The Bill Simmons Podcast - A 72-Hour NBA Binge With Rob Mahoney, Searching for an NFL Alpha Dog With Peter Schrager, Plus Million-Dollar Picks

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by Rob Mahoney to discuss the first three days of the NBA season, including Suns-Lakers, 76ers-Bucks, and Knicks-Celtics, as well as encouraging Zion Williamson thoughts, Victor Wembanyama living up to the hype, Grizzlies concern, and more (1:11). Then, Bill is joined by Peter Schrager of NFL Network and Fox Sports to try and identify which teams can actually make a postseason run, before gauging the Texans' ceiling, discussing a turbulent Browns season, learning about Tyson Bagent, and more (41:55). Finally, Bill makes his Million-Dollar Picks for NFL Week 8 (1:39:57). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Peter Schrager and Rob Mahoney Producer: Kyle Crichton The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, basketball, football, million-dollar picks. Oh, yeah, it's Thursday. Next. It's the Bill Simmons Podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action. FanDuel's highest-rated sportsbook is the best place to bet it all. We've been doing pretty well on million-dollar picks this year. I love the first month of the season because you have to go into the season thinking,

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. I put up a new Rewatchables on Monday night. Did In the Line of Fire have a horror movie coming on Monday for Rewatchables. So stay tuned for that. Coming up, we're going to have Rob Mahoney talking after the two Thursday night TNT NBA games. We're going to react to basically everything we've seen for the last three days, just things that have jumped out to us. And then Peter Schrager is going to come on

and talk about the NFL. Do we have a best team? What are we noticing through seven weeks? What can we expect in week eight that will lead to million dollar picks? And that is today's podcast. Let's bring in our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, we're taping this.

It's almost 10 o'clock on Thursday night, Pacific time. Rob Mahoney is here from the Ringer NBA and showing the ringer.com. We stayed up late because these were two good games. We've had three straight days of very entertaining basketball. And we got to start with the biggest story. Kelly Oubre in the Sixers. What a signing that was. He looks great. No, we just watched LeBron versus the Suns.

LeBron's 29 minute limit, I think is out the window. He played the whole fourth quarter and then made the two big head down, just going to the basket plays at the end. But biggest thing that's jumped out to you in the last three days is what? Lakers-wise or just in general? In general. I think a lot of these teams that we expect to be really good clearly have some assembly required. And the Lakers are one of those teams. I think we saw that from the Bucks and the Sixers tonight, too. We're seeing it certainly with the first days of the Victor Webinyama experience. Everyone is getting up to speed

into their rhythms, trying to understand how all these new pieces fit together. Not revelatory for the opening days of the season to feel that way, but I think even some of the stuff that personally I thought was going to be seamless, like the Giannis-Dane pick and roll, there's some kinks in it that they're going to have to figure out over time. Lakers, I thought, were the one that surprised me on that one because I thought they were one of the teams that were going to have the advantage coming in. You think about last year's team compared to this year's team, it doesn't seem like Reeves is involved enough either game that

I don't want to say he's an afterthought, but it just felt like he was more in the mix in the playoffs last year. And I liked what Schroeder did for them last year. And he was good on Toronto last night and really fit in with what they did. So they're going to have to figure out that Vincent D'Lo thing. Wood was playing crunch time,

which I was really surprised. Did you think we'd be getting this much Christian Wood? I thought that was like a flyer for them. Guarding Kevin Durant on some possessions? Wild stuff. Did you think we'd be getting this much Christian Wood? I thought that was like a flyer for them. Guarding Kevin Durant on some possessions? Wild stuff. But if nothing else, we can trust that when Christian Wood is out there, he will be Christian Wood.

In these uncertain times, we can always fall back on that. He certainly had his fair share of black hole kind of possessions in this game. But he also does play into the Lakers' advantages in terms of their length, their size against a team like Phoenix. They're just going to be able to out-muscle, get to rebounds, get to balls that they can't get to. So that part of it paid off, I thought, in terms of having another big out there. And certainly the Anthony Davis experiment continues

as far as, do you want more size with him? Do you want to play small with him? There's always that eternal question because he seems a little reluctant to do it on a full-time basis, but I'm sure Christian Wood's going to get his shots. I mean, clearly Jackson Hayes is going to get some shots in the rotation to be a meaningful part of the Lakers, the mix there for the

Lakers. So I don't know. I think Darvin Ham has a lot of questions to figure out, including the one you listed with Austin Reeves, which is like, who has the ball? Who's initiating for us? Who is involved on a possession-to-possession basis? Because this game, this was a lot of D'Angelo Russell.

And it was a lot of a better version of D'Angelo Russell than maybe we saw the other night. But it still feels like a lot. 33 minutes for him tonight. Yeah, Reeves, seven shots, one assist. And I thought his,

all of his usage stuff was going to go up, but it seems like it drifted Russell's way. The other thing I was surprised, I thought Rui was going to be a bigger part of this team. He only played 12 minutes, but I haven't changed my thought on them. They're just such a big, problematic

team. And if you're the Suns and you're feeling good after that Warriors game, right? And the Warriors know Draymond. They're able to overpower them a little on the boards, the two centers at 22. And then tonight, you see the flip side of the use of Nurkic experience, where it's like you're getting zero rim protection and you're getting somebody who's just going to be confused anytime somebody is coming off a pick. I mean, basically LeBron at the end of the game just said, I'm going to go attack that guy. Yeah, I'm going to go attack

that guy right there. Durant was better tonight, at least for the first just said, I'm going to go attack that guy. I'm going to go attack that guy right there. Durant was better tonight, at least for the first three quarters that he looked on Tuesday night. It was really cool just seeing those guys on a basketball court after all these years. As I get older, I'm older than you, but just think, man, this goes way back now. We're talking mid-2000s was the first time these two guys played basketball against each other and still going on.

So that was in a cool way kind of lingering over this game. I was enjoying that one. How do you think Durant looks in terms of being a 35-year-old guy who they gave up three first-rounders and two swaps and Mikael Bridges and Cam Johnson for? It feels like a slightly loaded question. Yeah.

He's looked good. And certainly, as you said, the first three quarters of this game looked more than good enough. I think the problem was just like this version of the Suns felt very like James Harden is hurt and Kyrie Irving won't get the shot. Nets. You know, just like Kevin Durant

and a bunch of like... Blocked that net out of my mind. I think a lot of us have tried to, but him with a lot of like serviceable workaday role players can get you so far. But as you saw in this one, against a really good defensive team

like the Lakers in the fourth quarter, they can just shut the water off. And this is where I'm nervous about the Suns for a variety of reasons. I think if it was just the defense or just the depth or just the injury risk of their core guys, I would feel better,

but it's all of the above all the time. And that's going to put Durant in some games like this one. It's going to put Yusuf Nurkic in positions like this one where all of a sudden he's triggering your offense because you don't really have a default point guard out there. And sometimes the value of having a point guard in your rotation, I don't think it's really going to matter when Beal and Booker and Durant are playing together. Those guys can all handle and playmake and do everything they need to do.

But in a game like this, where two of those guys are out, sometimes it helps to just be able to run some offense that doesn't have to involve Kevin Durant pounding the rock through pick and roll. Yeah. 28 shots for him today. 13 including, and then 13 free throws. He played 39 minutes and was also playing the five. Yeah. In stretches.

And this is game two. They had to basically try to unlock 2007 Texas Longhorns Durant. So that's the last guy I want to be throwing miles on. Maybe in the entire league other than LeBron. That's going to be true for Booker and Beal too, right? When any of these guys are out, those three, whoever's left, is going to have to play huge minutes.

Or else you get into Grayson Allen and Drew Eubanks are playing a massive role in your rotation. And I like those guys. I like Drew Eubanks. Maybe not tamper and lose a second round pick like Drew Eubanks, like not tamper and lose a second-round pick like Drew Eubanks, like some teams do. I'd lose 50K for him.

Maybe not a second-round pick. It's a little steep. Yeah. The other game, Milwaukee-Philly. So no Harden. I wish there was a way to just mute the entire Harden story, all coverage for it,

anything online, anything on Twitter, all conversations. I just don't want to hear it anymore, and I don't think he has any interest in playing, and I just think, just tell us when he gets traded. Their best chance now, especially the Clippers last night looked great.

Now they look great against Portland, but they look good and they're healthy, and the last thing they want to do is bring the James Harden problem onto their team. So Philly has no options. He's got to come back in the next, you know, 28 days,

but their best thing that happened in Philly this week was that the bulls looked like shit yesterday. And that's probably the panic team for James Harden. If the bulls are just like, Jesus, what do we do? Hey, all right,

Zach, maybe we just get out of Zach Levine's money and figure it out. But the Sixers-Bucks thing, the thing that jumped out to me from the Philly side is, you know, Embiid's coming off this MVP year. Yes. He really did not have a good Boston playoff series. It's certainly not a series he could feel good about

in any respect. And you see some of these other guys come back from disappointments, like even somebody like Giannis, and they're like, they just look like they're in amazing shape and incredible focus. I thought he sucked tonight. Really? And I did.

Especially in the fourth quarter, I just thought, you know, he missed a bunch of shots in a row. The key play of the game, they're swinging the ball around. He does that touch pass. Oh my gosh. Maybe the worst touch pass I've ever seen right to the, right to the bucks. They get a fast break and he doesn't run back and they end up the fast break. Doesn't work out. They throw it back for a three and he still hasn't run back. Yeah. And it's a five point swing. And it was a lot of stuff like that. He fell down a bunch of times. And if this was not a, hey man, I know we don't have James Harden, but get on my back guys. I didn't feel that way at all.

He's going against Giannis too. So I thought from a Philly standpoint that was pretty discouraging because their other guys played really well. I thought that was a great Maxie game. Maxie, he's got all the Bucks games circled because he's like 30 plus. They got a lot out of Oubre. Harris and a contractor looked really good. I thought some of their bench guys looked okay, but he was the piece that didn't come through for them. Then on the flip side on the Bucs, it's just Damian Yannis and some Lopez. Then they got a little more from Jay Crowder than I thought, but I left that game a little suspicious of both teams. I know that's weird to say. What about you? Well, I think Middleton being on a very clear minutes limit and looking like a guy on a minutes

limit, it kind of bends Milwaukee's rotation in certain ways. It certainly asks a lot of not only Dame, because he's kind of taking on more ball handling, but even your Malik Beasleys and your Pat Connaughtons, like those guys are just having to do more than hopefully for the Bucs they will ultimately have to do. So I think we'll see. What's heartening about the Dame part of it is just like we've never seen Giannis play

with anything remotely like this before. Oh my God, that was awesome. 39 points. And you know, as I said earlier, there's a lot to work out in terms of what this offense is going to look like and how those two are going to work together. And in fairness to Giannis,

figuring out your short role game with a new teammate when Joel Embiid is waiting for you in the paint every time, the difficulty has been ratcheted up for this particular scenario. So I'm conscious of that. But for any hand-wringing you would want to do about the Bucs, when it came time to decide who was

going to close this game, there was complete clarity as far as who that was going to be. And we'll see if that is because Dame was having a great night, or if that's just kind of what his role in this team is going to be. But in terms of his place in the offense, Giannis' teammates don't score this much. They just don't.

Like, they categorically, historically, have not. It happened two times all last season. Two Drew Holiday games where a Giannis teammate scored 39 or more. No Giannis teammate ever has attempted 17 free throws before. Right. And he was 17 for 17 on free throws, which was amazing. And just like that kind of driving force is something Milwaukee hasn't had outside of Giannis. So the fact that you have this not only phenomenal score, who's going to hit,

I mean, he hit and won threes in this game. He had incredible shots, but who can get to the rim and who clearly knows how to use his gravity to pass out and set up other guys. It just felt a little more in control than we're used to seeing from crunch time Milwaukee Bucks basketball. Yeah, Nianis is not the type of guy who's going to be going, hey man, I could have used a couple touches there late. Like he seemed super happy with it.

It was the perfect Dame game because there were people to hide him on, on the Philly side the entire game. Like he was like, oh cool, it's Danny Green. I'm going to go stand over next to him on this possession. I'm the entire game like he was like oh cool it's danny green i'm gonna go stand over next to him on this possession uh i'm not sure they're always gonna be able to get away from that um in terms of their supporting cast though i still have a lot of questions but you know they can always add to it maybe uh maybe bow champ i don't know could could get some real

run yeah because he at least was giving them a little defensive intensity and uh was trying to do stuff but it just I think the Maxi type players are gonna kill that team all season

cause it was he was just full head of steam nobody getting close to him and I do think if Embiid had a better game and a couple plays

had gone their way I mean there was that I there was just a slew of terrible referee moments in these first three days. Not ideal. It still feels like the preseason for the refs,

but Giannis throwing that air ball to himself with like three minutes left, clearly an air ball. Like it wasn't like, oh, I wonder if that hit the rim or scraped the backboard. It was like, no, he just threw it over the rim, caught it. Two of the Sixers stopped. The whole Sixers bench is jumping up. And then they could have reviewed that and basically nullified the three, I think, right? Or are they not allowed to do that? I'm trying to remember what the shot was that followed. I mean, look.

