Week 3 Picks with Cynthia Frelund

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances, select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products, and more. Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. This is Ashley Iacanetti from the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast. All right, let's talk about summer outfits. If you're constantly saying, I have nothing to wear, Boehm is about to become your new favorite place to shop.

0:45From trendy dresses and matching sets to elevated basics and statement pieces, BOEM has everything you need for vacations, concerts, brunch dates, and everything in between. Trust me, these are the pieces that get compliments. Shop BOEM online or in store and make this your best dress summer yet. Shop at BOEM.com. That is B-O-H-M-E dot com. This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, exclusive food and drink items. They've even installed full-size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net.

1:28And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass.

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2:19Welcome to NFL Daily, where we got a Super Bowl preview in week three. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesseling podcast studio with a surprise, Cynthia Freeland, who clearly doesn't know that the Super Bowl this year is going to feature your Detroit Lions and my Baltimore Ravens. Because that was my Super Bowl pick before the year with the Ravens winning, unfortunately. And here we have it in week three. I think all Lions fans would take a trip to the Super Bowl, even if it didn't result in a win. It'd just be so exciting to finally make it to the big game. I know that sounds anticlimactic, but I still think that people would take that.

2:54I agree. And most fans, especially of teams that haven't gone far often or haven't even been to a Super Bowl, like the Lions, would always say that. Now, that said, you're laughing. I mean, it's just a fact. I know. That said, in a couple weeks and everything leading up to it would be unforgettable. It would be an incredible experience. I think that said, once you're there, if they lose, that will actually feel and be worse than any of the losses before that. Unfortunately, I think that's how it works. It's how sports works. I don't know. I still think I'd take going. I know. You still would take it.

3:30You would take the pain. And then those T-shirts that they send, they send away those T-shirts for somewhere in an alternate universe, the Lions would have won according to a T-shirt. That's fair. and nothing can take away the weeks before and all the... Okay, we got a long way to go. And I got my doubts about the Lions. More to come there. We make three picks every week on this show. Against the spread, back-to-back weeks, you've gone two and one. Back-to-back weeks, I've gone one and two. That stupid Bengals ending where the Jaguars blow it a million times in the red zone late, and then the Bengals drive the whole length of the field, not only to win by three, But to win by four and cover that number helped flip our scores.

4:14We went head to head last week. But as you remember, remember, I said I only liked four games last week. You know, I did have two underdogs, you know, winning straight up there with the Falcons and the Seahawks. So at least I had some that was on the right track. So I'm counting myself as two and two, but we can only count three for sure. And I was picking between, you know, Atlanta and Seattle. So you're off to a great start. And that's why we're going to start with you because the computer model is off to a hot start. in game debut and in this studio this year. It's possible that the model has started to become sentient.

4:44I'm starting to worry. I'm waking up at night being like, is it going to come kill me? What's going on? But I have five outright wrong favored teams this week. Oh, that's amazing. That makes picking, well, maybe it makes it hard picking which three you like best, but it singles it out. I should have pointed out, by the way, your winners last week. You also had the Patriots and you were wrong on the Broncos. I was wrong on the Jets as well. Okay. All right. Well, we got it. All right. So my first one, I think I'm stealing this one from you, but I really like it. I absolutely think the wrong team is favored in Chicago.

5:17The Dallas Cowboys come to town as one-point dogs. Yeah, surprising. And I'm like, oh, this is what we're doing now? Got it. So I'm going to go ahead and take them because I have the Cowboys winning that outright. So against a number or on their own. Not one of my picks. Oh, good. I didn't steal it. I thought maybe you would. I did pick the Cowboys. It's game. We agree on that one. Man, watching Dak Prescott right now, I think is as fun as watching any quarterback in the entire league. And you think about that mismatch against Chicago, and that's ultimately why I picked the Cowboys. But these two teams are unpredictable.

5:52I don't trust either one of them, and I definitely don't trust the Cowboys defense that much. So that's why I just didn't make it like one of my three favorite. Well, the Cowboys defense has been giving up a bajillion yards, and we understand a bajillion points, like over 30 and 414, Something like that. Something great. But if you look at where they're giving it up, it's to deep balls. Russell Wilson just gashed them with a bunch of deep balls. That is an area where Caleb Williams has not been successful so far this season. So I think the matchup for this defense is a plus match. Plus, Iberflue's revenge.

