4-8 Bengals are NOT facing elimination in “Dumb AFC North” 😤 Pats, Broncos, Bears dynasties, oh my!

4-8 Bengals are NOT facing elimination in “Dumb AFC North” 😤 Pats, Broncos, Bears dynasties, oh my!

Last night in a well lit shuffleboard arena, a ragtag committee of analysts, savants, and people with very tight fitting jackets, they had a bigger torso than that, fought and toiled and burned the midnight oil to deliver the best segment in all of sports. It’s an honor and it’s a privilege. It’s time for Knicks tears. What KW is alluding to there is for our a block bit. We also, I was gonna wear one of my louder sport coats, and then when we switched seats, he was gonna put on my sport coat, but the guy’s just too jacked. He was like, this thing won’t button, it’s like a boy’s large. So it’s like it’s like he’s like it’s O my God, so they don’t make those for adults and so, so we couldn’t do, we couldn’t do the bit, um, did Brew just say Sears robots? Brew just said Sears robots. I had a pair of husky pants. I think that was a rut. Uh, all right, a quick update on the eliminations because no one was facing elimination last week and so there are no fresh eliminations. We are still sitting on these 11 eliminations and because it is very important to the committee to never have to uneliminate a team, and thanks to our favorite tool, the athletic playoff predictor. You look at it, no one this week actually is facing elimination. So, to the tiers, the bottom of the tiers, the dumb AFC North. And here’s what I mean. It’s just that, I mean, they, and here’s what I mean. The fact that Cincinnati is sitting there at, what are they, brew, 4 and 8, and they’re not facing elimination. No, with life and with a little margin of error. I’m like, OK, they have a, if, if they, if they lose this week and then win out, they’re like 60% to win the dumb AFC North. Don’t be fooled. This is not about this team’s chances to make the playoffs, which are slim, but that’s not what I’m talking about. You are going to have the choice this offseason. To activate a 5th year, very expensive option on Bryce Young. Don’t be fooled into doing that. He’s had a nice, he’s had a few nice games, not even giving him. I would, I, yes, that’s what I’m saying. I would not do that. No, well, you get him, you get him next year no matter what. Next year is year 4. I would, right, and, but you have to make the decision on the 5th year option this offseason. I, I think he has earned coming back next year, which was in question. I do not think you want to necessarily tie yourself long term financially, even if he puts, he did have a great game this past weekend, a couple more of those together. Wholly untrustworthy, and at least one of these teams is making the playoffs. The Colts and the Jags. They both sit at 8 and 4. The Jags seem to be in the far better position right now. They are, the Colts. After, you know, the magic act, you know, Act one ended, Act two has not quite been as dazzling. And the offense has gone from the 07 Rams to the Jeff Fisher Rams. And so that’s not, the, the 01 Rams, pardon me. Uh, the Jags, on the other hand, Man, they, it is impressive they have overcome the injuries. Brian Thomas is back, but to him, Travis out for the year, injuries to the offensive line, and the fact that Trevor’s numbers this year are some of the worst of his career, and they are still in that position, but week to week, it’s very, very difficult to trust them. Now, I do have to say, KW, you might be a little angry at Marshall, who names the tiers for some of the ones coming up because. He, they could be viewed as poking fun at a take of yours. Bob tried to talk him out of it, Bob. I haven’t talked about Bob on the committee. I thought the name, wow, how did he get on there with it? The regular name? Well, again, Bob tried to talk him out of it. Thurgood Martian, Marshall potential dynasty and actual dynasty. So the Chiefs’ actual dynasty is obvious what it is, but by the new rules about what it takes to all of a sudden ocean inspectors like there might be a dynasty around here. Best I can tell, it’s a good record, a young quarterback people believe in, a coach people believe in. And again, so if I, they check a lot of those same boxes, maybe not quite as many, but again, I think the example you used on Twitter was if I were making a pizza and I had the dough and all of this. So just again, potential and actual dynasty and right now Chiefs and Chargers as a bonus. I think it’s gonna come down to them for the final playoff spot in the AFC. I think you’re gonna get 2 from the AFC South, 2 from the East, 1 from the dumb AFC North, and, uh, the Broncos and one of those 2 teams. Playoff matchup we deserve. 