32 NFL teams, ranked; Are Minnesota Vikings a sneaky Super Bowl contender? Dark horse playoff teams

32 NFL teams, ranked; Are Minnesota Vikings a sneaky Super Bowl contender? Dark horse playoff teams

Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. I just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. All right. Happy Sunday morning to you, sports dad. How are you doing? I’m doing fantastic. Are you kidding? Full day of college football. Dude, I love how college football has decided and the networks. Yep. This is the last weekend of only college football until next year. The NFL takes over. So, let’s let’s do a couple of top 10 teams on a Sunday night. Let’s put the Bill Bichc North Carolina debut on a Monday night and then we can kind of get out of the way from from the NFL in those times. And you also started with uh what Ohio State and Texas. Now, the game might not have been as good as people thought it was going to be, but you started with that at 11:00 a.m. Now, Arch Manning Arch Manning didn’t join the party at 11 a.m. No. And the afternoon games were a little bit disappointing, but then what LSU Clemson last night and Yeah. No, it’s uh we are we are off and running as far as meaningful football games for the most part. And next Sunday, baby, actually Thursday night, right, with our event. That’s right. Yeah. Actually, yeah. A couple things before we get into uh this will be an NFL takes edition of Purple Daily with some Vikings sprinkled in here for you guys because I bring to you 32 NFL teams ranked and put into tears. So, we’ll go through those. You can tell me if you strongly agree, disagree. You’ll find out where uh where I have the Vikings and then we can go from there. But yeah, this Thursday at Running Aces, which is up, if you’ve never been there, it’s unbelievable place. Uh it they just did a multi-million dollar renovation. They have a 53 foot LED screen. I believe it’s the largest continuous LED screen and you can watch uh in the state of Minnesota, you can watch football on this. So Thursday night when the football season officially kicks off, we’re going to be there for our our next Purple Daily Unplugged event. And uh it’s free to attend, but we do ask that you RSVP because there is a limited amount of people. Go to scorn.com/unplug. There are still some spots available. Scorn.com/unplugged. Running aces. Everyone who attends gets a $10 gaming voucher, $15 food and beverage voucher, horse racing program, and it’s running aces. 35 north of the Twin Cities, tons of parking, big parking lot right off the freeway. So, we’re looking forward to kicking off the season with another unplugged event on Thursday. And a shout out to MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning. Jud, absolutely. Because guess what? MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air lives up to its name by doing everything that I just talked about. Not just doing it, but doing it very well. Serving the community for more than 100 years. In fact, how about this? If you’re thinking about going duckless, give them a call. They’re a Mitsubishi Elite Diamond Contractor for Duckless, and they know what they’re doing. If you have an older home, which a lot of us do with no duck work, that’s no problem. MSP specializes in smart and efficient efficient duckless installs. These systems aren’t cheap, so you want it done right. And MSP is going to help you make the best decision for your home and your budget. Quiet, efficient, no ugly renovations, just comfort where it’s needed. MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air 651-6154292 or call MSP.com. Callms MSP.com. Are you ready for 32 NFL teams ranked and put into tears? Absolutely. Let’s party here. We’re going to start at the bottom and then we’ll work our way up through the rankings and the tiers. So, we’ll start at the the very very very very bottom of the league, which I’m calling this tier the keep refreshing Tankathon tier. tankathon.com will tell you who has the number one overall pick all throughout the season in all the different sports. And so I’ve got 32 New Orleans Saints, 31 New York Jets, 30 Tennessee Titans. In fairness to a I think the Saints have just kind of run into this was a long time coming. Post Drew Brees, post Shawn Payeyton. Yeah, they’ve had crazy salary cap issues for like 8 to 10 years and they’re getting their comeuppins here and they’re just I mean they have a quarterback battle that like is just a battle between career backup quarterbacks. So they’re the worst team in the NFL going in here. The Jets trying to build a new culture with Aaron Glenn. We’ll see if Justin Fields basically with his last shot to be a starter if he can do anything. The Titans are a little bit different