Breaking Carolina Panthers news to start out the week!

All right, it's Will Brinson time, senior NFL writer CBSSports.com. We have a dog on his hat today.

Very excited for that. Pick six podcast moderator. All right, let's just let's start with we got to start with Baker Mayfield. So I don't know what you've heard or is there anything other than he's just not that good. So we don't need him. But why are teams waving a quarterback who doesn't create issues on December 5th? Oh, good question.

Thank you. Like it doesn't seem necessary to wave him. I mean, I'm guessing there was something going on behind the scenes has to be right. Yeah, it was like Baker complaining. I don't maybe Baker.

It could also be a situation where I mean, maybe they get the sense that Jimmy Briscoe, poor Christian McCaffrey can't escape him. Right. I understand that.

But why, why are you here trying to help somebody else out? Yeah. I mean, I think it would be more like you're throwing Baker a bone.

Also, by cutting him, you fully guarantee that you won't the fifth round pick that you give up for mobile become a fourth round pick, which is if you controlled that anyway by not playing him. Sure. Yeah. I mean, like the the the commandos have the same issue with Carson Wentz.

Like he's not doing like, well, maybe we'll see some more wins. It's like, let's go to the field again. Plus, they're better with Taylor Heinecky. Correct. Yeah.

So I'm at a loss for this. But is Baker Mayfield going to show up in Christian McCaffrey's locker room is I mean, it makes sense with Jimmy Garoppolo and a broken foot. Let's go 49ers. Parentheses. Fourth stint.

Okay. Like for stance of the 49ers. He's been everywhere. Josh, he's been like four things at 14 teams. He's with the hot minute. I think he's with the Jets. Wasn't it with the Panthers rock minute? I believe so. Yeah. It's actually we did this game on the podcast. ποξης ποξης ποξης ποξης, the like I remember when but it was like we were like guessing, so can you guess all of Josh Johnson's teams that he's played for? Yeah. It sounds like you're going I'm just saying it's like, Tampa, I don't know, Cincinnati, I'm just, I'm throwing teams out in San Francisco.

I'll listen real quick. I'm going to read the list of teams that this is in chronological order that Josh Johnson has played for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, Sacramento Mountain Lions, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, San Francisco 49ers. Second time Cincinnati Bengals, second time New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, New York Giants, Houston Texans, Oakland Raiders, Washington Arts, San Diego Fleet, Detroit Lions, that's still the first time, Los Angeles Wildcats, San Francisco 49ers, third time New York Jets, second time Baltimore Ravens, San Francisco 49ers, fourth time. 2022 to present. He was the XFL passenger in 2020. Was he really? It was like PJ Walker, right? The fourth time All-Pioneer Football League.

Excellent. Yeah, University of San Diego. Did he play for Jim Harbaugh at USD?

Yeah, I believe. Look at that. Look at that. I bet Jim Harbaugh is glad he didn't take the Vikings' job. All right, let's, although the Vikings are doing very well, good win for them over the red zone allergic New York Jets. Speaking of quarterbacks, we're moving on. Shout out to Devin Leary. Yeah.

Enter the transfer portal. Yep. Will always be one of, one of the Wolfpack finest strangers. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Absolutely. I wish him nothing but the best luck in wherever he lands next year. And I don't think it's crazy that he could still get drafted. This year. Yeah, but it wouldn't be, I think he's going to stay in college one more year. Probably try to boost the livestock sales. Plus, we were just talking to Joe Giglio about this.

NIL money can be real depending on where you go. Absolutely. And we're looking for a guy who was as good as he was last year. Where did I tell you guy? What does he do? He covers, covers all things, he gambles mostly. He just spends his time, spends his time doing a spreadsheet for G4.

He's asking me about World Cup soccer bets. All right, let's, I just want to get in a little bit more, I know the Panthers were off this week and we're going to break and we'll come back and we'll talk about Aaron Rogers if there's one thing he can do, that's beat the Chicago Bears. The Panthers now have Darnold and Walker. It was funny because after the game last week, Darnold talked about basically compiling a resume. Is there a chance that Darnold is here? I would rather see, not rather see, my guess is that PJ Walker might be better suited to just being like the furniture at Bank of America Stadium as opposed to Sam Darnold. Yeah, I mean the one problem is, and I've pointed this out before, I think the current regime likes PJ Walker fine, but he's a Matt Ruhl guy. He played for him at Temple. That's sort of why he got brought into Carolina in the first place.

Now it all depends on which direction they go with the coaching hire, right? And I think too, it's so stupid that we do this sometimes, like Sam Darnold should not be a threat to any young quarterback, however, he's played okay and he is a high draft, former high draft pick. It's like if you're a former high draft pick, or I guess Josh Johnson, you're worth talking about.

