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NFC South QBs & NBA Playoffs Tip Off

Emory Marketing Professor Mike Lewis opens with discussion on 2023 NBA Playoff storylines. He then breaks down how Jalen Hurts reset the NFL QB market and explains why the market resets every offseason. And in the show's main section, Mike breaks down quarterback storylines from each NFC South team - ultimately making his prediction for the division.


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Transcript:


[00:00:00] Mike Lewis: Welcome everyone. Welcome to the Fanalytics Podcast brought to you by Emory's Marketing Analytics Center. my name's Mike Lewis. I'm joined by Doug Battle, Doug NBA playoffs, but it's too early.

[00:00:15] Doug Battle: It's too early. Yeah, it, you know, they started, I love the N B A playoffs. It's exciting. I do feel. The play-in adds a little bit of excitement. Maybe didn't have the same buzz this year that it had in its inaugural season, but our teams are established. There's always like a game one upset or two where talking heads start getting all excited and inevitably the team with the one oh start is gonna end up losing.

Four one in a series. So like you said, it's too early, but it's a great time of year for basketball. I'm missing Luka Doncic, Mike. It feels like the young golden boy of the N B A

[00:00:50] Mike Lewis: Middle age now, right?

[00:00:53] Doug Battle: well middle age. I don't know about that. He's still pretty young.

[00:00:56] Mike Lewis: what, four or five years in now? Four

[00:00:58] Doug Battle: Yeah, four or five years [00:01:00] in. But he started when he was like 17.

But, it feels wide open. Like it feels like I saw Phoenix lost Game one, and that's a team I feel like, who knows? They could win the Finals. Golden States down, one to the Kings. That's a team I could see in the Finals. Both conferences.

Looking across the board, it just seems. I don't really know who the favorite, I mean, Boston and Milwaukee, I think in the East are probably the favorites. And the West, though, it feels so wide open more so than previous years, and I think that's a good thing for the nba. It'll be interesting to see though, how the ratings fair.

I will add this, the Lakers winning game one against the Grizzlies. I actually like the Lakers in that series as a seven seed. I think the Lakers are a team that is underperformed for much of the season and much of LeBron's rain in Los Angeles. But when they're healthy, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, that's a pretty tough duo alone and I think their supporting [00:02:00] cast is actually decent.

So, Memphis is a team that I feel, may have overachieved in the regular season. So we'll see. That's a really interesting series and probably the one that's caught the most buzz,in, in my world, Mike.

[00:02:12] Mike Lewis: I think we're still in the,the part of the ramp up where the narratives are being formed. they're almost being tested out,the Lakers and the Grizzlies.

I mean, in some ways, the Lakers in Memphis is the best narrative, right? It's Ja Morant who, you know, I mean, you mentioned Luka Doncic, and, and we've always, the NBA players we're always fixated on that, right?

It's always, Trey Young's breaking through Luka, Doncic's breaking through, right? Ja Morant's in that category,

[00:02:39] Doug Battle: mean of those guys, if you look at team success, Ja Morant is the guy this year. Who is the guy,

[00:02:45] Mike Lewis: Okay. And in terms of marketing success, he is not, I mean, he might actually end up being the guy, right. But I mean, if I'm just looking at this as the NBA brands, right? And like there's a Michael Jordan shoe movie right now, right? [00:03:00] It. John Moran is the best story. It's the most interesting story in the first round for a bunch of reasons.

Against, against, LeBron, the king of the N B A brands. I mean, I. I think you and I are both probably, I think you're a little more enthusiastic about it, but I think we're both on the same page. It's like we gotta let this whole thing marinate for a couple of games and we gotta see if the Boston crowd gets mad at Trey Young.

Right? if what kind of interesting things start to pop out here?

[00:03:27] Doug Battle: Yeah, I'll say this. I'm talking about. Even it feels across the board talking about a seven seed Lakers potentially taking it to the two seed grizzlies, the eight seed heat beat, the one seed bucks in round one. The one series I feel really confident about if I'm a betting man, is nuggets, timber, wolves.

You got the least disciplined team in basketball in Minnesota who, who recently had one player punch another player. And another player in the same game break his hand for punching a wall. taking on [00:04:00] Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the nuggets. To me, they almost feel like what the Spurs used to be.

They win a lot of basketball games in what's perceived as boring fashion. Lots of moving the ball.Jokic isn't exactly perceived as the flashy superstar, but they win a lot of basketball games and that's a team I feel really good about. And round one with their matchup against the

[00:04:22] Mike Lewis: Doug, nothing would make me happier. Look, if I could have anything out of this NBA playoffs, it would be for Denver to go on a run. I would love to sees ESPN have to spend every morning talking about the Joker, right. And have him actually get some national airtime. I think that would be tremendous because it is, look, it, it's a strange deal, right.

The guy that keeps winning the mvp, frankly, is really far from being a household name. I mean, NBA fans know him, but he is not, yeah, he does not get anywhere near the press or the ESPN coverage or the highlights. I mean, usually when they mention him, it's to attack him and [00:05:00] say someone else should be the mvp.

Right.

I'm pulling up in the ESPN article where they're listing the 25 best players in the playoffs. Where do you think Jok was, is ranked by ESPN on this?

[00:05:10] Doug Battle: Like seven or something

[00:05:12] Mike Lewis: He's fifth.

[00:05:14] Doug Battle: Fifth. Yeah, absurdly low.

[00:05:16] Mike Lewis: would make me happier than to see him, go outta this deep run. and again, it would feel a little bit more legit. And so it's, okay. So Doug, I am now firmly on the page of rooting for the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 N B A playoffs.

[00:05:31] Doug Battle: I love it. Yeah, I think, Jamal Murray is a player who in a lot of years, historically in the NBA would've been the best point guard or one of the best point guards, but there are so many. All time great guards in the league right now that he's kind of forgotten and you forget about it until crunch time comes for Denver, and more times than not, it feels like Jamal Murray's the guy.

Who is making the difference at the end of games? I think one of the reasons people overlook Denver is because it's a big man dominated [00:06:00] team. Much like the 76 ERs in the East, and we talked about this in March Madness, Mike, where you know, college basketball teams like Purdue dominate in the regular season with their post play and for whatever reason come March Madness.

It's all about the guards and it's felt that way in the NBA over recent years where Jokic wins MVP and the nuggets are a one seat or a two seed and come playoff time, a team like Portland with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum a couple years back knocks them out. teams like the Warriors go on tears really, who have an invest invested much in their bigs at all over the years in their dynasty run, it's felt so guard dominated.

