How much does Travis Kelce absence impact the Chiefs against the Lions?

Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off? Tired of wasting time and money on starvation diets that lead to more frustration and stress?

If there was a weight loss solution that could actually work for you, would you try it? Then head to Golo.com. If you're ready to take back control of your life, head to Golo.com now and see how Golo can work for you.

That's Golo.com. My sleep is way better. My inflammation has gone way down. Golo saved my life. I was way overweight. That's what sent me down the path.

I wanted to make sure and live for my kid. I have literally tried everything. I was on the verge of getting gastric bypass surgery and I saw the Golo commercial and it was the last thing I tried because it worked. Join over 2 million people who found a better way to lose weight with Golo. Your healthier and happier life begins at Golo.com. That's G-O-L-O.com.

Again, G-O-L-O.com. We have opening night of the NFL tonight as we bring in our NFL guy, Will Brinson, senior NFL writer, CBSSports.com pick six podcast, super friend. Real quick, the Chiefs are going into this definitely without Chris Jones it seems and almost definitely without Travis Kelce who hyperextended his knee earlier this week in practice and is a major question mark for this game. If you think about all of the turnover they've had at the receiver position, there's going to be a lot of Patrick Mahomes looking around for somebody to help him out. What gives here?

Yeah, it gets a little bit dicier if you want to be generous about it. You have Sky Moore who's in his second year. I think a lot of people are expecting maybe a possible breakout season for him. He's going to be a full-time receiver. Brett Veach came out and said, Canaria's Tony, when he's healthy, and that's a big if or when, can be a very, very explosive and dynamic receiver, and particularly on like short yardage stuff and screens and things.

MBS, Mark has done a scaling for NC State, pack pro, tons of speed. Justin Ross, former Clemson stars, was a little banged up and has had a really good preseason. Then Rashid Rice, they sort of second round pick on as well. So there's a... Richie James actually, former New York Giants player, who's kind of sneaky good. I think it's a little bit more of a...

It's a hodgepodge group, but I think there's a little more talent maybe than people are giving it credit for. So I tend to think that this can be enough for Patrick Mahomes to get by if Travis Kelsey has to miss time, although obviously you would not want to... I think it's a tough call with Kelsey, right?

You want to play Kelsey, but you want Kelsey healthy at the end of the season rather than the beginning of the season. I mean, week one isn't nearly as important as week one in January when the playoffs roll around for Kansas City. We assume that they will be in the playoffs, although a couple of years ago, coming off this first Super Bowl, right? They spent the first seven games... Weren't they three and four in the first seven games of the season?

They played a murderous early season schedule, and I don't think anything is going to be as difficult as that. All right, real quick, we saw Nick Bosa sign this contract. Will Brinson is joining us, pick six podcast. Nick Bosa signs the zillion dollar contract, $34 million a year. It's like $112, $120 million.

I don't know what the number was. Guaranteed a lot of guarantee. Yeah, I think it's like $50 million signing bonus, $170 in total cash or total value dollars. It basically puts it right at where Aaron Donald is. Right, so how does that impact Brian Burns, who is also hoping for a contract, although he has been practicing throughout? I don't think there's a chance that Brian Burns is not going to play Sunday, even if he doesn't have the new deal, but how does the Bosa contract impact Burns? Does Burns get close to that $34? Is he closer to where TJ Watt is, which is at $28 per guaranteed? Not guaranteed, but $28 per?

$28 per, yeah, on average annual value. Yeah, actually my good buddy Carver Clay asked me this exact question yesterday. Does this help expedite the Brian Burns thing? And it does to a degree in the sense that it says, hey, here's what you're not getting. Right, exactly.

Hey, Brian, here's what you won't be getting. And I think it helps when you see what Nick Bosa signs for, it helps to sort of slot things out. I mean, I think you can make the case for Burns. I'm just sort of looking at these edge rusher contracts at like average annual value. TJ Watt at $28, Joey Bosa at $27, Miles Garrett at $25, Max Crosby and Khalil Mack at $23.5, and then Bradley Chubb at $22. And I think with Burns' production, and we're not saying it's insane production, but his age, his pedigree, the expectations for what he's going to do on this new contract, I think you can make the case that you can put him in that Miles Garrett, Joey Bosa range.