because they do have Cam Ward and maybe Cam Ward plays well enough to spark them. Kind of feels like they’re a year or two away roster-wise, but those are the three worst teams in this exercise for me. And I would say of those three teams, the Saints are the one team that will embrace the ability to run a tankathon every single day and say, “Do we have the top pick? Do we have the top pick?” Yeah, they seem to be the one that uh I feel like they’re very accepting from the roster moves of their fate, right? Like the Jets are like the Jets, which is always like, “Oh, we’re going to improve.” And sometimes they do, and most of the time they don’t. And I Yeah, I think Cam Ward might surprise. Now, here’s my question. Cam Ward might surprise, but is Brian Callahan a good coach, a good head coach? Yeah. Like, that’s my big question now. And he might be. I just don’t know. Yeah. It’s hard to It’s hard to tell until someone kind of gets their quarterback in place and we’ll see what happens there. Okay. All right. The next tier is, and this is uh this is not just my opinion here. Based on the markets and the odds, this next tier is the most likely NFL coaches to be fired. Yeah. And it starts with Mike McDaniels, number one, and then it goes to Shane Stiken over to Brian Dable and our guy Kevin Stfansky. So, uh, I put these teams in I think I put them in reverse order essentially of cuz I actually think the Browns are the worst of these four teams and they’re going to run out a hodgepodge of quarterbacks. The Giants still feel like roster-wise, even quarterback wise, they’re kind of like they’re banking a lot on Jackson Dart being the future of that franchise. So, give me Browns 29, Giants 28, Colts 27 because Daniel Jones is now who they’re turning their attention to. And the Dolphins, the Dolphins have a really good record the last three years when Tua plays. They’re like 26 and 17 or something when Tua plays, but he’s uh he’s not reliable for 17 games and cold weather is always a problem. So, just kind of feels like the end of a little era there in Miami. So, these are the next four teams from the bottom. If you look at Mike McDaniels, Shane Stiken, Brian Dable, and Kevin Stfansky, I think the guy, it’s funny, who’s positioned best to have a job immediately as a head coach is Stfansky. Yeah. Like I don’t think he’ll be unemployed for long. And I continue to say I hope for his sake he does get fired, not just to collect a check, but also I think he’s just with a franchise that’s unfortunately a disaster. Dable OC again 2026. Stiken probably gets a job and McDaniel does for sure, but I don’t think any of those three get head coaching jobs immediately after being fired. Yeah. Yeah. There’s uh so I’m going to defend Stiken a little bit here and that I actually think the fact that the Colts have won like 17 total games the last couple years with Anthony Richardson being one of the least accurate quarterbacks in NFL history. uh they just like they’ve had such inconsistent play at that position and they’ve still managed to be in the playoff hunt in December. So pe I think people look at him as kind of that franchise has been searching for quarterback since Andrew Luck left and Stiken’s on a hot seat. But Stikken has done a pretty good job over two years, but you need you need to take a step forward. I think if Daniel Jones flames out and now on his hands, right, you’ve got the Anthony Richardson failure and okay, you’re going to move over and pivot to Daniel Jones and you couldn’t make that work. Yeah. Well, what is your case now to try again and uh and take another swing in the draft? Because usually the the way the NFL works, if you fail once with a quarterback, you’re on a hot seat. If you fail with two different quarterbacks, it’s really really hard to get that third crack at it. And Jones does seem like a desperation type pick. the Richardson thing is going to be a strike against a lot of people there, right? Like that’s that’s one where you put a lot of faith in that. There were definitely tons of teams that liked him, but uh yeah, I feel as if that failure alone will cost him. And Stfansky Stfansky quite frankly is probably helped by by the fact that the Deshawn Watson debacle is not his fault. Like if you look at what’s transpired in Cleveland, is that a failure of Stfansky with quarterbacks or is that a failure of the front office not to give him a a QB or they tried to and it turned out to be a complete debacle? Yeah, I uh just to piggyback off that, I think Kevin Stfansky should absolutely get a second crack at a head coaching job. Maybe he takes a year to be a coordinator or two years, but he I think he’s the best Cleveland Browns head coach since Marty Shottenheimimer. And that includes