The NFL Contenders Preview w/ Nate Tice

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But for today's purposes from Yahoo Sports and Football 301, Nate joins us for a little preview. Good to see you. And thanks so much for being part of the show this season. Oh, no. Thanks for having me. I'm fired up. I agree with you. I mean, I'm excited for every football season. I think every red-blooded American male is excited for the football season. But this year, college and pro, very wide open. Very wide open. Which, even though we have some teams that are a little bit favorites, I think that's going to be really, really fun to talk about throughout this year. A lot of ebbs and flows. A lot of good storylines this year. Yeah, so the purposes of this, you know, we're not going to go through all 32 teams. But I think, you know, looking at playoff odds and then again, some of the projection stuff that it's like win the Super Bowl or make the playoffs and then the teams can get kind of scattered. Let's just see how much we agree on or not. Here, it feels like the Rams with the way they've loaded up on this defense, maybe they're on their own. I mean, it's not really the way this league works. Do you include Baltimore in the group with Seattle and Buffalo? If you had asked me, I think they're a half tier below those two, but they're the favorites in the AFC, if that makes sense. Or I have one other team I'd like to include here too in the AFC. But I actually, we just did our AFC North preview as my last one we did on Football 3-1 today. And going into it, I was a little bit, I was like, oh no, I think the Ravens are good. I really respect Jesse Minter, and I think he's a really good game planner and play caller, which is something interesting. I like the OC they hired, or at least interested in what they might do. And Declan Doyle, I like the O-line coach for even getting to auxiliary parts of a team. But after doing that, all the research, all the prep, I became more bullish as the, yes, I do think of them as one of the class. I don't know if I- Okay, but you just, let me just jump in. I have a qualifier. Okay, go ahead. The team I would say I have slightly above them in the AFC. It's the Texans. Because of just where I think the, how elite their defense might be and where the offense improvement can be, that I think that's a, in this AFC, that formula could really work for them this year. But we could talk about this a little bit. Okay, so if you look at some of this stuff, if you just went, hey, it's Rams, it's Seattle, it's Buffalo, but it sounds like you don't even have Buffalo ahead of Baltimore or Houston based on, like, and has that changed in the last week? No, I, no, it's just that I think they have more questions. And I think Josh Allen has long healthy, which he has. He has been, is a walking, talking top five offense. It's just all the parts around them change a little bit. I like some of the stuff that they're doing. I think we're going to try to do with a DJ more trade. They're going to have a great run game. The only offense alignment that they're changing is that left guard. And so they have an options there. But defensively, I actually do really like Jim Leonard. And I think that's a really nice addition. I just don't know if they have the horses yet to carry them to that. So I think they are a playoff ish team, a good one because they have Josh Allen. They have one of the dudes. And I think they're going to have a great run game. I think the defense is going to be interesting this year, but I think they're an off-season way from getting that defense up to contender, you know, to that tier. I think they're more playoff team than contender tier. Okay. I kind of want to go through some of these teams with a little bit more depth. Let's at least start with the Rams because as of this morning too, like if you're a Raisins fans, you're going like, hey, what's the question? I think they have the second best odds to make the playoffs behind the Rams in the NFL as of this morning of this taping. I'm sure you can probably find a number somewhere else. I've seen him fourth. I've seen him second. Some people have him behind, but it feels like whether it's the Rams, Seattle with that respect and whatever team that you want to put in there, that middle, whether it's 10 teams, whether it's 15 teams, it just seems so deep, which again, we'll learn our lesson here with injuries week eight going, how come we thought they were good? But if we look at the Rams, look, what they did this off season to load up in the secondary and then to add Miles Garrett in a trade for a really good player, Jared Verst, the pieces that are already had in place with Byron Young and Kobe Turner, who are fantastic. And the fact, the fact that Aaron Donald is looming here, they must've been so pissed off. They did not get off the field in the fourth quarter against Seattle. They were like, whatever happens this year, that will never happen again. We will get off the field and get the ball back to our offense. And that feels like, you know, with Stafford, I just, I love what this team has done to add to what is already in place. The biggest weaknesses of this defense and actually Chris Shula, their defensive coordinator, obviously recognize the last name, but him actually as a play caller, it really impressed me. Great dude too. Yeah, I've never met him. I know some Shula, some parts of the tree, but not him. I know his uncle a little bit, but he is, I, he has really risen in my head or my, like how I hold him and how, how, how I regard him as a play caller and everything. Cause what he had to work with about two years ago with all these, this young defense, a lot of day three picks undrafted guys. And they're doing some funky stuff. That was interesting. Then last year, they were a top 10 defense most of the year, but then tapered off. Like you pointed at, it was the things that got them in the end and the teams that, did damage this defense were teams with big receivers that can just dunk on them and run in breakers. Cause they're trying out Emmanuel Forbes and Kobe Durant who are playing well and really aware because the defensive scheme was so good, but they just got, as my old friend, Charles McDonald would say out, uh, out blue chipped. That's just what happened. They just got blue chip. The five-star, you know, Puka Nakua is dunking on, or I'm sorry. Um, uh, with, uh, with the Seahawks have that they're dunking on them. The guys, Tetsuro McMillan and Jalen Coker are dunking on them. So those guys are just outsizing them. So, but, we, what are we going to get? Trent McDuffie who can play. So you're saying like, Hey, look at the matchups with those elite guys out there. They just knew, Hey, we have to overhaul this entire thing. That's it. They, they said, okay, well look at the NFC. All right. The other team I hold in highest team this year or this off season, the Cowboys, look at their receivers. So the teams that are at the elite passing attacks are explosive. The teams that we might have to face in playoffs are explosive and they have big dudes. You look at the NFC North, look at the guys that they have, they could trot out. Um, so you just look at these teams that they might have to go against and they might have to match up against there. They have a size issue. So McDuffie is not the biggest, but he plays very physical. He's one of the most aware corners to can play inside and outside, which is really cool. Because again, uh, Shula likes to be very versatile, run dime, run a lot of six DB stuff. Um, and then on top of it, even if they didn't do McDuffie and they just got Watson, I'd be like, that's, that's a nice upgrade. That's a, that's a good pick. He fits your defense, but then they got McDuffie and then they did miles Gary, you know, just to help it, you know, that was just the cherry on top. They had a good pass rush last year and they had funky blitzes and good game plan stuff. And now they just get a guy that's an ACE. So it's really, it's father time and special teams are the things that I look at as the Rams, as the things, the dominoes that could like go, not their way between Turner, young and Garrett, that's 227 pressures from that group. And then it's like, oh, Hey, Aaron, Donald's also going to play. And like the worst version of him probably is still double team. Half the snaps are out there. Although I don't know, they have, uh, I can't believe it. They have a whole bunch of guys that they. they're five deep. Byron Young, I'm glad you brought him up. He's like an underrated player. Like, he's a good player. He shows up every time. Every time you watch them, you're like, oh, he's in again. You know, but it's just, go ahead. Oh, no, no, no, no. I totally agree with you. Yeah, run, pass, all that stuff. Drops in the coverage for him. No, it's their biggest weakness is linebacker, which is actually a lot of teams, because not a lot of teams value that. And that's kind of, they've done it before. It's part of their ethos. So, but they know how ways to mitigate that. We'll just get into dime. And we have a bunch of guys that can play in the slot. A bunch of guys that are good blitzers. They have three safeties that they can trot out there. So, it's funky looks, and it's got, now they got the personnel to put it over the top. And that's, yeah, that's a contender defense. It's really funny that you said that about the linebackers, because I went through, and I'm looking at everybody's grades, and I'm looking at all the unit rankings for every single position in the entire time. And then you're just going like, how many linebackers do I actually like? Like, there's all these contenders. Although, there's some offensive line questions that we're going to get to with some of these contenders, too. There's like a pocket of like, God, those are kind of bad offensive lines. Which, again, we have more time. But you're just going through the linebacker rankings. You'll go through every unit. It'll be like top seven, top six, top four. And then it's like, linebacker's 24th. You go, well, who cares? And it's a bit like the first baseman in baseball, where it's like, hey, the first baseman's still an athlete. You're like, yes, but by rule, out of the four infield positions, one infield position has to be the least athletic, okay? And it's not shortstop, it's not second, and it's definitely not third. It's you, man. It's you at first base. No one's shitting on you. And I, like, this is a rant based on like, this first baseman was going, oh, everybody thinks we stink. We're like, no one's saying all of you can't move. But guess what? No first baseman go to third base unless it's like a free agent signing. It's like, hey, I got old. Let me go play shortstop. Yes, technically, you come up with somebody who went from first to third based on needs, but you get the point. All right, that baseball hybrid rant over. I loved it. I loved it. Let's rip it to Seattle here, because when you're looking at like all three levels and then you want to talk about a linebacker group here, Seattle, D-line, linebacker, secondary, I think really only Houston could probably compare. Maybe you could throw Baltimore in there. But again, as well, we trust us Ravens fans. We have more on them. It's probably like a D-line carousel of names for the Ravens there and what they're going to try to piece here together. But this Seattle defense, this unit, you know, we still don't know. Like, great year from Darnold. The receiver's terrific. The offensive line's probably average. But this unit defensively is just so nasty. And even losing Moffay, it just doesn't seem like they're going to miss a beat here at all. Yeah. Rick Wallen and Moffay, that's it. But they have contingency plans. They have, really, it is DB depth, which is, you know, champagne problems when defensive back depth is your issue, not a starter. And even though what I would usually say, because Ernest Jones is really important to this defense, he's not like an ace, he's not an all-star, but him and actually the Texans defense, which you just brought up too, it's like Aziz Alshair. If these guys were not on the field, it's like you're a little scared. They're kind of just the rug that ties the room together. And with Jones, what makes me feel a little bit better with this defense, they played a lot of dime. Another team that played a lot of dime, played a lot of nickel, everyone talked about it. Iman Worry's been a little banged up, but that's why you signed Devin Witherspoon, just like McDuffie. He can play in the slot. He can play on the outside. He's a dynamo either way, but they have other guys that makes me feel a little bit better. They had their second round pick, but Clark got hurt. But I'm bringing this up with the linebackers is two of their linebackers in preseason have played really well. Also speaks to the coaching of Mike McDonald that like these guys that have never really put it together. So Surratt and another guy, Chris Paul, but he goes by a different name, Pooh Paul. He goes by Pooh, but both of these guys. Well, that's smart. That's just good for him. Yeah, looks phenomenal. And again, why I'm bringing that up is if you have depth at linebacker, it makes me feel a little better at what was the weakness, but it might change the personnel that they might play. Like they might lean into something different a little bit this year. But again, I'm not talking about stuff that's crippling. I'm talking about interesting pivots, things that might be, just like a little bit, okay, rather than the best defense or the third best defense, you know, something of that sort. But up front, that's the strength. That's the misconception of all those two high defenses. Everyone's focused on the DBs. I just started with the DBs, but it starts up front. You can play light boxes if you have a bunch of head, you know, head bashers up front, and they do. They have every type you want. They have a bendy guy. They have DeMarcus Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy. All these guys are a different archetype. And it's really cool how they just, Mike McDonald just implements them and uses them. So, yeah, awesome defense. That's how they're built. And then offense is built on explosives. And that's, if I had a question with this team, it's how more efficient they can be. They've been very explosive, but I actually came away from my preview series feeling a little bit better about their offense than I thought going in. Auxiliary parts that they've had, or kind of my second year guys that they have, a full year of Rashid Shied. They're very high in Jadarian Price, I'm sorry, their first round pick, even with the Charbonnet injury and everything. And it's a run scheme. It's a zone run scheme. It's a Shanahan scheme. So, it's going to be going to lift up the O-line and make the running back look good. And if the running back's pretty good, get a nice little boost there as well. So, again, O-line, center, and right guard is probably their weakness. It was their weakness last year. And