Chapter 1: What are the highlights of the upcoming NFL playoffs?
This is an Irish independent podcast. Welcome, everybody. Such was the success of our inaugural NFL roundtable. We are back again as three weeks of playoffs commence to beat the January Blues, followed by Super Bowl 60 on February 8th in San Francisco. Once again, is he excited? Is he what? Shane Brennan, hello. It's the most wonderful time of the year, Joe.
I knew you'd have something. And Will Slattery, hello. I actually watched Super Bowl 40 and now it's going to be Super Bowl 60. That's a grim thought. I'm now getting old. So old. You look it too.
Nice, thank you. No, you look fantastic. Interestingly, Will announced yesterday in Bits and Bobs that he once made 35 New Year's resolutions and somebody emailed in a similar number that they had made, which we'll be coming to in due course. I just want to flag that.
So where did you come with the number 35? At what point were you writing down the list at number 15? Should I really keep going with all these?
I just kept going, Shane. As this email, which we've teased, will show you, there's a never-ending thing of ways of self-improving yourself that you can keep going on with. It's about high performance, Shane. You keep on striving.
I can't think of 35 things.
I was Jake Humphries before there was a Jake Humphries.
So we're at wildcard weekend now if you're a bit like me and it's hard to keep track of all the names wildcard divisional championship week etc there is wildcard then next week divisional which I like to call the quarterfinals and then championship week which I like to call the semifinals I don't really recognize NFC AFC nonsense and then we'll have the Super Bowl so it's all kind of congealing nicely.
Here, as I was just, as I like to do, scrolling mindlessly, and I came across this clip, which is mainly visual and the music kicks in pretty quickly and you just see lots of Irish guys kicking footballs between the sticks. But even Pat McAfee recognises that Ireland's so hot right now.
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Chapter 2: How does Josh Allen's performance impact his legacy?
But I mean, I think like that contract had like the ceiling of that contract, I think was in the millions. So like we could be expecting to at least be getting double that.
Okay. nice here he is as we sign off on Charlie for the year with just two seconds left against the Carolina Panthers just before Christmas the Saints won four of their last five games and had Smith to tank in part Charlie Smith
From 47. It's on the way. It is good. There is a marker down. There's a flag down. For now, the conquering hero of Ireland has given New Orleans the lead. You can see Charlie Smith. You want to talk about putting it down the middle. He left no doubt here in the Superdome. And the Saints just keep on marching.
So it's not in that clip, but the great thing is when the Fox commentators turn around and be like, the scenes in Laverty's bar on Mayo Bridge tonight would be incredible. As that particular commentator was saying all game, which is a bizarre thing that a Fox commentator knows the name of a bar in County Town.
The flag in the play serves the same purpose as a VAR check in football. He couldn't quite give it the gusto it deserved because he had to say, oh, there's a flag, so it might be coming back. But maybe robbed like 25% impetus from his call.
Well, well done him. What a year. Playoffs weekend then. So Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks have a bye until next week. So a lot of games. I saw Chris Collinsworth of NBC call this the most unusual year I can remember in the NFL.
It's been bizarre. I mean, even like I was here last week with Ronald and Dave trying to explain what happened last week with how the NFC South was decided. Because we thought that the Buccaneers, when they played against the Pandas on Saturday, the winner of that would win the division and then go to the playoffs.
But in fact, it was dependent on the result of the Saints-Falcons game the following day. It sort of put a bow on what has been probably the craziest NFL season I can remember. You cannot get a read in any of these teams.
Well, let me hit you with some stats. So for the first time in 35 years... you know, which is kind of Will Slattery age. Of the 14 playoff teams, at least 11 of the 14, or sorry, 11 of the 14 have at least 11 wins in the regular season. So 11 of the 14 teams have at least 11 wins in the regular season. So basically there's no glut of duds here. There's a lot of kind of
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Chapter 3: What is the current status of Charlie 'from the logo' Smith?
Bar one, the Panthers, as Shane alluded to, kind of snuck in and they ought to get hammered by the Rams. But all the other games, you could make decent, reasonable, sane cases for, I'd say... Seven or eight teams to win the Super Bowl, whereas the last couple of years it's probably been four, three, four, you know, Mahomes making it on one side, whoever comes out of the NFC on the other.
So who's the favorite? The Seahawks, you know, technically are, and probably with their home field advantage, look decent, but there's no one that I'd be confident in saying... they are definitely going to be there in three weeks' time. I don't know what you think.
Yeah, well, it's funny you say that the Panthers have no chance against the Rams. The last time the three of us were sitting here, I said, the Rams are going to go all the way to the end of the season, and then the Panthers ended up beating them that weekend. So I don't know, maybe there's some kind of hoodoo coming from this room when it comes to that particular matchup.
But if you look at all 12 teams who have made the playoffs, the Seahawks and the Broncos, yes, are the number one seeds, and their home field advantages are pretty significant, as we'll talk on later. But every team has a significant weakness which you can target, which hasn't been the case in the last couple of years.
