Transcript of NFL Cover Zero: The most watchable teams in the NFL

Nfl Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart podcast. It's episode one of the NFL Cover Zero podcast. I am Matt Jones, and joining me is Drew Franklin sitting over there. Well, actually, directly in front of me. Drew, this is our first episode. I hope you're excited.

I'm very excited. Just Right now, I'm looking at the NFL logo behind your head. I know. It did amazing. It feels surreal that we're able to do this. Yeah.

For people who are listening for the first time, Drew and I have worked together for 17 years, and we are big sports fans, and we have thought for a long time. The NFL is one of the most fun sports, but sometimes the podcasts take it very seriously. We're like a lot of fans. We just enjoy watching the games and having a good time. What this podcast is going to do is cover the NFL Well, I won't say from a non-serious way, but just as a fan, we're not going to do a lot of Xs and O's. We're just going to be like two guys you know sitting and talking about the games. And Drew, I'm looking forward to that. You and I do this anyway, so we might as well talk about it. We'll have guests on throughout the year. We're going to do shows that we will record right after the last game on Sunday. So when you wake up on Monday morning, it's there.

Yeah, we'll have a lot of fun. We might leave the advanced statistics, all metrics to someone else.

Because we don't know them.

That, not a big player perspective between the two of us. Not a lot of football in our background, but like many people listening, we just love watching the NFL. We'll talk about the stories even off the field, too. Just anything fun happening on a Sunday. We'll be taking notes.

Totally agree. Now, if you're aware of our work, we often have technical difficulties and screw-ups. This was our first one. So this episode you're about to listen to, and by the way, if you have not yet, go to where you get podcast or YouTube's or Twitter's, and you click on subscribe because we'd like to have you as a subscriber. Go ahead and do that now. Nfl Cover Zero. We would appreciate it. We recorded this episode, the first one, last week, and then all of a sudden, as soon as we finished, we got an Adam Schefter alert that Micah Parsons had been traded. So when you listen to this, I don't want you to think that we don't know that Micah Parsons has been trading. We do know that. Allegedly to Green Bay. Four years, $188 million for two first-round pics and Kenny Clark. We know that, but we had just already done this, and we felt good about it. We didn't want to redo the whole thing. We'd have to redo our entire premise of the show in order to put it in. So we're going to just deal with Micah Parsons, but you have to understand that when you hear the packers rating and you see the cowboys rating, it would have been different had we known about the trade.

Incredible timing. We were on our way home. I wasn't out of the parking garage when the group techs got hit with the graphic that went around announcing the news. So we just missed that by about 30 minutes.

It happens. I mean, listen, sometimes you don't get the news earlier. I just recently heard that the Olympics were over. Wasn't aware.

You've been dialed in with football.

I I watch it on streaming, and I was like, I was just getting through all the events.

That was some bad lagging.

It was. Well, I'm in Kentucky. The internet's not fast. So yes. Now, knowing that, we'll start with that, you are a secondary Cowboys fan. Are you sad to see Micah gone?

I am. It's a big PR hit. I mean, that city just lost Luca. Micah is the other big star in that town.

They're about to trade J. R. Ewing as well for you, for you, Older folk.

If you really believed in a rebuild, they got the pieces for something here. If you make those pics work. I have some concerns about the Cowboys making it work since it's been several years since they've made much work there. But it's hard to watch Micah Parsons at 26 years old walk out that door for an NFC contender.

I did hear this morning he has an F4, F5 vertebrate something. I don't know how many Fs there are in your vertebrate. I feel like four and five, those are important ones. So hopefully he's okay, but he might miss the first week. Nobody knows for sure. But do you think maybe the packer should have done more injury checks with his F4 and F5 sprains?

No, I think there's He's still going to make out good on this as long as they win right away. He wasn't cheap on their end. There's going to be some salary cap down the road.

He's the highest paid player, non-quarterback ever. You think he's worth it?

Probably. I like that he retired his mom. For that money, will you retire my mom and all the moms?

I'm going to go ahead and say, I feel like his mom already should be retired. He had made a bunch of money. I mean, his mom had to be at some point like, Okay, four Probes, why am I still working? You're on the cover of Madden. Why am I still working, Micah? I've always told my mom that if I'd made it in sports, because she'll always send me some picture of Lamar Jackson bought his mom a car, and she'll be like, Isn't this sweet? I go, Mom, I would have bought you a car, too. I wouldn't have accepted it. I was like, Well, you know what? It's very nice. Now, the packers, are they a Super Bowl favorite to you?

Yeah, it's crazy how quickly the exchange around them. I mean, obviously, they're in a good spot as it is, but it feels like just a few weeks ago, people were wondering if Jordan Love has a thumb, if they're going to be okay, and suddenly Love's good to go.

They were wondering if he had a thumb?

He turns out he has two of them. Both are healthy. But you go from just worrying about that, wondering if he can repeat some magic from last year. It's all of a sudden you have the best pass rusher in the NFL on your team. Yeah.

It does change the NFC North, which was maybe the best division anyway, gets even better. I'm always hesitant to spend that much money on a non-quarterback. To me, players, I'm not going to say they're fungible, they're not. Micah Parsons is huge. But I don't know if one player changes the entire course of your team unless it's a quarterback, but we will find out. But But I love watching Dallas make another ridiculous decision. I love watching Jerry Jones try to explain it in a press conference. If you could have picked the worst time he could have made this deal, it would have been now. If you were to say, what was the least amount of leverage he had? Last year before the draft, this year after the season. If you were to put it on a timeline, I think he traded it literally the worst moment he had leverage. Way to go, Jerry. I'd love to play poker with you.

I'll add also with the timing, my wife, a diehard Cowboys fan. We were about two episodes into the new Netflix documentary on the Cowboys, and after the mic, she's out like, I can't watch the rest of this. I'm not ready. I'm too hurt.

Anyway, that's the way it goes. What you're going to hear from now on is the podcast we did. We basically ranked all the teams in watchability. We decided if we were going to watch, if a team was on, where would we rank in terms of how we would want to watch them? Would you want to watch them more than any other team or less than any other team? Again, if we'd known about Micah, Dallas, probably lower, Green Bay, higher. But that's the way it goes. But we did want you to know we do know about Micah, and we wish them both the best of luck. Now, Billy is our producer. I want to show something. Hand me that book there, Billy. To prepare, I bought a book.

Oh, my. That's not any book. That's a phone book.

First of all, I'm holding it up to the camera here. This is the Sharp football analysis. It's some guy named Warren- I follow Warren.

He knows it all.

Warren Sharp. Now, I don't know who Warren Sharp is, but Warren Sharp, I think you could say, really likes the football. If you look on the screen, for those of you on YouTube, you'll see the pages are color-coded. There are lots of numbers. I bought it because somebody told me, If you read the sharp football preview, you'll have everything you need to know. I bought it and thought, Okay. Then I opened and I go, I'm not reading that. All right, I'm not I'm not reading that. There's a lot of stuff in here. I'm not reading all that. But I am mesmerized by how beautiful the color is.

Guess how much this book cost me? Oh, God. I can just tell by the printing job on that alone had to have been outrageous. How much do you think? Hold on. It's about as thick as I'd say the Columbus, Ohio, phone book, $45.

This is $74. That's how much this book was.

Look what I brought. I know this is not a good visual, but I am holding a piece of paper that I got from the in the hard lobby with a pen I borrowed from a salesperson, and I jotted some notes down.

So 74 pages or $74. I just was like, I'm not going to read this. So I gave it to Billy, and I said, Billy, as we go through teams, I want you to give me a fact. I don't want to feel like I wasted the $74. Warren Sharp put a lot of time in this.

He's got a great mustache, too, by the way. Oh, he does? Yeah, it's probably a lot of money we'll go to just keeping that thing looking good.

Mustache wax. That's where a lot of the money goes. I want to feel like Warren did his work for good I want to feel like I didn't waste $74. I asked Billy to, as we go through teams, give me one fact from Warren for each team. Billy, are you prepared to do that?

Well, you gave me this assignment 30 minutes ago. We're about halfway through the teams, and the other half, we will do it on the fly.

You've got this. You can do a preview. Here's what I want to do. I enjoy watching the games. I don't know about you, Drew. When I see the schedule, sometimes I think that team is going to be fun to watch, and sometimes I think, I can't do this. It's Sunday night football. Are you telling me it's the Saints again? I can't do it.

Occasionally, there will be a bad matchup that will make me watch something on Netflix.

It's probably more Thursday night football. That's where you get it, those Thursday night games. It's like, I love Kirk Herb Street, but can I do this again? We decided we were going to rank the 32 teams, 1-32, just in watchability. This is my, if the team is on my screen, do I want to watch them? I think there's a lot of factors that go into this. One is, how good are they?

Probably the main factor.

Two, do they have a player or a style that's interesting? Then it might be, are there story lines with them? What is their home field advantage like? I would even go visually. What does it look like to watch a game there? When Minnesota's college team plays, they seem to be playing in a dungeon. I think the combination of the color of their uniforms and all that, I cannot watch a Golden Gopher football game. We have ranked, you and I each have a list of our top of our NFL teams 1-32, and we're going to do a draft. I'll pick one, you'll pick one. At the end, we will have our 32 team official ranking of how watchable these teams are.

I like this. There's some teams that I hate watch. We're all familiar with the team you don't like. You can do that, yes. But you're like, I'm going to watch them just so that I can root for them to lose. So I considered that. Another thing, in the NFL, it's all these beautiful stadiums. We don't get the Minnesota Domes, but places with potential snow would give you a little bonus points there. If there's a chance, I'm going to see a snow game. So I factored that in a little bit, too, as we go on.

You know what? I didn't do the snow bonus. But that's actually good because are you more likely to watch a game when it snows?

Oh, absolutely. Me, too. I will turn off my favorite team to watch a sloppy snow game.

I'm exactly like that. So we have it. We'll go back and forth. I'll tell you what, how many fingers am I holding up? One or two?

I'm going to say two.

All right, it was two. I'm going to let you have the first pick. All right. You are picking for the group. What is the most watchable team in the NFL to you?

Well, it is lame to answer this way, but it is the first pick. It's going to be a popular pick. I'm going with the New Hollywood, Kansas City. With the recent news this week, their brand just got even bigger with now Taylor will be moving into Kansas City. Then, of course, we have the Mahomes Magic, all the improbable finishes. Anytime they play the Ravens, the Bills, the Bingles, it seems to come down to the wire. Even though they're not a team I particularly care for, it's hard to not watch a Chiefs game when they're on TV, and now you've added the Swift's.

Yeah, I have Chiefs number two, but I'll take them at number one. I think it was close, whether it was one or two. All right, so a lot of factors. One, I think the most important thing, they're good. Especially in recent years, it seems like they are in a million close games because they don't blow teams out. I think, what, last year they were 11-1 or something in one-score game, so it always comes down to the end. Mahomes usually ends up with the ball, has a chance to do it. Mahomes is fun to watch. A little bit of a dad bod, a little bit dorky, but crazy good. Travis Kelsey. Used to think Travis Kelsey was a goober. Now he's America's sweetheart. I like him. He's got the mustache. He seems like He's an idiot, but in the lovable- Yeah, we all have lovable idiot in our lives. He's like a lovable idiot. Andy Reid, mustache, rotund. How are you not going to like a rotund guy with a mustache? Looks like a Philadelphia cop, but a good one. He's not corrupt. Not one that's being investigated.

More like a school crossing guard. He looks like a good man. I got a Billy laugh on that one.

A very nice school crossing guard. Then you throw in the Chief Stadium, right? I love that. It looks fun.

I've been many times. It's as good as it gets.

Might snow. Now, you mentioned Kansas City. We've been to Kansas City. Good barbecue, decent stuff going on. But it's crazy to me I think that Taylor Swift lives there. She basically has to live there with Travis Kelsey. They are maybe the two most famous people in America, and they are in Kansas City. Do you think that's strange?

