Pine Pony Podcast
Friends arguing about sports
Pine Pony Podcast
Super Bowl Week.......I'm Going to Disney World
Welcome to another edition of the Pine Pony podcast! The Super Bowl is upon us, and we're diving deep into all the excitement. We kick off by discussing our thoughts on the big game between Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes, including some intriguing prop bets and game picks. Then, we explore recent NFL news, including potential trades, such as Miles Garrett and Cooper Kupp. We also chat about the NFL Honors and share our picks for MVP, Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, and more. Plus, we cover the highlights (or lowlights) from this year's Pro Bowl games and discuss the Royal Rumble in WWE. Join us for a jam-packed episode full of football fun and sports insights!
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Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to another edition of the Pond Pony podcast, the Super Bowl. Hey, yo, Super Bowl is here. What's
pershin:happening? Exciting times. Always loved the playoffs. Always loved the Super Bowl. Even if it ain't the teams that I want to be in there, I'm always interested to see how it shakes out for sure.
Jason:Yeah, it's bittersweet. Like I'm sad that the Super Bowl is here, but I'm also like. Can we get this season over with so my team has a shot again so the the new season officially starts?
pershin:Yeah, I know right. I'm kind of on the same tip because the Broncos go from Russell Wilson, 53 million dead cap all the way down to a 35
Jason:million. Oh yeah, it's getting better. There we go. There we go. Well, with that being said, we got a lot of news to cover NFL honors, pro bowl, super bowl extracurriculars. So let's get started. Let's start the show.
The Pied Pony Podcast.
Jason:All right. Well, I wanted to start off the show with letting the world know that I have officially acquired my tickets to, to the draft. That's right. I've got my plane tickets. I can't officially get my ticket tickets until they go on quote unquote sale. They're free, but you still have to acquire tickets. And that doesn't happen until March. And you've got to go through like their app NFL has a whole app and all this jazz. So. Exciting times. We'll be there for night one and night two, I believe.
pershin:Oh, wow. So who is it? Is it you and the fam or you and a friend or what?
Jason:Me, my brother and a couple of friends. That's it.
pershin:Nice. Nice. Going
Jason:up Thursday before, going to Milwaukee, driving to Green Bay. It's getting a hotel, going to the draft, partying, then going to night two, coming back next day. Quick, quick, quick trip. Might see snow. Apparently, apparently it's, it could snow. So yeah, that's, that's pretty wild. I
pershin:think anytime before like late May, that area of the country, you never know, man.
Jason:Yeah. It's just wild that in a six month span, if it does snow that I will have seen snow. More in six months than I probably like my entire life.
pershin:Yeah. Life's wild like that sometimes. Right.
Jason:Yep.
pershin:Congrats either way though. That's pretty
Jason:cool. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty stoked. First time ever going to the great state of Wisconsin. So, I mean, I love pretzels. I love beer and I love cheese. So what, what, what else does the guy need? Moving on, moving on. Miles Garrett has requested a trade. He's had it enough. He's tired of being a brownie. They're not tired of him yet. They said they go keep them and on the flip side, Cooper cup, the Rams have told him that they're going to trade them. He's shocked. Puka Nuku was shocked. Everyone's shocked. He doesn't want to leave the Rams with the Rams want to kick him to the curb. They'd use them and abuse them. And then they said, we ain't got time for you no more. So what do you think on those two different aspects of trades and if they do get traded, where do you think they are likely to end up?
pershin:Yeah. Well, I, I almost wish that I heard the miles Garrett news, or at least that I read his you know, statement that he made public about it. I, I wish that I would have read that. Right here on the show because at first when I read it, I was all fired up and I just had I had an endless rant that I went on He sure did. My boy Strang here. He sure did. With my boy Strang here, I was just so butt hurt about Miles Garrett. And then, you know, later I, I got over it and I, I, you know, kind of got reacquainted with the fact that, you know. There's the world's on fire out there and like there's kind of you know, this is kind of not that big of a deal My man wants to request a trade. All right It's not I actually feel like it's not that big of a deal. I do think it is like kind of symbolic symptomatic of this this Ever increasing in modern sports, this ever increasing sort of main character, it's all about me, me, me, me, sort of thing that I see with the superstars. Like, it seems like every good player doesn't just have a little leverage. Like that they can behind the scenes talk to with their agents and negotiations and stuff but they're very out public with it and they're trying to like always just trying to Sort of make things more about them. And I just I just feel like this is This is just annoying behavior and I just feel like as fans We should actually be like, oh, wow, that was an uncouth way of handling that not so cool And it seems to me that most fans actually Usually just support it and chair it on this sort of attitude of like well Hey, man Of course people should just try to get as much leverage as they can or power as they can or whatever like he's looking out for him and his family and all of his interests and there's nothing wrong with that, but I just feel like Yeah, that kind of is like it's just this repugnant level of selfishness sometimes but well there aside from
Jason:that I will there is one aspect to that. And I wonder how much the agents get, get their hands involved, because like I said to you in text, after he signed his, his new contract, he then signed with clutch. And then, so clutch hasn't like, you know, made their money off of miles Garrett yet, you know, like they need him to sign another contract. And I'm wondering, you know, if they're like, Hey man, you need to, you need to like, like make something happen here. And you need to put out a statement. Like you, like, like he might've said, you know, ah, man, I really want a Superbowl ring and then they egg him on and, you know, Oh, you're not going to get one in Cleveland. And then because everyone knows the moment he gets traded, it's expected for the team to give him an extension or, or resign. I think
pershin:that that's a really good point. I think that's entirely likely that he's actually getting advice from his agents or some other member of his team. Not, not the Browns team. I just mean like his management team or whatever different players actually have different amounts of sort of assistance or help that they get with management of their. Resources, if you will, but whatever it is, I think it's entirely likely that he could be getting some advice or coaching about, Hey, look, you can really leverage your name recognition and the way that the, the, the Cleveland Browns fans feel about you, you could do that. In a greater way, if you make it public, if you go public with, you know, because there's plenty of players who have in the past requested trades without going public with it, which I think is a more mature professional way of handling it. But I do agree that there probably is some leverage to be gained and ultimately some money to be made for agents. If they kind of play a little more dirty on
Jason:that
pershin:front.
