NFL Division Preview: NFC

In this episode of the Call Your Shot Podcast, the guys discuss their predictions for the upcoming NFL season and the division rankings. They start with the NFC South and make their way around the NFC. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each team's roster and make predictions based on their analysis, some of which might surprise you.

Transcript

Drew (00:00.088)
Welcome to the Collier Shop Podcast, your weekly sports recap podcast where we break down the hottest headlines, dissect the latest injuries, and serve up our own hard hitting analysis of the past week in sports. But that's not all. We're not just here to talk about the past. We're here to predict the future as well. On the Collier Shop Podcast, we boldly predict the outcomes of the upcoming week's games.

Hello everybody, thank you for listening. This is the Calling Shop Podcast with your host Alex Harris and Drew Moore. Today's episode, we're finally back. Football season is finally here. So we're going to get into the division rankings and who we have winning each division. Go down about eight in total. But before we get into that, Drew, how are you? What's new in the hangover there? Well, you know, your boy is a full -fledged physical therapist now. So that is great. I'm done with school, thankfully. I have not seen any...

I'll send it to you in the mail. But main thing is now I just got to pay back those loans. You know what saying? Apparently they want their money back after I used it all. So other than that, you know, just out here, as the kids say, baking back being bull. So yeah, just just live in life right now. What about you, sir?

You can go all in on your Saints this year and stuff, you know, put a hundred down make cool Milly when they win the Super Bowl, know, Camara their car to the moon, you know, so That might as well. might as well just donate that to like a local charity if we're gonna do that We just been chilling over here finally made the move out of Yakima unfortunately over in Vancouver now, which is Drew's old stopping ground. So

here because it's other than that, just looking for places, looking for places to settle down. But let's get into the NFL. Drew, so we're going to go through each of these divisions and kind of see who we have winning each division and kind of go through the rankings overall. you have a specific NFC or AFC that you want to start with? I mean, you brought up the Saints. beautiful. and then make our way up to the north. And so unfortunately, this year,

Drew (02:15.884)
with my saints, I am more down on the saints than I ever have been. It is not looking good over there in New Orleans, as the kids say again. We have nobody. That is the take. There is nobody on the team except for Take some hill. Take some wall. Okay, so again, we have nobody. So with, I don't understand Dennis Allen and how he is

a He's terrible. He's one of the worst coaches in the league. And he doesn't know how to make any adjustments. He never shows any kind of play calling ability either. And he's supposed to be a defensive guy and their defense is decent. But it is not able to withstand the travesty that is the offensive, the offensive production versus

a team like the Jets where at least their defense is able to like last year, they were able to maintain like, or offense and keep it again. Yeah. Versus the Saints. It's just, it's just a bloodbath every time. And we talked about how easy their schedule was last year. That was supposed to be like one of the easiest schedules out there. But just because of how

how bad the playmaking ability was with the team. They barely even managed to win nine games. we were saying, we were like, there's no way they don't win at least 10. And they won nine, which close, but at the same time, they should have probably won at least 11, 10, 11 games. And so with that, the Bucks ended up winning the division last year.

the Saints or the Saints, the Falcons ended up finishing third, the Panthers ended up finishing last. And I just think that the Saints finishing second was a miracle because of not only we were talking about how easy the Saints schedule was, how easy the Falcons schedule was, was just beyond me. And they were winning so many games and then they just gave it away on like the last drive.

Drew (04:42.19)
where all they would need to do is just knee the ball and then the game was over. Shout out Desmond Ritter. Yup, Desmond Ritter got out there slanging that thing with some, again, piss for a play calling by your boy Arthur Smith. And what ended up happening was as a result, he gets fired because of how bad he was at using his superstar players and everything like that.

So between the Saints, between the Falcons, I think that the Dirty Birds are going to take over the division. I feel like it's pretty hard to say anything else other than that. The Panthers, stop. No. The Buccaneers, we saw it last year. And Baker looked pretty good. at the same time, that was their ceiling. Yeah, it 100 % was.

Canales, like he's out of there now and he's hopefully going to be working with with Bryce Young, making him a better quarterback. I don't know if that's possible. QB Whisperer. Allegedly. But in terms of like where the Buccaneers are and everything like that, they lost a lot on the defensive end. So they're not going to be the same team. They lost a lot on the offensive line. So Baker's going to be running for his life again.

And then you also have the fact that I know Mike Evans, your boy is he's he's a unicorn. matter what he just goes out there does his job. God damn it. But at the same time, he's he's still getting up there in age. Alex, he's he's not the age, just wonder that he once was. Well, he is a just wonder. Now, Tom Brady is the ageless wonder. But.

You know, also it does help that the Falcons have one of the easiest schedules again going forward. like, the ball is in their court, all they have to do is just not fumble the bag like they did last year. And they should have no problem winning the division this year, especially with all the talent that they have. So. Yeah. The fact that they...

