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Carolina Panthers Owner David Tepper Should Fire Himself!

Can Dave Tepper's management style be blamed for the Carolina Panthers' struggles? Dive into the complexities of Tepper's ownership and its impact on the Panthers' performance. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings are off to a strong start under Kevin O'Connell, with Sam Darnold stepping up despite key player losses. The episode also critiques Victor Cruz's praise of Daniel Jones, questioning whether the Giants' quarterback has truly met expectations. Plus, explore the Chicago Bears' offensive strategy with rookie QB Caleb Williams and the need for a balanced approach. Get ready for a preview of the Texans vs. Vikings and Chargers vs. Steelers matchups, analyzing team strengths and weaknesses.

Join us for a deep dive into these pressing NFL topics and discover insights that could reshape your understanding of the league.

Broadcast on:
19 Sep 2024
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Can Dave Tepper's management style be blamed for the Carolina Panthers' struggles? Dive into the complexities of Tepper's ownership and its impact on the Panthers' performance. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings are off to a strong start under Kevin O'Connell, with Sam Darnold stepping up despite key player losses. The episode also critiques Victor Cruz's praise of Daniel Jones, questioning whether the Giants' quarterback has truly met expectations. Plus, explore the Chicago Bears' offensive strategy with rookie QB Caleb Williams and the need for a balanced approach. Get ready for a preview of the Texans vs. Vikings and Chargers vs. Steelers matchups, analyzing team strengths and weaknesses.

Join us for a deep dive into these pressing NFL topics and discover insights that could reshape your understanding of the league.

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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. OK. You can do this. I know, I know, Carvana makes it so convenient to sell your car. It's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. But look, you already have a great offer from Carvana. That was fast. Well, I know my lessons played in my heart, and those questions were easy. You're almost there now to just accept the offer and schedule a pick up or drop off. How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? Well, I already made up my mind, and Carvana's so easy. Yeah, true. And sold. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. We're driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com/lockdown NFL, just go to Indeed.com/lockdown NFL right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/lockdown NFL, terms and conditions apply, need to hire, you need Indeed. Can an owner fire themselves if they can, then Dave Tepper needs to seriously consider that. We'll talk about that and more here on Lockdown NFL. The barbershop is open, and Tony Wiggins has a chair for you. He's ready with some real NFL talk. The local experts of Lockdown bring their expertise, and Wiggy is ready with his Clippers and Cheers. Sit down and enjoy the new Lockdown NFL starts now. Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That is right, man. It is your team every day here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. And welcome to the new Lockdown NFL, bringing you a double dose of NFL's biggest stories with the help of our local experts that you know and that know your favorites, like no one else. I'm your host, Tony DeBarber Wiggins, joined today by my friend, the Coxy Chris Carter, a Lockdown NFL expert. And on today's episode, we're gonna talk about the fact that Dave Tepper is likely committing a little bit of malpractice when it comes to being an owner. We're gonna start with that. We'll get to the Bears, and I think they made a misstep in their development, and the rise of Sam Donald and the Vikings will be discussed right smack in the middle of the show. We appreciate you making us your first listen of the day, and for being an everydayer here on Lockdown NFL, which is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Make sure to tune in again in the morning with Tyler, the Mad Man. That's right, Tyler Rolling for more NFL coverage. Today's episode is sponsored and brought to you by Price Picks, as are all of our crossover episodes that are going on around the country. Price Picks is the go-to, that's right. It is the go-to, man. All you got to do is go to Price Picks.com/LockdownNFL and use the code AllLord. Case locked on NFL to win $50, instantly when you play $5.00 Chris Carter, are you ready to get down into it here in the barbershop? Absolutely, let's get to it. Let's run it, man. I'm telling you, is nobody on fire right now than Julian Counsel because he covers a team that looks like a dumpster fire up in Carolina and he's putting it all on one person and Chris and I are going to piggyback off that in just a second. But listen to what Julian has to say. It's David Tepper. He's the problem and will continue to be the problem here in Carolina and why I have no hope for this organization to ever be anything other than an unmitigated disaster because he has no clue what he's doing. Doesn't know, he has all the money in the world and this really shouldn't have been the first red flag for us here locally. When he decided his hedge fund, Apple Listen Management, he was not gonna no longer be a part of that. He was gonna move on, come here to Charlotte and focus all his time and energy on the Panthers. That's when we should've known right then and there that we were at. 