Rodgers ‘bought in’ with Steelers, Rashee Rice suspension & Chiefs future | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Rodgers ‘bought in’ with Steelers, Rashee Rice suspension & Chiefs future | FIRST THINGS FIRST

But we’re starting with the Chiefs. Uh yesterday we discussed the legal ramifications of Rashid Rice’s sentence. Today we’re looking at the onfield ramifications. Uh and for what looks to be an impending suspension. We don’t know what it’s going to be. Um but we assume it’s going to affect the start of the season. Here’s the Chiefs schedule. I assume, right? Yeah, of course. For sure. I assume they’re going to get it done before the Chargers game. Charge Eagles, Giants, Ravens. If it was for if it went a little bit longer, he’d miss out on uh the Prince and the Lions. The Lions. So, uh Nick, how do you think his sentence and impending suspension will impact the Chiefs? Yeah. And so, if people didn’t see yesterday, and Wild alluded to it, we talked about like the serious part of this and not football. So, today we’re going to focus on the football part of it. Uh, I I still think if the Chiefs don’t suffer any significant training camp injuries, they will enter this year with as strong, if not stronger receiving core than they entered last year because last year Xavier Worthy was, you know, in the very I know he had a good week one game actually against Baltimore, but he was a rookie. Uh, Hollywood had gotten hurt. Kelsey wasn’t fully right in the beginning of the year and so all of that they did have Rasheed but then they quickly thereafter lost him. So I think that they it will not be as jarring for Mahomes as I think it would be for maybe some other quarterbacks because last year they were so underman throughout. The real question is going to be is Xavier Worthy going to follow the exact Rasheed Rice trajectory from year 1 to year two because he did follow it in year one. Here’s their Rashid Rice and Xavier Worthy after week 10 through the Super Bowl. What both of them did and then so they, you know, they’re both around seven touches a game, almost the exact same yards per game. Xavier had more touchdowns. A couple of those were rushing. They weren’t using Rasheed in that capacity. And then how did Rasheed look at the beginning of his sophomore year? He was through three weeks as productive as any receiver in football. He then of course suffered the injury in the Charger game. and we haven’t seen him since. If and I know we you poke fun at the end of the Super Bowl and I understand that, but Xavier Worthy’s performance in that playoff run, most notably in the Super Bowl as a whole and I know he caught the long bomb when the game was out of reach. If that is the path that he’s on, then they’ll be fine. He and Hollywood, you know what I mean, are fine. And then Rasheed comes back whenever he comes back as the best receiver on the team. And then for the first time in a couple years, Brew, the Chiefs actually have a plus receiving core. Without Z Rashi, I think they will just have an average receiving core. They’ll be fine. I They’ll be totally fine. All right. And and on many shows, I would be the Chiefs guy. He’s from Kansas. I’m just saying like I’m gonna sound like I’m singing their praises because I really do like and respect the Chiefs. Obviously, I love Momes, but you know, that’s Nick’s block, and that’s fine. Um, they’re going to be fine. Last year, their best receiver, Rasheed, missed what, 13 games? Yeah. Their second best receiver, Hollywood Brown, missed 15 games. Their rookie receiver, who was so small that he was kind of sort of a project just cuz he’s so small, you know what I mean? even though he’s he’s got blazing speed and he was very good as a rookie and they still went 15 and two with an offensive line that was a bit shaky with their best running back missing half the season Isaiah Pacheco. So now I think their offensive line will be better. I know they lost Tony but you know they got the guy from San Francisco Brown and and and they think that more Jaylen Moore but and they think Josh Simmons is going to start at left tackle. Yep. Yeah. I mean their first round pick. So they Yeah, I think they could have upgraded the offensive line. I agree with you that the receivers Worthy I do think he’s going to take a step cuz he just got progressively better as the season went on. He’ll be better. The running game will be, you know, fine. And yeah, I I I just think that they’re going to be fine. And then will he I think he’ll get probably four. I don’t think he’ll get more than six. Maybe he will, but I don’t think he more six. Now the the schedule’s tough. That’s what I thought you It’s always tough for them, but it really starts frontloaded. I don’t know if we can pull up the schedule again. Like four of the six are are really tough and so I the I think I would be very surprised if he got fewer than four and I would be very surprised if he got more than eight. What is tough for Kansas City is the pre-by is so much in my opinion harder than postby. Now the Bills game is the ninth game. So you don’t they lose that game every year anyway. Um but the Ravens your toughest non-ivisional games are Eagles, Ravens, Lions and those are all in the window when you expect certainly Ravens Eagles him to be suspended and Lions maybe for him to be suspended. What is I and we joke around about it, but you don’t. Can you put it back up, Dus? Sorry. Just to make it easier. I You’re not going to I assume you’re not going to predict the Chiefs to go undefeated, but it’s fun. It’s the same reason why