Bo Nix Hopeium & The NFC

Does Blucifer believe in Bo? And the guys break down the NFC divisions before the 2024 season. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro and Bo Nix
• 27:39 NFC West
• 38:52 NFC East
• 47:50 NFC South
• 55:53 NFC North

Transcript

0:00

My lord, Dan, put the camera away. Your Bo Nixrection is showing off, baby. Just play that funky music. Welcome in to another episode of the Blues for Brothers. We live in a utopia, Ryan. Bo Nix is our lord and savior. He is the greatest quarterback. Sends John Elway to grace these. He's already surpassed Peyton Manning. Kick him off of the Mount Rushmore. I don't want to see him in Nuggets games anymore. Uh, we're in the Bo Nix era, Ryan. It's an unbelievable time here in Denver. Optimism is at a alarming high. Uh, how are you feeling, buddy? Uh, coming into this episode. Um, I, let's see. I feel okay. Um, It's, it has been a little bit, I've honestly been purposely avoiding a lot of the bonex hopium because there's just not a lot, uh, there's, I, I just don't really understand it I guess in terms of, we saw him play one preseason game. So, uh, and he played a lot in college, so yeah, he better look good. Uh, he's 25 years old. He better kind of, you know, be mature enough to come into a preseason game and throw the ball around. So, uh, yes, the bar was cleared in terms of, he didn't go out there and Russell Wilson and shit his pants on the field, but, uh, it's a low bar here in Denver. So. He, he did not Paul Pierce himself. Um, but let's just get right into it. So obviously, um, it's not a coincidence. I think Stidham look totally fine. Uh, he had the one pick because the running back, uh, bobbled it and, uh, seemed to intentionally, uh, throw it into the arms of the Colts defender. Um, but on what was sure to be about a 25 yard game. Wilson looks good. Uh, and you know what the common denominator for all of these things is right? The Indianapolis Colts secondary, uh, which is ranked, uh, in Warren Sharp as the third worst. Uh, I have heard other analysts say they think it is going to be the worst secondary. Uh, we also heard Bill Belichick. Uh, going on. And he said, don't read too much into preseason games. No one, everyone just plays base defense. No one shows anything like it's basically college football, right? Like, so of course, the man, as you mentioned, who has played, uh, you know, roughly BYU levels of games. Um, I don't know if he went on a mission trip or not, but. Uh, to get this many, many reps out there. Uh, but he, of course he looks good. And I think where we, where I stand, I don't want to sound like all the way negative, like it's much better that he looked good and played well than if. We were sitting here like, oh my God, Bo Nicks threw three picks. Verse the second teamers of the worst secondary in the NFL. Like that would be a dark podcast. There'd be no lights behind me. It'd just be me in the dark. And you would just, I, I'm not even sure Dan would be here. Like Dan might. There just might be an empty screen for Dan, uh, and you would be here. With like a just huge dolphin on your head and we'd be transitioning. To a solo Miami podcast, uh, by you just cackling with laughter. So it is good that he made some good throws, that he did some things, but I don't want people to get all over the place. I mean, the game that just happened right before us, everyone was like, Drake may is the worst thing ever. He's a bus. They should play Milton. Now, Drake may looks good against the Eagles. In preseason and people are like, you know what? That guy has so much arm talent. Oh my God. I see why they do it. This is, we don't have the news cycle and the problem with 24 hour news networks, both politically and sports is you have to talk about something cause you're on all the time. And instead of doing the smart thing that they did in our youth, which is showing highlights over and over again, uh, which was awesome. I love just watching highlights all the time, but they now just have talk shows all the time and all this stuff. So you have to say something. And so we get this hyperbole that to go back to sort of your original point about just the preseason in general, like every coach that. For the last, whatever, three years since they changed the off season rules, has been saying that the first four weeks of the season are now pre season. So, like, let's stop putting any eggs in this basket. Like, yes, it's good that he, he cleared that bar, right? Like, He didn't look bad. So that's all you can really glean from this. And anything else is people putting something out there that they can't really prove and they don't have any evidence for. Yeah. The other, the other thing, uh, that has been driving me crazy is people talking about his first NFL touchdown. And they're like, You see, this is the quick decision making that you just do here. This is unbelievable. Listen, those people clearly never watched college football. That's all college football is, is shotgun fake and quick out. And you throw that play over and over at Oregon. He has done that a thousand times. Like this is not something that is out of his comfort zone or out of his wheelhouse. No, he had 470 attempts last year at Oregon. So like the guy in it should know how to throw an out. Uh, that's, uh, from two yards out. Um, they, so the thing that I did want to get your take on And the thing that honestly, the most optimistic thing I took from him is there's been this, uh, kind of, uh, I think mobile young quarterbacks used to get criticized all the time for taking off too quickly, right? It was like, oh, he's too reliant on his legs. He's not, you know, trying to use them to buy time to. Um, you know, make a play down the field and young quarterbacks heard that criticism, which was valid, um, in a lot of cases. Um, but they took kind of the wrong conclusion from it and being overwhelmed is they were like, all right, I got to use this. My legs to buy time and constantly be looking down the field. And you hear analysts having orgasms on air all the time about people, uh, doing this, the problem is they took buying time to mean run backwards. And so they do this stupid thing where they like run around, but they're like 20 yards behind the line scrimmage. And all the secondary is like, well, you're not running. So we're not going to stop guarding anyone or come up to make the tackle. Right. Um, and so I did think Bo Nix was decisive in terms of he, when he was getting outside of the pack pocket, he was pushing forward and he wasn't like doing it in a rushed way of like, Oh, I have to scamper. And there's no way I'm going to throw this. He was at least putting pressure on the line of scrimmage. To where there were some times where you could see the Colts secondary be the Colts secondary. And when he was outside and not