I think it's a violation. The play stops, but somehow everybody missed it. And that turned out to be a big one. Well, that's where you're tripping up. It wasn't a violation. This was a revolutionary new act of basketball. And I don't know why you're turning your nose up as someone pushing the envelope forward. Airball rebounding. Yeah, so if you're Philly, on the one hand, you're encouraged.

On the other hand, you're in day two of the James Harden hostage crisis. And God only knows how that's going to play out. And it's this thing you're going to have to deal with all the time. And you're still on the clock with Embiid. Not great. I really, really enjoyed the Damianas part though. I just, as a basketball fan, it was really fun to watch.

And I was thinking, I didn't really love watching the Bucs the last couple of years because we had spent a lot of time with Giannis, so I knew all his stuff. But in terms of like league pass regular season stuff, I never felt like they were really a must watch because I'm like, oh, I know that team. I'll just watch them when they get to the playoffs.

I don't need to necessarily put my Bucs time in. But now I feel like I'm going to watch more of them this year because their crunch time stuff is going to be more fun, right? Is that fair? I think it's totally fair. And as far as when I think about league pass teams too, I'm thinking which teams reward repeat viewing, right? Which are the teams that over the course of the season,

you're going to have more and more fun with the more you see them. And Milwaukee has always been a we play the way we play kind of team, tactically speaking. They have their system. They stay to it. Man, we got game one, Milwaukee Bucks doubling Joel Embiid aggressively.

Like, Mike Budenholzer's Bucks are a long way in the rearview mirror at this point. So I think just in the perspective of we're going to see kind of what Adrian Griffin has in store for this group,

how they're going to defend on a nightly basis, what kind of different things they might do in addition to all the Dame and Giannis wrinkles group, how they're going to defend on a nightly basis, what kind of different things they might do in addition to all the Dame and Giannis wrinkles. There's going to be a rewatchable quality to them that's a little more interesting than it's been. But I don't want to be too down on Philly.

I think it's interesting that they're doing this kind of decentralized offense. And they're clearly trying to... It's the kind of thing you can really only do after Joel wins the MVP. He's gotten his acknowledgement. Dominant player. We all understand what he can do.

They've been very vocal in camp about trying to move the ball more, trying to get Tobias Harris involved as a ball handler. Clearly, Maxie is going to be a huge priority. He had 31. As you said, he's going to torch the Bucs and teams like the Bucs all season.

I thought he could have done even more in this game. Yeah, I thought he could add a 40. I agree with you. He probably could have had a good floater or a good look at a three almost whenever he wanted based on the matchups. So I'm interested in seeing how that bears out because obviously they're balancing their offense.

Four guys scoring 20-plus is indicative of that. But there wasn't a lot of rhythm to what they were doing. It didn't feel clean. It didn't feel practiced. It didn't feel comfortable for them yet. And so I want to see if this is the group they have. If they end up having to sit on James Harden for a while and they don't get whatever the return for him is going to be

for months, until months from now, how are they going to settle into the rhythm of this offense? What will this ultimately be if this is the collection of guys they're ultimately going to go to war with for the majority of the season? I think for league pass purposes, they might actually in some ways be more interesting than last year because that Harden and B

two-man game stuff, how many times can you watch it? You know, it was Groundhog Day. Let's take a break. I want to talk about some of this stuff from last night. There were a couple of things that jumped out to me. Score early this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 Moneyline bet wins. I am going to be talking about NFL million- Picks week eight.

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It's on Monday. It's on Prime. So I was on a lot of text threads last night and today during that Celtics-Knicks game. Another game that had some bad calls that I will fully admit benefited my team. But there was a Jalen Brown subplot to that game that I started getting texts about. And just in general was concerning to me watching it where you have a guy who averaged almost 21 shots a game last year.

Now you're watching the team this year. And especially when we got to the fourth quarter. And by the way, he had no shot attempts in the fourth quarter. They were just better options all the time than Jalen Brown for the Celtics in that particular game. I was happy when either guard had the ball, Tatum, obviously, and then this 7'4 freak Porzingis,

for as long as he stays healthy, awesome. It was weird because I had the same reaction watching and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to suppress that as a Celtics fan. I'm not going to be cynical. And then started getting texts about it. It's like, ooh, Jalen. Is he going to be happy? Is he going to get enough shots this year?

304 million bucks. He's the third option. Maybe the fourth option. How is this going to play out? This is one game he might be awesome I was about to say he might be awesome on Friday night

but it was a subplot I wasn't expecting the is Jalen Brown going to be happy this year on this team if his shots go down

Doc Rivers mentioned this on my podcast on Tuesday he thought this was the subplot to watch when he said it I was like nah it'll be fine and then I watched

that next game I'm like oh what is this going to be? So I don't know. It's a TBD, but I wanted your take. I think it's one of those things that, first of all, yes, it is game one. I know the body language doctor is always in. Always. The body language doctor is 365 a year, Rob. I get it, but I think your license can be revoked if you act too early on these things. So we might have to bottle it up for a little while.

I think it's going to depend on whether this is a pattern. If every time they get into crunch time situations, Jalen Brown turns into the guy in the corner, I'm sure he's going to feel a certain way about that. I think any player of his caliber would. So just like it's going to depend on who is starting on a night-to-night basis, the Celtics were talking about maybe they can kind of share those responsibilities from time to

time in terms of who comes off the bench. Jason Tatum was volunteering. Did you see the top six guys? They had a meeting and tried to figure it out. It's like this Joe Mazzulli nation. Let's do it, man. Never too early for team meetings. The Chicago Bulls also are the earliest players-only meeting on record.

It's a big day for meetings. I hope they were all productive. I hope they all were more substantive than an email. Certainly for the Celtics, I like where they are to start. How these things ultimately settle in with Jalen Brown, extremely hard to say, but I think it's going to depend on... They're going to

have to pick nights in the regular season, certainly, where they openly clear out for him in those spots. Right? Right. That's so much of what regular season basketball is about. It's not just troubleshooting for the playoffs, figuring out your rotation.

There are nights where teams just actively have to set up their second and third guy and say, we're giving you this one. Show us what you can do. We're playing the Wizards tonight. You got 25 shots for you tonight, buddy. You know? And there's nothing wrong with that.

I think the only question is, will he be content if that's kind of what his place in things is? If ultimately when they do get to the games that matter in the playoffs or the big marquee nationally televised games against the Sixers or the Bucks or whoever, if he is kind of in the background of those games,

that can be a very tough thing to deal with for a player in his position. Well, we have this Friday night game with them in Miami, which I think is probably the number one rivalry right now, right? I guess LeBron and Curry, anytime they play, that

feels like it means the most because those are the two best players of this generation. I would say for teams, for history, for Miami's chip on the-the-shoulderness. Miami's in rare form already. They won their typical one-point game. They came down to the other team missing weight,

and they went to the free throws. They made all their free throws. It was just a classic, ridiculous heat win. They'll have another 40 of those, and they'll play Boston tomorrow night. Boston's feeling good. A lot of Porzingis fever. It's funny.

Some people didn't see the preseason and didn't see, if you watch the preseason, just the open threes of a 7'4 guy who is almost like a free throw for him. So to watch that, I think in that next game, I think some people are like, oh my God, Porzingis. It's like, yeah.

The question is, can he stay on the court? But matching them up against Miami,, Porzingis. It's like, yeah. The question is, can he stay on the court? But matching them up against Miami, that Porzingis piece, where Miami doesn't really have any size, and Miami was always able to just throttle their half-court offense. I don't think it's going to happen this year, but

they'll lose some other stuff. Famous last words in the Heat-Celtics matchup. So I wish you and them the best in that regard. But the Heat have a way of throttling a lot of really good teams in those situations. They are throttlers. We'll see, though. I'm sure Miami, they've read everything.

They've heard everything. I mean, so good people put the crown on Boston. Anyway, I have the Jalen Brown thing marked. Zion? It still looks a little heavy to me, but athletically looked really good last night. And I thought it was encouraging, right? Were you encouraged?

Definitely. I mean, it's encouraging that he's challenging Jaron Jackson Jr. in the air, right? It's not just bully on the ground, nudge him out of your way and try to finish with layups, but that he's going up in those situations. Those are really encouraging signs. As usual, my concerns

with Zion are much more like, is he ever going to guard anybody? Does he have a defensive position? What are they going to do with all that? I'm more concerned about that stuff. Offensively, he's so efficient. He's so good at getting to his spots inside. He's so good at getting to his spots inside. So good at finishing around people.

Shouldn't be able to finish around. I feel pretty confident about him being a hugely impactful offensive player. I just, I really wonder about the other side.

You and Waz and Barrier, you guys did great previews for us that I think are still going. I don't know, they somehow were longer than our previews. But you had a whole

Zion conversation and just about like, what position is he ultimately if your team is a 55 win team and could he be like a stretch five? Seriously. Yeah, I don't know.

Where do you put him? Who's the right person to put next to him? He really is this enigma trapped in a riddle. It's like a college basketball team just adding the best football player and be like, hey, this guy, he's good. We'll just figure it out.

But this is like year, what is it, four or five for him? Year five? God, is it really? No, maybe it's year four or year five, one of them. But we're still trying to figure out what this is and what kind of team should be put with this person. Does he need a point guard? Does he need a rim protector next to him? I don't know.

It's like he's going to be 30 and we're still going to be figuring it out. They're the anomalies that come into the league and we feel very dumb forever second-guessing where they would fit. You know, like Draymond comes in. It's like, is he a three? Is he a four?

What is he supposed to do? It's like, oh, obviously, he's one of the defining small ball players of his generation. Clearly, that one worked out. And then there are the anomalies that's just like, it never really is apparent where they should be or what they should do or how they should play. They always have some kind

of very specific deficit in their game that makes it hard to slot them in. If you have one-of-a-kind players, sometimes in. If you have one-of-a-kind players, sometimes you have to find other one-of-a-kind players to play with them. And that can be a very challenging process for a team in the Pelicans' position. They have a ton of talent. They have a lot of depth, certainly, especially when all their guys are healthy.

They're dealing with some shorthanding issues right now, but ultimately, it's hard to even conceptually think, who is the best player to put next to Zion? What does that player look like? How do you get them? Every step in that process is hard.

I don't think it's Brandon Ingram, I'll tell you that much. Another guy, another unicorny guy, the ultimate unicorn, Wemba Nyama, who unfortunately the league didn't get the memo in time to the refs. Please don't put him in foul trouble during this first game.

People just want to watch him. I think he's easier to fit around because he can play off the ball. He can play with the ball. He can play four. He can play five. He can protect the rim. He can just be in the middle like how the Celtics use Porzingis or he

can be in the corner and jump out Rob Williams style. I think a better passer than any of us were prepared for, um, from the, from the weird French highlights and the league like that. But, uh,

his strokes. Nice. I, he's just bad. He's just further ahead than I was expecting. And I think what I wasn't really fully expecting was how much I'm going to be watching him this year. Cause it's one of those,

like, and I had the three TVs going. If he's on one of the TVs, I can't really focus on anything else when he's in. Like I really can't. It's like having like one of your kids in a soccer game or something like you're just kind of transfixed by it. Did you feel that way? Yeah. I mean, especially if you have that kind of multi-screen experience, there are things where you're saying, you know, like you're looking down, you're checking your phone, you're, you know, you're on your computer or whatever, and you'll just kind of multi-screen experience, there are things where you're looking down, you're checking your phone, you're on your computer or whatever, and you'll just kind of casually look up.

And the way he contests a three-pointer... It's so exciting. He's the most exciting three-point contester ever. Incredibly so. And it's legitimately disorienting where it's like, I'm seeing a movement on my screen I'm just not used to seeing. A blur of arm going to this shot that hasn't hasn't arced yet but is very much in midair did

you see he almost blocked the Kyrie 3 at the end of the game last night he missed it by like a fingernail absolutely insane but can you blame Kyrie for going for it like you got to take that shot if you get that opportunity that would have been an incredible moment but this I mean like I was looking ahead for this weekend. Who are the teams that I need to check in with early that I really want to see? Rocket Spurs, I think, is appointment viewing for me this weekend. I really want to see what Houston looks like.

