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Thursday, February 16, 2023
Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
I had to take yesterday off so that I could watch the Chiefs' Super Bowl parade and after watching it, I'm pretty sure 99% of Kansas City is hungover today. I mean, I got a contact drunk just from watching the parade. 
If you missed the parade, don't worry, we'll be covering all of the highlights in today's newsletter plus, we'll be taking a look at some early picks for Super Bowl LVIII and some star players who could be switching teams this offseason. 
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1. Today's show: Early pick to win Super Bowl LVIII
Since Super Bowl LVII just ended, you're probably already wondering who's going to win Super Bowl LVIII and so are we, so we decided to talk about that on the podcast. For today's episode, Will Brinson brought on SportsLine gambling guru, R.J. White, and the two guys spent some serious time talking about the teams they like to win next season's Super Bowl. 
  • Long-shot pick: Bears (100-1).  Of the teams with the longest odds, R.J. likes the Bears the best. "The Bears have the No. 1 pick, if they bring in an absolute game-changer at the No. 1 pick and then do that throughout the draft when you're picking early in each round and you're able to do that over and over again, you can really build something in a hurry," White said. "If you find some free agents who want to play with a quarterback as talented as Justin Fields. ... Could be a wide-open division, especially if Aaron Rodgers is gone and the Vikings regress, so I don't want to rule them out. I don't know that they have quite the pieces in place, but I'm not going to rule it out."
  • Medium shot pick: Broncos (45-1). R.J. and Brinson both love the coaching upgrade here. "We talked all offseason [in 2022] about the Jaguars' coaching upgrade," White said. "When you go from Urban Meyer to Doug Pederson, that's almost immeasurable, how much of an upgrade that is. You go from Joe Judge to Brian Daboll and that's almost immeasurable. I don't think Nathaniel Hackett was quite as bad as those two, but you're getting Sean Payton, a Hall of Fame level coach, so the increase might be even more here. If he can do anything [to help] Wilson, they could be a really strong team."
  • Favorite value from the top of the board: Bengals (9-1).  RJ's take on the top of the board is pretty simple, "If you don't want to bet on the Chiefs, then your best value is Cincinnati at 9-to-1," White said. "Offensive line is going to be better out of the gate, they took some time to gel first half of this year. We knew that would be a problem, that happens with every offensive line -- needing time to gel together -- but then as soon as they started to gel and look good, people get hurt, so if you can stay healthy, you can really find that continuity in 2023. They're going to be better and they also have a ton of cap space, so they can upgrade at certain places on defense if they want. They didn't lose defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. That's a big deal, keeping him in place. That defense is still going to be strong."
And just in case you're wondering, I did not pay R.J. to pick the Bengals even though it might seem that way since I'm a giant Bengals homer. 
Anyway, if you want to hear White's full thoughts on who might win Super Bowl LVIII, then be sure to click here so you can listen. You can also watch today's show on YouTube by clicking here
2. Chiefs Super Bowl parade gets crazy
If there's one day per year where NFL players aren't afraid to get drunk in public, it's definitely the day of their Super Bowl parade. The Chiefs held their parade on Wednesday and it might as well have been a one-hour infomercial for Coors Light (Patrick Mahomes drank a lot of Coors Light at the parade and if you click here, you can see the case sitting behind him as he holds one in his hand. You can also see him slamming a beer down by clicking here ). 
The theme of the parade seemed to be disrespect, as in, the Chiefs think that everyone wrote them off in 2022 after they lost Tyreek Hill. 
Anyway, it was a wild parade and CBSSports.com's Garrett Podell watched the entire thing so he could give us the following breakdown: 
  • Travis Kelce steals the show. "Travis Kelce's speech was the highlight of the 2019 season's Super Bowl championship parade, and Kelce showed up in prime shape once again as Wednesday's highlight, firing up the crowd plenty, especially when reminding them of 'the haters' following the trade of Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins." You can check out Kelce's speech here. During the parade, Kelce actually took some time to sign autographs, which you can see here
  • Mahomes also plays the disrespect card.  I'm not sure where Mahomes gets his news, but he seems to think that everyone was counting the Chiefs out this year. "The AFC West said we were rebuilding," Mahomes said. "I don't know what rebuilding means. In our rebuilding year, we're world champs! I just want y'all to know that is just the beginning! We ain't done yet! I'll make sure to hit y'all back next year and make sure the crowd is the same!." 
  • Chiefs offensive line made their presence known. After the Super Bowl ended on Sunday, Orlando Brown shot out a tweet that said, "Zero sacks, put it on a F---ing t-shirt!!!!" As it turns out, the offensive line actually did put get some t-shirts made and you can check those out here
  • Donna Kelce shows up. No matter who won in the Super Bowl, Donna was going to have a parade to attend and since the Chiefs won, she showed up in Kansas City. She probably didn't get quite as crazy as Travis did during the parade, but she did seem to be enjoying herself, which you can see here
For extensive breakdown of every crazy thing that happened at the parade, be sure to click here.  
3. Who will Chiefs play host to in the 2023 opener?
One of the perks of winning the Super Bowl is that the winning team gets to host the opening game of the following season. In this case, that means the NFL's kickoff game for 2023 will be played in Kansas City. 
