What NFL Tier Does Buffalo Belong In?

On this episode of Talking Buffalo, Patrick Moran takes all 32 NFL teams, puts them all into seven tiers and focuses on which grouping the Buffalo Bills most likely belong in.

As opposed to taking each team and “power ranking” them No. 1-32, this exercise leads to seven tiers being created: Super Bowl favorites, Legit Super Bowl Contenders, Playoff Near Locks, Playoff Top Contenders, Could Surprise, Nah and 2025 No. 1 Pick Contenders. Patrick first explains why he prefers to tiers to complete numerical order–being able to place multiple teams on the same level.

From there we start at the bottom tier and work our way up. Here’s a spoiler alert—- there’s eight teams that are ranked at least as high as the “legit Super Bowl contenders” tier while five teams are projected to be in the mix for the top overall pick in next year’s draft.

Also, the Bills are now no longer solely favored to win the AFC east, per Ceasars Sports Book. That plus some flowers to a fellow content creator on pulling Mina Kimes as a special guest and plenty more.

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welcome to talking Buffalo featuring conversations with guests from Around The World of Sports media pop culture and all things Buffalo with your host Patrick Moran all right what is going on everybody how you doing welcome to another episode of talking Buffalo your weekday daily driver for Buffalo Sports Talk and more my name is Patrick Moran today’s episode is presented by golf Dojo your space your time your game bring your game to golf Dojo Western New York’s best indoor golf experience visit my golf dojo.com big thank you to everyone out there whether you’re watching this whether you’re listening by following subscribing I appreciate yall very much uh we’re going to take the Buffalo Bills and 31 other teams today and we’re going to break them down and put them into seven different tiers that’s going to be the theme of today’s episode not going to be a particular long one uh before we get going a couple things let me just say this too right off the bat if you consume this podcast audio style like if you listen on Apple Spotify wherever you get your podcast from you’re not going to know what the hell I’m even talking about but if you watch this on the video side on YouTube regularly uh more specifically if you caught yesterday’s episode literally it looked 50 Shades of Gray creepy because I’ve done a lot of these episodes but never before have I ever done one where I had the camera on recorded and quite literally forgot to put on the prime light basically right in front of my face it was a weird looking video yesterday’s show I was pretty much in the dark I like to have some contrast like to to have some of the blue popping here a little bit in the background I don’t like a ton of color or a ton of light I should say but um that was a little ridiculous the lights are on this time and hopefully they will be off for now one on the video side of these episodes so we’re like man we’re into June already time just flying training camps coming really soon Bill’s mandatory mini camp next week before you know it we going to be back here in July for camp but right now not not a lot going on so I like to have some of these kind of subjective fun uh maybe ranking style type episodes and I love getting feedback from all you watching and listening so when we do These Tears by all means please comment if you’re watching this again on YouTube leave a comment uh tweet at me at Patrick Morant TB let me know what you think about this list when I get to it here in just a second uh typically what I like to do on my Thursday episodes is have my guy tone pucks with me unfortunately scheduling has just been uh an issue between the two of us over the last couple weeks you know it could be hard sometimes to get together tone lives in Kenmore I’m out here my studios here in West senica pretty long ride and things you know come up he’s coaching freshman baseball you know that because if you watch the show on Thursdays he’s got a Kisha High School uh baseball hat or shirt on pretty much every week but anyway long story short he’s just been really busy scheduling hasn’t worked out hopefully that’ll come to an end pretty soon and we’ll be able to to figure out a way to get together because tone although he doesn’t have like that social media following like pretty much nobody knows who he is on Twitter if you watch you listen to the show you know who tbx is one of my favorite guests somebody I’ve been friends with for 35 years brings a lot of uh takes a lot of opinions to the show that you might not hear anywhere else so anyway hopefully I’ll get him back soon got some good guests coming up uh over the next couple weeks I’m going to be back at Imperial Pizza for at least a handful of shows I know John Scott new sports director at Channel 2 he’ll be with me from Imperial sometime this month my man Joe from Queens is actually gonna be in town going to try to hook up with him there as well so stay tuned man a lot of cool things coming up here on the podcast in the days and weeks ahead um little bit of house cleaning too then I then I want to dive into this I want to give some flowers out and I’m not one of those guys who doesn’t like to give credit to other content creators because I know in a way it’s competition and if you say it’s not a competition any content creator out there and you I think you’re lying to yourself because if you’re listening to this show right now that’s a minute that’s five minutes that’s and half hour you’re not listening to someone else show so it’s always going to be competition but that said I don’t like to treat it as such and I just want to give some flowers some some respect to my guy from cover one uh Anthony Braska you want to talk about an incredible git to have on your show boy oh boy did he ever pull it off uh this Wednesday Mina KS from ESPN one