Speaker #0who that to the who that nation and welcome to the who that say podcast your podcast for d new orleans saints here on the kb radio network i am your fellow who that and host kevin reed and oh my god it feels good to be back in the swing of things we are off and running into the 2026 nfl football season and nothing says football in the new orleans saints here in the great old crescent city the 504 ed man the saints are in for a tall task to kick off this new season of football The Saints will have to travel to Detroit, Michigan to take on the Detroit Lions on Ford Field. It's Sunday afternoon. It's no easy way to put it, ladies and gentlemen, that this is a big game for many reasons. Number one, okay, you want to start off fast. Every team wants to start off fast. We've already got a taste. just this past week uh wednesday we saw the rematch to the super bowl with the seattle seahawks and the new england patriots where we saw the same outcome from the super bowl with the seattle seahawks uh coming out victorious in that game and then way down under in australia we saw the rams and the 49ers clash where the 49ers i mean came off to a fast start by just walloping the la rams something that i didn't see coming i did not see the rams losing that game not in that fashion you know the rams always struggle against the 49ers because those two teams know each other so well the two coaches know each other so well so it's always a struggle for the la rams when it comes to the 49ers but i didn't i didn't think they were going to get monkey stomp like they did But those two teams with the Seattle Seahawks and. the san francisco 49ers who ironically are both in the nfc west came off came off hot you know so they're off to a really really good start especially the 49ers because that's a division win and so that kind of counts as one and a half wins and so they're they're definitely off to a real big start to the season but in the saints case where this isn't a division game but it is a conference game. And this is a playoff caliber team that we're facing in the Detroit Lions. Just a year removed. Last year they came up just a little bit short by finishing the season 9-8. But they're still a vulnerable team. They're still a well-coached team. They're still a very physical team under Dan Campbell, who we know very well down here in New Orleans. He played here as a tight end, and he joined Sean Payton's coaching staff when Sean Payton was still the head coach of the Saints, so we're familiar with him. Then we saw how he turned things around in Detroit, made them an actual Super Bowl contender. Not quite getting to the Super Bowl, but they were challenging for the Super Bowl. Just came up short a couple of years ago. But he lost a lot of his staff with Ben Johnson going to Chicago to become the head coach. Aaron Glenn, his defensive coordinator. going back to New York where he played along here, but back to New York to coach the New York Jets. So last year was kind of a get back into the groove of things. They started to really latch on a little late, but it was too late. So unfortunately, they fell short. Unlike the New Orleans Saints who, you know, we were just in a heap of trouble, you know. first time head coach new head coach new system uh young quarterback and nobody was expecting the saints to do anything they actually finished better than what a lot of people thought they were going to finish last season 6 and 11 but you listen to the pronosticators and the pundits and analysts and all of these espn youtube podcast commentators They'll tell you that the Saints are going to be worse than they were last year, maybe getting four or five wins this season. I don't know what they're looking at. I don't see that. I'm not saying the Saints going to the Super Bowl or anything, but they're going to be better than that. I think they will be better than last year. I think this team is built. to actually make some noise in the nfc especially in the nfc south where it is a dumpster fire i mean you look around the nfc south aside from the saints uh who is who is a threat other i would say maybe tampa tampa is always a threat because they always play the saints hard you know uh same thing with carolina but we swept carolina last year ironically enough So it's there for the picking. And Atlanta is Atlanta. Atlanta, God bless them. Atlanta, they're starting their third-screen quarterback this opening weekend with Cooper Rush. Tua's hurt. Penix is not hurt, but he says he's not ready. So they have to go to their third-screen quarterback in order to start this season off. That's not a good start, you know, and it's not going to get any better because Tua is not the answer, and Pinnock has proven that he's going to be the answer. And nobody has done anything to kind of improve their teams in the South other than the Saints. I think the Saints had the better draft. They had the better free agency period. I really feel confident that the Saints can kind of squeak. away with this division this year but before we get to all that we're not here to preview the season we did that already we're here to talk about this sunday this sunday the saints