running backwards, they were like, Oh, you got to stop this athlete. And then he could make, you know, much easier throws. So I did like that. And that was something that I felt like he had a good sense of how to use his legs in a way of he's not Lamar Jackson. And. But he does have, you know, some athleticism and he's young. So he's still fine to run around out there. And he had a good sense of how to use that. Um, well, what was kind of your, I guess, if you could find the thing that was most impressive, whether it was the legs thing or the thing that you were like, okay, that is, you know, maybe the most encouraging, uh, cause clearly we were not impressed by him throwing a two yard pass, um, to a pretty open. No, I think. Uh, to your legs point, it, I think I probably underestimated how well he, or how good he looks when he takes off like that. Um, while you were sort of talking, I was trying to find odds on if he has a number of rushing touchdowns, uh, which I don't think they're offering any bone next props cause he's not technically the starter. But like. I could see him, because rookies, they kind of do, to your point, need to rely on their legs, like, it's, the game is really fast, and that's not usually something that, uh, they adapt to very quickly, so I do think him being able to use his legs is going to, uh, allow the learning curve to come to him a little bit, as opposed to, like, I can't. You know, one of those statuesque quarterbacks that has to stand back there and they just are sitting ducks, essentially. Um, so, I think it's, uh, it's encouraging. Again, you know, it's, it's something, to your point, I guess, that was a little bit surprising to me. It jumped off more than I thought it would. Um, And I think it's something that Sean Payton is going to like to use. I mean, he had Taysom Hill in those, uh, in those quarterback read option type of things. So like he knows he's got those plays in his playbook. And like I said, I also think that's just going to be a comfort thing for Bo. Um, he ran that, um, both at Auburn and Oregon. That's just so many college offenses are using the quarterback as a weapon, which is a smart way to run an offense, um, to be clear. Um, all right. They, my kind of my last offensive question from this preseason game is, um, has this changed your opinion in any meaningful way? It appears that they are going to name Bo Nix the starter, right? Like week one. Um, All the press conferences this week from the players. It's been kind of that thing of like, Hey, I think Sean's kind of announced it. Uh, he came out with K Adams and was like, Oh yeah, we're going to make an announcement very soon. And it's like, well, we've only seen week one. Like if you're going to make an announcement for a guy that you. Staked your name on. I think the announcement is probably going to be him, right? Um, I still think it is stupid to start him week one for Seattle. We're going to preview the NFC, uh, this today, um, on the podcast. And I think Seattle is better than people think. Um, and I think that's a really hard road game. And you mentioned. I haven't been able to unthink it. The, Hey, those are Husky fans and he played at Oregon and they hate him. And, uh, they are going to be pretty ready to go out there. Yeah. That's a hostile post to play no matter what. And I couldn't agree with you more. It's not, it's just long term. No, it's not. And I guess we went over it last week. Like there isn't really a natural place to do it, but throwing him to the wolves at Seattle, uh, he could be seeing ghosts out there. Um, I mean, it's the stuff that like, like, I think we all think Sam Darnold is a talented quarterback. I think bone X is a talented quarterback, but he got ruined by being thrown out there and he's never going to be the same player again. So it's, uh, I mean, it's scary. I think if you're. If you're a Boninx believer, it should be more scary than he's starting off the year, I think. Uh, cause they're just gonna suck. The team is bad. So, he doesn't have great weapons, the offensive line isn't great, so like, it's, it's really hard to come up with a way where this is a healthy way for him to start his career. And that's scary. I, uh, yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Um, I think to, to your point, like the only team in our lifetimes, we've consistently seen have a good quarterback is the green Bay Packers. And their model has always been when you really believe in a quarterback, who cares? Sit him a few years and have one before you need one. And everyone's going into the draft, just like, Hey, you have to take a quarterback, whether you love this guy or not. To be clear, they don't have Aaron Rogers or Brett Favre. Uh, so no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't have a great option if we don't go with, uh, I'm just saying like. We've seen that sit model be the most effective way to get a quarterback. And I totally believe that Bonix is a great processor and that he can really see things, and I think he's more experienced than most, um, But to me, that just means the benefit of sitting the first few games is going to be even greater for him because he is going to see some mistakes from Jared Stidham. He is going to see some things thrown at it at, at the offense. And he's going to be able to sit there with Peyton without these crushing expectations from these Broncos fans that, like I said, we're a Los Angeles Laker fan base. These people after week one were like, well, I think we can go to the playoffs. Like people are absolutely going to freak out if he shits the bed in Seattle, which would not be an altogether bad thing for a rookie quarterback. There have been quarterbacks who have been really good, who look like shit their first whole season. We talked about it. Alex Smith, Peyton Manning has the rookie. The thing that I think we have to, we do have to take into account here is that This isn't happening in a vacuum. Like there is a roster in place here and I think it may say something about those other options at quarterback where Sean is like, if I start one of these other guys, we're going to lose 56 to zero and I'm going to get killed. And everybody's going to be asking me how bad is Bo Nix that you started this guy. So like you can't, you kind of can't win either way a little bit. So I, I am, I'm not optimistic that this is the right decision. And honestly, I would be taking, I would sit the, I would sit Bo Nix down and be like, listen, you're better than these guys. And I need you to know that. But like, it's best for you to not get out there right now. Um, so, don't worry about what anybody else is saying out there. Just do your job, show up to work, and you'll be starting in week 8. Like, whatever. I think it, I'd even be fine with like, you know, that, giving him almost like a regular season