Grant and Danny
NFL Preseason Division Predictions, Biggest Surprise & Disappointments, BIG Show Announcement
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, and guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. The NFL season is here. It's the opening Thursday night. Grant and Danny with you on the fan, taking you up to six, 10, and Nat's baseball this evening right here on your flagship home for the Nat's and the caps. The exclusive sponsor of our show, the law firm, Condorian Murad, can guide you and your family in the right direction, help you to draft a will. Set up a trust or create a health care power of attorney. Schedule a free consultation with their estate planning attorneys at kmlawyers.com and be sure to tell them that we sent you so that you can get a discount. That's kmlawyers.com. How good was Mackenzie Gore last night, Phil, perfect through five, took his perfecto into the sixth. Things got off the rails a little bit with back-to-back runners getting a board walk and an extra base hit run scored ended up actually going off of a glove, but it was hit pretty hard. But six innings of one hit ball for him, three straight, really good starts in a row, seems like he fixed the mechanical issue that was leading to what was a brutal second half. Increase use of the change up to. I think that's important, right? Again, that is a weapon. I've seen it really good. I know at times he hasn't believed in it, hasn't trusted it, has it felt comfortable with it, but he's been using it and it's an extra weapon against righties. Good to see. More on the nets later in the show, our baseball coverage on the fans presented by T-Mobile, switch to T-Mobile. You can get ton of benefits and still save on every plan against AT&T Verizon. Use their savings calculator to find out how at T-Mobile.com/switch. I want to get into our NFL predictions. We're busy today. We got a lot going on. 345, remember, we're making our show announcement, something you'll want to know about this program in the football season. So make sure you're listening at 345. But let's run through division winners first and foremost. We'll start right here close to home in the NFC East. Who wins the division? The Eagles win this division this year. Dallas, slight step back. Not a total collapse, but they won't be quite as good. Philadelphia rebounds from the complete collapse last year. They had the best roster, maybe second best roster. In the NFC, they will be plenty good enough to win the NFC East. They get to 12 and five division winner. So I think both the Eagles and the Cowboys have a chance to be worse than they were last year. The difference being that the Eagles were so bad down the stretch that they finished with about the record they would this year, even if they're worse than last season, if that makes sense. I think Philly does win the division. Nobody. And I mean, nobody did less to improve its roster than Dallas as a front office and organization because they were cast trapped and had to prepare for paying CD land, which they've done and the inevitability of paying Dak Prescott and Michael Parsons on each side of the ball also. Because of that, I think the Cowboys have a bad running back situation, regress. The Eagles probably hang about where they were and they win the division. I'll say they are an 11 win division champion. Dallas ends up winning nine or 10 games and has a chance to make the playoffs as a wild card. Let's go to the NFC North next Detroit Lions on paper. They're really good. They were a player two away from representing the NFC to go to the Super Bowl. They don't play a game outdoors until November. They only play three all year long. They are going to have home field advantage in the postseason. They win the NFC North. I have a really hard time finding any way that the Lions don't win that division. They returned everybody and they added talent both in the draft where they took Terry and Arnold to play corner in the first round. They took Ennis Rake straw to play in the nickel in the second round. They are even adding to their offense still with some of the rookies that they brought in. They've got a fourth round running back, a fourth round left tackle is now going to be their swing option and they've got a college free agent who made the roster wide receiver behind a Monroe St. Brown and Khalifa Raymond and Jamison Williams. Speaking of Williams, I think it's a breakout year for him. He's healthy. He's motivated. He needs to start showing out or he's not going to get a second conjure. Don't get looks, man. In that offense, like as good as St. Brown is and talking about 90 catches or so for Laporta, you'll be one on one a lot. Ben Johnson, who did not leave, stayed put, which is unheard of. Two straight years is the most sought after coordinator. So they've got a lot of continuity and play calling and scheme between he and Jared Goff. I mean, it doesn't happen like that, that veteran quarterbacks putting up big numbers with hot shot OCs just keep working together. Normally, the guy leaves you. And for whatever reason, Ben Johnson has not done that yet. They're also able to run the ball with Montgomery and Jamier Gibbs, who's going to have a big year and Craig Reynolds. I mean, they're just deep everywhere. I like the coaching staff a lot too, led by Dan Campbell, who I've come around on big time and they've got as good a front office as there is right now at picking players with Brad Holmes, even though the loss of Lance Newmark, I do think it's significant now that he's here in DC, but I got them at 13 wins. I think they're the number one seed probably. That's what I got NFC and they win the NFC North. Let's