Speaker 1: Thirty five after the hour. Welcome back Exes and Bros.
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday throughout the great state of Michigan from
Speaker 1: six until nine. It went so well last time we
Speaker 1: had him on, we had to dip into his knowledge again.
Speaker 1: David Berman for Pro Football Network joins us to Talk NFL.
Speaker 1: You can follow him on Twitter or on x at
Speaker 1: David Berman b E R M AN p f N. David,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us on this Wednesday. I know your
Speaker 1: time is valuable because you are swamped with what's going
Speaker 1: on right now, and that's a good thing. I didn't
Speaker 1: notice we talked about this the other day. The over
Speaker 1: underwins for the Lions after winning twelve games a year
Speaker 1: ago is ten and a half this year. Would you
Speaker 1: take the over or the under? And why?
Speaker 2: Good morning and thanks for having me on. It was
Speaker 2: a great introduction. Love being on. As far as the
Speaker 2: over under, I would definitely take the over here. They
Speaker 2: won twelve games last year. I think they're just as good,
Speaker 2: if not better, this year. I think if you look
Speaker 2: at the division, and I know we talked about it
Speaker 2: a few weeks ago, yes, the Bears are probably better
Speaker 2: than they were last year. With their quarterback and going
Speaker 2: and getting some pieces. The Vikings have a rookie quarterback,
Speaker 2: just like the Bears do, and I think the Packers
Speaker 2: played above what they actually were last year, so I
Speaker 2: think they're in the division that they're gonna win. You
Speaker 2: should take the Lines to win the division. Obviously gonna
Speaker 2: lay money there, so it's not just good value, but
Speaker 2: I do like the over ten and a half. The
Speaker 2: schedule's not tremendously hard. They have a pocket of games
Speaker 2: in the middle there that'll be difficult. But I personally
Speaker 2: think the Lines are the best team in the NFC,
Speaker 2: or one or two of the top two teams in
Speaker 2: the NFC, and I think they're gonna win eleven twelve games. Again,
Speaker 2: if I was making my prediction today for the NFC,
Speaker 2: I would say the road goes through Detroit. I would
Speaker 2: have them as the one seed right now, with just
Speaker 2: the way things are going to break down with San
Speaker 2: Francisco and Philadelphia in my mind playing in toper divisions,
Speaker 2: I think they have all the pieces. My one concerned
Speaker 2: one and a half concerns last year in the Lions
Speaker 2: was could Dan Campbell be an NFL head coach and
Speaker 2: consistently take a talented team and do things with them,
Speaker 2: and they did. And the other aspect of my concern
Speaker 2: last year was this is just hyper Bowl. Is there's
Speaker 2: the Lions, and Lions do Lions scenes, and they put
Speaker 2: that to bed last year. They did you know, yeah.
Speaker 1: It's a fair critique.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, Bengals do Bengals things, and then they
Speaker 2: wind up in the Super Bowl. So Lions. Not to
Speaker 2: remind your viewers of what happened in the fourth quarter
Speaker 2: of the NFC Title Game, but they weren't there, and
Speaker 2: they were a quoter away from representing the NFC in
Speaker 2: Vegas at the Super Bowl. And I think they're just
Speaker 2: as good, if not better, this year. So I'm gonna
Speaker 2: take I'm gonna take. I already took the over ten
Speaker 2: and a half. I think they're a twelve win team,
Speaker 2: just like there were last year, and I'd be surprised
Speaker 2: if things would have to go wrong. And of course
Speaker 2: you never know, you get your your one hit on
Speaker 2: a quarterback away from being a nine win team. But
Speaker 2: all things considered, I think that the best that here
Speaker 2: is to take the over.
Speaker 1: Ten and a half one hundred percent, with you know,
Speaker 1: the label that oftentimes behooves certain organizations. Cleveland is, you
Speaker 1: know you mentioned Cincinnati. Cleveland is in that conversation until
Speaker 1: you can break through. That's what people feel, even though
Speaker 1: players and coaches will tell you yeah, but we weren't
Speaker 1: part of those teams. It doesn't matter. The fan bases
Speaker 1: lived through it. But you did say something that I
Speaker 1: kind of piqued my interest. You said that San Francisco
Speaker 1: and Philadelphia play in tougher divisions. Give me the top,
Speaker 1: give me the tough the top three toughest divisions in
Speaker 1: the NFL in your mind, I.
