00:00So we're a week away from Football Friday where we really get into the games, but I thought,
00:06why don't we start taking a little sneak peek at some of the games coming up in less than
00:13a week?
00:15Of course, the season starts on Wednesday, EB, and it's the Patriots against the Seahawks,
00:22so a Super Bowl rematch, Patriots' big move this offseason was adding A.J. Brown, so
00:31we will see if their offense is improved.
00:34They also add Romeo Dobbs, another high-profile wide-out signing to give Drake May even more
00:41weaponry heading into year three.
00:43That's what you should do with your young quarterbacks in the NFL.
00:46And what's your headline move for the Seahawks?
00:49Losing Kenneth Walker?
00:50They also lose Kubiak as their offensive coordinator.
00:53That's a big loss as well.
00:55They draft Jadarian Price in the first round, the lesser-known Notre Dame running back outside
01:00of Jeremiah Love.
01:04So there might be some growing pains there with a new offensive coordinator in town.
01:08So that is a Wednesday night game.
01:12It's going to be on NBC 820 kick.
01:16So late one on Wednesday if you watch the whole game, which I will.
01:20Unless it's a blowout.
01:22Thursday night, it's a Netflix game, EB.
01:268.35 kick.
01:27Who brought...
01:28Do you guys remember off the top of your head who broadcasts the Netflix games, Cakes?
01:31Do you remember off the top of your head?
01:33What do you mean?
01:34Oh, the...
01:35Is it Collinsworth?
01:36I can't even remember.
01:37No, Collinsworth's NBC.
01:38Who's on Netflix?
01:39They used to have Richard Sherman and Fitzpatrick.
01:44Your boy Fitzy was part of the crew.
01:47But I don't know.
01:48He's like a studio guy.
01:49But I thought they were on Prime.
01:51I think you're getting your streamers next to Noah.
01:54Is it Noah Eagle, Luke Keekly, Tom Pelissero?
01:57Those guys?
01:58That's what it looks like.
01:59That sounds right.
02:00Yeah.
02:00Yeah, you're right.
02:01I got them all confused.
02:02I remember Noah from the Christmas game.
02:05That's Ian Eagle's son?
02:06Yeah.
02:07I mean, he's a stud.
02:07Yeah.
02:08Yeah.
02:08He's really good.
02:09And how is Luke Keekly?
02:11He's good?
02:11We like him?
02:12I don't know that I've seen Luke Keekly do any NFL.
02:15He might be new.
02:16Yeah.
02:16Yeah.
02:16But this, of course, is a tasty affair in the division.
02:20A lot of people saying the Rams could run the table, which seems ridiculous.
02:24You add Aaron Donald into the defensive mix with Miles Garrett, who they traded for.
02:29Do you think he will play?
02:30Do you think he'll make the trip?
02:32Yes.
02:32You do?
02:32You think he will make the trip to Australia?
02:34Okay.
02:35I think he will play 49ers.
02:40Had a lot of injuries last year, but I think Kyle Shanahan has the edge in head-to-head matchups
02:46against McVeigh.
02:51Although McVeigh has the Super Bowl scoreboard.
02:53Kittle is making the trip.
02:54I don't know how much he's going to play, if he's even going to play.
02:58And they've had issues injury-wise this offseason.
03:02Mike Evans, he's had a myriad of different injuries, but it looks like he's a go.
03:08And Christian McCaffrey was dealing with quote-unquote tightness during training camp.
03:13Shocker.
03:14But it looks like he should be a full go for that game on Thursday.
03:17Now, he had a down year in terms of yards per carry last year.
03:22Yeah, I think he averaged like 3.7, 3.8 yards per carry, but he made up for that for
03:27his involvement
03:27in the passing game where he was heavily targeted, heavily used in that offense.
03:31So, two tasty matchups to start the season with Patriots-Seahawks opening it up on Wednesday
03:37night at Lumen Field, and then the Thursday night game, of course, in Melbourne, Australia.