'Cause this guy has decided this is his pet project. This is the number one thing that matters to him. He wants to win. And look what he's done. He's taken a franchise that historically was about 500 and a team that's gone in Super Bowl twice. He's taken him and put him into the bottom of the NFL. - Woo! - I mean, coming with some heat from the camera. - It don't get, it don't get no worse than that. That is a huge, huge indictment for David Tepper. - Counselor, the floor is yours. - I happen to agree with Julian. I mean, and you can't help but don't agree because he's right. Like the Carolina Panthers, for the most part, were a very competitive franchise. They had their down years, but they would always have their up years to bounce right back. They were 11 and five in 2017. They were in the Super Bowl in 2015. They were 12 and four in 2013. In 2008, they were 12 and four again. Like they've had their downs but they've always had their ups. But let's go over the last few years. They're 0 and 2 to start this year. They're right in front position to get the first overall pick this season because they are that bad. They've already been priced young. They were 2 and 15 last year, 7 and 10 the year before that, 5 and 12 the year before that, 5 and 11 the year before that, 5 and 11 the year before that. Their best year in the last six seasons, five seasons, excuse me. They're best, no, they're in the last six seasons. It's a seven wins. That's your best season, like that's disaster. And I want, I want my camera to focus. I don't know why it's doing that right now. But I want to say something that I have a little bit of insight on, on David Tepper because if you've read about him, you've read on ESPN and they've done a lot of their reporting on how his decision making comes because he's a business owner and he's a CEO, he has that business experience but he doesn't apply NFL thinking to his decisions. He, the way he's, it's been reported on ESPN is that the way that he operates in his organization is that when he, like a boss in a business, if I don't get instant results, if I don't see change that I want to see like within like a month or two, I'm getting rid of these guys. I don't want these guys. That's why he's firing coaches left and right. He has Kanala's that this year, he had a table and right the years before Wilkes and rules a year before that and that turnover is something that is very directly to him, to his decision making, to how he operates with the Panthers. And I think it's very easy to draw a straight line from that to their problems because no coach has been able to work through any of their problems. They've also been undercut by him with several other decisions that he's meddled in and gotten away. I want to share with you, I want to share with you, Tony. That there is a certain team that I'm quite familiar with that David Tepper used to also be part of because before he was the owner of the Panthers, he was a minority owner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Wow. And it was well reported by Pro Football Top by penlive.com that he was part of a minority owners ownership group under the runies in Pittsburgh that was desperately trying to fire Mike Tomlin in the 2010s. And the runies owned ownership stake and they were like, absolutely not. And if there is ever a sign of how wrong you could be, it's firing one of the guys that universally outside of people that just don't like him because they don't like him personally. If there's ever a sign that that shows you like, hey, that guy don't know what he's doing, he wants to fire Mike Tomlin, who still ain't had a losing season, who's trying to ways to get to the plows with Kenny Pickett, Mr. Bisky, Mason Rob, old man Ben Wallace Burger in a walker chair. And so now he got his chance to run his own franchise. Okay, I will call the shots. Mr. Rudy, I'll go on to improve the role. And all he's done is create disaster. - That's it. You know what reminds me of? - That's it right there, Tony. - No, that's beautiful. And it reminds me of this. If your car breaks down, sure you might get some Jack Leg mechanic to get you those last 20 miles, right? But an NFL isn't a broken car. You need an engineer for an NFL franchise. - It takes time. - Yes. - To build culture to really, especially when you're coming from the depths. And it's why it's so important to not fall into those depths because when you have a terrible season, sure, you're some fans like, you know what? A bad season can't hurt because you know what? It gets you a really high draft pick. And you can just pop yourself back right back up. But most franchises that have really bad seasons do not pop just right back up. Ask franchises like the Jaguars who are in that situation for perpetuity. I apologize to single