Scenario Predictions for Every AFC Team in 2026

Welcome into the ringer NFL show, it's not Shilka Padia. My guy is still on vacation, instead you're stuck with me. It's Austin Gale. I'm going to have on the ringer's finest Stephen Ruiz in Deontay Leigh. We're going to look at the AFC teams, best case, worst case, and weirdest, most shocking case. We threw that in just a little sprinkle. It's July. I hope you guys like it. I guess let's get to it. Welcome into the ringer NFL show, Austin Gale here with my best friends. My best friends out the ringer, my summer best friends, it's Stephen Ruiz in Deontay Leigh. Stephen, I'll start with you. You're rocking baseball stuff. You're just stacking days in the summer, right? Just trying to get back to football season. I'm always stacking days. We were talking before the pod, like, that's the go-to saying for a bad coach. Yeah, if we ever hear Deontay saying it, we know his school is cooked. Yeah, yeah. He's telling the defense, we're just stacking days right now. It's like, okay, we need you, buddy. We need you more than that. What are you doing? What are you doing? Deontay, is it like summer install? How deep is the playbook? Talk to me. I mean, we're pretty close to having just about everything installed, you know? This is really more getting shape season, right? So like, all throughout the spring, they get to have fun. We're doing all the speed training, all the agility work, or in there, moving light around. This is probably the six-week period where they'll like me the least, right? Like, I will say for me as a coach, my biggest thing is like, I don't lie to them. If today's going to suck, I'm coming out the gate saying, you're not going to like this today. Okay? It just is what it is, man. Like, I don't run from that. And I think the player is kind of reaching that. I can see you going to Mike's cemetery route and building his pants down hill. No, no, no. Building a hill. And being like, yeah, we're going to run up this hill every day. I can see that. I can see that being at one of your tricks to get these guys in shape. I mean, you live in a stadium like I do, man. If the construction costs were as crazy as they were, we might actually have one already. We could do best-case worst-case scenario for your team, Deonze, but I don't think we will. Not today. We don't have time. We're going to do all 32 teams today, but just for the AFC producers of ASUS put together, the best-case, worst-case, and weirdest-case, I'll handle weirdest-case. Let's start with the AFC North. I want to start with the AFC North. And we're going to start with the Cincinnati Bengals. You can start weird-case if we want. I don't have a deep one here. I think I'm interested in best-case first, Deonze, because I think, is it obvious? Is it Super Bowl? Is it with Zack Taylor? I mentioned what your best-case is. Are they legit Super Bowl contender to you? Okay. So I try to approach this, honestly, right? I think there's probably two-thirds of the league maybe has a genuine case of saying that they can make the playoffs. Maybe half the league can feel like they can win a playoff game. And I think there's probably only like six to eight teams that I think should genuinely feel like conference championship or better is in our horizon. I don't view Cincinnati in that light, right? And it's not a slight to them. I just think that it's an uphill climb just given where the AFC is at, right? You try to chart out where you project each team to be in terms of the playoff picture. And they're in that cluster with Kansas City, with teams like Indianapolis, with some of these teams who are maybe just trying to fall backwards into the six or seven seed and just give themselves a shot. So for me, best case for them is that Dexter Lawrence is a transcendent force for this defense. It brings them or gets them trending closer to being a serious football team and he gets to serve as a pivot point for what would hopefully be, I think, a stronger 2027 than I think would be in 2026. I think right now you're probably talking about them still in that nine and eight ten and seven range. Maybe you can scrape in and hope to be competitive against the two or three seed in the AFC. See, that's my worst case scenario, is that they kind of get back to that 2022 form where they're obviously a competitive team and they can make a run in the playoffs, but they're not that team that like, from start to finish in the regular season is dominating. Like there are stretches where you're like, oh, the Bengals are going to make the playoffs. Like that's where they were before the injuries kind of took a toll the last couple of years. But I think if that happens again, then you're signing on for another year, Zach Taylor, because you're not firing him after a playoff run, even if it's a short playoff run. And then that means 2027, you have Zach Taylor running back and I, I don't know how you guys feel about Zach Taylor, but I think he is a ceiling, he lowers the ceiling for this team. I think they have to move on from him to finally get to that super bowl aspirations they've had for the last couple of years. And after 2027, there's kind of like, it's a turning point for this franchise because T Higgins needs a new deal, Dexter Lawrence will need a new deal or Landau Baron Jr. will need a new deal. And then I think Burrow and Jamar Chase will be looking to get paid again. I could see this team looking very different in 2028 and if you waste these next two years on Zach Taylor, I think you kind of wasted this, this window you've had since 2021. It's frustrating that the, like, what feels like maybe most likely cases that, like, maybe this defense is better than last year, but still not insane and like, you're saying Deontay like scraping the playoffs or whatever, that ends up being kind of like their worst case because you're right in that, you know, they end up, you know, probably committing again to Zach Taylor. Now, do you think Ruiz, Deontay, go back to you? Do you think Zach Taylor is the biggest reason, like, if this offense finishes like outside the top half of the NFL and, like, explosive plays, success rate, EPA, is that going to be, if Burrow's healthy and everyone's healthy, is that like, are you like crowning, would they finally get rid of Zach Taylor? Because I feel like even average and smart, like every game watching NFL fans think they should have fired Zach Taylor a long time ago, like, why is he still there? It is because you can kind of just blink or get out of bed and wipe the, you know, the, the mucus off your nose and out your eyes and they're going to be a top five top eight offense, you know, kind of side unseen, right? I think that we've seen that any time to Joe Burrow is healthy. I think if you are Zach Taylor, the one thing that you have to be very mindful of is at the moment that that stops being the case to your guy's point, he immediately goes on the hot seat, right? Like, you can explain away the defensive struggles because of just where the roster is standing. And I think that that for me is probably why I'm more lukewarm on them is even after the Dexter Lawrence deal and adding a guy like Brian Cook, who I do think would genuinely help some of the issues they were having up to spine to that defense, right, the combination of he and Lawrence, you still look at their, their linebacker situation and you have to be honest at asking yourself, what the leap from one year to the next if you were watching that team on tape because there were just so many games where there was just cats chasing lasers, right? Not picking up motions, not understanding what where the run fakes are going and where routes are coming from behind them. I don't know if that gets fixed in one year's time. And I think that you're relying really on some of the hardest things to replicate from one year to the next. And that's, you know, corners like Dex Hill and DJ Turner being stickier in coverage than I think we might have expected coming into 2025 and expecting that to happen again. I think that what we've seen over the last half decade is that these corners who are not in the true upper crust tier one, right? You know, quadrant one types in terms of coverage and not giving up the plays and being able to produce at the ball. It's just not sticky on a year-to-year basis. I don't know if I trust that Hill and Turner are going to be those guys. If they are, then obviously it changes. This team's ceiling, but I think if you're asking me right now, this is still going to be, you know, maybe the fourth or fifth best offense in the league at worst, you're probably still looking at like 20th or 21st and like DVOA or most efficiency metrics on defense. And that to me just absolutely spells out what Cincinnati has been over the last three to four seasons, which is a team that's going to look really bad in some spurts. Their offense is going to carry them across the finish line and you're going to be a wild card adjacent team. I feel like you're right to point out that they're bringing back the same corners. It's the two rookie linebackers who from last year now go in the sophomore seasons, Bear Carter, Demetrius Knight. And I just don't really even trust the edge group. Like Miles Murphy, Boyet Moffe, the new guy they brought in from Texas A&M, Second Round of Caches Hall. I don't know how much better this defense is going to get, and even if their offense does have this kind of high floor, it feels like it's just going to end up being kind of the same season they've had. Either Burrow is healthy and they flame out in the playoffs or Burrow isn't healthy and they kind of panicked out. But we got to go to two other teams here. My weird case was that they trade Joe Burrow this season or they fire Zach Taylor before week nine, which I think would be weird case in a very good way. Let's go to the Ravens. Very similarly, I had weird case, trade Lamar Jackson. The defense is going to get better. Let me run this through. Are you just trading every quarterback? No, no, no. The enemy north, I feel like Burrow and Lamar are in interesting cases, both at 30 or later. You've mentioned with the bangles potentially in 2027, 2028, this seems looking a lot different or they're hitting hard reset. Burrow is scared to turn 30, Lamar, if they don't figure it out with Lamar, let's say the defense gets better, staying with the Ravens. It's probably going to. A lot of people are excited by Jesse Mitchell coming over and I think that defense should get better. Offensively, though, the offensive line should be better. I think they added a lot of what they needed on the interior. But if it doesn't get better, and this decal-node oil experiment doesn't work out and you can't figure out the Lamar thing or let's say just by chance Lamar isn't healthy and they're not like he's not 100% in all these games, are the Ravens, I know it's like crazy to say they're going to trade Lamar Jackson in the same way it's crazy to say the bangles trade Joe Burrow. But like, I think they could come out of this season more confident and mentor in the defense than they are in at least this decal-node oil Lamar thing. Now, the more likely scenarios that Lamar is pretty good and decal-node oil is okay and like maybe they move on from him down the road and it's Lamar is still the future. But I don't know. I think it's going to be an interesting season with I think high expectations for both sides of the ball. I mean, their favorite win this division. They should win this one. Yeah. That leads to my worst-case scenario. My worst-case scenario is the Ravens go into the season with Zay flowers or shot Bateman Mark Andrews as Lamar's top 3 passing out. Oh, wait. That is what's happening again. Yeah. I'm with you. Like, I think the trenches really need to be improved on both sides of the ball, which means all of a venga needs to hit the ground running and then Mattapuke has got to come back healthy from an injury that I think some people were worried was career threatening last year. Yeah. And those are big question marks. And if those question marks go the wrong way, I think the Ravens could be having a similar season to last year or the season before that. I think you guys are right. And I think that we sequenced this properly, right? Because the best-case scenario for Baltimore is very straightforward, which is a that Jesse Mentor does for this defense exactly what he did in Los Angeles. They're a top five unit, which I think, if you were to expect that No Lamar Jackson offense when he's healthy can be bad, right? And that the worst version of it is what we saw last year when he was clearly not right, even after he came back. That still probably wins this division and gets you an opportunity