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All right, thanks for joining us, everybody. This is the Infinity Sports Network. Rich Sharrer with you. Everybody on hold, I'll get right to you in just a moment. But we're going to run out to our guest hotline joining us right now from the New York Post, football writer Ryan Dunlevy joining us here on the Infinity Sports Network.
Ryan, how are you? Good. How are you doing? I'm good, brother. I appreciate you taking time joining us on this Friday.
We've got games coming up. Kansas City, I was just throwing this out with fans, and we were trying to figure out. When Kansas City finally starts to see the cracks in Chiefs' Kingdom and things start to go south. What's going to be the first thing we'll look at to see whether they're starting to slip and everybody else is getting closer to them?
Well, that's a good question. Uh maybe their offensive l maybe their line play like is Chris Jones still a top three defensive tackle. Can that offensive line, which Got harassed in the Super Bowl and they tried to rebuild it. Are they going to be able to hold up? Patrick Mahomes still has plenty of good years left.
And we've seen great quarterbacks change their number one weapon. I'm not overly worried about when Travis Kelsey retires, though that'll obviously be a hit. The defense is still young with like a 2022 draft class at its core.
So I would say probably when the offensive line struggles against opponents that aren't just the Eagles in the Super Bowl and when Chris Jones ages out of being dominant on the defensive line. It's so funny because Kansas City's been so good for so long. I think a lot of times people just assume if they slip or they lose, like let's say in the Super Bowl, that it was, oh, Kansas City must have slipped and maybe not giving Philadelphia enough credit. I wonder, do we appreciate Jalen Hurts as much as we should? The guy gets left for dead on the side of the road at Alabama, has to go to Oklahoma, comes to Philadelphia, doesn't have all the hype, but he's got a Super Bowl ring in Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen don't.
Yeah, exactly. No, exactly. Yeah, I think you you gotta give them Kansas City has been good for so long that this is like Petrius disease, where everybody's looking for like. I'll be this is the year that I'll pick against them and at the end of the year, whatever can The Patriots went to six or seven straight AFC Championship games.
So this is Oh, this is the year that it's it's boring if I pick the Chiefs, so I'm not going to pick the Chiefs. I'm going to pick one of these other guys. God knows there's three AFC quarterbacks who need to win a Super Bowl to establish their resume. It's been the big four for so long. But the problem is one guy gets to the Super Bowl every year, and Alan, Jackson, and Burrow.
You know, Burrow got there the once and didn't win it. But yeah, no, certainly I think we're not giving everybody else Uh enough credit when we talk about Kansas City taking a step back.
Okay, I'm going to get back to the Eagles for just a second, but I'm going to follow you with this idea of the four quarterbacks, but only one gets to have a ring. Would Josh Allen? Lamar Jackson, I'm going to burrow out of this conversation just for right now. What else do they need? What else possibly could you do to try to catch up with the Kansas City Chiefs?
When it was Brady and Payton, okay, so Payton got one every once in a while, but it was Brady all the time. But because I've got Mahomes and I've got those other two that seem like they just kind of beat each other up, and then whoever advances loses to Mahomes, how did these two get over the hump? That's a good question, too. I don't know if they need anything else. I mean, they're right there knocking on the door, right?
Like, uh, The Chiefs beat the Bills last year in the AFC Championship game. Right, that was last year on a about a pass that just fell out of the Hands of the receiver diving for it. And two years ago, they lost the Bills lost to the Chiefs. Their kicker missed a chip-shot field goal that would have tied the game, I think.
So they're right there knocking on the door. Couple years ago. Lamar Jackson was the MVP. They had the game at home, and he had his worst possible game in the AFC Championship. Zay Flowers fumbled at the one-yard line.
So it's kind of cliche to say they just need some of those breaks to go their way. But it's not like I could say, oh, like they need a. they need a wide receiver one or they need more pass rushers or whatnot, like I think the teams are good enough. It's just they have to figure out how to win the games. Yeah, when you know the old cliche of like making the winning plays experience matters.
