The Most Interesting Teams Tiers with J.J. Jansen

24:36but I'm not going to argue with you. I just think there's a better spot for it.

24:40Jourdan Rodrigue:Well, I am also way lower on Jackson dart overall than, than you are. But that was to me, the giants are interesting enough without him. Uh, and to, to really make this year. That was the goal. Interesting. So, okay. If I'm going to give you bears in tier four, which we could compromise on, I could give you bears in tier four. And again, tier four is Danny DeVito shaking his head. Dot Jeff becoming invested and interested in this team may ultimately hurt me. and yet I cannot help myself. I think that's fair. I think that's a good place to put the Bears. You then have to give me Raiders in tier one.

25:13Jourdan Rodrigue:Utmost interest. Utmost interest and confusion. This is Tenet, right? This is not the Odyssey. It's kind of the Odyssey, honestly. This is not, you know, the Dark Knight. This is, I don't know what the hell these guys are going to be, but I'm so interested in seeing what the hell these guys are going to be because I like the coach. I like Clint Kubiak. I like his system. I think that they're doing the right thing in terms of not rushing Fernando Mendoza into QB one stuff. I think that having the floor raising backup in Kirk Cousins is really, really solid. I don't really care if he's a mentor to Fernando Mendoza or not.

25:53Jourdan Rodrigue:It's helpful to have somebody who's seen that much football in your quarterback room as you're breaking down week to week game plan and game film. And I think this defense, I think defense is going to improve. I thought they had a rocking off season. And I just think that the, the potential and the variance for this team is so all over the map, but it trends positively that I am going to insist that they are, that they are in tier one. I have no argument with you. I thought there are 2024 into 25 off season made no sense. I didn't understand the combination and it sort of played out that way. this combination of coach quarterback and plan makes way more sense to me they coming out of 24 their offensive line was not particularly good they didn't improve the offensive line and then drafted a running back in the top 10 an awesome running back but they didn't improve the offensive line this year they go out and get tyler lindenbaum they spend a bunch of money in free agency they obviously draft mendoza first overall and i'm with you i love clint kubiak i think it fits well with what a young quarterback can do.

27:00Run the ball, keep everything simpler as a young guy is learning and developing. I'm still a big Kirk Cousins fan. Paying Kirk Cousins$10 million to play quarterback is way different than paying him 40.

27:11Jourdan Rodrigue:Yes. And so I think he's playing really good football. Good math, JJ. Great math. Yeah, the math is mathing over here. You know, as a Panther fan, when the Falcons signed Kirk Cousins and then draft Michael Penix, I'm like, this is great. They're using all their resources on one position and there's a lot of chaos. I'm a huge Kirk Cousins fan. He played really well down the stretch. So if he's playing for them, he'll be in a good spot and he can certainly win games in the fourth quarter for you. He did a last year, helped us out in a big win at Tampa. So I'm with you. No argument for me on Christopher Nolan and I get Chicago in my Danny DeVito category.

27:48So I'm win-win.

27:49Jourdan Rodrigue:I kind of love that it's that Chicago, the Bears are in the Danny. The more I think about it, the more I love it. Okay, I want your, we now need a third team in tier one. If you have one, if you have another nomination for tier one, I'm putting the Buffalo bills. Whoa. Things changed for them very quickly. You know, there's a lot of Carolina connections. I was a huge Sean McDermott fan. Still am huge. Brandon bean fan, Joe Brady. All the Carolina guys are up there. DJ more. I love so much of what they're doing, but they're, they're in a position now where the stress is high, right? You have a future hall of fame quarterback and you've now switched head coaches.

28:31You've given him the offensive coordinator as the head coach and quietly and kind of without any real awareness, they went from running that division to the Patriots go and go to the super bowl. And they've got a rookie quarterback on a, on a young deal. And, and one of the very best head coaches in the league. So So this is a big year for them. You can feel the pressure building up in Buffalo. But again, they got easily one of the top three players in the whole league. They got an offensive head coach now and the pressure to win is now. But they've got the goods to go. So I think it's going to be great.

29:04I'll be fascinated to see how the dynamic changes going from Sean McDermott to Joe Brady, defensive coach to offensive coach. How does that unlock Josh Allen? That'll be very interesting to me. but I'm a big bills fan, but my eyes are going to be on them all season.

29:18Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. I think this team gets tier one for complexity in terms of, um, will they or won't they sort of energy and the, the dynamic and sort of the tight rope act that they're going to have to walk the entire way through because the pressure is so intense up there with Josh Allen and his prime years. I really liked Jim Leonard, the defensive coordinator. I like some of the things that staff wise that I think I was pleasantly surprised to see a coach as young as Joe Brady be able to assemble a staff that has like really, really good reputation top to bottom across the league. Having some Sean Payton ties in there on offense, I think is really important.

29:57Jourdan Rodrigue:And then getting kind of like the defensive coordinator that a lot of people were trying to hire, but just wasn't available for a few years. I thought that was important too. So yeah, I agree with you here. I put them here. I'm also going to put the Eagles in tier one. I feel like, again, in terms of utmost interest and I think potential complexity, because is there a more like visibly complicated team in the NFL, like overtly audibly visibly, uh, emotionally complicated team in the NFL? And, and it's a huge year for Nick Sirianni, uh, you know, that building, they are not shy about making changes, maybe even before they need to make changes.

30:39Jourdan Rodrigue:Howie Roseman is the entire brand up there and he has the utmost trust and, uh, and buy-in from Jeffrey Lurie. Um, this is a massive year for, for Jalen Hurts. I don't think that is a secret at all. Sean Mannion is there now. So this is really the first time we're going to see a, an offshoot or a pollination of the, uh, really the LaFleur branch of the Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan system, the LeFleur branch being, I think, a little bit even more tight end friendly before McVay became tight end friendly and pulling some of that old like Kubiak stuff, blending in some of that Rogers stuff that he learned in his first like sort of very compromised couple of seasons, working with Aaron Rogers there in Green Bay.

