Made even better by Jared Jones for some reason.

Trading Micah Parsons.

All this talk about, well, we won't trade him within the NFCs, but you did trade him to the arch rival for decades and for half a century.

That's who you traded him to?

Anywho, Cowboys plus seven without CeeDee Lamb here.

47 and a half is the total on this one at the time of the recording.

How say you on how this one goes, Verdurom?

I know it's a big number, especially if you're on the road, but I would take the Packers to win it to cover.

To me, here's the number that scares the hell out of me.

It's 126.

That's the amount of pass attempts Dak Prescott's had this year.

That's the most in football.

And if Green Bay with that pass rush knows you've got to sit back there and throw the ball to a CeeDee Lambless offensive team, not good.

Like that is not, they're without Cooper Beebe up front.

They're without they're they are missing multiple linemen at this point in time.

The first round rookie that they just took, Booker, he's out for four to six weeks.

Like they

are just in a bad way right now on offense.

And that defense is horrendous.

Caleb Williams threw for 298 without even trying.

Russell Wilson threw for 450 and they got benched after one more game.

Look, Rashawn Gary is kind of the quiet man in all this.

He's four and a half sacks.

He's leaving the NFL.

Everybody's talking about Parsons.

Parsons have been great, but Gary's reaping the rewards of it.

That's right.

I think this game could get out of hand in the second half, and they've got to drop back and throw the ball.

I'm with you.

Everything you just said there.

I think that any, if that number seems low to you, you say it's a big number on the road, but I assume it has something to do with what everybody just saw.

They lost to the Browns.

You know, listen, in the NFL, we talk about it all the time with our mutual pal, Jeff Schwartz.

The NFL is not college football.

Win by one point, win three to two or 78 to 77.

Who cares as long as you win the game?

Well, the Packers didn't win that game, but I think they bounced back here.

I got it 33 to 20 Packers.

Next up, got to wake up early.

Don't forget to set the alarm, especially if you're on the West Coast.

The Vikes and the Steelers are over in Dublin.

Shout out again to our pal, handsome Hank Hodgson, the king of international football.

Another little medal to add to his growing jacket of success over there.

Steelers, a dog in this one, plus two and a half, 41.5 is the total on this one.

Big takeaway is Brian Flores, who was a consultant on that defense a couple of years ago with Mike Tomlin, going up against Mike Tomlin.

How say you, Verduron?

I went back and forth in this game.

I think I like Minnesota for this reason against your Steelers.

Look, Flores has been the play caller twice against Rodgers.

He's 2-0 in those games.

They played each other last year when Rodgers was with the Jets, ironically in an international game.

And Rogers threw three picks, lost in that game.

The thing that really concerns me, too, is Pittsburgh's 2-1, but they have been massively out-gained in these games.

Even the games they've won, they've been outgained by 300 yards.

They are yet to have 300 yards in a game this year.

Only the Dolphins, Texans, Titans, and Cardinals do not have 300 yards in a game, along with Pittsburgh.

So that concerns me.

But Carson Wentz can be the gift that keeps giving if you are a Pittsburgh.

Like he might throw a couple picks.

I think if you're the Vikings, they're trying to mitigate that as much as possible.

They're getting Jordan Addison back this week.

I like Minnesota in a one-score game.

I do think it's close, but I'll take him to cover slightly.

I think they do win

in what is technically a home game for them internationally.

Well, I've got it, by the way.

I'm with you.

I've got the Vikes winning it 24 to 20.

And I think that

something I've been pointing at at for the last week or more is that, you know, Aaron Rodgers, it's nothing to do with his skill set.

It has to do with his age.

And he, like Peyton and Brady and Brees, when they're on the wrong side of 40, don't want to get smacked around.

And so he's getting rid of the ball a tick early.

I think that gets further exposed by Brian Flores.

And on the other side of things with Carson Wentz,

Again, I'm riding with KOC.

I'm not riding with the guy at the trigger, but for what it matters, this was an act of of choice.

I know trying to get Kirk Cousins out of Atlanta would have cost way more than signing Carson Wentz off the street.

But in a way, I think that was vaguely telling.

You could have undone things and said, let's give ourselves the safety valve named Cousins and bring him in with the kid sitting down.

They wanted to get Carson Wentz.

They trust him.

It can be a punchline to the rest of us, but I trust KOC and I do trust that defense.

And I think that this, my prediction is, and I hope to be wrong as a Steelers fan, i think this is the game where what i'm talking about and what you talk about the offensive line and rogers trying to unload the ball a little more quickly really gets exposed and by the way one more thing about the vikings offense i think jordan mason has a chance to to to gash him and you say well he did that last week they did that last week against the bengals and to what verduram just said have you seen the steelers defense this year it ain't any good either

it's nothing good

um okay next up i know that verduram he's the guy who led the way on this call.

I know not very many people are talking about this three, four years ago, but Lou Anaruma was the secret sauce of the Bengals being playoff and even Super Bowl relevant.

For some reason, we didn't talk about that another day.

The Bengals decided to move on from him.

I predicted before the season this would be a Vic Vangio, poor man's Vic Fangio level success for the Colts.

