After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The Force is with you, young Skywalker. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Almost every week, someone asks me a question along the lines of, if you could star in any show or any movie, be part of any film series, what would it be? Come on.

Do you really need to ask anymore? And I don't know what comes next. I will say this. I worked for the company that owns Star Wars for a very long time, and I'm not interested in working for that company again in almost any capacity. However, if a Star Wars opportunity came along, I don't know how I could turn that down. It would be probably the role of my life.

I would ditch sports radio so fast. I know. I can't help it.

I'm a Star Wars shill. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Good morning to you. It's a Thursday. I actually had a friend say to me the week was flying by. She said that on Wednesday evening, and I felt the opposite then, but now as it comes out of my mouth, it's Thursday morning.

Yeah, it is definitely flying by. We've done three hours of radio that we're proud of, that I'm proud of, and I hope that you've enjoyed listening. If you're just waking up and joining us, well, you know, I'll do my best to infuse some energy to go along with your coffee. Or if you're one of those sad saps who doesn't drink coffee. Well, all you got is me.

Wait, what? You are a sad sap who doesn't drink coffee, Producer Carlos? I don't drink coffee. I don't drink tea. Is that why you're behind the double pane glass yawning because you don't drink caffeine?

Maybe that would explain it. No, I've never been able to get behind coffee because my mom was an avid coffee drinker, but I saw how irritable she would be when she didn't have it, so I didn't want to experience the lows without having any of the highs. Well, that's only if you're drinking too much of it. I mean, I'm not irritable when I don't have coffee.

Yeah, okay. So you don't have to binge your coffee or drink eight cups a day or anything like that. I will say that on the weekends I try to drink less, especially if I'm just hanging out at home. I try to drink less caffeine because you don't want to get to the point where you have headaches or any type of withdrawals if you come off of it. But coffee, caffeine, but specifically coffee, is good for you. There are dozens of studies that indicate if you drink coffee in moderation, it's got great health benefits actually. We're not talking about soda or whatever else, but coffee and tea both have health benefits. Yeah, sure, I get it, and I've heard the studies before. I also don't like the taste.

Oh, that's so sad. When I turned 30, I had never had a cup of coffee in my life until I turned 30, and I remember that I love the smell of hot coffee but could not drink hot coffee, so I had to figure out a way to drink it, and I only drank iced coffee. That's how I got to the point where I could drink it on a regular basis, and now it doesn't matter if it's minus five degrees outside with a 17-mile-per-hour wind or whatever else. I've actually stood on a train platform before in zero-degree temps, and five minutes later my iced coffee was completely frozen in my cup. But I love iced coffee year-round.

Good New England girl here. So, sad sap, Carlos. He doesn't have any coffee. That would explain the yawning. For you, just get the coffee. Okay, guys, just get the coffee.

Avoid the yawning. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. 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. For the record, I finished my coffee probably four hours ago, so I know exactly when it wears off. I don't have caffeine at this stage of the show because I would like to go home within the next two hours and sleep within the next three hours.

There are times, though, when I'm dragging and I have to get another shot of caffeine, so I'll get a soda and only drink like half the can or something to try to get me through. But I think I'm okay now. We've had a real good show, one that I'm proud of, and so that's given me some extra energy and adrenaline. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We know that a lot of you have found our YouTube channel just in the last 24 hours, which is cool. Some of you have liked it to make producer Jay happy, our various videos, whether it's the video version of Ask Amy that's had a major jump, actually, in the last 24 hours or our newest video, which is Stairway to 7, Episode 2, Junk in Da Trunk. Yep, it's exactly what it sounds like. So check that out on our YouTube channel.

We also played Wirtle for the first time. We did our Chubby Bunny championship with videos. There's lots of good stuff there.

That's producer Jay's baby, and we want to keep that up, even though he's not with us this week. So, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, that's the triumvirate phone number. I'm not going to tell you.

I'm not going to tell you the phone number. Why? Because earlier, it blew up in my face. It didn't go well. And no, I'm not going to explain any more than that.

You'll have to get the podcast if you really want to know. It was a big night for the Cardinals last night, because it was a big night for Nolan Arenado, and because it was a big night for one future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols. He's trying to get some lift on a ball on the pitch. A swing! And there's a ball hit into left field for a single, scoring one run.

