The 2025 Football America! Mid-season Awards Show with Mike Ryan Ruiz and Ten Day Tony

Speaker 1 Week 10 is upon us. We haven't a second to waste.
We have to get to the first ever mid-season awards for the NFL. I mean, but we don't live life fully in the rearview mirror.
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 Philosophically, we like to look ahead to the near horizon. That's why we have our week 10 picks up coming for you as well with Mike Ryan, 10-day Tony and the fellas.
Stick around.

Speaker 1 You just have to sit through like a three-second intro here. Start the show.

Speaker 1 Yes, hi and hello, my fellow football Americans. Welcome to NFL Week 9.
Welcome to episode 23 of Football America. We're presented as ever by DraftKings.
DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Speaker 1 We have Mike Ryan and Tenday Tony coming in here for the mid-season awards, NFL style, the first ever awards of their kind on this show and in the history of mankind.

Speaker 1 Also, we've got the NFL week 10 countdown, best games of the weekend. Who's going to win them and by how much? Did I say at the top of the show NFL week nine?

Speaker 1 I think I did, but there's no time to go back now. We're pressing forward.
First, let's honor Gino and Mike, Mike and Gino Fuentez, the person who wore this episode's number best today.

Speaker 1 That number is 23. So I think we can have a pretty quick conversation here.
I'm going with Mike Jordan. Played for the Bulls, the Wizards.
You probably remember him. Anyone else?

Speaker 1 Who from Pro Football? Is the best one really Devin Hester? I guess that's kind of good if you're a fan of the U. He's going to get the

Speaker 1 hard representation there.

Speaker 2 And isn't Devin Rust a wrestler? Devin Hester, I feel like, owns a lot of awards that because of new kickoff rules will never be broken.

Speaker 2 Am I right about that?

Speaker 1 Hot take. I like that.
That's probably true. He found a good take after pronouncing his name the way that Scooby-Doo would.
Devin Ruster.

Speaker 1 I'm going to wait.

Speaker 1 Is Christian McCaffrey? Is he 23? Is Christian McCaffrey 22?

Speaker 2 No, 21. No, 21.
Is he 21?

Speaker 1 Is he 21? No. He's 22.
He might be 23. 22 or 23? He might be 23.

Speaker 1 What is this?

Speaker 1 Aaron Foster, LeBron. Yeah, this is what we do on the show,

Speaker 1 Mike Ryan. We're getting to you in just one second.
We have football expert Draymond Green, Don Mattingly, the late, great Ryan Sandberg, Kirk Gibson, who hit a big home run once

Speaker 1 back when. By the way.

Speaker 2 Yeah, by the way, he wore 23. He wears 23 with San Francisco.
He wore 22 at Carolina.

Speaker 1 All right, here we go. Let's say hello to our two guests, our two two pals, one of whom I just saw down there in South Beach during my visit to the Lebatard show and the great

Speaker 1 Shindig, Thursday night football, and all of that last week. Good times.
He wasn't there to say hello to because he was off in Dallas, Texas, which proved to be a bad choice.

Speaker 1 Mike Ryan, how are you, fella? What's the poop, fella? I'm still not good because of that terrible choice. Yeah, Dallas sucked.
Don't go to Dallas.

Speaker 1 Because they wore the green pants instead of the orange. It would have been a nice uniform, Matt.
That's a a better color flash. You don't know what you're talking about, Dave.
Come on. Really?

Speaker 1 You like the blue jersey against the green pants? Yeah, yeah. Because there's red accents in the SMU uniform.
I don't like red versus orange.

Speaker 1 Neither does Carson Becky.

Speaker 1 He usually throws four picks when that's the case.

Speaker 1 I would love to hear, let's ask Tenday Tony this first question up before we get to our NFL mid-season awards here.

Speaker 1 How are you, Tenday Tony, and how many teams and which ones are they that are going to get a bid into the tournament, the big tournament, not the ACC tournament, from the ACC.

Speaker 1 This is a bum conference. I don't know that any deserve a bid.

Speaker 3 I mean, the champion's going to get a bid.

Speaker 3 I'd probably say two if I'm handicapping it. I'd probably put it at one and a half is

Speaker 3 the number. I'd probably say two.
But Dave, I want to know how Kendall was.

Speaker 3 A lot of people that come to the show, that come to Miami, don't end up in Kendall, especially in the hood that we were just at. How did you feel about what was going on?

Speaker 1 Oh, I thought it was, I thought the time was positively gay, as you promised it would be. Now, what you were wrong about 10-day Tony was

Speaker 1 I was cautioned about how long the drive was going to be from downtown Miami to Kendall, and you're like, oh, 15, 20 minutes. I know.
No, no, I told him. It was an hour.
It was an hour.

Speaker 1 20 minutes. At nightnight.
Yeah. Yeah, at nightnight.
All the way over there.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's

Speaker 1 60 to 90.

Speaker 3 Yeah, but you know. It's worth it when you get to Kendall Flanagan's.

Speaker 1 It's worth it, trust me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No doubt. I saw Dave.
You know what?

Speaker 2 Dave was partaking. The winner there was the wings.

Speaker 1 Garlic, rolls.

Speaker 1 My guy was in on the window. I was the rib rolls.
My guy was smashing garlic ridges.

Speaker 2 I saw everything.

Speaker 1 The rock and rib rolls? Rock and rib rolls rock. The rib rolls were great.
I missed the rib rolls, but I had one of those garlic rolls, and it's all I've heard about for the last week.

Speaker 1 The damn machete was abusing the privilege of garlic roll. I had one of them at the end of the night.
I don't even know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 You enjoyed the hell out of it, though.

Speaker 1 Salad? Yeah. Salad's great.
I'm not going to apologize for enjoying food. That's one of my passions.

Speaker 1 Very quickly, Mike,

Speaker 1 and Tende Tony talking to Miami, and I don't want to obsess about what's going on with the Dolphins or with the U. It's sad times, basically, if you're a football fan in Miami, I feel like right now.

Speaker 1 But a fashion question for you, Mike Ryan, since we do drip drill on occasion and we do owe a new division analysis. Maybe we can do that in the next week or two.

Speaker 1 Meantime, the World Series Game 7, Isaiah Kiner Falefa

Speaker 1 infamously slides

Speaker 1 feet first into home plate and he's called out.

Speaker 1 But everybody said we should have head first slid, but he had on the oven mitt. What if the margin of victory in getting the World Series was the

Speaker 1 oven mitt? Where do we go as a society from there?

Speaker 1 Where do we come down on the oven mitt as

Speaker 1 an amendment to one's uniform and it playing potentially a critical role? I mean, we avoided it here, but one day it's going to happen.

Speaker 1 If he did the oven mitt, it would be near impossible to know if he's actually touching the plate when it gets over. We had that technology.

Speaker 1 We had a situation where some angles where the foot was hovering over, but we know it didn't exactly hit. If it's the oven mitt, maybe the Blue Jays are the World Series champ.