go to the NFC South seems like a two division race with the Bucks and the Falcons. If the Saints are a fly in the ointment, maybe you could convince me that a third team has a shot, but the Panthers will pull up the rear. I've got the Atlanta Falcons winning this division and it's not sex. I think it's a nine and eight team wins it two, eight, nine teams in New Orleans and Tampa. It's not as if Tampa is bad. They're fine. They are aggressively fine. Nothing wrong with them on either side of the ball, but nothing that right either. I don't think anybody's really going to have a stranglehold on this division. We'll be in it with two or three weeks left to play and still not know. I don't think Atlanta is good enough to really do much other than win this very mediocre division, but I got them edging out those other teams. If the Falcons defense is good, they're going to run away with the division. I just don't see that. They were not a good pass rushing team last year. And while they traded for Matthew Judon during training camp, I don't think they did enough to be really good on that side of the ball. They also lost a coordinator that I thought did an excellent job last season on defense. I got the Bucks winning this division. I think you're right. Atlanta goes nine and eight. I just think Tampa base 10 and seven and they're not overly good. I think Washington could beat them in Tampa this weekend. Wouldn't surprise me at all. But Baker Mayfield has a coach now that believes in him and top top goals. They paid him. They're carrying that over year over year. I think that losing his coordinator last year, Dave Kanales, who's now the head coach in Carolina stings some, but Liam Cohen, the OC has worked with Baker Mayfield. Getting that money, having a team kind of put its weight behind you is going to benefit him. They also have plenty of weapons. Mike Evans is a little older, Chris Godwin, veteran, very, very good, but they drafted Jalen McMillan in the third round. Trey Palmer gives them some decent depth. Pretty good tight end position led by Kate Otton as well. So I just think there's enough there to get to 10 wins. Pretty good defensively. There's a lot made of like sometimes you lose a guy like Devin White as an example from that defense. He got benched by the end of last year anyway, Danny. He wasn't even starting for them. So I don't know if that's as big a loss as people think. I'll say Tampa wins the South, which leads us to the West. Yeah, I could certainly see a lot of things happening in that NFC South. I don't think it's particularly great. NFC West, this is boring, but the 49ers, they are the class of that division. Look out for Seattle. I think they're going to make some noise. They were fine last year. And I think of quietly on paper, gotten a little bit better. The Rams are the wild card to me. I have no idea what to predict from them. When Stafford plays and is healthy, you think Cooper Cup has a healthy season. That's a formidable offense. I don't know how good they'll be on the defensive side, but we forget how good the Rams finished last year. Just something to note. But San Francisco, it's one of the most complete rosters in football, up and down track. Williams is back in the fold. They've got IU, weapons for days on offense. It's really about health to McCaffrey health for Kittle, health for Debo Samuel, who a lot of times because they take on such contact or so physical may have to miss a time, you know, a game or two here or there. If they've got their core group going, they are really, really, really hard to beat. I got them winning that division, even though it's going to be decent with 12 wins. Deaf taxes, Kyle Shane ain't in the NFC title game if he's got his starting quarterback. That's basically what it's been for San Francisco. I don't even think the health of the playmakers is all that important in terms of winning the division. If you're just talking about missing two, four games, something like that, McCaffrey, IU, Samuel, there's so much that they can make up for a couple of weeks to a month without someone. The one guy they got to have is Purdy because I don't think Josh Dobbs, their backup or Brandon Allen, their third stringer, the former Bengal walks through that door and gets you to the postseason when in the division. But assuming health at quarterback, they're going to win that division going away. By the way, their defense is still really, really good. Up front, Bosa, Malik Collins, Javon Hargrave, Leonard Floyd. They got ballers at every level. Fred Warner and the second level at linebacker. Hafunga, the safety who had an all-pro season last year leading the way in the back end with Trevarius Ward. I'm a San Francisco believer. I think they'll be right back in the Super Bowl mix. They'll win that division. Let's go to the AFC and go division by division with our winners here. We'll start in the AFC East where I've got the Buffalo Bills. I know it's an easy thing right now to suggest that they're going to fall off because Stefan Diggs is in Houston, Gabe Davis is in Jacksonville. They're counting on a young receiver and Keon Coleman and an off injured veteran and Curtis Samuel. I believe in Josh Allen. Maybe he runs more. Maybe they run more with James Cook and Ty Johnson. Maybe it's Khalil Shakur who steps up. I don't know how they're going to get there. Maybe Mack Collins catches nine touchdowns, the former Falcon. Josh Allen is going to combine for 40 plus touchdowns. He's going to get them across the finish line as a playoff team. And even though they have tons of injuries every year on defense, they always seem to have enough at Oliver, AJ F. Vanessa, Greg