PMS 2.0 1474 - TNF Preview, NFL Week 16 Preview/Picks, College Football Playoff Opening Round Preview, Mike McCarthy, Nick Saban, & AJ Hawk

The Pat McAfee Show

ESPN

Sports, Football

4.9 • 18.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 181 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys preview tonight’s Thursday Night Football game between the Rams and Seahawks in what is perhaps Prime’s best Thursday Night Football game ever, before previewing the entire week 16 slate, as well as the college playoff games this weekend. Next, Super Bowl Champion, former Head Coach of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy joins the show to chat about tonight’s Thursday Night Football game, the importance of managing wind at this time of the year, his thoughts on the Tua situation, and much more. Next, 7x National Champion, the GOAT, College GameDay panelist, and new part owner of the Nashville Predators, Nick Saban joins the show to preview the college football playoff games this weekend, what changes he would make to the current format, and more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, we’re off tomorrow, but we’ll be live on the field for Miami vs. Texas A&M on Saturday at 12 PM EST on ESPN2, and then we’ll be back for Overreaction Monday. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdown.
0:05.0	On this college football playoff Eve Thursday, December 18th, 2025, this program begins now.
0:12.5	Football!
0:13.5	It's magical, and tonight on Amazon Prime, the NFL is delivering a fastball, 108 on the tip.
0:21.6	Rams, Seahawks in Seattle.
0:25.6	The stadium that is known as the greatest environment in the NFL
0:28.6	with the loudest fans, maybe in the entire world,
0:32.6	hosting Matthew Stafford on an MVP-like run.
0:35.6	The Seahawks favored by one and a half at home, but
0:38.7	if you do the math on home field advantage versus a team traveling in, it's basically a pickum.
0:43.9	As the number one seed, Los Angeles Rams will try to lock down the NFC West or the Seahawks
0:49.5	team with Sam Donald in his first year. Is he a guy? Can he lead a team on a playoff run?
0:55.0	When meaningful football comes around and that fat man is about to travel down chimneys all across the world,
1:01.0	can Sam Donald deliver in the biggest way, or will he crumble like we have seen a couple times in the past?
1:07.0	Nobody will believe it until they see it. Sam believes it. McDonnell, the coach of the Seahawks
1:13.0	believes it. And on the other side, Sean McVeigh has had this Los Angeles Rams team go from,
1:18.7	oh, that little whiz kid's pretty good coaching offense to, oh my God, they won a Super Bowl in
1:23.4	their home stadium, to oh my God, they have no picks, they they have no money and one of the goats one of
1:28.7	the greatest players of all time aaron donald is going to retire what are they going to do going
1:33.0	forward well steed mcvay stafford and the boys have been pillars throughout multiple different
1:39.0	iterations of this los angeles rams greatness run they got a wide receiver in puka nakua who is seemingly untackable. Now, a lot of stuff off the field is getting loud. He's going to have to continue to perform and be an absolute monster. We love Us. We would like the best for Us, and we know that whenever Oos is on primetime TV, he makes every play every time. He's going to have to. Devante Adams pulled his hamstring this past weekend just four days ago.
2:02.6	Now, Sean McVeigh was kind of tight-lipped about him being ruled out.
	...

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