Look, I don't want to sit here and say that we've reached the deadest point of the NFL offseason, but I think we've reached the deadest point of the NFL season. I knew we were here when I watched four straight hours of Tom Brady playing golf against Aaron Rodgers. I was so desperate for football that I watched golf.
Of course, the upside of reaching the deadest point of the offseason is it means that things are only going to get livelier from here. For one, the deadline to sign players who have been franchised to long-term deals is coming up next week (July 15), so that will add some drama to the offseason. The week after that (July 21), the Cowboys and Steelers will be reporting to training camp. Four days later (July 25), the Buccaneers will be reporting to training camp and then two days after that (July 27), every other team will be reporting to training camp.
Also, the first game of the season kicks off exactly two months from today (Sept. 9). Basically, it's all downhill from here, you just have to make it through this weekend, which will be easy for me, since I plan on drinking as many Slurpees as possible to celebrate 7-Eleven Day on Sunday
Alright, let's get to the rundown.
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1. Today's show: Divisional Power Rankings
If you've been listening to the Pick Six Podcast over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that there's a theme: Someone gets put in the hot seat and grilled by host Will Brinson over a rankings story they wrote for the website. For today's episode, I GOT PUT IN THE HOT SEAT for my divisional power rankings, but I was fine with it because I had an ice cold Bud Light to cool me down. (On a very related note, the Pick Six Podcast is now officially sponsored by Bud Light. I knew all my beer drinking would eventually pay off).
As for the show, Brinson and I were joined by Ryan Wilson and we spent nearly 40 minutes debating my rankings.
Here's how my divisional power rankings broke down:
1. NFC West
2. AFC North
3. AFC West
4. AFC East
5. NFC South
6. NFC North
7. AFC South
8. NFC East
First, let me just say that we all agreed that the NFC East is hot garbage, so there wasn't really any debate for the last spot although Brinson did make an argument that maybe the AFC South should be there. The biggest debate came at the two spot. I have the AFC North there, but Wilson and Brinson both would have put the AFC West there. The AFC North sent three teams to the playoffs last season, the AFC West had three teams that didn't even finish above .500. Advantage: AFC North.
BOOM. Who's on the hot seat now, BRINSON?
To listen to today's entire debate -- and to follow the podcast -- be sure to click here. You can also check out my full story on the divisional power rankings by clicking here.
Also, in news that you might not believe, we've been nominated in The People's Choice Podcast Awards for the 'Best Sports Podcast' and YOU CAN HELP US WIN THE AWARD by clicking here and voting for us (You have to open a podcast awards account to vote, but it's free and easy). I'm not going to beg for votes, OK, I'm going to beg for votes: Please vote for us!
2. Saints general manager responds to Tom Brady rumors
In the lead up to the 2020 NFL season, a report came out that the Saints went hard after Tom Brady when he hit free agency last year and it appears there might be some truth to that. Saints general manager Mickey Loomis made an appearance on the Adam Schein Podcast this week and during the show, he was directly asked about the team's interest in Brady.
"All I can say is this: As soon as Drew made the decision that he was gonna play again last year, then that's the route we were going," Loomis said, via Pro Football Talk. "That's probably all I'm gonna say to that."
If the Saints weren't interested in Brady, then Loomis could have just said, "We had zero interest," but instead, he gave us the comment above, which seems to indicate the team took a serious look at Brady. The Saints ended up winning the division with Brees and going 2-0 in the regular season against the Buccaneers, but they lost the game that counted in the divisional round of the playoffs. I'm guessing they're regretting that they didn't get Brady.
In other comments from the podcast:
- Loomis had rave reviews for Jamies Winston. "Jameis has been fantastic, and you have these impressions of guys afar, that when you get them in your building, you really learn a lot about them," Loomis said. "He did just fantastic -- fantastic as a teammate, fantastic representative of the organization. He's a smart, smart football player. He's hard-working. Just everything you would want. So I'm excited to see how this shakes out." Jameis seems like a popular guy in New Orleans.
- Loomis is also high on Taysom Hill, but with a catch. "Well look, he's a tremendous athlete, No. 1," Loomis said. "He's got a tremendous arm. He's got tremendous speed, strength. Smart football player. Look, for what he's done for us, to date, he has just been a great football player. I think he can be, you know, a really top-flight tight end. He can be a top-flight H-back in our league."
Based on those comments, I'm starting to think Jamies is going to win the QB competition in New Orleans and Hill is going to continue to play the Swiss Army knife role that the Saints have carved out for him.
3. Predicting the MVP for each AFC team
The NFL only hands out one MVP award every year, but that doesn't mean we can't hand out a few more awards, so that's exactly what we're going to do right now. Our Tyler Sullivan decided to run through every team in the AFC and predict who is going to be the MVP for each team.
The fun part here is that Sullivan didn't go through and pick the obvious choice for each team. For instance, the Chiefs MVP isn't Patrick Mahomes.
