After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 3

What is the after-hours game of the week?

I know your votes are pouring in on Facebook. We have a poll up on Twitter, After Hours CBS, or you can find my Twitter, ALawRadio. We've got some divisional battles, but we've also got some conference matchups that I think based on week number one provide some real intrigue. So after our conversation with NFL Network Good Morning Football host Jamie Erdahl, we'll dive into these matchups just a little bit. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage studios, so whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there.

For home loan solutions that fit your life, Rocket can. What did you think of TNF on Amazon Prime or just TNF on Prime? I think they'd actually like it if you drop the Amazon and it's just about Prime.

There was a little emoji that popped up if you use the hashtag TNF on Prime or TNF, so I appreciate your feedback. I know the numbers aren't gonna be nearly as gaudy as they are for the NFL games that are on broadcast TV like CBS or Fox or NBC or even ESPN. NFL Network doesn't get nearly the numbers that some of these other cable channels do. However, there are always other ways to follow. I'm a radio junkie. I know many of you love radio, so you can get the best of the best on Westwood One as well as the local radio channels. There's an app for that, just know that.

But you know what? Amazon is an app too and you can always watch that on your phone if that's something you prefer. I know more and more people are cutting the cord as they say. I am a hybrid actually.

I'm one of those vehicles that runs on both electric and gas. I have cable, limited cable, but I also am getting more and more into streaming. I just can't get rid of the cable because of the number of sporting events that are carried live there.

So what'd you think? Again on Twitter or Facebook, we're happy to have you with us as we wrap up another work week and we usher in what is the final weekend of summer. Do you know that? Next week, the official start of fall and according to my phone, the temps are in the 40s in my neighborhood right now. So blissful. For the first time in months, I'm wearing a sweatshirt and it feels amazing.

It's pink if you must know. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Really excited to share my conversation with one of the newest members of Good Morning Football, the Emmy award-winning morning show on NFL Network. Jamie was last on the show from Minneapolis during Super Bowl week so that goes back a few years. She's a Minnesota native. She's been working for CBS Sports as a sideline reporter both NFL as well as college hoops but also in the SEC most recently and that's how she made the jump to NFL Network.

Really cool to catch a couple minutes with her after she had wrapped up her Thursday edition of the show. Jamie, unless you are an incredible faker, it looks like you're having a total blast on your new show. So seriously, how much fun are you having with Good Morning Football? No, I'm good at a lot of things in life.

I'm not good at faking that for three hours a day. It's so much fun. I really cannot believe my luck and the trajectory my life and career have gone on in this capacity that I have found myself in this chair and there's so many reasons why. Whenever I answer this question too, I always want to say like it's not ever that I didn't like what I was doing with CBS. I think everything I did for eight years at CBS kind of led me to this and being able to do this job and so it's an incredibly creative fun high-energy job and I use the word easy very lightly because I don't want it to say it's easy to follow the NFL every day and it just snowballs and your ideas bounce off each other and it's just conversation with three friends and then everybody else just happens to be listening. It's fantastic.

You mentioned the NFL and we know the power of the NFL. Were you blown away by the reaction though because when the announcement was made it just seemed like it was the biggest story going that day. Yeah, I felt really blessed. I honestly understand why. I think some people were legitimately like, oh, oh, okay.

Having been on the SEC most recently for myself, they saw me in a prominent role, just football viewers, and then it was almost like a reminder that yes, I had done the NFL and these SEC guys are just crawling all over the NFL so there's so much crossover there, but then just the ability to just branch out, like I said, creatively. Personally, so much of it had to do with I get to stay home. I have two kids.

I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old and I told my three-year-old who understands this meaning now that I get to put my suitcase away. It just feels like a time in life that it was meant for that to happen. And then for Jason, it was incredible that he just had the career that he did and for him to retire and slide into this chair a week later, but also what I admire so much about him in the last seven weeks too is the fact that it must have been really hard for him to watch training camp unfold, watch the game start. He doesn't look sad. He looks like I am so happy to not be there.

I think he's not that good of a figure either. I think he's having just as much fun. He had a bit of a hiccup though. He had a burst appendix right at the beginning of the season that he had to miss a couple days, but he's back in action.