the team that you covered. - Yeah, it is what it is. - And franchises like the Cardinals, if they like drafting high every year because it just means that they're just gonna be a superpower really soon. Ask, you know, the Chargers for what their situation is. I think they pop back up a lot more frequently. But you look at those organizations and it just goes to show you you need continuity. You need to make the right choices in the first place. You need to go get a good head coach and we'll talk about some other head coaches that maybe are sticking around a little bit too long. - Right. - But you also need to, when you have the coach that you believe in, that you invested in, you've got to give them three, four years to figure it out. - And it's more than just throwing money at. And the money part, the money part, you should always have those resources to support the decisions that they make. But it's more than just throwing money at it. It's more than going buying two and three offensive linemen and buying and trading for a wide receiver here and there. There's a lot more to it than that. And I just don't think he's it. I don't think he's cut. I don't think he has the temperament that you need to be an owner. He's pouring water on people in Jacksonville out of the window and snatching some dudes hat off in a restaurant. This has Daniel Snyder written all over it to me. He's just louder than Daniel Snyder. - Another person that just cut, if I don't like you for one minute, you're out of here and I'm going to go get someone else and never allow anyone to set up a culture here. - Yeah, and you wonder how some people got successful. How do they make so much money? I think people mistake something in the NFL. You're only as good as the people that you have around you. Your people are your resources. Way more than your money, way more than anything else. It is the folks from the top to bottom in an organization and no one wants to work for somebody that acts like Captain they have. We're going to discuss more about the NFL and how about an organization that seems to be doing it right with a quarterback that nobody wanted in Minnesota. I'm talking about Kevin O'Connell, Sam Donald. Donald, we'll get to that in just a second here on Locked on NFL. 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That's arenaclub.com/lockedon NFL and use the code "lockedon NFL." That's arenaclub.com/lockedon NFL, code "lockedon NFL" for 10% off your first purchase. - Okay, you can do this. - I know, I know, Karvana makes it so convenient to sell your car, it's just hard to let go. My car and I have been through so much together. - But look, you already have a great offer from Karvana. That was fast. - Well, I know my lessons played in my heart and those questions were easy. - You're almost there, now to just accept the offer and schedule a pick up or drop off. - How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? - Well, I already made up my mind and Karvana's so easy. - Yeah, true. And sold. - Go to Karvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. - segment number two here on locked on NFL with my man Chris Carter bringing the heat. You and Julian council, man, I tell you what, I get in trouble, I want y'all defending me, brother. I want y'all on my side because you make very, very compelling arguments with some really, really good points. I want to argue for somebody else because we were just talking about dysfunction. We were just talking about folks not having a culture and just thinking they could throw money at everything. Well, there's a team up north in Minnesota that has kind of done that the opposite way. They let go of a lot of people that people thought could still play Stefan Diggs in his prime, Kirk Cousins, when he was still putting up numbers, even though he's coming off of a ninja, he's still putting up numbers, Daniel Hunter. Daniel Hunter is down in Houston right now. And it's like, are they ever going to be good? And I thought they'd be one of the worst teams. And all of a sudden, they get Sam Donald in. They're rookie first round quarterback as out for the season. And they are contenders in the NFC North. And I'm telling you, man, I want to hear what my man Luke Brown from locked on. Vikings has to say about Sam Donald. The differences between him and Kirk Cousins. - For the first time, Kevin O'Connell is running the Vikings offense without Kirk Cousins. So what are those differences actually look like? So we've had two years of Kevin O'Connell, but they've been Kirk Cousins years, right? Or at least they were planned to be Kirk Cousins years. The back half of last year was still a Kirk Cousins offense just piloted by someone else when Cousins went down. And now it's a Sam Donald world. The play calls themselves aren't all that different. Maybe the frequency is different or what Sam Donald likes and doesn't like and feels comfortable with and so that you should probably call those, right? So you might get to different variations on things, but really the key word here in terms of what Sam Donald brings to the Vikings that they haven't had before is opportunism. I want you to think about that word, opportunistic. Donald has been an opportunistic