Speaker 2: Think number one goes over to the AFC North, and
Speaker 2: I don't think there's much debate about that. In my mind.
Speaker 2: You have a division that all four teams legitimately could
Speaker 2: finish five hundred to better. You know that the Steelers
Speaker 2: do it every single year under Mike Tomlin. So there's that,
Speaker 2: not to say that they couldn't go under five hundred.
Speaker 2: You have two legit super Bowl hopeful in both more
Speaker 2: who again was right there at the end to go
Speaker 2: to the super Bowl was the one seed last year
Speaker 2: the Bengals with a healthy Joe Burrow or a super
Speaker 2: Bowl team as we saw a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned the Browns. The Browns have the talent
Speaker 2: to go to the Super Bowl. Browns do Brown things,
Speaker 2: and they don't do it. And they still have question
Speaker 2: marks at quarterback. And if you were lying on last
Speaker 2: year Joe Flacco taking him to the Promised Land, you
Speaker 2: have a problem. But across the board, that Cleveland team
Speaker 2: has talent to get there. So I mean it hasn't
Speaker 2: happened yet. But if I was going to pick one
Speaker 2: division for all four teams to make the playoffs, it
Speaker 2: would be AFC North because they're that talented, and you
Speaker 2: know somebody's gonna get injured, or somebody's gonna have an
Speaker 2: off season, whether you know it's Lamar Jackson or Sean
Speaker 2: Watson or Burrow again or the Steelers are to me,
Speaker 2: the least talent team in that division, So one team
Speaker 2: will fall off. Last year was the Bengals. But to me,
Speaker 2: that's the best division in football. Number two, I was
Speaker 2: prepared to answer the best one. I was thinking two
Speaker 2: and three. I would probably go to the NFC West,
Speaker 2: San Francisco being the defending NFC champions, Rams made the
Speaker 2: playoffs last year. Seattle was right there at the end
Speaker 2: last year in Arizona, is going to be better than
Speaker 2: they were last year with a healthy Kyler Murray. So
Speaker 2: I do like the NFC West. If I were to
Speaker 2: pick a third division thinking, I'd probably choose the AC
Speaker 2: East because you've got three legit playoff teams in Buffalo,
Speaker 2: New York, and Miami. Again, New York will do New
Speaker 2: York things, Jets or Jets. They have the talent, they
Speaker 2: have the defense, and they have a three time MVP
Speaker 2: candidate back there, so wouldn't stun me if all. And
Speaker 2: by the way, you have the Bills who won the
Speaker 2: division one hundred straight years, so it would not surprise
Speaker 2: me to see three teams come out of the AFC East.
Speaker 2: So those, to me, would be the three best divisions
Speaker 2: in football.
Speaker 1: That's a really good answer. We're talking with David Bierman
Speaker 1: before Football Network here on Exis and Bros. I guess
Speaker 1: I value the NFC North a little bit more as
Speaker 1: I live it a little bit closer. I need to
Speaker 1: open my mind a little bit more. The NFC West.
Speaker 1: I don't think I quite looked at it that way
Speaker 1: because I see Seattle as a bit of a pushover
Speaker 1: in the Rams, somewhat overachieving a year ago. But look,
Speaker 1: you can make the exact same argument for some of
Speaker 1: the teams in the NFC North. I wonder this when
Speaker 1: you are in your conversations with players and coaches and
Speaker 1: general managers in your career, what's the biggest adjustment for
Speaker 1: a team when they go from being the hunter to
Speaker 1: the hunted, Like the Lions will have to prepare for
Speaker 1: this coming season.
Speaker 2: I think it's expectations because last year the Lions did
Speaker 2: not have the Yes, sure they were going to be better,
Speaker 2: and they were better the year before, but no one
Speaker 2: expected the Lions to win twelve games and make the
Speaker 2: postseason in a way that they were a quarter away
Speaker 2: to winning the NFC. I think reminding your team that
Speaker 2: now people are running for you, they're going to take
Speaker 2: you seriously. Because you circle every game gets circle on
Speaker 2: the schedule for some reason, there's seventeen games on there.
Speaker 2: Everyone's circling something. And for the last twenty five to
Speaker 2: thirty years, the Lions were the team that's that's a W.
Speaker 2: That's a W, that's a W. The Lions are no
Speaker 2: longer a W. Like you look at the Lions, you're like,
Speaker 2: you know, that's gonna be a tough one. Might lose
Speaker 2: that one. You know how many straight things giving days were,
Speaker 2: You're like, all right, just pick against the Lions. You
Speaker 2: know that's the easy one. It's no longer the case.
