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00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Pro Game Picks for Week 10. Thank you for listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the show.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: It's time to play Pick'Em with NFL Pro here for Week 10 in the NFL. Trevor Sycamore, Brett Coleman here with you guys, as always, picking our 10 favorite games that we have in the week. And we're not just picking the winners, we're going to rank them in terms of how confident we are that they are going to win the game, which is Been a little bit of a game for us that we have done all season long. If you guys are new here, what happens is we rank these games in terms of 1 through 10 confidence. If you get the 10 confidence game right, you get 10 points, 9, 9 points, so on and so forth.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: But the kicker is, if you pick a.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: 10 confidence game and they don't win, not only do you not get the 10 points, you get minus 10 points.
00:00:50
Speaker 3: You better be pretty confident about that 10 spot.
00:00:54
Speaker 2: Going into the week, last week, you were up on me 233 to 210.
00:01:01
Speaker 3: So I was down 23 points on you.
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Speaker 2: And, well, I don't really know how well this week is going to go for me in terms of making up that ground because you scored 54 out of a possible 55.
00:01:18
Speaker 3: Points last week.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Well done, my friend. Did I get nine games right?
00:01:23
Speaker 2: You got nine games right, and the only game that you missed was picking New England over Green Bay in your one spot.
00:01:29
Speaker 3: You only missed one game.
00:01:31
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I put it in the one spot.
00:01:32
Speaker 2: You know what? If you're going to miss a game, you want to miss that one. So one pick short of being perfect, my friend.
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Speaker 3: Well done.
00:01:40
Speaker 2: So your season total is 287.
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Speaker 1: Every single week, the one spot game is either the two worst teams playing each other, and you don't know who's going to lose. Or the two best teams playing each other. Correct. That's my strategy, just limit exposure. Well, that was the best week I've ever had.
00:01:59
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:01:59
Speaker 1: By far. And it still came in second place for the week. Because for the first time all season, Trevor, you hit 55 points. A perfect week. to finally make up for all the times you picked the Cowboys.
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Speaker 3: This is BS, by the way.
00:02:17
Speaker 2: The one week that I'm perfect, I only gain a point on you?
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Speaker 3: One point?
00:02:26
Speaker 1: That's what happens when we all agree on every single game.
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Speaker 2: I bowled a perfect game and I beat you by one. So I was down 23 going into last week's games and now I'm only down 22.
00:02:40
Speaker 1: Oh, incredible. Great, great.
00:02:42
Speaker 3: We got to disagree more this week. We got to make sure that we disagree.
00:02:45
Speaker 2: I wasn't the only one who got a perfect score last week, though. On the fan leaderboard, because you guys have been doing an incredible job of giving us your game picks in their confidence order as well. 27 people, Brett, also scored a perfect 55. So it was a good week to pick some games. There is a 27-way tie for first place this week.
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Speaker 3: What?
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:03:10
Speaker 2: So we can't even shout people out because there's 27 people who got perfect scores.
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Speaker 1: That's like having a bunch of lottery winners and you get like five bucks on the Mega Millions. So I hope it feels good because if you see the leaderboard, if you throw me in there as well, technically that's 28. So It's the 28 of us, and then it's your name with one point less than the rest of us, but.
00:03:32
Speaker 3: Your number starts with tied for 29th. You win nothing.
00:03:42
Speaker 2: The fan average this week was 50.5, which is a record since we started doing this in the beginning of the season. Previous high was 36.8, so a massive week here in week nine. That was week three in which it was 36.8. Only nine fans, which is 7%, took the minus 10, the lowest rate since.
00:04:03
Speaker 3: The rule started. So a good week of pick'ems.
00:04:07
Speaker 1: It was a good week of pick-ups. I'm curious what their 10-spot games were they got wrong. Because I just can't imagine losing a game last week. I don't think it was possible. Yeah.
00:04:15
Speaker 3: Well, you can imagine it. You don't have to imagine it.
00:04:18
Speaker 1: You did. Yeah, that's true. And I knew like four minutes into the game.
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Speaker 3: I can't imagine it. In my wildest dreams, I could never imagine losing a pick-up game.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: I didn't even sit down on the couch, by the way, before the pick happened. I was like, uh-oh. This isn't going to go the way I thought it was.
00:04:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, that one was getting a little ugly.
00:04:41
Speaker 2: And hey, I said that Drake May had not faced a safety group specifically like the one that the Green Bay Packers have and proved to be true. So we got 10 more games that we're talking about here this week. I'll try to go back to back here with a perfect score. You'll try to, you know, up your chances to maybe get there.
00:04:56
Speaker 3: And I believe in you, man. I got faith in you here.
00:04:58
Speaker 1: Let's start. Shut up. Let's start with.
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Speaker 3: The Kansas City Chiefs. and the Atlanta Falcons. Where do you have Kansas City and Atlanta here this week?