quarterback. There are a bunch of plays that really exemplify this. And I think that that opportunism has led the Vikings to wins. - Yeah, it has. It has absolutely led Minnesota to winning when no one thought that they would win, Chris. And this is case in point of exactly what we're talking about. It's like, how can they continue to let people go, not necessarily throwing money at other people, but continue to do what I talked to, Joe Moreno yesterday with the bills during the crossover. They understand their culture. When they let people go, you might not know, but they have somebody in development right behind them and their personnel development and the decision to hire and be patient with Kevin O'Connell seems to be working. - At least to start this season, it's giving him a chance to cook, if you will. They were seven and 10 last year with him, but granted, they had a lot of things go against them last year. They had a lot of injuries. Josh Dobbs had to play quarterback. It was not a favorable situation. They were also 13 before the year before that with Kevin O'Connell. And again, it's sticking to the continuity of a coach, giving them a chance to work through bad years, work through tough times that allows you to have success. And to your point about Sam Darnell, this is a guy who has been rejected in most places of the NFL. Now he was a guy that people thought could be a franchise quarterback, who hasn't been bounced around all over the place. And I think the Vikings have an approach right now that's favorable for him because you gave him arguably the best wide receiver in football and Justin Justin. You give him a talented Aaron Jones at running back. You really haven't had that. You haven't had the chance to use Jordan Addison because he's been dealing with injury. And then there's TJ Hockenson you haven't had yet. And you've been able to create a balanced attack that has allowed him to compete. You also have a defense that's working right now. Like as it stands, you know, I'm covering this weekend. I'm covering Steelers Chargers at Akrasher Stadium in Pittsburgh. That's the number one defense in the NFL right now. And the Chargers facing the number two defense in the NFL right down the Steelers. You know it's the number three defense in the NFL right now? The business of Vikings. And sure, one of those games is against the Giants. And that's a nice way to prop up your resume. But the other game is against Brock Purdy and the 49ers. And that is, and granted there was no Christian McCaffrey that game, but that's still a pretty good win to have on your resume. I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. Wanna see longevity to see how they keep playing things out. Huge game this week at home against the Texans, the baby the Texans. I think everyone's gonna be ringing some bells and rings of alarms. And you're like, "Oh, oh, there's something going on here." But certainly getting out the gate 2-0, nice way to start your year. Here's the thing. One of the things that you did mention, Chris, was Brian Flores and the defense. And I'm gonna say how they have a little bit of advantage with Brian Flores. People aren't getting in the line to hire Brian Flores, right? Because of whatever reason, a lot of that maybe his fault may not be. So that means that they may have even more continuity on that side of the ball with Brian Flores being their defensive coordinator. And Kevin O'Connor, he's basically the head coach of the defense and Kevin O'Connor is running the offense. I just think that they have a lot of good stuff going on for him that a lot of teams don't and it needs to be pointed out. And it makes other clubs like Jacksonville angry. It makes other clubs like the New York Giants angry. And I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna get to the Giants here with Patricia Trainor in just a second. They continue to pacify Daniel Jones and give him a rope that is way too long. I thought you look at Brian's young getting danched in. I thought that may have been a little bit premature. Listen to what Victor Cruz, former NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz said to Patricia Trainor, I couldn't disagree with it more. - A lot of people still asking, what do the Giants have in Daniel Jones in year six? I'd like to get your take on that. What do they have now that he is in the year six of his career and is the sky someone that they can win with you? - I think they can. I think they finally have the type of offense around him that he can feel confident with each and every weekend that he can go out there and put points up and do things positively as an offense as a whole. I think single Terry as a running back has now. I think people see the talent in him and they see the things that he can do with the football and just be that consistent running back piece. We're not saying he's safe wrong bar for me, but we are saying that he's a consistent piece at the running back position that can get us from point A to point B. And I think Daniel Jones, I think if we look at week one to week two, there are some improvements. There are some things that he has done better from week one to week two. I think Daniel Jones has the