Jason:Man, poor Cleveland. First they got LeBron, you know, like taking his talents elsewhere. And then like Miles Garrett, like everyone's loved Miles Garrett. Now he wants to go somewhere else. They can't catch a break.
pershin:I do think that as far as the angle of like, you know, Does he really do want to get traded? And are the Cleveland Browns really serious about not trading him? I think probably both of those things have a lot of legitimacy to him. He feels like there's probably only so many seasons left in his prime, even if he is super confident in where he's at right now, he probably is thinking, man, my window's going to close soon. And I. I've wasted already several years of my prime in, in these sort of dead end seasons where I probably feel week one that we don't, we're not going to make a run at the Super Bowl this year, you know, and
Jason:yeah, making no runs at the Super Bowls.
pershin:And then, and then from the brown side, they probably really don't have that much to gain from trading him. They would not only have to find a trade partner that that's going to give a compensate, give compensation that would make it worth it, but then they would have to talk them into. Eating some of that dead cap because aside from the saints who are in an even worse situation cap wise They're the they're the worst team in the league as far as deficit For a cap now i'm sure they they can clear up more than what the saints can clear up on their end but still They're they're gonna have dead cap if they trade him away Under normal circumstances, they would have to not only find a trade partner that's wanting to give them some sort of compensation back and in the form of players or picks or whatever, but then take on some dead cap for them. It just seems unlikely that it's going to be beneficial for them to trade them away. The question, I guess, the more interesting question or the more important question would be. How much of this is just about sort of getting more money? Like, is he, there's a good chance that he could just be happy if they're like, look, we're going to make you the highest played in the league or whatever we're going to be. Cause we've seen sometimes, I don't
Jason:think it's about the money
pershin:players. I don't think so either. I think it is true, but the thing is that to what degree. Because if he understands that it's not like he'll get traded and they say, look, we're going to sign you to this really awesome extension. We love you. We're going to show how much you're worth or whatever. Maybe that is enough for him to be like, all right, fine. I
Jason:mean, if he says he wants a ring and they're not going to trade him, I could see him either like, like, all right, well then I'll just play with you for the next, for my next two seasons. And then I'm out. And then now you get nothing for me. So. Yeah, they're going to, they're going to have to trade them at some point, whether it's this year or next year.
pershin:Well, he only has this next coming year left.
Jason:So you don't have him being traded at all?
pershin:No, I don't think that they're going to trade him. I think that he's either going to accept that. They're not going to honor his request for a trade or he's going to try to pull some stunts and just kind of force His way out. So that's what I think are the two likely options I don't think a team's gonna step up and say hey We're gonna give you a couple first plus we're gonna take on a bunch of that money.
Jason:You know, you got the Rams doing wild and crazy things. They're looking to trade Cooper cup. What does that mean for Matthew Stafford? Cause I mean,
pershin:and you, you gotta think everyone on the Rams is not happy about that because he, he's a guy who's still useful. He, he might not be at his peak from a couple of seasons ago or whatever. Doesn't matter. He's, he's clearly still a good, useful piece. I'm not sure why they want to trade him. I guess it's about saving money, but. I think that they're actually, like, about average as far as, like, free cap coming into next year. I'm not sure what they Yeah, why
Jason:not just ask, ask them for a restructure?
pershin:The only thing that I can think is that they're just, they no longer trust him to stay healthy. He's had so many sort of little nagging injuries the past couple seasons that maybe they just feel like,
Jason:we just want out. Oh, we just want to get rid of him while we can. What a bunch of bums.
pershin:Yeah, he, he said that he was expecting and that he wanted to just stay around for the remainder of his career. So obviously this was a surprise to him. You got to think for Matthew Stafford and the rest of the team, it was also a surprise for them. I can't imagine this is a popular move among fans or teammates. I wouldn't recommend going that route. Unless you really had to I I don't see why they really have to but You know how these owners are a lot of times there they think that like, oh I do what a hell I want I don't go into the
Jason:Broncos.
pershin:He could be useful in the Broncos. We definitely need a guy to work the underneath He's good at that. He could be really useful, you know, Courtland Sutton is pretty good at stretching the field boundary play We basically have got Devon Velay playing the role that Cooper Cupp would play. He's not that great. Devon Velay is not the answer. So Cooper Cupp, even if you're just like a season or two, I think that's a great rental if we can afford it. I'm not sure how much his contract is. Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.
Jason:Yeah, I don't know man. That would be interesting to see where he ends up. In other trade news, The big splash in the NBA, Luka Doncic and AD swap teams did not see that coming. That trade was so off the wall that even Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, did not know that that trade was going down.
pershin:Wait, what? Really? Yes. Oh man, I thought owners of these teams like, like, I thought there was like a policy that they would just have where it's like, okay. You're like, you're the GM, you get the call, but let me know before any big shit
Jason:goes down. I mean, Mark Cuban has historically been known as, as, you know, a basketball fan, but he also puts people in place that he trusts, so.
pershin:Yeah,
Jason:I don't know. Well,
pershin:it's not a bad strategy if you're gonna be honest about the fact that you know I trust other people to do it better than me.
Jason:Most owners don't. I mean, he's only got one championship to show for it So, you know, who knows?
pershin:Yeah, I I'm not really up on Like the quality of these players these days in these these players in particular But I I will say there's been so much talk about it I I don't even follow nba like that and i'm telling you everyone in the football world has been talking about how big This, this blockbuster of a trade is in how it's sort of, they, they don't see why it happened. Like it just seems to really shock people. So pretty cool that the NBA has got such wild blockbuster trades. It almost makes me want to start plugging in to see what the hell is going on.