pre season, you know? And say, hey, I want you on the headset, I want you doing all the things you And I want, we're going to sit in this thing and, you know, we're not, I'm not devoting all my energy to Stidham or to whoever, um, but I agree with you. It's not occurring in a vacuum. And you would hope that Peyton clearly has tons of security here. And so you would hope that he would leverage that into doing the right thing for himself long term. But I think that's where him being an older coach and him having kind of a legacy and an ego to protect, like to your point, he just doesn't want to get his ass kicked. Um, and I think if, you know, with this roster, you're going to get your ass kicked no matter what, sometimes. But he wants to minimize the ass kickery and he's cocky. He thinks he's right There's no doubt but Sean Payton thinks that he is a genius and this is gonna be unbelievable And we're talking about we're gonna talk about a team that may be Next year's Texans later, but he I think Sean Payton's like we got we're the next Texans like it's happening right here in Denver Yeah, it's not he is. Yeah, and I You can tell, um, the other thing that is not helping and Broncos fans, please, please, please stop taking Colin cowherd and Fox analysts at face value. Sean Payton came on Colin cowherd show when he was an analyst all the time. They are homies. He has made like he, all those people love him. He has made homies in the media. Yeah. They absolutely want him to succeed, which is great. Like you said, not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying it's like when the report leaked about Dan Hurley, potentially taking the Lakers job. It's like, well, when we look at it, it was clearly a guy. He was really good friends with the new age to get himself more money. Um, Yeah, it's, uh, it's a whole thing. Um, so I wanted to talk about the defensive side of the ball a little bit. Um, obviously it ended up being kind of a barn burner of a game. Um, I think I'm just thinking about this team. I'm thinking about week one. I'm thinking about, uh, by the way, uh, Dan, the man of myself going to be in the building. To take in bow, maybe I'll get swept up in bow mania, uh, for the series or two. He's sure to play here. Um, and yeah, that should be fun. But defensively, I think Seattle and the Packers will answer a lot of questions. Like, I don't think our secondary is good, but if they're going to scrap something together, because you're looking at teams where you're like, okay, they have Christian Watson. Fine. We'll put PS2 on him. No problem. Ah, they have Dobbs. Like who can also kill you? Ah, they have DK Metcalf. All right, we'll put PS two on him. No problem. He's going to do about as good as anyone can. Ah, they have in Jigba, right? Like that second corner position slash our safeties and communication and help with these dangerous passes. Because Kyle, you just worried about, you just mentioned two good. Number two wide receivers. I'm not even worried about the good ones. I'm worried about like Any second wide receiver the nfl is just going to be having well that I mean those were my those were our opponents I know but i'm just saying like it's That that is a particularly terrible matchup, right? Like that because those guys are elite second wide receivers But any second wide receiver above replacement level is going to give us work. So i'm worried about Because to me, there's a difference between If you allow completions, but it's like, Hey, he's never getting beat over the top. You don't get explosive plays on him. Yes. You can get some completions like, but he's a sure tackler. And the safeties are going to help him that he can be aggressive at the line. Like there are ways to disguise it a little bit. And there are ways to like give up yardage to a guy, but it not kill you, if that makes sense. Right? Like we've talked about on this show, um, how explosive plays are just so key in today's NFL, because driving down the field is a hard thing to do. Right. And so I'm just nervous with no Simmons. Um, we still haven't solved any athleticism questions in our linebacking core, and I'm just worried that we are going to get gaffed out there, um, for some very explosive plays that then put our offense in even worse spots where you are in shootouts. With a rookie quarterback on the road. And that's a recipe to have a guy make really bad throws and feel really poorly about himself. Um, like I said, bonics, it's nothing against him. He seems very like straightforward. He seems like he has a good head on his shoulders. Obviously he's premature cause he's a 35 like, um, I, I'm not saying that in a negative way towards him. I'm just saying anybody, when your work sucks. And you feel like you're not doing a good job. That's going to have an effect on how you feel going into work. That's just reality. So how worried are you about? It sounds like you're very worried, but I'm just trying to wrap my head around. How are we going to be like, well, like we have the answers. We're not the field. Right? Like the old meme of like, Hey, half the field is gone with the front seven. Kyle, that's the whole point is that it's not, it, it's not just the throwing game. It's not like we have this elite run defense that we're just like, Oh, we just, if we shored up the, the secondary, we'd be a top 10, but the run did look better with Zach Allen and with, um, Oh, I'm spacing his name. We got him from the saints Roach. Um, I do, I do like that. Those two big bodies in there. I feel better about us up the middle, um, but obviously. Yeah, but, but I don't know when you get leaned on for 40 minutes, like if Bonix is just turning the ball over or if he's three and out or like rookies don't sustain drives, like that's this defense is going to be out there a lot. Uh, so, and they're not very good. So my worry is they're not going to be out there a lot. Cause they're going to be giving up 50 yard bombs. Uh, every other play, it's going to be like, Hey, who's our second wide receiver runs straight and fast. Um, and, and it could be problematic, but I, I'm hoping to be surprised, but I wasn't encouraged and I haven't, you know, in all the Bonics mania. Um, and I mean, to be fair, like we said, defenses are playing the most basic stuff. And basically the only way to stop offenses is by fooling them because all of the rules are for the offenses in the NFL. So like preseason games should be shootouts, but it didn't make me super pumped, uh, to see that. And I will be interested to hear what the Intel is tomorrow. Um, after Pratt Packers and Broncos are going to practice together and I'll, I'll be watching that. Uh, you know, on the game on Sunday of what, what the defense can do when the starters are out there and what that looks like, because to me, you need Browning to be like, you need