ability to be the guy that they can count on from a quarterback perspective for the Giants. - Listen to me, man. - Ah, cap, all cap. Just keep cappin'. Tony, we used to do a segment when we hit Q from lockdown ready to lock this day. We did it for the Friday show on lockdown NFL. We used to do a cap or no set. We would just be cap, cap, cap, cap. That is all cap. I know Victor Cruz, he loved it. He eats the Giants at his organization. He's got to stick with his dogs. But that is all cap. I don't care what nobody says. Daniel Jones is in year six and they just got rid of Saint Juan Barkley. There's no way that this offense is finally suited to deal with what Daniel Jones is trying to do. Get out of all cap, all respect to Victor Cruz, cap. - It is cap, man. And, you know, I was gonna try to set it up, but I didn't have to. You came in and jumped right on it because you already see what that is, man. You can't be BSing us in the barbershop. The thing is, dude, you don't play no more. You ain't got a total line. You ain't got to be the company guy. You don't have to just say niceties and not hurt your teammates feeling. Man, what are you talking about? Daniel Jones is awful. Daniel Jones has been terrible. The rope has been too long and he's talking to, he's acting like he needs to extend more grace to Daniel Jones. I'm not talking about him personally. I'm just saying, as the leader of the football team, he is not it. And their coach is likely gonna get fired. And I hope this organization doesn't make the mistake of putting him on somebody else. He's a free agent after this year. I think the giants we pick in real high, I know somebody named Ali Bronson, who is going to see that clip and lose her mind because there is no way anybody really, really thinks that that is not cap. As you say, my man, there's some things that aren't cap and that is that the Bears are probably not having to start that they want. A lot of people want to focus on their rookie quarterback. I'm going to focus on the fact that in the off season, I think they made a misstep and it wasn't drafting Caleb Williams. I'll tell you what that is. And just a second hero locked on NFL. It's time to talk about today's sponsor, man. And that is fan, dude. Y'all know how I feel about fan, dude. I feel good about being on the side of a winner, why don't I call them a winner? Because they are the number one. That's right. The number one sports book in all of America. It is fan, dude, man. And fan, dude has something a little different for you right now. Check this out. 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My car and I have been through so much together. - But look, you already have a great offer from Karvana. - That was fast. - Well, I know my lessons played in Vin My Heart and those questions were easy. - You're almost there, now to just accept the offer and schedule a pick up or drop off. - How'd you do it? How were you so strong in letting go of your car? - Well, I already made up my mind and Karvana's so easy. - Yeah, true. And sold. - Go to Karvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. - Second number three here on Lockdown NFL, where's your team every day? We thank you for making us your first lesson. Make your second lesson locked on NFL. That's right. See, you can do that. You can listen to Tyler in the morning, the madman early in the morning, giving you a shot of experts. So it's gonna wake you up. So you act like Chris Carter's acting right now. That's why he's so live because he watched it already. And then what you do is you slide on over here to the barbershop and we mellow you out for the rest of the day. But it's double doses of NFL football here on Lockdown NFL with the use of the local experts that understand and know these teams way better than anybody else. Make sure you tap in every single day to lock down NFL for double dose with Tyler rolling the madman and me, the barber, Tony Wiggins. Now, we are gonna continue on discussing the Chicago Bears, my discussing the Chicago Bears, who I think for all intents and purposes had a really good off season. Most of it was centered around getting Caleb Williams and then going out and making a trade for Kenan Allen. And then securing Roma dooms in the first round and you already have a really, really good receiver that you can't from Carolina, DJ Moore. The offensive line had some nice parts. The defense is cool. But now they're running this little tikitack offense and it was spoken about yesterday on Lockdown NFL with Tyler rolling and Luke Braun about the offense and the offense coordinator. I'm gonna go a step further. I think Matt Ebler flu should have been gone and should have been kicked to the curb. But let's first hear from a man, Lauren Cox of Lockdown Bears about the status of Chicago Bears and where he believes they are right now. The next most important bear after Caleb Williams is Shane Waldron, your offensive coordinator. How he calls plays and schemes this offense around Caleb Williams and around this bear's offensive line will be, I think, the most important factor into Caleb Williams's success and therefore the team's success as a whole. If your players are really good, the offensive coordinator's