The Bill Simmons Podcast - An OKC-Houston Slugfest, MJ on NBC, and a Seven-Week NFL Awards Draft With Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Bill reacts to the start of the NBA season with OKC's defeat of the Rockets in a double-OT nail-biter (2:32). Then, Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly of The Ringer Fantasy Football Show join the pod to have a midseason check-in draft (22:17). Host: Bill Simmons Guests: Danny Heifetz, Craig Horlbeck, and Danny Kelly Producers: Chia Hao Tat and Eduardo Ocampo This episode is sponsored by State Farm®. Don’t settle for just any insurance when there’s State Farm. Presented by @MichelobULTRA #ULTRACourtside LDA 21 and over. Drink responsibly. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit⁠⁠ www.rg-help.com⁠⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I put up a new rewatchable as on Monday night. It was the last episode of Redford Month. We did quiz show, a movie that he directed. It was me and Brian Coppillment, so you can find that wherever you get your pots, preferably on Spotify. Also, Prestige TV, we broke down the last episode of Task. Is it the season? Is it the series?

I guess it's just the season. We will find out. But it was me and Joina Robinson and Rob Mahoney talking about that. On the ringer.com, we did a bunch of basketball stuff this week. We have a bunch of basketball podcasts, and we were about to talk basketball at the top of this podcast. I had the shrewd idea, veteran experience, because we have a full podcast. We did a whole football thing, me, Danny Kelly, Danny Hyfitz, Craig Korbeck. We handed out some after seven weeks awards.

We came up with a dopey draft gimmick that was really fun, actually, and basically broke down the whole season. And it could have been its own podcast. But something in my head was like, OKC versus Houston, we should wait to see what happens in this game. And maybe that could be the lead of my podcast. So my instincts were correct. The veteran, Bill Simmons,

he's seen some things in his day. Anyway, we're going to talk about that at the top. And then a big, big football. After seven weeks, I don't even know what the gimmick is that we did, that you would call it. But I had a really good time. It's all next.

We'll take a break, then pro team. This is the Bill Simmons podcast, presented by Fandul, if you're betting on the NFL, come on. Fandall is the place to do it. They've got everything. Same game parlase, quick bets for when you want to jump in live, your way, so you can set your own lines on just about anything. The app's fast.

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Kentucky and Wyoming, game, and problem, call win a hundred gambler, or visit rg dash help.com. Call 88879-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. All right, OKC versus Houston was the first game tonight. It was on NBC, so was Warriors Lakers, which is happening right now as I'm recording this,

because I'm recording after the OKC Houston game. Listen, we've seen a million Warriors games. We've seen the Lakers without LeBron. We know what we're getting from that game. We did not know what we were getting from OKC, Houston, and what we got was an absolute masterpiece, double over time. Houston had chances in regulation. OKC tied it with two seconds left.

SGA just went into MVP kick-ass mode down the stretch there. OKC and OT had big leads, started missing threes, missed a Crusoe dunk. Houston comes back. Tie game. KD does the Chris Weber timeout. They don't call it. We go into double OT. And then SGA just kind of took over.

And then all of a sudden he didn't because Shengun hit this runner. And Houston was up. And then the last possession of the game, S.J. on the side, KD. guarding him. And he does like this triple spin thing, gets KD to foul, makes both three throws. And OKC wins the game. And we're about to break it down on a very special segment.

Look at this. I got some Mikhailo Bultras next to me. We're going to open a six-pack. This episode is brought to by Mikalobulcher, the official beer partner, the NBA. And as the NBA season starts, one of the big questions, questions I had was what's up with this Houston team? They don't have a point card. They have all this size. Who is going to be the guy they go to at the end of games? Well, this game, they lost, they lost the double O-T, but it felt like a win for them. I went under for them on the 52 and a

half. And the first thing I want to do out of my six-pack, I felt like Houston. I know Jalen Williams wasn't in there. You have to mention that. There was no Jalen Williams. It was basically only SGA controlling the ball in the fourth quarter in both overtimes. But the piece that I thought stood out to me, it was like, you know, I've gotten into the UFC the last seven, eight years. And sometimes it'll be two takedown artists going against each other. And it becomes a battle of who is actually better at this one thing, right? So you have OKC, you know, they want chaos, they want disorder, and they want everything to kind of run through SG at the end of the games. But they just want this chaotic. They're pressing their

all over the place, defense athleticism. And then Houston's basically going, yeah, we like that too, but we're just going to field this giant team of guys. They're starting lineup, average 6'10. They had size, they had defense, they have power, and the rebounds.

At one point, they were like plus 12 in rebounds. But they were basically like, we're going to try to do what you guys do, except we're much bigger, and we have some really goofy one-on-one stuff we can do beyond what you guys have with SGA and J.L. Williamson comes back. So they're, they I'm in Thompson at the top

just trying to beat people off the dribble. They have KD obviously. Jabari Smith, who I thought looked really good. And then Shangoon, who was one of the big sleepers heading in the season with the Eurobasket where he just was awesome. And it was a real question of where do we put this guy? Well,

he was toe to toe with everything. And I think, you know, I don't want to overreact after one game. And I'm really trying hard not to I've taken a lot of overreaction medication. Just trying to chill out. watch these games and not think too much. But I really wanted to see over everything else with this first batch of games,

what is he going to look like without a point guard? Can they do this? Can they take turns just bringing the ball up? Can they get into their offense? And the answer is what he could. I thought Thompson looked like he went up a level. Of course, he gave so much on offense and on defense, guarding Shay, running a lot of plays, getting to the basket.

He was the crunch time guy at the end of regulation over and over again, getting to the rim. And then his body gave out, he had cramps and they wisely sat him for the rest of the game, which I think was a good move. But he went up a level, Shangoon went up a level, Jabari went up a level. There's going to be games where teams just pressure them, try to put miles on them, try to make it hard for them to get in their offense. We saw it a bunch of times in this one, especially with Reed Shepard, who we'll go into in a second. But they convince me tonight that they just bring so many things to the table that this one glaring flaw they have, I think guards matter. I don't think that's a hot take. We see this over and over again,

especially on the road, somebody has settled on offense, somebody who ran pick and roll, somebody guard the best guard in the other team. There's a million reasons why we are not going to have a championship team that just doesn't have a guard. You're always going to need one. But Houston's like, we're going to patch this together and this might just work for us. And tonight, I really thought their ceiling was a little higher than maybe I was anticipating. I think the overrunner was 52 and a half. After what I saw tonight, you know, it's a little bit of health dependent with KD, but man, with the Shengun and Thompson both going up a level, which they clearly did.

That was my first takeaway is like, I'm taking this team more seriously than I did 48 hours ago. And I think you look at the West, I had OKC in Denver at the top, I had Minnesota and the clippers right underneath them. Then Houston, they're probably in that five spot, but then San Antonio is kind of lurking. And then you have Dallas and there's another West team. I'm just golden state. So it was just a question of who's going to who is going to actually go up a level. And I didn't think Houston could do without Van Blee, but maybe they can. So I'm at least like, I'm at least inviting the possibility that this might be.

be a mid-50s win team. So that's my first takeaway. I've just changed mentally where I had this team in my head. Second one, you had Chet, you had Amen Thompson, you had Schengun in this game today. And Chet had the big first quarter and, of course, fouled out. But looked like the healthy version of what we were seeing down in the stretch last year. And I had him as a top 20 guy. So top nine, Joker, SGA, Yannis, Luca, Wembe, Ant, and then Mitchell Brunson Curry. That's got to be your top nine in some order. The next group had Cade and J-dub and A-D and Pallow and KD and Booker and Towns and Chet in some order, right? And the question for Chet is, and I probably have Chet high, I don't even think some people would have him 18, but the question for Chet is, can he start climbing up that ladder?

I had Thompson in the high 20s and I had Shengun in the Hop 20s when we did our Ringer 100. The Shengun thing, I already am revising in my head because he looked like a top 20 guy tonight. O'KC was trying all kinds of different things,

especially like they settled on just Caruso just pointing himself right in his chest and Shangoon figured out all these different ways to exploit that. And on top of that, he hit five threes. If he went up a level and Thompson went up a level, I just think they have to be considered a real contender.

regardless of the Van Blee thing. And they can always fix that at the trade deadline. Chet, we'll see. Did some good stuff, but I thought the big winners of today, Thompson's two-way stuff, the stuff he did against SGA for three quarters was ridiculous. And the fact that he was getting his offense a little more. That started last year, him trying to get into the basket. But all right, that's enough nerdy basketball stuff for you.

Next thing on the six-pack, Reed Shepard. So we were thinking maybe this guy was going to be the next Mark Price. Look, it's one bad game, and he's going against probably the worst possible team for him to play, right? He's the opening night. It's NBC. He's going against SGA. He's going against Dort and Caruso and Kassan Wallace. Like, this is a nightmare team with some pressure on him. And they need him because he's the only actual guard who can get them into their offense, who can run little pick and rolls for them, who could beat guys off to dribble and kick back out and things like that.

he was awful. And we were thinking that maybe he could be the next Mark Price. He looked like Brent Price today. And I actually was texting House about how I can't wait to see Reed Shepard on the Wizards. And he's like, we had him. He was Brent Price. They need him to be, need us to say, way better than he was today because they actually need him. They need some sort of point guard. And if it's not him, they're going to have to go trade for somebody and make some moods. But he was relentlessly targeted. on defense. He just got, I thought, demolished by Wallace in a couple points this game.

He would get he-checky sometimes, and it was inappropriate because it was both he was playing terrible, but also had a lot of confidence, which I didn't mind, but it just, it was really rough. He's the guy to watch on this team. I feel good about everything else that they have. We'll see with KD at age 37, how he ages over the course of the year, how many games he misses. But I think Shepard these first 20 games, can they build? him up. Can they shade him more toward Mark Price and less toward Brent Price would be the thing I want to watch? I can't imagine the way he looked tonight. That can't be somebody you rely on

in a playoff series, I don't think. So that is my third take for the six-pack. The fourth one, the NBA and NBC. We were back. It was great day around round ball rock. It was a it was a kindler, gentler, happier coverage of the NBA, of the national. Basketball Association, just pleasant, very reminiscent of their Sunday Night Football in America, which is just basically a big love letter to the NFL. And this is something that I think was very important to the NBA as they went into these meteorites things where he had the, you know, the TNT guys really critical, which I support, but really critical of the league the last couple years. And then the ESPN guys, you know, we don't have to talk about ESPN the kind of first take

of how they treat the NBA. So the NBC was just like a pleasant hang with a song that we like. And what's interesting is, round ball rock was underrated, then it became properly rated. And then over the last year, when NBC got basketball,

I was like, oh my God, we're going to get round ball rock back. And it actually became overrated. It was like, all right, round ball rock's fine. It's not like this amazing. We don't have talked about it all the time.

And then it started and it was like, this is the best. I love it. I love round ball rock. It was great to have back. Good to have Mike Torrico back home. basketball. I thought Jamal Crawford was fine. The thing

I liked about him in a three-man booth, you need somebody to kind of lay out and not try to get off too many shots. And I thought he found a nice little balance and actually had some decent points. And then Reggie Miller was Reggie Miller. He did have his

first argument with himself in overtime. So that was the official start of the season. He thought Jabari Smith traveled and moved his pivot foot and then they showed the replays. He's like, he moved his pivot foot and then they show it and he didn't. He's like, he didn't move his pivot foot. I think he invented that. The self-argument during a broadcast is a Reggie Miller staple.

The weird thing though, it really struck me today that T&T doesn't have the NBA. Think about every opening night with this massive, the Barclay show for an hour beforehand, then the rings, and it just, it felt like our entire lives that was the opening. I know it's probably 22, 23 years, but it was really notable how different it was for the opening night. It almost didn't feel like opening night, and then the game started and it did.

But yeah, RIP, TNT, and welcome aboard Round Ball Rock. So we'll see how it goes this season. Speaking to NBC, fifth thing for the six pack. So they had this Michael Jordan thing. They've been playing up a lot, and they called it like degrees of vex. or insights in excellence or something.

It basically just turned out to be an interview with Mike Torrico that they probably filmed for two hours and they're just going to cut segments out of. I can't think of a single thing that happened during the halftime thing, but it's riveting to watch Michael Jordan. And I realized, like, it doesn't really matter what he says. His insights, his observations, his thoughts about the league.

It just doesn't matter because anything he says, I'm captivated. he was like he told some story about he rented a house and there was a basketball career I didn't even know what happened and I was like nodding like yeah

this is great Michael Jordan I think the next one he's going to come back and just be like yeah I went to dinner last night I ordered a steak I got it medium rare I had two glasses of Peter Noir

and then I paid the check and then they're like that was insights of excellence from Michael Jordan and be like that was great could watch him talk about anything so he might be the first person who's ever been on a pregame halftime show

where I literally don't care what he says. I just like having him around. It's just nice to have MJ aboard. So, congratulations, NBC. Last one. OKC, their fans booed Kevin Durant lustily again. He left nine years ago. Think about how long that was.

That was like, if you take nine years and then add another seven, that was the last time the Yankees won the World Series. That's how long ago, years ago. Nine years ago, I had, did I still have a show on HBO? No, they might have canceled it by then. But yeah, nine years ago, really long time. The ringer's 10 years old. And they're still booing him and they still hate his guts. And on the one hand, I love it because I love the real fans and that's just how they feel. And I would never tell them not to feel that way. But on the

other hand, it's been nine years and they have a new team and they won the title last year. and SGA is now the best player in the history of the city. And at some point, this is starting to feel petty. There might be more things going on, quotes that KD said over the years that I've missed. But it made me think like they're just never going to forgive him. And I totally get it because I felt the same way about Roger Clemens, which I think my second or third piece for page two on ESPN was called

Roger Clemens is the Antichrist. And Roger Clemens was even in the booth last year for Nesson for a Red Sox. came. It was either this year or last year, and I was just pissed off that they even let him in the booth. And this was a guy who left the Red Sox in 1996, almost 30 years ago, and I'm still mad about it. So I get it. Listen, I'm not one to judge, but I just want to point out, like, you know, he did have an awesome nine years there, and they did win the title. And if there was ever a time, they were going to be like, you know what? You've had a great career. Let's let bygones be bygones. It would have been tonight, but it wasn't. So this is just the way it's going to be forever,

I guess. They're always going to hate him. And it made me think like, and I think I've talked about this before, but this really banged at home. I always thought he was going to work it out with OKC. Like Cleveland forgave LeBron. LeBron's at a different level than KD. But for the most part, you always feel like it's eventually people get older. They forget. They don't remember why they're mad.