That's why my pick, I called it the New Hollywood. Honestly, before Before this engagement, I probably would have had them two or three. But I think America is going to just... This is now our home base. This is our center point of America, is Kansas City. I'm not even sure if it's in Missouri or Kansas, but we'll figure that out. I think it's in Missouri. But it is now That is now the celebrity hotbed.

Tz is going to be in games. Do you think they just go to regular restaurants in Kansas City? I don't know what the good places are there.

Well, it just opened. It's the 1587 Steakhouse by Travis, Kelsey, and Pat Mohms.

Oh, they have their own steakhouse?

Just opened. She'll have her own room.

Why is it 15?

Oh, number 15. Their numbers, yeah. But it's supposed to be a big deal, literally just opening right now. I'd expect she'd be there a lot.

I like the Chiefs before because old Joe Montana played there when he was washed up. They had a safety who had a rap song that I could sing Billy right now. Do you remember Eric Berry? Of course. He would go, Eric Berry, Eric Berry. You're still scared. I don't know if that's exactly the way. Don't remember the song. But it was... You could look it up. He had a song called Eric Berry, and I loved it. I had some Chief's Positivity before that.

I had a friend who had family in Kansas City when we were in middle school, about once a year we'd go and I'd get to go to Chief's game. There are photos of me where I'm fully painted red and yellow. I was all in there for a little while. I wouldn't ever call them my favorite, but I've had plenty of trips to Arrowhead that were a wild time.

I don't know if you want those photos out. It's a different time. I think the Chiefs are a pretty good number one pick. It feels like they play at 4: 30 with Jim Nance and Tony Romo almost every week, so I agree with that. My number one team is I think most people would put here, and so it'll be number two for us is the Bills. I think, again, same thing. Really good. Josh Allen is maybe the most exciting player to watch. He bounces off people. But really, a lot of it's about the fans. It gets dark in Buffalo at 2: 30 in the afternoon. The game, it's always dark there. No matter what, it's snowing, you throw people through tables. Then there's just the history of they've never won. They find a way to collapse at the end. They look sad. I don't think anybody would say there's anywhere that looks to be more fun. That's a team that they almost lost the team a couple of different times in their history. So the Bills for me, pretty strong number two.

Bills were number two for me also. If you don't enjoy the current Bills era with the Mafia, Josh Allen, you just have in your heart. I don't care if you got your favorite team. They're a likable group. Even to bring up Swifties again, when Jason Kelsi went to a game a few years ago- Yeah, that was fun. They're just showing him in the crowd with his shirt off. The Bills games, maybe more than any other team in the NFL. It's an experience that's fun to watch from afar.

By the way, I already forgot part of the show, which is I was supposed to go to Billy for a fun fact for each team from Warren Sharp.

Hey, first episode.

Really? We're working out the case. We got through one team and I had already forgotten to go to Billy. So let me go back for a second. Go to the Chiefs. What was Warren Sharpe's fun Chiefs back?

Well, the Chiefs may be fun to watch, but they don't throw the ball downfield. Out of the 192 team seasons since 2019, the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs ranked 189 in rate of passes thrown 15 plus area. So Patrick Mahomes, he's so great. He doesn't throw the ball past 15 yards.

Okay, explain to me what's your number? How many years of football?

Since 2019, there have been 192 individual team seasons.

Okay, then it came in 189.

189 out of 192.

That is a little surprising. That's partially why I think they're going to be better this year, because they're going to have guys throw down the field. But it's amazing. He's considered universally the best quarterback and the fourth worst team in the last, what, six years to throw the ball down the field. That's impressive.

When you got Kels, you don't throw too far. But they do throw it far. If it's fourth and 34 in the games on the line, they get a completion. That's when they go long.

That's definitely true. All right, so now, number two, give me a Buffalo Bill's fact.

It's all about getting over the pump in the playoffs for the Bills. The Bills average over 24 points per game in the payoff losses they've had over the last five years. Conversely, the opponents score on average 33 points in the games that the Bills have lost in the playoffs.

So they score nine less points. In the playoffs, yeah. I'm going to say to Warren, I think that stat's better if it's flipped. I would have assumed that they scored less points than the teams when they lose in the playoffs. That makes sense. Am I supposed to be surprised by that stat?

Maybe by how many points they score.

So they score nine points less than the other team?

That's right, in the playouts.

Okay.

In their losses.

I'm just going to say, that's not a Shocking. The Chief stat, a little shocking to me. Bill Stat, maybe not.

Do we mention the potential for snow in Buffalo? Because they're the one. They got all the Snow points.

If Buffalo ever built a dome, I think they should have to forfeit their team. Because that's the thing. That's their biggest home field advantage. Buffalo was also the place where... Who was the player? Was it Ocho Cinco who said, There's nowhere to go here but Applebee?

I think it was Tio.

Tio.

Did a lot of Applebees when he was up there for a year.

There's no reason to disparage Applebee. What's wrong with Applebee?

Give me a-My hometown, that's all we have. Birthdays, anniversary, celebrations.

We're going to Applebee. When I went to Applebee's, I felt like we're going big time.

Eat good in the neighborhood. That's right.

All right. Number three, you get to pick.

All right, number three. It's a team nearby us. Not necessarily a fan, but when Joe Burrow is throwing to Jamar Chase, there's not much better in the NFL when that offense is rocking. So I went with the Bingoes at three. Also like that their defense is usually chaos, so they get a lot of shootouts, but it's all Bingoes. Locally here in Kentucky, we have a lot of friends who like the Bingoes, so I put them at third, but mostly just Burrow to Chase.

Maybe some people out there that consider that a surprising pick. I had them in number 4, so I didn't have them much lower. I think it's the Burrow chase thing, right? Do not let your girlfriend see Joe Bur. If she's tuned in to watch the game hoping to see Travis and Taylor, and she sees Joe Burrow, especially like me, we live in Lexington. If you're with a woman in Lexington and Burrows it, she might be like, That, since then, is not that far. I could meet him, maybe, if we go up there. Is he married? He's not married, is he?

No, he's dating. Remember when they got robbed or whatever, he got exposed that he was dating some model?

Oh, he had a secret girlfriend.

She was at the house or whatever it was.

That would be the worst way to get caught.

Yeah. He's just trying to keep it private.

Your house gets broken into. And it turns out you had a woman there. That would be a bad day for Joe.

I'd still probably trade places with Joe if I was given the opportunity, though. Joe seems to have a pretty good life going for him. He does. Bingoes, I probably would have had in the '30s before Joe Burrow on this list, but he and Chase, they're the offensive- There's a long line of quarterbacks.

You have Boomer Esiason. The one that gets forgotten, Ken Anderson. Do you know the name Ken Anderson?

I've met Ken Anderson here in Lexington at a golf outing.

Do you know he was the NFL MVP, wasn't he? Yeah.

I went as Boomer Esiason for Halloween as a little kid. I guess now that I've done the Chief's, Bingoes, I like the Titans. Maybe I just love the whole league, but I was a Boomer. I had the full outfit and the helmet. You went He went as Boomer Esiason for...

I always say this, but it's my one Ken Anderson fact. My mom went to law school with Ken Anderson. While he played for the Bingoes, he was also in law school. Can you imagine if an MVP, so let's just say Josh Allen, were to also be in law school. What would Steven A. Say on first day? How in the world is he supposed to focus when he has a tort law class in the morning? But Ken Anderson did that.

Imagine you're watching Sunday Night Football, watching Alan come back to beat the Ravens. Then 8 AM, there he is in your class. He's in your group working on the group project.

I think my mom said he was in her civil procedure small group, and my mom did not know who he was. People were like, When you realize Ken Anderson is your partner, she didn't even know who he was. She was like, That's Ken. He always comes in here dirty. I'll borrow his pencil one day.

Nice guy.

What is our Bingo's fun fact?

The Bingoes are the only offensive line to rank-How did you say it?

The Bingoes-Thank you.

Not the Bingoes. The Bingoes are the only offensive line to rank 25th or worse for four straight years.

Their offensive line is awful. They claim it's better, but I doubt it. For people who don't live in Cincinnati, the Bingoes practice facility is under the interstate next to a train station. You think I'm making this up? If you drive on I-75 between Kentucky and Cincinnati, you drive over what looks to be like a chemical waste dump, and right next to it is the brand new Bingo's Practice Facility. I always think it's funny that it's nice, but you also conceivably could have hobos coming off the train, joining you and running out patterns.

They don't even have a goalpost to kick or there's like those two smoke stacks at that factory. He just goes out in the parking lot, starts kicking through that. A lot of teams isolate themselves out somewhere. It's maybe one of the busiest roads in America, and people are just flying by looking at their room.

They're in the middle of downtown. You can literally sit and watch the practice from the bridge. Always sound that interesting.

We don't encourage that, by the way.

Don't go watching it, but you could. All right, number 4. It's my pick. I actually had it at number three, but we had the exact same top four. We didn't talk about this before. I have the Ravens. Really, it all comes down to Lamar. To be quite frank with you, I think the Ravens are actually boring to watch besides Lamar. Lamar, though, is the most exciting player in football. Then last year, they had the Derrick Henry addition that helped make them. But if the Ravens are in the game, it's awesome. If you're my age, you still think of them as a defensive team, but that's really not the case anymore. It's really them are. It's amazing that a team can be number four because of one guy, but I think they are.

I'm glad we did this order because this was my first one where I got a little wild. I had them much farther down because I said I hate watch teams. As a Titans guy, Derrick Henry still look like he's young. I can't watch it. We got rid of him because he's too old. Let's get out. He can't do it anymore. He's 31, 32, and I know Saquon's out there, but I'm saying Derrick Henry will be the best running back next year.

In running back years, 32 is like 88. He's still out there doing it. For him to go to a rival, that had to also stink.

I go to, not that they happen often, but I try to go to tight in the playoff games. Ravens have gotten me twice with heartbreak over the years.

Well, when I say rival, that's what I mean. You all have lost in the playoffs, too.

You got a Louisville guy and Lamar who I actually admire and appreciate in the NFL. But still, they're a team that when I turn it on, there's more emotions than I'm just watching the game.

You didn't have them?

I had them at seven because I won King Henry in Nashville, not in Baltimore. That was the big one.

All right, so it's Chiefs, Bills, Bingo's, Ravens. It's a pretty good top four. Give me a Baltimore. Tell me what Warren Sharp thinks.

Since 2020, the Ravens are 23 and 24 in one-score games. That's the 18th best in the NFL in that time.

That's a terrible fact. They're basically in the middle of the pack.

For comparison, the Steelers who made the playoffs last year are 37 and 15. That's number two win rate.

Okay, so that would have been a good fact for the Steelers.

Well, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, they're always battling.

All right, that's okay. You know what? Warren had good facts for three of the four.

I'll add one. The Ravens are unde if Derrick Henry gets 90 yards. I think they were 12-0 last year. Again, Derrick Henry is still in his prime. I miss him.

You think he'll be good this year?

Yes, the best.

All right, tell me who you got. What's next? This will be number five.

Speaking of, let's get weird. This is where I had to put my own team. I had them at four.

I'm not letting you do that.

The Kam Ward experience.

I'm not letting you. The Titans? Listen, we got to put this in a graphic out to the public. I cannot put the Titans as the number five most interesting team.

At some point, when we're doing, if I'm sitting down and watching, where are your bears? I mean, they're probably I mean, for me. Well, they're next on my list. But I mean, that's part of the game. We have our teams.

But to be honest with you- I got to put them somewhere. I feel like, objectively, Caleb Williams is more interesting.

Is Kam Ward, the number one pick this year?

He only had I'll let you be. I'll let you be.

He already had his year as the number one pick.

It was boring. I'll let you be the aperture. If it's games on TV and it's Titans or it's bears, his team or my team, who are you more excited to watch?

Neither. But I guess the bears if we're choosing it. I hate to say that for you.

What happened to our draft order? Why do we need somebody? We have an order.

The problem is we're going to put this on a graphic, and it's going to be the first time people are going to know us, and you're going to have the Titans fifth.

It's Cam Ward. It's my team. Where do you want them? 17th?

This is ruining the graphic. I just want everybody to know.

You said you had the bears at fifth.

But that's objective.

But they don't belong in the top 15. Well, no.