So far, I've been made to look smart there.

Colts at the Rams, LA laying three and a half, 49.5 is the total.

I like the Rams as much as you.

The only thing that concerns me is Matthew Stafford's ticking time bomb of a back.

That's the only reason why you can't go all in on that team.

But anyway, in this one, how say you?

I like the Rams to win at home.

If it was in Indianapolis, I might take the Colts.

Look, Jones has been great.

Like, legitimately, he's been really good.

I think he's third in passing yardage in the league.

He's been everything they could have ever dreamed of and then some.

Look, defensively, we're going to find out how good they are because they have played three teams that have no offense.

The Dolphins are terrible.

The Broncos are not terrible, but offensively, they're not good.

And the Titans are horrific.

This Rams team is going to stress them.

And I think the big key to this game is can the Colts, can they stop Kyron Williams?

They have not been great against the run this year.

That has kind of been the one weak spot for them.

If Williams can run the ball, that opens up

Time of possession.

It opens up if they can score touchdowns off of those drives.

Then all of a sudden, that Rams defense, which leads the league with 12 sacks, can get after Indian.

That's the matchup.

The Rams defense, 12 sacks, tied with Denver for the most.

Indianapolis, best sack rate in the league against 2.2% of the time.

Who wins that battle?

Well, I think if you can run the ball, you can get ahead.

You can force him to throw the ball more predictably.

It changes things.

Look, I think the Rams win like 26-22.

I have them like...

covering by a half a point.

I think it's right on the market.

I think this game is really hard to bet.

I would shy away from it because I think it's right around the total.

I think it's right around the number.

But I do like the Rams.

I think they find a way to win this game, get the three and a line.

And you mentioned Kyron Williams.

You know, there's some buzz around the Rams that Blake Corams is really pushing hard to become a 50-50 split, and there might be some value in doing that.

But either way, yeah, they're grinding.

They

should be able to.

It's funny.

I've been talking lately about or laughing about when people,

when broadcasters, when the color analysts have nothing else to say, they say something vapid like, this team fits the identity of the blue collar community that they represent as though people in Miami or Los Angeles are incapable of enjoying dominant defense.

Like, wow, I don't know what my eyes are looking at.

I only can respond to the splash of all that.

Their defense, like you say, the Rams I'm talking about, and same thing goes with

the team they share so fi with, that defense is real good but man that Rams front seven is for real yes um

and uh so yeah I I'm with you that this one comes down to to pass rush I'm gonna go with you I'm gonna ride with the Rams here and if the double whammy happens the story emerging out of the AFC South may well be like oh, the Jags are in first place.

I mean, there's a potential that that could be what we're talking about come Sunday night.

Sneaky, super important game, because as I said to start the week, the winner of this one is going to be the number one seed in the NFC.

Hear me now, believe me later.

It's the Eagles.

It's the Bucs, the home team in Tampa, plus three and a half, total 43 and a half.

Look, first of all, the Eagles this year have not run the ball well at all.

Barkley's averaging 3.3 yards per carry.

And part of that is they're banged up up front at times, part of that,

have been at times.

Part of that is, I think teams are basically saying, unless you're not running the ball.

Like, we are going to do whatever we got to do to take away the run.

It doesn't feel like the offense is Jelly Dittenk.

To be fair to Philadelphia,

they came back against the Rams and had a huge run in the second half.

Hurts through over 200 yards in the second half.

I feel like if they're going to beat Tampa, they're going to have to throw the football.

Like, you're not going to run all day on Tampa with Vita Vey inside.

It's a defense, by the way, that is fifth best in the NFL, allowing 3.6 yards per carry.

How do you explain that?

Kalijah Cancy out?

I mean, if you would have told me he's not going to be there, he's one of their three best defenders, and this was not a touted defense coming into the year.

I explain it because they have Todd Bowles and they run blitz the hell out of everybody and they're just going to make you beat them.

I mean, they drafted Benjamin Morrison.

They drafted Jacob Parrish on day two of the draft this year.

Slot corner, perimeter corner.

I think this game comes down to can Devonta Smith and A.J.

Brown toast that secondary.

Jamal Dean is the one corner they have who you know who's a good player.

McCollum is so-so.

And then you have those rookies I mentioned, Paris being the guy who's played inside, played like 70% of the snaps.

Can

Tampa hold up against that duo?

If they can, I think they win because Tampa has really kind of owned Philadelphia over the years.

They played very well against him.

Of course, they killed him in the playoffs a couple of years ago.

I like Tampa.

I know every game's come down to the final play.

I get it.

It's a little wonky against the Jets.

That game was really over.

And then the Jets blocked the field goal and ran it back for a touchdown.

I I think the Bucs right now are playing a little bit better football.

I like them to win by a field goal in this game.

Do you buy, I hate MVP conversation, but I think for all the buzz about Danny Dimes and

whoever else, I think for real, Baker Mayfield deserves to be talked about here.

I think Baker Mayfield at this point is easily one of the top 10 quarterbacks in football.

Top 10?

I mean, I think, but yeah, and in the MVP count, I think he's top three.

Well, sure.