And this year it feels like there's a chance Denver on one side with Jokic and Philadelphia on the other end with Joel and B two MVP candidates

[00:06:54] Mike Lewis: Dick Vital outta the retirement home talking about aircraft carriers. It's.[00:07:00]

[00:07:00] Doug Battle: Yeah, we big man basketball might be back. I don't, I'm not predicting that. I'm just saying there's a chance and it's not flashy. I don't think the media would love that. I personally am all for it. I wanna see Jokic versus Embiid in the finals.

[00:07:14] Mike Lewis: Yeah. okay, so we've now got a rooting interest in this because I wanna see that too. Let's kind of throw back basketball, like the 19 early 1990s without the, without the bruises, but yeah. Beautiful.

[00:07:26] Doug Battle: Yep. Yeah, they call a lot more fouls. Now, there'd be a lot of am one s for Jokic and Embiid. that would've not gotten that third point years back. Also, even if it had been called a foul years back, the bigs couldn't hit the free throws like Jokic and Joel Embiid can. So these guys can shoot from three, I mean, I think it's their time to be in center.

Bigs in the N B A. So that's what I'm following. But like you said, we're kind of waiting for the stories to unfold here in the N B A playoffs, but we've got a lot of stories unfolding.

[00:07:53] Mike Lewis: Yes, because even though it's the NBA playoffs, it's still mostly about the nfl.

[00:07:59] Doug Battle: yeah. We've got stories [00:08:00] unfolding like, like we're in the middle of the N F L season,

[00:08:03] Mike Lewis: know what? I think NFL has almost hit the point of being like pro professional wrestling. It's almost like the off season is better than the actual matches. I mean, we had a, the quarterback con quarterback controversy, not really controversy, but Jalen Hurts with a massive extension, the highest paid.

I think they've listed now as he'll be the highest paid quarterback in the highest paid player in the N F L next year. But Doug, even beyond that, and we'll get back to the quarterbacks because they're always center stage, the sale of the Washington Commanders. So Dan Snyder, I mean, think about what happened.

one of the true marquee brands, he takes it over, signs, every incorrect free agent, drafts wrong at the quarterback position every time. Fights, digs in his heels on a naming controversy for seemingly decades, then [00:09:00] changes it, then changes again, and then walks away.

[00:09:06] Doug Battle: I love it. I will say if I'm Dan Snyder, maybe I don't know what their valuation is or what it sold for, but I imagine the valuation was higher before the two name changes. I probably would've sold and gotten canceled, just purely from a business standpoint a couple years back. I think that would've been the smarter move than what he did.

But to be fair, there's a lot of moves that weren't smart during his tenure as owner of the Washington Commander. Football team R words

[00:09:33] Mike Lewis: I wanna write a Harvard bus. I wanna write a business school case about Dan Snyder's, management of the Washington football franchise. Right? But it's. it would almost read as a parody, wouldn't it? I mean, literally nothing went right, and I'm not even saying it was all of him. I mean, I think clearly after all the fights and all the battles, it, it seemed like there was then endless n f l investigations.

And remember the linkage, the leak of the Gruden's email, [00:10:00] I mean, in addition to him falling all over himself, they were clearly trying to push him. Someone was clearly trying to push him down as well.

[00:10:07] Doug Battle: Yeah, I don't think it's all on him, but I also think he is the common denominator of all their issues over the decades, and he's the one that fan base hates that man.

[00:10:19] Mike Lewis: It's tempting to be the only person in America to defend Snyder, but I can't even do it.

[00:10:25] Doug Battle: Yeah,I don't know what comes next. It's not like getting a new owner in football. It's not like when Alabama hired Nick Saban as their head coach, it was like, oh, now they're gonna be good. Now they're gonna go on a tear. Like, yeah. L can be. There could be lots of changes before something happens. As a Giants fan, I've seen several general managers and head coaches post Tom Coughlin era, each one promising championships, promising new hope and fan base, getting excited.

And the bottom line is when you don't have a good roster, when you don't have [00:11:00] a good salary cap situation, good draft pick situation, it takes a long time to turn the ship in

[00:11:07] Mike Lewis: Let's appreciate what Snyder did. If he had sold the team when it was still the Washington Redkin Redskins, then the new owner could have come in and said, we're gonna drop that. We're gonna be telling the Washington football team. clean slate. But Snyder had to burden this new ownership group with two name changes before he left.

I.

[00:11:33] Doug Battle: he didn't leave them in a great position. I'm just, my point about that was simply in regards to the brand value. We've, I imagine with your like fandom studies that the Washington r words were ranking much higher than the Washington commanders have been.

[00:11:50] Mike Lewis: I know, but here's the thing. I think when you're buying a team in the nfl, it's almost like you're buying the market, right? The NFL has all the revenue sharing and so you [00:12:00] know they're gonna get that TV deal money that more than covers the, that more than covers the salary cap. So then you start to dig into this, and I mean, I.

It's such a, such an amazing market to buy into, right? I mean, you just think, would you rather own the Nashville franchise or the Jacksonville franchise or the Washington DC franchise where, I mean, you can just imagine the sponsorship dollars are, opportunities are off the charts, right?

I mean, maybe there could be some more if the brand hadn't been damaged. it'd be interesting to look up how much Schneider, I mean, what did Schneider pay for it?

[00:12:38] Doug Battle: Yeah, I don't

[00:12:39] Mike Lewis: let me let, lemme try and google that cuz so you can you have the mic for a minute? Let me Google that.

[00:12:46] Doug Battle: Yeah. Also, I'm kind of curious if the new ownership comes in and says, we don't like what they've done with the brand and we actually have our own ideas. We're gonna view all of this investment in marketing and branding as the sunk cost, and [00:13:00] completely rebrand as the bombers or the something else.

And one other point about, to your point about the market on one hand, It's an enticing market. But on the flip side, Mike, in this day and age with controversy surrounding everything that happens in sports, is there a more volatile place you could be and you could run a sports organization than Washington dc.

[00:13:27] Mike Lewis: Is there any place, any stadium where there are more lobbyists willing to spend enormous dollars on hospitality suites to entertain Congress people than Washington? It's, he paid 800 million a record price for a US sports franchise in 1999. No, he was only part of the group. But I mean, what a punchline to this whole story that he may have made.

5.2 billion after this epic run of [00:14:00] management, this demonstration of management excellence.