03:45Rams getting a lot of, I don't know if it's criticism, but a lot of questions about the
03:51fact that they're just flying in 24 hours early.
03:55So, we'll see what happens there in the 49ers-Rams.
03:58Hold on, hold on, hold on.
03:59Maybe I misread it, but are they doing it like in phases, which makes more sense?
04:06That I'm not aware of.
04:07Like, in other words, are they flying maybe halfway, and then they're going to do the last
04:11part?
04:11I don't know.
04:12Maybe I made that up.
04:14Yeah, I don't know.
04:14Okay.
04:15I've not seen anything about that.
04:17Okay.
04:18What I did see is that when they went to London, apparently they did the same thing.
04:22Now, maybe the time difference isn't quite as much.
04:24Which is totally different.
04:25And the distance may not be quite as much, but LA to London, that's not a short trip.
04:30Listen, I know it's been proven that you can kind of get away with it if you swoop in
04:33and get out.
04:34Get in and get out.
04:35You kind of dodge a lot of that stuff.
04:36But, man, that just seems like such a stark difference in time zones.
04:40I don't know.
04:41We'll see.
04:41So, the Commander's Eagles game, of course, kicks off at 425.
04:44Do you want some of the tasty games at 1 o'clock?
04:46I would love to hear the appetizers.
04:50So, Bucs are playing the Bengals.
04:53Baker Mayfield apparently is gambling on himself, right?
04:56He hasn't signed an extension.
04:57He didn't like how things went.
04:58It sounds like it's been shelved for now between him and the team.
05:02We heard the comments.
05:03He was pissed about it.
05:04Felt disrespected.
05:06So, Joe Burrow against Baker in that game.
05:10I like Baker.
05:11I'm sorry.
05:12He's cocky.
05:14I like him.
05:15I just like him.
05:16You get to see Jesse Minter, new era, for the Baltimore Ravens as they head to take on
05:23the Colts.
05:24Mm-hmm.
05:25So far, the early indication is that the Colts are looking great.
05:28So, I would think they would take care of business there, don't you?
05:31There's a lot of buzz on Declan Doyle.
05:33People are already basically saying he's going to be a head coach at this time next year.
05:40And I think he'll be.
05:40He's a Ben Johnson disciple?
05:42I'm not sure the tree that he comes off of.
05:45He's a Ben Johnson guy, but he's 29 years old.
05:47Yeah.
05:47And it sounds like there's a buzz around the offense that it's going to look a lot
05:52different than in years past.
05:53So, I mean, if that Ravens offense is clicking, they'll still have a heavy emphasis on the
05:58running game.
05:59But I think Lamar might be opening up more in the passing game.
06:02Oh, Lamar is speaking super confidently.
06:04He's saying the league isn't ready for what they're going to unveil in the regular season.
06:09Valdez, correct me if I'm wrong, though.
06:10Declan Doyle hasn't called plays in the NFL?
06:12No.
06:13Because Ben Johnson was calling the plays.
06:15Yeah.
06:15It's kind of a weird move for Doyle.
06:18Yeah.
06:18Because it's kind of like a lateral move.
06:20Mm-hmm.
06:21He was the OC in Chicago last year.
06:24Yes.
06:24But he's getting more responsibility.
06:27Right.
06:27Because Ben was overshadowing everything that he was doing.
06:30So, I would say those are the two best one o'clock games before the Commanders play because
06:36some of the other matchups are kind of does.
06:38Bill's Texans is pretty good.
06:39Yeah, Bill's Texans is decent.
06:41That's a pretty tasty AFC first week matchup.
06:43Saints-Lions, meh.
06:45Jets-Titans, meh.
06:47Well, Saints-Lions, there could be a lot of scoring in that game because the Lions have
06:51issues on their defense, especially in the secondary.
06:54That could be a lot of back and forth in that game.
06:58Inside, two dome teams going at it.
07:00Could be a sleepy, fun game.
