Brock Bowers OUT(!), Plus One Stat for Every Game in Week 1

0:00Welcome to the Ring of Fantasy football show. My name is Danny Hyffitz and I'm joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Coralbeck and today we are going over week one of the interval season because we're here. It's already been played. Craig, seasons here. Seasons here. I can't believe that the Seahawks won by 100 points. That's a record. That's amazing. No, we are going to be reacting to the Seahawks Patriots game but we're going to be doing that on the Bill Simmons podcast live after the game which is like you'll have already, this is in the future. So if you want to hear us recap that game, you'll have to go to the Bill Simmons podcast feed. You probably already knew that but just letting you know. We're like Kyle Shanhand. This is usually going to be our Friday episode but this week it's on Thursday and then

1:00we're reacting to the season opener that's usually on Thursday but they did that on Wednesday. But yeah. So our reaction to Seahawks Patriots is on Bill's show and that is probably now wherever you're listening but we're also going to have reaction to the Niners Rams Australia game. Maybe it's going to be a Fiasco. We'll see. That will be up on Friday and we'll make our Ring or 107 picks on that one as well. What's so funny about Australia? Fiasco. Fiasco Fiasco. Well the way I said Fiasco is a Fiasco. It's not English. It's fine. Anyway, we're going to go through and this is going to be our Friday preview for the season and we're going to be spending a little bit on it this year, right? Correct? Yeah. The way we want to approach this year's preview show is we're going to give one stat for every game. Each of us are going to provide one stat for every game that kind of stood out to us. This is our way into the game. Something that peaked our interest. So we're going to go through every single game, every single game but through the lens of the kind of the one stat, the one fact, the one notable thing that jumped out to us. And we're probably going to start a little unconventionally here because we're going to

2:02start with the Raiders Dolphins game. Isn't that right? We are. But first, we're going to throw it a quick, conveniently timed advertisement. Oh, that's right. Okay. Yeah. Break. Boom. 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 for 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 switched to Verizon, $30 per line includes auto pay and switch discount. Double taxes, fees and terms apply. All right. We're back from an incredibly well, conveniently timed advertisement. That was so smooth. Man. That's why we're pros. Love when a plan comes together. Yeah. Danny Kelly. Yo. The game. Everyone's waiting for Miami Dolphins at Las Vegas Raiders.

3:05We've only had nine months to this game. What's your worries for leading with this? Well, I was going to have a very interesting stat, which was the dolphins are starting to rookie receivers, but something bigger happened in, you know, like right before the show started recording, which is Brock Bowers superstar sexual football robot Brock Bower. I added a sexual part. Sexual football robot from heaven Brock Bowers is going to miss one or two games within MCL. They clipped his MCL. I don't really know what that means. They called it a trim. Which is like, it's not a hair cut. It is a meniscus trim, not an MCL. Oh, my man. That's a trim. That's apparently apparent. No, apparently this is a. Not the worst thing ever, but he is going to miss two games. And so that's coming, you know, mere minutes or hours after Clint Kubiak win in front of the press and said everybody's expected to play. So I don't know what happened in that timeframe, but he is now supposed to miss two weeks. Michael Mayera, I guess, is going to take over. He's a good player, but obviously Brock Bowers superstar fantasy player.

4:08Get him out of your lineup. That's not you. This is not just on dramatic, but this is like a legitimate disaster, I think. It's a catastrophe to start the season. I can't believe this happened. There was one clip. I don't know if you guys remember that went around two or three weeks ago, Brock kind of like limping a little bit on one knee and everyone was like, what was that? And he like caught a tag later. So it was like, I have fine. He had some tape on his knee. I will say though, there's the dramatic side like the season's already over. I can't believe I spent twice as much on Brock Bowers as I did. Tramik Bryant. A lot of people did that. But also, I have a little bit of, I know we don't like to, you know, the Twitter doctors you never know who's right, who's wrong. My friend Jackson has had a lot of knee issues in his life. And he, I like this going to patients. Yeah, and he texted us, my group chat, this is my high school fantasy league. He said, Maniscus trims are generally like three days and you're fine. If you are sowing it up, then it's like six to eight months. And I said, I didn't know you had one of these. I've had three.

5:08He said three Maniscus trims and he said three days and you're good to go. So maybe they're just being cautious with Brock. He's going to be out for two games and then everything will be fine. Hmm. Well, that's, that is encouraging. Yeah, the, what I saw from the Twitter docs is, it's not, it's certainly like best case in terms of a knee injury. It's not going to be a huge deal. He should be out there soon. But for week one, especially if you spent big on him, second round pick, maybe even a late first round pick, this is pretty devastating news, especially it's just so random. It came out of the blue. It's a kick in the balls. It happens on Tuesday. Like, why did they just did it? All right, they didn't know what did something happen. It's like, he got what's happened camp. What is that? That's the problem. And that one, one, what a kick in the balls to ensure that this information comes out after literally everyone's drafted their fantasy teams. But also it's bad because they waited this long and were clearly hoping it would just feel better over time. And then it didn't either that or there was a setback of some kind. Either way, it's bad that he needs a, a Maniscus trim for either he had a Maniscus injury or something that they did not, his Maniscus did not respond in the way they were hoping.

6:12Either way, it's bad and no offense to your friend Jackson. But if he's already, I talk about being out one week or two weeks, then it's clearly not three days. This sucks. Well, that's a professional act. And I'm pretty much like, I've been plugging Brock Bauer's like an idiot. This is a professional athlete whose, whose season long health is of the utmost important. So perhaps for somebody who's not in the NFL three days, you could probably go about your day. Perhaps with him, they're being a little bit more cautious, understandably. So do you guys. I'm going to get the video. So Jeremiah love delivering pizzas to the team plane. And like it turns out that that's not the same thing as playing running back. Right. Do you guys think that Michael Mayer is worth a little grab for this game? He won a Michael mayor of the back. Again, he was a highly pick guy at a Notre Dame second round for the Raiders. Michael mayor won a lot of people fantasy championships last year because I don't think Brock Bauer's played in week 17. I think Michael mayor had like a hundred yards or something. I forget off the tone. But yeah, it's, he is, I mean, it's weird because you don't need a stopgap tied in a week one, but I absolutely think if you're tight and sucks in the making. Yeah.

7:12Michael has always been a guy who I thought is better than his, his, his, his like fantasy performance. He's like totally how much he gets the ball, how much he gets, then he gets credit for. I mean, he was like borderline. A first round pick. He was the 35th overall pick like three or four years ago. And he was a guy. I think, and I was a guy that people start was like going to be a thing for the Raiders and then Brock Bauer's came in. Everyone's like never mind. But I do think Michael mayor is talented. It's weird because this is the only week I'll season where you don't need a tight end streamer. That's right. Honestly, the answer is actually probably if you drafted George Kettle because he'll probably be on a snap count. And even though you're like, oh, he'll play. George Kettle's probably not going to play like more than 30 or 40 snaps this week. So if you kind of have Kettle and don't have a tight end, that's probably the answer is I would add Michael mayor. But the other, I do want to just mention what I'm talking about injuries and come back. The dolphins starting these two rookie receivers. The fact Chris Bell, who was a first round receiver prospect to then tore his ACL at Louisville in December, like mid December is now starting for the dolphins in week one. I cannot immediately remember any kind of prospect who tore the ACL basically at the end

8:16of the college football season. He missed almost the entire off season program too in terms of being on the field and practicing. He was just activated like a week or two ago. It's very simple. It's kind of crazy. We love Chris Bell. He's like an A.G. But D.K., this is kind of reckless. I mean, look, this is the tank job. This is the implication of this is the dolphins are bad. Like that is the bottom line. There's this almost never happens. By the way, I actually, when I was looking into this, there's been like three or four examples in the last like 20 years where an NFL team in week one, week one importantly, the first week of the season before like shit goes to hell and you start like trotting out younger guys just to get an experience like week one. Everyone's still trying to win theoretically. It almost never happens that as teams starts to rookie receivers. There's two teams that are going to do that, I think, this week. It's the Browns and the Dolphins because the Browns are starting KC Concepts Yone and I think they'll start Denzel Boss and they may not end up doing it. You might come in later, but whatever. I think it's just the state of these two teams, the Browns and the Dolphins, but the Dolphins

9:18in particular, this poor bastard, Blake Willis, signing on and getting his real shot here and then they're starting two rookie receivers in week one. Chris Bell and Caleb Douglas. Caleb Douglas was the guy who everyone was like, who? When he was picked in the third round. He has stood out in the preseason and OTAs and practices and training came in everything. So I think there's optimism there, but yeah, this is a sign that this Dolphins team is certainly not ready to compete. I'm very worried about what they'll do. I'm worried about H&N. I'm worried about Willis to an extent, although I think his running will prop him up enough to make him be a fantasy factor. But yeah, I don't know. First of all, who do you guys think is going to win this game? This is one hell of a game right here. Dolphins Raiders. The line did move to three after Brock Bowers was declared out. I'll be picking the Raiders, I think. I will be picking the Raiders as well. And I think we should pick them and ringer 107. It's a whole, they're starting to rookie receivers thing and that's, we can't even find this time that happened. Okay. I want to get to the rest of the early games here.