31:23Jourdan Rodrigue:And then Sean Mannion really, I think, is going to be a gift for the receivers in the passing game, especially in terms of just some of the layers that he wants to set up and you hear really good things about just some of the, the ideas and the receivers that are there now are talking about him. Obviously a lot of change in that room with AJ Brown, no longer there. And it's really going to be the first time we see one of these like very young pollinations of that system paired with the OG Vic Fangio, like the OG knife in the heart defensive system, Vic Fangio. I love that. I'm so interested just as a geek.

31:57Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm so interested in that. I'm fascinated by that. I think that the Eagles have among the highest or the largest variants in terms of what they could be versus what they might be. So that's very interesting to me as well. So yeah, I emphatically nominate them for the Christopher Nolan. I'm doing the passive aggressive mom thing right now. I'm like, well, if you want dessert after dinner, you can't have a cookie now, you know? That's right. Yeah. At our house with our kids, it usually utter chaos just breaks out and desserts happening before, after, and during dinner, I was struggling with where to put the Eagles because I'm not going to argue with you.

32:37I think the, I've, the reason I've struggled to emphatically put them into tier one was I feel like so much of the complexity revolved around AJ Brown. Like what is AJ Brown and Jalen hurts connection? How are they feeling about things? How does that relate to Nick Sirianni? What's big Dom's role in all of this? Like I think that added to a lot of the complexity, I think with, with the trade and they, they get the first round pick back and a fifth round, or I feel like things have settled a little bit. I think there's some of the tension is gone, but you hit it right on the screw. Like it is a unique environment up in Philly.

33:12Like clearly one of the few places that the general manager is running the team and makes it very well known. That is a unique environment. I've always thought that when the head coach runs the show and the GM's kind of the number two, that was the healthiest environment. Philly has been able to buck the trend. Nick Sirianni is a Superbowl winning head coach, but everyone talks about Howie Roseman first and Nick Sirianni second. So that's an element of complexity for them. And again, you said it right. It's a big year for Jalen hurts. It was up and down last year. He certainly has all the talent around him that he's had, but that offensive line's getting a little bit older and got a little more beat up.

33:47Things have changed there. And then the NFL, you are constantly having to evolve. And I think they saw a big jump, you know, in, in the Superbowl years with Jalen hurts. Now we're asking him to make another big jump in a division with Jane Daniels and Dak Prescott and, uh, and Jackson dart. So, uh, I couldn't really find a spot to put them. So I'm not going to argue with you there. I think whenever, uh, Philadelphia is on the scene, they're going to be of interest. And, uh, I think this year it'll be no different.

34:16Jourdan Rodrigue:So we've got the giants, the Raiders, the bills and the Eagles so far in tier one, uh, teams of utmost interest, complexity, or confusion in a good way. Um, quickly, do you have other nominations here? You can throw a bunch at me at once. I'll do the same. Uh, we got to fill out tier one before we jumped to tier two here. All right. The last one that I was really feeling pretty good about was the Minnesota Vikings. Ooh. So here's, here's my reasons for this. Obviously we have a quarterback controversy, but that being said, Kyler Murray, JJ McCarthy, like, I think it's kind of interesting. They went nine and eight last year and basically had a dysfunctional quarterback room, just all of the things.

35:00And I'm not, I'm not commenting on JJ McCarthy or, or anyone else that played like it was just dysfunction. They go from Sam Darnold who wins 14 games. He's leading Seattle to a Superbowl. And you're like, oh man, the Vikings are a mess. And then you wake up and they're nine and eight. And they had the seventh best record in the NFC. Obviously they didn't make the playoffs, but they've got that. And that Brian Flores defense is nasty. They continue to be really good. I think Kevin O 'Connell is one of the very best. So to me in a division that there's a lot of good football teams, but if Kyler Murray, I'm assuming he's going to win the job.

35:35If Kyler Murray at a million dollars can play good football with that defense and you have Justin Jefferson and you have Kevin O 'Connell pulling the strings, I think they could get back to having a really good year. I think it's interesting in a guy like Kyler Murray. It's like, man, he struggled in Arizona. But the reality was he was like 10 games under 500. He was 38 and 48 as a starter in Arizona in his seven years. Everybody else was five and 25. Arizona has really struggled. And the biggest criticism of Kyler Murray is, well, he's not a great leader. Well, when you show up to a new team, you're not being asked to be a leader.

36:10He just asked to play quarterback. And so I think that's going to be a really good fit. They've got a ton of good pieces. They got great coaching on both sides of the ball. And so I think there's going to be a complex element. Like Brian Flores has been running one of the very best defenses for the last three or four years and all the attentions over right now on the offense and getting that fixed. If that works out, it's going to be really good. If not, does that turn into like the Baltimore Ravens of the two thousands where it's like the defense is unbelievable in their top three every year.

36:40If you just fix the offense, we, we win 14 games and we go to a, do an NFC championship game. So I think that's where the complexity comes in. And then, Hey, the last piece of confusion, JJ McCarthy, top 10 pick. What is he? There's been a lot of Quesi, uh, used a ton of draft capital. They're got to salvage it. There's a lot of layers to that. So I put the Vikings in tier one.

37:01Jourdan Rodrigue:Wouldn't you potentially agree, though, that everything you just said belongs in the Danny DeVito shaking his head dot gif category? Because now, listen, I know I you know, I have more normie friends than you. Some of these are Vikings fans. OK, and I'm just telling you the the vibe and our my colleague Alec Lewis just did a great fan survey over at The Athletic. And the number one catchphrase that he saw was pessimistically optimistic. And so I think, for example, that becoming invested and interested in this team may ultimately hurt me. That is what I think about the 2026 Minnesota Vikings, because because JJ, I agree with you.

37:42Jourdan Rodrigue:I agree with you. I think Kyler Murray is going to be great with Kevin O 'Connell. I love Brian Flores' defense. I also love the retaining Brian Flores and continuing to let him basically just hole up on one side of the building and cook and bring these like master schematic advantages out of his players and and collaborate like the total mad scientist we rarely get to see that in the professional sport anymore I absolutely love that new GM I really like Nolan Teasley I just I don't really know yet first of all how much weight he is going to carry in terms of that power infrastructure now that might work for the better as you said I agree with you I think a lot of times works really well when the head coach is the dominant voice in that particular relationship.