And then, I mean, John Skipper was on this podcast once. Like as time passes, you forget why you had animosity for things. But I don't think it's ever going to happen with this. So if OKC, if he's never going to be in good graces, in OkC. And it's, I don't think it's going to happen with the Warriors either. Definitely not Brooklyn. No way in Phoenix. So you have this situation where he's, he might retire and just not belong to any team. And I really genuinely thought it would be like, years later, be like, okay, so you'd be like, all right, fine. We had nine great years. You win the MVP here. You're a great

story. We'll take you back. But he might, might never happen. This happened with Clements. I don't know what? Quimmons, all these years later, is Clemens belong to the Red Sox, the Astros, the Yankee, like Blue Jays, like kind of nothing. But he's a Hall of Famer. He's one of the best pictures of the last 50 years and he made a ton of money and maybe that's all that matters. KD. signed this new extension and now he has the money record. He's made almost $600 million. It's the most money any basketball player has ever made. And I guess, I guess he's going to have to settle for that. But unless this Houston thing goes fantastic and he ends up being a guy in Houston,

he's just not going to have a place to go back to after he retires. And I do think that's mildly important. Like I see with the Celtics all the time, when people like Antoine Walker come back and, you know, or lustily cheered, everybody that's ever had a meaningful moment with the Celtics that I can think of, they've been able to come back. And I don't think this was ever going to happen with KD

and OKC. So it just kind of struck me tonight. Like, wow, this is forever. That's it for the six-pack. That's all I got for you. A lot of observations from one game, and we have 82 games for every team. This is the first game in the year,

but a lot of moments are worth playing for the ones that taste best are served cold. And whatever happens this season, catch every moment with Miklo Bultra, the official beer partner of the NBA, they're getting fans close to the game and their chance to win courtside seats, A trip to all-star weekend, custom merch, and much more.

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We'll have more basketball coming up on Thursday's pod. We're going to take a break. come back, and we're going to talk a lot of big picture of football angles with a little draft with the fantasy guys, Danny, Danny and Craig up next. The Bill Simmons podcast is brought to you by Fandall. Basketball's back. Fandle is putting you in control right from tip off. Every day to start the season, you get to choose your reward.

Play it safe. Go for a feeling bold. That's your move. Whatever your style, you're in control. So what kind of better are you? If you look at those Wednesday night games, I really like Charlotte at home against Brooklyn, parlayed with Milwaukee at home against Washington. Kind of like that Charlotte team as being a little frisky.

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Opt-in-required rewards are non-adrawable restrictions apply, including bonus and token expiration, leg requirements, and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook.fando.com. 1-800-Gandr, or visit RG-Halt.com. Call 1-888-78-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Having insurance isn't the same as having State Farm. It's like expecting the leadership of a team captain.

on the football field but getting a sea captain sure they're both captains but who's going to run your offense you wouldn't settle for just anything for your team so don't settle for just any insurance when it comes to getting the help you need state farm is the real deal like a good neighbor state farm is there all right we're taping this on a tuesday afternoon all the ringer people are in town including our fantasy football guys so we get together before the season we do the buy guy fantasy draft. Some losers that we had in that one. Man, some winners too, Ibuka.

Yeah. JSN. JSN. Who else did we have? What else do we feel good about? McCaffrey was good. Oh, yeah. Did anybody like Taylor, who's been probably the best guy?

I feel like we kind of whiffed on that one. I have a league where I have Bowers, Tyreek Hill, and Mike Evans, who made this amazing catch yesterday, dropped the ball, rolled over, and died for like five minutes. The rare, like, broken shoulder and concussion in the same place. It was just like, is he going to get up? All right, we're going to talk about the NFL season. We have a really dumb gimmick draft that we're going to do. But before we did that, Danny Kelly, you're Seattle Seahawks.

We were the only ones. I'm not, you don't want to talk about it. I thought you're going to bring up the Mariners, yeah. How you're up 3-1 in the seventh inning to go to the World Series? For the first time. Yeah, we don't need to talk about that. Third and second, you pitched a George Springer, as 22 postseason home runs now 23.

I'm not going to bring that up. What a magical ride for the Mariners. It was fun. I will say that. It was a really fun playoff run. I mean, it's going to be memorable in the team lore and everything like that. Definitely brutal to end that way,

but so many great memories. You know, the Suarez Grand Slam the other day. I went to that 15 inning game. He's still shaking. It's like, man. But yeah, I was like. Yeah, he was at the 15 inning game, which is awesome.

They should have gone after Springer's other knee. That was the problem, I think. I know. It had to be Springer, didn't it? He was actually pissed about the Otani and the best baseball game ever played because he felt like it overshadowed. His best baseball game, yeah, that's like that. Well, I thought if it was going to be a one-run game in game seven, I thought Mariners every time with the Blue Jays bullpen the whole thing, but somehow it didn't work out. Yeah.

Tough one. The two expansion teams, I'm older enough to remember when they joined the league in 1976. It's like, look at these two clowns, Toronto and Seattle. What the hell are they going to do? But yeah, so that was the closest you've come. Yeah, the only team now and the majors have not been to the World Series. Unbelievable. I really thought you had a better time.

What do I know? Wow. Well, on the bright side, the Seattle Seahawks, a team that we were both high on heading into the season. I think even Mina, I don't feel like she gets to jump on the bandwagon for this. I feel like she was pretty positive, generally speaking. Yeah, pretty positive. We were out on the, we were not as confident on the darn. thing, I think, even though I thought

the Seahawks defense is going to be really good. Well, they're five and two, and somehow plus 270 odds for the division. That's our, is that our best division? NFC. West? Because the Cardinals are probably the best two and five are under team. They've been in a lot of these games. Yeah, I would

say so. Let's see the AFC West maybe. If Brissette's playing, it's the best division in football. Yeah, you know, Kyler. With Percette? Three for four is not bad. What's been the biggest surprise for seven weeks for your non-Giants related? I mean, non-Giants related, still Giants related, Daniel Jones being six and one and just looking,

I mean, the Giants released Daniel Jones 11 months ago, and he just is six and one. And I rooted for Daniel Jones for six seasons. Nobody said anything nice about him that wasn't a Giants fan for six years. And I could keep waiting for just like a flood of public apologies from everybody. But Daniel Jones looks like a completely different player in some ways. I don't understand how he's so accurate now. Was he accurate on the Giants or,

How do you explain that? I'm a big believer that, like, I think there's a certain group of quarterbacks that had injuries that weren't quite the same after the injury. We don't talk about him that way. Carson Wentz after the ACL, and he had a bad concussion with the Eagles and then was never the same. Marcus Marrota had a nerve injury to throwing arm. No one talks about it that way. Jones had not just the knee injury, but a neck injury, and his deep balls, his arm strength, everything was totally sapped, combined with just bad production and all this stuff that I just really, I used to joke that I would worry about him, like, walking through Hoboken,

and I thought he'd get hit by a cab. He had no pocket awareness. anything around him. But I think he's actually a lot like Darnold, where you look at Darnold, and even four or five years ago, he's bouncing around the Vikings, the Niners, like the Panthers. And Darnold couldn't sometimes a guy like Jaden

Daniels, it feels like the game has slowed down for him in two weeks. And I think Daniel Jones, this year, it's like Darnold last year, where it took six years. But the game is slower for him, and you can tell that he just sees receivers later in the play, and he's not losing track of what's happening on the field, even four or five seconds in the play.

That all sounds great, Craig, but it's Daniel Jones. Like, at some point, this makes no sense. We said that about Darnold, and he's doing it again. I think at a certain point, if the fit is right, the fit is right. Also, these guys are wide open on the cold. Tyler Warren, there's never anybody within five yards. Yeah. What Stuyken is doing, Stuyken, there's a reason why he's the leading candidate for coach of the year. It's just all working. The line is working. Everyone's open, and Daniel Jones is competent enough to do all that. Yeah, I was shocked. I said this to South Sunday night. It's second. You have them second and 10, you just feel like they're getting eight to nine yards. Like, it's just guaranteed.

but he's going to be wide open, or Taylor's going to slash through. All their pieces work, too. Like, they have their deep threat guy with Alec Pierce, who's good. You have Tyler Warren, who's like this big tight end. Michael Pittman's good on the outside. Josh Downs is an overqualified slot-wide receiver. Jonathan Taylor's the best running back in the league. The line is good.

They could run, they can pass. It's an argument also for, like, stability in keeping the GM. I think Chris Ballard was one of the GMs that people were maybe going to be out of. He wouldn't pick a quarterback. Richardson bombed out. There's a world where Chris Ballard gets fired at the end of last season. They keep them. And you're like, oh, all these players who are balling out are homegrown players.

The weirdest part, the players. The weirdest part is that it was reportedly like a tough cuby competition in August between Richardson and Daniel Jones. Apparently it was tight. How is that possible? Weird stuff happens. I think they were lying. Yeah, I think they were lying.

Because they jumped on Jones pretty quickly. To make Richardson feel better, to make Daniel Jones work harder? I think the idea was Daniel Jones was like they were just supposed to like make Richardson jealous and they were just as shocked as anybody that it's working this well. I mean, I think it's one of the reasons the Titans fired Brian Callahan is, I'm sure the Titans out on their list should be signed Daniel Jones and have him compete with Cam Ward. And the Titans, Brian Callahan probably said, no, he's no good.

And now he's leading the Colts to the 6 and 1 record. Like, all these teams could add him. Can you blame Callahan, though? I feel like most teams would say that. The culture isn't a terrible situation. He was no good. He was no good. He signed with the Vikings during last season,

and nobody was like, oh, savvy, smart move. Example 7,691 in the NFL that success in the NFL is really hard to explain. And even the Ravens took a tight end before Lamar Jackson in the draft. Like, even the teams themselves, sometimes don't have any clue how successful something will be. Well, look, the craziest thing to me about Daniel Jones is like High Fitz was talking about

he was worried about him crossing the street because he just didn't have the pocket awareness. Daniel Jones has taken very few sacks. At least in the league, I believe, percentage-wise. And I want to say I saw a stat the other day that they haven't taken any sacks on third or fourth down this year, which is incredible for a guy like Daniel Jones

who I never would have guessed that for David Jones. And I know we have a whole category thing to do here. The term deer in the headlights is overused, but it actually is applicable because what actually happens to a deer is the eyes are really adjusted to the darkness and then the headlights are like the brightest thing possible. So the reason the deer freezes is having the scientific explanation behind that. But it's just you in the bathroom and now, you wake up and you turn the lights on and you're like, oh, like you're a deer in the headlights. That's it. And it takes,

literally takes your eyes time to adjust to the light. That's kind of pressure in the NFL. Quarterbacks, like, you see the pressure and everything just, it's that moment in the bathroom in the morning. You just can't see anything. And when Darnel, it does feel like sometimes like the light comes on in their head. But really, they just aren't, their eyes are adjusting to pressure and they're able to see a pass rusher and they don't lose track of like, oh, there's Michael Pittman on a cornerback, four inches shorter than him, and he gets into the ball. That's why you don't turn the lights on when you pee in the middle of the night. I can just keep him off. He sits down all he peas. Yeah, I do. In the middle of the night, you got to sit down and peeve.

I've heard you talk about this in the pie. Is this a bit or you actually do this? Of course. You're standing and peeing at two in the morning? Is it? It's a German word for it. If we bring back the hottest take, though, I got a lot. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. sitting on a lot. The German sit one to the pee, you're sitting on a lot. Pea-sitters. That's your fantasy team, dude. Sitz Pinklers? My biggest surprise might be

Craig's biggest pleasant surprise is that Aaron Rogers is still good. I just, I completely wrote it off. It wasn't a bit. I just watched them last year, and it was like, this guy doesn't have it. He doesn't want to get hit anymore. This is a rap. He just wants to get rid of the ball in two seconds. Even when they played the

Patriots, I didn't think he played that well. I just thought he wanted to get with the ball, he can only make two throws. The way he played the last two weeks really looked like Rogers. I don't really have an explanation for it. Now, you could pick the Stewards apart in all these different ways. They're one of those teams that their record could be a lot different one or two plays. I still don't know how the Patriots didn't beat them. But Rogers looks good, though. He looks great. You have to be delighted. You're a Stewards fan. Incredibly delighted. Everyone's coming around. I feel like we're, what are we, seven weeks in and everyone's like, oh, yeah,

Rogers isn't washed. Like, after all of the vitriol, came out of last year. It'll never work. He's terribly ruined, all this stuff. And now we're just seven weeks in. And everyone's like, oh, yeah, he's like one of the best five quarterbacks of all time.

He just have to count him out and then he'll be good again. His arm is still, to me, like he can make throws that only a few quarterbacks can make in the NFL still right now. Yeah. The hell, Mary.

I mean, throwing a ball 70 yards at 41. I mean, honestly, he's played well enough that, and it's what we always joke about, but we're not joking, where it's the year after the injury. That was the big thing we talked about in the off season was like, he was coming up at 20-year-in-jillo.

He's coming over torn Achilles. He's 40 years old. It's bad for Tatum, I guess. Yeah. Everyone's like, oh, my God, he's on a basketball court five months after. I'm like, what do you think he's doing? It's been five months. Like, Kim Acres played in the fucking Super Bowl.

So Peterson's the only guy ever who came back under a year and still looked like himself that I can think of. Yeah. And that was ACL the main one, yeah. I would not for your emotional health count on Jason Tatum returning to the court. I'm trying not to. I'll say Diggs seems pretty close to where he was, but he's not playing, he's playing 30 steps. I mean, Rishi Rice looks good. Torres, was it L-CL or ACL last year?

Was the L-CL-L-C-L-C-L-S deal? But the Rogers thing's different because he's in his 40s. And Brady was the only, there was, I saw on a social there was some unbelievable that Brady has the second most, it's either rushing or receiving yards of anyone over 40. Did you guys see that? I think it's receiving yards. Receiving yards. Jerry Ross and Brady.

Jerry is Tom Brady number two receiver, 40 to over. We got to throw a flack on Rogers a pass. I think Rogers, what's, helping as well as that he's willing to play Arthur Smith's game. Like he's not just doing the, I'm going to sit in shotgun. I'm on the Jets. I brought in all. I brought an Alan Lazzard and all my guys and I'm just going to do that. He's actually like running play action. He's under center. He's like booting. He looks pretty mobile to me. And I just think we always underestimate what you can do the year after a terrible injury. He looks like what the Jets thought they were getting

when they traded for him. And frankly, they got to be going nuts. Because Adams too, Adams has looked good on the Rams. They just had to be like, two years later. I mean, had these guys. And Fields. Donald. I mean, the Steelers got rid of Fields. People thought they should have brought Fields back. Fields is terrible. And Rogers is been fantastic. But you knew that Sunday night game was the, that was the spotlight game for him where it's like this guy doesn't have. Rogers versus Green Bay this week is going to be biblical.