Right. I don't know that you can say, hey, you know, you're making more than TJ Watt. Or like, I mean, TJ Watt was a defensive player the year two years ago, right?

I mean, Nick Bosa won it last year. It's like, there's just a, I mean, now Burns can try to do it. And sometimes that'll happen. You'll see that in certain markets, the edge rusher market's a little bit different in that sense. You don't always have just the next guy up just gets to magically be paid more than whoever the top guy is right, like at the quarterback position often, often is. So I think something in that 25 to 28 range would make a lot of sense if it gets done.

Now, you know, you still have what 48 hours to sort of wrap it up. Teams love to announce these things right before the season starts. They love to hammer them out with the agents right before, you know, right before the kickoff. But I mean, like, this is one where it's a little unusual because of his production, like the upside he possesses, how important he is to the Panthers defense, but then also like how he compares to these other edge rusher. So that's, that's my best guess for where he would slot in. Here's the thing about Brian Burns as it pertains to Nick Bosa.

They're not, they don't, I don't think they're the same position to me. Bose is the defensive lineman who happens to be a defensive end and gets a lot of sacks, but he is a disruptive force at the line of scrimmage. I don't see burns as that guy. I see burns as a, as an outside line, an edge rusher, right? I see him as a pass rusher, a disruptive force. Yes, but not, I just don't see those two guys at this as the same position.

So I'm not even sure it's a fair comp unless I'm wrong, which I've been wrong before, just not recently. So the other thing about birds to remember, they're, they're, you know, they're switching defenses in Carolina to this three, four. And so it's like, you, you may, if you're Carolina, you're definitely interested in the possibility of like finding out, you know, he's in his fifth year.

Um, you could use the franchise tag, uh, if you have to sign a contract there, they are not going to go. Well, you may want to see how he performs in that. You may want to see where he performs that three, four in week one, what's up in week one against the Falcons, because I have to think this contract is going to get done. Look, burns has been a total pro. He's, he's been a practice.

He's done all these things. I think the Panthers are going to do right by him at some level. I don't think they're going to do something silly. Uh, but let me just ask it this way and then we'll move on to a, uh, a bold prediction or two. Uh, and the, the fact that Bryce young is on a rookie contract for four years, how does that help Brian Burns?

Yeah. I mean, I think that definitely makes it a case where if you were, if you're a team that has a rookie quarterback on a rookie contract, when you draft high and you expect, I mean, especially the first of all you expect to be, um, you know, your franchise quarterback, you should, and almost certainly always will be willing to spend more money in other positions, particularly on defense, but we're star players, right? Because you know, most contracts in the NFL are five-year deals that are three-year deals that are masquerading as five-year deals. And so if you are willing to give Brian Burns a contract, you can give him a three, four, you know, give him a four-year, you know, him, it's probably gonna be a little bit more guaranteed because he was in the position and because of the pedigree, but you can give him that contract and then, you know, you can, you can end up with Bryce Young, Bryce Young is not going to get a new contract for three, for at least three years.

He just can't under the CBA. So if you get Burns a contract that pays him a ton of money for three years, and then, you know, structure your, your salary cap numbers, et cetera, in a way that it makes it easier to, to manage the salary cap for when you have to pay Bryce Young, um, it makes all the sense in the world. Like the Colts should really be paying Jonathan Taylor because they can't pay Anthony Richardson for three years. Can Taylor three-year deal, get him in there to help your rookie quarterback? Right.

Okay. So, uh, will Jonathan Taylor play for the Colts this year? I say, yeah, but not confident. Yeah. I'm not confident at all. I mean, are Jim. I'm not confident about anything with Jim. Uh, he's going to do something kooky. Yeah.

Taylor, Taylor. Um, I think the, the pump designation for Taylor is where he sits out, he's out for the first four days of the season, physically, physically unable to perform. The reason for that, I, I believe was sort of them throwing him a bone and saying, all right, you know, you, cause he gets paid while he's on there. So now his, his average, his average per game money goes from, and I mean, you know, 17 answers, 13, there's some 250,000 to 375,000 per game.

