NFL Schedules and the Latest Drama from around The Sports World

Welcome to the latest edition of the Pine Pony Podcast! Join us as OG and the fantasy uncle Josh Pershin break down the toughest NFL schedules for teams like the Packers, Giants, Broncos, Panthers, Chiefs, and the defending champs, the Eagles. We discuss key matchups and what makes these schedules particularly challenging. We also dive into the NBA play-offs, head coach controversies, and exciting matchups including the Pacers vs. Knicks rivalry. Switching gears, we talk about NHL updates, WNBA’s Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese saga, and the latest NFL owners meeting decisions. We pay homage to the late Jim Irsay and cover some of the hottest sports controversies and storylines. 

Chapters

• 1:12 Bouncing around the Leagues
• 8:52 CLT FC Struggle Bus
• 19:40 NFL Owners
• 26:00 Schedule Yeet / No Yeet

Transcript

Jason: 0:14

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another edition of the Pine Pony Podcast. It's me the og, as always, hanging out with my good friend, the fantasy uncle Josh Persian. What's happening?

Pershin: 0:26

Howdy. Howdy. Glad to be back for another installment. A little bit under the weather this week, but nothing we can Looking good though. That's right. Looking good. Thank you. And nothing that we can't push past for the sake of talking ball.

Jason: 0:41

That's right. We do it for the ponies. That's right. Well, so for this episode, we're going to play a little schedule release. Yeee. No Yeet. We'll explain that later and then, you know, just kind of bounce around and go over the latest happenings around sports. So let's start it off. Let's start off with the NBA. So there is a little controversy, you know, not controversy, but a little bad blood between two teams from last year, the Pacers and Nicks who are playing game one right now. You know, this was the whole where the Pacers, I think were calling shenanigans and the Nicks didn't like it, so there was just a lot of, you know, bad blood talk in the media. So to make that a four and three seed to juice that up, you know, for whatever reason, that's pretty cool. But also, you know, in the NBA, this is gonna be the first time a new or. The seventh time in a row, we have a new champ. So talk about parody. God,

Pershin: 1:59

I love

Jason: 2:00

it. Yeah. The only thing that, like I feel like the NBA is missing right now is like a true villain. Like there's not that team that's like. Everybody hates, you know? Yeah. You just can't beat right

Pershin: 2:15

now. It, it honestly was, it, it almost felt a little more exciting when everyone was, was pissed at the Warriors for being like an all star team, you know? And it was like Durant is basically like, well, if you can't beat him, then join him. Right? And, and all the fans are like, no, don't join him. Yeah. It was so

Jason: 2:36

much better when he was a villain.

Pershin: 2:38

Yeah. And so then. Everybody got on like the, the Cavaliers when the Cavaliers were able to knock'em off. And, and the, that was genuinely exciting for a lot of people who did not care about either team, you know, and I think that's, I was

Jason: 2:53

pissed.

Pershin: 2:54

I think that's the only, the only thing that you, I think you could only get that sort of dynamic if there is a, a team that's hated or at least hated enough, you know, everyone's got their rivalries. Yeah,

Jason: 3:05

absolutely. Absolutely. The other thing about this playoffs is this is the first Western Conference final, not to be in the state of Texas or California since 96. Wow. Talk about domination, man. Damn.

Pershin: 3:24

I understand. I mean, there

Jason: 3:24

are, there are like what? Each state has four teams in each state. Right?

Pershin: 3:28

Each team, but still. That's still a heck of a run. If you e, even if you consider eight teams outta the NBA, it's like that's still a heck of a run,

Jason: 3:38

right? Well, you got the Lakers Clippers, the Golden State Warriors, and then you got Kings Dallas, San Antonio. Yeah, the Kinks Sacramento. I mean, well this goes on, but still, yes. Impressive indeed. And then, dude, your nuggies, lot of controversy right now. They fired the head coach and then it got bounced out in the second round. I, yeah. Jo, is Jo gonna leave or are they gonna trade him or just try to build around? They said they're gonna build around him. They're gonna retool.

