Time to address the elephant in the Baltimore room

Bloated Wildcard Weekend starts tomorrow.

We have three games tomorrow, I'm sorry, two games tomorrow, three on Sunday, and then the Monday night extravaganza in Tampa. We are, uh, I'm debating whether or not to start at the back, but I don't want to start at the back. I want to start with the, uh, as it was termed to me by a friend of mine in Baltimore, the elephant in the room, the Lamar Jackson contract, which in his opinion, and I trust this person's opinion, does not really matter.

Only to the outside people does it matter. Will Brinson, Pick Six Podcast Moderator, CBSSports.com. Do you think the Lamar Jackson contract matters? He is not playing. He's already declared himself out. PCL Grade 2.75 sprain, still swelling, knee is unstable, not going to play.

What role does the contract play? I'm a big fan of declaring myself out as well. I'm not going to do this.

I'm out. He did that. He did it. Good for him.

Yeah. You know, I mean, I've sort of been in the opinion that it's not as much about the contract as people want to make it about the contract. Um, you know, Brady Quinn, we had on the Pick Six Podcast and he pointed out, he's like, look, I had a sprain PCL before. It depends on the severity of it. You know, Lamar tweeted out that it's a Grade 2, you know, borderline Grade 3 sprain. And, you know, we forget a lot of times that sprain actually means tear, right?

Like it's not, it's not like a, you know, it's just a mild tear is basically what it is. And so Lamar's status when he's playing, you know, on the field, it's a little different than like your normal quarterback, your pocket passer who would be dealing with a sprain PCL. Well, I mean, first of all, one, like anytime you have a sprained anything in your arms or legs and you're trying to throw the football, like it requires more than, you know, a robot arm out there. Like there's a lot of parts that go into throwing the football. And with Lamar, he's a runner too. And I'm not going to say he's a primarily a runner, but his legs are a massive, massive part of what the Ravens do on offense.

And so if he has the sprain PCL, one, it makes, it could restrict the offense and restrict what they're able to do on offense and make that offense not a hundred percent. And two, he is, he is up for a contract and he's a former VP and he was drafted late in the first round. So he didn't get that huge deal that the Sam Darnolds and the Baker Mayfields got with their first contract. And the Josh Rosens of the world. But if he goes out and he tears his ACL in week 18 or in the wildcard round of the playoffs or shreds his knee this late in the season.

And they, not only is it bad for him financially, it's bad for the Ravens for the long haul if they insist on keeping him. Now, I don't know who you, I don't know if you like, did you, were you like texting on the side with somebody in Baltimore? Or is it, I don't know if you were like, I don't know if it was like public who you're talking to. Maybe. Well, no, no, I'm asking cause I saw like, I saw King Wyman who hosted Sharon 1-5-7 the fan in Baltimore. And he said that he thinks Lamar's traded before the draft, which I think would be crazy.

Well, here's the thing. I don't think it's out of the question either because in my opinion, he's not going to get the contract he wants from the Ravens unless, you and I have talked about this. If I'm the Ravens, I give him the non-exclusive franchise tag. I let other teams negotiate with Lamar Jackson so he can see what's out there. I'm almost definitely going to match anything that he signs unless some dope gives him the Deshaun Watson deal.

In which case, I'm not matching that. So I don't know that any team out there is that desperate, although David Tepper's out there. I mean, if he's, but if he's, you know, if he's traded before the draft and it's via the non-exclusive franchise tag, I mean, I don't know, like two, two first round picks. Lamar Jackson is prime. Two first round picks to get an MVP. No, I'm, I'm, I'm with you, but it's, it's really more the con, the player is one thing.

I think there are 25 teams that would take the player, but not for that contract. The Deshaun, I was listening to, uh, to Bo's podcast. I wasn't cheating on your podcast. I was leading, listening to Bomani Jones the right time. And they were talking about the Lamar Jackson contract. It's plenty of time for podcasts. It's true. I mean, I do a lot of barn work, so I need a lot of podcasts companionship. So the, look, I have a lot of stalls to muck.

See, Will and I can, uh, we, we can jive on this. So the, the, the reality is that the Deshaun Watson contract that Lamar Jackson is using as a gauge is silly. It's like comparing every college basketball player to Zion Williamson.

That is idiotic because there's only one of those that came into college. And the truth is, is that the, that Deshaun Watson contract was signed out of absolute blatant, obvious desperation by the Cleveland Browns. Cause Deshaun told the world like three months earlier that I don't want to play for Cleveland. He wasn't going to Cleveland unless he got that deal.