[00:14:04] Doug Battle: A masterclass if you. I want Masterclass to get Dan Snyder to do a sports business masterclass. I will pay money to watch cuz you can learn exactly what not to do.

[00:14:14] Mike Lewis: Wow, I amazing. Okay. The other big news in the N F L relating to quarterbacks was the Jaylen Hertz extension. It's interesting in that it was really in a, he becomes the highest paid quarterback in the N F L next year. the guaranteed money is not at the level of Deshaun Watts Watson. There's a bit of a controversy because the, the Ravens have apparently offered Lamar Jackson more guaranteed money than was out, than was offered by Hertz.

But it's interesting on a couple levels, Hertz had a great season, but it's only one season. And he was doing it on a Super Bowl caliber team. And so in some ways it's probably a little bit early to reset the market, by [00:15:00] resetting the market. And, it's not clear what number of these quarterbacks are looking at, they're looking at the guaranteed dollars.

They're also looking at the total dollars. And so what does this mean for Joe Burrow, for Lamar Jackson? Again, every one of these things, yeah, every one of these signings makes things more interesting going forward.

[00:15:19] Doug Battle: Yeah, I mean, I look back a couple years. I remember Patrick Mahome signing his big deal and feeling like, Wow, that's a lot. I don't even know for him if I would lock in that much money in that much camp space for one player. And Patrick Mahomes is leading a team to a Super Bowl almost every year now.

just a maybe 2, 2, 3 years later. Mahomes deal looks pretty good, if looks pretty reasonable relative to the rest of the. Deshawn Watson in front of him. Kyler Murray in front of him. Aaron Rodgers Aging. Aaron Rodgers, disgruntled Aaron Rodgers in front of him, and now Jalen Hertz. And so this Jalen Hertz deal right now it, it feels kind of [00:16:00] questionable.

I don't know, maybe two, three years from now, he's like the seventh highest paid quarterback in the league and he's on that same deal. Cause you got guys like Herbert, you got guys like Joe Burrow, who knows what happens with Lamar Jackson. I mean, that's the big story. This off season, and I think everyone's keeping their eye on that after this deal, with Hertz.

But I mean, Trevor Lawrence will be due for a big deal in a couple years. several of these guys where Jaylen Hertz, he probably like over the course of this contract, even though right now he's the top guy, I wouldn't be surprised over the course of the contract if he's really like maybe the between fifth and 10th highest paid quarterback in the nfl, which feels a little more reasonable if you're an Eagles.

[00:16:39] Mike Lewis: No,I agree with that. It's this. It's a market that's clearly flawed at this point where basically the highest paid guy is who's ever who, whoever signed last. Right. And there, there seems to be so little difference between the, doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between a guy that commands 45 million a year and a guy that commands, [00:17:00] 50 million a year.

Right, right. So the market doesn't seem to be

[00:17:04] Doug Battle: Well, I mean, Mahomes is 45 and Jalen Hertz is 50 right

[00:17:08] Mike Lewis: Right. But I think also, I mean, I think car, some of these guys could like car step down a little bit, but I think at one point Derek Carr was one of the, two or three highest paid quarterbacks in the league, right? And so,

[00:17:21] Doug Battle: Dak Prescott's tied at seventh now with Daniel Jones and Matt Stafford, but those guys are, The, I mean, I believe Prescott was much higher at the time of his deal as well.

[00:17:33] Mike Lewis: Yeah. and that's only I think two years into the deal, right? So it's the market is moving too fast and it's moving to, they're so fixated on this idea of these comparables that it's like, I mean, in some ways it's the way the NFL teams or the n the, whenever our team is sold, basically look at the last team sold, add a premium.

And you end up with a market that just kind of spirals outta control it. I mean, one of the guys who [00:18:00] is now in the NFC is a guy named Baker Mayfield, who is replacing a guy named, maybe replacing a guy named Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, Tom Brady. I don't what, where did Tom Brady rank in terms of the top paid quarterbacks? He never seemed to be sort of in that elite, top two or three group. Brady's gone, they signed Baker Mayfield for $4 million for next year dog

[00:18:26] Doug Battle: yeah, Tom Brady, I don't think he has to worry. that guy's an influencer at this point killing the game on TikTok and he's already inked the biggest contract in broadcast history for whenever he starts broadcasting, he's gonna make more money than he did as a football player, just like Tony Romo is.

And so, I'd love to see, I know like Forbes, when they do the list of richest athletes, they have their salaries, but they also have. Their endorsement deals and for NBA players, often the endorsements to outweigh the salaries. Guys like LeBron James for those [00:19:00] top couple of players.

I wonder how much Mahomes is making and a guy like Tom Brady is making relative to Kyler Murray, or. Deshaun Watson, Jalen hurt some of these guys who have more money in contract, but obviously they're not getting the advertising deals that Brady and Mahomes are

[00:19:21] Mike Lewis: Doug Tom Brady's last four years were his highest paid years in the league. He made 23 million in 2019 for New England, then went up to 28.3 for the bucks, 39.4 in 2021 for the bucks, and then 30 million last year.

[00:19:38] Doug Battle: So Brady's been a bargain his whole career.

[00:19:41] Mike Lewis: he truly has.

[00:19:42] Doug Battle: I think that's part of the magic, though. I think it the fact that the Patriots for so long were able to not invest. They were able to have a top quarterback without putting a third of their salary cap into a single player. Allow them to surround him with much better talent than [00:20:00] what, let's say a guy like Mahomes is gonna have for the remainder of his career in Kansas City.

Although he's had great talent and they've drafted very well in Kansas City, but the Patriots were never. Tied down to a bad deal or to even a good deal. I mean, any deal's a good deal with Tom Brady. If you're paying him 50 million, that's a good deal. It's Tom Brady's winning championships. But would he have been winning championships had they been paying him 50 million and had weaker offensive lines, weaker playmakers, weaker defenses?

But it also illustrates how the quarterback market has gone. Aw.

yes.

[00:20:35] Mike Lewis: go back and you look at Brady in 2013 and 2014, he was making, well, 12 million in 2012, 13 million in 2013. So, you go back a decade ago and now the salary market has gone up, fourfold from there,

[00:20:50] Doug Battle: right? I, that's not what has happened to regular people's. Right. And that's not what's happened to the NFL salary cap, right? So it's, we've seen [00:21:00] these, whatever, these market forces really push everything toward, towards these guys. And again, I mean, this is a larger point. I'm not convinced that this is the rights. Look, Tom Brady deserves to get paid so many of these record setting quarterbacks, Kyler Murray.