Caleb Williams is exciting. With Caleb, you don't know what color his fingernails are going to be. You don't know if he's got... Think about the games last year. Every game we had came down the wire. You had the fail Mary game against the commanders. The ball ends up in his hands in the fourth quarter with a chance to go in all the time.

You just made my case for Kam Ward. Last year is Caleb Williams. That's why he should be ahead of it. We're about to watch that again.

I don't think most people know what Kam Ward looks like.

It's not a beauty page. We're trying to watch him fire the big What are we talking about?

They got a helmet on. Fire the big skin.

I'm just defending my pick. Fire the big skin. I'm defending my Titans, who I think might be one of the worst teams this year.

I'll tell you what, just know... How about on the graphic, we put an Asterisk? Just know, Billy, he ruined the graphic.

An Asterisk He ruined the graphic. An Asterix next to my team in New York. He ruined the graphic.

Yeah, for a podcast called Cover Zero with Titans in the top five of watchability, it fits.

I can't believe the Titans are number five. Okay, but then the bears are going to be number six. I mean, this podcast, we've ruined it right there. But we'll have to put a-We'll have our faces next to each one of them. It says it's our team. All right, give me a Titans fun fact.

Good luck.

They were really bad last year. Two and six in one-score games, if you want to keep that theme going. There we go.

Two and six in one-score game. You're a Titans fan. Kam Ward is the only reason to watch the team. Apparently, it's the fifth best reason to watch any team. But right, is there any other reason to watch him?

No, not at all. I love him. It's been a rough existence since 1999. We've had a few good years. Those are getting few and far between. But Kam Ward, in the little glimpses we got of him in the preseason, it's not just me being a fan. There's some excitement around him and thinking he could be one of those dudes. I don't know if we're going to have a Jalen Daniels run of a year ago and make the playoffs, but I think he is one that a lot of people want to see how he pans out.

Yeah, just for comparison's sake, I had the Titans 29th. That's why I had the bears.

It's perfect.

You did I'm not have the bears 29th. I had the Titans 29th. I feel like most of the time when I watch the Titans, the field is coming up. It feels like you all get more divots in the field than the other team.

You should see the upper deck. If you go to a game, you look down and the concrete has cracks in your thing, and there's a chance I could end up in the parking lot if they don't fix this. Also, it's very fitting for the Titans to make a bad pick at the top of the draft because that's exactly what they do. It's a little tribute taking the Titans number 4.

Okay, so the The Titans end up number 5. I guess we're going with the bears number 6. My case is going to have an exciting offense, lots of weapons. Caleb Williams, you get to see an SNL skip from the '80s every time they play while they show the guys go, Duh, bears. They keep showing all those guys. I think they've all passed away, unfortunately, but they're still on there. You got the mustaches. They're also the only stadium I've ever been to that only serves RC Cola.

Oh, wow.

Did you know that?

No, I didn't.

Their official Real soft drink is not Coke and it's not Pepsi. It's RC. Are they hoarding all the RC? You can only get RC products.

Impressive.

That's really strange. First of all, is there any other place in the United States where you can only get... I think you could go to the RC factory and they would still offer you a Coke.

I grew up around the corner from an RC plant, and I thought when it closed, that was the end of RC. That was like 30 years ago. You're telling me it's still out there floating around?

It's the only drink you can get at Soulja Field is RC.

So one of the oldest stadiums, they're just going for the nostalgia thing?

Yeah, I guess so. There you go. That, to me, is the fun fact for Chicago. But does Warren have one better than that?

Caleb Williams took a League high 68 sacks last year.

Yeah, well, I felt that watching him. I mean, that's over four sacks a game. He held the ball too long, but he also had a terrible offensive line. They upgraded it during the offseason. Luther Bird, watch him. Hopefully, yes. Call him Missouri. That's exactly right. All right, number, who's next for you?

If you didn't like my last one, I don't think you're going to like this one. Well, they are America's team, so America will agree with me. But just the chaos of the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't think that's a bad pick, actually. I have them... You have them, what?

They were fifth on my list, but this is now...

I have them eighth, so I don't think that's a terrible... And it's because of the drama. The drama.

I mean, are they ever going to be good again?

It's because of the drama. And then the agonizing shots of pain on the fan's faces are also great. And then I love when Troy Akeman is doing the game and his disgust about his former organization comes through. I don't think the Cowboys is a crazy bit.

If Prescott can stay healthy this year, you got Lamb and Pickin, so that's a good duo. Also just little side things, like when the light comes through the stadium and blinds everybody. How do you have the nicest stadium in sports? How did they ever fix that?

That is It's always bizarre to me because they always have that one light, and the announcers will go, This is hurting people.

Remember, Lamb last year dropped a touch... Your home Pro Bowl receiver dropped a pass in the end zone.

You've been before, and I think watching a game at Cowboy Stadium has to be like what it's like to watch a concert at the Sphere. It doesn't feel like you're in a real place. It's so beautiful. It almost feels like you're in a theater. You're not in a football stadium.

Because that screen's so big, you look up instead of... Even though the live-action is right in front of you, you find yourself looking up.

I've never seen a moment on the game on the field. No, you're only looking at the stadium. I'll also note, when you park there, I'm still walking back to my car. The parking lots are so far. You get your steps in, though. That's good.

If you haven't been, it's not Dallas Dala. It's out on its own. If you're trying to make a day out of it, there's a few things around it, but it's out there on it, so you see it when you're flying in.

It's way out there. All right, I'm going to go, so this will be number eight for the group. I'm going to take the Lions, mostly because... They used to be towards the bottom of the list for me because I hate the indoor stadiums. But I do like watching Dan Campbell. I always feel like at some point he's going to spontaneously combust. He reminds me of the gym teacher from Beavis and Butthead. Then Aiden Hutchinson, I get to see his family. Always enjoy that. Oh, man. I hope they're doing good. They love showing them. Yeah, they love showing them. I hope they're doing really well. The offense was really exciting. Now, I don't know without Ben Johnson if they will be quite as exciting, but it seems like a fan base that's desperate to win. I enjoy the Lions. Then I think the Lions are one of the top teams in the league along with the Vikings, of people dressed up in costumes. There are people dressed up in lion's gear, or they'll be a plumber, or they'll be dressed as Mario or Luigi.

Or they just wear shoulder pads to the game with their lion's surgery.

There's a lot of people who think they might check in at some point. So the lions come in next for me.

I'm glad we're getting back on track. I had the lions as my next if it had been my pick, so we agreed on this one.

What is your... First of all, cowboy's fact. I skipped them, too. What's your Cowboys Fact?

Yeah, Cowboys Fact. The Cowboys have made the playoffs 12 times since 1998. They're four and twelve. Eight of those trips were brief 0-1 postseason. Wait a minute.

They have only won four playoff games since when?

'98.

It's crazy. They've had some heartbreakers.

They've won four payoff games in 27 years. Now that, Warren Sharp/ Billy, is a pretty amazing statistic. Four in 27 years. I hope they win now. I don't like looking at Steven A. In his cowboy hat. That never makes me happy. All right, what is the Lion's fact?

The Lion's drafted Tate Ratlidge in the second round from Georgia.

He allowed-Just stop right there. That's the fact. No, go ahead.

He allowed just one sack in three years as a starter at Georgia. Only 10 pressures, only 4 penalties, and over 1,600 snaps.

That one really stuck out for you. You're a big Tate Ratlidge guy? Oh, yeah.

I mean, one sack in three years as a starter at an SEC school? That's pretty good.

Do you have a picture of Tate Rattledge? Are you related to him?

It's close to Ruttledge. It's the last name thing.

Just move a letter. Ruttledge? Ruttledge.

Billyarn Sports on Twitter, if you want to follow.

Look at him trying to get the NFL bump for the Twitter account.

When in role.

We know Billy will shoot a shot on those things.

That's exactly right. Jennifer Lawrence. You asked her out. Tate Rattledge. I hope we get a chance. I think we can pull strings and maybe get Tate Rattledge on the podcast.

Glad you didn't say Jennifer Lawrence.

It'd be an honor. We can meet Jennifer Lawrence, too. That'd be fine.

No, we're getting Tate Rattledge. They're on the same. I want you to start working on this.

Oh, I'm working on it? Okay.

Well, you're the producer. Okay. I think you need to call the lines, just go, May I have the lines? And say, We'd like to get Tate... Because he can't get a lot of requests.

He sounds pretty good. High expectations.

Ask for Tate Rantlage.

I will. If you can get him, get the entire Hutchinson family. We know they're there. No.

I think we're going to discover that Tate Rattledge, in addition to not giving away sacs, is a fine young fellow.

I hope so. All right. It's good Georgia boy, Southern Charm? Good.

All right. Let's see. Back to you. Who what is it?

I went with our defending Super Bowl champs here.

Kind of surprising the eagles all the way at number nine. I had them at twelve. Oh, you had them that far? We had to go all the way to nine to get the eagles. Why the Eagles? Why the Eagles? Why wouldn't the Super Bowl champs be higher than this for both of us?

That's a good question. I mean, they are fun to watch. They're absolutely loaded with talent. I think part of it is I hate how their GM, Howie, keeps getting away with robbery draft night, and I don't like that they're as good as they should be. Also, I mentioned the Derrick Henry thing's hard for me. I still can't look at AJ Brown. That dude should be retiring as a Titan one day, and they let him go to Philadelphia. I have a little bit of hard time watching AJ there. Arthur Juan, as I call him, have success?

Jalen Hertz, too handsome. That's a problem for me. These guys, going back to braided, when you have a dude that's too handsome, I can't deal with it. He's another one. Don't watch a game. If you with your girl, don't watch a game when Jalen Hertz come on. There's a couple of people. We'll get to one here in a minute, too. There's three quarterbacks. You can't let your girl run. Can't let her around Joe Burrow. Can't let her around Jalen Hertz.

Especially when he starts to push pushing.

Yeah, exactly. He smiles, and it just doesn't work. Then I did enjoy the Saquon Barkley rejuvenation. The Touche Push, though, they bring them down the list for me. I wasn't putting a team that Touche Push is in the top 10. Fourth and one should be exciting. It's not exciting. They get it every single time. I hate the Touche Push, and that makes them down for me. I think number nine is good because I'm not going to put them high when they're pushing all that touche.

I've mentioned jealousy with some former players, my team let walk. But I mean, New York Giants, watching Saquon Barkley go to the Eagles.

It's got to be the most brutal.

2000 yards. I think I would shut down the entire organization.

Because he also looked like a corpse at the end with the Giants. I mean, he looked like Tate Rattletch trying to run trying to run the ball.

Then there's that clip like, Well, we hope he doesn't go to the giant hair of the Eagles.

Then he goes to the Eagles and he's amazing. Normally, a Super Bowl champ defending, you think, would be in the top three or four. But the Eagles, down the list, and I don't think we're the only ones that feel like this.

They're boring good. You're just so good and so complete. We just know you're good.

I don't have to watch you to know you're good. Give me an Eagles fact.

Jalen Hertz has scored 33 of his career rushing shutdowns on the push push. That's 60% of all of his rushing scores.

See, that in and of should not be allowed. 60% of his touch downs are push pushing. That doesn't feel...

He's going to have to admit to that one day.

It feels a little fraudulent. I'm not going to lie.

When he has a record for rushing touch downs, that should be an issue.

He'll have probably the quarterback record. I have to think he's probably in the vicinity. On his way. Soon. All right, my next one on the list is the Commanders. The reason is Jaden Daniels, they probably, if we were starting this last year, they probably would have been one of the bottom six or seven teams. They hadn't been interesting in a long time, but he's fun. I'm wondering, is there going to be a second year curse for him, a la C. J. Straub, where he takes a drop? They had game after game that they won at the end last year. I think they're going to take a regression this year. But Washington fans are a big reason. I have number 10. They've had so little to cheer about that last year they just seemed so happy. I like people who are very happy. And that stadium It's four and a half hours from Washington, DC. By the time they get there, and they've had to trek across the Oregon Trail to get to the stadium, I like seeing them get to have a good time.