10:19So again, early, as we have argued about often, one PM Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific, noon central. We're going to call them the early games. First up here, DK, we have the Baltimore Ravens are at the Indianapolis Colts. Yeah. My one stat for this game is Lamar's career under center snap rate is 14%. 14.7%. That is for his career. Now, last year it was up to 33%. The last two seasons is actually jumped pretty dramatically. So, you know, not just, not crazy, crazy low anymore. It was like 33% last year, it was like 25th year before that. But I think it's important to note that based on kind of what we're hearing, some of the stuff we saw on preseason and training camp and everything, I think the Ravens are going to be much more under center, play action heavy. That's just kind of the way that I think Declan Doyle, the new OC for the Ravens learned it under Ben Johnson. Last year, Ben Johnson ran under center stuff 48% of the time. It's almost half of the snaps. And then under the, when he was the OC of the Lions, he led the NFL in under center

11:20snaps. And that is, you know, Declan Doyle is coming from that world. So I just think it's going to be fascinating to watch this Ravens offense. What kind of offense they look like, how they changed from last year. Is it a bunch more under center? How does Lamar look in that? To me, that's endless, endlessly fascinating. And it's going to be one thing I'm watching early on. I thought people were not lukewarm on the Ravens, but I didn't think that they would be among the most selected teams to win the Super Bowl or be in the Super Bowl until I feel like everyone in the last few days has been giving their Super Bowl picks. The Ravens are much more popular selection than I thought. How have you picked them to win, right? I had them in the Super Bowl. I have the Rams because fuck it, even though Super Bowl teams never win in the quarter back to 38, but I kind of was like, screw it. They're really good. Yeah, I guess I was just a little bit surprised that everybody was kind of all aboard this, this Ravens Jesse Mentor, Declan Doyle, Ben wagon in your one. There's a lot of moving parts here. We don't know anything about Declan Doyle. We don't know anything about Jesse Mentor. I mean, he's a good defensive coordinator. How is he going to do that? We don't know more about Jesse Mentor than Declan Doyle, but he's a first time head coach,

12:21though. As a head coach, as a head coach, Jesse Mentor's first time in coach, but he's been calling defenses for quite a while. Deweyle, it's like, who knows when you're not calling plays, it's hard to know what assistant offensive coaches are doing. Totally. And then obviously, the whole Islamar cooked based on last year, or is that just like a one off he was hurt, he just didn't look like himself and he'll be back to being the MVP caliber player that he has been over the years this season. That is a huge question. And going up against the Colts on the road, I think this is a fascinating matchup. The Colts were actually very good at home last year. They have its 29 points per game at home last year, which is fifth most among teams. So I don't want to underestimate this Colts team even though I don't think we're super high on them. But I think the Ravens going into this game, the type of offense they run is going to be a huge variable. It's funny. Every year, every couple of years, I feel like, you know, trends shift in come and go in the NFL and new patterns show up and there's kind of new buzzwords. And I feel like I remember when we first started doing the show, it was like, so and so

13:22star receivers moving into the slot. And it was like, oh shit, you got to get AJ Brown into the slot, right? Because then you can do so much more. It's like, why is it in the slot? And then it was like the motion. And I feel like this year, it's all just like under center. How often are they going to be in center? Joe Burles going to be in center. Multi tight ends is going to be three tight ends on the field. Heavy or sets. I just, it's like, Jaylin Hertz, Joe Burle, Lamar Jackson, all these guys, the whole conversation is like, well, how much are they going to be under center? And I just, I enjoy hearing the new buzzwords every couple of years. I, it's funny. They're all connected and it's funny because throughout the buzzwords, it's very common. Like the way footballs play is so complicated. But then you break through and it's like the actual reason they're doing all these things isn't that complicated at all. Like to this, oh, putting just a Jefferson in the slot seven years, six years ago, it's just get the best player of the ball by any means necessary. It's like in the NBA, would you like just switching, get the best player under the worst, the worst guy on the floor. Do how are, I don't care how many picks we got to set, get the best matchup we can for players. Stop making the talented people do hard stuff, let the talented people do the easy stuff,

14:24which is why are you going on the outside, go inside. And then it started switching and so then defense has got good at that. And then defense is like screw it. We're taking away the explosive plays. We called it the two high thing, but I hate that term because it's really like if we consider the buzzword, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like, oh, two high. Two high. I think of it as the front seven in football became a front six. Like it just became a front six and we have like that. Now we can have five guys in past coverage. That's kind of, I think it's simpler when you think of it. And then defenses were like, the offense is responded. And I think the reason we talk about it so much is Bill Bornell is this amazing stat that explosive play rate past turnover battle as the thing was correlated with winning. If you have more explosive plays than the other team, it's basically neck and neck with having more turnovers or having fewer turnovers than the other team. And that's augmented by kickers these days hitting 60 yard field goals almost every time or with regularity. Yeah, the explosive play rate has always been a big stat in terms of correlation to scoring points. And it's a really important factor. I mean, Pete Carroll was talking about this, you know, decades ago.

15:27I think it has been even strengthened even more. Think about the drives where you hit 20 to 30 yard pass. You're already in field goal range almost with the way that the kickoff rules and where the ball is placed now. I think it's just, I mean, if you get one big play in a drive, you're almost guaranteed to score. And that's the thing. And so I, we almost have to have a shot game this like this season on Fridays every time you mentioned, yeah, well, you just got to get under center, established run, hit shots with play action. Like you almost, and everyone's saying that, but the reason is you can't for that way defenses can't play the room six. They have to bring people down and then crowd the center. It's kind of like opening up space around the three point line. You have to bring defense down. It's done to freeze. And so it becomes as complicated as it all sounds. All it is is you need a guy's closer defenders close to the ice cream edge so you can get over their heads. And it becomes, you know how like we're out of munitions right now, like an Iran and all this stuff. We're kind of out of anti air defense. Like it's a supply issue. College football doesn't make enough linebackers. We don't have enough. That's what all this is really about. There are not enough linebackers going around.

16:27Teams can't find enough linebackers that can be competent enough at run, D and pass. So you're going to put someone on the field who's like 220 pounds. Yeah. Coming out of college. They're all 220 to 225 or whatever. You don't have any of the, you know, the old school, 255 pound guys that can kind of lurk in the second level. And offense is everyone's trying to do this and all these tight ends go in the draft because you're just trying to be like, I bet you're going to put on someone who's too small linebacker to run block or Tomu's big, but not fast enough to do pass coverage. And college football is just not making enough linebackers. And that's kind of like where the, and that's why everyone's going to shove tight ends on trying to force them to put linebackers and you're like, you can't, where, you just don't have enough on your roster. And so that's why there's like six different teams. We're going to be like, yeah, can this guy's in shock and play at his center? So anyway, that's a long rant, but that'll come up a lot. Yeah. The next game here, Craig. Yeah. Falcons are at your Pittsburgh Steelers this week. Steelers are favored by three and a half. Yeah, that's right. My one is mine. You think it's two. You think the Steelers should be favored by more? Yes.

17:28Because of two in tongue of my law. I do agree. And I think we should have a lead. However, my one stat is that the Steelers are three and nine in the playoff. Since Mike Tomman started playing Minecraft. You guys. I was shocked. This is the the Kyler thing. Mike Tomman has been building a city and Minecraft for 12 years straight. And how many kids does Tomman have? I don't know. Probably two or three. If he has kids, you can't, you do now have time to be a coach, have kids and play video games. He does have to play video games with his kids. It's who he's playing me. You know, he got into it because of his kids. And now his kids like are gone and graduated in college and are living their life. And Mike Tomman is still playing Minecraft. He said he's been doing it for 12 years. There are three and nine in the playoff since then. But slightly disappointing. But sounds like he made the playoffs 12 times since it started playing Minecraft. Yes, sure. Well, no, that's not right. No. But my way in here is that this is the new Steelers, the new looks dealers under Mike McCarthy. And specifically with this game, the thing that Rogers doesn't want the most airing

18:33Rogers is to get hit. He's like basically the quickest release in the NFL at quarterback. And they're going up against an extremely limited Falcons pass rush. When Blitz last season Rogers averaged a league low five air yards per game. And the Falcons now James Pierce is out due to suspension. Jaylen Walker tore his ACL. He's out and they have five new starters on their front seven. So I think this is like the perfect kind of way to hit the ground running for this new offense for the Steelers. The Steelers haven't lost to the Falcons also in like 20 years. This is at home in person. Interesting. I just think this is a great spot for them. It's also on a defensive side with like the Steelers defense being healthy right now. Great front seven. They brought everybody back going up against Tuha. It'd be great if if the Steelers offense was just good. I don't know if it's going to be. I don't think it's going to be particularly explosive. It needs to be fine. It doesn't need to be. It just needs to be fine. You know how Aaron Rogers is like just completely immobile and just gets the ball out really quickly. And you're like, there's no one else that could be, you know, more immobile.