some defensive ends to, uh, excuse me, to play above their head. Here, because if quarterbacks have time, we are at every level. We are cooked. Like we are linebackers coverage. Not good. Secondary coverage. Not good. Let's, let's wrap this up here. Uh, over, under five and a half under, I think. I think we are going to be pull bad. Yeah. And I'll, and I'll, I'm sure I'll change my mind by the time we do the official preview, uh, right before the season and I'll predict 11 wins again. Um, so I'm looking forward to talking myself into that. And Sunday's the first step. So if, if the Broncos are listing, if they can. Like, I'm ready to be heard again. You get, you get to seven wins. You can take that over a plus 190. Oh, God. I mean, I'll try to find them. You know I will, Ryan. I will try to find them. I'm planting the seeds now. I want you to say something stupid again. I, I'll try to find them. Um, but it is gonna be difficult out there. Uh, so, bummer. Uh, but. It was fun to watch us score points. Um, that was cool. Again, I don't care if it was preseason, it was cool to score a bunch of points. I liked that. Um, all right, let's get into this NFC preview. Um, so we're just going to go through the divisions. Um, we're not going to talk about every, um, team because some of them are bad. Yeah. And we, we don't need to. Um, but we did just want to go through the divisions, talk about what we kind of find interesting. And to me, The most interesting division is the NFC West. Uh, I feel like it's been this way preseason, um, for a while now, maybe you could argue last year, NFC East was pretty interesting because, um, obviously the Eagles are coming off of, uh, going pretty deep and kind of running everybody back plus some people. Um, but it's always been a fun division. Um, they have, in my opinion, two best coaches, um, in the NFL. And Shanahan and McVay. Um, so yeah, that's always going to be fun. Um, but I, I guess I wanted to start here with the team that lost the Super Bowl. Everyone knows about Super Bowl hangover, all of these kinds of things. Um, I think the 49ers are about to be snake bit. I think they are about to have a season from hell. Um, Ryan here. I, I was, um, doing some research obviously for the season, for the podcast, and they have a rest disadvantage of minus 37. That's the largest it's ever been. And last year they had the biggest. And it was minus, like, 32. So it's back to back seasons of hell on their bodies. And this has been a team, this is a team that has CMC. Already nicked up. IU coming off of a holdout. And you have Deebo, who has never made it through a season healthy. Trent Williams feels like he always picks something up. Same with Bosa. And now, they are going to be playing one of the most difficult schedules on crappy rest. And to me, this feels like the wheels fall off. Um, what say you? I know they're the favorites. I know they still have tons of talent. I loved them last year. I thought they were super fun to watch. I love Kyle Shanahan. I think, but I think that I, I don't feel as strongly as you do about this. I, I think that there's probably bound to be some Brock Purdy regression, which is something that you didn't mention in that little. I think, I mean, he plays, has played unbelievable. He was in MVP discussions, but at the same time, like, uh, when they were playing good defenses last year, he was not the Brock Purdy that was in the MVP discussions. So, um, I think he's good for this offense, but I don't think he's necessarily going to light the world on fire. And. If they lose IU or they have the injury lock that you're talking about, that sort of regresses back to what their norm is. Um, then I think they're in a lot of trouble. Uh, I, the rest of the division is a little bit interesting to me. I mean, I know, I think you're pretty high on the Seahawks here. I, I feel sort of. Strange about everybody in this division. To me, the most interesting team is actually probably the worst team in the Cardinals. I'm fascinated to see what Kyler Murray can do with, uh, potentially, um, a full season and like actually having a coach who knows what they're doing and, uh, potentially some weapons. But I, uh, Yeah, I'm, I don't have, I don't think that the 49ers deserve to be the clear favorites that they are in this division, um, but I guess I understand why the odds are that way. Because when you look at the other teams, you're not to me, nobody's that exciting. And so, well, it's, it's going to be, uh, kind of that classic NFC West dog fight that we used to get, um, the Seahawks, obviously the 49ers have just dominated this division for like three years. So it'll be interesting. Yeah, I, uh, So if I can make the Seahawks case for you real quick, and then we'll see if it finds you, uh, if you find it lacking. Um, so obviously the Seahawks wider receiver core is just filthy. Um, they basically their only weakness Is offensive line. And I think offensive line isn't as bad if you're going to play pass heavy in today's NFL, because teams just don't blitz as much because the chiefs showed that like, Hey, if you blitz a bunch and you have unbelievable wide receivers, you will get three huge touchdowns on you a game. And it doesn't matter if you get some sacks here and there, Like, same thing with the Bengals, the year they made it to the Super Bowl. Burrow was taking tons of sacks. They had a terrible line. But it didn't matter, because it was People were like, Oh, we're gonna get to Burrow, we're gonna sack him. And he was like, Please bring your safety down. I will take three sacks for two Jamar Chase. 60 yard touchdowns. Like it, the cost benefit wasn't there. Uh, I think that Mike McDonald, like no one was going into last season being like, Oh, Baltimore's defense. Oh my God. Like obviously Kyle Hamilton's unbelievable, but that's about it. Blue chipper wise for them last year. And they were the best defense in the league. Um, I think Pete Carroll, there's some addition by subtraction there. Um, I think. For all the like fun Pete Carroll stuff. And I think he was a good motivator, a good thing. I think that had run its course. And I think in game management, you saw some things last season. Um, I think you, you've seen a lot that he's pretty stubborn. Um, and yeah, I just think that they got a really good head coach. Um, and I think that sometimes when you get these young defensive coordinators that are really good. We've seen it to where they are like, Oh, well, I know what guys run stuff. That's annoying for me to defend. And so they can get themselves a good offensive coordinator. I don't know how he is in the locker room. I don't know what that looks like. Um, but I mean, I think the weaknesses on them are less than any other teams. Like the 49ers, they don't have a good offensive line either. Um, outside of Trent Williams