to maybe make a run towards a championship game, right? Like I don't know if any team in the AFC should feel like they have enough distance between them and the next best team to feel like they're safe. And it seemed like Baltimore, I think, can thrive in that environment, right? I think that one of the things that'll be interesting comes back to what you were talking about Austin and I think that that's something that looks past the 2026 season, right? When you have to start making conversation, you start to have conversations about what the next contract for No Lamar Jackson looks like. I think this team has also lost a lot of its depth over the last two to three seasons and you look at their 2D and this is a team that I don't think can really afford to suffer many injuries anywhere, right? It's not just a quarterback thing, it's not just a Nombie Matty BK thing. There are a lot of guys with questions, young players who have not developed the ways you might have hoped and I think offensive depth that has just kind of fallen to the wayside. Some of that is because they have had good players that have gone on to play elsewhere, right? Because there's more opportunity. And it's not necessarily a slight against them because they're number ones outside of the receiver position or about what you want them to be across the board, right? But I do think that there is a very narrow margin for error for this team and this happens to be in a season where expectations are about as high as it could be because you have Lamar's contract coming to its end. And because you are bringing in a coach that is supposed to be everything that they couldn't get out of John Harball at the end of his tenure in Baltimore. - Yeah, there's more margin of error on the defense side of the ball because of mentor. I think there's less margin of error on the offensive side of the ball because obviously if Lamar Jackson's even 90%, it changes the entire offense, right? If he's 80%, if you miss his games, you hope, you know, they have a completely brand new interior. Left guard is the first round pick that the raiders should have had when they traded away Max Crosby, is Vanga Ioana, he's gonna start up for them at guard. You have Pinter now at center and they brought in John Simpson, brought him back at right guard. So the interior should be better. - Yeah, the receiving weapons, like you ask, fans, football community, you ask NFL fans, like it just doesn't feel like it's enough. Though people like Zay flowers, they don't love him. It doesn't feel like they have a true number one. And then you're kind of reliant on Derek Henry just still avoiding this like age curve, which I think, you know, all the math shows that the longer, you can't really predict when it's gonna happen. It's just when it happens, it looks really bad. But until it happens, you could still be kind of rolling for 1600, 1800 plus yards and like 10 TDs. So I do think offensively, that's why like this weird case, it's like, could they like galaxy brain at the end of this season, that their real problem is Lamar Jackson and that this defense is thumping. Say it's like second in the league by most metrics and it like explodes under mintor and they feel like their real problems are Lamar can't see healthy and they have to build the offense around him. I don't know, like is that, I think burrow and Lamar, I'm not trying to just like be crazy. Like I do think like both of them are interesting, interesting parts of their career. The Ravens legitimately just like fire harb on, they need to find a new dice roll with Lamar and with burrow, the bangles think it's gonna work with Zach Taylor, but they don't know. It's those two quarterbacks specifically, they have higher expectations than what they've delivered. It's not even like a galaxy brain thing though with the Ravens, like we've seen them kind of tiptoe into the Lamar Jackson negotiations a couple of years ago. So I think if they have any reason to raise a red flag, they're gonna do it. I guess it's a two time MVP. So like saying like you'll trade him, I guess it's crazy. But like they did that when he was a one time MVP. They were like, I don't know, I don't know. And much he only treated him like he was much. And then the entire league colluded to not offer anything for him, what was that? Anyway, the Browns speaking, but do we need to really get into this? I put my weird case was to Sean Watson come back player of the year, only ahead of Shadour Sanders come back player of the year, like are the Browns? Are the Browns gonna be even exciting to root for at all? Like I'd be deante, start with you. Like what is actually the best case? I'm sure it's not wins. It can't be playoffs, like there has to be some other best case for them. You know, it's funny, like this is, this team when I think about Cleveland, sometimes I think that the best case is a worst case. Like I would much rather take the angle that like, the Sean Watson or Shadour Sanders whoever ends up winning this job is so bad that it totally ensures the fact that they get the first of all pick and next year's draft. And then they have all the control they need to go out and get the quarterback that they actually want for the future, right? Like I don't even want to waste time kind of lay out some aspirational case of how this team can be watchable or enjoyable, right? Like there's no miles, get it anymore. I think you're actually fine. They are actually like, they're from seven, a lot. And sure, exactly. Bad defense name, no, no, Devin. Like you're not like, you're just not even gonna think the same. Like it's gonna be the locker room is. - I mean, right after, wild be different. - I mean, quite literally right after Jeremiah Worcicormo started to look like a good linebacker. He suffers an injury that effectively puts his career in jeopardy, right? And we really haven't heard any progress. They told be back, you know, up to this point. So I think that for me, it's really just a matter of, let's play out the string in 2026. Let's hope that we're in the top two, you know, in the draft for next year. And we have some control over getting one of Dante Moore archmaning or whatever quarterback breaks out if it's not one of those two. Come by next break. - Yeah, I honestly have nothing to add. I said, if this season doesn't end with them on the clock, it's a bust. - And honestly, I don't even know if that's true. We've never really seen the Browns pick at the top of the draft where we know they're going quarterback. So that would be fascinating to watch. And I would love to see how the front office and Jimmy Haslund handle that. 'Cause last time he drafted a quarterback in the first round, I guess it was Baker Mayfield, but the time before that, he got advice from my homeless man. - So anything's on the table. - The true worst case though, is that they like finished middle of the pack, right? Like they win like seven games somehow and Watson kind of looks good for moments and Shudder maybe looks good for moments and then they are on the outside looking in at one of the top guys, right? Like that's the true worst case. - I would argue if it was Shudder that you could actually kind of be okay with that, right? Like because there's still no tie to have to play him very long, but if he gives you enough to where, hey, we can ride with this guy maybe as a fringe, you know, average starter-ish guy. I think you can live with that while it's not ideal. You'd really want to get a young guy on a rookie scale contract that would give you some hope that you could be a playoff team again. The actual worst case in areas that Dishon Watson looks like a good quarterback. Because then it opens up a conversation of, are we actually going to cut this guy this off season, right? Like in that, I think because he works- - God, I don't end up there. - I really don't, I really don't. - I really don't. We were talking joking off bike, like how good he'd have to play for people to actually vote for him for comeback player of the year. I think it would legit have to be like MVP levels. I think he'd have to be like undeniably a top six guy for people to actually put votes down. Like I would be shocked, even if he's like average, people are gonna be like, oh yeah, let's give it to him. He's gone somewhere, no, no, no, no, no, no, he has to be unniable. - That would be awful for us, 'cause that means that we would have to talk about the shot, what's it gonna make? - I don't even get like six and two at the halfway to the seat, like, come on, like that would be insane. - And you get the people that would be like, oh, the media has an agenda against them. They don't want to vote for him. And then you have to kind of put, and then you ask them, why do they have that agenda, and then it just gets weird from there. - Okay, Steelers are last up in this division, then we're gonna head to the AFC West. I have questions on the Steelers. I have some weird case ideas as well, but table set us here, Deontay, with the best case for the Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy reunion. In the first year of the post-Tomlin era, I feel like there's, we're under rating how much attention is gonna be on this season for Pittsburgh, I think, like, has, haven't had a winning seat. All the stuff is like kind of crescendoing into something that good or bad, I think is gonna be spectacular. - It's funny that there's a lot of irony in this. I think the best case scenario is something that Mike Tomlin was like great at throughout his tenure, which is that he plays perfect AFC spoiler, right? They're able to go out and you sweep Baltimore, you find a way into the playoffs, you end up playing against, you know, I don't know. Maybe it's a Denver or a Houston or Buffalo. Some team that we think should have a shot at winning a Super Bowl, and they just grind the game in the absolute dust, win a playoff game, and they get dirt doors blown off in the division around or whatever. - Totally wasting a playoff spot, right? Like, I think that that's kind of the best case scenario for this team, which I think is unfortunate because there's a lot of things about this roster that I'm actually really intrigued about. I'm fascinated by their wide receiver room. I actually think that in terms of player type and fit with the scheme, I actually think a combination of DK Metcalfe, Michael Pitman and Jerry Bernard would actually be really interesting in a Mike McCarthy offense, right? It's unfortunate that they have to deal with zombie Aaron Rodgers' or quarterback, but if you were telling me that, you know, mid, you know, 2010s, Aaron Rodgers was working with this wide receiver core, I'd be like, "Oh man, you can just book the trip now to the AFC title game." Like, he is going to win another MVP with this unit, and I think that their combination of tight ends as well would all be perfect fits for younger Aaron Rodgers. I just think that this team, this roster construction is about eight years too late in the Rodgers experience, unfortunately. That's what kind of worries me though, is that we get like a rewind of like the late stage McCarthy era packers where we're in 11 personnel, three receivers on the field. Yeah, triple fan spread, four main shotgun formations, and you don't utilize what could be a diverse personnel type of offense where you're getting something out of the run game, you're getting something out of the play action game, and like the moves and the offseason kind of speak to that because you do have three receivers that you could play now, and Bernard and Pitman adding to Metcalfe. So I'm worried that we're just going to see that style of offense, and it's going to be bad or it's going to be mediocre at best. And then the defense, I think with Patrick Graham coming along, is going to be fine to good, which has been for the past couple of years. And we just get another Mike Tomlin season, but instead of Mike Tomlin, it's like McCarthy. That sounds like worst case. I feel like if I'm a steel fan, that's my worst case. That's my worst case. If I'm a steel fan, the last season I want is a Tomlin-esque season without Tomlin. Like, I don't want that. You want to pop them out, right? Yeah, yeah. I like their receiving core a lot. And I think it would be sad, but obviously realistic, if Mike McCarthy of all this time, watching the NFL, I remember when he said he watched every play of the Cowboys, whatever, but he's not realizing that you need to get under center. You need to run more to two plus tie-down personnel sets. You need to try other stuff. That's where the league is going. You got to run the football from under center, and you play action from under center. And you do have to try stuff outside of 11 personnel. I