The Chiefs, even if they haven't played great in regular season, they seem fairly bulletproof once you get to the playoffs. We've seen it. There's so many teams in years past who we just thought, oh, if they end up meeting in a championship game, it could be incredible, like the Lions and the 49ers a couple of years ago, because those are two very strong outfits.
Every team here you can pick holes in. The Seahawks, is Sam Darnold a big game player? Because we saw last year, him and Tom Brady, the only quarterbacks in history who have had back-to-back 14 win seasons. Now, Tom Brady did that when he only played 16 games a season. Sam Darnold did that when he played 17 games a season. So that slightly skews that stat.
But still, that's incredible consistency in the regular season. But there's been a couple of big games this year, including twice against the Rams, where he gives up a lot of interceptions. So that's something you could pick off there. You can go through all 12 of these teams, even the ones you think are in really good positions, and say there's about 10 different things that are wrong with them.
So it makes the most open postseason that I can remember, and it means that this weekend there isn't a single game you could skip apart from that Saturday night one.
Just to come in on the Seahawks, because as you said, they're allegedly the hot favourites. Sam Darnold, our quarterback.
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Chapter 4: Who are the favorites to win Super Bowl 60?
As you said, Super Bowl winner, very much of the Patriot way in the 2000s, came through under Belichick and then, you know, went and kind of learned the ropes. Tennessee Titans head coach, 18 to 23. And now he's back to take the helm at the Patriots. The way this guy is coming across is he has that Belichick do your job DNA in his bones and he gets that.
But, you know, there's a kind of humanity there.
Yes, the DNA, I think you're 100% right. There's a big part of Belichick there. But it is interesting in that Vrabel did not coach for Belichick. You know, like Bill's coaching tree, as it were, as we talk about, is not great. Like guys have not gone on to great success as head coaches. But Vrabel's a little bit different. He has his Ohio State background. He has some of that college.
He worked in Houston with Bill O'Brien. He kind of carved his own path. And I think... I do think you're onto something with the humanity. And I do think what's interesting is that that has come out a lot more in this time around with the Patriots. I think that's a little bit of toward the end, maybe what led to his firing in Tennessee, that maybe it had just worn thin or gotten old.
So I think it's a little bit of like Rabel 2.0 and it's a better version even of what he was before.
Yeah. We should touch on Drake May as well. So, you know, like with the Patriots, it's always difficult post Belichick and post Brady to take those two positions. So Vrabel doing very, very well. And then Drake May, you know, like this guy's kind of in the running for MVP and only his second year as an NFL quarterback. Matthew Stafford may be alongside him.
I was reading he has a 72% pass completion rate. The NFL record is like 74%. The average is around 64%. He can scramble. He's become kind of a, I don't know, like some kind of a cultural leader, maybe. I mean, I see him do his press conferences and he just looks so young. Sure sign we're getting old, but he does. But this guy's having an incredible second year.
He is. I think he's the MVP. I think based on... Listen, the knock here in the conversation is the Patriots' strength of schedule was the easiest in the NFL, right? But that means they were supposed to kind of be the patsy for other teams, and obviously they flipped that script. And the largest reason for that is no doubt the way May has played defensively.
playing on the field, much more responsible protecting the ball. His accuracy is uncanny. You mentioned that. I was talking to a different NFL announcer the other day who described it like his passes downfield are as accurate as if he was handing the ball off in the huddle, like they are just on target. So that's been huge. But it is more than that. He is a tone setter. He's been very –
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Chapter 5: Why is Black Monday significant in the NFL?
And they've had two really good games so far this season. So that could be kind of a shootout to see who gets their potential on that side of the table.
So if I'm in my busy schedule carving out one hour to watch one game...
I would go Bills, Jaguars. Yeah, because it's six o'clock on Sunday, so not a bad time.
I can record. Just give me the best game. I'll record it and watch anything.
I think because this is kind of a referendum on Josh Allen. He's away from home. If he wins and gets off to a good start in the playoffs, I agree with Shane. I think it opens up well for him. If he loses, Sean McDermott, the coach, will be fired. And like Lamar Jackson, it'll be crossroads. Oh, what's next? Does Pritchard or Josh Allen's up in the air? So a lot at stake on that game.
Okay, that's six o'clock on Sunday.
I'm remiss not to mention as well they're playing against the Jacksonville Jaguars who are probably the hottest team in the league right now they've won their last 8 games their offense is kicking they're the one team to have gone in to mile high and get something when Trevor Lawrence went in and played a really good game that offense is clicking Liam Cohn is the new head coach they've got really good vibes there their defense is pretty formidable and their fans are going to really really want this one so that's going to be a key key clash between two teams who could potentially put up 40 points each
Fellas, we are... No, Will wants to ask.
Can I say something? It would be remiss. The final remiss of the podcast. It would be remiss of me not to also flag... Is this NFL related? It is not NFL related, but it is American football related. It would be remiss of me not to flag that on Thursday night and Friday night this week are the college football playoff semifinals.
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