Pershin: 4:14

Yeah. I, there's like rumors that he's disgruntled, but he's not really come out and said. Not that I've seen. He hasn't come out and said like, oh no, I hate it here. I wanna go, you know, whatever. I, I, I remember us talking just briefly when they fired the head coach, me telling you that, like, I don't, I don't understand why it was necessary, like they've got previous success with him and. Even though they got off to a disappointing start, it wasn't anything like, whoa, wow, this is, they're so God awful that they can't possibly compete. It was nothing like that. I mean, it was just a little bit disappointing and it's like, do we really live in a day and age where I. You are expected to be the first seed if you were the previous season, or you, you need to fire the, the co the, the only reason why the standard was that high in part was because of the coach. I, you know, because of previous performance, not by somebody you're gonna bring in, but by himself. Right. So I just felt like, man, the leash is just too small these days. Not just in the NBA, but it seems particularly bad in the NBA.

Jason: 5:25

Yeah. Well, you know what I, I kind of heard was that I. There had to be some bad blood or something because, you know, why fire him mid, you know, midway through or right before the playoffs. The only reason I can think of is that you're afraid that, that they're gonna win it all again, and then you have to keep him as a coach and you don't like him as your head coach. So it's like, because they were so confident in that firing.

Pershin: 5:54

Yeah, and, and they basically were saying like. The nuggets should have been like head and shoulders above the rest of the west, which is, first of all, come on, bro. Like that's a crazy high standard. And they're right. And they're saying that not only did the team disappoint, but they were, they were basically trying to say that they understood the reason why the team was disappointing was specifically because of him. And it's like, I, I, I doubt it. But you know, here we are, they got bounced and so I, I'm sure that he's grinning about that somewhere.

Jason: 6:34

Right? Well, I mean, he, you know, they're trying to make the media's trying to make his comment. I forget, I don't even know what it was, but like, it was a, a jab at or something like that. But you know, trying to, trying to drum up some storylines. However, though, I mean, when you look at the teams left, you got the Thunder versus the Timberwolves Thunder lead one to zero. They got the MVP, he showed why he was the MVP last night, and then you got the Pacers versus the Knicks. I mean, I wouldn't be mad at a Thunder Knicks final, like a New York City would go nuts. And the Knicks are, their Knicks are pretty cool right now.

Pershin: 7:14

I think the Timberwolves are like surprisingly really good right now. They're, yeah. Yeah. I mean a lot of good ball just seem, they seem like maybe the deepest team as far as like guys coming off the bench and just adding like, like actually contributing off the bench. I mean, you gotta love when you could rotate, you know, four or five people deep like that. That's. I don't know if, if they should be the favorite, but they're on a hot streak for sure.

Jason: 7:46

Absolutely. Well, let's travel to the ice, the ice rink. Hey man, hurricanes in the conference final playing The Panthers down one game to zero. So, you know, two southern teams kinda in, in hockey's final. It's crazy how that always happens. And then on the other side you got the Dallas Stars versus the Edmonton Oilers. Only one Canadian team still stands after all of those teams. After all of that, after all of that man. So, and they're tied one to one in game. One second period is about to start. So yeah, man. I haven't watched much of it. I haven't had an opportunity to. But yeah, TNT really, you know, not having cable really hurts my ability to watch TNT.

Pershin: 8:39

Oh, for sure. So, yeah, I don't even think they have like an online thing. Do they?

Jason: 8:45

I don't know. It's not free. I don't know. They might. And then speaking about something else, that kind of sucks, man. Charlotte FC. Where did we start? Man? We're on, on five Game Losing Streak. Oh man. Five game Losing Streak. And I'm talking, bro. The last two games we got beat like four goals to like one, four to two. Like we get in our ass whooped defensively. Man, this is rough. It's sad.

Pershin: 9:14

Things were looking so good prior to the bright season. Bright

Jason: 9:17

the, yeah, we started out great. Yeah. Now we just can't catch a break, man. We're just in a slump,

Pershin: 9:25

guys. Now we do a

Jason: 9:26

slump buster.

Pershin: 9:28

Guys playing lazy on defense, man.

Jason: 9:31

Yeah. Yeah. I guess, man, I don't know. We'll have to see what's up. And then over to some more controversy, the, I don't know if you saw this, the WNBA, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese Saga continues. So there's multi-layers to this controversy. I

Pershin: 9:51

mean, this has come back around. I thought they buried the hatchet or something, right? Like

Jason: 9:56

no, this is years,

Pershin: 9:58

years old. That seems to be coming ese back around. Angel

Jason: 10:01

re hate this woman. Angel Reese hate

Pershin: 10:03

this woman.