I know the Patriots aren’t going undefeated. Be like, this week I I see it. Yeah. What is if you take off your kind of like Chiefs hat? What is the worstc case scenario before the buy? Worst case scenario before the buy. Five and four. Okay. Broody is that that’s the worst case scenario. Ravens. Yeah. I mean, you lose Eagles, Ravens, Lions, Bills, Commanders, Bill. And I I mean, I don’t see I understand, but you know what I mean? Like Can I paint one? The Chargers game is in Brazil. So, it’s like it’s just it’s the first game of the year. It you’re in a new place. It’s almost like for the Chargers is huge. like you know you know Harball and if not there I could see that one obviously the Eagles the Giants should be a win the Ravens yes the prince a lot of people think all of but but hold on but don’t you agree so I’m at two and three I don’t know but hold on worst case scenario would be four and five no but I I don’t think and I guess what I’m saying is I don’t think it is possible if Patrick’s healthy with Andy coaching for them to start a season four and five. I don’t care. You know what I like? What were they a few years back when they really were struggling? Well, so they didn’t so they they started I think four and three and we were jarred by it and they did they had a stretch the three and five, right? They had a three and five stretch during the season when they went back to back. I think it one of the years they they win a lot of Super Bowls. They go to all of them. They run together. Um but I just I don’t you know what I mean? So like I agree with you that like if you go through it you’re like oh you could lose that you could lose that with less gimmies. It is but it is to me an impossibility that they do lose all that they could lose. You know what I mean? And so that’s why I said I think what what I would imagine their record is going into the buy. I think they’ll be seven and two. I think they’ll I think they’ll lose. I think they’ll lose to the Bills because they always lose to the Bills. It’s a fun game they play. And then they’ll lose. Listen, Eagles, Ravens, the Prince, Lions, Washington. Those are hard games. And the Raiders, I think, will be better. Like those are It is odd to not to have one layup in your first half of the year, and that’s the Giants game. Here’s the thing. If if there was a way for a a team that’s on the, you know, bottom half of the NFL to beat the Chiefs, it would be with like get to Momes, disrupt. Oh, you’re talking about the Giants Dline. That’s the only You’re not. And try to win a game, you know, 1714, but they may be coming off a loss and I mean, potenti possibly two losses and then you got the Ravens the next week. Like, I don’t think they’re going to take the Giants lightly. Flip side is definitely don’t think they flip side is if they’re they could be 2 and 0 with saying we have the Ravens coming up in two weeks and you look like finally we get a breather and they get after that Lions Dline is like out of this world. I think it’ll be interesting. Whose Dline? The Ravens Dline? No, the Giants. Oh, the Giants Dline. Sorry. If they are like Yeah, for sure. As interesting as we think they could be. Uh yesterday, we’re going to head to Pittsburgh. The Steelers made TJ Watt the highest paid non-QB in the league. He does contribute to winning. The Steelers are 1 and 11 in the 12 games that he doesn’t play. So, new contract, new weapons. All right. Uh, courtesy of the Rich Eisen Show. Uh, Brew more or less confident in the Steelers playoff chances. Oh, what are you doing? It’s not here. I have an announcement. Yes, let him do it. Mid July. Let him do it. I have an announcement. I am officially putting to bed the Mike Tomlin will have his first losing season. A take. Thank you. I’m putting that to bed because that was Go ahead. I thought you might be on that. No, I’m saying thank you because I Can I Can we It’s mid July. Can I break the fourth wall? Yeah, sure. You got to talk to the camera then. Okay. All right. I want to say Hey everyone. Hey everyone. I want to tell you guys something. When Rogers was first connected to the Steelers, I said on the show flippantly, I was like, “If they sign him, Mike Tomlin’s going to have his first losing season.” I just said it and you we kept going. Like two weeks later, Brew was like, “I have a take.” And I Exactly. Because Brew didn’t remember I had said it. I don’t even think he acknowledgers goes there, Mike Tomlin’s going to have his first losing season. And I know Brew well enough to know that like he really liked that he was like first to grab that real estate even though I had said it two weeks ago, but nobody remembered. So I I have just I have just I have just seeded it and every time Bruce’s been like, “Guy, you know what I’ve been saying? Tom’s got his first lo season.” It’s kind of burned me a bit because I was like, that was my take. But now Rude is giving it up. I can have it back now. Have it back. One caveat before we go back to Ruth. I know when you said that. Mhm. I heard you say that. Mhm. And I was like, he doesn’t realize I said I was doing I’m the whole Aaron Rogers. I said it now that you have. Okay. I’m I’m giving it up. I’m good. Go ahead. Now, I look, I think Baltimore is still winning the division. Yeah. I do not, no matter how much I like the Steelers, I mean, we’ll see what happens in the regular season, but you guys know I I don’t Rogers has had a ceiling, even when he was at his prime and playing like the best quarterback in the league and winning MVPs of the NFC Championship game or the conference