00:05:08
Speaker 1: This is a fun game. So the Chiefs, as of 30 minutes before recording this, we waited until the exact trade deadline date to record this because we didn't know what trades we were going to get. And glad we did because a half hour ago, Josh Downs became a Kansas City Chief, which is going to at least help fix one of their big issues this year, which is they don't have any receivers they can
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really separate, right? They have yards after catch threats, but they don't necessarily have a guy who could just get open against man coverage. If you looked at their net passing yardage last week against the Jets, I want to say it was 203 of their 228 net passing yards, which includes sacks or losses or anything like that. But that was all after the catch. So we're talking 85, 90%. of all of their passing yardage came after the catch that's just not sustainable, even though the Chiefs do tend to sustain that quite a bit. You don't want to live in that world. So getting a guy who's a true separator can also be a really good deep threat down the field when he's actually given a quarterback that can throw deep. I like Josh Downs a lot. I thought it was a fair value for the trade. And I'm going to pick them to beat Atlanta here in the seventh spot. Because if you're looking at complete teams, even though the Chiefs do have their issues, I think they're a more complete team than Atlanta. And I still, we're in November of year three. I still can't figure out if Michael Penix is going to work or not.
00:06:38
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:06:39
Speaker 1: Right? I just, I don't know what he is. And I feel like the fact that I don't know what he is in November of year three kind of is an answer. I don't want to say that answer quite yet. I want to give him more chances, but God, we're running out of those. Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker 2: And look, I have Kansas City winning this game as well. I have it at the five spot. I think when I looked at this game on paper, I probably should have had it a little bit higher, but I've got a little bit of reservations because when the Falcons have been good, it feels like it's been when I've least expected it. So maybe it is a total bounce back for them. I think that this team is very up and down, although not having Jesse Bates anymore, objectively does not make your team have a better chance of defeating Patrick Mahomes.
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Speaker 3: So that certainly goes into it.
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Speaker 2: But When you look at Atlanta, what worries me the most about this game for them is not the fact that can Michael Pennix have a good or a bad game, or mainly a good game to upset them here. To me, it comes down to, I understand that the weather conditions were not ideal when the Falcons played against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
00:07:37
Speaker 3: But that actually.
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Speaker 2: Kind of makes it worse for them to have given up as many rushing yards as they did. Tampa completed zero passes. They attempted three. There was no disguise of what the Buccaneers not only did in that game, but were going to do in that game. Baker Mayfield is coming off of the thumb injury. He hadn't had a game where he was a big-time passer yet. The weather conditions were terrible. The Falcons knew the Buccaneers were going to run the football, and they couldn't stop it. That heavily worries me against Kenneth Walker and his Chiefs rushing attack.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, you better believe it.
00:08:14
Speaker 1: They had 19 missed tackles in that game, by the way.
00:08:19
Speaker 2: Weather can go into the missed tackles, but at the same time, you knew what was coming, and you were not able to stop it. That really worries me going up against Walker in this Chiefs rushing attack. I'm also going with the Kansas City Chiefs here. I hope we get a good Michael Penix game, because if we do, I think this one could be a lot of fun. But the book feels like it's a little bit too much of, hey, if you pressure him, he's going to put the ball in harm's way. More times than he should, certainly, to get a victory. So I'll go Kansas City here. I got them at my five spot. You got Kansas City at the seven spot. What about the Patriots and the Detroit Lions? This is an international game. This one's in Munich.
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Speaker 3: Who do you have winning this game?
00:08:59
Speaker 1: So I know your rule is you don't put international games above five in your confidence. Yeah, correct. Because we never know what's going to happen. Correct. I put it at four, not because it's an international game, but just because I still... I don't really know what version of Drake May we're going to get, which sounds like I'm just repeating the Michael Penix analysis. Like, yes, but the baseline of Drake May, obviously way higher than the baseline of Michael Penix, but still you do have these wild swings, even from half to half, right? If you looked at Drake May versus quarters in the first half versus the second half against Green Bay, atrocious in the first half, you know, threw two picks against quarters in the first like 10 minutes of the game, something like that. And then in the back half of the game, he had five attempts versus quarters, seven attempts in the first half. He was perfect. He was five for five, perfect passer rating in the second half against quarters. So even from half to half, I don't really know what we're going to get from Drake May. And I think ultimately the Patriots... will live and die based on how he plays from week to week because you know the defense isn't bad but it's also not it's not as reliable as it was last year from series to series from down to down and you know when their best players like Christian Gonzalez are having an off day they don't have anybody else that can really take over a game like Gonzo. So it's very live-by-the-sword, die-by-the-sword kind of team, and you're going up against a Lions team that, A, it feels like they're playing more complete now than they were at the beginning of the season, and B, they're just going to put up points, like just flat-out score. And can you keep up with them? Even if they have a good day against Gibbs, which we talked about in the larger preview, Even if they do have a good day against Gibbs, are you also going to have a good day against Amandre St. Brown and J-Mo and Goff? They just can beat you in so many different ways. And I don't feel
like this Patriots defense, even though they have talent, I just don't feel like they're playing as consistently as they did last year, which was a big part of the reason why they went to the Super Bowl in the first place. It's because that defense with those DBs and those defensive tackles, they were just taking over games. They're not this year. So give me Detroit. I put it at the four spot. Anything is possible. I just don't feel good about it.