it didn't really matter in the end. So, that's how I look at this team and just maybe a little defensive depth. But they're up there. They're the number two team to me, or 1B is how I really look at them. Yeah, you could argue, too, with the personnel, maybe other than right guard on the offensive line, like maybe it just gets a little bit better. Yeah. And I'm with you. You know, Walker is such an unsung hero of that 25 run. You know, some toughness, some balance, why he's desirable in the market. But to spend a first-rounder on Price, who, you know, we would know way more about if he wasn't playing behind maybe the best player in all of college football last year. So, I hate when it feels like a desperate need thing. I definitely hate when it's like first-round running back thing where teams will draft and go, we desperately. You can just see it every year where you're like, you desperately needed somebody at this position. I don't know that I'd want to. We just always want to draft an extra offensive lineman or a corner if I just was sitting there going. Throw numbers at it. Yeah, yeah. That's how you build it or another pass rusher. Just screw it. Throw another one in there. Yeah, but. No, they're high on him. The reports are good on him. They. I liked him coming out. I wouldn't say I loved him. I thought, you know, I had him like in the 40s on my big board, yada, yada. This draft class was just so. After pick 20, it was just like, whatever you want. Yeah, sure. You know, candy for dinner. You know, whatever you want. But yeah, that's kind of how that felt. We just talked about the line kind of, you know, I agree the right guard is the weakness. The Gray Zabel, though, the left guard is like a star. And. That's what I mean. Like, there's a version of this where it actually gets better than. Better. What would you say? Above average unit last year and they win a Super Bowl? Yep. Above average. And helped by scheme. You know, I would take this O-line over the 49ers O-line. I would take him over, you know, a good deal of offensive lines. It's not the sexiest one. It's not top 10. But Charles Cross is a good left tackle. Gray Zabel is a good left guard. And Abe Lucas is a good right tackle. Not a lot of teams have that. And again, like I said, the scheme helps. Yeah. I mean, if we're running. Look, Seattle's in the group with L.A. You know, I wouldn't put him in the Jacksonville group. I wouldn't put him necessarily maybe in the Houston group. Maybe you would put him in the Houston group. We'll get to all these teams here. But I think let's do more on Baltimore here because this is another one of those teams. And I'd say there's about a handful and some of them that I just mentioned were offensive line. You go, okay, probably not a strength. Receiving group. You know, Andrews, I expect to be fine. You could argue there's a dip there. I like Zay. People can make fun of the contract. I'd rather get in front of it where the market is reset at the end a little bit later on. Yeah. So I'm not going to get mad at a team for overpaying early as opposed to then having to fix it later when the cap goes up as much as it does every single year. It's clear that it feels like they want to try to reinvent themselves with like the Mike McDonald thing where it's like, how close can we get back to the guy that then went somewhere else and won a Super Bowl? Well, let's bring in Jesse Minner who coached with McDonald from 17 to 20. Let's go back to that D. Defensive stuff. All of our guys will like it. Look, there is a version of this where it all comes together. But whether it's all the D-line names that I kind of like, but you're like, what's the rotation going to be out of these eight or nine dudes? And it's also where they spent a top draft pick on Zion. I think there's a lot of rounding up. Again, this is talking about the Ravens in the odds. I couldn't believe it. Second best odds to make the playoffs behind the Rams. And so if you're telling me the Ravens can win the Super Bowl, I think you're talking best case scenario on four or five issues that other teams don't have. Right. I really like the Ravens, but I didn't consider them. I couldn't believe even until we talked how high they were, how I started doing the research and saw how they stacked up. I'll start with the defense because Minter has earned my respect from Michigan and then for the last two years with the Chargers. That national title run with Michigan was like child's play. Like what he was doing to opposing college offenses. Like just what he was scheming up, how good he made everybody look. And then he goes to the Chargers and this is something when I was doing the Chargers preview before I got to the Ravens preview. I, you know, looking at Chris O'Leary, the new defensive coordinator for the Chargers, doing research on him and I kind of was like, I don't know how to weigh this, how much Minter was helping this defensive personnel or how good the defensive personnel is for the Chargers. Like that's what I was trying to weigh. That's how good Minter is. That had me even questioning like, how good are these guys? Or is it just how good the scheme was? Like one of the biggest weaknesses this out like how well versed the DBs and the linebackers were for the Chargers. The weakness of the Chargers defense the last two years was scrambles because DBs were so looking at routes and the route concepts and the combos and their zone coverages. No one was looking at the quarterback. So that, but that's how well in tune and locked in their DBs and everything were. So no one looked at the quarterback. It's kind of like a weird byproduct of being too tuned in. Why I'm bringing that all up. Ravens have much better personnel. They have a great, they have a really interesting DB room. Nate, Wiggins is coming back from his injury now, but I mean, Hamilton Starks are great fits for this defense. You got several guys that can blitz And I think Minter's going to blitz a little bit more than he did with the Chargers. He's big on those creeper simulated pressures, which are you only bring four, but drop seven, but you're kind of making it look like a blitz. And then getting Matt Abike back is huge. Huge. Because two games last year, thought he might be done for his career. Done, done. I thought he was retiring. I heard after I thought he was done, done. I was like, okay, I'm never considering you again. So him back, but even just the Hendrickson thing, Trey Hendrickson bringing him in. The weakness of that Ravens defense the last few years is they couldn't really create pressure. Last year, 27th, the pressure rate, 24th, the knockdown rate, which is hits and sacks. And yeah, you can manufacture some, but once it gets into the playoffs, which I'll talk about a couple other teams, that's the great equalizer is a pass rush. Hendrickson's bad against the run outright bad, but we have a bunch of guys that are good against the run. So just go, baby, like pin your ears back and go. That has me feeling a little bit better about where they're sitting as opposed to maybe I was maybe a couple months ago. The math of them, the variables are kind of coming together for me. I'm worried about the old line. They switched out both guards, including a first round draft pick. Okay. So maybe that's better. I'm worried about the depth after Zay. I imagine Andrews will still be fine, even if you're arguing he's declining because the numbers tell you that he is. I'm worried about Lamar without the rushing element being this. Holy shit. What are we going to do? And that was a massive drop off. Maybe that's fine. I'm also worried about, I think the D line gets figured out because of the possibilities that they have. I think it linebacker Roquan Smith's going to be much happier playing in the system. I'd also say that Marlon Humphrey, like some of the numbers now scare the shit out of me. He's the only corner that gave up over 900 yards of production. Wiggins gets targeted almost as much as Riley Moss, where I don't know if Riley Moss gets targeted because of Sertan or because he's white, but like, let's face it, I mean, tough combo right there. If you're a corner play, he's not a linebacker. Let's throw it over there. It started as because he's white, that dead serious. Riley Moss is good. It's hilarious. He's legitimately good. No one throws on the other side of it. Wait. You think those are the two best corners in the NFL? That's the best corner pairing them and Texans. Texans are real good, too. Yeah. No, those two. Yeah. I would say those are top two. I mean, it's still in the mix. Who's that? Who'd you say? Philly. Philly's weird because the jeans is slot. So it's, you know, I know I'm not counting him. I'm talking about. You're talking about like one. Yeah. And then, um, no, cause I, I would have Moss. Yeah. Sertan's better than Quinion. I love Quinion. I think it's all pro last year. And then Sertan is once you really do. Yeah. Attention to it. Yeah. And I know that like technically he graded behind maybe one or two guys. I don't know how you grade him. Yeah. He's one of the best corners I've ever seen. Like period. I made the mistake of thinking like some other guys were at his level. We were doing our top five stuff with him. And then this year I just went and you could again say this year actually wasn't as good as the year previous. I, it's fucking stupid how he tracks like the route and it looks like he's not even in on it. Dion type shit. It is. And he, yeah, yeah. Dion type shit is the, how he accelerates. Like he'll kind of bait stuff. Baits you in. Yeah. He baits you in on crossing routes. He baits guys on cross on QBs on crossing routes all the time. No. And he tackles. I know that's, I know that's a, it sounds like a little gritty coach. No, he's physical tackler. Um, no, he was an unbelievable prospect, but it's like, he's exactly what you expect when he looks like the prototype. He was coached by Nick Saban and his dad was a pro bowl corner. It's like, oh, that's, that's exactly what you should look like. That's how he plays. But no, Sertan is one of the best non-quarterbacks in the league and one of the best corners I've ever seen. But Moss. Moss, I think was literally the most targeted corner in the NFL last year. I have the number is the most targeted. And then I saw a number somewhere else that there was like one of three that were targeted over a hundred times. I, when you watch Denver, you can't believe he wasn't targeted 200 times. And he's, he's the guy he's like, uh, I know there's highlights against where he's getting dunked on or he has a penalty or anything, but it's like a guy getting dunked on a basketball. It's like, yeah, I know he got dunked on, but he also blocked three. Like that's the issue is that he gets targeted so much. Everyone remembers some of the low lights. It's like, no, there's a lot. There's a lot of good there. He just gets targeted a lot. Um, no, he, no, I'm glad we got to talk about that a little bit, but even just talking about these guys, uh, you know, talking about even with just, uh, the Ravens go back to Ravens offense real quick. Who's playing center is a big question. Uh, the right guard, vague eye on a, they drafted from Penn state. I liked little struggles in preseason. I noticed. Um, but that's fine. He's a rookie right guard. Uh, I did like the Simpson edition and then, yeah, they, they're relying a lot on rookie receivers to stand out or rookie tight end as well. That's a big variable. And while Jacoby lane, like tore it up for a couple of weeks in preseason, he's kind of come back to earth a little bit. And Elijah's throughout has kind of been up and down. Um, I like Sherrata is like a, what I call a power slot, kind of like an oversized slot guy that can block and kind of do some tight end stuff. So I want to see what that, but if lane is decent, that's a archetype. Lamar's never really worked with the kind of ball when they, they tried with like old man, Deandre Hopkins, but like a ball winner. So that's kind of like one of those things where I'm like, kind of, that could be interesting, but it's a big question mark. Yeah. Yeah. Third and fourth round pick that have to play, uh, in a passing offense that last year was 27th and passing yards per game and a defense that was in the middle of the pack last seat. So a lot has to be fixed here for me to look at them as the second best odds. And look, it's, it's not just because they have an easier schedule. I think it's ninth or 10th, depending on what you want to look at there. Uh, I'm, I'm a little surprised in some of those numbers, not to say that they can't go on a run and put it together. And Lamar's back in MVP level. Uh, let's pivot. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Last thought on that. I just want to throw this in there is the Lamar running. I'm quick. I'm quick with my transitions. I'm sorry. It's the radio guy in me. And, and I just go long and I, I've only done podcasts for, with unlimited time. So I'm sorry. Um, no, but it's, I, uh, no, but with Lamar is yeah, he, last year he only ran, ran it on design runs twice a game. And when it was 2019, it was seven and a half a game. And the yardage went down from 80 yards a game to 26 last year. And they know that this is the next version of Lamar. It's they're going to be under center more and he's pretty good under center and he's good. He can do some play action stuff off it. He throws dig routes like really well, all those that in Declan Doyle and Ben Johnson had a eek those middle over the middle throws from Caleb Williams since 2013 Lamar's thrown over the middle of the fifth highest rate among all quarterbacks that played. So it's not something they have to eke out. So there is some like stuff that works that yeah, we're going to go under center. We're not going to use Lamar's legs as much. And I actually think Lamar has some positives there, but it's the math. The run game has to pick back up because we're going to lose that. That element of the game. And that's the thing that dropped off more than anything last year. That was the worst run game Lamar's had as far as running back runs was last year. They're like, I use success rate there at 35% last year, 2019 it was 46% 2024 is 45%. That's just running back runs. That's not Lamar runs. So that's really what has to pick back up for me to feel real good about this offense. Look, we all know NFL Sundays are sacred. And so we found the perfect way to make sure we don't miss a single snap of NFL action. We dialed into NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. When you bundle NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game every Sunday, period. The best part, the multi-view feature lets you watch up to four games at once. So you can track your fantasy matchups in real time, watch your favorite players and keep tabs on everything across the league. It's the ultimate setup for the NFL season. Plus new users can jump in now for eight payments of $30 per month, go to youtube.com/NFLST and get it done. Don't be the guy guessing