Welcome into the newest edition of the Justin Times博 podcast.
I am your host, Justin Jackson.
In this week's episode, we'll be discussing the NFL week four and a lot of news going
down last week.
We'll be discussing NFL week five and previewing it along with giving kind of live updates
to the Thursday Night Football game.
We'll have our NFL betting segment, Jax Pack.
We will touch on the WNBA and we will have as always to end the show, Jax Hot Take.
Now as always, don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to the Justin Times博 podcast
on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And don't forget to follow the social media handle at JTimesports on all your favorite
social media, whether that be Twitter, NowKnowAsEx.
Instagram, threads, Facebook, or TikTok for live updates and breaking news.
Now as always, sit back and get ready to learn something.
Welcome into the show.
Justin Times博 podcast season four episode 28 coming to you on a Friday morning by the
time you hear this, but recording this Thursday evening.
The Thursday Night Football game between the commanders and the Bears have yet to kick
off.
We're going to have a warmup, final warmups and stuff now.
So we'll keep you guys fairly updated with that.
So we're saying Kirk Kerbstrick do NFL football games, but we'll keep you guys fairly updated
on that as it happens.
But welcome into the show.
As you guys heard in the intro, we have NFL last week and this week, we have Jax Pack,
a slightly less successful, although still positive, NFL betting segment.
We have the NBA has some huge news coming out of it.
And then we'll have our Jax hot take.
Let's jump right into some unfortunate news.
Dick Buccus, legendary member of the Chicago Bears, man, model toughness, model NFL citizen.
One of the truly good guys in the NFL, especially from that time period has passed away.
So the Chicago Bears hours before a big Thursday night football game, the entire organization
is in mourning because Dick Buccus has passed away.
Really kind of an interesting timing, unfortunately, because the Bears are coming off, they lost.
The Bears are coming off of Justin Fields most successful game as a quarterback.
Career high completion 28, career high yards over 330, career high touchdowns with four.
Ultimately, they failed against the Broncos.
And coming off that kind of rolling into the momentum of the Justin Fields football game
that he plays, his best game was a pro.
And then get the unfortunate news hours ago that Dick Buccus has passed away.
He was born in Chicago, two time All-American in college, third overall pick by the Bears
in 65.
Made nine seasons and literally became the like what it means to be a middle linebacker
in the NFL.
Passed away at 80.
He will always be remembered as just this all around tough, like I said, this tough
guy.
You know, he's quoted as saying some men were meant to be lawyers and doctors.
I was meant to play football.
And so he was just this physical guy, two time player of the year, Hall of Famer, just
all around, great human.
And so the NFL world is mourning the loss of Dick Buccus.
So we're going to take a couple of second moments of silence for Mr. Buccus.
Thank you for those of you who helped observe it.
But moving into stuff, we got some big news out of there.
So normally we recap some of the games and we'll get to them.
But we have some big news personnel wise out of the NFL this week.
Jonathan Taylor and Cooper Cups of Windows to practice both were opened.
That's pretty major news for those of you who don't know.
So when a person gets placed on IR, the injury reserve project of the season, they can be
activated.
So it used to be the IR back when I was growing up.
I'm not that old, 126.
So in my youth and being in high schools all day kind of gets me a little aged quickly.
But in my youth, once the player went to IR, that was it.
There was no going back.
It didn't matter if they got put on IR on week two, they had probably get out of week
11, their season was over.
And so people, a lot of times there was any 30% chance you could come back during the
season, they would have to keep you on the roster and just have you being active every
week.
And so it would get to situations where if a team had a really bad injury luck year,
they would have to IR people that they knew were coming back, but they didn't get the
roster.
They couldn't go into a game.
I think in the NFL, you legally can't go into a game with less than I think 40 players
or 42 players.
And so if you had 15 guys out with injuries on a 53 man roster, that's only 38.
So then you would have to IR people.
It was really weird to get all kinds of waivers.
And it was a weird time period as far as how stuff had to be managed as far as injuries,
because you couldn't just say like, this guy's hurt, I'm going to use his roster spot for
this healthy person.
You have to keep the healthy, the health hurt person on your roster, not have space for
the healthy person.
It was a disaster.
So a couple of years ago, not too long ago, I kind of used everything based on COVID to
write around COVID time.
Matt Eberflu is three and 18 as the Bears head coach.
I'm sorry that I know Justin Fitts only won five games of the pro, but three and 18 startled
me.
But anyway, so having I think right around COVID time, right before or right after the
NFL changed the rule where you can do designated to return.
So you can only return so many players in a year.
At first, now they just have short term IR where you can return.
I think it's still the same ish rule where you can return so many players in a year from
injury reserved, but it allows teams to, okay, like for instance, God and Taylor and Cooper
Cup, both had injuries entering the season, but everyone knew they weren't seizing any
injuries.
Everybody knew that they weren't seizing any injuries.
And so no one was really looking for them to be out for the season.
Twenty years past, they would have had to stay on the roster and just being inactive
every week.
Now they were able to use Taylor's and Cups roster spot respectively, to get players for
their team that can actually help them to play.
Even if it was just to get them on the practice squad, you know, even if the practice squad
got up, make him inactive and then put another guy on the practice squad.
Anything just to keep the regular flow of the 69, 70 ish bodies.
You can have actively signed to a team counting the practice squad.
And so, but in order to do that, you have to activate in order to bring so speeding
forward now that we got the history, speeding forward, getting into Taylor and Cup specifically,
there's a period of activation.
So you go to the league and say, Hey, we're going to open up, stay with the Rams, Cooper
Cups practice window.
Cooper Cup at that point then has 21 days to be activated to the roster from IR or he's
out for the season.
So and there's no coming back.
It's like the old one.
Once he's out, he's out.
And so that is huge because teams don't open it unless that person's either playing that
week or they're a week away.
You'd never want to do with two weeks out or you never want to say, man, we hope I can
clear them for that third week.
Like you never want that situation.
You don't want him playing that week.
So like Cooper Cups activated on Tuesday, there's potential he plays Sunday or worse
come to worse he plays the following Sunday.
You know, it's a situation where you by day 14 he should be on the field because if he
gets to, you know, you're a pool tweak or something, you know, fun practice and him
not being able to pass the physical to get on the field away from him being out for the
season just because you mismanage his practice window.
So that's kind of stuff you got to take into consideration.
The Cooper Cup flat out to me looks ready to produce.
He sees Puka Nakua pretty much running a similar location to him in the offense and Puka Nakua
is breaking all kind of first four games in history.
First three games in history.
Fastest person to this fastest person to that.
I think Puka is on pace for 2200 yards receiving which ironically is what Tyree Hill wanted
to do.
And so he's seeing that he's looking like, well, I think I'm better than Puka Nakua.
So if I know I can get back to my spot, then I'm going to, you know, be able to dominate
the way Puka is doing and potentially even better because I don't have that I have better
ability than Puka.
Um, no more experience running the system.
Jonathan Taylor, on the other hand, is kind of in a different scenario.
Jonathan Taylor, when asked about what he wants to do in Indianapolis responded with
I'm here for now.
I mean, it was kind of a double shot, kind of a two edge sword on one edge.
Literally he's there for now.
He's going to focus on this season, try to help this team.
Anthony Richardson is currently a little better than I thought he would be.
Um, he's going to get there, try to help this team produce and win.
He's there for now.
The other side of it is the reason why I wasn't here to begin with more than likely anything
is the fact that I was negotiating a contract and the contract extension has fell through.
So literally I'm here for now.
It was, you know, it was a very, it was a double edge sword kind of answer.
You picked up what he was putting down if you were paying any kind of attention to the
Colts off season.
So very interesting kind of reactions to their return.
You know, you have Rams fans excited over the fact that Cooper covers coming back and
saying that him and Nakua are going to, you know, carry them and carry their offense and
stuff like that.
And then you have on the Colts side, you know, Jonathan Taylor kind of reaction kind of makes
because I've said it before, billionaires have tricked thousandaires into being angry
at millionaires.
Um, so the owners have tricked the fans to being angry at the players behind trying to
get money.
Um, and you know, they want the millionaires who have an earning window and max to 45,
that's pushes all the way to the max at 45 to give the owner who has way more earning
potential dollar wise for way longer, uh, a discount.
And so as I was kind of say, like, you know, and you say stuff like, Oh, owners have tricked
the fans and da da da da da.
And you're like, well, you know, that person has low issues with the team.
And I kind of break it down financially that billionaires have tricked thousandaires into
going against millionaires in the negotiation.
Um, and so it's incredibly interesting how those negotiations go into the public eye,
but that's pretty much where we are.
It's the fact that, you know, the fans again are a little bit anti Jonathan Taylor because
they're saying you got assigned to tend to came into camp.
You probably wouldn't be hurt.
We probably be a little bit better right now because they're just looking at it from a
team perspective.
Uh, Randy Gregory, uh, one year and some change into a five year, $70 million contract,
a great pass.
Justin Fields.
Hey yo, he is dotting right now with DJ more, um, two beautiful passes down the left sideline
both times, a bear strike first and 39 football.
And um, you know, about one year and some change into a five year, $70 million contract,
free agent contract that he signed away from the town with the Broncos to get away from
the Cowboys, even though they had pretty much matching deals.
The Broncos had a little bit better language in it or he was more comfortable with, but
anyway the Broncos have released him now for just enough.
Not just the fields for Randy Gregory.
It's not a bad deal.
He played about 15 games.
I'm going to get $28 million guaranteed money from it.
A little over a million dollars a game.
It's not a bad break at all.
However, um, now you have to figure out where he lands his next spot.
A couple of fan bases have been really active.
Dallas is saying come back.
Their fan base, New Orleans, um, has also thrown out their name into the ring, um, as
well.
So, uh, he'll have suitors.
I just don't think, I think that was his last big attempt at a payday.
I feel like he should have went a little bit more in depth into getting some more guaranteed
money or at least try to make it work in the Denver.
It's a little bit more, but ultimately and unfortunately for him and the Broncos, it
fell through.
And right before they busted out those snow cap elements too, I just got a little disappointed.
I'm not going to lie.
Um, JC Jackson has been traded to, well, back to the New England Patriots, um, basically
in exchange for six, for the 2025 late round picks.
Uh, it was a deal that honestly was one of those, it didn't work.