6:23He has to come back. I mean, there's always revenge. But, like, you know, I'm looking at this one and I'm saying, all right, it's the deep passing for me. Are you really going to trust the run game to get going? We haven't really seen it so far. really rough. The Cowboys run game looks great. That's right. They've been contacted behind the line of scrimmage quite a bit. They're not getting a bunch of pressure up front. So model, I actually looked at this and I was like, I'm surprised that I thought it would be a point or maybe a pick of at least. Right. I think it started out for bears. It might be flipping around during the week a little bit.

6:54Either way, you're taking the Cowboys. Yeah, that's right. I'm going back to the Jets. You know, I want to tell you, I'm going to back to the Jets. Against the Bucs. Against the Bucs. So I made maybe the worst pick in the history of the show last week. Jets, Bills. I said they would win straight up. And they were, what, seven-point underdogs? Seven-point underdogs again this week. Let me tell you about... Are you taking them to win straight up? No. Okay. Okay. Doesn't matter. They're seven-point underdogs. Actually, on a show game debut, I think I am, just for the entertainment of it all. The fun of it.

7:32Yeah. You know, if you're going to take them, might as well. Right. Can I tell you about dollar cost averaging? You know, like buy the stock that's low. You know, I feel so at home right now. You know, I blew it on these Jets, clearly. And I liked them both weeks. They covered week one. They did not week two. I just don't think they are the team that they showed last week. It was a very humbling game for me and the Jets. But I'm looking at this specifically. I really do believe that the Bucs should not be seven point favorites. Okay. Since we last taped an NFL Daily, even, we learned Cody Mock, the guard for the Bucs, is out for the entire season.

8:10Great teeth. We confirmed that Luke Gedecky, he doesn't have all his teeth, Cody Mock, but they look the ones that have. The ones they have are really great. Yeah. Luke Gedecky, their right tackle, out this week. We don't know whether their left tackle, Tristan Wirfs, is going to play in this game. Amika Abuka hasn't practiced so far this week and was not looking 100%. I'm a little bit with the plexiglass kind of principle here with both of these teams. I do think teams tend to respond after a really poor performance. They're, you know, professionals. And it's just the average. I think the average performance from the Jets is going to be somewhere between week one and week two.

8:47And then you look at the Bucs, Cynthia. And if you peek beneath the numbers a little bit, like they actually, their numbers haven't been great this year. They're 19th overall in DVOA. They were outplayed by the Falcons and kind of stole that game away. Last week, you know, they were a fourth and 10 away. They're good, obviously, and I think they're going to get better. But I'm not worried about Tyrod Taylor. I don't think that's necessarily a downgrade. It might even for one week be an upgrade. I'm not ruling that out. And so seven points seems like a lot. I think these two teams will be closer than you think.

9:20I'm actually aligned with you. Let's go! I think that the Bucs win. I don't think that they win in a very super convincing fashion. Right. Right. It was big. When before we knew about those injuries, it was a much bigger margin. And I'm looking at the Jets and I agree with you that the average does tend to come up over time. My my problem with the Jets overall is that I haven't seen any of the foundations of what they're trying to do come together on offense consistently. So it's hard to say, OK, are they going to be a team that their identity is going to be run the ball past to their tight end?

9:57Like what's going on here? And I just haven't seen it come together in general yet. And I still haven't seen on the defense, the kind of stuff you would imagine that will be by the end of the season with Aaron Glenn, they're figuring everything out. But I just, the offense feels like it, like it's a big question mark. What am I, what am I looking at? Oh, and the defense isn't even a question mark. It's just a hot mess. It is a mess. They are giving me, they are a lot of miscommunication, a lot of that, but I just think the, the injuries. And I, I guess I do look at the response that I think the Jets will have this week coming off of a game like that.