Drew (07:02.136)
played as well as they did last year even though I don't think like you said, I don't think they use like B John and some of the weapons as well as they could have mainly because of Desmond Ritter. But I mean, I think that even with Kirk Cousins coming off his Achilles injury that like anything almost as better than Desmond Ritter just like with the Jets anything is better than Zach Wilson. So the fact that you have Kirk Cousin who is not a leader or anything like that, but he's kind of like a middle of the road quarterback. I don't know how he's going to be coming off of the Achilles injury. I guess you could speak more on that and how you kind of expect with

you know returns and stuff like that for quarterbacks I guess when we talk about Aaron Rodgers and Kirk Cousins but I think that the amount of weapons that they have adding Darnam Mooney and then the second year with Bijon and just having comfortable quarterback play is just gonna easily have Falcons winning this division so that's kind of how I have it too. Second I would have the Bucks like I said I think last year was their ceiling and they even beat the Eagles who were falling apart at end of the season so them kind of getting to the second round with Baker Mayfield and then kind of earning his spot and getting his bag.

But I mean, like I said, know, Mike Evans is getting younger. Chris Goblin is getting younger. And then I think that Rashad White is kind of like a volume monster, but I necessarily say that he's great. He's not good. Yeah. So I think he finishes like RB4 last year, but I think he'll finish his. I mean, think the Bucs will still just be a solid team. They might have a couple of upsets, but I think they're going kind of be in middle of the pack team. And then, you know, you kind of have the bottom feeders with the Saints and the Panthers coming, you know, in the back.

But I think that the division is pretty solid with the Falcons taking it out over. But yeah, we wanted to touch on that. How do you feel about Kirk Cousins when it comes to coming off the Achilles? And then we can talk a little bit more about Aaron Rodgers when we get to the AFC. Yeah, mean, as a quarterback, I'm not too concerned about it. That mobility, though. You know he's a Russian. know he's a white Cam Newton. You know.

He's got that Tom Brady and I'm just open the top. So but nah, he he should be fine. Sure, you know, like it's his plant leg. when he's going back to pass might not have as much Velo on the ball. But at the same time, I'm not expecting too much of a drop off. And from what the data says, it's, you know, pretty standard injury that pretty standard recovery, I should say.

Drew (09:24.57)
and shouldn't have too many complications. Whereas on the flip side with running backs or like receivers and stuff, you see a pretty significant, drop off. I believe, I don't remember what the, the article had said now, but last year there was an article that came out and it was like that, running backs after they have an Achilles, tendon rupture, they're out of the league within I like three, three or four years, something like that. which is kind of crazy to think about.

so like you see players like cam makers, who, you know, he's okay. He's, he was doing okay. He's doing pretty good. First couple of games. And then he kind of just tapered off, and then just kind of lost it. and then, same thing with, was it James, James Robinson, on the Jaguars, similar kind of thing came back looking good. And then have you even heard of them anymore? Like he's just out of the league.

So it's a devastating injury for running backs. But in terms of the quarterbacks and positions that don't require as much mobility, he should be OK. Same thing with Aaron Rodgers. And it definitely does help that they bolstered their offensive line. So he doesn't have to really worry about that as much. However, in terms of the Falcons offensive line, last year,

Allegedly, it was a good offensive line, but there's some mixed reviews out there saying that like, like on pro football focus there are pro football focus there ranked like top five offensive line. But in terms of the pass, pass protection is kind of iffy. Exactly. And this year they have their pass protection ranked 26th. So let's see how it's fair.

So we'll see how they'll fare with a, after losing a bunch of players on the O line. Their run defensive or run offensive line should still be fine, but definitely the passing game is going to be impacted there. So the last thing about the Falcons, how do you feel when it comes to Kirk Cousins, you know, and having all these weapons and stuff like that, obviously.

Drew (11:44.354)
He, know, Justin Jefferson is great in his own right, but know, Kirk Cousins definitely helped by targeting him as much, but with like Drake London, Kyle Pitts to the moon type situation, or even opening it up more for B -John. I mean, are we forgetting that this man's was like on a record breaking pace, like before he got hurt, like he was in the MVP conversation. Slangin' that thing. Yeah, exactly. And so like, it's crazy to think that like he can.

you know, maintain that or keep that up or somewhere near that going forward. But at the same time, like he, he's not a terrible quarterback. He's definitely an above average quarterback and like he can, he can win you games for sure. I wouldn't put him in the same category as like a Josh Allen, a Holmes or anything like that. But, know, I'd say he's like a tier two and a half kind of quarterback.

But I mean, like, you know, and we'll filter this like weeks one through, we'll go one through seven. And last year, if you look at EPA per play, completions over expected, you have Kirk Cousins who ranked second in weeks one through seven. So like, he was...

Drew (13:08.3)
He was slinging that thing and he was getting the job done for sure. But so they were getting blown out. That's fair. But again, this year, I think that the main thing is going to be the changes on the offensive end. And now that they have Arthur Smith out of there, the stench of him and his regime, think that they'll be able to run a legitimate offense now. Granted.