[00:21:17] Mike Lewis: I don't know why I'm picking on him, Derek Carr. These guys do not deserve to get paid at those kind of elite levels, right?

[00:21:23] Doug Battle: Yeah, and I think I, the most interesting one to me is Daniel Jones because. He's kind of the classic, well, we don't know that he wouldn't be great if he had great support, a great supporting cast or great town around. He's had a really, he's been dealt a tough hand in New York for entirety of his career thus far, and he's done an admirable job with what he's had.

But has he earned top 10 quarterback money? I don't know. And maybe his top 10 very quickly becomes top 20 and it feels a little bit more reasonable [00:22:00] over the next two years or so.

[00:22:01] Mike Lewis: Yes, but Doug, he was smart. I mean, I, here's another fun thing. In all this market, I think these deals are gonna get shorter, right?

[00:22:08] Doug Battle: Because now you wanna sign a lot of 'em, right? The, this idea of like, that them Mahomes deal of, I wanna lock in my whole

I want a 10 year, yeah.

[00:22:16] Mike Lewis: make a half billion dollars living kind of fat.

It's like, I wanna make two 50 for the next three years, then I wanna make three 50 for the three years after that. Right. It's

[00:22:26] Doug Battle: and that's where, like with Mahomes tenure deal, is he gonna end up being like the 15th, highest paid quarterback in the league by the end of his deal?

[00:22:34] Mike Lewis: how I think. It's

[00:22:35] Doug Battle: he's already at seven, right? Or he's like five or six.

[00:22:38] Mike Lewis: be ugly or not is the key I think.

[00:22:41] Doug Battle: he's at five, so he went from one to five in like a year or two. And we've got, like I said, Joe Burrow. I don't know what Josh Allen's situation is as far as his deal, but he's the sixth highest paid quarterback in the league as well. So,

[00:22:55] Mike Lewis: He's pretty recent too though, I think. I think he was here to.

[00:22:59] Doug Battle: I mean, that's def [00:23:00] definitely not his rookie contract.

So, yeah,I don't know. I don't, I, I think the Mahomes deal, there's two sides to it. Like from a risk management standpoint, Mahomes could've torn his Achilles on both legs the next season and been done forever and had all that guaranteed money for 10 years, which is crazy. Like, that's a crazy amount of commitment by Kansas City.

But on the flip side, when you lock in something long, And when you lock in something sooner, like Lamar Jackson, if he had signed two years ago and extended with the Ravens, he wouldn't have made as much money as he's gonna make regardless of if he gets what he wants, he's, it's still gonna be better than what he would've gotten.

and so, players that roll the dice like that are gonna win big. And we've yet to see anyone lose. Imagine if Lamar Jackson had an RG three type situation, that, that would certainly change the way these guys are approaching it. But I've seen it seems like players are getting a little bit more willing to roll the dice and a little bit, I don't wanna say greedy,but they're being [00:24:00] tactical and they're, they know what they're doing and they want the most money they can possibly get.

[00:24:04] Mike Lewis: Yeah. Well, and probably individual specific, right? I mean, and again, injuries are hard to predict. cause you go down the path of talking about like a Josh Allen versus a Tua, right? And then the strategy might be very different in terms of how many of these deals you want to get.

But like I said, with the way these things are, It's almost like you do have to increasingly roll the dice, right? Because, keep making those, guaranteed 120 million, like, they always talk about like the, you don't wanna sign a contract, running back to contract two, maybe you don't wanna sign quarterbacks to quant contract three.

I think some of that's gonna disappear. Right, because it is gonna be just, three years renegotiate. Three years renegotiate. And like I said, I think we're gonna see a billion. I think the first guy that earns a billion dollar in salaries is already in the league. I don't know who it is, it's probably Mahomes, but that guy's currently playing.

[00:24:56] Doug Battle: Yeah, Mahomes. I think Burrow's gonna have a shot before it's all [00:25:00] said and. I imagine Cincinnati's gonna be pretty aggressive with him. and so, and then that next year with Justin Herbert kind of knocking on the door, and I don't know that he's established himself to make that kind of prediction that he's gonna make that kind of career money, but his next contract, I expect him to reset the market.

[00:25:20] Mike Lewis: But that's the thing. He could make that kind of money even if he doesn't have the success of those guys.

[00:25:25] Doug Battle: Yeah.

[00:25:25] Mike Lewis: It's almost like you just have to have the promise and have the near that near level. It seems like the I, I guess that's what I keeps coming back. Keep coming back to the premium for getting to the Super Bowl every other year and winning It often seems very small compared to that guy that gets you into the playoffs every year.

[00:25:43] Doug Battle: Lamar Jackson.

[00:25:44] Mike Lewis: Yeah. Wow.

[00:25:45] Doug Battle: Yeah.

[00:25:46] Mike Lewis: Okay, so back to the af NFC South.

[00:25:50] Doug Battle: Nfc.

[00:25:51] Mike Lewis: Okay. So at the top of this division, the all time great ha, seems to have finally retired for good [00:26:00] now, doing, social media on the beach with his friends playing football, oddly, right? I don't know. Is Brady going to, is Brady gonna join the TV booth next season or is he gonna take a little bit of time?

[00:26:11] Doug Battle: I haven't heard any kind of discussion. I do think he's gonna be. Phenomenal. From what I've seen, behind a microphone. The guy is natural. He's got, obviously, he's got the looks for it. He is very savvy with his social media, particularly TikTok, which I think is a good sign for his career because he knows how to appeal to every generation, and he's a guy that I think a lot of people want to hate him.

He people pulled against him. People have retired of him winning Super Bowls, and yet he's still kind of universally admired, like he's universally pulled against outside of the like Patriots fans or Bucks fans. But he's universally admired

[00:26:51] Mike Lewis: I actively disliked him from, simply from being a Michigan quarterback, right? So,

[00:26:55] Doug Battle: Yeah, well I think Michigan fans disliked him too, so it's weird [00:27:00] how he went from universally disliked by Michigan haters and Michigan fans to universally admired, and I think that's

[00:27:06] Mike Lewis: you're a pretty boy, you gotta stick around for a long time. There's your

[00:27:09] Doug Battle: Yeah. Yeah. Stick around for a while and find the fountain of Youth and win a bunch of rings.

[00:27:16] Mike Lewis: Tampa has replaced their $30 million. Tom Brady quarterback with a 4 million Baker Mayfield. Is that in fact the opposite?