Goldsmith crosses. Arenado stops at third. A line single. Played on the roll by Daza, and Pujols has a run batted in, his 25th of the year. The 2-2 pitch for Albert Pujols. He swings, and it's a high fly ball.

That's hit deep. Left center field. Back to the wall. And this one is a bounce and into the stands for a double. It cleared the wall on a hop. And Albert Pujols has his second hit tonight.

Now on one and two. Pujols swings and hits one high. Deep to left field.

And it's a goner going back-to-back with Nolan Arenado. Home run number 687 for the future Hall of Famer. Swung the bat really well. Continues to demolish lefties.

Demolish them. Took some really good at bats. Everything off his bat was hard. So, missed an RBI there with the ground roll double.

But, yeah, did a really nice job tonight. Oliver Marmol, manager of the Cardinals, as they beat the Rockies in Denver. But listen to all those fans cheering for Albert Pujols as he lumbers around the bases. He has four hits.

He finishes a triple short of the cycle. And actually, I was listening to the game. I just happened to be because I enjoy Cardinals radio and John Rooney.

And Cardinals and Brewers right now are locked in a battle in the NL Central. So, I was listening to the game when he hit the ground roll double. And for a second there, Rooney thought it might be out.

I think there are a lot of people in the, especially if you're looking from behind home plate, right? And so, it bounces. It got into the gap. And then just barely, or was headed for the gap I should say, just barely got down on the warning track. And then bounced hard up into the stands. So, thought for a second there that might be home run number 687.

Instead, he gets it a little bit later in the game. In between he and Arnaldo, there are seven hits. Plenty of firepower. And the Cardinals remain in front in that NL Central, but only by a game. I mean, I could tell you about all the ways that the Dodgers made quick work of the Minnesota Twins.

They actually had to come from behind in this one. But it is good to see Chris Taylor back on the field. And how about Joey Gallo? I was saying this earlier because I was looking at his bio and some of his stats.

Just to confirm them before I talked about him earlier in the show. He's still in pinstripes on various websites. He's still wearing a Yankees hat. He's only had a handful of games so far with the Dodgers. But last night, a pinch hit home run. So, he comes off the bench.

He has a pinch hit three run homer that gives the Dodgers the lead in this one. So, they had to come from behind against the Minnesota Twins. And you can tell that he not only knew that a lot of the Yankees fans were booing him or ripping him.

He was getting criticized. He was struggling when he was with the Yankees. And they shipped him out, right?

So, they were more than willing to part with him. But after he has that pinch hit home run in Los Angeles. Because what everything that Dave Roberts does seems to turn to gold right now with his lineup.

He's got the Midas touch. Well, Gallo got to hear noise of a different sort. It's been a while since I heard people cheering for me. So, I'm pretty excited about that. They've been awesome so far. Just cheering me on.

Saying that they love that I'm here. And it makes me feel good. And it's such a great team to be a part of.

A great organization. So, hopefully we can keep winning. Really good feeling for him. I think we're all excited for him. He's put in a lot of hard work himself with the hitting guys. And so, for it to kind of have a result like tonight was something special.

And he doesn't smile very often. So, to get him to see him smile was pretty cool. We've been working on a lot of stuff.

I don't want to bore everybody and get into it all. But we've definitely been working a lot. And I think one of the reasons they brought me over was that they saw things that they could fix. And, you know, helped me be the player that I know I can be. So, you know, they have a great staff. Great hitting crew.

So, I'm excited to keep working with them. Good for you, Joey Gallo. Sometimes a change of scenery. A fresh start.

Different people around you. And that's not a knock on the Yankees because they were on some kind of historic torrid pace earlier in the season. Obviously, they've cooled off. And Seattle won again yesterday. But with the Dodgers and the fact that they have so many different options.

And I say this a lot. It just happens to apply baseball right now. The hitting and the offense are contagious. But it can be that way really on any winning team. Think about the Golden State Warriors. And the fact that when they were on their run in the postseason, really didn't matter who they put out there. Everybody was benefiting from the way they were sharing the basketball.

The type of rhythm and groove they had. The great forward motion. And certainly you play alongside greats like a Steph Curry, a Klay Thompson, a Draymond Green. Well, you're bound to get better if you're where you're supposed to be on the court.

If you're ready, they're going to involve you. Well, it's the same thing with the Dodgers. You get in that lineup, you have an opportunity, you kind of follow the philosophies. Now, granted, it's more of an individual matchup with a hitter and a pitcher. But still, it's kind of hard not to get the bug, so to speak, when you're with the Dodgers.