He's going to have five touchdown passes. Speaking of teams not knowing what they're doing or getting is like, wasn't Rogers was not their first option. He was not their first choice. No, they wanted Stafford. But if you think Rogers was mad to get Jets in week one, like what do you think he had 10 days? He's had 10 days to prepare off a loss for the Packers. So Baltimore is plus 1.35 on Fandau for the AFC North and Pittsburgh's plus 130. They're basically even.

That's crazy. Which is remarkable. Four and two versus one in five. One one and five team has ever won a division. It's happened one time ever. It's a 17. So the extra game, I think, skews it a whiff, right? But not like that much.

Steelers schedule gets super hard and the Bengals, or in the Ravens schedule is pretty easy. But they also play each other twice. But the question for me is, can they go, can the Ravens go nine and eight? I think so. Starting on one and five, that's eight and three the rest of the way, which means then the Steelers, what are you, four and two or five-on-one? Four and two. So you would have to go five and five, basically. The schedule gets tough.

I do think it's going to come down to a Steelers Ravens game late in the year and the winner. Well, you have it. It's week 18. Yeah, that will be in a, that game will matter. Good, I was like, let's rig that game, so it means something. I don't know what voice that was. That was, I was good. That was good.

I was good. I was going to turn that to. A little doctor. evil or I don't know. Bengals plus 470? Harden your nipples at all, Danny? A little bit. It's cold a little bit. The flacco thing? Flacco and the receivers.

Yeah. Kind of discount you mobile DAC Prescott with his two guys, basically, the AFC version. Pathetic Steelers defensive performance. Maybe the worst I've ever seen in my life. Well, so that's the case against the Steelers is your defense is not good. And I felt like against the Pats,

we should have had 500 yards in that game. We just kept fumbling the ball. If somebody told me that week seven of the NFL Rogers is like fourth in touchdown passes and the Steelers, the most expensive defense in the NFL gets shredded by Joe Flacko. Yeah.

I'd say I was on Mars. Well, what would the ads? Rogers was going to be starting for fantasy teams midway through the season because that's a thing that's happening now. For sure. Low. Craig actually wanted us to rank them higher

and I personally vetoed it. I was like, I absolutely refused. I was like, there's absolutely no way we're ranking Rogers is in top 20. I just kept thinking back to like the Steelers are not going to be worse with Aaron Rogers versus Kenny Pickett or Mason Rudolph. We had a winning record with those guys. Watching Rogers, you remember

why we put up with him for the last like five years. I just can't, with these old guys, I can't figure out how to gauge it anymore. And prediction either way. Like, LeBron right now is Seattle, apparently. He might just play 20 games this year, and this is it. Like, he's like, LeBron's body broke down. He played 6,000 minutes is what happened.

It's usually what should happen. You just don't know what year it's going to be. But it happened. I never thought it happened to Jerry Rice. You guys, were you old enough to remember Jerry? Yeah, a little bit. He was a Seahawks legend Jerry Rice. Yeah, he had that little Raiders Seahawks era, but I just, it felt like as long as he was going to play, I was like, well, he's Jerry Rice.

He'll figure it. And then at some point he, you know, you hit late age and that it's over. Well, that's the reason they call it an age cliff, you know? It's like just all of a sudden you don't got it anymore. And it is a cliff for a receiver especially. There's a lot of data on this of like you kind of keep going. And then when you fall, if you don't get back, like, you know, and Mark Cooper just. or like deal like do a

right so many of those rice is the only one where there wasn't but that's the thing the cliff was just at the end the amazing thing is that with rogers what we're seeing is like there's one thing for brady to reset the age curve

Derek kind of reset the age curve at running back obviously tennis jokovic fat all these every sport like you're having the age reset by someone what's amazing but the rogers thing is to tear your Achilles at 40 and that's still for 39 and still get back

that is like completely new like to have a kind of injury rice had one of the worst injuries I've ever witnessed in a game on Monday Day football, and Warren Sapp, I always had the joke, it should have been like a 100-yard penalty. It just should have been an automatic touchdown.

It was like a reverse or something, and Sapp did this clothesline where he almost like exorcist-headed him, and his knee just, like, blew out. And this was like Rice at the peak of his powers. And he came back from that and played. Was that 97? Something. It was 96-97 range.

Yeah. And then five years later, how it's 1200 yards. At the point of his career. That's crazy. A thousand years of 40. If a receiver now, it's like,

Keenan Allen's like 33 and we're like, I don't know. Eight years later, Jerry Rice was still putting up 900 yards in the season. He's a classic,

you need better PR guy. Yeah. There's certain. Jerry Rice? Yeah, it's just like when people talk about goats and different things,

like to me, Rice is clearly, Rice and Altier just clearly head over heels above anyone else ever. I feel like Rice has respect. The guy always think about who doesn't have enough PR.

I feel like is Barry Bonds where I understand that there, There was a lot of controversy there, but Maryvon says no... He's like avatar for movies where it's like the biggest thing that ever happened has no cultural imprint. No one ever talks about it or anything. He certainly of all the baseball players from like the last 35 years is like the first one that jumps into my head for seeing in person other than maybe Pedro. And now Shohay would be the third one.

But these guys that you're just like, I remember going to see this person and sitting in the stands and watching how crazy they were. Is there a team? I don't think this question steps on the categories we're about to do. Is there a team that is highly ranked to win the Super Bowl? I'll give you the top seven odds. Kansas City, Detroit, Buffalo, Green Bay, Philly, Indianapolis, Rams, Denver, and Baltimore, all the 20-to-1-100 teams. Is there a team you're just like, I don't see it?

I don't see them putting it together in the next 12 weeks, Danny. I mean, in that group, I probably would circle the Broncos. Because of Knicks? Yeah. I mean, after three quarters of just this last Sunday, we were like, Broncos are on fraud watch. And then, of course, they went and scored 33 points. Sorry, yeah.

But that would probably be. So I forgot. So thanks. I completely forgot about that. Sorry, Danny. So I would probably circle them. What do you have, Craig? Yeah, Broncos is a good one.

I don't know. I've been a little bit unimpressed with the Packers this year. I feel like the Micah Parsons trade. Everybody said Packers, Super Bowl favorites. They start the year by beating the Lions. And then since then, I've been kind of unimpressed. I mean, they lost to the Browns. They tied the Cowboys.

they barely beat Jacoby Brissette and the Cardinals. I don't know. I still think like the Jordan Love. I don't know if I'm there yet. It's like watching an NBA team where I like those guys. I like this guy. I like that guy.

Why aren't they winning? Why are they down 10? The Ravens are top 10 in Superbloods and they're one and five. Yeah, that's a good answer. If they were five and one with the injuries they had, that would make sense. Good answer.

All right. We'll take a break and then we're going to do, I don't even know what to title this game. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of Fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ, built for breakthroughs, with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow,

and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cepora of the fates that I've been to deniches who energize all these ensembles the format

standard and mini regrouped, what are they're pretty old. And I know I know that I should be they offer them,

but I'm the summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm, I'm sure. The more ensemble

the gift the fairos of the fair beauty, Way, Cifora Collection and other part of VIT.

Procurry you these format standard and mini regrouped for a better quality of All right, so we did the My Guy draft before the season.

And that was basically snake fashion. We do a title or a thing and we try to draft one and we go in order. We're not going to do that this time. I sent you guys a bunch of categories. Most valuable player, coach of the year, offensive or defensive rookie of the year. Next coach fired. Breakout star.

QB off-season hot-seat guy. Can't wait for this one. Number one seed, AFC or NFC, team that will get the number one pick, fantasy MVP, and fantasy murderer of the year. So after seven weeks,

we're going to predict what the outcomes will be for those categories. And the catch, so some, I mean, what are half of the podcast now, draft podcast? Except ours,

funnily enough. I think we do the least drafts. You don't have to draft that much on our show. So some of them were that you have to match with the categories. Like Big Picture does that. We're going to try to match with the categories. And part of the art here is like if there's a category you don't like, maybe you grab it right away because you're worried about the depth and the category.

And then we'll see at the end of the year. Who won? It's probably the easiest just to have High Fitz go first and go this way. I get to go first. Plus, Hyphitz. Well, who, you decide, Craig. Who had a harder loss between Kelly and High Fids? if it's here on Sunday or Monday.

What was more devastating? Well, this is funny because we were talking about context. With context, D.K., because the Mariners could have made their first World Series ever. Without context, it's high fits. Because if that game were in the playoffs, I think it would be the worst collapse in sports history, but because it was like a random week seven game

and the Giants suck. I had Giants fans who were like, I know we're not going to make the playoffs, but that was one of the worst losses I've ever had. I didn't know I could feel that bad about a team that's not going to make the playoffs. Like, I didn't, I feel like I've been so guarded in my heart for the last like eight years,

nine years really for the Giants. I feel like the Eagles game, they won, and I was like, man, I'm in on this team. I love them. I'm letting him. I'm going to go all. I'm letting my... The Giants are better than the Eagles.

Hell yes. I'm being vulnerable again, and then they did that. I haven't called me drunk at midnight on Thursday after that Giants, Eagles game. It was like, Craig, the Giants are better than the Eagles. And I was like, I think you might be right. I was drunk and I wanted to do a to Topper.

I wanted to record the show, and I was like, watched it at a bar, and I was like, let's do the show. They were like, no. Did you think you're going to the playoffs after that game? Yeah. I got Super Bowl. I got Charlie, I have, I bet in February the job, 500 to 1. I have a lot of fan to win the Super Bowl.

I bet I, I, I, wow, 500 times. Well, I thought they might get Stafford. And I was like, that's, if they get Stafford, that will be an amazing ticket. But I just, I got Charlie Brown, man. The moment that I was like, oh, I'm in on this team. They had a one in 1600 collapse. So is that worse than what happened to Danny, where he was up 3-1 in the seventh inning with a chance to play the Dodgers?

Probably not. Probably not, but it is easier if we just start with her. You go first stuff. So I get to go from any of these categories. Any category. You grab a guy, and once you pick the guy, or the team,

off the board, you're done with that category, and we can't touch that person. So there is like one category in this entire list that I think there is just an objectively correct answer. And it is, the next coach fired will be Mike McDaniel for them. Damn, damn, damn.

Yeah. There's not really good number two on that one. No. The only zag for that is if, well, first of all, it seems like he's trying to get fired with the glasses he wore and the weird press conference he gave and just whatever the kind of sort of blaming the players. Yeah. I don't know if we executed because we didn't really play football today or whatever he said.

The only thing I can think of is that they're trying to tank and you're putting him in almost as the mole to ruin the team. That's a great first pick. I think he's got to be the heavy favorite. Craig, you're up. Man. Okay. I'm just going to, I'm going to go chalk here.

I'm going MVP Mahomes. Okay. I think Mahomes is playing the best season he's had since 2022. Looks like the old chiefs are back. The last three years of the boring, ugly chiefs offense is completely gone. Mahomes is playing incredibly. All the receivers are back. The offense looks fantastic.

I think he's in one MVP. I thought heading in the season, Josh Allen was the best QB in the league. I'm still not going to jump off that, but Mahomes has the most fantasy points, which I think is interesting. I will say with the Mahomes' back, it just kind of has to be casually mentioned.

They're about to beat the Jaguars, and then he threw a 99-yard pick on a pass that most terrible quarterbacks in the league would throw. So it's just that caveat. He did cost them a game with a terrible thing, but I think he has the best odds on Fandle. In that game, I think he was throwing to, like, Tyquan Thornton.

And Xavier worthy on one leg, but yeah. Yeah, he's, at least they've branched out. And then he's still, his deep ball stuff is still pretty erratic. But for the most part, he looks way more like Mahomes from three years ago. In Europe. Yeah, just the vibes. I'm going to go also chalk here, Shane Steichen coach of the year. Yeah.

Feels like the runaway favorite. I thought these would be the first three picks. Yeah. I mean, I'm going back and trying to remember what we were thinking at the beginning of year. I remember laughing. I specifically laughed at the Coltsford choosing Daniel Jones. over Anthony Richardson, just because the fact is they drafted this guy. I think it was number four overall a couple years ago with the knowledge in that they are

going to have to give this guy some time. And they just gave up on him so quickly for a guy like Daniel Jones, who I just had zero confidence in. And the fact that he not only made that really tough decision to go to Daniel Jones, face the ire from the media, but now he's turned this into legitimately one of the best offense, like through seven weeks, one of the best offenses we've ever seen. If you just look at the stats, like through seven weeks of a season, they're up there with like the 07 Patriots, the 2013 Broncos,

in terms of scoring, points per drive, yards. What's the worst record they could have where he still wins Coach Deere? They go 10 and 7, can he win? I think Vrable would be the big competitor, right? Yes. So it's like basically whoever has a better record between those teams probably wins it unless there's somebody we're not thinking of. Well, if the bills win the division, but the Pats still win 11, 12 games,

can Vrable win it? win the division, they're going to have to go through Foxborough to do it, motherfuckers. Come our way. Come take it. That's the right pick. I think he's done a great job. I also like when a coach makes an emphatic before the season decision. Right.

That's kind of like if this doesn't work out, I'm getting fired anyway, fuck it. But in this case, it actually worked out. I thought this had to be one of the first four picks. We have a breakout star category. And there's some good choices, but I just think it has to be Drake May. because, first of all, very vindicated to the Pats fans.

I've talked about him, butch for my podcast. He kind of sucked in week one against the Raiders and was probably the main reason they lost the game. He just wasn't good. He was throwing sailing balls and then he's just gotten better every week. And it hasn't been all cream puffs because they won in Buffalo and he was great in that game. But really looks like this, he's in like the Elway area for the athleticism

combined with the arm strength and the way he throws. I don't think anybody's throwing a better deep ball than him this year. I'm in shock by his deep ball. I can't believe how well he moves around the pocket

and there was like a three-minute super mix of all his plays this year and you're just watching him. He looks like a Jedi. It just looks like he's year five. He's, I think he's 22. It's ridiculous how good he's been. And I think it's sustainable.