what's happening in the other games. Be the guy in the living room who sees it all. New users pay $240 or eight non-cancelable payments of $30 a month. First charge of purchase availability varies with NFL Sunday ticket for out of market games and YouTube TV for local and national games. YouTube TV required terms restrictions and embargoes apply device and content restrictions apply to multi-view commercial yukes excluded, no refunds. You can watch the game on iTunes, Apple TV, Google Play, or any of our social media platforms. If you ask me, New England, Denver, who do you want? More wins goes further than the playoffs. I don't even have to think about it. I like Denver's roster so much better than New England's. May, Nick's is the only, I don't think it's a conversation because I like May more than Nick's. It's funny, McShane and I were talking about Nick's going, it's really hard to unsee the Auburn stuff. And it's something I have to get over. We have to get over that because it's pretty clear if Will Stein puts together that season that he does with him in Oregon. And then Sean Payton's like, this is the guy that I want and we'll be fine if they have Nick's. You know, who knows? The playoffs, all that kind of stuff. They probably win that game against New England. It certainly would be a lot better chance with Nick's and some of the stuff that he did coming back and not it being Jarrett Stidham. And they were still in this game. Maybe it's the weather and game planning here. But when I compare units here, I don't even think it's close between New England and Denver overall. No. There's depth. No. I think the, I'm very bullish on the Patriots offense. I will say that, but I think the Broncos offense was not, it wasn't great last year, but it was still average. And they did the, they added the one, two pieces I'll go, I'll go to here with two pieces that they desperately needed, which was speed at receiver, a guy, a legit guy, then take top off, come down with the ball down the field and create yak because that in waddle, right? Yep. And waddle because Bo next can be a little bit, he's kind of can be, I'll, I'll talk more about bonus. There's he led the league in past attempts for a reason. They use a lot of RPOs on second down, they use a lot of underneath stuff. They're basically extended. It's screens. So let's get a guy that can add some juice to those outside of Marvin men. So I actually liked that. And also the fit and the receiver room is great because they already have a bunch of horses. Like they already have Sutton. I like this guy, Patrick Bryant that they have. He's a second year guy. Um, he can be what I call those power slot guys, but he works per he can work perfect with waddle. Yeah. They look huge when the receivers line up against the approach every week. Go ahead. He's always going to have monsters at receiver. That's what he goes for. It's something after my own heart. Um, but he, he said he got it from Mike Shanahan when he was like watching the old Broncos teams. And he was just like, I want that. and i was like i like that too yeah um but the other guy is jonah coleman the fourth round running back from washington um jk dobbins is a nice solid player but you can't rely on jk dobbins to be healthy um they drafted rj harvey last year harvey ran like an ex-quarterback and that what i mean is like some division was lacking bounced a lot of runs he's fine but he's an auxiliary piece he's not a guy you want with i think games that you need 15 hard runs he's not that guy if they have a whole line built that way and they have a scheme built that way and coleman fits that scheme and he can play on pass passing downs as well and the coaches won't shut up about him which is always like all right i'm like sean payne's like this guy's a pro davis webb the oc's like this guy's a pro we love him we only need to see two plays in the preseason we were good so yeah i'm with you i'm i don't think this is a elite offense but it's an offense that is i actually think a big improvement on last year and i i had some qualms with last year's offense so even if bonex plays exactly the same the pieces around them got that much better that i feel much better about it yeah and this is all built around the best offensive line in the nfl all the guys are coming back the tackles are awesome the defensive line is is awesome there's pressure numbers all over the place like they win whenever you look at that stuff on espn and i love that like pass block win rate run block win rate pass rush run stop win rate it's just like denver across the board and if you have that right have to be patrick holmes although i'll give it to nicks like as much as i was just kind of like i don't know this feels like a guy you're going to be replacing maybe peyton's like a quarterback slut he just likes all of them because he's like i can make it work with every single one of these guys is yeah find some stats that work i know he's it's it's always last call last call at the bar for for sean payton with the quarterbacks he's like yeah good enough yeah that's kind of what he does with quarterbacks breakfast yeah so all right so if we're if we're looking at new england here it's just hard to get past like there there's a parallel here i think between chicago and new england where i think both teams could be better both quarterbacks can be better and they're not going to have as good of a record and they're not going to have look the bears win one playoff game the other game was a lot of fun you know we're going to get to chicago here don't worry but it may the end of the year it may feel like you're worse and you actually may be better and that's kind of how i look at the past let's start there that's exactly how i look at both those teams yeah and the patriots i i think they've done a great job what they did this offseason with the offense um whether it's o-line aj brown um even if they just did romeo dobbs i would have been happy with the improvement but then they got aj brown a motivated aj brown uh i think that's very apparent um and needed i also think you know i like the caleb lomu pick because yeah everyone's talking about the will campbell stuff but i actually think that gives him nice depth that it was he does have to improve his pr improve his play strength i liked him but he does have to improve that but say a guard gets hurt like very tucker then you can bump will campbell because he gets hurt all the time he always gets hurt but now they have contingency plans and that's that's those are stuff that kneecaps teams that's the o-line depth or o-line injuries as we all know that can just totally take you out of the season so if you just have auxiliary plans that's just those kind of like tiebreakers for me but i look at the defense and i i'm fine with the defense i like it there's parts i really like i really like milton williams i like the corners i i like craig woodson one of their safeties they have no depth on defense they are like an injury away or two injuries away to be like bottom 10 which is what happened to them for a stretch last year before all the guys got healthy at the end of the year so that is they got a healthy season from carlton davis which has never happened before um christian gonzalez had missed a couple games as well and he's also been a guy that's had some injury stuff as well he has contract stuff that'll get figured out uh but i do think that that is what kind of i think they are better because i think the offense has a chance to be very very very good i'm a huge believer in drake may but i also like the ecosystem they put around them but that defense i just can't it's hindering me a little bit and schematically they don't do something that i'm like oh they do some funky stuff that's gonna help it's a very kind of missionary position defense you know yeah look we all like the secondary but this team was fourth in points allowed in the nfl last season and that's because of the schedule it's not because of the personnel so i like the interior of the d-line there's a linebacker here there they bring in buyer to go along with woodson who i thought was really good last season but it just feels like it's going to be impossible to match what was ahead of schedule in 25 it was completely ahead of schedule so if we if we look at the positive here like if you look at the positive here like if you look at the positive here like may having a higher ceiling of options to throw to with aj and dobbs coming over what do you make of the will campbell thing and you know the guard that we're talking about here is vera tucker who apparently grades out as like one of the best guards in the nfl but over two seasons he played seven games yes um he did play 15 games what was it in 24 so he's yeah so they already knew the whole reason the guy was available as a former first round pick is that he's hurt all the time so they're like okay boom we're going to go ahead and do this um they're going to slide wilson back to center here is the will campbell thing like it kind of turned into a bit of an nba playoff thing for a star where it's like well drake was hurt in the super bowl will campbell was hurt towards the end of this what did you see from will campbell at left tackle where you know it was kind of a need pick it's like hey who's left tackle is available we'll do this it's not ideal and he's a guy who loves lsu games like i get the pedigree of him but i don't know that i ever felt like he was kicking everybody's ass all the time the way a top 10 left tackle would when these guys usually picked so then they close the season and you're going is this guy going to get kicked inside or is he going to play right tackle so somebody that understands it far better than i do what do you make of like campbell and the way they've tried to maybe brace for some sort of changes here with other personnel decisions well the the lomu pick indicated a lot to me exactly that's that's all you know it teams tell you a lot contracts tell you a lot and that's told me everything i need to know this year's plan is campbell a tackle you know and then and we'll see and then but i also think that's but that whole contingency plan with the offensive line that's in the back of their mind too and that can maybe force the experiment or force like hey lone was actually a little better in the hey will thanks hey you're a great team guy captain yep you're a guard now you know we're going on the joe tooney plan or something of that sort right i'm with you i ended up having membu last year uh who the dreads drafted as my tackle one or alignment one i did have campbell as a top 10 guy uh because i i called him a best five enabler that no matter what you can get your best five offense alignment out there and that's the appeal of will campbell whether that's just good play or a pro bowl play we'll figure out i will say before he got hurt he was solid great in a run game and i'll say pass protection was exactly what you expect the kind of aces got him and then i would say if he was kind of the same standing as the edge against him he was good uh the scheme helps a little bit as well they put him on the island a little bit but i do think that the over the playoff thing is just one of those where it's like you know it's almost that meme worthy at this point so i do think that they've given themselves a plan i i do like the jared wilson move back to center because i was scared that they were just going to go oh garrett bradbury was fine enough we're good because bradbury was a below average center but that i'm glad that was kind of some nice self-scouting reflection going like because they easily could just go no we'll just keep everybody we're good but the fact that they're like no no we got boosted a little bit more was actually kind of encouraging to me i think from like a team building standpoint but that's better maybe for 2027. the 2026. question if you believe in the chargers is it a rule you also have to believe in the jags because just because concerns well we could do that i mean we'll add them to the list of offense well the chargers at least have the personnel there where slater and all are good to go yeah then okay this is actually going to be an awesome offensive line and then slater misses basically all season alt miss half of it and then you see what you see in the playoffs against the pats where it's like herbert's just in a position where he's going to be in a position where he's in a mode where he's like i don't and people can on him and that's fine but i see a quarterback that goes i have no chance back here all right uh i think it's just because i don't know which group it is can you like lawrence and herbert do you have to like one or the other are you supposed to think both suck uh because i think there's a lot of like social this is like the nba's version of a conversation yes around herbert and around trevor lawrence because there's an argument made with jacksonville and some of the defensive personnel and the way lawrence closed the season out that you're like hey this may actually be the defense of lawrence or the defense of the defense play out over the course of the season he's a really nice quarterback maybe not top 10 maybe he's 10 to 15 that's good enough with some of the other personnel there i am more dismissive though as i'm saying of jacksonville than i am the chargers and i honestly don't know why but it's just how i feel about it i i i i joke that our pod football 301 is the national jaguars podcast um whether it's because you guys are early on it last year it was just whether it was because like you know my dad coached there for a couple years well i don't know what it is but they drafted trevor and i was maybe the one person that watched urban myers one year in all 22 it was really bad um but i watched that i was just like all right how's trevor doing it was just you know it wasn't great but i was like hey he's not taking sacks that's interesting okay but um no i don't know i want to be very bullish on them so it's everything it's a heart versus head like my head is just going no no no no no they don't have the old line that you love like they don't have those kind of ass kicker like anton harrison's pretty good they're moving him to left tackle offensive line unit 30th and i know people get like into this whole argument about pff but like look if they're putting a 30 next year something's not right right you can say about the middle it's like top five really matters more than anything in bottom five than the muck in the middle and that's that's my concern though is that liam cohen's earned a lot of respect for his team for me because he's shown that he can mitigate it but that's regular season playoffs is so different and the playoffs is just like it's just like the nba we're just like in baseball too like these things just the the things that are important just change a little bit some are the same explosives all that but a pass rush is just the great equalizer in the playoffs and what do you stop how do you stop a