Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Assessing the teams ahead of the Vikings in the playoff race ft. Steven Ruiz

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

Matthew Coller connects with USA Today's For The Win NFL writer Steven Ruiz to talk about the three teams ahead of the Vikings in the playoff race. Is Tom Brady washed? Why isn't Kyler Murray taking the next step with the Arizona Cardinals? Is Sean McVay the only reason the Rams are still ahead of the Vikings? Plus, which NFC team would you take to build for the future? And who's the Super Bowl favorite right now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to another episode of Purple Insider. Matthew Collar here, and joining me from USA Today's For the Win, one of my favorite NFL writers who just did one of my favorite NFL articles of the year. Steven Ruiz, what is up, Steven? That intro was very complimentary. I don't know if I should be offended, though, that everyone thinks about me as the Fox cartoon guy now. Well, look, here's what i like i like creative content and for you to get screen grabs of every fox illustration of which many of them are ludicrous looking including kurt cousins by the way uh i thought it was clever it was funny it was a great idea and sometimes you put a

thousand hours into grinding tape and seven people read it and sometimes you put all of your time into Fox illustrations and everyone wants to check it out so why don't you before we get to some hardcore football talk give me your top three in terms of the funniest looking or how did that even happen Fox illustrations okay top three I think Ezekiel Elliott is one of the top three i think ezekiel elliott is one of the top three it is ridiculous i don't know what they were going for there but they didn't nail it it does not look like a human being actually uh cole beasley's another good one just because of how i don't know like cole beasley just doesn't look like the guy that they drew like the guy that they drew is like an action star from like the 70s, and Cole Beasley is not that.

He's a very good receiver, but he's not that. And then I'll go Ryan Fitzpatrick. Okay. I think they really nailed it. Yeah, they nailed the beard. I got to give them credit for the beard. But I should leave an opening because if Mike Glennon remains the starter in Jacksonville,

they play, it might be the Vikings. I don't know. They play an NFC team. But it's on CBS, I think. Oh, then that's another game. They're not going to draw his neck. Is that what you're referring to? Right. In three weeks, we might. In three weeks, so it's a different team, but we might get a Mike Glennon one. There was

a conversation on this podcast about how long Mike Lennon's neck is, by the way, so you are not alone. The Ezekiel Elliott one is just concerning. It's like he's very upset. He's whatever or whatever being this is supposed to be is screaming like a madman in his. I also think that Delvin Cook has like a real 80s porn star vibe to him going on here. I mean, these are, some of them are very concerning. Elvin Kamara just looks like he's really upset.

Yeah, I don't see Alvin Kamara there. I see like most death maybe. I don't see Alvin Kamara. The Jimmy Graham one is also a good one. I did not know Jimmy Graham looked like that, but that looks like a guy that Ryan Pace would sign to a dumb deal no yeah that's uh that is not that's like um like a G.I. Joe type of character is Jimmy Graham so I uh implore people to go to your Twitter and find it because it's super funny and a very strange choice from them to decide to do.

And then all of a sudden there's some guys who have helmets, other guys don't have helmets. Like, I don't know. I don't know who's making these decisions. But let's talk about playoff races because we could spend all day on how weird all of that was. I want to get your opinion on whether the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, and Tampa Bay Bucs are any good at football. That's where I want to start because these are the teams that the Vikings are chasing and the most recent times that I have watched the Rams, Bucs, and Arizona Cardinals, I've thought those teams are not that good at football. They are not much better than the Vikings and I

definitely don't think that like the Vikings are much better than the Vikings, and I definitely don't think that the Vikings are way better than them or anything, or that their records don't tell somewhat of the story for their talent level. But what is the deal with these teams who are in the three wildcard spots right now? If I had to pick the best team out of those three, I think I would pick the Rams, which if I had to pick the worst quarterback out of those three, I would not pick the Rams. I would pick the Rams again because Jared Goff is the one I don't trust out of those three. So I think the Vikings are probably in a good position,

and they probably compared well to all three of those teams. And if I'm not mistaken, the Vikings have an easier schedule than the Cardinals, who I think right now have the last playoff spot. And a couple weeks ago, I actually picked the Vikings to make the playoffs and get them back into the wild card race. So I would not be surprised if Minnesota is in the playoffs by the regular season's end. I would not be shocked either.

