Roundtable time!!

Camelot. Camelot.

It's only a model. Shit. From Allen, Asheville, affiliate. A warm welcome for Jeremy Green at ESPN Draft Nerd, ESPN Asheville. Jeremy, how are you? Oh, can't complain. It's a little cold up here, but other than that... Well, you're in the mountains. You're in the mountains, Jeremy.

It's probably not that big a surprise. I am, as a Jets fan, I am going to ask you to assess Mike Greenberg's obvious injuries coming up in just a second. And my friend Brendan Whitted at H.U. Cosell at H.U.

Bison Express. I am ready to talk with you, sir, about your Tar Heels, but we will do that after we talk football. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. I've got a big game coming up Saturday versus MEAC leading Morgan State. Howard is coming off a huge win versus Morehouse for the MLK Classic. So, I'm in a good place.

Alright, I'm glad you're in a good place. Alright, Jeremy Green, real quick before we even get to the games. Can we play the Mike Greenberg clip? I want Jeremy Green to assess the damage done already to Mike Greenberg. Here is what Greenberg had to say about the Jets if they can add Aaron Rodgers. If Aaron Rodgers is 90% of what he was last year, I don't mean the one that just finished, but the one before where he didn't have a broken thumb and he still had Devante Adams. And Garrett Wilson is that kind of special.

And you rebuild that offensive line and you get some of those guys back. I don't think it is completely beyond reasonable to say Aaron Rodgers could make that a legitimate Super Bowl candidate. Your thoughts, Jeremy? I don't disagree with one word he just said. I actually said the same thing yesterday. You're all so ill.

So, why do you say that? Aaron Rodgers was really not the problem with Green Bay this year. There was inconsistency with the receivers. The defense at times was not really good.

That's not a problem with the Jets. That defense is fantastic. Garrett Wilson is your one. That's your legitimate one. I think he would get something out of Elijah Moore. And you have probably the best running back room in the NFL.

I don't think it's that insane. Okay. It's still the Jets, right?

Oh, 100%. Here's how that would go. Aaron Rodgers leads them to 13-4. They're the one seed in the AFC. And then he hops on a plane before the first playoff game and just flies to Hawaii and turns off his cell phone.

That's right. And you're stuck with Mike White in the playoff game. But the team loves Mike White. As do I. Yeah, he's not that good either. He's better than Zach Wilson, but we're grading on a curve already. All right. To basketball.

We'll start with the NFL and we'll go to Brendan Whitted. All right, sir. Cowboys, Bengals or Giants most likely to pull off a road upset?

Oh, man. I really thought that the Cowboys handled business the way that they should have. I thought they were. They came in as the team that should win versus every obviously Tom Brady had the oh, he's Tom Brady. You know, the folklore and everything like that, but they control that game the entire time that Prescott had a really good game. And I don't even know if he's necessarily the best part of that offense is when they're running the ball with ZQ and Pollard there, they feel kind of unbeatable because they do have that talented team around him. But yeah, I believe in Dallas.

I know that's kind of kind of weird to say because they they disappointed so many times as well. But like, that's a really, really good team with an exceptional defense as well. So it doesn't all have to be on Prescott. And he's playing well. I don't see why they can't win.

Jeremy, what do you think? My answer is going to sound strange when it comes out of my mouth, but it's the New York Giants. And it's less because of the Giants and more because of the Eagles.

Brian Dabold to me is a drastically better coach than Nick Sirianni. They did a great job this year of beating bad teams. In large part, they didn't beat a lot of good teams.

It's also hard to beat a team three times in the same year. Daniel Jones has been really good, really efficient. Isaiah Hodgins and Richie James look like legitimate NFL receivers. And the last time I saw Jalen hurts, he didn't look particularly good. So could still be hurt.

I don't know. I see no chance that Dallas beat San Francisco. I can't believe Cincinnati would go into Buffalo.

I think the Mar Hamlin is going to be in the in the building. I struggle to believe they're going to go in there and beat Buffalo. They're the best of those three teams. But I would say the most likely to pull the upset would be the Giants. I think the Giants can win this game even if the Philadelphia Eagles are at full throttle. Because I think the Giants offense works well the way it's playing now against the Eagles defense. I think you can run on Philadelphia. And if the Giants can run, I also think the Giants have stepped their game up the last few weeks. And again, we don't know what Philadelphia is.