I haven't had a chance to check them out yet. And Victor, especially against young teams, especially against other young bigs, I just want to see those battles. I want to see how these guys try to comprehend everything that he can do and figure out ways around him. It's going to be such an interesting mental exercise all season long for the most clever, the most skilled bigs in the league to just figure out what to do with him. Yeah. And you could tell they're amused by it in a way like,

oh my God, I just can't believe this person exists. One of the things, the league is so deep. You just think like this Friday night, the Heat Celtics we mentioned, Wemby's playing the Rockets. Knicks, Hawks, Trae Young versus the Knicks. Nuggets, Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are already in a little bit of a danger zone. I want to talk about them in a second.

And then Warriors-Kings, which was an awesome playoff series. Those are just five of the games tomorrow night. We got to get a Thunder game too. I think Thunder-Cavs. Yeah, Thunder-Cavs. I need to see more Thunder. I got a text out of the blue the other day from Kyle Mann that just said Jalen Williams is swole.

So I need to get to the bottom of that situation. I need to figure out what's going on with that. Well, there was a case on Wallace development with them in the first game. I have Thunder bets all over the place. So I'm, I'm very invested in them for a variety of reasons. And, uh,

the Wallace piece coming off the bench, there's, there's some energy from their bench. That is pretty unusual when you watch the other teams where like, this is a team where they can actually go on a run with their bench, which I thought, uh, stood out.

I am uncomfortably in on the case on Wallace experience. Just something about the way that guy plays, the tenacity, and I'm sure the shot will come and go, but the flashes when it's been hitting are just so impressive. I'm just a sucker for a dogged perimeter defender, to be honest with you.

If you have any semblance of an offensive game, sign me up. Sign me up for the Case on Wallace season pass. That team is a bitch to play. They're just like, that is not... You had that game on your schedule, you're like, oh, fuck these guys. A couple other quick things. Oh, we'll say

Memphis really quick. They're just too small. And it's a lot of Bane. And they're going to get the Marcus Smart experience of like, I got this Marcus Smart piece of everything

where I actually think they could tailspin it a little bit in these 25 games without Ja, now no Adams and you'll have the random game

when Triple J gets into foul trouble. He gets three fouls in the first four minutes. The random game. That might be two out of every three games. Right.

I could see a start for them where they start out like five and ten or something where we're like, oh my God, what do the Grizzlies do? And I wonder, they've been a pretty patient team

for the most part. Yeah. I don't know if they can be patient this year, if they want to be in position when Ja comes back because the West is too good. So,

do you agree? Probably they need to make a move in the next couple weeks, especially if Portland looks as bad as they looked last night. Rob Williams is sitting there to be grabbed. Verno's been calling for that for a week. Somebody like that, right? I think especially the Adams injury puts them behind that

particular eight ball. It makes a Williams trade or a trade for another big just make all the sense in the world if you can jump on one of those guys right now. They're a tough team to understand at this juncture just because historically, they've done pretty well without Ja, especially two seasons ago.

They did pretty well when he was out for an extended period of time. I wonder how much of that is just like Grizzlies DNA and a thing they can replicate and how much of it was that moment in time, that collection of players, Tyus Jones, who isn't on the team anymore, just being like a rock solid backup option

who you're slotting in versus, as you say, the Marcus Smart, like the ups and downs of living with Marcus Smart on an everyday basis, just a very different thing. Desmond Bain is going to have to do a lot and you would hope that Jaron Jackson can flex out his offensive game a little bit too. It's just a little more matchup dependent for him.

I don't know if he has it. When those matchups aren't in the cards, I don't know where else they turn other than Bane forcing a lot of action, Smart taking basically whatever he wants out of some of those possessions. A lot of offense is going to dry up for them. So I agree.

It's like if it was just Ja, I would feel better, but that it's Ja and the front court depth with Adams and Brandon Clark out, it's just a lot to compensate for. It's a lot to put on Desmond Baines' plate even though he's one of the best young scorers in the league, like a really impressive

player who's going to grow, but that's a lot. And they lost rebounding too, which they can't be happy about either. Yeah, I think that team, that's definitely a watch the first two weeks with that team. Cause that could go sideways. I thought Washington and Portland were the only two teams that stood out over the first couple of days. It's just bad. I don't know if we have any other bad teams. I think Washington and Portland have a chance to be bad. A team that I was hoping would be good. And I picked them to make the playoffs and I feel like I it was the

right instinct is Toronto yeah new coach they flipped out uh Van Vliet brought in Schroeder who's having a shrewd assance with uh with the world championships the Lakers run last year um I just like the vibe of that team I want to see them again I'm not going to say like oh I've watched one game. That team's going to win 45 games. But there was an energy to them that they did not have last year. And I think what was alarming about them

last year and the year before was it was like, what is this team? Doesn't even seem like they like each other. So do you notice that or no? The vibes were so horrendous last season that even just seeing a team like celebrating each other, like being a little more into it on a

collective basis, I think is pretty heartening. But also individual defensive effort from guys like Siakam and Barnes. That stuff, I think, means a lot. Those are two guys who can be very good defenders. Siakam can be an excellent defender. Barnes, I think, is still learning, but has all the tools to be one. And so seeing those

guys engaged and plugged in on a more standard, regular basis does mean a lot. And Schroeder plugging in, they didn't really miss a beat as far as that kind of playmaking worked really well for them. As you said, I was honestly really impressed with who he turned out to be for the Lakers.

Not just offensively, but chasing defensively. That's something that Dennis Schroeder, again, historically, has not always done. And so another guy who like when everything when his head is screwed on right when the environment is right can be a very impactful player and I think they have maybe a couple too many of those guys

stacked on top of each other to feel like they're going to be an excellent team but if the energy is good in terms of how that group works together I think they're going to be pretty formidable I like them and they beat a to be pretty formidable. I like them. And they beat a Minnesota team that I thought, I watched probably the last,

I watched the last 18 minutes of that game. And I thought Minnesota was actually playing hard. And, you know, the Towns go bear thing, I have that kind of checkmark that I want to keep watching it. It still doesn't look right to me. Towns made the biggest mistake of the game. A couple more quick things, then we'll go. Simmons doesn't want to shoot still.

That's just where we are. He can't play in the last four minutes of the game. He put up stats. He had some rebounds. He had some passes. He pushed the ball, but ultimately, I just don't think that's a guy that can be out there in the last five minutes of the game. What did you think? That might be okay. Ultimately, I think you're probably

going to want the ball more so with Mikael Bridges, more so with Spencer Dinwiddie in some situations, just in terms of who is willing to take that shot, who's willing to step up into those moments. I'm fine with slow playing Ben Simmons. You want rotation guy Ben Simmons.

I want rotation guy Ben Simmons. You're not looking for all-NBA Ben Simmons anymore. That guy's gone. If that ship hasn't sailed, it's getting ready to leave harbor imminently. The crew is telling everybody two minutes. They are taking the ropes off the dock. So, and I'm honestly,

genuinely, I'm cool with that. Like, a guy who accelerates pace, who gives them a playmaker. The Nets don't have a lot of high-level passing on that roster, and that's why they get a little stodgy sometimes. So if he's even able to help connect some dots, I think that's a healthy thing for them.

Let's just keep expectations extremely low and see if he can met out as being a useful guy for them. I thought Charlotte looked a little better than I was expecting. They're not deep, but I thought their five played well together. I'm watching them. Cade's back.

That was good. That was a bonus. He's on my must-hit list for the weekend. I got to see Cade. He did a nice job against Miami. And then the last one for me, Dallas beats San Antonio. San Antonio, their over-under was 27 and a half wins.

Don't throw yourself a party because you barely beat the Spurs. I thought Lively looked really good in the game. I don't know how real it was, but the thing I really liked was how hard he played. He really gave a shit. That was the feedback about him preseason.

I didn't love the pick. I didn't like that they were counting on a rookie center. I thought he played 120% with athleticism. And compared to what they were getting from that position in the last couple of years, I was like, all right, this is notable. I want to keep an eye on this because maybe they do have something here. I never believed the Mavs were like, oh, this guy's going to be amazing. They burned us too many times. But I liked what I saw. What did you think? I think he profiles as exactly the kind of player

you want with Luka. And I think the quality, when I think about who fits with Luka, there's a lot of skill sets that make sense. Dwight Powell has eaten well for years now, just based off rolling off of Luka. Those kinds of things make sense. With Lively,

it's the same thing I see in Josh Green. It's the same thing I see in Tim Hardaway Jr., to be honest, which is who are the self-starters? Who are the guys who, energy-wise, are summoning it just because they just have those bursts where they can make really hard plays. That putback

dunk that Lively had against the Spurs, that is an exceptional like 97th percentile athleticism play. But it's also like a 97th percentile energy play. Right? To basically... I would say 97% fearless too. Like those are one of those, like I might crack my head open

when I land type of dunks. A hundred percent. And so to come out of basically being uninvolved in the primary action that led to the shot and make that kind of effort on the glass, that's what I'm excited about for Derek Lavin. That's where I see him being an incredible benefit to the Mavs because the reality is playing with Luka and Kyrie, there's going to be possessions where you don't touch the ball. There's going to be possessions where they don't even really look at you. You are there to occupy space and defenders, and you have to draw it from within yourself

to find a way to be involved. And that he can already do that this quickly, I think is a great sign. They play the Nets on Friday night and then they don't I don't know what their next game is, but the schedule, it might lead up where they might have a good like first

10 days and people will start feeling good. And then Kyrie will be like, you know what? I got to do something stupid. Here are my thoughts on something I shouldn't be weighing in on. I can't wait. And then it'll take a 180. We got some prime world events for Kyrie to weigh in on. Kyrie's

got a notepad out like, hmm. Wonder if the world needs my thoughts on this. All right. That's it. I think we hit everything, right? Made some good rounds. A lot of good basketball yet to watch. A lot of hit everything, right? We made some good rounds. I mean, a lot of good basketball yet to watch. A lot of teams I still need to see for the first time. So I'm really excited for this first weekend to kind of level

out, spread the wealth a little bit, hit some of these teams on League Pass I haven't had a chance to see. This is, I mean, one of my favorite parts of the sporting calendar. It's always a great first couple weeks, but I also think we used to overrate it some years when the talent wasn't really there. We'd be like, oh my god, it's so great. Basketball's

back. This year, honestly, I would say 75% of the teams I actually want to watch, which is pretty rare. I would say the list of teams I don't want to see is probably less than six. I'm good with the Bulls. I don't need to watch the Bulls anymore.

I'm good with the Wizards. Portland, I to watch the Bulls anymore I'm good with the Wizards Portland I might check in in like February when they figure out stuff but for the most part a lot of these teams aren't skippable for me can I say one nice thing about the Wizards yeah I thought Jordan Poole was a

good citizen of the offense in his first game kind of running the Wiz. I was expecting the full gunner experience from him. And he and Kuzma both, to be honest, I thought were pretty patient, trying to get guys involved, trying to run some semblance of an actual thing.

And it didn't work out super well because they gave up 143 points. But I appreciate the effort, is all I'm saying. Okay. There you go. Rob Mahoney. So we expanded group chat to two times a week.

Sundays. Yes. Like right around like maybe after like some early game. Yeah, we're the warm-up act for your Sunday show. So, you know,

doors at 3 p.m. You know, come for us and then check out Bill later. We need more basketball on Sundays. There's so much going on. Absolutely. So Sundays and Wednesdays on Ringer NBA and then check out Bill later. We need more basketball on Sundays. There's so much going on. Absolutely. So Sundays and Wednesdays on Ringer NBA.

And then you might make some prestige TV appearances time and times too. Thanks for staying up late with me. Good to see you. Thanks, Bill. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey.

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Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit mx.ca slash businessplatinum. All right, Peter Schrager is here. You can watch him on Good Morning Football, and you can see him on Fox on Sundays as well, going head-to-head against the best show on TV,

Ringer-wise, guys. I root for everybody, Schragkes. I don't pick favorites, except for the Ringer show. I love it. I picked that favorite. But other than that, I don't pick favorites. You know my affection for House,

for JJ, for you. I wish I could watch it. I'm sitting there trying to do it while I'm on set talking to Charles Woodson in his Hall of Fame jacket. I want to hear what JJ's got on the Jets. I have you on one of the other TVs

so I can see your friendly face popping up there. And it's wonderful stuff. We have a lot to cover, including your Celebrity Jeopardy appearance. I want to start here. It's week eight. And I don't know who the favorite in the NFL is. And I was looking at the fan dual odds

and I don't remember everything being over four to one for all the teams. It might've happened before, but I just don't personally have a recollection of that. Casey is the favorite at plus 450, and San Francisco's there. Why don't we have a favorite yet?