00:11:22
Speaker 2: We're going to be a little different on this one, thankfully, because we had basically every game other than one the same last week, which I can't blame either of us for because we both did really well.
00:11:31
Speaker 3: But I'm going to take the Patriots in this one.
00:11:34
Speaker 2: I only have it at the two spot because I do feel a lot of sort of what you're saying with different ways that this game can go.
00:11:41
Speaker 3: I just think there's such a difference.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: In, again, the secondary and safety play specifically with what the Packers were able to do and the safeties that they have.
00:11:52
Speaker 3: I mean, dude, Evan Williams is like an all-pro player.
00:11:55
Speaker 2: And Xavier McKinney... Xavier McKinney doesn't get talked about basically at all because of Evan Williams this season. Xavier McKinney's a heck of a player as well. Evan Williams might be an all-pro this year. So, when you look at how much Detroit has struggled in their secondary, definitely better as of late, which is good, specifically from the cornerback spots.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: But.
00:12:13
Speaker 3: It's not.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: Quite the coverage-versus-safety group that the Packers were able to present. And I think that Drake May really struggled with that part of it and certainly had the early bad throws as well.
00:12:24
Speaker 3: I'm not expecting that from him in this game.
00:12:26
Speaker 2: And I know he's... If you look at the large sample size of him this season, there have been lower lows than you have wanted to. It's been more volatile than what you've wanted to from Drake May. But I really do think that he steps back up in this game. And I think that the secondary for the Patriots does as well after really getting.
00:12:44
Speaker 2: Beating by Matthew Golden and Christian Watson last week. I just think the Patriots bounce back overall. And so I'm going to take the Patriots. I'll be a little bit different than you here, but I'll take them at the two spot.
00:12:58
Speaker 3: What about the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals? Where we got this game?
00:13:05
Speaker 1: This one's tough. This one's really tough, right? And, you know, we touched on it in the preview again. two really exciting offensive lines in this game. In particular, the Bengals have maybe the best offensive lineman in football this year in Amarius Mims, at least from a pass protection perspective. Whereas the Steelers as a unit might be the best offensive line in football. If you're looking at tackle play all the way into their set, like Frazier might be the best setter in the game this year. And so like, if you love great offensive line play, this is the game for you. I think they weaponize these offensive lines differently. I think the Steelers, You know, they use it to really just get the most out of Jalen Warren, whereas the Bengals used to get the most out of Joe Burrow. And so to me, the winning strategy for the Steelers in this game is, can we just run the ball and limit the total number of possessions? If we can, God willing, keep this to eight drives per team. If we can score on five, they can score on four. Or if we can score on four, they can score on three. Well, limiting Joe Burrow to under 50 is probably tough but if you limit the total number of possessions right and we just we hold them to three a couple times whereas we can get a seven that's the difference of the game the more possessions per team the more the Bengals are going to pull away from you because they're going to score at a higher rate than you will and they're probably going to do it with explosives and they're just going to keep pouring it on over and over again like this is not a team that if they build a lead, they're going to start running the ball and letting you back in the game. Like they're just going to keep throwing. So limiting total number of possessions, shrinking the game, letting Jalen Warren be our superstar. Hope we get a turnover on defense, maybe two, if we're lucky play good specialty, like that's how you beat the Bengals. If you try to open it up and, and, you know, go into a track beat against them, you're just going to lose.
00:14:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: That being said, I am picking the Bengals. I think that's what's going to happen. I don't think they're going to keep them to eight possessions. I think they'll get 10 or 11, and that's enough for Cincinnati to win this game. So I put it at the five spot, getting sexy.
00:15:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm similar thought process to you here. I'm going with Cincinnati as well, and I have them at the four spot. I just think that the Bengals offense is playing too well. I just think they're playing too well right now. I think it's going to be a really fun game. I'm very much looking forward to the Steelers front, which I think has been one of maybe the best front seven over the last month of the season going up against this Bengals offensive line that is finally getting the recognition it deserves. I feel like they've been playing well for almost the last year and a half. And really, I feel like it's taken people time to shed the old narratives about, oh, the Bengals offensive line, they're always the ones that are letting them down. They're playing really well right now, but this is a big-time barometer game playing against the best. And I think the Bengals offense is playing to a point where you could envision them as Super Bowl champions. You only get
there if the offensive line in front of you allows you to score the points that you need to against some of the really good teams. And I think right now, the way that Pittsburgh is playing, they are a really good team. So I think for the respect out of the matchup, maybe we should have flip-flopped this a little bit.
00:16:11
Speaker 3: One of us should have picked one team. One of us should have picked the other.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: But I am just going to go with Cincinnati because the point of the game is to score more points. It's really hard for me to look at the way that the Bengals are playing right now and think that anybody's going to outscore them, especially an offense that hasn't exactly.
00:16:28
Speaker 3: push the ball down the field with the aggressiveness that they need to.
00:16:30
Speaker 1: That's a nice way to say it.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: It is, but at the same time, that narrative's getting a little tired, too. As of late, it feels like Aaron Rodgers is hitting a youthful movement right now where he's a little bit more willing to scramble and escape the pocket. We see some of those vintage on-the-run Aaron Rodgers throws that we haven't seen over the last couple of years. It's going to be a very fun football game. Really excited to see these teams in the trenches go at it for as much as I think the headlines are going to be the quarterbacks.