That's pretty, it's a really nice bump, right? In terms of you, you're not going to get as much wear and tear, uh, you know, and you're, you've got this month now where you can sort of let things cool down, see how the team is, see how the team performs, decide whether you want to try to bring it back and let him play for you or possibly trade him by the actor. I think the deadline is a trade deadline is Halloween.

So it's, it's still, I think it's very much up in the air, but I think this month off gives them a little bit more cash in a weird way and sort of lets everybody sort of simmer down and not have it be the focal point of really the NFL news because you'll have games going on. All right. A couple of team over unders in terms of total wins Panthers, I think are at seven and a half over or under seven and a half or six and a half. I would go over, but it's really close. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I see him as like an eight, eight or nine win team. If the opposite, if the opposite line is better than we think it is, and we don't, I don't think we think it's great because of the preseason. If the opposite line is better than we think it is, then, um, then this team can win 10 plus games.

And the opposite line is as bad as we think it could be. Then this team might, you know, uh, might, might not to say the least jets, I believe are like what, nine and a half, right? Nine and a half.

And they haven't moved all off season. It's been the weirdest thing, right? Nine and a half juice in the over habit moves like what? Like minus one 20 to the over it hadn't like budged.

It's so crazy. Um, I tend to think that, um, I would go, I would go over, I wouldn't feel awesome about it because, yeah, I wouldn't feel awesome about it, but I would be too scared of Aaron Rogers in spite to fade him. I think it's, I think it feels like a 10 win team. Um, but potentially missing the playoffs. And then I think that offensive line too is a big, big question mark. You can't be guaranteed that that offensive line is going to perform at a high level.

And if Aaron Rogers is not being protected and you can't run the ball well, then, and the deviance takes any time to step back, then all of a sudden it's like, all right, you know, you want seven games, everybody should, you're a quarterback away, but maybe you weren't after all. I think the jets will be able to run block. I'm not sure they'll be able to pass block. Uh, if Makai Becton stays healthy on the right side, cause that's where he is. I think they'll be able to run block.

Uh, and if they can get a decent running game and they have a ton of good running backs, uh, their offense might be okay. It's just the jets. And do we just know what's going to happen?

Um, all right. Give me a, uh, a team that everybody thinks will make the playoffs that won't and one that people don't think will make the playoffs that will. Uh, I'll say that a team that everyone thinks that will make the playoffs, but won't will be the Chargers.

The Chargers are going to charge, man. Uh, probably. And a team that, uh, is not being predicted to make the playoffs, but I think will is the Atlanta Falcons.

Okay. I see them as almost the favorites though, in that division, although, uh, you could probably throw a blanket over everybody in that division. Yeah, things are the favorite and the Falcons are still like, plus money to make the playoffs, but it's like, it's very close to even money. So yeah, I mean, like maybe that's a little bit cheating. I mean, I think it's fine. Um, the AFC is going to be really tough to, to like, like there's, there might be two or three wins, 10 win teams that missed the playoffs in the AFC.

Like that's not that crazy. Um, you know, I think Steelers could be a good one to make the playoffs that people don't think will. Yeah. Kenny Pickett is kind of changing people's opinions in the, in the, from the preseason.

He was great. And it's just the preseason. So I don't want to put too much stock in it. Uh, but we know they've got talent at wide receiver and Mike Tomlin is just elite. And I am a, I am always team Mike Tom and I'm always team will Brinson senior NFL writer, cbssports.com pick six podcast. Thank you, sir.

We will talk again next week. Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off tired of wasting time and money on starvation diets that lead to more frustration and stress. If there was a weight loss solution that could actually work for you, would you try it? Then head to Golo.com. I'm Steve. I lost 138 pounds in nine months on Golo.

I'm Amber. I've lost 128 pounds with Golo taking release. If you're ready to take back control of your life, head to Golo.com now and see how Golo can work for you.

That's G O L O.com. My sleep is way better. My inflammation has gone way down. Golo saved my life. I was way overweight. That's what sent me down the path.

I wanted to make sure and live for my kid. I have literally tried everything. I was on the verge of getting gastric bypass surgery and I saw the Golo commercial and it was the last thing I tried because it worked. Join over 2 million people who have found a better way to lose weight with Golo. Your healthier and happier life begins at Golo.com. That's G O L O.com. Again, G O L O.com.