And the other thing too, but the non-exclusive tag is and why it's interesting is that if you, you put it out there. Well, it's not like, like Lamar, the way the, like the way the offer sheet, like it's basically becomes like a sort of a silent auction type of thing. True. You know, where it's like teams put out their best offer sheets. And then, I mean, I don't, I don't think Lamar has to sign them.

No, but I mean, if, if somebody wanted to put that out there, he'd sign it. But I was saying like, let's say that all the other teams who are interested in Lamar are like, we're not going to do what, you know, what the Browns did. Just hypothetically, we're assuming, it's the assumption of rational, rational spending and rational, rational ownership, which is probably stupid, but I just suspend reality for a second. And let's say that it comes back and the Ravens are like, well, Lamar, as you can see, your market is exactly what we said we thought it was. And so I think ultimately it goes back to Baltimore, but not on that contract. That tag is because you want to let the, you want to let everyone else negotiate for you and you basically create a market. I mean, it sort of is, it's interesting from an economic standpoint. Yeah, but, and I think that's the way that Baltimore can keep him on a franchise tag because the number will be lower than it would be on the exclusive franchise tag.

The three games that while everybody has a chance, it's a very small one, will we agree that Baltimore, Miami and Seattle are almost likely, almost definitely not winning their games, right? 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later. 92% because of a bike? Not just bikes. We also make treadmills and roars. Oh, let me guess, for elite athletes only, right?

Nope. It doesn't matter if you're an avid exerciser or new to working out, Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals. 92% stick with it. So can you. Try Peloton bikes, tread or row risk-free with a 30-day home trial. New members only. Not available in remote locations.

See additional terms at onepeloton.com slash home dash trial. Baltimore, Miami. Yeah, this seems more likely. Of those three teams, who has the best chance of, let's flip it, of Buffalo, San Francisco and Cincinnati, who has the best chance of screwing it up? Um, yeah, interestingly that they're all division rivalry games and they've all seen each other twice this year already.

So I mean, you've got, you know, I mean, I would say that it's probably San Francisco and I know San Francisco is the favorite to come out of the inner scene. Maybe that's a surprising answer, but you have a rookie quarterback in a big playoff game against a division rival that's at least seen him and studied him and a, you know, a Super Bowl winning coach and Pete Carroll, who's been on the stage. You know, Smith's never played in a playoff game either.

Eugene Cyril Smith III, excuse me. Um, you know, we've seen with veteran quarterbacks sometimes I'm not comparing genius with the Kurt Warner, but like Kurt, Warren's first playoff game was awesome. Yeah.

No, definitely not the same office. Don't get me wrong. Like younger quarterbacks, like Peyton Manning's first playoff game was miserable. He went 19 to 42. And so you're talking about Brock Purdy, who was not first overall, he was, he was the last overall they can is Mr.

Irrelevant. I think as long as San Francisco is playing from a head and they don't ask him to come back and win that game, he'll be fine. But if I had to pick between those three, I'll take the, I'll take the quarterback with no experience in the playoffs. See, that's very logical.

And now that you say it, it's probably, probably the correct answer that usually happens with me. But I have watched Buffalo play a lot lately and there is a lot of screw up waiting to happen. I want Mike Leonard, my bold prediction of the podcast is Mike Leonard throws two passing touchdowns for the dolphins.

That would be awesome. Skylar Diggins is playing, I believe for, uh, for the dolphins. All right. Uh, let me get one other game in here before we take a quick break. Uh, my perception is that the giants are playing well yet the giants closed the season two, five, and one.

I don't think I'm wrong. I think the giants have been playing well. This suggests otherwise, and I really liked them at Minnesota.

Yeah. I think they're going to win in Minnesota. It's, I mean, it's, you can't, nobody can say, by the way, like they're one of my best bets from this week, but no one can say, I know the giants will beat Minnesota, right? Or I know Minnesota will beat the giants because Minnesota went 11 and 0 and one score games just outrageously running.

So like that's, that's like winning 42 hands of blackjack in a row at the casino. It's so effing hot when you go 11 and 0 and one score games, there's going to be regression. If you look at the other team in the NFL who just every, every week, this close game somehow I've said repeatedly, the giants remind me of the 2017 Buffalo bills, a comparison that makes sense because you know, everybody in the giants running the giants now came from Buffalo and there's that first year, Brian table, Joe Shane, they're coaching up this roster that isn't probably as good as you think it is. I normally would have both of these teams getting blasted in the playoffs if it was a different matchup. This is just going to be a crazy game that comes down to the last possession and probably some kind of like block field goal, like safety situation, uh, you know, Danny dimes, bumbles.

I don't know. Something crazy is going to happen in this game. One score game for sure. But I like the giants. Minnesota at 13 and four has a negative point differential.

