Adam Gold says Panthers should've taken deal for Brian Burns

This is the Adam Gold Show. I was surprised there was a lack of Halloween candy on press row last night for the Hurricanes and the Capitals. That was disappointing. You know, the biggest tease though was when I was walking the halls this morning. Not this morning.

Well, I kind of did on my way out this morning. But when I got to the arena, I saw all the empty candy boxes. Yeah. There was like Reese's and Hershey's and Butterfinger and Kit Kat.

And I'm like, well, they must be out here somewhere. Yeah. And they were not. They were not. They had them all down on the bench for the post game. Did they?

The storm surge. What were the boxes doing all the way up in the fifth floor? I don't know. They could have just, they have garbage cans down at the arena level. Maybe. Could have just tossed them there. They were just teasing us, which is fine. I don't need the candy.

I'm watching my figure. The Hurricanes did pretty well last night. They won in penalties. Three to two.

Yes. We'll get to more about that game a little bit later on. But should have had a lot more goals than two.

Yeah. I mean, that could have been a 5-2 final very easily. Freddie Anderson had to make some good saves in the third period. I thought Carolina was a better team by a lot. And they got a just result, unlike what happened in Philadelphia on Saturday. The first highlight you heard in that package came from Saturday night when the Hurricanes stole two points. Martin H's. They put the two points, a big number two.

They sat it on the plane next to nature's. Like Marty, you take this home with you because you just did that in Philly. Anyway, it was a fun night.

I thought it was a very entertaining game at PNC Arena. So we got a lot of stuff to do today. We're going to talk some football as well. And I have a declaration to make as we start. Happy college football playoff fake rankings day. Let's go.

Yes. Let's go tonight at whatever time I still let's get mad. How many how many years have they done these shows?

This show itself, I'm pricing close to six, seven years. I have never watched an episode that don't blame you. I just I just look at my timeline and look at my Twitter feed and see the anger. Why is this? Why is this? Why is this?

I will provide the PSA for every I do this every year. Don't pay attention. Don't assign any meaning.

Don't it's a fake. It it doesn't mean anything. Their reasons don't mean anything. All of the things that they spit out that they say to justify why this team is here and this team is not doesn't mean anything and it doesn't count. So if you get angry over, let's just say Clemson coming in at number, let's just say Clemson is sixth tonight behind Alabama.

How dare, right? Don't worry about it because all Clemson has to do is keep winning and they will eventually be in the top four. That's just and I'll say the same thing about TCU. If you're mad, if you're a big horned frog and the horned frogs are not in the top four, but they are still unbeaten by all means. Just sit tight.

Don't don't scream about it. If they keep winning, they'll be in the play promise promise a lot of these teams have to play each other. Yeah, right. So we have Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, well, playing at LSU and then they have another difficult game left. Plus you're playing Auburn with an interim coach coming up at the end of the year. That's going to be where Brian Harsin was fired.

Yeah. Ohio State and Michigan have to play still. There's a lot of things going to happen. Not only does Tennessee play Georgia, but one of them will have to play Alabama. Tennessee could be a rematch, Georgia would be a first time thing, so a lot to do.

All right. What will it look like tonight? And here's what I would like to do, Dennis. I would like to play college football playoff fake rankings, selection show, bingo. We need to come up with a bingo card. We will use Nick Saban as the free space. And we need to come up with 24 other things that will likely be said. Easy.

Coming up tonight, I've got strength of schedule, road wins in their conference or league. I mean, whatever, it's the same. I test, oh man, much improved, right? Yeah. Improved metrics, body clock. Body clock? Oh, yeah. Oh, you don't remember the whole body clock thing? No. Oh, yes.

Body clock was a thing about four years ago. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Game control. Okay. Right. I think there was also something about weather. Okay. I'll just, I'll just, I'm gonna write this down.

Anything about weather. Oh, I'm typing it all out right now. Oh, are you? Oh, I got you. Let's see.

What else? Data points. Oh, yes.

Data points is a good one. Yeah. But I'm sure it'll come up. Oh, resume. Oh, resume. Yeah, resume easily. Yeah, resume. Write that down too.