I think we put their chances maybe at, like, one in three because they do have to get you know at least tied with arizona and then who knows how tiebreakers work out right now their tiebreakers look okay but some of these teams have only played three division games which means they've got a long way to go on division record conference record all those things that's going to determine it and it's way too confusing to do right now in my brain yeah and the rams and cardinals play each other twice so they might just like one of those teams might get eliminated so one by one though when you mentioned the quarterbacks kyler murray has not been that good this year and that i don't know

it hurts my ego a little because that was one of my off-season hot takes was hey kyler murray will be a top five quarterback after this year because of his mobility. His arm strength is terrific, but he consistently averages under seven yards per attempt. And the accuracy and just him throwing the football has not been what I expected it to be after last year. I thought, oh, the year two, here comes that big jump. So I want to know from you, do you think that Murray still has that chance, or do you think he's kind of showing some of the limitations of his game this year and that is just what he's going to be?

No, I think he does have that chance, and I really think the issue is Cliff's passing offense. I love Cliff's run game, but his passing offense really, I think, limits Murray and who he is as a passer, and I think it affects his stats too. He doesn't perform well in a lot of the stats, like you said, yards per attempt and even EPA, but I think a lot of that has to do with these RPOs where he's throwing screen passes on first down,

and that's really going to drive down your efficiency metrics if you're not throwing the ball downfield. In the games where he's actually let Kyler Murray throw downfield, I'm going to avoid using the Seahawks Twitter meme and saying letting Kyler cook. But when he's done that, the offense has looked good and it's been good. And Kyler Murray's looked good. So I'm not really worried about Kyler Murray. I'm worried about Cliff's offense and how it fits Kyler Murray and whether it's holding

him back or not. I've watched the game against Buffalo where they won on the Hail Mary much more closely than some of their other ones. And it did feel like they wanted to do a lot of short stuff, which I would understand why a college coach would want to come in and implement the quick stuff. And it works the way that some other coaches do it with underneath things. We'll talk about Jared Goff in a minute, who is not allowed to throw it more than eight yards down the field anymore. They've just taken the keys from Jared Goff. But I also think with Murray's arm strength, I mean, this is a guy who throws a baseball 95 miles an hour, and he has the arm strength to, in that game, be rolling to his left and turn around

and throw it 55 yards down the field to get it in the end zone to DeAndre Hopkins I guess it's odd to me that they're not taking full advantage of that yeah and I think what it is is conservatism masked by what an RPO is like I I would put RPO throws into the run bucket I mean obviously they're not runs, but they're called, like if the coach had his way, it would be a run play. You only pass when the defense takes away the run. So I think that's what it is. I think Cliff is way too conservative and it, you know, bleeds into his decision-making like late in games. He's, you know, kicking field goals when he probably shouldn't.

He's not going for it on fourth down. He's taking the ball out of Murray's hands. It happened and it cost them the game against the patriots this last week so i really think that's what it is if you put him in a system that just lets him play quarterback like the texan system is not good at all and it i think it makes the sean watson's uh it makes it tougher for him it makes his job job tougher. But I think if you put Murray in that system, he looks a lot better because it's not forcing him to throw these low-efficiency plays. Got a great holiday deal to tell you about from SodaStick. If you use the promo code PURPLEINSIDER15,

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Original Minnesota sports inspired goods. Code purple insider 15 for 15% off anytime you purchase at least two items this holiday season. It's an odd choice, especially with his height, to do RPOs and stuff that require you to kind of throw it right over the offensive and defensive line, which doesn't seem to fit Kyler Murray a whole heck of a lot. It's an interesting thought that you bring up with someone like Cliff Kingsbury is when there's a younger coach or somebody who comes from college with a spread offense, it's almost like there's an implication that this guy, he's going to go for it on fourth down. He's going to be aggressive.

He's going to do all these things. And last week, I watched Matt Rule, who is exactly like this, exactly that. Oh, he spreads it out at Baylor and all this stuff. I watched him kick field goals on fourth and one and fourth and three twice and kick his field goals right out of the game. And they lost because of that lack of aggressiveness. I mean, imagine being a four and seven football team and you're in a game and it's fourth and three. You're like, no, no, no. Let's send out our not that good kicker to get one blocked.

I mean, it's just like, A, what are you doing? But B, I think that that connection between, oh, they're so innovative, they must be genius, they must be aggressive, is actually not the case here. Yeah, and I think a part of it is these are young guys with no track record. Like, if they mess up, it's magnified. But you look at a guy like John Harbaugh who has this track record of success. Like, if he goes for it on fourth down and doesn't get it, mean we know he's a good coach already he's already proven that we're not questioning his decision making so I think that's part of it it's not it's the fact that he is a

young guy that they are young guys is maybe influencing those decisions uh let's talk about the uh Tampa Bay Bucks who the Vikings play in a couple of weeks here. Tom Brady just washed. I mean, he looks washed. He looks like anything that's down the field is going to flutter. And then it's really odd to me. I mean, I read Bruce Arian's book. I get his mentality of like, I'm going to say what I want in the media. I don't care.

I'm that guy. Like, it's also kind of dumb sometimes to say whatever is on your mind, because as much as the media appreciates that, I don't think that's a very smart idea to be talking about the reads that Tom Brady is missing or anything else like that. And I'm also not sure it's the right thing to have him thrown past down the field all the time. But how much, in your mind, is actually Tom Brady's fault for just being old as hell? I think, like, 65% of it.

Like 35% is that scheme and everyone's talking about how they're not doing more modern stuff with pre-stab motion and they're not calling enough play action. But that's been Arian's thing for his whole career. And we never had problems with the offense before. So what's changed? And it's Tom Brady. And obviously, like, Jameis Winston threw a lot of interceptions, of course, but he still moved the ball.

And he moved the ball more efficiently than Tom Brady did. If you take out the interceptions, the success rate is higher. EPA on non-interceptions is higher. Obviously, the interceptions, you know, hurt that. But I just think it's Brady's inability to stretch the field and put the ball outside of the numbers. And you see the teams that have had success against that offense are teams that are playing a lot of too high coverages and are able to bracket the seams and take away crossing routes and just in-breaking routes down the field. And if those are the only routes that Brady can throw,

then I don't know what else you do. You can't continue on with this no-biscuit offense. I don't think you can. And the underneath stuff hasn't really worked. It hasn't been efficient. Brady's throwing it at the same rate. He's completing passes at the same rate. It's just that he's not getting the yak and he's not getting the production that he did in New England.

The other part of it, too, is I think at Brady's best, he's always thought of as the statue quarterback, but I think at his best he moved around pretty well in terms of shuffling in the pocket and when there was pressure. And they've had some offensive line injuries and things like that, and I think that that impacts him a lot more than it used to. Because I always thought of him as if somebody breaks in off the edge, he finds a way to step up.

He finds a way to give himself that extra little second and could contort his body pretty well for a guy that doesn't look like he's got incredible flexibility to make accurate throws i just don't see that anymore i mean he now he is sort of the statue that everyone talked about it almost reminds me of his predecessor drew bledsoe at the end of his career was like this guy can't go anywhere in that pocket. And it's not like this is a new development. Like there was whispers about this at the end of his New England career. There was the ESPN piece about the turmoil between Brady and Belichick and like Jimmy Garoppolo trade and all that.

And one thing in there that people didn't really pay attention to was, I think it was an assistant coach. It was a staffer on the team, an anonymous one, who said that Brady wasn't holding on to the ball as long as he used to. And that was, like you said, that was really Brady's thing. He can hang on to the ball in the pocket, give receivers time to get open. And he was getting rid of the ball quicker and quicker, trying to avoid hits. And now we're seeing that in Tampa Bay.

And in that offense, you can't operate like that. And when you watch him on tape, even earlier in the year when he was playing well, he was still leaving deeper shots on the field to get rid of the ball and throw it to his check down early. And now it's just become more of an issue because he's not hitting on those deep passes when he does make them. I think it precludes them from the Super Bowl conversation at this point. I just don't see how you win multiple playoff games with your quarterback

not hitting accurate throws down the field and really struggling in the pocket. And speaking of which, Jared Goff, everyone. I mean, this, though, even though they lost to San Francisco and they're 7-4 now, I look at Sean McVay and just go, Sean McVay, everyone. I mean, to be 7-4, to be in that position, and they do have a fairly tough schedule, I think, going down the stretch here as the Vikings try to chase them down to any one of these teams that they have to reach to get to that seventh seed. I mean,

I think that Sean McVay alone can at least drag a 500 record out of them the rest of the way with just being able to scheme. But again, this is not a team I see as a Super Bowl team at all because of the limitations of their quarterback. Yeah, and I wrote about this a couple weeks ago, and I think it was after the Cardinals-Dolphins game, and that game came right after the Rams-Dolphins game, which I think was like just rock-bottom character performance. He threw like three interceptions.

