Overreaction Tuesday: Rich Talks 49ers, Browns, Arch Manning, World Series, NBA & More

Overreaction Monday landed on a Tuesday this week, which felt right for a segment built on bad timing and worse takes. Chris brought the takes. Rich decided which ones deserved the label.

First up: the 49ers are 6-0, but the bevy of injuries will keep them from the top seed in the NFC. Rich wasn't buying it. "Like, what year is it?" he asked. "It's like every year we have the same conversation." When someone pointed out that San Francisco wasn't the one seed last year, the answer was that this year is different. The 49ers are 6-0, the defending champs are three and a half games behind them, and the team everybody thought would go undefeated is four and a half back. Overreaction.

That said, the room agreed a performance like Monday night's could get the 49ers beat by the right opponent. The Chiefs and Bills came up. So did Green Bay and Chicago, and the Patriots.

Next: the Commanders won't finish last in the NFC East. Rich called that a fair take, not an overreaction. Washington came back Monday and had the ball in the air with a chance to win at zeros. "They could be three and three right now, sitting atop the NFC East," Rich said, if not for mistakes Monday night and against the Giants in overtime. He gave a nod to Sonny Styles ("no joke"), while noting the loss of Terry McLaurin for what looks like a serious amount of time. His comparison for the division: "The NFC East has become last year's NFC South," where eight or nine wins could do it.

Then Chris swung big. The Browns are 4-2, the Rams are 2-4, so Cleveland won the Myles Garrett trade. "That's ridiculous," came the response. The counterpoint: it might not even be about this year, and seven weeks in, nobody has really seen what Garrett and Aaron Donald look like together. One voice in the room expected the take to be that Donald regrets unretiring. Someone online had an even hotter one: the Rams should tank. The problem, as the room pointed out, is that the Rams don't have their first-round pick. They'd be tanking for the Browns.

Staying with the Rams: with Davante Adams out for a while, maybe two months plus, Chris wants Los Angeles to call Dallas about George Pickens, because, in his words, "Jerry's not paying George." The image of Pickens alongside Puka Nacua and all those tight ends got some love. Not from everyone. "It ain't going to happen," was the verdict.

The North divisions will produce six playoff teams? Rich didn't think that was an overreaction either, since everybody in both North divisions is over .500, with the last-place teams sitting at 3-2 on a bye. Asked which two would miss out, Rich declined. "I'm not putting myself out there for that," he said. "This is called Overreaction Monday, where you give me something to react to."

College football got a turn. Chris's take: Arch Manning will be playing somewhere other than Texas next year, and it won't be the NFL. The room immediately connected it to Dan Orlovsky's post that morning saying Manning should stay in school, just not at Texas. Would Rich want him at Michigan? "Let's see how Tommy Carr plays, buddy," Rich said. "We got our own. We don't need to go shopping somewhere else for somebody expensive. We've already done that. How's that worked out so far for us?"

Baseball was next, and this one wasn't really a take. "Watch the World Series. I promise you, it's going to be awesome," Chris said. Rich agreed. The Rays won 98 games and the Brewers 103, the two best teams all season. And, as the room pointed out, the reigning ALCS MVP is a former Met. Brewers manager Pat Murphy has been quoting Springsteen left and right, which should appeal to Mike, except that Murphy's Brewers eliminated Mike's Dodgers. Mike's response: he already is a Brewers fan, and he has the hat coming.

The finale: NBA tip-off is tonight, and Chris predicted no Spurs, no Knicks in the Finals and a ninth straight new champion. Rich, the Knicks fan, said that's not an overreaction, but he doesn't think it will happen. "That would be outstanding if it was otherwise," he said.