Are the best players also with the best team?

So, the Super Bowl is coming up on Sunday. You can wager out anything you want. We already talked to Dave Mason from BetOnline.ag. I saw the over-under on Chris Stapleton.

Super Bowl national anthem length was two minutes and five seconds. That seems like an easy over to me. But in the conversation we had, they basically have to pull that line or stop taking bets on that wager. Because once people see the rehearsals, all bets are off. All bets are off. So, there you go.

Will is going to join us in just a couple of seconds from Arizona. So, this is the reason I am going with Kansas City in this game. If Patrick Mahomes is the best player, then Travis Kelce is the second best player, and Chris Jones is the third best player. Now, that doesn't mean that the Eagles don't have the next ten best players. Because the Eagles are a super balanced team.

And I will say this, and I do believe it's true. You don't have to have balance. You don't have to be equal parts run and pass. But the team that I think runs it when they need to run it better is probably going to win the game. And I don't think that you can just say that it's automatically Philadelphia because it's more of what they do. We'll have to see how that plays out. I am not discounting the Eagles' chances. I think the Eagles will have to run it better to win the game. Kansas City just has to run it and be successful when they need to do that. And if they do that, I think the Chiefs are going to be in good shape.

But if best player matters, then I think this is a Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl to win. We'll find out with Will Brinson, Picsics Podcast Moderator, CBSSports.com. He joins us every Monday.

It's not even Monday. And we're talking to Will Brinson. So, is the best player in this game Patrick Mahomes? Yes, unquestionably.

But the best team is the Philadelphia Eagles. And I'm in downtown Phoenix walking on Van Duren and Second Street in case it's loud. So, my apologies for that.

No, it's fine. Downtown Phoenix is lovely. Had a good time out there for the Final Four, however many years ago. Did you get to the Wrigley Mansion at all?

No, I have not tried that. I did dabble into Scottsdale. That's right. Oh, nice. And I'm currently the officiant of Palma.

This is my new hangout. But that's the extent of my Phoenix and Scottsdale knowledge. Scottsdale is lovely. Stay away from TPC Scottsdale today.

There's only 200,000 people milling around that golf course being all sorts of drunk. What a weekend it is for Phoenix. With the Super Bowl and the Phoenix open there, I guess it's called the Waste Management or the Phoenix Open there at the same time, it is an absolute scene, I'm sure. Hey, Adam, Adam, you know, I didn't realize, I knew the last one. I didn't realize the one before that. Do you know the last two Super Bowls that were held in Phoenix? No. One, the last one was the Malcolm Butler, Russell Wilson interception.

Oh, okay. Huge game. Super Bowl 49. Incredible game.

Number one Super Bowl in my rankings on TV sports dot com, which you can read. Wait, I wrote a thing. That's right.

I wrote a thing. My gosh, I can't even. I know. Wow.

And the one before that in Phoenix, David Tyreen's helmet. Oh, wow. And that's also I think we might be we might be sore for some craziness, some shenanigans, some daintiness. That is. Well, we probably are.

Look, you follow this closer than I do. Is this the combined point spreads of the two conference championship games in the Super Bowl? Is this by far the the most, at least going into games, thought to be the most competitive final three NFL games of the season that we've ever seen? Has to be.

I haven't I haven't I mean, I'm shooting off the hip here because I haven't thought about changing that. But, um, we thought we had individual round games. And it turned out it was supposed to interview because they're just doing the way the match was worked out. And I think I think I think you might be on something here.

Although I guess once more like what? Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a really, really, really tight matchup because you have the ones and the twos or the ones in the three. But you don't there's nobody snuck in.

I know you're the one person wanted. And I mean, if anybody tells you that they know what's going to happen on Sunday. Right. That's a very outside of their foster, of course. They're lying. Yeah, we know we it sports is crazy anyway.

So we have we really don't know. Like I can see this. I like the Chiefs and the under here.

But yeah, I do. I like the Chiefs and the under the and the total is not crazy. I know the total is fifty, fifty and a half or fifty one. It's pretty high for a Super Bowl, man. If you want for a Super Bowl. So you think it's going to go over because it's they're there. They want to get people to go under. No, I think the game goes over because you have.

Well, I think it depends, right? If the Chiefs are winning big, then I think it goes way under. If the Eagles are up or it's a close game, I think it goes way over because 80 80 read second half unders are very good looks.