championship games after he went won that Super Bowl early in his career. So, I don’t think they’re like a a real Super Bowl contender. I do think they are a definite playoff contender. I’m thinking now, honestly, 11 wins. Wow. I mean, they won 10 last year, but I think 11 wins. And now, my question is this in my mind. Yeah. Do I like them or Cincinnati to finish second? Because I I really feel like three teams from the AFC West are going to make the playoffs. Oh, wow. So, three aren’t gonna make it from the AFC North. So, I’m I’m going now in my mind between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Look, I like the additions that John Smith, they’re going to run a lot of two tight end sets and all that with Fri Moose. I like that. I’ve been listening to your boy Peter Shrager talk about Calvin Austin’s going to have a breakout year alongside DK Metaf as a receiver. The defense we know is strong. What I really like in addition to just some of the personnel, I like their approach so far this off. Like they are they they believe and they’re making me believe a little bit, right? They are like serious. This is no playing games. They really believe Aaron Rogers will get them over the hump. And they’re doing, you could tell by the way they’re doing their personnel. So that and Tomlin usually obviously wins 10 games anyway. Mhm. And with this approach and Rogers and some of the additions, I think they’re going to be tough. Can I push back on you with one thing that I’ve also heard, I don’t know if Greg said it, so it’s not the most kind thing in the world, so I’m not going to say Greg said it, but I’ve heard it that DK is not the most disciplined route runner. And that might be It’s not exactly me. You can First of all, Greg did say it and Greg did say it. It’s not that I was like, but it’s just like I just I just don’t want to be like, you know, if he has relationship. Yeah, Greg said it that that’s DK is not a technician. Yeah. And Aaron Rogers wants things precise. So, the idea that this is a match made in heaven, it might not work. No, I look, I think it’ll it might not be a match made in heaven, but with the run game, I think it’s going to be solid. the two tight ends and I think he and D K will be good. Like I think there’ll be a connection. I don’t think it’ll be him and Devonte in their primes, but I think they’ll be good enough and then again maybe Austin or some other receiver will step up. I’m not looking for Rogers to throw for like 4,500 yards. No, I get that. You just think he’s an upgrade over what they had last year. Defense should be good and you like the moves they’ve made this off seasonason. I understand the heard that I heard that narrative with the Jets, too. That’s the problem. So, that’s what I was going to say. I I it a lot of it and Rogers is a year older and Rogers is in a new place. It is just so much of this is just Scorpion and the Frog. He is going to sting you and then you’re going to be like, “How could you?” It’s like, “Well, how could you not expect me to?” That’s exactly like And so I just I adding DK flipping out essentially DK Metaf for George Pickkins is an upgrade. is undeniably that’s an upgrade. They’re similar receivers. One’s better and way less of a pain in the neck. So, I agree with that. I getting signing your best player and not having that be a distraction pre agency or pre-training camp is a positive even if we think in three years maybe that contract’s underwater. And I’m not even saying we think that, but like for this year that’s a positive. I get all of that. I just think that they are going to be at a quarterback disadvantage in twothirds of their games, if not more. Like not the Browns games. There’s two. And I don’t know if I forgot to ask Dus for the Steelers schedule. I don’t if we have it pop it up. If not, don’t worry about it. But uh I mean, you look at it. Should they should have the better quarterback against the Jets, but just for the record, the Jets don’t think so. I know. I agree. I’m just saying. You know what? We’ll take we’ll take Yeah, we’ll take your guy. The first three games the the even as much as I like Drake May, I’m just saying with the experience first three games. So, what I was going to say is you’ll know right away after the buy. Yeah. Do they have the better quarterback in any game they play other than the Colts and Browns? And my answer is no. And I think it’s pretty undeniably no. Maybe Tua if he’s it’s cold, you know, like the That’s true. But again, the Steelers for the last several years have been in that position. No, I get that. But for the last several years, they haven’t been contenders. No. And so, and you’re not saying playoffs. I Go ahead, bro. We’ll know right away. Like, if they should be at if I’m right and they’re going to be like a real contender, they should be three and one going into the buy. If they’re not three and one, I mean, I guess you could two and two could, you know, They would be happy with two and two. Happy with two? No, I not with that opening series. They’re supposed to beat They’re supposed to win at least three of those opening games. Three of the first four games. If they’re going to win, if they’re going to get And then they got the Browns. Oh, they’re not getting to 11. They should be four. They should be four and one if Brew’s right. You understand what I’m saying? Like their path to 11 victories is a 4 in one start given that that’s their opening five. I buy that. Yeah. Also, just as far as buys go, I don’t if I’m an old quarterback, I don’t like a week five buy. I’m just getting warmed up and then I’ve got the Browns and so and I I do find it interesting that they are home dogs and we right now cuz you there’s look ahead lines. They’re it’s they’re dogs to your Patriots, but that’s on the road. They are home dogs to the Vikings and JJ McCarthy or that’s a neutral game. So, it’s a neutral sight game, but that’s that’s noteworthy to me. Where’s that? In Ireland. Oh, so there, you know, Vikings with JJ McCarthy coming off 14 wins. The Steelers with Aaron Rodgers coming off 10 wins. They’re slight dogs there. So, that’s something interesting. Um, speaking of NF, are we doing this or no? We have time dust. Yes. Wonderful. Yeah, this is NFL 100 countdown coming in at number 73 with a drop of 70 spots. It’s a decent drop. He went from 3 to 73. 