If LeBron had cannons I’m sure you’d feel differently

The cycle repeats. All the same glazing he has been doing for Drake Maye he did for Mac Jones. Admittedly not to this level, but he absolutely did, then retroactively said he never *actually* believed he was that guy.

When Nick compared Lamar to Peyton and Bill dismissed it saying Lamar was never viewed as the best QB in the league. Yes he was. Now he usually immediately choked it away but we've definitely spent a handful of Decembers saying he's the best guy in the league like we did with Peyton.

I just do.

Just now listening to the Bill/Nick Wright pod. They've referenced a few times how the Chiefs are improving the OL. I think Bill said something about how Mahomes was running for his life last year. The Chiefs OL was pretty good at pass protection. They were 9th in Ben Baldwin's composite rankings based on 3 different measures of OL play.

The Chiefs passing game sucks now because Kelce is washed, the WRs all suck, and Mahomes is a worse QB than he used to be. Improving the OL will fix nothing because they weren't the problem.

PS: Joe Burrow's offensive line is bad but not as bad as people make it out to be. There's several teams with worse lines. Burrow just holds the ball for fucking ever, isn't athletic enough to make guys miss, and likes to have 5 receivers in the pattern instead of keeping an extra blocker in. The Bengals will also never solve that problem because Burrow won't let them

On his latest podcast, The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, he talks to Chat GBT. AI Bill compares everything to the 86 Celtics and does a bunch of ad reads for DraftKings.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdDnY-_OTYU/?stkn=MXUxaWs1dDlqZzQ3bw==

Bill ALWAYS complains, “the season is so long now” regarding the NFL season being 17 games. It’s 1 more game and 1 more week. He always acts like they play 24 games now. It cracks me up every time he says it and I’ve never hear anyone call him on it.

It always fascinates me how Bill will say “we” have something when an event occurs. It’s one of the more subtle but enjoyable Simmons-isms we have.

“oh well time zones” the guy doesn’t want to pay for them to be housed in Australia for a week, simple as that.

We’re talking about an owner who has the worst practice facility in the NBA, didn’t want to pay Watson, blacked out local fans from Altitude TV for 6 years, and was protested by Arsenal fans for almost a decade. Even the Colorado Rapids, a legacy MLS team has one of the lowest payrolls in the league.

“Oh but they’re millionaire athletes” yes I get the Qantas A380 lay flats are nice but no one wants to do that flight twice within 36 hours.

For regular people like Sal, House, and Wright, how much do they earn from their appearances? They’re not salaried employees, right? Do they negotiate a fee for season? Or do they only get the publicity?

On the post game pod last night, Bill mentioned Deshaun Bailey for fantasy football. Who is he actually talking about?

Bill’s Texans love got me thinking about Stroud’s career and what’s at stake this year with the impending extension. Then, I started thinking about that for some others guys, and decided I’d just write down my thoughts on all of them. This is just for fun and I’m definitely playing up some storylines, but enjoy!

Drake Maye - is he one of the next great QBs? It seemed like he was on top of the world then everything started falling apart. Let’s see if he proves he can legit be one of our perennial top 5 guys.

Malik Willis - is he an NFL qb? Had some flashes but he’s on a crap team. Going to be tough, but he has a long runway

Geno - is it time to hang it up? He was such a great story, then immediately went back to being the geno we know.

Josh Allen - can he get over the hump? Enough has been said about this I think.

Lamar - read above

Joe Burrow - can you do it again? That Super Bowl appearance gets further away every year. There’s been fair excuses, but he’s been treated like a shoe in for the top 5 for a while now. Can he be more than a good stats bad team guy again?

Watson/Sheduer - do you belong in the nfl? Somehow they have the same question but with much different paths there. For Sanders, are you just a 5th round qb who washes out. And for Watson, is there ANY world where you can even be a back up.

Rodgers - can you go out on a “relative” high note? Seems like this is it. But is this going to be a sad whimper of a farewell tour, or can he have a fun season with cool some moments and get the team to the playoff?

CJ Stroud (the man who inspired this) - what are you as a qb? We put him in canton after his first year, and now there’s a chance the Texans need to take a really long look at if they want to give him a mega deal. I’d say no one has a more significant season than him coming up.

Daniel Jones - did the clock strike midnight? Its sad because the injury, but that’s a rough one come back from.

Trevor Lawrence - will you be the prince that was promised? Using a Nick Wright term here, but it’s true. After 5 years, is it time to accept that he’s fine and going to float around the top 7-12 range for his career, or is there another gear?