Speaker 1 And therein lies the problem. Don't like the oven mitt.
Outlaw it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, thank goodness. The one thing we avoided, what a splendid game seven it was

Speaker 1 in every regard. And thank goodness that we didn't decide game seven of the World Series on an instant replay.
In fact,

Speaker 1 hot take or otherwise, if they would have said actually the runner was safe on that play, the Jay should have said, we're men of honor. No, we're not taking it.
We play it.

Speaker 1 We're not going to win the World Series that way. You know, Baseball America is taken.

Speaker 1 Oh, it is? Okay,

Speaker 1 let's stick to football here.

Speaker 1 10 Day Tony, who's, well, before we move, I have to say, the oven mitt.

Speaker 1 Who? Why?

Speaker 1 Who decided that

Speaker 1 this is the height of the technology? Well, what choice do we have? We have to protect our base runner's hands, and the only solution is a giant hamburger helper oven mitt.

Speaker 1 We don't have other technology that can effectively protect some fingers? We do.

Speaker 1 In soccer, goalie gloves. They have splints.
You have dexterity with the fingers, and you could see them separated. You won't have like the oven mitt issue if they're sliding over.

Speaker 1 You could see space between them. Just put some splints and padding in the gloves.
Have them wear soccer goalie gloves.

Speaker 1 Okay, better idea for 2026, but the baseball season is wrapped. It wrapped for me, let's be honest, outside of watching a couple of those World Series games about two, three months ago.

Speaker 1 Tenday Tony, answer this one for me from a AFC East enthusiast. And you root for the Dolphins.
Well, you root for the Patriots, but you are in Miami, and then you see what the Jets just did.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I take a man of the shoot.

Speaker 1 Okay, that's right. You need your Rob Lolid.

Speaker 1 Which is the better spot to be in? I was just on with our collective pal, Zaszlo, on his show. Go back and listen to that one.
It was a good time.

Speaker 1 But would you rather be today the Jets who purge two tentpole guys and really now they have to go back into the market to replace exactly those two guys at a cheaper rate, but at least they have all those first-round picks?

Speaker 1 Or would you want to be the Dolphins who are in this weird purgatory now? They only deal Jalen Phillips and keep Jalen Waddle and Bradley Chubb and the rest of them, which is the better spot to be in.

Speaker 3 Better spot to be in is the Jets, right? You're not saddled with a massive quarterback contract that you don't know if you can get out of, plus you don't know if the guy's any good, right?

Speaker 3 So like, let's just start there. That you don't have with Justin Fields.
Yeah, you deal a defensive tackle in Quinn Williams. You deal a corner in Shauce Gardner.

Speaker 3 But like you're hoping that your front office is smart enough to get guys in the first round, second round, and so on and so forth in the draft that can kind of fill those positions you can develop up.

Speaker 3 The Dolphins right now are just in purgatory A, we're not good. B, we're saddled with a bad contract, C, we think we have a lame duck coach.
We don't really, who's going to be the GM?

Speaker 3 Like, there's way more structural, architectural questions that are on the Dolphins side than the Jets side. The Jets is just like, nail your picks and don't be idiots.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think, I think you're right, except the loophole in what you just said is that we assume that the Jets will make good picks, which already knows. That's a big, it's a big asterisk.

Speaker 1 Hey there, fellow football Americans. Do you feel that bit of chill in the air? I feel it, and I'm in Los Angeles.
Bad news, it's going to be 90 this weekend.

Speaker 1 But in the here and now, we can still celebrate the shared cool weather because it means football. And from tailgates to watch parties, there's only one beer to pair with fall and football.

Speaker 1 I'm, of course, speaking about my beloved Miller Light, the light beer that's been the one for beer lovers like me since 1975.

Speaker 1 I wasn't drinking it in 1975 because that would have been against the law, but you take my point. For me, it's still the go-to every time.
Why?

Speaker 1 Because Miller Light is the great tasting light beer for people who love beer. It's brewed for taste and it's been trusted by beer lovers for 50 years.

Speaker 1 I've mentioned I'm one of those beer lovers, yes? Miller is the kind of beer you can drink from kickoff to the final whistle without missing a beat.

Speaker 1 It's the smooth golden flavor that somehow feels like football season with the iconic golden color and the malted barley. It's not too heavy.
It's not too light.

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I drink it on football Saturdays too. Fun fact, football Mondays.

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Celebrate responsibly.

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Speaker 1 Shall we jump into the NFL mid-season awards? Of course, you guys are ready to do that. So let's go.
Do we have any music, anything like that to play there, Mike or Gino? I'll add it in post. Good.

Speaker 1 All right, here we go. First award.
Wow. I love this tune.
Right to it. This is a great right to it, baby.
Incredible. This is royalty-free? You're kidding me.
Hard to believe, right?

Speaker 1 Can you believe it? We spare no expense in production.

Speaker 1 We go all the way or not at all. Here we go.
First award.

Speaker 1 Guy who constantly gets mentioned as an MVP candidate, but has zero chance of winning it and probably never had a chance in August and won't have one in January of 2026.

Speaker 1 I'm going to start with you, Teday Tony.

Speaker 3 Since I had this take at the beginning of the season, it was just a matter of an injury.

Speaker 3 This guy getting a chance. It was Daniel Jones.
I said at the beginning of the season, if Anthony Richardson, can we just move him out of the way? Daniel Jones could potentially have an MVP season.

Speaker 3 And he's been doing just that outside of the

Speaker 3 Pittsburgh game, excuse me.

Speaker 3 I want to give it to Daniel Jones. I want to give a second one to Sam Darnold.
Two guys that I feel like are playing at an MVP level.

Speaker 1 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know how this works.

Speaker 1 I don't think you're understanding the MVP.

Speaker 1 They can't have a shot. These are guys who cannot win.

Speaker 1 His answer applies because there's no way they're voting Daniel Jones the MVP.

Speaker 2 But you can't go and say, oh, I have co-MVPs now.

Speaker 1 Daniel Jones,

Speaker 1 I have co-guys that won't win the MVP. You can't be doing that.

Speaker 3 Okay, Daniel Jones is my answer.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 1 Is a guy who you think

Speaker 1 is in the conversation, but you know, deep in your balls is never going to win it at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 Especially because I put him in said conversation. Nobody else did.
So it's just me.

Speaker 1 It's just me talking to myself. I hate this character.
No, no, no. I'm saying it's just a chance.

Speaker 3 I'm just saying it's just me talking to myself. Nobody else has him in the MVP race except me.

Speaker 1 Oh, nobody has mentioned that

Speaker 1 he was first.

Speaker 1 He was in this case, case, in this rare instance, Tony was indeed first on Daniel Jones.

Speaker 1 Well, I mean,

Speaker 1 he sat in this very spot. You were first on the Colts.
The Colt. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay.
Well, you were the first to steal Tony's take then. Congratulations.
We give first place Rambles out for that, too.

Speaker 1 What's your answer, Mike Ryan? Matthew Stafford. I just don't think that's his story, even though he's deservedly in the conversation

Speaker 1 throughout his career. This has happened plenty, but I just don't think he's got the makeup.
Like, a lot is put on McVay. They put a lot of talent around him.