Bill Bichc had a a decent year or two in the early 90s. That’s a pretty low bar that I’m referencing. But uh if you can be competitive and get to the playoffs a couple times, and I think he won two different coach of the year awards in that infrastructure, I’d love to see what that looks like. Amen. Hell with like the Giants or just a team that’s a little bit more stable historically. Yep. Okay. Next here probably going seven and 10 but still entertaining and still catching headlines. The Dallas Cowboys at 25 post Micah Parson’s trade and the Chicago Bears at 24 trying to mesh Caleb Williams with this ons schedule tempo offense that Ben Johnson runs. Uh, so this is where I’m putting a couple of big-time national brands that people I think the there’s certain pockets of the media that would love for these teams to be good, right? Yes. But I just don’t with the Cowboys, I don’t think their roster is good enough. And with the Bears, I just think that division, especially now that Micah Parsons came to Green Bay, that division’s it’s going to be so hard for them to win more than about two division games and the rest of their schedule’s brutal. So, the Bears could actually be better, more organized. Caleb Williams could take a step. Maybe he throws for 4,000 yards. I still think it’s like seven or maybe eight wins for a peak for the Chicago Bears. So, of coaches who just got jobs, has anybody been put in a worse position than um than Brian? I I mean, my god, you finally get your opportunity. And I have no idea if he’s good or or not. you just talked about uh it certainly runs in in the family that there’s coaching success, but I I mean you get the Dallas Cowboys job, right? You are in charge of the Dallas Cowboys, this national brand, and it’s just a complete circus. And I’m just curious like this is not a established coach as far as head coaching goes. I can’t think of a I can’t think of a worse job in some ways because you’re probably going to fail and it’s probably going to be used against you. Yeah. You know, you’re one chance. Yeah, it’s uh I mean obviously you’re always going to say yes to a head coaching opportunity, especially if you’re I guess if you’re like in your 30s or early 40s, you have more time to be choosy, but if you’re Brian Shottenheimimer and you’ve been hoping for this for 25 years, you just take it and figure it out. But and and it’s the Cowboys. Like I don’t think a lot of people, as dysfunctional as Jerry Jones is, the Dallas Cowboys brand and job, I don’t think you probably say no there. Like there are some jobs like the Jets job would leave me very like I don’t know about this job but you’re offered to be the head coach of the Cowboys. I think you have to take it. The problem is I think you were set up to fail miserably. Yeah. I guess uh another way that you could have phrased this tier was to just put the Cowboys in it and say at least they’re still worth $13 billion according to Forbes. So okay the next tier darkhorse playoff candidates. Mhm. got four teams here in this tier. Number 23, the Las Vegas Raiders. Number 22, the Carolina Panthers. 21 Jacksonville Jaguars. And number 20, the New England Patriots. So, these are these are four teams that really were nowhere near a playoff spot last year. U in some cases, they were ditching head coaches and in organizational transition. I think in three of those cases actually the Jaguars won like four games with Trevor Lawrence having signed that big contract. But you could make a case for all four of these teams to bounce back big time from where they were last year. I mean the Patriots with Vrabel, you finally have a real actual adult in the room, a head coach who comes in. He’s a culture builder. Toughness the work that he did. Yeah. You’ve got Drake May going into his second year. So if the main pillars of an organization from it’s like ownership, front office, head coach, quarterback, if you can nail those things, everything else kind of falls into place. Kind of feels like the Patriots were off track there for about four or five years and now maybe they’re back on track with coach and quarterback. Also, if the Dolphins are rickety and maybe like the Dolphins are the most likely team to fire their head coach according to the odds. Now you got the Jets and the Dolphins in that division. Uh, the Bills are still the team to beat in that division. The Jaguars, I mean, Trevor Lawrence is still wildly talented, but it just hasn’t clicked for him. There’s been injuries, but as long as they have Trevor Lawrence still pretty young, I think there’s some hope that maybe, okay, there’s a step forward there. They were in the playoffs a couple years ago. The Panthers, we’ve talked about a lot on the NFL Takes edition of Purple