10:32Also, Tyrod, when he's played in the last few years, he usually has like one or two great performances when he comes in. And then he gets hurt. If he gets hurt, we're really in trouble. The injuries for the Buccaneers are significant. Also, the New Jersey to Tampa pipeline for retirees is very familiar. and so I think that somehow will give the Jets just like a little bit of an advantage. It's just a move that people from New Jersey, they're comfortable going down south to Tampa. So maybe a lot of Jets will make the trip or they just live there. Okay, great. I love that. I love that. All right, let's go to your second pick.

11:09I mean, I'm going to keep it with the spicy ones that are the wrong favorite is favored. That's not good English, whatever. I think that the Texans top the Jags. I like that. I'm on your side too, yeah. You are? I mean, that's not one of my three picks, but I agree with you. That was my pick on game debut. Yes. Wow. Well, we don't have to say anything. We're just gone. We're wild. Well, number one, when I'm looking at, so when you look at C.J. Stroud and what they're trying to run in this offense, it's a little patriarchy, which I think they've figured out their need to pivot from just a bit, given the skill set of C.J.

11:41Stroud and the lack of skill set from the offensive line. I'm saying that nicely. The O-line hasn't been good. Let's just say that. and I'm curious to see maybe Christian Kirk comes back. Where are we at with that? It looks good. Right. So I haven't seen anything updated. Braxton Berrios and Christian Kirk. Berrios, less of a factor, more of a special. I don't know. But Kirk will play. I actually think sometimes those tiny little differences are very big deals when it comes to figuring everything out. So I'm looking at the uptick in passing quotient, and that defense is still really good. Newsflash defense, still really good.

12:13But Trevor Lawrence, I love the sort of fight between Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen. Yeah, when he was on the sideline, he was getting annoyed. Trevor Lawrence described it afterwards as like, it's good. You know, I'm pretty like, you know, even keel, laid back guy. And like Liam Cohen, like Liam's really fired up and I really appreciate it. And he's like, it kind of brings out the more intense side. I mean, I'm like, well, we could use a little more of it, Trevor. still seems a little lapped up. At some point, the Brian Thomas Jr. thing will click back into place. Same thing with Travis Hunter.

12:55The end of that last game was messy against the Bengals as you pointed out. I don't think they can run it enough on the Texans to be able to overcome that defense. All of a sudden in one week, all the books think, hey, that defense stinks now. What on earth? That's such an overreaction in the market. So that's why I'm like, what do we, is Will Anderson Jr. not there anymore? I like this pick. It's not one of my top three. I think it's, it's probably recognizing a couple of things. One, the Jacksonville run game looks really good. I think they, I think they're a improved team. I think they could be the seven seed for instance, in the AFC.

13:30Yeah. Especially with the Bengals getting hurt with Joe Burrow getting hurt and all those other things up in flux. Yeah. And then the numbers, and it's partly because of the matchups, The Texans have had to face the Rams and the Bucs blitzes back-to-back weeks and pass rushes, and they have not looked good on offense. Their offensive numbers are as bad or worse than they were a year ago. So I kind of see why it would level it out. Nick Chubb. A little bit. Nick Chubb. Starting to come back on, baby. I think we'll see some Woody Marks, some Nick Chubb. I'm with you. I also just think they really need this game, and they've been in this system with D 'Amico Ryans a couple more years.

14:06They've won some big games, two playoff games. And I think that helps. But it wouldn't shock me if the Jags did pull that off. Man, I was watching that one closely because I knew that was our head-to-head game. And I was feeling good about it all last week, Jags-Bengals, and then right at the end. I mean, when Joe Burrow went down, I'm like, well, there we go. And they were losing. They actually were losing by seven at the time. And then Browning throws all the picks in the world. And then they decide to blitz. Don't blitz Jake Browning. What are you doing? This man is great against the blitz.

14:37He's not good when you don't blitz him. Look at his splits. This is why everyone needs analytics. You hear me? Because if you look at that, that has been his splits forever. His under duress, like his blitz completion percentage and passer rating is like 120 something. It's ridiculous. I love it. His non-blitzed one. Interesting. Not good? No. That's when he throws his picks. A little extra info for you. Which side of that game are you on? Vikings Bengals. I think we're on the same side of that one too. Okay. Skull. Skull. Let's go. Skull. Yeah. Are you Ram? Angles or are you Viking? I don't feel strong about that one.