They have a lot of newbies calling plays. So it'll be interesting how that also shakes out as well. Fair enough. So we can move on. Go to the NFC North is, I think, one of my favorite divisions for this season when we have the Lions winning the NFC North last year, followed by the Packers, Bears, and then ultimately the Vikings.

How do you have that division shaken up? Because I ain't allowed to. I actually have it the exact same, except I have the Bears with the same amount of wins as the Packers. So I'm not exactly sure who I'm going to have winning that for the second place yet, but I do have the Lions going back. I don't think that they're going to be nearly as good as they were last year. I'm not exactly sure how you feel about your boy when it comes to the running back position.

coming off a hamstring injury, but you talk on that because they didn't lose some kind of, you weapons that they had. still obviously have an Ampham and Ram La Porta, but when it comes to more depth over there, is Januson going to step up as a number two receiver or whatever the case may be? And then how do you feel about, you know, Chicago with, you know, their bolstered offense overall? Caleb Williams, Keaton Allen, and Rebecca. Yeah, the, so first off, like the Lions, they're

They're in win now situation, right? Because they have all these players, but they're going to need to get paid by the next, well, the rest of them are going to need to get paid like Jamir Gibbs and everything. They still got like three years. Well, with that, their O line that they have right now, that was drafted, Penne Sewell. So they need to win now.

Drew (15:23.468)
because of the, because of the contracts that are expiring on their team. And with that too, they also are going to end up losing probably a couple of other coaches, especially, offensive coordinator. like last year he was just running circles around folks, but then for whatever reason, they decided like at a halftime when they were, when they were dominating, they were running the ball for like five yards of carry.

They just started to throw the ball and we're like, what, what are you doing? What are you doing? No, go back and run the ball, which is it gives run the ball with Dave Montgomery. You're literally picking up five yards every single time you run the ball. That makes zero sense. And so, but then they didn't do that until it was like the fourth quarter and then they were down and then it was like, well, now we can't run the ball anymore because now we're losing. Now we need to pass the ball. But other than that,

slight mishap, they're running circles around everyone. And I think it's gonna be more of the same this year. Again, like you were saying, my only concern again is going to be who else do they have outside of Amon Ross St. Brown and outside of La Porta. Sure they have Jameer Gibbs, but he's dealing with a hammy. They have Dave Montgomery, but he's not really, I wouldn't call him a, he can be a workhorse back.

Little bit of a bruiser. An elite. Yeah, I wouldn't call him like an elite running back to where you can rely on him and dump it off to him in the passing game as well. He's injury prone as well. Exactly. And so is it going to be Jameson Williams? Who knows? He had plenty of opportunity to show that that last year and he did. So I don't think that it's.

like going to really pan out for him. Maybe he just needed more time to develop with the team, even though he had plenty of time to be, well, he wasn't able to be with the team. But after the bye week and everything, he was with the team, learned the playbook a little bit more. And this past season, he was out there as well in the preseason and everything. But even then, like you didn't really hear a lot of hype around him being like, yeah, like Jameson Williams making all these plays, like he's...

Drew (17:46.018)
He's that dude as exactly what we thought he was going to be. Like you're not really hearing that out of any of the camps. You're mainly just hearing, okay, Alvin Ross St. Brown is him. La Porta is him. Jameer Gibbs is him. actually he messed up his hamstring. So he's still him, but with a little bit less of a hamstring. you know, it's, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting what happens there. But one thing that helps them again,

like we had talked about last year was their offensive line is one of the best in the league. And per pro football focus, I believe they're number two going into the season. Yeah, number two, only to the Eagles. And in terms of pass blocking, pass protection, they're number three. I think that's pretty good. So, decent. But yeah, I think going into the season,

They have high expectations, but I think that they'll be able to match those. But I just don't see them making it any further than again, in the playoffs or anything like that. I think that the division championship is theirs. But after that, I don't see them really making that big of a run because there's too much talent out there right now. So. do you have the rest of it looking up with the Packers, the Bears?

Yeah, rest of it. You know, I wasn't I wasn't a believer in you know, you with Caleb, Caleb to the moon, Caleb to the Super Bowl. I was gonna say I wasn't really a believer in Jordan love and everything when he was going through his his stuff last year. he's throwing for 300 yards again, but it was against like the the Raiders and I said, Okay, well, do it against somebody good. He does it against the Saints have like, you know,

bottom 10 secondary. So it's like, is he really good? Is he doing that? Within? he got there. That's true. And the stats don't lie. Like if you look at EPA play, and, completions over expected Jordan love second in the league and the second half of the season only to Dak Prescott. So like it's, it looks gross. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know how

Drew (20:11.958)
or when that happened. But apparently the stats are showing that that did happen. And stats do lie. So. Drew hates Jordan, apparently. I don't hate him. just. He said, like it. I don't love it. I don't think it's sustainable for him. Because that's literally at a top three level that he was playing at in the second half of the season. And I don't think that that's sustainable.

he is he is he that guy? Maybe you know what, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the maybe the the the Packers sold their souls, and they will never have a bad quarterback ever again for like the next 50 years or something. Three quarterbacks in the past 50 years is ridiculous. Four. And so maybe that's what it is. But at the same time, I don't really like their wide receiver options, though.