3 to 73 with Oh yeah, cuz last year he was ranked ahead of Patrick. I think Patrick was four. So this is I think so far this has been the the furthest drop of anyone. This is how he’s done overall. And now some years he’s not ranked. So I guess if you have it’s a further rank. Uh but he went from the first running back and third overall player in 2024 to now we don’t know where he is in the running backs. We haven’t seen anybody but the 73rd overall player. So we’re looking for a few bouncebacks here for the team for CMC and for Pury. Who’s more important CMC or Pertie for the bounceback? I’m I’m gonna say Pury because he’s the quarterback. Because that like if CMC is great but Pertie isn’t like I think you’re only gonna be so good. If Pertie plays like he did his first two seasons and you’ve got, you know, even though they don’t have a top 27 receiver according to, you know, executives in the league, they got a good receiving court, right? And IU, you know, I could be eating and maybe Persaw or Jennings and K like they they’re going to have a good running game even without McCaffrey. I think what he could help the most is the P, you know, catching the ball out of the back field. But if Pertie’s playing really well, I just think he’s more important because if McCaffrey is playing great and Perie struggles, then you’re only going so far. I think the question I bet you this is what you’re thinking. Can Perie be really good if McCaffrey isn’t? You are correct. You nailed it. If so, if the you got perfect take if it’s more important that Christian McAffrey bounces back because that means Pertie will be better. Yes. Like the Andy, you know, they traded for Christian two and a half years ago. They traded for him right before Perie took over as the starter. So when Pertie was a rookie, he had Christian there the whole time. That next year they were both MVP candidates when Christian had that historic season scoring touchdown every game. basically all of that and then last year Christian was out and pretty regressed for the first time. Now, you know, a little chicken in the egg. I understand that piece of it like as far as what the biggest reasoning was, but this is the for this offense, for Kyle Shannon’s offense for Pertie. It’s the rare instance where the superstar running back I think is more predictive than the quarterback because I don’t think playing great has makes Christian McAffrey better. I think Christian McCaffrey is very simple. If he’s healthy he’s awesome. You know what I mean? Like there and so Christian McAffrey being healthy and awesome then makes everything so much easier for Brock because defenses will focus on him first and party second. So my answer is CMC for what you said because if he’s great, I think it raises Pery’s level. So what type of season you expecting from CMC? 11 games. Oh, that’s 11. Really? Yeah. I mean I Yeah. I mean I don’t Again, it’s always weird to talk about injury stuff, but I think that that’s the legitimate concern. Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. I I think and I brought this up with Danny, so I’ll just get your take on it. every report that we’ve read, Barnwell, PFF, a few different reports have been like, well, when you look at the history, it’s it’s very numbersy and it’s like I expect him to fall, but everyone and granted maybe they’re looking at it through rosecolored 49ers glasses, but everyone that’s around the team and players on the team are like, “This guy looks amazing in Christian.” Yes. So there there’s the the people that see him in real life, he looks great and the people that are writing about him like he’s probably going to be here. I’m starting to trend more towards I listen I know people might not believe it because I’m not a Niners guy, but I like all time I think Christian McCaffrey is an all-time great talent. You know what I mean? Like I think he he hasn’t had an alltime career. I root for those guys to have as many healthy years as possible to see what they can go get. So I hope that’s the case. I just worry about his career would would agree with you like just his resume even before he got to the I would with say I don’t know I put the super duper stars in another level Derk Henry Squan well agewise I’m with you I’m just talking about like that’s been his problem his entire career even in Carolina like [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music]

Cam Heyward said that Aaron Rodgers has ‘bought in’ with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes ask if the Steelers will make the playoffs, and how Rashee Rice’s looming suspension will impact the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Rodgers ‘bought in’ with Steelers, Rashee Rice suspension & Chiefs future | FIRST THINGS FIRST
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