FIRST TAKE | Pats, Colts & Broncos are the scary trio in AFC, NOT Chiefs, Bills & Ravens – Stephen A

FIRST TAKE | Pats, Colts & Broncos are the scary trio in AFC, NOT Chiefs, Bills & Ravens – Stephen A

All right, back here on First Take back to the NFL. The AFC has three teams with an 8-2 record this season. The Colts, Broncos, and Patriots. The last time one of those three teams made the Super Bowl was the 2018 season when the Patriots defeated the Rams in Super Bowl 53. So Jeff, I’ll start with you. Which is a scarier trio? The old guard of the Chiefs, the Bills, and the Ravens, or this new guard in the AFC of the Patriots, Colts, and the Broncos? That’s a great question. I’m going Colts, Broncos, and Patriots. I I think when you look at this, first of all, I think Drake May, honestly, if I had to give an MVP, I’d give Matt Stafford the MVP. Right now, I was busting up on Stephen A earlier, but I would give Stafford probably, but Drake May cover the show. The show is fluid. It’s fluid. It’s fluid. A’s to C’s. We going to make a little change. You know what I mean? But in all, Drake May is right on that MVP conversation. He’s balling. Patriots, what Vable has going there, big runs against the Bucks. I thought that was a massive game. Colts most efficient offense in in football right now. They find ways to win. Broncos, their defense is absolutely insane. I’m not sold on the the Knicks uh situation quite yet in Denver. He’s got some progression he needs to make under Shawn Peyton. But those those three teams are legit to me. And I and I think they are they’re going to one of those I think this come out. I’m deviating from you. I’m taking out Denver and I’m putting in Kansas City. I don’t give a damn about their lead in the AFC West. I would put my money on Kansas City before I put my money on Denver because of Denver’s offense. Not their defense. I know how real their defense is, but I don’t have a lot of faith in Denver’s offense. I think that they’ve been playing with fire most of the season. Yeah. Not playing for three quarters and then coming up in the fourth quarter. I think it’s gonna catch up to them. I understand that Kansas City just got handed it to them. I know they had a loss in Buffalo, but the bottom line is I believe as the season wanes, we will see a better version of the Kansas City Chiefs in my estimation. I’m not dismissing or counting out Patrick Mahomes by one shot, him or Andy Reid. And I think that when you talk about the Colts, fine. You talk about New England, fine. But I’m putting Kansas City up in there. Yeah. Oh, hold on. I gotta ask you the question because you’re Are you saying Kansas City to win the division over? No, I’m saying that if you’re talking about the top three teams that I’m thinking about, right, when we talking about scary scary teams, somebody that’ll put fear in you that they could they could go on a run. I’m looking at the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s how I’m looking at. Well, to be scary, you got to be in the tournament. Well, they love You picking the Chiefs. You picking the Chiefs. Don’t try that. I’m trying to fist bump. Are you saying on national television? The Kansas City Chiefs ain’t going to be in the mix. Well, Stephen, a is that what you say? The playoff started today. The Kansas City. We got eight weeks, man. See, that’s the disrespect. That’s the disrespect. That’s the disrespect. [Music] Come on, y’all. Listen. Listen. This week, fine. You trying to tell me with eight weeks left, you gonna sit up there with a straight face and say to me, “I don’t know if Kansas City gonna make it.” Really? I want to hear it. That’s very disrespectful. That’s very disrespectful. Well, listen. They running out of runway. And when the quarterback expresses that he’s concerned about the way they’re playing, especially after the Bills lost, then if he’s concerned, then I got to be concerned. And let’s not forget about the ass whooping. We saw them get in Super Bowl 59. Well, I know that the Kansas City Chiefs, this version of them is not the version that we saw win three championships with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. We got to start accepting them for who they are. As Bill Parcels used to say, you are what your record says you are. Man, I thought the road in Buffalo. I thought going on the road in Baltimore. I go to the Super Bowl. Man, you’re very disrespectful right now. Y’all are very disrespectful. Very disrespectful. I’m not saying I’m not saying that they can’t pull out of this nose dive. But when it comes to the Kansas City Chiefs in the championship conversation, I’m just not there yet. And that’s in part because they’re not going to win their division and they’re going to have to be on the road starting wild card weekend. And Stephen A, we usually only see one team every decade win a championship going the wild card route, right? We we saw Tom Brady do it in 2020. The last time before that, it was Aaron Rogers in 2010. It don’t happen that often. And so when we have the conversation about who’s scary, I’m thinking about who has the chance to dominate the conference and win a championship and their path to being able to do so. And it’s a lot easier to see the Colts Broncos and the New York Patriots do that than the Kansas City Chiefs, the Baltimore Ravens, and the Buffalo Bills. Listen though, the the the Chiefs issue, and I know you’re you’re rubber stamping them, their offensive line better figure this out because they don’t they don’t run a great and as good as Mahomes is, man, you put pressure on them, it it it changes every QB. It’s just a fact. No, that’s true. Look, I’m not I’m not betting against the Kansas City, though. I’m just saying I’m talking about I’m not in the You ain’t betting on them either, though. I will say this. I bet I will. Entertaining them missing the playoffs. I’m not even entertaining them missing the play. No way. Kansas City is palatial state in Miami. Huh? All right, let’s take a break here. We got more basketball coming up. WBY went off again last night. Is he officially the best player in the NBA? Stephen Day answers that. And it wasn’t Let’s do some with Dan Graciano as we do every Tuesday. Cross has this column as always on ESPN.com. Let’s start with this one. Dan, is it an overreaction to say the winner of Sunday’s game in Denver, Chiefs Broncos, will win the AFC West? It’s not an overreaction. Look, if the Broncos win it, they’re up three and a half games on the Chiefs going into their buy. And yes, the Chargers are in this mix. I’m just I’m I’m suspicious of them holding it together with their offensive line issues. So, if the Chiefs win this