Because we talked about it on Tuesday night. Every single guy in the lineup, 10 different guys with one pinch hitter had at least a hit. Last night it was almost the exact same thing. I think it was eight or nine guys who had a hit. And so right now, to be inserted into that lineup, I think kind of a rising tide that lifts all boats. They've got the, I don't want to say perfect because there's no such thing as perfect, but they've got a pretty incredible formula.

And Roberts knows how to mix and match his hitters and that offense. They're now at 16 games up in the National League West, even with the Padres having won back-to-back games. So they've got a nearly insurmountable. It would be a miracle and then some if the Padres or any other team was going to catch them in the West. The Giants are the next closest at 23 and a half games out. But the Dodgers have won 10 games in a row. They're at 77 wins and they've got the best record in Major League Baseball. Though, the Mets are not that far off. They're stretching that gap between themselves and the Braves. And even though the Braves won last night, the Mets have built themselves a nice cushion. Can they keep it up?

It's, I hesitate to say, easier. But if what the Mets do is pound on the teams they're supposed to beat the rest of the way, maybe win a series here or there against the Braves. We talked about the last two series against the Braves. They've been able to win that series.

That's huge. They have a lot of momentum now, too. And they outscore the Reds 21 to 5 in a sweep. But moving forward, you don't have to win every game. But you've got to make sure that you're beating the teams that you need to beat. Protecting the home field, of course, is also big. And then win your series. Try to win your series.

It doesn't need to be perfect. All those principles plus some base running principles could be applied to the New York Yankees right now. Credit the Seattle Mariners because they have gone toe-to-toe with some of the best in Major League Baseball.

And they've come out on top. Here's the 1-1 to Santana. Infield pulled around to the right.

And he drives one right field. That ball is going back. Giddy up. Gone. Cold run.

Carlos Santana. And the Mariners have a 4-3 lead. The windup in the 1-0 pitch. Swung out and it's popped up foul. First base side. Ty France over. He's got room.

He's there. Makes the catch near the dugout and the ball game is over. The Mariners win it. A come-from-behind 4-3 win over the New York Yankees. And they beat the Yankees.

They win a series against New York for the first time since 2002. Everybody that's been following the Mariners for a while. Certainly should have had fun this week. Great series. Can't say enough about the effort from our players. Everybody on our roster contributing. But the story of the last couple nights has been pitching and I thought Robbie Ray was awesome today. Ray allows just two runs on three hits, has seven strikeouts. And Scott Servis and his club take two of three from the Yankees.

So you've got two factors at work here. In fact, two teams going in the opposite direction. Right now, in the last 45 games, Mariners have the best record of any team in baseball. They are 32-13 in their last 45 games.

So it's not only a surge, it's a protracted, extended rise. Similar to the AL East, in the AL West, the Astros have built this big lead and it's not likely that they're going to lose it. Even though we still have, what do we have, six, seven weeks left to go in the regular season. It would be, I mean the Astros would have to collapse for Seattle to be able to catch them. But more and more talk of 2001. Their consistency has put them right there in the mix for an American League wild card along with the Baltimore Orioles.

This is actually an interesting question and we don't want to ask it now or I don't want to ask it now because it's a little bit too early. But, and this is crazy the way things are shaping up in the American League. It's good for baseball to be sure. Blue Jays, Mariners, Rays and Orioles right now. Four teams who would be, you'd have to have a, what do they call it, an extra game?

I guess. If the Rays and Orioles ended up with, you would have to have a tiebreaker. If the Orioles and Rays ended up with the exact same record, which is what they have right now.

But let's just say for the sake of argument, this is not a knock on the Rays, don't be meow at me. If the Mariners and Orioles both get into the playoffs as wild cards, which one of them is the better story? Crazy because the Orioles had 157 losses last year and that's what it felt like.

Wasn't quite that many. The Mariners haven't made the playoffs since 2001, they have the longest drought in major pro sports. So they'd probably be the story, but it's not like the Orioles have been kicking butt and taking names recently. They've also been an exercise in futility and they're coming out of nowhere. Mariners at least were part of the wild card until late last season. So they're not a surprise.

