What’s More Likely: Rich Talks Lions, Eagles, Chargers, Panthers, Cardinals, AL East & More

Football is back, the Hall of Fame game is in the books, and Chris opened What's More Likely with a question designed to insult a whole fan base.

Higher number this season: times we see Carson Beck, or Panthers wins?

Rich, sitting inside the doors of the Hall of Fame, tried to be polite about it and then folded. "I just don't know that you're going to stick with Jacoby Brissett for as long as you're sticking with him," he said, before landing on Panthers wins. The translation, as Chris pointed out, is that Beck shows up sooner rather than later. Rich took the bait and endorsed both readings, adding that Carolina will be trying to win the NFC South for a second straight year.

Beck was worth watching, though. Deep balls, a receiver getting blown up like it was week 10, and Rich's verdict: welcome to the Hall of Fame game.

Next came the running back money. Two backs got paid this week, and the question was which one is more likely to finish top three in MVP voting, Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs.

Rich went Robinson, on volume. "We've already seen Bijan carry the ball and touch the ball a significant number of times. We haven't seen that from Gibbs yet." He also called it nitpicking and put a pin in the whole thing so Marshall Faulk could answer it later.

Receivers in new homes was the next fork, Stefon Diggs or Dontayvion Wicks, both now the number two option on their team. Rich took Diggs without much wrestling. "Diggs is the king of a 1,000-yard season."

The reasoning underneath was about the roster around them. After Terry McLaurin in Washington, Rich said, the next step down at receiver is steep. After DeVonta Smith in Philadelphia, it is not.

Then the recurring bit. Aaron Donald flew his speed trainer from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles this week, which Chris presented as further evidence in the ongoing case of is he back yet. Rich, who has been trained by Olympians on this very show, was more interested in the logistics.

"You can fly out speed trainers to help you get faster?" he asked. "I'd be faster than 6 seconds by now if I knew that."

Asked for the bigger number this season, Donald sacks or Matthew Stafford interceptions, with each at eight in the last two years, Rich took the sacks and predicted Stafford finishes under eight picks.

The bounce-back question paired Saquon Barkley against a Chargers receiver, and Rich went Barkley on the strength of the bigger body of work.

Baseball got a cameo. The Red Sox are a half game back of the Yankees in the AL East after an epic comeback at Fenway, and Rich's only real hope is that if Boston finally passes New York, it happens on a night that gives the Yankees two days to climb back in front before he has to sit here Monday.

The last one had nothing to do with sports. It is the 34th anniversary of Unforgiven, so: Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, or Gene Hackman, whose movies do you like most?

Rich did not hesitate. Hackman. Hoosiers is his favorite sports movie of all time, and then the list keeps going. The French Connection. The Conversation, which he called an underrated Francis Ford Coppola movie nobody talks about. No Way Out. The Firm. Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington.

Start Hackman, bench Freeman, cut Eastwood. Welcome to Mooseport gets thrown out entirely.