It's the game day environment, weather. So whatever, however many that is, member Saban is the free space. I think that's about 12 right there. Four, 12.

Yeah. I think that's, I think that's 13 with Saban. So we need to come up with another dozen. I actually have a, I have 14 here. We have 14. Okay. So we need to come up with another 11 to fill out the entire bingo card.

That's easy. Okay. So if you have a suggestion for the college football playoff fake rankings day bingo card, let's have at it. And then we'll distribute the cards and we'll see maybe somebody that would have shuckled.

Be very nice and take a shackle at a petty cash. All right. So what will it look like tonight? What will the, their first ranking look like? My guess is Ohio state will be one, Georgia will be two, Tennessee will be three, Michigan will be four, Clemson five, Alabama six, TCU seven, although they only put on the board, they only put the six. So TCU is going to be a little, a little stepchild out. First one out.

Yes. There'll be seventh, Southern Cal eighth, Oregon ninth, UCLA 10. Now we have the run on the PAC 12, Southern Cal, Oregon, UCLA eight, nine and 10. That's my prediction for the top 10.

What does Paul Finebaum think about who's number one tonight? Well my top four will not mirror what we're going to see tonight. I still like Ohio state is the most complete team after that, Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan. Having said that, there's a lot of reason to believe Tennessee could end up number one tonight based on the win three weeks ago over Alabama. Yeah.

They have the best win. Yeah. Right. And that would be fine for me, but I guess Paul assumed that my, that his top four, his top four looks, it looks like my top four. I'm not sure. I think he copied you.

He might've. I said it first. You did. All right. So we, well, we'll get back to Paul Finebaum in a minute.

Let me move on to something else. According to Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated, the Rams who also were in the Christian McCaffrey sweepstakes, the Rams were the team in the hunt for Brian Burns. And they did in fact offer first round picks, albeit in 24 and 25, not this year. This would have been a better year to have the Rams first round pick since they look like they're not going to make the playoffs. And there's, I think you had mentioned also that there was some chatter that Cam Acres would be tossed in the running back who played at Florida State would be tossed in as a sweetener.

And I'll just say, whatever. I mean, Cam Acres, I think is a good running back, but it's not going to make me, it's not going to swing me one way or the other because I mean, there's a lot of Cam Acres out there. Not to mention there's been a little bit of a problem, a wait, staying on the field and then complaining with the Rams. But I will go back to what I said over and over and over again about the idea of trading Brian Burns. If you turn down multiple first round picks for Brian Burns, it is malpractice. If you are trying to build a team that wins, that is a consistent winner in your division as much as you can be for the Panthers and you are offered two first round picks for Brian Burns and you don't take it, you should be fired because there are so few players in this league that even come close to being worth two first round picks. Non quarterback division, unless we are talking about, and I don't even know if Aaron Donald is today, right? But unless we were talking about somebody who is one of the all time greats, two first round picks is a no brainer, automatic, yeah, of course, where do I sign?

I will drive him to you. Doesn't mean we don't love Brian Burns. So I'll put it this way. Let's just assume that the Rams are a playoff team next year, not this year, next year. Then they lose in the division round. We're talking about a pick in the neighborhood of 25, 26, right? So if you get that two years in a row to add to your own first round picks, now you have draft capital. You have draft capital that you can use to either move up or to simply add to your team. No offense to Brian Burns, he's not the best defensive end in this, not the best edge rusher in the sport.

No. I mean, I don't even know where he ranks. I mean, I'll say he's in the top 10 of edge rushers in the sport, but that ain't moving the needle and it's certainly not making the Panthers this juggernaut of a defense. Their defense is good. Their defense is not amazing.

It's good. No, they're a little banged up. No Jeremy Chin like that. They could use some help in other positions as well, and I'm not blaming Brian Burns, but he ain't Lawrence Taylor.

He's not Derek, the late Derek Thomas. So unless we're talking about somebody who is absolutely at the top of the sport today, if I'm getting two first round picks, this is not even a question for me. On top of the fact, how far are the Panthers away from being great?