Daily. They were really competitive in the second half of the year last year. They had fourth quarter leads against Kansas City and the Eagles and they had a couple fourth quarter comebacks. And the Raiders are now coached by Pete Carol whose worst season as an NFL head coach going back to like the early 2000s is seven wins. So, and he’s in his early 70s at this point. So maybe he’s not quite uh as impactful, but you could do a lot worse in terms of building a culture and just setting a higher floor for your franchise than Pete Carol. That’s a really tough division. But the Raiders also have a pretty manageable schedule. All these teams have pretty manageable to easy schedules. So four teams that I wouldn’t be shocked if any of these four teams snuck in as like a nine- win wildard playoff team. Yeah, I think the Patriots might be a year away, but I think that they definitely are on the right track and do have a coach and quarterback. The Jaguars intrigue me a lot. Is Liam Con a good coach? I have no idea. Like he he’s another one one of these uh McVey Tree guys, which is good, but those guys, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be successful as a head coach. Now, you might be a good coordinator on Bryce Young. Here’s what I’m curious now. From the start of a season, so you’re zero and zero. So there’s not like, you know, he slumped. He came back and played well, but he sort of had in some ways nothing to lose at that point in time because he had failed once and it’s like, okay, just try it. I’m really curious what type of season he puts together. Like I’m really curious because I think he could be good, but like can you put the 17 games together and be consistent and not make crucial mistakes? That’s where I’m very very curious about Carolina. Yep. So, there’s just a lot of interesting things to watch here in this group. Couple former number one overall pick quarterbacks, a number three overall pick quarterback, the Raiders, and what they’re trying to do. Next tier, the tier is called, did you know that these teams won eight games last year? Yeah. Like pretty close to playoff teams. Number 19, the Arizona Cardinals and number 18, the Atlanta Falcons. So, Jonathan Ganon, head coach of the Cardinals, took over. They won like four games his first year. Then they doubled it to eight last year. That division is really wonky because the Seahawks made a big change at quarterback moving to Sam Darnold. The Niners took a big step back and we’ll get to them in this conversation. And the Rams, it totally depends on Matthew Stafford, it would seem, and his back and whether he can play close to the full slate of games. So you have a the Cardinals I think are there’s probably the widest gap between how competitive they actually were last year and even defensively at times and the way people view them going into this season. So just keep an eye on them. And then the Falcons quarterback turmoil last year just a terrible decision to give all that money to Kurt Cousins and also draft Michael Penn with your first round pick. But it’s now Penn’s team. Drake London took a big step last year. So, uh, that division is always in flux. Just a couple of kind of under the radar, really competitive teams. Yes. And a lot depends on Kyler Murray and Michael Penn. They feel like the uh the comparison to me or the common thing is they feel like two very meh teams. Like we don’t think about them a lot and they’re just sort of they sort of hang around like gnats or like mosquitoes. Yeah. They could but they could beat you, you know. But Yeah. Yes. Well, and uh and the funny thing is the Cardinals to me, here’s my question on them. Is Marvin Harrison Jr. gonna break out now because he he had big expectations and it probably was not I didn’t watch a ton of Cardinals games, but probably was not all his fault, but he didn’t have a great year. And I mean, that kid is talented. You if you, you know, watched him play in college at Ohio State, he’s really good. So, and that’s a Kyler, you know, it’s funny. It’s Kyler, too. I think Kyler is just seen as the sort of like lost cause at times and he’s really not. He sort of bounces back and forth. But uh if I had to pick between these two teams for a potential playoff birth, I think I go with the Cardinals. I think I like the Cardinals. Yeah, man. I don’t hate that take. I really don’t. if but again so much of it depends on I think there’s such a wide variance of what the Rams and the 49ers could be. Yeah. And uh and you’ll notice here if you’re doing the math that this is the this is the first team from the NFC West that’s hit on this. So the other three teams are like top half of the NFL teams at least according to to my rankings here. So that’s another division that