He's just a fantastic teammate. He had a Joe Burrow moment before. He did a show as his appendix was starting to get angry at him. And we're like, you don't look alright. He's like, yeah, my stomach hurts. And then that night, he's like, yeah, my appendix has to come out. And Peter and Kyle and I are like, seriously, we get that you're tough, but you didn't have to do the show today, man. Wow. Football players are a different kind of tough. That part we know. We're spending a few minutes with Jamie Erdal, who's the new host of NFL Network's Emmy award-winning show, Good Morning Football, airs Monday through Friday 7 a.m. Eastern Time.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I read a quote in which you said, I think five or eight years ago I would have felt I could do this job, but I bet I wouldn't have been as good at it as I probably will be today. So this is before you started to the athletic.

When you think about that, what were you referring to? Why is this the time where you were ready to step into this role? Well, first and foremost, I think when you're a woman in this industry, you always have to sell it. You know, like, I can do anything. I could do that.

What do you mean you do? I can do it. And so, you know, at any point in my career, I probably could have convinced you, like, hey, I should be doing March Madness.

I should be doing the second week into the tournament. But it's only in hindsight that you realize that while it's a great work ethic to essentially believe that you can do a lot of this stuff, you're not always ready for it. And whether or not you can execute the job is very differently, I think, than being able to be good at it. And, you know, five years ago, I had not been around Nick Saban for four football seasons. Five years ago, I had not watched, you know, the essentially up-and-coming birth of Joe Burrow and all that he had become. Five years ago, I had not worked for more NCAA tournaments. It's just life and work on the job experience that I learned so much football, high-level, high-quality football being around the SEC.

And in particular, Alabama, that I wouldn't have, I just wouldn't have had if they had come to me when the show started six years ago and said, hey, you're the person. And I feel so incredibly grateful for all that experience because it helps me. It helps me today when a guy pops up, you know, an undrafted guy, but he did play at Ole Miss or Mississippi State. And I just know him and it just, it helps. And all of that, you know, baseline knowledge just helps you be better. And you just can't fake experience. You can't in any job, in any sport, being an athlete, nothing. You can't fake it. And so that's what I meant, I guess, when I said that was that, you know, I'm sure I could have done it. Sure, I could read a prompter five years ago. I knew some stuff, but I didn't know what I know now.

And I just feel like this was such the right time to be able to do this show. It's funny because when I talked to Alabama products, so guys who went to Alabama but are now in the NFL, some of them will tell me very explicitly that the training at Alabama was actually tougher. They felt like the rigors and the pressure at Alabama were actually more than what they feel in the NFL. So you talk about the training, you're kind of right in the middle of that in the SEC because it is the highest level of college football and the microscope and the pressure certainly does prepare you in addition to what you see and what you learn. Yeah, I mean, listen, Nick Saban isn't gonna let you just float through his production meetings. That guy, his day is scheduled down to the minute. And rightfully so, he's earned it. The man demands you to come prepared in any in any situation you're in, whether you're running into him in the hallway, you're in a production meeting, or at halftime.

It doesn't matter. And so I just loved listening to him talk about football. His X's and O's are great, but what he has built there and essentially the the methodology that he has crafted to create this program, I find so incredible and it's fascinating how he goes about it. And, you know, and I do see that standard translates to guys. I mean, like I said, they're everywhere. They're in every organization and they're always, I think, you know, I'm sure there's one-off examples, but they tend to be the professional football players that you really don't hear much about. Like, oh, he's not the first guy in the building or he's not, you know, he needs to stay longer. It's like they were already, they've been doing that for three to five years.

That's not, that's not a thing. It's not a hard ask, I guess. Jamie Erdahl is with us from NFL Network's Good Morning Football. It's after-hours here on CBS Sports Radio. As you kind of change and take this corner in your career, what's been the biggest challenge for you? Oh, time management, I think, is probably, it's just different. I really, you know, being a sideline reporter and traveling lends itself to a certain lifestyle of, you know, especially when you got to know the material so well, like after being on the SEC for four years. It's like, I'm not saying I could do the job in my sleep, but I had it down to a science. I'm like, okay, I talked to this guy now and I talked to that guy then and a lot of my work, a bulk of my work was accomplished on the road.