Jason:That's the thing is I used to watch NBA religiously and now it's just, it's tough to watch man. When your team is consistently terrible. And they like give you real, no real way to watch, watch your team, like, unless you're a fan of big market teams, you don't get, you don't get national games, so you have to pay. Oh
pershin:yeah, that's, that's, that's the thing I've heard talked about a lot too, is like the NBA fans, they're getting exploited with the, the, the way they, like if you're a Lakers fan or, or something. It's all gravy. It's not a problem for you, but for everyone else, it's like
Jason:pulling teeth. Yeah, yeah, I mean like just for the Hornets, like you have to subscribe to Ballet Sports, which is 20 a month and if you, I mean, if your team sucks, like, you're like, do I really want to pay 20 a month to watch them lose 10 games a month? Like, you know, it's like, well, what are we doing here?
pershin:Well, I will say at least the NBA has that going for them. Or it's like the footballs once a week. Right. Or at least you get kind of more bang for your 20 bucks a month.
Jason:I mean, sure. Yeah. I mean, I think, but I hear, I think MLS, I think MLS being the. Like infancy of it's like league. I think it has the best deal on the market. 75 bucks for Apple. If you're already an Apple TV plus subscriber, you get like 20 off of the subscription. So it's 75 bucks for the whole season. You get every game, every team, no blackout multi view, all of that.
pershin:That's the complaint that I've seen like come across from the NBA fans is this like, they, they want like an affordable package for the whole thing where they can just get access to all the NBA that they would want instead of trying to pay all these various blackouts sort of things. All these various sort of third party programs that might specifically cater for your team or for a certain area of the country, I guess I'm not even sure, but I know that that's what they want and hopefully the NBA will come around to working that shit out so the fans could actually get what they deserve there.
Jason:Yeah, we'll see, we'll see. And, and other news. Canada the, the Canadian hockey fans at the NHL game. I wasn't, I wasn't sure who the teams were, but nonetheless, during the United States national anthem were booing, they were booing the anthem. So that's fun and interesting. Do you have anything you want to say about that? That you like it? It's awesome.
pershin:Not, not anything
Jason:You got nothing nice to say? Not anything
pershin:too positive. I'll just say that, of course, I understand why they were booing, and you and I, unfortunately, are stuck on the other side of that newly found rivalry, and Well, you know, we're stuck in the belly of the beast of the villain, you know,
Jason:say like mr Garrison said on South Park one day he's gonna jump over that wall and fuck him till they're dead
pershin:Okay Well, I I'll just say that I completely understand why they're why they're booing the United States national anthem That's that's all I'll say
Jason:anyhoo. All right moving on Concussions in the NFL are down 17 percent this year from last year. You know, and I haven't heard, I haven't seen a lot of concussions this season. So maybe those helmets do work.
pershin:Yeah, there's been like, it's been kind of weird when it comes to concussions, because there's been like some
Jason:Or they're hiding it better.
pershin:What's the word? There's been like some basically some high profile ones, like some highly publicized ones. But I agree with you, as someone who plays fantasy football, you and I are in a league together. And we're both in multiple leagues. So we know, like, we can kind of see when there's a lot of people out for concussions and when there's not that many in it, it really truly did seem like there was less people that had to miss games for concussion this year than the previous couple of years. I think that's great. They had unfortunately to a cut, a concussion, which is always its own. Dramatic. Oh, what's going to happen? Is he retiring now? Or, you know, yada, yada. And then there, there was a couple of guys like, let's say Chris Olave caught a couple concussions in back to back weeks. And that had to go on IR because, you know, the NFL is trying to clean up their image with the. The head trauma and all that stuff. And so on what, on one hand, it was like, there was more sort of like high profile concussion situations that went on. But in actuality, I agree with you. I think it's working. I think things are getting better.
Jason:Yeah. Yeah. Also Justin Tucker, I don't know if we talked about this. Turns out he's a scumbag and wants to be traded to the Browns to be with the other scumbag. You know,
pershin:Oh, I thought that was a meme. Did he really ask to be traded?
Jason:No, he did not. And I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. It's because he's sexually assaulting massage there. Yeah. So
pershin:he, he can, he can empathize.
Jason:He didn't learn from the Sean Watson's ways. I guess he must've thought that if, well, if Deshaun got a guaranteed 250 million contract. Maybe I'll get that same deal. Like, I don't know what he was thinking, but they should, they really, they really need to set an example with him in the league, like. Like somebody's got to go down for, for, you know, massage therapy out. The therapists out there are going to stop massaging NFL players.
pershin:They're going to stop taking these guys as clients. I also, Justin Tucker clearly easily his worst season this past year. Deshaun Watson, ever since it came out has been, but it never works. Well, don't do it. Ever
Jason:since he stopped going to Denny's. Not good.
pershin:Don't be a sex pest. It does not help your career. There you go. Okay. Simple as that. Well, it
Jason:does until you get caught.
pershin:Well, either way, ultimately, it's not worth it. Right.
Jason:No, no, I'm not. I mean, I'm not condoning that behavior. I'm just saying, like, it seemed to have worked until they all got caught.
pershin:Maybe it was the magic mojo. I doubt
Jason:it. Well, you know what else didn't work? All that time in the off season Mike McCarthy spent coming up with new offensive schemes and this and that because he has found himself, once again, with no job in the NFL. He said he's, said he's taking the year off you know, to reevaluate things, but we all know that's code for he could not find a job.
pershin:Yeah, I was about to say the same thing. I was like, it always comes out after the fact that whenever they say, Oh, Inevitably, someone like Rapaport or Schefter, they get word that actually they were trying to hit up various teams and there was nobody answering that phone and so it's hard to know what to even think of his tenure at Dallas because the Jerry Jones situation is so convoluted and like, people say, and I don't know how true or false it is. To what degree it's true. People say that, that Jerry purposely wants to install coaches who agree upon ahead of time, like as in the interview process, he says like, Oh, I'm going to be sort of putting in the last word on a lot of how we do things or whatever. And so it's almost like they're agreeing to be like an assistant. To jerry jones rather than the real head coach with the decision making And so it's like like it's hard to know like how much of it is on him or not on him there was a lot of winning seasons, but a lot of disappointment and like wildcard rounds and early exits from the playoffs and certainly Their fans feel like they didn't get what they should have got out of some of the talented teams past few seasons. I'm not sure what I think about McCarthy as a coach anymore, but I do know that the NFL has spoken and said, nah, we're not, we're not interested right now.