It's anything we're in the Gregory.
It wasn't a good fit.
Uh, JC Jackson and two season Patriots, 17 interceptions was called Mr. I and T, uh,
and took a five year, I believe it was 82 and a half.
Uh, the number, the number sticks in my head correctly.
Million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Chargers to be their number one corner.
Um, and ultimately it just didn't work.
Um, he looked out of sorts from day one, just like he wasn't comfortable in whatever the
charges were asking him to do.
Um, and again, one year and some changes to it.
He became a healthy and active, uh, the Patriots step in, um, they send a 2025 seventh rounder.
The Chargers send a 2010 JC Jackson, a 2025 six rounder, so the higher pick and they agree
to pay, um, most of the remaining of the salary.
The Patriots are only responsible for $1.5 million of the $9.33 million left.
Oh, two Jackson this season, the rest of the contract stays intact.
What that means is there's no guarantee money after the season.
Uh, the charges paid most of it up front or in the first, um, already of the contract.
The rest of the guarantee money runs out this year.
There's no guarantee money left on the rest of the contract for New England.
It becomes a literal no hurt bet.
We upgraded, we got extra six round draft pick in 2025.
We're only paying him $1.5 million.
If he's as watched as he looked in Los Angeles, we release him and we only have paid him $1.5
million.
Or if he's amazing, we can renegotiate some of the guarantees or we can re-institute some
of the guarantee language into the contract, rip up and rip it up and make a whole new
contract.
Um, just whatever is required to keep him if he's amazing in the system.
Um, because that all of a sudden it look like it's what he's supposed to be.
He's just comfortable with whatever Belichick is putting out there.
Um, and so he was traded back to the New England Patriots.
Speaking of the Patriots, they're down Christian Gonzalez more than likely for the rest of
the season with a shoulder injury.
Uh, believe it's a torn, a torn labrum and they're out at least about two months, um,
with Matthew Jude on being out.
So yeah, they get JC Jackson back, but they lose my candidate for rookie of the year and
Christian Gonzalez.
Um, and then they lose, uh, Matthew Jude on who had it.
It was kind of starting to make a case for a dark horse defensive player of the year,
uh, nomination.
So going into the games that happened yesterday, um, I start off with the Houston Texans and
their, um, absolute stud of a rookie quarterback, CJ Stroud.
He is one of the people that's joining all these lists and, um, accolades and stats that
I was referring to that, uh, it was just like I was saying about Pukka Nakulway, the youngest
to do this and the first year that the fastest to this.
She just shout is, you know, one of four to do this.
One of three to do that, uh, whether it be yards efficiency, uh, turn over to turn over
to intercession ratio.
Like anything that is a positive stat, CJ Stroud is, you know, top four, one of four,
one of five, um, to ever do it in the history of the game.
And so that opens up a lot of doors and a lot of access points if you're the Houston
Texans in terms of offensive availability.
There's one thing that'll slow down and offer as a coordinator when he has a rookie quarterback
is the fact that he feels like he has to spoon feed him.
He has to take someone's office plate.
Like, yeah, the plate can look super complicated, but he's only ever looking to the left.
Um, he's reading boom, boom, boom.
You know, he's never making full free, full field reads.
The OC feels like he has to do everything for the quarterback in order to be successful.
Which takes out a lot of our Swiss combo routes, takes out a lot of different things that you
want to really get exotic with as a pass coordinator, or even as an offensive coordinator, you
know, with a running game because if something can look pass and no one respects the pass,
they're blitzing anyway.
And so now usually if you're making something look pass, you're not particularly blocking
all that well downfield if you're trying to make something look like a pass.
And so, um, that Houston Texans offense is very capable in the hands of CJ Stroud.
Kenny Pickett suffered an injury in this game.
He probably does not play this week.
You know, against the Ravens.
Um, you know, TJ, while I was neutralized for the most part, CJ Stroud just looked good,
poised and poised one more time.
You know, I believe in him going in the draft.
I'm going to still believe in him.
I have my reason not to.
Baker Mayfield made me eat a little crow last week.
Um, I pretty much picked the Saints in my lock of the week for Jax Pack.
We'll talk about that.
Um, obviously in the Jax Pack segment, but I pretty much said Baker started to get expectations.
He's bound to mess it up.
Now, I don't know.
Just like the Cowboys have their little issue with Stephen A. Smith and every time they're
successful people tag Stephen A. Smith like crazy and all this other stuff related to
the fact that he said that the Cowboys are accident waiting to happen and whenever you
least expect it, they mess it up.
I'm not in the boat of every single time Baker has a good game for people to just be talking
about, oh, Baker Mayfield played a great game.
Um, you know, I thought he was going to disappoint us.
He will because he's going to grow in the expectation.
See what I didn't expect was for so many people to have a level head about Baker.
Baker Johnny Tebow.
Three people, people just generally don't have a level head about.
Um, I didn't expect such a calm, cool, um, level headed general consensus about Baker.
I thought the second he got hot and started winning games, they'd be trying to throw him
in the MVP race and Baker's back and all this other stuff.
Maybe because I don't want to get babies, but I just knew that, you know, they were
going to have this loud consensus of just he's amazing and I have to divorce a reason.