if Stafford’s healthy and the NerS bounce back a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I don’t think it’s quite the NFC North, but it is a really competitive division where the worst team can still beat you and might still win seven to nine games. Mhm. All right. Before we get to the rest of this list here, a shout out to a prize picks and some of these seasonl long I’m on I’m on the prize picks app right now. Let me pull this off here so we can I can show this to the audience on YouTube. And they’ve got the seasonl long uh football I guess squares on here. and JJ McCarthy 3,62 passing yards. You can see it right there. More or less. I think if he plays the full season in a Kevin Oonnell offense, it would be hard for him to not hit more than 3,600 passing yards. But it’s up to you on price picks. Really easy. You pick between two and six players. It can either be like for upcoming games or I just showed you a seasonl long JJ McCarthy option. You pick more or less on their projected stats and you place your entry. Super easy. Price Pix offers Venmo, Apple Pay, Mastercard, and more. And if you download the Prize Pix app today, this one right here, right there, folks. Super easy. Uh, and use the code purple daily, you get $50 in lineups when you play just $5. So, uh, they’ll float you a couple bucks there. $50 in lineups when you play $5 when you use that code, purple daily. You also help the show, uh, throughout the season when you use that code. So check out the prize picks app. Also a North American banking company helping to power these NFL takes on Purple Daily today. Six locations across the Twin Cities. And they’re here to help you just have a better banking experience. Whether it’s checking and savings or whether it’s something bigger, you’re planning a bigger project, maybe buying a home or launching a business or you’re financing something big. You’ll notice a difference when it comes to personal relationships and cutting edge online tools with North American Banking Company. Check out their six Twin Cities locations or go to nab bankco.com/mackie to learn more. That’s nabco.com/mackie [Music] member FDIC equal housing lender football. All right, Jud. Back to the tears. All right, ranking 32 National Football League teams. Oh, we got a big tier. The next group has five teams and it’s called Feisty. But something is missing, okay, from these teams. Number 17, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Number 16, the Seattle Seahawks. 15 Houston Texans. 14 Cincinnati Bengals. 13 Denver Broncos. Mhm. I think with all these teams, it wouldn’t be shocking to see any of them in the playoffs. It wouldn’t be shocking if to me if any of them won a playoff game. But when it comes to Super Bowl contention or, you know, AFC, NFC Championship game, it just feels like there’s a little something missing from all these teams. Pittsburgh, you got a 41-year-old quarterback that you’re kind of desperately throwing out there. And now Pittsburgh would come back and say, “We’ve had Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trabiscyc at quarterback and went 10 and five during a 15 game stretch a couple years ago, right? Seattle feels really like well coached, competitive. No matter what iteration of roster, Seattle for 15 years has just been a really competitive, feisty team. Yep. But they don’t it doesn’t feel like they have an elite defense. They traded away DK Metaf. And so, you know, they got Jackson Smith in Jigba for for Sam Darnold, but it’s also going to depend on Sam Darnold outside the Kevin Oonnell system. Uh, Houston took a little bit of a step back last year. Can CJ Stout get back to playing the way he did as a rookie is a big question, but I think they downgraded their offensive line in the offseason, too. Oh, yeah. The Vikings know that. Yes, they do. Uh, Ed Ingram, is he starting for them? Yeah, I believe he is. He was last time I looked. The Bengals are missing a defense and uh the Denver Broncos I awesome job by Shawn Payeyton with Bo Knicks last year, but I still wonder is is Bo Knicks just like a high floor, low ceiling quarterback that is that that’s operating well in a Shawn Payeyton system or is there is there more there and we’re going to see it? And Denver also has a good defense, but these are five really competitive teams, but just feels like something’s missing when it comes to winning a Super Bowl. Yeah, I feel like Denver could be in the next tier. Like I do like Denver. Uh Cincinnati. My god, they’ve got these I mean you got Joe Burrow, you got Chase, you got so much talent offensively, but they are just solely so poorly run again. And it’s disappointing because I thought when they went to the Super Bowl felt like they had turned a bit of a