Jason: 10:04

So I don't know if you saw the play, but here's the play. So Angel Reese's team is on offense. Kaitlyn Clark's team's on defense. The center's boxing Reese out. Reese pushes the center, pushes off the center to get wide open. Caitlyn Clark kind of puts her hands up in the air and is like, yo referee, where's the call here? But she the ref, ref, you know, choked on the whistle. So then Angel Reese gets, gets the ball. They pass the ball to her. She has a wide open shot to the lane. So what does Kailynn Clark do? She swipes the hands and the balls, you know, for an intentional foul, essentially, to not allow her to even shoot the ball. A common thing that is done in every single NBA game. Oh yeah. That I've ever seen played. We have seen this many times. Just let him shoot the shots. What does Angel Reese do? She kind of gives an a LeBron esque flop, goes to the ground, gets up. Caitlin Clark's walking away. Angel Reese has the fist ready to go. I. And Oh

Pershin: 11:18

shit.

Jason: 11:19

Yeah. Somebody else stopped there. Did they actually come? Oh man, I didn't even see this. No, because Calin Clark's like, Caitlyn Clark's like, I don't, like, this was a common foul. Like, I don't, like I don't care what you, what you, so they, they upgraded the foul to a flagrant one.

Pershin: 11:36

Give Angel Reese a free technical shot. Wow. And you wanna talk about after not calling her, shove in the first place.

Jason: 11:47

But instant karma came,'cause she built a brick house with that shot. Wow. She missed it. And what's funny is everybody starts clowning on her because she, she gets a lot of rebounds and, and people

Pershin: 12:01

are like,'cause she can't shoot at the cup. She misses so many times. Yeah. So was this a hometown crowd where they were They were. They were like taking it easy on Reese because I feel like, man, I at recall man if, if that's not a hometown crowd, you know they're going ballistic when she's shooting them bricks.

Jason: 12:23

Well, so then here we go. RG three sends out a tweet or thread and is like, angel Reese hates Kaitlyn Clark. Like, this is, you know, kind of ridiculous, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And kind of just goes on and on as like. You know, basically saying like, angel Reese, this is ridiculous. Like you're, it is a one-sided battle and you're the only one. Like that was a normal foul. And then so on ESPN, Ryan Clark decides that he is going to say something and he is going to say that, how can you RG three. Know what a black woman goes through because you're married to a white woman.

Pershin: 13:13

Oh shit. Oh shit. What does that have to do with the foul though? What's that gonna do with the fo? Like that's the no, it nothing. It has nothing to do with it. Has nothing to do with, that's fucked up. That's fucked up. And not only that, that's fucked up. His mom is black, like he grew up in a black family. What is it? What does it matter that he married a white woman? Like what? So that is a wild statement. This is wild. That is a wild statement. I like the idea that they would have like a really whole high profile rivalry, but I do not like the idea that it's gonna be like a black versus white sort of. Like charged rivalry like that I think is, is gonna be toxic. Very, very toxic. I just,

Jason: 14:07

well, not to mention later on in the game, one of Angel Reese's players, Kaitlyn Clark's waiting to receive the ball from the inbounds. The girl just comes over and just gives Kaitlyn Clark an elbow, like an elbow shove. For no reason, for no reason. Like they're straight up, like they're pissed. This girl comes in there and dominates. I saw a stat that she had one less game of 20 points and 10 assists or something like that than some other girl. And Caitlyn Clark's only played 20 games and the other girl, like at that time had only played 20 games or had only, she had not played 20 games, but it had, it had happened in 20 games. She had like. Nine games. So she, you know, whatever, the other girl got 10 games with this stat line and it took her like 500 games to get that. It's like, man, y'all are just mad'cause she's coming to dominate. So then what does Caitlyn Clark proceed to do at the rest of the game? Just. Just dominate. Yeah, just,

Pershin: 15:19

yeah. And I mean, that's the thing about it though, is like, I, I remember a couple years ago people talking about how, you know, she was getting so much attention because she's basically become like this white celebrity, and it's not fair that all these, black athletes were already dominating at the collegiate and the professional levels, and so, you know, it's like her whiteness is getting her so much more glory or whatever. And I was sympathetic to that argument, but then I, I actually watched her play a few times and I was like, no, she's really fucking good. Like. She's

Jason: 15:54

like a Michael Jordan kid.