07:02One other thing I wanted to bring up, ESPN.com put out an article by Ben Solak.
07:112026 NFL season, X-Factors, key players for all 32 teams.
07:16Care to guess who the X-Factor they have for the Washington Commanders?
07:20Ooh, Chig.
07:22Offensive or defensive?
07:23Can you give me that hint?
07:24It is an offensive player.
07:27So it's not, it's got to be Chig.
07:28Or are they going to say Bill?
07:29It's got to be Chig.
07:30I'm going to say it's Diggs.
07:34Not Diggs or Chig?
07:36No, hold on.
07:37Define X-Factor.
07:39When I think of X-Factor, I think of...
07:41Define X-Factor.
07:42Well, I mean, yeah.
07:43For me, X-Factor is kind of like that extra ingredient that you weren't thinking about.
07:49Somebody under the radar.
07:50A little under the radar.
07:51Yeah.
07:52Okay, so I'll just read what Ben Solak writes about X-Factors.
07:56He says, last year's X-Factors featured Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III, Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens, Patriots wide
08:03receiver Stefan Diggs.
08:04It's not just the good ones who are winners, unfortunately.
08:08I've got a second guess.
08:10Go ahead.
08:11Rashad White.
08:12Oh, no.
08:13I got a third guess.
08:14Antonio Williams.
08:16So that's four guys on the board.
08:18We haven't gotten a...
08:19It's almost too obvious.
08:21If they're going to say Terry, or if they say Terry, or Jayden, if they're going to say Jayden, that's
08:26insane.
08:27Bill.
08:27Seven.
08:28I already said Bill.
08:29Keep going.
08:30Ben's in it.
08:31Eight.
08:32Running out of offensive skill players.
08:34It's somebody that we've talked about a lot, even on today's show.
08:38Oh, Allegretti.
08:39Nick Allegretti.
08:40Oh, my God.
08:41Of course it's Allegretti.
08:42It's all Allegretti all the time.
08:44You know what?
08:45I'm sick of talking about centers.
08:47I hate...
08:48Sick of talking about Allegretti.
08:49I hate national narratives.
08:51God, I hate him.
08:52Go ahead.
08:53I thought he was a skill player.
08:54He's not a skill player.
08:55I said offensive player.
08:57It's lame.
08:58He writes,
08:58One of the more surprising moves of the 2026 offseason was the commander's releasing starting center, Tyler Biotich.
09:03I agree with that.
09:04He was older, 28, and approaching the end of his deal, sure, but they didn't get much cap relief from
09:09releasing him, and his play was not so deteriorated that he was unplayable.
09:12Even more surprising was the commander's lack of a plan to account for his release.
09:16They moved veteran interior swingman Allegretti to the pivot, drafted a six-round rookie, and called it a day.
09:22Allegretti has mostly been a backup since entering the league in 2019, and only 171 of his 2,432 career
09:30snaps, 7%, have been at center.
09:32That's fine.
09:34NFL player, he's going to be fine.
09:36Let's hope that's the case.
09:37He's done it before.
09:39He's got 3,000-some-odd-stop, whatever it is, in the league.
09:41He's not going to be overwhelmed.
09:44He might be overwhelmed by Jalen Carter, but not by the position.
09:48I don't think.
09:51Well, if he's flat on his back in week one, and he's got a Jalen Carter cleat mark in his
09:56chest on his way to sacking Jaden a bunch of times.
09:59It's not going to be a great look.
10:00Then we're going to have questions.
10:02It's Ben Solak's X-Factor.
10:04Hold on.
10:04I don't think he's going to have his best game of the year against the Eagles, but I think he'll
10:10be okay.
10:10He kind of needs to.
10:11I think he'll be okay.
10:131-800-636-1067.
10:15If you're going to chime in, do you agree?
10:17Ben Solak, who says, Nick Allegretti is the X-Factor to the Commander's season.
10:22We're the Junkies.
10:23Be right back.