Is it injuries? Is it just the league is deeper? What is it? I have a couple thoughts, and it's not like I'm giving you a thesis statement or dissertation, but if I can provide a couple thoughts, I think it'll lead to good conversation. The first is

all of the really good teams have lost in primetime or big national games when everyone was watching. And I think that takes a little bit of the luster off these teams and makes the odd... If these were losses at one o'clock, it might be different,

but we watched KC lose to Detroit. So we're like, well, they're not invincible. Then they played Denver on a Thursday night and the offense didn't click. So you're like, all right, KC, I don't feel the same way about KC, but everyone watched those two games. Philadelphia goes up and plays against the Jets

in the most watched Fox game of the year, which was that late window. And everyone watched Jalen Hurts throw three interceptions with 28 million people watching in the second half. So Philly, the Bills have now lost to the Jets without Aaron Rodgers. Philly's 6-1, San Francisco's 5-1, KC's plus 450. Okay, keep going. The Bills have lost to the Jets without Aaron Rodgers and then looked terrible against the Giants in a Sunday night primetime game. And then they went to London where everyone did wake up and watch that morning game and they couldn't get out of bed and beat the Jaguars. And the last one is the Niners.

You're going into this thing and it's like, all right, we've been watching the Niners win by 20 every single game. They get on primetime against the Vikings and they lose. So I think that's maybe the betting side and the external media side from a football standpoint. Oh boy, I don't know if the football has ever been more just head scratching in a lot of ways. And I think it might be a quarterback thing. And I think about Buffalo, Cincinnati. I'm listening to teams here. KC, Dallas, I put in Miami and Philadelphia.

And I'd say those teams are set at quarterback, right? Other than that, you either have bridge quarterbacks, you have declining quarterbacks, or you have a rookie quarterback. And Purdy with San Francisco is the one that's like an outlier. But I think that you're looking at this quarterback thing. It's like, okay, if you have a set quarterback that we know is good, but other than that, that's only like a handful of teams. That means there's a bunch of gobbledygook in the middle. And you could say, yeah, well, cousins, I'm talking about the guys, the guys you talk about.

And if those teams all pick each other off, it's a quarterback thing. And there's so much turnover year to year and offensive systems and the way we want to do things that I honestly think the quality of play at the quarterback position, as much as we did a Netflix series this summer, we talk about these young, talented guys up and coming. I remember growing up, and you can pick out 12 to 14 quarterbacks that were the same guys for eight years on a team, and those were just the guys.

Did you just do a, when I was growing up? Yeah, in my growing up, my- You're officially, how old's your kid now? I have a seven-year-old son. I like this. You're turning into, you're broaching toward middle-aged media member status. I wake him up and I'm like, let me tell you about Jim Everett and Chris Miller in the NFC West.

I think you really need to hear about these showdowns between Bobby Hebert and Joe Montana. But yeah, you had the- No, I like your theory though, because I was trying to do my power poll. First of all, I couldn't believe that I had Dallas at seven. You have to. I don't like Dallas, but I had...

So the favorites are Philly, KC, Baltimore, and San Francisco, but I don't know who the actual favorite is. I usually like to put somebody in that spot. And I went with Philadelphia because I think I trust their infrastructure the most with their offensive and defensive lines. And they have a couple playmakers. And they have the tush push.

And like Devonta Smith, who's been in a coma for five weeks, if you had him on your fantasy team, you're like just completely panicking. But I still think he's a good football player. I'm sure they're going to get a go one of the weeks. They're getting Goddard going. They're always going to be able to run the ball.

They're still adding, like they added Bayard from Tennessee. They just getting Goddard going. They're always going to be able to run the ball. They're still adding, like they added Bayard from Tennessee. They just stole him for nothing. I think I'd trust them from a talent standpoint and from I think it could go sideways in the least possible ways. KC, Baltimore, San Francisco. I'm not going to trust

Baltimore yet. I want to see Lamar play three straight healthy months. I should have put Baltimore in the quarterback conversation, by the way. If I was a double back, I don't think I had him listed because I was just doing a free game. Yeah, that's fine. But to your point, they went to London and they beat Tennessee, but they did it with six field goals. Yeah. A lot of people watch that game.

So as much as the one o'clock Fox game where they crushed Detroit, is everyone buzzing right now? All right. Well, we saw a different version of them a week before. So that makes it hard to be like, they're the favorite. And you don't want to just be prisoner of the moment, which is what essentially we are in the media. Well, especially because the season is one third of a year long now. And I do wonder if the length of the season ties into this,

because every game can't be a big game when the season is 18 weeks, including the buy. And you're going to let down, you're going to go up, you're going to go down. I have Detroit at number five. Still. Okay. I thought last week was a real humbling experience. And it was, and they were out of it immediately and they got their asses kicked, but I'm okay with that. I don't think that's a team that's built to play from 14 points down. And I just think they got their asses kicked. I also think the running game situation with them was not ideal.

You know, it was a bad week. They were banged up. And it just, they caught Baltimore in the wrong week with the wrong kind of team situation. I still had them fifth. I have Jacksonville sixth, which I can't believe because I actually think they might lose to Pittsburgh this week.

Absolutely. Dallas seven. I have Miami eight and Baltimore nine. Miami's had so many injuries now. I'm starting to wonder if it's going to hit the point of no return. They got their asses whooped by Philly last week. Buffalo's lost too many people. And then I have the Michael Myers Steelers at 10. Our team. That's our team, dude. Four and two. Once again, underdogs against Jacksonville this week. Most of the money's on Jacksonville. At home. I just watched my East Coast Bias guys today. All three of them were like, love Jacksonville.

Oh, my God. Oh, family play. And how many times do we have to watch it with them? They're going to be five and two in four days. You know Pittsburgh. They're 56 minutes into the game. You're banging your head against the wall. And then you look at the final score,

and they won by three, and you're like, how'd they do that again? And at some point, it's not a coincidence. No, it's not. The other thing about the league-wide stuff, and I was talking about the quarterback position, but the new CBA put in a lot of rules, and I know this is like, maybe

Lombardi can go bigger on this, or if you have on someone who's coached you know going back into the 90s offensive linemen and defensive linemen they do not do like one-on-ones in practice anymore so the offensive linemen come in and by and large they're not great anymore

and you come in these guys come in from college and a lot of these college offensive lines and linemen are taught you know, bullshit and you've got to unwire their mind on how they played offensive line in college football

and then teach them how to play NFL and you can't do it in practice because you can't do one-on-one. You can't do it in training camp but then week three, you need this guy to start at right tackle

and he hasn't ever played in an NFL game. I think that stuff matters. It's not sexy. It's not as easy as saying the refs suck but it is something that the offensive line play is atrocious right now and the defense is game. I think that stuff matters. It's not sexy. It's not as easy as saying the refs suck, but it is something that the offensive line play is atrocious right now. And the defenses are dominating in every which way at the line of scrimmage.

The people that love college football always talk about how there's a certain way a lot of these college football offenses play, where it's just like shotgun snap, throw the ball quickly. They just kind of learn how to block one way and that's it. And then they get to the NFL and they have no idea what they're doing. One other you know, one other piece, I don't know how major this is, but it's definitely not nothing. They clearly changed the concussion policy this year. And if you get a concussion, you're out for the next week. You just are. Brock Purdy got a concussion Monday. We're not going to see him. They're like, oh, maybe you're out. It does feel like it's clearing out two guys per week

in games. Maybe it'll be one on each team, two on one team, whatever. I've noticed that more than usual, that guys are just scratched. I think the league responded to people crying on air and tweeting nonstop when

Tua went down and was still in the game. And I think if it's an overcorrection, it's because they're playing it safe. But I'll give you an example. The Jets, right before the game last week, it's like, all right, Sauce Gardner is still in the concussion protocol. Well, then he had a bye week

and now we're coming out of the bye week. And I don't know, I can't give you the measure of his concussion, but it's Thursday we're recording this. Both he and DJ Reed, the starting corners, Sauce still is in the concussion protocol and still has not been cleared to play. I think they're being very safe about that, but that's

your best defensive player. That's huge. Right. In the old days, hey, Sauce, get back out there. How's your head feel? Okay? You're good? The other thing with the league, and this usually happens when we get to the teens, but I had just my rankings were Cleveland 11, even though they have no quarterback. Seattle, Cincinnati. I think they could go either way. I would look at NC's schedule. I'm pretty

worried about them being able to turn it around because every week they're playing a banger. Seattle's the same thing. They have some tough games coming up. They got San Francisco twice in three weeks. And then you have Houston and the Rams at 14, 15 and Atlanta at 16. And then it drops for me, at least Tampa jets, Minnesota, 17, 18, 19. Then you get to the chargers at 20. I'm crossing them off. Um, just listing all those and then looking at the schedules and stuff, it's really set nicely for Houston to be either a possible contender in their division or maybe like a sneaky seven seed because the AFC wasn't as good. But their schedule is abominable. So do you believe it?

I know you love D'Amico Ryans. Does CJ Stroud hard not to love? Is it far-fetched to think that that team could win 10 games for you? Yeah. We spoke to a couple weeks ago. I was like, I'm not buying it yet. And then they went out and beat Pittsburgh. And then they won a tough one against the Saints.

It was back and forth and their defense stepped up in the red zone. And of course, we could blame Derek Carr for that. But it was the defense that played well. Listen, Bill, in today's NFL, when 14 teams make the playoffs and schedules can go a million ways, of course they can win 10 games. They have to win 7 games the rest of the way. They're already 3-3.

They've had their bye week, and they're only going to get better with a rookie quarterback who's going to develop and develop into whatever he wants to be this rookie year. He's going to be better this week than he was his first week, but I can't say in good faith, looking at their roster, that they're any better than week than he was his first week. But I can't say in good faith, like looking at like their roster, that they're any better than,

you know, some of those other AFC teams. And that's the charge. Yeah. Is D'Amico Ryan's going to coach circles around, you know, John Harbaugh in a big game, or is he going to be able to,

is Bobby Sloic going to be able to outwit Vic Fangio? Like I'm just giving up different AFC teams. It's week, it's week eight. We could say, yeah, this team is the team, but I did that with Tampa after they went on the bye

and they've lost two terrible games since. So I want to be careful still on crowning Houston as much as I love what that team is doing. Can I give you their schedule? Let's go. At Carolina this week. Okay.

Tampa home. Okay. At Cincy. Arizona, Jacksonville, Denver, all in a row at home. At the Jets, at Tennessee who might at that point have completely packed it in. They don't really have a hard game

over the next day except for at Cincy. And who knows with Cincy. Jacksonville. Well, I'm saying that at least it's home. Okay. Yeah, but you're right.

They won't be favored at home against Jacksonville and they won't be favored in that Cincy game. Maybe they won't be favored at the J. Yeah, but you're right. They won't be favored at home against Jacksonville and they won't be favored in that Cincy game. Maybe they won't be favored at the Jets game, but they're a scheduled team for me and the other scheduled team for me is the Falcons who I've

watched a lot of their games this year and somehow have had action on a bunch and boy are they a rollercoaster. But they have... Arthur Smith also wears it on his face very well the exact feelings of every fan his look of despair is just so meme worthy right at tennessee this week seems like the they're minus two and a half it's like please come take us back if we love this place yeah yeah tennessee's packing it in. Home Minnesota at Arizona, bye.

Home New Orleans at the Jets. Home Tampa at Carolina. Home Indy at Chicago at New Orleans. It's like they're not playing anybody for 10 weeks. So we see this too where it's like you just, we looked up last year with the Vikings. Like what the fuck? They're going to win 13 games?

I don't know if the Falcons have it in them and Ritter, again, it's just strap it on, man. Put not only the seatbelt on, but the shoulder harness when you're betting on him. They do have a lot of talent. I think they're pretty good. They are. Defensively, they're good. Ryan Nielsen's got those guys playing. Ritter, to me, doesn't do

much. I don't know what they see in that. They're so steadfast that he's their guy. I talk to Arthur a lot. They have the full support of Desmond. Heineke's the backup. I've seen Heineke win games. Give it a shot. They're in on Ritter. And it's like Falcons-Texans. Those do

feel like they could be very easily the seventh wildcard team in the AFC. And then we're like, alright. And then they go and they get whatever happens in the wildcard round. And then next year, they're the hype teams because they're and they get, you know, whatever happens in the wild card round. And then next year they're the hype teams because they're young and they're on the move and they made the playoffs. Sure.

You know, but I very easily can say. When you say sure, let me give you the playoff odds. Okay. Let me give you Atlanta to make the playoffs and Atlanta to win the division. First of all, Atlanta is minus 178 to make the playoffs. Almost two to one odds. Wow.

That you'd have to lay for them to make the playoffs. So they aren't just like slightly favored to make the playoffs. Almost two to one odds that you'd have to lay for them to make the playoffs. So they aren't just like slightly favored to make the playoffs. They're like legitimately favored to make the playoffs. I'm surprised by that. Okay.