00:17:06
Speaker 3: I'm with you. Give me the Bengals. You got it at the five spot. I got it at the four spot. Houston Texans, Cleveland Browns. What do we got in this game? Where are you taking this one?
00:17:14
Speaker 1: I'm taking the Texans, and I am very confident. I put them at the nine spot.
00:17:19
Speaker 3: As did I. This is my 9-spot game with picking the Texans as well.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: I'm interested in what your 10-spot is then. I picked my 10-spot for a very particular reason.
00:17:30
Speaker 2: I already know what your 10-spot is. I'm in your head. I'm so far in your head.
00:17:37
Speaker 3: You don't even know I'm there.
00:17:39
Speaker 1: Colts Dolphin. No, God no.
00:17:41
Speaker 2: I'm the 007 of in your mind right now. That's me at this point in the season.
00:17:45
Speaker 1: Back to the Texas Browns real quick. I feel like it doesn't matter who plays quarterback for the Browns.
00:17:52
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, truly.
00:17:53
Speaker 1: Like they both have their flaws. I think Shador has played early, played better than Deshaun in the last, you know, in, in fourth quarter, no T in that game played better than what we had seen Deshaun play this year. But I can't just forget about the first three quarters where it felt like nothing worked. And yeah, I wasn't necessarily a huge Shador guy in the draft coming out anyway. I felt like he held the ball really long, and while it did produce some jaw-dropping plays, boy, it produced a lot of mistakes as well. And that's still happening in the NFL. There's a lot of times where he's doing something in three seconds that he really has to do in two and a half. I just wish things were a little bit more on rhythm. Do I think that he provides higher upside than Deshaun? Sure. But so do 35 other quarterbacks in this league. And are either of them going to go blow for blow with what CJ Stroud is doing right now? The answer is no. I think the Texans defense has played a lot worse this year than last year. But against this particular Browns quarterback room, I would be stunned if they're able to put up more points than the Texans.
00:19:07
Speaker 3: In this game.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: Not that the sections are perfect, but I think they're going to be 4-5, so put them at the back spot.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: It's really hard.
00:19:13
Speaker 2: And look, if Cleveland wins this game, hats off to them, man. I mean, if Cleveland wins this game, shoot, we've got to give everybody involved in that their credit. I think specifically Todd Munkin because, again, if they win this game, when's the last time you would see a Browns team sort of overcome what they've been able to overcome and make the most out of the roster the way that they have to this point in the season? It'd be very, very impressive if they win this game. Because for as much as Houston, you mentioned, has had their flaws this season, specifically on the defensive side of the ball, you look at either quarterback, Deshaun or Shador, both of these players have pocket management issues. It feels like major pocket management. Even some of the really good plays from Shador last week, not saying any of this to take anything away from him, but you see some of these plays where he drops back in the pocket, he's holding on to the ball a while, and then to avoid pressure, he just drops further back into the pocket. And the Saints defensive line is not the Texans defensive line. For as much as, again, the Texans have been disappointing, they got dudes on that defensive line. And if Shador's holding onto the ball too long, which has been an issue for him going back to his time at Colorado, you're going to take sacks and drives are going to end and it's not going to be pretty. So there's just not a lot that I see coming from Cleveland's side that makes me feel as though when the game is over, they're going to be the team that's on top here. All due respect to what they did in fourth quarter and overtime of last week and Again, I think the best way that I can say this is if Cleveland wins this game, we're going to have a bouquet of flowers to, I think, give a lot of the players, the coaching staff, for making this season one that not a lot of people expected outside of Cleveland.
00:21:11
Speaker 1: And I promise if they win, we will do a full reaction segment. We have to, yeah. To explain how.
00:21:17
Speaker 3: We'll have to.
00:21:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:19
Speaker 3: So Houston, both of us have them winning at the 9th spot. You just want to talk about the 10th spot? You want to talk about the 10th spot?
00:21:26
Speaker 1: I'm curious if it's the same one. I had Seattle. Do you have Seattle?
00:21:31
Speaker 3: Oh, no, I don't.
00:21:32
Speaker 1: No, I don't. Really? Yeah. Okay.
00:21:37
Speaker 3: You know what I thought? I thought I was in your head about this.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to pick the Niners- over the Cowboys as your 10 spot.
00:21:47
Speaker 1: I'm not putting the Cowboys in the 10 spot either way, dude. Whether I'm picking them or not.
00:21:51
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to do that as like a stick it to me because I've picked the Cowboys in the 10 spot and then you're picking the Niners who are just rolling to beat the Cowboys in the 10 spot.
00:22:02
Speaker 3: I thought that you might have done that.
00:22:04
Speaker 1: I would never do that because the only way the Cowboys win this game is if I put them in the 10 spot either way to lose or to win. That's very fair. That's very fair.