And with two little kids, you know, that really lended itself to being a nice way to go about my life, but the hard part was that I was on the road. So this job comes along and, you know, it's our show essentially, not to get too much in the weeds, but like our show is set up the night before and then we go over it in the morning and then we go on the air. And so I'm trying to answer questions about like which AFC West team do I think, you know, is gonna be a Cinderella story and it's like bedtime, you know. That's where it's like, oh man, I have to learn a new habit here and it's not a bad habit, it's not a good habit, it's just like this, it's a different lifestyle and, you know, I'm still getting used to it, but I think first and foremost I just love the daily, the daily aspect of it. You know, working games, it's a, it's a, you have a four-hour shot on Saturday afternoon to get your stuff on the air and sometimes the game goes away that it's not lends, doesn't lend itself towards all the work you've done towards stories. And that's good, but sometimes it can be frustrating, but this is 15 hours of football that you have the time to get all your stuff out there. You know, one of the things that I love about having a daily show, yes, there's a lot that goes into it, it's very intense, but when you have one that you're not particularly proud of, almost like an athlete, you have to flush it, you have to get rid of it because there's one the next day. But you also know that, okay, I get to go back tomorrow and do it again and do it better, so I understand what you're talking about with the daily grind.

You get to continue to practice what you love. I said that to Kyle once, going into like a last segment of a show, I just, it was after a couple weeks, I was like, you ever have these days where you just feel so, um, just okay about like everything you put out there? And we had actually just had a really great show, he goes, yeah, what are you talking about? You feel that today? It was a great show, he's such a pick-me-up guy, and I was like, no, what I'm saying is, I actually, it'll say it was a Wednesday, I was like, what I'm feeling is that I didn't realize I felt that about Monday, Tuesday, because we just had such a good Wednesday. And it's like, again, it's, I'm just retraining my brain how to, you know, how to give myself feedback, how to, how to gauge, like, you know, when it's game, when it's sideline on the games, it's, you're a hundred miles an hour when you're on the road, and when you're at home, it's 15.

115, 115. And here, I'm just cruising at 45 right now, and it's, that, that is a different challenge in and of itself. Mmm. Kay Adams turned this role into one that people made appointment television, her personality, her knowledge. What did you hear from her as you kind of took over in this role? Yeah, she was incredibly supportive to me personally, and just, you know, answering questions about the people that are on the show, both on, you know, both the guides, but also the people behind the scenes, and just how much production support you are given, and creative freedom that you're given, and she has been wonderful, and I think it's, I think it's such an honor for, to be in this chair for someone who goes off and gets her own show on a new channel. I think, like you said, her knowledge and willingness to be herself has opened doors for her that are incredible, and I'm not trying to see her, and I don't think she ever told me, like, hey, if you want to be good at this, you should do X, Y, or Z.

Never came out of her mouth, never was even. It was just like, she just, I remember her saying to me, you're meant for this job. This is so, this is so what you're supposed to be doing, and I felt, I thought that was so incredibly flattering. It's like, you always have to consider, like, people don't have to do things, or say things to you. She, you know, she didn't have to say that.

She didn't have to pick up the phone, but she did, and I say I just appreciate that so much about her. You know, it's gonna take time for people who were used to her style to get used to my style, and I don't think either one is right or wrong, and, but that's the, that's the thing about this show. It's, is it, it's style, it's flair, it's thinking about football, you know, beyond what you see on the field, and I think that's what people like about it, but people also like what they like, and that, that show was together, you know, with Nate for five years, with Kay for six, and, you know, it, it's almost like with Jason, I'm like, dude, they, you are beloved already. They had, they were, it was a rotating chair there for a while, with Kay, it was like a six-week turnaround, and I think people were just so jarred, like, oh, you're not Kay, what's happening? So, it's, everyone's gonna go through growing pains, both myself and the viewers.

Still though, that's the beauty of being able to put your own signature on it. Jamie Urdahl, previously of CBS Sports, and college football, and March Madness, now on Good Morning Football, in fact, starting in just a few hours on NFL Network, a new cast and crew there, and there's already been a couple of really funny moments with Jamie on the show, so in the second part of our conversation, I asked her about, well, running from a football that was thrown at her on the streets of New York, excuse me, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. A few more minutes with Good Morning Football host Jamie Urdahl, previously of CBS Sports, and maybe you saw her on the sidelines for SEC games or courtside for March Madness, making the jump this summer and starting out with a new crew, Peter Schrager and Kyle Brandt, along with Jason McCarty, previously part of the NFL and just now retired, and they appear to be having a blast.