Turns out I'm here to be a little harsh.
And people here are very anti Baker.
Just looking over social media, you know, he's not winning many people over.
Uh, Tampa fans even still struggling to embrace him, but he's starting to cook a little bit.
That's two games in a row.
He played really well.
He was efficient, but some touchdown drives and he did some great stuff on the field in
New Orleans.
Uh, I played Tom Brady struggled to win it.
I think Brady, I would already won one game in New Orleans during his time as a New Orleans
Saint.
I mean, 10, babe, I can near rather.
And that was that playoff game.
I said to launch him to a soup bowl, but you know, Baker's already went into New Orleans
and won and it wasn't the easiest game ever.
He had to fight a little bit, had to battle a little bit.
It wasn't like it was just an absolute cakewalk.
He's already gone into New Orleans and got a victory.
So kudos to Baker Mayfield.
I give credit to credit this dude, but don't worry.
This one was coming.
It always does.
Joe Burrow is on one leg.
Um, have got thrashed pretty good by Tennessee.
Um, I really had to suffer cause he just couldn't move.
No, but you know, certain passes that there's a couldn't call and curtain concepts because
he either can't drive off the leg or he's got to roll out and all this other stuff.
So they have been just leaving him in the middle of the pocket, which is making it easy
for a defensive lineman to just tee off at the exact same angle.
Um, and so the Bengals are absolutely struggling.
Joe Burrow struggling even worse.
The offensive coaching staff has to help him out in some shape or fashion.
Um, I was telling some of my friends there, uh, that the offensive staff has just not
helped Joe Burrow here in this situation.
You knew he was going to be injured coming into the season.
He should have had an offense ready to go.
Uh, there's some semblance of a ready to go for Joe Burrow.
In the event he came back early.
I said earlier, I give credit where credit is due and I'm giving credit to Zach Wilson.
He played a hell of a ball game against the Kansas City Chiefs, especially after that
first drive.
He played wonderfully.
Um, and then, well, he's Zach Wilson did, um, just a very routine situation.
He snaps the ball and begins to look at his receivers and who's covered where and the
ball hits him in the hands and it ends up on the ground and in the hands of the New
England Patriots, all but ending that game.
Um, and so, and then Zach's on the sideline growing up a little bit, taking accountability
saying it was his fault for losing the game, which man, it really was.
Um, and so that was huge for Zach Wilson in terms of development and growth, but it also
showed again, Zach, you're just not that guy.
Um, but you'd be one hell of a backup though.
You're just not that guy.
Um, and then lastly, um, you know, I'm going to have to take Justin Fields out of this.
Uh, Justin Fields, Mack Jones, Daniel Jones look like quarterbacks playing on borrowed
time.
Daniel Jones signed a four year, $160 million contract.
Only 80 of it was guaranteed.
I think 45 or 50 of it was paid this year.
So you know, he, um, it's just, you know, Daniel Jones and Joseph had the same problem.
The best attribute of playing quarterback is their feet and whether or not throwing
the ball.
Mack Jones has that similar problem.
It's the fact that he can't run.
Um, for some reason, Mack has gotten into fading away when he throws the ball and also
scrambling way more than he probably ever has in his life.
Um, Daniel Jones is the issue that he's just not good at football.
And um, Justin Fields is all the talent in the world.
It's just something's going on in Chicago.
It's just not conducive to winning.
Oh, the LHC fire, Lovey Smith, they have been an absolutely horrible football team.
So maybe that could be something to do with it.
I don't know.
Some hoodoo voodoo stuff's gone down.
I have no idea.
But up next, we're going to shift to the NFL week five and talk about what's going down
there.
Welcome back into the show.
And now we're going to jump into NFL week five, that first a block segment, excuse me,
with a little long winded.
So we're going to try to shorten these other segments to keep you guys under the 45 minutes
to an hour time that you guys are used to the show.
So how we're going to do the second segment is like always, I'm going to talk about some
games.
If they're in Jack's pack, I won't pick them.
If they're not in Jack's pack, then I will obviously go ahead and pick them in case you
guys want to tease these in for money lines or whatever.
But the first game we're going to talk about is the Nat Hackett Bowl.
Jets versus Broncos.
This is coming off both teams are struggling.
The Broncos are what two and two, I think.
Maybe they're one and three.
And then the Jets are one and three.
So you're looking at two franchises that are both struggling to proud older franchises,
both has two bowls under their belt.
The Broncos have two with Elway.
The Jets have one with Namath.
You're looking at two proud franchises who have some very close knit history over the
past 12 months.
So Nathaniel Hackett was the head coach of the Broncos last year.
The team was kind of a mess.
And by kind of, I mean really a mess.
And so they fired Nat Hackett 12, 13 games to the season.
He hired a game management coach, a clock management coach, whatever.
Like two, three games in.
His defense was pretty good, but his offense was a joke with Russell Wilson.
It was so bad people questioned if Russell Wilson even could play football anymore.
He was someone that was the worst contract in the history of the league because they
were, oh my, DJ Moore is going bonkers right now.
Wow.
Holy moly.
That's his second touchdown of the night.
Kudos, DJ Moore.
But that's a beautiful throw, beautiful catch.
Both feet.
Yes, that's a touchdown.
