PHOENIX -- Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
I don't know how it happened, but the Super Bowl is now only three days away. At least, that's what I've been told. I actually have no idea how far away it is because I've lost all sense of time out here in Arizona. I live in the Central Time Zone (Nashville), my work life is based in the Eastern Time Zone, and I've spent this entire week in the Mountain Time Zone. What has happened over the past five days is that time has lost all meaning to me.
Anyway, we have a huge newsletter today, and one of the things we'll be doing is ranking ALL 56 Super Bowls. We'll also be rehashing everything Roger Goodell said in his annual Super Bowl press conference. With that in mind, let's get to the rundown.
As always, here's your weekly reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the Pick Six newsletter. To get your friends to sign up, all you have to do is click here and then share this link with them.
1. Today's show: Brady Quinn breaks down the Super Bowl
If you're going to listen to just one episode of the Pick Six podcast every week, then you should definitely make sure that you're listening every Thursday, because that's when Brady Quinn joins the show. For today's episode, the former first-round pick chatted with Will Brinson and Ryan Wilson about multiple Super Bowl related topics.
One topic Quinn talked about with the guys was about Patrick Mahomes and whether he'd be able to evade the Eagles' pass-rush. Mahomes still has an injured ankle, and he'll be going up against an Eagles defense that has recorded the third-most sacks in a single season in NFL history.
For one, Quinn doesn't think this will turn into a repeat of Super Bowl LV -- a game in which Mahomes got sacked three times in a 31-9 loss to the Buccaneers.
"This is a much better offensive line than what the Chiefs had the last time they were in the Super Bowl," Quinn said.
Although the Eagles have a historically good defense, Quinn still thinks Mahomes can have a big game.
"Mahomes continues to progress as a quarterback playing from the pocket, going through his reads and progressions and taking what's there for him," Quinn said. "The question becomes, what is his mobility going to be with his ankle? He's had a couple additional weeks to recover, but he's not going to be 100%. But based on how he looked in the AFC Championship Game, I don't think he's going to be hampered quite as much."
Quinn thinks Mahomes is going to have a huge game, and based on that, you can probably guess who he'll be picking Sunday.
"I'm pretty bullish on Kansas City to win this one in a tight game," Quinn said.
If you want to hear Quinn's full thoughts on the Super Bowl -- and everything else the guys talked about on today's podcast -- then be sure to click here. You can also watch today's show on YouTube by clicking here.
2. NFL Honors: Awards being handed out tonight
If there's one thing that always seems to get lost in the shuffle during Super Bowl week, it's the fact that the NFL hands out all of its major awards. That will he happening tonight during the NFL Honors ceremony.
This year, that means if you want to know who's going to win MVP, you'll need to tune in to the NFL Honors show, which will be airing at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. During the two-hour ceremony, which will be hosted by Kelly Clarkson -- seriously, Kelly Clarkson -- we'll see every award handed out from Coach of the Year to Offensive Player of the Year to Defensive Rookie of the Year and everything in-between.
Here are all the details on how you can watch:
Show: 2023 NFL Honors
Date: Thursday, Feb. 9
Location: Symphony Hall (Phoenix)
Time: 9 p.m. ET
TV: NBC/NFL Network | Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
I know Cody mentioned some of our predictions in yesterday's newsletter and that was fun, so here are a few more:
- MVP: Patrick Mahomes
- Coach of the year: Kyle Shanahan
- Defensive Rookie of the year: Sauce Gardner
If you want to check out the rest of our predictions for tonight, then be sure to click here.
3. Roger Goodell holds annual Super Bowl press conference
It's been a while since anyone has heard from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, but that changed Wednesday when he showed up in Phoenix to hold his annual Super Bowl press conference. Goodell had some interesting things to say and also some crazy things. (He said NFL officiating is better than ever.)
Here's a quick look at some of the topics Goodell was asked about:
- Goodell approves of officiating. "I don't think it's ever been better," Goodell said Wednesday when asked to assess the performance of the league's officials this year. Apparently, Goodell didn't watch the Chiefs-Bengals game, because no one who watched that game would have given the answer that he gave.
- Thursday night flex scheduling might happen. There's already flex scheduling for Sunday nights, and there will be flex scheduling for Monday nights starting with the 2023 season. So what about Thursday? "Not today, but it'll certainly be something that's on our horizon," Goodell said. Basically, it sounds like something the league is thinking about, but don't look for it to be implemented in the next year or two.
- Owners to vote on upcoming Super Bowl sites. After this year's Super Bowl, the game will be headed to Las Vegas next year and then New Orleans the year after that. However, that's as far as the schedule goes. Goodell revealed during his press conference that the NFL will award a host city for Super Bowl LX this year and also might vote on a host city for Super Bowl LXI.
- Russell Wilson led charge for Pro Bowl changes. One interesting tidbit Goodell discussed involved Russell Wilson. Apparently, it was Wilson's idea to play a flag football game in the Pro Bowl. "Russell Wilson called me the Tuesday after [last year's Pro Bowl] and said 'Let's play a flag game,'" Goodell said. If you liked the new format, please credit Wilson. If you hated the new format, please blame Wilson.