He fumbled the ball. And the big difference between that game and the Cardinals game was the Cardinals had a guy that could create when the defense won the play call. The Rams don't have that guy. So if Sean McVay isn't just winning every play call against the defensive coordinator, Jericho is not going to help him. And we've seen that. That's when Jared Goff has struggled.

When he can't go to the play action stuff and the screen game's not working, Jared Goff is not a quarterback that can just drop back and beat a defense. And people complained about Sean McVay and they go, oh, he can't adjust. He can't adjust. But there's only so many things you can do X's and O's wise to adjust to certain things. At a certain point, your players have to be good. You need good players. Like Andy Reid is great,

but when he didn't have Patrick Mahomes, he wasn't as good. He wasn't winning playoff games at a high rate. And I think Sean McVay at one point, maybe he was overrated, but I think it's flipped and we're at the point where he's actually underrated. And the fact that he's winning as many games as he has, won nine games last year it's not like they bottomed out the fact that he's had a winning record throughout his career is very impressive to me considering the fact who he has at quarterback and I know people will argue that Derek off is kind of underrated because he can make some throw like he can make throws when he has a clean pocket and he has a clear read but he's just

so limiting to what you do and he just ties down a coach and I'm impressed that McVay has been able to overcome it to the extent that he has how much time do you spend thinking about supporting Kess and schemes and quarterbacks these days because uh you know here in Minnesota it's a lot and it just is fascinating to me because we sort of now can put these quarterbacks in buckets. Like there's the Mahomes bucket where he's his own bucket and no one's getting close to that. But then there's the next one of Russell Wilson and guys who can make plays with their legs and who are great explosive throwers down the field and those sorts of things. And then there's the Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Jimmy Garoppolo. Like, how strong is your scheme?

How strong is everything around you to whether you can actually win or not? And Goff has been a great example. And then even maybe a notch below that is the Wentz, who needs everything to be amazing. Or, uh-oh, he's all of a sudden bad at football because they don't have a great offensive line. It's like, I think Jared Goff, if everything's bad, still gets you eight wins probably, just like her cousins.

But if things are great, he can take you to the Super Bowl. And it's a very interesting place to be if you're one of the franchises that has one of those guys that fit into that bucket. Yeah, I don't think it's a place you want to be. It's a place you want to avoid. But it's just so hard to avoid it because like look at the ramp situation when they decided to sign jared kopp he was just coming off the super bowl and he just put up these crazy numbers even though you could see when you watch like this obviously isn't a guy who's

as good as the numbers and the team record implies but try explaining that to your fans. And most of your fans are grinding film and looking at EPA numbers and play action splits. So, I mean, you have to sign him. I don't know what you do. I don't know how you explained it. I personally would have, and I advocated for it, I would have traded him. I would have traded him that offseason and tried to get as many draft picks as I could.

But I just don't think that's realistic. It's easy for me to say as the blogger, but as an NFL GM who drafted Jared Goff, it's hard to give up on him. It's also hard to explain it to your owner. I mean, if you go to owners who are usually fans and not people who are studying EPAs and grinding film, right? They're just rich fans. And you go and you say, yeah, I know we just went to the Super Bowl with Jared Goff and I know that he's like good looking and selling us tickets and everyone likes him and stuff but uh yeah we're gonna trade him so I mean it would be it would be very very gutsy and it's kind of like you know the the Bill Walsh thing of moving on from Joe Montana to uh Steve

Young and how he always kind of wanted to do that. And it was really difficult because that's Joe freaking Montana and you've won with him. And it takes a lot of guts to move on. And I think this is what the Vikings ran into to this offseason where they said, do we want to extend him or not? And they said, well, you know, he keeps us in our jobs because he's going to win seven games even when we're bad or he's going to, like, they're not a great team this year. They're going to end up with eight or nine wins and sometimes cousins will leave the league in interceptions for six games and sometimes they'll have 120 quarterback rating for

some games uh i am curious about what you think about the teams that are tied with the vikings in the standings i mean the bears are just an atrocity so i don't even know if they're worth talking about san francisco though, when we're talking about coaches who can raise the level of play of everyone around them, Kyle Shanahan is about as good as it gets. For that team to be 5-6 when their injury report looks like my taxes, I mean, it's truly incredible. I just don't think that he can keep doing it with Nick Mullins, though.