good pass rush is scheme and offensive line talent um and scheme can only go so far so that's why i just always look at that as like okay that can kneecap you and it's like do you feel better about the texans online or the jags online because that's what i go back and forth on and that's i'm even asking you as you looked at it like which ones would you even prefer i i mean for me that's what that's what was hanging me up is that that the fact that's even a question is the issue with the jacks because we make so many jokes about the texans online and then all of a sudden oh no they got all these new names and then with the jags it's like oh okay like all right this is supposed to be better and last year their offensive line or the run game fell off that passing game picked up they traded for jacoby myers um and jacoby just calmed everyone down i've made this joke before some players just need a teammate that kind of chills them out and then for i call it sea biscuit the horse needed pumpkin like the little fat horse next to him to kind of chill him out and like brian thomas jr needed his pumpkin which apparently was jacoby myers and he kind of just chilled everyone out they had parker washington so the passing game became a top five passing game the run game became a bottom five run game and now i'm like does the run game pick up and that's the question i'm trying to answer having said that i do pick them having them double digit wins like i actually am pretty bullish on them after just laying that all out that i'm not bullish on the o-line overall well the houston jacksonville conversation the offensive line is a good one here because if you also look at like yards per carry what's the other issue neither of these teams can get any consistent going on the ground jacksonville's 27th yard per carry houston's 29th i think the argument to say hey and this is a massive assumption i'm not even saying i'm right but if i look at the left tackle for houston last year's rookie go like hey there's something there and then they add another first round pick from georgia tech at center you're like okay maybe because i haven't seen enough of it be bad then i'm assuming that it's going to be better where jacksonville you look at the interior of the line and you just go what are we doing like is it going to be is it going to be like that again and um i i've told people this and i'm making the other announcement like i'm just becoming an offensive line guy because they're never available in free agency as you and i've talked about uh if you're not drafting these guys 14th i don't blame anybody for doing it anymore because you can't buy them and if you can't figure out a way to stop these freaks in these front sevens in these hybrid safeties that are linebackers that think and play like linebackers but are fast and weigh 225 and all this pressure combinations where it's all over the place like everybody talks about that pre-snap read and i finding identifying where all that stuff's coming from if you don't have smart athletic guys and like almost like a starting pitching rotation for baseball hey we need like back in the day maybe not so much now but we need six seven starters we need two guys in triple a like because we know a couple of these guys are going down it's very hard for me to look at the handful of these teams that we all like and go hey could they win a super bowl and collectively those five guys up front feel like there's some of the six or seven worst units in the league with these teams that we're talking about and that's the thing and it's defenses are just so good now now he just i always say it's talent scheme town scheme there's everybody can do better now you get maybe like you said with seattle big guy small guy bendy guy bully guy all like there's a million they got one linebacker there for them with seattle who plays like 300 snaps and has like the best pressure rate of all of the snaps all these guys and it's team after team texans are 60 you know all the contenders have that and the offensive line yeah it's like being able to block these guys his matters and it's not like i'm glad you brought the just the mental aspect because he used to be able you can like hide a center and we'll just scheme it up now center you need to be able to block these guys and it's not like you can like hide a center and you need talent because these guys and you need guys that are mentally astute because the games that these defenses play the schemes that they run the pick plays the twist the late rotation they the center is just as important as the quarterback with that and it's become the center has just become as important as a left tackle to me and interior guys when you see guards getting paid some of that is because there's talented guards getting paid but also because look how good the defensive tackles are right now and all these guys have like what was it so the steve spags giants that they've made the run they upset the the patriots the nascar package it's crazy they got four defensive ends every team has that now everybody has guys that they can just trot out one after another in to further your baseball analogies to me it's like the pass rush is like everybody has relief pitchers that can throw 102 it's like all right here comes another guy that's got junk here comes the lefty that's got junk like we don't even care if you can cover anybody like you're playing 30 snaps you're coming in on these packages you're going to be fresh all season long and just go and it sucks because it's like that quick and you know on this point too a little bit and i promise not it's not going to be just an offensive line podcast this year but i am so spoiled from watching brady throughout his entire career that i started to kind of like ah whatever like throw a couple big guys from iowa out there you'll figure out although having big guys from iowa up front probably is a great strategy yeah yeah but the greatness of brady of all the things that you want to talk about with him when they'd have those stretches where the offensive line was completely fucked up which didn't happen very often underneath skarnecchia who used to be in the hall of fame uh brady we go oh okay like we can't block anybody this afternoon i'll fix it i'll fix it with the routes i'll fix it with all of our hot like hey edelman we're gonna do this and hey we're gonna do and get all the tight ends together and they just be in sync and they he would fix a blocking problem in a couple series and the offensive line would be getting its ass kicked and it wouldn't matter because he wasn't going to let it disrupt and they'd still end up winning the game and so i think i'd look at some of those guys be like how come you guys can't like it's not what herbert does all right herbert doesn't go halfway through the game oh shit no one can block let me figure out all of these adjustments that we're going to make like there's just not many quarterbacks that are capable of carrying or covering i should say for that front five when it's just an awful sunday and that's the thing too is that well and also the patriots too it's like when they they were ahead of the game on some stuff like when they kind of got lesser on the whole line like in 2010s and they were like oh my god i'm not gonna be able to do this i'm not gonna be able to do this they got heavy so they want a whole bunch of tight end looks they went fullbacks on the field they kind of you know they went to the the spread looks with walker and all that and edelman and stuff like that and then and then they just kind of got tighter again because if you want to help out your own line you get tighter you don't want them on islands like spreading it out puts your own line on islands and you know the philosophy of like mike leach of what it was was get the ball out quickly but then defense is just all right they tighten down on that so you need to block at some point and this is like that's back back to like the lack of even developmental depth coming through like everybody loves the influence of it going up college to the nfl and spreading it out and throwing the ball a little bit more but if you're sitting there and you never actually have to win in a pass block rep because the ball's out in half a fucking second like how are you ever developing any skills to figure out what you're doing there so that's another problem that the league and look you smart guys have been talking about this far beyond just us going like hey where are they where are the dudes and that's why you have three guards like i just can't imagine being like an nfl fan and going to the live draft you're like from west virginia left guard and you're just like damn it no but be happy about it now well also it's tight too this is why we see more zone coverage now and what zone makes you do is hold on to the ball longer so it's the worst of both worlds for quarterbacks so now you've got the pressure getting there quicker and then the zone makes you hold on to the ball longer and now that's what you know i know we talked about some trend stuff that's what defenses are daring quarterbacks to do is right now they're throwing the ball shorter than they ever have and they're tackling better than they ever have like yak is the lowest it's ever been per reception but they're throwing the ball shorter than they ever have and i think quarterbacks this year will push the ball again and i think that's where because that's what they're daring to do you want to do what the defense is daring you to do which is if you want to play cover two you want to play all those quarters all this stuff with deep safeties rotating safeties hit them over the top like don't attack underneath their eyes are down down low they want to tackle and rally that's what the seahawks do so wonderfully um so that's it's all tied together with that and that's where i that's where the whole under center play action conversation is coming from it's like that's the way the offenses are like all right if we don't have the whole line so it's wadded up and that way we can attack 20 yards down the field 30 yards down the field and kind of loosen up these defenses okay so as much as we love houston's defensive personnel which is in all three level defense again which is pretty rare here what do we make a stroud because the last time we saw it it was ugly and it even felt like hey what happened rookie to sophomore year and then you go okay we can blame the offensive line we can blame a receiver going down we're blaming they can't run the football i can't i cannot avenge as in a scenario where cj stroud's rookie year was just a fluke and now he's going to be a guy they're thinking about replacing i can't get there yet i can't either i i still i have i still consider my what i call top half of the week starter so 16th or better i still hold them in that kind of tier i think yeah it means you get re-signed to a big yeah oh yeah i think they already should have i actually think that was uh unless they you know they know something about them but i don't think there's anything wrong with cj stroud but it's something one of those things where they want to get ahead of the market don't you want to get ahead of the market i don't know that's just me um but i do think that stroud got into hero mode a little bit um he was pressing some of that is circumstantial and to me is that i i got asked if that's scar tissue or not because that's always the thing you don't want quarterbacks develop scar tissue you don't want any young athlete develop scar tissue i consider an open wound that's that's how i said i don't know if it's scar tissue yet and why i'm bringing that up is that the run game is socked around him like outright was has awful terrible right terrible doesn't matter doesn't matter the year you look at since 2023 since he's there of the league. They're 31st in rushing success rate on running back runs. 31st in EPA. These are my nerd stats. 28th in stuff rate. Stuffs are TFLs or gains of zero yards. So you're not doing anything. He's averaged. This is just with Stroud on the field. He's averaged 30th in average distance to go on third down. So he's had a lot of third and longs. They have one of the highest penalty rates on offense. So that was Laramie Tunsell and his false starts. But just they can't block anybody. And to top it off, they have one of the worst blocking running back groups in the league for a couple of years. It's much better now. If our offensive line wasn't bad enough, we're also not going to. The running back sucks at them, too. Right. Yeah. Just the capper on it. And it's 38 again. Have fun. Yeah, it's 38. Yeah, yeah. And guess what? Now we're playing Brian Flores. Woo! This is great. So he's been in a lot of circumstances where he's had to be aggressive and push the ball and build it all back up. And his one biggest knock, I would say, for me, is when he does take a sack, he loses a lot of yards on the sack. Because he is not a guy that's looking to scramble. He's a classic pocket passer that's very aggressive. So it's one. I'd much rather have the wild horse and hone him in than ask a guy to push the ball a little bit. Like, can you try this window? Stroud's going to do that. So it's really more about the surroundings around him, which means, yeah, he's not an elite guy, but he's a guy you extend. Because this is a guy you can win a Super Bowl with. So too long, Dylan Reed, if you want to know, is like, yeah, you can win a Super Bowl with this guy. And I think he can have some positive performances, too. Raising Canes is turning 30 this month. To celebrate the milestone, Canes is hosting a 30th birthday pop-up museum in Baton Rouge, likely behind the original restaurant, The Mothership. Todd Graves will be unveiling the museum on August 25th. And in honor of 30 years of Canes, the brand is also launching a commemorative 90s plush puppy available beginning August 26th, featuring Cane in her 90s best. Net proceeds benefit pet welfare organizations. First time Baton Rouge, 2008, overtime game. Never, like, unbelievable. Like, going to Disney World as a kid, even though I never did. So this made up for it. And then throughout it all, they were like, oh, we got to go to Canes. I'm like, for what? Like, what are we doing? Isn't there gumbo or something? Like, no, no, we're going to mix it up here. This guy, Todd Graves, he decided he was going to make chicken fingers. He was going to spread the love through chicken. And I walked in, and my life changed. I just had it the other day. We filmed an ad over here. It is so good. Caniac, extra sauce, no slaw, extra finger, here or there. Raising Canes, chicken fingers, one love. Has Kansas City fixed this offensive line? Yeah, pending what's going on with Simmons. You never know with him, the left tackle, Josh Simmons. But yes, if he is healthy, because he looked like an all-pro, future all-pro last year when he was on the field. If he is what I think he is, that's an offensive line I consider, like, top eight, maybe even better. And on top of