Rousseau, rushing the quarterback. You know, in the back end, they've kind of rebuilt everything. But Teran Johnson, still one of the better players in the nickel in the league. They had a big opening in safety and apparently Demar Hamlin had it on the level camp and preseason. He's going to start for them for the first time. So that's really, really cool. Good story there. I've got the bills in a loaded division as the most complete team with Sean McDermott, coordinators, Joe Brady and they've got a brand new DC that they got to turn things over to as well. Fantasy flyer, late round Khalil Shakur. You mentioned it. Nobody was better in the second half of the season in separation scores, which is usually a great predictor to follow of yards and some total. So that's a guy that's going to get some targets. The only problem with that is you're the only guy I know that still has a draft. I mean, Danny drafts on the opening night of the season every year. It's one of these favorite things. I don't know how that's possible or why you're in that league. It's insane. It's something I do with one of my best buddies. And he's this group insists on doing it. We had it set for Monday. Two people complain and they move it back. They do it on opening night every year. And I think it's fun. I think it's so stupid. So they don't acknowledge or understand that it's a terrible bit. No, they love it. They love it. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But it's the one I told you about this. Your Christmas tree on Christmas night. I guess I told you before I ship my buddy a pretty substantial amount of money. That's not even close to what the entry fee for this league is. He will not tell me what the actual price is. So we do it together. It's great way to stay in touch. But these guys just live in a different, different sphere than you and I do. They're affected by the same forces. AFC East, New York Jets. They've been the best team on paper non-quarterback division for a couple of seasons. They've found a way to be seven and 10 in a competitive division with some of the worst quarterback play. You could possibly fathom they won't have that now. They've still got top to bottom as good a roster as anybody in the sport. And they've got a Hall of Famer with something to prove a literal chip Douglas on his shoulder. The Jets when that division Buffalo's gotten a little teeny tiny bit worse each of the last couple of seasons. Josh Allen's going to accumulate all those things. He's also going to turn it over 20 plus times combined. They're going to lose just enough games. It's jets with 12 wins Buffalo with 11 and Miami with 10 none after the weather starts to turn cold. So I got the Jets winning that division by a game the under on 20 turnovers for Josh Allen's go to AFC North. Who's your winner? Baltimore Ravens. This is another one where everybody's predicting the demise. So like what you think about Buffalo is what I think about Baltimore. I wouldn't say that you work with me. So you hear it a lot. But then I think top four and Super Bowl odds right now. But people are saying, well, they lost somebody. They lost it. They lost. They lost. They lost. This is Baltimore. Last year, they were the best team in NFL from wire to wire. We don't remember it that way because they didn't play very well and lost to Kansas City. They were outstanding last year. They beat everybody. They beat. They went to San Francisco on Christmas and beat the brakes off of them. They killed Miami by 40 points. They were the best team in the league. They're worse than they were before. Still good enough to win. In my opinion, the best division in sports. They have the third best odds to win the Super Bowl right now behind the Chiefs and the 49ers. I'm going to go with the Bengals to win the AFC North. It's Joe Baro time. He is back. He is healthy. And Jamar Chase is going to play in week one. Speaking of being back, T Higgins like Jamar Chase is gunning for a contract. Danny, there are times where I'm trying to get paid and I'm a distraction. I think those guys go out and light it up to get paid. And it all works out. Like what the team wants and what the players want in that moment of lines. It's like a zipper. It's all in unison, man. Why not? Let's all go out and make plays. I also don't think they got worse losing Joe Mixin. Zack Moss is a thumper. It can be a decent running back. I like Chase Brown. I like Chase Brown out of the backfield, catching passes as well. I think he could have a pretty good year. The offensive line has been rebuilt over the last couple of seasons. They did draft Amari Mims who may not start right away, which tells you a little bit about their depth. Their first round pick. I don't think their tight end position is great. I wish they did something else there, but for whatever reason, burrow has not used the tight end like a lot of quarterbacks do over the years, but they did bring in Mike Gasecki to go with true sample. Defensively, they're very, very solid. Some depth added with Chris Jenkins Jr. The Detackle, Cedric Johnson who's going to play at defensive end. Cornerback Josh Newton added to a group that's mostly holdovers. Geno Stone who had seven interceptions, I believe, for the Baltimore Ravens. This past season is now in Cincinnati with the Bengals. So I just kind of like what they've got for their offensive coordinator now. New Dan Pitcher, defensive coordinator, really good. Annually never gets coaching job interviews and Lou Annaromo, Zach Taylor, staple in the playoffs when he's got Joe burrow. I like the Bengals. I think they win 11, 12 games, and that's enough with a tiebreaker or something to overtake the Baltimore