I mean, look, look, I refuse to have a conversation about the MVP in three weeks.

I don't know why I keep bringing it up when I am the one, one of the front runners of let's stop talking about it.

Yeah,

you gave us a lot of crap about that.

I know, you're right.

There's nothing worse.

Okay.

We did this like four years ago with Sam Darnold when he was in Carolina.

It's like, oh, look at Sam Darnold.

And then like eight weeks later, PJ Walker replaced him.

Okay.

I don't give a damn.

Thank you for that for that message of rational thought.

I'm sorry I took us there.

I do like Tampa in this game.

I think Baker's playing very well.

It does concern me the Bucs have like one receiver left and he's a rookie, but I think they can run the ball with Irving and they can take some of the load off of the passing game in that regard.

Well, the only thing that gave me any pause is what you just said there.

No Mike Evans.

Chris Godwin appears to be on his way back.

We'll see if he's out there with Abuka.

Exactly.

Still, guess what?

Matt Verdurom and I park our cars in the same garage.

I've got the Buccaneers 24 over the defending champs, 23, and that brings us to number one.

And this one feels massive.

Now,

I did the monologue at the top about the importance of the game to the Ravens, where they sit, and how bad it would be to get to one and three, specifically for Lamar Jackson.

We can pretend that it doesn't make a difference as long as they're in the tournament.

It does matter, though, if they have to play a third game.

And that one seed is getting pretty far in the rearview mirror.

And specifically, because we have not seen a consistently high level of performance or

as high as he plays in the regular season from Lamar Jackson.

He makes

a tick less than what he is, and that has lost him a game or two.

And we can point fingers at Mark Andrews or whatever else, but he is the man, Lamar Jackson.

So a third game is not a small matter.

Obviously important to the Chiefs as well.

I heard Dan Orlofsky, though, on Thursday morning say, if the Chiefs lose this game, they're in real trouble of getting into the playoffs.

There are seven teams, okay?

The seven teams a conference.

They're not in real jeopardy.

Also, has anyone seen the AFC?

You might be able to get in the playoffs at like eight and nine.

I don't think

I don't think there's a huge risk.

The Chiefs are making the playoffs, but they're not hurt.

There's no world that teams not one of the seven best teams in the AFC when they're healthy.

There's no way that's happening.

Well, you know, listen, devil's damn, Masheik, nobody is going to be 100% healthy.

It is a huge thing that Xavier Worthy is on his way back.

And I think that that will loosen things up.

Obviously, I'm going to hold off on my pick, though.

You go ahead here.

I will tell you, and I'm sure you're aware that the Ravens' injury report is insane.

Matabike.

Matabike's not playing.

Van Noy's not playing.

It seems like Ricard's probably not going to play.

Ronnie Stanley has been out of practice first two days.

That's a ton.

That is, and I know people say, and rightfully so, well, the Chiefs won't run the ball, so it won't matter.

Yeah, but if you can't get a pass rush on Mahomes, I mean, at some point, it's coming.

Like at some point in the game, especially if Worthy plays and he's tracking two, it feels like that's something that's going to matter.

Look, the Chiefs have played the Ravens five times, or excuse me, six times, including the playoffs, since Mahomes and Jackson both became their team starting quarterbacks in 2018.

The Chiefs are five and one in those games.

And the only time they lost, they were setting up a game-winning field goal, and Clyde Eversila fumbled.

I mean,

they have dominated Baltimore over the years.

And part of the reason is I can tell anyone watching this how they're going to play him defensively.

They are going to put a million guys in the box.

They're going to play man coverage across the board with McDuffie on Flowers.

They're going to spy Jackson, and they're going to say, beat us, do it.

And I don't know that Baltimore can do it.

Bateman and Andrews have done nothing so far this year.

Flowers is awesome, but McDuffie's probably a top three to five corner in the NFL.

I don't trust the Chiefs offense.

Worthy coming back does help him.

It's at Arrowhead.

I'm going to take the Chiefs to win the game.

I think they find a way to win, you know, 24 to 21, something like that.

If it was in Baltimore, I might go the other way, but the injuries are just massive.

It's a lot, and they're on a short week on the road.

You know what?

I hear all of that.

But I think that the Ravens are

better right now than the Kansas City Chiefs are.

I think Xavier Worthy is a factor.

I've got this one with the Chiefs a home dog at 2.5.

Baltimore, 31.

Chiefs, 24.

There you have it there.

Before we let you go, real quick, just give me a pick on this one.

The Bills are laying 16 and a half to the Saints.

What do you think they're going to number that?

35 points.

You're doing that one?

I think the Bills, look, they'll just,

they'll score so many points in that game that I, yeah, I think the Bills, well, no, I think the the Bills beat him by three scores.

I'm a negative Nelly on that.

16 and a half

in an NFL game.

I know the Saints stink.

The Saints are awful.

Take the Saints.

We hope you enjoyed the show.

Keep spreading the good word to all your friends.

Be a great football American.

We'll talk to you on the other side of week four to break it all down and try and make sense of it for you.

Until then, for everybody at the Lebatard Universe, thanks so much, football Americans.

It's been a thin slice of heaven.