You know what I mean? It's like the reason why Cam Newton had a hard time finding a landing spot after Carolina because if you went somewhere with a young quarterback and you're a bigger name, you're just sort of a threat, you know, it's just a struggle. And look, it happens even with guys who aren't big names, I mean, Mike White, the Jets fans were pounding the table like, get us Mike White, and obviously he's looked pretty good for the Jets. But yeah, I think PJ Walker probably, I think Sam Darnold because of his draft stock where he was taken, he's just more likely to be someone who intrinsically, we just believe can have another shot at a starting job, whereas PJ Walker is maybe not. Okay, I think Sam Darnold has been at best in two opportunities, giving him a third crack at something like, to me, Sam Darnold becomes a career backup and there's no shame in that. And then who knows, maybe you catch lightning in a bottle and two years from now, the starter gets hurt and you step into a good situation and you ball out. I guess the better way of explaining is that if you were a former number two overall pick, there's a very good chance that many coaches around the league have scouted you or GMs have scouted you. And there could have been some people who really liked you coming out of college that might be interested in taking a shot.

Right, at the risk of their own reputation for being stubborn. Will Brinson, all right, we'll come back. We got a lot of things. We'll talk about Jimmy G. We will talk about and what that does to whoever it is, be it Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant, if Baker Mayfield goes there, have we ever seen two quarterbacks?

One Mr. Irrelevant, the last player in the draft and the other, the first, that would be pretty cool. All right, we'll do that and we'll talk about the best team maybe in the entire NFL. Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, CBS Sports dot com, pick six podcast moderator joining us.

All right. If I gave you a choice who you got, Philadelphia or Dallas, who isn't Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat, and RV, even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more. And Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy.

Simply go to Geico dot com or contact your local agent today. Of the of the NSC or the let's just say the let's just say one of those two teams is the best team in the NFL, even though it's probably Kansas City or Buffalo, probably, but not I think Buffalo, but if it's Philadelphia or Dallas, who you got? Also take Philadelphia. What if Dallas brings in Odell Beckham Jr. as they are interviewing, I guess, in a way today?

Philadelphia. OK. By the way, I think I mean, you know, we can recency bias is a real thing, right? So like, you know, we can we think about Dallas is just dominant victory over the Colts on Sunday night. Wasn't that dominant?

It was a two point game entering the fourth quarter, right? You're making the exact point. No, no.

I'm with you on that, by the way. I just looked at it. I went to bed when Dallas I think Dallas either scored a defensive touchdown or they basically got set up by a defensive play. And it was thirty three. Nineteen. Am I right? This game's over.

I wake up. It's fifty four to nineteen that like that game wasn't that was I mean, the Colts could have tied it up if they convert their two point conversion in the third quarter. So that was a close game. Yeah.

I agree with you. Yeah. I mean, like Dallas, I never felt like Dallas is really in a ton of danger of losing the game. The Colts gave it their full effort. Matt Ryan played OK for stretches I had to make some big plays.

Yeah. They're just too much pass rush. Defense is too good. Thirty three points is that it's the tight most ever in NFL history scored in the fourth quarter with the nineteen twenty tied with the nineteen twenty five Chicago Cardinals.

Love that. The Chicago Cardinals. One team scored more.

It was somebody's worth thirty four in the fourth quarter was just I'll look it up. Probably happened against the UNC. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Maybe an FCC violation. I think Philadelphia, though, you look at what they did against the Titans. The Titans are a much, much better team than the Colts. And granted, that was the A.J. Brown revenge game.

He said he afterwards he took it personally. He played very well about maybe the most important thing that came out of that Philly win wasn't just how dominant they they were against Tennessee, but how dominant they were against the run. Yes. That's been their bugaboo is on their defense. If you're picking out one thing to fill the Philly doesn't do great is their run defense. If their run defense is good, look out because Jalen Hurts is awesome.

Yeah. He's plus 170, I think, to win the MVP. Patrick Mahomes still favorite at minus 110.

I think. Well, I think Hurts is very live to win it, especially if they keep truck sticking people and Philly has a good run game. They have a good pass game. You know, they have like an above average defense in Dallas's defense is better than Philly's defense. But I think Philly's offense is better than Dallas's offense, as well as Dak Prescott has played the last few weeks. I'll take Philly, but I think Dallas is certainly moving up the list of NFC teams, especially with the Jimmy G injury. You know, there's no look, I didn't buy San Francisco in that category anyway, as great as their defense was, because their offense was absolutely sporadic. We had no idea. Basically you turned over a card, red card, great offense, black card, bad offense, even with Jimmy G. So as many weapons as they've got, bless Brock Purdy's heart. I hope he's able to, to get them in the race. Just two points.

I would just clerical notes. This is an old Chatham hat, shout out Mike Lemon. And I think that Joe Giglio is a wonderful human being. Somebody got texted during the break. All right. That's wonderful. Will Brinson, pick six podcast moderator. Let me get to Deshaun Watson's trip back to Houston.

It was exactly what we thought it would be. There would be supporters, people asking him to autograph their jerseys, whether it was a Houston Texans jersey or a Cleveland Browns jersey. There were, there was obviously he got booed every time he took a snap for like the first half of the game and he was booed before the game. He refused to address any possible remorse.

