Adam Schefter of ESPN chimed in with Dennis & Callahan on Friday to discuss Wild Card Weekend and all things NFL. Shefter said that he liked the Patriots’ chances with the tandem of Belichick-Brady, but sees Dallas making some noise in the playoffs and San Diego being a team he can’t trust.

He touched on the futures of Vince Wilfork and Ben Watson, gave his thoughts on the potential Charlie Weis-Romeo Crennel reunion in Kansas City, and tried to figure out if Dan Snyder finally got his man with Mike Shanahan.

To here the interview click here.

Give us an overview of Wild Card Weekend. Which team has the best chance to win after an awful week 17: Bengals, Cardinals or Eagles?

I actually think one of those teams will win this weekend. I think the Cincinnati Bengals will win. I don’t think that the Arizona Cardinals are going to win. I don’t think that the Philadelphia Eagles are going to win, and I do think that the Cincinnati Bengals are going to win. But, I will tell you right now, I’ve never had a reputation of picking games.

Did you pick the Patriots and let’s get your wild card picks out of the way.

Yeah I did. I picked New England. I think Dallas is going to have an extended run this postseason. I picked Green Bay and it won’t surprise me if Dallas and Green Bay played in the NFC championship game. I think that New England, what they’ve won 11 straight home playoff games. Last I checked, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are both going to be there Sunday, so I’ll take them and let my money ride on them. You have the Bengals, who I just think there is something about them this year, and I don’t trust a rookie quarterback going on the road in his first playoff game, I just don’t trust him. That’s it. So I’ll take them.

The Packers’ offensive line has been a lot better lately, and because their offensive line is better, you look across the league, the Packers are ranked sixth in the league in total offense, which is pretty respectable. Their defense is ranked second in the league in total defense, which is obviously respectable. And points per game they are seventh in the league, and I just look at them and I say that Green Bay is a tough out, they are on a roll, and I like them.

Those are some of my thoughts on the wild card round, and I’ll probably be wrong on everything I said, but that’s the way I feel.

Who’s the better QB: Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers?

I’d rather have Aaron Rodgers right now. I think that it doesn’t mean that they made the right decision or handled the situation in the right way, but Aaron Rodgers has become an elite quarterback. I think you can make the argument right now that if you were putting together the top five quarterbacks in the league to me it would be: Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees and I think Aaron Rodgers. I’d take Aaron Rodgers. You can make an argument for Ben Roethlisberger, but those would be the five quarterbacks that are the best in the league right now. Would you argue that?

Some might say Favre should be in there, but I don’t think Green Bay is looking to re-do that exchange.

Green Bay did the right thing. Now, I don’t know if they handled it the right way.

What right way is there to handle Brett Favre?

My only concern in all of this with the late season spat that Brett and Brad had, is that Brett might not have a ride back to the airport.

He might have to take a cab.

He might, he might not. We’ll see but Aaron Rodgers has been spectacular, and I know because he was my fantasy football quarterback this year. Every week the guy was money.

Who do people around the league tell you they are afraid to play in the playoffs?

I don’t think that we have that conversation like who are you scared of, I think that people talk about all these teams. I’ve heard Baltimore mentioned as a team, essentially I’ve had someone tell me that they are a team that basically lost so many close games this year that if they could just get to the playoffs you wipe the slate clean and they start over, and that might be a real dangerous team.

Then you hear other people talk about New England, with all the experience they’ve had and some of the key parts that they have, and you say well they are dangerous. And we know that Dallas with the way its defense is playing is dangerous, and we know the weapons the Eagles have. Every team is dangerous, that’s why they are in the playoffs.

When a team loses by a couple of points, doesn’t it indicate that a team can’t close the deal?

Yeah it certainly seems that way. It certainly also tells you that they are good enough to play with anybody, and that they have a chance to win every game that they are in. If that’s the case and they had made more plays then that they had to make, then they pull out the victory over New England on Sunday, if that’s what you are referring to and I assume it is.

They’ve played everybody tough this year, everybody.

Is it signed-sealed-and delivered with Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis in Kansas City?

Weis will be signed-sealed-delivered, and Romeo, again as was told to me last week and as I said, he’s going to coach next year, and I think that Kansas City is the likely landing spot.

So it’s not a done deal yet?

Not a done deal. Not a done deal. I ultimately think that that’s where he will wind up, but it’s definitely not done. Who knows the Giants could swoop in and hire him as defensive coordinator or maybe some other team comes along. But, I’m told it will either be KC or the Giants. I think Romeo wants to be around his friends, and he has a lot of friends in Kansas City, and ultimately that would be my feeling as to where he ends up.

Do most people think the Crennel-Weis reunion is a good thing?

I think that they look at both coaches, and we know that Charlie Weis should help that offense. They need somebody to take hold of that offense, lead it forward, be involved in the play-calling, take charge of the play-calling, and help groom Matt Cassel in much the same way that Charlie Weis groomed Tom Brady. So, I don’t see how it could be a bad thing. Same thing with Romeo Crennel. I think they are looking for a little direction with their defense and Romeo Crennel would be the guy to provide it.

With Vince Wilfork being option 1A for New England in free agency, where does that leave Ben Watson heading into next season?

Let’s keep in mind a couple of things. Number one, each team in an uncapped year, which everyone is now expecting, would have two tags, not one. So if the Patriots valued Ben Watson, and I don’t know the answer to that whether they do or they don’t, but they can tag him, because the price of a franchise tight end is not prohibitive. We are entering an uncapped year where there is no salary cap, and Patriot fans will know, from what happens in late February to early March how their franchise feels about Ben Watson exactly. They either value him or they don’t.