Holy mackerel, what a catch.
He threw a fade route on.
That's ridiculous.
Kendall Fuller was seven yards back.
That's going to be on Justin Time's Twitter social media in case you're interested.
Kendall Fuller was seven yards back and got beat on a fade ball because DJ Moore ate the
space up, created the gap to the sideline and then ran the fade.
That is an all time route.
Wow, that is an all time route.
That is actually ridiculous by DJ Moore.
All time catch.
Yeah, that would be all over Justin Time's Twitter social media.
Don't worry.
Don't worry at all.
But that's what I was saying.
So The Thing Hacker, they end up firing them 12 games in and then ownership changes out
or ownership changes out and they fire The Thing Hacker.
It was a weird situation.
They fired them, moved on, GM gets swapped out, whatever.
So they go and they pay Sean Payton a whole bunch of money to come in and effectively
your job is to fix Russell Wilson because they looked around and they said, okay, if
Russell Wilson is good, then we know for a fact that we'll be alright because we have
this defense going and Russell Wilson is good.
Then Sean Payton came in with fire and brimstone saying that, oh, this is the worst coaching
job in the history of football.
The Thing Hacker did and everything that I heard they did, we're going to do the opposite
and we're not going to have that stuff.
Then he came in sounding ultra determined to have Russell Wilson not be Russell Wilson.
He was saying that he told Russell, stop kissing babies when I'm running for office and all
this other stuff.
It was just like he wanted to come in and flip the entire organization on his head and
I think he actually accomplished that.
I think he actually accomplished the fact that he flipped the entire organization on
his head.
I just think that it ended up being in a negative way and I think they have to get used to it.
I'm not one of those people that say fire Sean Payton or get rid of Sean Payton, he's
not what he's doing.
I think Russell Wilson has to get used to Sean Payton again because he went from a non-QB
friendly coach to a really, really, really friendly QB coach to a kind of friendly QB
coach to Sean Payton.
He's friendly as long as you do what he wants you to do.
And then he's trying to flip everything on his head so he's not really that friendly.
It was bad.
And so a lot of the players from the Broncos, some of the players from the Broncos, end
up going to the Jets with nothing to hack it.
And so a couple of the players, I believe Garrett Bowler is one of those guys who's
different, who went from the Broncos to the Jets and he's like, people are tired of Nat
Hackett getting disrespected, they want to win this game for Nat Hackett.
So it's the Nat Hackett Bowl is going to be a very interesting ball game.
I do think the Broncos win it.
I think that Russell Wilson is better than Zach Wilson.
And their teams oddly kind of mirror each other in a lot of different ways.
Pass 13, it's a sauce Gardner, the Broncos have a good-ish offensive, solid offensive,
nothing crazy, but a solid offensive line.
The Jets hold the line and solid in spots.
Both run games are hit or miss.
Both head coaches.
Sean's not proven without Jibrize.
Solid's not proven at all.
It kind of fits both teams aligned pretty closely to each other.
And so it's going to be a very interesting football game.
Obviously this game was a lot more marquee when you thought it would be Russell Wilson
versus Aaron Rodgers, but it is still going to be a very interesting football game between
the Jets and the Broncos.
I just think the gap between Russell Wilson and Zach Wilson is too big for the Jets to
make up.
The Cincinnati Bengals are playing the Arizona Cardinals.
What makes this game interesting, I think the Bengals are going to win, but what makes
this game interesting was Joe Burrow came out and said they need this win for morale.
And that's an incredibly interesting use of language because it's rare you see an NFL
quarterback, especially one as successful as Joe Burrow.
As recently, he started for four years, hurt year one, and then the three years that have
been his two AFC title games and a Super Bowl appearance.
You tend to not hear them say stuff like morale because usually morale for them is high.
They're winning.
Joe Burrow just became the highest paid player in the NFL history.
So usually morale isn't an issue, but he spoke about the fact that it's good for team morale
because you go one and four, you're staring up at the playoffs from a position that is
very untenable.
And what I mean by untenable is you just, that's the spot you're not going to make
the playoffs.
You'd have to go take five games out.
You'd probably need 10 wins to get in the playoffs.
You have to go, after going one and four, you have to turn around and go nine and four
or nine and three to get into the playoffs with 10 wins.
And that's if 10 wins gets you in, which it usually does.
But if you start off one and four, you have to go nine and three to get 10 wins to get
into the playoffs.
If you start off two and three, you only get, you got to go eight and four.
And that's a lot more manageable to do, especially for a good team.
Joe Burrow nursing a calf injury.
And I got into an argument with friends of mine today about this.
Joe Burrow is playing on a one leg and the first week of playing on the one leg, the
team decided to drop back 55 times, 54 times.
Those drop backs have decreased, but he's a single read quarterback.
Everyone's sending pressure.
He can't really move.
Joe Burrow's big thing was he could beat the Blitz.
Was that he was standing there tough, take that extra wiggle to the left or wiggle to
the right, wiggle backwards and fire the ball across and he's killing you against the Blitz.
So you better not blitz him.
But now he can't move.
And because they're sending seven V five, six V five, he can't dodge it.
Outside his office line already being porous.
Now he can't dodge the Blitz.
It's just, it's killing the root, the passing game because they're making him a single
read quarterback.