It's not like they've been playing dominant football by any means. I think it's schedule related. And then the division, not only are they the favorite, even odds. Bet 500 bucks,

win 500. Bet 100, win 100. Bet 10, win 10. Vegas has looked at the numbers and they have looked at the schedule and they have all collectively, all the sports books, everybody have decided

this team's a really prohibitive favorite to win this division, basically. It's like their first place in week eight and that's our pick. It's like, all right. I don't know. Yeah, okay. And then what about Houston? So Houston... basically. They're first place in week eight and that's our pick. It's like, all right. I don't know. Yeah. Okay.

And then what about Houston? So Houston plus 184 to make the playoffs. That seems a little more normal. And then plus 450 for the division.

Yeah. I think Jacksonville could be a runaway train right now, Jacksonville. And I know they're playing Pittsburgh and that's going to be like, Jacksonville's got

a nice little cushion. They got a little thing going here. Houston's over under for wins is eight and a half, which I think before the season was probably four and a half. So that, that might be the biggest jump that we've had. But again, like their next day, I could see, um, two hard ones. I could see him winning coach of the year to Miko. I could see Stroud winning offensive rookie of the year. And then I could see Casario who had to walk through two years of mud and shit to get to this point. He might be rookie of the year and then I could see Casario who had to walk through two years

of mud and shit to get to this point. He might be executive of the year because it's an interesting balance. They do have some like Robert Woods makes plays for them. They've got veteran guys that are out there doing it. Shaquille Griffin is one of their good corners. It's like, gosh, he's been on

a couple teams. So they've got a nice mix of obviously the young guys, but some of these older veterans have come in and offered some veteran presence, which is cool too. So Jacksonville's next seven. And again,

they're heavy favorites. They're, you know, I think they're like minus 550 for the division. But their next seven, they have the sneaky Pittsburgh game. They got to buy

San Fran, home Tennessee, at Houston, home Cincy, at Cleveland, Baltimore. There's some good defenses and some good pass rushes in there. I'm interested to see, they got their left tackle back. They've looked better the last couple of weeks. They played pretty well in that Saints game, but I also thought the Saints were horrible. They had their last three games, if you really think about it, two London games,

which the London games just shake the snow globe. You don't know what the fuck's going to happen. Buffalo goes there and basically their whole season flips. Then they have a Thursday night game against the Saints. Thursday nights are like, who knows? Anything can happen. You have the Bears scoring 40 points on a Thursday night. Now we're

like, oh, Jacksonville, they're for real. I had them sixth in my power rankings. We haven't seen them play a normal Sunday game in four weeks. Now they have to go into Pittsburgh. Yellow towels, crowd waving. You know their field goal kicker will miss a field goal in the first half. Little sticks renegade blasting in the fourth quarter. You know what? I'll do something. Oh my God, What? Oh, he tipped the pass to himself and got an interception. All of a sudden, like this can be a hard game for them. But the one thing that I noticed with them and I have them on all my fantasy

teams, so it's hard not to notice, but ETN has been excellent. I would say like maybe like a top five running back, right? He has two touchdowns, I think, and back-to-back games.

He's electric. He's a first-round pick for a reason. It just takes a little time. He was injured the first year, and last year, it was kind of like a split carries. He's really electric. And again, buried in that market.

Two games played at 9.30 a.m. recently. A Thursday night game. Not everyone's watching the Jaguars, and they're already behind the eight ball because they're the Jacksonville Jaguars in that media market. But ETN has been fantastic for them. And so has the receiving core.

I think Christian Kirk's been great. Ridley's been great. And Trevor Lawrence was barking a little bit after the game. It was like something about the analysts. He was like, all right, cool. A little swagger is good out of that team. So yeah, they're good. They're good too.

Congrats. You barely beat Buffalo when they lost three guys during the game and had just flown into London two days ago. I don't think the Bills have been the same since Matt Milano went down on that floor, man. I'm telling you. I think that was the moment for the Bills that changed everything. I think he's the most underrated defender in the league. Well, they lost Taequann Jones too. Yeah. And Trey White. Worried about them. Let's take a break. All right,

couple more teams I wanted to hit. I think the consensus is since he's fine, Burrow's better, we'll be hearing from them. Couple red flags. Over under on Fandral right now is eight and a half wins.

They're three and three. So, that makes me a little suspicious. Like, why is there over under nine and a half? There's been some action. You look at their next six at San Francisco this week, Buffalo home, Houston home at Baltimore home,

Pittsburgh at Jacksonville, maybe six playoff teams in a row. Pretty good. And from what we've seen from Cincy, I trust, I personally trust them a little more than most because we watched them last year. They got better as the year went along. They have an excellent defensive coordinator.

They have talent on both sides of the ball. As Burrow gets healthier, he's just going to win games by himself. But the line this week is weird and it moved down a little bit. It didn't move down as much as I thought. We got Sam Darnold almost definitely QBing for the 49ers and kind of a must win game for the Bengals in some degree. Because if they go three and four with them, they're playing five straight AFC teams after that. All of them are potential playoff teams. I don't know. They just got to show up. They're 21st in DVOA,

23rd offense, 19 defense. We just have not seen a lot of signs yet. I know you monitored that team pretty closely. What are you seeing? I believe in them.

I think there is a, you know, I spoke to Lou Anarumo, who's their defensive coordinator, and he's talking to him about like how their defense has actually been leading the way the last few weeks

and their offenses, which usually is, it's Burrow and Chase and Higgins and Boyd and everyone follow us and the defense holds their own. Defense has been really good. You have all these young guys.

They lost Jesse Bates in the last couple of years. They've lost Eli Apple and Vaughn Bell and all these guys in the back and they've got all these young ones. Cam Taylor-Britt who shut down DK Metcalf.

Yeah. This other kid, Turner out of Michigan who's been good. He goes, we have something that the Yankees used to have. And I was like, all right,

here we go. Baseball. What do we got? He's like, we have a core four on our defense that hasn't changed. It's core four. BJ Hill, DJ Reader,

Sam Hubbard, and Trey Hendrickson. And in the last few years, those guys, they don't miss games. They always show up. And they're the ones who kind of lead the way. And then you've got your Asai and Jermaine Pratt. And I could do whatever naming names,

but the core four. And I'm like, oh shit. So offhand, I was in a conversation with them. I'm like, all right, let me try this. I'm like, all right, we got Mariano. We got Jeter. I'm like, who is that? We got Pettit. Do you know who the fourth of the core four was, Bill? It was Bernie Williams. I thought so too. Jorge Posada. Oh, it was Posada. You're right.

I was like, who's that? Bernie predated all of them. Bernie was there. Right, right, right. Bernie was already there. Andy Stankowitz and Pat Kelly years. We could talk early 90s Yankees if you want. I'm here for that. That sounds horrible.

So who's Jeter out of those four? Hendrickson? I guess. Right? And he's a free agent signing they got from New Orleans, but he's been one of the best free agent signings in football over the last few years. And Hubbard, Cincinnati kid went to Ohio State. So he's Jeter. He's probably Jeter. He's like their guy. But

I say, these are not household names. There is not a Miles Garrett. There is not a TJ Watt. There's not a Micah Parsons. And yet that's what kind of gets there. And to me, you're mentioning Jacksonville and Pittsburgh and Baltimore. And it's like, no one's played in bigger games than those

players. Against good quarterbacks too. Yes. And whatever happens at halftime. Lou's pretty honest with it. He wanted that Arizona job last year and it went to Jonathan Gannon and that's fine. They went their direction, but like there's no one better in football than that guy at halftime adjusting and confounding these opposing quarterbacks, whether it be Mahomes all those times or Josh Allen, all those times. So when you listen to Arnold this weekend and exactly right. So when you're listing these teams on paper, it's like, oh yeah, wow, those are all playoff teams.

But to me, I think the Bengals in their defense, they can hang with any of those teams. And I think they're as well coached as anyone on the defensive side of the ball, at the very least, that they'll be able to hang with those squads. And I think we'll be talking about them in January, even so.

Yeah, and then there's the Borough, in fact, that game two weeks ago, and they were like, Joe just wasn't losing that game. Like all the teammates talking about it. Yeah, because you could flip it around and go, all right, they got Sam Darnold this week. They have banged up super weird Buffalo next week. They got a super young Houston team after that.

At Baltimore, they always play them well. Home Pittsburgh, the Michael Myers team, but, you know, he pick it on the road is he going to get to 20 points and then at Jacksonville all those are winnable to me that's five wins and you lose one of those

the Baltimore thing is interesting so Baltimore and Cincinnati you think of the great rivalries you think of Baltimore and Pittsburgh I could tell you no one coaches on both sides of the ball

like they don't like each other Baltimore and Cincinnati so when Lamar was having his MVP season, they would put up 50 on the Bengals, and Bengals were awful. It was like early Zach Taylor years. And then last year when Lamar was out, and it

was like Huntley and Cincinnati obviously was looking to put it to them, and it goes back. And then they had that great playoff game last year. So Baltimore-Cincinnati, that's an underrated rivalry. And I think before we crown the Ravens, the Bengals aren't done yet this season. I could see them coming from behind here. FanDuel seems to think they're dumb because the over-under being at eight and a half says to me that the Sharps out there aren't believers. I think that's too low.

The other one, San Francisco's over is 11 and a half on FanDuel. And I was like, man, that seems low. And then I was like, man, that seems high. And I just, I don't even know what to think. Like, who knows?

The Patriots are playing at Miami this week. And Miami is super banged up. Like, we're taping this on Thursday morning. I don't know if Tyreek's playing.

I don't know if Mostert's playing. They're already missing a bunch of guys on the Miami side. Their offensive line is not good and really has not been good. Lombardi's talked about this on his podcast, about how everything McDaniel does is basically to disguise the fact that his line can't block and he's just really good at it.

But there's some games when, you know, Pat's played pretty well against them and Mack cost them the game a few weeks ago. The Pats are getting nine and a half. The Pats, next five after this game, they have home Washington, home Indy, bye week at Giants, and then home Chargers.

And I saw that. I'm like, am I getting sucked back in? Could somebody just hit me over the head with a baseball bat? I don't want to get sucked back in. I was rooting for them in the tank five days ago, Shrinks. Turn the TikTok camera on. The Ind indie games in Frankfurt, which is interesting because I was in Germany last year. Oh, that's right.

And we're in Germany. I was doing the Munich game last year. The two Munich games were there for Good Morning Football, and it was pretty cool. And I was blown away with all of the Patriots fans in Germany. The Patriots were not playing in Germany. And I was like, what the hell is this? And it was explained to me that in Germany, on their network, whatever it is, they play one game a week from America throughout the early 2000s. So think about who was winning all those games. So they've kind of been adapted as Germany's team, the New England Patriots, because they only would get one game a week and it was usually Brady versus whoever. So I think that one is going to be a really interesting crowd in that it might feel like it's going to be a neutral field,

but I think there are a lot of people living in Germany who grew up Patriots fans, and that one could be a home field advantage in a major way for them. All that to be said- By the way, you know when that happened? It was in the 60s with the NBA. Where'd they go?

Because they would just show Russell and Chamberlain every week. So then in the next generation... And then it was like all these Sixers Celtics fans because those were the two teams that were just on for like eight years. Yeah, and if you look around in airports, you'll still see a lot of guys in Steelers and Raiders jerseys. I think it's the same effect. In the 70s...

Yeah, that was my generation. Steelers, Raiders, Cowboys. Because we would have kids... When I was in like kindergarten, first grade in the Boston area, and the Pats weren't good yet. They weren't good until 76, but there were kids like, I'm a Vikings fan because of Sammy White. I'm a Cowboys fan. I'm a

Steelers fan. We're like, what about the fucking Patriots? Yeah, the kids got the Chuck Foreman jersey. Really? You're a Steelers fan, you fucker? But yeah, no, it's what happens. The bandwagon potential. So you're saying Germany's on the Pats bandwagon? I think Germany's on the Pats bandwagon.

I would notch of all those games that one. But I think you're crazy if you think based on that one win last week, you think the Patriots can go on a run. And I'm not being hyperbolic. I don't want to talk myself into it. Do this for you. You ever have a friend who keeps on going back to that same girl? This just isn't talk myself into it. So thank you. This is for you. You ever have a friend, you know, who keeps on like, you know, going back to that same girl and this just isn't the time for it.

