00:00I want to hear your thoughts. AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year for 2025-26. Christian McCaffrey
00:06is in the lead at minus 250, but all of a sudden, like a slow-moving brook turning into a raging
00:12body of water, Phillip Rivers comes roaring down at plus 550. What needs to happen to cash in on
00:20something like this? Well, I think this is a little bit of a trap here where people are buying
00:25this Phillip Rivers narrative. It was fun. Look, I'm not going to lie. 40-something-year-old
00:31me was Saturday after dinner, folding some laundry, watching Phillip Rivers looking like
00:37he might win a football game in Seattle. I was happy for him. I just like when good things
00:42happen to old people. I just think it's great. But unfortunately, things didn't go his way.
00:46Had they won that game and Phillip Rivers wins another game and somehow the Colts get into
00:51the playoffs, then yeah, then I think this is very much in play because all these awards
00:56are narratives. They're all media awards. It's something we always talk about here on
00:59the program. You're looking for a good story, and it's a great story, but I don't know if
01:04it's going to be a successful story at the end of the day. It's very cool what Phillip
01:07Rivers has been able to do. He kind of looks like the guy who dresses up at Halloween as
01:12a football player, right? He just looks a little bit thicker. You're like, oh, look, so-and-so
01:17dressed up as a quarterback. That's a great Halloween costume. But somehow, he was able
01:22to stay in there, play a whole game. He might not play a whole game this week. You got to
01:27keep that in your mind, too. Monday night, tough matchup here against the San Francisco
01:3149ers. Not that their defense is great, but their offense is going to put on them. But
01:35this minus 250 for CMC is still the way to go. He is still the guy. Somehow, too, I got
01:40this at 3-1. A while back, it was still, you know, week 10, it was still like 3-1. And
01:47I lock that in, and I still feel pretty confident that at the end of the day, it's Christian
01:50McCaffrey. I get it. It's fun. There were two turn-on investments he won, but I just don't
01:55think it's going to be there. But great story. I mean, how did you feel last week watching
01:59Phillip Rivers nearly win a big football game on the road against Seattle, who ended
02:03up beating the Rams the following week?
02:05That's right. You know, here's the thing. I was a professional wrestler for 25 years.
02:11It's almost half of my life. And when I look back on it, or I watch it now, I can't imagine
02:16taking some of, we call them bumps, some of the falls. Just my body hurts just watching.
02:21I can't. Phillip Rivers, how do you ready yourself for taking NFL caliber hits at, what
02:26is he, 44 or something to that effect? Like, it's just, that's rough, man. And it's really,
02:30really rough. So overall, how I felt about it was better him than me. Besides, he's got a lot
02:35more money. And does he have 10 kids? Like, I don't know, 10 kids? I can understand
02:39wanting to get out of the house, but I would like to be home. I get it. He's a grandpa.
02:44Matthew, there were kids out there. There were guys tackling him that are younger than his
02:48oldest kid. Like, that's just crazy stuff out there.
02:52It is. And let's move to those younger players. Go to AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year
02:57for the season. It's called the Segway. Sometimes I nail them.
02:59Travion Henderson at plus 170. Amika Egbuka plus 250. That's the real conversation for
03:06me. You can talk about Jackson Dart at plus 470 or Ted McMillan at plus 280. But has Egbuka
03:12done enough in the first half of the season to win this award? Or does the recency bias
03:17and New England's impressiveness, if you will, if that's a word, push Travion Henderson
03:22over the limit? Because he has the talk. We've been talking about Henderson all season.
03:26Joe? Yeah, this one is live. Egbuka was leader for the first eight weeks, and rightfully so.
03:31And he was the guy that we were loving. We talked about him for this award. But now it
03:35is getting really dicey. I don't think it's going to be Ted Earl McMillan. I just don't
03:38think he's going to get enough press at the end of the day. Unless the Carolina Panthers
03:41win big today and win that division and has a great game, then maybe we start to have that
03:47conversation. Look, Jackson Dart is a QB. So keep that in mind. If the Giants, you know,
03:52win out here last couple weeks and blow that number one spot, Jackson Dart could be in that
03:56conversation because it is a New York team, big media market, good narrative there. But
04:01it is between Travion and Egbuka at this point, too. And I have to give the lean to Travion Henderson
04:09because Travion continues to have these big moments. And these big moments become the highlight
04:13reels that go national. And these people who vote for the awards, you know, it's a national
04:18media thing. And you have those big spots and the Patriot narrative is good. The Patriot
04:21is going to win a lot of awards. I don't think they're going to win MVP necessarily, but Mike
04:24Vrabel is going to win coach of the year. Maybe Travion wins rookie of the year. This
04:27one's very live here with a couple of weeks left in the season. So I, for one, am very curious
04:31to see how it plays out. Egbuka was the favorite for a long time, but now it's anybody's guess
04:37is wide open.
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