38:27Jourdan Rodrigue:But I don't know if I can put my faith into this team without getting hurt because all that has happened over the last, oh, I don't know, 30 years. That's true. Is that I will only get hurt by this team. If you're looking at historical Vikings, you're right. That does feel like I'm thinking 2026 Vikings. All I have is data. All I have is data, right? I bet you most Vikings fans are putting it in tier four. Vikings fans are putting it in tier four. So how about you give me the Vikings. I gave you the Bears. You give me the Vikings in tier four. Danny DeVito shaking his head. Dot GIF becoming invested and interested in this team may ultimately hurt me.

39:07Jourdan Rodrigue:And yet I cannot help myself.

39:14Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm going to throw two more. Well, I'm going to throw three teams at you. You can say yes, no. I'm not going to go into a ton of explanation for time. We're going to get to tier two here in a second. I'm going to throw three more that I had as potential tier one candidates. Now you can, you can just auto veto or auto agree with, with any of these, right? Um, I so bestow that power unto you. Thank you. okay. I'm going to put the Detroit lions in tier one. I think they're one of the most interesting stories in the NFL this year. Bounce back year. Absolutely necessary. Entering Dura Goff's prime years, new coordinator, Andrew Petsing, who I absolutely love and think that, again, similar to Kyler, just Arizona, that funk just could not shake some of that funk.

40:00Jourdan Rodrigue:Defense has to get better. Obviously, they're dealing with some off the field personnel situations here. Pass rush has to get better. This is a team where Dan Campbell literally said, I had to burn myself to ash in order to, like quoting Nietzsche, that's like a normie literature reference. I know Nietzsche. I went, I went to Notre Dame. You went to Notre Dame. No, that was more in the Jesuit high school that I went to. Oh, sure. Brophy prep. Yeah. Shout out. Phoenix, Arizona. I would put the Lions in this, in this category. And I'll just give you all three. I would put the Chargers in the utmost interest category because Mike McDaniel, come on.

40:40Jourdan Rodrigue:Mike McDaniel getting these two tackles back and that run game and the absolute sheer, like size, speed, power. and then by the way factor in the quarterback who is living his best life and I always think you get a bump if you're living your best life uh as you're as a quarterback um and then I also put the Cowboys here I love what Clayton Adams does as the offensive coordinator I think he is so underrated across the league the Cowboys Brian Schottenheimer did a really smart thing when he hired an offensive line oriented offensive coordinator knowing that he'd get maybe at least another year with this guy before he'd be getting head coaching traction because OL coaches never get the head coaching traction.

41:17Jourdan Rodrigue:Christian Parker to me is going to be a home run higher. He is the number one Vic Fangio disciple here. He's the guy Vic Fangio tried to bring with him at every stop for several years. And I just, I really, really liked the potential. We saw the defense come back together and play pretty well at the end of last season. I liked the moves they made this off season. I liked their passing game. I liked their running game. I liked their offensive line. I love their quarterback. So I'm going to put in terms of utmost interest, those three teams I would, I would propose as tier one teams. What say you?

41:51All right. So the chargers are in, I'm with you. I'm all in on Mike McDaniel, Jim Harbaugh. I, I can't imagine the conversations that are happening. I feel like, uh, was that Joey, Joey Molinaro? Like, I feel like all season long, there's going to be a spoofs on the Harbaugh, Mike McDaniel conversation. I can only imagine how good that's going to be. So no argument for me on the chargers. I would put the lions down a tier in that second cup of coffee that we're going to get to in a second. I find them to be a really good team. That's, that's a little, that's a little boring, right? Like, and there's, and that's not a criticism.

42:33They've been able to be very consistent. Like, you know, Where are we now in 2026? The Detroit lions are a consistent football team and they've done this for the last handful of years. They have a great culture, but to me, it's not particularly interesting. Ben Johnson was the one that I always thought was kind of the interesting factor in that whole place. The way the offense went, certainly Dan Campbell's one of the top five head coaches in the NFL, the culture, the personality, the game management and decision-making. But to me, I kind of know what the lions are. There's no confusion for me of what they are.

43:06they're a really good team that's probably going to win between 10 and 12 games and you're not going to want to play them and um so i put them there the cowboys is the one where i'm struggling because i feel like the cowboys get a lot of national attention we all know that i don't just feel it we know that but they're kind of they're having a little bit more of a quieter season and maybe that's just because they're not trading my ikka parsons this year but it just

43:29Jourdan Rodrigue:Thank God you can only do that once, right? You can only do that once. And so I, I, that would be the one where I'm willing to defer to you on that one. Wait, can you just say that? I just want to hear you say that. I'm willing to defer to you on that one. That's about as passive of an acceptance as you can possibly have. So that's what we say to our kids. Like I'm willing to defer to the idea that you might want to stay up 30 minutes later to watch one more Dude Perfect or something like that. So anyways, we'll put Dallas and we'll put the Chargers in, but I'm going to bump the Lions down a tier.

44:05Jourdan Rodrigue:I could get behind that totally. So tier one, again, just to recap, tier one, we've got the Giants, the Raiders, the Bills, the Eagles, the Chargers, and the Cowboys. And we are going to take a quick break because we've got more tiers and we've also got to move. so we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to speed tier the rest of these. I am having a blast doing this so far with you. Thanks JJ.

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46:35Jourdan Rodrigue:Welcome back. Again, to remind the listener, we are doing the most interesting team tiers, a totally subjective arranging of NFL teams ahead of the 2026 season. And I am joined by the great JJ Jansen here as my co-host today. JJ, we have tier one set. We have a couple of teams in other tiers for the listener so that we can get reorganized. I'm going to introduce what the rest of the tiers are. Now we know that tier four already is Danny DeVito shaking his head dot gif. So we have a couple of teams in there already. Tier two, which we're going to get to next is called second cup of coffee. And it is teams.

