Extra Reps on the Bench: Daren Briare Joins the Chaos for Super Bowl 60

If you don’t stay down and you never quit, come on over here and sit on the far end of the bench.

Super Bowl week means extra reps for everybody – coaches, players, content creators, and apparently my vocal cords. So for this one, I called in an old running mate to help me get loose before the big game:

Daren Briare, host of the Fatboy Fadeaway Sports Podcast and my former partner-in-crime from Talking the Gridiron over on Variety Sports Network.

It’s been a minute since we were on a mic together every week, but as soon as we hit record, it felt like we were right back in that virtual studio arguing about the Raiders, the Broncos, and whether Sam Darnold should still be allowed to play quarterback on national television.

This bonus show is part Super Bowl 60 preview, part AFC West group therapy, part prop-sheet nonsense, and part NBA trade deadline panic. So let’s walk through the biggest beats from the episode.

The Talking the Gridiron Reunion

First off, huge shoutout to Daren for even jumping on.

Life happened – marriage, kids, work – and Talking the Gridiron eventually had to shut it down. That show had a three-year run where we were live every Sunday night, breaking down the NFL slate with Daren hosting, me yelling, and a rotation of characters like Brian Johnson and Terrell dropping in to talk trash about everybody’s team.

Daren admitted on the pod that stepping away was tough but necessary. And honestly, that’s why having him back for Super Bowl week felt right. It’s a little reunion tour:

• Same guy running point,

• Same dry sarcasm,

• Same willingness to call his favorite team “a dumb franchise” on air.

If you want the full nostalgia hit, go dig up the Talking the Gridiron archives on Variety Sports Network… preferably after you finish this blog and listen to this episode, obviously.

AFC West Therapy: Raiders Misery vs Broncos Heartbreak

You can’t put a Raiders fan and a long-suffering Broncos-country-adjacent Bengals fan in a room during Super Bowl week and not let them vent.

The Raiders: Masters of Doing Too Much and Not Enough

Daren was brutally honest: he has zero faith in Raiders ownership and about four wins worth of hope every offseason.

Highlights (or lowlights) from his rant:

• Calling the Raiders “one of the worst franchises in football” with the confidence of a man who’s watched them closely for 20+ years.

• Dragging the Geno Smith trade, the Sam Darnold trade, and the Kubiak hire like they were episodes in a tragic sitcom.

• Pointing out that since 2003 the Raiders have had only a tiny handful of Pro Bowlers, many of them the same few dudes. That’s two decades of whiffing on impact players.

Tom Brady’s partial ownership? Cool storyline. Not exactly fixing the rot at the top… yet.

The Broncos: One Play Behind the Chains

On the flip side, we hit on the Bo Nix injury and how it flipped the entire Broncos season. Denver went from a dangerous, balanced team to “please, football gods, don’t let our backup throw the ball sideways again.”

Two big themes:

• One dumb play changed everything. That shovel-pass/chest-pass from Stidham in the AFC Championship – the one that looked like a seventh-grader panicking in a dodgeball game – was the moment. The Broncos spent the rest of the game chasing that mistake.

• Sean Payton vs the Field Goal. From passing up a chip-shot field goal early to “trusting the analytics,” we circled back to an old-school coaching truth:

  End every drive with a kick.
  Punt, field goal, or kickoff – anything but a YOLO turnover that gives the other team free points and momentum.

We lumped Payton in with other coaches this year who refused to take points: McDermott, Campbell, a few more who apparently think kicking is cowardice. Which leads us to…

Field Goals Are Not Weakness: The Analytics Culture War

We spent a good chunk of time ripping the new idea that taking three points is somehow a sign of fear.

Recent playoff pattern:

• Wild Card: teams passed on makable field goals. Lost.

• Divisional: teams passed on makable field goals. Lost.

• Championship: Broncos pass up a very makeable field goal with a backup QB. Lost.

Sometimes the bold move isn’t going for it on 4th-and-8 from the 15. Sometimes the bold move is respecting the scoreboard and stacking points.