For a full breakdown of everything Goodell talked about, be sure to click here to read Garrett Podell's story.
4. Ranking all 56 Super Bowls
As the host of the Pick Six Podcast, Will Brinson doesn't do a lot of writing during Super Bowl week, but he did write one monster story for today, and I'm pretty sure he would stop being friends with me if I didn't share it here.
Brinson took the time to rank EVERY Super Bowl ever played. I don't want to spoil the entire list for you, so I'm going to go through his top 10, plus I'm also going to reveal the Super Bowl he has ranked as the worst one ever.
1. Super Bowl XLIX: Patriots 28-24 over Seahawks
2. Super Bowl XLII: Giants 17-14 over Patriots
3. Super Bowl LII: Eagles 41-33 over Patriots
4. Super Bowl LI: Patriots 34-28 (OT) over Falcons
5. Super Bowl XIII: Steelers 35-31 over Cowboys
6. Super Bowl XXV: Giants 20-19 over Bills
7. Super Bowl XXIII: 49ers 20-16 over Bengals
8. Super Bowl XXXIV: Rams 23-16 over Titans
9. Super Bowl III: Jets 16-7 over Colts
10. Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers 27-23 over Cardinals
...
56. Super Bowl XXIX: 49ers 49-26 over Chargers.
As a noted Bengals homer, I was shocked that Brinson didn't rank last year's Super Bowl in the top 15. That game had a 75-yard touchdown, a TD pass thrown by a running back and the result wasn't decided until the final minute, but it still couldn't crack the top 15. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT IN A SUPER BOWL, BRINSON? Anyway, he ranked that game as the 17th-best Super Bowl of all-time. If you want to see where the other Super Bowls fall on Brinson's list, then be sure to click here.
5. NFLPA president wants to get rid of the combine
After the Super Bowl is over, all eyes around the NFL will be turning to the scouting combine, which runs from Feb. 28 thru March 6 this year. Although the combine seems to be growing in popularity every year, the head of the NFLPA actually wants to get rid of it.
- NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith wants to eliminate the combine. "As soon as you show up, you have to waive all of your medical rights and you not only have to sit there and endure embarrassing questions," Smith said. "And I think that's horrible, and I don't wanna pooh pooh any of that, but would you want your son to spend hours inside of an MRI [machine] and then be evaluated by 32 separate team doctors who are, by the way, are only doing it for one reason? What's the reason? To decrease your draft value."
- 319 player invited to this year's combine. The NFL revealed the full list of players who have been invited this week, and that list includes 319 players. You can see the full invite list by clicking here.
- 15 quarterbacks invited. Of the 319 players who got an invite this year, 15 of them were quarterbacks. That list includes the two quarterbacks who duked it out in the national title game -- TCU's Max Duggan and Georgia's Stetson Bennett -- along with several other stars like Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson, Hendon Hooker and Will Levis.
Despite how Smith feels about the combine, the event won't be going away any time soon.
6. Rapid-fire roundup: Cardinals not expected to hire a coach until next week
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Cardinals coaching search continues. It has now been exactly a month since Kliff Kingsbury was fired, and the Cardinals still haven't found his replacement. According to ESPN.com, the Cardinals aren't planning to hire anyone until next week at the earliest. The two finalists for the job are currently Lou Anarumo and Mike Kafka, but by pushing the search into next week, the Cardinals have opened the door for possibly interviewing someone who will be coaching on Super Bowl Sunday.
- Michael Irvin pulled off Super Bowl coverage. The former Cowboys star won't be covering the Super Bowl this week. The NFL Network decided to pull him from coverage after a woman made a complaint against him. It's not clear what exactly happened, but Irvin did admit that he talked to a woman in his hotel lobby on Sunday. For more details on the story, be sure to head here.
- Brock Purdy to have UCL surgery. The 49ers QB has spent the past 10 days trying to decide if he should get surgery or let his elbow heal. According to NFL.com, he has decided to go the surgical route, with his operation scheduled for Feb. 22. The operation is expected to sideline him for at least six months, which means Purdy won't be able to practice until mid-August at the earliest.
- Two more owners against neutral site conference title games. There's been a lot of chatter that the NFL is going to try to make the move to neutral-site conference title games, but for that to happen, 24 owners will have to approve, and right now, that seems unlikely. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt and Falcons owner Arthur Blank have both said this week that they would prefer NOT to move the conference title games to a neutral site.
- Sean Payton reportedly didn't want to work with Kyler Murray. Payton spent the past NFL season at Fox, and one of his colleagues at the network (Terry Bradshaw) offered some interesting information about Payton on Wednesday. According to Bradshaw, Payton didn't take the Cardinals job because he didn't want to work with Kyler Murray. "That quarterback, he didn't wanna work with that quarterback," Bradshaw said. The former Steelers QB also noted that Payton has "no choice" but to embrace Russell Wilson. For more on his comments, be sure he go here.