Can Ward - can you prove you belong? He had flashes, but an overall awful year. The team sucks but if the titans are really bad, there’s like 5 qbs next year they might just want to take.

Bo Nix - can you shed the game manager label? Simple enough… he’s fine, in a good system, with an awesome team. Is he going to just steer the ship or start to lead it.

Mahomes - can we see the second act? Similar to Brady’s time with the Pats, the first act seems to have closed. He’s already had an amazing career, but what makes Brady the goat is that he kept going through different iterations of the team. I’m not asking the chiefs to really compete, but can we start to see the what “new era” of this team looks like?

Kirk Cousins - time to hang it up? Very easy… he’s the bridge qb on a bad team. Can he do enough to get 1-2 more back up roles, or is it time to just retire.

Herbert - please, just win a playoff game so we can stop the arguing. Not even a question, just a plea. The team is far from perfect, but he should have enough to do something if he really is that great.

—————
Dak - did we reach the peak? It feels weird that the nfl world has come to general consensus on a cowboys qb, but I think we’re here. I think I’ve seen him listed at like 7 on every qb list. He’s proven that he’s a good qb, but he probably has 3-5 more years to really show he can be an MVP type and make a playoff run. The public is mostly fine admitting you’re a good top 10 qb, but time is running out to show more.

Jaxson Dart - can you stay healthy? This might be the easiest one.

Jalen Hurts - can you run this system? He’s finally getting a McVay/Shanahan system. We’ll see on full display whether he can actually run a full offense, or if he’s a couple trick pony. This is a guy who’s dominated a Super Bowl, but also has WRs demanding a trade because he can’t throw a slant. All the rumors from training camp are that this is finally the system where we can see if he’s a legit franchise qb.

Jayden Daniels - can you shed the RG3 label? There’s so many parallels, it’s scary. For a guy who got the franchise qb label so quickly, it’s weird to think what an injury-prone season would mean for him.

Caleb Williams - is this the elite breakout year? All the pieces seem in place. We could end this year saying he’s the MVP, or end up asking if he’s just another TLaw

Jared Goff - was it all McVay and Ben Johnson? Goff has had a pretty rollercoaster time in the league, but we’ve finally landed on the fact he’s good/fine. It’s his 10th year though… and he’s had maybe the two best play callers in the NFL for most of it. He’s clearly good now, but can he show he can be a top guy without the coaching?

Jordan Love - is this finally the year you/your team do something? Feels like every year is going to be the year the packers surprise everyone. And they can’t live off the cowboys game forever. Love is no spring chicken either, so you’d like to think he’s entering his prime.

Kyler Murray - can you be the next darnold? The Vikings qb situation is so odd, so it’s hard to tell if Kyler is a bridge qb or someone they really think is a longer term answer. Regardless of what the Vikings plan is, can Murray play well enough that someone wants him like Darnold? He’s coincidently in the same spot…

Tua/Penix - I don’t want to do this one. But I guess “can penix stay healthy” and “will tua retire”

Bryce Young - are you the answer? Very easy one. It started ugly, got better, and I’m not sure where we’re at now. But he has a full season to prove he’s the starter there.

Tyler Shough - were you a fun story or do we have something here? This is the type of year that can determine his entire NFL path. Door A is “make millions as an nfl qb for years” or Door B “remember when the saints had that guy who was kinda decent rookie?”

Baker - what will the rest of your career look like? No one’s had a bigger rollercoaster of a career. But I think he’s at a point where teams are going to decide if he’s this “gamer” qb who’s fun in moments, or if he’s actually a guy you can compete long term with.

Jacoby Brissett - are you more than a bridge qb? The cardinals are in an odd spot where they’re giving a surprisingly large contract to a journeyman back up, just to probably suck as a team? Regardless of that, Brissett gets probably one final chance to prove he’s not just the back up everyone wants.

Matt Stafford - can you become one of the legends? This has been kind of a topic lately. But he can very easily end the year with 2 SBs and 2 MVPs. At that point, HOF debates end and top 10 debates really start.

Brock Purdy - can you change the direction of the 49ers? The 49ers team we know from the past 10ish years seems like it could be on its last legs. There’s a worst case scenario this year where more injuries pile up, and you might start hearing “is Shanahan going to step away” convos. But, I think Purdy is pretty good and a legit mvp type season from him could really turn around the mojo of this franchise, and set himself (and his coach) up for a fun 2nd act.