Speaker 1 Matthew Stafford is an incredible quarterback, Hall of Famer, but may not presently be the best player on his own team. I can't tell who's better at their job, Matthew Safford or Puka.

Speaker 1 Who makes who better? They're both great, in my opinion, but I just don't think Matthew Safford will ever win an MVP. I like that.

Speaker 1 That's great, and it's funny that you bring that one up because it's the exact reason why no matter what Daniel Jones does, he has no chance of winning the MVP because he shares the backfield with Jonathan Taylor, who people love mentioning.

Speaker 1 In the last three weeks, hey, you got to say this, Jonathan, he's got to be an MVP candidate.

Speaker 1 Yeah, he should be, but he's not because there's no chance that they're going to give it to a running back in the year of our Lord 2025. So let's stop talking about it.

Speaker 1 Same goes for Jackson Smith and Jigba, who may end up hurting Sam Darnold's case. It's going to be one of the usual.

Speaker 2 Well, that's why I was saying, like, Josh Allen is the frontrunner for this award. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Just because...

Speaker 2 All the other guys get penalized for having teams that put good players around them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And they have the weird Offensive Player of the Year award, which is just like,

Speaker 1 you're the actual MVP because we only pay attention to the offense because defenders won't actually win this. And you may be the best at your job, but MVP is a quarterback award.
Correct.

Speaker 1 It is the classic having your cake and some pie that these voters get. Like, MVP.
No, no, he's the offensive player of the year. You understand? There's a distinction.

Speaker 1 Can you explain what the distinction is for everybody? Because it makes no sense. Give me the situation in which it's Daniel Jones as MVP and Jonathan Taylor as offensive player of the year.

Speaker 1 Give me that situation.

Speaker 1 One note that is important when people bring up, hey, this guy's having a really good year. You really could make a case for him.
Is his team going to at minimum win the division?

Speaker 1 If not, then he has no chance.

Speaker 1 Stop this. He's having a good individual year when it got like Joe Burrow last year.
Do you think Joe Burrow was going to win the MVP with a team that was scraping to get into the playoffs?

Speaker 1 The answer is no. Okay, next one.
Speaking of all that stuff, trying to get into the postseason and otherwise, team currently in a playoff position, but won't be by season's end.

Speaker 1 Mike Ryan, I start with you. I have two nominees here, but I don't want to steal one from Tony, and I saw how we rightfully chastised him for that, so I'm just going to go with the easy one here.

Speaker 1 Jags presently in the final playoff position in the AFC. I just don't think they end up doing it.

Speaker 3 I'm a Jags guy. I just...

Speaker 1 I thought long and hard about it.

Speaker 3 You are? Yeah, I'm a Jags guy. I'm a Jags guy.
Now for DuBalis County stand-up.

Speaker 1 Are you against any team? I guess that's the shorter answer, right? Are you anti-questions?

Speaker 3 Now you're anti-tested.

Speaker 1 Now you know his bit.

Speaker 1 Now you know his bit.

Speaker 1 The only team or person he's ever shorted in the history of football

Speaker 1 appears to be Kyler Murray.

Speaker 3 That one seems to be budding quite nicely, by the way.

Speaker 2 Well, the real reason the Jags aren't going to make it is because the team right behind them is the Chiefs.

Speaker 3 Well, okay, but they have the head-to-head victory.

Speaker 1 There, Tony got it. Thank you.
Pretty smart. So then what's your pick? Is it still the Jags?

Speaker 3 No, my team that is in a playoff position right now that won't be is the San Francisco 40.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was my second choice there. You're just banking on the injuries catching up with them.
They've navigated that.

Speaker 3 I just think that they have two better teams in that division, the Seahawks and the Rams, and there's no way three NFC West teams make it.

Speaker 2 Why not?

Speaker 1 That happens all the time. That happens all the time.

Speaker 2 I know.

Speaker 1 I haven't all the time or three teams. It happens at the NFC North.

Speaker 2 We had the NFC North and even the NFC East. We had a year with the Cowboys,

Speaker 2 Cowboys, Eagles, and Commies.

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, you're right. I just don't think the 49ers have enough juice.

Speaker 3 They're doing enough with what they have with McCorkle and with their players, but like Ricky Pearsall, is he ever going to see the field again? We don't know.

Speaker 1 Jawan Jennings has got like the Howard Bryan injury here outside of Benny. It tears two qualities.

Speaker 1 Dave, what's your pick?

Speaker 1 Well, I mean, if they were to go to a Super Bowl, I would just have to do away with the Jenga theory, which is if you remove the critical piece, the whole thing's going to implode.

Speaker 1 That would be thrown

Speaker 1 out the window because they don't have Nick Bosa or Fred Warner, and they're still hanging around. Let's see what happens in the second half of the season.
The easy answer is either the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 Oh, no, that's the team that's in a play. I'm talking about the players.

Speaker 1 We all have Chiefs that are presently OLIs that are going to be in the AFC.

Speaker 1 Tony said it. The Jags, for what it's worth, did beat KC head-to-head.
And Baltimore is two games back of Jacksonville and Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 And obviously, Baltimore can overcome that by sweeping the two games against Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 Baltimore, Houston is also hovering around. If you look at the way it stacks up in the AFC, there's a gigantic drop-off after the top eight all the way down to three and five.

Speaker 1 Houston is not completely finished yet in the wild card chase because they have a head-to-head against the Ravens too. I hear your workshop and all this stuff.
Let's settle on most likely.

Speaker 1 We're not having an NFL playoff without Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in it. Yeah.
We know this. Correct.
I guess the easy answer here is where we started here.

Speaker 1 The Jags are probably, you know, they did jazz up that roster a little bit at the trademark line.

Speaker 1 They're a little bit better. So, okay, let's do the other side of this one and continue where we are here.

Speaker 3 The team that is currently not in a playoff spot that will be we already started with the chiefs and the the answer for me is the ravens like i think that excluding the chiefs you're saying excluding the chiefs but like a team that is not currently there that i think can still win the division is the ravens right like dave said it if if they if they sweep the steelers coming up in the last little half of the season like they're gonna win the division they're gonna be in the playoffs so like that for me is what i'm looking at i i got feel pretty good about the ravens long term i don't have a ton of conviction with mine they're presently in last place but they haven't had their quarterback most of the season.

Speaker 1 And I just like how they play games. I think Minnesota with their defense hangs around.
It's a tough division to do it. But if you were to bet on a last place team to do it, that's a one.

Speaker 1 You lead me right into what I was going to bring up here.

Speaker 1 The Vikings, a lot of people have thrown dirt on them, and it's super weird how fast people render their verdicts, especially on young quarterbacks.

Speaker 1 And I think that's why a lot of people are kind of like, yeah, the Vikes are finished as though J.J.

Speaker 1 McCarthy is a bust forever because he played a bad half of football after his girlfriend or wife or whatever had a baby.

Speaker 1 The Vikes are four and four, so that then makes the grimace bowl that they have upcoming against the Ravens all purple all day. It's a huge one for them and the Ravens.

Speaker 1 The loser of this one is going to be in some real trouble. And it also assumes the talk about Baltimore getting into this thing assumes at minimum a split with Pittsburgh.