I don't feel like there's anything fluky about it. Totally. He kills you from the pocket. He kills you when he scrambles. He can kill you with the deep ball. He kills you the clutch, like when they actually need to score at the end of games, he can kill you off platform. It's not like a Jalen Hertz or Bo Knicks, where if he's not really set the right way,

he can't make a throw, we can make any throw, and obviously he can run. But also the little stuff, too. Like, when he was at, like, this week, I think he broke the record for completion percentage by a Patriot's quarterback, and he broke Brady's record for completion percentage. And they were like, what do you think of that? And they obviously wanted him to do something about, oh, Brady, it's an honor. He didn't do that at all. He was like, honestly, I scrambled a couple times when I should have ran.

Yeah, so I ran when I should have throw and I actually missed some reads, and I didn't know what to do, so I ran. So actually, I left some plays in the field. And I'm like, that's the right answer. So he's the whole package. And while we're here, can you stop complaining about the Joe Milton thing? Where, like, you're upset. You got cost to Abdul Carter or whatever because Joe Milton.

Because I just see Drake May, and I'm mad that Tommy DeVito was a meme for the Giants. And he calls the Giants, Jayden Daniels and Drake May. So that is a lot worse than the Joe Miller thing. Is Abdul Carter playing this year? He just got concussed. Because what does he have, like, a half a sack? He's doing fine. But I mean, Brian, no, I like Abdul Qaeda.

He's been a joke. No, it seemed like a catastrophe not to get him or Hunter. Basically, it was like, words first, these next two guys. And then it's like, Will Campbell, Tyler Warren, Mason Graham. And then you would redo the draft. Like, Will Campbell's been really good. I think Mason Graham's a monster. Yeah, he's been good.

And then Tyler Warren, I'm sure he's going to come up at some point. But it did work out for the pets. You know what didn't work out is the Trayvion-Henerson pick. He's coming up. We'll talk about him as well. Okay. He's on the list. He's in one of these categories.

Are we snaking? How are we doing this? Are we going back to Hifitz? Are we going back to D.K.? What's the protocol? Oh, I think I should pick next. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we go opposite what Hyvitz thinks.

So, snake. Yeah. Oh, man. I'm up again. Wow. So I have my breakout guy. Oh, you know. All the favorites are gone now, I feel like.

Now these are a little tougher. So there's a category we have Pick a one seed in the AFC or O NFC And I'm going to take Indianapolis One seed in AFC As a one seed

Because I don't like the other choices And They won me over in that Chargers game I don't love their defense I think you can throw on them But offensively they're just absolutely outrageous I can't believe How efficient it is

And how many weapons they have And how easy it is There's been very few teams over the years Where it just seems like It's just easy for them to get eight yards Anytime they want And they have so many options And the Warren thing has been like

That's the fact that the bears Passed them up I'll never understand that That should be like a 5,000 word feature from somebody Like how did you how did this happen How did everyone think Tyler Warren Was the best tied in for 11 months And then somebody was like

Actually Zag and actually zagged with the 10th pick. Yeah. But the way they use him, he's like a combination of 11 tight ends I've loved in my life. I think the draft process is too long because by the time the draft comes,

people talk themselves out of all of the right takes. Like if the draft was just like February 20th, I feel like we'd be way more accurate with all of our predictions. I think it's a really good idea. You know what I mean? It's just so much more fresh. It's like, oh, I watched Abuka.

He's good. Just draft him. But everyone's like, well, the measurables. He's never been the best receiver on his Ohio State team. How about Will Campbell? his arms are a half inch too short. He's ready to fall out of the top. Did you ever notice that watching the games?

No. No. You mean when he was in the SEC looking great? All right, Danny, you're up. This is tough. Let's see here. It gets hard right around now. I am going to go with...

I think I'm going to go a fantasy MVP. Okay. And I'm going to take Jonathan Taylor. Speaking of the Colts. He was the running back nine in average draft position. before the year, 18th overall. So you could have gotten him in the second round quite easily.

We didn't really, we didn't know what to make of them because nobody did. No one really knew what to make of the Colts offense in general because, number one, we didn't really know who the quarterback was going to be for most of the preseason. And so we were just, everybody on that team got pushed down. You could have probably drafted 10 teams. Everyone's like, oh, you got to find the breakout team, right? That's the way to win in fantasy football. Yeah.

You know, it was like, oh, finding the Bengals from two years ago. And it was like, who's going to be the, finding the Texans that first year was Stroud. I think you could have probably drafted 10 teams before. you picked the Colts this year. It was the Bears. It was the Jags. There were so many teams. Nobody thought it was going to be a cold.

I mean, Sikin was kind of on the hot seat. For sure, 100%. Nobody thought he was a great coach. Really strange pro football reference page for Taylor. Yeah. Because first year he ran for 11, 6 to 9, 11 TDs. Then his next year was his great 18, 11, 18 TDs. Then he got hurt.

11 games in 22. 23 was maybe a holdout. He only played 7. That was when the Jim Mercer was going to give the money to a whale. And then the whale died, so Jonathan Taylor got paid. Then last year, just good enough. Jonathan Taylor killed the whale. Last year, 1431 and 11 TDs.

And yet, I don't think he was mentioned as a top three running back. There was always like this, I don't know. Well, part of the reason is he doesn't catch passes like the other guys. And so some of these league winning type running backs, Christian McCaffrey, Don A-chan, forget the couple other guys. guys that are really involved in the passing game, those guys just get pushed higher because it's like just more ways you can win. But Jonathan Taylor, he's just so heading shoulders above everyone and running this year. He's got three games with three touchdowns. He has three games

with 30 plus points. He leads all skill players in points per game and that's not even catching a ton of passes. So he's going first if you're redoing a fantasy draft right now. Yeah, probably. I also do think part of the reason he's not that famous is if Jonathan Taylor was named Sequin Barkley and played on a New York team in Sequin Barclay was named Jonathan Taylor and played for the Edapolis Colts team

his whole career and he's a boring name boring names matter he's having the third best fantasy running back season in the last 15 years when you're on pace

for 20 rush TDs and he might get more of that what's the record Sequin has it right 28 no the total or Tomlinson has both Thomas and what's the just Rush TD record

Sean Alexander Alexander? No it's the Danian Thomas is 28 and on the season he had 31 that was 2006 but I think he's going to have game where he has like five, but no one's had 20 rushing touchdown since 2006. Tomlinson set the

record on both, and then no one's had 20 since then, never mind 28. Kind of a running back resurgence this year because, yeah, Dijon and McCaffrey, they kind of built the whole game around that. And then, uh, yeah, I think Gibbs has been electric this year. He's been really fun. And the receivers are so deep. It's like, it's kind of going back to old school where it's like you should just take a running back in the first round, get a good quarterback and then figure it out later. Finishing last, Trivian Anderson. That leads me to my next category. Fantasy murder of the year, I will be drafting trivia on Henry.

I can't argue with it. I paid $30 for him. An unmitigated disaster. I mean, this guy was going like top 40 in drafts. I'm in multiple conversations with Pat's fans trying to piece together. Yeah, what happened? What do you have? Do you have inside info?

The first preseason game. First touch of his career. First touch, he broke a kick return. And then had all these electric plays. Anytime they put him in, he decked a dude and basically knocked a guy out. And then the season started.

And I was on one thread. We were trying to remember one good play he's had all year and we couldn't remember a good play. He just kind of runs into the line and falls down. So now we're like, is he hurt? Did he, like, lose his confidence?

Is he going through something? He got passed by the number three guy who... Terrell Jennings. Terrell Jennings. I didn't even know he was on the team. Undrafted three. Never heard of this guy.

I've been starting Trevion and Henderson every week. I have amnesia. No, he's a cut. He's absolute has, cannot be on a fantasy team anymore. I'm terrified that the second I drop him, someone's going to add him and then Vrable's going to start mixing him in and he'll be good. Fear is the mind killer.

The only, since my dad came up with this, as we all are trying to figure out, like maybe they're saving him for the second half of the season because he's little. That's the best I got. The best excuse I have. I think him being little is related. I think him being little is related. I think Vrable likes big people. They don't throw to him.

Why? Why aren't they throwing screens to him? He's fast. He's too busy throwing 20-yard touchdown. He's listed at 202. When small people are listed at 202, it's like six feet tall. It's like he probably plays at 190-something

and Vraibald just thinks he's small. Romandre's big. Why'd they draft him? It's my worst call of the year. They knew his way when they drafted him. I was like bragging about how Cleveland took Judkins over him. And now it's like eight weeks later, it's like, oh my God, I wish we had Judkins.

I'd like to go on record. This season he will suck. Henderson will be fine, long term. He'll be fine. He'll be Kevin Fock eventually for us. Like quarterback. It seemed in the preseason. It really seemed like this was Jemir Gibbs.

I'm not cutting him. It used to be super adorable for running backs not taken in the first round to need a full year to acclimate to the NFL, it's normal. Also, the reason, one of the big talking points around him coming into the league was he doesn't fumble, and he's really good in pass pro. And he's been terrible in past pro.

He's missed, like, huge plays in pass pro, and the fumbling thing apparently does not matter to Braybill because, you know, Romandre Stevenson is leading the NFL in fumbles, and he doesn't care. Hi, Fitz here up. I am, I will take, If, well, speaking of the Patriots, this one, I'm surprised this one fell to me.

In terms of scarcity here, I'm going to coach of the year, Mike Frable. I'm surprised that fell to me. I mean, this is really simple. Like, the Patriots, what do you guys, 5 and 2? Yeah. And coach of the year, I mean, if, I mean, you guys win the division. Coach of the year, you guys have the easiest remaining schedule. So not only you're 5 and 2 now, but the Patriots are the easiest remaining schedule.

So if the Patriots win 11, 12 games, you have the tiebreaker against the bills, you have already, I'm kind of like. He's 3 to 1 on Fandul. And that's the, you're talking about when you mentioned stike and what happens, how does Stike it lose? Well, the culture is six and one. So what record do they need to finish? But if they finish the stretch with like three or four losses down the stretch, that's the part that weighs heavier in people's minds, the beginning fades. Right. The Patriots, I hate to say it, and I hate the Patriots.

And this is not me sucking up. Actually, as you know, I really, really hate the Patriots. I hate the Giants as well and we're celebrating when you lost. The best moment of me working at this company, bar none, was you talking about how. It's going to make me mad. How much pain... Core week's just getting started here. Five days left.

How much pain the second giant Super Bowl caused you? And you didn't know I was like in the room. And you thought it was just like Mallory and Sean and you were like, you lived just like... You were just like an intern listening. And you were like, and you just were like, when you turned around, you're like, oh, shit, Haifitz hurt all that. And it was the best thing.

Stroking a cat. I was just like stroking something else. But having said that, so with that said, I kind of think the Patriots could win 12 or 13 games because I think Variable is such a good coach and Bay is playing so well. The coach and or quarterback advantage they have in so many of these remaining games.

Now you are sucking up. Now you are sucking up. No, he's right. Our schedule is just, it almost seems like a rounding error accident. You just can't believe there's no hard teams. It's like at Tampa, I think is one of the hard ones.

They play Buffalo in New England. And then maybe there's an at Baltimore or Baltimore. There's basically three playoff teams let them the schedule. Yeah. Right now on Fando, they're plus 175 to win 12. plus games, which they're five and two now, so that's seven and three.

I mean, they're going to be favored, and I think every game except maybe two. Yeah. So I think it's the right pick. I think it's stake and her variable for the stakinger of rable for the coach of the air. What do you have, Craig? No, Hyphitz gets another one, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow, I do.

Good point, Craig. Craig, you don't have to point that out. Teacher, teacher. Good point, Craig. In that note, on that similarly, I will take... for MVP it's tough Craig took Mahomes which is smart yeah

there's not a lot of awesome options left but for that reason I'm gonna take Matt Stafford for the ramps for a very simple simple reason bad pick you have to win 12 games to win the MVP there has been in the last 20 years one MVP

quarterback has not won 12 games this is high dad can't win yes yeah and you like oh you won nine games and 10 games and threw a lot of yards like it does not happen. And even the quarterbacks who did win 12 games and win MVP, they all got a first round by

when they were a two-by era. Like now in the 17 games, you kind of need 13 wins. So I'm looking around. Like Josh Allen for the bills has better odds in Stafford. The bills are way too injured, I think, to win 13 games. But I look at the Rams, and the Rams are 5 and 2. Stafford has 17 touchdowns and two interceptions. And he's playing so well.

And Rams are another team where I'm like, if the Rams win 13 games and Stafford has 35 touchdowns, it's smart. it's smart i like it i can't tell i think the guy i'm about to take applies to multiple categories yeah i'm gonna go fantasy MVP jackson smith and jigba who is the wide receiver one in fantasy and has immediately become he's on pace for 91900 yards this year um and so more more just almost 2 000 almost 2 000 and he's just like i don't know the fifth best receiver in the league now and he's only going up yeah he's

Always open. I was going to have him as one of the breakout players, too, maybe. I was going to do as well, but there's been a lot of breakouts this year. I feel like fantasy MVP. I'm with you. In terms of where he was drafted and how you feel about him now, he's like the most untradable player in the league. He was drafted as a wide receiver of 14.

Yeah. And he is number one receiver in terms of total points this year. He's on pace, like he said, for almost 2,000 yards. No signs of slowing down. He's number one overall in target rate. He's the Seahawks offense, their passing offense. He's been their leading receiver in all seven games. Yeah.

And I would say just like... And he's a peaceful man. When it seemed like there might be an altercation yesterday. He just sat on the bench and held the staff. The ref, the ref, like, guarded him. Like that meme of the guy taking all the arrows for everybody. He's peaceful dude. He just moves differently.

That's like the thing that always comes to mind when I watch him play. I'm just like, he has incredible body control, incredible acceleration, great hands, tracks the ball expertly. It's like just all the superlatives you could throw. out, he's just really, really good natural receiver. He's a great roster fit for the squad I'm building today. There's just some guys

are just open. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. And that's why, you know, my Tray Van Henderson thing will probably live on video-wise and infamy before the year comparing him to Jemir Gibbs. You know what won't live on is me talking about how awesome JSN was to Danny Kelly. In this at this very table. You picked he was your guy this year.

And how there was a four-game stretch last year when he was open for four straight games, and then the offensive line fell apart. That video won't live on because that's how social media works, Danny. It's a cruel beast. You like it when you're wrong. It's only the losers that live on. What do you have, Danny Kelly? Let's see here.

We should start a Twitter account called Great Takes Exposed. Yeah, that's good. How about the good takes? Just some positivity. Yeah. I was right. Rogers is decent. Rogers is decent.