Great is the bad word from being a legitimate contender to not only squeak into the playoffs, but to actually advance in the playoffs. And I think we're talking about three years, so now let's fast forward at three years. What is Brian Burns three years from now? We don't know. We don't know, but he would have been in, he'll be in year seven by that point. And for the most part, players, 27 years old. Yeah. Or actually I will say only 27.

I'm not saying it's not without some risk, but I will trust getting two first round picks, especially those picks will be 21 and 22 when Burns is 26 and 27. Wendy's new French toast sticks are so delicious. Some are saying that they're better than their mom's breakfast. Excuse me. Did you just say Wendy's new French toast sticks are better than my breakfast?

Mom? Did you? Answer the question. I said some people are saying that because they're so crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside and perfect in every way. Uh-huh.

And what do you think? I think it's time to tell people to choose wisely. Choose Wendy's new sweet and crispy Homestyle French toast sticks. That's still not an answer.

I'm participating in U.S. Wendy's during breakfast hours. Yeah, but you're also making the assumption that those picks are going to translate into a player of his caliber. You are making that assumption because every draft is the same way. Well, sure. That's the thing.

If you know you have a top 10 guy at a premium position like Edgerusher, why do you give that up? You can get another one. Can you?

Yes, you can. Because they don't grow on trees. No, they do, actually. Top 10 Edgerushers? Look at prospective NFL drafts. Pull up any mock draft right now. Any mock draft. I'll bet you there are at least five Edgerushers in the top 20.

Sure. All you got to do is pick the right one, and it's worth the try because, again, we're not even looking to replace it. By the way, you can get an Edgerusher in the third round, too. I'm just saying that that draft capital, what do the Panthers need more than anything on this earth? Quarterback.

Right. That draft capital in two years could put you in position to take the right quarterback. The right quarterback probably ain't there this time around. There is no quarterback in this draft that is blowing my socks off. CJ Stroud, probably the best prospect, but can we make a list of the Ohio State quarterbacks that have done well?

No. We're done. We just made the list. We just made the list.

That's my point. There's no quarterback. The Panthers, in terms of timing, the Panthers are going to be near the top of this draft in a bad year. You can get a quarterback, the same quarterback, with the same chances of succeeding at number 15. I'm not even saying they should take the quarterback at number 15. The Panthers need so much.

We fool ourselves to thinking that, and we do this in every sport, we overrate our prospects, we overrate our young players. The Panthers have, on their defense right now, maybe four pieces that will be part of a really good team in three years. Maybe four. It's probably less.

Probably less. Just looking at their roster now, Chin, Burns, Brown. Horn. Horn. Four.

Okay, there's four. You need 11, and you need depth. That's what they don't have. I would so much rather have the draft capital to be able to fill in now, and then, when the time is right, add the quarterback and have draft capital to do it. The one thing they have not had is draft capital. The really good teams have built through the draft.

The really good teams. The Panthers have not been able to do that. They have screwed up drafts, and they have given draft picks away. They have done way too much trading a future second for a current third, which they did this year. Remember, when they drafted Matt Corral, that ain't the way to do it, man.

That is not the way to do it. Matt Corral or somebody just like him would have been there when they picked in the fourth round, but they traded into the third round again. I mean, I don't know why.

It's a no-brainer for me, an absolute no-brainer for me. Will Brinson is supposed to join us in a little bit. What did the Eddie Panero run of missed kicks mean for the Panthers?

Think about this. Eddie Panero missed the extra point. They would have taken the lead, and then he missed the short field goal that would have won the game. The Panthers dropped from fourth in the NFC playoff race to 15th in the NFC playoff race as a result of the loss, which, depending on your point of view and what you want out of this season, might not be a bad development.

Could be a good development. Maybe you prefer to be 15th. The truth is, is that the Panthers right now are in line to get a top five pick at worst. Lions and Texans have one loss each.

The Panthers, Steelers, Jaguars, and Raiders each have two losses. I wonder how it's going in Las Vegas with Josh McDaniel. Anyway.

It's not. But he did take responsibility for this one. I'm not sure if by saying that he's not taking responsibility for the other four losses, but yeah, it's not gone well. But look, he's a first year head coach like anybody else.