He was apparently told not to address any possible remorse. Who would tell him that after the game? Was there anything that jumped out at you other than he wasn't good? No, I mean, he hadn't played, he hadn't played a, you know, an actual NFL game in like, I mean, he said 700 days.

I think that might be right. I mean, he sat out an entire season where he was getting paid and then suspended 11 games. I didn't expect him to look very sharp, didn't expect him to look good at all.

It'll be interesting to see how much he improves over the next few weeks. You would expect, you know, you knock some of the rust off and you can like, you can go back for that bat revenge game, whatever you want to call it. But I mean, certainly you're going to have some nerves going back to Houston.

If you don't, then you're a truly a sick human being. And so, you know, that's not the easiest spot in the world and I don't think the Texans players were like getting up to, you know, go after Sean or anything like that. But they, they fought hard and they just gave up three defensive slash specialty touchdowns and fumble return, interception, return punt, return. That's how Cleveland won that game.

I'm hard to pull off that trifecta sure is when you, when you do that, you win, you have to win. You can't, no matter how bad your quarterback is, I think just looking at, I mean, if you want, if I don't, I'm not suggesting that Browns are going to make some kind of run, but there are a couple of teams in the, um, there are a couple of teams on each and each side, on each side of the bracket that I think are at least interesting. We have terrible records that again, I'm not saying any of these teams will make a run, right?

But the Raiders and the Browns and the lions and the Packers, they are five, three of those teams are five and seven and the Packers are five and eight. I don't, I can see you, you know, I can see you making that skeptical face. It's fine. I'm, I'm, I'm more than, I don't hide my skepticism. I know. I know it's, it's, it's, it is not, it's not me floating that I think these teams will make a run. If, if, if any one of those teams were to win out and you have in, you know, the Raiders have won three straight and look in, you know, could easily be like, God, they could be seven and five so easily choked up, choked a bunch of a double digit leads.

The Browns did get to Sean back. I don't think they're necessarily a great team, but you know, that that's at least an interesting component. The lions are kind of hot right now and the Packers do have Aaron Rogers and in Christian Watson, who's playing incredible football. If one of those teams could make, you could win out. I think you could at least see either the jets or the giants, maybe Seattle to a degree, maybe Miami to a degree, slip up and struggle down the stretch and, and, and you see one of them steal a spot. I just think it's interesting. Just keep it on your, on your radar, they're in the hunt.

Well here's the thing. They, the jets control that last playoff spot. If they go three and two in their last five and theoretically it's possible, um, there, I mean, they don't have an easy schedule for sure. They still have to go to Buffalo. They still play Miami. Um, they're done with New England, which they always will lose to. Um, but if, if they manage to go three and two, I think they have the jet, the Jaguars and lions, both at home, theoretically, they win those, uh, then they just have to figure out, I think they play at Seattle too.

So you have to figure out a way to steal that game. If they can do that. I don't know that there's another team that can get to 10 and seven that is behind them. Maybe the chargers can, but the chargers have shown only that they know how to lose games. Um, they have incredible talent and I know they're decimated by injuries. I get it.

Uh, but to me, that's the issue. If um, I, if the jets can go three and two, the jets are going to claim that last spot in the playoffs and probably be a headache to an extent for whoever they play. Um, the NFC, you basically have what, two or three teams fighting for two spots at the bottom of the playoff pool. The commandos, uh, who and giants who tied, uh, giants are ahead, but I mean, the commandos are right there. They played pretty good football. Yeah. I mean, you know, they, both teams should have lost that game, I guess like, uh, it was like a really close game that was like, just terrible to watch. Shocking a commandos game that would be difficult to watch last time that, that the giants tied was 1999 against the commandos actually, which is kind of about that.

Yeah. I mean, Seattle or the giants just have to win. Basically you win two games and you feel pretty, you know, you're at three games you're in like 10 is going to get you in for sure because of just where everybody else or Washington, right?

I mean, whoever, whoever finds a way to do that. Uh, the giants, the tie is like, it's really a dagger for the giant. So because they had, they had that game. I think, I think they had that game kind of won at the end there and they have to go play Philly this week and then Washington again next week, the week after that, excuse me. Whereas Washington gets a buy and then goes and plays the giants. Right. I mean, that's a back to back games against the giants. Is that Washington schedule?

That's fantastic. Yeah. But I mean like the giants, like instead of a buy, the giants have to play Philly between the two games.

Like that's like, like one of those is an Oreo and one of those is like a poop sandwich. I mean, that's, you know, that's not 100% all right. Let me get a quick break in and we'll come back and we'll talk about, uh, the fact that apparently the chiefs cannot beat the Bengals. No shot to beat the bet. I'm sorry. The other way around. Yes. No, I said it right.

The chiefs cannot beat the Bengals with will Brinson. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat, and RV, even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more. And Geico is an easy choice switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy. You can go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today.