I had them just a spot away, so we're pretty like-minded here, too. Obviously, Daniels last year getting in the playoffs. But like you said, there's a little bit of charm when these teams that have sucked our entire lives are good. We have the lions in the Super Bowl conversation. I couldn't remember a good lion's year before here recently. Commanders, you'd have to go all the way back to the early '90s. I mean, Bingo, some of these teams that seemed like they were awful forever have really surged, and it made last year fun to watch with the commanders.

One of the things I'll note that's interesting, our top five most interesting teams to watch, all AFC teams. And then the next five were NFC. So the AFC is an objectively more interesting league at the top than the NFC, but the NFC does come in next. Give me a Washington Commanders.

That also includes the Titans. But here's your Commanders fact. The 2024 Commanders were the most successful fourth-down team not just last season, but in recent NFL history. Washington covered 87% of their 23 fourth-down attempt.

Wow, that is a high number. 87%.

Next closest was the 2018 Saints, who had 81% of their 16 attempts.

And they had Alvin Kamara at that time running forward.

And they had Debo this year. That'll be fun.

So interesting. See, Warren Sharp, when he wants to, when he focuses.

When I find right one.

When he comes to the right one, he goes. All right, what's next for you?

This is one I can't believe I put here, but I really think they're going to be exciting, and that's the Vikings with JJ McCarthy making his debut a year too late. I watched that entire week one preseason game where they got to see him for the first time after he missed the whole year with injury. And Minnesota was rocking to see him on his first series. He looked good there. They didn't play him much in the preseason, but a team that's been pretty good lately with Jefferson and all they've done with that offense, now we get to see McCarthy go to it. So I'm just interested to see how that looks.

With the exception of your boneheaded Titans pick, I've been in the vicinity with you on all these. Jj McCarthy, I think, is probably not going to be good, but I want to watch it. Again, a lot of people dressed up at these games. This is where you bring people. Everybody wears the fur. They wear fur on their shoulders like giant Gonzales. They come in and they all are very hefty and they have shields. Some people will get swords in there. Hard for me to... It surprises me they let that through security.

That's what the shields are for. It's there, keep it all safe here.

Everybody's armed just in case something happens. The team itself were great last year. I never believed they were They're going to go to the Super Bowl, and of course, they collapse in the final week. But I'll be interested to see what they do with JJ McCarthy. Very rare, though, to be the number one, what, overall seed in the playoffs, number two, and then just get rid of your quarterback.

That's going to be a fun division, and I know your team's in it. As an outsider, I think all those teams look pretty good this year.

I'll go next. This is number 12 for our group. I'll take this. Well, first of all, give me a Vikings fact.

Nearly 50% of Sam Darnold's dropbacks last year lasted three plus seconds. The NFL average was 32%.

So he holds out.

He had all the time in the world back there. Yeah.

Probably takes a pill for that.

He can.

Probably helps him. Okay, well, that's good. That's a long time. I don't know. Is that good or bad, though?

It means you have a good offense line, but I don't know if Sam Darnell- That also might mean he holds on the ball too long. Either or, I guess.

We'll have to read more about what Warren Sharpe says.

Yeah, we'll see what Warren says. By the way, Warren, that color page you use for the Vikings, very ugly. Very ugly. That's a weird-looking green. Let's go- Purple?

It's purple.

Oh, you had it on something. All right, the Steelers. Steelers, they're going to be number 12 for me. What?

This is going to be our biggest discrepancy.

Where'd you have them?

32.

You have a lot. You think the Steelers are the worst team to watch?

32. I do not care to see Aaron Rodgers this I've never liked the Stealers. If they're on my TV, I'll turn on Gilded Age on HBO. I want nothing to do with the damn Steelers this year.

Do you think the Steelers are the least interesting team to watch in the NFL?

Last year, we went to a Steelers game in Pittsburgh. It was boring. Yeah, it was fine. But then they go and add Aaron Rodgers. I just can't do it. I want nothing to do with it.

Wow. Well, first of all, I thought no one disliked Aaron Rodgers worse than me. Clearly, you do. That's an amazing call by you to put them last. Let me give them the case for 12. I like Mike Tomlin. If you were to look up the word stoic in the dictionary, it's going to be Mike Tomlin. Facial expression never changes, ever. He's got the same look on his face. He looks mildly disappointed in his children at all times. I enjoy that.

He's looked the same for 20 years. I think if you took a picture of him from every season and you had to guess what year it was, you wouldn't know. They'd all look exactly the same.

He doesn't age. You're exactly right. If you watch a Steeler's game, is required by law. I think it is an executive order that was passed by Lyndon Baines Johnson that they have to say that they're blue collar. The words blue collar are coming out at some point. They're going to say that during the game. Then I love the fact that they have this team, they have a winning record every year, no chance at ever finding a capable quarterback, not even interested. They're just like, You know what? Since Rathlisberger, hey, can you Let's give you a shot. Hey, Billy. Tate Rattlet, you're right. Hey, Aaron Rodgers. Would you like to... Yeah, Aaron Rodgers. I know you might be on a podcast, but why don't you come join us and play? I think that's good.

I came off as a little hater there, and I am a bit of a hater. What Tom one does there is pretty amazing how they're in the mix, the D-Field. We all know the Steeler's brand. But this year, specifically, I can't do it. They're dead last.

I I hate Aaron Rodgers so much that one of my friends for my birthday, which is today, by the way, one of my friends got me an Aaron Rodgers bobblehead. It's an Aaron Rodgers Jets bobblehead. Now, here's what's interesting about it. I said, Wow, they knew it would be something I wouldn't like. They said, Yeah, it was $5. It was very cheap. Now, here's what was interesting. It was Jets, and I looked at it and I go, Why is it all green? By all green, I mean, his face is green, his hair is green, everything is green. She said, I don't know. Then she looks up online. This was a Jets bobblehead, and it said, As a special for Aaron Rodgers, one in 50 are all green. I got a rare Aaron Rodgers I got a one in 50 all green Aaron Rodgers Jets bobblehead. So I hate it, but I wonder, do I have a steal? Is this like an antique roadshow thing? Only one in 50 are all green.

Two things. That sounds like there was a misprint. They're trying to spin it to sell that batch and not lose any money.

You know what? You might be right about that.

You can just say it's day after ayahuasca trip, Aaron. He's a little sick. Not so well. A little green, still coming back down to Earth with the rest of us.

I'm going to bring it in here and show it to you. It's awful. It's ugly. You can't even really tell it's Aaron Rodgers. Because think about if you just had a statue and it was all green, how do you know what it is? It's Gumby. It looks Mike and Aaron Rodgers gumby. Give me a Stealers fact.

Speaking of Tomlin, he has led the Stealers to 18 straight non-losing seasons.

Amazing. But also, I think it's a fact everyone knows.

Well, Warren Sharp had it in his book.

He uses more colors in there than the bobble hit.

That's true.

All right. I thought the fun fact was going to be Mike Tomlin is the coach. Fun fact.

They use towels.

Who's at number 13?

It's my pick. All right. Lucky number 13. Let me get back on track. I got a little chaotic, even though it was yours. Putting them at 32 was wild. I have here the Green Bay Packers.

That's exactly who I would have had. We would have hit at the same time.

I just mentioned that's going to be a fun competitive division. I saw this week that Jordan Love's thumb good to go. He has two thumbs. That's very important when you're a quarterback. Actually, just the throwing win is all he needs.

Who has two thumbs is going to be the packer's quarterback, Mario.

Look at that.

This guy. I mean, that was what Jordan Love would have said. That's not me.

Good team, though. Had a good year last year. I think Love is going to take another jump. But the real reason they're right here, I said it before the show, snow potential. A lot of snow potential here. This in Buffalo got a big bump for cold weather, snowy games.

You pro or con wearing cheese on your head?

Bro, we were blessed to go to a Lambo game last year. I had an absolute blast. That's a bucket list. It was still cold. We had to sit on our cardboard, but that's a place where if I'm going, I want the frozen tundra, bring the weather. We were cold, but that can get real nasty.

I was there for week one last year with ESPN, and I'm the only person who's ever nearly passed out of heat exhaustion in Lambo field. It was, I believe, 114 degrees. I decided to wear a hoodie. I I don't know why. And I was so hot. And the packers lost. It was brutal. Cool place. I mean, the best stadium to go to. On television, I like it because usually people are bundled up They're wearing- See their breath coming out. You get to see how their cheeks get really rosy. You get to see the breath. There's always people on the sidelines. The other team always looks so sad to be there. One of the few stadiums, you could see actual ice ice on the field. You can see white ice. Packers games end up inevitably producing some of the best weather moments, so I'm with you. Whether the team was good or not, you put them in.

You remind me of something about bundling up and blowing out your breath there. I like when the opposing team comes out without sleeves and they're being tough. Then halfway through the first quarter, the guy that had his shirt off is completely bundled up and you can see the regret in his face. But they try to be the tough guys there in Lambo in the beginning.

Is there anywhere in America that sells those jackets they wear on NFL sidelines except the NFL? Those big, huge jackets. It's like a jacket a 1910 New York gangster would wear, except it's with a football logo, and it seems to be made of plastic. Usually.

Yeah, the gangster versions, they had their Tommy guns in there, but this is just to cover, I guess, them pads.

And they're plastic. It doesn't feel like a comfortable jacket.

No, certainly wouldn't fit in my closet or luggage, but I guess it's necessary in Lambo.

What's the packers? What's their fact?

The packers ranked number one in the NFL last year in receiver error. 8% of passes were not caught by either drops, not getting their feet in bounds, or failing to run their route the correct way.

They are an error-prone wide receiving court.

That sounds like a stat George Love would put out.

Yeah, Jaden Reid was the worst out of all eligible receivers. The second worst was Mr. Wix on the same team.

The two worst wide receivers in football for errors were both on the same team? Yes. Wow, that's a problem. By the way, you're just calling people out, like Jaden Reid. Well, I'm sure- You got something against him?

I'm sure they're used to it. Nfl players got to have thick skin.

If you're going to be on this NFL Cover Zero podcast, you got to be ready for the heavy heat from Billy.

And the big phone book over there.

Jake Reid. Better start catching the ball every week. All right, so I'll go next. 14, I'll put the Broncos. All right, the reason I say that, they would not have been on this list for a long time, but the reason I put them is Bo'Nicks is fun. I'm expecting a Bo'Nicks massive regression year. Mark it down. I watched him play too much in college. He did crazy things. He made crazy decisions. Things just went too well in year one. I think it takes a step back. Sean Payton, like him, always looks when they show him on the sidelines, perplexed and staring up into the crowd every every time they show him. He always has a look of befudlement, and he's looking in the crowd like, Where's my family? I always see that when I play them or when they play, but I do think they're entertaining. I think Bo Nicks is entertaining, 14th.

Bo Nicks is very entertaining. I feel like I watched him play college football for 42 years. I feel like I grew up watching Bo Nicks play quarterback.

Speaking of Britain- The only quarterback, by the way, in NFL history, with only five letters when you add up the two names.

It's got to be one of the shortest names.

I did this once. It wasn't in Warren Sharp's book, but I did it last year. He's the only player in NFL history who's only had five... Because if you think about it, four is the minimum, right?

Unless you just got a letter.

I don't even know a human being with only two letters in each name, M-O-B-I? I don't have one. Can you think of one? Can you think of anybody with only four letters in their name?

I'll give you three. Who? Mr. T.

Mr. T, that's not That's not a legal name.

Oh, you didn't say legal name. Yeah.

So I would think, Bo Nicks, the fewest letters in their name of any NFL player in history.

I just thought of another one that ties Bo Nicks. I don't have four. I have a five. Who? Ty Law.

Except I think his name is Tyrone.

Touche. I'll put that one back in the jar.

So there you go. Just a little fact for you.

While we're talking Denver quarterbacks, my favorite preseason moment happened this week. They cut Ben DiNucci, and he immediately went and did my favorite thing, airport beer. You see his tweet? It said, Nothing tastes better than getting cut by the NFL airport beer. It was his seventh time getting cut, and he tweeted his airport beer, not a better beer in the world than the one at the airport.