That's a tough call. There's some really, really good stories in baseball this year. And still, quite a ways to go. But Seattle taking care of business. Meanwhile, what happened to the Yankees offense? Yet again, only seven hits over the last two games. And so even when the pitching does well, they're struggling to find a win. We've got to get it going offensively. The good thing is here, another really good start from one of our starters.

But the last two games have been tough for us, obviously, to get much going offensively. So Aaron Boone, rest of the Yankees trying to figure it out. They need to get some guys back because they've lost a few. Matt Carpenter, of course. Anthony Rizzo with the back spasms. That's been a pain in the rear for them as well. And Giancarlo Stanton. And we had talked about this with the Yankees going back to their torrid start. Can they stay healthy?

Can they stay healthy? Now, to their credit, they've built quite a lead. So they're still in a really good spot. The Astros are not playing their best baseball right now, so the Yankees and Astros are in a dead heat for the best record in the American League. But come on, two months ago, six weeks ago, would you have believed me if I said... Now, I wouldn't say anything like this, but would you have believed me if I said or someone told you the Mets would have a better record than the Yankees at this point in the season, considering the pace that they started out? So we'll see.

Still plenty of real estate left. That's the cool thing about Major League Baseball in the 162 game season is that anything can and will happen. I kind of feel the same way about hard knocks with the Lions.

Anything can and will happen. We actually have a couple of other hysterical moments from the initial episode of hard knocks. And then, did you guys hear? I miss this. I will just be perfectly honest and tell you that I missed it on Tuesday. What the new owner of the Broncos called the commissioner?

Maybe it sticks. Good morning to you. It's a Thursday After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.

Michael is listening in Eugene. I wouldn't be calling you if I wasn't woken up by the biggest spider I've ever seen in my entire life. No, no, no, no, no. Don't tell me spider stories.

Deathly afraid of spiders. When I looked over the side on the other pillow and he was there looking at me. No, no, no. What? I caught him with the tennis ball cup thingy that you have tennis balls in. He's resting comfortably in there right now. I would have freaked out.

I would have run out the door, slammed the door behind me and never gone back in that room again. Didn't scream but I did say holy cow that is the biggest spider I've ever seen in my entire life. You better hope he doesn't have a family, Michael. I really hope not. I'm never going to be able to get this image out of my head.

Amy's taking your calls at 855-212-4CBS. I do not think that producer Carlos could read my mind but I will say driving into work last night I had to kill another spider on my dashboard. Actually, this one was over on my side window. He was on my dashboard. I allowed him to crawl, unsuspectingly, oh it freaked me out though, over to my driver's side window and then I smooshed him with the paper towel that I had.

I had grabbed it for my coffee. So that is third, let's see that's three, that's the third time, three spiders in the last two weeks that I have had to kill while driving in my car. How do they get inside Princess Leia? Riddle me that Spiderman.

How do they get inside Princess Leia? I thought, I mean I closed my windows on purpose so that there are no entry points for spiders or bugs or anything else. And yet somehow, and now I'm looking for them, it's freaking me out because any little shadow or movement or something on the window and I tense up and think, it's a spider. And as it turns out, it's a good thing that I'm vigilant about it because that's a third time, third time in weeks, my gosh, they're attacking me. They know I don't like them and they're targeting me and Princess Leia. I'm driving this stuff, I'd rather have them in my house or in my car.

I feel like when you're in your car and you're driving, you are at a definite disadvantage. If you're in your house, I feel like you have the upper hand unless you walk into one, have you ever done that? Oh my gosh. So one time I was walking through a doorway, no joke, if I hadn't had my eyes at just the right level to catch the light on a spider that was dangling in the doorway, what was he doing? They're all he's by the way, they're never she's, just wanting to know. I kill them all, they're all he's.

I hate them all, they're all he's. No, I'm not that kind of a person, but I've never referred to a spider as a she. I don't know why.

All my cars are she's, but all my spiders are he's. No idea what this says about me. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We just got a thank you for breaking out the old school Spiderman music, hashtag awesome. Hey, you want to know what's awesome?

Dan Campbell. Now we had played for you him pleading, well pleading, him trying to convince his lions on the first episode of Hard Knocks and he's not a lunatic. Can we listen to that? I'm not a lunatic, I swear to you, I'm not a lunatic. All I think about is you guys, that's all I think about, man, that's all I can think about is you guys and how I set you up for the best possible, the best possible advantage I can give you to have a season, I swear to you, man, I just need you to trust me.