it, they found some depth this offseason. Unexpected depth. Undrafted free agent. God, what was his name? Khalil Benson. And that's interesting to me because he's been, like, kind of right guard right tackle. He's a guy that was at Indiana and Colorado. But he looked really good this preseason that I, like, that interests me as well. Just, again, depth, depth, depth. They don't have a lot of tackle depth or anything. So, again, you're going to have to consider that. I just brought Josh Simmons having issues there. But I do think that they have the whole line that that's going to be the strength of the team, really. So, bigger picture with Kansas City. It feels like, I mean, this is weird to just be like, is everyone just collectively off of them? Is that how it feels? Do you? I know. And I've talked myself more into them. Like, I think they, defensively, they actually have done some cool things this offseason. So, even though they got jettisoned to everybody. But doesn't it feel weird to talk yourself out of Patrick Mahomes? That you don't think Patrick Mahomes can win nine, ten games in a wide-open AFC? And if, I don't know, that's, I've talked myself back into them as, like, the seventh seed, if I'm being honest. Like, after I did my preview series. I just, look, I mean, what's the? What's the worst that they're going to do? I mean, to me, they're the team that, at the worst, is in the, in the hunt graphic all the way through, like, week 14. Like, that's the worst. Although, there's been some in-the-hunt graphics where you're like, why do you guys keep putting up the Dolphins just because, mathematically, it's still in play here? Four and 11? Why are they up there? No, I, Mahomes, their quarters, like, even though they got rid of everybody, they take on Mansoor, who I think is, like, he's that good, okay? He was that good last year. And then Williams, the other guy. The other guy on the other side is, like, completely unheralded because we're constantly talking about Watson and, obviously, McDuffie. And this felt like a very Veach, hey, we need to reset this part here. This is what we're going to do with our resources. We're not going to get caught up in all these contracts. Like, we're going to have to do a reset here on the fly, which I think some smart teams do. Yep, that's exactly. And he's done it several times. I have my calls with Veach, but he has done this several times where he, it's not, he's not, no half measures when he has a, when he thinks there's a problem on the roster. Like, when they're there. They had the offensive line. They lost to the Bucs. It wasn't just one guy they brought in. Nope, we're drafting two and we're signing a third. You know, it's like, that is the way to, DB room that they built. Like, that was the, that was the big thorn on their side. Then they turned into a top five defense on their second, or, God, now I'm forgetting all the numbers, third Super Bowl run. Because that's how many they freaking win. But this defense, that was the thing I even have noticed is that their blitzing got really bad last year, which is significant because Steve Spagnuolo blitzes a lot. And it was the most he ever blitzed. It was the most he ever blitzed last year because they have no pressure. Right, that's the problem is, is like, hey, it's not working. Do it more. That's what he did. And it was bad. It was, they basically, in 2023, when they made that run, they, just the EPA played a nerd stat. They went from, basically, when they blitzed, they made every quarterback like the worst starting quarterback in the league, like Shadur Sanders, to a borderline. Then last year when they blitzed, every quarterback was like a top 10 quarterback. Basically, like, Dak Prescott last year. Like, that's, that's when they blitzed, and they blitzed the most in the league. So, how do you help that out? Let's get some young, fresh talent in here. I, like, you might, I like Delane. I think he's a great scheme fit, too, because he's really smart. Very, he'd come off zone and kind of bait some guys. I also like the slot that they have. Chris Roll and Wallace. And that was, been a big weakness for them the last couple years, if you want to really get into it. Then they got Kyrus Tonga from New England. And that was another weakness that they had. They couldn't really stop the run when they're in their base sets. So, they, they did some nice moves. And they also have some kind of, like, you know, guys that can be wild cards. Peter Woods, R. Mason Thomas, they're draft picks that they can kind of move the needle as well. And to top it off on offense, Ryan, Garrett Nussmeyer. Come on. They got Nussbus on this team, who looks great in preseason, by the way. I'd like to see Mamie Mahomes sit out the second quarter. Like, a little Tom O'Brien, Boston College stuff for the first series in the second quarter, just to develop. Obviously, O'Brien didn't bench Matt Ryan for the entire second quarter, but he used to, he used to start. You want to do that with Mike Glennon and Russell Wilson? Didn't he want to do that? That may have been Tom O'Brien's undoing. I just remember telling him, I was like, I really like that you do that. He's like, you might be the only person that likes it. I was like, okay, thanks. I don't know. But, you know, you're looking at the receiver group with Xavier Worthy, who's, nothing's funnier than when just the Sunday guys don't watch Saturday and they see Worthy in his first game ever. And it's the national televised game. And people are like, I can't believe Kansas City got this demon and the Bills let this happen. You're like, look, he's kind of a go, goalball guy. Rasheed Rice has had all of his issues. And then you've got Tyquan Thorpe. In a best-case scenario, do all three of them come together, play every single week, and we're good to go? Maybe. And then, obviously, Mahomes elevates every single guy. But you would just love to see some consistency for this group. And I don't know. I don't know. I just am not sure that's going to happen. Everyone's really high on Cyrus Allen, but it's a fifth-round pick. And so that's the thing. It's like, yeah, you can be high on him, but that might be high because he looks just good relative to the guys you've got. That shit does nothing for me. I mean, the guy you guys sat and looked at a board of 200-year-old people and the person you drafted, you're going to tell us after, two practices, you like him? No shit, you like him. You took him. Love him. I'm glad you brought up Worthy because that's – so I'm a big sizist when I scout guys, and especially at receiver. And I have thresholds for a reason because really, really smart personnel guys and coaches, they have thresholds, so why not just copy the smart people? But no, but also just time. It's like the NFL is a hard league. 17 games. That's a long season. And to start at receiver and take those hits, or any position, really, I include quarterback here as well, is that you have to have a certain size threshold. And if you don't have that size threshold or make that size threshold, you better be special with the ball in your hands. And to me, Worthy is not special. He's a splitter. And fast, small splitters don't usually work unless they're Deshaun Jackson, who is one of the best deep ball trackers of all time. You know, like there's not a lot of – Yeah, Deshaun's in a different thing because it's just like – He's his own thing. If he gets two of these, we lose. Right. And Devontae Smith, who's another undersized guy, he's special. His hands are special. He's one of the best route runners. He's just also his own thing. He's a wiry, strong, one-on-one guy. So it's like, you know, Bruce Irvin. Like the list is not long of guys that have been successful and been undersized. Anthony Carter, if you want to go way back. But no, I look at Worthy. I think they're over him either way. Like I think they're trying to – And he gets banged up all the time in practices. It's like you can't work with him. You can't win with that. Tyquan Thornton's got – Weird chemistry, though, with Mahomes, which is funny. I always love when there's random receivers that have weird chemistries with quarterbacks. Well, that's saying something. If you're like, Thornton's actually the guy that I'm going to trust the most on third and seven. And, you know, maybe that injury, which we all expected to have happen at some point last year. Like you're watching Mahomes every Sunday and be like, there's no way. There's no way. So who knows what he even looks like? Although I'd argue that he's probably going to be like 43 with like fused ankles, finding a way to convert third downs because I still think he's that special. When they beat the Eagles? in the playoffs, in the Super Bowl? they it's he had a high ankle sprain and no one remembers this and it's like he ran all those scrambles and running around with high like we've seen gimpy mahomes be awesome so that's why i'm i think i'm pretty bullish on it because he's one of the toughest dudes in the league i don't think he just gets the credit for that because the baiting the hit stuff you know i get it i didn't expect to say this maybe a couple years ago but the bears detroit if we went like bears lions here um the bears offensive line is clearly better than detroit's is at this point uh the the weapons part of it i mean look detroit is in a brutal spot with the secondary because you've got kirby who's out um you've got branch who's out and then the isian the third guy they brought in he's not going to be available for the open or two which i think is from this weekend uh now if you want to go schedule you go detroit has the 60th if you look at the numbers there's a lot of argument chicago is now going to face the single hardest schedule in the entire nfl who's going to win more games i have the lines and a slight lean just because of that schedule some of the offensive stuff it's hard and the bears defense is scary too not not a good scary like they i couldn't get over the top where even with the bears where you you know there's things for regression turnover stuff like that they were on the lucky end of all that and i i think the offense is gonna be great this year and i'm very i think ben johnson is deserving of the accolades he he's buying into it but i think he's i'm really i think he's the real deal like he's awesome um i'm a believer in caleb we'll see kind of where he ends up but i do think that when i look at these teams and everything in the schedule and everything i actually believe the lines defense even with the dbs their front i like a little bit better i like the offensive ecosystem a little bit better like i just can kind of count on them a little bit better or a little bit more right now what the offense can be um and just the team could be and the schedule yeah the bears are plus 22 last season and it's just hard to go hey let's just do that again this year uh with you and like we said in new england i think they're going to be a better team this year i don't know if they're going to play in a second playoff game and you factor in that schedule maybe detroit gets off to some bad start but there's still enough talent i think on this lions team that if they can get that secondary healthy in the entire deal and you know look that's another one it's it's not as as scary as maybe the houston and jacksonville and even baltimore produce but i think they're going to be a better team this year and i think they're going to be a better team this year and i think they're going to be a better team this year and but detroit's had to move some stuff around so it's going to be left tackle now so you don't know how that changes things because the decker who's still available by the way i guess he was bad last year you kind of it's that the ship sailed well that's what i was going to say the how the optimist in me is going i i think i like their first round pick blake miller um at right tackle and kind of the mat monkey math i've done is like all right is blake miller's a rookie better than decker at right tackle than decker was at left tackle like because decker last year was like a d plus and i think that's going to be a good thing i think that's going to be a good thing i think c minus so i'd still say though at 33 and his pedigree it's a little unless he's just waiting for somebody to get hurt or whatever spot it might be that it's yeah it's a little strange i don't know what his motivation is but again i was looking at depth charts this morning and i go oh he's still out there so yeah i'd forgotten they've had center injuries they signed kade mays and he got hurt right away so they they got lost in the cominga news for me over here not every night not just you nfl guys some of us have to keep track of their stuff uh you know like so look nice little buy cheap option it was all it's best we could get down with the wolves you know it's best we could have done it's not my only problem i actually don't mind it for the wolves at all because you probably just run them out there with a second unit and be like go ahead and take a bunch of shots no problem but the problem is cominga's run around thinking he's a 35 40 million dollar player and you're like guess what dude yes you're not the issue i know that's i know let's trust me i know right i know i know like do you think i want all these personalities on my favorite team i had somebody ask me that was like we can't keep signing your favorites huh and i went yeah um all right let's uh let's talk about one of my teams that usually is like hey i'm gonna hold out hope for you and that's the green bay packers they lose four straight they lose five straight including the playoff game the old lines in issue uh i still i think i've had times where i looked at this receiver room and i went oh my god do they have too many badasses at receiver i'd say the first three guys though i'm still really excited about and craft the tight end um micah's gonna start on the pup list here o-line's a real issue and i i think jordan loves i don't know what to do with him i think he's good i think he's going to be good but i also think i might be wrong so not sure i love him i think he's awesome oh just that makes me feel better embrace the the it's it's it's a what feature not a buck the the the bonehead turnovers are a feature not a buck you know or it's he if you want the good with jordan love which is that mahoney's in the entire nfl he doesn't take sacks he plays and he plays quarterback i don't mind eight of those you want to throw a couple sizzlers into traffic and there's eight extra picks i've come to the like a few years ago i'm like i want i want eight of those i don't want zero right i want 30 of them but correct you have to like and he doesn't take sacks so that's the thing he can get away with it i i did a little study this off season and about you know expected points we don't get too much into it but two and a half sacks is worth a turnover so no kidding so that's about the math because it's just your punting right so so yeah so if you can go