Speaker 1 If that didn't happen, the Ravens would really, really be in bad trouble. Another one, I know there's some buzz about the Bears.

Speaker 1 And after the way they won their game last Sunday, it kind of felt like, boy, it's 180 degree opposite of what happened to them last year with the with the commies and now they're 5-3 and this is going to propel them into the postseason.

Speaker 1 They still go at Philly, at Green Bay. They're still in that miserable division.
So I don't think the Bears are going to get in. Sorry if that ruins anybody's parade.
All right.

Speaker 1 Next up, Mike Ryan, you go first on this one. The NFC one seed will be, and as a reminder, this is not an evaluation of who you think is the best team.

Speaker 1 It's who's going to wind up with the best record in the conference. How say you? I think it's going to be the Eagles.
They have the head-to-head on Tampa. I'm really bullish on Tampa this year.

Speaker 1 More on that later. But I like the way that the schedule works out.
I guess a big one will be Monday night when they play Green Bay.

Speaker 1 If they get that result, I think you can, I'm sure the odds will reflect this. But I think Philadelphia ends up being the number one seed, Tony.

Speaker 3 I'm agreeing with Mike. I think the Eagles have the best roster top to bottom.
I think they haven't been playing to the full extent of what their talent is.

Speaker 3 Obviously, getting more talent on the defensive side of the ball, which I heard Alexander with Jalen Phillips. I think Fanger is going to coach them up and have them ready to play.

Speaker 3 I'm going to go Eagles too.

Speaker 1 A lot of additions here, man.

Speaker 2 I got...

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 1 go ahead.

Speaker 2 Can I zig a little bit where you guys are zagging? November 16th, Seahawks Rams. Big game.
Whoever wins that game? Number one.

Speaker 1 I mean, they play each other twice, too. So you're accounting for the split and wondering if the math, maths there.

Speaker 1 I love the NFC West this year, but I just think it's almost too tough that it'd be really tough for one of those teams to come out clearly ahead of the rest of the division and take that one seed.

Speaker 1 You know, everything becomes rhetorical the more you talk about as much as we talk about pro football. But have you looked at the standings in the last week or so? I think I can now officially

Speaker 1 switch over for the last three, four years. We've said, oh, well, the AFC is where all the good teams are.
I think it's now the NFC is now a tick better than the AFC.

Speaker 1 I mean, look, just the West alone, the heavyweights with the Niners, who we're talking about not making it, and the Hawks, the Rams and Niners is huge this weekend. One shout to the Bucs, though.

Speaker 1 Their fate is determined by their next three. The Patriots at Buffalo, at the Rams.
If they can go two and one out of that, which is tough to do, but if they can, it's nothing but cupcakes ahead.

Speaker 1 Even if they go one and two, they are going to have a shot at this. Aided by the buy, though.
The buy came in a really good time for this team.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's switch it over to that that aforementioned AFC. Tony, you go first.
Who's going to be the number one seed there?

Speaker 3 I think this one's going to be a little bit of a crazy take. I think the New England Patriots are going to be the number one seed.
Solid.

Speaker 3 I think that their remaining schedule, if you look at it, seems very cake. And Drake May is getting really fat on bad teams.

Speaker 3 And somehow, some way, the Patriots, I guess from last year, have just a very easy schedule. I think they're going to be able to run the table and get the number one seed.

Speaker 1 Cake May.

Speaker 1 I really like what I saw from the Bills, Tony. I think that they figured it out.

Speaker 1 There was plenty of reasons to be curious about them going forward, their defense, and I know they have a ton of injuries, but they got Superman under center. Josh Allen is just a demigod.

Speaker 1 They'll have another matchup coming up. Patriots probably have one of the best wins, more impressive wins of the NFL season.
I'm not bucking up too much against that.

Speaker 1 I think it's going to reside in that division, but I'll edge out the Bills in this one.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think when it comes to what you said about New England, last few games have been kind of gimme's for them. New Orleans, Tennessee, Cleveland, Atlanta.

Speaker 2 Those are all games that beat Atlanta by one.

Speaker 2 You know, they had a bad loss in Vegas start the year. They beat up on the Dolphins.
So

Speaker 2 I think we're excited about them right now.

Speaker 1 Going forward.

Speaker 1 Kind of like the Big Ten. Tampa Bay.
They're getting fat on the bottom half of the conference.

Speaker 1 But what do you want them to do? If they're an underdog that got the greatest underdog head coach in the league. It's arguably in the history of the league.

Speaker 2 It's not their fault. Everybody else is bad.

Speaker 1 I hear your noise. What's fascinating about this one is you would think if I told you the Bills beat the Chiefs and the Ravens, you'd be like, well, then what are we even talking about?

Speaker 1 I mean, obviously they're the best team in the the conference, and maybe they are, but to Tony's point, they absolutely are in line to lose this division.

Speaker 1 The Bills' path the rest of the way is way rougher than what Drake May and company have.

Speaker 1 I'm going to stick with the Bills here because they're my preseason Super Bowl pick, and I'm nothing if riding with the guy in the mirror as a vain person. Next up, Mike Ryan.

Speaker 1 QB, you want for the remainder of the season. Now, if you want to go easy with training wheels, I'll give you Patrick Mahomes.

Speaker 1 Or even if you want Mahomes, is there somebody else who you might want under center for these big games? I never go easy, and I already gave Josh Allen his flowers. So I'm going to play the hits here.

Speaker 1 I'm going to do Wonder Wall right now. I want Baker Mayfield.
Yeah. Oh, boys, too.
Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 1 Bold. Bold.
And I liked it quite a bit. We agree it's not Jared Goff, though.
For real. Yeah, for real.
Isn't that ultimately

Speaker 1 that remains the limitation for all the flowers he deserves to have gotten over the last couple of years? Give me a war horse. And now Baker's entering war horse territory.
Stafford, too.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm not, I don't want it easy. Taking a war horse.
Oh, my guy. Is that your guy? Stafford.

Speaker 3 I'm leaving Mahomes. I'm leaving Josh Allen on the shelf.
Obviously, those are the two answers.

Speaker 3 But outside of those top two, I want the old war horse, the guy who's been through everything and everyone and seen it all, done it all. Give me Matthew Stafford.

Speaker 1 You're not surprising him.

Speaker 1 Tony and I are in lockstep. Come on, baby.

Speaker 1 I go Stafford too, and I go Stafford over Josh Allen as well. Stafford's done it.

Speaker 1 And the other thing is, he is maybe the most eternal guy of the century, as much as that paradox can be true. He's only 38.

Speaker 1 It seems like he's been in the league as long as Tom Brady was in the league. He's an old 38.
He's been around forever.

Speaker 1 Didn't look old last week. Okay, yeah.
I'm going Stafford. Mike, you want to throw one in?

Speaker 2 Me and Gina were discussing like Sam Darnold. I mean, but then, you know, Josh Allen, like I said, Josh Allen, but Josh Allen's kind of like an easy take, like how Pat Pat would be.

Speaker 2 But Gino also likes Stafford.