feel like we felt that a lot last year, [BLANK_AUDIO] draft and like reincy kind of reflected that people do want more Ted ends on the field. If McCarthy's like, no, I'm still playing my tricks. This is going to not be a Tom and S season. I feel like they probably win like four to six games. I feel like he has to, I think, adapt the offense to where the entire league and like, specifically like where the league is countering defenses, right? Linebackers have gotten smaller, defensive tackles have gotten smaller. So now they're saying, okay, you want to come out here with like two linebackers and four defensive linemen. We got big dogs up front. We're just going to run down your throat. Like that, that counter action is happening. I think this kind of comes back to the irony I was speaking to, right? Like you look at what this team is between the tackles and it is like perfectly built to embrace where I think the league is going. They have good athletes on their offensive line. They can move bodies. You have multiple tight ends that will be a perfect fit and being able to use a different personnel groupings to get under center and really kind of lean on a downhill or an outside zone type of rushing attack. The issue though is that we're talking about Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy, and I can't imagine two people in charge of the offense who could be less interested in where the league seems to be headed. True. So I do think that like the state nature of this roster also just speaks to how Pittsburgh has just been kind of hanging around in this space for the last decade, right? Basically, since 2017, this team has just been totally unwilling to let go of what is clearly not happening, which is super well contention as it's currently constructed and they've tried to turn this roster over in. I think that honestly they've done what I think Minnesota tried to promise at the beginning of the Kevin O'Connell era, which is like this competitive roster pivot, they've actually done that really well. And I think that what we've come away with after watching this team for the last decade, and I would say specifically over the last two to three seasons is that that's just not that interesting to watch. This is just not a very interesting offense to watch. And I think that best case scenario probably is an uninteresting offense that is quick passing game, not a lot of downhill runs. You don't get many explosives. And then a defense that I think is actually perfectly fit and perfectly tailored for what Patrick Graham wants to do schematically. And they're just sitting on teams on one end of the ball and then sitting on the ball when they have it, right? And that is very time a nest that is very Pittsburgh in the last decade and something that while I may not want to watch, I think can get you nine to ten wins and help you kind of, you know, again, another team that can kind of backdoor their way into getting the seven seed in the AFC picture. And the part that Austin left out about Mike McCarthy watching all those plays was like too much later. He admitted that he lies lying. So that was arguably like the most creative and deceptive thing he's done as a coach for the past decade. Like, I want to believe that out. Okay. Part of it really wants to believe that while Austin and I were working at PFF grinding film that he was just like remote watching, viewing through us and then just drifting, you know, drafting off of our takes from that time. I forgot. He was your guy's boy. He was a PFF darling. You guys are responsible for this. McCarthy. Of course you're responsible. He said he watched all the plays. Right? I mean, he had to. He had ultimate. Let me read you my words, my weird case, my shocking case. The Steelers have a drama free 2026. They win 11 games the first time said, yeah, yeah, it feels impossible. They win 11 games for the first time since 2020. They win a playoff game. Convince Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rogers to run it back one more time. And I think that part of obviously most shocking, drama free would be insane. 11 games all that stuff. But like, I'm kind of buying that this offensive line is good. I'm buying that they have two tight ends that they can play that are good. I like their three receivers. I think that you're right. You're dealing with zombie Rogers, but you're dealing with familiarity and McCarthy. And then defensively, they dealt with a lot of injuries last year. And as a Raiders fan, I love madman Pat Graham coming over here. And I think last year, according to like pretty much every metric that mattered, that was the worst defense. Tomlin has ever fueled it, like legitimately like the worst defense. Yes. They can't really get much worse. So the defense is going to get better if Deonte and I are kind of right with Pat Graham. And these guys just stay a little bit more healthy than they were last year. And offensively, it's hard to imagine the Roger relationship maybe not being a lot worse than it was last year. So I don't know. Like a part of me is like, if you had to bet, does this team win six games or 10 games next year? I'm leaning closer to 10. I think 10 is 10 where I'd lean. Yeah. I think it's another eight, nine win, 10 win season, and I think it's more of the same, which is very funny. Okay. Let's take a break and then we'll get to the AFC West. All right. We're going to start with my Raiders. This is what honestly got us to do best case, worst case, weird case because I sent this in the slack and then our Juno said, okay, I guess we could do that. I said, weird case, weird case, Fernando Mendoza starts week one or earlier than Tom Brady wants. And a rift is created between Coupiac, Mendoza, Brady and spy tech because the big thing about with this whole thing is Brady said, you should not play rookie quarterbacks right at the gate, right? He did like this whole like Ted talk about it, right? He did like a like where you can't do this. You shouldn't do this. I would be shocked if Fernando Mendoza starting week one, I'd be shocked if he's starting before Tom Brady has given the seal approval that he's ready to start. I think the other weird thing that could happen is that, you know, Fernando Mendoza starts after the buy, which is like week 12, he plays those last five games, helps them get into the playoffs and we want to play off game and some, you know, some things could happen, right? I think, I think there's, but help me out, Dianne, is there a best case where the Raiders want to play off game in 2026? I think the best case is also a weird case and it's that like Kurt Cousins is still the player that we saw for like the first half of the season in Atlanta and like there's actually a functional quarterback still somewhere in there, right? And this team is competitive, maybe not winning games, but competitive enough and then you do kind of have that weird conversation of like, well, if Kurt Cousins is playing this way, when actually is the right time to hand the keys over to Fernando Mendoza, like are we actually going to get through an entire season where a number one overall pick does not, you know, log a meaningful slap in his rookie season. That to me, I think would be a really fascinating case and I think that you can make an argument that that's the best case scenario. I think the other thing to me that I might lay out for them as a potential best case scenario is that Max Crosby is genuinely motivated. He is healthy. He's back. He gives you this, you know, 20 sacks season and that ends up being the catalyst for this team. You know, like you said, maybe sneaking its way into the playoff picture and that also kind of I think extends the window of time where you don't have to worry about whether or not Fernando Mendoza is a franchise changing talent because you've got, you know, a veteran quarterback you have enough on your defense after all this money you spent to bring in the Kobe Dean, Quay Walker, Quitte Pay, all these people who were supposed to be here to help, you know, replicate, you know, some of the production and decent defense that you would have had without Max Crosby before the trade got rescinded that all those pieces end up fitting together perfectly and you end up having a good enough defense and enough kind of moxie from Kirk Cousins at this age for you to be able to hang around. And I think maybe be like a 6 and 11, 7 and 10 type of team. How would you feel about getting excited about Kirk Cousins as a Raiders fan, Austin? I would ideally, I've said this multiple times now, ideally he's starting through the buy, the buy is week 13, the Raiders get five games after the buy. Two of them are against the Cardinals and the Titans, the other three are division rivals. The first three out of the buy are home games. You give Fernando two really shitty teams, Cardinals Titans and all three division rivals two of those at home, I feel like that's like the right, if like, and it doesn't really matter, if the season's like lost by then, you're like, you know, four and 10, whatever you're end up being like, I feel like getting Fernando that time experience against all three rivals, three home games out of the buy would be great. That would be like the best case. But if it's more like what Deonte is saying, and it's like that Alex Smith season with Patrick Rahom's, we're like, Patrick Rahom's only plays one game because Alex Smith has led them to the playoffs. Like they're going to the playoffs because of Alex Smith. I don't think that's happening. That would be really, really best case with Kirk Cousins and the Raiders, especially because like, I think we're kind of like, yes, the offensive line's going to get better because Pete Carroll's son isn't like actively hurting them and like taking them down. Like, it's still like not a great group and it's pretty dependent on Colton Miller staying healthy and some of these other pieces. I think there's concerns about the receiving core that are very fair. Like, I don't think it's like Kirk plays well. It's not even a guarantee that they're a six win seven win team, right? Like, I think a lot of holes offensively the cornerbacks, like they, there's still problems. But I, you know, I am bullish on Coupi act and I'm bullish on Fernando. And the fact that these guys might be calling plays slash quarterbacking together for the next two to three, three to four years, ideally, that's a scenario we like legitimately haven't had. Even if you go back to the Jamarcus Russell days, when they drafted him first of all, Lane Kiffin was fired four games into his next season. Like, that's not going to happen with Coupi act, right? Like, there's just objectively a better system at the important positions, owner, which is pretty much just Brady at this point, coach with Coupi act and now obviously Fernando coming in. If Kirk wins nine games, you have to buy Kirk Cousins to Jersey. Deal. Oh my God. And offensive one. Not one of those like crappy fanatics one. That's a guarantee. Fake Jersey, of course. Absolutely. It'll look good right next to my Fernando Mendoza, Jersey. All right. Let's get. You want to get to the chiefs? Let's do chiefs. We just skipped over worst case scenario. Oh, did we wait? Wait. Well, it's kind of obvious the worst case scenario. So I didn't take this one seriously. It's just play as shittily as they've been the last 20 years. But I did. Mendoza gets Josh Rosen gets straight into Miami is out of football in three years and ends up launching a run for public office on some problematic viewpoints. And we all have to pretend like we never like them in the first place. That's not happening. Let's be careful here. But that's worst case in some some ridiculous stuff that you're bringing. Okay. I'm upset. Fernando's not going to be Rosen. How old are you with the last time you watched them win a playoff game? I was. So 2007. Okay. So this is very much in the role of possibility. What's talking about? But I don't want to see Rosen. I wrote the fact that we're bringing Rosen into the mix with Fernando. This really is not. It's not fair to me. It's not fair. I don't think will happen. Max Crosby traded at the deadline to the Ravens again for two years from picks. And then I said, healthy Brock Bowers gets less than 140 targets. Like is there like a world? Is there a world where Brock isn't, you know, everyone's been saying like the JSN of Kupy Axe offense, but I don't think it's like same production, same usage or whatever. But like, I think he's going to be the focal point of the offense. He was going to be for Chip Kelly until he got hurt in that first game. Like I think if Brock is healthy, I would be surprised he doesn't have 140, 150 targets. It's going to be, yeah, that