That's all, please. I mean, all I wanted was the I'm not a lunatic, but apparently that got trimmed. So that's what followed the I'm not a lunatic. But here's the thing, if you talk about ass cheeks and noses and and you have to tell people you're not a lunatic, I feel like they might think the opposite.

Doesn't matter if you have one ass cheek and three toes, I will beat your ass. I just want them to win. I do not want it to be all hard knocks bites throughout the season. I need Dan Campbell to be front and center at victorious postgame press conferences because the kind of stuff that comes out of his mouth is gold.

It's gold. He has no V chip yet. Maybe he hasn't learned how to have a V chip yet. Although Bruce Arians doesn't either and he's been around as an NFL head coach for years.

He does it on purpose, though, he strategically places his curse words, Dan Campbell just drops them in everywhere. I don't care if you have one ass cheek and three noses. I don't care if you have 17 fingers and only one ear. I'm going to beat your ass.

Like, what does it even mean? Is there a serious question? Sort of anybody out there only have one ass cheek? Anyone? I just made Carlos die in the control room.

He's having a coughing fit. I'm serious, Carlos. Do you know anyone who only has one ass cheek? I know people who have a flat, who don't have any ass cheeks, but I feel like if you have one, you have two. There's no way to just have one. Although, do you remember the friend skit about having three nipples?

So maybe someone out there does. I mean, some people have six toes, I just haven't come across anyone with only one ass cheek. It's either zero ass cheeks or two ass cheeks. Or you know, like if you have multiple roles, maybe it's seven or eight ass cheeks underneath there. But for the most part, no one has just one. Okay then, if you are one of these special people out there who knows what Dan Campbell's talking about, please find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, or on our Facebook page.

I'm not a lunatic, I promise. Okay, so this is something else and I don't know how we missed this on the last edition of the show. So I want to just give credit to our WFAN New York affiliate because I would not have heard this if not for their morning anchor, Jerry Recco, who has been here on the show with me before.

When Rob Walton, one of the newest owners of the Denver Broncos, sat down and made his initial comments, he made a major faux pas or maybe he didn't. I'd like to thank Roger Goodall, Commissioner Goodall. Goodall? Wait, what?

Maybe that's actually how you're supposed to pronounce his name. Wait, one more time. I'd like to thank Roger Goodall, Commissioner Goodall.

I'm not sure what's funnier, a person with one ass cheek or Roger Goodall. No, no, I don't care how much money you have. Granted, the Walmart family has a lot of money, $4.65 billion just to buy the Broncos and I'm sure that didn't wipe out all their savings. But come on, he is the CEO of the company that you just bought into for $4.65 billion and you didn't go online or ask someone? How do you pronounce that man's name? You know what probably preceded that? Who's that guy? Wait, who is he? Oh, the commissioner and then he maybe was shown his name on a piece of paper. Goodall, Roger Goodall. No, no.

Do your homework, Mr. Walton. I'd like to thank the Commissioner Roger Goodall or maybe we have it wrong all these years. That's what it's supposed to be. Goodall. Does Roger Goodall have one ass cheek? Is Erica Hershkowitz, has she already quit the show? Is she done? Is she, you're out?

No, I'm here. My theory is that Roger Goodall has two ass cheeks because he sits in that chair all the time. You know that Barca lounger?

Yeah. Do you know anyone who only has one ass cheek? I do not.

I do not. From now on, I'm looking. It's the first place I'm looking.

People walking down the street. It's the first place I'm looking. Don't get caught looking. That is a problem.

One ass cheek for Roger Goodall. You know, that's scary because would you want an owner of your team not knowing things like clearly he's not a football fan. I mean, how do you not know the name of the committer? He is now.

Yeah. But I don't know if I was a fan of that team, I would not be psyched that my owner's not into it. I'm sure Peyton Manning set him straight. He met Peyton on Wednesday, so I'm sure or Condoleezza Rice.

She actually spoke to on Wednesday. So somebody got somebody got to him. Yeah. Yeah. Whoopsie. Be careful.

He's going to have only one ass cheek. As long as he's not a lunatic. What is it? Lunatic. I swear I'm not a lunatic. I love that. That's going to be on my Twitter. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. If you have not seen the video, it's now gone viral of Aiden Hutchinson, Detroit Lions rookie.