As I told Daren: if John Madden were still doing commentary, he’d just be up there in the booth muttering, “Take the points” every four snaps.

Injuries, Sliding Doors & Quarterback Vibes

The 2025 season was all about “what if he doesn’t get hurt?”

• Bo Nix going down derailed Denver.

• Jordan Love getting hurt changed Green Bay’s entire arc; with him healthy, they might be hosting playoff games instead of fighting for a spot.

• Mahomes’ ACL tear and Kansas City’s regression showed how thin the margin is even for a dynasty.

• Brock Purdy going down in San Francisco and that whole Santa Clara “substation curse” conspiracy got a few minutes too. (Shoutout to Tyler, who’s apparently convinced the power grid is out here ending seasons.)

Then we got into quarterback “types”:

• Daren compared Drake May to Eli Manning – not flashy, not consistent, but absolutely capable of going nuclear in a one-game sample.

• We both agreed Trevor Lawrence is dangerously close to sliding into “didn’t live up to the Peyton hype” territory unless he starts stacking playoff seasons in Jacksonville.

• And yes, we addressed the big one…

Sam Darnold: Still Seeing Ghosts or System Savior?

Here’s the wild part:

Sam Darnold might walk into Super Bowl 60 and leave a Super Bowl champion… and we’d still be debating him.

Our verdict:

• He’s not “elite” in the top-five sense.

• But in this system, with this roster, he’s played top-10 football, especially in the NFC Championship.

• No turnovers in the playoffs, efficient in structure, and backed by a nasty defense and legit running game when healthy.

I said on air: if we come back next year, even with a ring on Darnold’s finger, I still don’t just automatically pencil the Seahawks in as favorites because of him. But for this year, in this run, he’s been exactly what they needed.

If you made me pick who repeats their success more reliably next year – Darnold or Trevor Lawrence – it honestly might come down to the coaching rooms: Mike Macdonald vs Liam Coen.

Parity Kings: Jaguars, Texans & the AFC South Cluster

We gave flowers (and side-eye) to:

• Jacksonville – nasty defense, confusing offense, flashes of brilliance from Lawrence, but still feels fragile. Daren’s at about a 60/40 confidence level they can stay relevant.

• Houston – insanely fun defense led by Will Anderson, who might be the defensive force of the next five years if health cooperates. Stroud’s disaster playoff game doesn’t erase what he did all year, but it did give plenty of ammo to Ohio State QB skeptics.

• The whole division feels like 2018–19 Titans all over again: somebody’s scrappy, somebody’s overhyped, and someone’s pretending 9–8 is a “window.”

NFC Picture: Rams Mirage & Seahawks Rolling

On the NFC side we hit:

• The Rams as the team that never quite matched their hype. I’d picked them to win it all and got rewarded with a playoff run that looked way uglier than it should have. McVay got out-coached by Mike Macdonald, the run game never really owned the line of scrimmage, and a couple key moments (muffed punt, missed throw, fourth-and-one) flipped everything.

• Kyrie Williams looked great in spurts, Jared Verse is a monster on the edge, but it still felt very “Colts with Peyton” – explosive offense, defense just not good enough.

Meanwhile the Seahawks have been in “playoff mode” since Week 18:

• Win-and-in game vs the 49ers in Santa Clara.

• Handle them again later.

• Survive a brutal Rams team.

• Now rolling into the Super Bowl with a defense that can steal possessions and an offense that can score in bunches.

And lurking in all of this? Special teams.

I compared Rasheed Shaheed’s potential impact to Percy Harvin starting the second half of that infamous Broncos–Seahawks Super Bowl. One electric return in the third quarter can flip an entire city’s mood… ask Denver.

Super Bowl 60: Our Official Picks

We both acknowledge: New England can win this game.

If it’s ugly, low-scoring, and decided by situational ball, Mike Vrabel is the human cheat code. The Patriots’ run game with Stevenson and Henderson, plus that physical defense, gives them a real shot in a grind-fest.