But I think I'm more concerned with No Lane Johnson. I'm more concerned with Philadelphia's inability to stop the run more than anything else. As for the Cowboys and 49ers, here's the thing about Dallas. They didn't really run the ball. All that, like they didn't run it down Tampa's throat.

It was mostly Dak Prescott throwing the ball. I don't think that's going to work against San Francisco. I think you have to run the ball against them to win.

It's just really hard to do that. But I do think all three teams have a chance. I think the best chance of the Giants, I think the best chance for one of those teams losing the game, which is different for me than the other teams winning, is Buffalo. Because all I see is Buffalo playing like they think they can't lose, which is a recipe to lose. That's the way I look at it.

They're just a complete and utter mess. Brendan, let me ask you about the Panthers' coaching search. And you guys can both talk about this.

All right. It's not going to be Sean Payton. First of all, they haven't met yet. But I think the whole thing, most people don't believe that Sean Payton is really interested in the Carolina Panthers.

So, Brendan, who are you interested in? I mean, I'm still interested in Wilkes, but it seems obvious from the people that they have targeted to interview. You mentioned they haven't met with Payton yet, and that's because Antoine Walks passed for Charlotte FC.

Prayers up to his people. And so Tepper ended up going back to Charlotte instead of New York. But if you look at the eight people that had been either associated with being interviewed or had already been interviewed, six of them are on the offensive side of the ball. It's Kafka, Ben Johnson, Ken Dorsey, Jim Caldwell, Shane Steichen for Philly, Frank Reich, and now Sean Payton. And with only Aveiro and Wilkes, Aveiro being the Denver Broncos defensive coordinator, only those two are on the defensive side of the ball. I wanted a defensive coach because I think that's where the majority of the talent for this team is. That I think that can make them special quicker, particularly without a quarterback. But they seem to be all in on the offensive side of the ball, and so that seems to be what Tepper is interested in.

I have a hard time letting somebody go who did so much in such a bad situation last year and Wilkes with the team already rallying behind him. It just seems silly to then completely change course for what feels like with a guy that's had as much business success as Tepper, just going for a big name with a guy like Payton. Yeah, the bigger problem, and I'm going to let Jeremy piggyback on that. The bigger problem with the way you just ended that is that this is common in sports. People like David Tepper, and this is not a disparaging remark about Tepper as it is about people who own professional franchises who have made so much money in other walks of life. They think, well, it's just sports. How hard can it possibly be?

And what they find out is they make a ton of bad decisions. Jeremy, who do you like? If it was up to me, I was all in on Ben Johnson. I've actually known Ben since we were in high school.

We're the same age, and we went to rivaling high school. That's who I was all in on, and now he has said he's going back to Detroit. So now I've reverted back to who I originally said, which is Ken Dorsey, the offensive coordinator out of the Buffalo Bills. And he's familiar with the area, and I'm going to comment on what he said was Steve Wilkes. The reason that I could not physically give the job to Steve Wilkes, you had a chance to make the playoffs against a terrible Tampa Bay Buccaneer team, and you left C.J. Henderson on an island against Mike Evans, and that's what you do.

You're a defensive guy, and the defense is what beat you. Now, that being said, I would love a path where Ken Dorsey comes in as the coach and Steve Wilkes comes back as the defensive coordinator. I have no idea if he would want to do that or not. I hate seeing rookie head coaches bring in rookie coordinators. I watched the Jets make this mistake with Mike LaFleur and Jeff Ulbrich. When there's not somebody that knows how to be a coach, which Wilkes does, he's now done it twice, I feel like he would be the perfect person to have beside a Ken Dorsey. My issue with hiring a defensive coach is, let's say you get the offense right, and you hire Wilkes, he brings in some young hotshot offensive coordinator. If you get the offense right, you're going to lose that guy in a year. We've seen it with Ben Johnson. He was a quarterback's coach before this year. Now he's the hottest candidate on the market because he got the most out of Jared Goff. Defensively, that talent, I think I could coordinate that defense and be in the top half of the league, because that defense is that talented. So for me, it's an offensive guy, and I would prefer Ken Dorsey. Your Twitter bio, ESPN Draft Nerd, speaks to you being more dialed in on the player personnel side than I. And I'm not going to lie, I thought that they made a mistake by not giving safety help on Mike Evanside, or outright double-teaming him the entire second half, or the entire fourth quarter, which is really when it all happened. So I'm not completely against the way you framed that. But for me, playoffs or bust is a pretty high bar for what is already a terrible roster overall.