47:15Jourdan Rodrigue:You need a little run up to, you need to talk about a little bit to get into the rhythm. Once you get there, you're feeling really, really interested in them. Yeah, actually, this is fantastic. I feel awesome. That's second cup of coffee energy. That's what tier two will be. The Lions, as you have very well argued, are in this tier two. They're our first team of tier two. Tier three is the Larry David shrugging.jif. You know, just, yeah, I guess I could get into this. I think I can talk myself into this. We don't have any teams there yet, so just be aware that tier is available to you. Tier four, of course, Danny DeVito shaking his head.jif.

47:56Jourdan Rodrigue:becoming invested and interested in this team may ultimately hurt me. And yet I cannot help myself so far. We have the bears and the Vikings in that tier. And of course, tier five is demon. Something is way off here. I crossed the street and avoid eye contact, even though they're smiling at me, like really, really intensely. That's tier five. So know that those tears are available to listeners. If you have tier suggestions as well for teams in these categories, would love to hear from you again you cannot argue with a moving target but i would love to hear would love to hear your tears jj i would like actually from you so we have the lions in tier two i would like two teams that you would put into tier two okay so um i think this is an actually a cool combination the two teams i'd put in are my carolina panthers and the houston texans both teams a little bit different.

48:54Both teams have got a fourth year quarterback, you know, Bryce Young, number one, overall CJ Stroud, number two, overall, these are big years for their, for these teams, but there's been some struggles. CJ Stroud gets out early first year, winning a ton of games and was outstanding. And then as we got closer to the end of year three, it was clunky in the playoffs, but that defense is nasty. They got Daniel Hunter on one end, Will Anderson on the other. that's as good of a defense as there was in the NFL last year. If they can kind of fix Stroud and he can found, and he can find his, his pathway, that team's going to be really, really good.

49:29But it doesn't come off the page as some sort of dynamic team. But then you watch, you know, three or four quarters of that defense playing like, Hey, they can win any single Sunday on the other side, the Panthers, my Panthers, like we were eight and nine last year. We win the division in sort of this clunky backdoor way with the Falcons beating the saints, but Bryce young really came on. We saw how well he played in the playoff game versus the Rams. He beat the Rams earlier in the year. Some fourth quarter comebacks have sort of been the trademark of his career. And it feels like he's a quarterback on the Ascension Ted Rowan McMillian offensive rookie of the year.

50:04And the defense continues to get improved. Devin Lloyd, Jalen Phillips, among, amongst others. So those are the two teams. I think they don't jump off the page is super interesting to start, but as you start to think about what's to come in the 2026 season, I think there are going to be two teams that are going to kind of captivate the league just in terms of, are they going up? Are they going down? Where are they in their, in their path?

50:27Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, actually both my choices too. I had them in this tier because first of all, you know, me, I love the Panthers. I think they're interesting, but you have to almost go beyond surface level or beyond what they've been on paper in terms of when loss to actually understand like pop the hood and see what they're doing. And it is really, really interesting stuff that's happening over there in Carolina. And similar to the Texans, you know, they run their defense as the most badass defense in the NFL. And I don't expect them to regress a ton because of the talent, but also the simplicity by which they operate.

50:59Jourdan Rodrigue:They have a very specific set of rules for their defense and they just have better dudes than everybody else. And they're just freaking good. Right. And I think that improvements to the offensive line, I don't buy it as much as I think there's like a national criticism of CJ Stroud. I think that so much of what hurt him was his run game. I think you look at his explosive play rate, his downfield passing rate, his efficiency when he was able to either work out of structure within the play, within the infrastructure of the offense, but then also when he was able to actually get into rhythm. And he, to me, did not take as far a step back.

51:38Jourdan Rodrigue:I think the last couple of games were outliers. And I think he will, again, and bounce back to what we know him to be and what he really played like for most of the season. Last year, just totally hampered by one of the worst run games in the NFL last season. They've taken steps to address that, obviously, bringing over David Montgomery and then readdressing their offensive line center is a position battle they're still working through and will do so still through training camp. But this is a team full of badasses, and they're interesting to me. And they're going to be interesting to me because I also, I had them picked as a Super Bowl favorite last season.

52:13Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm interested enough still that I am going to do that again this season. I just, I really buy high on them. Other two teams that I had in this category, what do you think about this? I had the Ravens in this category because when you think about what they've been through almost, but not quite for so many years, you're like, okay. And then, you know, change over and head coach, Jesse Minter's over there. Then you think about Jesse Minter, his scheme, what he's able to do and where their biggest issues were defensively last season. And you think, OK, I could really get into this. Then you think about like Declan Doyle, who, despite his name being Declan, is like really, really getting like some some rave reviews across the NFL and also by his players.

52:56Jourdan Rodrigue:Coaches I talked to are really high on him. Very, very interested to see what he's going to do. And oh, yeah, they have Lamar freaking Jackson on on their team. The other team that I wanted to suggest for this tier are the Green Bay Packers, because they are another team that's sort of just fallen short of expectations every season. And then you remember, oh, they didn't have Tucker Craft. Oh, they didn't have Micah Parsons. Oh, their defensive coordinator now is Jonathan Gannon. And he's going to do some really interesting like odd front stuff and some interesting stuff with the coverage, which they really badly needed to address.

53:31Jourdan Rodrigue:Oh, you know, their offensive line, you know, not as good as it has been in past years of that reputationally for Green Bay. But then you think, oh, yeah, they have freaking Jordan Love, who's capable of making some of the highest ceiling throws that we see in football. And on paper, you look at kind of their the way they've stalled over the last couple of years. When you talk yourself into this team, it always starts with the guys that they will be getting back at least by October. that's when, as you know, real football starts and if not November, and that's when I think you can really get excited and have your second cup of coffee, uh, with the green Bay Packers.

54:10So I would suggest tier two lions, Panthers, Texans, Ravens, Packers.