Did he go straight from being cut to the airport?

Yeah, and it's the seventh time it's happened, and he tweeted his beverage said, you all wouldn't understand, but getting cut by the NFL airport beer is the number one beer. I haven't had the cut version, but I've had the airport version, and I'm same wavelength, Ben.

My friend Max Duffy, he played punter for the University of Kentucky, for people who don't know, and he tried out for the Broncos. It was a punning battle a few years ago. It was him and somebody else. I don't know if Max will be listening to this. Max, I'm sorry, I'm going to say this, but he lost the punning battle. He still is very angry about the fact that he lost the punning battle. He insisted, whoever it was that beat him, that he was better than him. I'm on Max's side.

Of course, he's better than them.

But what I like is Max blamed the altitude. He said that the altitude is what caused him to lose. I would ask him, What do you mean? I mean, it's not like that other guy kicked in a different altitude. He was like, Altitude doesn't work with how I kick. Not sure what it means, but I did make the point to him, You're going to have to play in Denver regardless. But Max will not go back to Denver because of that.

Well, I remember we were passing through Denver on a road trip last year with Max, and he wanted to drive around it. We weren't even doing anything related to Marcos and didn't think he wanted to go through Denver at all.

Tell me what you got, 15.

You want a fact?

Sure.

They were 10 and 7 last year in those 10 wins, they only won one of those games by one score.

Yeah, if you're wanting to make a case for them to be better, their wins were not flukes last year.

Yeah. By comparison, the Chiefs won 15 games, 11 on-score games.

There are people who would... That is a good That's a good staff. All right, what's next for you?

Might be a wild card, we'll see, but this will be one of the worst teams in football. But Shadr Sanders in Cleveland, the quarterback situation, we're interested, right? I mean, the Browns are going to suck no matter who they go with, but you have 45-year-old Joe Flacko and two rookies fighting for a spot. So I have the Browns here at 15.

That's a little higher than I had them, but I don't think that's a crazy case. I mean, the Shadr drama, especially if we get to midseason and the Browns are two and six or something, then I think you get interested. Does he play? And then you got the Dylan Gabriel piece. They're probably going to play Dylan Gabriel first. Will the Browns give him a chance? Will the fans give him a chance? Will the fans give him a chance? Or will they just be calling for J'adore A lot of these rookies, it takes a few games. Dylan Gabriel might not even get the few games to give it a chance. So yeah, I think there's a lot of interest in the Browns. Another team where people are dressed up a lot.

Maybe the most. They eat dog bones.

You never I don't ever know what... Again, back to watching a game with a woman that doesn't like football. Turn on a Browns game, have them show the crowd, and then look at your woman's reaction. She'll be like, What are these people doing?

Have they showered?

Why are they dressed like that? And I'll go, Well, they're the Dog Pound. And they'll go, Why? I thought their nickname was the Browns. And you don't really have an answer. I don't know.

I have a good dog pound story. I know two guys in Ohio, one's Browns fans, one's Bingles, and they a bet. Winner got to take the other one to their home team. The guy bought tickets in the Dog Pound, and the Bingoes fan went and sat in the dog pound. He didn't make it a quarter. It was so rough in his Bingoes jersey.

He was wearing the Bingoes jersey.

He didn't know they had dog pound tickets. He said, I'm taking you to the game. He was telling me his story. He made it a matter of minutes and had to get out.

Did the people just hit him?

Not violent, but just barking nonstop, relentless for being a Bingoes fan right in the middle of it.

I like that. All right, then let's go for mine, number 16. First of all, Browns fact.

At this time last summer, the Browns were favored in nine games before the season started. This year, just one.

They're only favored in one game?

One game this year. Wow.

I have another Browns fact, too.

What?

The Pro Football Focus ranked all players in the NFL, and Miles Garrett was number one.

I can see it. I can see it. Plus, Joe Flacko, it's going to be nice seeing a 58-year-old quarterback. I want to see how that works out. He's old, He's briddle.

I love that image. I guess it's been two seasons ago where they had to call him out of retirement, and he's sitting, coach in a Southwest flight on his way to save the team. Someone took a picture. He just looks like a dad on his way to Disney Vacation. Then a few days later, I think he goes and wins the game.

They made him fly Coach?

He's just amongst them on this flight to restart his career. Then I think he ended up having a great run.

I'm glad you're using the phrase amongst them. I think that's it. It's a good one. All right, I'm going to go 16, halfway point, Tampa Bay. The reason I picked Tampa Bay, Baker Bay field is fun. You never know what Baker Bay field is going to do. He scrambles around. I know that's Billy's team. Very attractive people in the stadium. That's another one. Now, again, another group of dressing up people. This is a lot of women dressing up as swashbucklers. Women like to wear pirates. Don't you all have a festival? It's like they do down there.

Well, there's a pirate ship in the stadium that throws bees.

They know that, but there's a festival in Tampa where everybody dresses as pirates, right?

Oh, yeah, I imagine so. I don't know. I thought you lived there. I did for 12 years.

It seems like you would know about the festival.

You don't remember the biggest festival?

No, didn't remember the festival.

I'm fairly certain. That there's a festival in Tampa, a big one, where people dress up as pirates. It feels like that's a fun dress up. The combination of that and Baker has them at 16 for me.

What's a pirate's favorite letter? No. The C. Thank you. I also like Tampa. I watched Tampa.

I can't believe. I was so mad at you for telling that joke because it was so stupid. Then you actually had a good one.

Everybody goes for R there. They do, okay. I'll take that one with you.

Gasparilla, that's the name of the festival.

I'll have to check it out next time I'm down there.

Next time you're down there for 12 years.

You lived there for 12 years?

Yeah, it was the first 12, though, so it wasn't like I chose where I was going.

Oh, you were a child?

Okay. Still, though, I feel like you should have heard of it.

If I can pay the box of compliments, I watched the entire week one preseason game because they were playing the Titans, who are the fifth most likable, watchable team in the NFL. But Billy, I think you guys are going to be good. The running backs were stacked, the rookies looked good. Bucks, I'm not going to have them in the Super Bowl conversation, but I think you're due for a fun year.

It's another team where they mention an offensive lineman a lot. Tristan Wurfs. There's never been a game where they don't bring up Tristan Wurfs. I don't know if he has pictures that he holds. If he's got pictures of the announ that he's threatening them. But Tristan Wurfs is mentioned a lot in game broadcast.

He's pretty good.

Yeah, he's a great left tackle.

All right, so give me a Bucks. Fun fact.

Well, besides Mike Evans tying Jerry Rice for consecutive thousand-yard seasons and looking to break the record this year. The 2024 Bucks scored 152 points in the fourth quarter. That was the most in the NFL last year.

Okay. Well, they lose Liam Cohen as their offensive coordinator, so we'll see if they'll be able to keep it going. We're going to take a break right here. We are halfway. If you want to pause it and maybe go outside and mow your grass, that would be a weird thing to do. But nevertheless, we could take a little break. We'll be right back. It's NFL Cover Zero. All right, time for part two. We are doing our appointment We're watching teams. We've done the first 16. Let's go. What's next, Drew? What's number 17? We're starting to get in the teams that are harder to watch, but what do you got?

I still like to watch this team occasionally, even though they ripped my heart out many years ago. But the Rams have some potential this year. I'm going to put them here.

I was close to having the Ram. You got them about where I did.

I feel a connection to Matthew Stafford. Right now, my back is killing me. He has back problems. I feel like if he can overcome his back problems, the Rams might have something. I'm dealing with that, too. First First year without Cooper Cup, I don't know, since they were in St. Louis, I don't know.

Is Matthew Stafford is playing? Or not playing? He's not playing, right?

He's got back problems.

He's practicing again. Yeah.

I have back problems. If he can overcome those- Back problems can change day to day. If you have back problems, you can one day feel like you can do everything, and the next day, you can't move. Right now, I barely got to the elevator. Back problems can do either way. I think if the Rams, if Matthew Stafford, if he told me he was healthy all year, I think they're a Dark Horse Super Bowl contender. If he's not, and it's a Jimmy G experience, then we're at step three of hide your girlfriend. Because Jimmy G, your girlfriend will leave you in a heartbeat. I mean, he is arguably the most handsome person to ever play sports.

Think about him, braided.

It's like him and Papa Jones. Those are the two most handsome people to ever play sports. But Jimmy G, Part of me wants Jimmy G to play because people act like he stinks. I don't think he stinks.

Listen, he's in LA. We don't need Jimmy G going and leading them to the Super Bowl. He's got enough going for him. We don't need him in former Hollywood. Kansas City is the new Hollywood. But in the old La La land, we don't need Jimmy G becoming some A-list celebrity because he's good at football.

Like Sean McVay, he looks like a guy who would try to get you to sign up for P-45 class or whatever it is those things are. He's always wearing the muscle shirts, but apparently, he seems like a very smart dude. They create wide receivers out of... They just get tiny guys from anywhere and they end up good.

Added Devante Adams, too.

Yeah. Who didn't do a whole lot last year, I think, with the name. But I enjoy watching the Rams. It has been the greatest show on Turf a couple of times. I think they'll be good again this year, so I think this is a good spot for it.

The greatest show on Turf. You just took me to that one-yard stop when the Rams ripped my heart out. But not even just this year with the Rams. They're usually on at 4: 30. When we've gone through that first slate, I usually find myself watching a Rams game.

Give me a fun fact.

Slow starts are the name of the game for the Rams. They ranked 31st in first quarter points per game. That's down from 10th a year before.

It's amazing because on paper, you would think they'd be good at that. You get this offensive genius who probably comes up with a scripted set of plays to start the game. You would think Sean McVay would be one the best in the league at scoring a lot of points at the beginning, but it did not happen last year.

It didn't. And part of that, he's got the coaching tree. I feel like half the league now, their head coaches have got some connection to McVay. So he's been putting out a lot of coaches everywhere, too.

All right, at 18, I'm going to go with the Dolphins. Hey, that's who I had next.

Look at us.

We really did an amazing job if it wasn't for your stupid Titans pick, we've been pretty good at putting things where they are. I have the Dolphins here. A couple of Enjoy watching Tua. He does scare me. I just don't want him to get hurt so much that it makes it hard. Mike McDaniel, I think I love to hate because I think he like- I love to love. Oh, you love Mike McDaniel?

You've mentioned all these quarterbacks, girlfriends, might leave their others for. My wife, if Mike McDaniel is- Your wife thinks Mike McDaniel is hot. It's not so much... It's that dorky, funny- He's not funny. He's like a teenager.

He's not funny at all.

I think he's pretty funny. Unintentionally funny.

Okay, I'll give you that. But I think he thinks he's intentionally funny.

Yeah, he looks like a kid that just played a bunch of Madden, and they picked him up and like, You're a head coach now.

No, he looks like a kid who puts out a rap song in middle school, and everyone laughs, and then he thinks he's a rapper. The way he dresses and all that, he's ridiculous. I don't know. It's like asocial, but then Also, at first I thought he was cool. Now you hear players whispering like, Okay, he's a little bit of a dork. So I don't know. The other thing that works against him is it always feels like there's only 14 to 15 people at the games there.

That hurts them.

It starts at one o'clock. Most of the crowd gets there at 2: 30, and the game is almost over. It just always seems to be really hot there. I'm sure it is. But Tua in and of himself is probably worth six or eight points.

Tirek, Waddle, they got some playmaking. 1: 00 PM in Miami is usually when people are leaving the club from the night before. That's why they're slow arrivers. With the McDaniel thing, I like not so much when he's trying hard, but there's bloopers of where he's walking in a stadium and the camera's following him and he'll just take off running, trying to outrun the camera or a little goopy things in press conferences. It can be a little bit of a try hard, but I like more of the unintentional- He is a try hard. That's a good way to put it. I like more of the unintentional comedy.

Right now, I know you've seen this, Drew, because we've talked about it before, but For those of you that have not ever seen it, take a minute, go Google Mike McDaniel's parents' wedding photo.

I'm going to do this right now. I don't think I've seen this.