Like they just have to figure out a way to do it once. And then I think they'll believe they can do it. I'm not sure, honestly, in their heart of hearts, they believe they can do it. Joe Burrow does because he's done it twice.
Well, it's interesting when you think about these players and the teams and the rosters and the coaches and how they've managed these teams and they've churned certain roster spots. They've done everything right, but there's just this little something. In baseball, we used to call it you need a little bit of pixie dust in all your pitchers to stay healthy in order to win a World Series. Here, it just seems like the only team that has that pixie dust that just knows how to win, whether it's Patrick Mollins throwing a sidearm pass that should never have been thrown to score a touchdown or not throwing an interception, they just have that little bit of pixie dust that I just don't know. Where Buffalo or Baltimore knows where to shop to find that little extra thing that they need.
Yeah, and it could be one of those situations where When they get through, is because somebody else did the dirty work for them, right? Like, is it possible that? Justin Herbert or the Broncos with their number one defense. Uh is it possible the Broncos take out the Uh Take out the Chiefs for you, and then the Ravens beat the Broncos in the AFC Championship game. Then you don't actually be the ones.
Yeah. Beat Mahomes, you beat the one that beat Mahomes. I feel like that used to happen sometimes. There was a year where I want to say the Steelers, who could never beat the Patriots, had to get to, they got to the Super Bowl, I think, the year against the Packers after the Ravens took care of the Patriots. And it was like the Steelers were never going to beat the Patriots, but once somebody else did the dirty work, then the Steelers had their path.
And we forget about that when we talk about the Steelers championship, that the road to the Super Bowl that one time did not go through Foxborough. Yeah, and it feels like every time they had to play the Patriots in the playoffs they lost. Yeah, no, 100%. Let me go back over to the game we were just talking about with Philadelphia. Jalen Carter, what do you think the league should do?
What's the reaction going to be to do it on the opening game of the National Football League in front of that national television audience? And the replays that we've seen that have gone viral are so absolutely blatant in what he did. What's the league going to do? What's the reaction going to be? First, let me correct myself because my New York audience is going to jump down my throat.
It was the Jets who took care of the Patriots before.
Okay, there you go. See, we didn't even remember who that was, right? Yeah, it was the Jets.
Well, I should. I'm here, right? It was the Jets who took care of the Patriots in the famous Bart Scott can't wait game, and then the Steelers beat the Jets in the AFC Championship. To answer your question on Jalen Carter, I don't know. I don't think he's going to be suspended.
There hasn't been a lot of history of suspending spitters. I think he'll get fined. And I think the Dak Prescott thing complicates it, right? Like, I haven't made many calls on this today. I was doing New York stuff, but like, It complicates it because you can see NBC did a good job with the breakdown on TV of.
Dak spitting in his direction and then nodding at him.
So, like, is that antagonistic? And you know, they're not going to suspend Dak Prescott.
So like it becomes hard then to suspend Jalen Carter.
So, my guess is they'll both get hefty fines. And look, there was coaches have told us this. There was a, Emphasis this year from referees on taunting plays or unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, that that's going to get ramped up.
So, what do I think the league reaction is going to be? I think it's going to be a lot of coaches showing that play to their team and saying, don't do something stupid like this, because anything that you would have got away with in the past, you're not going to get away with in the future. Brian Dunlevy joining us right now for the New York Post. It's so interesting when the league puts down those kind of idiots.
Okay, listen, we are going to get rid of hand-checking down the field, and then they go, oh, that's a great idea. Let's open up the game. And then when I start getting a bunch of ticky-tack fouls, the fans scream and the referees have to put the whistles away. I wonder if they're going to say, hey, we're going to cut down the taunting, we're going to be more sportsmanlike the second it costs your team. A penalty, that owner, how does he call Roger Goodnell and go, hey, listen, this is getting ridiculous.