All time. In fact, as RJ White pointed out, maybe they're more like the 2017 Buffalo. I actually think the, uh, the giants, I think the giants are going to win this game by double digits. Uh, all right, we'll come back.

I have no faith at all, but I do love, I love me some Justin Jefferson. So let's take a quick break. Will Brinson is here, pick six podcast moderator, two really good games, chargers on the road to Jacksonville, Tampa hosting Dallas. We'll hit both of those when we come back. Jamming out to Steely Dan on a Friday, perfect way to get into the weekend. Here's another one. Will Brinson is back. Take six podcast moderator. Gosh, I love this, this guy, did you hear, did you hear me singing out at the break?

I was listening at my house, singing that this is why you're on. I'm also wearing Asia sweat pants right now. Are you really?

I didn't know they had Asia sweat pants. I guess you can get a wonderful on Instagram. Okay. There you go. Oh, that's right. Our Steely Dan guy. Uh, I haven't done wildly unnecessary. Like it's like the Asia logo on one leg and then like a list of the songs from the alpha on the other, just in case you forget, just forget what the, uh, the, the, the track listing is.

All right. So chargers at Jacksonville prime time, which is an awesome game coming up tomorrow night. Um, like the chargers have a ton of talent.

Just before we get into the meat and potatoes of the game itself, a quick tangent here, quick little rant for me, week 18, the chargers had nothing to play for nothing, literally nothing. They could not move up or down. They were locked into their seat. They knew that they were going to play either Jacksonville or Tennessee on the road as the five seed, depending on whoever won the AFC South and became the four seed.

They could not move down. They could not move up when it's basically like a post-season preseason game. Right. It's traditionally not played as guys in the preseason ever. It doesn't play at all.

Right. You don't get hurt in meaningless games and stealing. Lots of people, lots of people don't play their guys in week 18 all over the league.

It happens all the time. And there's nothing to play for the giants didn't at all. The giants played a bunch of guys, they were locked into the spot.

You see people all the time, scoreboard watching week 18 and say, all right, if this game's out of control, we can't advance our seed, let's yank our guys. Brandon Staley is rolling these dudes out there into the fourth quarter. He's got Keenan Allen, who's got like multiple torn ACLs in his life.

Right? Like his number one wide receiver after Mike Williams has already had back spasms happen in this game. He's got Chase Daniel chucking balls to Keenan Allen in the fourth quarter. And now Mike Williams isn't even going to travel to Jacksonville with the team because he played in that game and suffered an injury. It's a borderline variable offense and I don't want to overreact too much, but it is, right?

It's not borderline at all and I was actually going to ask you about this. If Sean Payton whispers in, I don't even know who's running the Chargers anymore. Is Espanos still running the Chargers? If Sean Payton whispers in whoever's running the Chargers ear and says, I will take that job. Isn't it a done deal that Sean Payton will be the head coach of the Chargers no matter what happens tomorrow night? I don't know. It's definitely a done deal only because Tom Tula certainly could be.

I think there's Sean Payton is weighing heavily on the minds of those around the league and doing a good job of it because he's, I don't know if we talked about the Russell Wilson game. Probably not because we didn't talk on Monday. So we talked. Right. So like Russell Wilson balled out in week 18. He did. He looked great. And it's like, it's hilarious that they fired Nathaniel Hackett a week goes in between week 17 or week 18.

I think it was like 16 and 17. I thought, right. So one week goes by and it's like, all right, Russell stinks. And then this rumor, it's like Sean Payton is going to look at the Broncos and it's like, all of a sudden Russ is great again.

Who would you take if you were Sean Payton, would you rather Justin Herbert or Russell Wilson? Yeah, I would, I would too, but, but, but the difference is the Spanish family, not as wealthy as the Walton family by like bleeps and leaps and leaps and bounds. Like the Waltons are the richest owners in the NFL by like 15 times. Yeah. By decimals. Yeah. Yeah.

Exponentially richer. Sean Payton wants 20 million a year. He wants 20. It's a rumor. Dollars? No, you're 20 million a year. Yeah.

Okay. Well, he wants you to trade a draft pick for him or maybe draft picks for him and he wants you to have a quarterback and he wants total control of the roster. So when you look at the two differences between these setups, Tom Telesco, by virtue of getting Justin Herbert by virtue of getting a team that got to the playoffs, he's been there a long time. He has the owner. She has ownership here. I think it would be difficult for Sean Payton to come in.

First of all, I don't know. The Spanish are going to spend that money. Second of all, it'd be difficult for him to Peyton to come in and just kick Tom Telesco to the curb. He's going to Denver then. That's all right. It's easy.