corner in how they were run and now Joe Burrow deserves he he’s on the precipice of just deserving better. He he might be the Stfansky of quarterbacks. It’s like what are we doing here? This guy should be on a competent team. Yeah, Houston, I think could turn it around. Um assuming that Straoud now in year three can sort of go back to his first year. Um I’m totally with you on Pittsburgh and Seattle. I don’t know. And that also goes back to the division’s good and and it’s tough and you’re going to play some good teams. And can Sam Darnold put together now without Kevin Oonnell as his mentor or his guy there? Can Sam Darnold prove his worth now? Because that’s the thing is there’s pressure on him. A year ago, what was the pressure? I mean, he knew that he’d probably start here for a year. Kevin Oonnell did a great job. The coaching staff did a great job. And I’d say a year ago, Sam Darnold literally had nothing to lose. Like, it was the last gasp. if it did if it doesn’t work, you’re just a failure. Um, okay. So, now he signed a contract and he’s going to be well compensated and yet that contract’s not really nearly as longterm as it looks. I think Samyear deal. Yeah. I think Sam Darnold’s under a tremendous amount of pressure and I’m with Okonnell gone from his life, I have some question marks. Yeah. It’s like in some ways he’s under a lot of pressure, but in other ways I don’t know that the expectations in Seattle are that they are a Super Bowl contender yet, too. So, there’s like different levels and waves to pressure there, but it’ll be interesting to see what that looks like. Okay, into the top 12 here. The next tier is don’t be shocked if they play in late January or maybe beyond. Number 12, the San Francisco 49ers. Number 11, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Number 10, the Green Bay Packers, who I think a lot of people outside the Purple Daily sphere would say they should be higher after the Michael Parsons trade. And then number nine, the Minnesota Vikings. Now, we went over on Friday all the reasons. We literally did a tail of the tape for like 30 minutes on the the last state fair edition of Purple Daily of like the five or six key areas, Vikings and Packers, and who would you give a check mark to, you know, offensive line, defensive front, uh, quarterback, head coach, etc. And it was mostly check marks for the Vikings. Maybe we’re being too homerish. I don’t think our show is just homerish for the sake of being homerish, but kind of feels like the P they’re taking away a really good player in Kenny Clark. They are upgrading with Michael Parsons, but they’re also giving away two first- round draft picks. A lot of pressure on Jordan Love to be that guy immediately that he hasn’t been yet at any point in his career, except for like maybe a month and a half stretch uh the end of his first year starting San Francisco. They’re going through a little bit of a roster changeover. They’re saying goodbye to some weapons. Christian McCaffrey is no guarantee to be healthy. And now they’re paying Brock Perie to carry the franchise more than he ever has. But I’m going to give Kyle Shanahan some credit because pretty much every time with San Francisco that they’ve had a bad year or they’ve missed the playoffs or something derailed, they’ve bounced right back the next year and have gone to like the Super Bowl or playoffs or whatever it may be. So, he’s a great bounceback coach. And I’ll throw the Buccaneers in here because what they did offensively and they have a feisty defense that is one of the most under the radar dangerous teams in the league. And Baker Mayfield has finally become the quarterback that people thought he would become when he was drafted number one overall all those years ago. So just keep an eye on the Tampa Bay Bucks in the NFC, too. So these are four NFC teams. 12 San Francisco, 11 Tampa Bay, 10 Green Bay, nine Vikings. San Francisco feels like the polar opposite of the Bengals because their infrastructure, I think, helps them a ton and it I think it’s I think they’re well coached. I think they’re wellrun. Can you imagine like Joe Burrow there with that infrastructure and and steadiness? Um I would say of these four teams, it’s interesting. So I’m very mixed on the Packers because Micah Parsons is going to or should improve their defense. They’ve also upgraded for the first time in forever legitimately made attempt to at wide receiver. But of these four teams, I would say if I had to rank, is the season a failure? If you don’t make the playoffs and win a playoff game, I would put the Packers one. I think the season is a failure. Now, the Vikings, I want to see them make the playoffs. I want to see them win a playoff game. Uh but I don’t think that they