of the most recognizable and talented uh Sports journalists out there sports media personalities Anthony header on is a guest on his disguised coverage show part of the cover one network and man I’m not gonna lie I’m jealous what that is an unbelievable get so I just want to make sure that I gave Anthony brasz some props You Know cover one Bills fans You Know cover one they do a great job when you think of cover one you’re always thinking of Greg Thompson of course Eric Turner my man Aaron Quinn and those guys are really great but sometimes somebody like Anthony Brasa can get a little bit overshadowed in that mix no fault of anybody else it’s just you know the way it goes but I’ll tell you what man for my money and I’ve had Anthony on the show he just was on uh we did a mock draft before the NFL draft in early April anyway I I think when it comes to football knowledge the ability to articulate what he’s thinking about football the film breakdowns the analytical stuff all the little details that go into knowing a lot about the sport and being again being able to talk about it to people who are watching or listening Anthony rasa truly is one of the best out there and uh to see him be able to go out and get somebody like Minik KES to to go on his show that says an awful lot about him so as a friend I’m really proud of him I’m really excited for him and to me again competition not competition whatever way you want to look at it it’s a victory for football fans it’s a victory for Bills fans to be able to listen regardless of who it is that’s the host to get somebody like Amina KES on your show I like to I like to raise people up man and as long as they deserve it you know like Joe Marino’s my guy he’s my every day listen when he comes to Buffalo Rochester for Camp I can’t wait to get him on for a live show like we did last year my guy Joe Miller you know they started the overreaction sports network after all that [ __ ] went down with the Buffalo rumbley podcasting stuff anyway him John Fina Jerry stoski they’re doing really good things already too they get a different media guest on they’re doing multiple shows a week they get a a media journalist on every week for one of their shows they’re on the beach show just doing great work so I just want to make sure that I recognize that all right so on to some football stuff actually one football topic then I want to get into these tiers this regards to Buffalo Bills and the AFC East I didn’t notice it though maybe it’s been the same for a while but any odds that I’ve looked at any beted odds FanDuel um what’s the other one DraftKings couple Vegas sites that I’ve looked at the Buffalo Bills and I’ve looked at it more as a big picture when they AFC or Super Bowl odds but everything that I’ve looked at is indicated that the Buffalo Bills have been the favorite to win the AFC and the AFC East I’m sorry that came to an end at least from what I’ve seen on Wednesday because Caesar sports book in Vegas I saw this on Twitter if you’re watching on the video side I got up a graphic right now they put out their AFC East Betty nods and again for the first time from what I know the Buffalo Bills are not not the the sole favorites right now to win the AFC East according to Caesars the bills and the New York Jets are both that 180 to to 100 plus 180 to win the AFC East and then Miami is quite literally right behind them at plus 190 New England not really in the mix they’re at 2,800 plus 2,800 I it caught me a little bit by surprise again I know nationally and we live listen and watch all the time a lot of the national media people have been down on the bills you know if you want to go extreme like Emanuel AO did this past week you know the Super Bowl window according to him is not only Clos for the bills but it’s also drywalled and then there’s bars over the drywall just an absolutely ridiculous statement that he made for attention of course last week but anyway even if you’re not going to be outlan like that a lot of people think this is going to be a down year for the bills and that Miami or the Jets win the division and I don’t disagree with that so we’re clear but I was a little bit surprised to see not not a heavy favor but that the bills are no longer the favored to win the division they’re right there with the Jets we don’t have to Deep dive into why I think the Bills should be favored in the AFC East right now because we do that pretty much every day you listen to the show you watch the show all the time we talk about the bills quite literally every day so we already know what we feel about them but but the other teams right now Miami and and the Jets I’m a little a little surprised I I’m not going to lie and I get it again the bills feel ripe to most for sure there’s no denying that but I look at the New York Jets and I see a lot of question marks there’s a lot of wh ifs right now when it comes to the New York Jets and that’s not to say that they don’t have an incredibly talented roster because they certainly do some studly players Garrett Wilson is a stud gree Hall is a stud quiny Williams is a stud s gner stud plenty of studs on their football team but they also got a lot of questions and a lot of depending on some older players with some significant injury history and issues currently you’re full if you don’t if you’re not worried about if you’re a Jets fan and you’re not extremely worried about Aaron Rogers how that Achilles is is he going to hold up he’s 40 something years old complete douchebag of a human being but that’s besides the point what does he have left what does he have left I get it it’s May these are just OTAs and we’re seeing Clips but if I’m a Jets fan and I’m watching them I’m not loving the way his footwork looks and we’ve seen a lot of videos on a lot of maybe breaking it down too much what he’s looking like right now in a in a t-shirt and shorts but I got concerns if I’m a Jets fan about Aaron roggers and just like