And he's like, Hey, listen, George Payton, I'm going to get you out of this mess. He made. All right. All right. Let's. So let's talk about the game. I like Jacksonville, but I don't like the quarter. I think the future for Trevor Lawrence is probably fine.

I don't like the present for Trevor Lawrence, but I don't think it's going to matter. How do you see this game? What if I got a, I got a, I got a theory for you. Okay.

I don't know if it's a good one or not, but we'll find out. What if Trevor Lawrence, you know, we talked about how rookie quarterback since, or you know, young quarterbacks, not necessarily rookies, but like first, second year quarterbacks, first playoff game, like the stakes are higher pressure is immensely grit is immensely more intense. Yeah.

And there are all these different factors. What if Trevor Lawrence, his first playoff game was week 18 against the Titans? It was, I said, I'm saying that, but like, what if that's where he got the, the yips, the, the, the, the first game yips, and now he's like, all right, I played in one and now I'm calling where it's Justin Herbert has not played in one. And I trust Doug Peterson a hell of a lot more than Brandon. That's that's why I liked the Jaguars because of Doug Peterson.

Cause I didn't think I thought Lawrence was mediocre to bed in the game against Tennessee. That game shouldn't have been that close. I still can't figure out why, why Mike Vrabel threw the ball on third and whatever, rather than just punt the ball back to Jacksonville and let Jacksonville's offense go on the field and stink again. Like it had stunk for most of the game. You like Jacksonville in the game?

Yeah. I like, I like Jacksonville the spot, um, let me get to the last game because the last game is the most, uh, is the shiniest object in the drawer. Uh, and that is Dallas at Tampa, uh, Dallas, I think has the better team. Tampa has Tom Brady. This seems like a no brainer for me. Dallas also is coached by Mike McCarthy and I don't care who Tampa is coached by, but I like Todd Bowles, but they have Tom Brady. So I'll just end there.

Yeah. I mean, that's where you, that's the, um, calculus for me, Thomas ever, Patrick Brady 14th and I forgot he actually had four names, uh, uh, yeah, I just think with like, again, like if it were Bruce Arians, it's a no brainer. Give me the bucks. And they'd be like, why aren't they favored? Todd Bowles definitely scares me because he's willing to get super conservative. I think we will see Brady take a little more ownership on like decision-making late in games, which he should have done probably in the first place.

Right. Um, this is a, it's Mike McCarthy. I mean, do you remember Jim or the lat, the thing that ended the cowboy season last year when he called that quarterback draw? They just didn't have enough times.

You think Mike McCarthy didn't have like, like somebody get, like, he needs to take it. He better be packing a diaper with him down the table, some soiling of the pants at some point. I appreciate you going there. Uh, that's cool. It depends. I don't know.

I apologize for that. Uh, by the way, you know, since we just went through these games and we kind of agree on them. 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later, 92% because of a bike, not just bikes. We also make treadmills and roars. Oh, let me guess for elite athletes only, right?

Nope. Whether if you're an avid exerciser or new to working out, Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals. 92% stick with it. So can you try Peloton bikes, tread or row risk-free with a 30 day home trial. New members only not available in remote locations. See additional terms at one Peloton.com slash home dash trial. Pretty good looking money line parlay, like 10 or 11 to one, a cowboy, excuse me, Buccaneers, giants, uh, Jaguars. I got all of them. I want to parlay all of them at like plus 1800. Yeah, I talked about that on the podcast.

Yeah, it's great. It's partly all of them at 1800 that might may or may not be a preview of what's coming up at one 45. Uh, look, there's no chance that, that what exactly what we think is going to happen won't happen.

Of course not. Uh, finally, and we had like 20 seconds. If Dallas can sack Brady, what, five times, they go win a game. Yeah.

That's what I'd have to do. I Gavin's big game coming. I hope so. I'd like to see it be the first time I've rooted for Tom Brady, but, uh, there's a first time for everything at will Brinson on Twitter, cbssports.com, pick six podcast moderator. Uh, we'll talk to you next week.

We'll figure out, I'll talk to you later. He had no hat today. We'll let no hat today. I know. I didn't know what to do. Will's got no hat on, but he had, uh, Asia sweat pants on and I'll tell you what we had.

I had no idea he was listening to that song. So it's all a coinkydink. All right.

Well, that's a, that's good by me. 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active. A year later, 92% because of a bike, not just spikes. We also make treadmills and roars. Oh, let me guess for elite athletes only, right? Nope. It doesn't matter if you're an avid exerciser or new to working out Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals.

92% stick with it. So can you try Peloton bikes, tread or row risk free with a 30 day home trial. New members only not available in remote locations. See additional terms at one Peloton.com slash home dash trial.