are in that that group. But when you do what the Packers have done and you have Jordan Love and you’re now paying him and you now have wide receiver talent, Mhm. I think of among these four teams the most pressure like if you if you wanted to pick one of these four good teams and say which coach could immediately be on the hot seat and I like him I think Matt Lafleur. Yeah, there’s there’s tremendous pressure there. Agreed. like you don’t like the Vikings have a lot of pressure but first of all Okonnell Okonnell is not going to be on the hot seat regardless and second of all you are putting a quarterback into his first year of starting and so we sort of need to see how that goes with Jordan Love there is no time to waste he’s being paid he’s being paid well he’s got some targets now they just picked up arguably one of the best defensive players in the National Football League so I think the Packers are the team with a tremendous amount of pressure on them. Yeah. And then the Vikings, for anyone, this is too homerish. You can’t have the Vikings number nine. Well, they won 14 games last year. Even if we build in for some regression, let’s say they were more like an 11 or 12 win team that that got 14 wins. Well, their roster got better defensively. the added pieces like the the the Jonathan Allen and and Jayvon Hargrave editions are as impactful as you can find across the league for like filling a desperate need at a high level. And if you’re going to point to Sam Darnold being swapped out for JJ McCarthy, keep in mind Sam Darnold was a nothing quarterback going into last year and because of the infrastructure he elevated. So, is the gap between Darnold and JJ McCarthy really wide enough to where they’d go from 14 wins down to like eight? Sure. So, I just I don’t know, man. Logically, I don’t I don’t buy some of the national narrative surrounding the Vikings here. One more note on Tampa Bay. So, they’ve made the playoffs now five consecutive years. It started with the Super Bowl win, Tom Brady, back in 2020 with Bruce Arens, but Todd BS has jumped in there and uh and has won three consecutive divisions. And last year they were a plus 117 point differential as a 10- win division winning team and a top five scoring offense with a good defensive-minded coach. So four really interesting teams to keep an eye on there. Okay, two more tears. It’s amazing what happens when you aren’t coaching the Jets in Todd BS’s case. Like you get away from that complete dumpster fire. It’s amazing how you can be successful. Todd Bulls, different side of the ball in terms of expertise, but Todd Bulls is a great reference point for Kevin Stfansky’s future that listen, if Todd can go over here with a better run organization. Absolutely. Uh the next tier is fringe Super Bowl contenders or these these are teams that are kind of trendy picks too to to maybe take a big step. But Chargers at eight, Rams at seven, Commanders at six, Rams are fully dependent on the health of Matthew Stafford. But if he’s healthy, that team was like a play away from beating the Eagles last year. And and the Chargers are uh are charging. I’m concerned about old men with back problems. Yeah, it’s I’m really concerned about that one. That’s not doesn’t feel like it’s going to end well. And I mean what Stafford’s now is this year 15 09. So is it might be was he 09 draft? Is it more than that? Is he 10? The point is it’s been a long run for him. Yeah, it has been. Yeah. But as of now, he’s going to give it a go and we’ll see. And like I I uh the tier makers have to go with the information that’s in front of them and right now they’re going to give it a go. And then the main Super Bowl contenders. Okay. Number five, Detroit Lions. Getting some defensive players back and healthy. Major questions about the new coordinators and we’ll see. The offensive line lost a key piece or two, but as of right now, I’ve got the Lions at five, the Ravens at four, Chiefs at three. People freaking out because they got smoked in the Super Bowl, but like they still go to the Super Bowl every year. So, and they have Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. Yes. Uh, Eagles number two and then the Buffalo Bills number one. Again, for me, this is like the second or third year in a row. I thought the Buffalo Bills are the best team in the league going in and then they just keep running into their nemesis, the Chiefs. But you look at that that division is I mean, there’s a huge gap between them and whoever’s the second place team in that division. So, they should win a bunch of regular season games. And it just it just feels like at some point they have to break through. So, Bills number one, Eagles number two, Chiefs number three, Ravens four, Lions five. It’s