[00:27:28] Doug Battle: I don't, I actually, I kind of like that move for the Bucs.

[00:27:32] Mike Lewis: What do you like about it?

[00:27:33] Doug Battle: Well, last year when Mayfield. Came into Los Angeles season was pretty much over for the Rams and he had like one week of practice got thrown into playing, Stafford out with an injury and played with a lot of heart. And when I saw his press conference after that game, that's a guy who I remember when he was at, when he was at.

Oklahoma Daven Bellamy at Georgia. Telling him, humble [00:28:00] yourself. Humble yourself. He was too cocky. He was too, he needed to be humbled. And he seems like he has humility, but he still has confidence. He seems like he's grown up quite a bit and he's always been a gamer. He's, the, he's never been one with like the crazy.

Off the charts. Anthony Richardson, measurables, but he's a gamer. And so to take in kind of a refurbished quarterback, if you will, a guy who failed at a place where everyone failed,and then kind of has bounced around and ends up on a 4 million contract. I think two years ago he would've been demanding a 30 or 40 million contract, and I don't hate it, if it doesn't work, you go draft another great quarterback.

But as far as rehabilitation projects go at quarterback, he's one of the ones I'm actually, I'd be a lot more optimistic about him than guys in the past. Guys like Josh Rosen, who by the way, predicted he would win, or. Set out to win more rings than Tom Brady. yeah, so I, [00:29:00] I don't hate that move in this quarterback market with I, I would probably, I mean, you look at the diminishing performance between Daniel Jones and Baker Mayfield, and is that worth 36, 40 million difference

[00:29:17] Mike Lewis: Yeah. Well, look, I'm, I understand where you're coming from and I definitely have sympathy for the idea that. You wanna look if the last few years have taught us anything, is that there's certain guys that do well with age at the quarterback position,

[00:29:31] Doug Battle: Right. And so is it, that kind of maturity, that kind of, there, there's, look, there's certain traits that I think help you perform well as a young quarterback and different ones as a, as an older quarterback is Mayfield, that guy.

[00:29:42] Mike Lewis: I'm actually kind of, I, in some ways I'm kind of with you where it's probably worth it taking one of these guys that, it's like a top five pick and kind of bombs out because the physical tools are probably. And so if it's a matter of coaching or game [00:30:00] reps or just kind of growing into your thirties and that type of mental maturity issue, then you may as well do it.

And at 4 million, that's a, that's becoming a rounding, error on these quarterback contracts.

[00:30:12] Doug Battle: Yeah, that's, I mean, that's backup quarterback.

[00:30:14] Mike Lewis: it's barely that, right? I mean, it's, bay Mayfield had, I mean, Four touchdowns, two interceptions for the, for Los Angeles. Like, but I mean, in some ways it's hard for 'em to blame Mayfield, right?

Because Cleveland doesn't seem to do well. Right? That organization seems to create just endless havoc. And then the Panthers also don't seem to be particularly, they had Darnell and they had Mayfield on that team, and then they.

[00:30:45] Doug Battle: I mean, cam Newton fizzled out

[00:30:47] Mike Lewis: Yeah, I mean, they don't seem to have a plan or the stability that, bill Belichick brought to Tom Brady.

So fair.

[00:30:55] Doug Battle: Yeah. Yeah. So I, and Mayfield, another part of his story is he's an underdog. [00:31:00] He is a walk on at Oklahoma. He was overlooked. He. He backed up. He backed up different now N F L quarterbacks in college before getting his chance to play. And I think he's been written off before and I think that's where he thrives.

And so I actually view a written off Baker Mayfield as more valuable than a coming out of college number one pick in the. Heisman winning Baker Mayfield. And so I like it. I like it if I'm a Bucks fan, I'm great with that. as far as, if you're not gonna have Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, or I almost would rather have a guy like Mayfield who's like, Low risk, but potentially high reward, than to take on a player like many of these quarterbacks in the league where you know what you're getting and you're paying them like they're gonna win you Super bowls even though you know they're not going to.

And so I like that. I like that for Mayfield and I like that for the Bucks. I think it's a good pair.

[00:31:59] Mike Lewis: Okay, well, he's [00:32:00] cost controlled.

[00:32:01] Doug Battle: Yeah.

[00:32:01] Mike Lewis: he's come back to being cost controlled. I think you could ask questions about, I would ask questions about how well liked he is in these locker rooms, right? How is he viewed by his, that's something we're never gonna be able to observe from the outside, but the level of brashness, is that a positive in the locker room or is it a negative in the locker room?

But that's, something that the executives know that we're never gonna know. that gets us, of course, to the Carolina Panther. Spectacular. Right? So they go out and they get Sam Darn, who fid fizzled out with the Jets. Then they go out and they get Baker Mayfield, who had fizzled out from the Bright.

So they got a number overall number one pick on the team. I think darn was number three or number four on top of that. Then they draft who was the kid they drafted? Like a third round pick as well.

[00:32:48] Doug Battle: Oh, you talking about Matt Corral?

[00:32:49] Mike Lewis: Who gets hurt?

[00:32:50] Doug Battle: about him. I predicted before the season they would have three starting quarterbacks, and I thought Matt Corral was gonna end up being. The guy at the end of the season,

[00:32:58] Mike Lewis: And after all that,[00:33:00]

[00:33:00] Doug Battle: shut that down.

[00:33:01] Mike Lewis: then they end up trading to the bears for the number one overall pick. And seemingly, from looking at all the mock drafts, don't even know which one they want. Right.

[00:33:13] Doug Battle: I mean, I have to think, I saw today that Bryce Young canceled the rest of his pre-draft visits, so I think he believes he's going number one, which is probably telling. I think Bryce Young's gonna be their guy. I like CJ Stroud. I know for a while people, I mean, you're right. When they made that trade, it wasn't like they're trading for Bryce Young.

It was like they want to have their pick of Bryce Young Anthony Richardson, CJ Stroud. But there was no indication as to whether any one of those guys Yeah, I heard rumors that, well, the general manager. Young, but the owner likes Stroud and the coach likes, the coach likes Richardson. And so there might be some division within that.

Panthers, ownership and management. We'll see what happens. I [00:34:00] saw Bryce Young recently compared to Steph Curry on turf. if he's Steph Curry on turf. That's good news for Panthers fans. It remains to be seen though, and the Panthers gave up. Quite a bit for that pick, including their top wide receiver.