Pershin: 15:55

Yeah. It's like if you don't want her to be seen as top dog, well then someone's gonna have to step up and, and outplay her because she's, she is really that good. So, you know, it, it's, I love the rivalry. I love how both Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark's attitudes when they are asked dumb questions in the media are very much like, I don't care. This doesn't even bother me, bro. Like I, I like that these are two strong female figures, but I hope that everybody else. That's in the media, or even just fans, whoever that wanna add their 2 cents in doesn't unnecessarily make it more toxic than it has to be. Like, let it be a rivalry if that's what it is. You know, let them take their jabs, have fun with it in the same way that you would have fun with you know, rap stars doing disc tracks or whatever. But. Don't deny the girl how dominant she's been because she is legitimately that good.

Jason: 16:57

Right? Yeah, I agree man. I just also, man, I, you know, tried to defend Ryan Clark a few times, you know, to Smith friend of the pod, and, you know, it's just like, bro, why are you pulling the race card here? This ha like rg three's comets had nothing to do with, with race. So. And I usually don't side with RG three a lot'cause he is kind of over positive sometimes. Like, and so yeah, I'm just like, man, dude, why are you so mad at this guy? Man, it'cause,'cause you're on ESPN and you're exit NFL talking about NBA, like Yeah. Like,

Pershin: 17:38

I hate when people like Clark are, they are starting with the premise that a certain situation. Is because of a racial issue. And it's like, bro, there, there are so many legitimately like systemic, institutionalized, pre-programmed by design type of things like that. Like you don't need to make it up out of nowhere. You know what I mean? Right. Homegirl shut off, homegirl flopped. It has nothing to do with the, the broader whatever. You know what I mean? So it's like.

Jason: 18:17

You are just trying to get them clicks, man.

Pershin: 18:19

It's just, it, it, it makes it silly for everyone else to try to talk about those topics later because then you have to deal with people like, yeah, like, look at this example. Why is Ryan Clark saying, and you're like, bro, that I, that's Ryan Clark, man. That's not what everyone else is talking about, you know?

Jason: 18:37

Right, exactly. All right, so moving to the ncaa, I just got one note here. The Ohio, the State of Ohio representative has presented a bill to keep Ohio State University football from having noon games, so, you know,

Pershin: 18:58

wow.

Jason: 18:59

Yeah. No, no. They, they don't want no big noon games for Ohio State football. They, it's three o'clock or fine time. They seriously don't

Pershin: 19:06

have serious matters that they could be deliberating on right now. Jesus.

Jason: 19:11

Well, funny you should say that because in on the flip side of that, the Cleveland Brown, the mayor or somebody, whoever, the governor of Cleveland, yeah. Or I guess the mayor of Cleveland said, they asked him about the Browns potentially leaving Cleveland and he said, you know. I don't think that I, I'm not really that concerned about that right now. We have a lot of other issues to deal with. So there you go. The not on the same page. There you go. Not on the same page. And alright, let's get on to the NFL. We had the owners meeting yesterday and today they voted today to much many people. Surprise. The vote was during the day time and not like Congress at 1:00 AM when nobody was awake. So, you know, kudos to NFL for, for having the balls to vote on things when people are awake.

Pershin: 20:10

Yes. Setting an example for some others

Jason: 20:14

may. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe maybe somebody should take that. Just saying. Just saying. Alright. So with that vote they voted for, Hey, NFL players can play the Olympics. I mean, I'm glad they voted on that, but at the same time, like how many of your favorite players are really gonna be playing because somebody, all it takes is one person to get injured.

Pershin: 20:39

Oh, yeah. It's, it's gonna be like people who really want to have their name out there for a little bit. It's not gonna be people who actually have shit on the line. Well, Ochocinco said he was gonna be a coach. I mean, he's probably a fun coach, honestly.

Jason: 20:59

True, true. Absolutely. Well, so it's gonna be a team consisting of 12 five players on the field. So five starters, essentially. The tush push is still alive. You can still do it. Here's a fun note about the tush push of the, of the, what was it like 13 teams of the 14 teams that played the Eagles this upcoming season. 13 of'em voted to ban it. Only one team did not.

Pershin: 21:36

Oh

Jason: 21:37

my

Pershin: 21:37

God.

Jason: 21:38

And it was the Lions. The lions was the only team not to vote that plays the Eagles to ban it.

Pershin: 21:44

Wow. What a bunch of s sniffly little shits. I mean, come on. That's ridiculous.