Speaker 1 You guys hipsters?

Speaker 1 Oh, the guy who said Baker. Yeah, the guy who said Baker.

Speaker 1 They went head to head. Yeah, that's fine.
Okay. They went head to head.
How'd that work out? I'm going to be hipper still. A guy who we haven't seen play in at least a month and a half.

Speaker 1 How about Brock Purdy, really? I'm not talking about the guy at the trigger.

Speaker 1 You don't want Brock Purdy.

Speaker 1 You're lying. I like Brock Purdy.
You're telling lies. I like Brock Purdy.
No, I'm taking Kyle Shea in a hand, is what I'm taking. And when I say I take it,

Speaker 1 it might be Mac Jones or it might be Brock Purdy.

Speaker 1 I'll take the Niners quarterback.

Speaker 2 Listen, I hate Jordan Love. I take him over Brock Purdy.

Speaker 1 I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't like Jordan Love at all.

Speaker 1 I don't know about that.

Speaker 1 Listen, I'm not saying Brock Purdy anywhere in pro football.

Speaker 1 I'm saying as the quarterback who was handpicked by Kyle Shea in a hand, who is one of the three OG, true, bona fide play callers out there.

Speaker 2 He was the second option.

Speaker 2 Trey Lance was the handpicker.

Speaker 1 Going deep into the mixtapes right now.

Speaker 1 Trey Lance is the hand. Team, I just wanted to throw it.
I wanted to be hippers still. Okay.
Team you'd least want to be rooting for right now.

Speaker 1 I feel like you guys kind of answered this one before we got into the midseason. This is proper.

Speaker 1 But, Mike, take this one off. Everyone else has dolphins.
We can check that.

Speaker 1 Learn from me. I am so happy I don't have to root for the Cleveland Browns anymore.
And I am especially loving that I don't have to root for them this year.

Speaker 1 As someone that has fully recovered from their Browns fandom, it's the Browns. Really? Yeah, they're in way more dire straits than the Miami Dolphins are.

Speaker 1 You mentioned Tua is an albatross of a contract to get out from under.

Speaker 1 Their guy, you forgot about. That's how bad theirs is.

Speaker 2 He doesn't even show up to the facility.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 3 The checks keep getting sent.

Speaker 1 Mike Fuentes called me and Joey Mulinaro, fellow Steelers fan, out earlier this week on the jerk list for being overly negative as Steelers fans, first place and all of that, and the history

Speaker 1 where we took him. Well, whatever.
I mean,

Speaker 1 it's fine. I know what the history is.
I get what I say. I said, yeah, five and three.

Speaker 1 I do like to periodically remind myself, and it's nice the way that the U.S. map sets up with Cleveland so close.
Like, it could always be worse. It could always be worse, Steelers fans.

Speaker 1 You could root for one of those teams in Ohio. It's clearly the Browns.
They are way worse off than the Jets, and the Jets are an ongoing embarrassment themselves.

Speaker 1 Browns to the left of us, Ravens to the right. Here we go.
All right.

Speaker 1 Best, oh, good one for Mike Ryan here. Best single getup of the season so far.
Single uniform, not uniform matchup. Well, it's tough.
We delved into the uniform matchup in previous episode.

Speaker 1 If I had to pick one from those two, I'm going Bucks throwbacks. Here's why.
Slight knock on the Seahawks because with a new Nike pant, it's hard. I love it when it's a sparkling.

Speaker 1 silver pant with that Seahawks look. It's a little dull for the Seahawks look.
The helmet has beautiful flints in it. I want the pants to reflect that.

Speaker 1 So I'm going with the Rode Throwback Whites unveiled by the Tampa Bay Bucks this season. That was an incredible looking game, Dave, between Seattle and Tampa when they donned those bad boys.

Speaker 1 I just love the Rode Whites. I like that you call it pant.

Speaker 1 Why is it that pants are plural? And it's because you have two legs, but then why is your shirt not plural? You have two arms.

Speaker 1 These are things that I ask myself all the time when I'm on 20 milligrams.

Speaker 2 but say but isn't it a question of like the pants on a pair of pants the feature part is the extremities where on a shirt the feature part is the torso area especially we're damage excuse yeah

Speaker 1 i just always say it to get i'm no matt khalil no but but it's but it's great i like it when people call call it pant but you know what that's a good-looking pant you sound like a fashion aficionado when you say that yeah you kind of it's kind of a little elevated you talk like you know it's a little like jeff goldbloom like oh this guy must know something he doesn't call him pants

Speaker 2 the guy who who talks his shirt, oh, I have a bunch of t-shirts. Some guy goes, I have a bunch of pieces.

Speaker 1 Ooh, you know, you're a little more.

Speaker 1 It's how you come off. You're very reflective.
Yeah, it's how you come off as intelligent without actually having to be.

Speaker 2 These are some nice pieces I like here.

Speaker 2 It makes you sound smart.

Speaker 1 All right, we'll skip uniform matchup because we have kind of covered that title. I mean, that was a universal winner.
I mean, there was no way. Tampa-based Seattle is my best uniform.

Speaker 1 You mentioned both. Yeah, the Seattle uniform.

Speaker 1 There's no touching it. There's a huge gulf.
I think second place is also Seattle against the throwback commie uniforms because why? The Seattle uniform was there. It's great, yeah.

Speaker 3 For me, the best getup of the season, Kelly Green Eagles.

Speaker 1 I just love the blue with the green pants. I love the blue.

Speaker 2 Also, yeah, it's green.

Speaker 1 Good job.

Speaker 1 It's Kelly Green. The ugliest green.

Speaker 2 And also, no mention of

Speaker 2 the Denver Broncos Orange Crush.

Speaker 1 I mean, paired against, we've talked about the layered onion that is the Cowboys uniforms. Doesn't make any sense, but...
When it comes to contrast, it can look like a million bucks.

Speaker 2 Now that you mentioned that, how did you feel about the Cowboys' singular red stripe on the line?

Speaker 1 Look,

Speaker 1 the uniform makes zero sense. Why not throw a red stripe on there too? Let's have fun.
Yeah, let's just go crazy.

Speaker 1 Here's, as we've discussed, if you're going to do that, if you're going to go like half-ass with the red stripe like they did in 76, then go all the way and go flat finish on the pants.

Speaker 1 The shiny pants is what made it look like just a mess. Like, did you guys forget, did your, did your equipment manager forget to pack the correct pants or something like that?

Speaker 1 Because they just did not match at all. Oh, I'm sorry.
The pant pants.

Speaker 1 I actually saw, I was in Dallas and I did like a whole thing at the facility, the history of the pant and why the pant is that color. And your eyes don't deceive you, Dave.

Speaker 1 Like year to year, the color changes because the material changes. And they also go out of their way to make the hue closer to the original.

Speaker 1 And some years they're like, we'll just make it a little bit more silver this time. They're messing with us, pal.
Wow. And then sometimes it's this faint turquoise.
It was for like 10 years.

Speaker 1 And then they amended that.

Speaker 1 It's not even blue. It's seafoam green.
Right. It's

Speaker 1 seapoam green. It's not silver.