would be the most depressing outcome if Brock is healthy and is bad or not productive and then you're like seeing like. like memes on Sunday, where he's got like Shane Gillis. He's got like Shane Gillis, like Photoshopped on his head. You know what I'm saying? - That's happening, that's happening. All right, let's get to the chiefs and let's start with worst case. So we don't forget it at the end. What is, you know, it felt like last year was like a year from hell, I remember writing after week one are the chiefs cooks, a blog for TheRinger.com ended up being right. But I think this year, expectations have to be higher. And they honestly, I feel like there has to be this like level, it's something that chiefs haven't dealt with before going into the season. Or like they aren't like this like Crown Jewel, they do have to kind of prove themselves again. What is the realistic worst case for them in 2026, Stephen? - What I have is that Patrick Mahomes gives into his competitive nature and rushes back, plays the opener, which I think is happening. I think the schedule makers know something 'cause they scheduled them for the Monday night opener against the Broncos. And you're not scheduling a Justin Fields opener. You know, I don't want to watch Justin feel familiar. - That's not a good thing. - That would be, that would be rough. - That would be rough. That would be rough. Kind of getting like the RG3 2013 vibes. You remember they were on Monday night football against the Eagles after his ACL tear and the vibes were just never the same again. And I don't want to see Patrick Mahomes struggling through another year, which I think is going to happen, especially if he's hobbled because the depth chart still looks mostly the same. Maybe Kenneth Walker rejuvenates the run game, but if that doesn't happen, he's going to be carrying a lot of weight. And even if he is healthy, if I'm the chiefs, I'm holding him out till after the week five buy, they get the Broncos, just give that game away. But after that, you get the Colts, you get the Dolphins, you get the Raiders, no offense Austin. But I think you can come out of that two and two. And then out of the buy, you get a gauntlet. You get the chargers, you get the Seahawks, and you get the Broncos. I'd rather have 100% Patrick Mahomes for that than him trying to prove that he's healthy those first couple of weeks. - Especially as a scrambler. I mean, it's not much of what we've seen on like third downs, money downs where he's getting like so much of his like, it goes from like a sack. So the EPA would have been like, negative 10 to like a positive because he gets a first down like that's where he's not going to get those plays that have mattered so much to him being successful specifically winning games if he's not 100% healthy. And I think rushing him back, like you saw like, even with a fully healthy Patrick Mahomes last year at a very close to the same receiving core and offensive line is last year and the same head coach is last year, you can start slow. So why force it, like you're saying, rush him out. What's your read, Dante? You think they're, he's starting week one? - I kind of think that he is. I have no reason to believe that he's not, right? Like intruously, he's on the field already. - They've paid him, they paid him this all season, right? I think partially as a thank you for playing below market, you know, as you know, that press got is getting $60 million and all the guys that, you know, are not as accomplices Patrick Mahomes are getting $55 million on their extension. I do think that he's going to be there. I do think he's going to play. And I think that that kind of dovetails into what my best case scenario is, which is that the combination of Mahomes, Kenneth Walker and like Rishi Rice whenever he's there and like the 2013 Heedles, right? If I'm going to make a crossword analogy where they just genuinely look like they are playing the sport at a different level than everybody else. And it is all being led by Mahomes being otherworldly again. If you look at this roster man, like I just don't know how this team gets back into the playoff picture, let alone the contention picture in a way that is not asking Patrick Mahomes to be football Jesus. It can just walk her alone. Kenneth Walker alone is just not enough. And I do think that he can be an explosive piece of the run game. I do think that Rishi Rice can get back to being a yak threat, right? Especially in an RPO lead scheme. But I don't believe the Eric B enemy is going to be able to sit in the office with Andy Reed and say you're changing this offense. We also have never seen anything from Eric B enemy to suggest that just because he spends some time with Ben Johnson that that means that he is going to bring to Ben Johnson offense over. I still I have to see it. I think the run game will get better with the enemy and Walker. It has to, right? Like I think in two years ago, there were the worst team in the league by percentage of 10 plus yard runs for running backs. That was the worst team lead last year. They were the worst team in the league. So back to back years now, they legitimately, no team in the NFL has created explosives. I mean, everyone has a different measure. I like looking at 10 plus for runs, but like no team in the NFL has gotten less 10 plus runs than from the running backs in the cheese over the last two years. Right? Like I think that it's got to get better with Walker. I think the I'm the minute I'm selling the chiefs, is as soon as I hear that Walker has a little something with like an ankle and camp and it's like I'm done. I can't I can't put all my faith in Bashar Smith and be enemy and whoever like do they sign cream huntbacks. Like I'm not doing that. I think that Rishi Rice, like we have the problems with like him staying on the field. I feel like we're these not a number one. He might not be a number two. Kelsey's 36, 37 years old. Like the vertical threat is tight one, Thornton again. And they bought back tight one, Thornton. They brought him back. They said they need the sky. They didn't bring him back. They could not afford to not have tight one Thornton be starting. That's insane. I feel like it's going to be a hard team to root for if Walker's hurt at all. And every year of his career, he's been like on a pitch count because he gets hurt all the time. And I'm scared. When they made the Walker thing, it was like, you know, they say like don't put all your eggs in one basket. They're like, fuck it, dude, we'll dump the whole damn thing. We got to improve the run game. Let's spend all this money on one running back that we know is explosive, win healthy. And like, I don't know. Like to get the season we got from Walker last year, including the Super Bowl run again. I mean, what is the chance of that? One in a hundred, one in a thousand? It is. Yeah. The odds are long. Please, if you have heard of any of these backup offensive players, stop me. Jimmy Holliday, I had to look twice to make sure that we weren't talking about it. That's a jazz singer. Jimmy Holliday sounds like a utility second baseman, right? For like the Kansas City Royals in the 70s, exactly. Jalen Royals, another player who sounds like a corner outfielder, right? From the 80s. And Amari DuMarcato, most NFL fans know probably from the fumble that led to one of the worst collapses and losses last season with the Cardinals. So this is a team that does not have a very impressive skill position group on the whole already, especially outside of Kenneth Walker. Even if you're assuming the best out of her she writes, and you're telling me that all their depth, that this is their depth, this is what's next in line for them. You need not only the guys that I mentioned to be heroes, but guys like Kingsley, Suo Mataeah, guys like Trace Smith, like there cannot be any slippage at all up front. I mean, it's built on a house of cards. One hundred. Go on the house of cards, one injury's going to affect another. And if like what you're saying, you know, Andy Reed, and what feels like, and you guys know this better than me, you guys are, you know, down to your literally high school football coach. Like, like, it feels like we're undergoing a pretty major offensive shift over this last year and this upcoming year with prioritizing getting under center and putting big tight ends on the field and trying to like change what defensive have reacted. And like, well, the chiefs, you know, I mentioned, you know, they're, they're the last of the NFL and creating explosive with their running backs. They've been top 10 in passing explosives, pretty much the entire Mahomes era. It has mattered less over the last two years because it's become more important to run the football. And I think going through this transition and hearing you guys say like with Reed and then also with another coach we were bringing up before McCarthy, it's like, yeah, they're not going to change. It's like, those are the coaches I kind of want to fade in 12.6. Because I do think that if the draft is any indication, if who's been paid at the tight end position and how people are thinking about receivers now, like all that is like, I think signal that if Andy Reed, McCarthy, I'm sure other coaches as well, like if they don't kind of like make a change, they're going to get swallowed whole. I mean, look, like this is just, it's just the fact of the sport, right? Like, it sounds sacrilegious to say, but this is just a fact of the sport. It guys like Andy Reed and Mike McCarthy had a decade of being on the cutting edge of what was happening offensively because they beat everybody else to the spread shotgun era. And now that decade has passed us by. The meta is in the hands of other coaches now. And it is, I think it is okay to ask the question of whether or not the, the now modern meta of football has left guys like this behind. It is perfectly within the Roma possibility. It may not matter because Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes, right? It may not matter because Kenneth Walker is one of the most explosive rushing threats that we have in this league and a guy who can also contribute to what they want to do in terms of underneath passes in the screen game. It just might not matter enough if Andy Reed is not where he needs to be as a play caller. And I think you can make a genuine argument even before the, even before the Patrick Mahomes injury that this wasn't just a talent issue, that this was a guy that just did not have the forcing fastball, paid it on the corner the way that we have come to expect from Andy Reed in this era with Kansas City. I don't think any coach is like beyond that line of questioning. When you have Bill Belichick coaching, fucking UNC right now, exactly. Come on now. Very true. Maybe weirdest cases that they end up moving on from Reed. I think that has to happen. I mean, there are more conversations about that happening after this season if they don't at least how many games they have to lose before Kansas City people start asking that question. I would say this season, you missed the playoffs. They're saying, Reed, it's time to pack. It's time to pack them up. We need to maximize this guy named Patrick, freaking Mahomes. And if you don't want to spin, because they'll start saying the same shit you are. Yeah, I'd say the video will start pushing out. He's lost his fastball. The screens aren't working anymore. He can't just run gun all the time. And they'll throw him one of the bus way quicker than they ever will Mahomes. It's always going to be between PlayColor and quarterback. Every team in the NFL has this, who are their fans going to blame first? It's always the PlayColor. Is it going to be the PlayColor or the quarterback? I think with there's some teams where the quarterback is maybe more under fire going into the season or at some point than the office coordinator. I think that's the situation in Philadelphia, honestly. I know we're only supposed to be talking about AFC teams. But I think that just the T-Leaves, it feels like the Eagles could be more committed to David Blowl, that Jail and Hertz down the future. If they're adding receivers that work the middle of the field. If Hertz doesn't, if it doesn't work, are they going to be. I feel like the Blowl decision and all these new office commissioners. Show me. I'm confusing. Sorry, sorry. There's like three media of her back-ups that have become offense. It's like a weird trend. Zach Robinson, David Blowl, there's a lot of like former quarterbacks. - Davis Webb. - Davis Webb. - They're now off to play callers that were not even coaches that long. - All the same time. - The reason teams like the Eagles, like Denver, are hiring these guys early is 