You've not seen this? Everybody needs to do that. Mario, I want you to Google Mike McDaniel's parents' wedding photo. It's one of the great photos. It's one of those photos that shows how in America, anything could happen. Because you look at that family and you go, Can you imagine what that party was like? It's insane. The dad looks to be one of the... I will say His dad looks to be one of the coolest people I've ever seen.

The Afro. I like Mike McDaniel even more. I don't know how I've seen this before.

I mean, look at the dad. The dad is awesome. I just want to know what those two families talked about at the wedding. It feels like the table would have been very entertaining as you watch those two groups of people interact. Don't you think?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's hard to look at dad. Look at dad. Mario, pull dad up there. Look at dad right there. Does he not look like a fun dude? Put everything aside He's mad about his son. He looks like a fun dude.

Now that I've seen photos of his family, even higher on my list.

Does he go higher?

His swag is even higher.

It is a swaggy family. All right, tell me about fun fact.

Tua has been pretty good at throwing the ball. Over the last three years, he's been number one in success rate and number two in completion rate on all passes 15 yards down the field.

Fifteen yards down the field. See, if you told me that stat with the way If Tua played, I would think he's been like- One of the worst?

Yeah, I would have thought- Because of how fast he throws it out.

But what I'm saying is, if he is number one in the league, it passes over 15 yards, I would think he's a dominant player because in my mind, He runs so much, and the short pass is what he does well. It's amazing when you tell me that stat that he has not been played better than he has. You know what I mean? Because I would have thought his weakness.

That's mostly got to be, Tyreek Hill is running as far as fast as he can, and he's checking. I would say Tyreek was on the receiving end of many of those.

Probably right. Still, though, that's an amazing stat. All right, what's next?

Is this one you? No, it's you. Back to me. I'm staying in Florida. I'm going with Duval.

Okay.

I like the Cohen-Lawrence-Duval. There it is. I like the Cohen-Lawrence connection. I think that might work, even though this is a divisional rivalry for me. I think Lawrence might We have a little life left now that Cohen is his head coach. Then, of course, Travis Hunter, if he's really going to play both sides of the ball, anyone that watches football wants to see how this is going to work.

Liam Cohen, for those of you not in Kentucky land, get ready, because the Liam Cohen experience is, first of all, fun. I think he's a really good offensive coordinator. I think he's going to really... Listen, he revitalized Baker Mayfield's career with the Rams. He obviously took him to another level in Tampa Bay. He's the reason Will Levis got drafted in the NFL draft. Here's the thing about it. Whatever he says to you, then don't believe it. When this is a trend, there's nothing he could say that I love him, but I'm not going to believe a word he said. True story. When he took the Tampa Bay offensive coordinator's job, I put out a tweet where I was quoting a guy in Tampa Bay that said Liam Cohen was the leading candidate. I tweet out, Liam Cohen is the leading candidate for the Tampa Bay offensive coordinator job. He calls me up and he goes, Where did you hear that? That's crazy. That's not true. I went, I mean, it was a guy in Tampa. He was like, Well, it's not true. I don't know why he put that out. Thirty minutes later, it was announced he was taking the offensive coordinator job.

He literally... I mean, it's like, Do you think I'm not going to exist 30 minutes from now? What is the point of line to me for 30 minutes?

I think his old boss in Lexington got a little bit of a surprise on that exit, too. Are you all going to put those pieces together.

Why the 30 minutes? It was like, man, you could have just ignored it. But anyway, I like Liam Cohen. I'm pulling for Duval. Then you have- You're really good at that. Then you have Josh Allen there, our Josh Allen. But I do not think he's the biggest truth teller in the world.

There's some laxing stories to back that up, too. But he is a good offensive coach, and the Travis Hunter is the real reason they're where they are on my list.

All right, I'm going to go next. This would be at... Oh, first of all, tell me Jacksonville fact.

This sentence has no other context along with it. Trevor Lawrence is one of the most sensitive quarterbacks to pressure over the last two years.

So they mean feelings?

Yeah. I'm not sure. It's ambiguous, according to Warren.

Yeah, I want to assume that that, Warren is not talking about football. Just in life, if he faces a pressure-filled situation- A little sensitive. He gets a little sensitive. His wife is like, I need you to make a decision. Where are we sending our kids? Are we going to private school or public school? Trevor's line is just like, This is too much.

Don't put this pressure on me.

This is too much.

Don't cry. You're going to make...

It's going to be like, It's coming out. You know not to do this to me. Please, stop. That's what I would assume it's like.

It's like it was a great Trevor Lawrence impersonation.

I Sensitive Trevor.

This is my birthday.

Read the line again. All pressure? What pressure?

No, he's just sensitive to pressure.

He's just sensitive to pressure.

That's all it says? He's just sensitive to pressure?

No other content.

I took it as it might be physical touch. Can't sit through a deep tissue massage.

You mean literal pressure? I do like that. Lauren Sharp. I'm going to think about that all year. When things happen with Trevor Lawrence, I'm going to be like, The dude, sensitive.

If he's going to the trainer's table, be careful.

Be careful with him. Hey. Hey. Liam, be nice. Things are hard. All right. The reason I had the Giants at 20th, Me, too. Did you really? Yeah. I think it's fun. I think the Giants are fun. First of all, again, sad. The sights of the Giants fans. When I watch a Giants game, the camera will pan to somebody. He'll just be shaking his head. He's just very angry. As anybody from New York knows, getting to Giants Stadium is a Herculean feat. You can see on their face, they're like, I came all the way out here, and this is what we're going to do. Now you throw into that the Russell Wilson experience, which Russell Wilson, Giants fans, that's not going to work. Then Jackson Dart being sitting there right behind them, the fans wanting to play. I think the Giants are going to be entertaining to watch just for the anger purposes.

How did you mention the craziness in that room? Didn't say Jamis. I mean, what a- That's true. Even with the Browns in the conversation, there's no wilder QB room than what they have in New York. I don't think it's going to be a good year for them. Between the Jets and Giants, MetLife, probably not going to get a lot of wins this year, but watchable just because of the division they're in with a lot of good teams and what chaos can come out of that quarterback room.

Also, no game goes by where they don't mention Michael Strahan. I think, by the way, can be on fewer shows. Michael Strahan seems like a good guy to me, but I don't know, he needs to be on everything. There comes a point where you go, Okay, I got my Strahan fix. I think I'm good.

Good TV host. We don't need him on every channel.

He doesn't have to be on every channel all the time. Give me a Giants back.

The Giants haven't had a 10-win season since 2016.

It's been that long?

Wow. That's wild. So they haven't won 10 games since 2016.

Almost a decade.

One compliment to them. I think Abdel Carter is going to be one of those dudes, one of those elite guys.

I completely agree with you. All right, you're up next.

I went with the San Francisco 49ers here. Horrible year last year.

For a good team, this is very low. They were in the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. They were in the Super Bowl two years ago, and then you got them at 21st. And with an offense with a coach, it's pretty exciting. By the way, I have them this low, too, but it's crazy.

Yeah, last year was weird with a lot of injuries. I mean, you go from being in the Super Bowl to where they went like four or five games. A horrible year. So the interest is just, will they rebound? Maybe it's because they're the West Coast, that 4: 30 slot. I don't focus on those teams as much as I do, the East Coast, the one-clock games, so I don't feel a connection to watch them.

In my mind, they're still playing on a baseball stadium. I know they don't, but I feel like they do.

But this year, especially, I want see if they've really fallen off or if that was a blip last year and they can put it back together.

I'm heavily invested in Brock Purdy being overrated. They gave him all that money. I think that's a mistake. So part of me, I'm going to be rooting against him, which is not fair. Brock Purdy has never done anything to me. But I've just been big on the Brock Purdy is a fluke. Sometimes you just take an opinion so strongly, you have to hang on to it. So I'm going to be actively rooting against them in all the games. Everyone gets hurt for them, though. They just stay hurt every year. Just everyone's hurt all the time.

I have a soft spot for Brock Purdy because when he did lead them a couple of years ago, every game, they'd do a graphic of what people were getting paid. It was just all these multimillionaires and like, Brock Purdy, 17 bucks in an Uber ride home. That's what we're paying him.

Brock Purdy pays us.

He criminally underpaid that year where he was so good.

Listen, Brock, this isn't anything personal. I just want you to fail because in a continued The argument I have with people, I need to say they shouldn't have given him that money. Give me a 49ers fact.

Speaking of money, the 49ers are one of two teams, along with the Eagles, to have seven players making at least $19 million each. Brock Purdy, Bosa, Iuk, Trent Williams, Fred Werner, George Kittle, and CMC.

Christian McCaff.

Did you know him personally?

Did you know what CMC? That was a weird thing to call him.

Oh, it's his nickname.

You know what boys? Do it? Run CMC?

Yeah, Exactly.

You didn't know who that was, right? You just read the... That's what Warren Sharp said?

No, that's what I wrote down as an abbreviated, Christian McCaffrey, CMC.

That's what Billy calls it. We went full names for every player. Then you're like, I'm a boy CMC.

I feel like nick Bosa, he should tell us what he thinks about things. I feel like I don't know. I just feel like I don't really know his stances, and I'm curious. Do you know why he keeps him so close to the vest?

I'm not sure. He should share more.

You should let us know, Because right now, at this point, I think we're not sure. I'm going to go next here at 22 with the Seahawks. I think I just like it because I feel like they're always showing somebody pounding on a drum. I enjoy them. They added green to the colors. That was a good addition.

Oh, they do have a good color scheme.

They do have a good color scheme. They always tell me that the crowd is the 12th man. It feels like to me, their crowd is similar to everywhere else, but I keep getting told that it's good. I know Geno Smith doesn't play for him anymore, but I like that they replace Geno Smith with what is basically just another version of Geno Smith with Sam Darnold. I like the idea of we're just going to just keep doing that thing. But usually the Seahawks are good for a one interesting late afternoon game, so I'll put the Seahawks here because we're getting into bad territory.

Yeah, I mean, some of these games, it's really a struggle. The Seahawks need some branding right now. They had the fun, even with Russell, who's a little bit corny, but B-Smo with Marshawn for a while. That's fine. They've always had the secondary- D-K? D-k, the secondary Legion of Boom there for a while. I don't really know what they're selling. Maybe they're selling the 12th Man, but they need to get some of that back, some star power, or just bring back those awesome uniforms from the early '90s before they added the neon green?

I've said this before in other places, but when I was a kid, ESPN got Sunday Night Football. When ESPN got Sunday Night Football, they did a new commercial to get you to watch it. Paul Maguire was the color announcement for it. They created a song. I remember no words of the song, except one of the lines was, there was a guy on the Seahawks named Cortez Kennedy. In the song, I remember the line was something like, if you don't watch ESPN Sunday Night Football, they go, Mr. Cortez Kennedy will find your house. They showed him walking up to your door in a Seahawks uniform. I was a little scared as a child.

A little traumatized from that?

I was a little scared because Cortez Kennedy was a big guy. Since I didn't watch the Seahawks, I didn't really know who he was. Now, fast forward 30 years later, I still sometimes will say, Mr. Cortez Kennedy will find your house. I bet somebody can find that audio. The NFL's got it in their archive somewhere. I still stick with the Seahawks. It stays in my mind that.

If not Cortez Kennedy, right now, if you were sending home the doorbell ring, which NFL player would you want to be at the door the most?

That's a good question.

That's a good question.

Nfl player that I would... Well, I'd want probably Jason Kelsi. I feel like he would be fun. Great answer. I feel like he'd be fun. I feel like he'd be cool to talk to, wouldn't be intimidating. It seems like he'd accept me for who I am without judging.

He'd bring his own beard.

Yeah. I think Jason kill. The other thing, when I went to law school, there's a guy named Teddy Werner, who's now CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers, but he went to law with me. I always found it interesting. His favorite player was Steve Largent, and he was very wealthy, dressed very well, handsome, smart, but he would wear a Steve Largent jersey to law school class all the time. I just found that so weird. We're at Duke Law School, my man's walking in a Steve Largent jersey all the time. Those are the two things I know about this.

That was a great breakdown of Seattle this year.