Jason:Yeah. I mean, the Cowboys, you know, are the best at producing these high expectations. And then always falling short.
pershin:Yeah. I mean, I'll give credit where credit is due. They do seem to draft well, like in the general sense where it seems like they always seem to land on a superstar, like a Micah Parsons and a Zach Martin and. You know, just a seedy lamb and these guys that seem to pan out and seem to be legitimately good, like difference making sort of players, they never quite parlay that into like a real Super Bowl run, though. I mean, they've got some good regular seasons, but that only takes you so far when you are America's team and you've got this high expectation.
Jason:Yeah, right. No kidding. Well, I mean, that's just classic Dallas for you. All right. Well, that's, that's all the news I got. So moving on, well, let's talk about the Pro Bowl. That was this past weekend. Gotta be honest with you. I attempted to watch it, but I, I could not find when it was on, where, what channel it was on. It seems like they were hiding it from me. I also don't have cable, so I guess they didn't put that on regular, you know, regular channel for the regular folk. So I think that's a, another misstep. And that's why the Pro Bowl games suck. Is where did they have it? Like where were the thing? It was on ESPN on Thursday and Sunday. So
pershin:Oh,
Jason:Thursday and Sunday. Wow. It was the skills. It's a weird gap. It was, it was anyway. So yeah, again
pershin:but anyway, I mean, I, I saw so many. Corny ass advertisements for it that I was like, bro, I'm not watching this shit. This shit, the advertisement doesn't even look that interesting.
Jason:Well, let me, let me tell you, let's get to these games and, and you'll think that these are just as corny. So the, the games, the skills competition that we had on Thursday was passing the test. So that was a two, two man team. One player was answering trivia questions. Based on how many they got right was how much time the quarterback had to throw and hit the targets Jared Goff and Josh Jacobs won that Josh Jacobs was the trivia guy Jared Goff was obviously the one throwing the balls So, and then the next one was satisfying catches presented by Snickers and it was an obstacle course with the wide receiver tied in in the DB to they had to catch three different, like three, three catches from, from different distances and
pershin:They had to do it while they were going.
Jason:Yeah, I don't know. I, I dude, I w I watched the highlight of Justin Jefferson and it was not only was he bad at it. It was like the most confusing thing ever. And on the last catch, like the, they had to keep redoing it because they couldn't get the jugs machine to actually throw it anywhere. Catchable. Like it was awful.
pershin:I, I almost wish I just, just so I could cloud on it later. That's, that is, yeah, I, I don't know what they did.
Jason:Nonetheless, the NFC won that one.
pershin:Okay. Good. Good for them. I guess
Jason:the next competition was the big spike. This one was new this year and this was, and, and you guessed it, a spiking of the football competition based on power and impact. And that. Wow. Yeah. And that was wow. Queen, queen, queen and Williams from the a, FC won that one.
pershin:Okay.
Jason:And then there was a a relay race. I don't think I need to, is it was, it was a relay
pershin:that actually sounds like maybe the most entertaining one so far.
Jason:And I could go through each step, but I'm not going to. NFC won two outta three of those. And then there was a game called Helmet Harmony. Which was a knowledge test about teammates and the NFC won that one. And the players were Brian O'Neill, Jonathan Greenard, Xavier McKinney, Rashaun Gary, Vita Veya and Tristan Werfs.
pershin:I mean, at least I know who Vita Veya are. I mean, those first few names,
Jason:you know, Xavier McKinney and Rashaun Gary. Stop yourself. I
pershin:do.
Jason:And then there was a dodge,
pershin:but it's like, they should get superstars for this shit.
Jason:Well, they didn't superstars didn't want to play.
pershin:I don't play.
Jason:And then they had the dodge ball games and each team won one of those.
pershin:I mean, the dodgeball game actually could be entertaining. I don't, I, I gotta think they're not actually no. Like, no. Fuck. They're not actually trying though. Oh, they were. It's like, I
Jason:mean, they were, but it's because, I mean, it's, again, their agents are probably like, yo, it's dodgeball at, at some don't get at some point. Like they're not trying to, they're trying to play, like, if you've ever played dodgeball competitively, like it's not, it's not what you're playing at in fucking pe Okay. It's, it's not, it's not what you play as a kid. There actually have
pershin:never played
Jason:dodgeball
pershin:outside of
Jason:like, so I used to play like, you know, like an adult dodgeball league, like where you drank and all that jazz. And I mean,
pershin:that's cool.
Jason:Yeah, it's probably fun. Yeah, it is fun, but there is a lot more strategy. Like you're not just like launching balls. That's it, right? Like you're trying to hold on the balls because. You know, there's strat you're trying to get you to get a player back in and this and that. So there is a little bit of strategy and the games can go on for a hot, you know, a hot minute. So, yeah, you getting
pershin:stalemates or
Jason:something? Yeah. So it's kind of boring to watch. Like it's fun to play, but not fun to watch. Gotcha.
pershin:I gotcha.
Jason:So that was Thursdays. And then Sunday was the flag football and the way they did this was. They had a quarter and then they had a skills event and then they had a quarter skills events quarter. So Quarter one went to the nfc And then after that they had a punt perfect skills competition Which went into overtime and the afc won that by logan cook and then the quarter two went to the NFC and then there was a head to head Madden game and at the AFC, Brian Thomas Jr. and Derwin James won that and then quarter three was won by the AFC and then there was the great football race.
pershin:Great football race,
Jason:great football race. Didn't they already have it? They sure did. And this is a, this is another one.
pershin:Okay. All right. It really milking the races. Michael
Jason:Parsons and Justin Jefferson won that. And then we had the tug of war with the NFC one, one, two out of three games of that, they won two straight, so they swept it and the NFC won the pro bowl games with the combined score of skills and flag football, 76 to 63. And of course, none of that means anything there. This was all pointless. It was so embarrassing that
pershin:it was all just football players in the NFL fooling around with the cameras on them, fooling around
Jason:when I was doing research for this, it was so embarrassing that I could not find individual results. Anywhere, like I had to go through highlights to find out who won what? Because like they just didn't post the results of them. They like the
pershin:nfl.