15:16I just was throwing that out there. We were talking about it. In terms of the number, I would take the Bengals the points. Oh, okay. I just thought. Okay. Fair. Fair point. Okay. Rams. Oh, you're going right at it, baby. Plus three and a half. One of the most balanced teams so far in the NFL, of the Los Angeles Rams. Offense, defense. Both look ready. I look at the Eagles and they're ready. As much continuity, I just mean they're ready for the season in a way that a lot of teams aren't. You know, they're kind of... I like it. It just sounded funny. They're ready. They're ready to pounce. This game is big.

15:52This game is big. All the Rams have been honking about all offseason. How close we were to the Eagles. Right. They were sending it out to... I saw it in the season ticket holder email that, like, you know, we were only a few plays away from beating the eventual champions. It's a true statement. That's not why I'm picking them. I just look at who's playing better right now, and the Kevin Petullo Philadelphia Eagles offense just feels a little bit static. I think the Eagles offense will get better throughout the course of the season. I think their pass rush will get better throughout the course of the season.

16:26Entering week three, it's been average, their pass rush. the offense has been a little below average. And then I look at the Rams, and I think they've come out firing. Devontae Adams is such a big part of this offense. It looks like Steve Avila, who's a starting guard for them, might be back for this game. He's back at practice. That's big because they were missing two starters. That is obviously worrisome for them. But, man, Devontae and Stafford are so much fun to watch. I think year two Chris Shula versus year one Kevin Petullo and kind of looking at the fresh ideas McVay's got popping with Devontae and everything.

17:05I just feel like they're a little more ready. Ready. A little ready. They're ready. You know what I mean? We're on opposite sides. A lot of teams. I know we are. Are you going to make it one of your picks? No. No, because it's not an underdog. No, I liked my theme today. Yeah. It isn't often that I get a theme, you know? It's much better. Whenever you see a team that you think is going to win straight up, like I had with the Falcons and Seahawks last week, for instance, and they're underdogs, then you take them. You love them. That's right. I mean, I'm just going to stick with my theme. And by the way, the hook, the three and a half point hook, you're always talking about that.

17:36It got me again. It did. It got me again here with the Rams. But you know what? Last week it worked out, actually, in those two games. I ended up being right on those two. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tremphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.

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18:57From trendy dresses and matching sets to elevated basics and statement pieces, Boehm has everything you need for vacations, concerts, brunch dates, and everything in between. Trust me, these are the pieces that get compliments. Shop Boehm online or in store and make this your best dress summer yet. Shop at bohm.com. That is B-O-H-M-E dot com.

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20:28Live in concert. With special guest, Lotto.

20:38Doja Cat. Live across North America in 2026. Get tickets now at DojaCat.com. This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, special in-venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game. And at more than 60 locations, they've even installed full-size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net. And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue.

21:25So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit, and enjoy the atmosphere. And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass. Summer hits different at Topgolf. Give me your last pick. Okay, so last but not least, are you ready for this? Are you listening or are you writing? I'm writing your pick. Okay, perfect. So I don't forget them. The Patriots. Ooh, I do agree with you on this, but I'm like a little freaked out.

22:03Well, it's also your team. I'm like, you know. I know, but I'm often very negative. Last week I won a no part of Patriots Dolphins. You were right on that one. But this one, I like the matchup. Yeah. Well, the matchup makes for fights, right? And now you're getting a Drake May who, I mean, he's been playing very well. I think this is a Travion Henderson breakout. I think we see that's really the kind of last piece in this beginning season puzzle that needs to come together. It's all about the defensive front for me, though. Did I say that right? Defensive front. Defensive front. They've played great so far.

22:38Milton, guys like Milton, you know, guys like Harold. Like, it's all these old names, old people names. Milton, Harold, Oren, they're all great, you know? How many Heralds do you know? They have a Christian. Exactly. Caleb on, that kind of goes against your theory. I still think as a percentage, their defensive starters have old names. They do sound like they're from, like, the 1910s. Good old Milton, you know? Yeah. But when you're looking at a guy like Milton, who's got, I don't know, the second most wave, two sacks, like the second most pressures for defensive tackle, like that's a huge deal.