Roundtable time!!!

The best is yet to come. I'm channeling Sinatra right now. Talk about making me feel old, right? I love Sinatra. Do you like Sinatra? Oh, absolutely. Sinatra is for all ages.

I actually got my younger son to appreciate it. Oh, good. It's not his first choice. It's not even his 12th choice.

But he will appreciate it because he knows dad likes it. And he goes, it's all right. It's good. I can get down with Sinatra's cool. All right, let's let's do the round table, shall we? Camelot. Camelot. It's only a model.

Because I was channeling the best is yet to come. And here it is. We've got Patrick Johnson.

Ninety four three. The game in Greenville at Beeman on air on Twitter. And my man Travis Hancock, T-Mones, WFNZ in Charlotte, Mac Attack in the morning. Did I see you guys are number one? Yeah, we're we're number one for the book. So, you know, we've been close before, but we finally made it. And it's amazing that we were able to reach number one when we're both interviewing to be the next head coach of the Panthers as well.

So we've got a very busy time here in the Charlotte area. Hey, congratulations. You guys do an amazing job. I appreciate that. Thank you. I'm just glad you take our our phone calls. All right. Let's I'll start with you, Mr.

Number one, Steve Wilkes. Yay or nay? And let's not do this like the House of Representatives. Yay or nay?

Yay. I think he's he's a professional. He's a leader. He's so respected by the players that he coaches the past players.

He's got a presence about him that, quite frankly, the the previous guy just didn't have. And, you know, the only thing against him is that he's a defensive guy. And, you know, they desperately need offense.

So they're talking. If anybody in the United States is available and has coached offense in the last year or so, they have interviewed them in the last day. But no, I'm a Wilkes guy. I get the other guys and I'm not opposed to a few. But I think Steve Wilkes, the way he stabilized things here this year, to me, that's the way to go. Now, with the with the rich man in charge, the billionaire, Adam, as you know, it's hard to read them. So I go Wilkes. But David Tepper doesn't listen to me a whole lot.

That's just it. He should. He should listen to you.

You're number one for a reason. Patrick, what do you think? Steve Wilkes or no? You know, I was of the opinion, Adam, that unless you have a definitive plan in place with this guy and that guy being Wilkes, then then no.

But then you have to have a definitive plan in place for you to blow it up and start all over. And that's the strong suit of the ownership. So when I hear Mr. T-Bones there, when I hear my producer, Ben Byram, who's a diehard Panther fan, when I hear the great Jim Zocchi say, give it to Wilkes, I can only agree with all these great minds and say, might as well do that. Because at least it's the devil, you know, at this point. Right, Adam? Well, except that I don't think it's a devil. I don't think, I don't see a lot of down, downside to Steve Wilkes.

Here's the way. I just don't, I don't know if you're getting anything that's going to move the needle all that much, but he has the locker room and he has everybody's respect. So that's something. The issue if you go away from him, for every, you know, for every McDaniel in Miami or Sirianni in Philly, the recent guys that have had success, well, there's a Nathaniel Hackett there as well.

There's when you go to these offensive geniuses, quote unquote, you know, some hit and then, you know, a lot fails. So I'd rather go with kind of what I know with Wilkes rather the act of the other guy could have been Johnson ties to of course, North Carolina. Could he be great?

Certainly could the same time. You know, there's a great unknown. And I think I know more about Steve Wilkes.

I'd rather go that way. They kind of the great unknown. See, here's the way I look at it. Normally, I don't let players make this decision for me, but it's pretty clear that Steve Wilkes connects. And I think we get lost in all sports by looking for a so-called genius. These guys are all smart football coaches. They're all all of them are smart. Some of them are more innovative than others. And those guys are really, really good at certain things. And I bring up the the example of Mark Trestman. I'm telling you, there are not five more smarter people coaching football on the planet than Mark Trestman. He is a he's brilliant, but he can't relate as a head coach. Steve Wilkes has the relate down.

And it depends. Maybe you don't maybe people don't value that. I do. And I think that's the number one skill a head coach has to have. Can he relate? Can he inspire a locker room? And I think Steve Wilkes can. Well, he got as much out of the as he could have out of a a roster without any real superstar. He won six games.