49ers, Bucks, Purdy Bake show. First things, first bowl, 3.5 or whatever it would be. And it’s a likely one where the Bucks are the 3 or the 4 seed and the 49ers are the 5 or the 6 seed that it certainly is in play that we get that. And I’d beat two teams, the two most injured NFC playoff teams that they’ve overcome it, you know, throughout the course of the year. Two teams who have oddly polarizing quarterbacks with very different paths, and two teams that I think most people believe, whatever their ceiling is, it’s a, a rung beneath the Super Bowl. Not everybody believes that, but most, I think it’s a playoff match we could get. Wow. I couldn’t, I couldn’t believe it. More potential dynasties. Well, the Eagles have already won one, so like they’re, they, I mean, they’re way ahead of the game and you look at the Texans, they have a coach we believe in. CJ Stroud’s won playoff games. They have a great defense. I’m just. I’m telling you, they check a lot of those boxes. I mean, the, I mean, you can say that Mike Vrabel spent time with the team. Like there’s a lot of connection there. So, again, and by the way, right now this moment, I think they’re the same caliber teams. I think the Eagles and the Texans, if they played on a neutral field right now, it’s about a coin flip game with how the Texans are playing. And how confident they are, and then the Eagles in the opposite situation. Fork in the road moment tomorrow night. Cowboys, Lions for their season, that is, not for the franchise. I think both, the Cowboys almost no matter what are going to feel very optimistic going into next year. The Lions, I think, can gather themselves if they have a disappointing season, but the loser of this game is in brutal shape. And it feels like the Lions should have a bigger margin of error, but they don’t because the top of the, it’s so, the NFC is so top-heavy. So Thursday night, fork in the road moment. I, I couldn’t believe it. Wow, so many dynasties, all 2nd-year quarterbacks, all coaches we love, all gaudy records, and you’re talking about a 10-win team, an 11-win seed, a 9-win team. They, the Broncos had a mini dynasty once upon a time. The Bears had the. Greatest single season team ever and the Patriots are the Patriots. I’m just, I just, I mean, look at this from the AFC. You can’t have a dynasty in the when there is the old dynasty in the AFC West. The, OK, OK, my bad. I, I wasn’t quite sure of the rules, but I mean that’s a, that’s 1/5 of the league that is on the doorstep of a dynasty. It was not. I, I toldt hanging on by a thread. I also think all three of these teams right now are the same caliber, really, really good. And what’s up KW. Go ahead. Really, really good. Need to see them do something in the postseason to full-on buy into them, but their regular season resumes are wildly impressive. Two of them lead the conference and the one that doesn’t is if they win this weekend, they then start leading the conference in Denver because they have the tiebreaker with New England. Now or literally never, the Buffalo Bills. If they can’t make the Super Bowl this season. Why would anyone think it’s the path will ever be laid out more perfectly for them moving forward? We’ve already talked about the AFC teams that are ahead of them in the standings, have wholly unproven quarterbacks. The AFC, the teams with the proven quarterbacks. They’re gonna have to fight. They’re playing playoff games right now just to get an opportunity to get there. Those teams, Buffalo would potentially have home-field advantage, certainly against the Chiefs if they were to meet in the postseason, if the Chiefs were to get there, this has to be the year for the Bills. A 3+ A games, the Packers and the Seahawks. Both of these teams, you feel like you just know 9 out of 10 games, the defense is gonna be somewhere from good to spectacular. And when the offense is rolling as well, those two, they look like they’re the best teams in football. And Seattle has been probably the least covered excellent team this year. Green Bay, we have seen less trip+ games from them than the other really good teams. When they have played it, they’ve looked great. And then at the top, despite coming off a loss, pretty clearly the best team. A team that right now I think can feel like we can beat you with our defense, we can beat with our offense, our quarterbacks won a Super Bowl, our head