Chemistry, probably not instantly, but it's come together really well. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Jamie, a couple moments from the show that I already have to ask you about. They've made me laugh out loud. One of them out on the streets of New York City, a segment that you called Stop the Clock, where there's a football being thrown directly at you, a good pass, mind you, but you turned around and ran from it. Were you never going to catch the ball? Were you trying to catch the ball? What was going on there? Okay, so I am like a child when I get out there, and Kyle is too.

Peter and Jason are able to kind of keep their maturity in check. Kyle and I just, the prompter be damned, like, we just are like, whatever, what's this segment? We just want to play football. And so I can't not, you know, go and go out for a pass, go catch one.

And I will say, like, I love throwing the football around. I'm pretty good at catching a football, but I looked up, and it was as if the sun was, like, beaming straight into my eyeballs. And all I could think, all I could think was, like, I'm about to get a black eye on live television. And, like, and while that would have been incredible TV for, like, 15 seconds, it would not have been good for, like, 15 days. So I just bailed, I bailed out, like, Top Gun Maverick. I was like, this is not good. And I just tried to get as far away of that situation as I possibly could.

And, you know, whatever. I didn't even think about the fact that we were still on television. I was more just like, I want to catch a ball. No, I don't.

No, I don't. Jason had the best line. He's like, people say football is easy. I was like, all right, we get it. Okay, we know. All right, so then this blew up, not just your Twitter, but other Twitter, really super cool, that you guys got to be part of a category on Jeopardy. How did that come together? Well, speaking of that brilliant man who hand-picked us all, Michael Davies, he was hand-picked, you know, Jeopardy's been through a lot over the last couple years. And he was picked recently to become the executive producer of Jeopardy.

So the connection is there between essentially our godfather of television, Michael Davies. And so they knew they were going to do an NFL kind of segment. And they, they had us read the clues. And what's funny about it in hindsight is that was our first day. Like Jason and I, we get there July 25th. We're like, well, okay, everybody, nice to meet you.

First show we ever do with Peter and Kyle. And they're like, oh, PS, you have to stay after for 15 minutes to read your Jeopardy clue. It's like, oh my gosh. And so just like seeing us that day, it's like, oh, that's that dress I wore the first time I was ever on Good Money Football. It's like the growth. It was actually nice to see for a lot of reasons, but one of which was the growth that we, I witnessed of myself just sitting in that chair on that tiny Jeopardy clue was so cool. To me feels like one of those crossover moments that okay, I got to pinch myself.

I made it maybe a step further than where I was before exactly. Exactly. Like I texted my husband's like family, I'm going to be in jeopardy tonight. And my mother-in-law was like, my mom would have loved that.

You know, it just was like, man, you don't realize how far it reaches until you're doing it. Yes. My grandmother watched it every single night. So Jeopardy was her jam.

Yes. Also, I have to tell you, people ask me all the time, what my favorite friends episode is. And I always respond with Pivot. That is my, that's my absolute favorite. There's so many good ones. There's so many good ones. I like the, um, the, the poking device one where, um, ugly naked man is across the street. Oh God, there's so many good ones.

The season four, I think is my favorite season. I have these answers to these questions. I got to figure these things out.

And I employ like my husband to help me. I'm like, Hey, what's like a food I could win at a food eating contest. He's like, is this on the show tomorrow? I'm like, yeah, don't worry about it. Just help me answer the question. But that was one of them. I'm like, what Trivial category?

He's like, I mean, I hate to do it to you, but you probably should just say friends. I'm like, yeah, you're right. That's what makes it fun is that we're not one dimensional. We don't all, none of us, even if we work in sports, that's not the only thing we do. We don't all focus on football all the time. So that's great.

All right. So, but we'll do a little football just to wrap up, James. What are a couple of things that jump out at you as we actually are now kicking off week two?