Speaker 2: Not only did the Lions win twelve games plus year,
Speaker 2: but we all know listeners know royally shrewed against Dallas,
Speaker 2: so chop that one up to another win. And if
Speaker 2: you actually look at their losses, they were in every
Speaker 2: single game but two. I know they got blown out
Speaker 2: in Seattle. Was it trying to remember? There were two
Speaker 2: games that they were not in. They might have been
Speaker 2: the Ravens game Ultimore, Right, you lost one in overtime
Speaker 2: in Seattle and you got screwed by Dallas, or you're
Speaker 2: the one seed and you're hosting San Francisco instead. So
Speaker 2: the expectation of what there is. And I think the
Speaker 2: biggest difference between this Lion's team and last year's Lions team,
Speaker 2: which can only help them, is Dan Camp grew as
Speaker 2: a head coach last year, so now he's no longer
Speaker 2: just the guy who buys kneecaps. He's actually a legitimate
Speaker 2: head coach. And I think he learned, you hope he
Speaker 2: learned some lessons from now I'm just gonna go for
Speaker 2: it on fourth down, just you know, Ran just gonna go, go,
Speaker 2: gonna go. He will reality a little bit, I think,
Speaker 2: and take some less chances and if he gets it
Speaker 2: worked for them last year for the most part, I
Speaker 2: think if he takes it a little bit more conservative
Speaker 2: this team, that's even better.
Speaker 1: Why would you do that when that's what brought you success?
Speaker 1: Like I use this example all the time. There's a
Speaker 1: reason certain managers and coaches and players do things. It
Speaker 1: got them to where they are, and everybody needs to
Speaker 1: make adjustments. Granted, but if that's who he is, and
Speaker 1: that's who his team thinks he is and knows that
Speaker 1: they are, and that's part of their identity, why would
Speaker 1: you change.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying change completely. I'm not saying go back
Speaker 2: to being, you know, an ultra concernvative coach that punts
Speaker 2: when it's fourth and two from the forty five yard line.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying to you that I like the fact
Speaker 2: that he's aggressive. Mike McDaniel is that way in Miami
Speaker 2: where the guy has gone forward more times than the
Speaker 2: team's ever done before because he's looking at the intangibles
Speaker 2: of field position everything. I'm saying, don't be spiteful and
Speaker 2: go for it on fourth and three from your own
Speaker 2: twenty There are some ways where you can be all right,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be aggressive. I trust my team to
Speaker 2: make this. I'm going to go for two because it's
Speaker 2: the play that I call is better than the thirty
Speaker 2: five yard extra point, and it puts us in a
Speaker 2: better position. I'm fine with all that, but let's chill
Speaker 2: on the whole. It's on my own twenty five yard line.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go for it on fourth down because
Speaker 2: I got screwed on third down type thing like that's
Speaker 2: on tilt. That's the poker version of I just had
Speaker 2: a bad beat. I'm just gonna I'm gonna call this
Speaker 2: next Haan no matter what I'm down on that. He's
Speaker 2: smart in the way that, hey, this advances my team
Speaker 2: in a better way and play the percentages and I
Speaker 2: love it aggression. I love Mike mcdale's aggression. I think
Speaker 2: it's the new way of the NFL. But I just
Speaker 2: wouldn't go for it on fourth down every time. Now,
Speaker 2: if I'm playing Madden on the computer, I do it
Speaker 2: because it's just a video game. But you know, somewhere
Speaker 2: in the middle. There's a good good media because you're
Speaker 2: gonna lose a game doing that.
Speaker 1: I will preface this next question with this obvious observation.
Speaker 1: Any rankings are very subjective and too oftentimes we get
Speaker 1: wrapped up in one position in football, and that's the
Speaker 1: quarterback position. That said, NFL dot Com recently came out
Speaker 1: with a top one hundred players list in which the
Speaker 1: players voted, and Jared Goff was eleventh on the quarterback list.
Speaker 1: Guys like CJ. Stroud, brock Purdy to a tongue of
Speaker 1: Aloa are ahead of them. That's again subjective by the players.