00:22:12
Speaker 2: Okay, so you have Seattle then at the 10th spot. We'll talk about San Francisco and Dallas in a little bit, but you have Seattle at the 10th spot. Obviously, post-trade deadline is when we are recording this, which means it's Mendoza time for Las Vegas, and so you have a rookie quarterback going up against this Seattle Seahawks defense.
00:22:34
Speaker 1: I think, A, it was the right thing to do, as we talked about, right? To trade Kirk. get Mendoza in there. Had they reached kind of their ceiling with Kirk as a team? Yeah, probably. And while they might sink to a lower floor with Fernando while he's getting his sea legs, the ceiling as the year goes on is higher. The issue is they're going to be hitting that lower floor against Seattle in the first start, which is about as tall as an order as you can you can have for a quarterback making their first start in the league. I don't think if, or rather if Mendoza does get shellacked in this game, I don't think it's going to like mentally ruin him. I think he's a really mentally tough kid. And so I'm, I'm not worried about him taking his lumps early on and, and being kind of rough for the first month. Like I'm, I think in the long run, it's not going to do that much long-term damage to him, but it does mean that, like they're probably hoping for 500 over the next month. And I think they've acknowledged like we're, we're not a Superbowl team this year. Like maybe we could be a plucky seven seed, but really the goal for 2026 is to get us ready for 2027. That means get our guys, some reps, have him experience failure. More importantly, have him experience bouncing back from failure. And ultimately that is the lesson he's going to learn from Seattle. They're going to throw stuff at him. He has never seen before. right like he's seen quarters he's seen cover eight he's seen cover six he's probably not going to ever have seen them in the ways that they get into it post snap and he's for sure not going to have seen it paired with some of the rush paths that mcdonald's going to throw to him at the same time or throw at him at the same time so he's gonna he's gonna get looks that he's never experienced and it's it's probably not going to be good but it's necessary so if i'm the raiders i'm accepting the necessary short-term pain in exchange for the long-term ceiling of the Mendoza era. And if I'm Seattle, I'm happy about it because boy, they need wins right now to keep pace in the NFC West.
00:24:50
Speaker 2: So I also have Seattle winning this game. I have it at the eight spot. Um, so it's not very far from where you have at the 10.
00:24:58
Speaker 3: Um, Sometimes a quarterback change can be inspiring. They're at home.
00:25:05
Speaker 2: If this was in Seattle, maybe I'd just totally have it at the 10th spot and mirror you, but I also wanted to be a little bit different here, so I got a little bit further down. I think that everything that you said is probably how it's going to play out most likely. There's a little bit of magic in, again, making a change at quarterback and a number one overall pick type of talent, sort of making his first start, it'd be a hell of a win if they were able to get it against Seattle. Yeah, I mean, this would, again, be a hell of a win if they could get it. But ultimately, there is so much to side with for the Seattle Seahawks. And we just don't know enough about who Fernando Mendoza is going to be. Like, I could sit here and tell you that I felt like Mendoza had NFL throws all over his tape when he was at Indiana. I mean, back shoulder, uh, far like opposite hash throws, you know, throws in between, you know, cover two with the corner and.
00:26:03
Speaker 3: The safety, you know, things layering over the middle of the field between the linebackers and the safeties.
00:26:07
Speaker 2: I saw all of this stuff for Fernando Mendoza, um, when he was in Indiana, it's just different. It's different when you get to the league. And so maybe we'll see those throws immediately for him. And if we do, Hey, you're justified as a number one, overall pick type of a quarterback.
00:26:22
Speaker 3: Um, But this is a tough defense to get your first start against in Seattle. So who's your 10-spot game? My 10-spot game is Green Bay over Minnesota. What? That's my 10-spot game.
00:26:39
Speaker 1: Are you out of your mind?
00:26:41
Speaker 3: No.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: Okay, justify it. Just tell me why. Okay.
00:26:49
Speaker 3: One... I had this before the Kirk cousins trade.
00:26:52
Speaker 1: Okay. Two change it to.
00:26:59
Speaker 3: What is a man if not for his word. So I have to keep it.
00:27:04
Speaker 2: And three, uh, most importantly, um, genuinely it's, it's, it's the green Bay offense and the way that Jordan love is playing right now. And obviously Kirk cousins is going to be, we hope a lot better than what we saw from the quarterback position. Um, that the Vikings have trotted out there throughout the entirety of this season. But the way that Jordan Love is playing right
now, the way that Matthew Golden is playing right now and Christian Watson and everything, man, it is just, it's so hard for me to, again, even look at Kirk Cousins coming back into this offense and think that they outscore the Green Bay Packers.
00:27:36
Speaker 3: I know, I get it.
00:27:38
Speaker 2: It's Brian Flores and putting Brian Flores and him losing in this defense, losing in a.
00:27:43
Speaker 3: 10 spot is silly. I get it.
00:27:44
Speaker 2: But I have, just a lot of faith in what the Green Bay Packers have been doing. And so, again, I got to be a man to my initial word that nobody knew before I admitted it five minutes ago, but I'm taking the Green Bay Packers and I'm rolling with how they've been playing over the last couple of weeks.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: See, that's your greatest fault, Trevor, is you have principles. I don't. I took Minnesota and I put them at the three spot.
