00:00All right, halfway point of the season.
00:02Who's your MVP so far in the first half of the National Football League?
00:07Yeah, it's tough because there's a lot of guys playing really well right now.
00:11I think you can make a case for Josh Allen.
00:12I think you can make a case for Caleb Williams.
00:15I think you can make a case for Jordan Love, too,
00:16who has really flown under the radar carrying that Packers team.
00:21But I just look at how Joe Burrow played in that London game at this point
00:25and what he's meant to that Bengals offense.
00:27I think he's scored something like 20 touchdowns over his last four games,
00:31and he's just passing at such a high level.
00:34Every single throw he makes has near-perfect ball placement.
00:37He makes maybe one or two bad throws a game or throws that you're saying,
00:40oh, that's a little bit questionable.
00:42He's just playing quarterback the position at the highest level, I think,
00:45of anyone right now as a pure pocket passer, as a pure passer.
00:50And I just think that's going to go a long way.
00:52I think the Bengals have the best path to winning the AFC North as well
00:55because the Ravens, they're not going to be able to,
00:58without Lamar Jackson, really compete.
01:00The Browns, we're seeing them come back down to earth a bit.
01:02I think this Bengals-Steelers game on Sunday Night Football,
01:05this upcoming week and week 10,
01:07I think this could be an opportunity for Burrow on the big stage
01:10to just show people exactly how great he is right now.
01:13So he's currently my favorite.
01:15But I think you can make a strong case for a variety of players across the league
01:19with Josh Allen, Jordan Love, and Caleb Williams,
01:22even despite his four-interception game last night being in hot pursuit.
01:26Boy, you know, I don't know if there's a dominant team this year,
01:30and I think the league loves that.
01:31They love the word parity.
01:32To me, sometimes that word parity means mediocre football.
01:36Who's the best team in the NFL right now in the first half of the season?
01:41Yeah, it's a tough question because I think you can make a good case
01:44for the Bengals with how they're playing.
01:46Their defense has been so much better.
01:47We've talked about Al Golden on this program many times.
01:50The work he's doing with that Bengals defense is great.
01:53I think we're going to get a nice preview tonight.
01:55If the Buffalo Bills can really find a way to beat that Brian Flores defense
02:00tonight on Monday Night Football, I think you'll have a good case to say,
02:03well, the Bills offense might be the best in the league
02:06because Josh Allen's such a great dual-threat playmaker.
02:08So I think he'll have an opportunity to stake a claim to that.
02:12So I think that it's between those two teams in my head right now.
02:15I think you can look at the NFC, too, and say the 49ers,
02:19but I'm still waiting for those injury issues to catch up with them.
02:22Maybe they never do, and maybe Kyle Shanahan's just doing one of the best
02:25coaching jobs in the league this year, but I'm kind of still skeptical of the 49ers.
02:29I will continue to be that way until we know that they're as healthy as they can be.
02:35You mentioned coaching, so let's go there.
02:38In the first half of the season, who's done the best coaching job this year?
02:42Yeah, I think Shanahan 100% deserves credit for what he's been able to do.
02:47Ben Johnson has done a great job just continuing to build that Bears offense,
02:50but you see these odds to win coach of the year here.
02:52John Harbaugh, he has to be the number one answer at this point.
02:56Nobody really thought that the Giants were like a shoe-in to maybe compete for the NFC East.
03:01There was a lot of talk before the season of saying,
03:03well, maybe if Jackson Dart takes a step forward, maybe they could be a good team.
03:07You lost Jackson Dart, what, two weeks into the season, and everyone wrote you off,
03:11and it was going to be Jameis Winston the rest of the way.
03:14Jameis Winston posted a winning record in four starts.
03:16Now they move to J.J. McCarthy, who's continuing his winning streak as a starter.
03:21So I think that Harbaugh deserves a lot of credit for finding a way to build this team,
03:25carry an identity.
03:26He's made a lot of bold decisions, basically benching Cam Scadaboo one week,
03:31and then the next week he came out and had one of the best games of his career.
03:33So I just think Harbaugh's done such a great job.
03:36I'll give flowers to Todd Munkin as well.
03:38No one expected the Browns to have a winning record really at any point this season.
03:41For them to be 5-4 right now, even with them coming back to earth a little bit
03:45in the last couple weeks, is extremely impressive.
03:47I don't think they'll make the playoffs, but Munkin has them on the right track.
03:51So I think he deserves a little bit more praise than he's getting at this point.