You just cost me a game. And we see that every time they try to throw down these edicts of let's clean the game up. Yeah, I mean that's possible. The one that comes to mind last year is They cut they tried to cut down on the uh mimicking violence gestures and then like all of a sudden the like first down signal became My receivers became too close to like the firing a gun. gesture and that started to It started to be a blurred line there, and look, I'm totally in support of like no firing gun.
Gestures, but like then the first, then pointing for a first down blurred the line.
So, yeah, totally. Agree with you, like it's gonna cost somebody, but I think the one thing we saw, whether it was past interference a couple of years ago or rough in the past, or is they tend to stick to their edicts. during the season and then There'll be a new edict or a lessened edict next season, but I think we'll play with the same set of rules for this all season at least.
Okay, you mentioned the New York teams. Give me your take on what the Jets fans and the Giants fans can expect this year. Yeah. Generally speaking, more misery, but maybe a little less. But for the Jets.
I don't think they're very good. I think they'll be in the conversation for the top three overall, one of the top three picks. They're going to try ground and pound like those Rex Ryan teams we just mentioned a minute ago. It's going to be a 30-carry per game offense between Brees Hall, Braylon Allen, and Justin Fields, and try to win on defense. I don't think Justin Fields is a very good passer.
I don't think the Jets have enough weapons to complement Garrett Wilson. Their offensive line just took a big hit with Elijah Vera Tucker out for the season.
So their formula, their winning formula is already uh down a key piece So I would say that team is looking at like, I think I picked four and 13. I don't think it's gonna be a very encouraging season. Aaron Glenn has a lot of, you know, uh command of that facility. But it's going to certainly be tested at 4 and 13. I think the Giants are a much improved team from where they've been.
What I say to people is: if you watch the Giants, I don't know, last year, three of the last four years. They haven't just been a bad team. They were embarrassing last year. They couldn't do. Basic things, get first down, score points.
Those days, I think, for now are over. This is a much improved, much more talented team that plays the hardest schedule in the NFL.
Somebody in your audience will say, You don't know how hard the schedule is for the games play, you can't use last year.
Well, you tell me if you think the Packers, Vikings, Lions, Chiefs, Chargers. And Broncos are gonna stink. And if you think those teams are gonna stink, then we can have a conversation. But I put all six of them in the playoffs.
So, those six plus your division, that's a pretty brutal schedule. Um I don't know that it'll show up in the record, but I think there'll be a much more competitive, much more aggressive, much more entertaining team that probably finishes about sixth and eleven. And then you just have that's a just a regular bad season and not the kind of season that gets mocked everywhere like last year. I have a question for you. How long have you been doing this?
The NFL, eight years altogether, twenty. What's been and I just 'cause listen, I love reading your stuff. You always have great insight. You always ask great questions. You always have answers for things when I'm looking for shows.
So to be honest, Ryan, a lot of times I just steal what you write and use it for topics on the show. But I'm interested in something. What's change the most. In all these years that you've been covering the National Football League, what's the biggest difference when you broke in first time walking into a facility to where you are today? That's a good question.
I don't know that I have a great answer for it off the top of my head. It's a good question. I'll probably spend the rest of the night thinking about it. Um I don't know, schematically. I mean, football schematically, I mean, football schematically, probably the.
Where you can't win with defense anymore. Like, I feel like even 10 years ago, you used to be able to win with defense. You watched the first half of that game last night. And it was just like if you get a field goal, if you stop the team to a field goal, that's a win. Uh I would say This season, I think we're headed back to 90s football with more running backs.
That wasn't the case when I first started. I think you're going to see a lot more heavy formations. And 1500-yard backs to take advantage of smaller, faster defenses. Uh Probably on the field, those are probably the main two things. I think probably off the field, less patience than ever with quarterbacks.