And you're missing both your corners. For me it's not that he didn't make the playoffs. It's that you had a chance to make the playoffs.

And the thing that burned you was your calling card. And I'll be honest with you, a lot of people have put that on C.J. Henderson. I remember grading him coming into the draft, asking him to go up against Mike Evans. I stood next to C.J. Henderson. He's smaller than me, and I'm smaller than Mike Evans.

So to me, it was a no-win scenario. I'm smaller than you, and I'm also smaller than Brendan. All right, to basketball, Brendan Wooded. Tell me who this is a bigger game for tomorrow in Chapel Hill. North Carolina or NC State? I mean, it's hard for me.

I heard a little piece of it when I was coming in. I understand what you're saying in terms of State. But UNC, I think that their team is just too veteran-laden. They went to the championship last year.

They had all those kind of big moments, big scenario, high leverage situations. This team is not going to be judged about whether or not they beat NC State. That's not a thing that gets kind of hung up in the Raptors, right? This is much bigger for NC State going on the road to play Carolina.

That's kind of a major moment. People were kind of hedging and hollering about how long this team is going to be there and all this other stuff heading into this season. They're proving now this season that they're a legitimate team that maybe can consider them to be the best team in North Carolina. But this isn't, I mean, North Carolina obviously wants to win. NC State, while not Duke, is still a local rival. But nah, this is about the team that hasn't really done much in an NCAA tournament later or a coach that people were kind of already getting off the bus for. Like, nah, this is much bigger for NC State.

This is kind of their statement, like, nah, for real, we're legit here and we're going to not only be good in the regular season, but we're going to be good in the postseason. While you're wrong, let me let Jeremy respond to that. I hate that you said that he was wrong because I agree with everything you just said.

That's fine. I don't have to be right. For me, this is a better win for NC State going on the road beating a veteran Carolina team than it would be bad of a loss for Carolina losing at home to an NC State team that I'm not 100 percent sure is not better than they are right now. Talent-wise, you line up the rosters, yeah, Carolina has more talent, but you watch the two of them, NC State looks better to me. You know, D.J. Burns is going to give Carolina some issues, especially if Baycock gets in foul trouble. If they don't have Baycock, D.J.

Burns will kill them. And so for me, I would say this is a bigger, it would prop NC State up more than it would push Carolina down. I think North Carolina's resume is empty right now. I think, see, Brendan, you're talking about it from a rivalry perspective.

If that's what we're doing, I agree. But I don't think this is about rivalry. It is a rivalry. I think this is about NC State has more bona fides right now than UNC. UNC's entire resume is Ohio State's win over Ohio State, which we all watched, and it was a gift.

I mean, they were not the better team, credit to them for winning that game, but they were not the better team. Ohio State blew it at the end. No reason not to guard the inbound player twice. Twice. You had two chances to guard the inbound. Forget about all the other stuff that happened. You had two chances to win that game, Chris Holtman. I don't know what you were thinking about.

Anyway, moving on. I do think State right now is playing like a better basketball team. Maybe they don't have better pro prospects, although they might. And I think that North Carolina needs the win. Imagine being one and seven against quad one teams if you're UNC. There aren't a ton of quad one opportunities in the ACC.

So imagine being one and seven there. State's already got three quad one wins. I do think that a win over UNC on the road would be awesome for State, but I think Carolina needs it more. That's the way I look at it. This might be a somatic argument, but I do want to, and I'm legitimately asking, do you think in terms of the minds of each of the players, I think that's where I came from.