And so not necessarily positioning a guy like young to come in and succeed, but the one quarterback I, if I'm a Panthers fan, I would not be excited about would be Will Leviis. And I don't think that's gonna happen. I think Panthers fans, would freak out. I think the whole sports world would lose their minds over that pick.

[00:34:35] Mike Lewis: Yeah, I mean, look, it's fascinating. I saw, I've seen some mock drafts that have the first four players being selected as all quarterbacks at this point. that would, I think, involve at least a trade at the number three with the Arizona. I don't think Arizona's picking one, but it, see, but, but I agree with you.

I mean, it seems like the way these mock drafts are going, that it's either Stroud or Bryce Young and then Anthony Richardson and Will Leviis. [00:35:00] Each either very high, each potentially top five picks, or maybe falling all the way down to 10 or 12 if there is something going on here. From a psychological standpoint, I do suspect that there's.

it kind of goes back to the way the salary market has gone, that there's so much emphasis on the quarterback position that so many dollars go into guys that might be capable of winning a Super Bowl. And same thing, I think happens with the draft where it's like you, there's probably no position where you're more likely to see someone reach.

I think you mentioned Josh Rosen, right? Or, is it Josh?

[00:35:37] Doug Battle: Yeah. Josh Rosen.

[00:35:38] Mike Lewis: Yeah. and, but I mean, you can go back to just about every qu well, with Sam Darn, baker Mayfield. These guys do not seem to very often play out to be legitimate, top five picks. so the idea that there's four of these guys with, I don't know what did Will Leviis do this year at, Kentucky?

Right. how'd that season play out? [00:36:00] I mean, okay. Hit me Florida.

[00:36:02] Doug Battle: Anthony Richardson.

[00:36:03] Mike Lewis: And we know that Florida didn't have a great season, so, so these guys have not won. they didn't win at the college level. So, I mean, and again, this is no criticism of these gentlemen, but I think there's really this tendency to talk people until, well, we gotta take a shot.

we gotta make a reach on these guys. And very often that's where you end up hurting your franchise for a long time.

[00:36:25] Doug Battle: Particularly when you have a top 10 pick in the NFL draft, the F, the whole first round in the NFL draft is usually so loaded. I mean, there's future pro bowlers that get taken in later rounds, but you've got like a 75% chance of drafting a future pro bowler if you draft just the best available player at any given pick and the top 20.

And so to reach for a guy who may not. Even be a starting caliber player in two years. it's quite, you're giving up quite a lot for that player. It's not just, oh, it's just a draft pick. Like you're giving up, you're passing [00:37:00] on the best wide receiver in the league in five years, and you're starting left tackle for the next decade.

[00:37:08] Mike Lewis: I just pulled up the C Bs Sports mock draft and they have Will Leviis going to Tampa Bay at number 19. I love that idea. Will Baker Mayfield?

[00:37:19] Doug Battle: He is getting beat out. He's getting beat out by Mayfield.

[00:37:22] Mike Lewis: Yeah. Go from Tom Brady one year to Will and Baker Mayfield.

He's getting beat out by Mayfield in Tampa. Yeah, I don't know. I got mixed feelings. I mean, the Will Leviis has become this, I don't know what do the kids say? Doug? He's a meme at this point. they got video of the guy putting mayonnaise in his coffee of eating the banana with

[00:37:41] Doug Battle: With the peel.

[00:37:42] Mike Lewis: I, I don't know what this is, and I don't know.

Is he doing this for, is he doing this for the camera? Is he doing this for social media? I mean, I think you gotta look at that kind of stuff and kind of go, this is weird. Okay. and so then you ask your que yourself the question of, is being [00:38:00] weird a disqualification for being a guy that leads an NFL team to, to, to greatness?

I mean, are you a coffee drinker, Doug?

On occasion, I'm You ever thought about putting mayonnaise in there?

[00:38:13] Doug Battle: It's not something that's ever crossed my

[00:38:15] Mike Lewis: and so it's almost like he's doing this as a goof. Okay. So it's like I, the guy's got a unique personality. Apparently he's built like a linebacker,

[00:38:23] Doug Battle: Yeah. Yeah. It kind of looks like Tim Tebow as far as his physique. And he, I mean, I watched Will Levi in college a good bit, and first time I saw him I was like, this kid's gonna play in the nfl. he took it, that Georgia defense that just had their way with everyone, including Bryce Young in the National Championship 2021 season.

will Leviis was the only quarter. at the point in the season when he was playing Georgia, that I saw, give that defense a hard time. And I was like, who is this guy? And where, where is he from? How is he projected in the N F L? Is he in the transfer portal next year? [00:39:00] Cause I'd love to have him on my team.

so he did, he's not just a specimen, he had moments. Just like Anthony Richardson had his moments of just, wow, this guy's really got a lot of potential. And the thing with levies is he's actually a very vocal guy. He's very, he has those kind of like, traditional leadership capabilities where he's yelling at guys, he's given the speech, he's fired up, he's putting, he's playing through injury.

Like he, so he's got some intangibles in

[00:39:31] Mike Lewis: all fine, but we don't know what he's yelling. Right.

[00:39:35] Doug Battle: well, we don't know. And it doesn't matter when over the course you, you might have your moment where you look like a great quarterback. I remember Jacob Eason throwing some balls and being like, oh my gosh, this guy is gonna be Peyton Manning. based on one throw, But when you look at the body of work over the course of his career, and there's some major concerns with Levis, and so

[00:39:53] Mike Lewis: Do you remember Laramie tus?

[00:39:56] Doug Battle: I certainly remember Laramie tonsil.

How could I.

[00:39:59] Mike Lewis: [00:40:00] Okay. And for those of you that don't remember, just as the NFL draft was going down, there's a picture of him in a gas mask inhaling marijuana. Is that fair?

[00:40:10] Doug Battle: That's, yeah, that's accurate.

[00:40:13] Mike Lewis: So it's like these things and, te Tus had a, has had a great career. I think he's been a Pro Bowl multiple times, and so he's definitely played out.

And so I don't wanna sort of gloss over the weirdness of Will Leviis. Is being weird. Something that you, I mean, and so here's the like, I think you got

[00:40:33] Doug Battle: weird. He won national championships

[00:40:34] Mike Lewis: who was, who's weird.

[00:40:36] Doug Battle: Stetson by all account.

[00:40:38] Mike Lewis: As weird as though, and so it is like difference,

[00:40:41] Doug Battle: so.