If whatever the, if whatever the primary route is, isn't wide open or open up, he could throw
the ball.
Um, it's, it's just, it's a, it's a bad play for the Bengals and the Tennessee did a really
good job of sending a bunch of pressure and jamming the receivers.
So that way it took an extra half a second to a full second to get into these routes
that gives the pass rush another half second, full second to affect Burrow.
Who knows?
I kind of have a fade this ball away because I can't step into it.
Um, and so that just changed the way the game was played for the Bengals.
I think once Joe Burrow, if he gets health this season, gets healthy, they're going
to roll.
I just wonder if it's going to be too late.
Cause even the run game is not working because everyone's blitzing so much.
When Burrow can't kill them on the blitz that there's stuff in the run game by default.
Um, and so I just hope bro can get healthy to give his guys a shot at being successful
this season.
But in the game versus the card, I'll do pick them to win.
Um, in a game of interesting young quarterbacks, Falcons versus Texas, Desmond Riddle versus
CJ Stroud.
This is going to be an opportunity for the world to see CJ Stroud.
Um, if you watch Texas football, you know, he's playing really, really well.
Um, but I think this is a way for him to continue to play really well.
Atlanta's got a good pass rush and they also have a good run game on their side to Atlanta.
So the game is going to be a little shorter than Stroud is used to working with.
He may not have that last two possessions used to have in terms of possession count
because B.J.
Robinson runs the air out of the ball.
Desmond Riddler has an opportunity against a no, no, okay.
Houston Texans defense to really showcase what he can do.
But to me, this is an opportunity for, uh, for CJ Stroud to kind of start to separate
himself from the young, from that generation of young quarterbacks from him.
Jordan Love, um, Kayla Williams is coming in.
Should do his hand is not far behind.
Um, Drake made a Sam Howell, Justin Fields, Mack Jones.
It make it to where it's CJ Stroud and Trevor Lawrence as far as that's, that's the group.
Those are the kings of the group.
And then of course, Kayla Williams is coming.
So those are the kings of the group.
Us two, three, I think should do a chance of getting that makes four pull away from
the rest of the young guys in our age group.
And so I think what we're seeing right now is CJ Stroud really showing what I thought
he would be, which to me, he should have been the number one pick.
Um, and I spoke about in the draft, you're asking, and he's already been picked.
You're asking Bryce Young to be one of us.
You're asking Bryce Young to be two of one.
He's smaller.
He's not overly athletic.
His arms aren't that strong.
His main thing is the fact that he's accurate and he's kind of skinny.
So injuries and hits and stuff are going to pile up.
He's already been injured and missed the game as rookie here.
CJ Stroud standing back there tall and dicing people apart.
And so I said, Stroud should have been the one picked to Carolina, but he's in Houston.
And so him versus Trevor Lawrence would be a very lovely battle for the next 10 years.
As for the game, I do have the Houston Texans winning by about a touchdown.
And the big game of the week, Cowboys versus Niners.
This game could be an NFC title game preview.
This game could decide to me who later who wins the Superbowl.
And I think this game could decide home field in the playoffs.
Cause I think their wins are going to be pretty close.
I think I predicted them to be one game apart in the win column.
If it comes down to them, again, the one game apart, you know, the tied record, San Fran
gets it.
This could be a situation where if one of them flips the game, the other one gets home
field.
I mean, to me it's going to be a tight race between the two of them for home field.
Of course, Philly's in that mix as well.
But it is going to be a game where even if they meet in the semifinals, you know, where
they meet in the conference semifinals, I guess, the second round of the playoffs and
the games in San Fran instead of in Dallas because San Fran won the game and Dallas didn't
when they played head to head.
So incredibly interesting game.
This is going to be an absolute war of a game, physical kind of game.
I think we're going to see San Fran's glory on full display.
Dallas doesn't like going sideline to sideline, especially if they go at Micah Parsons directly.
They don't like going sideline to sideline.
They prefer to try to keep things in a phone booth.
And so Kyle Shanahan going sideline to sideline with C-Mac and the rest of that crew along
with Brock Purdy just popping passes through there efficiently and accurately.
It's going to be a very interesting contest.
However, Niners don't like going sideline to sideline either.
And Dallas kind of picks at the sideline with their passing game, with your CD Lambs, with
your Brandon Cooks, with the tight ends.
I can't think of these Dalton Schultz.
They pick at the sideline going east and west with the pass game.
Of course Tony Pollack can run a stretch.
Deuce Vonk can run the outside as well.
And I just think that the Niners are going to be a little too strong for them.
Thinking in my head, they're going to run a lot of stretch left probably.
And Micah Parsons getting blocked by Trent Williams completely neutralizes Micah Parsons,
especially in the run game.
And so I think that would be too much to overcome.
And ultimately the Niners get that game by about six points.
I think it would be something like 30-24, somewhere in there.
What up next?
Welcome back into the show.
Following two, okay to be honest, long-winded segments at Avoc and our B block, we are jumping
into our C block, which is our NFL betting segment.
I still successful in the betting segment, Jax Pack.
Last week we had our first losing week of the season.
It took us a month.
And we went two and three.