the bills with Josh or sure Miami with Tua he goes down that ship goes down just like that it’s over just like it would with the bills if Josh Al goes down but Aaron Rogers got hurt last year he’s old and and achilles ain’t no joke so I’m really really concerned about Aaron Rogers I’m also concerned about both starting tackles as of right now to be able to keep them upright too Tyron Smith Morgan Moses pretty good tackles especially Smith but he’s old he’s been hurt question marks with the Jets Mike Williams a big wide receiver acquisition Mike Williams is a really good receiver especially when he’s actually on the football field but is he going to stay on the football field he’s coming off a significant major injury they had a big trade now this isn’t about agor injuries but they traded for Hassan reic who so far has not shown up to OTAs which who gives a [ __ ] about that that’s no big deal but I thought it was a little peculiar to see reports this week that he hasn’t even communicated with the Jets head coach that seems pretty weird for a guy that you traded for we’re in the May and your head coach isn’t even talking to him so you know if you want to say the bills are wi for the picking sure but I not sold on the Jets either and then with Miami I kind of feel like we know what the story is with Miami if you’re not a good opponent they are going to smoke you they will stop on you they will stop on your grave they will embarrass you hell they might put up 70 on you if you suck they’re going to be good early on but is Miami G to be great when it matters I don’t think so I don’t believe in the quarterback they got some holes throughout that football team they got some key defensive players who are trying to come back from injury a lot of question marks with Miami and I’ll tell you what too if the bills who are battle tested if nothing else the bills in their quarterback their head coach they’re battle tested when it gets down towards the end of the season if the bills are right there with Miami to me huge Advantage Buffalo huge look at the Miami schedule and again I consider the Dolphins to me they’re a team that seems to start well they will run over shitty teams and then it gets a little colder and the season wears on and they seem to wear out we’ve seen it the last couple years injuries just not playing good football late in the season and I’ll tell you what if the bills in Miami are close to each other and they get down to that last four to six weeks of the Season again huge Advantage Buffalo here’s part of the reason why look at the schedule Miami’s last month of the season their last four games at Houston at home against the San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland at the New York Jets three or their four last games on the road all quality opponents their one home game against San Francisco which I mean it’s hard to project this in in May of course but it’s hard to imagine San Francisco not being favor to win that game even on the road that is a killer stretch for Miami you know Buffalo’s got a couple really tough stretches in their schedule as well those was like that week 3- six uh about two-thirds through the season when they play Frisco on that run the Rams on the road too so the bills got a couple tough stretches but man oh man you got the bills you got New England twice you got in the Jets at home sandwiched in between that for the end of your season or again Miami at Houston Brisco at Cleveland at the New York Jets want to go two weeks further than that too they play at Green Bay and they’re at home against the Jets so those last six games could be killer for Miami a team that starts out well and seems to seems to Fade Out so on that note like I said I get it the bills maybe I’m not saying the Bills should be like you know minus three to one or something like that but plus 180 dead even with the Jets and right there with Miami I’m not going to lie that kind of caught me by surprise at least a little bit so um here’s what I want to do now we’ll get this started then we’ll take a break and come back and we’ll really dive into it but I took the bills in all 31 team 31 other teams and I put them into seven different tiers kind of like what I did with chicken wings here uh not too long ago I think there were seven tiers for them as well going from like that worst tier to uh the first tier I prefer tiers over rankings I know some people like to look at NFL Power Rankings that’s kind of what this is in a way of course May Power Rankings take them with a grain of salt obviously but to me I don’t like using Power Rankings I like using tiers because there’s usually a handful of teams to me that are like interchangeable they belong like together where if you power rank a team let’s just say for an example the bills and the Jets are dead even right now in the AFC odds AFC East odds but you have Buffalo you know there’s eight teams in that group and you got Buffalo at the top of that group and Mii or the Jets at the bottom of it so now you got the bills ranked 15th in your power rankings and the Jets are only 23rd that seems like a big discrepancy doesn’t it but when you have tears and you put them both in the same tears they’re interchangeable so that’s why I like grouping teams better more than individually ranking them from one all the way down to uh to 32 the seven tiers that I have and we’ll start with the worst ones um first pick candidates for 2025 those are teams that I feel like hang out of Prayer in the world and they more likely to be drafting first next year than they are to compete for a Super Bowl there’s five of those in my tier uh the next one is my nah meaning I don’t think they’re the worst of the worst but I really don’t think that they have a realistic chance of competing for a uh for any kind of championship this season then I got another tier is could surprise that’s the category I got five teams right there those are five teams you know that’s pretty self-explanatory that I think may be better than a lot of people are going to give them credit for then I got true playoff contenders and that’s actually when when I pull up the graphic here in in a minute maybe a little bit misleading because what I mean by that is I don’t necessarily think that contenders to to win in the playoffs and get to the Super Bowl but I think that they are teams that are going to be right in the mix late in the season playing to get into the playoffs then I got three teams that are near locks to make the playoffs I don’t think these are Super Bowl teams but I think short of an absolute collapse or having Seasons that are marred by injury that those are going to be teams that make the playoffs then my second from the top tier are my legitimate Super Bowl contenders these are five teams that I feel have every opportunity every chance to not only make the playoffs but to get to and win a Super Bowl five of those teams I got and then my top tier category is going to be Super Bowl favorites those are going to be three teams that I think are and should be favored to not just get to the Super Bowl but to actually to actually win it so that’s what we’re going to do I’m take a real quick break I’m G to come back after that and then we’re going to get to um we’re going to get to these tiers and I’ll start with uh the bottom and then we’ll work our way right back [Music] up all right I am back here and we are tearing the Buffalo Bills in all 32 NFL teams into a group of seven from least likely to compete for a Super Bowl this year to most likely again some cases not really a lot of explanation needed you happen to be watching this on the video side which by the way if you are you might see me being a little bit Herky jerky here I got like eight different buttons and stuff here that I’m trying to control ain’t no producer here in the talking Buffalo Studios it’s all me uh by myself but anyway like I said on the video side I’ll pull up the graphic on the AIO audio side of course I will provide as much uh detail as possible let me pull up the list this is the entire list actually and we’ll start from like I said the bottom and we’ll work our way back to the top and the bottom category the bottom tier is going to be teams that I feel are most likely to compete for the number one pick in next year’s draft that means I think that these are the bottom five teams right now in the NFL got five of them I’ll start and these aren again once they’re in a tier they’re not necessarily in a specific order but I got Arizona Carolina the Raiders the Patriots and the Washington commanders they’re in my number one for next year pick grouping um two of those teams New England in Washington have brand new rookie quarterbacks literally two of the first three picks of the draft Washington of course Jaden Daniels uh New England Drake May who may not start the season with the Patriots that might be brette for a while until Jared Mayo feels like he’s ready but anyway those are two teams with a lot of Rosser turnover some Talent some new coaches as well with both those teams I don’t see them doing much this year the Raiders I’m still stunned they go and give a gazillion dollars to Christian Wilkins in free agency and Gardner mchu is going to be their week one starting quarterback couldn’t believe they didn’t swing a trade sign a free agent quarterback draft one stunning to me um I don’t see much coming from the Raiders this year Carolina again some pretty good young players much like Washington and New England a Young quarterback Bryce Shong just going in the year two so of these five teams here on my bottom tier three of them ain’t G to be looking for a quarterback even if they were to land the number one pick in next year’s draft Carolina New England Washington Raiders absolutely and then Arizona I don’t know man a little bit of an enigma like when it comes to the quarterback position like if if if the Arizona Cardinals stink this year and I think they’re going to and Kyler Murray’s just all right are you looking to get rid of that contract are you looking to move on from him are you willing to eat money are you willing to start over they got some good young players obviously Marvin Harrison Jr um I’m looking forward to seeing him play this year of course and there’s players worth watching on Arizona I just don’t see them as being anything more than a a bottom feeder team right now in the league I’ll say this though and this is important too let’s not forget 12 months ago if we were doing this right now 12 months ago I just said the Carolina Panthers are in the bottom tier okay 12 months ago the Houston Texans were I think what a two and 15 team or a three and 14 team whatever the hell they were two years ago second pick in the draft second from the bottom in the league they draft a quarterback and look where they are just literally one year later it is absolutely crazy to me so again any team I don’t care who you are in this league in the NFL things can change in just one year but I don’t see it for any of these five teams next tier is just simply my n i mean these teams not going to go as far to say they suck but I don’t see any shortterm path for them being any anything more than a team that maybe at best could hover around 500 like that would be their ceiling these teams are like the8 to n Win season ceiling for me um anyway in that list I got Denver got the Chargers got the New Orleans Saints got the New York Giants and I got the Seattle Seahawks again do I’m not going to sit here and break down every team in in full detail here Denver’s got a lot of holes they got a rookie quarterback Chargers got a good quarterback but they seem to take away all his wide receivers Jim Harbaugh brand new coach that is a team that is essentially starting over don’t love the Saints don’t love Derek Carr I think they’re a team that’s kind of hovering around mediocrity the