Speaker 1 It's not blue. It's a green.

Speaker 1 I love the Seahawks. I love the Buccaneers.

Speaker 1 I like the Eagles a lot, but the 1960 throwback is superior, so that's not on my list. The best throwback that's out there that we see once in a while, Pat Patriot.

Speaker 5 Pat Patriots red is great. That's a great one.
Pat Patriot, boo.

Speaker 2 Terrible looking helmet. It looks stupid.

Speaker 1 Bradley's not here for this discussion, so we can't really have it. I was going to ask who's the most handsome football American.
Kevin O'Connell. Call me.
Ooh. Oh, that dude could wear a hoodie.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's Kevin O'Connell. I was talking about this show.
You're talking about the most handsome football American.

Speaker 1 McVay's chest day. Dude, McVay's chest.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you don't want to do the upper chest workout or the wide chest, but he's dude. You got to do this.
My guy

Speaker 2 is in early on Mondays, buddy. That's chest day.
He's there.

Speaker 1 McVay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 my guy's out there. No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 It's just the chest, dude. Yeah, the chest.

Speaker 2 And LaFleur, immaculate fate.

Speaker 1 Oof, that fade is perfect. Yes.
I mean, that's all you were doing on that staff chest in Washington.

Speaker 1 It was like, hey, who's your barber? Who's your chest guy? Exactly. And McDaniel never got to the bottom of it.

Speaker 1 I think it's fascinating that Mike Fuentes and Mike Ryan park their cars in the same garage, but that's what I find off-putting about Matt LaFleur, is the styling of the facial hair.

Speaker 1 It's very precious.

Speaker 1 Mike, I can tell that's what you do, too.

Speaker 1 I don't shave my own face. I don't.
I go in every eight days,

Speaker 1 and someone just gets it at the same length.

Speaker 2 Yeah, this is bullshit.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 By the way, shout out to Dave Canalis. He might be on the handsome coach list, too.
Yeah, he was trying to wear a hat, and you know what? Didn't hate it.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Young up and comer.
Dave Canalis.

Speaker 1 Okay, let's wrap it up here then with two answers. Tony, you go first.
Team that's going to lose Super Bowl 60.

Speaker 3 The Buffalo Bills.

Speaker 3 I think they get past the hump of Kansas City. I think they get to the promised land, but they can't get in because another team is in the way.

Speaker 1 And then how do you feel about that if you're a Bills fan? We did it. We finally killed Thanos.

Speaker 1 We did it.

Speaker 1 Roll the end credits. Wait, we still have another game? Oh, now we lost it.
What does any of it mean, right?

Speaker 1 Exactly. You don't feel satisfied if you're a Bills fan if you don't get the Lombardi, even if you do vanquish Mahomes.
Uh, Mike Ryan, how say you?

Speaker 1 I think the Bucs lose the Super Bowl. Wow, I don't think the Bucs are the one seed, AFC champion, but but I think the Tampa Bay Bucks make it out of the NFC.

Speaker 1 I, even though that Philly game got away from them, they made some special teams plays. I don't think Philadelphia wants to see Tampa in the playoffs.
I really don't.

Speaker 1 And I think Guts, Guile, and a little bit of Baker Mayfield. Wow.
And getting healthier at the right time. CMB? I think that the Bucs are built for this, man.
How great?

Speaker 1 How great is Baker Mayfield to watch? It's a universal beloved truth on Sundays. It was a bye week, and something was missing.
It was Baker Mayfield, America's quarterback.

Speaker 1 Did I mention that the Browns are an ongoing punchline? Baker Mayfield has jumped to the very top of that list. Also, the guy they traded to get to replace Baker Mayfield is 1A to that answer there.

Speaker 1 Mike Fuentes, you want to jump in here?

Speaker 1 Actually, no.

Speaker 1 You don't want to pick a Super Bowl loser.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 1 Okay, you're just winners only?

Speaker 2 I just feel like if I say the Bills again, I'm just going to come off as a hater.

Speaker 1 Well, we can just skip right past you since you didn't have an opinion. No, you put it on that.
Dave, all right, I overload one. Here we go.

Speaker 1 No one's mentioned this team yet in either direction, except that they hate the quarterback.

Speaker 5 The Green Bay Packers are going to lose Super Bowl 60.

Speaker 1 I have a ticket.

Speaker 1 I have a Super Bowl winner ticket on Green Bay, but I don't like how they approach these teams that are not good.

Speaker 2 They have a very much of like a play up to competition mentality and then play down severely to competition.

Speaker 1 Also, they just lost. Well, then I got great news for you because they're not going to be playing any bad teams come playoff time.

Speaker 1 That's true. Right? They might be built for it.

Speaker 2 It's funny you got them losing the Super Bowl and they're not even going to make it. That's crazy.

Speaker 1 Yeah, listen. I'm bold, if nothing else.
All right, let's bring it home now. The team that's going to win Super Bowl 60, Mike Ryan.
I don't think it ends in heartbreak for Buffalo.

Speaker 1 I think they get past Patrick Mahomes, and I think get over this hump. But I think Bills Bucks, I mean,

Speaker 1 your kids better be going to bed at 6:15. They don't need NBC in this.
It's whoever has the ball last, and I'm betting on Josh Allen to have the ball last.

Speaker 1 Do not leave more than four seconds for Baker Mayfield. All right, great all-time Super Bowl.
I'll be crushed as a Baker backer, but I love the Bills fans.

Speaker 1 They welcomed Browns fans into their stadium when the Browns left Cleveland. Always a weird little kinship over there by the lake.
I want their fans to win this. I love Josh Allen.
I love their story.

Speaker 1 I I love their team. A bunch of good guys.
I'm rooting for them. Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl.
Wow. Well, I already said Bills are going to the Super Bowl, so that gives away my answer.

Speaker 1 I think they are going to beat the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. Of course, the best Super Bowl would be for one that is realistic still as we sit here midway through the season is Bills Lions.

Speaker 1 If those two fan bases could go up against each other, but also Packers Bills, two delightful fan bases as well, what a gay time that would be in Santa Clara.

Speaker 1 Tony, bring bring it on home here with a good one.

Speaker 3 Guys, I think the villains win again. Eagles beat the Bills in the Super Bowl.
Tush push is all over the field. They can't stop it.
Fourth down and short doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 Jalen Hurts scores an octopus based just on the tush push. Scores a touchdown, scores a two-point conversion.
Eagles repeat again.

Speaker 1 And then they throw the tush push out forever. That's what I was ready to say.

Speaker 3 And the sunsetting of the tush push happens on an octopus game winning drive drive for Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia.

Speaker 6 This is the game that makes America really sick of it because both teams can do the tush-push. So it's going to be tush-pushing back and forth all the way down to the game.

Speaker 1 Like a rugby screen. Yeah, exactly.
You're so, that's exactly right. That's what we talked about.

Speaker 1 The tush-push is weird because as it now, everybody has their version of it, almost everybody, except the Chiefs. I think it's going to cost them a game in January, finally.

Speaker 1 It's not like they're seeing it here and there. Every team can do it to them.