Wow. Well, I was really, I thought the Bengal Steelers game was incredibly entertaining, but I was really quite surprised by the Bengals in general. I, you know, I, I would have thought just from like a storyline perspective that they, they would have heard all of that Super Bowl slumps kind of, kind of talk and just would have come out a little bit more explosive. They, the offensive line looked very discombobulated and they still hung, I think, for as poorly as they played and Joe Burrow was running for his life. They still were in, I mean, they were still down to the wire. And so to me, that implies that they are a good team. It was a really flukey Sunday for them. I expect them to bounce back. I wasn't surprised at all that the Steelers were the team to do that to them. I never, I will never doubt Mike Tomlin whatsoever.

Yeah. And then I think I'm looking forward to seeing Trey Lance, like not in a monsoon, I, you know, for as much as we talked about him in the off season, and I'm glad that there hasn't been a floor about this, about the 49ers losing that game in Chicago, because everyone understands that that was a total anomaly of weather and environment and just, you know, just kind of challenging all around. Good for the Bears to come out with a week one win. Let's just make sure we give, you know, Trey Lance his due and, um, and then finally just the bills. My goodness, like lived up to the billing pun intended, all the puns intended. And, um, I just, I just am so excited to watch them unfold this season. I frankly, I can't figure out what else they could possibly do, but it was just absolutely electric.

It definitely was. And that's just week number one. Nothing says the NFL like uproar. That is a great word.

Everything turns into a massive uproar. So you can, oh, are you getting beat dad? Or is that you beeping? That's me beeping. Nice. I'm picking up my sister.

No, it's perfect at Jamie Urdahl, E R D A H L. And she is part of Good Morning Football Monday through Friday, seven o'clock Eastern time now host with three other just incredible characters for this Emmy award winning show. It's so good to catch up with you, James. Thanks so much for a couple of minutes. And again, congratulations. Of course.

Thank you so much. And he's awesome chatting with you. We got babies. We got honking. Actually, Jamie and I discovered that we live right across the highway from each other.

We had no idea. And Good Morning Football is aired. It originates live from the World Trade Center. There's a lot of new office space in the World Trade Center studio space as well. And we here at CBS Sports Radio are only 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center. So not only do we live across the highway from each other in New Jersey, but we essentially do the same commute, though our hours are completely opposite.

Well, not completely. She and the rest of the crew will be heading into work, maybe heading into work even now, because Good Morning Football starts at seven a.m. Eastern time about 2.5 hours from now. And there's makeup and there's coffee and there's prep and there's all that jazz. So need to be able to catch up with Jamie, though. Obviously, we had to record that conversation with her from earlier on Thursday. What I didn't ask her is the after hours game of the week.

We didn't know at the time. We've given you four candidates and we're asking you to pick the one that floats your boat. So what is the after hours game of the week? We're going to dive into a little preview coming up next. She mentions the Buffalo Bills and the dominance of the bills. They've got the Titans, a F C playoff team the last couple years on. So that's one of the games on Monday Night Football. So the bills go from a Thursday night to kick off the season until the following Monday night of week number two. That's a long gap in between games, even after they manhandled the Rams. So how will they pick things up against the Tennessee Titans and Derek Henry?

And then we got a couple of divisional matchups in there as well. So you can find that poll on Twitter after our CBS and on our Facebook page. And what did you think of the new TNF on Prime? That's the hashtag TNF on Prime. And if you didn't watch it, you obviously don't have to let me know that you don't have an opinion because you didn't watch it. I get it. Not everybody watched it.

Not everybody has prime. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the after hours podcast. We welcome all kinds here on after hours. Lewis is in South Carolina. You're up next on after hours. Amy.

Yes. You know, I'm a Clemson Tiger calling from South Cackalacky. I got to tell you, y'all had me cracking up. I want to have some of that stuff. Y'all were drinking while y'all doing.