New York Giants I mean I love Malik neighbors God do I like Malik neighbors I would have love to seeing him in Buffalo but man they go with uh Daniel Jones another year they had an opportunity to get McCarthy panx maybe even Nicks and they went receiver so they’re sticking with their quarterback I think that’s a mistake I don’t think Daniel Jones is going to lead that team to anything um who knows what happens with Brian Gable too after this year if the Giants have another shitty year like they did last year and then Seattle’s just a team that for whatever reason I’m just not sold on them again they got some some good parts every team in the NFL at this point has good parts but I’m just not sold on Seattle so I got them in my n category then the next one is could surprise and I got five teams here I got the Atlanta Falcons I got the Chicago Bears I got the Indianapolis Colts got the Minnesota Vikings and I got the Tennessee Titans kind of go in order here Atlanta’s got a lot of good weapons they had a pretty good defense last year look Atlanta would have probably been a playoff team last year if their quarterbacking wasn’t atrocious Desmond Ritter was awful Kurt Cousins not awful not great enough that they didn’t want Michael penck too which God that still what is that a month month and a half almost later I’m still stunned that Atlanta did that with eth overall pick really really weird but anyway Atlanta’s got Playmakers they got a an elite running back they got a great tight end they got a great receiver they got a decent defense they’re in a pretty weak Division I could see them with better quarterbacking play being right there in the mix to win that Division Chicago Bears worst team in the NFL last year but you got your quarterback starting over you got Caleb Williams you got Roman dun as well they were active in free agency I’m not going to go and say that the Chicago Bears are going to be the 2024 yeah version of the Houston Texans but they’re a lot more talented than they were a year ago probably a lot more hungrier than they were a year ago a lot more stable than they were a year ago you know it’s tough to you know be a good football team when your quarterback doesn’t know his future like last year with Justin Fields um so yeah Chicago could be a team that is better than most people think I like the Colts I liked them last year Anthony Richardson going into Year too good quarterback they picked up some good pieces I think the Colts could be in the mix in the AFC South Minnesota Vikings I mean it’s going to be about the quarterback if JJ McCarthy is good as a rookie they’re going to be a lot better than people think because minus quarterback they got a lot of weapons of course led by Justin Jefferson they got um Aaron Jones signed with them they got a lot of talent Minnesota’s a good football team they kind of feel to me though like last year’s Atlanta Falcons Atlanta Falcons good football team [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] quarterbacking is JJ McCarthy going to be good as a rookie it’s a big ask it’s a big ask for a rookie to come in start and be good but if he is Minnesota could be there in Tennessee I’ll tell you what I’ve seen other early Power Rankings and stuff where Tennessee is kind of near the bottom and I don’t get it now I know winning the off season don’t mean [ __ ] I remember Rex Ryan of course declared the Buffalo Bills offseason winners and we saw what the hell happened with that but man the Tennessee Titans have added some legit talent to that offense legit legit Tony they already had Hopkins they got some good football players this offseason I got them almost drawing a blank I mean they lose Derrick Henry of course oh it’s gonna come to me leave a comment because I don’t have my notes in front of me I don’t have any notes actually it’s got a wing in this one I know they got a really good receiver too and it’s not Tyler boy but he’s also somebody that they got anyway the Tennessee Titans got a lot of talent they are putting will Lev in position to succeed I think they’re team that could surpass expectations uh this season all right so we’re like in the middle now those were the bottom three and we still got four to go so the ones in the middle these are like playoff top contenders and what I mean by that is I don’t think these teams are locked or necessarily even near locked to make the playoffs but they’re absolutely contenders to at a minimum make the playoffs maybe the ceiling with these teams is to get to the playoffs and maybe win a game do do a little bit of damage but I don’t think they’re quite Super Bowl contenders in that list I got the Cleveland Browns Jacksonville Jaguars LA Rams New York Jets Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tampa Bay Buckaneers turns it to Browns they’re a good team last year and that was incredible what Joe flacko did man good story hopefully they get Nick chub back but if they do they got a good running back got great receiver the marari Cooper good offensive line of course they play really good defense question mark with DeShawn Watson I don’t know how that [ __ ] plays out Kevin stefansky is a really really good coach I absolutely see Cleveland very very much in the mix for a playoff spot and possibly even winning the AFC North Jacksonville Jaguars a collapse last year I thought they were an absolute lock to win the AFC South Bak the playoffs and they just utterly utterly fell part uh you start to question at this point Trevor Lawrence the reason why I don’t have Jacksonville I think Jacksonville’s got a really talented roster but I got some question marks about Trevor Lawrence is he that guy who’s destined to be just another guy somebody who’s maybe not average maybe he’s a little above average but he’s certainly not going to correct any top seven or eight quarterback in your league list you’re only going to go as far as your quarterback’s going to take you when you