Ravens. How about we go AFC South? Give me the Indianapolis Colts. They were in a one score game last year with Gardner Minshu and several injuries against the Houston Texans and a winner take all environment. Everyone's forgotten about them. This is a good club. They don't do repeat division winners in that AFC South. It's like kind of our version here in the NFC East. It was Jacksonville. It was the darling. They went from terrible to good. They underachieved the following year despite all the expectations. Houston will repeat that. They'll be fine, but not the jug or not that everybody. Right now on the FS1 shows, on the talking head shows, on the shout at you shows, the hot takeries. It's, is this the next challenger for the Chiefs? Are these the second best team in the NFL next to the Chiefs? Who could beat my homes? Is it Stroud? No, they're not there yet. That's okay. They're going to be there. They're going to be good for a long time. They got to go through a couple of things. They'll be nine and eight. The Indianapolis Colts will be 10 and seven. They will win that division. Nine and eight. Wow. I love Steve Palazzolo, who used to work at PFF calls them the shouty shows. The shouty shows. That's so funny. They should give awards of the shouties. Right. He's like, on the shouty shows, I just think that's so perfect. I wanted to do a quick impression of someone. Can you tell me who you think I'm being? I know. I didn't know what you're going to do, but go ahead and do it. You don't know what I'm going to do. You're going to be asleep and you're like, I'm Danny on the Texans. I have to ruin my thing. Because yeah, I know what you're doing. I just want to do an impression. You just let me do an impression. Here you go. Yeah. My doors. Oh, go to sit. Well, that's Grand Obama. You're right. Very right. What about this? Well, but, well, but. Grant De Niro. Oh, you're right. You're right. What about this? Danny on the Texans. Danny on Stroud. Danny on D'Amico Ryan's. Danny on Tank Tell. You have to get me to wake up. Oh, great. Sorry. Wake up, buddy. Oh, it's I'm Danny with the Houston Texans. I was just I'm sleeping on the Houston. Yeah. See what I did there. I did. You didn't see that one. Was that a telegraph machine? Come on. Come on. We're having fun. Come on. You didn't see that one coming. Did you? I was doing the Obama. Yeah. I was doing mine. Oh, I did not know you're doing that. Danny on the Houston Texans. Yeah. You were sleeping a little. The division champion in the AFC South is quarterback by CJ Stroud. What else do you want? I got Stefan Diggs. I got tanked out. I got Nico Collins. I got Robert Woods. If you're into old guys without a whole lot left. I am. I really am. If you're into running backs, I brought in Joe Mixin. I got Damian Pierce. If you're into tight ends, I got Dalton Schultz. I got Brevin Jordan. I drafted Kate Stover in the fourth round. What do you want? You want defensive players? I just went and got Daniel Hunter who led the NFL and sacks last year. You like linebackers? I got some of those too. I got a new Mike linebacker to run my defense. You like secondary players? I drafted Kamari Lasseter and Kalen Bullock to start for me. I got Jalen Petri going into year three at this point now as my nickel back. The Texans are ready, my guy. That is a 10 and seven. Maybe an 11 and 16. That is a division champion, the Houston Texans, which brings us to the AFC West. The always competitive, very difficult to predict AFC West. The Los Angeles Chargers. Look at you will not win the division. Okay. And neither will the Raiders and neither will the stupid Broncos. It's the Chiefs. I think the Raiders finish last. I think the Broncos are mildly frisky. And win seven games this year with this sort of Drew Brees 2.0 bonix, check it down offense and Sean Payton company. The Chargers go eight and nine. Kansas City just is on cruise control the entire time. Chiefs no need to tell you anymore than that. I think you get the story there. Sports grumpy asked, said, uh, is it fair to say whoever plays more games between Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson determines the AFC North division? Oh, because it because of the injury factor? Yeah. I mean, like if Burrow is 11 and Jackson plays 17 Ravens where his advice versus I think that's it could come down to that. I mean, again, I have no idea what to expect from burrow this year. I think he's going to be back to being Joe Burrow. And when he is, they're excellent, but we don't have a lot of precedent for coming back from this injury, this wrist thing that he's got, you would think it's all going to line up, right? With, with the weaponry that they've got and, you know, as good as your Marchese's and I know Higgins wants to get paid as well. The best way to do that is go out and produce. So maybe it works. I don't know. There's enough question for me to give Baltimore the knot. Crash on Twitter says, Danny, when you patent that jets Kool-Aid, you should call it dark room going to be fun to hear Robbie for the next 18 weeks. I get that. But what am I robbing you? I don't know. So there are a couple of things my, my son has been saying lately. He accused me of selling the other day. And I don't, I was like, what? I don't have like an e-commerce store. What are you talking about? You need to go to Darison Ryan. We might need to. What is? Robbing or selling? What's the first one? Robin, because I guess that guy, you're robbing me. I don't know. Your kid says Robin? No, you just said robbing to me. Like that guy said you're going to rob me. Okay. But now I'm confused, but your kid said selling. Yeah. He said they're related. I don't know. I