It's pretty good. What a take. You were, you did plant your flag on I think we're Fine Island with Jared Rogers. Yeah. It was good. So I don't know if this is too obvious

to even count, but the QB off-season hot seat guy Tua. I really regret not grabbing that when I just went. I didn't really, I forgot I was going to snake and I'm crushed it into a car.

Can we talk this out? I couldn't stomach the idea of seeing Tua on a roster of mine in any fashion. Yeah, I guess he... We're not building fantasy teams here. We're trying to be right. No, that's the right pick

because... I wrote, duh, next to that. I actually also have, look, I have Tua, too obvious. Too obvious. Too obvious. Well, he's got, what, 50 million bucks on the books for 26? That's the only problem is they're going to have to eat a ridiculous amount of money to get rid of them. But then eventually they will.

I mean, the truth is he will have that one season as the Patsy, and then he's a, he, too, he's a backup quarterback. That is what he will be. That video of the Brown's guy saying, throw it to me through to a, throw to me to it, the Brown's safety. It's before the snap. He's like, throw it to me, Tua, throw it to me Tua. And then Tua throws it to him. Oh, no. And he's running.

He's going to Tua. And then he, like, gets up and running with the ball, and I thought he was going to freak out. And he just repeats it like he did before the play. Throw it to me to it. Throw it to me to it. Like, it was unbelievable. How could you come back from a quarterback with that after that happens? That's like, you have to leave the team at that point.

You know, I almost wish to had gone to the press conference after and be like, you know, starts with the leadership. Guys aren't to play a result. The only meetings. I just, you know, just keep saying it every week. I think they have, like, if they cut them post-June 1, they have like a $67 million dead hit. So they're just going to have to eat that.

What's funny is throw it, throw it to me blank, is something that I say when I'm watching the games, when it's a bad QB and you have the other team and, like, from a betting standpoint. And I think I was saying it at the same time as this guy. It might not have been the same scenario, but when two was in his own end zone, basically, and he threw that pick to Cleveland and the 10.

Like, when he went back to pass, he was like, throw it to me to it, throw it. Like, he's just, I think he's the throw it to me, All-Stars. It's an incantation. It's like what Van did this week or whatever the hell he was doing, trying to jinx LSU or whatever. Like, I think maybe, I think that there's the same vibe. Well, the Manning, Arch Manning is another throw-it-me guy. Man, throw it to me, Arch.

Come on. All right. I am, uh... Two to you, Bill. Two out to you. Well, I have to grab a hot seat guy, and there's only two left for the QBs that I really focused on I wish I could take them both.

You can't? Oh, I guess you can't. I'm going to take Trevor Lawrence here. It's just great value. Yeah. I just can't believe some of the games he's had. And then I used to have a joke

about the Portland Trailblazer soccer moms when I was writing way back when about how protective they were of their own players. And I think the Jaguars fan base is like this with Trevor Lawrence. It's everyone else's fault. It's Brian Thomas Jr. Because he won't catch balls over the middle and they're calling the wrong plays

and the offensive line is a good enough. And meanwhile, this dude just sails balls over people's heads and makes terrible decisions and runs around aimlessly. Runs past the line of scrimmage and then chucks a ball. And if they had lost that Chief's game, which they should have, like this season would already be a wrap for them. But unfortunately, it's not. Anyway.

You know, remember the Lombardi rule, just like, Every NFL quarterback has to throw through the door and then the good ones can hit the doorknob and the, you know, the elite ones can hit the keyhole. Yeah. Trevor Lawrence, every quarter, misses the door and breaks a window. Yes. It's kind of that simple.

He just, like, is not accurate. And his receivers can't catch. So it's just like a double whammy. He's inaccurate and his receivers can't catch. But he is accurate. Yeah. I would have paid, I don't know how much for video, the rest of the Jaguars team,

watching that commercial with him and Travis Hunter for Adidas, the footlo's parody. What was that? How did nobody stop that? What is that commercial? And then it runs all the time and you're like, how did nobody in either of these guys' life just throw their bodies in front of this?

Have you even seen Footloose? I think a long time ago, but yeah. And that is a deep cut. That's a movie that came out in 1984. It's like, let's parody Footloose. There needs to be some rule. Like, you need to be an all-pro before you can be in a commercial. They're shoving too many guys in commercials.

Travis Hunter being in a commercial. He's in multiple commercials. We'll take a break. We'll finish your dress. Number Baker was on the commercials. Well, progress is a lot. What a run! This champ is picking up speed. But they found a lane.

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RBC.com slash Petro-Dash Canada. Conditions apply. All right, come back with the draft. I am going to tackle the team that will get the number one pick overall in 20206 category.

And with apologies to dolphins, Titans, and Saints, I am going to take the 0-and-7 New York Jets. Fair. Because I don't know what the move is. Like, they could play Tyrod Taylor. He had two interceptions and a half.

Wilson's out for a little while. It doesn't seem like the coach is good, which is a problem. Yep. And they're in a division with Buffalo and the Patriots. They just seem like the most reliable bet to me. And you could nicely stack that with Aaron Glenn, first coach fire. I'd be a nice stack for you on your team. I could definitely do that.

D.K. You're up. Okay, let's see here. I just need to, I want to take this guy off the board. So I'm going to do, actually, no, I need to own something because I was in favor of Brock Bowers this offseason. And he is the fantasy murderer of the year. It's not all his fault because he got hurt. Yeah, there's a question with murderers, whether an injury is their fault. Right.

But I think this was different because he was hurt. and slaughter if they get hurt. Right, right. But Trayvon Henderson, like, literally stabbed me to death. Well, the problem with Brock Bowers is he was hurt for four extra weeks where you had to start him, but he wasn't healthy. And then they're finally like, he's hurt. We'll do points per game.

Brock Bowers has fewer points per game than Jake Tongis. It was brutal having to play him. He was limping around, like, Sean Penn at the end of one battle after another, just like for three weeks while you're still starting him. So I paid $36 for him in my knockout week. I thought I was like, he. He's a $40 receiver. I'm getting a discount at a position

where there's no good people. You pay $36, he has under 36 points, and believe it or not, Darren Waller matched it in like 36 snaps out of retirement. I don't like these stats. It just makes me feel terrible inside. By the way, he had one good game, and it was that week one Pats game,

which is going to be in the running for weirdest result of the year if the Raiders are like 3 and 14 and the Pats are like 13 and 4. He'll be like, wait, what happened in week one? I think part of the reason, too, that I wanted to highlight him, even though, obviously, like, the injury is the big reason here,

but the Raiders have been so much worse than I expected their offense to be. Like, they are uncompetitive on offense. What was it? They had 30 plays in this last game. Chiefs had 31 points. Raiders had 30 plays. Under 100 yards. It's funny because you would mean we're complaining about Pete Carroll for the last couple of years there.

Correct. And then he took time off and came back and seems just as incompetent. Here's the deal. He got older, weirdly. Yeah, weird that he said his mid-scent. We were complaining about him, but then when he got fired or whatever that was that happened, it was like you have this emotional connection to him and then you're kind of mad about it because they fired him. But yeah, I thought he was going to be, I thought he was going to turn this Raiders team around much more quickly than this is happening.

I picked them to make the playoffs. I was battling Colts versus Raiders versus Jags for that last spot in the AFC and I couldn't get there with Danny Jones. Carol might not be done in this draft. He might be popping up again for all we know. Craig's up. I'm going with QB off-season hot seat guy. I think this is the last guy in his tier, and I had him second.

I'm taking Kyler Murray. Oh, I had him too. Had him as well. Craig, it's in red. I mean, the worst place to be in the NFL is giving the big contract to a quarterback that you know can't do it. And it's Tua, it's Trevor Lawrence. It's Bradley D.

It's like, ah, we got to. Trevor, Kyler, the Cardinals have the 27th most wins since Kyler was drafted. That's just like, they have zero playoff wins. And they're way more competitive with Bresset. Yeah. Yeah, anytime there's a backup, the team seems fired up. Yes.

What's great about this, so we had the QB hotsie guy, Lawrence, I have Lawrence, Craig took Murray, Danny has two. And there's still great value in the board for Haifitz. I'm blown away. I was going to take someone right now. But then I'm like, I'm waiting. I'm waiting.

I don't need to. Wow, we're going to put it off. Wow, I'm shocked. Okay. In that case, I'll take fantasy MVP. I'm going to go with a... There are a lot of good options here, too, but I'm going to just...

I'm going to just take a moment to talk about Christian McCaffrey from the 49ers. Yeah, this sounds good. And you could argue that maybe there's other guys because, you know, McCaffrey you probably took in the first round

and maybe there's other values. But it's funny because all we talk about this year is Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor. In full PPR leagues, Jonathan Taylor is not the number one running back. Christian McCaffrey is the number one running back in full PPR leagues,

and I feel like it's glad to be getting discussed, like McCaffrey's playing with Mac Jones. He is on pace for over 1,000 receiving yards. He's third in the league in receptions. He is, and he is 11... Including receivers. He's 11 fewer receiving yards than Justin Jefferson. Yeah. He's so good that

when he's been so good this year, when it's like third and six, you're like, just run the play where you split McCaffrey out as a slot receiver. Nobody's guarded him all year. The craziest thing about it is as good as McCaffrey's been this year, and I feel like everybody thinks about the 20-23-9 season when McCaffrey went crazy.

he's having a better fantasy year this year than that year. He's 23 points per game. He won offensive player of the year in the 2023 season and I think he had like 590 receiving yards 580. He might pass that this week.

The only reason why I think somebody like Taylor's better is because McAfrey was taking like sixth overall. So you are, you are, this is what he's kind of supposed to be doing as opposed to guys like Yeah, I guess the fantasy MVP thing

is it like just who's been the most awesome or the value versus. Like JSN and Jonathan Taylor you could have had him and McCaffrey. Well, not to get too meta here, but by your logic, Jonathan Taylor went in this draft like three rounds ago, so. True. True.

Interesting. True. Yeah, because Taylor, you guys did not have him in the top five. No way. He was like a third rounder. He was like top 20 guy. Second round or third round. I got him in the rear draft, two quarterback league, but like the fourth round.

Yeah. High five, it's you of one more. Oh, yeah, I do. I can't believe I get to just cherry pick later. I just want to point out, nobody has picked an offensive or defensive rookie of the year. Yeah, that's, that category is wide open. Yeah, it's because I think it's deep and I don't feel confident about who's going to win it. Yeah.

It is deep. I agree with that. I will, in that case, I guess I might just dive in there and just, or actually, no, no, no, no. I'm going to, because that one. You tried to bully him and then take it out. I know you did. In that case, all right, we need to have a conversation for a second. Breakout Star.

What does that mean? Of all these categories you sent, I kind of just didn't know what that meant. All right. Fairly. Because I will, in that case, I'm just going to throw some out. It's up for interpretation. Just give us your pick. It's Cam Scadaboo for the New York Giants.

I think that's fair. It's somebody that wasn't being discussed before the season as somebody who there would be lots of conversations about, and now it's week seven and people are talking. I think Scadaboo is rocketed to fame more than anyone, including Drake. Drake Me is like a better player and joining a higher category of quarterback, but Cam Scadabo is honestly one of the, like,

Bill, you always would talk about like the conversations around the game. I don't know if online a player has actually been talked about more the season than Camps Gadboot, the photos, everything. He's like, again, my favorite thing about him, when he was a kid, he'd put on his older brother's shoulder pads, and he would run into telephone poles. Yeah. And you hear that story, and you're like, yeah, yeah, that totally makes sense. He's just, I didn't understand it.

I was texting you guys when, because I wanted the pads to take him in the third round, and he just kept following in the fourth round and nobody could explain it because everybody liked him and thought he was going to translate it. But he's not slow, though, when you watch him, like he's, he's got to, he's, he's, He's got short area. Once again, if the draft were on February 20th, it's like, you watch him play at 1,900 yards in college. He's good.

He doesn't win with speed. He wins with power, and he has enough acceleration to make the power work. And people don't want to tackle him. And these are NFL players. They're like, ah, he's a psychopath. Yeah, he's a maniac. He's a pit bull.

He's crazy. I'm so not surprised by him. He's lowering his head, like, a few yards into the end zone to, like, take a guy out. Crazy. Oh, God. Wow, I can't believe it got a scatabobo. That's a really good pick.

Craig, you're up. Next coach fired, Aaron. Glenn. Yeah. Kind of surprised that he was still there. I think it gets tricky after him. It does. It definitely does.

I'll let D.K. figure out his picture. I'll just say it's funny that the Jets were like, yeah, we hope Aaron Glenn learned something from Dan Campbell. And now it's like, you know, the other coach you started 0-N-7, Dan Campbell, 0-1-11. Well, we did, I did this on Sunday's pod because I looked this up, and somehow it's harder to look up stuff now,

now that everybody puts AI in the Google, like, just it spits out weird stuff. But Cam Cameron's 0 and 13 I had forgotten about. It was in the mid-2000s, some of the Dolphins. Oh, and 13th start. The dolphins quietly have had some of that. I mean, that, Nick Sabin, like, I mean, man. Let's see here. So there's some good options in this one, but I'm just going to go with it.

I'm going to go with the team that will get the number one pick, the Titans. They have pretty comfortably the hardest schedule of the zero and one win teams right now. They have to face the Colts, Chargers, Texans, Seahawks, Jags, Browns, 49ers, Chiefs, Saints, and then the Jags again. I could maybe find, like, two wins in there, maybe. I looked at them, too. It is crazy because everyone thought, like, the AFC South was probably going to be bad. Right. Now it might have a 14-win team.

The Jags are frisky. Houston's got a killer defense. Yeah, exactly. So I think this is also a team with an interim coach that nobody really believes in. a rookie quarterback, there's no skilled player talent right now. I like when teams are like, listen, Jeffrey Simmons, no way we're trading him. It's like, why not? He's in his late 20s.

Why wouldn't you trade him for, you get some like a first and a third for him? I'd do that in five seconds. Dude, this all the time. I mean, Max Crosby. Bill Barlow. Max Crosby's another one. Yeah, like, years ago, like, Max Crosby, I'm like, you could have got two firsts for Max Crosby if they traded him two years ago.

And the teams don't want to get rid of guys competitively, but like, they never want to do it. I have my on Simmons for the Pats. Brable connection. I don't think they trade with Brable. But I think he's potentially the best guy that could be able. For Jeff Simmons? Or Crosby. Even in the one quarter, he played against the Pats.

He was like disrupting us. And then he went out and he became a lot easier. Wow, he is 28 already. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I just like, when are you going to be good again, Tennessee? Yep.