got that type of team and I got question mark s about him and some other areas of the football team as well Rams are a tough team for sure losing Aaron Donald doesn’t help their fortunes Matt Stafford still a really good quarterback the Rams are going to be in the mix we’ve already talked about the Jets Ultra talented team on paper but they need a lot of things to go right they need their quarterback to stay healthy and to play very well you know Aaron Rogers even if he plays all 17 games if he’s just average If he if he’s Aaron Rogers the last year that we saw in Green Bay two years ago Jets ain’t going nowhere not in this conference or not but they got potential you know like I said they can contend uh Pittsburgh Steelers throwing them in the middle of the pack every damn season I don’t care if it’s Russell Wilson I don’t care if it’s Justin Fields I don’t care if it’s Brock hord I don’t care if it’s Cordell Stewart doesn’t even matter Pittsburgh is always going to be in the mix when Mike Tomlin or Bill cow or Chuck NES your head coach bottom line Pittsburgh is in the mix forever and then Tampa Bay Buccaneers look they made the playoffs last year and they like brought everybody back they didn’t even try to get outside people their only purpose was to bring everybody back it seems from last year they got Baker Mayfield back thought they were going to lose him got Mike Evans back thought they might lose him I believe lante David they got back a lot of their good players they just gave Winfield a gazillion dollar extension which he deserves so Tampa Bay is loaded and ready for another run to uh to make the playoffs all right third tier these are teams that to me are near playoff locks seems that maybe other people might say are overrated maybe that’s the the terminology I should have used for this category overrated cuz these are three good teams three well-known teams three teams that should and probably will make the playoffs but I wouldn’t bet the mortgage on them let’s just put it that way those three teams Baltimore Ravens Dallas Cowboys Miami Dolphins we’ll start with Miami again we’ve already talked about them it is critical if I’m a Miami fan you better come out running running and gunning and off to a good start running rough shots over shitty teams when you can because if things go the way they’ve went the last couple years combined with what their schedule’s looking like the back half of this year that is a team that a lot of people and I mean a lot of people are picking to win the AFC East that might not even make the playoffs so they better be careful Baltimore Ravens look I didn’t think they were that good last year I’m G to be honest with you I think they just got a season where things fell their way um Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs offense struggled a lot Joe burrow went down that was huge for Baltimore to to win that division ultimately get the top seed but again they fell on their face at home in the playoffs they’re a good team and Lamar Jackson’s won two MVPs you can’t take that away from him Lamar Jackson has to be in the top five at worst of any quarterbacking list that you put out there these days because he’s won two MVPs in five years but I don’t love the receivers I’m not even sure who the hell the running back is that goes from week to week they always are G to have a good defense this is Baltimore RS we’re talking about good head coach pretty good regular season team like I said a near loock to make the playoffs but in a division where I’ve already talked about Cleveland we’re going to talk about Cincy obviously your spoiler alert in just a second and a lock they’re going to win their division if they don’t win their division it’s not necessarily a lock that they make the playoffs and then the last team’s the Dallas Cowboys this to me is just an overrated team it’s un I can’t believe maybe the biggest surprise to me since the playoffs last year to right now is watching Green Bay walk into Dallas their Stadium their field their fans and beat the ever living [ __ ] out of them embarrassing them in the playoffs and they didn’t fire their head coach Mike McCarthy is still that coach of the Dallas Cowboys stunning they didn’t really do anything in the off season draft wise we’ll see but CD lamb wants to get paid and he ain’t paid as of this recording Dak Prescott makes a million dollar or gazillion dollars million dollars a [ __ ] in today’s NFL he’s one of the highest paain and he’s going to get paid again I don’t think he’s worth it Dallas has got some holes Michael Parson is the you know he’s he’s amazing but there’s a lot of holes on the Cowboys I think I think they’re going to make the playoffs is they in my third tier here they’re a good paper team but I just don’t believe in the Dallas Cowboys I just don’t all right so we’re down now to our top two tiers the first one is legitimate Super Bowl candidates these are teams that don’t need to have all kinds of crazy [ __ ] happened for them to be square in the mix to be a legitimate Super Bowl Contender these are teams that I feel if they could stay relatively major catastrophe injuryf free if they play to the best of their abilities these are all teams that I could very much see played in the Super Bowl this year and I got five teams that Detroit Lions the Houston Texans the Buffalo Bills the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals let’s start with the fact that three of these teams Detroit Houston and Green Bay kind of sucked like just two years ago well Detroit didn’t suck they kind of came close to making the playoffs they they lasted until like the second week of second last week of the season two years ago but didn’t they knock Aaron Rogers out of the playoffs on the road then the season in 2022 they did anyway you get my point holy [ __ ] Detroit Houston Green Bay two teams that have come an awful awful long way in the short amount of period of time when