He loves to get short. Basically, you know, takes up some rushing attack, but you basically basically make the short passing game extension of the run game each clock and you're just really, really, really slow, long drives for a degree in the second half. But if the Eagles are on the home throwing, we might see a ton of points. Yeah.

Like I said, and I think you said anything could happen in this game. If Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the game, who's the second best player in the game? Yeah, I'm biased here, but I'll say AJ Brown. Okay. Do you have a ticket on AJ Brown that we need to know about?

No, I just want to get more than like 60% of my family. AJ Brown, AJ Brown's an incredible player that we still can't figure out why the Tennessee Titans felt like they didn't need. I think the second best player in the game is Travis Kelce. And I think the third best player in the game is Chris Jones, which is why I like the the Chiefs here. Everybody's been talking about the Eagles pass rush, pass rush, pass rush. But the Chiefs are the second best in the NFL at sacking the quarterback. And the Eagles give up more sacks by a lot almost almost twice as many as Kansas City does.

Well, I mean, you're not wrong with all the things you said are true. The fact that Jalen Hurts is such a, you know, mobile quarterback who runs so much does play into it, right? Like he's holding the ball longer. Like the same reason why Russell Russell takes a ton of sacks and say, oh, Russ has no offensive line.

You know, Russ likes to hold the ball and run around the time. Yeah, but, well, it's a quarterback. Sacks are not a not an offensive line problem. It's a sack. It's a quarterback problem. And it's a problem might even be leading the witness, if you will, because it might not be a problem. And I allowed for this. It might actually be an acceptable part of what Philly does, because Hurts does hold the ball and he tries to buy time with his legs.

And sometimes a two yard sack isn't that big a deal as opposed to throwing it away or risking risking a pass. Who is the other? Can I ask you a question? Sure. How would you if you were if you were the Philly coaching staff, how would you defend the Chiefs offense and or more specifically, how would you defend Travis Kelton? I think you have to double team Travis Kelce all game, right? You have to treat him the way teams would treat George Kittle.

You must do. Yeah, he would double team Travis Kelce. You would triple team. Maybe so. Maybe so. But here's where I was going to ask you about who is the wide receiver for Kansas City? Because I've got one in my mind.

Who is the wide receiver for Kansas City that becomes a star Sunday? Oh, well, you know, you know, I love my tax pros, right? Right.

But I'm going to go to a different direction. We're here with young Joker. That's the rap nickname for various Tony. That's the guy. That's the guy I like to do. He, he is such a freak when he gets a ball in his hands.

His like, immediate lateral movement is outrageous. And if you read the feelings, you know, you're the teacher saying that when you read fan, there's a big package of players for various Tony. Oh, my God. Well, Sunday. Yeah. Now, like the other thing too is, let's say that 80 and I firmly believe that you read is going to go aggressive. On Sunday.

Sorry. With with Jerry McKinnon. I think we see a lot of Jerry McKinnon. I think screen game is going to be heavily utilized at least probably the best screen.

Screenplay three play corner. The history of football is going to go heavy McKinnon and various Tony near the line of scrimmage, get to the ball, let them work in space and let them do what they do. And turning to me is the guy who can explore the game if the Chiefs offense, which probably will is working. Yeah, I love I love I know Valdez scantling had a really good game. Juju Smith Schuster can have can have an impact in this game, but I do. I like it.

I like a Darius Tony as well. And the Chiefs run the ball and did you hear what you heard? You just said, by the way, no. He said the best mistakes aren't even in Philly.

I heard that. Like, why would you do that? What an unnecessary billboard comment, right? First of all, you're dragging a player who's dragging their food. Who wouldn't that Philadelphia locker room, though, is going to cape up for Philly cheesesteaks? Good question. Maybe Jason Kelce.

Maybe that's it. Or, you know, if the if the if the ownerships got into a fight, right? Maybe that would change. Carcon versus Jeffrey Lurie. That would be great.

Barbecue versus cheesesteaks. Hey, did you find it interesting that Jeffrey Lurie earlier, I think it was I think it was earlier this week, basically declared that Jalen Hurts doesn't have to prove anything. So they're going to have to pay him. You find that interesting at all? It was it was like you never see owners do that.

Right. Owners, owners never come out and say, you know what? We're just going to give him all the money. Have you heard? Have you heard the Ravens mentioned that with Lamar Jackson? No. Have you heard the Chargers owner mention that with Justin Herbert?