19:33It'd get the ball out faster than him out of fear getting hit. And then they're playing the Falcons in two of this week. And you're like, Oh my God, I didn't know there was someone slower and more afraid of getting hit the Rogers. And I was wondering if we have to give out the Elizabeth Holmes Nathan Fielder award for the, of course, I'm not trying to deceive you because like seeing Nathan Fielder get out awkwarded by someone on camera was unbelievable. That kind of reminded me of two. Right. So wait, so wait, what is the category? What is the comp you're making with Elizabeth Holmes? I don't know, but I just, we have to find something for the, I'm not trying to deceive you. I guess that's the Raiders for doing Brock Bowers, but no, I agree. I also kind of just think I wish I could bet on TJ Watt to have a pick six off from pathetic to a turnover and some little screen pass that he jumps. Yeah. The, I just think that you're pretty decent spot for Rogers because of the Falcons. Supposed to be 80 degrees in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Craig, what was your immediate reaction to Mike Tomlin playing Minecraft? I was upset and surprised. I was that I mean, like if you had to pick a head coach in the NFL,

20:36who was addicted to video games, would Mike Tomlin not be the dead last pick? 100% who I think didn't even have like a phone. Yeah. If I was like, Tomlin, what do you do on the weekends? I would expect him to be like, I go and sit by the river and look at the water and, and think if you told him Mike Tomlin Minecraft. Yeah. If you told me Mike Tomlin was in a Minecraft, it would have assumed he'd like going to mines. Right. Yeah. I would have said he like he's working on his mind craft by being a minor. Yeah. By being the 49ers guy. What's his? I would have said he's like into woodworking. Not, not, not video games. So to your parents, Jackie's parents play Mario Party. Do the board game and everything. Yeah. I don't think my father, my mother, I don't think I've ever played a video game. I don't think my dad has played a video game since like he played Super Mario Brothers with me when I was like eight years old. Who's the most likely head coach to be addicted to video games other than Tomlin, I guess? Good question.

21:36It's very Dave Kanales. There. King's very just playing in his mansion. Yeah. Kanales. Kanales is not a bad answer. Yeah. That's right. He already has a self-admitted addiction to something else. You can't have an addiction to porn and to video games. He's over it. You wouldn't have time to do anything. You have to replace the addiction with something else. Sure. Sure. You can use video games now. Tell it more just a video game. That's not bad. I mean, you could say like McVeigh. I just think McVeigh's too dialed. He's too crazy. He's not going to play video games. He's disciplined. I could say when GGS 6 comes out, we'll find out if any of these guys play video games. Well, we're going to take the Steelers and rig a 107 when that. I think we have to. There's only so many times left in our lives. We can bet against two. I'm scared of confident I am in this Steelers in this game, but I agree. The next game. So this is still in the early slate. The Tampa Bay Buckeneers are at the Cincinnati Bengals. The game is a favorite by three and a half. It is a fun game. My one stat is that Joe Barrow and the Bengals have missed the playoffs for three straight years. It's a very basic and but powerful one.

22:36Joe Barrow has not been in the playoffs for a very... It's a small variety. Small variety. And I actually think this is true for both teams. Buckeneers and Bengals. But if the Bengals don't make the playoffs this year, I think everyone's fired. I think the entire coaching staff has gone. I think the front office might be gone as well, which I mean the Bengals kept Marvin Lewis for almost 20 years. And I think everyone in the Bengals is going to be out if Barrow misses the playoffs or four straight seasons. The Buckeneers are actually kind of think Todd Bulls is also kind of in a playoffs or gone situation for it as well. But I just think the Bengals are way more desperate. And you see that again, they traded for Dexter Lawrence from the Giants. The Bengals did not have a first run pick for the first time since 1989. Like they are a slow and cautious organization that has spent a lot of money and dealt a lot of capital to build a good team. The defense is the obvious one, but Joe Burrow, you know, can you get under center, stab us the run, take shots on play action trying to get him under center. We'll see. I think it's going to revert directly to the Joe Burrow offensive. They do try to do that.

23:36Did you did you guys see that Baker Mayfield signed his contract three years 165 million dollar contract extension 110 million in new guarantees. So that I mean, that's nice for the box. I think he I think he certainly they shouldn't have let him leave. Certainly. I don't you can quibble over how much they gave him, but well now he goes a good move. Baker's in the Kirk cousins zone. Right. He's good enough to get paid. Is he good enough to win a Super Bowl? I don't know. I think we got to see him like like Burrow. We got to see him stay healthy this year, man. This is the worry with you got skinny guys or somewhat undersized guys like Baker is I think just a little reckless. He's in that jacket our era or like category where you just wanted to kind of like chill. Don't don't don't try and run this just you know slide. Yeah, Baker. I don't think Baker or Joe Burrow get hurt because they're slim. I think they get hurt because their willingness to get absolutely rocked just if it increases their chances. Sure, they just need to be more disciplined. I guess. Yeah. The I'm glad Baker got paid. I do think that Baker is probably in that middle ground of like when you're paying him, you know, 55 million a year.

24:40It was probably a lot cooler when he you know, he was getting like those lesser deals. But I mean, he earned it like he's become the soul of the team honestly. But it's funny. This is also one of those teams though with the Bengals. The last three seasons teams running play action from under center have 1500 big passes. 1500 big passes play action under center. Joe Burrow has one of them. So it's like he just makes big passes not under center with. He just rips it. Just ripping passes. So this is the reason he didn't have that bullshit, you know, any of the cheap stuff. No, I don't know. The other man. The other thing I mentioned for this game, a mecca Buka. This is from Rick Stroud earlier. Looks fine. I'll take. I don't know what that mean. I'll take it. We're going to see his toe. I don't know. I think he's going to play is the bottom line. He's wearing like a steel toe boot out there. But yeah, I like that he's practicing. Oh, wait, I'm just seeing here that a mecca Buka is going to his meniscus trimmed. Oh, not a big deal. Oh, sorry. Okay. Next game here. This is probably the best game of the day is the Buffalo bills are at the Houston Texans.

25:44Bills are favored by one and a half. Craig, is this the game of the year? Wow. I would say yes. Yeah. I think we can officially say that there will be no better game this season. My one stat. I want to get nerdy for a second because I think this matters to the overall Texans. Situation on offense this year. The Texans ran the second most man gap runs last year in the league. And David Montgomery, their new running back led all running backs in the NFL and EPA per rush from man gap runs last year. So the reason why I bring that up is the question is can the Texans offense be fine this year? Can it be decent? Can it be good enough to support the defense and score enough to make this team like a legit Super Bowl contender? And one of the main reasons why I think the Texans have always struggled is sure Stroud has had a couple bad games. I think Stroud is a good quarterback. They can't run the ball. They haven't been able to run the ball. They're 31st in rushing success rate since they brought since they drafted Stroud. And so I think they've done a lot of changes to the offensive line.

26:48The question marks on whether or not they'll be better or not, but they brought in David Montgomery. And this is year two in Nick Kayleigh system. And if this is a good fit and the Texans can run the ball a little bit, I think, you know, we tried to figure out who was going to be the cult's offense this year. I'm not saying that the Texans are a lead candidate to do that. But if we start watching week one and they can run the ball, move the ball a little bit and CJ Stroud isn't in third nines every time, maybe the Texans actually could be a pretty productive offense. So I'm very interested to see what they can do in the run game. Yeah, I love this. I really, I would love to see Stroud have a big bounce back this year, you know, I just, when he's on, he's so exciting to watch. He's very like his rookie season. He created some big plays, super accurate down the field. I thought he played with a ton of poise and then it's just kind of fallen apart since them. But I do think I agree with you, Craig. A lot of that is just he doesn't have the support from the run game that I think any quarterback really would need and want. I find it fascinating that running backs are different or better and or worse in different schemes. Like, you know, some guys are just better at sort of the hesitation or letting the, you

27:50know, the offense sort of or the defense, I guess sort of sort of itself out in the second level before making a cut. Some guys just have a better feel for man gap versus like zone style runs. And so very excited to see what David Montgomery can do. Also last year, Bill's terrible run defense. They gave up the third worst yards per carry to running backs last year. And I will say the Texans, if you look at their schedule, the first five games, pretty easy on the defenses. They play the Texans open up the season with the bills, the bangles, the cults, the cowboys and then the Titans. So it's the right time for Stroud to kind of get right and get his feet wet. That is nice too, because we always on the Sunday week one recap every year. I feel like we're always like, oh, yeah, this is just an extension of the preseason. But the first week, kind of the first two weeks are kind of an extension of the preseason. There's a lot of rust coming off and like all these players, like everyone's rusty. Like, it is kind of nice to have the easy schedules up first. Like, you know, honestly, Stroud needs the confidence. I think the team needs the confidence in Stroud. I don't always say that. Like, it honestly might be nice to have the bad teams at the end of the schedule. But I think the Texans organization, the defense, it would be nice to see Stroud start hot.

28:56So they don't have to do what Ernest Jones did last year and it's like, if you're not in the same journal that fuck you, like the defense, like they need, they can't have him fumbling and turning the ball over all the time. Like they need to see it. So they can't believe they're cramming this game into the fucking 10 am slate with like 10 other games. Give this a put this on, you know, prime time. I mean, look, yeah, no, come on. There's like, there's too many good games now. Every prime time game is good. I don't know where it would go. Would you, what would you replace it with? The Super Bowl matchup, the Rams and the Niners in Australia, Dallas versus the New York Giants or I would replace it with that. I would replace it with that. I know that I know that like probably money wise Dallas or Dallas versus New York is very good for the NFL. But like, I would way rather watch this game in that slate than that. I do. I always laugh and I mean, I do it too. But I always think it's funny when people are like, I want to change the schedule. Unless the NFL makes $21 billion every single year. Look, they can make 24. They're making, they're making enough money. I just want to see a better game. That's all. Jerry never get, Jerry's always going to be in prime time, baby. Jerry's always going to be in prime time in week one.

29:56There's going to be no shortage of good games, DK. This year, don't worry. You just settle down. It's a long season. Wait till Christmas morning or Thanksgiving Eve when there's a fantastic game on. All right. All right. This episode is brought to you by Zip Recruiter, filling a role as hard. Just look at your fantasy team. You're going to take running back. You got to have starters. Then you got to have backups. You got to, you look into this stuff as Jonah Coleman, going to replace JK Dobbins. He's RJ Harvey really daring sprulls. It's a lot of work. Just trying to fill out a role. But say valuable time when you fill a role for your business. Try Zip Recruiter free at ziprecruiter.com slash fantasy. It shows you qualified interested candidates instantly and over 300,000 resumes are added monthly. So there's always fresh, new talent to reach. Plus, four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Go to ziprecruiter.com slash fantasy to try it free. That's ziprecruiter.com slash fantasy. Zip Recruiter, the smartest way to hire.

30:56The next game here at Chicago Bears, the Carolina Panthers, Bears are favorite to win by three. There are a lot of things I could talk about. Nerdy, interesting, but there's only one thing to talk about when the Bears play the Panthers. That here's what the Caleb Williams trade. Yeah. The Panthers traded up to the number one picking up rice young. So the Panthers got rice young. The Bears got an exchange. Caleb Williams, receiver DJ Moore, right tackle, Darnell Wright, Tyreek Stevenson, defensive back, their punter, Tory Taylor and Cheryantop Luther Burton at receiver. I didn't realize that burden was a part of that. Burden is carrying kind of a lot of, he's burdened with a lot of the weight of this trade. I feel like it wasn't Tyreek Stevenson, the guy that gave up that touchdown when he was like talking shit to the crowd. Yeah. DJ Moore famously got along great with Caleb Williams and there was no problem. I mean, don't just write off DJ, DJ Moore caught the game winning. I know. The game, the ball against the Packers. That was at the time.

31:56The best moment bears have had in years until he did it again later in the playoffs. DJ Moore caught a game when he touched that at overtime with like 12 seconds left. I know. I'm just playing Dallas advocate here. But all things said, that is a horrific trade for the Panthers. Is there a playoff team? Is there a 20, 25 playoff team that people could give less of shit about than the Carolina Panthers this year? No. Well, the Steelers. Really? Would you say that people are more bullish on Carolina than Pittsburgh? No, no, yeah, the Panthers. The Panthers, when you do the whole, well, you got to pick playoff teams, you got to pick someone out. You're like, all right, Carolina just gets immediately just iced. I know. I feel like if I was a Carolina fan, I'd be upset. I'd be like, hey, we almost beat the Rams twice. Why are we not being respected? But they're not. I just had to bring up this thing. No, and you know what? We're going to talk about the Bears, too, because I'm sorry about the Panthers, but they're just not as interesting. We'll see it pretty much. It's good. When I do want to just note, the Bears Ben Johnson literally said with a number one regression candidate this season. And it's so lame, but like it's true. Like the Bears were lucky and or if you believe in Catholicism, the Pope was from Chicago,

32:59and then suddenly the Bears won seven games last year where they were losing inside of the two minute warning, which is the most by any NFL team clutch gene, clutch gene, God, but it's the most team in the, it's the most in the Super Bowl era. The Bears said the fewest turnovers on offense, the Bears forced the most takeaways on defense. And so one, that's awesome. Great season. Also, those are all the statistics that in a really lame math way just come back to normal. And so the result is either the Bears will be like kind of disappointing and everyone will put the mat in curse on them. Or what Ben Johnson says, we want to break the scoring record and the Bears are going to try to be the new bangles of the new Cowboys where I think they're defense sucks and they'll try to be a shootout team or they're just going to be a little disappointing. I mean, when you said that, I think the hardest thing to do and the least consistent thing you're in a year out for defense is like turnovers forced. No, it's just such a random thing. They recovered over two thirds of the fumbles, which is the most random thing there is. The ball just bounces in a certain way. Man, I don't know what to make of this Bears defense.

34:00I do. It sucks. It's also very old. It's the worst front seven for any team that's seriously trying to win the Super Bowl. Yeah. And I don't know why Max Crosby's not on the Bears to be honest. But that can make them extremely, extremely fun. Also, Roman Dunes, maybe not going to play in this game. It's unclear right now. Keep an eye on that for fantasy lineups. He was limited in practice today. I think there's some question that he might. He may not play. Do you guys get any texts from friends or people who listen to the show that say, hey, you better be right about this player because I just drafted them because of you. Like you guys have that every year? Yeah, of course. Yeah. In some form. Yeah. This year, I've had many people be like, hey, I'm doing this fucking Luther Burton thing because of you, all right? So this better work. So. Okay. You put your money where your mouth is. You drafted it in several leagues. I did. I did my three leagues. Who is that guy for you this year? Both of you. Mike Evans. Oh, yeah. Mike Evans gets hurt in week three.

35:01I'm getting good. Good God. I mean, I'm going to go into witness protection. The 49ers already had a guy, Tara's Patel, her tendon in Australia. Alfred Collins. Good God. Also, what is with this team? The position for them. So yeah, the Mike Evans, I think, is probably one of the big ones. Then Kenneth Walker would be the other one where people are just like, can you please shut the fuck up about Kenneth Walker for the love of God? Hi, Vince. Who's yours? For me, it's, I thought it would be Brock Bowers, but it's probably the people that I've gotten the most text about. I took this guy for you as AJ Brown and Derek Henry. Oh, yeah. AJ Brown. Yeah. AJ Brown. See that does need to work for you. It already happened, guys. What? How do you feel about last night? Yeah. Yeah. Watch it just weekend. Can you right now tell me, predict what AJ Brown did in that game against the Patriots against the Seahawks? What was his talent? Seven targets, six catches, 78 yards, and a really, really cool touchdown. Wow. Yeah, I would agree. The Seahawks second area is decimated right now. They have like two safeties on their roster.

36:01I think they elevated two guys from the practice squad who I have barely ever heard of. So that's an interesting thing. I'm going to wait till next episode to get my prediction, but that's good. Yeah, that's good. Well, it's like, okay, I'm going to wait till week 15 to tell you who I think. And then I still won't feel good about it. Next year, we're going to let DK just predict who he'll predict when the Super Bowl will make 15. I'd be like, no, I don't want to do that either. Well, next one, we need to get into it again. I was just finding to your response, not to the fact that you know, some people in here just said, go ahead. You just don't want to pick the Super Bowl. He doesn't like it because he doesn't know. I'm not picking the Super Bowl winner, but when Craig was like, really, you think that? I'm like, I don't know. What? We're just guessing here. What did we say? DK, have a take. That's what we have a take. Not, I don't know. Anybody can win. That's the next time I want, yeah, people are on the clock in a draft. They're like, DK, who do I take? I don't know. I can't take that one. I don't know. The next game here, New Orleans Saints are at the Detroit Lions. Lines are favored by six and a half. DK, what's your one step for this game? Oh, this one's fun.

37:03I'm going with Jared Goff, 2.5 good pregame shits over expected in this one. Jared Goff, famously very, very good at home. Not as good on the road. I think it's because he has the safety of his own bathroom and he can take his nervous shits and just get him out and feel good about it going into the game. You never know where you're going to have to shit when you're traveling. That's very true. That's very true. Yeah. Yeah. And so Jared Goff at home in 2025 averaged almost 20 points per game in fantasy. He had the fourth most yards, 18 touchdowns, the second most, and this is like home road split. So like the second most touchdowns at home for a quarterback and the fourth best pass rating at home. So I mean, when the Lions were at home last year, they averaged 32 points game, which was more than the Rams average than they were the number one scoring team last year. So I just think the Lions are going to have to turn it on offensively. I think they've always been really good there in Fort Field. I don't think the Saints defense is especially good. I think they're going to score a lot of points.

38:03And I'm excited to see this Lions offense and this iteration of it and what they look like this year. Yeah. I'm interested to see if the Lions can get back to the Lions of the last three or four years. I think a lot of that will come down to like is the offensive line good enough to protect Jared Goff where he can feel comfortable in the pocket. But I am excited and I want the Lions to get back to the old form because there are I think one of the most fun teams in the league to watch. Yeah. If the Lions had the old line from tears ago, I'd be talking about you, your gips rushing for 2000 yards. Yeah. If he stays healthy. But I really, it's important to see if the Lions off because the Lions off its line could be great. It could suck. It's it's could swing the NFC. Right. So he is. Scott Bearpoint at the South of the other day, like he has Jared Goff has the highest delta in terms of how he reacts to pressure versus what he's so like his clean pocket performance versus his under pressure performance is the highest difference of any quarterback in the NFL. So obviously keeping him clean is a massive massive deal. That's why they do so much like play action under center. Why the run game is so important.

39:04They try and protect him that way. You stab us the run. Throw it over their head. They actually shots over their head. You need to keep him between the Lions. So shit is pants. You know what I mean? But you don't want to know that was the joke in the Super Bowl, right? What? You put his pants. You're not seeing the thing. So the Patriots before the Patriots rim Super Bowl, they literally were telling reporters we're going to make Jared Goff piss his pants and shit is pants. Oh, piss. Literally saying that. Oh, piss or shit when he was playing for the race. I think both because let's be honest when you shit, you can't you piss like come on. Right. Sure. Yeah. I don't know if you, but like if it's a, it's kind of like a, if it's a shark, if it's a surprise shark, I don't know if you pee. Oh, that's interesting. It's a good point. It's like a sneeze. It's like a sneeze poop. Yeah. That's, yeah, that's very true. That's a good because you can't sneeze while you're peeing because that's a disaster. Yeah, because it's weird. Shark really doesn't, because that's it. I guess it's a shit fart, right? Which like you think it's going to be a fart and then it's more than that. It's really, it's kind of a sneeze poop. You know what I mean?

40:07Unfortunately, I do know exactly. I know the shark. You go somewhere. Usually when you're, when you fart, you like, you try to fart, right? Right. But when we talk about kind of the unexpected shark, that's more of a sneeze than it is a fart because you're usually trying to fart. I, it's rare that I try to fart and then, you know, but you're not trying to sneeze necessarily. Exactly. I think a shark is more in voluntary than voluntary is my point. You know what I mean? A fart is voluntary. Or go a shark would, would be voluntary, but isn't a shark more involuntary? Yeah, it's an accident. It's an accident. It's like a sneeze. And it happens at the worst time. Yeah. What do you think? What do you think about that? I think it's really interesting about it hard. I kind of want people to email us about this. I'm a little bit disappointed. Is it about, is it a shark voluntary or involuntary? Well, if you want rankings, go to fantasyfupult.thringer.com. But if you want to get emails about sharks and farts, email emails that ring are fantasy football at gmail.com. It's kind of our corner.

41:07I feel like, I get what you're saying, but there's no like you're trying to do something and then you sneeze because you like, we're wrong. That's my issue with it. But, but I guess I'm, I'm, I'm clippling with the definition of a shark. Like, is it that I feel like what we spiritually, it means that like you just shit your pants explosively? No, I see what you're saying. But the definition, I guess, is like, well, it's like when you try to fart and you accidentally shit your pants, I feel like that's not the spirit of what a shark is. It's just kind of like explosive, holy shit. Like you couldn't make it to a point. Oh, it's not. You're saying there's two kinds of sharks because there's these sharks and then there's like, you took a gamble and you lost. Yeah, that's, yeah, exactly. Wow. Okay. We got to categorize the two sharks. Okay. Anyway, speaking of sharks, the jets are at the tightens this week. My one stat is, I want to talk about, it's hard to get serious here, but I'm going to try to get back into it. My one stat is about Garrett Wilson, who I think is kind of a fascinating character heading into the fantasy season.

42:08Through week six, last year on the jets, wide receiver Garrett Wilson was third among all wide receivers and targets, receptions and receiving yards. And he was tied for second and touchdowns. That was all through week six and that was a Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor throwing him the football. We all know that the leading receiver on the jets last year was in fact Garrett Wilson with 395 yards after he left in week six and never came back. He was still. That is insane receiver. The only team to ever not have a 400 yard receiver since they went to a 16 game season by the way. And so I'm kind of sitting here being like, this is a great spot. I think for, for honestly, both teams still like not look terrible, but the jets with the tightens secondary and kind of like, is there a chance that Geno Smith is by far the best quarterback that Garrett Wilson's ever had and Garrett Wilson is one of the smash hits of the season? That's what I'm thinking about looking at just the amount of targets he commands and has commanded on the jets with terrible quarterbacks. If Geno is all right, Garrett Wilson is going to be a huge success. Yeah. I think that's all he needs to be is all right too, which is nice because the bar is so

43:11low with with the jets over the last however many years. And I think Garrett Wilson is a very talented receiver. He can get open. He can make it acrobatic catches. He can run after the catch. He can say healthy. He has a real chance here. I do think we swung a little too hard on the pendulum with Geno. I think obviously last year was a disaster, but there were so many things about the Raiders last year that was a total total just cluster fuck basically from their offensive line, the coaching, you know, pairing P Carol with Chip Kelly and there's just a lot of things. P Carol's sons and Tom Brady kind of like using his influence in certain parts of the offense and certain parts of the team. And then of course, you know, kind of self-destructed a little bit throughout that. I'm not like absolving him of blame at all because he was eternal or machine and I think he kind of spiraled. But I do think, you know, we're kind of forgetting how good he was with the Seahawks for a couple of years. And I think he is a good, he's a really good quarterback. And I think like league average is as well within the realm of possibility with him.

44:15Specifically for week one, I'll end on this that the Titans last year gave up the most fantasy points to White receivers. Whiteers for once. So it's a good spot for Garrett Wilson, I think. He's with the two worst teams at the NFL last year. They literally ended up with the top two picks of the draft. I mean, you know, Gina Smith playing, I mean, they bet jets, he was a jet 10 years ago. And you're right. I'm afraid I think Garrett Wilson thing because I've been like, what are the odds that Gina Smith, the decade later, works with a coordinator who's been out of the NFL for two years. And I'm like, well, you know what? Maybe it will work because since Gina left, the jets are literally like dead last or second to last. And like points and yards and touchdowns and winning percentage and time spent with the lead and have the most time spent losing. And I think last year they had like a purple like half their drives. They were losing by double digits. Like, yeah, maybe actually Garrett Wilson is fantastic this year solely on just how it's hard to measure how bad it was. And like, I'm a little afraid of that because I've been out of the jets. If you're in a two quarterback league, would you have the start? Gina Smith or Cam Ward?

45:16I would start Gina probably, you know, just because he's actually done it. Experience factor, I think. Although Cam, well, it's worth the other jets thing, well, we're talking about the 40 yards things. Jets did not intercept a pass last year, which we have to keep saying until they do it. The jets, the only team did not intercept a pass. Can they be the only team to do it two years in a row? Let's. What? That's the on record since 1933. Just throw it out there. Yeah. Okay. Also, we didn't even mention Robert Salah, Titans coach versus the jets. True. Oh, right. Revenge. I really want solid across them. I'm not going to lie. I still think solid got absolutely railroaded by Rogers. The next one here is Cleveland Browns. We had the Jacksonville Jaguars. My one status from the ringer zone Austin Gale. Cool. DeShawn Watson is going to start this game for the Browns. And the last time we saw DeShawn Watson was the first six weeks of 2024, where DeShawn

46:18Watson's expected points added was minus 66. So minus 66. So he literally, DeShawn Watson, on average, cost the Browns 66 points over expectation through six games, which is 11 points per game. This guy. And which was the worst for any quarterback in the database that goes back to 2000, making it not only the worst offense and worst quarterback in the history of the Browns through six weeks, but also surpassing Jim Arcus Russell for the worst offense of the 21st century through six weeks of his season. And then hold on, hold on. So then after that, he tore his Achilles twice. Yes. And now he's starting again. Now he's playing. Oh my God. I also want to check what was the word except like quarterback for them. There's got to be where's Will Levis. What? Somebody get eyes on Will Levis. Where did Will Levis end up? Did he sign on some practice squad or something? He'll be somewhere. He's just chill. Honestly, he could try to mouth her Cleveland.

47:18I would rather have Will Levis than DeShawn Watson. I want the Jaguars and Ringer Walson. The Ringer Fantasy football show is brought to you by Fandall. Thursday night football is back and Fandall is giving you a reason to celebrate every touchdown for nine years versus Rams. Every touchdown pays. Here's how it works. Opt in and use your token on an eligible bet. Then sit back and watch the touchdowns add up. Not rocket science. Sometimes you know what? You can just, you can just play it safe. Christian McCaffrey and Mike Evans are going to score touchdowns for the Niners and Devonte Adams and probably Kairan Williams are going to score touchdowns for the Rams. Just put three or four of them together. I would actually do McCaffrey Evans and Devonte. They're all going to score. It's going to happen. And so I kind of want to do McCaffrey Evans, honestly, as a touchdown parlay every single week, we could start it with Thursday because every time either team finds the end zone, you'll get bonus bets. It doesn't matter which team scores every touchdown can mean more bonus bets coming your way.

48:19Download the Fandall app to get started. 21 plus select states or 18 plus DC or Wyoming opt in required must apply bonus token to eligible wager bonus issued is non withdrawal bonus bet which expires seven days after receipt restrictions apply, including minimum wager requirement, see terms at sportsbook.fandal.com gambling problem called 1-800 gambler, call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. The the late games decay. This one's fun. Green Bay Packers are at the Minnesota Vikings. Vikings are favorite by point and half. Yeah, this one might might want to start from this game. He came into the league, Kyler Murray and that's 2019 seven seasons. Kyler Murray is the quarterback for fantasy points per game over the first eight games of the season. So if you separate the season into two halves, Kyler Murray is one of the greatest fantasy quarterbacks of his era during the first eight games of the season. The only guys that have scored more points to him during the first half of every season since 2019 are Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Patrick Bajoff's.

49:22He averages 22 points per game in the first game of the season in those seven seasons. So I mean, obviously we were joking about the Minecraft thing earlier. Kyler Murray is notorious for going downhill as the season goes on, assuming there's not injuries and stuff early on in the season. And I'm very fascinated to see what this Vikings offense looks like with Kyler Murray, you know, under center and Kevin O'Connell calling plays and Justin Jefferson catching passes. And I don't know. This to me is like one of the must watch games of the weekend because I just truly have no idea what to expect from this. This is why I think the Vikings, Craig was all mad at me, but the Vikings are the perfect candidate to be the cults this year because they'll be, I think they could start out hot because Kyler starts out hot every year. And then GTA 6 comes out in the seasons over. Have you been drawing of the horse or whatever? Or was it all detailed and then crude at the end? Right. It's got how Viking seasons go, too. They're kind of a perfect barrage. Well, I think this is an interesting game just because it's two teams that I don't know how I feel about. And I really want to watch where the Packers are like, so Josh Jacobs is not playing this

50:24game going to be out a while. We think there's no Michael Parsons, Tucker Kraft pitch count. You kind of immediately are like, all right. So what are we working with here with the Packers? Like, how many guys will actually feel good about in this game? And then Minnesota obviously, it's the color Murray question. But this is one of the more like we're going to learn a lot about these teams after week one. I feel like I like the Packers more in this game. I just think we're probably underrating how good they are. I think that they're still a very good team. I still trust the Flurr to put together a very good offense, a very efficient offense and Jordan love to run it. I don't know what to expect from their defense, I guess. I just feel like the Packers are a depth team without any depth anymore. Like they're not a star-powered team. It was like all the new pluses, but like even through their third stringers. And now it's like, well, they don't have any A pluses and they don't have any depth. Yeah, they got rated in free agency. And I don't think if you just go through who will enter the game if anyone's injured and it's just, it is really, it's dark. I mean, Skymore might play, is going to play for Green Bay this year.

51:28So I mean, you know what, at this point, I'm going to, I want to know because I still feel like I don't really know who you guys stand. Do you think the Kyler thing is going to work for the Vikings or not? Define work. I think it's going to work for fantasy. So the first half of the season will people be like, oh Kyler was signing with the Vikings is good. Kevin O'Connell did it again. The Vikings are good. Why didn't other people? Yes, because JJ McCarthy is now a third string quarterback. He couldn't even beat up. He couldn't even win the backup job. So yes, it's a good move for the Viking. I would say it's more likely than not that by week eight, everyone's like, the Kyler thing is working. And I think by week 16, people will be like, I can't believe we thought the Kyler thing would work for the second half of the season. Does JJ McCarthy being inactive, making more skeptical of Michigan? DK? Every week. I'm just kind of like, well, I just, why me? I don't know, every week. I'm like, man, maybe they were. I'm the one who's skeptical of Michigan now. Yeah. The next one here. So Washington commanders are at the Eagles. Eagles are favored by five and a half. Bill talked about it and show this week, but he's right.

52:29These games are always weird. All the divisional games are, but commanders, Eagles, some weird stuff. Faries happens. This stat, again, Warn Sharp, Rich Rebar. It's the same thing we've been talking about. Past five years, Jalen Hertz has thrown the ball a third of the time between the numbers. A third of his passes go between the numbers on the field, which ranks last among the almost 40 quarterbacks who qualify for pass rating in that time. So 39 quarterbacks, Jalen Hertz throws it over the middle, the least. And everyone in the league, including the Eagles, are trying to do the whole, get under sender, heavy packages, play action, throw it over the mill. Is Jalen Hertz going to throw it over the mill? Are they going to ask Jalen Hertz to throw it over the middle? And how will he do? I think that's the biggest question for the Eagles. He could immediately do great. And that would be cool. But either way, like, this is a huge thing. We're asking him to do it. It's a huge change. So it reminds me so much of the Russell Wilson narratives for like a large portion of his career. And you know, there's COX won a lot with Russell Wilson over the years. So it's kind of the same deal with the Eagles. Like, the Eagles have been winning a lot. He's just a winner. He constantly wins. I get all that.

53:30But it does really limit your offense when you just like refuse to attack the mill of field. That's a big area in there. And the margins, the margins are small when you're trying to push it down the sideline and have your superstar receivers win, especially when you got rid of one of them in the off season. So I think that's the problem here is like is is jail and hurts the winner? Absolutely. Like he gives them a better chance of winning than almost any other quarterback would, right? Like the way that they play the way that they play the Tush bush, all that stuff. But there is a very strong limiting factor if you just refuse to pass over the mill field that you know, and look, he's had some success when he does pass over the mill field. So like I tend to give him the benefit of that. I hope that he can do it. But after going through this with Russell Wilson for a large part of his career, Wilson just never really changed. You know, he just never really started passing over the field. People don't change. People don't feel. People don't feel. I hope he can though. I was wondering if I've been hard on jail and hurts this whole time and then I remember the FT and Almanac had the stuff. The Eagles offense went three and out more than any team last year.

54:31It was the most frustrating offense. Almost 30% of the drives were three and out. Yeah. It was the most frustrating offense to watch that was supposed to be good in years. Yeah. The offensive lines are big variable here. If they're healthy and good, everything could change. It's like the real question. It's not like to me, it's not, can jail and hurts throw over the middle of the field. It's like, can they run the ball? Can they actually move the ball on the ground to set up the pass to make it easier on hurts to do what he wants to do in third and two instead of third nine? Like a safe one in the offensive line going to get back to 2024. Is the big question to me. There's a chance without Jeff Stoutland as a disaster. There's a chance that Jeff Stoutland was older and they were like, you know, they're putting him out to pasture and they look great with Adam and they were like, hey, we had to move on with that. You know what I mean? We'll see what happens. Maybe it really was Kevin Petulo's fault. So we'll see. The Russell Wilson jail and hurts things the perfect comp because their stick is so endearing when you're just crushing the rest of the league. And when you suck, it gets old fast. And it's cool of Russell Wilson's, you just like a work ethic guy when you make back to back super balls. But the moment you stop, it's annoying.

55:31Yeah. It's Seth Rogen and step brothers. Okay. Yeah. You guys are in the Tixitos. I like that. That's cool. Yeah. 30% of your drives are three and outs. It's starting to look a little fucked up now. Yeah. All right. Arizona Cardinals are at the Los Angeles Chargers. My one stat is that Joe, Justin Herbert, Joe Herbert, Justin Herbert played four games with Tackle Joe out last year. And when he did, he was the best quarterback of the last five years by EPA per dropback. And not only does he have Joe Aldi also has Rashon Slater, two all pro level tackles. And they are playing the Cardinals who by every metric you want to look up are a bottom three. If not dead last defense in the NFL, this game is in LA. And there's a chance that the Chargers score 50 points in this game. If the Chargers lose this game, how much are we going to panicking here? Like, what's the Defcon level? Defcon one? What's the bad one? One one. One is bad. Yeah.

56:32What's the battle? We've two events in New Defcon. Oh, Christ. This is exciting. I want to see him with a good offensive line. I want to see what Mike McDaniel can do in this offense. It's so exciting. And theoretically, this is one of the easiest matchups they'll have all year. The Chargers losing this is like, yeah, there's a 10% chance our show will be extinct if the Chargers lose this game. That's right. Do we show up on Sunday night? No, we might have to just go dark for a month. That's more. Yeah, darkness retreat. This should be Elizabeth Holmstein, the Chargers every year. I don't have anything to deceive you on. Of course, I love deceiving you. If the Chargers lose, I think we need to go to Antarctica and discover the lost world that's down there. I know what's funny. I have to go and tell me that. The thoughts were more extensive than I thought. I didn't realize he was saying there was a society underneath in Antarctica. Yeah, it's like an inner world society.

57:34So that exists. I just really believe this like inside the world. Inside the world. There's a world inside the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of like. If you've seen King Kong, like King Kong, and this core of the earth, instead of lava, there's just like a reverse gravity Kong world where there's all these giant gorillas that are walking around basically on the inside of Earth, but they're attracted to the group. So it's like they're kind of like upside down world. King Kong world. And that's kind of what Aaron Rogers thinks, but with people. That's making a lot of sense to me. He thinks it's just like like unvaccinated people running around down there. Like what does he think? Yeah. You mean nice. You mean nice. Yeah, I know DK is such an interesting pair with Rogers. Like they could be in a movie together. Yeah. You know what I mean? I would actually, there are very few athlete podcasts I would like to hear. I might listen to Aaron Rogers and DK McCaff. I can't say what do you think they talk about? DK McCaff is just bringing like gummy worms to four sums and Aaron Rogers is just talking about Tony Fauci. Yeah. You know, people already live on Mars, right?

58:34DK's like, really? Damn. Shit. Holy shit. Okay. Son and I football as Jerry Jones demands, the Dallas Cowboys are playing the New York Giants. Cowboys are favored by two and a half. They got to get the Giants into prime time before the Giants suck. John Harbock coaching the Giants. My fact. The last time the Giants beat Dak Prescott and a game that mattered was his rookie year 10 years ago. Wow. This does not get talked about. But the Giants are two and 16 in their last 18 games versus Dallas. Oh, my. And it's somehow worse than it sounds because one of those wins was last year in week 18 when they benched Dak for Joe Milton because the Cowboys made the playoffs already. So that doesn't really count. The other one was like five years ago, they beat Andy Dalton as the quarterback of the Cowboys. So Dak Prescott is kind of 16 and 0 versus the Giants since his rookie year. He should do like a like a championship belt, something or other or like I own them,

59:36you know, like the Aaron Rodgers thing I own the Bears. He does and it doesn't get mentioned. I feel like, you know, Brady versus the bill or shit. Talk to you, buddy. Yeah. It's not really rivalry. The Giants get stomped. Boy, that's the worst. Whoa. Holy shit. That's the worst. That was method acting. I just think stomped. Why is that happening so much? You're growing up. You're going to puberty again. I don't really good one. I didn't even know I could make that sound. Can we like isolate the sound on that and really like just cut everything else out. I just want to hear the Giants get stomped. I can't believe it that just happened. That was like a fun thing. I couldn't think it could be more embarrassed. The fact that that was during a conversation about the Giants being not beating Dak at 10 years. I'm going to ask Cam to do a me getting left hanging on a fist bump type, Zapruder remix of that because, you know, I got some comments about that.

1:00:36People really making fun of me. Craig, you really left me hanging there, buddy. We will go to, if you want to go to Instagram or TikTok, ring or fantasy football. We will, I am sure that you guys will make something very embarrassing and put it on ring or fantasy football or Danny Hyfe. Go follow us on Instagram and if you want whatever horrible thing they cook up with that. So you guys want to talk about my voice cracker that I made either way. It's embarrassing. Yeah. What do you think of this game? I think they're going to get their ass beat. It's going to suck. I want John Harbott. I would be nice. The bar could be lower for John Harbott. The Giants have been eliminated by Thanksgiving. Nine to the last 10 years. I just want them to just like be 500 by Thanksgiving. The bar is so low. My Tyler Smith's not in this game. He's an important guard for them, but I'm a little worried that Giants going to get carved up, man. How do you feel about the Giants defensive line? What is good as you think if you just list all the names and the defensive ends, it's incredible, right? Like, I mean, just having optimal Carter and, you know, Brian Burns had a ton of sacks. Like cave on Tibedo as a rotational guy.

1:01:37It's good. The interior of the line is a mess. Dexter Orn's just traded. Obviously, I'm, I have ranted a lot that I just don't understand why he's supposed to get half the return of Max Cross Bay. I think he's an incredible player. The Giants traded Leonard Williams for some second on pick three years ago. And then he's led the Sealux defense to a championship and just was loaded by executive defense. He's awesome. He's so awesome. And everyone's like, well, he's 28, right? Ritivum. I'm like, well, he's 31 and just got voted the best defense attack on the NFL. Yeah. Best player on the defense. I don't know why we're getting ready to extra Lawrence for one first on pick. I like Francis Marinoa anyway. But the other guy behind him also tore his Achilles, Roy Robertson Harris. So it's going to be like, DJ Reader, who we signed like weeks ago and then Shelby Harris. Like it's an old ass defensive line in the middle. I kind of think the Giants run defense is going to suck this year, which is the problem. Shelby Harris is 35. DJ Reader's 32. It's insane. Like it's it is like by far the weakest part of the team. And I'm very concerned. And our fill, Riese, I love, but he's a linebacker. He's playing inside linebacker.

1:02:37Like he will not be good initially inside linebackers. You can't be good as a rookie at the beginning. Also, one of the more underrated things I feel like with the Giants that we haven't really discussed is that I think Malik neighbors is going to play week one. He's practicing dude, the Giants that chart at wide receiver out behind. If Malik neighbors is not feeling great, doesn't look right, dude. There is nothing there. Dude, it's Malik neighbors who I, you know, I think it's good that he's even playing. I hope he's on a snap count. Malik, I feel who is, I, you know, went to Notre Dame. I think he's, if Matt Collins was like a really great contested catch receiver. I think Malik, if he's a big body, like they don't have any size. He's a third round rookie on Notre Dame. He didn't get much experience catching passes at Notre Dame. Jarnel Mooney, who is DK Hates. And then he has a $177 pounds though. 177 pounds, and then he has a $1,000, and then he has a $1,000, and then he has a $1,000, who didn't even play last year. A $1,000, kind of, this is the only team in the league that would have given him a shot. He's not even on the goddamn dial. It's so funny that a $1,000, one of the big stories of the Giants right now.

1:03:41I really think it's a show. I'm not sure. I'm just tweeting about it. NFL networks covering it. It's like, God, man. This is why the Kipstake Isaiah is like Lisa Sleeper. I think any Winning neighbors misses, I say, like, is going to leave this team target. So I'm a little concerned. The offensive line better be good. I could rant about this. But again, the Cowboys are just beating the shitter, the Giants for 10 years. And again, the Giants in those 10 years have been like, basically, the worst team in football at the Jets. You're going to be happy when the Cowboys win because Jerry is going to get his flowers. Craig is going to be talking about Jerry's cooking right now. Jerry's, this, Mike and Parsons straight, he won. I won the trade. When I saw what happened inside the take purge, which might, me, Craig, the Audi didn't know until I saw the clips, your Jerry Jones take. I agree with it. And I know I want to see, I kind of want to see the Cowboys succeed. I don't want the Cowboys to succeed. I want Jerry Jones to win a Super Bowl. I don't want the Cowboys to do it.

1:04:42Is what I said at the take purge. Yeah. I, it was hard though to not do the stat that Jackson Darts been to the blue tent 43% of his games for a concussion check. But I just think no one knows that Dack beats the Giants ass. All right. I didn't know that. I mean, I didn't realize that. Yeah. Unbelievable. Okay. Monday night football. Denver Broncos are playing the Kansas City Chiefs. Chiefs are favored by two and F points, DK. What's your one stat? This statistic is a time frame. It has been eight weeks, sorry, eight months and three weeks since Patrick Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL. So we are looking at essentially a nine month recovery and he is going to start week one. And that to me is kind of remarkable and crazy. And I'm a little worried about it. Can I add to your worry? Yeah. Fun fact, Josh Simmons, the left tackle is going to miss this game. Right. The person who Andy Reedus said will start for the Chiefs at left tackle is Khalil Benson, who's an undrafted free agent rookie. It just doesn't seem like a great strategy. We're going to look back on the Chiefs and marvel at how they just like fucked up the offensive.

1:05:44I think this is insane. I think what the Chiefs are doing is insane. And if they bounce back, that's awesome. But the recklessness that they have approached the offensive tackle position, it was one thing when Mahomes was healthy and could scramble and they just every year at right tackle, they would just find some veteran ring chasing for money. But now they're like literally just having an undrafted free agent week one left tackle. And then your right tackle is a Jalen Moore, who's like never even played left to right tackle. Really, they have no plan. Did you guys see the story? Did you see the story about how Mahomes was like trying to beat his kid to the to walking or whatever? Sorry. Don't don't say that Patrick. We're almost trying to beat his kid. He was trying to defeat his child in the race to walk or something. He was trying to walk before his child did recovering from an ACL while his child is just a child. To be clear, he wasn't beating anyone. But defeating yes. I'm I alone. I think it is insane that they're trotting out the best quarterback. I mean, literally taking the tour, the baton from Tom Brady as one of the grass quarterbacks ever.

1:06:47I think Mahomes never played football again. You could argue he's the fourth best quarterback of all time. And they they're have, they're going to trot him out after under nine months from an ACL terror. And they're trotting out an undrafted rookie to play left tackle. And then the right tackle situation was already a mess before anyway. This is fucking crazy. Yeah. Also, the Broncos defense is good. Well, this is like an, this is a very interesting match. Chiefs are favored in this game. Yeah. And the chiefs have been really good at home that I think that is kind of working a lot in their favor with the line here. Certainly the chiefs have the second best home record over the last five years. I saw this only the bills are better. But obviously that's maybe sort of including an era of the chiefs that is no longer that doesn't really apply to this, this certain game. The chiefs are funny, man. They are kind of like you, you look at it and you're like Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey. And then you look under the hood. It's like that. And Tika actually think you watched this movie. Do you remember that movie? The alto Knights that came out last year? Oh, yeah.

1:07:48That movie, if you look at it, it's a crime movie starring Robert De Niro, directed by Barry Levinson and the guy who directed Ray Man and a million other good movies. And it's written by Nick Piles, you're the guy who wrote Goodfellas. And you're like, Holy shit. Yeah. And it was literally the worst movie ever. And then like 20 to 30 minutes in, you're like, wait, is fucking De Niro playing two characters in this? What the fuck is going on? And then you're like, I'm bored and you turn something else on. You're like, wait a minute, Nick Piles, he's 93. The howl, Barry Levinson's 84. Wait a minute. I watched I tried to watch it with a plane, Craig. And I had to turn it off. I was also watching. I was like, I'd rather be raw-docking this right now. They're watching this movie. That is the chiefs though, because you're like, the chiefs have been boring for two years. And I know Ken Walker, they sign Ken Walker, but that isn't just going to magically change it. I don't know. I don't understand how you could have the best cool. Like literally all you could ever want in the world is to patch up moments to be your quarterback. And the fact that they're just like playing games and tackle is insane to me. I know they traded up for Mansor to Lane. They could have Spencer Fato and Spencer Fato is good.

1:08:49And I don't know. It's just weird to gamble with his fucking knee. Can we close here? I would like to make an announcement about the Los Angeles Rams have landed in Melbourne. They're there. Hell yeah. Made it safely. It was a 14 and a half hour flight. I got some info about the flight itself from Joe Pompley on out. I like to know that you guys found it interesting. And this was a question I had in the lead out. I think we talked about this. I tweeted about it. So this is from Joe Pompley on the Rams took a quantus Airbus A380 from L.A. to Melbourne. This is the largest and most expensive commercial passenger airline ever built. And there are enough live flat seats for every single player and some coaches. Wow. But this goes deep back into an argument we've had on the show before. These planes don't have Wi-Fi. Why don't they not have Wi-Fi? So for the flight 15 hour back, no Wi-Fi on the plane, I would argue maybe a good thing. These guys got to go to bed. You know what I mean? Maybe a hubby.