Right? No, he's not a first boy. He's first year with the Raiders. With the Raiders.

Yeah. He's not his first go-around. No, it's his second go-around. We can't count the fact that he jilted the Colts at the altar. I'm talking about his time with the Broncos.

Right. The Broncos and he, you know, they experimented with Tim Tebow, obviously. They want a playoff game. They did win a playoff game. Nobody could take that from them again. They can't. It's the biggest farce that they did win a playoff game.

Steelers couldn't use one of their best players. Yeah. Don't remind me. I'm fully aware of what happened. So anyway, it was Ryan Clark, right?

Ryan Clark safety. So anyway, look, um, they tried. They tried to make Tim Tebow a thing and, uh, and he didn't, he wasn't able to do that, but I really wanted to see the Panthers win that game for this reason and this reason only. Wouldn't it have been cool to see a four way tie for the division at three and five? Oh, absolutely. Oh yes. Coastal division.

This thing up, please. Oh my gosh, it would have been so awesome to see a division tied four way tie at three and five Panthers in first place at three and five. I think there's a very good chance that the division winner in the NFC South will be seven and 10.

How about that? How about a seven and 10 team in the playoffs? You think we have arguments over whether or not we should have divisions in college football. We only have two of them in college football, but imagine we should go back to no divisions in the NFL.

Actually, I can make, make an argument that that's what we should do. No divisions in the NFL. All right. To my man, Will Brinson, pick six podcast, moderator, senior NFL writer, CBS sports.com. The only senior NFL writer who doesn't write, uh, all right, Will Brinson, I mean, he prescribed it right either. Oh, he doesn't write anymore. I haven't written in like 10 years. Oh, I don't know. No, I don't read. Actually, it's one of our policies that our writers cannot write.

It's a great policy. All right. Let's, uh, let's, let's start. First of all, let's start with, uh, with the Panthers. Your thoughts on turning down to first round picks for Brian Burt, um, I know we talked about it last week.

You said that it, that it, that it wasn't true. Albert Breer wrote in, uh, SI that the Rams offered, uh, 24 and a 25 first. And I think, um, there's even rumor that cam acres was a throw in, which irrelevant to honestly irrelevant in the deal. Um, but if the, if it is a 24, a 24 and 25 first round pick thoughts.

That's actually interesting. And I, and Albert, Albert is very good at his job too. But I would, that, that makes more sense, I guess that the Panthers returned it down because if you're, if you're Scott Fitterer or anyone currently employed by David Tepper, why would you have reason to believe that you'd still be employed in three years? Sure. What, what, what about, what about, um, what good does like, if you're trying to, if you're trying to attract a coach and you were trying to plan for the immediate future and you are absolutely unconcerned with what was going to happen in three years because you're owners of a egotistical maniac, would you, would you care more about Brian birds or more about two first round picks? I think the, it all depends on whether or not you're trying to keep your job or do your job. Well, no, no, you're a hundred percent right. Right.

I'm going to steal that phrase. Um, 90% of the NFL has tried to keep their job. That's probably why 98% of the NFL, well, I shouldn't say 98%, a lot of that 98% does a poor job because only doing it for today is it would be like investing simply for what's going to happen next week. It's why the ACEs sucked except for the Patriots for years because everyone else was simply trying to keep their job and not get fired for losing to Bill Belichick.

Meanwhile, Bill Belichick is over there doing his job and it's doing his best to ensure that he was succeeded. Not like he'd be like, all right, you know, we're going to trade down to the draft instead of getting the shiny object here. We're not going to trade future first round picks. We're going to take your future first round picks.

The only problem with Belichick is that his drafting has been so average that this year's draft is pretty good though. Oh, was it? Okay. Good for him.

Finally for him. It's been a- We're going to blame it on Dave Ziegler or Dave Ziegler who's now in Las Vegas. All right, let's go to the, by the way, the Panthers Falcons game was actually super entertaining this week. It's all I've ever asked out of the Panthers this year is I know you're going to be bad.