No. Have you heard Mike Brown come out and go, well, we're just going to give Joe Perot all the money? No, you never hear owners in the NFL do that because they're trying to be responsibly frugal. And yet I do think it means I think it's like a good vote of confidence. Like if you're Joe Hurts, you're not you're not thinking contract.

You're thinking, all right, you know, but let's like, let's go win a Super Bowl. And I do believe that like Jalen Hurts influence on this locker room is way bigger than what he is. You know, he's only 24, man. I know he's been there. He's been there like realm of consciousness for 15 years between Alabama and Oklahoma. And then like supplanting Carson Wentz. And yet the guy's really young.

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And all of us. Here's the thing about Hertz. I think we learned about Hertz level of maturity and his leadership when he got benched at Alabama. I really believe that he handled that like a I mean, like an absolute 10 year veteran. He did. He handled it like a pro. He handled it much better. And look, he's a he was a better player than Kelly Bryant and Clemson, who got benched in favor of Trevor Lawrence and immediately bolted. What about what about this year alone?

Derek Carr, his bench where Jared Stidham and decided he's going to lead the team. He said, I'm just not going to hang around anymore. Let's say Marcus Mariano gets benched for Jessica Ritter. I'm just not going to. I'm done. I mean, I'm not big. I'm not big like the kids are soft these days, et cetera, et cetera. But like, come on, dude.

Right. You get benched. You're being paid several tens of millions of dollars to play quarterback. You got benched because your team stinks.

Man up. And, you know, and Jill first did it when he wouldn't be paid anything. Yeah, look, Jalen Hertz is is the and this is why I think Jeffrey Lurie is going to pay him now. Also, if we think about this in an economic sense, because I saw a poll or not a poll, but a story about the most under or the most value contracts at quarterback.

And Josh Allen was on the list. The sooner you pay the guy. The sooner you get say, see, they're paying their quarterback that and we're only paying this our quarterback this. This is why the Ravens are in the bad spot. But now it is a little tricky.

And this is I agree with you 100 percent. It's a little tricky right now because of the this all Watson thing. And that's why they're like, like we've talked about this, right? Like who, you know, whatever, whatever you pay a contract to the NFL. Every every dollar of guaranteed money that is built into that contract has to be matched in. Right. It's like a commercial real estate deal.

It's an old, like, stupid rule from the CDA in the 70s that because owners, owners weren't, you know, billionaires. And so now they have to pay for that money. That's great.

Now, Judy has them. No problem. Right. He owns whatever, you know, company is being investigated by the federal government right now.

But like the Spanish is Mark Davis, you know, even the Saudi whose name I mispronounced on the reg. But you don't want to put $230 million in escrow. Nobody wants to do that. So the question is, who's going to blink first? And to me, the answer is Joe Burrow and Mike Brown, because Burrow doesn't, I don't think he cares that much about how much he's going to get paid from the Bengals. I think he cares about is his contract top of the line? And can he just get back to business of winning football games? And so, and Mike Brown, very frugal, right?

So I think they blink first, and then that sort of maybe sets the tone. Now, Joe Burrow holds out for fully guaranteed money, then all of a sudden, you have a major problem with Jalen Hurts, too. I agree. I agree. I think I, I don't think those, first of all, I don't think the Hurts contract is going to approach the top, the top money, it's going to be really good money. And that's what it's going to be.

The Burrow, dude, it'll be $40 million. Yeah, yeah. But that's not the top.

Right? Sure. So it's, it's not, it's not going to exceed some of the others. Daniel Jones is going to get $30 million a year, that's awesome. Oh, it might be more than that. It might be.

Yeah, might be more than that. Well, Brinson, you've got the Eagles. I got the Eagles and the over. And Travis Kelce first touchdown score. I will you I've already had already picked that and place your bets earlier in the week.

Travis Kelce first touchdown. I've got other picks, though, for four touchdown scores that we'll get to later on. In fact, in about 15 minutes, we'll Brinson enjoy Phoenix. And we'll talk to you next week whenever you resurface.

Take care. Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, he actually wrote CBS sports.com pick six podcast moderator, I'm kind of kind of upset. I didn't know I would have read it. I would have read it had had he wrote for the ones finding new ways to ensure the job always gets done for the ones wearing many hats for the ones who are hands on even from far away. And the ones keeping business moving forward. We are Granger offering professional grade industrial supplies, plus real time product availability and access to experts ready to answer your toughest questions. Call click ranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.