Even though like they're young, they're young and talented, but they're not healthy. They're always exactly. They're always injured. The best ability is availability and they're never on the field. So I got, they got some good tight ends that that are generally healthy. they don't have, your boy Aaron Jones anymore. they have the, I don't like maybe you just say the package over. Yeah. Cause we already know you feel about Josh Jacobs, man. He drew refuses to believe that Josh Jacobs is a good running back. He's not good.

Well, I mean and then you had AJ Dillon who just went on IR this week so people are talking about you know the running backs in Green Bay have always kind of been a committee show and Aaron Jones was just good because how efficient he was and no matter how ugly it looked they still give AJ Dillon his touches. Now he's started on IR so it looks like it is really going to be the Josh Jacobs show. So we will see how good he is or is not. And one of the things too that you have to remember is last year

The Raiders were number six in terms of run blocking offense versus the Packers The Packers were 27th. Okay, and this year, do know what they're projected to be? 27th Exactly. So like he's he's benefited from a lot of volume. Yes, of course. That's great. We love running backs with volume. That's great. But at the same time Going to have a split backfield. That's just what they do

Drew (22:35.33)
but the, also they don't have the same offensive line that can get that push up front pause to where they're able to give him space to run free. Cause he's not necessarily a, like, like a bounce it outside kind of guy. Like he's a run in between the tackles kind of guy. In breaks, tackles.

But give him some space. We talked about how I understand how the Raiders were six and run blocking last year when they had they were no but okay, I believe that they had nobody at quarterback. So I don't think he had any space for goals to run through. Because other than Devon say Adams, they weren't worried about nothing. And no. But I'm just saying, it's gonna be a different offense for him to be running behind. And I don't think it's gonna end very well for him. And when you're not having that much success on the ground,

that's gonna lock down the offensive ability for Jordan Love to be passing. And so we're really gonna see how good he is when he doesn't have the run game to back him up there. Because I think the play that Aaron Jones had down the stretch is being pretty underrated, honestly. But Josh Jacobs, I'm out on you. I'm sorry, sir.

Fair enough. Moving to a lot of people's favorite team coming into the season. Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears, one of the best draft prospects we've had in recent memory. And then basically probably one of the best rookie situations that you have. You DJ Moore, finally had his wide receiver one breakout season that you've been wanting for the past six or seven years, Drew. Along with that, bring in Kenan Allen, Kenan Allen, the route running vet. They bring in Romeo Dunze, that's how they draft him from Washington. And as well as Deedee, or yeah, Yonis Swiff. like.

How do you feel about the Bears? Do feel like they actually could make some noise or do you still feel like they're kind of going to be mediocre? It was like last year, they still like surprisingly finished with like seven wins, which was pretty surprising. So I'm saying like they can't, I feel like they're going to improve, but if they improve, then they actually could have a shot at the division. So how do you feel about that? Yeah, they had seven wins last year. How? No idea. No clue. A lot of it was pretty flu -gazy, honestly. It's just in fields. Okay. And

Drew (24:51.778)
I don't like, it's hard to say that they're going to improve that much from season to season, especially because like their winter total last year, it was, I believe like six and a half or something pretty low like that. But this year it was, yeah, six and a half. And then this year coming in, they have all these new pieces and I feel bad for Justin Fields because they.

They really just really gave him nothing. They gave him DJ Moore. that's cute. Thank you. get a five day receiver. You're like 1400 yards. yeah, that was the only person to to. But at the same time, this year, having them having their win total up at eight and a half, I think is a little steep. Yeah, that is like sure. For a rookie. Yeah, not only is there a rookie.

Yeah, division. And there's also pretty good competition to where like you're not the only guy there. Whereas in with Stroud last year, like, sure, they just had like an outstanding year. Like that was like, that was an anomaly that doesn't usually happen with rookie quarterbacks in a rookie head coach. But with with Williams, Caleb Williams.

Do I think that he's going to have a similar season as, as CJ Stroud last year? Absolutely not. do I think he's going have a good season? It'll be decent. Do I think that he's going to be a top 10 receiver or receiver 10 top 10 quarterback this year? Potentially. Yes. But at the same time, have pretty damn good for a rookie. Yeah. I mean, he's going to, he's the number one overall pick and he's one of the highest touted.

prospects in a while. Since Trevor Lawrence. And you see how well Trevor Lawrence is doing. He got paid too. For no reason. did not have a Princeton went out with money. Exactly. But I do think that overall, he's going to do well, but I don't think that his the expectations that he has right now, he's going to live up to. Because you have you have an aging Kenan Allen.

Drew (27:17.448)
That's your boy, I know. I don't want to talk ill about him. he elite last season, that's all I know. Well, it's pretty easy to just run a three, three yard in route. So I can do that too. He had like a career year last season. Literally. Who else was he throwing to? They literally tried to put Quentin Johnson out there and he was just a decoy. me. was out there a bit.