game, they’re a game and a half back. They’ve won the division nine years in a row. Denver’s going to have to go sit on that through their buy and the Chiefs would would be able to hit the gas, I think, and finish it off. I mean, when last seen the Denver Broncos, while winning, were being booed off the field in their own stadium. Are we we buying Denver here? I mean, that defense is incredible. We certainly buy the defense and we trust Shawn Peyton. I think the issue with Bo Knicks is the offense is we’re going to throw screens and we’re going to throw bombs and like when when the opponent stops that, we don’t have any other kind of technique offensively and that’s the concern. Both can be inaccurate. Screen can be accurate. Deep ball can be I’ll say this, I’m not counting out the Chargers like when they’re three and0 in the division. I understand their O line stuff, but but they they’ve already Why would Why would you need healthy O linemen? They’re overrated. No, they’ll get Harp’s going to follow them. Might have been written before the Charger game. Respect. Respect. The last time we saw the Chiefs, too. Like they were struggling as well. Bills and we saw the Bills struggling. So, a lot of it I think like you start out week to week it changes. Speaking of the Bills, the next one. Hey Dan Graciano, someone said the Buffalo Bills Super Bowl window has closed. Is that an overreaction? Of course it’s an overreaction. It’s a classic overreaction to Buffalo’s worst game of the year, which came one week after Buffalo’s best game of which was a victory over the Chiefs. We’re not going to judge anybody on their worst moment or or probably their best. Buffalo has shown that they’re going to be there in the end with an elite quarterback. Jeff, why are you making that? That that that that I’m nervous. Like I I would have liked to see them pick somebody up at Dline. Like I understand and I do trust Mcder. They’ve done a great job of getting that. They got boat race that they got Miami ran the rock. you. That’s the one thing you cannot tolerate and especially coming to playoff football that the Bills got run that much with Shepy said they were in it for Quinn and Williams and the Jets just wouldn’t trade him within the division. That might have been a big difference. Jac, you did that game on CBS, the Dolphins and Bills this weekend. What did you see? And I have some concerns as well and Brandon Bean was as disappointed as anyone that he didn’t get anyone at the trade deadline. But when I look at this game, this is down the first time they’ve been really had a drive. They got down in the red zone. this in the third quarter. They’re down 16 to zero. The Dolphins are going to come with an allout pressure for Josh Allen. You’re trying to find your best matchup. He’s looking to the left side of the field. Look up top. Keon Coleman is oneonone. The reason he’s not going there is cuz he doesn’t trust the guy. There were multiple times throughout this game where he tried to go to Keon Coleman and Guju Britz had him locked up. Later on in the game, another opportunity down 16 to six. Josh Allen picks up the first down. But this is the old Josh Allen where he had to put the cape on for the Buffalo Bills to win. In this game, there were multiple times where he’s running around doing everything. When he got to the sideline, you saw him say, “I should have just went down.” But he felt like he couldn’t because he feels like he has to do so much because the wide receiver position isn’t showing up other than a short pass to Khalil Shakir. And then on top of that, Dolin Kate got hurt a hamstring in that game. He’s the one guy that can get down the field vertical. I mean, I I think the question asking if the window closed is obviously premature. But I don’t have faith in the Bills because the Bills as much as I have faith in the Bills because the rest of the AFC like there’s no one really running away with it. And you got Josh Allen and and to your point, they have a defense that has proven that they can put it together enough, but that’s always like year after year they’re injured and they still put together enough. But right now, you look at this team, it’s like I I don’t know how they’re going to fix this defense. They have some good players. lost another defensive line. The best thing for them, they got a really good offensive line and Cook and obviously Josh Allen, but at least you can take pressure off your defense with those those. Cindy, can you leave those numbers on the screen a second? Am I the only one who notices the Patriots aren’t on that list? They fall somewhere below the Colts, Chiefs, Bills, Broncos, and Chargers to win the AFC. I’m being told they are sixth. That in and of itself is interesting. Uh there are only 16 teams. They’re sixth out of that group. And don’t believe that. Now they look like they’re in in good shape to get the one seed. All right, last uh overreaction. Graciano, if someone said Jonathan Taylor is going to break multiple records this season, is that an overreaction? It is not an overreaction. He is on pace for 2378 scrimmage yards. The record’s 259. He’s on pace. He’s clearly the engine to the most efficient offense in the NFL. That is the argument for making him. But I mean, if it’s unfortunate because I hate the idea that it only goes to quarterbacks. But when you bring in that very specific word of value, who would be the MVP if it’s not Jonathan Taylor right now? I think we give it to Drake May. May right now or Matt Stafford, I’m sorry. Matt Stafford, those are the two. Matt Stafford or Drake May are going to get it because it’s a quarterback’s league. We’ve changed all the rules. If this guy breaks, I feel like that gives Jonathan Taylor a chance because the quarterback position. Which one is it? Breaks the very such a silly award. Just become the Davy O’Brien award at this point. Just call it that. Just call it the most valuable quarterback award and then give another one to all the other players who play the other positions. Coming up, tainted love in Green Bay. Is Jordan going to cost the Packers the North? Did they miss the playoffs? How about that Eagles offense? We’re all over that game as we continue in a moment. But first, everyone’s favorite battle. It’s Sneaky Hembo versus Graciano. And I got to tell you, I love this question. The Eagles are 46 and4 going back to 2022. Which NFC team, so by definition it means since the merger, had the highest winning percentage across any four season span? Wow, it’s an excellent question. The answer is next.

FIRST TAKE | Patriots, Colts & Broncos are the scary trio in AFC, NOT Chiefs, Bills & Ravens – Stephen A.