'cause they literally have to. Because as soon as you sow any flavor, if you're an offensive play collar that shows any little flavor where the coach or a quarterback or an offense, they think they can maybe have, you're gonna be gobbled up by the next head coaching cycle. Like this last year, we thought it was gonna be kind of like, 10 head coaches open up. We have like 18, 19 new offensive play collars. Sorry to get on this tangent. But like, I do think that how many new offensive play collars in the league this year is gonna be a big story. It's specifically these like new young guys. Like Sean Payton's not calling offensive plays for the first time in how long? Like how long, like that's insane. We'll get to him, I guess, let's get to him next. That's perfect, it's Denver. Davis Webb, who was the offensive coordinator last year, but was not calling plays. Or was he the quarterback coach? I can't remember. He was not calling plays last year. Sean Payton was obviously calling plays. He's been calling plays for a long time. He gave up play calling toodies in the off season. It was this big story. Two Davis Webb. But I wanna get to best case, worst case, worst case, all that. He was over under, what are we setting at when Sean Payton's taking over play calling toodies? Is it like, get him on pie? Yeah, I got Davis Webb on Cuck Watch. I put him on Cuck Watch like a month ago. Yeah, I'm saying week 11. Yeah, I don't think that Webb, if anything bad happens, it could be a game, it could be a play. And Payton feels like he could do a better job, which I feel like it's impossible to think about the man that I know Sean Payton has and the years he spent in the NFL, thinking about he's in control of this offense. But for the first time in his career, not calling plays, I just don't see how it lasts. I just don't, I think it's crazy to think that they're going into this year and like, yeah, Davis Webb is gonna call offensive plays for 17 games. That feels like the weirdest case for me. That would be the same. If I'm Davis Webb, I am calling practices from inside the booth. I don't wanna be anywhere near Sean Payton at all this year. He's gonna question every call. But that's my call, where is he gonna stand? He's gotta be in the booth. Dude, he's on the field. Every time he comes to him, he's going to be Sean Payton standing in front of Davis Webb. - Yes. - In spite of the fact that Davis Webb is holding a play card. He's gonna be, you know, Sean Payton's gonna have his back to the field. He's just gonna be face to face with Davis Webb as he calls the play. Did you get first? - He didn't, did you? - I think that leads to my worst case scenario, though. It's just that Davis Webb isn't ready to call plays and there is that break glass of emergency in case of emergency with Sean Payton. But the brother's offense has been inconsistent and average with Sean Payton calling the play. So I don't think that's like the remedy. That's not gonna solve everything. And I think if you do have Webb struggling and you see Bo Nick's kind of his development stalls out. And then like I have, I don't think this is gonna happen 'cause I think the defense is very talented. But how often do we see a defense put together three elite seasons in a row? - Yeah, this would be three. - Yeah, it's very much in the realm of possibility that the defense takes a step back. I don't think it will take a major step back. But if it's not top five, top 10 and the offense is inconsistent and they have a rookie play caller, like that's the worst case scenario. I think this team goes, like they win like eight, nine games. I think the problem is is there's a real year from hell chance. - Yes, yes, yes. - The defense has taken a step back. Let's even say that's a 5% step back, 10% step back versus the two really, really dominant years that they've had. And then offensively, if Webb is struggling a little bit and even if Payton doesn't officially take over plays, but like the pregame looks a lot different, like Deontay, you could probably hit on this, like the week to week game planning looks a little different and weird and starts getting tweaked all the time. And I don't think Payton will have to wait long to also just start throwing some blame pie at Bonaix. We already saw that in the off season. And like, we didn't talk about enough when Bonaix got ruled out with that weird ankle thing in the playoffs, so he didn't end up playing in the ASC championship. How quickly Payton ruled him out? Have you ever seen a coach ever after an injury, even one that was seen on the field? Ever rule a player out that quickly? We didn't even see this injury happen. And Payton comes to the press conference so one of the first things he says is he's out. Why? He's frustrated. Why? He just found out that Nick's also had other ankle injuries. Remember, and then later in the off season, he's like, oh man, yeah, I wouldn't have drafted him. He literally said, I wouldn't have drafted him if I knew about these ankle injuries. So he probably finds out. And Bonaix had the baseball injuries. And he's like, hey man, like, I can't kill out. I can't actually sue you for a hit of violation, but like, can we not do it publicly? Payton said it was bound to happen. The ankle injuries were bound to happen. Well, that's him being an asshole, I think, because that's not true. Like it's like, they're bound to happen because he just found out that these ankle injuries existed. And like him being in the league as long as he's had, he's probably seen this before and been like, holy shit. Like if I knew about this, like he just said, I wouldn't have drafted you. And him finding out all in the same moment that like, Nick says these ankle injuries, he's not going to be able to play this next week. I feel like he's ultimately frustrated. And then there's this other prideful part of him who was probably like, if I win, was stood him on the go. If I win, he would've said that before the AFC championship. He's like, I believe it's stood him. I've seen him do it. I've done this before. Yeah. All right, let's get off sit him and the Broncos let's go. Let's finish the AFC West with the chargers. I don't have a weird case because I don't think anything's off the table. I thought weird case would be like fans actually turn on Herbert. And 80% of the team starters stay healthy. That would be like genuinely weird. But like, I don't know. I guess Ruiz started with like the worst cases that they all get hurt again. And like, how does the McDaniel, Herbert, Harbaugh, shit it all without injuries? I guess as Ruiz, your worst case just injuries. I think it's just an injury or like if you're going to non-injury route, I think it's the rebuild interior offensive line isn't better. Any better in Herbert again is facing just an onslaught of interior pressure, which like no quarterback can deal with. And we don't get to see like the zenith outcome of this Mike McDaniel offense. Because I do have some concerns about the defense. 'Cause you do lose Jesse Mentor and that defense has always been greater than the sum of its parts the last couple of years. I think if you did like a draft of the top 100 defensive players, how many charters go in there? Maybe two. Maybe two. Maybe Durwin, two maybe, I don't know. Durwin and Tully would be for sure. I don't, there'd be a tough argument. I think for the rest of the guys. Tony Jefferson is still penciled into the, I love Tony Jefferson. Tony Jefferson is one of their two safeties, okay? That is not bad. That's depressing. But yeah, if they're replacement for Mitter, I forget his name when it's a literary, a literary, yeah, if he's not as good as Jesse Mentor, which is a high bar to clear. Yeah, at a certain point like every year we're like, oh, it's like you guys, like everyone. Like it's like, oh C's, D C's, like these guys are changing the game. And then like when they leave, we like kind of like don't talk about it. Yeah, that was fucking replaced. Like no, like eventually these guys got a matter, right? Like so Mitter has to be at least like deviations better than Chris O'Leary. Why would they be at difference? I don't know. I hope it's not all fake, right? Or is it all relationships? Yeah. Is everyone just kind of getting jobs because of who they know? Are you a fraud to your deote? Call in those places. I'll play as Tony. Listen, man, I am 100% a benefit of nepotism getting in the coaching. I won't run from that at all. Okay. That's good to know. There was a lot of people on Reddit that were starting to speculate. But no, I think to me, I don't know. We didn't, we probably, we talked a little bit about how many trapgoers are for Denver. I think that the same thing kind of exists when you talk about the chargers, right? And I think that that even ties into their best case situation. I think this is one of the few teams where best case scenario is also absolutely something that everybody is demanding the chargers to deliver. And it's going to be a very difficult thing for them to achieve, which is giving Justin Herbert a top five offense and winning in the playoffs. I don't think you can have one and not the other because it will ultimately fall on the shoulders of the quarterback, right? If Michael Daniel genuinely gives him an explosive versatile modern offense and this team does not win in the postseason, everybody can write out the tweets now. You can go ahead and load them up in the drafts. You know what it's going to look like in January. The AI slop, if man, I love the AI. I love if man's soup, those get me every time. I'm sorry, those go make a platinum when like Herbert's got the super hair on. There will be, that's good. Madison beer AI songs on Sudo, okay? Absolutely slandering this man, if they did not win in the playoffs. If they win in the playoffs, it is because of their defense and not because of a Justin Herbert, Mike Daniel offense. You are still going to hear all the critiques about how this guy is not the quarterback that all of us in the media continue to promise him to be, right? This is a very high bar to clear. I do think though, because this team is notorious now for not spending in the offseason, they don't make aggressive moves in the draft. They just kind of pick and stick with what they've got and expect their young guys to develop in their old bets to continue to play above the minimum contract value that they're playing on. We're asking a lot, okay? We're squeezing blood from stones in Los Angeles. And I have no reason not to believe in this coaching staff, right? Like Crystal Leary is an unknown quantity as a play caller, but if we're to assume that he's going to do what Jesse Mitchell was doing as a play caller, I think that the bones of that defense should probably provide you with at least a league average performing unit. Right? If Crystal Leary is able to just, you know, kind of paint within the lines the same way that Raheem Morris painted within the lines when, um, you know, he got to Los Angeles, got to the Rams after our brand of Staley left. Right? I think that that's possible with them. I just, we have to see Amari and Hampton run for 1,300 yards and 11 touchdowns, right? Like, we're going to have to see that. We have to be like top six. Top four. You've got to get a thousand yards out. Quit and Johnson or Lad McHunky, if not both, right? Like Harris, I like Tray Harris a little bit. Like, there's just so much writing for a team that I don't think should genuinely be in the Super Bowl conversation right now, given how the roster is constructed. We were going to hear them talked about like they are, you know, one of the three top teams in terms of Super Bowl eyes. And I don't know, I don't know if that's fair, but I just think that that's the reality of it. Yeah. I mean, I think that it's going to be a pass, right? If things don't work out, but even if the offense is like average, my fringe top 10, there's going to be a pass for like year one growing pains with Mike McDaniel, Jake Slaughter, the center from Florida that they took that they want to play at guard has never played guard before, right? So like you're going to be, you're going to be in with a lot of new first. The interior offense line is completely rebuilt. You have a new offensive play collar, you know, the receivers. are returning but like still like there's a lot of new chemistries being formed offensively defensively with mentor leaving. I feel like it's okay to expect that like so much I always kind of when I'm thinking about like is the team going to be good next year or not like I'm thinking about newness like how are there new coaches a new quarterbacks a new players like what percentage of snaps are changing the chargers feel like there's so much newness that