Jason:It's not on nfl. com to even find the events To even find what the events were I had to go to to like a blog post
pershin:I mean the purple is such an afterthought now. They might as well just stop. They might as well just stop
Jason:and speaking of that being an afterthought, let's go ahead and move on because That's it. It was a stinker. I'm never watching that. I'm never gonna give it time.
pershin:It is what it is, man. I'm glad I didn't tune in, or maybe I missed out on some unintentional comedy or something, but man, they gotta just let it go. Like, it's, the thing's dead. Yeah. No one cares. No one cares. Especially the players, like. I mean, if anything, do just like the NBA
Jason:does. Do like a rookie, a rookie sophomore game. Like the guys that are still hungry, you know, that are still cocky enough to go out there and play. So moving on this week on Thursday is NFL honors. So let's get into that. Let's see. We'll see what you think. MVP. We discussed this a plenty of times. What is your final, who's your final vote for MVP out of. You got your nominees are Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Lamar Jackson. Who you got?
pershin:I didn't know Joe Burrow was in the mix I mean, some would say Aaron Rodgers should be
Jason:in the mix because the numbers look the same, but you know, they didn't ask me.
pershin:I do actually think that Joe Burrow should be it. I, I thought that he wasn't even in the running because his team wasn't, they didn't even make the playoffs this year. They weren't a contender type team. Usually that I thought that had to be part of the equation, but. I think Joe Burrow was playing absolutely lights out against the, I mean with a horrible offensive line, he was still playing lights out. Just dime after dime after dime. Now, to be fair, it did take him two, three, four weeks to actually get into. Like prime form. He got off to a slow start, which he does like every season Probably because he he doesn't play. He doesn't do much in the preseason, but neither here nor there I I that's that's my vote.
Jason:I actually like Joe didn't
pershin:yeah I think he I think he was the best quarterback in the league this year. I think that's true I think that if he's not in the mix my pick would be for Josh Allen slightly over Lamar Jackson, but I think all three of those guys, Burrow, Jackson, and Allen all played up to a level where most seasons they probably would be the top contender. And there was so many good performances this In 2024, that it's not crazy to think that guys like Saquon and Derek Henry are legitimately should get consideration also. So it's, it was actually a really good year for outstanding performance. I thought.
Jason:Yeah. You know, I tossed and turned throughout the season. I think I said Lamar at one point, I think I said, I know I said, Josh Allen, I'm ending. On Saquon, I think, I think Saquon, Oh, wow, good. Wow. I just, I just think, you know, it, that probably won't be who wins, but if we're looking at, you know, the season and what has happened in the playoffs, you know, I, I have to give it to Saquon. I mean, the guy was told that he ain't worth shit. He's not good enough to be on the giants. And he came out and had one of the best seasons. He, he not only, you know, did that, there was a resurgence of running backs this season when everyone considered running backs dead. Came out and said, you know, Jalen hurts. Isn't the only all star. So I'm going to give it to Saquon man.
pershin:Yeah. I, I do love the narrative. He, he basically did revenge by success, which is something people talk about, like as a abstract concept, but hardly ever does anyone actually kind of pull that off, but I feel like. So many people basically said in the media like, Oh man, I, I'm sorry for what I said about him in the offseason, what I said about what was going to happen and what I said about yada yada. This, that whatever you know, he, he, he got to take the high road and still make the Giants organization look like clowns. He sure did.
Jason:He sure did. He
pershin:got to, not only did he have himself such a highly successful season, it and lots of the sports media. Even early on gave him his flowers, but then on top of it, he basically helped out the entire narrative for running backs. He helped up the, the idea that you shouldn't pay them because they're not worth it. They don't, they don't move the needle enough. And he changed the narrative on, you know, him and Derek Henry, Joe mix. And he wasn't the only one, but they also kind of. Got to sort of reset expectation for aging running backs to that people used to talk so much about The age cliff and you know running use specifically.
Jason:Moving on to defensive player of the year. Nominees are Zach Braun, Miles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson, Patrick Sertan and TJ Watt. I mean, when I'm looking at this, these, these players, I either got to go Zach Braun. Or Patrick Sertain, when you look at the, I mean, T. J. Watt had an incredible season. Miles Garrett had an incredible season. But, A, Miles Garrett's been having an incredible season. He's, he's never not had incredible seasons. Right.
pershin:It's like four seasons in a row where he could have been named the defensive player of the year.
Jason:Right. And then the Steelers, T. J. Watt, I mean, and the defense fell off in the second half of the season. Whereas, when you look at the Broncos, The defense kind of came along. They, they trended upward as the season went along. So that's in the same with the Eagles. I mean, Zach Bond's probably going to get it, but I, I, I think Patrick Sertan deserves a, a big time nod.
pershin:Yeah. I, I'm actually feeling that way too. I, I, I think that I couldn't really argue with you if you said Miles Garrett should be the guy just because just how, how dominant he is and how he basically leads the league and win like pressure percentage, win rate percentage, whatever sort of metrics you want to look at. Yeah, and probably drawing penalties and should have been penalties. And you know, I, I I'm biased, so I feel like maybe I'm just being biased, but I do feel like Patrick Sertan was really the most consistent every single game he was shutting down, whoever he was covering. Whether they were in a modified sort of zone where they were asking him to do something outside of the normal zone assignment, or he was just in a full time man on, on your own island sort of situation. He was so consistent in shutting down whoever he was guarding or whoever he was covering that that probably has. More value even than a high pressure rate.