Keenan with DJ Moore with Romantic Doomsday. I know how lucky you you love the Huskies. right. And so exactly. like you have all these, my main thing is you have all these, these moving pieces. You don't have any foundation. You don't have any chemistry. You don't have any stability. Caleb is the foundation, chemistry, and glue. Caleb to the moon. right.

I mean, I could be dead wrong. Maybe he's gonna throw for 5 ,000 yards, 50 touchdowns. I'm Well, you're on the fence. You're like, I think the expectations are too high. Can he finish the league as a top 10 quarterback? Yeah, maybe. I'm like - 10, yeah. Top 10 is within the realm. What do you think his expectations are? Because eight and a half wins, I don't think it's ridiculous for a team that has that much. think is pretty ridiculous. That's basically like 500. Yeah.

And I don't think that they're a 500 team right now. Just because they're defensive level. Yeah, well, and their offense, too, because again, I don't think that they're going to have the chemistry that the other teams are going to have, like the Lions, where they built that from the ground up. They all have that foundation. And with the Bears, you don't have that. You have a couple guys, well, a few guys that are good talents.

And the offensive line, allegedly, I take this with a grain of salt, because pro football focus now has their offensive line up at ninth. Last year, last year, poor, poor Justin feels ready for his life out there. They were ranked 27th last year. And if that's for the 27th ranked

Drew (29:32.818)
Office of Lion looked like there is no way in hell that they're gonna go 27th to 9th. So I know how is it that like every team was ranked terribly in run defense last year somehow everybody's top 10 now. I don't know. don't know. even. He said the Bears were like 26 last year and now they're yeah. Bears were 27th last year and now they're now they're ninth and the only other team that had that big of a jump would be

the Browns who were 18th overall, and then now they're they're predicted to be They've always been on that a good office line though. Yeah. But I guess moral of the story is I'm not a believer. I I do think that he's gonna have a great career down the road in a few years. right now I don't think that it's it's there. I don't think that they have that foundation. I don't think that

Matt, Eber Fluze, Ever Fluze, however you want to pronounce his name, all he does is lose. So I don't think that he's going to be the guy. I don't think that he's going to be the guy to be able to corral the team and give Caleb Williams the kind of coaching that he needs. Cause I think that he's honestly like a bottom 10 coach in the league right now. So. Fair enough. And then lastly, how do you feel about the Vikings who unfortunately lost AJ McCarthy?

to I believe it was a knee injury that ended up requiring surgery. So now he's out for the season. Then you have your boy Sam Darnold gonna fill in as the starting quarterback going forward. So now you have, you know, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison praying that they get some. There's a report came out today that Justin Jefferson said that Sam Darnold through the softest pass or like, I don't know, he said his throat for like pillows. I don't know what that means.

I if it's supposed to be like he's a good quarterback or he has no velocity. Like, I don't know. I didn't, I read it and I didn't like it. So. That's probably no velocity. yeah, man. Like I, I've never liked Sam Donald ever, even when he was on, on, USC. Hey, Baker Mayfield did it last year. It's Sam Donald's year. Dude. He's saying, don't know why people think that he's, he's good. Like he's, don't think people think he's good.

Drew (31:57.694)
that's a good. That's a good. Yeah, that's a good backup. Yeah. got that. I like that. he's such a great. No, like a good backup would be like Chase Daniels. Chase Daniels is a good backup. He's exactly James. Little risky. Chase Daniels is exactly what you want in the backup. He he knows to play look in and out. He might not be quick, might not be agile.

But he can get the ball from A to B. He can throw that slant route. can't throw it. I don't want those athletic quarterbacks. just want the fundamentals. All right. You throw a good slant route. Colt McCoy, great backup quarterback. He retired this year. That is a solid backup quarterback. Like, you know exactly what you're getting. You're not just mullowing the ball. But then you have this guy out here. I don't know.

Tyron Taylor I'd much rather have over over Sam Darnold any day. Anyways, I don't think that they're going to be very good this year at all. I think they're finish at the bottom of the division. And I feel bad for Aaron Jones. I'm not sure how he got created in division to a rival. That's interesting. He got it. He got his bag though. So did JJ. They can cry in there.

lambos $200 million contract They have no way to get the ball so that'll be interesting what happens with them So fair enough so moving on would you want to finish up the NFC in the east or the west? Because we can finish with the east we can finish with the east all right moving on to the NFC west you already know seahawks going all the way again and

I got 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, Cardinals. I think it's going to be very, I think the 49ers are clearly going to win this division. I think that fighting for that wild card spot with the Rams, Seahawks, and Cardinals is all going to be good. Cardinals are coming back, Kyler Murray is really healthy. They've kind of revamped the offense with Marvin Harrison Jr. James Cardinals should be healthy. And then you kind of have McBride who kind of did a big showing towards the end of the season as a tied in and as a breakout. And then you know how the Rams surprised everybody last year. They're basically kind of running it back.