Just make it interesting and enjoyable to watch. And I thank them for giving me an interesting, enjoyable watch this past Sunday. All right, to the 49ers, I still don't know what to make of them other than I think they should be really good now that McCaffrey is there and obviously they're going to run the entire offense through him, which is probably a good idea because Kyle Shanahan's not dumb.

I mean, what are your thoughts on that team? Well, I think the best way I've heard it described by a Panthers fan is for my buddy Jimmy Poole who said, good for Christopher McCaffrey. He's living his best life.

We had all the time in the world to make things good for this guy. And now he's out in California. He's got, oh gosh, his girlfriend Olivia Culpa. Is that right?

Oh, I have no idea. Is she? She's a lovely woman. Okay, I'm sure she is.

I'm sure she is highly, highly recommend just, just, I mean, uh, anyway, sure. She was, she's on the sidelines and a Niners like hold her top, you know, there's like family out there. He's hanging out with a guy who used to base it for him. He's throwing because he's catching passes. He's running, you know, your throat touchdowns, running for touchdowns, catching touchdowns. I mean, like, what a, what a life.

Good for Christopher. He's, he's in an offense with a, yeah, it was sort of like when, um, you know, when Cam Newton. It's like, man, like, what, what if we, what if the Panthers had like done right by Cam Newton and got him a good offensive coordinator and a good offensive line in an offensive line? Like, come on.

I mean, imagine how good he could have been at least half free and he's out here and he's out here. Just, he looks so much like he looks so much better in a 49ers uniform, like physically just like more attractive in a, in a, in a 49ers uniform than a Panthers uniform. And um, so I mean, I think that like, I think he's going to dominate, Jimmy Garoppolo said that he, um, didn't say a word in the huddle the entire game.

And meaning McCaffrey didn't or Garoppolo didn't Africa McCaffrey didn't because he, he knew all the place. Oh, sure. Yeah. He's a savant, you know, if in 10 days he knew everything he's supposed to do in the entire calcium. Yeah.

Yeah. He's a savant. I mean, probably, uh, and he's probably working on a piano.

He's probably playing the piano at night. I mean, he's, look, some people just have it and there is no question that he has had it. And I said this when they were thinking about trading him, I thought it was the humane thing to do basically for the Panthers to give Christian McCaffrey and his career, meaning the rest of the way. When we come back, uh, I guess one quarterback isn't quite done from the three veterans that have had tough years. We'll talk about the three vets next, uh, well, Brinson senior NFL writer, CBS sports dot com pick six podcast moderator. If you want to add to the bingo card for the college football playoff fake selection show, uh, tonight, uh, feel free, make a couple of thoughts and you can, uh, shout it to us before we get out of here. Um, like steadfastly not allow Carolina head. By any means necessary, uh, we'll put that on the list.

All right. So, I mean, they're going to be in the top 25 things. They will be in the top 25 tonight too. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

I think they'll both be in the top 25. Uh, all right, let's, uh, let's, let's examine this. Are the Packers done, done, don't, yeah, they're pretty, they're pretty terrible. Um, the problem is that they're bad.

Well, that, excuse me, I don't know why I didn't expect that, but yes, that would be a problem. Bad, bad is not good. Um, it's, it's a function of, I mean, I think it's, I think it's really a function of just Aaron Rodgers, any weapons, you know, like that's, that's the, that's the problem. It's just, he has their weapons. The defense isn't as good as they thought. And they're not able to like functionally run the offense, um, through the running game in a way that they thought they would be able to, which is causing them to be again, bad.

Yeah. And I also think that for whatever we think of the giants, the jets, the commandos, whatever the giants might be good. The jets might be good.

I don't know. They've lost, by the way, the Packers have now lost four in a row. First time Rogers ever lost four in a row. First time Brady's ever lost three in a row. The soft part of their schedule is over.

So at what are they three and five? The Packers? Yeah.

Right. Forget about the Vikings. I'm just talking about being the seventh seed. Now in the NFC, the seventh seed, you're not that far away, but you're probably going to have to be no worse than nine and eight to be the seventh seed. I mean, I think somebody's going to win the division possibly at seven and 10. You can be potentially be the fourth seed to be like six, 10 and one.