I can't believe he won six games. He got as much out of them as anybody probably could have this group given everything that happened. We had we had Greg we had Greg Olson on last week talking about some of this stuff. Obviously, he knows Wilkes well. And his philosophy is, you know, we get so we get so into the offense and defense is X's and O's and schemes. And he said, well, he knows better than we do. Right.

Being in the locker room. He said it's more about who's the what's the leadership like? Yep.

What is that? Who who can lead a friend? Who can be the CEO? Who can navigate? Because the X's and O's don't really change all that much from guy to guy necessarily.

Obviously, some are different. But he said, who's the leader? Who's the best guy you want in charge? Not offense, not defense. Who's the best leader?

And I think that's a telling sign from a guy that that knows looks pretty well. All right. Let me let me move on to another topic here. It's still football, so we can all we can all breathe easy.

But do we assume or can we all just agree that the Bills, the Bengals and 49ers are going to win to a yay or nay? Ninety two percent of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later. Ninety two percent 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.

Ninety two percent 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 dot com slash home dash trial. Say it again. Bills, Bengals and 49ers. Bills over the Dolphins. Bengals over the Ravens without Lamar Jackson. Forty Niners over Seattle. I mean, yes, I guess one of those three could lose. But for the most part, I think we all believe that those three teams. I think the question would be if any of those three there, especially with Skyler Thompson and likely Anthony Brown, I guess playing for the Ravens or any of those three there played within 10 points. Not not that's already that's done. Cincinnati, Baltimore.

That's me without Lamar. That's that's the same Seattle. I guess they can hang a little bit, but I think all three of those games are ten or more. All right. So let's get to the other three.

So, Patrick, you first. Chargers at Jaguars. Who loses this game? I say Chargers because I'm I'm believing in I'm believing in the that that gorgeous, long haired Trevor Lawrence right now. That's what I'm believing in, because he's playing so sensational.

It's almost like he's in Death Valley all over again. And the offense has been really, really good after their three and seven start. I do a little bit of work down in Jacksonville, so I'm kind of rooting for them since the Panthers aren't in this thing.

So I'm going with Chargers and I'm going to Jags over the Chargers. Gorgeous, long haired Trevor Lawrence. I like good hair as you do, Adam. I love good hair. I appreciate good hair. I happen to like my good hair, which is no hair. Haven't had a bad hair day in 15 years.

You have not died. Travis, who do you like in that game? I am going to go with the Chargers just to go against Patrick. I've not met Patrick before, but right now I feel like for the sake of this segment here, I don't trust Patrick. I'm going to go against Patrick. I appreciate that. Wise move. Make it personal.

That's beautiful. I cannot in good conscience think that Brandon Staley is going to beat Doug Peterson, so I'm going with Jacksonville. Although I don't think Trevor Lawrence would play. I thought Trevor Lawrence was bad in the win over Tennessee. No, he wasn't good. He wasn't good, but on the whole.

Okay, that's fair. Mike Vrabel, I would love to know why he thought that Jacksonville was suddenly going to offense when they hadn't offenced all game. Just run it into the line, punt the ball down the field, and let Jacksonville go for it out.

Because that would have happened. Jacksonville couldn't move the football. It amazes me that these coaches spend, you know, they spend 25 hours a day. They actually add hours to their game, coaching these teams. The decision making is like, did they do anything? Like Brandon Staley, you spend all that time preparing, and then Brandon Staley does what he does. So you're in the office for all these hours. What are you doing in your office the whole time? That's what I always want to know.

Play them with little figurines. Giants at the Vikings. So 17 games in Minnesota has a negative point differential. Will that matter this week, Travis? You know, they played a great game the first time around. The Giants are, the Giants are interesting because you look at kind of their, their makeup, their roster, you know, they got Saquon and Daniel Jones has played better, but they don't exactly have a bunch of people to throw to.

And he still had a decent year, but I don't know if I still trust the Giants yet in the postseason, but yet he's playing against Kirk Cousins, who I never trust in the postseason. I'm going to leave. This is a tough, I hope this is a good game because we need some good games this weekend. I'm going to go, I'm going to go Minnesota because it's in Minnesota, but I'm putting my trust in Kirk Cousins so we can just delete this entire chat here after a while if something goes wrong.