54:16Jourdan Rodrigue:What do you think? I like that. Again, I feel like the, the Danny DeVito tier keeps pulling me back. So I, I loved the argument. It must be a generational thing, you know? Yeah. But to me, Baltimore is either tier two or tier four, right? I'm, I'm a big fan of the Ben Johnson tree. That's beginning to develop. You know, I'm a big fan of Ben Johnson. I also think Declan Doyle has got a unique advantage in that he just watched Ben Johnson go through a season with Caleb Williams, right? Jared golf is very different than Caleb Williams. Lamar Jackson is uniquely a unique talent, right? And one of the things we saw in Chicago this past year was how How do you get the quarterback to play within structure until it's time for him to take over the game?

55:02And I think that's the biggest concern I would just have for Baltimore is as we get closer to the playoffs, Lamar Jackson, the reputation is that he struggles. That's not actually what's going on. He's played quite well in the playoffs. He was in Baltimore two years ago, leading them on a comeback. Obviously there was the fumble or the drop pass at the goal line. Look, Lamar played well. He had a few like, Oh, plays, but he played well, but the reputation of him not showing up in the playoffs is a storyline that just continues to follow him until he breaks through. I think there's this feeling of, is he going to hurt me in the playoffs at the regular season?

55:42He's been one of the very best, a hall of famer for sure. I would just worry about Baltimore getting over that last hump. So I'm not going to argue too much with tier two, but I might slide them down to four and and we play Green Bay last year. They are as talented as any team in the NFC. They were the number one seed when the Panthers went in there. We won in a like a low scoring, low possession game. I think one of the things that I'd like to continue to see out of Green Bay is trusting Jordan Love. He'll throw some interceptions. He'll throw some big plays, but felt like they didn't let him throw the ball in advantageous situations enough for a player of his talent.

56:19I don't know what that is. I don't know if that's LaFleur trying to manage the game and keep things under wraps, but I know we certainly saw it when we went, we went there in Carolina. We were the underdog, I think like an eight or 10 point underdog. And we only played a seven possession game. And it was like the whole time I'm sitting on the sideline going, this is playing into our hands. And we were able to hit a field goal at the end of the game. There's a little bit of there. If you've got the guy that you have a$55 million in Jordan love, let him go take over the game. Don't ask, don't ask him to sort of manage the game.

56:51And at the end, try to turn them loose. So that would be my little issue, but I'm with you. second cup of coffee on the Packers for sure. Baltimore. I'm not going to, I'm not going to fight you, but it could be a tier four. Like they might hurt me.

57:01Jourdan Rodrigue:Well, I've got a banger for you for tier four. So if you give me Ravens in tier two, I promise is that this will work out in your favor for tier four. Another, another great Danny DeVito pick. So, okay. So I think that could close tier two for us. It'll be lions, Panthers, Texans, Ravens, Packers. And again, tier two teams, you need a little run up to conversationally to like get fired up if you're not a fan okay we're not talking about fans subjectively if you are talking about them once you really get in the weeds on them you're really interested in them and what they can be in in 2026 and you're thinking yeah this could be pretty great um the larry david shrugging dot gif uh that is tier three i think we can roll through this pretty quickly because for me these are teams like yeah obviously I'm interested in these teams, right?

57:54Jourdan Rodrigue:Like, but we talk about them all the time. And like, I'm more interested in like the variants of some, some other teams and other tiers around this. Like, like for example, I put, I put some of the absolute studs of the NFL in this category. I not only have the chiefs in this category, I have, I have the Rams in this category. I have the Seahawks in this category. I have the 49ers in this category. I have the Broncos in this category. Now this wasn't just for timing and ease. Although those are important things. If I have Greg Rosenthal in my ear, this is actually like, I just, I feel like I know what these teams are.

58:33Jourdan Rodrigue:I feel like I know what these teams are. They are the absolute bona fides of the NFL going into the season. There are very few questions in my opinion about these teams. Yeah. There's been some injury issues, all of those things, but these are teams to me that I feel really, really good about just being like, yeah, in a case of tearing into most interesting teams or least interesting teams to me, I'm good with this being the Larry David Dutchess category. I'm good with these teams being there. I think those are all good. I would just feel bad if I was a Cardinal fan because you clearly put the whole NFC West into tier three, which means, well, that is the life of the Cardinals.

59:10I mean, really as a, as a lifelong Cardinal fan growing up in Phoenix, I feel like they are destined for tier five demon. Like I, I just felt bad for them as you listed off the entire NFC West and kind of knowing the Cardinals did not fit that same profile. So that makes me a little sad. I'm I, again, I am a Cardinal fan at heart. The little boy in me growing up in Phoenix, Arizona is a Cardinal fan at heart, but I just felt bad for them. Yeah. We know what these teams are. Like we know that these guys are going to be in it at the end. again, I would just, the Rams have been so close the last couple of years.

59:47I would just, as a fan of theirs or watching them, are they going to break our heart at the end again? Like they've been so close here. Obviously McVay has, has one, one, he's been to another, but I think that's, I think that's the nature of being a fan of any team that's in it a lot is as much jubilation as there is. There's this fear of like heartbreak. So I put the Rams, clearly in tier three, but I think any Rams fan would tell you like, is there going to be another special teams blunder? Is there going to be another something at the very end? Because they're, you know, we played them last year in the playoffs.

1:00:20And I remember thinking like, man, these guys had won like 13 games. They really could have won 15, 16. Like they were so good last year and I would expect them to be good again. So famous investors of special teams. That's right. Well, you know, we don't have to get too much. I didn't even laugh.

1:00:36Jourdan Rodrigue:I couldn't even get the sense out. I will say this. I wanted to add one. I didn't, I didn't see the tears quite the same. You did as you did. I would put the Falcons in tier three, David, Larry, David shrugging. Here's the reason why, like what, what Tua did in Miami with Mike McDaniel early on was really good, right? The pieces around Tua were all there, right? And he, and he had a lot of success. And when it got in the playoffs and it got cold, as a smaller quarterback, it didn't work out, but now he's in a dome. He's in the NFC South, that division. I'm in that division. Like it's up for the taking.