said the robbing thing. And then you immediately told me the story about your kid. I was trying to say there, that's mixed two things recently that I don't know the meaning of. Okay. We've got a meaning that's been established for hundreds of years of the language. And now there's been some sort of like, let's make the thing that's always meant something mean something totally different. Fellas, young people, what is selling me? If you're selling something that it just basically means if that he's not going to be trying. You're selling like fronting. You're fronting. Sure. Is that you're not trying? Or you're not trying. Well, it's the opposite of a try hard. Interesting. Can you use it in a sentence? Let's just say Anthony is taking in his Madden NFL team. And so he's actually going to be selling off the season. That's literally selling off though. That's a football term. So I think a better example would be Cadaira is Tony tonight. Drop five passes. He's selling. Bra is selling. So you're bad, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So my son yelled and it was sort of at me, but it was kind of like to the character on Roblox. Are you Amazon, bro? Because you're selling. And he just sort of yelled that. And I was like, are you yelling at me? Is this someone you're playing with? Anthony just brought up another good kind of like alternative term for point shaving. It's kind of the same as point shaving. Oh God. Selling and point shaving is kind of the same thing. Wow. Geez. Okay. Okay. While we have Anthony who's up on these terms, what is robbing me? Is that a term? Robbing? Yeah. This guy says I'm going to be robbing Danny Alcy because my prediction is the Jets win the division and grants is a bad prediction. I'm going to take money from you. Okay. That's what it seems like. Yeah. It'd be that. Yeah. Okay. Or it's going to be you're going to be able to take advantage of me all season long. I think robbing means like, I take something of yours that isn't mine. That isn't that's how we think of it normally. Like you're walking down the street and I grab your wallet. That'd be right. No. And you make it yours. Yeah. Now it's my wallet. Not sure. Well, G and D on the fan, biggest surprise, biggest disappointment. Let's go commanders on this and we can go NFL abroad next. It is kickoff day on the fan. [inaudible] It's football night in America and we'll be soon enough. Anyway, kickoff is about five hours away. The NFL is back for Grant and Danny. You're locked into the fan. It's the best time of year. Sunday the commanders will be playing a real life football game. Speaking of the NFL season returning, we've got a nice announcement we'll make as a show coming up in 15 minutes at three 45 ahead of our double place. So make sure you're listening at that time. We're going blitzing at four. Let's talk Jaden Daniels next hour as he gets ready to embark on his inaugural campaign in the national football league. But right now let's go biggest surprise, biggest disappointment. I want to start with the commanders and then we'll go broad in the NFL. So give me your biggest surprise for the commanders this football season. Everybody's got this a little bit wrong. The excitement over an improved secondary potentially coming via coaching. Joe Whit, Dan Quinn have a great pedigree in terms of being around great sectors. Look what's happened at Dallas last couple seasons. Interception leader has emerged from relative anonymity. Go back to the Legion of boom, et cetera. So people have pointed to somebody and they think, well, this guy might benefit a lot. That's not the right answer. Juan Martin will have an outstanding season, a little bit of nickel, a little bit of free safety, a little bit of everything in between. He'll cover. He's the guy that's going to thrive in this game because he's versatile. He's smart. We think of him improperly because he was so bad at the start of last year really came on strong towards the end. He's going to start. He's going to play a lot. Juan Martin is going to be the pleasant surprise. Sen Ron Rivera, his ring. You really shot. Okay. I picked him. I know it. Okay. I'm going to ring my Rivera era draft pick home run bell. They say when you got a garbage offense. Okay, you should go corner back corner back and consecutive rounds. It's what you do. Okay. That's what we were missing. Does Sam cause me get a Rivera era draft pick home run bell hit that bill. He was drafted as a tackle. It really was. They told you it was the right tackle more so than anything else. Now he's a really good guard. That's what he is. Okay. I'm going to give it to him. When you don't eat very often, you don't turn food back because it's not cooked just the way that you like. You know what I mean? Guard. Speaking of the Rivera era and the draft pick home run bell. Here we go. Keep it close, boys and girls. Now this is not a home run. A home run sounds like this. This is more of a single like this. Something like that. Did you even ring? It did. It ring. Got to listen really closely. My surprise. Okay. Jamie Davis comes on like gangbusters. Second half the season finishes with seven sacks. Seven. Jamie Davis. Seven. Seven sacks. I thought we'd do a surprise that bold predictions. The biggest surprise. This is a surprise bold. Yeah. The biggest surprise that you're going to have seven is that Jamie Davis becomes a decent situationally used pass rusher. Seven sacks. Seven sacks. Seven. I don't want to say it anymore. Seven sacks. Give me so many chances to lower that total. Okay. Six. There it is. There you go. Jamie Davis. Well. Pass rusher. Second half the season. He's making some plays. That'll be the biggest