[00:40:41] Mike Lewis: eccentric, quirky, and weird.

[00:40:44] Doug Battle: Rodrigo Blankenship, great kicker in Georgia, of course, this NFL career hasn't been.

[00:40:48] Mike Lewis: I think that's the danger, right?

So it's like you've gotta figure out what this information means. And again, we're just looking at a couple of Instagram posts, so I don't know what it means. the kid might be fine, just a little bit strange, [00:41:00] but the kid might be kind of bat something, right?

[00:41:02] Doug Battle: Yeah, with Leviis it's like, I don't, I personally, if my team takes 'em, I am not happy. I am. I'm pretty livid about it. But with that said, I can see where people are coming from when they say, Well, Josh Allen wasn't a finished product. He was a big physical guy with a big arm who had some leadership capabilities, but also had some bad tendencies that he needed to be coached out of and paired with the right coach over the course of three, four years developed into an elite quarterback.

That's how. Somebody views Will Levi and sees the potential as well as Anthony Richardson. Okay. And I think both of those players are put in the same category because they're more or less viewed as developmental projects, more so than Stroud who won a lot of football games. Bryce Young, who won a lot of football games, who performed, both of whom performed really well in the college football playoff on the biggest stage.

And

[00:41:51] Mike Lewis: three and four. Right.

[00:41:53] Doug Battle: yeah.

[00:41:53] Mike Lewis: Development of prospect at pick three. Okay. so moving along as we gotta get through this, the New Orleans Saints, [00:42:00] so the Saints have been active in the off season and they signed one of the guys we've talked a little bit about, so they brought in Derek Carr at a not. Top of the market contract, but a healthy contract.

and Carr is the guy I think of in terms of getting paid multiple times, signed a big deal with the Raiders. that kind of fizzled out. I mean, I struggle with the fact that it seems like Carr kind of quit on that team at the end. but that seems to be. Okay. With the N F NFL interest from, it seems like the Jets and some multiple teams and getting about another a hundred million and 90 million, I think can guaranteed money.

So the New Orleans Saints will come into the season with James Winston and, Derek. Well, Derek Carr the starter, and Winston is the backup. Decent, disappointing.

[00:42:47] Doug Battle: I, all I know is that Derek Carr needs to get an endorsement deal. Maybelline or someone who makes mascara cuz I pro I, I don't know if I've ever seen the guy, I don't know if [00:43:00] he actually wears mascara, but he definitely looks like he has on mascara at all times. And I think he thinks it's intimidating.

[00:43:06] Mike Lewis: Mascara is a word that you don't think about trying to spell until you do.

[00:43:11] Doug Battle: I don't know if it's just the way his eyes are, but. He does that look all the time, like he's

[00:43:18] Mike Lewis: Oh God, dude, it's it's like blades of glory when they came out in eye makeup.

[00:43:25] Doug Battle: He, I still don't know if. If he wears actual eyeliner. But I think he's got to, I think, I don't know how your eyes look like that without it. So, anyway, that's all beside the point. A quarterback that wears makeup and quits on his team, I don't know if I want that personally as my quarterback, but with that said, the Saints are a team that have jumped from Drew Brees to James Winston and.

A handful of others. And so I don't know that, I, Teddy Bridgewater was QB one at one point and they certainly haven't found their post Drew [00:44:00] Bree solution. It's crazy cuz a couple years back under Sean Peyton, I would've said you could plug and play car in that Drew Bree's offense and he'd do just as well.

I mean, they were such a well-oiled. but at this point in car's career and this point, having seen that maybe the system isn't so great that any quarterback just works in New Orleans post, or the organization or whatnot, and they've kind of reverted to pre Drew Bree's performance. And so, I think he's gonna do a mediocre job.

And I think that's what everyone expects.

[00:44:30] Mike Lewis: Yeah. I'm sorry, Doug. I'm

[00:44:32] Doug Battle: Yeah. I think that's how he's getting paid.

[00:44:33] Mike Lewis: I'm a little distracted, looking at Derek Carr pictures and seeing some of the links that come up. I don't even know what to do with some of the links, but there's some, apparently he's popular on Reddit as well. Okay. And at the bottom of that division though, I think the, there's a three way tie for, I mean, what a division eight and nine, and then I think three, seven and 10 teams. The Atlanta Falcons, I think the Falcons [00:45:00] are staying put with, Desmond Ritter as the. as their guy for the near term.

And I think we had speculated, and I think a lot of people had speculated that Lamar Jackson seems like a likely fit for, the Falcons. I don't know if that's kind of the legacy, kind of this cognitive bias of, well, Michael Vick was a great player for the Falcons.

[00:45:19] Doug Battle: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:20] Mike Lewis: but definitely, or

[00:45:21] Doug Battle: that felt like a match made in heaven though. And it's not happening. Apparently Falcons are not interested and I mean we understand why, of course, but financially, but it did just seem like that would be what the Falcons would do and that would be where Lamar Jackson would go.

it felt right.

[00:45:37] Mike Lewis: Well, and you think about, I mean, again, sort of the complexity of building a team and if that team had been built for largely a guy like Matt Ryan, Standard drop back passer then, switching gears to a Lamar Jackson might be more of an overhaul than folks think. but you know, I actually don't know.

I'm kind of surprised that the [00:46:00] Falcons haven't done more exploration in the quarterback market because when I think across the league, the Falcons aren't investing very much in that position. it's almost shocking how little they're investing in that position. In terms of both draft picks and salaries.

The falcons are probably an outlier at this point relative to just about everyone else. So are they, sort of looking at this multiple seasons, wanting to clear salary cap before they, they dive in. Do they wanna play the cost control third round quarterback pick card for a while? See how that plays out?

It's a little, it's different. So, I mean,

[00:46:37] Doug Battle: different. It's different in the N F L, but it's kind of consistent with one strategy we've talked about, which is. If you know the guys available in free agency aren't your guy long term, that's gonna win you Super Bowls, KAF, Derek Carr, baker Mayfield, some of these guys we've mentioned already in this podcast, and you don't wanna lock them into deals that are gonna hinder you [00:47:00] from paying the guy who is your guy.

Maybe you do take a chance on a third round guy and figure, worst case scenario, he's like a poor man's Baker Mayfield. And then when your guy comes around, you got the number one pick and you got.