Oh yeah. But that's just the division winner. But I'm talking about being the one of the wild cards. Nine and eight is if you want to, if you want to, if you want to feel like you have any shot of being the final wild card in either conference, nine and eight is probably the four. Right. Yeah, the four. Yeah.

That's the worst you can be. So getting to nine and eight means that the Packers are going to have to win six of their last nine games. And they have the Cowboys, they have the Eagles, they have, they're on the road at the Dolphins. They have another, another game with the Vikings and they can lose to anybody right now, including the Bears. And they're on the road at the Bears, including the Lions.

They're at the Lions this week, although the Lions just traded TJ Hockenstein. What? They did. You didn't know that.

I did. I just break that news. Boom. Breaking news. Do you have to go emergency pod because TJ Hockenstein was, uh, was traded?

Um, I may actually. Yeah. It is trade deadline. Yeah. Yeah.

We got a podcast here at three 30 and, uh, there you go. That's good. I'm glad, uh, Roquan Smith traded from the bears yesterday. Like, did I miss that Roquan Smith was not good? The bears getting rid of it is great.

He is great. Like if you're the bears, why are you trading him for like just a second? Um, I know they have to pay him, but you got to pay somebody I think in the NFL, don't you? Yeah. I mean, the promise is off ball linebacker and like, okay, I mean, it's they were, he is going to demand a lot of money.

His contracts would be huge whenever he gets paid, right? You can franchise tag him, which gives you a certain amount of team control, obviously, but the Ravens are a perfect team for Roquan because they ain't going to franchise tag them. They got somebody else. I got to worry about. Yes.

That is absolutely true. Um, have you and I talked about how the Ravens should franchise tag Lamar Jackson that they should do the non-exclusive tag, which is less, less money ultimately. Um, yes, we did talk about that actually. Okay. Nevermind.

And we won't talk about it again. It's less money, see if somebody offers you, if somebody offers you two first round picks and then does a contract sheet and negotiates for you. Yeah.

Because the contract, I don't think, I mean, if somebody wants to give him the, the, the fully guaranteed contract, which the Ravens don't appear to ever want to do, you could always match it. I mean, you always have the opportunity to match it, right? Yeah.

You're just me. Just be like, all right. That sounds great. Lamar agreed to that. You agree to that. We'll, we'll pay that. Let's go. Let's do that. We'll pay that overall cost down if ultimately plays on the franchise tag. All right. So Packers are toast are the Buccaneers. I mean, look, the division is very winnable, but it's not toast because they, they still have the weapons in the passing game.

And do they? Yeah. Mike Evans. Chris Galvin. Very good. Who else is, but right now nobody's healthy though.

And Julio Jones is not, not going to be healthy in a week, even though, even if he's healthy right now. What? They traded him in the division. They did. Yes. The lions traded. I didn't mention the light, traded him to the Vikings. Yes.

TJ Hockens was traded to the Vikings for 20, 20, 20, okay. It's a complete mess. Can I come back in the one o'clock hour? No, I have no room. Okay. Um, I may have to go.

It's fine. If you have to go, you have to go. It is.

It's life in the big city. Do you have to go? I have to go.

Yeah. All right. Well, I'll say goodbye. Bye.

What? I'll come back on Thursday. That's fine. We'll do it. We'll set it up.

I'll come back and do it this week. All right. All right. See you, man. All right. I'm dying. Oh, this is so good. That's a, hey, that's the world we live in.

That's live radio and stuff for you. Is TJ Hockens something that good? I mean, it was a first round pick, wasn't he? A couple of years ago?

Wasn't like him and Noah fans? There's 32 first round picks every year. Well, I know, but usually you don't see tight ends going in the first round. Yeah.

But maybe it was. I know there's a couple of guys. I'm sure. I'm sure he's good. I'm sure.

Well, Iowa, of course. Yeah. He and Noah fan. So look, I, TJ Hockens and I guess is worth an emergency pod. Yeah.