Jason: 21:54

So here's some comments that I found that I found hilarious. And one was Mike Tomlin's comment, which his makes the most sense. The first time I saw it, I couldn't believe that it was legal because it was illegal on the field goal. That being said, you hate to be against it because when people are innovative, you want to respect that, but he makes a solid argument like I thought it was already illegal because you can't do it on a field goal. And then you know, some other people made some, no, it's best for safety. We're always gonna act and best for safeties.

Pershin: 22:30

Yeah. The, the, the safety of our scoreboard when we have to play the Eagles this season.

Jason: 22:37

Yeah. Sean McVay, it was more the optics of the play that I had a problem with while also acknowledging that if we did it as well as the Eagles, we would probably be activating it a little bit more as well. Well, at least he said something honest

Pershin: 22:52

there. I'll, I'll give him credit for that.

Jason: 22:55

Is he, is he a high honest rating on your. On your,

Pershin: 22:59

no, he's not actually on the coach beat engines. He's, he fucking lies his ass off.

Jason: 23:05

And of course Matt LaFleur still holding that Green Bay line. I don't think it's really a football play. It's more of a rugby play and some of the injury concerns we wanted to get out in front of and of that and be more proactive. It had nothing to do with the fact that they've beaten us three times, right in a row,

Pershin: 23:26

right?

Jason: 23:26

With the touch push. They had nothing to do with that

Pershin: 23:29

promise. And you know what's funny about it is that McVey sounds much more honest than the floor there. McVey has really bad honesty ratings, and the floor actually has, I think, the second best honesty ratings. So.

Jason: 23:46

Well, I mean, there you go. Yeah. That, that is true. Dika Ryan said, it's a tough, it's tough to punish a team for being really good at something. While Raheem Morris said, I don't want to push a human into another human in a submarine fashion and potentially risk catastrophic injury.

Pershin: 24:03

Okay, well stop playing football. Just stop. What? Shut the front door. Shut the. I guess somebody shoved him into a submarine and that's why he now makes comments like that.

Jason: 24:15

Andy Reid, last one. Andy Reid. If it's putting a player in a bad position, then you probably have to do something about it, but I. If it's not, it's a heck of a play.

Pershin: 24:27

So he's basically saying, Hey, look man, I don't know. I don't know. If it's good, then I'm with it. If it's bad, I'm against it. Okay.

Jason: 24:34

Yeah, I mean, if people are getting hurt, then I guess I'm against

Pershin: 24:37

it. He, he's basically, that was like the most politician fucking answer I've ever heard. I know a coach before.

Jason: 24:45

And then I saw a note that Ashton and Gente paid a hundred K for the number two from Daniel Carlson. So, you know, man, one of the number two. I'll say this, I don't care what number I, I have, if somebody says, I'll give you six figures for just for your jersey number. I don't care what number it is, man. Yeah, you can have that dog. I don't even care how much money I'm making at the time.

Pershin: 25:10

I could have four 20 on that jersey. It's all yours, bro.

Jason: 25:13

Yeah, man. Yeah, seriously. And then I saw a picture of Marvin Harrison. Dude looks yoked, man. He's looking pretty beast.

Pershin: 25:23

Ooh, I saw that. I actually read a an article from The Athletic, where one of the athletic guys went to their mini camp thing and, like Marvin Harrison, like admitted outright. He said, I didn't, I didn't play physical enough last season. And now he's walking around with a shirt off like, yep, I'm coming for you fucking dbs, man. I'm fucking pushing me around. I'm draft in one

Jason: 25:47

of my leagues, that's for sure.

Pershin: 25:48

I think that's pretty cool. I mean it, we're not even into the summer yet, and he's already made a, a noticeable difference to his body, I think. He, I think he's got the eye of the tiger and, you know, the sky's the limit with someone as talented as him. You know, it's, it's

Jason: 26:05

love to see it. Indeed. Alright. It is time, man. It is time to do schedule release. Yee or

Pershin: 26:15

ye Yee.