coaches won a Super Bowl. We have a great wide receiver duo, and that, Greg Jennings, are the week 14 tiers. Uh, I’m gonna jump down to the wild so many dynasties because you said something as you were talking about those three teams, the Patriots, the Broncos, and the Bears, and said, uh, those teams are pretty much the same. I, I. I completely disagree. The New England Patriots. Wilds, I got you, man. They need, before I continue. In case I’m not jumping ship off the Buffalo Bills, but leave room in your back seat with the boys. Because I might take a ride with you. That’s the belief that I have in this team. Like they should be higher. They should be much higher on this team. We talk about checking boxes and, and again they, we know they have a really good coach, coach of the Year candidate. They’ve been excellent, but what they have that those other three teams on that same road do not have and haven’t had consistently all season is a conductor under center and what he’s been able to do, he being Drake May. He has been extremely special. When we talk about games that matter, and we’ll see in the postseason because these teams will be in the postseason. If we are to cast a bet and have belief in a team, we are typically going to lean to the team that has the proven quarterback. OK, none of them have that. They have the best quarterback. Based on what we’ve seen through the course of this season, he is unrattled. He’s, it doesn’t matter what he’s faced against. He has the goods to deliver, and it’s not because he has some extremely great weapon. Totally agree. But he just knows how to spread the ball around. When you look at these numbers, and people don’t take into account how impressive this is to do, but 400 yards receivers in this game, 5, they have 5. That means this young man. Includes everyone. There is no offensive player on this roster that gets into that huddle and doesn’t believe he’s getting an opportunity to make a play. Why? Because Drake May is going to utilize everything. He’s not gonna focus on one player, and I haven’t even talked about the defense. I’m solely talking about this team. Offensively, because I believe in this young man. I believe in his posture, his demeanor, obviously the way he speaks. He talks about being a conductor, and he’s been one of the best conductors at the quarterback position we have seen all year long, proven or not, I like this team going into the retrospective question for Greg just because I’m getting fired up. There we go. Um, there’s a, there’s a screen grab that’s making its way around social media, but the Kyle Williams touchdown that you, the one that he got in barely. Um, the ball’s in the air, and I think both Mac Hollins and Stefan are like celebrating. It’s one of those like, it’s almost like a Steph Curry type thing, Klay Thompson. Do you think that spreading the ball around that, and I know we give a lot of credit to like rabable the culture center, that that also is a foundation of a good culture like I’m gonna get mine, you can get yours, you can get yours, and they’re all rooting for each other, or is that just variable? Absolutely, and I, I think it has a lot to do with Josh McDaniels and just allowing his quarterback to understand you don’t have to focus in on one guy. A lot of times when you have a young quarterback, you’re in their ear saying, hey, you got your. Now you got this guy, you got this guy. They’re letting him play. So go back, go back to the tiers real quick because I want to just respond to Greg, because there is, it is undeniable that right now the Patriots have the best quarterback of the three. It’s undeniable. I think he’s a top 5 quarterback in the league moving forward, and I think he’s been the, if I had an MVP vote, he’d be 2nd and the other 2 quarterbacks wouldn’t be in your top 15. I get that. The point that the reason I think they are closer than you clearly do is the records, it’s 2 loss, 2 loss, 3 loss. So the records are very similar. The coaches are all coaches, I think we believe in. Ben Johnson, the least experienced, Sean Payton hasn’t had the success recently. But the Super Bowl champion Vrabel is one of the most respected coaches. They’re the same quarterback class. We’ve only seen one of them in the playoffs, and that was a disaster. The other two, we’ve seen a lot of great quarterbacks not be great quarterbacks their first playoff game. So that’s at least a question mark. Patriots have the best quarterback, the 2nd best of the 3, 2nd-best defense and worst running game. The Broncos have the