interesting though, has the Bill So, the fact that they have a great quarterback is obviously a huge huge part of this discussion, but in some ways, like when you look at the components around Allen, you you wonder if the door is closing more than opening, right? like when when you look at their team, they’re well coached, great quarterback, but like you some of those teams that they had that they didn’t get through were incredible as far as talent goes. So, that’s a really good question. Philadelphia, do you think that they do you think that they stay there or do you think that they take a step back Super Bowl? I mean, that’s a lot to come off of as well. Yeah, if I had like within this list, right? So, this is where they are right now. And there’s a little projection in here with the Bills, obviously. But, uh, if I had to like fade two of these teams that would fall out of this list or fall further down, I think it’d be the Eagles just because of how hard it is to well and and how volatile that entire team was for half the the year. I mean, they were like on the verge of chaos and maybe firing a head coach a couple times in the last couple years. And they bring it all together. But you you also had in terms of modernday usage rate historic levels of touches and carries for Saquon Barkley. So I worry that his durability is going to be a question. Uh and then if Jaylen Herz has to carry the offense, does does the whole thing kind of fall apart? So I would I probably fade them. And to be honest, I think I’m fading the lions a little bit with just the division and the changes in offensive line and coordinators and like to come so close two years in a row with how dominant they were in the regular season. Can they keep pushing that rock up the hill year after year like that? It’s hard to fade Josh Allen, Patrick Momes, Lamar Jackson, right? Like it’s just difficult to fade them. So yeah, and and Detroit I just I I don’t know. a year ago, I thought, okay, that that was a nice story, but you know, the he’s a very demanding coach and they’re gonna drop off and they didn’t. So, I become almost hesitant now to do that. But, it does seem like with the North being as good as the North is now that it’s going to that it would not be it would not be an absolute shock if they miss the playoffs. I don’t think that they will, but it would not be an absolute shock. Yeah. So, there it is. Let me know in the Purple Daily YouTube comment section. You can tweet at us at Phil Mackey Jolgad Dex’s tweets. He’ll be back on the show uh after a couple days here. Uh do do you wildly disagree with where some of these teams rank? Do you disagree with where the Vikings are? I was going to say are the Vikings high or too low? I think they would probably be too high, but that whole group is an interesting group. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know what you think. And then don’t forget scorner.com/unplugged if you want to hang out with us at Running Aces and watch the first NFL game of the year. Uh just north on 35W right off the freeway. You can look it up. It’s uh it’s a really fun place. Old old poker Mackadak used to spend a lot of time at Running Aces back in the day. I want to see the TV. Me too. I’ve not seen the new setup. This might be a good place on on a Saturday to drive there and watch some college ball football. Hey, they they got specials. You know what? It might be beyond screwed up. In my opinion, college football never more entertaining though because you don’t know who’s on teams. It’s actually fun. And poor Alabama. Poor Alabama. I think they’ve they’ve been uh they’ve been fine over the years, but that team is a disaster. Do you recall though pre- Sabin? Same thing. The golfers beat him in a bowl game. I think Mike Schula was their coach. Yeah. and no longer like Sabin had this I mean there was still I’m sure frisky business going on financially before NIL opened up but yeah Sabin always had through his recruiting and just his stature just three or four players deep at each position that would they’re like NFL players and it’s dude that quarterback yesterday that’s that is not that’s not Tua Jaylen Herz you know nope nope all right we got a run here. Purple Daily NFL takes. We’ve got some season preview stuff lined up for tomorrow on Purple Daily. And uh yeah, we appreciate you hanging out with us here for the Sports Dad. I’m Phil and this is Purple Daily NFL Takes.

Mackey and Judd rank ALL 32 NFL teams! They explain why it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Minnesota Vikings or Green Bay Packers playing in late-January. Plus, who are some dark horse playoff teams? And who are the main Super Bowl contenders?

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