Drew (34:12.896)
and kind of, you know, bolster a little bit more running back depth with form to kind of The current Williams and then, you know, the Seahawks doing what they do. They finally get in the new office and help me spread it out a little bit. Do you see that Karen Williams is returning punts? Yeah. Mr. Do it all. He said, well, you thought I was going to lose volume. Watch. Let me do this. Let me do my best. Take some pill and return.

So yeah, I think the 49ers will probably clearly be able to this division by at least a game and a half, two games. And I think it's gonna be really close with the Seahawks for Amicardinals. I don't know exactly which way it's gonna roll, that would be kind of my ranking. So 49ers, Seahawks, Rams, Cardinals, you got? Real quick, we were talking about the C4 of show. About the win total for the 49ers, it's 11 and a half. Okay, yeah, I would choose to under on that.

I think they're going to probably have 11 wins, especially with that good of a division. Cause I think people forget how good Kyler Murray is when he's healthy. And obviously he came off the ACL and then he's kind of been banged up the past couple of seasons, but like how good he can be, especially when he had Deandre Hopkins, who was still kind of in his prime. And now you have Marvin Harrison Jr. He was like one of the most elite water receiver prospects we've seen in a while with Prem McBride. mean Who drafted him in our league? Kyler? I don't remember. No, I don't know who drafted Kyler.

you got the Marvin Harris. I have no idea. Yeah, we can go over our fantasy teams towards the end. had our fantasy draft this last weekend for those of you that don't know and I drafted by our league championship winning team and Drew decided to draft every single Ricky wide receiver in the draft other than Malik neighbors. Anyways, on to mature things. drafted Justin Jefferson one time and he thinks that every Ricky is going to be Justin Jefferson.

This is the one I'm telling you. Anyways, yeah, I think that like, if you if you just look at the roster construction, it's, it's hard not to say that the 49ers are going to win this division. What do think happens with Iuk? I think he stays with with the 49ers. It's been this long. Yeah, he's kind of too late to go to other teams. Yeah. And

Drew (36:32.034)
I think at this point, like if he's gonna go to another team, he's not gonna be all that productive because he's not gonna have that rapport with the quarterback. So the Patriots want you, are you okay to fuck that? Right? Nah, it's all right. Exactly. But yeah, so I mean, it's hard not to choose them again, which I'm gonna choose them again, because it just It's stupid. It's what it is. It's too much talent for no damn reason.

But at the same time, I think that, you know what? You know what, Alex? You know what, Mr. Harris?

If you choose Lord, okay I Say Seattle Seahawks are going to be NFC West Champions. I like you like it. I love it. That's amazing Open up the offense bolster that defense bring in the rant or the Ravens coach. All right air it out Let's go and I think that I think that the one of the major things is going to be the fact that I mean

It also does help that you guys have a new regime over there too. But more so, I don't want to say I'm praying on the downfall, but in terms of injuries, that was one of the healthier seasons for the 49ers we've had in a long time. You go miss like four games too. That's the crazy way. Other than that, like, yeah, but George Kittle stayed healthy. You've stayed relatively healthy. stayed healthy. CMC. And CMC. Hey, hey.

Hey, I, I, I, draft this DMC. All right. Okay. He leaves him alone, played a full season. He's going to do it again. Okay. We'll see. so like with all of that, wasn't a lot of injuries last year and we know that the, the 49ers are one of the most injury prone teams. but also the, one of the biggest things too is whenever Trent Williams is playing out there for the 49ers, that's when they're at their best.

Drew (38:40.556)
If they don't have Trent Williams, then that is going to be a major problem. and so I think that with all of these, all of the, the, overshadowing of, or I guess more so the, the cloudiness we'll call it, IUK situation, combined with the regression to the mean with the injuries and everything like that, they're one of the healthiest teams last year. and with Trent Williams, I think.

I think that they're going to be coming back to the pack this year. So you got the Seahawks like 11 and 6 or what? are you trying to say? Is that what? So you mean you got like the Seahawks like 11 and 6 or what? are you trying to say? Or you think it's to be like 10 and 7 and then like a tiebreaker or something like that? I mean, that's probably a little bit more realistic there. But you know, you also have, I'm more so concerned about the

Trent Williams situation. It's literally like night and day with Brock Purdy. Whenever he has them versus when he doesn't have them. But yeah, I do think that the Seahawks can potentially edge out the 49ers this year. And I'm not being a homer because I don't really root for the Seahawks that much because everybody out here be rooting for them. So I'm just like, you know what? Forget them. Yeah, let's become a Saints fan. That makes sense. Okay.