Jason:Right, right. Excuse me. All right. So offensive player of the year, this is probably where Saquon Barkley is going to get his flowers. You got him, Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson. You know, Lamar Jackson to me didn't, you know, I mean, he played very, very good. He deserves to be nominee. But I just, I think some other players out, I'll play them. Like you mentioned Joe Burrow, Saquon Barkley. I mean, even Derek Henry had a really good season, but to me, this is a Saquon Joe versus Joe for offensive player of the year. If Saquon doesn't get MVP, I think he gets the offensive player of the year. If he does get MVP, then Joe gets offensive player of the year.
pershin:Yeah. I, I think that. It's probably going to be Saquon, and I think at the end of the day, it should be Saquon. I think that he was the best sort of skill position player just for what his position is, and he pulled off multiple moves where people are just like, what the hell just happened? I mean, we've never seen a 180 reverse hurdle. No, that's the first You know what? I mean stuff like that just sort of kept happening where it was like, did you just see that fucking play? Yeah, where it's just like The one name I would consider though If for whatever reason, Saquon did get the MVP. I do think there's a legit case to be made for Jamar Chase. He got the triple crown, the, the most receptions, the most yardage, the most touchdowns at his position, but also he, a lot of times he, it just looks so easy with him and I think that's an underrated aspect of him. It's just like. It just looks like, Hey, I'm just doing another play. It's just another play where I'm making a great, huge catch. And it's, yeah. Well, he's talking about
Jason:what celebrations he's going to do.
pershin:I think if you looked at how a lot of passing games, especially down the field stuff. Was successfully stifled by the, the, the, the sort of increasing what do you call it commonness, the frequency of
Jason:too high,
pershin:too high cover shells and people bending over backwards to try to take away the deep pass. Like sort of Justin Jefferson, he wasn't bad or anything, but you could see where CD lamb, Justin Jefferson, they all kind of took a step back on. Amount of huge plays they had down the field Jamar chase absolutely did it and of course it helps to have joe burrow throwing you the ball, but Man, he just made a lot of really good catches Look easy And he was the triple crown winner. Anyway, I think there's a decent case for him
Jason:right on right on next up is offensive rookie of the year your nominees are Brock Bowers, Jaden Daniels, Malik Neighbors, Bo Nix, and Brian Thomas Jr. I think this is Jaden Daniels. All day long. While these other guys played really well, Jaden Daniels essentially lifted his team from a worthless team to a playoff team in one season. So that, that's who I no question Jaden Daniels.
pershin:Yeah, I, I agree with you. It's, it's basically like the MVP sort of consideration where it's like for rookie of the year, you want to think who, who brought their team just the most like needle moving added value. And there's just no question. He, he is really phenomenal at the most important position. I think that, I agree with you. You could make a case for Brock Bowers, absolutely the best tight end season that we've ever seen. He even beat Puka Nakua's record just last season for total receptions as a rookie. I mean, it's truly phenomenal stuff. But I just don't think that's a position that will ever move the needle the way that elite QB play will. And yeah, Jaden Daniels just Unbelievably remarkable. And I'll say that a bunch of the 2024 rookies were impressive. I mean, Marvin Harrison jr had an okay season for a rookie when you consider he's a rookie, but sort of Brian Thomas, Malik neighbors, Lad McConkey, Brock powers, bone Nick, surprising Drake may looking good with the bad casting characters around him All of these guys turning up actually made marvin harrison jr Look like extremely disappointing because so many of these other guys stepped up and really panned out year one but yet just like you said even in a crowded field of of a lot of great performances jaden daniels Unbelievable, man. He's, he's so good as a rookie and he's just so calm and confident and
Jason:you got
pershin:to love it if you're a Commander's fan.
Jason:Absolutely. Defensive rookie of the year, Cooper Dejean, Brayden Fisk, Quion Mitchell. Chop Robinson, Jared verse. I'm looking at this man, those two Eagles corner bags, man. Those guys are, I think it goes either one of them. I don't know who else, who else to give it to.
pershin:Well, I think that Jared verse is actually the person, the player that I would pick because I think that his. Contribution and Brayden Fisk has certainly been helpful alongside of Jared Verce, but I think Jared Verce has just really hit the ground running and like, he's made just a huge impact with the amount of pressures that he's able to get and the chaos that he causes for opposing quarterbacks. I, I agree with what you're saying with the. The Eagles cornerbacks, Quinion Mitchell is the one that I think has a better case because Cooper Dejean basically. It took him a while to finally get going and then he was really, really good the last sort of third quarter of the year. I mean, he's still playing, so he's still, he's still out there looking really good. But I think it should be between Quinion Mitchell and Jared Verse. For me personally, I think it's Jared Verse because I just feel like he, he's just been such a difference maker.
Jason:They should they should split the award. And give it to both the Eagles or both the Rams. That would be cool. Why not?
pershin:Right. Not
Jason:right. Yeah. And then our last player award that we're going to look at is comeback player of the year. Joe Burrow, Sam Darnold, JK Dobbins, Christian Gonzalez, and Demar Hamlin. Sam Darn man. I mean, nobody, nobody thought he was gonna get this team to the playoffs like that. So that's, that's my vote.
pershin:Yeah, I think that's, I think, yeah, I mean, I mean, I understand
Jason:Joe Burrow why,
pershin:but in, in a way it's almost like Sam Don was never good, right? So it's almost like, not even a comeback, but it just kind of out of nowhere. I think
Jason:like it's either him or Joe Burrow. I think I
pershin:think there's been a really, really, really huge improvement that we've seen from Zach Vaughn this year, where it feels like he was just kind of like a sort of, Just a bench sort of depth player. He was sort of just an afterthought and then he's just like making play after play all season long in that defense. I like the Sam Donald pick though. He is definitely clearly someone that brought, brought hope to his team when his team felt like it's either, you know, JJ McCarthy or bust and then JJ McCarthy. Gets injured before the season even starts and then all of a sudden Vikings fans are feeling like, oh fuck man And then and then the next thing, you know, he's playing well, so
Jason:and then Yeah, the last two awards coach of the year and assistant coach of the year coach of the year nominees Looking at Dan Campbell, Kevin O'Connell, Sean Payton, Dan Quinn, Andy Reid. For me, coach of the year, it could be, you know, Dan Quinn or Sean Payton, but I think it should be Kevin O'Connell because like we were just saying, No one expected this of, of Sam Darnold. Like we were all counting Minnesota out and for him to have that team play the way that they did all season and have the record, I think. I think that's worth something. I mean, no, no one, everyone thought this was going to happen with Detroit. So Dan Campbell is not in the running for me. Andy Reed, we knew was going to, I mean, they've been doing it time and time again. He's not in the running for me. You know, Dan Quinn, he has a strong argument just because rookie of the year you know, the, the commanders were nobody's last year, Sean Payton. I mean, the Broncos have had a rocky season all year long. They were counted out, but for Sean Payton, like everybody kind of was like he'll probably get them to like a good record or the, you know, a playoff game. So it was kind of expected. From him. So it's either between Kevin O'Connell or Dan Quinn for me and I'm leaning more Kevin O'Connell.