yeah exactly so but if you can keep it under two and a half sacks it's basically like a turnover you know that you're getting away with that you can kind of create with there so that's maybe love's math that works they i want to see them use tempo um pick it up a little bit i want to see him chuck it a little bit more on offense i think they're gonna do that though watson christian watson's turn from player i didn't like to a player i do like um i was that i like him i like him now yeah i think he's great now he's been one of the most effective receivers on like a great basis like and he's explosive he's just gotten he's just gotten tougher like really he's like just willing to now he does like the dirty work stuff he used to just be kind of a go ball guy um but no i i think they're gonna chuck it they're gonna speed it up and i could talk about tempo too like i think that's gonna be a trend in the nfl this year um speaking even of the rams like they have cliff kingsbury on staff and that's one way you can kind of get after the seahawks defense is go tempo go fast and make them very simple so i do think that some teams are going to look into using some more no huddle or hanging huddle stuff just to make defenses declare and blitz a little bit less and that's something to keep an eye on i think the packers are one of those teams because they're slow like they're methodical motions shifting and all that so i think they might lean into hey we got this guy that's a big play machine at quarterback we've on all the little nerd stats this has been a top five top six offense the last couple years they're super explosive they got some so like let's lean into it the run game is a question mark because they're aligned it's hard with the packers their coaching and their scheme really does it's like shanahan they they do a lot to help them out and they're like it's really sound some of the best stuff protection wise rule wise and everything um so that's why i don't know how to ever stack them up because it's like i look at them it's like that's the 29th best old line but they play like the 14th best old line like they always outperform what they are um but i want to see how marshall lloyd is because josh jacobs something interesting i don't know what's going on with josh jacobs right now the run game's got to be a little bit more explosive maybe lloyd can be that but the defense is really my hang-up with the packers as a team but i'm i'm high on their offense i think they're gonna be exciting this year yeah green bay 22nd overall defense on the adjusted stuff there we're not going points per game on every one of these like even buffalo sometimes i look at the personnel and i go how are they 13th in in defense and then they're even higher i think in opposing points allowed like in that kind of spot and then i'm doing the personnel stuff and i'm going i like this corner but he can't cover right i think i like this edge guy but i'm not sure they're changing what they're doing with their edge guys this year too uh after getting out of mcdermott's system here so you seem to have buffalo like closer to the middle than um than just i guess maybe there's too many of us that are going to josh allen like gonna put the cape on they're gonna be top five and rushing that doesn't matter if they don't like if you look at the receiver group i think keon coleman was the second highest receiver in yardage after shakir last year with 400 yards their second highest wide receiver yardage total was 403 yeah and and honestly you're like how do they not make it to the super bowl it's kind of crazy some of the smoke and mirror stuff there with the bills yeah and that's it when you have every dp a quarterback that's what yeah i guess when you have a drag in that quarterback that really helps you know like that really covers up a lot of warts on your team and the o-line's been good and well schemed um joe brady i i've been making a joke that it's like it's a little bit too much cool substitute teacher vibes i'm getting right now like i always get alarm bells when a assistant gets promoted and it coaches all the players they interview they go god joe's awesome you know isn't he cool he's so much fun as opposed to ben johnson gets hired and it's like dude he's a he's a stickler for details he got on my ass about you know so just again just over time in sports i just always have that alarm bell going off so there's a little bit of that but i think that's a good thing and i haven't said that brady's put together good offenses he's willing to lean into the wrong game so it's not like this guy that's going to chase points i think they're going to pass a little bit more this year with dj moore but it's just i it's hard for me to say that their offensive line has been really healthy for a couple years last year spencer brown got hurt is this is this year that falls off deon dawkins kind of faded a little bit spencer brown i know because it's like if those two tackles are right you know they're good and they can run it and they can just do that and alan can take over and cook was terrific i think that's a good thing i think that's a good thing and cook actually didn't have as many receiving yards last year as i thought that he did he's a shot play guy but they talked about they might use him more on those kind of sean payton choice routes they that's how I thought James Cook would be in the NFL and no he's a he's become like a really good in between the tackles runner which pleasant surprise but passing game wise they just use them on shot plays like just like design or red zone stuff but it's not it's not high frequency targets okay so we have some teams left over here as we finish up and this was kind of like the contender series because I don't want to go through 32 teams I can't believe I haven't talked about the Niners maybe the first time ever I haven't just assumed the Niners will figure it out but I have major concerns with them quick Niners thoughts I have major concerns with them are you totally okay of leaving them out of the contender group yes yeah I think they might miss the playoffs this year and that's nothing against Kyle Shanahan I think he has deserved his praise he's always put together top 10 offenses but George Kittle coming off an Achilles George Kittle's super important to that offense but it's like run game and pass game CMC is coming off 400 something touches like and he's past 30 and also the run game wasn't very efficient last year Trent Williams now an offensive line that you're always another year older yeah Trent Williams I had a Trent Williams the collective of it but go ahead yeah so Trent Williams who's trust me hall of famer he allowed 14 quick pressures last year so that's a pressure within two seconds the previous three years combined he allowed 15 and that's their best player up front that's a little and in the receiver room which was building up to a great strength is now trotting out Mike Evans who has a great strength and he's got a great strength growing Debo Samuel who's you know very effective in this office before but another year older requires explosion explosive plays or explosive athletic ability that's another year older I like stribling I actually did not think that was much of a reach I really really I really do like him I he's like the Juwan James replacement I think a little bit better but there's just a lot of cause of concerns and on top of it the defense they there wasn't a good defense last year it was I know guys got hurt Fred Warner got hurt Bosa got hurt it's 25th yeah and they were I mean they were they had I think there's 32nd and sac rate they had no TFLs no stuffs and I think it will get better I like some of the young players hopefully Michael Williams comes back healthy I like this Romeo Hite guy they got also the Gazua they traded for so I like what they did up front but it's not ideal the background the back end's not ideal and also Raheem Morris I'm not super high on as like a play caller like they're they're gonna have to manufacture some stuff and I don't know if that's like kind of his game so yeah I have a lot of concerns with them this year you mentioned that Trent Williams stat it made me think of the Garrett Bulls stat number one pass block grade in 25 didn't allow a single snap and in 802 pass block snaps not one sack 802 fucking stupid uh that Denver offensive line so I'm gonna put up I'm gonna get a poster of it put it up in my house uh so I think I'm gonna save the best for last year and that is not Cincinnati Cincinnati's in the mix playoff wise I think it's a burrowed default as a top five quarterback you know I don't know if I don't know if Moffay is going to be Trey Hendrickson but you could also act you could probably argue that the best version of Moffay maybe is a little bit more versatile than Hendrickson's kind of straight line like hey let's just collapse uh the offensive line has felt like a disaster the defense has not been good there's a couple guys here and there like I don't know I kind of put Cincinnati in that San Francisco thing like talk to me week eight but I'm not going to have high expectations for you even though it feels like burrow is probably good enough to win you a few more shootouts than anybody else it they are also one of the big teams this offseason that's doing the under center we're going to do this offense but it's one of these where they've talked about that before I want to see it in week six just like you like is that it's just offseason talk and we'll see when the bullets are flying the whole line is actually pretty good surprisingly Amarius Mims is going to be it was like good close to the second half it felt like and their coach is good again that's me reading it not watching me no no but it's not it's that's the thing it's like it's the best they've ever had yeah right it was like hey those six weeks yeah so go ahead the Texans would love that uh no but that's you know that's kind of like no the run game is a very efficient they their offense they have to get their explosive plays back and that to me I have to see it to believe it they when burrow and Chase and Higgins were popping off and very explosive they were just using with this play called 989. it's Sean Payton's table but 99 is 9 is a go ball so you can imagine imagine what 989 is two go balls let's go baby um Justin Jefferson touchdown is Joe burrow uh in the playoffs way back in the in college at LSU that was the 989 concept um it's really just that we have a better place than you the players than you that's that's that concept but what defense did said okay we'll just run cover two because cover two you can't run go balls against cover two that unless you're Randy Moss and sure enough Joe burrow against cover two only has one when he's under center only has one explosive play and but the thing is for the entire season it lasts two seasons when he's under center in defenses around cover two he has one explosive play that's it and so I look at this and overall when they face what they call cloud so cover two and cover six version of cover two um half cover two there are 26 knee paper play so they're about eight offense when they don't face cover two or cloud their fifth but the thing is they face the most cloud and cover two than anybody because they have T Higgins and Jamar Chase so defenses just go we'll make you be hyper efficient 12 plays in a row we bet you can't do that for four quarters we bet you can't do that for 16 17 games and they've been right because it's really hard to do if you get like they're middle of the pack explosives like when they face cover two they're 29th in explosive play rate when they face all other coverages they're still going to be in the middle of the pack coverages they're still just 18th so they have to get that back and they have to find ways to get that back that's why the whole under center talk is it's not just play action it's that's how you push the ball it's because that's you throw the ball further it's all that stuff we talk about protections and helping the offensive line out getting under center can help do that and attack more vertically because otherwise teams are going to do it this is the last little stat I'll leave with you is on a normal drive this was just last year NFL teams averaged a touchdown on a quarter of their drives 24.4 percent if you get one explosive play it jumps up to 42 so it goes about you know two and five chance if you don't get any explosives you have a four percent chance of scoring a touchdown so you have a 10 times better chance if you get one explosive to score a touchdown so why that's all everything we're talking about the defense is how they're playing offensive line how can they hold up you got to attack vertically and that's what I want to see from them and for me it's more Theory than anything I have to see it in in October and November and so you should have to ask the ramps for Ferguson or something with all that cover too just be like hey we want just a seam baller right down the middle exactly I'm a big Ferguson guy so you'll get used to that okay uh all right I saved the best for last first take usually uses them first it's your Dallas Cowboys 32nd defense last season but you gave me the heads up I know they are Mike I'm take committed on them right now so what's the deal like how many of these teams are below the Cowboys for you I have the cow yeah when we kind of like hey let's talk about what the contenders are I would put the Cowboys as either the fifth or sixth best team I feel about in the entire NFL wow and yeah I know trust me I I'm not saying you're wrong no I know and I'm I get it I get what everyone wants to talk about the Cowboys but for it's real this time it's real this time I promise um Brian Sean I read to me I was indifferent on him I never thought he was anything like he got talked about to be a future head coach for years years and years and years and then he actually becomes a head coach I'm like oh you actually are pretty good at it like and not just play calling and all that he's really good communicator like you know I I think he like he gets a lot of the players respect you can tell so it's just these things in between the lines I'm bringing that all up because what this offense is is I think this could be the best offense in the NFL this year um I think the offensive line is pretty good I I would even say good uh I think Clayton Adams who's their OC but he's an old line guy is very creative uh he he's great in the run games he's gonna be a future head coach um and on top of it Dak I think is a guy easily you can win with and then the receiving room this is outside CD lamb and George Pickens there's they can get into any personnel grouping and that guy that rotates in whether it's the third receiver which is Ryan Flournoy the second tight end Brivinspan Ford or the fullback Hunter lipkey they're good so they can get into it's all about pivoting playoffs we talk about the NBA having matchups same with the NFL that's the whole impetus of the Rams going to 