job is a little bit easier. If players are worse than you think or injured and so you have backups in there, it puts all the more pressure on the offensive coordinator. And what he's able to do to keep Caleb Williams protected in the pocket, to give Caleb Williams his options in the pocket, to not be predictable to the opposing defense, to not abandon the running game, but be a balanced offense, to get the ball into the hands of a bunch of different playmakers and not be overly, you know, reliant on one playmaker or another to have a balanced, competent, unpredictable offense. - I think they need to run the ball more, set up some play action, have some max protect. Stop just thinking you can draft a guy with a big arm and just let him cook. I think you're gonna get him crushed if you do that, Chris, and they need to take a page out of some other teams that are. You can play him, but you can play him and show that he's ready now, but still be a little bit more patient, which is standing back to trying to turn him into Patrick home, part two. - I do agree, I'd like to see some different things with the Bears offense and how they perform, but at the same time, the same way how he spoke about in the top segment about giving head coaches grace, I'm gonna do the same thing for the Bears right now with Matt Evenfield, because Matt Evenfield inherited a terrible situation. He inherited Justin Fields, which was in his second year, but he inherited too much else around him, and the team was three and 14 his first year, seven and 10 last year. So technically they took a step forward in his second year. So it's tough for me to say, "Hey, they shouldn't be going with Evenfield," to Lauren's point. They got a new offensive coordinator, and maybe that was a big part of it. Luke Yeti was a disaster in his first two years, and as far as head coaches go, I'm like, "Hey, you know what? "You get chance for some turnover "to fix some things under you and your staff." Obviously, the offense didn't work out in the first two years with Justin Fields. They were 23rd in points in his first year, 18 points in his last season. So you give them some grace to figure that out. But to your point, they better do more than just ask Caleb Williams to be Superman, because you gotta ease things in with offensive rookies. You look back and you see how a lot of guys have been eased into the league with talent around them. To me, the best thing you could do for a young quarterback is surround them with talent and a system that asks them to stick to a script, because when you do that, you allow them to play well. Case in point, the guy they just let go of, Justin Fields. Justin Fields isn't lighting it up in Pittsburgh, but guess what he's doing? He's staying on target, staying on schedule, and he's helping the Steelers play a style of football that allows them to say, "Hey, we're not asking you "to go out here and chuck the ball 40 times. "We're just saying, go out here, "take certain calculated shots that we've designed up, "make some plays with your legs here and there, "don't turn the ball over, "and keep and possess the football." And so far, the Steelers are 2-0 with that style of play, and when you look at how they've wanted to play on offense, he's fit that, Bill, and right now, they are the sixth best team in time possession, which is what you wanna be when you have a defense, like the Steelers do. So I'm with you, I think that they need to do more around Caleb Williams to set himself up, like, you know, have a defense that performs better, you know, have an offense that's not overly dependent on them to do something. And look, they're defense right now, they're giving up the six fewest points in the NFL. So like, maybe they've got something going there, but I'm willing to give that Ibra Flu some grace and some time to figure things out. Granted, you got about two years with Caleb Williams. If you don't see a step up, then we could be talking. - No doubt about it. I'm probably the pink slip guy, man, giving out pink slips so fast this year, because that's what's on my mind around here in Jacksonville, where I cover two games that I thought about, you mentioned one earlier, the Texans visit the Titans, they're both undefeated. And then the Chargers, I think they visit Pittsburgh. Yeah, they're on the road against your team. If you're watching, I'm gonna slap these power rankings up and I'm gonna let you know exactly where all four of those team are. The Texans are in our lockdown NFL, well, yeah, if I locked on NFL power rankings, present it by gang time. The Texans are number two of those four teams, they are the high ranked club. Pittsburgh is number 11 in those power rankings. And the Chargers are number 13 in those power rankings. The Vikings still not getting that respect are number 18. So if somebody's old has to go, Chris Carter, who is going to, well, I know you gonna say Pittsburgh going, well, I don't even know why I'm going through that. So hit the Texans in the Vikings for it, but the likelihood that somebody-- - Oh, look out now, Tony, hold on! - Now, you know you said you could assign me a homer before I even get to talk about the game! - Oh, man, all right, go