00:28:10
Speaker 3: So even if I'm wrong, it can't hurt me that bad.
00:28:13
Speaker 1: Nice. I'm a coward.
00:28:15
Speaker 2: So this is a big swing game for us here. If Green Bay wins this game, I get a lot of points on you here. And if Minnesota wins this game, I'm going to be in.
00:28:26
Speaker 1: Trouble once again. I had this thought probably after the, I don't know, 10th or 12th bad Wentz throw, where I said, because I was watching the Monday game against the Bills, and I was like, if they had average quarterback play, not even good quarterback play, if they had average quarterback play, With how dominant this defense started the game, the Bills had ran 60 plays by the middle of third quarter. They got worn down. Same thing happened against Detroit. They just got worn down. But in the first half, you're thinking, if this defense had average quarterback play, would they lose a game? And to me, the answer was no. So if we believe that Kirk Cousins can be the 16th best quarterback in the NFL in a system that he already knows with verbiage that he already knows, throwing to Justin Jefferson, God, I hope people traded for Justin Jefferson last week in anticipation of this. I hope they did because he's about to go nuclear in fantasy. You know, is the run game everything that we hope for? No, but just being able to complete an out route is an upgrade at this point. And I, you know is it realistic say oh they're not going to lose a game for the rest of the season no they probably will but they're going to be one of the hardest teams to beat in the league just being normal on offense let alone good so i this trade changed the whole nfc to me in my opinion so i'm yeah the vikings.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: I'm glad that we're on opposite sides of things because i think that this game this game warrants it now obviously in the week one game you you had the vikings uh mounting the big comeback against the packers when they were leading this game i mean what was the shoot it was 20 it was 22 to 10 at one point five minutes left in the third quarter it was 22 to 10
the Packers were up.
00:30:22
Speaker 3: And this one was in Minnesota.
00:30:23
Speaker 2: This one's in Green Bay this week. So, again, I think that there's a little revenge on the mind. I think that they were able to take advantage of that defense a little bit to start that game, to start the season in week one. And, yeah, man, give me the Packers. Give me the Packers here, even though they got Kirk Cousins now.
00:30:41
Speaker 3: What's the next game? Miami and Indianapolis. I was wondering where you'd have this one.
00:30:47
Speaker 1: It's a one spot. There's no winnings.
00:30:51
Speaker 3: No Malik Willis anymore. He's on IR. So it's Kyle McCord now.
00:30:56
Speaker 1: Kyle McCord versus Daniel Jones.
00:30:59
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:30:59
Speaker 1: Oh boy.
00:31:01
Speaker 2: I can't put it at the one spot because the one spot is almost exclusively reserved for the NFC South game of the week that we have.
00:31:10
Speaker 3: Uh, so I have the, I have New.
00:31:12
Speaker 2: Orleans and Carolina in the one spot. And so we'll discuss who we have winning that game later. But, Who do you have winning, Miami and Indianapolis?
00:31:21
Speaker 3: Who do you got winning this game?
00:31:26
Speaker 1: They could tie. They could. Nobody wants to hear that. If anybody's going to win... Don't put that in the universe. Is it Miami? Is it the Colts? I'm deciding on the spot here. I've gone back and forth ten times. Can I just read something to you real quick? Sure. If you're looking at the existing... Or rather, remaining Colts receiving core. Even with the Dolphins roster where it is. This is the remaining Colts receiving core. Laquan Treadwell, wide receiver one. Ashton Doolin, Deion Burks, Nick Westbrook-Akene, Anthony Gold. They might not win another game the entire season. Even playing Miami and Kyle McCord. This team is bad.
00:32:16
Speaker 3: As Deion Burks hive.
00:32:18
Speaker 1: I love to hear it.
00:32:20
Speaker 2: Were you a Deion Burks guy? Oh, should have never been. I mean him going, what was he a seventh round pick? I think he was a seventh round pick.
00:32:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:32:27
Speaker 1: He was a seventh.
00:32:28
Speaker 3: Whatever it was egregious.
00:32:30
Speaker 2: Like I genuinely had Deion Burks is like a borderline top 100 player.
00:32:34
Speaker 1: In the class.
00:32:34
Speaker 2: Like, I think he's got that kind of separation ability and explosiveness. And I was, I knew I would be a little bit higher on him than I think the league average would have been.
00:32:43
Speaker 3: But he goes into seventh?
00:32:45
Speaker 2: What?
00:32:47
Speaker 3: Unleash you. The time is now. The time is now, Brett.
00:32:52
Speaker 1: They didn't trade Jonathan Taylor either, which is weird to me. Very silly. Very, very silly. I think Miami wins six to three, and it's in the one spot.
00:33:03
Speaker 2: I also have Miami winning. I thought we'd be different on that one, too. I got Miami winning this game. Hit the three spot,
I guess. I got my eight and went in there at the three. We said that we were going to hit the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys.
00:33:18
Speaker 3: Where do you have this game, and who do.
00:33:19
Speaker 1: You have winning? So I put this in the eight spot. Give me San Francisco.