But here’s where we landed:

Daren’s Pick

Seahawks 27, Patriots 17
Seattle pulls away in the fourth, and New England’s offense just doesn’t have the juice to catch up.

My Pick

I’m with him on the winner, if not the exact score. I can envision about five different paths to a Seahawks win:

• Darnold stays turnover-free again

• Defense forces Drake May into a couple of Eli-level “what the hell was that?” throws

• Shaheed or the return unit makes a game-breaking play

• Macdonald cooks up a pressure package May hasn’t seen

• Seahawks hit explosives to JSN & DK

On the Patriots’ side, I really only see one path: Vrabel turns it into a rock fight, wins the hidden yardage game, and the Pats hit every red-zone opportunity while Seattle settles for field goals.

In a league of chaos, I’m betting on the team with more ways to win: Seahawks hoist Lombardi in Super Bowl 60.

Prop Sheet Degeneracy: Tails, Gatorade & Bad Bunny

What’s Super Bowl week without some ridiculous prop talk?

We kicked around:

• Coin Toss:
  Daren’s dad was a “tails never fails” guy, which is exactly why Daren goes heads out of spite.

• National Anthem:
  My middle-schoolers hammered the over, and honestly, I’m riding with the kids on this one. Singers love drama; give me the over on 2:30.

• Gatorade Color:
  Daren’s pick: Blue. Solid value, iconic look, very Seahawks-coded.

• Halftime Show:
  Whether Bad Bunny should even be there, which song he might start with, and if Cardi B or J Balvin show up. No expert takes here, just vibes and jokes – and a reminder that no one is betting red Gatorade because equipment managers know better.

Quick NBA Detour: Warriors Treadmill & Nuggets Outlook

Because it’s me and Daren, we couldn’t resist a little NBA trade deadline detour.

Warriors

• Rumors of Draymond trades came and went.

• Instead, the Warriors grabbed a very broken, very temporary version of Kristaps Porziņģis.

• Daren called it “lipstick on a pig” – not enough to change the trajectory, just enough to look active.

Steph is still absurd. The rest? Not so much.

Nuggets & the West

From my Nuggets perspective:

• Going 10–6 without Jokic was huge.

• Once Gordon’s back and the starting five is stable, Denver should still be favored over upstart teams like the Spurs.

• Wemby is a generational freak, but experience still matters in a seven-game series.

Daren’s dream West semis: Nuggets, Spurs, Thunder, and some chaos team like the Timberwolves just to make Tim Connelly sweat about how much he wants to beat Denver more than he wants to sleep.

Why This Bonus Show Matters

This episode isn’t just picks and props. It’s:

• A Talking the Gridiron mini-reunion

• A look at how fast the NFL flips – from dynasties to disaster

• A reminder that field goals are still cool

• And a celebration of the weird little community that’s built around these shows over the last five years

Daren, Tyler, Brian, Terrell – all those guys have been part of our story at The Far End of the Bench, and it feels right to bring them back into the mix for a Super Bowl that’s wide open and weird.

Watch, Listen, Support the Homies

🎧 This bonus episode:
Live on The Far End of the Bench YouTube and podcast feeds now.

🎙️ Catch Daren & the crew:

• Fatboy Fadeaway Sports Podcast – Sunday mornings

• Follow Daren on X: @FatboyFadeaway

📺 More FEOTB content this week:

• Episode 265 is already out

• We’ve got another bonus show with Jordan Maxon from The Maxon Report breaking down Super Bowl 60, the Bengals mess, and the AFC North coaching carousel

Drop Your Take

Hit the comments and let us know:

• Who wins Super Bowl 60?

• Final score prediction

• Your favorite prop bet (and your Gatorade color of choice)

• And whether you’re buying or selling on Sam Darnold, Super Bowl QB

Until next time:
If you don’t stay down and you never quit, come on over here and sit on the far end of the bench.