and. I think that the Rams defense is objectively awful. Like I think that the Rams Seahawks games could be real fun must see TV because I think both those teams are scoring 30 on each other. But yeah, I think, I think Seattle has enough talent here and I think you, you're from hell there. I think I don't trust Kyler to stay healthy for the whole season. And can I say, I don't love Stafford picking up an injury and I don't love relying on him to be insanely healthy. And if Stafford goes down there after, Um, I understand, like, KUKA and, KUKA and Copperfawn, like, don't get me wrong. That's why I think that the division is just hard to sort of suss out right now, which is why I'm surprised the odds aren't the way that they are, because it seems like it's more of a toss up to me than I think people are really showing it, and, yeah. I mean, you like the Seahawks. They're they have the third worst or the third best odds in the division. Like they're, um, so I, I don't think you convinced me, but I do. I'm just worried about new coaching staffs. Like I think sometimes that can take two years. Like it, and I do think McDonald's is going to be a really good coach. I just don't know if it's. Right now, and you know, Smith is not, you know, Smith is, I mean, listen, I love, you know, uh, when you start talking about being like a really competitive team and winning a division over a 49ers team that has talent and over Rams team that has obviously McVay is the coach. And if they're healthy, they are filthy. Um, but. I, I get what you mean, you know, I think in, in an open division, if you had, if your coaching staff hits the right nerves early on and you get rolling, like, sure I could see it. The other thing I will say is the difference in the home field advantage for the Seahawks versus the Rams. Cannot be overstated. No, it's crazy. So their schedule is kind of hard though the Seahawks it's middle of the pack, but like when I go through the Through their like week by week. It just strikes me as like man. They have some tough games Yeah, but And like kind of in a row too, right? Like they go San Francisco, Atlanta, Buffalo chargers, San Francisco, uh, in a stretch there, you know, that's, that's hard. So, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's their thing. I mean, they get to play us in new England to open up though. So yeah, yeah. It's two and a half, hopefully. About is two and O is a team can get, baby. Um, So plus by positioning myself as both, uh, in on the Seahawks and in the Broncos season preview, when I predict them to win 10, um, I'll be gloating on the podcast one way or the other. I'll be like, look at my Seahawks 56 to nothing. This isn't a bad loss for the Broncos. I think they can still get to 10. They just played the Superbowl representative from the NFC. Uh, and you know, if the Broncos win, I'll just be like, listen, the Seahawks are fine. As I said, this was a scheduled win for the Broncos. It'll be interesting also to see if the, like Seahawks don't play a normal game thing, if that dies with Pete Carroll, or if that's just a Seahawks thing. Yeah. I, yeah, that, that is true. Like maybe they're, yeah, it'll be, Um, alright. Uh, I, I picked the first one. Where do you want to go next? We got east, we got south, we got uh Uh, let's do the east. Alright. Um, this is a crap shoot to me. Um, so, I don't know how You said the west is hard, and it is. But like Okay. We got the giants. I think they're going to suck. Okay. Did you watch any of the off season? Hard knock? Yeah, I saw, I saw bits and pieces of it. I didn't watch like full episodes, but all the bits and pieces I saw didn't seem like a well oiled business out there. I'll tell you that. It's kind of funny. I grew GM, but it's, uh, it's more of like, uh, he seems like a nice guy, uh, as opposed to, wow, you're killing it at your job. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think you want a nice guy as your GM. I don't think he, I don't think those go hand in hand. Um, so I think like, okay, I have the giants in the cellar, right? Normally you'd say, ah, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg's, they're terrible. I don't think they're terrible. No. I think they're okay. They got rid of the bad juju with the owner. Uh, yeah. I love Jaden Daniels. I think, uh, no, they have real talent. They, I mean, they, they did trade away quite a bit of their defensive talent last year. Um, in chase young, but you know, they're, they're going to be a frisky team. And I think I, we talked about it a little bit in terms of them potentially being that type of Houston team where a rookie quarterback comes in. It's a new vibes, like, um, get a new coach in there. I think there's, uh, there's a lot of potential for the command. Do we call them that now that the owner's gone? Or should we call them the commanders? I don't know. Yeah, I'm, uh, I also am a big, I'm a big believer in vacations and Cliff Kingsbury went to Thailand on a one way ticket and I just respect the hell out of that. Uh, and he's their new offensive coordinator. So I think I, I'm believing in a rejuvenated Cliff with a new toy of a quarterback. Uh, and he doesn't have to be the head coach, which didn't seem to suit him. Uh, So I, I think they're going to be really fun to watch. Yeah. The, this is to me, this team is the, can they keep Dayton Daniels healthy, right? He seems a little slender. Obviously he likes to use the legs. He likes to get out there and if he gets hurt, uh, it's Marcus Mariota time, baby. And that's a great way to end up with the number one pick. The defense is not very good either. Um, and the other thing that we should mention, like Austin Eckler is on this team. Um, but if you remember last year, he looked like he was running at about 2. 4 miles an hour routinely when he would get the ball. Um, so if he doesn't look like Austin Eckler of old, Uh, you kind of need a decent running back with the rookie quarterback, uh, especially with the sort of suspect offensive line. So the thing that makes me feel better is they still have Robinson behind him. Ryan Robinson looked okay last year. Like he had moments where he looked really good. I mean, again, coming out to many men. After getting shot in the ass, like you, you will get a fan for life in me. You won't get me to say anything bad about Brian Robinson. Um, yeah, I think there's, I think there's that. I think also there's something to, um, just getting a past his prime, but like just smart, tight end in Zach hurts. That just helps a rookie QB. He's like, Hey man, um, when you're scrambling around, it usually takes me about six seconds to run my route anyway. So I'll be open right when you're scrambling. And I know exactly where to be. I'll, I'll find the hole in the zone. So just throw it to me, man. Like you don't have to make reads. You