Jason: 26:15

So, so on this, this this game. We're gonna look at the strength of schedule of the team and then see based on the actual schedule of what,'cause you know, they play, they might have a brutal stretch or may not have a brutal stretch, could be heavy upfront. Do we think that schedule is actually as tough as it as it is based on where they play their opponents? So Yeee meaning, yes, it is as advertised and no yeee. Like, nah, they got a couple games where it's tough, but overall they, I like the stretch, so,

Pershin: 27:02

okay. I like it. I feel like I'm prepared. I've got a tab up where I could see the individual schedules and I, I took a look at them a few days ago and I kind of have a rough ranking. In my head, although I, I am kind of a, see now forgetful, but I'm ready to play. Yes. All number one football game show on the internet. Let's

Jason: 27:28

go. There you go. There you go. Alright, so first team I got up is the Packers. Their strength of schedule was 0.557. So top, top tier, tough schedule. I gotta be honest, man. This is a yee for me. Have you, if you look at the schedule, it is lions, commanders, Browns, cowboys, Bengals, Cardinals, Steelers, Panthers, Eagles, giants, Vikings, lions, bears, Broncos, bears, Ravens, and Vikings like the, the, the, the end of that schedule. It is just ridiculously tough and you have to win because it's like all conference opponents. What do you, yeah. What would you say?

Pershin: 28:20

Yeah, I, I have definitely full yt on this. I think what's really funny is they gave'em one of the easiest preseason schedules. And obviously the preseason Yeah. Does not matter. Seahawk bolts

Jason: 28:34

jets.

Pershin: 28:34

Yeah, it, it, the preseason d does not matter. I think, you know, kind of like below average opponents. I'm really just seeing like three, I think. Yeah. Maybe four. But it's like you know, the, I, I just. That division is just tough. I mean, you look at the moves that the bears made this off season, and you gotta think they're gonna improve from how, how much they disappointed last season. I

Jason: 29:10

it's it's

Pershin: 29:10

full

Jason: 29:10

eat. Yeah, fully eat. Fully eat for me. All right, next up we got the Giants. They had the toughest schedule with the 5, 7, 4. And they start off with the Commanders, Cowboys, chiefs, chargers, saints, Eagles, Broncos, Eagles. Again, 49 ERs, bears, Packers, lions, Patriots, commanders, Vikings, Raiders, Cowboys. For me, this is a no ye, this is a this, this schedule compared to the schedule we just looked at. This is a cupcake walk, man. I mean the pa, yes, for the Giants, they could be hard, but when you look at the teams. Individually like the Patriots. That might be a tough game for them, but it, it, overall, I don't think that's gonna be a tough game for most teams. The Saints, that's not gonna be tough. You know, the Raiders, that's not gonna be tough. You know, the Cowboys is gonna suck for one game. Like, so. I, I see a lot more upside in this giant schedule than I do. With the Packers. So

Pershin: 30:20

yeah, I mean, that's why it's a no,

Jason: 30:21

ye for me,

Pershin: 30:22

I mean, I would say it's a ye as in, it's like one of the harder ones, maybe like in the top six or seven for sure. Right. But if, if you're saying no, ye no ye on this is the hardest. No, I'm, I'm gonna say no Y because I think there was at least three or four that I thought were actually. Tougher than this one. I pretty much agree with all of what you said. I think there there's a chance that, you know, JJ McCarthy with the Vikings disappoints and their defense really wasn't great last year. They shuffled a bunch of guys around, but that's, the defense is basically a huge question mark If McCarthy's not the real deal. You know, Aaron Jones is 85 years old or whatever. I mean, you could see this, they're kind of like a, a Justin Jefferson injury away from, from being a pretty bad team. Yeah. You know, it, you gotta admit that, you know, first, first time starting quarterback with, honestly very little in the way of actual NFL throws on his film. That's a huge question mark. So I just, I just don't think some of these teams that are. That I guess, are getting ranked as top tier teams are actually top tier, like you said, the Patriots. Sure. They'll probably improve, but they're not gonna be a top team, you know? Right. Dallas has got a question mark with a lot of the guys that they, you know, let go. They, they brought in a, a pass catcher, which is great, but the offensive line is going in the wrong direction. The Saints are almost surely going to be a bad team. You know, they've got some cupcakes in a way that somebody's schedules just don't even have.

Jason: 32:02

Right. I like the end of their schedule. Like, yeah, they, I mean, they, they have the Packers and the lions, but then they, you know, the Patriots, the commanders could be a tough game, but, but it's the vision, so it's very winnable. And then, like you said, the Vikings, by that point could be, could be a shell of themselves. The Raiders will definitely probably be, and then the Cowboys to end out the season at that point could be. It could be nothing. So you, you could definitely see them winning, you know, four of the last five games, which would be better than their record last year, you know? And this is assuming that Jackson Dart is at least serviceable or the quarterback. Is, it doesn't have to be above average play, but not below average play.