it comes to the Houston Texans again 12 months ago this team was drafting second a rookie quarterback back and man oh man do you think Carolina wishes they can go back and get CJ shroud right now but anyway look at what they did they came on like Gang Busters and before you know it you blink your eye and they won the AFC South you blink your eye again and they win a playoff game they get to the AFC divisional round they are a an exciting good good football team and because they got an elite quarterback quarterback who’s pretty much already Elite even though he’s only going in a year or two he’s on a rookie contract they’re able to go out and do a lot of [ __ ] to improve their roster right now because they got that luxury of that quarterback on a rookie contract Buffalo Bills fans you know what that’s like when Josh Allen used to be cheap back in the day but you’re able to go trade for Stefon digs you’re able to go get a denell hunter those are things you could do because of your salary cap situation so you got Stroud you got Nico Collins you got tank Dell who was a start as a rookie and now you got Stefon Diggs too you got Joe Mixon running the football now I like Devin single ter he’s good but Joe Mixon is a straight up upgrade that offense is loaded and I got D Chila resigned him too that offense on paper is as good as any offense in the NFL right now straight up and then you go to the defensive side of the ball and they got some pieces there Stingley is a really good Corner got bookhead defensive end now you got Will Anderson going into year two and you got denell Hunter Detroit absolutely or not Detroit Houston absolutely deserves to be on this list ranked really high Detroit Lions should have went to the Super Bowl last year they blew it they blew it the NFC championship game in Frisco they had that game won Josh Reynolds a couple of huge drops and you know a mistake a fumble couple bad bad decisions a couple bad plays execution I should say not NE necessarily bad decisions or play just bad execution and Detroit easily could have been in the Super Bowl they didn’t get worse so they’re right there where they deserved to be Jordan love what a revelation he became last year there were a lot of question marks about Jordan love and now look at him one year later what a good run he had he heated up those receivers heated up the the defense play well they went into Dallas they smacked the living [ __ ] out of Dallas in the playoffs and they very easily could have beat Frisco in the divisional rounds so those three teams to me deserve to be in a list of now legitimate Super Bowl contenders some people might think Cincinnati shouldn’t be this High I couldn’t agree less that that’s your thought process because to me Joe burrow is a top three quarterback in the NFL and he’s healthy hopefully he’s healthy for for cityy fans and he stays healthy which is not a given because now he’s had two significant injuries but a Joe burrow quarterback Cincinnati Bengals team is one of the best teams in the NFL and you still got chased and for now at least you might not be happy but T Higgins is there they drafted buron from Alabama I like that receiver a lot their offense is going to be really good their defense has been very good now for a couple of seasons and they don’t back down against these good teams I mean let’s just keep [ __ ] kind of real here folks the Bengals have beaten the [ __ ] out of the Buffalo Bills the last two times they played them and quite frankly were it not for the the tragedy that happened on the field with dear Hamlin they were well on their way to beating the [ __ ] out of the bills that night as well so they got the bills number right now at least anyway they do and they fight and play the Chiefs toe to- toe so they’re right there they’re in the mix and as long as Joe burrow is is healthy You’ be a fool not to have him this high on your list and then last is the Buffalo Bills again with no Deep dive discussion about the team because you already know about the team I’ll just add this just like I said with Joe Burl I’m gonna say the same thing with Josh Allen the bills aren’t a team and I I mentioned Mina KES earlier in the episode of appearing with Anthony Brasa and I cover one show she talked about it on the clip and uh I agree with it fully the bills aren’t really it’s not about schemes you got a quarterback it’s about your quarterback being great and Josh Allen is still you know God willing he stays healthy is going to be great whether he’s throwing the ball to Stefan digs or Gabe Davis whether he’s throwing the football to Curtis Samuel khil Shakir D Kade Dalton Knox Keon Coleman mvs Chase Claypool for all we know James C whoever it may be Josh Allen running the football with his legs Josh Allen is going to make plays Josh Allen is good enough to put a team on his back and win 10 to 13 games because he’s the better quarterback on the field and he’s going to play better and he’s going to make the place and that’s not even saying or it goes without saying I should say the bills defense is still good you know there’s a reception around the NFL media nationally that the bills have lost a lot that it’s a down year and a lot of the reason why people were saying that is because they traded Stefon digs and they let Gabe Davis walk and they cut Mitch Moors you can make a case for me on the offensive side of the ball although I just literally got done telling you Josh Allen is capable of carrying an offense to 10 11 12 even 13 wins in the season because he’s Josh Allen and that’s just facts but what I think the disconnect is where I think the misperception is where I think you’re wrong is people are saying because the Bills lost Micah Hyde because the Bills lost Jordan puter because the Bills lost Trey white that this defense is not as good and that’s why I think you’re wrong I think the bills defense is going to be as good and maybe better than it’s been in recent