I don't know if Tom Brady is directly related to King Midas, but I'm starting to think he is, because everything that guy touches turns to gold.
It's now been roughly 16 months since Brady signed with the Buccaneers and in that time, Tampa Bay HAS STARTED WINNING SPORTS TITLES LEFT AND RIGHT. There is no way this is a coincidence. With the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup on Wednesday, Tampa has now claimed three championships since Sept. 28 of last year. That's three titles in 282 days. That's an average of one title every 94 days. It's insane.
The run started with the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup back in September, then the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl in February, and now, the Lightning have won the Stanley Cup again. Also, let's not forget that the Rays played in the World Series back in October and they came two wins away from adding another trophy to this crazy run. And let's he honest, Tampa would probably have a team in the NBA Finals right now if the city had a basketball team. SOMEONE GIVE THEM AN NBA TEAM.
I think what I'm trying to say here is that I'm jealous of Tampa and will never be speaking of the city ever again. Look Tampa, you already have Dick Vitale, Hulk Hogan and Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys, you don't even NEED the titles. You've got everything any big city could want. Alright, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's get to the rundown.
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1. Today's show: Ranking the top 10 teams of the Super Bowl era
We love to debate things so much on the Pick Six Podcast that I think we once had a debate about who likes to debate things the most (The answer is Will Brinson, who will literally debate you on anything). The middle of the NFL offseason is the perfect time for historical debates, so that's exactly what we did for Thursday's episode.
On the show, Brinson was joined by Bryan DeArdo and the two of them ranked the top 10 teams of the Super Bowl era.
Here's the list from DeArdo:
1. 1978 Steelers
2. 1972 Dolphins
3. 1985 Bears
4. 1984 49ers
5. 1992 Cowboys
6. 1976 Raiders
7. 1996 Broncos
8. 1966 Packers
9. 1986 Giants
10. 1999 Rams
As you'll notice, this list doesn't include any Patriots teams, even though they've won six Super Bowls. If I had made the list, I probably would have included either the 2003 Patriots (started the season 2-2, then won 12 straight games to end the season 14-2 before winning the Super Bowl) or the 2016 Patriots (Tom Brady went 11-1 as a starter after being suspended the first four games and then pulled off the greatest Super Bowl comeback of all time).
If you want to know why the 1978 Steelers were ranked at the top, you're going to want to hear DeArdo's explanation on the show.
To listen to today's episode -- and to follow the podcast -- be sure to click here. You can also check out DeArdo's full story on the top 10 teams of the Super Bowl era by clicking here.
2. Rams new alternate uniform may have leaked
When the Rams unveiled their new uniforms last year, they made sure to note that they would also be releasing one new uniform in 2021 and 2022. The release for this year was supposed to happen at the end of the month (July 25), but it came early thanks to rookie wide receiver Tutu Atwell, who accidentally shared the new uniforms on Instagram.
Atwell was holding an autograph session and during that session, not only was he signing some of the blue and "bone" colored uniforms that the Rams released last year, but he was also signing a white uniform, which raised some eyebrows. The Rams didn't release a white jersey last year, so it wouldn't make sense for Atwell to have one unless it was the new one that's going to be released this year.
Ironically enough, the leak came on the same day that the Rams website wrote a feature on him. Atwell was selected in the second round (57th overall pick) in the 2021 NFL Draft and since the Rams didn't have a first-round pick this year, that means he was their first pick. They will now be hoping that he's better at football than he is at keeping secrets.
The moral of the story here is that you can't trust rookies with anything. You can see the Rams' leaked uniforms by clicking here.
3. Predicting the final record for all 32 teams
Now that the summer is here, that means the dead part of the NFL offseason is upon us and although things can get kind of boring during this period, we spiced things up here over the past few weeks by going through each team's schedule and predicting their final record for 2021. However, since we went through one schedule per day, you probably don't remember what our prediction was for each team, so to fix that problem, I'm going to give you all 32 predictions in one place.
Here's a look at our final predictions along with the 14 teams we have going to the playoffs:
AFC East
Bills: 14-3
Dolphins: 10-7
Patriots: 9-8
Jets: 5-12
AFC North
Ravens: 12-5
Browns: 11-6
Steelers: 10-7
Bengals: 9-8
AFC South
Titans: 11-6
Colts: 10-7
Jaguars: 5-12
Texans: 1-16
AFC West
Chiefs: 14-3
Chargers: 9-8
Broncos: 9-8
Raiders: 8-9
AFC playoffs: 1. Chiefs 2. Bills 3. Ravens 4. Titans 5. Browns 6. Colts 7. Steelers
NFC East
Cowboys: 12-5
Washington: 10-7
Giants: 8-9
Eagles: 8-9
NFC North
Packers: 11-6
Vikings: 9-8
Bears: 8-9
Lions: 4-13
NFC South
Buccaneers: 12-5
Saints: 9-8
Panthers: 8-9
Falcons: 6-11
NFC West
Seahawks: 12-5
49ers: 12-5
Rams: 10-7
Cardinals: 10-7
NFC playoffs: 1. Buccaneers 2. Seahawks 3. Cowboys 4. Packers 5. 49ers 6. Rams 7. Washington
One thing to keep in mind here is that total record for all 32 teams doesn't come out to 272-272 because we didn't make these picks as a group (There were seven writers total involved in these predictions). One writer was assigned to each team and that writer didn't take into consideration anyone else's picks. Once we get closer to the season, I promise we'll give you a prediction where everything evens out.