ahead. - No, no, no, no, run both games down with me. Real quick, can the Vikings hang on and then get to your Pittsburgh Steelers in the chart? - I do think the Vikings have a chance here, but they need that defense to show that it's not just a fluke, it's first two games. They need Sam Donald to hit on some big plays, they're still dealing with some injuries, that's certainly a case, but they gotta keep the ball away from CJ Stroud. You can't give that guy too long to cook. That I think is gonna be the pace of the game, can the Vikings defense contain Stroud early? Can their offense possess the football? Can they keep the ball in their hands and keep the ball away from Texans? When I said the Steelers are sixth in time possession, number three right now is the Houston Texans. That's, they're good at possessing the football as well. You need to not let them do that because when you keep giving CJ Stroud chances to make big plays, he's going to, and right now the Vikings, for all the things they've done well, they're 28th in time possession, or 27th in time possession right now in the NFL. So that's a bit of concern there. I have, so I'm going with the Texans in that game, but let me talk about the Steelers Chargers. And it's a match up I talked about with David Drogamire on our crossover Thursday episode. I think these two teams are actually very similar with what they want to. They're playing conservative offensive football, they're running the ball, they're possessing the football, they're trying to avoid turnovers. And that's despite the Chargers having a quarterback that I think has played better than Justin Fields, considerably over the first several years of, the first three or four years of being in the league together, Justin Herbert has been lightening it up. Justin Fields is in a whole new offense, with a whole new team, and he's being asked to keep it conservative. But I look at this and I ask myself, which offensive line has the taller task of facing the opposing defensive front? And I think that siding factor in this game, because, like I said, the Chargers have the number one defense, the Steelers have the number two defense, the Chargers have a pair of edge-rusters and Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack that are pretty good, the Steelers have an edge-rusters and TJ White. Now, it's high, but that are pretty good. The one thing I think the Steelers have an edge there is they have a teary defensive line, Cam Hayward, Larry Okunjobe, Keanu Benton, who have been playing very well. And that's gonna put pressure on those interior offensive linemen, but don't sleep on the Chargers, Joe Alton, Rishan Slater. They are two tackles, I think, are very talented. They're recently drafted and they're playing very well. Joe Alton, I don't think has given up a pressure yet. I think Rishan Slater has given up one pressure in two games. These are two guys, excuse me as I interrupt my air pod, these are two guys that are gonna provide a serious challenge for Watt and Highsmith, and that game is going to be very close. I actually think that the Chargers have some advantages with Justin Herbert. Do I think the Steelers are gonna win? Honestly, I still haven't made this prediction on my own show. I'm looking to make that on our Friday show, because this game is so close to the FanDule Sportsbook, the number one Sportsbook in America, by the way. FanDule Sportsbook has this as a one-and-a-half point spread right now, and I think that's pretty accurate. These two teams are similar. I think the Chargers have an advantage in Justin Herbert, but the Steelers have an advantage in their overall defense. The question will be which takes control of that game, and I think this will be a good matchup that goes down to the wire, and I'll be covering that at Akrissure Stadium for lockdown Steelers. That's right, man, and we're gonna watch that offensive weapon, Joe Alt against another all-pro. They're real good against Max Crosby. If he does good this week, man, they're gonna start building a bust for him. I'm telling you that I do think, though, if you name the top five offensive tackles in the NFL, at least from a scouting perspective, I think all and Slater are both in the top five already. Of course, we're gonna keep Drew Williams up where he belongs, but people love young players that play really well right away, and both of those guys have managed to do that, even though Slater's been in the league a few years now. All right, man, locked on NFL is your place, your destination, you should make twice a day, first with Tyler Rowland, the madman, and then with me, Tony Wiggers here in the barbershop, make sure you check us out. Enjoy all of the games. Remember, remember that today's show is sponsored and all of our cross-service are sponsored by prize picks. Make sure you check out prize picks for the weekend action that you may have in the NFL. Chris Cott, I will see you next Thursday, brother. Good to see you all the time. Take care, enjoy the games, travel safe to and from the game, and I'll do the same here in Jacksonville, and y'all take care of each other. We'll see you next time here on Lock on NFL. - A Prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)