I got one more real quick thing, please. There's no way you could possibly top that. This is a lyric from Eddie Bunny. I think I'm in love and my life's looking up. I think I'm in love because I can't get enough. I'm in love with your show. I'm in love with you, Amy. Oh, well, that's very sweet, Lewis. I'm a pilot. I got a plane. I'll be there by now. You are one hell of a man.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. Okay, so we're having all kinds of equipment malfunctions. I went to plug in my headphones for those of you who know anything about audio equipment and I realized the adapter has broken off in the plug and so now I my headphones are not usable and actually producer Jay ran his adapter in and that one's not working either at least not with my headphones I'm not sure why so I really not only can I not hear me but I'm not gonna be able to hear anything else I'm just gonna take them out cuz I can't right now I can't hear anything who needs to hear when you do radio right it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio yeah I don't know why this adapter is not working but no it's fine I'm just whatever no those are your headphones okay so now I have Jay's headphones and Jay can't hear Thank You Jay I'll get that figured out at the top of the hour I wonder if there's an engineer in the building that's gonna be critical that's a big deal Jay doesn't let anyone else touch his headphones or his hats they're fine thank you all right so that was good radio there for the last I don't know how long sorry about that yeah I went to went to plug in my adapter like I said and realize there's a piece missing so it broke off somewhere that would explain why it wasn't working I guess it was loose tonight so can we scratch all that from the record it's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio equipment malfunctions I suppose that happens now and then on the football field right we're getting set for the bulk of week number two and I actually will be on the road this weekend it'll be 24 hours from now that I'm headed to the airport going back to Wisconsin for the first time since April when we celebrated my Grammy Helen's 100th birthday and since she passed away a couple months ago I'm going back to visit her grave site and the town where she used to live and we'll spend some time with family there and also visit the villa where she lived the last five years of her life and thank the caretakers that she had who took such good care and and showed kindness and compassion to her at the end of her life when she was in hospice for just a couple of days haven't been back so I'm I'm hoping there's some healing and there's some peace there when I returned to Wisconsin but I also have never been to Wisconsin without seeing my Grammy Helen so the entire my entire life that you know the entire bulk of my life every time I go to Wisconsin it's been because of Grammy Helen so this will be different to that end I decided to pack the visit full there really isn't much downtime except on Saturday when I'll be out in her old town in the center of the state but on Sunday we'll be working all day from our Green Bay affiliate and then we'll be attending Sunday Night Football at Lambeau Field never done a regular season game at Lambeau I've actually never seen it under the lights of this well I guess we're part of the preseason game I went to the lights were on but this will be really neat it's a game that is the oldest rivalry in professional football that stretches back more than a hundred years between the Packers and the Bears and if you missed my conversation with Leroy Butler who's the iconic Packers safety recently inducted into the Hall of Fame he was kind of schooling me on the rivalry and how much these two fan bases hate each other and of course Green Bay has had the best of this rivalry for the past few meetings so eight of the last nine times and it was Aaron Rodgers who told the Bears fans last year in Chicago I effing own you I've owned you my whole life so there's that element to this rivalry so this would be really neat and after that I'll give you all the stories stopping by a few different tailgates there at Lambeau because I've been invited by our Green Bay affiliate so I'll have a couple of shows from Green Bay but this will be an experience it's not Lambeau in the snow I don't think there's any snow in the forecast but it is going to be a game at night nationally televised under the lights that is something I'm very much looking forward to because I know the atmosphere will be electric so that's one of the options when we ask you for the after-hours game of the week you can find the poll on Twitter a law radio or on our Facebook page and I promise to share some photos and again we'll get the stories once I do my show on Sunday night but you know Sunday night is a plethora of storylines and topics and we're gonna see not only how the injuries will affect teams moving forward because there's some pretty significant injuries that we've talked about this week like TJ Watt not being available for the Pittsburgh Steelers and now being on IR so he's out at least a month though we were pretty confident he was going to be. Mac Jones is apparently feeling better well his back is feeling better but then he missed practice on Thursday because of an illness it's Patriots and it's the Steelers and that takes place in Pittsburgh for week number two whether or not you think either one of those teams is going to be a playoff team at the very least they'll be challenging the the teams atop their divisions as well as be looking at wildcards at the very least right so Pittsburgh one squad that's been affected by injuries in a significant way and it was I thought well it will be and it is gonna happen more and more as we head through this kind of new NFL landscape where every single former player has his own podcast and I don't get tired of hearing what veterans have to say because you get a different perspective I think we're