don't have to do wild stuff. Um, so they're intriguing to me. Then the Eagles in theory, I should be buying the bounce back from the Eagles. One thing, uh, one more thing on the commies. Um, they also did draft, uh, Luke McCaffrey. Oh, I did see that. So, It's another reason that we as Coloradans should find ourselves being a little bit of it's such a fun Like that owner is just truly one of the former owner is one of the truly worst people in the world so to have him out and I'm really hoping for good like taking over the wizarding world after Voldemort, right? Like, even if you're not the best person, people are like, dude, there's not mass executions every day. It seems pretty good out here. Like, you know, like, I mean, you know, he could do better on the price of butterbeer. The inflation is a little much, but it's okay. No murder. Um, yeah, that's what I feel taking over for Dan Snyder is. Um, the eagles. In theory, I wanted to love this Eagles team. I kind of really like Saquon Barkley. Um, and I feel like he was trapped in hell on the Giants. And now even though Kelsey's gone, the rest of that line is still there. And I think they're still really good. And I think Kurtz, you know, is still a threat with his legs. But all of this reporting, Uh, coming out that, uh, apparently Syriani and Herds just hate each other. That doesn't make me want to, uh, doesn't make me want to buy in. And then that defense last year couldn't have looked worse. Uh, in the playoffs, and leading up to. You know who they got though? They got Vic. They got Vangio. They got a Vic Vangio defense and a Kellen Moore offense. Like, I think that the Eagles could kind of be filthy. Uh, I agree with you that the Kelsey thing hurts. Uh, the defense got a little bit worse, I think. Um, but, I don't know man. I, I'm with you on the Saquon thing. I love that signing. I think Saquon is about to rip it up. Uh, and yeah, so yeah. And then we have America's not team, um, the Cowboys, um, goodness. Are they a disaster? Um, they are not going to pay DAC. They're not going to pay CD. Um, they kind of appear to have partisans and nobody else. Um, yeah, this team appears to be an abject disaster. They don't really have wide receivers outside of CD either. Um, their next best weapon is their tight end in Ferguson. And so like, I don't see how they're going to score and their defense lost Dan Quinn. To the communists. Um, do you think they prefer us calling them the Ginsbergs of the communists? Uh, Ginsburg's for sure. They definitely think so. That the players would prefer that. Oh, I don't know about the players. Eckler's in the podcast world. Dan, send them an email. They don't get him on. And we'll ask him, we'll be like, did you prefer commies or we're not going to call you the commander. So which would, yeah, that is for sure out the window, Austin, by the way, big fan of your work at UNC, love a local guy. Um, but yeah, the, the Cowboys to me feel like. They could be bad. This feels like, to me, either the Eagles are unbelievable, or it's kind of a rock fight coming down the stretch, and we're like, Ah, which 9 win team or a bad 10 win team is going to take this division? Come on, Commanders, you can do it. Yeah, I agree. I think it's, I think that's good. Uh, I, I don't think that the Cowboys are going to run away with this. The division, the Eagles are the only team in this division where you could see them just having whatever 13 wins and winning the division comfortably. Um, all right. Uh, I want to go to the south next. Yeah, yeah, we gotta go south. We can't end on the south. It's such a garbage can. Ryan, you're talking about a, a team I have going to the NFC championship game? Uh, you're saying garbage? Yeah. Well, the rest of the division is garbage, and I'm not completely sold on. The Atlanta Falcons, baby. They are, uh, two years ago, I was banging the drum on the preseason podcast of, Hey, just believe in the Eagles, their schedule's unbelievably easy. Their schedule was unbelievably easy. They got to play at home all the time in the playoffs. And they went to the Super Bowl. Now, we're back at it again. The Falcons have kind of been everyone's team the past two years. Which, admittedly, is a little discouraging. Um, that things have not gone better. We got a new coach. Uh, we got rid of the stash. We have someone who can throw the football forward. Uh, which Desmond Ritter appeared to be incapable of for much of last season. Coming off of an Achilles tear, but yeah. That's fine, baby, cause you know who we got in the back? Mr. Big Pettix himself, alright? And he is going to, uh, c h h h ck if they, uh, if, if called upon. Um, in all seriousness, I do kind of trust Penix in like a like, Oh, Kurt Cousins, he twisted his knee or he twisted an ankle and he's gonna be out two weeks. Like I kind of trust him to go one on one. Um, in that scenario, he's a fine quarterback and he's kind of like Bo, he's played a lot of college football. And so he's not, uh, he's not going to be a stranger to it. Um, I think Kyle Pitts is unbelievable. Uh, still, I think Drake London is really good. Um, and then they, for some reason, the Patriots just decided to trade their best defensive player to them, um, for a third round draft pick. It's. I understand that draft picks are, it's a money thing and, uh, you know, all of these things, I totally get it. Right. Um, but Matthew Judon is so much better than whatever player is going to get taken in the third round. It's so fucking stupid. Okay. It really blows my mind. And then you got Simmons today, putting out the Eagles. Uh, and I think he's going there, uh, as a safety, which a secondary was a weakness and Simmons can shore that up out there. They needed a pass rusher. They got one in Judon. I think this team is kind of loaded for bear. And do I, will I trust them fully in the playoffs with Kirk Cousins? Absolutely not. Um, we've seen that movie way too many times, but as a regular season quarterback, Kirk Cousins is good. Yeah. I was trying to see how many primetime games they have, but they have the number one, easiest schedule in the NFL is the bottom line. And they, I think the other teams in their division are way more poised to take a step back, um, as far as. I think Baker had the best season he's going to have last year. Obviously, um, the offensive coordinator, who's been kind of a whisperer, uh, went to Carolina. Uh, I hate the box. I still don't think, I think they're going to be truly bad, but I had a bad read on them last year too. So who knows? Yeah, I don't think Carolina can be super good. Carolina is going to be true. I think, I would bet my life Carolina is going to be bad. You want, he might be the worst owner in the league now. Uh, he sucks. He's thrown drinks on his own fans last year. It's not good. Ridiculous billionaires acting like children. Yeah, it's, it's tough. Um, and then the Saints, I don't trust that situation at all. Um, and I think that their coach, um, Dennis Allen is truly bad. Um, like he is really bad. And so I don't trust that. I got Clint Kubiak though. Yeah. And, and good luck to him. Uh, but sorry, your team's not going to be good. Um, so yeah, I think the Falcons, I think this is the team in the NFC that we're all going to be sitting around at the end of the season and we're going to go, Holy hell, they have 13 wins. Like you think they're going to have, you could, you think they could go for 13 wins? Yeah. Yeah. Their schedule is really easy and they've. They've been really bad in close games because they had Desmond Ritter and Marcus Mariota. Kirk Cousins on half a leg is a better NFL quarterback than Desmond Ritter. Yeah, their schedule starts out, I mean, they go Pittsburgh, which is whatever, uh, and then Philly and then Kansas City. So it's a little bit tough, but then you're right, it is a cakewalk for pretty much the rest of the year. Kirk. So it's, that's an interesting one. I, it's, I just struggled to believe in these new things. I think you're just did the whole theme of this has really been like you're sort of up on these new and reinvented teams. And I'm sort of more, I want to see it. Yeah, it is always easy to be like, well, I know Dennis Allen's a moron. Maybe Raheem Morris isn't a moron. And then you're like, ah, he is a moron. Like that, that does happen often. Um, like I was very excited about Arthur Smith. Like I will be fully transparent. Like I thought he was awesome with Tennessee and it turns out Mike Vrabel is just awesome. Well, I think people might, and, but the head coach job is so much different too, like some people are built to be coordinators and I think that might be true of, uh, our guy, but yeah, I'm just saying like, I, you're correct. I am taking on two guys who have been awesome as defensive coordinators, but, uh, Raheem Morris has been a head coach though, right? And it didn't go very well. And it wasn't good. It wasn't good. Um, so such is life. Um, if, if it's not the Falcons, who, who do you have in this division? If you don't believe, no, I, I do think it's the Falcons, uh, to be very clear. I, you just don't think they're, yeah, they, he has 13 wins, right? I think that this division could be one with nine wins. Uh, so I, If anybody was going to challenge them, it would be the saints. But to your point, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. So, uh, yeah, I I'm on this train. I'm I'm there with you. I I'm more on the Falcon strain. I think that I am the Seahawks train. It's an easier train to get aboard. Um, all right, let's finish this out. Um, NFC North, this is going to be a fun division. Um, as far as. The lions are pretty loaded for bear and the Packers are pretty loaded for bear here. Also good. And the bears are better. The bears got actual NFL wide receivers. And Caleb Owens. Caleb Williams, I think is going to have some games like, don't get me wrong. Caleb Williams. I'm not saying the bears are gonna make the playoffs or anything, but I think Caleb Williams will have games where he steals games for people, right? Where like, he's just on, or they, you know, don't have the line to make them uncomfortable or they scheme something wrong and he figures it out. Cause the arm talent and all the gifts, Caleb Williams, he is all of it, right? Like. It's all there. And so you put him with Keenan Allen, you know, like it's going to be. They have, they have three games. They have three of the top eight, uh, NFC, like to win the NFC. Uh, this division has three of the top eight teams. All three of those teams are in the top eight in terms of odds. Uh, it goes 49. Yeah, goes 49ers, Lions, Eagles, Cowboys, Packers, Falcons, Rams, Bears. I mean, obviously the depth in the NFC falls off a cliff, but, um. Yeah, pretty rough. But anyways, I think, um, who, who's the most exciting team to, like who, if you had to pick somebody to win the NFC, who would you do out of this division? Uh, I, I would take the Packers. Um, I think LeFleur is underrated. I was a coach. Um, I think we saw that last year. He really, as the season progressed, he just like, like they kept figuring things out. Um, I think I said it on a previous podcast where like love wasn't good all year. But like Lafleur just kept like bringing them along and be like, okay, dude, this, this, this, and they were super injured and they were super young. And I think that offense has a chance to do some things. Um, especially early on before it gets just miserable and cold and like Chicago green Bay, and there's going to be some games where like, maybe they can't put up the numbers that they normally would just because of like, you know, snow out, stuff like that. Yeah. I. I think the Packers are my pick to come out of the NFC. Oh, right. Um, it's trendy. Um, there are absolutely question marks to their defense. Um, uh, what's been the number one thing that has kept the Packers from going places? The 49ers. They just beat the shit out of them, uh, every time they play them. Uh, Kyle Shanahan just, uh, hands them his lunch. Uh, but I, according to me, it's going to be a down year for the 49ers. They're not going to have to see him. And I trust him. I kind of think that the, um, I think that I already trust love more than I do golf. And that's what this comes down to for me, for both the division and for the, um, for the NFC, uh, I saw something God has never put together a top 10 fantasy week outdoors. Um, and like. That's wild, dude. Like, you can't do that in the NFC. Like, you're gonna be playing, if we think Philly's gonna be good. The coaching, the coaching advantage here can't be overstated either. Like, to your point, LeFleur, he, I don't know, he's, He's definitely underrated. I don't know exactly where he falls in the hierarchy, but he, uh, like I love Dan Campbell, but Dan Campbell is not the coach that Matt LaFleur is. No. So I, no, I think the Lions are a little bit overrated here. I kind of think that they could regress. Like I know that they have talent, but. The other person that we haven't brought up for the Packers is Josh Jacobs. And I think he is a real bounce back candidate here. He was clearly miserable with Oakland. And I think just being in this type of environment and in an offense, that's exciting. Like I could see him having a really good year. Um, yeah, I, I agree with you on the regression point and thinking about it while you were talking about it, I think LaFleur is the first. Outside of the top three. Does that make sense? Like, I think Andy Reid, Shanahan and McVeigh are like a class above everybody. And then I kind of think it's LaFleur. I, I think that this is the, I don't disagree with you, but I think that this is the year that LaFleur