Speaker 1: Some players, I'm sure, vote with their heart more than
Speaker 1: their head and vote for their buddies more than they
Speaker 1: do for their adversaries. With that said, though, what does
Speaker 1: Jared Goff need to prove? Considering a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: it was all about, well, you know what, he's not
Speaker 1: good enough to take a team anywhere, and then the
Speaker 1: last year people didn't believe in him because he had
Speaker 1: quote end quote too many weapons, which doesn't appear to
Speaker 1: be the case for anybody else in football. When it
Speaker 1: comes to this criteria, what does he need to do
Speaker 1: to be considered a top ten quarterback for those doubters
Speaker 1: out there.
Speaker 2: To me, he is. He can thenced me last year.
Speaker 2: He's the top ten quarterback. So whatever he needs to
Speaker 2: do here what he did for me. Again, this is
Speaker 2: a player list. I don't know how he is with
Speaker 2: the players. I don't know if the players like him
Speaker 2: or don't like him. The whole argument he has too
Speaker 2: many weapons. I think it's just a bunch of ball.
Speaker 2: I mean, they say the same thing about too well, well,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't be that great if he didn't have what
Speaker 2: someone has to get him the ball, Like you know,
Speaker 2: Tyreek Hill doesn't have the ball glued on his hands
Speaker 2: when he leased the huddle, wants to get it. I
Speaker 2: I think off of the top ten quarterback. Yeah, these
Speaker 2: rankings or rankings are fun. It's offseason. Fidern PFN had
Speaker 2: their top one hundred, which to me biased of course,
Speaker 2: But pfn's top one hundred, if you want to go
Speaker 2: look at it at Profootballnetwork dot com, is significantly better
Speaker 2: than the NFL's version. Now, granted, it's players voting versus
Speaker 2: NFL analysts on the PFN side, Like, I love Tyreek
Speaker 2: Hill as best as the next one, but I don't
Speaker 2: have them. PFN didn't have them. Number one, it was
Speaker 2: great for our site since we have a Dolphins beat
Speaker 2: reporter and you know, had to wake them up on
Speaker 2: a Friday night to go ahead and get out there
Speaker 2: and do an article on it. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, you know, it's subjective, as you said,
Speaker 2: rankings or rankings, and I would trust NFL analysts and
Speaker 2: media members. I bet you if the media voted Jared
Speaker 2: Goff top ten quarterback. Yeah, I don't know how much credency.
Speaker 2: I don't know what players voted, but how much credency
Speaker 2: giving to players who think about it they're on the
Speaker 2: field on Sunday. There may be eighty percent of the
Speaker 2: players voting may have never seen Jared Goff before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, now that's a great point, it really is. We're
Speaker 1: talking with David Berman of Pro Football Network. You'll follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter on x at David Beer in PFN
Speaker 1: speaking of your website, and you go to Pro Footballnetwork
Speaker 1: dot com the front page as the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: already facing consequences of brock Perty's looming extension with Brandon
Speaker 1: Ayuk dilemma, Dallas Robinson wrote it, it's a really good
Speaker 1: article on Pro Footballnetwork dot com. Where do you envision
Speaker 1: are you going? Number one? And number two? How much
Speaker 1: of a disturbing look? And a factor is this if
Speaker 1: you want to believe or disbelieve that the Niners of
Speaker 1: the class of the NFC.
Speaker 2: I personally don't think I used to go anywhere, and
Speaker 2: it's going to be a shock to many, But I
Speaker 2: think the Niners are just playing games here because they
Speaker 2: don't have any intention of getting rid of him. He's
Speaker 2: not happy and wants the extension. They're not paying him
Speaker 2: because they're eventually going to have to pay mister irrelevant
Speaker 2: who's now very relevant, a whole lot of money in
Speaker 2: the coming years. And they've hit the pot of gold
Speaker 2: with brock Perty, but they're going to have to pay
Speaker 2: the piper at some point, and they don't want to
Speaker 2: pay Brandon I. You the money that all these other
Speaker 2: guys are getting in rightfully. So I don't think Brandon
Speaker 2: I is in the same class as the Tyreek Hill
Speaker 2: and Justin Jefferson and Ceedee Lamm. That being said, they
Speaker 2: have no other than him wanting to hold out and
Speaker 2: all that other mumbo jumbo. They gave him a couple
Speaker 2: of team that he doesn't want to go to I mean,
Speaker 2: it's no coincidence that the New England Patriots are on
Speaker 2: that list and he's like, I don't want to go there.
Speaker 2: I think they're just playing games with them right now.