will take on the detroit lions and it's already starting off bad we we are heading to the lions then no pun intended and we we're gonna we got a tall task the detroit lions are favored by six and a half points in this game and when i first saw that initially i was like well i don't see that i don't think the saints gonna lose by a touchdown and then i thought about it oh yeah maybe maybe i don't know it is i said in my prediction show that uh well in the season preview show that the saints were gonna lose this game and i'm still with that i think the saints will fall in this game My main thing going into this game is the effort, the fight. Can they be a contender? Can they push this team to the limit? Let me give you some examples. You know what made me feel good about last season? It wasn't much to feel good about, but there were some things I took away from last season that I actually felt confident about. You look at that first half of the season where the Saints played virtually all playoff teams they played the two super bowl teams uh with the seattle seahawks and the new england patriots during that run and the saints with the exception of seattle because seattle monkey stomped us in seattle but all the other games we played the rams we played well the rams kind of beat us half to death too but we played new england and we actually had a chance to win that game. We played Buffalo and for... three and a half quarters we were beating buffalo you know we we were in these games and i felt good about that because that's something you can build on i wasn't too upset about the losses per se but i was i was happy with the fact like okay we haven't gotten it together yet but we're still in these games just wait till we get it together wait till we get a full off season with the guy that we know is going to be the quarterback, Tyler Shuck, and wait until we get all the pieces in place that we need with the running bag situation, with our wide receivers, with our defense, because they didn't start clicking until late. You know, we were struggling on defense in that first half, and then we got better in the second half. Now, I know that all of you in the Who Dat Nation, at least all of you with some sense, are like, Well, if you look at the schedule, Kevin, the schedule was very favorable at the end of the season. Yeah, absolutely. We played trash teams at the end of the season. Pretty much in the same boat we were rocking in at the end of the season. That's how we had as much success as we did. But I look at that first half. That's what I'm judging it off of. The first half where the Saints were trying to figure it out, but they were putting up the f***. fight of their lives and that's all i can ask for out of this team sunday Pretty much the same thing. Sunday, I need the Saints to come out there like their hair is on fire. I need the Saints to make a statement in this game. Not necessarily win, but put people on notice like, wait, this team is actually better than what I thought. And that's all I'm asking for. Now, can the Saints pull off this game? I think they can. Unfortunately, I don't think they will. And my reasoning behind it is because, number one, this is the first week of the season. I don't know what Detroit is throwing at us. I don't know what the Saints are going to throw at Detroit, to be honest with you. We don't know. And so it's kind of hard to predict this game honestly and fairly. I can only go by what I saw last year, previously, during the preseason, and things of that nature. Now on. paper on paper this is going to be a tight game on paper this will be a one possession game like like the uh like vegas have us you know six and a half i think this will come down to the final possession and who has it i think it will come down to that i think it will come down to uh who has the ball last because it's going to be that tight i think both teams are trying to figure it out at this point. Uh, Detroit has more of a head start on it, I believe, because of, uh, the team that they already have. They have, uh, some very talented players with Jared golf, uh, uh, Gibbs at running back. Um, uh, Jamison will at receiver. Yeah, we, we, we've gone, we got a test. We got a test and oh my God, don't talk about defense with, with that wild animal, Adrian Hudson. Uh, who? That offensive line, we're going to see if that offensive line has been revamped. We're going to find out Sunday. That's why I like this game. I really do. I like this game, and I like where it's at. I've spoken to a few who-dads out there, a few black-and-gold alum who hate the fact that we play in Detroit in the first game. I don't think so. I'd I actually think this is a test. You need to come out with a test. I don't want to come out soft. I don't want to come out and play the Cleveland Browns. No, because we go out there and mollywop the Cleveland Browns, it's going to be fool's gold. Everybody going to think, oh, yeah, black and gold to the Super Bowl. Take a seat. Calm down. Let's relax. It's just one game. But if we go out there and actually beat Detroit, you're going to start getting. you're going to see some antennas start to pop up, you