surprise this season for the commanders. How about the biggest disappointment? So I like the dude. I don't I feel bad saying the sort of thing. I just don't see it happening for Zach hurts. I would love for Zach hurts to be the same target he was a couple years ago. The guy that went for a million catches against Washington when they played who's dynamic. I don't see him staying healthy. I don't see him having a lot left in the tank. I don't see him being a positive on the field. I think he's a great dude to have in locker room. He's a translator for Cliff Kingsbury's offense and system. He's a good dude to have on your roster. I don't begrudge it because it wasn't like one of their huge marquee free agent signings that cost him a whole bunch of money against salary cap and a number of years you're not tied to it. You got replacements waiting in the wings, but I just don't see him having a huge impact this year. We'd love to be wrong about that. By the way, for me, biggest disappointment, I'll say the commanders get swept by the Cowboys, which is not surprising. Like that's not bold or anything. But the biggest disappointment this season, I think, is that when Dallas comes to Washington, that's hard, or they're Washington on November 24th. And when the Cowboys are hosting the commanders January 5th, I believe that the commanders are going to get beaten both of those games handily by Dallas. Don't love it. Not happy about it, but that'll be the biggest disappointment of the season for your boy. Let's go NFL abroad now. Give me your biggest surprise. Could be a player could be a team. The biggest surprise is that the Tennessee Titans are going to be frisky. They're going to be decent. They're not going to be good. They're not going to win the division, but people have written them off. They think we'll love us stinks. They think the Tennessee's and also ran after a couple bad seasons where they were beset by injuries. Frankly, they're never a good personnel. They have whisper or whisper quietly upgraded an awful lot. They'll be in it until they kind of fall apart at the end of the season. And the Colts win that division, according to my predictions, but I got Tennessee improving by at least a couple of games. I got three NFC North teams making the playoffs as a surprise. Packers bears after the lions win the division. I think Detroit, as I said, is like a 13 win team. I'm going to say Green Bay goes 11 and six. And then Chicago goes 10 and seven and gets in as a wild card. And I think three teams from the North bound make the postseason. I also think the Vikings, by the way, are going to be frisky than people think they still got a lot of talent. They're frisky. Kevin O'Connell is a good coach. They're going to run the ball a lot better. They made an upgrade. They brought over Aaron Jones from Green Bay last year. It was like Alex Madison and the ghosts of running back past for them. So I actually think there'll be a quarterback away, which is funny after Cousins walks, but they'll have, you know, a lot there offensively. But I just, they're not going to be able to keep up in the division. They're probably going to be like a seven and 10 type team. But that's going to be a sneaky, really good division. Biggest disappointment. I've already kind of covered. I'll give you a bonus one too, just to make up for it. I think the Texans will be viewed as a disappointment on paper. They're really, really good. But teams usually have to go through some stuff before they really jump up into the elite levels of football. I think they have a tough schedule as well. So they'll be fine. They'll be just outside of the playoffs with a winning record. So they'll be viewed as a disappointment because everyone's got huge expectations. And my little bonus for the first time in his career, Mike Tomlin's team will finish with a losing record. That's my second little bonus disappointment. Yeah, biggest disappointment. NFCLC Rams disappoint. That could be a Stafford injury situation. I also just think the loss of Aaron Donald locker room upfront in general, just a key cog for years and years is going to register in Loom pretty large. They've got two Florida state defensive linemen that they drafted that they're counting on in verse and fist. But I think they're going to take a step back after having a really good year last year. Now I would throw one more out there from the AFC. I said it earlier. Jets missed the playoffs. I just don't think the Jets put it all together like everybody is assuming they will. They'll be my disappointment. All right, let's tag in the producers room here. Let's go surprise. Darris. What do you got? So my biggest surprise will be that the Green Bay Packers quarterback, Jordan Love is going to finish top three in MVP voting by the end of the season. Thank you for a huge, huge season out there in Green Bay. Got the bag. He did get the bag. Put up all the numbers last year. He's on his way, man. He's a really, really good player. I'm just happy for Green Bay. Honestly, finally worked out for him because seriously, like the quarterbacks for them, it's been so they've been in the desert just looking for water. They had that far of a guy for like 20 years when MVP's hold on. I'm being told. I'm being told they went from one great quarterback to the next to the next. That's what they're just passing it like it's a relay race. It's not fair. It's not. They need to miss and miss and miss for 100 years to be like the rest of us. Rhino, who is sweet enough to give us chocolate chip cookies today. That was nice. Unless you learned it sounds like at the clary household. It was. It was. But my biggest surprise is that Will