I mean, you can go back to the Patriots, dude, obviously. And I just, I don't, I don't see it, but I also think they were just good enough last week that they're not going to be sellers at the trade deadline. They're not going to be shopping off all these guys, whoever's left. So you're kind of in purgatory with them. One quick note. Interesting timing on the Ian Rappaport report that Bill has signed a multi-year contract

over the offseason. I feel like he signs an extension every year. I was going to say. First of all, I know everyone at the league and all that stuff. The league offices, they don't know what Belichick makes. I don't think they've ever seen a contract. I don't know if Belichick is still represented by an agent. All that stuff is so backroom

between him and Kraft. There might be three people in the world who knows about that. And it's Belichick, and it's Jonathan and Robert Kraft, who would even know what it is. And Ratpour got a story, and you're like, well, how did he get a story? And who leaked it? You can get into all that and why it came out. But there was some heat

on that seat going into this week. And of all the times to kind of just say, hey, get the dogs off. It might have just been, hey, here's two years and Mayo's taking over after the second year. It could have been that's multi-year, that's whatever it is. But I do think those

guys played their asses off. And that talk of Belichick being on the hot seat immediately went away. And I was like, like all right that was such a necessary win last week for just the rest of the season and it might come back if they lose this week and all that but like I just thought it was an interesting report which is accurate I'm sure and then an interesting reaction from the team and from the way it was handled moving forward because then they asked him about it and he was like I do not talk talk about my contract. It's like, all right, but someone was talking about your contract and kind of put that at bay for a little bit. I interpreted it as the season could go either way and it's probably going

the wrong way. And if we have to tank, just know that he's here for the longterm and he would be participating in the tanking decisions. Now you could argue last week, I mean, they did a couple things that they just hadn't done for six weeks. One of them was play their receivers who actually can get open. Pop looked great. What a crazy idea to play Bourne and Pop Douglas, who both can actually get open and then make plays after they catch the ball, unlike everyone else in the receiving core. I'm going to throw this name out. He's a borderline fantasy pickup, but this guy

Farrell Brown they have, who's this converted offensive tackle, basically. He makes big plays for them. He had a big play called back last week, but then he had another big play, and it just seems like he makes two 25-yard plays a game. I don't know. I was really impressed

by them last week. I thought they played well and I think this Dolphins game is a nice spot for them because they played them well. It's a division game and I think they're giving up too many points, but I'm not sucking myself back in, Triggs. That said, last week they played their best game of the season and they almost gave it

away and Mac Jones had to go 80 yards heroically to win it, but they were winning the whole entire game and then Josh Allen They set that up just for Mac to make the big comeback. They told Bourne to fumble. Browns are at the Seahawks

and this Deshaun Watson story, which has been weird from the moment they made the trade. I don't know moment they made the trade. I don't know why they played him yesterday. I've never seen. He had five throws and two of them were the worst throws of the entire season. They took him out. He seemed fine with it.

To me, this is, I guess, why you don't guarantee football contracts. Where you have a guy who has been a disaster from the moment he showed up and was just on the sidelines, didn't seem like he cared if he was out there or not. They're cutting in on the sidelines and he's just kind of like watching like everybody else. And, um, this is the weirdest story I think of,

of this decade so far, this Watson thing from the moment they made the trade, the fact that he didn't want to go there, they guarantee the deal. So to try to convince him to go there. He's got all these allegations and things he has to settle legally that just immediately turns it into

you're on one side or the other. Then he shows up and he's aggressively mediocre or worse for the entire time he's on there. And he doesn't look anything remotely resembling Deshaun Watson from three years ago. And it just seems like it's getting worse, not better. The shoulder injury is a legit injury from what I'm told. So that's just put that there. Okay, fine. Let's talk about the quality

of play when he's out there. It's substandard. It's not in the top 20 quarterbacks. It's not the top 25 probably. And then when they put PJ Walker in, it seems like the offense moves just the same, if not better. And then really how they're going to win games this year, which is what they've done, and they've got a fantastic record, is the defense is going to have to lead them. And Jim Schwartz's defense has been absolutely insane.

And this past week, special teams, they had two 50-yard field goals and they had a blocked field goal on their own. So they're going to be one of those teams that wins with defense and special teams, and yet they have the highest guaranteed contract in the history of the sport at quarterback. And everyone's just kind of shrugging. My thought process in this is go back to that March

whenever that all went down and there was a bidding war for Deshaun Watson and Cleveland basically said, we're going to give you what no one else will. We'll give you the guaranteed contract. Yeah, we're going to give you what no one else will. We'll give you the guaranteed contract. Yeah, we're the Browns. Nothing good happens to us. I guess we're going to have to do

the dumbest thing possible to try to get you. And the reaction from, I was at the league meetings and the reaction from the owners was like sickness from those owners that the Browns did that. And yet they were like, you know what?

We're the Cleveland Browns. We've had 21 quarterbacks in 23 years. We're not getting over the hump of Baker. And I almost was like, you know what? We're the Cleveland Browns. We've had 21 quarterbacks in 23 years. We're not getting over the hump of Baker. And I almost was like, you know what? Shit. They're going to take a public relations hit and the fans, it's going to be a very difficult thing. They're going for it. They want to do what's best for the football field. The football hasn't been there.

So here's my question. Those teams, Atlanta and Carolina, were both very in on Deshaun Watson. If you were to say to Atlanta and Carolina, would you right now trade for Deshaun Watson. If you were to say to Atlanta and Carolina, would you right now trade for Deshaun Watson? Nobody's trading for him. Right? I don't even think contract aside they would take.

I think Carolinas would rather have Bryce Young than Deshaun Watson. And I think Atlanta would rather have the locker room that they've got. This was like basketball. And they could just flip him to Denver for Russell Wilson. And it's just like, oh, the salaries match. We can just do this trade. I don't even think Denver would do that.

I don't know if they would. And I don't think, I don't, I don't think Russell Wilson is exactly lighting it up in Denver this year, even, even though he started off better numbers, I would that Russell Wilson last week, not good. So it's sad. It's, it's actually kind of a bummer to watch. The Sean just seems like just seems like a shadow of himself. Russ just seems old. You said it was Sal. You see him and he starts doing the Russ thing and he's running and he just can't run anymore.

And the pass is just not there. You guys said, I think it was Lombardi or Sal early in the season, at some point Stidham's going to go in. And I haven't spoken to Peyton about that, but it's like you can't watch those games with Russell, especially the Thursday night game against the Chiefs where they have 85 yards off. You can't spoken to Peyton about that, but it's like, you can't watch those games with Russell, especially the Thursday night game against the Chiefs where they have 85 yards

off. You can't watch it and objectively be like, this guy's job is unassailable. So I think you're right. I think if he keeps on losing, we're going to see sit him. But back to the Watson thing, the numbers aren't there. They're the winning games without him. And they just

signed PJ Walker to a one-year contract, which basically gives him the stability that you are the guy for now. But PJ hasn't lit it up either. So it's just one of the things like how far can you get if you're the Browns with what they have on offense, which, you know. PJ can at least make the one throw a quarter to somebody and make like he's not like a complete this or he'll run around and, you know, create a first down somehow. But he's not like a complete disaster, or he'll run around and, you know,

create a first down somehow. But he's not a complete disaster. No. He's like a C-. In today's NFL, when we talk about the quarterbacks and the offense and how I don't know if we go to the playoffs, if Cleveland can

A, they could probably make it, but B, if they can with Watson under center, the way he's playing, I don't know if you can win a playoff game with just defense and special teams. And it's not their fault that they lost Chubb. And I think Cooper and Moore and Ford, they're good players,

but the quarterback position is huge and it's a major area for them. So it's amazing to me for what they pay and that that might be what holds them back from being a great team. Can I talk you into Seattle plus 450 to win the NFC West? Let's do it. If they win this game

and then San Francisco loses that Cincy game and all of a sudden it's like, whoa, look at this. Oh, they still haven't played each other yet. Minnesota, I didn't get to talk about them on the podcast because that was the Monday night game when it turns out Purdy was probably concussed and that might have helped them a little bit.

But also Minnesota hung around. Addison finally had his, oh, you're going to be like a special one, it looks like. He had one of those games and it was a nice win. Then you go backwards. There are four losses.

They lost to Tampa by three, Philly by six, Chargers by four, and KC by seven. They were in all those games. Coming up, at Green Bay, at Atlanta, New Orleans, at Denver, Chicago, bye week at Vegas. So they might not play in an above 500 team for almost two months here.

And then they have this Packers game. The Packers were so bad in that Denver game. And I had that a million dollar picks. I had in real life. I did. I was like, they're going to score at least 20 points. That should be enough. Not only did the Nats score 20 points, but

that was the first time where I felt like Love might not have it. He just might not have it. This seems like a nice spot for them. They're 16th in DVOA, by the way, the Vikings. 14th offense, 15th defense. Seems like a nice spot for them. They're 16th in DVOA, by the way, the Vikings. 14th offense, 15th defense. Seems like a nice spot. So why are they only one and a half point favorites?

Yeah. Look, they're going to go as far as Cousins is going to take them. And this year he's been really good. And the offensive line, which was such an eyesore, was great. You know, against San Francisco, they give up zero sacks and only six hurries. But, Bill, it was 22-17. They bring out our boy Greg Joseph,

who we've lived and died with. He misses that kick and purties at the 50, down five. And if he's not concussed, they probably lose that game. So it's one of those where it's like, yes, you want to get it on the Vikings and yes, all this stuff. Defense looks great

and Brian Flores has been playing better. No Jefferson is still huge to me. And I don't think they have a running game to speak of with Akers and Madison not exactly lining it up. So it's on Cousins again. And Cousins numbers are fantastic this year. I don't know.

Do you see them as a special team this year? Do they go on one of these runs? No, I don't. But I'm trying to figure out, can I get who's my sixth and seventh in the NFC? To me, they're the Anton Chigurh coin toss team this year. Yeah. Which is like,

they're in all these games in the fourth quarter and then flip a coin. And you might have the one week where Cousins has a tip pick. You might have the next week where their defense does something and all of a sudden they win. Are you out on my Rams?

They can't block. It's a struggle. Their offensive line seems like, you know, they'll come out in these games and Sean's so good and the first quarter looked really nice and crisp and they'll have that first 20 plays. And then by the time you get to the two hour mark of the game, it starts getting a little gamey.

And then all of a sudden Stafford's running around for his life. Um, it just doesn't seem like they have enough, but on the other hand, um, they, they have two guys who just seem like they can get open whenever they want. It's pretty good.

They could just block for Stafford long enough. I thought Henderson was really good last week. I didn't know where he was for two years. He was hurt. The other kid was good too. They had Royce Freeman. He had 66 yards. They were moving the ball.

And then the pick six was a killer. Not pick six, but the Watt plays a killer. And then again, Sean, by the way, just had a baby on Tuesday. Congratulations. He was beside himself and he didn't speak out publicly. Obviously, you could see the face, but the pass interference call,

they called on Weatherspoon there at the end of the game. And then Deontay Johnson taunts him. They get offsetting and then you get the spot. And it's amazing. He didn't have any timeouts, so he couldn't review it. And they lose on that. And I watch everything. And some of the criticism was like, well, that's because

McVay's an idiot for wasting his timeouts when he called his last timeout to change out of a third down play. And then they ended up scoring a touchdown on that play. And my thought on that is, and he's been in baby world the last few days, but my thought on it from the outside is, is the officiating so bad? Is it so wretched that we blame coaches for not saving a timeout in the emergency that they might need one from a terrible call? Yeah. That to me is not an explanation. I thought they outplayed Pittsburgh.

They had an unfortunate ending there with the timeout and with how they couldn't get that play reviewed, but they stopped them on fourth down clearly. And that's a big loss, but I don't think that team is necessarily going to fall off the wayside and they might lose to Dallas this week. They're playing Dallas getting almost the touchdown. And it just seems like a classic throw Dallas and a tease. The Rams can't block Cowboys

defensive line. I'm not touching that game. That's a complete stay away from me. I don't like teams getting a lot of points that can throw the ball and get cheap touchdowns and be down 13 with two minutes left and then you know just keep going down the ramps i've got seahawks i've got obviously i got seahawks or niners winning it i'm writing this down i think the eagles and the cowboys right so there's your four you need three more teams you need someone in the nfc south so let's say atlanta There's your fifth. Seattle. I said, yeah. So I got Seattle,

San Francisco, Philly, Dallas. Atlanta. You need an NFC North team. Let's say the Lions. There's one more team. So is it Minnesota?

Maybe, but pick your poison. I mean, it could be the Saints might rally. It could be the Giants. No, I don't see the Giants. It could be the Rams. It could be the Rams. So that's where we't see the Giants. It could be the Rams. It could be the Rams. So that's where we're at.

You have seven teams. Half the conference makes it. So it's like, I don't know. I like the Packers before the year. And it just seems like they've had too many injuries now. And Love might not be the guy, unfortunately, for that. They also got nothing from Watson.

Can we quickly talk about one team that we haven't mentioned? And I don't think they're one of the playoffs, but it's my favorite story of the year. Can we talk about Tyson Bajan? Oh yeah. I was going to ask you about that. Hold on. Save that.