know, maybe not beat them. But like I've been preaching here, go out there and give them the fight of their lives. Antenna's going to go up. Oh, man, maybe I was wrong about the Saints. Maybe they're going to win eight or nine games. Hey, maybe 10. Who knows if they could do that to Detroit in Detroit. But we shall see. They have their word cut out for them, son. day detroit is a difficult place to open uh the lions have plenty of firepower on both sides of the ball as i said adrian hudson uh he's coming off a career high of 14 and a half sacks last season pretty much establishing himself as one of the top edge rushers in the lead uh i think he made the all pro uh team last season if i'm not mistaken the saints also won't have a completely healthy roster as well. Um, Alvin Kamara, he was limited in practice all week. Uh, he's listed as questionable for this game. Dealing with that MCL injury. Let me say this. I think that you shouldn't play. Don't rush him back. You know, we got Travis Eachen. Let's, let's see what we got there. You know, let him run the rock and, and we'll, we'll work it out from there. There's no point of rushing him back in. further injuring himself worse and now we're out of we're out of the uh alvin camara business for the entire season i don't want to do that and so if he's not 100 i'll say sit him i'll say 80 if he's not at 80 at least i know he did practice a little bit but if he's not you know game ready there's no point throwing him out there you know this is a really good team that we're going up Thank you. gets if it was a lesser team sure you know a lesser defense sure but uh i wouldn't risk it in this game one of the most disappointing aspects of this offseason or during the preseason was uh the loss of jordan tyson our first round pick this past season or offseason um man look i don't know what it is and this is a league thing this isn't really a saint's day you go around the league and you look at all these soft tissue injuries and on every team it's like every week you see it every single week i you watched the game the other night with uh aj brown he had it i think he had a high ankle sprain or something like that it's just so many fluke injuries like that is happening so often now maybe i wasn't paying much attention to it back back in the day you know maybe it was a different time and people just played through the injury which they did They did do that back in the day. You know, they just rub some dirt on it and get back on the field. But now, it's just months. You miss weeks. It's devastating. Jordan Tyson, he's going to be out for at least two months. And that's going to suck. Well, not two months. The first four games. The first month. But I don't know. I honestly don't know. I say two months because they said four weeks three weeks ago. Then we get to this week, and they're like, oh, he's going to miss four weeks. Wait, you said that when it first happened. It's like, y'all going to keep scratching this out? But the same thing I would say about Kamara, what I was saying earlier. Jordan Tyson, if we're looking good. in the next four weeks i will say two and two right no point of rushing him back i wouldn't rush him back you know if we can sustain this little onslaught that we're about to go on with going to detroit going to baltimore uh playing the raiders playing atlanta it's no point of rushing him back if we can split these four first four games or or hey if the heavens open up and we three in one or something like that. I, definitely wouldn't rush him back um yeah take your time because this is a long-term investment i do want to see him want to see him on the field he looked amazing in uh uh training camp so i am excited to see him touch the field but i don't want to rush him back and uh risk further injury because unfortunately he is injury prone you know going back to college dealing with those hamstrings you know and once again it's a hamstring injury again So, I don't know. We always deal with that. And then, the real death blow was Cam Jordan, defensive end, who will miss this game. And probably more than that, I don't know. They're real tight-lipped like they always are when it comes to the injuries. But Cam Jordan, he's definitely out for this game, dealing with a hamstring injury himself. And this is... the first time in his career that he's missing a game due to injury and that is wow to me that that is so crazy uh and i hate to see it bro because we all know this is this is his last ride this is his final season at least as a new orleans saint probably for his nfl career but i didn't want to see it go out like that because he has been the sheer definition of iron man And, you know, to go out like this, you know, hampered by injury is, I know that's eating him up, tearing him up from the inside out. But, but, you know, there are still ways that the New Orleans Saints can make this game interesting. There are ways that the Saints actually can pull this off. Detroit, they have injury problems of their own. Beard. two key defensive backs uh uh brian branch and uh uh kobe joseph they're out for at least a month uh they both are dealing with injuries and they're a little