13 personnel was that we might have to do this in playoff time and so here it's like the Cowboys have that already they have the ability to go tempo so I think this offense is going to be really really cool this year like supernova cool and then the defense I think this defense could be at least league average if not better because not just the DC uh Christian Parker who they hired I really do think that the additions that they had and second year players that they have can make them make a big difference so yeah I've it's been one I've marinated on I would say the last month I've kind of unleashed that take but yeah I'm pretty high on what the Cowboys could be this year I love it I love that we did it last though you know just a nice little bookend we have more stuff we just went an hour 15. so the other stuff that we talked about let's save it we'll save it for when Nate is with us every single week every Monday here on the pod and we are pumped uh to have them from Yahoo Sports again football 301. thanks man thanks dude that was fun Netflix is expanding its NFL coverage in 2026 from week one to the first ever Thanksgiving Eve matchup in two Christmas Day games and a playoff game in January week one of the upcoming NFL season will feature the league's first ever regular season game In Australia, on September 10th, between divisional rivals, the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers. Heading into the holiday season, Netflix will add the NFL's first ever Thanksgiving Eve game on November 25th featuring the Green Bay Packers visiting the Los Angeles Rams. Then on Christmas Day, Netflix will again air two games at 1 p.m. Eastern. The Green Bay Packers visit the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, followed by the Buffalo Bills against the Denver Broncos at 4.30 Eastern. And Week 18, with playoff stakes on the line, catch the final game of the regular season live on Netflix. Watch Week 1 of the NFL on Netflix, starting with the Los Angeles Rams versus the San Francisco 49ers, live only on Netflix Thursday, September 10th at 8.35 p.m. Eastern, 5.35 p.m. Pacific. What happens when you lock 18 co-workers in an office for one week to compete for a quarter million dollars of cash? This is Surviving Barstool. See you next time. Season 5, presented by Rumble Premium. Each episode released three hours early, so get it ad-free before anyone else, only when you join Rumble Premium. Surviving Barstool premieres Sunday, August 9th at 5 p.m. on Rumble Premium, and everywhere else at 8 p.m. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am. Liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Kyle and Saruti with us. Ready to support. Good to see you guys. Good to see you. Big football on the brain lately. Today's episode, for real, it's Thursday night. It's going to be the end of the Pats preseason, and I'm going to watch it. I'm going to watch that. Pats Browns tonight. So, I'm excited. I even, like, was holding off, like, paying. For my fantasy league. I was, like, one of the stragglers. I'm just, like, I'm not doing it yet. Not doing it yet. Didn't really have a whole lot going on up here this summer that wasn't, like, fun stuff. So, you know, exactly like my brand of fun stuff. So, I'm, like, today's, like, the first day, I think. Sent the money for fantasy yesterday and going to watch some preseason football tonight. And shout out Nate Tice. You were on the fence about watching the Pats preseason? I haven't watched any of them. Really? I didn't watch any of it. What's wrong with you? I don't know. It was just, like, I don't think I'm going to see. I don't think I'm going to see the guys I want to see. Yeah, it's been, like, nerfed. Last year, it was, like, are we going to get a little Drake? A little bit, maybe. Like, last year, I was searching for glimpses. But, you know, Drake's a man. I don't really need to search for that anymore. Wait, do you have an A.J. Brown jersey yet? Do I? No. Yeah. Fanatics, if you're listening, no, I don't. I was going to say, that sounds like, what's the over-under on that? I'm thinking it's probably going to be Gonzalez next. As long as they don't fuck this contract up, it'll probably be Gonzalez. I do want a defensive guy. I think that's a mistake a lot of people make. They just have a bunch of offensive players, and you don't have any cool defensive ones. Wait, we've got to revisit, though. Your track record in jerseys recently is terrible, right? It's been bad, yeah. Yeah, you're like my buddy Hartford Peet. He had a run of jerseys, like, as soon as he got the jersey. It was like the opposite of me when I moved to a town. It's just championship, parade, banner. I mean, it's ridiculous, my resume, when I moved to a town. It's just, hey, do you guys want to fucking win? We've covered it. We can do it again. Print the shirts. If you need to. Listen, it was four. We're told. He needs to go. Seriously, like, if I moved to another city at some point, they'd be like, do you hear who fucking moved here? Like, tell the Tampa Bay Lightning. You're like, good luck, Chuck, but for sports teams. It was a great call on me getting the Mac Jones T-shirt jersey, by the way. I did not pull the trick. Wait, no. No, it isn't, though. No, I have. You set the tone for that entire relationship. You'd be like, I'm only going to get the T-shirt jersey for Mac Jones. What do you think his play caller thought of that when it happened? Yeah, that's a bummer. By the way, Mac Jones kind of graded out pretty good. Oh, dude, I'm totally supporting. I'm looking at Jacoby Brissett like, yeah, you get those Jags back on track, dude. Apparently, Belichick. And Belichick isn't exactly doing him any favors. Be like, hey, here's the deal. You're going to be a mid-first round pick. You're not going to have any fucking receivers, and I'm going to try this defensive guy on play calling. Like, if there's a Mac Jones, like, depression TEDx talk when he's 50, you know, my first year or two, it was tough. Oh, second year. I think I would say it's second year. First of all, he just did that this summer. I forget. He was on with some guys, and he was super diplomatic about it, but he did let everybody know. It's just like, just want to remind everyone what was happening at Gillette back then. Anyway. If Mac Jones had slugged somebody in his second year in Attleboro into, like, a taco stand, I would have gone, you know what? I kind of get it. Let that guy blow off some steam. Yeah. I think it makes sense. Yeah, Hartford Peete bought a bunch of different jerseys. Like, I think he got a Jim Corsi jersey, I believe, for the Red Sox. Like, immediately he was off the team. You got a Stu Green. They didn't just lose Stu Grimson. The Whalers moved, like, the next year. So, Hartford Peete had just an off. There's a couple other ones on there, too. The Whalers moved. That's crazy. Yeah. So, all right. Been on two dates. Do I help or move? This is one I was trying to find earlier this week. Damn. 6'2", 190. Well, you're 6'2". You're going to meet somebody else. Don't worry about it. 24 years old. Pickup comp. I've gotten Pascal Siaka when I play with friends, but more serious games. Awesome. More of a rotational big who grinds the offensive boards, plays good team ball. I can hit a few shots here and there. Maybe a John Collins type without the 40-inch vertical. Gym stats. Old school dad. So, grew up on push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, running. Just did the Falmouth Road Race last week. And, hey, shout out. Yeah. And four sets of seven reps, 205 on the bench. All right. That was very specific. We appreciate it. You're a specific guy, it sounds like. I went out with this girl last night. This is a long ago. All right. Then, no. Then, no. It was the. It was the first one-on-one date we've had. We've been talking for about a month. Went on a double date with two friends last week where I honestly killed it in bar trivia. Wow. Love it. Such a good fit. Yeah. Like, he's so smart. He knew everything about friends. For background, I was in a two-and-a-half-year relationship that ended in January and I've been on a bunch of dates since then. But this girl's definitely the date that I've felt the best about. We really clicked and had an awesome time and I went home feeling great about everything and just generally excited to continue to see her. And she was equally excited. The problem is last night when I asked her, where I could go see. When I could see her again, she gave me some dates but also asked me if I could help her move next week. Dude. Yeesh. I have no problem with this at face value. I don't mind helping and I know it's probably hard for a girl in New York City to move apartments but at the same time, I can't help feeling it's kind of crazy to ask someone you've been on one real date with to ask you to help move, especially when I know she has guy friends in the city who can help. I do really like this girl. Would honestly like to spend time with her by helping her but also I feel kind of weird because we went on a great date then she kind of immediately asked me to do her huge favor. It's kind of insane, dude. Am I overthinking this whole thing? I actually don't think that you are. No. I think you're asking some good questions here. Is this a normal thing for her to ask and shouldn't I feel weird about helping her? Am I right that this is unusual and there's a little bit of being used vibe here? This is maybe an excuse on her part to spend time with me and it's actually a good thing especially because she could definitely ask someone else. Uh-oh, man. Fucking circling each other in the Coliseum of thoughts. Well, at least she doesn't have a roster because she could totally ask another dude. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if she's a smoke show in New York City and she asks you to help move, do you need anybody else to stop by? Yeah, right. Thank you. All right. What should I do to tell, should I tell her I'll help her? Is she testing me? These are the thoughts swirling around in my head. Would love any advice. Again, I think she's great and don't think there's any weird shady motives on her part but I also don't know her that well yet and kind of feel like this is a big ask so early into spending time with each other. Moving sucks. Yeah. No one ever wants that call. It's always worse than you think it's going to be too. Even if you psych yourself up for it to suck, you know, halfway through or maybe towards the back end, you're like, holy man, this is, this is awful. I can't believe he asked me to do this. The one thing I'd add onto this, you're supposed to feel weird about asking your friends to help move and be like, yeah, I think I'm not going with movers. I'm just wondering if I could get any, you know, rally the troops. You're supposed to even feel weird about that. Let alone a, you know, a guy who was a complete stranger four days ago. But you say, you know, we talk about the guy who just like puts up shots, you know what I mean? And doesn't think about it. Maybe there's women, there's like a woman version of that out there. I don't know. I would certainly commit to being busy that day, but maybe you can show up and get some credit at the end. It'd be like, I'm going out to lunch with my grandmother. Partial credit. It's in Westchester. It's kind of far away. But if we wrap up, you know, the blue plate special, I'll, you know, maybe you could show up for the last, you know, the last 45 minutes. Do we really think there's a possibility though, that she just set this whole thing up with you so she could find somebody to move? Like, no, like I think she, I don't think so. That seems so, it's on the table, but she hasn't really had enough time to like ask him for money yet or whatever else those users would do. You know what I mean? Yeah. There hasn't been a lot of opportunity yet. Maybe I'm being naive here. That's just, that's such a great, that's a level of crazy that I don't even know. Like, I think that's rare. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's just, that's just, I think, you know, maybe she, maybe she likes, first off, I think you can't really say no. Like in some way, unless you really have something to do, like it's kind of a bad look, like for you to just be like, actually, I'm not around and I can't help you this early, even if it is a crazy ask because, you know, I don't know, like it's a first impression. You're still kind of in that first impression stage. If you really like her, like that's just, imagine you're telling your dad, like, oh yeah, like I, you know, I asked this guy to move and he said no. She's, I would be like, what the fuck's this guy's problem? Like he's not invested. Yeah, you think the dad would go, oh, it's only one real date and then a double date? Yeah, I'm glad he said no. Like it's not going to happen. So, I think, I think you should try to do anything else. on thanksgiving yeah the other thing too is like what a simp it's kind of like a room raider situation too or you could get you're gonna get to know her really well you're gonna see all of her shit like you're gonna see all of her stuff this is like a really good glimpse into what her life is about early on so and yeah it might not pay off well and you can see some red flag things in there you go man this was a double you'll get to see where she moved to as well yeah yeah maybe she's into cosplay so anyway yeah like a movie blows but i think it's there's an interesting opportunity here and i think yeah like why not help her if you don't have shit else to do sure sure i i think i would i would try to make it so that i don't feel like i'm being used meaning i'm not the primary mover and i'll show up somewhere in the process of this move uh where then like it's not going to be the worst thing you know i'm not driving this bus to the you know the worst day of my life but i can i'll get on the bus and i'll help you i think that's simple the great thing with all the technology dating is is that you know you have more options now the bad part of it it's really hard to do the background work on this because do you have anyone in her orbit where you can be like hey but the thing is is if you tell somebody that she's close to then she's immediately going to tell on you anyway and then we're going to get down to some of the hardcore facts especially if it's new york city how many floors up yeah don't even talk to me about a staircase where are we moving into is it an upgrade wait a minute it's a downgrade and i'm going to get together with you because you had to go from like you're moving in your subletting in a hostel you know so there's a lot of stuff i think the the room raider reference there from saruti is perfect it's valuable certainly if you go through with it it's very simple like do you like her do you think you like her do you think the vibes are on it could be a great origin story it could be a really great origin story you're going to spend it's going to be just an absolute blitzing of spending time with each other and the