it's like kind of hard to imagine that they're not going to have a handful of games not go their way because they're just not ready for those those games that they don't have that chemistry yet but like if this often sucks like if it sucks in her brutality and I don't even give a shit about the offensive line like if it just isn't good and like people just keep making excuses for the offensive line this like at a certain point we're going to have to you're going to have to be like okay like that what how many how many more if so we're going to throw out there like if if if make with Dan Mike McDaniel can't fit it and like they just hire the new interior like I think at a certain point we you need to rise above right I think that's based on the notion that but that's based on the notion that people that under a sheaths right and I think yeah and it's based on a notion that the people the people that like hype them up are doing it just because they have like some affinity for Justin Herbert and that they're not watching the film and they're seeing the best guys I know this is important I know the funny thing about the Justin Herbert you guys the funny thing about the Justin Herbert hype is that everyone that hyped some up in the media absolutely hated him as a prospect true Seth Galina the Herbert guy said he could not play any good not play people forget about that we'll start with the jets weird case shocking case Aaron Glenn is carried off the field by the jet secondary after a road playoff win I honestly I just think there's the reason one of the reasons I wanted to do like shocking case of weird cases because like one of the ones I immediately think of is Aaron Glenn not losing his job he feels like one of the most like pre-fired head coaches going in the season that I can remember it almost feels like as pre-fired as H.A. Brown was pre-traded can you even remember when like a player was pre-traded like H.A. Brown like it almost feels like more likely H.A. Brown was traded or versus Aaron Glenn it's fire I think those odds are kind of close I mean you're a defensive back you're a defensive mining head coach you're the first team ever to finish an entire season without an interception it can't get worse from here but I don't think it gets better enough for him to save his job my worst case scenario is that we get like the Rex Ryan situation you remember like the end of his jets career where it's like he's gonna get fired and then they would like win like two games at the end they would win like two games at the end and then they were like we can't fire this guy let's bring him back like I think that's the worst case scenario is that he doesn't prove to be a good coach but he doesn't get fired which I think is very like I think he gets carried out the field because they'd be like the dolphins in the last week I don't even know what their schedule is how many times have you guys seen a franchise that knows that it is squarely in a rebuild and from year one to year two says you know what we need to do we need to get older and slower and less inspiring at premium positions right like basically everything outside of drafting Omar Cooper uh Omar Cooper Jr. and Kenyan Sadeek is about this team just getting a whole lot older and a whole lot slower and making it a lot harder for you to project what they're going to be on both sides of the ball right I just don't know what to make of this team of all the things that we're trying to lay out a best case scenario for I was pull I was probably grasping most at straws for New York like Cleveland it was clear that losing is a best case scenario for New York I genuinely don't know yeah they need to win like I truly don't know what the best case scenario is for this team this is a team that was so poorly situated six months ago right that the maybe the top quarter row would have been one of the top two quarterbacks had they gone in the draft decided I'd rather be at Oregon again then go get NFL money okay I think you know could be fine for them I think stop stop we need to hold Austin personally responsible for what they did the genome last year I think he'll be better than he was in Las Vegas when Chip Kelly was calling plays they did yeah I think you might project this notion because I watched the last six weeks of his time in Seattle this genome was always coming I think that yeah Las Vegas exacerbated it but this genome was always 100% on the way and now you're telling me that you're putting this guy back at a jetz jersey and jets of vibes are going to keep him from from being a turtle machine again I'm sorry I'm sorry I've seen this movie right calling plays for him now you know it's gonna be better than he was last year because the rater situation is like uniquely insanely terrible there's two peak carol sons and frickin chip Kelly like it was terrible like I think it's gonna be better right now his play collar is going to be another guy in his 60s who last time we saw him did not look like he was very interesting. He's like okay what am I going to do when they promote me to interim head coach like you're saying what are they going to do like I think the defense you know when you said they got older and slower and I did a lot of that was on defense and it's because Aaron Glenn knows he needs he needs the defense to be better and he's got you know David on your moda he brought in to Mario Davis he brought in meek of its Patrick like yeah they could not tackle last year they could not cover if you get tackled to me that that's on the coach you got to you have to like these guys in the NFL they don't know they don't know how to not tackle right like I feel like it's how how does a team get all these players together don't know how to tackle I feel like some of it has to be just like coaching right like I feel like I don't know I think I think I think the jets are going to be terrible next year and I think the best case scenario is that they're the worst team in the NFL and they pick archmaning or whoever it number overall like that is what they need to end up as someone who's been a fan of a team and a rebuilding coach lame duck coach scenario for a long time the best thing for them is their young players look good and they lose a lot of games right it's like Citiq looks good Omar Cooper looks good David Bailey has like eight sacks like and you lose like every game that's that's where the jets are right now sadly all right let's move to the patriots I won't start with weird case I'll save that I'll save that one let's start with best case I I think they need some we need some positive mojo everyone's worried about the schedule being harder and the the offseason situation between Brable and Racini and Brable having to prioritize his family very fairly some of you inspect you know speculating if he's even going to be the coach week one what is the best case scenario for the New England Patriots in 2026 2027 A.J. Brown and Romeo dobs are the exact one two punch that this offense was missing last season and they have another top five passing attack this year and it launches them towards another 11 12 one season where they win the AFC East right like that it is a very clear best case scenario right like I think the the stage is set for that to happen separate from all of the Brable and Racini shit right like yeah look at the way that they approach this offseason I think they did what they need is to do you bring in Elijah Barrett Tucker to help you know improve their left guard situation which I would argue if you go back and watch the playoffs was just as bad as Will Campbell right at left tackle the entire left side of their line was just not functional at all you go out and you draft Caleb Lomu who I think is a player that does not necessarily have a role right now but you bring him in as insurance in case will Campbell is so bad even after he gets healthy because I think some people forget that he had a knee injury he came back from late in the season and that was kind of the catalyst for him just not looking as athletic not being as confident in his passets but if Campbell is bad Lomu comes in and he's bad as well then I think you're going to have different conversations about what the worst case can be but the best case now is you added along the margins and then you got what you hope is a superstar receiver who still has at least two more seasons of that level of production like we saw in 2022 and 2023 still in him and that is the launch point for this team remaining you know one of the top two seasons of AFC yeah I think there's like this team is the most clear where like the line is between worst case and best case and it's AJ Brown being AJ Brown and not being the AJ Brown we saw last year where we kind of saw some signs of slippage especially on like the deep vertical stuff if he's not a needle moving factor then I think we're going to see the same offense we saw last year just against a much more difficult schedule yeah and then I think we could see some regression from Drake May that's not necessarily his fault going into the his third offseason which is typically when you get a contract extension some weirdness there Mike Raebles head might be somewhere else maybe you get some friction between those two and like that's the worst and then you're back in 2020 where you're the coach in the quarter back. Realistically though is Raebles stepping down right like that that is like is that the worst case scenario like what if he's not there I think Drake May was good enough where like whoever the coaches there it's Josh McDaniel's is within the realm of worst case scenarios that's like they'll be fine with Drake May though Drake May is good yeah maybe well Josh McDaniel's be fine with Drake May or would Drake may be fine with Jack McDaniel's I think it's much more of the latter than it is the former yes but that's that's that's what I'm saying that's my theory like sure Josh McDaniel has been a terrible head coach but look at his quarterbacks that he's had he's had Jimmy Garoppolo and Jimmy we wanted Jimmy Garoppolo that's what he had that was done yeah but you know he didn't get to pick this quarterback still I think that I wrote weird case that McDaniel's takes over and then they win the Super Bowl over the land restarting the Drake May but I think how quickly if AJ Brown's season doesn't start as expected right when I think in Brown's head is like two touchdowns 150 yards game and they're winning everything but like if it doesn't start as expected I know he said in that interview he's not going to start trashing his players to the media how quickly does that change you think if if things aren't going well in the first half of the season like does he become a headache quicker than maybe people think it's like oh it's with frable everything's fine but like I don't know like is it like if things don't go according to plan which I guess it's hard to imagine because like they're just going to funnel targets to him but I don't know I'm not I'm not worried about that because I think he's gripes with the Eagles offense word legitimate like it wasn't like he was just coming up the pulling them out of thin air like he was right about everything he said was right also everybody and everybody in Philadelphia aside from the quarterback was very open about the things they did not like about that offense AJ just had to be the most dramatic right in the [BLANK_AUDIO] willing to force his way out of that situation. But I don't think that there's any misgivings or any misunderstandings about what the issues were there. That doesn't mean that he was justified in going on streams, you know, tweeting all the time, but he was not the only person in Philadelphia player, staff, personnel, wherever you want to look that did not feel very similarly to the way the AJ felt. Okay. Give me worst case, Stephen, for the Buffalo Bills. I feel like Deonzey will get to best case. I imagine it's Super Bowl. Anytime you have Josh Allen, that's kind of looking for it. But the worst case, they've moved on from Sean McDermott. It's now Joe Brady as the head coach, the offensive coordinator, who was there from last year. Is that enough? Are they going to miss McDermott? I mentioned what your worst case is for them. Is there a year from hell chance for the Bills or is Josh Allen too good and this team too good to really have like a miss the playoffs kind of year? No, I think Josh Allen would have to get hurt for there to be a year from hell situation just because he is that good. But my worst case scenario is that Jim Leonard, the new DC, isn't as good as Phil nerds think he's going to be. And that further exposes the lack of defensive talent on this team, which I think is a very realistic possibility