[00:47:12] Mike Lewis: gotta correct myself because I did go out and they signed Taylor Heinike,

[00:47:17] Doug Battle: Who I really like, by the way,

[00:47:19] Mike Lewis: but it's kind of a forgettable, it's almost in the, it's almost in the vein of, going out and getting, like, who is the guy? The Steelers got the guy that played for the Bears.

[00:47:27] Doug Battle: Trubisky.

[00:47:28] Mike Lewis: and again, I'm almost sort of, my memory's not the best, but it's also kind of, there's sort of this kind of forgettable categories of players.

A and I don't actually mean that to be insulting, I mean forgettable in terms of how the fans think about it, of like this guy that's not going particularly anywhere kind of a place filler.

[00:47:46] Doug Battle: Yeah, I think, I actually really like Taylor Heineke plays with a lot of heart, and I think he's the better quarterback this year for Atlanta. Between he and Ritter, I don't think either is, I think he's honestly, [00:48:00] I could see him maybe having like best case scenario with him is he's like a Kurt Warner story.

Like he's got some of those intangibles that you look for. I mean, that's the best case scenario for Baker Mayfield right now too. I'm not saying that's gonna happen, it's a low percent chance of that happening. But would you rather have, I mean, I think there's a low percent chance that Derek Carr has that kind of career and he's demanding quite a bit more money, I assume, and so I don't hate that deal for Atlanta.

I think they're probably. Gonna go with like low cost at quarterback and not make a heavy investment until they know, if they got their shot at a Justin Herbert, I would imagine they go all in. If they got their shot outta Joe Burrow, which isn't gonna happen, I imagine. They go all in and if they get a number one pick in the draft.

I don't think there's gonna be a quarterback controversy, cuz I don't think they're gonna have a Baker Mayfield or a Derek Carr on the roster in Atlanta. So I don't hate that strategy. And I mean, short term it's no fun. There's nothing to really be excited about if you're a Falcons fan. I am curious, this year, eighth, picking the draft right now, they might [00:49:00] trade that, but eighth picking in the draft, you're looking at a situation where potentially if Will Leviis or Anthony Richardson drops.

Eight. Do they feel like, wow, this guy could have gone fourth or third, this is a value pick. I go ahead and bring in a third quarterback, or do they, I kind of, for whatever reason I could see them going, Jalen Carter, I could see him dropping at eight, actually. Could see him dropping further than that.

outta Georgia,

[00:49:25] Mike Lewis: a value pick for a developmental prospect at the number eight slot in the N F L draft, potentially bypassing the number one defender, a monstrous defensive tackle from the national. it's,

[00:49:39] Doug Battle: Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's, but I mean that's how I could see that happening. I could see that happening. I think Falcons fans would lose their minds with either of those quarterbacks, cuz Falcons fans are Georgia fans mostly, like for the most part, there's a couple like Alabama, but from a, I mean, the majority of Falcons fans are Georgia football fans.

You can't say that the other way around. But the majority of [00:50:00] Falcon's fans are Georgia football fans and they. Watch their team crush Anthony Richardson and Will Leviis. Over the last two years, two, three years, they've seen moments from both, but they've seen ultimately what happens when they face, a better opponent.

[00:50:15] Mike Lewis: to the bottom line, how you picking this division? Because this is an interesting division and it was one, eight and nine, team three, seven and 10 teams. Not a lot of separation. So the way you pick this division is all based on. Which of these guys you think is actually gonna be the better, the best quarterback, or I guess the better sort of delta in terms of quarterback from what they had last year? I'm happy to go first if you want a second.

[00:50:40] Doug Battle: Yeah. You got it first.

[00:50:42] Mike Lewis: I look at this and I gotta go. even though I'm not a, well, I don't know how I feel about Derek Carr now about, because of the Maybelline deal. I think the Saints are probably the team to pick, looking at this division in terms of this, the strength of that quarterback room.

And maybe they've done an upgrade from a [00:51:00] minus one type quarterback to a plus one type quarterback, which gets them to. Nine and eight. I have to think the Buccaneers take a major step back and again, we can root for Baker Mayfield, but a major step back from a plus two guy in Tom Brady to a minus two guy in Baker Mayfield.

So I got the Buccaneers in last place. The Panthers, I don't know this is sort of a complete roll of dice with this rookie quarterback coming in, and so the Panthers and the Falcons that kind of pick 'em at second and third in that division, that's a strange division, Doug.

[00:51:35] Doug Battle: This is probably the hardest division to pick in football. Part of me is like cars the most. Known commodity at quarterback as far as we kind of predict how that's gonna go and you just go with the saints cuz of that. Part of me is like the Panthers aren't a terrible team and they've had terrible quarterbacks and so you plug in, maybe they find lightning in the bottle like the Washington did in year one with RG three, whether it's CJ Stroud [00:52:00] or Bryce Young.

But also we've seen first year quarterbacks, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, not perform at a high level in year one. Atlanta, another team. It's like they're decent everywhere, but quarterbacks kind of, not exciting. I could like Heiney if he starts for Atlanta, I could see them having some short-term success.

Kind of like how I view, I mean, I don't. I'm gonna go with Tampa, Mike. I'm gonna just say Tampa. You're the team you have going last. I have him going first, and that says all you need to know. I know I'm bucking the trend with analytics here on Baker Mayfield versus Tom Brady, but I just, I think I was touched by his pressure that one time and I was like, he's a change man.

He's gonna turn the corner. He's a good value. Tampa wins a weak.

[00:52:49] Mike Lewis: I mean, look,I could look at it too and saying, you know what? If there's an ideal quarterback narrative, an ideal story, it is Baker May. the ranking of the quarterback stories is probably [00:53:00] Baker Mayfield first with Tampa, whoever the Panthers select number two, Taylor Heineke maybe tied for two, or Desmond Renters.

So this plucky. Plucky quarterback, I've got, the saints at, winning the VIS division, but that's probably the least interesting quarterback narrative, right?

[00:53:18] Doug Battle: it's, if they win, it's gonna be in boring. Like yeah, they're gonna lose in the first or second round of the playoffs fashion. Like there, there's not gonna be Super Bowl hype around the Saints with Derek Carr. he, for whatever reason, doesn't generate that level of excitement.

[00:53:31] Mike Lewis: Okay, we'll wrap it up here. so as always, well. A little bit more content. There's gonna be a lot more content soon. Flooding into the website, we're about due for the N F L fandom rankings and the next generation survey stuff will start to trickle out as soon as Professor Lewis myself, gets through with grading many projects.

and you can find us online at www.fandomanalytics.com.

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