00:33:23
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:33:25
Speaker 1: Fully acknowledging that Dak and CD can just take over the game and win it anyway, like what happened last week. Absolutely possible. And, you know, with the injury to Grayson Holton, that hurts the Niners defense, obviously. Like, Nick Bosa still doesn't really look like Nick Bosa to me. Like, there are legitimate issues with the Niners on defense. There's been a ton of injuries with the Niners receiving core. I don't think Keenan Allen fixes that, by the way, speaking of receiver trades. So, like, there are problems with this Niners roster. But Brock Purdy is playing at such an incredibly high level. that I feel like even if Dak and CD get hot, Brock can still go blow for blow with them. And the Cowboys' defense has been so miserably bad this year that if it comes down to, similar to what we talked about earlier with Steelers-Bengals, if each one of us gets 11 possessions, if you're scoring on five, I'm scoring on six, we win. I do not expect this to be a low-scoring game at all. It's probably a track meet. As it stands right now, The Niners can at least get a stop or two in a track meet. I don't think the Cowboys can, so give me the Niners.
00:34:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, give me the Niners as well. I have them one spot lower. I have this at the seventh spot.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: And I just don't trust the Dallas Cowboys defense 100%. And you look at a 49ers defense that you're talking about making stops.
00:34:50
Speaker 3: I'm talking about getting turnovers.
00:34:52
Speaker 2: Like this 49ers defense can get turnovers on you in a game that might be a track meet. limiting their possessions and the length of their possessions and then increasing your overall number of possessions means everything in the world. So I think San Francisco is the, this has potentially to be a very fun game, but if you're sitting here looking at these two teams, I don't really know what Dallas has done to make you think that they should be the pick.
00:35:17
Speaker 3: Over the San Francisco 49ers here. So I got the Niners. I got the Niners winning this game.
00:35:21
Speaker 1: I can't believe you didn't put up a 10 spot. What, the 49ers? Yeah.
00:35:28
Speaker 2: Or you're saying that you can't believe that I didn't pick Dallas at the 10 spot once again.
00:35:31
Speaker 1: Either one. Either one, really. Colin, you're like the Green Goblin mask, man. Do it.
00:35:45
Speaker 2: We referenced, or at least I brought up the NFC South game of the week.
00:35:49
Speaker 3: It's the New Orleans Saints against the Carolina Panthers.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: I have this in my one spot out of respect for the NFC South and everything that the division
represents. I'm picking the New Orleans Saints because I think that they're going in the right direction a lot more than Carolina is. Now Carolina looked a little bit better on defense with Todd Walsh taking over as the defense coordinator. Ultimately, until Carolina gets their two starting corners back in J.C. Horn and Mike Jackson, I just don't really know if they have the horses on defense.
00:36:22
Speaker 3: To kind of keep up with offenses. They have the ability to.
00:36:24
Speaker 2: Really push the ball down the field like the Saints do, especially now that they have Jordan Tyson back. Oh, and Kelvin Banks as well. I think that's a major addition for them there. The run game's not exactly what you want it to be in New Orleans, although Audra Guest may, NFL SE legend. I'm really shoring that up last week and playing Merle. I just think there's more things that are going well for the Saints in this game, and it's hard for me to pick Carolina in their current state.
00:36:47
Speaker 3: So give me the Saints.
00:36:49
Speaker 1: You're 100% correct in everything that you said, and that's exactly why I took Carolina. Because it's the NFC South. This is a battle between nameless, faceless, eldritch horrors. It's not going to go the way you expect. Carolina's winning this game.
00:37:06
Speaker 3: Where do you have it?
00:37:06
Speaker 1: I put it in the sixth spot.
00:37:09
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh!
00:37:14
Speaker 1: Because it doesn't make sense, that's why. Which means I'm going to be right. This godforsaken division.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: We're together watching the games this weekend because I'll be out in the offices.
00:37:27
Speaker 3: So this is.
00:37:28
Speaker 2: Going to be between Green Bay and Minnesota and then Carolina and New Orleans.
00:37:31
Speaker 1: This is going to be very fun. This is going to be a very fun afternoon.
00:37:36
Speaker 3: The last game, I think the.
00:37:38
Speaker 2: Last game that we haven't touched on yet, is the Rams and the Cardinals here. No Gardner Minshew.
00:37:46
Speaker 3: He is out for the season. No Michael Wilson either.
00:37:50
Speaker 2: So we've got Carson Beck And a depleted Arizona Cardinals offense.
00:37:57
Speaker 3: Marvin Harrison Jr. obviously was traded.
00:37:59
Speaker 2: Now you got no Michael Wilson as well.
00:38:01
Speaker 3: We got no Jeremiah Love either.
00:38:03
Speaker 1: No Puka.
00:38:04
Speaker 3: Where you got this game?
00:38:06
Speaker 1: I mean, are the Rams just going to sit in 14 personnel the entire game?
00:38:12
Speaker 2: I don't think you can technically do that. Can you do, is it 0-4 personnel? Or can you do 14 personnel?
00:38:18
Speaker 3: Does math work out there?
00:38:20
Speaker 1: Just no. No receivers at all.