It's going to live forever on the internet, just so you know. Alright, Patrick, who you got? Well, just to be different, I'll go Giants, I guess. Make it personal now.

Yeah, it is personal now. So the Vikings, it has to run out at some point with the Vikings, doesn't it? And Kirk Cousins is their quarterback, right? It is.

So at some point it has to run out. So I'm going with the, with the Charlotte native, Daniel Jones, to not screw it up, but so much and the Giants somehow win. I am amazed at how many people have been talking about Daniel Jones as like he is a made man now.

Like, I don't know. I like Daniel Jones, but I also see limitations with Daniel Jones. Maybe I watched him too long at Duke and maybe he's a completely different, seriously, I thought Daniel Jones had serious decision making problems when he was at Duke for all of this.

He called his games in high school and he had decision making problems. So I cannot believe that he's gone this far even. I'm going with the best player. I'm just going to take Justin Jefferson to have a monster day.

He is the best player. I happen to like the Giants. I like the Giants big, but that could just be I'm sick and tired of the Vikings pulling a horseshoe out of their rear ends, which they have done for the most part in 18 weeks of football. All right, Patrick Dallas at Tampa. That is the game Monday, but even though it's the last one, and this, this is the biggest soap opera game on the entire card because that's what the NFL gives us on Monday night. I mean, it's the days of our lives.

It's all my children, everything wrapped up into one. The most hated player against the most hated team, right? Yeah, I guess, I guess Brady is the most hated. I used to hate Brad. On the whole, we like Brady now that he's away from Bill Belichick.

Yes, I think that's true. In the, in the course of his career. For some reason, the time, I just, I want to, I want to believe the Bucks, but I think it's the Cowboys. I mean, they're, they're more talented, right? They won 12 games. It's not like they came limping into this thing last week. They came in Olympic after last week, but it's not like they came in eight and nine. They needed to win last week. I know they needed to win last week and they got, they were stinky.

They got embarrassed. Prescott has been hideous the last seven straight games with 11 interceptions during that stretch, right? So he's been awful, but I just, I think somehow, I don't know, I'm changing. I'm going Bucks. My gut says Bucks. Wait a second. My gut says Bucks. What happened?

What happened to your bat-bomb? The Cowboys stunk last week. I mean, it was offensive to watch them last week. They were as offensive last week as Tampa's been all season. Tampa's bad. They're eight and nine. Tampa's eight and nine and they played in this division? Come on.

It's so hard to support them. I am going to go, I've been a Jets fan my entire life, so Tom Brady has haunted me since my junior year of high school and he's still going. I'm now 39 years old. I'm about to retire, I think, before Tom Brady does. I've had enough of Tom Brady. I have tried to football kill this man off for decades.

It never works. Dallas is not as good as they were in the middle of the season. Dak is certainly a question mark in terms of the way he's played. I'm going to go Tom Brady to win because I, despite them not being great, I'm going to put my trust in Tom Brady more so than a Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy, Dallas Cowboys team in the big spot.

See, you can't fool me, Travis. I know what you're doing. You are picking Brady because you hope to be wrong, so Brady loses. I know what you're doing. I hate the Cowboys, too. This is a national nightmare happening on Monday night. I don't know how we're going to survive this whole ordeal.

This is, you know, the only thing I can say is at least one loses, I guess, and then the team that advances probably won't last long, but this is the stuff that nightmares are made of. I'm not arguing that one bit. I happen to like Todd Bowles. I love Byron Leftwich, and I would love to see that team win, even though I've never been a huge Brady fan, but I happen to like Brady, this iteration of Brady. We like Brady in Tampa. We like Florida Brady.

Yeah, we like Florida Brady. I mean, Tom Brady looks a little gaunt. He looks like he's trying to slim down for a wrestling match. It's a chic look.

It is. His cheeks are sunken at this point. I mean, come on, Tom.

Have a potato. He's been through a lot, Adam. He's been through a lot this year.

He has been. It's been a tough year. I mean, this poor guy. I mean, you know, the divorce happened, and then he had to go turn to an Instagram model girlfriend, and it's been a tough time.

He's been through a lot this year, guys. I didn't even know that. Did he find an IG model?