Reggie Bush is out there. Drew Brees is out there. You know what mean? It's just natural. Now you got Eric Carr and Kendrick Miller. Don't remind me. Cold sweats. that's kind of how I see that playing out. And then in third place, I see the Rams hanging out there. And I still think that the

Drew (40:37.304)
Cardinals are still a couple years away, maybe a year away from being actually an actual competitor. Sure, they have all this elite talent over there now. They have a couple players over there. They have zero. They are predicted to be one of the worst defenses in a long time. So I don't think that they're going to be on

the same pace that the that the Broncos were on the first like six weeks where they were on the historic. But I don't think that they're going to be very good. But that's great for fantasy because college the moon offense, terrible defense, perfect match made in heaven. So that's kind of how I see that shaking out. enough. So last but not least, the NFC we have the NFC East which is always super competitive.

Let's go first on this one. How do you shove a shaping up? I you probably got the Giants, you know, speaking it out. Yeah. So Giants with the revival of Danny Dimes, he is going to lead the charge to the Giants finishing dead last in the division. He has pictures. I don't care. Like, I don't I don't understand. They're like they three years ago, they literally were like, you know what, let's evaluate our team right now. And

Daniel Jones played just about as good as you've been playing over the past two years. And they're like, you know what? We're going to pay Daniel Jones $160 million and we're going to franchise tag Saquon Barkley because we don't think he's worth it. Like, I don't understand. I don't understand. It makes literally no sense. Because he, it's not like he's shown, I guess he's shown a couple of plays. He can move. That's it. He can move. Yeah. And then he'll trip and fall on like the five yard line. Exactly.

But yeah, I don't think that they're gonna be very good. I feel bad for neighbors, because he's an elite talent for sure. But how are you gonna be an elite talent if you can't get the ball? So. But I do think that it's going to be a good offense in.

Drew (42:55.136)
whenever, whatever year that they decided to get rid of Daniel Jones, honestly. That is when, that is when they'll, they'll start that back up again. With the offensive, with the offense though, outside of Malik neighbors, they have literally nobody to pass. That if that is your hope on offense, you have no hope. I'm sorry. Like that is, that is not the answer. So, and then.

their defense middle of the pack. So we'll see how that ends up shaping out for them. Probably not very well. They'll be in, they'll probably be in some games because of the defense, but their offense is going to let them down. It'll be probably a, a salvation army version of the, of the jets last year. Their nearly as good and their quarterback play isn't nearly as bad. they'll meet somewhere right in the middle. I think that they'll finish with maybe

five wins or so. That's why I'm at five and 12. All right, let's look at the goodness of the division though. How do you have it? Who do have winning? Yep. So there hasn't been a repeat winner of that division in quite some time. And I don't think that that trend is changing anytime soon. So I am picking the Philadelphia Eagles. Shout out to Noah. I think that over the beginning part of the season,

They were absolutely dominant. was a terrible beat if you had their win total over 11 and a half because they finished like two and six. Exactly. So like, I feel bad for anybody that had that. But with that, the first half of the season was absolutely phenomenal. And they were clicking on all cylinders.

Were they squeaking out some wins here and there that they probably shouldn't have won? Yeah. But at the same time, that's what separated them from other teams is that, you know, they were winning those, those important quarters, the second quarter and the third quarter, setting them up for winning situations in the fourth quarter. And I think that, I think that winning the middle eight is very important. That's one of the main things that the Lamardys always talk about is winning the middle eight, whenever it comes to any kind of game.

Drew (45:20.562)
along with that, Jalen hurts. well, he was hurts a lot last year. Okay. Pun intended. but the, this year going forward, he's, he's completely healthy. He doesn't have anything going on with his ankle or the shoulder with his pinky toe or anything like that. He's healthy. He's good to go. and it also helps that they have Saquon Barkley back there as well.

the run game even more as if they needed more offensive firepower. AJ Brown was on a historical pace. believe how many games was it six, seven games in a row that he had in a row? Yeah. It was like a hundred, a hundred yards plus touchdown and a Yep. And a lollipop. So I think that this might be a little sneak preview. He may or may not be on my, on my short list of,

of players that are going to have a major impact this year. I wish he was on the fantasy team. is not whoever has them, whoever has him, should say, give him to me immediately. Anyways, think that this is gonna be a pretty big year for them. I'm glad that I like that was one of the first bets that I made this year was on them to win the division. was like plus one 30. Now it flips.

Already they're like minus 130 now. So now they're the odds on favorite because we've seen what's happened with the the Cowboys and what they've been trying to do this offseason, which is nothing and they they haven't made their team better. They've actually somehow found a way to make their team worse. So I am pretty down on on the Cowboys this year. Somehow some way they've won 12 games the past two seasons. That's three going to happen in the past three.

See, I don't know how that even happens. They're going to do it this year. I can tell you that. That's for sure. I think that if your backfield consists of players that were good in... Rico Daddle to the moon, Zeke was good before. He ain't now. And now they're...