We even lost our lock of the week, which the Saints again getting smoked by the Buccaneers
cost us our lock of the week and cost us our positive win streak as well.
So last week we went two and three, which brings our overall record to 11 and nine,
which is 55% still in that professional gambler range.
And then I lost a three and a one.
So again, we're 11 and nine overall.
So if you've bet with me, one unit bet standard, one unit bet, you are positive right now.
If you bet each individual game, if you have not done that, you're in the hole.
If you've picked and choose your own bets, you might be in the hole as well.
But if you were with me strictly doing one unit bets, $5 here, $10 there, if you're a
$100 person, $100 fight at the game, you'd be positive right now.
You'd be in the profits.
But let's jump right into this.
We're going to start off with our lock of the week.
Saints at Pats, the game is a pick them.
I've got the Patriots winning the game.
It means more to them than anyone.
Robbo Craft is coming to practice.
Bill Belichick wants to get to the wins record with Don Shuler.
He knows he's going to need at least another year to get it done.
Mac Jones to me is playing for his job.
I believe he has to go out of New England.
I just I didn't see it before the draft.
I kind of tricked myself into his rookie year.
And then all the blinders came off his sophomore year.
And now I just don't think that he has enough to get it done.
Now, now, I will say that he did have Matt Patricia last year.
I was sitting on my parents couch and I was saying, man, I think Matt Patricia may have
done irreparable harm to Matt Jones development because he had a dead year.
It was just bad language, bad spacing, bad routes.
Throwing them in, getting them killed left and right, green passes 12 times a game, an
offense nobody believes in.
It was just rough.
So maybe Matt Patricia did irreparable harm to Matt Jones.
I don't know.
We'll never know.
However, Matt Jones needs to go and Bill Belichick needs to be evaluated.
Now, I'm not saying Bill Belichick needs to be faded.
I know how the Patriot organization works.
Bill Belichick is the director of operations.
He is the football operations building.
He's a GM.
He's a head scout.
He handles all the scouting exclusively after the Super Bowl.
For that current drive glass, he's based at the Citizen's solely.
He shots for the groceries, makes the groceries, plants the seed like it's all him.
On the football operations side, I think it's why Robert Carr has been so hesitant to relieve
him of his duties because you'd have to rebuild the entire football operations side of the
organization.
Now, I do think a couple of years ago, they were in a good spot to transition.
Josh McDaniel was the coaching waiting and Nick Cesario was like the highest you can
be in the Patriot organization without being GM.
And so I think if this kind of season happens two, three years ago, they may transition
then.
Cesario is the GM, Josh McDaniel is the head coach, and they're figuring this thing out
together in New England.
It did not happen that way, and so he is still there.
But regardless of that, I have the New England Patriots defeating the New Orleans Saints
in a pickle.
Second game is Ravens minus four and a half at the Steelers.
Take the Ravens.
No Kenny Pickett.
Big problem for Pittsburgh, especially with Matt Canada as your OC.
I think the market's hot this week.
Puts up right around 30 points.
They were 28, 27 points, which means the Steelers have to get to 23 points for me to not win
the bet.
No, 24 points.
Nope, 23 points for me to not win.
And so I just don't think the Steelers get there with Kenny Pickett, but definitely without
Kenny Pickett.
So take the Ravens minus four and a half.
Packers plus one at the Raiders.
Take the Packers, even in the money line.
The Packers win this game all right, which the only way, you know, there's only one number
left.
That's zero.
They have to tie if you do not get this.
So in order to win a plus one, you got to win the game.
I just think they win the game straight up.
I don't think it's particularly close.
27-14, somewhere in there.
I feel like the final score for Packers and Raiders, but I've got the Raiders winning that
game straight up on the money line.
So of course I have them covering the plus one they have against the Raiders.
And lastly, but certainly not least, Texans plus one and a half at the Falcons.
This is Vegas telling you Texans are the better team.
Home team gets plus three in the math.
This is, and if you see a spread, anything smaller than plus three for a home team or
minus three for a home team, then that's Vegas telling you they're not really that good.
The fact that the point spread is one, it's Vegas telling you Atlanta's not that good.
Houston should win the game.
I'm going to pick Houston there, or the point spread is one and a half, I'm sorry.
I'm going to pick Houston there to cover that one and a half and to win the game on the
money line.
So that means number one, so I lock it the week.
Pats over the Saints.
Number two, Ravens minus four and a half over the Steelers.
Number three, Packers plus one over the Raiders.
Number four, Dolphins minus 12 and a half over the Giants.
Did I discuss that game?
Maybe I didn't.
That's a really big number and I think I remember that.
I skipped the Giants and the Dolphins, my apologies.
So I would take the Dolphins to absolutely annihilate the Giants.
I don't see the Giants scoring more than 13 points.
I don't see the Dolphins scoring less than 35.
So 12 and a half points is just easy work for the Dolphins in my opinion.
That's only two touchdowns.
That's 28-14.
That's only two touchdowns.
I think that the Dolphins win that game pretty comfortably and cover the bet.
So I guess go back to the top.
Lock of the week.
Pats over the Saints.
Then Ravens minus four and a half at the Steelers.
Packers plus one at the Raiders.
Dolphins minus 12 and a half over the Giants.
And then Texans plus one and a half over the Falcons.
