
Show Notes
Once the butt of jokes across the league, the AFC South produced two teams that won at least 12 games last year, and for a time looked like it could get three teams into the playoffs. The Texans and Jaguars return this year as teams with legitimate aspirations to make deep postseason runs, while the Colts and Titans have reason to believe that they could notch the sorts of improvements that would push them to growth in 2026. Can the Texans offense do enough to make the most of an elite defense? Was the Jaguars second-half surge on offense for real? How do the Colts capture the magic from the first half of last season and keep it for a full 17-game slate? And just what would be a successful season for the Titans? Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman answer those questions, and a whole lot more, on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Join The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshow
Host: Robert Mays Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman Executive Producer: Michael Beller Senior Producer: Katy Duffy Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social Follow Robert on X: @RobertMays Follow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_
Theme song: Haunted Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
Week 7 brings us the following...a matchup of the franchises that have won three of the last four Super Bowls; the hopeful return of Lamar Jackson in a huge AFC North matchup; a big showdown in the NFC North, which just might be the best division in football; the reeling Los Angeles Rams going on the road in a tougher-than-expected matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders; and a whole lot more. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman preview a loaded Week 7 slate on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Caleb Williams and Drake Maye might have just given us a glimpse into the next decade of the NFL, and if they did, then we've got a great 10 years of football ahead of us. In this moment, though, the result was a 30-24 win for the Chicago Bears over the New England Patriots. Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen—along with a special guest joining from the streets of Chicago—recap the game on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Way back in division preview time, we considered what we'd be watching for the first month of the season with each of the 32 teams. Welp, we're now six weeks into the season. What better time to take stock of how we answered that question than right now? Robert Mays is joined by Fran Duffy from the ALLCITY Network to do just that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Look, we don't want to get bogged down in weekly referenda on Arch Manning. But when he has a game like that against a defense like Florida's, and when we have a special guest who was a P4 quarterback, we have no choice but to talk about him. So that's exactly where Dane Brugler, Dave Helman and Max Browne from The Athletic Live start this episode of The Athletic Football Show's Building the Beast. The guys also discuss plenty of other quarterbacks in addition to Arch, extend a couple more Green Room invites, and place some draft prospects On the Radar.
Just under a year ago, Chris Ballard made a "go big" trade for Sauce Gardner. Two wins and eleven losses later, he's going home. Jalen Hurts, meanwhile, is likely done for the season due to blood clots in his lungs. Those two huge pieces of news disrupted our typical rhythm, and are where Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen begin the Week 6 Hangover. After that, the guys discuss the Panthers stance in the NFC and the bizarre game between the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints.