Week 9 Preview: One Stat for Every Game

This episode is brought to you by Nationwide. Everyone knows that to win in fantasy, you need players that can be so much more. The QB that can throw for 400 yards and rush for a touchdown. The defense that can snag a pick six. Or the running back who can also bring in 15 receptions. It's like how Nationwide is so much more than a great insurance company. They're one of America's largest financial services companies too. Now that gets the start. For your insurance and financial needs, Nationwide is on your side. Nationwide Investment Services Corporation, member FINRA, Columbus, Ohio. Did you know that psoriatic arthritis may progress over time and could cause permanent joint damage if left untreated? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimphia guselkumab, taken by injection, is a prescription medicine for adults with active psoriatic arthritis. 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Nobody knows. 49ers versus Raiders, the battle of two teams who, left the bay. Shador Sanders, somehow talking shit already. He hasn't even played yet and he's talking shit. What is wrong with him? And Chicken Tenders, invented when? You'll be shocked to learn the answer. All that and more after the break. This episode is presented by Verizon. Let me tell you all about Verizon's new Simplicity plan. You get one plan, one price, just $30 a line per month, even for a single line. So while everyone is running four trade analyzers before offering a backup tight end, Verizon said, "One plan, one price." Sometimes the simplest move is the best one, like the Simplicity plan. Head to Verizon.com today. For new customers who switch to Verizon, $30 per line includes auto pay and switch discount. Additional taxes, fees, and terms apply. We'll be right back. - Welcome to the "Ringer Fantasy Football Show." My name is Danny Hartford. Today I'm joined by Danny Kelley and Craig Korolbeck. And today we are going over all the games for week nine of the NFL season. Halfway, kind of. We're going to get right into it, starting with, there is an international game again in Spain. We took a week off, ironically, when we got Daylight Savings back and probably were best equipped to do it. But now we're back. - Makes no sense. Why would that be the case? But it was. We got a game in Spain, Bengals-Falcons. The Bengals are three-point favorites. My one stat for this game, B. John Robinson, is the 27th ranked running back over the last month of the season. - Yeah. - Basically had three big games. And outside of that, has been pretty average. In the last month, he's been outscored by Ollie Gordon and seventh snap Saquon Barkley. - No! - B. John Robinson. - Thought you were going to say Tyler Algier. - This is a fascinating game because the question is like, can the Falcons get back on track, basically? I feel like we kind of understand what Cincinnati is doing just like Burrow, full park and bark, ripping it. Him, Burrow, and Chase are killing it. But the Falcons have had like weird pops of really good offensive efficiency and explosive plays. And the Bengals just gave up a career high in yards and points to Cam Ward. And before that, a career high in yards to Tyler Huntley. And so now you have Michael Penix coming in who scored less fantasy points last week than a guy who didn't complete a pass. And so basically I'm like, if Penix can be kept clean, he's really good. The game last week in Tampa was like a rainy mess, but he was still terrible. But the Bengals blitz at the lowest percentage in the NFL. They're like the opposite of the Vikings, who blitz like 70% of the time. The Bengals blitz like 19% of the time. And so I do believe that this is a game that everyone's going to think the Bengals are going to win because they scored 46 points last week, but not realize that they allowed 36 against Cam Ward and Tyler Huntley over the last two weeks. So I'm kind of interested in the Falcons offense here, is my point. - I sure hope Bijan can get going because my main team that has the only two players on the team are Gibbs and Bijan. It's been struggling over the last few weeks. I don't have no other players. I need Bijan to be scoring 30 points a game. Let's get back to that. - He literally said today, he said, I don't feel like I'm playing like one of the best running backs in the league. I just, I don't know. I think the Falcons offense overall, Penix has fallen off a little. - You think throwing four picks in the rain and getting outscored by Baker. - A little. - How many, do you think we'll see that again? Throwing more interceptions than the other team throws passes in a game where the quarterbacks play the whole game? - No, I think I will never see that again. - We actually might not. - We were not alive the last time it happened. - But I don't know. It's like the two, the last two weeks of Penix, he threw for three touchdowns in each of the last two weeks beforehand against Chicago and San Francisco. And I just think I'm much, the spread is only three points in this game. And I think the Bengals defense is really bad. And Tony Pollard had 150 yards in two touchdowns. Two touchdowns last week against Cincinnati. So I'm much more open to the idea that what happened last week is the Bucs like have the best events in the league now. And it was a downpour of rain more than I think, like Bijon, Penix and Drake London aren't good anymore. - And Kim Ward had the best statistical game of his career. So I agree. I actually think the Falcons will bounce back. I don't want to do this in ringer 107 or anything because I just, I don't. - International games. - I don't want games that go to Spain. But overall, I don't know. I mean, the Bijon thing is funny because I, I feel like Gibbs never has these dips. - No. - That's the difference with him really so far is like Gibbs has every one of his games, except for one, he scored over 19 points and you know, the consistency is really nice to be able to bank on that week in and week out. I, we need Bijon to get going in this game. - Oh yeah. I feel like a lot of the time, the volume isn't as consistent with Bijon. Sometimes they just like don't run it as much. Or like he doesn't catch passes weirdly in certain games. Gibbs, they're just, especially this year, I mean, they are like feeding him the ball. He's touching the ball 25, 30 times every game. - And once again, international game, just put the players into your slots. Like don't put them in the flex or whatever. And then you wake up and Tee Higgins is in your flex so that you can't move them and what it just gets. - Also I'll say Kyle Pitts, Bengals linebackers are terrible. Just want to point that out. - I think it was Ian Hardit said this great stat that the Lions and Bengals have allowed the most yards to tight ends. And the Lions have allowed 11 touchdowns to tight ends, but the Bengals have allowed 11 touchdowns to tight ends. And the Bengals have allowed zero, which feels like that will not continue. - Yeah. - But I don't, Craig's warming up on Kyle Pitts and it's actually started to bother me. - He's back. - I mean, he was back until again, until this torrential downpour that happened last week, Kyle Pitts had four touchdowns in three games. And I think it's like when the offense is kept clean and operating kind of normally, Kyle Pitts is like somewhat viable. - What happened to maturity and not being love bombed and rope-a-doped and growing up? - I'm not ready to grow up, I'm still a kid. - Grow up Peter Pan. - Yeah. - It's kind of like Kyle Pitts. Anyway, okay, so that's the international game. I don't know, game of the week, game of the year? DK, Buffalo Bills are at the Minnesota Vikings. - Yeah, it's just kind of a weird game. The Minnesota Vikings, obviously awesome, awesome defense, terrible offense. However, Carson Wentz will be playing in this game. Carson Wentz is gonna be the starter for the Vikings. So that makes things a little bit more interesting. My stat for this game, Josh Allen, I don't know if we've talked about this. Josh Allen is on pace to set the all-time scoring record for a fantasy quarterback. - That's pretty good. - Let that sink in. According to points per game, it would be the second highest points per game of all time. Lamar Jackson from 2019 holds that honor. Lamar Jackson, remember when he threw 36 touchdowns and rushed for 1200 yards and scored seven rushing touchdowns that year? Incredible season. Josh Allen is just off of that this year. He's on pace for 455 points, which would be the most ever. Even if you just clip it to 16 games, his pace, still most all time. And so, I mean, the big reason is, he's on pace to score 22 rushing touchdowns this year. Probably not gonna hit that. Obviously it may slow down that pace. - I don't know. - It just tells you how big, I don't know. I mean, honestly, like he's good enough to do it. You know, maybe it's just like a random variance and whatnot, but yeah, he's on pace to score or to throw 27 touchdowns and rush for 22 touchdowns. So that's where he really brings you fantasy value. It's like having two players in one spot. - It's funny because like even though he's on pace for like 20 plus rushing touchdowns, James Cook has a touchdown in every game but one. - Yeah. - Like it's not like they're all, everyone's doing it. - So, and that's a good segue to kind of like what I wanted to talk about with this game. Obviously we've talked about the Vikings, the pressure rate, the blitz rate this year. The Vikings are blitzing at 70% and it's only increasing week in and week out. But they're also not that great against the run or at least relative to how they could, how good they are against the pass. They're the best team. against the pass this year, according to DVOA. However, they're middle of the pack against the run. If you look at the games that they've played actually good quarterbacks, the three that I kind of looked at were against Jordan Love, Caleb Williams, and Jared Goff, the three other NFC North teams. They've given up 143 rushing yards a game in those games. They basically make you one-dimensional, and if you can run, which I think the Bills can run, that can be kind of your key to victory. The Vikings did cool stuff against the Vikings last week, too. They had tight ends and fullbacks in the backfield. It's like a 100-year-old formation. It's honestly older than that, and it's basically quarterbacks at the center and then offsets like a tight end and a fullback, and then the running back behind the quarterback. It's like a diamond. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, sidecar diamond. It has all these different names. But the idea is it's common sense. It's like you're just building a moat within the moat. It's like you're adding a gap, but you're really just building a wall to account for all these blitzers and stuff. And they actually are just like, you know what? Screw it. We're just going to add more blockers in the backfield, and then you're able to run. It's funny. It's like just adding a layer. Right. So this is going to be a fun little chess match between the Bills offense and Flores and kind of how they figure out how to stop the Bills run game. But yeah, man, Josh Allen putting on an all-time season right now. Josh Allen passed Jim Kelly in touchdown passes last week, and it's like postseason and regular season. And I almost feel like. I feel like that should be everywhere. Josh Allen has the most passing touchdowns in Bills history, and he has the most rushing touchdowns in Bills history. That blows my mind. He's 30. Like, I don't know. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I just feel like that's. That's huge. I think that's one of the most impressive stats I've ever heard. Yeah. I don't know. And also, we have to acknowledge that Kyler Murray has a boo-boo as soon as GTA 6 is about to come out. I'm sorry. Someone has to say it. Yeah, he's now weak to weak. Or we say weak. To weak. Weak to weak, depending on how far he gets in GTA. Adam Levitant nailed this and established the run. Kyler Murray's hamstring is going to magically get better if Carson Wentz sucks on Monday Night Football, and Kyler Murray's hamstring will magically get worse if Carson Wentz is really, really good on Monday Night Football. Yeah, I mean, if Carson Wentz is bad, which, like, let's be honest, it's Carson Wentz. Like, all these backups, you know, you can squeeze a game or two out of them, but it's like, if Minnesota has any plans on trying to do anything in the playoffs this year, it feels as though, Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz, neither are the answer. Yeah, but Kyler, I don't think Kyler's played a single game where he's been better than what Wentz has done the last year, including last season and this season. That's fine, but, like, with this defense and this team being 6-1, are you really going to be like, we'll just try to ride it out with Carson Wentz? Like, to me, the Vikings have to be a league candidate to go get a quarterback, right? Well, who do they get? This is what I don't get about this whole thing, because it's like, I mean, you can get Daniel Jones from the Colts, and then what about Kirk Cousins? Well, so here's my, well, what would you add? Or how about Geno Smith? So Kirk Cousins is the obvious one, because he played for the Vikings for so long. But the thing I'm wondering, what would you guys give up for Kirk? Like, if I was the Raiders GM, what would you guys give me for Kirk Cousins? To try to win a Super Bowl, like a third-round pick, probably? I know that's, like, ridiculous for Cousins, but. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I think a third's the minimum if you're the Raiders, because, to be honest, if you're talking, like, a fourth or change or whatever, I'm like, I'd actually rather him spend three more months with Fernando Mendoza, teaching him how to be an adult and letting Mendoza watch how a professional, like, prepares and everything. I'm like, a fourth-rounder in a year where, or an era, where the fourth round's empty. Like, all these guys are going back to college. Like, the first three rounds are the only ones I'm actually even confident I can get an NFL player. Yeah, I think a third is. Third round's the. I'm like, I need more than that, to be honest. Well, I think, based on what Minnesota has put themselves through with Darnold, with potentially McCarthy, with bringing in Kyler, you should overspend for Kirk Cousins. Like, you need to give yourselves a competent quarterback. I think Geno Smith. Why wouldn't the Jets trade Geno Smith? Yeah. Yeah. You could. I just think that there's, like, a higher level of expectation. Kirk Cousins stepping in mid-season, mid-stream, you want the person who's worked with Kevin O'Connell for a long time. That's totally fair, but, I mean, I think, I don't know. I think Geno would be another viable option. Yeah, you could. It's just, like, Kevin. Geno just kind of. I think the difference is that when you. Geno's been very good this year. He's been good, but I don't think you can overstate the importance of Kirk Cousins spent how many seasons with Kevin O'Connell? No, I totally agree. If they can get Kirk, they should, but I think that there are a few options. Yeah, that's true. I think they have to go get a quarterback. This is malpractice. They can. I just feel. Maybe I'm just me, but I think there's a real value to Kirk Cousins spending time with Mendoza and watching him play. Andy Reid said once that Patrick Mahomes owes Alex Smith a house, maybe two, because he's like, you have no idea how much a quarterback mentoring that rookie even matters. And I'm like, but do you spend a second round pick on a quarterback who's going to play nine games for you? He's 38. That's my point. I'm like, it's. Send a player over. You're speaking from the Raiders' perspective, which is fine. Spy tech in the gang. I get that. I'm speaking from Minnesota's perspective. I'm like, you have Justin Jefferson for like the third year in a row is pissed, and this team is 6-1, and you have the best defense in the league. You have to do something. But here's the thing. There's a political reality to it. Do you bring in a quarterback if it's not the answer? Because if you bring in Geno and it doesn't go well, you're now. Now it's like Kevin O'Connell might get fired if this doesn't work out. You know what I mean? Like, bring in a quarterback that. Like, it's the cat's in the wall. So it's. Like, isn't that the case next year? Like, what's the difference? The difference is if you bring in a quarterback. If they continue to play poorly offensively, it's still going to be bad for. Yeah, they bring in. It suggests that you don't know what the answer is. You don't know how to fix the problem. If you bring in Geno Smith and it goes poorly, then now there's a question of whether you should lead the team next year at all. Yeah, but if you bring. Okay, sure. I guess if you want to just ensure that you don't get fired this offseason. But if you're 6-1, you know what it would ensure you won't get fired this offseason? If you win a playoff game. Yeah, that's true. I guess it's just. I don't disagree with any of your saying. I think I'm just pointing out it makes Kevin O'Connell look bad that they could have just. What did Kirk Cousins sign for? $10 million? Fucking nothing. All he wanted was a place to let him play. And no one would. So the Raiders are the only one that would even give him less than. If the Vikings had told Kirk you can play the whole year, he would have signed there for less money. It's kind of crazy how badly. Makes it look dumb. I mean, obviously, they're 6. Whatever. They're 6-0, 6-1. How badly they botched this quarterback thing and it's like the one thing people are talking about. You know, obviously, the defense is incredible. Our Vikings. Because, yeah, everyone's making fun of Kevin O'Connell now because he was the quarterback whisperer and now it's like, actually, he's just tall and hot and wasn't very good at it. But you're right, DK, that the Vikings are a weird, tortured fan base because they're always good. They're never good in the playoffs. They're actually. The Vikings have been bad twice in a while. They have some of the most disastrous playoff happenings, yeah. And it's funny that they have the best record in the NFL and no one even gives a shit. It's like, you know, what's wrong with your quarterback? It's funny. Okay. Anything else on that? I think Wentz is better for Justin Jefferson. That's one thing. Feel better about starting Jefferson in this game. I'm curious about the Bills' offensive line, too. Sneaky banged up. I want to see who ends up playing in that game. Next game, Packers are at the New England Patriots this week. I think this is a cool game. This might be the best game on Sunday. My one fact for Packers-Patriots is that since September ended. I said that word weird. Edded. Ended. I was thinking about Green Day. I know. That was where my brain went, too. Okay. Yeah, I. Now I feel unserious with this stat because I'm, like, doing a song reference by accident. But anyway, since September ended, the Patriots rank third in points per game after Buffalo and Cincinnati. And since September ended, Patriots are fourth in explosive play rate behind the Jaguars, the Bills, and the Lions. And I bring that up because another example of if I told you in August that New England's explosive play rate in points per game would be around Detroit and Cincinnati, you'd be like, wow, A.J. Brown and Romeo Dobbs and Trevion Henderson must be doing great. Great, right? Right? Yeah. It's an incredible turnaround by Drake May, obviously. It's like a mini version of what Josh Allen does every year where you're just like, man, there's not a lot for Josh to work with although they have a pretty good running game. But, dude, Drake May doing this with a bunch of 5'10 dudes that would not be starting on any other team is extremely impressive week in and week out now. This is good. Drake May's even better than last year. I mean. This is why the take purge works because a month ago, it would have been a great take purge to be like, I think Drake May's going to play better than he did last year for the rest of the season. That was the ultimate Zach. I mean, I think. I'd be curious to see how he compares to Josh Allen since his slump ended in terms of fantasy. I'll look that up right now. You guys keep going. So, I will. Patriots roster, though, is overall, it's just so A.J. Brown's hurt, obviously. Romeo Dobbs is hurt. Matt Collins is hurt. As Craig keeps pointing out, they have no receivers over six feet tall. Now Hunter Henry, the tight end's banged up. We'll see if he plays. And then also, he hasn't practiced in seven days due to an illness. You don't really see that, especially, I believe, there was a day he was around the team. But, like, you usually don't see someone who's sick just missing time. So, there was a lot of speculation is he going to get traded? And, like, they're just keeping him out. And then Mike Reese, who's been covering the Patriots for ESPN for, I think, like, literally 25 years, said today, this is Thursday, that he thinks it's related to adversity and some. Like a mental health. Yeah, mental health issues or, you know. So, but it doesn't seem necessarily like Henderson's going to he might not be part of the Patriots short-term, medium-term season. It's not really clear. So, they're just down a lot of their most talented players. But the offense is still. So, we'll see how long they can keep it up. But I. Even with all those injuries, I kind of think the Patriots are going to win this game. They're favored. And I actually think that. I kind of think they're going to cover, too. Interesting. I don't know. I'm split. I think the Packers are good. And I think the Packers defense. I do, too. I think the Packers defense has been one of the more surprising units in the league this year. And Christian Watson, I think, is going to play in this game, which is astounding. I guess it's not because he literally came back in the last game. Well, the ambulance is going to take him. Right, yeah. He'll just come in the ambulance. But Green Bay is a competent. Sorry. How many times do you think that happens? Probably not a lot. I don't know. Could be a side effect of some things, you know. Yeah, a side effect of a lot of things. But I've been really impressed. Much like Drake May, it's like Green Bay had this three-game slump where everybody wrote them off and said the season was over. And since then, they've looked like one of the best teams in the NFL. The thing in the back of my mind is that Rich Rebar had this great stat that the Packers get 18% of their yards from running, which is the worst mark in the NFL. And I'm torn between the explosive plays that Green Bay gets. Explosive plays, again, I can't get over this stat that Bill Barnwell unearthed that explosive plays have approached turnovers. And if you have more than the other team, it's the most related to winning games. Like it's on the level of turnovers. If you have more giant chunk yardage gains than the other team, you're just as likely if not more to win than if you have more takeaways than the other team. So Green Bay gets those. But the flip side, I'm like, I just feel like it's hard to beat a Patriots team, a Mike Vrabel Patriots team that's totally one-dimensional in offense. And the Packers are. They literally get more of the yards from passing than anybody else. And I just feel like Vrabel is going to figure out a way to make that go away, especially with a lot of the Green Bay's drives. They really need, they convert on third down a lot. Like Green Bay, the average Green Bay drive, it really is what the eye test is. If you look at the numbers, is they don't get any yards on first down on a run. And then Matthew Golden drops a pass on second down. And then they hit a giant play to Christian Watson on third. And that really is what happens. But they're living and dying on these like small margin plays, but also third downs. And I kind of wonder how long it'll go. I just, I asked myself like, how many skill players do you have to list in this game? If you had to power rank the best skill players in this game before you name a Patriot. Right. It's like Matthew, Matthew Golden, Christian Watson, Tucker Craft, Josh Jacobs. Then we maybe start to think of a Patriot. Who's this? Is it Romandre? It's honestly probably Drake May. Yeah. No, I think you're right. Also, Michael Parsons returned to practice. I don't think he's going to play this week, but they have a 21 day window for Michael Parsons to return. So he's going to. Also, so I looked it up. So Drake May since week three. So the last five weeks is outscoring Josh Allen this year. And he is currently scoring more than Lamar's record setting points per game of 27.7. So if we just agree to forget Drake May's first three weeks, then he's really going to be the best fantasy quarterback of all time. Since week three, he's having the best fantasy season of all time. Wow. That's kind of sick. Since week eight, Tyler Algier is having the best season of all time. That's true. Yeah. OK, the next game. Yeah, I would play all these players, but not the Patriots ones other than Romandre. The next game here. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were at the Chicago Bears in one of the most fascinating, but in a way that I can't ever. I don't even I don't remember ever feeling about a game going into a game the way I feel about this book is Bucs Bears game. Sunday Night Football. This is this is awesome. Um, nobody really quite knows how to feel about Tampa Bay, at least offensively. Defensively, my one stat, they lead the league in defensive EPA. It's not Minnesota. It's Tampa. Who's who's been fantastic. What? I think we should. DK nailed it the other day. We should call them the Tampa Bay Triangles because Bill said that a month ago when they had that rainstorm that it's like the Bermuda Triangle. But the Bucs are kind of like the Bermuda Triangle of the NFL, but also the Dayton Triangles where they're just running from the 20s. I think they're the Tampa Bay Triangles. They're the weirdest team I've seen ever in my life. Certainly the last. I mean, again, the fact that they were terrible with Baker, then Baker gets hurt. Then they bring in an undrafted free agent rookie who's like also bad, but then they beat the Cowboys and then Baker Mayfield comes back from a dislocated thumb and has a metal splint in his thumb and his throwing hand. And then they just like don't throw the ball for two straight weeks and win both games. Everything you just said, though, has either has. Not happened in a long time, like that rainstorm that for a five hour delay or whatever that very rarely happens and undrafted rookie quarterback starting in September. I don't remember if that's ever. I don't. I forget the exact thing. I don't know if that's ever happened, at least in 40 or 50 years. Yeah. And then and then the last two weeks like there's been like five things this year the Bucs have done that we don't even know if we can remember it's ever happening. I'm not willing like this line being six and a half. We'll get to ringer 107. Like I want to take Chicago. I'm sure that everyone's going to do that because they just beat Seattle and they look so good. But I kind of don't care. Like, yeah, the Bears give up big plays, right? They've allowed 17 plays of 30 plus yards, which is a which is crazy. But I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if Baker can throw the ball down the field. Like, I don't trust that this thumb thing is OK. And I think they're making it work despite the thumb injury. And I'm like, so if the one thing they need to do is complete explosive plays, I don't buy it. Emeka Ibuka, I don't know if he's going to play. He's like on the sideline testing out his injured foot. So I'm just like, I think they're just going to do the same. Run the ball thing. So who is it like Godwin and Hurst and Tez Johnson? I mean, yeah, I just I'm not buying it like this, you know, them running for 300 yards against the Falcons and against the Panthers. Most team history. Yeah, I think Jeffrey Simmons will have something to say about that. I think I totally agree with everything you said, Craig. The only just in the very, very far corner back of my mind, I'm like, this is kind of a letdown spot for the Bears after having this massive, massive, when like statement when welcome to the fucking Super Bowl contention win over the Seahawks or a short week. Yeah. And so that's the only thing in the back of my mind. But that being said, I trust Ben Johnson to kind of get this team ready to go. And they seem like a much more mature team. Like Caleb seems he's he's played so much under more more under control than he has in the past, you know, playing in structure and not taking sacks. And I mean, he's just like every year Ben Johnson has him improving in these little in the margins. So, I feel pretty good about the Bears in this one, too. If you it's also an interesting game just because of everything you said, you can also the rushing in this game. If you just look at the last going back to the beginning of last season when Ben Johnson was hired. The only teams that like every game where someone's run for 240 yards or more like a team has run for 240 yards is only 16 times. The Bucks and Bears are six of the 16. And the Bills are like, I think two or the other three. Like these are the I think these are two of the last three teams that can run for 250 yards in a game is the Bears and the Bucks and the Bucks just did it. And the Bears are still running all over people. I don't know. It's it's funny. You actually don't see what how you don't see that often two dominant rushing teams facing each other. And now the Vita V is not having a great season. But Jeffrey Simmons, like they do both have like giant run clogging defensive tackles in the middle. Vita V is not quite this. This is like, I don't know. You don't see it's styles make fights. These styles don't exist anymore. Yeah. To me, this is maybe this is super, super obvious. But like the first quarter is going to tell us everything we need to know about this game. If the Bears jump out to a lead, I think they'll put the smack down. If the Buccaneers can get a score early on and kind of turn it into, you know, the type of game that they want to play where they're running the football and playing defense, then I think that they have a chance in this game. But if they get down two scores, I think the Bears. It is funny, though, because I do I do think we have to call them the Tampa Bay Triangles. If like Colston Loveland fumbles on the first drive. Yeah, sure. Fumbles and the Bucs are just somehow up 14. Nothing again. And Baker's yet to throw a pass. Yeah, we just like, you know, I just kind of keep it's going to keep happening. One thing we do know is that Luther Burton will have 85 yards in the first half and none in the second. What is with that is that is it is a funny thing. He's basically like Calvin Johnson in the first half. I believe this season he is literally like the number four wide receiver in fantasy in the first half and like 47th in the second half because it's mostly like the Bears are doing heavier personnel, not throwing as much in the second half. Right. But it is funny. Also, I will say fun stat from Rich Rebar. Tampa Bay is basically facing the fastest time to throw. Teams are getting it out quick against Tampa. When Caleb does get it out quickly, burden is is by far the leading receiver on the team. So hopefully another good burden game. The next game here is the Denver Broncos at the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, so this game the Panthers are reeling. I think my one stat for this game is since he scored 38 points in a 14 catch 192 yard two touchdown performance in week four, Ted McMillan, Ted Arroyo McMillan is averaging just 8.8 half PPR points per game. He's really fallen off since that sort of you know, put him on the map performance in primetime. He's caught 16 passes for 185 184 yards and no scores in the last three games. He's not eclipsed 86 yards in any game. And now another factor of why I would say he has to face Pat Sertan. Sure, but also Bryce Young has not played well in that stretch. And Jalen Coker came back. Right. Jalen Coker's back. There's there's a lot. It's also that game he broke out was the Lions defense at its absolute worst. Like, you know, Coker Rainbow Strip primetime. No Coker. Sure. I also think the Panthers offense. So I don't know. I don't really. I think the Eagles defense is a bad matchup for Carolina. And then they played the Bucs and the Bucs. That game was just fucking insane. I don't know. I. Maybe I'm just my heart is soft on Carolina these days because I love Bryce Young. Do you like them in this game? Do you think they have a chance? Denver is favored by two and a half. How many teams could I say are a bad matchup for Carolina to you guys would call me out? Because I feel like I just said that twice, but three feels like too many. Yeah, I don't know. The annoying the Broncos are annoying because they're just doing the same thing again. They're just like winning games by four every week, and they don't really look that good, but they just like keep beating great teams every single week. The New York Bo Nix. The Knicks also just had to be down 20 to get their first win of the season. It's like that's just the Broncos. They do that. The Broncos list of wins this year is actually kind of crazy. They've beaten the Jags, Rams, Chargers, Seahawks, Chiefs, and then they've beaten the Cardinals. But when you watch the games, they're inexplicable. If you turn those games on in the middle of the third quarter, you'd be like, oh my God, the Broncos. suck and then you turn if you went to bed for every broncos game the last three years with eight minutes left in the third quarter you would assume that they're having a top five draft pick every year yeah panthers are really beat up i don't know i i'd like to believe that we're going to get more bryce young magic and that they'll kind of like even out a little bit towards kind of the team we saw in the beginning of the year kind of the team we saw at the end of last year but i don't know they're very injured especially defensively i think the broncos will the broncos will dominate this game and then win 10 to 7 or something like that you know on a on a game winning touchdown drive by bonings yeah the the mcmillan thing is is real the coker thing is real man i have coker in the ringer league and like i was all excited week one i didn't start him he had 30 fantasy points and since then he's been he's been pretty bad so yeah i would like to see that come back yeah i think to me it's just interior pressure too zach allen's a little banged up but he's a little banged up i think it's a little banged up i think it's a little he's a great defensive lineman for the broncos and if the panthers offensive line's a little banged up and if you get into your pressure on bryce young it's it's very tough which john elway said about kyler murray ironically john always like yeah he's too short like he's the only person who's like you can't do that it's too hard it's not gonna work next game the las vegas raiders are at the san francisco 49ers niners are favored by almost 10 niners are coming off their bite my one fact is from rich rebar the goat sharp football one fact is ashen genti has not gained yardage on a quarter of his runs which is the worst mark of any running back this year with 50 carries i'm sick of the ashen genti slander i just want to say i'm fucking sick of it so i will say the overall raiders run game is not doing well i don't think tyler linderbaum's having a great season but also mike washington jr is not doing great either because this is the other stat from rich rebar that thought was amazing mike washington and ashen genti combined on goal to go rushes so whatever you know whatever and goal are one for 18 on scoring touchdowns and the league average is like one in three that's brutal and they're one for 18 which you could read as not playing great or maybe they're going to start scoring i mean yeah mike washington got 25 carries last week against the jets and averaged less than like three and a half yards a carry i it's i think that the run game is not good and ashen genti has like nine lower body injuries and i still believe that the guy i saw boise state and the guy i saw in flashes last year is the is who he is i think he's got a lot i still believe that give him one step to do something one healthy step stuffed he's just getting stuffed on so many runs but yeah the other one is the raiders defense is the worst in epa in the entire league the last month they were just absolutely barbecued and they allow six yards per touch to run rich had an unbelievable breakdown of this game but the raiders allow six yards per touch to running backs and 163 yards per game to running backs both are the worst in the nfl per game and per touch uh and it's just which not 49er will be the running back this week because christian mccaffrey has a hamstring issue and it's like oh he'll play and i'll never trust them ever again about you know whether mccaffrey's going to play on short notice but so i do think kalen black is worth adding this week whether mccaffrey misses the game or if mccaffrey does a saquon and injures his hamstring at any point in this game he'll probably miss two weeks so i would add kalen black for sure but also the snip snap of the 49ers injuries good news is nick nick bosa might return soon i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know they need him on defense but the flip side is i don't think mike evans is going to play this week i don't think deepo samuel's going to play this week so now it's just like the 49ers whack-a-mole of like christian kirk or maybe demarcus robinson returns or maybe you know what i mean it's it's like i just the receivers each week or brandon cooks and yeah all these guys are going to play but this is a great matchup though a bay area battle the raiders and niners two teams no longer in the bay area battle of the left the bay yeah there's something there uh also by the way brandon ayuk reported back to the team interesting wrinkle here to the team or did he file for me i don't know i'm not sure if they let him in the building or not they i heard that he was going to go back and like quote-unquote report so they could trade him or release him or whatever so are you didn't have an agent through all this he hired you rosenhouse this week and then he has filed for reinstatement from the league so i don't know if the niners want him i mean the 49ers cleared out his locker it's not just john lynch saying he'll never play for the league for us ever again in august like they cleared out his locker so i will say did you see there was this amazing video someone made and it was a mash-up of brandon ayuk into you know that seinfeld episode where george quits yeah so george quits the yankees and like screams in a meeting and scream screams and quits and walks out and then can't get a job and realize and he's like this was a huge mistake i fucked up i need to go back and jerry saw jerry's just like what if you just go back yeah just pretend it didn't happen just pretend it didn't happen he's like you want me to just walk into the staff meeting and pretend it didn't happen she was like yeah you're not you're an emotional person no one takes you seriously just go and that's like brandon you can just go back yeah you know that's that's based on larry david he did that at snl that's real what larry david was a writer on snl for one year and was so pissed he only got one sketch on air and he was so pissed that nobody ever wanted to sketch that he quit and then his buddy i don't remember who the friend was was the one who had the idea like just go back just go back on monday and did he keep working there oh he didn't no he only worked one year at snl but he went back what happened uh i don't i don't know if it worked or not but the idea behind that was what inspired the episode so funny was larry like screamed at the executives at snl and was like i fucking quit and they were like just go back that is amazing i it it does i i maybe this is obvious to people but like i was nine when i started watching seinfeld i didn't realize that george like is larry david right yeah and it was the the person who i just looked at the person who suggested going back was the real life inspiration for kramer oh right guy whose real name was kramer in real life wasn't it his neighbor yeah his real life neighbor named kramer who then they wanted so then they obviously wrote the character based on that and they were going to change his name to kessler because they didn't want it to be the same name but they were like you know what kramer's just a perfect name it can't not be kramer yeah kramer's just funnier it worked by the way i'm looking it up larry he he walked back in on monday and kept his job are you serious yeah he's like i didn't file any paperwork it's kind of genius they're the best there's a nobody takes you seriously nobody takes you seriously there's a great i don't know if you guys ever listened to the acquired podcast it's very good show but they just did a three-hour episode on the business of seinfeld and someone sent it to me yeah i have it in the queue there's been some there's some crazy statistics about the popularity of seinfeld like one quarter of america has watched an episode of seinfeld in 2026 what a quarter of america how do you even get that data because it's like on netflix they're probably still making bank from all their reruns like oh my god like millions a year well in the whole the reason why they did the episode because they don't typically do stuff about like a tv show but the business behind how they sign a deal to make the show was very unique and like an odd and it's why larry and jerry got so rich it was because of the mechanics of the deal that was made in the late 80s early 90s right you guys should do that to me next time i'm wrong with a player just it again no one takes you seriously that's really good we'll do that except craig plugs josh palmer yeah uh he got hurt last week so sandals making this your most rewarding season and in the spirit of giving we're each going to give our favorite touchdown score for this weekend dk yo here's your favorite touchdown score for this weekend i'm gonna do blake core i'm running back for the rams against washington this week he is basically just splitting time now with karen williams and they're running the hell out of the ball so with uh stafford having a sore elbow they're gonna run it blake quorum it's my guy craig thank you for asking i will be i will be wagering on my friend kyle pitts to score a touchdown this week uh he is plus 270 until last week where it was turned so down for it he nobody was doing anything in that game kyle pitts had four touchdowns in three games with with michael pennick so i will be wagering on kyle pitts to kind of get back to it in this in the game this week can i ask you guys a question about mine sure yeah because i'm thinking about nico collins one and a half to one basically or joe milton six to one to run one in joe milton four six forty six foot five he's basically paul bunyan will they be in the red zone that's my problem no way right there's no way uh so i'm gonna go with nico collins okay probably but i i just think the texans chargers game unless there is something that's happened with the los angeles chargers that i'm unaware of i don't know i don't the texans are going to dominate them and i think nico collins just deserves a touchdown honestly i bet marvin harrison judy's gonna score a touchdown this week wow i'm gonna get him one just for funsies so there you go marvin harrison kyle pitts scoring that's why you come to us so that's how ugly this game is gonna get that we'll be in for funsies territory yes okay check out our bet on the fandal app and remember that fandles helping make this your most rewarding season ever this episode is brought to you by amtrak sometimes making the right play starts before you're kickoff and when you're traveling for game day choosing how you get there is part of the plan with amtrak you can leave the driving behind while you grab a snack from the cafe car settle into your seat and focus on the game ahead travel the northeast corridor comfortably on the amtrak northeast regional or acela visit amtrak.com spotify to plan your next trip next group here there's a bunch of get right games for teams that are super bowl contenders that yeah should play better, starting with the Cardinals. or at the Seattle Seahawks? This is going to be an interesting one. Drew Locke is starting, I think. Dude. Basically, Sam Darnold broke a rib in the first quarter. Actually, the first, second throw of the game, I think he broke or cracked his rib. And then he also has a quad injury. So he's going to miss this game. They've already declared him out mainly because of the quad injury, apparently. And then Drew Locke is the ostensible starter. However, he has an elbow injury on his throwing hand. Sorry, his throwing arm. So he is, you know, he's practicing, but he's been limited. There's some questions whether he can actually drive the football. Today, it sounded like he was able to, I think he said he was out there ripping it or whatever. Like, I think he's going to play. It sounds like he's going to play. But he's been like missing practice and out of games the last couple of games because of this elbow injury. He was the emergency third quarterback in the last couple of games. The Athletic had this quote from Mike McDonald because I was kind of like, when did this happen? And I guess it was a rainy practice three weeks ago. And they just, you know, kind of, you know, if it's not like tennis elbow. And Mike McDonald said, Drew Locke's able to throw. How much? We're working through that right now. He's going to throw the ball throughout the week, but we're just going to manage it. He's not going to take 8,000 throws. And I think they've got Milrow taking some starters reps, obviously, just in case, I guess, which is going to be interesting. But I do think. Fantasy Bonanza, by the way, if Jalen Milrow plays. Oh my God. This is going to be so interesting to watch. But wait, what do you mean? Why? Because if Jalen Milrow is good, I think he's like a must-add in fantasy. Just because of his running? Just because of his running ability. I mean, it's a disaster for Jackson Smith and Jigba. Yeah. However, if Drew Locke plays, JSN basically stays where he is because he still gets fed in the Drew Locke. He arguably gets fed even more. Who's the worst quarterback that could play that you would bench JSN? Like, I don't think you'd play JSN if, like, I was the quarterback. Joey Fins? Yeah, that's a good question. Like, you would bench JSN if I was the quarterback, right? I think you'd play JSN if any rostered current NFL quarterback, is starting. Fignano? Yeah. You have to keep starting. I'm not sitting in JSN. So what if, like, but that's my point. How bad would you have to go to bench JSN? Kyler Murray. I think every quarterback that's on a roster right now. Because we're fucking sitting Justin Jefferson almost, it seems like. No, I mean, we're not really sitting Jefferson, but, like, I think that's kind of a similar. If we had balls, we'd tell people to bench Justin Jefferson. I don't think you should sit him because the bottom line is I do think Locke will play. And here's my one stat for this game. And, Heifetz, you're going to love this because you remember the Drew Locke era in New York very vividly. And you love it. You love Drew Locke. In Drew Locke's last four starts, or I should say last four games where he had more than three dropbacks, he has nine touchdowns to one pick. Drew Locke has been on a heater. I don't expect, I don't know if this is, like, something that will go on. Remind us, what was the Drew Locke game where he had, like, the best quarterback game outside of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning? Yeah, so the 2024 season. to miss a pick on a guy or something? So the 2024 season, the Giants in week 17 were playing the Colts. And Drew Locke came out and went 17-23, threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns. And basically, the statistical, like, QBR, like, some metric. It's like top five or something. He was ripping it. It was like Tom Brady 07, Peyton Manning 2013, Peyton Manning 04, and Drew Locke in this fucking game. Yeah. And then, so it cost the Giants, like, major in the 2025 draft. It's going to be, it's going to be interesting. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, I don't know if there's a lot at stake because I don't think the Seahawks are actually going to, like, bench Darnold, quote-unquote, bench Darnold permanently. But there's a lot of Seahawks fans that are like, ah, I kind of want to see how this goes. Kind of want to see how Drew Locke plays. How do you feel? I am being rational. I think Sam Darnold is the better option for them over the long term. I don't think Drew, I don't have a strong belief in Drew Locke. I'll put it that way. Can I defend Sam Darnold for a moment? Talking negatively about him, but yes. But Craig's question is like, do you think, do you want Drew Locke to play over Darnold? Well, DK said that people in Seattle are going to be questioning this, and I wanted to know his thoughts. Well, I know. I just feel like Sam Darnold literally hurt his hip immediately in the season and then missed how many games? Two? Yeah. Drew Locke started two games. And I know that he has a long history. He played almost all of two games. He has a long history of making stupid decisions, Sam Darnold. But sometimes players come back from injury and they're not as good. Yeah. And everyone's like, fuck this guy and completely forgets that they were hurt. Will Campbell on the Patriots is the perfect example of this. Will Campbell came off injured reserve from a fucking MCL knee injury, had the worst playoffs ever, and everyone's like, this guy's a loser. Terrible playoffs. But everyone's like, he's a guard. He sucks. He sucks. He's playing fine this year because he didn't fucking come off injured reserve and then go right to the playoffs. And Darnold, I keep wondering this about him too. I'm like, maybe that like hairline fracture in his hip is hurting. I don't know. I think I agree with that. Everything you're saying and he does deserve the benefit of the doubt. But I mean, the turnovers has been a thing that he's done forever. Like, it's not like because he's hurt. It's only like an eight year track record. It's not even that many. I do think ultimately Darnold gives him a better chance to win over the long term, but it is going to be fun to watch Drew Locke play. Yeah, he came in in relief in week one, threw for 187 passing yards and a touchdown. Week two against the Cardinals, he threw for 235 yards and three touchdowns. That's what I was going to say. The guy, I got pretty lucky that he's coming up here against Arizona and Vegas are his next two games. You know, he's not playing Tampa and Minnesota. So, of course, he probably will play great and then there will be a discourse. The other side of the coin here is the Cardinals are starting Gardner Minshew. They've benched and then traded Jacoby Brissett over the course of like three days. It's Thursday recording this. I think what's going on is they're going to trade Jacoby Brissett to the Ravens officially after this game. It's not over yet. Yeah, yeah. Your salary cap figure is cut into each weekly thing. So, if they play the Thursday game and then trade him, they'll actually save, like the Cardinals will take on an extra 17th or 18th or whatever salary. So, they're kind of just trying to save like 100 grand or 400 grand or whatever on this cap. So, I do think Jacoby Brissett will be a Raven by like Monday. Is that kind of surprising? It's like, don't you want to win the game on Thursday? I was kind of like, just, well, I was wondering about that too, Craig. I'm glad you brought, we're recording this Thursday so people can game along. Like you want to save 300 grand? You're an NFL team. Well, that's the thing. It's cap space, but to me, it's like if Baker Mayfield did the whole Landon Tuesday in Los Angeles, have 40 hours, spend it with Liam Cohen and won that Rams game against the Raiders, which was the worst thing Patrick Graham's ever done. I'm like, isn't Jacoby Brissett on a day and a half better than Fignano? He has to be, right? Unequivocally, the answer is yes. How much money do NFL teams make a year? Well, it's not about the saving money. It's about the saving cap space. Because if you want to make a trade, for another player, you just, it's about saving the margins of the cap space, I think. And the 300 grand or whatever is enough for them to push him by missing a game? I guess, unless they're like, if they get blown the fuck, maybe they're just like, hey, I'm sure it's like, if they get hurt, like if the game's a disaster, maybe they're like, actually, maybe we're sellers. I don't know. Maybe we want to tank, but I feel like that's probably not the answer. I think the obvious thing is they just don't think he can get ready to go in three days or whatever. On a short week? Yeah. Do you guys think Jacoby will be like a, like a worthy streaming fantasy option? Going forward? Probably. No. I do. Why would he be? Why wouldn't he be? Okay. Because I feel like the offense just, it's just going to be about Zay Flower. Because I just think it's, well, actually, you know what? Maybe you're right. Because I'm like, well, obviously, there'll be Zay Flowers and they'll run the ball. But you know what? You know what's crazy? Oh, I lost the stat, but the pass rate last week, Declan Doyle called. Everyone's beloved Declan Doyle, this coordinator who I'm, I know he's doing a good job, but like, when Joey Fignano came in this game, they were throwing like 80% of the time. They were down a touchdown. Run the fucking ball with Derrick Henry. You have a quarterback who was a walk-on at Maine whose emergency's in his title. He's an emergency, a break glass in case of emergency quarterback. They have the emergency and he threw a lot of passes. Let me ask you this. Is he above or below the Herbert line? Jacoby Brissett? Jacoby Brissett on Baltimore. Current? Oh, I would play Brissett before Herbert. I would. I would too. The next game here is the Jets are at the Kansas City Chiefs. This is also a bounce back game. The Chiefs just got embarrassed in Seattle in prime time and then they blew a 10 point lead to Denver with four minutes left, which would have given them a massive lead in the AFC West and then now they just don't have one because they lost that game to Denver. So obvious bounce back spot. My one stat for this game. So we have barely talked about Chris Jones, the defensive tackle for the Chiefs. I don't think we've said his name in maybe all year. So my stat is that Chris Jones has been an elite defensive tackle for like a long time. And here, I just wanted to read you the pro football focus, which are imperfect, but a good guideline for just great among defensive tackles overall over the past years. And this is just overall defensive tackle grades where Chris Jones ranks from 2019 on. He was the sixth best defensive tackle in the NFL. 2020 was second. 2021, he was sixth. 2022, he's first. 2023 is fifth. 2024, he's first. He's really good. This year, he's 106. What about last year? He fell off. It was like 40 something. But, you know, I just like that, you know, the drop off. It just, it sounded better when you did it that way. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So holding a narrative here. Why does it make an election? You're not supposed to. This is not an interview. Don't ask. That's a good question. Sorry, sorry, sorry. He's telling us something. Should bring that back. These political ads. But why does this matter? Like, why am I talking about this? Because Chris Jones is the third most expensive player in the entire NFL. Wow. When did they resign him? A couple of years ago? So they moved all the, I think because they know he's declining, they move all the money up because I think they're going to cut him at the end of the year. And so you kind of carry all the future money. However, the consequence of that is that by cap hit, like the budget of teams this year, the money they're allocating, the most expensive players in the entire NFL this season are number one is Matt Stafford. Number two is Justin Herbert. Number three is Chris Jones. The Chiefs are allocating more money to Chris Jones this season than the Bills are allocating to Josh Allen or the Bengals are spending on Joe Burrow or the Cowboys are spending on Dak Prescott and on and on. He's the third most expensive player in the NFL and he has no sacks and the Chiefs are last in sacks. And so now you just have a pass rushing defensive tackle who's not getting defensive tackle pass rushes and also kind of doesn't really play run defense or try. And he's the third highest paid player in the NFL. He's 32 years old. Yeah. 32. The story on him has always been like, I'll pick it up once we get towards the end of the season. Yeah. He's like, yeah, it's like, does he run back on defense all the time? Yeah. He's so good on offense that you let it go. Chris Jones is so good at getting the quarterback that does he try on all the runs? No. Last week, the Jonah Coleman in the fourth quarter that you remember that huge Jonah Coleman, there was this all 22 version of Chris Jones. Jogging is too generous. Motherfuckers walking. He easily could have tackled Jonah Coleman on that giant. He's walking. He easily could have tackled Jonah Coleman effortlessly. He was not jogging. He was less than that. And I'm like, he's getting 44, $42 million this year. And he costs more than the homes. And so I don't want to put it all on zero. He had zero pressures in that game. He has less. He has a tackle again. And it's look, he's getting double team. It's not like traditional stats or anything, but I he was the bet. He was a top five defensive tackle for seven years. And I don't know. I can't like he could have just tackled Jonah Coleman and they would have won the game. So now it's like all the lack of hustle. It's like a borderline. I don't know. I think it's really, it's like the tuxedos are really fucked up when you can't be good at the other stuff. All of a sudden it's like, what are you going to do? Bench him. Yeah. You probably can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my staff for this game. This is a weird, I have trouble kind of picturing this game. I have no feel for this is, there's a giant spread in this game. It's nine and a half points. This is in Kansas city. The jets going to Kansas city. I guess this is a, I mean, the chiefs are coming off two straight losses. So I guess the idea would be, I think I'm supposed to think that the chiefs will win this game by 20, but for some reason I don't think that. So I think the spread's like almost 10 to Bundo. I think once the jets this week, he thinks the jets can cover. I mean, a good set close. Yeah. Pat Thorman had established the run at a good set. The jets had 15 explosive plays last week, which is the most by any team has had in a game all year. It's against the Raiders, but still the chiefs are lasting sacks. They're not getting pressures on the quarterback. The jets have a good line. Uh, I will say Garrett Wilson's in concussion protocol. I don't think he's going to play this week. So you're in a funny spot where Garrett Wilson and Brees hall were the only skill players they had for a long time. And now both are kind of marginalized because praise Brees hall might come back. Let me tell you, he saw is going to play in this game. It's going to be awkward because Braylon Allen has more rushing yards in his last four games than Brees hall has ever had in four games in a row. And you just gave Brees hall contract extension. And like, it's a weird thing. It's like the NBA, when like a guy comes back and one of those random, like second round picks is actually really good. It needs to start, but like you have to let the old guy come in and you're not supposed to let someone lose their job for hurting for an injury. But, uh, I mean, Braylon, I think the players kind of prefer Braylon Allen. I think jets fans prefer Braylon Allen, which is really weird. Uh, you gave Brees hall 14 million a year. What he's going to be like a change. You pace third down guy like that doesn't really work. Uh, so there's a lot going on here, but it would be interesting to see like Braylon Brees split with Omar Cooper and 80 Mitchell at receiver against the chiefs. And minster Delane's probably going to miss this game as well. I know. I mean, the only thing is like, maybe you can make it a one, two punch. Maybe it's Montgomery and Gibbs and, and Brees hall is kind of like your explosive pass catching guy that mixes in a lot. And they like pretty much split carries. And then Braylon Allen is kind of your bruiser because they're both good players. Like I do think when Brees is healthy, he's still a really good running back. Maybe he's a trade candidate, but I do think, Brees is good. I was going to say the same thing, Craig. It's like in, in some cases you have like the long or the entrenched starter who's just not doing well anymore. And then people want the backup. But in this case, I'm Brees is good. Still. I, a breeze to me still flashes when he's healthy. And so it is going to be an interesting split and figuring out how they do this, uh, or with Garrett Wilson out, does this make Omar Cooper startable again? I'm asking for myself. I think, I think it does. I think it probably does too. Yeah, definitely. I wouldn't be scared off by that. Lately, Garrett Wilson's not going to play like I think the zero targets thing. I wouldn't worry about it. All right. Next game here. Oh my God. The Texans are at the chargers. I can't wait this. If I can only pick one game to watch this this week, it's this one. So this game's in LA Houston playing the chargers. So my one stat is that the Texans have allowed the most explosive past plays in the league. Weird. The Texans defense has been the chargers offensive defenses this year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With expectation versus reality, they have been quite poor. What I will say with that is I'm not buying that. And I think they're going to be great against Justin Herbert. And if you look at Houston struggles this year, defensively, here are the teams they've struggled against Josh Allen week one, they gave up 20 points to Joe Burrow week two. They handled the Colts. They gave up 34 to Dak in the Cowboys. They handled the Titans. They gave up 31 to, to Jacksonville. And then they had the collapse against JJ McCarthy. So I'm kind of like, okay, they played like five of the seven best quarterbacks in the NFL and have not been good. And they've, they've definitely been worse. They're allowing like 24 points a game this year. Last year was 17. Like they're allowing it like a whole nother touchdown more per game this year. But I think the ineptitude of LA is much worse than the ineptitude of Houston's defense. And I'm, I'm not biting at this at all. I almost am concerned. I don't, I don't understand this line for this game's four and a half. And I'm confused because CJ Stroud's playing well. What am I missing? Cause CJ Stroud's playing well. He's got CJ Stroud one interception on the season. Here's my thing. I don't know how often we can say something like this and you guys can disagree, but I think if you take out Justin Herbert, like just the 10 other players in the chargers offense, I think all 10 of the players in the chargers are worse than the player they're going up on a defense. Literally every single player on the Houston, the Texas defense is better than the guy across to them. And I'm, I'm like, I mean that very literally, there's not a single person on the charge is better than the guy across to them. I think that's, I think that's right. Will Anderson had some kind of sassy quotes about Herbert or I don't know. He was, he was sassy. He was hyping him up. Well, Anderson said that Herbert's playing out of his mind. Yeah. Maybe that was like, maybe that was a dig. Maybe he's like, I don't know what's wrong with this guy's brain, but he said he sounded nice. Yeah. I, I actually feel sometimes that when coaches, when players say, they say that it's what the coaches said in the meeting. And I think that was D'Amico Ryan's cutting up cool passes of Herbert. So the Texans defense took the game seriously. Maybe I feel like it's pretty hard to, to not, I really know what's going on right now in LA, but yeah, sure. It's like the time Carlos made that cut up of us tell, talking about how much we like to a D'Amico Ryan's exactly. Tua is awesome. Herbert is out of his mind. Good. He is balling out. Do you guys think the chargers, score a touchdown in this game? Well, they haven't scored one in 27 consecutive possessions, which is the longest streak in the NFL since Mike McDaniel on the dolphins in 2024. Oh, by the way, dolphins fans are not surprised about the Mike McDaniel experience in Los Angeles is from, from what I've seen, it's sparsely on Twitter. Dolphins fans are like, we knew it. We could have told lessons sometimes that when the two dolphins and so badly, and like, the answer is usually, it actually takes everyone to be bad to make it that bad. Yeah. And two, it was worse to suck this bad to what was worse than we thought. But McDaniel was, was actually just also exactly that bad. Yeah. You know, what's funny is on the flip side of, of, of, uh, the ball, the chargers defense has been pretty good. And I feel like the offense has been so terrible. There's no, one's really ever talked about that. Like the least talked about person on the chargers is their defensive coordinator. Chris O'Leary, 34 years old. He was the defensive coordinator at Western Michigan last year, which is, he's the defensive coordinator at Western Michigan last year. I mean, I don't think McDaniel's gonna coach next year if I had to guess, but they've been, I mean, they're seventh in defensive EPA. They're, they're, they're like the fourth best team on third down this year between Seattle and Tampa. Um, they've been good. Like they've played Matt Stafford and Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes this year. And they've kept games tight. Like it kind of threw the first half of the game before the offense is just so bad that they end up losing, but the defense has been good. I agree. So why is this spread four and a half? I I've never, I think it's the, dude, I'm concerned every week. I mean, this, we, every single week we win the chargers ring a one Oh seven bet because Vegas, for some reason is still committing to LA. And I don't know why, but we bet them every week. They're oh, and six and one against the spread. This year, the chargers, I'm we're gonna keep hammering it, ringing that bell until we lose. I agree. I, I really, if you ask me, do the charger score a touchdown? Yes or no. I actually would pick. No, it's been nine quarters. So that's fucking. All right. They Cowboys play the Colts this week. Yeah. Cowboys are unraveling. The Cowboys, the Colts are both unraveling. Yeah. Yeah. this is probably like a good team in a terrible spot versus a team that's like put me out of my goddamn misery this is a good like like i go to a pumpkin patch go apple picking yeah although i will say colts didn't trade jonathan taylor is there a if you asked me to pick a upset no one would see coming this week i'm like would you be shocked at all if jonathan taylor's 230 yards and three touchdowns and the colts are like winning the game with three minutes left no i wouldn't shock me again it goes back to the lack of juice the lack of intensity you see on defense for the cowboys and this was actually my stat if it's it's a perfect segue the cowboys are dead last in opposing rushing yards per game and i think the colts i've seen reports out this week that the colts are waiting until after this weekend and then then they'll think about trading jonathan taylor i don't like that that's kind of a weird strategy because then you risk him getting hurt 30 carries or they're gonna give him like 30 carries again he's rushed for 250 yards and they're gonna be like all right pay up buddy you want this elite as if they didn't know people i don't know what they're i don't know what their blood is flowing look men can only use one one of their heads at a time craig and if the blood gets flowing maybe you know maybe the vikings are gonna i mean the the cowboys just made tyler algier look like jonathan taylor 100 the best game of his career even jonathan taylor could look like jonathan taylor algier had like a hundred he had almost 200 scrimmage yards in in two quarters and two touchdowns last week um they they gave up the cowboys gave up 121 yards and two touchdowns to the to the skeleton crew of the eagles running back group um the running the packers didn't do anything in the run game because they just don't do anything in the run game when they play the when they play the cowboys in week six but in week five the buccaneers rushed for 241 yards and two touchdowns including like 165 from bucky irving so i just think this is a chance to be a big jonathan taylor game assuming they play him a lot assuming he plays um but i think they're this is maybe like sort of a showcase game for jonathan taylor you're so you know what it is you're right it's a that car right trying to sell the tesla and it's like are you gonna do this every week it's like no yeah but look i thought those were fake i watched that like a hundred times not ai craig that shit's real gotta get me one of them would you guys want a flying car i don't know i'm okay i'm fine um no no i'll probably i'll wait for a couple rounds of that to kind of work i can i'll barely get into a waymo craig has to trick me into getting into a waymo yeah i do i i take waymo sparingly you know what i love i love a late night waymo home like a friend's birthday a couple weeks ago we were out late at a bar yeah like a 1 a.m waymo home the teleports put on whatever music you want teleporting time yeah you fucking put on some music windows down teleport home it's great teleporting time oh i don't know if we've talked about this on this show but there was a like a waymo that drove into like a standoff between a gunman and the police somewhere and like starts letting the people out that's the funniest thing ever no waymo go waymo go keep going anywhere but here not a good place to stop uh also uh i'm always a sucker for this last thing cowboys called the the downs brothers are playing each other josh downs or scale yeah okay yeah which uh and they'll actually like be on the field together you know what i mean it's like when the watts are playing it's not really always the case but like like there's a very very high chance i think that caleb downs covers josh downs if he plays if he's in concussion caleb downs is in concussion protocol yeah right sorry i forgot he got dribbled like a dung beetle down the fucking yeah if it's if you were if you and your brother were at the peak of your athletic powers and you were in in a football game together what positions would you both be playing and who would be better in like an nfl game or like a pickup no like well it's a tackle football game but perhaps like middle school football you deserve like recess or the team the t what'd you say the team well like recess is different than like the actual like you're playing high school football whatever oh we were both like offensive linemen who were bad but my brother actually has really good hands my brother would be like a tight end my brother's like really good at catching yeah he's like i can darn out washington so you think if you're playing if you're playing linebacker and he's tight end who wins i think i win i will say we did we used to do we're too we're all too old now but thanksgiving when we would all come home we were on black friday we'd go to our high school we would like to play his friends who are four years older versus my friends and there was a year where we beat the breaks like we beat the breaks on them so it was like remember the lions beat the bears like 50 to 5 yeah are you playing tackle or touch no too in touch but we beat them so bad that we like actually ended the game we never played again they retired they just retired like we actually scored like seven touchdowns in a row and it was bad i looked like earl thomas i had a pick six and i looked so athletic that and it's not actually like that's more like how old they were look it comes from everything's relative they had their chris jones season that year and then they hung it up yeah they have the chris jones season so your brother walking after you as you're running into the end zone hands on the knees limping like mike evans just like oh anyway all right the giants are at the eagles this week man first of all saquon versus the giants how the turntables what is the last time the giants played the eagles and you were like man poor philly well it's probably one of the other two years that the eagles had this exact season happen to them yeah but yeah but while also feeling kind of good about the giants i don't know uh the real answer to that question is oh my god it's it's probably like 2011 because the giants won the super bowl the eagles dream team yeah so yeah 15 years uh my one step for this game is that joe milton's playing quarterback for the eagles in this game and that joe milton ran the same 40 yard dash time as don tavian wicks at the combine wow which was like a four five four six one and i say that because joe milton's four inches taller and 30 pounds heavier and i love him he's like paul bunyan to me he's like josh allen if josh allen had no touch whatsoever he can throw the ball over them their mountains all joe milton does is throw the fastest ball possible is it the he had just as fast balls he did have i think the fat according to like next gen stats whatever he had the fastest throw last year i actually think human like the only people in the nfl that i'm like positive could throw the ball or i think could throw the ball faster or further than joe milton or herbert josh allen and maybe my homes but i actually don't think there's a fourth player that can throw the ball further than joe milton if you've never seen him play for that and that alone i think that that the eagles is worth watching for a drive or two because he's actually he's huge and i just i he he like breaks guys his hands like like it's like anthony richardson remember he throws screens and it would just like go through their hands into their face and leave like a crack in the visor like that anyway i like watching him this will be this will be interesting to watch milton because he coming into the league really raw really inaccurate just a tools guy that's why they drafted him and then having a little bit of experience as a backup i think he especially in the i want to say in the preseason this year he looked pretty polished like he he had improved dramatically he had improved dramatically he had improved dramatically he had improved dramatically from where he was early on like a couple years ago or a year ago so it's that well the last time we saw him play was the end of i think it was a game bill always talks about because he's pissed that they won the game right because week 18 he had 22 of 29 240 yards a touchdown one of the best touchdowns and one of those touchdowns that if my homes did it would freak out it's like he like scrambled to the pocket for seven seconds ran to his left on that was the throw that was the fastest throw of the year yeah and again through the fastest throw of the year after escaping like again he has no touch but i think this is like a kind of a perfect move for the eagles because if joe milton sucks it doesn't matter your tank like he's basically start a tank but if he shows anything over the next month like like he has all the tools that you're like screw it let this guy try um so i i i think it's interesting fantasy it's a disaster like davante smith might be out i think saquon will play which again we'll see how many snaps seven snaps saquon plays but i mean against the giants i'm sure he's motivated duntavian wicks might be out like this eagles it's not set up for success i love it that uh once again saquon did not practice wednesday resumed practicing thursday and he's which is like a day a day earlier than he's typically he usually like practices like saturday only so i i i just they have a bye the week after so maybe that'll help but i just think this is hilarious that he's doing this i mean he's tough as hell but yeah you play saquon i think you have to bench everyone else i guess you play saquon i mean your bank he basically will get you like 38 yards and it's like will he get a touchdown or not which he has the last two weeks he plays he looks good like you have to i don't know very odd the other he's getting like massages every time he leaves the field that's yeah he's doing a different kind he's doing different stuff every time it's always like larry bird like going and just laying down on the sideline during games like it's fucking crazy it is i also think that's why he's not gonna get traded he said that howie roseman told him he won't get traded i don't too hurt he's too hurt i know i literally think that's the answer it's like well why won't the eagles trade saquon would you give up a third rounder for a guy who's left the game no and three weeks in a row in the first half and now how he can look like a real loyal guy you know exactly you coast on the loyalty and in reality it's like no gm wants to trade for saquon and he pulls his hamstring like i'll give you a seventh yeah sixth uh i don't think you're allowed to attach conditions to the hamstring so it's fine the the only other thing from this game i mean you know jg mccarthy i know i've talked about a lot we'll just see how he plays yeah but i want to just note two things one the giants have not played for a long time they've played for a winning team a team with a winning record they're the only team that's true and they won't play a team with a winning record till jacksonville in week 11 oh my god the other one is did you guys see that the giants call uh the the jeffrey simmons thing with the giants yeah so joe shane who's the cuck chair gm in name only can we call him gino guy there's something there um get my no i guess not quite the same anyway joe shane calls the titans gm and says can we have jeffrey simmons and mike borgonzi says no we're not trading him and john harbaugh's like that's bullshit i hear you're going to trade him to your college roommate ryan poles the gm of the bears so john harbaugh's like fuck this your college roommate that's it but that's the thing it's like they just did the deal amongst themselves they didn't tell anyone it's like college roommate you hook him up that's kind of how the seahawks and the colts did the uh quentin nelson trade so all trades it's all like your fantasy league hey you're my buddy let's make a trade it's all like your fantasy league it's like everyone's mad because well you guys were together on friday night and you made this trade and why didn't you tell anyone who's available and it's like literally the nfl's like this too john harbaugh's furious that they're not giving every business is like this every business is like this so jeffrey simmons so he calls the titans owner amy adams drunk and tries to ask her to give him jeffrey simmons and she's like lose my number all the other gms are like you've broken an omerta going over our heads to the owners and um poor poor shane everyone thinks that's funny made me look terrible out here i wanted to ask you guys a different question because i haven't seen anyone talk about this how do you guys feel about the giants trading dexter lawrence in april and then trying to acquire jeffrey simmons in november so aggressively that he called the fucking owner of the team it doesn't look good no it kind of seems like a guy that doesn't really have a plan right to be honest and he's kind of flying by the seat of his pants i i think it's insane i get it's a tenth and the bears you see how this later right i know you could pull up the charts and be like maybe two the bears get the 27th pick and the 27th pick and the 10th pick whatever but like i can't believe that they're trying to trade for a giant defense like it's so stupid they're like if only we had an awesome defensive tackle in the middle played all the snaps and had to be double teamed on every play what the fuck that's all i just feel like i'm taking crazy pills i like when you get worked up about the giants it's great just am i sir am i overreacting or like that's insane it's gaslighting yeah it is the worst thing you can have is like inconsistency like when there's no approach that you can like stick to when you don't know what they're doing right it's it's like you know jerry jones they took the micro picks and they kind of gave him for quinn and williams it's like if that but it was another defensive end yeah it's like if they traded for a different guy and i'm like well you just whatever dexter lawrence is younger too i think yeah he is whatever man so because my first i was like well maybe they're just trying to get younger nope he's younger might be a personality thing i don't know this episode is brought to you by chevrolet chevy drivers need a truck that shows up the same way they do that's why chevy silverado is number one in manufacturer loyalty so they can go where others won't make their own way there and always get it done and as long as chevy people keep showing up we'll keep building trucks that do the same chevrolet together let's drive visit chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease symptoms don't pause for the moments that matter that's why understanding your treatment options matters discover what's possible with trimphia guselka map trimphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis serious allergic reactions increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them and liver problems may occur before treatment get checked for infections and tuberculosis tell your doctor if you have an infection flu-like symptoms or need a vaccine talk to your doctor and explore what's possible or call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more about trimphia and visit trimphiaradio.com next game is the rams are at washington this week yeah this is another game i have i kind of have no feel for this game's in washington my one stat is that the rams are fourth in the nfl in rushing since davante adams got hurt um you know i think there's also you could probably say that this couples with matt stafford's arm soreness stuff the last few weeks he's always got his arm wrapped in ice now i mean this team's just so old um but but yeah the rams are just like a full running there's like a freight train running the ball now blake quorum has been the number 13 running back in fantasy over the last month um and there's just a different team that stafford is is averaging five air yards per pass over the last four games which is like half of what he was over the first four they've just they're just a completely different team in the way they run their offense and i think it's for a kind of a multitude of reasons but um yeah and they're going up against washington where i'm just like i i i guess the inclination is you'd pick the rams in this game because the rams are i mean they're four and four this team can't lose a lot many more games in this division right um miles garrett's practicing but but yeah i don't know what what does your guys feel like do you think there's any chance this is like a west coast to east coast weird upset game like i mean washington beats seattle right with freaking mariota i gotta tell you after the way sunny styles has blown up some running backs in pass protection this year i will say i don't think the rams are going to blow this game i kind of think they'll win by 20 but i i kind of think if matt stafford takes one huge shot in the first quarter i i really i i wouldn't be shocked if washington actually pulls an upset here yeah i mean also uh jalen watts in the corner on the rams is having shoulder surgery ending his season trent mcduffie's not practicing i don't you mean because it's like you want to just be like the rams are going to dominate why is it only four and a half points i get it west coast east washington's home whatever but i'm like the rams are better but i again lost in the chargers pathetic loss was the rams did not get a first down on their first five drives last week versus the chargers yeah uh the commander's defense is different but washington i don't like hearing about stafford's elbow being sore washington has the eighth ranked defensive rush unit according to dvoa i will say though the reason i think the rams will win and cover washington's defensive lines kind of destroyed so they've lost to ron payne and javon kinlaw this week and like those are two pretty you know kinlaw is more of like a pass rushing defensive tackle those are two big men to lose before the rams have big guards and i there is like just this huge size that washington got large and they're not going to be able to win larger as a team with eagles washington like when the eagles bullied them in 2024 in the nfc championship game and it was like 40 to 10 whatever the score that game was and they got so dominated by the eagles aligned washington got larger all the big people are hurt like they don't have any of those guys that are so they're just kind of like i don't know i kind of think that the size disadvantage that washington has in the interior the rams will to craig's point run all over them and it might be the rams might actually have better running day than you even think yeah i think you could probably consider playing quorum yeah oh i think quorum's quorum's been great i think quorum has more fantasy points than kyra in the last few weeks i think i would definitely play quorum rb13 over the last month yeah i think quorum's a super super solid start going forward uh they're also carrying two kickers because they're just like fuck it uh the next game is the lions are at the miami dolphins my one stat is the dolphins are tied for the fewest sacks they're 31st in pfs coverage grades they're last in points per drive they're fourth to last in the mp per play every stat it's like a lot of them are going to be like lions good dolphins bad i the line in this game is seven points i know the lines defense is bad but like i kind of think the lions are going to score 40 yeah weather in miami 80 degrees and sunny it's not going to be a monsoon they can't tackle either the dolphins their tackling is very poor for miami and the lions famously can break tackles i i i think this is one of those that everyone scores a touchdown what about ollie gordon in this game um sure I think you can start him i'm starting him in uh bangkok craig is is rolling him out there for what yeah there's gonna be a lot of points a lot of offense in this game also we have to give an update on jack campbell the linebacker so he released a statement jack campbell wrote from his twitter he says my family and i want to sincerely thank everyone for the overwhelming amount of love prayers and support we've received over the past few days it means more to us than words can express i'm incredibly encouraged by the progress i've made in such a short period of time i'm i have full movement in my lower body and i'm continuing to make progress with movement in my upper body i know there's still work ahead but i remain very optimistic i'm taking things one day at a time staying positive focusing on getting better he then thanks a bunch of people i'm not going to read them all but it's like team hospital staff doc just he thanks everyone involved with everything and he says please continue to give keep me and my family in your prayers we feel the love i can't thank everyone enough god's good my faith is strong so yeah it's but the scary is a scary situation but overall a positive development yeah great news that he has full movement in his lower body weird i feel like it's you don't you don't often hear about having movement in your lower body and not your upper body i feel like that's kind of unique i won't pretend to understand it yeah i it's sad how much it meant to me like not having the updates i'm like every time i'm like can i please just hear his movement his lower body like i don't know it almost made me ashamed how much i wanted to know that yeah hopefully he continues to progress yeah shitty situation all right no transition from that next game's the browns are at the saints yeah this one is looking like shitter sanders is going to get his start here in this game deshaun watson a late addition to the concussion protocol i believe he uh reported symptoms on tuesday and was placed in the protocol so it seems unlikely that he's going to be able to play um and shitter wasted very little time in giving the opposing team some bulletin board material immediately upon being interviewed uh i don't know what exactly the question was it was basically like have you seen what what have you seen from the saints defense this year we have the clip from cam yeah what have you seen on tape up from the saints defense and then shitter said this um yeah i've seen a lot when i smile just know that means something i'm maturing you don't say i'm maturing like i could have gave that you know a decent answer but now i'm just gonna smile whenever it's just like some questions you know how about this you're not maturing that's not a mature answer i would argue that's not showing mature no what you should have said is they're a great team they do a lot of good things you name a couple players who are good and then you plan out of their mind right now could have said in fact hey how about you don't just like obviously insult the team you're playing right um anyway where he's like also something about when i'm smiling just know i'm thinking something i'm not saying it i'm just i'm thinking it so it's like brother you never play like what are we like you're acting like you're pate manning out here yeah i noticed some things i'm like you're never on the field so it's like bolt bold move from a guy who threw seven touchdowns to 10 picks last year as a fifth round rookie yeah however i he's right i mean he's kind of right okay well here's the point he also he is literally i mean he's maturing because if you think about it he's saying in the past i would have been like i'm not maturing i'm not maturing i'm not maturing i'm not maturing like they suck their ass sure now i'm like i'm just all and you know it's all it's a scale it's it's on a he it's all relative i suppose it's better than the worst thing that you could have said i'm maturing as i openly disrespect should we should we rename it the shador sanders debutant ball award because he's maturing it's basically jsn asking are we live like we know hey we know what you mean we know what you're doing they're also you know what the saints they're nice people that was like the biggest joke we made that year jsa that has a that's even funnier now than it was then because now he's like the best fucking receiver in league seriously didn't give him the ball uh all that being said here's my stat the saints are the dead they are the dead last team in pressure rate this year 28 not coincidentally they are 29th and points allowed per game almost 28 points per game and their 30th and defensive dv away this season so they are a they are a very bad defense but they're gonna have a lot of uh reasons to be excited to hit shudder sanders this week so on that note so the defensive coordinator for the saints is brandon staley and i think next year we need to do a thing where adam levitan does this uh and i'm i we've talked about it on the show i know levitan does this and we need to do this too but we we need to go out we need a map we're all like we need trackers on all these coaches that we hate and don't respect and where they work and like it would really inform us to remember that brandon staley is the coordinator for the saints like kevin petullo's on the dolphins adam like if we had known you're like put him on a no-fly list yeah the no-fly list adam gaze is number two to mike mcdaniel and the chargers we all would have just paused shane waldron though jacksonville yes exactly but like we need to just know like we need i just feel like we we we need to keep track of these guys that's all would you guys would you guys even consider starting like the saints defense and fantasy going up against your door i i would i would do it the style is insane he runs backwards as does the sean there's two quarterbacks that just run straight backwards at a shotgun the brand's coming off a bye this game's in new orleans yeah but yeah i mean she do her yeah it's honestly if sack yardage counted which it should i would start anyone against your door who was the guy that got benched last week for doing this and i'm totally blanking it was a running back oh it was jenty they don't want to tackle you know oh my god you're like we can't bench you we just it's just concussed the sean out there um todd monken's probably like i don't give a fuck i kind of like it all right ringer 107 today's ringer 107 is brought to you by fanduel texans versus the chargers automatic right yes we're gonna keep riding that gravy train oh absolutely how do you guys feel about the lions giving seven i know that miami's playing better i know that blah blah but i just think the lions it's going to be an avalanche of points and i kind of don't want to overthink it just feels like every time every time teams go down to miami shit gets weird we saw it with new england last week that's why i didn't want to bet them i think the miami thing is because in september it's really hot and then after that the players get cooped up and they want to party in miami i really do think that's the answer okay um i don't hate the miami one but let's see or sorry detroit one but let's see what else we got bears bucks yeah i i would like to bet chicago okay okay so that's two i here are the teams i wrote down for teaser candidate well how do we feel about the rams game are we out because of the stafford thing with the elbow yeah i'm a little nervous about that game okay so the teams that i wrote down is like a teaser knocking six points off this number the chiefs giving nine and a half's a lot three and a half's good the 49ers giving nine and a half to the raiders is a lot three and a half makes me feel fine the lions dolphins over is 50 you can knock that down to 44 the chargers texans over is 40 you could knock that down to 34 i think the texans might score 34 points in this game so those are all in my head you know what about knocking seattle down to two and a half getting that under the three i don't i kind of hate that drew luck's elbows hurt i when did you look i thought he was healthy i'm like i would just bait the seahawks straight up but so what are you saying you're saying what what i don't know you would you don't want to tease him you'd rather them straight up or you don't like anything when i thought drew lock was healthy i was like i'll just bet him straight but oh drew lock's elbow being hurt i'm like do you i have confidence an hour ago we were texting and you were like i like the seahawks straight up now you don't the seahawks defense against gardner minshu i kind of i kind of i i think the seahawks defense against gardner minshu i think the seahawks defense is going to fucking murder gardner minshu okay so why don't we just take the seahawks then well yeah well i don't mind a teaser so if of all these what what about kc kc in san francisco let's tease them with kansas city or something like that okay but what but don't you want to do the teaser at the end once we pick the other four i feel like we should have the most confident bets well no i know that i don't want seattle minus eight and a half and kc minus nine and a half but if i tease them together we're good okay i wouldn't take those straight up so seattle minus two and a half and kc minus three and a half is the teaser how do you guys feel about bronco broncos minus two and a half on the road carolina what about saints minus three at home for shador whoa i'm into it i don't i wouldn't say i want to put a ton of faith in the saints at this point i'm into it um home coming up why we chuck shucks back his fingers feel good betting against sure and shooter is like well he's you're going to bet against the maturing shadura sanders bold his mouth has matured but has his arm would you guys really rather bet against the saints than bet on the saints than the lions uh let's do both and then we're done with this game including the rams four and a half what if staff was just fine i don't want that who are we doing with the teaser kc and seattle yeah okay and we're doing the lines minus seven uh-huh yeah what's the fourth one saints doing oh okay all right i guess rooting against your door is fun also fanon cropped up on the injury report today the end of boston's banged up favorite target last year ends up boston all right so we're taking texans bears lions saints and they were teasing the seahawks and chiefs okay all right today's ringer 107 is brought to you by fan it'll make this your most rewarding season download the fandom app to check out all our 107 picks and boosted teaser every week this season okay last thing i want to hit here you know midterms happen you know we don't always hit politics on this show but we do have to talk about something very important to you guys so this new hampshire senator uh who won his name chris papas so chris papas's family owns a restaurant like an old family restaurant generational restaurant in new hampshire called the puritan backroom and chris papas's family at this restaurant claims to have invented the chicken tender okay i'm gonna need a little more like they claim they invented the chicken tender in 1974 1974 that's the first thing i said so i immediately they didn't have chicken tenders at a drive-in in 1955 first thing i thought so i texted my parents and i'm like do you guys remember having chicken tenders as kids like do you remember when did chicken tenders become a thing because this is a one restaurant new hampshire in 74. It would have taken until the 80s to make it a thing. So I'm like, when did Chicken. Email us. When did chicken tenders become a thing? Well, I mean, a chicken tender is just fried chicken in strip form. Like, it's not like, you know, fried chicken's been around, so. It's not nuggets to my knowledge. It's just tenders. Also, they claim they sell as many as five tons of chicken tenders a week. Five tons? That's a ton. 2,000 pounds. That would be 10,000 pounds. That can't possibly be right. So maybe they're lying about that, too. Also, if anyone in restaurants is listening to this and be like, that's wrong, then maybe they're lying about the tenders, too. But they claim they invented, it's very, they. The Puritan back, the Puritan back room kind of sounds like a strip club. It does. It does. Wow. You know, the Wikipedia page for chicken tenders does, does cite the Puritan back room as its inventor. Someone, please, who's one of our, like, listeners old enough to remember this, please tell us when you remember encountering chicken tenders. I would be shocked. It doesn't make sense. I would be shocked if it was 1974. This does say here, other restaurants in Savannah, Georgia, Baton Rouge have channels. This claims with later assertions to the invention of chicken tenders. Come on. Strips of chicken battered and fried. 