uncertain about their other defensive actually i think their whole secondary is banged up the whole second uh uh derrick moore uh i think he he was limited this week uh um it was another one man I had the injury report, but they didn't show it on here. I guess they're trying to be. secretive too because they don't want to expose the fact that their secondary is depleted but uh yeah they're in trouble in their secondary uh i think that's probably going to be a window for kelly moore and tyler shuck to just let loose i really don't want to see that but i'm pretty sure they're gonna they're gonna take that bait and try to sling the ball all the way up up and down the field on Detroit because of... that injury problem that they're suffering in the secondary. If they can, I expect it to be a competitive game into the fourth quarter. Detroit, of course, have the home field advantage. They have a talented offense. Defense is capable of creating problems for this young offense. The Lions, I think they'll find a way to make enough plays late to come out victorious. And I don't think it's going to be a touchdown game. I think it's going to come down to a field goal. I'm thinking along the lines of 27 to 24 Lions win. I think it's going to come down to a field goal at the end. At least that's around that. You know, I think it will be a competitive game. I really do. At least I'm praying that it is. Deep down, I want the Saints to win. Of course, I want the Saints to win, but I just don't have enough to bet on. I don't have enough to sit there and definitively say that the Saints will come out victorious. Will come out victorious. I'm not super confident in that. But if the Saints do come out victorious, it's going to come down to one man and one man only, and that's Tyler Shuck. He's going to have to prove. that he's capable of making big throws in this hostile environment against that hampered secondary. If he can make those plays, make those big plays, converting on third down, making the right decisions, not turning the ball over, you know, the typical cliches, I think the Saints could actually pull this off. You know, if they can jump on the Rams, not the Rams, but the Lions early. and give this defense a chance to lay his hair back and just go, I think the Saints can do it. But they're going to have to jump on the Detroit Lions early. That's my thoughts. That's it. Because the defense, I believe this defense is built to maintain a lead. I don't know if this is the type of defense that will bring you back into a game, but I do think this is a defense that can, if you have a... touchdown or a 10-point lead, I have confidence that the New Orleans Saints can make a stop here, make a stop there, and keep the foot on the neck of the Detroit Lions. So, you know, that's one side of the coin. So I do think the Saints probably will fall, but if the Saints can jump on them early, if Tyler Shuck can make the right choices down the field, If Travis Etienne can let it loose, you know, run the ball, give us a four to five yard per carry average, you know, something like that. Hey, we're in business, baby. We're cooking. We're cooking. And so we'll see, man. I'm excited for this game. I am super excited. I'm so happy that New Orleans Saints football is back, just like the rest of the Houdat Nation. I want to know. What's your predictions to Sunday's game in Detroit? Do you think the Saints will come out victorious? Am I tripping? Am I a fake Saints fan? Like, I've been accused of it. When I told a friend about it, I was like, I don't think we're going to win. He was like, wait, what? Yeah, he virtually cursed me out. But I'm just trying to be real. You know, I'm trying to... tamper my expectations here i don't want to go out there and just yeah yeah we're gonna we're gonna mollywop detroit you know i don't want to do all that i i think that i think the saints are capable of beating them i just don't know if they will but i i hope and pray that i'm wrong i don't have a problem being wrong especially when it comes to my saints i have zero problems eating crow If the Saints come out victorious this Sunday in Detroit, I want to know, ladies and gentlemen, what are your thoughts? What are your predictions? Are you ready for football? Are you happy football is back? Subscribe to the KBRadioNetwork.com website where you can be notified of all the new episodes that are dropping on here, as well as previous episodes that's available for your listening pleasure. If you are on YouTube, subscribe to the KB Radio Network. channel like this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to the who that's a podcast your podcast for the new orleans saints here on the kb radio network baby football is back in the hood at nation and I can't wait for Sunday. Don't forget, check back Sunday evening for the results show, the reaction show to the week one matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Detroit Lions, hopefully with me apologizing that the Saints will lose. Hey, I will gladly do that. But the only way you can check that out, hear my apology, check back in with us. Sunday evening. Until then, I'm going to be screaming, Who dat?