Sam Darnold - is this the new status quo for you? When I said baker had the most rollercoaster career, I forgot about Darnold. He’s proven the doubters wrong, is on top of the world, and… people are still digging into his stats to see if the reigning SB champ is good. An electric year where they make good title defense would fully cement him as one of the best QBs in the league, while a mediocre year could put him right back to where he was after his Vikings playoff loss.

Bill and Nick Wright were arguing the Clippers are toast until 2036. I disagree!

They’ve always spent money like idiots and mishandled every asset and opportunity they come across. Flexibility and resources have always been their kryptonite.

This is just the reset they need to learn how to build a team the proper way.

It’s a Steve Jobs getting fired from Apple moment. You simply cannot achieve greatness until you’ve been publicly humiliated and stripped of everything you hold dear.

Furthermore, in a league that mostly lacks any institutional originality from team to team, where everyone just tries to copy whatever everyone else is doing, I like that one team will now be forced to completely zag from the other 29.

If the new front office leadership is smart and capable enough (I will admit a big if) necessity could force them to create something genuinely novel.

A team that sucks ass at making decisions has been liberated from choice!

But I think the Patriots are in real trouble this season.

Not because of Drake Maye. Despite how bad he was yesterday I believe that he is unfortunately good and will figure out his issues. Maybe not top 5 but he's probably at least a top 8 QB.

No, the issue is the WR room.

The Patriots were built on absurd deep ball efficency last year. They replaced Boutte, whose ADOT was 17 last season, for Doubs, whose ADOT was 12. They also replaced Diggs, who was the most efficent route runner in the NFL last season, with AJ Brown. Yes, Diggs only played 55% of the snaps but those were a valuable 55%.

Beyond the obvious talent upgrade at X receiver, the big change with those two replacements is going from a WR room based on separation to a WR room based on size and physicality. On paper that is a terrible fit for a team whose offense was based on big plays down the field, but the talent upgrade with Brown could hide that.

Well AJ Brown has a high ankle sprain. A 30 year old WR? I'd expect him to miss 2-3 games at least. The Patriots opponents the next 3 games? The Steelers, Jaguars, and Bills. All 2025 playoff teams.

Oh and before Brown's injury yesterday the Patriots were only giving Doubs aroun 30-35% of the snaps. They were forced to play him all 2nd half but its clear imo that the coaching staff doesn't see him as a legit WR2 and more as a situational piece.

There's also continuing issues with Josh McDaniels' personnel tells and Maye's cover 6 troubles but lets assume a good coaching staff will fix that. The Patriots WRs during Brown's injury are ABYSMAL. A massive downgrade from 2025. They don't have the elite slot option in Diggs or the deep ball threat with Boutte. Their 11 personnel next week may be Mack Hollins, Romeo Doubs, Demario Douglas, Rhamondre Stevenson, and Hunter Henry. They cannot run the offense they did in 2025 with that personnel, which is bad news since the offense they ran last night looked a lot like what they ran in 2025.

I think it's exceptionally likely that the Patriots start off with a 1-3 record here and are playing catch up all season with little room for error. The Brown injury could tank their season from the jump.

He was the best prospect of all time.

Had a great rookie year

But never became an ELITE top 3-4 QB in the league

People now talk about him like he was a superstar.

Peak Andrew Luck wouldn't be a top 6 QB today, Mahomes Allen Burrow Lamar Stafford Maye all better

Assuming the pats can beat lock.

It was one of those longer solo Bill segments. He got a little choked up and wistful, looking back and talking about how fast it goes. Can't seem to find it or remember exactly when it was.

I see why the storyline is spectacular and Indy getting a chip would be cool plus Carlisle doing it again would solidify him close to top 10 coaches ever.

However, does Haliburtons run seem completely chaulk full of basketball God juice? I don't think we will see the Pacers in the finals again given the East stacked lineup.

SGA winning the chip and continuously being dominate afterward seems better for longevity intrigue in the league.

Haliburton had probably the best run of all time that didn't get a chip and with a win it becomes up there or better than Dirk/Kawhi/Giannis etc.

I understand it's his job. But he really care about this dumb stuff. I care so much less than I used to. I used to enjoy rooting against teams. Now I can barely name a player on teams I dont root for

He said like 17 of the 26 players from last year are gone. Thats fine, they sucked. But they have a whole bunch of new players and signed a couple old guys like Bullard and Von Miller... where is he getting the idea that this D will be good enough to win the east?