Levis will establish himself as an NFL franchise quarterback in his second season. I think Will Levis will actually carry the Tennessee Titans to around a 9 10 win season. I think, man, I think the Titans are a sleeper team this year. I think they've got a very good squad. And I think Will Levis kind of sling the rock. I'm kind of buying that Tennessee Titans right now. So he's going not only surprised, but like I was doing bold as well. Uh huh. I mean, he's out on the limb there. That would be a surprise. That's what can you even see the edge of that limb he's on. You can't touch the main trunk of the tree where you're at. Mayonnaise and coffee. Will Levis. Mayo and coffee. Biggest disappointment for you, Ryan, this football season. My biggest disappointment for 2024. I was going to say the LA Rams because people are really buying into them, but I'm actually going to the opposite way. I think it's the Green Bay Packers. I'm not buying the Packers weapons this year. They had a relatively easier schedule this last season compared to what people thought they would. I think Jordan Love is good. I really believe in him. I think he's going to be the guy, but I'm not sold in the weapons surrounding them. They still have not done enough just yet. So I think they're going to be the most disappointing team in 2024. They got all those young receivers that have another year experience. Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, Jayden Reed, Don Tavy on wicks, all kind of growing with love. They don't have a true number one to be clear. I'm with you there. Darras, biggest disappointment. We got a little sprinkles of how good and effective he could be last year, but of course he got injured in the season ended a little early. There's big expectations for Anthony Richardson this year. I got a bad feeling that's not going to happen. I think our biggest disappointment is Anthony Richardson is not going to be the guy this year. So meaning so you got hurt last year after I think four games. So basically the year ends and it looks like the Colts need a quarterback. I think so. I think we're going for the Colts are going to be back in the quarterback train again. Oh, if that's the case, then Chris Ballard will be a GM somewhere else probably. They'll be answering phone calls from someone else. Grant and Danny on the fan. We got a nice show announcement to pass along. And it's not just that we had delicious chocolate chip cookies from our guy Ryan today. There's another, frankly, if I could say this with all due respect to the cookies, which were great. Cookies were the big deal. Equally is important announcement. It's pretty big. We'll also hit you double play next on G and D. [silence] Our double play will come your way in just a moment on Grant and Danny. The Beltway Blitz is sub 15 minutes away. We are taking you up to six, 10, excited about our five o'clock segment tonight when we're talking to the documentary maker of what is a really cool series that dropped on Amazon. They've followed around LSU's NIL collective decisions, the players that they brought in, some of the athletes at the program, including Jaden Daniels, Livy Dunn. I want to ask him all about that when he joins us at five tonight, coming up in about an hour and 15 minutes on the fan. But Danny, we do have an announcement to make. We do indeed. I'm excited about this. I think this is one of those. There's a little bit of familiarity. There's also something that's a little bit sexy, a little bit new, a little bit cool. Yeah. So I'll say there's two announcements. One is bigger than the other because one is kind of a known commodity. But we are very, very happy to inform you guys that on Mondays at five p.m., Jay Gruden will be back on the Grant and Danny radio program. So fun. It's always entertaining, informative, great opinions. He watches every game. I just, he's a really, really good guest. Storyteller? Yep. Comedic genius? Words like this get thrown around occasionally. Bull knower. Guy who called some plays in his day. And stick aside, what I really like about Jay is he calls it like he sees it. There are so many people in this business who coached or played who are petrified of giving opinions. And Jay Gruden is not that guy. Jay Gruden is whatever the opposite of that is. He is going to tell you what he sees. He's going to tell you what he thinks. He is both entertaining and insightful to me, the perfect radio guest. And there's nobody we'd rather break games down with go around the league with the day after Sunday football than Jay right here on G and D. That is such a good point, by the way, about being willing to say the thing good, bad or indifferent, right? I mean, that's what you want. His brother to me famously when he was doing one night football was this is probably the best player this league has ever seen, man. It's like, no, it's not. It's okay. It's the backup running back. You know what I mean? Like, it's okay to say like this, like he's hurting this team or this is good. This is bad. But to your point, like he had this getting in the league is really hard. It's really hard up here type level of analysis. And it's like, I can appreciate that. But also within that, we can have maybe some variance, but but Jay throws the fastball. He does not pull punches. He calls guys out. He's like, Oh, he's a bad blocker. He doesn't catch enough passes, whatever it is. And most of the time, the guys he's talking about aren't here, soon thereafter, and knows what he's talking about. But this is something we're very, very excited about. This is going to be new to the Grant and Danny radio program in the 2024 football season. That's a good drum roll. We've