fact that you're doing this it's going to raise your credit i think you have to take the chance that your equity the amount that you're going to gain from this because it absolutely fucking sucks um and what do you want like a bunch of dudes she's friends with to be over there and being like hey i've always liked you because moving's emotional and this fucking guy has two sun cruisers in him closing one door opening another yeah like that was my next question though like are is it just you are you sure or are there going to be like other friends there because bring two people and then you have to buy them pizza and beer for the rest of the weekend what if you show up though and there are some other dudes there you know like maybe she you know you're just like one of a few people and it turns into bachelor the move bachelorette the movie i guess that would be well also it has everything to do with how you feel about her so yeah you already have your answer go ahead i just got a million questions like what if like behind the scenes though like her friends are like oh my god i can't believe she found the loser who did say yes to her movie right i'm trying to do this for months and like two a week before the move she finds the guy who's the sucker you know that could also be you too but it's the other way and they're like dude he was so you know right so strong do you see him pick up that ottoman by himself that was awesome what if he hurts himself he's putting up 205 though so i think he's fine it would be really funny if you size up the situation and you're like oh i am that loser and then you go hey i'm clocking out you know there's there's a chance of having like three different avenues of a really good story being like i didn't want to help her move at all and then she's like i can't believe you helped me move and i can't believe you asked me and the brother's like going you know i i wasn't even i wasn't available she called him it was a test he passed the test all this stuff or you're on your next date in a month going the last fucking girl asking to move i moved her out and then she ghosted me although you may not want to say that on the first date with somebody because then she's going to think potentially you're a loser and clearly you're not you're six two marathons thrown around 200 pounds so all the important stuff i think what you can't do is try to be like well who's who's helping how much help do you have i think you either of course it's either a soft commit or you're busy or like but i wouldn't i wouldn't be there as like the first like the guy there at eight o'clock and it's just like oh no one else came my friend said they were going to come and they didn't and now you're the now you're the one pair of hands you know so um there was a guy i worked with at espn again he's a friend but he was like he was like hey i want to ask you a question i went okay it's like i just started working there he has a moving he's just got a new contract so he's upgrading houses and he'd already had like a nice house and he was moving to like a really nice house but i think they were somewhat close to each other he's like you think if i just kind of asked a bunch of like the the pas you know five or six of these guys he's like if i asked like five or six of the pas if they could help me move all my furniture out of this house he's like it's basically into the truck and then out of the house and then into the next house he's like if i just grab him like a couple cases of beer and some pizzas you think that'll work and i was like don't you make like a million bucks a year man if you fucking do that everyone is gonna hate you and they may even say yes but they're gonna the amount you're going to lose approval rating inside these walls that's abuse like that's a bad tipper on steroids oh my god yeah you didn't want to pay anyone to move yeah and i told them i was like do not do that like don't do it if you can afford movers and you don't that's uh and you do something like that that's pretty that's a scumbag thing to do i'm just gonna say look i'm i'm um currently in the midst of it again here and i i got the quote and i'm like how the fuck am i not because the last time i did something like this i did the you pack thing and it was like oh i've saved all this money like i'm gonna load it i'm i just hire a guy i don't need dude i'll just it sucks and again it weighed over me forever too i'm like oh that's coming up in 10 days oh it's nine days oh that saturday is absolutely gonna suck and it was even worse i like fucked up my groin and i'm like oh my god i'm gonna lose approval rating inside this like two seconds into it like great so now i'm hurt the whole time and i packed up all the stuff and then when i showed up where i needed to be all of it like 80 of it was fucking destroyed like just everything was rubbing against each other the entire time and i'm like oh cool i saved two grand i'll never do that again never do that again if i'm homeless i'm still gonna pay somebody to move my bag would love a follow-up on this by the way so okay not to the emailer i'm saying i think we all want to know like what how this ends or what happens yeah i'll give you my cell phone number i'll tell you all right um shame and a lost airpod but great sleep 46 510 215 recently got myself down from 238 stout i've also been working on getting my bench back up last april i could bench 135 for five now i'm back up to 185 not consistent enough in the gym though lots of steps better diet dad life that's fine dude if you don't have a good job at the bench there's a bad day just master the weight doesn't go well and then kind of look back at the bar confused i mean you know if you make eye contact with somebody else you saw you struggle with 185 just like you know grab your shoulder yeah press on air and you're like oh yeah all right one rotation yeah yeah there's a lot there's like three go-to's for anybody that's having a bad day at the bench so people are looking and you're just gonna master those you'll be fine like it's kind of just confused as if it's a different material it's like when you're like you like you like airball layup or something you just like you grab the ball you kind of look at it you bounce it a couple times you're like all right it's not must not be regulation obviously the wrist blow on the hands blow on the hands yeah i wish there were more blow on the hands things in life you know just yeah just a rough scenario and you just go warm up warm up the old palms my bad i didn't know we were ready yet we already started okay for a player cop i'd say i'm pj tucker i can shoot around 35 from three i can drive the whole reasonably well i'm a good rebounder i'm probably about average defensively i don't have as much of a handle i'm not creating my own shot off the dribble you're probably not going to get it back at 46 i've been a fan of the show since svp wanted to rant about marathoners always telling you about their running accomplishments i never thought about writing it until now just uh waking up from my dilemma so we get this real early occasionally i have a i have trouble falling asleep ever since i heard you say that your friends use the pod to put their kids to sleep an entire group did it again this week in france or this summer in france i was not in france for a long time uh this apparently like this car loaded up with these people i was with and but i was in the other car and the kids were rambunctious and then one of the other guys was like put ursula on and the kids fell asleep and they were like what the fuck so i need to find the kids book and i'm going to do that in the next couple weeks we're just going to have a standalone episode where i read to your kids yeah you guys can cancel your comm subscription we got you just put this one on a loop yeah like what happened to him he's reading kids books kids are passing out left and right he's killing he has a huge following it's something yeah he's on kids youtube though you're not going to find it on regular youtube it's not kids youtube all right occasionally i have trouble falling asleep we said this i um i tried it myself it works great there's just one problem i have a dream about you or the show it's always some reincarnation of me having worked for you as a producer and then i text you to say what's up last night i was in a work all hands meeting someone mentioned that you're so the dream was i was at work all hands meeting someone mentioned that you're really good at cyber security which happens to be my field my boss then went on a rant about how you suck at cyber security and told me to text you that he said it well fuck your boss uh what is wrong with me i promise i never think about you outside of this i have no bro crush i just like the pod and i like the fact that it helps me pass out every now and again but when i wake up with this weird sense of embarrassment and then i'm like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so then a lost airpod so what do i do give up on being able to pass out quickly or just live with the morning shame i feel like those are my only two options here going to bed with me every night yeah i'm not judging you so i we don't know each other that should help i'm not gonna run into you probably ever first off this is dreams 101 right like you just you think about you dream about stuff that you think about before bed and like that happens and then your brain just that's just what happens so it's not all the time though and it's not like i mean i'm not like it's not they're not like weird dreams like they're just like you know what i mean weird do you think i'd be bad at cyber security or good at it i don't think it'd be enough for you i don't know yeah i don't think i'd be passionate about it i think they both were on the right track there so maybe his boss is right i think he had my back think of it that way you listen to the show you've been there since the svp days if somebody's going to trash me in an all hands meeting you had my back man that means a ton to me dream or not couldn't you just beam something else into your ears that like maybe even music maybe if music doesn't work like what about a history show you know there's like a million world war two like monotone monotone guys that like you know you'll find my market here it can't be well i mean he's he also listens to the show too right so i mean it's just like he's got this relationship with you and it's it's weirding him out he's freaked out man you can tell by the email but by that logic anything he listens to he's going to dream about feel weird about so why not ryan yeah i'm not i told him i was okay with it well so maybe now that you know it's not weird for him maybe that's all he needed this was just like getting it off his chest i'm gonna say if you don't if you don't want to feel weird that about how much you're dreaming about ryan solo then i think maybe just do beam something into your ear while you're going to sleep that you don't have a connection to also you don't have to put airpods in your ears anymore i hope you do find that but there's like these these sleep masks that have like uh i got one for my daughter you know yeah they have like little headphones you can even put something in your pillows now there's like there's a there's way better options than like jamming an guys dream about me ever no i don't think um no no i don't i'm trying to think not really i do have one reoccurring dream though and this is like an old school radio thing ryan we're like you know like the silence alarms that we used to get back in the day when like there would be nothing going over the air like i'll have i'll wake up in a cold sweat like thinking about there being a silence alarm and i haven't worked in radio in god knows how long so that's always scary like my co-host when we filled in a mic and mike just decided upon himself to have a moment of silence for something and didn't tell anyone and it means the entire network would shut down yeah while we were on mike and mike and then somebody got in my ear because i was driving and just like talk talk talk talk why is that the right move why is that the right move that if there's 10 seconds of silence everything shuts down what like what what like what would that prevent that would be so horrible never heard of the taliban yeah but how does it track how does it track though i mean i understand you're saying a word that does sound sound serious but like how does it how do the dots connect how does anything bad come from just like people being like what's checking their radio dial for a second why would it because they want they want the entire network like i don't know it's 400 something affiliates or something like that so they wanted it that meant at that time there was dead air and yeah i get it because the other guy said let's have a moment of silence he didn't tell anybody and then i'm like well if i talk a second into his moment of silence i'm going to be on 400 radio stations looking like an absolute dickhead yeah but then nobody's gonna be a tough explainer the entire system is shut down yeah ryan rossillo awful announcing ryan rossillo interrupts moment of silence just because right to be a dick and meanwhile i have somebody in my ear being like you have to talk you have to talk the entire system shut down talk talk talk so it was a quick moment of silence i was like oh okay thank you and then he kind of like gave me a look i'm like you don't know what you're doing you're just making this up right now um that was a wild wild morning anyway uh back to the dream thing i don't know i could maybe do some like positive thinking i don't know i could maybe do some like positive thinking stuff let me try one what if everything is actually going to be okay there you go you got anxiety you're worrying about stuff how about that little lesson in your head play that one on a loop over and over again i'll just read the kid's book how about that that was stupid um when you just do one of them that's stupid if you did like three good ones i think it would have would have landed but one you are good enough yeah i think baltimore's offensive line can be good this year just do like tailored ones instead of cameo yeah yeah that's good yeah i'm not worried about will campbell at left tackle neither should you it's a good one for me yeah you don't have short arms jesus yeah there you go kyle you have short arms for your torso right is that why you like will campbell so much all right well now you lost me i'm not supporting i thought you had shorter arms didn't discuss this i thought i had a longer torso than legs get back to us next week okay you have a shorter just did this i think i have a longer torso than legs yeah van pelt's got a long torso but he's a long guy yeah so who knows it's all kind of long i think we're done i think it's time we're done have a great weekend everybody go pats thanks to tom kevin saruti and kyle all of our episodes available on netflix the ryan rossillo show barstool sports you