1:09:49Interesting. You're not scrolling. I mean, you could still download movies and stuff like that, but it limits what you can do at least a little. What? But like all those movies in your seat and everything is that streaming? Like aren't those just on there or no? Streaming? What's up? Like when you have a little thing in your seat rest, like you look at your wife, like, I don't think that's Wi-Fi. No, but if you have a life flat seat, I doubt you're watching movies on the little TV in front of you. But yeah, I feel you're trying to sleep. But it at least allows you to not really just be like scrolling on your phone, texting on this flight. I'm really hung up on the idea that these planes are too big to have Wi-Fi. I don't know. I'm not sure why there's no Wi-Fi on these planes when you're quite literally the longest plane route on Earth. Why not have Wi-Fi? Did you get any info on why there's no Wi-Fi, Craig? No, they're like it. These are too heavy. We can't add Wi-Fi. It's the planes too big. Too strong.

1:10:49Too thick. I think it's pretty remarkable that for 53 players, plus coaches, maybe 60 people, there's lay down seats for 60 people in this flight. Yeah, that's wild. It's fucking crazy. Plans are big. This one, I've never seen a plane even get close to having so do you think it's going to win? So do you think it's going to win? Who do you think is going to win this game? Rams are Niners. Niners. I want the Niners to win. Dude, I think I think the Rams will probably win. I took a red eye from LA. I couldn't sleep on the plane. I was a mess. Yeah. I kind of want to know, like, like, I just want to know which players slept or not. 24 hours after I went to Italy last year, 24 is into the trip. I was a zombie. Yeah. I'm just rapsed by this. This live flat, no Wi-Fi flight. I'm seeing, I'm seeing online that it's actually there. They can have Wi-Fi. It's physically possible, but they're so big. It's just really expensive to add it.

1:11:50I'm just feeling the Rams might have paid for that. We'll see. They carry 500 passengers. I would love to know if there was like a screen time limit. Like, hey, everybody, like, like, out of A. Yeah. Like, everybody gets three hours of screen time and then it's, and then it's Betty by. Yeah. I want to, yeah, I want to know what the rules were for like, they have to give guidance. Oh, coach, can I play one more game? Come on. I'm almost done with my show. You guys want an email before we get out of here? Yeah. 49ers email from Paul Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. Peabone breakfast was three cups of ice coffee and a Chabana yogurt strawberry. Rip and coffee. Yeah. Uh, three cups. So Paul says I'm a lifelong 49ers fan who grew up in San Francisco surrounded by the fellow faithful. I think Dejan loves saved the 49ers season. Great take. The vibes were so bad this off season with the substation Kyle Shanahan's car crash Ricky Pearceau's injury. Our owner getting discount mobile home hookers and Nick Bosa allegedly and

1:12:52Nick Bosa getting each end of night is which gave me Christian McCaffrey flashbacks. Then a hero emerged to reset the vibes. Dejan love because there's nothing funnier than Dejan love at his stupid videos with the 49ers and his helmet everywhere. Every group chat I'm in making jokes about it. I guarantee that is true for some actual players on the 49ers. Dejan love flipped the conversation around the 90 season from a weird, terrible, horrific off season to jokes about a grifter and his 18 year old sidekick nothing to do with injuries or substations. Thank God for Dejan love Paul. Is it a plant was he was he a plant by by Shanahan? Maybe take the heat off of them. I really regret not throwing high fits in a Niners hat. Niners helmet taken into Santa Monica. I'm running around. Oh my God. How do we not do that? How did we not? Damn it. Everyone beat us to it, man. That could be a good fantasy punishment.

1:13:52Oh, that should have been the first. On the beach. You have to make like a video table and run. You have to raise one million dollars for people pretending. Yeah. You have to build people out of their money. Well, yeah, the crime was taking the money. Right. Well, the crime, the crime hit the videos were arguably also a crime. We don't we don't know. We're in trouble. But we don't know if it was in fact a crime to impersonate a 49er. That might be we are still not. I think it depends where you're doing it. Right. At the game, probably a crime. Yeah, it's like a it's like if it already suits you for using their music. It's it's nuanced. Right. Right. But this was like a parody. I like to. Yeah, they show love save. If the Niners win the Rams game, I actually think this is true. Dejan love saved the Niners. I was feeling pretty good about like Zagging on the Niners off season from hell and then Alfred Conz tours. Fucking leg and half an hour. Teller. Never mind. I will say it's so funny. The ramp that what happens at Rams 90's, it'll feel so obvious.

1:14:52I know. Yeah. If the Rams walk in and are kind of like half asleep, you're like, yeah, why the fuck did they fly in and they just play that stupid? Give me a fun game. Honestly, I can't wait for it. Okay. We will have a recap on Niners Rams on Friday. We'll also have a ringer one of seven picks. We're going to be bringing that out. We're bringing that back this year. We'll usually do that on this show, but again, this show will be on Friday. So we have Sunday recap. So we have money. We won last year. Don't forget to tell people we did our rankings are a fantasy football doubt the rear of the calm. If you want to start to sit about, we have rankings of fantasy football dot the rear dot com. Go check that out. Be updated on Sundays as well. And thank you to every for listening. And the season is here, which is insane. So the next time we talk, it'll be about games. Wow. So thank you to DK. Thank you Craig. Thank you, Cam. Thank you, Nicole. Thank you Austin. Thank you everyone for listening. But of course, we'll take you to day shine love. Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, Lord. SNL lineup was announced. Lawrence back in the mix. Maybe the first. Yes. Jaylen Brunson hosting the premiere episode of SNL this year.

1:15:53Hi, could not be more excited. I could not be more excited. They don't do a lot of athletes. Jaylen Brunson, I would probably say is one of the lesser famous athletes to ever host SNL. Is he a good actor? Have you ever seen him do anything? He's very reserved. He's very quiet. They're all just playing off that. To see how I'm sure New York's going to love it. I wonder like broadly how it'll play. I think if he was, if what had happened had happened in any of their city, I don't know if he would even get SNL. But the fact it was a hundred percent, it was like, it was honestly the biggest Newark event. I think it's a good thing. Everyone gets a cool SNL. But you're right, if he was like on the Pacers, they would have never done that. Did you guys see the live show that we were, you know, there's after the live shows, you know, people, you know, can wait line like, you know, meet people, we take pictures of them. And one guy comes up and I had the cleanest app I've had in years. So this guy, we embraced and you guys do like, is that like a friend of yours from high school? How do you know that guy? I was like, oh no, he's just wearing a Nick's champion. They just fucking reverted to the New York talk immediately. It was like crazy. But that's how it is, man. It's like, you know, people getting Nick's tattoos this year is crazy.

1:16:56Like it's, yeah. You ever have a friend who, you know, is either from somewhere else or just bilingual or whatever? And like you know them in one language and then they, like you're just watched, you watch them as they see, see or meet someone from in their own language. And then they just like go off and talk in this language and it's like crazy. And it's like completely changes your like perception of them. You have all that. That is how I feel. That's how I feel when high fits meets another New Yorker and they just fucking go off into their New York thing. And it's just like, high fits, it's like high fits is home. Really? That's like, it's just very funny to watch. It really felt like you too had the same DNA. You know. Um, it was so good. The next are cool, but you have you guys ever listened to Heat of the Moment by Asia from 1982. Banger. Heat of the Moment. Fucking hard guitar. It's great. It's great. 80s month. Untitled 80s month by Asia. Now that's what I call 80s month. I don't know. But he that high fits.

1:17:56You know that song? Fall back into the 80s. Sing more until I know it. Well, of course it was the heat of the moment. Oh, yes, of course. Telling me what my heart made. It's great song. Um, I was, I was looking into the song or I was looking into the band Asia. And I was like, where did, I'm going to Google it right now. Where did the band Asia get its name? And it's kind of hilarious because we have, there's a, you know, it's like, you never, it gives you a couple of options. The band Asia got its name from a suggestion by their manager Brian Lane who wanted a big sounding name that started with an A. I just made it to the best. For the 70s, when they started their names weren't taking it as they were formed in 81 Craig. There you go. There's English, an English rock group for the record. I just love it. A big sounding name that started with an A. Sure. It's big.

1:18:57You know, it's pretty big. Asia. Why did you like, it's like a continent? Can you go for like a planet or something? I don't know. I just, that's Asia. It's so simple and like, if, if that was happening right now, if we, if the three of us started a band, we were like, what's it? And I was like, we kind of like that letter A. And I was like, what about just like fucking Asia? That's huge. What about what, where's the place where you would never want to start a land war? Asia. Is anyone in this group? No. Well, that raised some questions. Absolutely. Who cares? God, I love it. And I think, I think it's also other things that said they wanted to be an A. So that when you're like searching for bands in the yellow pages or something. It's just awesome. Yeah. Anyway. Heat at the moment. Good song. Banger.

1:19:57Goodbye, everyone. 21 plus in present in select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas, or call 1-877-8 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York for Louisiana. Call 1-877-770-7867.