Remember, he was selected number two overall by the Lions. He is performing Billie Jean from Michael Jackson in front of his entire team. Now, I'm assuming this is something rookies have to do, but it was caught on film, obviously, because of hard knocks, and it is amazing. I have watched it so many times on a loop that I know all of the moments. It's awesome.

So it's on my Twitter, A Law Radio. That had to be one of my favorite moments from the initial hard knocks with my apologies to Dan Campbell and the one ass cheek comment. I know that our guest tonight, who joined us earlier from L.A., Lindsay Rhodes, had also just watched hard knocks, and so when we first started talking, I asked her about her favorite moments, and I discovered that we have something in common.

We're both on board with the Lions this season. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Just a portion of my conversation with Lindsay Rhodes. The NFL Rhodes show is her podcast and her Sirius XM show. She's a long time TV and radio host in the football forum, and yeah, she's all in on Detroit. Well, first of all, I need to say I am going into this year like an unabashed Lions fan, like going to buy shirts, restore the roar, all the hashtags. I'm in. I'm really excited about this team, and that is a relative excitement.

I feel like I need to clarify that. I'm not suggesting this is a team that's going to go win the Super Bowl, but I love what I saw from them last year with a roster that was not as good as most rosters in the NFL, but they were fighting. I could tell that Stan Campbell had won them over and that they were going to give him everything that they had, and I think that they have added to the roster this year, and I think they actually have a pretty good roster this season, and I think that they're going to be a team that Vegas has them at six and a half wins, and I think that there is a strong possibility.

I would bet the over on that. I like this team to surprise people this year, and by surprise people, I mean like be an average to slightly above average team. You're coming off of three wins. Absolutely, and I don't know if the Lions fit this category, but we had this conversation on my show this week because every year in the NFL, about half the playoff field turns over. Whether or not the Lions hit that category, we had a variety of answers, teams that could, in fact, insert themselves into the 2022 playoff bracket. Who do you think are a few candidates who were not in the playoffs last year, but should have those expectations for this season? Oh my gosh, the Vikings? Yes, that was a popular answer. The Vikings, that's one, and particularly since we're talking about the NFC North, I was thinking originally, as soon as you started talking about the Lions, like do they have a path?

Is it possible? And I think that they do. I think the Bears are going to be awful, so I'm going to take them off the table, and then it kind of becomes like, for the second team coming out of that division, it feels like it could be the Vikings and the Lions could fight for that, but I think the Vikings are certainly going to be favored and should be expected to do better than the Lions. AFC's hard because there's so many teams that have made jumps, especially in the West. Yes, and the Chargers are the obvious answer, right? The fact that the Chargers didn't go in that last second game against the Raiders, where if the Raiders had just done them a solid, they both could have gone, we wouldn't have been subjected to watching the Steelers in the postseason.

That would have been fun. The Chargers are one of my favorite teams in the entire NFL, so that's the most obvious answer. I think that they have one of the best top to bottom rosters, and obviously the Bills and the Bucks fall into that category also, but I think the Chargers are easily the team that probably has the lowest odds to win a Super Bowl that I think actually has a legit chance to win a Super Bowl. That's the bet that I would want to make, that I think is really, I feel comfortable with. I love what they did in the offseason in terms of the additions that they made on the defensive side of the ball, bringing in the pieces that they did going into year three with Justin Herbert, it's like textbook roster building, and I love all the moves that they've made, and I'm the biggest Justin Herbert fan, like just massive, massive.

So that would be my most obvious one, I think. Well, and the Colts nearly got to the playoffs last year, too. They lost to Jacksonville in that final week, and they add a Matt Ryan. I'm wondering how you feel about the Dolphins, because they're a team that's been part of a lot of chatter this offseason. They still have Tua, but they've added some weapons, almost feel like if he doesn't take a major step forward this year, then it's him, Lindsey. It's not what the team has done around him. 100%, which is why I think that they have been brilliant in terms of how they've approached this offseason, because they've put so many pieces around him, and they've taken away any excuses.

So they're going to get a fair evaluation of who he is as a quarterback. Now, I kind of think that he's going to step up, and that the Dolphins are going to be pretty good, and that they will be in the mix for a playoff berth, certainly with the potential to be the second best team in that division. I'm a little bit worried about what I'm seeing and hearing coming out of Foxboro this year.