Cause that was my last thing. I'd have this tease that I was looking at with the lions over the Raiders and the chiefs over the Broncos just quickly on the Raiders. What's going on with the Raiders? That was one of the worst losses. That was the saddest team last week. It honestly looked like they were kind of quitting on everything. I don't know.

The McDaniels quote was alarming too. They're like, why didn't you start Aiden O'Connell? Because it's not the preseason, Josh. Like, what? Yeah. Hoyer's like, you know, almost fired. Hey, Hoyer had a couple passes to a guy who was bold enough after two wins to speak out in the media who just dropped them. Devontae Adams dropped two passes.

They're a confounding team. And the Raiders, I can't get behind them. But they've got so many great skilled players that it's confusing because Max Crosby is an absolute nightmare to block. And then you have Jacobs, who's a good running back and Adams, who should be a great receiver. And Jacobs is a good running back who hasn't,

he's running like two nine and carry this year. I was like, I would trade Adams if I were them. I just don't think, I don't think it makes sense to have Adams if you don't have good quarterbacks and couldn't they get a first rounder and something else for him right now? I think. And like, I just don't think it makes sense to have Adams if you don't have good quarterbacks. Couldn't they get a first-rounder and something else for him right now? I think.

I've seen a lot of people in my world, and I guess we're now so scared. I say that collectively. A lot of guys are so scared to come at the player directly and question their name because of player empowerment. I really didn't like the timing of those quotes. I like Devontae. I think he's as good as it gets when he's with the right system and quarterback, obviously, or not even that.

That's not fair to him. But you know what I mean? He's one of the best wide receivers. He's unbelievable. For the Raiders to be like, no, because they've told everyone he's not tradable. And he's off. I thought that was a big him waving his hand being like, I'm not happy. So you don't have that many assets.

Are you winning a Super Bowl this year? He came to go sign with Derek, to play with Derek Carr. Derek Carr is out of there. I was a little surprised that they've told every team he is not on the trading block over the next few weeks. I'm like, well, why not? Consider it. I don't know. He's a great

player and he doesn't want to be there. And he says he wants to win, obviously. But to win, he needs to get his touches. And he was only getting nine targets in two weeks. The whole thing was weird. Yeah, I was preparing for some, oh, he's been traded to the Bills. Yeah, he's been traded. Like one of those kind of trades.

I'm like, oh, no. Or he's been traded to the Cowboys for two first-round picks. Oh, no. Oh, my God. To a man. Everyone around the league'm like, oh no. Or he's been traded to the Cowboys for two first round picks. Oh no. Oh my God. But it doesn't seem like it's happening. He's not getting traded. All right. Let's talk about your guy, Tyson Bajent.

So look, man, I've been doing this for a long time. I'm not saying I bat a thousand. I'll miss some stuff. This Tyson Bajent, he gets the nod to start last week. And I do no homework on it at all. I'm just like, oh man, the Bears, who cares?

I don't know anything about the story. I don't know the Div 2 quarterback thing. I don't know about the dad being a champion arm wrestler. I just didn't know it. And I'm watching, it's on one of the TVs, and he scrambles out and gets a first down and then starts doing the gladiator

give me some, and I'm like, who is this guy? And it was very purdy-ish. They win the game. I watched all the videos after of in the locker room. The team seemed like they loved him. Justin Fields is cheering in the background. I'm like, this is exactly the kind of shit I love and bet on.

So does this feel real? Is he maybe half decent? All right. So let's go back to Senior Bowl last year in January. There weren't a lot of guys that were rushing to get to the Senior Bowl this year, or there was just not the senior class that there usually is. And Jim Nagy, credit to him, who's at the Senior Bowl, he scours the earth for these guys. And actually invited two different players from Shepherd University in West Virginia, which is a Division II school with 5,000 fans in

the crowd. And he gets this kid, Bajent, who's the quarterback and his offensive lineman, Joey Fisher, comes to the Senior Bowl. And I interviewed the head coach, whose name is Ernie McCook, and it's been there forever. And it's almost out of a movie, Ernie McCook.

I interviewed him for my podcast. And he says, we couldn't afford airfare to the Senior Bowl. So me and five guys on the coaching staff, we drove overnight 20 hours to get from West Virginia to the Senior Bowl in Mobile to go cheer on Tyson. They don't have a state-of-the-art facility. We see the Alabama stuff. At Shepherd University, there is a high school history teacher who built a man cave slash CrossFit thing.

That's where the team trains. He built it. This guy who's a teacher at the local high school, not the college, not a professor, the local high school, he built it. And that's where the players train. And I posted the clip on my feed. He's talking to me about Tyson Bajent, how he works out during a college career. He's lifting logs of wood.

This is Rocky IV shit. Rocky IV. He's bench pressing logs of wood with his teammates. And their workouts weren't, let's run on the shred mill or the treadmill. And we've got these guys at Exos. They would run to the shores of the Potomac River, which is like three miles from campus. And they'd run and they'd jump in the water and they would

swim in the Potomac River and then get out of the Potomac. And then they hollowed out with their own hands and their own ingenuity, a man-made cold bath out of the shores of the Potomac where they would go in and that's how they would get their bodies back. Bill, this shit's crazy. It's crazy. His team this weekend, the Shepard team, they're playing Bloomsburg of Division II in a big game. And I'm talking to the coach and he's talking about Bloomsburg. And I'm sitting there and I'm listening and I'm like, this guy is going to be on Sunday Night Football with Tirico and Collinsworth in front of 30 million people. And his college coach is talking about Bloomsburg and how he loved Tyson when he was a kid at

church and he would see him in the church pews because he grew up in the local town. Only two schools recruited him. And this might be good for Kyle here. Albany being one of them and then Robert Morris being the other. They were the only two schools that were bigger than Shepard. He stays at Shepard. And then long story short, gets to the Senior Bowl kind of as like an oddity but also, all right, we'll see. Division 2 kid.

He's got the helmet on and the Bears coaching staff, Luke Getze, is coaching at the Senior Bowl. And who do they fall in love with? Tyson Bajent. And the rest is history. He doesn't get drafted but he chooses to go to Chicago. And I have one last Bajent. And the rest is history. He doesn't get drafted, but he chooses to go to Chicago. And I have one last Bajent nugget that I freaking loved.

So this summer, he's an undrafted rookie free agent quarterback. Very long shot for those guys to make a team, especially if you weren't even... Purdy, we thought was a cool storybook story. He was... At least he was seventh rounder. Yeah.

And a three-time starter in the Big 12. This guy comes from, might as well be Mars in West Virginia at Shepard, where West Virginia has never produced an NFL starting quarterback, by the way, the state itself. Guys have come in and played there. And this summer, he gets the Luke Getzey playbook. And whereas other players are going on vacation and whatever, and you've heard these kinds of stories, but this is why it's so crazy. He would go to the Shepherd Field every morning. And with the playbook, he would have his friend come and stand on the sideline with a cell phone. And he would have an AirBud or an EarPod, whatever it's called, in his ear at the 50. And the friend through a cell phone would say the play calls from Getze's offense.

It would list it out like whatever it is, you know, spider Y2, banana, da, da, da, da, da. And he would sit there and he would simulate the calls of the empty field line of scrimmage at Shepherd University. And he did this for six straight weeks. Didn't take a day off. Friend is on the sideline on a cell phone reading,

so that he shows up to training camp and they're blown away. So much so that Nathan Peterman, who you make your jokes about Peterman's career, was the veteran guy. They're basically like, this guy's our number two.

It's not going to be Peterman. He had the playbook down inside and out. So all those little things, it's the stuff that you make a movie out of, but it's all real. And the Bears absolutely love the guy and what he's brought. You and Sal do the Collinsworth voice. I cannot wait to hear Collinsworth gushing

over Tyson Bajan this weekend. Well, they're playing the Chargers in LA. I would say there's... We thought there was going to be like 50,000 depressed Bears fans in there, but now there's going to probably be 50,000 excited Bears fans. B, but now there's going to probably be 50,000 excited Bears fans. Bajan, I love that he had, what, like 53 people he had in a whole section

in the Sunday game of his family and friends. 65 people. 65 people came to Chicago. Yeah, all crowded in one section, just losing their fucking minds. And then you have the Chargers, who are a complete mess. Yeah. Who are, could this, if you're going to be cynical here, the Bears are getting eight and a half,

the Bears are plus 350 for the game. But if you're going to be cynical here, this is the kind of setup for Brandon Staley's last game. We're like, oh man, then he lost to Tyson Bajent, and they had to make a move. So weird to think this is a must win against Tyson Bajent, but the Chargers are two and four. They've looked terrible. Hugely disappointing season all over the place. Herbert, even the nerds

are like, it's harder for them to defend their nerd hero, Justin Herbert, when he keeps screwing up at the end of games. The JC Jackson, paying him to play for the Patriots. He was great last week. He's defending Diggs and Gabe Davis for four quarters. They're paying for him. I don't know what the F's going on with that team. So this has all the makings, but we could also see, it looks like a sports movie and this could be the part of the sports movie where he just sucks on Sunday night and now he's got to hit rock bottom again and then he comes back. I don't know.

I don't think it's happening. Here's why. His numbers last week were like 21 of 24 for 160 in a touchdown. And then he ran for 40 yards. They're not asking him to go throw for 300 yards. They're not asking him to throw the ball 55 times. A little bit like- Well, they have my guy Foreman too. Foreman, who you said has been on seven teams.

I love that guy. Everywhere he goes, he's great. Every year, teams begrudgingly play him, and then he just kills it when he plays. He's great. He was inactive for them for four weeks. Yeah. Yeah.

And he's been great. You want to talk Celebrity Jeopardy before we go? Yeah. Can we? Yeah. Just give us two minutes on it. So there's an actor's strike, a writer's strike. If you're listening and you're like,

why the fuck would Peter Schrager be invited to Celebrity Jeopardy? I think a lot of- Hey, listen, why is Tyson Page in Bears quarterback? Thank you. We don't argue. You're there, you're there. I got the invite. I think a lot of people were reluctant to go on and do it

during what was going on in Hollywood at the time. I go out to LA in August. Bill, if you were told four days in advance, you're going on Jeopardy, of course you would go. The question is, would you prepare? How are you going to prepare? Thank you. So everyone's like, get the book. There's no books. Come on. So I get on the plane. I'm on Southwest, boarding group B. And I'm on Wikipedia, on the janky internet, like US state capitals.

I'm going to learn them again or something. They're like presidents, Fillmore. I get there. It's surreal, dude. You walk in and it's the actual set. It's the Jeopardy set. And they share the studio with Wheel of Fortune. So I saw the actual wheel.

And I'm like, freaking out. I grew up on this shit. I don't know about you, but I think we're probably similar in this, that my family, we didn't talk a lot about feelings when we were growing up in Freehold, New Jersey. And at seven o'clock at night, it was a wonderful thing to put on Trebek and just zone out and not talk to each other and just watch Jeopardy. That was it. So I grew up on this thing. I get out there. It's me versus Mira Sorvino. Yeah. You guys go way back. The two of us. I'm sure she's watching a lot of Good Morning Football. Right. And this guy, Adam Rodriguez, who's on the CBS procedural.

Coolest experience. But here's what I will tell you. It aired last night, wild. It goes down to Final Jeopardy. The category was tween lit, all right? Tween lit. Tween lit. What was the answer? T-W-E-E-N. The answer was, well, first I had to put down my thing. I was down 200 points to Mira Servino going into Final Jeopardy.

And I look over and Servino's got her family at the taping. You know, she's got her crew and she's got like two teenage daughters in there. And I'm like, fuck. She's got, she said, and I saw her and I'm like,

they rigged this. They didn't rig it. They didn't know whatever it is. I'm like, shit. So I'm like, as I'm about to put the number down, I'm like,

who wrote those Twilight books? And who wrote that? The other one, the, the, the hunger games. I'm like, I don't know those answers.

I'm like trying to think. So I said, screw Games. I'm like, I don't know those answers. I'm trying to think. So I said, screw it. I went big number. And the question was like, this author later said she would regret not calling her hit book just Margaret. And I'm like, oh, that's Judy Blume. I'm like, that's Judy Blume. You got this. Yeah. Write it down. I'm like, who is Judy Blume? And I had a big point total and all this thing. And I'm like, that's Judy Blume. You got this. Yeah. Write it down. I'm like, who is Judy Blume? And I had a big point total and all this thing. And I'm like, I got this. They start revealing like, Peter Schrager, what do you have?

Who is Judy Blume? Correct. You wagered. I'm like, I wagered $7,000 or $8,000. Great. I'm like, I'm sitting pretty. Goes to Sorvino. I'm looking, trying to get a read.