You know? D.K., was that your pick? That was my pick. Yeah, you're up. Oh, so I have two. okay um let's do do do i have to

oh you know what i'm going to bang out an offensive or defensive rookie of the year and the odds are pretty high for everybody because there's no favorite there's so much um so much consensus i mean so much lack of consensus i'm going to take tyler warren nice even though

at Bucca's been awesome and Dart will have some sexiness because he's a QB in a New York market but I just think Tyler Warren's like honestly one of the best

football players like could he be the first team all pro as a tight end yeah it's so clearly obvious that he's good immediately upon getting

on the field nobody can tackle him they can line him up everywhere I love when tight ends can be used as like a running back every once in a while

or a slot receiver we had that with early gronk where you could kind of just Put them around the field, and you can just see the defense like, oh, fuck. They spread them out wide. And I don't think a tight-in has ever won offensive rookie the year. No, I mean, Bowers had the most catches, like the second most catches ever for any rookie.

It didn't even win that rookie year last year. All right. So then I'm going coach of the year. High Fitzardier's Rable and D.K.R.D.S. Stiking. I think the only guy left who can win this is Kyle Shanahan, and I'm going to grab him. I think he's 7-1 with a Fandul. So, five and two, he's turned Mac Jones into somebody that is probably going to get like a $20 million a year contract from somebody at some point and be terrible when he gets it.

All the injuries, the fact, the way they showed up for this last game with nobody on defense, and just dudes I've never, ever heard of in my life. Shanahan does this shit every year. No receivers. So Kendrick Bourne and Mac Jones, I think the craziest Shanahan stat is the Nick Mullen stat. Oh, yeah, my favorite. The most yards in the first 16 games of your career, it's Mahomes and then Nick Mullins. And then it's like Andrew Luck, Kurt Warner, and Tony Romo.

The most yards in the first 16 games of your career. Patrick Mahomes and then fucking Nick Mullins because of Kyle Shanahan. That's unbelievable. That's crazy. Yeah. D.K. You're up. Okay, this is the guy I wanted to get off the board here. So I'm going to go breakout star. Yeah.

Igbuka. Yeah. Amika Agbuka. Who is only his, case is probably only going to get stronger going forward here, obviously, because he seems like the greatest guy, too. Like, I think I'd vote for him for president in 28 if he decided to get the right partner. Everybody loves him.

How are you a captain as a rookie? That's like impossible. It'd be like when Hyphitz joined as an intern, we're like, Hi Fitz, you're now a captain. He's got it. This kid's got something. Yeah. He's a leader. And also, by the way, with Mike Evans, likely missing most of the season, Abuka is going to be

they're pretty clear cut number one it's only going up for him and obviously I trust Mayfield defeat him the rest of the season I really like Tess too I know I did too and his story is the whole thing with him and Bo Nix's family that's like the

kind of the story that hasn't gotten enough play is really cool really cool but that guy I thought Mayfield was awful on London night I thought he missed a lot of throws he missed Tess in the end zone at one point but I thought Tess was open most of that game I mean also thinking the MVP chance were for him a couple weeks ago is one of the other things to play or

He's good. He's just genuinely awesome. He's been lights out. I remember when we talked into my guy stuff and you guys were saying like can guillotine be careful with young guys, rookies, it takes a while. Ibuka came in, he had two touchdowns

in his first game. Immediately awesome. Craig, you're up. I think I'm just going to take Jackson Dart for offensive rookie of the year. Yeah, that's the right pick because I'm shocked, DK, you went to break out of the year for Buka

and not rookie of the year because I agree. That was because I think Darts going to win it. Okay, well, he has DART now. Yeah. So DART, the reason I left Dart this long is

obviously Dart's the favorite. My concern is the Giants of the hardest schedule remaining in the NFL and I feel like they'll lose a lot of games and I also kind of wonder if Dart's going to just get hurt. I was going to say the bigger concern to me is he's a fucking maniac. They need to run PSAs for him and show him

all quarterbacks have taken dumb hits. He's going to get hurt like eight yards past the line of scrimmage trying to juke three guys as some linebacker hits him from behind. He just doesn't care. This is Daible's toxic trade as a coach is that Josh Allen had no sense of self-preservation earlier in his career

when he played for Brian Dable. Daniel Jones, we kept joking that we thought Dable was trying to get Daniel Jones hurt because Daniel Jones took so many hits. And that's why Giants fans have no bad blood with Daniel Jones is he put his body on the line for the Giants.

Like he would always take hits and now it would start. And it's like goal line, important third downs. You can't take hits getting the extra yard on its first and 10 and you're going for three yards and you're taking it to you before.

Drake made figured it out this year. I'm convinced they spent months. The Drakeman has the body for it. Dard is a little bit sliced. He's a good runner, but he just go down. Yeah. But he just, he's, he's friends, you know, I don't think, maybe it's, maybe it's, maybe it's, you know, that Cam Scadaboo, maybe he can. He's rubbing off on him.

Maybe Scadaboo will tell, yeah, literally with his face. There's human smelling salts. Yeah, rubbing the faces on each other. What's your other pick? No, it's two to high fits now. Oh, it's two to me? Oh, I thought you took Jackson Dart. I wish.

Oh, you took Jackson Dardt. Good pick. I, yeah, I really, I was definitely going to make that pick if you didn't do that. I'm like P. who took a pick. Like put it in a pulling McCallum. No, no, we have gentile down. Damn, so the rookie of the year now, now,

that's, we're getting a little thing. Well, Trayvian and Henderson is still there. He's 150 to 1. I can go defense. That is true. The defensive rookie of the year list was really grim. It's, it is, I'm not going to go defensive rookie at the year because I think everyone voting is going to be like,

wow, I don't know. I think everyone looks that up. The voters looked that up in, like, December 20th. Yeah, no idea. Like PFF stats. Yeah, they just sort by, yeah, great. I, man, so you get Dardabook and Warren are gone. Part of me, I guess the only answer left here is,

it's crazy to say this, but, I mean, Quinn Sean Judkins. I honestly have no idea if he'll win the award because of the off-field stuff, but the other rookies. It's the Browns. They have an easy schedule remaining, but, I mean, he's pretty good. He looks good. I don't feel great about this pick. It's probably my, oh, Henderson's gone.

That's too bad. You're right. No, no, you could still take him in a different category, right? No, that's how it works. Oh, if I took Kandeson in one category, can no one take him in another? No, it's just for that category. Oh, we can double up. Oh, okay, okay.

So, like, Jackson Smith and Jigbo could be fantasy MVP and breakup star on different teams. Oh, then I'll take Emeka Abuka for rookie of the year. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's what I was saying when I want to take him off the board. Well, glad I clarified that. Thanks, wow, then that's stuff. Yeah, I mean, everything D. D.K. said, yeah, Mike Evans is like, it's just if Abuka is banged up, so a darts the favorite.

be eligible for two categories. I think so too. Yeah. Perfect. And yeah. Then I think, I kind of screwed you there. Yeah,

I haven't told me that. It's his fault. That was wrong. But, yeah, I mean, Ibuk is amazing. So you got a second one now. The second one,

I will, I think I, I think I got to dive in a fantasy murderer here. And, man, there's some great picks here. There's two guys left

that I'm perfectly happy with. But I think I have to take Brian Thomas Jr. in the Jaguars. He's been brutal. I thought I was going to get him. And it's because A.G. Brown, you know, has been bad too, but A.G. Brown's had a great game. Here's the difference.

Brian Thomas, you took him in the second round. If you didn't know anything about the Jaguars, and Bill, if I told you there was a receiver on the Jacksonville Jaguars who also plays cornerback and doesn't really practice with the offense that much. Yeah. You'd think it was Brian Thomas. Also, like, if somebody just told you, oh, the Jags are four and three this year, beat the Chiefs.

You'd be like, oh, my God, Brian Thomas would be going crazy. He must be doing great. It's, I feel like I've watched too much of the Jags, but I also have him on multiple fantasy teams. And it's not just that he's not, it's not a situation where the quarterback screwing him over. Like, he's just dropping balls, too.

It's a combo of when he is open, he's overthrown, or he drops it. The scenario is always bad. And last year, it just felt like he was just beating guys downfield over and over again and getting wide open. And I don't know what happened to that guy. Really weird. I don't understand it all.

You got one more pick. No, because I took a booke's offensive rookie. All right, Craig's up. I'm going to go with... God. I'm going to go with team that'll get the number one pick in the draft, and I'm going to take the Miami Dolphins. There you go.

But they're so hot right now. They only have three easy games left. Saints, Jets, and Bengals, if you can count the Bengals at this point. I'm like, I think they're. The Saints are better. I think the Bengals are better. It's brutal. The Tua, I don't know if he's going to be playing the rest of the year.

They might fire Mike Daniel. Like, this team might just completely quit. I think it's the right pick. So we have, I took the Jets, you at Miami and D.K. has Tennessee. So really, the Saints or Vegas are just sitting there. Yeah. Okay. What do you got, Danny?

All right. I'm going to go with MVP, Josh Allen. It's pretty good value at this point in the drafts. Josh Allen. I forgot about Josh Howell. I'm really upset. I took Stafford like five routes. I was surprised by that.

Yeah. You don't get the odds. I panicked because I forgot. I was doing two picks in a row. In addition to being... Which leaves Drake made for Bill. Absolutely alien. The bills have a pretty easy schedule down the line.

So, you know, and again, he's this alien quarterback who can run around and do all the most insane physical things. But he also doesn't have the benefit, or I think, narratively, he doesn't have, like, number one receiver. He doesn't have a superstar running back. He doesn't have an elite defense. And so it does feel like the team, he's just putting the team on his shoulder. Even though I think they're solid across the board, you know what I mean? It just feels like he is elevating them.

I really wanted them. And if you look at his next few games, like they're, I mean, they just have some cream puffs left. But the AFC is really like that. At least they have to play Philadelphia in week 17 and they're at here. Houston, but, yeah, I think Josh Allen's kind of been under the radar this year, all these other stories and it does feel like we're due.

Plus, he's got the Oscars coming up. Maybe his wife gets nominated. Okay. Yeah, that was a good pick. Thank you. So, I only have a couple ones left here. Oh, yeah. So I need to do my fantasy MVP.

So Craig took JSN, high fits took McCaffrey. Danny took Taylor Man This is tough because I was between Mahomes and Dack I think it's Dack You can make the argument

he's been one of the most valuable picks because of where you could get him I think in general if you could pick a team you should just say Dallas I mean the fact that Pickins Giovante Williams

out of nowhere at Dack they've all been so Jake Ferguson's like the number one tied end fantasy See, everybody's cleaning up. Tack, if you extend the grace of what he's done for them overall, is probably the correct answer. Kind of breaking the rules, but yeah.

He's also been awesome. He's been incredibly nails. I think him and May are playing consistently the best on throws. Like, just their guys are in stride all the time, the deep balls, everything. Big time throws. Big time throws. That game he had against Green Bay, I thought it was the best quarterback game I've seen this year. The three of us couldn't watch that.

It was at 5 a.m. in Dublin. So we actually like literally had to go to there. It's hard to watch internet like when you're out of the country with the geolocating. They got good at that. So we were just following the box score live. We're like, wow, everyone's playing great in this game.

So I'm the only one who didn't have most valuable player. Craig took Mahomes. High Fitts took Stafford. Danny took Allen. I mean, come on. It's sitting right there for you. Well, a week ago, I would have taken Mayfield, but Evans has gone for, I think that's a mountain too high for them.

You're going to pretend you're not going to do it. It's a different. Stop dancing in the back from. Not Mayfield. Just do it. A different man. Well, I looked at. Jonathan Taylor, but running backs never win.

Your team's just dragging us out. Come on. Running back's never winning. Why are you just trying to. What are we? You're just to show that he didn't do work for this. This is plausible deniability. Come on.

Just saying it. Jared got it. Get the fuck out of here. He's not winning. Stop edging me. Tell us about Jackson Smith and Jiglin. He's good. Jack Prescott, they're going to win nine games.

I feel like the game of Thrones and the guys on fire. He's like, kill me. I'm going to do it. Daniel Jones, 22 to 1. He's not winning. Okay. Jordan Love is even. All right.

Anyway, the next pick, DK. Lamar 33 to 1 That's not bad Drake May Third best odds 7 to 1 And does fit that Top 2 seed thing

If they can be Buffalo again I hate to say it He does Yeah Fourth best odds I wanted Alan But I think that's the right You should go back to

Daniel Jones or Jonathan Taylor I don't know Toss up You pick Colts for one seed So by that logic You know And then I think I have fantasy murderer left

Is my last category category right uh yeah travion brian thomas and brock bowers have been taken this is really tough because i wanted to take garret wilson but his stats actually aren't that bad started really well yeah it just feels philosophically like it should be him yeah more because he was a murderer last year so he's like a double murderer i think he's like a murder victim i mean i mean you can take fields fields has been super up and down ruined a lot of people yeah but Anyone who's like I'm devoting my fantasy season to Justin Fields, like, that's crazy. You have to spend a certain amount of a high pick on a player.

Like, that's why I think Henderson's as low as you can go. That still is a murderer because you reach for this fourth-run guy and he's the only hype. But it has to be a high pick. Did we mention Sequin? Sequin and Derek Henry are eligible, I think. Henry got dinged because of Lamar getting hurt. Sequin's literally, and so Lamar's literally done almost exactly half of what he did last year. He's the RB 18.

Well, so I think Sequin is my pick. I did look at Nico Collins, too, because I paid $50 for him. Yeah. And he has not been a $50 guy, but he is scoring touchdowns in some of the games. That's not really awful. And then the only other one I was thinking was genty just because he was being treated like a top five guy. Yeah. But I think it has to be Barcliffe.

I mean, Barclay was. I mean, you took him first overall. Yeah. And he was supposed to be a sure thing. There's no doubt about this guy. It's funny that the person has actually made people the angriest this season

that we've heard about is probably AJ Brown and a different eagle got picked and Adrian Brown didn't get picked That's because the last AJ Brown has been kind of on the upswing.

But are people mad at AJ Brown or are they mad at that they don't throw AJ around the ball? They're mad at the angles. Right. Okay. Danny, you're up and it looks like

So I've got, I still have to do offensive defense of rookie of the year. I kind of fuck myself on this one because now the good the good players are taken. I'm going to go off the board here. I'm going to take like

a sleeper. And I'm going to say Travis Hunter, who is trending in the right direction. He plays on both sides of the ball. If he finishes strong, like so last week, he had eight catches for 101 yards. The game was over for two hours. I know, but he started late

I know, but if you combine like the Brian Thomas stuff, him trending in the exact wrong direction. Right. Travis Hunter, they're playing him more and more on offense now. He had if you look at kind of some of like his snaps and target rates on offense, they're all going in the right direction.