Who's next? What's the You want a fact?

Yeah, sure.

On top of all those facts we just did, there's more? I got more.

We talked about Sam Darnold, how he needs time, right? He does. Well, Warner Sharpe's 2025 rankings for Seattle by position. He has their offensive line 30 death.

So he needs a lot of time, and they don't have a good time. Correct. Interesting. See, you actually combine facts there. You took Warren.

I went a little above and beyond.

I was like, Warren and Billy molded into one fact. I feel like Phil is filling himself now on these facts. All right, what's next? 23.

23. I don't love this pick here, but that's the territory in. I went with the Raiders. That's who I had. I'm interested in the Denti experience. And just the Vegas games can be fun because they got the little club there. You I mentioned Miami. In Vegas, they really haven't been to bed yet when they're at their games. Just the whole Vegas experience and the curiosity and the rookie running back is why I have them here.

Another great stadium for people dressing up. Although the Raider Nation, they're wearing spikes Again, how does that get through security? I've never totally understood. Love that Pete Carroll's there. That's what I'm excited about. 73 years old. We'll headbut you. He's so excited all the time. But in a way, I don't find annoying. Everything that... Once you get past a certain age, sometimes people slow down. I don't question that. I think Pete Carroll could beat me up right now. I'm going to watch the Raiders. Love the color scheme, love the fans, love Pete Carroll. As far as the players, Bob Bauer's really good. Be interested to see what happens to Ashton Genti, but otherwise, who cares?

Some young pieces on offense to go with Gino there. I love Vegas, and it's fun watching them, but I do I feel like the Raiders shouldn't have been the team there. They don't carry that Raiders brand like they used to. It's a little more flashy, and look at our Vegas strip now, when they used to be the big intimidating team.

Yeah, it does feel a little not exactly what they should be. But I'm excited to have them. The Raiders are relatively interesting. I will go right here. Fact. I always have to remind me. Go ahead.

Warren Sharp has dove into rest advantage and disadvantage, and the Raiders have the number one largest net rest disadvantage this year at minus 19 days.

How do they compute that?

When you have a game on Thursday night football, and then you've got to turn it around, the shorter days of rest.

The other team will have 19 more days of rest than they will. Yeah, I've heard people say that that's very important. I think where it plays in a lot is when a team plays on Monday night, then versus Sunday or even Sunday versus a Thursday, etc. Interesting.

Riders also have the problem. This happens in Nashville a lot, but you're in that stadium, you look up, and it's mostly the away team because it's such a destination city. Who wouldn't want to go watch their NFL team in Las Vegas? That's the problem, yeah. So they always have a great turnout from the opponent.

Well, another team that has that same problem, which I'm going to say is the Cardinals. I'm putting them next. The reason I'm putting them next, they're always involved in shootouts. They seem to pull upsets. And then Kyler Murray, assuming he's healthy at any given moment, fun to watch. He's just like a little big guy. He just runs around with his little big hands. He throws it. And it's very fun to watch him be little bitty. I think he's exciting, even though he sometimes does done things. It It ever feels like to me his helmet fits, though. Have you ever noticed it goes down over his eyes? It feels like a lie. I think they could do one change to make him a better quarterback. Just get him one smaller size on the helmet because it's He's a little big, I think.

There's nobody that's more fun to watch Scramble than Kyler Murray. He just keeps going backwards and making defensive linemen trip over their own feet. This year, I think he'd probably have his best offense that he's had since he's been there. If Murray's ever going to work and really take him to another level, this might be the year he can do it.

Have you seen the picture of Marvin Harrison? He looks like Batista. I mean, he's gotten huge. He's ripped. You know how D. K. Metcalf used to look? That's how he looks now. I don't know if that's going to make him good, but he's ripped.

When I said the offense has gotten better, I actually had that image of Marvin Harrison Jr. In my head. He's going to be a big piece in that.

Give me a fact.

The head coach, Jonathan Gannon, is in his third year. He was the defensive coordinator for the Eagles before he was a head coach. Last year, their defense was 27th. Their first year with Gannon, they were 32nd.

So it got worse.

It got a little bit better, but if defense is his calling card- Last year, they were 27th.

Is his calling card- 30 seconds. I got you. He hasn't been Is he related to Rich Gannon?

I don't know. I don't know that.

It doesn't matter if he is. I just was curious. All right, so you're next. What do we got?

I have maybe, again, Maybe the worst team. I got three teams I think are going to be the worst, but I have the Saints here. Just out of cure.

How could you not have the Saints as the most boring team?

Well, they are boring, but I think that's why I want to watch them. I mean, they named Spencer Rattler, their starting quarterback.

Rattler?

Tyler Shuck, when they made that draft pick, we're like, Is this really the answer? I think we're going to learn that they are going to continue to suck. It's more of, I just want to see how this Spencer Rattler experiment is going to work out when they could have done better in the draft.

I had them last. The reason I had them last is, first of all, always so dark in that state. I don't know why they don't turn more lights on. It feels like it is always so dark in there. That's part of it. They'll do a shot from one of the end zones. You can't even They need the other end zone. I mean, it's so... They just need light. Then I don't think there's ever been an NFL team where I know less players than I do the Saints. I don't know anyone on that team. I mean, who is on the team? Alvin Khabar. I think he still is, right? He is, yeah. And then who?

Chris Olave.

Yeah, got Chris.

Okay, he's still on the team.

He's got Spencer Rattler throwing to him. Should be a great year for him.

The fact that you have Tyler Shuck and Spencer Rattler as your two choices. That's my point. They're going to be off.

I left out the second part of my point. If Arch Manning actually looks good this year, it's going to be a tank, watch for Arch thing with them in the number one pick next year.

But do we know Arch is good?

No, I don't think he'll be that. But if he does live up to the billing, there will be a lot of Saints tanking to get the number one pick.

Give me a Saints fact.

The Saints defense may not be good, but they're ranked number one in generating offensive holds. In fact, it's the third straight year they've been in the top three.

See, these are the stats that are just too deep for me. Who created the hold and range them?

They're first in generating offensive holds, which I would just write off as being random. But then you tell me they've been in the top three for three straight years. That can't be random. So they must... I guess their defense is such that maybe they are quick twitch.

Cameron Jordan gets held all the time.

Or they teach them to grab the hands and sell it. You might teach them to sell it a little bit.

Interesting. I'm going to be watching for that this year, thanks to you and Warren. How many holds do they draw? That was an interesting fact. I guess I'm on up next. I'm going to go the Patriots. I hate the Patriots, mostly because of Bill Simmons. When I was growing up, my friend Trevor liked Washington, and I hated Washington, even though I love Trevor, because I was like, I don't want Trevor to be happy, which you would think with your friend. You're not in sports. I just didn't want be happy. So I wanted them to lose for them. I feel that way about Bill Simmons. Not my friend. Only met him once. Actually, haven't met him at all. Talked to him one time, and I listened to almost everything he does. But he's so annoying about the Patriots that I want them to lose every game When they lose a big game, I just keep refreshing the podcast feed, waiting to mock him. I don't want them to be good. I don't like Drake May. I don't like the uniforms. People from Boston, Boston sports fans, are usually arrogant, and so I'm anti-Patriots, but they might be better, and that's why I don't have them last.

I had them next here, too. I also don't like the Patriots. You know too many people that latched on to that dynasty that pretend they're lifelong Patriots fans. I'm like, You're from Western Kentucky. Why do you like the Patriots? However, I have a connection to the Patriots. What is that? My Peloton username is Bike Vrabel. Big a Vrabel guy. I didn't want him to leave Nashville, and I want him to be happy. So even though I don't like the Patriots, I want my guy Vrabel to have a good career.

Let's go back to Bike Vrabel. I'm going to guess. Just let me guess. I'm going to guess you got on Peloton during COVID, right?

Yeah, when we were hot.

And do you have a Peloton?

Still do. I'm still bike Vrabel.

Did you have it before COVID?

No.

So you're one of those people that made the stock shoot up. Yeah. All right. You're a clever guy. You like puns. How long did it take you to come up with bike-braving?

Well, Biko Kid Gilchrist was too long. That was my first pick. Like I said, the Titans were hot in that era, short there. One thing that's interesting about it is, I don't know if you're all Peloton, but you can high five just strangers, like go get them. There are a lot of people who I think I'm Mike Vrabel because I have his picture also as my picture. It was more so when it was Titans, but I get a lot of like, tighten up, go get them, coach. I just want to be like, no, it's just my username, Mike Vrabel.

You're doing like stolen valor? A little bit on the bike.

For Mike Vrabel. I've actually never confessed this to anyone, but yeah, I'm Mike Vrabel on there for my guy Mike.

Do people still do Peloton? I know that was huge, but I don't even mind talking about it anymore.

It's been about a year and a half for me. They have a lot of other stuff on there. I use stretches.

You stretch on it?

Yeah. Isn't it a bike? Not on the bike. Once you're a Peloton member, I can pull it up on TV.

You could stretch on your own, right?

I am, but I like fit people to tell me I'm doing it, and I can just watch them, and I'm like, Well, he has an app.

I remember on TikTok, there was a woman who got They talk famous. She was, I think, an instructor, right? She'd be facing you, and she was very attractive. She'd go, Go. You can do this. Yeah. Then she'd be dancing and all this. I wasn't riding a bike, but she had me just moving in my chair.

She works for ESPN now. Really? Jen, I think is her name.

Jen what?

Sims. The Peloton instructors are like, they all became their own little celebrities over time. Really? Yeah.

Well, good for her. I haven't seen her riding on the Peloton on TikTok, but I was going to buy a Peloton during that period. Glad I just didn't because I thought, you know what? A month later, I won't do it.

I don't regret it, but I probably need to get back on it. It's been a while. Got to get the clothes off of it.

All right, you're next. First of all, what's the Patriots fact?

Could be a good year for Vrabel. The Patriots have the easiest schedule in the AFC and the second easiest in the NFL this year.

They do have a very easy schedule. The 49ers, who we talked about earlier, I think have the easiest schedule. I believe so. But the Patriots schedule it. If they're decent, they could end up making the playoffs. All right, what's next? We have six more. This would be, I guess, what? 27?

27. I am going to Atlanta for the sophomore Michael Pennix experience. I feel like Atlanta hadn't been good in a long time, and maybe he's given them a little bit of faith. They had some explosive games a year ago. Basically, with what's left on the board, I would turn to Atlanta if I'm watching a game.

I haven't been really interested in an Atlanta game since Michael Vick or the Dirty Bird dance. The thing about the Falcons, for me, only means one thing. Chris Myers is going to be on my screen. Fox's Chris Myers only calls NFC South games. Really, I think he only calls Falcons games. I've listened to him say, Welcome back to Atlanta, 13: 10, three minutes to go. Panthers have the ball. I think that's happened 83 times in the last four years. I'm interested with Michael Pennex because he's so old as a second-year player, and people forget him in that draft class. But this is about where I would have put him. I might have even put him lower. Billy, give me a It's crazy.

Before the season last year, they signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal. It's crazy.

He's still on the team. After they take his job, he's still on the team.

Including $100 million guaranteed. That's pretty good. He went seven and seven and was benched to Michael Pennex, who they drafted with the eighth overall pick.

Yeah. That's your fact?

Yeah, that was it for Atlanta.

They weren't take Atlanta off?

Well, it was more just like, wow, that decision still.

I'll give you one. They haven't won more than eight games since 2017.

Wow. So like the Cowboys and the Giants with those crazy stats. And the NFC hasn't even been great, you would think it would happen. I guess I'll go next. I'll take the Jets. Again, part of the reason I picked them, like with some other teams, sadness. And then there's guys who have the firemen. There's people that they play roles.

It's like-They're their own celebrities at these games.

The Jets are like the village people of football. They have the Jets plumber, you have the Jets fireman. I am excited. I like Justin Fields. I got a soft spot in my heart for Justin Fields because he was in Chicago. I want to see him do well. Then that defense is really good. Their defense is awesome. I do have to assume that when they hold teams to 50 yards, they have to be so angry at the offense. I would love to be in the locker room when the Jets defense is just furious at the offensive guys.

I do love some sauce, Garner, one of the better personalities in the league. But if you're watching the Jets this year, you're probably just checking on fields. They're not going to be good. Might win four or five.

Their defense is good. I think they win seven or eight. I think they're going to surprise you. Because I think Justin Fields isn't as bad as people think, and I think that defense is great.

Their schedule, though, is not doing them any favors in that division in some of the other games they have.

I don't know what the over-under is, but assuming it's probably five and a half or something like that, I'm going to take the over. Give me a Jets fact.

We've been talking streaks. The Giants were the one that haven't had a 10-win season since 2016. It's the Jets that haven't had a winning season since 2015.

And Sab, I want good things for them. The secondary teams in New York, I always feel bad for. The Jets. The Mets. The Mets. The Nets. I don't know how to say all rhyme. The Jets, the Mets, the Nets, the Islanders. I always feel sorry for those people because it feels like the Devils, they're also, I guess that's the New Jersey Devils. I feel like those people, they always have to look at Big Brother being rude to them. I feel some sympathy.

I do, too. I know some of it's just where you grew up in New York, but you also had an opportunity to pick one of the other ones, and no one was going to say anything. If you're from New York and you like the Yankees, no one's going to call you out. But it's like you chose that existence.

I think some of it is kids-like rimes.

That could be it. A little easier to teach the kids the teams.

Jets, nets, nets. It's easy. But when you go rangers, nicks, It gets harder.

That's got to be it. That's the reason. Yankees.

Yankees, yeah. All right, you're next.

I have the Houston Texans next. What is this?

We're at 29. The Texans are legitimately good, and they are so boring that even though they're legitimately good and have a quarterback that, if we did this last year, would have been ranked as a top 5-7 quarterback, we have them at 29. And by the way, I'm not saying you're wrong, I had them at 28.

I won a playoff game last year and gave the Chiefs a good fight, if I'm not mistaken, in the second round. But they're just... I mean, they're the Houston Texans. They're boring. They're in the AFC South. Stroud's good, and they are a good team. They're going to run away with the South easily this year. But if a Texans game on, it's one of the teams I'm watching the least.

I'm going to sit here and think. I don't want to speak too quickly. But Mario, I think I'm going to say, I don't think I've ever watched a Texans game in my entire life.

Oh, come on. Those playoff games with Sook Yee.

No, because they're always on Saturday at one o'clock, and I'm doing something. I don't know. I like Aaron Fogg Buster, at least when he's on podcast.

Yeah, he's been gone a while.

David Carr next time of the list. I just think he played there right now.

Jj Watts gone, too.

Can you all think of one Houston Texans moment.

Andre Johnson fighting Courtland Finnegan.

All about related to the Titans. Well, winning the playoff game last year was a pretty big deal.

That was two years ago, wasn't it?

Didn't they win last year, too?

Let's see.

But you're probably... We should know this.

Regardless, the Texans, even in the playoffs, isn't something I would have thought of a few years ago until they got strowed.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever seen them play. I've never met a Texans fan.

That's for sure.

Beat the Chargers, then lost to the Chiefs. Yeah.

Well... Oh, no, I do remember the Chiefs game. They got in a fight. I did actually... They kept that close. So I take that back. The first ever Texans game I watched was last year. The divisional play. A divisional Playoffs against the Chiefs. I do vaguely remember that game. Give me a- They are going to have a good record again because that division is so bad. Give me a Texan fact.

Yeah, despite all that success, their offense ranked 29th in overall efficiency.

Really? Yeah. They won a playoff game 29th. Yeah, C. J. Stroud had a big regression year. It'll be interesting. When guys have a good rookie year and a bad second year, the third year usually decides their career, if you look historically. It'll be interesting to see what they do. I'm going to go 30th. I'm going to take Panthers. Sneakily, if you're like me and you are a Chris Meyer Stan, you would have known that the Panthers were fun at the end of the year last year. Bryce Young is good. Xavier Lagret. They They beat up on some teams towards the end of the year. I think Bryce Young, I don't know if he's good, but I think he's better than probably the average football fan realizes because you rode off his career and then he came back last year after he won the job back. So yeah, I'm in on the Panthers. Thirtieth is obviously pretty low. I'm not that in on them, but I think they'll have their moments.

I went to a real-life Panthers game shortly after he was picked. It was one of his first games, and it was hard to watch. I was like, This guy has no business being a starting quarterback. Can't believe he was the number one pick. This is a horrible experiment. But then last year, as you said, he turned it on, and they've got some optimism around him. Right now, they just lost Thielen back to to Minnesota, but they've got one of my favorite people in the entire league, Xavier Laguette in that accent. I actually wanted that to work out, really just for Xavier Laguette.

The problem with the Panthers is Charlotte is basically just one big bank, and their stadium is a bank, too. If you've ever been in Charlotte? I lived in Charlotte one summer. It's a very sterile city, and it feels like everything is a Bank of America lobby. That's how I feel like their stadium is, too. But other than I also don't like their logo.

But other than that. Yeah.

That's why they're 30. They're not the worst, though.

Yeah, they're third to worst.

They're third to worst. Give me a fact.

My fact is about Bryce Young in his finish. Over the final 10 weeks, he threw 15 touchdowns to six interceptions and had multiple touchdown passes in each of the season's final three games. See?

Might be good. Might be fun to watch them. I think they open with the Jaguars in a game that before I Even in that, I knew... You're going to talk about a game I knew Chris Myers was going to be hard. When I saw Panthers, Jaguars, I knew it was Chris Myers. And then Fox released it a couple of weeks ago. It was Chris Myers. That game was made for him. What's next? You're getting to decide here what team is not coming in last. So go. Two choices.

I mean, I've already made my decision without knowing how this is playing out. I got to go by what I have written down, and I have next, the Chargers.

All right, Chargers.

What can I say about the Chargers?

I have zero faith. There is no one in America that can prove they're a Chargers fan.

I remember the COVID draft year where they would do a Zoom and they'd have fans at home, and the Chargers came up and they just had helmets because no one would even get on that Zoom. Remember, they would have 15 fans in their living room.

Nobody was there.

Then they're like, Chargers, we didn't really get anybody.

I think they had just moved.

They had that one woman, I think, that went... I think she went viral that night because she was the one.

Yeah, she was the one Chargers fan. They do have Jim Harbaugh.

They might be good.

They might be really good. I was listening to some podcast that had them as the number five team in the NFL, and we have them at 31. It could be the case that Chargers in the AFC Championship game, and we feel stupid with it, especially with you having the Titans at number five.

All right, bears at number six. Let's slow down on getting them in the Championship game. But there is potential with Harbaugh and Justin Hervé. I liked in the preseason, Harbaugh was out tailgating with the fans. He's at least trying to find fans and bring them into games.

So they're doing their best. Yeah, those people are worried at the game.

But Antonio Gates and Lydian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers are walking to that point.

Those people were eating in a restaurant across the street, and he said, I'll give you $50 if you come stand next to my car and act like you're going to this game.

Please come watch my team.

Yeah. I can't act like I care. I do like their cool uniform. I think the color of the uniforms is nice. I like when they wear throwbacks. They're very rarely on television. It feels like Sunday night football against the Chiefs once a year is usually when I see them play, but they could be good. Justin Herbert is legitimately really good. He needs one big win. I think he gets it this year, but I can't put him higher than 31.

They won the Hall of Fame game a few weeks ago, beating the Lions, gets you a little fired up about the Chargers.

It's always weird that they play that game. It's always in early July.

Now, it's just an extra game, and since they show it in the preseason.

What do you got?

Well, Warren Sharp agrees with you. He says the Chargers don't have a home field advantage. So every game is either an away game or a neutral game.

No, he's right. They have the least home field advantage of anyone because when the other AFC West teams play, they invade their stadium. When the Chiefs and Broncos especially play, there are many more Chiefs and Broncos fans. And then you have people, you mentioned this about Nashville and Vegas. There's people who say, Hey, I want to go to LA. This is a good chance to go to LA.

And tickets will be cheap because it's the chargers.

That's exactly right. That's the way it goes. All right, that means last place. The most boring team to watch in the NFL, the Indianapolis Girls. Don't disagree. The other team, Stadium's Too Dark. By the way, they were next to last on mine. Stadium's Too Dark. The one thing that was interesting is, in what way will Anthony Richardson fail this Now you get Daniel Jones. I mean, if you were to look up poor guy, not if you look up poor guy, but if you were to look up boring- I don't think he's very poor. If you look up boring quarterback, you're going to see Daniel Jones. He went to Duke, wore goggles when he was in high school. He is the cult, right? Game's always at one o'clock. It feels like most of the time they're playing the Titans.

And they won 17 in a row against the Titans.

Yes. It is It's just not interesting. Every game is 17, 14. I can't think of anything that would make me want to tune into a Colts game. They're only a couple of hours from where we are, and I never have once thought about going to a game.

Well, I hate their stadium for Kentucky basketball final four reasons. But the Colts are what I have as a rivalry in the NFL. As you mentioned, they play the Titans a lot, had their number for many years, so I genuinely hate them. I have an actual hatred for the Colts. However, right now, I feel a little bit bad for them that just two years ago, they had a top five pick, had several options. We're about to get our quarterback from the future. You blink, you wake up, and Daniel Jones is your starting quarterback for the year. How did that happen in the span of a year and a half? But it happened to them. I want the worst for them, but this might actually be too far for them.

It's interesting. You said that you hate them because they're your rival. I think if the nfl. Com were to do a piece, best rival is in the NFL.

It'd be low on the list.

Last place would be Colts, Titans. I wouldn't have even thought you were a rival. You're not even that close to each other geographically.

There was a time when in the AFC South, those two were good and the Jaguars sucked, and the Texans were getting started.

But Billy, do you agree with me in terms of rivalries?

Near the bottom, yeah.

I don't think the Colts would even claim us.

That would be like somebody that goes to Colorado State going, We have a huge rivalry with Wyoming. You don't understand.

Not even the Colorado game.

You don't even understand how important that game is. That's what I would feel with that one.

What do you think is the best? It's the old Kerry Collins, Payton Manning showdowns.

In the NFL, the best? Historically, the best is Bear's Packers, but recently, Stealers Ravens.

Stealers Ravens, that late Thanksgiving game.

Yeah, Stealers Ravens, I think, recently has produced the best games. Historically, I think most people would probably say Bear's Packers. But yeah, I make it a point to watch every Stealers Ravens game.

I have one. I mentioned I used to go to Chief games a lot. The Chiefs Raiders, it's dogged down a little bit, but back when they were both really good, it was nasty and arrowhead when the Raiders were in town.

In its heyday, Cowboys' Eagles, Cowboys' Giants, Cowboys' Command.

Cowboys' Niners had a good run.

In their heyday. But for me in the NFL now, the only games that I'm like, I got to see because these rivals are fun to watch each other is Steelers and Ravens. What's your fact?

It's been rough over the last two seasons with Anthony Richardson. Out of 55 eligible quarterbacks, Richardson was last in accuracy, last in completion rate, and 50 out of 55 in TD interception ratio.

If only someone could have seen that coming with the fact that he also wasn't good in college, and he also wasn't good in high school.

My favorite is, Kentucky beat Florida, and after the game, a Kentucky defensive back, tweeted, Heisman? That boy Hot Dog Water is what he said about Anthony Richardson. I don't even know what that means. But that was his takeaway after the game.

Hot dog water is a mean thing to say. Well, I hope everybody enjoyed first episode of NFL Cover Zero. What did you think of Warren Sharpe's preview?

Impressed. Very analytical deep dive.

Is that worth $74?

Oh, yeah. 100% has my recommendation.

Well, good. If it has Billy's, then you're ready. Thank you all very much for listening. Click on the little subscribe button, especially for those of you that are in areas that you don't know us. Tell a friend about it, or just recommend it to one person. We'd appreciate it. We will be back next week. We will preview week one, and hopefully have a guest for you. This has been NFL Cover Zero. Nfl Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin is a production of the NFL and iHeart podcast. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

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