best defense, the 2nd-best running game, and the worst quarterback. The Bears have the best running game, the 2nd best quarterback, and the worst defense. So, that, I think that there are, I. I agree with you that I almost always Tie goes to the quarterback when they’re young, when it’s a young quarterback, I need to see him play in his first playoff game before I give him that tie goes to him stamp. So that’s all that, that would be the, that would be the point that I make. All right, I hate to rain on Seattle’s parade. Oh, they’re good, but drop the Seahawks. Why? I’m about to tell you why. Because they have beaten one team, one, Greg, that would currently be in the playoffs. They are 1 and 3 against playoff teams right now. 1 and 3, all right? And I’ve heard a lot of chatter about Good quarterbacks, best quarterback, proven quarterbacks. Seattle’s got a proven quarterback, proven to mess up when the, the chips are the highest. I mean, look, and, and I’m, I’ll leave the door open for him to maybe. Turn it around, but so far, last year when the games really got tight and you could win the division and you play in the playoffs, he was terrible. This year, here’s his record against playoff teams and against non-playoff teams. Look at the numbers. Passer rating plummets. That’s a fine pass. It’s fine, but it’s fine. But look at him against non-playoff teams. Look at the touchdown, the interception. That was all one game. Well, yeah, but the touchdowns are all one game too. He had 4 against Tampa, so it kind of evens out. The yards per game. He throws for a lot maybe because they’re trailing, but my point is he doesn’t play well in the big moments, and obviously those are gonna become big moments. And here’s the thing. As the expectations of him and the the team rises, he has started to struggle a little bit. His last 4 games, 3 touchdowns, 5 interceptions. That’s 1 game is all of it is the 4 picks. Should we just erase that? No, I’m just saying I don’t think losing in the playoffs would be 1 game. I just, that’s all it takes. I don’t think it’s a 3 re and these. Aren’t even playoff teams. The 3 of the games last 4 games against non-playoff teams. The problem is the guy who he’s on the same level as the last 2 games we’ve seen him in the playoffs, he’s been off. But hold on, here’s what, he was great his first playoff game, and then his second playoff game. That means a lot. Look, look at those top 4 teams you have. The the Rams obviously have a proven Super Bowl champion. Everybody’s all-American. Look, JLo went into Jerry world where they had won what, 1516 straight. It was two years ago, 16 straight games, and got busy on him, obviously Josh Allen, then Donaldold, JLo was worse in the playoffs last year than Donaldold, yeah, but he at least has shown you he can do it. He had a bad game and he Donaldold, the from what we see now. Now it looks like the moment might be too. I agree. JL just had a bad game. It wasn’t the moment. I don’t, that’s the part I don’t know if I agree with you. But why would the moment have been bad, bit, uh, bad too big. You’re in a bad, you know, 1000 or over for your careers, but I think Seattle’s really, really, really good. I I they just wanna drop them a level, but you got them too. I think the Bills are riding on reputation. I’ve been singing the same song since week one of the Bills. I’m like, yeah. And I know everyone likes the bills because they’re a little bit like a steakhouse in the city. We’re like, oh, this is gonna be great. And you get in there and like, I don’t know. I was in here two years ago. It was just a little bit better. Here’s why. One, Sean McDermott’s defense is not the same as it used to be. You can be OK. You can be great at stuff. That’s the best-case scenario. You can be middle of the road and stuff, that’s an OK scenario. But being dead last in things is really bad. Does it offset at all that their, that their past defense ranks are almost the exact opposite of this? Not to me. OK. I like running the ball. I like when it gets cold, you’re gonna be handing that thing off and like, uh oh, right up the middle on this Bills defense. Two, Josh Allen under pressure. And this is just, uh, 2024, he didn’t get sacked at all. He also won the MVP. He had the fewest sacks in 12 or more starts. This year, he’s tied for the sixth most sacks. A lot of these sacks, and again, I’m gonna have to go back and watch all these sacks. I’m probably not actually gonna do that. But when I go back and watch all these sacks, they’re not sort of what I call a Miles Garrett sack, where it’s like boom, done, Josh Allen’s down. It’s a lot of him looking down the field trying to extend the play. Oh, is Keyon Coleman there? Oh no, we sat him down for two games. Oh, is Jalen Wild there? Oh no, we didn’t trade for him. We didn’t. You think that’s what he’s thinking of? Where’s everybody? Where’s Matt Stefon Diggs there? 