Pershin: 32:51

Yeah. I will say though, that it is interesting to think about that this is one of the harder schedules in the league for a team that has got a rookie, a first round rookie quarterback, basically breathing down the neck of Russell Wilson, who's clearly passed his prime. You gotta think probably sooner rather than later. Yeah. You like

Jason: 33:11

how I just skipped right over him.

Pershin: 33:14

Yeah. You, you, you were like, we'll see, you'll, we'll see. Yeah. I ain't even worried about him. Yeah. Well, I kind of understood where you're coming from.'cause you're talking about the end, the end of the season and I mean Right. They're gonna give the guy a chance before the very end, you know what I mean? But I, but I'm start, I'm thinking like, what a schedule like this man, they could easily be like two and four and be like, okay, let's see what we got in the rookie. You know? Right. Like, he might start earlier than, than people are thinking.

Jason: 33:44

All right. And then the next team I had was the Denver Broncos. They had a, if I remember correctly, a middle, kind of a middle of the pack 500, 5 0 5, and they start off with the Titans at Colt's at Chargers. Bengals at Eagles Jets, giants, Cowboys at Texans, Raiders, chiefs. At Commanders, at Raiders, Packers, Jaguars at Chiefs charter. See, and this is what I'm saying, man, this for me is a YA thousand times ye I even think so. So based on the score of strength and schedule, to me this is a no ye, but this is a tougher schedule than, in my opinion, than the giants. And so. Like if you were grading it just on what you think is tough, that's a yeet, but for the purpose of this game, it's a no yeet because I think it should be rated higher.

Pershin: 34:50

Yeah. So the, the YT or no YT is, do I think that this is like middle of the road, like an average

Jason: 34:56

No. Yes. Do you agree with the pre-schedule release strength of schedule rate rating?

Pershin: 35:03

I do actually, yeah, I think this is like a middle of the road schedule. I think most of the tough games are our own sort of Kansas City Chiefs you know, chargers. We gotta play both of them a couple times. Obviously we gotta play the the Eagles who just won. But I could see Tennessee, Indianapolis, the Jets. All just being shit shows, you know, and, and maybe things turn around right with Vegas, but I can see the Vegas being a blow average team that we get to play twice. And so I, I think it's probably more like a middle of the road one. You know, we got Washington, we've got the Packers, we've got. Texans, you know, but we get to play the Giants even, which is like, I,

Jason: 35:57

again, I, yeah, but see you got, within your first four games, you got the Chargers and the Bengals, then the Eagles for your fifth game, like I could easily see you be two and three right out the gate. Nah. And then you could beat the Jets and the Giants. And then the Cowboys is a, is a pick em. A pick em game. Texas will be a pick him game. I think even the Raiders for you guys would be a pick him game. I think because I'm not full, fully sold on Bo Bo Nicks,

Pershin: 36:28

I, I think that Houston is actually gonna be a worse team than people think right now. I, they literally traded away their best offensive line who was like their only good offensive lineman. They brought in a bunch of linemen, but they all are like. Like bad, like they're not great linemen. Like I just, I think that offensive line is gonna be horrible. I think Nick Benito and company will be able to just eat that up. I don't think that the Texans are actually gonna be as competitive as people think, but I, I think this, this one, the difference just boils down to like, a lot of these opponents I just think are not actually as good as some other people think.

Jason: 37:10

Okay. Okay. All right. Next team I picked was the Panthers. They had, this is supposed to be an easy schedule with a below 500 rating. 4 57. They start off with, at Jacksonville, at Arizona. The Falcons. At the Patriots, dolphins, Cowboys at the Jets. Bills at the Packers, saints at the Falcons, at the Niners. Rams at the Saints Buccaneers Seahawks at the Bucks, man. That's, to me, man, that that schedule comes off a little tough to me for if I'm looking at, I mean, I know it's supposed to be subjective, but, or not subjective or whatever, but to me, that looks tough for them for, for the Saints and, and you know, it's based off last year's schedule. But to, to me, I don't agree with this. I, I think. This could be a tough, so this is a no eat for me. They really, they had some tough stretches. Yeah, man. I mean the Bills, packers, you know, CA, dolphins, Falcons, the 49 ERs, the Rams, like Buccaneers. To me, those could all be losses. Like those teams are all gonna give them a run for their money.

