Best of the week on The Herd

Hour two on a Monday, we’re not wasting a second—let’s dive straight into where I was right and where I was wrong.

Right: the Steelers boxed themselves in by banking on Aaron Rodgers’s timeline; this is his playbook—he controls the offseason clock.

Wrong: I didn’t see the Knicks detonating like that on the road, and a sweep over Philly shocked me even with Embiid and Maxey in the series.

Not buying the lottery conspiracy stuff either; small and struggling teams landed the premium picks, which undercuts the rigging crowd.

Right: Embiid is phenomenal when upright, but the recurring injuries and a massive guarantee make that deal scary; Austin Reaves keeps getting hunted in the postseason, which isn’t second‑star championship basketball; the Warriors are old, capped, and stuck in a young, rising West.

Also right: the Bills roster is better than the punchlines—Allen plus a strong core is real; and baseball parity is alive when well‑run small markets thrive while big‑spending clubs sputter.

My quarterback lens is simple: production, durability, and current momentum; age matters but I’m grading who’s best right now, not who I’d build around for five years.

Some very good passers just miss due to injuries, streakiness, turnovers, or stalled trajectories, while my headline ranks put Josh Allen ahead of Patrick Mahomes today, Caleb Williams already in the elite tier, and Sam Darnold sneaking into the top ten; Joe Burrow at six feels low, but context and health matter.

Albert Breer joins, and the schedule release is a maze—New England’s slate is brutal, Chicago’s starts soft and gets cold‑weather friendly late; what did the league do to San Francisco?

The Australia trip is a body blow: it lands on a Thursday there, the return is long, the Niners play Sunday on short rest, and the Rams get an extra day; owners love the international push, but coaches and players shoulder the jet lag and logistics.

Holiday football is loaded this year—Thanksgiving and Christmas look like the best slates I can remember, with Christmas clearly aimed right at the NBA.

That’s by design; they’re stacking marquee matchups in big windows to smash ratings and package them for streamers like Netflix, but the tradeoff is thinner Sunday menus and a stronger drumbeat for eighteen games to create more inventory.

I like dropping the old every‑team‑must‑get‑prime‑time rule, but I’m still surprised the Raiders didn’t get one after a strong off‑season.

Five teams got zero prime time, which shifts more midweek burden to top brands—look at the Rams’ cluster of short weeks; rookie QB intrigue could have justified a late‑season Raiders slot, but the league prioritized premium showcases elsewhere.

On Rodgers in Pittsburgh, the vibe is odd—uncertain whereabouts, and he likes to operate on his terms; what’s really at play?

Ownership doesn’t want a full reset, so they doubled down on veterans, which boosts Rodgers’s leverage on money and attendance; the expectation is clarity by mandatory minicamp, but they’ve boxed themselves into win‑now.

About JJ McCarthy and bringing in Kyler—publicly it’s framed as open, but is it truly a competition in Minnesota?

Yes, with real heat; last year they tried to create push and couldn’t, this year the gloves are off and the best man plays, with no automatic edge for the rookie.

One last thing: schedule‑release videos were wild—clever is fun, but friendly fire can backfire; the Titans crushed it, and I’d still keep the snark subtle because not every thought needs to hit the timeline.