Well, Brinson went by, uh, man. So I was looking at the NFL, uh, playoff, uh, match ups right now, right now in this is, this is how mediocre the NFC has the AF, the NFL has been this year, the, the Titans are back to a two seed in the AFC. They win the tiebreaker with Kansas city for, I think it's conference record. Now ultimately that'll adjust and the chiefs are the second best team in the AFC and they'll be the number two seed, uh, but Tennessee right now is the two seed, the chargers who are all talent and no ability to win are the seven seed, the chiefs and the dolphins. I actually think the dolphins might be good when they get healthy, but we don't know if they're ever going to be healthy.

Uh, the chiefs and the dolphins are the three six and then the Ravens who depending on the day and whether or not their defense wants to hold a lead or would be matched up right now against the jets who are half of a football team. They have a very good defense and the jets have a very bad offense and losing Breece Hall didn't help either. No, it, as a matter of fact, the, the numbers in their run game without Breece Hall and with Breece Hall were essentially great to bad, like no joke.

They were like five something yards a carry with Breece Hall and three something yards a carry without. Now they went and traded for the guy from Jacksonville, but who knows if he's any good. Uh, Minnesota is the two seed right now in the NFC and Minnesota adds Hockinson and they have tremendous wide receivers and doubt and a healthy right now, Dalvin cook, I say right now because in a week Dalvin cook won't be healthy potential, right?

I mean, that's just that, that has been his history, but if Minnesota stays healthy, I don't know what to make of a team like that. That still has Kirk cousins as their quarterback at some point. And Kirk to me, cousins is a basically he's Jimmy Garoppolo, maybe a slightly better version of Jimmy Garoppolo.

Yeah, I'd say that's fair. I mean, just slightly better, slightly better. Like my pro, I think Garoppolo though is a better bright lights quarterback than Kirk cousins is like when the game gets bigger.

I think Garoppolo gets better and I think it's the opposite for Kirk cousins and there's something to that. Seattle right now is the three seed process that for a second. Golly, a lot of people thought they were going to be the worst team. Terrible. Yeah.

Like, Oh, this is going to be perfect. They'll ride out with Gino Smith, right? Top pick draft to QB two things, two things here. I don't know whether or not you should say Gino Smith is really good or Gino Smith is having a hell of a year.

And those two things are different, right? Because I don't know if you assign real meaning beyond this year to what Gino Smith is doing this year. What I do know is he's making himself money.

He's going to get a contract, whether it's from Seattle or somebody else based on what he's doing. I'm not against it. Oh, can you just see it now, Dennis? Gino Smith. Panthers killed. Yeah.

I do exactly. Yeah. Well, it was interesting because he did say post game recently that he gives a lot of credit to Ben McAdoo for like, Hey, this guy actually believed in me when he was backing up in New York. He did. Uh, he was, he was this a second round pick of the jets. And when he was with the jets, he was slated to be the starter and then a former jet teammate turned Buffalo Bill in a preseason game. No, no, not a preseason game, uh, in the, uh, training camp in a locker room, former jet teammate sucker punched him in the face because Gino Smith owed him money from like a card game or something.

And uh, so Smith is out for half a year. Ryan Fitzpatrick, I believe it was Ryan Fitzpatrick took the job and became good. And that guy, I think it was like Ken and Polly was his last name ends up going to Buffalo. And when the bills played the jets, Rex Ryan was the head coach of the bills. He made, uh, that kid the captain of the team when they played and ultimately he got released by the bills because he wasn't that good. Uh, but Gino Smith's jets career fizzled out there and then he ended up backing up with the giants and now he's in Seattle, but, uh, yeah, good for him, man, it's, uh, it's just one of those things about the NFL timing and opportunity. Just it's just sits there if you persevere, so he's having a great year and he's going to get a contract. Yeah.

He's going to get a contract, but I don't think Seattle is all that good, but as it turns out that division might not be all that good. No. Right. The Rams aren't for various reasons. They're just too banged up. The offensive line is bad. The Cardinals are still coached by Cliff Kingsbury. I still think Kyler Murray is a fun player to watch, but not that good a player. So maybe Seattle is going to win that division, although I still think it's San Francisco and then, uh, the Cardinals, not the car, the Falcons and the Cowboys are the four or five game Cowboys legitimately good, but only one team can win that division and the Eagles are the best team in the NFC. This is the Adam Gold Show.