1974. I'm not buying it. I don't. It feels impossible. Anyway, that's it. When was the chicken nugget invented? I don't. I should. Oh, I don't know. That's not really chicken, though. Well, it's supposed to be. Just kidding. 1963. Wikipedia says developed in the 1950s by finding a way to make a coating adhered to chicken nuggets. I don't know. So you're telling me it took 20 years to get from the idea of a chicken nugget to a chicken nugget? Progress is not linear, man. You know the wire when they're just like, hey, Mr. Nugget? 20 years? You guys remember dino nuggets? I used to love those. Oh, yeah. So when I have a house party, I'll buy dino nuggets. And for the people who stay late enough, I'll actually just pass out dino nuggets for people who stay. It's like you're hosting a wedding. Yeah. That's nice. Just doing late night snacks. Yeah. We did late night snacks at my wedding. Do you remember burgers and fries? Little sliders. Sliders and fries. Sliders. The late night food at weddings is clutch. I know. I feel like that's, I don't know if that's a newer thing, but I feel like we went to a couple of weddings where it was like at 11 p.m. Late night snacks come out and it's just great. I'm a big cookie guy. Or Heifetz at his wedding had a fuck ton of cookies. Yeah. Like a whole cookie bar. Yeah. We did no cake. Pittsburgh has this tradition called a cookie table, which is like everyone, like all the. It's my dream. Yeah. Everyone just bakes cookies and brings cookies. Cookies are the best. Yeah. DK. Yeah. I love going to dinner with DK. I do. Would you guys be interested in dessert this evening? Yes, please. Sometimes though, he won't say it. He'll just pause and make eyes at us. And he wants like me to tell the waitress that he wants the dessert. We'll look at the menu. Yeah. Have you ever seen me not order dessert? Meanwhile, we're like, look at the cheesecakes. You're actually like, I'm afraid to order it. I'll fucking do it. The cheesecakes, the souffle, the cookies. I'll fucking do it again. Yeah. Pick at it. We'll pick at it. I have. No shame ordering dessert. I went to a restaurant in LA when I was by myself and I ordered like chocolate cake at dessert and ate it by myself. Where are you guys at with eating alone at a restaurant? You do it or do you not? I can do it. I don't particularly like doing it. I can do it. Yeah. I know you can. I mean, I'm willing to go to a restaurant by myself, but I don't like it. Like, let's say, like if you literally are like on the road and you're in between places you need to eat, that's one thing. Yeah. But are you- Are you like, do you kind of not mind just going to a restaurant and ordering some food if you have time and you're alone? I don't like it. No, I can't say I do that. Like, well, what do you mean by restaurant? Because like maybe you at, but to your point, it's like if you're traveling- You're talking like Puritan back rooms here or are we talking the sit down nice restaurant? I can't say that like- What is that place called? Le Diplomat? Like, would you ever just go there alone? No. I think that, you know, maybe like there are probably times where like maybe you like, oh, I want to go watch this game at a bar. Sometimes Jackie's. Jackie's out of town. And like, you know, if I, if I can't rustle up anyone to watch it, maybe I'll sit at the bar and have chicken wings and watch a game on TV or something. Yeah. But like, I feel like that doesn't, then you're just, you're doing the Joe Flacco, right? Where you're kind of like, I actually, you know, this sounds great. I did that recently when I was in Toronto for the Toronto Film Festival. I was like, Matt was doing something and I kind of just like needed to, I think it was the Thursday night game I was watching. It was like Seattle or the Rams. Can't remember. And I went to a bar, just sat alone, ordered a burger and a beer and watched the game. It was kind of nice, but that's very different. Being at a bar though, table is different than sitting at a bar, it just is. People are like, is someone else coming? Are you? It's like forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's like, do you want a magazine? Do you want a book or something? Right. Yeah. It is one of those things that's funny because I think, I don't think I've ever noticed in a restaurant if someone's eating alone, but then when you're eating alone, you're like, everyone's looking at me. Well, it's funny. I mean, it's so much easier now. I mean, like you could just have your phone, you could pop in an AirPod if you wanted to and just look at your phone and it's technically fine. Dude, you know, 20, 30, 40 years ago, you go to a restaurant, eat alone. You're just, you're just chewing your food and looking around. So can I ask you a stupid question? Why is it so, if you're in a restaurant and you're at a table and you were not having conversations with people, it'd be really weird, right? It'd be really weird. If you're sitting alone? But if you're sitting alone and you are on FaceTime and you're having a conversation on the phone, that's like really rude. Why? Wait, what? What's the question? Like, if you're on the phone in public or like at a restaurant, like that's rude. Or on a train or in public transportation, you're on the phone. Was it there? It's really rude. There was a computer enthusiasm thing about this where a woman next to him is on FaceTime and he's pissed. It's an interesting point because you're right. If two people are at dinner and they're chatting, that's fine, obviously. But if you're alone at dinner and you're chatting with somebody via FaceTime, that's seen as rude, even though it's still just two people talking. It's literally the community is like, what do you care? I think it's two things. One, and neither of these are great arguments, but I think if Larry David were here, he would say restaurants are about in-person experiences and it's about being there with people and respecting and honoring like the sanctity of what a restaurant is all about is one. And two, I would say is when you're FaceTiming with people, you tend to be loud. When you're on the phone, you just tend to be loud. Because the phone's really loud. You're kind of just like yelling and it's like the speakers are too loud. I'm not saying I would do it, but I. I don't actually. I couldn't explain it to someone else, if that makes sense. If we just start allowing people at restaurants to just be FaceTiming people all the time, humanity will crumble. We can't have that. I can't be in a restaurant and half of it is filled with just people on FaceTime. The last bastion of face-to-face interaction. Yeah, and to be clear, I'm not endorsing this. I'm just saying I'm like a cop where it's like you have to, you know, some kid's underage drinking and you're arresting them and you're like, why can I go to war and like. not drink? And you're like, I don't know. But like, I don't know, man, I can't. It's just the rules. Why can't I go. Yeah. What could you do what a normal teenager does and go to war? Smoke a cigarette. All right. Thank you, DK. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, Nikhil. Thank you, Austin. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Email us stupid court cases. Email us fantasy court. Email us trivia questions. Thank you, Lorne. Lorne! Lorne! Songs you irrationally hate. Last two have been Heifetz, Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison. Crazy. Brown Eyed Girl. Have I ever been more vindicated than us finding the Van Morrison quote where he says, I have 300 songs better than that song? Yeah. Look, I looked into it and the real reason is because Van Morrison was like, wanted to be indie and I think he was upset at how popular Brown Eyed Girl got and he wanted to be seen as like a jazz indie musician and didn't want to be famous. So I think he's just kind of annoyed that it became so popular and he was forced to sing it everywhere he went for the next three years. I think that's why Heifetz hates it too. Okay, sorry. What's it called again this month? Oh, irrational. Got it. No, no. I'll tell you why Van Morrison I think hates this song. Also, you just went from wanting to be vindicated to saying it's irrational. Correct. Choose one. You can have both. Choose one, pal. I dare you to find one where an artist actually says, I agree with you, that song is not in my top 300. DK makes a great point. So you're saying it's rational to hate it or it's not? Van Morrison also- Which one is it? Irrationally- Here's the deal. I can win either way. Answer the question, pal. Do you think it's rational or irrational? I think it's irrational hatred, but Van Morrison also irrationally hates the song. Why is it irrational? Because he's just trying to feel differently about it. I don't know. Because the song's good. I don't know. He's trying to be indie or whatever. The song that I irrationally hate is the song You're Beautiful by James Blunt. Beautiful. I despise that stupid song and that horrible, awful chorus. This one is kind of just rational, I feel like. Oh, is it? Yeah. It's a really popular song. It has over a billion streams. It is very. That's true. That's very true. You're beautiful. Awful. It's a very smarmy way of singing. You're beautiful. It makes me- You know when she goes, "Bring out the fembots," and then Dr. Evil kind of winces? That's me every time. Bring out the fembots. You're beautiful. I'm like, "Ooh, whoo. Get that off. Turn that off." It's like nails on a chalkboard. Can't stand it. Yeah. I agree with that one, Craig. I'm on board with this one. Maybe it's not. It's just a universally hated song. It's so popular. I think a lot of people probably love it, but I think a lot of people also hate it. It ends up on the Starbucks playlist, and it's played in chain stores, and then it's like people are actually like, "Fuck this thing." I know. I have such a bone to pick. I care so much about what bars and restaurants and stores, department stores or whatever, play on their speakers. I care so much about it, and I think it changes the entire experience of being inside the establishment. Like, I think so many restaurants get their playlist wrong or the music's too loud or it's too quiet same with bars same with like wanting to rip your ears out when you're at a target when the music's terrible i just like i care so much you can completely change the the feeling of being in one of these places by the correct playlist at the correct volume nobody cares this is our next business we should be sound consultants for uh public facing businesses dude there's like a there's a there's a bagel shop in a coffee place where i walk to in the morning where i where i live and like randomly it's like 7 45 a.m and they're just like blasting edm don't do that it's a coffee shop totally know what you did sometimes there are like dinner places that open at like 11 for lunch but they're kind of playing the dinner thing you know yeah i i yeah it's it just it's all part of the friction yeah i also think there are certain bars where loud music is is the proper choice but i think there are other bars that are more conversation skewing and the bar is better when you can hear each other we need a sound system for bars like in restaurants like when you have a restaurant the thing you can't find on google or whatever we need a we need a one to five star rating not for quality but for sound yeah where it's like would you bring your grandparents here who have difficulty hearing which i need very quiet or would you be like hey this is dark and really loud and like there's certain table if you have a table of like six or eight people certain times it's so loud that you can hear the two people left or right of you or across but diagonally you can hear the two people so you can hear the two people right of you or across but you can hear the two people nothing nothing escapes the diagonal yeah and like that needs to be like a four out of five five out of five is like you need to lean into someone's ear to talk to them yes like there are certain sports bars where the music's just blasting and i'm like yeah no i want to i want to hear the ambience of the chatter in this bar and that's all i need i don't need loud music the number one thing i need in a sports bar so i love shout out muni in dc the reason i like number one thing you need sports bar obviously other than like drinks and like you know tv prices deals whatever it's like yeah i want to see a tv from anywhere in the bar but i want the sound of the broadcast like if you have the world cup on but i can't hear when they're saying goal or i want to hear chris collins with the study of football like yeah i think that's essential to a sports bar i don't need you blasting bruno mars when i'm in a bar trying to watch a game or like swedish house yeah i don't need that don't let swedish i mean come on there i don't talk look time and place there are there are moments where i adore swedish house mafia but not the moments do you guys ever go to a restaurant and take a moment to just listen for a second and realize how loud it is with everyone in their silverware and stuff it's kind of crazy i have to say the only time i noticed that is when i am taking my parents out to dinner in los angeles yeah and then i'm like holy we're at a random town so loud it's loud just like the silverware clanking the plates it's just crazy how loud it gets there's really nothing quite like taking your parents who don't live in a big city out to dinner in a big city yes and just the the immediate self-consciousness you feel the second you do anything how long the traffic is trying to park parking the valet how loud the restaurant is it's it's just a mess the chairs yeah it's horrible where's where's my dad gonna sit it's like the worst i'm like you know what i'll cook i'll cook we'll stay in i want yeah should that be an email there's something there like doing stuff with your parents or taking them out to dinner i don't know what it is you know they don't want to go on the freeway and they think it's too crowded on the freeway freeway why is nobody driving this car goodbye everyone 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus and present in DC or Wyoming gambling problem. 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