pershin:Yeah, I Think that Dan Quinn and Kevin O'Connell have really good cases for it for me It's not necessarily easy to pick the winner But I think that the guy that I liked the most was actually the one that you were Really dismissive of and that is Andy Reid. I understand expected His team to do well and he's been a good coach for a long time. So it's like, I think that most people's train of thought is, shouldn't we give it to a coach who like surprised us and made chicken salad out of chicken shit or whatever? I mean, I don't
Jason:necessarily think that that is true, but I mean like
pershin:But I, but my thing is that like, when you look at how things shook out for the Chiefs, they just kept finding a way to win at the end. Yeah, but the thing is just that like It's not coincidence. They're not just getting lucky every time over and over again, and they keep landing on heads every time they flip the coin. I think that having your team prepared for those situations, your players know how to handle those situations that well, has a lot to do with coaching. If that was the case,
Jason:though, then he would win Coach of the Year every year.
pershin:No, but I think that he should probably just win coach of the year every year. I think that he gets penalized for being consistent. And I think that when you look at, they had a lot of injuries, right? We also know that these awards are like,
Jason:are like participation trophy awards and like.
pershin:Well, well, that's what I mean is I think most people think about the award differently than how I'm thinking about it right now But I'm just giving you my take on yeah. Yeah, I think that I mean he coaches a year every year if you want I think that he's he's clearly done an excellent job of coaching his team this year and I think there's a really good case for both Dan Quinn the way that he's Instilled obviously a brand new culture there and the way that their team has been executing, even with what I would still say is a lack of talent. And then of course, the Kevin O'Connell situation with Sam Darnold and, and as soon as. Kirk Cousins is away from Kevin O'Connell. He doesn't look the same. And so there's a lot of stuff where it's like, you could point to Kevin O'Connell and a lot of situations and be like, okay, he is making a difference. Big time for me. It's Andy Reed. It's
Jason:Andy Reed. Blah, blah, blah, blah. It is? I'm sorry. That's fine. Whatever. That's fine. That's fair. That's fine. I'm fine. It's fine. We're good. We're good. That's fine. Bundle Ruski. Assistant. So we said assistant of the year. Nominees are Joe Brady, Vic Fangio, Brian Flores, Aaron Glenn, and Ben Johnson. I'm going to go ahead and shut it down right now and I'm going to say Vikings take the sweep. Brian Flores. That's just another one of those where we've been saying that all season, we were shocked by how great his defense was. And so I mean, but it could go either way. It could go to Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, or Brian Flores. Oh, you don't
pershin:think Fangio should be in there. I actually think Fangio is my pick.
Jason:I mean, that's fair. I'm not mad about it, but Joe Brady, I don't think Joe Brady should be there.
pershin:Yeah, no, I don't think the defense was actually that consistent. You
Jason:mean the
pershin:offense? The whole, the whole way through. Yeah, sorry, whatever. But looking at the eagles defense, I mean, they're just number one in all the meaningful metrics. I mean, That was their Achilles heel last year, particularly the secondary, but you see how he's gotten such improved play out of Zach bond and
Jason:guys cream over Zach bond,
pershin:whether these players, these rookies are just that talented at shut down corners or it has to do with the system. Like you can't, you just can't. Sort of take away from him the, the amount of improvement that they've had from 23 to 24 and how consistent they've been. I mean, that's been a shut down defense this entire season. And they've actually gotten. Better as we've gone on, including the playoffs for me, it's got to be Vic, Vic Fangio, just for the sheer quality of that defense. And there's no reason to believe he necessarily inherited the best defense in the league. I think that that he has brought that and he's been a big part of that. And I think Brian Flores has been great with what he's been able to make happen with the most people would say is a lack of talent on his defense. So I get that I definitely do
Jason:all right. Well, that's all the awards I believe they're gonna hand out, you know, and then they're gonna do the Hall of Fame. So let's get into The game of the week what we're all here for the Super Bowl Jalen Hurts versus Pat Mahomes As far as prop picks for this game, the ones that I think I'm going to take some and put some top, put some coin on. I'm going to do a Jalen Hertz and Patrick Mahomes combo of 464 and a half yards. I'm going to take the under Mahomes and company have not been hitting over four 60 in a couple games. They can't, they've come close. And then I like, I think Mahomes is going to throw a pick in this game. And then Saquon anytime touchdown, I think he's going to score. And then as far as the spread. The Chiefs are a one point favorite with a over under a 48 and a half. So that's my game picks. I want to hear what you have to say about that, but I also have two other picks that I want to throw your way when you're done. Go ahead. Okay. Tell me what you think about the Super Bowl and what picks you got.
pershin:Yeah, so I saw a couple picks that I liked. I like the over on the Mahomes slash Hertz combo rushing yardage. Most places it's right about 65. I'm looking at 67. 5 right now on price picks, even though that's a couple of yards higher, I still like that. I like that over something that's a little bit under discussed in a lot of sports media or whatever you want to call it is that in the playoffs quarterbacks tend to run more so. Then in the regular season, a lot of these rushing quarterbacks are purposely not running as many times as they can because they only want to run when they have to. They want to minimize injuries so they can stay healthy for the playoffs. And of course, when it comes to the super bowl, This is the last game of the season, no matter what. So oftentimes you see them leave it all out on the floor as far as rushing goes. They, they're down to take the yardage whenever they see it. And so I think that we're going to get an over from two pretty good Russian quarterbacks.
Jason:Makes sense.
pershin:And then another thing, I actually like the opposite. I was going to say the opposite. You said that you think Mahomes throws a pick. I actually like the under on 0. 5 picks for Mahomes. One thing that we know about Mahomes and the playoffs is that he gets super duper conservative in a good way over the past four seasons, including all of his playoff games. He has exactly one. Play that pff has graded as turnover worthy pass. He's super duper hesitant to put the ball in harm's way I think he's going to continue that trend. I I think he's probably not going to throw an interception and Then the the the last one I wanted to touch on was Oh shit. I actually think I forgot. I if it comes back to me, then i'll just mention it but I wanted to say other than The interception one, I thought you had some pretty good ideas as well. I kind of liked where you were going with that.