Speaker 1 So it's a competitive disadvantage that they refuse to give it to 15 or anyone else on that roster to do it when it's available to them. And I think you're absolutely right.

Speaker 1 It's not as bad as ending a season on a replay or something like that, but it's going to be real bad if the Eagles win it

Speaker 1 leaning on the tush push. And then they throw it out the window.
Like, what are we supposed to think of of the Eagles at that point? Wait, the rule that you've done away with because you thought

Speaker 1 it was unfair, they get to keep their Lombardies, though it's a little it's a little murky right it is but again if you don't like it stop it yeah they're getting it in before it's banned don't like it stop it that's my simple answer it's not like they're doing it while it's banned you banned it after yeah no i get it i just think it's going to be unsatisfying we're going to be like yeah but you wouldn't have won if you hadn't had that that dumb play that everybody has agreed is now stupid and and so enjoy your lombardies but dave

Speaker 6 i think history is littered with stuff like this like michael jordan the way he used to guard people they had to outlaw it at the end of his career because you couldn't do that shack and the way he um you know eventually teams eventually this stuff gets outlawed because people are so good at doing it yeah this is a real this is a real uh if cross sports is a then this thing would be b situation yeah

Speaker 1 all right 10 day tony mike ryan what a pleasure times two thanks so much for joining on the midseason awards i think these went swimmingly and i think we should do them again next year glad to finally be joining you when it's okay to be having an mvp conversation i kept jumping the gun and now it's we finally decided midseason we can hand out some hypothetical awards.

Speaker 1 Got to get over the peak of the halfway point in the season. I'm sorry to leave on a sour note.
You were wrong.

Speaker 1 The Hurricanes definitely should have worn the orange pants.

Speaker 1 Dark green versus dark blue. Fast.

Speaker 1 It was just regular blue, not dark blue.

Speaker 1 You might be colorblind, pal.

Speaker 1 Ah, good times there with those awards. Now we press forward with the week 10 pick six presented as ever by DraftKings.
DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Speaker 1 All right, Gino and Mike, Mike and Gino, let's establish our half dozen picks here. I'm going touchdowns mostly here like I have been.
We've got to conquer the beast.

Speaker 1 We must get that million dollars already. Starting off with, I know I just said bad things about you, Jared Goff, but I do like you to throw more than one and a half touchdown passes.

Speaker 1 You've done so in four of your last five. Why not do it again? Sam Darnold, same deal for you.
Two touchdown passes or more. He's done that in three of his last four.
How about this?

Speaker 1 Marcus Mariota for a single interception. Great bet, of course, right?

Speaker 1 If a little negative. Michael Badgley, over seven and a half kicking points.
And there are those touchdowns, I promised you.

Speaker 1 Derrick Henry, he's one of those cats who feels to me like he gets into stretches where he scores a lot of touchdowns. He did that last week.
He continues that role this week.

Speaker 1 And a guy who's about as dependable as it gets at getting into the end zone. Jameer Gibbs.
Any issues, fellas?

Speaker 2 Hmm. So I don't love betting interceptions in general.

Speaker 2 I know he's a backup. I know he's Marcus Mariota, but it's just whenever I seem to pick or depend on an interception, it almost never works out.

Speaker 1 We have... Bad human beings though? Is that what you're worried about? I don't know what it is.

Speaker 2 It's like Tua Tago by Lola, right? Our homegrown quarterback here leads the league in interceptions.

Speaker 6 He throws them in bunches.

Speaker 2 Yeah, whenever I decide, you know what, we're... Gonna try to make some little quiche off of Tua interception.
He never seems to throw it. So if it's a dependable thing, I don't know.

Speaker 2 Because, yeah, maybe I'm just not hoping for the negative. But

Speaker 1 replace it then.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's my league. My replacement would be Devontae Adams' touchdown.
Puka Nakua, a little bit banged up.

Speaker 2 Devontae Adams seems to be a nice red zone target for Matt Stafford. I think he has like five in his last two games or something like that, something ridiculous number like that.

Speaker 2 But I like Devontae Adams to get a touchdown.

Speaker 1 Puka's out for sure.

Speaker 2 Yeah, if Puka's out, I'm in. But he has like a rib thing, and I know he plays through that stuff a lot.

Speaker 2 But even then, it looks like Devontae Adams, along with a, you know, a whole legion of tight ends, seems to be the red zone target down there for Matt Stafford in the rims.

Speaker 1 Don't forget, Shanny owns McVay, man. That has been for their entire head-to-head career.

Speaker 1 So, you might want to consider that if you're making any wagers on that game, Gino, you want to throw any in there? I like Mike's calling it quiche. I haven't heard that one.

Speaker 6 Well, I was going to go James Cook, but they don't have it listed.

Speaker 6 I don't know if it's because he's questionable or just because it's so obvious, but I'm going to go Josh Allen rushing TD here, and let's take out Badgley Because kickers.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm kind of with you. And it's, you know, who knows week to week if they're going to be in the spot where he's swinging the leg.

Speaker 1 I think about to have Bradley coming in like a comet through here to be like, what about the kickers? What about the kickers?

Speaker 2 You know, every time kickers are mentioned, Bradley comes in like a freight train.

Speaker 1 We're going to talk about kickers this week.

Speaker 1 I was surprised when there was no one shouting out any kicker in the year of the kicker, actually, when we did the MVP. All right, let's do game picks.

Speaker 1 As promised, time now for the week 10 countdown. We're going to count down the half-dozen best games and who's going to win them and by how much.
I want to throw one in real quick.

Speaker 1 I know we don't have time for this, but I'm doing it anyway. I'm surprised the Dolphins are only plus nine and a half against the Bills.
How say you, Fuentes, boys?

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 1 Shouldn't that number be more?

Speaker 3 Like 30?

Speaker 2 Should be more? Yeah, how come like other teams are getting like 14 point spreads and stuff like that? The Dolphins are only getting nine and a half. That's weird.
And the over-under is 50 and a half.

Speaker 6 I could see this.

Speaker 1 James Cook can't be worth that.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I could see this easily being like one of those like 42-8 games, and it just misses the under, like the Dolphins get a late touchdown, late two-point conversion. That doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 And it's like 42-8 finally just missed the under.

Speaker 6 That's part of the thing is that they haven't changed the guy like leading the team on the field. They just changed the GM.
And they've made the defense worse, actually.

Speaker 1 Right. By trade.

Speaker 1 It's one of

Speaker 1 a number of funky numbers to my eye. I'm not a bookmaker.
I don't know if I've mentioned that before, but nevertheless, some of these stand out as weird. I mentioned the Grimace Bowl at the top of the

Speaker 1 show and Baltimore and Minnesota, purple, purple, and more purple. The Vikings at home, talking about a weird number, plus four and a half? What did I miss?

Speaker 1 The Ravens are now world beaters again because they won a game last week. Maybe they are.
Mike Fuentes, where do you land on this one?

Speaker 2 I mean, that's a big Lamar Jackson effect, right?

Speaker 2 I mean, yeah, and he came out. He really slang it four touchdowns against a terrible Miami team that couldn't do that.