1:01:12There's a lot going on. And as he comes in, he's not getting paid anything by the Falcons. They've paid Drake London. They've paid Kyle pits. Bijan Robinson is as electric as there is in the entire NFL. There's a lot of pieces. And I've always been a big fan of Kyle Stefan or Kevin Stavansky. I've always been a big fan of his and so i'd be very curious if you're a falcons fan to go hey what could this be we've got we got a lot of high-end draft picks we're basically paying our quarterbacks between pennix and two almost nothing at this point and we've got an offensive head coach that's got a lot of juice and some creativity especially if you go back and look at those first three years or so in cleveland so i'd put atlanta in there a little bit different than all the all the big boys that you put in tier three, but I think Atlanta has got a real, uh, real shot to be pretty interesting this year.

1:02:01Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm glad you did that. I would, I would agree with you on that. Um, and I like putting them in here because I also have some maybe unexpected or surprising ones that I would like to add as well to this tier. Um, and, and I agree with you. I think that it's, you can, you're like, I mean, it really is. I mean, I keep doing for viewers. I keep literally doing the thing. Like I keep literally doing the tear of the shrug for me. I'd also put the Jaguars here because I, first of all, listeners of the show know how big of a fan I have of what they're building over there. I think I know what they are.

1:02:37Jourdan Rodrigue:And I think I know what their progression is going to be because Liam Cohen is of the coaching tree that I have most closely covered in my career. I think I know how they're going to do things in their front office. I think it's interesting to me. They are a high floor team, which is why I'm like, yeah, I'd put them in here with some of the big boys as well as well um I'd also put the Patriots and the Dolphins in here now the Patriots I just can't get interested in truly but so that's kind of I just throw them in here the doll and they have the one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL so you got to put them with like some real some real contenders here the Dolphins I put in there because my description of the Larry David shrugging.gif is yeah I I guess I could get into this.

1:03:22Jourdan Rodrigue:I think I can talk myself into this. And the point in question for me is not what they're going to be this year, but what they are building into being in this sprint rebuild. We've talked a lot about it on the show. Listeners are probably tired of me using the phrase sprint rebuild, but the, the, I think they will be better than expected, especially by the middle to end of the season. And I think their build, it really makes sense to me what John Eric Sullivan is doing over there. I really understand that they're trying to establish a couple of weight-bearing walls, raise the floor with some of those players, and draft like crazy.

1:04:00Jourdan Rodrigue:I know you love this phrase, a lot of dart throws in the draft. That's right. 11 or 12 draft picks, right? I think 13, the most in the NFL this season. And Luke Kuechly's favorite player in the draft, Jacob Rodriguez. Yes, I listened to that on the JJ and Luke podcast. We talked about him a lot. we talked about him a lot. And when he went, whatever that was 41 or 42, there was an audible gasp inside the Jansen household. Cause we were hoping maybe he'd fall to us. Cause that was a, that was a Keekly favorite. So yeah, I just think that they are going to, in a shorter timeframe, be better than people expect them to be.

1:04:36Jourdan Rodrigue:Even if it is like a really questionable on paper roster over this neck, these next couple of months, training camp is a little unsteady. Like I just, it's it, they, what they're doing reminds me a lot of what we've seen the 49ers. do in the past, what we've seen the Bucks do in the past, what we've seen the, uh, the Rams do in the past in terms of that sprint rebuild. I think I, I want to get to our, our favorite, what I think will be our favorite too, really in a sick and twisted way, our favorite two tiers. I want to say, are you okay with tier three, Larry David shrugging dot Jeff? I'm gonna add one.

1:05:08Jourdan Rodrigue:Okay. Sounds Bengals, the Bengals. Ooh, interesting. Tell me why. Yeah. I, I, I am put me on the list of guys that think Joe Burrow, you don't think they're a team that will eventually hurt you. No, because I actually, I like Burrow the later in the season, it goes, they might feel like it's kind of interesting. Like I would have put Miami in tier five, like they are rebuilding. They are paring it all down. They are uninteresting to me this year. To me, their interest, the interesting parts of them are free agency in the draft. And what are they developing? I'm not particularly curious about what they do in the regular season.

1:05:44Jourdan Rodrigue:That's a part of what the team is. JJ, is their infrastructure. That's already happened. Unless they're tanking, there's no two at a tank for. I guess you're tanking for Arch, but they got Malik Willis. Like, I don't know what they are. I'm not going to argue with you, but I would put the Bengals in because they're trying to figure out in today's NFL, can I just score 45 points against everybody? They continue to put all their money and time and energy into their offense and it's awesome. And they have been fantastic, but they still haven't figured out the defense. Hendrickson leaves. Like they are continuing this pathway of, you know, I think it's, we, we talked about it a little bit during the year on players point on, on serious, like the, the Bengals basically said, Hey, Joe Burrow, like Joe Burrow talked him into everything, right?

1:06:32All those things about, Hey, you can move the cap number around and you can, you can get all this GM talk. And he got all of his guys paid, but at the end of the day, like they don't have any money really spent on defense. and it puts a tremendous amount of pressure. Like that's totally the opposite of like the new England Patriots with Tom Brady. He's taking less. The defense is loaded. We talked, you know, we've talked about in the past, like what new England's doing right now. Drake may gets paid. Nothing. AJ Brown's got a low cap and eight of the 10 highest paid players are on defense. Like the Bengals are going to try to outscore everybody.

1:07:05And I think that, I think that they can do it, but it's a very unique strategy, especially coming off of like watching the Seahawks win the Superbowl with a defense. That's just nasty. So, uh, I put them in there. All right. I can get into this. It's still the Bengals, but I love Burrow and, and Jamar chases as good as anyone in the league. T Higgins as well.

1:07:25Jourdan Rodrigue:I will give you this one, uh, because you have generously, I think given me more than what I've deserved here, but I will give you this one. I had them in my Danny DeVito category tier four, because I just feel like they, they They're built to hurt you in the end, right? But I love the Dexter Lawrence trade. There was a lot of mixed opinions in the studio about that trade. I am a huge fan. I thought it was the right thing to do. This is a team where when I wrote about team building buckets earlier in the offseason, I had them in a must-win sort of category where they were sort of desperate and trying to make these moves that then petered out in the middle of free agency.