years I don’t think the safety tandem of Taylor rap and Mike Edwards is even necessarily a downgrade from Hy and puyer and I know some people are like what especially National people look this ain’t 2021 2022 no more it’s 2024 Edwards and R are not great players but they’re fine Jordan player mik hide I don’t know how much juice is left there how much gas is even left in that tank they’re names names would always mean you’re great players how many teams how many sports do you know that you follow where you love a player but you know he’s at the end of the road he’s still on the team but he’s not the same player any more I think that’s what the bills had at safety at this point Trey white I love Trey white but man he’s been hurt majorly two times in three years and he’s had four healthy games in three seasons I mean come on rasul Douglas is a really good Corner Christian Benford is on a come up Christian Benford is starting to become one of the better young Corners in the league Matt Milano again lots of injury questions just like with the Jets but Milano a healthy man Milano week one combined with an ascending Chell Bernard that’s an upgraded linebacker teron Johnson is still there he’s one of the best nickels in the NFL he’s literally an all proo Corner Ed Oliver is still good Von Miller is all the way back from an injury probably shouldn’t even played much if at all last year he sucked he was trash all season but playoff time he started showing glimpses that Kansas City Chiefs game he was arguably not arguably he was the best pass rusher that the bills had that game so now you get him back healthy 100% Greg Roso still young he’s ascending there’s a lot of Talent on the bills defense so people out there right now are writing the bills off I just think it’s foolish between the bills having a really good defense and an all World level quarterback wow I just got pretty fired up there on that rant but the bills absolutely deserve to be on this list that’s not me being a homer that’s me just keeping [ __ ] as far as I’m conern 100% real but they’re not on my top tier my top tier are the Super Bowl favorites these are the three teams where if your life was at stake and you had to pick right now in early June and by the way I’ve said it’s only May a couple times on this show it’s June folks but if you’re life depending right now in early June in properly and accurately predicting who is going to win the Super Bowl and your life depends on it your health depends on it to me it’s three teams it’s Kansas City it’s Frisco and it’s Philly start with Philly they’re just too damn loaded to not be at the very top of this list they made the Super Bowl two years ago they disappointed last year jayen Herz was hurt played hurt they fell apart but man that team is loaded there’s just not a lot of weak spots other than sen losing Jason Kelce hurts them but they are so good AJ Brown Devonte Smith come on they don’t get better that receiver one two that’s as good as anybody in the league the offensive line still really good and that defense is just ferocious and that secondary just literally had two day one starters in this draft just fall into their laps that defensive line is monstrous they’re well coached they got big game experienced they’re battle tested Philly needs to be at the top Frisco to me is on paper the best team in the NFL thought that last year really surprised still surprised now in June that they did not win the Super Bowl top to bottom you know Brock py might not be the greatest quarterback in the in the league but he certainly fits that team in that system well best running back got auk and Debo and KD good offensive line and defense for days best linebacker probably in the NFL to keep going on and on one of the best defensive lines in the NFL San Francisco 49ers to me best team on paper got to have them there and then last but not least of course the Kansas City Chiefs look they’re back to back Super Bowl champs now folks they’ve done it two years in a row and they did it in a season where the offense kind of sucked let’s just call what it is they didn’t get [ __ ] from their wide receivers Travis Kelce didn’t do [ __ ] till counted of course and he steps up like he always does that team now is built primarily on defense we don’t talk about how good the chief’s defense is you know we always talk about Patrick Mahomes being the best quarterback in the world and he is he definitely is but it’s that defense they won that championship last year because of their defense and they’re still going to be really really good even without the top Corner they’re still going to be really good getting Chris Jones back for them was huge and then they go out and they sign Hollywood Brown they trade up with the bills they get Xavier worthy so now they got lightning speed for days not to mention Rashi re and of course Kelsey’s still there that offense is going to be really good kind of feels like last year was the year where if you’re going to if you’re the bills you’re the Bengals you’re the you’re the Ravens you’re the Texans last year felt like on paper that was your year to really knock them off and nobody did it now can they be knocked off still absolutely of course they can but now I’m not sure on paper there’s any team that’s better than them and as right now on the field there’re certainly not any team that’s better than them because they won the the last two Super Bowls anyway that’s going to do it for this episode I like doing these These are fun I want to know what you think what teams did I have too high did I have too low again you can leave a comment in the uh on the YouTube section if you’re watching this on video if you’re listening to this you want to reach out tweet at me Patrick morand TV or you can email me talking Buffalo podcast gmail.com thank you very much everybody as always for tuning in for watching for listening I do appreciate you till next time take care [Music]