So this is more like a prediction of what's going to happen and a narrative pick because he's, you know, the number two pick. He plays the both sides of the football. Obviously, it looks terrible right now. But if in 10 weeks from now or whatever, we're talking about Travis Hunter, you know, having 80 to 100 yards a game

and is emerging as their number one receiver, that narratively I think will pay off. But obviously, I don't feel great about it right now. Gladstone's texting Liam Cohen, and like, we're getting fucking killed. Throw some screens to Hunter. Boost the stats. Craig, you're up.

I'm going to take the Patriots as the one seed in the AFC. They're five and two. They're the easiest schedule in the league. I think 12 wins minimum. I appreciate it. Thank you. I guess I'll just be the, I'll do a deep cut here. I'll do this is, I don't know if you guys have heard of this team.

I'm going to take the Kansas City Chiefs. to be the one seed in the in the FACC, the best team in football. That's totally, I think that's, I thought about it, but they already have three losses. They can basically only lose two games to have a shot the rest of the season. And I think they will. The Chiefs are going to, I think that, look, the Mahomes thing for MVP,

I'm jealous. Mahomes is 11 touchdowns of one pick in last month. They're going to go to Warpath. They're also the healthiest good team. They play the Colts. So if they win that game, they make that up right there. And I just, they play the Colts. They play the Bills.

They play the Broncos twice still. They have Houston, out of the Chargers. I'm not worried about them playing the Broncos. The Chiefs, eight teams in the AFC are between six and four wins. And the Chiefs, to me, are clearly the best of the eight. I think it's a right pick. You have one more. I have one more here.

And so I guess now I double dip. I have to dip into the categories that you guys just left to me. Yeah. There's one boring one left and one, the quarterback office is in hot seat or teams that get the one pick. Bill, what do you want to, you don't care? You do whatever you want to do. I have to, I am so thrilled that you guys left me, J.J. McCarthy for the Vikings. as the quarterback off-season hot seat.

Wow. This guy, like, the Vikings had a very difficult situation to decision, where do you pay Darnold $30, $40 million a year, or do you go with McCarthy? And that's a hard decision. So it's not back Monday morning quarterbacking, but it clearly made the wrong decision. Yeah. Because Darnold is playing, I mean, last time is tough, but Darnold's playing overall totally really well for Seattle.

Right. And then on the other hand, McCarthy, I agree with what you were saying on Sunday Bill. We all wonder if the McCarthy, ankle thing was a shadow benching. There's probably some kind of injury there, but I'm like, they're hiding this guy. And also, the Vikings, to this point in the season, had the easiest schedule in the NFL. The Vikings going forward have the hardest schedule in the NFL. So McCarthy comes back. He's going to get rocked. He's clearly not ready for the NFL, and the Vikings are a win now team. The timelines are totally mismanaged. He's not going to play well.

And if he doesn't, the whole off season is going to be, what do are the Vikings do? We're going to go with just J.G. McCarthy again? They had Daniel Jones last year. Let him go. They had Sam Donald. They let him go. And like, he has more pressure on him than any quarterback going into next year. It's the longest high ankle sprain, I think, in recorded American history. It's like six weeks now. It's like, ah, it's, yeah. I mean, we have so much good technology. It basically means you would have to have a stress fracture in your ankle to not be playing. Well, they're just clearly in no rush. But he also looked horrible and unprepared on that Sunday night football game. It was the same night as the Emmys. And it was like, you know, he just looks not ready,

But the Vikings are ready. It's funny that he's basically want to know. Yeah. Well, I'll say you have that post-game locker in speech with O'Connell. It's like, this guy, we never gave up on him. And McCart's like, it's like, it's the highlight of his year. Do you have any friends who had a girlfriend, but like they were never there? They were never around.

Like, you never met him. Like, there's always some reason. She goes to a different school. Yeah, he goes to different school. She's in Canada. It's like, oh, yeah, last year, what happened was a rookie thing? He was the only rookie. And it's like, oh, where is he got like a high ankle sprain?

Like, he's never there. Like, he's never there. I know. get him. I'm going to take coach of the year. Wait, can I interrupt on the Hafeitz thing for a second? I'd like to apologize to C.J. Stroud for not getting drafted for QB. Offs and Hotsie guy.

I thought about it. I certainly thought about it. I almost took him over Lawrence. Are we sure he shouldn't take the blame? Well, I'm not saying he shouldn't. I don't think he will. Did you like anything he did in that game history? How many times can you blame the offensive line? He hasn't been good since his rookie year. Like the last two seasons he's been genuinely bad. The little Trevor Lawrence

point that you made about everyone's creating excuses around Trevor Lawrence. It's kind of the same for Stroud. The offensive line is a disaster. It's like maybe this play caller is also bad. I thought their defense was awesome. And the only times the Seahawks moved the ball was like JSN was incredible or they had that crazy field position. But Texans were like, there was like 10 guys hats on the ball on some of those plays.

There are three defenses that are actually good at all three levels. Those were two of them. They have to be so mad at the offense. Like, what the fuck? He might just be so gun shy now and just scared in the pocket because he just, I mean, he just gets drilled. on every single point. The Texans' offensive line

was so bad last year that they actually just swapped in like five guys and changed everything. Like, DiMica Ryan is like, I've never seen a headline that was like the head coach being like, I deny that there's a toxic culture and an offensive line room.

Like, I'm like, I don't, come to the league of deck. Who said that? Yeah. But it's just, it doesn't have, it's Occam's razor. Like, the line sucks. Yep.

So, sorry, Craig, you're all good. I'm taking coach of the year fell to me. I really like these odds. Mike McDonald, Seattle Seahawks If they win the division With Sam Darnold Year 1

12 wins or something like that Absolutely Mike McDonald Killing coach of the year I had it like my fourth spot The only thing He could give a speech about I'm sorry I was such a puss In week one

And then later that other game I don't think he'll use that word Okay He seems a little bit too You know straight laced Well now he believes in the team When he went for him fourth and two It was a turning point

Yeah It's like I believe in you guys They should be seven and out, Seattle. They're really good. Well, the only thing holding him back, and I agree that, like, he's done a really good job. And the off-season decisions, that's something we talked about with Stuyken. You're making these really momentous off-season decisions that are going, they're trading away D.K. McCabe.

Trading away Gino. Yeah. And all those decisions look really smart. Yeah. So that is going to help him. But the only thing holding him back is Seahawks won 10 games last year. So that's generally the coach of the year is like you're bad and then good. Yeah.

But I like that. It's also the coach of the year is the stupidest. award there is. It's a narrative award. The Coach of the Year's award is called the Lombardi Trophy. Sure. It's the dumbest thing ever,

like a regular season coach of the year award. I'm only down to, I got a few left. Wait, one more, I think, right? So I got, I have to go with the one seed. I'm going with the bills.

Seventh easiest schedule, according to Warren Sharp. Very smart. And obviously I'm doubling. I'm like stacking here with Josh Allen, MVP, so yeah. Okay. And then I'm up.

Yeah. Why do I have? Pause this for one second. I have one more. Right? I feel it. Maybe I went like three times in a row. Are you done?

I have picks for every pick. You, did you pick next coach fired? Oh, I wrote going on the wrong one. Yeah, okay. Neither is DK. Yeah, those are the two left. I think that's my last one. Yeah.

But he should have two. Bill should have two. I should have two. I must have double that. You don't have fantasy MVP, Bill. Who did you pick for fantasy MVP? I took DAC. Dak, right?

Barclay. I probably went twice. High Fitz only has team that we'll get the number one. Bill did. Yeah, maybe Bill went three times around. So just go once then, Bill. No, because we all have, well, I don't know. Whatever.

I do have Bill, I do have, oh, wait, no, no, no, Bill, you don't have coach of the year. He took Shanahan, right? No, he took. Oh, you, yeah, you took Shannon? Okay. Yeah. Bill took Shannon. All right.

So. I don't know. I don't know what we did. I don't know what we did. You just got to go once, and then we'll swing back. Pretty exciting. So I have next coach. Coach Fired is my last one.

Yeah. Okay. And I will do, okay. All right, coming back, we, we, oh, I'll do it differently. All right, I'm up with next coach fired. And somehow this is my last pick. So we think maybe I did three picks in row at some point. I'm making fun at P. Carroll and I've somehow tripled up on my spot.

I mean, you remember the 1976 Mariners being introduced, but I will say the first, in Ringer 107, you changed the lines of the Broncos game. There's cheating allegation. There's no cheating. There's an active investigation. Okay, that's fair. We lost the pick anyway. How do you feel about us three in first place, bring her one of seven?

Won't last for much longer. Wait, what is the meme you said this morning? The gambling contest, we're tied for first, and you said we would come in last. The happy Gilmore, when he's like, the pathetic thing is, you've been doing this your whole life. I thought you'd come in last. I didn't know Shiel was going to get bit by a Black Widow spider this season. What's great about it is we legitimately spend. like three minutes a week.

That's the way to do it. It's like the people who draft our teams in February. Yeah, you're like the interns. Every week we're like, should we just take the Colts again? We're like, yeah, let's do it. Smart. Next coach fired.

I got to do it. John Harbaugh. Yeah. I like it. John Harbaugh. Yeah. Lamar's been hurt all. I think if this goes badly this year,

Lamar comes back and says, oh, they're going to be fine. going to make it. And if it goes badly, the next five weeks, I agree that John Harbaugh has at various times been closer to getting fired than you would think. Yes. But there might, and there actually hasn't been a coach quarterback pairing this one of Super Bowl that took longer than five years. Having said that, firing John Harbaugh after the most injured season the Ravens have had in 10 years, and they've had two bad seasons. I get it. 17 years under Harbaugh, he would then probably get his salary doubled to be replaced.

Like the Browns or Bengals would just fire their coach. We live in a lot where Andy Reid got fired after one six and ten Eagles season. And people are like, he's done, can't coach anymore. I'm just, I think it's on the table. They've never made the Super Bowl with him and Lamar. They're having a bad season. If you're ever going to press the eject button, this would be it. And I couldn't come up with a better coach idea.

It is hard actually. After Danny goes, we'll have to go through who didn't get picked. So, yeah, and I also have a problem. I have, like, I probably messed myself up by not picking this earlier. But I think the reason I didn't is because I'm kind of going out of left field, too. I'll put Jonathan Gannon for the Cardinals. So he was the other guy I was looking at. And I just, I think it's more of just like a vibes and lack of progress thing.

That would be the reason. I don't feel strongly that he's, like, deserves to get fired, but I think just... I had him on the list. Yeah. I had him on the list. I do feel like that team has played reasonably hard for him. It just seems like they're like a 50-minute team. And they seem to run out of gas.

They don't get to Jonathan Gannon problem. No, I agree. That's the thing. There's not a lot of next coach fired candidates. No. I mean, the other one I was thinking about were Glen or McDaniel. That's why I took McDaniel with the first pick in this whole thing. Part of me thought if the Giants were really bad they could fire Dable.

I'm shocked nobody took Dable. I think Dable bought himself time, which is exactly what you do when you take... He's tied him with DART. They got something going. I'd be surprised they fired him. You'd be more surprised with the Giants fired Brian Dable at the end of the season. and then the Ravens firing with John Harbaugh? No.

I think it's like even for me. I think this Raven season can go really badly where they're just like, we've got to figure out something new here. You know what I mean? If it's ever going to happen, it's a year like this, where it's like the year from out,

and then there's got to be a fall guy. Because that's the other than that happens with this stuff, is people start, there's like the political stuff, and it's like, well, somebody's going to get blamed. Maybe it's this guy's fault, and that's when the finger pointing starts. Isn't there, there's an impression among some people in the NFL that, like, if you've been there a certain amount of years, like the message just doesn't come through anymore, right?

I don't know what the Ravens feel about that, but that was part of the reason, like, the Pete Carroll thing ended in Seattle. At some point, we, we don't. You've taken this as far as you can go. We don't listen to all the stuff that you, you know, profess every practice or whatever. It's like it just kind of like gets, you just get down to it. You guys are right. John Harbaugh should have got a medical degree in the last six weeks and just 50. fixed everyone on the eight of their

offense was this fashion about John Harbaugh. Teams get hard. It's like, it's like 39th pick in the draft. Fair enough. Welcome to my life. Jonathan Gated. Fair enough.

I couldn't even come up with another idea. I have to deal with this four times a week. It's true. The fact that Dick hasn't killed me by now. I feel like the dart dayball thing really bought dayball another year. I do too. Yeah, we'll see, but when they're winning, but now they had the worst four,

they were allowed 33 points in the fourth quarter. Shane Bow and the defense of quarter is going to be sacrificed in the next month. who Craig you're up my last category is breakout star I'm happy to just fall back on Jackson Dart yeah yeah smart did no one put Daniel Jones

does that not count I thought about it yeah he would have counted qualified I just think Dart he's a character well I also compared to what everybody thought about him coming in I mean sure that's true yeah

like 1% of people thought he was going to be a starter in the NFL and not only is he going to be a starter but he I mean he looks great for having played six games five games. It's thrilling. So Heifitz has the last pick and it's team that will get the number one pick

in Jets, Miami, and Tennessee off the board. My cup runneth over getting to pick between the Raiders and the Saints. This is unbelievable. It's pretty nice. I mean, I... This is... Cup run. It's over. I mean, they're all good on. I mean, there's like five terrible teams. Everyone's going to get a good one.

So, uh, I have many thoughts here. I think the Saints are kind of competent. I, for that reason... I agree, Craig. I'm taking the Raiders because I can't get over the fact that they had allowed more points than had ran plays. Yeah, that's really brutal. I feel like they threw that game away, though.

Like, they knew Bowers wasn't playing. They knew they were going to lose to the Chiefs. It felt like a rollover. Yeah, they're going on by. Well, it's really early to roll over. It's not even Halloween. I don't think the Raiders are going to have the first pick. I think, well, I mean, Kamala Harris,

maybe will come in and just take over in the middle of the season to be careful. Yeah, you're right. What was the other option? The Saints. What? So you didn't support that decision by the Democratic Party? You know, sometimes the,

timing you know yeah she had a hundred days uh so i was saying that's the name the ringer 107 all right she had 107 days yeah people have asked why it's 107 instead of 103 because the correct number is 103 for five is that right well because we're putting props in the extra games are when we get to the playoffs it's going to be props plus the game yeah i don't know why everyone just doesn't know that immediately yeah i don't know why they didn't ask right here they could ask me stand here here here's the case for the saints it seems like they might want the number one pick because there's already been...