Right. Nick Mullins is, like, that's the limit. If there's a limit to Shanahan's genius, we found it. It's Nick Mullins, though. Right. Nick Mullins is, like, that's the limit. If there's a limit to Shanahan's genius, we found it. It's Nick Mullins. And I just really wish we could see one season or another season where Shanahan has a real quarterback. We saw it once in Atlanta with Matt Ryan, and they broke records. But, yeah, between the 49ers, I just think there's too many limitations with the roster. And it's kind of like every other week,

like the 49ers look like they're a decent team that maybe could make a run at the playoffs, and then the next week Nick Mullins is just full Nick Mullins and you're like, how is this team even winning games? And the Bears are well beyond that point. That's every week for them just because of the quarterback situation. I used to have a Bears fan earlier in the year who would dm me after every win because i predicted they'd win three games it's been a long time since he's dm'd me i dm'd him back a couple weeks ago and he never answered but i yeah i really think the vikings after the vikings you could just dismiss the rest

of the teams it's the vikings and up and that's the playoff picture for me. I am equally as petty, by the way. There was somebody who was upset that I called Matt Patricia a joke after I watched the tape of the Vikings-Lions game, and I said that is the worst scheme I have ever seen a defense have against Kirk Cousins and the Vikings offense. It's like, what's the worst thing we could possibly do against them? Play man when they run deep crossers all the time and let justin jefferson run across the whole field away from everybody and be wide open great

plan and so uh you know of course somebody on twitter oh you're just a hot take guy so i circled back several different times over the last few days to just check on that opinion was it was it that uh eddie p burner that everyone thought it? It was not the fake Patricia Burner. That was clearly fake, people. Like that's the kind of burner you create if all you knew about Patricia was that he coached for the Patriots and studied space at one point in his life. And his middle name might be Eddie or Edward or something. Yeah, but what a shame to see someone deserve to get fired and get fired. But anybody behind the Vikings, I feel like, is not really a threat.

So this is going to be a fascinating race of pretty much, I look at it as Arizona and the Vikings. Now, at the top, I need your opinion on all these flawed teams. I mean, Green Bay, you play guard, I'll play running back, and we'll run for 200 on Green Bay. It's not even – they don't even challenge teams with their defense. New Orleans, all of a sudden, has a great defense and a tight end at quarterback. And Seattle, it's kind of like Russell Wilson doesn't know what to do on third down.

So, obviously, the Giants are going to win the Super Bowl is what I'm saying. They're the favorites. I'm really looking forward to the Gatorade bats when they win the division at five. But yeah, I mean, it's just basically who's going to lose to the Chiefs for me. But if you had to pick a top team, it has to be the Saints.

Eventually Drew Brees is going to come back and I don't think the schedule is too hard. I don't know if Brees is going to be back before the Chiefs game, but that's the only game I think they're going to lose back. And I don't think the schedule is too hard. I don't know if Brees is going to be back before the Chiefs game, but that's the only game I think they're going to lose before the regular season's up. And that first round bye is very important for the Saints because you do not want Drew Brees going to Lambeau with that arm.

So it's going to come down to that for me. It's either the Packers or the Saints, and whoever wins the one-team, I think, is going to the Super Bowl. 2020 has already reshaped how we work, and it's almost over. Businesses across the globe are challenged to be their most efficient, which means every hire is critical. Indeed is here to help. Indeed is the number one job site in the world with more total visits than any other job site, according to Comscore. Indeed helps you find quality candidates quickly so you can focus on hiring the person you need to keep business going. Unlike other sites, Indeed gives you full control and payment flexibility over your hiring. You only pay

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but you can still be in on the action at BetOnline. BetOnline is going the extra mile to make sure you can get in on every possible chance to win this season. From game spreads and totals to team and player and coaching props, BetOnline gives you more options to wager than anywhere else. Head to BetOnline today and take advantage of all the great sign-up bonuses. Don't forget to use promo code BLUEWIRE at BetOnline.ag. That's BLUEWIRE, all one word, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. I also think that the Saints have been so good for so long,

and the Vikings have played, obviously, a key role in them not reaching the Super Bowl. But if you think about it, how crazy it is that one year it's the Minneapolis miracle, the next year it's Nickel Robey Coleman killing a guy five seconds before the ball gets there, and then the next year after that it's Kyle Rudolph pushing off in the end zone. I mean, it's just been a stretch of bad luck that you would think eventually has to break for them. And they are clearly, in my mind, the strongest team. It's just whether Breeze is back to 100% by then. Last question for you.