gonna get this more and more as opposed to traditional press conferences or interviews done with other media outlets Ben Roethlisberger has a brand new podcast it's called football in and I think it's it's only maybe two or three episodes now but he weighed in on TJ Watt and the loss of TJ at least for the next month plus and what that means for the Steelers defense I mean the dude is an absolute manchild what he did he changes the game like basically I kind of teased him I was like are you like you just didn't want them to just hand you the defense the player of the Year award like after week one because that's what was happening like hey hey TJ let's just put your name on it right now he just the things that he does and did in that football game and just just wrecks the game he controls it I mean the whole defense played great km mink I mean the first I was the first play the game or second play make a pick six are you kidding me but but but TJ was just so unbelievable when I texted him just to tell most thinking about him praying for him hoping it's you know that it's all that he's gonna be okay Ben Roethlisberger on TJ Watt and the Steelers defense he was already on his way to winning player of the year so maybe take a few weeks off to give the rest of the defense a chance that's the football and podcast but don't tell that Devon Miller because he's pretty sure that he is the ideal defensive player and I'll tell you what he may very well be the MVP of the Buffalo Bills this season there's a long way to go but judging by the impact he made in week number one against the Rams I think already you can see that his addition is dynamic I always like to say I'm a coaches dream you know whatever they tell me to do I just try to go out there and do it to the best of my ability and that's that's what it was it just feels good to go out there and do your job no matter if it's you know in a four three three four three three you know whatever they ask I just want to go out there and be a coach's dream I tell all my coaches I'm a coach's dream I like that I'm gonna tell my next boss not the current boss cuz he barely knows my name I'm gonna tell my next boss I'm a boss's dream this is pretty interesting to go from Thursday Night Football in the kickoff where the Bills beat the Rams in Los Angeles to now their home opener in Orchard Park but not until Monday night and don't ask me why there's a double header week two on Monday night I have no idea I'm sure there's a science behind it but I have no idea so it's the Bills and the Titans in the early game they're not even straddled it used to be that we would have the two Monday night games kickoff weekend and one would be the first one be completely finished before the second one would kick off that's not the case anymore in fact in both of the games their East Coast kickoffs our Eastern Time Zone kickoffs at Buffalo's on the coast but you get what I'm saying Buffalo's Eastern Time Zone and so it starts at 715 Buffalo time against the Titans which is a central time zone and then Philadelphia has the 830 Eastern Time kickoff against the Minnesota Vikings so it's a little odd not taking advantage of a later time slot to have a West Coast battle instead we've got Buffalo and Philadelphia hosting so Von Miller says he is the coach's dream and you can already see the impact but of course Josh Allen he's the highlight he's the headliner and Gabe Davis well like the rest of us is it all I just feel like you know he's been an offense for well three four years four or five years now so now he's real comfortable with what's going on and with the ball in his hands he knows he can do whatever he wants he's a great player and like I said again just being in the playbook for so long I mean you get so comfortable and so used to that kind of stuff that now he can play how he wants with the ball in his hand he can do whatever he wants and it was definitely a statement on the road against the Super Bowl champions in the season opener and Josh if you remember was 26 of 31 he only misfired on five passes there were a couple of interceptions one slipped through the hands of his receiver the other one was on him but he had four total touchdowns one on the ground and accounted for more than 350 yards of offense I do not love when Josh Allen is the leading rusher for the bills I don't think that's a long-term formula for success however he's a brute he's a beast and he definitely can truck guys didn't we see him give a strong-armed stiff arm to somebody I can't remember who it was for the Rams but he could move wherever he would like to move so Buffalo waiting until Monday night to kick off and between now and then if you think about the other teams in the AFC that are expected to be contenders they have to go out there and play their best football because the bills have already proven like the Chiefs that they are the team to beat so as much as things change they very often stay the same now producer Jay and I have not yet decided what we're doing with our our survivor pick we have an office pool that were part of and he wants to go with the Bengals against the Cowboys I'm still thinking Browns over the Jets are we any closer to coming to an agreement now that I've stolen your headphones maybe I should give you the final say just to make things equitable no I feel like I'm leaning more towards your side with are you yes and with the Browns over the Jets but the Jets will win eventually doesn't that make you nervous they knocked me out last year what are the other they ducked me out two years in a row oh there's definitely I'm pretty high there's definitely odds for that well coming up next hour we'll look at that Bengals Cowboys matchup and the reason why I am nervous about picking the Bengals it actually isn't anything to do with Cooper rush though he is the starting quarterback for the Cowboys and you can find us on Twitter after hours CBS or on Facebook to vote for the game of the week it's after hours CBS sports radio