00:38:23
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying.
00:38:24
Speaker 1: Their number one right now is Tutu Atwell, or I guess Mumfield. I guess.
00:38:29
Speaker 2: No, their number one is Robert Woods, who's on staff as a coach, but should probably
take the polo off and put the jersey back on.
00:38:39
Speaker 1: Put the bat signal up for Robert Woods.
00:38:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, essentially, yes.
00:38:42
Speaker 1: I mean, he could probably give you, like, four for 35 at this point. Like, might as well. I think he could. I don't know who they're going to throw to. I also don't think it matters. Because you have Carson Beck and A, not Michael Wilson.
00:39:01
Speaker 2: The wide receivers for the Arizona Cardinals, we have Devin Duvernay, we have Reggie Virgil, we have Simi Vahoko, and we have Harrison Wallace III.
00:39:13
Speaker 1: Who's the best receiver, like just wide receiver, playing in this game? Is it Kanata Mumfield? Probably. Good God.
00:39:25
Speaker 3: The Cardinals have Zay Jones on the practice squad?
00:39:30
Speaker 1: This is... I understand both these teams are banged up.
00:39:33
Speaker 3: You learn a lot just doing these shows.
00:39:36
Speaker 1: People ask for expansion teams. We don't have enough players for expansion teams. We can't. We literally can't. There's not enough good football players on Earth to have more than 32 NFL teams. Okay, so you have the Rams. There was an NFL game in November with wide receiver one across two teams being Conan on Mumfield. Like, we can't do it.
00:40:03
Speaker 3: Pitt legend.
00:40:04
Speaker 2: Oh, my God.
00:40:05
Speaker 3: Pitt legend, people forget.
00:40:06
Speaker 1: I did like him a lot in the draft coming out. I'm going to take the Rams, by the way. I'm assuming, did you also take them? I put it at the two spot because, like, I'm just throwing my hands up on this one, man.
00:40:20
Speaker 3: I put it at the sixth spot because....
00:40:24
Speaker 1: Brother.
00:40:27
Speaker 3: Carson Beck's going up against Myles Garrett. Fair.
00:40:32
Speaker 1: With who to throw the ball to. Can Myles play receiver?
00:40:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
00:40:39
Speaker 1: Myles Garrett anytime wide receiver one.
00:40:43
Speaker 3: If the Rams.
00:40:45
Speaker 2: All due respect to the Cardinals, right? If the Rams can't win this game They should be ashamed.
00:40:54
Speaker 1: They're eliminated. I mean, what'd you say? If they don't win this game, like, they're not eliminated, but they're eliminated.
00:41:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, 1,000%.
00:41:02
Speaker 2: And I mean, they might be eliminated just by not having Puka Nakua.
00:41:07
Speaker 3: I mean, we talked about this on the NFL Pro Show.
00:41:10
Speaker 2: Since 2016, three out of the four single seasons in which a wide receiver has had the highest target share percentage have been Puka Nakua. Puka Nikua has three of the top four highest target share percentage seasons since 2016. So you take him out of this lineup, I don't know where the ball is going to go to. But I've got to think that they're going to be able to move the ball better than this Cardinals offense is going to.
00:41:40
Speaker 3: So, yeah, man, give it to me at the sixth spot. I'm taking it.
00:41:44
Speaker 1: Colby Parkinson might get like 12 targets. Yeah.
00:41:48
Speaker 3: I mean, they drafted and signed a bunch of these tight ends. Use them. Who was it?
00:41:53
Speaker 1: You know what?
00:41:53
Speaker 3: I'm looking this up. Before we wrap it up, I've got to look this up here.
00:41:58
Speaker 2: There was one of the tight ends for the Rams. It was just straight up running cardio out there last week.
00:42:04
Speaker 1: Was it Davis Allen?
00:42:06
Speaker 2: It was Davis Allen. Davis Allen ran 18 routes, zero targets, zero catches for the love of the game. The man's wearing an athletic watch just checking it to see what the workout and the heart rate is like. He's wearing his shoulder pads just as a pseudo-weighted vest. So he gets a little muscle workout in there from the legs as well with the cardio when you run it.
00:42:33
Speaker 1: See, Alec Pierce special, baby. We should track, like using NGS data, we should see how many yards these guys run this week without getting a target. And just like see how many miles they get in. Davis Allen's yards per route run. Without targets.
00:42:57
Speaker 3: Is this close?
00:42:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, without targets.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: He's getting 12 targets this week.
00:43:02
Speaker 1: There we go.
00:43:03
Speaker 2: Those are our 10 games that we're picking for this week. As always, we would love to hear your entries as well. Send them in the comments section.
00:43:13
Speaker 3: We obviously track all of them.
00:43:15
Speaker 2: And if you're at the top of the leaderboard outside of weeks where there's 28 people that are tied at the very top, We'll give you a shout-out if you win. So most weeks, that's the case. So get in on the fun. Tell us who's going to win these games. Rank it in your confidence. Score some points.
00:43:29
Speaker 3: And have some fun watching these games in Week 10.
00:43:31
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to our Week 10 Game Picks. Listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.