because Sean McDermott, like their defense hasn't been great the last couple of years, but Sean McDermott knows how to coach defense. Like he knows how to coach. Yeah, he's a floor raising defensive coach. And if Jim Leonard isn't ready to call plays in the NFL, which I think he is going to be ready for it, then this could be a disaster where the defense kind of the defense stinks. Joe Brady has this new responsibility and you kind of see you kind of put a dent in his play calling. So the offense is a little worse and they had the same problems they had last year, not being able to create explosive plays, especially against man coverage. And then Josh Allen has to put on the Superman cape even more than he did last year, which I guess it was kind of overrated because they did have a run game, but it's a run game isn't as good. Then yeah, I could see this being a season from hell for them is they don't win the division again, which I think is. I think that happened. That was really close to my there. My weird case, I put Prince, that is promised, which is Jim Leonard, this defense coordinator that the film nerds law that's taking over from McDermott. And I think there's another Prince that was promised in the fact that they're promoting Joe Brady to head coach. Like they're kind of saying, like we're going with the same offense and this guy, this DC from college, we think he's going to be the guy that takes it over the hump over McDermott. But they hire McDermott back as a consultant on the way. He helps write the ship for the defense, leading with four, leading by four with 12 seconds left. My homes finds Taikwan Thornton wide open for a 68 yard touchdown to win the ASC champion ship. That is, that is my weird case. I think I can see a McDermott coming back as a consultant would be a dream, but sorry to cut off your best case. The answer, give us, give us what's actually going to happen. I mean, the best case is just that they're in the ASC championship game or better, right? Like the Jim Leonard is as good as promised, right? That Joe Brady is a ceiling razor, right? As a head coach, just from a culture perspective. I'm probably more concerned that he's in the Joshua Daniel, you know, better coordinator than head coached here, right? Like, and it's not, and it will be bad in a different kind of way, right? Like, Joshua's to Denver and his whole thing is, I am trying to be young Bella check. So I'm going to trash players and meetings. I should talk about everybody's back. Right. I'm going to cheat. I am trying to, I'm going to my GM's office every day. And I am trying to, you know, put my thumb on the scale to get these players in the building that I want. And none of them really pan out. I think this little finger 100% I think a plotter, right? My concern is that Joe Brady comes in and says, Hey, after being, after coming in, you know, behind this hard ass and Sean McDermott, I'm going to be player's coach guy. And it turns out that player's coach is actually not what this team needs, right? I think that that will probably be within the room. Yeah. Is that like the, yeah, that will probably be it. But as you run back the 9/11, uh, motivational speech. I think he could. I think he could. Joe Brady's like last ditch effort is to try and kind of run up some of the old tricks. All right. We have five teams last. How quickly do you think we could do the dolphins to wrap up the ASEE? So I have, and that's the number one case. Yeah. My worst case is that the dolphins start off bad confirming everyone's suspicion that they're tanking, but they get better as the season go along, playing themselves out of a top three pick. So they have the draft recorder back. That feels like it's going to happen. Let me keep going. Let me keep going. They have to draft a middling talent at quarterback. And Jeff Hathley ends up resenting him. And then he gets fired. And then it turns out that ownership incentivized him to tank. And then he sees the lead. Stop. That's going to happen. I put receiving core shocking case receiving core is top six in the league led by draft Twitter's finest. Malik Washington, Greg Dullsage, Jalen, Reagan, Tarris, Marshall, Tutu, Atwell, and Jalen Tober. That receiving core is legitimately like I found a clip from the senior ball. I kind of think this guy is good for the entire receiving core, which is kind of incredible. I don't think that would be weird because draft Twitter would be right. It would be right. Because even if you throw Chris Bell in there, the guy they got from Louisville and this draft is like, they're like, their entire receiving core is guys that some people kind of like that one time. I would be shocked if I'd be shocked if this is a top four top six receiving core in the league next year. All right. AFC South, the Colts. Part of the reason I wanted to do sexistize too. Because I think one of the most shocking things that happened last year is that from weeks one through nine, they didn't have those Colts were like as good by efficiency as the 2007 Patriots. So like there was like a very absurd thing that happened at the start of the year and then obviously the Achilles whatever, whatever, but Deon Taylor started to do best case for these Colts here. Is it just running it back? Is it doing what they wish last year was? Yeah. I think best case is that Jonathan Taylor has a Saquon Barclay Esk, which is really the pace he was on. It's not better. You know, last season, he has this Saquon Barclay Esk impact on this team that is trying to protect its quarterback from being as exposed, right? Very similar to what we saw in Philadelphia a couple of seasons ago, where it's just a bunch of 20 plus yard runs from Jonathan Taylor with the healthy Daniel Jones. You get just enough explosive passes from Joe's to Alec Pierce. And this team is kind of able to cobble together enough and maybe you get a healthy sauce gardener and sauce gardener starts looking like the sauce gardener he could have been right before the cap string. Once he got treated, I think that all of those things are within the Roma possibility. Again, like we just started talking about bands of outcomes. You feel less and less confident as you start laying out all the ways that wish that this can go sideways. But best case scenario is that you have an offensive player of the year talent in Jonathan Taylor actually deliver on that and that that's enough to get this team into the playoffs. Worst case. Worst case is that the the Colts trade Anthony Richardson in preseason. Daniel Jones gets off to a hot start again. They resigned Chris Ballard. Then Daniel Jones turns back into a pumpkin. Anthony Richardson gets a starting job somewhere, maybe Cleveland in play as well. And they're screwed. They're screwed with Daniel Jones and they have Chris Ballard for a couple more years. And Anthony Richardson looks good. I turn into Anthony Richardson cope. I Chris Ballard extension would be a shocking turn of events. I think that they he's missed on just too much now. I mean, the quarterback. You can't move past the Anthony Richardson miss. Like you can't like it's not it's not part of the process. Like you can't like, wow, well, everyone got to get to go say it's like, no, dude, that was a multi million dollar decision. He said that himself. He was like, that's the reason I'm not taking quarterbacks. He's like, I take a bad quarterback. I'm out of here. And he's not out of here. I think that your worst case is possible. I think it's more likely that like I think it's hard to imagine. Daniel Jones starting the season hot with just like coming off the injury and stuff. Like I feel like it's more likely that like if they get warm, it's like in the second half of the season this time. And like, maybe they sneak in. I think the AFC South is getable. Who knows? I think the cults could end up having like a really average season and non notable season. That probably feels like an outcome shocking though. I do think they're formula from last year. They could do that again. It wasn't like, because like Dolphins line with solid change, like it is a good play collar. And like Daniel Jones wasn't like playing out of his mind. The scheme was just good and suited him. And they lost Michael Pittman. But he wasn't like, he wasn't like getting out of that contract. It was honestly smart. They lost, uh, Braden Smith, the right tackle. But like he's been not the same player he was two years ago. And I feel like the losses on offense. There is like some running backs up. But it all kind of starts with like his Daniel, what, what, what version of Daniel Jones am I getting? Because I know it's not going to be what it was for the first time weeks last year when he looks like Tom Brady. And I also probably know it's not going to be like the worst I've ever seen. Whereas it send up. And like, honestly, when you keep talking range of outcomes, it's like somewhere in the middle and the cults are probably fine because the defense, I still don't think is that good. Um, my weird case was that Daniel Jones, Alex Pierce and Shane Stuykin do it all again with Carly Ursa Gordon assisting Big Lou to a resurgent year. Somehow with just awful, awful pass rushers. Anthony Richardson plays a wild caught wild cat big slot role throws for 180 yards and four touchdowns runs for 600 yards and eight touchdowns catches 50 balls for 500 yards and four times. Like it's real prior cordless Stewart type. You know, like what could we see it? Could we see it? Um, Texans, let's start with, it feels like worst case honesty was last year. But I mean, you have such a good defense. It's hard. I think you give worse. I think you give what worst case. CJ Strauss signs a massive extension before the season. Then he's the same quarterback. I think that was actually going to extend on that. I don't think that that's the worst case. I think that the real worst case is that he's excellent in the regular season. Shits the bed and the playoffs. There's no contract extension. And then Houston has to make a decision on which quarterback they think he actually is. No, that is good. That's like Stephen A Smith thinks he's a bad quarterback because he played bad in the play. Like if you pay attention to the regular season more so than like a one-off plan. Do you think that Nick Cicero is not listening to someone like a Stephen A Smith? I would hope not, but there's also like, it's like something that we all are catching on to last year and some of it was weather. Some of it's the offensive line. But like, there is something to like when you find out your quarterback shits his pants in the bright lights. And you're like, Oh, no, like we might just have this. And like, that was where Sam Darnold was until really he last year where he won that Super Bowl. Like everyone was kind of like, Oh, yeah, we just going to get regular season Sam Darnold. And then we get in the playoffs. He's going to throw four picks. Like if Stroud is a Darnold in that light, like we have a lot of like we have a handful of sample size to make that prediction. But it's obviously such a small sample, but like if you don't win a playoff game and look good in the playoffs this year, and the defense is as good or even like close to as good as it was last year, people are going to be really, really disappointed. Honestly, I think the worst case scenario is the offense is so bad that the team thinks about moving on from Dmitco Rines, which I don't think like they should, I don't think they should think about that. But I think you would have to be like, but that would be a second OC, that would be a second OC. Still, though, I still think I still think if this doesn't go well and like say it doesn't go well in the regular season, right? They're like kind of average in the regular season offensively and like they need to like turn it around. Nick Kaylee getting this next year, I think that they're more, they're more committed to Stroud than they are Kaylee, and they'll give him another OC. They will. Like slow, like it's slow, like even coaching and the league anymore, like he is okay. So like you, I don't think I think, right? The Dolphins OC. He's calling plays. Okay. So we'll just coach it. He's calling plays. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Weird case. I put, so you just Stroud is carried by the defense into the playoffs. The wildcard round purely based on their defense, Texans, crowds and reddit threads are calling for daddy, long neck Davis Mills to save the season after playing sort of fine in three games where Stroud missed because he was hurt. Then Stroud turns into a completely new player becomes playoff Eli Manning and the Texans were just super bowl. Like that to me feels like the most shocking case like him, like rising to the occasion and the playoffs would be the best case for a shocking case thing that could happen for Texans fans. You'll be low on CJ Stroud. No, no, I feel like they need to see an important game that hit him like rise to the occasion. Like they just have to. Like are they not? He's one two playoff games. I guess I am like maybe maybe too low on Stroud and this might be recency. He goes to one of the last year and the chargers come on. I guess he has playoff wins, but like I feel like how he played in this recent round was like not great. No, he was back. And I think that again, like it's unfair to the quarterback and it was unfair to Darnold until he won a Super Bowl, but like until you're a big games guy, you're not. And everyone's going to think you're going to be bad in these games. It's where Herbert's going to be. It's where all these guys are going to be. I think the fair question with Stroud should be the ceiling question because like I think he's established that he's a good quarterback and if you're still questioning that, you're just not watching the games or you're out of your mind or you, I don't know. But I think it's very fair to ask if he's ever going to be better than good and you need better than good to be a long-term winner. But do you need better than good if you have the Texans defense and defense? How long is the defense? There's a short shelf life on the defense. Let's just say this year, like if he's better, yeah, if he's just good this year, I feel like they could, if he's just good in the playoff games they played last year, they're in the Super Bowl. Like, yeah, if he wasn't God awful last year there, it's like, it's like, if that happens again, and he's God awful in their most important games down the stretch, like there's just, they're going to maybe fire Nick Haley and give it another run, but like it's just going to keep kind of going back up. He just absolutely cannot count on the fact that Buffalo Baltimore, Denver, Kansas City and New England will be flawed enough to lay out the type of scenario where Houston just not having a God awful quarterback is enough to get them to the Super Bowl. I think that they just missed out on a very golden opportunity because our quarterback just was not prepared for the moment. That's true. All right. Jaguars. Let's start best case. Best case is that Trevor Lawrence was like an MVP caliber quarterback. I think we're going to have a very similar conversation when we get to Chicago when we talk about NFC teams and that he's able to lift, you know, he's a rising tie that lifts the bolster what might actually sneakily be a bad defense, right? Like, to me, and I don't know if I'd make the argument that Jacksonville's defense was like actually terrible or just like an abject disaster. I just think that you would have to, you would have to sell me on some of their metrics being sticky from year to year. Yeah. I would say that the interception rate, very turnover dependent. Exactly. The interception rate is going to be very hard for them to replicate from one season to the next. Now, if you want to tell me they didn't miss many tackles and they didn't give up many explosive plays and those two things will stick from year to year. You can sell me on that. I just don't know if their actual ceiling is as high as what we saw over the last like nine weeks of the season when it just seemed like everybody in Jacksonville was blacking out. And they got the other thing that's very hard to replicate year over year, which is an explosive rushing attack. So you're telling me to team the one 13 games on the back of the explosive runs, enforcing a lot of turnovers is still going to be, you know, high in the contingent race. It's just very hard for me to buy that. We've just seen too many times on a year to year basis a team that has Jacksonville's profile in one season, taking a step back, even if they are decent, but not looking anything like what they did to close out the season prior. And I think that they're definitely a risk for being that kind of team in 2026. Yeah. And I would say their worst cases, it doesn't require Trevor to take like a major step back. He has the same season where like parts of the season, you're wondering if he's the guy, other parts of the season, you're like, oh, holy shit, this guy's really good and ready to take the leap. He has another one of those seasons. And then the defense does regress, but plays well enough for Campanali to get a head coaching job. And you go into the next season. You're like, do we have the quarterback? And we definitely don't have a DC anymore. We have questions about everything. I think that's worst case for them. Because I don't think they're going to bottom out. Like I don't think they're going to, I mean, the fact that they camp in Neil and they're keeping Cohen, right? There's so many teams this year that do not have their same play callers going in the next year. They have their same quarterback who people feel could be a top six. There's continuity that I feel like raises some of the floor, but I agree that the defense will regress because it was turnover dependent. Like, if you strip out, you know, turnover EPA, you see that's like close to the middle. They lost Devon Lloyd, who like, I think the stats kind of inflated how good his season was last year. But still, like, you're losing the center of your defense, um, I put it for weird case, Trevor Lawrence. And because I just don't think this is going to happen. I don't think this is going to happen. This is, but Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen backslide, their relationship backslides. You see public kind of arguing on the field. They're getting upset. Brian Thomas, Jr. has to break them up multiple times on the sideline before he's traded for a day three picks off at the deadline. The defense gets better somehow, but the offense gets worse. Travis Hunter gets a probable nod at quarterback, but makes four to 10 critical procedural errors or drops on the offence side of the ball that ultimately cost a big game's playoffs. I wrote that one a little bit longer. But I think the true shocking scenario would be their defense getting better and their offense getting worse. I don't think there's like, it's hard to like map out like how that even happens with Campanille staying and obviously like what people feel like was a really, really, really good year one between Cohen and Lawrence last year. I don't think that's like the friction between them to between those two is out of the realm of possibility. I feel like we kind of saw it. It might have been for a little bit, right? A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit of a solid early in the year. Last one, Titans. Let's go. Let's start with worst case. How bad does it get? How bad can it get for Tennessee next year? I think Cam Ward's rookie mistakes become sophomore mistakes. Yes. And like not in a way that's an indictment on Dave all. And they kind of let him cook again and they look for another quarterback and they let him kind of lead that charge. And he goes after another Josh Allen type. Dude, I have Brian Dave all falls in love with Miss Trabisky in the off season and he forces him to start early in the season before week six. The Titans improve offensively, narrowly missing out on the playoffs will improve defense under Sala. Entire off season is spent on Trabisky versus Ward, Dave all versus Sala. Can you imagine Dave all and Trabisky kind of like because Trabisky's their backup now. Does if if Ward gets hurt and if Bisky gets in there and Dave all kind of likes the guy, I don't know. I'm walking off. I'm walking off. And not from the Internet. I'm walking off from life. Yeah. Okay. Are you bullish on Cam Ward? Deontay, do you think that their best case is like in like a realistic case is that Ward takes like a significant year to step under with Dave all and and it's all other now? I think I'm caught between thoughts, right? Like I am bullish on Cam Ward and I'm also I'm willing to be optimistic about the match between Brian Dave all in Cam Ward because I do think the best version of Ward probably needs to just be cut loose on early downs, right? Like you just need to get him in the gun, spread things out and just say, Hey man, we're just going to let you rip it, right? Like you think about Josh Allen, right in 2020, 2021, when it when it's career started to take a turn for the better and that's not that's not me saying that Cam Ward is going to turn into that. But if you look stylistically at what Buffalo was, they were pushing the ball on 1st and 10 all the time, right? Like that was part of the thing with Josh Allen is that there was just a trust that hey, we're going to run for a births like an old school air raid team all the time and we're going to trust it. Push the ball down field, scramble around if you need to, you're going to find open guys and you throw a good enough deep ball to just give guys a shot. And we're going to trust that the variance will work in our favor. I think that young Cam Ward probably, probably needs to play that way, right? Like I don't know if you want him playing in a very precise timing based soon as you're back foot hits, you've got to drill this day, otherwise the entire concept is dead, right? I don't know if that's the best fit for him. So I do trust that match. The thing that holds me up from being full bore, I'm a big believer is the fact that like, I just can't touch this offensive line. I just absolutely refuse to touch this offensive line after the last few years. Every year they have brought in a, neither a new free agent or a new highly drafted guy that is supposed to address the biggest hole in that offensive line and inevitably another leak springs. I don't, when I look at these guys, I look at Dan Moore, I look at JC Latham. I don't know if those are good enough bookends. I think that Peter Skronsky has been better since kicking inside to guard. I just don't, he's not a Quentin Nelson, obviously. He's not a top end guard and definitely not a world changer for them. And I don't know where the run game, I don't know where the early down sticking is, the stuff that is going to have us looking at, true media saying, hey, this team has got a 95th percentile success rate in this specific situation. You're going to have a hard time finding that for me. That's not just Cam Ward being a hero and I don't know if Ward is necessarily ready to be that guy. But even though I'm a believer, Cam Ward is one of those dangerous quarterbacks for people like me or like people that evaluate quarterbacks because he is so fun to watch and he's like a gamer, like he's going to try stuff. He's like the opposite of Derek Cardinal offense. Um, no, I hate Derek Card. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But pre 2016, Derek Card was only after he did not suck in 2016. Oh, he did. All right. He did. But anyway, you overlooked the, the real flaws in his game, like the accuracy question and stuff like that. But I do think he has a good chance to be good, but I want him to be good. So probably going to overrate him. Yeah. There's a, um, do you like, I was going to ask you about their office. because I know they added two starters on the interior. It's like, "Slaughtman" and "Folson," you don't like their tackles, Dan Moore, "Latham," and what about the receivers? They brought in Juan Del Robinson over from the giant split slot. You have to carnal tape from a house state in the first round. They still have Calvin Ridley. They brought in Daniel Belinger, San Diego State legend, giant side end. Do you like their weapons at all? Or is that also just not good enough? I think optimistically, you're saying you're in the league average range, right? I just don't think there's enough for war at them. Like the offensive line isn't good. We don't like the weapons. That's why I'm not touching their offense. All my best case scenario stuff is about Robert Salah being transformative for this defense. I can't touch the offensive. Which you probably don't see. If wards good, though, if wards good, it won't matter if the weapons are mediocre. I mean, the offensive line could be good. I don't know if wards good is the sales pitch. I think it's more exceptional. You would have to be exceptional. All right, let's get out of here. That was the AFC. Let's get on here and do part two with the NFC for another hour and a half, two hours who knows what that being. But thanks guys for jumping on. Shout out to producer Christopher Sutton and all production support from Nevins and Arjuna. This has been Austin Gale, Steve Ruiz, Diante Lee on The Ringer and Ethel Show. 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