Mary Sorvino, did you have it? And she was up like 200 points or something. She goes, Sorvino, who is Judy Blume? She bet the entire thing she had. She just beat me by the slightest margin. It was the most dramatic Jeopardy game ever. I absolutely loved it. It was crazy. No shame. I played a good game. They do stats now. I got 19 questions right. I got three questions wrong, but I got two daily doubles wrong. So that's what killed me. And I'll tell you, the tip to anyone who's ever going to go on or if you want to go, the buzzer is what screws you. And here's the deal. When you're watching at home and you're jumping out of your couch and it's like,

who is it? I know that. I know that. You can't buzz in until Ken Jennings finishes the clue. And if you do jump in and you press the buzzer before he finishes the clue, so it's like, this famous author wrote Romeo and Juliet. You're buzzing in beforehand, you get locked out. So if you see people freaking out, pressing that buzzer, it's because they've been locked out and they're frustrated. So I didn't get that rhythm down until a little bit midway through. And then I was hot. Dude, I got random as shit stuff. I got Who Wrote Joy Luck Club. I'm like, Amy Tan, what about it? Let's go. Let's go. Your brain goes into this crazy... They were showing me bridges. One of the categories was bridges and I cleaned up. And I like, and I didn't know I knew bridges like buzzing in bill.

It was the coolest experience, man. I, you gotta go on. I know you've been asked. I'm sure you have. And you're whatever reason. I don't know.

My brain works that way anymore. Are you serious? I can't believe Sorvino took you down. Harvard. Jesus. UN ambassador. And I believe a member of Mensa. I had no idea about any of that stuff.

No. Teen daughters is a murder. Murder, right. For that last category. There's no chance. It was so fun. Well, congrats. It sounds like a moral victory. You're kind of like Tyson Bajan

against the Chargers this week. Covering eight and a half, but not winning. No, if I was Tyson Bajan against the Chargers, I would have beaten everyone by a million. That's what's going to happen this weekend, bro. All right, good to see you, Schrags. Love you, man. Thank you. All right. We're going to wrap things up with some million dollar picks. We have a full slate this week. Last week we had six buy teams. This week we have zero and that makes no sense, but that's the NFL for you. Stay away this week for me. Cards, Ravens. We laid this out on the Sal podcast on Sunday. Every time somebody's played the best game of the week,

something weird's happened the next week with them. And this has been seven weeks in a row. The Ravens played the best game of the week last week. I'm a little worried. It's some sort of trend that I don't like. All the money is on the Ravens. All of it. People are putting them in teases straight up. It's just pencil them in. The Ravens are the best is on the Ravens. All of it. People are putting them in teases straight up. It's just pencil them in. The Ravens are the best team in the league. I'm staying away. Same thing for Texans minus three and a half at Carolina.

All week, I thought I was going to bet this game. All week, I waited for the line to move to four to four and a half. Carolina's 32nd in DVOA. Houston has a chance maybe to be a seven seed. They've looked really good. They've looked good against a tough schedule. And yet, the line has stayed at three and a half, and I'm suspicious. I am staying away.

I'm staying away from Bears plus eight and a half in LA against the Chargers, even though I love that Tyson Bajan story. It worries me a little taking him and having Collinsworth, you know, having a little mini orgasms about him. And then he just starts, God only knows. He was in Division II last year. Could this be Brandon Staley's last week? Maybe. Could this be a fun Bears money line pick?

Sure. I'm staying away, even though there's going to be 50,000 Bears fans there. Eagles, Washington. Eagles are favored by seven. Philly's a little banged up. Still not sure what's going on with Hurts. The last two times these teams have played, the game's been close. More importantly, Philly's got Dallas at home next week,

and this looks like a classic Milton Berle game where they just pull just enough out of their pants to win. I'm staying away from teases, everything with that game. I'm staying away from two games with bad quarterbacks. Saints minus one against the Colts. Jets minus three against the Giants Carr versus Minshew in the erratic quarterback bowl I'm staying away

Zach Wilson versus Tyrod Taylor No thank you Hate betting on games with bad quarterbacks Somehow I did it last week with the Packers Broncos Took the Broncos And despised myself for most of the day Cowboys are favored by six and a half over the Rams This feels like over the Rams.

This feels like either the Rams have a shocking upset and win this outright, or they lose by 20. And I couldn't decide which one, so I am staying away. I'm not positive they can block the Cowboys. That's what worries me the most. But I could also see them going up 10-0 in the first quarter, and everyone has Cowboys and the Tees freaking out. Last day away for me, Vikings minus one and a half at Green Bay. Green Bay has been crushed by injuries. I think we're starting to realize that Jordan Love might suck. I'm not officially ready to declare that yet, but he was really, really, really gruesome in that Denver game last week. And just in general, he's looked pretty iffy. Lambeau Field, Kirk Cousins, it seems easy. There's some Vikings momentum. And yet, the Vikings coming off a great win and Green Bay coming off a horrible loss. Something about that seesaw. This looks too easy. Why isn't this line three? Why isn't this Vikings by three? I'm staying away. All right,

here's what we do like. The million dollar picks for week eight. Just for the record, we lost last week. We had some bad luck last week. Down 360 last week. Down 865,000. I'm not scared. You've watched me come back from this before. You think I'm quaking in my boots at all? I'm not. Million dollar picks. Week eight, first one, Bengals, plus four and a half right in that Vegas zone against the 49ers. I am proceeding like Brock Purdy is not playing in this game because all year long, anyone who got a concussion did not play in the next game. I think it's an unofficial rule. I think Goodell called that one down. I think we're going to get Sam Darnold I like Cincy's defense

I thought they did a good job against Seattle a couple weeks ago A little worried about their offensive line Against San Francisco's front seven But Cincy coming off a bye Joe Burrow as a dog, the stats are great Cincy needs the game As we covered with Schrager, they have a really tough Schedule coming up

And I think they either Win this game or come close. And even if the Niners, you know, go up double figures, they're still in the cheap touchdown zone here. So I was going to take more Moneyline underdogs just going forward because the Moneyline underdogs, if the underdog covers, they also seem to win. But in this case, I'm going to grab the points.

I think this is a close game. Maybe they win. They stick around. No Debo. McCaffrey, relatively healthy. Sam Darnold. Feels like either team could win this one. Bengals plus four and a half.

So that's our first one. Second one, Steelers. We're going back to the well, baby. All year long. Who has been the biggest supporter of the Pittsburgh Steelers other than everyone from Pittsburgh? This guy right here. Four and two.

They're the Michael Myers team this year. You have no idea how they're pulling it off. They pull it off week after week. I actually thought they played really well the second half of that Rams game last week. They ran the ball. They made plays down the field. Their defense was terrific.

It's Michael Myers' birthday on Tuesday. I don't know if you're aware of this. It is. He turns 63. Man, he looks great. I mean, he's died at least 72 times. He looks great. The Steelers are not going to lose on two days before Michael Myers' birthday.

It's going to be pouring rain. I repeat, pouring rain. Mike Tomlin is a home dog. The Jags. So the Jags, they win two London games. We covered this with Schrager. Two London games and a Thursday night game. Let's see them win a normal Sunday game

on the road, on grass, in bad weather against Michael Myers. I don't see it. Eli 2.0, take us home. Taking the money line on this. Steelers plus 124 to win outright against the Jags because the line's two and a half. So I'm grabbing the money line.

Next one. This looked a tiny bit too easy, but on the other hand, Desmond Ritter has six turnovers in the last two weeks and is the first person I've ever seen fumble the ball more than once at the one yard line. Falcons minus two and a half at Tennessee.

They traded Kevin Byard this week. The Titans, who is one of their good safeties. It's a borderline white flag for me. No Tannehill this week.

They're doing this thing where they're going to play Will Levis and Malik Willis, two quarterbacks. It's almost like one plus one equals three, but in this case, the one and the one is kind of a zero. It's a zero plus zero equals zero. That's my take. I know this looks too easy in the Falcons outdoors and switching conferences, and they have burned us over and over again with either they win,

but they don't cover all these different things. I just think this is a rare chance to bet against a team that's playing Will Levis and Malik Cooker. And that's it. I don't know if this situation will ever happen again from a gambling standpoint. We could tell they had less than three points. Atlanta's better.

I think Tennessee is dipping their toes, maybe, in the number one pick sweepstakes. Trade deadline's coming up. Will they trade Derrick Henry? Will they trade DeAndre Hopkins? Will they trade other guys in the defense? It's all in play. It is not a good team.

They cannot block. And I think the Falcons' defense is pretty good. Maybe the Falcons' defense can win this on their own. Taking them. I love this one. Browns plus three and a half at Seattle. And you're like, the Browns? Did you see Deshaun last week?

He was awful. They're going to have to play PJ Walker again. I'm fine with it. PJ Walker, solid C minus. You know what? I got a C minus in a couple courses in high school and college. It's okay. You can still get a 3-0. Seattle's offensive line got decimated by Cincinnati

two weeks ago. And in general, it's not good. I would say it's below average. Cleveland's front seven, as good as it gets. I'm willing to throw away last week against Indianapolis. They thought they were going to walk in, beat up on Minshew. Watson shits the bed so badly in the first quarter. Indy hits a couple of big plays. I just think that was a looking ahead game. They thought they just had to show up with their great defense. They're going to win. I think their defense wins this game. With that said, I don't trust PJ Walker enough to take the money line. I'm going to win. I think their defense wins this game. With that said, I don't trust P.J. Walker enough

to take the money line. I'm going to do the plus three and a half. I think this is a three-point game they have a chance to win. Browns plus three and a half at Seattle. And we'll see if that defense can win that game.

Last but not least, a teaser. I've lost teasers two weeks in a row and I wasn't going to do one again. But two that I cannot resist. The Lions coming off a horrible loss. They're playing the Raiders in a night game. I think the Raiders have packed it in for the season. Lions bringing them down from 7.5 to 1.5. I still believe in the Lions. I have them number five in my power rankings. And if you go DVOA

all that stuff, they're just so much better than Vegas. And then Chiefs-Broncos would be the other one. The Broncos, they have a way of hanging around in Chiefs games. I'm not that concerned about it. Hopefully Taylor Swift will go. But we're going to tease the Chiefs down from 7.5 to 1.5. So Lions down to 1.5, Chiefs down to 1.5. That's a tease. And then a couple small ones. So the first one, Jacksonville

to win the first half, but Pittsburgh to win the game. Cousin Sal talked about this on Sunday. This happened last week in the Pittsburgh Rams game. They take like a half to get going. We're just going to put 50K on this plus 800. So Jacksonville wins

the first half. Pittsburgh wins the game. Just sprinkle. We're just going to sprinkle 50K on this plus 800. So Jacksonville wins the first half. Pittsburgh wins the game. Just sprinkle. We're just going to sprinkle 50K on that plus 800. And then we're also going to sprinkle 50K in this parlay. It's the same game parlay. It is in progress because we don't have Damara Douglas passing props yet for receptions. Pats adjusted to four and a half.

The over against the Dolphins to 29 and a half points. And then you can do the Pop Douglas TD here and make that plus 1049. Or you can wait for me on Saturday because I'm going to either do that or I'm going to do catches for him. Because if you watch the Pats last week, and remind yourself that I told you this

just for fantasy purposes, Pop Douglas for the Pats has reached, they cannot keep him off the field territory. And I think he's just going to get better and better every week. But I like the receptions and the yards with him. We'll see. Maybe they'll have like a plus 40 yards.

Put that with Pats plus four and a half. I think that's going to be a close game. Rain and wind. Second time they played each other. The first game was pretty close. Miami's banged up on both sides, even though they're getting Jalen Ramsey back for this one. But I think the Pats will hang around and I think they can rush to a Miami's offensive line isn't good. I think the Pats can pressure him and they'll throw some stuff to take Tyreek out of the game. Tyreek's hurt, but playing. Waddle has a bad back. Mostert might not play. And I think the Pats can steal that. So to recap, we are doing 300K on Bengals plus four and a half.

Steelers plus 124. Falcons minus 2.5. Browns plus three and a half. And then a tease. Lions minus seven and a half with Chiefs minus seven and a half. And then a tease. Lions minus 7.5 with Chiefs minus 7.5. And then 50K flyers on that. Pat, same game parlay, which I'll officially have on my Twitter feed on Saturday.

And Jacksonville wins the first half. Pitt wins the game. Plus 800. You know what? I'm going to move down my Steelers money line parlay to 250. Is that plus one? Yeah, 250K at plus 124.

So add that to your scorecard, even though you're not scoring this. Those are the million dollar picks for week eight. All right, that's it for the podcast. Thanks to Rob Mahoney and Peter Schrager. Thanks to Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti as well don't forget New Rewatch was coming on Monday

enjoy the weekend stay safe everyone in Maine we're thinking about you see you on the way. So I don't have. Must be 21 plus and president select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia.

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