Of the entire NFC, because no one on this podcast cares about the AFC, so forget them. The entire NFC, tell me the team that you would most and least like to be over the next five years. If you were to, hey, someone said, hey, Steven, I love your work. You can have any GM job in the NFL or in the NFC. Which one are you taking first? Which one are you like, no, not going to happen?

I'm looking at a list of the teams now uh i think i might take i'm gonna i'm gonna regret this but i think it might take the cardinals for who you want to be for who i want to be i want to be who i wouldn't want to be is probably the falcons because that rebuild is going to take our eagles you can go either way with those teams. I actually I'll go with the Eagles because at least the Falcons have a quarterback who's functional right now. So I think I would take the Eagles because that salary cap situation is a mess. Carson Wentz is there for at least two more years.

I think just all the turmoil they need to find a new coach. At least the Falcons have Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley and Matt Ryan. I feel like if the defense just gets some lucky breaks, you can get a 9-7 team out of that. I don't know what you could do with the Eagles at this point. And then Washington, I would just never want to be Washington just because Daniel Snyder is the owner, but I don't know if that counts. If we throw that element out, I think there is actually a good case for Washington.

I know that the Alex Smith contract makes it complicated, but if you're going into it this next year with a high draft pick and you can take a quarterback, I think that whoever takes over a quarterback has a great setup. You've got Terry McLaurin, you've got a defense that is really loaded and low-key, very, very good at football, but no one cares because they're four and seven. That's not a terrible setup. I agree with you. I want my team to have a name. Like, let's just start there. When we're checking off lists, like, let's see, who's last? Oh, they don't even have a team name, so that's going to be a no for me.

But it's a blank slate. You can name the team anything. That's true. I've been calling them the Sharks on the podcast. I don't know if you know that. Washington Sharks. And I also think, I'll make a slight case for Detroit. If you go 9-7 with Detroit, you're a god.

Like, they'll build a statue outside. But I actually wouldn't mind that because you could trade Matt Stafford for something. You're going to get a high draft pick. You could take a quarterback. Like, there is some flexibility there. But if you're talking about already having – How do we feel about cn yeah yeah i mean well the thing is about that is i mean you have a superstar quarterback who's not going to fall off within the next five years you could probably

scheme better on defense if you said hey pete carroll how about you give up the keys and maybe let somebody else scheme on defense i also think it's Carroll how about you give up the keys and maybe let somebody else scheme on defense I also think it's probably easier to rebuild the defense than it is to find mega star talents at wide receiver like DK Metcalf so don't hate it I mean already like they're eight and three right now so I always kind of think of like which could I take my GM mastery and mold with my brilliance you know but if you're thinking about like, oh, well, which team is the most set up in the NFC to win the Superbowl in 2021, it actually probably is Seattle because they can continue to build around that

defense. Although, Hey, let's not trade all of our first round picks for a safety. Not a great plan. Is he a safety? I thought he was an edge rusher these days. Is he actually play safety? Yeah. They have not. That hasn't worked out super good for them.

So, I mean, if you're considering like draft capital as part of this, that would be annoying. But if you're taking just the team whose quarterback is great and who you could try to rebuild the defense to win a Super Bowl, it probably is Seattle. But I think it's an interesting discussion because so many teams are just kind of a cluster in the NFC where they are decent. I mean, the Vikings are in this category.

They're decent, but they also have either cap problems or major holes that you have to fill that will kind of keep them out of that discussion. So anyway, well, Stephen, your work, even beyond when you're looking at the Fox graphics, is good. And people should check it out at the Stephen Ruiz that's with an E-N. Not like Stephen Ridley, who's S-T-E-V-A-N. Not like him. That's usually what people get wrong when they spell my name. Really?

Well, I mean, I can see the P-H, but Stephen Ridley is the only guy ever that I've seen it that's S-T-E-V-A-N. Surprisingly, a lot of people can't handle the last name, which I don't understand. Like, I've gotten, like, Rucks, and I'm like, where are you getting the X sound, I guess, or the K? I get a lot of interesting pronunciations of the last name. I didn't know Ruiz was uncommon. I would have thought I would have had more problems with you. With Collier often comes up. People add that I, but what are you going to do?

All right. Well, I've kept you away from Ravens and Steelers far too long. The Ravens scored somehow. I don't know. I missed it. They scored somehow. Oh, man. See, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you. I promise. Steven Ruiz, you're the best, man. I love your work. And we'll talk again soon. Same to you. Thanks for having me.