Yes, I think in terms of the committee, you're 100% right. They haven't been great against a better competition. The UNC hasn't been great against a better competition than they faced this year.

I guess I'm thinking more about in those locker rooms. For NC State, what this would mean for those players that have watched UNC get to pretty much the mountaintop while they've been there. And UNC with eyes towards March this entire season, which I think has played somewhat into some of the stuff, some of the indulgence that they've had. Who do you think that that means more to on each team?

I think that's where I was coming from. I understand. And again, I think from a rivalry perspective, then there might be more riding on this for NC State. But I believe that this group is a little different. I don't think they care. And I would, this is, I'm not saying that North Carolina is doing this, Brendan, but if North Carolina's got eyes on March, they ain't getting there. They better have eyes on January. They need to beat good teams because they really haven't done it yet. So this is an opportunity for Carolina to get a win over what I believe is a really good team.

A team that could finish in the top four of the ACC. And if you do that, that's a good win. All right, give me winners this weekend in the NFL. Unless you want to give me a Premier League winner, I'm just kidding.

Give me winners on Saturday, Brendan. Jacksonville, Kansas City, or Giants Eagles? Kansas City. I think Jacksonville has been really, really fortunate to be in this situation. I thought they were fortunate to beat the Titans. I thought they were fortunate last week. And then Kansas City, I think, is going to end up going to the Super Bowl.

So, 100%. Man, I hate divisional games in the playoffs so much. I could never seem to get a read on them. I thought Seattle was going to give, was going to give the 49ers a better game. They did early. They smoked them. Yes, they did early. And then they just kind of completely fell apart. I also might be salty because I had the under in that game.

Yes. But, but I, I, I just, oh man. I just think the Eagles, they, they were so good for, for so much of this season. I have a hard time believing that, that the Giants are better.

Cause they struggled for a long, for a large time during the regular season. I know that this is the postseason, different seasons, things, things change. But if you're sitting up in here and tell me you're going to take, you're going to take over hurts. I'm going to stick with the Eagles.

Understood. Jeremy, who you got on Saturday? I will take the Chiefs to win and to cover. I will take the Eagles to win outright, but the Giants to cover. I think that's the closer of the two games. I can see Jacksonville getting absolutely blown out. We saw this game one time before in Kansas City, and the score is not indicative of how obvious it was that Kansas City was the better team.

Yeah, it was, it was 20 to nothing, Kansas City took a nap and they woke up and scored another touchdown just to make sure they won it. Cincinnati, Buffalo, Dallas, San Francisco on Sunday, Brendan. Uh, yeah, I think Cincinnati, I, I, I really kind of like after watching that Miami game, I was like, I don't know what to think about Buffalo.

Buffalo has like, they've, they've won a lot of these close games and they, they've, all their losses have been by one possession. I just, no, I just, I just, I can't get down with them for whatever reason. I don't, I don't know what it is. I don't know. It's not that I don't believe in Josh, Josh Allen, but he turned the ball.

He just got kind of turnover, happy sometimes. And I just, and then I completely got the other day. So tell me again, Dallas, San Francisco. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Dallas. I'm taking Dallas and they, and, and by the, by the way, I know you said that it wasn't about the run game last week, top 10 in terms of rush yards per per game this season. I'm just saying that's a really well-rounded team. They can run the ball. They need to run the ball. They absolutely do. They need to keep San Francisco's defense from just taking off and going after Dak Prescott.

Who do you got Jeremy? Sunday, I will take Cincinnati to cover Buffalo to win and then San Francisco to cover and win. So something I have to say about Buffalo, I've heard this, they turned the ball over argument for seemingly three months now. Right.

They do, but they keep winning. Buffalo is like the Buffalo is like that weird friend that says weird things to when he tries to hit on women in bars and yet keeps getting numbers. Right? Geez. George Costanza. It keeps working. Buffalo is George Costanza. Opposite guy.

Bingo. Which favorite show, favorite sitcom of all time. And the fact that he ever got a woman to agree to go to dinner with him is the biggest laughable force in the history of sitcoms.

It is a, it is remarkable. But then he was, he was miserable, which is exactly George Costanza.