With that in mind, our Shanna McCarriston took a look at the Chiefs' home schedule for next season and ranked which games would make the most sense for the opener and here's what she came up with: 
1. Eagles at Chiefs
2. Bengals at Chiefs
3. Bills at Chiefs
4. Chargers at Chiefs
5. Broncos at Chiefs
(Note: The Chiefs also play the Raiders, Dolphins, Lions and Bears at home in 2023, but we probably won't see one of those teams picked for the opener.) 
I think the top-two games on this list make the most sense. I mean, you would either get a Super Bowl rematch or a rematch of the AFC Championship and you really couldn't go wrong with either one since they were both crazy games. 
The one thing about the opener is that the NFL almost never schedules a cross-conference game. However, that doesn't mean Eagles-Chiefs won't happen. Since 2009, there have been two cross-conference openers: one came last season (Bills-Rams) and the other one was a Super Bowl rematch (Panthers-Broncos in the 2016 opener), so Eagles-Chiefs could definitely happen. 
Based on the fact that Super Bowl LVII was the second-most watched game in NFL history -- and third-most watched show in television history -- I'm guessing those ratings might be enough to get Eagles-Chiefs put into the opener. 
To check out Shanna's full explanation for her rankings, be sure to click here
4. Five teams that could surprise everyone in 2023
One thing that makes the NFL so entertaining every year is the fact that it's one of the most unpredictable sports on the planet, and nothing proves that more than the league's uncanny ability to produce at least one team every season that goes from worst-to-first. 
Last year, that team was the Jacksonville Jaguars, who went from the worst record in the NFL in 2021 to a playoff spot in 2022. The Jags' rebound is probably going to give a lot teams hope for 2023, so Cody Benjamin decided to take a look at five teams who will likely improve upon their records next season. These aren't necessarily teams that will go from worst-to-first, just teams that could surprise us by being way better than they were in 2022. 
Last year, Cody hit a home run by listing the Jaguars as his top turnaround team, so let's check out who he has this year:
1. Bears (2022 record: 3-14)
2. Broncos (2022 record: 5-12) 
3. Colts (2022 record: 4-12-1) 
4. Jets (2022 record: 7-10) 
5. Rams (2022 record: 5-12)
If you want to know why Cody has the Bears at the top of his list, be sure to click here
5. 15 NFL stars who could have a new team in 2023
The 2023 offseason could be one of the craziest ever in the NFL and that's because we could see more than a dozen big-named players get moved this year. Some of those players could get traded while others could be cut as a cap casualty, but whatever the reason, there's a good chance their time could be coming to an end with their current team.
Former NFL agent Joel Corry made a list of stars who could switch teams this offseason and here are 10 of the guys that he thinks could be on the move: 
  • Aaron Rodgers (Packers QB)
  • Carson Wentz (Commanders QB)
  • Matt Ryan (Colts QB)
  • Jameis Winston (Saints QB)
  • Ezekiel Elliott (Cowboys RB)
  • DeAndre Hopkins (Cardinals WR)
  • Michael Thomas (Saints WR)
  • Frank Clark (Chiefs DE)
  • Jalen Ramsey (Rams CB)
  • Joe Mixon (Bengals RB)
If you want the full explanation for why these guys might be on the move, then be sure to click here to read Corry's entire story
6. Rapid-fire roundup: Rex Ryan could soon be returning to the NFL
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.
  • Rex Ryan emerges as top candidate for Broncos defensive coordinator job. We mentioned on Monday that Ryan would be interviewing for Denver's DC job this week, and now, it looks like he's taken a step closer to landing it. According to multiple reports , Ryan is currently the top candidate for the job. Ryan has 20 years of NFL coaching experience under his belt, including two stints as a head coach, but he hasn't held any NFL coaching job since being fired by the Bills in 2016. After that happened, he took a job at ESPN and he's been there ever since. The Broncos are also looking to interview Vance Joseph for their open DC job, according to 9News.com in Denver
  • Buccaneers make offensive coordinator hire.  The Bucs have finally found someone to replace Byron Leftwich. Seahawks QB coach Dave Canales has decided to take the OC job in Tampa Bay after spending the past 13 seasons in Seattle. According to ESPN.com, the Buccaneers interviewed 10 candidates before settling on Canales. 
  • Calvin Ridley applies for reinstatement.  After serving a one-year gambling suspension, the Jaguars receiver was eligible to apply for reinstatement on Wednesday, so that's exactly what he did. Ridley was traded from the Falcons to Jacksonville during his suspension. The NFL doesn't have to reinstate him just yet, but it would be surprising if he's not reinstated at some point before the 2023 season starts.
  • Justin Fields wants the Bears to get a dome.  It's not often you hear a player who plays in cold-weather admit that they hate playing in cold-weather, but that's what Justin Fields did this week. The Bears QB made it clear that he wants his team to get a dome. The good news for Fields is that the Bears just closed on a $197 million land purchase in Arlington Park, Illinois, and there's a chance the team could be building a dome there at some point in the next few years. 
  • Eric Bieniemy set to interview with Commanders. The Chiefs offensive coordinator could soon be on the move. Although he didn't land a head coaching job this cycle, Bieniemy is still being coveted. The Commanders are looking to poach him from Kansas City to make him their offensive coordinator and they'll be interviewing him today, CBS Sports NFL Insider Jonathan Jones has reported . According to Jones, the two sides had dinner together last night and the Commanders are hoping to wrap this up soon, so Bieniemy could be leaving Kansas City as early as this week if he decides to take the job in Washington. 
 
 
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