4. Ranking all 32 rosters by talent
After ranking all the position groups in the NFL over the past few weeks, we decided it only made sense to combine all those rankings into one super ranking and that's the ranking we're going to unveil today. Our Jordan Dajani went through all 32 NFL rosters and ranked them by talent.
In news that probably won't surprise you, the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers are at the top of the list.
Top 10 teams based on roster talent
1. Buccaneers
2. Chiefs
3. Browns
4. Rams
5. Bills
6. Ravens
7. Packers
8. Washington
9. Steelers
10. Titans
Dajani ranked all 32 teams and if you want to check out the rest of his list, be sure to click here (Spoiler alert: The Texans came in last, but you probably already knew that).
5. Kyle Shanahan unfiltered
It's not often that you get to hear an NFL coach give his unfiltered opinion on almost anything, but that's exactly what Kyle Shanahan did this week during an appearance on The Ringer's "Flying Coach" podcast, which is hosted by Peter Schrager and Rams coach Sean McVay (The premise of this podcast is brilliant, because coaches are much more willing to talk since McVay is on the show every week).
Here are three interesting nuggets from Shanahan's interview:
- The 49ers coach was frustrated with how the Rams landed Matthew Stafford. Before the trade went down, McVay went out to dinner with Stafford in Cabo and the crazy twist here is that Shanahan was ALSO in Cabo that weekend. "You don't want to get me started, dude. That was frustrating. I was in Cabo." Shanahan said, via NFL.com. "I remember Saturday I was so stressed out and finally we talked to someone, it was seven at night, and they're like, 'No, nothing's happening (with a trade) at the earliest until tomorrow, so you can finish your night.' So I'm like, alright, I'm done." Shanahan wanted Stafford and he didn't even get a chance to land him because he went to bed. This is why you should never go to bed when you're on vacation in Mexico.
- Shanahan almost skipped his 49ers interview. The 49ers almost had to go to Plan B and that's because Shanahan almost didn't show up for his interview, "I almost canceled San Francisco," Shanahan said, via 49ersWebZone.com. "The reason being -- it had nothing to do with San Francisco -- it was just my whole goal in life was to be a head coach and stay a head coach. It wasn't just to become one and say I got there." If Shanahan hadn't taken the job, the 49ers were also looking at Josh McDaniels, Tom Cable, Anthony Lynn, Doug Marrone and Vance Joseph.
- The former Falcons offensive coordinator says Super Bowl LI came down to one play. One reason the Falcons blew a 28-3 lead is because their offense fell apart in the fourth quarter. During the podcast, Shanahan went through a few plays and pointed to one particular one that cost the Falcons big time and it came on a play where the Falcons got called for a "bad" holding penalty. You can hear his comments by clicking here.
The entire podcast is worth a listen and you can check out by clicking here.
6. Rapid-fire roundup
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Amari Cooper might miss start of training camp. It's now been six months since Cooper underwent minor ankle surgery and apparently, he's still not quite ready to return to the field. The Cowboys report to training camp on July 22 and according to Sports Illustrated, Cooper will be cutting it close. Of course, it's not a big deal if Cooper misses the first few days of camp, but it will be a big deal if this injury starts to linger.
- First preview released for new movie about Kurt Warner's movie. Late last year, Lionsgate announced that it would be making a movie about Kurt Warner's life and the first preview for that film has now been release. The movie, which is called "American Underdog" will be hitting theaters on Dec. 10. You can see the preview by clicking here.
- Broncos QB somehow avoids serious injury after windshield gets smashed by a lug nut. Drew Lock narrowly avoided a serious injury this week. The quarterback was driving on an interstate in Kansas when another car lost its tire. One of the lug nuts from that tire ended up hitting Lock's car at full speed. The damage to Lock's car, which you can see here, was pretty extensive, but he did avoid injury.
- Josh Allen extension will work itself out. Bills coach Sean McDermott apparently isn't too worried about getting a deal done with Allen, "[Contracts] work themselves out when you got two parties that want to be together and have the same end goal in mind," McDermott said. "Josh is a great, young talent and he fits so well with Buffalo and the city and the town and the people of Buffalo. So, I firmly believe it's gonna work itself out." When the extension does eventually get done, I'm guessing Bills fans will be celebrating by body slamming themselves through folding tables.