1:08:08Jourdan Rodrigue:and I think they win. If I were to recategorize the Bengals, I would have put them then in win now, which was an entirely different bucket, meaning you're making the moves that make you a true contender or make you believe you are a true contender because of the aggression level of your move. So I like this here. We already have the Bears and the Vikings in Tier 4. As a reminder to the listener, Tier 4 is the Danny DeVito shaking his head dot gif becoming invested and interested in this team may ultimately hurt me. And yet I cannot help myself. And then tier five is our last tier demon. Something, something is way off here.

1:08:49Jourdan Rodrigue:I crossed the street and avoid eye contact, even though they're smiling at me, like really, really intensely. So we have the bears and the Vikings in tier four. This is my Danny DeVito banger that I want to put in here because this team has done this to me many, many times. And I'm very disappointed in them. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going in my Danny DeVito category. I love the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I'm sorry to say this to you while you're on screen. I think Baker Mayfield is one of the most exciting players in football when he's on. I love their receiving core.

1:09:21Jourdan Rodrigue:I think their defense is going to be fine. I like what they did in the draft. Jason Light is one of my favorite GMs. However, by God, they hurt me every time. I'm not doing it this year. I'm just not going to do it. and maybe me unclenching a little bit is exactly what they need just karmically to finally move forward. So I'm putting the bucks in tier four. I want two T two tier two tier four teams from you, JJ. I know I'm putting you through some gymnastics here, but like you went to brofie prep in Notre Dame. So you probably can handle it. Um, well, I would say that I hope that the bucks break your heart again.

1:09:59That would be fantastic as a, as a Panther. I put the Colts in this category. I think that, you know, Daniel Jones is a Charlotte kid. Like I'm a big fan of his, what's that recovery going to look like? Where are they going to be? Certainly their run game in the first, you know, two and a half, three months was electric. I've, I've been a big fan of Shane Steichen going all the way back to when he was with the chargers. Then obviously the Eagles, I think his offenses are really creative, but they petered out last year, you know, sort of, it's sort of funny like the AFC South was everyone sort of laughing stocked out and the NFC South and then all of a sudden the Jaguars are fantastic win 13 games Houston was as good as anybody and we forget through 10 games the Colts were eight and two and kind of running away the they had the sauce Gardner trade all all dialed up and then it kind of fell apart on them so I put I put Indy in this category as well uh did I get does Tampa Bay count for me or do I do I owe you one more.

1:10:54Jourdan Rodrigue:You owe me one more. All right. Uh, like I'm looking through this. I think Washington is in this category. I think Jaden, I think Jaden Daniels had a great year. One year two was a mess. Obviously there were some injuries as well there. I'm a big fan of Dan Quinn, but they went all in after year one signed a bunch of guys, um, a bunch of big money. And, and if I, if I remember correctly, like they've kind of burned through a lot of their cap space. Like, so they went into win now mode didn't win and you look back so much of the 24 season was high variance stuff they were unbelievable on fourth down dan quinn went for it a ton i think they were like 83 or 84 percent conversion on fourth down so they were kind of in that dan campbell lions mode and they were hitting on a lot of it carries them to uh 12 or 13 wins and then obviously getting all the way to the nfc championship game losing to the eagles and they went all in and and they traded for Debo and they trade for Larry, me Tunsil.

1:11:53And they, they spent a ton of money in cap, cap space on veterans and win now mode. And it didn't really work out for him. And I think a little bit of that is you can fool yourself a little bit with the high variance fourth down stuff. It's a good part to play, but as we've seen with the lions and others, like it is, it is a high wire act. I'm a big fan of it. I think teams should aggressively pursue it, but it also can be one of those things where you can think you're better than you really are. and they've put themselves in a, in a tough spot. Again, I'm a big Dan Quinn and Jaden Daniels fan, but I, in that division with Philly, I'm with you.

1:12:30I like Dallas. I think they're a good team. And obviously I, I led off with the giants. I think that's going to be a tough division for them to kind of work their way through without maybe the resources that you'd hope to have in with a quarterback going into year three.

1:12:43Jourdan Rodrigue:I had commanders in demon category because I just think they're still just way too variant and top heavy. And I don't, I would like to see proof, more proof that this can, this team can write the ship. I love Jaden Daniels go Sun Devils. But I just think that there's been such a, the draft classes have not been there for Adam Peters yet. And so I just think that it's, I just would like to see more team building that translates onto the field. That's not investing or overpaying for veterans. You get one or two year to your point, you have one or two years where you can do that. Take the Panthers model, for example, one year maybe in this most recent build that.

1:13:24Jourdan Rodrigue:And you got to hit and you got to do it. Exactly. Yeah. The other two teams, before we get to the final category of demon, the other two teams I had in the Danny DeVito shaking his head.jif were the Jets because their fan base is a bunch of diehards. And yet they, they will be hurt and I cannot help, but be interested in the journey for them. And then also the Titans, because I do think, you know, I love Cam Ward and I do think that the Titans made some floor raising moves. I am in terms of interest level. I am so interested to see how the dynamics between Robert Sala and Brian Dable, two head coach figures who are not both head coaches.

1:14:08Jourdan Rodrigue:Now Robert Sala is in charge. I'm so, so interested to see how that works. So subjectively speaking, I understand that their fans will probably get their expectations up and will be hurt. Myself in, in committing to too hard to either of these teams, I would expect myself to also get hurt in the end, but I am interested. I can't, it's like, I have to watch it. I can't, can't look away from it. It's like when someone steps in gum, I want to see how long the gum sticks to their shoe. You know, I, I won't argue with you in Tennessee, although I probably would have put them in my demon category. I think they're going to, I need you to emphasize.