Jason:Absolutely. Absolutely. You're excited for the game. Is it, is it, are you like,
pershin:I am. I want to see if we're going to see our first ever three P or not.
Jason:I personally, Whoa, whoa, whoa. We went over this last week. I don't know about this first ever three P business. You know, who else, you know, Pat Riley owns the, the naming three P. So this isn't the first ever three.
pershin:It's he, does he got that copyright?
Jason:Yes, he does. You cannot actually use the term three P like without,
pershin:wow.
Jason:Wow.
pershin:Wow. That's wild. Yeah, well I did, there's multiple reasons I guess. First of all, I don't have a dog in the fight anymore. I happen to have a friend who's a Big Chiefs fan, so We all know who he is. A friend of the pod, aka whatever. 12, 12, 12 different aliens,
Jason:Mr. Aka,
pershin:Mr. Aka. Okay. He's going to be super excited. And so I'd like to see my friend get excited. Plus, I think it is kind of cool. The idea that we've got
Jason:that he could repeat coming on the show and celebration.
pershin:That we've got this sort of team that's so consistent that now Everybody else is just gunning for and they're making villains out of them or whatever. I kind of like the narrative of it of In a league that's built for parody For a team to figure out how to be that consistent. I think is pretty cool and you know, so there, there, there, there's those elements to it. But then also I did before the season even start, I actually did call the three P and then at the beginning of this playoffs, you and I were talking about what's our prediction. I actually predicted these two teams to get. To the Superbowl. So now if the chiefs can pull off the wind, now I get to look smart or something on top, on top of it,
Jason:you pick the reigning back to back champions to make it to the Superbowl again. Hey, sometimes that's such a tough pick. Sometimes
pershin:that's a smart. Yeah. So yeah, so I'll be, I'll be written for the chiefs, I guess, but honestly, I'm just interested to see how it shakes out. It is a really, really, really good defense to go in against. And as far as like the team, like the game total goes, I actually liked the under actually did put a few dollars on the under, although I think it's. It's a pretty good line. So it's not like, I'm not like, Oh, smash the under, it's a lock or whatever. But I think there is a decent chance that these defenses will kind of create a little bit of a stalemate. I know for a lot of people that makes for boring football, but for me, I really don't mind it. As if there's really good defensive plays being made and the game is in contention the whole time, I'm probably going to like it.
Jason:I'm banking on the Eagles second half defense letting up some points. Cause that's what they do. That's what they've been doing. So the other two things that I wanted, the, the fun bets that I wanted to point your way is how much total airtime do you think Taylor Swift is going to get?
pershin:It's going to be easily above average. What's her, do you know what her average is?
Jason:I think last year it was like 23 seconds, something like that.
pershin:That, that sounds about right. Yeah, like five seconds here or there, like four times or something. I'm going to guess That it's something like a full minute that that's what I that's what so
Jason:your options are 50 seconds or more with 2. 7 odds, but oh you get a 2. 7. I'll take that between 25 seconds in 49 seconds 2. 2 odds And then less than 25 seconds, 2. 9 odds. I'm liking that middle section for 2. 2.
pershin:Oh, I see how they got it. Yeah, that's, it's kind of cool that you could bet it like that. Yeah, I, I, I like, I like the over 50 seconds. I, I do think, I do think that it makes. It makes all the sense in the world for them to just fucking milk that. Why would they not? The NFL loves that connection. There's people, there's people that don't care about the NFL that are down to tune in to games where she'll be on the screen. So, right. I mean, of course they should, right?
Jason:And then the last one, what color Gatorade? Is the bath gonna be Blue orange, pink purple. Clear yellow.
pershin:I actually think, I actually think I heard one time that the, the most common one
Jason:that be like orange.
pershin:It was actually red. I think I, I think I heard somewhere that the most common one was actually
Jason:All right. When you heard it here first I'm going orange. Ooh,
pershin:I'm going red.
Jason:Yeah,
pershin:going
Jason:red orange
pershin:because of memory that I can't even remember that. Well, I'm pretty sure. I heard someone say that the most common color was red amongst like multiple different sports or something like that. I don't know. Anyway, I'm going with red just in case that is accurate.
Jason:That's fair. All right. Well, that's all the NFL talk we got for this evening. One last thing that I want to hit you guys on before we left is the Royal Rumble was this past weekend. And for all you WWE fans out there, it was. It was glorious. We had some, some women come back that were gone for years. And it was great. It was great. Good stuff. That stuff's becoming more like a sport every day, man. They've got like a ticker underneath the bottom. Joe Tessitore is out there. Pat McAfee is out there, you know, they
pershin:got Pat McAfee. Yeah. Pat
Jason:McAfee is on the call.
pershin:Interesting. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Jason:Pat McAfee is on the call. Joe Tessitore calls on, on, on Thursday nights, SmackDown. So yeah, I mean, it's pretty cool, but they got some good guys. They got some new Lucha underground people, Penta. So do they have, they have
pershin:the, the older, like female wrestlers come back as an appearance or, or actually wrestling?
Jason:Well, the women's roster is actually so big right now that 90 percent of the wrestlers that were in the Rumble are actually active.
pershin:Oh, wow.
Jason:One of them, they just signed from TNA, so, and she's like, she, she picked up like this, this huge girl. It was like, it was like Hulk Hogan picking up Andre the Giant. Yeah. So.
pershin:Right on. Well fun times. Yeah,
Jason:man. It's the road, it's the road to WrestleMania, man. What's the date for that? April 21st?
pershin:Oh, man. You might already be on your trip.
Jason:No, yeah, well, I mean yeah, I don't know. I don't know when the date is, but I'll be able to watch it. It doesn't matter. But, yeah, yeah. So, anyway. That's all we got for you, as always. Hit us up at pineponypodcast22 at gmail. com or on Instagram or threads at pineponypodcast. And as always, I will post those little bets and the signup expert link, signupexpert. com backslash pinepony to put in all your, your betting needs in your area. So that's it for us. Adios.
pershin:Adios.