Speaker 1 Brian Flores is going to send the house yeah I mean

Speaker 2 which might be a good thing for for Baltimore if he's if he's picking the yeah you kind of kind of perplex me here Dave because it's true why is that like that I guess J.J.

Speaker 2 McCarthy they don't have a lot of faith in the kid

Speaker 1 I would though however I am going to pick I mean that defense for the Ravens I know their pieces are back so they're a different defense than they were three weeks ago but still they they have not been over the course of a half season world beaters plus four and a half because they're playing JJ McCarthy, who looked good last time we saw him.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but I don't know. That's a weird game.

Speaker 2 I probably would pick Baltimore just because I feel like Lamar Jackson can do Lamar Jackson things. But honestly, if I was like putting my money down, I'd probably stay away from these.

Speaker 1 But you can put your money down on there. By the way, from Keish, Mike Fuentes goes slang.

Speaker 1 Lamar Jackson slang the ball. I'm not sure.
I don't know if that's the correct. Why is it slunged? He slung it? He slang.
I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 He threw the ball really well. How about that?

Speaker 1 Four touchdowns against the tell you this much. Whichever of the two Twin Cities this game is played in, the home team is going to wind up on the right side of that plus four and a half.

Speaker 1 I don't know if I'm willing to call them an outright winner, but I think that number is too big. Next up

Speaker 6 I'm going to take the under on that because I think that that Minnesota defense is going to make life pretty difficult for Lamar Jackson with all the blitzing.

Speaker 6 And I think Baltimore is going to make their defense is probably going to make life difficult for J.J. McCarthy.
So I'll take the under on that.

Speaker 1 Maybe, but, you know, the secondary of the Ravens, Kyle Hamilton's existence notwithstanding, is their liability combined with their pass rush.

Speaker 1 So I could see, you know, the Vikings actually having a big offensive day. So from the Grimace Bowl, we go to the Grimacing Fans Bowl.
Boy, this is an all-timer. And I feel real sad for Browns fans.

Speaker 1 Not really, but the Browns are playing the Jets. I feel even worse for the Jets fans because there at home are the Jets.

Speaker 1 And they're two and a half point underdogs to the Cleveland Browns. You can't get any lower.

Speaker 1 This is very, very sad stuff. Gino Fuentes, who are are you taking in this all-time mess?

Speaker 6 I'm taking Cleveland here because the Jets just traded away two key defensive pieces, and that might have been their only advantage in that game.

Speaker 6 And I think Cleveland's probably going to run all over New York now.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's my answer. Big win for Dylan Gabriel.
I'm going to pick the Browns, too.

Speaker 1 I'm going with a final score of 2-0. Yeah, it's going to be bad.

Speaker 6 It's going to be hard to watch.

Speaker 1 Wait, do the Jets cover?

Speaker 1 I'm going to take.

Speaker 1 I mean, we have to flip all-time flip a coin. I mean, this is slowing down to look at a car wreck kind of effect, right? I mean, who can tolerate this game?

Speaker 1 I'm glad it's in the early window and the Steelers are on in prime time so I can really look at this one for a fair percentage of three hours here so I can sit there and laugh and feel better about my team.

Speaker 1 Next up,

Speaker 1 I guess I should make a pick here.

Speaker 1 I'll take the Jets.

Speaker 1 If you're putting putting money on this one, if you're looking to have your quiche on Sunday night because of this game, I don't know what to tell you.

Speaker 1 Looking to some help. Next up, the Jolly Green Giant Bull.

Speaker 1 It's the Eagles. It's the Packers.
The Packers at home, minus two and a half total at the time of this recording, 44.5. Mike, how say you?

Speaker 2 I'm going to take the Eagles and the points here. I think the Tucker Kraft injury is one that their offense is going to have a tough time rebounding from.
And I don't think the defense is that good.

Speaker 2 I think the defense has been kind of like wishy-washy all year. Philly can be very methodical.
They beat you up inside, so I'm going to take Philly and the points.

Speaker 1 I think everybody, when they look at pro football week to week, you react to what you just saw. And so people are a little down on the Packers because they lost at home to the Panthers.

Speaker 1 But of course, they're human beings and they could look at the schedule and say, at Pittsburgh, huge for Jordan Love versus Aaron Rodgers and LaFleur and all the rest of it.

Speaker 1 And then on the other side, we host the Eagles. Well, all we have to do is get through the Panthers.
They overlooked the Carolina Panthers. That cost them.
They get right this week.

Speaker 1 They win that game outright. Gino, any thoughts on that one?

Speaker 6 I think the part of that Micah Parsons trade that stands out is that they made their interior defense weaker when they did that.

Speaker 6 And now Green Bay, like the way you beat the Philly defense recently is with the tight end down the middle of the field. And now Tech Rook Graff's gone.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 I'm going to go with him.

Speaker 1 Okay, next up, I mentioned the prime time game. It's the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Los Angeles Chargers in Seifi.
The home team is laying two and a half.

Speaker 1 I'm going to take the Chargers in this one easy-peasy.

Speaker 1 I know the offensive line is in tatters, and the pass rush should feast for the Steelers, but I'm taking Justin Herbert in this one to outscore Aaron Rodgers, Mike Fuentes.

Speaker 2 I'm taking Pittsburgh just because that'll basically be a home game for your Pittsburgh Steelers in Los Angeles. Kind of will be.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think I'm going to be in attendance. A lot of people have asked me.
It's so hard getting out of SoFi, especially late on Sunday night.

Speaker 1 Next up, a team that plays in SoFi Stadium, except they're up in San Francisco or Santa Clara, I should say. Here's the other crazy line out there in my book.
The Niners are plus four and a half.

Speaker 1 What are we talking about? The Rams are great, but they're not that much better, are they? Especially since the Niners own the Rams in this head-to-head coaching situation.

Speaker 1 Gino, which way are you leaning?

Speaker 6 I'm going to take Sam Friend here just because I think it'll be closer, like you said. But I'll take the over in this one because these two offenses,

Speaker 6 even if it's McCorkle out there, they just light up the scoreboard.

Speaker 1 I'm taking the Niners for the reasons I said. Shanny has owned McVay throughout their careers.
Lastly, number one here, it's the Pats. It's the Bucs.
It's the Tom Brady bowl.

Speaker 1 Buccaneers laying two and a half. I'm going with the Buccaneers at home.
Mike Fuentes, bring it on home.

Speaker 2 I'm also going to take the Buccaneers at home.

Speaker 2 I think this is probably one of the last really competitive games the New England Patriots are going to play, and I think Tamar Bay is going to take advantage of it coming off the bye.

Speaker 1 All right, we had a lot to go. That's why our voices sounded like they were at two-time speed because we were talking a little more quickly Because we had a grand time doing the mid-season awards.

Speaker 1 Thanks to 10-day Tony and to Mike Ryan for making the time for that. And thanks to you for sticking with us here on Football America.
Keep spreading the good word.

Speaker 1 Make sure you're downloading it, subscribing, all the rest of it. And until the other side of NFL Week 10, thanks so much, Football Americans.
It's been a thin slice of heaven.