So who is the Chiefs MVP? Who made the cut for the other 15 teams in the AFC?
Let's find out.
Bills: Josh Allen
Dolphins: Jaylen Waddle
Patriots: Jakobi Meyers
Jets: Quinnen Williams
Texans: Tyrod Taylor
Colts: Parris Campbell
Jaguars: Laviska Shenault
Titans: Derrick Henry
Ravens: Lamar Jackson
Bengals: Joe Burrow
Browns: Baker Mayfield
Steelers: T.J. Watt
Broncos: Kyle Fuller
Chiefs: Chris Jones
Raiders: Darren Waller
Chargers: Justin Herbert
If you want a detailed explanation for why each of the players made the cut, then you're going to want to click here so you can read Sullivan's entire story. Coming next week, we'll pick an MVP from each NFC team.
4. Top offensive players under the age of 25
Once you hit age 25 in the NFL, you're basically over the hill, which is why we decided to rank the top players in the league under the age of 25. OK, so you're probably not over the hill quite yet, but it is interesting to see all the up-and-coming stars in the NFL who haven't hit 25 yet.
This ranking, which was put together by Jordan Dajani, only has two rules: Rookies aren't on the list and to qualify, a player can't turn 25 before the start of the 2021 season (Any player who is 24 or younger on Sept. 9 qualifies).
Top offensive players under the age of 25
QB: Lamar Jackson, Ravens
RB: Saquon Barkley, Giants
WR: Justin Jefferson, Vikings
WR: DK Metcalf, Seahawks
WR: A.J. Brown, Titans
TE: T.J. Hockenson, Lions
LT: Jedrick Wills, Browns
LG: Connor Williams, Cowboys
C: Erik McCoy, Saints
RG: Nate Davis, Titans
RT: Tristan Wirfs, Buccaneers
The Titans were the only team that had multiple players on the list.
Dajani also made a second team, which was led by Kyler Murray at QB, and you can check out the players who made that list by clicking here. Coming next week, we'll take a look at the top defensive players under the age of 25.
5. DK Metcalf wants to race Tyreek Hill
Since Tokyo doesn't seem too enthusiastic about playing host to the Olympics this year, I say we just cancel the thing and have everyone watch a race between DK Metcalf and Tyreek Hill.
A race between the two receivers could actually happen at some point and that's because Metcalf recently challenged Hill on Twitter after watching the Chiefs receiver destroy Packers running back Aaron Jones in a race. Why did Jones race Hill when there was no chance he was going to win? I have no idea, maybe he just wanted to know what losing was like since he'll probably be doing a lot of that if Aaron Rodgers doesn't return to Green Bay this year.
As for who would win a race between Hill and Metcalf, it would probably be pretty close.
Here's a quick look at their best times in the 100m:
- Best time for Metcalf: The Seahawks receiver tried to qualify for the Olympics this year by running the 100m at the USTAF Golden Games in May, but he didn't make that cut. That being said, he did run an impressive 10.37.
- Best time for Hill: Metcalf might be fast, but Hill seems to have another gear. While he was in high school, the Chiefs star once ran a 100m race under 10 seconds, according to NBC Sports, but it didn't officially count because it was wind-aided. Hill's fastest legal time is 10.19, which is still faster than Metcalf. Like the Seahawks receiver, Hill has made it clear that he'd like to qualify for the Olympics one day.
Basically, someone needs to get these two to race and they need to make it happen as soon as possible and if a spot on the Olympic team is on the line, even better.
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.
- Broncos QB/WR is headed to Hall of Fame. One of the weirdest moments of the 2020 season happened when Broncos receiver Kendall Hinton was forced to play quarterback after every QB on Denver's roster was forced to miss a game due to COVID. The situation was so crazy that the Pro Football Hall of Fame is using Hinton's QB wristband from the game in an exhibit that shows just how unique the 2020 season really was.
- Saquon Barkley stays mum when asked about recovery from injury. After missing most of the 2020 season with an ACL injury, the Giants running back wasn't in the mood to talk about how his rehab is going when he was asked about it this week. This might not be anything to worry about, but it would slightly concern me if I were a Giants fan. Fortunately, I'm not a Giants fan.
- Patrick Mahomes gives update on toe. Although Saquon wouldn't talk about his injury, Mahomes was more than happy to talk about this when he was asked about it on Thursday. The QB said that his surgically repaired toe is "feeling great." Mahomes will be in Lake Tahoe this week for a celebrity golf tournament and he probably wouldn't be playing golf if he was having any issues with his toe.
- Lions QB won't be cheering on wife at Olympics. Melissa Gonzalez, the wife of Lions backup quarterback David Blough, will be heading to Tokyo this month after she qualified for the Colombian Olympic team in the 400m hurdles. Unfortunately, Blough won't be able to cheer her on in person and that's because it has been decided that fans won't be allowed to attend the Olympics. Due to new COVID cases, Tokyo is now in a state of emergency thru Aug. 22.