Drew (47:39.99)
Is it looking at Dalvin Cook now too? No, they don't need that. They got Rico Dowdell. So I, I, don't think that there's really anything that, that the Cowboys improved on this year, except for finding a way to spend more money on their elite players because they wait to give them contracts until the market's been reset by another major contract. And then they're like, shoot, now we try to pay him now. And then it's too late. Then they pay him.

way overpaying them and stuff too. So now they have no money to do anything or be anybody. So now America's team is going to be trash. Yeah. Well, I pretty much the same way you do. have the Eagles winning this season again. Like I said, I don't understand how they lost last season. They literally shipped the bed and somehow like when you have two and six to end the season, then they got beat, but they could make field. So

that doesn't have a weight in the corner, I don't know what will. They actually did revamp the offense, obviously added Saquon Barkley and then they made the trade recently for Jahan Dotson. So they kind of have like one of the best three -order receivers in the league with AJ Brown, Devontae Smith, who's probably one of the best three -order receiver twos, and Jahan Dotson, who did really good flashes over when he was in Washington. We just didn't really have too many people throwing the ball. But it's okay, Terry McLorin to the moon this season by himself. But yeah, like you said, the Cowboys didn't really do anything in the off season. People are like, okay, you

get ready to 20 Pollard we need you know more running back stuff they're like okay yeah I'll bring back the the Corpses Zeke and Rico Datto who's you know been here for the past couple years and hasn't really done too much but has shown flash is true but yeah didn't do really anything in the wider senior corps they're just like you know what CD Lamb or less that's it you know we'll keep Brandon Cooks and you know that's pretty much it Drake Ferguson here's seven touchdowns but

They don't really have anything else. And they kind of have the weird situation going around. Like you said, CD lamb finally got his contract. They waited to the very last second after everybody had been paid after Robin, Robin paid Justin Jefferson to pay. then Jerry Jones is just sitting back there saying like, I don't think it's a major concern to pay CD. And then they make it one of the highest paid receivers. And now you probably you're going to have to let Dak walk a free agency next year because you're not going to enough money to pay him because you're going to have to pay Micah next year. So I think that.

Drew (49:58.222)
I don't think the Cowboys are going to win 12 games again, which I've been saying the past three years and they're still doing it, but I don't, I literally don't fathom how they're going to do that. I still think they're going to be a good team to stop the defense alone. and they have firepower offensively, even if it's not from the running backs. But like you said, their defense did get worse. They did have injuries. They, Durham bland is hurt and he's going to be out to start the season as well some other major injuries to their defense. So I just don't think they're going to be as good. So I they're going to be a solid team and they probably going to be in the playoffs as a wild card.

After that, I do have the commanders, because think that Jayden Daniels is going to be a very big step up in the upgrade from Sam Howell. And then your boy Austin Eckler now plays over there, Drew. I know you love him so much. And then I do have the Giants coming up in the rear, because I don't see very much. But I do like the commanders. I like them a lot with John Dodson, just because I wanted more diversity for wide receiver options when it came to Jayden Daniels. But I think that Terry McFord's going to...

be a great player this year. He's probably going to have his breakout, his DJ more season, if you will. And yeah, so I pretty much have the same way Eagles, Cowboys, Commanders and Giants. Any thoughts on Jay McDaniels? Yeah, I really like him. I'm upset that I didn't get him in fantasy because he's one of the exactly you look for in a quarterback. Somebody that can run. I am Lamar Jackson.

Yep. mean, I want to go that far. I am Lamar Jackson. Okay. Okay. But my only, actually my major concern, one of the main reasons why I didn't get either Austin Eckler or Brian Robinson Jr. Yeah. Brian Robinson Jr. was because of how awful and horrendous their offensive line is going to be this year. want to talk about not having anybody like they have.

zero ability on that offensive line. And I don't think that it's going to be, I don't think they have much of an option for McDaniels to be running around and everything too. Sure, can be on his Justin Fields. Yeah, exactly. And the thing too is a lot of his runs in college were designed runs. So they weren't necessarily, or

Drew (52:26.892)
Sorry, let me back up. They were scrambles, but they also had design runs. With his scrambles, that was mainly because there was nobody open downfield. It wasn't like a typical, like a typical where you see quarterbacks scrambling because they get field pressure in the pocket and then they get nervous and then there's somebody open downfield, but they just tuck in and run. With his, a lot of times it was, okay, nobody's open and he actually made the correct decision to run.

and get down the field. But then when team started to keen in on that, he was able to fake the run, drop back and then pop it over the top down the field because he also does have low key a little bit of a howitzer out there too. So I think that I think that he's going to be a great talent. I think he's pretty underrated honestly, too, because he's not getting nearly as much praise as I mean, obviously, Caleb Williams is going to get his

and everything like that. But you also hear about Bo Nix and stuff. he's gonna be the starter. He's so great, all these things. But Jayden McDaniel, like he's low key going to be a pretty solid talent for Washington going forward. And I think that this new regime that they have out there is going to be pretty solid in about a couple of years. Same thing, like with the Cardinals as well. I just think that they,

They need some work on the offensive line as well as on the defense event too, because their defense is going to be his poor as well because they traded every single person that they had available last year.

Drew (54:19.32)
finishing this vision. Fair enough. is the NFC. So we're going to hop over to the AFC.

Drew (54:28.088)
you