Obviously, the Bills are the favorite in the division, but I think that the Dolphins could be in a position to fight for a wildcard spot. That's one of the teams I'm the most interested to see once they actually hit the field and put all these pieces together in week one, because I think Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle together will open things up for other people. This is a team that had just the worst, I think literally the worst separation. No, Devante Parker ranked last in separation last year in the NFL out of every wide receiver. As a wide receiver core, they were one of the worst teams in the NFL at separation, and I think that that put Tua in a really tough position, because he's having to throw the ball into a bunch of tight windows, and that obviously leads to fewer yards after the catch, just because they don't have space with which to work. It puts him in a position to throw more interceptions than he would like. The good news there is that he actually made the throws anyway into the tight windows, so we know that he's not afraid to be aggressive.

That could be the takeaway there. Now you put Tyreek Hill on the field, you take away Devante Parker, and you have one of the league's best separators, and you know that he's going to pick up yak yards, and Jalen Waddle is very good in that department also, and it's going to open things up for everybody. There are subtle ways that adding these pieces that they've added this year are really smart strategically in terms of helping Tua's development, and not just the obvious like, and now they have a guy to stretch the field, and then in Jalen they have a guy they can bring out of the backfield. There are a ton of different ways that these pieces are really smartly put together, and then obviously they made some changes on the offensive line, and in the backfield, I mean, that backfield is crowded, right? None of them are like a Najee Harris or anything, but there are a lot of weapons there, so I'm really curious to see what they're going to do with all of these people, and what Mike McDaniel's will be like as a head coach.

I think it's going to look very similar to San Francisco, it's going to be like a San Francisco South type of thing, all of the beat writers that I've talked to out of Miami say, yes, everything you hear in that department is exactly what you should expect. I think that they're one of the more exciting teams in the NFL. In terms of overhaul, I've reached a point in my career where I think those are the most interesting teams. Yes, the Bills are interesting, yes, the Bucks are interesting, yes, the Rams are interesting, but I know what to expect.

Right. I'm confident they're going to be good, I don't really have questions outside of who's going to be the Bills number three, who's going to win the slot job, you know what I mean? There are some questions that I have that are interesting for fantasy or DFS or whatever, but when it comes to how different will the Dolphins be, how different will the Lions be, how will... I think the Falcons are going to be awful.

Who are the pieces? Somebody's going to step up and make plays for them, maybe not as many as we would like, but who are going to be those people because they're not obvious. I think those are the more interesting stories in the NFL, are the Jets going to be good or bad?

I don't know. They have a lot of young pieces and they could really take a step forward. Oh, that's just the tip of the iceberg with Lindsey Rhoads, but good stuff there because we end up talking Lions, we have an affinity for the Detroit Lions. I think they're going to be a popular team anyway because of hard knocks and the personalities, but also because they did play hard, really hard, for Dan Campbell last year because they've got some reclamation projects, which I think people always adopt. Aiden Hutchinson's going to change that defense too, so looking forward to that.

If he can fit in as well and make as much of an impact on the defense as he does with his rendition of Billie Jean in front of the team room, well then he should be good to go. Have you seen it, producer Carlos? The Aiden Hutchinson?

Yes. I know you sent it to me earlier this morning, but I actually did see it yesterday and I thought about bringing it on, but the audio didn't sound that great. Oh no, you have to watch it. You can't get the full effect of the Lions' team room unless you watch it. Anyway, when I first found it, it was at 1.4 million views, it is now at 4.4 million views, and so it is extremely popular, as I say, the Dolphins. The Lions will be a reclamation project in many ways, but they're going to have a lot of fans, so move over.

People jumping on your bandwagon there in Detroit in the Motor City. So check that out on my Twitter, ALawRadio, if you haven't seen it, because it is awesome. Also with Lindsay Rhodes, we did, well get this, we discovered we've actually been in the same fantasy football league for the last two years, but didn't know it. So she was giving me all of her best fantasy football draft picks and draft tips, and then said, oh no, do the opposite of everything I just told you, because we realized we were in the same league. Also we go pretty in depth on the Deshaun Watson case. I asked her two questions, how does she like the way the Browns are handling it, and what does she think about the way the NFL is handling it?

And her Top Gun Maverick movie review, trust me, is unique. So all of that with Lindsay on our podcast, After Hours, AmyLawrence.com. I cannot believe it's a Thursday morning, go crush it, and we'll talk to you tonight after pre-season football. That's After Hours, CBS Sports Radio, boom.