1:14:44Jourdan Rodrigue:you know, there is punctuation involved. Come on. Oh, demon. Yeah. Uh, the jets are clearly in demon for me, so I'm going to move them down. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah. But, but it was interesting, like talking, I got a chance to talk to Kyle van Noy a couple of days ago and he was really high on the jets. So I guess it has a little bit to do with how do you see them sort of projecting going forward, but there's controversy there at the quarterback position. What is that going to be? They had three draft picks. They've got a ton of stuff moving forward. They're in a good spot moving forward, but most of their top players have now been traded away or let go.

1:15:20You know, they keep Brees Hall, but you know, I'm an analytics guy. Like, great. You kept a high paid running back, but I don't know that that really matters if you're down 2110. So, um, you know, that's been my biggest criticism, what they did. They, they had a corner, they had an interior lineman, they traded them. I didn't, I didn't mind it because they got so much back for those guys, but then you paid the running back. Like I, that's not the way I build a team running backs hate me when I say that sort of thing, but that's kind of where I land on it. And, and look, if you're a defensive head coach, Mike McDonald definitely did in Seattle, but like, I think the standard for how good you are as a coach has to come out early.

1:15:56Yeah. And so Aaron Glenn, this is a big start. It, it was choppy at best last year. And as a defensive coordinator, the standard and like the X, you got to meet those expectations early because you're not going to get a lot of time in this league as a defensive head coach because all of those big names that you've talked about all that, you know, the entire Sean McVay tree, it's all offensive guys. So they, they got to come out early and I, I don't know that they got the juice to do it. So that's where I put them down there in tier five. But that being said, uh, I'll go with you on, I'll go with you on Tennessee.

1:16:27I like the, the coaching dynamics there with, uh, last year's number one cam ward.

1:16:32Jourdan Rodrigue:Cool. I, this is awesome. This is all shaking out right into my hands, you know, just kidding. Okay. So tier four, just to recap, bears, Vikings, bucks, Colts, commanders, Titans. I think we can agree on tier four there. My tier five, just to remind the listener, tier five is demon. Something is way off here. I crossed the street and avoid eye contact, even though they're smiling at me like really, really intensely. So I agree that we could put the jets here. They were in my tier four, but I do agree with you that they could be certainly argued for in, in tier five. You like how I hedge. That's like how you talk to your, you're talking to your kids about their red time.

1:17:12Jourdan Rodrigue:Um, I, my picks for tier five are the Steelers because to me, it's all about the quarterback here. I think they have a good team. I think they have a good roster. I think that going all out and being so obvious and so just everything on pause while we go out and try to get this quarterback who did not not even play very well last year and who knows how he's going to be this year to me was, was so anti what you would think the Steelers would do just with their history. And, uh, it just, it's sort of just, it's the vibes were just not, it just sort of reeked to me a little bit of desperation and just not very, not a team that is built to me.

1:17:55Jourdan Rodrigue:The rest of the roster is very solid. Um, but I could also argue for them in tier four as they will hurt me. I also have the Cardinals and the Browns in here. I don't think I really need to go too far into detail about that, but I want to ask you about the Steelers. Cause I know, uh, I threw, I sort of threw them in at the end here. I'm going to kind of give this to you. Where are you going to put the Steelers? I will give that. I'll give Steelers to you. I don't, I don't mind the Steelers in the demon category. Did I do that? Did I do that? Well, I just, I just, I just don't think they're particularly interesting.

1:18:28I think they will be fine. I, you know, I, I was in green Bay when Aaron was a starter. for the first time with Mike McCarthy. I think it's going to be a, it's going to be a fine working relationship. You know, one of the interesting things getting to talk to Aaron a little bit last year was he spoke so highly of Mike Tomlin and he equated it to playing for Mike McCarthy. He has a lot of respect for Mike McCarthy. He's like, it's very, there's a lot of trust that goes to the veteran leader. So it doesn't surprise me that that's a marriage that came to be this off season because he had a lot of respect for Mike McCarthy as he was sort of speaking so highly of Mike Tomlin.

1:19:02I thought Aaron played okay last year. You know, you're not, you're not paying Aaron 45,$50 million. So like, I just don't know that the team's all that interesting, especially when you consider that division's also got the Bengals and, and the, and the, and the Ravens. We talked about it a lot last year. I think I still feel like there are nine and 18. They're going to beat some teams that they shouldn't, and they're going to lose some games that they shouldn't. Uh, I would certainly trust the ball in Aaron's hand in the fourth quarter, but I just, I just, it's sort of just an uninteresting nine and eight, 10 and seven, seven and 10 kind of team for me.

1:19:38So I put them in tier five. It's a little weird. It's a little clunky. Um, but I think they'll be fine.

1:19:44Jourdan Rodrigue:I, I love this. I, I enjoyed doing this. You know, normally at this point in the show, JJ, we would go through tier by tier and give the listeners a recap of everything we had just talked about. However, as I've said multiple times in the show, you can't hit a moving target. So if they were not, if they were not tracking it, they cannot argue with it either way. And that's right for the listeners. I do want to hear your tiers and where you would put your teams within the context of these now copyrighted tiers, which I think are going to usher in a new way of how we think about deep, deep, deep offseason football.

1:20:23Jourdan Rodrigue:JJ, you're going to training camp in two weeks, buddy. year 19. This is so exciting. I'm so honored and glad that you joined us on NFL daily. Uh, this is becoming a tradition for us that you're my cohost for a summer episode of NFL daily. Um, I'm just really grateful to you. And, um, you know, thanks for, for fighting with me a little bit, but like more often than not conceding to my arguments. Thank you for that. Playful banter is good. As you know, uh, that's one of my keys to longevity in the NFL is playful banter in the cafeteria in the locker room builds camaraderie amongst teammates. So it's right up my alley.

1:20:59Jourdan Rodrigue:Awesome. Well, we are going to be back in your feed later this week. We've got Patrick Claibon, the great NFL daily superstar. I am the chairman of the clay. Bonnie bears his fan club. I see him laughing behind the glass for JJ Jansen. I'm Jordan Rodrigue. Thanks for listening today. This is NFL daily.

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