Pershin: 38:33

Well, when you're looking at it from like the Panthers perspective, you know where they were last year, where you think they're at right now, the then like, yeah, I could see a lot of these teams beating them, but the thing is like if you just look at the schedule versus all the other schedules in the league, I think this one is probably on the easier side. I think for me it's gonna be a ye just because like they're, they're top tier opponents. Aren't that many in the elite category. You know, they, they've got the bills and they've got the Niners, they've got the Packers all are good football teams. But I don't think that it's the same as you know, the the Eagles and the, the Chiefs maybe the bills are, are in that, but, you know, I just don't, yeah, they're, they don't have a lot of the. The super heavy hitters. They've got a lot of teams. No, I agree with, I agree with that. So I think that they'll end up like stealing a, a few extra wins from these more sort of like average teams.

Jason: 39:43

I just, you know, I don't mean like, this is a tough schedule by all means, but I, I think it could be, you know, I think it could move up a couple of slots, like be more of a. Middle of the road schedule, kind of you know, I'm not saying it's tough and I'm not saying it's super easy. I just think it's kind of, you know, this could be easy or hard. Like it all depends on the other teams. Whereas like when you look at Green Bay schedule, like, you know, every game you're gonna have to come out and like to win those games, you're gonna have to, to play really well. Oh yeah. So that's one of

Pershin: 40:21

the. Tougher ones, you know?

Jason: 40:24

Yeah. In my opinion. So, and then just a couple more here. We'll do the chiefs. So the chiefs are just a little bit above middle with a 5 22, and they got the char. They start outta the gate with the Chargers, the Eagles at the Giants, the Ravens at Jacksonville, lions Raiders, commanders. At Bills at Broncos, Colts at Cowboys, Texans Chargers at Titans, Broncos and Raiders. This one is a yee for me. I, I completely agree with the rating here. They do have an above, slightly above opponents, above average opponents. I'm trying to look, see if there's really a tough road. They really kind of only got like. A game or two, that's kind of tough. And then, you know, a game or two that's easier, three games, like they don't really have a bunch of back to back games that are like, you gotta play your best at every single one of these games. So, yeah. Yeah. So eat,

Pershin: 41:27

I think it's a y and I'll say a light eat, just because most, most of their. Tough opponents. You got a light, eat most of their tough opponent. Yeah, because, you know, the first one was a fool eat. Yeah. Right. So this is not, this is not like a fool eat, but I, I'll eat it. I will eat it because they, they have a bunch of tough opponents in here. The thing that makes it more of a light eat for me though, is almost all of their tough opponents, they get to play at home, which helps a lot, obviously. Yeah. So, you know, when, when I look at, you know, the Texans, they get to play at home, the bills they play away, but I think that's the only one they play away that I'm worried about. They play the commanders at home, they get the lions at home, they get the ravens at home, they get the eagles at home. That's gonna help take, you know, a lot of the edge off of those, those teams. And so it is, it's a eet, but it's not a real big scary eet.

Jason: 42:32

All right. And then the last team, the defendant champs the Eagles with a fourth toughest schedule. 5 61. They got the Cowboys at the Chiefs. The Rams at the Bucks. Broncos, at the Giants at Vikings. Giants at Packers, lions at cowboys, bears at Chargers, Raiders, at Commanders, at Bills. And then commanders. Yeah, I mean it's, this is a tough one. This is a light eat. This is a light eat for me because like it is tough in spots. But then I look at some of these teams and I'm just like it's hard for me not to go. The Eagles are surely gonna beat this team. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. So it. I agree with this, but I, I, I'm, I'm not, it's kind of like the chiefs. It's like they don't have a bunch of games in a row that really scare me. So

Pershin: 43:31

yeah, I feel pretty similarly. I, I think that they get to play the Giants twice, which helps. But a lot of the, a lot of these teams are on the tougher side of things. Yeah. So. I agree. It's, it's a ye

Jason: 43:51

Yeah. Yeah. Completely agree. Alright, well before we get outta here, we'll have a moment of silence for Jim Aay, you know, died yesterday, last night at 65, which is wild. So

Pershin: 44:08

yeah.

Jason: 44:09

To you, Jim, to you, big Jim. Rip in peace, Jim. Alright, well that's all the scoops we got for you this week. We'll be back next week with some more, and as always, you can hit us up on the socials threads. Insta and Blue Sky at Pine Pony Podcast As always, adios, adios.