thought about doing this in the past, but it wasn't going to work out because he wasn't actually a member of the team. We're good to do it. Tuesdays at 5 p.m. running back. Austin. Here we go. We'll be a staple. Yeah. On G and D. We've had him on a couple of times since he was acquired. Just a star blew us away the first time. We had him on just this past week. One of his people hit us up and said, Hey, Austin's launching an app for dozens of football players to try to connect them with fans. Would you guys mind talking to him? And we said, absolutely. And he's one of the most unique sharpest, just thoughtful players in any sport that I've ever been around. I really, really enjoy talking to him. And he's perfect for our show. We are a nuts and bolts analytical info driven show more than we are wacky guys. And I just think Austin Echlers are really intuitive and cerebral ball thinker. So I'm fired up. He also loves fantasy football. I'm talking about fantasy football. So we're going to have a lot of fun with him, I think. Yeah, he is sharp, funny, entertaining. You said thoughtful already, but I want to double down on that. Like in his spare time, when you're feet are up, my feet is up, watching television, he's starting a company. You know what I mean? Like when you're relaxing, he's like, you know, I should probably get a small business loan and talk to some venture capitalists and found this thing that helps people. Like this is a different cat. And I mean that in the best possible way from from the depths of obscurity to star in this league with something left off for here on a new team. And he's wildly engaging and awesome. Like that's as good a guest as you can pull. I recently heard him telling someone that a coach told him that he's the most unique man in football, like the most unique person I buy that in the NFL. And not only does that make sense, but he said he thinks the reason for that is he never grew up thinking about or planning on playing in the NFL. Sure, it was always as a football player, something that he thought would be cool. But this was a tiny guy undersized at every single level he ever played at who played non division one football to school nobody's ever heard of and wasn't expected to get any look in the national football league. So for him, he had other ventures, other ideas. He was learning to do other things and it just so happens more so than probably than a lot of us like his job is not who he is. It's just kind of what he does. He takes that to the nth degree. But man, do I really, really like Echler? I'm rooting for him this year. Like everybody else is. And I do believe I could say this confidently. He is going to lead the Grant and Danny radio program and our regulars in receptions in the NFL this season. I think if you tally up like my catches, Danny's catches, Darris's catches. Yeah, that's mildly bold. Even Ryan's catches. I think Echler will catch more passes than us this year. But we're the crazy people who think he's got a lot of tread on the tire. He's going to help this team a lot. And if he's a baller, if he goes out and JD McKissics, this thing, we're going to have a lot of fun on Tuesdays at five p.m. Like to me, that's the minimum expectations. Oh, third time back helps him in the passing game. I think there is a lot left here. And I think everybody's sleeping on it. And I think because you've got Brian Robinson to tilt the rock and take a lot of the thumps, a lot of the hits and be downhill, I think he's fine with that talking about Echler, right? Well, I don't have to do 250 carries and, you know, then another 75, 80 receptions, you can tone that down a little bit, still get your 1000 total yards via a goal line option, be excellent in the past game, early down work, not all the time, but sometimes I think he's going to help him a lot. I think I think this is their best offensive acquisition, non-Jaden Daniels division. But we're happy about this. And we think it's going to be great for the show and really good for you guys as consumers of our content listeners. So thank you to Chris, our program director. Yeah. And behind the scenes that made it work out, Jay Gruden Mondays at five Austin Echler Tuesdays at five. And then Daris, did you have an update on the when I know Wednesday they were talking about Tom Brady at five Thursday, we were saying maybe maybe Peyton Manning at five. And then Friday, I think it was Goodell, Roger Goodell at five. So we're going to contract details, but we should have more on that by tomorrow. But that's the idea would be that Brady would be at five on Wednesday. I was saying, Peyton Manning, you were hoping for somebody else. Well, like we were looking for Rogers live during the season, like he said, I'm going to be too busy giving hugs to Pat McAfee. That was kind of the thought there. Like we wanted to see if we could get that going. There've been a couple of contract hiccups there for some of those guys. Because he had on the Goodell contract. Well, he was like, you guys have to pay me out of your pocket. We were like, fine, how much he gave the number. Like we wrote down a number down in napkin. We exchanged that. And I don't want to get the nuts and vaults about it. But it was like, we were a little bit south of his number. I thought it was weird too that we had to ask him about his recliner for some reason. He like wanted and how he gives people hugs. One time per interview, the recliner has to come up. It's like, okay. Jay Gruden Mondays at five Austin Echler Tuesdays at five with your pals. G and D football season has arrived. Our beltway blitz is next. We're getting into Jaden Daniels at four 25 right here on the fan.