I don't think Rattler's that bad. He was bad in Chicago, outdoors, whatever. The Bears' defense is actually pretty good. But for the most part, he's not bad. If they replaced him with Shuck, my shit detector's going off. That could be one of those. Oh, I see what you guys are up to. I think the same reason they roll the cap over every year,

they don't do that. They're Mickey Loomis who runs the team for reasons we don't have to get into quietly as entrenched, anybody in the league. They just, the deal is that they'll be competitive for Gail Benson who owns the team and the deal is we're competitive value.

So your case is they're not competent enough to even plan a tanking strategy. No, the dolphins can. I don't think that way. So I'm going to recap the draft. I'm not going to say everybody's name before each pick, but I'll just, I went first.

No. Danny went first. Me second. Wait, why did I do it this way? I'll just do it this way. Yeah. I'll go me, Craig, High Fitz, Kelly.

in these orders, right? So I'm first, Craig, second, high fits, third, dating, for it. Most valuable player, May, Mahomes, Stafford, Allen. Coach of the year, Shanahan, McDonald,

Vrabel, Steichen. Offensive, defensive, rookie of the air, Warren, DART, Igbuka, Travis Hunter. Now, why not?

Very exciting pick. Next coach fired. Harbaugh, Glenn, McDaniel, Gannon, breakout star, Drake May, picked twice by me.

That was great. I love how that worked out. Yeah. DART, Scataboo, Egbuka. Who wasn't picked in that category? Which one? Breakout star. Daniel Jones.

Warren wasn't? Warren probably had a case. He's probably upset. What about Dowdell? QB Offs, and Hockeye guy. Rogers, Breakout Star? Okay. Rogers.

A re-breakout. QB off-season hot seat. Lawrence, Murray, McCarthy, Tua. Apologies to Stroud. He can't believe he didn't get drafted. Honorable mention, Stroud. One-seat AFC or NFC. I took Indy. Craig had the

Pats, Hayfitz had the Chiefs, and Danny had Buffalo. I think those are four good picks. What's interesting is no NFC teams. We all passed on Philly. Well, because it's like Detroit's there, Green Bay's there. There's a lot. Eagles have the third hardest remaining schedule also. I think we also have the same way. It's like, yeah.

I also thought Dan Campbell would get a coach of the year pick because of the Lions without losing Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn and then all the injuries and they get the one seat anyway. I think it's the fourth best out. I got to say for one seat, I did have Seattle as my fifth back. up.

Okay. Just because I, you know, team that will get the number one pick. Jets, Miami, Vegas, Tennessee, no surprise there. Fantasy MVP, I had DAC, Craig had J.S.N, High Fitzhead, McCaffrey, and Danny had Taylor. And then the most important, the Best Picture Award nominee for this thing. Fantasy Murder of the Year, Barkley, Henderson, Thomas Jr., and Bowers were the big four. Bowers is the only one I feel kind of bad about because he did get hurt. But they also didn't tell us he was served for five weeks.

All right. We're going to go after we do one crazy prediction, high fits, which your craziest prediction for the rest of the year. I feel like Joe Flacco is going to play so well for the Bengals that they're actually, we're going to have a debate whether Joe Burrow should even go back. Stop.

It was crazy. Hold on. These are hottest things. Obviously, like, healthy Joe Burroughs better. I'm just saying, like, you said craziest prediction. The single crazy thing is a hottest take. I will say, there is online discourse that now Burrow is a system quarterback.

Flacco dice him up. Flacco's like, wait, just throw it to chase? This is so easy. 23 targets? Did you know? Obviously, Joe Burrow, healthy, is like one of the best players in the entire league and would be a question.

I think if Joe, I actually kind of wonder, obviously, maybe the Steelers are just idiots and couldn't, like, cover Jamar Chase for some reason. That's correct. But if Flacko keeps us up, and the whole idea is if you just get a good enough record to get to Burroughs returning in December,

then he can finish out the season. Bengals can make the playoffs. If Flacco does that, If they go like eight and three or whatever in the next 11 weeks or whatever, who's going to be better? Joe Flacco having won seven of his last nine games or Joe Burrow rushing back from an injury with three months of rust. And imagine if Burrow comes back and then like doesn't play well because he's hurt and rusty

and everyone's going to be like, damn, should Flacco play next week? I kind of think this will happen. It's pretty good. It definitely won't, but it's a crazy. It's a good hot take. Craig was jealous of it. Yeah, yeah. I know.

Mine's not as hot as that. What do you got, Craig? Mine is more offseason, but I think the Steelers are going to re-sign Aaron Rogers. I think they're going to extend him. No. He's said that he's retiring. No, I think they're going to go like 11 and 6.

No, they're going to draft a player in the first round, and then he's going to be like, I want, I'm back. They're going to win a playoff game, and he's going to come back because the quarterback class this year is bad. They're going to have a bad pick. Their team is old. Their defense is old. They are in win now mode.

It seems like it's working, and the locker room likes Aaron Rogers. He mixes well with Arthur Smith and Tomlin. I think they're just going to bring him back and extend him. I think he's dumb, but that's going to happen. He's got that second wind, the third wind. It does remind me a lot of the time when the Packers were like, he's kind of cooked. We're going to draft Jordan Love and then he won two straight MVP's. When do, when does the Brady played until he was 45?

When does that become? Yeah, Rogers is only 41. That's spring chicken compared to Brady. Oh, my God. This dude was going to five years of Rogers. Think about all the anti-aging stuff he's probably doing. The herbal tea he's drinking. We can't even imagine what he's having.

Who's the guy who wants to live forever? What's his name? Oh, Brian Johnson. You know that guy that lives in Venice? Brian Johnson? Oh, I've read about that guy. Yeah. He's like he measures like his morning wood.

He like takes his son's blood every day. The vampire. The funny thing about him is like, the blood bag guy. I believe he is like 45 years old. And if you see him, he like looks 45. He's like, I don't know. He says he has, he's the biologically youngest 45 year old in the world. When you do all that stuff, it's like, you're going to die being like,

like electrocuted during golf or some sort of like hit by lightning or like what in a million odds also you live in LA like the worst air pollution city and yeah

you're just breathing that in every day DK what do you have I'm stealing this from the online discourse but JJ McCarthy will never start another game for the Vikings

I don't actually believe this but it's starting to make me think it's true they're like it feels like they are you know why don't you just go get some work on your

ankle just keep working on it you know they watch them in practice daddy's taking the dog to the farm he'll be back the dog will be back don't worry amazing take well so and I think it's also funny it's like on TV somebody just is off the show for a couple weeks and they never

come back what happened weren't they in the credits they kill somebody off of a crazy anatomy and then McCarthy sues the Vikings in like two years the Vikings quarterback room last year Sam Donald Daniel Jones Jay J.J. McCarthy's on IR.

I think Daniel Jones is actually on a practice squad for most of the time. But it is crazy that they let Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones go. And they are like two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this year. And now they're playing Carson Wentz. I know. If the Vikings were smart, like they get rid of McCarthy. And then they should trade for like Trevor Lawrence and O'Connell just fixes Trevor Lawrence. You know who, speaking of online discourse, you know who's the hot topic right now?

Anthony Richardson. Jesus Christ. Let's do this. Let's do this. Solac was tweeting about it today. Richardson to the Vikings. to the Viking? Oh, because they wanted him at number four.

Yeah, and there's like an NFL films behind the scenes thing where KOC was like hugging Richardson and talking to it. That's O'Connell getting way too cocky, being like, I can fix it. And he's like, I can fix him. Well, O'Connell, I mean, he,

darn old Daniel Jones, he really helped guys with what's going on in their head. And Anthony Richardson, you know, just broke his face with bandwork pregame. So maybe KOC. A lot of pain going on and just bad vibes happening there with Richardson. He needs to go find a new home.

Yeah. I'm so excited to unleash mine. I'm glad I'm going last. I'm even going to give you the week. It's going to be in this range between week 11 and week 13. Ben Johnson will bench Caleb Williams and start Tyson Bayesian. He will be the starter. Tyson Bayesian would be the starter in time for week 13, week 14.

This is my crazy prediction. Why? Because I think the bears are pretty good. And I think Caleb is holding them back. and Ben Johnson is just going to be like, fuck it. And he loves Tyson Bajon. They're four and two. They've won four straight.

Yeah. They're like a playoff team, and Caleb has not been good for them. You must have been talking to Tragman a little bit too much. Tragman, not the biggest Caleb Lloydson. Was Caleb supposed to call you and missed it? Is that what happened? I don't know what the impetus will be,

but there were a lot of breadcrumbs being dropped Tyson Bajon's way before the year about what an unbelievable teammate he is. I think at some point, their team's pretty good. They just need somebody to drive the car, and they could go like 11 and 6. So do you think Caleb is not on the Bears next year? I think here's how I played it on my head. Some sort of minor injury where they're just like,

we're going to sit him this week and play Tyson and Ben Jotson. It's going to be like, please, God, have them be fucking awesome. To make up something hypothetical, like a high ankle sprain or something. Yeah, maybe it's a low ankles. Some sort of are like a pulled groin. Or he took a hit. The thing I hate about this is how much. It makes me nervous because it could be like real.

Former ringer colleague, Reinle Hamlin. has started texting me with the hashtag Bejant Boys because he just thinks he's like, I think they think Bejant's better than Caleb. They extended Bejant in the soft season. They like his work ethic, but they talked about how much they love him

and he's one of the best people I've ever been around. They did all this stuff. The old coaching staff or the new coaching staff? The old coaching staff really threw Caleb under the bus. New coaching staff. I don't know if you guys watched the Saints game. We had in Ringer 107. Caleb was bad in that game. Caleb's kind of been bad

every game, except for the Dallas game. He's just really inaccurate. Yeah, he's all over the place. It's like, and Ben Johnson, you can see it, you can see an offensive coach doing this. It's kind of like the Shanahan thing. It's like, I don't care who he is. I don't care if it's Trey Lance. We drafted him third overall or whatever it was.

Like, our third guy is running the offense the most clean. It's a little. The entire Patriots thing happened because they gave Bledso $100 million contract and Belichick still kept Rating. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little Trevor Lawrencey with Caleb Williams where you can see the physical tools. Like, there are moments where you're like, Jesus, like, Caleb's making throws two people in the league can make.

But just normal downs where a guy's open. Just throw it to a guy who's open. Here's the thing, though. I'm torn with Caleb because on one hand, I wonder if there's smoke with fire with all these, I guess the word is unsubstantiated rumors about like all the stuff that was said by the previous staff anonymously. But the flip side is I also am just a radical

about really talented quarterbacks needing time. And I just, I don't know, you remember the Mariners in 76? Like, remember when quarterbacks weren't supposed to play I just couldn't believe you said you remember 1976, but like... It's a big deal. We had two new American League teams. It's like, who are these guys? It's just a funny thing to say.

Yeah. But I just, your whole life wasn't the deal. Quarterbacks kind of had to sit for a long time. And I just, Caleb Williams to me, the comp for him the whole time was, everyone said my home, it's like, it's Aaron Rogers. And that's not even the size, the way he plays off platform, a little personality-wise. And then... How dare you?

I'm just saying, though, but it's not just me. Caleb Williams himself, if you ask him, he's like, I based my game off Aaron Rogers, everything he does. And so how did Aaron Rogers? do a year and a half into his career. He didn't play. What was Hayfitts' crazy prediction? What did you just have four minutes ago for your crazy prediction?

I had you would take Drake May in two different categories. No. No, I had Joe Flacco would go to the bank. Oh, right. So Hyphid said Joe Flacco was going to nudge a healthy Joe Burrow out of the last two weeks of the season. And now he's giving a passion discourse for why my crazy prediction was too crazy. I actually forgot it was the craziest prediction because I actually kind of the last three.

I was like, damn, that's actually going to happen. I feel like they got more realistic as they went down. Interesting. It was so non-crazy. You forgot it was the crazy prediction category. Because it is crazy. Them benching Caleb Williams would be crazy. But I also wouldn't be like, oh, my God, they bench Caleb Williams.

Mine's nuts. Yours is believable. Like, that could happen. Well, yours is believable if Burroughs hurt, though. If it's like Burrow can kind of limp around, but we're going to throw them back in. And Burrow and Flacco's playing well, they're not going to change it. They said December for Burrow, but they meant January. They're like being optimistic.

But are you right about the Caleb thing? Yeah, if Caleb blows some game to like the Bengals against Flacco throws four picks and it's a disaster and it like moves the bears to under 500, maybe Ben Johnson gets a little fed up. See, I think he does it if he thinks they have a chance to actually be good. Because Swift has never run like this. I mean, he's the best he's ever lived. He's made the run game look really good. Yeah. But Dunezai is like a real number one like legitimate guy.

I like their team. All their pieces are really good. I thought their defense was kind of awesome on Sunday. I know they're playing against the Saints, but they were, it was hats on the ball. They make a lot of takeaways, yeah. Yeah, I don't know, like their team. And then the emotional Dennis Allen game ball after. The speech and everything was good.

I think Dennis Allen knowing Rattler's, the whole roster strength and weakness is, but also that was a weird game because Rattler got displaced by Caleb at Oklahoma. And so the whole ego death that Rattler's gone through started with Caleb just came in. It just immediately was electric. and Rattler had to leave, like, tail between his legs to go to South Carolina. But I think that's relatedly the combo of, I think Rattler was pushing the ball a little bit

because I do think subconsciously he was trying to prove something. And also, Dennis Allen was just weirdly equipped to take advantage of all the holes in that team. All right, we're wrapping that up. So what do we call that draft? I don't know. The midway draft? I don't know.

Mid-season draft. My guy was such a easier title. That was like a mid-season check-in draft. Yeah. Danny, Craig, great to see you guys. You can listen to them on the Fantasy Football Show,

the Ringer Fantasy Football Show, on all of our platforms. Good to see you all. Thanks for having you. Thanks. That's it for the podcast. Thanks to Danny and Danny and Craig. Thanks to Eduardo and Gahau as well.

I will be back on this podcast on Thursday with some basketball and some football. Looking forward to seeing that. Must be 21 plus in president's select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas or 18 plus in president in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gaming problem, call 100 gambler, or visit RG dash help.com. Call 88879-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or MD gambling help.org in Maryland.

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