Up next we're going to shift into the WNBA and talk about what's going down there.
Welcome back into the show.
And on behalf of all WNBA fans, welcome to the Bay Area.
Into the WNBA as the WNBA has officially announced the expansion of the league.
It's first of two expected expansions this offseason.
They have officially announced that the Golden State Warriors ownership group led by Joe
Laker and then the other guy who's name escapes me right now, they are bringing in a Bay Area
Golden State WNBA franchise to begin play in the Chase Center in 2025.
Again, this is the first of these expected expansions as Portland is expected to bring
their WNBA franchise back.
As Portland had one previously, they expect it to bring a WNBA franchise back into Portland.
Much of the greater Northwest, Iowa is going to compete with Seattle for market share,
but Portland had a team previously in the WNBA that folded unfortunately.
Like I spoke about before, a lot of these owners in the original W owners were poor
owners.
They didn't see the bigger picture of the league.
They saw, like most people, dollars and cents.
But these new owners are coming in knowing that the league is growing, knowing that they
have an opportunity to be with something much bigger than them.
They have the chance to really grow and to blossom the league.
The Warriors ownership group, or the Golden State ownership group, stated that they're
not only there to win, they're there to basically, when the basketball is hot, we're going to
join the wave, we're going to make this thing hotter.
So they're going to have a huge influx of superstar talent coming in obviously with
your Katelyn Clarks, your Haley Van Lytts, your Adrian Reeses, et cetera.
Your Paige Becker's coming into the league.
That's going to elevate it of course.
And then you get owners who like the Warriors owners trying to be innovative and creative
and have as many unforgettable moments in the W as humanly possible.
So I'm a huge fan, obviously, of the expansion taking place, especially with who's getting
the expansion.
We're just the Golden State ownership group, one of the model ownership groups in the NBA,
not into the WNBA.
And so huge news for the W. And then of course, the WNBA finals begin Sunday between the two
teams that I told you before the season started were on a crash collision course, barring
injury from playing in the WNBA finals.
Now Vegas ends up losing Candace Parker to a knee issue.
And so she never even really contributes to them, especially down the stretch.
And so that is, this is going to be an absolute war between Liberty and the Aces.
Like I was talking about last week, the Liberty is the WNBA's last hope.
Very layup.
New York Liberty, you're our last hope because if Vegas wins again, they're probably going
to go back to back to back.
Now again, basketball has grown off Dynasties, but if you don't want to see a dynasty, the
Liberty is your last hope.
The Aces have lost six games all season, three of them are to New York.
And so they are the best team set to take down the Las Vegas Aces.
I just think the Aces get it done.
I do.
I think the Aces get it done, man.
It's going to take a five game series.
That last game was in Vegas.
And I just think the Aces get it done and hoist their second WNBA trophy in a row.
That's just how I feel.
I haven't seen anything to really dissuade that.
But I just think that the Aces ultimately are holding the polls and holding the trophy.
But up next, we're going to go into Jack's hot take, which is going to be why the Bucks
are still better than Boston.
Welcome into the show.
And now we're going to discuss Jack's hot take, which is that the Milwaukee Bucks are
still better than the Boston Celtics.
Hear me out, Boston fans.
I know you're having a great crowd of calling you Boston haters.
Some of that nature, I don't know.
And personally, I don't care.
The Bucks are still better than you.
Want to know why?
It's off season.
You've moved Grant Williams, Aubrey Williams, as two people that was really good at guarding
Giannis.
I get it.
Drew Holliday's there to clamp up Dame Lillard.
Totally understand.
The final MVP and the MVP of the league is not Dame Lillard.
It's Giannis Ancestor-Cumpo.
Currently, there's nobody in the state of Massachusetts that can legitimately body up
and guard Giannis Ancestor-Cumpo because that's because he gets too skinny and too frail,
or if he's too old or too slow, Jay Carter's too little.
There's no one left to body up Giannis, to physically get in there with Giannis, bang
with him, lean on him, wear him down.
There's no one left.
So yes, you've solved your Dame to launch problem, which is that fact that it's Drew
Holliday and not who knows where.
But Boston's a better team than they were two months ago.
I think Pruzineas and Drew Holliday make them a much better football team.
I'm sorry, basketball team rather.
I apologize.
Watching Thursday Night Football.
They're a much better basketball team.
I just think that the upgrades of Dame Lillard is just... You put Giannis Ancestor-Cumpo,
who I think is the best player in the world, him and Jokic, Dame Lillard is the top 15
player in the world, and you just put those two in there together.
Like Dame said, the pick and roll is going to be deadly.
Either you let Giannis dunk you like crazy and you trap him, or you say you keep falling
back into Giannis and he makes nine threes on you.
Absolutely hellacious kind of decisions that coaches are going to have to make when it
comes to Dame and Giannis.
But that is all I have for today.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your weekend.
I hope you guys enjoy yourself, have enjoyed the pod.
If you have, even if you haven't, leave a comment, like, rate, and subscribe if you
have.
If you have your favorite social media, it's handy.
Type in the handle at JTimesports.
I repeat, at JTimesports for all your updates, breaking news, and coverage.
I hope you have a great rest of your weekend.
This is your host, Jethro Jackson signing out.