NFL Power Rankings: Players that need to ball out
Chris Simms and Tank Williams rank the players that need to elevate their game in order for their team to make the NFL playoffs.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
TANK WILLIAMS: All right, Chris, I want to talk about the players who need to ball out the most in order for their team to make the playoffs and then go deep into the playoffs. And what got me thinking about this was George Kittle, facemask grabbed, stiff-arming the hell out of the Saints going down the sideline. Getting his team into field goal position to win that. Probably an instant classic. One of the best games we've seen this season.
But I don't want to make this easy on us. So I'm gonna eliminate Lamar and Patrick Mahomes out of the picture because we know it's a given that those dudes need to play well in order for their teams to succeed. So--
CHRIS SIMMS: Right.
TANK WILLIAMS: --let's get a little dicey with this now. At number three, Todd Gurley. Number two, Chris Carson. And number one, Derrick Henry.
CHRIS SIMMS: Oh, OK, I like it. I like that whole list. First off, you're right. I mean, the Tennessee Titans aren't even in the dance right now. And I'm with you, Derrick Henry's got to continue to be the Mack truck that he's been as of late.
I was gonna throw Ryan Tannehill in that conversation, too, because--
TANK WILLIAMS: But he needs Derrick Henry to ball in order for him to play well.
CHRIS SIMMS: No doubt. And I guess why I was saying Tannehill because I kind of expect Derrick Henry to ball out. And then it's just like, OK, can Tannehill keep it going? But I'm with you there.
Now Todd Gurley is the one that's interesting just because, listen, he's still really good. Is he the superstar he was last year or two years ago, three years ago? No, I don't think he is.
TANK WILLIAMS: I don't know though. I think maybe he is. I think they just saved up Todd Gurley for the stretch, and now this dude about to ball.
CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, maybe they did. I almost thought they just said, the hell with it. We don't know how many good years left this guy's got. Let's just run his butt into the ground now. That's where I was coming from, but I'm with you.
Also another guy from that team is Jared Goff. I just thought of him too. He was on my short list of guys. Because I mean as we know, yeah, he has so many up and down moments. He's got to be consistently good down the stretch here if they want to beat the 49ers, if they want to beat the Cowboys.
But I'm not mad at you for the Todd Gurley one. I'm with you there too. And then Chris Carson, he was on my list too. I didn't make a top three. I just wrote a bunch of names down.
TANK WILLIAMS: Yeah.
CHRIS SIMMS: But Chris Carson, you're right. I mean, hey, no more Rashaad Penny. And with him out-- he was kind of the game-breaker at the running back position. Now Chris Carson is gonna have the workload on him big time.
TANK WILLIAMS: Unless they can get that run game going, the Seahawks are gonna run into some trouble. Because that offensive line just can't sit back there and protect if he has to do these typical five-step drop backs and just try to sit there in the pocket and try to pick a team apart.
CHRIS SIMMS: I'm gonna throw two more names at you that I just think are interesting, OK, to me. And one of them, this team is not even in right now. But I'm going Khalil Mack, the Chicago Bears. I mean, they still got an outside shot.
It's been a very under-the-radar year for Khalil Mack. I don't think we've really talked about his name the whole season at this point. But they got the Chiefs, the Vikings, the Packers down the stretch. If they somehow could get in the playoffs, their defense is still legit good as we saw last Thursday night against the Dallas Cowboys.
And the last one I'll throw out to you just to hear me out here, Josh Allen, the Buffalo Bills.
TANK WILLIAMS: Yep.
CHRIS SIMMS: They don't have a lot of weaponry around him. But we've seen enough that physically he can have moments of throwing lasers downfield, running around, making plays happen like that. We know their defense is legit. If he can just ball out and catch on fire here at the end of the season, we talked about before the AFC is kind of up for grabs other than Baltimore right now. And they could be a real player in this thing if he and the offense kind of catch on fire here down the stretch.
TANK WILLIAMS: The last name that I want to throw out is Deshaun Watson because we saw they gave up a lot of points early. Really couldn't score in the first part of the game last week against the Broncos. This dude needs to play like Michael Jordan in the three-peat era if they're gonna be successful and make it to the playoffs and then ball out.
The couple of people that we had up front like Chris Carson, Derrick Henry, those guys need to get paid, too, so it's gonna be interesting to see how they play down the stretch. Hopefully these dudes can ball out and get that fat paycheck because we know that's what we all want when we playing in the league. Obviously, we want a ring, but that bank account needs to look nice too.
CHRIS SIMMS: I'm always rooting for the players to get paid. Take the money out of the owners' pockets.
TANK WILLIAMS: Right.