Oh, yeah. I'm going to guess that Tom didn't have to go on Bumble to find this one. I'm sure that it happened of the natural variety. I don't think they just happened.

He's landed on his feet here, I'd say. Good for Tom. What's the handle? What's the IG handle there? Oh, gosh. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Oh, let me look, Patrick. Tampa. I'll take the Buccaneers because I want the full effect of the aftermath of that loss for Dallas. I do. I want to watch all of it burn.

I don't think Jerry Jones is firing Michael McCarthy. It'll be better Tuesday morning programming. Oh, yes. No question.

That's all the various platforms. It'll be better programming for you. Yes, it will be.

And me, at the number one show in Charlotte on Tuesday. It'll be a much better program. No question about that.

When the Cowboys implode. Her name is Veronica. V-E-R-O-N-I-K-A. A rock name, R-A-J-E-K. Veronica, reject. I think that's Tom Brady's... Reject.

...new watch, yes. Okay, Veronica. I'm not going to make any editorial comment about that. All right, final thing. We only have about a minute left here both ways. I'm just going to ask you about one team slash game, and I'm going to start with you, Travis. Duke going to Clemson. How do you feel about your Blue Devils headed to Little John? Well, I feel really good about what I saw the second half against Pittsburgh because we saw them, first of all, they played insanely hard. I saw John Shire make adjustments that you kind of want to see. That was a good coaching job, especially in the second half without Roach. Their offense without Roach, even with Roach this year when he wasn't healthy, really got staggered. It gets really, really bogged down, and it can be hard to watch, although when they get out in the break and they run, they're better. Clemson is a phenomenal story, and Little John's going to be rocking, but I feel like Clemson's got off to pretty good starts before.

Eventually, along the way, they start to plateau some a little bit. It's a tough one for Duke, and they've been awful on the road. So I'm probably going to go Clemson here, but earlier in the week, I thought for sure there's no way Duke's winning at Clemson, but I think that they have a better chance because their confidence is high after Pittsburgh. If this was in Cameron, I would say Duke, but Duke on the road, as you know, it's been kind of a nightmare so far.

Kind of, kind of. They tried very hard to not win at Boston College. Patrick, do you care at all about that basketball game?

Well, I'll just say this. I think if Duke is going to be a factor in winning the Atlantic Coast Conference, because they're going to the tournament, right? You're going to go to the tournament, win or lose this game.

More than likely, yeah. But if you're going to be really competitive down the stretch of the next, what, two months, I think a game like this you need to win. For me, it's about how they play as opposed to the result of the game, but they compete hard.

I'm looking at it in a stage. So they beat Pittsburgh, they have Clemson, then next they have a week off, then it's Miami, which obviously is very tough. If they were able to somehow go two and one in this three game stretch. Oh, it'd be great. All right, well, happy New Year to both of you guys. I haven't spoken to you since I started writing 2023 on my checks. I haven't written a check in 12 years.

But if I ever did, I would write 2023 on them now. Patrick Johnson, P-Man on air, 94-3 the game in Greenville, T-Bone, my man Travis Hancock, WFNZ in Charlotte, number one show in Charlotte. I appreciate your time. Thanks, man. We'll do it again soon. Thank you, Adam.

You got it. As I said before, two of my favorites, and it got personal. I appreciate that it got personal.

T-Bone took a direct shot at Patrick, which is fine. I know. I'm into it. Well, he at least picked some of the same picks as me. It's okay. You feel good about that? Right. I don't feel good or bad about any of it.

No, I don't either. I just assume that I'll be like the chances. There's a fairly good chance that one of Bill's Bengals 49ers will lose. Good. Fair chance that that will happen. All right.

When we come back, we have a rewind to do. But the poll that Victoria placed, put up on Twitter about, I don't know, 45 minutes, an hour before the show. If you won the, is it mega millions? Yes.

Mega millions. We have two different ones, right? We have one that we draw on Friday, one we draw on Saturday.

I think the Saturday one. Yep. We had a winner on that, didn't we? Maybe. I don't know. It wasn't us.

This one is right. If it was. No, honestly. We'd still be here. I would absolutely still be here. Absolutely. For two more weeks.

We will. On the dot. 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 rowers. 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.