00 yeah. Oh, where’s Matt Collins? He was great against the Chiefs. Oh, we traded, we let him go for no reason. Gabe Gabe Davis was one great against the Chiefs. Matt Collins, Matt Collins was great against the Chiefs who scored a touchdown, showed up in an animal outfit. OK, remember that? Yeah, go ahead. Uh, finally, so, so now he’s looking around the field trying to make things happen. Guess what? Doing too much. Most giveaways since the start of October. Now I don’t, now I don’t count, I don’t count Sam Darnold’s because 4 of them are just in one game. I also lose. Oh God. What Josh Allen has been spreading the thing around. You’re right there with Tua. We all we do is talk about Tua’s interceptions. All we do is we haven’t talked, literally, we literally haven’t talked about Tua at all, you know why? Because he gives the ball away too much. It doesn’t even make one throws. So he listen, so you are right to a degree that they’re writing on reputation, but in the defense of the committee. That is because they are reminding us lately of the scariest Bills teams, which are teams where Josh will turn the ball over. That is true. But right now, here’s what they have. They, they have the best running attack in football. You just said you like running the ball in the playoffs. They have the best running attack in football paired with what, unless Patrick makes it, will be clearly the most proven and arguably, I’m I’m saying arguably, uh, deference to Drake May. The best quarterback on his side of the bracket in the playoffs and a defense that you’re right is very bad at one thing and very good at another. But if you think the Patriots are the biggest threat, what’s the only thing the Patriots aren’t good at offensively? What do we do? What’s the only thing the Patriots aren’t good at good at everything. I think it’s a play call. Josh McDaniel’s play calling decision when we’re not good at running the ball. We’re 11 and 2. The, uh, we ran for almost, I think we ran for 150. OK, well, listen, I can’t, I, I’m not gonna be able to combat the argument of the stuff we’re not good at, it’s because we don’t want to be. Well, we’re 11 and 2. I’m just saying there’s decisions being made where it’s like, I don’t think we have to run the ball that much. Well, I, I, flip side of that is typically a team that’s been winning and right. I mean, like they, I mean, how about, OK, maybe we should be undefeated. No, I, again, I’m saying we’re, we’ve won 10 straight games to be like you guys are bad at this. I, I disagree with you. I understand that for some reason at this moment, it’s very hard to say there’s anything that the Patriots aren’t perfect at. The point I am making is this, if the team, the Bills, if the best team in the conference were the Colts, I think I would be very concerned about having the worst run defense. If the best team in the conference offense is powered by the MVP quarterback, then maybe I would prefer to have the best, the best pass. defense, that’s the argument. Now if the answer is we actually also could have the MVP running back, but we’re saving that for the playoffs, then so be it. But I just think that is, I, I think the Bills, the Bills reminding me of old great Bills teams is a good thing. I think it’s like Jamie Foxxx where it’s like, he’s a great actor, he’s not, you know, a very good singer. It’s like, no, I could sing too. I’m just doing a movie right now where I don’t sing. Yeah, I understand. You want me to start singing. I’ll be excellent. Then explain the yards per carry stuff, buddy. That doesn’t work there.

Nick Wright unveils his Week 14 Tiers/Tears, including the Cincinnati Bengals still not facing elimination due to being in the “Dumb AFC North,” then break down why his Kansas City Chiefs remain an actual dynasty, with the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos and New England Patriots being potential dynasties (sort of). Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes and Greg Jennings weigh in.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

Bengals still NOT facing elimination in “Dumb AFC North” 😤 Chiefs remain an actual dynasty | FTF
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