could prove that like, if Aaron Rodgers wasn't such a little B word, that's like, I could have. a lot more in that offense, but I was hamstrung by him. And then I was hamstrung by a young quarterback last year. Like, watch me go off. Uh, I think they should have beat the 49ers last year. Yeah, they had a real weather. A hundred percent. Like, I get it. Like, I think the 49ers beat their ass if it's like a clear day, but like. They were winning most of that game. Like, he almost went in there and beat them in the playoffs with a rookie quarterback, basically. And a baby team, like they were. And who had been injured a lot. It's, um, yeah. They're very exciting. This is the most exciting division. I think by far, uh, yeah, the, uh, this to me looks like the number one offense in the NFL. I think this'll be it. I think the chiefs are, could have some chances, but I think the chiefs have shown that they're not going to play Kelsey. Like they're not going to give him that big role like throughout the season. Cause they just care about winning the Superbowl, which is smart. They're treating him like Gronk late in his career, but like you need To be the best version of the chiefs. You need to use Kelsey, like the Ferrari on those rookie wide receivers and some of those new guys that, and who knows my homes is so good that he could, they're better wide receiver. Don't get me wrong. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, it's a thing. Um, All right. Anybody else in this division? To me. I mean, I think the Vikings are gonna be really bad. Yeah. It's a bummer about jj. It is, but they have a really hard schedule. I think that's a blessing in disguise, to be honest. Uh, I think they have the fifth hardest schedule. I think they, um, I like O'Connell. Like I think he's a good coach. Um, but I think, uh, you talked about Sam darn being a, a broken man. And I hope he kind of looks good. I, Oh, I would love, you know what I'd love to see from him? I think I would love to see Baker Mayfield's last season for Sam Darnold. Yes. Where like, it's not like he's an MVP. Like, I don't think that's realistic, but like there's some games where you're like. Yeah, dude, that was fun. Watching Baker. People are, people are talking about it positively. Like, like they enjoy watching you play football. Yeah. Like I really liked that. That was cool. Um, yeah, I, I, I too am, am kind of rooting for it, but I think they're in a brutalized division and I don't think they have the horses to run with them. Um, Yeah. And then I think obviously we talked about Caleb, it's, it's going to be fun and there's going to be some fun games for him, but overall, there's still not there yet. Agreed. So that's, that's my take there. Um, thank you to our, uh, super. Multitasking producer, Dan was recording an album. Uh, he was listening to someone else's music, uh, and he was, uh, he pressed record. He did all of those things, uh, here for us today. And that was unbelievable. Uh, we want to give him a huge shout out. He also had a Ryan, anything else for the people? He had a poop. Uh, we can't, we didn't have a poop. He's also going to probably edit this part out, but Um, but leave it in Dan. All right. Leave it in. The people need to know about your skills. No, um, nothing really else for me, although a little tidbit of betting advice for the people that made it to, uh, pass the hour. Mark, uh, the Veta dea, which is, uh, the Spanish version of the Tour de France, um, starts on Saturday. And Sep, uh, is an American. Uh, who is plus four 50 to win right now. And I think that is a real value. There you go. What a, what a close. This is what the people would come here for. The people have been sitting here and they're like, when are they going to talk about the Spanish version of the tour to France? And the answer is right now, folks, right now, that's right. I have to listen to the whole podcast to get that. You gotta wade through some BoNick shit to get to the gem that is the Spanish Tour de France. Yeah. Um, alright folks, well, uh, thank you for listening, subscribe, download, um, we'll be at the game on Sunday, and we will, uh, see, uh, what Bo has to offer this time. I'll be at Shaky Graves, um, not watching the game. But Ryan will be doing tape review. Uh, he'll watch the game maybe 20 times, uh, by the time the podcast rolls around. He is a one of the most meticulous break film downer. Yeah. I do always think that's funny, by the way, when people brand themselves that way. As like a YouTube quarterback breakdown person. I'm like, well, if you're the best film breakdown, why don't you just have a job in the NFL? Seems like that pay better than YouTube. That's what they're trying to do. Yeah. But like, no, one's hiring you. No, like I think Kyle Shanahan look at someone and be like, wow, yeah, this guy really gets it and hire them. It doesn't appear to be a great tree to the league, but Ryan, Ryan really is. He's headed there. Um, when Sean Payton gets fired for drafting, Bo Nix, Ryan will be up for the next head coaching job. I'm a ridiculous. I honestly do think that I could be a GM. After watching that Giants, um, after watching the Giants documentary about the offseason, like, it is, it's fine. Like, I could figure that out. I could figure that job out. Give me the assistant GM job for like two years and I'd be fine. All right, Ryan, making his pitch. Uh, we might lose a GM this, uh, offseason, so, I mean. Yeah, and I could definitely be Sean Payton's whipping boy. Like, that's not hard. You would be, you would be very bad at that job. That's true. All right. I'd get fired immediately. Oh, yeah. You'd do one press conference. Well, we hadn't drafted fucking Bo Nix. And, uh, that would be the end of your tenure. Um, but I'll tell you where Ryan's tenure will not stop here on the Blue Super Brothers, where we'll be back next week. Uh, we're going to break down the AFC next week. Of course, we'll be going over, uh, the AFC. Um, and then the week before the season, we're going to do a full Broncos blowout. I'm going to talk my way into the Broncos making the playoffs. As it stands right now, I have no idea how I'm going to do it. Um, it might be drinking involved, might be, I don't know, substances. Uh, I don't know how illicit I'll have to get. I don't know how. Like how dark my life is going to have to go. But, uh, you know what? If I have to freebase drugs on Colfax to get myself to believe that this team is going to make the playoffs, that's what I'm going to do, Ryan. I will abandon my wife and child to go free based drugs to believe that the Broncos are making the playoffs. Cause that's what being a fan is about. All right. So look forward to that in two weeks. Thank you for listening. Great. Subscribe five stars. Thank you. See you next week. Lucifer brothers is a crab shell media podcast.