What would an average tight end’s salary be if he is franchised, $5 million or less?

No, it would be less than that. I’ll bet it would probably be maybe $3 million to $4 million.

It’s a one-year deal, so they could solve that problem easily.

Exactly. That’s my point. You are going to get a real good read on how they feel, first thing is we don’t know exactly how they feel about Ben Watson, you are going to know how they feel about Ben Watson.

Do you hear that they will franchise Wilfork?

Nothing is ever given. I can’t imagine one of the top defensive lineman in all of football should not get a tag put on him and just let him hit the market. I don’t see that happening. Maybe they would look to make a trade for whatever reason, who knows, I haven’t heard anything like that. But we never would have thought that Richard Seymour would get traded either, and he did. My guess is the way that plays out, is that they tag Vince Wilfork.

Will Seymour get tagged in Oakland?

They’ve been trying to get him signed to a long-term contract extension, and I think they are going to try and do that with the hopes that they can avoid placing a tag on him. If it gets to the point where they had been unable to sign him to a long-term extension, he then will be tagged. Either way, Oakland is going to do everything it can not to let him to leave.

If it weren’t for the unforeseeable CBA issue, would some coaches still have jobs today, like Eric Mangini and Lovie Smith?

Every case is different, but I think that most of these coaches all fall into the same category. What you are seeing.

It’s cheaper to keep her is what you are saying.

That would be accurate. I think that’s the case with Lovie Smith. That’s the case with maybe Gary Kubiak in Houston. That’s the case, I don’t think that it made the decision in Cleveland but it certainly was a part of the equation way down in the equation. John Fox I don’t think falls into that category. To me, everything that is ahead of us in 2011, the financial uncertainty, teams being careful absolutely played into many of these coaching decisions to keep a lot of these guys this year, rather than pay off the guy and his staff. You keep them for another year and if we get through 2010, and if there is no football in 2011, at that point you make the move.

Is Shanahan finally the guy to turn things around in Washington?

Well, he got a five-year contract.

So did Steve Spurrier.

I don’t remember what it was. But I can tell you this. Mike Shanahan is going to be more successful at the NFL level in Washington than Steve Spurrier was. Steve Spurrier lined up on the first day and didn’t know that offense and defense should be separated. This unit had to go there, you know there are two fields. He didn’t understand the NFL game when he got there.

I promise you that Mike Shanahan understands exactly what he is doing. It’s ridiculous to start talking about when will Mike Shanahan be on the hot seat in Washington. Mike Shanahan will be there minimum three years. If they bombed out this year, bombed out next year, they are not doing anything at that point. He’s going to be there for a while, so, to me, (Snyder) got the right guy to give him the best chance to win. Now, no coach has been able to win on a consistent basis there, and Mike’s aware of that. Mike’s fully aware of that, and he and I have talked about that at times. I think that he believes that with the team he is going to assemble, that he is going to be able to do what no other coach has been able to do under Dan Snyder, and we will see if he is right.

Will he draft a QB with that No. 4 pick and if he does, which one?

This is pretty simple. He’s going to have his choice at quarterback if he wants, and he has not yet studied the tape of these guys, but again he and I had that conversation recently. The feeling going into it, is that if one of those quarterbacks appeals to you, and you believe in that guy, you are going to take him. And if there is not one of those guys that you believe in, then you are going to go with another position where that team needs help. That team needs help in a lot of different places, not defensively, but offensively. The offensive line needs repair. They could use a running back, they could maybe use another wide receiver. There are any number of places to go on offense. And I think, I really believe this, that Mike will go for the top-rated offensive player that he believes is a can’t-miss-guy at No. 4. If he wants a quarterback, a quarterback is not going to go one to St. Louis. I think they are going to go Ndamukong Suh. Detroit’s not taking a quarterback at 2. Tampa’s not taking a quarterback at 3. So Washington is there at 4 with the option to take either Sam Bradford or Jimmy Clausen or any other quarterback that it feels is worthy of the fourth overall pick. If you don’t feel that one of those quarterbacks is worthy there, perhaps you want to trade back into the draft. The 49ers and the Seahawks both have two [first-round] picks, and maybe one of them wants to move up to No. 4 to go get somebody, and if that’s the case maybe you get two ones and you go get a quarterback and an offensive lineman later in the draft.

Did you care about the BCS national championship game last night?

It actually was the second college football game that I attempted to watch this season. The first would be the Florida vs. Alabama game. It just happened to be by circumstances that I happened to be home with a quiet moment with my baby taking a nap, and I put it on and watched a little of that. Last night I watched the first half and then fell asleep.

That sounds about right.

I figured after that interception return for a touchdown, I had seen everything I needed.

That’s correct. But it did get good again and then it got bad again at the end.

I watched a little bit of it. I couldn’t make it. I woke up at 1, did some work and was back up at 4. Just my erratic, inconsistent sleep schedule.

Who is going to play in the Super Bowl?

Great question, and at the start of the season my prediction was San Diego vs. Green Bay, which I feel pretty good about. There is no reason to switch off that, but I will tell you I like Dallas, and I think San Diego is going to gag somewhere along the line.

That’s different.

I think they are going to gag somewhere along the line. I just think when you look at the Chargers, they were 11th in the league in scoring defense. The 16th rated overall defense. Their rushing offense was 31st in the league. They’ve been unbeatable, they’ve won 13 straight, they got everything going for them, undeniably, but something makes me nervous about them.

So you see them losing a 37-34 game somewhere?

I just don’t trust them.

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