Speaker 2: It's a who's gonna blame first ten scenario, and it's
Speaker 2: going to affect them because they're not going to be
Speaker 2: as good without him. We've seen it in the past
Speaker 2: when he doesn't play or in DEEPO do us the
Speaker 2: play and Christian McCaffrey is already battling injuries and the
Speaker 2: season hasn't started yet, and hey, your quarterback is the
Speaker 2: two hundred and fifty something pick in the draft.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I like Rockford, but there are question marks there.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I also want to preface it by saying that I
Speaker 2: say that every single year about the San Francisco forty
Speaker 2: nine ers, and every single year they shove it wreck
Speaker 2: back to me and go ahead and go back to
Speaker 2: the NFC title game. I just I always have a
Speaker 2: hard time believing that Kyle Shanahan going to make the
Speaker 2: right call. They have a superstar quarterback in the last
Speaker 2: pick of the draft, and McCaffrey's going to stay healthy,
Speaker 2: and the wide receivers are going to be happy. That
Speaker 2: being said, they have one of the top five defenses
Speaker 2: of the NFL, and those players I just mentioned are
Speaker 2: all extremely talented, and Kyle Shanahan is among the best
Speaker 2: regular season head coaches. And I say regular season for
Speaker 2: a reason. But there are question marks there. And it's not,
Speaker 2: like we mentioned in a few minutes. It's not like
Speaker 2: their division is crappy, so I would I'd be very
Speaker 2: careful when playing the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: It's a good point, it really is. I think it's
Speaker 1: a team that has an awful lot of talent, But
Speaker 1: you wonder why they have so much inner turmoil. Why
Speaker 1: is Trent Williams holding out, Aux holding out In the past,
Speaker 1: Deebo Samuel has had issues. It goes back a lot deeper.
Speaker 1: You wonder if it's the team wins despite the way
Speaker 1: the team or the organization does business overall, is there
Speaker 1: something there that just is it right? And how they
Speaker 1: deal with players in general.
Speaker 2: You also have to keep in mind this team traded
Speaker 2: up in the draft or Trey Lance, so somehow mainly
Speaker 2: another team in the NFL who trades all the way
Speaker 2: up to get a quarterback who's a complete bust and
Speaker 2: then goes to Super Bowls. So I don't know how
Speaker 2: John Lynch wakes up in the morning. He's made multiple
Speaker 2: wrong calls he had. The team consistently wins and goes
Speaker 2: to Super Bowls despite the fact that they mean. Trading
Speaker 2: up to the number three pick to get Trey Lance
Speaker 2: is a career ender for most gms, and this guy
Speaker 2: just rebounds and gets Rock Purdy as the last pick
Speaker 2: of the draft. So they're doing something right by doing
Speaker 2: something wrong, and I can't figure it out, which is
Speaker 2: why I always say them and I'm always wrong about it.
Speaker 2: But they get it done despite their relationship or lack
Speaker 2: of there for the players and some really bad decisions.
Speaker 2: Any other team who trades their entire draft to get
Speaker 2: Trey Lance and it doesn't pan out doesn't have a
Speaker 2: job two years later, and this guy's in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Let's plump your tires a little bit. Pro Football Network
Speaker 1: dot com, what are you guys coming for those who
Speaker 1: visit your outstanding website.
Speaker 2: Well, we got covers live coverage from three camps all
Speaker 2: week long, Cincinnati, Miami, and New England. Beat writers there.
Speaker 2: We also have starting this weekend fantasy football content. We're
Speaker 2: going to rule there. We go the content each of
Speaker 2: the next four weekends leading up to Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 2: We have fantasy profiles going out there. We're going to
Speaker 2: be your home for fantasy content. They're on profooballnetwork dot
Speaker 2: com and we also got season previews coming up as
Speaker 2: well as wall to wall camp covering, so we'll be
Speaker 2: on top of the news as it happens. They're on
Speaker 2: Profooball Network.
Speaker 1: Dude, it never ends for you and your staff, but
Speaker 1: it's what people love most about Pro Footballnetwork dot Com
Speaker 1: and following you on x as well at David Berman PFN. David,
Speaker 1: thanks again, we appreciate it very much. We know you.
Speaker 1: We've we've bothered you a couple of times here in
Speaker 1: the last few weeks, but it's great having you on.
Speaker 1: It's great getting your insight. Keep up the great work
Speaker 1: and have a great weekend.
Speaker 2: Thanks guys, Safe up there.