Power Rankings: What we’re thankful for in the NFL

Chris Simms and Tank Williams rank the things that they’re most grateful for this season, including a new superstar, rising defenses and some plentiful primetime matchups.

Video Transcript

CHRIS SIMMS: All right, Tank, it's Thanksgiving.

TANK WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm.

CHRIS SIMMS: And I'm going to give out a list of things we're thankful for. I think you got a list too. First off, I am thankful to do this with you once a week. You're a pretty good dude, and I enjoy our conversations. So I will say that, to keep it real.

TANK WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Now where does that fall? Is that number three or is that number one?

CHRIS SIMMS: No, that's number zero. That doesn't count. That's a non qualifier for this one, all right? But either way, I do appreciate you. You're my homie in that way.

TANK WILLIAMS: Absolutely.

CHRIS SIMMS: But now, to get to the football-- to the football-- here's three things I'm really thankful for. First off, Lamar Jackson-- I mean, what else can I say? Lamar Jackson is the most fun guy to watch in all the football right now, the Baltimore Ravens, the big, bad style they play with, the swagger. And I think it's all because of Lamar Jackson.

I'm thankful for the NFL pass interference debacle, because, as a guy who wants to do a morning talk show, man, they always give me something to talk about. Poor Al Riveron.

TANK WILLIAMS: Unlimited content.

CHRIS SIMMS: I mean, they screwed him. I mean, they changed the bar of what the pass interference rule is to be overturned. And everybody blames him. And yet I think he's taking orders from the NFL owners and the way it should be officiated from 345 Park Avenue.

But nonetheless, he gives us great conversation on a week to week basis, too. And then my third one is defense. That's what I'm thankful for and, specifically, the 49ers and the Patriots, other than the Ravens, the two out of the three best teams in football. And they're doing historic things in the age of offense and quarterbacks and completion percentage.

And, oh, it's all about the quarterback, and you can't win unless your quarterback's are amazing. And I just find it refreshing that somebody else on the top two teams in football is getting a little credit other than the quarterback. Patriots and 49ers are doing historic things on that side of the ball.

TANK WILLIAMS: Well, I was going to say that I'm thankful for doing this with you on a weekly basis until you basically stole my entire damn list, dog. Now I don't know how I feel about this right now.

But I will say this, instead. I will expand it a little bit further than just Lamar Jackson, even though I had a lot of talking points on him. I think what I like most about this season is that we're creating new narratives and we're destroying like old stereotypes where most of the leading quarterbacks in the MVP race are black quarterbacks. What, there's Russell Harrison, Lamar Jackson.

We have Patrick Mahomes, which I believe that narrative is starting to change. The best running back in the league is white, dude. That's my man Christian McCaffrey, Stanford dude. And he's doing it in the run game. He's doing in the pass game. I mean, he's basically changed what we look at as far as a dominant back in the league right now.

And then also, at the same time, I feel like the return of the defense. The NFL is what I call real life fantasy football where the rules have changed to where you can't touch receivers right now. You can't test two quarterbacks. It makes it so hard to play defense, yet you have teams, like you said, New England Patriots and the San Francisco 49ers that are holding teams to like 15 points or less in the lead today.

And that's so hard to come by these days. So you really have to give credit to defenses that are performing at a high level neck and harass people on the offensive side of the ball when the league really doesn't want that to happen. And I think most importantly-- and it really works out for y'all-- is we've actually had some good prime time games this year. Like, I remember the narrative being where, whether it was Thursday night football or Sunday football, you have some matchups that come either early or late in the season where there is just terrible.

But let me go in here and rattle off a few. Well, we had the first of the season. We had Houston at New Orleans, which is a major game.

CHRIS SIMMS: Great one.

TANK WILLIAMS: And then have the Rams as Seattle, where that was the big shoot out, and the fans love points. You run that back with Indianapolis at KC, where Indianapolis runs it down, the Kansas City Chiefs [INAUDIBLE] like, oh, my goodness, Mahomes in a Chiefs offense. I mean, that team has a weakness. And then they continued to get exploited, when Houston comes up in there and does a thing like a week or two later.

And then, at the same time, Minnesota goes into Dallas where you have all these things going around about Kirk Cousins can't win a big game. You seeing some really good quarterback play, some really good defensive play. But like you said, most importantly, I think it's just great for me to be healthy and be able to talk about football on a weekly basis.

And I couldn't think of somebody better to do it with you, bra. I mean, we have a lot of fun whether we're on camera or off camera shooting the noise and stuff. So definitely appreciative about the time that we spend on camera and looking forward to finishing off this season off hot, dog.

CHRIS SIMMS: Hey, ebony and ivory together in perfect harmony.

TANK WILLIAMS: Right.

CHRIS SIMMS: You're my man. Happy Thanksgiving.

TANK WILLIAMS: Happy turkey day, dog.