I was thinking about Alex Smith today and how he finally clicked with Jim Harbaugh in like his fifth or sixth season with the 49ers. There's no chance anybody's getting that long this year nowadays. People are ready to write off like. Caleb Williams, if he has a bad year, he was the number one overall pick.
So, like. Less patience probably than ever is another big thing. And then. You know, media-wise, it's like everybody every team has their own media now, and everybody has a blog, and there's just so much more information than there was. I'd sit there even eight years ago.
Yeah, it's so interesting.
So, I spent 10 years as an NFL sideline reporter. I did one of the national radio packages, so I traveled around for 10 years. On the sidelines looking at games. And for me, I think you're 100% right on the patients because. These teams have become less family businesses, like the Rooney's, or when I worked for, I used to work for Eddie DiBartolo, and now they become so corporate that there is no patience.
And if they don't get that immediate return on their investment, they just jerk the wheel here, jerk the wheel there. And I wonder how many football players we've churned through because they didn't let them get to their third and fourth year, still learning their trade. They wanted that immediate return on their investment, and they've moved on to the next, and the next, and the next. And that patience has just gone out the window. I don't think it exists.
They make so much money that they're not going to invest money and continue to throw money at a bad product. Yeah, no, that's exactly the case. And one of the big stories of last year was the For the force. Team quarterbacks who finally clicked, like Geno Smith. Sam Darnold and uh Baker Mayfield and Now, what are we talking about?
That was a big story last year. And what are we talking about this year? Two of those three guys are already on new teams. It clicked for Geno Smith, and then they were still like, nah, we still don't believe in you. You're out of here.
And it clicked for Dan Darnold and they were like, yeah, we're going to go with the rookie who's never taken a snap before in the NFL, even though we were knocking on the door to a Super Bowl last year.
So like, I think that, yeah, I think to your point, yeah, once you get labeled in this NFL, you're labeled and it's hard to overcome. And so you better be good right away, whether you're a quarterback or whether you're a coach. I feel like we have a coach who lasts one year now every season. Six guys get hired and one of them doesn't make it out of the first season.
Well, and like you said, there's so much more media out there. Every team has their own media. And I've worked in baseball. I worked for the team.
So I was a team broadcaster and everybody knew.
Now we have so many people that work for the team, it's hard to figure out who's objective and who's trying to sell tickets. I was very blatant. I'm trying to sell tickets and tell you how good my team is because that's what we do. We sell tickets, we sell hot dogs. My job is to bring you to the ballpark and tell you the best story I can.
I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm there to sell tickets.
Now I just don't know the agenda of so many people. And here's the other thing, Ryan. Since I'm not Working for the team, and I'm not working in the NFL on a daily basis, just sitting back that first weekend. There's so much. bad information out there because people are just so trying to create content that have no business creating content.
It is amazing on some of the stories that I saw from bloggers and on social media and podcasters. I'm like, do you people even watch the same game that I do? Yeah, there's you gotta you gotta trust who you gotta trust who you trust. Hopefully you read the people. uh year after year and determine for yourself who's got credibility and who doesn't.
And it does not I like to think at the post we have a ton of it. Nobody covers the NFL as thoroughly as we do. And uh but that's just not the big outlets. There are There are insiders everywhere nowadays and they you know you just gotta Track people's track records.
Well, that's why I always laugh. If you're really an insider, another team would have gotten to hire you by now if you really were an insider. And that's why I'm also excited for the post that we're going to get some West Coast coverage now as well. Yes, the California Post starting in 20 26, yeah. California Post will be out in LA and there'll be Sports coverage, politics coverage, news coverage, back pages, everything that the New York Post does will be in California.
I can't wait to see that. That's going to be amazing. Hey, Ryan, I appreciate I know this is a busy weekend for you, Final Friday before everything gets rolling.
So to come on with me means a lot to me. And like I said, I've read you, I appreciate you. I've stolen most of your stuff for topics on the show, and I always like when you get a chance to catch up with you. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
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